บท 10: Dog problem.
"Michael."
The woman stared at Nate with clear shock, before her eyes widened as she shook her head.
"I...I'm sorry, you look like someone I knew," she said to Nate, gathering her things to leave, only for Nate to stop her.
"Michael Swan?" he asked, as she turned to look at him, with a questioning gaze.
"Y-yes?" she confirmed, surprised.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" she asked, intrigued.
Confusion filled her eyes as Nate looked at her. He was both interested and hesitant to find out how she recognized him. It was a known fact that Nate looked mostly like his mother.
'But this woman?'
She must have known Nate's father personally for her to have recognized some of his features through Nate. Only people who spent a lot of time together could determine that.
"My name is Nathaniel, Nathaniel Swan. I'm..." Nate started but couldn't finish.
"Michael's son," she said softly, looking on in wonder before she hugged him.
Nate, surprised by the hug, stood there patting her back awkwardly.
"I can't believe it," she said, astonished.
"Little Nate?" she asked, letting him go and looking at his face in wonder. It was a bit comical considering how much taller Nate was than her.
"Yes?" he said unsure.
"Look at you, you've grown up so much. Wow, your father would have been so proud," she said.
Nate, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the overly familiar woman, took a step back before asking, "I'm sorry, but who are you?"
The woman, clearly knowing him, considering how she even called him by one of the nicknames his father used to call him, replied, "I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Anna Clyde. It's very nice to meet you."
But all Nate heard was the name Clyde. She couldn't have been related to him...could she?
"Are you by any chance related to Steven Clyde?" he asked suddenly, not being able to hold back.
Anna, surprised by the sudden question, chuckled before answering, "Why yes, he's my husband," she said, with a soft tone.
Which surprised Nate to no end. 'What are the chances the person you're looking for's wife bumps into you?' he thought.
"But how have things been? Last I heard you moved with your mom to Michigan," she said before putting on a thinking face.
"What was it called..." she said?
"Gladwim," Nate helped.
"Yeah! The name always eludes me," she said sheepishly.
But her next question reopened a fresh wound.
"But how is your mother? Is she here with you, in Forks?" she asked.
But all Nate heard was ringing as his heartbeat started picking up and a nauseous feeling fell upon him.
'His mother.'
Nate's mother was a topic he hadn't had the time to think about. His mother, whom he both hated and loved, was...
Anna, who was looking at Nate, noticed his expression changing.
"What is it?" she asked, worry on her face.
Nate, containing his inner turmoil, took a deep breath before answering.
"She...she passed away...two months ago," he said slowly, so she could digest the information.
"What...what?" she said.
"I'm sorry, I...I didn't know," she extended her arm to hold Nate's hand.
"How..did she" She started, but not wanting to dwell on the topic Nate changed the subject.
"Let me help you with this," he said, as he went to take the bags from her.
She was taken aback by the sudden change of topic, if her quirked eyebrows were anything to go by.
"Oh no, it's fine, dear. I couldn't ask you to do that," she said.
"I insist," he said before taking one of the bags.
"Where is your car parked?" Nate asked, looking around the parking lot.
Anna, standing there, only shook her head.
"I walked here today, I wasn't planning on buying so much, it just happened," she said a bit comically.
Seeing an opportunity, Nate offered to take Anna home, who after a bit of hesitation accepted the offer.
After putting the groceries in his trunk, Nate drove off to where Anna and Steven lived.
Hopefully, he'll get some more answers.
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Anna opened her front door, and she and Nate stepped inside the house.
As Nate looked around, he noticed numerous photos on the wall, featuring Anna and a man who he assumed was Steven. There were wedding photos of a younger Anna and Steven, as well as pictures of them traveling and striking funny poses.
"You like them?" Anna asked, stepping next to Nate with a smile on her face.
"Yeah, they're nice photos, and you have a very lovely house," he replied, waving his arms that held the grocery bags.
"Thank you, dear. Now why don't I take these from you, and you go to the living room? I'll get you something cold to drink," she said, taking the bags out of Nate's hands and leaving him standing in the hallway.
Shrugging his shoulders, Nate walked further into the house. What came into view was a living room so picture-perfect that it looked like a therapist's office, a setting with which Nate was well acquainted.
Nate had been seeing therapists for as long as he could remember. If you asked him what he thought of them, he would tell you they were okay. But if you asked his therapists what Nate thought of them, they would say he outright hated them.
The truth was, Nate only ever let out his bottled-up feelings when he was singing. So, when therapists tried to get him to open up, he indirectly became rude to them. He didn't see them as a source of stress relief but rather as a helpful hand that tried to come up with solutions for him.
Taking a seat on one of the sofas, Nate looked around the office looking room and saw more pictures of Anna and steven and a bunch of awards that had Stevens name in it.
Without meaning to Nate who was concentrating on one of the photos, used his super hearing abilities and heard Annas heartbeat from the kitchen, it was fast but not so fast as to warrant any worries, he heard her approaching and he sat up right as she stepped into the room with a tray.
She set the tray down that had two lemonades on it, if the smell was anything to go by.
she took a seat on the sofa that was opposite to Nate, and the silence as she staired at him.
The way she was looking at Nate was aking to how one would look at a person when they wanted to know something. Not knowing what else to say, Nate said the first thing that came into his mind.
"Your living room looks like an office," he said, looking around.
Anna chuckled before saying, "That's because it is," She said, making things clear to Nate, he had seen the other awards next to the ones that had the name Steven on them.
They were Annas.
"So you're a psychologist," He said as a matter of fact.
"That's right," She said, taking a sip from her lemonade before continuing," And as a psychologist it's my job to help people that are struggling with something"
Nate knew where this talk was headed, he didn't want to talk about his Mother or his feelings, he had too many things going on in his life to worry about what he was feeling, so he did something he often did, changing subjects.
"By the way, where is Steven, I would have thought he was home by now" He asked.
Anna, seeing Nate didn't want to continue on the topic and let it go before glancing at the lemonade she was holding.
"Well, that's because Steven has been gone for the past 10 years now," She said, downcast.
Nate who wasn't expecting that, looked at her wide eyed.
"Ho..w" He started to ask.
"A pulmonary embolism was the cause" She said, a downcast expression on her face.
Nate who could hear her heartbeet detected a spike in her pulse, he chalked it up to the anxiety she was feeling talking about him.
"It happened so fast, no warning on nothing" She continued, looking at nate in the eye.
"One moment he was in his office working on his next project, the other he was in the ICU on life support" she said and Nate knowing her pain put down the lemonade.
"I'm sorry" He said, in a Low voice, a flash of an image where his mother layed on the couch with a pale skin invading his mind.
There was a silence for a moment, Nate trying and failing to think about his dead mother and Anna looking at the window with a faraway look.
Nate who felt a vibration go off in his pants, dug his phone out his pants, before seeing a message from bella telling him her last period finished and that she needed a ride to jackobs house.
Looking to Anna from his phone, Nate said" I'm sorry but, I have to go"
Anna getting out of her faraway state, put down the leminade and stood up as nate did the same.
"I have to pick up my cousin from school" He said, before looking around the room.
"O no thats fine nate, thanks for helping me with the groceries" She saidm while she led Nate out of the living Room to the front door.
"No problem at all, thank you for the lemonade, it was nice" He said opening the door and stepping out to the porch.
"Hey," She said, reaching for Nates shoulder, while he turned around to face her.
"How would you feel if we met up again, we could speak about things that bother you... or anything really?" She said, the last part in a bit of a hurry seeing that Nate looked hesitant.
Looking at his phone that vibrated again from a message, he thought about it before turning to Anna and nodding his head.
"Yeah, that sound nice" He said, before Anna gave Nate a hug.
"Well then, take care until next time we see each other alright and stay out of trouble" She said, before Nate turned around and got in his car that was parked on the parking space.
He waved at Anna who was still on the porch before he left for forks high school to pick up Bella.
Anna who watched Nate roll out of the parking space and drive away, took out her phone and dieled a number.
"Hello?" She said, as a persone picked up.
"We have a problem" she said, her air of warmth completely changing to one of cold and calculate.
"It seems Michiale's little project still lives" She spoke as the persone on the other end of the phone said something to Anna.
"Im not sure, but i'll find out soon" And then the phone disconected.
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Pulling up to the school parking lot, Nate parked his car and texted Bella that he had arrived, while waiting for her, he heard her speaking with 2 girls while exiting the school building.
Seeing this Nate got out of the car and waved his arm around to get Bellas's attention.
Bella seeing Nate waving at her, approached him while the two girls followed her with an apprehensive look.
"Hey" She said, while she held her books a bit awkwardly, Nate seeing this only shook his head.
"How was school?" He asked, looking at her and her two friends whose hearts were beating very fast for some reason, it made Nate's ears ich a bit.
"It was alright, I had a shorter day, I hope you weren't busy," she asked, while Nate only shook his head.
"No, not at all" he said.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" He asked Bella, who was starting to look between him and her friend, but before Bella could, the girl with the brown hair stepped forward enthusiastically.
"Hi, you must be Nate, Bella's cousin, I'm Jessica and this is Angela," She said, extending her hand in a friendly manner as Nate was taken aback by her forwardness.
"Bella never mentioned how hot you were" And then there was awkwardness.
"Jessica!" Said the other girl whose name was revealed to be Angela.
"What?, It's true, I mean look at him," She said sizing him up, while Nate had a wry smile on his face.
"Right, well it was nice meeting you," He said to the girls" I think?,... Bella?" He continued as Bella went into the car before saying goodbye and Nate ignored the two girls who were arguing while getting into the driver's seat.
Looking at Bella before saying" Well,..she has a colorful personality" Which made her chuckle and made him laugh as well.
Then Nate drove off to the La Push reservation to drop Bella off at Jacobs.
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Driving back on the lone road after dropping Bella off, Nate couldn't help but think about the fact that there were other supernatural creatures out there.
Logically, it made sense, just because he was different, didn't mean he was the only one, and there were countless mysteries on earth to deny the possibility outright.
This was the thought that was going through Nate's head as he made a turn, but then he looked ahead on the road to see a lone figure standing there, with no shirt and jean shorts on.
Pressing the break as quickly as his supernatural reflexes allowed him to, his car came to a halt just before it hit the person standing on the road.
Looking at the person with a look of disbelief, Nate stood out of the car to confront the familiar person he saw on the beach just a couple of weeks ago.
"Are you crazy, what do you think you're doing standing on the road like that?" He asked, clearly agitated, he could've hurt this person or worse killed them.
"What are you" The bigger guy asked, while Nate looked at him confused before a horrible smell hit him.
"I don't know what you talking about man," He said, trying to change the subject while also trying to stay cool from the familiar smell that he had been smelling often while he ran around the forest.
Nate who was trying to stay cool, heard 3 additional footsteps behind him, turning around to see the other boys who were wrestling on the beach that day he was with Leah, he couldn't help but take notice of how their footsteps were silent enough to make even his super hearing hard to pick up.
"We should just kill him and be done with it, why ask him what he is?" said one of the boys, who looked extremely angry for some reason. Nate who to this point thought he could get out of it by talking, realized that this wasn't a normal interaction,....they were different, like him, and they had picked up on it while he was oblivious to them.
how could he have been so careless?
Turning to the one in front of him, Nate extended his arms in a surrendering manner before saying" Hey, let's calm down alright, we can talk about this without any violence" While he felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket.
Before the biggest one could answer, Alarms went off in Nate's mind, and with pure instinct, he jumped 6 meters in the air while flipping around.
And seeing a Wolf the size of a bear standing where he had stood just a moment ago, he couldn't help but be shocked, landing gracefully on the ground Nate knew he either had to run and leave his car or fight these...giant dogs or whatever they were.
Looking ahead at the 4 people Nate deemed enemies, he saw the biggest one crouche down to pick something up, Nate's phone.
Nate checked his pocket to see the phone missing and he could only click his tongue.
"Uncle Charlie?"The one who had his phone read the phone caller, before turning to Nate who was crouched down, on all fours, not knowing he was.
"Is Charlie Swan your uncle?" He asked once again, looking at Nate, while Nate focused on the snarling wolf infront of him.
"Y..yes he is," Nate said, making the man's eyes widen.
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Hey everyone,
It's been a while since my last update, and I wanted to take a moment to reconnect with you all.
For the past few months, I've been on a personal journey of self-development, working through some things in my life. Because of that, I haven't had much time to write, but I'm excited to say I'm back and ready to dive into this fanfiction again!
In addition to this story, I'm also working on a new project, so keep an eye out for that.
As always, your ideas and constructive criticism are more than welcome, and I truly appreciate your patience. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it for you.
Thank you all for your support!
Also if you have any pennies to spare for little Olle me, PayPal me on.
DONATE:paypal.me/Helpauthor03
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