A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. My muses are kind of in overdrive right now. I just finished my Blue Bloods one shot and now they've inspired me to finish a Harry Potter sequel that I started but haven't been able to finish. I'm going to try to finish this one before I get too involved with the Harry Potter one but I can't make any promises. Sorry. Please stick with me. Come hell or high water, Hurt Like This will get finished. I love it too much to walk away from it.
EDWARD
I walked down the hall to Roxy's room. As I approached her door, I heard Taylor Siwift's Picture to burn blaring through the room. I cringed at Roxanne's taste in music. (A/N: For the record, I love Taylor Swift. I think she is one of the best artists out there. However, Edward doesn't seem like the country music type.) I knocked gently three times.
"Who is it?" she asked over the music.
"It's Edward." I said feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Can we talk?"
I hear her click the radio off and her sootsteps as she walked to the door. She opened it but stood in the doorway blocking my entrance. She looked like she had just finished her shower. Her still damp hair was pulled into a loose, low ponytail. She was wearing a black tank top with about half an inch of her abdemon showing. It wan't very low cut. And a pair of sweat pants. She told me that she didn't like to show more of her body than nessecary because of her scars.
"That depends," she said. "Are you done yelling at me?"
"That's what I wanted to talk about." I stated. "I owe you an explanation and apology."
"Fine." she replied and stepped out of the way.
I stepped inside and knew immediately that Alice was the one who decorated it. The room was covered in pinks and purples. The walls were painted a deep purple with a light pink trim. Roxanne's dresser was covered with hand stenciled with pink carnations and purple lilacs. Thankfully, her couch was black. I wasn't sure if I'd be comfortable sitting on a pink couch.
It felt awkward enough being in a room with that much pink. It looked more like a ten year olds room than a sixteen year olds. I wanted to ask her if Alice gave her any say in the decoration process but there were more important matters at hand. I sat down in a corner of the couch and tried to get a read on her. Unfortunately, she learned the easiest way to block herself was to sing the country music that she loved so much in her head. I hated country music. It was the only genre that I could not stand. She knew that. Which is why she chose to sing some song where the singer is trying to tell someone that no matter how girly they make him, he's still a man. (A/N: Cookies to anyone who can name the song.)
I didn't even want to hear what that was about. I supposed I couldn't get out of this one without actually hearing her talk. Not that I minded, people were just so much easier to understand when you already knew what they were trying to say. She sat at the other end of the couch and looked at me a little apprehensively. Wonderful! I had scared her.
"First," I began. "I want to apologize for overreacting earlier. But you have no idea how worried I was. When I heard you had left and didn't tell anyone where you were going, I freaked out a little. Esme figured you just needed to clear your head but I had a bad feeling it was something else. Then when you came home and told me that you had been alone with Kyle, I snapped."
"I know you were worried." she interrupted. "But I'm not the same human I used to be. I'm just as strong as he is."
"That may be true." I stated. "But after everything he did and said to you, you're mind is still very fragile. Especially when it comes to him. You may not think that because you wanna believe that you've gotten over it but it's true. He put you through hell and told you over and over how worthless and unimportant you are. He's convinced you that nobody in this world cared about you anymore. And at some point you began believing it."
"But, I know none of that's true now." she protested. "I've been away from his influence for five years."
"Yes, but if he really wanted to, he could have you right back to where you were five years ago. All he'd have to do is say the words and you'd believe him. It's completely pshycological. You wouldn't even be concious of what was happening.
Her concentration slipped and her thoughts came pouring into my head. She was thinking about what happened in the woods with him. He told her everything that happened was her fault. She thought of how, even though, she knew it wasn't, his words still made her feel stupid and pathetic.
She realized that I was right. The only thing that kept her in one piece in those moments was thinking of how she had to help Bella. However, she knew that if he attacked her with his words anymore, she'd go right back to being the defenseless human she once was again.
"Now do you understand why I was so upset." I asked after a minute. She nodded. "I care about you, a lot, Roxy. Regardless of our relationship and the thought of anything happening to you kills me. I know that if Kyle got in far enough, you'd do anything he says. I don't want that to happen. I know the things he's done to you in the past. I can't stand the thought of allowing those things to happen again. I would go crazy especially if I couldn't stop it. I don't wanna see him hurt you anymore than I wanna see him hurt Bella."
"I understand where you're coming from, Edward, I do." she explained. "But what you need to understand is this is as much my fight as it is Bella's. Kyle tore my life apart. He's hurt me in ways you can't even imagine. Yes, I've told you about it but it isn't the same as living through it. I had to go last night. Not just for Bella but for myself as well. The things you say maybe true and it's for those reasons that I had to do it. I need to get over the mental and emotional hold he has on me. It's the only way that I'll ever be able to truly move on with my life. I can't let them threat of him continue to scare me. I don't belong to him anymore. I have to show him that. And standing back and letting my family fight this battle isn't going to help anything."
I hadn't stop to think about things this way. She was right, though. She needed to be able to stand up to him. It was the only way to make her demon go away. Still, I didn't want her anywhere near him alone. Especially if no one knows where she is.
"Okay." I said. "Let's compromise, I understand your need to stand up for yourself and Bella but I don't want you going to see him again. Especially not alone. If he comes here looking for a fight then I won't stop you but I won't let you go after not without protection."
"I can live with that." she replied. "So how is Bella doing anyway?"
"She's good. She says he didn't come back last night but I can never be sure with her."
"What do you mean?"
"She has a tendency to downplay things so the family won't worry"
"I see. But I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth. Kyle is a very sick creature. If he visited her again, we would've heard it."
She made a good point. Bella always talked in her sleep. Especially when the dreams took an emotional or frightening turn. If she had dreamed about anything other than me, she would've started screaming again and Alice would've told me.
The thought that Bella could possibly be suffering in silence weighed heavily on my mind. It would be exactly something she would do. Even after everything, she felt like she was a burden to us. I wished there was a way we could make her see how much she means to us. How happy we are to help her.
"I'm sure she'd tell you if he did. She knows how serious this could be for her and all of you." Roxanne stated seeing the look on my face.
"I'll just feel a whole lot better once we've found and destroyed him." I stated. "I just can't believe there isn't a trace of him anywhere. I can't get a lock on his thoughts or his scent. It's like he doesn't even exist. The wolves found a couple memebers of their tribe dead on their side of the line last night. Jacob caught a scent that wasn't one of ours and followed. He followed the trail for a half hour then it suddenly disappeared."
"I know." Roxy replied. "He's always had a knack for disappearing when he needed too. After my transformation, I tried to track him because I wanted to confront him. Six months I searched but came with nothing. It was like he just disappeared. I don't know how he does it. It could just be something he's gotten good at over three centuries or it could be one of his gifts. I have no idea."
"Let's talk about his gifts for a minute." I stated. There were some questions I needed to ask her. I needed to find out everything that he was capable of. We needed every bit of information we could get, if we wanted to defeat him. "How many does he have? Where does he get them?"
"I don't know for sure how many or how he gets them. I'm not even sure what a lot of them are. I just know the ones he used to use on or around me." she answered clearly frustrated at not being able to help too much.
I heard footsteps in the hallway and no thoughts to accompany them. Bella must be finished with her human minute and heading downstairs. As much as I wanted to contnue this conversation with Roxanne, I didn't want to lose any time with Bella. I had lost too much in the time we had been apart. I wasn't about to lose more.
"It's okay." I told Roxanne. "The stuff you do know will be a major help. Carlisle wants to have a meeting tonight and we'll talk more about it then." Roxy nodded. "Right now though, Bella is heading downstairs for breakfast and I said I'd meet her there. Would you like to "join" us?"
I put air quotes around the word join and she laughed.
"That would actually be nice." she replied once her laughter subsided. "I haven't had much time to get to know her."
By the time Roxy and I made it downstairs, Bella was already sitting in front of a plate loaded with french toast and bacon. A large glass of orange juice sat beside it. Bella looked beautiful in a blue turtleneck sweater and a pair of light blue jeans. Her still wet hair was pulled back into a messy bun. A stared at her mesmerized as she pour syrup on her french toast. It took me a minute to realize that both girls were looking at me as if I was crazy.
"What?" I asked.
"Why are you staring at me?" Bella asked.
"I'm just admiring the beauty in front of me." I replied.
The blood rushed to her face as she looked down at her plate. I chuckled softly.
"Good morning, Roxanne." Bella said once she recovered.
"Good morning, Bella." Roxy replied.
I was surprised to find there was no tension in their greetings. In fact there was none in the body language either. I thought there would be some jealousy and anger issue to work through. As Roxy and I took a seat on either side of Bella and chatted happily about nothing, I realized just how wrong I was. It seemed the two were on their way to being very good friends. After awhile of their girly gossip, I chuckled as thoughts of Alice popped into my head.
"What's so funny?" Roxy asked.
"I was just think that Alice had better watch out." I explained. "If she doesn't, you could replace her as Bella's favorite sister."
"I love all of my sister exactly the same." Bella protested.
"Don't tell Alice that." I stated. "She thinks that she's your favorite."
"Leave it to the psychic to just assume these things." Bella said with a chuckle.
Roxanne and I joined in her laughter.
We spent the rest of the day talking and laughing. We silently agreed not to talk about last night or Kyle. We'd do enough of that tonight. Instead, Bella told us all about her senior year in high school. The rest of the family joined us as the day wore on. Bella had just finished telling us about the day Mike Newton asked her out right in front of jacob, granted he had no idea that Jacob was her boyfriend, when Carlisle came home.
Knowing what it was time for, all nine of us headed to the dining room.
A/N: I hoped that end didn't suck. I couldn't think of a decent way to do it. I hope it turned out alright. Not much to say about the chapter itself. I however, have to give cookies to mag721 who guessed two out of three times Edward was that angry. The three were; When he found out the Bella went to meet James, the birthday party incident when Jasper tried to attack her, and the night in Port Angeles when he saved her from those men. Well, that's it for today. Enjoy and please review!!!! I haven't really been getting the responses that I've been hoping for. Please, please review. I like to find out if I can improve and what you guys think in general. Please tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
