Aeipathy • Paul Lahote

The After Party

She had spent the rest of the party chatting with Paul, as the Hale siblings had previously left. She was laughing at one of his jokes when Jacob and their two other friends showed up, looking much more serious than they had before. 

One of them was still in the mood to joke, however. "Hate to break up the conversation between you and your girlfriend, Paul," one snorted, making Paul reach out to punch him again. 

"Jared, shut up," he growled, making Estrella laugh. 

"Too horrified at the thought of dating me, Lahote?" she teased, laughing lightly. The other three boys all chuckled at that as Paul looked to her with an accusing look. "Is it because I slapped you when we first met?"

He broke out into a grin at that and nodded. "Exactly," he snorted. "I was bruised for days."

"More like his ego was bruised," Jared laughed. "He kept whining about it."

"I hate to break up the party," Jacob sighed, "But we really have to go."

Estrella nodded with another teasing grin. "You can only take so much of the Forks teenage population," she sighed, jokingly. "It's understandable. All they do is stare."

As if to prove her point, they all glanced over to see a huddle of three teenage girls quickly look away from them while whispering to each other. "I'll text you?" Paul asked. It was meant to come out as a statement, but Estrella could read the underlying question. Were they okay now and could they fall back into casual conversations as friends. She nodded in response with a smile before waving the four boys off. 

The second they left, Rosalie was by her side. "I think I should take you home," she whispered to the girl. Estrella looked up to object but stopped upon seeing the serious expression on her best friend's face. Instead, she agreed and followed Rose out of the house. They drove in silence, Rosalie stressed and Estrella curious and confused, before Rosalie pulled into an alley and stopped. "My family says I shouldn't tell you what's going on," she sighed. "But I don't know if I can."

"Something dangerous is happening, isn't it?" Estrella questioned, not taking her eyes off of the blonde. The other girl just nodded. "Well, wouldn't it make the most sense to tell me then? Even if it stresses me out or anything of the sort, should I not be prepared for whatever is going to happen?"

It was all the prodding Rosalie needed, and she quickly explained the army coming to attack the Cullen clan, all the while avoiding letting the ginger in on the secret that they were after her older sister. "Carlisle is worried. The Denali coven refuse to come down to help as we won't agree to let them take revenge for a members dead mate. The wolves are helping, and it should all turn out alright, but Alice's visions are blocked by the wolves so we don't know for sure how everything is going to turn out. I'm worried for my family."

Estrella only nodded. "Okay, when are you guys training?" Rosalie wasn't surprised that the young Swan could conclude that the family would be training. 

"Tonight. The wolves are coming as well."

"Then we might as well hang out until we have to go," Estrella stated, sitting back in her chair pretending not to notice Rosalie's head shoot up in shock. Before she could angrily react, Estrella sighed. "Listen, I know Bella is going to insist on being there for training, so I'll stay tucked away in the trees where I can watch and listen. I won't expose myself to Bella or to the wolves, whatever they are, and you know I'd be a great help with the army. Besides, you can either spend time with me and bring me with you, or you can drop me off and I'll be at home stressed and upset before going to find you guys anyways." 

She then turned to look Rosalie in the eye with a serious and vulnerable expression. "Look, despite my initial reluctance, you and your family have quickly become my family as well. And there's no way in hell that I'm not going to help out when the lot of you are in danger. I have just as much of a chance of getting hurt as you do, plus, there's safety in numbers. On top of that, I'm sure these newborns won't know what the wolves are and they definitely won't know what I am and the surprise of both will be likely to throw them off to the point where the battle will be like frolicking through a field of daisies." Estrella sighed again, noting that she was doing that quite a bit, before continuing. "Rose, you don't want me to get hurt. And I don't want you to get hurt. And neither of us want the rest of the family to get hurt. So let's both make sure no one gets hurt, together. Okay?"

The instinctual fight Rosalie had had died down as Estrella spoke. "Okay," she relented. "Okay, you can come and help. But if you get hurt, I'll never forgive myself."

"And the same goes for you," Estrella responded with a grin. "Now, what should we do while we wait for training?" Both girls relaxed into their seats at the question, their conversation becoming a lot more lighthearted. "Because if anyone walks or drives passed us right now, there are going to be rumors about Rosalie Hale cheating on her bulk of a boyfriend with some tiny, pale, ginger girl."

Both girls laughed at that, proceeding to drive out of the alley and away from their heavy conversation to find a way to keep Estrella awake until the training would begin.