Youth ✿ Paul Lahote [1]

vii. in the loop

"Whatever you have to tell me better be worth it, I'm missing History for this."

Alex was now sitting on Paul's back porch and Paul was standing in front of her on the grass while staying oddly silent. That was usually Alex's thing, Paul was always running his mouth.

"History with Embry," Paul mumbled, scuffing his shoe in the dirt surrounding him.

Alex watched him curiously, noting the bitter glint in his eyes. She smiled at the thought of him caring and at the thought of what her brother had said about jealousy only yesterday. "Yes, history with my totally platonic friend, Embry."

Paul looked up to meet her gaze, rather than focusing on the worn down converse on his feet. A small grin made its way onto his face.

"Are you ever going to tell me why you pushed him over? What made you so angry?" Alex wondered out loud at the mention of her friend.

Paul sat down beside Alex on the step, their thighs only just touching. "Out of all the things to explain to you, that is by far the easiest. I was jealous."

Alex's brows furrowed. Despite her brother telling her this much, Paul saying it made it so much more real. With Jordan, she could simply shrug off what he said and presume he was trying to wind her up, but she knew Paul was telling the truth. "Jealous of what?"

Sometimes Paul forgot how Alex wasn't that aware of people – she had stated many times that she had never really had many friends. Paul thought the whole world knew about his crush on her, most of the people at school were talking about it on the daily. He didn't exactly hide the fact. Somehow, Alex seemed to have missed it. "I guess I thought that you and Embry might have been a thing. I saw you two getting out of his car and I got jealous."

"I was helping him with his Spanish," Alex tilted her head as she deadpanned what the real truth was. She didn't see Embry in that light, in fact she had put him in the brother-like category the minute the two started talking.

Paul's face perked up at that. "You speak Spanish?"

"Obviously," Alex said as she gestured to herself, thinking that it was beyond obvious although it might not be to everyone. "My mom is Colombian, she moved here when she was twenty and my dad's parents were born in Mexico, although he was born and raised in Forks. I'm a Latina hybrid, per say."

This made Paul's grin widen. Finding out anything about the girl beside him always made his mood spike, but being this close to her made his pulse quicken like mad. "Does that mean you know how to curse in Spanish?"

Alex let out a small laugh at his question. "Of course you would ask me that."

"Hey," Paul's hands rose up in a mock surrender. "I'm a sixteen year old boy, what did you expect from me?"

"Yes I do know how to curse, but I'm not going to teach you."

Paul let out a small whine at that. "C'mon, Lex."

Alex simply shook her head at the boy in finality, although her stomach tightened at the small nickname he had so easily called her. "I promised my mom that I wouldn't ever teach kids how to swear in Spanish. She even made me sign a contract and everything."

That small fact made Paul let out a laugh. His shoulders shook and his eyes crinkled, Alex's smile only grew at the sight of it. He looked so carefree, even more than usual. "You did not."

"I did!" Alex protested, trying to hold in laughter as it only made her look like she was joking. The boy's laugh was infectious however, Alex desperately felt the need to laugh along with him. "When Jordan, my brother, was thirteen he went around and taught all his friends how to curse in Spanish and of course their parents complained once they figured it out. My mom and dad got majorly told off by the principal and that same night my mother made us both sign contracts that we wouldn't teach anyone naughty Spanish words. I have the paper at home, I will show you one day."