Heavy In Your Arms-Florence + The Machine

Breath of Life-Florence +The Machine

I really knew I was in trouble when Paul came to the garage to pick me up. Something had changed in the twenty minutes that I'd spent trying to calm Jared down that convinced him it was time to call for other help, so reluctantly, I grabbed my cell and let him call Paul.

Jared and I were sitting huddled on the floor, Jared running his hands through his hair over and over again the way he always did when he was frustrated with something. No matter how many times I asked, he wouldn't tell me why Paul himself had to come and get me. When the roar of Paul's black GMC rolled across the garage doors, my stomach clenched. I was so screwed.

"You suck." Paul said simply as he strolled through the doors. I rolled my eyes and patted Jared on the back.

"You good to drive?" I asked him. He nodded. "Good. Then I won't feel bad about this." I swatted him on the back of the head.

"I'm sorry! He was gonna find out either way." Jared grumbled, although I wasn't quite sure what he meant. I rolled my eyes as Paul pointed to the truck wordlessly. I marched onward and slid into the passenger seat, grumbling to myself as he slid in next to me.

"So what exactly am I in trouble for again?" I demanded.

"Hanging out with someone like that." Paul growled, his face twisted in annoyance.

"What's so wrong with him?" I grimaced, getting seriously pissed. "He's as nice as anyone else around here."

"Yeah, leaving you love notes, visiting the garage in the middle of the night, real cute harmless stuff until he chops your head off and eats you for dinner."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never personally thought it was that serious.

"Get a grip," I hissed. "You of all people are trying to lecture me about safety? Okay." I crossed my arms and sunk into my seat. Silence washed over us for a couple minutes.

"I'm sorry," Paul said finally, his eyes locked on the road. I'd never heard him use such a serious tone of voice. "I really didn't mean to make you mad, I swear. He's just….he freaks me out, Princess. That's all. He freaks me the Hell out."

"Why?"

"The way he looks at you is too creepy for me."

"For you."

"Yes, for me," Paul emphasized, glancing at me seriously. "You should listen to me sometimes."

"Two days ago you were griping about me not living enough."

"You don't live enough," he insisted, sticking to his guns. "You need to learn how to have fun!"

"You need to learn how to mind your own business!"

"You ARE my busine-DAMN IT."

And thus came the dreaded pothole.

*PAUL*

I was supposed to be watching the road. That's why that entire situation was my fault. I wanted to go get her, I wanted to drive her home myself, despite the impending weather storm warnings, and I wanted to see her face as soon as possible and make sure that freak hadn't hurt her, because if he had, I would've broke his fucking jaw.

She didn't scream, which was probably the freakiest part. She looked at me like she already knew what was happening, the thunder rolling over head, the skies so thick with clouds they almost looked black…it seemed like she knew the second we'd gotten in the car.

I love the GMC, I really do, and for the first time in my life, I was glad to be a giant mutated freak, because the second the front end of the truck and shattered the ice beneath us, my arm was the only thing protecting Haley's face as the windshield shattered, shards of glass flinging themselves at us frantically. The truck sat there for a moment, wedged between both sides of the hole as lightening flickered all around us in the sky. Thunder rumbled. Then another set. Haley was panting, but from what I could see, she wasn't badly injured. I kept my arm over her torso anyways. When she grabbed a hold of it, I thought I would melt.

The truck groaned, causing Haley to whimper. Her hair had partially fallen out of its messy bun, her perfect, dark spirals hanging in a curtain around her shoulders. I couldn't see her face through the sheet of hair, but I could tell she was scared at this point. She pressed her head back against the headrest, her eyes wide as she watched the icicles beneath us warily. The truck groaned again and she squeezed her eyes shut. In a few minutes, the truck would be completely vertical, and we'd be impaled.

"We have to move." She choked, her voice soft and velvety with fear. I nodded, slowly unbuckling my seat belt.

"Hold onto me." I ordered. She clung to my arm as I counted to three before popping the switch on her buckle.

God damn her for being so light. The second the strap flung away from her chest, she sank towards the dashboard, nearly falling out of the empty windshield space. I swore.

"Look at me," I ordered. She didn't. "Haley, please, look at me." She did, tears rolling down her cheeks. I felt like being impaled by giant shards of ice would hurt less than watching her cry. "Pull yourself up on my arm, alright? The second you get to the back seat, pop out the side door."

"What about you?" She demanded. How sweet.

"I'll get there," I lied. "Just do as I say alright?" She nodded, eying me warily as she made her way through the seats. She could see right through me.

I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes, listening as she kicked through the right hand back door, cold air and rain washing over us as she did so. The storm was getting worse. Haley swore as a fountain of dirty water poured itself into the truck.

"You don't have a whole lot of time, Princess." I pushed.

"But it's wet." She whined, eying her perfectly styled curls.

"Heaven help us." I grumbled turning around in my seat and shoving her out onto the pavement.

The truck groaned again, sliding further down the hole. I had two options. Go out the way Haley did, despite my massive size, and probably fall to my death. Or, sit here and fall to my death quicker than I would in the second option.

"You got my hair wet!" She cried, fiddling on the pavement, although I could tell that was the least of her worries. Water was rushing all throughout the dugout road now, filling higher and higher by the second. We were about to be caught in a river rapid within seconds. I scrambled out of the car, the truck slipping at the last second and catching my ankle as it crashed to the bottom of the pothole. A snap filled the air, heat flooding my shoe as it did.

A broken ankle. In the rain. With a girl screeching about her wet hair.

God was trying to kill me.

Haley's eyes went wide as she padded through the water, dropping to her knees next to me.

"We gotta get out of here!" she cried, feeling through the water for my leg. I kept pulling it away from her, knowing that within a few minutes it'd be healed like nothing had happened.

"There's a cabin," I yelled over the sound of rushing water and thunder. "It's only a few miles away, we can stay there." The water was picking up heavily, now she was on all fours and it was shoving at her shoulders.

"How do we get out of the-"

Thunder again, lightening flickering across her fearful caramel face. She was beautiful. Missing a shoe, grease smeared on the side of her cheek, her hair falling out of her bun curl by curl as her cheeks screamed bright red….beautiful. She caught me staring and swatted at me.

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PLAY AROUND, LOVERBOY. QUIT STARING." She shouted. I almost laughed, staggering to my feet and gripping her by the arm. She clung to me like she could fly away any second.

After what felt like minutes of wading in the water, I finally trudged into ground that didn't slide underneath my feet.

"I can't breathe," she panted, looking ghostly pale. I furrowed my eyebrows, looking all around her when I finally caught the scent. The smell of her blood was filling the air quicker than the rain was pouring. I swore again, pulling and tugging at her until finally I saw the problem-a long, thick gash etched into the inside of her left calf. It was turning green around the edges and was already inflamed. She'd been infected with something. "I feel like I can't breathe." She choked again, staring out into the empty woods wide-eyed. She was losing a lot of blood. And that meant I was losing her.

I scooped her up bridal-style, her body hanging eerily limp in my arms as I looked around for the closest way to the cabin. Her breathing was growing raspy and tormented, her lids fluttering although her dark brown eyes were focused on the sky, lightening dancing in her irises.

"Stay with me Baby," I breathed, although I wasn't quite sure how I'd allowed myself to use that name. "Stay with me."

Never in my life had I actually liked a girl. Slept with them, yes. Liked them, not so much. I mean it wasn't that I didn't try, it was just that all of them had wanted something from me, like the money that was actually my Dad's, or the ridiculously large house I lived in for a boy from La Push. When they looked at me, all of them saw the same thing: a way out. We'd grow up, fall in love, and high tail it out of here with a trail of money flowing behind us-but Haley was different. The second I saw her, I knew what was going on. I was terrified, furious even. I didn't want to love anybody, but it was too late, and once I got over that, I became pissed about the fact that I had to love her when I was like this, some giant mutated freak sent from the Gods to protect a small town from leeches.

I wanted to tear myself a part when I realized what I'd done, that I'd Imprinted on her-probably trapping her in this life just like Kim and Emily-and I wanted to kill myself. I'd tried, even, just to spare both of us from a fate I didn't want to face. I was sure she wasn't strong enough to handle it, I wondered how the Hell she, of all people, had managed to get a hold of my heart, but the more I thought about, the more I began to ask how the Hell she couldn't have. Even looking at her now, all battered and soaked in dirt, I felt weak in the knees, like if her survival didn't depend on my getting us somewhere safe I'd pass out.

I loved her because she needed me in her own sense, because I had something I could show her regardless of whether or not she wanted it. For the first time in my life, I was useful-I could get her away from day-to-day boredom, I could give her a superhero she always babbled on and on and on about when we were working at the garage, I could help her escape into a fantasy she'd always wanted for one sick, heavy, price. Her heart.

Will Haley and Paul make it out of the storm? :O Who knows...whoooooo knowsssss...