Chapter Ten

"I'm sorry," I whispered. She barely even gave me a second glance. It had been a week of us barely even speaking. A week of her still being upset with me. Did all human girls hold a grudge for this long?

"Are you?" I blanched at her words. Her green eyes were piercing, her pupils were dilated, and her lips were in a thin line. Her jaw was set, and I found myself frozen, and slightly terrified. What a conundrum. A vampire terrified of a tiny human girl.

"Of-of course I am, Hanna." She scoffed and turned her attention back to her notebook. I sighed and leaned back in the chair I was sitting in.

I had finally managed to convince her to come to the school library with me during lunch so we could 'study'. What I really wanted to do was to make up and then make out in a dark corner. I had never been so distraught over a girl before. Whenever Rosalie and I fought, we always made up almost immediately. I mean, it always led to make up sex, but I hadn't even seen Hanna in anything less than what she would wear to bed. The night she stayed over at our house was the most skin I had ever seen on her. And it was nice, and I wanted more. I leaned forward in the chair and propped my chin in the crests of my elbows on the table. And I pouted.

Yes. Emmett McCarthy-Cullen was pouting over a human.

She sighed before setting down her pencil and finally looking at me.

"Look, Emmett. I'm not mad at you, not anymore. But I am still a little bit upset." I opened my mouth to respond but the look she gave me made me pause and shrink back in my seat. "I'm not upset that you're keeping a secret from me, I'm upset with the fact that you were lying to my face about it instead of just telling me you couldn't tell me. I get that, I really do. I have secrets of my own that I'm not willing to share with you, and not has nothing to do with who you are, it has everything to do with my own issues. I'll tell you in time, but not right now because honestly, there is still a lot we don't know about each other." I nodded along to her words, agreeing with her. I was a little peeved to know that she was also keeping secrets, but again I had never really come out and asked her and she had never lied to my face about any of them.

"I understand, and I'm sorry for lying to you." I reached across the table and took her small hand in my large one, basking in the warmth that was her. "It's not just my secret to keep, and I'm just not ready to let her in on that part of my life." She smiled her small innocent just for me smile, and I realized that we would be okay. I loved this human girl more than I had ever thought possible.

"I forgive you." I grinned.

~~~FH~~~

Hanna didn't come back to school the rest of the week. She said she was sick, and she would be back on Monday. It was strange, to me anyway. I didn't understand how the human body worked. She had looked and seemed fine yesterday, I mean she looked a little tired. But no more than usual. I asked Bella about how fickle and how easy it seemed for humans to fall ill and all she did was roll her eyes at me and said it was probably just the flu since it was the season for it.

How can there be a season for humans to just be sick?

The human body was weird.

I did what I could to distract myself, I challenged Jasper and Edward to more wrestling matches. Most of which I had won. Edward was the real challenge when it came to things like that though. He liked to cheat.

"God damn it! Edward, stop fucking cheating!" He chuckled at me from a few feet behind me. The rest of our family were sitting on the porch watching us. Ness and Bella were of course on Edward's side, and Jasper had Alice. Carlisle and Esme were away on the island for some much-needed alone time apparently. I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe you should work a little harder on blocking me out from your head, Em." He jumped up to the porch and gave Bella a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"Bella! Help me out here!" Ness laughed along with Alice while Jasper shook his head at me.

"Sorry, Em. I'm on my husband's team." I groaned and fell back to the cold ground beneath me. It was covered in snow, and it was pretty but the snow around us was beginning to mix with the dirt and creating a giant mud pit.

"Stop pouting. Your girlfriend will be back at school tomorrow." I smiled at Alice's words. "When are you going to decide to tell her by the way? I can't see a clear image until you make up your mind."

"I still don't know if I even am going to tell her." I confessed, sitting up and wrapping my arms around my knees.

"You're going to have to eventually, she'll probably figure it out." Ness said as she sat down beside me and laid her head on my shoulder.

"No, I don't think she will. She's a private person herself, I wouldn't expect her to dig around and research everything like Bella did." Bella rolled her eyes at me before pulling Edward back inside the house with Jasper and Alice following.

"Let's go for a walk." Ness suggested before pulling me to my feet and into the woods behind our house.

We walked a few miles away before she began speaking again.

"You know, Em, she's my best friend. And I'm scared, too." I glanced down at her with surprise. I was so sure that she was on the tell her now page as everyone else. "I know my mom was… an odd human and I know she accepted everything remarkably well. But I'm old enough now to know that not every single human is like she was. I'm terrified Hanna won't be like that. She's a smart girl. Extremely so, and she's intimidating because she's so sure of herself and everything else in the world. I know you're her boyfriend and everything, but she's my best friend and there's always going to be that part of her personality and just of her that I'm going to know and understand better than you. If she wanted to, she would find out our secret very easily. Probably easier than mom did." I was nodding along to her words, staring at my feet as we continued to go deeper into the forest.

"I love her, Ness. More than I thought was possible. After Rose… I didn't think there would ever be anyone else. And then she walked into that cafeteria with you, and I knew I was a goner. I'm scared she'll find out what she is, and she'll leave us. Leave me." She gripped my hand in hers and gave me a comforting squeeze.

"She's careful. She's smart. And she's precise. She's an anomaly almost. I mean, she was a star athlete with a full ride to any college she wanted to, but she quit when she moved. I know she was injured and everything, but she wasn't so gravely injured to the point that she could never play again. She quit for a reason, and a part of me doesn't think she quit she the reasons that she told us."

"She said had secrets of her own, that she wasn't ready to share yet. She's… an odd one. Just like your mom, Ness." She grinned up at me and pulled me back in the direction of our house.

~~~FH~~~

"Emmett!" Ness was calling for me from across the hall. I rolled my eyes and tore myself off my bed to open my door. She was scowling down at her phone in her doorway, not bothering to look up at me. "Hanna just texted me and said she was going on a trip with her parents and she won't be back until after Christmas break." Why didn't she also text me? I looked at her, puzzled.

"So, you've heard from her then. I haven't heard anything." I crossed my arms and leaned on the doorframe. Ness rolled her eyes before looking at me.

"I told you, there are going to be parts of her that I'm going to know and understand better than you are. Don't be jealous, uncle." She winked and went back into her room, closing the door behind her. I shook my head at her retreating form and sauntered back into my room to grab my phone. And speaking of Hanna, she was calling me.

"Hey, I was just about to text you." I answered. There was shuffling on the other end before she spoke.

"Yeah! Sorry, I've been sick and then I got busy packing. I meant to call you earlier or at least send a text." She sniffed. Her voice sounded tired and scratchy. "Did Ren tell you I was going to be gone for a few weeks?"

"Yeah, she just told me. Where are you guys going?"

"California for the holiday. We're spending it at my grandma's house, they sprung it on me yesterday and I had just been so excited to visit that I spaced on telling you." Her voice was getting quieter, more tired.

"You sound exhausted, babe. Do you want me to let you go? You could use the rest since you were sick." She coughed before agreeing with me.

"I think I should nap, yeah. I miss you, and I'll text you when I can okay?"

"Okay. Have a good holiday, Han." I whispered, trying to hide my concern and my disappointment.

"You, too, Em." The line clicked and I sighed deeply before falling back on my bed.

Now what was I going to do with my free time?

~~~FH~~~

R&R