Inseparable

Chapter 6

Edythe

Edward parked in the unusually empty school parking lot- many students had gone to the hospital, though some had simply seen an excuse to play hooky. Beau opened the door quickly, heading toward his truck without another word. I wondered if he was going to take the rest of the day off too, but then I remembered that his backpack was still in the cab of the truck. Emmett had kindly picked it up off of the pavement as Edward and I had left for the hospital. My largest brother had also smoothed out the handprint shaped dents in the side of Tyler Crowley's minivan.

As I watched Beau stalk across the parking lot I couldn't help but notice the way his shirt stretched across his broad shoulders attractively. 'What is going on with me?' I thought with some irritation.

Beneath his flippant facade Beau seemed to be angry with me, and for some reason that made me anxious. I wanted desperately to understand the strange boy. I considered asking him to stay in the parking lot instead of returning to school. We could roll down the windows of his old truck and talk as long as he'd like- or at least as long as I could maintain my self control.

As much as that thought appealed to me, I knew that it would be imprudent to be seen spending any more time with Beau Swan. Edward had decided to leave once again, and I knew that I would join him. I had spent nearly two years apart from my twin, right after he had been changed, and though these memories from my human life were foggy and distant, I could clearly remember the pain that the separation had caused me. There were times when Edward and I despised this existence, this half-life, but after the burning pain of transformation had subsided I felt only gratitude for being reunited with my brother. I didn't want to live without him again. As much as I truly loved Carlisle, Esme and there's of my family, I wasn't sure that I could survive without my twin. I sighed heavily and took one last look at Beau before heading into Forks High School for the final time.

We had arrived just as lunch ended, which saved me from having to face my siblings for a few more hours. I settled into my seat and began searching the minds of the humans, verifying that no one was thinking about seeing anything more out of the ordinary than a car crash. As far as I could tell everyone had been focused on Tyler Crowley's minivan and not on the Cullen family, or on Bella's little brother for that matter.

Momentarily satisfied that my twin and I hadn't aroused suspicion, I listened for the minds of my other siblings, testing the waters to see the degree of wrath Edward and I would be facing later in the afternoon.

Rosalie was seething in a building across the courtyard. I could see that she was debating whether she would tear off Edward's and my limbs or if she'd never speak to us again. 'Perhaps I'll do both,' she considered savagely. 'I wonder if they're back yet... Edward, Edythe, if you two are listening, YOU'RE BOTH MORONS! Inconsiderate, selfish jackasses...'

Deciding to ignore Rose for the time being, I searched out her mate's thoughts. Emmett's head was usually a nice place to be, but I saw that even he was forming a plan to voice his frustration with the situation Edward and I had put us all in.
'Maybe just knock Edward around a little, that'll make Rose happy. Poor kid's lost his mind... What about Edythe? What was she doing? Goddamned emotional train wrecks...'

At least his thoughts seemed to be tinged with pity, he just thought that Edward and I were lunatics. To be fair, that was probably an astute character assessment.

Emmett had a point- what was I doing? I had no explanation for the way I'd behaved today. Had I been thinking rationally I would have known that no harm would have come to the boy, but instead some foreign impulse overrode my senses and drew me towards Beau. I didn't even realize I'd moved until I felt my arms locking protectively around the boy's soft, warm chest... Banishing that train of thought, I focused on Jasper's mind, hoping that maybe he'd gotten a sense of what I'd been feeling as I raced toward the crash.