Isabella Swan
[Author's Note: Hello everyone! So this chapter will be a bit longer because I wanna get everything in here before the party next chapter. I hope you guys are having a wonderful, wonderful Monday. Thank you so much for the reviews. :') You are all so amazing.]
Alice gave Bella a piggyback ride to the shelter while Edward carried all of her gear. It was sort of a terrifying experience and she kept her eyes closed the entire time. She adored the wonderful vampire with the pixie cut but Alice Cullen was no Rosalie Hale and she longed to be curled in the blonde's vampire's arms instead. She'd become so addicted to her touch that going too long without it was torture.
When Bella and the vampires parted ways, Alice hugged her tightly and said, "You have to have patience with Rose. She's all in but she's.. Guarded."
Bella was more than willing to wait. "I know," she said. "I understand that. I don't mind waiting for her at all. I'll wait as long as it takes. I just want her."
Alice beamed. Then she reached into her pocket and removed a slip of paper and put it into the human's hand. "This is her number. She doesn't know I'm giving it to you. I know you have your walkie but I thought.. texting would be easier this weekend." She winked. "Are you alright from here?"
Bella's heart skipped excitedly at the prospect of texting her beautiful blonde vampire. She said goodbye to Alice and Edward and looked eagerly forward to digging her phone out of her bag.
Leah met Bella at the shelter and gave her a big bear hug. "I'm so glad to see you," she gushed, squeezing the brunette against her. Leah was muscular and strong and really good at crushing her accidentally when she got excited..
"Leah," Bella coughed. "Can't.. Breathe.."
"Sorry!" The taller more experienced park ranger released her and then stepped back. "You look good! You look really good actually. First few weekends you came down, you looked beat but now.." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What've you been doing? Taking midday naps?"
Bella shook her head. "No I've just been.. sleeping really well."
"Out in the middle of the forest?"
"Nature is relaxing," the brunette offered, shrugging.
They went to Leah's park issued Jeep and she tossed Bella's backpack and supplies in the back.
"Shit, this stuff is heavy. It's funny to think of you carrying all this for 30 miles."
"Right," Bella agreed. She'd done it before and she was very grateful that Edward had offered to carry it for her this time.
First, Leah took Bella to Charlie's house to get some clothes. He wasn't home so she let herself in with a spare key, stored her backpack and camping gear in her bedroom and packed a small bag for the night. She didn't forget to get her phone before she left, though it was regrettably dead. Then they drove to the next town over called Lanchester. It was the closest "city" and in addition to a small mall, it had a Radisson hotel and a super sized Walton's Department Store. Jessica lived in a really nice apartment complex with a pool and gym access. Her dad paid most of her rent.
When they got there, Angela's red Volkswagen Bug was already parked outside. The two girls came out and met Bella and Leah and they all exchanged warm hugs.
"I'm sorry I smell like nature," Bella apologized. "I'm gonna take a shower if that's okay."
"Of course!" Jessica said cheerfully. "You know where it is. But honestly you don't smell like nature really.. just.. different. Like cinnamon maybe?"
"And vanilla," Angela offered. "Like you're wearing a really nice, really expensive perfume."
"I noticed that," Leah said. "I just figured it was some kinda fancy bug spray." She laughed.
Bella knew exactly what it was they smelled on her skin and her stomach flipped when she thought about it. She couldn't even be around Rosalie without being in her arms or.. having the blonde touch her in some way. The evening before, they'd done yoga for hours, just helping each other get into deeper and deeper stretches.. Of course Rosalie's scent had rubbed off on her. How could it not have? She brought the collar of her shirt to her nose and inhaled the sweet aroma of her. It immediately made her lightheaded.
Quickly, she came up with an explanation. "I must have brushed up against something," she said, "some flower or something."
"You should go find it," Angela suggested, "and we can concoct our own perfume and make a lot of money. It's a good smell."
"I agree," Jessica stated. "I don't want to sound weird but you smell really good Bella."
The four of them laughed. Then the brunette, still wanting to stand in a stream of running water that hadn't come from a rain barrel, excused herself to bathe. She got some clothes from her bag, plugged her phone up with Angela's charger and took the nicest shower she'd had in over a month- the only shower she'd had in over a month. Jessica always had the best shampoos and conditioners and body washes. When Bella got out, she felt fresh, clean and ready for the night. But she couldn't smell Rosalie on her anymore and she hated it.
The sun was beginning to set when she met everyone back out in the main room. The pizza had just arrived and two boxes of it sat on the coffee table steaming. A party-pack of frosty malt beverages were also waiting for her. "Grape," she exclaimed, seeing what flavors there were, "my favorite."
Bella and Angela and Jessica and Leah clinked their bottles together in a cheers toast and then began snacking on their pizza. Bella had been so distracted by the scent of the fresh hot food and the prospect of drinking lots of alcohol legally that she had forgotten about her phone. She leaned over to where it sat charging on the end table and turned it on. A month's worth of emails and texts and missed calls filtered onto it. Bella siphoned through all those, responding to important ones, deleting others. She cleared all the rest of her notifications and then, digging into the pocket of her sweat pants, she pulled out Alice's note. It said in curly, expressive handwriting that exactly matched Alice's voice, "Rosalie Hale 555-2022".
With fumbling fingers, Bella typed the number into the address box of a new message and then sent a text. "Alice gave me your number," she wrote. Then biting her lip, her heart pounding, she began another one. "How am I supposed to sleep tonight without your arms around me?"
Jessica and Angela and Leah were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was a group favorite, ironically enough. Bella sat, kicking her leg absentmindedly, still munching on a slice of pizza, a second beer open in front of her. But she wasn't watching anything but the screen in her lap. And when it vibrated, her heart did a somersault and when she read the message, she sucked in a quick breath. No one else noticed.
"How am I supposed to handle the next twelve hours without placing my lips to your throat?"
"So Bella," Leah said suddenly and Bella's eyes went to her face in surprise. "Tell us about your special admirer."
"What.." she read the text again quickly, relishing it. "What about them?"
"Special admirer!?" Jessica practically screamed. "Bella Swan, you tell us right now, or I'll never speak to you again. You're talking to someone!?" She smacked Angela in an expression of excitement and Angela yelped and held her sore arm. "In all the time I've known you!"
"In all the time I've known you," Angela agreed, nodding.
"Bella dated someone in highschool before she moved to Forks," Leah said. And then she narrowed her eyes. "But yeah you better tell us right now."
"What was the guy like in highschool?" Jessica asked curiously.
"Unimportant," Bella quickly said. "And um. Okay. Hold on." She gulped a large drink of her beer and chewed and swallowed the last of her pizza. Then, wiping her hands on a greasy napkin, she grabbed her phone and replied to Rosalie.
"You can put your lips wherever you want." She sent it and then turned off her screen, dropped her phone into her lap and then smiled at her friends. "Okay what do you want to know?"
"Appearance," Jessica began, "family, job, um, net worth." She giggled. "Ang?"
"Interests."
"And intentions," Leah provided faux-sternly. "What is this guy wanting to do with our sweet innocent Bella?"
Bella frowned. "I'm not that innocent," she argued and then mentally answering Leah's fake question, she thought anything she wants.
"Appearance," Jessica reminded her.
"Oh." She thought immediately of Rosalie's eyes, then her nose and her.. Lips. Then her mind began to stray to other parts.. "Blonde," Bella said quickly, stopping herself, "amber eyes.. Perfect body. Umm.. Very nice dresser."
"Long hair or short?" Angela wanted to know.
"Long."
"Show us a picture," Leah suggested and Bella felt her phone vibrate again.
"Um," Bella tapped her fingers on her phone and then she said, "No social network accounts."
"Damn," that was Jessica. "Fine. Family, job and net worth."
"Mother, father, a brother and a sister in law. Entrepreneur," Bella guessed, "And uh.. A lot?" She wasn't sure about that last one but Rosalie was always dressed immaculately. The other three girls all exchanged looks.
"Interests," Angela said again.
"Right," Bella got a third beer out of the box, twisted off the cap and took a big drink. She lifted her phone and when she read it, she bit her lip.
"You're a bad girl taunting me," it said, "when I'm not there to be able to do it."
Bella's head was spinning a little from the alcohol and without thinking too much about it she wrote back, "Can I have your tongue too?"
"Interests," she said to Angela, already searching for answers. She didn't know a great deal about Rosalie in all honesty. She knew what she was and about her family, she knew she liked to party and she liked Bella. She made a promise to herself to drag all of those questions out of Rosalie soon. "Having a good time," she answered. And then before Leah badgered her she said, "And I think the intention is to date me."
"Makes sense considering he's throwing you a party and all," Leah shrugged.
"Wait a second," Jessica said, her eyes wide, "are you telling me that Bella's secret beau is the one throwing this party tomorrow which, by the way sounds elaborate as fuck." She got up, removed something from the fridge where a heavy magnet was holding it there and handed it to Bella.
The invitation, which came in a beautiful black lace envelope, was also lace. It was printed on pearly, almost marble looking cream colored paper and it said in a gorgeous scripted font, "Join Bella Swan and friends on 13 September at the Radisson Hotel in Lanchester for a birthday celebration. There will be food, drinks and dancing. Semi-formal attire. Party begins promptly at sundown." There was no signature and the entire message read kinda like something Alice would say.
"Like all the guys from the Rez are coming," Leah said. "You know they are with parties."
"Eric and Tyler are coming," Angela said, naming her boyfriend and his best friend too.
"Mike might come," Jessica said, "depending." She looked at Leah. "Is Jake gonna be there?" Jessica always found Jacob Black super cute and while he pretty much felt the same, Jessica's constant boyfriend problems, and his incessant crush on Bella sorta got in the way.
"Definitely," Leah said. "He's obsessed with Bella. He wouldn't miss it."
Bella's phone vibrated and she had to fight the urge to whimper pathetically when her eyes quickly scanned the text. "Depends on where you want it." Rosalie replied. "On you or in you?"
"Who's that you're texting?" Jessica asked leaning over Angela to look.
Her eyes shot back up to her friend's face and she quickly turned off the screen to her phone. "Um, no one," she said.
"No one?" Leah scoffed. "It's him. She's texting him right now."
Everyone was a few beers in at that point, even Angela who hardly drank. Leah reached from the recliner over to Bella and swiped for her phone playfully. "Have him send a picture," Leah said and laughed.
"Have him facetime us!" Angela suggested, excitedly.
"No," Jessica suddenly said, "Have him come here and meet us."
They all began to squeal and insist at that point and Bella had to get up from the gaggle of them and back away slowly to respond. "You drive me fucking insane" She told Rosalie. And then, to stop the persistent demands of her friends she wrote, "Can I see you?"
An immediate response read, "Right now?"
"Yes," Bella hurriedly replied, "My friends really want to meet you. And I know that's a big deal and if you don't want to that's okay. I know you're meeting them tomorrow, but they keep asking me questions about you and they are driving me crazy trying to get you over here tonight. And honestly idfc if you meet them or not, I just need your hands on me soon or I'm going to lose my fucking mind." A couple of seconds ticked by and then Bella added, "But I've been drinking and so you don't wanna come, that's okay."
Thirty seconds passed, if that, and then Rosalie responded with, "Send me the address."
When Bella told them that her "beau" was coming, Jessica and Leah took shots of Jager and Angela clinked her malt beer to their glasses. They asked how long it would take and when Bella estimated twenty or twenty five minutes her pulse began to race. Everyone got super excited and when ten or more minutes had passed, Jessica led them all outside onto her private porch. Her apartment and all the ones around it had townhouse vibes. Leah and Angela sat in the front porch chairs and Jessica leaned excitedly against the railing. Bella, nervously flipped her phone in her pocket.
"What does he drive?" Leah suddenly wanted to know.
Bella had no idea. "I'm not sure actually."
"If he's rich, he probably drives a Mercedes," Jessica said dreamily. "Or a really nice Subaru or something."
Angela reached over and touched Bella's arm. "Even if he drives a pick up truck, I'm sure he's still perfect," she said reassuringly.
"Maybe he has a sexy Mustang," Leah suggested. "Or a-"
Her words trailed off then as the sound of screeching tires was heard outside of the apartment complex and quickly after, a car sped into sight and parked a few parking places back from Leah's apartment.
"Bugatti," Leah said, awestruck, standing up from her chair to get a better look. "A fucking Bugatta Chiron! And a new model too.." The engine purred for a moment and then shut off. "Who the fuck drives that?"
"I've never seen it before," Jessica replied, just as mesmerized by the extremely expensive car glistening in the moonlight. "They have to be visiting.. Someone with a car like that could buy this entire complex and then some."
Angela got up too and the three girls looked at the luxury car with incredible interest. Bella's heart climbed up into her throat and she stepped off the porch and towards the sidewalk, like a girl possessed. The other's asked her what she was doing but she ignored it. She swallowed nervously and stood on the end of the sidewalk in front of Jessica's apartment. And then the door opened.
Rosalie was wearing faded blue jeans and strappy gold heels. A designer jacket with nothing beneath it was buttoned tightly over her cleavage. Her perfect blonde curls were placed around her face with absolute care, her sexy pink lips were framed into a subtle smirk and her eyes.. When she got closer, Bella saw that they'd returned to their delicious honey shade.
"Who is that?" Jessica asked. "She's a-"
"Model?" Angela suggested, her voice as enchanted as Jessica's.
"More like Goddess," Leah offered, expressively.
Rosalie seemed to drift across the parking lot and when she finally reached the brunette, she stopped, took Bella's hand and brought it to her lips. She placed a kiss there and then said, her tone absolutely even, "Hella Bella Swan."
Jessica made a small noise behind her.
"Rosalie," Bella responded, breathily, the beer making her bold. "You are so fucking hot."
The gorgeous blonde vampire smiled, and then put her lips to Bella's ear and whispered, "Introduce me to your friends, Sweet Girl."
"Okay," she said.
"Deep breath," Rosalie suggested quietly, "Ready?"
Bella nodded. She turned to her friends and Rosalie slid her cool hand into hers. When she saw the expressions painted on their faces, she realized with absolution that she was immune to the charm. What Rosalie made her feel was something on a whole other level.
"B-Bella," Jessica stammered, "who is your friend? Are you, um," she motioned nervously to the car, "a movie star?"
"No," Rosalie said.
Leah and Angela were stunned into silence. Leah looked beyond stunned. She kept looking back and forth between Bella and Rosalie and letting her mouth drop a little bit more open.
Bella licked her lips. "I'm, uh, not talking to a guy."
"What the fuck," Leah finally muttered, still openly staring.
"This is Rosalie," the brunette went on. "Rosalie this is-"
"Leah," the blonde said, "Angela, Jessica." She motioned to each one in turn, getting them correct, and then said, "It's wonderful to meet you all."
"Do you want to come inside?" Jessica offered, quickly, putting her hand on the doorknob. "We have pizza and beer and-"
Rosalie lifted her free hand. "I greatly appreciate the offer but I only stopped by. I'm meeting my father for dinner after this."
"Are you a model?" Jessica asked.
"No," Rosalie replied, smirking, "I'm not."
"Well you could be," Jessica insisted. "I mean god Bella, what the hell." She motioned wildly to Rosalie's entire body, then to the Bugatti and finally she made a gesture to convey that her mind was exploding.
"Right," the brunette park ranger agreed, looking up at Rosalie and feeling an intense magnetism. "What the Hell?" She was aching to have Rosalie's arms around her and she made a quick decision. "Will you guys excuse us for a second?" she asked her friends. "I mean, I just want to talk to Rosalie for a second before she has to go."
"Okay," Leah said, finally speaking, "But you have a lot of explaining to do in a minute Kid."
The three went inside, Angela still silent and enchanted. When the door was closed, she turned back to the vampire and looked up into her face. Rosalie took her into her arms and embraced her, lifting her slightly and spinning her around. When she put her down, she kissed her forehead. Then, so that they weren't so easily spied on from Jessica's window, Bella took Rosalie around the side of the building.
"Do you have to leave?"
"I do," Rosalie said.
"But I thought you hunted earlier today?"
"I did." Rosalie brought Bella back to her and began stroking her hair, "But I can't be around you tonight."
Bella's eyes were closed, her face buried in the vampire's cool neck. "Why?" she wanted to know.
"Because you're drunk," Rosalie purred quietly, "and you're relaxed and you want me."
The brunette huffed. "Yes," she said, "I do."
"I'm at the end of my rope," Rosalie told her. "Just wait a little longer Babydoll." She put her hands on Bella's waist then and began to walk them up under Bella's shirt. When her cool fingertips slid across the warm skin of Bella's abdomen, they both gasped quietly.
"Alice told me I'm driving you crazy," the vampire said, her lips to Bella's ear again, "Am I? Am I driving you crazy, Little Bell?"
"Yes," Bella breathed. "Everything you say, everything you do, your texts." She pulled back and caught Rosalie's golden gaze. "I'm so into you."
Rosalie smiled. She brought one hand between them and gently stroked Bella's cheek. "Are you excited for your party, Bella?"
"Yes. Are all my friends going to act like that around you?" she asked.
"Just for the first hour or so," was her answer. "They'll begin getting used to it by the end of the night." She paused and then offered, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," was Bella's quick reply. "I don't give a fuck as long as you're there." Bella's eyebrows pulled together and she said in a rush, "But listen, you don't have to buy me anything. I just want to spend the night with you."
The vampire didn't say yes or no. Instead, she wrapped her hand around Bella's chin and brought her lips extremely close to hers. Her voice a velvety, seductive purr she said, "But Bella, I've already picked out what you're getting tomorrow night and.." One of her hands slipped down Bella's waist to her ass and gently, causing the smaller woman to whimper, Rosalie squeezed. "I think you'll really," she nuzzled gently, her nose pressing against Bella's neck just below her ear, "really like it."
When Rosalie said goodbye, she put her lips temporarily on Bella's neck. When the brunette floated back inside she was absolutely wasted on more than just beer.
The three women immediately jumped on her, demanding details and sexuality announcements and more details. Leah was the first one to smack her for not telling them. Then, when they all sat back down on the couch, Angela spoke. She was shaking her head as if coming out of a trance. She looked at Bella and then leaned in and smelled the brunette's tee shirt.
"Oh my god," she said, grabbing Jessica's arm in her realization, "That smell is her."
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