Instinct

Acceptance

Chapter 21

Bree watched as Renesmee's parents carried her away. She felt pity for her, Bree had brought her into this mess, and now she was gonna be punished for it. She looked back at Jacob, whose face was covered in sadness. He had really liked Renesmee, even if he only knew her for a short while. Carlisle turned his glare back to me and so did Esme.

"We are very disappointed in you Bree. We'd thought you would at least respect our boundaries. We do not make friends with these creatures." Esme said. Her utter disgust showing from her tone.

"And why would I do that? Those are your boundaries not mine."

"We're a family Breeanna. And family should respect each others boundaries."

"You have no idea how hypocritical you sound."

"Excuse me?"

"Seth is a part of my boundaries. He exists there. You should be respecting my boundaries and just let me be happy." Esme seemed to hesitate. She never, ever wanted to get in the way of her daughters happiness.

"Bree, you can love whoever you want, as long as they don't turn into uncontrollable, impulsive werewolves." Carlisle said.

"Seth isn't impulsive. He's never turned in front of me."

"Then it's only a matter if time before he gets angry and something happens to him."

"That's not gonna happen." Seth spoke, "I would never hurt your daughter, I swear." Everyone turned to Seth and he reddened. He wasn't used to this type of attention. Carlisle's glare seemed to go right through Seth and he wanted to whimper in fear. He turned back to me.

"We're going home. Now." Esme grabbed my hand and started pulling me. I yanked my hand away.

"No!"

"Bree", Riley said, "don't make this harder on yourself." He seemed to feel sorry for me, but I didn't need his sympathy. He held out his hand for me and I just looked at it. I can't believe my own brother would do this to me.

But I wanted to do it.

I wanted to grab his hand and go away with him, so that we can be sibling again. I wants to get far away from this place. I needed my brother, but I also needed Seth. Riley seemed to sense my thoughts. We did that to each other sometimes. We were twins so Carlisle guessed that we had a natural connection to each other and now I felt him. He could feel my feelings and I could feel his. He didn't want me to be unhappy, but he didn't want to hurt our parents. His parents, not mine. It seemed this whole situation was about inevitable choices. At some point, is have to choose between Seth and my family, and I couldn't choose that. I needed Jasper and Bella to talk to, Emmett to laugh with, Edward to make fun of Rosalie with, I needed Alice's upbeat attitude, Riley's sense of right and wrong. But I also needed Seth's love. And I knew I couldn't live without that.

I took Riley's hand but I pulled him over towards Seth and he let me. I took Seth's hand and brought it on top of Riley's with mine holding it together. Both my loves in this one circle.

"Is there really any difference, Riley?" He seemed to think about the question for a moment. He looked at Seth, who looked right back at him.

"No." He thought. Deep down, Riley was just like me. He loved our parents, but he wanted to be free. Free of responsibility. Of differences. Of being not quite dead, and not quite alive, but somewhere in between. A hybrid. He wanted to be human. Yes, his thoughts said, I do. Nobody heard our silent conversation except is and that was a secret I'd never tell.

I love you bro, I thought.

I love you too sis, he thought. We both looked at Seth and smiled. He seemed confused.

I'll tell you later, my eyes said to him. He nodded. Riley let go of Seth's hand and I took his hands with mine. We walked back silently toward our family who only stared for the last few minutes. They were confused on to what had happened, but they were happy that I was coming home. They all filed after me and Riley who were still holding hands.

'Remember when I called you a bitch', Riley thought.

'Ready to take that back?'

'No way.'

'Then why bother mentioning it?'

'Because upon seeing your boyfriend and how much you care about him. Also how your so willing to protect him. I realized something.'

'What?'

'I'm this family's bitch. They all just knock me around and tell me what to do like I'm some dumb dog. And I just follow it with a smile on my face. It's annoying.'

'You could be more like me.'

'Don't you realize it Bree? I've always been like you, I just haven't had the strength to say it.'

'Technically, your thinking it.'

'Same thing.'

'Five bucks for you to say it out loud.'

'You know how Esme feels about cursing.'

'That didn't stop me.'

'Still, I'm not ready to say it. I don't have enough incentive.'

'Mhm. Golden boy. It must be why Liliila likes you so much.'

'Liliila likes me?'

'I wasn't supposed to say that.'

'No it's alright. I actually kinda like her too. She's just so edgy and kinda bad, almost like you. I don't know, bad is kinda.. Sexy. But Carlisle and Esme would disapprove of her.'

'Even at this point, you still care about what they think.'

'Not really. If I ask out Liliila, think they'll freak out?'

'Oh yeah.'

'Then so be it.' We laughed out loud at our silent joke and they all turned to us. They raised their eyebrows in perfect unison but me and Riley just kept laughing. It was great.

I've never been this friendly with my brother. We've always been Soren to each other, but now I feel like I could tell him anything.

'That's because you can.' He thought. 'Your more like me than your realize Bree. Your looking for acceptance too.'

Maybe I was.