Pretty Picture Girl

When my mother decided to stay in Port Angeles to allow Jordan, Mark and I time to reconnect I was almost positive this wasn’t what she had in mind. A loud screech fled my throat, a squeal that reminded me of a trapped boar. My cries were loud, strong as my hands thrashed about but slowly those shrieks turned into whimpers and my arms fell like rocks to my sides.

Jordan’s mouth was latched to my neck like a parasite. I could feel his teeth, sharp canines, dug and gnawing at my skin as he sucked and fed from the vein. My knees had long since given out and if it weren’t for the wall behind me and the solid build in front, I would have collapsed. Jordan’s fingers were dug into my hips but I couldn’t feel them anymore. The only thing I could process was the fire, the burn that soared through my body. I was left paralyzed, my voice hoarse and my eyes blurred. I tried to cry, to beg but all that came out was a quiet whimper as my life was slowly drained away.

“For fuck sakes, Jordan! I told you to fuckin’ eat before we got here but no! You’re killing her, you idiot! Let go!”

Jordan seemed to notice he was being threatened, that his meal was being threatened and the rock solid build pinning me to the wall pushed closer. The move had been too sudden, too forceful and if I had been normal, it would’ve completely shattered my ribs.

I tried desperately to cry for Mark. I tried to flail my arms to show him I was still living but nothing came out except a low gasp for air. It was followed by a silence as the burn soared to my throat, gripping to my vocal cords like a vice and in a nearly moment, cutting off any moan or groan I could make. The boy pinning me to the wall, draining me of my very being, was suddenly gripped by a strong and scarred hand. I didn’t even feel Jordan’s teeth tarring down my collarbone as he was ripped off.

I dropped just like a stone off a cliff, landing in a crumbled mess upon the kitchen tile.

“LET GO OF ME!”

Jordan’s body was flailing upon the floor in front of me, the scarred boy pinning him down with strong hands. It was hard to see as my mind continuously danced from consciousness to a pitch darkness. Shadowed figures of Jordan and Mark wrestling flooded my mind, their grunts and growls filled the air.

“Get out of here,” I was distinctly sure Mark hissed. “Get the fuck out of here and go hunting, you idiot!”

There were a couple of crashes, what I was positive was glass shattering when finally the growls silenced and I was left withering upon the floor, trying my hardest to sob through the pain.

“Fuck...” whispered a concerned voice. A warm hand, rough and calloused, began to brush strains of hair away from my face. “C’mon, Lena, look at me.”

“I...” I forced out, “I am.”

“No you’re not, Lena. C’mon, doll, focus.”

I was trying to. I was trying real hard to gather Mark’s torn face in front of mine but all I saw was a spinning ceiling. He might have frowned or maybe that was the ceiling fan. Suddenly, my body began to move as his thin arms slid underneath my build.

“Let’s get you to bed,” Mark muttered just as my vision went completely. “You should be pain free in a couple hours, right?”

I think Mark expected me to answer or maybe he just hoped I would.

I didn’t.

I couldn’t.

“You know something, Lena, you take this pain much better then Jordan did,” Mark chuckled, “He’s a pussy though so...”

I wanted to laugh.

“We’re still going to the beach tomorrow, right? I was really looking forward to it. You know they get waves big enough to surf on? I thought maybe I could nick a board from somewhere -”

I couldn’t hear him anymore. I couldn’t hear anything. Even when he placed me upon my bed, I couldn’t feel anything but the fire soaring through my blood. Everything hurt, burnt. It was as though acid was eating through my innards, biting away at the skin and muscle as it tried to fight its way through. Paralyzed and broken, I was trapped, trapped within my own body until I’d slowly pass out and my blood cells would begin in fight back.

They’d always fight back and they’d always win but it was a long, painful battle, one that left me crying late into the night.

~~~

“Man, you really did a number on her,” murmured the deep voice of Mark Daniels. There was a warm hand upon my forehead, its thick fingers treading through my hair. I felt soothed by the movement, content as my stiff body slowly relaxed into the feel.

“I don’t know what happened,” and a sigh, gentle as it was, fell from the other side of the room. If I was correct it was near the doorway. “She cut herself and I just... lost it!”

Mark didn’t say anything. He kept quiet, his hand still carefully caressing my face. When my eyes began to flutter and my body began to shift, Mark removed his gentle hold. The bed moved with it until I heard his bare feet slapping against the hardwood floor.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!” chirped Jordan’s voice.

A low moan sang from my mouth while my hands slipped from the covers in an attempt to rub my face. I was sore all over. My legs ached, my arms ached and my entire rib cage felt like it had been hit by a truck. When my eyes slipped open, I found the scarred face of Mark peering down at me, his chocolate orbs smiling as I began to struggle to sit up. The gel in his hair was gone leaving a flat mess upon his head but it didn’t looked like he minded.

“Good morning, Lena,” said Mark. “How you feeling, doll?”

“H-Hi Mark,” I answered, finding my throat was beyond dry. Like I had suspected, across the room was Jordan. His pale body was leaning against the doorframe, dressed in clean jeans and a simple t-shirt. His face was smiling but his eyes weren’t. Mark’s hands suddenly went underneath my arms and I was pulled up into a sitting position in an instant. My hands laid in my lap, my eyes locked to Jordan’s but when they drifted from my face and towards my neck, I slowly began to reach for the wound I couldn’t feel. My body hurt but the one place that should’ve been on fire was thankfully numb.

Jordan’s eyes dropped to the floor, his voice muttering sheepishly, “You might not want to touch it.”

“Why not?” I murmured back. Mark plopped beside me and in an instant I felt his rough hands pushing my messy hair behind my shoulders. His eyes curiously peered at what I assumed was my wound until I was given a teasing smile.

“I wouldn’t look at it either, doll.”

With a loud groan, I dropped my face into my hands. Mark was left snickering quietly to himself while I released another, overdramatic sigh.

“It can’t be that bad,” I said, the sound muffled by my hands.

“Oh it’s that bad,” Jordan teased.

“Shut up,” I scowled, “It’s your fault. I still can’t believe you went and bit me!”

“Well, you know, you just smelt so good!” he laughed. I heard a definite smack, a rather loud, hollow sound and assumed Mark had hit the vampire boy in the side of the head. Jordan released a whine.

“What time is it?” My head slipped up, allowing my tired eyes to try and peer outside. It was bright out, quite bright out and for the first time since I had arrived at Forks, it was sunny.

Mark released a yawn, “Just after twelve. Aren’t we supposed to go to the beach today? You still feeling up to it, Lena?”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re still going to the beach,” I muttered, taking my time as I slid from my bed. Jordan and Mark silently cheered, high fiving each other while I was left trying to hide a giggle. Finally upon my feet, my legs like Jell-O, I stumbled towards my bathroom. The quiet cheers suddenly stopped and both boys watched nervously as I pushed open the door.

It took me a moment to really gather what I was seeing. I stood in front of the long mirror, gazing into it and for a split second being distracted by the rooster’s nest upon my head. Not a moment later a rather horrid screech left my mouth.

“JORDAN MATTHEWS!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” he wailed behind me. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean too, Lena!”

Near the crook of my neck lay an ugly deformed purple and black bruise. Dried blood was still crusted along the sensitive skin and I cursed Mark’s nursing job. Teeth marks dented my neck and I followed them as they traveled down a tear. If I had been normal, my skin would have literally been hanging off of me. It was disgusting and I all could do was throw a hand over top of it and try to pretend it wasn’t there.

“I can’t believe you,” I hissed. “This is the worse one yet! You think you’d get better with practice -”

Jordan whined, “I’m sorry, Lena, but if you wanna blame anyone, blame Mark. He was the one who pulled me off of you.”

Mark released a loud bark of a laugh, “Yes, blame the man who saved her life.”

I only shook my head. It was the only thing I could do. Jordan began to beam and he threw himself upon my bed while I shuffled about, still in yesterday’s clothes, trying to find the bathing suit Juliette most likely threw across the room. Mark stood near the doorway watching me.

“So we’re meeting your new friends than?” Mark said as I gathered a pair of jeans I could pull over top of my bottoms. “What time?”

“Soon,” I replied just as I released a happy cheer. The pretty bikini top I had been searching for had managed to get itself wedged between my desk and the wall. The nautical themed suit was my absolute favourite. “I’m sure they’ll like you. You’ll like them. Embry and Jake are really funny when their together. Paul’s kind of crotchety so try not to piss him off.””

Jordan scoffed, “Since when did I purposely try and make people angry?”

The look I fired him was enough to shut the vampire boy’s mouth, for a moment at least. A couple seconds later he burst into a childish fit of laughter. I ended up whacking him across the face with my jeans until Mark pulled our grinning friend out of my room and determined they’d give me some space to change.

~~~

Both Jordan and Mark had ended up gathering old swim trunks from my brother’s room. It resulted in two strings of swears as they complained about how disgusting it stunk down there and sent my tired body to retrieve the bottoms. When I returned, they were snatched from my hands while I took my time in preparing a small lunch for Mark and I. Jordan watched us eat with curious eyes that made my bottom lip quiver until he explained that he was going to go watch television.

“How’s Abby?” I asked, dripping the thin grilled cheese into my soup. “I’m surprised she let you two just up and leave.”

Mark smiled, “She’s alright. She said hi, obviously, but she’s busy with school. It’s why she hasn’t really been emailing you. Abby wants to be a doctor now, you see.”

“A doctor?” I asked in surprise. “Since when?”

He simply shrugged, “You know her. She doesn’t want to make the wrong decision -”

“Yes, so she makes like fifty of them.”

The chuckle I received was a sound I always adored. Mark may have looked frightening, may have looked like he needed pity but his smile and his laugh could relax anyone.

“Kieran said hey,” said Mark. He plopped the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth. “He misses you a little too much.”

“Does he?” I giggled, “Well too bad for him, I don’t miss him at all.”

“That’s harsh, doll,” teased my friend, his dark eyes singing, “He’s not going to college after school. He wants to work in his Dad’s store.”

“I’m sure his mother will be thrilled. He’s still dating Kaitlin, isn’t he?”

Mark gathered his dishes, “Yeah and I’m pretty sure Chelsea and that stupid bitch, Sasha. He’s got a whole harem.”

“He is cute,” I teased back. Mark moved to make a disgusted remark but Jordan’s voice sang from the living room, telling us to hurry it up. I shoved the remainder of my sandwich into my mouth, slurped up the soup and told Mark to go get his keys. We’d take their truck regardless of their want to pull up in my father’s over the top GMC CANYON. Their old, run down rust bucket cried when it started and spewed enough fumes into the air, it was probably one of the sole causes of global warming. I slid into the back like I always did, my hair draped over my shoulders in an attempt to hide that gruesome scarring.

Mark assured me he couldn’t see Jordan’s mishap but I self-consciously continued to play with my hair, to continue to flatten it to the skin in a rather unnatural appeal. Just as Jordan slid into the driver’s seat and I had, for the hundredth time, fiddled with my locks, Mark turned around with an unimpressed look.

“Lena, doll, stop it. If anything you’re going to bring more attention to it -”

“Well what am I supposed to do?” I fired back. “If anyone sees this... mark we’re going to be in a shit load of questions.”

Jordan revved the engine, his eyes not even bothering to peer into the rear-view mirror as he backed out of our long driveway, “Just tell ‘em I bit you.”

My face blanched, “Really? And I thought vampires were supposed to be smart.”

Mark chuckled, “Jordan’s a bit of an exception, don’t you think?”

“Well what is she supposed to say?” the vampire boy muttered. Part of me said Jordan was too upset to really come up with an excuse, that he wanted everyone to know he did that damage, that he was sorry about it and would live with it every day. He may have been laughing, grinning but I knew him well enough to know he was nowhere near happy inside. Anytime he bit me, Jordan would take days to get over the ramifications I went through.

“I dunno, man,” Mark replied. “You think saying she tripped would work?”

“You’re both hopeless,” I hissed, once again patting at my locks in a manner of security. Mark’s lanky body shrugged and I watched him reach towards the radio, flicking to some rock channel that began to rather loudly blare RUSH. Jordan began to hum, his hands driving with ease as he turned off towards the La Push reservation. “Couldn’t we go with I was wrestling with Jordan or something and we knocked that big vase over and it landed on top of me?”

“That’s lame,” said Jordan and I knew for a fact he was beaming.

“It could, I guess. Let’s just hope your new friends aren’t like our little doctor to be or you’re going to be rush to the emergency room,” came Mark’s voice.

“Oh god,” Jordan cried, “Imagine if Abs were here. She would’ve flipped shit. Lena, you wouldn’t have been allowed out of bed!”

“I wonder why,” I fired in return. “There might as well be a gaping hole where you bit me. It’s absolutely hideous.”

“Awe, doll face, you know nothing about you could ever be hideous,” teased Mark. “It’s not in your genes. Even if you had my disease you’d still turn heads.”

Part of me said that was because I’d be covered in horrendous scars if I had Mark’s ‘disease’ but I kept my mouth shut and thanked the boy with a timid smile. The rest of our drive we were silent except for Jordan’s incisive humming along with the radio and the way Mark’s hands tapped along with the beat about the dashboard. Jordan sped most of the way, flying down the road at a good 50 over until he flew into the parking lot with a cackle. Clutching to the seat for my life I was relived to step on solid ground.

“I’m driving home,” I snarled, yanking my beach bag from the back. Jordan beamed at me and with a careless strength gathered Mark and I’s cooler from old, rusted bed in the rear. Mark took his time stretching before he slammed the truck’s side door shut with a bang, startling a grouping of seagulls upon the long beach. They flew into the air with panicked cries while I carefully wandered through the parking lot and down the slight slope towards the ocean.

La Push beach was an absolutely glorious sight. A chill raced through the air, a chill neither of us felt and seemed to rattle the tall, wise old trees behind us. The water looked clear and cold as waves rolled in and crashed upon the grey sand shore. Before my sandal clad foot could graze the wet sand, Jordan was already ahead of me, beaming as he dropped our cooler and began to remove the simple black shirt upon his build. It was dropped upon the ground and both Mark and I watched for a moment. Nothing but pale skin appeared before us.

“Your Dad always did say he was a lucky one,” Mark muttered beside me, hoisting the blanket I forced him to bring upon his shoulder.

I gave him a light nod, “He can walk out in the sun and no one knows any difference. Mom’s jealous of him, you know? She loves the sun but...”

We both silenced.

“What the hell are you two doing? Hurry up!”

Mark and I looked at each other and shared a smile as we headed towards the blonde boy prancing happily in front of the chilling shore.

“Race you to the water!” Jordan yelled before disappearing underneath the sea and leaving Mark rapidly pulling his wife-beater off. The scarred boy took off with a cheer, his chiselled body crashing with the water nearly a second later. I took my time by spreading out our overly large blanket that had once lay upon my bed as a child and emptied the contents of my bag upon it. Just as the fancy touch phone fell, it burst into a cheerful ring.

“Hello?” I asked, my eyes locked to the water. Both Mark and Jordan were wrestling, flipping and crashing into each other. Some of largest grins I had ever seen were spread across their faces. One followed upon mine.

“Hi Lena!” said a chipper voice that sounded just like Kim. “Are you there yet?”

“Just got here about five minutes ago,” I explained, racing an arm in hello towards the two rapidly urging me in. “Where are you guys?”

“We’ll be there soon,” said Kim. “You’re near the parking lot?”

“Yes ma’am!” I teased, kicking off my flats and shedding the sweater on top of my shoulders.

“Alright, perfect, see you soon!” She chirped and the phone hung up before I could say goodbye. I tossed the sleek black square to the beach towel and took off without a second thought towards the two boys in the water. My feet hit the waves in an instant, the water making my run slow until I simply threw myself forward in a dive. Everything felt normal, felt room temperature and I was certain that was because of how cold the sea actually was. I didn’t last long underneath because not even moments later two, skinny arms gathered my waist and I was flung into the air, giggling like a mad woman.

“Mark!” I squealed, gasping as he threw me over his shoulder. “Put me down!”

“You know if Abs were here she be freaking out,” muttered the boy. I peered up at the back of his head, a little confused by the sudden sullen nature. “It’s just weird not having her with us.”

“She’s gotta study,” I explained, pleased to see Mark carefully bending and allowing me back to my feet. “Something wrong Marcus?”

The look I was given was almost heart wrenching but before I could ask what was actually wrong, Mark’s body was tackled by Jordan and the two went flying into the water. It didn’t take long for me to burst into a fit of giggles, silenced when Jordan turned on me and I too was tackled into the waves. Gracefully I was able to slide out of his grasp and before Jordan could gather me again, Mark had pinned him. I let the two jest with each other as the waves pushed me back to shore. When my knees began to drag along the ground, I forced myself to stand and wander towards our blanket.

“Lena!” someone cried and I turned my head to see a pack of boys wandering towards me. My left hand quickly raced to the wound upon my shoulder but found, heavy wet hair covering Jordan’s horrendous bite mark. Relief flooded my build and I raised a hand in a brief wave.

Kim and Embry waved back frantically causing me to giggle, before forcing myself to walk towards them. It appeared Paul had a soccer ball underneath one arm and a rather mean scowl over his lips. Quil, Jared and Seth looked delighted, happy and content as they strolled forward in swim trucks. My eyes quickly switched to Jacob Black and the smile gracing my lips grew. He returned the look instantly, something that caused my heart to flutter in my chest.

“Hey Lena, those your -” but Mark instantly shut his mouth. His eyes had darkened and I felt the scarred boy reach my side in an instant. I looked to him with concern, surprise but he didn’t dare take his eyes off the group walking towards me.

“Mark, what’s wrong?” I whispered, reaching for his wrist.

“Not sure yet,” He replied. I peered back at Jacob, peered back at the large group to see all the boys had suddenly dropped all smiles. My eyes widened at the sight, surprised when Mark slid his hand into mine. A quick gush of wind settled beside me and when I looked away to see Jordan had fallen beside us, the hold Mark had on my hand tightened to extreme levels. My eyes quickly jumped back to Jacob.

A dark, luminous feel fell upon my shoulders and I gulped. Maybe I should have listened to my mother. By the looks upon the entire grouping wandering towards us, it seemed I may have found the people who had an absolute hate for Jordan’s kind, or at least, that’s what it seemed.