Anna Begins [Paul Lahote]

Chapter Nine

Anna

After a little while of hanging out with Emily, Felicity took us to her apartment to wait the last little bit of time until school let out. "I have work tonight, so we might as well pass the time there since I'll need to get ready anyway."

I texted Alex to let him know I was getting a ride home with Felicity so he wouldn't wait for me at the end of the day. He was sure to find that suspicious, because I was definitely not one for unplanned things, but I'd have to deal with that later. For now, I was bunkered down on a couch in Felicity's living room.

"I know you probably think this is all strange," Felicity said, somewhat sheepishly.

I simply responded with a shrug. This was all very strange and made no sense, but everyone had been nice to me so far and I hadn't had a panic attack or anything, so I was just going along with it.

Felicity responded as if I'd given a resounding agreement. "I'm sorry I'm not explaining anything. It's not up to me. Which I know sounds terrible, but it's not. Terrible, I mean. It's just the way things are. You'll understand at some point. Hopefully soon." She gave a small laugh. "I'm rambling."

I bit my lip. "Yeah. Kind of." More than kind of, but I didn't want her to be self-conscious.

"So tell me about you," she said. "What was it like where you used to live? Colorado, right?"

Oh no. I hated this. Talking about myself was the worst. At least she'd asked a question to help me figure out what to say, but my palms started to sweat anyway. "Yes, I'm from Colorado. It was...okay...where I used to live. But I'm liking Forks better." I paused. "Well, I always liked Forks better—when I came to visit my grandparents, you know? So I'm glad to be here."

She nodded, smiling. "I'm glad you like it! Were you sad to leave your old school, though? It's so late in the year."

"Not sad at all. It's not like I had a whole bunch of friends or anything. The only thing that changed with the move was my schedule. There are four years of PE here, which I'm not a fan of. And I have to take art, which I'm not skilled at. But...yeah." I shrugged. I'd been about to say something mushy about having at least one friend here but my hands were already shaking at the thought. Too much.

"I will never understand how you had no friends there." Felicity frowned. "You're a little shy, but you're great! We've been bonding so well, and we haven't known each other long at all."

I shrugged again because apparently that was all I knew how to do. Shrug, shrug, shrug. The answer to life was a shrug. "I don't know."

"Well, you're my friend now, and I'm glad you're here," she said resolutely. "And Jacob's your friend. And Paul, too. And Emily thought you were sweet—and she's right—so I'm sure she wants to be your friend now. It's going to be so much better for you here, Anna, I just know it."

Wow. Felicity was being really kind. I stared at her a moment in awe, then said quietly, "Thank you."

She grinned, glancing at her phone. "Oh, it's time for me to start getting ready for work. You can hang around until I leave, if you'd like. Maybe Paul will be home soon? I'm not sure what his schedule is." She tilted her head in thought. "I can call him to find out, if you want? He'd love to hang out with you."

I stood up so fast my pants might as well have been on fire. "Oh, no. No, no. No, not necessary at all," I rushed to say. "I should head home. Make sure my brother doesn't rat me out for skipping." He wouldn't do that anyway, but it was as good an excuse as any.

"Okay," she said as we walked toward the door. "Then I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile in response. "Tomorrow."