Chapter Eight: Washington

Rosalie hadn't heard from Royce or from Emmett in a day or two since her fight with Daniel. She was starting to get a little worried, so she decided to post to Royce's social media page. She left him a small comment, telling him that she missed him and to have a safe trip and that she loved him.

Rosalie sat there for a few minutes staring at the post before getting up and getting ready for work. Maybe she'd hear from him later, but right now she just wanted to forget the hurtful things Daniel had said to her.

They had gotten to Washington to Royce's home town a few hours ago at Royce's friend Jessica's house where they were supposed to be staying. Tanya was on her way over and Emmett was sitting on the couch nursing a beer while Jessica's roommate Lauren sat uncomfortably close to him attempting to what appeared to be flirting with him. Royce sat on his other side curled up with Jessica while some random television show was playing in the background. Jessica was giggling at something Royce had whispered in her ear. Emmett rolled his eyes, chugging the last of his beer. He jumped when he felt a hand on his thigh and it started to slide up towards his groin.

Lauren laughed, laying her head on his shoulder and batted her eyes up at him. Emmett threw up in his mouth a little, smiling back at her though it probably came out as a grimace and gently removed her hand before getting up from the couch and heading ink the kitchen.

Emmett made a beeline for the refrigerator and pulled out another beer, hesitating and wondering if he should open another one. He'd already had two waiting for Tanya to show up, but it was only so he tolerate Jessica and Lauren. Emmett had no idea what he saw in Jessica, she wasn't all that pretty, her shape didn't really have one, and she gave off the vibe that she was something to be desired. Her friend was no better. Lauren at least had a shape; round. She, like Jessica, also felt that she was something to be desired. She was also much heavier than Nevaeh was, and wore no make-up and her greasy hair was consistently pulled back into a ponytail.

Royce may have been in to that type, where they oozed confidence about themselves, but were obviously very insecure about their looks, but Emmett was not. He liked a girl that was attractive, secure with herself, and smart. Someone he could have a conversation with and not get bored with easily.

'Someone like Rosalie,' he thought to himself shaking his head and opening the beer can, downing half its contents.

The doorbell rang and Emmett had never felt such relief in his life. He all but ran to the front door and threw it open. He was shocked at what he found behind the door. Tanya was a tall girl, curvy yes, but she was tall with a heart shaped face and dark black hair that reached about half way down her back. What he even found more attractive was that she held a case of beer in one hand and shopping bags in her other.

"Hey Emmett," She greeted him with a warm smile.

"Hi Tanya, here let me help you with that," he found himself smiling back at her and reached for the bags and case of beer.

"Awesome, thanks. Yeah there's a lot more in the back of my truck," she pointed over her shoulder to a monster of an old truck.

He brought the bags and beer in the kitchen and set it down on the table as Royce jumped up to help Tanya too, following her out the door. They ended up bringing in five cases of beer, two kegs, and a variety of hard alcohol with chasers.

"Hey Jessica, did you remember to get the cups?" Tanya called from the kitchen.

"Oh I knew I forgot something!"

Tanya looked over at Emmett and rolled her eyes, pretending that her hand was a gun and she just fired a shot at her head. Emmett snickered and continued to help her put the alcohol and beers away.

"Why do we have so much alcohol? I thought only a few of Royce's friends were coming over?"

"More like half of our graduating class and then some, everyone found out Royce is home and are on their way over and we have no party cups," Tanya informed him with an annoyed tone.

"Let's go get some, I'll buy them. It's the least I can do since you bought all the alcohol," Emmett offered.

Tanya threw him a smile, "Okay."

She grabbed her purse and keys, kicking Jessica on the way out telling her they were running to the store to get cups since she forgot. Jessica was so wrapped up in Royce that she just agreed with what she said and went back to kissing Royce's neck. Lauren glared daggers at Tanya's back as she made her way to the front door.

"I have no idea what he sees in her," Tanya said exasperated climbing into her truck. "Don't get me wrong, she is one of my best friends, but if you ever saw Royce's ex-wife you would be saying the same thing. I thought he and Rosalie were seeing each other?"

He waited for her to start the truck and glad he had because once it did start it was with a loud roar, "He is."

Tanya shook her head, putting the truck into reverse, "Great, I hope he gets this out of his system and quick without Rosalie finding out. She's already in this really fragile state with how bad her ex screwed her over, now this? It would send her over the edge and it would be my fault."

Emmett frowned at Tanya's words, "Why would it be your fault?"

Tanya sighed heavily as they drove down the road, "Because I set them up."

Rosalie came home from work completely exhausted again, she had tried to befriend one of the girls at work only for it to back fire on her. She had brought her to the house to hang out and instead money went missing from her parents' room. They immediately blamed her for it, not even giving her the benefit of a doubt. Then when she had come home complaining that her boss was riding her for money missing out of the register and she was being accused of it, her dad had decided to take matters into his own hands. Coming to the rescue of his baby girl, he went into the restaurant one day without her and told her boss what had happened at home. Word got around, her boss watched the tapes and sure enough, her friend had been the one stealing. However, because everyone got along with her friend and she was still new, Rosalie automatically got blamed for it.

Rosalie threw herself down on her bed, letting her tears roll down her face. As soon as she had gotten home she yelled at her dad for getting in the middle of her job and congratulations for making her life miserable if that was what he was aiming for. She had acted like a child, and had said mean things to her dad who had only been trying to help and ensure she wouldn't lose her job. The guilt was eating at her.

Her computer dinged in the otherwise quiet room alerting her she had a new message. Rosalie dragged herself off the bed and across the room, throwing herself down on the computer chair, careful as to not hit her now ever protruding stomach. She moved the mouse around, turning on the screen and opened the new message. It was from a girl she didn't know, her screen name was Alice.

"Hey are you seeing Royce?"

Already Rosalie had a strange feeling of where this conversation was going. She typed out a simple response.

"Yes, why?"

She waited impatiently for a new message from this Alice girl. Frustrated she hadn't received a response yet, she pulled up her social media page to do some snooping. Rosalie discovered that this girl was from Colorado, had a little boy, and was going through a divorce. This must have been the friend that Royce had mentioned they were going to see in Colorado. Her messenger dinged again.

"I just thought you should know when he came here he kissed me."

Rosalie felt her heart sink as she read, and re-read the message. There was no way she fell for another guy who would cheat on her.

"What?" she typed back.

"I wanted you to know that he kissed me. I don't want him and I have no interest in him, I just didn't know the two of you were seeing each other. I've been cheated on before and it sucks. My husband cheated on me and abused me that's why we are getting a divorce."

Rosalie sat there for a minute, not sure of what to do with herself.

"You can call me if you want," Alice offered her phone number.

Rosalie got up and shut her bedroom door quietly before reaching for her cell phone and called Alice.

Emmett was completely enthralled with Tanya, she gave as good as she got and had him laughing the whole time on their trip to the store. He didn't think about Rosalie once the entire time they were together, maybe she was what he needed.

They pulled up to the house laughing about some dirty joke she had just told when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out as they got out of the car and opened his phone. It was another text from Rosalie. He hadn't heard from her since Oklahoma and wondered if she was alright. Opening up the message, he read over it quickly his stomach dropping at his own guilt for not saying anything.

"Emmett, are you okay? You're kind of pale."

Emmett looked up at Tanya shutting his phone, "Yeah I'm fine, excuse me for a minute Tanya I need to go talk to Royce for a second."

Emmett took the bags with all the cups and brought them in the house kicking Royce to get his attention and nodded his head towards the kitchen motioning for him to follow. Royce untangled himself from Jessica telling her he would be right back.

Once they were in the kitchen, Emmett looked towards the living room and told James to follow him and lead him outside to the backyard where they couldn't be heard.

"Rosalie just texted me," He finally said once they were alone.

"Why is she texting you?" Royce asked defensively.

"Cut the shit Royce, she texted me asking about Alice and if it was true that you kissed her when we visited," Emmett growled. "You need to fix this shit, now! Hasn't she been through enough?"

"Alright I will! Why are you getting so defensive over this?"

Emmett stopped, realizing that he was seconds from knocking out his friend. He needed to calm himself down before he snapped and did something he would regret.

"Hey, you guys okay out here?" Tanya peeked her head through the sliding glass door, glancing between the two of them.

"Yeah, we're fine," Emmett replied walking up to her. "What time are people supposed to start getting here?"

"Like any minute," she said checking her watch.

"Cool, let's start the party then!"

Emmett lost count of how many drinks he had consumed, the house was packed with people he didn't know that Tanya, Royce, Jessica, and Lauren were all trying to introduce him to, but he was so far gone he couldn't even remember one person's name. He was beyond drunk at this point, trying to thwart off the unwanted groping of a drunk Lauren, hotter than all hell in this tiny house and attempting to make his way through the crowd to get outside. When he finally made it and stumbled down the two steps into the backyard he found Royce doing keg stands and people cheering him on. Emmett shook his head at his friend's antics and made his way over to the smokers, pulling out a cigarette.

"Hey Emmett, come to join us?" a guy in a blue shirt asked.

"Yeah, uh," Emmett blanked on his name completely while he searched his addled brain for it.

"Josh," the guy in the blue shirt said laughing.

"Yeah, Josh," he laughed sheepishly, lighting his cigarette.

"Having fun?"

"Yeah, kind of. I'm not used to so many people unless it's on deployment and even then there's never any alcohol," he laughed.

"Uh oh, quick get behind us," Josh said grabbing Emmett's arm pulling him towards the rest of the group. They shuffled around him, essentially hiding him from view.

"Has anyone seen Emmett?" came Lauren's shrill and slurred voice.

"Nope."

"Can you tell that sexy beast that I'm looking for him?"

"Back off Lacey!" Tanya's voice popped up. "He's not interested in you, go find some desperate man who is you drunk whore!"

Lauren let out a shriek before stomping back towards the house and finally inside it.

"You guys can uncover Emmett now."

Everyone shuffled around to expose him to Tanya. He looked at her with a wicked grin taking a drag from his cigarette, "How'd you find me?"

Tanya shrugged her shoulders, reaching for his hand, "They've hidden me a few times before."

He allowed her to lead him towards the corner of the house and around the side where it was completely dark. Once they were around the corner and they made sure they hadn't been followed, Tanya pushed him against the side of the house and started attacking his mouth with her hers. Emmett grinned against her lips as she grabbed him by his neck and pulled him closer to her. This was what he needed to forget Rosalie.