Fever

La Push was far different than I expected. I was ashamed to admit that I had the perfectly stereotyped image in my mind of how a reservation should be. Rather than deer-hide and tribal fires, it resembled Forks considerably; the only difference was the space and the people. Jacob pointed to houses and listed off names of people that lived there, almost all of them strangers to me. He waved at a few neighbours that were on their balconies, or who were passing us in their vehicles. But the one thing I found strange was the fact that no one stared. In Forks, I don’t think the staring stopped until my mother and father had a talk with the neighbours. But here I felt an odd sensation that I hadn’t felt in a very long time: belonging.

Eventually, we came across a one-level burgundy house with one of the largest yards on the reservation. The gardens were bare, the grass was a bit overgrown and patchy, but the house looked quaint and homely. Jacob’s grin grew wider as he pulled me along, his strides growing larger as we walked up the built-in ramp to the front door.

“And this is the best house in La Push.”

“Why?” I asked, laughing at his enthusiasm.

“’Cause this is where I live,” he opened the door and yelled, “Hey Pops, we’re home!”

I held my breath as we both stepped inside, looking around at the strangely masculine house. It wasn’t messy or smelled badly; it just lacked a feminine touch. There was no floral print, little to no photographs, and all of the furniture mismatched and looked to be in the wrong positions. I held back my comments, turning to look at the sound of wheels on hardwood. From around the corner, an older man with long black hair appeared in a wheelchair.

“Is this her?” he asked, finally a smile coming across his wrinkled face.

Jacob nodded, causing me to blush, “Yep, this is Kayla.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you young lady,” he reached his hand out to shake mine. “I’m Billy, Jacob’s father.”

“Hi.”

“I knew your mother,” Billy said, “when we were younger, of course.”
“She doesn’t talk much about her past.”

“I can imagine she wouldn’t, your mother was a very stubborn woman,” he laughed, “and I’m sure she hasn’t changed, either.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked softly.

“Because then she’d be back home, where she belongs.”

I didn’t know what to say to Billy, so I stood there with a faltering smile on my face. Luckily, Jacob sensed my distress and he suggested that he take me to his ‘lair’. It turned out to be a shed filled with a bunch of junk, including the motorcycle he seemed to favour, and an old van that needed a paint job.

“This is where I spend most of my time,” he explained, “Billy can’t come down here because there isn’t a ramp.”

“How did he get into a wheelchair?” I asked timidly, unsure if I should even ask.

“Car accident – my mom died in it, but Billy got away with at least his upper body functioning,” he shrugged. “I was pretty young at the time so I don’t remember much.”

“I’m so sorry,” I murmured instinctively.

He cracked a sideways smile, “What are you sorry for? It wasn’t your fault.”

“I just – do you have any memories of your mother?”

“A few, but after all this time I take what I can from photographs and the stories people tell me.”

I placed my hand on his arm, hoping that it would offer some form of comfort. I had never experienced a death in my family and the mere thought of losing my mother had my heart constricting. But the contact seemed to pull him out of the memories he was sinking into and his smile returned with his sparkling eyes.

“I think I have showed you all there is to see on La Push.”

“Ending with a tour of your...” I couldn’t find the appropriate title.

“Space,” he finished.

“All right, your space,” I smiled, gazing back around at the stuffed shed, “which needs a maid and an interior designer.”

“I think you’re the first woman to set foot in here since I built it,” he reached over a pile of car parts and pulled out two cans of soda, “Cola?”

I declined his offer and watched as he cracked open his can and tilted it back, “Is this the ‘man shack’ or something?”

He shook his head, “I wish – it’s more like the ‘lone ranger shack’. No one really comes back here.”

“Everyone needs a place for themselves, to get away from the world.”

“I guess,” he shrugged.

“Do you not bring girls back here, then?”

“Girls?” he chuckled. “What girls?”

“I don’t know, the ones you’ve dated or liked,” I said awkwardly, looking anywhere but him.

“That’s a total of one girl,” he smiled, “but that one girl hits them all out of the ballpark.”

Instinctively, my cheeks flared up and my pulse began to race, “Uh huh.”

“There is not a single girl on this reservation, in Forks, or the rest of the world that could compare to you,” he grinned, “so don’t even think about doubting yourself.”

A small smile spread across my lips, “You’re catching on fast.”

My heart began to beat rapidly in my chest as Jacob’s fingers trailed across my jaw and impulsively, I tilted my head towards his. I could have imagined a more romantic place like at school in the rain, or down by the beach overlooking the sea or the town. But in the dank, musty space of the shed ruined the paperback appeal I had anticipated. But a kiss was a kiss, and there was no school bell or Jasmine to ruin this. His eyes, so deep and soulful, stared right into mine and I could feel the warmth of his body as he leaned forward. I pushed the final distance towards his mouth and in that split second, our lips touched.

In that touch, the warmth of his body seemed to spread over my body as his arms enveloped mine. A familiar sensation of heat and fire engulfed me, a feeling that I had experienced more than once. My mind was racing and my heart was thudding and all of my focus was on the pair of lips that moved against mine. But then my ears caught something, almost like a snicker, and then the sound of a can being stepped on. Both of us stopped at the same moment, turning towards the sound at the entrance of the shed. There, a group of young men stood with wolfish grins, leaning on one another.

“Way to go Jake,” one of them winked.

I pushed myself away from Jacob quickly, impulsively tugging at the edge of my sweater as I stood there, blushing like mad. The men gave a catcall and then erupted into laughter, spilling in through the door one at a time.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” Jacob shook his head, his tone a little aggravated.

“It was too good to miss out on, Jake. Once Billy said that you brought a girl home, we had to come meet her,” another grinned.

“Great timing, really.”

“Come on Jake, it’s all in good fun.”

“Yeah, plus with the way you talk about her all the time, we had to.”

“Quil, I’m going to kill you,” Jacob growled.

“Jake, better watch that temper. You know what’ll happen.”

I looked between the two boys, watching as Jacob’s tense body seemed to relax slightly, “Fine. Guys, this is Kayla. Kayla, this is the guys.”

I waved politely, unsure of how to greet them.

“Classy, pal,” the shortest one moved forward, “I’m Quil, that’s Paul, Embry, and Seth.”

He took the time to point at each one of them, and I received casual head nods from the rest of them after they were introduced. I smiled and nodded at each of them, unsure of what to say in response. They just stood there, clad in shorts and sweaters like it was the middle of May. I laughed lightly, and turned to Jacob.

“Is it a La Push thing to wear shorts in the winter?”

The boys passed a look between them, one that left the shed in an awkward silence, before Quil answered, “Well, I don’t know about them, but I am definitely hot stuff.”

“Sure you are,” Embry nudged the boy.

“There isn’t much to do in La Push but surf when the waves are good and run around in the forest,” Paul shrugged, his hands tucked into the pockets of his sweater. “What’s the point in dressing for the weather?”

“The forest? Really?” I looked at them strangely. “Did you guys not hear about the bear attacks in the forest? The sheriff says that nobody should be going into the forest until they can find the Grizzly.”

Once more, there was a strange look amongst the boys and I felt like I was missing something.

“We’re big boys,” Quil spoke up, “don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.”

“Quil, I’m warning you-“

“All right!” he laughed, pushing his way back through the door. “I’m leaving!”

“It was nice meeting you, Kayla,” Embry said as he exited the shed. “Hopefully we’ll see you around.”

“Listen, I’m really sorry about that,” Jacob scratched the back of his head. “Quil is a little much.”

“He seems nice,” I shrugged.

“You’re too kind,” he laughed. “But we should get you back to the beach, it’s getting close to four.”

“Really?” I tried not to sound too upset. “It’s already four?”

“It’s getting close, I just don’t want Jasmine on my back for making you late.”

I couldn’t help myself from splitting into a grin, “fine.”

Jacob held my hand on the way back to the beach, keeping my body warm against the chilly air. We met a few more people along the way, older neighbours poking their heads out of their gardens to find out who the new face was. It was strange to be introduced to a group of people who knew more about my family history than I did. They all held the same look in their eyes when they spoke to me, as if they were holding back on me. I smiled politely and waved when appropriate, but I never said more than the odd ‘hello’ and ‘yes’. Eventually, we broke past the row of houses and were walking down to the beach when we met our final guest.

“Hey Sam!” Jacob called down to a young man who had his back to us.

He was standing down on the beach with his hood up over his head, watching the water as it tossed and turned, raking up the shore. His response was slow, and I felt nervous waiting for him to approach and greet us. There was a certain air about this man that had me feeling uneasy, but I shook it off as something silly and waited as Sam made his way towards us.

“Sam, I want you to meet Kayla,” Jacob grinned, his hand gripping mine tightly.

He pushed back his hood when he came before us, smiling a tight, awkward smile, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Kayla.”

He reached his hand forward, and as I grasped his hand, a sudden memory caught in my mind as my eyes fell onto his face. My muscles tightened as I caught my breath in my chest, shaking his hand stiffly as I stared at his face unblinkingly.

“I hope to see you later, there are some things we need to discuss,” he said to Jacob.

“Yeah, I’ll swing by for dinner,” he agreed.

“Nice meeting you,” he repeated, nodding his head, before he moved on.

I waited until he had crossed the street and was well on his way towards the houses when I turned to Jacob, a little alarmed, “Jacob...”

“Yeah?”

“I-I’ve met him before.”

Jacob looked at me confused, “You’ve met Sam before? Where?”

“At the end of Jasmine’s street, there’s a path that is supposed to lead here – I saw him there,” the more I spoke, the more ridiculous I felt. “He told me that it wasn’t safe for me to be outside, and told me to go home."

“And you’re sure it was Sam that told you this?”

“I’m positive, there’s no mistaking it.”

“He was probably worried about the Grizzly,” Jacob reasoned.

“Yeah, but why was he out there then? H-he was wearing shorts and it was freezing that night, I-“

Jacob’s laugh cut me off.

“Do you not believe me?”

“Quil wasn’t exactly joking when he said we were hot stuff, Kay,” he smiled. “It’s something in our blood. We run around all the time and burn off all this energy, we’re almost like personal heaters.”

He placed his palm against my cheek to emphasise his point.

“Just don’t worry about it, Sam was probably trying to keep you safe. He looks out for all the people here.”

“He knew my name, Jake,” I urged. “How did he know my name?”

This time, it was Jacob’s turn for his cheeks to tinge pink, “I happen to talk a lot about you to the guys.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it,” he laughed, “really. We’re big boys, we can handle ourselves.”

“I know, I just worry.”

“Too much,” he smiled.

From behind, the sound of a car tearing up the gravel sounded from behind us. I saw Jasmine’s grin through the windshield before I even saw her. The tires were kicking up little pebbles as she sped down the parking lot, pulling to a stop just a short distance from where we stood.

“Go have fun,” he urged, “and thanks for coming.”

“You don’t have to thank me, I had fun. It’s nice to come to a place where everyone doesn’t stare at you.”

“Oh, they were staring,” he grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, “but for different reasons than you think.”

“Stop doing that,” I blushed.

He leaned down, puckering his lips ever so slightly in attempts to steal a kiss, but I could practically feel Jasmine’s eyes hovering over my shoulder, and I dodged his mouth and gave him a soft peck on his cheek. He looked at me with his trademark smirk, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

“Keepin’ it PG,” I winked, taking a step backwards. “I’ll see you later.”

He shook his head, laughing, “Next time.”

I bumped into the car and grabbed for the handle clumsily, sliding into the seat with a grin on my face. I kept my eyes on Jacob as Jasmine started bombarding me with questions and insinuations, all of which I knew I had to answer eventually. But I kept my lips spread into that smile and watched as the car made Jacob shrink smaller and smaller until eventually, he was just a small speck. But I knew that that speck would be waiting for me when I returned, smiling and sparkling like he always was.