HERE FOR NOTHING ▬ E. CALL

08: The Pack

Taryn Lemming felt like she was going to explode. The bar on her shoulders was weighing her down, she almost felt like she couldn't come up from her squat. Shaking the feeling off, she grunted and lifted herself, lightly placing the bar onto the groove.

Knocking her headphones off from her head, she breathed hard. Why did she even decide to start lifting weights?

Depression. Self improvement. The little bit of dopamine that kicks in.

Maybe rage.

Pulling her sneakers off, she slipped back into her slides and threw the sneakers in her gym bag. Sweat dripped off from her as she threw it over her shoulder, wiping down the equipment she had been using. In reality, she didn't know the answer to why she was doing this. Was she doing it just for self improvement? No. She knew that.

She wanted to prove that she wasn't broken by what happened before with her, Jacob, and Embry. She wanted to show them that she was okay, even if sometimes it felt like she was suffocating. Her muscles ached as she left the gym, hearing the door click behind her. The green Forks light in the parking lot swallowed her as she made her way to her car.

She had been working out every other day; on the days she wasn't working out, she was working at the Newton's outfitting store. Unlike Taryn, though, it seemed like Bella had just laid down. She hadn't heard from the girl in a while, nor her father who usually reached out for the Lemming girl's support.

In fact, her next stop was Bella's.

Pulling into the girl's small driveway, she spotted a black car parked on the road that she didn't quite recognize. However, Bella's truck was there too, so she figured it was okay to go in. She got out of her car and opened the door of the Swan home, walking into the dimly lit living room.

Looking up from drying her shoes on the carpet, she came face to face with the pale face of Alice Cullen.

"Alice?" She questioned, her eyebrows raising.

"Taryn." Alice smiled tensely, reaching out to touch the girl's shoulder. Her touch was as cold as Taryn remembered.

She was so shocked to see Alice there; they were supposed to leave permanently, according to what she heard. They were going to take the threat of their existence elsewhere so that Taryn nor Bella ever had to think of them, as sad as that was. Alice didn't look terribly happy though, she looked more like she was visiting on a sour note.

Alice turned back to Bella, who was sitting there red faced.

"I'm not done with you! Why the hell would you try to kill yourself?" She asked Bella, her face full of anger and almost despair.

"WHAT?" Taryn questioned, whirling to Bella's direction.

"I didn't try to kill myself," Bella rushed out, eyes locked onto Alice. "I was just cliff jumping. Recreationally. It was fun." Taryn's eyes narrowed. Bella was on the Rez?

She hadn't heard from her since the day they were turned away by Jacob.

"I have never met anyone more prone to life threatening idiocy." Alice said, defeated. She plopped down on the sofa.

"I'm still confused." Taryn stated. "Why the hell were you on the Rez cliff jumping? Why were you over there anyways?"

Bella seemed to ignore Taryn's questions, opting to answer Alice. "Did you tell him?" She asked, as if the idea of thinking of him pained her. It probably still did.

"No. He only calls in every couple of months. Said he wants to be alone." Alice replied solemnly, placing a hand on Bella's. Taryn was mildly irritated that she got no answer to her question, but opted to just listen in on the conversation, hoping to catch some information.

Alice's face twisted into one of disgust. "Bella.. What is that god awful wet dog smell?"

Bella's skin drained of all of its very slim color, as she answered, "That's me. Or Jacob."

Taryn felt cold. So, that's why she hadn't heard from her. She was too busy spending time with the boys on the Reservation behind her back to talk to her "best friend." She felt herself start to heat back up with anger. She had spent so much time alone, working to be better and dealing with things herself. Bella had just gotten to return to normal; Jacob coddling her. She didn't even doubt it a bit.

"Jacob who?"

"Jacob's kind of a werewolf."

"Bella! Werewolves are not good company to keep."

The story just kept getting better. Fucking wolves? First vampires, and then wolves.

"Speak for yourself." Jacob appeared from behind them, leaning against the door frame. Taryn's face twisted into disgust and anger as she made eye contact with the boy. He didn't seem angry like before though. He just stared back at Taryn, his facial appearance even seeming apologetic to an extent.

"I had to see you were safe." He said to the girls.

"I thought you couldn't protect me here." Bella replied.

"Guess I don't care." He answered, crossing his arms. He looked as if he wanted to say something to Taryn. It was probably good he didn't. She was royally pissed.

"Well I'm not going to hurt them." Alice said, glaring at Jake with disgust.

"No, you're just a harmless Cullen. I'm talking about the other bloodsucker who's coming after Bella because of you."

Alice looked shocked. "Victoria?"

"Yeah. Victoria's been around."

Taryn vaguely remembered the story Bella told her of the fiery redhead, who's mate Edward had slaughtered for wanting to eat his girlfriend. She had to assume that the vampire was here for revenge, as it was the only thing that made sense to her. Not much other stuff was making sense at the moment.

"I didn't see her.." Alice said incredulously. "I didn't see you get pulled from the water either."

Her attention turned back to Jacob in anger. "I can't see past you and your pack of mutts!"

"Don't get me upset." Jacob growled out, stepping towards the pixie haired immortal. Bella jumped up to separate the two.

"I'll give you a minute." Alice sighed, moving towards the door. She reassured Bella that she would be back and left the house. That only left Taryn, who was trying to ground herself. She was truly pissed off at what had been going on behind her back. While she was suffering, Bella was hanging out with a wolf pack behind her back and she bet she knew exactly what happened to her best friend and why he wouldn't talk to her.

"Care to explain any of this? Or are you going to continue leaving me in the dark because you're that much better than me?" Taryn seethed, glaring at the two. Bella looked down in shame and Jacob frowned softly.

"I'm sorry." Bella quietly said. "I had to keep it a secret. For the pack."

Taryn laughed bitterly. "Oh! The fucking pack. The pack that my abandoning best friends are in. I care so much about the interests of the pack." She hissed.

Jacob tensed. "You should. The pack is protecting you from who's coming."

"You know what? Both of you can burn in hell. I don't need to be protected and I don't need either of you." She said, tears welling up in her eyes. "And to think I came to check on you. To make sure you were okay, because I thought we were going through the same thing. But as always, I was wrong." She told Bella, her voice hoarse.

Taryn swung the door open to Bella's house.

"Wait--" She heard Jacob.

With that, she slammed the door and walked out to her car.