All I Wanted Was the Truth

Emmett walked through the trees, heading once again for the enormous baseball diamond. He'd found himself walking here a lot lately.

He went over the conversation he'd just had with Edward over and over again in his mind. He had wanted to ask more, to say more, but what would Edward think of him if he did? Never mind that Edward had probably read his mind and found out all he wanted; Emmett was a man with pride.

"What do I mean by what, exactly?" Edward's words echoed in his mind, taunting him.

'You know what I mean,' he had thought angrily, glaring at his increasingly annoying brother. But he hadn't said it out loud. And he hadn't given the answer he'd really wanted to: 'What do you mean, not particularly interesting?'

"Her mind is just as interesting as anybody else's. No, more." Emmett muttered to himself, hoping that Edward would hear, and at the same time wishing he wouldn't.

He'd reached the field by now. It was a nice day; clouds covered the sky, as always, but a nice breeze was blowing in from the mountains nearby. Emmett stretched his arms and legs, preparing himself to go for a nice, refreshing run through the hills.

And, all at once, he stopped his warm-up ritual. Instead, he flopped down on the grass, looking up at the sky. His eyes were closed.

"What is it, Alice?" he asked.

His sister, although she had been very quiet in her approach, was nonetheless given away by the distinct scent of vampire lingering on her. She giggled, folding gracefully down onto the ground beside him.

Her hair was swaying with the wind; the darkness of it contrasted sharply with her pale white skin. She had cut it again, refusing to let it grow; it only reached just below her ears. She looked down at Emmett.

"Can't a person talk to her brother without having an ulterior motive?" she asked innocently.

Emmett grunted. "In our family? No."

Alice sighed. "Well, have it your way."

"What did you see this time?" Emmett wondered.

Alice shrugged. "This and that. The future is never certain."

The giant boy rolled his eyes up at her. "Come on, Alice. I know you want to tell me."

"Well, first I saw you running. Obviously." Emmett nodded. "But then... it was the strangest thing..." she said mockingly, knowing this would bother him. "I saw you running right into town, instead of up the mountain like you always do."

This caught him off guard. "Into town? Why?"

"Why do you think?" she asked. "You should know; you were the one who chose to do it."

He faced the sky again. The clouds were gliding lazily above their heads, moving away from the winds that pushed them on. "To see Kaya," he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Alice nodded, also looking up at the sky. "And how would Rose feel about that, do you think?" she replied quietly.

Emmett turned away from a sibling for the second time that day.

"Just be careful about what you do." she said. "I won't stop you, but I should never have to think about it, either." She rose to her feet smoothly, loping away back to the house.

Emmett stayed where he was. It was true - he had been wanting to see Kaya. But he hadn't really planned on going to see her; that must've been somewhere at the back of his mind where he hadn't found it yet.

But Alice had said she wouldn't stop him... would she tell Rose? Rosalie would definitely stop him, and, more than likely, stop Kaya, too. "Stop her breathing, is more like it." he muttered.

He decided not to go to town. Not today. With his siblings all well aware that he had made a friend in a human, it wasn't quite safe. Having a mind-reading brother and a future-seeing sister didn't help, either. So he wouldn't go. Not yet.

But he also decided he wouldn't shun Kaya. That would be too cruel; she was a nice girl. She deserved better than that.

And just as he made that decision, he was sure Alice would be shaking her head at the vision she saw.

"Well," he said, standing up. "You're right, Alice. The future is never certain."