Breathe

Port Angeles was, well, wet.

I'd been here for about a week and a half, and I fucking hated it. Dad was holding me indoors because of severe storm warnings, but what he didn't know was that I absolutely loved storms. Thunder, lightning, pounding rain - it made me feel good.

Which is kind of a weird thing to say, but I don't care.

"I hope you're comfortable here," said Dad, looking across the table at me. For the first time in about two years, I had actually complied with sitting down with the 'family' to eat dinner.

Brenda scratched her temple. "If there's anything you need," she said, "just let us know."

I looked at them. They'd gotten married not even a year after my parents divorced, and so I felt a large amount of resentment towards Brenda, but she was nice to me so I tried hard not to let it show.

"I will."

"You know," Dad said, "I think you'll like it here. Of course, when it's not raining constantly and the sun actually comes out. There's a good amount of kids your age."

"I'm sure."

I poked at my salad, sighing softly. Dad knew that I hated salad.

"Sarah," he said, placing his fork down. "Sweetie, I know you're still upset, but-"

"Hah. You bet I am." I rolled my eyes.

"But once school starts, and you make some friends, you'll feel a whole load better."

"May I be excused?"

*

Brenda's daughter, who I met at dinner a week after I moved in, had decided that it would be a good idea to drag me to the mall to find some "going-back-to-school clothes," because apparently my clothes weren't up to her standards. I didn't object. Hell, I didn't care. Why wouldn't I let her spend money on me?

I tried not to listen to her while she went on about school and how much I was going to like it here. Lizzy seemed genuinely nice, but at times it was a little over the top, and that's what irked me most about her.

"There are a ton of cute boys here, and we have like a thousand different sports. You played soccer, didn't you? Were you good? Did your school's team ever go to state? I'm in cheerleading. We've got a really good squad. Our football team is awesome, too. They go to state every year."

I flipped through a rack of teeshirts, lost in my own head. Of course I wasn't listening, but she continued to ramble. After finding nothing that I was at all interested in, I sighed. Bringing my eyes up from the clothing rack, I saw a group of boys on the other side, browsing the jean section. They were all taller than your average guy, with biceps each the size of Texas.

"What are you looking at?" Lizzy's voice rang in my ears.

I didn't look at her. "Them."

"Do you know who that is?" She pointed to the one wearing the AC/DC shirt. He was a bit shorter than the others, and not as built.

"Who is that?"

"That's Embry Call. My dad works with his. I used to play with him when I was younger."

I nodded, and sighed softly. "Who are the others?"

"I know the one with the hat, but that's it. His name is Jared."

One that Lizzy hadn't pointed out looked at me. He had a rather friendly look on his face, but I couldn't be sure what exactly he was thinking because it was quickly overcome with a surprised, almost panicked expression. The one that Lizzy had said was Embry looked over at us, also, and then smiled when he saw her.

"Hey!" He waved a rather large hand at us. "Liz, I haven't seen you in a while." Embry made his way over. "Who's this?" I watched his eyes move up and down, like he was analyzing me.

"Sarah. She's my step-sister."

Embry smiled at me, and lifted his chin in a 'what's up?' way. "Sarah, is it?"

I looked back over at the boy who had stared at me awkwardly. He had disappeared. They all had. "Your friends-"

"Did they run off again?" He looked behind him, and sighed.

I looked at him, and clenched my jaw. He seemed nice enough, but I had a strange feeling about him. "You should go find them."

"Don't worry about it." He smirked. Turning to Lizzy, he said, "we should all get together sometime. Get some pizza or something."

"Sure," she said, smiling a little too brightly. "Yeah. I'll call you, 'k?"

Embry said goodbye and went to catch up with his friends while Lizzy swooned.

"There's something weird about him," I said softly. "I can't put my finger on it."