A/N: hi.
We made it to my brother's house in record time, and when we walked in, there were freshly baked muffins waiting for us on the table. Despite my feelings about her and my brother's relationship, I had to admit that her muffins were pretty delicious. Seth, who was already pretty comfortable in my brother's house, grabbed one for himself and led the charge up the stairs to my room. Once we were upstairs, he pushed my door open and belly-flopped onto my bed.
"Wow Seth, you seem comfortable. Do you spend a lot of time up here in Lexi's room?" Gabe said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. I blushed at the insinuation, and Seth threw a pillow at Gabe.
"Shut up, idiot. You'll give people the wrong idea!" Seth scolded.
Gabe just laughed and pulled Connie over to a chair in the corner. Connie gracefully fell into his lap and threw her legs over the arm of the chair as though she'd rehearsed the motion a million times. She looked over at me and not so subtly jerked her head over at Seth, who had moved into a sitting position against the headboard. My eyes widened. No way she was suggesting that I climb into his lap like that! Nope, no way. I hopped on the bed and took a seat next to him instead. I could feel Connie rolling her eyes at me from across the room.
Everyone else clambered in, finding varying seats on the floor. Daniel smiled and came to sit on the other side of me, effectively squishing me between him and Seth on my full-sized mattress. Maria, of course, entered with a scowl on her face and squeezed herself awkwardly onto the end of the bed so she was basically laying out at our feet. Seth brought his knees up at that and kept his legs tucked close to his body.
"So, uh, what do you guys wanna watch? I have a few DVDs to choose from. Now that we're here, I realize it's not much." I started to fidget a little.
"I'm sure we can find something," Daniel reassured. After some group discussion, we decided on a scary movie. We turned off the lights, and everyone hunkered in.
Once we were shrouded in darkness and the movie had begun, I felt Daniel scooting closer to me. Our shoulders brushed against each other, and I instantly thought of what Connie said at the arcade.
"Sorry, do you need more space?" I asked him, scooting closer to Seth. Seth reached over, saying nothing, as he grabbed my hand, intertwining our fingers and bringing it into his lap. I felt my skin heat up at his touch.
"No, you're good," Daniel responded and turned his attention back to the movie.
I tried to do the same, but my eyes were trained on the spot where our hands rested. His hand completely engulfed mine, and it was so warm. His whole body was. I could feel the heat radiating off of him, and I wanted to be closer. It was all I could think about. Next thing I knew, his breath fanned over my ear and the side of my face.
"Shouldn't you be watching the movie, sweetheart?" He whispered, his lips brushing my ear ever so gently. It set me on fire, and the dream I'd had days ago was brought to the forefront of my mind. Suddenly, his nose was nuzzling my neck, and I felt him inhale deeply. I jerked my face toward the movie and tried not to react. His fingers flexed around my hand as his body tensed next to me.
I spent the next hour staring at the screen and seeing nothing. It was taking all my focus not to turn and look at him, even though I could feel his eyes on me the whole time. An hour passed in the blink of an eye, and I hadn't taken in any of the movie. I honestly forgot what we were even watching.
The lights flicked on without warning, effectively shaking me out of my Seth-induced stupor. I looked over and saw that Maria was the one who'd turned the lights on so rudely. Of course.
"What the fuck, Maria? We're right at the best part," Connie said.
"Thanks for showing us this lame-ass movie, Lexi. I've had about enough, so I'm going home. You losers can walk," Maria spat at us and stormed off. I heard the front door slam shortly after.
"Geez, what was her problem? She's been huffing and puffing all night," someone out of view said from the floor.
"Dude, isn't it obvious?" Gabe said, glancing over at me and Seth.
"Yeah, she's been laying it on thick all week," Maya chimed from the bean bag on the other side of the bed.
"Alright, guys, I think that's enough for today. We'd better give Lexi some space," Connie said, ending the conversation and saving me some embarrassment.
"Thank you guys for hanging out today. I had a lot of fun," I said. There was a collection of "don't mention it" and "let's do it again sometime" murmured by everyone as they flooded out. Daniel was the last to leave.
"Seth, you coming?" he threw over his shoulder.
"Nah, I'll leave in a little while," Seth said, still looking at me.
"See you Monday," I smiled.
"Right," he said and disappeared down the stairs.
Seth and I sat in silence for a minute. Our hands still intertwined, with him staring at me just as he had been during the movie. His head turned toward the door as though someone had said something, but there was no one there.
"Walk with me?" he asked.
"Uh, sure. Just let me put some shoes on." I slipped on a pair of crocs and followed him down the stairs. He led me out the back door, and we started walking toward the beach. We walked silently side by side, and the backs of our hands brushed each other every few steps, but neither of us reached for each other's hand. We kept walking until we could see the beach through the trees, and finally, he stopped and turned to face me.
"Why'd you kiss me?" he asked.
"I wanted to," I whispered, fiddling with the sleeves of my sweater.
"Why? I thought you wanted to be friends. What changed?" he asked again.
"Well, I don't like being just your friend. It's not enough for me, and I realized today that it's not enough for you either. I just hate that it took another person telling me how selfish I've been for me to even consider your feelings. I'm really screwing up this imprint thing, and we've only just begun." I felt tears starting to well up. "Connie confronted me about our behavior this week and I explained as best as I could without getting into the details. She made me step out of my own bubble. When we made it to PA, I figured I'd get a chance to say something, but you were back to ignoring me. I was put back on track at the arcade. I found you as soon as I could, and you were with that vile girl. I don't know why I insisted you go out with her, maybe I'm a masochist. I didn't know what to do or say, I just knew I needed you to get the message." I rushed out. I didn't look at him once through my entire spiel, I wouldn't dare. I felt his fingers on my chin then, gentle as ever. He tilted my head up, his face was so close.
"What was the message? I need you to look at me and say it. I won't accept it any other way," he said.
"I love you. I've loved you since we were kids. I've loved you all this time, and when you imprinted, I was elated. So happy that the spirits chose you for me in any capacity. I've been pining for you so long it feels unreal. I didn't think there was any way you could've felt the same. Cause it's weird, right? Feeling this way about a memory of someone, but I held onto it the entire time I was gone. I'm sorry I wasn't more honest with you. I didn't want you to be swayed by my feelings." I stared right into his eyes this time, feeling emboldened by the way he still held onto my face.
"God, Lexi. I don't... I can't... Lexi, please, I..." his eyes were a storm of emotion. I was about to step away when his lips smashed into mine so forcefully it caused me to stumble.
He kissed me deeply, filling it with a message of his own. A message of longing and passion. Acceptance and frustration. Lust and... love? His hand moved to cup the back of my neck, to better hold me in place while his other hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me in closer.
He was still kissing me when he started to speak. "I love you." He took a breath and kissed me more deeply than before. "I love you," more kissing. "Message received, sweetheart. I've only wanted you. All this time I've only wanted you." He sucked on my bottom lip. Every part of my body was on fire, and I loved it. I loved the heat. I reveled in it. Hearing him say those words was more than anything I could imagine, and I kissed him more fervently because of it. Because of how he was making me feel. At some point, I no longer felt the ground beneath my feet, and my legs ended up tightly wrapped around his hips. He held me up effortlessly, and I think I can really get used to wolf strength.
Another moment passed, and he groaned softly as he pulled his lips from mine. He buried his face in the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply.
"Why do you keep smelling me?" I panted out.
"What?" he said, causing his lips to brush against the skin there. That fire in me blazed hotter, and I could feel him breathing me in again.
"That right there makes three times you've sniffed at me tonight. The first time during the movie and twice just now. Why?" I asked again.
"It's because you smell freaking amazing when you're like this," he groaned.
"Like what?" I was even more confused.
"Aroused," he whispered. My eyes widened, and I pulled back to look at him.
"Oh my gosh, you can smell that!? I'm so embarrassed."
"Please don't be. The enhanced senses don't really allow for much privacy. That's why I made you walk out here. Otherwise, Sam would've smelled and heard all of this," he explained.
"Yikes, I can't imagine him hearing any of this, let alone smelling it." Just the thought was absolutely mortifying.
"I'd say you get used to it, but I don't really want you to. A huge part of me wants to take you far away and keep you all to myself, but we've got school on Monday, and I'm sure your brother would kill me," he chuckled. I blushed deeply at that. "Speaking of keeping you to myself, what's up with you and Daniel?"
"Daniel? Absolutely nothing, though Connie did say he was flirting today. I wasn't picking it up, and I'm really not interested," I told him.
"Good, then I won't worry about it. As long as you save those smiles for me," he stated with a cheesy grin.
"You can have my smiles, silly. You can have anything you want," I giggled.
"Don't say that while you smell like this. It's giving me ideas," he blushed. I kissed him on the nose and laughed some more.
"Calm down, Sethy. You'll get there eventually," I winked. "Now put me down, you big goof."
He set me back on the ground and kissed me again. His thumbs massaged circles into my hips.
"So tell me, my dear imprint, what are we now? And you'd better not say friends," he said pointedly.
"Of course not, silly. We're besties who kiss and hold hands," I said nonchalantly. He shot me a glare. "Sorry, it was a joke." I grabbed his hand and started walking back toward the house. "Do you... wanna be my boyfriend?" I looked at my feet when I asked.
"Look at me." I did. "Now try that again, sweetheart."
I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. "You're my boyfriend," I stated. The smile he gave me then was blindingly bright, and I was reminded of how beautiful he was.
"You got that right," he winked and kissed my forehead. We came to a stop on the back porch.
"At the risk of sounding super needy... will I see you tomorrow?" I asked.
"I'll be here as long as you want me around, sweetheart," he said while leaning down to kiss my lips. "Goodnight."