Breathe

I stared at him in bewilderment. I was feeling a million different emotions at once - confusion, anger, annoyance, happiness. "What are you doing here?" I asked, my voice rather sharp.

"Liz told me to come in the back. You left this in Embry's car the other day." He dug through his pockets, until he held out his hand. In his palm was my locket. I snatched it, making sure that no damage had been done to it. It had too much sentimental value to me.

"You should've knocked. It wouldn't have ended up in a broken bowl." I pushed the locket to the bottom of my pocket, and took the broom and dustpan from the corner to sweep up the shards of porcelain.

"I did."

I didn't say anything, but for some reason I had a feeling that Liz hadn't told him anything.

"Ok. Are you going to stand there, or are you going to leave?" Annoyance.

"Don't be rude, Sarah. And yes, I'm going to leave now." He turned towards the backdoor. "And, you're welcome."

Rolling my eyes, I dumped the shards into the trash can and peeked out of the window to watch him. He mounted a motorcycle, and I about pissed my pants. I loved motorcycles. They signified rebellion, something I'd grown quite good at.

After securing his helmet, Jacob sped off, a cloud of dirt behind him.

*

"Sarah!" Liz yelled. "Come on!"

"What?" I threw my bedroom door open. "You act like it's the end of the freaking world!" Stomping down the stairs, I threw my jacket on. "Where the hell are we going anyway?"

"It's a surprise. I told you."

She had her tiny purse tucked under her arm. I'd never understood the reason that women carry them around. Why did you need to have the whole world with you at all times? Pockets were all you need to carry the essentials.

"I fucking hate surprises," I murmured, following her through the front door. We walked to her car, a yellow VW Bug, and crammed ourselves into the tiny space that were the front seats.

"Here," she said, throwing her cell phone at me. "Text Embry and tell him we're on our way."

"Embry? What?" I opened the phone and stared at the buttons. I didn't own a cell phone, so I wasn't very saavy when it came down to them.

"Yes. Don't ask anymore questions." We pulled out of the driveway and started down the street. I slowly pressed all of the buttons, forming the words, and sent it to him.

We listened to music during the whole drive, neither one of us speaking. None of the songs sounded familiar to me, but then again, the last time I really payed attention to music was before Peter left.

After a good ten minutes of driving, we pulled up to a beach. There was already a bonfire lit, and a good number of people had arrived. I glanced at the clock - it was ten pm.

"What is this?" I asked, unbuckling my seat belt.

"It's a bonfire, Sarah. What's it look like?" She looked at me, but it was too dark to see her expression.

"And why couldn't you tell me where we were going?"

"You'll find out soon enough." She got out of the car, and reluctantly (and with a rather loud sigh), I followed. I regretted wearing sandals as soon as I stepped into the sand, which began to kick up underneath my feet. I should've known better.

When we approached the others, I noticed that I only knew two of them - Embry and Jacob. They all stared at me, like they knew something that I didn't. Some of them even had smiles on their faces. Liz seemed oblivious to this, and proceeded to throw herself on Embry, who didn't show the slightest interest in her.

I grabbed a soda from the cooler I found a few feet from me, and sat down on a log that had been placed by the fire. There was a stereo somewhere playing music, and because of the talking and laughing I couldn't make out what was being played.

"Alright!" The voice was deep, and rather scratchy. I looked through all of the bodies to see an older man with his hand raised. He was wearing a baseball cap, and his long gray hair stuck out slightly sideways. "Everyone have a seat."

I looked at Liz, who smiled at me. "What's going on?" I said, shouting to be heard.

"Story time." Jacob sat next to me, and I sighed.