Tanya picked up the invitation off the kitchen table as if it was venomous. Sliding open the creamy paper, she read the words aloud:
"You are cordially invited to the wedding of Mr. Edward Cullen and Miss Isabella Swan," she breathed. "He's marrying a human girl? What does that make me?!"
Irina touched her arm gently. "Tanya, humans are nothing compared to you."
"Yes, we always knew Edward was a little off in the head," Kate consoled her. "You're a thousand times lovelier than any human girl."
Those girls are ten a penny. You've got so much more! You've got- you've got- you've got a wonderful personality!
'What does that wispy little brat have that you don't have double?'
'She can't hold a candle to the beauty of your smile.'
"What if it's because her heart is still beating?" Tanya moaned.
"Why would he love what smells like lunch?" Kate asked incredulously. "That's stupid! It's not because she's alive. Humanity is overrated."
'How about a pulse?'
'Overrated by a mile!'
'Overvalued!'
'Overblown!'
'If only he could see how special you can be! If he only knew the You that we know!'
"Besides, you're way more talented than she is! From what Emmet and Rose have said, she's a klutz and is totally non-musical," she continued. "She falls on her face a lot, and faints at the sight of blood. How can she live like that with him?"
('And that silly little creature isn't wearing his ring')
'And she doesn't play piano, or dance, or sing. No she doesn't compare!'
"Still, he's sure her soul's intact! That means more than anything to him!" Tanya cried anxiously. "I know him, he thinks we're all damned!"
"That doesn't even make sense!" Irina said, flinging her hands in the air.
'But she still breathes air.'
'Who cares?'
'Unimportant!'
'Over-rated.'
'Overblown!'
'If only he could see how special you can be! If he only knew the you that we know!"
Tanya went on miserably, "She's lovely and fragile and fully living! I can't ever compare to that!"
"Why do you care so much anyway?" Kate asked. "You just wanted to sleep with him!"
'If I touch a burning candle I can feel no pain, if you cut me with a knife it's still the same. And I know her heart is beating, and I know that I am dead, yet the pain here that I feel, try and tell me it's not real, and it seems that I still have a tear to shed.'
"So she's got a heartbeat? That won't last!" Irina scoffed. "If Edward wants to keep his clumsy human from falling off a cliff, he'll have to change her!"
"Yeah," Kate agreed, "humans are fragile. He knows that better than anyone." Irina nodded.
"It's not like her humanity's gonna stick around, you know."
'The sole redeeming feature from that little creature is that she's alive!'!'
'Over-rated.'
'Overblown!'
'Everybody knows that's just a temporary state, which is cured very quickly when we meet our fate!'
'Who cares?'
'Unimportant!'
'Over-rated.'
'Overblown!'
'If only he could see how special you can be! If he only knew the you that we know!"
"She's alive. He knows her soul has not been damned. The girl is untarnished, and I am filthy. That is why he cannot love me," Tanya said, misery etched in her entrancing stone face.
'If I touch a burning candle I can feel no pain. In the ice or in the sun, it's all the same. Yet I feel my heart is aching, though it doesn't beat; it's breaking, and the pain here that I feel, try and tell me it's not real. I know that I am dead, yet it seems that I still have some tears to shed.'
