Chapter 1: Unexpected

When I had received that email from Rosalie I had never expected what would come from it and spending the next few months planning a vampire's wedding was the furthest thing from my mind. I had spent much of my free time outside of school and riding the motorbikes helping her plan that wedding, using my detail-oriented tendencies to make sure to dot every "i" and cross every "t". I refused to touch the guest list though, I refused to think of who might be on it.

I had never given Rosalie anything aside from my work, trying to keep my distance so I wouldn't get hurt by another Cullen, only using her wedding as a project to distract me from the pain her brother had caused me. She may not have had a part in any of it but I couldn't trust her not to hurt me in the same way, not yet anyway.

The day after the Cliff Diving Incident, my most recent attempt at an adrenaline rush, I came downstairs to see Alice and Rosalie standing side by side bathed by the watery light coming through the front door they had just unlocked with the key from under the eave. I could barely register that these people had just walked back into my life as if my emotions were theirs to play with whenever they got bored. I wasn't ready for this, they weren't supposed to be back in Forks, if they were here would he be too?

Well they would get an emotion all right "Get Out!" I yelled in a voice that was still raw from all the sea water yesterday.

"You aren't safe here." Alice's voice chimed up to me. "Victoria's on her way. We have a few hours, will you come with us one more time? After this you never have to see us again."

I had to keep Charlie safe, he didn't deserve this. Neither did I, but apparently once again I had no choice in the matter. One more stint in the world of vampires and then I could be done with them forever. "Fine, just keep him away from me."

To my surprise, over the next few days, they keep their word. Edward was nowhere to be seen and I was able to begin to breathe again, just a bit more deeply. The house they were in now was just as beautiful as the one in Forks. Though instead of the white on white scheme that I had become familiar with that had stood in such stark contrast to all the greenery in Forks, Esme had designed this home to have many different colors that would normally not go together. A deep red couch on a white rug, a wall painted with a beautiful orange and pink sunset over a blue ocean, a black piano next to a wall artfully painted with the forests they had left behind. There was so much life here, not anything like the antiques that used to make their home feel like no one lived there.

I worried for Charlie and called him as often as I could without arousing suspicion, Rosalie had told Charlie of how I had planned her wedding and wanted to invite me to see how my hard work had paid off. This would buy us a few days before suspicions arose. So I would call him under the pretense that I wanted to update him on some detail I had seen come to fruition and then ask him if everything was ok while I was gone. I would pretend to remind him of the healthier food I had left in the fridge. All the while I was straining to hear any creak or breath that might cut off our call with his screams.

Whenever I made these calls I always heard Rosalie in the background calling all those who had been invited to the wedding to call it off, so they wouldn't be near us when Victoria inevitably found us. She refused to hold a giant party with hundreds of humans while Victoria was on the loose. I admired her for not putting a party over the lives of others when we were clearly all in danger, at least one part of this situation didn't feel like a T.V show where all the character wanted was to be "normal" when it was no longer a possiblity.

All I wanted was to go back to Charlie's and finish my senior year, go to college and figure out what I wanted in life. Alice said they would leave my life as soon as I no longer had a murderess vampire following me around. My life had become so interrupted since I got to Forks… I didn't even know who I was anymore without the Cullens in my life. Well that was going to change as soon as Victoria was no longer a problem.

When I wasn't calling Charlie, I was helping shore up the defenses around the secluded house in what I later found out was somewhere inland in Southern California. The heat reminded me of the almost forgotten days in Phoenix. There wasn't much I could do that a vampire couldn't do better, but I could handle some things that a vampire might accidentally break in their haste or make themselves too noticeable in the Southern California sun.

The tense waiting broke 3 days later, on the day the wedding was scheduled to be. Rosalie had finished all the calls the day before, so everyone had a voice mail and a reminder text or had been spoken to over the phone. One guy apparently didn't read texts or straight up didn't care and still expected the party to be going on regardless. Alice saw it coming hours before he came, she knew he wouldn't be convinced that Rosalie and Emmett were no longer going to be married until he saw it for himself. He had some sick delusion that if that really was the case than he had a chance with Rosalie as a rebound.

We all pitched in to break things that Esme was ok with being broken, which was surprisingly a lot as this house wasn't furnished with antiques. We made it look like Rosalie had gone on a rampage. Alice let us know when we had created enough destruction to make the boy believe everything and leave quickly.

When the boy walked to the front door, I answered by peeking my head around the side of the door and kept my voice low as if I was trying not to disturb Rosalie "I'm sorry now isn't a good time, we're dealing with a family emergency."

The boy attempted to see inside the dimly lit house. "Well, y'see I was invited here, I think Rosy might want me to help with whatever's going on."

"Please sir, I'm under strict orders not to let anyone in. I don't think you want to see-" He didn't let me finish my sentence as he pushed past me to see inside the house.

Everyone made a show of sweeping up glass from the broken vases or collecting the wood that used to be a coffee table. Rose was weeping on the couch as the boy approached her. She looked up at him angrily and then rounded on me. "I thought I told you not to let anyone in!"

"R-Rosalie, I tried. H-he just pushed past me. I-I-I tried to tell him." I stuttered the fake apology.

"Please, Rosey, let me help you. I know it's-"

"Don't you DARE call me that!" She yelled at him. "That's what he used to called me. Just get out of here!"

The boy started and stumbled up from the couch at the force of her anger. He turned and stared at me for what felt like ages from across the room. His hungry stare reminded me of those men in Port Angeles almost a year ago. I was still frozen near the door and so I felt when a cold wind whipped around me as Edward materialized next to the boy holding him up by his throat.