Waxing Gibbous

No More Lies (B)

We got to class a little late and took our seats quickly. Mr. Berty was reciting a Frost poem. He ignored our entrance, refusing to let us break his rhythm. I yanked a blank page out of my notebook and started writing, my handwriting more illegible than normal thanks to my agitation.

What happened? Tell me everything. And screw the protecting me crap, please.

I shoved the note at Edward. He sighed, and then began writing. It took him less time than me, though he wrote an entire paragraph in his own personal calligraphy before he slipped the paper back.

Alice saw that Victoria was coming back. I took you out of town merely as a precaution - there was never a chance that she would have gotten anywhere close to you. Emmett and Jasper very nearly had her, but Victoria seems to have some instinct for evasion. She escaped right down the Quileute boundary line as if she were reading it from a map. It didn't help that Alice's abilities were nullified by the Quileutes' involvement. To be fair, the Quileutes might have had her, too, if we hadn't gotten in the way. Alex had her in her teeth, in No man's land. Emmett jumped to grab Victoria, to help, Victoria was able to knock them off. The big gray one thought Emmett was over the line, and he got defensive. Lucia didn't like that, and Rosalie was already on edge. Carlisle and Jasper got things calmed down before it got out of hand. But by then, Victoria had slipped away. That's everything.

I frowned at the letters on the page. All of them had been in on it - Emmett, Jasper, Lucia, Alice, Rosalie, and Carlisle. Maybe even Esme, though he hadn't mentioned her. And then Paul, Alex, and the rest of the Quileute pack. It might so easily have turned into a fight, pitting my future family and my old friends against each other. Any one of them could have been hurt. I imagined the wolves would be in the most danger, but picturing tiny Alice next to one of the huge werewolves, fighting . . .

You said no one got seriously hurt... I passed the paper back to him. he scribbled a response then passed it back to me.

Alex was knocked into the cliffs; she had some injuries but walked it off. That's probably one of the reasons the wolves and Rosalie were on edge.

I shuddered. Carefully, I scrubbed out the entire paragraph with my eraser and then I wrote over the top:

What about Charlie? She could have been after him.

Edward was shaking his head before I finished, obviously going to downplay any danger on Charlie's behalf. He held a handout, but I ignored that and started again.

You can't know that she wasn't thinking that because you weren't here. Florida was a bad idea.

He took the paper from underneath my hand.

I wasn't about to send you off alone. With your luck, not even the black box would survive.