Stay • Jared Cameron

two

"Someone's here," Jake said, suddenly looking up from the rabbit. They were in his garage again, looking over his car trying to figure out what was wrong this time.

"What?" Evelina asked watching as he ran to the garage door. As she made it to the door, she heard Jake and rolled her eyes.

"Bella, where the hell have you been Loca?" He said picking her up and spinning her around. They both laughed as he put her down. Evelina leaned on the side of the garage and looked towards the back of Bella's truck. She had brought bikes for him to fix. Of course, she thought, this will be her way of bonding with him. She pushed herself off the wall and walked back into the garage. She sat down on the lounge and pulled out her phone. She texted the group chat she had with Embry and Quil telling them her current situation. They replied straight away that they were coming to save her.

She looked up as they walked in the door.

"Bella this is Eve, Eve this is Bella."

"Uh, hi Eve," Bella said awkwardly looking down at her.

"That's Evelina to you," Evelina replied and picked up a random magazine from the rack next to her.

Jake sighed and left for a second. He returned, wheeling two bikes into the garage. Evelina rolled her eyes again.

X

There was a knock at the door and Evelina sighed.

"Oh thank God, took you long enough!" Evelina exclaimed looking up at Quil and Embry from the couch. Jake glared at her from his place next to Bella.

"Yo, Jake, Eve," Embry said walking into the garage. Bella reached for her bag and Evelina look at her, she hoped she was finally leaving.

"No it's okay, it's just my boys," Jake said which made her stop packing up her stuff. Evelina rolled her eyes and looked towards the two boys at the door.

"Hey, Jake."

"Hey, guys," Evelina said sarcastically, getting up and walking over to them. They looked towards her for a second then focused back on Jacob and Bella.

"Guy's this is Bella, Bella that's Quil and Embry." Jake introduced.

"I'm Quil Ateara," Quil repeated flirtily, Evelina gagged. There was an awkward silence until he continued,"So the bike building story is true."

"Oh yeah, yeah, I taught him everything he knows," Bella replied. Ava rolled her eyes again.

"What about the part where you're his girlfriend?" Quil countered. Evelina held back a laugh.

"Uh, we're just friends," Bella said awkwardly.

"Ooh, burn!" Embry spoke up and high-fived Evelina.

"Actually, remember I said she's a girl and a friend," Jake said pointing towards Bella, giving them a look.

"Boys, do you remember him making that distinction?" Evelina spoke up.

"No." They replied in sync.

"So you guys are in relationships, that's awesome." Jake laughed.

"Yeah right." He said with a laugh, "Quil's actually taking his cousin to prom." They all laughed at this.

"Yeah that's still alright, you want funny Black? I'll give you funny." Quil replied. They both started play fighting in the garage and Evelina watched Embry walk over to Bella.

"I've got 5 bucks on Quil." Evelina rolled her eyes at Embry attempt to start a conversation, but apparently awkward conversations were Bella's thing.

"You're on." She replied. The boys stopped soon after, laughing at each other and high-fiving. Evelina stood and took Quil and Embry by the wrists.

"It's been fun but we should leave you two lovebirds alone." She said sarcastically watching as they both blushed. Bella politely said goodbye to them while Jacob glared at Evelina as she dragged the boys away.

As soon as they stepped outside, Evelina fake gagged.

"What took you so long, I was alone with them for too long!" She exclaimed running ahead to Embry's car. The two boys laughed at her dramatics. She jumped in the back seat and sat in the middle. They pulled out of Jacob's driveway and decided to go to the beach.

When they arrived, Evelina rolled up her jeans, took off her converse and ran to the water. She let her toes feel the sand and the cold water that came up to just above her ankle, almost reaching her rolled up jeans. Just as Embry and Quil joined her, they heard cheering. Looking up to the top of the cliff they saw two guys, one pushing the other off.

"Is that?" Embry started.

"Jared and Paul." Evelina finished. The two had already started swimming back to shore.

"Evelina!" Jared yelled running up to the small group. Paul trailed behind him, smirking as he followed.

"Hey Jared, Paul." She said suspiciously. She looked over to Embry and Quil questioningly and back to Jared and Paul.

"Did you get your car working?" Jared asked, very optimistically. Paul stood behind, staring at Embry.

Evelina smiled awkwardly, Jared hadn't looked away from her yet, "Yeah, uh, Jake fixed the engine and stuff." Jared nodded and looked to Embry. He was breathing heavily and his nose was flaring.

"Do you have a problem Lahote?" He said puffing his chest out and stepping forward, his shirt was soaked with sweat. Evelina stepped forward and put a hand on his forehead.

"Em, are you still not feeling well, maybe you should have stayed home. Give me the keys and I'll drive." She said calmly. Embry didn't listen and his breathing increased. Evelina grabbed his hand and tugged on it. "Em." She repeated. He looked down to her and his heavy breathing stopped.

"Yeah, I should go." He tugged his hand out of hers and started walking away.

"Okay, um, do you want us to come?" Quil said looking up to his best friend.

"Uh no." Embry stopped walking but didn't turn around. "See you around."

"Bye?" Evelina said as more of a question than anything. There was something wrong. They all watched his car as he pulled out of his spot and drove away. Turning back to the rest of the boys, Evelina looked to Quil.

"Well, there goes our ride." She said, they were both very confused but Jared and Paul knew exactly what was happening.

"I'd offer you a ride but we walked here." She turned to Jared when he said this, she forgot they were still there. She smiled at the boy.

"Oh, don't worry, we can walk back to Quil's and I'll get my mum to pick me up or something." Quil nodded at her suggestion and the two said a quick bye to Paul and Jared. Walking to Quil's, they didn't bring up what had happened with Embry because neither of them knew what to think about it.

Evelina's mum came and picked her up after dinner. She had finished work later, which meant it was perfect timing as she was already passing Quil's house. Laying in bed that night, all Evelina could think about was Jared. Out of all the years she'd been living on the Res and going to school with Jared, he hadn't once talked to her. Well maybe once with their parents, but still, Evelina found it weird that she'd seen him this much in the span of a few weeks. She drifted off to sleep worrying about Embry and what was happening to him.