Paul Lahote's entire life shifts at the sight at Valentina Thurston. Her warmth and kindness effectively forces him to reconsider his bad boy persona he'd put on for so long. Though, she does have her own small, ever-growing, obstacles to overcome...
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A feeling washed over Valentina, one she could only compare to the memories of fictional books. Scenes of running through fields of flowers, skin kissed by rays of sunshine, eyes bright with joy. Wherever these thoughts had sprung from, she had no idea. Though, she believed they had something to do with the dark eyed boy in front of her, whose knees seemed to buckle in her presence.
Valentina, of course, had heard of "love at first sight", her parents had sworn it occurred with them. Still, she wasn't quite sure what it was, or if it even existed. Even Bella had sworn that she had fallen for Edward the first time his eyes met hers, but, then, look at how that played out. Val had every reason to believe that love at first sight was a sham, at the least. Maybe love had nothing to do with sight, but instead went deeper, playing with the atoms in your body, convincing them to pull towards another. Looking into the eyes of Paul Lahote, though, Valentina was sure this was love at first sight.
"What the fuck Paul?!" The moment had been ruined by none other than Jacob Black.
"I can't help it, you know that!" A crowd began to form, hoping that a fight would arise from the altercation.
"You can't-"
Paul quickly cut Jacob off, "And you can't tell me what to do, bitch boy!" Valentina strangely found herself enjoying how assertive Paul was.
"Stop it, both of you." Sam's voice was low and authoritative. "Show's over guys," he spoke to the circle of people who had surrounded the two boys.
Valentina was confused, what had Paul done? He had been with her for the past few minutes, and Jake hadn't seemed upset before then. It sort of angered her that Jacob seemed to think he had control of everyone, and could pick up and disregard people like toys.
Once it seemed like Sam had resolved the situation between the two, Val approached a tense Paul.
"Hey," she started timidly, "I'm sorry about...whatever just happened with Jake. He can be a real dick sometimes." Paul let out a boisterous laugh and Val decided that it was her favorite sound.
With a smile, Paul said, "Yeah, sometimes he just doesn't know when to shut up."
A grin broke across Val's face and she found herself longing for Paul's eyes to never leave hers. Then, as if a higher power was rewarding her, he offered to drive her home. She accepted his proposal and he walked her to an older black truck. Graciously, he opened the door for her, which made her blush.
Initially, the ride home was very awkward. Paul noticed she was shivering and made sure to turn up the heat, as well as offer up his jacket. She put the large black jacket over her dress, and the smell that permeated her senses was almost euphoric.
"So, um," Paul started, "how far, uh, along are you?"
It had actually seemed that Val had forgotten that she was pregnant. The question actually made her insecure. There was no way girls on the rez weren't all over Paul, and Val was willing to be most of them, at least, were not pregnant.
