Chapter 24: How is she?
Embry's POV.
I woke up in the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in. I was pretty sure the comforter had feathers in it, so did the pillows. My limbs were sprawled in every direction because I could. Because this bed was big enough for me to do that. Sweet.
A bright orange light shined in my face and I welcomed it. The sun. It was nice to be woken up by the actual sun that felt hot on my face. Under my lids, shone a bright orange from the light beaming through them.
Laying in this huge bed, I actually felt right and good. I almost forgot about Forks and Amber, my mom and Amber, having to apply for college next month and Amber. Almost forgot about Amber. Not quite. Not yet. It was hard not to think about it when I was alone in a hotel room with her ruby bracelet glistening on the coffee table in the corner of my eye.
I had went searching for it in the woods a few days ago and I found it, half buried under mud, right next to my wallet, ripped up jeans and my broken cell phone.
There was a knock at the door and I sprung out of the bed, hoping it was who I thought it was. When I opened the door to find Laurence with her bright eyes, a cute grin and two cups of coffee in her hands, my whole body felt warmer, my heart started racing in my chest and I had to fight not to reach for her and pull her into my arms.
"Hey, dude," she smiled, looked me up and down then rolled her eyes, "Pyjama's would be nice. You don't have to sleep in your underwear."
I shrugged, "I've always slept in my underwear." I moved aside so Laurence could step into my room and set our coffees on a small, round table.
"I'll buy you some pyjama's, okay?" she offered with a smile that made my stomach go all floppy and weird.
"Thanks but you've already done so much." I shut the door and gestured around the hotel room that I could never afford with my pay check. A pay check I wasn't getting anymore since I had been fired for being absent for several work days. "Laue, this is way too much and I—"
"Shh, don't even worry," she closed the distance between us and pressed her finger on my lips, "My pleasure, baby, really, this"—she gestured around the room like I had—"was easy. My mom owns the place and she had two options; my new boyfriend could stay with us and we could have sex under their room or he could stay here for a few days or weeks a few miles away from me and my lady parts."
I frowned, still thinking this was too much. Even if Laurence's mom technically owned this Hilton hotel it didn't mean that this wasn't alloud or even legal. What would Paris Hilton think? The hotel must have been losing money with me ordering food and using this room without paying a dime.
Laurence ran her finger through my short and down my neck, "I love you." She said, her smile growing wider, showing off perfectly straight teeth.
"I love you, Laue."
"I love when you call me Laue. It makes me feel like we've known each other since forever. All my friends call me Laue and—I like when you call me Laue."
"Then I'll keep call you Laue." I brushed my lips against her ear then pressed my lips against her forehead.
"Do you have a nickname? Em? Emmy? Embro? Emby?"
The name slashed me like a whip to the back, "Don't call me Emby." I said, sounding harsher then I'd meant to but the thought of having Laurence call me that ridiculous nickname Amber gave me as I gave her an equally ridiculous nickname in return made my stomach turn with guilt and pain I couldn't handle.
Laurence pulled away to eye me suspiciously. She opened to her mouth then shook her head, "No Emby then…" She unwrapped herself from me and jumped on my bed. She crawled to my night table and spotted the ruby bracelet.
My stomach tightened when she touched it but I wanted to act as if her touching it didn't bother me so I stayed put even though I wanted to take the bracelet and put it where she couldn't find it.
"Ooh, pretty. I remember this; you bought this when we first met. Who was this for? Your mom?" She looked at me, expecting an answer.
Lying hadn't even crossed my mind before the truthful answer came out of my mouth, "No, I got it for my girlfriend—ex-girlfriend."
Laurence's brows rose in surprise, "What are you going to do with them now?"
"I don't know," I shrugged, having not thought of what to do with the bracelet since I had found it. Its rightful place was with Amber and I knew that I'd never get the chance to give it to her and giving it to Laurence was out of the question. That would not only be tacky but disrespectful to both women.
"Well we have a no-return policy at Kay's so…"
"I never thought of returning it." I admitted a bit sheepishly. I didn't want her to think that I was stick hopelessly in love with Amber, because I wasn't. I just felt really bad and I missed her. I wanted to be her friend again, like in the beginning.
"So you're keeping it?"
"I don't know."
"Give it to your ex. If you got it for her, give it to her. I'm more of an emerald kind of girl." She dangled the bracelet in front of her, watching the sunlight beam through it. She rested it on her wrist as if to see if it looked good on her but grimaced. Guess she was more of an emerald-girl. Whatever that meant.
"She wouldn't take it." I shook my head and walked towards Laurence to take the bracelet away from her and look at it for myself. "You don't know Amber. She'd flush this thing down the toilet after what…never mind." I shook my head, not wanting to talk about this.
Laurence got off the bed and skipped towards me. "Hey, are you okay?" she looked so worried; I reached for her face to smooth out the line between her furrowed eyebrows. She closed her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I answered, but I wanted to be great. I wanted to be guilt free and happy with Laurence. It wasn't that I wasn't happy though, I was ecstatic to have Laurence with me and all but the guilt was hard to handle. It wasn't necessary though. Amber was tough and several days had passed. She probably had a new boyfriend or two by now.
But I had to be sure.
I kissed Laurence's forehead real fast and walked to the hotel's phone and dialled Seth's cell phone number.
"Hello?" Seth answered after a few rings.
"Hey Seth? It's Embry…"
"Oh! Hi Embry, how are you? How's your imprint going? I saw a picture of her on Facebook—her name's Laurence, right?—she's beautiful dude." Seth rambled.
I rolled my eyes, he talked way to much than what was necessary, "Yeah, thanks. I know. That's not why I called though."
"Sup man? How can I help?"
"I wanted to know how…" I glanced over at Laurence who was blowing on her coffee and taking small sips to not burn her tongue, "How she was going?"
"Who?" Seth asked, sounding completely confused. I was about to hang up and call Silver or text Christina when he got it, "Oh! Amber? She's…she's not great." His bright and happy voice lowered in hype and volume. "She told Silver about you guys and, well, I've had better days. Women."
"She's still bummed?"
"Yeah, but I can handle her."
"Amber?" I questioned.
"No, Silver."
"I don't care about her, you—" I barked but inhaled deeply before I could say something to hurt his overly sensitive feelings, "How's Am? Is she bummed?"
"Yeah, Silver's pretty worried but I know Amber'll get over it. If it wasn't meant to be it wasn't meant to be."
I nodded. I was so confused by all he was saying. How could Amber still be bummed? I was sure that I would be old news by now. She dated her ex-boyfriend for 4 months before breaking up with him and moving to Forks. She didn't even shed a tear for what's-his-name.
"Hey, dude, my mom's getting married. She wants to know if you're coming to the engagement party."
My eyes widened. I knew Sue was dating the chief of police—or Bella Cullen's dad—but I didn't know they were so serious to be getting married. Seth's dad had died about 3 years ago and Sue's known Charlie for years since he was best pals with Harry as a child and Sue and Harry were practically married from the first day they met. Sue was getting married. Weird.
Not that I wasn't happy for her, I was really happy for her, "When's the party?"
"After tomorrow. Are you bringing Laurence?"
I glanced over at Laurence who had plopped on the sofa and turned on the TV to watch the cooking channel. My dear sweet Laurence who absolutely adored chai lattes and roasting in the hot California sun. She would never want to go to cloudy, rainy old La Push. "I…don't really know."
"Well, I got to meet her, man. We're all dying to. You have to come. Quil's getting lonely. He spends all his time with Claire and he's turning into a big baby."
I chuckled, "I'll try."
"Awesome because I need help cleaning up the crap you left me in." she said in a joking tone, "Seriously man, Silver is pissed."
"How pissed?" I raised an eyebrow remembering the little blond that I consider my little sister, wondering what kind of trouble she could cause with her 5 feet and 5 inches of pure fury. I've seen kittens who were more menacing then that Silver Masson.
"She's a little fire cracker." Seth laughed then became a little serious, "You have no idea how strong she is. She's hurting me and I just…"
"Seth, if she's hitting you, you have to get out." I snickered.
"It's not that. It's Nahuel and her…it's not—" he sighed, "Never mind."
"Seth, do you think something's going on between Silver and Nahuel?" I asked, the words not making sense to me when I say them out loud.
Silver and Seth were the perfect couple, just like all imprinted couples were. But even without that minor detail, Silver and Seth were made for each other. I believed they were soul mates, with or without the imprint. They just had so much in common. They were both annoying and immature and the youngest of large groups. They were both kind of gay. I thought that even without the imprint, they would have found each other. They were each other's destiny.
Just like how Laurence was my destiny. What were the odds that I ran all the way over here—to California—and just so happened to walk into the one jewellery store that she worked in?
"No, she's not doing anything with Nahuel but I feel like…subconsciously, she wants to do things with him. And I don't mean…sexual things, no, it's like she'd be with me and be thinking about…" he sighed again, clearly frustrated with the whole thing, "It's nothing. Nahuel's a good guy. I don't know why I'm acting like this."
"Imprints." I explained in one simple word his weird behaviour. This love—this love so strong and magical—made us say and do crazy things. I dumped my dream girl for my imprint.
"Yeah," he sighed, "Going back to Amber, she's alright. Allot of guys are coming on to her ever since she came out about being single. It's downright sick."
My eyes narrowed, though I wasn't angry. I wanted her to start dating again but if she wasn't ready, I didn't want these guys forcing themselves on her. I shook my head, knowing there was nothing I could do about it, "Seth, I'm going to go now."
"Alright, cool. Hope to see you."
We hung up and rubbed my temple. I couldn't help but feel like I left a bigger mess than I thought.