IT'S MEEEE! TIME FOR ANOTHER CHAPTER! SO LET'S GET STARTED. I DON'T OWN ANYTHING, BLAH, BLAH, AND BLAH! ALSO I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU WENT TO MY PROFILE AND VOTED FOR THE NEXT STORY, CUZ I'M STUCK!
Embry was standing in a big clearing, snow fluttering around him. "Well, son you're doing better than I thought." He jumps when he hears a deep voice and sees the old man from a previous dream. "Huh?" he shifts to him and smiles, mirroring every look Embry had on his face earlier in the day. "That girl made you laugh. Admit it, for that moment you felt light, free, wanted. I know because I remember it." Embry opens his mouth to disagree, but reflects on the day. It was true. Embry had forgotten about the betrayal of his team, drinking himself to sleep the first day home, breaking so many things out of anger and remorse, and looking at himself feeling like he was worthless. It had all been gone the moment he heard Bella scamper off. "I guess you're right." The man chuckles and shifts back to himself. "I told you she was special." "Why do I feel so different around her?" the old man looks at him with some sort of emotion he can't describe. "Every rough has a diamond. You found yours." The man vanished into the snow leaving Embry alone to think about what he said.
Beep, beep, beep, beep-
Embry reaches for his cell phone blindly, not wanting to leave the warmth of his bed. When he felt the cool plastic in his hand he opens his eyes to see the time. 7:50, November 23…a day before thanksgiving. He sighs and tries to get back to sleep, but the words the old man said were floating in his head. "Every rough has a diamond. You found yours." "Every rough has a diamond…god my dreams are fucked up." He says gruffly before he gets up, no longer wanting to stay in bed. He goes into the bathroom and starts up the water.
A hot shower would wake him up. He stood under the hot streams washing the shampoo into his hair, the smell of pine invading the small space. The dream was still fresh in his mind. That stupid old man hadn't given him an answer, just showed that Bella is changing-is somehow breaking his shell…even wider. He swallows and gets out of the shower, changing into clothes right away. When he enters the kitchen he just gets a bowl of cereal. His stomach wasn't up for anything quite yet.
He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to call Bella. It was the day before thanksgiving; she could be out shopping like everyone else. His chest feels heavy as he remembers his thanksgivings with the team and friends, the endless chatter, the football games, the way he felt so welcomed. It hurts more and more as he remembers the looks on their faces when they kicked him off the team, Paul looking like he wanted to punch Sam. He can't help the tears that start to run down his scarred face. All the years he spent with them, and they pushed him aside like some toy. He sobs and grabs handfuls of his shaggy hair as he starts to panic, all the bitter sweet memories rising the longer he sits, flashes of his friends going through his mind, there words brutal and unyielding.
It becomes harder to breathe as his chest tightens painfully, he can't stop it; the emotions that had been hidden away thanks to Bella have cracked free by her absence. He's now a sobbing, sniffling mess at his small table, his soggy cereal forgotten. He wants to see Bella, have his horrible feelings numbed just for a few hours. Then he hears a voice that makes his head whip up, his hood down. "Embry?" There, standing at the kitchen entrance is Bella, pure concern in her eyes. "Bella." He croaks, tears still running down his face. She walks towards him and grabs his hand, coaxing him up.
Embry wraps his arms around her waist tightly and buries his face in her neck, whimpering as the tears start to slow down. Bella holds onto him tightly as he starts to calm down, his breathing steady. "Embry, what happened?" he pulls back, his face blotchy. "I…I just started thinking about my old team and…I broke down." Bella hugs him tighter. "It's okay Embry, I know I can't fully understand how you feel, but I care about you, and I want you to know you can always come to me when this happens." Embry can't help but nuzzle her neck again, feeling an almost drunkening amount of comfort. Bella pulls out of the embrace to get him a glass of water and watches as he sips it silently. Now that he's back to normal, Embry feels embarrassed by the way he grabbed at Bella. But he had been desperate to get out of the insane grief he had felt. "So, what are you here for?" he places the glass in the sink and leans against the counter. Bella leans into him, relieved to see him feeling better. "I was actually wondering if you'd like to join us for thanksgiving." He stops the glass mid lift to his lips. He looks at her with surprise, making her shift with nervousness. "That is, if you want to. It's your choice I know sometimes my brother makes you uncomfortable, and I know you only met my dad-""Bella." She stops, feeling nothing but heat on her face. She doesn't look up. She should have known she was pushing her luck when she asked. Embry had never mentioned any family and thought it would be nice to have him over, but regret it. Now he was going to get offended and tell her no. she feels a finger under her chin, her face being lifted so she can look into his differently colored eyes that gave him a unique demeanor. She felt her heart skip a beat and scolds herself for such a reaction.
When he speaks his voice is slightly lower. "Relax, I just wasn't expecting that. If you want me to come I'll come. You can be comfortable telling me anything." Bella blushed even more; she ran a hand through his hair and smiled. "You want me to give you a haircut?" well that was random; Embry thought, but liked the idea of Bella cutting his hair instead of some stranger who would interrogate him about his scars. He gives her a slight smile. "Sure."
Embry sits on a stool in his bathroom, a towel around his shoulders, looking in the only mirror in his apartment. He examines his scars, and notices they are thinner, noticeably thinner. They're still very thick, but about as thick as a wire, when they had been like a pencil not too long ago. He feels a bit of satisfaction seeing this small detail. Bella walks in with a few things and begins wetting his hair in silence. He closes his eyes from Bella's hand gently moving through his scalp. He opens them to watch her snip the first few small chunks, the snipping of the scissors being the only noise. She starts to hum, moving around his head smoothly. "I guess you've done this before." Bella chuckles. "Yeah, my brother's hair grew like crazy when we were younger. My mom was terrible with scissors so I took the family barber title."
Embry wants to turn around, but bell playfully pushes his face back into place. "You make it sound like she's not very grown-up." She laughs and continues to cut. "Because she is; she's very loving but she's a bit of an air head, she can't focus on something for more than a few days. She gets bored easily." Embry lets out a breath, trying to blow a piece of hair off his nose and blushes when Bella gently plucks it off. "Seems like an interesting job."
"It was, but it wasn't my only one. I also made sure my brother didn't get into fight all the time."
"Hmm." Bella removes the towel and folds it up so none of the hair came out. Embry was truly surprised how good it looked. It was now shortly cropped, going into a natural spiking look. Bella brushed off his shoulders and picked up the other towels she put on the floor to catch the hair, Embry helping her. "Thanks, Bella." She smiles.
"No problem, ask any time." Embry offers to make lunch, feeling like he owed her after everything she had done and Bella accepts. He doesn't know how to make much, but he had some decent leftovers; some chili he could put over cheesy rice. Bella watches him sitting on the counter chewing on her lip. She can't help but stare at him. She likes his hair cut; it doesn't get in his eyes, the strange natural spiking makes him seem more confident and frowns as her chest starts to feel strange. Embry hands her a bowl of warm chili over rice. They sit on his couch in silence, the day seeming to drain them even though it was only 12:30. The food goes away quickly, and Bella snuggles into Embry out of habit; she feels him sigh and sink into the couch. It was funny, how not too long ago he had been a stranger that she bumped into at the rink, who opened up to her, showed her his biggest secret, and put his trust into her, and now he was her friend who she too trusted and lo…Bella hesitates as that word runs through her mind. What kind of love?
She pushed the thought away and looked up at Embry who was in his own mental monologue. His eyes glazed over, his mouth in a straight line. Whatever was going through his mind had his full attention. She bites her lip and buries her face in his neck, making him snap out of whatever he was thinking. "Bella, have you ever had a dream that didn't make any sense?" He looks at her with curiosity. She nods. "I've had a lot of them. Usually, it's things you've thought of yourself and your mind mixed up, or something that has happened in the past you don't remember." Neither of those fit with an old man saying he was you and telling you your newest friend was a big part of your future…so maybe he was just crazy. He sighs wishing that he could just enjoy the moment. Bella's phone goes off and realizes she needs to go to practice. She says her goodbyes and leaves Embry with a sinking feeling. What she had walked in on was haunting her; how broken his sobs were, his bloodshot eyes, that held so much pain at that moment, and the way he grabbed her…was she really something he looked comfort into? She rushes through the cold weather to the recreation center that held the ice rink.
"Damn, girl what happened to you? Your eyes are wild." James looked at his athlete with concern. Bella was such a cool and collected person, this was out of character. She raises her head and bites her lip. "I just…I went to Embrys and…it's complicated."
"What happened?" She runs a hand through her hair and looks at her couch with hesitant.
"Embry has a bad past, and I guess some memories surfaced, because I found him having an emotional break down at his apartment." James gaped.
"He's not as stable as he seems." She slips on her skates.
"So, you pretty much walked in on him going crazy." Bella scoffs and slides onto the ice, ending the conversation. James turns on the stereo, and let Bella's skating music flow, realizing his athlete was falling for some mysterious boy, she was helping…and maybe falling for a man with a scarred past.
Xx
Leah shuffled around the cramped apartment, and stroked her stomach. Just a few more weeks and she'd know if it was a girl or boy. She went into the small kitchen and stirred the big pot of soup she was making. The weather was starting to get bitter, and she knew Jake would want something to warm him up. She smiled at the thought of her fiancée, someone her brothers had known for so long, but she didn't truly notice him until high school, when she started her job at the local diner, out of boredom and need of money, since Embry joined a non-school represented skating team, and Seth took a small interest in mechanics. She flushed as she remembered exactly how she truly met him.
Flashback
Leah rushed around the tiny kitchen; it was lunch rush and customers came one after another. "Leah fried chicken meal to table 10." She grabbed the plate. "okay." She speed walked and gave a friendly old man his meal, with a smile of course. That was her favorite part of the job; seeing peoples face light up at Afton's famous cooking. "Leah roast beef and bake potato to table 3." She served all day until she was sore, but the lunch rush wasn't over when a group of loud rowdy teens came in. Leah was placing eight glasses of water on a tray, ignoring the boys' hoots as she headed over to table 5 where a family celebrating a birthday, but a boy was pushed and his leg stuck out to stable himself, tripping Leah in the process. She let out a nervous squeal and braced herself for the floor, but never felt it come, she looked up to see a pair of big brown eyes. "Phew! Just barely got you!" she could barely hear his voice over the shatter of the glasses. She winces in annoyance. That was coming out of her paycheck. "thanks." She whispers to her savior, who stands up to help her to her feet.
"No problem, sorry about Jared, he always pushes Derek around." She feels her heart flutter as he smiles.
"Ahh…" he held out his hand for her to shake.
"My names Jacob by the way." She takes it slowly.
"Leah." recognition flashes in his eyes.
"Yeah, your Seth and Embry's sister, I remember them mentioning you." Now she remembers; Jacob and billy black where her father's closets friends. Embry and Seth had taken a liking to Jacob since the beginning, but she was always out with her friends, Rachael and Rebecca, so she never seriously met them. She feels her heart drop. It's not that she did anything horrible to the two boys, but they were mischievous, they could say anything.
"oh." Jacob smiles in a jokerish way.
"So, you're a wiz in the kitchen?" her head whips up, and knows what she's doing when she gets home.
"I cook a little…" she mumbles and he moves slightly closer, making her blush.
"And I hear you like a good movie on a nice night." Leah feels her heart start racing even more.
"Y-yeah." Leah looks at his face, his short cropped hair, examining him.
"Is there a guy involved on those nice nights?" she shakes her head and feels him slip something into her hand. She looks up to see him smiling a truly genuine smile.
"I'd like to be that guy sometime."
"O…ok." She watches in surprise as he walks to his friends who helped pick up the glass and were now chattering about going to the mall. When she gets home she finds Embry and Seth playing a video game. They look at her disheveled hair and give each other a glance. She screams and jumps on both of them, giving them big hugs.
"I love you guys so much right now!" Embry pats her back.
"A whys that?" she looks at him with a grin.
"Because you got me a date without trying!"
End flashback
Leah jumps when she hears a voice behind her. "What has you in La, La land?" she whips around to see none other than Jacob, his work shirt dirty and grease stains on his jeans, his usual smile on his face. She gives him a loving kiss.
"Just thinking about how we met, and how it seems so long ago." Jacob chuckles, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Yeah, but I'm loving the present moment." He murmurs, stroking her slightly bloated stomach. She tilts her head to the side and hums in contentment.
"I love you Jacob."
"I love you too Leah, heh, just think, in a few weeks we're going to see our crazy family." She nods.
"I wonder how Embry's doing with that lady friend of his." Jacob smirks.
"Knowing him, he's probably thinking of the fact he's still a virgin." She playfully slaps his chest.
"Oh hush! Now do you want a bowl of soup?" his eyes light up.
"Uh huh."
Xx
Embry bangs his head repeatedly on the wall. He's humiliated with the fact that he believes the stupid old man in his dreams. He's going koo-koo, it's the only explanation. But do crazy people know they're going crazy? Or does it just happen? What would Bella think if he just blurted out "I think I'm whacko, now what?" he feels his chest constrict at her going away, fading out of his life just like his team, leaving him to deal with the turmoil of his past. He doesn't want Bella to leave, and has a feeling she wants to stay. But what does he know? The only girl he ever talked to was Leah…but even he can tell that there's something deeper about his relationship with Bella. The question is should he risk losing her just to see if she feels the same? He knows deep down, in his cracked and injured heart, that he's falling for Bella, deeper every time he sees her.
DUN, DUN, DUUUUUN! YEP YOU HEARD IT LOUD AND CLEAR! EMBRY'S STARTIN TO GET THE HOTS FOR BELLA! MUHAHAHA! BUT, WILL HE ACT ON IT, IS THE QUESTION! FAREWELL AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TO HELP ME ENTERTAIN YOU AFTER ICE IS COMPLETED!