Imprint

What was with me lately? I keep having these strange things run through my mind when I'm with Jacob. I can't explain them. I feel sick half of the time, and then the other half I'm so excited to hang out with him. But my brain refuses to let me understand.

I groaned inwardly, and bit my lip.
Could there even be an explanation?
Insanity, perhaps?

But no, I couldn't be going crazy. I mean, I'd know it if I were going insane, right? Right?

My breathing escaladed as I contemplated the possibility of having lost my sanity. Most crazy people don't even know that they've gone insane. I turned to Jacob suddenly.

"Am I crazy?" I asked warily.

Jacob stopped the car, and at first I thought it was because of my question. But then I noticed that we had reached the beach. He then turned to look at me, not needing to say what his eyes conveyed. "I think you might just be. You've been acting extremely weird for a while."

I nodded. Maybe it was just a phase. I glared at Jacob. It was his fault I was slowly losing my grip on reality. It's not my fault.

I got out of the car, earning a confused gasp from the person who had slowly driven me mad. He defensively inquired, "Heather, what's wrong with you?"

I shouted over my shoulder angrily, "You're driving me crazy!"

"What?"

I rolled my eyes and searched for the top of Leah's sleek brunette head. I spotted her, accompanied by Paul and Kristina, and bounded over to them. Both Kristina and Paul were laughing, and Leah was turned away from them, concentrating on the "Test Your Strength" game before her. She swung the extremely heavy-looking hammer well over her head, brought it down quickly, and I watched in amazement as the little ball climbed to the top, before hitting the bell with a ding, signaling Leah's top score. My eyes became round. I could never do something like that. Just another thing that Leah's good at that I'm not. Sigh.

"Leah," I said when I reached her side. She was holding her prize, a large pink bear. Not exactly Leah material.

"You want this?" she offered, handing me the bear.

"Sure," I replied absentmindedly, getting to the point quickly. "I want to go home."

"Why don't you have Jake drive you, since you ditched us to go gallivanting up the mountain with him?"

I rolled my eyes and converted to pleas. "Please, Leah?"

She gave a visible sigh and turned her puppy dog eyes on me, using them full force. Somehow, that convinced to me to stay, and I allowed myself to be dragged along in Leah's fun. But even though my body was at the carnival, winning little games and collecting sweet treats, my mind was a million miles away. With Jacob Black.

I didn't stop thinking about him until First Beach was so dark that the only light came from the small lamps on each cart, signaling the end of the Halloween fun, if that's what you could call it. It wasn't until I was seated in the back seat of the Rabbit, glaring out the window, earning a wary look from Quil, seated beside me, all of his winnings in the front passenger's seat, that a revelation hit me, faster than an eighteen-wheeler going a thousand miles per hour.

“Oh. My. God.”

In some part of my brain, I had just realized what the mysterious things I’d been feeling lately meant.

I was falling for Jacob.