Enjoy! ;)
Chapter Ten: Reality
"I have to apologize. I am the worst kind of an asshole for making you share something so personal with me." Jasper mumbled for about the ninth time.
Completely ignoring the fact that he made a deal to tell me what he was.
"It's whatever." I replied.
"No. No it's not. I mean I thought that. . . I thought it was on purpose. That someone did this to get to my family and I. I just. . . I should really go." Jasper stood up then.
"No! Jasper a deal is a deal!" I hissed, not willing to let my only chance at the truth walk away.
"Diana that was a deal made under false pretenses. Okay?" He shook his head.
"Jasper Hale you better tell me what I want to know." I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away from my door.
"Look, Paul will fill you in. I can't be the one to do this. Besides you don't want to know what I would have told you. Just. . . keep your alien theory alright? And I'll hang on to this." I realized he was holding the Quileute legends book.
My eyes narrowed. He wouldn't.
"Ja-sper that dirty son of a bitch!" I cried out.
He was gone.
Jasper Hale
An absolute jackass that's what I was. And if I thought I couldn't look her in the eyes before. . . .
I got home quickly and lo and behold Edward was awake.
"So?" He prompted.
I tossed the book on the couch and threw myself on it too.
"So?" I shot back.
"How did it go?" Another voice joined the conversation.
I looked up to see Rosalie, as charming as ever, awaiting my answer.
"How did what go?" I replied curtly.
"Will you answer the question!" Emmett shouted.
Which in turn caused almost everyone else to come downstairs.
"It went horribly okay? We were wrong. All of us. We were wrong to assume this was somehow Aro's work! I should have never gone over there in the first place." I buried my face in my hands, completely disgusted and ashamed.
"How else would they have known to use your emotions as a weakness?" Edward asked.
"She's just an innocent girl who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." I mumbled, vigorously rubbing my eyes.
But the images wouldn't disappear. He was still hanging there.
"You're not making any sense." Carlisle said gently.
"I realize that it's been a while since any of us were actually human but the next time any of you witness your father's suicide tell me how you feel!" I snapped, stalking away to my bedroom to see the only one who hadn't been downstairs hanging on to every word that came out of my mouth.
The only one who understood the intense guilt and remorse I was feeling. And the only one who had seen this coming.
/-*-\
Diana Deirdre Byrne
The next morning I woke up still fuming over what happened last night. Not only had Jasper gypped me out of an answer but he had taken my book about Quileute legends too. I had the important parts jotted down somewhere but it wasn't anything like having the whole book for reference. Alien theory my ass. Not to mention the entirely too familiar cryptic nature behind every word out of his mouth. I would probably have to throw every theory I had considered out. Ugh this whole thing was giving me wrinkles. What does a girl have to do to get some answers around here? I bounded downstairs for some breakfast only to find the house empty.
"Great. It's one in the afternoon." I grumbled, kicking the fridge closed.
My cereal was demolished quickly and I quickly went back upstairs for a shower and change of clothes. The weather had, of course, turned to shit again. So I opted for a striped hoodie, denim vest and cream colored skinny jeans tucked into green wellington boots. Today would be the first time I wore wellington boots, I had bought them especially for Forks when I found out how rainy the weather would be. They were extremely comfortable and practical. I pulled my hair into a fishtail and tucked the loose strands into a beanie. I didn't bother with any makeup, the librarians would be the only ones to witness me barefaced. Not only did I have some homework to tackle but I also had to research and come up with a new plan concerning the Cullens. . . now that I could cross off cyborgs and aliens off the list.
Paul Lahote
Nothing beats going for a run. You burst out of the confines of humanity, the feelings of stress and anxiety don't matter. You enter this heightened state of awareness, where the only thing your mind registers is the sound of your breath and the burning and aching of muscle. But its a sweet burn and the air is fresh in your lungs. Yesterday I made it up to Canada and back, collapsing in my bed afterwards. I got the best sleep I'd had in ages.
But you can't run forever.
As soon as my eyes snapped open the first thing on my mind was Diana. And how I was gonna handle the imprint. Clearly I couldn't handle myself when I was around her. Every second I spent with her I found another excuse to stop fighting the imprint. My freedom was at stake here, I had to stay away from her. But if I wasn't around, then who would protect her? I grabbed the cup on my nightstand and smashed it against the wall in frustration.
"No more. . . no more." I pleaded with God, the spirits, Buddha and anyone else willing to listen.
Diana had gone 16 years of her life without me and survived without a scratch. She could make it another 70 or so.
/-*-\
Diana Deirdre Byrne
I crawled out of the library that evening with all my calculus homework done and two new disturbing and outrageous theories. The first was that the Cullens were Yeti's. The second was back to the aliens theory. I couldn't really justify either, beyond the body temperature of a Yeti, but they were all I had. However there had been another lead that came up as I was getting ready to leave. A book that briefly mentioned a creature in Ancient Egypt called the Apotamkin. I decided to save it for later. Even with the lead though, it was getting harder and harder to figure out the truth. Every trail turned cold and it seemed like reality was setting in. Reality being that I could never gather enough proof to solidly back up my claims. For now though, I refused to accept this reality. The sun was going to set, another great opportunity to take pictures.
"Um hey Paul it's me. Diana. But you probably knew that cause of the other four times I called. Ok just call me back in the next ten minutes or text me Embry's cell number. I'm counting..." I hung up after being sent straight to voicemail. Again.
He was probably with someone. And by someone I mean a girl. Annoyed, I decided to call Embry's house phone instead.
"Hello?" He answered the phone today, sparing me an awkward conversation with his mother.
"Hey, it's me Di." I chirped
"What's up?"
"I need a favor. Can you come down to my aunt's house in ten minutes?" I asked.
"Sure."
"Great. Be there in five. I'm counting."
"W-wait you said ten-"
I hung up the phone with a small smile. And when I pulled into the driveway, Embry was sitting on the steps of the porch.
"Why did you give me five minutes when you knew you wouldn't be home for another ten minutes?" Embry didn't look mad, only amused.
"To test you. Are you coming in?" I held the door wide open for him.
Aunt Debra was inside the house, getting ready to leave. I assumed she had a date with Fuhrer, the head of the art department at La Push High School, but she wouldn't tell me.
"Dinner's in the fridge. Don't do drugs, throw a party or have unprotected sex while I'm gone. I'll be back late tonight." I was absolutely mortified as she pulled me in for a hug.
Embry's face was slowly turning red while mine drained of color.
"Oh hello there Embry. Didn't see you there," A pause and wink in my direction "remember what I said Di!" And just like that she was gone.
Embry burst into laughter as I threw my backpack on the living room floor.
"Priceless." He finally managed to say.
I flipped him off and proceeded to drag him into my room. I kicked open the door and pushed him on my bed before the thought finally occurred to me that the big and buff Embry was letting me do this.
"Now that you have me on your bed, you planning on having your wicked way with me?" Embry sniggered.
I threw him a lethal look and before digging through my backpack for the notebook. I also grabbed my two Canon Ae 1's and a couple rolls of film.
"These are the Canon Ae 1s, great manual film slrs." I held the two up for Embry to inspect.
"They're cool and all. . . but why do you need two?"
"This one is yours and the other is mine. I originally bought mine first, but since these cameras are vintage the pictures I took with this first one always had light leaks. I ended up liking the light leaks but then I needed a film camera that didn't have light leaks so I bought the second one afterwards." I explained but the expression on his face told me he didn't understand.
I rolled my eyes before pulling a box out of my closet filled with a ton of random pictures I didn't like enough to display inside.
"Ok so this picture was taken with the first camera I bought, see all these streaks of gold and red in the picture? And this was a picture taken with my other regular camera." I pointed out the differences.
I spent the next couple of minutes walking through the basic functions of the camera, how to read the light meter and set the aperture before taking the picture.
"I think I got it." Embry fiddled with the focus a bit more.
"Good cause we're going hiking. Here let me put some film in it for you." I yanked the camera by it's strap, down to my five foot height and loaded a cartridge of film.
"You'll feel it stick when the roll is done." I let him straighten up.
We grabbed some snacks and before taking the map and compass, the only necessary items from my aunt Debra's famous leather bag, and heading out. Embry surprised me by walking in complete silence, looking through his lens the whole time without taking a single picture. Pretty soon we were in the thick of the forest, La Push.
"Can you take me back to the spot? The one you found me in?" I asked softly, not wanting to startle any natural life.
"N-no," He paled or as pale as he could get, "but I know another cool spot."
I shrugged and let him lead the way. I was fixing the shutter speed when he broke the silence again.
"Why did you do this?"
I thought long and hard for all the possible meanings and connotations of the sentence before I considered ways to answer it.
"I gave you camera because I was curious. I wanted to see this forest through the eyes of an inexperienced photographer, someone who wasn't on the hunt for a perfect picture." I said finally.
"So perspective? That's what photography is about for you?" He asked.
"I guess." I shrugged.
I took an entire roll of pictures and demonstrated to Embry how to take film out.
"I feel like a grasshopper." Embry joked, snapping a shot of me.
"No pictures of your sensei allowed, apprentice." I reprimanded, covering my face with my hands.
Embry showed another gorgeous clearing that gave way to a marsh, before taking me to the cliffs. Once at the cliffs, I stood as close to the edge as possible before taking a few shots.
"Hey, hold your arms out. Like in titanic." Embry instructed behind me.
I obliged, taking the time to watch the waves crashing violently against the earth thirty two feet below hiked to a little clearing and stopped for a snack.
"There's a reason why I dragged you out here." I mumbled through a mouthful of chips.
"What? Like an ulterior motive?" He laughed.
"Kind of. I had an interesting meeting the other night. With Jasper." I quietly gauged his reaction.
Embry's entire face dropped, that was the only way to describe it.
"Christ Diana, why the fuck would you do that? You know what they are." He swore.
"No actually, that's the thing. I don't know what they are. Paul and everyone else, Jasper included, seems hellbent on keeping me in the dark on this." I retorted.
Embry remained silent but I could feel him cracking.
"How come everyone in the Quileute tribe knows? Why doesn't anyone else?"
"I shouldn't be the one to tell you this. It should be Paul." Embry sighed.
"Why?" I was thrown off, again. Jasper had said the same thing.
There was another long silence. I took it as the conversation being over. Which meant this entire thing had been a waste. These pictures had better come out amazing.
"He likes you, you know." Embry stated this like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"He likes every girl." I snorted.
"I'm serious. You're the only girl he hasn't fucked within a few hours of meeting her. You're the only girl whose name he remembers. You're the only girl who's number he has saved in his phone. Hell, you're the only girl he's ever spent the night with." He rattled these off and I felt those bats in my stomach again.
"Stop."
"And you like him too. Whether you admit it or not."
"Then why won't he tell me the truth?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
"To protect you." He replied softly.
Great another dead end.
/-*-\
I blinked and the weekend was over. Monday morning descended and I still didn't know what to do about the Cullen situation. Paul was ignoring me it seemed, but Embry had kept me company with early morning and evening hikes. I was happy to have his company and the rolls I had developed were stunning. I would have to work with the negatives before Wednesday if I wanted to incorporate some of the work into my art class.
"Sunday morning rain is falling!" Debra shrieked on our way to school.
Singing wasn't exactly her forte. I begged for us to get to school faster but I ended up having to sit through her squawking the whole song before I could leap out of the car. The stares at Forks had toned down a bit over the past week but today they were in full force.
"I know what you're thinking, why's everyone staring at me?" Danie cackled at my mortified expression.
"Well check it out!" She pulled me along to the lobby of the school and pointed to the big glass enclosure I had rarely noticed.
Gone was the clutter of sculptures, various photographs and paintings. Lighting had been installed to glorify the painting on display. Mine.
"Shit." I stared back at 'Paul'.
Danie cried about how lucky I was that Ms. H had done this. Apparently it was hard to gain her favor. I was especially surprised at the fact that she had chose to display my work even though it was a day late.
"I'll see you later Danie." I shuffled away, still amazed.
Calculus was, as usual, a complete bore. But I paid attention and furiously took notes, I couldn't afford a bad grade in this class. Erik invited me out with him and his friends, again. I awkwardly declined, again. But he got points for persistence. We were working on our choice books in English, it was meant to be individual reading time but we spent a good chunk of it just chatting. The boy in front of me, who I used to call Rat Boy, was blushing like mad every time I so much as looked at him. I thought it was really cute and if the stares he was getting from all the girls in class meant anything, I wasn't the only one who noticed just how cute he was.
"I saw your painting in the front. It's really good." He finally managed.
"Thanks." My smile got wider when I saw him blush even harder.
I awkwardly inched away towards an empty corner. Well almost empty.
"Jasper." I hissed.
I was still scared of him, to be honest. But the anger I felt from our broken deal outweighed the fear. He didn't look up from his book but his eyes stayed glues to one spot. Clearly the asshole wasn't reading. I plopped down next to him and smacked his book away. Jasper still wasn't looking at me.
"I'm s-sorry Di." He looked nervous.
But what reason did he have to be nervous? I was the human.
"What the hell are you apologizing for?" Jasper finally made eye contact with me but he looked painfully uncomfortable.
Why was he acting this way?
"Is this about my dad dying?" The look on his face said it all.
"Di..."
"Save it Jasper. He died and I've moved on." The stab of pain in my gut said otherwise.
Jasper searched my face for...what? Something. But eventually he was satisfied.
"Anyways, a funny thing happened this weekend. I took a trip to a little bookstore and found my favorite book was out of stock. Several hundred copies sold." I glowered at him.
"Unfortunate." Jasper's smiling face said otherwise.
"You know I'll find out eventually. I read that book cover to cover before you stole it." I said casually.
"Oh I have no doubt about that. You're a very capable and bright young woman. Taking that book only delayed what would have happened."
I pulled out a small Polaroid, a purchase I'd made this past weekend, and snapped a picture of him. It was for my dirty little secrets notebook, the one with all my wacky theories in it. He rubbed his eyes for a few seconds before looking up at my camera with a terrified expression. Something was wrong. I practically ran to the other side of the room, the still developing picture in my hand. Jasper stood up, meaning to give chase, before he sighed and slouched back into his seat.
Victory.
Now let's see what's so special about this picture. . . .
/-*-\
Paul Lahote
"She met with who?" I roared in outrage.
"Calm down caveman. We're in school." Embry rolled his eyes.
I ran a hand through my hair before tugging on it. I would be bald before 25 if I kept this up.
"Why?" I slammed my head on the table repeatedly.
"Ok, you can't afford to lose anymore brain cells Paul." He grabbed my head and pulled me up to face him.
"Is she suicidal?" I moaned.
"No. She's hurt that you're keeping this from her Paul." He said slowly, like I was a toddler.
"You know why I'm doing this!" I snapped at him.
Maybe I was childish after all. But I couldn't do this to Diana. If I told her what the Cullens were I was risking everything. Nothing would be normal for her anymore. And after losing her mother and witnessing her father's death, could I really fuck up her perception of the world some more? She would find out about the tribe and the spirit warriors. She would find out about imprinting and me. All the lies were connected and unraveling one would destroy the rest. I couldn't be selfish enough to take Diana out of blissful ignorance and expose her to all the things that go bump in the night. I sure as hell couldn't tell her about the werewolf or imprinting business. But she seemed bent on knowing even willing to be in a room with Japser, the very creature she was terrified of.
"I know you don't want to hear this. But you need to grow up. You imprinted and you can't walk away from it. Diana deserves the truth and she deserves it from you." Embry's tone was harsh.
"I can't."
"Diana is here and she's here for life. So stop avoiding this. You're not doing her any favors by keeping this from her. She's gonna find out sooner or later it's inevitable. And the sooner she finds out the safer she'll be." He continued as if I hadn't said anything.
"I'm not going to tell her." I repeated.
"You're pathetic Paul and if you don't tell her, I will!" Embry exploded.
He stalked out of the room, leaving me completely gobsmacked. Embry. . . was mad?
/-*-\
Diana Deirdre Byrne
The picture of Jasper was extremely blurry, it almost looked faded or like someone had held a match under the photograph. But this kind of thing happened when the paper your Polaroid was printing on was damaged, so I wasn't surprised. The next picture I took wasn't blurry so that confirmed that the issue was with the paper and not the camera. I shrugged it off and made my way to chemistry. But not before slamming into someone. I stumbled back for a second before slipping and falling to the ground.
"I-I'm so sorry!" The apology came from none other than Bella Swan.
The girl I had been avoiding for some time now.
"It's alright." I assured, standing up stiffly.
She picked up my books while I checked to make sure my camera was okay.
"Haven't seen you in a while." Bella flashed me a small smile.
"Yeah, it's been a minute." I nodded.
"How're you adjusting?" She sounded a bit timid.
"Well. Calc hasn't melted my brain completely." I joked.
"That's good. Hey, listen. . . I'm really sorry about how everything happened." She swallowed nervously.
"Don't be." I cut her off.
"No, I am. Here, this is my number. If you ever wanna hang out or just need someone to talk to, don't hesitate." She squished the scrap of paper in my palm before walking away.
Great. Pity friends.
/-*-\
Paul was ignoring me. And Ms. Hardwick refused to take down my painting. In fact she practically chewed my head off when I brought up the idea. I didn't like people who weren't paying money to see my things. And yes I'm aware that sounds stingy. But I didn't like people looking at my art, as weird as that sounds, and if they compensated by paying me for it. . . .we all know a few Benjamin's can solve anything. So if you're not paying for it don't look at it. Unless you were Paul. He got away with keeping my stuff all the time for some odd reason.
"And he's still ignoring me." I hung up.
I quickly went back to doing my homework. I couldn't waste my time over his temper tantrum. Danie and I were supposed to be going out for dinner tonight.
/-*-\
Paul Lahote
My ringtone blared again and I swore to change it before the night was over. I'm an ACDC fan as much the next guy, but after listening to this shit non stop it gets old. Embry threw down his x-box controller and stormed out of the room. Again.
"You're a dick." Seth said with cheerful expression.
I was about to smack him when I saw he had already killed off my character. Sneaky little...
"Hey, come back Paul!" He chortled.
I froze at the doorway at the sight of a furious looking Embry, who had changed out of his basketball shorts and wife beater into proper clothes. He shoved right past me and dragged Seth by his ear.
"You have three minutes to get ready and meet me in the car. We're going out." Embry instructed to Seth, before pushing past me again.
It was still a mind boggling thing. Embry Call. . . mad?
/-*-\
Diana Deirdre Byrne
"Danie I need your help." I said as we walked back to my car.
Dinner had been great, turns out Danie cleans up really well. Too well in fact, cause afterwards she forced me to sneak into a bar with her. We ended up grabbing a few drinks and sweating out the buzz on the dance floor. Her excuse? She didn't want to waste an outfit. But I couldn't argue that.
"Shoot."
I bit my lip, still hesitant to tell her. But I had hit a dead end and Danie was the next person I trusted enough to confide in. My aunt would probably stick me right back in a psych ward and I'd probably be on suicide watch. Again.
"Ok you can't call me crazy or anything for this. I swear on my father's decomposing body and my dead mother's soul that this is the truth."
"Alright, damn! Your marbles are all there we've established that." She laughed.
I drove for a few more minutes before plucking up the courage to tell her.
"The Cullens aren't human. They're something else...something not human." I blurted out.
"Oookay. Care to elaborate?" Danie actually sounded bored.
Leave it to her to sound bored when I tell her something like that.
"I mean they're not of the same species as us. As in they're something that's not Homo Sapien! Remember how I got sick?" I gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"Yeah?" Danie sounded a little more confused now.
"It's cause I was out in the woods during a storm. I got lost and some woman came up to me. Only she wasn't a woman, I mean she was strong. Like crazy strong and she had these red eyes. And she wanted to. . . kill me? Eat me? Something along those lines. But then she dropped me. And she was pale and had this beauty. . . and every time I looked at her, every part of my body was screaming to run, get away. That's exactly how I feel around the Cullen's. Then Jasper he did this thing to me, to try and convince me everything was fine. It was like he was forcing me to stay only I could feel it, my mind was telling me to relax and forget but my body. . . I just lost it." I fumbled for words, struggled to explain.
"Slow down." Danie said soothingly.
"He isn't human and he admitted it. That entire family isn't human. And get this. . . Bella knows. And she's still dating Edward." My voice was practically dripping with disgust.
"He said it? That he wasn't human?"
I nodded furiously.
"And do you remember the guy from my painting?" I wavered, not knowing whether I should tell her about Paul.
"Yeah?"
"He knows that they aren't human. He warned me to stay away from them before all this happened. At first I thought it was silly but when I met them, I felt unsafe and they all rubbed me the wrong way. My body was always telling me to run away. So I listened."
"Ok I believe you." Danie sighed quietly.
"Just like that?" I asked timidly.
"Of course. I mean I always knew human beings weren't the only ones in this universe. It's a little ignorant of us to assume, don't you think?" She shrugged.
"T-thank you." I was astonished at how easily she accepted this.
I had a mental breakdown when I realized they weren't exactly human. And here she was just sitting in my car, shrugging like it was an ordinary thing. Oranges are orange and human beings aren't the only thing on this planet.
"The question that remains is, if the Cullen's aren't human what are they?" She continued.
"That's what I've been trying to figure out and the only thing I've got so far is aliens. The guy from my painting, Paul, he knows what they are. And he refuses to tell me. Jasper refuses to tell me to. But Paul did tell me it was common tribal knowledge. He's Quileute. And I talked to some of his friends, just to make sure. They all know the Cullen's aren't human and they seem fine with it." I said, remembering how Embry reacted when I told him about my meeting with Jasper.
"So the Cullens obviously wont tell us and same goes for Bella. We just have to do some poking around the Quileute tribe." Danie said it like it was the easiest thing. But she never had to suffer through a frustrating conversation with La-asshole.
"Will you help me?" I begged.
"You honestly expect me to sit around and do nothing after you tell me something like this?"
Thank god I had met Danie. She gushed for a few more minutes about how she had always known something else was out there and how, now that she thought about it, the Cullens were unnaturally beautiful. My cell phone rang, interrupting her sonnet about Edward and Jasper's impeccable bone structure, and I asked Danie to pick it up. After a few seconds she finally spoke up.
"Someone named Embry. He said he's on his way to your house right now and that it's really important. He said he's gonna tell you what you wanted to know. And he sounds hot. Quit hogging all the guys Di!" Danie squealed but I was too busy picking up my jaw.
"Danie shut up. That's Paul's friend, the one I talked to. He's gonna tell me what I want to know." My cheeks and lips stretched into an almost grotesque smile.
"What? He changed his mind? Drive faster!" She cried out.
My foot obeyed, practically slamming down on the gas. Buddha bless Embry.
A/n:
I start school again next week so I'll try to update again before then! I know I've been putting off the big reveal but it may be put off another chapter cause I have some canon plot work to into the story. Hope you enjoyed though!
Love
L