I slammed the front door shut and pounded up the stairs. I had to make this look real.
Charlie was, as usual, sitting on the couch watching the TV. Was that all he did? Didn’t he have a job?
“Is that Kayla?”
I froze when I heard that. That was Billy Black. And with Billy came...
“Jacob, go see what’s wrong with her.”
I was only prepared for Charlie, not Billy and Jacob.
I was in my room and throwing some clothes into a bag when I heard Jacob climbing the stairs.
“You need to hide,” I whispered to Edward who was fishing more clothes out of the drawers.
He nodded and was out of the window when Jacob opened my room door.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, watching as I zipped the bag. “Are you leaving?”
“I have to go,” I said, as angrily as I could. “I just can’t take him anymore.”
Jacob walked into my room and sat on my bed.
“I thought you and Charlie were cool now.”
“Not Charlie. Edward. I don’t love him anymore.”
Jacob’s brown eyes were watching me intensely. He could tell easily when I was lying. I tried to make my eyes angrier, show him just how much I hated Edward.
“So, you don’t love him,” Jacob said. “It’s no reason to leave.”
“It is,” I said. “He’s obsessed with me. I can’t get away from him. I turn and he’s there. I walk down the street and that stupid shiny Volvo of his is there, creeping along behind me. I need to escape.”
“If you want him dealt with I can do it.” Jacob puffed his chest out.
“No. I will deal with it.”
“By running away?” Jacob scoffed.
I nodded and headed for the door but Jacob’s warm hand locked around my arm.
“What’s the real reason?” he asked me softly. “I know you do still love that leech. What’s the real problem that’s making you leave?”
I stared defiantly into his chocolate eyes.
“I do not love Edward,” I said, angrily. “I am leaving because of him and also because Forks is just way to weird. Vampires and werewolves? I’m going back to plain old England.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Jacob was watching me fiercely. “If you’re in trouble I can help. I’m here for you.”
I didn’t want to lie to Jacob. But I couldn’t tell him. He would run after the vampires and get himself killed. I didn’t want him death hanging over me. But someone needed to know. Someone that could help cover for me. If Jacob knew he could lie to Charlie for me.
“Two vampires want to eat me.”
Jacob laughed. He actually laughed. His hand let go of my arm so he could wipe his eyes.
“You’re running from vampires?” He was crying tears of laughter. He found this extremely funny. “You fight vampires almost every day and you’re running from them?”
“This is different, Jacob,” I sighed. “They really want me. They could have just walked away but they really really really really want me. I don’t know how to stress it enough. They want my blood.”
Jacob’s eyes turned serious.
“He exposed you to this, didn’t he?”
“No,” I said. “We were playing baseball and they turned up. It was my fault. I thought that I could have passed for a vampire but he wanted me to go.”
“Don’t defend him!”
“He did nothing wrong! He wanted me to leave without telling Charlie! I came back here to tell Charlie a lie so he wouldn’t get hurt!”
“And this is your lie?” Jacob asked. “I don’t love Edward and he’s become too obsessed with me?”
“Got anything better?”
“Just say you hate Forks,” Jacob shrugged. “It’s easy enough to understand. This place is cold, wet and boring. Say you want to go back to the noise and life of London.”
“That’s a great idea, Jacob,” I smiled. “Ready for some acting?”
“If it saves you.”
I walked over to the door and threw it opened.
“Nothing you can say can change my mind!” I shouted at Jacob. “Just leave me alone!”
I ran down the stairs and saw Charlie standing in the hallway. Billy rolled in when I reached the bottom.
“What’s up, Kay?” Billy asked me. “You and your boyfriend have a little argument?”
I ignored Billy and tried to walk to the front door. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to say anything to Charlie and Jacob could explain it all but no.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked. “What’s happened?”
I turned to him. Here it goes.
“I can’t stay here.” I put as much rage into my voice as I could. “I am English. I may have been born here but I have lived in England for almost my whole life. I was brought up in England, I speak English slang, I have an English accent! Then I come here, to America, and I expect something better than England. And I get this! This small, cold, wet, town with freakish vampires and werewolves. I can’t hack it anymore. I need to go home.”
Billy sat in his wheelchair, stunned. Charlie stared at me for several seconds before he spoke.
“I thought you liked it here?” he said. “You have Edward, don’t you? I thought you liked him?”
“I do like him,” I said. “I do. But I just can’t stay here. Don’t you understand? It’s just not me. I wanted something more but I didn’t get it. I expected more and got less.”
“But what about us?” Jacob said from the stairs. “We just got to know each other again. Now you’re leaving me.”
I turned to him.
“I’ll text and phone you,” I said to him. “I’ll write you big long letters but I can’t stay here.”
I slung my bag on my shoulder.
“I’ll see you later.” I walked to the door but Charlie grabbed my arm.
“I just got you back,” he said, quietly. “I thought we were getting on great after everything. I thought we could be a proper family.”
“We can’t be a proper family,” I said, venomously. “I am a teenager and in love with a vampire. My best friend’s a werewolf. I have bizarre abilities. I have to get out of here before they shut me up in a mental asylum.”
“Do you want us to do stuff together, Kayla, is that it?”
“I don’t want to do anything with you! Don’t you get it? I don’t want to live here anymore! I want to go back to where I belong!”
I tried to move but he wouldn’t let go of my arm. I was finding this more and more difficult to do. I was running out of things to say. But then I found something to say and it felt cruel of me to say it but I knew I would be able to leave if I did.
“Just let me go, Charlie.”
He let go of my arm as if I had just given him an electric shock. A big electric shock. I opened the door and ran down the street to where Edward was waiting in his Volvo.
As soon as I was in he was speeding down the road.
“We have to go back to my house,” he said.
“Why?” I asked. “I thought you wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.”
“There have been some complications.”
“What kind of complications?”
“Jasper said you were looking at my Aston Martin.” Edward was deliberately changing the subject.
“Yes, it’s very pretty,” I said. “What complications?”
“I might let you drive it, if you behave.”
“Edward, what complications?”
“But you have to promise to not get it scratched or crash or anything. That car is one of my prized possessions and if it-”
“GOD DAMMIT IT EDWARD! WHAT COMPLICATIONS?”
He didn’t answer. He continued to stare at the road but we both knew he didn’t have to concentrate on driving. I let him sit there in silence for a while. I knew it had to be something big. Something that was making him frustrated.
“I can’t go with you.”
“What? What do you mean you can’t go with me?”
“Kayla, Carlisle called me when you were inside. He says that the vampires will know that I won’t leave you. The way I reacted after you left showed that. Someone else will have to go with you.”
“But I don’t want anyone else,” I said, panicking. “I want you.”
“Don’t worry,” he placed a hand on my thigh to soothe me. “I will be back very soon to get you. I won’t be away long dealing with them.”
“Who’s going with me?”
“Alice and Jasper.” Edward didn’t like the idea of Jasper going with me. He still hadn’t forgotten Jasper’s little lapse in self control.
“Jasper’s just trying to make it up to you,” I told him. “He wants to prove that you can trust him with me.”
“Since he couldn’t save you from himself he’s saving you from them.”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t want you to be with anyone but me,” Edward said. His velvet voice was tinged with pain. “I only trust myself to protect you.”
“Jasper looks and probably is a good fighter, Alice can see the future and I have telekinesis. What can go wrong?”
“Everything.”