Red

I continued my knocking for another half hour before coming to the realization that no one was home.

Noticing that the rain had stopped, I decided to take a long walk through the woods located to the right of my grandmothers’ house.

While taking my walk through the woods I started to think of all the things that may take place over the next year for me. I had moved to a place where no one knew who I was, where I came from or what to think of me.

Being in a foreign place was definitely a welcome feeling. Back home in Memphis a lot of the family pressures fell on my shoulders. I took care of my little sisters, cousins, paternal grandparents and I was the only one in my family down in Memphis who worked.

Where I came from we had the good life. We had money and riches, we could do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted and everyone judged us for it.

I worked my ass off every day because I never wanted to be judged for the money that I was born into. I wanted to earn peoples respect and I tried my best to please everyone while sacrificing my happiness.

The move to La Push gave me a chance to start over and be able to discover who I was and how I felt without worrying about what others thought of me.

Another reason I moved to La Push was because I WANTED to help my grandmother. The only person in my family that I could relate to was my grandmother.

My grandmother came from a long line of people who worked hard to get what they deserved. They were respected, dedicated and were some of the most loving and caring people I had ever met.

My mother and father never cared about my mothers’ side of the family. They brushed them off as if they didn’t exist simply because they didn’t have the riches my dads’ side of the family did.

Once I found out about my grandmothers sickness I practically jumped at the chance to leave behind my money hungry family, to leave behind the pressures of being the only one who was responsible, and to take care of someone who would appreciate my help.

While I knew my grandmothers’ time was limited, the fact that I would never have to see my family again was a huge comfort.

I realized shortly after coming across a beach that I had no idea as to where the hell I was. I was tempted to turn back and search for someone but after looking at the time on my phone I realized that I had been gone for about two hours and had no idea how to get back to my grandmothers.

I could have freaked out and tried desperately to find my way back but I knew it would be a lost cause.

While I never really cared for the way my mother treated me, or anyone else for that matter, a phrase that she always used to say came to me.

“Crying will do no good but cause headaches and a runny nose” I said aloud not knowing that there were people nearby.

“Well, while that may be true,” I gasped not knowing there was someone behind me “sometimes crying is good for you.”

I looked shocked at the group of people standing behind me. They consisted of many muscular, and cute, men and two girls. One of the girls smiled at me, and I knew instantly that she was the one who had spoken. The other girl sort of glared at me as if I was the reason that children in Africa were starving.

The girl who had spoken sat down next to me, where I had made myself comfortable in the sand, and she held out her hand.

“Hello,” she said smiling brightly “My name is Emily and what’s yours?”

I took her hand in mine trusting her almost instantly and told her “My name is Roxanne, but you can call me Red.”

She smiled again and turned to her friends waving at them to come join us. It was then that I noticed the scars running down the side of her face. I made no move to comment on them and instead acted as if they weren’t there. If she wanted to tell me what happened she would. I could already tell that her and I would become great friends.

She then took the time to introduce her friends to me “Red,” she began “This is Embry, Quil, my husband Sam, my cousins Seth and Leah, then there’s Jacob, and Jared. We have another friend but he’s running a bit late.” She finished with a smile.

I couldn’t help but notice that I believed the reason she was smiling had something to do with her husband. He looked at her like she was his world and it was then that I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to the guy with the hard glaring brown eyes from before.

I was shaken back to reality when someone, I think Emily said his name was Jared, asked me a question.
“So, Red, how did you get dubbed that nickname” He smiled, showing off a row of pearly white teeth and amazing dimples.

“Umm,” I began to reply “My grandmother gave it to me. It’s my initials and my favorite color so it just sort of fit I guess.” I ended my reply with a shrug and a pathetic excuse for a smile.

Emily, noticing my discomfort began to ask as to why I had mentioned crying before.

I laughed almost having completely forgotten about the situation and told her the reason I was here and the fact that I wandered through the forest once realizing that my grandma wasn’t home.

She smiled, once again, and said “Well if you need a ride back home, once we finish hanging out and getting to know you a little better, me and Sam wouldn’t mind giving you one.”

“Thank you so much I really appreciate it. I don’t know what I would have done had you not shown up”

Sam cut in replying “It’s not a problem, it’s not too far from where we stay, and in fact it’s just on the way to our home.”

I smiled and nodded at him in a silent ‘thank you’ before turning my attention back to the other boys before realizing that someone new had joined the group.

His back was to me so I couldn’t see his face but when Sam called his name and he turned his head, I was met once again with hard eyes and a menacing glare.

It was the guy from earlier except now I had a name to go with the dangerous yet extremely sexy guy. Paul.