Blue Eyed Girl •Paul Lahote

•ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇss•

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Emily asked with a wide smile. Even if I wasn't excited about it, I knew I'd pretend to be, because she was.

"Yeah. Graduation, no more homework." I said and she shook her head.

"No, silly. Your birthday." She said just as I heard the door behind us open and shut.

"Tomorrow's your birthday." Paul said surprised as I looked at Emily with wide eyes.

"Sorry, sweetheart." She said giving me one last smile before dipping out of the kitchen.

"I don't want to make a big deal about it." I said shaking my head. I never mentioned to anyone that the night I killed my family, was the night of my tenth birthday. To me, it wasn't a day that should be celebrated.

"But it is a big deal."

"It's also graduation and the Cullen's are having a party." I reminded him. I know Sam and Emily were coming to graduation, but a small part of me hoped Paul would be there too.

"So, I can't take you out for your birthday?" He asked with a smirk.

"I want you to come to the party. Bella invited Jacob, and I think Mike might invite Leah now that they talked."

"As your?" He trailed off as he held out the last word for longer than needed. I knew what he was fishing for, but I held off.

"As the only person I want to spend tomorrow with." I finished his sentence for him. He stayed quiet for a moment before accepting my answer.

"I'll take it." He nodded and I finally returned his smile.

"I never thanked you. You didn't have to be that nice to Mike, especially after.." I trailed off thinking back to the night I said I'd break up with him, and didn't.

"It wasn't easy. He's not that bad once you get a beer in him." Paul shrugged as if it was nothing, but it wasn't nothing. Especially for someone with a temper like Paul's.

"We talked this morning. I think we ended things. We just talked about him and Leah, and you and I." I said and he gave an awkward nod.

"Are you okay with how everything ended up?" He asked, and even from the other room, Emily awaited the girl's response.

"I-"

"There's the soon-to-be birthday girl!" Embry said as he and Jake walked in.

"I'm leaving." I said bluntly as I started to walk towards the door.

Paul sighed as he reluctantly followed her out the door, leaving Jacob and Embry confused by the pair. They wondered why things still seemed so complicated, and Paul wondered the same thing.

"Where are you going?" He asked as he followed closely behind me.

"The Cullen's. I want to see Bella." I said without even sparing him a glance. I didn't know what I was feeling, but I knew the tension between us was thickening. With Mike out of the picture, I didn't know how to communicate what or how I felt, and I knew that frustrated Paul.

"When are you going to stop running from this?" Paul shouted. I knew it was only a matter of time before he ran out of patience.

I spun around to face him and pushed him back with my pointer finger. "Let's get one thing straight: I don't run." I said, and when I was met with his lip twitching in a smirk, it pissed me off even more.

"Oh, really, because from where I'm standing, that's all you've been doing lately." Paul said back, his stance firm.

"You ran from me when you felt the imprint, you ran from Sam, hell, you've been running from whatever the hell happened when you went to save that bloodsucker in Italy. One day, Malia, you are going to have to face whatever it is you feel." He kept going, every word he said ate away at me more.

"I don't know what I feel about anything. I don't know how to do this. Like I said before, I'm sorry that it had to be me." I said going to walk away, but he gripped my arm and pulled me back.

"Like I said. I'm not. I'm not pushing you to confess your love for me or for something crazy like marriage. All I want is for you to be in the same room as me, for you to be able to talk to me like things were before."

"I can do that."

"Tomorrow night, after the party. Meet me at the park near Sam's. I have something for you." He said, and I nodded before watching him walk away. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in.

I wasn't in the mood to walk all the way to the Cullen's after that so I settled on going to Leah's.

When I knocked, Seth was the one to open the door. "Oh, hey Mal. How's it hanging?" Seth said leaning in the doorway, in his own attempt to look cool.

"Is Leah home?"

"She's out with Mike." He said and I nodded.

"We can hang out." He suggested and I just shrugged and accepted his invitation.

"So, what's the problem?" He asked as he crashed down beside me on the couch with a TV remote in hand.

"Why do you think there is a problem? I asked and he shrugged.

"Why else would you be looking for Leah, when you have Paul?" He asked making too much sense for my liking.

"I don't know how to do this," I admitted.

"You did it with Mike."

"It was easy. Edward would tell me what to do and say. Now, he won't. I think it's punishment for blocking him from my thoughts." I explained.

"Why block him out? He could probably help you sort out what you are feeling." Seth asked, and I just sighed as I heard the front door shut.

"Do you want to know what I think?" Jake asked plopping down on the couch beside me as he threw his arm around my shoulder.

"I didn't think you could think without a brain," I said, and Seth burst out in laughter.

"Hurtful, but I can respect a good joke," Jake said with a proud smile on his face.

"You aren't the same girl you were when they pulled you out of the woods. The only person who still sees you like that is you." Jake said and I just thought about his words.

Even Peter saw right through me. Jake was right. I wasn't that same girl, who only looked out for herself. I had people around me that I grew to care about. That's what Peter saw, and I knew he saw it as my weakness.