"I love you, Catie Westwood," Brady whispers as his thumb strokes my cheek and his dark eyes bore into mine. The way he looks at me almost makes me squirm, it's so intense. But I stand still, confident, smiling lightly with my eyes as I say the unspeakable words I've waited for so long to tell him.
"I love you too, Brady," I murmur quietly and kiss him boldly, wrapping my long arms around him and running my fingers through his shaggy black hair, making him officially mine. And that's when we break apart and suddenly our sweet moment turns weird as Brady starts singing U + Ur Hand in Pink's voice.
I startled awake, slamming my hand angrily on my alarm clock off button, aggravated that it had to break up my beautiful, peaceful dream of Brady. I'd had that same dream every night since the revelation sleepover, and it always got cut short by one thing or another.
Today was the day before Thanksgiving, and my mother had asked Collin and me to wake up early in order to do some last minute shopping. This year, we were hosting Thanksgiving at our house, and my mother's family was all going to be at our house. Granted, my mother's family wasn't very large- it consisted of my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my other uncle and his son. But my mother was still a nervous wreck that nothing would go right, and she wanted everything to be absolutely perfect.
I slid out of bed, the exact thing I didn't want to do, and headed over to the mirror to see what I had to work with this morning. My hair was an absolute mess, all over the place and knotted. Ever since I'd become a shape-shifter, I'd had a near impossible time taming it. It used to be beautiful, a shimmery black curtain that hung all the way down my back and below my waist. But now, I always seemed to have twigs or leaves stuck in it after phasing and knots that not even Summer- an aspiring hairdresser and untangler extraordinaire- could get out. The boys all told me I should get it cut, that it would make things easier. But I'd spent a good portion of my life growing my hair out and taking care of it to make it beautiful. Cutting it off would be like losing a part of myself.
So long and knotty it stayed. I ran a brush through my bangs and pulled the rest of it into a messy bun. I pulled on some jeans and a pretty purple top and my favorite turquoise scarf and headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face and put on some make-up in an attempt to make myself look somewhat awake and not at all disappointed by the abrupt and untimely ending of that dream.
"Ready to go?" Collin asked, awaking me from my daze as I ate my breakfast bar and drank my coffee.
"Um, yeah," I said, eating the last bite and taking one last sip of my coffee. I stood up and walked over to grab my coat and shrugged it on, watching my brother as I did so. He always exuded a sort of calm coolness, a collected confidence. He didn't try to either, it was just who he was. I had always wished I could be like him in that respect, that instead of fumbling around and chattering to fill the silence, I could be okay with myself and okay with the world and okay with everyone around me. But I worried too much and talked too much and couldn't ever reach Collin's quiet self-confidence as much as I wanted to.
I guess I must have been staring at Collin and not even really realizing it because he gave me a funny look as he pulled his keys out of his worn brown leather jacket and told me to hurry up. I grinned at him and challenged him to a race to his car. "You're on," he smiled a little boy's impish smirk.
Like little children, we pushed each other in an effort to reach the front door first. I pulled the door open recklessly, letting it swing open fast and wide. Collin hurried out behind me, taking care to slam the door behind us. Just as I was about to reach his truck, he jumped on my back, tackling me to the ground. We both collapsed on the grass, laughing too hard to breathe. It'd been a long time since we'd played like that. Not for years. But it was so fun. I felt like I was five years old again as we lay gasping for air on the ground, wide grins splayed across our faces. It was just like when we were little kids, our mouths red or purple or green from popsicles, our knees skinned, and our laughs deep and happy.
We lay there for a moment, two teenager siblings caught up in memories of the days of old. And then my brother hopped up and offered me his hand to help me up. I took it and stood up too. "Don't forget: we still have a race to finish," I teased, before running at near-lightning speed to the passenger side of the truck. I flung open the door and slipped in my seat before Collin had even gotten to his door. I laughed wildly in triumph.
When Collin finally got into the car and began to drive, I said, "So I won. You owe me a smoothie."
"Since when?" he asked, turning his head to look at me, a careful smile forming on his face.
"Since I decided three second ago."
"Alright, fine. As long as you don't mind changing it from smoothies to ice cream," he said, his voice resigned but cheerful. I had a feeling he would've suggested ice cream whether I had brought it up or not.
"Okay, fine. But I choose the place."
"Where do you want to go?"
"Wickedly Sweet in the mall. It's the best ice cream place in all of Port Angeles, you know."
"Yes, I know," he grinned. "And we were going to the mall anyway so I guess that's fine."
"We were?" This threw me off a bit. I knew we were going to a specialty food market in Port Angeles. But I didn't realize we were going to the mall too.
"Yeah, we have to buy Christmas presents for Mom's family, remember?" And I did remember, now. Every year instead of having a Christmas gathering with the family, we just did it all at Thanksgiving, so that Christmas could be freed up for the other side of the family or for friends.
Once we got to the mall, I headed straight to Wickedly Sweet to wait in the ridiculously long line while Collin ran off to the cell phone store to buy a new car charger.
As I was standing in line, I smelt something really weird. It was a really strong smell and sweet, but to the point of being too sweet, like an overpowering mix of cotton candy and maple syrup and dark chocolate with a strong men's cologne mixed in. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I could feel myself tensing, like an animal would, if threatened. I spun around quickly, to see where exactly the smell was coming from. And I hit a wall.
"Ow," I muttered, taking a step back. How did I not know a wall was there? But instead of a wall, there was a man there, not much older than me or Collin, but devastatingly gorgeous. And pale with strange gold eyes. And the smell was coming from him.
I wrinkled my nose, and he smiled at me. "I'm Edward Cullen," he said, running his fingers through his bronze hair. "You must be Catie Westwood." I nodded slightly, filled with an urge to run. Here was a vampire standing before me. And not just a vampire. A vampire that could read my mind.
He laughed. "I'm sorry for startling you. I know the smell is overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it." He was so beautiful, like an ancient Greek statue of Apollo. But he was dangerous, and I didn't trust him.
"I thought you didn't eat," I said, for it was the only coherent thing my mind could come up with as I stared at him.
He laughed again, a quiet musical laugh that made me shiver. "I don't. But you've heard about Nessie, right? She loves ice cream. It's the only normal food she'll eat." He jerked his head over in the direction of two girls sitting at a table for three across the food court. The dark-haired one looked up and waved at me, a friendly smile on her lovely face. And the other one, a slightly younger girl with the same bronze colored ringlets as Edward, gave me a small half smile as though she were shy, or stuck-up. I figured that one was Nessie.
"So why are you waiting in line to get it for her?"
Edward smiled at me, not at all unkindly. "Because I'm her father and I'm far too indulgent," he chuckled. I nodded and smiled at him, as though I understood even though I really didn't. "The line's moving," he said, pointing front of me. I turned back around and scurried towards the cashier.
"One chocolate chip mint cone and one chocolate/vanilla swirl cone, please," I recited as the cashier rang that up and went to make the ice cream cones.
Upon the cashier's return, he handed me both ice creams, and I was glad to see Collin coming towards me, cell phone store bag in hand. I felt a lot safer around Edward and the others with him around. I handed him his chocolate/vanilla swirl ice cream, and he took a sloppy bite before seeing Edward. Edward had been joined by the dark-haired girl, whom I assumed was Bella, his wife, and Nessie.
"Edward, Bella, Nessie, it's been awhile," Collin said cordially, though his eyes were guarded.
"Yes, it has, hasn't it? We had the pleasure of meeting Catie just now; you two need to come by and see us sometime," Bella smiled widely, her beauty radiating all around her, making me feel incredibly awkward and insignificant and ugly.
Collin nodded, "We will at some point, once things slow down a bit." He smiled once more and I did too.
"Well it was nice to meet you guys," I told them, trying to sound as confident as possible.
"Same to you," Renesmee said sincerely, her voice as charming as her face. Collin and I waved at them before turning around and walking towards the nearest department store.
"They are really nice, you know. For vampires, at least," Collin said, once he was sure we were out of their earshot.
"I know. They seem like they are. But they still make me uneasy."
Collin looked at me for a moment before looking again in the direction we were headed. "Me too," he admitted, grabbing my hand in an overprotective, brotherly way as we walked together into the department store.
Author's note: So this chapter took awhile to write. I've been having trouble writing lately- and not just this, I'm have a hard time writing everything- and I've been busy so I'm sorry that it's been like three weeks or more since I last updated. I hope this chapter made it up to you guys for me being such a bad updater! And I promise the next chapter (and maybe the chapter after that) will be pure Brady/Catie fluff (and some importance stuff, too :)), coming soon. Review?