In This Life ○ Paul Lahote

Eleven

"What's wrong? Why are you leaving?" Paul bursts into Emily's house, making me shoot up from my anxious seat at the dining room table. He beams straight for me, cradling my face in his hands, making the smile on my face impossible to hide.
"Apparently Sam has some master plan to make me stay though." I reply, resting my hands over his.
"Something about a pack? And printing." I say and the look in his eyes soften as he lets his hands fall off my face.
"Imprinting." He says.
"Bless you."
"No." Paul chuckles. "It's imprinting. Not printing." He corrects me.
"Imprinting is a psychological attachment shared between two animals." I define. "There was a case of a lioness imprinting on a baby gazelle, quite the interesting phenomena. The lioness treated the deer like her young, she protected the deer. Though I don't know how imprinting is supposed to make me stay." I chuckle and Paul's eyes widen and I hear laughing, making me look to the living room to see everyone laughing.
"A-Ah well th-this is ah-" Paul clears his throat. "This is different." He mumbles and I couldn't help but smile and nod a little.
"Okay. Then what's your definition of imprinting." I ask, staring into his eyes but he just smiles at me.
"You're doing it again." He says and I furrow my eyebrows in question.
"You're trying to figure me out. Read my angle. It's been driving you crazy since you got here." He says and I feel my face heat up, making Paul's smile soften.
"Come on." He says and offers his hand. I stare at it for a while before sliding my own hand into his and letting him guide me out of the house, handing one last glance at everyone behind me.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"Into the woods." He says and I smile widely.
"You know, this is my favorite place in the whole world." I let him in on why I love it so much here, but I'm starting to feel like it's not the complete reason I love being here anymore.
"I want to-" but Paul cuts himself short, looking me in the eye with a worried expression.
"What, what do you want to do?" I ask, taking a step closer.
"I need to show you something but... I don't want to put any strain on you." He says quietly and I smile softly at him.
"I'm okay Paul. I'll be okay. You told me so remember?" I tilt my head and he nods a little, smiling to himself but that leaves as quickly as it comes.
"You said imprinting is an attachment between animals." Paul starts and backs up, taking off his shirt and shoes, making me gulp back the saliva.
"Theoretically yes. It's another unexplainable emotional attachment of the brain, though we're not sure how it happens." I reply, going over the complications of imprinting we covered in the animal behavior lecture.
"It happens with eye contact." Paul tells me and my eyes narrow in on him, my interest peeked and the lid on my analyzing shoots off.
"How do you..." I ponder, going to take a step closer but he takes a bigger step back so I stop advancing, studying him from over here.
"The first time you look into the imprinted's eyes is when you know." He says and by his body language, he's not only telling the truth, he's living it.
"I don't really get it myself, I just know it's the best thing that could happen to anyone." He says and starts taking off his shorts.
"Ah-" I start, trying to avert my eyes away from him.
"W-What're you doing over there?" My voice jumps a couple octaves and I clear my throat, letting my heart beat wildly. I'm not nervous, I've been subconsciously dreaming about him. I'm completely enthralled.
"You also said its an animal thing." He says and his voice is completely serious, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Not of him, for him.
"Paul..." I start skeptically.
"I know, I know you think I'm... crazy but because you're a future shrink I figured you're a see it to believe it type of person so I... I'm going to show you and then explain. Just promise to not freak out." He says and everything logical I've ever learned is going over the protocol on how to deal with delusional people, my heart, however, is begging to give him a chance.
"Promise me." He says and I take a deep breath, pushing logic aside.
"I-I promise." I nod. Jeez, I'm gonna make a shit psychologist. I look to him steadily and I watch him start to shake and I could hear a growl and in the blink of an eye, standing in Paul's steed, is a wolf bigger than a horse.
"Holly hell." I breathe, my knees giving out from underneath me. I close my eyes, trying to calm down my breathing and my heart.
"Don't freak out." I say aloud like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"I promised I wouldn't freak out." I repeat and hear a huff rather close. I open my eyes slowly to behold the huge head of a wolf .
"It's kinda hard not to freak out Paul!" I yell at the wolf and it-he just puffs out a little and trots around me like he's a freaking show dog.
"Okay." I breathe out, holding a hand out in defeat and shaking my head like I've just finished a marathon.
"Okay okay okay okay okay. Turn back. Explain. Words. I need words." I say and he barks.
"Words, not sounds!!" I shout and he goes behind a bush and I watch him turn back into a human, the bush rising up juuuuuuuust far enough to shatter my hopes and dreams.
"Ah- Y-You're-" I sputter over my words. "You're not human." I shake my head, my tone being one of a sarcastic higher pitch. He chuckles and nods a little, looking me over.
"Could you pass me my shorts?" He asks and I jump to my feet, stumbling for the denim that adds to the insult the bush is providing, and I throw them to him. He catches them and I watch him put them on before I realize what a complete pervert I am. I mean. The boy is seventeen. He's still a freaking minor. I'm pretty sure I could do time for this or something.
"Something wrong?" He asks and I shake my head no with a smile on my face.
"Uh, nah it's nothing I just... keep forgetting you're only seventeen." I mumble, forcing myself to turn away while he puts his clothes back on. But is it really pedophilia if he's a fucking wolf? Wait, am I even more of a pedophile now?
"Hey." Paul's calm voice snaps me out of my degrading thoughts and I tilt my head to the right to see he's right behind me.
"Does that really matter to you?" He asks, not in an accusing tone or a confrontational one, just simply asking.
"No." I blurt thoughtlessly. "Yes! Yes, I-I meant yes." I shake my head, stepping away from him but he grabs my hand and pulls me into him, wrapping me in a hug that chokes me up. No one's ever held me like this before.
"I'm sorry, I can't... I can't be away from you any more Nico." He whispers and I feel the tears spike in my eyes as I ball his shirt up in my hands.
"Th-That's not fair Paul." I choke out and he holds me tighter, lifting me off my feet. "I have to go. Y-You have to let me go." I tell him but I couldn't stop clinging to him.
"I'm afraid that's impossible." He says and sets me on my feet but doesn't let me go.
"I've imprinted on you, Jenna Niccolò Savant." He pauses to allow it to sink in. "The first time you looked into my eyes, when you shook my hand. It was then that I became irrevocably attached to you." He speaks quietly, his head dipping just a little at a time.
"I will be anything you need me to be. I just... need to be with you. In any way you allow." He says and presses his lips to my forehead, shattering my broken heart. He didn't fix it, he gave me a new one. He tore down everything I thought I knew and loved and replaced it with a heart full of him.