Chapter Sixteen

Not My Problem

Paul

Kelsey is good at softball. As I watch her practice, I can't help but think that she could easily win a college scholarship for it. She catches almost every throw sent her way.

The team practices for a little under two hours. Apparently, they are playing their rival next week, and they want to be prepared. From what I can tell, they have this in the bag.

I leave just before practice ends. I have to go patrol tonight. I'm not thrilled about it.

Paige is still up when I get home. She's franticly flipping through her history book, trying to do the reading for class tomorrow. My sister loves to do shit at the last minute; she says it's when she gets her best work done.

"Want some help?" I ask, resting my hands on the back of her chair.

"Nope! I got it." Paige flips to next page in her textbook. "I'm almost done."

I shrug and head for the stairs. I need to get a shower; patrol today was rough. It had just rained, like a crazy amount, the night before and everything was muddy. Meaning that I am now cover in mud. I was lucky Paige didn't notice.

The shower water relaxes me. After the shower, I'm so tired that I don't have the energy to do my homework. I'm lucky that Colin's mom is my math teacher. She'll understand.

I dream of Kelsey. She's using her hands as she talks to someone, but I can't hear what she's saying or who she's talking to. Her hands fly as if she's using sign language, but her lips are moving. She looks angry about something: her eyes flashing and her brow furrowed.

I wake up confused. Why did I dream of Kelsey? I mean, I dream of her often, but this particular dream was very weird.

She's down at the res, arguing with Jacob about something. Jacob looks slightly annoyed, but Kelsey is even angrier than she was in my dream, and Jacob can't take the force of it. He backs down.

I resist the urge to walk over and say hi. Not only would it look weird to Jacob, but it would also look strange to Paige, who's walking with me. Besides, I don't want Jacob to know I've imprinted on Kelsey Swan. I'm worried that Jacob, being rather unstable and hating me, might try something on her. And as much of a dick as I am, I don't want to have to attend his funeral because Kelsey killed him.

The next time I see her, she's standing on her front porch, the wind tossing her hair into her face. She looks annoyed about something.

Just then, Edward opens the door and walks out onto the porch. He tries to say something to Kelsey, but I'm pretty sure she's ignoring him. This theory is proven correct when Kelsey says, "Please don't interrupt me while I'm ignoring you." I can't help it; I bust out laughing.

I'm stuck in a pack meeting. Sam calls them fairly often, just to reassign patrols and such. They're always boring as hell.

Jacob's off in his own little world again. He's thinking about Bella naked. About fucking her. About taking her from Edward.

For fuck's sake, Black. I really don't want to see the leech-lover any more than I have to, I send to Jacob.

Fuck you, Jacob thinks back.

You wanna go, bitch, I demand, let's fucking go.

And then we're fighting. Again. Sam snatches us apart and glares daggers at the both of us.

Paul, you're on extra patrols for the next week. Jacob, you too. This is ridiculous, Sam lectures the both of us.

I'm kind of surprised when Jacob walks over to me. He looks annoyed, as if he hates that he's gotta do this.

"Hey, dude. I know you and Kelsey are friendly. Could you possibly... put in a word with Bella for me?"

"I hang out with Kelsey, not Bella." I say flatly.

"But they're sisters."

"Yes, but they don't hang out together."

"Come on, man, please? I really like Bella and I don't want her to become a leech."

"You know what that sounds like?" I ask, rolling my eyes. "Not my problem."

"You know what? I tried being nice to you, but you treat me like shit!" Way to play the victim card, Jacob.

"Whatever. I don't have time to deal with this." I leave Jacob fuming.

"Did you seriously get into it with Jacob again?" Paige asks as soon as I enter the house.

"How did you know?" I ask.

"Nala Uley saw you." Of course Sam's sister saw me; we were arguing right outside the Uley house. And Nala and Paige are best friends.

Paige just rolls her eyes. "Why do you constantly get into fights with him? Just let him be stupid and move on." Paige isn't usually violent.

"Because. Someone has to put him in his place. Might as well be me."

"Whatever you say, Paul." Paige says with a slight smile.

I grab the three slices of leftover pizza from the fridge and proceed to inhale them. Phasing requires a lot of energy. I'm always starving afterward.

"Are you gonna taste it?" Paige laughs.

"Nope." I wad up the tin foil the pizza was wrapped in, and throw it out. "Thanks for saving me some. Love you, little sister."

I try to focus on the chapter I'm reading for biology, but my mind keeps flipping back to Jacob asking me if I could set him up with Bella. Why the hell would Jacob think that I would help him, in any way, when it comes to that leech-lover? Dude must be hella desperate if he's resorted to asking me for help; we've hated each other for quite some time now.

I hate Bella, too. I hate her for the way she treats Kelsey and Chief Swan. I hate her because she loves the leeches. I hate her because she's a whiny bitch. I hate her.

As far as I'm concerned, she and Edward deserve each other. Two toxic assholes. The perfect relationship right there.

I sigh and slam the book shut. Fuck science class. All I need now is a good, long sleep.

A/n: OMG you guys! We exceeded our goal! In fact, we're three off from fifty reviews! And we're over 100 follows! The support this story has gotten blows me away. So if I get to 53 reviews, I'll update Thursday. If not, it'll be Saturday. Oh! And nobody got the pineapple on pizza reference, but you can thank Gordon Ramsay for this gem! Later!

Lauren.

Replies to Reviews:

Jingerr: Thanks for being so understanding about the name thing. I'm so glad you love the build-up of Kelsey's character; I love to write her. I hope you had an awesome Halloween.

Loves to read books: I love stories where the friends are a big part of the main character's life. And thanks for the compliment about the OCD thing. I'm glad I could help you relate to your students.

Luna MariaSwan: I'm glad you liked the chapter. Don't worry, more Paulsey is coming up.

Twilightfanjm: OCD is a very varied illness. I'm glad you can relate to that. Paul doesn't know about Kelsey's asthma or diabetes yet; he finds out about those first. As for Edward, this thoughts should come up later.