Disclaimer: D.O.I.
Chapter 9
"Hunting"
I sat in my room watching the seconds tick by on the clock. I was sitting on the seat in my window, facing my room. I was going to go hunting in about and hour, or so I'd told Edward. I had been pretty bored since then, so I began to watch time go by.
It was funny how slowly it seemed to pass for me now; I was much faster, my reflexes were quicker and, strangely, my thoughts were amazingly fast too. In all of one second, maybe two, I could recall or think about a lot that had happened. Time seemed to pass so unevenly now.
I simply sat in silence and listened to the clock. As I watched the clock, I realized that I was also picking up other noises. If I just listened, I could hear everyone in the house stirring, doing their normal, daily things. I could hear quiet murmurings of conversation going on throughout the house, and I could even hear a TV on somewhere. I smiled, the TV must be Emmett or Jasper, all the way downstairs. I tried to see if I could hear anyone else. I couldn't tell who was where or what they were doing or saying, so I tried to listen to different parts of the house. I tried to focus on the left part of my room toward the floor which, to my knowledge, was where Rosalie might be, working on her car in the garage. I didn't hear much, but after about two minutes, I thought I heard a tool clanking and knew that was probably her.
I looked back at the clock. At the most, only three or four minutes had passed. I got off of my seat and headed toward my door. I would go see Rosalie.
I went down the two halls, made it to the top of the stairs when I just broke into a run and went the rest of the way until I made it to the garage doorway. Rosalie had the hood of her M3 open and was bending over something next to the engine when I walked over to the counter closest to the car. There was a big toolbox open with different tools spread out over the counter. I leaned against the counter and watched Rosalie. Perhaps I could pick up a few things while watching her work on her car.
"Hi Rosalie." without looking up, she replied,
"Hi Courtney."
"Mind if I watch you?"
"Whatever, it's fine…"she put down a greasy rag and a tool she was holding, examined more closely what she was bent over, and added, "Could you hand me a gear wrench?" I turned around to look for it. I was right when I thought that I could learn a thing or two about cars, just watching her; I didn't know anything about them, and I wasn't even quite sure what a gear wrench was. As if sensing that, she also said, "It's a silver one that looks like a small tube is coming out of the end." I found it and handed it to her.
"How long have you been working on cars, Rosalie?" I asked her.
"A few years." she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Sometimes it's kind of relaxing; a hobby that kind of helps pass time." I smiled and nodded. Being a vampire, you had nothing BUT time!
We kept talking for a little more, and every now and then she would ask me to hand her some certain tool. The subjects of our conversation ranging from how to speed up the cars, which car was the best for you, the things to be looking for when you buy a car, and she eventually told me how to hotwire a car. When she finished telling me the best way, she said that she shouldn't have said anything, but she didn't care if I only used her methods when I really needed to. Other than that, every now and then she would sort of test me - ask me what I thought was best for the parts she was dealing with for which scenario. It was pretty fun to talk with Rosalie; we were sort of bonding, in a way. After a while I asked her,
"So, are you the only one that works on cars?" By then I had walked over to her side and was standing next to her. I had a better look at what she was doing - it was very interesting. I used to wonder how mechanics knew what parts go with what, which way to put it on and just… things like that. And I was right when I thought that I would learn something; it was like I had just entered auto mechanics 101 with Rosalie!
Before she could answer, I heard Edward's voice come from behind us, Edward was walking over. He said,
"Actually, I like to work on cars, too. Sometimes Rosalie and I work together." Rosalie just nodded in agreement.
"Hi Edward," I said.
"Hi Courtney." he replied. I looked back at what Rosalie was doing and she asked him,
"Hey, were you going to work on the Volvo?"
"No, actually, I came in here to ask Courtney something." She just nodded again and kept working. I looked at him and he continued talking. "Are you almost ready to go?" I looked down at what I was wearing: I still had on the red shirt, khaki pants and polka-dot shoes Alice let me wear. Edward was now wearing a pair of jeans and a white button-up shirt, a little more casual than what he had on before.
"Should I change?" I asked, confused. Was it necessary to change when you hunted?
"No, sometimes I don't usually change, but it's more comfortable." I bit my lip, deliberating. He added, "You don't have to change if you want to. And I came down to see if you were ready because you said that you wanted to leave at about this time." He watched my face as I thought.
I looked at my shoes once again; they wouldn't stay on after a while if I kept running at vampire speed. I didn't really want to ruin anything that I had been given by Rosalie or Alice to wear -- after all, there's always the possibility that they might not want me to stay with them much longer after staying with everyone here in Alaska; that was probably just common courtesy… even vampires had a sense of that. Making my decision, I told him,
"Ok, I'm going to go get ready. I'll meet you by the door." He nodded and I ran out of the garage all the way up to my room. I stopped in my doorway and looked around my room.
Where would one of my t-shirts be? I wondered. I walked over to the armoire and opened it T-shirt, t-shirt, t-shirt. Not seeing any, I closed it and ran into my closet. I saw a light blue sleeve showing among the clothes hanging up and grabbed it. It was a button-up, three-quarter sleeve shirt, but it looked comfy enough. I took it off the hanger and quickly changed into it. I looked on one of the many shelves in my closet, looking for another pair of pants and saw some light wash jeans. I grabbed them from the shelf and put them up to my waist, seeing if they would fit ok. Not really caring, I quickly changed into them too. I left my other clothes on my closet floor, kicked my shoes off next to them, and looked for a different pair of shoes. I saw a pair of bright white tennis shoes and put them on.
I walked out of my room and stood in the hallway. I shut my door and went left, to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. I looked at my reflection. I was still pretty, a little taller, hair longer -- nothing much had changed to my appearance… since I became a vampire. My hair was still brown, everything other than my pale skin was the color it used to be. Even my eyes.
I opened a few drawers, looking for a brush. In the second one on the left, I found a bunch of hair accessories. I grabbed a black hair elastic. I might need this, I thought. I opened the last drawer, the farthest on the left, and found a variety of brushes and combs. I quickly ran the brush through my hair and then whipped it up into a ponytail into the elastic. Some of my bangs still hung in my face -- that hadn't really changed -- they were pretty long, grown out a little.
I ran down the halls, was about halfway down the stairs, and thought What are you running for? It's not like he's gonna be mad for waiting for you. Then slowed to a normal, human walk. I made my way down the rest of the stairs and continued on through the living room to the front door. There I found Edward and Esme talking. I smiled and walked up to them.
"Hello, Courtney." Esme said, turning to greet me. "I see that you and Edward are going hunting." I nodded my head. "Would you mind if I joined you?" I saw that she hadn't changed, but it wasn't really a surprise. Esme looked fine in what she was wearing, and from what I understood of Edward telling me about changing to go hunting, we were kind of going for the comfortable, easy to move in type clothes.
I nodded my head, my smile widening and told her, "Of course you can, Esme. The more the merrier, right?" I wondered briefly if that was the right thing to say about hunting -- it felt kind of weird to say that -- but Esme simply laughed and nodded her head.
"Yes, the more the merrier, Courtney." She said. Edward smiled a crooked smile. Hmm. He's got a cute smile. I thought. I watched Edward's face to see if he heard me, as a test. Nothing changed, so he hadn't been hearing my thoughts. That was good, I guess.
"Well, we should be off." Edward said. He opened the door and walked out. Esme gestured for me to go, a smile still on her face. I smiled in return, nodded my head to her and followed Edward.
"You've never really hunted in a group before have you, Courtney?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder at me. I shook my head no. "Well, it's really the same as hunting alone, you just kind of meet up when you're done and go back home…. Nothing really elaborate about it." He said.
"What if you somehow end up going after the same thing?" I asked him. I really liked the Cullens and the coven that we were staying with right now, but I still got kind of edgy around other vampires, and I guess that being a newborn, I do get kind of territorial. And if I was hunting, letting my (vampire) self go wild for a bit and someone else was going for my prey…. I couldn't really explain it, but it made me sort of mad, even to think about it. Defensive. The voice in my head whispered. Yes, I guess it made me defensive - very defensive.
Edward seemed to think about that. "You know, that's never really happened before. We all go off in different directions, usually. Just go for something else if someone's got scent of something before we fully make that transition of 'losing' ourselves to hunt ." As he answered he seemed trouble just a little trouble with wording some of that.
I couldn't really blame him. I could kind of tell that he was avoiding the words like "vampire"; I usually only though the word, it seemed… I don't know, weird to use it out loud. Probably because it was true; that I was a vampire! Ever since my "change", I had been experiencing feelings I had never felt before, and I suddenly realized that some were probably shut off from me - I might not feel them again.
That's only a "might", Courtney. I thought. It's not like it's no longer impossible to feel some things.
I realized that here I was again, thinking about the past being sort of a painful thing, and sort of trying to avoid thoughts on the subject of being a vampire! I shook my head a little and focused on the present once again, trying very hard not to think.
Esme spoke up, altering the subject a little. "Which way should we go?" We continued on in one direction, with trees beginning to surround us here and there.
"I think that if we keep going this way and then head a little to the right, we'd be going east," Edward said. He then added, "And then we could avoid the town more easily." He glanced at Esme over his shoulder and gave her a slight nod. I wondered if they were having a little mind conversation. What was I saying, of course they were! I decided to just forget about it and kept walking.
We were walking in a funny-shaped zigzag thing of a line. Edward was in front, I was about two steps behind him, off to his right shoulder. And Esme was walking a little behind my left shoulder, more like she was lining up with Edward. I looked up at the sky. We were directly under some cloud cover, and even though the trees were blocking my view, I could tell that the sun was beginning to set in the west.
The sun was weird here in the north; it was too low in the sky. My brief thoughts were interrupted by Esme's voice.
"Should we start running?" She asked. Edward slowed his pace dramatically and said,
"Yes, I think this is a good point to start running." So he picked up his pace again, escalated into a human-paced run, and got faster until we were going at more of an effortless 'vampire' run.
I tried to keep up with them by keeping pace with Edward by almost mirroring his footsteps. And I made sure that Esme was behind me by keeping my ears open, listening to any noise she would make. We ran for a while until Edward slowed down once again, but still at a very fast run.
"Alright," he said, slowing down a little more. "Right now, we're just a few miles away from the house, so we're ok to go hunt." Then he seemed to be mainly talking to me. "Like I said before, this is just like normal hunting; you can basically go where you want to, keep going straight or branch off somewhere else, whatever you choose to do; just make sure to keep away from any people." He said.
I felt that Esme's presence was gone behind me and I glanced over my shoulder to check. Indeed, she was gone. I looked back at Edward and realized that it was nothing to get alarmed about; she was merely doing what we were supposed to be doing on this trip - hunting. Edward glanced at me and I smiled at him. I waved goodbye and then came to a complete stop. I watched as Edward kept going and I found myself surrounded by trees.
This was much colder, though. There was snow and as I looked around, the forest seemed kind of gray to me. The trees were frosted, the bark was definitely gray, and the sky was darkening still. As I looked at the sky, I had a small flashback in the back of my mind: I was inside a warehouse thing, looking outside through an open garage. The sky was about the same dark blue-black color with stars beginning to dot the sky, there were just a bunch of trees a little bit away from the door and I had the feeling like… I was being watched.
My mind snapped back to reality again and I shivered, but not from the cold.
The cold didn't even really affect me at all; my breath didn't become vapor in the freezing air, I didn't need a coat. Heck, I probably didn't even need the shoes I was wearing!! That thought made me strangely mad; and with sad, frustrated realization, I now knew why saying the word "vampire" out loud or something that might imply it was sort of uncomfortable to me.
I could never change! I would never get more mature than I was now, never really grow up, never go back to be with my family, never see my friends ever again! I could never really be married, I would never have children, never have a family of my own! I would never, ever have a normal life, ever again! And everyone else I knew in my "previous life" would. They'd grow older, face normal situations, get married, have a family, and then eventually die the normal way!!
But me? Nope, not me! I was freaking immortal!
All I had from that life was a dirty pair of jeans, dirty and ripped shirt and jacket, and my sad, little iPod that was my most precious, treasured possession now!
And just look at what I was doing! I was out in a frozen wasteland outside a small town in Alaska, looking for food!! Oh, no, not the regular food that you would eat, I was looking for blood!! Yes, I needed blood to survive!
There was a small, rational part of me in the back of my mind that spoke up and peacefully told me, Courtney, calm down, you're not the only one to go through this. But I was far beyond reasoning with myself right now.
True, not only was I searching for sustenance in the liquid form, but there were two others in this forest looking for it, too. Two others! And there were at least ten more of "my kind" at a house a few miles away from where I now stood.
I started growling deep in my throat then felt a bit surprised at myself. I could feel a trace of shock on my face, but pushed the surprise away.
Let me growl, I thought, the rational part of me seeming to give in a little. Let it go, Courtney, I thought fiercely to myself. And then a feral snarl ripped from my throat, both only slightly surprising me now, and cutting through the silence I was previously in. Let it go, Courtney, just let it go! You're different now, you don't even recognize yourself,… you're a MONSTER!
And with the thought of "monster" going through my head, I gave a loud, frightening roar and swung my arm out to hit the tree on my right side.
I heard the 'crack' that the tree made as my hand made contact with the bark, splitting the wood. I turned my head and watched with a tiny trace of awe and almost fear towards myself as the tree, that could probably be anywhere from one to two hundred years old and somewhere from four to five feet thick, begin to split and then fall to the ground, broken.
I could feel something in my eyes now, like when your eyes adjust to light and the pupil adjusts to how bright or dim it is. Sure, you probably couldn't quite feel that, but being as amazingly sensitive to basically everything as I was now, I could only faintly feel something that was sort of like that. My eyes were changing in some way.
A little off in the distance to my left from where I stood, a bear's grisly growl sounded at the noise I made with my roar and breaking of the tree, probably sensing some sort of danger, as really nothing in Mother Nature could have quite caused the noise that I just had caused all on its own.
I ran towards the bear and saw it near a bunch of bushes, next to a deep den. Since it was still winter, I had probably woken it up from it's hibernation. At seeing me, it became extremely irritated and growled, almost roared at me. But it was nothing like the noise I had made before, and being afraid didn't register anywhere in my body. I wanted a challenge now.
I crouched and made a small sneer at the bear as -- probably sensing I was a little more threatening than the average human, and on top of being irritated -- it rose to it's hind legs and roared at me. But still, compared to me, it was like a little growl, and not quite as fearsome. I pitied the bear a little, but jumped at it.
Instead of aiming right for the bear itself, I almost collided with it's huge paw and landed on the other side of it. It turned and made a long, low swipe for me. I dodged it and jumped for it again. This time, I jumped onto it's shoulder and clambered my way to it's back. It roared in fury, but to me it was more of a loud bark. Having had enough fighting with the bear, though it was short, I ended the little fight and killed it.
I drained it, drinking all I could, and when I was done with the bear I flew through the forest, looking for something else. I came upon a deer and later, a cougar, more like a mountain lion, but I didn't care enough to specify which of the two it was. When it was done, I ran again, for a longer time than I had before, and circled my way back to the fallen tree.
At the sight of the tree, I stopped running and just stood, looking at it.
I began to calm myself down, and as I stood there, the rational part of me began to come back, and I realized what I just done. I saw that I was panting, and immediately slowed my breathing down to a normal pace; I didn't need to breathe like that!
I quietly walked over to the fallen tree and sat on the ground, leaning my back against it. I gazed around me at the darkness that had closed in. A gentle wind began to pick up and I started to relax.
I wondered where Esme and Edward were. I had just hunted in almost less than an hour since we've been here, and I knew I would be alright for as far as hunting went. With a bit of shame, I could tell how crazy I had just gone, throwing my little hissy fit and ended up killing a tree.
It was a little more than a hissy fit if you broke a tree. I thought sarcastically, laughing sadly and bitterly to myself.
I guess that the whole reason that had gotten me so angry at first was the fact that vampires existed.
It wasn't the Cullen's fault, I didn't blame them; they were nice.
But it was just that vampires themselves actually, really existed. Not only that, but I've become one! I'm mythical, I'm fake, I'm a ton of folklore and fears, and yet I'm a reality. It was ridiculous.
You always think that "it's never going to happen to me", I don't have to worry about that; it's never going to happen.
"And then it does." I whispered to the night. It actually happens to you - you've become the little, tiny percentile that actually do have to deal with it.
But it's being a vampire that really gets me. I know now that maybe I'm not the only one to go through this, or something sort of like this, but really!
My thoughts went everywhere, going mainly from my old family to my new one. I knew that I was probably just being paranoid, or making myself worry, but would the Cullens really let me stay with them for longer than being here in Denali? Not only things about the Cullens, but what about my old family? How were they coping? Christmas was coming, do they even still live in the same house? In almost the seven months that I've been gone, did they move? How is my brother and sister? It was thoughts like these that made me see that I wouldn't really have any sort of peace of mind until I could somehow see them again, but that was nearly impossible.
And I really need to control myself better - letting my temper get the best of me like that was unacceptable. I was glad that no one had to see that. Sure, I'm still kind of new; but I knew already that not all vampires are as "immature" or "moody" as I am because I'm a pretty fresh, new vampire. I was suddenly so mad, though, and I just lost it! And no matter what, I need to work on keeping my self control in check. Especially around others, regardless of who (or what) it is. No matter what happens, I need to behave.
I was trying to figure out a way to settle my "family problems", and I realized that I was quite deep in my thoughts when Edward walked up to me.
He stood in front of me, a few feet away from where I sat. I looked up at him. He was looking at the tree with an eyebrow raised, then he lowered it and looked at me and said, "Hey Courtney."
"Hi Edward," I said, looking back down. "Are you finished hunting, already?"
"I would ask you the same." he replied. He sat down next to me and I brought my legs up to my body and rested my chin on my knees. "But, yes, I am finished… Well, basically. This area is a little more populated than it was the last time we were here, and it was easy to catch something."
I felt his gaze on me, but didn't look up. I was kind of ashamed of my behavior; even though I knew neither Edward or Esme or anyone else saw me go all crazy and lose my temper like that, I still felt like an irresponsible idiot. And though I tried to hide it, I was almost 100 sure that he could tell there was something on my mind.
"How did you hunt? Are you finished, too?" He seemed a little surprised as he asked me.
"Yes, I'm done. I found quite a few animals." I tried to just act normal and gave a slight smile with my reply. It didn't seem to work. We were just silent, listening to the sounds around us, and I knew that he was still trying to decipher my expression.
I internally cringed when he eventually came right out and asked, "Are you okay?" I was hoping that we could both just move on and keep talking or something, and this was just the subject I was hoping he would avoid.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied, trying to sound somewhat convincing. My light, pretend cheerfulness was empty even in my ears.
He put his hand on my shoulder and I looked at him. His expression was soft and his eyes had this curious look in them like he genuinely cared that something was bothering me. He reminded me of a really protective, caring older brother - one that I never truly had.
Of course I loved Logan, he was my big brother and all! But even though he was always the person I could go to if I needed advice or comforting (usually, if something was wrong, he could tell the minute he walked into the same room as I was in, and he'd immediately try to help fix my problem) , Logan wasn't always there. Of course he was family, but we both had different things going on in our lives, things getting crazier as life went on, and I had very rarely seen him since he went to college. And that was about three years ago now.
"Courtney," Edward said quietly. "If there's something wrong, you can tell me." I looked at his face, trying to trust him. He was willing me to trust him with his expression, and I knew that I could, but I guess that I was still just feeling bad... feeling weak. And I didn't like feeling weak.
Before I could answer, he furrowed his eyebrows a little and said, "You know, it's kind of frustrating for me not being able to hear your thoughts."
At that, I had to laugh. It was a quiet laugh and I leaned my head back and looked at the sky as I did.
"Seriously," he said through my laughter. I could hear a slight smile in his voice as he continued. "I can still hear your voice in my head -- that hasn't gone away -- but I either have to focus so hard to hear your thoughts that it almost hurts, or I don't hear them at all."
My laughter died down and I sighed.
"I'm just really worried about my family." I confessed. I glanced at his face and saw a bit of sadness and understanding in his eyes. I looked away again and continued. "It's going to be hard for me to go on like this without some sort of closure. I need to say goodbye to them in some sort of way, but I'm not sure about how I should do that." I examined my hands as I thought about what I should do. I felt Edward take his hand off of my shoulder and glanced at him from beneath my eyelashes.
He was also examining his hands, folding them on his lap as he seemed to be thinking too. I looked at his face and then he looked back up at me.
"You know," he started. "I know how you feel." He did?
"You do?" I was a bit confused. What did he do about it? He was born a long time ago, too. They told me on the way up here to the other vampires' house.
"Well, sort of." He looked back at his hands. "I don't really like to remember it, it was among my own little… 'dark ages', if you will." He looked back at my face. "I went off on my own for a time, I left Carlisle and Esme." I tilted my head to the side just a bit. Was there a special reason for why he did that?
His expression became somewhat pleading.
"In summary, I began to get frustrated with hunting only animals like Carlisle and Esme instead of doing… what vampires really hunt….. So I eventually left them and went off on my own for a while."
I tried to listen quietly, my attention all on him. I could tell that as he told me this, it was a little uncomfortable for him to let me know what he did.
"I pretty much did go astray from the lifestyle I had started out with, but I hunted only those who posed danger to others." He paused and looked at my face to gauge my expression. I wasn't quite sure what he saw -- I was trying not to look prejudiced or anything; I wasn't! -- but he talked a bit quicker, trying to explain.
"I was a newborn then, new to this life, and I just wanted to see what it was like to be a normal vampire. I didn't hurt anyone that was innocent; with the advantages I have," he tapped his forehead. "I could tell whether or not my prey was someone who could go on living a good life, and someone who wasn't exactly the nicest person you would meet." He kept his eyes on my face, watching me.
"So," I started. "You only went after the bad type of people?" He nodded. "Oh."
I looked down. Even though I wasn't going to do anything like leaving the Cullens and go off on my own, I knew what Edward was talking about. And I was grateful that he would share something like that with me. I knew that it was always kind of hard to admit mistakes and weaknesses you had, and it must be even harder for Edward, sort of like me and my stupid little hissy fits.
"I did come back to them, though; I felt bad for what I had done and decided to just let nature take it's course." He paused. "Well, as natural as vampires get." I looked at him and he smiled his crooked smile at me. "You know what I mean." He said. I returned a smile and leaned back against the tree. I extended my legs out on the ground in front of me and said,
"Thanks Edward. I know that it was probably hard for you to tell me that. So just… thanks." Then I glanced at the tree we were sitting against and so did he.
I decided to change the subject and said, "Well, I guess that I should tell you that I was the one to break the tree," I looked at his face and he gave me a small, teasing smile. I gave him a half-serious scowl. "I feel bad for doing it, I didn't mean to! It was just in the way or… something!" I briefly recalled my semi-karate chop thingy that resulted in hitting the tree. While I was talking, he had begun to laugh. I looked at him, feeling a little irritated. I really felt bad for getting all mad and everything, and I was hoping that after he gave me his little confessional, he wouldn't laugh at me for telling him about my tantrum, though immature as it may have been. I really did feel kind of stupid about it!
"Why are you laughing?" I asked him, not hiding my irritation. For some reason I felt even more like a dork as he kept laughing.
"Nothing, nothing." He said, trying to stop. "It's just," he broke out into another little peal of laughter. He calmed down a little and said, "It's just that when I got mad, I went off on my own -- I was about as young a vampire as you are now -- and I was a complete rebel," He suddenly became serious. Sometimes he had weird mood swings. "Not hunting animals like I should have been. Of course when I came back I felt bad," Then his lightheartedness came back a little and he continued. "But when you got mad just now, you broke a tree and felt bad for that." He laughed some more.
I didn't see what he was getting at. I scowled. "What are you saying?" I asked, more irritated than before.
"I guess I'm just saying that… we're 'vegetarian' because we felt bad for the things we hunted, and you do too, pretty much," He looked at me and I nodded my head, agreeing with him and urging him to go on. "But you broke this huge tree, and even though you truly didn't mean to, you're just feeling a lot of remorse for it, I guess." I nodded in understanding. It was true; I knew what he meant now. But why was that funny? Oh well, whatever, Edward can be a dork if he wants to…. Though it was hard for me to imagine this guy sitting next to me in any way as a dork. It just wasn't… Edward.
"I guess I'm just saying that you're kind and sympathetic." He said. "Even though it was a tree." He smiled sarcastically at me. "Plus, I hope that I never make you mad; I wouldn't want to end up like the tree." He smirked at me and I gave him a playful shove.
"Well, let's go find Esme if we're done." I said.
"I think that we should hunt for a just little longer and then go home. Just in case." He told me, standing up. He offered me his hand and I took it. He pulled me up and added, "And Courtney," he stood closer to me than he usually did, but kept talking. "If you want to go see your family again, know that I support you. And I want you to be careful."
I questioned him with my eyes, but he just gave a shrug and a smile and said, "Just as a precaution."
Author's note: Ello! Sorry for the wait. I hope you liked this chap (it was my longest one so far!). And i hope it wasn't too sappy; she's just kind of trying to 'move on'. You know how Edward said that it took him a while to come to terms with what he was? Yeah, I'm just kind of trying to speed up the process and get to the parts that i can't wait to write!! Yay!
And Happy Spring Break! I hope you have fun! (Or at least that it's better than mine.) And just so you know, it's pretty much ridiculous how happy I am when I get even two reviews! They make me so amazingly happy that it's kind of sad... Anyways, please review!
-ELS
