Epilogue will be posted shortly!
"We'll be right back."
The two graduates slipped outside. It was early evening, but the cloud coverage blocked any ounce of sunlight that could possibly escape from the clouds. They began walking slowly down the road, not saying a word to each other.
"So, Alaska of all places?" Bella squinted her eyes at her, "I mean c'mon, do you wanna get frostbite?"
"I can't exactly say Washington State or Pine, not when they're so close and...I won't be there." Bella twiddled with her fingers, twirling the ring in her index finger.
"That's the part I'm not looking forward to the most. Every Birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter…"
"New Years, Independence Day…" Bella continued.
"I'm going to have to sit and think about how my Mom won't know the real reason why her daughter fell off the face of the earth," Lani sighed.
"Edward essentially told me in fifty years it won't matter."
"God, Bella. I don't want to think about that."
It became silent in between them again. The sidewalk was running out which meant a return to the caos.
"I'm getting married."
Lani stopped in her tracks, her eyes bulging at this new and unexpected information.
"Married? Like, married married? Church, bells, flower girl?"
"No!" Bella cringed, "Gosh no. Ceremony, most likely, not a church though. Thank goodness."
Her arms were stiff, she was looking anywhere but at Lani, and the more she observed the other girl something dawned on her.
"You don't want to get married."
"Is it that obvious?"
"I mean, you didn't want to go to prom and you practically ran us out of there when your dad started talking about how proud he was of you," Lani said. Bella pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "That's not exactly, I wanna get married! Behavior."
"You could call it, a compromise of sorts. I get what I want and he gets what he wants."
Lani's mind was always a block away from the gutter, so she didn't even have to ask.
"No sexy time before marriage?"
"In a way," Bella looked down and away. "It's basically the only human experience I actually want before I become like him, but I want to be me when we commit to that for the first time, completing the bond," she looked at her then, "And he just wants us to be married first, reassurance, I guess. Call him old fashioned."
"Reassurance? For what?"
"It's just a precaution."
Could that precaution be the fact Bella was technically fated for someone else? This mystery person neither Bella, Alice, or Aro would share with her. They both had their own separate precautions in a way, Bella wanted to become a mosquito so Edward would never leave her again, while Edward wants Bella to become his wife as a sort of eternal contract that might replace the mating bond. Real healthy if you ask her, but Lani was not going to belittle her friend.
"You know?" Lani snorted, "Sometimes I feel like your boyfriend is older than mine." The brunette cracked a small smile. "Do you think after we wake up, we'll be us?" Lani wanted to hear her input.
"I don't know. I want to be different from a regular newborn, I only hope that I'm strong like Edward, and not a—a monster."
Do apex predators think of themselves as monsters? Did the newborns in Seattle consider themselves monsters, or did her own theory of relativity occur? Aro didn't consider himself a monster before she practically called him one, considering they were antelopes on the food chain, they shouldn't be ones to judge.
"All I want is to not take away someone's loved one. That's it," Lani asserted, then moved on to something lighter.
"When's the wedding? Does your dad know? What does he think? You know he's gonna kill Edward right? I noticed he hates his guts."
"There's a good chance that you're right about that."
Cars passed them while heading back to the diner. As Bella stepped in, Aro stepped out. The tiny amount of food he ate wanted to come out of his frozen stomach. In response she made a terrible comment that border lined gross, which made Aro stare at her in alarm.
Lani looked hopefully at her boyfriend.
"No."
"You're boring." Lani snatched her phone from inside his pocket to find several text messages waiting for her, the ones from Jessica were alarming. "Oh my god."
"What is it?"
"My friend, her boyfriend broke up with her…again." Lani continued to read, growing more upset with each word. "He ditched her at the river. She needs a ride. Can I borrow your keys, please." When he narrowed his eyes she tried harder. "You see I'm getting better at driving. The Lauren shitshow really shook me up."
Standing in front of his car, Aro followed after her, "I could join you in assisting your friend," he suggested. "I would prefer it, quite frankly."
"I think it's better I go alone. I don't want her to see you and then think I'm spreading it or anything."
Aro seemed to consider her point of view, "Were you not the one who initially assumed this friend of yours would prematurely tell others about your separation from mister Crowley?"
"Well, yeah, but—"
"Then you're being oddly generous," he concluded.
That wasn't entirely fair. Being left on the road after getting dumped is completely embarrassing, and with Jessica that would be magnified by a hundred. It didn't help that her friend wasn't all that familiar with Aro.
"I'll be back soon, okay? I'll just pick her up, get a pint of ice cream for her to munch on, and then we can continue our little game of trying not to defile my mother's house."
"Sex," Aro luaghed. "That is always on your mind lately. What in heavens have I done?"
"I liked sex before metting you...but I liked it a whole lot more after." Talking openly about this stuff with him was easy.
"I've corrupted you.
"Call it dickmatized. Don't pretend like you don't enjoy it as much as me or even more." Aro stared down at her. "Exactly."
"Would you believe me if I told you that simply watching you breathe is incomparable to any acts of passion that may happen between us?" He wondered.
"Then I would say you just found a loophole. I breathe a lot during sex."
He scowled while she laughed, then hugged him, "This shouldn't take that long. Stall for me, okay? Say those nachos tore my stomach up."
"Take care of yourself, amore, but also," he giggled a bit, unsure of himself, "Be mindful of the car...Carlisle would have one over me if even a scratch marred it."
Grabbing his keys she backed away, "I knew you liked getting spanked. Kinky bastard." Aro tensed.
"Kinky bastard?" They both turned at the unamused voice, her head slower than his. "Is that how you let your plaything refer to you, Aro?"
"Hello, brother. You have not departed as of yet."
"No, I have not. I'm partially disgusted to have witnessed the end of this troubling conversation." Rosalie wasn't the Hellenistic statue, no, it was Caius in his perfect stern glory. "We are departing, brother. I suggest you dispose of your whore before we leave."
Of course that hurt, even more so when Aro stopped hugging her. The fact it was only a facade was something she had to remind herself. It was for the greater good, for the time she needed. The unexpected was Aro's response.
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"No. I will not dispose of Kalani, because she is the love of my life, a genuine joy in this neverending existence, my mate," Aro spoke proudly towards his shocked brother, then sweetly grinned down at her.
"Your mate?" Caius scoffed "All the more reason we should depart home and ready her change."
"You fail to understand my dear brother. I plan to remain with her until she decides to join us. That could be tomorrow, next year, the next decade even." Lani was speechless. "I will wait, and enjoy every moment of it."
"Very funny. What of your title? Your duty? Hmm? Your wife? Your family?" Caius pressed harder while Aro kept his eyes trained down to hers. "You plan on disposing of this for a—for this lowly girl?"
"Yes, I do." A kiss ghosted her forehead, making her eyes flutter. "And if she desires to explore this beautiful world after, I will join her."
"You do realize what this means, Aro?" Caius confirmed slowly, she began to realize.
"No...don't do that. Don't throw away your family for me," Lani insisted, in disbelief.
"Oh, amore mio. My existence was nothing but an earl gray before you covered it in pure gold. My ambition has not faded, not in the slightest, but it's focus has." Aro took his into his arms, her feet no longer standing on the pavement. "I love you so much, and I will do anything for you. Fate has destined you to depart from your life, it is only fair mine follows."
"Well shit."
