Author's Note:
Hello all. So I received a question or comment about Emmett and Rosalie being mated. In this story they are together, yes. That is part of the conflict that will arise, so hang tight on that. It will all work itself out, whether it be in peace or in conflict, that part we will have to see. As always, you and your reviews are appreciated. Enjoy.
Chapter 7- Breaking the Ice
Alice helped me pack for our trip, and by that, I mean she packed for me. I sat on the bed while she buzzed around my room collecting everything I might need and everything else too. I sat quietly listening the house around me. I could hear Emmett downstairs with Jasper watching TV. Carlisle was doing some work in his office. I heard Esme come in and sit on his desk. They talked so lovingly to each other. I stopped listening at that point, because I felt like I was invading their privacy. To be honest, I wasn't up for hearing that after everything with Edward anyways.
I re-positioned on the bed and put my ear to the wall to listen to the room next to me. Rosalie had been inside her room ever since her outburst, she was listening to low music, it was pretty peaceful. I could hear it clearly, but I had never heard the song. I sounded like a very old song, the kind that took a whole band with brass. I tried to listen past the music, I wondered what she if she was packing or protesting our trip still. I didn't hear her moving around. As I concentrated harder, I almost thought she had went away and left the music on to fool the others. I heard the slightest sound, it was the sound of a pencil writing. She was writing something, and from the sound of it she was writing a whole novel.
Maybe I should go make things better with her. I could tell her that I don't need her to go and that she can focus on her projects. It was my fault after all that she had the car to work on. Maybe if I told her to stay she would think about hating me less.
"You know its rude to listen in on others." Alice spoke, breaking me out of my trance. I must have been scrunching my face in my concentration. I didn't even notice her coming back from the living room, or leaving for that matter.
"How do you know I am listening?" I was curious.
"Well, for one, your ear is right up against that wall there" She said, like the smart ass she is. "And two, I can see what you were about to do. It won't help, it's not really your fault. Carlisle and Esme want her to come. She just likes to be dramatic." She spoke matter-of-factly.
"I just don't want to always be the focus of the wrath of Rosalie." I said sadly.
"You won't be, I promise." Alice said cheerfully.
Alice was just closing up the last suit case when we heard a soft knock at the bedroom door. The door opened enough for Esme to peek her head through. Esme gave us both a smile seeing that we were ready to go.
"Are we ready?" Esme asked unnecessarily.
"We are, I just need to take it all down and tell Jas goodbye." Alice spoke.
"Ok, well I have packed everything in my car, so Alice, you can try to fit as much as you can in there, I should have expected you would bring more than could fit in one car. I'll meet you both at the car."
She was out the door. Alice grabbed up a few bags and excused herself to her room to meet Jasper. I decided to gather my other two bags and work my way downstairs. I was dreading this trip, but I wanted to make my family happy. It was the least I could do.
I shuffled my way out of the room and shut my door. Before I set off down the stairs I passed Edwards room. Curiosity struck me, so I set my things down and opened his door softly. I knew the others could hear if they wanted to, but I didn't want to announce my curiosity more than I needed to. The room was dark, I turned on the switch that's location was embedded in my memory. The room was nearly the same to the naked eye. I could tell he had taken the things that were of value to him. My picture framed on his desk was still in its position. He had taken some records, some clothes, a bag and few other loose items. I noted that he had taken a book I had given to him for his birthday last year.
I felt a streak of pain run through me. I'm not sure what would have been worse, seeing nothing in his room or this. This left me with hope that he would return. I wanted to hope, I wanted to believe this would soon be just a painful memory.
I walked downstairs and outside, but slowed when I saw Esme sternly whispering to Rosalie on the other side of the car. I saw her holding her finger up towards Rosalie as if she were scolding her. Rosalie broke eye contact with Esme to look at me. Esme stopped and turned to see me as well. I had the distinct feeling that they had been talking about me. This was awkward.
Esme resumed her normal caring demeanor and approached me. I moved to meet her almost at the car. I had assumed we all take Esme's car, but suitcases filled the back seat of her Mercedes AMG G65 SUV. Her car was normally big enough to fit us all but she had some supplies for the cabin packed in the trunk. I looked at the other car next to hers and it was a sporty cherry red Land Rover SUV. I knew just by the color that this was none other than Rosalie Hale's car.
"Bella, we are going to have to take two cars. The weather might get pretty hairy up there so I asked Rosalie to let us use her Land Rover. She is going to drive her car and I will drive my baby." Esme said grabbing my suitcases and stuffing them into Rosalie's trunk. Alice was suddenly next to me with her last few bags. Esme took them and put them next to mine.
"So, who wants to ride with who?" Esme said closing the trunk door.
"I will ride with you Esme!" Alice spoke in a surprisingly bubbly tone.
At that moment, I was pretty sure my jaw dropped. I was in awe of the betrayal that Alice had just delivered to me. She must have been trying to torture me. I didn't respond or fight the suggestion, I only quietly climbed in the passenger seat of the beautiful car.
I saw Alice in the car beside me in the passenger's seat. She and I made eye contact, I chose to show her how much I appreciated this by giving her a glare. She noticed and responded with a smirk. My glare was broken by Rosalie getting in the driver's seat. The smell of Lilac, raspberries with a hint of sandalwood filled the car. Despite her attitude, she did smell and look nice. 4
She didn't speak as she put her seat belt on, and started up the car, I planted my eyes straight forward. I felt anxiously awkward. I fidgeted with my fingers a little, not knowing what to do to take my mind off the situation. I had to spend the next two days in a car with her. Maybe I could convince Alice to switch with me at some point, it was the least she could do.
It took only three and a half hours to reach the Canadian border. I spent most of the time silently trying to distract myself from everything my mind wanted to focus on. I couldn't help but think of Edward, wondering where he was. I thought of Charlie, hoping he was doing alright, wishing I could just be home making dinner for him and watching TV. It's funny how much I missed that. I thought of everything that had happened recently and how hungry I was. I was so hungry, but at the same time I could never picture myself eating again. Mostly, I thought of the thick air of tension in the car.
Rosalie had some acoustic mix playing off of her phone in the car. The music was actually a little relaxing, had I been a human I would have probably fallen asleep. Despite the relaxing music, I couldn't relax. I was an anxious wreck, and it only took me to the Canadian border to crack.
"What's your problem with me Rosalie?" I spit out as if we had been in the middle of a huge argument. I sort of stuttered on the word problem and I felt like an idiot. There was no way she could take me seriously.
She kept driving in silence for what seemed to be an eternity. I started to wonder if I had actually said that out loud or if my hunger was making me crazy. She didn't even react, she just calmly continued driving smoothly. I think that angered me even more, I was working myself up to say something else. I just couldn't think of anything better to say. I was focused on thinking of something better to say to get her to respond when she actually did.
"Why do you think I have an issue with you?" She said coolly.
Wasn't it obvious? She had been rude to me since the moment I met her. She showed her opposition to me at every turn. I felt like she couldn't stand to be around me, and then there was the car thing. Was this another way for her to insult me?
"Well, I mean… it's just…" I wasn't sure what to say. I knew why I thought that, but in that moment, I was just shocked. I felt defeated.
"So, you think I have a problem with you, but you don't know why? Or you just don't want to actually confront me about it?" Rosalie said straight faced.
"I mean, it's just everything. You obviously don't like me and I'm not sure what I did to…I know I wrecked your car, and I'm so sorry for that. I just don't get why you are…"
"Such a bitch?" she answered for me. She turned to look at me, she gave me a smirk. "You wouldn't be the first person to tell me that if you said it."
"I wasn't going to put it that way." I said trying to be believable.
"As much as you may believe it, the world doesn't revolve around you. Maybe I just don't see what's so amazing about the perfect, helpless, little Bella swan." She said mockingly.
"I am not perfect. I am a complete mess!" I said shocked that she even thought that.
"Ever since you walked into Edward's life, that's about all I have heard. The whole family bends over backwards to help you at every turn. I simply just don't share the same affection for you." She said apathetically.
"Why even help me? Why not let me fail in Port Angeles?" I spit out.
She was quiet for a minute. I wished she didn't torture me with moments of silence when she didn't answer me right away. I think she knew it bothered me, therefore did it more.
"It wasn't for you, I couldn't let you ruin our lives in Forks. Someone could have recognized you and that would have been it for us there. I hate moving."
"I think you care more than you let on Rosalie." I said turning away to look out the window. I was trying not to pout but my pride was hurting.
"You don't know the first thing about me." She responded in a whisper that was almost too quiet to hear. I didn't let on that I heard, I just focused my attention out the window. We kept driving in silence for another couple of hours after that.
We stopped to get gas and stretch our legs. I was so glad to see Esme and Alice, I had forgiven Alice just because I was so happy to see her. We were at a remote gas station along the highway. The town area seemed like it didn't get much traffic.
"How's the drive going girls?" Esme questioned cheerfully.
"Super." Rosalie said in a sarcastic tone.
"Rose, remember our conversation earlier." Esme warned trying to remain light hearted.
"How could I forget?" Rosalie stated as she got back in the car.
"Are you doing OK, honey?" Esme spoke to me.
"Yeah, we are having a good time." I said trying to be convincing. I was a little awkward and probably unbelievable. I didn't want to make anything worse with Rosalie, I mean she could hear our conversation pretty clearly. I hoped that Alice would offer to switch with me but she didn't. In fact, she quickly jumped back into the safe haven of Esme's car. I slowly walked back to my side and got back in the car. This was going to be a long drive.
The landscape was changing around us. The drive was actually pretty beautiful, we were driving around deep canyons with mountains in the distance still holding on to their Ice caps. We had only been driving for about an hour and to my surprise Rosalie spoke to me.
"I am not always like this you know." She said blankly.
"Oh, erm…" I didn't know how to respond. She didn't seem to notice.
"I have been generally discontent with this life, yes, but I am not a bad person." She sounded like she had been chewing on this topic for a while.
"I don't think you are." I said.
"People always make assumptions about me, I'm sure you have. I have high expectations for myself, I have always had to live up to expectation. You wouldn't understand what it means to be a Hale." She spoke with mocking pride.
"What does it mean?" I questioned, astonished that she was choosing to speak to me.
"Perfection. Things were a lot different growing up when I did. My family expected the world of me. I was to be a perfect lady, beautiful, humble, independent, submissive, witty and quiet all at once. Bred to make the perfect house wife for a wealthy gentleman." She spoke with a smirk on her face.
"That sounds terrible, actually." I said hoping I didn't offend. I was a little nervous that I did. She cocked an eyebrow my direction. Thankfully she also smiled, I felt like I could relax again.
"It was a different era. Women in that day were not supposed to become anything but a support to their husband, at least in my family's social circles."
"What era is this?" I realized as I asked that I didn't know anything about my travel partner.
"I was born in 1915, by the time I was of adolescence it was the early 1930's."
"I didn't know you were that old. Was your family rich or something?" I asked.
"Not particularly. My family was wealthy before the depression, my father owned a successful real estate and contracting firm prior to the depression. Houses stopped selling once the depression hit. My father also had some stocks that were worth nothing overnight. It didn't take long for his business to fail. The failure of his business put tremendous stress on him. His pride kept him out of the social assistance program lines. He took a job as an iron worker after that. He was paid relatively well as an iron worker, but it was nothing compared to the wealth he had before he lost his fortune. My father was a good man, he didn't deserve any of that."
"I'm sorry that happened to your family. Did your mother have a job." I asked innocently. She laughed cynically.
"My mother never worked a day in her life. That was common back then though. She was a socialite. Her only job was to train me to become a perfect prize for a wealthy man. Her hope was that my family would continue to be invited to events held by Rochester's Elite." She spoke as if she detested her mother.
"Sounds like she was hard to grow up with. My mother was always carefree." I laughed as I spoke. "Most of the time I felt like I was raising her. Were you ever married?"
Her attitude changed very quickly with my question. Her face fell flat, her attention and focus were back on the road. I could see her hands grip the steering wheel tighter. I wondered if I had just offended her, although I wasn't sure how I could have. I decided to try to amend the situation.
"I mean, if that's too personal, I'm sorry. I just thought were opening up." I looked down as I finished speaking.
"You and I are nothing alike Bella. This is not a moment, and we are not bonding. I just needed to correct you on an assumption you might have had of me. That is all." She said harshly.
Just like that, the Rosalie Hale I had come to know was back.