Believer (Embry Call)

Second Things Second

Don't you tell me what you think that I could be

Rikki awoke the next day to a storm thundering away outside, and lucky for her she had forgotten to close her window before bed last night. Her bedroom floor was soaking wet, surrounding pieces of furniture were speckled in water, and the room in general was drastically cold. Checking the clock on her phone, Rikki determined that skipping school was her only option.

***

Embry Call walked next to his best friend as people whispered about them. He had never paid attention to the comments since most of them were stupid rumors and dumb theories. Most days, Embry would focus on finding Rikki- ever since he phased, he'd been trying to make eye contact with the younger girl for obvious reasons.

It was no secret that the Call boy had an intense crush on Rikki Walker. Well, it was no secret to anybody who saw the constant staring, the blushes whenever she would smile at him, and the fact that he thought about her constantly (much the the pack's annoyance). Truthfully, Embry knew how rare imprinting was, and even more unlikely that it would happen with Rikki, but he still hoped. It seemed to dwindle as days went on because Rikki had mastered the art of avoiding eye contact with him, and even Jake, Paul, and Jared. Very upsetting considering their friendship dated back to four years of age, but, he could see that she might be angry about them ignoring her (and everyone else).

Embry knew exactly where to look for the younger girl; usually she was with Seth at her locker in the morning. He very often found himself jealous of the time that Rikki and Seth spent together, but he didn't hate the youngest Clearwater. In fact, he was glad that Rikki still had Seth because almost all of her other close friends had already shifted besides Quil, he was almost there though.

Embry directed his gaze in the direction of her locker, but Rikki wasn't in her usually spot and Seth was typing hurriedly on his phone with a confused expression. This greatly worried Embry; Rikki never liked to miss school unless she absolutely had too. The wolf found himself at a crossroads; he couldn't ask Seth where Rikki was and he doubted that Rikki would answer the phone if he called her. The last time he spoke with her, he had snapped at her over something stupid and he never got to apologize.

Jacob laughed at his friend, who was still watching Seth like he was going to tell the whole school where Rikki was.

"Dude, you look for her every morning. Its starting to get creepy."

"Shut up, Jake," Embry mumbled , blushing out of embarrassment as he snapped his gaze away from Seth.

"Embry, man, you've liked Rikki since she gave you that bracelet when we were in fifth grade. And you still wear it," Jacob glanced at Embry's wrist.

It wasn't anything special, really. It was a thick, black string with the tribe symbol in the middle. Rikki made it for the older boy after he expressed to her how much he felt like an outsider in the tribe do to not knowing who his father was. The simple gift meant the world to Embry, and he never really took it off.

"I don't think you have room to talk, Jake," Embry retorted. Jake had been in love with Isabella Swan since they were children, so the fact that he was teasing Embry was hypocritical.

Jacob rolled his eyes, "If you're really that worried, then call her."

Embry spared on last glance at Seth as the warning bell chimed. "She wouldn't pick up if I did."

Rolling his eyes with an exaggerated sigh, Jake tugged Embry in the direction of their class. "Its probably for the best anyways. She would start asking questions that we can't answer. Plus Danny would get all pissy about it too."

"Sam agrees with Danny, but I'm pretty sure its only 'cause they're friends. It's bullshit," Embry added as the teacher began the lesson.

"You'd think that Danny would want his sister to still be able to see us. I mean, we are her friends."

"Him and Sam, man. They don't make sense sometimes."

***

Rikki had cleaned her room by lunchtime. It was tedious and by the end Rikki was crying from frustration. It was mostly directed at herself for not closing the window, but the rest of it was because the floor didn't want to dry. It had taken eight towels to get all the water off the floor and furniture, but the floor was still slippery and Rikki had fallen a grand total of three times. She now had a bruises on her arm, legs, and cut on the back of her shoulder from falling into the corner of her bookshelf. By the time she was fully finished, Danny had come home from his morning shift at work.

"Why didn't you go to school today? Are you feeling alright?" Danny showered her with questions when he came through the front door. He placed a hand on her shoulder making her wince; she had been unable to clean the cut since she couldn't reach it .

Seeing her wince, Danny walked around her to see the problem. A long gash ran from the top of her shoulder to bottom of her shoulder blade, visible next the the strap of her tank top. Danny all but shrieked when he saw it, picking her up and carrying her to the bathroom so he could clean it.

"What happened?!" Rikki blushed from embarrassment, recounting her story as he cleaned the cut. Danny wiped antiseptic on the wound when she was finished talking causing a curse to fall out of her mouth. Her brother cackled at her misfortunate pain, prompting Rikki to kick him in the shin. He hopped out of the bathroom into the kitchen, swearing left and right. Rikki followed after him with a smirk.

"After I saved your life too," He finished his rant, rubbing his sore leg. Rikki scoffed loudly, taking grape juice out of the refrigerator.

"You cleaned a cut. I was hardly dying," She exclaimed while pouring the juice into a glass.

"You were bleeding out. I saw it."

"You didn't see shit."

"I saw it," Danny grumbled to himself, shoving a piece of bread into his mouth. Rikki's face scrunched in disgust at her brother, but didn't say anything. Neither of them spoke about their fight the night before.

Rikki thought if she ignored the problem it would go away, but as any good therapist will say... you can't ignore your problems forever.

Next chapter is the start of Eclipse