AN: I do not own the vampires or the wolf pack (though, I wish I did). Sadly, they belong to Stephanie Meyer.
I don't even own Trisha, Ethan, David, Taylor, or any of the other wolf kids. They belong to yay4shanghai. She's just letting me borrow them for a little while.
I do, however, own a "Jasper Hale: Smoother than You Since 1843" button.
This is a bit of a spin-off from the last chapter ("Genitalia") of yay4shanghai's A Fun and Easy Way to Go Down a Dress Size. If you haven't read it or it's accompanying story Enough With the Gravity Moving Already, you need to! And I am very fortunate that she reads all of my stuff before I publish. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
This is my first FanFiction story, so please review and be gentle!
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Chapter 2: "Why It Should Have Been Ethan: The Early Years"
I curled myself up in the backseat, biting my bottom lip, trying to remember to breath. Dad turned back to me and smiled, patting me on my knee. I didn't smile back. I didn't even entirely meet his eyes. "Congratulations," Dad said, sweetly, proudly, confidently. I heard Mom grunt and decided it was best to keep my mouth and eyes shut until we got home. I wanted to be left alone. Well, not alone. I wanted Ethan. I needed Ethan.
Ethan and I's relationship is as old as me, it's just taken different names and appearances over the years. We spent our early childhood, from my birth until I was about three-years old, as playmates. Because our moms were close friends, everyday was spent together, whether we were at each other's houses or at the beach in La Push. Just a year older than myself, he was like a big brother to me. Ethan was my protector and I was his shadow, following him anywhere he went. He was always patient with me and we shared everything. We even got chicken pox at the same time, followed by identical pink calamine lotion faces.
As we grew, our friendship did too. We spent every weekend together, having the best sleepovers, complete with Superman movies and smores. (To this day, I can't eat a smore without thinking of Ethan.) On my seventh birthday, Ethan kissed me for the first time. It wasn't much of a kiss, just a soft peck on the lips, interrupted by his annoying little brother, Taylor, who was immediately chased out of the room and left to "play with the Uley twins." ("Playing" with the Uley twins, David and Mark, usually meant wrestling matches, of which no one but them won. Ever. Even today, when someone threatens to make you "play with the Uley twins," you run.) We shared two more innocent little kisses, but they meant so much more to me. Being the naïve child I was, I was positive that meant we were getting married and was convinced, because we had kissed, that we would be having a baby. I walked around for a week with a pillow under my shirt before anyone asked me what the hell I was doing. That brave soul happened to be Grandpa Billy.
"Good morning, Grandpa Billy. Good morning, Charlie," I said, as I waddled into the Black family kitchen.
Billy and Charlie glanced at each other, utterly confused, before Billy looked at me, cocking his head to the side, and scratching his head, obviously deep in thought, before sighing, "Baby girl, why do you have a pillow under your shirt?"
I gave him a toothless grin, having just lost my two front teeth, and said, "I'm getting ready for the baby."
Grandpa Billy scrunched his face, "what baby?" He sounded a little panicked, probably thinking Mom and Dad were expecting another little pup.
I giggled, "Ethan and me's baby. We kissed and now we're getting married and having a baby." I patted the pillow, smiling, before continuing with my story, "I think it will be a baby boy. What do you think, Grandpa?"
Charlie squirmed in his seat, covering his mouth, trying to keep from laughing, as Grandpa Billy pulled me up into his lap. "Trisha, has your mommy talked to you about where babies come from?"
"No, but I saw Aunt Kim and Uncle Jared kiss, and then they had baby Amber. Remember, Grandpa?" Grandpa Billy then proceeded to tell me that babies didn't come from kissing, but he wasn't telling me where they came from, and that if he heard of that "Wahalla brat" ever "violating" his granddaughter again, he would have Charlie take Ethan to jail. Well, that was enough to scare me away from kissing for at least four years!
Even without kissing, my love and admiration for Ethan never wavered. And, at the age of 11, I, well, I started noticing things about him, things that made me blush. Like the twinkle he would get in his eyes as Grandpa Billy and Sam told the legends at the bonfires. Or the way he smiled as his heart swelled, hugging Amber to his chest after rescuing her kitten from the tree in their front yard. Those innocent things made me blush because more than anything, they were glimpses into his soul, things other girls probably saw as minute details to a "hunky beef-cake" (A phrase I learned from Aunt Leah). I was changing, too. I was no longer the little sister who needed protecting and did whatever he wanted. I was my own pre-teen woman, determined to make my place in the world. I think Ethan liked that about me. Before long, people started talking about Ethan and me. It didn't bother me at first, but then my family joined in. At one of the bonfires, I couldn't quick looking at Ethan, as he followed his dad around, like (pardon the pun) a little lost puppy, hanging on every word Jared said. I wasn't really paying attention to anything else, until I heard Uncle Jake say, "Is it my imagination or is Trisha completely in love with Ethan? She looks like she's undressing him with her eyes. And when he talks, it's like she stops breathing."
Daddy snarled, while Mom responded by smacking Jake on the head, "Jake, she's 11! Please!" I don't think any of them knew I had heard them, and I, being the great actress that I am, played it off. That is, until the words and thoughts and feelings kept replaying in my head. Was I "in love" with Ethan? I knew that I loved him, but being "in love" was different. I didn't think about anything else that night. Even as the dinner was served and legends were told, my mind never closed from the thoughts of Ethan. I thought about how it made me feel to see him smile or laugh, or how I usually knew what flavor of ice cream he wanted before he knew, or that, even on my worst days at school, his polite "Hi Trisha!" in the cafeteria, as he sat next to me, made all the horribleness fade away. And those small trivial things gave me my answer. Right in the middle of Sam's part of the legends, a lightbulb went off. I WAS IN LOVE WITH ETHAN! I stood up off the log I was sitting on and forcefully yelled, "I am!" Well, of course, no one else knew what the hell I was doing, so again, I acted and said, "I am going to get another soda! Anyone else want anything!" Everyone stared at me, as my eyes got big and I stumbled to the drinks. I felt someone behind me, unsure of who it was.
The person spoke, asking, "What was that all about?" It was Ethan. I smiled and turned around.
"A lightbulb just went off," I said.
"Okay, whatever, Trisha. You know, sometimes I really worry about you," he sighed, shaking his head, "Walk down to the shore with me."
"Why? So I can mess up my new Converse," I said, innocently flirting.
"No, I really want to try to see this kick-ass constellation, and we can't do it with all this light around," Ethan said.
"Oh, yes, the bonfire outshines the stars in the heavens!" I said, looking as Ethan started to pout, "Fine, you big baby! It's not like I haven't heard this legend about a gabillion times, anyway."
He grabbed my hand and smiled, walking me farther away from the bonfire. I closed my eyes, taking in the scent of the ocean and then feeling Ethan stop walking.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Trisha, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course," I said rolling my eyes slightly.
"Well, I've been thinking about when we were younger, and thinking how we did everything together, and I was remembering those times we kissed," he said, so matter-of-fact. Oh, shit, where could this possibly be going? I nodded for him to continue. "Do you think it would different to kiss now? You know, since we're older."
I thought about what I should say, but I couldn't say anything. I took a deep breath, licking my lips, pooling all my courage, and said the craziest thing, "We could find out."
No sooner had the words come out of my mouth than his lips were on mine. I closed my eyes and stood on my tip toes, admiring his recent growth spurt, slowly putting my arms around his neck. He pulled me close to him, as we both moved our mouths, neither one really knowing what we were doing. I could feel the need for oxygen, but there was no way I was letting him go. Eventually, after who knows how long, we both pulled away. I didn't let go of his neck, couldn't, wouldn't let him go. He smiled down at me and kissed my forehead. Now, I have been kissed on the forehead many times, from men ranging from Uncle Jake to Charlie Swan, but Ethan's kiss was different. It was like fire, and I almost wondered if or hoped that there would be a mark left where his lips had touched. He hugged me closer whispering in my ear, "I like you, Trisha. I really, really like you. I like like you."
I smiled so big, my cheeks hurt, and pulled away to look in his eyes. "I like like you too!" He pulled me back to his chest and ran his hands along my back until we heard it, the giggles.
"Ethan, what was that?" I asked, a little worried.
"Whose there?" he asked, holding my hand and pulling me back towards the bonfire.
"Ooh, I like like you, Trisha," David Uley said, doing a high-pitch impression of Ethan, making kissing sounds, and coming from behind a rock with Taylor and Mark in tow.
The three boys fell on the sandy beach, rolling and cackling until several of the wolf dads came to find out the source of the commotion.
"What's going on over here?" Jared asked, a slight smile on his face. I let go of Ethan's hand, as my dad and Uncle Jake followed him.
"Why don't you ask, Kissy McKisserson, and her boyfriend, the Duke of Face Sucking?" David said, still laughing but with a proud look on his face. I was secretly wondering how long he'd been holding on to the little insult, waiting for the time to use it, because I knew there was no way in hell he thought it up himself.
"Who the hell's kissing my daughter?!" Daddy said through gritted teeth, "huh, who is it?"
He pushed his chest out, looking ready to phase and attack as soon as the culprit was identified.
"Daddy," I said, doing the doe-eyed, pouty-lip thing, "David doesn't know what he's saying. Right, Mark? Right, Taylor?" Those two boys knew not fuck with me or the short-tempered Paul Wise.
"Yeah, Uncle Paul. No clue what David's talking about. Uh-huh, crazy, crazy, crazy," Taylor said running off to Kim.
"Mark?" Daddy looked at him with questioning eyes.
"I do believe that David is mistaken. I don't recall seeing any 'face sucking,'" Mark said, actually making the quote signs with his fingers, as I watched David trying to figure out several of the words Mark used in his explanation.
Daddy huffed, walking back towards the bonfire. We all followed. I didn't hold Ethan's hand again that night. I didn't hold it again for a long time. As soon as we walked off, the wolf-boys started teasing him about our "special friendship." I saw the look on Ethan's face and knew that things weren't going to be like I expected them to be. I thought we would be able to hold hands and talk on the phone for hours. None of that happened. The next day, Saturday, Mom and Dad had everyone over for a barbeque. I spent extra time fixing my hair, picking out my clothes, hell, I even put on lip gloss. When I walked into the kitchen, the wolf-girls smiled and giggled, knowing my target.
"Where are the boys?" I asked, really only interested in knowing where Ethan was.
"Out back, sweetie," Emily said.
"Go get 'em, tiger," Kim winked, as she stirred the lemonade.
I put my head down, walking out the back door, into a brickwall of tall, copper-skinned men: Uncle Jake, Daddy, and Sam.
"Hey Trisha! You sure look pretty today," Sam said, jabbing Daddy in the side with his elbow.
"Thank you, Sam," I politely answered, skipping to where the boys were.
I watched them for a minute, climbing the tree, pretending to fight vampires.
"Hey guys!" I said, walking up to the tree, putting my foot on the first branch, ready to join them.
"No girls allowed!" Taylor spat in my face.
I could tell the men behind us had lowered their conversations to a lull, hoping to hear the strange interaction between us. I stood there for a second, looking at each of the older boys' faces, waiting for one of them to intercede on my behalf. I looked at Ethan, almost begging him to do something, anything. He looked away. So, I thought, this is how it's going to be. The boy that I was madly in love with, that had told me he "like liked me" just last night, couldn't even look at me.
"Okay, no big deal," I said as I put my head back down, walking back to the house, past the sea of tanned men, who were still speaking only at a whisper. I opened the kitchen door, trying to run to my bedroom before anyone saw the tears in my eyes. I almost made it, too, but Kim stopped me, saying, "Sweetie, it's going to be okay. They're just silly boys right now."
But I knew it wouldn't be okay, at least not for awhile, because Ethan had more than just hurt my feelings. The boy that I thought I loved, suddenly had me questioning every aspect of "love." I decided, that for my own mental health, I was not in love with him, that way his rejection didn't hurt so bad.
*NEXT CHAPTER: "Why It Should Have Been Ethan: The Later Years"