"Worried about Billy?" I sat down on the couch and watched him, waiting. He nodded, turned to me for a second, and then sighed.
"You know, if you ran away from me like Jake ran away from him, I'd have been a total mess and a wreck." He explained, still staring at me. "And Billy, he just took it so calm, and I couldn't understand. He kept saying he'd come back soon, he'd come back soon, he just needed time. I think it finally got to him, though. He's not been getting out of bed much, and he's getting paler and paler every time I go to see him. I'm sorry I haven't been around—I've just been trying to take care of him. He was starting to look better, we went fishing…" he stared up at the ceiling. "Last night he had a stroke, and they said he kept—" he stopped. Obviously, whatever it was Billy kept doing, he didn't want me to know. "Jake's friend, Sam, he's having a fit. I heard him telling all his buddies to get out there and find him, no matter what, that the game was over? I don't know what he expects. They're just kids…" he looked toward the TV. "But I hope they listen, Bella. I really, really hope they listen. Billy's in the hospital now, and he's alright, but I know this has to do with Jake leaving." And he was back to looking at me. I knew he could see how bad I was taking this—I was very pale, unable to talk. I couldn't believe it had come to this—and I was sure the pack had told Jake, so why the hell wasn't he coming home?! I was so angry with him. "Do you know anything, Bells? Anything at all?"
I swallowed, hard, trying to keep my mouth from drying shut. "If I did, I would be going to get him right now. He's being selfish now, that's all he's doing. I can't do any more for him than what I tried to do."
"So," he smiled, but it didn't make a difference. He still looked terribly sad. "I'll be walking you down the aisle soon enough, won't I?"
I could feel a million unanswered questions filling my head. I didn't know where to start. I didn't even know what was going on any more—everything was always such a blur. Charlie had become a constant that I paid no attention to—a watch I always wore but forgot to wind. I had been neglecting him, and I could see on his face that all this time he had missed me. And I had just thought I had been too, too busy…
"Listen, Dad." I said finally, rubbing my palms against my jeans, thinking. "I have an… erm… bachelorette party tonight." I said it finally, and he laughed. I knew he knew how much I hated this. "But tomorrow I'm all free, besides rehearsals. How about I come home and make you dinner? I'll make whatever you want. Edward will even stay gone for this one—just you and me." I wondered how Edward would feel about 'staying gone' exactly. He'd have to get over it this time.
But Dad was all formal business, the voice he used when he wanted to remind someone in Forks that he was Chief Swan. He sat up straighter, and said, "You know I've accepted Edward to become a part of our family and—"
"Yes, Dad, I know." I grinned, thinking about how ironic what I was saying was. "But he doesn't have to follow me everywhere."
Dad relaxed a bit and nodded, "I think it'd be nice for you to come over and make me dinner. I hope you'll come over every once in a while once you're a Cullen to make the poor lonely Swan some dinner. I don't know if I can live off of pizza."
He was obviously kidding, but what he said hurt me and cut me deep. I knew that once I was married, I could never come back to see him. I hoped more than anything he could live off of pizza.
I decided the best way to go about it was to change the subject. "I'll make breakfast tomorrow, and then we can ride together to rehearsals." I tried to sound dignified and proper, like the idea of taking Charlie to wedding rehearsals didn't scare me. Renee and Phil would, of course, be there, and Charlie definitely wasn't over her. I think he okay with the fact that Phil got to walk with Esme—after all, he couldn't do it, he was walking me down the aisle. Not only that, there was always the fact that some unknown werewolf seemed to be haunting me everywhere I turned… that could put a damper on rehearsals.
"That sounds good, Bella." He got up, leaned over me, and kissed me on the head. "I'm glad you came over."
He said 'came over' like I was already gone. Maybe, to him, I already was.
"Oh, so I don't have to follow you everywhere, hmm?" he laughed, kissing my collarbone. I learned my head back and grinned. We were sitting on his bed—we had just got home. It seemed, once again, Edward was having his weird separation anxiety, and I had only been gone for an hour, tops. My… bachelorette party was soon, and I'd have to go downstairs and suck it up while I got awkward presents from girls who would laugh and nudge me and say, 'Oh, you know what this is for'.
"What are you doing tonight?" I asked, my breathing heavy from his kisses. He didn't stop trailing his lips along my neckline for a minute, and then he looked up at me, holding his weight on both sides so he didn't crush me.
"Hunting." He said happily, and I automatically reached up, tracing the purple shadows under his eyes.
"You're hungry." I said plainly, and he laughed.
"Yes, I do need to eat every once in a while." He shrugged. "We won't be far, Jasper is a little more than paranoid…" he paused for a second, thinking. "I must say, I'm not happy about the idea, either. More than anything, though, I trust Esme. She's better than all of us sometimes. She's got what she needs to survive, but she doesn't wear it on her sleeve. And I know that she'll be watching over you all night."
I rolled my eyes. Of course, even with Edward gone I'd have a babysitter. I shouldn't have expected anything else.
"And how will Jasper watch Alice?" The idea of someone watching Alice from something that probably wasn't even there was laughable.
Edward shrugged. "I'm not sure. I'm sure when we're not hunting he'll be asking me to listen in on what she's doing—like I said, we won't always be far." He tapped on his temple and smirked.
"Yeah, yeah." I muttered, more to myself than anything. "We've got to stay at Charlie's tonight, you know."
"That's fine!" Edward said happily. "I kind of miss jumping in and out of your window."
"Only you would miss that, Edward Cullen." I reminded him, scooting out from under him to go downstairs and reach my doom. It was better to just get it over with, right?
Wrong.
The Cullen house could surely fit a wide number of visitors, but I still felt like I was suffocating with the amount of females closing in on me. All I could smell was perfume and wine, girls drank happily, though they were not of age yet. They drank with their pinkies up, laughing, making friends again. Everyone was back together after graduation, and everyone was gossiping separately, but at the same time, with everyone else. I felt like I had initiated a sleepover, and even though it was my house, I was that little girl that cried from tummy aches and missed her Mommy. The boys were long gone, off hunting somewhere, and Rosalie looked constantly alert, ready to jump on anything that jumped out at her. However, Esme and Alice were the pictures of perfection. Esme walked around the room handing out food, smiling, patting girls on the head. Alice demanded that everyone pay attention to me and, even if I didn't want to mingle, I was forced.
"Time for presentssss!" Alice said happily, and I groaned, sinking back into my spot on the couch. All the girls were laughing and clapping, obviously ready to see the gag gifts I'd get. I'd bet anything Edward had taken a break from hunting to listen in and see what I was getting, as well.
After too many pieces of disgustingly flimsy lingerie to count, I was very much so ready to crawl into a hole and assume my life as a rabbit. I didn't want to have to see anyone's face as they burst into laughter every time I opened a new box to find something from Victoria's Secret waiting for me. Each time, I'd blush deep red and stuff it in the bag, grabbing for the next one. Obviously, they had planned this out, because almost everything I got was something I could only wear if I could fill it out with my curves. I had a feeling Alice had had something to do with this, but I didn't bother to push her.
I was cleaning up stray pieces of wrapping paper while Alice ran around the room at her lightning speed, tossing cups into a paper bag. Rosalie leaned up against the wall, watching us both, thinking.
She snapped out of it suddenly, shaking her head. "I'm surprised nothing happened." She said finally, and I looked up at her. Alice stopped her running to look, too.
"I told Jasper he had nothing to worry about." Alice shrugged calmly. Esme came back in the room from cleaning some dishes she had used to serve out food. For a vampire, she was a fabulous cook.
"I'm going to go get Emmett and tell him to help clean." Rosalie said finally, getting up and walking toward the door. "The party lasted a few hours, and they left a bit before. They should be back by now."
Alice nodded, staring out the window for a second. It was pitch black; you couldn't see a thing except for Rosalie's pale, shining figure in the light, a ghost in the dark. I sighed, finishing up with the wrapping paper and starting on something else.
Suddenly, all I could hear was a thick crunching sound, then a loud, high snarl. Alice's eyes widened as she stared out the window, and her mouth dropped to form a solid 'O' for just a second before she was out the door.
"What's going on?!" I demanded of Esme, who was looking out the window now, hurt masking her face.
"Oh, this is not good." She turned to me, staring, obviously trying to figure out what to do. "Bella, I think you should go…"
"No." I stood defiant, refusing to be left out this time. "What's going on?!"
"Are you sure you want to hear this?" Esme asked, pleading in her eyes. She really didn't want to tell me.
"Yes." I told her, confused as to what could be going on. "Yes, Esme. Please tell me."
"It seems," Esme stared toward the window again. "Someone—or something—just threw Rosalie into a tree."
Usually, this would have seemed like a funny joke. Someone threw someone into a tree? Laughable, no one could hit that hard and make that noise. No one but a vampire. But who on Earth would do this, and what would they be intending to do…?
"I was attacked." Rosalie refused to sit still while Esme tried to take care of her, checking her for wounds until Carlisle and the boys came back from their trip. Esme tried to get her to lie down, but Rosalie wouldn't do it. She sat up, staring at Esme as if begging her to make her lie down again, just to see what would happen.
"We don't know you were attacked." Esme replied, putting on her soothing motherly tone.
"I was attacked!" Rosalie demanded, her voice suddenly shrill. Alice flinched. She had been the one to find Rosalie, of course. She said that the tree Rosalie had 'ran into' cracked into two pieces, the top piece hitting the ground. Rosalie seemed unharmed, but Esme didn't care.
"Whoever it was, they didn't just pick me up and toss me into a tree, you know!" she added, unhappy with the idea that someone could do such a thing, I assumed. "Something tried to jump on me—it was too dark to see. I fought him, and then I was hitting the tree and it was gone. I could smell him…" she shrugged. "If I had to guess, though, I think I might know."
"And your guess?" Alice asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. We all knew what it had to have been—if Alice hadn't seen it, there was only one thing that could obscure her visions.
The next noise I heard sent shivers down my spine. As the door to the room burst open and the night air blew in, Emmett let out a roar. Loud and uninhibited, I knew that whatever werewolf nearby would understand. Emmett was ready to kill.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" he demanded, rounding on Alice. It seemed everyone expected Alice to know all the answers. "HOW DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?!"
"Werewolf." Alice said shortly, glaring at him. She was obviously sick of everyone blowing up on her.
"You know, Emmett," Rosalie added, falling back into the cushions. "I'm over here, and I'm not hurt."
"But you could have been!" Emmett still yelled, and he snarled as he spoke, but he had calmed down a little bit, and for that I was thankful. Finally, Edward was in the door, followed by Jasper, Carlisle closing the door behind him. Edward stared at me, a look in his eyes I couldn't understand.
"This isn't funny any more." Emmett laughed, though, as he said this, and he rolled his shoulders, staring at the closed door. "They tried to kill my Rose. This used to be funny, oh, this used to be a game, but now they're trying to hurt my Rose."
"Your Rose is fine!" Rosalie stood up now, staring at him, about to walk over to him when Emmett threw his arms in the air.
"Don't you understand?!" he asked her, obviously thinking she was insane. "You could have been! You were inches away from being! I'll kill him. Whoever this is, I'll kill him. As soon we find him I'll-" Emmett turned right around and punched a whole in the wall.
"Emmett, there's no reason to cause the house to cave in on top of us." Carlisle soothed, nudging Jasper to send waves of calm I knew Emmett didn't want. "We can handle this."
"Let's go." I hadn't even noticed Edward behind me, but his arms were wrapped around my waist and his lips were at my ear. I didn't have time to protest, because he had scooped me up and I was on his back, and I knew we were running to my house.
"It's my fault Emmett's so angry." Edward whispered in my ear, curled up against me as I cuddled up into my blankets. "I was reading Alice's thoughts—we were on the way home, you know, and I just didn't know…" he sighed. "I hit the ground, and I was screaming 'Rose' when he stopped dead in his tracks. Carlisle was already trying to calm the situation, but you know Emmett. He just wouldn't listen. I tried to keep from telling him but, there was no chance of him letting it go. That's understandable; I wouldn't have listened to anything if I thought you might have been hurt. I told him something had happened to her and…." He sighed. "You know the rest of the story." He stared at me, running his cool finger along my lips, and it sent shivers through me. "I was worried that Emmett might hurt you, but I knew better than that. Either way, the situation was getting too hectic; I had to get you out of there. We're so close to the wedding…" he sighed.
"This is the problem, Bella." He said after a long pause. "Whoever this person is, they were just an annoyance before. They were just causing problems with Alice's visions, but we all assumed they wouldn't do any harm. Otherwise, we would have never left. Now, however, we know better. And Emmett, Emmett will surely kill whoever it is when he finds out. Its different now, Bella. We've got to be careful."
He pulled his hand away from my lips and pressed his against mine. I could feel the rush in my scalp down to the tips of my toes as his mouth moved against mine, perfect and restless and always wanting more but never being able to have more—was that me or him? I couldn't tell in moments like this, when we seemed to fit as one person, when everything I did made him move the same way and everything he did made me feel like I was flying. He ran his hand down my leg, doodling little circles into my thigh with his fingertips. He ran his hand down to my calf and hitched my leg up around him. This time, I knew better than to get my hopes up, and to just appreciate the moment while it lasted. I pushed my body against his—I didn't want any space between us. I never wanted space between us again.
I just wanted to say, BILLY IS NOT A NEW WEREWOLF! In my mind that would be kind of silly, and I know I might have given off that impression, but that is not the case! He's quite old, you silly people! However, if you can figure it out, I'll definitely give you a prize. I doubt any of you will get it all, though. Next chapter will be rehearsals and then, if I can get it in, the start of the wedding, which will be the REAL FUN! Just you wait to see what's going to happen there! Oh, and sorry I didn't go into the bachelorette party- I think Bella suffered enough as it was. Reviews make everything faster, you know. ;)