Alice and I went back to Forks and continued high school. We had visited Rose several times throughout the school year. We had even been back to the Cullens' house for dinner a few times. We received our acceptance letters to the University of Washington in Seattle sometime in March. Everything was falling into place for us. Soon we would be back together full time.
Emmett and Rose's relationship continued to grow. They were planning on moving in together for the next school year. Other relationships started. Since their first meeting back in October, Alice and Jasper had been calling each other nightly and spending time with each other during our visits to Rose. I was happy for both of them, but I knew that in time we would grow further apart. Two couples and one single. Bella on her own.
It was just one week away until the start of school, and we had all been invited back to the Cullens' house for dinner before the start of school.
"I'm so glad you girls are going to be here at school with the boys this year" Esme said while she was setting out tonight's entrée.
"Thank you Esme, we can't wait until next week!" Alice and I said at the same time. We all looked at each other and laughed.
We were just finishing up with dinner and Esme was setting out the dessert when the shrill sound of their house phone rang.
Since Esme was already standing, she grabbed the phone off of the sideboard behind my chair. "Hello?" she asked her normally smiling face changing into a pained one. "Ok…uh-huh?...let me put my husband on, just a moment" She passed the phone to Carlisle.
"Hello? Yes this is he. Yes, he turned 18 in June. Wait, I don't understand." Carlisle looked up at all of our staring faces and walked into the kitchen. Esme still looked worried.
We started out desserts, but Esme and Emmett remained still and silent as Carlisle walked back into the dining room.
"Well, that was the school calling" he said looking between Esme and Emmett "They are sending him home. We are picking him up on Sunday"
"WHAT?!" Emmett roared "Can they do that? What did the fuck up do this time? Kill someone?"
"Settle down Emmett. It's nothing like that. He's 18 now, an adult. He can't legally be there anymore." Carlisle stated looking around the room at our stunned faces.
Rose, Alice, Jasper, and I were looking at each other in disbelief. We had no idea what was going on. Emmett caught on, and looked up at us. "Come up to my room. I have a bit of explaining to do." He got up and we followed him up the stairs.
"Everyone get comfortable, this is a long story" he started.
"Since you all saw the pictures the first time you were here, you probably guessed that I have a brother. He is a year and a half younger that me. Edward and I used to be best friends, that is until about two years ago.
"Since the day they brought him home from the hospital we were inseparable. We enjoyed the same movies, sports, and sometimes music. Edward was always an oddball in that area, and I could never keep up.
"Edward was the perfect child. Never in trouble, got good grades, charmed everyone. Our mother taught him to play the piano from the time he could reach the keys until he surpassed her knowledge of the instrument. A prodigy they would say.
"One day after school when he was 15, Edward came to our parents begging to go on a school trip to New York City. The music department was going on a week long trip to study music and theatre. Edward was dying to go. Our parents couldn't deny him anything, and he went.
"After he got home he was…different. He seemed on edge, something was making him nervous. He would check the mail everyday as soon as we got home from school.
"It wasn't until about two months later that he got a huge letter in the mail. My parents being curious opened it before we had gotten home from school. It was sitting on the dining room table with both of my parents looking it over when we got home.
"Come to find out, our perfect Edward had applied to, auditioned for, and had been accepted in to the Julliard School in New York City all on the sly.
"When we walked in from school and found our parents in the dining room Edward's eyes lit up. He saw the envelope and its contents spread out on the table. 'No way, I got in!' he was practically floating on air 'They hardly ever admit a student as young as me, I can't wait. When does it start? Oh. My. God. A full scholarship!' He was beyond excited. That is until my dad spoke up.
"He said that he couldn't believe that Edward would go behind their backs and do this. That it didn't matter anyway since he was not going to go. My dad said that he was too young. He needed to finish high school and then go to a school where he could graduate with a 'real' career. My dad always thought that Edward would follow in his footsteps and become a doctor.
"Edward sat on the couch with his elbows on his knees, with one hand pinching the bridge of his nose. He listened to our father without saying a word. But when he finally looked up there was something strange about him. Something snapped in that perfect head of his. The glare he gave my parents was disturbing. It made me shiver. My mom started crying, and my dad stood there looking stunned. Edward never said a word about it again. In fact, he never said anything else at all.
"We were nearing the last month of school. Edward had hardly spoken two words to anyone. He was still giving my parents the cold shoulder, but he would occasionally speak at school if he had to. I noticed him hanging out with a group of seniors that I knew he had hated before. Sure he knew them, he had spoken with them before, but he had never actually hung out with them. It was odd. James, Laurent, and Victoria were notorious for their parties and bad behavior. Little did I know that this was the beginning of the end for Edward.
"He would come home late at night drunk off his ass. I, of course, would hear him come in and cover for him the best that I could. Get him into bed and keep him under the 'parent radar'. This became a routine for us. There were a couple of times that my parents caught him. This is when Edward decided to speak to our parents. In drunken fits of rage. They would yell at each other for hours. It was too much to take.
"School ended just before Edward's 16th birthday. My parents gave him a new car, just as they did for me. They were trying to make things normal again. Edward just scoffed at their attempt and never drove the car. It just sat in the garage.
"Mid summer was one of the worst nights of my life. Edward came home drunk again, but this time it was bad. I heard the car stop out front with loud music blaring. I looked out the window to see what was going on. What I saw was Edward's 'friends' pushing him out of the car onto the front lawn. He stumbled and fell face first into the grass. By the time I made it downstairs he had rolled himself over and was laughing hysterically. I tried to quiet him as I helped him inside. We made it into his room where I dropped him on his bed where he rolled over and puked on the floor. He rolled back over and just laid there looking at me until his eyes rolled into the back of his head and started shaking. I panicked.
"I called for my dad to come and help. Carlisle came rushing in and made me call 911. It turned out that Edward's blood alcohol level was through the roof, and that he had also had a good quantity of Ecstasy in his system. He was in the hospital for two days after that. My mother was beside herself. She just stayed in Edward's room. She kept saying 'Why Edward why? You came close to killing yourself' and he replied 'Not close enough'. My mother's heart was officially broken that day."
"God, Emmett, why did you never tell any of us about this?" Rose asked. She was sitting next to him on the bed holding one of his hands between both of hers. Jasper and Alice were sitting in a recliner in the corner with shocked looks on both of their faces. I was sitting against the wall in the corner hugging my knees with tears in my eyes.
"I didn't want to let out the families dirty laundry. I have pretty much acted like he never existed for the last year and a half" Emmett said.
"But the pain didn't stop there." He continued. "There were a string of stupid things that Edward did after that. At the beginning of the school year he and his friends thought that it would be cool to steal a car. Of course Edward was the one driving and of course he was tipsy. Just enough to get a DUI. He got probation for 6 months and had to pay a fine and do community service.
"Just as things couldn't get any worse they did. Just after winter break was over, we got a call from the hospital at three in the morning telling us that Edward had gotten into an auto accident. We all ran out to the garage to get in the car and noticed that Edward's car that he had gotten for his birthday was gone.
"We got to the hospital and found that Edward had been drinking again and had crashed his car into a tree. He sustained a broken leg, a broken arm, a concussion and a gash across his forehead. The police were there this time. Another DUI was issued. He was still on probation.
"The judge didn't go easy on him this time. He was sentenced to go to a juvenile hall type facility that would also treat him for substance abuse. He was put there to stay until his 18th birthday.
"At first we would go to visit him every weekend. He would just sit in the visiting area and look at the wall instead of us. After about three months of this he stopped even coming out into the visitor's area. My mom still goes twice a month to wait to see if he will come out. He never does.
"Throughout his stay there, even if we don't see him, we still get calls about his progress. Mostly we get calls telling us that he had been in a fight or something.
"And that brings us up to date" Emmett finished with tears in his eyes. Rose moved closer to him and rubbed his back.
I couldn't believe what I just heard. I thought back to the picture on the bookshelf. What happened to the cute little boy fishing with his brother? What would cause someone to go over the deep end like this? What would life be like after Sunday at the Cullen house when Edward would be home? Would we be invited back?