Chapter 3

Laughing to herself internally, Lily continued to watch Alice as the short girl rummaged through some clothes as she had decided she was going to dress the other girl up completely like she was her own living doll. For the past couple of days Lily had heard nothing other than Jasper leave Alice's mouth. It seemed Alice had another goal in mind other than re-style her, and that was to set her new friend up with her brother.

Lily didn't mind it too much mostly because she didn't think much was going to come of it. She had never had a boyfriend, she was terrible when it came to guys and Jasper was a little younger than herself. Sure, it wasn't like he was a minor as he was technically an adult but if she was going to be with someone Lily would have prepared someone that didn't have the word teen added to their age.

Alice had made it her mission to be her brothers wing woman. Whether Jasper knew his sister was doing this Lily didn't know. She didn't know the situation. Jasper may not have even had feelings for her but Alice had decided she liked the idea of them being a couple and decided to try and make it happen with the blond being completely unawares of his sister's meddling.

Jasper was so smart. Jasper was so sensitive. Jasper was so kind. Jasper was such a gentleman. On and on compliments flew from the tiny girls mouth, and Lily continued to try and not grin. She didn't know why she found it so funny but she did.

"Alice you realise Jasper is only eighteen." Lily stated. Alice paused and simply stared at her.

"Nineteen." Alice eventually corrected causing Lily to simply roll her eyes.

"Nineteen then. A bit too young for me, Pix." Alice smiled in amusment. At the nickname or something else Lily didn't know.

"He's mature for his age." Alice reassured as she finally managed to decide on an outfit. Lily didn't reply. Nothing she said managed to deter the girl. She was stubborn and determined. A deadly mix apparently when it came to this girl. "Stand up and get changed." Alice demanded kindly. Lily did as she was told. "Do you want to come to mine on Friday for a movie night? You can meet the rest of my family?"

"Sure." Lily nodded anxiously. She wasn't good with crowds and she knew her friend had a big family. She also knew this was probably a ploy to get her around Jasper. Not that it was a bad thing. He was a friend and she liked his company, Alice didn't have to try too hard. She was in contact with the blond nearly daily.

"Wonderful! Esme will love to hear that. She talks about you all the time. She's ready to adopt you too." Alice gushed as she pushed the other down so she could start on her hair and makeup.

"Couldn't be adopted by a nicer woman." Lily smiled as she let Alice play.

"I'm picking your outfit for Friday." Alice told her suddenly making Lily sag in fake annoyance only to be swatted over the back of the head.

As it turns out Lily needn't have worried too much over the outfit. Alice had kept it rather casual and didn't go overboard with the only person who truly let her dress her up. It was a simply pair of black jeans with a beautiful green and black sweater that was utterly soft to the touch.

Alice had picked her up and warned her about her sister Rosalie. Apparently the girl was lovely but had a rather rough exterior that was hard to break through which gave a very wrong impression of who she really was to people who didn't know her. So Alice had warned her to try and ignore her and take whatever she may say to her in stride and not let it get to her.

If that didn't make Lily want to tuck tail and run she didn't know what would. She would have if the pixie didn't have such a strong grip. She was stronger than she looked.

Much to Lily's relief they weren't all congregated in the main room when she entered the beautiful house. Only Jasper, Esme and Carlisle were there. Jasper have her a smile which she returned and Esme jumped up to give her a hug. Hmm, still cold. Lily wondered if Carlisle would be cold too. What one member of the family had so did the others much to her bemusement.

"Hello, my name's Carlisle Cullen. It's nice to finally meet you." The head of the family greeted with a charming smile as he stood to greet her. He had cold hands too. "These three have not stopped talking about you for the last two weeks."

Blushing, Lily smiled at the handsome man as she watched Esme gently swat her husband's chest. Her heart clenched painfully in envy but also in joy when she saw, and practically felt, the love flowing between the couple. What she wouldn't give to have what they did.

"Edward!" Alice called up the stairs. "Come down! And Lily remember, Edward's always grumpy so don't think you've said something to upset him. It's just who he is."

"Yes, thank you Alice." A new voice replied as the others chuckled at his expense. A good looking boy came into the room from the stairs that were to the left. His hair had the wind swept look to it and Lily smiled in relief to find a difference about this god forsaken family. He had black eyes! Not gold! Thank the lord! She was going to literally turn and walk home if he had gold eyes like the rest of his family. She didn't understand their weird obsession with wearing gold contacts. Just a bunch of weirdos.

As she thought this she heard Edward chuckling to himself. Frowning, Lily felt a little self conscious as he smiled at her. What was he laughing at?

"Sorry, just remembered something amusing." Edward told her as he gave the girl a small smile. Her mind was giving him a headache. It was confusing. It was almost like there was so many thoughts inside her head he was almost feeling dizzy, but what confounded him was whilst this was happening it was almost like there was no thoughts in her head. The only way he could describe it was there was so much going on inside her mind it came across as blank because she couldn't decide what to land on. It created a sort of buzzing that seemed to be the source of his oncoming headache.

Maybe this was why Jasper was so interested. Maybe she felt too much. Too low and fast for the human to hear Edward asked his question.

"That and at times nothing. Not that I can't feel anything but the actual emotion seems to be empty. Like she's numb. It feels weird." Jasper responded. Alice seemed to be bored of this and ushered everyone to the couches but made sure Lily and Jasper were sitting side by side much to everyone's amusment. Though Jasper seemed to frown for a moment in suspicion at his sister that confirmed to Lily Alice was doing this all without his knowledge.

The movie was picked by Alice, Esme had provided snacks and drinks and everyone settled down to watch. It was half way through when they were interrupted by the final two members of the Cullen family. Rosalie and Emmett. Lily felt herself tense. She wished Alice had given her that warning of her sister because now all she was waiting for was to be insulted or attacked.

Jasper gave her a reassuring smile and she felt herself relax. Emmett as it turns out was a giant teddy bear. Huge but cute and cuddly. Rosalie didn't speak to her apart from introducing herself in a sullen tone and Lily was very grateful for this. She wasn't one for confrontation.

It wasn't planned but Lily ended up falling asleep during one of the movies, and woke up in an unknown bed. Looking around the room, frantic, she tried to work out where she was. Starting at the sound of a knock on the door Lily glared suspiciously at the offending object. "Lily?"

"Jasper?" she questioned in relief.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, it's fine." Oh god, where was a mirror when you needed one? Jasper looked perfect as usual which just made her feel even more self conscious. Smiling he walked over to the bed.

"You fell asleep, and no one had the heart to wake you. So I gave you may bed. I hope that's okay?" He asked, seemingly concerned that she would be upset by his generosity.

"No thank you. But where did you sleep?"

"The couch." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. Lily felt awful. She had stolen his bed. "Hey it was fine. It was my choice and the sofa is rather comfy." Giving her a charming smile, Lily let out a breath.

"Um, could I maybe use your bathroom?"

"Of course. Alice is currently picking you an outfit to leave in since you slept in your clothes." Jasper informed her as he showed her where the bathroom was. Lily groaned making the tall boy laugh. Maybe she should stop calling him boy she thought, can you class a nineteen year old as boy?

Thirty minutes later Lily was situated in Jasper's car as he drove her home. The drive was silent but it was something the brunette was thankful for. There was a lot going on inside her mind. It was overwhelming. She wasn't used to being around people, she was used to being alone and living in solitude. This was different and she didn't know how to deal with it.

Being around people were nice, especially her two new friends because they were such nice people, but her instincts kept telling her to run and save herself. Not to stick around and let them hurt her. It was a constant battle of what she should do that left her in a headache.

Shaking herself out of her own mind when she saw Jasper pulling into her driveway Lily made sure to stay in the present and not the maze that was her mind.

"Thank you for driving me home."

"Don't worry about it." Jasper replied with a kind smile before he proceeded to follow her out of the car and walk her to her door whilst pretending to ignore the way she swayed as she walked. Feeling self conscious Lily thanked him again before they said goodbye and they parted ways. Leaning against the door, when she was inside, the young woman paused for a moment before she felt herself sliding down to the floor.

What was she going to do?

So finally the rest of the Cullen's are introduced. The story will finally be able to move forward which it will in the next chapter.

Thanks to anyone who liked, followed or even read this and thanks to Veneciafm for leaving a review!

Stay Beautiful :) x