Title: Heartsick (NOT a continuation of the previous flashfic)
Pairing: Embry/Bella (ages 13/14-ish)
Genre: romance/hurt/comfort
Rating: T
Word Count: 500
Prompt: "It's been two months."
Heartsick
The soft shush-shush of footsteps in sand forced Embry deeper into hiding.
It's not hiding if I need a little peace and quiet, he reminded himself.
The footsteps stopped yards away and his shoulders hunched against the inevitable ambush Quil and Jake set up to intrude on his much needed solitude.
"Embry?"
Tormented, he closed his eyes.
Now, he thought, I'm hallucinating, especially when Quil's voice passes for Bella's.
He shook his head.
Resigned to his former best friends' guerilla tactics, he tucked the sketchbook into his chest and waited, head lowered. Anger and anxiety dueled in his belly. His head felt light and his anger burned hot. Why couldn't they just leave him alone?
"Embry, is that you?"
That voice… Raising his eyes to prove his psyche wrong, deep pools of amber honey and acres of silken curls framed the face that haunted his dreams and infiltrated every piece of paper, margin, and doodle his pencil touched since the end of her visit four months earlier.
Bella…
"Jake said you were brooding, but I thought he was joking. Why are you down here all by yourself? The bonfire—"
"Jake and Quil are at the bonfire," he snapped.
"And that's a problem?" She settled on her knees.
"We haven't been…" He groaned in frustration. She wouldn't understand!
"You don't play with Jake and Quil anymore?" Concerned, caring hands covered his.
"We're a little old to play—don't you think?" He gritted his teeth against the urge to growl. It wasn't Bella's fault.
Her voice wavered, "Are you mad at me?"
"What? No…" Dropping the sketchbook, he gripped her hands. "Things have been strained between us for a while."
"Jake mentioned—" She cleared her throat. "Well…" —an audible swallow— "He said you— It was—"
Uncomfortable, they both fidgeted, staring holes in their laps.
"I missed you," Embry blurted out.
Oh, good job, dumbass.
Dropping her hands, he cradled his head and mumbled, "Sorry. Not your fault. It's— You came home. I wasn't here. You were here in October. Jake —ugghhh!— knew you were coming and I was visiting my grandparents up in Neah Bay. When I got home and found out—"
"They kept it from you? Me…?"
"Jake," he sneered. "Quil is Jake's minion, as usual, and you're Jake's, too, right?" He clutched at the back of his neck and tucked his chin deep against his chest, chewing on his lips to keep his traitor mouth from leaking the whimpers tickling the back of his throat.
Her sigh brushed across the throb of raw nerves and tender feelings. He almost lost it when she confessed, "I missed you, too, you know. It was a long weekend. Jake's hormones make him—"
"Yeah, I get that."
"I really missed you," she murmured, shifting to lean against his side. She waited.
He raised his arm and hugged her close, her nearness snuffing his longing like a cool hand to fevered brow.
When her lips touched his, he felt like he was the one coming home.
A/N: Still working on my heinous writer's block issues. Blerg. At least Embry is being kind. Do the same for me, if you're enjoying these drabbles. Not kidding when I say your reviews keep me motivated. I'm actually working on COMPLETING one of the MCs I have on hiatus in my spare time. I'm hoping these flashfics help me work out some of the kinks. If you're looking forward to seeing more on one of my incomplete MCs, too, lemme know!