Sarah's Trust

The first week after leaving Embry was the hardest for Sarah. She had trusted him with her heart because that was all she could trust with. Her heart was the one thing she relied on now to determine whether or not she trusted anyone new, but now she felt that it had betrayed her. Embry had been okay at the beginning and she had grown to trust him, but after that scene at Sam's, she just didn't know what to think. He was obviously crazy, after all they were just legends and there were no such things as shapeshifters, but he had won her trust through lies and she hadn't even know.

Her parents had asked questions when she had gotten home, but she had just gone up to her bedroom and stayed up there all night. By the morning she had come up with a good enough excuse to tell them before they went off to work and she was left alone. Shortly after they'd left, there was a knock on the front door. Sarah had a feeling as to who it was so she slowly went back up the stairs and sat behind her door, hands over her ears. She didn't want to see Embry or even think about him any more. She just wished that she had never met him.

By the second week she had come to a resolve. It wasn't that she didn't want to trust people, but seeing as the first person she had trusted since losing her sight had ended up lying his entire time to her and then turning out to be crazy, she wasn't too keen on trusting anyone else when she couldn't judge them visually. So now, despite knowing that one day she'll need to start trusting new people again, she decided that she wouldn't allow herself to trust anyone other than her family. While she was still studying at school so that she could graduate, she didn't need anyone else other than her family. The eye doctor she still sees is an exception to the trust resolve because she never went to an appointment without one of her parents going with her so she didn't need to trust with her heart for that.

It was after that resolve that she decided to get back to acting how she did before she had met Embry. Her school work that she had been putting to the side recently all came out and she dedicated an afternoon to doing it all, making sure it was one of the days where she knew neither parent would be home early. Keeping things from her parents wasn't something that she wanted to do, but a little white lie about whether or not she had finished her work never hurt anyone.

It was just reaching three o'clock when she heard creaking. Her back straightened and she felt the hairs on her arms prickle. The creaking signalled that someone was in the house, and that someone wasn't her parents. She always heard their keys in the door, the door open and their voices calling out to her so that they didn't frighten her by suddenly being in the same room as her.

Running her hands over the table, she tried to feel for something that she could use to defend herself but only found her books and a pen. None were sufficient enough for her to use but she settled for the pen because if push came to shove, she might even be able to push it into their eye.

Slowly, she pushed away from the table and stood up, sweeping her head around to try and detect where the creaking was coming from. Another creak told her that it was near to the kitchen so she slowly stepped away from the table only to collide into something hard and warm. Instantly, she cried out, pushing herself away from it and flinging her hand with the pen out. "Get out!" she screeched.

"Woah, Sarah! It's me, Embry," the person said, and despite everything, she relaxed slightly.

"Embry?"

He touched her arm and she automatically recognised his touch from how warm his hand was. "Yeah, it's just me. You're fine."

Resigned, she lowered her arm but didn't drop the pen. It stayed in her grip and she felt her fingers tighten around it slightly. "What are you doing here?" she asked, using her other hand to feel for the chair.

"You kept refusing to answer the door to me. I needed to talk to you," he explained.

"Shouldn't that tell you something? Like that I don't want to talk to you?" She didn't want to be rude to him, but she didn't feel comfortable that he was in her house, especially since she no longer trusted him.

Embry thought that she might still now want to talk to him. Even though he didn't like the fact that she didn't want to talk to him, he didn't want to push her because the reaction she had to the secret hadn't been expected. Sam had warned him that she might not take it too well, but to him that didn't mean that she would refuse to let him take her home as well as refuse to answer the door to him. To say her reaction was a shock to him would be an understatement. In fact, it was close enough to being kicked in the gut for him. After all, the girl he had needed to tell the secret to had just turned around and treated him like he was insane.

"Sarah," Embry began before stopping. He folded his arms across his chest and just watched the girl. She had given up feeling for the chair and had now taken to standing where she was, hands by her side with one hand curled around a pen. "Just let me talk."

A part of her – a really big part of her – didn't want to allow him the chance to talk. She just simply wasn't interested. However, another part of her wanted to hear what he was going to say, just so she could hear what he was going to say as an excuse to what he'd claimed. After a moment, she let her shoulder droop before she nodded. "Okay. You can talk."

Instead of just launching into speech like she thought he would have done, he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the sofa. After the both of them had sat down, he grasped her hand. "What do you feel, Sarah?"

Puzzled, she answered, "You're warm."

"What did you say the first time you properly felt my skin?"

"That you were really warm." She stopped for a moment, as if she were thinking of what she needed to say next. The only noise in the room was her breathing for a moment before she licked her lips and spoke again. "But you said that it was normal for you."

"And you think being this warm is normal for anyone?"

"No, but..."

Embry sighed. "There's no 'but', Sarah."

She shook her head at his words, not wanting to accept what he was trying to get through to her. So what that his body temperature was a little higher than most people's? He seemed fine, as did his friend who she had touched as well. They were both really warm and they both seemed to be doing fine and dandy in life. "Stop," she said, quietly.

But Embry wouldn't. He wanted her to understand that what he was saying was the truth and that she could trust him. He actually felt like it was a need more than a want because being separated from her through her not wanting to see him was something that he honestly didn't want to experience again. "You trust me, I know you do. Somewhere inside of you, you still trust me because you know I'm telling the truth," he told her, releasing her hand and placing his hand on her chest. "I can feel your heart."

"Embry, stop," she said again. She grasped his hand with both of hers and brought it away from her chest. "I don't know why this matters so much. We were only friends."

"That's what I want to tell you. There's this thing called imprinting. It's where you see someone and all of a sudden your whole world changes. She's the single thing holding you to the planet now, and no matter what, you'll do anything for her. You'll be a brother, a friend, a lover, a protector – whatever she needs, you'll be it."

Suddenly, Sarah felt something inside her change. Like his words were meaning something to her, like they were stirring a feeling that had previously tried to rear its head but had failed. She didn't like it. "Emb--" She was cut off.

"Sarah, I've imprinted on you."