Chapter 5

The week had gone by really slowly; Jen had gone hysterical after she found out why Ethan had broken up with her. He had dumped her for another girl who apparently was the complete opposite of Jen; she had short spiky hair with red in it, and was dressed in black from head to toe, Jen had come up with many ridiculous plans to try and get Ethan back, but none of them seemed worth even pursuing. I had come up a plan too: That Jen forget Ethan and went for a guy who seemed really into her, to which her only reply was for me either help or shut the hell up. During the week I had actually became friends with Embry, Quil, Jared and Kim, and of course Seth, they all seemed to really like me, especially Kim and I had made a silent promise to Embry to help him get Jen to notice him. Embry was kind and generous, and in my opinion that's what Jen really needed, Ethan seemed like a douche bag, even though I never met him, but to break someone over a text seemed like an asshole move to me. I had many steps to my plan to get Jen to notice Embry, the very first step and the most important was to get Jen to call him anything other than `guy who stares at me` or `Yeti` or `Big Foot`, in Embry`s defence he needed big feet because of his height. It was Saturday afternoon and I seriously needed a pick me up, I had spent Friday night with Jen and all her friends from Forks, all whom were trashing Ethan the whole night. They were all decent, there was Kate, Monica, Stacie, Marni and Marni`s boyfriend Logan, we went Port Angeles to have dinner in this really fancy restaurant, the conversation topic was mainly about Ethan`s douchebag ways and how he had made a huge mistake over dumping Jen, the other other topic was Logan`s party which was happening two weeks from now and the main concern was what kind of beer to get, it had come down to two choices either Corona or Heineken. The night went rather slowly for my taste and by the end I wanted nothing more than to go home get in my pyjamas and watch season one of Gossip Girl, of course everyone oooh and ahh when they say my car, even Logan was impressed and Marni immediately invited me to Logan`s party so long that I arrived in my `sweet ride` I rolled my eyes at that comment, thanked them for taking me out to see what was good around here. They all waved goodbye said it had been fun to meet me, and told me not to forget Logan`s party.

I was about to call Jen when my phone blasted, on the caller id it said unknown but I answered it anyways.

"Hello?"

"Fer? Its Kim" the voice answered.

"Oh hey! What's up?"

"Not much, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?"

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

"Um, I wanted to introduce you to some friends in La Push, I could pick you up."

"Great! I'd love to" I gave Kim, my address "When are you picking me up?"

"In thirty minutes"

"Kay! I see you then!"

I changed from my sweats into jeans and a cropped sweater and grabbed my phone, I found another note from my mom saying that she and Stephen were out and to heat up some leftovers for dinner, they had decided to move the restaurant to Port Angeles in order to get more business, and were more and more out of town, which was fine by me because having the house to myself made me feel more grown up. Kim was there sooner than she said that she would be and she greeted me with a hug, and complimented my outfit.

"Where are we going" I said strapping my seatbelt on.

"Where going to meet Jared and the rest of the guys at Emily's" She said enthusiastically.

"Who's Emily?"

"Emily is Sam's girlfriend- fiancée actually."

"Who's Sam?"

"Sam, is the boys um er- boss"

"Oh, do they work at Emily's or something?"

"Oh no, they work around Forks and La Push"

The rest of the ride, Kim told me about all the upcoming events that was going around La Push, plans she had with Jared, plans she had with Emily. We arrived to a house that looked almost like Seth's but bigger. Kim paused before speaking.

"Fer, Emily was in an accident and she got mauled by a bear." Kim paused before continuing" Emily has some, scars down her face; it bugs Sam when people stare. NOT that you would ever do that, but I thought I might tell you, just in case"

I nodded.

"Let's go" Kim said smiling.

I followed Kim, inside and we were instantly greeted by Jared who put him arm around Kim. Some the boys were seated by the counter eating lunch, Kim smiled at them and I tried to hide my amazement at how much they ate. Then I saw Emily she had long scars down the side of her face she smiled shyly, Kim cleared her throat and introduced me.

"Emily, guys this is Fernanda" Kim spoke my name slowly as if there was some double meaning. Emily grinned widely and pulled me into hug.

"Hi! Fernanda, its sooo great to meet you!" She screamed.

I smiled, pleased that she seemed to like me, just then a big man came in through the door with Jake, Seth and Paul. He was tall, and was clearly so much older than the rest of the boys I guessed he was Sam; he called the room to attention telling Quil, Collin and Brady to finish their lunch quickly because they had patrol, then he greeted Emily by kissing her and putting his arms around her. He hadn't even noticed that he had pushed me out of the way; his eyes were only for Emily. There was something about Sam, they way he spoke and the way he ordered them about, not in a rude way or anything was almost as if he was in charge of them, of course as far as I knew he was their boss but it was more than just work that he seemed in charge of. My thoughts were interrupted by Seth who had put his arm around me and who whispered 'hey' into my ear, I smiled. Just then Sam decided to acknowledge me.

"Hello" he said trying to be friendly. Maybe he noticed how much he intimidated me.

"Hi" I stuttered.

"I'm Sam, what's your name?"

"Fernanda"

I think Emily noticed the awkwardness, because she motioned Sam into kitchen. She instructed him to start chopping the vegetables; she whispered something into his ear that caused him to look back at me. "What'd I do?" I could him saying

"You pushed her into the wall" Jared said, joining the conversation.

I shook my head, could they not tell that I could hear? I cleared my voice and they all turned to look at me. Emily smiled a little embarrassed.

"Fernanda are you hungry?"

"Yea, it all smells really good"

"Jared hand her a plate, take as much as you want"

Jared handed me a plate. Emily had made lasagna with garlic bread it smelled delicious. I went Seth motioned me to sit beside him, but then Jake beat me to it, I could feel my cheeks burning and was regretting not staying home. I had never been socially awkward; making friends was easy to me but ever since I had moved to Forks things had changed, I was so easily intimidated by all these boys who were twice my size. Not that they'd ever hurt me, but something inside of me made me hesitant around them I couldn't tell you what it was, it was something in my gut telling me to be careful. At the same time since the moment I had made eye contact with Seth, things had changed I couldn't bear the thought of him being hurt or away I knew I sounded like an idiot, but thinking these words in my head I couldn't help but realize how true they were and it scared me I had never been dependant on anyone and now that had changed. A romantic idiot might have told me it was love at first sight, but I knew all these things I was feeling were stronger than love.

Seth had his eyes on me the whole time trying to decipher what I was thinking; maybe he thought it was about not having a place to sit, but that wasn't the case I needed time to figure this out, but I didn't was to be rude or anything so I took the seat where Quil had left besides Kim. Then Emily pulled up a chair beside me smiling.

"Fernanda, it's so great to finally meet you Seth talks about you all the time, me and Sam have wanted to meet you for so long.!" She gushed

I saw Seth blushing out of the corner of my eye, I smiled" It's nice to meet you too"

They talked mostly about their "work" although I still didn't know what they did and I could tell they were all being really cautious in choosing their words. They were having a barbeque in two weeks and Emily immediately invited me, I nodded smiling, happy that they were including me. When it was late Seth drove me home, he walked me to my door and slipped his arms around my waist.

"Did you have fun?" he asked.

I nodded, just then he tilted my chin up so I could meet his eyes. It happened slowly, the way he hesitated to make sure I wouldn't kick him in the groin, and how he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. He smiled before leaning in and kissing me, I had so many confused emotions before but when he kissed me, they all went away it felt so natural to have him holding me so close almost as if he and I had known each other for years, rather than days. Just then almost as quick as all those feelings had gone, they came back creeping in the back of my skull, with the one thing that made them go away in the first place had brought them back. Why the hell was this so comfortable, so natural and so incredibly scary? I felt like I was drowning but was struggling just hard enough to keep my head above water. I pulled back abruptly, not meeting his gaze when I did.

"Fer, are you ok? Did I hurt you?" he immediately asked keeping his arms around me.

It took me a while before I could make a sentence "Yes- I mean no, you didn't hurt me... Seth... I can't... it's too fast"

He dropped his arms, leaving me feeling empty but he smiled weakly before speaking" Sorry, um, Fer you're amazing..."

I looked up, how could he know? He had only known me for a week! I couldn't lie and tell you what he was saying wasn't making practically melt inside, but I couldn't bring myself to fully believe him no matter how hard I wanted to.

"You're the first person that I... I mean... I've never felt like this... Fernanda..." he sighed.

"You should go." I whispered , loud enough so that he could hear me, he looked down at me I smiled weakly" I had a lot of fun with you."

He nodded, looking like a kicked puppy. He glanced back at me before driving away.

I let myself in silently, worried that maybe mom and Stephen were back, I hadn't noticed their cars on the driveway but maybe they had parked them in the garage. I walked slowly into my room, here's a thing no one ever tells you: girls love to replay moments with their boyfriends in their minds, it can actually be as good as the real thing, but when a girl gets into an awkward situation she can replay it in her head just as many times, and it will still feel like the real thing.

Sorry for taking so long to post! school started and things got busy. Enjoy and pls review!