DISCLAIMER: All characters are the property of Stephanie Meyers. No copyright infringement is intended. I am only borrowing her toys to play with. :)
Fickle, Lovely, Fate
Chapter ONE
Bellas' POV
"Come on Mom...are you serious? You have got to be kidding me!" I said not liking the whiney-esque tone my voice had taken on.
"It's 2014, WHO MARRYS THEIR CHILDREN OFF ANYMORE?!" There it was again... UGH! I hated this. Feeling helpless was not my style at all. I looked up at my Mother as she seemed to be holding back giggles. "I-I-I'm sorry, did I miss something? What in the hell is funny?" I stammered out, seething at this point. Renee glanced up from her vanity, all traces of smiles and laughter gone, "Isabella, language! sit down." she stated in her Queen voice she usually reserved for when I was being ridiculous, which didn't slip my notice that it held some level of amusement. She almost looked... upset, (some nerve she had) I'm pretty sure by all accounts, I was the only one that had the right to be utterly, pissed the fuck off. I mean honestly, who just calls their daughter in their room and says to them, "Ta-da, you're getting married sweetie, to someone you've never met before. Isn't it wonderful!?" "No the hell it isn't Mom!" I thought to my self, remembering the conversation just moments before.
"Isabella, calm yourself dear. It's not an uncommon practice... you have royal blood." she said calmly as if it were the most obvious thing.
"Well then I will renounce my title!" I said tears prickling in my eyes. "I just wanted, for once, to do my own thing!"
"Isabella don't be so dramatic... besides where would you go? Let's not make this bigger than it has to be. You had to have known this would happen sooner or later."
"Well to Rose! Yes! But why to me? I don't WANT this-" I said with tears desperately wanting to fall. Had I not been so utterly appalled at the situation, I would have laugh at myself for acting like a regular teenage girl for once, temper intact and all.
"Bella it's not a death sentence." Renee interrupted and gave me what I am sure she thought was a reassuring smile.
"It may as well be!...I'm not ready for this..." I yell slash whispered out.
Renee stood up and came to the expensive but comfortable plush, red chair that I was slouching in and took up my hand. I was bewildered, as my mother pulled me up into an embrace that was for someone who was seven instead of seventeen.
"Isabella, baby... you are strong and intelligent and the world needs what you have to offer." she said while looking into my brown eyes with her blueish, grey ones. I pulled away from the embrace and shook my head back and forth over and over, until I finally let my eyes fall on the floor.
"I just don't know how you expected me to take this." I offered to her not looking up, still in a zombie-like state, oblivious my surroundings. She pulled me to the ottoman across from the chair I had sat in previously, and gently tugged me down to sit.
"You took it a lot better than I had... I think that's why I was smiling before" Renee recalled, looking as though she was miles away in a far off place, where only her and her memories dwelled. My head snapped up at once and looked at my mother unbelieving. "You and Dad were forced-"
"Arranged." My mother quipped with her lips in a soft line.
"Isabella, I... I was young and afraid and I was so unsure of myself when I first came to your father-."
"So you know what it will be like for me and you still are banishing me to-" I could barely get my words out as the tears started falling.
"But... I don't see any of that in you." She said softly holding my tear stricken cheek. You're confident in yourself and that's how I know this is the best thing for you. I love you, I would never send you to a place where I didn't feel as though you would be safe, loved and appreciated. Trust me?" she said eyes shining with love.
I looked up, when I was a child I loved this room because of the beautiful paintings on the ceilings. Auburn, blonde, and brown-haired angels occupied the ceilings still. It seemed like such a long time ago that I was a child and this ceiling was my imaginations' playground. But now all I saw is something I would miss if I left. I took a deep breath. "Then it was simple, I just wouldn't leave. DAMNED BE THE MARRIAGE!"
I knew my thoughts were futile but I needed some type comfort and try as Renee might she just wasn't helping right now. I straightened my face wiping away the tears as Renee sat down in the plush chair with her shoulder length, slightly curly hair, framing her smiling face. I looked at her with a frown and stood to go to the window to look out at the garden. I couldn't be someones' wife! I stood barely moving looking at nothing through the glass. I did notice it was raining... "How fitting!" I thought sarcastically.
"Bella, we want nothing but what is best for you..."
When did my father come in here?
And just like that I was pulled from my internal reverie. I turned my head around and saw that he was standing next to my mother who was holding his hand. Tears brimmed in her eyes. As he walked over to me I backed away towards the door and hastened out leaving, the last thing I had heard was "Bells wait!" I couldn't stay in there another moment.
I walked quickly down the long hallways barely noticing the few curtsying maids and bowing guards at each turn. I yanked my phone out of my pocket and shoved the ear plugs into the audio port and then into my ears as I continued to canter down the halls. I finally found a random playlist, from the many I had made, and then jabbed at it to play. I reached my destination and sat in the large bay window of the library , my sanctuary, and watched aimlessly as the rain fell. Slightly noticing that I was shaking.
All my dreams... were gone... No apartment freshman year of college with Ally... no traveling and having adventures... It was all gone! And I couldn't do a damn thing about it.. "Fuck!" I said inaudibly through my tears not wanting a stray maid to hear. But honestly I couldn't bring myself to care. Silent sobs rocked my frame as my face was leaned against the window. With the music so loud I hadn't heard the door open or the footsteps but I felt the arms ensconced in a blanket that covered me. I looked up to see my beyond beautiful sister, Rosalie, sitting across from me. She didn't say anything as she sat down. She knew I needed silence so she sat there quietly watching the rain fall alongside me. Atleast the tears had let up. I didn't like to cry in front of anyone.
Especially Rose, she was always calling me a crybaby when we were younger. I'd follow her around and get hurt tripping over my own feet. I am so happy I grew out of that "Clumsy Bella" stage.
An hour later, I felt as though I had gotten the broken damn of tears under control, so I pulled my ear plugs out of my ears and looked up noticing Roses' eyes had drying tears in them too. Had I not been so emotionally exhausted, I would have been shocked.
"Bella-Bug..." she whispered in her nickname she had called me when we were kids. "Were those tears I saw Bella-Bug... So this princess shit was cute when we were like five...not so much anymore." Her voice barely came to a whisper.
"At least you get to stay here. They are shipping me off to God knows where...I don't know what to do Rose.." I said with no emotion.
I looked up just in time to see her arch one of her perfect eyebrows and say, "Soo, you do what you always do, when you don't know what to do Bella...Stand up and face that shit head on!"
"Rose, I'm so scared!" I said feeling the tears threatening to fall again.
Rose scoffed at me a then went on. "It's okay to have fear! But don't let it control you...What have we been told since we were little about having a problem?" she said with a smirk.
A smile came to my face and I rolled my eyes as a giggled snuck past my lips, and then repeated what Grandma Swan had taught me as if it was a lesson I had learned in one of my language classes. "When life knocks you down, calmly get back up and say, "You hit like a bitch!" A full on laugh escaped both of us, it seemed so foreign right now to laugh because of everything that was happening. But I'll be damned if it didn't feel good to forget it all, if just for a moment. Our laughter died down and we looked into each others eyes, silently promising to be strong no matter what came to us. Breaking the eye contact, Rose looked down at the polished cherry-wood floors of my sanctuary, with a tiny, yet sad smile on her lips.
"Grandma Swan was something else wasn't she... I miss her everyday Bells. Besides you, she was my best friend." Rose said in a whispery voice heavy with emotions, and tears that didn't fall.
"Rose it has been three years..." Rose looked up at me with her beautiful blueish, grey eyes, as though I might tell her grieving should be finished already like Renee had months before. She looked surprise when I had finished with, "and I couldn't agree with you more."
I held my sister. As strong as we were. I knew that Grandma Swans' passing would be the hardest thing we had ever had to deal with. And it still was. Even with all of the obligatory bullshit to do with titles and treaties. I would go happily if it meant I could see her one more time. She was mine and Roses' rock and she taught us so many things about being strong women, "Because how else could one make a strong queen?" I thought in her voice.
"Hey you remember the year of the Disastrous Easter Egg Debacle? How Mom dismissed the all the staff for the holiday?" I said through a giggle.
"Mmhmm, and then she brought the eggs out for us to paint with Grandma. When you went to pick one up you crushed it in your hand. Grandma looked up at Mom and let out the loudest laugh ever. And said, "My dear, did why didn't you boil these first?"
"Mom look so lost! It was hilarious! That was the best Easter ever Rose!" I said in between giggles.
"I think I still have egg in my hair." Rose said shaking her head as she remembered the nonsense of that day.
Rose looked happier and I was too. Her smile was warm and familiar and I would miss her immensely.
"Look I gotta get outta here Bella-Bug. Mom says there are a couple things she and I have to speak about." she said scrunching her beautiful face up in a scowl showing her distaste. I sat back in to the pillows staring back at the dreary rain.
"This should be good." she grumbled walking out the door ever so gracefully. But that's Rose for you, everything she did was graceful and beautiful. I didn't mind being her second though. We were opposites in our features. She had inherited our mothers beautiful bluish grey eyes, shapely, symmetrical nose, pouty pink lips, blindingly white, perfect teeth, and Grandma Swans' luxuriously soft, blonde, silk, waves for hair. While I only inherited a heart-shaped face and porcelain from Renee; My large, brown, doe-like, eyes framed by thick dark lashes, and curly mahogany tresses with traces of auburn high lights was all Charlie. I was never one to over think how I looked, (Alice did that for me.) I was happy with the way I looked. I knew I was hot. But I didn't flaunt it like Rose did. She could have any man that she wanted. She'd wait for her prince charming though. I thought it was amusing for her to be so tough and still believe in such things.
My phone vibrated in my hand and I looked down to see, none other than my best friend and closest cousin, Alice's picture on my screen. I had completely forgotten to tell her the horrible news of my pending loss of freedom. I looked past the garden and to the sea to see the treacherous waves. Never had I ever wanted to be able to run away more than I had in that moment. I answered on the second call. "Bellaaaaaaa!," she sang out so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
"Hey, Ally. Look I have something to tell-" she cut me off before I could finish
"You're getting married! Isn't it great?! We have so much planning to do! Ugh! I am so excited!" she all but screamed into the receiver.
"Alice, how did you know?"
"Well you're mom and my mom are sister-in-laws. How long did you think it'd be before I found out Bells?" Alice squeaked out.
I spoke through an almost inaudible tone as I stared back at the waves, "Ugh! Alice what will I do?! I feel so lost and empty."
Alice huffed over the phone for a moment, "Oh, Princess! Worry not! I will be there and beside. Even though we have finish high school. You get a year to meet and greet your future beau or as they'd say back in the day to court and fall in love."
Alice was starry-eyed! I didn't have to be with her to tell that she was swooning over what she thought was a welcomed love story!
Absolutely not ma'am! "Mary Alice Brandon!" I yelled through the receiver, "This is not one of your silly love matches!"
"I agree dear cousin. None of my love matches are silly. They are all carefully thought out with tact. I NEVER do anything half-assed!" Alice rasped out, sounding offended.
"Ally, your missing the point. I don't want this..." I breathed into the phone.
"Belly-bear," she admonished "I have a good feeling about this. I just know that this will be great!" she pushed out in an smile-strained voice.
"I guess I don't have much of a choice. Now do I?" I teased, not being able to stay upset with Alice's ever positive attitude, beaming through the phone.
"See there's the spirit! I have a surprise for you." she trailed off leaving me a bit frightened. A surprise from Alice was always some outfit that should come with instructions or one that you could only take wispy breaths in but, "Looked amaz-Zing!" according to Alice.
"No it's not a brilliant outfit from me although, we are due for a shopping trip Bells!."
I was hoping she would forget that. She knew I would just get tees and jeans. But still the force that is Alice still purchased things knowing she could guilt me into wearing them.
"Well?" I said "Out with it already?!" What is it Ally?
AN:
THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING! What is Alice's' surprise? Bella is absolutely lost with this news of her upcoming nuptials. Poor Rosalie and Bella they miss their grandma. And Alice will be Alice right? And yes they have potty mouths :P
Tell me what you thought in a review. I want to hear it all, the good :) the bad :( and the ugly :(