Chapter Nine
It had been several weeks since Hanna and I had kissed. Now she was officially my girlfriend, it was something I was still wrapping my brain around. Alice was over the moon. As was the rest of the family. Edward and Bella were more on the skeptical side of it because they had been through this. They lived it, and now they were witnessing it like the rest of us had when they were having their own love story. Now it was my story, and I was worried about how it would end.
Hanna was a great girl. She was smart and brave and headstrong. She was fun and carefree, and she was so in the moment. She let things roll off of her in waves, like nothing bothered her. Her parents were great as well, from what I could tell with the few times I had met them anyway. They were always away it seemed, so Hanna was mostly left alone. She didn't seem to mind too terribly, she said she was used to it. But it still made me uneasy. Who knew what kind of danger she could attract, she didn't know our secret so she was safe thus far. But what if it slipped one day? Without meaning to?
I would have to tell her soon, and I was dreading every second of it. I couldn't even ask Alice for help, she was keeping more and more things from me every single day that passed and it was beginning to piss me off. The only thing she would share with me was that everything would work out, and to just be happy with the moment.
What a load of bullshit.
We were nearing the beginning of December now, and the snow had began to fall in Seattle. It made it easier for us to go out in public, with the snow cloud coverage we were able to continue our personas. Hanna had begun to ask questions though. Much were along the lines of why we didn't go out and do things when it wasn't sunny, since Washington had so much to offer in the winter months. She finally asked about our eye color, why we all wore the same colored contacts. That was a little harder to answer without all of us coming off as weirdos. Other questions I would cut her off with a kiss or two, and that would shut her up for a few moments.
But it was days like today that I spent with her and her family that were the hardest.
"Why don't you ever stay for dinner?" She asked, wrapping her arms around herself as she walked me out to my jeep.
"Esme likes it when all the kids are home for dinner." I answered casually. Shrugging my shoulders.
"She wouldn't understand you having dinner with your girlfriend's parents?" I sighed and looked at the ground, avoiding her eyes. "Emmett, look at me." I raised my eyes to meet her green ones. "What secrets are you keeping, dude?"
"I don't keep secrets." The lie fell off my lips and left a bitter taste in my mouth.
"I don't believe you. You're hiding something." I scoffed at her and looked away. Lying to her was hard, it hurt. I wanted to tell her everything. Every single secret I had, but I couldn't.
I was being selfish. I wanted to keep her with me for a little while longer. I didn't want her to see me as the vampire I was, the monster I could be in a split second.
"Fine, believe whatever you want, Hanna. But I'm telling you the truth." I shrugged my bag higher on my shoulder and stalked to my jeep, leaving her there staring after me.
I didn't look back, I couldn't. If I did, I would tell her everything. And like I said, I was being selfish.
~~~FH~~~
The next day at school was hard. Hanna wouldn't talk to me, and rightfully so. I wouldn't talk to me right now if I were her either. I stormed off yesterday and left her alone in her driveway, and I felt like a dick. I was being a dick, but she was being stubborn. I mean yeah, I was lying to her. But why couldn't she just let it go? Why were humans so curious about everything? So nosey? And why was she so damn stubborn!?
I was currently glaring at her from across the cafeteria, she was sitting with some other seniors across the way. And one senior in particular was lying awfully hard at everything she was saying.
Fuck Mason. He doesn't have the right to laugh at her jokes. She was my girlfriend.
"You know," Bella started. "You did this to yourself." My eyes briefly met hers and I went back to glaring holes in the back of Hanna's head. A shot of jealousy rippled threw my body.
"Jasper, fuck off." Everyone laughed at the table and I grabbed my bag and shuffled it to my shoulder before strutting across the cafeteria toward my girlfriend. Mason met my eyes and quirked a brow at me before whispering to Hanna that I was coming over. I didn't have to say anything. I stopped a few feet before the table and she rose and grabbed her bag before walking toward me and together we walked out of the cafeteria and out toward the front parking lot.
"Alright. Start talking, bub." She whipped around to face me and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She had one hip popped and a brow quirked and all I wanted to do was to kiss her.
"You know, you're really hot when you're mad." I smirked. Her face started to flush and she was stuttering her words.
"Well if you think I look hot now, then you're about to think I'm fucking gorgeous!" I chuckled before meeting her eyes again.
"I'm sorry, Han. For storming off, I really am." I reached for her hands and she was eyeing me up but gave them to me anyway.
"Then why lie to me?" She whispered, she looked down at her feet and shuffled them.
"Hanna, I'm not-I didn't-"
"Oh stuff it. If you're keeping a secret, then fine. But stop lying about it. If-if you can't tell me then fine, but just be honest with me. I get it, some things you can't share. But please, Emmett, stop lying to me." She ripped her hands out of mine and stalked back into the school as the lunch bell rang. I sighed and ran my hands over my face.
~~~FH~~~
"Where's Ness?" I asked, looking over the row of cars in the parking lot. Hanna had been avoiding me for the rest of the day, and now Ness was gone.
"She's going to Hanna's house to study and do their homework together. Having bonding time, just the two of them." Edward answered, slinging an arm around his wife's shoulders. I nodded slowly, watching as Hanna's red truck tore out of the parking lot and down the opposite road toward her house.
"Come on, Em, let's go hunt down some grizzly bears." Jasper grinned at me, clapping me on the shoulder.
~~~FH~~~
"Screw you, Edward! I saw it first!" I shouted at my brother, he had taken down a mountain lion that I had so obviously called dibs on first.
"Guess you better move faster, little brother." I rolled my eyes and strained my ears to hear some bears growling in the distance. I took off toward the east, Edward trailing behind me. We had no idea where Jasper went, he usually went for the more tamer beasts in the forest. And that was fine with Edward and I. Left the more challenging creatures for us.
We made quick work of the two bears and soon were sitting down on some boulders, soaking up the minimal sun that was breaking in the clouds.
"You think I should tell her, don't you?" I asked, laying my head on my hands behind me.
"Honestly, she might end up figuring it out on her own like Bella." He explained. "Hanna is pretty smart, if it weren't for the three of us in the senior class, she would be at the top." I shook my head.
"No, she's not the type to dig for information like that. She would give me space, let me stew it over, and hope that I would break down and tell her. She's kind of cynical like that." I turned my head and made eye contact with my brother.
"You should just tell her, get it over it." Jasper said, emerging from the trees in front of us. We both sat up in greeting. "Alice said it would all work out anyway, right? So why are you still stressing over it?"
"You're getting much more easy going in your old age, Jazz." Edward chuckled, hopping down from the boulder. "I'm going to head back to the house. See you guys later."
"I'm serious, Em. She makes you happy, so just be honest with her." I nodded along to his words. I knew he was right, I knew I should just come out with it and tell her. But not every human was like Bella was.
Bella was so calm about the entire thing. She also had the werewolves had her side, and Jacob had basically fed her the entire truth of both sides because he couldn't get over his little crush with an egg that wasn't even fertilized yet.
"I'm scared." I confessed. "Bella was a fluke in comparison to how other humans act. It's not like Hanna has some werewolf friend to tell her the old legends. Hanna is different compared to any other human we've encountered. And that includes Bella and her freakish okay outlook on everything supernatural." Jasper chuckled and crossed his arms in front of me.
"Yeah, Bella was an odd one. But she was good for us, we needed her. And who knows, maybe Hanna will be as easy going as Bella was. You won't know unless you try!" He called out, running away and toward the house.
I groaned and let my head fall into my hands. This was a mess, everything was a mess. This is what I get for falling in love with a human. I was a vampire, I should be with a vampire. Well, actually, I should be dead. I didn't remember much of being a human, but I did remember big things. The things that mattered, anyway.
I knew I should have died that day. I knew my entire family logically shouldn't be alive, well Bella could be. She'd just be really old. Being vampire, gave us all a second chance to be alive in a sense. But were we all really even living, or were we just surviving? Life was confusing.
Being involved with a human, was risky. It was dangerous. The Volturi might not be watching us as closely as they once were, but we were still on their radar and we probably always would be. It was just the way things went with being a coven as large as ours.
It was better leaving Hanna in the dark. It was safer.
~~~FH~~~