Chapter 14: Confrontations, Pt. 1

The Cullen house

Edward burst through the front door, nearly ripping it off its hinges and interrupting Carlisle's and Esme's viewing of Casablanca, and headed straight for his room. The two physically older vampires exchanged worried glances - something was clearly wrong with their 'son' - then Esme darted across the huge living room, blocking Edward's access to the stairs. "Edward, what is it? Did something happen at the dance? Did you and Elle have a fight?"

"No, Mom, I did not fight with Elle," Edward said wearily. He had to give Esme that much, if only to assuage her obvious disappointment - she had so wanted his first date to go well. "I don't want to talk about it. Can't we please do this later?"

Esme hesitated, reluctant to let him go until she knew exactly what was bothering him, but Carlisle said, "Let him go, love. He'll talk to us when he's ready, and until then you won't be able to wring a word out of him."

"Thank you, Carlisle." Edward gave his sire a brief smile, then proceeded upstairs to his room and collapsed on his leather sofa. He felt worn to the bone in a way he hadn't in all his immortal existence - vampires didn't get tired, never needed to rest - but this wasn't physical weariness; rather, it was a similar feeling brought on by bitter disappointment. I should have anticipated something like this. Really, what ever made me think I could have some kind of relationship with Elle - with any human? I must have been out of my mind...

He lay there for nearly an hour, until he heard the soft purr of his Aston Martin's engine coming up the drive, alerting him that his siblings had returned. Then he launched himself off the couch, sprinted down the hall, skipped the stairs entirely by simply jumping over the elegant carved railing that ran around the upper floor, and threw open the front door before they had even turned off the car's motor.

Esme, surprised and a little alarmed to see him tearing through the house like a madman, shrieked, "Edward, what are you doing?" but he didn't answer, because now Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie were coming across the lawn from the garage.

With a low growl, Edward crouched and sprang from the doorway, crashing into Rosalie and lifting her off her feet with the force of his momentum. They ended up several yards farther from the house in a tangled heap, ripping up the grass where they landed. After a brief scuffle Edward pinned the blonde vampire, leaned over her and hissed in his silkiest, deadliest tone, "You're dead, Rosalie."

She frowned up at him, more irritated than afraid. "What is your problem, Edward?"

He slammed a fist into the ground less than an inch from her head, sending a spray of turf flying. "Don't play the innocent with me," he snarled. "You could have killed Elle!"

"If I had wanted to kill the human-"

"It doesn't matter if you wanted to or not! You could have easily done it by accident!"

By that time they had been joined by the rest of the Cullen family; Emmett attempted to grab Edward and pull him off Rosalie, but Edward was too quick for him, leaping out of his reach. Rosalie got up, brushed her dress off, and went to stand beside her mate, glaring balefully at her brother.

He ignored everyone else's presence and spoke to her as if they were alone; the rest of the family would find out about the night's events soon enough anyway. "Did you know that the Quileute pack witnessed that little stunt you pulled?" he asked, then answered himself, "No, I can see you weren't aware they were there."

"The wolf pack? What were they doing there?" Emmett wanted to know.

"Why didn't I see them?" Alice wondered. Jasper, feeling her confusion and worry, projected a strong comforting vibe to her while also trying to subtly help Edward rein in his temper before he attacked Rosalie again. It seemed to work; Edward cooled down slightly.

"The wolves caught my scent on Elle when she went to La Push last weekend," he explained calmly, though there was still a certain angry tension in his muscles. "They spied on us, saw how close we were, and became concerned. Tonight they told me that if I don't stay away from her, they'll hold the treaty violated."

"What? That's completely unfair!" Alice burst out, and Esme voiced her agreement.

"I think it's for the best," Rosalie said quietly. "Look, I know I'm the only one who thinks so, but you getting so close to her is wrong, Edward. She's not one of us, which is why I took her outside to try and convince her she should stay away from you. I swear, that is all I meant to do - everything else really was an accident. She just made me so angry..."

"What you did was wrong, Rosalie," Carlisle said sharply. "No matter how you feel about your brother's friends, you don't have the right to interfere as you did."

"I was only trying to look out for him! For all of us!"

"Still, I believe you owe Edward an apology."

"I don't want her to apologize," he snapped. "The damage is done - now I have to give up my friend or risk dragging our family into a war with the pack, and of course I don't want that. I hope you're happy, Rosalie."

Emmett reached out a placating hand. "Hey, man-"

Edward once again slipped away from his favorite brother. "Just leave me alone. Please," he muttered as he started back to the house.

Esme almost went after him, but Jasper grabbed her arm, stopping her. "It'd be better to do like he asked and leave him be," he advised in an undertone. "He's really not in the mood to talk to any of us right now."

###

Monday at lunch, Edward waited for Elle outside the cafeteria and, when she showed up, quickly separated her from her classmates. "Go on and eat," he said impatiently when the other kids hung around, watching them curiously. "Elle will join you in a moment."

Jessica and Lauren were extremely reluctant to leave without finding out what was going on, but Edward's authoritative tone and the hard look in his eyes left no room for argument. They hurried through the cafeteria's double doors with the rest of their group, grateful for some reason they couldn't quite put their collective finger on to have some kind of barrier between themselves and him.

Elle watched them go with her usual indifference, then asked Edward, "What's up?" They routinely met up after lunch and walked to biology together, but this was the first time he'd approached her before she'd eaten. While she was glad to be free of her classmates sooner than expected, she wondered what had caused him to deviate from his normal routine.

"I need a private word with you," he said tersely.

Her gaze flicked up and down the hall, which was currently empty except for the two of them; everybody else was at lunch. "This is about as private as we can get at school, so talk."

He stared down into her eyes, so open and unguarded as she waited unsuspectingly for whatever he was going to say, and felt a peculiar tugging sensation inside his chest. Doing what he knew he had to do, what he should have done a long time ago, was turning out to be harder than he'd expected. What if he hurt her? He swatted the thought away like a stray fly; whatever emotional pain he might cause her now, it would be nothing compared to the damage their friendship could do - to her, to him, to his whole family - if he let it continue. This is the best thing for everyone, he told himself for the hundredth time. "Well...I don't know how best to say this..."

"Try just spitting it out."

This drew an unwilling chuckle from the vampire; he was really going to miss her frank, straight-to-the-point ways. "All right, I'll spit it out. What happened the other night made me realize some things... My feelings toward you are different than I had thought, and it would be best if we quit spending time together."

A slight frown furrowed Elle's forehead. "Excuse me?"

"I didn't enjoy being with you nearly as much as I imagined I would - you are a magnificent distraction from the monotony of school, but our little date showed me that that's the extent of my interest in you. In fact, now that the novelty of having you around has worn off, I really see no point in continuing this 'friendship' - if that's an appropriate term. Honestly, it was more of a diversion for me, nothing more."

Elle's frown had deepened as he spoke, and her gray eyes went cold and hard as flint. He hadn't hurt her feelings, as he'd feared he would; instead he had royally pissed her off. "Well, screw you, then!" she spat. "Your loss, buddy." With that, she spun on her heel and stormed off into the cafeteria without a backward glance.

Watching her go, he felt that odd tugging again, only this time it was more like a painful wrench. She wasn't even out of sight yet, and already he missed her terribly. He decided to skip biology, not wanting to spend an hour being glared at or ignored by her, as he knew he would be if he put himself in the same room with her, let alone at the same lab table. She hated him now. And it was for the best. He repeated this mantra to himself one more time, and still didn't feel any better about it.

###

Little did Edward know, it was completely unnecessary for him to ditch biology - Elle wasn't going there anyway. School was nothing more than a cover for her, a way for her to get close to the Cullens, but right now she didn't want to get close to the only Cullen with whom she shared a class. In fact, she doubted she could get close to him without burning him to a crisp, and Daddy would be mad if all she delivered was charred remains.

She skirted the cafeteria's edges, keeping close to the wall and avoiding the notice of the people she normally ate lunch with, until she came to a door leading outside. Stepping through it, she proceeded straight to the parking lot, and drove away at top speed. Leaving Forks High behind just like that was exhilarating - or it should have been. Instead she spent the whole drive back to Port Angeles fuming over Edward.

She tried to tell herself it was just because he had made her assignment harder - that was definitely a factor - but it wasn't the only thing making her mad. If she was totally honest (which she usually wasn't, but there was a first time for everything) she had to admit that the main thing bothering her was Edward's rejection. The way he had brushed her off, as if she were utterly unimportant to him, reminded her of the dismissive treatment she often got from her father, and it stung deeply. Well, Edward's gonna pay for this, she consoled herself. He'll be sorry. Diversion, my ass.

###

It was only later, after she had calmed herself by purchasing several exquisite crystal figurines from a quaint little shop down the street and blasting them all into smithereens, that she realized the abrupt turnaround in Edward's attitude toward her was rather fishy. For someone who had never had a single friend in her life, she was sure that the camaraderie, the connection, between them had been real...so why was he suddenly insisting she was nothing more to him than free entertainment?

It's almost, she mused, like the 'diversion' line was meant to set me off...make me too mad to see what's really going on, maybe? But what was really going on? What could have made Edward decide he needed to ditch her? Elle racked her brain and came up with a fleeting image glimpsed in her rearview mirror the night of the dance as she drove away from the school. She hadn't really been paying attention and therefore couldn't be certain, but she thought she had seen Sam Uley and those other two guys who were always with him confronting Edward. But would he really have cut her loose because of them?

Well, he did imply they were his family's 'enemies' - it sounded like something out of a bad mafia movie at the time, but maybe this drama between the Cullens and Quileutes, whatever it is, is more serious than I thought. There was only one way to find out: go straight to the source. Since she would take chewing nails over talking to Edward at the moment, that left Sam as her only option. In any event, his staring at her that day on the beach had irked her enough that she wouldn't mind paying him a visit - and she wouldn't be going alone.

Humming softly, she picked up her cell phone and called her father. "Hi, Daddy. I've hit a little snag down here... No, nothing I can't handle. I just need to borrow the Haitian for a day or two..."

Next chapter: Elle kicks werewolf butt, Edward realizes something important, and Alice tries to help him fix his relationship with Elle.