Aeipathy • Paul Lahote

The Party

Despite the worries of many of the Cullens, Estrella got along well with Jasper. She was wary of him when he was around her sister or surrounded by humans, but she quite liked him. She couldn't fault him for struggling for control, it was in his nature to feed from humans and a habit that he only quit recently in his long life. So, despite being tense at the party Alice was throwing, she was smiling happily at Jasper as he quietly told her a story from one of his and Alice's adventures.

The night was fairly young and, despite being upset about Paul's anger from earlier, she was having a good time sitting between Jasper and Rosalie. She had told Paul a few days ago that Alice Cullen was throwing a graduation party for Bella and the other students in their year and he had ranted about how ridiculous the Cullens were.

"I don't get why everyone over there is so obsessed with the Cullens or why they're so full of themselves," he had huffed. "Some rich family with weird kids moves into town and suddenly everyone is gaga over them even though they're obviously a bunch of freaks. And inviting the whole graduating class and then some to a party in their house in the woods? Sounds like a murderfest waiting to happen."

Paul, despite his anger, was watching his words to make sure he didn't expose any secrets to the ginger girl on the other end of the line, even though he wanted to. He wanted to let her in on everything and warn her about the Cullens and the dangers of being around them, but he couldn't. He wasn't ready to let her in on the pack secret and wanted to wait until the pack had gotten rid of Victoria and any immediate danger before bringing her into his life fully.

"Well, I guess I'll make sure it doesn't become a murderfest when I'm there," Estrella had responded back with a slight laugh, making Paul explode.

His protective instinct had taken over and he instantly began yelling. Estrella moved the phone away from her ear due to how loud he was and luckily didn't pick up on him angrily yelling that the Cullens were dangerous and he didn't want her anywhere near them. She did, however, react negatively to his anger. "Yanno what, Paul?" she half shouted, gaining his attention. "I've been very accepting that you don't like my friends, despite the fact that they're also my friends. I've allowed you to rant and be upset about how weird you think they are and all of this other stuff, but I'm not going to sit here and let you yell at me for spending time with them. Call me back when you get your head out of your ass, okay?"

With that, she had hung up and she hadn't heard from him since. She had still been steaming about it the next day when she heard a bunch of yelling from outside. She peaked out her window to see Bella, Edward, and Jacob all going at each other before Charlie came out and deescalated the situation. After Charlie went back inside, Jacob took off on his own and Edward took off with Bella, making Estrella roll her eyes and plop back down on her bed.

When Bella returned with her hand wrapped and anger still in her eyes, Estrella patted the bed next to her and let Bella rant about the two moronic men in her life. She raged with her sister about Jacob kissing her without her consent, and scoffed and rolled her eyes with her as she talked about how protective Edward was. Then, Estrella added in her thoughts about Paul and how annoyed she was that the boy got angry so easily about some of her best friends and the pair of girls had ended their night with shared sighs and the agreement that guys were annoying and stupid.

So Estrella was overly shocked when she watched Paul, Jacob, and two other boys walk through the front door of the Cullen estate. "Excuse me," she mumbled to Rosalie and Jasper before getting up and marching over to the group. "And just what do you think you lot are doing here?"

Jacob smiled timidly at her. "Well, Bella invited me."

"Was my right hook too subtle for you? That was me uninviting you!" Bella hissed, having shown up next to Estrella within seconds. The ginger let her sister drag Jacob away to have a more private conversation as she crossed her arms and glared at Paul.

Before either of them could say anything, one of the other boys cleared their throats. "Hi," he started with a grin. "You must be Estrella, we're some of Paul's friends. He talks about you a lot." The boy was going to continue before Paul's fist shot out and punched him in the shoulder. He yelped slightly before rubbing his arm. "Talk to you later," he mumbled, scurrying off with the other boy.

"What?" Estrella snapped, turning her attention back to Paul. "Wanna yell at me some more? Tell me what a poor choice in friends I have?"

"I'm sorry," he croaked out. "God, I hate apologizing. I don't know how to do it." He took a breath while rubbing the back of his neck. "But I swear to God, I'd do anything you ask just to show you how sorry I am for yelling at you." When Estrella didn't respond, he continued. "I know I shouldn't have yelled and that I need to figure out my emotions. I just... I get so worried about you. I know you can take care of yourself but that doesn't mean I want you to have to and I'm not used to feeling so... so softly about someone and I don't really know how to handle it and I definitely have anger issues and when I get worried it's my instinct to just get mad and I promise I'm working on it, especially now that you're in my life, and I just- I'm sorry."

There was silence for a moment before Estrella broke out into a grin. "You say you don't know how to apologize but you did a pretty good job," she commented with a laugh, making Paul break out into a smile. "It wasn't okay but I forgive you and I'm glad you're working on it." She walked forwards and he instantly stretched out his arms to bring her into a comfortable hug. "And thank you for coming into a house of people you don't like to do something you hate doing to mend things between us."

"I'd do anything for you, Elles," he responded,resting his chin on her head. "You don't even have to ask."