Chapter 6
I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR CHARACTERS
Fuckity fuck fuck fuck! She internally screamed.
She could not catch a freaking break! It was just one thing right after the next!
Bella let out a noise of despair and looked at Alice as if she'd been personally betrayed by her.
"And you all never thought it was prudent to tell me that before now?" she cried, her voice high enough to hurt a dog's ears.
"We thought it was kind of obvious," Alice winced. Apparently her hearing had become strong enough again to be affected.
The logic of that made Bella do a double take before she made another anguished noise that made Alice screw up her face in sympathy.
Please tell me she's joking, Bella thought desperately.
"Are you serious?" she groaned, one hand running through her thick brown locks.
"As a heart attack," Alice confirmed reluctantly and Bella made another sound like the one of a dying animal. "Bella," she admonished at the pitiful noise and tried to shift on the couch to drop one leg over the edge of it to better face her friend, but the sling made her arm awkwardly bump into the back of it and she growled.
Bella watched her tear it off with a horrible feeling in her gut, torn between telling her not to in case she hurt herself further and curling up in a little ball to continue wailing like a kicked cat.
This isn't happening, she thought. It's not.
"Stupid thing," Alice muttered under her breath and threw it away, rolling her shoulder again as she moved to the position she had been wanting in the first place. Her arm looked fine which soothed the fresh guilt stirring in Bella, but she still held it across her lap carefully.
"I always thought it was just a universal thing! I didn't think your pheromones picked out people based on gender!" Bella told her, her lips pressed together tightly in frustration, her guilt giving way to frantic anxiety.
"They don't. They just have different effects depending on the person. If you…Well, if you weren't capable of being attracted, you probably would have been sent running the opposite way instead of…Ya know, right at me. You would have been terrified, not enticed," Alice told her. She was saying everything like it had the capability to send Bella off the deep end, but it was too late for that.
Bella made another pathetic noise, a muffled moan of desperation.
"Will you quit it?" Alice demanded, but she sounded on the edge of laughter as Bella slumped down so far on the couch that half her body fell off of it and she put her hands to her face.
"So what, I'm gay now?" she whined, knowing she was being horribly melodramatic but unable to stop herself.
"I didn't say that. Oh my god, you are such a drama queen!" Alice broke into a sudden fit of giggles when Bella only moaned again and slid all the way down to the floor and buried her face in her knees, her back to the seat of the couch now.
"It's not funny!" she objected, her voice muffled as Alice snickered.
Alice's sniggering cut off for a brief moment as if she was trying to hold it in, and then she burst into laughter a second later.
Blatantly offended, Bella lifted her head and glared furiously at her. The pixie's hand flew to her mouth and her giggling stuttered, but at the look on the brunette's face she threw back her head and howled with mirth, the room quickly filling with her gorgeous laugh.
God damn it.
Despite herself, Bella had to bite down hard on her bottom lip to keep from grinning.
She was being ridiculous about it after all, a true overly dramatic teenager to the bone, but still. This was serious and Alice was just laughing at her! This was a big deal!
"You jerk!" she snapped but the angry effect in her voice was kind of lost at the muted laugh she was trying to contain as Alice tried and failed twice to stop laughing for her sake before losing it all over again at Bella's pathetic excuse for a scowl.
"Quit laughing at me!" she finally gave in, her laugh spilling out of her as if Alice had pried it out of her by the mere sound of her own, which, she kinda had. She always did, really. Bella just couldn't stay legitimately mad when it came to Alice, let alone when the girl was truly amused like that.
But still.
She grabbed a cushion off the couch behind her head and playfully hurled it at the inconsiderate vampire, trying to stifle her own chuckling at both of their behavior.
To her surprise, it actually hit the girl for the first time ever.
She had forgotten about that whole slower reflexes thing. She also remembered a moment too late that Alice's arm was hurt and she could have hurt the girl throwing projectiles like that.
However, it flumped with an anticlimactic noise into the amused girl's face before dropping into her lap and Bella froze when Alice flinched and looked startled, her laugh abruptly cutting off.
Oops, she mentally winced, feeling terrible instantly.
"Hey!" Alice yelped, clutching the pillow in her hands. "Who's the jerk now?" she barked and Bella had to swear and duck as the cushion came flying back at her a second later. It sailed over her head and she whipped her eyes back to Alice's, affronted, but there was a smirk on the girl's face that let her know the vampire was just playing.
"Still you!" Bella scoffed, grabbing another cushion and staggering to her feet to fling it lightly at Alice who deflected it with her good arm and slung the last one on her side of the couch at the human girl. It caught Bella high on the shoulder and she yelped as if it actually could hurt her, which made them both dissolve into another fit of giggling.
"Alright, alright, truce!" Alice put her hands up when Bella plopped back down on her side of the couch and held her last cushion up threateningly. "Truce," she insisted when Bella gave her the stink eye.
"Fine," Bella consented, dropping it and rolling her eyes. "Jerk," she added a moment later, though jokingly.
Bella was barely miffed now. She wasn't really upset about Alice laughing at her because her reaction was pretty dumb, but she was really confused and anxious and had no idea how to deal with the bomb Alice had dropped on her.
"I'm sorry," Alice apologized a second later sincerely. Bella looked at her then, their entire playful manner dissipating at the gentle expression the vampire took on, becoming serious again. The human girl let out a deep, forlorn sigh and crossed her arms protectively over her middle.
"Alice, what does that even mean?" she mumbled, not meeting those beautiful blue eyes in her uncertainty.
You know what it means, her subconscious jeered, ever painfully blunt and uncaring to whatever denial Bella tried to surface.
"It doesn't necessarily have to mean anything, Bells…" Alice answered carefully. "Pheromones are weird. They do different things to different people. All I'm saying is that's the general trend they follow…"
Bella could tell by the sound of her voice that Alice was only trying to make her feel better, and in doing so, the brunette began to feel worse. If Alice was sugar coating it, that meant exactly what she feared.
"Alice, am I…Am I…Gay?" Bella didn't mean to say it like that, as if it were something dirty or obscene. She had no problem with gay people, Alice knew that. She didn't care if guys wanted to kiss guys or girls wanted to kiss girls. It wasn't something that had ever seemed to matter. It was who people really were as people that mattered, not who they were kissing or sharing their beds with.
But it was a whole lot different looking out from the inside than looking in from the outside. It was different when she was the one that might be…
Gay.
"I don't know the answer to that, Bella. Only you do," Alice replied softly, her tone so compassionate that it hurt to hear at the same time that it soothed in the way only her best friend could soothe her right then. "All I'm saying is, there might be-You know, a chance…That you might be," she finished honestly but as if the honesty was difficult to achieve.
Only a best friend could be strong enough to be real with Bella while at the same time hating the fact that she had to be because she knew it was going to hurt her friend.
There was a stark difference in the way Alice revealed things to her and the way Rosalie revealed things to her, she noted. Only Alice could soften the blow so much that Bella could really stand it, and only Rosalie could harden it so badly that it became unbearable.
"Great," she huffed. "Great."
Alice frowned at her for that and she struggled not to pout.
It wasn't that she had an issue with being gay; her issue was with all the baggage that came with it, and the fact that her whole life she had thought she was a hundred percent straight. She had looked at penis and not been totally disgusted. She liked kissing Edward. She liked a chiseled jaw and a six pack.
But now she had to deal with the fact that her attraction to Alice's long lashes, softly defined features, and gorgeous smile might not be inspired purely by pheromones or based on platonic envy.
I like boys, she mentally told herself. I know I do. I've never looked at girls like that, have I? I don't think I have. I mean I always thought Angelina Jolie had really nice lips. And she always looked good in Tomb Raider. And I might have had a tiny girl crush on Hayley Williams…And Pink, but who wouldn't? That's no big deal is it? Girl crushes are normal right? I never thought about kissing them or anything…Did I? Shit, I did when Angela and I talked about girl crushes! And I don't recall hating the idea of it! Fuck!
"Bella, stop. Hey, look at me. Stop," Alice called to her, breaking Bella out of her miserable musing. "I can see your mind going a thousand miles a minute, honey. Calm down. We're just talking, that's all. We're just talking about it, okay? Nobody's setting anything in stone," Alice reminded her when Bella reluctantly turned her head to face her again.
"Yeah," she mumbled, trying and failing to give Alice a weak smile to let her know she was okay.
Watching Alice's face wasn't good for her. All the compassion there made her heart ache.
"Look, there's a good chance you're not. It might just be me. We hang out so much, maybe my pheromones figured out a way to attract you instead of fill you with fear or something. And I mean, I am pretty hot," Alice added, pretending to preen. When her kidding didn't work and Bella continued to sulk quietly, looking anxious, she sighed.
"I mean, you've never been aroused by any other girl pheromones have you? I know it'll be a cold day in hell when Rosalie manages to turn you on, and I'll be having a chat with her about the way she talked to you earlier, by the way, but what about Esme?" Alice contemplated, still struggling to reassure her friend.
Bella felt a warm feeling stir in her chest at the protective note in the pixie's voice when she talked about 'chatting' with Rosalie. But it was overridden as she knit her brow together in disgust.
"Ew, no! Dude, she's like my second mom!" she protested and Alice winced.
Gross, she added in her head. Esme was a very beautiful woman, no doubt and any man or vampire was lucky to have her, but no. All the no's she had.
Just no.
"Okay, sorry, my bad. That was a dumb question," Alice acknowledged and rubbed absentmindedly at her sprained arm.
"But um…"
Alice perked up at Bella's tentative start and the brunette waffled back and forth, trying to decide whether or not to tell her about the mysterious redheaded woman who had flirted so blatantly with her before.
What the hell? Why not? There was no reason to keep it from her friend. She might as well. She was insanely curious to know who the brazen woman was. Her actions still made Bella blush.
"There was a woman…A vampire, who walked out of your house when Rosalie and I got here. She uh-She um…" Bella's stammering faded when Alice immediately narrowed her eyes.
"Did she say something to you, Bella? I swear if she did-"
Huh? Bella cocked her head, confused.
"What? No? Why would she have? Well, I mean, she did say something to me, but not like that," Bella said, wondering at Alice's outburst.
Alice cut herself short and chewed her lip, watching Bella as if she didn't believe her. "Like what?" she asked.
Oh, well this was the fun part! The details!
"Nothing, really. But her-I mean you asked if any other girl-er, vampire had ever…She did. Her pheromones did, I think. I mean sort of," Bella waved her hand as if any of that was supposed to make any kind of sense but was entirely blindsided when Alice scowled.
"Who was she anyway? I've never seen any other vampires around here except for you guys," Bella inquired slowly, starting to understand that maybe Alice did not really take to the redhead she'd met.
"A new neighbor. Her name's Victoria," Alice answered quickly, too quickly, her voice dismissive.
Bella frowned but Alice only waved her off and shrugged, saying, "I'll tell you later."
For the third time today she got the feeling there was information being withheld from her and she didn't like it, but Alice changed the subject too fast for her to pursue it.
Besides, thinking about 'Victoria' and the way she had affected her only served to make her feel worse, so she let it go.
"Look, none of this really means anything, okay Bells? This is all just speculation. I know you're probably freaking out, trust me, I do. I found out I swung both ways in a time when you were barely allowed to swing any way, let alone that way. So I get it. But you know I'm here for you, right? Whatever happens, whatever you like, I don't care. I'm still Alice and you're still Bella, and we're still friends. Right?" Alice assured her, and Bella's heart swelled a hundred times over.
It didn't matter that she might be attracted to girls. It didn't matter that she might even be attracted to Alice. It didn't matter that they'd bitten the hell out of each other and kissed twice, and it didn't matter that Bella had some weird ability to turn vampires semi-human and had done so to Alice.
Alice was still sitting here with her, for her, and she didn't care about any of that.
They were still friends, come what may, and somehow that made everything so much easier to handle even when she was freaking out on the inside.
"Always," she murmured and they shared a smile. "But is it okay if we stop talking about it for now? I didn't sleep much last night and Rosalie's kind of the epitome of a 'rude awakening.' My head is starting to hurt."
Alice nodded understandingly and stood then. Bella mimicked her movements. "Of course. We can talk more whenever you're ready, whenever you want, Bells. I'll be here. But I think you're right. I think we've had enough drama for one day…Or year, really. I'd offer to drive you home but uh…"
Alice made a gesture to the space between them and a sadness grabbed hold of her heartstrings and played them longingly.
Not being able to be around Alice properly really sucked. It went against their whole nature, their whole dynamic.
Then again, right now being around Alice, pheromones or not, wasn't good for her health. Bella was finding it hard to look her in the eyes now that she knew she might be looking with more than friendly interest, and that was kind of scary.
What if she developed a crush on her best friend now or something?
Oh fuck, what if she already had?
Determined not to go down that route lest she spontaneously combust in hysteria, Bella squashed that train of thought immediately and refused to even consider the notion.
"So yeah. I'll go get Carlisle to drive you home. He's got a day off today anyway. First one he's had in months. Even for a vampire, they run him ragged at that hospital," Alice said and Bella bobbed her head affirmatively. Neither of them had to say out loud that there was no way in hell Bella was going to ride in the car with Rosalie again.
Nuh uh. She would rather walk.
"How did you get her that ticket anyway?" Alice asked a second later, barely holding in the sound of her amusement. Everyone had seen Rosalie smack the ticket down on the coffee table when she walked in save for Bella, who had been waylaid by the mysterious flame haired vixen called 'Victoria.'
"I climbed over the console because she pissed me off and she was too busy yelling at me to keep the car straight. We got pulled over for reckless driving," Bella admitted and felt no shame when Alice broke into a full blown grin and laughed. "I kicked the volume knob way up too, so that may have been why she was so pissed. Emmett has some interesting music for a century old vampire," she added.
"Actually…" Alice drawled then, looking both guilty and beyond amused.
Bella raised her eyebrows.
"That was my music. I leave my CD's in the sedan and he leaves his in the Cadillac."
Surprise made Bella's jaw drop and another beautiful, tinkling laugh rolled out of Alice.
"Bands a make her dance? Really, Alice?" she gawked, snickering when the vampire shrugged and mimed brushing dirt of her shoulders and cocked her head with all the swagger of a million dollar rapper.
"Even a hundred year old vampire likes to shake her ass sometimes. What? Don't judge," she said and Bella's laugh came from deep in her belly.
Alice was too. Freaking. Cute. (No, really, she was too cute. Thinking about it made Bella's laughter substantially shorten.)
They sobered a few moments later, and Bella was beginning to feel a familiar ache in her cheeks that she only ever got after spending time with Alice. It was all the sweeter because she had thought she would never feel it again too many times to count lately.
They locked eyes and as instinctively as they did everything else together, both took a step forward as if to hug each other. They also both froze at the same time and stopped, looking awkward.
Well, that sucks, Bella grimaced, rubbing her bare shoulders and wondering why the hell she had thought wearing a tank top in Forks was a good idea.
They shuffled uncomfortably for a few seconds, both upset that they couldn't hug goodbye like usual but both knowing the consequences if they did.
Alice looked directly into her eyes after this tense moment and said, "Quick one?"
Yes please, Bella thought, needing the contact with her friend to really solidify that everything was good between them now and plus the comfort after all she had been through.
The gay thing be damned. Alice was still her best friend and she wanted a hug goodbye, damn it.
"Totally," she agreed and before she could panic or take it back, Alice darted forward, threw her arms around her neck and squeezed. Bella tried not to wheeze as pheromones slathered her and made her go weak in the knees.
"Bye, Bells," Alice whispered in her ear in a voice that sounded like smoke and tinted glass.
Then she kissed her cheek, turned, and walked quickly out of the room to go get Carlisle, leaving nothing but the searing burn of the trace of her kiss on Bella's bright red left cheek and the aroma of mint, white chocolate and berries behind her.
Unfortunately, this was the last time Bella saw Alice for a solid week and a half.
Apparently, her bite required a substantial amount of time to fully recover from.
As usual, Bella was pretty bored without her friend around. Life made for quite the uninteresting experience without the pixie around as she learned when her classes dragged on for hours at a time. The other Cullens were still around, and of course she always had Angela, Jessica, Mike, and Eric.
Still, the hallways were substantially drearier without Alice around. And it was still weird not having Edward at her side, but she was doing her damndest not to think about that. Her heartache had rapidly been replaced by the fury only a scorned woman could muster and she resolved to pretend like he didn't even exist.
Jerk.
She had enough on her plate to think about her asshole of an ex. It was much harder to do her damndest not to think about whether or not she might actually like girls, the thought of which still caused anxiety to rip roar through her.
She just…She couldn't. Not right then. The nonsense with her and Alice had barely even settled; she was not capable of dealing with another life changing crisis so fast.
Yet imagine her surprise when she was forcibly thrown full tilt into that crisis the very day Alice returned…
And so did Victoria.
"Did you guys see Iron Man 3 yet?" Angela was saying next to her as their little group of friends made their way to Biology one rainy Wednesday. "It was freaking awesome."
"No, and I don't want to," Jessica rolled her eyes when Mike and Eric eagerly nodded.
"Dude, why not? It was so dope!" Eric protested. "Oh hey, me and Mike gotta bolt. Can't be late for Algebra again."
"I haven't had the chance," Bella said honestly, shrugging her backpack higher on her shoulder. "Later guys," she waved goodbye to the boys.
"Yeah, seriously Jess, you got a thing against Iron Man?" Angela raised her eyebrows as Mike and Eric waved back and darted off for their Algebra classroom, which was much further down the hallway.
"No. I have a thing against dumb action movies where the main point is to watch stuff blow up," Jessica retorted and Angela was in the middle of looking scandalized and opening her mouth to presumably defend her favorite movie hero when the students in front of them parted like the Red Sea, just as they reached the Biology classroom.
Out of the crowd came a smiling Alice Cullen, who nodded and waved sociably at all the many admirers who called her name and watched her float gracefully down the hall. Generally most of the people in Forks chose to admire the Cullens from afar, instinctively repelled by their vampiric aura, their instincts sensing the predator even if they couldn't consciously, but when it came to Alice, even the most skeptical could hardly resist smiling back when the pixie seemed so sweet and harmless. They may have naturally known something was off with her, but despite that, Alice was still pretty popular.
Bella lit up like a dog who had heard a doorbell ring. She was grinning before she meant to at the sudden revelation of her best friend's return. She had been figuring it was about time for the smallest Cullen to return. Emmett had told her she would be back soon, the only other Cullen she talked to on a regular basis at school besides Edward and Alice.
She was usually pretty cool with Jasper too, but both of them seemed to have reached a silent mutual agreement to not talk to each other, or acknowledge each other's presence. Bella finally understood that he knew about what had happened between her and Alice and she had no desire to address that issue with him any time soon.
It was no wonder he had seemed a little less than cordial with her that day.
Rosalie was self explanatory.
Alice saw her instantly and her smile seemed to visibly change. Her nose crinkled up and it really hit her eyes, of which Bella was unbelievably thankful to see were once again a lovely shade of gold when the pixie reached them and not that peculiar shade of electric blue.
"Hey, Bells," she greeted smoothly as she sidled up, nodding amiably to Angela and Jessica as she did so. "Miss me?"
"Hey, Alice! Yeah, of course," Bella said, delighted at just the sight of her. "When did you get here?" she asked, unable to contain all of the surprise she had at seeing Alice pop up out of nowhere after not hearing from her for a week.
"About five minutes ago. I hitched a ride with Jasper. We barely got here on time for first period," Alice answered, jerking her head at the door to the classroom on their left to indicate their shared first period.
"So you're back?" she inquired, still grinning like an idiot, ducking her head and peering at Alice through her eyelashes to ask her what they both knew what she was really asking.
So you're good now? She was asking. You're all vampires again?
Alice sure seemed like it at least, and Bella could stand within a foot of her now without needing to pass out, but Alice confirmed it when she nodded her head.
"Yep, I'm back. That was one wicked bug," she lied with a faux grimace, and then waved brightly at Angela and Jessica when she noticed them just standing off to the side a little awkwardly.
It was no secret that Bella was closer to Alice than any of her other friends, and vice versa. Sometimes they got sidetracked with each other, and even when they didn't Angela and Jessica were only really associates of Alice through Bella.
None of that stopped them from occasionally chatting with the vampire when she came around, which was frequently considering how close she was to Bella. They were all chummy at least; it was just, sometimes it got kinda awkward since Alice wasn't really friends with them the way Bella was friends with them, not to mention the whole vampiric aura thing put them off without them realizing it. Alice always made an effort to make them comfortable, which helped.
They liked each other alright in the end, which was what mattered.
"Hey, Alice," Angela greeted her. "We're glad you're back alright. Bella told us you were really sick."
"Yeah, we know that had to suck. She said you were puking up a storm," Jessica interjected and Alice bobbed her head.
"Yeah, it was awful, but I'm all good now. So what have you guys been up to?" Alice replied sociably, ever flexible when it came to people but quickly getting the subject off of herself so that they didn't start asking too many questions about what she might have had.
"Oh nothing, just wondering what the hell is wrong with this bimbo for not liking Iron Man," Angela replied snarkily and grinned at the scowl Jessica shot her.
"Bimbo?" she scoffed. This time she was the one looking scandalized and Bella and Alice both laughed as they immediately began bickering when Angela rolled her eyes at her before darting into the classroom, ignoring the ranting Jessica hot on her heels.
Their banter trailed off and Bella took a deep breath when Alice turned to look at her, her gaze softening.
"You've been okay?" Alice asked softly. "I know we left on kind of a weird note, but-"
"No, I'm good. I'm fine. I just missed my best friend," Bella rushed to reassure Alice when she saw the concern in her eyes, and to hopefully squash any attempt at bringing up the last thing they had talked about together before Alice could make her turn a thousand shades of red.
"I'm glad you're back, Alice," she added and Alice did that adorable smile thing again where her nose wrinkled from it and her eyes sparkled.
"Me too, Bells," she said. "Me too."
They shared a soft smile and Alice lightly touched her elbow companionably, the way she always touched her.
Fuck, Bella mentally swore as Alice gestured for them to hurry inside when the bell rang shrilly.
Alice may have been all vampire again, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Tingles erupted up Bella's arm where her cool palm brushed skin and she was glad that Alice had turned away so that she didn't see Bella's expression freeze on her face.
You freaking lesbo, she thought anxiously. Stop it. Stop.
She quickly walked in after her friend who had begun to babble about something she wasn't really hearing, rubbing at her arm which had sprouted goose bumps.
"Yeah, so Esme went ridiculously mom mode on me. I could barely get her to give me some breathing space and-"
They both stopped cold, which may have partly been because the room was almost dead quiet save for a few hushed whispers, but mostly because there was someone sitting at the table at the back of the room…
Right at Alice and Bella's table.
Bella's stomach hit the floor when the familiar redhead smiled a feral smile her way and waggled the fingers of her right hand at her in a coquettish wave.
Victoria.
"Class, this new student is Victoria Rosa from Lansing, Michigan. She's a long way from home, so be sure to give her a proper Forks welcome. Victoria, if you would?" the teacher called out from the front of the room as Bella's blood rushed to her face, shell shocked.
What the hell was she doing here?
Images of the first impression the woman had given her flashed across her eyes and she immediately averted them, having no idea why the redhead was looking at her like that. Victoria stood slowly, lackadaisically and Bella was shocked to see her attire.
No freaking wonder the class was so dead quiet.
Victoria made quite the picture for a high-schooler in a tight black leather skirt that barely covered her ass, three inch heels and a blood red, sheer lace top over a black cami that left little to the imagination when it came to her…Er, sizable assets.
It was a wonder half the boys in the room hadn't dropped dead. She was sure some of them were drooling and she had to consciously keep her jaw clamped closed at the racy outfit. She didn't want to think about why she had to make that effort, or why she could barely look at the woman standing there without blushing.
I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay, she mentally chanted.
"She's in my seat," Alice snapped, the only one to make any indication that she had heard the teacher in any way.
Bella swallowed as she stepped up next to her friend, her stomach coiling into a frenzied knot in her belly. Red-gold eyes watched her shamelessly, as if there was no one else in the room but her and Victoria. The redhead kept smirking at her too.
"Alice," the teacher, Ms. Shanty, admonished immediately. "That was very rude! I expected better from you of all people!"
"She's in. My seat," Alice repeated, her voice hard and Ms. Shanty made a noise of anger at her continued rudeness. The class erupted into more whispers and even Bella looked to her friend in surprise.
Since when was Alice so cold? Seconds before she had been waving and smiling at complete strangers as if they were all long lost friends. And hadn't Victoria walked out of her house a week before?
Again, she got the clear idea that Alice didn't really like the mysterious redhead. Who was she?
"I apologize. I can move? It was just the first one that caught my eye when I walked in. I didn't know the seats were assigned, Ms. Shanty," Victoria said, sounding convincingly ashamed that she had apparently taken an already taken seat.
"No, no, that won't be necessary. Alice, I'm ashamed of you! I'm sorry Victoria, Alice is usually much better behaved than this. Alice, you can sit over there by Andrew. You and Bella talk too much during my class anyway," Ms. Shanty barked after brushing off Victoria's apology.
"It's really no big deal, ma'am. I can move if-"
"No, no, it's quite alright, dear. Alice, Bella, take your seats please. The late bell rang two minutes ago," the teacher ordered.
Alice looked positively mutinous as Victoria slowly sat back down in her seat, looking marginally guilty as the short vampire glared at her. However, her pretend remorse for having stolen Alice's seat was given away when she looked directly at Bella and winked.
Bella burned crimson and swallowed when Alice turned to look at her with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Ms. Swan, Ms. Cullen, take your seats!" Ms. Shanty's voice rose as they just stood there, Alice's eyes searching Bella's face for something the brunette couldn't name and Bella finally understanding what had happened.
Oh no, she thought desperately when Alice reluctantly turned away from her and moved towards the desk across the room next to Andrew, her jaw locked tightly. I have to sit next to her!
Bella's legs may as well have been filled with lead for how much she dragged them as she walked over to her usual seat. Everybody knew that you didn't take the two seats at the table in the back right corner of the room. They were taken every day by Alice and Bella. They might as well have had their names on those two chairs…
But there sat Victoria, leaned back and perfectly at home, that coy smirk still adorning her beautiful face. Bella wanted to do anything but go and sit by the mysterious vampire that she knew absolutely fuck all about, but she had no choice. If she lingered another moment in the middle of the classroom, the whispering over the mild altercation would drive her mad, or Ms. Shanty would kill her.
She dropped down in her seat and shrugged off her pack, trying her hardest not to look at the woman next to her, who still smelled like pure sex. Cinnamon and roses tickled the inside of her skull and she subconsciously began to breathe deeper as Ms. Shanty began to teach at the head of the classroom.
Her determination to pretend like Victoria didn't exist was foiled when pheromones slid tantalizingly over her, whispering softly over her skin. She crossed her arms on the desk and chewed the inside of her cheek, her knee bouncing.
I will not look at her. I won't. I will not look at her, she thought, attempting to shallow out her breathing. God, why did she have to smell so good? Vampires were the devil; surely they had to be with how easily they pumped out temptation.
Wait, she was being tempted by a girl again!
And I'm not gay, god damn it! She added in her head, working the muscles in her jaw. It's not my fault I have this fluke weakness to pheromones!
She could feel the woman's stare on her, burning into the side of her face. Bella opted to look straight ahead, her shoulders hunched. Victoria's gaze was a palpable sensation, crawling over her, begging to be met.
I won't look, I won't look, I won't look…
She looked.
Damn it.
Damn, damn, damn!
Brown eyes met molten red-gold ones and Bella breathed in sharply, which turned out to be a bad idea as more of that ungodly aroma rushed up her nose and fogged her brain.
"Hi," Victoria smiled simply, as if she had been waiting for Bella to look at her the whole time, revealing two sharp white fangs from beneath her red upper lip. Her eyes had been blood red the last time Bella had seen her, but now they swirled the cover of lava, hot and nearly impossible to look directly at and she had no idea why they had changed colors.
"Hi," Bella grunted, averting her eyes almost instantly. She blushed for some unfathomable reason as Victoria's smile developed into another smirk. Her blood pumped harder at the sight of it and Bella bit the inside of her lip in frustration.
Why is she affecting me so much? She internally screamed. It's almost like I bit her, too! Who is this woman?
Bella suddenly wished she had pressed the subject of the woman next to her harder when she had brought it up to Alice. She had no idea why there was a new vampire in town, nor why she had enrolled in the school, and therefore had no idea what her intentions might be.
"I believe we met before, but I don't think I properly introduced myself, kitten. I'm Victoria Rosa and you must be, ah-Isabella, right?" Victoria hummed and shifted her body around in the seat to get more comfortable, the smirk never leaving her face as she angled herself more towards Bella.
This simple action did stupid things to the bewildered human and she jerked her gaze away with great difficulty.
"Yeah. How-How do you know that?" Bella whispered, aware of Ms. Shanty's eyes on her as the woman droned on about frog anatomy or something. She couldn't really hear her. All of her senses were attuned to the vampire next to her. She could have been sitting next to a lion from the way her body was reacting.
A very sexy lion.
Not gay! Her brain yelped.
So gay, her body shuddered visibly as Victoria chuckled softly next to her, a husky sound that made her belly twist.
"I've heard a lot about you from your, er…Vampire friends," Victoria replied, her voice tinged with amusement that Bella had no idea what could be causing.
"Oh," she breathed, rubbing at the back of her neck and feeling inexplicably hot as she squirmed next to the vampire. "You-Alice said you were new in town. A new neighbor?"
Why the hell was she talking to this woman? Everything about her screamed dangerous, but she was being drawn in like a fish on a hook.
"Something like that," Victoria snickered, apparently amused by the notion. "I suppose I'm the new kid on the block…Or vampire, if you want to be technical about it. Yes, I was greeting the dominant coven in town to let them know I was no threat…And that's about when I ran into you, huh kitten?"
Kitten. Why did she keep calling Bella that? And what was so damned funny? Did she have to smirk like that?
Bella nodded awkwardly, eyes flickering from the teacher to Victoria nervously.
"I must apologize for being so forward with you at the time," Victoria went on, her voice barely above a whisper as Ms. Shanty walked over and flicked off the lights.
Apparently, they were watching a movie today in Biology. And that meant it was going to be twice as easy for everyone to talk…Which included the vampire next to her. The customary muttering flared up the moment darkness shrouded the room.
"But sometimes, I just can't help myself around a pretty girl. You clean up nicely, by the way,"
Victoria murmured, and then she let her eyes wander slowly down Bella's body, blatantly checking her out.
Yep. That settled it.
The woman was quite obviously a lesbian, and interested in Bella if she could take a hint.
The timing of her arrival was impeccable if she wanted to shatter all the denial Bella was meagerly trying to surface…
The stare made her hot and she desperately wished for once that they weren't watching a movie, and that she was sitting by Alice and not this-this-
This woman.
Who the flipping flip was she?
Bella felt exposed in the black leggings and short denim skirt she was wearing. Normally she didn't wear these kinds of clothes, but Alice's fashion sense and shopping sprees had finally begun to wear off on her. She resisted the urge to cross her arms over the black V cut top she wore when Victoria's eyes ascended over her chest, hesitating obviously at what tasteful cleavage Bella was showing.
The woman was absolutely shameless.
"Thanks," Bella finally choked out when their eyes met again and Victoria gave another husky chuckle at her weak reply.
Her entire body was on fire now and she could practically taste the pheromones from how thick they were. Victoria's eyes glittered knowingly and she smiled provocatively, leaning toward Bella so suddenly that she almost fell out of her chair.
"Am I making you uncomfortable, kitten?" she purred, her cleavage showing much more than Bella would ever be caught dead wearing outside her house.
Mother of god, her brain short circuited. Victoria was too close for comfort and her entire body seemed to fill up on her aroma, her proximity.
Gay-diddy-gay-gay-gay.
Her reaction was completely fucking gay, and she was too astonished and dumbstruck by it to even freak out about it.
"No," she lied, her voice a high pitched squeak. Her eyes shot back to the front of the room where a movie about amphibians was playing on the projector, the volume loud enough so that everyone around them was whispering comfortably, oblivious to her mild predicament that was rapidly becoming extreme.
"Really? So you don't mind that I'm flirting with you?" Victoria's tone was filled with mock surprise and Bella's gaze whipped to hers, stunned that she would admit to it so easily.
Victoria wasn't even hinting. She was blatantly seducing!
The vampire before her was literally admitting to have more than platonic interest in her and she had no. Freaking. Idea. What to do about it.
Besides panic.
Just like the first time Victoria had come on to her shamelessly the moment they met. Bella should have taken that as a red flag, and now she was regretting that she hadn't.
"No-I mean yeah but I-I mean I'm…I'm not gay," she stammered back quietly, finally settling on the safest response she could manage.
Could Ms. Shanty please catch them talking and make them stop? She was a freaking hawk when she and Alice spoke during her class, why was she oblivious now?
Stop talking to her idiot! You'll lead her on or something!
"Oooh," Victoria murmured, grinning so that her fangs were shown off. The sight of them made her blood run cold. "Not gay, huh? Yet you don't mind that I'm flirting?"
"I do-I m-mean I don't-Look, I'm kind of in a standby phase right now," she muttered, her words sounding lost and weak as her skin tingled not unpleasantly when Victoria traced a slow circle on the desk with the tip of her middle finger, a positively lascivious expression on her face.
"A standby phase…" Victoria repeated, rolling the words around before she hitched an eyebrow at the girl.
"Yeah…So um…"
Bella had no idea what she was trying to say other than Please stop looking at me like that.
"So…You're not gay…But you might be?" Victoria hummed under her breath, watching her with her taunting, swirling eyes.
Wow, way to be subtle, Bells. She figured you out in about five seconds flat, didn't she?
She didn't answer that time, biting the tip of her tongue to stay quiet, but that was answer enough. Victoria sat back, that damnable smirk still pulling at the corners of her lips.
"Ah, I get it. You're young, confused…Understandable. Am I making it harder on you?" she inquired, twirling a lock of her flaming hair around one finger.
Bella focused on the screen where a man was currently disemboweling a frog and examining its insides.
She realized she was the frog, and Victoria was the man with the scalpel in his hand, quietly picking Bella apart.
"I don't know," she mumbled, refusing with all her might to look at that gorgeous face again. "This is all kind of new to me, alright? I barely even know you. You come on kind of strong," she admitted, too afraid to look at Victoria's face and see her reaction to that little tidbit.
All she got was a muted laugh that wilted her to the bone.
She looked again and mentally swore in frustration when Victoria's face seemed to glow beautifully in the light of the movie, unearthly intoxicating.
"Coming on strong is one of my better attributes, honestly…So this whole 'might be gay' thing is new to you, huh? It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain tiny vampire sitting across the room, would it?" Victoria ducked her head close to Bella's and the brunette practically hyperventilated as pheromones pulsated around her.
She spluttered so much that Victoria giggled coyly and Ms. Shanty hushed them angrily.
"No," she ground out through clenched teeth when the old hag looked back at her computer, as well as the few people that turned around to look at her. "Alice has nothing to do with that…Why would you think that?"
"Mm, just a hunch. She seemed pretty pissed that I stole her seat," Victoria told her when the attention in the room was off of her. "Jealous, if you ask me…"
No one asked you, Bella thought. And was Victoria sitting closer to her now?
"She's not. It's not like that with us," she replied, wondering why she hadn't closed the conversation already. It was like Victoria was under her skin though, keeping her talking and all of her attention on her without trying.
However, the conversation was taking a turn that made her beyond uncomfortable. She sure as hell was not going down that road with the nosy woman whom she didn't even know. No way was she discussing Alice like that with her. She wouldn't even do that with herself.
"No, I don't believe so…" Victoria murmured in a voice like silk that dripped honey. Her new tone made Bella's stomach clench and her leg bounced faster, anxious. "But you wish it was, don't you?"
"What-no!" she hissed under her breath, turning to glare at Victoria who was seriously overstepping common boundaries, but that was a mistake, because glittering lava colored eyes were smoldering right in her face.
Oh my god, she thought, her heart stopping.
"Look kitten…You seem kind of confused…Let me help you out…I promise I can tell if you're gay or not within sixty seconds. Just-relax, and let me…"
Victoria's tone was hypnotic, her eyes boring into Bella's demandingly, unwavering. Bella could not move under that gaze. Victoria had switched on all of her vampiric ability before the brunette had even had a chance to draw breath for a gasp and now she was frozen, helpless.
However, it was the cool hand that lay across her left bouncing knee that made her whimper. She felt the redhead squeeze gently as she breathed sweet smelling breath inches from her lips and smiled that devilish smile.
For a second, she thought Victoria was going to kiss her right then and there in the back of the classroom and she flinched slightly, but when the redhead leaned in, she bypassed Bella's face and brought her lips right up to her left ear.
And then she began to talk.
"So you think you might be gay…I'd say you know you are, you just don't want to admit it. What straight girl eyeballs a girl like that and doesn't want to…Get to know her a little better?" Victoria whispered sultrily into Bella's ear and the girl's heart shot forward so hard into her ribcage that it almost hurt. Her stomach twisted and she gasped as cool, rouge red lips brushed the sensitive shell of her ear as that strong hand rubbed languidly over the top of her knee, making it throb.
Her body fell the fuck apart instantly and she sank back in her chair, her throat closing. Pheromones pumped in her bloodstream like a dose of heroin, driving her eyes shut as she tried not to lose her mind. Her fingers closed on the seat of her chair and she shuddered at the sound of that seductive voice against her vulnerable ears, coaxing a reaction out of her that she was wholly unprepared to stop.
Oh god, she thought. Oh my god.
Carlisle had told her that vampires pheromones strengthened when they were agitated.
He never said anything about them being able to do so deliberately.
"Would you like that, huh Bella baby? Hmm, kitten? I bet you would…You could barely keep your eyes off of me from the moment you walked in. I bet you couldn't help but imagine running your hands all. Over. Me," Victoria pronounced each word like the hum of a growling lioness, her hand sliding further up the top of Bella's thigh and leaving a blazing path cutting across it.
These thin leggings were turning out to be a phenomenally bad idea.
And so was sitting by this devil of a vampire who was reducing her to a puddle in seconds just by whispering in her ear.
Bella didn't even know her. She had talked to her for all of five minutes and yet she could not, for the life of her, make her leaden limbs move to shove her off.
All she could do was sit there and sizzle in her shocked arousal, too dumbstruck to move. Her eyes were locked straight ahead on the disgusting dissection still occurring on screen. The man with the scalpel was prying out the frog's heart at present and she could barely see it, her entire attention being funneled into not spontaneously combusting.
"Even now you won't push me away, even though you don't even really know me…You love it, don't you? You think you might be gay, Isabella? What a joke. That's a fucking riot," Victoria hissed, and squeezed Bella's thigh in her palm as if to prove her point. A choked whimper was the only response Bella could manage, a ragged breath filling her aching lungs.
"I'm not," she squeaked feebly, her voice hoarse and barely audible even though she had been trying to say it loud and forcefully in some helpless attempt to get the vampire to back off.
Blushing violently, she sank further down in the seat, her heart pounding a rhythm in her chest that made her head swim.
Victoria was all around her, over her, inside her. She was everywhere, storming Bella's weak human system with her vampiric aura.
"Oh, really?" Victoria snickered into her ear and gave it a tiny lick that made Bella mew softly, failing to strangle the noise before it could leave her. "Then prove it to me…Look over there, Bella. Look at your little friend, sitting right across from us…Look."
The last thing Bella wanted was to look over at Alice!
No, no, no!
But when Victoria growled it into her ear like that, she obeyed as if she had no choice, shivering as she turned her head to the right and looked at the table next to them that Alice had been forced to take.
And Alice was staring straight at her, stormy black eyes boring into her.
She gasped at the piercing look, her hands clenched around the seat as Alice glared directly into her pupils, cutting her down to the quick. Her heartbeat stumbled and her lips parted as Victoria giggled in her ear.
"Look at Alice, Bella. She's been watching us the whole time…Her eyes haven't left us from the moment you sat down. She's been watching us like a hawk…She's seen me touching you the whole time," Victoria murmured, amusement evident in her thick voice.
Bella's chest heaved, her head feeling drowned. Her ears seemed to swim with Victoria's words as Alice continued to stare right into her, seeming to strip her to her very naked soul. Alice's jaw was locked and her hands were tightly clenched fists on the table in front of her, her shoulders hunched forward in evident fury.
Alice had been watching the whole thing. Everybody else was engrossed in talking with their friends and grimacing at the movie, but Alice had been looking the whole time.
Blood made her face fantastically hot, but as she quelled beneath Alice's relentless stare, she felt hot in a place far lower, and mortification quickly gave way to undeniable arousal.
"Oh, you like that, don't you?" Victoria breathed. "You like her eyes on you, don't you Bella? You like that she's staring you down, as if any second she might pounce on you like a three course meal…"
Victoria's hand slid even further up, crossing every line that even Bella had never crossed with Edward. Her fingers dipped into the soft flesh of her thigh that she found and pressed down, causing a choked noise to tumble out of her lips. She gaped and trembled when Alice's upper lip curled back in a silent snarl.
"Look her right in the eyes, Bella, and tell me you don't like it. Look your precious best friend in the eyes and tell me you don't want her. I can smell your desire. You're lying to yourself if you think you aren't gay. You're a filthy liar, and you know it, and I know it, and Alice knows it. Why do you think she won't look away either? Why do you think she was looking in the first place?"
Victoria might as well have been the serpent in the Garden of Eden, whispering in her ear and corrupting her. She was Eve, and she couldn't tell if Alice was supposed to be Adam or the apple.
Bella was going to pass out.
She could feel the black creeping up on the edges of her vision as Alice tore her apart with her unfathomable glare and Victoria's hand crept ever higher, dipping inward towards the inside of her thigh, drawing her toes to curl and her body to shake.
Without meaning to, Bella gave a barely muted moan, her brow furrowing and her skin flushing. Alice's upper lip twitched and her head jerked downwards a little, and yet she still didn't look away.
"But if you're still somehow having doubts sweetheart, allow me to squash them…Just. Like. This."
And with that, the palm of Victoria's hand pressed flush to the apex of her thighs.
The sudden temperature contrast of the vampire's cool hand on the suffocating heat radiating through the thin cotton barrier of her underwear beneath her skirt was a bitch slap back to reality.
Bella jolted upright instantly, spluttering and swearing as she shoved away from Victoria frantically. She staggered out of her seat, her knees giving so suddenly that she almost hit the floor, but of course, Alice never let that happen.
She felt two icy hands clamp down on her right arm and hold her steady as her seat clattered and Victoria sneered, crossing her legs and looking serenely at the both of them.
"Ms. Swan, Ms. Rosa, Ms. Cullen, what is the fuss back there?" Ms. Shanty started at the outburst as everyone turned around to look at them.
No, no, no.
Being touched by Alice was the last thing she needed right then. She could feel the girl's touch electrocuting her arm, smell her lovely mint and berry scent, taste her pheromones…
"I have to go to the bathroom!" Bella shrieked and ripped away from her friend desperately before bolting for the door like a bat out of hell.
She ignored Ms. Shanty yelling at her furiously, threatening detention, but all she really heard was Alice's high voice calling her name.
She didn't stop for that either, just kept sprinting down the hallway, the sound of her flats slapping the floor echoing maddeningly around her in the silence. Her whole body was on fire when she burst into the nearest bathroom moments later, skidding in and slamming the door shut behind her.
"Fuck," she whimpered, running a hand through her hair and hating how sweaty it felt. "Just fuck."
What just happened? Her poor brain had finally surged back to life now that it was out from under Victoria's treacherous influence.
She had the presence of mind to quickly walk by the stalls and check for feet, but seeing none, she finally walked back to the middle most sink and fell into it, gripping the white porcelain until it hurt, staring into the mirror at her haggard appearance.
Her pupils were dilated and her normally milk chocolate irises were now the color of dark chocolate. Her face was red and flushed and her chest was heaving from both the run and what had happened in the classroom. Her hair was messy from where she'd run her hand through it and she could feel a distinct slickness between her thighs that made her screw her eyes shut.
"I'm not gay," she whimpered to herself. "I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay…"
Bella could say it all she wanted, but Victoria had quite clearly made the point that she was, and all the evidence was right there pooled between her legs. She didn't even believe it when she said it anymore, and her voice trailed off as she opened her eyes with a pitiful noise akin to the ones she had made when Alice had first brought up the possibility to her.
It all played back in her mind like some sick horror film; Victoria taunting her, touching her, running her hand provocatively over her leg and pressing down on her intimately where previously only Bella had ever touched herself.
But it wasn't even that that really got to her, surprisingly. (Okay, well, that was a lie; Victoria had gotten so deep under her skin that she could still pretty much feel her.)
Yet all she could really remember clearly were Alice's eyes on her, and how she had not looked away through the entirety of the ordeal, and how Bella had only really lost herself when she turned to her best friend and saw the look on her face as she watched Victoria effectively molest her.
And how seeing Alice had undeniably turned her completely and utterly on.
"I am so fucking gay," she groaned.
She then promptly dropped her forehead into the mirror with a dull thump and began to cry.