Chapter 4
Derrick glanced nervously at Embry, who looked at Jared, who shrugged. Quil just kicked his feet up on the coffee table while Paul stared me down: I decided to take on the most challenging, turning my gaze to him. We stared at each other until he glanced away, and I smirked, sitting back, before I gasped softly in pain, pressing my hand to my ribs.
"What happened?" Derrick asked me, suddenly sounding urgent. I blushed, embarrassed, and looked away. Embry put his hand on my knee and Derrick's gaze flicked to him angrily, and I decided to speak up before Derrick misdirected his frustration at my maybe-renewed ex-best friend.
"She's manic, Derrick." Mom's bipolar cycle was about four months—she'd go manic, then slowly slip into depressive, then get more alive until the cycle started over at manic. Derrick obviously wasn't particularly good at keeping track of the cycle. I kept a calendar and every year, when I bought a new one, I highlighted the days that I knew she would be worst, the two or so weeks at the peak of phases. It wasn't a perfect system, but it gave me enough warning, let me save up my patience. Let me once more play at having a normal mother, one who was sort of predictable.
"Mom did this to you?" Derrick asked, pissed off. "What the hell happened? She's not violent, that's the entire reason the courts didn't flip a shit when Walt…"Derrick drifted off: I knew the rest of the story, and no one else did.
"I was rude." I admitted. "But, in my defense, nothing I said wasn't true." Derrick frowned.
"I don't care what you said to set her off—there's nothing you could have said to justify her doing this." Derrick said, looking angrier by the second. Paul traded looks with Jared and moved forward from his spot in the doorway. He shoved Derrick gently but firmly backwards, dragging him towards the front door. Derrick glanced at him, and Paul just half-shrugged, walking Derrick out of the house.
"We're getting some air." Paul called over his shoulder, and I frowned. Way to be weird, Derrick and Paul. Congrats on making me feel awkward.
We sat in silence, Embry, Jared and Quil trading significant glances I didn't understand while I struggled to interpret them. "Hey, Ro, we should go see a doctor." Embry murmured finally, after I wheeze a little. "I don't know why I didn't make you go a few minutes ago, come on." He sat back on his ankles, though, as I remained seated.
"First we talk." I conditioned. Embry stiffened, glancing at Jared, who once again, looked sort of irritated for being turned to again. He shrugged helplessly and Embry rolled his eyes while Quil tilted his head to the side, his eyes on me, narrowed. "Come on, Em. I get a mini-explanation, at the very least."
"We can't." Quil murmured from his chair, looking incredibly tired. I watched him, feeling a little sympathetic towards him. I remembered how scared he'd been when Jake finally ditched, how he'd stayed strong with me until the end where he got "sick" for two weeks, than came back and ditched too. But I knew he'd once been me.
"I think I can." Embry murmured, his head bowed once more, and I saw Jared and Quil glance sharply at him. Quil looked hopeful while Jared was warning Embry, fiercely, with his expression, to shut up. It'd been a while since I'd been friends with these guys but they still wore their hearts on their sleeves.
"Then spill." I suggested quietly, and Embry stood up, offering his hand as help up.
"Doctor." He said firmly. "We can talk on the way there." I grabbed his hand and he carefully pulled me to my feet, wincing with me as I pulled my ribs. Embry didn't hesitate as he put one arm under my knees and another under my shoulders and lifted me up.
"Em!" I squeaked, my hands grabbing his shirt, and he cracked half a smile, still looking unbelievably tense. "Embry, I can walk…"
"Jared, come with to the—to Carlisle's." Embry ordered, and Jared bristled, his shoulders rising as he glared at Embry.
"I'm technically superior to you." He growled under his breath. Embry rounded on him and the world spun: I turned my face, almost unwillingly, into Embry's shoulder, and he paused. "Rose?" Jared asked softly, his voice kinder now, and I turned my face to him.
"Just dizzy." I said quietly. "Em, let me down I'm not an invalid." My exasperation showed in my voice, but Embry ignored me, walking into the front yard and sitting me in the backseat before he got in the passenger seat. I caught sight of his expression as he turned away—he looked distraught. "Hey, Embry." I said, letting my voice sound actually kind in his presence for the first time in a long time, and he glanced at me. I caught his hand, squeezing it a little. "It's okay."
"Your mother attacked you, Rosie." Embry hissed back at me. "That's abuse and I know you've told me a hundred times—every time I got scared for you—that she wasn't violent. She was crazy, but she didn't hurt you, and—" Embry cut himself off, and I released his hand. "She hurt you." I shrugged uncomfortably, and Embry slammed the car door shut, and I heard a wolf howl, close by. I wrapped my arms around myself unhappily, glancing around.
"So what actually happened?" Jared asked me quietly as Embry sank into the front seat. Jared stepped on the gas pedal easily. "I know you said something that set her off…"
"She asked me how Embry's mom was doing." I said tiredly, trying not to notice that Embry stiffened. "And I said better than her, and she said your mom had problems of their own and I said at least she had an entire functioning brain and that… that did not go over well." I explained, meeting Jared's gaze in the rearview mirror. "Yeah, I'm an idiot. I know."
"It wasn't nice—but it wasn't worth hurting you." Jared said quietly back, and Embry crossed his arms across his chest angrily. Jared glanced at him even as we turned onto the darkening main road, and I waited for the words I knew would be coming.
"Has it happened before?" Embry asked, his voice hoarse, and I sat forward in the seat, ignoring the pain in my ribs to reach forward and rub his upper arm tenderly. Embry jerked out of my reach, turning frantically and grabbing my hand. "Rose." He said quickly. "I absolutely have to know. Has this happened before?"
"No." I told Embry intensely. "I'm not the type of girl to get abused and tolerate it, Embry."
"That wouldn't be something to be ashamed of." Jared told me quietly, and I nodded hurriedly, waving my hand.
"I know that, Jare," I assured him. "But I'm not being abused. This was just—look, she's actually insane." I mumbled. "She doesn't take her medicine and sometimes she gets a little harder to handle than normal, but she's not a mean person!"
"How can you defend her?" Embry exploded, turning around again. "She hurts you, Rosie, and she doesn't take good of you and the nights when she's not there are the good nights!" My heart was pounding, I was so angry and upset and sad—I couldn't handle Embry yelling at me too.
"She's my mother!" I shouted at him as Jared took a sharp turn, and I was thrown to the side. I cried out in pain as my ribs clipped the door of the car, and Embry shoved Jared a little bit as he reached back to me, clambering over the divider in the front seats and into the backseat to pull me closer to him, all the anger fading immediately.
"God, Jared, you're such a fucking bad driver." Embry yelled angrily as he pulled me half-way onto his lap, his warm arms encircling me protectively. He hugged me to his chest, tucking my head under his chin, and I closed my eyes, relishing the feeling of being safe and on Embry's side of an argument. Jared was a sucky driver.
And Embry was really, really warm.
Like, burning up with a fever, warm. I didn't mention it, though, as Jared slammed on the breaks: his sharp turn had been up a driveway, I now realized, because we were in front of a house. Embry lifted me effortlessly again as Jared opened the car door and I grabbed Embry's upper arm as we got out of the car, looking up at him. "I can stand, Em." My voice was soft, but it obviously convinced him, as he put me down and kept his arm around my waist. Two men stepped onto the porch of the house as I looked up, and Embry pulled me closer to him, his protective gaze on the teenage boy and the man.
"This is Carlisle and Edward Cullen." Embry murmured in my ear. "Carlisle's a doctor, he's really popular on the reservation." I nodded once, frowning at Jared, whose gaze was solemnly on Carlisle and Edward. He seemed almost frightened—Jared Gentry, frightened, was a weird idea—but he shifted in front of me as well.
"A girl on the reservation got hurt." Jared offered, his voice quiet. "We just thought it'd be easier to come to you than go to the hospital." I knew why they'd brought me here, not the hospital—the hospital did not care that she was crazy, that it wasn't really her fault. That I was months away from being allowed to live with whoever I wanted, crazy or not. They would call Walter and hand over custody faster than I could ask them to hold on a second.
"Of course, I'm always happy to help." Carlisle said softly after a moment, opening the door to his house with a warm smile. He was incredibly handsome, but there was something very glossed-over seeming about him—not fake, or superficial, because he was definitely very warm, but glossed-over.
"How was she hurt?" Edward asked, and his voice sounded like steel—it was that cold. Embry felt me shiver and led me up the steps into the house, and I ducked my head as I passed Edward.
"You already know," Jared told Edward. "Don't play us." Edward smirked, turning his gaze to me, and I looked at him searchingly. How did he already know, if the guys hadn't told him?
"Jare." Embry said quietly, his voice a warning. "She and her mom got in a fight." He said softly, and I glanced frantically up at Embry. "They won't call social services." Embry said, his voice tense, looking down at me.
"You're sure enough to bet Derrick and I moving to Atlanta?" I demanded nervously, and Embry winced at the suggestion, pulling me more tightly against him, and I sighed. Uncle Walter lived in Atlanta, and we would too, if Mom got called out on her illness.
"We won't call." Edward assured me quietly, and I nodded once, with a half-smile. He, too, was incredibly handsome—astoundingly so. But Jared obviously didn't like him, which counted for something in my book: Jared had been a good friend until he wasn't. He had good judgment.
Embry led me further inside, and we walked into a large, open kitchen, where Embry picked me up and sat me on the countertop, keeping a hand on the small of my back. Jared sat on the other side of me, on the countertop, and I tried to ignore how protective they were both being. But when Jared bristled as Carlisle entered the kitchen with a black doctor's bag, I smacked his arm.
"They're helping me." I stressed in a whisper to Jared, who just rolled his shoulders and looked away. "Be nice." I threw a vague smile in Carlisle's general direction—what was wrong with the boys?
Edward was watching, looking thoroughly amused, from the doorway, and I just looked away again as Embry shifted uncomfortably. Embry and Jared really didn't like these people. Then why had they brought me to them? I was by no means dying from lack of medical advice. I could have used some ice for my ribs, but I could do that at home or Embry's or wherever.
"So she slapped you, I take it." Carlisle inquired softly, and I blushed, nodding once.
"She's sick." I didn't elaborate, but Edward's posture changed from amused to irritated as he fixed Embry with a hard stare.
"Embry, a word?" Edward asked quietly, and Embry shook his head, not looking at Edward.
"I'm gonna stay with Rose." Embry said, and I glanced at Jared, who was glaring emphatically at Edward. What was going on?
"Anywhere else?" Carlisle asked.
"My ribs, I banged them on my countertop at home—I think they're—" I closed my eyes in pain as he reached to where I'd gestured and pressed gently, and Embry's warm hand settled on my head, smoothing down my hair. Had the last hour or so really changed our dynamic so much that he felt okay doing that?
"May I lift your shirt—just up to your bra, not farther?" Carlisle asked me, sounding concerned. "And I am sorry, I wasn't under the impression they were so badly hurt." He said, and I forced my eyes open and smiled tightly.
"Yeah sure." I agreed, trying to sound careless, like this didn't really ache this badly. Carlisle lifted the bottom of my shirt, pushing back the open flaps of my sweatshirt, and Embry cursed under his breath.
"You broke two, maybe three ribs," Carlisle said, sounding appalled, and I winced, glancing down. My skin was bumpy and gross-looking—aside from that, it was pink, red and purple because of the blood gathering under the skin. "Rose…"
"I just need to wrap it and ice it, right?" I asked, and Carlisle looked at me doubtfully.
"We won't call the police without your permission but the police chief is practically family, he'd take care of this, get your mother the helps she needs." Carlisle offered.
"No." I said sharply, keeping my expression blank. "I'm seventeen, in a few months I'll be all set and I can get an apartment with my brother, we'll be okay." I protested—I had no intention of doing this, but Carlisle was a nice guy who didn't have a bipolar mother. He didn't get that I had to ride it out—all of it. She was my mother.
Carlisle hesitated, then nodded, reaching into his bag and getting out some gauze and wrapping it tightly around my stomach and up to my bra: I kept my expression stony, and as he taped it down, I shoved down my shirt. Embry was practically shaking beside me, and I reached up, frowning a little as I touched his forehead—I had thought he was too warm earlier. And as soon as I touched his forehead, I recognized the feeling—Derrick's forehead had been this warm the first day of school.
"You have a fever." I said lowly to him, and he met my gaze, and I blinked: his eyes were filled with such intense anger that I leaned back an inch subconsciously. "Em?"
"Move." Jared ordered loudly, grabbing my arm and pulling me off the counter: I winced at the pain in my ribs as he dragged me behind the island, and then darted back to Embry, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the hallway at a dead sprint. I followed, unsure of what was going on. Was Jared going to take Embry to the hospital, or something?
As soon as Embry hit the front lawn, he shook harder and his clothes ripped as he grew, and fur emerged from his skin. I screamed shortly, stumbling back against the wall of house as my ex-best friend turned into a freaking massive wolf. Jared followed suit, and I gasped for breath.
I've asked this too many times, now, but here it goes again:
What the hell was going on?