SM OWNS TWILIGHT

Chapter thirteen

"That sounds stupid!" I exclaimed, peering over Embry's shoulder as he scribbled down a verse of lyrics.

"Gee, thanks for giving it to me lightly." he replied, a look of mock hurt crossed his features.

I shoved him lightly on the shoulder and took the notebook from him. I picked up my pencil and crossed out a few of the sentences he had written and replaced them with my own.

"Here," I said handing him the notebook "look at this."

Nobody prays for the heartless. Nobody gives another penny for the selfish.

"Oooo" he exclaimed "that's good."

"I know I am." I said as I lit another cigarette.

"You've smoked at least half of that pack within the hour that I've been here," Embry reprimanded. "That's ridiculous."

"Shove it Embry," I retorted, taking a long drag.

"Do you know how terrible smoking is for you?" he said. "You're going to give yourself cancer."

"We're all going to die eventually," I said. "I don't see why it matters." I took another long drag and blew the smoke in his face. He grimaced and shoved me away from him. I laughed and sat up against the head-board of my bed.

Embry sat at the end of my bed with his legs crossed, notebook and pencil in hand. I watched as the pencil flew across the page. After a few moments he grinned and looked up at me.

"Alright," he said handing the notebook back over to me "tell me what you think about this."

You're learning how to taste what you kill now. Don't mind me, I'm just reaching for your necklace.

I read the lyrics and hummed in approval. "That's good," I said. "I have something."

I jotted down another line and handed the notebook back to him.

Talking to my daddy 'bout this little boy from Texas.

Embry read the lyric and brought his eyes up to meet mine. "Tell me about this guy you're always writing these songs about?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, taking another hit from my smoke.

"I mean, who are you always writing about? What the hell did this guy do to you?"

I glanced up at Embry as I hit the cigarette once more. Embry and I had always had an easy friendship. Hanging out was him was as easy as breathing. We didn't get serious often but when we did, I always felt better afterwards.

"They're about my ex, he cheated on me." I told him, down casting my eyes.

"Are you serious?" He dropped his jaw.

"As a heart attack."

"He's an idiot then," Embry said as a matter of factly.

"I just wasn't what he wanted I guess."

"Like I said, he's an idiot."

"You're too kind," I chuckled. I hit the cigarette one last time before putting it out in my ashtray.

"I'm serious Bella, I can't believe he cheated on you. Of all people, you're amazing." Embry said, grabbing my hand. I blushed ferociously.

"Yeah," I laughed without humour "right."

"Who did he cheat with?" he asked.

I was quiet for a few moments. I contemplated smoking another cigarette. I tapped the pencil on the edge of the notebook. Finally I looked up at him. "My best friend," I admitted just above a whisper.

"Oh Bells, that's awful!" Embry exclaimed. He squeezed my hand tightly with his fingers, he looked at me with sad eyes.

"Tell me something I don't know." I muttered, awkwardly fiddling with the pages of the notebook.

"You still have feelings for him, don't you?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Yeah, well... I suppose it is," he laughed lightly but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"You should try dating again," he suggested.

"I'd rather not," I replied curtly.

"Why not?" he asked. "What do you got to lose?"

"I'm just not interested in dating right now," I told him in a tone that ended the conversation. Embry nodded, released my hand and took the notebook from me.

"I think the chorus should repeat again right here," he said, changing the subject.

"Yeah, that sounds good." I nodded my head in agreement. I peered over his shoulder as he scribbled down another sentence.

Just get on back to me. You know I can't afford the medicine that feeds what I need.

"I really want to perform this," he said after a few moments of comfortable silence.

"Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"No joke, this-" he pointed to the notebook "is awesome."

"Seriously though?"

"I think we should do a full band performance of this song at Esme's this Saturday."

"A full band performance?" I laughed. "There's only one problem with that, we don't have a band."

"We can form one!" Embry exclaimed, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

"Who the hell would we even put in this "band"?" I asked using air quotations around the word band.

"Nessie can play bass," he told me. "And I know someone messes around with the drums a little. Then you and I both play guitar and sing!"

"I really don't want to form a band Embry."

"We're not forming a band necessarily, we're just doing it for this one song." he said.

"The song isn't even finished yet," I said.

"We can finish it!" He said excitedly.

"Yeah, we can finish it, but what about the bass and drums? I've never written that much of a song before."

"What if we all get together tonight and just mess around with a few notes?" he offered.

I groaned. It was obvious that Embry wasn't going to drop this, and I wasn't sure if I had the heart to tell him no because of how excited he looked.

"Alright," I said finally. "Fine, but only this once."

"YES!" He shouted and patted me on the back. "That's my girl."

"You do realize that Friday is three days away, right?" I said. "Do you even think we could get all of this done by then?"

"Have a little faith Bella."

-oooOooo-

It turns out that the "someone" Embry knew who messed around with the drums was actually his cousin Quil, who didn't just "mess around" with the drums. He was a drumming God sent from the heavens.

Like me, Renesmee wasn't too happy about forming this so called band, even if it was only for one night. I think Jacob talked her into it, Quil and Embry were his two best friends apparently, it only made sense that he was the one who got Renesmee to go along with this.

I had never met Quil before today, I liked him though. He reminded me of Embry a little. They both had the same longish dark hair and striking blue eyes. However Quil's face was round and a bit pudgy, while Embry's was long and angular.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," Renesmee groaned as we walked down the steps into Embry's basement.

"Stop bitching Ness," Embry called from the bottom of the steps. My eyes widened when we finally entered the basement. The room was decked out with band equipment. There were electric guitars hanging from the wall, a drum set in the middle of the room, with two microphones in front of it. I also noticed the huge amp in the back of the room that was probably about as tall as Renesmee.

"Jesus Embry," I breathed. "Where'd you get all of this stuff?"

"I was in a band in high school," he responded, shrugging his shoulders.

On the east side of the basement Quil was sitting in the middle of a large black couch with his feet up on the coffee table. He waved in my direction, smiling cheerily at me.

"Hi Quil," I said to him as I sat down.

"Did it hurt?" he asked with a grin.

"Did what hurt?"

"When you fell out of heaven?"

I laughed loudly when Embry smacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up Quil." He commanded as he took a seat next to me on the couch. Renesmee took a seat on the arm of the couch and turned to face us.

"Please tell me you and Bella are finished with this song," she begged.

"Paitence is a virtue Ness, stop being a sour puss." Embry said without looking at her.

"I actually finished the lyrics after you left," I told Embry as I pulled the notebook from my bag. Embry took the notebook from me and eagerly scanned the page with his eyes.

"I really like this," Embry said quietly to himself as he read over the last bits of the song.

"I was thinking earlier," he said handing the notebook back to me "that I could scream the "what if I can't forget you? I'll burn your name into my throat, I'll be the fire that'll catch you" parts of the song, instead of just singing them. What do you think?"

I thought about it for a few moments, playing the song in my head. First with Embry singing the lyrics, second with him screaming them. I decided that I agreed with Embry and that he should definitely scream them instead of singing them.

"Mmhmm definitely," I said "scream them."

I leaned in closer to his side and showed him the notebook. "See these lyrics here that are in parentheses?" I asked, pointing to the page. He nodded in response and looked up at me.

"I was thinking that you could sing those in the background," I suggested. "Like this," I said and opened my mouth to sing.

"Sunshine there ain't a thing that you can do that's gonna ruin my night," I sang in a high soprano voice. "And then you'll sing "but there's just something about you," I sang "and I'll sing "this dizzy dreamer and her bleeding little blue boy."

Embry appeared deep in thought for a few moments before he looked up at me and grinned. "Hell yeah!" he exclaimed "I like that."

"Let me see that notebook," Renesemee commanded. I reached over and placed the notebook in her open hands.

"I think I have something in my head for the guitar parts," I told everyone.

"Show us whatcha got," Embry smiled and pointed to his small collection of electric guitars. I rose from my spot on the couch and strode over to the guitars, cautiously removing the all black one from the wall. I noticed that this guitar was heavier than my acoustic, I prayed that I wouldn't drop it.

I reached behind me and connected the amp to the guitar before strumming a few strings on the guitar.

"Alright, here goes" I mumbled under my breath. I played the first few notes of the tune that I had been hearing in my head all day, humming the lyrics of the song as I strummed the strings.

From the corner of my eye I noticed Quil stand up and make his way over to the drum set. He quickly sat down and started playing, his tune molding perfectly with mine.

"Bella!" he called over the music. "Start from the top," he commanded. I nodded and started playing from the beginning. I nodded my head to the beat of Quil's drum line.

"Add the lyrics to that," Embry called as he rose and grabbed a guitar for himself. Renesmee followed right behind him and grabbed a bass before moving to stand on the right side of me. After grabbing his guitar and connecting it to the amp Embry moved to stand on my left side.

Renesmee played a few bass notes as Quil continued playing the drum line. "Speed it up a bit," I instructed them as I started playing the opening guitar notes. Embry followed our lead as he started playing, nodding his head to the music.

I tapped my foot to the tempo of the song as I played and opened my mouth to sing. I took a deep breath and leaned into the microphone. "Sunshine there ain't a thing that you can do that's gonna ruin my night."

"But there's just something about you," Embry sang, leaning into the microphone.

"This dizzy dreamer and her bleeding little blue boy. Licking your fingers like your done and you decided there is so much more than me. And baby, honestly it's harder breathing next to you, I shake. I brought a gun in as the preacher tried to stop me. Oh, my heart is beating for you anyway."

When Embry screamed his verse into the microphone I whipped my head around and gaped at him. He's so good I thought to myself. I smiled widely and nodded my head to Quil's drum playing. I loved the feeling of making music. It was invigorating. For a few brief moments, I wasn't thinking about Jasper or Alice. I wasn't the pathetic girl who found her best friend making it to third base with her boyfriend.

I was Bella, the girl with an awesome talent, who made music and loved every second of it. I felt a surge of energy and power as I played with Embry, Renesemee and Quil. For the first time I felt strong, like nothing could tear me down.

I never wanted the feeling to go away.

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'll start working on fourteen soon, I need to take a smoking break. It'll be posted within the next few days. I have some good stuff planned for this story, shits about to get real. No joke. Thank you for following this story and reading. Thank you to the lovely people who take the time to review. And thank you to the people who have favored this story. I truly love all of you.

Again the song everyone was working on in this chapter is called Caraphernelia by Pierce The Veil featuring Jeremy Mckinnon. For those of you who haven't listened to Pierce The Veil I really suggest you do. They're one of my favorite bands, they're really talented. I love 'em.

xoxoxo
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