Chapter Three
I was just about to swallow my pride, turn around, and explain that I'd locked us out, losing all credibility as the scary best friend, when the door opened in front of me. There stood Alice: hair falling in perfect waves; make-up expertly applied; and wearing an outfit that screamed both casual and designer at the same time. It couldn't have been five minutes since she escaped to her room. That girl had talent.
"Alice, darling, you have a gentleman caller," and, with a slight nod from Ali, I slipped past her and into my room.
The walls of our suite were insulated well enough to actually block most sound, so eavesdropping wasn't an option without being caught. It was probably time to study for my Calc test on Tuesday, anyway. Calculus was like learning a whole new language that you believed you already spoke fluently. Interesting, but difficult and frustrating. Hence, my list of pumpkin patches, which happened to be sitting in the living room along with my Calc book and notes.
Hmm… I could just pop in and grab my bag. No, Alice needed this time to really talk to Jasper. Besides, she'd give me the play by play later.
Looking around my room I decided to start on my paper for my Shakespeare class. Old Will's take on Richard III was more of a projection of Tudor sentiment than historical fact, and delving deep into the characters of both fictional and historical Richard was my kind of fun. I was absorbed in my own little world, two pages into my paper, when my door was flung open.
"I'm going to the ball!" shrieked my roommate as she launched herself at me from the doorway.
I stood up to meet her in a bone crushing hug. "Yay, Alice! I knew it had to be a misunderstanding. I'm so happy for you! What happened? How did you work it out?"
"Oh, Bella," Alice sighed as she snuggled up on my bed, patting the spot beside her. "It truly was the most ridiculous of circumstances. You know it's been two years since Jasper and I met, and I hated him fiercely in the beginning."
"Wait a minute," I held up one hand while grabbing a pillow and snuggling in for what was sure to be an interesting story. "I thought you said you two were 'instantly connected' and that you knew from the very first time you met him he was the man you would someday marry. Love at first sight. Destiny. All that jazz."
"Oh, I did. That's why I hated him so much."
"Ali, that makes no sense."
With a sigh and a slight giggle she continued, "I know. It seems silly now, but I was only sixteen, and my greatest dream was getting out of Chicago, leaving this whole life behind, and suddenly here was something that could make me stay. What made it even worse was the fact that he didn't even know I existed.
"To Jasper I was his best friend's kid sister, the boss's daughter, so I took my frustrations out on him." With a deep sigh, Ali fell back onto my pillows. "I was so mean, Bella. Every time I saw him I made sure to get in some snide remark or order him around like some servant. And he put up with all of it, never once spoke back."
"So, one Sunday we were having our family dinner and Jasper was talking to my father about his business classes and how they could implement some new practice into how they were running some part of the corporation or what have you. I try not to pay too much attention to their business conversations. But, anyway, he was talking about some complicated model and my father was all, 'I'm shocked at how much you're learning from this course. You're a real asset, son. I'm glad Edward brought you on board.' And I may have said, under my breath, that I was shocked he could understand anything at all given the backwoods, trailer park Edward pulled him out of."
"Oh, Alice! You didn't!" I couldn't imagine sweet little Alice even thinking something like that.
"Oh, I did. I honestly thought I was quiet enough no one had heard me, but the whole table went silent, and they all turned to me as one except for Jasper. He just stared down at his plate with this look on his face that I couldn't read. Before I could say anything my mother grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of there. She's very strong."
"I believe it." Esme may be one of the sweetest women I've ever met, but she had that mom aura that screamed "do it and you'll be sorry".
Alice cracked a small smile before continuing, "Mom yanked me all the way up to my room before letting me have it. I don't even really remember what she said, a lot of stuff about embarrassing her, and Jasper being family now. I just remember yelling out that it was all his fault. If he hadn't made me love him so much, none of this would have happened."
A small giggle escaped me at the image of sixteen year old Alice stomping her foot and screaming in all her angst-y glory.
"Laugh all you want. It was rather ridiculous. I even started crying, and my mom just stood there for a minute with her mouth hanging open and her eyes bugging out." Alice's bell like laugh filled the room. "It was probably just a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity, before she pulled me into a hug. And then she said something I'll never forget. Mom looked me right in the eyes and said, 'Alice, if you truly love that man you'll stop this foolish nonsense right now. Love is about respect and trust. You can't have a healthy relationship if you don't respect one another, and you can't respect someone fully if you don't trust them. Sometimes life throws us a curveball, and we can either make it into a grand slam or strike out. Which one are you going to do?'"
"I didn't realize your mom was so into baseball." My lack of a filter made Alice shake her head and giggle.
"Oh, we're all baseball fanatics. Huge Sox fans. We are Gold Coast Club members at Comiskey. Just a word of advice: never call it Cellular Field in front of my father. He'll give a long lecture on tradition and how commercialism is ruining America."
"I'll keep that in mind." This was the first thing I'd actually learned about Carlisle Cullen besides a vague sense that he ran his own business, was married to Esme, and had fathered Alice and her brother. I also didn't know when I would ever meet the man, but at least my own father had taught me quite a bit about baseball so holding a conversation with him wouldn't be too difficult. "You still haven't explained what happened today, young lady. Don't think I haven't noticed."
"I'd get there if you'd be quiet and let me finish." Alice threw me a pointed glare as I pretended to lock my lips and throw away the key. "Good, now where was I? Oh! So, I looked at my mom and really thought about it, and realized I had no idea what I wanted. I expected my mom to be upset with me, but she just laughed and said, 'Of course you don't. You just met him a few weeks ago. The amazing thing about your situation is that he isn't going anywhere, and you have a couple years to decide if he's worth it all. Now, you're going to go back down there and apologize, and you are going to show him the Alice I know and love.' Mom gave me one more hug then I fixed my make-up, and we made our way back to the dining room.
"Before we made it all the way back, though, we heard arguing. My brother was in his room yelling at Jasper about letting me walk all over him."
Alice sat up suddenly, turning to face me completely, with the biggest grin on her face.
"What happened next is one of the greatest moments of my life so far. I remember Edward saying, quite forcefully, 'Why, Jasper? Why do you let her treat you like shit? Why won't you stand up for yourself?!' I was about to go in and apologize when Jasper screamed back, "Because I love her, dammit! Because I think she's the most beautiful woman to ever live, that, to everyone else but me, she's the kindest, gentlest soul to walk this earth. And I can't blame her for hating me. I'm a twenty year old man in love with a sixteen year old! She's right, I am backwoods trash. There's no way I could ever deserve her and if all I can get is her scorn for the rest of my life I'll gladly take it!'"
"He actually said all of that? Word for word?" I didn't know what to be more impressed by: Alice's perfect recall or Jasper's complete devotion after a few weeks of knowing each other.
"One doesn't forget one's first declaration of love!" Alice sighed, falling back onto the pillows.
"So what did you do?" I probably would have jumped him.
"I threw the door open, ran at Jasper, and planted a big old kiss right on his lips!" The pride in Alice's voice was hard to miss and I couldn't blame her at all.
"Ah! This is movie level romance, Alice! This stuff just doesn't happen in real life."
"That's what I would think, too, if I hadn't lived it."
"Well…?" I asked while nudging her with my foot.
"Well, what?"
"What happened next? And what does any of this have to do with earlier today?"
Alice shot up into a sitting position again, "Right! Well, I'd taken Jasper a bit by surprise…"
"Oh, a bit?" I laughed at her sheepish expression. It was always somewhat comforting to see someone blushing who wasn't me.
"Yes, a bit. He responded quickly enough, but my mother whisper yelling my name kind of ruined the moment."
"Ooo… got caught by the parentals your first time. Harsh, man."
"Ugh, are you going to listen or not?" Alice shot me an exasperatedly amused look, so I mimed my lip-locking again. Though Alice is the real lip-locker, hehe. "Anyway, we jumped apart and then spent a good ten minutes explaining everything to each other, as well as Ed and my mom, and by the end of it we'd agreed to wait until I was eighteen to truly start courting. We spent the last two years getting to know each other and I came to realize he was worth me staying.
"Now here's where this all ties into today. At the end of our conversation that day, my mom said, 'Don't worry, I won't tell your father.' And I'd assumed she meant about the kiss, because she and my father tell each other everything, but he would have had a conniption if he knew Jasper had kissed me before we were courting."
"Wait, didn't you date before Jasper?" Alice was gorgeous and out-going. I'd been sure she'd had a slew of beaus before Jasper had come along. Unlike me, she seemed completely comfortable with the opposite sex, and able to read their intentions quite clearly.
"Oh, no. That was strictly forbidden in the Cullen home. That's part of why I was so desperate to leave." Odd, but ok. "Apparently, though she meant she actually wasn't going to tell him! She believed Edward would do it, as he'd introduced Jasper to the family. Edward and I thought Mom did it, and Jasper just assumed someone had mentioned it to my father."
"Oh no…"
"Oh yes. So my father, Jasper's boss, calls him into his office this morning. Apparently, there's some daughter of a business friend of my father's who happens to be a couple years older than us, and her father wants to set her up with an 'upstanding gentleman'."
I couldn't help the pained groan that left me as I lay back amongst the pillows. It was quite obvious where this was headed, and my poor empathetic soul was feeling all the crazy emotions mixed into this mix up.
"Exactly. So, my father, believing Jasper to be an unattached 'upstanding gentleman', calls Jasper into his office and informs him that he has a date for Jasper to take to the ball. At first, Jasper thought he meant me, but Father soon explained who it was, and Jasper felt like it was his way of saying he didn't approve of our relationship."
"Why didn't he just say something?" Honestly, this all could've been avoided with a well-timed "what about Alice?".
"My father communicates through a lot subtle hints. It's amazingly frustrating, but it's what made Jasper feel that this was one of said hints. He said he even considered, as he drank away his sorrows, that I'd told my father I didn't want to be with him anymore, and my father had agreed to take care of it."
Poor Jasper! "So how did Jasper realize what happened?"
Alice turned to me with an oddly soft expression and said, "He didn't. This is where I have to thank you, Bella. I know I said it just a few days ago, but you truly are the best friend I've ever had. Jasper left my father's office and went straight to the bar he helps my brother run, called me, and then drank pretty steadily for about an hour. He then proceeded to go to Ed's office; yell, 'I'll love her forever! I would've been a good husband. Oh, Alice'; and then fell face first onto Ed's couch."
"Ouch!"
"Mm-hmm… Well, Edward assumed the worst until you picked up the phone. By the way, thanks for sticking up for me like that."
"Of course, Ali. I'll always have your back. You know that."
"And I'll always have yours. But, so when you told Ed what happened he called Mom and asked if she'd ever told our father about Jasper and me. She yelled at him saying it was his responsibility and that it made sense now why he never seemed to understand what she was talking about. Ed filled my mom in on what happened, and she went to visit my father."
Alice's face broke out into the biggest grin I'd ever seen as she began to shake from laughter.
"There is only one thing on this planet that my father is afraid of, and that's my mother. Oh, I wish I could've been there to see what happened. Needless to say, my father called Jasper shortly after. Thankfully, Ed had done his best to sober him up by that point. Jasper got my father's full blessing, and now I'm going to the ball!"
My body bounced up into the air, as Alice started jumping on my bed in a moment of unrestrained glee. The complete 180 that had occurred in her emotions since early this afternoon was amazing, and the idea of having someone in my life that had that much power over me was both exciting and terrifying.
"I'm so happy for you!" I said as I began jumping with her.
"There is one downside." Alice stilled, grabbing my hands, with a serious look on her face. "I'm going to have to start going to Sunday dinners again, which means I'll be expected at the ten o'clock mass at St. Barnabas."
"Oh, well that's fine. Really…"
"Bella! I want you to come with me. Please?"
AN:
First of all: I'm soooo sorry for the long wait. Between traveling, illnesses, and the beginning of the school year, I seemed to have no time to myself, let alone to write.
Second: I know this was a dialogue heavy chapter, but I felt it was necessary to clear some things up and give you a little background on Alice.
Hope you enjoyed!
