𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏

𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 

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╰┈˚ · ° .  IT WASN'T EASY TO HAVE MOMENTS OF PEACE between the chaos that it was now my life. With the nomads vampires around, killing people for their need to feed, creating widows and orphans and more, no one was safe.

The pack had worked non stop to patrol the border of the treaty line where Quileute land finished and Forks ground began. Us witches more days then not, needed to venture the forest and checks spells, feeding them magic, creating new one, but no spell was powerful enough to stop them completely from entering our land, and the small one we could do, the one that alerted us if any vampire crossed, needed magic to be filled into them constantly to be kept up. So moments where we could be normal teenagers, moments where we could be all in the same room, had become more sparse during the following weeks after the bonfire.

But for the first time in what felt like forever, we had all decided to keep outside of the woods for once, and just have time where we could be normal teenagers again.

Sunday afternoon, with a pleasant breeze coming from the open windows, we were all rounded at the table in the kitchen. Even if it was our first afternoon after a while where we did not have to deal with the supernatural or even just work shifts, we were still high schoolers, so that meant that we still had homeworks to do.

Sam, being the oldest of all of us, within only a month and a couple of weeks maximum, he was finally going to graduate. And with his weak grades, he really needed some time to study before the final exams.

For the rest of us, well, we still needed to pass the year.

Many of us didn't have the best school register, with low grades and even worse attendance, so having some time to study was very likely for the best.

It was probably only Amelia, Maddison and I that could actually say to have good grades actually.

Each and everyone of us was completely immersed in our homeworks, some more than others since Jared had spent the last ten minutes clicking the upper part of his retractable pen creating a consistent noise in the otherwise silence filled kitchen.

"If you don't stop that, I'm going to shove that pen down your throat." Suddenly Paul snapped, taking us all by surprise. Not that he was wrong. That clicking noise was starting to really annoy everyone.

Jared rolled his eyes before with a cheeky grin, he quickly repeated the action just to taunt the wolf.

"Okay, that's enough." With a wave of her hand, Amelia's magic awoke. The air shifted making the pen float in the air until it was right in the girl's hand.

"How am I supposed to do my homework if you have my pen now?" Jared asked with dramatics.

"It's not like you did them in the past ten minutes anyway." Kim replied, trying to conceal her smile.

"I did. And to which part are you siding, uh, traitor?" The Cameron boy questioned, a challenging look in his eyes.

Shrugging her shoulders unbothered, Kim replied to him "Definitely not with you. You were driving me insane with that noise."

"This is starting to feel-"

"Okay can you stop? I still have homeworks to do." Sam cutted him off, a piercing glare aimed at the couple.

Jared once again rolled his eyes before huffing obnoxiously. "Can you check them for me, please?" He slides me his homeworks with pleading eyes.

"She is a grade below us, how is she going to check your homeworks?" Paul asked, confused.

Closing the huge biology book that I was reading, I took his homeworks in my hand.

"She is very smart." He told him with a cheeky grin.

It took me just a couple of seconds with my eyes scanning over his math homeworks to see already a couple of mistakes. "You might want to start again from the beginning." I threw back his notebook without sparing him a glance.

"Wow, that bad?" Amelia snorted teasingly. "You are really a genius, Jar."

"I can't have done them all wrong!" Jared insisted.

Sliding open once again my biology book, I replied without looking at him. "You did."

"I'm sorry, how smart are you?" Paul asked, frowning his forehead in confusion.

"Smart enough that she could have graduated with me this year." Sam said before mumbling "Or last year too actually."

"How? You probably have less attendance than me at school. And that is saying a lot."

Shrugging my shoulders unbothered, I replied. "I have eidetic memory. And I'm just smart. I like to know things. I always did my homeworks for fun."

"What the fuck? You are joking, aren't you?" Paul asked with an amused scoff.

"Guess what's her favorite subject. The one that she is the best at?" Amelia taunted with a smirk.

Noticing his even more confused facial expression, I chuckled. "Chemistry."

"Oh." He widened his eyes, cringing slightly.

"Yes, oh." I deadpanned.

"That is why you knew for sure it hadn't been you to do that ?" That. Meaning almost blowing up the chemistry lab with a failed mix of chemicals during class. He somehow, though, looked sheepish.

I looked at him straight into his eyes. They were exactly the one of his wolf, dark with hues of mahogany. I just nodded at his question. He gulped down before he lowered his eyes down back to his own homework.

══════ 🜂🜁🜃🜄 ══════

╰┈˚ · ° .  The afternoon quickly faded to evening. The sun set at the horizon as the moon slowly raised in the darked blue sky littered with twinkling stars.

I had stepped outside to take a breath of fresh air after studying for hours, the others were still inside crowding the kitchen and following every Maddison's orders as they all together prepared dinner.

"Are you okay?" The voice came just after the backdoor opened and shut once again.

It was weird, having Paul ask me something like that after we had spent years, even before the chemistry accident, hating each other or directly ignoring the other.

"I just need some air." I replied. My eyes were locked on the sky.

The stars had always held a special place in my heart. They were a constant, every night they were there shining down to us. They were like a beacon in the complete darkness, never faltering their light.

He took a seat next to me on the stairs of the back porch, the old wood screeched underneath his weight.

I could feel that he wanted to say something, I didn't press, I just waited knowing that pushing him to do anything was usually a not so good idea. And after minutes of silence, he finally spoke.

"I'm sorry." Paul said, almost reluctant.

I took me completely by surprise, that was the last thing that I thought he was going to say. He didn't need to say what he was apologizing for. I knew it, we both did.

I couldn't help but snap my head towards him, just like I couldn't mask the widening of my eyes or the ashtoned expression on my face.

"Don't look so surprised." He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not." I said, trying not to smile.

Paul gave me a deadpan look. He was right, I was surprised.

"Why?" I asked then.

"Why am I apologizing?" He asked rhetorically, still with slight confusion though.

"Why did you do it in the first place?" I clarified, sensing that he actually needed more to understand.

He faltered, he didn't know what to say. Or maybe he didn't want to admit it. Paul looked away, this time his eyes stopped to the woods that were drenched in the darkness of the night. But I was too curious. I needed to know. So with only a single idea in my mind, probably stupid and borderline pathetic, I went on.

"I'll tell you something if you answer that question."

I guess that stole his interest, because from the forest, his eyes went back to mine. He kept my stare, trying to read my expression. I could feel his eyes scanning every inch, it almost made me fight a blush that wanted to color my cheeks.

"Fine." He breathed out. "You first."

"No. You can go first." I insisted.

"It was your idea, Beatrice."

It was weird when he called me that. No one ever called me by my first name. And it had always been Uley or little arsonist before.

"Fine." I said containing an eye roll. "Do you know how we can feel other people's emotions?" I asked

Paul's eyes widened, he leaned slightly away after I revealed that. "You can?"

"You didn't know?" I asked, scrunching up my nose. "And by the way, leaning back does not work."

"So you, Kim and Amelia can feel other people's emotions?" He asked, sounding very alarmed by that.

"We can. That is why I needed some air. Being in the same room with many people for a lot of time can be a bit difficult sometimes, and I kind of still have to learn how to control it. Amelia and Kim are doing a much better job at it." I revealed. It was true, I was the one that was struggling the most with this power.

"Oh." Was his reply.

"But." I stalled for a bit, trying to come up with courage to say what I really wanted to. "For some reason, don't ask me why because I don't know, I can't feel yours."

"You can't?" He asked, somewhat relieved at my confession.

"I mean they are duller, more like an echo, that usually is really easy to ignore. It's-"

"Frastruating?" He asked with a cheeky smile.

"Good." I revealed, rolling my eyes at him. "Not having your emotions bombarding me it's good. It feels peaceful. I'm sure that If I could feel them completely, I would've already killed you by now. No offense, but you are not the greatest at dealing with emotions of any kind. And everything you feel it's always heightened. "

Placing a hand on the middle of his chest, his face scrunching up dramatically, he said. "You are wounding me. This feels like a stab in my heart."

Deadpanning at him, I told "Your heart is on the left, idiot."

"Whatever you say, Einstein. You are the genius here." He said with a chuckle.

"Is that the only smart person you know?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you want me to say my thing or do you want to fight?" He asked, titling his head slightly before continuing. "I'm down to start fighting again."

"Your turn, Lahote." I said completely serious. "We can start fighting again later, after you tell me why you did it."

He breathed out a sigh, his fingers fidgeting, the index finger rolling the ring on his thumb. I noticed that when he wasn't expected to turn into his wolf, at school... he would wear exactly five rings. They were all the same, a simple band, a little chunkier than the normal widths. The silver color of the rings contrasted beautifully against the warm brown color of his skin. His right hand had two, one on the index, one of the ring finger. On his left hand he had three, one on the pinky, on the middle finger and the last one on the thumb. The places never changed.

"I guess because you would get on my nerves," he started. "You were always like a piece of ice, nothing fazed you. And it made me angry because I couldn't understand how you did that." His eyes gazed at me, as continued. "How you still do. So when we got partnered up together in chemistry, I tried everything. I tried to make you laugh, sad, happy, angry. Nothing worked, so when the accident happened, I thought that I could finally see something, make you show emotions or some shit, I don't know. But even when I blamed you, when I made the entire school think that you did it on purpose, when everyone called you an arsonist, you never faltered from being an ice block. And it just made so fucking angry."

"You are an asshole, you know that." I said unfazed.

"I know." He scoffed a laugh. "And even now, I still don't understand how nothing can faze you. I can't understand."

I sighed out. "Trust me, most of the time I used to be angry. It was probably the main emotion I would feel but knowing that it made you angry when I acted like nothing could touch me was enough to make me mask that. It's really funny getting on your nerves."

"Of course you find that funny." He smirked, "And do you know what I think, Little Arsonist?"

"That you should stop calling me that?" I asked even knowing that it wasn't ever going to happen.

"You wish, Beatrice, but no."

Paul brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear, my breath catching in my throat at the act. His rings had caressed my skin for a second, sending chills down my spine.

"I think that you made the good choice when you decided that it was for the best to not show me any emotion. Not showing me your anger." He said, his eyes helding more intensity than the fire itself.

"Why?" I asked in a whisper. I tried in every way to not look at him, to slow down my breathing, my heartbeat...

"Bause now that I saw it, I can tell you something." His hand reached my chin until it was fully grasped in his hold so that he could turn my head towards him. I could feel the ember of my constant anger lighting up at that. And I knew that he had seen it, maybe it was on my face, maybe on how my body had slightly hardened, maybe it was written all over my eyes... but I knew he had noticed when his lips twisted in a smirk. "It's fucking addicting."

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

So I guess there finally is an explanation for what Paul did.

A shitty one, but still one.

Anyway, the end? he is fucking whipped guys.

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Thursday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾