I have a heavenly, blissful shower and then once I'm dressed I march downstairs and into the kitchen. Mom and Seth are sitting there, and so is Quil. Doesn't he ever freaking well leave?
"Hello Leah." yawns Seth.
"So," I say, eyes flashing dangerously. "Lizzie told me something pretty interesting upstairs."
Seth gulps audibly.
"Oh yes?" Mom asks nervously.
"Oh, yes." I hiss.
"Nothing, er, bad I hope?" says Quil, sounding suspiciously close to laughter.
"Quil. Out. Now" I snap. "This has nothing to do with you."
He walks out and I turn back to Mom and Seth. Out of the corner of my eye I see him give Seth a thumbs up.
"You kept tabs on me?!" I burst out. "You made bets on me and Joel?!"
"Er…I didn't make bets." says Seth, raising a hand. "Can I leave?"
"No!" I snarl. "Why the hell did you do that?"
"Because we care about you sweetie." Says Mom. "So, we decided to work together to get you together."
I raise an eyebrow. "Oh really?" I say sarcastically. "Well, thanks it worked really well!"
I storm out. I can't believe them! The nerve! Like I'm such an incompetent fool that I'm incapable of actually getting together with the guy I love…even though I didn't know that I loved him…
I slam the lounge door open. Joel is sitting there, reading.
"Did you know they were all making bets on us?" I yell.
Joel nodded absently, flicks over a page.
"What?" I gasp. "You knew? And you didn't tell me?"
Joel looks up at last. "Well, I knew that if I told you you'd freak out and go crazy." He grins. "Come on Leah, it's no biggie. You look shattered though, why don't you go to sleep?"
I glare at him for a moment, but I think that if I don't go to sleep now I'm going to just pass out standing up so I sigh, resigned, and lie down on the sofa. I am exhausted. I haven't been sleeping so well recently and starting a vampire vs. werewolf war and discovering I'm in love with my best friend and all really takes it out of you.
I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the cushion. I dream that I'm at a swimming pool and I'm sitting on the edge, watching people playing volleyball with a pineapple. Then Lizzie, Embry, Joel and Seth are in team and they want me to join them because they have to use their noses to pass an orange around the pool but I refuse…
Everything changes. I'm walking down corridors. It's all black. It looks like my high school. I walk into a room and Joel is tied to a chair. I run forward to untie him but I am blasted back against the wall. In front of me there is a tall dark haired man, with vivid scarlet eyes. He looks familiar, but I can't place him. It is only as he jumps and I sit bolt upright, panting and trying to catch my breath that I realise that it's Toby.
"Leah?"
Joel is looking at me worriedly. I take a deep breath to calm myself and push my tangled hair out of my eyes.
"Are you OK?" he asks.
"I'm fine." I say tiredly. "Just a bad dream that's all." I swivel my legs over the side of the couch and throw off the blanket that someone-presumably Joel- put on me and stand up. I make my way out and call back "I just need some air."
When I open the back door I notice that my hands are still shaking.
"God, its freezing." shivers Joel from behind me. I smile. I'm fine.
"Come on you big girl." I taunt. "It's not that cold."
"Are you kidding me?" replies Joel. "It's freezing. How come you're not cold? Are you trying to make me look pathetic?"
"Nope." I shrug. "It's a wolf thing. My body temperatures like 108 degrees. All the time, spring, summer, winter or autumn."
Joel looks at me oddly.
"What?" I say, self-conscious. He gives a small snort of laughter.
"You so strange." He says affectionately, disappearing back into the house. I'm still feeling weird after my stupid dream so I stay outside.
Our back yard has a small patio than a rather overgrown lawn and a fence at the very end. I've jumped over that fence more times than I care to count. It got easier, much much easier once I had my growth spurt. I was pretty short before; about 5; 4 but then I had my weird werewolf growth spurt. I'm like 6; 1 now. I grew seven inches when I was nineteen. It was so quick as well, not even a gradual growth…no wonder I'm messed up.
Joel clatters outside again. He is so loud. He's carrying a blanket rolled up under his arms, a half empty bottle of wine and two glasses. Of course.
"We drink far too much, you know." I tell him. He grins.
I realise that I'm actually at the fence. I didn't notice that I was walking down there.
Joel drops the rug down in the middle of the grass and kicks it open. He plonks himself down and pats the space next to him, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Come and keep me warm then, wolf girl."
I slowly walk over to him, with a slight smile on my face. I kneel in front of him, lean forward slightly and then press my hands on either side of his face.
Joel pulls back and says "God, you're hot!"
"Thanks." I smile, changing my position so that I'm lying flat on my back. Joel shuffles around, then lies down and wraps his arms around me, so that my head is lying on his chest. He shivers again and pulls me closer.
We lie still and quiet for a moment. I feel my eyelids droop and then close.
"Don't you just love the stars?" mumbles Joel. I nod drowsily then look up properly. There's millions of twinkling little lights up there. So many of them. I change my mind.
"No, actually I don't." I reply.
"How come?" says Joel, sitting up and dragging me up with him.
"They make me feel small." I say simply. "Insignificant. Like I don't feel insignificant enough on a daily basis. I mean, I don't need some stupid dots in the sky to make me feel like that too."
Joel smiles slightly. "But don't you think it's amazing? All that space and then the stars looking down on us….smiling at us…"
"Are you stoned?" I demand and he laughs. "Seriously Joel, you are so weird."
"Oh, OK, you burst out of your clothes and into a giant dog, but I'm the weird one." He says. "Hmm, yeah that makes sense."
"I'm not the one who thinks that the stars give a damn about us." I remind him.
"Lizzie thinks that there's aliens out there though." He says. "I'm not that odd."
I look at him. "Well there probably is, let's face it." I say fairly. "I never used to believe in anything like that, but then…" I trail off.
Joel pours a glass of wine for me. As he pours one for himself I watch him.
"What?" he asks curiously.
"Nothing." I say hastily, embarrassed that hecuaght me staring. Instead of looking at him I glance up.
"Oh my god, look!" Joel points to the sky. "A shooting star!"
In a stunned silence we watch its progress. I notice out of the corner of my eye that Joel's head has turned and he's looking at me. I turn my own head to face him.
"Did you make a wish?" I breathe. He nods. "What was it?" I ask.
"Well, if I tell you it won't come true." He teases, looking deep into my eyes. His are a dark brown with flecks of yellow in them.
"Did you know," he whispers "that when there's a shooting star it means a person has found their soul mate?"
"Oh really?" I mean to scoff, but it's ruined slightly by the proximity of his lips.
He leans forward and gives me a butterfly kiss, so light I could have imagined it.
"Oh fuck it." He mutters under his breath and pulls me into a passionate kiss.
After several minutes we break apart, both realising how impractical, not to mention highly embarrassing it would be if we got carried away.
We lie back down and I close my eyes again. I'm so tired.
The last thought I have before I fall asleep is to vow that we will both survive this.