Not Your Enemy

“So how was the first day of school, girls,” Saline asked as she slowly piled salad onto her plate. Tobi watched as she did so with hungry eyes and saliva pooling her mouth; her mother had been the best cook in the world and that night they were having Tobi’s favorite, Mango Chicken and Rice. The sweet yet filling flavor always got anyone on Tobi’s good side.

“Great,” Tobi lied with ease, “I have that Jasper kid in my classes again, and we sat with Bella and her boyfriend during lunch.” Her bullshit came out almost as perfectly as her French, and she didn’t even break eye contact with her mom while speaking. “I think I might drop my chemistry class down from AP though. I mean, I was thinking about taking things slower this year.”

Tobi bit back the yelp of pain as Ruby’s foot made contact with her shin. She looked over at her friend with a glare, not really in the mood for Ruby’s silent disagreements. After a silent glaring battle, Tobi turned her gaze over to Holden and Hannah with a small smile playing on her lips, “Did you guys finally get to see the teacher I told you about?”

Holden went red but nodded with a smirk that told Tobi he had witnessed the greatest mistake known to man, “Mrs. Goldman’s tits are like ten times the size of a watermelon!” Holden laughed, Hannah rolled her eyes and continued eating in silence, and Saline looked at both of her children in shock. The rest of dinner was spent with entertaining conversations and lies about happiness.

When the charade was over, Tobi and Ruby walked upstairs to Tobi’s bedroom so they could finish homework and talk about everything and nothing. Tobi scanned her room before walking over to her bed and pulling her book bag into her lap and pulling out her French binder. She didn’t need to take the class because she spoke it fluently, but if she wanted to graduate it was either the easy way or learning something completely different than what she knew.

“Copy?” Ruby asked after she sat beside her best-friend and rested her chin on Tobi’s boney shoulder. Tobi rolled her eyes and acted as if she hadn’t heard the childish begs coming from her friend. She wasn’t going to let her friend cheat off her papers just to get by, it wasn’t something she believed in.

“Copy?” Ruby repeated, wrapping her arms around Tobi’s waist and pouting her lips like a baby, “I’ll be your best-friend.”

“Il ya tellement de choses je vous laisse partir avec,” (there are so many things I let you get away with) Tobi said, pulling out her pencil and starting her work with ease. She acted as if Ruby wasn’t even holding onto her and begging. “mais vous aurez terminé vous êtes seul le travail scolaire.” (but you will finish your school work alone.)

Ruby pulled away and playfully glared at Tobi, “You know you’re a total bitch right? I didn’t understand a word you just said.”

“Get to work, amour,” Tobi smiled and finished off her French paper.

An hour had passed before vibrating was felt through the mattress and both girls moved to check each other’s phones. When Tobi looked at her phone she noticed her screen was lighted and an unfamiliar number was flashing over and over. She opened her phone and read the message.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes but she held them back because Ruby was so close by. Her heart pounded painfully against her ribcage, and her breathing stopped for half a minute before she was forced gasp in a large amount of air and rush to the bathroom; leaving her cell phone behind.

Over and over the message flashed itself on her brain and even the fire dancing before her couldn’t stop the pain it made her feel. Small flashbacks came to mind and she closed her eyes hard to hide herself from them. As she sat on the cold tile with her back to the door, Tobi thought of the quiet, empty room and the warm brown eyes beckoning her to join them on the bed. A shiver ran through her spine as she felt pale hands of a blue eyed boy touched her back from behind her. She wanted to stop, but she couldn’t. No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t get her body to respond to what her brain was telling her.

I need your help with the itch the message read and the unknown number had the La Push area code.

A shiver ran up her spine, and Tobi grabbed the cigarettes from her pocket. She needed the nicotine, she craved to forget. As she lit the end, she admired the beauty of the light dancing before her. All the sounds from the other end of the door seemed to fade away and it was just her watching the magical performance of the flames.

She felt the knocks from Ruby on the other end. The questions and pleas for more information where still heard. Then Tobi thought back to how much Ruby cared. That couldn’t be right, for her own mother hadn’t wanted her. Tobi had been unwanted since birth, and everyone around her was just pretending so they could get their part of the bargain.

With a sudden passion, Tobi closed her lighter and put out her cigarette. Not remembering that the darkened bathroom was full of smoke. As she opened the door and looked at her friend with a dead gaze, she noticed how Ruby’s eyes flickered to the escaping gas leaving the opening. When their eyes met once again Tobi shrugged her shoulders and leaned in onto the doorframe.

“I think you should leave,” Tobi said in a deadpan voice, “I’m kind of sleepy.”

Alice snapped out of her vision with a gasp and she looked over at Jasper. He had been listening to Bella and Edward talk about their relationship and the look of misery on his facial features was obvious to everyone in the room. Alice had broken things off because she felt the disconnection with Jasper getting bigger; she was also getting more and more visions of Jasper and Tobi while she was with an unknown vampire. Still, however, she loved her ex-husband with all her heart.

Alice had seen the something happen a week from that moment with Tobi, but it was far from good. In a rush, she sped over to Jasper and pushed his arm violently, “Tobi’s in trouble.”

Jasper’s eyes snapped in her direction and everything got silent, “Trouble? What do you mean ‘trouble’?”

“Well, this is what I saw…”