Bumps In The Road / Paul Lahote

17. The Aftermath

Chapter 17

He may be warm, but he'll never warm your heart.

Confusion shocked through my veins and sobered my mind from the slumber I had been pulled from. The text made little sense to me and I couldn't understand who would send such a riddle. No one from home that I knew of cared much for riddles and I hadn't upset anyone from La Push, from my knowledge anyway. Surely, it couldn't be Hilary as she was well and truly dead, since the pack had ripped her Vampire self to bits. 

It was an odd thing to write to someone. Who was the author referring to by him? Did they mean Paul? The sentence lacked context and, to be honest, I couldn't comprehend whether it was a threat, a warning or advice. The fact that the author had preferred to remain anonymous didn't instil a sense of reassurance that this was meant to be helpful for my well being. But at the same time I didn't immediately feel a sense of alarm that this was threatening either. I simply felt confused. 

My eyes drifted over my shoulder and landed on Paul's sleeping form. His body was facing mine still and the peaceful expression on his face made the corner of my lips twitch upward. Despite the cruel person I had been to him lately, he still managed to stand the sight of me and console me after Ryan's act. I knew I didn't deserve it in the slightest, yet here lay, wiping away my stray tears. My eyes cast back to the time and thought it to be too early to get up yet. I shut my phone off completely and attempted to find comfort in my sheets once again, yet I never found it. For the next hour I found myself tossing and turning, my mind reeling over the events that occurred over the recent days. 

My restlessness was soon detected by Paul, whose eyes opened with a soft groan. Instantly, I felt bad for waking him up and bit my lip as his eyes met mine. 

"I'm sorry" I whispered. A husky chuckle left his lips. 

"What for? Is there another kid coming here to be your boyfriend?" He teased. I gently shoved his shoulder and nestled my head into the pillow. 

"Shut up," I grumbled. "I'm sorry for waking you up." Paul scoffed and shifted in position, which subsequently resulted in him being slightly closer. I felt his legs brush against mine.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly. 

"Yeah, fine. Just can't seem to fall back to sleep" I muttered. He frowned and reached forward, closing his hand around mine reassuringly. 

"Does this have to do with the idiot sleeping downstairs?" Paul wondered. I narrowed my eyes at our interlocked fingers and shrugged. 

"Sort of. I'm going to have to talk to mum later and that's going to be one hell of a phone call. I just need him out of here, so that this place can feel a bit more relaxed and everything can go back to the way it was...but better" I replied with a sigh, looking up tentatively into Paul's brown eyes that softened. 

"Don't worry about the pack. We are fine and no one cares about the kid being here. Seriously, he hasn't made much of an effort around here to get us to like him. Well, not me...I was never going to like him, even if he bought me a beautiful '69 Camaro" Paul assured me. A soft laugh left my lips as I squeezed his hand. With that, we continued to talk about my trip to Australia, excluding all information about my mother and the deal. We fell so easily into conversation that we hardly noticed the light of the day shine through the curtains, alerting us to the start of a new day. Paul suggested that he take a shower before coming down to breakfast and I jokingly agreed as I left him to do just that.