Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga, or any original characters.

3: Butterflies

"I'm not sure I approve," Mom said the following Sunday at breakfast. "How old even is this boy, Penny?"

"He's only twenty," I told her hesitantly. If the horrific trust issues between us didn't do the job, then I was pretty sure that the fact that Seth was four years my senior would put my parents off the idea of their only daughter actually going on a date.

Dad glanced at us from the top of his broadsheet, seemed to debate whether it was worth inputting into the conversation, and immediately went back to the article he'd been studiously reading. I was thankful that - for now, at least - he was staying out of it.

"So this boy is twenty and he wants to date a sixteen-year-old," she said slowly.

As she trailed off, I tried to pretend that the bowl of Lucky Charms in front of me was the most interesting thing in the world. Mom had left the question unsaid yet hanging because she knew that I wouldn't be able to answer it. I didn't even really see why Seth was interested in me; however I was more than happy to bask in the fact that - for the first time in my life - a gorgeous guy was actually interested in me.

Even with the artful use of undermining comments, my mother couldn't change that.

"He's a nice guy, Mom. And it's only a date so please don't act like this is the end of the world,"

Mom pursed her lips. "I never said that he wasn't nice, Penny. He could be a perfect gentlemen, but it's still... it's just a little weird."

I put down my spoon and got up from the table, furious that her seeds of doubt were slowly but surely planting themselves in my mind. I went silently upstairs to my bedroom without bothering to continue the argument.

The sky outside my window was grey and cloudy, holding the promise of an early snowfall sometime before Thanksgiving. I pulled down my blinds to hide the view and sat down at my desk, wondering how normal families reacted when they found out their daughter was going on an actual date. I was left more annoyed than ever as I tried to comprehend why I'd drawn the short stick when it came to relatives.

For a while I tried to focus on finishing up an essay that was due by Tuesday morning, however my imagination was running wild and I found it hard to write much about the civil war. Eventually I switched off my laptop and decided to take a long shower, hoping that the luxury of elongation would pass some of the time before Seth came to pick me up for lunch.

Several times in the past two days I'd been tempted to call Kate or anyone who might know anything about Seth, just so that I could reassure myself that he was as charming as he seemed. Perhaps if he wasn't then his true colours would gradually begin to show this afternoon.

Calm down, Penny! A small voice said in the back of my mind. You're making such a big deal out of nothing. It's just one date.

I tried in vain to listen - I really did.

At around noon Seth's pick-up truck stopped outside my house. Panicking, I tied my wet hair into a messy bun and headed downstairs before either of my parents could get to the front door.

"You're early," I told him as I stepped onto the porch.

"Is that a bad thing?" He called as he got out of the driver's seat.

Seth came around the car to lean against its bonnet, looking up at me with the same boyish smile that had won me over on Friday evening. Why did he have to be so damn cute?

"Well," I began, "I didn't really get a chance to dry my hair."

"Please tell your hair that I'm truly sorry,"

I heard footsteps behind me and, swearing under my breath, I realized too late that I hadn't shut the door behind me. Dad appeared in the doorway and seemed to carefully take in the grinning six and half feet that was Seth.

Dad cleared his throat and turned to me. "You left this in the kitchen, Penny."

In his outstretched palm was my phone and I shivered a little, knowing how hurtful the possibility that I might have left it at home could have been towards him and Mom. After all, it was what Adam had done that night.

"Make sure he has you home before dark," Dad added.

After handing me my cell phone, Dad nodded at Seth and went back indoors. I found myself letting out a deep, exaggerated breath and then I was strolling towards my date as confidently as possible.

"Your dad seems pretty cool," Seth said conversationally as I got into the passenger seat. I couldn't help noting that his truck smelled distinctly of pine, sea air and something like wet dog. "He's not gonna come back out in a minute with a shotgun, is he?"

I laughed and said, "Probably not."

Seth offered me a nervous chuckle and proceeded to peel away from the curb without any reluctance. I was pretty sure that if I'd bothered to check in the rear-view mirror, I would've seen my mom watching us from the lounge window with binoculars.

We stopped at a seemingly empty diner between Forks and the nearby reservation where he lived. Seth pulled into the deserted parking lot and frowned, causing small lines to form at the corners of his dark eyes. I followed the direction of his gaze and saw that there weren't even any lights on inside the belly of the building.

"It's usually quite busy here," he stated, and then shrugged underneath the taut seatbelt. "It doesn't even look open today."

"Maybe the owners are at church or something?"

He said, "They're probably just out of town. There's a small restaurant in La Push, if you want to head there instead?"

I nodded and Seth drove.

I wasn't sure whether it was because this was my first real date, or if it was the fact that Seth had suddenly become extremely distant and quiet, but I found myself chewing on my bottom lip. It was a nervous habit that I'd done relentlessly until around the time I started middle school.

By the time we pulled up outside a small parade of stores in a place called La Push, Seth and I had been in the car for another twenty minutes and the conversation had been scarce. The parade was opposite a gravel parking lot by the seafront, and consisted mainly of a few closed storefronts, a lone café and a tackle shop. The peeling paint wasn't exactly attractive but, then again, everyone knew reservations weren't exactly extravagant.

It took me a moment to wonder why we hadn't parked on the gravel lot with the handful of other rusting cars and I came to the realization that the "small restaurant" he'd been referring to was most likely Littlesea's Lunch Bar, the pocket-sized café a few yards away. I was suddenly a little less excited but tried not to show it. I really didn't want to come across as a brat.

"They're fixing some potholes just past the boat yard," Seth said. "You don't mind walking, do you?"

"Not at all," I replied, more than a little relieved.

"If you want you can even choose your own food this time," he added, and I couldn't help but laugh.

We got out of the truck and I slammed the passenger's door a little too heavily, causing the entire cab to shudder. Seth peered over at me from the other side of the vehicle with wide eyes, as if I'd just done something unimaginably terrible.

"Please don't kill Bertha," he told me, grimacing. "She's taken a hell of a beating over the years from most of my friends and family."

He named his car Bertha? "I'm sorry... I didn't think... I really didn't intend on abusing her."

Seth grinned at me widely and pivoted around the bonnet so that there were only a few inches between us. I might have imagined it; however it felt like there was a solid wall of heat emanating from his body, almost physically pushing me against Bertha's metal door.

"You splutter a hell of a lot - it's incredibly cute," he said.

"I do not! You just catch me off guard,"

My intake of breath was sharp as Seth moved even closer to me and I was engulfed inside the wall of heat. He slung his arm casually on the roof of the pick-up truck, closing the distance between us. Despite the fact that I'd known him less than a week, the strange intensity in his dark eyes didn't feel totally unsuitable.

It was safe to say that my stomach was in knots.

"Should I apologize?" Seth asked, and raised an eyebrow.

"I hope you realize that you're catching me off guard right now," I told him.

"And amazingly you're not spluttering,"

I felt my expression contort into a scowl and I ducked underneath his arm, heading off in what I could only guess was the direction of the aforementioned restaurant.

This wasn't third grade, and I was so not going to stand there and let him tease me till I was a humiliated and hormonal mess on the asphalt. I mean, he was four years older than me, so surely he could resort to a form of flirting that wouldn't reduce me to mush.

I was only three-hundred yards or so away when I heard him call out a sheepish, "Sorry!"

After a long wait but a relatively nice meal at River's Edge, Seth got the bill (even after I'd argued to go Dutch) and we headed out of the restaurant with no real plan of what to do next. The sky above us was overcast and the kind of grey that reminded me of industrial steel. In the end it was my idea to take a walk by the bank of the Quillayute River.

"This is actually kinda pretty," I told him as I looked out over the delta.

"My dad used to take me rafting further upstream when I was a kid," Seth said softly.

The mouth of the river spat out several wooded chunks of land, all of which seemed to almost float in the water, before giving way to the choppy Pacific Ocean. I found myself imagining a tween version of Seth and his father bobbing alongside the islands in one of those bright dinghies I'd seen families buy at Walmart.

"When did you stop?" I asked.

"I was probably about twelve, and I went through a stage of thinking it was uncool to be seen around town with my parents. So I just told him I didn't want to hang out any more,"

I tried to tuck a loose wave of hair back inside my bun before saying, "I'm still going through that stage."

"I think most people still are, too," he said, offering me a small smile. "I really wish I'd known better, though."

Before I could ask what he meant, the sky seemed to open up and we were both drenched within five seconds. Swearing colourfully, Seth grabbed my hand and we made our way into a thicket of trees that lined the embankment.

The evergreens offered us a sufficient canopy and we looked at each other, mutually taking in the dripping hair and soaked clothes, and I started to laugh.

"You're going to be frozen in the next ten minutes," Seth said seriously.

"And so will everyone else in the immediate area - including you,"

Seth folded his arms across his chest, highlighting how broad and muscular his shoulders were in a way that made me want to never stop looking at him, and fixed me with an equally serious look. He said, "I'm not sure I'll like Popsicle Penny as much as the Penny in front of me, so let's head back to Bertha."

He looped his arm around my shoulders as we headed back to his truck and I let him because it was kind of nice - and he sheltered my back from the unrelenting downpour, which was a plus. Mostly it was wonderful just to have an excuse to pretty much sink into the side of Seth's body.

That night I lay wide awake in bed, trying to determine whether or not the contortions my stomach had displayed during the majority of our date were what my friends back in San Diego had referred to as "butterflies". Admittedly, I was leaning towards yes.

It was probably very naive of me to have grown to like Seth this much already but, somehow, I didn't care. He was actually smart and funny and - even though he was also just that little bit frustrating - I definitely wanted to see him again. Mom, of course, had been a little less enthusiastic about the subject since he'd dropped me back home earlier this afternoon.

Cocooning myself within the duvet and sheets, I tried in vain to stop thinking of him and how it had been my very first date and the fact that Seth had even let me choose a club sandwich for him and how strangely warm his hand had felt in mine.

And it was just about then that I heard the first howl.

A/N: Just a little note to say that I'll be going to Morocco for a week on Friday, so it's unlikely that I'll be able to update North Star for some time until I'm back home. Please enjoy the next chapter, though, as I can promise that it'll be uploaded in a few days :) And - as always - don't forget to review!