Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

55 - ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴅᴇᴀʟ

ATHENA STROLLED into the Cullen house and took off her mud-covered boots at the door. The hike she had just gone on with Embry turned out to be a little muddier than they had first intended. Embry ended up getting caught in a semi landslide, sliding directly into a thick patch of mud headfirst. It was pretty funny from her point of view, especially when he got his foot stuck in the boggy part. His solution had been to jump into the sea, straight off the side of a cliff and into the freezing waters below. She didn't really feel like cliff jumping so she walked to meet him at the beach, avoiding the worst of the mud but still getting one of her feet caught in the mess. She had expected someone other than Jasper to be in, perhaps Esme or Rosalie, but it seemed that everyone else was out. So she walked upstairs, heading to his bedroom.

She knocked softly on the door then entered once he had okayed it, gently shutting the door behind her. She turned back around and caught him looking at her oddly. She immediately knew what he was thinking and pulled at the sleeves of her jumper. "I know, I smell of wet dog. Embry jumped in the sea then proceeded to hug me," she grumbled as she pulled off her jumper, revealing a t-shirt underneath that thankfully hadn't been infected with wolf stench.

"I never said that," he replied with an awfully confused expression, hoping that his thought hadn't offended her at all. The wolf stench was just so unbearingly disgusting and today it was very potent.

"You were thinking it through. I could tell " she sighed as she sat down next to him, "Don't worry though, I'm not offended or anything. It was rather unbearable on me too."

She settled down next to him, trying to make sense of the movie that he had been half watching while listening to music. "What did you do while I was gone?" she asked, eyes still glued to the screen as she tried to work out the plot in her head. It looked like a normal Western but it had a certain character that intrigued her.

He smiled, brushing some strands of hair away from her face."I went hunting with Emmett and we stayed in the forest for a while. Then I talked to Alice on the phone for about an hour- she says hello- she and Luna seem to be having a great time on their little trip to celebrate Luna's birthday," he responded, passing her one of his earphones halfway through the final sentence. Once he had stopped talking, she put the earbud in her ear and immediately felt soothed by the classical music that flooded through her ears.

Somehow, she didn't quite realise how it had happened, the two had ended up on their backs with their legs entangled as she rested her head against his chest, both watching the stars from above their heads as they listened to whatever music he chose to play. She traced shapes on his chest with her fingers, flowing the grooves of the muscles underneath his shirt with an absentminded smile. Then her phone rang, disrupting the peace entirely. She ignored it and relaxed back into his chest once it stopped ringing. Whoever it was could call back later, she was far too relaxed to answer any calls right now.

Later came quicker than she had expected it to. Her phone ran again mere moments later and this time the sound annoyed her even more. "You should probably get that," he whispered as she tilted her head up, gazing into his eyes which were much brighter than they had been that morning.

She sighed, knowing he was right. "I swear if this is Billy-" she grumbled as she untangled herself from the hug, grabbing her phone from the place she had put it on the floor. She started at the screen for a long moment, reading the caller ID. "Holy-" she trialled off, sitting up in shock."Hey Pria," she smiled upon answering the phone, tucking some of her hair behind her ear as it got in the way. Jasper raised a brow, not recognising the name. "Publishers," she whispered to him quickly, so quiet that the mortal on the other side of the line would not hear.

"This book is incredible, like seriously. We want to publish it straight away."

"You do? That's great," Athena replied, beginning to pace the room as she worked through the many different thoughts and feeling flooding through her mind.

"So all we need is the pen name that you're going to use this time and we can get the publishing in the works," their voice echoed down the phone, the soft clack of a keyboard followed behind it.

She raised a brow, "A pen name? I hadn't even thought about that."

A sigh came from the other end of the phone but she didn't think it was Pria."We need it as soon as possible really but you can have some time to think, if you need it."

She pinched her temple, thinking far too many thoughts at once to come up with a creative one like she had all the others. "No no that's okay. Just put A. Belle, with an e."

The clacking of the computer came once again, this time echoing in her now clear head. Of course, it worked that way. "Perfect! Well, we'll send you some cover choices nearer the time and let you know a release date."

"Thanks, Pria, have a good day and say hi to your grandmother for me," she smiled, stopping her pacing completely.

"Will do,"  they chuckled and hung up the phone, striking up a conversation with the other person in the room just as the line went dead.

"Incredible hm?" Jasper chuckled, bringing her out of the post good news phone call daze. She turned and sighed, already knowing where this was going. "And you still won't let me read it."

"That time will come, patience is a virtue," she responded with a chuckle, sinking back onto the chair.

He smiled, "I'm so proud of you."

She chuckled, "It's just a book, I've written tonnes of them. School kids all across the country are mad with me because of it, which I think is rather funny."

"It's still a huge achievement," he smiled then looked down to her lips and back up to her eyes. "We should celebrate."

"Celebrate?" she laughed, not really knowing what there was to celebrate. Then he started to kiss her neck, trailing kisses that send shivers down her spine up to her neck then briefly to her lips before he started to trial them down again. "Oh."