Chapter Twenty-Five

The weekend flew by, I spent half my time at the Lovelace house exploring and spending time with Paul, and helping Charlie take care of Bella.

I was starting to get fed up with her, I get Edward left her broken heart but goddess, it didn't mean she had to act like her life was over.

It was just before school I carried out my backpack and a pretty big packed package from the house, I was mailing some of my teas to my cousin Juliet.

"Hey, you need some help sweetheart?" Charlie asked seeing me.

I looked over seeing him standing at the trash bins with Bob Marks who had two beat up motorcycles.

"I got it thanks." I told him just as I sat the box in the back seat of my jeep and turned to the two adults, looking at Bob. "Are you really getting rid of these? The rumors are true?"

"Saddest day of my life." Bob remarked pouting making me grin a little.

"Well, it's about time you did Bob." Charlie told him. "Seen one too many bikers smeared on the highway."

"Save the lecture chief." Bob retorted. "Soon as the garbage truck hauls 'em off, you and the wife can rest easy."

I thought about that for a minute.

"Oh hey what's the word on that bear problem?" Bob asked snapping his fingers like he remembered something. "Folks say they're huge."

I stared at him heaing that, I knew what he was talking about and they weren't no bear... they were wolves and one of those wolves was mine. Quinn has been telling us about her recent dream vision revolving a certain red-haired enemy, and I had a feeling she was in town somewhere... I told the pack so now they've been patrolling double time, which worried me to the bone. I didn't want Paul to get hurt... or Sam or Jared.

I was cut out of my thoughts seeing Bella walk to my jeep, head down.

"How you doin' there, Bella?" Bob asked.

Bella in her own world didn't respond making me stare at my cousin, at her rudeness. My eyes narrowed while Bob gave Charlie a small smile and walked off back home, taking his bikes with him.

Bella opened the passenger door, and I slammed it shut, making her look at me in shock.

"Bella, I know your hurting but being rude to an adult is disrespectful." I told her sternly. "I don't know what to do anymore with you, you don't act like a normal person who got dumped. It's more like you died."

She looked away from me, Charlie joined us.

"That's why, you're going to Jacksonville to live with your mother." Charlie told her.

Bella's head snapped over to him, panicking.

"what? No! I'm not leaving Forks." She said protesting.

"Bells, the bastard's not coming back." Charlie told her.

I bit my lip.

"Charlie's right Bella." I told her earning a surprised look. "Look I know Edward broke your heart and I'm so, so sorry but you have to move on."

Bella nodded.

"This is not normal behavior and frankly it's scaring the hell outta us." Charlie said glancing between us. "And your mother...go to Jacksonville and make some new friends."

"I like my old friends."

"You never see them anymore." I told her pointedly. "You don't even sit with us anymore."

"I do too." Bella told me making me raise an eyebrow. "In fact, um...Jessica and I are going to shopping tomorrow."

Charlie and I shared a look.

"You hate shopping." Charlie said suspiciously.

"That's how good a friend I am."

"Alright." Charlie muttered sounding appeased. "Shopping..."

Charlie walked away to the house while I stared Bella down, she looked back at me. Bella and I climbed into the wrangler, and I waited for a few minutes making sure Charlie was out of ear.

"You know I'm here whenever you want to talk about it." I told her softly.

She looked over at me, I pulled out and headed for the school.

"I know I haven't been the nicest person with this but I'm still here for you." I told her.

"H-have you heard anything?" She asked stuttering.

I sighed keeping my eyes on the road.

"Lena please, I just want to know." She said so quiet.

"No because of you, they've disappeared even from me." I told her clearly lying. "You need to forget them Bells."

She frowned.

"I know it's hard but it's not healthy to keep going on like this." I said glancing over at her for a second. "If you can't do it for yourself at least do it for Charlie, he's really scared for you."

"I'll try." She told me thinking it over. "Do you think you could come shopping with us?"

"Sorry I got plans." I told her slowly. "I'm going to Paul's and then I plan on spending the night at Leah's... It's been months since I saw my LeeLee."

"Can't you do that this weekend? Please Elena, I haven't talked to Jess or anyone in forever... She's been your friend longer, she's likely to say yes if you ask... I can't deal with Charlie's hovering."

I looked at her feeling a little conflicted. Everyone kind of knew Paul and I were a thing, I guess we weren't very good in keeping it a secret and Bella hasn't been hanging around me or paying attention to me... so she was the only one who didn't know Paul and I were dating. It kind of hurt that she wanted me to give up spending as much time as I could with him, he's been so busy keeping the town safe and watching out for that red head so any time I got to spend with him was precious.

Since Bella has got here, it's like my world had changed, my brain hasn't caught up to everything. It's all Cullen this, Wolf pack that... It's been a long time since I got to do anything with Jasmine or Quinn... normal witch stuff or anything remotely normal like hang out with Leah.

But if this shopping thing got Bella back to being herself. I guess it would be worth it.

I sighed heavily pulling into the parking lot and slid into my slot.

"Fine." I told her giving in.

She smiled brightly at me, I gave her one last look over before getting out.

--

Classes went on like normal... Jasmine, Quinn and I talked, mostly it was just Jasmine and I listening to Quinn talk about having a fourth sister witch... I don't know what she was hinting at or why she was so on it.

When lunch came around I caught Jessica in the hall and walked with her to the cafeteria. I asked if she wanted to go shopping and watch a movie with my cousin and I. She acted like she had no idea who Bella was but I knew that was just Jessica being herself... She seemed a bit hesitant before agreeing, stating she was only going because Bella was my cousin and she was my friend.

After that we headed to lunch where I had to deal with Jessica's questions about why Bella was acting the way she was...

Once school was out, I walked out with my phone to my ear, telling Paul I wasn't going to be coming down. He seemed disappointed at first until I told him what was going on, I made a promise to make it up to him and that he should take the time to catch up on sleep... He needed to take care of himself.

I finished my conversation climbing into the jeep, Bella was already in the passenger side, staring at me. I turned away from her and told my shifter to be safe and hung up.

After I got home I sent a message to Leah letting her know I wasn't going to make it. Leah wasn't very happy saying first I betrayed her for Paul now I was putting Bella before her.

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Hours after shopping, Jessica and I shopped until we couldn't shop anymore and then we went to a movie.

The movie we ended up seeing was called Dead End... It was some zombie movie that I knew Jacob, Quil and Embry were going to be mad that I watched without them.

I didn't really care for zombie movies or aliens, I loved horror movies, the scarier the better but I wasn't a fan of Zombies... I made a mental note though to buy it when it came out on DVD so Paul and I could watch it together... He liked zombies... He's watched nearly every kind of witch movie I could find so I figured why not watch something he liked.

"I don't get why there are so many zombie movies." I said out loud as the girls and I walked out of the theater.

"It's like a metaphor?" Jesscia asked tilting her head at Bella. "For crass and consumerism or something."

Bella and I glanced at her.

Jessica and I walked side by side with our arms linked while I was on the phone, smiling slightly as I texted Emily and Kim. Our guys were out patrolling. The three of us did this a lot when they had nights like this, especially of lately. It made me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one feeling worried.

Anyway Bella was trailing beside us, on Jessica's other side.

I could sense something powerful watching us but didn't want to alarm the girls when I didn't know what it was so I just kept my eyes glued to my phone.

"Not that you'd know anything about consuming." I heard Jessica say. "You didn't buy anything today."

"I bought something." Bella said defensively.

"Socks don't count." Jessica told her. "Course I was surprised when Elena said you wanted to go shopping and hang out."

"I've been kind of....out of it." Bella trailed off.

"Kind of?" Jessica asked scoffing. "I mean at first I was worried...then I'm like okay, she's still bumming? It's not like I wasn't going through things, too. Like Mike deciding he wanted to "just be friends?" That was really hard."

"Jess, you got to get over that." I told her giving her a gentle expression. "Mike is an idiot and I can promise you, he's going to regret it."

She stared at me for a few minutes before shrugging and nodded in agreement.

"You're right, thanks Ellie."

I smiled at her.

Bella suddenly slowed down causing me to look at her. She was looking across the street, I followed her vision and frowned.

Four rough looking guys were loitering nearby with their motorcycles.

Bella just froze staring them down, the corners of her lips twitched down before her face went blank... even her aura was strange.

I stared my cousin down questionably when she jumped like she had seen a ghost.

"Bells?" I muttered trying to gain her attention. "Come on, Charlie's waiting."

"I, uh, think I know those guys." Bella said slowly.

I glanced at the bikers, they saw us staring and shouted out things I would never repeat. Things I would have to remove from my thoughts in case Paul saw it through our monolog.

"Uh I don't think so." I told her firmly.

"Can we just go?." Jessica said, taking a step towards the curb.

My eyes flickered between the guys and my cousin. She looked at me before taking a step... in the direction of the motorcycles.

"I want to see something." Bella said heading down the street.

I stared at her backside, watching her unsure of what was going to happen or what to do. When she was halfway there, she turned around and looked like she was coming back... but then she paused, from the distant I could see her face and aura turn into a red confident color. She marched over towards the men.

"What the heck is wrong with your cousin?" Jessica asked watching Bella get on the back of one of the bikes and took off.

"I-I don't know." I muttered frowning, my brows furrowed trying to read my cousins mind but like every time I tried, I hit nothing but static, the only thing I could see was her aura and it was still the same.

We spent the next five hours standing there waiting for Bella to come back, Jessica passed the time by mentally and physically calling Bella crazy. It got to the point I couldn't stand it anymore and covered my ears.

I was ready to teleport and go find Bella if she didn't come back soon.

What the hell was wrong with my cousin?

It was almost like she was trying to get herself killed.

Suddenly Jessica stopped talking causing me to look up. Bella was walking back towards us.

Shaking off the fear I had, I felt a fire in my stomach.

"Bella what the hell are you thinking?!" I exclaimed loudly as soon as she was close to me.  "Are you trying to scare me? Get yourself killed?! Are you outta your goddamn mind?!"

"Sorry." She muttered as we started walking towards the wrangler.

"Sorry?" I repeated looking at her like she was insane. "Bella you don't just go off with random men you don't know or ride on the back of their motorcycles? What the hell am I supposed to tell Charlie if something happens to you?"

"Elena I'm really sorry." She told me turning to me. "But it was kind of a rush, it was fun."

"This isn't going to bring him back...he's gone forever" I told her quietly and firmly before giving her a disappointed glare and headed for the wrangler.

The two of them followed behind me.

Bella looked like a wounded puppy, but I didn't care. I missed the Cullen's too and I was angry and hurt that they were just gone because of Bella's stupidity, she's acting like she's the only one who lost them the difference was, I knew where they were, what they were doing, and I was dealing with it better than them.

With all that being said, I unlocked my jeep and got in, the two followed, Jessica got in passenger while Bella was in back.

When we got home, Bella was looking at me like she had expected me to tell Charlie, but I stayed silent and just gave my uncle my goodnight and headed upstairs to my room.

I laid against my closed door for a few minutes before going over to my computer and sent a message to Alice. I needed advice.

Luckily for me Alice responded, and we typed back and forth the rest of the night.

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4/25/2024