Hey guys! Thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts! It really makes a sick author happy! I'm constantly sick, and it makes writing a bit difficult and strenuous. I will keep up with my updates as well as I can, and hopefully it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Enjoy, and have a great day!
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Crash
Chapter 3
"Emily, can we go to the beach today? It's not raining." Tala said, lounging stretched out on the strangely empty couch.
Emily looked up from her cookbook, from which she was currently attempting to learn how to make a three-tiered cake with buttercream frosting. "Why not? I could definitely use a break from this." She tossed her apron aside and grabbed her jacket. "Let's go!"
Tala smiled and grabbed her crutches. She began to head over to the car, and as she waited for Emily to come outside, she noticed that the air smelled like pine trees and ocean salt. She loved it.
"Ready?" Emily exited the house and opened the passenger door for Tala.
Tala froze. "You mean we're driving?"
"Why wouldn't we? It might rain."
"Um…" Tala let out a shaky breath. "Couldn't we just bring an umbrella if it rains?" she asked weakly.
Emily looked into the mismatched eyes of her cousin, and saw the fear she was trying so unsuccessfully to hide. She smiled. "Sure. Besides, walking is better for the environment." She closed the car door after grabbing a large umbrella from the glove box.
When Tala thought Emily was not looking, she let out a sigh of relief, and took one last uncertain look at the car before swinging her body on the crutches to catch up with Emily.
The soft crunch of the gravel and the soft huffs of her breath became a steady rhythm to her, as she placed her foot down every left foot crunch (from Emily), and swung on each huff of breath (from the both of them).
"So did you have a boyfriend in Monterey, Tala?" Emily inquired, turning her head to face her, both eyes sparkling, the edges of her scars turning white from her smile.
Tala snorted disdainfully. "No." Swing, foot. Swing, foot. Swing, foot. "Nobody really wanted to get to know me. I was that weird girl who liked animals more than people."
Emily looked at her in surprise. "But you're so open and nice with Sam and me."
Tala shrugged. "I know you guys. You two are practically family." She paused. "Okay, so you'refamily. Sam isn't, yet." She shot a knowing look at Emily, who grinned back.
"I know. Everyone thinks he's going to propose to me on my birthday in September."
Tala giggled. "That's so cheesy, but totally sweet at the same time. Just let me know if he ever hurts you. I'll beat him up." She let out a breathy laugh.
Emily's smile faltered a little for a second, but just as quickly regained its simple, beautiful brilliance. "With what, those crutches of yours?"
Tala snorted. "No. Maybe I'll just hire a hit man."
Emily laughed, and pointed out to the left. "There's First Beach! Do you want to go there, or…?"
Tala didn't particularly care which beach they went to. "Sure, this one's fine."
The sand did not help Tala in any way as she made her way slowly across the soft, dry sand, heading towards the wet sand where she could walk with more ease and find sea shells.
Emily lagged behind, looking over at the curve of the ocean, her eyes glinting, a smile playing softly on her lips.
Tala wasn't watching where she was going, so it was understandable that when she bumped into a very tall, half-naked somebody, she let out a high pitched shriek and almost fell over.
Embry grinned as he caught her just in the nick of time. "Careful there, Tala."
Tala's cheeks flushed a roaring red, along with the space between her eyes and a little spot on her forehead. She stuttered, "Guh-"
Embry continued talking as if he hadn't been fazed. "What're you doing down here? Is Emily with you?"
Tala felt as if his questions were crushing her, like in a the piano that smashes the cartoon.
Embry seemed to notice and shut his mouth, smiling nervously.
Tala tried hard to respond appropriately. "Um, I'm looking for shells, and Emily's back there-" she pointed, teetering on her crutches. Embry steadied her with a large, hot hand, and she reeled back as if she had been burned.
"Wow, you're burning up! Are you sick or something? Why don't you have a shirt on? You're going to freeze! And why aren't you wearing shoes? Wh-" Embry interrupted her, covering her mouth with his hand.
"I'm not sick. Quileute's have this sort of gene thingy where we've got really high body temperatures, hence the missing shirt and shoes." He uncovered her mouth and smiled.
"...Okay." Tala believed him, though she didn't really know exactly why.
"Tala! Look at what I found!" Tala turned, and saw Emily running up, something in her hand. "Isn't this a pretty shell?" She unfurled her hand, and there in the center of her palm was a small, bright orange shell.
"Wow, that's so cool!" Embry said enthusiastically.
Tala agreed. "If I found another, I could make you earrings out of them," she said.
"Really? That would be so lovely!" Emily gushed, her smile lighting up her scarred face.
Tala giggled at tiny bit, enormously self-conscious of Embry standing close enough to her that she could feel the heat radiating off of him. She tried to shuffle away from him, but Emily stood right on her other side, making it nearly impossible. Are they doing this on purpose? Tala groaned inwardly.
"Hey, are you okay?" Embry looked at her, genuine concern shining in his eyes.
Did I just groan out loud? ...Crap. "Um… I'm fine." Tala let out an embarrassed and nervous chuckle.
Emily smiled a secret looking smile as she went off to go look for another bright orange shell.
Embry just grinned at her. "So when do you start school on the reservation?"
"I don't, actually. I'm doing a sort of homeschool thing for Forks High, so that I only have to go in twice a week for-"
Embry growled. "Forks? Why there?"
"They have a special vet program that allows me to go to the Junior College in Sea-"
"Why Forks, though?" Embry asked, seeming like he desperately wanted to know.
Tala gawked at him incredulously. "Is it even any of your business?"
"Actually, yeah. It is!" Embry half-snarled. His hands balled into fists.
Tala gaped at him in disgust. "You don't even know me! It's none of your business!"
"Embry, I think you should leave. Now." Emily commanded as she seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Embry glared at them both, though his look softened a little for Tala, and then he took off, running into the woods.
Tala turned to Emily. "Never leave me alone with him again."
Emily just sighed. "Okay. We should start heading back though. I need to make dinner, and you need to get ready for your first day of school tomorrow." She smiled excitedly. "We'll be leaving at seven thirty sharp, okay? You can take a bath when we get home tonight; I'll wrap your cast and arm for you."
Tala smiled at her. "Okay." She paused. "Are you this nice to everybody? Because if you are, you're like Mother Teresa- except, you know, not."
Emily laughed and stooped to pick up another shell. "No, not everybody. I'm only nice to nice people."
"And how do you dictate that? Do you have a moral compass or something?"
"No! It's in the eyes. You can always tell what somebody is like from their eyes."
"Really? What about me, then?"
Emily stopped her walk and looked Tala deep into the eyes. "You're a beautiful person, Tala, even though you may not think so. You are one of the most amazing people I know, besides Sam. You're strong."
Tala blushed. "You got all that from my eyes?"
"Mostly."
"Can I try with you?"
Emily giggled. "Sure, but when we get back to the house. It looks like it's going to rain soon." She pointed out to sea, where storm clouds gathered in the quickly darkening sky.
"Race you, Em!" Tala took off, getting a regular rhythm into the swinging of her body on her crutches.
Emily laughed and began to speed walk after her.
Luckily, the rain only began to pour down crazily the second after Emily and Tala entered the house, the latter very out of breath.
Emily handed her a glass of water, and she gratefully downed it in an instant. They listened to the rain pounding against the roof for a while before Tala set her cup down in the sink.
"Ready for your bath?"
"Sure," Tala smiled.
She helped find plastic bags to wrap her cast in, and they clamped the bags watertight with large, thick rubber bands that held broccoli together when they came in to the super markets.
Emily began helping Tala undress, raising her eyebrows curiously at a short, fat scar on the girl's lower hip.
"What happened there?"
"Do you want the real story, or the story I told anybody who asked?"
Emily laughed. "Both."
"I actually fell down the stairs at the library."
"Well, what did you tell the people who didn't know the truth?"
Tala grinned. "I told them I got it while rock climbing."
Emily snorted, and drew the bath for Tala as she sat on the edge of the tub, wrapped in a fluffy beige towel.
A flash of lighting raced across the sky, the thunder following not a second after. Another two lightning flashes came, the power sizzling out on the third.
Emily quickly lit the bathroom candles with some matches, and the soft light they emitted turned the room odd and gloomy, making her scars appear more prominent and scary than they really were.
Tala got into the bath, and Emily sat on the toilet seat, making sure Tala didn't hurt herself. It was silent for several minutes, but it was a comfortable silence, only broken by the loud crashing of thunder and the quiet ripples of the water when Tala shifted in the tub.
"When my leg gets better, can we go out and dance in a thunderstorm?"
Emily simply smiled at the odd question. "Why not?"
Dinner at the Uley house was a large event: the table was covered in dishes piled with steaming food, every place was set with all kinds of cutlery, and napkins were piled high in anticipation.
"Do you do this for dinner every day?" Tala inquired. She was sitting on the couch, holding a bag of ice onto her right hand with the other.
"No, only on special occasions. Today because you're going to school tomorrow and we-"
"You mean you?" Tala interjected.
"-wanted to celebrate." Emily finished as she rolled her eyes at Tala, who was gazing at the burns on her fingertips from where she'd tried helping the cook.
"The boys will be here soon," Emily said, eyeing Tala's pajamas.
Tala groaned. "I don't want to change." Even so, she got up and went to her bedroom.
For once in her life, Tala was blessed with extremely good timing. The second she closed the door to her room, the pack burst through the front door and Embry immediately asked where Tala was.
"Changing."
His face turned red, and Quil elbowed him in the stomach.
In her room, Tala struggled to put her sweatpants on, the fabric chaffing uncomfortably on her burnt fingers as she tried to yank the pants up her legs. She opted to keep her large white shirt displaying a drawing of large headphones on, just because she was lazy.
Tala opened the door to her room and sneakily went past the group of guys (as sneakily as a person could with crutches and messed up hands) and sat down on a barstool, willing herself to blend in with the wallpaper.
As it turns out, no such luck.
"Hi, Tala!" Seth bellowed.
She visibly cringed and mumbled a 'hello' while the rest of the pack of boys greeted her. Embry came over and smiled at her, sitting in the chair next to her. Please go away, please go away, please-
"Hey."
...Damn.
"Hi," Tala said gruffly, quickly grabbing a random piece of food from the many dishes still on the kitchen counter and shoving it in her mouth to, hopefully, stall a conversation. She was still peeved from their previous argument at First Beach.
"So, I was wondering, maybe, do you want to go-"
"Embry!" Sam said sharply, shaking his head at him with a look that seemed to ooze Too soon, man. Way too soon.
"-...watch TV?" Embry finished lamely.
Tala glanced at him and shook her head. "Already watched like, five hours of TV today since I burned my hand," she mumbled around the cheese ball that was currently stuck in her teeth.
"You burned your hand? Oh my god, are you okay? Where on your hand did you burn it? Is it okay?" Embry blurted out.
Tala leaned away from him a little, surprised at the sudden flurry of questions that had just spewed from his mouth.
"Er, here?" She held out her hand.
Embry grabbed it and looked at it, appearing like he was also experiencing the pain. "I'm so sorry, Tala. It looks so painful."
"I've had worse," she reminded him, holding up her cast and nodding at her crutches.
"I know, but still," he said vehemently.
Tala sighed.
"Dinner!" Emily called from the dining room. There was a loud cheer from all the men, and loud stampeding as they all ran to the table and sat down.
"Do you need help getting to the table, Tala?"
"Um, no, I'm fine." She slid off of the stool, grabbed her crutches and began to slowly make her way to the table. Embry followed close behind.
Dinner began, but Tala got lost in the first five minutes. It was like a feeding frenzy from out in the ocean or something. By the time she reached for the plate of food in front of her, it was always either gone or empty. This happened various times, and she sighed in annoyance, sitting and waiting for the others to serve themselves. This turned out to be a not-so-good idea: once everybody was done serving themselves, every single dish had been wiped clean.
Tala sighed again, folded her hands up in her lap, and sat there politely as she waited for them to finish their dinner, thinking that it was one of the most hectic and loud dinners she had ever experienced.
About five more minutes into the feeding of the ravenous group, Embry apparently noticed that Tala wasn't eating, and that her plate was already empty. "You eat really fast, Tala!"
Tala blinked owlishly at him. "Um, actually, I didn't get anything to eat, so-"
This time, it was Embry's turn to blink at her in surprise. "Here, you can have my food." He smiled hesitantly at her and held out his plate that was piled sky high with food.
"Oh, um-" she began to stutter. She took in a deep breath and began gain. "Er, no th-thanks, I'm good-"
Embry looked at her with a rather chastising look. "You need it more than I do. You have to heal, and I don't."
He began to pile her plate up with his food, even as she protested.
The table became silent all of a sudden as they all stared at Embry.
"You never give anybody food, Embry!" Seth said, a caper falling out of his mouth and bouncing off the table to land on the floor. "Ever!"
"Well, she didn't get any food, and she looked really hungry so...-" Embry began to turn a dark, firetruck red, and looked anywhere but at his plate of food.
Tala looked around at the table incredulously. "You all eat this much every single day?"
"Um, well, more on weekdays, usually, so-"
"You guys eat like…like…" Tala couldn't find the correct word, and then she happened to glance at the picture of a wolf on the mantelpiece. "Like wolves!"
The silence around the table was broken by a flurry of nervous chuckles.
Tala looked at them all like they were crazy. "What?"
Emily and Sam just smiled and shook their heads knowingly.
"No seriously, what?"
Paul snickered, and Leah smirked.
"Okaaay, then," she said reluctantly.
Then Seth giggled.
Tala let out a breath of annoyance and threw her hands up. "What?!"
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So, there's Chapter Three! Hope you liked it! Review if you please! Constructive Criticism is delicious. :D
Until the 27th!
Pichi
