Dusk till Dawn | Paul Lahote ✔️

Chapter 11

It's been a week since Jacob shifted into a wolf.

Bella's nightmares have come back. Even when I try to keep her mind off of things, like baking and even reading a book with her, it still seems that wasn't enough. Jacob's presence in her life was almost like a shield to those nightmares, and now that he wasn't allowed to talk to her for a while things shifted back to the way they were before.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with her..." I tell Paul over the phone, exasperated. "She's not functioning. It's like she's on autopilot again. And the screams... they wake dad and I up in the middle of the night. It takes her a while to go back to sleep." I groaned as I leaned my head against the wall, sitting Indian style on my bed. I had been working on some paperwork for school while Bella was at her own school. I wondered if she was aware where she was, or if everything she was doing was from muscle memory.

"I'm sorry, doll..." Paul murmurs o the other line, and I hear laughter in the background. He was at Emily's again, and I desperately wished I could be there - and usually would be... if I didn't have this five page essay to write. "I wish there was something I could do to make things better."

Sighing, I glanced down at the half-written essay. Thankfully I had until the end of the day until this thing was due. I really had to stop letting things go until the last minute, because this was royally stressing me out - among other things. "It's okay, babe. You just listening to me makes things easier," I assure him with a soft smile. I'd never experienced a relationship quite like this one. It put all my last few relationships on a very low bar.

Which wasn't very high to begin with, but they're set even lower now.

"I'll always listen to you, beautiful." He rumbled, and I heard a door click shut - telling me he was sitting on the porch. "Just like you always listen to me." I could hear the smile in his voice and I flushed, a smile forming on my own face. "We should go on another date this weekend."

"Another date, huh?" I smile at the thought. He had been busy with patrols, trying to keep people safe. Vampires were roaming the area, vampires who weren't the Cullens, and they were having a hell of a time trying to catch them. It made me feel uneasy, knowing that there was unknown vampires out there that weren't like the Cullens, who only fed on animals.

"We'll go to Seattle, I'll take you to a semi-fancy restaurant and we can go to the movies. You can choose, of course." Paul states casually and I grin at that.

"I like the sound of that." I admitted, but we could just hang out on the beach and cuddle and I'd still be happy with that kind of date. "But Paul, you know that I'd be happy just doing anything with you, right?" I told him softly with a small smile.

Chuckling, I imagined him nodding his head - even though he knew I couldn't see. "I know doll, but I want to do something special for you."

Finishing the conversation we hung up. I attempted to finish this essay, finally getting it done when I heard the door slam shut. My head snapped up, knowing Bella was home. Dad wasn't supposed to be back until a few hours after dinner.

Taking another hour to edit the essay, I pressed send - sighing in relief knowing I got it done. Closing the laptop, I decided to take a little break as I walked down the stairs - Bella was standing at the phone with a look of disbelief on her face. "Jacob busy again?" I asked her knowingly, and she turned to give me a scowl.

"It's the same thing every time I call. I can't believe he's blowing me off!" She slams the phone back onto the hook bitterly. "We were so close, what happened?" She whimpered, walking over to me as I gave her a hug - feeling her wrap her own arms around my waist.