Chapter Six: Games

Nevaeh was cuddled up close with Jasper on the loveseat while Royce was asleep with Naomi on the couch. Nicole snatched up her camera and immediately started taking pictures of the sleeping duo, while Emmett sat awkwardly at their dining room table. He'd never felt so out of place in his life and wished desperately that he could call Rosalie, but it was out of the question at this point with how late it was.

Nicole woke James up and took Naomi with her to bed, wishing them all a good night and to behave.

"So where are we all sleeping?" Jasper asked looking around.

"Well I thought we'd play some games first," Nevaeh said.

"What kind of games?"

"Well come with me and help me get the stuff for it," Nevaeh replied trying to sound alluring, but it came out like a cat in heat causing Emmett to shudder. She was a sweet girl, but she had the complex of an anorexic model and this deeply disturbed him. That left him and Royce alone in the living room.

"Let's go talk," Royce said getting up from the couch and heading out the screen door to the front porch. Emmett's stomach immediately jumped into his throat, instantaneously wondering if he had overheard his conversation with Nicole.

Emmett hesitantly followed Royce outside, watching him as he pulled a cigarette out and lit it.

"What's up?"

Royce eyed him carefully, "You know how we're going to Washington?"

Now Emmett was confused, "Yeah."

"Well, my friend Tanya is interested in you, she wants to hook up while we're there."

Emmett breathed a sigh of relief, hoping it went unnoticed by Royce -which it did. Maybe this was the perfect opportunity for him to bury his feelings for Rosalie. All he had to do was throw himself completely in to this relationship with Tanya and it would give him a reason to cut himself off from Rosalie. He took a hurried final drag from his cigarette, "Yeah give her my number."

Royce nodded putting his cigarette out and followed Emmett inside. It was a few more minutes before Jasper and Nevaeh appeared again, Royce was sitting on the couch and was playing with his phone, but Emmett looked up in time to just catch them adjusting their clothes. He knew exactly what they doing back there just by looking at them, Nevaeh's hair was a mess, their lips were swollen and both of their faces were flushed. Emmett got off the couch quickly and grabbed the bottle of alcohol from Jasper and immediately ran in to the kitchen taking several shots to try and get the disturbing images that were playing through his mind to disappear.

Royce came sauntering into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle from him, motioning for him to follow. Emmett shook his head and followed his friend to the table where Jasper and Nevaeh sat with a deck of cards. Soon after, he was out about thirty dollars and he was fairly drunk at this point, belting out lyrics to some country song he couldn't even remember the name of.

"Alright bud, I think you've had enough tonight," Jasper laughed taking his glass from him, he didn't even bother fighting it.

Emmett stumbled his way outside and threw himself down on a chair that was sitting on the front porch, pulling a cigarette out and putting it to his lips. He tried to light it, but was having great difficulty due to the copious amounts of alcohol that was currently in his system. Jasper followed him outside, lit his own cigarette and then lit Emmett's.

"Thanks man," Emmett said smiling lazily up at his friend. The cold air was making his head spin and the smoke from the cigarette wasn't helping him sober up either. Jasper sat down in the chair next to Emmett, both of them smoking and enjoying the quiet.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Emmett finally giggled out.

"Sure," Jasper snorted trying to hold back his own laughter at the ridiculousness that was the current state his friend was in.

"I'm really drunk."

Jasper out right laughed with Emmett, and agreed with his friend who was clearly having difficulty sitting upright. They finished smoking and Jasper went over to help Emmett to his feet.

"Okay let's get you inside, you're driving tomorrow," Just as he was pulling him up, the effects of the alcohol took over Emmett.

"I think I'm falling for her," Emmett blurted out laughing, causing his friend to drop him back in the chair.

Jasper stared at his drunk friend, whose eyes were wide with shock at his own confession and it was like word vomit he couldn't stop himself.

"Rosalie, I think I'm falling for Rosalie," at this point his mind was screaming at him to stop, but his mouth just wouldn't listen. "She's amazing and I'm falling for her."

Jasper let Emmett's confession sink in and immediately knew what this would do if it got back to Royce. They depended on each other when they were at war to keep each other safe. Their very lives depended on it. He knew if this got back to Royce that it would cause problems between the three of them and trust would be gone, and he wasn't about to let that happen.

"No you don't," Jasper's voice was low and threatening.

Emmett stopped laughing and suddenly sobered up realizing what he said. He quietly got up from the chair, standing eye to eye with Jasper. They glared at each other, both of them clenching and unclenching their fists. The tension between the two of them was so thick and palpable you could almost cut it with a knife. Emmett shoved his way past Jasper, hoping that he fell on his ass. Unfortunately he didn't, he ended up just taking a step backward from the force and glared at him as he went over to the couch and threw himself down on to it.

Jasper followed Emmett to the living room silently, and made his own bed on the loveseat. He watched Emmett scrolling through his media player sticking his earbuds in, before rolling over to face the back of the couch. It was then that he noticed Royce and Nevaeh were missing and the house was dark. Jasper didn't think too much on it, he was too busy occupying himself with glaring at Emmett in the darkness of the living room.

Rosalie woke up the next morning early, because of her parents she was now used to a routine of not being able to sleep on. They wouldn't allow her to even on the weekends, which always seemed to put a damper on her mood. As she was brushing her teeth she remembered she hadn't checked her cell phone, and rushed to her room to grab it. Pulling it out from underneath the pillow, Rosalie looked at the screen only to see the time and absolutely no new notifications. There were no missed phone calls and no unread text messages. Rosalie felt her heart sink, but then decided to check her instant messenger. She turned on the computer then went back to the bathroom to finish brushing her teeth while she waited for it to start up.

When she was done, she went back to her room and started up her instant messenger only to find that here too there were no missed messages. She whole heartedly had at least expected one from Royce, but to not also hear from Jasper or Emmett was strange in itself as well.

Rosalie opened up her internet browsers and typed in her social media page. After a few clicks she found that both Emmett and Royce had been tagged in some photos. There they were with this adorable baby girl who had big ears, no hair, and a toothless grin. She found herself smiling affectionately as she looked at the pictures of Royce asleep on the couch with the baby, but her heart kept when she saw Emmett holding her and grinning from ear to ear. She missed talking to him, it had been a few days. They were probably still asleep right now, which is why she hadn't heard from them so she put her disappointment aside, shut her computer off and made her way downstairs to try to have some breakfast.

Emmett woke up with a stiff neck and a very large, very real hangover. Jasper was already up, bringing in his bags from the car and letting the screen door slam shut, worsening Emmett's hangover.

"Can you not slam the door shut?" Emmett barked out.

"Well hello sleeping beauty!" Nevaeh's voice came from the other side of the room. Her voice seemed to annoy him even more with how terrible he felt.

Jasper dropped his bags to the floor with a loud meticulous thud, glaring at Emmett the whole time. This confused Emmett because he couldn't for the life of him remember what happened last night after about halfway through their poker game. Jasper turned on his heel and went stomping out the front door, making sure the screen door slammed shut.

"What on earth did you do to piss him off?" Royce spoke up from his spot next to Nevaeh.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Emmett said slowly getting up off of the couch.

"We went to bed before you guys," Nevaeh answered him, while Royce just shrugged his shoulders.

Emmett got up off the couch and went outside to go talk to his friend, "What's your deal?"

"Don't have one," Jasper retorted. "You're the one with the problem."

"What are you talking about?"

Jasper stopped moving their things around in the trunk and stood there staring at them before turning his attention to Emmett, "You really don't remember?"

"No!"

Jasper paused briefly then grabbed his other duffle bag out of the trunk, "Last night, you told me that you were falling for Rosalie. You know Rosalie? The girl that Royce is seeing?"

Emmett felt his face pale and his stomach churn as the bile rose to the back of his throat.

"Yeah I thought you would," Jasper tried to shove past him, but Emmett grabbed him by the upper arm and spun him around so he facing him.

"I'm not. I was really drunk last night and I got confused that's all. Besides I got a pretty little thing waiting for me up in Washington, so you can put that thought right out of your head that I'm falling for some pregnant little girl!"

"Hey what are you two fighting about?" Nicole called from the front door.

"Nothing," the two men answered simultaneously.

After she had went back inside, Emmett let go of Jasper and watched him as he started to head back inside.

"Are you not coming with us the rest of the way?"

"No," Jasper grunted out adjust the bags he was carrying. "Nicole and Nevaeh said I could stay here while the two of you run up there, I don't like the cold."

Emmett continued to watch Jasper as he went back inside then held his head in frustration out of the stupidity of his alcoholic mouth. He turned around and slammed the trunk of the car shut, when his cell phone chimed that he had a new text message. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw that it was a message from an unknown number. Opening it up he saw it was from Tanya, informing him that this was her number and she was looking forward to meeting him finally in person. She had also included a picture of herself for his caller id.

He quickly typed out a message back to her that thanked her for texting him and that he was too excited to see her as well. He then noticed that there was another unread message and went to his inbox to see that it was from Rosalie. He hesitated, wondering to himself if he should open it in light of last night's events. While he was contemplating this decision, he felt a pair of eyes watching him and he looked up to find Jasper staring at him from the front porch. Emmett angrily shoved his phone back in to his pocket and stomped back towards the house to see if Royce was ready to go.