the grudge , e. call

three; steamy windows

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When Embry, Quil, and Maliah left, Maliah was five dollars richer and annoyed that Jacob was blowing them off for a paleface he'd known for five minutes. At the beach, Maliah skipped rocks on the choppy waves.

"Ridiculous. He's ridiculous!" She complained.

Embry pat her back twice as he pressed a kiss against her forehead. "It's okay, babe. Jacob is a flake."

"He's an asshole."

He nodded sympathetically. "Sure."

Maliah threw her rock down on the sand and turned to face Embry. "Let's go see your movie, babe."

Embry silently celebrated the end of Maliah's annoyance at Jake and walked back towards his house with her hand in his. When they got to the small but well kept house, Embry stopped. "Just so you know, my mom is going to be very pushy because she hasn't seen you in a while."

"It's only been like two weeks," Maliah said, but she shrugged anyways. Her and Tiffany had always gotten along well enough. "I can take it."

The pair walked into Embry's house and as soon as the door closed, Tiffany was in front of them. "Maliah, it's been ages how have you been? How's school. Tell me everything because someone-" She gave Embry a pointed glance "-never talks to me anymore."

"I've been good," she answered. "School is pretty good the honors classes aren't too bad this year and my grades have been A's and B's pretty steadily so far, although I think my English Lit teacher has it out for me because she keeps 'losing' my assignments and making me redo them. Oh, also I got a new perfume I think you'd love. It's got a sweet floral scent but also kind of fruity."

Embry stood patiently (for the most part) while his mom and girlfriend chatted about perfume and her plans for the upcoming prom; what her dress would look like and how she intended on wearing her hair. Tiffany would not and ask questions and Maliah would smile and answer them.

Finally Embry's already thinned patience hit its maximum and he cut into the conversation. "If we don't get going, Mom, we're gonna miss our movie."

"You don't need to have a fit," Tiffany answered, handing Embry the keys to her sedan. Really it was his car-he'd bought it himself and everything, fixed it up with Jake-but his mom took his keys after he snuck out to see Maliah after the party and when her car broke down, it was a perfect excuse for her to keep a close eye on her son. "Drive safe. Theres been a lot of accidents on the 101 lately."

He nodded and pocketed the keys. "Love you, Ma."

"Love you too," she said to her son. To Maliah, she said, "Bye sweetie, thanks for dropping by. And make sure my son doesn't drive like a drunk."

Embry rolled his eyes. "You swerve to avoid a raccoon one time and suddenly you're a drunk."

Maliah laughed and they walked out to the car together after saying goodbye to Tiffany one more time. "That wasn't so bad. I love your mom."

"That makes one of us."

Halfway to the theater, Maliah looked over at Embry. "So prom is next month."

He nodded. Prom was all he had been thinking about, specifically how to ask Maliah if she wanted to go with him. "It is."

"Are we going?"

Embry shrugged. "If you want to."

Maliah laughed airily. "I'm a teenage girl, of course I want to go to the prom," she said jokingly. "But if you don't want to go, I completely understand."

"I've been trying to figure out how to ask you," Embry admitted shyly. "I was thinking I would make some grand gesture with flowers and song and dance. You know, to show you how much I love you and all that cheesy stuff."

She shrugged and put her hand on his that rested on her thigh. "I think you should save that for if you ever piss me off."

"I could never."

She was quiet for a minute. "I've been thinking," Maliah said. "You know how that party was the last one Sam threw? And how now Paul Lahote and Jared Cameron are roid-ing it up with him?"

Embry nodded. They pulled off the highway on the exit to Port Angeles. "Yeah, they used to be really cool."

"Well, if Sam like, I don't know, makes a move on you to convince you to join his cult," Maliah started. "I want you to promise me that you'll tell him no and like, tell an adult or something. I don't want to lose you the way that Leah lost Sam."

Leah and Maliah were relatively close despite their slight age gap. Being the only two girls in the tribe elders' families that were close in age made them forge a bond. When Sam started to avoid Leah, she came to Maliah to vent because Leah was under the impression he was just not allowed to see her because of Maliah's bra incident. Then when he moved out of his house to a little cottage bordering the woods and started to date her cousin Emily, Leah knew their relationship was truly over and was heartbroken. The loss of Sam devastated her.

Maliah didn't want to experience that.

"I pinky promise, Maliah," Embry said. "I'm never going to leave you like that. I love you too much to live my life without you."

They parked all the way in the back of the movie theater and the two teens started to make out over the console, pulling each others shirts off. Maliah moved over the console and straddled Embry's lap in the seat, kissing him again.

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The windows were steamed and with sweaty hands and racing hearts, Embry and Maliah redressed. He helped her fasten her belt and they looked at the clock on the dashboard.

"We missed the movie,"Maliah pointed out.

Embry sighed. "I think the next one starts soon."

"If I miss curfew, you get to deal with Ilene Ateara's wrath," Maliah said.

They walked in together and Embry bought their tickets and concessions; a large popcorn with extra butter, Coke for him, and a blue raspberry slushee to satiate Maliah's sudden sweet tooth. In the theater, she lifted the arm rest and snuggled into his side, sipping on her slushee. Every time Embry laughed at the film, Maliah smiled. Embry played with her hair, twirling it around his finger and every time she flinched at the volume of a gun shot or explosion in the movie, Embry would kiss her forehead that laid against his chest.

They were in love and there was nothing better for either of them than to be in a post-sex haze watching a crappy action movie in each other's arms.

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ivy speaks!

me 🤝 fade to black (it's givinggggg tv-14) but i seriously love my little babies