Lemon Water // Paul Lahote

seventy two

Serena

"That's not possible!" I heard a voice yell as I was walking back into Sam and Emily's house.

After they concluded that I was going to phase soon, we all left the doctors to try and figure some things out. Mom and Embry went back to our house, but I went back to Sam's to see Paul again. Apparently, someone had informed him of our discovery and he was not taking it well.

"Paul! Calm down! You can't shift! You'll get hurt!" I heard a feminine voice yell. Leah.

"Fuck! Stay outside, Serena, I'll fix this" Sam exclaimed, running inside his house. I sighed and followed him. My presence would calm him down, I knew it.

I slowly made my way to the guest room where Paul was, listening to them yell at each other. "There's no way!" Paul yelled

"I phased! It's not impossible!" Leah yelled back

"The circumstances were different for you! Your dad just passed away! You were overcome by intense emotion!"

"There's vampires after Serena, this is our ancestors trying to protect her" Sam reasoned with Paul.

Nobody noticed me slip into the room where they all were. Paul, Leah, Sam, and Seth were all in there, the last three trying to keep Paul calm. "It's not safe for her. It's going to put her in so much more danger" Paul complained.

"Paul" I said, drawing everyone's attention to me, "I'm going to be ok"

"Serena, I told you to stay outside. Paul was about to lose it" Sam scolded me

"You can't stop me from coming inside to check on my boyfriend" I replied. Paul was wearing a a big grin, a chuckle leaving his mouth.

"That's my girl. Standing up to the big bad alpha" Paul laughed and motioned for me to join him in the bed, pulling me up to his side when I laid next to him.

"Serena, you just need to be careful. I don't want what happened to Emily to happen to you" Sam said

"It won't, I promise" Paul assured Sam and he nodded, leaving the room with Seth and Leah in tow.

"Who told you?" I asked Paul once they were gone.

"Embry told Quil, who then though about it while in form which is how Seth found out, and you know that Seth likes to spill secrets" he replied.

"How are you feeling? Any pain? Are you wearing pants yet?"

"Yes, I'm wearing pants, Jared helped me out"

"How much did you pay him?"

"Is it so hard to believe that he was just being a good friend?" He laughed and I raised my eyebrows at him, "twenty"

"Embry probably would have done it for ten"

"Yeah, Embry wasn't here when I wanted pants"

"What about your leg? How does it feel?"

"Ike I got run over a million times by a bus, but it hurts less when you're here"

"What does it feel like to phase for the first time?"

"Why? Are you scared?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I guess I should try and prepare myself for when it happens"

"I don't think anything can prepare you for the first time it happens. Some of us feel a lot of pain and it happened slowly, but others, like myself, were so clouded by emotion that we barely felt anything"

"How do you think it's gonna be for me?"

"I don't know what would be the better option, honestly. I don't want to see you hurting, but I don't want you to go through what I did. I think it may be worse that way because it takes a while for you to feel anything but the emotion you were feeling at the time of the shift"

Two days later I was standing on the lacrosse field, getting ready to play against on of our rival schools. Embry, Sam, Emily, and mom we're all in the stands, waiting for the game to start. Once again, it was pouring rain, making it hard to see what I was doing during warmups.

Finally, the match started and the cheering began. This game was going to be difficult. It was only the second of the season, but this team was apparently know for dominating the field and playing dirty.

Ten minutes in, the other team lived up to the rumors, because one of the other midfielders on my team was on the ground, clutching her dislocated shoulder.

"Call!" My coach yelled, drawing my attention to him. "Attack middle, cut left, shoot low to the right, they can't stop it"

I nodded at him and waited for the ball, then did exactly as he said, tying the game. Cheers erupted from the crowd, but the other team just got angrier. The very next play, I found myself getting pulled out of the game with the threat of a concussion after I was body slammed by two of the other team.

Coach sent me home after junior varsity was over to get some rest. In my head, I knew that I would be fine if I needed to play for varsity, but they didn't know that.

The next day, I was at Sam and Emily's house again, laying next to Paul. He was getting antsy since he hasn't really been able to leave the bed, only just to use the bathroom. "How's your game go last night?" He asked me, playing with my hair.

"I got pulled for a concussion halfway through. Jv lost and I'm not sure how varsity did"

"They hurt you?!"

"Paul, I'm fine, superhuman healing remember?"

"Not yet, just enhanced, you're not a wolf just yet"

"I just wish it would happen already, I'm sick of waiting around "

"Once I'm able to walk around and do things again we're going on a date" he said, out of the blue

"Oh yeah? What makes you say that?"

"We haven't been on an actual date yet, I want to spoil you. You deserve it"

"Paul, I don't need to go on dates to like you"

"I know that, maybe I need to go on dates to like you" he joked

"Real funny big guy"

"I'm thinking stargazing, are you into that?"