Chapter 3: Confrontation

"I know what you want," he said. There was no way. How could he know? "Calm down."

"What?" I looked into his golden eyes. His honey blonde hair fell in casual disarray around his angelic face.

He leaned in slowly. I froze, heart racing. Before I knew it, he was kissing me. He was swift and cautious, pulling back before I had even come out of shock.

I thawed out, and leaned in to kiss him again. I looked up at his beautiful eyes; he looked back at me in sheer horror. I paused, and he was gone…

I woke to the sound of rain on my window. It was a dream…I sighed. I laid there for a few minutes just listening to the rain outside. I wondered how necessary school could be when I had the sound of rain and almost perfect dreams. I sighed again, and got out of bed.

Steven had left by the time I got down stairs. I ate some toaster waffles, grabbed my keys, an umbrella, and left for school.

I got to English a little late due to traffic, but Mr. Varner let me into class without a tardy slip. I anxiously sat through all of my classes until lunch. By the time lunch came, I was shaky with anticipation. I walked into the lunch room, and took my seat next to Angela.

"Hey Devin." She said in a cheerful tone.

"Hey Ange." I replied cautiously. She knew too much. Remembering my anticipation, I looked up towards the Cullen table. I met eyes with Edward this time, instead of Jasper. I quickly looked away.

"Still staring at the Cullens?" she asked.

"There's something weird about them…" I confided.

"They're all really pretty? Yeah, I know." She sighed. There was something…weird about the Cullens. I was going to find out what.

I looked at their table again, once again making eye contact with Edwards's dim golden eyes. He smiled a mischievous smirk, and then turned to Alice. I studied the scene…committed every detail to memory…

The bell rang for fifth period. I got up, muttered a goodbye to Angela, and headed for biology.

I took my seat next to Jasper, and slid my chair just a little bit closer to his. He didn't seem to notice. We were studying hydroponics. We were to fill beaker wit water, pour it onto a sponge in a tray, sprinkle lettuce seeds on the sponge, gently press them down, and add more water to the tray. Then we were to watch and be amazed as lettuce grows without soil.

I went to fill the beaker, while Jasper went to get the seeds. I got distracted as I was filling up the beaker, and it overflowed in the sink. I poured out the excess water, and walked carefully back towards our lab station. Jasper was at our station counting out the seeds. Just before I got to the table, the beaked slipped out of my hands. Before it could fall to the ground and shatter into pieces on the floor, Jasper had bent down and caught it.

"Wouldn't want to break anything," he said, sounding relieved.

"Wow…how did you catch it so fast?" I asked, slightly stunned.

"I've got fast reflexes." He said, smiling. He sat the beaker down on the table and started setting up the experiment.

We got through the rest of biology without any mishaps, and I tried to clear my mind of Jasper for the rest of the day. That was unsuccessful. I knew I wasn't crazy…that was weird…

The next day, Angela was waiting for me in the parking lot.

"Here's the deal, the dance is next Saturday." I'm confused. Was Angela about to ask me to the dance? "I've heard three girls say they were thinking of asking you to the dance. Now, I know you don't want to go with them, so I'm giving you a head start so you can think of an excuse."

"Why do you assume I don't want to go with them, when they haven't even asked yet?" I challenged.

"Because…they're girls, sweetheart." She said politely.

"I knew you knew too much…"

"Of course." She said cheerfully.

"How did you figure It out?" I asked. It wasn't that I was hiding it or anything; I just didn't want to be classified as the gay kid. I shuddered at the thought.

"Intuition?" she said. "I don't know, I just do…Call It a really good gaydar. The more important thing is getting these girls off of your back." Ugh, gaydar, I was never really good with that sort of thing.

"…okay"

"Have you got your alibi together?"

"Yep, Seattle, I'll say I'm going to Seattle I haven't been there since I got here, so that'll work. Wanna come?" I didn't really want to be all alone. I could get bored very easily.

"Sorry, sweetheart, I'm going to ask Ben Cheney to the dance." She said.

"Right," I said. The bell rang. It didn't take long for me to see exactly what Angela was talking about.

Just as I was leaving trig, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a jovial looking girl with nice hair.

"Hi Devin" she said enthusiastically.

"Umm, hi" I said. Who are you? How do you know my name?! Personal space please?

"My name's Alana"

"Hi Alana…" Please get on with it…

"?" She said in a rush. If I didn't already know what she was going to ask I may have needed a repeat.

"Sorry, Alana, I'm going to be out of town that weekend."

"Oh? Okay then Devin, see you around" she said. She flipped her hair and walked out of the room.

Then, at lunch, another girl named Grace asked me to the dance. I gave her the same story, and she too walked off disappointed. The other girl Angela told me about must have heard about my trip from the other two because she never asked.

Before I knew it, lunch was over, and it was time for Biology. We were still studying hydroponics. I walked to my seat, watching Jasper. This was already becoming an obsession. I took my seat, he was writing something in his notebook. He looked tense.

"Hello Jasper" I said. We were still on speaking terms right? He looked up from his notebook.

"Hello Devin," he said. Something was different again. I immediately looked at his eyes. They were black.

"What's up with your eyes?" I asked.

"Contacts," he stated plainly. Didn't he just say that he didn't wear contacts?! What's going on?!

"What are you?" I muttered before my mind could even find the reason for me saying that.

"Let's not do this now"

"What?! What are you talking about?"

"Mr. Banner's trying to teach. Meet me at your car after school," he said calmly.

"Umm, okay," I said, not completely sure of what just happened.

We both sat silently through the rest of biology.

I found it difficult to concentrate the rest of the day. I walked anxiously to my truck. I leaned against it, arms folded, waiting.

Jasper walked briskly towards my car and stood gloriously before me.

"What," he said impatiently.

"What's with you? You've got impossibly fast reflexes, your skin is pale white and ice cold, I haven't once seen you eat, like ever, and your eyes frickin change colors. Who has yellow eyes anyway?! What are you?!"

"Are you implying that I'm not human?" he said calmly.

"I don't know what I'm implying!" I said frantically.

"Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?"

"Maybe? I don't know! I just want to know what's going on!" In case you were wondering Jasper, that's code for yes.

He took a step closer and said," Stay away from me Devin," then walked off.

I got into my truck and sped home, furious.

That went well…we know one dream that won't be coming true…

Jasper wasn't there for the rest of the week. That hurt. I decided to get over it. Everyone else was busy making plans for the trip to the reservation.

We met Saturday morning at The Newtons' Olympic Outfitters store. When I got there I noticed a surprisingly large group of people there. Luckily we had Mike's suburban, and someone else's SUV.

"Hey Devin, glad you could make it" Mike said hurriedly, as he was busy packing things into the back of the suburban.

Once we were all packed into the two cars, we made our way down to La Push. We rolled down the windows to prevent suffocation, and I admired the Forks scenery. Everything was a shade of green, with little bits of brown here and there. At first it was kind of unsettling to see my favorite color everywhere I went, but as I got used to my new home, it became comforting to say the least.

We got to the beach and built a startling blue fire out of driftwood and all sat around it. We talked and laughed, and it felt good to leave my obsession behind, if only for a little while.

Some of the boys decided to go to the nearby tidal pools. I wasn't one for hiking so I decided to stay behind. I felt kind of abandoned, seeing as Jessica had turned all of her attention to the nerdy Ben Cheney, but I made due with listening to Jessica gossip about who was going to the dance together.

By the time she gained control of her mouth, I noticed a somewhat large group of people walking towards us.

"Hey Angela," I said, reeling in her attention, "Who's that?"

"Oh, it looks like just some of the local kids"

I counted five guys, and two girls, they all had black hair, and beautiful copper skin. One of the guys stood out to me for some reason. He was slender, with chin-length jet-black hair parted down the middle, with one side tucked behind his ear, letting the other side swing free.

Jessica introduced us all, and I noticed the familiar looking boy look up with interest when she said my name. The oldest looking boy introduced each of our visitors, and I noticed that the familiar boy's name was Embry.

The rest of our group returned, when it was time for lunch. We all ate sandwiches, with chips and sodas. We talked and ate and talked some more, and to my surprise the sun was setting.

Throughout the day, I had noticed sparks flying between many of the girls and boys at the beach. Later, couples started walking off to separate parts of the beach. Some of the girls had taken interest in some of the Quilleute boys and after a while there weren't many people left around the fire. That's when Embry came to join me.

"You're Devin Michaels aren't you?" he asked.

"Yep, and you are?"

"Embry Call, I think I remember seeing you here before." he said thoughtfully.

"Probably did, I used to spend every summer in Forks with my dad."

"So you're down here for good now?" he asked.

"Yep, I moved here a couple of weeks ago." I told him.

"Cool" Embry said flashing a shy smile.

"You know Devin, Embry?" Angela asked from across the fire.

"Kind of, I've seen him around," he said flashing another coy smile.

"Yeah, my dad likes to go fishing in La Push…A lot." I chimed in. I hated how my dad used to drag me on his fishing trips every summer, it was as if he couldn't think of any thing else for us to do together.

"Sweetness," she said. I saw her look from me to Embry and back. I glared at her, she smirked impishly.

"It's too bad someone didn't invite the Cullens though, right Devin?" she said looking more innocent than she deserved.

"You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" The oldest looking Quileute boy asked before I could respond. He was tall, with a buzz cut, and looked far too old to be hanging out with kids our age.

"Yeah, you know them?" Angela asked, sounding slightly annoyed by his interruption.

"The Cullens don't come here," he said in a cold, stern voice. To me hit tone implied something different, like the Cullens couldn't come even if the wanted to. I was going to ask him about it but he was looking of into the forest.

I shrugged it off and turned my attention back to the boy sitting next to me. He had just said something, but I wasn't listening. I was still thinking about what the tall boy had said about the Cullens.

"Huh?" I asked.

He flashed another one of those shy smiles I was beginning to get used to, and looked down.

"I was asking if you wanted to take a walk down the beach with me." He said shyly. I didn't need gaydar to tell me that this kid was flirting with me.

"Sure" I said willingly. This was the perfect opportunity for me to find out more about why the Cullens don't come on the reservation.

"So, how old are you? Sixteen?" I asked as we started walking down the beach together.

"In a few more months," he confessed with a smile, "you?"

"Yep, sixteen" I said proudly.

"You're not that much older than me" he protested.

"Yeah, you're pretty tall too, you could pass for older," I told him.

"I'm tall for my age," he said smugly. He was definitely tall, about two or three inches taller than me.

"Do you come up to Forks much?" I asked.

"Not really," he said with a frown. "But my mom's getting me a car next year, and then I can come and go as much as I want."

"Cool, you should come visit." I told him.

We kept talking as I learned more about him and two best friends Jacob and Quil. He asked me lots of questions, and the conversation flowed rather smoothly. I almost forgot about my Cullen curiosity, but once I remembered, the question burned my tongue until I finally got a chance to ask it.

"Who was that other boy Angela was talking to? He looked pretty old to be hanging out with us," I asked him.

Oh, that was Sam, he's nineteen," he informed me.

"What was that he was saying about the Cullens?" I asked trying not to look to interested.

"Oh, they're not supposed to come on the reservation," he said, confirming my suspicions.

"Why aren't they?"

He looked down at the sand. "I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Don't worry; I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious." I said, throwing in a comforting smile for good measure.

He smiled back and then looked at me questioningly. "Okay, how do you feel about scary stories?"

"I love them" I encouraged.

Embry walked to a nearby driftwood log and motioned for me to come and sit with him. He looked up at the sky, thinking.

"Do you know any of the Quileute legends?" he asked.

"Nope," I replied, still trying to look only mildly interested.

"Well, there are a lot of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood—supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive." He smirked, to show me how little he believed in these stories. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves —and that wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.

"There are legends about the cold ones." He got quieter, probably for dramatic effect.

"The cold ones?" I asked, no longer feeling the need to hide my interest.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some more current. According to legend Jacob's great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.

"His great-grandfather?" I asked.

"Yeah, he was the tribal elder, like his dad. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemy of the wolf—well not the wolf really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves."

"Werewolves have enemies?"

"One"

I stared at him solemnly. This was actually getting kind of creepy.

"So you see," He continued, "the cold ones are by tradition, our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during Jacob's great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt like the other cold ones. They claimed not to be dangerous to the tribe. So that's when he made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the humans." He said looking pleased with the look on my face.

"If they weren't dangerous, then why…?" I said as I pondered his story in all seriousness.

"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this group was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He deliberately worked in a tone of danger.

"What do you mean by 'civilized'?"

"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead."

I tried to keep my voice steady. "So what does this have to do with the Cullens?" Are they like the cold ones that made the treaty?"

"No." He said with a dramatic pause. "They're the same ones."

He probably had mistook the fear on my face for fear from his story. He smiled looking satisfied, and continued.

"There are more of them now, a new female, and a new male, but the rest are the same." He added.

"And what are they?" I asked, "What are the cold ones?"

He smiled sinisterly.

"Blood-drinkers," he replied, "your people call them vampires."

I stared at the incoming waves, deep in thought.

"You've got goose bumps," he laughed.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me! That was a really good story!" I defended.

"Pretty crazy though, right? No wonder we're not supposed to talk about it, people might think we're nuts."

I smiled at him. "Don't worry, I wont tell anyone you're crazy," I teased.

He laughed. "Technically, I just violated the almighty treaty."

"Your secret's safe with me," I promised.

"Don't say anything to your dad though; he was pretty upset when he found out that some of us won't go to the hospital since Dr. Cullen started working there."

"I won't, trust me."

Then we heard the sound of someone walking towards us on the sand. We turned to see Angela, and Jessica walking towards us.

"Devin! We were wondering where you were," she said in relief, "c'mon we're about to go."

"Is that your girlfriend?" Embry asked.

I laughed. "No, definitely not." I replied. "See ya," I said with a wink.

"See ya!" he said enthusiastically.

"Next time my dad decides to come fishing, I'll come down and visit." I promised, and then ran towards Angela. Of course she would want a play by play.

"What was going on with you and Embry?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"Nothing, he was just telling me some old Quileute legends." I assured her, "they were really interesting."

She didn't look convinced. "I'm sure they were."

"It looks like its going to rain soon, so we're packing up to leave." She informed me. I looked up at the sky, it definitely looked like rain.

I pulled on my hood, and walked with her towards the parking lot. It was starting to drizzle. We got everything packed back into Mike's suburban and all filed in. I hopped In the back seat and looked out the window trying my best not to think about all the information I had just absorbed.