𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗘-ᵗʷⁱˡⁱᵍʰᵗ¹

thirty-eight

"Can you guys eat chocolate without dying if you're like—" Sage paused tilting her head as Jared, Embry, and Quil stared at her confused. "saying in wolf form sounds so weird, ew. Im friends with a bunch of furries!"

The four were taking up her living room, the tv playing That 70s Show reruns on low volume. Sage's spoon of ice cream was held an inch away from her mouth as she looked at her friends disgusted, which they met with laughter. "Seriously, It's not funny if anyone knew this it'd seriously ruin my street cred!"

"Sage, you dont have any street cred." The girl glared at Quil, sticking her spoon in her mouth as she threw a pillow at him.

"Hey it's not his fault you've become a big ole softy!"

"Stop defending him Jared."

"Yes ma'am." The boys immediately turned back to the show, and Sage continued stuffing spoon fulls of ice cream in her mouth. Hyde had just been busted for possession, which Red was clearly extremely happy about.

Sam and Emily had left to pick up Claire, and Paul was who knows where— Sage still wasn't speaking to him, still angry at his assumption of her cheating. School was preparing to start and no one was ready to start Junior year, that just meant they'd have to actually start getting their shit together! The group of Quileute kids were acting as if they'd never see each other again, because what are teenagers if not dramatic.

As Eric was crowned the biggest idiot, Paul walked through the door. Him and Sage both paused, staring at each other before he motioned for her to follow him. She groaned, setting her bowl on the coffee table before following the boy outside.

They found themselves in their typical clearing, sitting on a fallen tree as they sat in silence for a few minutes. "Im sorry."

Sage looked at Paul, her brows slightly raised. The boy just stared back at her, his hands clasped together. "For?"

Paul sighed. "I'm sorry for assuming you would cheat on me."

Sage just hummed. "Can you at least say something?"

"I just want to know what the hell made you think i'd ever do that."

"It wasn't you, I just. I don't know, Momentary spurt of extreme jealousy?" Sage just stared at him.

"And you thought running off was the best way to deal with it? Not even bothering to talk to me? How are we ever supposed to solve issues if that's your go to response, Paul?"

"I don't know, look I'm trying." He grabbed her hands, and her face softened.

"I know, trust me i'm trying too. But this can't work if we run around in circles avoiding communication." His brows stitched in confusion.

"Are we—"

"No," she shook her head as she spoke. "We just have to start communicating. Our lack as always been our downfall."

She stood up as she finished speaking, beginning to walk before turning back to him with raised brows. "Are you coming? I'm missing my favorite show."

Paul just smiled and caught up to her, catching her hand in his as they walked back to Sam's.

Sage quickly got comfortable on the couch, tossing popcorn at Embry as he made obnoxious kissing noises. The group fell into comfortable silence as the show continued playing, Sage booing anytime it went to commercial breaks. Hours later the group was still in the same spots as a three year old tossed herself onto Sage's stomach.

"Clair! The pretty pretty princess is here!" Clair just giggled, curling up on Sage's side.

"I wanna watch the princesses." Sage furrowed her brows as she looked at the toddler.

"Which princess?" Claire put her fingers on her chin dramatically.

"Belle!" Sage high fived the girl and stared at Embry with a raised brow. The boy cursed under his breath, causing Emily to quickly scold him, as he moved to the dvd player putting in Beauty and the beast.

The young girl quickly climbed under the blanket with Sage, sticking her tongue out at Paul before staring firmly at the tv. Jacob was still missing and Sage was convinced he'd miss the first week or so of Junior year at this point.

All that was known of the boys location was Northern Canada. No clue of the providence or city he was in, just a rough estimate of how far he had ran to escape the truth. Sure Sage hated him sometimes, how he always turned to Bella as if she were the only person in the world, how he wouldn't take her endless nos as a response.

Jacob was an asshole— but he was one of her favorite assholes, and he'd run off towards an unknown land leaving the girl without him. Sage absolutely hated it— her abandonment issues came out the day he disappeared.

She supposes she's hypocritical in that way, she can always leave someone, but the second they leave her behind she forgets how to cope. She gets angry at them, their name becoming taboo. The worst thing about Jacob's actions was who he'd left behind. Who he was pushing away by chasing after childhood crushes.

Bella was getting married to the undead, she was becoming one of them. No one could stop it, no one could talk her out of it. Sage was to attend the wedding, Charlie was determined to have the teenager there and she could never say no to him. She had been putting off finding an outfit but she couldn't do that much longer, if she did she'd end up wearing nothing more than jeans and a shirt.

When the credit began to roll on Beauty and the Beast, Claire was fast asleep, snuggled into Sage's side and latched to her arm. The teenager looked towards Emily. "I need to go shopping tomorrow, wanna come?"

The woman looked at Sage, her head slightly tilted as she debated it. "I'm down. Sam can you—"

The older Uley cut the woman off with a nod, causing the two girls to smile. It'd been a while since they had a girls day with just them.

WILLOW SPEAKS!!

we're in the home stretch!!

i'm having mixed emotions about it, finishing this means more time for the rest of the books in the series (and hopefully finishing it soon) and the other books in my drafts.

but it also means saying goodbye to writing things from Sage's prospective, and pretty much writing her in general.

I've also decided this book will get an epilogue portion, spanning over a few years im not sure if any others in the series will get more than one wrap up chapter, because i clearly pick favorites.