"Alex, this is a crisis!"

The brunette only narrowed her eyes playfully at Kim as she said this, knowing fully well that this definitely didn't constitute a crisis situation.

"Is you not knowing what to wear on your date with Jared really a crisis?" Alex sassed back to Kim, who was sifting through a massive pile of clothes she had made on her silk duvet. She had called Alex around to her house for this exact purpose – Kim had to find an outfit to wear for her date and now that Alex was aware of the shapeshifter world, Kim finally felt like they could bond without secrets sitting between them.

Kim chucked a pair of socks that were in the pile directly at Alex, knocking the girl directly in the head. A smug grin came to rest on the taller girl's face. "This is important. Looking cute is a must, especially when on a date with your boyfriend."

"Please, Jared would love you if you turned up in a trash bag. This effort isn't really that necessary but I will suffer just for you."

"You're so generous, a true inspiration."

Alex laughed at the girl but still sat in her place on her bed, watching Kim's hands fumble through the piles of material in front of her. Alex didn't think she had seen someone with a bigger wardrobe. Kim had what seemed like over a million options and she had still been indecisive for the last half hour.

Kim picked up a striped crop top and held it up for Alex to look at, the younger girl nodded in approval. "So, how are you? After everything Paul told you."

"Fine," Alex answered somewhat truthfully. It was a lot to wrap your head around that there were humans that could shape shift into actual wolves and that two of those wolves were Jared and Paul. She had been telling Paul that she understood, which she did, what she didn't tell the boy was that this news freaked her out a lot more than she would admit. "It's just a bit weird that's all."

Kim continued to work through her pile but now moved to where her many pairs of jeans sat. Clearly the top from before had been a winner, which was more progress than she had ever made today. "You'll get used to it, trust me. I used to be scared out of mind but now it's all relatively normal."

"The fact that people turning into werewolves is normal to you is completely insane," Alex commented as Kim raised two similar looking pairs of black jeans. She seemed to be debating on which was best when Alex couldn't even tell the difference between them.

Kim nodded her head in agreement. "Fair point."

"If you are trying to figure out which pair to wear then you need help, Kim. They look the exact same."

Kim looked at her friend with mock offense. "There is a clear difference, Alex. This pair is a darker black than this one."

"How could I be so ignorant?" Alex jokingly mocked the girl and Kim threw another pair of socks her way, which Alex caught this time rather than letting them knock her in the head.

"Seriously though," Alex made sure that Kim was looking at her when she spoke, needing her full attention to get her message across. "Jared isn't going to care what you wear, he really likes you, Kim and it doesn't matter which jeans you wear."

"I know," Kim said in defeat, laying both pairs of jeans on the bed and coming to sit on the silky duvet. "It's just that Jared used to never know I existed, not for a long time and now that he actually seems to like me I kind of get scared that he won't for long. I know it sounds stupid."

"No it doesn't," Alex disagreed with the girl. "Tell Jared you feel that way then, he might feel the same way about you."

Kim paused for a second, watching Alex's small frame with such wonder. Kim had felt from the moment that Paul told her he imprinted that Alex was special and she had easily been right about that. Alex was caring and wise – despite her stating all the time that she hadn't experienced much in her life – and Kim couldn't pick a better person to balance out the rough edges of Paul.

"You're pretty smart, short stack," Kim observed with a smile on her face as she grabbed up her top and jeans. "Let me change into these and then we can start picking out shoes!"

Alex let out a playful groan and moved so she was laying on the bed now. This made Kim laugh but didn't stop her as she happily made her way into her bathroom to get changed.

Alex noticed quickly that she didn't know the last time she had this much fun and laughed so much with a friend as she did with Kim – besides from with Jordan before he left.

This fact alone made Alex smile even bigger.

♡♡♡♡♡

"What the hell are you doing?"

Alex was leaning out her window and speaking to Paul, who had told her to back up from the open window only a few seconds ago. Alex had been aimlessly watching television in her room when she got a text from Paul telling her to look outside and there he was standing outside her bedroom window with his signature smirk on his face.

"Just trust me, Lex. I can make the jump up, your house is only two stories." Paul seemed to shrug off the girl's concern as if he had done this action a million times.

Even though Alex knew that he probably could due to his shapeshifting abilities and heightened agility, that didn't mean that the thought of him hurting himself didn't send her mind reeling. She also realized that her parents were home and letting Paul into her house wouldn't be a problem – but having a boy in her bedroom wouldn't be something they would allow especially as they didn't even know the Lahote boy. "Fine, just do it quickly and please try not to hurt yourself."

Paul's smile only grew bigger as he realized the girl's concern. Alex backed up from the window and anxiously moved to sit on the edge of her queen sized bed. In a few seconds Paul was climbing through the window without a scratch on him – and his face shone with pride at doing so.

Alex had seen Paul shirtless a few times and yet whenever it happened she still found herself gawking at the sight of him. His muscles were so defined and it intrigued Alex, it was also incredibly pleasing to the eye.

"Like what you see?" Paul teased the girl already anticipating the blush that would cover her cheeks but yet he didn't see any color tinged on her cheeks.

Alex simply rolled her eyes and moved so she was fully sitting on her bed, with her back against the wooden headboard. She had almost been expecting the narcissistic comment from Paul, it happened way too often for her to be surprised at this point.

Paul sent a questioning glance Alex's way as he moved to sit at the end of her bed. He instantly didn't care about anything but what was wrong with the girl in front of him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Alex answered honestly. The girl was slightly bewildered with the boy being in her room in the first place, but at least he wasn't snooping around in her things like she presumed he would while making small comments on everything she owned. "Maybe I'm just becoming immune to your Paulness."

He let out a laugh at that comment while looking at Alex curiously. "My Paulness?"

Alex shushed him which quickly made his laughter quiet down. The last thing she needed was her parents to find a half naked teenage boy in her bedroom because they heard a ruckus of laughter. "Don't laugh so loud. My parents don't know you're here."

Paul let out a small ooh in mocking of Alex, to which he got a reply of her sticking out her tongue. "Having boys in your bedroom on a Friday night, you are bad to the bone."

"That is exactly what I mean by Paulness," Alex looked at him pointedly. "Your stupid comments that I somehow find myself enjoying."

Paul's stomach tightened happily at the complimentary words. Coming from anyone else the boy wouldn't have cared, but just hearing Alex be the one to say that she enjoyed when he said certain things was all he ever wanted to hear.

Alex didn't protest when Paul moved to sit beside her on the opposite side of the bed, both of them now resting against the headboard. "I presume you are here because Jared is out on a date with Kim. I'm a good second option, huh?"

"You will never be a second option," Paul protested almost instantly. He knew that she was only making a light-hearted joke but the brown haired boy wanted to quash any mention of that early on. "You're always number one to me, Lex."

Alex had to bite her lip to stop a massive smile from taking over her face. The comment made her skin tingle and butterflies erupt in her stomach. "But you're also lonely because Jared is out, right?"

Paul rolled his eyes at the girl's persistence. He was aware that she wouldn't stop until he gave into her curiosity. "Fine, I'm lonely without Jared. Happy now?"

"Yes," Alex grinned at the boy, only making him do the same. It was like their happiness affected one another which Alex didn't fully comprehend.

She didn't know what made her do it but Alex's hand almost involuntarily latched itself onto Paul's bicep. Alex was reaching for the warmth that she knew Paul's skin retained due to the wolf side of him, it was easily the best thing that Alex had found out since Paul revealed his wolf self to her.

Alex noticed the warmth obviously, but the way her skin tingled didn't go unnoticed by her or Paul either. "Your cute pajamas not warm enough for you?"

Alex's face tinged a slight pink at Paul's mention of her bunny pajamas she forgot she was wearing. She cursed herself for not just wearing a hoodie or something instead. Of course Paul had to see her in these. She tried to shake off the small cloud of embarrassment that was going to crowd around her. "Nope, you're warmer."

With that being said, Alex moved to hide her slightly blushing face in Paul's bare chest. The boy moved his arm to accommodate room for Alex, Paul's arm easily coming to rest over her small shoulders.

"Please don't tell me that you have to leave to patrol the woods with Sam," Alex voiced her sudden thought as she quickly realized that Paul had on his usual attire that meant he would be changing into his wolf form – shirtless with only jean shorts on.

Paul shook his head, feeling Alex's pleading eyes on him. "Nope, we already did that earlier. I'm not going anywhere."

Alex smiled at that, inching her body closer to Paul's. It was a movement that felt so natural to the brunette and she didn't know why. Alex's body was pressed against Paul's and warmth began to radiate on to her – this only made her snuggle closer to the boy whose muscular torso was a lot more comfortable than Alex expected.

Alex's eyes began to flutter shut and it didn't take long for her to fall to sleep. The brunette hadn't expected Paul to visit but she didn't want it any other way.

♡♡♡♡♡