I woke up with a screaming, crying Bella, thrashing about in my arms. I looked down and her face, it was contorted into a painful and agonizing expression, she was still asleep and she was fighting, or trying to, get out of it.
I jumped up and pressed the call button, it took at least three minutes for a nurse to come in. I had to restrain her from hurting herself; she kicked, punched, scratched and bit. A nurse came in with a syringe and sedated her, then restrained her; I had to leave the room.
It made me sick and I defiantly would be placing a complaint in about the time it took them to take action, it wasn't busy, it was Forks for fuck sake. They were just being lazy little shits.
I left to grab a coffee and call Renee and see how Emmett was doing, but before that I'd ask the doctor on an update so I could give Renee one, we both wanted to know when she could come home and what this specialist would be able to do.
…
"So, dude, what happened with Bella?" Peter asked as we made our way over to where the rest of the gang where waiting for us, at the end of the street.
"I don't know, she's in hospital, but when I ask why, my mum just cry and shakes her head…" I said kicking at a stone on the road. The sun was beating down on us and the light breeze blew down the street.
"I over heard mum saying she was raped, when I asked what that was, she just told me it meant a bad man had hugged Bella" Jasper said shrugging and ruffling his hair from out of his eyes.
"I don't believe that shit though" he then said, shocking me, Peter just chuckled and punching his shoulder told him to stop showing off.
"If mum heard you talking like that she slap you upside the head" we all chuckled at Jaspers pouted lip.
"So, when is ol' little Bella back?" Peter asked as we got to Rose, Alice, Charlotte and Edward. Edward was looking at the sky, Charlotte had her head in her hands and was sobbing, while Rose tried to hide her tears and Alice was her bouncy self.
Why was everyone, apart from Alice, Jasper, Peter and I, acting so…sad?
"Oh, Em!" Charlotte howled as she threw her arms around me and sobbed into my big frame.
"Urmm, yeah?" I asked, patting her back awkwardly.
She pulled away from me, looking all puffy eyed and shocked. Rose stood up as well, letting the tears run down her face now, and looking like I had a clown stuck on my face.
"Why aren't you upset?" they both asked in unison, I just looked at Peter and Jasper, they looked at the girls like they were mad and shrugged at me.
"Why would I be upset? Have you destroyed my light saver?" I asked looking around for it in a panic.
Rose pulled Charlotte away from me, and they started talking like no one else was there apart from them, like they had a little bubble around them, I was seriously worried about my light saver, until the quiet whispers perked my ears.
"If he doesn't know, then we can't tell him, we aren't even supposed to know. Does that mean he hasn't seen Bella? I wonder if she's ok…when you think she'll be back." Rose rambled, looking away from Charlotte half way through.
Charlotte looked apologetic and sad all at once, I was so confused.
"Shut up, if we can't tell him then let's stop talking about it." Charlotte said as new round of tears came.
"Ok, seriously, what's up?" I asked, they both looked away, more trying to hide tears then not making eye contact.
"Nothing…" they both sniffled.
"Bullshit!" Jasper shouted, earning a smack in the arm from Alice.
"Quit swearing!" she chided, I cracked a smile, Peter just chuckled at sat on the pavement next to Edward.
"Come on, your crying and talking about my sister here, I think I have a right to know!" I said, losing patience.
"Ok…" Charlotte started but was cut off by Rose; she stood and walked off, not looking at any of us.
"If you're going to tell him, can you just get it over with already, instead of dragging this out? I think it's rather disrespectful, since it's like your gossiping about it and it's none of our business, this is about Bella and we shouldn't be talking about it." Edward said, following Rose back to her garden.
Edward had always acted older than his age, but he was smart and a good kid, like any of us, he would protect any of us at any cost. I think it made him sad that Bella was ill and he couldn't help her, he loved Bella and many of us thought there was something going on between the two of them, but they never admitted it.
"Sorry" Charlotte said, her head going down into her lap.
"You going to tell me what's happened?" I said taking a seat next to her and pulling her to my chest, Peter and Jasper took seats on the pavement next to us, listening intently.
"Bella was raped." She said, sobbing and sniffling at once, trying to breath.
"Yeah, we know…" I said she looked up at me, shocked and in disbelief.
"You know? But your acting so…normal" she said, wiping at her tears.
"A bad man gave her a hug, big deal" I said, flicking my wrist, why were people making it into a big deal?
"That's not what rape is…" she said sadly looking down again and picking at a dead leaf.
"What is it then?" asked Peter, throwing a rock.
"You have to promise not to tell anyone I told you…" she said looking at us all pointedly.
"We promise." We all said and then she took a deep breath and looked at the sky.
"You guys know what sex is, right?" she asked, not looking at us. We did know, but didn't get why it was relevant.
"Yeah, get to the point!" Jasper snapped.
"Well, rape is where someone forces you to have sex with them. Some older man beat Bella up, raped her and then left her, in your tree house." She said looking at Peter and Jasper.
"W-what?" my mind was blank as I thought of what had happened to my baby sis.
"You heard" she said, standing up, she left following where Rose and Edward had gone.
Me, Jasper and Peter sat there, looking out at the sky, not knowing what to do. That's when Alice started hanging to Jasper, she had become a permanent belt around his hip recently, and he often bitched about it, but kept his opinions to himself when it actually happened.
"Aw, come on Jazz, don't cry" she said rubbing his back and hugging his side, we just sat there, watching the sun drift behind the houses and letting tears fall.
"I'm…" I said kind of pointing off with my thumb as an explanation of where I was going, they stood wiping there shed tears away, Alice nearly dropping to the pavement with a thud of the sudden movements of Jasper. I would have laughed in different circumstances.
"We'll come too, see ya later Alice" Peter said, I absently waved at her, she smiled softly at us, sad, and then turned to Jasper.
"I'll see you tomorrow then?" she said looking at her feet, I felt sorry for her, even though I didn't know what Jasper felt for any of the girls of the group, I knew he didn't like Alice that way, he would've said.
"Urmm, sure, bye" he said, uncomfortably, scratching the back of his neck. It tugged at the corner of my lips, his awkwardness was quit funny.
"Emmett! Peter! Jasper!"
"That's mom…we should get going" Peter said, grabbing Jasper away from Alice, we ran away from her giggling form.
As we neared Jasper and Peters mother, she stood outside, looking sadly at the cornered off tree house, yellow tape surrounded it. She had her hands crossed over her chest, protecting her chest from the cooling air.
"Emmett, you just missed your mother, she had to go back to the hospital though, your father called. She said she'll be here in the morning, there bringing Bella home. You'll be staying here tonight again, I'm sorry we don't have anymore of your clothes, but if you like you could borrow some of Peters, or Jasper. Or I could wash your clothes for you, what would you like?" Jennie, or Jen as we called her, was one of the nicest women you'd ever meet, Ryan was a little harsher, but still nice, a family man.
"Oh, its no trouble Jen, ill just wear these again, they've got another day in them." I said sniffing at my clothes, she tutted at me and grabbed my ear while grabbing Peter and Jasper's in her second hand, I don't know how she managed that, women.
"Ow, mom!" They both yelled, where I just grimaced. She pulled us into the house and into one of the bathroom. She started running the bath and put bubbles into it.
"Right, Emmett you can have this bathroom, wash up, brush your teeth, there a spare tooth brush in the cupboard. Jasper and Peter can share mine and your father's bathroom." Jennie said, pulling Jasper and Peter out of the room.
"Urgh, mom, you only have a bath in there, there isn't a shower, like in here…" Jasper said, looking confusedly at his mom.
"You two will just have to share, like when you were little. It's not like you haven't seen it before, and your both boys" she said, ignoring there shudders.
They both just looked at each other and made gagging notions. I stifled a laugh.
They shut the door on the way out and left me to it; I stripped of my clothing and leaned into the warm bubbly water.
Being with this family made me forget all about what had happened, I guess that was the goal, but it all came crashing back to me. As I lay there, in the Whitlock's tub, I thought of how scared she must have been, on her own.
I gulped back tears, I shouldn't be her big brother, I had failed her. She was my baby sister, and she was hurt because of me. If I had just gone to find her, or better yet, gone with her when she went to hide none of this would have happened. We would be in our room, watching Disney films, that she made me watch, and laughing at the imaginary fairy tales that would never happen.
The tears came, so I ducked myself down and let the water surround me. When I needed to breathe, I took to the surface and breathed deeply.
Once I was washed, I got out and dried myself with a fluffy yellow towel, brushed my teeth and exited the bathroom in a cloud of steam.
I made my way to Jasper and Peters room, Jennie was sat brushing both their hair with a soft brush, they were both smiling fondly of the motherly act, but when they caught sight of me, they both started to protest and move away from her.
She smacked them both the upside of the head, telling them to quit squirming and that there where some flannel pyjamas on Jaspers bed. I took the pyjamas and made my way back to the bathroom.
…...
"Mom?" I asked, Peter looked at me confusedly, as his head was yanked by the brush, making him grimance.
"Yes sweetie?" she said coming back to my head and starting to brush my hair, I leaned into the touch of her hands and the soft haired brush.
"You know Bella?" She stilled her movement for a moment, and then began again, ignoring Peters warning look, I carried on.
"Well, why is she in hospital, if a bad man gave her a hug?" I said, my voice dripped with disbelief on hug, I knew it was bullshit.
"Well, urmm, he hurt her hunnie" she said, going back to Peters hair, I don't know why she liked brushing our hair, every night for at least and hour, I mean we liked it, she had being doing it since…forever.
"How? You hug me and Peter and dad, but we don't have to go to hospital…it doesn't make any sense" I said turning to watch her brush Peters hair back and kiss his cheek, before sitting in front f us.
I knew the truth, Peter knew the truth, but I wanted her to tell us. She might give us some information on it and might know more about Bella.
"Okay, you're old enough to know the truth and to know about this sort of thing…" she said, wringing her hands and setting the brush down.
"Well, when a man and women come together, and love each other, they share everything with each other. Like…" I was about to stop her there, but Peter seemed to beat me to it.
"Please tell me your not about to give us the sex talk, mom. Please" he said, pleading with his eyes and moving his hands in a praying motion.
We laughed at him and my mom shook her head.
"Fine, you boys." She said chuckling, then sat back and started to tell us about the reality of things.
"When a man and women come together, there willing to do those things to show they love each other, it has other benefits as well. But sometimes, a woman doesn't want to show love with any man, because she either doesn't love him or doesn't want to…oh, I don't think I'm explaining this very well." She said, rubbing at her temples.
"So, what your trying to say is, when a man wants to have…sex with a woman, and she doesn't want to, and he forces her to…that's rape" Peter asked, grabbing moms hands and stilling them.
"Yeah, that's right. It's an awful and disgusting thing to do, terrible and it scars a person, like they've embedded there finger tips into there souls and taken there innocence and life" she said, looking at the ground.
"Does that mean Bella's…disgusting?" I asked, not believing it, no matter what Bella would always be pure and kind and would always be my best friend.
She shook her head violently, a tear slipping away.
"No, never ever would I think that, neither should you. Bella will always be her own person and you should never judge someone for there past, but who they are as a whole." She said standing and telling us to get into bed. None of us had seen Emmett in the corner, crying silently as he listened intently to our conversation.
Mom went up to him, hugging him and whispering encouraging words, she lead him to the bed we where all sharing. Mom thought it would be fun for us to all share a bed, so we could talk and stuff, she was right.
Plus it had its benefits, since the couch bed was in front of the telly, we could watch it all night, if we wanted.
She tucked us all in, kissing our heads and wiping Ems tears, she then proceeded to pull the covers up, turn the light out and leave the room. We were all silent for what seemed like a life time, before Peter started to talk.
"What do you think she'll be like, when she gets back?" he said hesitantly, looking at the blackness of the room.
"I don't know" Em said quietly.
"I know she'll be ok, Em" I said, trying to comfort him.
"Yeah…"he said, not really believing it, his detached voice sounded lonely, even if he tries to hide the rising emotions, it was like he was sharing them with us.
"Maybe…" he added, defeat seeping into me from his empty tone, Peter shook with me that night, none of us wanted to admit it and none of us would, we shared a secret, a emotion, a moment in time of sadness.
We cried for our friend Bella Swan.