Broken Soul • Emmett Cullen

chapter thirteen

 Everything changed after the kiss. The more Alaina tried to stop falling for Emmett, the faster, and harder she fell. Even when Alaina's life seemed out of control, Emmett was the constant that helped her through. Though their relationship was new, it was strong and real, almost scarily so. Even her parents noticed that their relationship was intense.

One day after school, her father took her aside to ask how Emmett was treating her. She was confused, so her dad elaborated. "Sometimes I catch him looking at you so intensely I feel like he's about to take a bullet for you. Is he pressuring you to do anything you don't want to, or you're not ready to do?"

Alaina smiled at the memory. Her father meant well, but Emmett was the one who was restrained. Emmett was helping her love her body again after going through something that made her feel so used and violated. He helped her feel empowered and beautiful. But he exercised extreme self-control, almost annoyingly so.

With Alaina's new relationship with Emmett, new relationships with his family members bloomed. She began looking forward to her classes with Jasper, even though he didn't say much. She learned he could influence the emotions of those around him, so she couldn't help but enjoy it when he calmed her. She even liked the brief moments she got to share with Rosalie (Bella enjoyed them too, as she thought the more time Rosalie and Alaina spent together, the less time she could be mean to Bella).

Even though things seemed to be going well, Alaina's sexual assault case loomed darkly over her head, and it was starting to affect her relationships with her friends and Emmett. A cloud seemed to be looming darker and darker around Alaina the closer the date came, and it was hard to hide it from the people she cared about most.

"Alaina!" She heard Bella hiss, breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked apologetically over at her friend. "Have you heard anything I've been saying for the last 5 minutes?"

"Sorry Bella," she said with a sad smile. "I just have a lot on my mind right now with everything going on."

Bella paused and bit her lip before speaking. "You know," she said slowly, "I don't want to go to Biology today."

Alaina stopped suddenly and raised her eyebrows at her friend. "Are you insane? You can't skip -- You love bio."

"Right, but you don't," she said, lacing her arm with Alaina's. "There's no harm in skipping every once in a while. And with Emmett and Edward, I feel like we haven't had time to really talk in weeks." Bella stopped when she reached the classroom door. "So?"

"Edward is going to blame me for this, you know," Alaina grumbled and walked past the classroom. The two girls walked outside towards the football field. The almost constant rain had ceased and blanketed the sky with a cool gray. They walked on the slippery grass to the bleachers, brushed off as much residual rain as they could, and sat down next to each other.

"So," she said, looking pointedly at Alaina. "You said you had a lot of your mind... so talk."

Alaina shrugged. "There's just been a lot going on lately with... " she paused, trying to find the right words, "with everything. I don't know. It's nothing I can't handle, it's just a lot at once."

Bella nodded in understanding. "I know, and as I said before, I feel like we haven't had a chance to properly talk in awhile. But I feel like you've been holding some things in and it's important to get them out."

She furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I know your court date is coming up..."

Alaina groaned. "Everyone wants to always talk about that!" She yelled, startling her friend. "Has anyone ever thought to ask if I even wanted to talk about it? The whole situation sucks and I hate being reminded of it every day."