It's a Hug-fest and a Fight All in One Night
I followed Emmett and Alice into the bar and to the table where the rest of our friends were sitting. Bella was the first to see us walking over and jumped out of her seat to hug the three of us, followed by Jasper and Edward. I wasn't even sure whose arms were wrapped around me as we all started laughing and crying and saying how much we missed each other.
The fall semester had just ended and tonight was the first night that all of us were back in the little town of Forks, Washington. Bella and Edward were the only ones who decided to go to an out of state school, enrolling at Dartmouth. Emmett started working as a mechanic right after graduation. Alice and Jasper both when to WSU, and I went to the University of Washington. We're all still close for the most part, but it's been impossible for everyone to get together at the same time.
"Group hug!" Emmett shouted out the commotion and within seconds everyone was huddled together and arms were intertwined. I'm sure we looked like a human knot to everyone else in the bar.
Once the hugging was out of the way we all squished into the large corner booth. "Rose, oh my gosh! You have no idea how much I've missed you! How have you been? Tell me everything!" Bella had a huge smile and was practically bouncing in her seat across from me. I couldn't help but laugh at my best friend's antics; she has definitely spent too much time with Alice over the years.
"There's not too much to tell. I've been super busy with school and studying so I don't lose my scholarship. And when I'm not in class or at the library, I'm working."
"What happened with that guy you were talking to…?" Alice piped up beside her. She had a cheesy grin on her face and was wiggling her eyebrows. I felt my face fall a sliver, but she didn't seem to notice, and my stomach clenched just at the mention of him. I got that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach and she didn't even have to say his name.
"Oh, uh… nothing. We haven't really talked much lately. Once finals got closer and things got busier we just stopped talking." I lied through my teeth. He was the one that stopped talking. I tried texting him but they went unanswered, and after a few days of being ignored by him, I gave up. But no one needed to know that.
The corners of her mouth turned down, "That's too bad; he was kind of cute. But you'll find someone even hotter and nicer than him, I know it." And with that Alice was flashing her pearly white teeth in one of the cheesiest grins I've seen. I just laughed and shook at my head at her, knowing that it was pointless to argue with her comment.
The waitress came and took our orders, and once she left Bella pulled out her camera and started snapping pictures of us. "Smile you two!" Bella was aiming her camera at me and Emmett. His arm that was resting on the booth behind me wrapped around my shoulder and I leaned into him. Both of us made goofy faces with our tongues sticking out in true Rosalie-Emmett fashion, and then we took a nice one to please Bella. Conversations started up again as we talked about our classes, different organizations we joined and compared professor horror stories.
The chatter slowed down when our waitress brought our food out. The guys were practically non-existent as they were too preoccupied with inhaling their meals. Once we were all mostly finished Bella got up to use the restroom and dragged me along since Alice was too caught up in her conversation with Jasper.
I didn't actually have to go to the bathroom, so I just checked my hair and makeup in the mirror while I waited for Bella. "I can't believe we're all finally home again. I love college and all my friends at Dartmouth, don't get me wrong, but I never realized how much I missed all of you until I got back this morning." Bella spoke from the stall. At one time she would never have talked to anyone while she was going to the bathroom, but she got used to that with me and Alice.
"I know. It's weird because I missed all of you while you were gone but I was still happy with all my new friends. And now, being home I miss all of them too." I saw Bella open the door and she came up next to me to wash her hands.
"I really did miss my best friend though." She was looking at my through the mirror as she dried her hands. She had a small smile on her face and her eyes were watering.
I smiled at her and pulled her into another hug. "I really missed you too."
"Oh my gosh. Look at us! We're getting all mushy in a public bathroom." We broke out into a fit of laughter. After calming down enough to wipe away the few tears that were left and make sure our makeup was running down our faces, we left the bathroom.
As we neared the table, I noticed there was a girl standing with her hands on her hips. They guys all looked furious and Alice was in a stare down with her. The girl was talking to them, but I only caught the end of what she was saying. "Which one of you bitches is Rosalie?"
"That bitch would be me. Who the hell are you?" She turned around and glared at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared back at her.
"You. Stay away from my guy." She pointed a finger at me and jabbed it with each word. If looks could kill, I would be dead right now. And I had no idea what this girl was talking about.
"Look, I don't know who the hell you think are or what you're—"
"Victoria, what the hell are you doing?" I felt someone come up behind me and the girl's—Victoria's— eyes flickered over my shoulder. I turned around and came face to face with the one person I never wanted to see. He was just as surprised to see me as I was; it was clear by the expression on his face. We were frozen in place, brown eyes locked on blue.
This was the first time we were seeing each other in person. We met online through mutual friends and started talking, and we got to be pretty good friends. He even asked me a couple times what I thought about us being more than friends. I would be lying if I said I never thought about it, but I refused to admit it aloud since we had never actually met. And whenever one of us would mention meeting up, the other always had an excuse.
Then all conversation ended.
I was pissed that he was here. I didn't want to see him and deal with the fluttering in my stomach, the same excited anticipation that I got when he would text me or when I would have a message from him. I wanted to keep pretending that he had no effect on me whatsoever. I wanted to pretend that I hadn't fallen for a guy that I never even met.
"James." I cleared my throat but my voice was still barely above a whisper. His eyes were swimming with so many emotions that I couldn't name. Shock and confusion seemed to be the main ones. For a moment I thought I saw regret and guilt, but they were gone as soon as they appeared.
"Rose. I—"
"Is there a problem here?" A man in a white button down and black tie spoke from beside us. 'Manager' was under his name on his name tag.
"No. There's no problem. We were actually just leaving." Another guy who was standing behind James told the Manager. I looked around and for the first time noticed that we had become a fairly large group standing in the middle of the dining area. We had the attention of all the other customers in the bar.
"If you can all go back to your seats, I'll have your checks sent out." The manager's eyes flickered among us as he waited for us all to move back to our seats.
Once we were seated in our booth, I was attacked with questions. I couldn't hear all of their questions but What the hell was that? and Who the hell was that chick? seemed to be the most popular. I didn't know how to answer that because I honestly don't even know what it was about myself.
"That was the same James as before, wasn't it?" Alice's voice was quiet and her tone was almost sad. I just nodded in response. "Sweetie, I'm sorry. I-." Our waitress came with the check and the table fell silent.
Edward grabbed the check presenter and slipped his credit card inside. "It's my treat tonight." His voice was quiet too. That little encounter with James and the psycho chick put a damper in all of our moods. After a few minutes the waitress came back with the receipt and we got ready to leave.
In the parking lot we said goodbye and there was another round of hugs and promises of phone calls the next day. I was walking over to my car when I heard her call my name. Taking a deep breath, I turned around. Victoria was standing behind me, anger still written on her face.
"Listen bitch. I know who you are. I know you and James had a thing going on. But James is mine. I don't want you texting him or calling him. I saw him looking at you the entire time we were in that bar. The minute you and your friends caused all the commotion with the hugging and laughing, he couldn't take his eyes off you. He's mine and I'm not going to lose him because of you." I could hear the threat and venom in her voice, and she had gotten so close to me I could feel her breath on my face.
"Maybe you should be talking to James instead of me. Cause the last time I checked, I didn't even know he was there until you came over and through a shit fit." I could feel the tension in my shoulders and back; I was getting angry and it doesn't happen very often.
She raised her hand between us and jabbed her finger into my chest. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from him." I grabbed the hand that was digging into me and pushed her back a step. This only caused her to push me and continue bitching about me and James. I was trying really hard to reign in my anger, but she was making that difficult. I was going to snap if I had to listen to her annoying voice any longer.
"God, shut the fuck up!" I was rewarded with another push against my shoulder and then before I knew it, I grabbed her arms and had her pinned against the car next to us. Her eyes were wide; obviously she wasn't expecting me to retaliate. Still holding her arms in a death grip, I gave her my best death glare and leaned closer. My voice was low and cold. "I'm only going to tell you this once, so you better fucking listen. I don't know what James told you about me, and frankly I don't give shit. I'm sick of dealing with all his bullshit. If you want to put up with all that, be my guest, I won't stop you. But you better think twice before you come after me again. Don't fucking mess with me. Understand?"
She nodded her head quickly and I could see the fear in her eyes. I was usually a nice girl, but when people pushed me too far I could be mean. She was one of the unfortunate people to do just that. I let go of her arms, but I was still in a defensive stance.
"What's going on?" James' voice came from the back of the car. "Victoria, I think you should go get in the car." After standing there and staring at him for a minute, Victoria sulked away. I moved to open my car door but James' voice stopped me. "I'm really sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it." My tone was clipped and short, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I was just as mad at him for the way he had been acting for the past month.
"Rose, she's just a friend." There was a small hesitation in voice.
"I don't care, James. I don't care who or what she is. I'm done playing these games with you. I'm sick of all this back and forth, hot and cold bullshit. One week you're talking to me and everything is fine, and then the next you're ignoring me. I've put up with your mood swings and all this shit for a long time and I don't even know why. And the best part is you don't seem to care! You tell me that you like me and that you want meet up but then you go and ignore me so you can hook up with your flavor of the week. I'm not stupid. And I'm not doing this anymore."
James stood there through my entire rant, just staring at me. He seemed to be upset, but I really wasn't sure if I believed it to be genuine. After opening and closing his mouth a few times, he finally spoke up.
"Rose, I do like you." I couldn't help the laugh that escaped.
"You sure as hell don't act like it. And from the way your psycho girlfriend attacked me tonight, I find your declaration really hard to believe."
"No, I do like you. I just…Victoria—"
"Rose, you okay?" Emmett was walking over to us and glaring at James.
"Yeah, I'm fine Em. James was just leaving."
"No, Rose-"
"Look buddy, I think you better go. Now." Emmett's voice was cold and hard as he came up beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I'd never heard him like that, and honestly, it scared me a bit. James looked from Emmett to me, and then eyed Emmett's arm that was currently pulling me into his side. With a final glance in my direction, James turned and walked away. It didn't hurt to see him leave.
Emmett turned to face me and his hands slid up my arms. He bent down so he was looking into my eyes. "Are you okay?" The anger that was present in his voice was gone now. It was replaced with the soft caring voice I had known for years.
"I'm fine. I just really want to go home and go to bed after all this."
"Do you want me to drive you home? We can pick your car up tomorrow."
"No, it's okay. I'm okay. Thank you though." I smiled at him. Ever since I moved here in 10th grade, Emmett has always taken care of me and looked out for me. It was one of the things I loved most about him. He was always there when I needed him, and somehow knew exactly what to say or do.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Text me when you get home. And call if you need me. Okay?" I nodded and opened my car door. Once I was safely inside, Emmett closed it and watched as I pulled out of the lot.
The night's events were on replay in my head. I was so stupid. Thinking back on all of our conversations, I can see now that it was bad idea to get involved with James. I thought he was a good guy; I convinced myself that he was a good guy and that I could trust him. He was a good guy in my head, I made him out to be that way, and that imaginary guy was the one I fell for. I wanted a nice guy that I could depend on and trust. Since I wasn't finding him anywhere, I made him up.
Like I said before, I was stupid.
I pulled into the garage and walked into the house. My parents were already asleep and the house was dark except for the one light over the kitchen sink. I tossed my coat on the coat rack and kicked off my shoes before walking up to room.
After changing into pajamas, I collapsed on my bed. I was exhausted and emotionally drained from the blowout with James and Victoria. I never thought I'd tell him all that, but once it started coming out, there was no stopping it. I rolled over and grabbed my phone off my nightstand.
James' number was still saved in my contacts because as pathetic as it sounds, I couldn't bring myself to delete it, until now. I searched for his name and once the contact was opened, I pressed the little trashcan in the corner of the screen. Then I searched for Emmett's name; I knew he was most likely worrying and checking his phone every couple minutes.
Hi Em. I'm home. You can stop worrying now. =P –Rose
After sending the text, I tossed my phone back onto the nightstand and went to pull my blankets down. My phone dinged a minute later, alerting me to a new text.
I'm always going to worry about you. Call me if you need anything. Sweet dreams, beautiful.
Emmett's text brought a smile to my face. Knowing that Emmett would always be there for me, made me feel safe. Tonight I saw a side of him that I'd never seen before. He used to joke around and ask if there were any guys he needed to beat up for me when we were in high school. But tonight was the first time that I saw him go on the defense and come to protect me. I felt safe with Emmett. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like that feeling.
I never noticed it before, but this whole thing with James has made me realize that Emmett has always been there. I was blind to what was right in front of me. Emmett knows me, and there's definitely a connection between us. I always just saw it as friendship. Thinking of Emmett's reaction to James confronting me, and then remembering the way he was after, the soft touches, the gentle tone of his voice, and the warm and caring look in his eyes have me wondering if it could be more than just a simple friendship. Maybe it's always been there, I was just too blind to see it.
If I'm being honest with myself, I like the thought of being with Emmett. I like the thought of being wanted and protected. And I know that it would work with Emmett.
The exhaustion was taking over, but the last thought to go through my mind before I drifted off to sleep was one of Emmett, and I couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face.