Don't Look / No Promises

Ten

Bella

A week later, Bella and Edward stumbled up the stairs and into her bedroom, sealed together at the mouth, hands frantic and feet tangled. Edward was half undressed, his shirt forgotten on the front step and his belt undone. Bella’s dress was yanked down around her waist and her lipstick was smeared across her face, more of it on Edward than her. Her father was gone, some work thing in another state that he’d forgotten to mention until late last night. He warned her to stay out of trouble before he left that morning and Bella thought the house was empty, ready for the taking. She was ready. Ready for more, always more, some sort of unquenchable dehydration that could only be cured by Edward in her bed and his body filling up parts of her she didn’t even know had holes to fill. He had her by the tits and she had him by the hair and they would have done the deed right there, right then, right on the floor, forget the whole world, but her room was already occupied.

Alice glanced up from the bed when the duo tumbled through the door, her hand on Rose’s shoulder as Bella tore herself off Edward and shifted her dress up over her nipples.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked.

“Hi,” Alice said.

“Hi back. Long time no see,” Bella grumbled and Edward slowly threaded his belt back together, the sound of the metal buckle the only noise in the room. Roses’ shoulders shook and Bella glared at her two friends. “What’s wrong?”

“We got caught last night.” Alice looked away as Rose looked up and Bella’s hand flew to her mouth.

“Holy shit, Rose.” Bella exhaled heavy and darted to the bed, using a gentle hand to examine Rose’s face. Her eye was blackened, swollen shut, a bruise purple and red splotched down over the socket and her bottom lip was busted. Her cheek was rubbed raw and scabby, like she’d been grated across rough asphalt. Bloody knuckles and broken nails and Bella feared the very very worst.

“Did they-”

“No,” Rose choked, dropping her chin back to her chest. “At least not literally.”

“Who?” Bella asked, looking up at Alice.

“Newton’s boys,” Alice said. “We were by the lake. They were drunk.”

“What did they say?”

“Nothing really, they just burst out of the trees.”

“And?”

Alice sighed heavily. “They made me watch.”

“What the fuck?” Edward growled, all three girls turning to look at him, all three of them only now remembering that he was there. He balled his hands into fists and scowled. “Who are these guys? I’m gonna kill them.”

Bella said, “No, Edward,” at the same moment Alice asked, “You really would?”

---

“They beat up a girl?” Seth licked his ice cream, sounding like Edward was trying to tell him a fairy tale. Unbelieveable, too ridiculous to contemplate. Dragons and witches and shitheads who would dare lay a finger on a woman much less a fist or a boot and, yeah, that shit was pretty fucking unbelievable.

“They deserve to rot. I’m gonna make that happen.” Edward slammed a fist into his palm. The memory of that girl’s face, the girl with the name of a flower, beaten to a wilted pulp all because she didn’t want some asshole’s dick made him sick. He dropped his strawberry cone into a garbage can two licks in and was choking back the urge to vomit.

“Hell no, you aren’t.” Jacob shook his head. “I’ve heard about them. Those kids run in a group of twenty.”

“And I run in a pack of three. Maybe five, if I can talk Peter and Sam into it.”

“Setting us up for slaughter, man,” Seth lamented.  

“Those pansies? Tell me we haven’t dealt with more,” Edward barked. Seth and Jacob both shook their heads.

“Dude, you wanna wave a banner, that’s totally chill,” Seth groaned. “But why over some chick you don’t even know? This is for Bella, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you dare bring her into this,” Edward snapped.

“You don’t gotta prove it to her, man. That girl is balls deep, ok? She gets it.” Jacob was still shaking his head. “You’re batshit for her and she knows it, you don’t gotta go off and play the hero to get her attention.”

“This isn’t about her.”

“Sure it’s not,” Seth argued. “You’re just gonna go off and pick on guys we don’t even have beef with over a couple of lesbians.”

Jacob’s face twisted a little. He glanced at Seth, then at Edward. “How bad was it?” he asked.

“Damn near busted that eyeball right outta her pretty face,” Edward hissed. “Rubbed her up and down the dirt real good, fucked up her mouth.”

“Did they . . .  take her?” Seth asked, gulping.

“No. But they held her girl there and made her watch them kick the shit out of her.”

“The girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so fucked,” Jacob muttered.

“With me now, boys? Are you getting me?” Edward asked. “These lowlifes deserve a spanking and we’ve got the upper hand here.”

“And what’s that, exactly?” Seth asked.

Edward stood, dusting his hands down his jeans and slicking back his hair.

“They don’t know we’re coming.”

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