It didn't take long for Monday to drag back along, I didn't end up hanging out with Mike because I didn't have his number, but Embry and I hung out the entire weekend. I never ended up telling Dan about Keisha calling on his cell phone, when the bill came in I think that it would be time to tell him.
Embry and I just talked the entire weekend about this and that, when we weren't outside we were either lying in my bed together or his. It was kind of like a relationship, like you see on TV one of those fake played out ones. It was just like that except Embry never asked me to be his girlfriend, which I didn't care because I didn't want to know the pressure I would be under.
It was like if I did something wrong then it could mess us up forever, but this way if I do something I won't feel... as bad? I knew what my feelings were about Embry though, I knew I liked him. I'm not going to continue saying that I do not, because I now slightly understand where this is headed.
"Are you ready for school?" Dan asked, tieing up Jensen's shoes for him.
"Yeah, I'm ready." I murmured grabbing a banana from the counter, pealing it then taking a bite. "Alright, go start the car would you?" Dan asked.
I nodded my head, catching the keys as he threw them at me. I was getting intact with everything, if we were going out I would start the car, and just sit waiting for him. Dan even told me that he was going to teach me how to drive soon and I could take a driving test.
Once Jensen was all buckled it Dan hopped into the car, speeding off to Emily's house. I got out of the car, undid Jensen's buckles and walked him up the porch where Embry answered the door. "Good morning." He smiled kissing my forehead.
"Good morning, I have to go. We're running a little late today." I told him turning my back walking down the driveway. "Wait! Erin, are you coming back right after school?" Embry shouted.
"No, probably not. Why?" I turned walking backwards, "I need to tell you something."
"Tell me now!?"
"It's something private." I shrugged my shoulders getting into the car, I waved at Embry and Dan started driving to Forks. "Second day, excited?"
"I was never excited in the first place." I watched him drive, "You have to get a positive attitude." Dan told me, not taking his eyes off the road.
"I don't." I told him, "My attitude on things are fine." I shrugged, Dan had gotten a new cell phone giving me his old one so if Keisha were to end up calling she would still have the right number, it took a little to convince Dan to give her his phone instead.
"You are so negitive." Dan sighed, lifting his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes, "You sound like my eighth grade teacher, no negitive comments children." I mocked my old teachers voice. "Erin please."
I grinned leaning back in the passengers seat, "If I get a drive home I'll call you or something alright?" I told him, waiting for him to reply.
He must have been paying that close attention because it took him about thirty seconds to reply. "Yeah, that's fine. How's that camera of yours?"
"I was bringing it to school today actually." I pursed my lips thinking about what I could take pictures of. "That's great, have you taken any at all."
"Just a couple, of my friends." I told him.
"Erin, I'm very proud of you." He said after moments of silence.
I didn't answer him for a couple minutes. "Why?" I asked shadowy, I had my head down looking at him from the corner of my eyes.
"Because you're making friends, taking your chances. I remember when you told me you were scared." Dan told me.
"I am scared, you have no idea." I mumbled, "I have people closer to me than I have ever in the past four years."
"The school told me you didn't talk to the coucilor."
"I'm not going to, I don't want to." I shrugged my shoulders, "If I wanted to discus my problems with anyone I would have went to him, but I don't."
"I'm sure you're telling Embry about a lot of things?" It came out more of a question than anything. "Yeah, I can tell who I want."
I was giving him a dirty look now, he told me to wipe it off my face or else. I rolled my eyes and leaned my head against the window. "How are things going with you and him?" Dan asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, "There isn't really anything to tell."
"Are you guys 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend'" Dan asked, saying boyfriend and girlfriend funny.
I snorted, "No, why do you think that?"
Embry's smile popped into my head. The way he would laugh at everything I said, it made me smile everytime.
"I seen him kiss your forehead this morning, I was just wondering. I don't care if that's what you are thinking." I stared at him.
"Aren't fathers supposed to be all protective?" I asked, a smile growing on my face.
"What do you want me to be? A father, or your friend?" He asked staring at me, looking deep into my eyes.
"I think you know what I want." I gave him a serious look, he knew what I needed. He knew I needed some sort of father figure in my life.
The rest of the drive was quiet, I said goodbye once I got to school. When I was walking into the school, I saw a very pale man standing with that Bella chick, it didn't even look like an unhealthy paleness.
His nostrils flared when I walked by him, I lifted my eyebrow not taking my eyes off him like someone would normally do. I scowled at him because of the look he was giving me, not a personal thing considering I didn't know him.
Instead of going to find Mike I just headed towards my class, when Maria walked out of the washroom she was walking next to me. "You might want to cover that up better." I told her without even looking at her, I knew she was giving me a weird look. I pointed at my arm, still not giving her a glance.
"What?" She sounded offended, like I said something wrong. I stopped walking, "You're arms, right there where your veins are." I told her cocking my eyebrow as high as it would go.
She looked at me in awe, "Is it really that obvious that you would know?" She asked.
"Do I look stupid to you?" I gave her a look, without even trying we had moved ourselves near the lockers out of everyones way.
"Well, we are in the same class together." She said with a shrug. "That doesn't make either of us stupid, it either means we don't understand a certain subject correctly, or we have been deprived of somethings."
She stared at me, "You aren't from around here are you?" She asked, reading my expression.
"I can tell you aren't." I stated with no emotion. "Maria Vans." She smirked, "New York City, Solitude Suites."
The smirk remained on her face. Solitude Suites were what the abandoned or lonley would call large rooms for only one or two people. It was in a more quiet part of New York City, and it was much smaller than Satan's Lodge.
It was mainly known for its drug dealers in the area more than anything. If you had time to walk there then it was better than Satan's Lodge for sure. Normally if you were at Solitude Suites you were staying for longer than a day and you had food packed with you.
"Erin Broits, New York City. Satan's Lodge." I took her hand shaking it, looking at her pale green eyes.
Her hair was up in a high pony tail, she had her orange, and pink bangs pulled to the side of her face. The hair in the ponytail was mostly black, but had stripes of many dark or bright colours. She wore tight, very tight, jeans that looked a bit too small for her, and a Rolling Stones band t-shirt.
She looked like she was from the streets, I just continued to act like I was still there most of the time. The only person I actually opened up to was Embry, it was weird, but I felt a connection.
"I take it you were there." She said plainly ignoring the bell. "Stayed there?"
"Home." I answered her in a one word answer, she nodded her head. "Is it really that noticeable?"
"I've been around it more than people around here." I shrugged, "What are the odds of us meeting up?" Maria asked me, she looked like she was trying to predict what was going to happen next.
"I don't know, what happened at Solitude Suites?" I asked her completely confused, I thought it was only Satan's Lodge, not that I had a tv to notice.
"Burnt down... Satan's Lodge."
"Why do I have a feeling that this was set up?" I stared at her for a moment, zoning out thinking.
It could have been anyone, and no one would care about it at all. Not one person because we are nothing to anyone. "Me too... I had no idea about the Lodge."
"Yeah, same about suites."
"Ladies!?" We both turned to see a teacher, one I didn't know anyways. "Uh... we were getting there..." We trailed off at the same time.
We both ran to Kevin Clynt's classroom only to see him waiting. "Thank you for finally joining us ladies."
Maria and I both sat down at our seats, listening to the lessons. Lunch dragged along quite quickly actually, "Want to sit with me at lunch?" Maria asked hopefully, "I'm getting a little tired of sitting by myself."
I nodded to her, "Want to sit with me and my other friends."
"Who, Mike and his 'crew'?"
I snorted, "Mike doens't have a crew." I found that pretty amusing, "I was thinking maybe we could learn a little something about each other... you know?" She asked with an innocent face.
I could tell she meant no harm, plus what harm could she do to me now?
"I expected you to be harder than you were." I told her honestly.
"What do you mean?"
"What I meant by that was, I thought you were going to be uptight about what I said earlier. You know from past experiences on the streets from assholes who would randomly come up and say stuff like that?"
"You didn't mean harm by it, I don't know too much about being on the streets I'll tell yeah." She pointed lifting her eyebrows high then back down. "Infact I know close to nothing, I just kind of lived on begging from people."
My eyes were wide, "Oh god, seriously? Why didn't you steal food, or pickpocket?" I asked her shocked.
"I was scared to get caught, I didn't want to go to an orphanage, I'm nearly sixteen... no one wants me." I smiled at her last words.
"I hear that, but you have to survive without those skills. How long were you like this?" I asked as we both walked into the cafiteria.
"Two years." She told me, my eyes widened. "Two. Years."
"Is that bad?"
"You should have learned something from that?!" I exclaimed in a whispering voice, "I did, trust no one."
"Well, that should be obvious." I looked at the ceiling. "I was out for four years."
"What happened to your family?" She asked, "Have you told anyone?"
"One person," I paused for a moment. "My guy?" I didn't know how I liked those words.
"You have a boyfriend here already? And you didn't answer my question, ps. Is it Mike?" I laughed at her, getting food from the lady behind the counter.
Her and I ended up at an empty table, I waved over at Mike and the rest of them to make sure they knew I didn't forget about them. "I don't want to talk about that just yet." I told her, "And no not Mike, he lives up in La Push... we aren't really together or anything I wouldn't call it anything too serious."
"Well, what about the whole trust thing?"
"It's hard, believe me." I rubbed my temples contemplating hard about the past week I've been down here. "I trust him more than I remember trusting anyone before, other than my kid brother."
"Blood?"
"No." I shook my head, "I love him... it's weird, the kid grew on me instantly. As for the rents I'm still waiting to see where this goes."
Maria nodded her head, "You might be blind by love..." She murmured, "It's hard sometime to realise it but I've been there before. I trusted him with everything, then lost everything."
"Explain?" I gave her a look saying she only needed to tell me if she felt comfortable. She looked around carefully, making sure everyone was minding their own business which they were.
"I was always the girl that fell in love easy, I may only be about sixteen, but believe me when I say my life is insane." She began her story. "I fell in love, I was already in a foster home since I was little, five, I don't remember anything about my real parents. I fell in love with a nieghbour boy who happened to be a few years older than me..." She trailed off.
"How much is a few?"
"Well I fell in love when I was fourteen, just turned, he was five years older... he was nineteen."
"That's no boy, that's a grown man nearly." I furrowed my eyebrows together.
She looked at me, "Sorry, continue."
"My parents were nine years apart... I thought that it was fine." She sighed, "My parents were in a car crash while I was sleeping at his house and..."
"What, wait!?" I stopped her again. "Your foster parents let you sleep at a guys house that's five years older than you?" I questioned.
"No, he had a little brother I was friends with too, but I never went home when I found out, long story short he kicked me out with nothing." She finished
"I'm sorry." I told her. "I don't want your pity."
"I know." I told her, finally deciding to eat. "So... now what? This is kind of despressing."
"Do you think the Cullens look unhealthy?" She asked randomly, "Because, their skin is so unatural."
I shrugged, "Not my business, he was giving me a dirty look earlier."
Maria saw which one I was motioning to, "That's Edwrad Cullen, he thinks he's too good for everyone in the school, but Bella."
I shrugged, "Hm, I still don't think I diserved that look. I was only glancing over." I spat, he was looking at me like he could hear me.
I mouthed 'what' to him, and he looked away and begna talking to what I believed was his family. Maria and I just talked about random things.
When school was over I walked up to Mike and asked him what he was doing. "I have to work." He frowned, "Sorry I didn't sit with you at lunch, I would have felt bad if I just ditched Maria." I told him.
"It's fine." Mike shrugged, he still looked a little hurt.
"When are we going to get something to eat?" I asked him hoping to cheer him up. He smiled, "I thought that you didn't want to anymore."
"No, course I do. I was just busy this weekend and had no way to reach you." I gave him an excuse when I saw someone walk up next to me.
"Who's your friend Mike?" It was Bella.
"This is Erin..." Mike looked unsure as to why she was over her, he was as confused as I.
"Hi." She smiled, well it looked like a smile.
"Hi." I said flattly, "Well I have to go, bye Erin... Bella." Mike got into his car and left.
There was an awkward silence when I heard another person walking up behind me, except this person put their arms around my waist, "Hello." They whispered in my ear, I knew it was Embry.
"Hey." I smiled, I think even my pysical features showed that his voice made me melt on the inside. "Hey Bella..." Embry muttered, tightening his grip around my waist.
"Hey Embry, how's Jake?" She asked.
"He's good." Embry answered emotionlessly, "Ready to go." Embry growled, I looked up to see Edward walking our way.
"Yeah,... uh, bye Bella." I said, "Edward." I spat his name turning with Embry. "Why'd you come?" I asked him.
"I have to tell you something, remember?" Embry smiled at me opening the passengers door for me. I climbed in and waited for him to get in the other side.
"What's it about?"
"My secret." The voice Embry said that in frightened me a little, I had a feeling that this secret was going to have a great impact on something between us.