𝘞𝘌 𝘚𝘛𝘈𝘠𝘌𝘋 𝘜𝘗 𝘈𝘓𝘓 𝘕𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛
(𝘛𝘖 𝘞𝘈𝘛𝘊𝘏 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘚𝘜𝘕 𝘙𝘐𝘚𝘌)
𝘞𝘌 𝘚𝘛𝘈𝘠𝘌𝘋 𝘜𝘗 𝘈𝘓𝘓 𝘕𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛
(𝘞𝘌 𝘕𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘙 𝘍𝘌𝘓𝘛 𝘚𝘖 𝘈𝘓𝘐𝘝𝘌)
- 𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓, 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐓. 𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐘𝐍
━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━
We're sitting on Emily's couch when Jacob bursts through the door like a hurricane. Seth jumps up and moves his arm in front of me, which almost makes me smile. If Jacob wasn't panting and heaving like he was about to turn I would allow myself a little giggle.
"Jacob!" Sam yells brusquely. Jacob turns his head to look at him, his panting calming down only slightly. "What's wrong with you?"
"They've turned her," Jacob growls out. I frown and hold Seth's forearm as he sits a little further back. "And they're telling Charlie she's just sick."
"Isn't that better?" Seth pipes up. I resist the urge to squeeze my nails into his arm. Now was probably not the best time to be critiquing things Jacob feels very strongly about. The glare Jacob aims at him proves this. Seth ducks his head and rests his arm across my lap, sinking back like he was shot. I pat his arm gently and watch as Jacob's eyes pass over Seth and onto me. Clearly, there's anger there. But there's also sadness. His worst nightmare as far as Bella has finally come true and there's nothing he can do about it. He turns back to Sam and starts panting angrily again.
"No," Sam says. He doesn't even need Jacob to speak to know what he's thinking. "The Cullens will be able to control her appetite until she can control it herself. They're no danger to any of us. You will not - do you hear me? Will not kill or even harm any of them."
Jacob growls and storms out of the house as angrily as he entered it. Seth and I glance at each other before looking at Sam and Emily. Sam's jaw is clenched tightly, and Emily stands just a little behind him, contemplating whether she should touch him or not. He unclenches it and sighs, turning around to her and pulling her into his arms. We both look away as they start whispering to each other.
"Should we go upstairs?" Seth whispers. I nod and we scurry away, giggling as we race up the stairs and to my room. Emily and I have been slowly decorating it so it fits my personality better. There's some glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, and a few fluffy blankets strewn around the room. Just little things we found that I liked and she didn't mind putting in her house. Emily's like the older sister I never had.
"It's totally for the best," I say as Seth flops down on my bed. "If they were like 'Hey, Charlie! Here's your weirdly gorgeous daughter with red eyes who may or may not want to eat you!' it would go over horribly. Best to just pretend she's bedridden until she can control her appetite."
"Exactly!"
I sigh and start changing into my pyjama pants. "I think Jacob just doesn't want to accept that she's-"
Seth clears his throat loudly as I reach for the waistband of my shorts. I raise my eyebrows like, what? He just coughs and looks away, but not before I see the red creeping up his neck. I bite my lip to stifle a giggle.
"We sleep together every night. We've gone swimming together. You never wear a shirt," I say as I cross my arms over my chest. "And you're worried about me putting more clothes on in front of you?"
"It's more that you have to take some clothes off first," he says, his voice all weird and raspy. I giggle and walk over to him slowly, taking his chin in my hand and turning his face back to mine. He gulps.
"Then don't look," I murmur. He gulps again and nods as I walk back to my dresser and get changed. I've been wearing the shirt I want to wear to sleep for a few hours already. I slide my shorts down and the pants up quickly. Seth's gaze burns into my back before I even turn around.
He opens his arms for me as I come over to him and sit on my bed too, my back pressed against his stomach. I can feel him smiling against the top of my head as I close my eyes.
"You looked, didn't you?"
"I totally looked."
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The pack is all sitting in Emily's kitchen when we come down the next morning.
It's not an unusual sight, nor a scary one anymore, but what freaks me out this morning is how somber they all look. No one's eating, which is nearly impossible with these boys, and no one's talking to each other either. They all stare at Seth and I as we come down the stairs. That's also scary.
"What's going on?" Seth asks as we descend the last few steps. Sam nods at Emily, who grabs a muffin off the counter and takes my arm. "Guys?"
"Let's go for a walk," Emily whispers as she pulls me to the front door. I slide on a pair of sandals and follow her out as we walk down to the beach. I'm still in my pyjamas, with the worst bedhead, but when Emily says to do something, I do it without hesitation. We make it all the way down to the water without saying a word. I munch on the muffin she brought for me and think about what kind of secret pack meeting could be happening that she and I couldn't listen in on.
"Is it about Bella?" I ask as we walk down the sand. She grins.
"You're very observant."
"Nothing else interesting has happened lately that would require a secret meeting."
"This is true," she concedes, stopping to stand with her feet in the water. "Yes, it's about Bella. It's about all of the Cullens, and Jacob too. Sam wants them to know just how serious he is about not killing them for turning Bella."
"And we couldn't be there for that? Both of us have already heard it a few times each."
"Apparently he's using us as examples and doesn't want us to hear it," she rolls her eyes good-naturedly, "so he kicked us out to go for a walk. Sorry you didn't get a chance to get changed or actual breakfast."
"It is what it is. Almost everyone's seen me in my pyjamas already. And the bedhead is nothing new. You should see Seth's right when he wakes up," I grin and kick at a coming wave. It does nothing to stop it. I feel like a child again, trying to convince anyone around me that I had magic water powers and could control the waves. "He looks real shaggy some mornings."
"You should've seen him before he had to cut his hair," Emily says with a little laugh. "It was so bad that Sue used to have to chase him down with a brush in the mornings to get it even a little presentable. And by the time he came back from school, it was all tangled again. I don't even know how he managed that."
"Was that while you lived here or just when you visited?"
"Just when I visited. He was already starting to show signs of changing by the time I moved here, but he wasn't fully changed until Sam had proposed. Not that long ago, actually."
"Interesting. Do you have any pictures?"
She grins devilishly and takes my arm again. "Oh, do I ever."
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Seth and I sit and stare out my window as it rains. Only Emily's porch light makes it so you can see anything. We're on opposite sides of the window, watching the rain hit the trees and trickle down the glass pane. It's peaceful and calm - something that's welcome after the day we've both had.
"What do you think is going to happen when Jacob sees Bella again?" I ask quietly, fiddling with a loose string on one of the shirts Seth's given me. It's just a plain brown one, but it matches the brown pyjama pants with cartoon cows on them that Emily and I found at a secondhand shop a little while ago. I would wear these pants all the time if they would never get dirty and I wouldn't get judged for wearing pyjamas everywhere. The fact that they match one of Seth's old shirts almost perfectly doesn't hurt.
He shakes his head. "I don't even know, Will. I'd like to think he'd be okay? But knowing Jake, he's going to find something small to go ballistic over."
"I just hope he has it in him to try and make peace. It's not like this is something that can be undone."
"No, it's not. But Jake isn't really good at the whole 'making peace' thing. He's gonna want to fight - Edward, Carlisle, maybe even Bella," he slides his legs so they're resting between mine. "But deep down I hope he does too."
"Even if only for the sake of maintaining some normalcy for Charlie."
"God, I didn't even think about him," Seth says. He sounds so tired. "Imagine if Jake kills all the Cullens and there's no one left to maintain their lie. Who knows what we could mess up? And how do we even explain the dead vampire bodies? He's gonna wanna see her before he puts her in a casket forever. She'll be ripped into pieces and have no blood or working organs."
I wince and hold my eyes shut tightly, trying to will the image he just put in my mind away. "Thanks for such a vivid description. I'm gonna have nightmares now."
"Sorry, Will."
I smile and look over at him. He's studying my face intently, and doesn't stop when our eyes meet either. It's like he thinks my face holds some magical solution to the Jacob-Bella problem we're discussing.
"What?" I ask quietly. Whenever I ask that question, he never answers. Just shakes his head at me and looks away. This time, though, he shrugs and smiles, still looking at me. "Seriously, Seth. What is it?"
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
"How lucky I am."
I flush pink and hit his leg with mine. "Oh, yeah? What makes you so lucky?"
"I have you. You're literally my soulmate, live within five minutes of me, and I get to keep you forever. That makes me pretty lucky."
I lean forward and kiss him sweetly. He's too cute for his own good. If it was anyone else, all this coupley stuff would gross me out. But it's Seth, and everything he says makes me want to curl up in a little warm, happy ball and giggle my brains out. "I love you, Seth."
"I love you more, Willow."