Nasty Little Thoughts
Annaleise Marie

Summary: No one had seen or heard from Emmett's little sister since she graduated high school six years ago. One day she shows up with no warning, asking for a place to stay for a while. Edward is, of course, hesitant, but even he doesn't know what he's getting himself into.

Chapter One: Awkward

AN: So this is probably going to be pretty short compared to my other stories. Actually, it was originally going to be a oneshot but apparently that's not how I roll. Inspired by the song "Washin' + Wonderin'" by Stroke 9. Hope you enjoy it!

Also, while I'm trying to employ the tips and such my betas are teaching me, they are not working on this story. So all mistakes are mine and mine alone.

X

Well the word is out, what's it all about
Doubtless shady, no shadow of doubt
In moderation, this sensation would be fabulous
But she's figured me out
She's in my shower for an hour
She's just washin' and wonderin'
And trying to figure me out...

And I wanna shout at the top of my lungs now
But oh my god if she hears me she'll come running in...
These are my hands, these are my faults
These are my plans and these are my nasty little thoughts
I wrote 'em down for you to contemplate...

- "Washin' + Wonderin'" by Stroke 9

X

It had become a long-standing tradition after college for me and my old roommates to meet up at our old regular bar every other Friday night. At first it had just been Emmett, Jasper, and I, but then Jasper up and eloped one weekend - after knowing the girl for a week, literally - and his wife, Alice started tagging along. She was one of those genuinely sweet people, and though she could seem a little out-of-place in the hectic bar, she fit well with the rest of us, so that was fine.

Then Emmett nearly got run over by a car...and fell in love with Rosalie, the woman responsible. That was cool, you know, whatever. They got married last week, after dating for two years. This was actually the first time anyone had seen or heard from either of them since their wedding day, as far as I knew, and they hadn't even gone anywhere.

I tried not to be envious of them. Just because I was supposed to be approaching my first anniversary and was instead sitting alone, surrounded by happy couples, that was no reason to be bitter. Even if my friends had found their literal other fucking halves and I had instead been ditched at the altar by my bitch ex-fiance.

Absolutely no reason to act like a surly asshole.

Emmett froze halfway through some story, his eyes going wide as he stared across the bar. Jasper and I both whipped our heads around, scanning the crowd. "Oh fuck," Emmett groaned. "Bella."

"Bella?" Rose asked, craning her neck to try to pick her out of the crowd. I don't know why she was trying, really. Actually, it didn't make any sense for any of us to try to find her. Not one of us had ever actually met Emmett's younger sister. She had gone to college on the east coast, and after graduation she had stayed there, working for a publishing house in Philadelphia. No one had seen her in six years. She didn't come home for holidays or vacation. She didn't even come to Emmett's wedding.

At the bar a girl was scanning the crowd, and when her eyes fell on our table she lifted her arm and waved. She had dark hair, almost the same shade as Emmett's, that fell in loose waves down to the middle of her back. Her hair color was the only similarity she and Emmett shared, though. While Emmett was tall and broad, this girl couldn't be more than five and a half feet tall, if that. She had a slight build and large, innocent eyes. While Emmett was almost constantly joking and smiling, she looked serious as a heart attack. She paused for a moment when Emmett didn't wave back, but then started toward us.

"Did she tell you she was coming?" Rose asked. Emmett shook his head, his jaw tense. "What do you think brought her back?"

"Guess we're going to find out."

Bella had finally reached our table and Alice immediately stood up and grabbed a chair from the table next to us and set it beside hers, motioning for Bella to sit down. Emmett shot her a mutinous glare. Alice could be too polite for her own good.

"Hey Em," Bella muttered, looking uncomfortable as she scooted her chair closer to the table. Emmett nodded at her but didn't say anything. "What, no warm welcome?"

"Are you serious?" Emmett asked, narrowing his eyes.

Bella shrugged. "I guess not." She took a deep breath. "I know our relationship's pretty much sucked over the last few years, but I need a favor."

The girl didn't beat around the bush, I'd give her that.

Emmett studied her for a minute, not saying anything, before he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "What?"

"I need to crash with you for a little while. Just until I find my own place." Her request came out in a rush and Emmett looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"You can't stay with me right now," he sputtered. Wow. Awkward. "I'm a newlywed, Bella. You may have forgotten, since the wedding clearly slipped your mind. Or, let me guess. Your invitation got lost in the mail?"

Bella glared at him, tilting her chin up defiantly. "I couldn't just go gallivanting across the country at the moment, Emmett."

"Oh, I see. It didn't work last week, but now that you need something..."

"Maybe we should just give you guys some privacy—" Alice started as she stood up, Jasper following suit. I braced my hands on the table, about to stand up.

"Sit down." Emmett's voice was quiet but left no room for argument and the three of us dropped back into our seats.

Bella sighed. "Look, I had to be in Philadelphia last week, okay? But now my court case is settled and—"

"Court case?" Emmett interrupted with a groan. "What did you do, Bella?"

"I punched James." Bella's eyes flashed defiantly. "Broke his jaw."

"James?"

"My boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend. So then he pressed charges for assault and domestic battery. Ironic. Anyway, I finally got that settled, and I decided it was time to get away from that mess and come back. My boss is letting me contract out to work from home, so I grabbed my laptop and a couple changes of clothes, left James the apartment, and...here I am." She reached down and lifted a small bag I hadn't noticed before as though to illustrate her point.

Emmett frowned, seeming to be having a hard time making sense of this story. I couldn't blame him.

"Okay," he finally said. "You still can't stay with me, though. You should call Mom and Dad."

"I'm not calling them," Bella snapped. "They would just love to gloat that I had to come running back."

"Well, you have." Emmett raised his eyebrows at her.

"Yeah, but they're going to make it seem like I failed or something, and that's not true." Bella shot him an exaggerated pout. "Please, Em?"

Emmett and Rose exchanged a glance and Emmett groaned, scrubbing his face with a massive paw. "Jesus Christ, Bella. You just can't right now. What about a hotel?"

"I'm mildly successful, Emmett. That doesn't mean I'm rich."

Emmett gave this some thought, his eyes landing on each of us in turn. They paused on me. Oh no.

"Edward might let you stay with him," he said. Bella turned to me, smiling brightly.

"Would you?" I recognized that tone. Tanya used it every time she was asking me for something and was absolutely sure I would do it because she was just so entitled. Or maybe I was just reading too much into it.

"I don't really have the room," I said, trying to dodge the request without saying no flat-out. I didn't want to be rude. I wasn't sure why though. Emmett hadn't cared much about being rude. But then again, she was my best friend's sister, and estranged or not, I didn't feel right being mean to her.

"I don't take up much space," she said, gesturing to herself. "And I only have my laptop and a few changes of clothes."

I looked around the group for help. Alice actually smiled at me encouragingly. Jasper's face was carefully blank. I'd be getting no help from him. Emmett and Rose both gave me pleading looks. Traitors. They didn't want her there, so they were going to do everything they could to pawn her off on me.

"You know what? Never mind," Bella said, standing up and grabbing her bag. "I'm sorry to bother you guys. I'll figure something out."

And then she was gone, pushing her way through the crowd of people milling around and then disappearing through the door.

"Okay, what was that about?" Jasper asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly at Emmett.

"I honestly have no idea. I haven't heard from her in about three years, and I haven't seen her since the day after her high school graduation." Emmett shook his head, sighing heavily. "She's always been a bit of a mess, though. And she always bounces back. She'll figure it out, and then she'll go on her way."

"Is that why you offered up my apartment?" I asked.

Emmett shrugged. "Sure. She'd be gone within a week, if I were to guess And I mean, she's my sister. Just because I don't like her doesn't mean I don't care if she ends up on the streets." He smiled wryly. "I don't blame you for saying no, though."

"Yeah, that was kind of awkward, though," Alice pointed out. She slammed back the last of her drink and stood. Jasper got up without a word and followed her to the bar. They had fallen into perfect synch almost as soon as they met, and it still weirded me out a little bit.

"You don't think she'll actually end up in the street, do you?" Rosalie asked.

Emmett shook his head. "Nah. She's resourceful, if anything."

X

We closed the bar down that night. Bella's reappearance really had seemed to shake Emmett up. I hadn't seen him drink like that since college. Ten shots of tequila in quick succession and he hijacked the karaoke machine. I had to give Rosalie credit; instead of getting embarrassed she just joined him.

They wrapped up the night with an extremely intoxicated rendition of "I Got You" by Sonny and Cher, and then we were all ushered out of the bar for closing.

Rose and Emmett headed for the underground and Alice and Jasper went to collect their car from the parking garage, leaving me to walk home alone. Jasper always offered to give me a lift home, but since I only lived three blocks away if I cut through the park, I rarely accepted if the weather was nice.

Tanya had always hated it when I would cut through the park to get home at night. That was probably actually a big part of why I did it. She couldn't tell me what to do anymore. Pure spite.

The park was relatively empty, being as late as it was. That was probably why the huddled shape on the bench caught my eye so easily. My heart dropped when I recognized the bag sitting next to the shape.

Bella.

I stopped, wondering if I should even say anything to her. I felt a little guilty. She had left the bar hours ago, so if she was just sitting here, I figured it was a safe bet that she hadn't "figured something out".

"You know what I always tell authors when I'm working on their manuscripts?" She spoke so suddenly and so quietly that for a second I wondered if I had imagined it.

I sighed and walked over to sit beside her. "What's that?"

"To avoid clichés like the plague." She smiled wryly, unfolding her legs and sitting up straighter. "It's sort of a joke, because 'like the plague' is a cliché, but I think it's pretty sound advice."

"Okay."

"And now here I am, trying to sleep on a park bench because I can't find anywhere else to go." She let out a bitter laugh. "My life is a cliché."

I didn't know what to say. So I just sat there, staring up at the night sky. I noticed that, while it wasn't freezing, I could see my breath faintly. The guilty feeling nestled deeper in my gut.

"Why is Emmett so freaked out that you're back?" I asked after a moment.

She seemed to think about it for a minute. "Well, we were really close when we were younger..." she started slowly with a small smile. "He was my big brother, and I pretty much worshipped the ground he walked on. But I grew up...differently, I guess. There was nothing wrong with what our parents wanted for us, not really. But it wasn't what I wanted." She bit her lip and took in a deep breath. "So, as soon as I graduated, I took off. I moved as far away as I could and never looked back. And in trying to distance myself from them and their expectations, and my determination to be independent, I guess I sort of abandoned him, too."

I nodded, not because I really understood, but because I didn't know what else to do.

"I didn't mean to hurt him. Just...if I kept in touch with him, it would be too easy to run to him when I was scared or whatever. I got where I am today with the mindset that I had no safety net. It was do or die."

"Where you are today." I echoed, grinning despite the grim circumstances. "Sleeping on a park bench in Seattle?"

"I didn't say it was perfect," she said with a laugh.

I sighed, standing up and dusting the park grime from my pants. "Alright, come on."

Bella shot me a confused look as I picked up her bag.

"I guess you're staying with me for a while," I said, trying to ignore the part of my mind that was screaming at me that this was a very, very bad idea. I couldn't just leave her like this, could I?

X

AN: Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Hit me up! :D