Chapter 17

I own nothing.

"Who knew that having a human around could be this entertaining?" Emmett asked as we sat down for lunch.

The morning had been hell, trying to get from one class to another. I had a pass that would give me grace for getting to class late, but so far, I hadn't needed it, thanks to one Emmett Cullen. He had decided that his new favorite game was to watch me struggle for a few minutes before taking pity on me and carrying me around like I was a sack of potatoes.

"Leave her alone Emmett," Alice demanded as she placed my tray on the table in front of me. "She can't help that she's clumsy."

Emmett laughed, taking the seat next to me.

"I don't know if I should let you sit next to me," I grumbled as I picked up the sandwich.

"Awe, come on Bella. You know I was just trying to help you. Don't make me move," Emmett begged, whining just a tad. I had never seen such a giant of a man whine before. It was freaking hilarious if I'm being honest.

"I'll let you sit there for now, but if you piss me off during lunch, I'm going to call my dad to take me home instead of you," I said, raising an eyebrow at him challengingly.

"I'll be a model citizen. Scouts honor," he swore, holding up three fingers and crossing his heart.

"Em, I'm not sure that's the Boy Scouts salute," Alice said, grinning.

"I don't think he cares," Rosalie replied as she came and sat at the table. "Hello Bella. How's your ankle feeling?"

"Hi Rosalie," I said, smiling at the gorgeous woman. I knew many at Forks High School were terrified of the blonde beauty, but she had been nothing but kind to me.

"It's nice to see you at our table," she said, moving the food around on her tray.

"At our Super-secret spy table?" Emmett asked, grinning.

"Super-secret spy?" Rosalie questioned, raising her eyebrow as Edward and Jasper sat down. I hadn't officially met Jasper, but I knew who he was. Everyone knew the names of the Cullen's and Hales.

"Apparently we have super-secret spy conversations at our table," Emmett answered, causing my face to burn red.

"Oh really? What are our conversations supposedly about?" Edward asked, intrigued.

"I'm not sure," the giant of a vampire admitted, looking over to where I was trying to hide behind my hair. "You'd have to ask Ms. Swan."

Crap on a cracker, I thought, looking up through my hair to see five sets of eyes staring back at me. "What?"

"What are our super-secret spy conversations about?" Rosalie asked, grinning.

How do I find myself in these situations, I asked myself, rubbing my tomato colored face with my hand.

"I have no clue what your super-secret spy conversations were about, but I assume they were about super-secret spy things. Especially since no one ever moved their mouths or anything," I responded. "And how would I know what you were conversing about? You would be horrible spy's if I knew."

"We might just have to kill you if you knew what," Jasper grinned.

Not going to lie, his grin was extremely menacing, scaring me slightly. If I didn't trust the Cullen's, I would be trying to get the hell to LaPush as soon as possible.

"Not on my watch we wouldn't," Emmett replied, his grin gone, a slight growl in his voice.

"I was kidding," Jasper assured his vampire brother, his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.

"Bella, let me walk you to class," Emmett said as he stood and pulled out my chair with me still in it. He picked my backpack up and put it on and handed me my crutches. He put himself between me and Jasper, always on high alert.

"Emmett," I said after a few minutes of struggling towards my next class.

"Yes, Bella?" he asked.

"You know that Jasper wasn't really going to kill me, right?" I wondered, watching as he moved to stand closer to me.

"I know this, but my instinct says to protect you when something like that is said."

"Why?" I pondered aloud, genuinely curious.

Emmett stopped and looked down at me, watching me very intently. "I don't know if you are ready to hear that."

"What do you mean, I'm not ready to hear that? Since when do you decide what I should hear? Especially if it has to do with me?" I demanded, my temper beginning to flare.

"Bella," Emmett started, just as the bell rang. "I'll tell you when you're ready."

"Well, until you think I'm ready, don't talk to me," I said, hobbling into the biology classroom.

"Bella don't be like that," he sighed, but I wasn't listening to him. I was tired of mythical creature deciding what I did and didn't need to know.

"Hello Bella, nice to see you again," Edward said as he sat beside me.

"Fuck off Edward, I'm not in the mood. And you just saw me," I snapped, turning my back to him. I knew I was being a bitch, but they were all starting to get on my nerves. What were they hiding from me? Why did they think it was okay to keep things about me to themselves? I had a right to know what the hell was going on. And until they decided to tell me, I was going to ignore all of them.

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I was exhausted by the end of the day. I should have probably called Charlie at some point and had him come and pick me up, but I was too damn stubborn. I hated needing help and having your dad come pick you up from school was the very definition of needing help. And it infuriated me.

I slowly limped out the front door of the school, determined to figure out my own way home. I was still pissed at Emmett, and I didn't want to see any of the other Cullen's. I guess I'll just walk, I thought, as I walked down the sidewalk.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" a voice called from the road.

I looked over to see Emmett driving up beside me. I ignored him and continued to hobble down the road. I wasn't going to let him bother me. I didn't want to talk to him.

"Bella, please," Emmett begged, moving to stand in front of me. "I'm sorry. Please don't shut me out."

I continued to walk, slowly, past him.

"I'll answer all of your questions, if you just get in the Jeep, Bella. Please," he said.

I stopped, finally looking up at him. The smile that I was used to seeing was replaced by a look of sadness I'd only ever seen at a funeral, and I couldn't stand it. "I don't think that I'm asking for much Emmett. Especially if it has to do with me. How would you feel if something that had to do with you was kept from you? I'm not asking you to tell me anything secret. I just feel like I have the right to know things about me."

"I understand that, and I completely agree. Will you let me take you home so that I can tell you and get you off that foot? Please?"

I sighed, knowing I was going to give it. I was tired and sore, and I really didn't want to walk all the way home. Especially on that damn ankle. "Alright."

Emmett grinned and picked me up, shocking the crap out of me. He had me up in the Jeep and fastened before I knew what was happening.

"Emmett!" I exclaimed, startled.

"Yes?" he asked as he fastened his harness.

"I could have gotten myself up here," I insisted, knowing damn good and well that I couldn't have.

Emmett laughed and shook his head, choosing not to say anything about my ball face lie. He then looked over at me and took a deep breath. "What questions do you have for me?"

I turned to look at him, trying to decide how to go about this. I had so many questions I wanted to ask. Not only from Emmett but if I was being honest from Jared too. How do I word this? I thought.

"Well, for starters, what did you mean when you said you couldn't hurt me? From what I understand vampires most definitely can hurt me," I started. "And why did your family befriend me so quickly? I've heard that you have always kept to yourselves. Why stop that with me?"

"Bella there are a lot of reasons for that. We've always kept to ourselves before because there was really no one we wanted to get to know. You stood out to us. You didn't immediately want to be around us because of our mystery or the way we look. You went out of your way to stay away from us which was just as intriguing. You treated us like normal people, even after you found out about us being vampires," Emmett replied, looking over at me from the driver's seat.

"Why wouldn't I treat you like normal people?" I asked, startled. "You may be vampires, but that doesn't define who you are. You still feelings and thoughts and you can love. I see how you treat each other and know you are good. Plus, Charlie says that Carlisle is one of the best men he's ever had the pleasure of knowing and he's known about you for a while now. Charlie has always been a good judge of character and if he says it, I'm going to believe it. Plus, you proved it my first day of school here in Forks."

"See, Bella, this is one of the many reasons I," he started, but stopped abruptly.

"This is one of the reasons you what, Emmett?" I wondered, raising my eyebrow at him. If he was going to tell me what was going on, I expected the full truth from him. I didn't want anything to be held back between us.

Emmett sighed and ran his hand over his face. He pulled into my driveway and took off his harness and turned to look at me. I looked at me with such intensity that I wanted nothing more than to look away, but I couldn't in that moment. I needed to know whatever he was about to say. It had to know.

"Bella, from the moment that I saw your face I knew I would never see another woman the same way again. You have taken over everyone of my thoughts. If I could sleep and dream, its your face I would see when I close my eyes. You are everything that I've been searching for all these years, and I can't imagine going one more day of my life not being able to talk to you or see you, even if its for just a few minutes a day. You, Bella Swan, are my everything."

I took a deep breath, in utter shock at what this gorgeous man just told me. I was close to speechless. "What does this mean?" I whispered.

He brought his hand up to my face and ran soothing circles over my cheek. "You are my mate; my reason for being." He leaned closer, his lips nearly touching mine.

"The hell she is!"

Thank you so much for all of the reviews, likes and follows. It makes me so damn happy to get reviews and to know how you feel about this little story of mine. I'm sorry that Jared wasn't in this chapter, but you can bet that he will be in the next one. Review and follow. And as always, Happy Reading.