Into the Woods
By: Everleigh Allen
Chapter 5
Everyone who terrifies you is sixty-five percent water.
And everyone you love is made of stardust, and I know sometimes you can't even breathe deeply, and the night sky is no home, and you've cried yourself to sleep enough times that you are down to your last two percent, but
Nothing is infinite,
not even loss.
You are made of the sea and the stars,
And one day you are going to find yourself again. ~F. Butler
~O~
The house was quiet because both Charlie and Bella had turned in early; the day's conversation weighed heavy on both their minds.
Charlie had a night shift later that night and Bella was so emotionally drained that she fell asleep on the couch. She avidly ignored the four missed calls, six text messages, and a few posts on the social media sites from Renee.
Bella wasn't ready to talk to her mother yet, if ever.
Yes, she was being dramatic and she knew that but she was a teenager, after all.
Bella was conflicted. She understood that Renee had issues- deep seeded issues- but did that negate the fact that she was willing to end her and her unborn child's life in a moment of… of…
What would you even describe it as?
Anger?
Sadness?
Worry?
Depression?
Stress?
Anxiety?
She really couldn't know.
When she finally crashed, it was hunched over her computer desk, drying tears puddled on the wood.
So, imagine her surprise when a gleam of sunlight found her left eye. Bella groaned, turning over and putting the pillow she was laying on over her head to shield away from obnoxious sun.
Then it all clicked.
Bella bounded up, looked around, and wondered how on earth she was moved from the desk to the bed and covered with her grandmother's quilt?
They never used that quilt.
Carefully, Bella opened her door and seeped into the quiet, lifeless house. Charlie's door was closed, but that wasn't unusual when he was gone to work. She went back into her room, shutting her door as she wondered if Charlie had moved her when he woke up or if she had moved herself during the night.
Charlie most likely moved her. She was usually the kind of sleeper who didn't move much. She wasn't the type to wake up to move.
But he never moved her before. He was never one who would want to invade boundaries, especially when it came to his teenage daughter.
I was not alone last night.
Bella shook her head at her silly thought, but her mind started playing back a clearly irrational memory or maybe it was a dream.
Someone was there comforting her, rubbing her back and whispering kind words as her body shuddered from crying so hard until finally she fell into a deep sleep.
With a sigh, Bella moved to go get ready for the day, excited that after over a week in Forks she had plans to meet people her own age.
The potential for new friends was almost intoxicating.
Bella didn't remember feeling like that at any of the places that Renee had ever taken to her. She was hopeful that with her dad and new friends, she would finally feel cemented to one place long enough to grow some roots.
Maybe then Renee would stop asking her to come back to her gypsy, transient life.
No.
No matter what, Bella would never go back to Renee. Not now. Not ever.
With her new resolve Bella picked up her phone and sent a quick text to her mother.
Heard you called. I am fine, just busy. Talk soon. Xoxo ~B
Bella then picked up her envelope and card and ran her fingers lightly over the delicate writing with newfound excitement.
That was until her eyes lifted up to her closet and she realized she had nothing to wear to the Cullen's dinner.
…
Bella sat in her dad's truck on the side of the road.
She was watching the cars and trucks go by, but she wasn't in an area where cell phone worked.
Biting her lip she watched the window wipers swish back and forth, but the noise was like dragging razor blades over a chalk board.
"I am not going to cry." Bella said to herself. Crying was something Bella did when her emotions got the best of her, and she had been doing enough crying lately.
"Nope. Not crying." She said, watching a pair of headlights turn off the road and pull up behind her.
Bella made sure her doors were locked.
They were.
She watched as someone opened the car door and opened a Black umbrella blocking the view of their face.
So Bella did the only rational thing.
She got out her pepper spray.
"I may or may not cry now that a creepy is coming for me!" Bella screeched.
The person was walking up to her window so Bella opened it up an inch. That's all they were getting.
One inch.
There was a knock on the glass and Bella glared at the person, her hand tightening on the pepper spray.
"You have a flat tire." The man said, his face still hidden.
"How observant of you." Bella glared, tears brimming her eyes.
The man laughed, lifting the umbrella. "Don't be afraid, I am here to help."
"Excellent choice of soothing words, there creepy. My ill-ease has evaporated. Good job."
The man laughed out loud at Bella's sarcasm.
She thought she heard, "Edward's in for it with this one." But she couldn't be sure. She wasn't fond of mumbling.
Then, as if in slow motion with background music the man tilted his umbrella showing a beautiful baby face with dimples etched in either cheek from his smile. He was so striking that Bella's mouth popped open in what could only be expressed as an inappropriate show of mouth breathing.
There was drool.
The man smiled wider, but lifted his thick eyebrows in question, "You going to change it or would you like me to?"
"Well, if you mean am I going to get out of the truck so you'll have better access to me? Then no. I am not getting out of this truck, psycho killer dude. I am going to sit here with my handy pepper spray," she waved the handy pepper spray so he could see it, "until my dad gets here to save me, which is any minute."
"You must be Chief Swan's daughter, he laughed." The guy must have thought she was hilarious or something.
"Who are you?"
"Hi, I'm Emmett. Emmett Cullen."
Charlie gave the general run down to Bella about the Cullen's before she left.
He said that the Cullen's were a small family that had adopted a couple of kids a few years back and recently moved his family to Forks. Dr. Cullen also had an older couple of family members that lived close by, but they didn't have any children, yet.
Mrs. Cullen was quiet and petite. She liked to frequent the small shops that lined South First Street and was planning to open a small boutique with her daughter after she graduated, that year. Dr. Cullen was a doctor at the Forks Hospital.
"I am meeting the Cullen's for dinner, actually. I was on my way."
"It must be divine intervention, then." Emmett laughed.
He laughed a lot, actually.
Bella agreed that the man could change her tire, and he did. But she sat in her truck the whole time.
And by -the whole time- that actually meant about five minutes.
She also thought that he was loosening the lug nuts and tightening them by hand when she watched from the side door mirror.
She could be wrong, though, because that was very unrealistic.
She also didn't remember seeing him use a jack. She would have noticed the jack being pumped upward, right?
It was all very odd, but not enough to get out of the truck to investigate, either.
With a couple of taps on her truck, Emmett bounded forward, and Bella noticed that the rain had turned into a slight drizzle.
"You're all set!" He said through the one inch of window space. "Why don't you follow me to the Cullen house? It is kind of hard to find even without all the weather."
Bella agreed, starting her truck and after Emmett veered onto the road and passed her, she followed him.
About two miles down the road, Emmett turned into a small break of trees and Bella followed, hopeful that she wasn't going into some psycho killers trap.
It was entirely possible.
People are crazy.
Emmett parked his car and got out and Bella watched as he bounded up the steps and opened the front door. But he didn't go in; instead he stood outside and called in. A few moments later the house's occupants came outside.
The first was a small, black haired girl that looked about Bella's age wearing a stylish blend of denim jeans, dark shirt with a fitted leather jacket over it, and matching knee high motorcycle boots. The second was a tall male with blond hair, dressed in a plaid flannel and worn jeans, with worn brown boots. The third was a woman with caramel colored curls that fell over her shoulders and onto her fuchsia 1950's inspired dress. Her feet were heeled with stylish black patent leather.
But the last one… the last one actually took her breath away.
He stood, tall and delicious. Hands in his dark denim pockets as he leaned against the wooden porch pillar. He was an appealing mix of James Dean and Elvis with some UNF in there. His tan and cream sweater complimented his dark red hair. His eyebrows were arched with a curious- yet penetrating-stare.
Bella was suddenly happy that she was in her truck and able to take in each of the Cullen's since they were all looking in her direction.
They were all looking in her direction!
A cold sweat broke out over Bella's skin when she realized she was going to have to get out of the truck and meet them.
Looking like she did.
When they looked like they did.
.
A/N: You know what happens when you're husband has 3 days off? You get nothing done. :D Thanks for taking the time to read!