Chapter Eight

Leech-Lover

Paul

I'm on patrol again. Once again, I'm stuck outside the Swan place, keeping an eye on the leech-lover. Apparently, she was dumb enough to go into the meadow and ran across a vamp. Said vamp is now in pieces and burning in a bonfire.

I watch as Bella moves around her house. She doesn't seem to be doing anything tonight. Maybe I can phase back and say I did my patrol?

And then she walks out the door. She walks into the woods and I follow behind her. Not because I want to, but I should probably make sure she at least makes it into Colin's patrol area without getting attacked again.

Bella makes it into Colin's patrol area without getting ambushed so I walk away. I don't know where I'm supposed to patrol now, but I pick up the scent of a vampire coming this way. I start patrolling where the vamp will eventually have to cross.

I find myself once again questioning why the leech-lover fell in love with one of them. Why would she put herself in that situation? Why would she bring this shit onto her family?

The vamp does eventually come into my area of patrol. I manage to rip off his arms and legs before throwing him out of Forks territory. I burn the arms and legs then kick some dirt over the fire. The vamp will probably regenerate the arms and legs like some kind of fucked up starfish, but hopefully he'll know better than to come back here. I don't have much faith in that though, vamps are known for being very smart.

Paige is watching Vampire Diaries when I get back home. It's all I can do not to grab the remote from her and change the channel. Paige should not be filling her head with false images of romantic visions of vamps.

I move into my bedroom and slam the door shut, locking it behind me. Then I kick the wall over and over again until my foot throbs in time with my heartbeat.

I grab an ice pack for my foot and lock myself back in my room. I don't wanna lose it on Paige. She's too good for this shit.

I allow my mind to wonder back to when I first realized those stupid legends about werewolves and vampires weren't stupid legends. I'd punched every damn tree in the woods. And wished physical harm on all the Cullens and every single other vamp in existence. And then I'd panicked and wondered what would happen to Paige.

Jared bangs on my bedroom door. "Open up, man!"

"Go away." I mutter, hardly looking up from where I'm systematically punching the wall. It's one of those days where I hate everything and everyone. Well, except for Paige. And my imprint.

"Don't make me get Paige." Jared threatens. Unlike Jared, who at least has some sense when it comes to dealing with my moods, Paige just makes stupid jokes and cheers when she gets a smile out of me.

"Fine." I snap. I'm in the mood to be pissed for awhile. A task that will be made exponentially harder by my little sister. I yank open the door.

"Bout time." Jared enters my room and flops down on my bed. I roll my eyes.

"What do you want?" I snap. I shouldn't be going so hard on Jared; he's a good friend. But I can't help it today.

"To check on you. You had to deal with a leech, right? And I know that pisses you off." Jared sits up, leveling a stare at me. "Especially now that you've imprinted."

"I have not." I snap. Just because I acknowledge it doesn't mean I will let anyone else know.

"Whatever you say, man. But who are you thinking about all the time, then?" Damn! I've gotta do a better job at hiding my thoughts.

"Lay off it, Jared."

"Come on, man. You know you can tell me this stuff. I won't mention it to anyone else." That's true; Jared's known for being able to keep secrets.

"No. There's nothing going on." I glare at him.

"Whatever, man. Just so you know, a bunch of the Forks High juniors and seniors are coming down here for a bonfire. And you're going. You need to have some fun." Jared glares right back at me, challenging me to disagree.

"Fine." I snap. My mind wonders to my imprint. Will I see her at the beach? Will I finally get the balls to go talk to her?

"That all?" I ask, projecting more annoyance than I'm actually feeling in order to get him out.

"Yep." Jared slaps my shoulder before making an exit.

I open one of the desk drawers and pull out a pack of cigarettes. I climb out the bedroom window and scramble down the tree next to it. Then I light up.

I've been smoking since I was fifteen. I've tried to stop several times before, but I always end up coming back to the cigarette.

The morning of the bonfire dawns bright and sunny. Damn! I'd been hoping it would be thundering or something.

I sigh; I still have seven hours bf I've gotta be down there. Maybe I'll get lucky and we'll get a sudden thunderstorm. Not likely, but can't blame me for hoping.

Paige is finishing off the Frosted Flakes when I get downstairs. She smiles at me as I enter. Unlike me, Paige is definitely a morning person.

"Good morning, Paul." she chirps before going back to her cereal.

"Morning." I mutter, grabbing a Poptart.

"You going to the bonfire?" Paige asks. I nod. "Wish I could go." Paige laments. I know why; she's only a sophomore in high school.

"Next year then." I say. "In the meantime, you're not missing much." Paige rolls her eyes at me.

"Whatever you say."

"Yeah. Can you do the grocery shopping today?" I ask.

"Yeah. Got it." Paige answers. She has that trademark mischievously look in her eye.

"And don't buy all candy, yeah? Get some normal food. Mostly normal food." I add on at the end after seeing how easily Paige agreed with that. She pouts.

"Fine. I'll just buy one bag of candy. Promise."

My little sister has the biggest sweet tooth in all of Washington. She has the mentality of a five-year-old when she goes shopping. But that's Paige for you, living in a world of unicorns and rainbows. I hope she always looks at the world that way.

A/n: Hi, guys! Okay, so we did get to eighteen reviews, hence the chapter. However, two of those reviews were spam anonymous reviews so I deleted them. So yeah. Okay, here's the new deal: if I get to twenty reviews, I'll upload the next chapter Thursday. If not, I'll upload either Friday or Saturday. Hope y'all enjoyed. Later!

Lauren.

Rachaelm1981: Not sure about Whitney. So maybe? I'm undecided at the moment. Thanks for the compliment! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too; please review and let me know.

Aurora3evans: I'm glad you like the story! And I'm glad I got you hooked on wolf ships. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too; please review and let me know.

Debbie Hicks (I'm ppetty sure that was your username?): I don't actually know if you read the story or not; your reviews were really confusing. It kind of looked like you ran a random word generator and tried to write this chapter for me. In the end, I removed those reviews because they were near impossible for me to read. Sorry.