Rosalie's wails filled the house, breaking Esme's heart. "How could he!" She cried, over and over. Violent sobs racking her body, trembling violently, pale as ever, eyes focused on nothing. It'd been three days since Emmett left. He'd left no note, and Alice could only see that he wasn't coming back until he was ready. In Denali, with Tanya, still following the lifestyle they'd set for him. But taking no women, though they wanted him to, and not coming back anytime soon.
Rosalie still hadn't told Esme anything. She couldn't let the words leave her mouth. She couldn't openly admit that Emmett had left her because he didn't find her up to par with Bella Swan. She couldn't even think it. It did terrible things to her self esteem. She couldn't dwell on the why of him leaving. Only that he left. He'd left her. He'd been so repulsed by her that he'd left her. It'd been three days! He'd never come back. How could she...what had she done? He'd never left hr before. They'd had fights. Much worse fights. They'd screamed and hollered and hit each other even. But he'd never left.
She felt emptier than she'd ever been, in this full house, without Emmett. And though she tried to get ahold of herself, embarrassed by the fact that everyone could see and hear her anguish, she couldn't stop screaming, begging for him to come back. Knowing he was in Denali, she couldn't help but hope that he would hear her, hear the pain he caused her, and come back.
What Rosalie didn't know was that every night, Emmett called Bella. Most nights she didn't answer. It felt like a betrayal to be the only one speaking to him. It bothered her that she couldn't tell Edward, and was glad Edward couldn't read her mind, because the conflict swirling was her most constant thought. She couldn't bear to be in the Cullen house anymore, Rosalie's screams haunted her when she left. It felt like a betrayal to the entire Cullen family to be in touch with Emmett and not say anything, so she stayed out of touch with him of her own will. Most nights. And on those nights, he left her messages. It amazed her that, despite the whirlwind going on, Emmett remained the same. The messages took the tone of any other conversation, as though his talking to her was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Hey Minnie...I had to call because I saw something today that you'd totally love. So I'm in the forest hunting, right? And this big ass bear comes out of nowhere, right! And he's charging at me, right? And I'm ready, God, am I ready. And then all the sudden, he just stops!! It was crazy! Like, he was in full bear mode, arms raised, teeth bared, the whole nine. And then he just stopped. So I'm staring at him, trying to figure out what the hells going on. I didn't wanna attack him when he was just standing there like that. Its no fun when they're docile, so I got closer. He still didn't move. Staring straight at the ground right? So I try to look at what he's looking at, and guess what I see? This huge ass bear is completely frozen, petrified, staring at a little mini mouse!!!" Then he'd laugh longer than any human possibly could, never taking breaks for air, and that'd be the end of the message.
Emmett's messages always made her giggle. They were never sad, they never talked about why he left. They were never deep, or heart wrenching. She didn't think Emmett was capable of deep and heart wrenching after a while. She looked forward to the messages, to the hours of endless laughing she'd receive. He'd point out little things that weren't normally funny. Like how when humans were hungry, they'd start mixing their words up with edible objects. They generally caught themselves before anyone noticed, but if you had vampire hearing, it was easier to see.
Bella had been listening for it in class that day, and when Mr. Banner almost said celery biology instead of cellular biology, she almost fell out of her chair from laughter. She had to excuse herself from the room, tears falling from her cheeks. Edward escorted her out and let her laugh, but he looked at her curiously the whole time. He'd heard it, obviously, but he hadn't seen any reason as to why she'd be listening so closely, or why she'd find it so funny.
She broke out into little giggles for the rest of the day, almost having another breakdown when Jessica Stanley's eyes glazed over while discussing the properties of pi in trig.
But when she thought about it really, it sobered her up considerably. She never laughed like this with Edward. Edward was everything she needed, everything she wanted in life, but they never laughed like this. They never shared hours of endless joy over stupid things. They're love was easy, but they're interaction was kind of awkward. He was always so concerned about making sure she lived a full life that he never really allowed her to live it. She didn't hold it against him, she loved him for it. His fierce protection of her was another thing that made him who he was, the love of her life. Now, however, it was starting to bother her. His protective love for her was starting to chafe around the edges and she found herself enjoying, taking comfort in the secret world of laughter that Emmett had formed for them.
Edward was so glad that she was happy, he couldn't bring himself to focus on the why. It was disconcerting, that'd she'd been so incredibly full of joy the past week, especially when he hadn't had the strength to be joyous with her. His situation at home was wearing him down. He knew it was getting to Jasper as well, he hunted and roamed far more often, but it was just so hard. Being around Rosalie was so hard. Her mental screams were longer, louder, and more heartbreaking than any she could voice from her throat. And that's all she did in her mind: scream. There were no words, just impossibly high pitched wails that carried on forever. Edward was sure the waves of despair and rage rolling off her were too much for Jasper as well. He himself would've long since gone mad if it wasn't for the blissful mental silence that was his Bella.
But with Emmett gone, Edward and Jasper couldn't just abandon the family as well. Carlisle, with his abundant calm and patience, was at his wit's end. Emmett had never been one for planning ahead, so Alice couldn't see him in the future, she could only see things he'd already done, or was in the process of doing. Esme was almost as broken as Rosalie. It pained her greatly to watch her first daughter come apart this way. It pained her to know her second son had left. She was watching her family dissolved and it pained her. Everyone was stressed, and tired, and hurt, and someone had to be strong. Edward decided to be that person.
Rosalie hadn't hunted in four weeks now. She hadn't moved from her spot on the couch in the living room since Emmett had left two weeks before, and they hadn't gone hunting since two weeks before he'd left. Edward got the family together, and agreed they were going to have to kidnap Rosalie, and force her to eat. It was Wednesday, and they decided they'd do it over the weekend. She wouldn't go easily, and it would take all of their strength to get her out of the house, and keep her there long enough to feed herself. He figured they'd be gone the entire weekend, from Friday night to Sunday night, and so he went to tell Bella.
A/N: A diehard Twilight fan would know that my timeline is a little off. As far as their classes at school and things of the nature. Sorry for that. Sorry for the delay in posting, but the story's moving quickly in my head now, so I'll post the next chapter as soon as I get my review. Speaking of which, thanks soooo much to Broadwayluvr24 for reviewing every chapter. It'd be nice if I could get more reviewers so faithful. Sorry for the rambling. Hope you're all having a Happy New Year! -Shy