Again, sorry for the delay. I'll try to post more quickly, but I'm not making any promises.

. . .

I stormed into Sam and Emily's house, ignoring the pain in my leg while I searched for a decent cloth.

"Nani, what the hell happened?" Sam asked, entering the kitchen and looking at me in shock. "Where were you?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I said, cleaning the blood off of my leg.

"Nani, this is serious!"

"How about you listen to me for once?" I exclaimed, gesturing with the bloody rag. "I am not talking about it, I don't want to talk about it, so leave me alone!"

"You're hurt." Sam persisted. "What. Happened."

"Don't you get it?" I asked, slamming a drawer shut. "I'm not talking to you about it because it's not worth it! If I asked you to explain, you'd just lie to me again! All of you would! So just shut up and let it go!" I breezed passed him and walked out the door, heading for the Aprilia I'd decided to hang on to a little longer. I jumped on it, kicked it into gear, and sped away from the house, away from La Push. I needed to get out. To where I knew no one would be dishonest with me.

Sometimes, I wished I didn't have that gift. Ever since I could remember, I'd been able to pick up on little details. Sometimes it was useful, but other times it just told me things I didn't really want to know. Like when none of my so-called friends were telling the truth.

Soon, it was pouring rain. I kept right on driving until I found myself in Forks. Still kept going, along the backroads and empty small-town streets. But then I finally had to stop. I was low on gas, and I had no credit card with which to buy it. I just stood on the side of the road, gripping the handles and trying to ignore the icy rain. I didn't have time to worry about that. Now, I was faced with the prospect of figuring out what to do. I was too far away to walk home, and I didn't exactly know where I was to begin with. At least there weren't any more wolves around.

"Nani?"

I looked up to see Bella Cullen looking at me through the rolled-down window of her car. "What are you doing?"

"Standing."

"In the rain?"

"Apparently."

"Why?"

I threw up a hand. "Because La Push sucks right now. Every time I turn around, I'm either being faced with a giant wolf or I'm being lied to. I don't know if that's how they treat everyone, but I'm not putting up with it anymore."

She sighed. "Do you need a ride home?"

I looked guiltily at the bike next to me. "Jake just fixed this... He's probably mad I took it."

"I'll come by later and get it." she promised. "Come on in."

I set the bike down in the grass and circled around to the other side of her car. "Sorry about getting your seats all wet." I said when she started driving again.

"It's fine. Edward's the one that really cares about that kind of thing." she said. "So what's this about everyone lying to you?"

I let out an irritated breath. "Something is going on at the reservation. I don't know what it is, and every time I try to find out, someone gives me some not very specific answer and changes the subject. Everyone is hiding stuff from me. Even Seth hides stuff, and he's been the most honest so far."

"Give it time." she advised. "They'll tell you. I'm sure of it."

"How?"

"They told me."

I looked at her. "So you can tell me what all this is about?"

"No." she said, looking apologetic. "They have to tell you. It's like a rite of passage. You need to earn it."

I snorted. "Yeah, well, does fighting off a giant wolf count? Because I definitely just did that."

She looked surprised. "You had to fight one?"

"Well, it attacked me in the woods, so what else was I supposed to do?"

Bella shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense. Normally they're more behaved than that."

"Normally more behaved..." I repeated with a humorless laugh. "Akua, I'm going to go insane here."

"You get used to it, trust me."

"Look, you're really nice and all, but you seem just as crazy as the rest of them." I said.

"You have no idea." she murmured. "Here's Sam's house. I'll call Jake about the bike later. He'll get less mad at me."

"Thanks." I muttered, opening the door and feeling cold rain sprinkle my bare skin. "And thanks, you know, for the ride."

"No problem." she said. "I hope you figure things out."

"Oh, believe me," I muttered as I got out. "I will."

Bella drove away, and I was left to walk back into the house. Sam and Emily stood up when I came in, but I blatantly ignored them, went into my room, and firmly closed the door behind me in a very prominent "Do not disturb" gesture. Instead of moping about and doing nothing, I picked up an old rag, dipped it in the glass of water on my nightstand, and began trying to clean my wounded leg better than I had before. It was stinging seriously bad now, and I randomly thought about how Bella hadn't seemed the least bit perturbed by the fact that it was bleeding. Maybe she simply hadn't noticed. Or maybe she'd been pretending for my sake. At any rate, I was too tired to care, and the moment I finished cleaning the dirt from the cuts, I curled up in my bed and went to sleep.