CHAPTER 3
Secretly

I didn't know what to do. I said Adelaide I'd see her tomorrow but now I couldn't see her again. Why did Jacob have to go and spy on me? I thought about what I was gonna do for half the night. If I did go see her, Leah would find out and blab, but if I Adelaide would never wanted to see me again. Why did I car so much? I knew. Because I'm too much of a nice guy who hates to see people mad.

I don't know why the hell I did it. Let's just call it a hunch. Leah's door was opened ajar, and our hallway floor is carpeted, so she didn't hear me sneak down the hallway to see if she was asleep the next morning. She was and so were Charlie and Ma. So I got dressed, and jumped out my window so no one would hear me open and close the door.

Sure enough, Adelaide was at the log, waiting. "Hey." I said with little enthusim. "Hey." She said back. "Didn't expect you here so early." I said. "Yeah." She replied. I heisted and silently said yeah back.

"Something wrong?" She asked. What was I going to say? I couldn't tell her the truth as much as I wanted to. "I'm really a shape shifter who turns into a werewolf from time to time and my pack doesn't want us to see each other anymore because they think something is going on between us." She'd think I'm crazy. She I made up a lie fast. It was a bad one but it was the best I could come with quickly. "My mom got a little freak out when I wasn't at breakfast and grounded me. I got in more trouble when I snuck out to give you the skateboard." Lame, but It could happen, just not with me.

"Did she take away your cell phone?"

"No." I said. She took a pen out of her pocket, and she was just about to write her number on my arm. I nearly froze but quickly pulled away. "Wait! She'll notice!" I said and quickly found a wrinkled up piece of paper in my pocket. Thank God! Adelaide wrote down her number.

"There, no one will notice that unless you show them." She said putting the cap on the pen. "Ok."

"I guess you better go now." She slowly said. "I guess." And I turned away without saying goodbye. What just happened? Someone just change the mood or something? Whatever it was, it was strange.

When I got back to the house, I climbed up the side of the house back into my bed. Charlie would be up any minute to get ready for work. Then Ma would get up shortly after. So I was lucky I came in when I did.

I'm not the type of person who can get up for a little while then go right back to sleep. Once I'm up in the morning, I'm up. So I had to fake it. Something I'm not good at. Frountly, no one checked in my room anyway, so it was no big deal.

But throughout the day, I thought of Adelaide, how uncomfortable the goodbye was, and how this all wouldn't off happened if Jake spied on me! I'm not the type of person to hold a grudge, but something about this time was different.

After dinner, I just couldn't help it, I went into my room, shut the door, and dialed her number. It started to ring. Once, twice, she picked up after three and a half.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded a little crackly, but what else do you expect from a cell phone? "Hey, um, it's Seth." I sounded like a total idiot! "Oh hey!" Her voice then sounded cheerful, like she was happy to know it was me. "Why are you calling me?" Her voice still sounded happy though.

"No good reason just bored." I answered. "Ugh, join the club." I smiled. At least we were friends now. "Nothing exciting about moving to a new town, huh?" I asked. "Yeah." Adelaide slowly said as if she really didn't move. "Can I ask you a question?" She suddenly asked as if she just thought of it. "Sure, what?"

"Why do you have a tattoo? You some kind of tough guy poser?" I chuckled and said, "No it's," I stopped. I couldn't tell her about the tattoo on my upper arm, she had no idea about my pack or anything like that. "It's complicated." I said not knowing what else to say. "Alright then. Be a creeper."

"Hey, you keep stuff from me too!"

"So what do you want to do? Tell each other all our deep dark secrets?"

"No, but we could be more honest with each other."

"Alright." Then there was a long period of silence. Neither one of us had anything to say. I wasn't about to tell her about my tattoo, and there was probably stuff she didn't feel like telling me either.

We talked for a while, about stuff. Like what she thought of La Push and how long I've been here and what I thought of it. And that's basically it. But just as I left my room to take a shower, Leah was there. She had an senseive look on her face like she knew who I was just talking to. I silently prayed she didn't. She would go and tell Sam and I'd get into some kind of trouble.

"Who were you talking to?" She asked. She had her hand crossed across her chest, as she seemed ready to interrogate me. Sometimes, Leah can give me more of a third degree then Mom does.

I had to lie. Again. Why did I have to lie so much lately? "Just Collin." I said. It sounded reasonable. But knowing Leah, she wouldn't buy it.

"Really?" She hissed.

"Yeah, we were talking about how excited we were for Brady." I heard somewhere that the key to a good lie is details. Leah probably knew that too. "You sure?"

"Yes. Excuse me; I have to take a shower." I said and walked away towards the bathroom. I'm pretty sure I heard Leah mumble under her breath, "You smell like a liar anyway."

As soon I got into the bathroom and locked the door, I deleted the call I just made to Adelaide paranoid that Leah might go through past calls I made while I was sleeping. Thankfully, I hadn't put Adelaide's phone number into my address book yet and I still had to paper with her number. I was either going to have to memorize it like they make you do with your home number in kindergarten, or hide it where Leah couldn't find it.

When I got out of the shower, I put it in the first and last place someone would hide something. Their underwear drawer. Sure, it's probably one of the first places you'd look if you wanted to find something someone was hiding. But there's no way Leah would go through my underwear drawer. No matter how desperate she was to see if I was hiding something.

I can't believe I wasn't doing this! I was stooping this low to be able to have contact with a girl I just met. I must be going crazy. Looking at my clock, it was 10:30. With nothing else to do, I went to bed the earliest time I've had in a month.

There was no point in going to bed early. I was up for an hour (maybe longer) before I fell asleep for the first time. Then, I wake up every other hour, then fall back to sleep a half an hour later. It was nuts!

And once your body gets used to doing something you automatically start doing it weather you want to or not. I'm talking about how I got used to waking up earlier to see Adelaide so I got up when my hormones thought it was time to, and they wouldn't let me fall back to sleep.

Soon, I just gave up and went to breakfast. I was the first one down, what else to expect at 6:00 in the morning? So I silently watched TV. Ma and Charlie came down first separately, and they both pretty surprise to see me up so early. When Leah came down she didn't say a thing. She just glared.

Since everyone was up and Charlie didn't have to go to work until a little later, Ma made us all breakfast. I sat right across from Leah. I could feel her giving me mean stares every once in a while but I tried not to look. I know Charlie and Ma were wondering, but they were both smart enough not to ask. Just then, out of nowhere, Leah said, "Want to tell them how much you've been lying lately?" I dropped my fork. Oh no, she wasn't going to tell them? Was she?

"What are you talking about?" Charlie asked. "Nothing." I quickly said hopping the subject would go away. "He's lying again." Leah said. "No I'm not, now just shut up, you don't know anything." I said looking down at my plate of half-eaten eggs. "Yes I do, why don't you just tell them yourself?" Leah now had her hand crossed across her chest, and you could tell by her voice she meant business.

"There's nothing to tell." I muttered. "Yes there is." Leah muttered. "What are you guys talking about?" Ma finally asked. "Seth's been seeing a girl." Leah said before I could even say something. "What?" Charlie asked. "Nothing, Leah doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Yes I do. Jacob said he say him the other day talking to some girl in the woods." Man, I wish Leah would just shut up, this wasn't her business. "Is this true?" Ma looked at me. I could barely get the words out. "Yes. We've just been talking to each other, nothing else don't worry." I told them. "Is it anyone we know?" Charlie asked. "Probably not she's new to the area." I looked over at Leah. She still looked angry, like she still thought I was lying. I wasn't, she couldn't she have just stayed out of this?

"Well, it's perfectly fine if you want to talk to your new friend. Just tell us when you're going to." Ma said. "Alright." Was all I could really say now, so we all went back to eating. Even though my mother gave me permission to see Adelaide, the pack hasn't.

After we all finished eating, Charlie went to work and Ma went to the grocery store, leaving me and Leah alone. As soon as both cars were out of the driveway and could not be heard anymore, Leah went off.

"I can't believe you Seth!"

"I was telling the truth." I said. "Sure you were. And don't forget, don't try and have contact with that girl, because you will get caught." Leah said with an orderly tone and went upstairs. Then my phone beeped to tell me I had a text message. Sure enough, it was Adelaide.