A/N: Hey folks. I feel like a boss putting this chapter out so close to the last update. I didn't want to lose track and wind up waiting another month like before, so I tried to work faster for this one. Thanks to all the wonderful reviews I got on the last chapter! You guys really inspire me to be on my game. :) And thank you to anyone that is still/or has started reading this. Here's a *virtual high-five* from me to all you lovely people!
I don't really have a good idea of what is 'M' and what is 'T' because tbh I don't make too much of a distinction b/w the two. So, just to be safe I'm changing the rating to "M."
Steph M. owns everything Twilight. Bien sur.
The Party (part 2)
By the time Rose, Emmett and I got back to the house it was empty except for Bella who I could hear pacing upstairs and Jacob who was waiting anxiously on the couch. He stood as we approached.
"Everyone's gone?" Emmett said not really asking at all.
"I thought it was best to clear the place out in case the situation escalated any further." Jacob seemed relieved knowing that everything was safe.
"I guess you're not completely useless after all." Rosalie murmured with only slight loathing in her tone; it was about as close to a compliment that she would get and Jacob smirked as he made his way towards the front door. He tossed me a smile over his shoulder before shouting, "Nice party." I shook my head, not sure if he was being sarcastic or sincere, and I waved him out.
I made my way up to my room to find a very disconcerted Bella. She was wringing her hands anxiously and biting her lip so hard I was sure she would draw blood. Before she could speak I answered her question,
"I'm fine. Edward's fine. We're all…fine." Bella exhaled in relief, her shoulders slumping as she calmed down.
"Alice what happened?"
"I'll tell you everything. Let's just…let's not talk here." I tapped my ear indicating that we were not in the ideal place to have a private conversation. "Come on I'll drive you home."
"But Edward-"
"Wants me to drive you home. He just needs some time to get himself together." Bella followed me out to my car wordlessly, slouching into the passenger seat, and I pulled out heading towards her house.
The drive was longer than usual since I decided to actually drive at the recommended speed limit. I used the time to fill Bella in on the fight between Edward and Jasper in the woods.
"Do you think he knows?" She asked gravely regarding my expression closely.
"I don't know that for sure. Edward's clearly in denial about whatever happened and Jasper's just upset. They're being very impulsive right now, so I can't get a reliable prediction to what will happen next. From the way the rest of my family reacted I'm guessing they're as confused as I am." I didn't bother informing her that Edward had lied about the real reason for their fight. I figured there was no sense in needlessly worrying her over something that might not even be an issue. Especially not while I was still in the dark about the truth.
Bella was silent after I finished and remained quiet for the rest of the ride. I didn't bother prodding her to speak because I knew whatever thoughts were keeping her occupied were likely important ones. As much as I'd tried to cushion the news with vagueness we both suspected that our secret wasn't a secret any longer. Edward and Jasper got along great. The only attacking they ever instigated with one another was with chess pieces and fencing assaults. In all the years we'd been together they'd never laid a harmful hand on each other.
I pulled into her driveway and shut off the engine. I wasn't sure if she wanted me to come in so I waited to see what she would do. She didn't move to leave the car and just sat staring out the front window for the next ten minutes. Just when I was beginning to think she wasn't going to talk -or even worse, had fallen asleep- she spoke, her voice was low and heavy.
"I wanted to tell him. I didn't want him to find out like this. He's going to hate me." She lowered her head to her hands dejectedly and I rested my hand on her back rubbing it supportively.
"Edward could never hate you Bella, no matter what you did. He's likely blaming himself, trying to figure out what he did wrong." My words did nothing to comfort her and seemed to only drive her emotions over the edge as she started crying.
"Bella don't cry. I didn't mean it that way." I lifted her chin up to meet my eyes and wiped several stray tears from her face. "I know it's not how you wanted things to turn out but it's going to be okay. We can handle it." She pulled me towards her throwing her arms around my neck. Her face buried into my shoulder and I patted her back calming her as her small frame shook with sobs and sniffles. "Don't worry." I smoothed down her hair holding her close to me.
After a couple minutes I could feel her breathing evening out against my chest and her crying subside. She released her hold on me pulling back to stare at me, her eyes were still puffy and red from tears, yet I couldn't help thinking that she was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen. I wondered if she even realized how lovely she really was?
As I dwelled on that point she startled me as she leaned in pressing her lips to mine. My lips parted automatically accepting hers between my own and her hand roamed down my neck, coming to rest at my waist. The kiss was gentle and explorative, as if we'd never done this before. Then again maybe we hadn't, at least not like this. When we were both vulnerable, and scared, and so unsure. It was more like our first kiss that night on the couch. Less desperate, less conscious of what we were doing and more conscious of what we were feeling. The kind of kiss that you take the time to enjoy, as if each brush of skin was being copied to memory to experience all over again.
When we finally parted her eyelids fluttered open slowly as she watched me with lidded gaze, breathing just a bit heavier. I inhaled the coolness of her breath, relishing in this moment which I knew was fleeting. "Stay?" she asked, her lips brushing against mine as she spoke. I delivered my acceptance of her offer in another kiss, pushing her back into the passenger seat as I straddled her waist. I felt my breath hitch in my throat when her hand glided under the edge of my shirt, dancing along the top of my skirt. Her tongue slipped into my mouth when I gasped, massaging hungrily with mine. The taste of her in my mouth was sensational, and I couldn't resist deepening the kiss as my lips moved with gentle urgency against hers. My actions must have given her the courage to continue because before I knew it her hands had traveled from my waist to clutching at my thighs under my skirt.
Suddenly it seemed as if she was wearing way too many clothes. I wanted to see her.
"Take this off." I tugged at the collar of her jacket and she just lifted her arms compliantly. Just then I thought about what I was doing and how it seemed and I stopped for a moment. "You know, you don't have to do everything I tell you." My face was only inches from hers and I could see the confusion flash in her eyes.
"So...you don't want me to take it off." She rose an eyebrow at me.
"No-Yes...I mean," I faltered. "I just don't want to push you into anything. You shouldn't always agree so easily with me. I'm not always in my right mind, and I want you to know it's okay to say no if you want." She smiled once she finally understood what I was trying to say.
"I know." She pulled the jacket off and tossed it into the back seat. "It's still my birthday. So you have to do what I say right?" She began unbuttoning my jacket, sliding her hands down my arms as she pulled it off, making me shiver with anticipation.
"That's right." I choked out distractedly. She threw my jacket on top of hers in the back seat.
"I'm going to kiss you now." She breathed lowly, her lips hovering above mine teasingly. I licked my lips nervously and ended up grazing Bella's lips with my tongue, making her smile. "Don't pull away...you always pull away. That's what I want for my birthday." That was certainly a request I could agree with and I nodded eager for her to just do it already. I felt like a puppy and Bella was the human hovering a treat above my head, just out of reach.
She threaded her fingers in my hair pulling me into her. Our lips crashed together like waves into a cliff-side, adjusting to fit the others perfectly. The gentleness from earlier had been traded for a passionate urgency that, I for one, didn't mind. Bella's lips and tongue were all over me now, sucking on my neck and forcing me to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from moaning out like a hormonal teenager. Bella trailed one languid swipe of her tongue up to my earlobe, and I couldn't stop the cry that escaped my throat. She smiled against my neck as her hands busied themselves massaging my breasts through my dress. I found the zipper in the back of her dress and slid it down, pulling the straps forward to take it off. Bella helped me by slipping both arms out and shimmying it down to gather her waist.
I stared in awe as Bella sat under me in almost nothing but her bra and panties. I mean, it wasn't as if I'd never seen Bella undressed before, with the amount of sleepovers we'd had, it happened quite often actually. It's just that I never got to appreciate Bella's nearly naked form the way I wanted, until tonight. I ran my fingers along her shoulders and then south, past her collarbone and then to the dip between breasts. "You're beautiful." I said before attaching her mouth to mine once more. This time it was Bella's turn to groan, as she gripped my neck continuing to deepen the kiss. My mouth moved downwards until I reached the top of the swell of her breasts. I placed impatient kisses along the top of her bra before pulling it down and taking both her breasts in my hands. Bella threw her head against the seat rest, groaning with approval. Her legs fidgeted; I could smell her arousal and it was turning me on more and more with every passing second.
"Alice..." My name escaped her lips like a prayer, and I thought 'This is the greatest my name has ever sounded on anyone's lips.' I could live the rest of eternity and no sound could ever be as sweet. I felt my hips jerk against her as my body reacted to her verbal cues. She moved my face back up to hers, beginning another exploration with her tongue in my mouth.
Without warning a pounding knock came to the passenger window, making Bella jump with surprise as she turned to face the glass.
"Shit, Alice my dad's home." She tried to push me off of her but I wouldn't budge. "Alice what-"
"You told me not to pull away." I said smiling against her skin as my hand moved up her thigh and my mouth returned to sucking on the curve of her neck. Bella drew in a sharp breath at the action, her hips rocking into mine automatically before she shakily lowered herself back into the seat.
"Alice...fuck, don't.." She whined incoherently, though making no more movements to try and push me off. "He'll see us." She muttered, rubbing her hands along my sides and sounding more uncaring with every circle of my tongue.
"My windows are tinted. I can barely see in from the outside." Bella seemed to consider that for a moment, until another knock pounded on the glass. This time with more impatience. Reluctantly Bella pushed my shoulders back, a regretful expression on her face, and I huffed rolling back into the driver's seat.
Dammit Charlie. As much as I liked him, the man sure had a knack for the whole wrong place and time sort of thing.
Bella made quick work of redressing herself and fixing her hair and I smiled at how frantic she was being. I couldn't tell you how many times Carlisle had walked in on one of us "in the middle of something." She rolled down the window and Charlie crouched to look inside. His face was stern but once he saw me it lightened up completely.
"Oh, Alice. I didn't expect...um...I thought you were your, uh, brother." He stammered out embarrassed, his face flushing a deep red. I knew exactly what he thought was going on in this car between Edward and Bella.
"Nope, just me. Sorry, we didn't open up sooner. Bella and I were just having some girl talk." I knew 'girl talk' was a sure fire way to get any guy disinterested quick and Charlie was no exception.
"O-oh, okay. Don't let me stop you two. I'll see you in the morning Bells." He walked away briskly into the house and Bella let out a deep exhale I didn't know she'd been holding.
"Girl talk?" Bella asked in disbelief.
"It worked, didn't it?" I smiled cheekily and Bella just chuckled. She reached in the backseat and grabbed her jacket before opening the door, but I grabbed her wrist before she could leave.
"What?"
"Well you heard your dad. He said 'don't let me stop you two'. I think it would be quite disrespectful of us not to listen to him." She held my gaze for a while trying to determine if I was serious or not, and when I smiled she just rolled her eyes.
"I thought you were serious."
"And if I were, would you have stayed?" I asked grabbing my jacket from the back and slipping out the driver's side door.
"Maybe." Her eyes danced with a playful mirth that I couldn't help but find sexy.
"Well then next time I should be a bit more convincing." I said as we both began up the walkway into the house.
When we made it up to her room she didn't even bother getting undressed as she slipped her shoes off and climbed into bed. She watched me expectantly as I stood in the doorway, motioning to the empty space next to her. I moved to the bed -kicking off my heels and tossing my jacket to the chair by the window- and crawled in beside her so that we were lying face to face. It wasn't nearly as awkward as it should have been. There was no expectation of something more, no obligation to re-instigate what we'd began in the car or do anything but lay together.
We stayed in comfortable silence for a while before Bella said something. "I'm guessing we're not going to have that talk tonight, are we?" Bella's voice was lazy and her eyelids seemed determined to stay shut as she stared tiredly at me. It had been a long night and she looked exhausted.
I shook my head to her question. "We'll discuss it in the morning. Just get some sleep."
"But Alice-" Her sentence was interrupted by a drowsy yawn and I smiled as my point had been proven.
"Sleep." I said definitively, pulling the blanket over both of us. Bella didn't offer any more protests and simply scooted closer nuzzling into me as if I was her own life size teddy bear.
"It really was a nice party Alice." Bella mumbled against my chest, her voice distant and weary. "And I like kissing you." Her voice trailed off at the end before she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep. I grinned into her hair.
At least something had gone right tonight.
As I laid with Bella in my arms I tired to push out all the thoughts threatening to ruin this moment out of my head. An hour after Bella had fallen asleep I started getting visions nearly every ten minutes of Jasper and Edward. Neither one of them could seem to make their minds up so every indecision was bombarding my mind relentlessly. Jasper was still at home, Carlisle was keeping a close eye on him, but Edward appeared to be running all over Forks aimlessly. Which wasn't entirely surprising, considering it's what he usually did when he was stressed, but as I focused I noticed the area he was now in looked very familiar.
He was outside of Bella's house, and I was sure he knew that I was aware of his arrival.
I looked back down at Bella, who was still soundly asleep. The last thing I wanted to do right now was leave her side, but I knew Edward was waiting for me and he had every right to want to speak to me. I lifted Bella's arm from around my waist and lowered it gently to the bed. I rolled off of the mattress gracefully, knowing the movement would be too brief for Bella to detect. As I approached the window I could make out Edwards poised figure standing in the tree line. I gave one final look to Bella before hopping over the ledge and down to the front lawn. I ran the rest of the distance to Edward, coming face to face with him within seconds. I noticed he'd changes his clothes and cleaned his hair, but the anger from earlier was still fixed firmly on his face. Only this time this anger was for me, not Jasper.
I waited for him to speak, already knowing what he was about to say.
"If you already know then why can't you just give me an answer?" Edward asked his voice emotionless.
I hung my head. "Why do you have to make me say it?"
"So it's true?" He stared at me waiting for an answer, but I was sure my beseeching silence was answer enough.
"I never wanted to hurt you." I blurted, my voice breaking on each word despite my best efforts to keep my composure. I reached for him but he stepped away from my hand as if it were covered in sewage and would taint him with one touch. His face twisted into a agonized scowl that hurt me just to witness. He moved away from me unsteadily as if his knees would give at any moment and he'd go crashing into the wet soil. His hand reached for balance on a tree while his eyes remained downcast, looking anywhere but at me.
"I didn't want to believe him. I didn't want to believe any of the things I saw happening right in front of me. Your thoughts were always blocking me and Bella's been distant for a while now, she flinches when I touch her." His head lifted giving me a glance as he said the next part. "You and Jasper don't touch at all and his thoughts are full of…suspicions."
"But I ignored it all because I trusted you. I trusted you above anyone else, even Bella. Because even though Bella may be your best friend, you were my best friend. And I never thought you'd hurt me like this." He faltered, grimacing as if the words were physically hurting him to speak. "You betrayed me Alice." My mouth felt dry and my eyes burned with tears I knew could never fall or alleviate my sorrow. I felt like my mortal life had been renewed only to make me feel the pain of the betrayal I'd caused.
I said nothing.
There was nothing I could say.
After a few moments passed he continued. "Jasper is leaving. He thinks it's best that he spend some time away for a while to work on himself. He wants you to come with him but he'd never force you." Edward's voice was still an emotionless monotone that scared me more than if he would've just yelled. Yell. Hit me. Do anything other than just stand there with that heartbreaking disappointment etched across his face.
"To be honest, I want you to leave also." His eyes locked with mine conveying his seriousness, and it was as if someone had punched me in the chest. The weight of his words collapsed around me and my heart felt as if it would burst from my body and into the dirt where it belonged, because clearly it was useless. It had done nothing to keep me from loving Bella. It had done nothing to help me prevent the trouble I would cause for my family. And it certainly wasn't doing anything to keep me alive. I was dead already and at this moment I actually felt I deserved it.
I watched him pathetically, hoping he would take it all back. Hoping he would smile and say that he understands and he forgives me. Hoping hopelessly for something that wasn't going to happen. He pushed off the tree and started towards Bella's house brushing past me, but stopped a couple paces behind me.
"You should take a shower. Your lipstick's smudged and you reek of infidelity." He spat the words out cruelly, pulling the final block from my teetering grasp on my emotions as I collapsed on the forest floor dry sobbing, listening to Edward walk away from me.
So leave me a msg, if you want. Or don't if you don't want. I hope to get this updated soon. No promises tho. :/
Btw, did anyone see K Stew's promo for Snow White? That's pretty badass.
