Chapter Four

Jared

She's sitting on the beach again, sunglasses perched atop her head. She's holding a book again, reading with the aid of the flashlight on her phone. Her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail, strands of it sticking to her cheeks in the humid air.

"Hey, Jolie!" I do my best to keep from startling her, but she jumps a little anyways before a grin cresses her face.

"Hey, Jared. How's life?" She sits up straighter, folds down a corner of her page, then drops the book into the sand before turning her full attention to me. I'm again lost in her eyes, the way the moonlight is reflected in them. She must be radiant in the sun.

"It's good. I've been looking for you."

"How's that been going?" A look flickers across her face, but it's gone before I can decipher it.

"I found you, so I'd call it a win." Now she smiles slightly, her eyes lightening a little in the moon's rays.

"Still on that cancer book?" My gaze drops to the book she was reading.

"Nope. I'm on a book about the zombie apocalypse." She flips the book so I can read the title, World War Z.

"Sounds like my kind of book."

She shrugs and shifts a little on her towel. "I just started it. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet."

"How was your family stuff?" I sit in the sand next to her towel, stretching my legs out in front of me.

"Family stuff? Oh! It was good."

"That's good. Do you want to do something this weekend? A picnic or something?" I turn to watch her face.

Jolie bites her lip, a look of anxiety flickering quickly across her face before she masks it. She doesn't say anything, and I'm about to tell her she doesn't have to, when she speaks.

"I can't. It's not that I don't want to, but I can't." She glares down at her hands before meeting my eyes. "I'm sorry. I want to, it's just..." she trails off, her gaze drifting to the ocean.

"Just what?"

When Jolie turns to me again, her face is blank. She doesn't answer my question, just stares at my face, as if committing it to memory before standing.

"It's a long story." She grabs her book and heads for her car. "See you."

The sun streams into the windows of Sam and Emily's kitchen as I slip in. Emily's standing at the stove, whisking something in a pot. She smiles when she sees me.

"Hey, Jared. How's it going?"

"I'm trying to figure her out." I grown as I drop into a chair at the kitchen table.

"Jolie?" Emily sets a muffin in front of me. I quickly unwrap it and take a big bite before nodding.

"I asked her to go on a picnic, but she said she can't. It wasn't like she wasn't interested, she said she can't. Said it was a long story, and then she just walked away."

Emily frowns before removing the pot from the stove. She gives it another stir, then grabs a large Tupperware container from the counter and begins transferring the food into it. The whole time she does this, she's deep in thought.

"She's new here? Like, she just moved in?" Emily turns her full attention to me again.

"Yeah."

"I think I saw her in the grocery store. Brown hair and eyes, wears a mask over her face? Dresses like it's five below outside?"

"What?" That first part sounds right, but Jolie doesn't wear a mask, and the few times I've seen her, she was wearing normal clothes.

"That can't be her. Right hair and eye color, but not the mask. And not the fashion sense."

"Yeah. I thought it was a little weird, but I try not to judge." Emily's fingers move to the scars on her face. "Anyway, maybe she's just shy. Give her time, let her get know you. I'm sure she feels it to."

I head to the library later that morning, enjoying the feeling of the sun hitting my skin. It's rare to have a sunny day in La Push, and it must be soaked in whenever it happens.

The librarian is surprised when I check out the Hunger Games, which isn't surprising, because I'm never in here. The La Push library is small, and it only has a few hundred books. I'm lucky it had the one I was looking for.

Heading to the beach with my book in hand, I'm half convinced I'll find Jolie there, doing some sun tanning as opposed to the moon tanning she had done when we first met. I search the beach, but she's nowhere to be found. It's as if Jolie just appears whenever it's convenient, and then disappears for days at a time.

When I next spot her, she's sitting under the shade of a large maple that grows in a small park. She's once again reading by the flashlight on her phone, once again obscured in shadow by the darkness of night. I cross the park towards her, holding my own book loosely in my hand.

"Hey, Jared." Jolie is the first to peak this time, flipping the book closed on her thumb to hold her page.

"Hey, Jolie. Mind if I join you?"

"Go for it." She slides over a little on the ground, moving more into the shadows. I settle next to her, inhaling the scent of coconut that always seems to hang around her.

"You smell like coconut."

In the shadows, I can't quite see Jolie's face. I can, however, catch the small hint of laughter in her voice when she answers. "It's my new shampoo." Then, catching sight of the book in my hand, "Is that The Hunger Games? I knew I'd make you a reader."

"Don't get your hopes up too high. It's just one book."

"That's all it takes."

She lifts her flashlight and holds it against the page of her book. I pull out my own phone and do the same. For a long time, the only sounds are the turning of pages and the various nightlife around us. I'm surprised by the peace I find in it.

a/n: I'm back with another chapter. It's harder to write from Jared's POV than from Jolie's, but I enjoy the challenge. I hope you enjoy the update. Later!

Lauren.

Replies to reviews:

MerliaPhoenix: I'm sorry about your cousin. My great grandmother had a milder allergy, but she couldn't go outside during the day, either. It is my hope that by sharing about these conditions we will normalize them and make a more accepting society.

AJCorgiQueen: I'm so glad your loving this story. XP is a very rare condition, effecting a very small portion of the population. I'm glad I could teach you about it, and I hope I continue to educate. Emily's reaction to Jolie is in this chapter, although it's only mentioned in passing. I have a chronic illness myself, and feel insecure about it sometimes. I just hope one day we can break the stigma, which starts with accurate rep. I cannot guarantee that my XP rep is 100% accurate, but I have based it off of hours of research. Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.