Chapter 27: Bruises

Embry's POV.

All the guys approved of my imprint. I wasn't seeking their approval but to know I had it was really awesome. Quil was pretty smug about the whole thing. He always told me imprinting was a good thing and I never believed him. Seth's friend Hunter just kept making inappropriate comments on how hot Laurence was. I was fully aware of it and I didn't need him reminding me.

Laurence was gone at the bathroom for just a few minutes when I saw Emily at the other side of the room with a very panicked expression on her face. She hurried towards the stage where Seth and Leah were still seated.

Emily hit the table in front of Seth and signalled for him to lean forward.

Leah frowned, noticing the anxious look on her cousin's face.

"Silver got in a fight in the bathroom!" She hissed in a low voice.

No one at my table heard what Emily said because no one else was paying attention. We were pretty far from the stage but I was able to hear everything.

"What?" Seth said in disbelief.

Emily jolted, frustrated to have to repeat herself, "There's a fight in the bathroom."

Sue was walking past Emily to go on the stage and take her seat so she heard, "What?" she cried, "A fight? Who?"

"Silver."

Seth and Leah had already gotten up and we're on their way to the washroom.

"And who?" Sue pushed.

"I can't remember her name! That girl that came with Embry."

When Emily uttered those words, I clearly heard the sound of a woman crying out in pain. I wasn't the only one to have heard it. That was a loud scream.

I got out of my seat and strode to the washroom. Following behind Seth and Leah and several people followed behind us. The closer we got to the washroom, the more audible the sound of girls squealing became.

Seth and I picked up the pace.

When we got to the washroom room we had before us; Silver and Laurence pulling at each other's hair and squealing like school girls. We were both frozen for a second. I couldn't believe what I was looking at.

Seth snapped out of it first and marched towards his imprint and grabbed her around her waist from behind with unbelievable strength. Silver continues to kick and struggle to attack Laurence.

Laurence's fixed her dress before punching Silver in the stomach.

Silver coughed and reaches for Laurence's dress and ripped her strap causing Laurence to burst into a fit of cursing. I got to Laurence and wrap my arms around her from behind much more gently than Seth and try to soothe her but Laurence didn't see any reasoning once her dress was ripped.

Silver laughed at Laurence's displeasure and Seth tightened his grip on Silver, knocking the wind out of her.

"Enough." He said through clenched teeth. Seth's dark cheek were flushed and his expression was so hard. I had never seen Seth so angry before. He dragged Silver out of the room and she clawed at him arm so he'd set her free.

I glared at her on her way out. I couldn't believe Silver. I couldn't believe she would do this to me. I was shocked by her actions. I never knew she was capable of being so heartless.

"Ow…" Laurence moaned in pain.

I turned her to see her face, twisted in agony, "I'm sorry." She whimpered, too embarrassed to look up at me.

"Are you okay, baby?" I lifted her chin and examined her face. "Oh, no, these are going to turn into bruises." I gently grazed her cheek red cheek with my fingers and she winced slightly causing me to sigh. I wasn't a really violent guy and I could never hurt a girl but at that moment, I could've strangled Silver for what she did to Laurence.

"It's not that bad." She mumbled.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have brought you here."

"Why does that girl hate me?"

I looked at her beautiful face that was probably going to be bruised if we didn't get some ice on it and didn't understand how anyone could hate her. She was amazing and so nice and Silver….Silver had no right.

I gave her a hug and she asked me not to let go for a few seconds. So I held her and told I loved her and that tomorrow I'd take her back home.

The sound of Seth's loud footsteps and mumbling warned us of his presence. He entered the bathroom with trembling fist and grabbed Silver's purse off the counter. His fists were tightly clenched as he stopped in front of us and sighed.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "Silver is just so…I told her not to…I just…" he stammered clenching and unclenching his fist and taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"Are you okay, dude?" I asked. I kept one arm around Laurence's waist and reached for Seth shoulder with the other.

"No, I'm not fine. I'm so sorry, Laurence. I'm sorry that my girlfriend is so, freaking…" he couldn't even finish his sentences. His face was twisted in such rage and frustration, I couldn't help feeling a little bad for the kid.

"Can I help in any way?"

Seth nodded, "Take these to her, please?" he handed me her purse and jacket, "I can't even look at her right now." He shook his head.

"Yeah, no problem." I agreed right away and gave Seth a pat on the shoulder. People were still gossiping outside of the washroom when I got out with Laurence by my side. I fetched our jackets and murmured for her to go to the car and not look back so I could speak to Silver.

She did not argue and kissed my cheek.

It was pretty cold outside—well, Laurence thought it was cold—so I was surprised to see Silver in the January weather trembling in the cold without a coat on. I didn't pity her at all. I wanted her to freeze at that moment. But Seth had sent me here to give her the jacket, so I did.

I looked at her face. I had grown so found of it in these last few months. To me, her face meant sweet and childish innocence, that was how her sister saw her and I saw her that way too. I always thought she was sweet kid who wouldn't hurt a fly.

I was wrong, because she was the type of girl who beat up her closest friend's soul mate. That was the kind of girl she was. Her face wasn't cute at all to me, even though she did look vulnerable and her face turned pink out of the freezing temperature, I saw no bruises. Laurence would have a bruise.

I shoved her purse and jacket in her chest because I was sick of seeing her shiver and shake.

She didn't put it on. She just clutched at her things as I glared at her.

"You were like a sister to me." I said, feeling nothing but rage toward her. I knew Seth probably made her feel terrible for the awful thing she'd done but I wanted to make her feel worse. She deserved every bad thing that would happen to her, "Yet you refuse to accept the one thing that makes me happy."

"You were happy before."

"What do you want?"

"You know what I want." She seemed dead and emotionless. She was giving up this hopeless fight so I reconsidered yelling and screaming and possibly murdering her. I wouldn't do that to Seth. And I knew what she wanted. She wanted things to go back to the way things were. She wanted me to get back together with Amber and forget all about Laurence. I couldn't believe she was actually asking me to sacrifice that much.

I sighed, "Not gonna happen. Do you want me to say I'm sorry? Because I can't. I did love Amber and I don't regret our relationship. It has made me a better man. I am sorry she got hurt and I wish she would get over me because she could do way better." I thought about what I said and shrugged when I realised that was all I could do. I knew Amber was over me. We'd been over for less than a week but still, "That's all." I started walking away, "Oh, yeah, and I really don't like you anymore, so we're no longer friends. The only reason I'm considering to tolerate you is for Seth. And he's not worth endangering my Laue. So long Masson." I walked away from Silver and genuinely hoped it would be the last time I saw her.

I stepped into Laurence's black BMW and looked at her.

She was just looking in front of her and shaking her head, "I'm such an idiot." She muttered so low she thought I wouldn't hear.

"It's all her fault." I said, "She's obviously psychotic." I kissed Laurence's forehead and started the car. When I drove away from the building, I saw Nahuel comforting Silver in the cold as she tremble and sneezed. I couldn't help rolling my eyes. Nahuel was a great guy and he shouldn't have to deal with Silver garbage like the rest of us had to. had

I drove us to my house and Laurence didn't speak on the whole drive. Once in the house I gave her a bag of frozen peas to put on whatever spot was bothering her.

She immediately held it to her ribs, "Fuck her! I'm so fucking pissed." Laurence loved to swear, especially when she was mad.

"What happened anyway?" I asked out of curiosity. Part of me wished she wouldn't tell me because she would just give me more reasons to despise Silver Masson.

She answered and told me everything. How she'd just wanted to talk to her and be her friend because she was an imprint too, but Silver started yelling at her and they started to call each other names until Silver erupted and pushed her. Laurence didn't fight often but if someone pushed her, she couldn't help pushing back—even though she didn't exactly push her but kneed her in the face.

My clenched fists started to tremble.

Laurence was surprised to see me react this way, "Dude! Calm down! It's okay. I'm okay." She reached over the table and placed her hand on my clenched fist, "I hate her too. I hope she gets hit by a car." Laurence sighed, "This is not how I wanted tonight to end up."

I sighed.

"What do we do now? I thought we would be partying all night. We didn't even get to hit the dance floor." Her lips turned downwards and she rested her head on the table, "Ow. I am so disappointed."

"I'm sorry, Laurence." I whispered. "I feel terrible. I could die from how awful I feel. Because of me, you're in all this pain and you're going to have bruises and—" I broke off into a muffled sob. I hid half my face, feeling embarrassed and hating Silver for making all this happen.

"Don't cry, baby, please." Laurence got up and stood in front of me. She pulled my hand away and started kissing my face, "This is my fault. My entire fault. You didn't do anything. Please don't cry! I can't handle it." She started to whimper so I stopped crying so she wouldn't start.

I looked at her, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry. Let's not talk about this ever again. Tomorrow, we'll go on a road trip back home to sunny California and it'll be like that bitch never existed."

I chuckled at the likeliness of that possibility. I wanted that to be true but the chances were that Silver would always have a tiny part in our lives.

"There you go. A laugh and a smile." She kissed me lips and I held her there for a while. My heart raced and her lips moved on mine. Kissing Laurence was always like something from another planet. The sensation was out of this world.

"Want to take me to your room?" Laurence asked, gazing into my eyes.

My thoughts that were all jumbled up a few seconds ago were now completely focused. I wanted to be normal like the other wolves that had imprinted but I couldn't just forget about Amber. It was hard to forget when it was all so tragic. Her face and eyes would forever be engraved in my head. I would never forget how she cried and begged for me not to leave. Amber was always strong but that day, she made herself so vulnerable.

Laurence waited for me to reply.

"I don't know."

"Oh." Laurence looked away with an embarrassed expression.

"Laurence, it's just that…sex pretty much destroyed my last relationship and—"

"And you're afraid if we have sex we'll break up?"

"No—"

"You're afraid that you'll be disappointed and we won't be the same?"

"No!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"I…don't know."

I didn't really know why I was saying no. I loved Laurence. Of course I wanted to take her my room but every time I thought of being intimate with Laurence, I thought about my last sexual encounter with Amber. It was such a nightmare. It was even more awkward than my first time and every time I thought about it, I wanted to punch myself in the face. The way her body tensed up and held me to her, I knew she wanted me to stop. She told me to keep going but her body was telling me to stop. But I didn't listen to her body, I listened to her voice. I had screwed everything up with Amber when I took her to my room.