AN: THANK GOD! I'm done with all that GED crap. However, I'll just be onto college in September, until then, however, I will be writing! I hope you all take this extra long chapter as my token of thanks for being so patient with me. I will try my best to update next week and I hope to be back on my little schedule thingy soon. :D Enjoy! Oh, and this is in Anna's POV. As promised. :)
Chapter Twenty One
Calm and Casual
I had never been shopping for leisure before. I trusted Dana enough, but I was still wary about the trip. The sun was still in the sky as we got onto the highway and she was still deciding on what she called a 'shopping extravaganza'. This was outside my comfort zone but I agreed with Dana, I needed clothes that fit properly. I couldn't hide behind rags forever.
"Were going to make a quick stop before the mall, if you don't mind." Dana said as she pulled off on the nearest exit.
"You are the driver," I said with a shrug.
"Very true." She said with a grin.
She didn't drive very far from the highway, pulling into a shopping plaza after the second light. It was a fairly new building with a dozen small shops. She drove down to the end of the row of shops and parked in front of the second to last one. It was a store for a cell phone company. Dana was out of the car and at the door before I even had my feet on the ground. I caught up to her in the store and waited patiently behind her.
She went straight to the small counter with a smile. "Hello, what can I do for you today?" One of the men asked politely.
"I'm picking up a phone, Woodburn." Dana told him expertly.
"One moment." He said before he turned and went through the door that read, 'Employee's Only'.
He wasn't gone for long, and came back with a small box. He
"Here is your new phone," He said as he opened the box and took out the small, silver, flip phone and handed it to Dana.
She opened the phone and turned it on while she inspected it. "With the numbers already programmed in?" She asked in a tone that reminded me of Paul at that moment.
"Yes," He confirmed with a nod.
"Wonderful!" She said happily.
"Could you make an outgoing call, just to make sure everything is in order?" He asked.
"Of course," She said, taking out her other cell phone while she dialed on the new phone.
Five seconds later, her phone rang and she smiled even wider.
"Perfect!" She cried, thoroughly pleased.
"Have a wonderful day." The man said handing her the box with a small smile.
Dana placed the phone back in the box as we started to walk out of the store. "You too," She said cheerily over her shoulder as we left. We got into the car and before she started it, she handed me the box. "Here you go, it's yours," She said simply.
I felt my eyes gouge out of my head as I gaped at her and quickly started shaking my head.
Dana put up her hand and spoke before I could formulate a sentence. "I know your about to try and talk me out of it, but it's useless. The line is free, and so was the phone with all the upgrade business and I know this would make Paul and me much more comfortable knowing we could get a hold of you at anytime. You know how fast things happen around here." She explained knowingly.
That last sentence did me in. After almost being a late-night snack for a vampire, the thought of having a device that let me get in contact with my shape-shifting friends did offer me a fair bit of comfort. "Okay," I agreed, defeated.
She did me the favor of at least trying to hide her smile. "If it makes you feel any more comfortable, you can give me fifteen-dollars a month toward the bill." She said as she turned on the car.
"It would." I said firmly as I put my seat belt on.
"See, I knew we could compromise." She said smiling as she put the car in gear and sped off.
I never had a cell phone before, but I knew how to use one. I felt very awkward accepting a gift of this nature, but I learned a while ago, that there was no arguing with any member of the Woodburn family. I pocketed my new phone and wondering if Paul was behind it all while I waited for the shopping to commence.
It didn't take more than ten minutes to get to the mall, thanks to Dana's need for speed, and we parked as close as we could.
"Well, we only have an hour to shop, we better go fast." She said in a rush as she exited the car in a hurry and started power walking toward the door. I was more than a few steps behind her when she locked the car with her remote, just before entering the department store.
If I didn't feel out of my element before, I sure did now. We walked right into the junior's department, which I think was planned on Dana's part, and there were a handful of other girls with their mothers and friends, shopping and they all stopped to look at me when I came through the door. I knew why they were looking, my clothes and the fact that I was with someone significantly darker than myself. I could only imagine what it would have been like if Paul had come.
"What kind of clothes do you like best?" She asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.
"Jeans and tee-shirts." I answered with a shrug.
"I can work with that." She said surely. "You should probably get some underwear as well, I'll let you do that on your own while I pick out some things for you." She said gently, pointing to the right were I could clearly see the section of the department store full of underwear and bra's.
"Okay," I said with a nod and we parted ways.
I wasn't so bad in the underwear department. I knew I need medium underwear, but I didn't have a clue about the bras. So after I chose two packages of boy-shorts, I wandered aimlessly through the bras. Not five minutes into my wandering, a nice, old woman working for the store offered to help me find some bras. After a little bit of measuring she concluded I was a 32 B and helped me find three bras, just to start out with because she said I would grow more in my coming years. I didn't know if I should have been relieved or mortified. The woman got me a bag to carry everything in and I went to find Dana, but she found me first.
She had two large bags herself, filled with jeans and shirts and a few dresses. "I thought you said 'some'?" I asked baffled.
"I might have gone a little over board, but you'll like them I promise, lets go to the dressing rooms!" Dana urged, ushering me toward the rooms that were located in the middle of the junior's department.
She took the bag of the underwear from me and pushed me into the first open stall there was with the other two bags. The stall was spacious, but the bags took up half the floor space. I took a pair of jeans from one bag and a shirt from the other and changed as quickly as I could.
The jeans, which were tight on me, but stretched, were dark and the shirt was a dark blue, long sleeved, v-neck that hugged all of me. It fit like it was supposed to, but I didn't like my shirts to be clingy, I liked them to hang off me a little. I tried to pull at them, for them to stretch out, but they just assumed their shape all over again.
"Come on out, I want to see what you look like in them!" I heard Dana call from outside the stall.
I sighed and left the stall, feeling more unsure with every step I took. When I got to Dana, who was sitting the little waiting area of the dressing rooms, looking extremely excited, I felt entirely self-conscious and uncomfortable.
"I don't know about the shirt." I mumbled, pulling at it some more.
"It is a little tight, I'll get the next size up." She assured me. I felt supremely relieved when she didn't try to persuade me that there was no issue with the shirt. "Try on a dress while I get it!" She ordered before dashing away.
I shook my head and went back to the stall I had previously occupied and stripped down and put on the first dress I could find.
We played this game for a while, maybe even the entire hour, before I ended up with two stuffed bags clothes. I had tried on all but the underwear and Dana even when to the shoe department and got me two pairs of shoes. Nothing fancy, just sneakers which I liked, but Dana said they were still stylish. At the check out counter, the woman looked completely exhausted but rang everything up all the same. I didn't want to see the price of all the clothes, because I had just spent so much on my car, even though the money was left to me for that reason.
The cashier rang up the last piece of clothing and told us the price, well over three-hundred dollars, but we apparently saved half of that amount. Before I could take out my check card and hand it to the cashier, Dana pulled out her department store credit card and handed it to her.
"Your going to try and argue again, but using the card saves another fifteen-percent and besides," She stopped and sighed, tucking one of the long strands of my hair behind my ear. "I never had a girl to spoil." She said sadly.
As hard as it was to let another person take care of me, like Dana was, it was still comforting to me and I could tell that it was just comforting to her. I took in a deep breath to help stifle my opposition and nodded.
Dana smiled brightly and pulled me into a fierce hug. "I have something I'll need your help with later on, you can think of it as paying me back." She told me as she released me.
"I'll try." I said with half a smile.
We left the department store, with four bags that were smaller than one's we had used to carry all the clothes around and got into her car, stuffing all the bags in the back. Just as she started talking about taking me shopping for purses and accessories next week, her purse made a buzzing sound, she didn't even need to look at her phone to know who it was.
"That boy," She groaned, shaking her head as she took the phone from her purse and answered the call. "For God's sake Paul, you've been texting me since we left, and I've told you, she's fine!" She yelled the very second she answered. I could make out Paul's deep voice on the other end of the line, making my skin erupt in goose-bumps. "We're leaving now. While you're waiting for us, get my old dresser from the garage and put it in the dining room, next to the china cabinet. And don't call again!" She ordered just before hanging up.
She huffed as she shoved her phone back in her purse and tossed it behind her. I looked at her sympathetically.
"I suggest you get used to that over-protective streak." She said with a loud huff.
I smiled meekly. "I'm starting to." I said quietly.
With a nod of agreement, she drove out of the parking lot and started toward the highway, driving much slower than she had on the way to the department store. We weren't in as much of a rush, and I think she was trying to irritate Paul further.
I was still a little surprised to hear that Paul had been in constant contact with his mother during our trip. Then again, her phone is always on silent and I spent most of the time in a dressing room, so it is quite possible that Paul had been berating her for the whole time.
It didn't take much longer to get back to La Push and when we arrived Paul was waiting for us in the dark of the night, leaning against my car. Dana scoffed as she parked the car behind Paul's truck and grabbed her purse from the back and left the car in a huff. Paul came to my door and opened it just as I was getting my seatbelt off.
I'll admit it was calming to see Paul again. Even though I wasn't gone for very long, or even put under any stress, I just always felt better around him. I stood with the cell phone box in my hand, but Paul made no notice of anything that was involved with direct eye contact.
"You have fun?" He asked hopefully.
I nodded, moving away from the car so Paul could shut the door. "Yeah, it was nice." I said truthfully, just barely noticing Dana go into the house from behind Paul.
He smiled at my answer. "Good," He said relieved.
There was barely a second of silence between us when Dana stuck her head out the front door and yelled to Paul, "Get all of your clothes! I'm going to start laundry so I can get all of her new clothes washed!"
"She thinks she's the boss or something." He grumbled rolling his eyes. I chuckled at him as we started taking the bags from the back seat, into the house.
When all the clothes were in the house, we took them to the garage and then with all the dirty clothes, took the tags off and sorted them. Dana started one load that was mostly my new clothes, for tomorrow, and we left the washer to run.
Dana was helping me set up the things I had on the dresser, and offering advice on how to organize my clothes all while Paul hovered over us. I didn't mind so much, but I could tell it irked Dana. She looked over at Paul, who was leaning against the garage door next to us. "You should go to sleep, you've got patrol in the morning." She said calmly.
Paul looked like he might have skinned Dana alive if she wasn't his mother. I became concerned hearing it though. I didn't know his patrol schedule and he didn't tell me he had to be up early in the morning, but then again, Paul doesn't tell me the things that would make me worry about him.
"Its okay, go sleep, you'll need it." I said firmly.
I growled lowly for a moment before slumping down and kissing the top of my head. "Night," He murmured and turned to leave us.
"Ahem," Dana coughed.
Paul tensed and turned slightly, just to look at her over his shoulder. "Goodnight, mother," He ground out.
"Goodnight, son," She said sweetly.
Paul started grumbling to himself, but disappeared into his room before I could make out anything he was saying.
Dana and I did two loads of laundry and folded them together on the dining room table. It was mostly my new clothes with some of Dana's and even less of Paul's, but I think he just didn't have a lot of clothes. Dana let me use some of her closet to hang up some of my nicer clothes, even though it was practically overflowing with her own clothes. It was almost midnight when Dana came out of the garage, while I was cleaning up some of the mess we had made, and started locking up the house.
"Okay, that load is drying and I'll do more tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning." Dana said surely.
I nodded. "Goodnight," I said smiling.
"Night Sweetie," She said comfortingly and disappeared into her room.
When Dana had gone, I changed from the worn jeans and shirt I was wearing and threw them away, as per her orders, and took one of the shirts Paul had given to me to sleep in. The shirt was dark and the collar had been ripped off, but it was comfortable. And it still smelled like Paul.
I took the pillow and blanket from the hall closet and settled on the couch, ready to sleep. But I couldn't. I was just feet away from Paul, my protector, in a heated house, on a very comfortable couch with a fluffy pillow and thick blanket and I still couldn't get my mind to stop buzzing.
I always thought about a lot of things, but I because I was so tired from riding my bike around or working, I didn't really linger on it too much. So I was forced to lay on the couch, completely unable to sleep. I was keenly aware of every little noise that happened around, and inside the house and it only made me anxious.
The night I was taken by the vampire, I had left the basement to use the bathroom, with Dana's permission, and when I was walking back to from the bathroom, I heard the back door make the slightest sound before I was grabbed in a flash and taken to the woods. My sleeplessness was only fueled by the fact that the door was making that same noise again.
I stayed completely frozen on the couch, barely breathing. I didn't know if there was another vampire. Or something else. But whatever was causing the noise, made me extremely nervous.
My eyes were pried open wide, staring into the darkness of the room, waiting for something to happen when the wind, which was whistling around the house, sent something at the window in the living room, making me jump and yelp.
The sound I made wasn't very loud, but it must have been loud enough for Paul to here because he came sliding out of his room. I could only make out his silhouette in the darkness, but I could tell he was frazzled because he was breathing loudly.
Seeing him standing in the hallway, looking down at me gave me a sense of relief that I wasn't ready to let go of. I got off the couch, still holding the blanket, walked over to Paul, took his hand and lead him back to his room. It was probably the boldest I've ever been in my life, but I was still worried about a vampire coming out of nowhere and kidnapping me again. I had less of an issue being so forward with one of the few people I knew could protect me.
After we got into his room, Paul shut the door while I lay down on his bed, with the blanket wrapped around me. He followed soon after, laying behind me and wrapping his arms securely around me.
"You okay?" He asked gruffly.
"I just felt like something was coming for me again." I answered as I reached out, lacing my fingers with the massive hand that was in front of me.
His arms tightened, clenching enough for me to see the lines of the muscles. "Nothing is coming near you while I'm around." He said lowly as the hand I wasn't holding, looped around my waist.
I couldn't have felt safer in Fort Knox than I did in Paul's arms. I had seen firsthand what he could do, what he could become. And even though he could still be hurt, it didn't make me feel less protected or believe him less able. It was nice to know that he was at least part human, because after what I had seen of vampires, even of Dr. Cullen, I couldn't help but feel completely inferior to them. I preferred to be as close to Paul's equal as possible.
I still wasn't very tired in Paul's freakishly warm embrace, even though I was a million-times calmer. It was nice to bask in the uninterrupted moment I had with him, not so much from outside interference, but from myself. I never had anyone care about me as much as Paul did, and it scared me a lot, because I wasn't sure if he'd always feel that way. Even with what they told me about imprinting, it was still a fear I couldn't quiet, after all, my own parents couldn't love me. So, I kept my guards up around him, as much as I could around the man that was literally my soul-mate. But with these continuous moments, catching me without my guard, it would soon be too hard for me to even pretend that I even needed to guard something.
All the thoughts of my fears and morbid possibilities made me sick to my stomach. I turned in Paul's arms, letting go of his hand so I could. I faced his bare, perfectly sculpted chest and buried my nose just under his collar bone. I felt his fingers slip through my hair as he let his face fall into the crook of my neck and he held me close to him. In that moment, even with all my paranoia and fear, I was the happiest I had been in all my life, just laying in the dark with the man-beast, that was Paul.
AN: Review!