CHAPTER TWO

The Best Boys Will Be Boys

***

"You know what the most dangerous thing about cliff diving is?" I asked as Jacob was just about to jump off the edge. "The landing, you could break your neck, fracture your spine, hypothermia is actually a really good one too-" 

 "Shut up, Tony!" Quil snapped, waiting for Jacob to launch himself off of the rocky surface. It was a nice day in La Push, so, obviously, we were going cliff diving. And I was trying to educate my dumb friends on how dangerous it was. 

 "There are also sharks." I made a chomping motion with my hands at Quil, who jumped. "They love feasting on innocent jumpers." 

 "That's it." Jacob walked over to me slowly. "Tony's going first."

 "I'm not jumping off of that thing!" I defended, crossing my arms and rolling my eyes. "I am supposed to live the longest." 

"Grab him." 

 "No!" I screeched, running over to cower behind Embry. "No! I am too young!" 
 Quil came up behind me, so I jumped up and latched onto Embry's back, making him grunt, but manage to stay up. "No! Saltwater will get in my throat!" 

 "Let go!" Quil growled, grabbing my legs and trying to pull me off of Embry. I held my arms firmly around his chest, squeezing tight and refusing to release.  

 "My face is so beautiful! I don't want it all messed up!" 

 "Embry!" 

 "Kinda trying to not be choked here!" 

"Jake help!" 

 Jacob, who was standing to the side, chuckling at the comical scene, ran over to forcefully remove my arms from Embry. I shrieked again, thrashing around until I fell to the ground, rapidly crawling away. One thing was clear: I was not getting in that water. 

 I stripped my shirt off, smacking Quil with it repeatedly. "Back!"

 In the end, I didn't win the fight. 

 Quil backed me to the side of the cliff, and I made my last act of flipping him off before he shoved me and I was plummeting to the water below. 

 When I made contact, it sent a sharp sting up my back, but nothing worse than that. The water was warmer than I expected, and I immediately kicked my way back up, not liking the black emptiness around me. My head broke the surface, chilled by the air that was colder than the water, and spit a mouthful out. 

 "You are all never going find love!" 

 The boys above's laughter could be heard from where I was, and then Embry decided to show off, and launched off of the clip, managing to complete two full flips, before landing not to far away from me. His head popped out, and he shook his head like a dog. "Whoo! Water is great." 

 "You're so weird." I pointed out, swimming over just so I could splash him.

 Embry playfully wiggled his eyebrows in my direction. "Did you fracture your spine?" 

 "No but I'm about to fracture yours!" I threatened, grabbing Embry's shoulders and shoving his head under water for a fraction of a second. "You didn't even try to help me!" 

 "Well, my body was your personal safety-net, so I think that-" 

 We were interrupted by a loud splash off to the side, followed by Quil surfacing, coughing erratically. "I think, I swallowed... the entire ocean." He gasped, only making Embry and I laugh harder. 

 "Yo, I can barely see anything." I pointed out, blinking at Jacob's blurred figure, as he did his best back-flip and hurtled into the water. "This is why I wear glasses." 

 "Really?" Embry mocked-surprise. "I thought you just wore them for fashion." 

 "Is that the same reason why you wear that blue necktie?" 

 "That is fashion!" 

"Oh... sure." 

 If we weren't treading water, he would have tackled me by now. 

 "Y'all wanna talk about fashion?" Quil swam over, flicking his hair. "Just take this all in, baby." 

 "You're so weird." Jacob pushed Quil, splashing him once. "I am obviously the most attractive out of all of us." 

 "No... Embry is." 

 "Hell yeah!" Embry reached over high-five me, making my mouth dip underwater. 

 "Race to the beach?" 

 "You're on!" 

***

"No! You guys are gonna get the floor all dirty!" 

 We all filed into my small, wooden house later that night. Alyssa was washing dishes when we entered, and Jacob and Quil made a beeline for the tray. "No!" Lyssa snapped, slapping Quil's hand with a whisk. "Back!" 

 "You guys really are similar." Embry smirked, and I rolled my eyes, my shirt slung over my neck. None of us were actually wearing our shirts, and I couldn't tell if Alyssa was flustered or annoyed... I was going with annoyed, considering the way her and Quil were in a flour war. 

 "Oh, this is fun." I walked over, the air filled with floating white particles drifting around in the air. I scooped up a handful of the dry stuff, turned, and launched it in a wide arc at Embry. The whole room went still as he froze, white powder now covering the majority of his face. He went still, screwing his eyes shut and pulling his lips into a tight line. 

 And then he broke free. 

 Embry lunged at me, managing to swipe a handful of flour off of the counter, and slapping it right into the middle of my chest, the pasty white substance covering my tan chest, and melting when it came in contact to the water droplets. I stared down at my chest, the now liquidized flour seeping down my stomach. 

 "Oh it is on." 

 Embry and I launched at each other, tossing flour back and forth until our kitchen scarily resembled Antarctica. Jacob and Quil whooped, while Alyssa complained about how we ruined her perfectly clean kitchen. 

 "Protect the cookies!" Quil yelled, as Embry and I playfully wrestled around the small room, he got me in a headlock, and yelled at me to plead mercy. 

 "Give up!" 

 "Never!" I shot back, squirming around like an aggressive worm, and trying to pry my head away from his chest. "I am too recalcitrant!" 

 "What the hell does that mean?" 

 "Fine! I give up! Release!" 

 "Say, 'Embry is my best friend and he is cooler than I will ever be.'" 

 "What? No!" 

 Embry's grip tightend ever so slightly, so I gave in. 

 "Fine! Fine! Embry is my best friend and he is cooler than I will ever be!" 

 The boy released his hold on my neck, smirking like he just won the lottery, "I always knew your true feelings."

 I scowled, pushing a piece of hair from my face and rolling my eyes. "You suck." I grumbled, pouting and grabbing a cookie that was covered with a thin layer of starchy flour. "I only lost 'cause I can't see." 

 "Don't blame your loss on your visual-impaired...ness." 

 "English with Embry." I held out my hands like I was showing off a billboard. Picking on my friends for being illiterate is one of my favorite things. "You should start a YouTube channel." 

  "You know what you should start?" Alyssa demanded, fire in her eyes, annoyance tinging her voice. "Cleaning." She shoved a broom in my hand, before instantly retracting her arm again. "Wait, no these can be used as weapons." 

 "Nobody's gonna die, Allie." Quil tried to assure, grabbing the broom and spinning it around in his hands, promptly smacking himself in the face and grasping for the long pole as it almost fell over and hit Jacob. "I mean, not me at least." He smiled sheepishly under my sisters disapproving glare, shoving the cleaning utensil into my hands. "Because I am leaving." 

 "Yeah, same." 

 "Get back here!" I yelled, trying to chase down my two friends, who were laughing like banshee's, tripping over furniture in their effort to get out of my house. 

 "I have to make dinner!" 

 "Shut up, you can't cook!" 

 Quil gave me one last cocky grin, before turning and slamming the door shut. I rolled my eyes at The two, turning back to Embry and Alyssa, who were peacefully chewing on their cookies, oblivious to my annoyance. 

 "Grab a rag, bitches." 

***

 The months passed just like that. School, bonfires in the snow, and lots of laughs. I sometimes don't understand how I managed to score friends like these. Friends that can make me laugh even if I try my hardest not too. Friends who admire me for being start, instead of thinking I was annoying. Because when you have friends like that, life is a breeze. 

 "Okay, Isabella Swan is in there." I pointed toward the door to Jake's garage. It was late February, and the air was crisp, despite that... I didn't feel all that cold. 

 The best thing that has come out of these few months, was that I grew. Not gradually, really abruptly, like, in the past few weeks, I sprouted up, and now look like a lanky version of my past self. "Jake thinks he has a chance with her, so what do we do?" 

 "Ruin it." Embry and Quil grinned, devious smirks on all of our faces. This has been something of a game to us, whenever Jacob had a chance to be alone with Bella, one of us always popped up. It was hilarious, and drove Jake crazy. 

I slowly opened the door to the garage, poking my head in. Silence came back to me. 

 "It's too quiet, three four-" 

 I burst into the door, "Tell me what you want what you really really want!" 

 "So I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want!" 

 "I want a-" 

 "I want a-" 

 "I want a-" 

 "I want a-" 

 "Who is that?" A feminine voice came from inside, making all of us collapse in laughter. I could hear Jake sigh in exasperation. 

 "Those are just my boys, guys, shut up!" 

 "That's not very nice." I grinned, almost tripping over a car part, and grabbing Embry's shoulder to steady myself, I haven't done the best at adjusting to my new height. "Hola, Isabella." 

 "Just Bella," the small girl corrected, and I took a small moment to take in how much she changed. Her whole face was pale, and she was a million times skinnier, like, unhealthily skinnier, with hollow cheeks and dark brown eyes that didn't seem to sparkle anymore.  "Tony, right? Wow, you've grown." 

 I blushed lightly at the comment, "yeah..." 

 "I'm Quil." My friend grinned at Bella, his voice an octave deeper than usual, Embry and I shared an amused look. "Quil Ateara." 

 "You can call him by his alter-ego." I made my voice deeper, wiggling my eyebrows, "Batman." 

 "Shut it, nerd." 

 "Hi," Embry waved nervously, the shyness he only has around new people coming out, "I'm, um, I'm Embry." 

 I smiled to myself, wow, Embry really is adorable when he wants to be. 

 "The bike building story is true!" Quil grinned, taking me back to how Jake was ranting about how he finally got Bella to hang out with him earlier.

 "Yeah, I taught him everything he knows." Bella smiled shyly, twisting a strand of her long, dark hair around her finger. 

 "What about the part where you're his girlfriend?" 

 I turned around so they couldn't see how hard I was laughing, turning around just in time to see Jacob's face burn red. Quil, Embry, and I shared a knowing look. Jacob began falling over his words, trying to get him out of what we just got him into. "Uh, no-" he chuckled nervously, casting Bella a look from the corner of his eyes, "no, I remember saying that she was a girl, and a friend."

"Do you guys remember him making that distinction?" 

 Embry and I made eye-contact, our grins only growing. "Nope." 

 "So you guys have girlfriends? That's awesome!" 

 I couldn't help but laugh at the look on Quil's face, "actually, Embry classifies as my girlfriend." 

 "One hundred percent true." The brunet joked as I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. "We're going to prom." He teased, giving me an over-exaggerated wink. "The same cannot be said for poor Quil." 

 "He's taking my sister to prom." 

 "Hey!" Quil snapped, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. "That doesn't mean it won't be a riot." 

 "Come on, man, she organizes our silverware!" 

 Quil's ears turned pink, and he gave me a narrow-eyed look. "I admire the tidiness." 

 "Still better than your original option." Jacob teased, "hey how's your cousin doing?" 

 Quil growled, cracking his knuckles, "you want funny, Black? I'll give you funny!" He threatened, before jumping at Jacob. I took a small step back as they began scuffling, now understanding now they feel whenever Embry and I do this. 

 Bella regarded the scene, looking like she couldn't decide whether to be scared of amused, I slid my arm away from Embry, but grabbing his arm, and carefully traipsed over to the Swan girl. 

 "I got ten bucks on Quil." I flashed the girl a lopsided grin, she gave me a tentative smile back. 

 "You're on." 

A/N: Ahh! Two chapters in and I already love Tony! His dorky-adorableness won't last long, so soak it up while you can... and don't forget to vote and comment!