Golden Hour: A Team Jacob Twilight FanFic

Why Didn't I Just Walk Away? Oh, Right, Because I'm an Idiot.

I wanted real human food. Guess you could call me weak. But raw elk meat could never beat a piping hot meal, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. Did that make me less of a wolf and more man, precisely the type of thing I was trying to undo? Maybe.

Oh well.

I haven't been sleeping much, but when I managed to get a few hours, I dreamt of burgers. Specifically, those damn salmon burgers that I've had right over the Canadian border once before. In my dream, they serenaded me to eat them; with little faces and instruments and all. What was I supposed to do? Not listen to them?

Of course not.

And that's how I ended up back in my human form, walking down the side of a highway past the border. This is a prime example of how pathetic human desire is and the lengths one will go to fulfill it.

I got honked at a few times, probably by people thinking I was BigFoot or maybe cause I looked straight-up ridiculous. I wore ill-fitted clothes and shoes that I stole off a clothesline from a farmhouse in Custer. Not a super nice thing to do, but I figured it would've been less nice (and, ya know, illegal) to walk around butt ass naked. It was the lesser of two evils.

The rush hour traffic was hectic; everyone was cutting each other off, desperate to get home. The commotion snapped me back into real life, something I'd forgotten about for the week. I didn't want to keep track of the days of time, but I felt like that was all I had when I was living in solitude under the starry onyx skies. I wasn't used to solely having to listen to my own thoughts. Usually, I had one of the guys distract me or pull me out of my overthinking stints. Maybe Jared would've done something stupid or Sam would've said something to piss me off.

But at night in the forest, I had nothing. Nothing but memories on repeat.

I could've probably found another way besides the highway to get to where I was headed, but my brain wanted to be filled with sound. A Mack truck passed alongside me, holding its horn down, and I welcomed the ringing in my ears.

I still flipped him off, though.

The noise kept my brain busy while I played a gross game of hopscotch, leaping over glass, car parts, and roadkill. It wasn't pleasant, but at least I wasn't sitting on my ass anymore.

I walked off at the next familiar-ish exit, hoping to God it was in the same area where I had the precious salmon burgers. Though I would've settled for anything at that point, as my stomach felt like it was collapsing. One of the more annoying parts of being a wolf was the constant hunger.

I took a shortcut through a patch of unruly forest to have the sights and sounds of White Rock, Canada, welcome me at last.

Quaint, pastel-colored homes with well-kept lawns lined the sidewalks. The collective hum of lawnmowers and the faint smell of superiority lingered in the air.

I strolled down the streets, half expecting to be annoyed by white people with pitch-perfect smiles offering slices of organic, gluten-free apple pie they baked just because "isn't such a lovely day?"

But instead of being annoyed, I appreciated the little suburban beach town.

It was...wholesome.

One of the homes across the street jumped out at me. It was a mint-colored corner house adorned with string lights and beachy decorations. Radio pop music emanated from its open windows. But the two screeching black-haired children hopping around in the lawn's sprinkler stopped me in my tracks. They were carefree and blissful; they didn't have a care in the world.

I couldn't help but smile.

A man and a woman came through the wooden backyard gate in bathing suits to join the kids. Without hesitation, they spun their children around in the chaotic water streams, full-belly laughing with them. When the mother slipped on the sodden lawn, the kids promptly attempted to help her with their tiny fingers. But it was her husband who pulled her up swiftly and asked, "Are you okay, honey?"