Youth ✿ Paul Lahote [1]

xii. finally

Alex tried her best not to curl into Paul's body.

His warmth was too inviting—especially as the crisp, salty air nipped at Alex's exposed skin. The heat that practically radiated off of Paul had always been welcoming to Alex, yet unlike usual she had to refrain from clinging to him to gather warmth.

"Are you sure you two want to do this?" Embry asked almost skeptically.

Alex had no reply to that question from her best friend—because she knew if she answered then it would be a definite no. That would only please Jared more.

"We are," Kim spoke up for Alex, a small smirk on her face.

A snicker of laughter was heard from next to the mousy haired girl. Jared was the culprit, as he stood next to Kim with Paul and Alex right beside them. Embry was behind them, and Alex could only imagine that the boy was shaking his head in pure disbelief.

"You don't sound so sure there, K. How about you, Lexi, are you ready?" Jared spoke with so much amusement in his voice that Alex could swear it got swept into the air surrounding them all.

She didn't know why she stood on a cliff face with the majority of the pack. Well, actually Alex did know why, she just couldn't believe that a simple argument had gone this far.

Jared had made a simple comment about the pack's cliff diving trips, which weren't a secret but Alex had never been a fan of the hobby her friends had taken up since it sounded ridiculously unsafe. It was when the young wolf had thought to himself for a second, then laughed audibly at the prospect of either Kim or Alex doing what they do that the argument had started.

Both Kim and Alex got instantly offended at the insinuation that they couldn't do it—and that the thought was laughable. To settle it all Jared had bet that the girls wouldn't jump off the cliff face, which was how they ended up there.

Alex had been all fire and rage when the comment was made, yet now as she stood on the high up mountainous terrain she had many regrets. Jared was the only keen one at this point—both Embry and Paul had already expressed how stupid the idea was but that couldn't have stopped both Alex and Kim when they wanted to prove a point.

"Just shut up for once in your life," Alex replied sarcastically, although at the point she didn't know if she was joking.

The tiny brunette sneaked another glance down to the ocean below and instantly clenched her eyes shut. It was so far down—and the ocean didn't look inviting at all. Alex had never been a fan of the beach, but now it looked even more unappealing.

"This is so stupid. Can we just agree that both of the girls can do it and call it a day?" Embry pleaded from behind the paired off couples.

"Why are you acting like it's unsafe?" Kim asked rather importantly. "If you guys do this every day then it can't be bad if we do it once."

That raised a solid point that Alex could get behind. Paul's safety meant a lot to the girl, any inkling that he could get hurt doing this then she would plead him to not. It was hard enough to let him go off and be surrounded by vampires that hated his kind—the thought of actually losing him however wasn't something that Alex ever wanted to even think about.

"We're werewolves—"

"Doesn't matter. Safe is safe. This clearly is if Sam lets you do it every day so just let short stack and I do it, alright?" Kim's face was deadset in an emotionless grin. Alex didn't think she had ever seen the girl like this, and it made her proud. She was standing up for something—Alex just wished it wasn't something she was going to have to prove while jumping off a tall cliff.