Unexpected Questions

We are a blur, barely recognizable, as we zip through the trees. At one point Alice grabbed a branch and started leaping from branch to branch. Every now and then, a well aimed pine cone hits one of us in the back of our head. But we all laugh. We let go, relax, and enjoy being free from the act of it all.

These are the days I live for.

Soon we all stop, somehow decided on an unspoken word. We are standing beside a small cliff.

"Ugh look at my hair! Alice! You got mud in it." Rosalie walks over to Emmett, while picking out dirt and leaves from her blond curls.

"It's not my fault you're such an easy target. Your hair is like a glowing bull's eye in the forest." Alice retorts back as she walks over to Jasper.

I smile at my siblings. This is what I should be concentrating on, my family, not that strange boy. This is the family I love and would do anything for.

But as they all find rocks to perch on, so perfectly paired together, my smile slips.

I am the oldest in my family, beside Carlisle, and yet I am still alone. It's not like I never wanted what my siblings have had the luck to find. Who could look at Carlisle and Esme and the love they have between them and not want that? Who could see Alice and Jasper looking into each other eyes and not hope for someone to understand you in that way? Who could watch Emmett and Rose laugh together, so content in each others presence and not feel a deep need to have the same thing?

But I've never found anybody. Humans are so mundane, so predictable. And how could I do that to another person? Change them into this?

There are others out there, other vampire who are alone. And sometimes they find each other and something changes in them. It's like they found a part of themselves that was missing. But nobody has ever made me feel anything deeper than friendship.

Carlisle and Esme worry that I might have been turned too young. That I am not able to feel that way. They try not to let on, but I have heard them talking before.

It shouldn't bother me as much as it does, they just want me to be happy, but it makes me feel like even more of a freak.

Emmett brings me out of my thoughts suddenly. I jump as the rock he threw at me finds its target; my face. Growling, I crouch down.

"Coming back for more?" I taunt him. Rose snorts and rolls her eyes. But Emmett can't ever back down from a challenge. He is bigger and stronger than me but I am faster and more agile. I dance circles around him, my body always just out of reach. Till finally he gets so frustrated he makes a mistake.

His arm shoots out, just as I planned, and as his fingers grasp empty air instead of my shirt, I barely tap him on the back and he falls, sprawled across the ground.

I smile down at him, gloating. But his face is a mask of anger.

"Let it go Emmett." Alice skips between us. "You're not beating her today." She slips her arm through mine and leads me to a rock farther away. Jasper looks at us curiously, but soon enough, shrugs and gives his attention to Emmett who has been goading him looking for another fight.

Shaking my head, I laugh. Emmett loves a fight, but he relies too much on his brute strength. His moves are too predictable.

Alice and I sit contentedly in silence for a while.

Till, turning to face me, Alice says, "So, what do you think of that Edward Swan?"

I am so surprised by her question, I just look at her for a few moments, silent.

"What do you mean 'What do I think?'" I sputter. "What kind of question is that?"

"I'm just curious." she winks at me.