Speak || A Twilight Fanfic

Chapter 15

"You have to talk to her, Paul," Sam said as he sat beside the boy. "This has gone on for far too long, and she deserves to know."

"I want to," Paul sighed, throwing his head back in frustration. "But now that Jacob shifted, it's just too complicated. And I don't know if she even wants to see me. I haven't heard from her in almost three weeks."

"Which could have been avoided had you just told her over a month ago," the alpha countered. "I know you think you're protecting her by keeping her in the dark, but it's doing you both more harm than good at this point. She needs to know the truth for her own sake."

"I am doing this for her sake, Sam! Just a few days ago, we killed a vampire that almost mauled her sister. If Gabi had been there..."

"But she wasn't, and Gabi is not Bella. She is not the Swan that ran with bloodsuckers, or that wanted to become one," the older wolf reasoned. "Gabriella is your imprint, Paul. And being apart is killing you. I could bet everything I have that it's killing her too."

The words made Paul's heart shatter. Because he knew she was hurting, but it wasn't because of him. She hadn't been the same since she had seen Bella and Jacob together. Even if she hadn't said anything, he knew they were the reason she had been avoiding him. Not that he gave her any reason to know that the farness would hurt him. "I know that she's hurting, but not because of me," he admitted sadly. "She's still in love with Jacob, Sam. I have no chance to be anything other than a friend in her life, and only if she wants that. And, right now, it doesn't seem like she does."

"Gods, Paul, you really believe you'll be bad for her," Sam analyzed. The boy could only stare at the alpha as he said the words he had been too scared to admit. "Look, man, I know you've had a hard childhood, and you weren't the prototype of the perfect teenager, but you're still a good person. Sure, you are short-tempered and stubborn. You can be argumentative at times and a bit annoying in others..."

"If this is supposed to cheer me up, I'm telling you right now, it's not."

"I'm not finished," Uley chuckled. "I'm saying that you have flaws, like all of us do. I mean, for heaven's sake, I permanently scarred the face of the woman I love, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I love her. And it doesn't mean I am a bad person. You can't force your opinion of yourself onto her. She has to decide what she wants you to be to her. And the only way she can do that is if you tell her the truth. The whole truth."

Paul knew that Sam was right. That the only way Gabriella and he could ever have even a sliver of a chance was to come clean about everything. But he couldn't help the fears that overtook him. He had spent most of his life running from the choices that would land him on the path he was terrified of. A path that would only repeat the pain from his past.

"I just hope you're the one that says something, Paul," Sam finally sighed as he took the boy's silence as a response. "Jacob technically has nothing stopping him from telling her the truth. And who knows what will happen if that's how things go down."

***

There was more disappointment rushing through Gabriella than anger. At whom it was directed, she wasn't quite sure. Then again, she wasn't quite sure about a lot of things in those days.

After Paul had dropped her off at her house, she went straight to her room and locked herself inside for the remainder of the day. Not even when her father called her down to dinner did she leave, claiming to have a stomachache that she wanted to sleep off. Her mind was reeling with so many thoughts she believed it would burst at any moment.

And that's how the next couple of days went by in a blur. She hadn't even noticed that Valentine's Day had come it gone. Had it not been for Mike Newton and Eric Yorkie, Bella's rather enthusiastic friends, and other anonymous people gifting her some roses, she would have never known that the day had passed.