Summary: Tanya decides to visit the Cullens for a week, much to Bella's dismay, as she finds herself feeling incredibly left out. Set between Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Some characters possibly OOC.

I do not in any way own 'Twilight', the characters or anything. This is purely for fun, and for entertainment purposes only.

BPOV

I had never met Tanya before, nor had I seen a picture. Despite this, I found it easy to conjure up images in my mind of what she'd look like.

Pale, taller than me, golden eyes, long strawberry blond hair, full lips, huge eyes, full cheeks…Beautiful.

Aside from her physical appearance, I knew she'd outshine me in other ways as well. She was dangerous, dangerous to me not because she could kill me in three seconds flat; not because she could touch my face and at the same time crush my skull; not because she could pierce the flesh at the base of my neck and drink my blood. She was dangerous to me because I knew she could give Edward more than I could. She was immortal like him - they were equals in that way. Physically they matched.

So when Edward casually announced to me that she'd be spending an entire week with the Cullens - and Edward - I began to panic. Edward thought me silly for worrying about Tanya.

"Bella, give her a chance - I think you two will become good friends."

I sighed as I remembered our conversation: it hadn't ended well. I wouldn't call it an argument per se, more of a strongly worded disagreement. Despite not having seen eye-to-eye, Edward insisted that I meet her on her first day with them. I parked outside the Cullen's mansion and took a deep breath. I managed to calm myself down significantly, but my progress shattered as I saw an unfamiliar red car parked in the driveway.

She's really here, she's really here. She's right inside - Bella, you're competition is right inside.

Edward insisted I had nothing to worry about, but how could I not? She was a perfect vampire, and she wanted Edward. She wanted Edward.

And what if she got him?

What if she won?

I would lose in so many ways.

I twisted my hands together uneasily, feeling the sweat on my skin. I swallowed loudly, trying to expel the negative thoughts from my mind, trying to gain back my perspective.

I knocked lightly on the front door. It felt foreign to me, as if I had never been here before. In fact the whole house looked strange, new. I didn't belong here.

Carlisle opened the door and smiled.

"Come on in," he said quietly, holding the door ajar for me.

I could hear voice in the other room, laughter. The Cullens stood around Tanya - who had her back facing toward me - and looked totally taken aback by her. It was clear they hadn't seen her for a long time.

"How's Carmen?" Esme asked politely.

"Oh, she's great, she's actually thinking of-" Tanya stopped mid sentence, jerking her head to the side. She turned around to look at me. Her eyes pierced mine in a calm way. It was strange to look into her eyes. I expected her beauty, yet it still made me gasp a little. Her long hair was strawberry blonde (as Edward had told me), but was even glossier than I'd imagined. Her full lips were stained with red lipstick, highlighting their perfect shape and volume. Her huge golden eyes quickly examined me, and then she smiled, her lips curling back to expose her gleaming white teeth.

"You must be Bella," she said softly, in the kind of voice an adult uses when talking to a small child. I saw Edward nod encouragingly at me from the corner of my eye, so I moved closer.

She took my hand in hers and I couldn't stop it from shaking. She cupped my hand in both of hers softly.

"Oh," she said quietly, glancing down at my hand. "Oh, you poor thing! You're shaking!"

I tried desperately to fight off the blush, but it was all to no avail.

"How sweet! Look at that blush!" Although her words were kind, there was something off about the delivery. It was as if she was being cruel but sugar-coating it. Or as if she was being deliberately polite, but trying to humiliate me in the process - so that she would look innocent, whereas I would look like a fool who took it all the wrong way.

Maybe I was just being paranoid.

If she were really being unkind than Edward would surely scold her.

Tanya released my hand, letting it drop back to my side. She looked down at me and something caught her eye.

"What's this?" She said teasingly, looking behind her to smirk at Edward playfully.

She picked up my left hand and ran her thumb over my engagement ring.

"You gave her your mother's ring, Edward?" Tanya asked quietly.

"Yes, I did," he replied kindly, smiling back at her.

I felt a pang of jealousy. Edward had shown Tanya his mother's ring before?

"It's been such a long time since I've seen this pretty thing," Tanya said, twisting my arm to admire the sparkle from the diamonds' reflection in the light.

"I remember when you showed it to me. You gave me this charm that day, too," she smiled, twisting her wrist to raise her sleeve high enough to expose the glistening gem that hung from a silver chain. I squeezed my left hand and Tanya glanced at me curiously.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" She asked, worried. Something about her tone was off again, as if she secretly hoped that she was hurting me.

"Not at all," I choked out. She dropped my hand anyway.

"So, how are the wedding plans coming along?" Tanya asked, moving back to stand beside Alice.

She wrapped her arm around Alice's waist and Alice reciprocated.

So she was going to steal Alice away from me as well. I glanced at the ceiling to stop the tears.

"Oh, and Edward?" Tanya asked suddenly, "Have you written any more pieces recently? I would love to hear you play!" Tanya clapped her hands together as she walked towards Edward's piano with him. She touched his shoulder and I felt my hands turn to fists at my sides.

The rest of the Cullens filed away in all different directions, leaving me standing in the living room alone.

Tanya kept Edward busy.

I spent the rest of the night sitting on the bottom step with Alice. She rambled on in my ear about centrepieces for the wedding tables, but I wasn't really listening.

I surveyed the two together. I watched every touch of their hands, as they played the piano, every laugh as their conversations turned nostalgic.

Alice sighed suddenly, and abruptly she stood up, pivoted and ascended the staircase without looking back at me. I heard a door slam shut.

I didn't see Alice again that night.

I leaned my cheek against the railing and tried desperately to ignore how irritating Tanya's laugh was to me.

"Hey Bells," Emmett said as he sat down beside me.

"Hey, Em."

"Wanna go do something?" He asked, resting his palms on the step behind us.

"No, I should probably go home anyway, Charlie will be getting hungry."

Emmett nodded, but stayed where he was.

I walked towards Edward and waited patiently behind them. Edward didn't turn around to say goodbye.

After five minutes I gave up. I huffed loudly with annoyance and slammed the front door behind me. As I turned back, I saw Edward and Tanya staring at me in shock through the glass.

I just stared back for a minute, before turning away, hunching my shoulders and pulling the hood of my sweatshirt up to shield my hair from the rain.

I sat in my truck, expecting Edward to come and find me; to ask me what was wrong.

He never came.

I turned over in my bed and stared outside the open window. Edward was usually here by now, climbing lithely through the open window and curling himself up next to me.

But tonight he had better things to do.

I felt a tear slide down my cheeks as I thought about Alice. I had insulted her by ignoring her tonight. I wondered if she would be back to her cherry happy self by tomorrow. I wondered if she would hold a grudge.

I continued to stare out the window again, and wondered if I should just shut it. Edward would be here by now.

I wondered if he was mad at me for making a scene. Had I embarrassed him?

"Oh, Tanya, don't worry about her. She's just being silly."

She's just being silly. She's just a human.

She's nothing.

It was very unlike Edward to not follow me, to ask me what was wrong, why I was upset. Did he care? Perhaps he thought there was nothing wrong. Perhaps he had nothing to say.

I pushed the covers down my legs and rolled out of my small bed. Sighing, I walked the short distance across my creaky floorboards and slammed the window shut, as loudly as I could. I grunted with anger and slapped the window frame hard. Hard enough that my palm stung.

I watched the glass shiver for a moment, before I returned to my bed.

Thoughts? (:

I know it's a little sad, but there will be a happy ending - promise! Next chapter is almost done.