Bumps In The Road / Paul Lahote

26. Deep Suspicions

Chapter 26

I woke up to the sound of light rainfall pattering against my bedroom window. After the clear skies La Push had shown Paul and I last night, I was to wake up to the sun's rays beaming over the treetops, from my window, and maybe even exert a little bit of heat. But I should have known better than to hope for good weather in La Push.

"Hey there, kiddo," A familiar voice caught my attention from the corner of my room. I jumped into a sitting position, having been caught off-guard by his presence, and found Ryder leaning against the windowpane. "Did I scare ya?" The tone in his voice was laced heavily with amusement, as a wide grin stretched over his lips, seemingly proud of the fact that he'd succeed in startling me.

"Shit, yes. You did," My eyes cast to the other side of the bed, where a small part of me expected to see Paul. The memory of Paul leaving sometime in the middle of the night popped back into my mind and a wave of disappointment washed over me. "As happy as I am to see you, what are you doing here?"

"I thought we could fit some training in. We haven't practiced together in a little while and I think it might be a good time to see what these fire abilities of yours can do," He teased and approached the end of the bed. It was in that moment I noticed his attire did suggest he was intending on performing physical activity today; from his tight fitted shirt to his basketball shorts. But, after my episode with my mother last night a small part of me wanted to curl up in a ball and just fall back asleep. And for a moment, I listened to that small part and fell back against my pillows. "Hey, no. Get up." I pulled the covers over my head and groaned. Ryder didn't seem to appreciate this response.

"I'm not feeling well." Suddenly the covers were pulled clean off my body and thrown on the floor. I groaned dramatically and pulled my pillow over my head.

"It's laundry day." And with that he picked up all the covers in his arms, snatched my pillow from over my head, and moved towards the door. "Be ready in five." With that he left the room. Even though I wanted to push the memory of my mother leaving from my mind, all it would do is play on repeat and the more the memory presented itself, the angrier I felt myself become. Soon, I could feel the temperature of my blood rising and all I wanted to do was burn something to the ground. I needed this time to release as much of that anger as I could. Thus, I was up and ready in five minutes. As I walked into the kitchen, I found Ryder attempting to pull his charms on Emily, as she mixed ingredients together for another batch of muffins. She laughed at his attempts and greeted me with a smile.

"Eat breakfast before we go." Ryder insisted and pointed to the toaster. I rolled my eyes, yet obeyed him nevertheless. As I waited for my bread to toast, Ryder had decided to saunter beside Emily and lean against the counter, right beside her, with a charming smile that briefly stole my thirteen-year-old heart. Now, I rolled my eyes at his antics and retrieved the butter from the fridge.

"It takes a strong woman to keep up with all of this. You know, Emily, I think..."

"We're back, Emily" Sam's gruff voice echoed through the front entrance. My toast popped in that moment that he stepped into the kitchen. I roughly plucked the toast from the toaster to drown in butter. I glanced over my shoulder to greet Sam and was pleasantly surprised to see Paul following behind him. Both males averted their eyes to Ryder, who had been leaning over Emily to taste the batter in her bowl. Sam's eyes narrowed sharply; the look reminding me of the look he gave me when I told him who I was a couple of months ago.