𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐄 , 𝘱𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘦

𝘕𝘐𝘕𝘌

┏━━━━ . * ✧ * • ━━━━┓
╰┈➤ 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘦 ▏𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘦

MUMBLING.

That was all Annabel could hear as her eyes began to flutter opened and her mind finally began to catch up with her surroundings.

She deduced she was still at Sam's. Actually, she was on Emily and Sam's bed at the moment. Surrounding her was Sam, Paul, and Jacob.

As soon as her brain had recovered and she registered Jacob Black's cameo in the room, she was mere moments away from screaming as she sat stick straight up with a start, "You," all heads turned to the human as soon as the word left her mouth, "you're a fucking...I don't even know!"

All three guys were surprised by her choice of words but didn't say anything. After a nudge in the ribs from Sam, Jacob opened his mouth instantly, "Bel, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say the things I did to you."

"I don't give a flying fuck what you said to me! I was a little preoccupied by your new form," She supplied.

Sam sighed, "You weren't suppose to find out that way. It was going to be a lot more talking to get you used to it before you ever saw anything."

The reason Sam spoke didn't matter. Her mind didn't register reason as her body told her they were monsters.

She knew it wasn't fair. She had known the boys since she arrived and everyone on the Reserve were nothing short of kind to her. They allowed her around everyday, let her cook — even if she couldn't, and treated her as if she was their friend all along.

These three boys right here were her friends.

That was the reason.

But in the moment, no amount of reason could get her to see them as anything but beasts. As things that could hurt her — kill her — at any moment.

Paul was quick to say something, noting that if someone hadn't, she'd be in her mind on the matter far longer than any of them wanted her to be, "We aren't going to hurt you." he told her as if he could read her mind — at this point the girl wasn't sure that was off the charts, "you are more safe here than you could be just about anywhere else."

"Despite you being monsters." She deadpanned.

Paul winced at her words, "We're not monsters, Bel; I promise you."

This wasn't how Paul wanted this to go. How he wanted her to find out this part of his life. She, of course, had a right to know but he was willing to wait until she got a little more comfortable with him specifically.

"I want to believe you," she finally said after a moment of silence, "I want to believe you because you've all been so nice to me. But I can't. I can't look at you guys anymore without seeing what I saw last night."

Sam nodded his head, fully understanding where she was coming from even if Jacob and Paul couldn't, "I know it's hard to see anything apart from the image painted in your mind last night but I want you to know that even if you don't believe it, we would never hurt you."

The amount of which Paul wanted to protest was heavy. He didn't want to give her the leeway to leave or for this conversation to end. He needed her to understand because not seeing her everyday? That'll kill him.

"I—," her voice strained. "I need time."

As Paul's heart crushed and he was mere moments from ripping Jacob's throat out, Sam nodded once again, "We understand."

. * ✧ * •

When Annabel entered her house, she found Antonio Cullen sleeping on the couch. With her eyebrows furrowed, she searched around for Caroline.

"In here," her older sister whispered with her bedroom door cracked opened.

Annabel smiled before making her way over to the room. Closing the door after her, she made sure to wipe her face one last time from the tears she shed on her way home.

"So, uh, wanna explain why Cullen is on our couch?" She asked with a raised brow.

With a groan, Caroline threw her head in her hands before sitting on her bed, "Well, after the date, lover boy took a fall. I was worried it might've been bad so I forced him to ride with me and stay over since I couldn't get ahold of Dr. Cullen."

Bel practically swooned as she sat herself down on the bed next to Caroline. "Oh, my God! That's like the start to a perfect love story, right there. I mean, I can hear the wedding bells already,"

The oldest blonde swatted her sister on the arm with a scoff, "You cannot hear freaking wedding bells."

Bel just shrugged her shoulders, "I can," she giggled, "now tell me about this date. I wanna know everything,"

"You know, you're pretty annoying right?" Caroline said with an eye roll. But despite her words, she told her anyway, "He's such a gentleman. When we arrived, he opened all the doors for me and even pushed my chair in. Ooh — and he took my coat! He was perfect the whole night, Bels. I mean, he let me ramble on and asked me all the right questions."

Annabel smiled as Caroline rambled on. For the first time in her life, the eldest Summers daughter was allowing herself to swoon over a boy. For the first time in her life, Annabel was getting the sisterly boy gossip and it wasn't her who was talking about it.

Even if her mind was a jungle at the moment, she'd never let that ruin things for her sister. All she wanted to do was tell Caroline. To tell her about Jacob and the others. About what happened the night before.

But despite her own personal feelings about them, she couldn't help but think it wasn't her place. She hadn't known them long and their kindness to her wasn't going to go unnoticed.

She just had to find a way to glue her mind back together and finally see reason in the people she called her bestest friends since her arrival.

. * ✧ * •

[ 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦 ! ]

it took a lot of inner debate on how i wanted annabel to react to the news but i feel like this was the best way to do it! i mean, id need some time too, man