Author's Note: Hey guys! So pretty important announcement here. I discovered that I write a lot better in first person, and my beta agrees with me. The reason my first three chapters were in third was because I was a chemist for four years and I roleplay on tumblr a lot. Both things require everything you write to be in third person, so I just never changed. I tried this and wound up liking it. I hope you all feel the same! I might later on change the first five chapters, but I know all of you along with myself are excited to see the story keep progressing. Okay, enough rambling. Enjoy!
Chapter 6
When I woke up the following morning, Rosalie's cool marble body was no longer beside me. I went to check if her side of the bed was cold, nearly smacking myself since it obviously would be no matter what. Instead of getting up and panicking, a fact I was sadly aware I'd have done all those years ago, I stretched in bed before sitting up and trying to tame my unruly bed head. The morning haze steadily disippated, my mind swimming with memories from the night before as it cleared. It had been a long time since I had a talk that intimate with someone else, and I couldn't believe that it had happened with Rosalie of all people.
Before my mind could allow me to dwell on it too much, I heard my phone ring on the nightstand beside me. Jake texted me asking me if I wanted to take out our old bikes later which I immediately said yes to. We had spent a lot of time when I was still in high school fixing up those hunks of metal and then riding them around. What started out as some daring thing to get back at the Cullens with, wound up becoming a real hobby of mine.
It wasn't long before the smell of breakfast reached my nostrils, which was enough to get me out of bed. I slowly made my way down the stairs, and managed to only slip but catch myself twice; a huge success for me. The moment I entered the kitchen my eyes landed upon a smiling Esme who was placing another pancake on top of a rather big stack. Her eyes twinkled with amuzement as she saw me staring at all the food. I swore that my mouth was watering from the combination of smells from the eggs, bacon, syrup, and amazing hazelnut coffee. "I suppose that saying about food waking up humans is true after all," Esme said with a bit of a chuckle. "Well, don't just stand there gwaking at it dear, please dig in."
Still slightly in shock, my feet moved over to the seat at the table of their own accord. "Esme, how did you get so good at cooking? I mean, all of this looks amazing." As I waited for an answer, I began putting food onto my plate. The portions she made were huge, and there was no way I was going to be able to eat everything, but I tried to make as much of a dent as I could without getting sick. The first bite that I took of the food was like an explosion of flavors. I actually moaned due to the taste which definitely made the top ten list of most embarassing things I had ever done.
"I spent quite a lot of time in the kitchen after we left Forks." Esme's voice was much quieter than I was used to, and the tone held a tinge of sadness to it. Instead of interrupting her train of thought, I just looked at her questioningly. She gave me a small smile before providing me with the answer I was craving. "I missed you terribly, Bella. Cooking was the one thing that made me feel closer to you since you are human and were the only one of my children who could eat. I wanted to perfect my skills in the hopes of reuniting with you again. I suppose you could say that I have been preparing for this opportunity for a long time."
After days of having everyone look at me with so much remorse in their eyes, I was starting to feel uncomfortable by it. At first I had cherished in the feeling of knowing that I wasn't the only one who was in pain the last five years, but now I just want everyone's pain to go away. I have never been someone who enjoys seeing others hurt, and I guess I could never really hold a grudge for long. So, instead of letting this lead into another long and emotionally taxing conversation, I decided to keep things light. "Well, that practice made you good enough to be on Food Network or something. This is so good," I said with a smile. I took another bite of my food right in front of her for emphasis which got me the reaction I desired. The mother's joyous laughter bounced off the walls of the kitchen space which made my emotions skyrocket. It always felt good when you were the cause of someone else's happiness.
Just then, Rosalie entered the kitchen wearing a pair of old overalls and wiping her hands off of what I guessed was grease. I couldn't stop my brown eyes from raking over her body which didn't go unnoticed by the blonde. Instead of her being weired out by the action though, her eyebrow just arched and a small smirk appeared on her lips. My cheeks immediately became tinged with pink, but I couldn't help it. If she looked beautiful on a regular basis, then she just looked plain hot after working on cars. Those thoughts of course only caused me to become even more embarrassed, so I immediately focused my attention back to my food. Maybe another delicious bite of pancakes would help me forget about the fact that I was just checking out Rosalie Cullen. Not only was the chick straight to my knowledge, but she was also so out of my league it wasn't even funny. "What exactly is so funny," Rose asked as she walked over to the sink to finish cleaning off her hands.
"Bella was just complimenting my cooking," Esme replied effortlessly. I was grateful for her interjection since I wasn't sure I could look at the other woman in the room just yet. The last thing I needed to add to this was me staring at her butt or something while she was washing her hands. That would just be mortifying.
The faucet soon turned off, and Rose moved over to where I was sitting. She took the seat next to me, but didn't actually watch me eat. Her eyes were focused on trying to get the gunk out from under her nails. "So that is what got her out of bed this morning," she said with a teasing tone.
My eyes narrowed in response to her comment, but I waited until I actually finished chewing and swallowing the bite in my mouth before saying something back. I did not need to add things onto the list of stuff she would tease me about. Apparently even though we were getting along, there would always be a sort of bickering to our relationship which I was cool with. I mean, it could be fun sometimes.
"Hey," I finally managed to get out. "I was up late talking to some vampire. Just because some of us don't sleep or even need beauty rest, doesn't mean the rest of us don't." I was half tempted to stick my tongue out at her, but I held it back. Man, I hanging out with Jake way too much.
"I don't know about you Esme, but all I am hearing are excuses." The blonde's typical poker face was good, but I could see a smile wanting to crack out at the corner of her mouth. Instead of responding, I just playfully glared at her while I took another bite of food. "So, what is in store for our lazy human today?"
I wiped my mouth with my napkin and thought about just not answering the vampire due to her little nickname, but in the end I decided against it. Playing along with her was far more fun anyway. "I'm hanging out with Jake this afternoon, but I could probably do something tonight if you wanted. We're just taking out our old motorcylces for a little while and probably eating lunch." Just thinking about another meal nearly made me groan just then. How was I supposed to even think about putting more food in my stomach after the buffet of a breakfast I had just eaten? I was pretty sure that I could go the rest of the day without food and be content at that point.
In the blink of an eye the playful mood that was surrounding the kitchen was gone. Rosalie's eyes hardened, and her hands clenched into fists. I guess I should be glad that there at least wasn't a glass salad bowl in them this time. "Did you sustain a head injury we did not know about while we were away?"
Well, if her facial expressions didn't give it away, then the harshness of her tone definitely did. "There is the old Rosalie," I thought to myself. It was impossible for her to have completely disappeared over the years. The saying old habits die hard existed for a reason. "If you're going to go back to being rude to me, then at least say what you really mean. None of those snide side remarks. What's really bothering you?" My eyes flickered over to Esme, and I could see that she was worried about the turn the conversation had taken, but she wasn't moving to intervine yet. That was definitely different. In the past when Rose had said something out of line, Carlisle and Esme were both quick to try and put a stop to it. I had no idea what was different about this time, but a part of me was glad for the lack of intrusion. This was a true test to see if Rosalie and I could actually have a close friendship together. If we couldn't work through each other's flaws, then it was practically doomed from the start.
Her nostrils flared, and all sense of her trying to hold back went out the window. She quickly stood up to distance herself away from me. The action hurt more than I thought it would, but I tried to push that aside. Adding fuel to the fire was not a good idea. "What's bothering me? How dense must you be to ask that question? You are going to ride a death trap with a mutt who I cannot trust farther than I can throw him!" The volume of her voice was louder than I was used to, but I knew that it was no where near as loud as it could be. I knew her temper was bad, but this was the first time that I had seen her get so upset with me. In the past there was just dislike from her towards me, annoyance, and protectiveness of her family, but this time she was actually angry at me.
I pushed my plate aside and moved to get up myself. The last thing I wanted was feeling lower than her in that moment. We needed to be on equal ground in every way I could make it which wasn't much due to the whole vampire versus human thing. Seriously, that's always a damn inconvinience and disadvantage on my part. "Whoa, first off don't insult Jake. Secondly, how can you say you don't trust him? He's been there for me for years, Rosalie. I'm not some fragile little girl that has to be controled. I hated it when Edward did it, and I'm not going to like it any better now coming from you." My anger quickly rose the moment she talked badly about one of my best friends. I have always been someone who puts those that I care about before myself. The vampire saying things about me out of anger didn't bother me, but bringing other people into it wasn't okay. If I was more level headed, I would have noticed that our protective nature was something we had in common, but alas, I wasn't. I was too busy trying to not focus on the fact that Rosalie somehow only got more attractive when she was pissed off and really trying to push away the urge I had to kiss her just to shut her up. Thank whoever is up there for Jasper not being around because that would have been more embarrassment than I could handle.
Immediately I could see that my comment about Jake always being there was taken the wrong way. Rosalie's eyes showed hurt for a fraction of a second before hardening again. Faster than it should be possible, she transformed that pain into even more anger which wasn't needed. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to bring that up," she snapped. My body flinched slightly, but otherwise I didn't move. Arguing with her right then would have been pointless and cutting her off wasn't a smart move. "Not a fragile little girl? I believe the fact that you can hardly keep upright for too long disputes that, Bella. As for you trusting him, then I surely hope it proves to be the right decision because if anything happens to you while you're doing this stupidity, I will not be there to save you." With that, she was out the back door in a flash. I couldn't run after her if I wanted to for obvious reasons, so all I could do was slump back into my chair. I wanted to go after her and explain everything. Yeah, I was hurt too, but I needed her to know that my comment about trusting Jacob wasn't meant to be taken the way she did. I was trying to calm her worries about me being in danger, but my word vomit once again did a splendid job of screwing everything up.
"Bella she's just," Esme started in an attempt to comfort me, but I just cut her off. There wasn't anything she could say to make me feel better right then. I couldn't figure out why Rosalie would lose her cool like that over something that I had done a bunch of time over the years. The way she was acting just didn't make sense to me.
"It's alright, Esme. I just better get ready for Jake to pick me up. Thank you for breakfast, and I'll see you later." I walked over to her and gave her a hug that she was always happy to receive before trudging up to get my things out of Rose's room.
A change of clothes and quick text to Jake had me leaving the Cullen house about thirty minutes later. Rosalie still had not gotten back from wherever she had gone off to, so I had to leave with that unsettling feeling in my gut about our fight going on unresolved. With a sigh, I hopped into my best friend's truck. He knew something was wrong, but I just told him I didn't want to talk about. Explaining to him that I had just gotten into a fight with Rosalie over him in a sense was not something I wanted to get into. Before he could prod any further, my phone began ringing. When I pulled it out of the back pocket of my jeans, I saw Emmett's face and a goofy picture of him sticking his tongue out on my screen. The sneaky joker must have put it in sometime when I wasn't looking. I pressed the accept button on my phone and quickly held the device up to my ear. "Hey, Em. What's up?"
"Bells," he immediately said a little too enthusiastically in my ear. I actually had to hold the phone back a bit to keep from wincing. Quickly I reached to the side to turn the volume down a few notches before continuing to listen. "You left without saying bye little sis. Not cool."
A small smile formed on my face when I heard him actually sound upset about me leaving. Out of all the Cullens, he acted most like the big brother I never had, but always kind of wanted. He was funny, great to hang out with, and could get protective when he needed to, but not in an overbearing way. "Sorry about that Emmett. I got into a fight with Rosalie, and I just wanted to get out of there after that. Sitting around and waiting for her to get back so we could talk just sounded like a cruel form of torture I didn't want to go through." I bit my lip as I looked over at Jacob. His brow furrowed in confusion when he heard my words. To his knowledge, me and Rose had never gotten along, so me fighting with her to him shouldn't be something that gets me so worked up.
On the other line, I heard Emmett say someting to a female who's voice I didn't recognize. It registered to me that she must be his mate that I haven't met yet. I've been too caught up in a ton of things to really get the chance to meet her. "Yeah," he finally said when he finished speaking to the other woman who's name was Riley if I remembered correctly. "That's also why I'm calling. Don't be too mad at her Bells. Rosalie attacks when she gets scared. It's what she's done for as long as I've known her." I heard him sigh on the other end which was probably due to him remembering all the times he had been in my position. Well, that's what I assumed anyway since I had no idea what was going on.
"Scared? What could she be so scared of?"
I heard laughter which was definitely not the response I wanted to hear. I had already been essentially called stupid once that morning and did not want to make it a second time. If I had been in front of him, I probably would have crossed my arms and leaned on one leg which was brought to my attention as being the female "someone's in trouble," stance. Knowing Emmett though that would probably only make him laugh harder. "You guys really need to talk if you're asking me that. She's scared of losing you."
While I knew that Rosalie apparently loved me as one of the family, I was still significantly confused because that would not warrant the amount of fear and anger I had seen earlier. Also, the blonde vampire seriously needed to work on her actions conveying what she truly feels because her skills were seriously lacking. I understood pushing people away, but Rose took it to a whole other level when she did. "Yeah because her saying she wouldn't be there to save me really drove that message home, Emmett. Not to mention her pretty much calling me a klutz and dumb." A part of me couldn't believe I was having this talk with my big teddy bear of a brother. He was the last one to take matters seriously most times, but he was proving to be pretty good at it. Apparently it was just a skill he didn't like to utilize often.
"Well, the her not being there to save you part is true. Remember, you're going to be on the reservation, and we can't go there. She didn't mean it as in her not wanting to save you because she would every time she could, but when you're there she can't be with you. The klutz part is pretty true, Bells. I mean come on. I've seen you trip on thin air." The last part he said with a bit of a chuckle. I grumbled in response which only made his laugh boom. My skill of being unbelievably uncoordinated was one of those things that I could mention, but I didn't like others doing it. I had been made fun of for it enough growing up. His words did make sense though the more I thought about it. I had forgotten about the reservation's rules for a split second.
I didn't know Rosalie well enough to know all of her defense mechanisms. Since she had run out the moment she had the chance, I couldn't even try to work through this with her. More than anything I wanted to just sit down with her and get some answers, but we both more than likely needed this time apart to cool off. Talking when we both were still upset wasn't going to solve anything. "I didn't mean to hurt her," I said in a whisper. "I saw it for a second when I mentioned Jake being there for me all these years, and I didn't mean it as a way to throw you guys leaving in her face. I wouldn't bring that up to hurt any of you." Even if I couldn't say the words to the person I wanted to, I needed someone to know that. The Cullens were all walking on eggshells around me, and it needed to stop. I forgave them, but getting rid of my abandonment issues were going to take a little more time.
The vampire sighed again as he heard my words. "I know, and I think deep down she knows that. She's just jealous of Jake even though I told her she has nothing to worry about. She's stubborn." I couldn't help but scoff at his words. Stubborn was definitely an understatement.
"Why is she jealous though? I don't get it. She's acting weird, and I'm grateful that she cares about me so much, but I don't understand why." I ran a hand through my hair which was a nervous habit that I've never quit. A part of me hated it since it always made my hair look more greasy and sometimes look messy.
"You have to ask her that. I can't tell you. Sorry Bells."
While I was frustrated at his response, I understood it. Emmett was probably going to be in enough trouble as it was if Rosalie ever found out about this phone call. Seeing that we were getting closer to the Res, I needed to cut this talk short. "I will talk to her, I promise. I've got to go, but thank you, Emmett. I appreciate you trying to help."
Jacob pulled up next to his garage, but I stayed in the car for a minute to finish everything up. "No problem. You've my favorite human, I've got to help you. Now, be safe. Only pop one wheelie for me. You've got to still meet my mate after all. Talk to you later." After relaying my goodbyes the phone call ended, and I hopped out of the car. Before getting into the fun afternoon with my best friend, I sent out one important text. "Can I see you tonight so we can talk?"
I wasn't expecting a response, so I jumped slightly when I felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out and read the text the blonde who was quickly becoming an enigma sent. "I suppose I will be seeing you tonight then."
