DAKOTA LAHOTE - e.c

12. pictures

dakota surprisingly shook off the incident in the woods in no time. she made food for quil, they watched a movie, and then he went home.

once he left, she immediately went to print off the photos from her camera. as they took forever to develop, she fell asleep, ignoring all her problems in the world.

the next morning, she woke up late, giving her no time to look at the printed photos. she shoved them in her bag and decided she'd look at them later.

during the car ride, dakota noticed paul looked a bit tired. the circles under his eyes were getting darker and he was becoming more lazy.

"you should fix your posture." she suggests. "don't want to end up with old lady posture like great grandma barb."

"well, great grandma barb died before you could walk. she also had scoliosis. so i'm not worried."

"so, what'd you do last night while i was gone?" he asks, hiding his curiosity.

dakota immediately knew something was up. he never asks things like that. but she didn't care, she wanted to get it off her chest.

"i saw a wolf in the woods. a fucking wolf, isn't that crazy?" she starts. "it was huge and black and terrifying, and i was all alone in the woods. and i outran it."

"what the hell were you doing in the woods when it's dark out? do you wanna fucking die?"

"no, dipshit. i was taking pictures for an essay." she glares at him. "are you gonna ask if i'm okay?"

"you seem perfectly fine to me. and there's no way you outran a wolf. just saying."

"why do i even bother telling you stuff like this?" she mutters, turning to the window, deciding she's not speaking to him for the rest of the ride.

when dakota walked in her first period, the last thing she expected to see was embry waiting for her to walk in. but there he was, watching her every move and smiling as she sat down in the desk next to him.

she ignored the pain in her chest as she could see him staring at her creepily.

"dakota." he whispered. "can we talk?"

she looked at him with the most angry face ever, hoping he'd get the hint.

"please, i need to talk to you." he begged. "i have things to . . . explain."

right as he said the last sentence, quil walks in, taking his assigned desk in front of dakota. he turned his body towards her, completely ignoring embry. "hey, how'd you sleep?"

she smiled at him, grateful for the conversation interruption. embry, however, looked at the two talking. something inside him felt wrong. it was about to happen.

he repeated sam's words in his mind, breathing in and out and focusing on something else. it calmed him down, but the jealousy in his heart didn't go away.

"okay, i guess. i brought the pictures. i'm gonna look at them in the library during my study hall."

"cool cool cool."

embry didn't try talking to dakota again, which she was thankful for. it hurt her just to see his face. she couldn't give in to his apologies though, not after what he did. it wasn't okay.

during the period after lunch, she sat in the library, taking out the pictures and looking at them. she'd pick them up one by one and put them down after five seconds, becoming dissatisfied.

a particular one taken right when the sun went down caught her eye. it was a picture of the trees, one with moss growing all over it. in the background, she saw a pair of yellow eyes, brightening from the camera flash. it's head was furry and a shade of brown. other than that, dakota couldn't really tell anything.

but she knew it was another animal. another wolf. in the woods right behind her house.

"woah, nice pictures." a voice said behind her. "you mind if i sit?"

dakota looked at the person, nodding. she took the picture she was holding and put it under the discarded pile.

"did you take these?" the girl asks.

she has short blonde hair, light brown eyes, and pale skin. she wore a blue knitted sweater and skinny jeans. dakota recognized her as one of only six non native american students at the school.

"yeah i did."

"they're really good." she says, pointing. "you should join the photography club."

"oh, i don't know, i'm not into that stuff. this was just a one time thing."

"oh, bummer." she wallows. "i'm averi. averi beckham."

"i'm dakota lahote."

"okay, well, i gotta get back to my history studying. if you reconsider joining, you can find me here at lunch." she smiled, not waiting for dakota's response before heading back to her table.

she sat there, staring at a bookshelf in front of her. it was nice not to think for a while. but eventually the bell rang, snapping dakota back into reality. she headed to her locker, grabbing her stuff. surprisingly, quil was waiting for her there.

"hey, can i have some pictures now?" he asks.

"oh, i completely forgot." she handed him her backpack, zipping it open and handing him some photos. "c'mon, you can look at them while we walk."

he obeyed her and skimmed through them while they walked out the door together. after a while of looking, he held one up and showed her.

"not that one." she says, pointing to the corner of it. "that's my only evidence of the wolf."

"dun, dun, dunnnn." quil says eerily. "oh, that's kinda freaky."

"kinda? that thing almost demolished me." she laughed. "kinda cool though."

quil's face changed as he stared at something in the parking lot. dakota looked in the direction, her expression changing as well. "oh my god."

"well, have fun with that!" quil exclaimed, leaving dakota and her troubles. she sighed, walking towards paul and his gang.

"hey. . . " jared said awkwardly as she reached them and no one said anything.

she just looked at him like he said the stupidest thing ever.

"uh, we were thinking we'd eat dinner at emily's." paul said slowly, as if dakota would bite him if he spoke too fast.

"okay, so i'm on my own for dinner. got it."

"no, uh, you're coming with us." paul said.

"why?"

paul looked at the other boys, wishing they'd speak up. jared did that. "sam . . . er, wants to talk to you."

"what for?"

"you'll see. just get in the car." paul said, gesturing towards the car. jared beat her to the front.

"i call shotgun!"

the two got in the car, leaving dakota and embry.

"hey, it's really important." embry muttered. "emily has been saying she misses you."

"whatever." she rolled her eyes. he opened the door for her, waiting for her to go in. she went around and sat as far away as possible from him.

it hurt him, but he knew she'd come around. he was convinced she would. that was the only thing keeping him together, the fact that she'd forgive him in the future.

guys i completely forgot about this story because i turned off wattpad notifications and deleted it from my phone screen so that's my bad. love you guys 💖💖