petrichor [rosalie hale]

ix. changes

"She'll find out soon enough, Paul," Sam told his beta, his arms crossed over his chest as they stood at the picnic table. Jared had his arms looped around Kiara's waist as Kim and Emily rolled their eyes at the duo, knowing that they were both just as immature as each other. The two men paused their conversation to smile and chuckle as Kiara let out a string of curses, Jared having just dragged her down into the ocean with him.

"I just hate lying to her," Paul told Sam truthfully, his eyes trained on his best friend's figure as she continued to flail around in the water with his pack brother. "Especially after how good this summer has been without... them... around."

In what was historically unusual, the small towns of Forks and La Push had a record breaking summer. Kiara wasn't sure she had ever seen so much sun in her life, but she wasn't complaining. The girl loved the good weather as did her brother and his friends, of whom she still hadn't spoken to since the night she broke down crying in Embry McCall's basement over the group of boys that she had practically been joint to the hip with all summer.

Her plans for a forbidden summer romance with Rosalie had been squashed almost as soon as prom was over. School had broken up for the summer and as a graduation gift for Rosalie, Jasper, Emmett and Beverly, Carlisle and Esme had booked the siblings a summer vacation across Europe. Kiara was sad to see Rosalie go but she had expected that she would leave eventually for college anyway. They'd shared another kiss at the blonde's graduation ceremony - something that the rest of her family had watched with surprise. They'd known that Rosalie and Kiara had something going on between them but they hadn't realised that anything would come of it.

Unfortunately for Kiara, Edward was not involved with their summer trip. Bella therefore had spent every waking moment with the boy, whether it being trips to Arizona to visit her old life or classical music concerts. Jacob wasn't around much either, having bought another old car to work on with his friends. Kiara had originally only turned up unannounced to Sam's at the start of the summer to see what the boys were up to, which had somehow turned into her house away from home.

Emily and Kim had been more than happy to include the girl in their activities while the boys were on patrol - even if Kiara still believed their patrol was as wilderness rangers and not as human sized wolves. They had hoped for a period of time that Paul and Kiara would spark off a budding romance again, but it was short lived. The boy and girl had both firmly stated that they would never go back there and were much better as friends.

Even so, Sam was just glad that Paul had Kiara. He was aware that Paul was always jealous of Sam and Jared having imprinted so quickly after phasing for the first time and as much as the boy would deny it (claiming that he would never want to feel like his entire existence to be reliant on a relationship) Sam knew that Paul had wished for an imprint of his own. Kiara, however, was the perfect distraction and buffer at reminding Paul there was more to life than just waiting for the one to come along.

"Don't you have school tomorrow?" Emily asked later that night as they all sat around the bonfire Sam had started on the beach. All heads snapped to Kiara with teasing grins as the younger girl groaned, rolling her eyes at them as she took another bite of the hotdog in her hands.

"Don't you enjoy having me around?" Kiara countered, a small smirk twitching at the corners of her mouth as she looked down and checked the time on her watch. It had been a gift that had surprisingly turned up in the post a month prior from Rachel and Rebecca, a congratulations gift for not getting kicked out of Forks High. She hadn't spoken to the girls in over a year, so it was obvious to her that her father had asked them to extend an olive branch. Kiara wasn't one to hold a grudge on her family so she had sent them a letter back, thanking them and hadn't taken it off since.