California Girl

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Cross Promotion Time: I have another story all about Scarlett and Seth, so if you like Seth/OC stories, check it out :)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize, but I own the characters of The Bird Family, The Hunter Family and friends. Thanks!

All mistakes are my own, I'll try and correct any as I see them.

Chapter Song Etta James

4. At Last

At last,
My love has come along...

Carmen POV

I ditched Study Hall and met Scarlett at the front of school. On the way home we discussed TV and music and everything else we could think of. I walked inside and grabbed the small piece of notebook paper off of the coffee table before falling back onto the couch.

Carmen Margarita Bird,

I'm at the grocery store in Forks with next door's Jenny Ateara, so I shall not be home for a little while. If you are hungry, Jenny has prepared dinner for Quil Ateara and you can have some of that.

Love, Grammy Bird.

I resisted the eye roll at how formal her notes seemed to be and stood up. Maybe I could get Quil to tell me where everyone went, or at least make him feel bad for forcing me to walk home.

"Hello?" I called out, walking inside the house. The door was open, just like Grammy's always was. It was weird how safe La Push was- back home, we had three deadbolts on our apartment, two key locks and a chain.

I walked into the kitchen and grabbed three huge bowls of spaghetti out of the fridge. Who the hell was she expecting to come over? I heated up quarter of one and started to heat up a a sauce from a bowl that sat on the counter.

"Minnie?" I turned to see Quil walk in, some of his friends following. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, your mom said that I could eat some of the food she'd made..."

"I told you she would've made something!" Jared grinned and ran over. "...This it?"

"N-No, I only made a little..." I was stammering. I'd never been alone with all of these very buff guys... I didn't think they'd hurt me... but you never know. Back home, a girl in the grade above me got attacked by some guys that she thought were her friends! I didn't want to end up like that!

"Awesome, you can make that too." Jared informed me. A beautiful girl- far prettier than me or even Scarlett- walked in and sat down at the giant kitchen table. She had the scowl of a girl who'd been dumped.

Like she couldn't get a boyfriend in a heartbeat...

"Leah, Carmen, Carmen, Leah." Quil said, sitting across the table from her. Jared opened the fridge and took the rest of the spaghetti out, putting it next to me.

"The kid took my clothes!" I looked up to see a hot, tan, muscular babe wearing only cut-off jeans and a tight t-shirt walk into the room, his crafted-by-god-face looked angry.

Please be one of the ones that finds me attractive. PLEASE!

He was undeniably hot. He was on the same steroid diet as Quil and Quil's friends, but I didn't care. Muscles were hot, no matter how they were achieved and being able to see the outlines of abs and pecks through clothes was amazing. I, myself, was definitely a fan of steroid use, you know, especially if it results in this.

He didn't notice me at first. He walked straight in to Quil.

"The kid took my clothes! Who does that? I left them by a tree for just a second and they were gone! I had to search through the woods for-!"

"Minnie, how's the food coming along?" Jared interrupted the very inappropriate thoughts I was having and Hot-Guy's complaints.

"Shut up, Jared." I huffed. I glanced back to Hot-Guy to see him looking at me. His face was as beautiful as his body and a little familiar. His dark brown eyes were wide and his mouth was open. He wasn't just looking, he was staring.

Not that I minded.

"Minnie, I'm starving!"

I started opening up cabinets, looking for a bowl big enough for all of the food I'd been making. I found a huge one in the top cabinet, but without my high heels, I had no chance of reaching it.

"Let me." A warm body was suddenly very close to mine (yay!) and arm reached passed me to get the bowl down.

"Thanks." I murmured.

You idiot! Go back to being flirty! You can flirt with a piece of fruit! How can you not be flirty with HIM?

"Embry, leave Minnie alone! She's trying to make dinner!" Jared demanded. I had to make an effort to stop my jaw from dropping.

Hot guy was Embry?

Yes, everyone, my first kiss was with him.

"Nice to see you." He said, quietly. I gasped when I was pulled against his hot chest. If he wasn't holding me, I would've been on the ground. I wrapped my arms around his body and almost cried at how perfect my life felt right now.

Juliette would die when I told her.

"Way." I mocked. I pulled away, realizing that me crying on him would be pretty awkward. He stayed standing by me. "Quil, where are the plates?" Embry reached into a cabinet and pulled out a stack of five, holding them easily with one hand. Steroids.

"Smells good, Min!" Jared grinned.

"It's Carmen."

"I like Minnie." Jared said.

"I like Carmen." I told him.

"Well I like Minnie."

"Jared." Embry said, sternly.

"What's wrong with you?" Jared asked, before he grinned. "Oooooo!"

"Oh, Em." Quil rolled his eyes and stood up. "Come on, we should go see Sam-"

"Ugh." Leah crossed her arms and seemed to get angrier.

What the hell was going on?

I glanced at Embry, who seemed to be the center of this weirdness. He was still staring at me, un-moving.

Was this about me?

"What's going on?" I asked everyone.

"Nothing... Come on, Em-"

"I'm not leaving." Embry said. Quil rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Why you gotta be so difficult?" He whined.

"Leave him, he's fine... for now... anyway... Minnie! Food!" Jared grinned. I rolled my eyes and started putting the food onto the plates.

"What's going on?" I asked Embry. He just shook his head and smiled at me. I lifted up two of the plates and carried them over to the table, setting them in front of Jared and Leah. Jared practically squealed with joy while Leah glared as if I'd done something to personally offend her. Embry brought the other three over with ease and handed them out.

"Thanks." I murmured, sitting down in the seat between Jared and Quil. Quil jumped up and moved down a seat and Embry sat next to me.

I gasped a little bit when they all started eating. They weren't like this at school- must be 'in the comfort of their own home' thing. Every time I looked up, Embry was staring at me. He would look down, pretending that he hadn't been looking when I knew he had. It made me uneasy. I was still eating when they were done, so I offered my plate to the rest of the table, before excusing myself to the bathroom.

I sat on the edge of the bathtub, rubbing my stomach. I felt sick. I'd probably eaten too much too quickly. My stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. My chest was tight and throbbing. I felt slightly dizzy. I ran my hand under cold water and pressed it to my forehead. I took a deep breath and opened the door. Embry was standing right outside of it, blocking my way out.

"Are you okay?" He sounded honestly concerned, which I found kind of creepy. Sure, Embry was smoking hot, but he was getting clingy and we didn't even know each other.

"I'm fine, thanks." It sounded harsher than I meant to, but it got him to move out of the way and let me out. I walked outside to see Quil putting the dishes in the sink. "Um, you need help washing up?"

"No thanks, I'm gonna make the kid do it later." Who was this kid?

"Oh, okay... I guess I'll see you guys." I waved lightly and turned to walk to the front door, but Embry was standing in front of me.

"You're leaving?" He sounded heartbroken. I nodded and walked around him, pretending like I didn't hear how upset he was. His hand grabbed my wrist as I opened the front door. "I'll see you around?"

I just nodded and tried not to run to my house in fear.

La Push people are psycho!

Embry POV

There she was. My imprint. I found her. I finally found her! She was the most beautiful girl in the whole world and she was mine. Mine. She always would be, as well.

"Excuse me." She sounded uncomfortable, like she was nervous. She stood up and went to the bathroom. Jared grabbed her half-finished plate and began to eat the rest of her food. I stood up and walked to the door.

"Em, let the girl use the bathroom." Jared said, his mouth full. I rolled my eyes and ignored him. I stood by the door, when I heard her moving. She opened the door and I looked for any signs of pain. Her forehead was slightly wet, like she'd splashed water on it.

"Are you okay?" I asked. She hesitated before answering.

"I'm fine, thanks." She sounded a little annoyed, so I moved to let her go. "Um, you need help washing up?"

"No thanks, I'm gonna make the kid do it later." Quil said. I smiled. He was always making Logan do menial chores for him. I guess it was his revenge for existing or something.

"Oh, okay... I guess I'll see you guys."

She was leaving? She couldn't leave me. She had to stay and fall in love with me!

"You're leaving?" I couldn't hide how hurt I was, but she didn't seem to notice. I grabbed her wrist before she could leave me. "I'll see you around?"

I wanted to say that I loved her and that I'd miss her, but she seemed creeped out. It wasn't fair! Jared's imprint had been obsessed with him, so when he was clingy, she loved it. Scarlett was just as clingy with Seth as he was with her. Nessie and Jake had always been best friends and spent every second together.

I got the short end of the stick. My imprint apparently didn't like me. My heart broke at the thought.

She just nodded and left.

I wanted to run after her and tell her what she meant to me and that she couldn't leave me, but I stopped myself.

"Dude, you are so whipped." Jared smirked.

"Let me go." I said to Quil, exhausted. We'd been on the floor at Emily and Sam's front door for around three hours. He was sitting on my chest, holding me down. I'd been trying to fight him off, but my heart ached and I didn't feel like pushing him any more.

"You'll scare her." He replied in the same exhausted tone. He was bored of sitting here too.

"Embry, I'll switch patrol with you." Jake walked in, chuckling at us.

Jake usually did midnight to two AM and four PM to six PM. I always did patrol during first and second period at school- Chemistry and PE- and seventh period- Study Hall- to four PM. If I switched then I'd have plenty of time with Carmen!

"Thanks, man!" I grinned.

"...But you do have to cover my patrol on Saturday..." He left quickly, and Quil pushed my face down to the ground so that I couldn't go after him.

I was running the border at midnight. I felt kind of bad though, Mom was finally seeing that I wasn't a bad kid... But now I had to see Carmen so I had to sneak out.

The border was near Scarlett's house, who lived across a small park from Quil, who lived next to my imprint. The woods surrounded that park and the back of Quil and Carmen's house so it wasn't really my fault that I was now standing in the trees watching her look thoughtfully out of the window.

She looked as though she was searching for something, and she had the most adorable look of concentration on her face- her eyebrows scrunched together as she bit her lip making them look even more kissable-

Please shut up. Really, I'm begging you.

Sorry, Jared... I just... miss her.

Yeah, I know... listen... there's no threats or anything... so... I'm gonna head to Kim's for a little while... I'm not saying that you should go see Carmen or something... but... I won't be here...

I love you, Jared.

Yeah, yeah, whatever.

His thoughts disappeared.

I wanted to figure out what to say before I went over. She would think I was idiot or something if I tried to speak to her now. I needed to organize my brain and decide what to tell her before I made a fool of myself and made her hate me forever.

Her eyes narrowed, making her look even cuter. She was looking at something... someone...

She was looking at me.

Thanks for reading! Thank you to everyone who followed and favorited and thanks a bunch to my reviewers! :D:D:D:D It means so much! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D