da-da-da-da, da-da! (Puppy Power!)
lol. I was watching Scooby and Scrappy Doo this morning. :D Love Scooby Doo....
Anyhow! Here's the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy it!
Sam leaned against his car outside of Leah's school, arms crossed and waiting. A week was long enough; he was through waiting for her to answer his calls or come to him. He was going to wait for her here, present her with the situation head on. They were going to talk. They were going to work this out. They weren't going to let this stupid genetic reaction to the Cold Ones ruin what they had. They weren't.
He scowled and shook his head sharply, trying to dispel the thoughts. That wasn't the main reason they were going to work things out. They were going to work this out... because they loved each other. Because they couldn't just give up when it was hard.
This would be so much easier, though, if he could tell her. But rules were rules and while he was basically the La Push version of Superman - only with a lot less publicity - even he had to follow the rules. It was so unfair, though!
Groaning under his breath at the path his thoughts once again were taking, Sam drew in a deep breath and held it for a long moment, trying to soothe his now-easily frazzled nerves. He let it out, keeping his eyes closed, not as calm as he'd like to be before his talk with Leah. Sam forced his jaw to relax, then his neck, his shoulders....
"What are you doing here?"
That single sentence shattered through the calm he'd been building up, grating his nerves with the distaste and dislike practically dripping from it. His fists clenched and he forced them to loosen, then made his jaw loosen as well when he realized he was grinding his teeth.
"I asked you what you're doing here," she snapped again. Leah's cousin. His jaw clenched momentarily and Sam drew in a deep breath to calm himself. Again.
That scent in the Clearwaters' house; the new one that he'd thought was a cleaner or something. It permeated the air around him, tickling his nose and relaxing his muscles wonderfully. He heard her huff impatiently and take a breath, probably to chew him out on his unresponsiveness, and opened his eyes to tell her just why he was here.
He didn't even get to open his mouth to say the words. The words dissolved away in his mind, like smoke on the wind.
His whole world shook, yet nothing else was moving. He was locked into place by her eyes - large, brown, passionate eyes. His previous concerns, priorities, wants, needs, dreams, hopes... everything suddenly dimmed in importance. All of it, everything, took a back seat to... her.
The anger faded from her eyes, replaced by concern and caution.
"Are you alright?" she asked slowly, as if she expected him to snap at any second.
He blinked several times, swallowed convulsively, nodded mutely. Sam was still reeling, trying to regain his footing on this new ground. A single thought whispered through his mind.
...Everything is different now...
She didn't seem convinced by his nod.
She. He didn't know her name. The frantic thought that he had to know her name - he had to! - hit him, and before he realized what he was doing the words had jumped from his lips.
"What's your name?"
She jerked just slightly, apparently taken aback. "Uhm... I'm Emily. Leah's cousin." Her eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"
He shook his head, confused, so confused. "I...I'm not sure anymore," he muttered, bitterness tarting the words towards the end. As he realized with a slowly sinking in horror what had just... happened....
"I gotta go," he muttered quickly, but found it was impossible to move, to look away from her. Emily - his mind whispered the word, testing it, savoring it - was looking at him as if she didn't know whether to be annoyed, furious, or worried. He swallowed thickly, reached blindly behind himself for the car door.
She started stepping backwards, over to what he assumed was her car. Something felt as if it were tugging at him, growing stronger the farther away she stepped. It... hurt, he realized with surprise, to watch her walk away.
Oh, god. He was in so much trouble.
Hands shaking, he fumbled along the door for the latch.
She paused. "Are you..." She trailed off, then seemed to steel herself and continued in a stronger voice. "Are you sure you're okay?" Genuine concern shined from her eyes.
Some part of him was thrilled that she cared, about him.
So. Much. Trouble.
He nodded, finally locating the latch, and yanked the door open, scrambling backwards into his car. She watched him, her head slightly tilted, dark, curling hair loosely hanging over her shoulders, glinting in the sun.
So screwed. So, so screwed.
Sam drove away, away, just away. It hurt - oh how it hurt - but covering that was the fear, the panic, the absolute completely unexpected terror over what was happening. He'd never felt anything so strong, so intense in his life. It was equally thrilling and petrifying. It was utterly conflicting.
Emily was still watching the place Sam's car disappeared when Leah approached out of the mob of students. She glanced at the distracted Emily, towards where Emily was staring, and back at her cousin.
"What are you looking at?" she asked in amusement.
Blinking rapidly, coming out of her daze, Emily looked over at Leah. "Nothing," she said in a distracted tone. She hesitated, wondering if she should tell her cousin about Sam being here and then acting so weird, or not. Considering he'd left, looking like he'd just been sucker punched, she decided not.
Smiling, Emily opened the passenger door. "You ready to go?" she chuckled.
Leah slid in, throwing her bag into the backseat, grinning over at Emily as she slipped in as well. "Did you rent the movies?" she asked excitedly. "And buy the junk food?"
Emily laughed and nodded, listing the couple movies she'd chosen as they drove back to the house. They didn't start their movie night until after dinner, but by that time, they were eager for it to start. As Leah chose the first of the movies to watch and put it in, Emily headed into the kitchen to pop the popcorn. While it was doing so, she stretched up to grab two glasses from the cupboards and filled them with soda.
She glanced up as she was pouring, out the window that stretched above the counter next to the sink, and screamed, dropping the soda. A curse slipped harshly past her lips as it sloshed out of the bottle and onto the floor and her feet. Leah rushed in as Emily glanced back out the window while grabbing several sheets of paper towels.
"What?" Leah asked with wide eyes, glancing around.
Emily shook her head as she bent down to clean up the mess. Leah grabbed towels of her own and joined her.
"Why'd you scream?" Leah insisted after a couple of seconds of silence.
Emily sighed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, and finally admitted, "I thought I saw something."
When Leah simply raised her brows, obviously waiting for more, Emily sighed again, standing as she threw the wet towels into the trash. "It looked sort of like a bear, but too... lean. And I think it was too big, too," she added, frowning slightly. She shook her head. "But I guess I was just seeing things." She grinned at her cousin.
Leah laughed, grabbing the soda glasses off the counter. "It's a good thing you didn't grab any scary movies then, since you're so jumpy."
Emily stuck out her tongue, following Leah out of the kitchen, but couldn't help sparing a glance back out the window for a brief moment.
The whole night, a part of Emily felt out of it. She kept thinking of the... thing she'd seen outside at the edge of the treeline. Every noise she heard brought it back to mind, so clearly yet... not. She could have sworn she'd seen something but it seemed ridiculous. What would be around here about the size of a small horse, but definitely not the shape of one? Something that massive? Maybe a bear, but it still didn't seem right. Not the right shape, not the right size. And she just couldn't let it go as a trick of the eye.
Late that night - or early the next morning, depending on how it was looked at - when they turned the lights out, Emily couldn't keep herself from standing and going carefully across the room, glancing out the one window in Leah's room. Slowly, her eyes scanned the treeline. The moon was almost full, the sky was perfectly clear - rare for Washington - and all this made it easy to see far outside. She bit her lip before sliding it out from between her teeth, glancing along the treeline again. Nothing.
Sighing, Emily shook her head. She didn't know what she'd expected. The thing to be right there, outside the window, just waiting for her to see it? She chuckled at herself as she climbed into the bed. It was best she forget about the possibly imagined creature. Closing her eyes, Emily finally relaxed fully for the first time since she'd glanced out the kitchen window.
Her last thought, oddly, was of the almost comical yet also worrying look on Sam's face when he'd seen her. She had no idea what she was going to do about that guy and her cousin, but she knew she'd do everything she could. Leah deserved to be happy.
I start school again on Tuesday, so if updates grow a little more sluggish than they've recently become, I apologize. Getting into the new swing of things is always a little difficult.
However, this is my VERY LAST SEMESTER at MCHS and then I'm off to UOP! Not too far from the first, lol, but still a whole new situation! All my friends will be scattered! So very sad... I try not to think about it. (Yes, five months from now, I know, but I plan ahead a lot, okay?)
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!