Apogee - Earthshine Sequel (Twilight Fan Fiction)

Chapter Twelve - The Mountain Top

Elora’s POV

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I fished it out. “Hello?”

“Hey, El,” Tom’s familiar voice said through the phone. There was a slight uncertainty to his voice. “It’s me.”

“You got home safely?”

“Yeah,” Tom said with a shaky laugh. “I’m completely fine.”

I paused. I could hear Tom’s breathing through the phone, and it was shaky and ragged, as if he had been running. “Are you sure?” I whispered.

There was a pause. “I’m fine,” Tom finally said, his voice even more shaky than before. “Seriously. So, will I see you at school?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. Thinking of the first lie that came to my head, I whispered, “Carlisle’s planning a trip out, now that the weather’s better. He said we might go camping or something.”

“Oh, cool.” There was no excitement in Tom’s voice, but its shakiness had calmed down slightly. “I’ll see you when you get back then?”

“Sure.”

“Cool. Bye.”

“Bye,” I whispered, but the phone had already hung up. I drew the phone away from my ear, staring at it. What was wrong with Tom? Was he still annoyed from me slapping him?

I shrugged, slipping my phone back into my pocket. He would get over it, and be fine in a few days.

“Was that Tom?” Esme asked from across the room. She was sitting on the sofa opposite me, a magazine propped up on her knees. I nodded. “Is he all right?”

“I don’t know,” I shook my head, my soft light hair brushing across my cheeks. “He sounded… worried. But it’s probably nothing.”

“Don’t worry,” she replied softly. “I’m sure he’s fine. He probably got a good telling off from his mom about walking home with a bandage around his shoulder.”

I smiled. “That’s probably it.”

Emmett strode in, his broad shoulders set. “I’m hungry,” he announced, throwing himself at the empty seat on the sofa beside me. I pulled my book out from under him, trying not to tear the pages.

“That’s nice to know,” I whispered sarcastically. “Didn’t you only just get back from a hunting trip a few days ago?”

Emmett sat up on the sofa, draping his thick muscular arm along the top of it. “Yeah, but it was mainly tiny animals like deer. “ He turned to Esme. “Are you sure we can’t go hunting?”

She smiled, closing her magazine. “I never said you couldn’t. I just don’t think it would be wise.”

“But to face the facts,” Emmett said, “hardly any of us are wise. And we only had the disadvantage last time because there was the human here, and-” Emmett cut himself off, knowing that Benjamin and Kebi could hear. He didn’t want to hurt them by saying, ‘And because Amun got killed.’

Esme sat back on the sofa, flicking her glossy hair over her shoulders. “Just be safe,” she said, waving Emmett away. He grinned before rising to his feet, reaching out a hand to me.

“Care to join us?” he purred, inclining his head as if he were a knight addressing his princess.

I laughed, pushing away his hand. “Save it for Rose,” I whispered, and Emmett let out a howl of laughter.

I followed him to the stairs where he called up, “Anyone coming hunting?” A few voices answered, and a second later, Rosalie, Jasper, and Alice appeared at the bottom of the stairs.