Beta: MissEllen

CH. 33 Intuition

Kay's Pov

I was sitting at the table drinking my coffee, when Embry slinked down the stairs, and out of the door without so much as a good morning. I had seen little more than his retreating back in the last week. At first I laughed it off, thinking he didn't want to have the 'did you use a condom' talk, but as the days passed it had become clear he wasn't avoiding a conversation, rather he was avoiding me.

"Anything?" Linda asked walking in.

"No, and Bella still hasn't come around either." The phone in the kitchen started ringing and I knew I had to answer it. I got up, ending our conversation to see who the caller was.

Hello,

Uh… this is Charlie, Charlie Swan… is Bella there?

"No… Charlie, Bella's not here.

I looked over at Linda who had her brow quirked.

Charlie, is everything ok?

Yeah, I, well… Bella isn't answering at the house and her cell phone tells me her voice box is full, whatever that is.

I'm sure I'll be seeing her soon, would you like me to have her call you?

Yeah, that'd be good. And uh, let her know I'll be in Seattle another three days?

Sure, I'll let her know.

Thanks,

Click

I hung up the phone, turned to look at Linda. "Charlie is in Seattle," I went from curious to worried in an instant.

"And Bella's not here?" Linda looked as confused as I felt.

"No, and hasn't been in a week," I mused aloud. "Charlie said he hasn't been able to reach her."

"I'm sure everything is fine. She and Embry probably just had an argument. All couples fight, even those blissfully in love." Linda smiled at me. I nodded, but deep down I didn't think things were fine. Call it mother's intuition or whatever, but I had a bad feeling.

The next few days saw my 'bad feeling' grow. Embry had suddenly developed a hair trigger temper. He wouldn't talk to me, he was ignoring Quil, and if I so much as mentioned Bella's name he stormed out of the room or out of house altogether. I knew he had snuck out of the house at least once, and there was still no sign of Bella. I had tried calling her cell phone, but I only got the same full voice mail message that Charlie had mentioned, and there was no answer at her house.

I pulled into my driveway, and sighed. It had been a long day. Walking inside I tossed my purse on the counter and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and the Tylenol from the cabinet.

I pressed the button on the answering machine and started looking through the mail.

This is Charlie Swan. I'm trying to get a hold of Bella; I can't reach her on the house phone or her cell phone. Can someone give me a call and let me know she's alright. I uh, well, I'm worried. Beeep…..

I stared at the answering machine as if it would give me the answers to the questions floating around in my head. I grabbed my purse and keys and headed back out the door. I pulled into Linda's driveway, and made my way up the walk and to her front door. Work had been stressful today, and my worry over Embry and now Bella were starting to turn into panic. I knew something was wrong I could feel it.

I knocked on the door, something I hadn't done in, well… I'd never knocked. Linda answered the door and looked me over from head to toe.

"What on earth?" she asked. "Why did you knock?"

"I don't know." I sighed, letting Linda pull me into the house.

"Kay, are you ok?" she asked, looking me over, "You look like hell," Linda said bluntly.

"Yeah, well I feel like hell," I shook my head. "Charlie left a message on the answering machine, he still hasn't been able to reach Bella," I told her. "Linda, I'm worried."

"Why don't you try calling her again?" Linda suggested, motioning for us to sit down.

It couldn't hurt, I thought, pulling my cell phone from my purse. I scrolled to Bella's name on my contact list and hit the green call button. It rang once before the full voicemail message sounded. I hung up, and then called her house phone. No answer there either.

"Linda, her voice mail is full, and there is no answer at her house." I paused to gather my thoughts. "Embry and Bella have been inseparable from the moment I met her… and it's been two weeks since I've seen her. Embry is avoiding me, and lashes out if her name is mentioned, and Charlie… he's called twice now looking for her. Something is wrong."

Linda stood, plucking her car keys from the hook by the door, "Why don't we drive over there? I know you're worried and at least this way you'll know she's ok, even if you don't know what's going on."

My mind raced from scenario to scenario as we made the twenty minute drive to Forks. I was a ball of nerves when we pulled up to Bella's house. The first thing I noticed was that there was no vehicle in the drive. Either she still hadn't gotten a new car, or she was gone. Also, all the curtains were drawn and it just felt wrong. Maybe it was a combination of stress, worry, and nerves, but it didn't feel right.

"Ready?" Linda asked.

I nodded, opened the car door, stepped onto the Swan's front lawn and followed Linda to the front door.

Katie's Pov

My mom dropped Kim and me off at Bella's house about an hour ago, and so far she hadn't said a word, not even when we yelled at her for not answering our calls. She was just sitting on her bed staring at her hands that were folded in her lap. Kim and I exchanged worried glances.

I was trying to think of what to say when we heard gravel crunch under tires, and car doors slam. Bella suddenly looked up, panicked. "Tell whoever it is I'm not here… or I'm asleep, tell them anything," she begged.

"Yeah, ok," I promised.

Kim and I walked down the stairs, both of us worried for our friend. I opened the front door to see Embry's and Quil's moms staring at us with worried looks of their own.

"Is Bella home?" Kay asked, looking past me and into the house.

"Uh yeah, but she… she's not feeling good and is asleep," I lied.

"Oh," Kay deflated. I didn't think she believed me.

"Is she okay,' she wanted to know.

Kim and I exchanged a glance; we didn't know what to say. We didn't know if Bella was ok or not, but it didn't seem like she was. I paused, still unsure of what to tell them, but not wanting to lie either. I sighed and looked up at Embry's mom, "We… we don't know," I stuttered. "She's upset but hasn't said anything yet."

"Will she see us?" Kay asked.

"I… I don't think so, she didn't want anyone to know she was home," I told her.

Linda put her arm on Kay's to keep her from walking in the house. I could see they were both worried, but Kay looked almost pained. "Ok, will you please let us know if there anything we can do, or if… something… just…," she trailed off. "Let her know her dad called the house, he's worried about her, said he hasn't been able to reach her."

"I will," I agreed and watched as they reluctantly turned and walked back to Linda's car.

I closed the door once they had driven off and Kim and I faced each other, unsure of what to think. "Let's go back upstairs," I suggested.

Bella was still in the same position as she was when we left her a few minutes earlier.

"Bella, please tell us what is going on?" I asked sitting down next to her, while Kim did the same on her other side. Kim and I watched as her entire body began to shake with sobs.

"Bella…Bella! What is wrong?" Kim asked, putting her arms around our friend. I moved so I was sitting in front of her, and rested my hand on her knee, both of us trying to comfort her as she brokenly tried to tell us what was wrong.

"He… sob… said… hiccup… we…weren't working… and … sob…broke up… hiccup… with me."

Bella finally choked her words out.

"You broke up?" I mumbled. "But, you were going to go camping and…." Oh God, I thought, turning my head to gape at Kim. Kim wore the same look of horror I'm sure I wore.

"Is… Bella, did he break up with you after…" Kim asked, unable to finish the sentence. This was every girl's biggest fear. Bella looked up at us, nodded and dissolved into even harder tears.

Kim eyes were glassy as she looked down at Bella who was holding her head in her hands and mumbling words we couldn't understand. "I'm going to kill him," Kim mouthed to me. Oh yeah, I'll help, I thought.

Bella just kept mumbling, every once in a while her words would string together and we could understand. It took twenty minutes for her to calm down enough to actually start telling us what happened. She stood up and walked over to the window.

"We… it was perfect and beautiful and everything you hope it will be," Bella said staring out of her bedroom window. "I'd never felt so loved before…" she whispered.

"We were in his room and were…" she turned her head in our direction. … "We were kissing and touching. I wanted to feel him again," she said ducking her head down toward the floor. Bella took a deep breath and turned back toward her window. "Jared came in and told Embry that he had to go to work, something about busted pipes." She sighed. "He told me he loved me, kissed me and left."

I could hear the hitch in her breath; I knew she had broken down again. Her body folded into itself as she shook with more sobs. . "He didn't come back till morning." I felt my own tears on my face as I glanced back at Kim and saw tears falling down her cheeks, too.

I didn't know what to say, was there anything to say? "I believed him. I trusted him and I believed him. "When he said he loved me… I felt it." She sobbed.

"I can still feel him and see him and I can't…," she cried. "He… he's all over me," she was getting hysterical. "h-h… his mouth, his hands, I can still feel everywhere he touched me." She cried. Her voice was tortured.

"I…" What could I say?

Quil's Pov

Embry was being a dick. I knew something was up, but he wouldn't tell me shit about whatever the hell was wrong and I was seriously getting pissed. I'd been trying to talk to him for a week but every time he saw me, he went the other way. Now Angela had left for California and it would have been fucking nice if my friend gave a damn.

I was laying on my bed, decidedly acting like a pussy, but seriously, my friend was MIA, my girlfriend… or well, I wanted her to be my girlfriend was gone and my sister from another mother had vanished. "Fuck!" I yelled.

I heard my mom come home, and yell from the kitchen, "Quil!" I sighed, I wasn't in the mood. I pulled myself from my bed and walked down the hall to find my mom sitting at the table. I knew something was wrong, the second I saw her.

"Have you talked to Embry?" she asked.

"No. He's being a dick," I told her. "Why?"

"Kay is worried." Mom said. "Embry is avoiding her. Quil, something is going on, if you know anything, I need you to tell me." Mom gave me the look that said she meant business.

"I don't know anything," I shrugged. "Bella would know more than me, anyway."

Mom sighed, and faced me. She had that 'I'm worried, but I don't want to admit that I'm worried look', "Charlie is in Seattle, and Bella hasn't been at Kay's in two weeks."

"What?" That made no fucking sense. Embry would have jumped to have Bella stay with him for two weeks. "That makes no sense," I stated the obvious.

"There's more," mom rubbed her fingers over her eyes. "Charlie called, trying to reach Bella. She wasn't answering her cell phone or the house phone. Kay and I drove over to Forks earlier. Kim and Katie met us at the door. They lied about Bella feeling bad, but ended up telling us something was wrong but they didn't know what. We haven't heard anything since and Embry isn't talking to his mom. Kay thinks he's sneaking out of the house and… Son, I know he's your best friend, but if you know anything… Kay is really worried, and honestly I'm beginning to worry myself."

What the fuck, I thought. "I swear. I don't know anything. He's not talking to me either." I promised my mom.

Mom eyed me, looking to see if I was telling the truth. I almost rolled my eyes. She nodded, deciding I wasn't bullshitting her. "If you find anything out, hear anything… tell me," she pressed, and I knew it was a command and not a request.

"Yeah," I agreed standing up. I started to walk back toward my room, still sulking about Angela and now wondering what the fuck was going on with Em. "Quil," Mom called as I made it the doorway of my room. I turned around and waited for her to continue. "We'll go tomorrow and get you a cell phone. I don't want that sweet Angela to forget about you."

I grinned, "You're the best!"

"Uh huh," she chuckled.

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