I'd just gotten home through the back door and Mom already sensed something was wrong with me. She was standing in the kitchen -making tonight's lasagna, probably- until she turned around and looked at me with worried eyes. I walked to her and hugged her, just needing the comfort of someone's arms around me. The arms of someone who wouldn't get mad if I didn't want to do something I disliked. Mom wound her arms around me, stroking my back.

"Jackson?"

I nodded. "We got into a fight." Again I held the tears down that threatened to come back. I remembered the promise I'd made to myself a long time ago, 'No boy will ever make me cry'.

Mom held me until I was done feeling sorry for the boy who didn't deserve my tears. I'd liked Jackson, but I'd warned him in the very beginning that if he'd ever push me too far, it won't ever be forgiven. I'll give him one more chance just because, even after what he's done, he's still a nice kid. He liked me, I knew that. Maybe he was just frustrated with me because he sees my friends, Mike Jr. and Dana, together all the time. Kissing and touching and stuff. Maybe he's frustrated because while he thought of that as "hot", I thought of it as gross.

Whatever, I'll see what to do when we meet at school. I released my mother and walked up to my room. I jumped on the bed, burying my face in my pillow groaning. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I checked it. It was Jackson, saying he was sorry but that I was the one to blame for his being unsatisfied and pushy…

I threw my cell phone on my pillow in anger.

"Asshole." I grumbled. Unlike Mom, I swore. A lot. I grabbed my cell phone back to look for any damage, but the pillow softened the hard throw enough to not leave any cracks in the glass of the screen.

I sighed. Knowing that no matter how much I hated him right now, I would never break up with him. Not now, anyway. He's my first boyfriend, and I don't want to ruin my first relationship because of one stupid thing he did. But, oh, what a stupid thing it was.

Tell a boy not to do something a thousand times, they still go with what they want.

Mom was right when she asked me if it was wise to get together with Jackson. She knows my issues. She knew it wasn't going to end well, I suppose. But at that time, I was just overjoyed that I'd found a nice young man that actually liked me.

I thought I liked him back.

When people said they felt butterflies whenever they went near the person they loved, I thought

I just felt them differently. Whenever I came near Jackson, I felt nauseated. Nausea can be mistaken for butterflies, right?

Oh, who am I kidding?

Distraction, I thought, I need a distraction.

Of course, nobody's better at distracting me than Seth. I grabbed my phone and called him, smiling when he answered after the first ring.

"How's my favorite person?" Seth, of course, sounded cheery as ever.

"Miserable, could you come over to the woods? I wanna have some fun."

"Bad day?" he concluded from my tone.

"You have no idea."

"Be there in five." He hung up and I went downstairs, put on my running shoes and left for the woods, leaving a small note on the kitchen table for Mom and Dad telling them where I was.

I ran, enjoying the cold air entering my lungs with each breath in. It was amazing how good it felt to just breathe. Living close to a forest and a beach, I get two kinds of the purest air which I breathe in greedily.

When I arrive to our usual meeting place, a place at which a big rock and huge pine tree met at a change of level between the grounds. The ground suddenly shot up a meter or so and the rock and tree stood in an open place around that ground. It was a good gathering spot, and not too far from any of the werewolves' houses. The ground was scattered with various black spots from the bonfires we held here, some fading, some made a few weeks before.

Seth was already there, of course. A big smile on his face as he leaned against the boulder, shirtless. I raised my eyebrows.

"I know what you look like Seth, no need to show off." He laughed.

"I'm not showing off, shifted only an hour ago, Sam was sensing something strange."

I tensed, nothing 'strange' ever happened here, not since the vampires left. "What was it?"

"A false alarm, I guess, found nothing." He shrugged.

"How about we run the perimeter for a second check?"

"Sure, beat you to the river!" He started running, and I quickly followed, laughing. I breathed in through my nose, catching the scents of the forest and running after Seth, who was taking of his pants while running.

"Gross!" I yelled and averted my eyes. I've seen more than enough naked men in my life, thank you.

A loud howl escaped from Seth, and a barking sound that should've been a snicker. We kept on running, until he finally beat me.

"Not fair, you were at an advantage." I gasped, halting. Seth didn't answer. I saw the hairs on his back stand up and his ears standing at attention. I sniffed the air for something suspicious and quickly found it.

Vampire.

Seth and I looked at each other and nodded. We leaped over the small stream onto the former Cullen territory.

'Stay behind me, Ari. Call to Sam.' Seth whispered in my mind. I nodded, and searched in my mind for the familiar presence of the pack leader.

'Sam, vampire on Cullen land. Me and Seth are checking it out. Send back-up.' Not long after I told Sam, several howls sounded through the woods. Within minutes Embry, Jared and Sam arrived.

'Approach carefully, we don't want it to notice us.' Sam thought to all of us. We followed the scent, the sweet smell getting so clear you could taste it in the air. We ended up at the old Cullen house. All of us halted and listened to the sounds of the woods and the house. We barely breathed.

After a long silence, Sam told us to move in slowly.

'You stay here, Ari.' I frowned at him, but wasn't going to argue. If we made a sound now, the vampire would make it's escape.

I watched my friends walk to the house and break down the door, barking like mad and running around, breaking through the glass walls and furniture that had stayed there.

Only I saw a glimpse of white escape from the house in a flash.

Moving on pure instinct, I followed it.