I jumped up and slapped on my gloves, automatically pulling them up to my wrists more to prevent them from falling off. Emmett laughed at me then while jumping up from the couch. Earlier that night Emmett and I had fallen asleep on the leather sofa in the family room, watching reruns of old television shows. He secretly loved watching The Nanny, but he would never admit it to anyone but myself.
Being my brother, we rarely kept secrets from each other, except when it came to our love lives. Well, his love life in particular. I never seemed to have one, unless you counted Mike, and Emmett always seemed to be teasing me about this. The constant nagging never got old to him… he enjoyed seeing me riled up too often, and when it did happen, he enjoyed every second of it.
"Emmett, come on, we are going to be late for church," I complained. I looked down to the couches that stood nearly three feet from myself, noticing the blankets sprawled all over the couch, including my quilt Nana made me just before she had passed.
"Dang it. EMMETT?! Why did you feel the need to use my blanket Nana made me?! You know that it's very important to me, and that it's off limits!" I yelled from the couches up to his bedroom, where he was currently changing into proper church attire. Emmett, being five years older than I, loved to see me get worked up, and when the opportunity was right, he would take it without a doubt. It was obvious to me that he had meant for me to be angry about the blanket. If he wanted angry, he would get angry all right…I thought to myself.
I ran up the flight of carpeted stairs, taking two steps at a time, finally coming to a halt in front of Emmett's doorway. I noticed that all of the caution tape that used to be surrounding his doorway had been stripped off, and I looked to the trash can to take note that it indeed, was no longer needed. Instead of pausing to knock like the civilized woman I was, I threw his door open to find him combing through his hair in front of the mirror.
"Can you explain this to me, mister?" I held up my quilt with a look of annoyance plastered on my face. I could see my reflection in the mirror in front of me, the lower half of my body cut off due to Emmett's broad body being in front. He looked at me through the mirror with confusion, clearly trying to play innocent. He swung his body so he was now facing me, but still sitting.
"It's your quilt Nana made for you, why?" he asked, just begging to be slapped.
"Em, don't play dumb with me… I know you used my blanket last night. I found it on the couch you slept on," I replied frustrated.
"Oh," he said as his face fell. "I honestly didn't mean to! I just grabbed a random blanket last night because I was tired, and it was dark."
"Okay, it's alright. Just hurry up, you look good. We have to make it to church on time before we get scolded by Pastor John," I stated, my voice filled with what was now forgiveness.
Emmett and I were children living without parents, due to the car accident that happened two years prior. I suddenly remembered the memories of the police announcing to Emmett and I that our parents were no longer with us
"Em, hurry up!" I called to Emmett from the kitchen. I walked with my mop in hand down the hall to where Emmett was scrubbing away at the sauce that was currently coating the tiled floor. "Mom and dad will be home in a matter of minutes, and you are still unable to walk on the floor! Mom will be so outraged when she sees her new grout stained blood-red…"
"I'm trying, Bella, believe me. I don't want to be in this situation any more than you do; I happen to like having a hand, because I wouldn't have one if mom came bursting through the doors right now," He rushed out his words while scrubbing fiercely at the new grout in between the stone tiles. I knew he was trying hard, seeing as he was putting all of his weight into it, but I leaned down to help get the sauce out anyway.
"Here, I'll mop, you scrub, and soon enough the spaghetti sauce will be gone," I explained as I fetched the bucket of soapy water from the hallway, where I had been mopping mere minutes earlier.
Emmett and I had gotten into this mess due to Emmett, himself. He had attempted at making a proper meal, consisting of spaghetti, meatballs, and sauce to make mom and dad happy. Honestly, it wasn't a good idea to begin with, and I should have been with him the whole time, instead of going off to read my battered and worn copy of Wuthering Heights, but it was just to tempting.
I heard the tires against the pavement before I saw the car pull into the driveway.
"Em, hurry! They're here!" I spoke softly yet forcefully. Dropping my mop into the now reddish-colored water, I ran to the door, avoiding the slippery spots, and peeked through the window above the wooden panels.
"Em?" I called to my older brother as I noticed that the car did not in fact belong to our beloved parents (whom were going to ground us), but did belong to the police.
Emmett quickly ran up behind me to see what was going on. "Ah, shit." He said, not bothering to hide his foul mouth.
"Oh, God… Emmett! I swear whatever you did to get them here, you are in HUGE trouble for! I may be your younger, and wiser, sister, and I know that we are close and all, but I will explain to mom and dad what you did," I rushed out my mouth hurriedly. I looked back to him, his face full of shock and nervousness.
"Bells… I, uh, didn't do anything?" His statement came out more as a question, thus confusing me even more, and setting the nervousness into my own body. I shook slightly as I thought of all the explanations as to why there would be policemen in our driveway. Maybe that had the wrong house? Yeah, that's most likely it… I thought to myself, tying to be reassuring.
"Um, yeah… okay. Why are they here?" I asked Emmett while I studied the single man and woman in the black uniforms. Their silver badges glinted with the fallen rain, which was currently coming down more heavily.
"I don't know, but it'll be okay, whatever it is. We're about to find out," Emmett said lightly, his voice quiet and full of concern, something I've never heard from him before… at least not quite like this.
Just as I feared, the enforcers where currently trudging up to our abode. I looked from the man to the woman, taking note in no familiarity found in either of their faces. They weren't policeman from Forks, and that was positive. The woman, with hair as dark as the night itself, rang the doorbell. Following the doorbell was the loud knock that must've come from the man.
Hushed voiced were heard from the outside. I picked up on the conversation coming from the opposite side of the doorway.
"I told you, they need comfort, not a big man knocking on their door!" The woman whispered to the man.
Emmett and I felt no need to open the door. I was lost into their conversation when a gust of cold air and rain blew upon me, coming from the open doorway.
I looked to the man that had opened the door, surprise clearly in his eyes. I glanced at Emmett from the corner of my eye in time to see him doing the same. He took my hand protectively as the officers shut the door tightly and began wiping off their cold, wet boots as though they lived here.
"Sorry, my partner here is a bit… overbearing," the woman began. She looked to the man sternly and hit him lightly with the black glove she just removed from her hand. With the opposite hand holding the glove, she reached out to shake my hand. "Hi, I'm Sheila. This is Henry."
"Uh, hi. I'm Bella, this is Emmett. Pardon my asking, but why are you guys here?" I questioned as we all made our way into the living room.
"We have a some news…" a deep voiced Henry began. They both looked around uncomfortably, so I rushed upstairs to find two clean towels to keep from mom and dad's furniture getting wet. Once handed the towels, they both took a seat on the couch, leaving Emmett and I to be in the lone rocking chair.
My brother lifted my light, thirteen-year-old body to have me sitting upon his lap. He was comforting me now, I could tell. As if it weren't enough, he began to rock the chair slowly while he encircled me in his arms.
"Okay, shoot," Emmett stated quickly, obviously looking for an answer as to why there were two policemen in our household, and our loving parents weren't. As soon as the thought was in my head, it all suddenly clicked. I knew why they were here, and it wasn't due to Emmett's behavior; it must have something to do with our parents.
The whole explanation came with tears on my part, along with Emmett's and Sheila's. I cried the whole time though, and even after they left, I stayed in Emmett's arms bawling and shaking violently.
I came out of my memory slowly, finally regaining focus on my brother who was no longer eighteen, but twenty-six, making me twenty-one.
"Earth to Bells? Hello? You here, or are you on another planet once again?" Emmet asked as he waved his hand in front of my blank face. My eyes came back to the present, and I jumped quickly, remembering the time.
"Uh, yeah… sorry. Are you ready?" I asked as I glanced down to the clock, stating we had five minutes to race across town to the church. Figuring we were in Forks, Washington, that meant we had a minute to spare, including traffic.
"Yep," Emmett said, popping his mouth on the 'p'. "Come on… I'm driving." He grabbed my wrist, much to my annoyance, and towed me to his car.