There was no funeral for Laura, or if there was, I hadn't been invited. My mother frowned at me when I recalled this one Sunday afternoon.
"There was no one here to bury her, baby," she'd said. "You weren't excluded. Derek wouldn't do that to you."
I know she was trying to make me feel better, but it only caused my feelings to worsen tenfold. Laura's body was God knows where—probably thrown into some empty grave that had been dug late at night. There were no nice remarks said about my friend and no one was there to mourn her as her casket was lowered into the earth. She was left alone, with no family and no friends.
And now everyone's whispering about Derek. Apparently he's back in town and the primary suspect in his sister's death. People have said they've seen him lingering around the old Hale house, like he's a ghost that's stuck there. I don't know if he is staying there or how those people have even spotted him, but I want to know if he's really back. I want to know if he can tell the police who really killed Laura and if he's planning on staying in Beacon Hills. I have a lot of questions that have been building and now he's the only one who can answer them.
It takes me a long time, though, to draw up enough courage to trek down to the house that was still charred and now crumbling in certain sections. I end up picking a Saturday when I don't have any papers to grade, creeping up to the burnt home like I was forbidden from even entering the Hale grounds. Truly I do feel like I shouldn't be here, but the ache to see if Derek is alright overbears all of that.
I don't see him at all but there is a black Camaro that I park by. I figure it to be his and draw in a deep breath through my nose, easing out of my own car before crossing my arms in front of my chest.
Slowly, I start to make my way up to the front porch. It's still standing but the paint has flecked off badly. The wicker furniture that always used to reside there is gone and there are no pretty flowers growing on the sides of the steps. Everything is barren and unkempt.
"What're you doing here?"
My heart lurches up into my throat just as I feel my stomach drop into the bottom of my feet. Gasping, I whirl around, eyes wide and mind blank.
"Don't you people know this is private property?"
"I…," I start, having to swallow because my throat is dry. "I'm looking for someone."
The man standing before me furrows his dark eyebrows menacingly.
"I don't care who you're looking for. You're trespassing and I could have you arrested," he says.
A headache throbs in the front of my brain and I sigh before running a hand through my hair. I don't want to deal with Sheriff Stilinski. Just days ago he'd told me to stay away from here, to leave Derek alone because he might've murdered Laura and there was no telling what he'd do to me. I don't want him to lecture me like I'm sixteen again.
"Fine," I mumble, starting to walk around the man. "I'm leaving."
Digging around in the pocket of my jeans for my keys, I begin to grow confused. Obviously all the people who'd quipped about seeing Derek here had been wrong. This man was a stranger, someone encroaching on the Hale's property.
"Wait."
I almost don't catch the quiet word, but pause and glance over my shoulder. The man is now glancing at me rather strangely. I frown and inch closer to my car.
"Rosie?"
Automatically, my eyes widen. I gulp and stare over at the man who now, as I take the time to really look at him, is Derek. He doesn't resemble anything that I remember, but I tell myself that he was a teenager when he left with his sister some years ago. I turn all the way around and nearly gape at him.
"Derek?" I whisper.
His dark, bushy eyebrows furrow but his pretty gaze rakes over my form a few times. A frown then sets up on his pink lips and he sneers a little. Taking a few steps back, he wears an expression much like when he'd first discovered me here.
"What do you want?" he spits.
His tone is laced with venom. The way he's standing, as if on guard for something, confuses me.
Though Derek and I hadn't had a relationship like the one Laura had formed between her and I, we'd still been relatively close. He asked me about girls and I made him teach me how to properly swing a bat. On nights when I slept over at the Hales' but couldn't sleep, Derek and I would sit on the foot of the stairs and share a tub of ice cream, laughing and talking.
But now, as I finish taking in the big brute of a man leering before me, I realize that that person is gone. Whoever I'm facing now resembles nothing like what I was used to.
I swallow thickly and rake a hand through my hair again. Derek hisses a breath out of his nose as though agitated by the movement.
"I came to see if you were alright," I murmur. "I heard about Laura."
"Yea? Didn't happen to be your handy work, did it?" he spits.
For a second I don't really hear what he said. But then, the longer I stare blankly at his face, the more the acid-like words sink into my brain.
He was accusing me of murdering Laura?
I splutter for a bit, but then narrow my gaze into a glare.
"How dare you!" I exclaim. "Laura was my best friend, you asshole!"
"And Kate was my girlfriend! Didn't stop her, did it?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Derek! I… Kate doesn't even live here now!"
It's weak, the comeback is, but it's all I've got. I'm confused and can't put the pieces together. Was he accusing me of murdering his sister, or Kate? I can't tell.
Something that resembles a growl ripples out and he takes a few steps towards me, arms falling to his sides as his big hands curl into tight fists.
I stagger back a bit. He's wearing a look that makes my heart start to beat rapidly inside my chest and my skin prickle with goose bumps. Quickly, I start digging around in my pocket for my keys again, mercilessly trying to come up with a plan in case he really did attack me. My mind is too blank, though; I was unprepared for the reunion to go this way.
"Is this… Are you mad at me for some reason? Or do you… Do you think I killed Laura?" I ask, my voice weak and strained.
Derek's lip curls back into another snarl.
"Did you kill Laura?" he hisses.
"Why would I do that? I loved her!"
The images of her mutilated corpse flashes into my mind and I blink fast a few times in order to clear them away. I don't want to see them anymore. Every time I picture her dull eyes or her matted hair, it chips a little piece of my sanity away.
For a moment, Derek breathes heavily while glaring over at me. His fingers curl and uncurl, and I honestly feel frightened. Never have I ever had this kind of feeling running through my system while I'd been in his company. I try to blame his new attitude on the fact that he'd just lost another member of his family, but the way he's looking at me, as if I was the one responsible for it all, destroys my hope.
I draw up all the courage I have left swimming somewhere inside me and step closer to him. Immediately, he lets out something that I now know is a growl. It's a warning and one I should head, but I don't. I inch closer little by little till I'm now just mere feet away from him. He's shaking and I think his green eyes flash blue for a second.
"Why are you doing this?" I whisper. "Do you not remember who I am?"
His orbs are roaming all over my face. The expression he wears has softened a bit, like my demand for him to recall who he was talking to has phased him some. I take the opportunity to push on.
"I held your hand the night you're family died, remember? You fall asleep on my shoulder and in the morning, you wouldn't let me leave. Said something about being afraid for me or something."
"I know who you are," he whispers, ducking his head a little.
The tension that has always flamed between the two of us roars back to life and now my heart is beating rapidly for a new reason. For a second I think he's going to reach for my hand, but he just remains with his body almost leaning against mine. However, I see his hand curl away from where it had jerked up to my cheek.
"That's why I'm going to let you leave this one time. But if I ever catch you on my property again, I'll tear you throat out with my teeth."
Startled, my eyes widen dramatically. What?
He gives a rough shove to my shoulder that has me slipping back. I try to keep my footing and just barely manage to stop from crashing to the ground.
"Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind, Rosalie."
I stare over at him for a few seconds. I try to see if he's kidding, but Derek had never been this cruel to me. I know, back then, he'd never even think about letting anyone treat me as he'd just done, let alone regard me in such a way himself.
But he's not that Derek anymore. The man I'm staring at now is hard and cold, calloused by things I'll probably never know. And he hates me. I don't know why, but Derek hates me so much that he could murder me.
This is the thought I leave with.
Authors Note: I'm re-posting chapters to this story. I was planning to rewrite the entire thing, but once I went through and read everything I'd written before, I was inspired with new ideas for this story. So from here until about chapter eight will be the same stuff you guys have read before (but hopefully you don't remember it, so you can relive it). I might heavily edit some chapters here and there, but the story is going to keep the same flow it had before I went on my rewriting spree. Sorry for any confusion. lol I'm an indecisive person.
