My Little Star

A half hour into moving furniture with the boys, my mom had texted me telling me that she had run into an old friend and was going to spend some time with him.

Two hours had passed and by now the boys and I had the house looking relatively normal and not nearly as hazardous as it had been when I got home. We were all dispersed about the kitchen, each of us with a well-deserved glass of lemonade.

“You guys hungry?” I asked, sipping at my drink as leaned against the counter and glanced at the large shirtless boys around me.

They all nodded eagerly and I giggled, placing my cup down and walking to the phone that was connected to the wall across the room. “Pizza?” I asked, waving the phone slightly for emphasis with a tiny grin on my face.

“Peperoni?” Seth asked, with a hopeful smile and big eyes that I couldn’t say no to.

I laughed and nodded. “Sure. You guys can go put a movie on if you want. I’ll be in there in a minute.”

I received a handful of smiles, and chuckled as they paraded out the door, before turning back to the phone. As I dialed the numbers on the phone, I felt as if there was someone standing behind me. I turned my head slightly, the phone pressed to my ear, to see that Paul hadn’t moved from his spot against the counter. He looked to be in some sort of trance as he stared a hole in the wall across from him.

“Mario’s Pizza Palace, how can I help you?” A male’s voice interrupted my staring and I blinked, trying to get my thoughts together.

“Um yeah. Can I have . . .” I thought about it for a second. I wasn’t exactly sure how much food to buy, so I decided I would buy a lot, just to be safe. “Three large peperoni pizzas?”

“Sure.” The guy answered, his voice bored. “Delivery?”

“34 Bently street.” I answered simply, not wanting to hear his monotone voice any longer.

He told me how much it would coast and said it would be here in about a half hour before he hung up. I placed the phone back on its base and glanced behind me to see if Paul was still there. He seemed as if he hadn’t moved an inch since the last time I looked at him.

I walked across the room and leaned against the counter next to him, following his gaze to the wall. I wasn’t sure what he found so interesting about it. It was pretty boring to me.

I tilted my head to the side, glancing at him with my eyes. “Whatchya thinking about?”

Paul jumped slightly, and his head snapped down to look at me, like he didn’t even notice I was still in the room. “Um nothing. Just stuff.” He forced a smile at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. I knew something was bothering him, but I didn’t know what.

My eyebrows scrunched together as I watched him closely. “Liar.” I teased, sticking my tongue out at him.

He chuckled lightly, shaking his head and throwing his arm lazily around my shoulder.

My heart jumped in my chest at the contact and at how close he was now standing to me. I was positive that my face was at least four shades of red, but I ignored it, giving Paul a cheeky grin. “We should go in the other room.”

Just as I said that I heard a loud crashing noise coming from the living room. “Before they ruin my house.”

Paul laughed and pulled me out of the kitchen, his arm staying around my shoulder until we entered the living room. When he dropped his arm I felt colder than normal, like he took all my warmth away with his arm.

I raised an eyebrow at Embry, who was picking up a knocked over side table as Jacob and Seth wrestled on the carpet. “What the hell happened in here?”

“They’re fighting over the remote.” Jared answered simply from his spot on the couch. I spotted the remote in his hand and laughed.

“Okay I give up!” Seth yelled, as Jake held him on the carpet in a headlock.

Jake smiled triumphantly, releasing the boy and plopping down on the couch next to Jared before snatching the remote out of his hand.

Embry sat on the other side of Jake while Seth got comfortable on the floor and Paul dropped lazily into the recliner. I took a spot next to Seth as Jake put on a movie I had never seen before.

As the boys all became completely entertained with the televisions, a truck load of thoughts filled my head. I was completely amazed at how close I already felt to these people, and I had barely met them three hours ago! Normally I wouldn’t really talk to anyone unless they were my best friend Kelly, or my cousin Ryan, who was also my best friend. Other than that, I usually kept to myself. So, what was so different about these boys, that made me open up, that made me feel as if I’d known them my whole life, when in reality, I hadn’t even know them for a full day?

A loud knock on the door made me jump, my thoughts shattering to the floor like broken glass. I stood up and stepped over Seth to get to the front hallway. I opened the door distractedly, and blinked when I saw a tall blonde boy standing there with a red shirt on and a name tag that told me his name was Chris. He was holding a stack of pizzas in his arms and when I opened the door all the way I caught his eyes raking up and down my body in a hungry way. I scrunched my eyebrows together, displeased with his wondering eyes, and the cocky smirk on his face that was nowhere near as flattering as Paul’s. Wait, was I really comparing this boy to Paul? I didn't know what was wrong with me.

“Hey,” He purred at me, his smirk still in place.

“Hi.” I replied shortly, pulling the money I owed him out of my back pocket, hoping to end his little confrontation as quickly as possible.

I shoved the money at him and he raised an eyebrow, slowly handing me the stack of pizza boxes. “Why the rush sweetheart, don’t have anyone waiting on you, do you?”

“Actually, she does.”

I turned my head and let out a sigh of relief that I didn’t realize I was holding in. Paul was standing by my side, close enough to hint at the guy not to mess with him, tall and proud, with a look that just screamed for a challenge. I glanced back a Chris, who was glaring bitterly at Paul. “Right. See you around sweetheart.” He shot me one last smirk before taking off down the walkway and into his car.

I shook my head and shut the door, turning around to face Paul, who seemed to calm down a bit now that he was gone.

“Thanks for that . . .” I mumbled as I looked down at my feet, embarrassed that I needed to be rescued.

Paul placed two warm fingers beneath my chin, pulling my face up so I had to look at him. “Don’t even think about it.” My heart sped up and I grinned as I got lost in the color of his eyes.

Paul took a step back and I blushed as we heard a set of footsteps approaching. Embry entered the small hallway and smiled at me, raising a questioning eyebrow at Paul before he took the pizza for my hands and disappeared back into the living room.

Paul cleared his throat awkwardly and gave me a lopsided smile that I returned easily, as I followed him back into the living room, to join the rest of my new found friends.
~~~
After another few hours of watching movies and watching the boys swallow up the pizza like they hadn’t eaten in twelve days, my mom still wasn’t home and I began to doubt if she even be home before tomorrow morning. Jake, Jared, Seth and Embry had all fallen asleep in various places around the living room when I decided I wanted to get some air. I glanced over at Paul, and he was watching the television with an extremely bored look on his face.

I waved my arm to get his attention, and it seemed to work because he tore his eyes away from the screen to look over at me with a raised eyebrow. I grinned and silently motioned with my hand for him to follow me, not wanting to wake the rest of the boys.

He did as he was told and we both stood up, climbing over the jungle of boys until we got the kitchen, where the back door was. I stared out the sliding door and up at the sky, extremely excited to see that there were no clouds, only a clear sky filled with stars.

“What is it?” Paul whispered, trying to follow my gaze but not understanding why I was so excited.

“One sec.” I whispered back, a grin playing at my lips as I ran as quietly as possible to the hallway closet and pulled out a thick grey blanket, before returning to Paul, and nearly jumping up and down in excitement. “Follow me.”

I opened the sliding door as quietly as possible and walked into the grassy backyard with my bare feet. Paul followed close behind me and watched as I stopped in the middle of the yard and spread the blanket out on the grass, plopping down onto it and patting the spot next to me for him to sit.

“What is this about?” He asked, confusion clear in his voice as he sat next to me, not at all understanding why I had dragged him out here in the first place.

My grin grew as I tilted my head up to the sky. “Look,” I whispered, mesmerized by the amount of stars that were sprinkled across the night sky.

I turned my head to Paul expectantly as his head slowly tilted upwards, his eyes widening as he saw what I saw for the first time. “Wow. . . I’ve never seen the sky like this before. It’s never this clear.” He observed softly.

I looked back up, not able to tear my eyes away from it for too long. “It’s so beautiful.” I whispered.

“You’re right. It is.” I felt his eyes on the side of my face and glanced back down at him, a thought crossing my mind that told me that I somehow knew he wasn’t talking about the sky when he said that.

I felt my face get hot as I looked away from him, glad that it was too dark for him to see me blushing. “Is the sky really never like this?” I asked, half curiously, and half to change the subject.

He shrugged. “Not that I‘ve ever seen. Looks like the sky cleared up just for you.”

I looked back at him to see that he was grinning at me, and it was then that I realized that, even though I wasn’t one to pick favorites, I just might like Paul a little bit more than the other boys in my living room.