AN: Since Shopping for Blood has been deleted, I figured it was time to post another story. I'm currently working on another FSoG FanFic that should be posted in the future, for those of you that are interested. Anyways, each chapter of this story has a theme song, which sort of sets the mood of each chapter. Please let me know if you guys like it! I don't own Twilight or the songs, blah, blah, blah.
The Age of Consent- New Order
I was tapping my foot in time to the beat of the pulsating dance music that blocked all outer sound out and created a bubble in my closet. Spinning easily in socks against the dark, modern hardwood floors, I faced myself and held my hair brush up to my mouth and began to sing along to the words.
"So if you're lonely
You know I'm here waiting for you
I'm just a crosshair
I'm just a shot away from you
And if you leave here
You leave me broken, shattered, I lie
I'm just a crosshair
I'm just a shot, then we can die
I know I won't be leaving here with you..."
I paused to begin playing the air guitar with my hair brush that doubled as a microphone. My long brown hair was being whipped around as I moved my head to the beat and began to jump, getting really into it.
"I say don't you know
You say you don't know
I say... take me out!"
"Bella! Rosalie's here!" I heard my mom yell from the open door to my bedroom. I dropped the hair brush and ran downstairs, not caring if I was still dressed in Nike tube socks and an oversized white button up shirt, my hair an absolute mess. With Rose, you could make a huge effort and still not look remotely pretty while standing next to her. I flew down the last two stairs of the grand staircase that opened right into the foyer and right into Rose's arms.
"I missed you so much!" I practically screamed. It had been a month since we last saw each other. I arrived back from France yesterday after a month and Rose had just returned from visiting her grandparents in Ireland for a few weeks.
"Cute clothes, Bell," she laughed sarcastically, hugging me back with just as much enthusiasm.
"I've been going crazy with just Alice for company. Plus I have so much to tell you," I explained dragging her up the stairs.
"It's good to see you too, Mrs. Swan!" Rosalie called out behind her.
"It's Renee, Rose!" my mom called after her.
"Kiss ass."
"Oh, yeah as if you don't do that with my parents. I can't for the life of my think why they like you. Oh wait! I know! You suck up to them."
I snorted and she giggled.
We continued up the grand floating stairs in the glass stairwell. It's possible to see the bolts through the glass where the pieces of dark wood were secured to the glass on the outside. To anyone on the outside, all they can see are the bolts and the reflective surface of the bullet proof and shatter proof glass. After continuing up past the next two floors, we reached the top floor, or my room.
"Dang Bella, this room is huge! Your house is incredible. Remind me to tell your mother that later," she said with a wink as she took in the lofty room and it's amazing view of the city of Chicago sprawled out below. It was a cloudy day in the middle August, just a weekend before I was due to start my junior year in high school.
"Yeah, it's not bad," I said plonking down on the light blue couch that was surrounded by packing boxes. "I'm really nervous Rose."
"Why Bella? I mean, you the Queen in Forks, and I'm pretty positive you will be here too. People respect our family, especially now that Maggie and Alec are married. I know it's a huge change, but we are all family now and we will take care of you."
"I know, I know. It's just the prospect of restarting. I have to catch up, make myself known, worry about people competing with me and all that shit. I don't want to be the weird new girl. I want to be the girl that walks down the hall and everyone says 'Damn that new girl, she's perfect!'"
"I get it Bella, I really do. We are sisters, well distant cousins-in-law, and everyone is family now. Our families are no longer enemies. Let me help you unpack. I'm dying to get into that giant walk-in closet of yours!"
Rosalie was a gift. I was blessed when I met her. After the Irish mafia king was sent to jail, the entire organization approached the Italian mafia. It was all over the news and I was no longer the ignorant 15 year old that refused to pay attention to all of the signs. At first, I naïvely tried to ignore it, but I knew deep down that my father and mother were in the Italian mafia. I was forced to speak Italian at home and with all family, but I could also speak gaelic, and Rose was forced to speak gaelic but could speak Italian. We realized, along with other girls our age that we met at the wedding that we all learned to shoot a gun as soon as we were 4 and that we weren't related, just lots of immediate and extended families claiming we were all sisters and brothers. And the arranged marriage between Maggie and Alec, Irish and Italian, was just the tip of the iceberg. Newspapers were speculating about the possible domination of the newly formed mafia powerhouse and what it could mean for the United States and the city of Chicago.
After about an hour of unpacking and organizing my room, we were finally finished and about to sit down and talk, when I heard an annoying nasally voice come from the door.
"Bella," Alice whined. "Why didn't you tell me Rose was here?"
"It's Rosalie, Alice," Rose said, annoyed at my fourteen year old sister.
Alice waved her off. "Mamma sta per essere arrabbiata quando scopre che non mi hai detto che era qui! Lei è anche amico mio e siamo sorelle ora. Fermare monopolizzavano lei!" she whined. [Mom is going to be mad when she finds out you didn't tell me she was here! She's my friend too and we are sisters now. Stop hogging her!]
"Solo perché sei sorelle, non significa che siete amici. Tu non sai niente Alice, e si prega di lasciare. Andate a gridare alla mamma. Sono sicuro che le piacerebbe conoscere la vostra scatola segreta piena di vostri diari e le cose che si scrivono su di noi," I said, rolling my eyes at Rose, who just looked amused, but clearly understood everything. [Just because you are sisters, doesn't mean you are friends. You know nothing Alice, and please leave. Go and cry to Mom. I'm sure she'd love to hear about your secret box full of your journals and the things you write about us.]
I turned to Rose. "Tá sí chomh soineanta, agus ba mhaith liom áit sé fanacht go bhealach. Ach Dia tá sí chomh dúr. Tá súil agam go bhfaigheann sí an teachtaireacht agus fágann luath. Dia, Rose d'iarr sí orm cad a bhí gnéas nuair a bhí muid sa Fhrainc, ag éileamh nach raibh siad ag múineadh i scoil. Dia, cad a chur le comhrá a bhí." [She's so innocent, and I'd rather it stay that way. But god she's so stupid. I hope she gets the message and leaves soon. God, Rose she asked me what sex was when we were in France, claiming they didn't teach it in school. God, what a conversation that was.]
"Uimh! Ní féidir liom a chreidiúint é. Sin hilarious. Oh mo dhia," Rose said in between laughs. [No! I can't believe it. That's hilarious. Oh my god.]
"You know it's really rude Bella," Alice said, glaring at me.
"Well maybe you should have asked Daddy to teach you gaelic then," I sneered as she left the room.
"Listen Bell, Jasper is here, and I have to go, but we will pick you up for church tomorrow at 7. Remind your mom that you are coming over for Sunday dinner, and don't be late," she said, as we walked down the stairs.
"Okay. Love you Rose."
"Love you too Bell!"
I shut the door and sighed, and realized that Jasper, her older brother probably saw what I was wearing. I giggled to myself, knowing that most girls crush on him and that I don't even care that I'm in a shirt and calf socks. I began to trek back upstairs and I paused at the entrance to my room. It looked incredible. A giant king sized bed with a modern canopy was directly against the wall of glass and on the left wall in between the doors to my bathroom and closet was the light blue couch, white fur rug and metal and glass coffee table. Directly across from that was my white lacquer desk that matched the bed frame and the light blue sheets that matched the couch. Splashes of yellow were all over the room, the walls, the cushions and the art. To my right, on the wall that housed the door to my room, was my lingerie chest that my mom bought me when I 'became a woman'. On the left side of the doorway was a light blue table with a vase of yellow sunflowers. Covering that entire wall were photographs of my friends and I. It made me nostalgic to think that I wouldn't see them for a very long time, now that I was living in Chicago and not Forks.
I walked into my closet and stopped when I reached the floor to ceiling mirror on one of the walls. I had changed a lot over the summer. My hair had grown much longer and was as voluminous and healthy as ever and it nearly reached my waist. My skin had cleared up and I was taller by a few inches, making my already long legs of my five foot nine frame seem much longer. I seemed more mature more grown up, especially when I noticed the definition of my cheek bones and my bright, cerulean eyes.
My grandmother, Marie, or Mamma Swan as we called her, always said that I was gorgeous and that I would one day become stunning, would see me finally tomorrow after many years of separation. She was the one that told me to use my brains and beauty, become the son my father never had, gorgeous and deadly. Mamma S was always going on about how I would be princess one day, and when I found out about our mafia connection, I realized that it might be possible. I sighed as I heard the wall intercom buzz and then heard my mother's voice calling me to dinner.
It was a quiet affair, compared to the normal fast paced conversations we normally had since Dad was still at the 'office'. I knew it was either the strip club or he was with Carlisle and Mr. Hale after purposely eavesdropping on his phone conversations. I knew that Dad was Carlisle's consigliere, or advisor, which meant spending a lot of time with the new boss, Carlisle. Dad's new position in the new mob was the reason we moved, and I was still unsure if I was happy or sad about it. At least I had Rose. If it was just Alice, I would probably die. Alice was sulking after seeing Rose and I together and I knew she would make a huge deal out of it tomorrow or in public, in the worst possible place in the world- school.