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"Try this!" Alice joyfully said as she handed a haute couture and luxury dress to Evie.
The Clearwater girl stared at the expensive piece of cloth and carefully took it. She had never held such a high priced dress before nor something of this high quality. First because she hadn't the money. And second, because she still hadn't the money. It was in those moment Evie notice the difference the Cullens and hers, but she didn't mind. Actually, it was quite funny to her.
"I highly feel like I shouldn't be holding such an expensive dress," Evie said. "Why am I even here?" She panicked, making Rosalie laugh.
"Come on, it's okay," the blonde vampire smiled. "Just relax and have fun,"
"But what if I rip it? I don't have the money to repay it," Evie still panicked.
"Then don't rip it. Come on! Try it on!" Alice beamed and pushed her friend toward the changing rooms.
The Cullens, even though they never brag about it, were quite rich. Being a doctor, Carlisle already had a good month pay. But since they never use the kitchen nor the heater, they were saving a lot of money. So, naturally, they were financially good. Evie wasn't poor, far from that. But she surely couldn't afford luxury.
However, Rosalie was right. Evie needed to relax and just have fun. She needed that. That was why she agreed to come on this hang out with Alice and Rosalie. Evie's mood wasn't at its best lately. Since Jacob came back, she was easily irritable and even less patient. The thing was, Jacob's presence was stressing her out. It was still so strange to see him back. Even though she hated it, after two month of absence, Evie had gotten used to not see him around, no matter how hurtful it was. Now that he was back, she didn't know how to act not what to do. She was still mad at him, but at the same time, she wanted to be with him. But he left her. He broke his promise. For Bella again. Evie was done being the second choice. But she knew she couldn't resist the pull longer.
Having the dress on, Evie went out of the changing room. Alice gasped and happily clapped, amazed by her friends beauty.
"You. Are. Stunning!" The pixie beamed. "We're taking it! I'm paying!"
"What? No way!" Evie said.
"Oh, come on, please! Just let me offer it to you!" Alice whined.
"Thanks, Alice. Even though this dress is beautiful, it's too tight. Not really practical for a shifter," Evie reasoned.
"Right," Alice remembered. "But it's not a big deal!" She added, making both Evie and Rosalie chuckled.
"Besides," Alice continued. "A certain shifter might love seeing you in it,"
Evie scoffed. Jacob was the least of her worries now.
"How is it going with Jacob?" Rose asked.
Evie kept quiet for a short moment. The truth was that Jacob seemed to have been taking distance from Evie. It had been more than a week he came back and they hadn't talked since their argument at the beach. He was not going to Sam's place a lot. She overheard Seth telling Leah Jacob wanted to respect her choice. And as long as Evie wouldn't want to see him, he would stay away. He seemed to finally behave like an imprintee: prioritising his imprintee's wish. She just hoped he would have done it before. She didn't need him to do whatever she asked. Evie just didn't want to be a second choice. She didn't want him to give up on her. That was all she wished. But little did she knew, it was way more complex than what she was thinking.
"We hadn't talk since the beach event," Evie said, leaning against the wall. "Honestly, I don't really mind,"
"Are you sure about that?" Rose countered. Evie sighed.
"It allows me to think. To try to find what to do," Evie said. She was tormented between going signing an armistice with Jake or keeping on making him feel what she felt. "But I do miss him. And I know we have to settle this. It's not easy for the other pack members,"
"What are you planning to do?" Alice asked.
"I don't know," Evie shrugged. "I guess we have to talk. I need to know why he left. I need to hear it from him. But I'm scared,"
Evie wanted to hear what Jacob had to say. But a part of her was, deep down, hoping she was still his number one priority. By talking it out with him, she risked knowing the potential harsh truth that Jacob was still in love with Bella. A part of her believed it. And another one wasn't. The moments Jake and Evie spent together were genuine and true. She felt loved. Evie knew Jacob loved her. And he really does. But the question was, was he loving Bella more than her? That was the constant doubt Evie was having since he left.
"I wish I could have visions about shifters," Alice said. "I would be able to reassure you better,"
"No, it's okay like this. In that way, I'm not dependant of your visions,"
"It's very mature of you," Rose complimented.
"To be honest, what's scaring me is the fact that... I feel like there is something more... something I don't know," Evie confessed.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked.
"I don't know," Evie sighed. "Embry was mad at Jake too yet he is already all friendly with him. And he keeps finding him excuses and defending him,"
"You think he knows something you don't?" Alice voiced her suspicion.
"I feel it," Evie nodded.
"Wanna ask Edward when he'll be back?" Rose offered.
"No, I feel like it's going against Em's privacy," Evie refused. "Besides I want to find out by myself,"
"You will," Alice said, convinced. "Secrets always end up discovered, no matter how hard we try to hide them,"
Evie nodded. Alice was right. And the Clearwater girl was determined to budge things. She was determined to not stay in the dark. If she had to interrogate Embry then she would. If she had to face Jacob then she would. Evie only needed truth and certainty.
The shifter and her two vampire friends stay in Port Angeles a few hours more. Rosalie and Alice where the ones doing most of the shopping. Evie was advicing them. Unlike her two friends, Evie hadn't bought anything. Don't get her wrong, she loved shopping. But as a shifter, she could only wear light clothes such as shorts and tank tops. She had a high body temperature and wearing anything else would be like burning in a oven.
Once their shopping trip over, the Cullens drove back to Forks. They dropped Evie at the treaty line. The middle child of the Clearwater family then headed to Sam's house.
Emerging from the forest, Embry and Seth headed to the Uley house where most of the pack members certainly were, minus for Evie and Jacob.
"That's why Jake doesn't want to come to Sam's place?" Embry repeated, surprised.
Seth just told him the Black kid wanted to give Evie enough space for her to decided what to do. Jacob didn't want her to feel forced or anything.
"Yeah," Seth nodded. "He said something about being done of doing things by his own too. I don't know what it means though. But he seems to finally take his status of an imprintee seriously. It reassures me regarding of my sister,"
"Yeah...," Embry only said.
The Call boy seemed troubled. Or more like anxious. Seth noticed that. Ever since the youngest child of the Clearwater family explained to his friend's Jacob's motive of absence, Embry seemed... guilty? But why? Did he know something?
"Are you alright, man?" Seth asked, concerned to see Embry unusually quiet and thoughtful.
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, Seth," Embry reassured but Seth wasn't buying it.
"Is it because of you and my sister?" Seth asked. Embry frowned, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, there's something between you two, right?" Seth cleared.
"What? No, no, of course not," Embry stressed out, blushing. "We already cleared everything out,"
"You might have cleared everything out but you are obviously not over her," Seth teased as he chuckled.
"This is not important," Embry stated. "No matter what my feelings are, no matter how much I like Evie, it doesn't matter. Jacob is back now,"
"You like Evie?" Both Embry and Seth heard.
Embry froze into place. His heart skipped a beat. His breath got caught into his breath. No. Please, no. Not that. From all the things he could have imagine, that was the thing he prayed it wouldn't happened. That was the only thing he wanted to keep from his best friend. The only thing he didn't want him to know. But now it wasn't the case anymore. All because of his recklessness. How could he not have smell his scent? Why hadn't he been more careful? Why was he even talking about his feelings for Evie in the broad daylight? Even though Jacob wasn't supposed to come at Sam's place, Embry swore to himself to never talk about it. To hide it from him. But now...
Anxiety building fast inside him, Embry slowly turned to the entrance of Sam's house. On the porche, a confused looking Jacob was staring at him, hurt. Did he hear right? Did Embry say he loved Evie? Was it real? How? Since when? Why?
"Jake-" Embry tried but Jacob cut him off.
"Is this true?" Jacob asked, his voice trembling from shock and betrayal. "Do you like Evita?"
"I-," Embry tried to deny. But his voice got stuck into his throat. He could bring himself to lie. He couldn't bring himself to deny his feelings for the girl he liked. "It wasn't what I wanted. You know I would never do such a thing to you on purpose,"
Jacob stood there, unable to move. A nervous chuckled escaped his lips hurt and pain quickly fill his heart. Betrayal. His bestfriend loved his imprintee. The man he considered as his brother. The man he would be willing to give his life for. The man he trusted. Liked Evie. His Evie. His imprintee. He could have never imagined such a thing.
But then something hit him.
The day before Jacob came back, Evie was at the beach. Just before Edward appeared to talk to him, the Black smelled a faint but familiar scent. But it was covered by the scent of the sea and Jacob was them distracted by Edward to think further about it.
"That day... just before the wedding. It was you with Evie, am I right?" Jacob emotionlessly asked.
Embry turned pale. His face lost all its color. His stomach twisted as his heart sank deep inside him. Jacob was there. That day. The day he confessed to Evie. Jacob was there.
The lack of answer from his friend was frutrating, even irritating to Jacob. He wanted to hear his best friend's answer. He wanted to hear him deny. He wanted to hear Embry say he was mistaken.
"Was it you?!" Jacob asked, his voice rising and more firm.
"Jake, you should calm down," Seth tried to calm the situation. "Why don't we talk about it inside? In a more civil way?"
"You know?" Jacob asked Seth. The youngest child of the Clearwater froze. "So you knew...,"
"How could you...?" Jacob asked Embry in a whisper, feelings his heart breaking and sinking. Hurt was clearly in his orbs.
"You know I hadn't chose it!" Embry exclaimed. He didn't want to lose his friend. Everything was slowly going back to normal and Embry didn't want to screw everything up. "You know we cannot choose who we love!"
"Love?" Jacob repeated in disblief. Embry bit the inside of his cheek, guilty.
"Listen Jake, nothing ever happened between Evie and I," Embry said, calmer. "And nothing will ever happen. The kiss meant nothing to her-"
"You kissed her?!" Jacob shouted. Now hurt was replaced by anger and even stronger betrayal. The wolf inside him roar in fury as his warth quickly took over him. How could he? How could Embry do such a thing to him? He knew Evie and Jacob were meant to be and yet he still kissed her. He still made a move knowing about their imprintee bond. About the love that bondes the.
On the other side, Embry mentally curse and slapped himself to have slipped such an important informations that should have been kept hidden. If Embry only liked Evie, Jacob could have eventually pass over it. But Embry kissed her.
"How dare you?!" Jacob shouted as he made his way towards Embry, madly.
Behind him emerged from the house the rest of the pack. They heard everything but felt like the two boys needed to settle this. But hearing Jacob shouting madly, Sam knew he had to step in.
In the forest a few meters away from them, Evie was going their ways. She was thinking of how to ask Embry about Jacob or about how to talk with Jacob. She knew it would be tensed conversations but she needed to talk to them. But her thoughts came to an end when she heard shouts. She frowned but she hears Jacob's words. She knew.
"Jake, wait," Quil and Seth tried to stopped him but the Black kid swiftly got out of their hold. "If you ever touch her again," Jacob threatened as he grabbed Embry by the collar.
"Jake-"
"You say your my best friend but you kissed her?!" Jacob exclaimed. "You had no rights! Evie's my imprintee! I love her!"
"Then act like you do!" Embry snapped, harshly breaking Jacob's hold. "Do you have the slightest idea of how much you hurt Evie? You say you love her but you are the one who caused her the most pain! When she cried every day over you I was there for her! When she was locked in her room for days, I was there for her! Not you!"
"You're the one who thought I shouldn't be seeing her!" Jacob exclaimed.
"I didn't know it was going to become like that!" Embry shot back.
Without thinking twice, Evie rushed to stand between them, trying to prevent the situation to get out of hand.
"Hey, guys! Stop it!" Evie stepped in, breaking the commotion. But it was not working.
"I see now why you didn't want me to come back!" Jacob shouted. "I see why you didn't want me to see her when I first came back!"
Evie froze at his words. When he first came back? Did Jacob came back to Forks before? Did he want to see her before? If it was the case, why didn't he? She did felt observed from time to time before... was it him? Why didn't he come to her? And did Embry know? If yes, why didn't he tell her? What happened that she wasn't aware of? She was seeing the tip of the iceberg, but there was many more things underneath that needed to be unraveled.
"Can you blame me?! You keep hurting her!" Embry shouted back, snapping Evie out of her thoughts in the process. The girl quickly went back to her senses.
"I said enough!" Evie firmly said, standing in front of Jacob who seemed the maddest.
"You're siding with him?" He asked, hurt.
"I'm siding with no one. Just stop fighting," Evie ordered.
"Why did you kiss him?" Jake asked, pained.
"I...," Evie's voice trailed off. Why did she kiss him? Why didn't she broke the kiss immediately?
"Did you feel anything?" He then asked.
Evie stood speechless. She was too shocked to answer. But Jacob took her silent the wrong way. Jaw clenched, eyes filling with tears, he walked away. He never felt so hurt before.
"Wait, Jake!" She called.
But Jacob phased and left in the woods.