Trapped in Twilight, Help!

Chapter 29

The remaining car ride was silent. The lack of sleep (for me) and everyone else's thirst was making everyone agitated and irritable. True to my word, I headed right up to my room to take a nap as soon as we got to the house. Esme was out, probably in Seattle; Alice had a large pile of clothes they would never wear again and Esme's been meaning to drop it off to charity for a while. Emmett had apologized for bringing up my mom when I was on the stairs.

"It's fine," I said, there wasn't much emotion to my voice. "You didn't know." I think I heard them say something about Carlisle coming home early again tonight. I didn't care, really; sleep was the only thing on my mind. I was glad I had finished all of my homework already.

As I changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt, I realized that the conversation would continue tonight when everyone was feeling better. Alice was sitting on my bed when I came out of the bathroom. She'd pulled back the covers and looked cautious as she opened her mouth to talk.

"We all decided to go hunting tonight; Esme and Carlisle are already out, they'll be back really soon though. We'll be back in a few hours; we won't be far. If you need anything, we all have our phones on us, okay?" She said, her voice was small, like she was talking to a small, easily frightened animal.

"Okay, Alice," I said, ignoring my irritation for the previous conversation enough to be polite, "Thanks."

Alice hopped up and pulled the covers back farther for me to climb under them. She pecked the side of my head when I was settled on the bed before whispering "Goodnight," and moving quietly to turn out my light and close the door. I waited for the garage door to close before I fell asleep. It wasn't even four in the afternoon.

*

Late that evening, around eleven or so, Esme woke me up. I'd assumed that someone told her what happened in the car because she, too, was cautious. I was feeling much better after my nap, although I knew that I'd be able to fall back asleep in a few hours to be up again at 4am for Alice to dress me up for Tuesday. I'd grabbed my mom's old sweatshirt (the one I'd worn when I was brought here) and pulled on socks and followed Esme downstairs. Her eyes were a milky gold, now.

Edward made room for me to sit next to him and even had a blanket ready for me and when I curled up into his side. He seemed slightly surprised but easily put his arm around my shoulders as Carlisle came down from his study. I wasn't sure what the meeting was about, possibly Bella's first day but I was sure he and Esme already knew what happened.

"I'm sorry for having to wake you up, Edythe," Carlisle started.

"It's fine," I shrugged nonchalantly; Carlisle wouldn't have woken me up if it wasn't important.

"Edy, I'm really sorry about earlier," Emmett blurted. "It was uncalled for-"

"Really, Emmett," I sat up and crossed my legs into a 'pretzel'. "You didn't know."

"Know what," Carlisle asked in soft voice, exchanging a look with Esme. I knew he already knew; Edward had probably told him. "If you don't mind me asking," he added.

"We were talking about Edythe's home life," Emmett said.

Rose took over; "We didn't like something and kind of got after Edythe for it." She sent me a genuine apologetic look as Carlisle and Esme sent her a disapproving glance. "Emmett brought up her mom."

"Emmett," Esme gasped, looking at Emmett with wide, surprised and motherly eyes. "You know better than to-"

"I didn't know!" Emmett defended weakly. "I really shouldn't have said anything anyway. I got carried away-"

"It's not your fault she's dead, Emmett," I said. Everyone's eyes locked on my face again. "And you're entitled to your opinion. I'm not mad at you."

"That's not an excuse, Edythe!" Emmett said, arguing with me. His words were laced with guilt. "I shouldn't have brought it up anyway!"

"Oh, my gosh!" I groaned. "Please drop it, it's not that big of a deal anyway. If you feel bad, just don't bring it up again."

"Your mother's passed away," Esme said sadly, looking at me with sympathetic eyes. I nodded. "I'm so sorry, Edythe."

"It's alright," I shrugged, looking at the floor. "I never knew her anyway; she died about 45 hours after I was born."