A/N: I don't own these characters
CW/Trigger Warning: This chapter has drinking to excess (outside of a college party context) and a secondhand description of sexual assault. Please see the bottom for more details if you think that could be an issue for you.
EPOV
March
E: Hey! We have the same spring break :)
B: Crap. Umm…can I call you right now?
E: About to go in to lab. Can it wait until after? Is something wrong?
B: No. Just…need to talk to you about spring break. What time do you think you'll be done with lab?
E: Not sure. Probably like 7ish?
B: I've got work. Can I just call you later tonight?
She didn't call that night and when I tried at around eleven it went straight to voicemail. Then the next morning I woke up to see she'd returned my call and I'd slept through it. Three days later we finally got a chance to talk on the phone. Three days where my imagination could run wild. Maybe she already bought tickets to come down and visit me? Yeah right, that wouldn't have had a response of 'crap.' Maybe she and her friends were planning a trip somewhere. Maybe I wasn't invited. I tried to temper images of her running around on some beach in a bikini with a dozen dudes chasing after her. Maybe she thought it was finally time to rip off the band aid and end things. The mere thought of that stopped me cold and caused my stomach to drop. Heck, maybe she was just worried that I wouldn't want to spend a week in Forks with her. I could deal with that. By the time she picked up the phone I was simultaneously dreading but expecting any possibility.
"Hey," she answered on the fourth ring.
"Finally. I was thinking we'd never get a chance to talk," I said at a weak attempt at levity.
"Right. RIght to it. I…I need to stay at school for spring break. I've got this-this massive group project coming up that's due right after and the only real time to work on it with everyone is over the break."
"Oh," I responded dumbly. It sounded perfectly reasonable but I couldn't wrap my head around it. She had a group project that required working over spring break? Her entire group was staying the week there? It didn't really add up but not wanting to think too hard about it, wanting to accept the simple explanation, I tried to work around it. After all, she apparently told me everything that happened at school with her friends.
"So you'll just be at UDub all week? I could come see you. I don't really have any plans and my parents would probably love it if I stopped by to see them."
"I don't-I don't know how much fun you'd have up here. I'm either going to be working on this stupid project or working. I-I managed to pick up some extra shifts since there won't really be anyone else here. And…there's like one day where Charlie's coming to visit and that's going to make everything else that much tighter of a squeeze."
"I could come with Charlie."
"No! I mean, no, I haven't really gotten to see him and he's got this whole thing planned for just the two of us and just, no. Sorry. I'm really really sorry. The semester's halfway over anyways. Then we'll have the entire summer."
Her arguments were weak, vague, and didn't make a ton of sense but my pride didn't want me to beg my girlfriend to spend time with me and my heart didn't want to find out why she was actually shooting me down. Maybe she did just have work and a group project and maybe Charlie was just being uncharacteristically clingy. Maybe. It was certainly possible.
"Okay. Fine. Yeah, I guess. Summer'll be here before we know it."
"I really am sorry. I was looking forward to seeing you too. This all just came up all of a sudden." She actually sounded genuinely disappointed. Selfishly, that made me feel a little better, somewhat relieved. She also sounded exhausted. Maybe she was actually getting buried under whatever school work English majors did have.
"I've got to get going. I've got a class soon. Love you. Talk to you later."
"Bye. Talk to you later."
I sighed and collapsed across my bed. I did have to get going to class shortly, but I needed to sulk first. I tried to focus on the disappointment of not seeing Bella but all I could really focus on was what she was actually going to be doing over spring break. The leaden knots in my stomach kept whispering Jacob but I tried to ignore that. After all, they were just friends and the idea that they'd hook up was apparently just absurd. I missed her and while she had sounded genuinely disappointed that we wouldn't be spending our coordinating weeks off together, I couldn't help but wonder if I was projecting. Maybe she was feeling disappointed, but not by the missed chance at quality time. It felt like she was pulling away more and more as time went on.
I got up to get to class, feeling no better after my minute of sulking. Not only was I not going to see Bella, my assumptions that I would be seeing her meant that everyone else had finalized their plans for break with my assurance that I wouldn't be joining them. Emmett, rather than partying in Cancun or some place similar, was surprisingly going back home to help out with his family's business. Jasper and Alice were going to Cancun along with a handful of others. My own parents were going to be spending most of that week away at a medical conference being hosted in Hawaii. And then all my friends from back home had their own plans, although we hadn't been keeping in touch nearly as much as we had the prior year.
I called up my mom on my way to class and made plans for a quick weekend visit before they headed off to Hawaii. She was thrilled to get the chance to see me. This simultaneously added guilt to the pile as it sunk in that I really hadn't seen nor spoken to my parents nearly as often as they would have preferred, while also really rubbing in how much of a loser I was.
Yippee, I could spend spring break hanging out with my parents when they could squeeze me into their free time.
The rest of the day dragged. All my classes were in full on lecture mode, preparing us for the glut of exams that would happen at the end of the week right before spring break. I'd really been looking forward to blowing off some steam with my girl. I was exhausted and stressed as hell and with how 'busy' she always seemed to be, I was sure she could use a break as well.
Assuming that she wouldn't be busy doing the same thing over break that she's been doing all year.
I shook the thought out of my head. It was unproductive, jealous, and bitter. She had to work on a project. She had classes and work. Clearly our schedules just didn't mesh up and that's why it took her so long to return my calls and texts. We were fine. I was fine.
I sat down on the couch in a huff after getting home at nine PM. Emmett was bustling around the apartment doing god knows what and we hadn't dared acknowledge Jasper's room ever since Emmett walked in on him and Alice right before Valentine's Day. There's just some things you don't need to know about your friends and you especially don't need to witness them in vivid detail.
"You having people over tonight?" I asked him more out of a compulsion to be friendly and polite than any actual curiosity. The noise of too many people and too loud music might've helped me stay awake while I studied for way too many upcoming exams.
"Not really. Rose might come over but we'll see. She keeps bailing on me."
I kept my mouth shut about that. I didn't want to tell him that if a girl kept making excuses to bail on him, especially when she'd been pretty friendly with someone else, that it was probably over. So instead, I simply shrugged and nodded my head as a neutral response while he kept puttering around the place pretending to straighten up. At five minutes after seven, five minutes after she was supposed to come over, she called him to tell him she couldn't make it. I didn't ask him why and I don't think he asked her either.
~GA~
I got through that last week of exams and then was on a plane towards Washington to see my folks for the weekend. Then I was headed back to California where at least the weather would resemble spring a little better even if there would be as much going on at my apartment as there was in Forks.
My mother was delighted to see me, greeting me with squeals and hugs and kisses. My dad hugged me in greeting, a wide smile on his face. I tried to appear happy to see them but my mood was soured by the person who wasn't there who I knew not to expect.
"So are you going to be seeing Bella at all this week?" my mother asked from the front seat of the car.
"No. She had a major project come up that she needs to spend the week working on. She said she's going to be so swamped that she's barely able to squeeze in a one day visit from the Chief."
"Charlie's visiting her this week?" my father asked. I could see the furrow of his brow in the rearview mirror emphasizing his confusion beyond that of a follow up confirmation.
"Yeah, just for a day."
"Huh. I ran into him a few days ago at the store and he said he was taking a trip somewhere this week for the whole week. He looked like he really needed the break too."
I responded with a murmur of something and shoved the piece of information to the back of my brain where I could ignore it along with all the other inconsistencies I'd gotten from Bella. I didn't want to think about any of it. Masochist that I am though, I sent her a quick text saying hi. She didn't end up responding to it until after midnight that night, over ten hours later when I was already asleep.
As bummed as I was, the weekend with my parents was pretty nice. My mom made all my favorite foods and I got to sleep in my old bed that was way more comfortable than the one in my apartment. My parents were in vacation prep mode though so I volunteered to go to the store to pick them up a few things for their trip while they got their things together and got the house ready for their absence. Things were going well until I ran into an annoyance from the past by the travel toothpaste.
"Cullen! How's it going man?" Mike Newton asked with way too friendly of a grin. I took a deep breath and turned to face him, trying to figure out how to get out of this chat as quickly as possible.
"Newton," I responded with a nod in his direction that I hoped would convey how little I wanted to talk to him. We'd never been friends but something about going away made everyone suddenly believe we were any time we ran into each other.
"You back for break too?"
"Just for the weekend. Heading back to Stanford tomorrow."
"Right, you're in California too. Man, that Cali tail is off the charts. Forks girls don't have anything on these Cali chicks. Like, Jess was hot, and Bella was too but jeez. I guess that's LA though. Stanford girls the same?"
By this point I was seething. We weren't friends, we were never friends. As much as I didn't like hearing him objectify women in general, I especially didn't like hearing him talking so casually about my girlfriend like that. I really didn't like that he'd dropped her name so casually, as though it was his place to comment on her at all. I tried to keep giving him the most basic answers trying to get him to get a clue while using a tremendous amount of effort to not tell him to just fuck off. I might've been an adult but that didn't mean I wanted my mom telling me off for cussing people out in the grocery store.
"I guess. I wouldn't really know."
"What? You still hung up on Bella? I know you guys went out for a while but-"
"We're still together. Going strong," I said firmly, trying to keep the grimace on my face from being entirely noticeable. Things with Bella were good. She was just busy. And that's why I was headed back to school for spring break alone.
"Really? Oh. I just assumed when she went to UDub instead of going down there with you…"
"Yeah, it sucks that she didn't get in but we've been making it work."
His face scrunched up into a skeptical look. "What are you talking about? She got in."
I sighed. Shit. I didn't really think about the fact that she probably hadn't been broadcasting her rejections. "No, she didn't. It sucks but they rejected her."
"No they didn't. She got in. I saw the acceptance letter and everything. She said some BS about Stanford only being good for STEM while UDub was good for English or something. It sounded weak so I just assumed that things were rough between you two and she had something for her up here."
"Nope. Still together," I said as my mind reeled. I got away from Newton and somehow found myself back at my house though I had no recollection of how I got there.
Bella got into Stanford. Newton knew Bella got into Stanford. He saw the acceptance letter. Why did Newton know Bella got into Stanford when I didn't? Why did she show him her acceptance letter? Why didn't I know Bella got into Stanford? Why did Bella tell me she got rejected?
All the thoughts spiraled into one final one.
"she had something for her up here."
Jacob lives less than half an hour from Forks.
What are the odds that Bella just happened to meet a whole group of people who grew up twenty minutes from her in college? That she just so happened to room with the one girl in the group? Her and Jake sure seemed close for just meeting in September.
No. That was stupid. It didn't make any sense. She wouldn't have kept him a secret before only to gush about him now. And she certainly didn't seem to mind talking about him now. No, apparently she told me everything about what they did while they were together, about how they go for long walks by the water and hang out in his room and make their friends think they're sleeping together.
I didn't know when I'd started crying but suddenly tears soaked my shirt collar after running down my face. My parents were out, having needed to go somewhere to do something for their trip. That's why I needed to go to the store where I ran into Newton who, despite Bella's assurances that she thought he was annoying but friendly enough, knew something this big about her that I didn't. I went downstairs into the empty house and grabbed a nearly full bottle of something from my dad's liquor cabinet and brought it back upstairs. I'd drunk about a third of it when I tried to call Bella.
Voicemail. I tried again. And again. And again. Images of her with Jacob swam through my spinning head, causing my stomach to churn. I took another large gulp of the liquid that'd lost its burn long ago and called Emmett. He answered after the second ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey Em."
"Edward. Dude. What's up? You partying it up back in Ladle?"
"Pshh. Yeah. Party of one. Going back to Stanford tomorrow. Getting the practice in now."
"Everything alright man?"
"Yupp. My dufus buddy who's been chasing pussy for the past two years can answer my calls better than my lying girlfriend so everything's fine."
"Dude, what happened? Are you sure you're okay?"
"She's been lying to me. She lies about everything. And the shit she does tell me doesn't even make me feel any better. You'd think the least she could do for me would be to tell better lies." I took another large swig from the bottle.
"Are you all by yourself for the night? Is there anyone else around?"
"My parents are getting ready for this big trip to Hawaii for my dad's doctor conference. My mom's going with. They should be back…" I looked at the clock. The numbers blurred together making them unreadable. "...soon."
"Okay man. I want you to stay on the phone with me at least until they get back. Jeez, I don't think I've ever seen you have more than one drink so of course you've got to get shit faced alone. Are you still drinking?"
"There's still more in the bottle. I can't find the cap and can't stop thinking about her. I don't want to think about her. All I can think about is her. Do you think she thinks about me?"
~GA~
A shiver went through me and woke me up, causing my body to lurch and a sudden rush of whatever was in my stomach came up. I opened my eyes and shot up, discovering I was already in the bathroom on the floor. I hurled into the toilet right next to me and then leaned against the cold porcelain tub. I closed my eyes but that only made the spinning worse. Opening them made the pounding in my head nearly unbearable. I groaned in misery.
"You awake?" my father asked from the doorway in a serious tone. I couldn't tell if he was intentionally speaking in too loud of a voice or if his usual volume was being amplified by the pain of my first ever hangover.
He handed me a glass of water and a couple of pills. "Take those and drink all of that. Then take a shower. We need to leave in an hour and a half for the airport." I nodded in response and he turned away.
"I'm sorry Dad," I rasped out before he'd fully left the bathroom. My tongue felt thick and my mouth felt like it was full of rancid cotton.
He stopped and turned his head back to face me. His face softened and he sighed. "We will be having a talk about this. And we'll have a long car ride today to do it. Now come on, drink your water and shower. I'm not going anywhere with you like that."
I drank my water. My stomach wasn't sure how it felt about it but it stayed down and made me feel a little more human. I examined the rest of me. I was in my undershirt and boxers but had no memory of removing the rest of my clothes. I smelled like death. I looked in the mirror after finishing my water to discover bloodshot eyes with dark bags under them. My complexion was ashen with kind of a green tint to it. My hair was slightly matted and sticking up everywhere but that wasn't too different from how it normally was. Overall, I'd definitely been better.
The shower helped bring me back to life as did the toast I nibbled on. I briefly wondered how people managed those big, greasy meals while hungover but switched my thoughts from that when the mere thought of crisp, fatty bacon caused the dry toast in my stomach to churn.
The car ride was silent for the first hour, just long enough for me to get my hopes up that the talk I was dreading wouldn't happen. If only I were so lucky.
"So, do you want to explain why you nearly emptied a full bottle of scotch in the less than an hour we were gone last night?" my father said in a way that made it clear it was a demand, not a question.
I shrugged. I didn't know what to tell them. I was ashamed by what I was sure they came home to even if I couldn't quite remember. I also definitely didn't want to talk about why I started drinking in the first place.
My mom took the reins. Great, they were tag-teaming me. "Edward, we know that drinking is part of going away to college and we wouldn't judge you for having a good time on the occasional weekend. But binge drinking can lead to serious consequences. Drinking alone and drinking yourself to oblivion-"
"Mom. Dad. This was a one time thing. Every once in a while I'll have like one drink during one of Emmett's parties every once in a blue moon. Congrats, you guys get to see me the first time I'm blackout drunk and get to be there for my first hangover."
"Edward." My dad snapped. I winced at the volume. "Watch the tone. We're being serious. This is serious. You're all the way down in California away from your family and friends and Bella-"
I snorted. I didn't mean to but when he mentioned 'Bella' it just came out.
"What?" my dad asked. "Please explain what is so funny about this."
"It's not funny. Sorry. Just," I exhaled heavily and rubbed my eyes "things have been tough recently. I ran into someone last night and found some stuff out and it just kind of came to a head. It was stupid, I know. And I know this isn't the right way to deal with things. But this isn't a regular thing. Heck, this was a one time thing. I swear, I've never done something like this before. And honestly, with the way I'm feeling now, I'm not in a huge hurry to do it again."
"Now that you've told us what you think we want to hear," my dad started.
"Honey, what happened last night? You can talk to us," my mom finished.
"I-I don't really want to talk about it."
"Tough," my dad responded. "We spent last night making sure you didn't choke on your own vomit or need your stomach pumped. What happened? It's got to be serious. This isn't like you. At least, it wasn't."
I sighed again and closed my eyes. "It's Bella."
"What happened to Bella? Is she alright?" my mother asked in a panic. Of course she'd more likely believe that something had happened to Bella than that something happened between us. We were the perfect couple. Or so everyone in the town of Forks always said.
"She's fine. At least, as far as I know. I haven't actually heard from her this weekend," I suddenly realized. I hadn't had any missed calls on my phone meaning she hadn't returned any of my calls from the night before. "And that's kind of the issue. I…I don't think the long distance thing is working out too well. And yesterday…yesterday I found out that she did get into Stanford. She just decided not to go for some reason and told me she didn't get in."
My mom turned and gave me a sympathetic look. It only made me feel worse. "Honey. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation. She told you she got in?"
"No. I ran into Mike Newton last night and found out."
"Why do you think Michael would know when you didn't?"
"I don't know. They were in the same grade. They worked together. Maybe they were closer than I realized." I wasn't sure if it was saying the thoughts out loud or the lingering effects of the hangover with the motion of the car that made my stomach turn that time.
"It sounds like you guys need to have a nice long talk about it. Going off to college is a big change but if it's meant to work, it will. You guys'll figure it out." I wished I had my mother's optimism.
I got back to school later that night and discovered that Emmett had also cut his spring break short.
"You didn't think after that phone call last night I was just going to let you spend the week moping around here all alone, did you man?" And true to his word, he didn't let me mope.
Campus and the surrounding area were pretty dead since everyone was gone but my original plans for the week combined with Emmett kept me busy. I put in some extra hours in the lab, much to the pleasure of the professor running it, I got ahead in my readings for pretty much all my classes, and the two of us spent our evenings hanging out. We saw a couple movies, played some video games, went out and had a pretty good week. For once I saw Emmett's seemingly slacker attitude in a new light. He respected that I was working during daylight hours and even got some studying in himself as well, but we also had a ton of fun. It also helped that he never brought up my last night in Forks nor the reason he was back. I barely remembered calling him but apparently we spent the better part of an hour on the phone that night. He only hung up when my parents assured him they were there. I could only imagine what I must've said and I was so grateful that he didn't bring it up in either a serious context or to mock me. Spring break ended up being exactly what I needed. That didn't mean it was how I was spending the next one. No, I would make sure I had something concrete planned well in advance. I couldn't be sure where mine and Bella's relationship would be in a year's time but I realized I couldn't spend my college years waiting around for her. She obviously wasn't waiting around for me.
By the time everyone got back the following weekend, my stress levels were at a low for the year. It was almost enough to forget about the fact that Bella and I had barely exchanged a handful of text messages over the course of the week or the fact that those messages were so bare and impersonal. We'd talked once for all of five minutes and she sounded distracted and upset. I tried to tell myself that her group project was going poorly even though she didn't even mention it. Or maybe her visit with the chief hadn't gone all that well, not that I even knew which day he was supposedly visiting her. After that night in Forks, I was trying to think as little about all the inconsistencies with Bella as possible and just focus on how my own stuff was going. Like my mom said, it'll work out one way or the other.
While most people weren't coming back until Sunday, the day before classes started, enough people were back by Saturday that Emmett decided he wanted to throw a party and I decided to proverbially let my hair down and join in. I wasn't going past my usual one drink though, I still hadn't gotten past my first and only night of heavy drink nor the morning that followed.
The night went on and a surprising number of people made their way into my apartment considering it was still technically break. Cups accumulated everywhere and any potential seat was sat in. Emmett had the music up a few hairs over what I'd have preferred but I was determined to spend the night kicking back and not letting any of these common irritants get to me.
So that's how I ended up with a half drunk cup of who-cares-what in my hand sitting on my couch hanging out with people I knew the names of but not much else. They were mostly Emmett's friends and so they were people from his program or from the dorm last year. I was talking to this guy Garrett for a while when he suddenly had to step out to answer a call from his girlfriend. I took a large gulp of my drink and tried not to think about why that action stung. Trying to keep my brain on the here and now, I turned to the other person sitting on the couch, Tanya, a girl who lived in the same building as us the prior year and had been in a couple of my first year intro classes.
"So what's been going on with you?" I asked, trying to be friendly and conversational.
"Oh, not much, you know? Went to LA with my sister for spring break. She's up at the University of Alaska and missed seeing the sun."
We chatted like that for a while. It was all surface level but she kept her focus on me and listened when I talked, her responses added onto the conversation. It was nice. The constant thunder of the music and all the people meant we needed to stay close to hear each other and I found myself shifting closer to her and her to me. My brain was buzzing and for once I wasn't thinking about the girl I'd have preferred to have there with me. I started to notice that she was pretty in a conventional sort of way. Her skin was freshly sun kissed, her strawberry blonde hair was silky smooth, her bright blue eyes sparkled as she spoke. Her entire face was filled with joyful expression. Her mouth moved around a smile every time she spoke, her plump lips curving upwards framing straight, white teeth.
"So are you still with that same girl?" she asked. "I haven't seen her around much."
I would've expected the question to sting, to exacerbate the ache and anxiety. Or at the very least I would've expected it to draw me out of the hypnotic stupor I'd fallen into watching her eyes and her lips. It did none of that.
"She hasn't really been around," I responded softly, leaning into her and causing her to respond in kind. I didn't have a plan for the next few seconds, was merely letting my body do what came naturally as it caused the anxious buzzing in my brain to fade to a pleasantly calm static. And I'll never know what I would've done as the proverbial bucket of ice water came suddenly in the form of Rosalie screeching.
"Don't touch me!" she shrieked at a confused and frustrated Emmett who took a step back with his hands up as she said it.
"Listen! I'm sorry I'm not some hot shot rich boy. Why don't you go back to Royce and his douchey frat friends and quit being such a fucking tease!" Emmett shouted. I couldn't look away and neither could anyone else. While drunken arguments weren't exactly a rarity, they were for these two. Emmett was typically too easy going to shout like this in public and Rose was normally too socially conscious. I briefly wondered if it was the alcohol or if this fight had just been coming for so long that it couldn't wait until they were in private, not that I'd even actually heard them argue in private.
Rosalie seemed to realize all this as soon as I did as she looked around. "Is that what you think?" she asked in a much quieter voice, sadness replacing the previous hysterical edge to her voice. Her reaction was more similar to if he had slapped her while calling her a whore. She looked around the room again. "Can we-can we talk about this later, not in front of everyone?"
Emmett nodded and I took that as my cue to snap out of my stupor. I stood up and started announcing to people that the party was over. "Thanks for coming everyone but it's late. I want to go to bed and I want you all to leave. It's been a great time, no need to help cleaning up. Thanks for offering. You know the deal. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here." The sudden interruption combined with my awkwardness led to everyone shuffling out pretty quickly until it was just Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Rose, and me.
On her way out, Tanya reached up on her tip toes and kissed me on the cheek, whispering in my ear about catching up some other times. I tried to shake off the guilt that sentence brought. I hadn't even done anything and I wasn't entirely sure that if I did that it would matter. Now was not the time for those thoughts though.
The five of us sat around the living room. Emmett had another beer that he was ignoring. Rosalie's eyes hadn't left the ground. The rest of us were glancing around awkwardly, not sure how to proceed.
"Rose," Alice suddenly spoke up. "If it's something you want to talk about, we're here, but we don't need to be."
"Thanks," Rose said, her mouth pulling into a half grin that seemed more resigned than anything else. "I-I do want to talk about it. But not tonight. Right now I'm just tired. You mind if I crash here tonight?" she asked Emmett. He nodded and we each dispersed to bed.
I woke up the next day surprised to find Emmett on the couch. Rose left some time late that morning. Emmett didn't want to talk about what had happened between the two of them and I didn't see much of him for the next few days. Rosalie didn't come over in the meantime. When Em was around he spent a lot of time pacing and muttering to himself, but not in the way he used to about Rosalie Hale. This was more distraught, less frustrated.
By Thursday of the first week back to classes after what might have been the worst spring break for everyone, Emmett, Jasper and I were hanging out over some pizza and some shitty action movie. Alice was at her own place for once.
"You wanna talk about it?" Jasper finally asked the normally jovial but recently melancholy yet agitated Emmett.
"I-I don't really know if I can?" he responded as he picked at his pizza. Another oddity as he typically inhaled his food.
"Hey, whatever you wanna say man," I reassured.
"I'm a fucking asshole," he declared. Jasper and I just stared at him blankly, not sure how to respond to that.
"She hasn't been hooking up with King," he eventually continued, sneering slightly when he said the name. He was still picking at the toppings on his pizza and keeping his eyes downcast. "They were hanging out, yeah, but apparently it was a 'her dad's friends with his dad so they hang out' sort of thing. She wasn't into him, even if their parents wanted them to be. And so they were hanging out one night and she'd had a couple and he had more than a couple and then he came onto her. She said no but he kept going and she kept saying no but he kept going. Eventually he had a couple of his pledges come in and hold her down for him. Then a few of his buddies got a turn too. And she's been hiding out dealing with all that all this time."
He got up from his chair and started pacing around. "That happened back in October. Months! I've been on her case for months trying to get into her pants, giving her shit for mixed signals, and being a total asshole accusing her of hooking up with him and playing us both! And she's been dealing with this."
"Em," I uttered, trying to come up with something to say as I was saying it. "It's not your fault. You didn't know. Did she contact the police or something?"
He smiled without humor. "I asked her the same thing and she nearly took my head off. Went on about how it would be he said she said and at the end of the day she was the girl drinking in a guy's bedroom in a frat house. She had some bruises on her arms but that's about the only injuries apparently."
I gulped and nodded, now at a complete loss for words. This sort of stuff was PSA stuff, stuff you heard about. It wasn't the type of stuff that happened to people you know, people you care about. Jasper bit his lip and then sighed.
"Em, don't take this the wrong way but," Jasper started. "Dude, she's been hanging out at the frat house for a while. Hell, according to her own story she was hanging out, drinking in his room. It wouldn't be the first time a girl had a few too many, got a little wild, and then cried rape the next day when she woke up and decided she regrets it. She's been playing cocktease with you for months. Who's to say she hasn't been doing the same thing with him and then couldn't put her money where her mouth is? Seems like she's just way too much drama if you ask me. Again, no offense man."
I didn't notice Emmett getting redder and redder as Jasper kept talking, too distracted by my own rage and frustration. Rosalie was pretty high maintenance but she wouldn't make up something as horrible as this. I clenched my fists, trying to keep from exploding on one of my best friends. Apparently Emmett had no such qualms as he started shouting at Jasper, shoving him and telling him how fucked up everything he'd just said was. After a certain point I got between the two of them and sent them to their own rooms to cool off. A couple of minutes after that I knocked on Emmett's room.
"It's me," I announced, wanting to avoid any possibility of being on the receiving end of some misdirected but well justified anger.
"Yeah!" was the welcoming response I got.
I went into his room and sat heavily at his desk chair, sighing heavily.
"Shit's fucked man. I don't know what else to say. Jas was way outta line though. Yeah, Rose has been playing hot and cold for the past year pretty much, but that doesn't mean she deserves…that."
Emmett simply nodded and resumed his pacing. I spent the rest of the evening in his room, our roles from the previous week reversed as I played the part of making sure he didn't unravel too much while he tried his hardest not to fall apart. And for the second time in as many weeks, I tried not to think about the similarities between the way Rosalie and Bella had been acting.
Bella would tell me something that serious, wouldn't she?
A/N: So, a lot just happened. How are we feeling about all of that? I also just want to let you guys know that there's going to be two more chapters that are completely written and then an epilogue. I actually wanted to get the main story done before posting this, hence why it took so long. Thank you for your patience.
Now, I'm going to get on my soapbox for a moment. I kind of hate sexual assault as a plot device when it's not given the proper weight. I feel like it gets used in the Twilight franchise a lot for the sake of being the worst thing ever but without going deeper into that. I didn't want this to happen here. I wanted this to be a story about, not just Edward and Bella adapting to relationships in college, but about a lot of the stuff people go through as they enter young adulthood and figure out themselves and their relationships with others. Sexual assault and rape are not rare things. Because of the point of view of the story, its focus is more on a handful of bystanders and not the person/people who are directly involved. People react to the news in a bunch of ways, some of them better than others. And just to be clear, it wasn't Rosalie's fault. People should be able to drink and hang out with a friend without fear of having violence done to them.
TW, drinking: Edward, feeling overwhelmed and sad, gets blackout drunk by himself.
TW, sexual assault: Emmett describes the details of Rose being raped by Royce and his friends. Edward asks why she didn't go to the police and Jasper implies that she's lying/at least partially at fault. Emmett shoots both of them down (Jasper way more than Edward). If you want to skip it, it starts after the paragraph beginning with "I'm a fucking asshole." The next paragraph is his telling of what happened, the one after that is his reaction, the next four paragraphs are Emmett, Jasper, and Edward discussing their various reactions.