Discover Twilight

chapter xx

It's been four days since I first Phased and I've spent everyday on the Rez with the Pack, learning how to Phase on command and getting to know my Pack. I don't exactly hate Paul anymore, Embry, Jared and I have become best buds and Sam's been my big brother again. This afternoon the Pack is hanging out in the backyard and Bella sorta invited herself to hang out with me and Jake. Paul utilizes this time to discuss the redheaded leech that keeps messing with us. Bella tells us that Bitey is after her. Jared claps his hand on the picnic table, laughing, "Excellent. If the redhead's after Bella, we've got bait."

Jacob grabs a four-pronged spading fork from some garden tools and pitches it toward Jared's head but Jared easily catches it. But I punch my friend's stomach hard, wiping the smirk off his face, hissing at him, "She is not bait."

Paul's barking laugh rings out from my left side, cooling me down before I hurt Jared any worse. Emily and I were bored this morning and made a huge breakfast that we're all pigging out on. Bella plays with her pancake on the paper plate in front of her, "I should leave town."

I perk up, scared that she'll leave out of our protection and get herself killed. Paul lays a hand on my forearm to reassure me that Sam will handle it and he does, "Victoria will follow you and make it harder for us to catch her."

"No one can catch her. She can escape anything," Bella whines, clearly not fully comprehending how fast we are.

Paul snickers at Bella too, wiggling his fingers in my face, "Ooh. She has special powers."

"Some of them do." We all, in time, turn our heads to look at her, she shrinks down in her seat instantly regretting it.

That makes sense, Alice was always making comments that made no sense until two days later after something happened, Edward always knew what people were thinking, and, now that I'm thinking about it, Jasper always could calm down the most rowdy people with a single look.

Jacob looks at Bella, scared, "Like... what? Bella?"

Jared talks over me when I finally formulated a coherent thought about the Cullens, "The mind reader you said you knew. He was a suckhead? Can they all do that?"

I snort at Jared's comment when Embry says with his mouth full of waffles, "That would blow."

We all look at Bella, waiting anxiously for the answer. I stab my fork deeper into my sausage link feeling it go through the plate completely. Bella shifts uncomfortably under all of our gazes, "No, I- shouldn't have- no."

Next to me, a low growl bursts out of Paul's throat glowering at her protecting the Cullens and if I wasn't so annoyed with the whole thing I'd say something, "She's still protecting them."

I laugh, everyone turns their attention to me clearly thinking I'm crazy for laughing right now. Sam's eyes silently asked if I was okay, answering him I get up from the table, "I don't know why. It's not like they stuck around to protect you, Bella. Who was there? That's right, me." I stomp into the house, leaving them all speechless at my outburst.
Later, after Bella left, everyone slowly loiters into the house until Jake, Jared and Embry go out on Patrol. I sit on the ledge of the window that sits above the fridge, watching the rain roll down the glass and sprinkle onto the string of lights on the porch. Each rain droplet chases the other sleekly and swiftly down the glass. Someone touches my ankle, scaring the crap out of me, almost knocking me off the ledge. I fix how I'm sitting, putting more of my body weight on the window, seeing that Paul had managed to get himself up here with me.

"Move your feet. I'm not as small as you are and getting up here was a lot of work," Paul huffs, pulling his butt onto the ledge leaving his legs hanging off the side, almost touching the top of the fridge.

I laugh at Paul's grumbling when there was knocking at the front door. Emily hops off Sam's lap, skipping over to the front door to reveal Bella standing out in the rain and harsh winds, "Bella. Are you okay?"

Bella looks up over Emily's head directly at me, she's been crying I can tell, "Yeah, I just... is Jacob here? He wasn't at home..."

Sam walks behind Emily, wrapping his arms around her small waist, "He's with Jared and Embry, keeping an eye on things. I'm heading out soon. Should I tell him something?"

Bella stares wistfully at the couple, still pained by their obvious pure love for each other. "You want to come in?" I holler from the ledge making Sam and Emily turn around to find Paul and I on our perch.

They chuckle as Bella quickly escapes back into the severe weather and into her truck, driving away from the home. "Well I tried," I state pressing my temple against the cool glass to look at the window, partially facing Paul, who's staring at me. I scrunch up my nose at him, frowning, "Is there a reason you're looking at me, Lahote? Or that you're sitting here with me?"

He quickly looks down at his cutoffs, beginning to fidget with the stray thread and fabric, his cheeks becoming a more pink color. He clears his throat as Sam chuckles in the family room, inaudibly mumbling something to Emily, "Well, you and I, we got off on the wrong foot. From day one we got into fights, which I take the blame for because I was going through the Change and Phased right after your mom passed. Since we're in the Pack now, I wanted to try and be friends."

The front door closes again with a gust of wind filling the rooms as our Alpha ventured out to Patrol, leaving me alone with Paul and Emily. "I understand if you don't want to but... I figured it might make things easier if we just..." He trails off rubbing the back of his neck.

"Start over?" I finish for him, making him straighten his posture with an excited nod. "Sure why not. I wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine when we met so, yeah I'd like to try and be friends."

I snort at his reaction as he quickly hops off the ledge, runs to the kitchen counter yelling, "Okay. So tell me something. Something no one else knows!"