These are excerpts from Chapter 2 of Eclipse that I've cut because they don't really fit anymore in the main story (I edited the path of the chapter), but I love the way Carys interacts with the Cullens.
Following Bella mentioning how perfect Edward looks:
I'm sorry. Are we looking at the same...!? He's literally the least good looking of all of them. 4/10 - is missing a brain. And the rest of it. If this family were biscuits, you've ended up with a straight-up plain, dry, overcooked one no amount of dunking could fix.
For crying out loud, he's won the award for most entitled little arse in the world, a hundred years running. Literally could still be alive and acts like his old, shriveled age, giving out kisses like they cost him something. Can't even make it past a bloody peck before he has a heart attack. God forbid he-
"Carys."
"Yes, Edward?"
"Did you forget I was here?"
She had, momentarily, forgotten to cut herself off in his presence.
"Couldn't've if I'd tried. Did you forget you were blocking out all our thoughts?"
Following Carys' mini argument with Bella and Edward (that she didn't exactly have in the same way in the end, and originally Carlisle wasn't supposed to be home for a while longer):
Carys made her way down the upstairs hallway and rapped at Rosalie and Emmett's door.
"Come in!" Emmett shouted, far louder than he needed to.
Carys opened the door and stood at the entrance, staring bleakly at the pair. They were lying on their California king bed, fully clothed, thank goodness. The television blared in the background, and Carys ducked her head in and round to see a football game was playing. Rosalie, her hair in rollers, was far more interested in the car magazine lying open on her lap.
"I said come in, not stand in the doorway looking forlorn," Emmett reminded her, waving her inside.
Carys heaved a heavy sigh, closed the door behind her, and crossed the large room to fall face-first onto the end of their bed. Emmett - she knew it was him before he touched her as the bed jogged on the right side of her - caught her under the arms and hauled her up between them.
"Was I too harsh?" Carys asked, her voice muffled by the pillow. She pushed up and flipped herself over, a thought occurring, "I'm a grown adult. Why does Bella make me feel like I want to break things?"
"It's called motherhood," Emmett commented, his attention split between her and the screen.
"But I'm neither of their mother."
"Aren't you?"
"I think I'd know if I'd pushed one of those two out, yes."
Emmett smirked, looking down at her. "Someone's moody today."
"It's called being bloody infuriated."
"Called it," he said, switching off the television. "You're experiencing parenthood. Symptoms include tiredness-"
"Check." Carys raised her hand and ticked her finger through the air.
"Infuriation."
She repeated the gesture. "Check."
"Love."
"Hmm." She dropped her hand to her side.
"Pride."
Carys emitted a non-committal grunt. "Have you met your brother?"
"He's trying."
"Is he?" she asked, staring at their ceiling. It was cream, the same shade as the base of their wallpaper, but unlike the walls, it was free of the beautiful gold trees and birds that brought the large room to life. The heavy red curtains were drawn over the mirror. "I guess he is in his own way... But Bella?"
"She's a teenager," Rosalie said, lending her voice to Bella's cause.
It was surprising enough that Carys tilted her head up to see her. Had Rosalie had some strange blood? It wasn't like her to defend Bella of all people. Carys grimaced. Even with rollers in and from below, Rosalie's beauty was unquestionable. It reminded her of Carlisle and how unfair it was when she sometimes ended up looking like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards and he looked like he'd had a pleasant stroll across the Moors.
"You do realise no one should look like you do from this angle, right?"
Rosalie smiled smugly and turned the page before patting Carys on the arm. "Bella's acting like a teenager. Edward's really quite upset right now. You all but said you'd given up on them both - him, at least."
"And if I have?"
"Is that really fair?" Rosalie asked laconically. "All he asked for was a weekend to visit his future mother-in-law."
"Who died and made you the voice of reason?" Carys asked, pulling one of the three pillows from beneath her head to hug it rather tightly as she grumbled, "He's lying about the reason why, and I doubt Bella knows he is. How can he want to marry someone he refuses to be honest with?"
Rosalie's eyebrow quirked, and she shared a look with Emmett before she answered:
"Quite easily, as it happens."
"Yeah, well... It's just," Carys plumped the pillow, "he's got Carlisle and Esme. He can deal with them. I doubt it'll make a difference to him, anyway."
"You're not serious?" Emmett cut in incredulously.
Carys looked up and shuffled away a little when all she could see was muscle and the side of his strong jaw.
Emmett shifted away to assist her. "Edward loves you."
"Effing funny way of showing it," she grumbled. "I doubt he gives anyone but himself the slightest bit of interest. Except Bella and Alice, of course. And Carlisle, but that goes without saying. He literally worships Carlisle... And Esme. And-"
"Emmett, could you give us a minute?"
Emmett nodded and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"I don't like Bella," Rosalie said, abandoning her magazine at last.
Carys nodded. "Why d'you think I came to you?"
Rosalie smirked again. "You know, you have to rise above it all. I don't need to. Now, that's the easy part. The harder part is thinking that this isn't for now, it's for eternity. I really do feel bad that I can't like her, even after what she did in saving Edward... That's by-the-by. The main problem of it all is that if Bella's going to change, she needs to see that you're not just another human.
"If she treats her father in the way she does, why do you think you would be any different? She obviously sees humans as below vampires, and she's not alone. The rest of us do to varying degrees."
"You've been reading Emmett's books, haven't you?"
"We do talk, you know. He is my husband after all."
"So you're saying I have to lump it?"
"You did try with me, you know - even when I clearly disliked you."
"That was different," argued Carys.
Rosalie raised one eyebrow and scoffed, "How?"
"It just was," Carys said.
She wasn't exactly sure why it was, but it was. There was something about the way Rosalie was that was different to Bella. Carys thought deeper about it as their conversation lapsed. Did it have to do with the way they'd each acted, or was it something else? The way they acted with her over time? Bella's inconsistency had a large part in it all - Rosalie had a reason, Bella simply seemed far more selfish.
"You can't say that without having a reason, Carys."
"There's just something about you," Carys admitted. "There always has been. I can't describe it... It's like... I don't care if people don't like me, I care if they act as if everyone's there for them and treat them horribly."
"Didn't I treat you horribly?"
"No," Carys answered a little too quickly.
Rosalie laughed. "I can't think of a single time I treated you well for a long time."
"Name a time you thought you were mean and I'll tell you why you weren't," Carys countered.
"Alright..." Rosalie considered for a couple of seconds, clearly running through her memories. "The first time we met, at the hospital. I judged you and reminded you of a moment you embarrassed yourself."
Carys grinned at the memory. "I liked you."
"You couldn't have."
"Ah, but I did - and not because you were beautiful, because... I don't know... I did use to like Bella, you know... Until a few months ago."
