Chapter 1.
"This is sick and twisted you guys." I grumbled flopping on the hotel bed and glaring at my sisters and friends.
Emmett laughed. "Are you kidding? I think this has got to be my best idea ever!"
"Hey! Watch what you say very carefully Emmett." his wife Rose glared at him while unpacking her stuff.
Emmett began to stutter making me, my sister Alice, and her boyfriend to snicker.
"Um-you know next to marrying you Rosie! Nothing was better than deciding that!" he stuttered wide eyed.
Rose laughed, sat in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. I flinched visibly causing her to look guilty. "Sorry Edward."
"It's fine I'm just being a little oversensitive." I shrugged getting up to stare out the window.
"You're telling me!" Alice snorted. "Come on Edward! You're in Vegas! You're a bachelor now! Did you even think to ask that nice lady at the front desk for her number?"
"Alice, I would actually like to think that our older brother actually has some taste." Rose grimaced. "Then again if you look back at Tanya-"
"That's great Rose." Jasper said sarcastically. "I'm pretty sure Edward really wanted to be reminded of his ex-fiancée that ran off with her dad's best friend. Nice sensitivity."
"Oh yeah? Well how about reminding your best friend about the situation? That just screams sensitivity." Rose bit back. I flinched at everything they said.
"Will you all shut up?" I exclaimed in exasperation facing them now. They all looked guilty.
"Sorry." they chorused. I shrugged.
"So we're in Vegas and it's eight at night. What do we do now?" I asked, and Alice held up five tickets. "What are those?"
"Five 3rd row seats to the hottest little show in Vegas." Alice smirked and Emmett pumped his fist in the air.
"We're going to a strip club?" he exclaimed excitedly earning a whack from Rose.
"No Emmett. We're going to Lee Tal's Mone Star!" Alice squealed. Everyone but Rose stared at her incomprehensibly. We waited but she didn't explain.
"And what the hell is that?" I asked earning an annoyed sigh from my two sisters.
"It's like…I don't know. Rose, any suggestions?" Alice asked.
"It's like Cirque Du Soleil. But it had an entire story to it. I've read up on tons of articles, and watched almost every performance on YouTube. And still the plot of the story is almost completely incomprehensible." Rose explained looking frustrated. What can you expect? Rose being a know it all it must be hard to not know something.
"So if it's so confusing why even go?" Jasper asked my sister who was sitting in his lap. Alice laughed.
"Well, when you see, you will completely understand. I've watched countless performances online, and it's just mesmerizing. The music, the acrobatics, the mind blowing skills!" Alice raved. "I've heard it's even better in person. And you do not want to know what I had to do to get these amazing seats." her and Rose both shuddered. I decided that I didn't want to know.
"So get up, get dressed, and let's go!"
o0o0o0o0o
We all got seated in a very big room. It was bigger than any theater I had ever been to. And apparently a lot of people knew about this show, because it was SO CROWDED. It was like the Dusk* midnight premiere times ten.
But it had to be the fanciest theater that I had ever been to. There was enough room between rows that even Emmett-who was 6'5 with very large, muscular arms-could stretch without worrying that he might hit someone. Not only that, but interestingly clothed woman brought interesting alcoholic beverages and foreign fruits and dishes.
I loved it. And this was even before the show started.
But when the show started, I think even the back row could heard my mind being blown. Alice was right. The show was amazing!
The music seemed to ring in my ears with beauty and clarity, and the talents completely blew me away. There were girls levitating in the air, guys hanging on thin sticks by just their feet, and so much more.
That's when I realized it. There was one specific person that kept cropping up in every act.
It was a girl. A beautiful girl with long brown hair, and shocking, unique green eyes that even trumped mine and Alice's. She had on a large cloak and always kept her hood up.
In the beginning, she was tumbling around in purple silk curtains. She would do amazing things. She would do flips in them going up, and going down. All the while singing in a clear, soprano voice. The song she was singing was beautiful, and foreign.
I watched the woman in fascination. I could tell she was beautiful just by how graceful she was. She wrapped her legs and arms around the silk curtains so loosely that if she loosened the grip her hands had on it, then she would surely slide through and hit the she let go anyway.A lot of people let out screams of terror-I might've been one of like lightning, she stopped about six feet from the stage. Even though we were far from her the smirk on her face was very did several graceful flips through the curtains until she landed lightly on the stage.
She was met there by some very fiesta-like music and a teenage girl that looked a lot like her. The woman grabbed the girl's hand and they ran off stage.
The next time she showed up she was jumping rope with tons of people. It seemed like it was about to be real simple kid stuff but then she started doing several complicated flips and twirls all the while jumping the rope she was holding and the rope two burly looking men held.
It was all very amazing but towards the end I realized…I was confused as hell. And by the looks on my friends' faces they were too.
Finally at the end it was only the teenage girl on stage, skipping around in her cute little lavender dress that she had been wearing the entire performance. She sang in a very familiar voice and as she skipped around she kept her head low.
But when an older man came walking by he talked to her for awhile and from what I got from this conversation the man was Lee Tal. He kissed the girl on her cheek and walked away.
The girl covered her mouth and let out a small, hysterical giggle. But when she looked up I realized it wasn't the teenage girl. It was the woman with green eyes.
The lights darkened for the briefest second, and when they were back on the woman was gone. Everyone gave a standing ovation, and Rose turned red as her wonderful, childlike husband began to shout "Encore! Encore!" and pumping his fist in the air like he was at a rave.
The entire cast came back onstage holding hands and bowed.
We waited to leave so it wouldn't be so crowded. The waitresses kept bringing us fruits and we talked about the performance.
"So my guess is that, the green eyed woman was actually the teenager but she has a multi-personality disorder or schizophrenia and she was livin' it up in her own world to escape the harsh realities of life?" Rose said.
We all agreed that it was most likely the most probable plot and got up to leave.
"Hey Eddie, I saw you checking the green eyed hottie!" Emmett laughed, but I tried my best to ignore him. "You dog! I told you that celebrating in Vegas would make you forget that bleach blonde harlett!"
We all laughed and Emmett gave me a playful shove forward causing me to ram right into a girl.
"Ow!" she yelped falling to the floor and dropping everything.
"Jeez Edward, watch where you're going." I heard Emmett grumble and I gave him the finger. I bent low to help the girl but she swatted my hands away.
"I got it! I got it!" she grumbled.
"Hey I'm really sorry about that." I apologized. "My brother in law can be a real idiot some times."
She let out a sound that was something between a sigh and a laugh. "Please. I know all about brothers." she shrugged getting up.
"Hey you forgot this." I said handing her a compact with the initials I. M. S. "You have brothers?"
She grabbed the compact swiftly and put it in a side pocket in her duffle bag. "You can say that."
I smiled and held out my hand. "Edward Cullen."
She took hold of my hand and shook it with a small smile. "Bella."
She was pretty…well, pretty. Her brown hair was tucked in a bun with fancy designed chopsticks holding it still, and her brown eyes looked extraordinarily tired as if she hasn't had a decent sleep in years.
Considering my family decided to ditch me I walked with my new friend.
"So where are you staying?" I asked hoping that didn't sound like I was trying to get lucky. By the smirk on her face, and her raised eyebrows it must've sounded exactly like that. "I'm not trying to get in your pants or anything, I'm honestly just curious."
Bella laughed and if I was being honest, it sounded adorable. "Um, I don't really know actually. Anywhere that is willing to take me for a fair price." she smiled as if she was laid back but her eyes gave away that she was actually worried.
"Well I have two sisters so if you want to crash with us, I'm almost positive that they would be overjoyed to have a roomie." I laughed causing Bella to smile and giggle a little.
"Thanks but…I don't know you." she pointed out bumping me with her elbow playfully.
I laughed. "Well then, challenge accepted." I flashed her a mischievous smile. "My name is Edward Anthony Cullen. I am twenty-six, and the oldest of all my siblings which are both girls named Mary Alice Cullen, and Rosalie Lillian Cullen. My parents are Carlisle and Esme Cullen. They had me when my mom was nineteen and my dad was twenty-two. Rosalie, also called Rose, is married to Emmett McCarthy, and Mary Alice, also called Alice, is currently dating my best friend Jasper-"
Bella cut across me laughing. "Okay! Okay! I got it." she shook her head. "What I meant was, I don't know your personality traits too well."
"Oh." I frowned. "Well what kind of impression have I made on you then?"
Bella blushed. "Well at first I thought you were very handsome." she admitted truthfully making me grin. "Then I found out that what you lack for charm you make up with sarcasm, and humor." I frowned.
"I think I liked the first impression better." I grumbled earning a laugh from her.
"You didn't let me finish." she winked at me and my eyebrows raised. "You are, however, really gentlemanly and chivalrous which I find…incredibly sexy."
My jaw dropped open at how casually she said that. Was she, strike me down with lightning if I was wrong, flirting with me?
I closed my mouth and smirked at her. "Well, it's still not too late Miss. Bella. We are after all in Las Vegas. Why don't you take a walk with me so I can convince you that I can be very charming?" I asked her looking into her eyes and doing my best to smile dazzlingly. It might've worked because she turned a little pink and stared at the ground when she answered.
"Actually Edward, I have to get some sleep like right away. But is tomorrow good? We can start in the morning that way you can show me exactly how charming you can be, and I can show you a little charm of my own." she looked back up at me confidently with a small smile.
I smiled. "Actually my sister might have some stuff for us to do." I had to grin at the look of disappointment that flashed across her face for a second. "But given the circumstances I think I can blow her off."
Bella smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a date."
She waved goodbye and flounced away.
As I made my way back to the hotel and undressed to go to sleep I realized that for the first time, I hadn't thought about Tanya.