Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer [108]
Its borrowed, not stolen, I snapped. My voice sounded horrible-like Id been crying or something. Embarrassing.
Sure, thatll hold up in court.
I glowered. You need something?
Not really. I was kidding about the car, you know. Its just that you look really upset about something. Oh, hey, Im Lizzie. She held out her hand.
I looked at it until she let it fall.
Anyway , she said awkwardly, I was just wondering if I could help. Seemed like you were looking for someone before. She gestured toward the park and shrugged.
Yeah.
She waited.
I sighed. I dont need any help. Shes not here.
Oh. Sorry.
Me, too, I muttered.
I looked at the girl again. Lizzie. She was pretty. Nice enough to try to help a grouchy stranger who must seem nuts. Why couldnt she be the one? Why did everything have to be so freaking complicated? Nice girl, pretty, and sort of funny. Why not?
This is a beautiful car, she said. Its really a shame theyre not making them anymore. I mean, the Vantages body styling is gorgeous, too, but theres just something about the Vanquish
Nice girl who knew cars. Wow. I stared at her face harder, wishing I knew how to make it work. Cmon, Jake-imprint already.
Hows it drive? she asked.
Like you wouldnt believe, I told her.
She grinned her one-dimple smile, clearly pleased to have dragged a halfway civil response out of me, and I gave her a reluctant smile back.
But her smile did nothing about the sharp, cutting blades that raked up and down my body. No matter how much I wanted it to, my life was not going to come together like that.
I wasnt in that healthier place where Leah was headed. I wasnt going to be able to fall in love like a normal person. Not when I was bleeding over someone else. Maybe-if it was ten years from now and Bellas heart was long dead and Id hauled myself through the whole grieving process and come out in one piece again-maybe then I could offer Lizzie a ride in a fast car and talk makes and models and get to know something about her and see if I liked her as a person. But that wasnt going to happen now.
Magic wasnt going to save me. I was just going to have to take the torture like a man. Suck it up.
Lizzie waited, maybe hoping I was going to offer her that ride. Or maybe not.
Id better get this car back to the guy I borrowed it from, I muttered.
She smiled again. Glad to hear youre going straight.
Yeah, you convinced me.
She watched me get in the car, still sort of concerned. I probably looked like someone who was about to drive off a cliff. Which maybe I wouldve, if that kind of moved work for a werewolf. She waved once, her eyes trailing after the car.
At first, I drove more sanely on the way back. I wasnt in a rush. I didnt want to go where I was going. Back to that house, back to that forest. Back to the pain Id run from. Back to being absolutely alone with it.
Okay, that was melodramatic. I wouldnt be all alone, but that was a bad thing. Leah and Seth would have to suffer with me. I was glad Seth wouldnt have to suffer long. Kid didnt deserve to have his peace of mind ruined. Leah didnt, either, but at least it was something she understood. Nothing new about pain for Leah.
I sighed big as I thought about what Leah wanted from me, because I knew now that she was going to get it. I was still pissed at her, but I couldnt ignore the fact that I could make her life easier. And-now that I knew her better-I thought she would probably do this for me, if our positions were reversed.
It would be interesting, at the very least, and strange, too, to have Leah as a companion-as a friend. We were going to get under each others skin a lot, that was for sure. She wouldnt be one to let me wallow, but I thought that was a good thing. Id probably need someone to kick my butt now and then. But when it came right down to it, she was really the only friend who had any chance of understanding what I was going through now.
I thought of the hunt this morning, and how