I walked into the crowded room and cried, "Merry Christmas!"
A sea of faces turned to look at me, eyes wide and confused, before a voice roared my name joyously, "Bella!"
Suddenly, I was tackled by the huge crowd that had been chatting in a civilized manner in Charlie's huge living room.
"Sorry I'm late," I told them.
"It's okay," Alice beamed, "I missed you so much!"
"Did you watch me?" I asked her.
"Of course, every second of it!" She informed me, and started bouncing up and down like the hyperactive pixie she was. "You were so great, and you met Natasha Bedingfield … no… you sang with her!"
I giggled. "Don't forget, I also sang with Mario, Ne-Yo and Christina Aguilera!"
"You are such a freaking lucky ducky!" She told me, "but you were the best out of all of those famous people."
"I could introduce you to a famous person," I told her, without a trace of malice.
"Bella,"she said, laughter in her voice, "you are a famous person!"
We started squealing, and something huge picked me up and boomed, "HI BELLA!"
"Hi Emmett," I laughed, "miss me?"
"Yeah," he yelled, "we didn't have anyone to laugh at!"
I slapped him playfully. He dropped me gently to the ground, and I turned around to become enveloped into another, more graceful hug.
"Did you buy me anything?" Rosalie asked, half-joking.
"Well, you can have my dress I wore on the second night."I offered, watching as her beautiful face lit up.
"I love you Bella!" she said, smiling and blushing.
"Alright, can we exchange presents now?" I asked.
"Yay!" Alice screamed, "finally!"
After exchanging presents, greeting everyone and a couple rounds of egg nog, everyone collapsed onto the couch and talked quietly.
I sat in a huge leather recliner and closed my eyes.
Distantly, I heard a tinkling arrangement of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".
I opened my eyes, got up and followed the tune, careful not to disturb the drowsing people all around me.
I opened the door to our audio room to see a man playing the piano, whom I quickly realized was Edward.
The music was drawing me inexorably in, and before I knew what I was doing, I was next to him, swaying to the beat.
He looked up at me, startled, but didn't skip a beat.
His long fingers danced across the ivory keys as he smiled, soft, rare, genuine grin.
I stopped breathing; I had never felt this way before, not with Edward.
"Sing," he commanded in a soft, musical voice.
I opened my mouth and sang, my first few notes squeaky, but then back to normal.
I sat on the bench next to Edward; I wanted to erase the slight feeling that I was in my vocal lessons.
My singing intertwined with the notes that Edward played.
The ending note smoothly transferred to a new song, which I quickly identified as "Last Christmas".
When we finished that song, we transferred to "Baby, It's Cold Outside", Edward singing along with me -harmonizing together- our voices fitting together as if they were meant to be that way.
We could have stayed that way all night.
So we did.