Elena's POV: (Opening thoughts)
You know meeting the family of the man you love is bad enough... but when both your boyfriend... and his family are vampires... IT'S WORSE. I am so nervous and his place is so far out.
I am shocked as when we arrive at Edward's it is a large house with lots of windows. Edward gets out of the drivers side and races around the car to pull open my door and hold it open so I can get out.
I am even more shocked about how beautiful and wide spaced the place is as we head inside. It's so beautiful.
"Whoa!" I say as Edward helps me take off my cardigan. "This is incredible. It's so light, and open. you know?"
Edward seems amused as I say this. "What did you expect, coffins and dungeons and moats?"
"No," I tell him sheepishly before deciding to be honest. "Not the moats."
We head towards some stairs as he chuckles. I am so glad I can still amuse him.
"Not the moats," he scoffs as I glance around as I hear classical music coming from upstairs as we begin to climb the steps. He then turns around and talks to me as he walks up the stairs backwards. "This is the one place we don't have to hide. I told them not to do this."
As we get to the kitchen I recognize everyone in there but one. This must be Edward's adopted mum Esme. She looks like a kind woman. Emmett is rather... large. Rosalie looks like she has mixed feelings about me and Carlisle is as happy as ever as they all make me... dinner.
As we come around the corner Esme comes up to us.
"Elena, we're making Italiano for you," she says to me gently.
I'm not hungry. I think that but all I can manage to say as I place my hand on my cheek is. "Oh."
"Bella this is Esme," Edward confirms what I thought. "My mother for all intents and purposes."
Esme seems so happy for him to call her mom. I try not to freak as Emmett waves a cleaver at me saying hello. I'm sure he could do damage without it to me... with it... GULP.
We both greet each other in Italian.
Carlisle places more food into a mix and speaks to me. "You've given us an excuse to use the kitchen for the first time."
I smile at him, he is so friendly it's impossible to not smile.
"I hope you're hungry," Esme says and I do not know how to answer.
"Yeah absolutely," I lie not wanting to upset four vampires.
"She already ate," Edward says for me and I try not to hit him in the ribs. No need to bruise my elbow to get him to shut up.
And next thing I know Rosalie has smashed a glass bowl in anger.
"Perfect," she says as she steps onto the steps so she is a little closer to Edward and I. "Perfect."
I try to appease her, as Emmett comes towards her and Esme stares at her, by saying. "Yeah it's just because I know that you guys don't eat."
"Of course," Esme says as Carlisle comes to stand behind her. "It's very considerate of you."
"Just ignore Rosalie," Edward says to me and I glance at him to see that he's annoyed. "I do."
"Yeah," Rosalie says as Emmett leans his arm on her shoulder and I can tell he is worried about this but not as pissed as his girlfriend. "Let's just keep pretending like this isn't dangerous for all of us."
"I would never tell anybody anything," I tell her before looking down. "Not even my twin sister knows anything and we usually tell each other everything."
Carlisle rubs Esme's arm and speaks to me as he glances at Rosalie. "She know's that."
"Yeah well the problem is," Emmett says defending Rosalie. "You two have gone public now so-"
"Emmett," Esme cuts him off and he sends her a look.
"No she should know," Rosalie says and I listen intently to what she says. "The entire family will be implicated if this ends badly."
"Badly," I say staring into her face as she had got closer to me as she was speaking. "As in I would become the meal."
Everyone chuckles and Even Rosalie smiles.
"Hi Bella," a voice suddenly says and I look out the window to see Alice and Jasper coming down from the trees. "I'm Alice."
Alice looks so graceful but accepting of me. Jasper seems to be keeping his distance but something tells me that's more for my safety.
"Um.. hi," I say and then she pulls me in for a hug.
"Hi," she replies before she steps back. "Oh. You do smell good."
Edward looks awkwardly at her as she says. "Alice. What are you-"
"It's okay," Alice cuts him off by speaking over him but I feel calm and not afraid of anyone. "Bella and I are gonna be great friends."
Everyone looks at me worried for my reaction but then Carlisle looks round at Jasper.
"Sorry," Carlisle says to me at Jasper's distance. "Jasper's our newest vegetarian. It's a little difficult for him."
Jasper nods at me in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"It's okay Jasper," Alice reassures him with no sign of doubt in her voice. "You won't hurt her."
"All right," Edward turns to me looking like he is gonna bolt. "I'm gonna take you on a tour of the rest of the house."
"Okay," I agree with him wanting to get out for a minute as well.
"Well, I'll see you soon," Alice says and I nod at her before we leave.
"Was that as weird for you as it was for me?" Edward asks me as we go up the stairs and past some creepy looking masks.
I try not to laugh.
"I don't know," I say to him before stopping at the next round of steps as I see whats on the wall. "Graduation caps?"
He looks amused. "Uh yeah. It's a private joke. We matriculate a lot."
He laughs. I love how amused he is.
"That's kind of miserable," I tell him seriously but he still smiles. "I mean repeating high school over and over."
"True," he agrees with me. "But the younger we start out in a new place, the longer we can stay there. Come on."
He passes me on the stairs and we carry on walking up. I would still hate to repeat high school over and over.
We head into what looks like a bedroom except this room has no bed.
"Uh yeah this is my room," he tells me so I am still confused. The only furniture he has is some sort of sofa to sit on. stacks and stacks of books and a cd shelf.
He watches me looking serious waiting for me to speak. I'll put him out of his misery.
"No bed?" I ask as I look at the doors leading to the woods and then glance back at Edward.
"No," he informs me but the next thing he says shocks me. "I don't... I don't sleep."
"Ever?" I ask in shock.
"No, not at all," he says giving me a smirk that I am beginning to love.
I scoff. "Okay," I then begin to walk over to his CD'S and look at them. "Boy, you have so much music. What are you listening to?"
I click play on his CD player and it shocks me that I recognize the song playing and it is one I actually like.
"It's Debussy," he tells me but I already knew this.
"Claire De Lune is great," I reassure him and he looks a little shocked that I know it.
He then walks towards me and takes my wrist. He then takes my waist. I hope he is not gonna try and dance with me.
I frown as we get close and then he twirls me around.
"What?" He asks when he spots my frown.
"I can't dance," I tell him.
He just sighs. "Hmm. Well, I could always make you."
I stare straight at him.
"I'm not scared of you," I tell him.
His smirk just widens. This cannot be good. Not the way he is looking at me.
"Well you really shouldn't have said that," he tells me WOAH! The next thing I know he has flung me over his shoulder and jumped out of the door and landed on a tree all in one breath I had taken. Okay now I am frightened. "You better hold on tight Spider monkey."
He begins to climb the tree with ease. When he gets to one of the top branches I gasp at how high we are. I prefer to keep my feet on the floor.
"Do you trust me?" He asks.
I gulp and grip on tighter. "In theory."
"Then close your eyes!" He tells me.
And there goes my stomach. He kicks off from the tree and we go sailing through the air. When he lands on the next tree he climbs, if even possible. higher than we even were.
When we finally stop I am so shocked at how far I can see because of how high up we are. I gasp.
"What?" He asks at my reaction.
I chuckle. "This isn't real. This kind of stuff just doesn't exist."
"It does in my world," he points out to me.
Together we begin to climb higher. He stays below me so if I go to fall, which with me is very likely, he will catch me. We end the afternoon with him playing me a song he had wrote for me. It was lovely.
QUEENC2020:
And another chapter done.