GODS AND MONSTERS ↝ P. LAHOTE

[8]

Lark woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the front door, shooting up from her spot on the couch where she had fallen asleep the night before and wiping away any drool with the back of her hand. After she returned from the diner last night, she came home to have a solo movie marathon until she managed to fall asleep in the living room. She quickly fixed her hair and jumped off the couch, throwing off the blanket her parents must have draped over her on their way out of the house early that morning on their way to Port Angeles to do some research for Marcus's latest novel.

Lark stumbled drowsily over to the mirror in the entryway, quickly fixing her hair before opening the front door to see Paul holding a small bouquet of flowers and looking at her with an apologetic smile.

"You're late," she said, shutting the door without another word and leaning against it, taking a few deep breaths and trying to process that Paul had finally shown up after the night before.

Lark stood with her arms crossed as she felt Paul knocking again from the other side of the door. With a sigh, Lark finally turned back around, opening the door again.

"Look," she said, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest. "I get it. I'm new here, and I'm probably not the type of girl you would usually go on a date with. But if you didn't want to go out with me, then why did you ask me out in the first place?"

"Lark, I am so sorry." Paul insisted, all traces of a smile vanishing from his features. "I really, really wanted to go out with you last night, but Jacob took a bad fall and got really hurt on our way back, and in the emergency, I completely forgot to call you. We were up half the night with him, and I didn't get a chance to leave."

Lark's eyes widened. "I-is Jacob okay?"

Paul nodded. "We got him in to see Dr. Cullen, and he's doing really well. Scared the hell out of us, though. Again, I'm so sorry about last night, and forgetting to call you back, and I was wondering if I could maybe take you out for breakfast to make up for it."

Lark nodded, and Paul smiled again, handing her the tiny bouquet of flowers. She glanced down at them, unable to help the smile that began to cross her features now that she knew, for sure, that things were okay between them.

"Let me get dressed first," she said, gesturing for him to come inside. "you can come wait on the couch, I'll be right back."

Lark led Paul through the entryway and into the living room, leaving the boy waiting on the sofa while she disappeared into the kitchen to put the flowers in a vase full of water. She then brought them upstairs to her bedroom, setting them on her desk before rummaging through her drawers to find a pair of shorts and a plain white t-shirt, pulling her Vans back on her feet and combing through her bedhead before returning down the stairs to where Paul was waiting.

"Wow," he said, standing up off the couch with a smile. "you look pretty."

"Who are you and what have you done with Paul Lahote?" Lark asked, looking at him suspiciously with a smirk and grabbing her messenger bag, pulling the strap over her shoulder.

Lark followed Paul out to his truck, sliding into the passenger seat and watching through the window as he backed out of the driveway and began the short drive across town back to the diner. She watched as the ocean came into view through the line of trees, though her attention was grabbed by a weathered poster nailed to one of the lampposts, detailing information about a missing girl.

"Anastasia Swan?" Lark quickly read off the poster as they passed, looking over at Paul with a confused expression. "Any relation to Alicia and Bella?"

"Alicia's older sister, actually." Paul explained. "She's one of the people that went missing in Seattle about six or seven months ago. Went on a trip with her mother to look at colleges and took a quick trip to the gas station, and she never came back. Charlie and the Seattle police force have all been looking, but they haven't found her. They don't really like to talk about it."