Chapter 12

Quil stared at me in shock when he opened the door and saw me.

'Oh my god, Cherry, are you crying? Are you okay? What happened?"

I just shook my head, unable to speak. Quil glanced behind him, and I saw that his house was full of people, some sort of friends or relatives. I couldn't just walk in there looking a mess.

"Get into the garden." Quil said. "Can you jump over the fence?"

I nodded, and went to the garden. I'd jumped over Quil's fence loads of times. Managing to hoist myself over I saw Quil waiting on the other side.

"It's Embry." I said, before he could ask. "He showed up at my house. A few minutes ago."

"Embry?" Quil asked. "And Jake?"

I shook my head.

"Not Jake."

"Well, what did Embry want?"

"Some crap. He thinks he can mess with me, just cause he ditched us, I'm not going to stand it, Quil! I just don't know what's happening to him, the Embry I knew would never say such shit….."

"What shit? What did he say?"

"That he's a werewolf." I said, letting out a choked laugh. "I mean, how dumb is that? He thought I was going to buy it?"

Quil was silent, staring into space.

"Quil?" I asked. "You still there?"

"Yeah, of course." Quil said. "What else did he say?"

"That the Quileute legends were true. I mean, that's so dumb. Even Billy used to admit that the legends were probably just for entertainment, there aren't shape-shifter, and cold ones out there!"

"Yeah…" Quil said absent-mindedly. "Just for entertainment…"

"So what's the emergency?" I demanded, walking into the café. Coffee Beanz was a small coffee shop/café thing right down the road from my place. And about 5 minutes ago, I'd gotten a call from Danny, the manager, telling me he needed me to do the Sunday morning shift urgently.

"Andrew's out of town." Danny told me, referring to one of the waiters. "Family emergency, I need you to fill in for him."

"So you could have just told me!" I cried. "Why make it sound like there's a fire on the phone?"

Danny just shook his head, and walked away. I'd never really understood that guy, he was a total workaholic. Even though there wasn't really much to do on a coffee shop on a sparsely populated reservation, he wanted everything to be perfect. He could probably let spiders crawl all over the place, and people would still turn up, because it was the only hang out place in La Push.

"Hey Cherry!" Hayley chirped, as she saw me slipping on the apron. "Filling in for Andrew, huh?"

"Yup." I said. I wasn't a regular worker at the café, but Danny occasionally called me if one of his staff was unable to make it.

"Cool, I haven't seen you in a while. What's up?"

"Um, not a lot." I said. Hayley was the closest thing I had to a girlfriend. Sure, she was kind of girly, but we managed to get along fine. "Just some issues with my friends."

"Really? The totally hot guys?" Hayley asked eagerly. Hayley had always swooned over the fact that Embry Quil and Jake were my best friends. Every time they came into the café, mostly just because I was on a shift, she'd insist on taking their order herself.

"Yeah." I said. "Embry and Jake kind of….. Well, let's just say that I'm not talking to them anymore. They left."

"Jake was the one you had a crush on, right?"

"Yeah. Since practically forever."

"God. It sounds awful, Cherry. I'm so sorry."

I shrugged, as an old lady entered the café. Hayley left to go take her order, while I just stood there, leaning against the counter. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about Embry's visit yesterday. I'd accepted the fact that he was gone, a long time ago. I just never thought he would do something so…. So unlike him. So mean. I heard the door chime at the front, indicating that someone was coming in. I looked up, and saw the last people that I wanted to see. Sam, Paul, Jared and Jacob had walked in. Embry was not with them.

They sat down at a booth near a corner, and I glanced around nervously. Hayley was still with the old woman, who seemed unable to make up her mind. There was no other choice. I was going to have to take their order.

"What can I get for you?" I asked softly, going up to them. They all snapped their heads up and looked at me in surprise.

"Hello Cheryl." Sam said pleasantly, giving me a small smile. Paul wasn't ready to be as nice.

"Ah, who knew? Shorty works here." Paul said.

"What can I get you?" I repeated, with a little more force.

"I'm not sure about us, but you can get yourself a little compassion." Paul continued. "Embry was torn up the other day."

"I'm here to take your order, not discuss my personal life."

"In fact, I think you should go and apologize. I mean, he was your best friend after all. Telling him to get lost is no way to treat-"

"You know what I think you should do?" I snapped, leaning forward angrily. "I think you should go shove your ass up a-"

"Now, there's no need for this." Sam said, giving Paul a pointed look. "Cheryl has made her choice, and we should leave it at that. We're ready to order, Cheryl."

I scribbled down their order, and it took me two entire pages on my notepad. I asked them if there were more people coming to join, but got no response. I walked away, and stood in a corner when I was done, thinking. What had Paul meant by 'Embry was torn up'? Why would Embry be torn up? Because I'd asked him to get lost? But that made no sense, he'd been asking for it with all that bullshit he fed me.

"Um, Cherry?" a voice said. I whipped around and saw Jacob standing behind me.

"Your order's going to take a few more minutes." I said, without looking at him. I knew that if I looked into his eyes, I might not be able to look away again.

"Um, yeah, I figured. I actually wanted to talk to you."

"Surprise, surprise…." I muttered under my breath. I wanted to talk to him. I really did. Maybe he would actually give me some answers unlike Embry. "I can't. I'm on duty."

"Can't you take a break?'

"I don't think so." I said, just as I saw Hayley approaching. She smiled at me, and she came and stood near me.

"Hey, Cherry, if you wanna, you know, get some fresh air I can cover for you." She said. "We're not busy in here today, and Danny just went out, so….."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, totally."

I nodded, and followed Jacob outside, placing my notepad on the counter. We went up till the deserted parking lot, before Jacob turned to face me.

"So? What is it?" I asked.

"Look, I need a favor from you, Cherry." Jacob said. "It's important."

"Sure." I said. "As soon as you tell me what the hell is going on with you, because Embry really wasn't of much use there."

"What do you mean? What Embry told you was the truth."

"Oh god! Not you too! Please don't tell me you're going to play the same card on me; I'm sick of this, Jake! I want to know what's going on!" I cried.

"Embry told you what's going on. We're werewolves, Cherry."

"Jacob, you're not werewolves! You're just a guy who fell into a trap and is now on whatever goddamn drugs Sam is feeding you guys! Look, I can help you, if you'll just tell me what's going on! We can call the police, or get you a counselor, maybe a psychiatrist, and-"

"I don't need a psychiatrist! I'm not crazy!"

"So then tell me what's going on!" I demanded.

"Embry told you what's going on! The Quileute legends are true, we're werewolves, and the cold ones exist!"

I stared at him.

"Get lost, Jake." I muttered.

"No. I need you to tell Bella what's going on." He insisted.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up! We're talking about you, why do you need to bring Bella into this? Is she in on it too?"

"No, she's not! I just need you to tell her what's happened to me!"

"What has happened to you?"

"I told you! I'm a werewolf, and I need you to tell Bella about it." Jake pleaded.

"This makes no sense! Why can't you feed her your crazy lies yourself?"

"Because I'm not allowed to!"

"Who's stopping you?"

"Sam's the alpha! I have to listen to him!"

"Alpha? How the hell did we jump into trigonometry, here?"

Jake looked like he was going to explode with frustration, and I took a cautious step back from him. He took a deep breath with his eyes closed. When he opened them, he spoke more calmly.

"Look. This is all I can tell you. I'm not allowed to tell Bella what I am. But you can tell her, so I need you to. I hate keeping her in the dark like this."

"Why aren't you allowed to tell Bella anything?"

"Because it's a secret. We can't tell outsiders."

"But Embry told me. Aren't I an outsider?"

"That's different. You're Embry's imprint."

"What the hell is an imprint? Some kind of imaginary werewolf thing?"

'Cherry, I can't talk about this. If the guys knew I was saying this stuff to you, I'd be dead."

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" I cried. "Is that what Sam's doing to you? Blackmail?"

"No! You don't understand, he's a good guy! Look, Cherry, just tell Bella, please."

I stared at him for a few seconds. This was a load of bullshit.

"No.' I said.

"What?"

"No. I'm not going to say a word to that bitch until you tell me the truth, Jacob."

"Cherry, this is insane."

"No! You know what's insane? You are! You need help, Jacob!"

"Fine!" Jacob yelled. "Don't help me! I'll figure out a way to tell Bella myself. Thanks for the help!"

"You're welcome!" I screamed back at him, as he walked away. Then I sat down on the sidewalk and cried.