The Only Exception

I woke, for a start, to hear none other than a bunch of boys messing around in the living room. I didn't feel like moving quite yet, so I stayed cuddled in blankets and tried to fall back asleep while listening to Quil and Embry sing Home on the Range with horrible scratchy southern accents and from what I could hear, a very out of tuned guitar.

I chuckled lightly as I listened, shaking my head when they got the lyrics totally wrong. And then I had to cover my mouth from bursting out in laughter when I heard a string pop and a girlish shriek from...Embry, I think it was. Sooner than later they either stopped playing, or I had fallen asleep again.

Once I'd woken up yet again, I pulled myself out of the bed, untangling myself from the sheets and stretched my small body. Running a hand through my hair I thought of the plan for today. It was already late in the day and I needed to get a move on. I pulled off the pajamas that Emily had given me and put on a pair of jeans, a shirt and my shoes.

How was I going to sneak out without being caught - by anyone, including Jake? I paced in the room for what seemed like hours but really was only a short time. I then sighed, I'd do what any other irrational teen did these days: I'd sneak out of the window.

So I walked over and looked down, sighing in relief as I saw that Emily's house was only a one story.

I had nothing here really of mine, so I guess I was traveling light today, or tonight. It was already getting dark and the nerves inside of me began to go haywire. Soon enough I'd be leaving. And I wondered why no one had come to check on me. Someone must have while I was sleeping.

Around five o'clock I pulled myself together and brought myself over to the window. Pulling it open with as much sheer quietness as I could, I put my right side out first before pulling the rest of my body out and jumping to the ground. I heard the guys messing around inside and sighed, they'd be too preoccupied to notice my sneaking away.

As I found myself in the forest minutes later I began to sprint, wanting to get far just in case anyone started to look for me.

I had nothing even resembling a plan - all I knew was that I had to get away, my breathing becoming irregular as small beads of sweat formed on my forehead.

I just felt so free - jumping over branches and small bushes and landing firmly on my feet before taking off again; my heart was pumping in my chest, almost thumping against the ribs, but I thought that it was mostly because of the adrenaline. It felt amazing.

There was no other sounds in the impenetrable dark than the sounds of my breathing, the noise of my thumping heart resonating through my head and the small crumbling noises the dry leaves made under my feet. There was no moonlight, since the magnificent moon was hidden behind the treetops, the leaves on them spreading over the deep forest like a blanket; and all it's inhabitants were all asleep, apparently.

Or so I thought.

Suddenly as I ran, I heard a shuddering sound - the sound of howling, the noise cutting through the dark forest like a gun shot. It almost bounced off the trees before it met my ears, hereafter it resonated through my mind as an echo; what was that?

I froze as I slowly inched closer to a tree, not even knowing where the sound came from, or what the hell it was. My eyes were widened, and a drop of sweat suddenly ran down my spine, and this wasn't because of the running - I was panicking, and I knew that perfectly well.

There it was again - it wasn't a gun shot, I knew that now. It sounded like wolves fighting. I snapped out of my frozen state as my instincts took over and all I could think about was how I needed to get the hell away from here. I had no idea where I was, but now that I had located the sound I just figured that away from that would be just brilliant.

So I began sprinting again, my heart in my throat as I no longer could concentrate on how wonderful it felt to just run away, run away from my problems. No, this time, I was scared shitless. The longer I ran, the more tired I got, and when I found myself tripping over a root in the ground, I didn't get back up, I just laid there on the muddy ground, heaving in and out as I drifted off into an exhausting amount of sleep.

~

The sun was just barely rising when I woke up. My head pounding, a dull aching feeling spreading throughout my head as I realized where I was. My legs ached in a tense, vast quantity of pain I could hardly move them. I pulled myself up in a sitting position and rest my upper body against the trunk of a tree. I let my fingers travel to my head, a small groan escaping as I began to yank my fingers through my dirty tangled black hair.

While yanking repeatedly and furiously at my hair I took in my surroundings, not really feeling anything at the beauty of the forest. Things colored in green took over majority of the woods, leaving only small parts of the forest in sickly reddish brown colors. I took a deep breath, fresh pine inhaled into my nostrils, a peaceful and sweet smell.

My hands stopped where they were and pulled out of my hair. Pushing myself to my feet I realized that I couldn't stay here all day, Jake and the rest of the guys would be looking for me. So I sauntered through the woods, leaping over dead branches every now and then, dodging bugs and anything else that flew their way past me.

Once I found myself by the road I inhaled, taking in a not so smooth scent, but it was worth it. As I walked, I thought of what I was doing. Why was I going back home - to Oliver? He'd treated me like I was worthless, told me how messed up we'd all become after my mother died. Yelled at me saying it was my fault for what she did, when he knew whose fault it really was.

But it could be my fault, or it could be because of Oliver and I both. I just wasn't sure.
But everyone deserves a second chance, and I was stupidly risking my life by going back to Oliver, thinking that he was going to change when it was most likely not going to happen. I'm sure that if Oliver had realized that I was gone, he'd just wait, he wouldn't want to get the cops involved - he wasn't that stupid.

Oliver would wait for me to return. Which is exactly what I was doing.
And when I finally reached my house, everything began to cave in. The nerves throughout my body sending almost shock like waves to my brain, telling me to panic. My heart pumping faster and faster as I reached the front door. I swear I could have begun hyperventilating if I didn't know how serious this was.

I opened the door, and led myself in. I was shocked, I wasn't being dragged through the house by my hair, no yelling from his deep demanding voice. I wasn't getting hit or kicked or thrown to the ground. I wasn't bleeding profusely, not even at all. I sighed in content, I was fine for right now.

Things started to kick in as I walked through the house. My eyes looked around at the messy place, Oliver had gone nuts when I left. I was only gone for about two weeks and this plane was like an insane asylum gone...insane. I shook my head, picking up garbage that lay on the ground, making a pile of dirty close near the laundry room, throwing away all of the beer bottles, which some had been thrown against walls.

I pulled the house back together in under two hours before I realized what time it was. Oliver would be home soon, and if he saw me like this, who knew what could happen. He'd think I was sleeping in the forest at night just to stay away from him. He'd thinking highly of himself, then, he'd give any excuse for another hit.

I ran upstairs quickly, running into my room and shutting the door before ripping off my dirty clothes and hopping into a nice warm shower. I smiled to myself as the water soothed my aching muscles, cleaned through my dirty hair and washed away any of my problems. Once out of the shower, cleaned fresh and dried, I pulled on some comfortable sweats and a large t-shirt.

I hadn't even lied in my bed for twenty minutes when I heard the front door open and close. My heart began to race again, this was it. I readied myself as I wondered how Oliver's reaction would be to a clean house. Then my nerves went haywire as I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They got closer, my heart speeding at an inconceivable rate.

"Sweety, you're finally home."