EPOV
"Hey, Bro. I heard about Bella, and dude, I'm sorry. That had to be painful." Emmett said to me a few days later.
"Yeah, but it's getting easier. It's not like last time I left her. This time, it was up to her and I told her I could deal with anything she chose as long as it made her happy."
"Dude, I know you're hurting more than you let on, you've always been that way, so I think that you should go on some dates." Ya know, play the field.
"I'm not going on any dates. I do not play the field." I sighed at him.
"I'm just saying."
"It doesn't matter, Emmett. I'm going to get over her slowly, and I won't force anything to happen."
As soon as the words left my mouth, Alice burst into the room, humming.
"I had a vision!! And it was about you!" she smiled. I gave her a small smile in return. It was the best I could do.
"Tell, Alice!" Emmett demanded.
"Okay, so I saw something bad that turned completely wonderful!" she squealed, then took a deep breath to calm her shaking frame. "Okay, so you all know Victoria...well, she's coming back. To kill Bella. But, Jacob and his pack can protect her. So we'll go meet up with Victoria and kill her, but she has an army coming to kill us. They're all newborns, Jasper already said he'd help us all learn how to kill them. At any rate, one newborn will be left at the end of the war. A girl named Bree." Alice's worried frown became a shy smile. "Bree is sixteen, and she's going to become a Cullen."
"A newborn who tried to kill us? We won't be able to trust her." I contradicted. In truth, I didn't want to move on. What if Bella decided she wanted me back, but I was already with a different girl...I'd never get her back. But I also knew that was foolish, for Bella was Jacob's now. And would be forever, no matter what. The imprint could not be turned off.
"Oh, stop it. You know perfectly well that newborns can be trained and she's going to be a Cullen, like it or not." Alice scowled at me. "Bella was like my sister, okay? And when I had to speak to her as cold as I did, you don't think that hurt? It affected us all, not just you, okay? So stop being so melodramatic and get over it."
I was speechless. Alice never snapped at me like that. Ever. She was always very patient and calm when it came to things like this. She was always happy.
Emmett had left, I found, upon looking around. It was difficult for him to be very deep with his emotions and the atmosphere had probably made him uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry, Alice."
"Don't be sorry to me, Edward. Be sorry for the rest of the family, and not just yourself." she stomped to the door and turned back to me. "I come to you with good news about your happiness and future and you thank me with being negative, as always. I dearly hope you don't treat Bree with as much disrespect as you treat us." and with that, she left.
I stared at the door for a long time before I moved again. The night was long and I was restless. I paced a lot, thinking over Alice's words. She made sense, of course. I was being negative, but they all had each other forever. My first love was gone, and it hurt.
It the morning, Alice came back into my room. "Bella is coming over now, she's dropping off our things. If you don't want to see her, stay up here. If you don't care, you can come down stairs."
I stayed up stairs, but listened to them speak. I watched through Esme's mind, but blocked out her thoughts.
"Hello, Isabella." Carlisle greeted formally.
"Dr. Cullen." Bella returned.
"You're returning our things?" he asked.
"Yes, is Alice here?"
"Alice." Carlisle said, and Alice ran to the door. She smiled.
"Isabella."
"Alice, you can call me Bella."
"No, I'll just stick to Isabella. Would you mind calling me Mary Alice?" Alice requested. No one ever had to call her Mary Alice before...
"Mary Alice? Aren't we still friends?"
"I don't believe so. It would be too hard to keep up. I'll always remember you, Isabella, but I don't think our friendship is salvageable."
"But, Alice-"
"Ahem."
"Mary Alice," Bella choked on the word, "I'm sorry."
"It's not forgivable, Isabella. Rosalie, would you mind taking my things? I'm going to bring this to Edward."
"Sure." she said, snatching Alice's dresses and shoes from Bella.
"Hello, Rosalie."
"Don't talk to me, human." Rosalie snarled, stomping away.
"Is that all, Isabella?" Carlisle asked.
"Yes...Goodbye, Dr. Cullen." she turned and left. As she walked towards her truck, she looked back up at my bedroom window. She spotted me and looked away. Goodbye, Isabella Swan.
School was a bore, now. I had no reason to look forward to it, and I was back to shoving off desperate girls who thought they had a chance now. Alice and Jasper were hunting so I was the only Cullen at school. I could've stayed home if I wanted, but for some reason, I decided I wanted to go to school.
After school, Bella didn't go to her truck. She went to my car. Before I could pull out, she tapped on the glass.
"Edward, I'm sorry." she said.
"You're making this hard on me, Isabella." I sighed. "Please, don't do this."
"I'm just sorry that this happened. I'm sorry that I left so abruptly."
"Ya know what, Bella? I don't care. Not anymore. You hurt me, and I got over it. I let you go, Isabella."
"Okay. So we're okay, now?"
"I don't think we'll ever be okay. Goodbye, Isabella."
"Kay." she sighed. "Bye, Edward."
I pulled out while rolling up the window. The weird part was that it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. I thought it would be like reopening the wound. I surprised to find out that it felt just like talking to another person. Any other human.
At home, Alice waited with a small smile on her face. Bad news or good news?
"Bad first."
"Victoria and her army will be here tomorrow."
"Well, what's the good news?" I asked, sighing heavily.
"Bree is coming. I'm going to see if maybe I can find her before she gets here and keep her here, corrupt her into being good, if you will."
"You're not funny."
"Aren't you in a happy mood..."
"Not funny, again."
"Bite me, Edward."
"That's Jasper's job."
"Now, you're not being funny!" she stood up and ran up the stairs. She went to her closet to take inventory to see if she could get away with shopping to blow off steam. If her visions were right, she would get as far as the car and be called back. She was going to try it anyway.
"Carlisle, I need shoes for gym, be back in a few!" she said in a rush, running out the door.
"No, get back in here. My shift starts in thirty minutes, the least you can do is stay here so Esme doesn't worry. You know I was supposed to keep you all in the house."
"Why would Esme care? I shop all the time."
"The army is coming, Alice. Did you forget? Esme would have my head if I let one of you leave the house alone."
"No, Alice." I shouted from the couch.
"Can Edward come with me?" she asked, smiling.
"You can bring Jasper, Emmett, Edward, and Rosalie. You may not force them."
"Rosie!!" Alice called up the stairs. She danced her way up to Rosalie's room.
BPOV
"Hey Jake?" I asked, looking up at him from his arms.
"What's up, babe?"
"Do you think we'll get married?"
"Why would you ask? I imprinted on you; of course we'll get married." he snorted.
"Can we postpone that wedding?"
"We can wait as long as you want."
"Okay, and what about your aging? Will you stay young while I get old?"
"Only for a little while."
"Can you explain?" I asked, laughing once.
"Sure. So as long as I'm a wolf, and I phase, you know I stay the same age, roughly."
I nodded. "Yes."
"Okay, so if I stop phasing, then I'll age rapidly until I match up with you. But technically, I'll be two years younger."
"Right, I got all of that. But when we're old, we'll both be gray haired and wrinkled?"
"I suppose so. With our grandchildren around us playing on the floor and we'll all be happy. There's no need to worry about the future."
"I'm so used to knowing, with Alice being a psychic and all that."
"I thought she was Mary Alice now."
"Well, I don't care. She always was Alice, always will be Alice." I sighed.
"Enough about the leaches. Let's watch the game. Red Skins are playing the Vikings today."
"Fun." I smiled.
"Well, we can make it fun." he said, pressing his warm lips to mine.
(A/N: They don't do anything bad, I promise. Only a little lip action. Lol!!)
Too bad for the Red Skins, the Vikings won. (A/N: Sorry, but I had to say I'm like a hard core, die hard Vikings fan. They are my boys!) It was a close game, though, and the Red Skins played their all. Football was really the only game I understood. And even then, I had to have Jake explain almost everything to me.
"Hey kids!" Charlie called, now apparently home.
"Hey!" we called back, Jake jumping back. I sat up and straightened out my shirt.
"What a game, huh? Too bad about the loss."
"Yeah, it was a good game. They played hard." I smiled.
"Sure did. How about some dinner, Bella? I'm starved."
"Me too." Jake agreed, rubbing his stomach.
I laughed and got up off the couch. I threw two pizzas in the oven, Dr. Pepper in two big glasses, four hotdogs in boiling water, macaroni and cheese on the back burner, Texas toast in the toaster, and eight ham and cheese sandwiches in the microwave. After all the food was on the table, I made a BLT for Charlie and a plate of spaghetti for myself.
In about an hour, all the food was gone and Jake was stealing bits off my plate when I wasn't looking. I glared at him.
"What? I'm still hungry." he pouted. I sighed and made four more hotdogs. When I returned, all my food was gone and he was eating the hotdogs out of the saucepan. The boiling water had no effect on his fingers as he ate them whole. I sighed.
"Charlie, we're going to McDonald's. Jake is still hungry." I called.
"Still? Alright, be back in half an hour! Billy is coming over with Sue."
"Sure thing." I called, walking out the door after Jake.
"Hurry up! I'm starving!"
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Boys...