this chapter is dedicated to fluerlis 🫶🏼! shes a gem and y'all should check her stories out, her writing is amazing 🙏🏼
"DID THEY EVEN TRY to pick a sunny day?" Jessica asks, looking up at the grey, cloud filled sky.
Dorothea looks up with her while she chews on a twizzler. The clouds are thick, grey and leak rain. She grimaces at them. "Probably not."
"They lack thinking skills." Jessica says, sighing and shaking her head.
"Hey!" Eric shouts offendedly, attempting to zip up his wet suit. "I can hear you!"
Jessica looks at him, she hadn't realized that Eric was still near the van. She shrugs anyways. "Well, so?"
Eric stomps away after glaring at Jessica. When hes completely gone, Angela speaks up.
"How would you guys feel if I asked Eric to the dance?" She asks, slightly adjusting her crooked glasses.
"Fine, because I already asked Mike." Jessica admits.
Dorothea frowns at them. "But I thought we were going as a group? You know, us three?" She reminds them a bit somberly.
"I know, we totally were, but it's Mike, Dor. I've wanted this for months." Jessica says. "But I don't have to go with him. I'll let Sarah Evans ask him or something." Her voice is full of self pity now.
Dorothea shakes her head with a relenting sigh. "No, you guys go with the boys." she says, softly smiling at Angela and Jessica now, "Its fine." Even though Dorothea is upset about Jessica abandoning their plans, she won't stop one of her best friends from being happy, and going to the dance with Mike will surely make her happy.
Jessica smiles widely. "Thanks so much. You're such a good friend."
Dorothea smiles again at her and then turns to Bella, who is content and silent as she watches the dark waves crash against the rocks, but she looks away from the water when she sees Dorothea looking at her.
"So, Bells, are you still planning on driving down to Seattle? Because you could be my date to the dance." She suggests, smiling teasingly at Bella.
Over the last two weeks since her accident, Bella and Dorothea have grown even closer and know each other well now, each finding the other one good company to be around.
Bella chuckles. "That'd be great, but yeah, I'm still going to Seattle."
Dorothea sighs in fake, dramatic somberness. "I guess I can stay home and watch Netflix all day."
Jessica snorts a laugh. "You'd love to do be doing that."
Dorothea nods. "Exactly. I guess the dance will be quite fun, then."
"Or," Jessica says, swallowing the candy in her mouth, "you could ask Paul."
"Paul?" Angela echoes. "As in, Lahote?"
Dorothea and Jessica look at her, and Jessica nods. "Yeah, Dor has some history with him. What do you know about him?"
"You have some history with him?" Angela asks Dorothea, ignoring Jessicas question, eyebrows raised.
Dorothea rolls her eyes. "I'd hardly call it history, we've spoken twice, and it was two weeks ago — I haven't seen him since."
Dorothea is, secretly, hoping that Paul may show up, or that she'll at least get to see him, so she can get his number and just get to look at him again. Usually, Dorothea wouldn't still be thinking about a boy she met two weeks ago, but Paul is still there in the forefront of her mind.
"Well, I'd keep it that way if I were you." Angela advises softly, Dorotheas eyes widen at her.
"Why?" She asks, confused by Angela's cryptic warning.
"Hes bad." Angela answers. "Haven't you heard about him?"
"Well, I know he broke up with Jessicas cousins friend, and he likes to party, but nothing besides that." Dorothea shrugs.
"He cheated on her, didn't just break up with her." Jessica corrects.
Dorothea shakes her head, ignoring Jessicas correction. "Okay, well, thats really all I know about him. Is there... more that I should know?"
"A little." Angela says.
Jessica leans forward, eyes full of anticipation for gossip. "Do tell." She urges, wrapping her blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Angela settles in a little bit before beginning. "I only know about him because of my sister, her boyfriend lives on the reservation, and she hears things from him about Paul, like how at every party he goes to, he gets into a fight, its almost always physical, with people who don't even want to fight. Her boyfriend says it's because hes always drunk."
"So, he gets drunk and fights people?" Jessica asks, sounding a little bored, like she was expecting more. "Alcohol does that to me, remember at Coopers party when I got too drunk and tried fighting a rock?"
Dorothea laughs loudly. "Oh, I remember that. That was funny. Didn't you throw up everywhere after that?"
"I did." Jessica says, nodding and grimacing. "It was totally gross, which is why I don't drink just vodka anymore."
"He also does drugs." Angela adds.
"Like, crack?" Jessica asks.
"No, like weed, and stuff." Angela tells her. Dorothea doesn't find it that bad, because at least it isn't crack like Jessica had assumed. "But hes also a womanizer. My sisters boyfriend says hes been with most of the girls on the reservation. He leads them on, uses them, and then just ghosts them in the span of, like, a week.
He acts out in school, too, if he even shows up, I guess, but he mostly ditches."
Dorothea listens to her, but the warnings don't really apply to the Paul she has spent time with. She doesn't want to just believe things told about people, rumors spread like wildfire and who knows if they're even true?
"Um, is that not Paul right there?" Jessica quickly asks, making Dorothea lose her train of thought and look as she points towards a group of three approaching boys, and shes right, Paul is one of them, the other being Jared, but the third is someone Dorothea cannot recognize.
"And Jake?" Bella suddenly says, making the girls look at her.
"Who?" Jessica asks, eyebrows furrowed together.
"The one in the middle." Bella tells her, and then Jessica nods in understanding.
"You know him?" Dorothea asks, trying not to look right at Paul, and to not make it obvious that she knows hes approaching. Paul on the other hand
doesn't care if it's obvious that his eyes are trained right on Dorothea.
Bella nods. "I grew up with him pretty much. And when I first got here, he and his dad gave me a truck."
"Oh, that was very kind of them." Dorothea praises.
Bella agrees, "Yeah, my dad is good friends with them."
Still a few yards away, Jake waves his arm over his head and Bella waves back, a little bit of an awkward, but happy, smile stationed on her face.
It doesn't take long for the group of boys to approach the girls, where Dorothea can now see Paul up close and can confirm that he looks just as good as he did two weeks ago, if not better. She can see him looking at her from the corner of her eye, and she tries to suppress the heat that threatens to tinge her cheeks red.
"What, are you stalking me?" Jake asks, smiling brightly at Bella, his long hair blowing in the cool breeze that passes through the trees and waves.
Bella chuckles. "Yeah, absolutely."
Jake laughs, too.
"Um, this is Jake. And Jake, this is Dorothea, Jessica, and Angela." Bella says, nudging her head towards him. The girls greet him, all warmly smiling.
And then Jake turns to Paul, allowing Dorothea to finally be able to freely gaze at him. Hes wears a tight black t-shirt, which makes Dorotheas mouth feel dry.
"This is Paul," Jake says, "and Jared." He points to them as he speaks, to which only Jared responds to, smiling kindly at the girls before him.
"It's nice to meet you, Jake." Dorothea says, nodding at the boy. "Jessica and I actually already know Paul and Jared." Dorothea tells him, looking at Paul with a smile when she speaks his name, he can't help but lightly smile back.
"Yeah, we played soccer with them a few weeks back. They sucked." Jared says.
"We were better than you two." Dorothea says to him, her smile becoming a more teasing one.
"Sam just let you two win because he felt bad." Jared tells her. "So, I guess you aren't."
"What if Sam just told you that as to not hurt your feelings?" Dorothea asks.
Jared considers her words for a moment, pondering the possibility, but then he shakes his head. "Not possible."
"You sound like a sore loser." Jessica assesses with a laugh, and then looks back at Jake. "So, you and Bella know each other? It's nice of you to show up, Edward didn't." Bellas cheeks immediately redden at Jessicas words, because she was sure that when she told her friends that she invited Edward on the trip, they would keep it a secret — but apparently Jessica didn't want to. Dorothea gives Jessica a look, one of disapproval.
"Edward? Is he an old man?" Paul asks, scrunching his face up at the name.
"No, but he is a Cullen, so I get it." Jessica says snootily. Maybe shes a little bitter about Bella and Edward seemingly growing closer as the days pass, despite having Mike finally liking her back, she can't help but be a little jealous, which Dorothea doesn't like, because a jealous Jessica is not fun to be around.
"A Cullen?" Jared echoes, eyebrows raised now. "Yeah, they don't come here."
The girls all raise their eyebrows at him now.
"What do you mean?" Bella asks, curiously leaning forward.
Jared shrugs, looking away and leaving his cryptic words to hang in the air.
"Hey, do you wanna take a walk?" Bella then asks Jake, surprising him.
"Yeah! Sure." He says enthusiastically, his eyes now a little brighter. Dorothea watches as they walk away, leaving she, Angela and Jessica with Jared and Paul.
"Hey, Dorothea?" Paul speaks, and she quickly, almost embarrassingly fast, turns to look at him. "Do you wanna go for a walk, too? You know, to catch up?"
Dorothea hears her heart thudding in her ears, but she nods, and stands up. "Yeah, sure." She says, repeating exactly what Jacob said — does she look that desperate, too? She wonders and then hopes she doesn't.
They begin to walk in the opposite direction of Bella and Jake, Jessica and Angela watch her leave, both with extremely amused expressions on their shocked faces.
It's silent for a moment, except for the waves crashing on the beach, of course.
"So, how've you been?" Paul asks, looking down at her as they walk atop the wet sand.
"I've been good." Dorothea answers with a nod. "What about you?"
Paul shrugs. "Fine. You know, after I dropped you off, I realized I forgot your number."
Dorothea can't help but chuckle. "Me too. I guess we're both forgetful, huh?"
"You wanted my number, too?" Paul asks, truly surprised.
"Um, yeah? You couldn't tell?" She asks, remembering herself as a blushing idiot on the short drive back to the school, surprised that she didn't appear that way to him.
"No. I'm a little surprised that you'd go for someone like me." Paul says, shrugging.
"Someone like you?" She repeats as a question.
"I know the stories people tell about me." He responds.
Dorothea looks down at her feet as they move across the sand. "Well, are the stories true?"
Paul takes a second to respond. "It depends. What did you hear?"
"You like to drink, fight and lead girls on." She answers, looking up from the ground at him, and she can't figure out the expression on his chiseled face. "Is that true?" She asks, to which he shrugs.
"It all isn't untrue, I guess." Pauls voice has grown slightly softer. "Is that how you see me?"
They've stopped walking by now, and Dorothea continues to look up at him, the wind blowing her golden hair all around. She holds her coat closer to her body. "Is that how you want me to see you?" She asks, studying his features while she awaits his answer.
"No." He immediately, and truthfully, answers. Usually he doesn't care how others perceive him, he actually likes it, having a reputation, being the bad boy, but with Dorothea its different; he doesn't want her to see him as a bad person, because he doesn't want to scare her away like he does with other people.
He doesn't know what it is, but being around her brings him feelings he can't explain, and he doesn't want those feelings to leave, because since meeting her, hes been happy, less angry and filled with rage all the time.
"Good, because I don't." She responds. The stories told by Angela and Jessica don't even matter to her anymore, and she isn't sure that they ever really did.
"You don't?" He asks, his voice becoming lighter as he speaks.
She shakes her head, a smile spreading on her face as she looks at him. "No, I don't."
And then a smile sweeps across his face, one that shows off his teeth and makes his eyes crinkle — Dorothea is certain that she felt her heart skip a few beats at the sight.
"Thanks." He says to her.
"For?"
"Not immediately judging me. Most people would just believe what they heard."
"Rumors have been spread about me, too," Mostly by boys outside of her friend group, so she knows, maybe not to the same extent as Paul, but she does still understand how cruel and devastating rumors can be. "so I know how much it sucks to have people believe false things about you."
He nods. "Yeah, it sucks ass."
She laughs at his choice of words, but agrees. "That it does." He laughs too.
"Ready to continue our walk?" He asks, briefly turning his head to look down the beach.
"Yeah." She answers, and they resume their trek across the beach, commencing in more lighthearted conversations.
⟡
DOROTHEAS PHONE BUZZES IN HER POCKET, forcing her to look away from Paul and halt what she was saying to him.
She reads the screen, eyes scanning the text from Jessica that informs her of their leaving, and her asking when Dorothea will be returning.
Dorothea hadn't realized how long she's been with Paul for, mostly because shes enjoying herself too much to even notice the time.
"I have to go," She says, lifting her head up. "my friends are leaving."
A slight frown pulls at his lips at her words. "You sure you gotta leave?"
"Yeah, unless I want to walk home." She says.
Then an idea goes off inside Pauls head. "I could drive you home."
"Are you sure?" She asks, tilting her head slightly to the side. "I don't want you to waste gas on me, and it's out of your way."
Paul scoffs. "I don't care about gas or anything being out of my way."
A faint red blush appears on her freckled cheeks. "Really?"
"Really." He assures.
"Okay." She says, unlocking her phone, where she tells Jessica that Paul will be the one driving her home.
Paul smiles broadly, happy and relieved that his plan to spend more time with Dorothea actually worked. He doesn't know why, but around her hes nervous — he hasn't felt nervous about a girl since he was thirteen years old.
After she puts her phone back into her pocket, Paul begins to lead her to where he parked his truck. During their walk they resume previously halted conversations, and Dorothea has to ignore her phone incessantly buzzing in her pocket, messages she assumes are from Jessica and Angela, maybe even Bella, freaking out and gossiping about her ride home.
When they reach the rusted, aged truck, Paul opens her door and helps her up inside and shuts the door. As hes rounding the truck, Dorothea takes a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart and excitement, and then shes hit with the sudden sense of deja vu.
Paul soon climbs into the truck and starts it, and he turns towards Dorothea, looking at her for a moment before reaching across her to grab the seatbelt, then pulls it across her, all while Dorothea tries to contain her red cheeks and thrashing hear. At his close proximity, she can smell his cologne.
Once the buckle clicks into place, he backs away with a light smirk. "Um," Dorothea clears her throat, looking at him with bright cheeks. "thanks for that."
"No problem." He replies whilst buckling his own seatbelt.
Paul pulls out onto the rain slicked highway, which sits right alongside the ocean that the sun currently sinks into.
"Can I ask you something?" Paul asks.
"You just did." Dorothea quips, a teasing smile on her glossy lips.
He chuckles. "Okay, fair. But, uh, would you like to go out with me sometime? Maybe?" He stammers through the question. He hasn't cared about rejection in ages, but now he does, and it makes his nerves run wild.
Dorotheas eyes slightly widen because she wasn't expecting him to ask her out yet, but she almost immediately answers, "Yes."
Paul becomes giddy after hearing her answer, not sure if hes ever felt so happy.
The twenty minute drive to Dorotheas home, with her instructions, is one she knows she won't ever forget; they joked, told stories about their friends, and only further became closer with one another.
When Paul's truck slows to a stop on the street outside of Dorotheas house, it's dark, but the streetlights are on, allowing light to come in through the windows of the vehicle, letting them see each other through the darkness.
"Thanks for the ride, again." Dorothea says.
"Anytime." Paul responds, taking the time to study Dorotheas features.
"I had a fun time with you." Dorothea tells him, voice warm.
Pauls eyes sparkle at her words, and they meet hers, which glow candescently under the streetlamp. Hes temped to lean in, the sudden urge hitting him like a brick.
She feels it, too, and begins to inch her head closer, as does he, but suddenly her phone begins to ring, breaking the silence and mood around them.
They pull themselves out of their lust filled reveries, coming back to reality. Dorothea pulls out her phone, inwardly cursing at Jessicas contact picture. Jessica must have just arrived home only minutes ago, and shes clearly in the mood for gossip. She silences her phone and then turns back to Paul with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about that." She apologizes, chuckling. "Jessica wants the scoop, I assume."
And then, as if on cue, Pauls phone starts to ring as well. "And I'd bet that's Jared wanting the same." He pulls his phone out, looks at the screen and nods in confirmation. "Yep, it's Jared." He declines the call.
"Jared likes to gossip?" Dorothea asks, an eyebrow raised.
"Jared gossips the most out of everyone," He tells her. "hes probably worse than Jessica with it."
"I bet they'd make great friends." Dorothea surmises.
Paul laughs. "Yeah, I bet."
"Well, we better tend to them." Dorothea says, knowing Jessica is about to call her and spam her phone even more than she already is.
Pauls happy expression drops a tad, not wanting Dorothea to leave just yet, but he knows he can't force her to stay, so he sighs and nods. "Yeah. We better."
She unbuckles her seatbelt and opens the door of the truck, but before she hops out, she turns to him. "Wait — I still need your number."
"Oh, shit, yeah. Here, just put yours in." He says, handing her his cracked phone.
She quickly types her number into his phone and creates a contact for herself, promptly handing it back to him.
"That better not be a fake." He says, voice light with amusement.
Dorothea shrugs and pushes herself out of the truck onto the sidewalk. "I guess you'll have to see." Is all she says before shutting the door and turning for her home.
Paul watches her with shining eyes and warm cheeks, only driving away when he makes sure she enters into her home safely.