heart out ; paul lahote

04

Aiden looks away - Paul's unwavering stare beginning to make him feel awkward. Does he have something on his face?

"Hey man what's wrong with y- oh." Quil stands beside Paul, suddenly sporting a teasing grin and a knowing look on his face. He claps him on the shoulder and moves to take a spot on the couch, chuckling. 

The rest of the pack look at Paul with similar varying expressions of shock and amusement.

Aiden remains confused.

"Wait, did what I think just happened, happen?" Embry calls from his spot, a big grin on his face. "Paul did you-"

Suddenly Paul snaps out of his little trance and, just as suddenly as he arrived, he leaves.

The door swings shut behind him and the room falls silent. No one says anything for what seems like a while until Embry breaks the silence with a clipped laugh. "That's Paul for you."

"Don't take it personally, Aiden, Paul is a little - odd."

"Yeah, he probably just remembered he left the oven on or something." Quil jokes.

They try to assure Aiden who sits a bit stunned, but he can tell they're not being truthful. He can tell by the way Seth's eyebrows are furrowed in frustration and hasn't uttered a word.

Aiden stops his own mind from blaming himself, he doubts he's the reason for Paul's sudden departure and besides, it's none of his business.

Putting on a smile, Aiden elbows Seth teasingly to lighten his sudden odd change in mood. It does the trick as Seth breaks into his usual bright smile and everything feels normal again.

***

"I'm sorry about what happened back there." Jacob frowns, tapping the steering wheel.

They're parked in front of Charlie's house, after what happened with Paul things had returned to normal but Aiden was left with uneasy thoughts and an odd light pang in his chest, so he asked Jacob to bring him home.

"It's cool." Aiden replies with a light shrug. "Is everything okay with him though?" He can't help but ask.

"Paul and 'Okay' don't usually meet in the same sentence, but yeah, don't worry he's fine." Is Jacobs reply. He seems to be trying to shrug it off like everyone else did, but the tense set of his shoulders and anxious tapping on the steering wheel tells Aiden otherwise.

Aiden nods nonetheless and undoes his seatbelt, reluctant to get out of the car. He feels uneasy about what happened, he just can't get it out of his head; the look on Paul's face. It was unlike anything Aiden has ever seen, even felt. He admits there was a second where he felt his chest flutter and his heart pick up. He doesn't know what happened or why, but he just can't seem to forget it. It might not even be a very big deal, he does tend to overthink things.

"Are you okay?"

Suddenly pulled from his conflicting thoughts, Aiden startles, "Oh, yeah sorry. I'm just tired." He opens the door and jumps out, "Thanks for the ride Jake, I had fun today."

Jacob grins, "Same here. The guys love you, kid. Be ready to see them often. You're going to get tired of all of us soon."

Aiden rolls his eyes teasingly, "Already am."

"Shut up." Jacob laughs as he starts his car back up. "Goodnight."

And with that, he's off and on his way back to the reservation.

Aiden sighs, truly exhausted both physically and mentally from today's events. The boys are a lot to handle, what with their never ending stamina, they're hard to keep up with but fun nonetheless. He wonders how Emily does it, keeping all those boys in check day after day and not only that but feeding them and their huge appetites - she's a saint.

As he lazily makes his way into his home, he can't help but to let his mind wander back to Paul yet again.

He knows it's none of his business at all but he'll admit he wishes it were. He hasn't even officially met the guy but Paul has taken over his thoughts so easily.

He just wants to know why Paul stormed off so suddenly. Maybe Aiden offended him with his mere presence? Did Paul's super nose pick up on some weird smell from him? (Aiden really hopes that wasn't the case, he showers daily and uses cute scented lotions for crying out loud) or does he not like newcomers invading what he considers his home? Whatever the case, Aiden wishes things could've gone differently.

***
a/n: HELLO EVERYONE I'VE FINALLY RISEN FROM THE DEAD TO GIVE YOU THIS UPDATE I'M REALLY SO SORRY FOR LEAVING THIS UNFINISHED FOR SO LONG ESPECIALLY AFTER THAT TERRIBLE CLIFFHANGER but i went through a huge writersblock and didn't really have the time or inspiration to write, but i kept meaning to update this and i finally got around to it after so long :( i'm truly sorry for keeping you waiting for literally years omg but i'm working on the following chapters right now 😞♥️