Forever or Never?

I knocked on Angela's door Friday after school. Joel opened the door with Angela right behind him.

"Hey, Tete. Joel's leaving." Joel turned around, kissed Angela and walked out the door. "Bye, Joel. See you tomorrow night."

"Date?" I asked as she led the way to her room.

"Yeah. It's our six month anniversary. He's decided he has to do something really nice for me."

"And he should. I couldn't put up with one guy that long. I mean, I have issues with my dad and he's only home four days a week."

"It's not so bad. Just a little annoying when he gets a little clingy."

"So tell him to back off a little." I sat down on the end of her bed and dropped my bag on the floor.

"I can't. I start to and then I feel guilty about telling him off."

"Are you his first girlfriend?"

"Yeah. I mean, he'd take girls to dances, but none of them wanted to keep going out with him."

"Since it's his first relationship you have to give some slack. Tell him what you want instead of just hinting at it or chickening out of saying it. Take control a little bit. If you're walking down the street and he isn't holding your hand, grab his, make him know it's ok. If he's being too clingy, tell him."

"Thanks, Mats. I need to talk to him about some of that stuff. Hang on, I heard the doorbell." I followed Angela down the stairs and watched as she opened the door. "Oh, hey, Mary." Alice walked in around Angela and saw me on the stairs.

"Hey, Angela. Do you mind if I talk to Mateja for a minute? I needed to ask her about a project for French and her mom said she was here." Angela shook her head and walked upstairs. Alice turned to me after we heard the bedroom door close. She spoke fast and low. "Mateja, we have a problem."

"What is it, Alice?"

"You need to come with me. Emmett's going to attack Seth tonight and I'm pretty sure you're the only one who can stop him. If he attacks Seth, the war starts."

"What war?"

"The war that started as soon as vampires came to this area. They killed some of the tribe, and so the Quileutes declared war on all of us. When Carlisle got here he made a treaty. If a member of one group attacked a member of the other, war would be declared, everyone would be fair game. Since your family are vampires too, that puts you as the tribes enemies. But you being Seth's imprint, they probably wouldn't attack you, Cassie, or Dan, but I couldn't see anything beyond Emmett going to attack Seth."

"Ok. And when is Emmett planning on attacking?"

"Within the hour."

"Wonderful. Where is he?"

"Our house, well, sitting at the bottom of the river."

"Why?"

"Because he can. I don't know why he does these things, he just does. Edward can't even figure it out, and he's in Emmett's head."

"Ok. Whatever. Just let me go tell Angela I'm going to work on French for a little bit." I walked upstairs and knocked on Angela's door. I waited for her to say to come in, and opened the door. "Hey, sorry, Ang, but I have to go with Mary for a little bit to get some stuff for the French project. I'll be back before seven."

"It's ok. I'll see ya later. I'll call Joel. He'll come back until you get here."

"Ok, well, see ya." I gave Angela a small hug, avoiding skin contact.

"Bye." I walked out of the house with Alice right behind me.

"Follow me." Alice walked down the street to the small park at the intersection and sprinted off once we were hidden in the trees. I followed Alice to a big white house in a clearing with a river flowing behind the house. Alice pointed to a boulder by the river, beyond which I could see Emmett's dark curls floating freely in the water. "Go talk to him." We slowed to a walk and Alice followed the trail to the front door. I walked on the grass to the boulder and sat on the top of it after grabbing a smaller rock from the ground. I threw the rock in my hand into the water and hit the top of Emmett's head. Emmett jumped out of the water, spraying me with the water, that I guessed would be cold. Emmett span around in the river and jumped out onto the grass next to me.

"Hey, Mateja. I thought you were at Angela's."

"I was. Alice came and got me when she saw you going to attack Seth." I said, scooting across the boulder to make room for him to sit next to me. He took the invitation and sat down next to me, getting my left side wet as he did so.

"And so you came all the way out here to stop me, right?"

"Yeah. Cuz whatever this war thing is, I don't want to be in the middle of it."

"The war that would be declared and then probably not acted upon."

"It's a war all the same and I dont' want it going on. Because if we lost control too close to Forks, who knows what could happen."

"And Edward would never do anything to Jake, for Bella's sake, and he wouldn't let us touch Seth cuz they became friends while the newborns came trying to kill Bella."

"Wonderful. You want to tell me that story?"

"It kinda starts when Bella moved to Forks. She can tell you the first part later, I'll skip straight to the problem with the newborns. A vampire named Victoria created a bunch of newborns and sent them to attack and kill Bella because Edward had killed her mate. A mate for a mate. Edward and Jake took Bella to a mountainside, and Seth sat outside keeping them attached to pack mind. It got cold and Jake served as a space heater to the fragile human that is now the nearly indestructible Bella. Victoria and Riley, from what we figured was the first newborn she made, came to find Edward and Bella. Jake ran off to help the rest of us in the clearing where the rest of the newborns were. Seth and Edward fought together against Victoria and Riley, killing both of them. They've been friends since." (A/N: I'm so awesome I made Eclipse into one paragraph!)

"Ok. So the wolves won't attack the vamps cuz of me. And the vamps won't attack the wolves cuz of Edward."

"Basically, yeah. So even if I do go attack and kill Seth, the war won't actually be anything."

"Except with Seth dead, Edward would have no problem attacking any of them but maybe Jake."

"Not quite. Bella wouldn't let us attack Jake unless we killed her first."

"So you leave Jake out of it."

"Can't. He's Alpha. You can't leave him out of it."

"That is a problem isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Just don't go, please?"

"Why?" I sighed before I answered.

"Cuz it would just cause problems for everyone in the area. And it would probably get out to the rest of the vampire world and the Volturi would find out, and then I'd be pissed. Aro would recognize me as soon as he saw me, or caught my scent. At which point I'd have to let him know everything I've found out about all the vampires I've met. And I've met more then you could possibly imagine."

"Hey, you wanna go further away to talk? So we aren't being eavesdropped on? I know you're there, Edward." Emmett said calmly looking at the house.

"Where would we go?"

"I know a place. Is it ok, Ed?"

"I suppose." Edward's voice came from the house. "Just don't wreck anything."

"We won't. Come with me." Emmett stood up and jumped across the river. I followed his example and sprinted through the forest following his scent. "Still back there?"

"Yep." I ran into Emmett's back when he stopped suddenly in a small clearing in front of a small rock house.

"We're here."

"And where is here?"

"Edward and Bella's house. It was a present from the family when Bella was turned. Carlisle and Esme thoght they'd want a house to themselves and Renesme when she was born. And Esme knew this little house was here and was waiting to be remodeled, and everyone helped with it but Edward. He didn't know about it til they were there. No one thought about it whiel he was around. And Bella had no clue."

"Ok. I feel kind of intrusive now."

"You'll get over it. And we're not going in. Up ya go." Emmett held his hand out and motioned for me to stand on it. "It's ok. I promise. I throw Alice up every now and then." I stepped into his hand and he flung me onto the roof. He climbed a tree quickly and sat next to me. "It's nice up here."

"Yeah. It is. Anyway, you came to talk, not to show me something pretty."

"Yeah. But now I can't remember what I wanted to tell you."

"So now we're sitting on the roof of Edward and Bella's house and you can't remember what you wanted to talk about."

"Basically, yeah."

"Yipdee doo."

"Oh, have you talked to Seth yet? Edward said something about him wanting to talk to you about the whole imprinting thing."

"No. I haven't talked to anyone about it really."

"I'll let him explain it then." Emmett pulled a silver cell phone out of his pocket and opened the contact list. He selected Seth's name and handed me the phone as it rang.

"Hey, Emmett." A girl's voice answered the phone at the other end.

"It's Mateja."

"Oh." There was a voice and some shuffling until a man's voice spoke.

"Hey, Mateja. It's Seth. That was my sister, Leah. She can be kind of a pain sometimes."

"It's ok. I was told you wanted to talk to me about the imprinting thing."

"Yeah. Hey, I'm sorry, ok. It doesn't make sense. You're supposed to imprint on the person who gives you the best chance of passing the wolf gene down to the next generation. Which doesn't make sense cuz you're a vampire and your body won't change the way a human's does to carry a baby."

"This is true. So how did you imprint on me?"

"I don't know. I talked to Sam and Jake, being the two unofficial tribe leaders, Sam cuz he was the first to phase when the Cullens moved back to Forks, and Jake cuz he's the Alpha."

"Anyway, are you answering my question?"

"I don't know how it happened that I imprinted on you."

"That doesn't make sense. Anyway, I probably should go. I'm supposed to be somewhere."

"Ok. Bye, Mateja."

"Bye, Seth." I closed the phone and handed it back to Emmett. "I'm even more confused now then I was before. And with everything new and different anyway, somethings are bettr left unsaid, and I really should get back to Angela's now."

"Ok. See ya later, Mats."

"Bye, Emmett."