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UNFORTUNATE SETBACKS
IT HAD BEEN WELL OVER A YEAR SINCE THE INCIDENT IN ALASKA, and a year was all it took for history to repeat itself, it seemed.
Augustine started shaking in place, eyes locked onto the finger Bella had pricked while the empath next to her had an absolute conniption— one like she'd never seen from him before.
Jasper instantly dove forward, only to be intercepted by Edward who read his thoughts. In doing so, Bella went flying behind him as he tried pushing her away from the chaos, and the force of Edward pushing the other amber-eyed vampire sent him into the piano.
At the sight of a large amount of blood now gushing from the human's arm, Augustine snapped into action when Jasper tried lunging forward. And soon, the newest vegetarians had their sights set on one thing and one thing alone: Bella.
Emmett and Carlisle were quick to grab them both, their eyes the same shade of charcoal black that indicated their sudden and apparent thirst.
Augustine could barely register the voice in her ear, comforting in a way that a mother would calm an upset child. "Augustine— hey, look at me. It's alright—"
A body in front of her, blonde hair and nervous gold eyes peering at her from a face she should've recognized but couldn't. She was hearing the chatter, seeing movement around her, and none of it was registering in her mind. Even when she thrashed against someone's hold, even when that someone had pulled her outside of the house, she was erratic.
It was only until someone steered her far away from the home, deep within the forest, that the haze in her mind seemed to clear and her head no longer felt like it had been stuffed with cotton.
Blinking back to consciousness, she didn't bother looking around her because she found Rosalie standing before her. The older vampire still had her hands firmly on the girl's shoulders, observing the way Augustine's eyes were still a midnight black. "Are you okay?"
The events of the party rushed back to the forefront of her mind, her throat aching at the mere scent of Bella's blood that was lingering in her mind. It was all-encompassing, and it made dread settle in the pit of her stomach. "I've gotta tell Bella how sorry I am, Rose, before she—"
Bella and Augustine had made great headway in terms of their friendship, and the last thing she wanted was for Bella to think she was some volatile monster. But perhaps she was if she was that quick to jump at the chance to consume the girl's blood.
The blonde was quick to cut her off. "You have nothing to apologize for," she said, a hand leaving her shoulder and reaching to brush the top of the younger girl's head. "It's normal to have a slip up. You're young, you still have so much time to learn and—"
"I almost killed her," Augustine growled out, suddenly not enjoying how the vampire across from her was downplaying the incident. A shiver ran down her spine at the repercussions of the evening. "Shit, I would've killed her. I wanted to."
Even just thinking of it, her blood, made Augustine reel away from Rosalie's touch. She all but clawed at her throat, trying to soothe the sudden ache she was feeling. "I wanna be alone." Rosalie went to speak, most likely to suggest that leaving her alone was anything but the right idea, but Augustine's temper rose. "Leave me alone, Rosalie."
Rosalie nodded, face steeling itself at the harsh tone she got from the younger vampire. She couldn't be mad at her seeing as she once had to deal with setbacks like this, too. "I'll check on you later," she responded, and within an instant was gone from view.
Crumpling against a nearby tree stump, Augustine put her head in between her knees that were drawn to her chest, not even bothering to notice that the forest around her was achingly familiar.
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Somehow Jared had managed to convince Paul to handle patrol alone that night, something about Kim's parents being out of town for the night. The lovesick look in the other boy's eyes made Paul wanna hurl, but he agreed— no matter how much he was jealous.
Paul Lahote was jealous of just about everything lately. He was jealous of Jared seeing Kim all the fucking time. He was jealous of Sam asking Emily to move in with him after months of back and forth. He was jealous of both of them simply because they had normal, very human Imprints.
And most of all, he was jealous of a dude named Emmett, the name of Augustine's supposed best friend. Yeah, he still hasn't let that conversation go yet.
There was a moment during the night when he unphased and began traversing through the forest within the reservation by foot. It was calming to him, and soon his feet had taken him where they always did: the creek.
However, he was met with no sign of the vampire girl aside from the sound of soft sniffling. A part of Paul froze, wanted to turn back silently and leave her to wallow in solitude; but the side that demanded he acknowledge the Imprint bond won— it always did lately.
"Are you— uh, alright?"
The sniffling stopped, and Paul had to refrain from facepalming at the uncertainty of his tone. Could I be any more awkward? he groaned internally. The teen was definitely not used to being the comforting type, but he was trying his best, really.
Then, he saw her head peak out from behind a tree, her neck craned around it as she made eye contact with him. "Paul?"
She usually uttered his name in tones of annoyance or frustration, or sometimes both all at once, so hearing her softly call out to him made him instinctually lean forward. It was easy to forget what she was sometimes, pointedly during the times that they managed to get along without starting an argument, but the gold of her eyes was replaced by darkness that night and she almost looked human.
Almost.
He snapped himself out of a daze of thought. "No, it's Santa Claus," he retorted in an overly sarcastic way before he caught himself and cleared his throat. "Sorry— yeah it's me."
He could hear her huff, turning her head away behind the tree. Her voice seemed to lower even more. "Not in the mood for a chat, Santa."
Thankfully, he had incredible shifter hearing because he could still hear her clearly as can be even when he could no longer see her. She was clearly upset, but he took her poking fun at him as a good sign.
Still, he was never the type to listen, so he did something he had never done before: he ventured to her side of the creek.
The Quileutes were allowed on their land so long as they weren't phased, so he maneuvered past the divide and approached the tree she was leaning against with a sort of confidence that Sam would've scolded him over.
The sight before him was pitiful, and it uncomfortably made his stomach clench at how much he seemed to care about a vampire. She had her chin resting on her knees and her arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to make herself seem as small as possible. Something bad happened, he was sure of it.
He boldly sat across from her, lips pursed, as she looked at him like he'd grown another head. "What are you doing?" she questioned, lifting her head to stare at him unblinkingly.
"I wanna know why you're upset," he pressed, leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees.
Her eyes narrowed, jaw clenching in a way that reminded Paul of when he himself started getting angry. "No, you don't," she argued, eyes flickering between his own as they stared at one another.
"I don't think that's for you to decide, Auggie." The nickname had slipped out of him haphazardly, and her gaze instantly hardened.
Paul could tell her mind was running a mile a minute. "What game are you playing at right now?" she snapped, her nails trying to dig into her arms as she looked at him.
"I'm not playing any game—" he cut himself off with a sigh, "is it so hard to believe I'm just trying to be friendly?"
"Yeah, it fucking is," came her instantaneous reply. Her lip was curled back in a snarl and she was up at her feet in a second, making Paul scramble to follow suit. "I get we have... something, but one minute you act like you want nothing to do with me, and the next you're all concerned!
"Oh, I definitely don't," he tried to reassure her, scoffing out in her direction as he only focused on one part of her agitated statement, "I mean, I'm me and you're—"
When he fell silent, the gears in his brain telling him that he might've fucked this one up, she took a predatory step forward. "Go on," she encouraged him, and it was only then that Paul noticed her body was shaking subtly. "I'm what?"
He couldn't help it. "You're a leech."
The shaking stopped, and if it was even possible, her eyes darkened further. Earlier that year, when they'd first started whatever it was that they were doing, he wouldn't have cared to see such hatred in her eyes directed at him. But now, after they'd gotten to a point where they didn't have to piss each other off, he found that he didn't like seeing her like this— like she fucking hated him.
And perhaps she was within her right to. I mean, Paul hated her when he'd imprinted on her solely because she was his kind's natural enemy. But, he'd grown used to her company, grew jealous of her best friend. He felt changed, somehow.
The tables were turned, he realized. She hated him now.
"Really original, Lahote." No, no, they were taking so many steps back. He opened his mouth, his gut telling him to take it all back, but she beat him to the punch.
"I hope you're unhappy for the rest of your stupid little life—" she started, a look of total indifference in her eyes.
"Hold on—"
"—because if I have to be miserable over you until someone rips me apart, I hope you can't go a single fucking day without thinking of me."
And then she was gone, into the night.
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[ wyn's note ]
cue 1 step forward and three steps back by olivia rodrigo....
LOL and that'll lead us to the events of new moon! i plan on having a couple chaps of paul's pov so we can see how he's gonna try n sort his shit out (thankfully) but we'll also see august during the cullens' time away from forks!
till next time xx!