Still Breathing [Jacob Black]

Chapter Four

Felicity

Today was dragging. It was the next Friday after dropping off the boxes for Elijah, and all I wanted was to go home and sleep. But I had school and the last thing I needed was to miss a day, even if I'd worked the entire night before. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I definitely needed the money, so I was grateful for the hours. However, I also needed to graduate and skipping days every time I was a little sleepy wasn't going to work.

Therefore, I'd gone home after work this morning, showered and changed, and then was off to school, yawning all the while. Now I was in lunch, hunched over my table. I knew I should eat something to give me a little energy to make it through the rest of the day, but I needed so badly to just let my eyes close, if only for a few moments.

My eyelids were drooping when suddenly they snapped open. Someone was watching me—I could feel it. Roaming the cafeteria with my gaze, I settled on the loud and chatty table toward the center of the room. The one with the skeezy Mike Newton, the bitchy Lauren, and the obnoxious Jessica. There were others at the table, but the only ones I could stand were Angela and Ben. How they got mixed in with that crowd, I'd never understand.

Also sitting at that table was the girl who'd been at Sam's house the weekend before. The one who had shown up as Emily tried to invite me to stay. I couldn't remember her name, but I vaguely remembered her being new the year before. I'd been too caught up in dealing with family issues to care much about the new girl drama. And there'd been a lot of drama. She was with one of the Cullens, and then they recently left in some scandal or something. Or maybe they'd simply moved. I had no idea.

But this girl—this new girl, whatever her name was—she was staring at me. I met her gaze, unsure if she had wanted my attention. After several seconds of nothing, just her watching me with no acknowledgement or embarrassment, I rested my head on my arms and ignored her. If she wanted to stare, she could go right ahead. Not like I was anything exciting to look at.

I did hope that she kept the detonation of my relationship with Elijah to herself, though. If she was hanging out at Sam's house, the likelihood of her having knowledge of what Elijah and I were going through was high. It'd suck if she told people—like her nosy friends Lauren and Jessica—what was going on with us. We'd caused enough of a stir last semester when we got married. I was not in the mood to deal with the rumor mill chugging around my current breakup.

She kept staring at me for a few minutes. I didn't look back over at her, but I could sense when her eyes shifted away. Now I glanced over to see if I could gauge anything from her now—like maybe why was she watching me?—and saw her speaking quietly with Jessica.

Great. Fingers crossed she was coming up with some lame excuse as to why she was staring and then the subject would be dropped.

The bell rang a couple of minutes after that, and I went back to trudging to my day, counting the minutes until I could go home.

Finally the time came, and I rushed as quickly as I could without hurting myself. As I was walking through the door into the apartment, Paul walked up behind me. A quick glance showed that he was also nearly dead on his feet.

"Nap time?" he asked me, voice deep with weariness.

I nodded. "Definitely nap time."

And that was what we did. Paul went to his room—I'd stopped even thinking about it as the guest room by now—and I went to mine. I changed from my skinny jeans into leggings, leaving my flowy long shirt because it was soft and comfy. Then I threw my hair up in a messy bun and snuggled down beneath my covers. I drifted off within seconds.