*** Thank you to everyone who is still here after the last two chapters. I know they contained extremely sensitive topics. ***
The rest of the night passed by easily between the two girls. Rose ended up deep conditioning Lily's curls while doing face masks together. Alice had joined them after Bella had fallen asleep.
Alice was another story that Lily hadn't really known. After hearing Rose's story on how she was turned, Lily didn't want to risk asking the others in the house their stories. They would tell her if they wanted to, and perhaps it was better not to know.
Alice got quiet shortly after Lily had finished her thought process. By now Lily had gotten used to Alice going into trance like states when she was getting a vision.
After coming back to the land of the somewhat living, Alice turned towards Lily and smiled a sad looking smile.
"Sorry, I can't help it sometimes." She said quietly before returning to focusing on painting Rose's toe nails a pretty shade of light blue.
"Help what Alice?" Lily asked, confused by the half answer her friend had given.
"I shouldn't say, but I'm sorry for sometimes going a little overboard with decorations."
Having decided long ago it was easier to just go with things on occasion, Lily shrugged and quickly forgave Alice for whatever offence she will make in the future.
The next day at school went by normally.
Well, mostly normal. It was hard, Lily decided, to be somewhat normal when attending the same school as Bella Swan. She wondered if this was what the other background characters in movies and stories felt like whenever something happened.
Alice came rushing towards Lily after Bella's apparent jail break from sleepover town. It was only halfway through the day, and Alice already looked ready to rip someone's throat open.
Lily snorted at the thought.
"Lily, I need you to go after her and bring her back! Edward is going to kill me if he finds out!" Alice quickly ordered, hand grasping Lily on her arm firmly.
Lily tried hard not to but still flinched at the sudden movement of her friend mixed with the pain of having her upper rm grabbed so tightly. She knew Alice probably hadn't been paying attention, but it still hurt.
"Alice, I adore you but there is no way I'm creating any more drama than there already is between you guys and the pack. I'm not well liked there currently as it is. "
"But you're the only one who can actually pass through the boundary line!"
"Realistically, why should I go there and bring her back? If she wants to be with Jacob, I mean… shouldn't that be a conversation between Bella and Edward?"
"They're perfect for each other. I can't protect Bella if Jacob or another mutt loses their temper near her! I can't even see her future when she's there! She just disappears!"
Lily shoved her arm out from Alice's grasp, disregarding the fact that she felt some of her long sleeve turtleneck rip. The sound of the fabric breaking brought Alice back from the tangent she had been on previously.
Seeing that she had hurt the small woman, she quickly brought her hands to her chest to keep them from causing any more damage.
Lily was upset. She wasn't ready to face the pack. She had yet to hear from Leah or anyone else from the pack. She knew they had made their choices, but she had hoped that eventually Leah would talk to her again. Maybe she would but invading her space while everything was still so fresh was nota good idea in Lily's mind.
"Alice, I'm not her babysitter. She's an adult. She skipped school to ride off on the back of a motorcycle with a shifter. Not a mutt. I suggest you quickly amend your vocabulary when address the pack."
Alice had the good grace to look somewhat ashamed but made no apologies for her choice of words.
"Lily, please. Can you please at least go over there and make sure she's ok?"
"Alice, I said no. just drop it." With that statement made, Lily stomped off towards her next class. Her appetite clearly gone after the pain in her arm started to throb.
Alice kept trying to catch Lily's attention for the remainder of the day, but Lily was having none of that. By the time final bell rang, Lily was mor than ready to just take a hot shower and disappear from everything.
Her head had been pounding for hours after the encounter with Alice. Her arm no longer hurt physically, but the memory of it echoed achingly. Rose, who was waiting in her convertible for Lily, immediately noticed something wasn't right with her friend.
Lily stormed into Rose's car but was still careful to prevent slamming the car door. Rose was highly unfriendly to those who abused her cars.
"What crawled up your butt today?" Rose asked in her dry sarcastic voice.
"Your sister and Bella." Lily replied, her gums starting to burn as her fangs threatened to appear.
"Well, Alice did text me to say Bella did a runner. I'm choosing not to get into it for the time being. That's between her, Bella, and Edward."
"Good idea in theory, but Alice grabbed me, and I haven't been able to calm down after.
Rosalie muttered something under her breath, but it was too low for Lily to clearly hear. Something about matching personalities.
"Alright, come on. Let's get to the house and you can help Esme garden. She's been going on about trying something else for a different property. Maybe you can make her see reason."
Gardening turned out to be an amazing way to calm Lily down. She was able to channel her excess emotions into the plants. Sure, now the Ivy that crawled up part of the house seemed to have a mind of its own but that was alright. It amused Esme more than anything to have a plant that bloomed whenever she cared for it.
Lily wondered if the plant would lose its somewhat startling ability to move and bloom on its own sooner rather than later.
The sound of a motorcycle roared in the distance but sounded as if it was coming closer. Lily was still enjoying her second helping of shepherd's pie that Esme had made for dinner for the humans. Alice zoomed through the house and out the door as the motorcycle shut off.
Lily decided it was none of her business, just as Rosalie had stated earlier. A soaking wet Bella came into the house, dripping water everywhere while Alice escorted her upstairs towards Edward's room and shut the door. The shower turned on shortly after, signaling the girl was done for the evening.
Washing her dishes, she decided to turn in as well. Lily was exhausted after the different emotional roller coasters she had experienced for the last few days.
After changing into her pajamas, she crawled into the bed she had used the night before. The last thought she had for the night before sleep took hold of her was why she was sleeping in Jasper's bed when there was surely a guest room somewhere.