AN: Hi guys! This took some time, I know, but I'm really trying to stick with my schedule but this story won't let me go so I'm trying to do both. I have an Anna/Paul banner on my profile made by one of my LJ friends because she is AWESOME! :D On my profile you'll see my updating schedule as well, I'm a HORRIBLE procrastinator and I'm hoping this will help me get over that. :P Wish me luck! Thank you all for reviewing and reading and just showing your support for me and my stories. :D Enjoy!
Chapter Eight
Comfort
The rest of Thursday was horrible. I couldn't concentrate on anything but Anna and Leah wouldn't stop teasing me. Embry was smart enough to keep his thoughts out of it, at least. When patrol was done I raced back to Anna's shed and damn near pressed my nose against her window. She was asleep, deeply asleep. Her parents were out cold in the house and after counting her breaths for a minute I curled up as close as I could and closed my eyes. Didn't sleep at all.
Friday was worse. After I ran with her to the school, where everyone was looking at her like she was an alien, I had to leave her to take my truck back home and convince my mother to call me in sick or something. I needed to sleep so badly and the only place I knew I'd be able to sleep would be around Anna and in my truck, since it still smelled like her. My mother mercifully agreed and I was excused for the day but she told me I had to sleep in the house, or at least in the driveway. I agreed out of pure exhaustion.
On Saturday my mother practically forced me to stay with her most of the day. She let me leave in the morning to make sure Anna got to work in one piece and that people were still going to leave her alone. But for the remainder of the day, until I had to go out on patrol, I was with her. I think it was supposed to be an attempt to help me actually function and well, if anyone could force me to do it, it was going to be my mother.
After a day of cleaning and working in the yard I was still on edge. I ran back to check on Anna after dinner because I was panicking so much I had started to vibrate. Once I was sure Anna was alive and unharmed I went back home to appease my mother. Because she was forcing me to stay home and away from Anna she promised to be completely cleared out of the house for Sunday and not bring anyone over unexpectedly. I could suffer for the day to have Anna to myself later.
Mom didn't try to drug me again Saturday night but I stayed in the house again. Of course I didn't sleep but I stayed in the friggin house. I left at six in the morning and drove around Anna's area until eight-thirty when I parked at the gas station. I ran into the dingy store and got a soda then went back to my truck and waited for her.
She came walking down the road twenty minutes later and spotted me instantly. She was blatantly confused to see me there so early but I didn't care. She was a hundred percent fine, physically at least and that's all I can ask for at the moment. I got out of my truck and walked up to her with my hands in my pockets and leaned against the front of my truck. Remember Paul, you still can't kidnap her.
"You're early." She said suspiciously, looking around at the dumbass teenagers that were strategically looking elsewhere.
"Couldn't sleep." I answered casually with a shrug. It's strange actually telling her the truth without having to manipulate it.
She didn't question my answer and just nodded. "I'm gonna grab some coffee real quick, okay?" She asked, nodding toward the gas station.
"Sure," I said without issue.
I watched her walk into the gas station, completely unnoticed by the older guys leaning against the wall of the store, talking about something or another. The fuck-stick teenagers had started to gather around my truck and I felt the over whelming urge to phase and take them all out with one swipe of my massive paw.
They all picked up on my tension and backed off. Anna came out a few minutes later and climbed into the truck without issue. I sent a glare toward the ass-jacks to make sure they knew they would have to deal with me from now on and went back to my seat.
"The auto store has half of the parts for my car." She said once I was in the car. I looked over to her and found her entirely comfortable. She had tucked her leg underneath her while he buckled her seatbelt across her chest and settled against the door easily, sipping gingerly from her cup of coffee.
I smiled seeing her comfortable with me. "Wanna get them now?" I asked nodding toward the road.
"Sure, might as well get it over with." She said with a shrug.
After the bed of my truck was loaded with car parts we drove back to La Push. Anna was busy crossing off all the parts we had just gotten and didn't notice when I pulled into the drive way. Mom kept her promise and her car was gone and there was no one in the area.
I couldn't help but watch Anna toil over her list. She looked adorable flipping through the pages and writing tiny notes in the margins. How does someone look so cute working on a list? When I had soaked up the sight of my imprint for a few minutes I nudged her shoulder. "Hey,"
"Oh, sorry." She muttered, blushing vibrantly and closing up her list.
"Car or homework?" I asked pointing at my house then her car.
"It looks like its going to rain soon, so it's probably best if we start with the car." She answered, nodding to the car.
I craned my neck to look at the sky and the overcast was already thick. It's not surprising for September but it still sucks. "Agreed." I grumbled.
We moved the parts into my garage so they wouldn't get wet when it rained and started working as quickly as possible. Anna gathered as many tools as she could identify and we started working to put the parts in. I had already gone through and taken out all I could so started by going in as deep as I could started there to work my way up.
It was almost scary how well we worked together. Before I could even ask for something she was already giving it to me. She'd move to let me get a better angle on the part before I ever started to move. We didn't say one word for almost two hours. Of course I had only put in four parts when it started raining. No, it wasn't raining, it was a friggin down-pour.
It went from a light mist to heavy rains in literally two seconds. Anna jumped and quickly grabbed as much as she could from in front of her and dashed into the garage. I had to detach a few tools before I could get under the garage, of course in the extra thirty seconds I was in the rain to gather the tools and shut the hood I was thoroughly soaked. Stepping into the garage, I shook my head to get the extra water off and set everything I had in my arms down on the defunct air-hockey table.
I looked over to Anna and found her trying to ring out her shirt, which was drenched with rain water. Looking her over she was more wet than dry and her hair was totally flattened to her face. All I wanted to do was brush the hair out of her face. "You look soaked." I laughed.
She blushed a little and even smiled some. "So do you." She said nodding to my shirt which stuck to me like a second skin.
"Gotta love the rain." I groaned and tugged my shirt off easily and hung it over the deep freezer. I didn't feel the rain on me at all, but I hate the feeling of wet clothes on me and it's not like I need the damn thing on me anyway. She started looking more keenly at her feet. "You can leave your shoes out here to dry." I told her as I kicked off my own shoes and left them near the garage door. I hit the button to shut the retractable door as Anna walked up to my and carefully took off her shoes and left them neatly next to mine.
I was relieved that her socks were at least dry but her jeans were damp. The last thing I needed was my tiny imprint to get pneumonia. "Come on, I think some of my mom's clothes will fit you." I said walking into the house.
"I'm fine," She said shaking her head while she followed me. The lights from the dining room made her pale skin look blue.
There is no way in hell my imprint is going to stay in wet clothes. "If she were here she would insist, besides, it'll only be for like half an hour to dry your clothes." I pointed out calmly.
She had a thinking look on her face for a while before she sighed and nodded. I tried not to look too triumphant and walked down to my mom's room and grabbed a pair of sweat pants and one of her sleep shirts. Walking back out to Anna I tried to not grab her and bundle under a dozen blankets when I saw her shaking.
"Here, these should fit." I said handing her the clothes.
"Thanks," She murmured with a half smile and walked to the bathroom.
I went back to my room and changed into my cut-off's and put on a shirt just so Anna isn't any more uncomfortable than she normally is. I ran one of my dirty towels through my hair just to dry it off more and walked to the bathroom next door.
I knocked on the door lightly when I saw Anna was still in there. "Everything okay in there?" I asked confused.
The door opened just a sliver and half of Anna's face filled the gap. "The shirt is too small." She
"Uh, okay." I mumbled stupidly and walked back to my mom's room. The shirt is tight on my mom, but really, Anna is thinner than my mom. I tried to think of another shirt of my mom's that was bigger, but I was drawing a blank. I went back to my own room and ducked into my closet and pulled out a hoodie I haven't worn since I first phased since it's too small and I have no need for it. I went back to the bathroom and knocked on the door. The door cracked open and I held up the sweater. "Here," I said squeezing the sweater through the gap.
I waited, somewhat impatiently, for Anna to change still confused. I don't know why the shirt didn't fit for her, but I also had the feeling I didn't have the skills to ask her without screwing it up so I tried to let it go. Not long after I passed the hoodie through Anna full emerged.
In my dark blue hoodie and my moms baggy gray sweat pants Anna looked entirely at home. I smiled uncontrollably. "Better?" I asked amused.
She nodded bashfully and grabbed her clothes from the sink. "Yeah," She murmured.
"I'll put those in the dryer for you." I said reaching out to take the clothes from her.
"Its okay, I-" She was trying to be self-sufficient again. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not going to happen when I'm around. Not when there's already so much I can't do for her.
"I can do it, you can start setting up." I said firmly, nodding to the dining room table.
Her lips pursed and her brows knitted and I knew she really didn't want me to do anything else for her. "Alright," She sighed, passing me the heap of clothes. Good God my imprint is stubborn.
I went back to my room to grab my wet clothes and then ran them out the garage and tossed them in the dryer for forty-five minutes. In the dining room Anna already and the books spread out with paper and pencil ready. If she wasn't my imprint I wouldn't be suffering through all of this. Then again, it's not suffering with her. It's the complete opposite.
As always she was an amazing teacher, I was even almost starting to like all the homework I had. Almost. I was starving before we were even halfway finished with my homework, not to mention the two tests I had to cram for.
My stomach whined obnoxiously loud and even Anna heard it. She looked at me with a raised brow. "Lunch?" I asked pathetically.
She bit her lip to try not to laugh. If only she knew I'd never mind her laughing at me. "Okay," She conceded with a nod.
I dashed into the kitchen and opened the fridge. There wasn't anything that I could slap together for a quick meal, only a ton of left-over's. I had been eating at Emily's a lot lately. "How do you feel about left-over's?" I asked hopefully.
"That's fine," She said with her tiny smile.
I put my head back in the fridge and started listing off everything I saw. "Alright we have hamburgers, hot dogs, lasagna, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, pork chops and I think that's Chinese food." I said warily. I looked back to Anna and she was smiling again. Just seeing her sitting comfortably in my house, wrapped in my hoodie and smiling made anything bad about my week just fly away.
"Lasagna," She said surely, still smiling.
"Good choice," I pulled out the lasagna, pork chops, spaghetti, hamburgers and mashed potatoes and tossed them into the microwave.
"Where's your mom?" Anna asked curiously while I supervised the microwave. I've done this before and it was a mess when I didn't take out the red sauce in time.
"Who knows, shopping somewhere probably?" I said with a shrug. I really didn't know and at the moment, I didn't care. Anna was there, smiling, that's all I need. I'll worry about my mother's escapades later.
I took out the lasagna after a minute and half then let the rest of stuff in there cook for another minute. I took the container to Anna with a fork and set it in front of her. "Thanks," She smiled. I gave her a crooked grin and forced myself to be parted with her beautiful smile when the microwave dinged.
I collected all of the containers of food with a fork and carried it back to the table easily and sat next to her like I had been. My mouth was full of hamburger within three seconds. "You eat a lot." She commented.
"I'm a growing man, I need it." I said defensively.
Her lips twitched into a smile quickly. "I see that." She chuckled, cutting a little piece of lasagna.
"You on the other hand..." I trailed off, watching her take a small bite of her lasagna.
"I stopped growing months before my seventeenth birthday, no need for an inflated diet." She told me before taking a small bite of lasagna.
Finally getting to the subject of her birthday I could find out the exact day. "When's your next birthday? Soon?" I asked trying to play oblivious. I already knew it was in February but I was desperate to know the date.
She shook her head. "Not until late February. You?" She asked politely. Dammit! Do I have to be a complete stalker and sneak into the school for her records just for her birthday?
"October twelfth." I answered blankly. Our birthdays were much of a deal anymore, not with vampires running around.
"That's pretty soon." She said surprised.
"Yeah," I sighed.
"Eighteenth?" She guessed.
I already stuffed food in my mouth, so to be polite I nodded.
"Big plans?" She asked curiously.
I swallowed. "Doubt it," I answered with a shrug.
"I thought you were supposed to have this huge bash on your eighteenth birthday." She said confused.
"Not so much here, I've got other responsibilities." I said trying not to sound as glum as I was. I would have loved a big party, especially with her. "What about yours?" I inquired quickly.
"I'm going to celebrate by graduating early and getting a place of my own." She said with a proud smile.
"Now that's one helluva celebration." I grinned. Six months and she'll be out of that hell hole, I can live with that. Maybe.
She sighed and had a guarded look in her eyes. "If I can actually get a place, most renters aren't that keen on letting eighteen-year-olds rent out their homes." She pointed out sadly.
"Anyone who meets you will know you're not a regular, stupid eighteen-year-old." I told her seriously. Hell, my mom would trade me for her any day.
She ducked her head and blushed, just like she always did whenever I made a semblance of a compliment. I still loved seeing her blush. "Thanks," She mumbled.
The horrific thought that she might move away started to grip me and the question fell out before I could stop it. "You moving far?" I asked tensely.
"I'm not sure. There isn't a college here but I'd really miss it." She said with a twisted frown.
"Really?" I asked confused. Most everyone I know is dying to get out of this town. Hell, Bella Swan turned into a friggin vampire to get out of here!
She nodded, moving her lasagna around with her fork looking a little depressed. "Yeah, Forks is my home." She said surely. I had the strong feeling that the town Forks was more her home than the actual house she lived in.
There was a loud ring from the garage and nearly sent Anna out of her skin. "Dryer," I said as I stood and walked to the garage.
I got the clothes out of the dryer and gave Anna back her shirt and jeans and tossed my clothes back into my room. She changed quickly and tried to give me my hoodie back.
"Keep it," I told her. She was about to protest, I could see it so I stopped her. "Seriously, it doesn't fit me anymore." I said honestly. It was getting small before I erupted into my now massive form.
She sighed and hung the hoodie over her arm. "Thank you," She said with a small smile.
After I had scarfed down all the food I had made we went back to my homework. We finished just before dinner but she said she had to go home so she couldn't eat dinner with me. As much as I didn't want to I drove her home.
"So, pick you up tomorrow?" I asked once I had pulled into the driveway.
She nodded. "I don't have anything planned for Tuesday if you-" I tried not to start bouncing when I heard that.
"Yes," I answered too quickly but I didn't care, I'd have her for the next two days.
She blushed brightly and climbed down from the truck. "Bye Paul," She said smiling.
"Bye Anna," I said as she closed the door.
I went home begrudgingly but when I went back to Anna's shed later that night, she was sleeping in my hoodie. Since the moment I imprinted on her I've been having a hard time actually being close to her. Seeing her sleeping in my hoodie made me feel like I was sleeping next to her. There's just something about knowing she's got something that's mine that makes me think she's safer. Doesn't sound very sane, but that's what I feel. Besides, what part of imprinting is sane?
I felt Embry phase and a rush of his memories fell over me. He had imprinted. It was nothing new since I'd felt this a few times before but seeing it after I've imprinted is a little stranger. His thoughts, which had always been all over the place, were no centralized on a girl that couldn't be older than thirteen with clear-rimmed glasses and a really deep tan. Where the hell did he find her?
The library. Apparently he had to go to the library to check out a new comic book.
Yeah, that explains it. Typical Embry.
Hey! He was always so overly defensive when it came to his nerd tendencies.
Chill out Embry.
He quickly lost any anger he had and all he could think about was his imprint, who's name he didn't know, and how she walked home alone. He was seriously thinking about sulking around her apartment, which had no cover what so ever.
No! I could hear him growl at me miles away and I didn't care. We both had patrols to run.
AN: Review!