*tosses chapter from behind a rock*


I will not ask you where you came from

I will not ask you and neither should you.


I had kissed Carlisle Cullen.

That phrase haunted my thoughts for what was left of the weekend. It had been painfully awkward when Carlisle had dropped me off at Charlie's and by some unspoken agreement we hadn't talked about it, we hadn't talked about it. We hadn't talked about anything at all. I had made my way to the garage and Carlisle had come several minutes later and had gotten in his car. The drive to Charlie's would have been hilarious if not for the fact that none of us said anything and then I got out of his car, still silent and into Charlie's house. Thankfully Charlie hadn't been there, since I definitely didn't need to add more awkwardness to my existence.

The rest of the weekend passed me by slowly, Charlie thought that my mood was due to me almost being drugged and was sympathetic enough to give me a pep talk and to offer to appoint me in self defense classes. I turned him down gently, telling him that I could defend myself, that didn't stop him from giving me more ammunition for my taser on Sunday night, which I thanked him for. I was dreading school on Monday, I hadn't heard from the Cullens yet, as far as I knew they would have packed up and were across the country already. There was also Lauren to address, I was going to murder the little shit. Charlie had assured me that the college guys wouldn't be causing any more problems in Forks and I believed him since he had looked slightly scary when he had been talking about them, it made me feel safe and vindicated.

I drove to school slowly, wondering if I would ever see the Cullens again. My spirits were lifted a little when I spotted Edward's Volvo in its usual spot and then dread filled me again, what had Carlisle told them? Had he told them? About me drinking? About the drugs? The kiss? I killed the engine of my car and braced myself for whatever it was that was going to happen.

Edward and Alice greeted me as if nothing had happened. I was infinitely glad about the fact that Edward couldn't read my thoughts as I spent the first few hours of the day thinking about it, which distracted me enough from confronting Lauren about the whole drink thing, although I had to admit that I kept on glaring at her whenever I was reminded of it. However, Edward and Alice did notice that there was something wrong with me when we sat at our table for lunch.

"Out with it, Bella," Alice said not as soon as we had taken our seats.

"Out with what?" I asked playing dumb.

"You're anxious about something," Edward said unhelpfully, "The buzz of your thoughts is getting louder."

"Buzz?" I asked, confused.

"Since this morning, like TV static," he explained.

"I feel fine," I lied trying to sound fine.

Alice glared at me, "You're clearly not fine, Carlisle told us about your weekend before he left."

"Carlisle left?" Now that was surprising, he had left and the family had stayed.

"Vacation time," Edward explained, "It makes him seem more human if he says that he has a human emergency, the story at the hospital is that his sister in Alaska got sick."

"So he went to Alaska?"

"No, he's going to Italy, he's probably in New York now, you know of the Volturi, right?" Alice asked.

"No," I said, if Aro touched his hand, he was going to know about me, no, fuck no, I stood from the table pulling out my phone and walking out of the cafeteria angrily.

He picked up at the second ring.

"Hello?" his voice asked, and I had the strangest sense of deja vu.

"What do you think you're doing?" I hissed at him hoping that my annoyance would carry over the phone.

"What?" he sounded confused now, "Isabella, I don't think that I have to explain myself to you."

"Don't you dare Isabella me you asshole," these vampires had no functional brain cells at all, "you cannot head over to Italy you dolt."

"I do not see how that concerns you, Isabella," he said in a patronizing tone.

"It concerns me because the moment you shake hands with your buddy Aro he's going to know about me, so you better get that sparkly ass of yours back to Forks before I have to end up forfeiting my life to the vampire mafia," I said angrily.

He was silent for a moment.

"I cannot go to Italy," he muttered.

"Good to know your brain works sometimes," I said, rather unhelpfully before abruptly ending the call.

I wasn't going to talk to Carlisle, not more than what was completely necessary anyways. Edward and Alice had walked out after me and were staring at me, confusion etched on their faces.

"Do we want to know what happened between you and Carlisle?" Alice asked.

Edward shot her a look as he seemed to read her thoughts, I had momentarily forgotten about vampire heightened senses and it seemed that they had overheard my entire conversation with Carlisle. I didn't want to talk about it, not really, but I had driven Carlisle away from Forks, well no, he had left because he wanted to leave, I had nothing to do with his decision.

I sighed and waved Edward and Alice to a nearby table ignoring the drizzle that was falling, I had gotten accustomed to always being damp by Fork's sucky weather. They both sat in front of me, I was sure that to an outsider it looked like I was in the middle of having an unexpected intervention, much like the Spanish Inquisition, no one ever expected the Spanish Inquisition.

"Okay, so what did Carlisle tell you about Friday?" I asked them, I needed to corroborate the facts that they knew with the ones I was going to lay on them.

Alice and Edward exchanged a look, no doubt having one of their mental conversations.

"You went to Mike's halloween party, you were assaulted by a college boy and he picked you up from the woods and brought you to the house," Alice told me, I know that she was giving me a short version of the events that had transpired.

"Yes, something was put in my drink and I tried calling everyone I knew, thankfully Carlisle picked up when he did," I said, I had to admit that Carlisle had saved my life that night, as angry and frustrated as I was with him, my anger was not going to be used to diminish his actions. I looked at Edward then, "and you didn't read Carlisle's thoughts after you saw him?"

"Oh, I haven't seen him, he left before I was home," Edward said, his words getting slower as he realized that Carlisle had left before Edward could extract the knowledge from his thoughts, "what exactly happened between you and Carlisle?"

I growled as I ran my hands through my face, I definitely needed something to drink. Carlisle was the one who should've had this conversation with his family, not me.

"Bella?" Alice asked softly.

I let out a long dramatic sigh, "Fine," I said, crossing my arms, "After Carlisle got me home, I puked my guts out and he told me about the room that you prepared for me, which thanks by the way, so after I took a shower and changed into something not wet and covered by mud I returned to the living room where Carlisle and I tried to have a conversation, of course it got derailed because he hit a sensitive chord and I snapped back at him and we were in the middle of a discussion, I was about to slap him and he held my hand before I could and the next thing I know is that he's shoving his tongue down my throat and we haven't talked ever since, apart from, well, now."

Alice and Edward looked to be in shock, or as much shock as a pair of vampires could be. Alice was about to say something when he heard booming laughter from the treeline. I groaned as I recognized Emmett's laughter, Alice and Edward, the traitors, began giggling. Emmett and Jasper appeared in my line of sight and I suddenly wanted the earth to swallow me. They lost no time in joining us, sitting one on each of my sides, their golden eyes full of mirth.

"So you kissed the old man?" Emmett asked teasingly.

"Emmett," I said.

"Yes?"

"Go fuck yourself."

That elicited another round of laughter. I covered my face with my hands and groaned again.

"You know," Jasper began, "your frustration makes it even more hilarious."

I uncovered my face to glare at him, "I'm glad it's entertaining you," I deadpanned.

"You have to admit, it's quite unexpected," Alice said, trying to soothe my nerves.

"Just like the Spanish Inquisition," Emmett said, looking way too proud of himself.

I rolled my eyes at them, "look, yeah, fine, we kissed, it's not the end of the world, it doesn't have to happen again."

"But, do you want it to happen again?" Emmett asked me.

"No," I said firmly.

"And are you sure about that?" Jasper asked.

I huffed, "Don't you two have anything better to do than bothering a highschooler?"

Emmett and Jasper smirked. I huffed again.

I managed to fend off the Cullens for the rest of the school day and decided to head to the reservation straight afterwards, leaving a laughing Edward and Alice behind in the parking lot as I sped away. What I was not expecting was to see a very familiar red convertible parked in front of Billy's house. I could feel the dread entering my spirit as I made my way to Jake's garage to find Rosalie and Jake hunched over one of the bikes and Embry and Quil standing guard in one corner. Jake looked up as soon as I entered, a grin on his face, magnified by the fact that his long hair was pulled back in a bun.

"Bella!" he said enthusiastically, "So I heard you kissed Dr. Cullen, how was it?"

I stopped in my tracks and glanced at Rosalie who was smiling at me serenely.

"Really?" I asked Jake, "No, how are you, Bella? How has your day been, Bella? Have you eaten anything, Bella?"

"Nah, vampire dick seems to be enough sustenance," Embry said with a smirk on his face.

I looked at him in outrage, "oh my god, no, you're cancelled, you're not allowed to say those things-"

I would've probably gone on with my rant but was interrupted by a melodious laughter, I turned to look at Rosalie who was kneeling on the floor laughing, had she been human she probably would have been all red and crying from all the laughing, it was completely unfair.

"Jesus, I had never laughed so much in my entire existence," she said after composing herself, she was grinning, it was a gorgeous sight and I could feel my heart skip a beat when she turned to me, grin still in place, "just so you know, Swan, I'm not calling you 'mom'."

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but no sounds came out. Rosalie Hale had cracked a joke in my presence, not that, Rosalie Hale was in the reservation with Jake cracking jokes at my expense. I found the nearest empty space and sat, trying to process the entire trainwreck that my life was being so far.

"Swan?" I heard Rosalie ask.

I could swear my ears were ringing.

"I think we broke her," Jake said, I could hear his voice getting further away by the second.

Until I knew nothing else.