The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25 dot com
Prompt: 12 (Photo of Smoker)
Main Character/Pairing: Emmett
Rating: K
Word Count: 2365
AN: I've never tried writing from Emmett's point of view before. Hope it turned out okay! (I think I might have taken him too far.)
- Emmett's Point of View -
Eddie boy is positively frantic.
I mean, his girlfriend's a human, we get it. It turns out he doesn't realize it, because he's freaking out over some completely normal human sickness she developed.
Just take her to the hospital. It's practically her second home anyway.
Forget about sickness, I'm more surprised that the girl even stayed alive this long. Apparently, not all humans are as klutzy as she is, and she just has a knack for attracting danger.
The way she attracted Edward.
The guy is a vampire, for crying out loud. In a normal situation, he's supposed to eat her, not make out with her. Especially in their case, Bella's blood 'calls' or 'sings' or 'lures' — or whatever the heck it does — to Edward's thirst. Her blood is more appetizing to him than anyone else's. But instead of snuffing her out like I suggested from the very beginning to avoid this whole drama, the poor guy fell in love with her instead, so now he has to force himself to not think about ripping her neck open every time he kisses it.
"Chill, bro," I mutter, keeping my gaze on the television. It isn't the first time I've wished that they broadcast vampire baseball which is so much more entertaining than regular human baseball. Maybe our family can audition… "She'll be alright. Just take her to Carlisle if you're so worried."
At first, I had doubts about the girl, wondering if she was trustworthy. No human is allowed to be aware of the existence of vampires, and besides, which human in their right mind would want to be even involved with vampires?
This just goes to say that Bella isn't in the right mind.
But I'm actually glad that Edward didn't snap the girl's neck in class that day. Despite her odd tendencies to fearlessly mingle with vampires, she's pretty cool. And highly entertaining when she trips over thin air and falls down.
"Carlisle is at work, Emmett," Edward snaps, running his hands through his hair and unintentionally creating that tousled hair look that hormonal human girls fawn over. It just makes me wanna puke. "And he doesn't have a break for another three hours."
I stare at him, not understanding the reason behind his stress. "So just go after that…"
He groans, pressing his hands to his temples the way he always does. "I can't just sit and watch her be miserable until Carlisle's free to examine her."
"Edward," Rosalie complains, "it's just a cough. Stop acting so pathetic. If you can." She adds under her breath.
"Bro," I say slowly, "I think you forgot in your state of mind that you've been to medical school twice… Why don't you just check her over yourself?"
"I already did!" He shouts, abruptly furious with our lack of appropriate reactions. "But I have no idea what type of medicine to give her. That's why I want to ask Carlisle. She doesn't have any at home either, and though she says she'll be fine—"
"If she says so, you might want to listen—" Jasper interjects helpfully.
"Bella is incredibly stubborn and refuses to come across as weak—"
"She's not the only one like that," Rose mutters.
"But I'm going to the pharmacy to pick up a few things for her. If Carlisle happens to call home, tell him I need to speak with him urgently."
"What about Bella?"
Edward looks conflicted. Alice is Bella's best friend and would have happily gone to give Bella some company while Edward purchased the medicine. But Alice went hunting with Esme this morning and they wouldn't return for several hours.
"I suppose I could leave her at home for a while…"
"Can you?" Rose spits, irritated by Edward's fixation towards the girl. It's no secret that she despises Bella. I rub my arms soothingly along her shoulders.
"How about I go?" I suggest, much to the alarm of everybody present.
Edward looks thunderstruck. "Excuse me?"
Rosalie is shooting me daggers as well.
"Not to her house!" I verify quickly, blanching at the thought of being alone with and so close to her. I am fairly confident that I can resist her blood, especially since I didn't feed in almost a week, but I don't want to put her at risk either. "Yeesh! I'll go to the store for you. Pick up anything she—you—might need."
Edward looks relieved. "You'd do that? Thank you."
I'm glad I made the offer. A panic-stricken Edward is too annoying, and if he goes to the store, he'll probably check up on Bella every five minutes and piss her off too. At least now, he'll be able to be with her and annoy her in person. Besides, I have nothing better to do at this moment, and it'll pay off when I'll get to tease Bella about her chronic illnesses later.
Edward is abruptly angry. "You will do no such thing."
"Mind your own business, Eddie." I roll my eyes, grinning when Rosalie snickers at the pet name. "This is between Bella and myself."
He shoots me another warning glare. "Well, get going then. And bring the medicine to Bella's once you're done."
What, you meant now? I demand incredulously.
"No," he retorts sarcastically, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. "Let's wait for her to die—"
"She's not going to die from a minor cough, brother. Honestly, who gave you, not one, but two medical degrees? You wouldn't have the appropriate state of mind and temperament to deal with patients the way Carlisle does."
"Go!"
Sighing, I heave myself off the armchair, press a quick kiss to Rose's cheek and drive to the nearest drug store in town.
This is turning out to be more fun than I anticipated, I think appreciatively.
The cashier, a gangly teenager wearing spectacles that are too large for his face, glances up from his comic book, startled, when I push the door open with a little more force than necessary.
"Evening, sir," he squeaks.
I take a deep breath, testing out his scent. No major temptation. Good.
I peer into the sky, then smirk back at him, "Evening? It's only noon."
I was briefly concerned about the sun — we skip school on sunny days for this precise reason — but I was lucky to find a shady parking spot.
"Yes, sir," he stutters, "Sorry, sir."
I chortle to myself as the boy's heartbeat goes whacko. Am I really that intimidating?
Taking my own sweet time, I browse through the aisles with a mixture of growing interest and repulsion. Most of the items stacked up on the shelves are useless to vampires, and Alice does all the necessary shopping for our family anyway.
Still, the rows of makeup, toiletries, medicine, magazines and other miscellaneous objects fascinate me.
Even though I don't need one, I seize a basket anyway to keep up the appearances. Carlisle is very strict about acting human in public, and Rosie hates it when we have to suddenly pack up and move because someone screws up.
I start with the medicine, eying the different brands of cough medicine. It's impossible to choose one from the varieties and criteria available. Syrups, tablets… cherry flavor, grape flavor… mild cough, severe throat pain…
I'm not sure which one would do the trick and cure Bella's sickness (and calm Eddie boy down), but if I selected the wrong medicine, her overprotective boyfriend would never let me hear the end of it.
Shrugging, I toss one of each into the basket and move along. I throw in a few magazines for good measure. Apparently when humans are sick, they want to simply lie around and do nothing tedious. Watching movies, reading, listening to music…
That's everything, I think to myself, pleased with my selections.
I start towards the checkout counter, only to catch sight of soda and chips on a nearby shelf.
Bella seems to enjoy those, as she regularly purchases those for lunches at school, much to Edward's displeasure over filling herself with "fizzy drinks and junk food."
Ah, well. If Bella really is sick, Eddie might want to temporarily let go of his never-ending advice and opinions to indulge Bella (more so than usual) until she gets better. Nodding convincingly to myself, I fling a few cans of soft drinks and extra large size bags of chips into the basket.
Eddie can just sulk… which he does, regardless.
A colorful display of chewing gum diverts my attention and I inspect the packets, a little fascinated. My nose wrinkles, however, as I read the flavors. I am not aware of which flavor Bella has a preference to, so I grab one of everything and add it to my purchases.
Might as well gift her a few chocolates while I'm at it, I shrug, knowing how chocolate seems to be a popular food appreciated by almost all humans. I select one packet of each brand of candy and chocolate from the racks, and move along.
By the time I'm all finished, half an hour later, my basket is overflowing with a little bit of everything I laid eyes on in the shop.
Of course, I didn't go overboard. I only bought things I was certain Bella would make use of.
The cashier's eyes are wide with stunned disbelief as he scans the frozen, packaged and microwavable soup (and other kinds of food), candies, chocolate, medicine, magazines, crossword puzzle and sudoku booklets, a GET WELL SOON card, several rainbow markers (for the Cullen family to sign the card, obviously), a new pair of headphones, some face powder and basic makeup (so that she can be sick in fashion), junk food, a pair of socks, some random DVDs (Edward can loan her his laptop), water bottles, sparkly pens and a fuzzy notebook (I don't know if Bella keeps a diary, but maybe she can write down her feelings and experiences during her sickness, so that she — and I — can read it in the future and laugh), a bigger notebook (in case she runs out of pages from the first one), a heat pad, a portable massager, all the newspapers from the past week (just because she's sick doesn't give her the excuse to remain oblivious to current events), a box of Band-Aids, two ice packs (although she technically doesn't need any since Edward is her ice pack twenty-four seven), popcorn, spare batteries, some shampoo (gotta stay hygienic!), several feminine products, and a lottery ticket.
"Is…" The boy begins hesitantly, using thirteen bags to fill in everything I bought, "that all you need, sir?"
"Yep," I reply brightly. "That'll be all, thanks. How much?"
"Two hundred and fourteen dollars?"
I swipe my card easily, stifling my laughter as his heart begins to race. He doesn't meet my eyes when he hands the card back.
"Can I help you to your car with the bags, sir?" he mumbles.
The guy is so skinny, his arms are like twigs. One bag, and he'll collapse on the floor. Then I'll be arrested.
"Nope, I got it. Thanks, bro."
His eyes bulge at the name, but I'm already hefting the bags in my arms. They weigh, like, feathers. Or air.
"See you!" I call back cheerily, throwing a smile over my shoulder. Nice kid.
He waves back mindlessly and I load the bags into the car, glad I decided to drive, not run. The trip to Bella's house is short, thanks to my awesome driving, and I pull up into her driveway five minutes later. Chief Swan is not at home for which I'm thankful.
I can hear Bella's heartbeat and her footsteps coming closer to the door. She pulls open the front door and smiles widely at me as I hop out of the car.
"Hey, there," I grin, pulling her into a bear hug.
Edward is, obviously, right behind her and watching me irritably from over her shoulder. "Took you long enough."
"Don't be mad, bro. I picked up a few extra things."
Bella looks between us, confused. "Is this about the cough thing? Edward, I told you, it was nothing."
Her voice sounds pretty normal. I start to wonder if Edward really was exaggerating. It wouldn't be the first time, especially when it concerns Bella.
He glowers at me and rubs an arm on her shoulder comfortingly. "I just wanted to be prepared. The weather is changing, and it won't hurt to have some things ready. It's just cough medicine Emmett picked up anyway."
"And a few extra things…" I repeat with a murmur, heading back to pull open the trunk.
Bella rolls her eyes and sighs in defeat when I hand her a bag. "Oh, Emmett, you shouldn't have. I hate that you went through so much trouble just to get… What in the—?"
Her mouth falls open when she peers into the trunk. I can see her counting the bags incredulously and the plastic bag she's holding slips through her fingers. Edward catches it immediately, equally shocked by the amount of purchases I made.
"Emmett!" he exclaims, "What is all this for? I just said to buy cough medicine."
"Well, knowing you," I shoot back, "you'll probably get mad for neglecting something, so I just bought what I thought might be useful. Plus, those sparkly pens were on sale, bro. They're even fruit-scented or something like that. They're in that bag, Bella, if you want to check them out."
Bella tentatively opens each bag to look inside, so hesitantly as if she's afraid something might jump out and bite her…
Edward hisses, not appreciating the pun.
"Man," I complain, "I'm outta here. First, nobody appreciates all the thoughtfulness I put into buying all this human junk, and second, I can't even make jokes around here. Later, lovebirds."
I hoist all the bags in one go, dump them on Bella's front porch and ruffle her and Edward's hair as I pass by.
As I drive away, I pat my pockets, feeling the case in my jeans. I have a few human products I'm eager to test out tonight, I muse, anticipating my experiment with the cigarettes I bought earlier…
AN: I kept reminding myself to get to the point of the prompt (smoking) and mention the cigarettes already, but Emmett just…
I will continue this sometime later. Hang in there.
