Chapter 3

Jared

Why was she living with another guy? Sure, he was her brother's friend and probably didn't see anything in her but this whole thing was unfair. She was my imprint and although I wanted the best for her I couldn't help but feel jealous. On top of all of this her best friend wants to date her. Tim Gully, just his name was enough to make me sick. Let me tell you, this imprinting stuff isn't as easy as it seems.

I arrived at school in a foul mood. I'd been restless in my sleep thinking about Kim with other guys. Emily didn't think of other guys. Why did Kim have to have one as a best friend? I walked into English class, as always, her face took my breath away. Darn. She was so beautiful I almost forgave her on the spot.

It was quiet for the first few minutes of class. There was a silence between us but it wasn't an awkward one it was comfortable. Kim was a straight A student as opposed to me who was lucky to get by with a B minus. She didn't appear to be listening to the teacher instead she was doodling on her binder. I shuffled a bit closer to her to see what she was drawing. She was quite good. She was drawing a forest scene. The leaves had all left their branches, flying to the ground. While to moon was up in the sky almost a complete circle.

"Hey Kimmie," someone whispered. I knew and dreaded the voice as soon as I heard it. Tim. "Kimmie, do you have an extra pencil?"

"Sorry Tim I don't. And don't call me Kimmie, Timmy." She retorted giving him a gorgeous smirk. She never smirked at me like that.

"Kim." I said attempting to get on Tim's nerves. "Sorry I ran out of your house like that yesterday without an explanation. I suddenly remembered my friend had an urgent doctor appointment." She didn't really look like she bought it. Heck! I wouldn't have bought it. Even though she didn't look phased I could hear her heart beating a million miles per second.

"Funny, you'd think that after seeing my bleeding hand and trying to convince me to go to the doctor's you'd remember your friend's appointment." Ouch. She had me.

"Kim." Tim whispered. "Do you want to come over to my house after school? I've got the movie we've been waiting for." Jerk.

"Oh! You found it." The look of glee on her face made me want to smile until I remembered it was there because of Tim.

"Kim," I said, "You know Sam and I really wanted to invite you to a bon fire on the cliff tonight. Billy Black and some of the other elders will be there. They're talking about all the legends and tribe secrets." I waved my eyebrows when I said secrets. She giggled. Inside my heart did about fifty jumping jacks. Take that, Tim!

"Lay off Morson. I invited her over tonight so you might as well face the fact that you'll be alone at your little campfire." My hands visibly started to twitch.

"You know Gully you're an awfully small man. I wouldn't be telling me to back off if I were you." I could see that Mr. Bin was getting annoyed but that didn't matter. This guy was totally hitting on Kim whether she noticed it or not.

"Come on guys. Seriously this started off over a pencil. Here Tim, take it I don't need to take notes for this lesson anyways." Mr. Bin slapped down his ruler so hard that Kim and Tim flinched.

"Mr. Morson and Ms. Hefler you are to do an extra assignment on the Napoleonic wars, due Tuesday, a thousand words." I was about to protest until I heard him call Kim's name. If I had to do an assignment, that meant more time with her. It also meant she wouldn't be free for a movie night with Gully.

"Sorry Tim," she murmured, "I guess I'll need that pencil after all."

I found her easily enough after school. She had a wonderful scent something mixed between coffee, vanilla, and cinnamon; kind of like a dessert.

"Kim!" I called her over.

"Yes, Jared?" Whenever she said my name my stomach got butterflies.

"I was wondering if you wanted to work on the assignment with me today." A little furrow appeared between her perfectly shaped eyebrows.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea. You see, I have to help my brother pack." My stomach dropped, all feelings of butterflies lost.

"You're moving out of La Push? Where are you going, somewhere far away?" She let out a half hearted laugh.

"No." She replied and I let myself calm down. "I'm not moving but my brother is." That didn't make any sense unless…

"You're going to live in that house all by yourself?" A blush appeared on her cheeks and I instantly wanted to know why.

"Well my brother's friend will still be in the house but I'm not sure how I feel about that without my brother there. I mean, I could kick him out but I'd feel really bad." Last night I'd been outside Kim's house in wolf form and seen Neal. He was the kind of guy that pretended to read poetry but as soon as you left out came the porn and heavy metal. I didn't even want to think about what would happen to Kim if she stayed.

"I know it may be harsh," I said trying to control my voice, as to not yell at her, "but I think it would be wiser not to have Neal there."

"I know you have suspicions about Neal but he's really not like that."

"How do you know Kim? He's your brother's friend not yours! Either way what time do you want to start the assignment?" She pondered this for a few seconds.

"Four thirty." She replied. Darn. That was and hour and a half away. I hated to go a second without seeing her. But if that's what she wanted that's what she was getting.

Kim

Jared Morson was coming to my house for the second time! I skipped into the house singing "Dynamite".

"I throw my hands up in the air sometimes singing aiyoh gotta let go."

"Kim, is that you?" Neal shouted from up stairs.

"Yeah," I shouted back." I sat down on the couch and got out my English text book. I didn't know why Mr. Bin wanted us to do an assignment on the Napoleonic wars that was social studies. Maybe he had a secret aspiration to become a social studies teacher. I figured I wouldn't find anything in my English text so I picked up my socials binder. As soon as I reached down I felt cold, slightly repulsive fingers on my shoulders.

"Yes." I said.

"Kim." He whispered in a husky voice that scared the hell out of me.

"Y-yes," I said again a lot weaker.

"Kim, you should've noticed that I always had a thing for you. So unfair, it was so unfair that you never noticed me."

"Neal, are you drunk?" Scared, I was so scared. Why couldn't Jared come now? I quickly glanced at the clock it read four o' clock. That left thirty minutes and in that time I could easily be raped. God help me.

"Neal let me go. I'll tell my brother."

"Oh, don't be like that Kimmie. It's just a little fun. Trust me you'll enjoy it."

"No I w-"I stopped mid sentence because his hands had gone underneath my shirt. I shivered due to disgust. He took it for something else because he kept going. His hand reached up further and further.

"Stop," I screamed, tears running from my eyes. I yanked myself out from his grip and ran up stairs into the bathroom and locked the door.

"Kimmie come on! Come back out. You know you want to." His tone instantly changed from sickly sweet to cold and harsh, "Don't make me beat down the door."

"Just get out! Leave me alone! Never come back here! Get away from me!" My sobs racked my whole body, making my throat convulse. A few minutes later I saw his shadow leave the doorway and heard the door slam. I wasn't sure if he was still in the house or not so I stayed in the locked washroom. I began to whimper all by myself. Stupid Kim, I thought, stupid, stupid Kim.

The door bell rang. A few seconds later I heard a familiar voice. "Kim? Kim, are you there?" Jared. I quickly stood up and examined my face in the mirror. He'd figure out I'd been crying in no time.

"Just a minute," I pleaded from inside the washroom. I grabbed my blush and mineral powder and took away the redness. I ran down the stair searching for Neal and opened the door.

"Oh gosh Kim what happened?" How could he tell? My heart sped up.

"Nothing happened. Is something wrong?"

"You look as though you've been crying." Man, this guy could read me like a book.

"I'm just a bit sad about my brother leaving," I lied. As if on cue he asked,

"Where's Neal?" I felt tears slide down my cheeks. "It was him wasn't it? When I find that guy I'm going to…"

"Don't! It wasn't his fault he was drunk and didn't know w-what he was doing."

"No, Kim! He knew exactly what he was doing," Jared said shaking from head to toe. I then did the last thing I expected to do. I reached over and I hugged him. Jared was a safe harbor he was warm, funny and loving, the exact opposite of Neal. Just like before the shaking stopped as I touched him. He pulled in a deep breath. "Sorry, come one Kim. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really but I should probably tell Tim."

"Why?"

"Well because he's my best friend and he deserves to know."

"So if I hadn't been here right now you wouldn't have told me?"

"Probably not, you'd get mad." He looked mad now.

"Kim I would've gotten mad, I am mad, but I want to know. Anything that concerns you Kim I want to know."