I've been holding out so long
I've been sleeping all alone
Lord I miss you
~ The Rolling Stones "Miss You"
It had only been two days since Jared had found out about Seth and Brooklyn's relationship, and Paul had yet to find out. Seth was still on edge about it though. It's not like he didn't trust Jared to keep his secret— his pack was his family, and he trusted them all with his life— he just knew how easy it was to let secrets slip when they were phased. That's how he had found out that Embry still slept with his baby blanket, and Quil had an inexplicable fear of balloons. Not to mention, that's how Jared had found out about Seth's secret.
Right now they were all at Sam and Emily's house. Emily had made an assortment of food to keep the pack at bay. Since phasing, Seth's appetite had increased tenfold, so had everyone else's in the pack. They were all sat around the dining room table, talking and laughing, and eating. Embry Call had joined the pack yesterday, and Quil and Jake were ecstatic because their friend group was finally reunited. Seth was jealous of that. He wished that he could reunite with his best friend, but it was highly unlikely she would phase— Leah was the first and only female wolf in tribal history.
Seth was sitting next to Jared and his imprint Kim, and Paul was sitting across from them. Leah was out running patrol with Quil, so he couldn't sit with her. Although, she had been especially angry lately, so he wasn't sure he would have wanted to sit with her if she was here.
"Hey, Paul, have you talked to your sister recently?" Kim asked out of nowhere. Seth's interest piqued. Had something happened with Brooklyn?
"Uh, no. Not since I left home. Why?" Paul responded.
"Well, my friend Hannah is on the soccer team, and she told me that Brooklyn quit the team yesterday," Kim told him.
"But she's trying to get a scholarship so that she can go to college," Seth interjected. "Why would she quit the team?"
"I don't know," Kim said, but her face said something different. She knew something they didn't.
"Babe, you know something," Jared said to her.
"No, I don't," she said unconvincingly.
"If there's something going on with my sister, don't you think I should know about it?" Paul asked her.
"Well, it's just that... I heard this rumor," Kim confessed. "But you know how rumors are in La Push. They're almost always wrong."
"Kim, just tell us already," said Seth. He was dying to know what was going on with Brooklyn, especially since he wasn't allowed to see or talk to her right now.
"Okay, well, Hannah said that Brooklyn quit the team because their coach was doing one of those random drug tests. And she's been hanging out with that Shawn guy a lot lately. Everyone knows he's a druggie, and so like, the rumor that I've been hearing around school is that she's... following in his path, I guess," Kim said.
"So you're saying Brooklyn is on drugs?" Seth asks. That was so unlike her. Sure, she smoked weed with him on occasion, but she was really strict about not doing it during soccer season, and she would never do any hardcore drugs. Would she?
"No. I'm saying that's what I heard," Kim corrects him. "There's no proof that it's actually true."
"I'm gonna kill him," Paul seethes. The room falls silent.
"Paul, there isn't any proof that anything is actually going on," Jared tries to reason with him. "Besides, you used to be friends with this guy, so I doubt he would do anything to hurt your sister like that."
"He's not a good person," Paul continues to get angrier. "You don't know the things he's done."
"Actually, we do," Jared tries to joke. "We've seen your thoughts."
Paul looks like he's about to take a swing at Jared. If Paul is reacting this way about a rumor, Seth doesn't even want to know how he would react to something true. Seth prays that Jared keeps his mouth shut about what he found out.
Sam notices Paul's anger, and he decides to take action.
"No phasing in the house. Go outside," Sam orders.
The pack watches as a shaking Paul storms outside and slams the door behind him. The conversations begin again, Paul storming out and phasing was a fairly regular event— he was the most hot-headed out of the entire pack.
Almost an hour later, Leah and Quil return to the house from their shift on patrol.
"Hey, is Paul still out there?" Jake asks the two.
"No, he was only phased for like twenty-ish minutes. We thought that he came back inside," Quil responds. "Why?"
"He was supposed to run the next shift with me," Jake rolls his eyes. One of Sam's rules was that shifts were to be done in groups of two or more— just in case anyone caught a scent— so that they weren't all alone if they ran into a vampire. It was a safety thing, wolves live in packs for a reason. "So who's going to cover his shift?"
No one volunteered— it was the night shift. They would be out all night, but they would be allowed to sleep all day tomorrow to make up for it. Still, it was the least desirable shift that was available.
"Seth, would you be able to?" Sam asks.
"Sure," Seth replied glumly. He hated the night shift, but Sam is his alpha, so there's not much he can do. He and Jake went out to the woods and phased.
Seth could hear Jake thinking about his friend Bella Swan. Jake was in love with her, but he hadn't been allowed to talk to her since he phased. Sam's order's prohibited him from telling her. Jake was angry that he couldn't talk to the girl he loved, and he held a lot of resentment for Sam at the moment. Seth didn't blame him... he could relate a lot. Jake was thinking about how he reminded Bella of the legends a couple of weeks ago— he just wanted her to put two and two together. She already knew about vampires, so she should have been a lot more perceptive of the supernatural world, right?
Seth wished that Brooklyn knew enough to be able to come up with the answer herself, but he knew that the possibility of vampires and shape-shifters actually existing had never crossed her mind, and it probably never would. Seth just wanted his best friend back.
The night was fairly uneventful, they hadn't run into any vampires, and no secrets were revealed. Seth and Jake got along pretty well, so they had plenty to talk about. Their shift ended just as the sun began to rise.
Seth was beyond tired— he hadn't expected to have the night shift. He was ready to fall asleep as he got home. As he got into bed, he started thinking about what Kim had told them earlier. It just didn't make any sense. Why would Brooklyn quit soccer? She had loved playing it for as long as he had known her. Was she really on drugs? Surely she couldn't be... La Push bred stupid rumors. Seth knew firsthand how wrong those rumors could be— the pack was rumored to be a cult that used steroids. And Seth knew for a fact that neither he or any of the other guys were on steroids, and their pack was definitely not a cult. There had to be something else going on with Brooklyn.
His mind shifted to his father. His dad's funeral was this weekend, and Seth was dreading it. He didn't want to stand around while people who barely knew his dad pretended to be devastated by his unexpected death. Seth hoped that the funeral would give him a chance to say goodbye to his dad. He hadn't gotten to the day of his death— becoming a giant wolf had kind of taken a lot of his focus lately. He hadn't even gotten a chance to grieve properly because he had been so preoccupied with the pack and Brooklyn and his mom and sister.
Seth needed time to himself. He needed time to feel whatever it was that he needed to feel, so that he could begin to move on, and live his life. His dad would have wanted him to keep living his life and being happy.
Seth sighed. It had only been a little over a week since his dad died, but everything was different now. His life was completely different now... And maybe Sam was right, maybe Brooklyn didn't belong in this new life. Maybe he had to let her go, and figure out how life would work without her and his dad in it.