Wild things || The Quileute Tribe

26- Tobias

Tobias shoved Lucas out of the car with a grumble of annoyance. Lucas tripped and teetered a bit before regaining his balance and laughing loudly as Tobias slammed the car doors. There were two more echoing slams as Andrew and Even got out of the front. Both of them wearing amused faces. Even was giggling slightly and Tobias rolled his eyes at his brother in hopeless despair.

"I've got another one!" Lucas announced as they began walking up the dirt drive. "Where do cats go when they die? Purrgatory. Get it?"

"If I hear one more pun out of your mouth we're going to have to recruit a new singer", Tobias threatened. It came out more tired than threatening. Not that the tone made much of a difference, Lucas didn't bat an eye.  "Try not to scare away our neighbours", Tobias pleaded. Not that the other three would listen to him much, they rarely did. But it was never bad to ask.

"We should try and make a good impression", Andrew voiced. Tobias gave him a thankful look. "They are our neighbours and the less they call the cops on us, the better".

"Remember when we had that apartment in Manhattan?" Even sniggered as they began walking towards the house. "They called the police at Halloween because Lucas hadde satt av fyrverkeri på taket og det var en naken fyr som danset på balkongen".... He dissolved in to rapid Norwegian, the sentences interrupted by bursts of giggles. Tobias gave up on trying to mentally translate whatever Even was saying. The words were coming so fast he couldn't keep up. Unlike Even, he wasn't a native speaker.

"Be polite okay", Tobias reminded as they stopped at the steps. The Cullen house was a beautiful design of wood and glass that looked like something out of a magazine. Tobias was half awed by it. He loved design and architecture, it was a secret fascination of his. He just found it all so aesthetically pleasing. The Cullen's must be rich to live in a house like that. So removed from the main road and the rest of the town. Tobias wondered why they hadn't come to say hello to their new neighbours sooner.

Even held up his hands innocently. "Jeg vil være god", he promised. Tobias pretended not to notice the jittery tapping of Even's fingertips on his shirt. They had called their parents this morning and the conversation, as well as the bag of sweets Even ate all by himself, had left him hyper. It didn't help that it was just one of those days where Even had talked to his mother in Norwegian. The caffeine and sugar rush was making it hard for him to code his brain back into English. Also, he was nervous about the Cullens. They all were.

"Whatever he said", Lucas added. Andrew nodded and Tobias sighed.

"Come on. Let's go and say hello. I'm sure they're just as nice as Edward".

"Hopefully", Andrew muttered under his breath as they began up the stairs to the front porch. "I really do not want bad gossipy neighbours again". Tobias hummed in agreement.

He rapped his knuckles against the door and stepped back to wait. "Maybe they're not home", Lucas muttered after there was a moment of silence. "What time is it?"

Andrew went to pull out his phone to check when the door opened. There was a woman at the door. She was beautiful. With pale marble skin and wavy caramel hair that cascaded around her shoulders. Tobias would guess her age between her late twenties and thirty but it was hard to tell. Her eyes were amber, just like he recalled Edward's being. She smiled at them warmly and Tobias found himself smiling back. "Hello", she greeted with a soft voice like light wind. "How can I help you?"

"Um hi. We're your new neighbours. We moved in just over a month ago".

"Ah yes", the woman beamed. "We heard that someone was moving into the house down the road. How is it?"

"It's good", Andrew replied smoothly. "We would have come over to introduce ourselves sooner but we got caught up in our work. Hope we're not bothering you".