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The Flower Called Azalea

5. You're Crazy

Jake POV

I walked down to the beach conflicted. I was concerned about Bella. I was happy that she wanted to stay with me. I was angry at Azalea for hating Bella. I was angry at Azalea for trying to tell me that Quil and Embry were angry at me, too. I was worried that they actually were.

When I finally neared the beach, I saw Quil and Embry hanging around Sam, Jared, and Paul. That made my blood boil. We'd always hated those guys; what were they doing with them now?

Sam caught sight of me first and pointed me out to Quil and Embry who then turned around. Once the recognized that it was me, their eyes flashed and they glared holes into my skull. They looked about ready to castrate me, burn my dick and make me watch, and then force me to drink gasoline and eat a burning match. Wow. This coming from my best friends. I guess they really were mad at me.

I wasn't so sure I wanted to talk to them anymore…. They'd already seen me, though. I couldn't turn back now. So I held my head up high and sauntered toward them.

They met me halfway and Embry pushed me back roughly.

"What the fuck do you want, Black?" he spat.

"Whoa, Embry. A little touchy are we?" I asked sarcastically and Quil then punched my arm. Hard.

"Ow! Dude! What the hell was that for?" I looked at Quil accusingly.

Then Embry decided that he wanted to punch me, too. He hit my other arm. Harder than Quil.

"Fuck!" I yelled. "Are you guys done? Why are you hitting me?"

"That was for hurting my sister, you fucktard," Embry growled.

Quil hit me again. "And that was for hurting my best friend who's like a sister," he snarled.

I took a step back, but they only advanced on me. "What the hell is your guys' problem? She'll get over it! Every time she's mad at me, she gets over it. Fast."

Embry moved so he was standing right in front of me. Dang, when did he get like six inches taller than me? "You don't get it do you?"

"Get what?" I asked. I was seriously confused now.

"We all know that you like her. No, wait-that you're in love with her."

"What?" I asked, confusion and disbelief forming my expression. "What are you talking about?"

He chuckled once in disbelief and turned to Quil. "He doesn't even realize how he feels about her." He then turned to me. "I bet it's just killing you inside that she doesn't want to see you or be around you, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. "We all know that you're in love with her. It's so obvious every time you look at her."

"Well yeah, it hurts that she doesn't want to be around me. I mean, she's my best friend for crying out loud! And yes, I love her. She's like my sister!" I tried to reason with them. This whole thing about me being in love with my best friend was ridiculous. I mean, I loved her, but not like that.

… Did I?

No. It just wasn't possible. I was in love with Bella. Azalea was just my best friend. Nothing more. And she never would be.

"Oh my god!" Quil exclaimed. "How is it possible for someone to be this dense? Dude! You're in love with her!"

"You guys are crazy," I told them. "I'm in love with Isabella Swan, not Azalea Call, my best friend."

They began to quake with anger, and Sam rushed over to us to get them to calm down.

I ended up returning home with multiple bruises in various places and a black eye. Nothing too bad. After seeing the look in their eyes when they first saw me, I was expecting something much worse. But damn! They'd gotten strong!

Bella saw me and immediately jumped up and started fretting over my battle scars.

"Oh my god! Jake! What happened to you? Did Quil and Embry do this to you?"

I nodded and winced as her hand ran over a tender spot on my arm. Where Quil had punched me twice.

She pulled back immediately. "Sorry," she whispered.

"It's okay. I'll be fine. I'm tough," I chuckled.

She gave me a small smile and said, "Yes, you are." She wrapped her arms around my waist lightly, afraid of further hurting me, but I pulled her to me tightly.

I sighed. This was where I wanted to be. If this was what I got after getting beaten up, I should anger Quil and Embry more often.

Azalea POV

A few weeks later, when Embry and Quil walked in, I was once again watching television. Though this time, I was actually paying attention. The local news was on, and there was some story about giant bears killing hikers in the woods around here.

Bullshit.

I knew what it was, and that wasn't it. First of all, they were referring to wolves, not bears, and second of all, the wolves weren't killing anyone. Vampires were. After Embry returned from his first training session, he explained the whole vampire-werewolf thing to me. And the fact that all this stuff was in the legends helped me to know the truth.

"What's goin' on, li'l sis?" Embry asked as he landed on the couch to my right and Quil to my left.

"Reporters think you guys are killing hikers in the local forests," I told them. "The police are going hunting for giant bears."

They started laughing. "Bears? They think we're bears?" Quil asked.

I nodded. "Yup. And they intend on killing you to mount your heads on the wall, and use your fur as a rug," I started making stuff up.

Embry pushed me lightly and started laughing. "Yeah, right." He suddenly turned serious. "They should really stay out of the forests unless they want to find out what's really killing all those people, in which case, they'll never get to tell the story."

"Have you guys found her yet?" I asked, referring to the redheaded leech roaming our land and the Forks vegetation.

"We keep finding her, but she keeps getting away every time we get close," Quil answered.

I shook my head in disappointment. "You guys really need to step up your game."

"Yeah, we know. It's just frustrating. None of us are fast enough to catch her," Embry glared at nothing.

I was about to speak, but stopped myself, for fear of revealing something that I really didn't want them to know. So instead, I switched to comforting, patronizing sister. "You'll get her," I patted Embry on the shoulder and stood up. "You guys want anything to eat?" I asked.

That cheered them up and they were immediately shouting out various food items that they wanted to eat. I laughed and started preparing a very large dinner.

"Sam, I don't want you telling anybody! I'm serious! I don't even want my brother to know! I'll patrol and do rounds, I just don't want anyone else with me. I mean, unless it's you, since you already know," I pleaded.

"Azalea, why don't you want them to know?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Because! Quil's like my brother, and Embry is my brother. If they found out about this, they'd go so crazy trying to protect me, they'd forget about the task at hand," I explained.

"You know they're going to find out sooner or later," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'd rather it be later than sooner. And plus, you can control your thoughts with the pack. If I told either of them, they wouldn't be able to control their thoughts and then the entire pack would know. Then everybody would go crazy trying to protect me."

"You're going to need someone with you when you patrol."

"I know! That's why I think it should be you. I mean, I'm faster than any of the other wolves, right?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"And you're the alpha. So, I could catch her, and have you come in and help me kill her."

He was shaking his head before I finished. "It's not that simple, Z."

"Why not?" I asked. "It could be that simple!"

"You're also the smallest." I saw that he wasn't going to budge on that.

"Whatever, just please. Don't tell anybody."

He sighed. "Alright. I will do my best to keep you out of my thoughts while I'm in wolf form with any of the other guys."

"Thank you," I sighed and hugged him gratefully. "Oh, and I'm not getting the tattoo," I laughed.

"Z, you too?" I heard an incredulous voice behind me and turned to face Jake.

Jake POV

"Z, you too?" I asked incredulously as I saw her in the arms of Sam Uley. Gah! What was it with this guy stealing all my friends?

You drove them away, you idiot. My thoughts were seriously getting on my nerves. …Even though it was true.

She turned around with hard eyes. She must've seen the hurt and confusion in my gaze because her expression softened for just a tiny moment before hardening again.

"What do you want?" She asked harshly.

"What, now you're all buddy-buddy with Sam, too?" I retorted rudely.

"Yeah, what's it to you?"

I was about to say something, but it was as if my harsh words could not lash out at her. My face fell and my voice grew quiet. "I just miss you, that's all. We never hang out anymore."

She grunted at my statement. "You should've thought about that before you chose Bella over us."

"So you're going to hold it against me for having other friends?" I asked angrily.

Sam chose then to interject. "Jacob, they can't be around you. It's not safe."

"Not safe for who? Me or them? And don't tell them what they can and can't do. You're not the boss of them, Sam Uley," I sneered his name. "You're not even a fucking elder."

"Jake, leave him alone. You don't know anything about him. Or us anymore, for that matter," Azalea said and her last sentence stung worse than any physical blow could've.

"Fine," I said. "But don't come crying to me when you get bored with your new friends," I told her as I began to walk away.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to be best friends. Always there for each other. Granted, I'd been lacking on my end of that rule lately, but was that really enough to drive away sixteen years of such a strong friendship?

I guess so.

I guess we weren't as strong as I once thought.

I walked back home and into my garage to be met with one of my favorite sights. Bella was waiting for me by our newly finished bikes. We were going to ride them today.

"Jake," she smiled, and my day became ten times better.

Azalea POV

After Jake walked away, I felt like I really needed to just let loose and run. I normally only did this late at night when nobody else was in wolf form, but I needed this. I turned to Sam.

"Can you check to see if anyone else is phased right now? I need to run."

He nodded and ran into the tree cover to phase. I heard a growl come from his direction, so I walked toward him. When I reached the tree line, he was just phased back, buttoning his shorts.

"It's all clear. Just come over to my place when you're done so I know that it'll be alright to phase. If anything happens while you're out there, howl. Understood?" he asked.

I nodded my head. "Extremely. Thank you so much, Sam."

He hugged me. "You're welcome, Z. You're like a sister to me, as well. And I don't want anything happening to you. So just be careful."

I nodded again and walked a bit deeper into the woods. I pulled off my sports bra and shorts and tied them to my ankle and then phased. It was still such a foreign feeling. It was weird at first, because it didn't even hurt me like it'd hurt the rest of the pack.

I ran.

I pushed myself as fast as I could go and I charged through the forest, reveling in the feel of the wind on my face, and the leaves brushing my fur as I blurred past them.

When I heard voices, I stopped and walked slowly toward them. Peering out through the trees, but trying to stay hidden, I saw Jake and Bella. Bella looked as if she had fallen off her bike and rammed into the rock that was right next to her.

"You're apologizing for bleeding?" Jake asked her, looking confused. I was trying to tear myself away from this, I really didn't need to hurt myself any more. After that confrontation with him earlier today, I felt like my heart had been ripped out again, but this time, it was like I did it to myself.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she replied quietly. I couldn't look away. It was one of those things where you couldn't watch, but you, honest to god, could not look away. Like you wanted to see what would happen.

"Well it's no big deal, Bella. It's just blood." And with that, he stood up and peeled his shirt off, crumpled it up and held it to her forehead.

He was definitely going to phase soon, unfortunately. His body was sculpted more than any of the other wolves. His biceps were bulging and he had an eight-pack.

"You know, you're sort of beautiful," Bella mumbled.

He looked like he was about to laugh, but thought better of it. "How hard did you hit your head?"

I couldn't tear my eyes away from his torso. Though I didn't really want to, I knew I had to. But my body had other plans. I slowly took a step forward against my will and a twig snapped under my paw.

Jake's head snapped up and before he could get a good look at me, I was gone. I ran back to the beach as quickly as I could. When the trees began to thin out, I phased back, pulled on my shorts and sports bra, and ran to Sam's house.

Jake POV

I held my balled up shirt to Bella's forehead to try and stop the bleeding and heard a twig snap in the woods behind her. I looked up and saw a blur of what looked like white and brown fur. Weird. I didn't understand it, and I was pretty positive I didn't want to, so I returned my attention to Bella and helped her up.

"I'm going to go again," she said and started heading for the bike.

"No," I stopped her. "No more bike. I think one head injury is enough for today. Let's get you home."

"I feel fine," she argued.

"That may be, but you don't look fine. Come on," I said and pulled her with me to the truck.

Azalea POV

This was bad. I couldn't shake the feeling that he saw me. When I walked into Sam's house, the rest of the pack was there. They all looked up at me and greeted me happily.

"Hey, guys," I smiled.

Sam nodded at me.

"Okay, guys. Break's over, time to get back to patrol."

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