Chapter 23

We didn't speak the whole drive to the Forks Hospital. He was almost ignoring me, and I was too embarrassed to say anything. I was feeling a little hurt too, because he hadn't even mentioned it. Does that mean he regretted almost kissing me?

We found Quil's hospital room in silence, where we saw Dr. Cullen walking outside the corridor with a clipboard and a pen in his hand. He smiled at us pleasantly and I smiled back. It was hard to believe that this guy drank blood to stay alive. Or stay dead. Whichever way you looked at it.

"Can we see him?" Embry asked, and Dr. Cullen nodded in response.

"Yes. He just woke up a little while ago. Be careful though, he's still in a very fragile condition." Dr. Cullen explained the smile still on his face.

"But he'll be all right?" I asked.

"He'll be perfectly fine."

Embry pushed open the door, and I followed him in. the room was plain, and shockingly white. I felt a little sick. I hated hospital rooms. It's not like I'd had any bad experiences or anything. They just made me really queasy.

"Hey guys." Quil croaked, smiling as he saw us. "Thought you'd forgotten about me."

I winced a little when I saw him. He looked pretty okay - He was sitting upright on his bed with no visible bruises except a large bandage wrapped tightly around his torso. But he looked weak and exhausted.

"We couldn't forget about you, buddy." Embry said lightly, punching him playfully on the arm. It was obvious that he was faking the cheerfulness.

Quil winced.

"Ow. Don't do that."

"Sorry." Embry apologized.

"Hey Cherry." He said, smiling at me. "How's Claire?"

"She was fine, last time I saw her." I said, sitting down on the edge of his bed, by his feet. Embry pulled up a plastic chair. "Nothing to worry about."

"God, I really want to see her." Quil said, with a sigh. "It just, hurts to be away from her, you know? Even though she's just 4."

He gave Embry a meaningful look, as though expecting some sympathy.

"Yeah." Embry said, a little uncomfortably. "I get you man."

I couldn't help but consider what he meant. It hurt him to be away from me? It was weird to think that he had been missing me just as much as I missed him.

There was a loud explosion of rock music, and I quickly put my hand to my pocket, pulling my phone out.

"Sorry." I mumbled apologetically, looking at Quil and Embry, and lifted the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Cherry! It's me, Danny." Danny's voice said, from the other end of the line. I didn't even need to ask why he had called. Danny had only one reason for calling me.

"Danny, I can't do any shifts now." I said.

"But this is an emergency! Andrew didn't turn up again and the place is really busy!"

I could tell that it was. There was plenty of noise in the background.

"But it's really not a good time." I insisted. "I can't-"

"Cherry." Quil said, interrupting my call. I pulled the phone away from my ear to see what he had to say. "You should go. I can live with Embry here for a while."

"I… are you sure?" I asked doubtfully, looking at both of them. Quil gave me an encouraging smile while Embry just nodded, not really meeting my eyes. I felt a sudden urge to get out of there. I couldn't take the awkwardness with Embry. I put the phone back to my ear. "I'll be there in 5, Danny.

Damn, was Danny right about the place being busy. I and Hayley were running around for nearly an hour straight without a break. Soon the place started to empty out though, and we got a few minutes to talk.

"So, how have you been, girl?" she asked. "It's been a while."

"I'm… okay, I guess." I said, not very enthusiastically. I couldn't get my mind off of what had almost happened between me and Embry.

"Well, you don't sound too happy." Hayley said. "Did you still not fix things up with your friends?"

"Oh, no, I'm cool with them now." I said.

"So…?"

"I don't know." I said. "I'm not sure how to explain it. Have you ever had feelings for someone, and then found that someone else has feelings for you, and then felt like an idiot cause you never realized that they liked you, and now you feel even more like an idiot, cause you realize that you liked them all along?"

"No."

"See?"

Hayley laughed, and shrugged. I felt the sudden urge to laugh with her, when I saw a familiar figure enter the coffee shop.

"Jake?" I called out in surprise. He turned to look at me, and offered a weak smile that didn't really reach his eyes before starting to walk over.

"Hey Cherry."

"Hello Jacob!" Hayley said with a smile. "You and your friends haven't been around here much, recently."

Jacob looked a little startled to see her, and then scrunched his eyes up, staring at her in sudden concentration. She seemed a little uncomfortable, until Jacob, looking defeated, turned his eyes away from her with a sigh.

"She's getting married." He said to me.

I stared at him.

"Huh?"

"Bella and Cullen. They're getting married."

I didn't know what to say. I felt like I should say something to console him, but I wasn't sure what. He was probably really torn up about it. It suddenly struck me that the last time something like this had happened, Jacob had been really unstable.

"It's fine." He said weakly, as though he was reading my mind. "I'm not about to blow up at anyone, though I should probably get to Sam's. Can I get a coffee?" He addressed the last remark to Hayley, who nodded and left.

"So… how are you?" I asked him slowly.

"I'm okay. Sam's been on my back, he doesn't want me going off like I did when Bella got back with the leech. How's Quil? I heard he got hurt bad."

"He's doing okay." I said. "Embry is with him."

Jake nodded absently, looking around the café. There was a girl sitting alone near the corner, eyes absorbed in a book, and Jacob stared at her for a few seconds, pretty intently.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"Huh?" he asked, tearing his eyes away from the girl with a disappointed expression.

"Why are you staring at her like that? You did the same thing to Hayley a few seconds ago."

"I… I'm not staring."

"Yeah, you are."

"Fine." He muttered. "I just… I don't want to miss the chance of finding the person for me, you know?" he asked. "Since Bella's not the one and all, I figured there has to be someone for me."

"So you've decided to start staring at every girl that crosses your path and freak her out?"

Jake shrugged, looking a little embarrassed and seemed relieved when Hayley came back with a coffee to go.

"Thanks." He said, fishing out the money and putting it on the counter. "I'll see you later, Cherry."