I do not own Twilight or the Vampire Diaries
The water was warm and almost soothing. It definitely helped drown out the sounds of the television blasting the game. Bella was on her last plate, scrubbing away the remaining bits of baked chicken and roasted veggies when she heard footfalls; heavy ones. She already knew it was Jacob who was probably coming to try and once again manipulate her into breaking up with Edward.
He had been trying that a lot lately. Recently though he has been putting his chances by reminding her that Edward has cheated on her. As if that didn't already sting, knowing that Edward had in fact, slept with someone else before her; and it was Mike Newton of all people. Mike, who for an entire year had been trying to get her to go on a date with him. Who, once she finally decided to try and go on a date with him, ended up vomiting his guts out in the men's restroom at the theatre after seeing a zombie movie. She had to fight back a shudder at the memory.
As sweet as he was, she just couldn't understand why Mike had become a sudden factor into the supernatural world, or a wretch in her relationship. She had heard the rumors of his so called crush on Edward back in their freshman year of high school. She was curious to see if he actually had sketchbooks filled with portraits of the Cullens.
Maybe she could ask him to commission a wedding gift for her. If he was up for it of course. She didn't know his plans for after helping them get rid of Victoria. But, he would probably be spending some time around the Cullens because of Bonnie; and she was another oddity.
Bonnie had arrived in Forks a cold and preserved corpse and now, she was up and inaugurated into the Cullens lives like she belonged there. Alice and Jasper's years of a relationship were done; thrown out the window because of a girl Jasper claimed was his mate. A girl who had been dead for months. Bella had not seen any of them interact with Bonnie outside of Emmett's proclamation of her being a sister. That was stung just as much as Edward's distance.
He had not been to her window since he got back.
Not wanting to let her mind stay on that touchy subject, Bella decided to scrub away at the plate. There was nothing on it, but the scrape of the bristle pad against the porcelain surface was helping her just a bit.
At least it had, until Jacob said something. "You know if you scrub any harder, you'll wear a hole in it."
She didn't even bother to chuckle, just grunted in response. It was better than the alternative. Chuckling gave him an opening to try and talk about what she was avoiding. Her upcoming nuptials to Edward were set to happen three days after Victoria's defeat according to Alice's visions.
That was ten days away. Apparently they had to be quick about it or else the Volturi would come to see how the process was going. That issue still hung over her head like a swinging pendulum.
"Bells, you okay?" Jacob asked, coming to stand by her side.
"Fine," she said, and she knew was lying before Jacob did.
He looked like he was about to say something when the doorbell rang. The two paused, Bella pulling her hands from the water, grabbed the dry towel she had set on the counter and wiped her hands. Just who was coming to the house at this time of night? Bella glanced at the clock on the wall. It was well past nine o'clock and the game would be over soon.
Charlie moved from the couch, grumbling about being interrupted. Opening the door, he found a young man around Bella's age. He was athletic, with blonde hair and the bluest eyes he had ever seen. He also looked like a respectful young man, as he nodded to the chief.
"Good evening, sir. Is this the Swan residence?" He asked, hoping that he got it right. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, and Charlie finally took in the letterman jacket he wore. It was a deep shade of red, the color and cuffs of the sleeves being white with black strips. On the breast it read MFHS in black.
The boy was obviously from out of town. Judging by the soft southern lilt, he was a long way from home.
"It is," Charlie said, looking the boy up and down. "What can I do for you?"
His shoulders dropped as a weight left the boy, and he beamed a smile at Charlie. But then he got nervous and scratched at the back of his neck, "My name is Matt, sir. Matt Donovan,"
Charlie waited for him to continue, but he heard someone come up behind him.
"Hey Charlie, who is it?" Bella asked, and then peered around his side. Her eyes widened at the sight. "Matt?"
Matt seemed to bright at the sight of her. "Hey there Bella," he said, a softness in his tone. Charlie blinked at that. Was he missing something?
Bella moved to stand by her dad. "What brings you over? Did something happen with the Cullens?"
Charlie grimaced. The boy was a Cullen? That instantly made him distrusting, manners be damned. Edward Cullen had singlehanded destroyed his daughter's spirit and he had been angry when she went off to god knows where without so much as a call.
He looked back at the boy. He definitely looked healthier than the other Cullens. There was a flush of color in his cheeks, and a little bit of a small smile on his face.
"No, they're fine. They're at home right now," he told her. "I actually wanted to talk with you, if that's okay if your dad? We'll be right out here, sir."
Charlie had to give the boy points. Whoever raised him, definitely raised him to be respectful. He liked that. Grunting he nodded and let Bella walk out the door.
"You got fifteen minutes," he warned and then closed the door. When he went back into the living room, he noticed Jacob looked like he had swallowed a bug.
"What's with you?" He asked.
"Nothing," the teen grumbled.
Charlie let out a sigh and dropped back into his seat. Billy was chuckling at his son's behavior.
Outside Bella leaned back against the door. Curiosity shone in her eyes, "So what brings you out my way?"
"Well, I did bring you pizza," he said nodding towards the car. "But I wanted to talk to you before I gave it to you."
Bella hummed. The promise of pizza sounded good.
"You have my attention,"
He laughed. "Perfect."
She liked his laugh, she thought as she geared up to hear what he had to say. No doubt he was going to try and plead for Mike, considering as how that was what he had been texting her about. Something about how magic worked in weird ways. She got that, but it didn't meant it didn't hurt or that it was embarrassing.
"Are you here to defend Mike?" Her voice was small as she asked the question and she began scratching at her wrist, the nail of her finger running over the smoothness of her scar.
"I thought about that on the drive over," he explained and shifted his weight a little. "But I don't think you want me to beat a dead horse."
"Definitely not," she huffed. Matt looked at her, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks. He was smiling, clearly amused at her answer and then held out his hand for her to take. "What?"
"I'm just leading you to the car," he said, and he said it like he wanted her to know there was no ill intent behind it. Not that there would ever be with Matt. The boy was a golden retriever in human form.
Her took a hold of his hand, trying not to jump at the tingles she felt. The two walked over to the car and Bella froze at the sight of Rosalie's red convertible. Her mouth dropped open.
"She let you drive her car?" Bella whirled to look at him, met the sight of his chest and then craned her head up once she forget just how much taller he was to her. Well, not too tall, but Matt had a few inches on her.
He blinked at her, "Yeah. Rose said it was fine for me to use it while I'm here."
Rose. Rosalie allowed him to call her Rose. Her throat tightened at the revelation. It wasn't fair. How was it that two total strangers had won over Rosalie and the rest of them so fast?
"Oh," she muttered, and turned away. Matt seemed to notice and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"You'll get there," he assured her.
"How? They already think I'm too fragile," she grumbled. Her mind flashed back to her birthday and how she has foolishly cut her finger. "I'm just the weak little human."
She knew deep down that her being what she was was why Rose didn't like her. She was human, she could age and die. She could be out in the sun and not worry about attracting attention. But what Rose didn't get -- what any of them didn't get was that Bella couldn't stand it.
Being human came with too many problems.
At least in her new life, she could forget things. The venom would eat away at bits of her memories and she wouldn't have to worry about it. She wouldn't have to worry about being weak or small anymore.
She could be apart of that. Stand by Edward's side forever, frozen in time and loving him for eternity. She would have a family, they wouldn't see her as a burden.
"Did I ever tell you about my sister?"
Bella looked up at him. He looked like he was remembering someone who had left.
"Vicki, right?"
He nodded and moved to sit on the hood of the car. He patted the spot beside and waited until Bella sat down. Once she was settled, he looked up towards the night sky.
"My mom left town when I was fifteen. She had gotten a new boyfriend and just left me and my older sister Vicki to fend for ourselves. We had assume she'd be back in two weeks. Didn't happen that way and Vicki fell on some hard times; but she did what she could to provide for us," Matt spoke with a rawness in his voice. The blue of his eyes has dimmed, though they were wet with tears.
"Shortly after Elena started dating Stefan -- I told you about that, right?" She nodded, he had told her about his ex girlfriend. She was also Bonnie's best friend and part of the reason she died.
"Okay, after that I thought she had left town. It had hurt and I did everything I could to keep the lights on and the bills paid. I had even tried dating again, another friend of ours named Caroline. But just when I thought I was happy, I got news."
"They found her buried way out," the way his voice cracked has Bella reaching out to take his hand. He gripped it, not hard but with enough firmness that he wouldn't let go just yet. "I didn't know she had been turned. I thought she had just O.D'd and whoever was with her didn't want to get caught. I didn't even know she got turned until months later."
She had been a vampire, Bella deduced and let him keep going.
"Bonnie and I, we were helping out for senior prank day. Something went down with my friend Tyler and I wanted -- needed to be useful. I hadn't been with Vicki and I wanted to be with Ty. So I drowned myself."
"Matt!" Bella cried, and hopped off the car. She didn't know what possessed her but she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to her. "What the fuck gave you any idea that that would have be a good idea?"
He blinked down at her. Whatever he saw had him looking at her with mirth. "Bonnie revived me, but before that I saw Vicki. And I eventually found out about her turning into a vampire, and while I loved having my sister back even if she was a ghost, she wasn't just back for me. I had to say goodbye to her again after she tried to kill Elena."
"No offense to your ex, no I take that back, a lot of offense, but she's a danger magnet. And that is coming from me," Bella told him and cursed lowly under her breath.
She sighed and leaned in, her forehead pressed into his shoulder blade. "Why are you even telling me this?"
"Because I also know what it's like to feel like the weakling. I'm told constantly that I am nothing but a blood bag, or I'll die without some supernatural help," his thumb brushed against the Gilbert ring absently as he remembered all the times Damon made a dig at him or how Kol had almost killed him.
"Would you change it?" She asked, her words muffled by the fabric of his jacket.
"Probably not," he mused. "I did think about it a lot. Rebekah offered to turn me, but I realized I want to be human. I don't know what will happen to me if I turn."
"So what? You're tell me this because I seem desperate?"
"You do though," he said and then patted her head. He reached down and placed his hands on her shoulders, peeling her from him. Her eyes met his, bluest of blue meeting soft chocolate.
"You don't need to turn to have people love you Bella. You're already pretty well liked, and if Edward sees that..."
"He won't turn me because he wants to save my soul," she blurted out, a bitterness in her tone.
"Well I don't know about that," Matt shrugged. He had never heard of a vampire being terrified of looking their soul. Rebekah had talked about loosing herself to her vampirism but that came from centuries of being what she was and having to survive.
"But I do know that I need someone on Team Human Beings for a bit."
Bella winched. She wouldn't be human for long and he seemed to notice.
"How long?"
"Thirteen days, give or take." She answered.
"Well," he paused to think before answering her, "Guess I've got thirteen days to get you to love your human life before the big change huh?"
Bella reeled at him. "What?"
He poked her cheek. "Look, if there is anything I've learned while being surround by vampires, witches, werewolves and hybrids, it's that I needed to relax and enjoy the little things. And I have," he winked at her.
"You have?"
"I was in Europe for a few weeks before I came here," he told her.
"I was only in Italy to save Edward, but I did like the scenery," she mused to him. The quarterback laughed and then ruffled her hair. She moved back and smiled at him.
"You should do that," he said with a fondness.
"What?"
"Smile," he said.
"I don't?"
"You remind me of this guy I know named Stefan. He always looked like he was fighting being happy, and you kinda look like that some days. Like the world is out to get you. But when you smiled just now, you looked like you had no problems."
Bella opened her mouth to speak when the door opened. She turned back and saw Charlie stepping out onto the porch.
She turned back to Matt, "I should head back inside before Charlie gets his shotgun."
He frowned, "Why do you call your dad that?"
"I..." she paused. She had always called him Charlie, even in her thoughts. She couldn't remember the last time she called him dad.
"I don't know," she told him.
"Just a suggestion," he said as he got off the hood of the car and opened the passenger door. He reached in, grabbing the foil wrapped plate of pizza slices and handed them fo her. "Try calling him dad, it might make things a bit easier between you."
"I'll consider," she nodded and thanked him.
"Right," he nodded and then moved over to the driver's side of the car. He had just opened the door as Bella made her way to the door. "Hey Swan!"
She turned back, and Charlie narrowed his eyes in suspicion as the blond beamed at her. "See you tomorrow!"
She blinked at him. She had no plans to see the Cullens tomorrow. She had wanted to go down fo Rez with Jacob. "I have plans tomorrow," she told him.
"I know," he winked and started up the car. "But I meant after that."
Bella was dumbstruck as he closed the door, and peeled out the driveway.
"So who was that exactly?" Charlie asked as she stepped into the house.
"Um...a friend," she answered and then walked back towards the kitchen.
"And he's a Cullen?"
"Staying with them," she said, mulling over the cover story that they had come up with. "His best friend was coming to meet the Newtons. Apparently they're cousins."
"And he couldn't come alone?"
"She, and Matt didn't want her driving out from Virginia by herself." Bella corrected him.
"Hmm," Charlie muttered.
Bella's lips quivered before she left a smile form. Charlie just wasn't going to let go of that grudge, even after she had told him about the proposal. He had even tried talking her out of it.
"What's on your mind?"
"He likes you," Charlie mused. "Definitely would be a better pick than Cullen."
She frowned at that. Matt didn't treat her any different than how he treated Bonnie. Maybe Charlie was just seeing something he wanted to see.
"Whatever you say Char--Dad," she dismissed and then went back towards the kitchen. She had dishes to finish.