Chapter Seven

Big Ass Spiders

Previously

"Oh yes please remind her that, or else I don't know what I have to live for!" he said faking a horrified look. It wasn't really what he said but more the look on his face that made me combust in a fit of laughter. I laughed so loud that I didn't notice the back door open.

"Is this what I pay you for?" came a voice form behind me, making me jump.

Paul's POV

"Grandma!" I said smiling at her as I stood to take some bags that she was currently holding.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize I was late for our little get together party." She said looking at Rachel and me with a sarcastic look on her face.

I was about to explain that I was just checking up on Rachel to see if she got the job when Rachel's petite form appeared in front of me.

"I am so sorry. You're completely right this is so not what you pay me for. Though you don't exactly pay me yet…. Anyway." She said in her small alto voice, moving her hands to add emphasis to her words.

Much to my surprise a fond smile came across my grandmother's face, that is before she hid it by turning around and setting her remaining bags on one of the couches in the small building.

"Don't let it happen again." She said turning around, the smile still there just less visible. Pride swelled in my heart as I realized that my grandmother actually liked Rachel.

I turned my attention to Rachel as my grandmother walked into her office in the back.

"Is all of your family that intimidating?" she asked me as she turned around.

"No, well unless you count my mom." I told her truthfully.

"Ah, so it's a mother to daughter kind of thing?" she asked curiously.

"Nah, this is my fathers mom not my moms. My mom's mom died a while back. I lived in her house with my parents for a while before they got divorced."

"Oh I'm so sorry." She said looking troubled. She reached out her hand as if to touch my shoulder, but thought better of it as she retracted it.

I felt a pang in my chest and willed her hand, with my eyes, to reach a couple more inches, so I could feel the delicate grace of her fingers.

"Don't sweat it, she died before I ever met her. Don't get me wrong I was born way before she croaked it… she just never found me of much interest to ever visit. " I said shrugging. I knew none of this was relevant; I just wanted her to know more about me, just as I felt this longing to know more about her.

"I…." she started, "I don't know why. You're a pretty fascinating person Paul." She said looking up after a few seconds passed.

My heart grew about two sizes larger as it swelled with joy at her words. She thought I was interesting? Sure I'm a shape shifter and all, but she didn't know that.

"You're quite mesmerizing yourself Miss Black." I said as my smile grew.

"Now, now lets not get ahead of ourselves here, I never said you were per say mesmerizing…. Mister Lahote."She smiled playfully showing her dimples. God she could not get more perfect.

"Well I'd be lying if I said you weren't." I said my smile slipping slightly, as my smile became less cheek splitting and more serious.

"Paul! Come help me with this box will you?" I heard my Grandma call.

"Coming Grams!" I said still looking into Rachel's eyes.

She looked down as a crimson blush overtook her bronze cheeks.

….

Rachel's POV

I released a staggered breath as I ran my hands under the cold water running out of the faucet inside the cramped bathroom of the library. As I looked up at the mirror I really didn't get what was so mesmerizing. Hmph, what a joke.

As I was walking out of the bathroom I ran smack into someone, which in turn sent us both stumbling backwards. I quickly caught myself on a nearby wall. The other person wasn't as lucky.

"Crap! I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed quickly moving to help her up.

"Oh its fine. Don't worry about it." A small soprano voice said. I looked at the girl and smiled. She was small, compared to my average height, and she had dirty blonde hair cut short an inch above her shoulder, and she had brown eyes so dark they might have been confused as black if not for the lighting.

"You new here?" I asked her. She looked around my age and I would have remembered her if she had been to school with me. There weren't many blondes in La Push.

"No, actually I live in Forks. My name is Kayla by the way." She said smiling.

"Rachel," I said shaking her outstretched hand.

"Well it was nice meeting you and all, but I have to find my sister. She works here and she wasn't at home today and my mom told me to come check here since she hasn't been answering her phone." She said babbling towards the end.

"Really? Oh I just started working here." I said.

"Well I feel very sorry that you're going to be having to deal with the pain that is my younger sister." She said smirking.

"She that bad?" I said smiling, and quirking my right eyebrow.

"Nope. She is way worse." She laughed.

"Well have fun finding her." I smirked as we parted, and I headed towards the front of the warm and cozy building. I found that I really loved this place.

"Rachel, come here and help me with some of these boxes. I would ask Pauly but he seems to have disappeared for the moment." She said moving towards a ladder holding boxes stacked on to each other.

"Yes ma'am." I said walking over and taking some of the boxes from her hand.

"Please call me Julia dear." She smiled as she held the ladder and let me climb on.

"There should be an area set of to the side that you can fit those in…" she said as she concentrated on putting labels on the other cardboard boxes.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed taking an involuntary step back. My back hit the not so softly carpeted floor with a loud oomph.

"Rachel! I am so sorry I wasn't watching! Are you okay? Oh God don't sue me!" Julia said going off into a rant.

"Rachel! Are you okay? What the hell happened?" Paul said urgently rushing into the room.

"Guys I'm fine I swear. And no I'm not going to sue you." I smirked as I tried to sit up. Crap that hurt.

"Rachel, what happened?" Paul demanded once again.

"There was a spider." I said sheepishly.

"You nearly killed yourself over a spider?" he said giving me a blank look.

"No. I so did not almost kill myself."

"Breaking your neck would definitely kill you." He said surely.

"Well good thing I didn't break it, huh?" I said rolling my eyes.

"Sure as hell it's a good thing." He said smirking right back at my sarcastic smile.

"Would you two stop flirting and get up?" Julia said exasperatedly.

My face stained itself crimson, and I quickly righted myself. With a lot of back pain as I did so too. I felt like I was an old woman already.

Compared to Paul you might as well be.

Please, four years isn't that much.

…. Is it?

"Rachel?" Paul asked his eyebrows furrowing with what looked like concern. My cheeks turned an even deeper shade just at the thought.

"Yes?" I said a bit confused.

"I asked if you needed anything? Advil? A heating pad for your back? Ice pack?" he asked, apparently repeating his question.

"No, I'm fi-" I started before my head started to throb.

"You know what I think I might need some Advil." I said, already feeling my heart beat pulsing through my temples.

"I'll be right back just sit down on the couch and don't walk around to much." He said as he helped me towards the couch, and quickly excited the room in search of the meds.

"You know I've only ever seen you guys interact this once, but I can tell he really cares for you." Julia said without turning around to face me as she continued to sort the boxes.

"W-what?" I said stuttering like a complete idiot as I tried to wrap my head around what she was saying.

"He seems to really care for you. More so than he ever did for any of his other girlfriends." She said.

"Oh were not- I'm not-" I said struggling to explain but abruptly stopped as Paul once again entered the room.

"Hey I brought you two so the pain would go away faster. And we only have coke, I don't know if you like it but Grams seems to have run out of water bottles." He said rushing towards me.

"No its fine. I love coke. Who doesn't?" I smiled taking the bottled soda and popping the pills into my mouth.

I sighed after taking an extra long gulp.

"Hey, I-" Kayla said and she walked in.

"What happened?" she asked looking alarmed.

"I fell, I'm fine though really." I said hurriedly.

"Well at least your okay I guess. Julia if Nicole shows up would you mind telling her to come home?" she said as she hastily walked toward the door.

"Sure thing dear." Julia smiled.

"Is Nicole the other girl that works here?" I asked though I kind of already knew because of my earlier conversation with Kayla.

"Yes, though I will probably be replacing her. She is all drama I swear." She shuddered.

"Really?" I said raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yes. The only reason she even works here is because she is Paul's personal stalker. I swear I still don't know why you ever went out with that daft girl." She said with a disgusted look on her face.

Something about what Julia had just said made it obvious I would not like this girl. Way obvious.

"Trust me I don't either. I thought maybe once we hung out she would realize we had nothing in common and she wouldn't like me anymore." Paul said shrugging as if he couldn't care less about this chick.

"Did it help?" I questioned actually interested.

"It helped her find out all my hangouts. Now I see her about everyday, and not just when we are in school." He said seeming disturbed.

"Why did you even give her the job?" I asked.

"Go ahead and admit it grams! You did it just to bug me!" Paul said, though he didn't seem that upset he was just smiling like he had caught his grandma red handed.

"At the time yes but now she just gets on my god damn nerves!" she said not even caring to admit that, yes; she did it just to bug him. I smiled at their bantering.

"Well don't you guys think your being a little cruel? So she has a crush, big deal." I said rolling my eyes.

"It has been like three years since she started liking me, its been two since I dated her, and one since I flat out told her we would never work." He said, his hands moving to add emphasis to his words.

"She has liked you for three years? Dang this chick is determined." I laughed, causing my head to throb louder in my ear.

"Tell me about it." Paul said, shuddering.

"Well can I suggest something?" I asked.

Paul nodded fully focused on what I was about to say.

"Why don't you try and set her up with someone? One of your friends or something." I said shrugging.

"I'm not that cruel to my friends." He said solemnly.

"Paul!" I laughed whacking him on his upper arm.

"Okay! Okay… I promise I'll be serious now." He smiled.

"Don't you have any friends searching for their one and only?" I asked.

"Yeah I guess but… I don't know she's just a little much sometimes." He said shrugging.

"I bet I could match her up." I said smiling somewhat smugly.

"Oh really?" he said smirking, and raising one of his eyebrows.

"Yip." I giggled.

"Well come on then." He said standing up.

"Wait where are we going?" I asked as he proceeded to grab my hand and lead me to the door.

"Well be back Grams!" he yelled out as we excited the store.

"Paul I demand to know what we are doing! … Please?" I said when he didn't answer.

"We are going to my truck." He said simply.

"And?" I asked.

He just smiled and led me to a huge black truck. He opened my door and helped my in, and soon we were on a long two lane road heading toward what I assumed was the beach, since that's where the road leads to.

"Now we find Nicole." He laughed.

"Well how do we know were to look?" I asked.

"Kayla said she wasn't at home, and obviously she wasn't at the book store. She usually comes to First Beach since me and my friends hang around there a lot. Best guess is she's sitting there waiting for me to show up." He said, already have calculated everything in his mind.

We pulled up to the beach and he cut the engine.

"Well how are you planning on approaching her?" I asked.

"Oh trust me we wont have to approach her, she will come right to us." He laughed and started to excite the car.

I sat in the worn seat for a minute. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

"Ready?" Paul asked when he opened my door.

"Not at all." I said with a smile.

We walked down to a worn path through some brush until we reached the sand. If you could call it that, there were so many rocks it was unreal. Not to mention extremely hazardous to walk barefoot.

For a while we walked along the shore, passing a few groups of people. I was about to suggest we look somewhere else when Paul suddenly picked up his speed.

"See that girl over there with the green jacket on?" Paul asked.

"Yes." I said though I was still in search of her. It took me a couple of seconds but I finally found her. She had shoulder length blonde hair about two inches longer than her sisters, though her hair was more of a light blonde color.

"Come on lets go walk by the water." He said pulling me in a direction that was almost right in front of her.

"Paul!" she called, before we even had the chance to fully cross.

"Hey! Nicole." He said, acting surprised.

"We always manage to bump into each other!" she laughed. An extremely fake laugh, might I add.

Insert my eye roll here. If I didn't like her before, I was having a hard time liking her now.

"Oh I'm sorry… am I interrupting your date?" she said not looking sorry, at all. She must have noticed my eye rolling. Oops.

"Um yeah, but don't worry its fine." Paul said surprising me. He then proceeded to put an arm around my shoulders.

WHAT? This was so not part of the plan! … Well it wouldn't have been if we had one…

"I'm so sorry! And Paul, I would have never pegged her as your type?" she said her voice and face conveying friendliness, but her eyes looking murderous.

"Oh she is. Trust me." He smirked, pulling me closer. That butt.

Oh come on you know you like it…

…Your point?

"Ha-ha… yeah. Where do you live anyway? I never see you around." She said her smile faltering.

"My house." Paul said. My eyes widened in horror, and I saw Nicole's do the same.

You know what buddy? Two can play at that game.

"R-really?" she asked her smile completely gone.

"Yeah, Pauly had a hard time sleeping alone at night." I smiled, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Isn't that right boo?" I cooed at him.

"Yip." He said simply, pulling me into a full blow hug.

"Well I'll leave you two alone." She said sadly.

"Wait!" I said pulling out of Paul's grasp.

She turned around giving me a menacing glare.

"What?" she snapped.

"I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with my friend?" I said.

"No thanks. I'm busy." She said rolling her eyes, and briskly walking away. I might not like her all that much but I hadn't come here intending on hurting her feelings.

"Oh god what did I do?" I said taking a deep breath and dug my face in my palms.

"You didn't do anything wrong, she said she was busy." Paul shrugged.

"You! It's all your fault! That was plain cruel Paul, I mean really the girl has some serious feelings for you and you go and say stuff like that." I said folding my hands and scowling at him.

"Stuff like what?" he said still completely unaware of what he did that was so bad.

"God, your oblivious!" I sighed.

After a moment of complete silence, I looked up to see Paul looking at the ground in disdain.

"I'm sorry that was uncalled for. Its just as much my fault as it is yours, I shouldn't have even gone along with it in the first place." I said taking a step towards him.

"No you're right, that was really mean of me. I was flaunting you right in front of her with no respects of her feelings." He said ashamedly.

Now I felt like I just kicked a puppy.

"Paul, its okay. We can just apologize later or something. And I swear I'm going to make it my mission to help her find a man and get over you." I smiled trying to get his frown to turn upside-down.

"Yeah I guess." He said smiling, but just slightly.

"Oh and Paul?" I asked him innocently.

"Yes?" he asked intrigued.

I walked over to him slowly and stared him intently in the eyes. I reached up and brushed my fingers across his shoulder.

"TAG! Your it!"

… … … … … … …

Hey guys... I know it has been forever, and seriously life has just been chaotic. I'm so sorry for the wait. For some reason I feel like this chapter was just long and boring. ;( Ehh whatever I'll get over it I guess.

Please review! When I'm about to go do something like watch TV and I see that you guys have reviewed, that's really what drags my butt to the computer to write. Thank you for all your support. :) 3