AN: I'm not dead! Here's chapter 3, please enjoy!
Chapter 3
Edward Cullen, a vampire, was standing next to my car telling me we needed to talk. Ok, no big deal. He probably just wants to talk about onion root tips, right? He's definitely not going to bring up the fact that I told him to stop reading my mind.
I think being next to him was making me a little giddy, because I immediately plastered the biggest, probably stupidest-looking smile on my face. "Sure, what's up?" I said, and then immediately cringed. My voice sounded brittle and afraid, which was not the impression I felt like giving Edward right now.
"Why did you tell me to stop trying to get into your brain?" he asked, and he really just seemed genuinely curious.
"Um…" I said, pretty obviously stalling for time. He seemed content to wait for me to say something though, and it was pretty uncomfortable with him just serenely staring at me so I just said the first thing that popped into my head.
"Um… well… some people can just do things, you know? Like, special things? I just kind of know things, and you can like, see into people's heads? Read minds or something? Maybe you just can't read mine because you're not supposed to know what I know!"
I have to say, it sounded like a pretty good excuse to me. Of course, knowing Edward he was probably just incredibly curious about what else I knew.
"So you're a clairvoyant? Fascinating. What else do you know about me?"
Can I say called it? I did notice that Edward's question was a little clipped, as if he had just stopped himself from saying "what do you know about me and my family?" I was pretty sure he was referring to his vampirism, because I don't think there was anything else about him that was such a big secret.
"Nothing," I said with a shrug, and I was pretty impressed with how even my voice came out.
"Really?" he asked sarcastically. "Then why did you know that I needed to stop breathing and smelling last week?"
Oh, fiddlesticks. Of course that was going to come back and bite me in the butt.
"I… don't know what you're talking about. I mean, I know I'm a pretty unusual person but even I try to avoid telling people to stop breathing. You were pretty sick that day. Maybe you just thought you heard me say it?" Yeah, that was a pretty weak excuse. If he falls for it, Edward really is an idiot.
He narrowed his eyes at me. "I don't believe you."
"Yeah, probably a smart call on your part. I've been told I'm not a good liar. Would've been embarrassing for you if you fell for it." And I was rambling again. Fantastic.
"Tell me what you know." Wow, he was pretty serious. Although I guess if I was a supernatural creature and some rando human knew secret stuff about me I'd be pretty serious too.
I sighed. "Fine, but can we talk somewhere warmer? It's very cold and wet out here." I started to turn back to my truck before he answered, just assuming we could inside the cab.
"Erm…" I turned back around at the sound of Edward's voice. "Could we use my car?" he asked.
I raised my eyebrows. "Do you have something against Big Red?"
"I… wait did you name your truck?" he asked me, looking confused. He didn't give me a chance to answer, just shaking his head, before he said "No, it's not that. It's just that my car is… safer."
Ok, someone has a car-superiority complex. I rolled my eyes at him but started walking over to the grey Volvo that was one of the only cars left in the parking lot.
It was a fancy car, with keys that beeped it unlocked, and I threw my backpack in the back seat before settling in to the front. I had a feeling that Edward was going to want to drive somewhere when we were done talking, otherwise he probably wouldn't have made such a big deal about us sitting in his car instead of mine.
When Edward was situated in the driver's seat beside me and the heat was on full blast he turned to look at me.
"What else do you know about me?" he asked seriously, intently staring at me.
"Vampires. You and your family are vampires."
He sighed. "I was afraid you would say that."
"What, why?" I said. I mean, I know that the Volturi or whatever have a rule about humans not being able to know about vampires, but me knowing wasn't really anyone's fault. I mean, I read a book, and then I woke up inside said book. There's not really anything that anyone could have done about it.
"Well, humans knowing about vampires is a safety concern normally. We obviously keep the fact that vampires even exist a secret. I would guess that since you're clairvoyant there's not really anything we can do about that…." He trailed off, and I could sense that there was more that he wanted to say.
"But?" I prompted him.
"But I'm not the best person to make a decision about what we do now," he said. "I'm going to take you back to my house. I want you to meet the rest of my family and tell them what you told me. We don't keep secrets."
I couldn't help myself. "Well of course they can't keep secrets around you," I scoffed.
Edward started to get a tormented look in his eyes and I immediately felt bad. I'm sure he didn't want to have to see what his family was thinking all the time. That has to be hard.
"Hey," I said, laying my hand on his jacket covered arm. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by that. Why don't you just take us to your house."
He nodded and put the car into drive. "And roll your window down in case I start smelling too good or something."
Edward smiled. Brooding-hero Edward actually cracked a smile. I felt irrationally proud.
Edward whipped the car out of the parking lot and he drove very quickly down the empty road onto the highway. I peeked at the odometer, and saw that he was doing about 90 miles per hour. He rolled both our windows down and I leant my head on the window sill, letting my hair stream out behind me into the wind, taking in the exhilarating feeling of moving so quickly.
I don't know what Edward's reaction to this was, if he had one at all, because I had my eyes closed against the pressure of the wind. I didn't open them again until the car slowed down and began to drive over a rough gravel driveway.
We were in the woods, driving up a long gravel pathway. I glanced over at Edward only to see that he was staring at me.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing…" he trailed off. "You looked so peaceful on the drive over." His eyes were soft and there was a little smile on his lips, and my heart fluttered a little in my chest at his comment.
I quickly got over it when I looked at the house we had pulled to a stop in front of though. It was the house I had seen from my run the previous weekend. I glanced up to the left side of the house and saw a little cliff that looked like the one I had stumbled on during my run.
"What?" Edward asked, probably noticing my distraction.
"I saw this house on Saturday," I said. "I was on a run and I came out of the woods on that little cliff up there and I could see your house in the valley." Then another thought occurred to me. "That's why the woods were quiet, weren't they?"
Edward looked startled. "The woods were quiet?" he asked.
"Yeah. Don't animals not like vampires?" I said, as I pushed the car door open and got out.
Edward nodded slowly, and I felt a little bad. He was probably so used to keeping everything vampirical a deep, dark secret, and here I was, just throwing out references willy-nilly.
"You're very observant," he said quietly, leading me up to the front door of his house and going in.
I had expected a house with lots of white from reading the descriptions in the books, but reading and imagining something and then actually seeing it were two very different things, as I had learned from my weeks as Bella.
Most of the walls that must have been in the house originally were gone, and I could see all the way to the back of the house from my position right inside the front door. The whole back wall had been replaced with glass and I could look right out it to see a large green lawn that sloped down to the river that I had seen behind their house before.
The effect of essentially not having a wall meant that the house was very bright, even on a cloudy day like today. There was an enormous white staircase dominating the right side of the room, and all the walls, ceilings, and floors were done in shades of white. It was almost overwhelming in its brightness and I had to wonder if vampiric vision made the brightness more or less tolerable.
To the left of me was a raised section of floor (white wood) that held a massive grand piano (also white, of course). Standing on the raised floor next to the piano were Carlisle and Esme. Esme was the only vampire I hadn't seen yet and she was just as pale and gorgeous as the rest of them, but there was also something more human about her. She was about as tall as me, and she wasn't as angular as the others were. There was something soft and rounded to her form that reminded me of my own. She had caramel colored hair that curled softly a little past her shoulders, and she seemed to have a glow from within that the others didn't have.
I didn't see Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, or Emmett and I didn't know where they could be. I was a little surprised that Carlisle and Esme were waiting for us but the rest weren't, or how they seemed to have known I was coming, but then I remembered Alice's visions. I supposed she must have seen me and Edward speeding towards the house and instructed everyone to be ready.
They both smiled at me, but made no move to approach. "Hello," I said, and my voice seemed too loud for this almost magical house. "I'm Bella. I don't know how much Edward or Alice said about me, but here I am?" I ended my introduction on a question, mostly because now that I was here in the Cullen's house I wasn't totally sure what I was supposed to say.
Edward seemed to notice my unease because he smoothly took over. "She knows about us. She's clairvoyant. I thought it was best to discuss the situation together."
"I see," said Carlisle, the almost imperceptible raise of his eyebrows the only sign that he wasn't expecting this. I guess Alice must've just told them I was coming over but she didn't know what for. Probably because I still had no idea what I was going to say to a coven of vampires to explain myself. I certainly couldn't tell them that they were made up characters in a book I had read back in the real world, so I just hoped whatever lies I thought up were good enough for them.
Esme walked towards me with the most beautiful and kind smile I had ever seen and gestured towards the back of the house. "The kitchen is this way. Would you like a snack?"
"Oh, um, sure. Thanks," I said lamely, trailing after Esme as she led the way to the back of the house towards the kitchen.
When I stepped inside the kitchen I got my answer as to where the rest of the Cullen's were. Rosalie and Emmett were sitting side by side at the breakfast bar, his large arm wrapped around her smaller frame. Jasper was sitting straight-backed on the stool next to Rosalie, and Alice was standing next to him, her hands on his shoulders. Fleetingly, I thought it was funny that even sitting, Jasper was still a couple inches taller than Alice standing.
Alice immediately flitted over to me, a little too fast to pass as human. "Hi, Bella," she said, perkily. "I'm Alice," she introduced herself, before going in for a hug.
"Oh, hi," I said, shooting a look at Edward. I was not used to the touchy-feely hugging thing, especially with someone like Alice, who I really didn't know at all. Edward did not seem inclined to help me out though, just hiding a grin until Alice ended the hug.
"Oh, wow," she said, leaning back. "You do smell good."
"Alice, what are you…" Rosalie started to say, with a hint of panic in her voice.
"It's okay," she said, "Bella already knows."
Rosalie looked livid. "What do you mean, 'Bella knows?'" she said to Alice in a quiet but forceful tone. "Bella knows what?"
"About us. That we're vampires," Esme said calmly. As you can imagine, that did not at all relax Rosalie. She rounded on Edward this time, yelling "You have known this human for a week! Seven days, and you thought it was alright to tell her our biggest secret?"
To be honest, I totally understood Rosalie's anger, because that's what it looked like. And seriously, if Edward had actually told me (or Bella) that he was a vampire after only knowing me for a week he would be an idiot.
"I didn't tell her," Edward said angrily, at the same time Alice cried out "No, it isn't like that, it's okay!"
Seeing them gang up on Rosalie like that, especially when she didn't know what was going on, made me feel pretty uncomfortable. I know what it's like to have people not listen to you and to gang up on you. "I already knew," I said. "No one told me, it's just something I know. I've always known. I'm clairvoyant." I'd read enough young adult fiction to know that being clairvoyant was kind of like having premonitions of the future except there were no visions, it was just like having knowledge about things dropped into your head. It seemed as good an explanation as any as to why I would know about vampires.
Rosalie still seemed a little angry, but I didn't think it was directed at me so much anymore. "Edward thought I should talk to you all about it since my knowledge affects all of you."
Carlisle came forward then. "I suggest we all sit down, and let Bella explain what all she knows about us and then decide how this knowledge will affect our lives and hers."
There weren't enough seats for all eight of us in the kitchen so I followed everyone back through the house until we were in the living room again. Emmett settled into the middle of the big white sofa, with one arm around Rosalie and the other resting behind Jasper. Alice perched on the arm of the sofa, holding hands with Jasper. Carlisle and Esme sat down in one of the two loveseats, leaving me and Edward to the other one.
"Well," I said, looking around the room at all the Cullens. "There are some things I just know, and the fact that you are vampires is one of them."
That was a very brief description for a very complicated topic, and I heard Rosalie make a huff of annoyance.
"What other things do you know?" Carlisle asked gently.
"Ok, well, I know that vampires are a real thing. And that some vampires have gifts that are supposedly linked to the strongest traits a vampire had in their human life. So like mind reading, seeing the future, emotion manipulation or whatever it is you do," I said, gesturing to Edward, Alice, and Jasper in turn as I named their powers. "And I know you don't kill people, which I think is pretty neat. And also way better for your eyes. Golden eyes are way prettier than red eyes in my opinion. Not that I've ever actually seen any vampires with red eyes before, but I can't imagine it's attractive.
"Also I know what happened to everyone. Like what your human lives were like and what happened to everyone and how you all ended up like this."
"What do you mean, you know about our human lives?" asked Alice after I finished my somewhat wordy explanation that, to be perfectly honest, still did not do justice to the amount of knowledge I had about this strange world I had found myself in.
I definitely didn't want to tell the Cullens that their lives were a book and I was from some alternate dimension and had died? I guess? And then somehow ended up here in the body of someone I was not because that sounded too crazy even for a group of vampires to believe. So I modified.
"I guess the best way to explain it is that it's like reading a book, or watching a movie in my mind. Over a period of time, new information just kind of appears in my brain, and then I know it. And like reading a book, some of the information goes a little fuzzy or I forget it if I don't use it in a long time. It's been about five years since I started to know about vampires."
"What is the extent to which you are familiar with our human lives?" This question was from Carlisle.
"Ok, well for instance with you, I know that you were born in England sometime in the 1600s. Your father was a preacher, but one of the really scary ones who killed a lot of people under the pretense that they were monsters. And I know you didn't really want to go along with that but you kind of had to because of the time period and you just did what your family did, right?
But you were too good at hunting monsters because you accidentally found a coven of real vampires, and then one like, tried to kill you? But didn't? I'm actually not really clear on that part because that vampire definitely had to know that you weren't dead and that you would become a vampire but he still totally left you which is frowned upon because newborns are so crazy and hard to control.
And then you became a vampire and tried to kill yourself but it didn't work because you guys are basically invincible. You tried to starve yourself rather than eat people which is super admirable by the way, because from what I've heard the bloodlust is ridiculous. And then you found deer and ate them instead of people and then blah blah blah, Volturi happened somewhere in there, you met a bunch of vampires, you turned Edward because his mom asked you to, you met Esme a couple times, turned her, turned Rosalie, turned Emmett, Alice and Jasper joined the family, blah blah blah, the pact not to eat people with the Quileute tribe, and here we are today. The end."
Carlisle looked a little shell shocked at all the information about his past that I, a total stranger, had just thrown at him.
"So I know a lot," I said lamely when it looked like no one else really knew what to say. The thought also occurred to me that normally a human who knew about vampires had to either be turned into a vampire basically right away or else be killed to prevent the human world from finding out about them. I really didn't want to become a vampire. Not for another 10 years year at least. I didn't think that it would be a problem based on how Bella's life had gone in the books and it had taken her so long to be changed even though she really wanted it, but I still felt as though I should mention my wishes to the Cullens, just in case.
"Also I'm aware of the Volturi law or whatever saying that all humans who know about vampires have to be turned or killed, and I'm super not into that. Becoming a vampire is a huge decision and I'm 17 years old and definitely do not feel equipped to make that kind of decision, so I'd like to stay human for a while, if everyone here is cool with that. I promise not to tell any humans about you."
"I think we're safe with her." This quiet, monotone comment came from Jasper, and let me tell you, it was quite a surprise to hear Jasper out of everyone speaking up in my defense. In the books Bella and Jasper hadn't really had any kind of relationship. Based solely on Book-Bella I had been expecting either Alice or Edward to come to my defense.
Rosalie turned on Jasper. "What do you mean, we're safe with her? She doesn't just know about us, she knows about the Volturi, about the wolves, about basically everything. How can someone who poses that much of a threat be allowed to live?"
"Rosalie!" Esme said sharply. "She's right here." Turning to me she continued, "How long have you had your visions dear?"
I had read the Twilight books for the first time when I was in middle school, and that seemed as safe an answer as any to stick with. "When I was around 12," I said. Rosalie scared me shitless, but I still had to stick up for myself. So I turned to her and said "I've known about vampires for five years and I haven't said anything. I'm not going to. Besides, who would believe me?"
"She won't say anything," Jasper spoke up again. "I can tell."
"I think she's ok too," said Alice, smiling over at me. "Even though Edward can't read your mind, Jasper can still feel your emotions and I can still have visions of you, so we'll know if you try anything." The last part was said with just a hint of warning, and I internally shivered at the reminder that these were creatures of the night and could kill me so easily.
"I think this whole situation is extremely fascinating," Carlisle said. "It's so interesting to get to know people with different powers."
Emmett opened his mouth for the first time since I'd entered the Cullen's house. "Hey man, the more the merrier. Do you like video games?"
I laughed. "I love video games and trashy TV."
Emmett laughed and opened his mouth again, but whatever he had been about to say was cut off by a loud, drawn-out growl from my stomach. I immediately turned bright red.
Upon hearing my stomach's plea for food, Esme jumped up from the loveseat. "Oh my goodness, we've kept you here for so long, you must be so hungry. What do you like to eat? We have plenty of food in the kitchen."
I also got up from my seat and followed Esme to the kitchen, Edward walking beside me and the rest of the family trailing behind us.
Esme had not been kidding about having food in the kitchen. She had opened up the cupboards and fridge to let me pick something out to eat and there was a ton of stuff to choose from. There was pasta in the cupboards and fresh meat, veggies, and fruit in the fridge. There was even a selection of drinks, including orange and apple juice as well as cans of soda and a gallon of milk. I was assured by Alice that there was also ice cream in the freezer.
"I don't mean to be rude, but why does a family of vampires have a fully stocked kitchen?" I asked. "I mean, it's not like you can eat it."
"Well, it started out as a way to not look suspicious," Esme said. "It's a small town, and people would notice if I wasn't out and about in town and at the grocery store, especially because I don't have a job and have five teenagers to take care who obviously need to eat. But it felt so wasteful just getting rid of everything that wasn't easy to donate so I started to cook. I donate almost everything I make to the homeless shelter and soup kitchen so that the food goes to good use."
"That's so admirable," I said, suddenly feeling very emotional that Esme, who had so much, used her considerable wealth and amount of free time to give back to those who were unable to take care of themselves.
"Are you alright?" Edward asked me suddenly, gently laying his hand on my arm over my shirt sleeve.
"What? Why?" I asked, feeling a little confused.
"Your emotions are all…" here Edward trailed off and gestured his hands to indicate that they were going a little crazy. Of course. Jasper's ability to recognize what people are feeling.
"Oh, yeah," I said. "I just know what it's like to not always have enough to eat. You're truly helping people," I said to Esme.
She smiled gently before asking me what I'd like to eat. I settled on the relatively simple spaghetti and meatballs despite Esme's attempts to make something fancier. Even still, by the time we were done in the kitchen the table was set with spaghetti and meatballs, a salad, and Carlisle had pulled a pound cake out of some cupboard and placed it on the dining room table.
The scene at the dinner table when all eight of us sat down was very funny, when you took into account that of all eight seats at the table, there was only one place setting, one glass of water, and all the food was squarely in front of me.
Despite me being the only one who could even stomach the food Esme had prepared family size amounts and I wasn't embarrassed to admit that I would be asking to take the food home to me and Charlie given that neither of us were big on cooking.
As I tried to daintily eat my salad (but let's be real, I was basically shoveling the delicious food into my face) I tried to strike up a conversation so that I didn't have seven vampires watching me eat.
However, me being me, I immediately went for the big questions instead of starting out with polite small talk. "What was it like when you realized what being a vampire was actually about? Like with the sparkling in sunlight instead of bursting into flames? And the never sleeping and being super attractive? Oh my god and the invincibility? That's gotta be pretty rad."
There was a small pause before anyone answered and I could see that again they were still trying to process how much of their deep dark secret I already knew.
"Well it was pretty easy for me," Alice said. "With the visions I could see other vampires and I got used to it really easily."
"It was probably the toughest adjustment for Carlisle," Esme said. "Alice had her visions, Jasper had his creator, and the rest of us had Carlisle to teach us. Carlisle didn't have anybody."
"I was initially displeased when I learned that vampires were much harder to incapacitate than I had previously thought. It was difficult at first. To be honest, it was sleeping that I missed the most. I felt exhausted, not physically, but mentally, just being awake all the time. But it's been so long now and the details of my human life have become so blurry that I no longer miss anything from it." Carlisle said.
I nodded. "It's pretty insane that you managed to hold off from blood from so long by yourself. It's the coolest thing that you didn't have anyone telling you what was going on, no one taking care of you, and the bloodlust going through you and you've never drank human blood. Man, everyone else has slipped up even with you to help them. Except Rosalie of course, which like damn. Mad props."
"What?"
This was from Rosalie. She sounded surprised. Fuck. Yes, look at me, the dumb human who's putting way too much of her knowledge of vampires on display.
With no way to backtrack, I decided to forge ahead. "Sorry, I know this is totally like an invasion of privacy that I know so much about you guys. But I think it's really impressive that you have never had a drop of human blood before. I've heard that in the newborn phase it's pretty much impossible to abstain on your own—" I cut myself off abruptly. I had been about to bring up that Rosalie had been around plenty of human blood a couple years into her vampirism when she found Emmett, but I really didn't want the Cullens to know the depth of knowledge I had about them, at least not any more than I had already given away.
"Oh." Rosalie said simply. "I see." Her face remained expressionless but I couldn't help but feel that she didn't hate me as much as she had earlier today.
The conversation died off for a bit there and the eight of us sat in uncomfortable silence, the only noise being the scrape of my fork off my plate as I shoveled spaghetti into my mouth and my (admittedly noisy) chewing. When I felt like I couldn't take the silence anymore I blurted out "What's the worst fight you guys have ever had?"
Emmett started laughing as soon as I got the question out of my mouth. "Oh my God. When Rose and I got together, on our first honeymoon we were pretty oblivious to how we were affecting other people and their things."
Here Edward interrupted with a quiet grumble before Emmett continued.
"And Edward here has always been pretty into the piano. So, he had this super nice white baby grand, and Rose and I might've, possibly, by complete accident, totally destroyed it."
I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing, looking between Emmett and Edward. Edward was looking at the ceiling grumbling to himself, but Emmett wasn't done yet.
"But wait, that's not even the best part! When Edward found out, he was really mad, and he came and confronted us. And do you know what he said?"
"No, but you have to tell me!" I said excitedly, at the same time Edward started to say "I don't really think that's necessary."
"Shush," Emmett said, waving a hand at Edward. "He said, and I quote, -" and here Emmett schooled himself into a perfect imitation of Edward– "Emmett's a newborn and can't be expected to control himself. But you, Rosalie! I think you destroyed my piano on purpose!"
"Oh my God, that's hilarious," I said, turning to look at Edward. He was looking anywhere that wasn't any of us, and I swear that if vampires could blush Edward would have been the color of a tomato.
"It was such a long time ago," he said, turning to address Rosalie. "And I wasn't really that put out. It was really getting to be time to replace it anyways."
Rosalie smiled at Edward. "It's okay, Eddie."
"Oh, don't call me Eddie," he muttered under his breath.
"What about you, Alice?" I asked, not wanting to ignore the vampire that became Bella's best friend.
Jasper was the one who answered. "Alice doesn't fight about things that happen, she fights about things that she sees happening, and then this confuses all of us so much that most of the time we don't even end up fighting about what she saw anyway."
Alice grinned up at her husband's face. "Well, he's not wrong," she said.
At this point I was done eating, and just sitting at a table with seven vampires, enjoying their company. I opened my mouth to ask them more questions, but all that came out was a massive yawn.
"Oh, wow, I'm so tired," I said, my automatic response to myself whenever I yawned.
"Oh, dear," Esme said, with motherly concern. "We've kept you here for such a long time, you must be wanting to go home and sleep!"
"Yeah, I should probably be getting home soon, I didn't tell Charlie I was going out and I don't know when he's gonna start worrying."
"Let me pack your food up for you and then Edward will drive you home," Esme said kindly, getting up to pack up the excess of food the family had made for me.
I thanked her and stood up, moving into the kitchen. Alice darted up and gave me a quick hug goodbye. "See you soon," she said, before flitting off somewhere with Jasper, who nodded a goodbye. Rosalie and Emmett also made themselves scarce, Rosalie with no acknowledgement, and Emmett with a booming "See you later, human girl!"
Carlisle and Edward were the only ones who followed me to the kitchen, where Esme was already done packing all the leftover food into cute little Tupperware containers. "It was lovely meeting you, Bella," she said sweetly, handing me the food and moving into the arms of her husband.
"Thank you for coming, Bella," Carlisle said formally. "It is nice to know that our secret is safe with you."
"It was really great meeting you two, as well," I said, remembering my manners.
Edward and I walked back to his car with only a minor bit of tripping from me. I was quiet as we pulled out of the long private drive onto the main road, expecting Edward to just drive me back to the school where my truck was, but instead he asked "What's your address?"
"Oh, um… thanks, but can you just take me back to the school? I need to pick up my truck and drive it home so I can get to school tomorrow. Since it's only Monday and all."
"Don't worry about that," Edward said. "I can just pick you up in the morning and drive you to school."
"Oh my god, no!" I said. Charlie would notice that the truck wasn't there when I got home and it wasn't louder than snoring whale, and if he didn't notice tonight, he would almost certainly notice tomorrow morning when he left for work at the ass-crack of dawn. No, I certainly didn't want to deal with his questions. Or the questions that all the kids at Forks High would ask when I rolled up tomorrow with Edward Cullen, a notoriously unfriendly person, as my chauffer.
Edward looked slightly wounded at my response. "No offense, I just don't want to deal with Charlie's questions." I said. "He literally gave me the truck a week ago, I don't want to have to explain why I suddenly don't have it."
"Well that's fine," Edward said. "You can just give me your keys and I can have Alice or Rose drop the truck off tonight so it's there in the morning when he wakes up."
"That's sweet, but totally unnecessary. Just drop me off at the school, I can drive it home myself."
"No, it's no trouble at all," Edward said. "I just don't want you driving around when it's this dark."
Excuse me? I mean, ok, I knew he meant well, and honestly, I should've expected this from him at some point, given his treatment of Bella in the books, but I do not need to be taken care of. And I know how to drive at night!
"Seriously, dude? Thanks for your concern and all, but I'm driving my own car home. I know how to drive at night. And it's not your call. Take me to the school."
Edward looked like he wanted to argue some more, and had a very put-upon look on his face that I was not a fan of, but ten minutes later he pulled into the school parking lot.
"Thank you for taking me to meet your family, and for the food, and for taking me back to my car," I said as he pulled into the spot next to my old truck.
"Of course," he said. "Please be careful driving home."
I cracked a smile. "Don't worry, I promise I'm a good driver. And this old truck can take a lot."
I was about to get out of the car when a thought occurred to me. "Can I ask you a question?" I asked Edward.
He didn't say anything, but nodded his assent, so I charged ahead.
"Why did you come back?" He looked startled and a little confused, so I elaborated.
"From Alaska. You knew I was your singer. Hell, I know you almost killed me that first day. I know I'm just a human and in the grand scheme of a vampire's life I can't mean that much, but I'm not ready to die yet."
The look of confusion turned to one of guilt, and Edward seemed lost for words. He opened his mouth as though he was going to speak, but nothing came out. Even though I was totally within my rights as a human who wanted to continue living to question if Edward could control himself around me, I felt bad, and it was a struggle to stay silent long enough to let him answer my question.
"I know you are my singer, and it would probably be better for both of us if I stayed away from you. And this might sound unfair, but Forks is my home, and I was here first. I will not be pushed out of my home just because you smell good. I have had 100 years to get used to being around humans, and I know that I can control myself." He stopped for a second, and I thought he was done speaking before he added, "And Alice has promised to watch for visions of me… hurting you… and will be able to stop me if it looks like I'm headed in that direction."
"Thank you for explaining," I said. He was right, he had been here first, and I didn't think that he should have to uproot his entire life if he thought he would be able to control his. "And thank you for the food and the ride tonight. See you later."
I drove home with no mishaps, and I didn't see Edward trailing me, even though I was almost positive that he had. Charlie was in the living room watching TV when I walked in. He asked me how my day was and what I had been doing after school. On reflex, I lied, and told him Jessica Stanley had invited me over to study together and have dinner with her family. He seemed satisfied with my answer, and I went upstairs. As I was getting ready for bed, I thought over the course of the day. I was very relieved that the Cullens were aware that I knew about them already, and that they seemed to accept my lie that I was clairvoyant. At least I didn't have to keep pretending not to know anything about them.
To be perfectly honest though, I was struggling to see where actual Bella's attraction to Edward came from. Was he insanely attractive? Oh, yeah. But so were all the other Cullens, and if I had to pick the most attractive one I would go with Rosalie every time. And his behavior in the car ride back had turned me off a lot. I knew he was protective of Bella when I read the books, but it had always felt deserved. Like, Bella was clumsy and disaster-prone. She needed Edward to protect her. I didn't. Obviously to a vampire, I was going to seem extremely breakable. But I'm a pretty average person. I can take care of myself. I made it through seventeen years and only died once. Maybe. I'm still a little unclear on how I even ended up in the Twilight universe in the first place.
I got in bed with thoughts of Edward on my mind, wondering if I was supposed to fall in love with him because that's what Bella did, or if I would be able to find love elsewhere. I was asleep almost immediately.
The next morning, I woke up to a fine layer of snow dusted all over the yard, my car, and the road. I went downstairs to see that, once again, Charlie had already left for work. I ate a quick bowl of cereal and drank some orange juice. When I exited the house and was walking down the driveway to my truck, I discovered that the beautiful snow was covering a deadly layer of ice. After a treacherous walk down the driveway, I made it to my car in one piece. I was a little nervous about driving on the icy roads today, but my nervousness melted away when I caught a glimpse of something silver on my tires. Charlie must've gotten up early to put snow chains on my tires. I felt my throat constrict. I wasn't used to people caring about me, and now this man who thought he was my father cared about me.
I drove to school very carefully. The snow chains helped me navigate all the black ice, but it still paid to be careful. I must've gotten to school pretty early, as there were very few other cars parked there already. As I got out of my truck I noticed that not even the Cullens had arrived yet.
I walked carefully around to the back of my truck, wanting to hold onto it for support as long as I could before I had to venture out onto the ice on my own. Even though I wouldn't consider myself as extraordinarily clumsy as Bella Swan was, it was still ice, and I was only human. Just as I was reaching the end of my truck, I heard an odd sound. It was painful and screeching, like nails on a chalkboard, but magnified by about a thousand.
I turned around to see where the source of the sound was coming from. It was a car, really a van, careening towards me incredibly fast. The only thing I had time to think was "Oh no, where's Edward? He's supposed to save me" before the car was on top of me. I felt the greatest, most blinding pain I had ever experienced. It felt as though someone had taken all my organs, and tried to shove them right out the back of me. I could very vaguely hear screaming, and then everything went black.
AN: Enjoy that cliff hanger, it's probably going to be a while before I get the next one out since I currently don't have a plan for this story, I'm just making stuff up as I go along. Please write a review and let me know what you think of this story!