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BACK TO THE BASICS
BELLA WAS A VAMPIRE AND A MOTHER TO A RAPIDLY GROWING BABY WITH THE MOST ATROCIOUS NAME; SO YEAH, EVERYTHING WAS NORMAL.
Normal, as in no one was coming to kill nor destroy the Cullens as of right now, normal.
It was hard going back to school after all was said and done, even harder when Augustine's senior year homework was already ramping up by mid October. She never thought she could get sick of the high school, because she'd longed to return to it when she first came to live with the Cullens, but it was getting to be a little too much.
Her friendship with Will was strained on her end, partly because the poor boy still had hope that his sister was out there while Augustine had a hand in killing her. The Dilaurentis boy didn't have the slightest clue about his friend's internal crisis of morality, and it was then that Augustine really knew she was a damn good liar.
School was grating on her nerves lately, especially with her lack of siblings around to keep her company; but on the bright side, a certain shifter made it his job to drive her to and from school every day.
Yeah, every day Paul hardass Lahote would grumble about how early it was when he picked her up in the mornings, only to end up insisting that he also drive her again the following morning too. It was also mere coincidence that his patrol shifts just so happened to end when the final school bell rang, meaning he was also free to drive her home.
It was a cycle, and who was Augustine to say no to him and his persistence?
Will ended up catching on after Augustine kept denying his offers to drive her home on the given days when there wasn't any football practices scheduled. He'd not so nonchalantly walked with her out of the main buildings and while he was talking about their recent calculus test, he saw her wave energetically to a boy leaning against a pickup truck.
"Is that shirtless hunk of a man the one you haven't told me about yet?" he asked, gaze narrowed her way in heightened suspicion.
Augustine failed to tell her friend about the recent progression of her relationship with Paul. They weren't by any means dating, no, because she was secretly waiting for him to pop that question still, but they were content just being them.
She knew Paul had heard her friend's teasing remark, given by the proud smirk on his face when they descended the main steps. "Unfortunately, yes," she said with a roll of her eyes. "But it's still new... ish, so—"
Augustine balanced when Will grasped her hand with a wide smile. "C'mon, you've gotta introduce me!" And then, the tall blond boy was eagerly pulling her in the direction of the shifter and all of his shirtless glory.
He pushed off the side of the car when they approached, but was quick to catch the way the blond had his hand in hers. It didn't matter what details Augustine gave him about her human friend, like the fact that he wasn't interested in girls period, because the look on Paul's face was one of discontent. He didn't like this stranger touching her.
When they got within an appropriate distance, he all but took Augustine into his arms, which effectively made Will drop her hand. The ravenette could imagine his cocky smile as she hugged him back, feeling a chuckle reverberate from his chest. "Who's your friend, baby?"
She pulled away slightly to gesture in Will's direction, the blond undeterred from Paul's momentary hostility as he stared on like a giddy puppy. "This is Will— Will, this is Paul."
"Hey, man," Will greeted, smile full of pearly teeth despite being greeted back by the tan boy's deadpan face. "Teeny talks about you a lot."
"Teeny?" he parroted back, looking down at the girl in front of him, and it was their hands that were intertwined now.
"Yeah, 'cause she's teeny tiny and her name is Augustine," the Dilaurentis boy explained, almost like the answer should've been obvious.
Augustine growled mockingly at Will. "I'm not that short— everyone else in this town is just freakishly tall."
"I think you're just freakishly short."
"You take that back, Dilaurentis!"
Will went to open his mouth in retaliation when Paul started pulling the pair back. "As fun as this conversation is, we gotta bounce," and that last part was directed at the girl among them. His gaze flickered back to the blond, "nice meeting you, Bill."
And when the two clamoured into Paul's truck, the ravenette instantly hit his upper arm. "It's Will, you tool."
"I know that," was his cheeky response, and the assured grin on his lips earned him another slap to the bicep. "What?"
"You're insufferable."
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Usually after being picked up by Paul, the two would travel down to the reservation to spend time together. Paul was allowed in the Cullen residence, but the poor shifter thought it was still too soon considering he had a direct hand in Sam going after Bella and her baby.
Augustine couldn't blame him because she knew he thought he was doing right by Sam— she expressed her fears over the baby's birth to Alice and Edward a multitude of times, so she understood. Plus, as much as her truce with Jacob was still intact, she couldn't stomach being around him, Bella, and Renesmee (and yeah, what a mouth full) for long periods of time.
"She looks like she's at least three years old now," Augustine told the boy, showing him a recent photo of Renesmee with Bella from her spot in between Paul's legs.
He grabbed the phone from her to examine it further, resting his head against the headboard that his body was leaning on. "Holy shit," he whistled lowly, "freaky... is that normal?"
"Nothing about her is normal," Augustine shook her head. "It's like her growth now is as rapid as it was when she wasn't even born."
Paul nodded, exiting out of the camera app when he chuckled for some reason. Augustine tried to peek at what he was looking at, but he pulled it away from her. "You call me a simp, but you're the one with a photo of us as your home screen."
She grumbled under her breath, knowing what photo he was staring at. It was a picture of the two of them that Esme had taken once when Paul was at their house, the two working away at a particularly tedious puzzle. The photo captured them laughing at something with bubbly demeanours, and Augustine didn't even need to beg Esme to send it her way.
"I'd like to see your screensaver, wolfy," she challenged, swiping her phone back from his grip as she leaned into his space further.
"It's not a picture of us, I can tell you that much," he shrugged, and it would've upset Augustine had she not immediately clocked the way the corner of his mouth ticked upward.
"Show me," she demanded, holding out her hand palm side up, "or are you too chicken?"
His eyes narrowed, and then proceeded to roll before he shuffled back to sit upright. Grabbing his phone from his back pocket, he held it out to her. When she took it, he crossed his arms over his chest and went to jut his chin out. "Go ahead, look."
Clicking the phone to life, her strong resolve instantly shuttered. Rather than staring at what she assumed would be a picture of the pack, or even a picture of himself knowing Paul, she was staring at a photo of her that she'd never seen before.
In the photo, she wasn't looking into the camera, her gaze directed to something in the distance that was captured. She was sat in a booth at the diner, familiar frog anatomy worksheets in front of her, but she looked content. There was a softness in her eyes, and she forced herself to look away from the image. "When—"
"That was the second time we studied together," he admitted, and there was a subtle heat in his tan cheeks that Augustine wanted to poke fun of, but stopped herself from doing so. "So yeah, not a picture of us. You owe me."
It was Augustine's turn to roll her eyes, tossing the phone to the boy who caught it easily.
"Wasn't aware we had made a bet," she snarked in response. "I don't even have a bank account set in my name, Paulie; what would I even owe you?"
The smirk he gave her was one of trouble.
"I'm sure we could think of something."
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[ wyn's note ]
i'll leave that ... last part up to your imagination haha! you guys we're almost at 100k on KILLER and that's absolutely bonkers to me considering i had no hope for this fic lmao
till the next one!! all my love xx