Behind Closed Doors

Paul’s POV

“So you totally did it huh? You told her you love her?” Seth slapped me on the arm. We currently are at the side of the cliff –Jacob, Seth, Embry, Quil, and I. It’s been days since the ‘I love you’ thing, and now’s the time for them to get a confirmation. I’m leaning casually against the big rock with arms folded, trying to maintain a steady smirk. But god knows what a fool I might’ve looked like right now.

Embry and Quil saluted and took turns ruffling my hair. “Oh my god, dude.” Embry elbowed Quil on the rib, “look how whipped Paulie is, he’s looking like a major tool!”

“I know!” Quil laughed out loud, holding his stomach, “I mean, if I didn’t know you, I would’ve thought you’re a pedophile and I’d probably bite you.” Quil mocked a sexy expression, “hard,”.

“Shut up, assholes,” I gave him a push and he fell backwards on the mud, making everyone laugh again. I took a glance up, only one person wasn’t laughing. Jacob only smiled at the sight of his friends, arms folded. He noticed me staring and he raised both of his eyebrows up, a tight line slowly forming on his lip. I sighed and nodded to my right, offering him to lean beside me, he walked towards me with slight hesitation. He sighed, leaning a few inches from me, his face disturbed. “So,” I greeted when he arrived in place.

“So,” he repeated, nodding. We stayed in silence, chuckling a few times when Quil wrestled Seth and Embry got kicked accidentally numerous times. I noticed the wind, even though it don’t affect me –thank the temperature of my body—and wondered where Sam might’ve been. Hesitating, I turned to my right facing Jacob. I tried to give a smile and failed, “So,” I paused, “I totally got the invisible warning.”

Jacob looked up at me and just stayed in that position, his expression told me that he was doubting either to believe me or not. He sighed and faced forward again, “Of course. And you should keep that in mind all time.”

I chewed on the insides of my cheeks, “I know Jake. But you should know that I wouldn’t dare to do anything bad to her, ever.”

“Sure, sure,” Jacob rolled his eyes. Quickly realizing what he did, he stuttered an apology. “I’m sorry, man. It’s just… how do I put this,” he debated with himself, “well, we all know how you are with girls,” he raised a hand up to silence me as I was about to argue. “All of us saw you numerous times, P, you can’t exactly blame me for saying this to you. See, you’re my brother and I respect you, but I can’t seem to trust you enough.” He licked his upper lip, “especially with Alana. You’re not the only one person who loves her, you know? I do too, and she’s like a sister to me so it’s kinda hard for me to… to let her go.”

I gave him a half-hearted smile, I could imagine how he felt, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “I want to tell you I totally get what you mean but that would be me shitting my ass off,”. Jacob laughed at this and I continued, “I admit I wasn’t exactly the brightest light bulb in the store, the prettiest flower in the yard, or whatever –dude! Appreciate me a little, you think it’s goddamn easy to say these kind of things?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Jacob wiped his mouth, fighting back a grin, “continue.”

“But Alana’s different.” I said with confidence, nodding. “She’s just is and I don’t know how to put my finger on it and… I love her for it, also for the many wonderful things that made her, well, Alana. It’s suffocating but I kinda like this feeling. Like it’s finally complete.”

“You continue that and I might confuse you to a pussy,”

“Aw, fuck it Jake.” I pushed him on the side, annoyed. “Stop interrupting! And I’m the only one who’s allowed to say bad words around here. I’m the thesaurus!”

His head shot up suddenly, “have Alana told you that she loves you?”

I held a breath, “…no,” I said finally with a slight frown which I immediately disguised. “No, she haven’t.” I confirmed.

“Well, that’s Alana for you,” he shrugged, “If she did, I would be suspicious. She doesn’t give trust easily, which means you should earn it from her. She’s tough that way,” he explained.

“Oh,” I blinked, my worry slowly creeping out of my system, “then it’s ok, right? I kinda felt rejected at first when she didn’t say it back, but now it’s all gone. I just… I’m in love and it sucks. I feel vulnerable.”

“You don’t have to say anything else,” Jacob raised both of his hands up, surrendering. “I believe you, dude,” he smirked at me, not in a bad way, of course, “I’m just worried. It’s her after all.”

I nodded absently, “of course. You’re her best friend.”

“You bet I am, so don’t get bored of these pep talks. It’s going to get a whole lot worse as time goes. The worst one is yet to come, I’ll get it set up on your wedding day–Damn! I can’t believe you of all people would be getting a chance to get married! Married! With Alana!”

“Urgh,” I groaned, “I can only imagine. But I’m sure of one thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

I raised both of my eyebrows and patted him on the head, “I would want you as our best man”

Jacob’s grin widen, it feels like fireworks had taken over his eyes. “Seriously? Dude that would be awesome!”

“Of course,” I shrugged, “you’re my best friend, you’re her best friend, you love her, she loves you,” I rambled. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Um guys?” Quil interrupted us before Jacob got the chance to reply, “Sorry to cut in, but… are you guys done having a moment with each other?”–Seth snickered—“because, I could totally sense the sparks going on, and we don’t want to disappoint Alana with the sudden news of you going gay, right?”

“Burn!” Embry shouted and high-fived his friends. All of them joining into fits of laughter.

I looked at Jacob and smirked, he must’ve been thinking the same thing as me because he gave one back. “Heargh!” we both growled and marched forward, knocking the three of them down. Just a couple minutes later all of us are still rolling in the mud, our jeans dirty and we looked like a complete mess. But being the assholes we are, we kept trying to drown one another into the mud and wrestle.

Oh, just a bunch ofoverly heated, topless, big sized guys hanging out and having fun.

“Brothers!” All of our heads shot up at the voice of our leader. He showed up from the trees as a wolf then in a mere second turned into his human form. We quickly stood up, not bothering to clean our mess. Well, except for Embry, who looked like he’s gotten mud on his eyes. Sam, of course, ignored all this and goes straight to the point. “We have a big problem.” he said gravely, then added, “It’s the vampires.”

I quickly glanced at Jacob’s direction, of course, as expected, his jaw was clenched hard and his eyebrows are furrowed. I sighed, what do those leeches want now?

*****

I immediately smiled when I saw Alana at my front porch. My smile widens when she got up to ran towards me and jumped on me. I held her sides and lifted her up, giving her a big kiss. “I could definitely get used to this,” I smirked and put her down, ruffling her head as I did so.

“Hey there, wolfie.” She giggled and I fight the urge to pinch her dimples. “How’s your day?”

“Even better now,” I leaned down to kiss her on the forehead, “how was yours?”

She waved her arm carelessly and rolled her eyes, “mine was lame –and super boring. I tried finding you guys everywhere. I guess you’re hanging out at that super secret boys-only location, as Emily would say.”

“Yes, we were! And we were doing super cool no-girls-allowed stuff.” I smirked and led her back to my front porch, gesturing her to sit. She did and frowned at me, so I laughed and kept going, “don’t worry, there were a lot of talking about you so don’t feel deserted. There were a lot of wolf stuff going on too.” I rolled my eyes, wanting to get that off my mind.

I opened my arms out to her, she accepted the invitation and leaned in, absently tracing patterns on my bare chest, “does it hurt?”

I put my chin on her head, “does it hurt what, sweetie?”

She looked up, “when you um… transform?”

“It did at the first time,” I shrugged, “but as the time goes it gets better, we got used to it. It hurts the most when we’re imprinting, of course.”

“What’s that?”

“We’ll get there,” I said quickly, cringing at the thought of having to explain to her about it. She’s human –it’s not easy to accept this kind of stuff about us, maybe she’ll end up thinking I’m creepy and shit.

Alana got the hint of me not wanting to talk about it and changed the subject. “My dad asked me why you never come over anymore.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of busy, but I’ll make sure to take some time to go to your place tomorrow. And hey, I’ve gotta tell you something,”

Alana pulled away to smile at me, “you know, you haven’t said it yet,” she said sort of nervously. I smiled back at her, pulling one of her hands to rest on my lap. She tilted her head to the side when I raised my eyebrow as cue for her to continue, “that you love me?” she bit her bottom lip to swallow a giggle.

I rolled my eyes at this, “of course I love you, Al. Why do you want to know?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know, it sort of comforting for me to hear it, I guess.” She rested her head on my chest again. “You really do huh?” I gave a dark look at her teasing smile.

“Yesssss,” I hissed as I playfully choked her, “I love you so, so, much miss Andrews. Want to debate on it?”

“Nooooo,” Alana laughed, trying to pull my hands off her neck, “but promise me something though,”

“Anything,” I said when I lifted her up so we’re face to face. She leaned in and kissed me.

“Don’t,” Alana paused, her expression serious, “don’t ever leave me, okay?,” she sighed, “You’re basically my everything right now, and I don’t want to lose you.”

I feel some sort of pain going through my chest as I fought to give her a smile. I kissed her shortly. “Of-of course I wouldn’t. Why would you think that?”

“Oh, no reason,” she waved it off and winked, “just making sure.”

“Right,” I chuckled, kissing her forehead again. She smiled happily and tried to find the good position on my lap, after she did, I wrapped my arms around her waist. I sighed. Of course, just when the moment is perfect, this have to happen. What could I possibly tell her about the upcoming Vampire War that we have to take part in?