Present Perfect
a Twilight novella
by giselle-lx
For robsjenn
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The way this story ends is that Edward is my best friend.
I know that's not how you're supposed to tell a story; it's the kind of thing that annoys the snot out of Jasper, or would, if he had any to be annoyed out. But it's the way I tell a story. Because I always know the end.
The Cullens—my family—are big readers. I think it's because of Carlisle, who did nothing but read for two centuries. And the rest of them all follow suit, even Jasper and Emmett, who you think wouldn't read much. But there're a lot more books than there are TV shows and even vampires get bored with bad TV.
Reading doesn't work very well for me, though. I see the final page turn, and I see the end of the book, and I see my reactions to the parts in the middle, and by the time I've picked something up I've decided to read, I already know the end. So if I read, I read differently—I read to appreciate the way the writer used her words, or the way he kept tension moving from scene to scene. I read to laugh at a funny line of dialogue.
I don't read to know the end. I always know that from the beginning.
So the end of this story is that Edward is my best friend.
But that's not how it begins.
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A/N
This fic is a long-overdue Fandom Gives Back novella for robsjenn, who decided to push me way out of my comfort zone by asking for a fic about the backstory on Alice and Edward's close friendship. It took me the better part of two years to figure out, and I've written and thrown out many times over as many words as made their way into the final draft. Fortunately, robsjenn was patient, and it has been my honor to write this for her.
Many, many, many thanks to Openhome for betaing this story, and to sleepyvalentina for prereading.
The characters and their world belong to Stephenie Meyer. She really did do the work to create them. No matter how much work I put into writing about them, they're still hers.
Thank you for reading.