OCTOBER

The first month of Isabella torture was fairly tame, quite traditional actually. Shaving cream in hand, tickling the nose with a feather, bowl of warm water on her hand while she slept. This was all made easier for the brief week my dad made me move back down with her, thinking it would help her nightmares to have me there. That ended about the second I turned everything single thing she owned upside down.

Apart from Isabella I was pretty busy. I was starting to get more stamina back and so I was forcing a few of my teammates to stay after school for some off season practice. It was good for me: I felt like I was waking up, finding myself again. Who cared about life and death and sisters when there was basketball?

I said this to Liz one day, grinning from success as I sunk a shot I'd been trying for an hour to get, a shot that used to be my warm up.

She laughed at me. "We've missed you, Gen."

Cassandra was nearby fighting over a rebound with Ann. "Yeah, who else do we have to share our messed up priorities with?" She called.

"Speak for yourself." Liz shot back.

"Yeah. My priorities are sorted exactly how they should be." I sniffed.

"Which would be how?" Our team captain, Annalise asked, coming back from the bathroom and looking around for some clue of what we were talking about.

"Oh, you know. Basketball. Clothes. Food. Boys. Um... What else is there?" I asked, simply trying to think of another thing to list.

My friends burst out laughing and refused to let that go until the end of practice.

"So, you still awake?" Liz asked at the end of practice, grinning as the rest of the giggles started to die down and the girls started to pack up.

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Um, cuz it's Friday?" She said. "Dur."

"Yeah." I said. "And it's Forks. Besides, I have work tomorrow. And the café's got a Halloween special starting tomorrow."

"Geeeen." Liz moaned. She grabbed my gym bag and we headed out to the parking lot. "You doing anything next Saturday?"

"You mean Halloween?" I asked. "And I feel like you're asking means that I will."

"Party at Crowley's." She said. "Costumes optional."

"Uh, huh..." I said doubtfully. "I guess I can try."

"You're coming." Liz said. "We'll find you something sexy from Jessica's old costumes... but with gloves or something, I guess. Maybe sleeves. No, no sleeves."

I nodded mutely, wondering now if my friends all thought it was vanity that caused me to wear a scarf, a bracelet, or in this case a wristband wherever I went. They seemed to like me well enough anyway: and who knew if that would be the case if I started spouting the truth? Besides which, I'd noticed none of my closest friends had talked to Isabella since they'd gotten the story of our fall through a hotel window. All in all, lies were yet again the better option.

Then again, Halloween made me start to wonder...

It didn't occur to me that people were going to dress up as monsters, though I probably could have handled that by itself and dealt just fine with the nightmares of everyone I cared about getting bit by vampires. What hit me was the fact that most of the party took place with only lava lamps and orange strings of light for illumination: most of Tyler's house was completely dark.

"Gen!"

"Effing hell damn sh** f***."

"Um." Tyler blinked down at me, apparently lost for words after my eloquent greeting. Liz, standing beside me, was having a hard time not busting the stiches in her black cat costume from laughing so hard at the two of us. Her boyfriend took the opportunity to run off, probably in search of beer.

"What do you want, Tyler." I said, my foul mood making him wince with every other word.

"To say hi." He defended himself. "And to offer to get you a drink."

"Yeah, I'll get my own drink, thanks." I said.

"I'll get you a can and I won't open it." Tyler said, exasperated and a little offended.

I sighed and relented. "Why don't you walk me there and let me pick what I want? Compromise?"

Tyler grinned. "Alright." He tried to loop an arm around my waist and I pretended not to notice, carefully sidestepping and heading in what I remembered was the direction of the kitchen.

"This way?"

"Yeah." When we got to the kitchen we chatted a bit while I sipped a can of something fruity and he poured himself a beer. We had a bit of catching up to do, though I still wasn't convinced it was what I wanted to do. That was the way I always felt about Tyler: uncertain.

Like I didn't have enough of that feeling these days.

I waited until someone called Tyler's name and then I muttered a goodbye before he could stop me. I was starting to get claustrophobic, after all. And bored. Though I suppose that was preferable to falling for that idiot yet again. So I pushed my way through the couple dozen people who'd shown up—Tyler's popular, but our school is only so big—finding my way to the back door. I set my drink down on the back porch steps and looked around, trying to find a good space to clear my head.

To the left was a forest. Almost every other house in Forks had been built next to the forest: a perfectly designed nightmare for animal attacks, serial killers wanting to hide a body, vampires, and girls who were afraid of the dark. To my right was the main road, running up to the front of Tyler's house where it turned a corner. Houses lined it up to the corner and then there were woods again.

Starting to feel a little creeped out, I turned to look back into the house, peering through the window just in time to get a glimpse of fangs... pale white skin... a breeze caught at my hair... I let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Gen?"

"SH**!"

I spun around to find three of the LaPush boys standing right behind me. They were all trying very hard not to laugh.

"You ok?" Jared asked.

"Oh. I just thought I saw..." I glanced back at the house to find the window empty, the owner of the vampire costume having moved on to another room. "What are you doing out here?"

Jared laughed and tapped the wolf mask he'd pulled back to rest above his forehead. "Trick or treating of course."

"Want some?" A voice asked quietly.

I turned to see the plastic bag bulging with candy and then I looked up to find Paul, a little surprised at the unfamiliar look on his face. He stared back at me intently, searching for something in my eyes. There was some desperation in his face, a longing I had never seen before, and it caught at me and held me looking up into his eyes until he started to turn red and looked away, having not found whatever he was looking for. I frowned, not sure how to feel about what had just happened yet knowing I didn't like it.

"You ok?" The third boy, Embry, asked.

I shrugged. "Sure." Absentmindedly, I took Paul's bag of candy and started digging, searching for something with peanut butter and chocolate. "What else do you guys have planned tonight? Oo, butterfingers!"

"Oh, you know." Jared winked at me. "Thought we might crash a party."

"Speaking of which, whose party is this?" Paul said, looking critically over the large house and the close forest. He shifted his weight slightly as he spoke and I realized that the three of them were standing in such a way as to form a human wall between me and the trees. Weird.

"Tyler Crowley." I said, answering his question.

"That dick from your school?" Jared asked.

"No." I said, holding back a laugh. "More of a douche."

"Oh! That guy from the beach!" Paul exclaimed.

"That helped?" Embry muttered.

"We're definitely crashing this party. Lead on, Gen." Paul grinned widely, rubbing his hands together like an evil mastermind coming up with a plot. I took one step toward the house, not sure what I was about to unleash.

"Unless you'd like us to take you home, Gen." Embry intervened. "Up to you."

I stood for a second, considering. Gradually, the thought of rubbing my giant of an ex-boyfriend in Tyler's face grew too much for the practical concerns of what my giant ex-boyfriend was actually going to do to Tyler's house. So I gave a shrug, a sigh, and scooped up my drink.

"Follow me."

It was a little more difficult then I'd expected to go back in. Feeling the darkness inside, away from the dim glimmer of moon and star, was even more close this time around. Luckily, Paul, being incredibly unsympathetic to my life as a trauma victim, grew impatient and gave me a little push through the doorway so that he and his friends could go through. He continued to keep his hand on my shoulder as he guided me through the throngs of people and the reminder of his hulking presence kept me from throwing in the cards and sprinting to the back door.

"Here ok?" Paul asked.

We were in the back corner of Tyler's living room, tucked away basically every light in the house. I could barely see his face as he turned me around to talk.

"Sure."

"Alright then stay right here and I'll get us some beer." Paul ordered.

"I have a –" He had already gone off, bulldozing his way back through my classmates.

When Paul came back, I'd moved but only to a spot with a bit better lighting. He still gave me a dirty look as I accepted the beer can he'd brought for me. We started talking, reminiscing about the old days when we'd actually talked. Part of me wanted to bring up that night in LaPush, to ask why he'd brought me out there... But I couldn't risk him figuring out any part of Isabella and my elaborate lies. After a while, Paul got that weird look on his face again, stopping to stare searchingly into my eyes. I wasn't sure how to respond: with Paul things were always complicated, now even more so as Jared walked by and gave Paul a slug across the shoulder.

"Trying again?" Jared laughed. "Good luck."

Paul turned and gave his friend a murderous look, but Jared was the least of our trouble: Tyler'd seen us too. And he was drunk as all hell.

"Crap." I muttered.

"Gen? Oh, crap." Paul said, stepping in front of me as he saw Tyler charging toward us.

"Whoer you?" Tyler demanded.

"None of your business, Tyler." I snapped. I glanced over to see how Paul was going to respond, but he was biting his lip. With a frown, I realized his hands were clenched so tightly that veins were showing on his forearms. He was very close to attacking Tyler, but he was... trying not to? Honestly, I was surprised that Paul was still even standing next to me: he wasn't exactly known for his patience...

Another look made me realize that Jared was actually holding Paul back, his hand gripping Paul's arm so firmly it made me wince. I stepped closer when I noticed Jared's lips moving, only coming up with more questions.

"Sam won't like it." I heard Jared hiss. Then: "...Dangerous..."

Ha. Paul? Dangerous? Then I realized my head was tilted at a 45 degree angle just to see the back of his head. I slipped up to Paul's other side and took his hand, feeling a little awkward until he relaxed enough to let me slip my fingers between his and lead him away.

"Don you walk away fromme!" Tyler yelled.

"Tyler." I snapped. "I will kill you."

He blinked at me, confused and actually a little nervous. I used the distraction to lead Paul out onto the back porch again. Jared and Embry followed behind, forming another wall, this time protecting the party from Paul's bad temper.

"I'm ok." Paul grumbled.

"We're still leaving." Embry said, shoving Jared a little when Jared only laughed. "Want us to walk you home?"

"No..." I tapped my beer can and glanced back at the house. "No, I should wait for Liz. She might need a driver."

Embry nodded and started to walk off, Jared following close behind. I still had Paul by the hand and I kept him for a moment longer.

"Want to hang out some time?" I asked, following up on what I'd thought I'd read in his expressions so far that night.

Paul smiled at me... but he shook his head. "I don't think I can. Usually, uh, pretty busy and..." He sighed, looking away. "Kinda a one-time thing, ok, Gen?"

"Not really." I said, pulling my hand away. I scowled as he refused to look at me. "You can't just call me up when it's convenient. That is the definition of..." Of what Tyler had done, basically.

"It's just the way things are." Paul said shortly. I started to argue but he started walking away, his legs too long for me to hope to keep up. "I have to go."

"Are you s****ing me?" I hissed after him.

Then he and his stupid friends were gone.

"I don't believe this!" I stomped back to the porch and sat down, taking a swig of lukewarm beer and hating everything. "I don't believe this." I repeated. I frowned, not feeling much better. "Douche." I muttered. Still nothing. "Jerk. S***head." Ok, that was a bit nicer.

I continued to say rude things, eventually moving on to saying rude things about Tyler for chasing Paul away. Gradually I got a little lonely. I'd texted Liz where I was but she'd just sent me a garbled message that she was 'buzy', probably making out with her boyfriend. Eventually, I decided what I need was someone to complain about Tyler AND Paul to... and there was only one man for that job.

Jacob Black.