Embry's story

1. Bottle tops.

Embry

"Why are we here Quil?" I asked looking at the party with skeptical eyes.

"Because you need to have some fun bro." he rolled his eyes at me.

"Hey, I have plenty of fun, thank you very much."

"Um…no you don't. When do you aver have any fun?"

"Well… um… I…" I stuttered trying to come up with a worthy excuse.

"Exactly now get in there take your beer, and go talk to some hot chicks." He pushed me through the door. Maybe he's right I should try to have more fun. Besides there is a few decent looking girls here.

I opened my bottle with my teeth after not being able to find an opener. Damn, why didn't I get screw tops. I saw some chick do the same thing I had to laugh, she was so tiny, how is she be able to do that? Even I had trouble with it, but it looked like second nature to her.

I cruised around for a bit talking to a few of the guys from my old school.

"…. Yeah you should meet some of my mates-"

"Hey Seth!"

"Oh hey man, I was just talking about you."

"That's not very nice, did your mother never tell you not to talk behind people's backs, it's rude." The chick he was talking to giggled. Seth on the other hand looked furious.

"Anyway, Embry this is Isabelle, Isabelle this is Embry, one of my good mates."

"Hi, nice to meet you." She turned to me and looked me straight in the face for the first time.

"uh…. hi I'm Embry" I said snapping out of my little trance, I had no idea what had just happened, all I knew was that I wanted to get to know her.

"It's a little noisy in here; you want to come sit outside with me?" I asked a little nervously, I thought for sure that she was going to refuse.

"Yeah sounds good ill just go tell my friends so that they don't think Seth has kidnapped me."

"Ok well ill wait for you outside." She turned and went over to her friends. I felt a sharp sting on the back of my head. Seth had slapped me.

"Ow, what the fuck did you do that for?" I said turning back to him angrily.

"Dude, what are you doing I was talking to her first."

"That's still not a good enough excuse to hit me Seth. By the way you hit like a girl."

"Well that's original."

"I wasn't trying to be original you idiot. Look can you just back off me Seth, I don't know why but I feel like I needto talk to her."

"whatever." He turned and stomped away. Way to throw a tantrum Seth.

I went outside and sat on the porch steps, grabbing a third beer on the way out. It may sound like a lot but I knew it wouldn't affect me so it didn't really matter. I sat down and opened my drink leaning my head against the railing.

"hey." I turned to see Isabelle sitting down next to me; I hadn't even heard her come out.

"hey" I said shyly. She just smiled and opened her drink. I recognized the way she did it, it must have been the same girl as earlier.

"how do you do it?" I asked her.

"do what?"

"open your drink like that; you make it look effortless, like its second nature to you?"

"well I originally come from New Zealand and well, the teens there are … big drinkers."

she laughed, the sound was so beautiful.

"so when did you move to America?"

"about three years ago."

"cool, its no wonder I didn't recognize your accent, i've never met a New Zealander before."

"well that's obvious, 'cause if you had you would know its kiwi, not New Zealander."

"oh, like the fruit?" I asked wondering why on earth they would want to call themselves fruit.

"no like the bird." She laughed at me.

"oh, the kiwi."

"yeah the kiwi." She laughed again. I could listen to her laugh all night.

"so why do you call yourselves birds?"

She chuckled and said, "because it's our national bird, we're the only country in the world that has native kiwis, if they have them any where else, they were introduced there."

"cool, I'd love to see one."

"ill show you a picture some time."

"awesome."

"so what about you?"

"me, I don't call myself a bird." I said smirking slightly.

"no, tell me something about you."

"well, I live in La Push, I went to the high school there, and my two best friends are Quil and Jacob."

"cool, id love to meet them sometime."

"i'm sure you will they aren't hard to miss. Your turn again"

"ok then, well I go to Forks high, I transferred there about a month ago, my best friend is Anna but she still lives in New Zealand. Your turn."

"Do you miss her?"

"who? Oh Anna right, yeah totally she's an amazing person but I talk to her on the phone and through web cam all the time so it's not as bad."

"do you have many friends here?"

"I've got a few, like I was just sort of adopted into my group of friends here, mainly because I knew Kiara from when we were young, she like my second cousin or something."

"who are your friends? I might know them."

"well there's, Kiara, Leah, Sara, Emma, Ayla, Amy, Rebekah, Penny, Stephanie, Nicole, Breanna, Rachel and Kaknika."

"wow, that's a lot of friends for only a month."

"well what can I say, people love me." She laughed again. "Hey you want another drink?"

"Yeah, sure." I answered smiling hugely at her. She was gone a minute and a half (yes I was counting, isn't that sad, but in my defense, I just couldn't wait to see her again.)

She came back with a beer for me, and a vodka cruiser for her. She flipped the top off expertly, and took a sip turning her attention back to me, I tried and failed to get the top off my drink, jeez the one time I want to impress a girl I fail miserably.

"fail!" she said laughing again, she took my drink off me and took the lid off with her teeth again and shot it out over the grass. She handed my drink back to me and took another sip of hers. I didn't get it, her teeth must be made out of titanium or something, I mean those lids are hard!

"I don't get you?"

"what don't you get?"

"I don't know but you confuse me, I mean the bottle top thing; do honestly drink so much you've had a lot of practice? Haven't you ever cracked a tooth?"

She laughed and said, "I drink…occasionally. And yes I've chipped a tooth, well technically three teeth but that doesn't matter, it hurts like a bitch, but you generally forget about that when you've had enough to drink."

"how often is occasionally?"

"um…. Maybe…. Two- three sometimes four times a week."

"oh my god your liver is going to die."

"yeah well, kiwi remember, its what we do." We talked for a long time. I learnt that she preferred to be called Izzy. I don't even know how long we talked; I also didn't notice that the gap between her getting dinks had gotten smaller and smaller, until she was getting a new drink every five minutes.

"oh my god I love this song!" she jumped up downed the last of her drink and there must have been about a third of a bottle in there. My eyes widened watching her, how could someone so small handle that much alcohol. She grabbed my arm and started yanking on it.

"come on you have to dance with me!" she yelled over the music. I groaned and got to my feet, following her inside and on to the makeshift dance floor. She stated dancing and dayum, it was HOT. She was moving in perfect timing to the music and she put her arms around my neck and was grinding against me. I couldn't help but dance with her. She was so cute.

Just leave with me now. Say the word and we'll go.
I'll be your teacher. I'll show you the ropes.
You'll see a side of love you've never known.
I can see it going down, going down…

She started singing along, she was pretty good.

Then we were interrupted by Krystina, the girl from forks high that thinks everyone loves her. I must admit she was pretty but no more than that, and she was a born and bred bitch.

I didn't like her very much and it was pretty obvious Izzy didn't like her much either, cause when she saw her she stopped dancing and i'm not sure but I think that she might have growled at her.

"hey Embry, how are you?" Krystina asked me trying to be flirty.

"hi Krystina." I said back not wanting to be rude.

"Isabelle." Krystina said to Izzy without even looking at her she sort of pouted as she said it.

"Krystina." Izzy said with a look of disgust on her face.

"So, Embry why don't you come dance with me." Krystina said with a smile on her face.

"well i'm actually dancing with Izzy at the moment, so I cant sorry."

"Izzy? Well of course she would try to shorten her ugly name." she murmured to her friends behind her. "you should sooo come dance with me Embry; it would be sooo much better."

"i'm fine at the moment thank you." I turned back to Izzy she looked unhappy.

"fine ill see you later Embry, see ya loser." I almost lost it, how could she say that to Izzy? Izzy was amazing.

"slut." I heard Izzy mumble under her breath. I cracked up laughing, I couldn't help it she looked so cute. I grabbed her hand and pulled her outside again.

"what was up with you and Krystina?"

"oh nothing really, she hurt me, I hate her, she hates me, I want to kill her, no biggy."

"what did she do?"

"I don't like to talk about it. It hurts too much."

"did she like physically hurt you or emotionally?"

"emotionally, although id like to physically hurt her, but that's not the point." She hung her head and started to down her drink, it was gone in half a minute. She pulled another one from her jacket and checked her phone. I had to keep watching her, whatever Krystina did, it hurt her, and it hurt her bad.

"shit, I've got to go."

"why?" I asked jumping up with her.

"because its two o'clock and my curfew was one. My mom's going to call me soon, she doesn't know I'm drinking, what do I do, she's like a human breathalyzer."

"well, don't go home them, we have a spare room at my flat you could stay there. Oh and when she calls tell her you're staying at a friends."

"she'll want to know why I never told her that."

"simple just say you did tell her, it always worked with my mom."

"ohh good plan I like it." she swayed slightly, I thought she was going to fall, but she grabbed the rail, closed her eyes, took a few deep breath's and she was fine again. she jumped when her phone rang, and she ran out into the trees. I followed her out there as quietly as I could, I couldn't leave her out there in the forest by herself not with a bloodsucker running around. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, when I saw her whispering into the phone.

"-yes mom, I'm fine, no i'm at Emma's... I told you that... A few days ago... Yes really... Ok I have to go I don't want to wake anyone up… Just a few of the girls... Yes ones from school..." Her voice changed and she growled, "no not her, I would never stay in the same house as her..." She looked up when I stood on a twig. "mom, I got to go… Yes I love you too, ill see you tomorrow… Where are you going?... Well thanks for telling me bye." She got up and walked over to me and let out a deep breath. "it worked!" she squealed and flung herself at me and pulled me down to hug her. I paused for a moment and then wrapped my arms around her waist. I let go when I felt her grip loosening. I started walking back to the party, but when we got there so were the cops. They didn't like the fact that there was a whole bunch of underage teens drinking, I stopped Izzy and pointed at them. She nodded and sat down leaning against a tree. I sat next to her quietly. I saw a flash in my peripheral and realized she had just lit up a smoke. I frowned at her.

"sorry does it bother you?' she asked looking ashamed.

"a little bit, but never mind me it's your smoke enjoy yourself."

"cool," she had a few puffs before asking why I didn't like people smoking.

"I don't know really, maybe it's the fact that it's addictive, and that it has so many chemicals in it."

"oh I never thought about it like that." She said taking another puff.

"sorry but I have to ask, why do you smoke?"

"well everyone I know back home used to smoke like my mom, step dad, brother, sister, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, youth leaders. I just grew up with smoking even though my parents and aunts and uncles have all quit, I haven't."

"why did you start? I mean just because everyone around you smokes, it doesn't mean that you have to."

"I know, but I still do."

"can I ask why?"

"well mostly because of peer pressure and things like that. You know trying to fit in and all that crap. It's my cousins fault really, she's the one that got me started, and she taught me to roll, but I was crap at it so started getting tailor made's. And when I ran out she would always buy me more, she convinced my brother to start buying me some as well, I had to pay him back of course but I didn't mind."

"did it help with the fitting in?"

"well yeah because that's what all the 'cool' people were doing and only the loser's weren't smoking."

"wow." I was amazed it sounded so… shallow.

"I know that makes it sound bad, but it helped, so did drinking."

"help with what?"

"well, everything, it helps me clear my head and it gets rid of stress."

"really? How?"

"I don't know, it just does, the smoking helps with the stress. The drinking helps me clear my head and makes me forget things I don't want to remember."

"but doesn't it all come back in the morning?"

"no not really, it just depends on what it is really. There's just some things you can't forget, no matter how hard you try." She finished her smoke, put it out then wrapped her arms around her legs. She looked so…. Hurt.

"there you are Embry we've been looking for you for ages, what the hell happened to you man?" it was Quil he pushed through the trees and saw Izzy sitting there. At first he started smirking, and then his expression changed to concern. I got up- and went to talk to him quietly behind the trees whispering fast.

"mate I told her she could stay at ours for the night in the spare room, she a little bit drunk and I don't want her getting into trouble with her parents. Is that okay?"

"yeah of course." He turned to look at her before asking, "is she? Okay I mean?"

"I don't know, that's what i'm trying to figure out."

"yeah cool, cool, well ill see you there then see ya."

"don't you want a ride?"

"nah i'm good, I feel the need to run tonight."

"see you Quil, and thanks."

"no prob's."

I went back over to where Izzy was sitting and asked her if she wanted to go, she just nodded and got up. She swayed slightly, before falling over, I caught her just before she hit the ground, I pulled her back up and set her on her feet. I put my arms around her waist so that she didn't fall over again. As we were walking she tripped over nothing then cracked up laughing. I got her to the house and showed her where the bathroom was and then showed her to the spare room, she staggered over to the bed and fell straight on top of it. I thought she had crashed so I went over to her and took off her shoes putting them on the ground quietly. I started to pull the covers back, then realized I didn't want to move her. She looked so peaceful. I sighed slightly when she opened her eyes and smiled at me; I smiled back then moved the covers down so she could crawl into them. She plopped down onto the pillow and pulled me closer so that she could hug me.

As I hugged her back she whispered "aren't you glad I'm a happy drunk not an emotional one." Into my ear, her warm breath blew over my skin and I couldn't help but shudder. It was bliss. I pulled back and looked at her for a second before I turned off the light and closed the door. Just before I turned the light out she smiled then sighed and her mouth pulled down at the corners. I felt bad, she was obviously hurting, I couldn't figure it out but I promised myself that I would do it then I would help her in whatever way possible.

I went down in the kitchen to get some food. Man I was hungry. Only to stop in the door because there was Sam, Jake, Quil and Seth were all talking in hurried voices.

"Embry." Jake said seeing me for the first time

"uh… hi, what's going on?"

"well we were talking about you actually." said Sam

"great." I muttered grumpily and got some food out of the fridge.

"embry.."

"yes Quil…"

"mate, we think you imprinted."