Stay • Jared Cameron

one

"Jake!" The small girl yelled as the boy sprayed her with the hose. They were cleaning his car and it was getting messy. They continued to run around spraying each other until Jacob got a phone call. He stood off to the side and his face suddenly got very serious. Evelina knew exactly who was on the phone, it was Bella.

Jacob was her best friend but when Bella returned to the small community, she had been put second.

"Jake!" She yelled. He didn't even turn around,"Jake!" She repeated. As he turned to tell her to shut up, she threw the sponge she was holding at him and stormed away.

She heard Jacob saying bye to Bella behind her.

"Eve, Eve wait!" He called running after her. When he reached her they both stopped and looked up the front door where Billy was talking to Sam Uley.

"What the hell?" Jake whispered as they both watched the two men argue. As the words came out of Jake's mouth, Sam's head whipped over to the boy in question. He didn't see Evelina who was slightly hidden behind Jacob. He then ran off into the woods, leaving Billy to turn to the two teenagers and head back into the house.

"Why was Sam Uley talking to your Dad?" Evelina asked. In their small group, they'd been discussing Sam's cult for weeks. He had a few weeks off school then never came back. Instead, he had a new haircut and a tattoo. This was also the case for Jared Cameron and Paul Lahote, although those two had come back to school and sat secluded from everyone else, or at least that's what she heard from Jacob.

Jacob turned and walked back to the car, picking up the bucket.

"My Dad knows all the legends and is an elder, maybe that's why?" He said as more of a question than anything.

"Okay, but it's still weird."

"You're telling me? He keeps looking at me like I'm next." After that, the conversation between the two ended.

X

"I'm home!" Evelina yelled as she walked through the front door.

"In the kitchen." Her mother replied. Taking off her wet converse, she sat them next to the door and continued into the house. As she entered she took in the view, her mother was cooking and everything was a mess.

"What are you doing?" She questioned crossing her arms.

"I thought I'd cook dinner tonight." Her mother replied then gave her a look of disgust,"Why are you soaking wet? What have you and Jacob been doing?"

"Shhhh it's fine Mum, we cleaned the rabbit." She replied sitting at the table looking over the junk mail sitting on the table,"Look, corn's only $1.95 at Whole Foods." She changed the subject.

"Okay, have fun driving 40 minutes for corn Eve." Her Mother replied staring at her. She smiled up at her mum.

"I'm just saying." She stood to go upstairs,"By the way, the chickens burning." She said as she stood at the doorway.

"Shit!" Her mother swore to look back at the chicken. She ran to turn off the stove and looked over at Evelina.

"I'll order Chinese," Evelina said as she turned around and left the room.

X

"By ordering take-out I meant delivery," Evelina said talking to herself as she ran from her car to the Chinese shop. As she opened the door, she was grateful to be out of the rain and in the heating.

"Evelina! How are you?" She heard Jenny yell from behind the counter. She smiled up at the woman and continued the conversation.

X

She put the food in the front seat of her car and walked around to the driver's side. She turned the key but the engine wouldn't start.

"Fuck." She said as she tried again, and again, and again. She groaned at threw the key at the Chinese food sitting on the seat next to her and leaned her head on the wheel.

She heard knocking on her window that startled her and she sat up quickly. Getting out of the car, she looked up to see Jared Cameron. As soon as they made eye contact, Evelina felt like she couldn't look away. They held the stare until a car on the road behind them beeped at something on the road. Jumping, Evelina looked at the road behind her and then back to Jared. He was still staring at her.

She cleared her throat and he snapped out of his daze.

"Oh, Evelina right?" She nodded at him and gave him a weird look,"Car trouble?" He smiled.

"Ugh!" She groaned out and turned towards her car,"The stupid thing won't start! You wouldn't believe how much work I've had done to the engine and it still stuffs up!" Jared chuckled.

"Did you want a jumpstart or a lift home?" He asked. Evelina realised he hadn't taken his eye's off her once. She felt a shiver go down her spine at that thought and looked towards her car.

"No thanks, I think Jacob's out at the moment so I'll probably get a lift back to his house." She smiled back at him and he left shortly after.

She called Jacob and watched him walk away as it rang. "Hey, Jake."

"Did you break down?"

"Yeah, it broke down again."

"Is it just up the road again?"

"No outside the Chinese place."

"Eve, I told you to get a new engine!"

"Yeah I know I have to get a new engine but I can't afford it right now Jake!"

"I'm coming give me 10 minutes."

"Thank you! Love you!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be there soon."

X

Jacob was there quickly, pulling up behind Evelina's small car.

She shook her head as Jacob walked towards her, "You said 10 minutes, you're 2 minutes late."

He smiled at her and stopped in front of her. He hugged her and tickled her sides.

"Shut up and be grateful Eve!" He yelled playfully at her as he tickled her as payback.

"Okay, okay, okay, thank you!" She managed to get out as he stopped.

Jared watched them from across the street, shaking violently. How dare Jacob touch his imprint. He was still having trouble controlling his shifting and this made it 10x worse. He clenched his jaw, curled his hand into a fist and ran as fast as he could, down the street and into the woods nearby.