All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer
CHAPTER FOUR
I woke up just before ten the next morning which was late for me, but Jacob was still asleep beside me, snoring soundly. Somehow during the night I had ended up with my head on his chest and his arm was around my waist, so I had to wriggle a little to get out of bed. I left him to sleep while I went to make breakfast. Finding some pancake mix in the cupboard, I got to work once I had found everything I needed from the various kitchen cupboards. As I was dishing them up I heard footsteps behind me, and then felt a warm arm circling around my waist. I smiled, putting my hand on his arm.
"What did I do to deserve to wake up to this?" he asked me, sniffing at the pancakes and resting his chin on my shoulder.
"Oh I don't know, protecting me from vampires, being my best friend, making me happy… you want me to go on?" I asked, turning my head a little to smile at him.
"Well I'll have to keep doing those things if I get pancakes every morning," he laughed, moving to the side to get some plates out of a cupboard. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, really well actually. I think you have a calming effect on me." I said, laughing. It was the truth, when Jacob was nearby I never had nightmares.
"I know what you mean, I slept like a log. Not slept like that in ages" he said, handing me a plate to flip the pancakes onto while he grabbed the syrup.
We had just sat down at the kitchen table to eat when I realised Billy wasn't around. "Where's your dad?" I asked him, getting up to grab some orange juice from the fridge.
"Fishing with your dad. We thought that might be safer than letting him go out in the forest to search for those big bad wolves you told him about," he said, raising his eyebrows a little at me and chuckling as I handed him a glass of juice.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't exactly know it was you, did I! I remember thinking of you though, when I saw your wolf. Weird, huh?"
"You saying I look like a wolf, Swan?" he asked, raising his eyebrows again and smirking.
"I suppose you must do, yeah." I laughed, sitting back down to eat my breakfast.
When we finished eating, Jacob let out a satisfied noise and sat back in his chair. "I could definitely get used to this."
"Well, it depends how long it takes to catch Victoria," I said, instantly feeling his mood dampen a little. I didn't want him to lose the cheerfulness that was reminding me of the old Jake before all the supernatural business, so I quickly changed the subject. "So, what are we doing today?"
"It's up to you, a walk maybe? I have to patrol tonight with Sam so you've been invited to a girly sleepover thing at Emily's, if you want to go?"
"That sounds great." I smiled at him. Having a girly night with Emily would definitely keep my mind off more serious matters, even if I wasn't particularly girly myself.
We took it in turns in the shower and got dressed, then went for a walk along the beach, hand in hand as always. Afterwards we went home to watch TV, and I made dinner for Jake. When it got to 7pm I grabbed my pyjamas and Jake walked me to Emily's, before he went to patrol with Sam.
As soon as the boys were gone Emily turned into a giggly teenager, showing me all the things she had planned for us to do. She made us change into our pyjamas first, then we went to the kitchen to bake. Once I had put the first batch of brownies into the oven, she began to dig through the fridge and retrieved a bottle of wine. She poured two glasses and handed me one. I had never drunk any alcohol before, what with being the chief of police's daughter, so I'm sure I must have looked nervous.
"Don't worry Bella, I won't tell anyone," Emily laughed as she took a big gulp from her glass. "Movie time!" she announced, leading me from the kitchen with the bottle still in her hand.
We watched Pretty Woman while we chatted about everything, but mainly the boys. I was amazed at how much she clearly loved Sam; the way she spoke about him was like she knew she would spend the rest of her life with him. I couldn't understand why she was so confident that they would stay together; relationships end all the time! I had thought with Edward that I would always be with him, but that was different as I had planned to give up my humanity to be with him. And in the end, I had been wrong about our relationship anyway as he clearly didn't love me the way I loved him. I couldn't see me ever believing a normal human relationship would last forever, but then again maybe I had been emotionally scarred by the failure of my parents' marriage and the way Edward had abandoned me.
Emily kept trying to get me to talk about my feelings for Jacob, and by the time we finished the bottle of wine I found myself saying a lot of things I wouldn't normally have admitted.
"He's just so… hot!" I told her, slurring my words a little. "I mean, his abs… his shoulders… his butt! And they're all the same, everything about them is God-like!"
Emily was giggling away, agreeing with me. "Tell me about it! And I get to go to bed with Sam every night, so I know the God-like qualities don't end there!" she told me, wiggling her eyebrows at me and I felt myself blushing. "Oh, come on Bella! You spent all that time with your… ex… and you're still getting embarrassed of me talking about sex?"
"It wasn't like that," I mumbled, taking another sip of wine as the familiar feelings swept through me; the feeling I would get when I tried to take my relationship with Edward further, and he pushed me away.
"You mean… you never…"
"No, I never." I told her, cutting her off from however she planned to finish that sentence.
She looked at me for a long time, wide eyed and open mouthed, as I became redder and redder.
"In that case, you definitely need to take advantage of sleeping in the same bed as Jacob! If he's anything like Sam, you'll never think about anything other than trying to jump him at every opportunity," she laughed, taking in my expression. "I know Jacob would be more than willing!"
I thought about it for a few minutes. But then I realised what I was thinking about. "I can't sleep with Jake! I told you, he's my best friend!"
"Doesn't mean you can't take advantage of the wolf sex. I think they call it friends with benefits?"
At that moment the back door burst open, and Paul and Embry walked in.
"Who's a friend with benefits?" Embry asked, raising his eyebrows at us both with a grin on his face.
Paul looked serious as he took in the scene before him, then laughed. "Are you two drunk?" he asked, a teasing tone to his voice.
"Nope" I told him, dragging the word out a little longer than a sober person would.
"Brownies in the kitchen," Emily told them, knowing that would get them to leave. Sure enough, they moved out of the room at an inhuman speed at the mention of food. "We," she pointed at herself, then at me, "will continue this discussion later." She mouthed, giving me a wink.
I felt myself blush again as the boys came back in and Embry sat himself down next to Emily, looking at me. "Ooooh, what's got Bella Swan blushing?" he asked, grinning and wiggling his eyebrows again at me. I just blushed deeper in response, which even made Paul chuckle as he hovered by the side of the sofa.
"Sit down Paul, you're making the place look untidy," Emily laughed, motioning him to the empty seat next to me. He looked a little worried as he sat next to me, making sure to put as much distance between us as he could. I gave him a hurt look.
"I'm not diseased, Paul." I told him, eyeing the gap between us. Who knew that wine would make me so confident? He gave me a strange look and glanced at Embry, but stayed where he was. I could have just left it, but drunk Bella was on a roll. So I shuffled myself along the sofa until I was touching him, then sat back and made myself comfy. I gave him a long look, daring him to move or complain, but he remained silent and shoved a brownie in his mouth.
Emily and Embry were looking at each other with amused expressions on their faces, but I had no idea what the problem was. "What?" I asked them, raising my eyebrows in annoyance.
"Nothing!" Embry said with a smirk, then glanced at Emily again. "So, what have you guys been up to?" he asked finally, breaking the tension in the room.
"We baked the brownies that you've probably demolished by now, and we just finished watching a movie." Emily told him.
"What movie?"
"Pretty Woman." I answered him.
"Isn't that the one with the prostitute?" he asked, eyes lighting up a little.
"Yeah," Emily said, then couldn't help but make a dig at me. "Not that Bella would know anything about that." She snorted, getting up and going to the kitchen to leave me in the aftermath of her comment. I blushed worse than ever.
"What's that supposed to mean, Swan?" Embry asked as his eyebrows rose so high it was a wonder he hadn't strained his facial muscles.
I remained silent, feeling Paul's eyes on me too. I heard Emily laughing away to herself behind me, and she came back into the room with another bottle of wine and filled my glass. I knew it wasn't a good idea for me to drink more, but it was a way to avoid answering the question. So I picked the glass up and began to gulp it down.
Embry seemed to realise what I was doing. "Oh no, you're not getting away with it that easily." He laughed, getting up and prowling towards me. "You ticklish?" he asked me innocently.
"Yeah, especially on my ribs-" I answered too quickly, not thinking about the consequences. Next thing I knew, Embry was on top of me on the sofa, tickling every inch of me he could get to. I got into a defensive position as quickly as possible, kicking Paul repeatedly in the process, but before long I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. I could hear Emily laughing just as hard from the other sofa.
"You want to tell me now, Bella?" Embry asked me as he got a particularly good shot in my weak spot.
"OK…OK…" I gasped, trying to push him away but he didn't stop his assault on me. "I'm… I'm a… VIRGIN!" I shouted out, and he instantly stopped and stepped away from me. I heard Paul choke on something at the side of me, and Emily carried on laughing. Quickly taking advantage of the sudden freedom I sat myself up straight, realising I had basically been sat on Paul's lap.
When I finally composed myself and looked up, the look of utter shock on both the boys' faces made me cover my own face with my hands. "I can't believe I just said that."
"I definitely didn't expect you to say that! I thought you were going to say you were some sort of fucking expert or something!" Embry said, still sounding shocked. "So you and the bloodsucker-"
"No!" I answered quickly without looking up.
"So… what exactly did you do with him?" Embry asked, obviously knowing he was prying but no longer caring. I felt like an animal in a zoo.
"Nothing. I mean, we kissed a bit, but he never let it get too far." I told him, blushing again at the way I used to practically force myself on Edward, only to be pushed away.
There was a long silence before I dared to take my hands away from my face again, when Paul unexpectedly spoke up.
"Well, thank fuck for that!" he shouted out, laughing. I gave him a look, and he backtracked a little. "I just mean, y'know, he could have hurt you if you…"
"Yeah I know." I told him, getting a little irritated. "Everyone is always so concerned about hurting poor little fragile Bella."
"Werewolves wouldn't hurt you." He answered quietly. I wasn't sure if he had meant for me to hear it or not, but I answered anyway.
"Yeah I know, I've heard all about how great wolf sex is!" I shouted out, looking at Emily with what was supposed to be my best evil stare. Clearly it didn't work, as all four of us began to laugh.
Embry literally rolled on the floor holding his stomach, before he composed himself enough to gasp, "You know, I could always show you just how great wolf sex is…" He was clearly joking so I laughed, but Paul growled and stood up abruptly.
"What's up with you?" Emily asked, as I noticed the tremors rolling through his shoulders. He didn't answer, but turned and walked quickly through the back door.
"He's been acting weird all week," Embry told her, getting up and staring after him. "I think he's shredded a pair of shorts every day with these random angry moments, and he's clearly hiding something from the pack."
"What do you mean?" I asked. I didn't think it was possible for the wolves to hide anything, what with the shared mind.
"He keeps trying his hardest not to think about something, I think it's a girl." He said, sitting back on the sofa and shrugging his shoulders at me.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I needed to go to the toilet so I stood up. I suddenly felt very dizzy, probably from the wine, so I excused myself to go and get some fresh air. I walked out the back door and sat on the step there, breathing in deeply and trying to force my nausea to subside. I glanced around the trees, and noticed something moving not far from me.
"Paul?" I asked, bravely at first but suddenly realising it could be anyone out there. Like Victoria. "Paul?" I asked again, panicking a little.
"Yeah Bella it's me, don't worry." His deep voice floated through the trees, then I saw his silhouette approaching me. "You okay? You don't look so good." He said when he got close enough to see my face in the moonlight.
"I feel a bit sick," I admitted as he sat on the step next to me. "Just trying to get it to go away."
Wordlessly, he raised his hand and began to rub my back, gently and soothingly. The heat felt great against my skin, as my tank top didn't do much to keep away the cold air. I leaned back into him a little, feeling better. We stayed like that for a while and I thought the nausea had passed, then all of a sudden I knew I was going to be sick. I got up and ran to a bush at the edge of Emily's garden, kneeling down and trying to claw my hair away from my face before it ended up covered in my vomit.
I felt Paul's warm hand sweep the hair from my face and hold it back, while his other hand continued to rub my back as I got rid of the bottle of wine I had consumed. When I felt like it had passed again I sat back on my heels and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
"Sorry" I whispered, embarrassed that Paul had to witness that. I heard him chuckle, and turned to face him.
"Don't worry about it. We keep on apologising to each other, don't we?"
I had to laugh at that, after all it was completely true. "That was the last time," I told him. "Thanks, you made me feel better."
"Didn't look like it" he laughed again, motioning to the bush.
"No, I mean, the heat. I don't like being cold." We looked at each other for a long moment, acknowledging the double meaning of my words. He smiled at me, and it was the most genuine expression I had seen from him. I smiled back, then shivered. He didn't say anything, but wrapped an arm around me and rubbed his hand up and down my side.
"Let's get you inside." He said, helping me to my feet and leading me back to Emily's house. I felt my legs give out a little as we walked, and he scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way. I was almost asleep by the time we got back to Emily and Embry.
"She's been sick, and she's falling asleep," Paul explained, probably getting strange looks from the others when he walked in cradling me. "Guest room?"
"Yeah, it's already set up." I heard Emily reply, then felt Paul begin to walk again. After a minute he came to a stop and leaned over, placing me on the bed. Obviously remembering my comment about the cold, he placed a blanket over me and pulled it up to my chin. I sensed him standing over me for a moment but didn't open my eyes, then felt his hand moving a strand of hair from my face and placing it behind my ear.
The last thing I remembered was his warm lips touching my forehead, then his deep husky voice in my ear as he said, "Good night, Bella".