"So, where is my dance?" Bryce asked, coming up behind her, wrapping his warm, muscular arms around her waist. He placed his chin on her shoulder; he reeked of alcohol.
Alaina knew she was dreaming and she tried to will herself to wake up. She didn't want to dream about this again. She didn't want to wake up in tears and in pain...
"You really think I'll be chosen for dance captain?" Alaina said, pulling away slightly so she could look at him. His bright blue eyes sparkled mischievously. She tried to play it cool and not let her excitement reach her voice.
Alaina watched this happen from above and screamed at her reflection to stop, to walk away, to punch him, to do literally anything but to let this unfold in front of her again.
"You've been flirting with me all night… I think I've earned a kiss," he said. He pushed his lips roughly against hers and she could taste the stale beer on his lips.
"I - I don't -" she tried to say in between his forceful kissing. "Bryce stop! Please! " She said, trying to push him off.
She couldn't bear it any longer; she tried to close her eyes so she wouldn't have to relive the moment where her life was changed forever.
"Come on, you know you like it," he said, kissing her jawbone and moving his way to her neck. His hands moved to the hem of her shirt and he moved to pull it upwards. He snaked his fingers up her thighs.
"Bryce… what are you doing?" She said, starting to feel sick to her stomach. His hands on her bare skin was making her flesh crawl.
"Bryce, please… no," she said, her eyes starting to tear up. "Let me go."
"You're going to like this," he said, ignoring her. He pulled her skirt off…
Alaina woke up in a cold sweat, her heart beating out of her chest and her breath short. Bella was standing over her, a look of fear in her eyes.
"Alaina, are you okay? You were having a nightmare!"
Alaina closed her eyes and tried to steady her breath. "It wasn't a nightmare," she said quietly. "Well, I guess it was. But I dreamt about the night that I was…"
"I'm sorry," Bella said knowingly, stopping her. "Are you okay? Do you need anything?"
"Do you have water? Or orange juice?" She said, noticing that she was lightheaded from the thrashing and the sweating during the night. Bella nodded and went downstairs.
Alaina turned to let her legs dangle of the bed as she tried to steady herself. Cursing, she closed her eyes tightly. Get out of my head, you bastard! Stop ruining my life! Tears began to well in her eyes. She was mad at herself for not feeling strong enough to move on, not feeling brave enough to confront him. This will be over soon enough.
"Here," Bella said, breaking her out of her thoughts. She hastily wiped her eyes with her shirt and gratefully accepted the orange juice.
"Thanks Bella," She said, taking a sip. She could already feeling the life coming back to her. Bella sat down at her desk and looked at her cautiously.
"I had a dream too," she started slowly. Alaina raised her eyebrows to notion her to continue. "Now I know this sounds crazy, but just bear with me…"
Alaina groaned. "Just get on with it Bella. You're not crazy!"
"I had a dream that the Cullen's were vampires," she said rapidly. "And I think they actually are in real life… I was doing some research while you were asleep and I'm telling you, they are vampires."
Alaina stared at her, her eyebrows raised. "I take back what I just said. You do realize how crazy you sound, right? Like, you have to know that you sound absolutely nuts right now."
"I know I sound crazy, Alaina," Bella said quickly, jumping up to get her laptop. She opened it, started typing furiously, and thrust the laptop in Alaina's direction. "But look at this. Everything fits. Everything."
"Bella," Alaina said gently, pushing away the laptop. "I'm not going to humor you with this. There are no vampires! There's no way that's even possible!"
"You're my best friend," Bella said, grabbing the laptop and placing it next to Alaina. "Please just read this website. That's all I'm asking."
She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you're going to pull the best friend card on me? That's low, Bella… real low," she groaned, grabbing the laptop from next to her. "The cold ones? Is that what people who are afraid to say vampires call them? Like Voldemort in 'Harry Potter'?"
"Oh my God, you're so funny," Bella said sarcastically, playfully tossing a pillow at her friend. "Keep on reading."
Alaina began to scroll through the website which was broken down by region. She was surprised to see that almost every large culture had a folktale about these supernatural creatures… and she was even more surprised to see that there was a specific page for the Pacific Northwest. She clicked on it and began scanning the page. "Extreme strength, blood drinkers, speed, cold-skinned, immortal, blah, blah, blah. Bella, I have to admit that the Cullens don't seem human. But even if by some literal miracle they weren't human, none of these fit!"
"Actually, they do," Bella said, shutting the laptop. She looked at Alaina seriously. "I know I sound crazy, but I'm serious… Almost all of them fit."
"I mean, I don't sit at their lunch table so I don't know for sure, but I don't think that the Cullen's drink blood flavored Capri Suns."
Bella rolled her eyes. "But have you ever actually seen them eat anything? They get food from the cafeteria, but I've never seen them put one fork to their mouths."
Alaina considered this, but shook her head. "We don't stare at them. How do we know if they don't eat?"
Bella ignored her and continued, "And the strength and speed. You saw just as well as I did that Edward ran over and stopped Tyler's van from hitting me. You even said yourself that there's no way that he could have gotten from his car to me that fast. And then how could a normal 17 year old boy dent the side of a van to stop from crushing me?"
"Adrenaline?" Alaina countered, but had to admit Bella had a good point.
"Think about Emmett in gym class. Is he faster than everyone else? Stronger than everyone else?"
Her mind started to spin to her first few P.E. classes. Emmett was easily always the first one to finish the warm up, and she had never seen him break a sweat. She involuntarily rubbed her forearms where Emmett had spiked the ball to her. She had bruises for days and he did warn her that it he hit the ball he would hurt her.
"And the cold-skin," Bella continued, her voice dropping dangerously low. "When we had the cell lab in biology, I touched Edward's hand when I was handing him the microscope. He was cold as ice, Alaina."
Alaina chewed the bottom of her lip in thought. She knew Bella would never lie about any of this but it was still impossible to believe. "How could a group of blood-thirsty vampires seamlessly integrate into a high school?"
"Has it been seamless though? They keep to themselves for the most part. And you can't deny that they are all breathtakingly gorgeous. They don't fit in. And how come the only thing they have in common are their golden eyes and pale skin?"
"I don't know Bella," Alaina said, starting to get frustrated. This isn't possible! She thought. Vampires aren't real! "Maybe Mrs. Cullen only wanted pale, beautiful kids to adopt."
"You know I'm onto something and you just don't want to admit it," Bella said in satisfaction.
"No, but I know you're on something," Alaina laughed at her joke, rolling her dark brown eyes at her friend.
"I'm serious Alaina. I know this sounds crazy. Trust me, I know. But you know they aren't normal, and I know you're smart enough to see that there are more than a few coincidences here."
"Okay, I can admit that you have a decent case… but this is just impossible."
Bella sighed. "I know it is… but somehow this makes more sense than any other theory."
Alaina remained silent, but her mind couldn't help but wonder and entertain Bella's hypothesis. She would never admit it out loud, but Alaina could see it, and could see very clearly that the Cullen's were not normal, and were in fact far from normal. But she couldn't see them as dangerous monsters. There was just no way that any of them killed humans.
Compared to the weekend, the following Monday was exceptionally normal. Alaina and Bella were sitting at their table during lunch. Normally, Alaina tried to tune out everyone but Bella, but during the morning announcements, the principal stated that prom tickets would be on sale soon, so all hell broke loose.
Jessica was going to prom with Mike, although not without trying to ask Bella first. Alaina snorted when she told her; as if Bella would go to prom period, let alone with Mike. Angela asked her long time crush Erik to go with her, and he said yes. Lauren was asked several times but has yet to decide who she was going with, and Ben and Tyler asked sophomores. Alaina and Bella were the only ones who weren't going.
"Bella, Alaina, you have to go to prom," Mike said bites of hs sandwich. "It won't be the same without you both there! We need the whole crew!"
Lauren audibly scoffed, but the table ignored her. "I'm going to see my mom that weekend," Bella said, picking at her apple.
"Come on, Bella. Can't you go another weekend. I mean, this is prom! It's the biggest day of our lives so far!"
"The tickets are non-refundable, sorry. And either way, school dances and me just don't mix. I think I'd even rather take a history class than go to prom."
"You are so dramatic Bella," Lauren said unkindly, rolling her eyes.
"Detroit, come on girl, I know you want to go!" Mike said, turning his attention to Alaina.
"I don't want to go actually," she said simply. "Being around a bunch of drunk people trying to dance doesn't sound like my idea of fun."
"But it's a tradition! It's a right of passage!"
"I'll regret it for the rest of my years, I'm sure," she said sarcastically, ending the conversation. Even though Mike followed them around like a very loyal labrador retriever, she knew he meant well, so she wanted to stop herself before her temper came out.
"Well, I for one need to get a dress before all the good ones sell out," Jessica said dramatically, trying to bring the attention. "I know! Let's go to Port Angeles! They have the best shopping there! Let's go tonight after school."
Angela nodded excitedly. "Do you guys want to come too?" Angela asked Bella and Alaina politely. The bell rang to signal the end of lunch, and the students at their lunch table slowly started to disperse around them.
"Yeah, you totally should!" Jessica added excitedly, her eyes lighting up. "It would be so nice to have someone to give me, I mean us, feedback on our dresses. Please come!"
"Yeah, I'll go," Bella said. Alaina furrowed her brow. She knew that Bella hates shopping and was confused with her sudden desire to watch other people try on clothes. Bella is up to something, she thought. She has to be.
"Umm, sure," Alaina responding as well, not actually wanting to go, but she wanted to see what Bella was planning.
"I still don't understand why you aren't going to prom," Jessica asked, walking beside Bella and Alaina. Bella started to open her mouth to interject, but Jessica carried on. "It's not like you're flying to another state or whatever. Like, you're new here. You're the shiny new today, right? You could go with almost anyone that you wanted to go with. I just don't get it!"
"No one has asked me," Alaina said sadly. She didn't want to go because she didn't want to be put in a situation where people would be drinking, but she realized that the fact that no one had asked her stung more than she originally thought it would. "Once all the beautiful people get asked and people start looking for the scraps, maybe I'll change my mind."
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Don't be annoying, Alaina. You'll get asked - I know you will. But anyway, see you tomorrow!"
Bella and Alaina walked quietly to biology, the pain in Alaina's heart deepening with every step. Would I say yes if someone asked me? She thought as they walked into the classroom. Alaina walked to her seat with a heavy mind. She didn't want to go, she knew that for certain. But why did feeling unwanted hurt so bad? She could feel tears welling up in her eyes so she put her head down on her desk and waited for Mr. Banner to start class. In that moment, she had never felt so alone in Forks. But with her head down, she didn't see the intense, concerned amber eyes staring at her next to Bella.