Chapter Six

I'd officially made it to two weeks of working at Emily's bakery and I was more than pleased to have the extra money to tuck away into an envelop for a car. Having a car, of course, would come with independence that I wasn't too sure of what to do with but it as also a safety net. If I had to take my brother's and leave, I could.

Consider how well things had been going these past few weeks, I figured that if I were able to get a car any time soon, I would share it with Ben. He was clearly expressing interest in getting his license to dad and he had insisted anywhere that any of us went so, sharing the car seemed like the most obvious answer. It would give him some sense of independence being able to drive to school everyday since I was close enough to work to be able to walk for my shifts and lately, I'd started figuring that a little bit of independence was exactly what he needed.

It was strange thing that was slowly unravelling—I was watching the monster that was adolescence take over my brother. In only a short matter of weeks I'd watching him go from being the kid that preferred to stay nearby for conversations and give hugs when he felt that they were necessary turn into a teenager that spent most of his days eating, sleeping, and ultimately hiding out in his bedroom unless a friend invited him out.

According to him, he and Seth had grown a little distant. Seth apparently had stopped showing up to school for some period of time and when he returned he was often too tired or busy to spend much time with him. I think that was when I started noticing Ben's shift in mood. I figured that guys liked talking about friendships between other guys far less than they typically did about normal feelings and so, I tried not to pry. People grew apart, that was normal.

Along with trying to allow my brother to simply enjoy being a lazy teenager, I was also going out of my way to avoid encounters with Paul. Mostly, the only place where I couldn't avoid him was at work where he often met with Sam and who I've learned is Jared for something to snack on between whatever it was that they did all day.

For the most part, Emily handled the group herself and their things were always on the house so I had no real reason to have conversation with Paul outside of small talk. I hated to admit it but just because I was able to avoid Paul in person didn't mean that I was avoid him invading my thoughts. I couldn't believe how clearly I could imagine his eyes on my when my eyes were closed and I was trying to fall asleep. I wanted to know what his problem was as much as I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and some nights it took longer than I liked to clear my thoughts of him. It didn't help that Noah had seemingly gone back to sleeping alone in his room just as he had before that night. He claimed that he didn't feel afraid anymore because he knew that the wolf was watching over us.

Admittedly, I was growing somewhat tired of hearing about wolves from him.

Tonight was the night that Emily, Leah, and I agreed to meet at Emily's place for a girl's night and as I stood beside my bed in the center of my room, staring down at a backpack that I stuffed with clothes to wear the next morning, I couldn't help but to feel the desire to call and cancel on the plan.

When mom was alive, she had never really allowed us to spend the night anywhere away from home and considering the type of mother that she had proven herself to be, I didn't really have the desire to attend sleepovers anyway. I never felt comfortable leaving my brothers with her, especially during her bouts of spending most of her days in bed or when she started to become more erratic.

I had to remind myself a couple of times as I got ready tonight that the boys would be okay. As I braided my hair down my back, I reminded myself that they were happy and completely safe with dad and as I slipped into my flannel pajama bottoms and a fitted black, long sleeve I had to remind myself that I deserved to do fun things too and that I wasn't the parent here—they didn't need me to stay home and take care of them. It was Leah's text that came through telling me that she was around the corner that made turning back too late.

With a deep breath, I grabbed my backpack and made my way down the stairs and into the living room where I could hear the boys bickering about the tv and what they were going to watch. Based on the smell seeping into the house, I could tell that Dad was in the backyard barbecuing. While I was impressed by the fact that Ben was out of his room for what seemed to be the first time in a week, lounging on the couch, I was a bit less impressed by him arguing with a five-year-old.

"Please! I wanna watch a cartoon!" Noah whined but Ben was deciding to ignore him at this point as he flicked through the tv channels.

"Ben seriously? You can't let him watch like one thirty minute show?" I asked, grinning as I stood in front of their view of the tv for a moment to silence their disagreement.

"Right, I'll just let him have everything that he wants just like you do." Ben said, shooting up from his position on the couch and throwing down the remote on the couch. Whatever light mood I had just a moment before was washed over with surprise that he was being serious. "It's a problem that I prefer being in my room and when I do come out, that's a problem too, I guess."

With wide eyes I looked over my brother, glancing down at his clenched fists, tight jaw, and the deep furrow of his brow but he was turning and walking away from me before I could even ask what his problem was today, the door to his bedroom slamming violently.

"Is Ben mad at me?" Noah asked, looking at me with those large dark eyes.

"I think Ben's mad in general." I said, leaning down and taking the remote to put on a kid's show before looking out in the direction of Ben's bedroom. "About what? I don't know."

Although I wanted to follow my younger brother to his bedroom and try to find out what exactly was going on, the sound of a car honking from outside redirected my attention. "That's my ride bud, I've gotta go." I said, leaning down to give him a hug and kiss. "Tell dad I'm gone, okay?" I said, grabbing a jacket and heading out the door.

Leah was waiting on me in the driveway in an older model Honda when I rounded to the passenger side and slipped in, setting my backpack between my knees. "You ready for tonight?" She asked me as she backed out of our driveway and made her way down the road.

"Of course, you guys are fun. What about you?" I asked, smiling over at her as she sighed.

"Honestly? I'm not super ecstatic about spending the night there." She admitted, running her fingers through her hair as she watched the road. "I feel like you should know the drama between Emily, Sam, and I if you're going to officially be a part of our little… friend group."

"Drama? What could the three of you possibly have drama about?" I questioned with a chuckle, figuring that she was joking.

"It's so messed up." She said with a groan, glancing over at me and then back to the road. "Sam and I, we actually used to date. This, of course, was before Emily came into the picture."

"You're lying." I said in disbelief and almost immediately she was shaking her head. "How can you even stand being around either of them?"

"It was really hard at first but… she's family. We used to be close growing up and it wasn't like they did anything behind my back. I'm over him now anyway so, I figure that I should just move on?" She explained.

"Well that explains you being so eager to give up your position at the bakery." I commented, taking everything into perspective now.

"Yeah, my mom insisted that I help and I hated it at first because I hated being around both of them together and he's always dropping in. I guess that it kind of helped in a way though, now I'm somewhat desensitized to them being a couple." She offered.

"So… you've seen Sam naked then?" I asked, raising a brow as I tried my best not to smirk at the girl who was groaning again.

"Don't." She said, unable to keep herself from laughing now.

The rain started just as we arrived to Emily's and while Leah opted for braving the rain, I jogged to the porch with my backpack held over my head, hoping that my things wouldn't get too wet. "You're gonna get sick, did you bring a change of clothes?" I asked Leah as I waited for her by the door. In response she rolled her eyes.

"What are you, my mother?" She asked with a grin, opening the front door and walking right into the house as if there wasn't a couple that lived here doing who knows what inside. Feeling like I was intruding, I hesitated for a moment before ultimately following closely behind Leah, closing the door behind myself and taking in the sound of multiple voices from the kitchen.

"Ladies! Will there be any pillow fighting tonight?" I heard Jared call from the kitchen. Clearly, I was the only person that ever seemed to be amused by him because in response to him, Leah scoffed as she led us into the kitchen and we stepped in just in time to catch Emily throw a kitchen towel at him as he leaned across the counter with a smirk. Following his comment, he went to take a seat at the kitchen table.

"Will be you be getting lost any time soon…or?" Leah asked, walking through the kitchen and dining space to set her things down in the living room.

I should have expected for Paul to be there, sitting at the table and watching me with that hard gaze considering that he seemed to be everywhere that Sam and Jared were but for some reason my body always seemed to want to take on a fight or flight response whenever I entered a room to find him in it.

"I'm really glad that you came Aria. This is actually the first time in a while hosting something other than a dinner for the boys." Emily said, with a smile. It was only now that I realized what she had been doing in the kitchen, making a charcuterie board that she now carried carefully into the living room, leaving me alone with the boys, standing awkwardly while they sat at the kitchen table.

The only reason that I didn't follow Emily into the living room was because I didn't want to seem like I was a lost puppy, certainly not with someone here that seemed to be dead set on making me feel unwelcome. I figured that the best thing that I could do was try and seem as unbothered by his presence as I could and if it annoyed him, that didn't hurt either.

"What are you guys doing here anyway? Tonight's supposed to be for the girls." I reminded them, even though I focused my attention solely on Jared. Conversationally, I wasn't going to get very far with Paul.

"And it will be, we're just waiting for Sam." He explained. "Since you ladies are staying in, we figured that we would all go out tonight. Some of us could use a little something to loosen up more than others." He said, looking over at his friend and giving him a playful nudge to which Paul turned to frown at him causing for Jared's playfulness to falter a little.

I resisted the urge to agree with Jared and instead, shifted to pull the end of my braid forward in front of my shoulder. "That sounds fun, we should have all gone together. I mean, assuming that you guys are leaving the reservation, I've been wanting to familiarize myself with the area. It would have been a nice outing." I explained. "I don't have a car yet so for now, I'm pretty restricted to things in walking distance."

"Well, if you want to see the other towns then I could take you sometime." Jared offered but then his gaze turned toward Paul that was staring at him in almost the same angry way that he seemed to look at me and he seemed to immediately think better of the idea altogether. "Actually—I forgot, my car's in the shop. You know who loves a good car ride though? Paul here." He said, moving to pat him on the shoulder but stopping before making contact, likely thinking better of his actions. "I've gotta make a phone call." He said standing and moving toward the direction of the front door down the hall.

Staring after the man that abruptly excused himself, I couldn't make sense of any part of what had just happened. Why was the always so confident Jared suddenly scrambling to get away from us. Was I as horrible at conversation as Paul?

"Don't worry about taking me anywhere." I offered instantly, shaking my head and folding my arms across my chest as I looked at him. Despite that tension that now seemed to be thick in this room, I could hear Leah and Emily laughing about something in the living room. "I was just making conversation."

"I can take you somewhere if it means you won't try and walk there." He countered almost before I had even finished talking.

I didn't understand this man at all. I didn't understand why he insisted on having conversations about me walking places and I certainly didn't understand why he was taking it upon himself to feed me some false idea that he cared so much about my safety that it had become his own personal problem.

"Is this like something that you do to new women that move here? Try and flatter them in some weird way by trying to pretend like you care about if they're walking around without a chaperone?" I asked, watching him with furrowed brows.

"Are you flattered?" He asked, raising a dark brow and for the first time ever, I watched a smirk settled on his features as he stood from the table. "There are no other women." He said as he walked passed me toward the entrance of the kitchen. His words stunned me so much that my lips parted to defend myself but it was Sam that spoke first, meeting him in the hall.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Let's go." Paul confirmed leaving me to try and decide what it was that Paul meant when he said that. I was just glad that I was alone now—the sound of the front door closing to reassure me that no one could see the blush on my cheeks or the whiplash that Paul seemed to give me.

"Okay so, now that you have a drinks in you, you'll tell the truth." Leah said, seated on a couch pillow that had been pulled onto the living room floor beside Emily who was taking yet another sip from her wine glass. "How are things with your dad?"

She was right of course, I think if this question would have came up in casual conversation, I probably would have avoided it but with a glass and a half of wine in my system, I was feeling warm and bubbly and more than willing to share with the two only friends that I had here. "Honestly? Kind of awkward?" I said, causing all of us to laugh. "I know that he's trying really hard but we just don't really know each other."

"I think it's so sweet that he went all out for you guys though. You know, he's been working on that house for years. He always said that he just felt that one day he would get you guys back." Emily shared, causing for me to raise my brows in surprise and shake my head.

"I can hardly believe that… He was the one that let us go in the first place! He never even came to visit that often over the years." I insisted.

"There's two sides to every story." Leah commented neutrally, pairing a cheese that I couldn't quite remember the name of with a cracker and stuffing it into her mouth.

"I guess." I said with a shrug, taking a sip from my own glass and setting it down on the coffee table now interested and shifting the conversation to another subject. "It's really been helpful that I've met the two of you though. I feel like if I hadn't met you, my experience here would be horrible, especially considering that I keep running into Paul."

"He's really not that bad!" Emily insisted, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Are we being honest here?" Leah asked, looking at the woman beside her with a raised brow.

"He can be…"

"An ass?" Leah interrupted Emily.

"Intense. You know, his parents had a pretty bad divorce when he was a teenager and it was kind of the talk of the reservation for a little while. I think you being here and knowing that your parents went through an intense relationship too is just bringing up a lot for him right now." Emily explained, ignoring Leah. "He's not great with emotions or… really opening up at all."

"I just don't understand why he can't be like any other guy that wants nothing to do with someone and just ignore them. You know what's insane? He actually offered to take me to see the surrounding cities. As if most of our conversations haven't just been him lecturing or glaring at me." I shared, watching for the look of surprise to wash over their expressions though it never did.

"I think you should go." Emily said encouragingly and it was only in that moment that I realized that me sharing about the invitation only left my lips because I was looking for someone to give me the permission to accept it.

I didn't remember falling asleep on the floor, sharing a blanket with Leah who was asleep beside me but based on the scene that I woke up to, I could see that we had all fallen asleep during a movie. The evidence of that being the dark room and the end credits rolling on the screen.

Figuring that I could get myself to fall asleep again, I found the remote in Emily's hand and carefully removed it from her loose grasp while she lay asleep on the couch and turned the tv off. In the complete darkness now, I rested on my side again but decided to check the time on my phone which was when I realized that my phone wasn't beside me at all. Getting up and trying to navigate my backpack in pitch blackness, I eventually found my phone in the small pocket of the bag to reveal not only that it was three in the morning but that Ben had texted and called me numerous times.

'Can you come home? I'm scared.' Was the text on my phone that I read that instantly sent me scrambling to my feet and throwing my backpack onto my shoulder. I didn't care that it was now both wet and freezing cold outside. I certainly didn't care that I was only wearing pajamas. I didn't even care that upon stumbling down the stairs of the front porch, I realized that I was a little off balance from all of the wine.

He had sent that text to me at midnight and I hadn't seen it.

I wasn't even thinking about my brothers the entire night and now something was wrong and I wasn't there. I was supposed to always be there because our parent's never were.

They would think I'm the worst.

I was walking as fast as I could.

I guess that at some point during the walk home, I started to feel sorry for myself. I couldn't help the sob that left me as my slippers trudged through the wet terrain and I just couldn't get there fast enough, I had gotten lost twice before I finally started to see the familiar driveway that led to our house and then a dread that I didn't quite anticipate washed over me that it would happen all over again—that I would return home to find out that another family member was dead.

I was pretty certain that I was going to have to stop for a second to throw up all of the wine I'd had earlier but I was interrupted by fast footsteps that turned into hands grasping me at my shoulders. The only reason that I didn't scream was because I realized that it was Paul grasping me just when I sucked in a breath.

"Why the hell are you walking by yourself at three in the morning, Aria? Huh?" There were too many things to focus on in the moment, he sounded livid. He was shouting at me and his hands that gripped my shoulders were so warm that I nearly forgot about the cold. "You were drinking and-"

"Get the fuck out of my way!" I screamed between sobs, pushing at his hands and then trying at his chest with no luck. When I looked up to meet his gaze with horror, his eyes soften and his hands moved to my hips, pulling me in closer.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?" He asked, inspecting me as my hands followed his to try and pry them off of myself in the same moment that my eyes turned toward my house with all of its lights out as if everyone was asleep inside.

Why was Paul so strong that I couldn't get his hands off of me? Why was he even coming from the direction of my house?

I felt sick all over again but instead of throwing up, another sob came up and more hot tears ran down my face. "Why are you here? Where are my brothers?"

"I was in the area," He said, watching me with a confused expression and despite the fact that I knew that he couldn't stand me, he seemed like he was afraid of letting me go. "Your brothers? What's going on?"

"Please let me go, I have to know that they're okay!" I insisted, trying again to push his hands off of me and this time, though he pulled me in toward himself again as if he was going to refuse, he finally let me go.

Now that I was free, I raced up the driveway and bounded up the stairs of our front porch fishing for my key in my backpack's pocket and hurriedly opened the door. Even though there weren't signs that anything horrible had happened upon entry, I knew better than to decide that things were safe until I made it to Ben's bedroom. Flicking the hallway light on, I opened his bedroom door and much to my relief, I found him in his bed asleep and for good measure I watched his chest rise and fall a couple of times.

Quietly, I closed his door and went to Noah's room where he too was asleep beneath the stars that were stuck to his ceiling.

It wasn't until I had finished checking dad's room for the sound of his snoring and came back to the staircase to go to my own room that I realized that Paul had come into the house behind me.

"I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay." He said, raising his hands as if to surrender from his position standing at the end of the hall by the stairs.

"You must think that I'm crazy." I commented, sniffling as I wiped at my cheeks with my hands.

"I'm just glad that you're okay." He said softly. "You should go to sleep." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets and turning on his heel to make his way toward the front door but I stepped forward.

"Well, you shouldn't be walking around this late at night either. You were drinking tonight too." I commented watching him as he hesitated. "It would make me feel better if you just stayed here for the night." I said honestly. I wasn't sure if it was because of the alcohol or because I'd already had enough of a panic tonight but I didn't need to also worry that Paul would go missing after leaving my house.

"Okay." He said and for the first time we were in agreement about something.

A/N: Here's a little bit of a longer chapter because I got some reviews! Thank you so much and thank you for reading!