Chapter 2
I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR CHARACTERS
For a solid week after the incident she saw and heard nothing of Alice. Her friend did not come to school and did not drop by to see her, leaving a dull, miserable ache of shame settled over her heavy heart. Not to mention that was probably the worst time for that to occur, because that was when Bella needed her best friend the most.
Things with Edward had only gotten worse after their first fight. Bella half the time couldn't even tell what they were fighting about, only that he was being an absolute jackass. She got the main idea to be something about him wanting to leave for two entire months and go to Alaska to visit his 'friend' Tanya.
Who he'd once dated.
Two months to see his ex.
Why in the hell did he think she was being unreasonable about this?
Every time Bella asked him about why he suddenly wanted to up and leave her completely for two months to go see her, he would skirt the answer and start a fight.
And Bella was so sick and tired of it.
They had finally reached the breaking point, and Bella was mildly turning over drastic measures in her head to finally get some definitive answers or-or she didn't even know what. Break up with him? The thought was definitely there because he was proving himself to be a truly shitty boyfriend at that point. But she didn't really think she could. She still loved him, but now he was making her wonder why.
But, of course, that was not the only thing once more keeping her from really focusing on studying Algebra on a school night.
To be honest, she missed Alice dearly.
The girl was literally the highlight of her day at school half the time, constantly a diamond in the rough on otherwise dreary days and nights. Plus, she and Alice just clicked. Whether they were staying up all night discussing deep subjects like love, theology, and even utterly random crap like the benefits of abstract art versus realism, or being goofy and cracking each other up with their shenanigans, Alice was so easy to talk to.
Even if some of those shenanigans had ended quite badly last time.
Bella felt awful for having bitten her friend. And stupid. Quite stupid, actually. She should have known better than to bite a vampire. Of course it would set off Alice's instincts. And she also felt dumb for wrestling around with her like that in the first place, which no doubt didn't help the girl's control in the end. Alice had a hard enough time clamping down on her blood lust when everyone knew Bella was the best smelling human to walk this side of Forks, Washington, and adding even a modicum of…Of, well, sexuality to that was only bound to make it worse.
Bella felt her cheeks flame.
Okay…She wasn't a homophobe by any means, but it was no secret that Alice was bisexual. The girl had been open about it from day one, discussing girls as naturally as she discussed boys, and Bella never even blinked about it.
But, it was different now.
It was different now that she'd spurred Alice into kissing her.
God…Even thinking about it sent a shiver up her spine that Bella desperately tried to ignore. She wasn't surprised that the action stirred a hunger in her that she never should have been feeling for her friend, especially when they both had boyfriends but she didn't believe it was her fault.
Or at least, that's what she told herself.
Vampire pheromones do crazy things to not only their owners, but to the humans they're designed to attract, and they certainly didn't differentiate between genders and were completely unrestrained by societal boundaries like sexuality. After all, what better way to capture your prey than by turning them on and making them come right to you? And what predator would actually deign to half their pool of prey based on something as ultimately inconsequential as gender?
Bella squirmed uncomfortably in her bed thinking about it, remembering the way Alice had stiffened when Bella's teeth scraped her shoulder, the black look of desire that pulsated in the vampire's eyes, the way her tongue had literally dragged a wet path from her collarbone up the underside of her throat, leaving a path of electricity coursing in its wake before it flicked provocatively off her chin.
Thankfully, she was broken out of those particular musings by a soft, familiar tapping at her window. (Were her cheeks on fire? They kind of felt like it…) She'd been staring at her algebra book for a minute straight thinking about it, which only served to make her already bright red face even brighter. She snapped it shut quickly, smothering the line of thought she'd been previously pursuing.
Exhilaration flooded her mixed with a palpable sense of anxiety. No way was it Edward, not after their most recent fight which had ended with raised voices and slammed doors…
No, this had to be Alice.
It was as if her thoughts had called out to her best friend and summoned her to reconcile their issues, and so nervously, she stood and crossed the floor to her window. Now was the best chance to apologize, probably as soon as she opened the window, before Alice could get a chance to like, cut off their friendship or something because she now thought Bella was weird or, or maybe into her like that which she totally wasn't and wait, was that even a possibility? Would Alice actually not want to be her friend now?
A mild sense of panic twisted in the pit of her stomach at the thought. Alice had been avoiding her for a solid week now. Maybe this was a bigger deal than she'd thought. Who was she kidding? Of course it was, they'd freaking kissed and Bella had bitten her friend and now things were all screwed up.
Breath, she told herself and yanked up the glass pane, peering out into the darkness.
"Alice?" she called uncertainly, suddenly wary of Alice taking the chance to scare her again when she saw only the night surrounding her back yard. Though she welcomed the friendly intent that would undoubtedly accompany such a maneuver and prove that Alice wasn't still mad at her, she didn't fancy being knocked on her ass again like a dweeb.
"Excuse me! Please move, Bella! Watch it!" a high, familiar voice called to her, bewilderingly hidden with its owner.
Except, Alice did knock her on her ass again, only for a different reason this time.
Bella had just enough time to spy a small figure stirring in the tree next to her window before said figure launched towards her. She careened backwards with a shriek and landed flat on her back as Alice came vaulting off a tree branch and into her room.
"Shit!" she vaguely heard the pixie swear and yelped when the blur that was Alice crashed down on top of her, an iron knee knocking into her thigh painfully and then ...
Oh.
Oh.
Bella blinked and let out a muffled mew of pain and surprise as she suddenly got an eyeful of Alice's cleavage that jerked to a stop only a millimeter from making contact with her face.
Well.
Well okay, that was…
That was just fine then.
"Oh, ow," Alice mumbled, shifting on top of her human friend and Bella's face burned hot as certain assets were shuffled shamelessly about barely centimeters from her face.
"Alice," she squeaked.
Previous musings came rushing back in the form of flashbacks that were so not appropriate after everything that had happened.
Images of Alice with black eyes, baring her fangs, a long, lithe tongue against Bella's throat…
And Bella felt suddenly too warm, her eyes helplessly locked on Alice's chest, trying desperately to look at the lines of her collarbone and not her boobs, never her boobs, totally not looking at her boobs.
She looked.
Damn it.
Why did she look? She had no idea; maybe it was kind of like when you tried not to think about something and then that ended up being the only thing you could think about.
"Oh, shit, Bella I'm so sorry! I'm such a klutz, are you okay?" Alice gasped and reared back quickly, shuffling back off of her friend a bit with golden eyes wide in concern.
Okay, hold on a second. Alice was never a klutz.
And when her breasts weren't dangling provocatively in Bella's face and making her remember things she shouldn't be remembering at such a time, the brunette could actually sort of comprehend what just happened. That happened to be Alice's less than graceful entrance, and that was definitely not like her friend. Since when was Alice anything but coordinated, graceful, and completely fluid in her movements?
"I think you broke my leg," she croaked out, wincing and rubbing at the dead leg Alice had given her as she sat up. It was supposed to come off as a joke, but considering everything that had happened and the less than helpful way Alice had come surging into her room and shoved her chest in Bella's face, she came off squeaky and mildly accusatory.
"Oh my god, really? Are you serious? How badly does it hurt? Oh hell, Bella, I'm so sorry, let me see-" Alice began to babble as panic crossed her face and she immediately sank down onto her knees, one on either side of Bella's calf. Bewildered and mildly alarmed at the genuine look of distress on Alice's face, Bella could only blink rapidly as her vampiric friend tentatively began to prod at her bruised thigh. All the blood that had rushed to the brunette's face when she'd gotten an eyeful of Alice's cleavage came rushing back as nimble, slim fingers kneaded, poked and rubbed at the sensitive skin of her thigh.
That would have been disconcerting enough considering the last time they'd seen each other, but Bella was also wearing short shorts.
Charlie really needed to stop cranking up the heat so much.
"Does that hurt? Can you move it at all?" Alice continued to fire off questions rapidly as Bella fought off being light headed. She'd been blushing way too much in the past ten minutes and now Alice was touching her after they hadn't talked in a week, and it was all just too much.
"Alice, I'm fine!" she yelped when both of the pixie's hands curled around her thigh and squeezed experimentally, concerned golden eyes wide and anxious. She practically choked on her own spit.
Oh god, oh god, oh god, Bella thought, snatching Alice's hands up in hers to stop them from practically massaging her thigh. Now it was Alice's turn to blink, and as their eyes finally properly met, Bella was sure that if the other girl could, she'd be blushing.
"I'm sorry," Alice repeated for the umpteenth time, her voice ashamed and hopeless as she pulled her hands back.
"It's okay, Alice, seriously," Bella rushed to reassure her, beyond confused with Alice's erratic behavior. "Are you okay?" she asked when Alice only sighed and ran a hand through her hair, looking pained and still unconvinced that she hadn't hurt Bella.
What was up with her? Did her failed and completely uncharacteristic entrance and her subsequent stress have anything to do with the last time they'd seen each other? Bella wasn't sure, but it was kind of freaking her out and now she was actually pretty worried about her friend.
Well, if they still were friends. The brunette still wasn't sure where they were at considering how long Alice had been avoiding her for, but she was acting as if she still cared about Bella.
"Yeah, I-I'm good. I'm okay," the vampire responded, though you couldn't tell that by her voice.
"Are you sure?" Bella probed, ducking her head to stare intently at Alice through her lashes to gauge her sincerity. What's up with her? Man, I hope she's not really upset with me, she thought.
It was odd, the way her heart skipped a little beat when Alice smiled a genuine smile and nodded at her. It had been such a long time since she'd had the privilege of Alice's lovely company and that expression was one Bella had come to associate with happy times.
God, I never knew how much I liked it when she smiled at me until she stopped doing it.
She couldn't help but feel that last thought was kind of gay but didn't even care at that point.
They'd already locked lips so fuck it; she really just wanted her best friend back. She could blame it on the lingering sensation of pheromones in the air. Now that her body had attuned to Alice's natural aura in a way that was more than friendly, it seemed logical to assume that it might continue to stay that way.
Which was a frightening thought, but Bella tried not to dwell on the negative.
"Are you okay?" Alice asked, yet again and Bella grinned at that familiar twinkle in the pixie's eye.
"Oh, I don't know, you weigh a lot more than you look. What was up with that entrance? That was a far cry from your last Olympic worthy front flip," Bella teased, eager to diffuse the mild, unusual tension that had been building between them, but also curious as to Alice's unusual display of gracelessness.
Her thigh throbbed from where the vampire's knee had banged into her, but there was an uncomfortable tingling sensation from where Alice's hands had run over her skin that she was definitely not in the mood to address. Maybe vampire pheromones were like a drug or something. Like once they got into your system, maybe they stayed there.
Ugh, this was weird, but she was undeniably relieved by Alice's friendly response.
"Did you just call me fat?" Alice's eyes narrowed at her, her lips twisting into a playful scowl.
"I never said that," Bella smirked.
"You insinuated it," Alice insisted, sitting back on her haunches and resting a hand on the brunette's bare ankle as naturally as she did anything else.
It wasn't an unusual gesture from her friend, or any friend really. Alice was by nature a very physically affectionate person and Bella was used to it, and generally welcomed it. But after everything that had recently happened between them, her eyes couldn't help but flicker to the touch, where cool fingers wrapped delicately around her. When they flickered back up she was startled to see Alice's amber eyes boring into hers.
Without acknowledging it any outward manner, Alice pulled her hand away.
Distraught at the thought that she'd put Alice off or made her think that she made Bella uncomfortable (even if in a way she kind of did), Bella scrambled to recover from her moment of uncertainty.
As well as from the electricity that seemed to emanate from everywhere Alice touched her. Like seriously. What the hell.
"Well, if the shoe fits," she taunted and Alice scoffed, looked outraged even as she bit back a smile.
"At least the shoe would fit me. They'd have to go up a size for you!" she retorted and Bella's jaw dropped.
It was a good thing they weren't the stupidly insecure kind of girls who couldn't take a fat joke. As if. Alice probably weighed like a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet, and Bella barely cleared a hundred and twenty after a heavy meal.
"Says the human wrecking ball!" she yelped back, leaning forward to shove Alice's knees, which didn't budge the girl in the slightest. Alice let out a laugh that was impossibly sweet and contagious.
"I told you to move, dummy. You sat there like a knot on a log! You should have seen the look on your face-Duuhh," Alice made a completely inaccurate and exaggerated face that was obviously supposed to be a remake of Bella's, twisting it up comically and making a stupid noise to compliment it.
Bella's guffawed as if someone had hit a button to trigger it inside her.
How did Alice do this? A minute ago Bella had been losing her shit thinking that they weren't even friends anymore and that the vampire was here to do the friendship version of dumping her-and now Alice had her laughing in five seconds flat.
"You jackass, I so was not!" she laughed as Alice continued to make the stupid face, crossing her eyes and acting as if Bella didn't even exist, still making that inane Duh sound. "Stop it!" she yelled playfully, slapping the side of Alice's leg lightly and the vampire dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"You had like five seconds to move, honey. Plenty of time for the average human," Alice regained her composure and moved to stand, but snickered at the way Bella rolled her eyes at her. The pixie-like girl stuck out her hand to help the brunette up a second later.
Bella hoped Alice didn't notice the way she was looking at her hand as if it were on fire. So far the last few times Alice had touched her, the reaction she'd had to it had been unnerving at the least and alarming at the most. They hadn't even mentioned the most unnerving time Alice had last touched her, when their lips had met and a tongue had traced from her collarbone to her chin.
Damn, don't think about that! That's not helping! Bella mentally reprimanded herself, feeling like a jerk when she saw Alice hesitate and her hand flinch backwards a little. She'd been staring for longer than was appropriate for someone who actually intended to accept a helping hand up.
The same way she'd hated seeing Alice withdraw from her wary eyes when the vampire had laid a hand on her ankle was the same way Bella reacted then.
She practically slapped her hand into Alice's in her haste to prove that she didn't mind touching the other girl despite all that had happened (even if, again, she kind of did) and tugged herself forward hard at the same time Alice pulled back.
This turned out to be a tactical error.
Bella was vaulted onto her feet with a gasp. She yelped and catapulted forward and was startled when Alice swore and staggered back, grabbing at her other flailing arm and hip to steady them as they collided.
"Damn it, I'm sorry Bella-" Alice hissed as Bella grabbed at her shoulders with both hands and Alice grabbed her waist to steady her destabilized legs.
Bella barely heard that. She didn't really hear much of anything other than the blood rushing in her ears.
It had been a whole week since the brunette had been privy to Alice's presence, let alone her touch, and she had forgotten just exactly what that felt like.
Vampires were naturally alluring creatures, and Alice was no exception. Her touch was a soothing caress, a seduction without meaning to be as she squeezed Bella's waist and shuffled her feet to keep her balance. Her scent was unreal, a godly aroma that made the brunette want to inhale deep and hard and hold it in until she was giddy with it. The sweet smell of rain, butterscotch and fresh berries swirled with a dark, tantalizing mix of wet earth and chocolate. God, was that perfume, or was that just how she naturally smelled?
It didn't matter because either way it was making her head feel heavy and her heart pound.
"Hell, I'm sorry," Alice repeated for the thousandth time since she'd entered Bella's room, her voice echoing pleasantly around the brunette's right ear. "I guess I sometimes forget my own strength," she admitted and stepped back a little, easing a stiff Bella away at the same time.
At that, though, Bella regained her senses, snapped out of her vampiric daze by yet another oddity that Alice was displaying tonight.
"What? You always know your own strength," she cocked her head at her friend, bewildered once more.
Alice, however, was apparently still feeling playful because with a start, the human girl saw a familiar twinkle sparkle to life in the girl's amber eyes and hissed in a breath at the same time that Alice smirked.
Bella knew that look far too well.
"Oh, do I?" Alice cocked her own head and flashed her pearly white teeth, her grip moving from Bella's hips to her sides and squeezing. God, the vampire needed to stop touching her and soon, because if Bella didn't know any better, she'd almost have to admit to herself that she was enjoying it in a far more than in a platonic sense.
Fucking pheromones, messing with her head.
However, she narrowed her eyes in slight confusion and wariness as Alice eyes flickered from her, to her bed, and back again, positively devious.
Bella realized her intentions a moment too late.
"Don't you dare-"
Alice picked her up and threw her.
With a gasp and a squeal from Bella and a grunt of effort from Alice, the human girl went sailing through the air and landed with a harsh thump on her bed, breathless and irate. She sat up, torn between fuming and laughing, giddy with adrenaline from being launched so effortlessly by her friend.
But alas, Alice wasn't through with her shenanigans and Bella ended up yelping and jerking back when the vampire cart wheeled over and then flipped onto the bed, landing in an Indian style sitting position an inch from her face.
"Boo," she said then burst into hysterical laughter when Bella swore and grabbed the nearest pillow to begin hitting her with it furiously.
"You insufferable jackass! Do I look like a rag doll to you? The hell is wrong with you, acting like you have no goddamn sense-"
But even as she chewed Alice out, Bella was fighting off a giggle fit as her friend howled with mirth, not even trying to avoid the pathetic pillow blows that the brunette was dealing her.
"Jerk," she huffed out and sank back against her headboard, folding her arms and pouting pitifully when Alice finally began to calm down.
"Oh, honey, you're just too easy," the pixie sighed, snickering at Bella's jutted out bottom lip and crossed arms.
"Your mom is easy," she snapped back petulantly. She was only mildly annoyed at the fact that Alice had launched her through her own room and was now only playing at being upset to mess with her.
Honestly, being shot across the room was kinda fun, but no way was she going to tell Alice that. Uh uh. She was going to milk this for all it was worth now.
"Oh my god, stop. That is too freaking cute," Alice gushed. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You should pout more often, maybe I wouldn't be so mean to you then."
Bella only jerked her head away, pointedly refusing to look at her friend.
"Bella. Oh, Isabella."
Bella's heart spasmed a little at the sound of her name falling from Alice's lips like that. Alice's voice was breathy and pleading at first, but when she said Bella's full name she said it firmly, in a fondly exasperated manner, almost like a contrite lover.
She stiffened and tried to keep her cool, but was completely unsettled by the effect it had, how it made her tummy dip a bit and her throat close.
This was getting ridiculous.
"I'm sorry, Bells. I don't know how many times I've said that tonight, but I'm sorry again," Alice's voice became serious then, as if she really believed Bella was mad at her.
Well, that definitely wasn't the effect she was going for.
She turned her head back quickly at the sound of her friend's worry, immediately dropping the pout and the crossed arms.
"Dude, I was just kidding," she grinned, slipping into an Indian style position that mirrored Alice's so closely that their knees touched. But her grin faded when Alice's response was only a weak smile back.
"I know, but you shouldn't be," she replied softly, her demeanor changing from playful and goofy to serious and concerned once more.
Bella furrowed her brow, thoroughly thrown off by the mood swings Alice was displaying. Enough was enough.
"Okay, seriously Alice, what's wrong? You've been acting weird all night," she blurted, then instantly regretted it.
Well, why the hell do you think she's acting weird, stupid? Probably because you bit the fuck out of her the last time you saw her and made her kiss you, Bella thought angrily at herself.
Oh god, oh god.
She wasn't ready to have this conversation. Her belly twisted anxiously as Alice's eyes met hers, her emotions unreadable when they were usually an open book. She'd thought they were in the clear when Alice started acting like her normal self, but she hadn't really been acting normal all night.
Sure, she'd been friendly like always but there had been a tension beneath it since the moment she'd careened into Bella coming through the window like a bat out of hell, not to mention that was completely unlike her.
So maybe she was upset about the bite, and maybe she was just trying to be nice and make things normal between them but it wasn't working, and now they wouldn't be friends, and wow Bella really didn't want that to happen, and was it getting hotter in there or was it just her?
Breathe, she told herself for the second time, staving off panic, but only barely.
"Bella," Alice began, fiddling with her hands in her lap. "Look, we're like, really good friends right? Have been since like, the moment we met pretty much?"
"Yeah, totally. Always," Bella rushed to answer, already feeling queasy at the choice of words Alice was choosing. "You're like my best friend," she added a second later, feeling pathetic for it immediately, for feeling as if she had to remind the girl of that.
Here it goes. She's gonna break off the friendship. Why does it feel like I'm getting dumped? Bella thought sadly, and then mentally slapped herself over the head for making that analogy. As if she wasn't having enough trouble with the pheromones, she had to go and make stupid comparisons like that.
"Always," Alice repeated with a wry smile in a way that the brunette wasn't sure how to interpret. But something about the way she said it made her heart flutter with something a little like hope.
"And we can talk about anything, right? We've never had trouble talking about whatever," Alice continued, clearly trying to lead the conversation somewhere.
"Of course. We can talk about anything," Bella followed like a lost puppy, practically parroting the other girl.
Usually she'd be a little more literate about this but she was more focused on warding off a panic attack.
"So…So I don't want to lose any of that. So can we just talk about what I know we're both thinking about?"
Oh hell.
She said it.
She'd called Bella out.
The brunette's stomach bottomed out and she breathed a shaky breath.
Still not ready for this. Still not able to compute the fact that they'd kissed, that Alice had licked her so provocatively, that the situation had manifested itself into this massive elephant sitting between them and trumpeting its trunk of which only Alice had the guts to point out.
"Which is?" Bella prompted helplessly, internally screaming.
You fucking coward, Swan.
She couldn't say it. Alice was going to have to do it. Bella was a bonafide weenie and literally could barely keep it together. Why was this such a big deal? It was just a misunderstanding, that's all!
"The fact that the last time I was over here, you bit me and I kissed you."
Alice Cullen had balls of steel. She put it so bluntly that Bella felt like she'd been punched in the face and she reeled to get control of her thoughts.
God, now she was thinking about it again. She was thinking about how Alice's lips felt against hers, how her skin tasted in her mouth, how she sparked electricity along the inside of Bella's thigh with her soft, cool hands and how her breasts had swung centimeters from her nose and despite herself, Bella had looked at them for some unfathomable reason-
And how now that all that was flooding her, how she glanced at Alice's lips and imagined them pulling back to reveal bright white fangs.
She almost squeaked out loud.
"Um, yeah. Yeah, um. We can-We should totally-Totally like, talk about that. Yeah," she nodded her head dumbly like a marionette on a string, waving her hand in a weird little flippant wave as if to show Alice how much it didn't bother her.
Alice looked torn between laughing and looking concerned, and so Bella knew that she wasn't fooling her friend for a second.
"Look…I know you probably think I'm a freak now. You've always been cool with me being into girls and all that, let alone the fact that I'm a vampire, but I know you probably aren't cool with either of those things anymore now…" Alice sounded totally resigned to this as she began to talk, her voice heavy and sad.
What?
What?
Alice thought Bella thought she was the weird one?
"You think I'm mad at you? You think you're the weird one here? Seriously?" she interrupted, gawking, all of her previous panic forgotten in her shock.
Alice furrowed her brow and cocked her head legitimately this time.
"Uh, yeah?" she said. "Why wouldn't I be? I kissed you. I even…I even licked you."
Bella scoffed to keep her cheeks from flaming bright red at the reminder. It didn't work and the blood rushed to her face.
"Okay, Alice, no. I don't think you're a freak and I still don't care that you like girls. I still don't care that you're a vampire. You have got it all twisted. I mean-I totally thought you hated me now. I mean, don't you? Hate me?" Bella asked, immediately rushing forward for fear that Alice might actually answer that question.
"Hate you?" Alice scoffed even as Bella kept talking.
"I bit you. Like a total idiot. It was my fault you lost it, not yours. I should never have done something so stupid. To think that was okay? I should be the one apologizing, not you. And I am. I'm sorry," Bella finished her rant, her chest heaving from nerves.
Alice's face screwed up and she breathed in deeply, as if seeing Bella for the first time. The brunette girl tried not to cringe, fearing that she'd actually convinced her friend that she was right which would be unbelievably stupid of her.
"You-I-No. No, to all of that. No, I don't hate you. How could I ever hate you, Bella? And no way is this your fault. I should never lose control like that. Never, for any reason. I don't care if you had hauled off and slapped me, I should never come at you like that. I-I scared you. Do you know that's pretty much all I've been able to think about, the look on your face that night? God, Bella, don't apologize for this. A little nip on the shoulder should never provoke that, especially from me," Alice exclaimed, reaching out to put a hand on Bella's knee.
They were silent for a moment, Alice looking beseechingly into Bella's eyes as the human girl fought off tears.
Alice didn't hate her.
She really didn't.
The relief was like a weight lifted from her shoulders, letting her breathe easier.
"Oh," she murmured. "Alice…Don't put so much of this on yourself. If I hadn't have bitten you…I totally thought you were coming here tonight to break off our friendship or something. I thought you thought I was a freak," she admitted.
"No," Alice said forcefully. "No, Bella, never. You are always my friend, no matter what. And for the last time, this was in no way your fault."
Bella didn't believe that but she knew there was no convincing Alice of that. She didn't care though. All she knew was that Alice still wanted to be friends, that they were good, they were cool, and suddenly that made everything just fine.
It was unreal, how terrified she had been that Alice didn't want to be friends anymore.
"I'm not afraid of you," she blurted, unable to stand the forlorn look in Alice's eyes as the other girl slowly drew her hand back. Apparently, she'd been silent too long and Alice had misread her silence. "I'm serious. I wasn't afraid. I'm not afraid now. And I still don't care if you're bi or gay or whatever. It was no big deal. Seriously. I just want to put it behind us."
Alice sat back then, her eyes skeptical and her features still self loathing.
"I mean it. We're still friends, right?" Bella insisted, frustrated by the vampire's continued self punishing look.
Alright, so maybe she was desperate for some reassurance. Hearing Alice say it out loud couldn't hurt.
"Always," Alice echoed her previous word back at her, a weak smile on her face.
And again with those peculiar butterflies…
"So no big deal. I'm not afraid of you and it was just a mistake on both our parts, so let's forget it."
"I don't believe you."
Well, so much for that.
"What do you mean you don't believe me?" Bella frowned at her.
"I mean I don't believe you when you say you're not afraid of me. You have never looked at me like that, Bella. You looked at me like I was-Like I was a monster," Alice's voice was overridden with anguish. "And I can't forget it. That's why it took me so long to come see you. How could I ever look you in the eyes again after that?"
So that's what was keeping Alice from letting it go.
"Alice, you are not a monster! And I wasn't scared-" Liar. "-I was just kinda freaked out is all. I mean, we did just lock lips."
Saying it out loud was a bad idea because instantly she was thinking about it and feeling warm and uncomfortable again, but reassuring Alice was higher on her priority list than losing it again.
"You were. You think I can't see it, Bella? I know what fear looks like by now," Alice huffed back, her hands clenched into fists.
Bella didn't want to address how Alice knew that at that particular moment, but she had some pretty good ideas.
"Alice, seriously. Just forget it. I am not afraid of you. I'm more afraid of a bunny rabbit than big bad Alice. You're like, four feet tall in high heels. My own reflection scares me more than you,"
Bella snorted, attempting humor to diffuse Alice's stress.
It didn't work. Alice only glared feebly at her. She sighed and scowled back, frustrated. She just wanted to put this whole mess behind them already.
"Okay, what is it going to take for me to prove that you don't scare me?" she threw up her hands, out of ideas already.
Creative girl, huh?
Alice grimaced and grumbled, shifting around on the bed. She eyed Bella with what seemed to be uncertainty and Bella only raised her eyebrows at her as if to say I'm waiting.
"You're not the one that needs to prove anything!" Alice finally burst out. "Don't you get that? Bella,I practically molested you. And apparently I need to say it out loud that I wanted to bite you back, because you're obviously not getting it."
Damn it, sonofabitch, shit.
Images of Alice lunging forward and pinning her to the bed by her wrists assaulted her brain, followed closely by an image of the vampire sinking her teeth into the column of her throat. Bella coughed a little and cleared her throat, turning bright red.
"Dude, I know that!" she snapped back, lingering somewhere between cherry and tomato red. Her face was hot and she had a sudden weird longing to press her face into the coolness of Alice's hands.
Stop, stop, stop! She thought frantically. Stop it!
This was seriously getting out of hand. God, all she had to do was say one word, one stupid little word and they wouldn't even be in this mess. All she had to say was Uncle, but no, she was too competitive and stubborn and caught up in the moment where it seemed like Alice had invincible control.
It was as if Alice's pheromones were in her head, twisting around her thoughts, telling her that the vampire may be her predator and Bella may be her prey, but that was okay, that was fine, because Alice could make that dynamic feel so good.
"I know you know that, and that's why I know you're still afraid of me. And that's why I need to prove to you why you shouldn't be…Somehow," Alice maintained, oblivious to Bella's renewed internal hysteria.
"I am not," she insisted without thinking about it, still warring with her emotions.
It was true, though. So yeah, maybe the other girl had frightened her when she'd lost it like that, but it certainly wasn't lingering. She felt perfectly safe around Alice now, as she did all the Cullen vampires. It was kind of like she'd kicked a friendly dog and it had snarled at her, but now she knew better. It was her fault, not Alice's, which was why she didn't ever think the vampire would truly hurt her.
"I've got it!" Alice gasped, snapping her fingers out of nowhere and shooting her gaze right to Bella's startled eyes.
But try convincing Alice that it wasn't her fault.
"What?" Bella inquired warily, still uncomfortably hot and blushing like mad, forever replaying memories in her head that really just needed to stop. It was the look in Alice's eyes and how genuinely sincere that they were that made the brunette suddenly anxious as to what exactly her friend had come up with to somehow recover the stability of their friendship.
"You can bite me again!" Alice beamed, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
Well.
At least no one could ever claim that Alice was predictable.