Second Chapter: A little short and uneventful, but I'm setting the scene for future events. Enjoy.
Bella walked into her room, still almost shaking with anger. She wanted to smash something, blow something up. Do you think they make vampire stress balls? She wondered irrelevantly. She shut her door behind her and sighed, almost as if the closing of that door closed of that part of her life. She didn't have to open it again if she didn't want to. She could move on now.
Lounging on her bed, carefree and untroubled, was Damon Salvatore. He looked like he owned the place. Bella rolled her eyes. In the short time she knew him, she realised he probably did things like this a lot. Aro wouldn't like him so much if he was just another good, responsible, boring vampire.
"Virginia is nice this time of year, you know." Damon said.
Bella didn't understand what he meant – everyone knew the South Eastern countries of the US were nice in the summer. "That's good." She replied.
A smirk played on his lips and he sat up, his legs swinging over the side of her bed, "I'm from Virginia, remember? My brother lives there now. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. It seems like you could use a break from everything."
Oh, she thought. "That's very nice of you, Damon, but ..."
"No buts. Just come with me. Stop thinking about things and just do it. You need to let go for a little while."
She sighed. She knew he was right, but her stubbornness didn't want to admit it. "I'm fine here."
Damon rolled his eyes, "Is that all you say? 'I'm fine'?"
Her eyes narrowed. What was he doing? They got along well earlier and now he was being an ass. Couldn't he just accept she was content staying in Italy? No, he couldn't. He felt something for her, something even Katherine hadn't made him feel. And Damon wanted to help Bella, to make her into the woman he knew she was capable of being. He normally didn't do things like this – try to fix people – but he wanted to do it for Bella.
Bella huffed, "Fine. Let's go to Virginia.
"Bella, I'm so sorry about Edward. We didn't know he was coming." Carlisle tried to apologise. He loved his son and always would but now Bella was his daughter as well. He was ashamed of what Edward did to Bella, how much he put her through.
Bella smiled warmly – at least she smiled as much as she could in that moment. "Carlisle, it wasn't your fault. You shouldn't have to keep track of a hundred year old man. I'm better now, at least more than I was. I'm not going to pretend I'll be singing and dancing anytime soon, but I do feel ... like something's been solved. I've gotten the closure I needed."
"You'll always have a home with us, dear." Esme replied. "Never forget that."
"I won't."
Alice ran forward and hugged Bella, squeezing her tightly. "I'll miss you. You have to call me at least once a week."
Bella smiled, "I will. And I'll only be in Virginia, Alice. It's not like I'm going to China."
Alice pulled back, sighing. "I know."
Emmett and Rosalie said their goodbyes to Bella too. Emmett had always been the fun one, and he and Bella had always gotten along. But Rosalie was different. She hadn't understood why Bella wanted to give up everything to become a vampire. In the end, they grew closer over Bella's child. Rosalie had always wanted to have children but never could. She understood Bella's need to keep her child and tried to help her. They lost in the end, but the bond they had didn't disappear.
As Damon was a different kind of vampire, he didn't sparkle like the others did in the sun. In fact, he found their sparkling quite hilarious. He was like the traditional vampires in that they burned; although, he had a blue stoned ring that enabled him to walk in the sun without burning. It was cast on by a witch in the nineteenth century. Damon had a necklace with the same blue stone and he gave it to Bella. He found that it stopped her sparkling in the sun like it stopped him burning.
Everything was set for their trip to Virginia.
Thanks for reading. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. x