Original or Derivative (fanfiction): Derivative

Rating/Warning(s)/Note(s: M, part of Chapter 11:Evil

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Prompt: Phrase Catch: Repeat the following phrase to yourself five times, open a blank document and begin: “The jury is still out.”

I paced anxiously up and down the hallway. My heels clicked against the tile in a steady beat that seemed to lull me. My lips moved with silent words only I could hear. I’m sure I looked crazy. But I didn’t care. For months I had breathed this. I had slept this. I had lived this. I had no more answers than I did that night I had walked home from spending the night with Alice and Rose. The night I had been attacked in my forest. The night I became a victim. The night that the Cullen boys had saved me.

It was also the one and only time Edward Cullen (or as I liked to call him Saveward) talked to me. Touched me. Cared for me. He brought me back to my house where a frantic Charlie came bursting out of the house. Edward had explained to him what had happened. Now when I say explain I mean lie. I know I was under “stress” but I also know what I saw. I saw that man fly into a tree. I just don’t know how it happened. The only logical conclusion was that Emmett, by far the biggest of the three, had somehow managed to toss him off me in such a way that he appeared to fly.

The explanation that Edward promised never came. He never called me ‘sweetheart’ again. It had been a month and he had barely looked at me. But I knew he watched me. I could feel it. In my room at night I would thrash around in my bed with visions of the attack. Somehow though I always woke refreshed, like I had slept well. I had that sense of peace that I had had when Edward carried me home. He had to be getting in my room, which just made me feel crazier than I already did. Yet, he continued to act as he did in the beginning. I was so confused. Especially since his brothers took an active role in my life these days. It was sweet but stifling. I didn’t need bodyguards, I needed answers. I needed Edward to supply those answers.

Someone cleared their throat behind me and when I turned around there stood the boy that I had recently hung all my hopes on. Before I knew what I was doing, I launched myself into him and he wrapped his arms around me. It was like I never left. It was like I was home. I felt calm all at once. We didn’t speak, we just held onto each other. I’m not sure how long we stayed like that. Minutes, hours, days. I just knew that I felt whole again. I didn’t feel like a victim, I felt like a survivor.

He pulled away from me eventually, looked towards the courtroom doors and raised his eyebrow in question.

“The jury is still out,” I said.

“Don’t worry, there’s no way they would set him free. Especially after what he did to you.”

I swear I could hear venom dripping in his words.

“You can’t know that Edward.” I think that’s the first time I ever said his name. He must have thought that too because his eyes got a little brighter.

“But I do know that Bella. I have faith in humanity. So should you.”

“So you’re talking to me?”

“No, I just figured you’d need a shoulder today.”

“Oh.” Seriously? What was his game? “Does that mean I only have today?”

He knew what I was asking. I knew what I was asking.

“Bella, I know I said I would explain but I just don’t think it’s possible right now.”

“You called me Sweetheart.”

“Emmett called you Honey.”

“You carried me.”

“You wouldn’t let either of my brothers.”

“You called yourself a monster.”

“You…” Ha! I had him and he knew it.

Just then Alice and Rose came walking towards us with Jasper and Emmett. Yeah, somehow his brothers managed to snag my best friends but he wouldn’t give me the time of day. Except for now. Jasper smiled at me and squeezed my shoulder but Emmett had to engulf me in a bear hug. He said it was our “thing.” Whatever. All I knew was that I had a lot more contact with Edward’s brothers when all I really wanted was more contact with him.

The brothers had walked down the hall a bit whispering and throwing angry looks towards Edward while Rose and Alice tried to act as if we spent every afternoon on a courthouse. Apparently one of them must have read somewhere that it’s a good idea to try and keep things as normal as possible in this type if situation.

Alice was the first to take the plunge. “So what’s going on?”

“The jury is still out.”

Now Rose, “and Edward?”

“The jury is still out.”