To those of you who are, after this freaky long hiatus that I never intended to let happen:
Thank you so much for actually looking at this chapter update. My little break had nothing to do with Fanfiction, it had to do with real life. Multiple parts of my life were falling apart at once. A death in the family, a breakup or two—one with a guy, one with a friend—a divorce, and a serious period of identity crisis and minor depression/anxiety. Yeah, I've had a rough six months. But thanks for waiting here for me on the other side. Really, you guys are the only things I can depend on right now.
Music: Spotlight (Twilight Mix)—Mutemath, Rockstar—Nickelback, Mr. Brightside—The Killers, Beverly Hills—Weezer, Billionaire—Travis McCoy
"Bella, Bella, wake up, wake up!" Alice screeched.
"Whassamatter?" I mumbled.
"We have to get to the studio!" Alice said. "Garrett called, and I didn't have a major hangover, so I got up. We have an interview!"
"Interview?" I sat up.
"We're going to be in People!" Alice shrieked. "It's the official casting announcement. You know what that means?"
"What does that mean, Alice?" I asked sarcastically.
"We're going to be famous!" Alice cheered. "Like, movie star famous!"
"Ugh." I rolled over, burying my head in the pillow. "I don't want to be famous."
"WHAT? WHY?" Alice's jaw dropped.
"Well, I mean, now everyone'll have to know everything about my life. The media won't leave us alone," I said.
"Exactly! We're going to be faaa-mous," Alice sang.
I pushed Alice off my bed.
"After you," Edward said, holding open the door. Under his breath he whispered, "Are you ready?"
"No," I whispered back. "Come on."
"Floor three," Alice said, reading off the directions Garrett had given us, and I was reminded of the first time we ever entered Twilight Studios.
We got in the elevator and pressed the button for floor three. Alice informed us that we had to go to Suite 7, and we exited the elevator single file.
"Are you getting a sense of déjà vu?" Rose whispered.
"I know, right?" Alice whispered back.
We got to the end of the hallway, with Suite 7, and Edward opened the door for us. More déjà vu.
A woman was sitting on a stool with her back to us, conversing with another woman. She spun around. "Welcome!" she exclaimed. "You must be the actors and actresses of Midnight Sun. Sit down." She gestured to six seats across from her.
I sat down tentatively in a seat between Edward and Alice. The blonde reporter smiled widely at us. "I'm Whitney Rainsford. Welcome to my office. Now, your names?" She picked up a pen and a pad of paper from the counter by her elbow. "We can go left to right, starting with this handsome young man." She grinned at Jasper. "Name, first and last; age; character; and your reaction upon hearing you'd won the part."
Jasper cleared his throat. "Jasper Hale, nineteen. I play Jackson Rathbone. When I found out I'd won, I was ecstatic. I've been working in getting an acting job for a while now, and I was really glad to know I'd finally gotten into a movie."
"And you?" Whitney Rainsford asked, gesturing to Alice.
"Alice Brandon, eighteen. I play Ashley Greene…" Alice continued. We went around, stating exactly what the reporter told us to.
"Lovely," Whitney proclaimed. Now, I'll interview you all separately. Why don't we start with…you?" She smiled sweetly at Jasper. Next to me, I heard Alice mutter something obscene under her breath.
"The rest of you can wait there," she said, pointing to an adjoining room. Alice made a face and trudged into the next room, the rest of us following her.
After Rosalie closed the door behind her, Alice exploded. "That bitch! That is so unprofessional, flirting on the job! She's supposed to be interviewing, not trying to get a guy! I cannot believe…"
I'd never seen Alice so worked up over a guy before. And she'd had her fair share of experience with boys. Oh, they'd cheated on her. She hadn't cared. Well, she cared, but mostly she was just like 'Eh, I never really liked him anyway.' The ones that hadn't cheated had broken it off in the end, but Alice just said, 'Now I can ask that cute guy in our improv class to the dance on Friday without feeling guilty.' She'd had plenty of guys, and most of them older than her, but she'd never found a guy that she'd really cared for. Either they were really good-looking but insensitive or players, really smart guys with no idea how to treat a girlfriend, or blind dates that were just plain ugly from start to finish. Jasper was the first guy she'd seemed to actually care about.
It was both exciting and terrifying at once.
What if the whole thing didn't turn out well? If Jasper cheated, or something like that? Or if he hurt her…But no, he would do that.
But what if he broke up with her for legitimate reasons? I'd heard of fame pulling couples apart. Jasper could very well meet a glamorous, famous movie star while he was filming a movie. I don't think Alice would be able to blow that off as 'I don't really care.'
"You okay?" Edward asked softly.
I looked up. "Hm?"
"You look uneasy," Edward explained. "Sad, almost."
"Oh."
Edward and I sat down against the wall in silence. It wasn't exactly an awkward silence, but one of those silences where you can't think of anything else to say.
I was opening my mouth to comment on something, anything to break the silence, when the door swung open with a bang. Jasper entered. "She wants 'the charming auburn one,'" he growled.
"The charming auburn one?" Edward asked.
"I think she meant you."
"My hair is not auburn, dammit!" Edward griped. "It's bronze!" He stood up and exited.
"How was it?" Rosalie questioned.
"Horrible." Jasper shuddered. "She was hitting on me. Really hitting on me." Then he noticed Alice standing in the corner looking miserable.
"Hey, Alice?" he called.
Alice looked up at him mournfully.
"Come here," Jasper said. He held his arms open. Alice slowly paced over, still looking sad.
Jasper wrapped her in his arms, burying his face in her spiky black hair and kissing the top of her head. He whispered something, something that sounded suspiciously like 'I love you.'
Alice looked up at him, eyes sparkling with unshed tears, voice wavering dangerously. "Really?"
"Really," Jasper murmured. Now I was sure of what he'd told Alice.
"I love you too," Alice told him. A tear rolled down her cheek. Jasper caught it on his finger and kissed the spot under her eye where he'd stopped it and she buried her face in his chest.
So now they were in love?
I guess I really should have seen it coming. Ever since that first night, the one where Alice made her prediction about her and Jasper, I kind of knew that this was going to get way more serious than I'd hoped.
But what about the other part of her…vision? The one about Edward and me…how could that come true? I don't love him. He doesn't love me…
The door burst open again. This time, Edward burst through. "Have fun, Emmett," he muttered. "Good luck, you're going to need it."
"How very encouraging," Emmett responded. He cheerfully walked out.
"So tell me. Why was it so terrible?" Rosalie asked.
Edward grimaced. "Whitney's a slut," he responded. "She was asking the most horrifyingly personal questions! 'So, do you have a girlfriend? What's your dating history?' I just left at 'Are you a virgin?'"
"What did you say?" Rose asked.
"To if I was a virgin?" Edward looked scandalized.
"No, the other stuff," Rose amended hastily.
"Well, I told her I wasn't single, that I had a beautiful girlfriend whom I like very much." Edward's face softened just the tiniest bit. Something foreign twisted inside me, clawing at my guts. An unnamable emotion clouded my thoughts. Did Edward love Rosalie?
Rosalie's face melted and she smiled dreamily.
"And I said I'd had more than my fair share of relationships and embarrassing exes," Edward continued. "She asked about my feelings on my costars, and a bit about my family. Then stuff like my favorite bands and movies. It didn't get bad until the dating stuff at the end, except that she was flirting way too much."
"I know," Jasper, who had been sitting on a couch in the corner with Alice on his lap, said. "She was all over me. She was asking about my love life, my personal life, my social life, my everything life!"
Alice frowned sympathetically and stroked his arm.
"I told her about you." Jasper directed the comment to Alice. "I told her how I love you very much."
And once again, Emmett ruined the romantic moment.
"Bella," he said. He stormed over to the corner and crossed his arms, sinking to the ground in a temper tantrum.
"Alright. Bye, guys." I slowly exited the room.
Whitney Rainsford smirked at me. She reminded me of a crocodile, lurking just below the surface waiting for the perfect piece of nasty gossip to strike.
"Hello, Isabella!" Whitney exclaimed.
"Bella," I corrected. Whitney ignored me.
"You're a new face, an unknown quantity in the filming business. How does that make you feel?"
"Uh…" I searched for an answer. "Um, worried, because I'm worried I won't live up to the fans' expectations," I answered as truthfully as I could.
Whitney nodded. "What about your life before Midnight Sun? Where did you grow up?"
"I lived in Forks, Washington, until I was sixteen. Then I came down here with Alice Brandon to go to the Phoenix Magnet School."
"And why did you decide to go into acting?" Whitney asked.
"Well, it's been a dream of mine since I was eight," I said. "And I really wanted to know if I was good at it. I enjoy it."
"Why did you decide to become part of Midnight Sun, possibly one of the biggest franchises in modern pop culture?"
"I didn't," I said. Whitney looked confused, so I continued, "At least, not consciously. Alice signed us up for an audition, and we happened to get in."
"Alice Brandon is your childhood friend?"
I nodded. "Since third grade."
"What about your other co-stars? How do you get along with them?"
'They're all very kind. Emmett's very funny, and Rosalie and Jasper are both great people and very close friends. Edward's also been very supportive."
"Oh yes. Edward Cullen." Whitney Rainsford smiled that crocodile smile. "You have some very…intimate scenes with him. I'm sure you know that costars sometimes have a tendency to, well, fall for each other. Edward told me about a certain beautiful girlfriend. Could that be you?"
I could feel my jaw drop. "No… no! You're talking about Rosalie Hale!"
"Rosalie Hale? The actress who plays Nikki Reed?"
"Yeah! I'm engaged to Jacob Black, of the Phoenix Suns."
"Oh my God!" Whitney gasped. "Well! That changes things, doesn't it? How long have you two been engaged?"
"Since January." I smiled happily.
"And the date of the wedding?" Whitney leaned forward in her seat, enthused.
"A week from Saturday," I announced.
Whitney Rainsford's mouth hung open. I would bet my paycheck she was calculating how many reporters, how many cameramen, it would take to turn my wedding into People magazine's cover article.
"It's going to be very private," I added hastily. "Only our families and friends. No publicity whatsoever."
Whitney's face dropped, but she plowed on with the interrogation. "When and how did you start dating?"
"It was back in my sophomore year. We met at one of his games." I wasn't saying anything more than that.
"All right. Thank you for your time, Isabella. Would you please inform Alice Brandon that I would like to interview her next?"
"Yeah. Okay." I gratefully hopped out of my seat and hurried out of the room.
Rosalie and Edward looked up. They were holding hands. This time, there was no mistaking the emotion coursing through me. It was jealousy.
I was faintly aware that Rose was saying something, asking me a question, but I didn't hear the words. I was too confused by my own feelings.
Why was I jealous of Rose and Edward? I should be happy. I should be proud. They were my friends. They were perfect for each other.
So why were my tangled emotions so full of hate for the friend standing before me?
"Bella? Did you hear me?" Rosalie asked.
I jerked. "Huh?"
"I asked, who is Whitney interrogating next?"
"Oh. Alice," I said.
Alice disentangled herself from Jasper and waved, bouncing out.
"What kind of stuff did she ask you?" Edward asked.
"Simple stuff. Why I wanted to get into acting, if I liked you guys, and then a bunch about Jacob and me. I think she wanted to cover my wedding for the magazine."
"So she did ask about your love life," Rose mused. Whoops. That must have been the question I missed.
"Yeah. She asked if I was dating, and I told her I'm engaged." I don't think it would be very smart to mention Whitney Rainsford's assumption to Edward's girlfriend. "I don't think she was very interested in what I had to say."
"I guess it's the guys that most of the article is going to be about," Rose said.
"You know, from this point out, we're celebrities," Emmett said. He'd been uncharacteristically quiet since I'd came back in. "We'll be gossiped about, and have nasty tabloids written about us. Life won't be the same."
I sighed. "That's what I'm worried about."
"I guess we'll have to go into hiding now," Rosalie said half-jokingly.
"Alice is excited about that," I added. "She woke me up by jumping on my bed and yelling about being famous."
"Alice would be excited about that kind of stuff," Edward said.
"And you wouldn't?" Rosalie questioned.
Edward shook his head. "Celebrities are superficial and self-centered. I really don't want to end up like that."
"I don't think any of us do," I said. "It just kind of…happens."
Alice came in just then, looking none the worse for wear after her interrogation. "Have fun, Rose. She's really not that bad," she exclaimed.
Only because Alice can't find fault in most people, I thought.
Rosalie blew out a puff of air. "Blech. Alright, I'm going. When I come back, we're getting outta this madhouse." In true Rosalie fashion, she exited dramatically, swinging her hips. I half-expected a puff of smoke as she walked through the door.
"What was the big deal with Whitney?" Alice asked. "She really wasn't that bad."
Emmett, Edward and Jasper stared at her bleakly.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Really."
"You've been blinded by your desire for publicity," Edward said. "You know, fame isn't necessarily a good thing."
"Uh, yeah it is! We're going to be FAAAY-MOUS!" Alice cheered.
"I don't really want to be faaay-mous!" Edward shot back.
Alice pursed her lips. "Why not?"
"Well, think about it: cameras following you everywhere you go? Fabricated relationships with celebrities? Screaming fangirls obsessing over your every word?"
"Exactly!" Alice exclaimed. "That is the life!"
"That is the life I'm not sure I want to live!" Edward shot back.
"I think you'd better change your mind, then Edward. Because when that article comes out, that's the life you will be living," Jasper said quietly.
"And that's what I'm worried about," Edward sighed. "I really am having second thoughts about the whole acting thing."
The door opened. "We're going. Now," Rosalie growled. "Come on." She dragged Alice from the room.
"I'm guessing it didn't go too well," Emmett said.
When we were all safely in the car and speeding down the freeway at seventy-five miles an hour, Rose let loose on the reason she was so mad. "Making sly comments about plastic surgery—as if I'd ever sink that low… and how maybe I wasn't worthy of Edward, and maybe should set my sights on someone that isn't going to be a movie star…she was so degrading!" Her hands clenched on the wheel. "I'll bet when that stupid article comes out, there won't be a single good thing about me in there!"
"Rose, who cares what she says," Edward said. "She doesn't know the real you, the you that we know."
Rose smiled brilliantly. "Thanks, darling."
I resisted the impulse to gag.
"Watch the road," Emmett grumbled.
If you review, I will be seriously psyched. You don't have to, though—I really don't expect anyone to.