Flowers for Lilah (Seth Clearwater)

chapter six

"Why does it only rain when I want to garden?" I pout to myself, as I shiver harder under La Push's unrelenting sprinkle of rain. It was another gloomy weekend in La Push, and I was using this time to keep to my garden, which was slowly starting to be affecting by the chilly weather. Soon I was going to have to spend my weekends indoors, the thought making me sad.

These were the times I wish I was a little more outgoing. I was new to my school, a school where everyone had known each other for years. If that wasn't lonely enough, most students were uncomfortable on how to talk to me, because my parents had died. They didn't know what to say, how to ask what it's like living with my retired grandparents.

And to top it all off, I was painfully shy and plain. I was too scared to speak up, too nervous to just say hi, and when I did, I was about as exciting as paint drying. I wasn't funny, I was soft-spoken, observant, understated.

"Lilah!" I hear a voice shout in surprise, and I turn around to see Seth running from out of the woods, shirtless once again and donning a giant smile. I look down at my shapeless black rain jacket and messy hair, regretting the dirt that I'm sure I was covered in. Why did he look so perfect when I looked so plain?

"H-hi Seth." I blush at his sudden appearance and look down, "What were you doing in the forest?"

"I was just out for a run, getting some exercise," He blushes the same color as me and looks up at the light drizzle. I want to ask why he was running in the rain, and in a heavily wooded forest, and why he ended right in my backyard, but I don't want to scare him away.

"Oh. Well- I don't want you to get sick!" I say stupidly, "Do you want my jacket?"

Seth shoots me a funny look and chuckles, "I don't think your jacket is going to fit me, Lilah."

I flush again at how stupid I always come off around him, "Right, sorry." I don't need a reminder of how much stronger and bigger he is, I'm all too aware of the heat radiating off his body as he huddles close to me under the rain.

"Hey," He grins, "You don't need to apologize. Actually... if anything I need to apologize for just showing up unannounced in your yard, my mom would be disappointed in my politeness- I remember you said you liked flowers- and I was hoping you could show me your garden?"

"I could... but besides some asters and perennials, It's all sort of dying out because of the cold. I'm just getting rid of the weeds before the snow falls. Are you sure you don't want to look a little closer when it's not raining?"

Seth shakes his head at himself, "I feel so stupid, of course, I have bad timing."

"Don't feel stupid, I'm the one who offered you my jacket." I chuckle, not wanting him to feel as awkward as I do. "Here's where my favorite flower normally goes," I point to the spot I was just working on. "But for some reason it didn't grow this year."

"Why is it your favorite flower?" He asks.

"Well, it was my mom's favorite flower." I stutter out, my eyes catching on his chiseled chest. I couldn't deny- Seth invaded all my thoughts somehow. Even the most innocent and random thoughts led to him. It was a destiny for heartbreak, seeing as I could barely even hold a simple conversation with him without long awkward pauses and periods of silence where no one knows what to say.

Like now, I kicked at some clumps of dirt with my rain boot and Seth put his hands in his pockets. Awkward silences had become Seth and I's specialty.

Finally after a long moment Seth clears his throat and I meet his eyes, his face is still beat red and he is shifting his eyes nervously. "I, uh, I was w-wondering if you were busy, and if you were it's totally cool-"

My eyes widen, was Seth Clearwater asking me out? Before he can finish his sentence, he's cut off by the porch door screeching open. Damnit, my annoyed looking grandpa slowly makes his way to us, his normal smile replaced by a narrowing of the eyes. Oh no, papa's in a bad mood.

"Papa!" I say breathlessly, trying to play off the fact that he just cut off the few words that could have changed my life.

"Lilah, I think it's time to come inside. The rain's picking up." He narrows his eyes at Seth. "Don't you own a shirt, boy?"

I groan, embarrassed. Seth blushes again, "I took it off, I was just going for a run. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Black. My name is Seth Clearwater."

"In my time it wasn't proper to be alone with young ladies half naked." My grandpa grumbles, ignoring Seth's outstretched hand, Seth awkwardly drops his hand. "I would invite you in, boy, but my wife and I are heading out of town tonight. I don't like Lilah having company over when we're not home."

"You're home alone tonight?" Seth seems stunned by this, in a worried way.

"What's it to you?" My papa asks rudely, "She's not having anyone over." It is obvious my overprotective papa is not a fan of Seth.

"Papa!" I exclaim, mortified. "Seth, sorry, my papa's a little-"

"Don't apologize for me, Lilah. I'm just educating Seth on the art of being a gentleman," my Papa brushes off my reprimand, "Like coming to the front door and meeting the family before picking up a girl."

"I completely agree." Seth nods, seeming even more nervous.

"And addressing my elders with Sir." My grandpa continues. "Did I ever tell you I did some time in the Navy?"

"No...." Seth coughs, then quickly adds. "Sir, thank you for your service. Sir." He adds again.

My grandpa narrows his eyes once more and turns his eyes to me, "Lilah, let's go inside. I don't want to catch a cold. If only your young friend here was wearing a jacket, he could offer it to you. That's another rule of being a gentleman, Seth."

"Next time I come to see Lilah I will wear better clothing, sir." Seth stumbles out.

"That sounds better. C'mon Lil." My grandpa grabs my arm and gently pulls my inside the house, and I turn around calling a weak, "Bye, Seth." As he makes his way out of our backyard.

The night goes by quietly. I eat dinner with my grandparents and they leave after the dishes are done, heading to Seattle for an art gallery, and choosing to spend the night at one of their old coworkers house, so they don't have to drive back so late in the rain. I waste some time watching TV, before I shower and fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

I'm fast asleep in bed when I am startled awake by a wolf howl. I groan, rolling over to look at my alarm 2:30 am. Then my heart picks up at the sound of tapping on my window, too strong to be the thundering rain that's picking up outside. What the heck...

The tapping happens again, and I freeze. What if it's a killer? I stalk my way to the window, grabbing a sneaker on my way to defend myself with, I peer through the window as it pops open, a blast of freezing air hitting me.

"Lilah!" The voice scares the absolute daylights out of me, and I scream, hurling my shoe into the mystery figures face, screaming, "get out of my house!"

"Lilah! Relax! It's me!" I squint my eyes in the near darkness and realize that it's Seth Clearwater. Alone in my bedroom, when I'm home alone, in the middle of the night. And deliciously shirtless.

"What in the world are you doing here? I could have hurt you!" I exclaim.

Seth's serious face curves into a smirk, "It's going to take more than a shoe to scare me away."

"What is going on?" I say, breathless. "Why are you here-"

"You aren't safe here tonight, you need to come with me." Seth says, his boyish face turning serious again. "I can't really explain it and I know it sounds insane, but I need you to trust me-"

"Okay." I agree at once. I trusted him with every fiber in my being, if Seth was saying this, I believed it. And this was all besides the point that I would pretty much do anything he asked me, especially when he's shirtless.

"I can explain later-" He says.

"You don't have to explain anything." I quip. "Where are we going?"

"My house, do you have your shoes?"

I pull on the offending sneakers that I tried to throw in his face and frown, "Isn't your family home? I don't want to be some random girl showing up in the middle of the night-"

"They're awake. Don't worry. And my family loves you." Seth assures me, shutting my window.

"They do? I've barely even spoken to them-"

"They love you. You've become quite a topic at my house." Seth grins wryly, grabbing my hand, sending shivers down my spine. "Let's go."