CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
LET GO

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ONE MONTH LATER

AS MAE'S EXPERIENCES IN Forks had shown her over and over again, time had a rather infuriating way of slipping through your fingers. One blink and everything could change. You could watch your friend nearly die while you stood frozen, helpless, terrified beyond what your brain could comprehend. You could travel with your sister and hope to lose your mind in some far-off caravan park where the monsters out of fairy tales couldn't find you. You could come home. You could watch a girl grow a baby, give birth, die and be reborn in less than a month (this, Mae was sure, did not happen to many people. She was just one of the lucky ones.) You could confront your parents. You could be grounded (for eternity, as your bitter step-mother would always be sure to remind you.) You could return to school like none of this ever happened and lose yourself in a routine that was no longer as familiar to you as you wished it was. You could break up with your boyfriend, properly this time. You could lose your friends. You could exist day-to-day feeling trapped, suffocated, longing for the views of the open road again.

Mae might've come home but she wasn't sure home would ever have a feeling again. Home was just a place and people she didn't quite recognise, and it sucked. The only person who truly understood this was Lina, but she was also busy keeping her head down as a shield against Kira's relentless nit-picking. James rarely intervened anymore, choosing instead to dwell in his silence. Mae knew he was upset, so much that his lack of a reaction stung like she'd been slapped. Their parents didn't quite know how to act around them anymore. On the contrary, Mae and Lina didn't know what to do either. That month had come and gone in a flash and they made next to no progress. Fun times, eh?

School wasn't much better. How was she meant to focus when she had someone from the pack in each of her classes? Embry and Jared in English, Paul in Math, the whole lot of them during lunch. Mae managed to make small-talk with Maggie and Kim but it just wasn't the same. October was creeping to an end. Halloween decorations littered every visible surface. Everything seemed so juvenile, including the distance between them.

"That's just not realistic," she commented one morning to Lina as they stared at the poster of Dracula that someone — no doubt one of the guys — had pinned to the front of Lina's locker door. "Where's the sparkly disco-ball skin? The pasty golden eyes? The brooding expressions?"

"Ha ha," Lina rolled her eyes as Mae snickered and nudged her arm. "You're so funny. Was it you who put this up?"

Mae regretfully shook her head. "Unfortunately, I can't take credit for this piece of genius."

Lina huffed and snatched down the poster, stubbornly pretending not to notice Embry and Jared loitering around on the other side of the corridor. Mae shamelessly watched them, though, her eyebrows raised almost to her hairline. The corner of Embry's mouth curved up in a sly smirk when he noticed her stare. Instinctively, Mae's stomach erupted in a flurry of butterflies.

Things were... paused between them. Mae had made the decision about a week after everything settled, calling to tell him that a relationship just wasn't a good idea at the moment. He didn't resist. Maybe he knew, like she did, that they would find a way back to each other regardless of what they said. They could break up and see other people. They could pretend like it didn't hurt them. In days, months, years it would be them once again.

Mae and Embry.

Embry and Mae.

There would never truly be one without the other.

The bell above their heads rang right on schedule. Mae let out a groan, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the lockers as Lina quickly gathered her things in her arms.

"Come on, get going," she nudged Mae with her hip. "Try not to cause too much trouble."

"It's only English," Mae waved her away while squinting into the white hallway lights. "Just wait for Math. Now that's the class you've got to worry about."

Lina gave a faint hum of disapproval before muttering a goodbye and hurrying off down the corridor. Mae watched her go, thinking of the impending hour of Math involving her and Paul in an icy-stand off while Lina tried to disappear into her textbook. Out of everyone in the pack, Paul had taken this whole thing the hardest. Every chance he got, Mae found herself pinned beneath the weight of his glare. It got under her skin at first. Now she just found it amusing.

Pushing off the lockers, she forced herself to follow after Embry and Jared to English where she threw herself into the chair behind them and prepared to stare out the window in boredom for the next hour. Lazily opening her book, she dug around in her hoodie pocket for a moment before coming up empty-handed and sighing to herself.

"Hey," she tapped Embry's shoulder without thinking twice about her actions. "You got a pen I can borrow?"

He smiled at her. Mae's eyes dropped to his lips. A feeling of nostalgia settled in her stomach, followed by a seed of hope. He quickly reached into his pencil case, aware of Jared shamelessly looking back and forth between them.

"I came prepared," Embry's smile turned sheepish, making Jared snort.

Mae accepted the pen with a grin. "Thanks."

The rest of the class passed without issue. Mae barely used the pen but she clung to it the whole time, tracing the plastic that Embry had held, head lost in the clouds. When the bell rang, he and Jared were halfway out the door before she had time to blink. Slowly, she gathered up her stuff, hoping against hope she could stop time and slip away from Math without anyone — Lina, Paul, Mrs Sullivan; the list unfortunately went on — noticing her absence. When she reached the doorway, cradling Embry's pen in one hand while the other swung her bag over her shoulder, she was surprised to find the boy of the hour waiting for her.

"You want this back?" she raised her eyebrow at him, waving the item around. "I was kinda hoping you wouldn't miss it. I'm dreading having to listen to another Lina lecture when I ask her for one."

"You can keep it," he said, shrugging bashfully when Mae cheered and quickly pocketed it. "I, uh, was thinking I could walk you to your lesson."

Mae's heart stuttered. Surely she was hearing things. "Oh."

"Or not," he was quick to continue when she said nothing else. "Hey, don't worry about it. I don't know what I was—"

"Embry, please shut up."

Before she could change her mind, she loosely linked their hands together, swinging their arms between them like this was natural. Normal. Just Mae and Embry being Mae and Embry; a couple, two people together, in a relationship that wasn't platonic but also wasn't romantic.

Mae really needed to stop thinking.

"Walk me to my death, please?"

Embry grinned, careful to keep their eyes locked as he carefully intertwined their fingers. With their palms pressed against each other at last, locked together, he said, "Come on, Little Miss Sunshine. It won't be that bad."

Mae spent the next five minutes pointing out every reason why he was wrong. Embry listened dutifully, nodding at all the right moments like any good boyfriend (who wasn't her boyfriend, really!) would do.

Maeve Cooper's life definitely wasn't normal. There was nothing pretty or ordinary about it. But everything, for now, was okay. She was holding hands with a boy she kinda, sorta, definitely loved, and their future was sharpening into focus.

She didn't hate what she saw.

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A/N: So that's the end of Pretty Ordinary!! This chapter's way shorter than the rest but it gives me a chance to ramble in the author's note one last time.

First, I wanted to say that while this act was very quick (and probably kind of pointless), it didn't feel right ending Mae with Eclipse. There was so much more I wanted to share and I'm sure I missed a bit, but you'll no doubt see Mae again in Jia, Sadie and Gideon's respective books. Her ending is open-ended (and short) on purpose. She's not doing great, life is kinda shit, but there's hope and that's what matters.

Also, for reference, this last chapter takes place in October, about a month and half after Renesmee is born and another month or two before the events of BD part two. In case you're wondering why Mae and the pack are just going to school like nothing's wrong lol.

Now for the last time, thank you so much for reading! I appreciate every single one of you who followed Mae's story and this series in general. Much love to you all <3