The Brightest Ending

Tanya expects the masquerade to be the night of her dreams, but once fate interferes in the form of an anonymously masked girl, she finds herself on the outside looking in.

Tanya

I spin around, letting the soft, teal coloured material flow around me and settle back into place as I pose in front of the mirror. I smile at my reflection and decide that I look perfect. I quickly slide my matching, beaded mask into place over my face and turn to the two girls in pale green sitting behind me.

"How do I look, girls?" I ask, spreading my arms out to show off my body.

"Perfect!" they gush simultaneously, and I grin.

"You're going to knock Edward dead," Rebecca adds as Rachel nods in agreement.

"Thank you, darlings," I coo before turning back to the mirror. I adjust the angle of my mask and smile, flashing straight white teeth. I decide I need lipstick and rummage in my make-up kit for my red one. I look at Rachel and Rebecca as I take off the lid; they're applying each other's makeup. I wish they wouldn't dress the same, I think to myself as I begin delicately tapping the lipstick onto my lips. It's so elementary. Don't they realize that this is high school?

I cap the lipstick and toss it back into the box before looking at the twins again. "You guys ready?" I ask, and they nod enthusiastically, jumping up off the chairs they're settled on and grabbing their purses and masks. I grab my own purse and slide my mask up to settle in my strawberry blonde curls so I can see while I drive.

"This dance is going to be so much fun!" Rachel says, smiling.

"It's a masquerade, not a dance," I correct quickly, not wanted her to sound like she doesn't know anything. She nods and looks down, fidgeting with her mask.

"It'll be the best New Years Eve ever," Rebecca adds, opening the back door of my black BMW convertible and sliding onto the leather seat, Rachel following. "The best part is that Little Miss Perfect won't be there."

I raise my eyebrows as I settle into the driver's seat. "Why not?" I inquire. Little Miss Perfect, so dubbed by Rebecca, is the twins' stepsister. She used to be one of my best friends, but that ended when I started dating Edward.

"She's grounded," Rachel offers, but doesn't elaborate.

"Rachel caught her making out with our snowboard instructor when we were on vacation. Mom didn't think that was such a good thing for a young lady to be doing, so she's being punished," Rebecca explains.

I snort as I turn on the engine. "It's lucky that your mother doesn't know half the shit you two do." I pull out of the driveway and onto the highway toward the community hall, where the dance is being held.

"That's true," Rebecca says thoughtfully, and then launches into a long discussion with herself, needing only a couple of noises every few sentences to keep her going. I let Rachel handle the monologue and drift into my thoughts as I stare out into the road.

I am actually quite glad that Bella, the girls' stepsister, won't be at the masquerade. I need this night to go just as I have it planned out in my head. Edward will be completely enraptured in me; I'll make sure of it. This night marks our four year anniversary, and we will celebrate it in style. In my opinion, this party is being thrown for us, not just for New Years. Having Bella there could ruin it completely, considering she's been totally throwing herself at Edward every day at school.

Rebecca finally falls silent as I pull into the parking lot and roll along, looking for a space to park. I find one relatively close to the door and pull into it. We hop out of the car and I shiver at the sudden temperature change in the air around me.

"Oh my gosh, it's freezing out here," Rebecca states, pointing out the obvious. I nod and slide my mask over my face before wrapping my arms around myself as I begin walking to the doors.

Waiting just inside, like the perfect gentleman he is, stands Edward, fit with a fancy black tux and a matching velvet mask covering the skin around his eyes, just as my red one does. He holds out his arm to me, green eyes sparkling, and says, "Hello, mysterious woman. May I have the pleasure of accompanying you tonight?"

I smile at him and allow him to take my hand, guiding me into the crowded hall. Rachel and Rebecca have already run off—intelligent of them, since I would just ignore them right now anyway.

"Shall we dance?" I ask when we pause at the edge of the dance floor. He doesn't respond, only takes my hand and waist in classic ballroom dancing style and sweeps me onto the floor, moving in sync with the slow ballad that's currently playing.

Time passes as we twirl aimlessly around the dance floor, never speaking, only staring into each other's eyes and gradually moving closer, until his arms are wrapped around my waist and mine are around his neck, our bodies as close as possible while still being able to move. I never want to leave this moment. I feel at home when I am with Edward.

Suddenly the music cuts out—it was the end of a song, but I am so used to the soft music just continuously playing that it seems sudden to me. The DJ clears his throat and speaks. "All right, boys and girls, I hope you're having a fantastic time this New Years Eve." A cheer goes up from the crowd and the DJ nods approvingly. "It's time for the Couple Mixer dance. I'm going to put on a song and all you couples out there have to break up and dance with someone that you didn't come with tonight. All right? Here we go..."

Music blares from the speakers again, a familiar song that I don't know the name of. I stand awkwardly in front of Edward, sure that there is a dumbstruck look on my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I see two people whispering to each other, and then I am suddenly moving, my hand and waist grabbed up by some stranger. I blink and look up to see what is most definitely Jacob Black in front of me, recognizable even with the black plastic mask on, and, just behind him, Edward dancing with a girl with pinned up brunette hair, wearing a long, dark blue dress.

"Hey, babe," Jacob utters, sufficiently distracting me from watching Edward and the mystery girl dance.

"Um, hi," I say, wrinkling my eyebrows.

"It's a nice night tonight, isn't it?" he asks. "You're sure looking fine."

"Yeah, I suppose." It was before you interrupted it, at least.

We're silent for a moment before I add, "Do you know the girl who's dancing with Edward?"

His eyes widen slightly and he quickly shakes his head. "Nope, no idea."

"Oh," I mumble.

The song ends and I release myself from Jacob's grasp, stepping away to look for Edward. He is all the way across the dance floor, talking to the girl he had been dancing with.

"All right, that was fun. Now it's time for the New Year's Countdown—one minute till a brand new year!"

I panic and start to run across the dance floor toward Edward. It seems as if the girl is panicking as well, but she is running away from Edward. He tries to stop her, but she shakes him off and runs away, pushing through the crowd of dancers much like I am. We pass each other and I catch a glimpse of her eyes—they're deep brown, but the rest of her face is covered by a mask that matches her dress. I feel like I know her, but I shake off all thoughts of mystery girl to settle on the one most important thing—getting to Edward before the countdown reaches one.

The huge countdown clock above the DJ's platform reads :30. I push my way through the people faster, ignoring the hurt cries of annoyance. I reach Edward just as the DJ announces, "Start counting!" and the crowd bursts into a recitation of numbers.

"10... 9... 8..."

I grab up Edward's hands and grin at him. "Happy anniversary," I tell him.

"7... 4... 3..."

He retracts one of his hands and reaches down to the floor, picking up a shiny gold object from the floor. I frown and try to tug him back up.

"2... 1..."

Edward is only just standing up again, looking at the object. "She must have dropped her locket," he mumbles to himself.

"Happy New Year!" the crowd screams, and the sound of fireworks outside starts in lieu of the ones I was supposed to see, the ones I get when Edward kisses me.

He looks up at me and smiles, oblivious to my current anger. "Happy New Year, Tanya."

All I can think about is the fact that the girl absolutely ruined my night. Or maybe it's the fault of the DJ, announcing that stupid couple mixer dance so close to midnight. But no, Edward and I could have easily ignored that if Jacob and that girl hadn't come along so suddenly.

"Tanya?" Edward asks, snapping me out of my fuming thoughts.

"We missed the New Year's kiss," I tell him, tears that I refuse to let fall building up behind my eyes.

His expression goes soft and he wraps me up in a hug, pulling me close to him. "I'm sorry, Love."

I wrap my own arms around him and tilt my head up toward his face as he leans down and kisses me.

But there's something off about the kiss.

I don't see any fireworks behind my eyelids.

~*~

"Yeah, he has been acting strange, you're right," Emmett says, dribbling a basketball offhandedly, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"He spends a lot of time in the library lately," Jasper adds.

I nod, reassured that I'm not just going insane from leftover jealousy.

"Why are you asking?" Emmett wonders out loud. Jasper looks curious as well.

"Because I wanted to know," I snap, surprising even myself with my harsh tone.

Emmett tosses the basketball to Jasper and holds up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, I just... wanted to know."

I snort and turn my back to them, walking off the basketball court toward the school. As I walk, I pull my jacket closer around me and glare momentarily up at the sky, cursing the amount of snow. I don't see how Emmett and Jasper can stand playing basketball out in the cold. January is my least favourite month, and the added stress of Edward avoiding me for the rest of winter break and now at school isn't helping me warm up to it at all.

I pull open the door to the school library and walk in, scanning the room for Edward. I spot him in the back corner, next to all the yearbooks. I head across the room and by the time I get there, he's shoving the yearbook he was looking at back onto the shelf and pulling out the next one.

"Hey, Edward," I say.

He glances up from the book, and then looks back down. "Hi, Tanya."

My head aches. He always used to be excited to see me, not indifferent.

I know that this is all the fault of that little bitch that decided to flutter her eyelashes at him.

Sighing, I sit down next to him. "What are you looking for?"

Edward hands me the locket he picked up off the dance floor. "Open it," he mumbles.

I follow his orders and find a little picture of a woman inside. I frown. "I don't get it."

"I'm trying to find her in the yearbook."

I blink and look back down at the picture, then at the rows of yearbooks on the shelves. "That seems so improbable. There are so many yearbooks."

He shrugs. "Not so many when you consider the fact that if I'm looking for a parent of a current student, I only have so many years that they might have gone to school."

I think that over for a moment, and then nod. "Okay. How many have you gone through?"

"I don't even know. I'm really hoping she'll be in this one."

"Why are you even doing this?" I ask.

He looks up at me with a confused expression. "I want to return the locket to its owner, of course."

"That's all?" I clarify.

"Yes." He looks back down at the yearbook and flips a page over. His eyes widen and he holds out his hand to me. "Give me the locket."

I hand it over and he studies the picture inside it, then the page of the book. "I found her!" he exclaims.

"Really?" I lean over his shoulder and study the page. Sure enough, right smack in the middle of the right side is the same girl that's in the picture. She's a lot older in the locket, but I can tell that it's her. "Renee Higgenbotham," I read off the caption, giggling to myself. "Higgenbotham? If there's a girl in our school with that last name—"

"There most likely isn't," Edward interrupts. "She'll have her father's last name."

I shut my mouth, still laughing internally. "Right, right. How are you going to figure out who that is?"

Edward purses his lips and flips to the class picture. He squints at it for a moment, then seems to come to the conclusion that it's not helpful and flips the page again. He's about to flip the page again when I stop him, pointing to the bottom. "Isn't that the same girl?" I ask. The picture in question is of Renee with another boy, smiling at the camera while the boy in question smiles at her, obvious love in his eyes.

Edward grins. "It is!" He quickly flips back to the class picture and scans the rows of people, obviously looking for the boy.

A nauseous feeling starts building up in my stomach as his finger lands on the same boy and trails down to the list of people underneath. "Charlie Swan," he mutters.

Without warning he jumps up, taking the yearbook and locket with him. "Thank you," he says to me, leaning down and kissing my cheek before hurrying out of the library, almost at a run.

The nauseous feeling worsens, and my head pulses with pain, as if a million horses are galloping over my brain.

I feel as if I have made a huge mistake.

~*~

I never heard the announcement where the principal asked anyone with the last name Swan to come to the office, because I had decided to go home sick, but Rebecca was quick to alert me to the happenings of the day when she brought over my homework.

According to her, the only response was a brunette girl by none other than the name Bella Swan.

I'm only slightly surprised. I nearly kick myself for not realizing it was her at the masquerade.

I go back to school after a week off for the sole reason that I don't really want to get behind, much as I could care less about my studies. The sick feeling that started that day I found Edward in the library still hasn't gone away.

At lunch, I search the cafeteria for Edward but don't see him anywhere. I sit with Rachel and Rebecca and their other friends, and ignore what they're discussing. I pick at my food, then give up and leave, ignoring the protests of Rebecca.

I've started walking aimlessly toward the library when I'm stopped by Edward.

"Tanya," he says, "I've been looking for you."

"I was looking for you, too. Why weren't you in the cafeteria?"

He shrugs. "I was on my way."

I raise my eyebrows. "So, what were you looking for me for?"

He sighs. "Tanya... I'm sorry, but I don't think our relationship is really working out anymore."

My head goes from the steady pulse of pain to the full on pounding again. "Fine," I say, attempting to keep the hurt out of my voice.

He opens his mouth to say something more, but I hold up my hand. "No, I don't want to hear any excuses. Goodbye, Edward." As I spin on my heel, I spot the little bitch standing behind Edward, grinning like her greatest wish has come true. In fact, it probably has. My nausea increases tenfold as I walk away.

Now I know I made a huge mistake. Without me there, Edward would have flipped past that page. We could have continued our relationship unhindered.

Then again, I truly thought all he wanted to do was return the locket.

I was just deluding myself the entire time, and I think I knew it.

I almost involuntarily glance back down the hallway to see Edward and Bella in a lip lock. I have to look away as fast as possible.

Maybe if this story was told by Bella, it would have more of a happy ending. After all, all her dreams have come true. It's like a perfect Cinderella story. Then again, in Cinderella, there was no other girl.

Or maybe there was. Maybe they took her out because they didn't want to taint the story with her devastation. I know I would have done that. It makes for a much nicer story, especially for the little children that watch and read Cinderella.

If there was another girl in that story, I definitely feel her pain now. I feel as if my entire world has been ripped away from me. It's not nice to lose Prince Charming, and it's not nice to lose Edward Cullen, either.

The world changed with barely a three minute dance.

Her perfect life began.

And my perfect life ended.

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