Chapter Three: Eyes in the Night
God dammit.
My leg was on fire! I ended up walking/hopping/limping all the way to La Push Beach. I know I wanted to meet Seth here, but I was seriously considering what the hell was wrong with me. Maybe I was some kind of masochist. I couldn't ask for a ride because they never would have let me out this late. I'm sure they know I left, though. I mean how could they not? If they didn't, they're terrible vampires. Even if my let wasn't wounded, and I hadn't made a lot of noise, they would have noticed the silence without my heartbeat.
I was almost there. The heavy scent of salt water was overpowering now. I could make it. Just a couple more minutes of walking. At least I hope so. I could just make out the break in the tree line where the forest ended and the beach began. If only I could just…
"You sure do make a lot of noise!" Seth laughs. I jump higher than any human could and land on my bad leg…again… Man, tonight is just not my night.
"Shit, Seth! Don't do that! How many times do I have to tell you, huh?!" I say rubbing my shin gently. He does this a lot. Sneaks up on me, I mean. I never can tell if he does it intentionally or not.
Knowing him, it's probably intentional. Asshole. I scowl at him.
"Sorry, sorry!" He puts his hands out in front of him as if to say 'Calm down, I didn't mean to.' Yeah, right. "I heard about your accident," he smirks.
Great. Now he's a pretentious ass. "Yeah, it's fantastic, isn't it? I take it Jake called."
"Nah, I came over for some of Esme's food, but everyone was fawning over you, the princess. Not that I wasn't worried, but, ya know, I knew you'd be fine."
"Pig… Does anyone know you're here?"
"Nah. Mom's at Charlie's. Wonder what they're doing," he elbows me and wiggles his eyebrows.
"You perv! That's disgusting! That's my grandpa you're talking about, you know!" I slap his arm, but I still smile. I love this boy. "And Leah?"
"Jake called. Needed to talk. I was all like 'To her? Seriously? She's no better than a rock when it comes to talking. Emotional unavailable, if ya know what I mean.' and he's all like 'Yeah, she gets it. You're too close to Ness. Too bias.' I was like 'Whatever, man' Leah left a couple seconds later."
"Kay. Good." Except for the fact that I was worried about how much I had hurt Jake tonight. Oh, well. Too late now.
"C'mon, let's go to the beach."
"My leg…" he sweeps me up.
"Not a problem. You're knight in shining armor to the rescue, M'lady. Besides, Jake's gonna freak when he finds out I let you come all the way here with that thing. The least I could do is take care of ya until I get ya home." I laugh at his words. He's right, though. Jake's gonna murder him. I'll have to intervene probably to save Seth's skin.
Seth's been my best friend, besides Jake, forever. He's the only person I can talk to about Jake. The only weird things that I don't think I'll get used to are:
Seth's also best friends with my dad. Whenever we all hang out my dad is like a normal teenager. It's just weird.
Whatever I tell Seth gets back to Jake. Which I obviously don't mind or else I wouldn't tell him, but I can't get used to Jake bringing something up about what I tell Seth. It always catches me off guard. The whole wolf telepathic thing always makes me feel out of the loop, too. They know everything about each other and all these inside jokes. It pisses me off.
He sets me down on one of the logs that border the fire pit where they have tribe meetings. "Sooo, what's up?"
"Oh, Seth," my head falls into my hands, "Jake- he's just- with his_" I can't find the right words. The next thing I know, I'm sobbing into Seth's chest. His warm hands rubbing my back make me shiver in the cool air.
Great. This is a new record. Twice in one day. Seriously, what is wrong with me? I'm officially someone I wouldn't want to be friends with.
The tears eventually stop and my head rests on Seth's bare shoulder. I lift my head and stare at him.
"What?"
"Where's your shirt?" I'm getting tired of them always going around shirtless. I mean I know they look like models, but really? They're still civilians and normal people see them all the time. They are pretty sexy though… No, no! I'm so not going there right now. Especially with Jake. I'm just not thinking about that, or trying not to at least. They're my friends.
"Ya know for being such a tough little…" he punches my shoulder but doesn't finish when he sees my face.
I clear my throat, "Yes?"
"Mfmhem"
"What?" I cup my ear and lean closer.
"…You're pretty innocent…" he finishes in a whisper.
"What the hell are you talking about? I'm not innocent! I drink blood for heaven's sake! How innocent can I be?"
"Yeah, but you've never had the temptation of human blood because you were raised on animal blood."
"So? That means I'm innocent?"
"Have you ever even kissed a boy, let alone fooled around? How about done something illegal? You're so innocent, girl, it's scary."
"I…um…well,"
"Didn't think so."
He jumped up and strutted a few steps toward the ocean. I could barely see him in the blackness of the night. He was taking deep breaths, trying to calm down. He got a little too upset in my opinion.
"You just love to argue, don't cha?" he spoke softly as if talking to a newborn.
I shrugged my shoulders even though I know he's facing away from me. Just then, through the silence of the night, I heard a girl scream bloody murder.
My head whipped towards the forest, sending shooting pains down my neck and through my tongue. Dammit. Whiplash. I could hear Seth running and saying "Stay here!" before I saw him run past me and into the forest.
I'm fucking worried now. Fantastic. All I can hope is that the other wolves are out there with Seth, but then that would mean Jake will find out I'm here. Even though he's probably mad at me, he'll still come and take me home.
I start to shake when I realize that I'm not alone. The presence isn't that of any of the wolves or vampires. This is something foreign to my heightened senses. This wouldn't be a problem except that my leg is broken. Great. I couldn't be any more helpless if someone bashed me over the head with a brick.
I'm clutching my arms to my torso, trying to get warm. I glance back towards the forest, hoping that I'll see Seth, or hell, even a furiously pissed off Jacob.
Instead, I find myself staring at a pair of big blood-red eyes.
I freeze. They're just looking at me, but aren't coming past the tree line. So, I don't know who or what the eyes belong to.
"Renesmee?!" I can hear Seth crashing through the trees.
The thing just disappears as suddenly as it appeared into the night I never answer Seth, but I can hear him becoming more frantic and calling my name over and over. I just keep staring at the spot where I saw the eyes.
Out of my peripheral vision, I see Seth come sprinting out of the forest. He slows when he sees me. "Renesmee…? Are you okay?" He moves cautiously towards me as if I'm a wild animal that could run at any second.
"What was it?"
"I don't know. I never found anything. Then I started to wonder if it was a distraction, but then I thought about it. The only one out here was me and… you. I started to freak, but you're okay! Thank God, you're okay! Hey! Why didn't you answer me? You can't do that! You ne-"
"It was a distraction, Seth," I cut him off and look towards his face. His mouth is open, and shock is all over his face.
He starts to say something, but closes his mouth. His expression has turned to a questioning look. I know he's waiting for an explanation, so I take a dee breath.
"I need to talk to you about why I asked you here, first."
"That's hardly important now, I think." He looks stern. Seth never looks stern. He's always been a happy, fun-loving kid, but now he's all business.
"Maybe, but I need to talk to Seth," I plead and give him my best Bambi eyes.
His shoulders sag. "Alright, make it fast. I wanna get you outta here."
"I can't do it anymore, Seth." I begin to cry again and pull my knees to my chest.
"Okay… What are you talking about?" He's squatting next to me now.
"Jake's dying, and I don't think I can stay strong anymore. I feel so helpless. It doesn't help that recently he's been acting like he loves me, either."
"He does love you."
"No, not in the way you're talking about but, like, more than friends."
"Oh," Seth runs his hands through his hair. "Do you… Is that a bad thing?"
"It is if he's dying! I never really thought about us as more than friends, but I can't now because…because there's only two months that I have left with him…approximately. If I go down that road, and I do love him like that and I lose him… I won't be able to come back from that." I swipe my hands under my eyes. "I can't lose him, Seth."
Seth doesn't say anything. He just kisses my head and hugs me.
"Please don't bring me back home," I beg.
"How about you spend the night at my house, or if you prefer, Em's?"4
As much as I love Emily, one of Jacob and Seth's "brother's" fiancées, I know she'll ask about Sonny and I can't face that issue just yet. She's the only person I've told about my new inadvertent gang affiliations. "Your place, if you don't mind."
Seth picks me up, and we walk to his about thirty minutes away. Once we get there, I call Carlisle from the kitchen phone and tell him I'm staying at Seth's. Seth and I then proceed to his living room.
To get there, you have to turn a corner a little ways down the hall from the kitchen. When I make that turn, I slam right into Paul's back. I bounce off of him because he's like a freaking wall and look around.
I don't actually get the chance to, though, because someone grabs my arm and spins me around. At first he looks kinda curious but only for a second. He soon is practically smoking from the ears, he's so pissed.
He's staring straight at me but talks to Seth. "If she's here, then you walked through the woods. Neither you nor her have a driver's license, let alone a car."
"Yeah," Seth says guiltily while looking at his feet. Coward.
"What the fuck are you doing by letting her walk through the woods alone 'cause I know you didn't walk her from her house."
"We met at L.P. She wanted to talk."
He still has a tight grip on my arm. "What the fuck are you doing here, Renesmee?" Jake spat in my face.