Voices |E. Cullen|

TWELVE

My fingers slammed on the buttons of the Xbox controller and my eyes were trained on my side of the screen. I had a bad habit of pushing hard on the joystick whenever I was moving as if it were going to make me run faster.

"Where are you, you little shit?" I mumbled as I sat criss cross on the floor in front of the television, my vision was poor and even worse when the color scheme was dark.

I snuck around corners and stared a whole in the mini map where the red dots of my enemies would appear when I was close enough. My machine gun was dropped when I came across a sword. The talent I possessed for mele combat in Halo was absurd. It made me frustrated when I was stuck with a long range weapon, I really couldn't wield them well. Esme placed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in front of me along with a Gatorade to help with my head, the hangover wasn't bad since all I drank was a bottle of wine. I saw my enemy and stabbed him, killing him immediately.

Emmett groaned, "What?! That's not fair! You're too good with that damned thing!"

I shrugged and sipped at the Gatorade through a bendy straw, orange was truly the best flavor. "Get better."

He scowled as I turned around to look at him, "You're too much like my sister, it's ridiculous."

A scream interrupted our conversation and I lazily looked next to the couch. A man was yelling and grasping at his neck, pointing at Emmett.

"What do you want?" I asked him and then sipped at my drink again.

"He killed me!" The man was fearful.

"They've all killed people. What do you want?" There had to be a better way to deal with these people, I couldn't go for another 50 years with them screaming at me when I so much as tried to take a shit.

The man just stood there with his mouth agape, looked around, and then disappeared. I shrugged and turned my attention back to the screen, Emmett was standing over my dead body as if it was fair to kill me while I wasn't even paying attention.

"Some tan, blonde dude. Looked like a surfer or something, did not like it when I didn't care," I respawned and moved through the map again, on my quest to kill him once more so I could win the game with 25 kills.

"Y'know, you're like a medium," he chuckled, "Long Island Medium. Are you gonna open up your own shop? Read fortunes and communicate with people's mothers?"

I slammed the right trigger down and gutted him, "I am not a fucking medium."

"Whatever you say, Jennifer Love Hewitt," he was bashful as he reset the game and changed the mode to King of the Hill.

Footsteps came scrambling down the staircase and the person stood at the base of the stairs. "Julia, have you talked to Bella recently?" Edward questioned only sounding mildly stressed out.

"Why would I talk to her?" I angrily took a bite out of my sandwich before becoming a bit more aggressive with the remote controller.

"I... she's your neighbor? I figured maybe you would have seen her around," he continued, obviously not taking my change in mood as a hint to back off.

"Why don't you go chase after your little toy instead of asking other people questions?" I gutted Emmett once more, refusing to look back at Edward.

He stood still, I could see his reflection in the television even though I tried to avoid it, looking at him made me mad.

"Julia, why are you mad?" He questioned, only taking a step or two closer.

Emmett sucked in a sharp breath, "Dude."

I placed my controlled on the ground after pausing the game, grabbed my empty dishes and walked toward the sink. "Don't ask me that like I'm stupid. I know you can read my mind."

"Any time I try to listen it's just mumbling and the occasional screams," he admitted, glued to his spot in front of the stairs. "You have to tell me everything you're thinking."

I scrubbed at a stubborn spot of peanut butter and huffed, "Good. Maybe shit won't come so easy to you now."

"Julia, what's going on? Why are you so mad at me?" Edward came closer to me and I moved away, grabbed my controlled and popped down right next to Emmett even though I couldn't see a god damned thing on the screen, I let my knees fall on his lap and continued to run around in the game.

"Just go find your girlfriend, dude," I said with a bit too much sass, and with that he gave up and walked out of the house to go chase after the human. My hand twitched as my emotions wanted me to throw the controlled across the room. It wasn't mine, though, so I placed it down on the table before grabbing my knees and pulling them to my chest.

"I'm sorry, he's an idiot," Emmett soothed and rubbed my arm.

"Boys are stupid," I cried and leant into his chest. "She's just a stupid human. Fuck. I'm human but I can see things other people can't. She's just ordinary."

Emmett just kept rubbing my arm and holding me close. I wasn't an only child, but things got especially lonely after my dad died and my brother moved out of the house. Emmett made me feel protected again, he was the older brother I needed. The one that was in the same town as opposed to a day away. I loved Jason, but I was so grateful to have Emmett by my side.

"He's blind. He's never had a relationship before, this is relatively new to him."

"That's not an excuse."

"You're right, it's not. But it is a reason why he's being such an oblivious dick right now," he squeezed my shoulder once more before picking my controlled up and handing it back to me, it was game on again.