Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight. Ya, ya. You get the point.
UPDATE: I updated it. There's a few new paragraphs in here now to make it flow better. And I obviously fixed that annoying underlining.
A/N: Anyway, ON to the story: I started this story before I deleted my last story titled "A Story" (Aren't I eloquent?), that was supposed to be a series of drabbles of the vampire life of Jasper. I hated it. I really, really did. But I started to like this chapter a lot. Sooooo… I guess this is a stand alone.
Enjoy.
p.s. I said the word "story" a LOT up there, didn't I?
p.p.s. This takes place after Bella and Edward come back from the meadow, and sometime in the middle of the night Edward sneaks off for a change of clothes.
"Check." I announced fully aware my Chess partner was most likely letting me win.
"Awww, Jazz, I'm stuck now. I have no idea where I should go next." She groaned. I glared at her. If I hadn't known that she could slip a lie off her tongue smoother than she could rip a credit card from her purse and say "charge it", I would have thought she was a very bad liar. But my Alice was most definitely a very good liar and I could tell from her smug and teasing emotions, that she was messing with me. Like a game.
Two could play there, my little sly one. I thought to myself as I prepared to douse her in a vat of lethargy. It was very late at night, maybe even into the early morning hours already. Alice and I had been playing match after match for hours now.
Though before I could decide on my next move another faint emotion could be felt radiating off of… someone… at the back of my mind. What was it? Joy? Happiness? Who was it coming from? It was very far away, but as it grew closer the wave of bliss I was picking up grew to a staggering amount. I had to concentrate to control myself from bursting out in rapturous laughter at this new, burning emotion.
"Edward's home." Alice rang out in a sing-song voice, looking up from the match and staring avidly at the front door. "5... 4... 3... 2..."
Right as always, Alice. The door opened slowly as Edward walked into the foyer and shut the door behind him. The grin on his face was dazzling and the presence wafting from him was pure, unadulterated elation. The emotion staggered me. He seemed to be dazed. His thoughts, no doubt, were very far away from the present. Swiftly he slumped against the wall, almost as if using it for support.
I looked over to Alice for answers at Edward's unusual behavior, but she had her hand tightly slapped across her mouth, holding in a fit of giggles.
"Edward, what…" I began, but at the same moment Rosalie came charging down the stairs in a thundering stampede. Her entire being was flooded with anger and impatience.
"Where WERE you?" The scream issued from her throat with a strain that was unusual for our kind. Edward barely gave her a glance. "You've been gone all day and all night, only coming back just now with a stupid grin on your face." She was steaming. "No one would tell me where you went. 'Leave him alone, Rosalie.' They'd said. And 'It'll just upset you, Rosalie.' Dammit Edward. You were with that human weren't you?"
For the first time tonight, he seemed to snap out of his ponderings. He looked up at her slowly and stared at her face with frustration. He leisurely took a step closer to her until they were just a foot apart. The next word out of his mouth was filled with venom and uncontrollable malice, but his expression wholly contradicted that.
"Yes." He smiled.
Alice still had one hand clapped firmly over her mouth but the other was now gripping the chess table with strain to keep herself from toppling out of her chair in utter hilarity. The mirth rolling off of her concerned me because it didn't fit the situation, but I had other things to worry about at the moment.
I rounded on him. "Edward, you know that's dangerous. This girl, this… human, how are you containing your bloodlust? Aren't you the same person who fled to Alaska to get away from this same girl? And now you're spending the whole day with her? Alone?" I let out a deep breath. "It's unnatural."
He said nothing back.
"Edward!" Rosalie said, stomping one foot. "Are you even listening? It's unnatural!"
No, when I looked back at him, he didn't appear like he was listening. Once again, it looked like he was lost in his thoughts, miles and miles away. Back with that girl. Back to a time I could only imagine.
My brother had always been alone in ways that I or the rest of my siblings and parents were not. He had very obviously been... content living here with the rest of us, I might even say he'd been happy. The love he felt for all of us oozed from him every single day and it was given back to him ten-fold. Though, he knew, we all knew, he was missing something he didn't think he needed. As much as I might not like the idea of him with this human girl, together, endangering our family, I cannot deny that I don't agree that my brother, Edward, deserves to finally smile without hesitation. Bella fills that void.
As I sensed another tangle of emotions entering the room, I turned my head to see who it was. Carlisle was taking slow, steady strides down the stairs and over to Edward. I'm sure he'd over-heard our conversation.
He'd started to talk to Edward with the utmost respect, this was obvious, but he also spoke with a hint of caution, as if he were choosing his words very carefully. He placed one hand on my brother's shoulder when he was close enough. "Edward, I know that you are aware of all our opinions on this subject and I do not wish to dabble into that conversation again. I'm sure you don't want to hear it again."
I remembered that night. I'm sure there were a few people in China that hadn't heard our shouts. I repressed a sigh. No, I didn't wish to relive that again either.
Carlisle continued. "But you must be careful, son. I fear for you as well as for this family. This girl is human, she is fragile, you cannot hear her mind and her blood calls to you. I am not quite sure where you plan to let this end."
Edward's mood suddenly dropped dramatically. He raised his head and looked up to meet Carlisle's eyes.
When he spoke, he spoke hesitantly. His words greatly contradicted his usual demeanor. "I'm not sure. I- I don't know if I want to… let it end."
Carlisle just stared back with a furrowed brow and a blank expression. But he seemed to be the only one to have stopped his tongue.
"Are you thick?!" Rosalie. "Are you so besotted in your twisted ways that you do not realize what you are? She's a human, Edward! She will die some day! You are quite the class-act, dear boy."
Edward raised an eyebrow at her and smirked slightly in her direction.
"And stay out of my head!" She said. "Or I'll give you something worth seeing." Her expression suddenly became soft and very concentrated.
Disgust flashed through him. "No need to get lurid." He sighed, running a hand over his face. He then flashed a quick glance over to Carlisle who nodded, giving an unspoken consent.
At that, slowly and at human pace, Edward headed towards the upstairs.
"Wait. I'm not finished." Rosalie had run in front of him at top speed and shoved his chest until his back was once again against a wall. She'd had him cornered. "You can at least explain to us why you are so very distant and apparently slap-happy, and why Alice over there looks like she's having a laughing convulsion and is about to lapse into a Child of the Corn!"
At her words, his mood sky-rocketed back up; above and beyond what he was feeling when he first entered the house.
"Bella." He grinned.
"What about Bella?" She practically spit the name, as if just saying it poisoned her tongue. Quickly she placed one hand on her hip and tapped her foot.
Alice snorted and Edward's grin spread across his face in a beam I'm not sure has ever been more brilliant. He leaned in and whispered to Rose so low that I almost missed it.
"I kissed her."
And he was gone in a blur up the stairs, leaving us all stark-still where we stood, dumbfounded and with looks of utter surprise on our faces. Except for Alice who had finally fallen out of her chair and burst out in a set of guffaws so intense that, were she human, she would have turned blue from lack of oxygen. I simply stared at Rose and Carlisle with my mouth slightly agape. No coherent words were currently coming to mind.
Edward was back downstairs in a matter of seconds, in a new change of clothes but with the same emotions still coursing through him.
He stopped in front of Carlisle. "May I bring Bella by the house tomorrow morning to meet the family? She's curious and I think it a nice idea."
Carlisle just stared at his smile not entirely sure how to answer. "Y-yes. Of course." He stammered.
Then Edward was running again, slapping a low-five with a gasping Alice before darting out of the front door and into the forest again.
Slowly and still slightly surprised, I turned to face my wife who was finally managing to catch her breath. A small giggle slipping between her lips ever minute or so.
"You saw this entire thing in a vision, didn't you?" I accused with a grin.
"Yup," she managed to utter before breaking into a whole new set of laughter.
A/N: I would LOVE to start writing more often but life's been hectic. I was supposed to graduate in four days from today, but just yesterday I woke up to find 17 credits of my finished, typed up, and already organized homework, ripped into tiny little bits and thrown all over my floor. My dog was looking extremely guilty.
I cried. A lot. And now I don't graduate this year. I'm just dreading having to tell my teacher on Monday that my dog ate my homework.