"
In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.
"
-Louis Pasteur
Pro and Cons
It was during English class when Harper's phone rang. Or rather vibrated violently in her bag, because seriously, who leaves their ringer on? As soon as the slight noise met her ears she felt a panic rise at even the mere threat of getting in trouble. She quite liked this teacher and would hate for them to have a bad impression of her. During a rather unimportant day without any prompting, the young teacher waved her off to answer the phone outside. As always with anything that mentioned Harper Young, Embry Call was listening.
When she finally took a peek at who was calling he could hear her sharp inhale. He could hear the tone finally stop. And he could hear her question the caller rather than greeting them.
"What's wrong?" She asked in a dismissive tone. "Is Grandpa hurt or something?" Harper asked again in a shaky voice, still in slight disbelief after how many calls her dad had missed. Now he had chosen to give her a callback. She should have let him take a message. But what if it was Maya and he was in trouble. Yeah, it was probably just Maya and her phone wasn't working.
"Manners, Harper," he chided as if he hadn't abandoned her miles away from her home, to not call or pick up his phone.
Her eyebrows pinched and if she was in the classroom she would've heard a small yelp from a boy who got shot with the ink from a pen Embry had snapped on accident. "Dad?" She questioned raising a brow that Adrian Young couldn't see.
The man himself on the other side was pinching the bridge of his nose and mentally jumping through hoops over what he should say to the girl. He had never been good with his words. Never with his eldest daughter, He decided a greeting was a good place to start. "Good afternoon, Harper."
Harper bristled at the formality, scrunching her nose and pulling the phone away for less than a second to stare at it before placing it next to her ear.
"I suppose it is," she answered, matching his formal tone to a tee.
"How have your studies been coming along?" He asked her.
Harper didn't stop fretting as she answered him stiffly, "Perfectly."
She could almost envision his smile perfectly. It was less of a smile and more of a proud grin than anything else, but she guesses that it'll do. "That's good to hear..." There was a pause, tentative. Now that had made Harper pause. Her father was an efficient man who did everything with a purpose, with a plan of action. Everything he did, he did it for a reason. Now, this usually meant there was an ulterior motive that benefited him solely.
He was waiting, and for what she wasn't sure, but it reminded her of when cats got low to pounce at their prey.
"I think it would be best if you stay at your Aunt Emily's," he had finally told her. It was quiet. White noise had filled her ears, clogging them, so she couldn't even hear the loud and steady drumming of her heart against her ribcage. She wondered if she would feel better if she could see it crack, shatter into pieces so it couldn't be repaired. She dismissed the childish thought almost immediately. He'd win and she couldn't have that. Not right now. Not when she oh so badly wanted to simply scream her head off like a banshee.
Adrian let out a sigh, he was still oh so incredibly stressed and his shoulders tensed. "It's just, Claire's growing out of the nursery and-"
"Okay," Harper mumbled out, forcing her voice to not crack. Forcing herself to not crack. Harper honestly hadn't heard anything after that. Blinded by jealousy and the silent anger that made her shake. Suddenly she could understand a fraction of what the boys had been facing in the days leading up to their first shift.
"You still have yet to greet me, is this how you-"
She did something slightly stupid, if you or a loved one gets second-hand embarrassment please look away.
"You never call, or text, or communicate with me in general," she snapped. "I'm sorry I assumed it was an emergency and that you needed me or something. Or grandpa couldn't get to me. Or just that Maya was using your phone. So..." she rolled her eyes slightly, hands clenching and unclenching. He didn't respond except for the annoyed sigh. "Fine," she snapped. "Hi. Hello. How are you, father dearest?"
"If you have an attitude like that around Emily-"
"Emily actually respects me, unlike you. God, you're such a deadbeat." Harper had decided to leave out the fact of the whole lying for six months thing.
"Harper Diana Young, I am not a deadbeat dad! You should be lucky- if you talk to Emily like this then I feel pity for her. Sorry for her. I worked out the details with your aunt. You're staying with her until you're finished with your schooling. Unfortunately, she persuaded me to tell you rather than her." His voice was sharp, resolute, and louder than it was at the beginning of the call.
Harper's hands were shaking and she could hear her heartbeat elevate. "Oh. Emily knew. How long?"
He didn't answer.
"I trust this won't be too big of an issue." On the other side of the call, Adrian Young was in his office, leaning back in a recliner, looking mainly at the newspaper. He seemed calm and you could only see the remnants of wrinkles from when he gripped the thin paper a little too tightly.
"When am I going to see you again?" Her voice came out scraggly, lighter than it was. Adrian didn't bother to think of why. Nor did he care. This would be best. Claire was getting too old for a nursery anyway, she'd need Harper's old room and he'd simply just send or donate whatever was left in there.
"Make an appointment-" Adrian was met with the tone of the call being ended and looked at his phone in disbelief. "Disrespectful, brat," he grimaced.
The phone was unceremoniously ripped from her hands, the tone went dead and her eyes met Embry Call's. Always lighter than hers and bordering on a hazel tone. He saw red, it rimmed her eyes and her hands were shaking, her lip had been bitten, he could practically smell the blood from where she split it when he was in the classroom. She looked wrecked and given what he heard he didn't blame her. But he did not deserve her attention like this. He pocketed the phone, turning even vibrate off so it was completely silent.
Before Harper could even ask why he did that, Embry asked her a question. "Let's skip class today. We don't have anything important later and I can get Quil or Jake to copy the notes in the classes you need. Either that or Will still owes me a favor."
Harper looked at him in slight disbelief. The shock of whatever that was replaced the disappointing feeling in her chest with confusion. Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he just leave it alone? Why had he thought of everything? And why did it feel so nice despite the skepticism clouding her mind?
His eyes flicked up and his lips mirrored the action, slightly lifting at the corners in a somewhat unsure smile. "Will said he'll let us borrow the notes, are you in?"
And Harper had been stunned a second time. He was giving her an option. An out to go back to class. Honest to whatever deity she cared about at the moment but she wanted to say yes. Because looking at his stupid endearingly hopeful face was doing weird things to her chest. It felt all warm and prickly and it was annoying. So she nodded.
"Come on, Smartass," he teased, "I've got to hear you say it." He didn't think she would.
Harper rolled her eyes before moving her hand to fix the end of the braid and meeting his eyes. "Embry Call, I would be honored to skip class with you." She offered him her hand with that tricky little smile gracing her features.
Embry.exe has stopped working.
He seemed to snap out of it quickly enough that she didn't question it, but he grabbed her hand, and the two all but sprinted to leave the high school. Embry felt it deep down, that troublesome bond growing, strengthening the longer they held contact. And when they made it to her Jeep and she had to part ways he tried hiding the frown only to fixate on his right hand. The one she had held.
Embry Call never thought he would ever be jealous of somebody dead. He was proven wrong as he noticed the glazed-over look in Harper's eyes and the almost dopey smile that had unknowingly graced her face while she simply just looked at the phone number that might give her a chance to hear Sage's voice again. He knew that if he were a color it would be the most horrific shade of green.
Unrequited love was a bitch. The imprint bond didn't have a lot to do with the unrequited feelings he already had for Harper it just made him needy as hell. Which was annoying for his internal monologue. He wanted to be around her, beside her, near her all the time. In school he found himself walking beside her to their shared classes. Neither of them talked. Harper simply looked forward and refused to acknowledge his existence while Embry looked at the ground overthinking what to say until he noticed that she had left him to find her seat while he stayed at the door.
And now she was looking at him. Slipping in a cassette tape and smiling lightly. Okay, she might just have been checking for oncoming traffic, but it was still in his general direction with a more than pleasant look on her face.
There were dozens of playlists on his desk, burned cassettes that her piece of shit jeep could take - which was suddenly getting quite a bit of needed upgrades that he was sure was that blonde leeches doing -, of songs that reminded him of her or how she made him felt. He never did give them to her. Usually, he would slip it in her car to find it later. Whenever she drove him home he could always recognize the songs. He could usually pinpoint which playlist she had on. Most recently it was Forests in the Moonlight, A.K.A Songs for Harper pt. 7.
They were friends. He knew it in the way she would poke fun at him and how she looked at him and even when she would offer him a ride to school when he would stay at Emily's home to avoid his mom and the neverending guilt he felt eating him alive. They were friends. The school year was almost over and within the month's Harper had resided in La Push Embry had accomplished being friends with her, getting a crush on her, rejecting her friendship because he thought she was dating someone, ignoring her, crushing on her again even harder while ignoring her, imprinting on her, and reconciling.
He found all of his afternoons either in the woods, Moonstruck Diner, or Emily Young's house. When he was blessed with the opportunity, Emily had Harper tutor him in whatever classes he was falling behind in (Sam had told him to thank extra patrols for that). And occasionally he would catch her looking at him but it was usually when he had lost focus while staring at her and with mild annoyance.
(See, new positives, was the main thought in his mind as they drove down a backroad.)
He couldn't put in words how badly he wanted to touch her. Especially after the simple gesture of holding hands. Something simple, whatever she wanted. Just their pinkies touching as they walked through the busy halls in silence. Or when she fixed his homework what he would give to have her lean over him He wanted their hands to touch. He thought her hands looked rough and started carrying around hand cream because it almost seemed painful to look at her in even the slightest discomfort. She had used it often enough that he could smell it now. She used his gifts.
The school year was coming to a close and throughout it, he had gotten even more pathetic.
They arrived at First Beach with a creaky stop that made Embry grip onto his seatbelt and Harper roll her eyes at his dramatics. "Do you not trust me enough to park, Fetus?"
Embry shook his head. "You," he shakily smiled at her as her eyes met his, "I'd trust with my life. Your jeep on the other hand... I'd trust after she's been thoroughly upgraded by that scary blonde girl."
Harper opened her mouth, keys clasped in one hand, the same that was pointing a finger at him, before realizing he had a point and closed it. Her eyebrows furrowed and Embry could see her usually downturned lips screw up like she just had something sour. Oh shit. He did something wrong. Did he offend her? He knew the blonde was her favorite. (It was why he didn't call her a leech. That and she legitimately terrified him.)
"You trust me with your life?" She asked him, clarifying if whatever that was. If it was a simple throwaway statement or a joke, or if he actually meant it?
Embry grew embarrassed under her steely, unsure, and curious gaze. He turned a bit away from her breaking eye contact and ducking his head. "Well, yeah."
She didn't say a word, instead, she got out of the car. He was quick to follow after, especially after seeing her without the usual markers of anger, specifically her angry face.
"Why?" She asked when he caught up with her at the back where she pulled out his hoodie to wear. And she did so without even thinking about it. Embry felt his jaw drop. Did she know? Did she even care to remember? Was that why she held no reservations about wearing it. Or did she just assume that he wouldn't need it and kept it for safekeeping? Or did-"
She snapped in his face. Her nails were painted black.
"Earth to Embry. I repeat Earth to Embry." She was teasing him, smiling slightly and her eyes crinkled up at the corner. When they were older she'd have the cutest smile lines.
(Internally he screamed at the image of the two as old people sitting on a porch and sipping sweet tea.)
He shook his head and rubbed at his eyes. "Sorry, I zoned out for a minute."
Harper looked at him dubiously as his hands lowered from his face. She nodded her head in the direction of the beach and they began walking that way. "Have you been getting a lot of late patrols?" She asked, concern evident in her voice.
Embry tilted his head. If he was any lighter she probably would see an embarrassing blush lighting up the entirety of his face, neck, and ears. He shrugged. "Not really I was just thinking about something and I kinda just got spacey," he explained not wanting to admit that he thought about that scenario.
Harper didn't believe him and he could see it in her raised eyebrow. She didn't prod any further and instead asked her first unanswered question, "Why would you trust me with your life?"
They continued walking as he racked his brain for an answer that didn't come off as weird or creepy. "Your the smartest person I've ever met, good with keeping a level head. Insanely ballsy too, determined. I feel like you'd do whatever it'd take if you cared enough about it."
Harper paused. It was a brain malfunction if you will, where she paused completely and locked up before swiveling around to look at him, to see if there was any annoyance or mean intentions behind his words. She couldn't find any so she didn't bother with it and resumed their pace, not answering Embry when he asked, "Are you okay?"
They finally stopped and settled down by a study enough, slightly sunbleached log where Harper sat atop of it and Embry next to it. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, his eyes shifting between the beach and to the left of him where she sat.
Harper shook his head. "No. You probably heard it anyway, didn't you?"
Embry nodded a bit tensely, and he worried for the completely accurate accusation that he was eavesdropping. Harper looked away from the waves and towards the boy.
His hair was growing out slightly. It seemed a bit wavier now, it'd be a shame to cut it. It was ridiculous to cut it in general. What a shame, all those perfectly good locks to waste. Especially since it was practically a mourning ritual to cut your hair. She made another observation as she watched him, he seemed shifty and nervous. If she was as cursed as he was then maybe she'd hear an insanely quick heartbeat.
She opened her mouth to bring it up only to close it once more. She didn't want a repeat of whatever happened in the car when he told her of the faux teasing as an excuse to cut off their friendship. She didn't want him to think she was looking too hard into whatever fragile friendship they were growing and beginning to re-cement into a stable one. So she didn't comment on his nerves and instead commented on his hair. "Your hair looks nice."
A beat of silence passed between them and it felt like eons of awkward air. Harper pulled her eyes from him and looked back to the ocean. Embry snapped his head to look up at her after getting over the initial shock. He had to stop doing that. Stop looking too deep into things. It was a compliment and not a marriage proposal.
"Thanks, but it doesn't hold a flame to yours," he said in a somewhat falsified confident manner that had Harper raising a brow. Embry always stumbled over his words or said them without thinking. She wondered who told him to try that whatever it was.
(A combination of Jared, Paul, and Quil who thought it would be funny to see him try to flirt with Harper after the 'I'll warm you up' incident.)
"I bet you hated cutting it, though." She gestured to him after finally deciding that it would be best to try and ease any of the tension they might have between them. (They do because Harper holds a grudge and Embry's an idiot.
Embry winced as if pulling up the memory and ran his fingers through his hair, tugging on it slightly. "Yeah, it was majorly disappointing," he sighed. Thinking back to after shifting back from the first time, sitting down in Young's bathroom where Emily cut his hair herself. He was just glad she practiced on the three before him first. She had become a pro at it and Embry reckoned that if she didn't take baking seriously she should become a barber. He thought about looking in the mirror in disappointment. He remembered not recognizing himself. "I guess it was like mourning my life before the change. Before I was chosen," he rolled his eyes. "Or whatever."
"Has your life gotten better or worse after?" Harper asked, watching as the boy looked up at her.
Embry considered it. "I don't know," he mumbled to himself. "If I wasn't chosen, then I wouldn't have been a moody brat. I wouldn't have snapped at you, I probably wouldn't have even avoided you. I think if I got my head out of my ass and confessed to you maybe you would have liked me back."
He waited for a moment before continuing.
"My mom doesn't understand. I can't tell her. I'm grounded all the time, we argue. She once said that she didn't recognize me. I don't even recognize myself anymore. I didn't when I finally turned back and looked into a mirror."
Harper nodded at him to continue and he did without a second thought. "I was getting my hair cut, and I was just staring at my reflection and- I... I just couldn't believe it. It was so weird. Everything felt heavier, off slightly. I mean, I had no acne so it was great for my vanity," he teased with a small smile that Harper returned. "But it wasn't me, and by the time Emily was done with the haircut, I looked new. I didn't look like myself."
Harper pursed her lips.
"Have there been any upsides to it? Because for someone who isn't sure if their life got better or worse you do have a laundry list of complaints." Harper was looking down at him with those wide deep eyes of hers. The galaxies in them were neverending. Universes upon universes that he could probably spend hours looking at.
Embry didn't hesitate to answer. "Well, your undivided attention in the forest was a major plus," he teased. "It's nice to be connected to so many people but at the same time the connection has its downsides."
Harper raised an eyebrow, already having the rundown of basic abilities with Sam and Emily after her major freakout, so she knew about the weird psychic link between all of them but even then she could see it.
"The Sam-Leah-Emily lovefest is always entertaining to check in on." Harper snorted at that which made a bright smile appear on Embry's face. "Paul kept sharing his memories of you just flipping Sam off and calling him a manwhore whenever he wanted to cuss him out. Leah started using it too."
Harper laughed a bit at that and the smile grew even brighter at that bit. Embry shrugged after she had stopped and was putting all of her attention on him. "Seriously though, if you want the perks ask Seth or Paul. They certainly show the most hype for it."
Harper hummed to herself, occasionally looking between the ocean and Embry. "I don't think I would like it. Any other pros or cons to it?"
"Imprinting," Embry said without thinking. Shit. SHit. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This wasn't. Not planned. I don't have a plan! Embry's inner monologue was having a great time, zoning out and trying to fix it in any way possible that wouldn't make her think that he was just trying to fix their relationship because of the imprinting bond. The only reason he was allowed to was because of it. But he had wanted to after the crazy mood swings stopped. Fuck!
"And that is?" Harper had finally asked after trying to figure it out on her own. It wasn't in any of the legends she had read prior. But even then most were told orally, Billy only had the traditional ones in the books, anything pre-1800's wasn't written down.
Embry looked up at the girl with his eyes drawn wide open, blinking owlishly while he still tried to figure out his words. She was sitting cross-legged and only allowed to because of how wide the log was, an arm had propped her head up and she looked down at him with that curious look in her eyes.
He felt himself relax, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. She noticed. She noticed the way his shoulders slouched slightly, and the way his stupid face calmed down, and for a moment she tried to picture what he'd look like during the sunset when the world was gilded with gold. She didn't allow herself to continue the thought.
"I'd tell you Rogue, but then I'd have to kill you," he teased with a slight wink that he wasn't sure where it had come from.
Harper rolled her eyes at the X-Men-themed nickname. He had been getting better at choosing one's based on her hair. She detested being called skunk. "Okay, fine," she huffed before sliding off the log to sit down next to him. "Keep your secrets." Harper rested her head against the back of the log to look up slightly at the sky. The girl let out a sigh before leaning to look more at Embry, who was also looking at her. She smiled at him. "I'll find out one day."
Embry knew she would. And he knew that he had to do it soon, but he didn't want to ruin this moment.
"I trusted you, y'know?" Harper said suddenly. Her eyes were focused on him and the two met when he snapped his eyes to hers. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She rolled her eyes. "Before you turned into a megadick. I trusted you a lot. You were easily one of my best friends. You were nice and funny. You didn't mock me when I got excited. Or belittle me. You made me feel like I could be myself."
Embry felt like he was getting punched in the gut.
"And I didn't realize it was different for you than it was for me," she paused. She had looked so accusatory when she had started but now she seemed calmer like each word was releasing some pent-up feelings. She had turned away from him, towards the ocean as if it was an out. He stared at her, eyes wide and filled with hurt. His empathy was confusing for her, his understanding of what she must have felt when she barely understood it herself.
"I'm sorry." Embry held his breath waiting for a response. Eventually, she had turned back to him. Her eyes softened slightly and she shook her head.
"I know."
Once the sun had begun to set, they stood, dusted the sand from their pants, and decided on going to Moonstruck for pie. The entire walk back to the car their hands brushed together.
When Embry got back home he found the nearest pad of paper and a pencil, brainstorming different ways to tell Harper what imprinting was and that he had done it on her. That he'd be what she needed him to be. And that he needed to bring her the latest cassette he made.
When Harper arrived home, post-informing Emily of the disastrous phone call she had with her father, she sat on her bed and thought about Embry Call. Thinking back to before she knew about what he was when he told her that he had liked her. She hadn't believed him then. Not even for a second. But at the beach, his first regret about shifting had been how he acted. He didn't mention his friends, or his mom he put through the wringer, or the pain of the transformation. No, he put ruining his friendship and chances of telling Harper how he felt.
Harper covered her eyes with her hands and groaned slightly. He probably didn't know what he felt, and neither did she. So as she came to that conclusion Harper Young decided that Embry Call was confusing and that he was nice and could be funny. She decided that she liked Embry and despite being flawed she wouldn't change a single thing about him.
That was the first night she dreamt of him. (It had been completely random and made no sense, but the idea that she thought about him often enough to dream about him made her nervous.)
***
Hi, I'm sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a really tough year and I kinda lost my mojo. Plus the phone call scene really felt off and I had a hard time incorporating Embry in a natural way. Believe or not in the og I had set at night and harper was calling him afterward but it didn't feel natural at all and I hated it. I'm probably going to edit the first chapters before moving onto new content but I do have everything planned out. So yeah. Also, HArper maybe having somewhat feelings for Embry, them coming to an understanding, him not telling her what imprinting is for the eightieth time. So how we feeling about Harper's reaction once she finds out, bc she is going to be pissed lmao. RIP my guy Embry, he has never made a well-thought-out decision, his best plans are on pure impulse. Also for those that made it this far I wanted to say thank you.
Also comment your favorite funny moments from this book bc I'm curious