ASPEN ➵ Paul Lahote [1]

five

Aspen Kennedy couldn't stop thinking about Paul Lahote. Or rather, couldn't stop running their encounter through her head over and over endlessly. She was trying to nail down how she felt about it. Somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach, right below the butterflies that flurry when her mind reimagines his deep brown eyes, she feels this tug. Like an invisible string tugging her in a direction she didn't know. She only wanted to know why.

Absentmindedly, Aspen joins Bella in the line to get lunch after walking through the cafeteria. The space was filled with teenagers laughing, some cramming in homework or studying for a test, and others running around. It was a chaotic scene, really, but she was too lost in her own thoughts to even hear Bella ask her a question.

"Hey, earth to Aspen," Bella said as she nudged the brunette who had just joined her. Aspen looked up from the tray now in her hands and apologized.

"I'm sorry, Bells. What did you say?"

"I was asking if that was you I saw this weekend with Sam Uley's group cliff jumping?" Bella repeated.

They continued to make their way through the lunch line as Aspen responded, grabbing an apple and placing it on her tray. "Oh, yeah! I meant to give you a call this weekend to tell you about it. I've been so in my head these past few days, I'm sorry. My friend Embry invited me but I didn't cliff jump, though, don't worry. I went to go meet his friends!" Aspen enthusiastically said, recalling the events of the weekend and circling back to her thoughts about Paul.

"I know Embry," Bella began as they moved out of the lunch line. "He was friends with Jacob Black. The old friend I have been hanging out with. Is he doing okay? Jacob mentioned he missed school and now he doesn't talk to him."

"Embry mentioned he met you in Jacob's garage once, but he hasn't said anything about him or about missing school. I guess I can ask him about it, but I don't think I knew him when all of that happened," the girl stated. Aspen paused their conversation, scanning the cafeteria for an empty table. Typically, they sat at the Cullen's old table, but it seemed that her friend had a different idea today as the usually timid girl took a stride to her old group of friends and plopped herself down in a chair, pulling another one up beside her for Aspen to sit down.

Aspen looked around at the teenagers circling around the table. Angela had pink rimmed glasses and her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she tossed around a camera in her hands. Next to her, Jessica sat with a headband pulling back her auburn hair, her arms crossed in a pink long sleeve. Eric sat next to Angela, his boyish and longer black hair brushing over his expressive eyes, and she joked with Mike sitting beside him, who was buried beneath his varsity jacket. Jessica, Eric, Mike, and Angela paused for a moment but continued talking with their new additions present.

"I'll kill Tyler if he gave me this flu," Jessica states whilst rubbing her eyes.

Angela piped up, "It's going around. My sister was so sick she couldn't come on our hike this weekend... so she didn't see it."

Aspen turned her attention to Angela as she ate different vegetables on her tray, interested in the conversation now. She wondered if Angela's hike resulted in a wolf sighting, too.

"You saw something?" she questioned Angela.

"Ang, maybe you should keep that to yourself," Eric interrupted the girl's response.