Alice sighed and beamed at me. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and said "she will love it."

Alice was talking about Bella. I had just finished playing her lullaby for a birthday present. I swiftly put the piano cover down as Alice began to wrap a small clear CD case. Bella had asked me not to spend any money on a birthday present. Absurd and irrational. I couldn't comprehend why she had such a fear of the two things every human in America enjoyed immensely: people spending money on her for no reason, and turning 18.

Yet that had always been Bella, catching me off-guard with her reactions I was consistently unprepared for.

I guessed it was around 5 in the morning from the look of the sky. Bella was fast asleep and I made sure to leave after I was positive she wouldn't talk in her sleep. Though it was hard to leave her, because I enjoyed staring at her in her sleep, I had to leave if I wanted to give the most unbelievable, amazing, priceless[literally gift I could without spending money…or looking like a douche bag. I thought about putting the piano under her window and playing with speakers and roses and maybe hiring some violinists to play while we ate a 5 star meal in her yard with candles. But…I might have to save that for when she moved out and stopped being so ridiculous.

And I was thinking about if she would agree to Alice's plan tonight. It was horrible, I knew that. Looking in Alice's mind for an idea of what she wanted to do for a "party". It involved many roses and much too much pink. To Bella, her worst nightmare.

And so thinking of Bella had made the time go by faster as I ran to her house, now that I had a perfect present and I was washed and changed. But it was anti-climatic for me to see her face, because the beauty was covered with pain. She must be having a bad dream. Though it killed me to see her in any shape or form of emotional grief, I was simply too curious to wake her up. And besides, I told myself, she wouldn't want to be disturbed this early.

As she tossed and turned she said something, very muffled, but it sounded like a whimper mixed with "no".

That was enough for me and I ducked out the window back to my home. Charlie was waking up and would check on her. When I arrived back in our house, Alice was on the rarely used phone with a telephone book beside her.

"Yes that's right. Okay I certainly will tell her, thank you so much." She hung up. Without me asking, she explained. "I was getting Bella's boss to trade Bella's shifts so she could come to the party." She looked smug, like her brilliant plan was cornering Bella, and nothing could be done. Smug, I thought, but for good reason.

"I'm sure Bella will appreciate your efforts," I said with a laugh.

We didn't leave until 10 minutes before the bell would ring. I parked the car and waited for Bella to arrive. I could see, and hear, her truck from a long distance. Her face was etched with anguish. The dream must have been that bad, then. Until she could see me too, I was thinking about what could have made her so sad on her birthday. But I supposed it could have been the fact it was her birthday in the first place.

I watched the pain die out and saw the strangest look on her face as she recognized me and looked me over. I was used to this. Women (and on the scarier case, some men) goggled at my clothes and appearance. This meant nothing to me. Beauty was only a mark of the creature I was, and I only embraced/used this when I wanted my way. Or when I wanted to make Bella's knees weak.

And then I acknowledged Bella's expression to be incredulous. I wasn't sure what of exactly. Alice stood there, hardly covering her unrequired excitement. Bella frowned. And so the bickering started. I broke into the conversation and solved the problem. Bella would simply watch Romeo and Juliet before I brought her over to meet her biggest fear: a celebration of being older than me. I had it figured out now; she didn't want to be older than me. It was almost understandable. Ridiculous, but understandable.

She needed to get used to it, because that was one thing I wasn't going to let change.

The day went by in a blur, we followed our perfect routine that suited me better than any other routine had in the past 90-some years. I walked Bella to her truck and held out the passenger seat door for her. "It's my birthday, don't I get to drive?" She was getting wet, and being stubborn. "I'm pretending it's not your birthday, just as you wished" I said.

"If it's not my birthday, I don't have to go to your house tonight…" She put up a good argument. "All right, happy birthday," I said as I opened her door. She shushed me and climbed in.

I watched Romeo and Juliet with her and was exceptionally entertained when Bella began to cry as Juliet woke to find her love dead. How simple. How easy. All Romeo had to do was swallow some kind of plant and he was dead. Yet when Bella's life was almost taken, I had to think what I would do, and it was difficult to find a way to die. I knew that my family wouldn't help me. I expressed this to Bella and found that she was absolutely furious, despite my attempts to calm her. Out of concern, I supposed. And so I had to explain about the Volturi and my motivations and such. It was slightly uplifting behind the shock to hear how much she cared.

After she was calmed and we were dismissed by Charlie, we set off for a party.