Thank you for everyone who reviewed!

I do want to say, I know Edward didn't do too much in this last chapter but he's saving up for a big blow out. They were guests in the Cruor house and he managed to keep himself in check. Don't worry it'll come.

I realized for any of my new readers I never put the pronunciations of all my OC's. So here they are:

Nikel: NI (As in Night)-Kell. It's not pronounced Nickel, like the coin.

Allina: Uh-lee-nuh

Zach: Zak

Gabriel: There's actually two pronunciations I use GAY-bree-el

Samuel: SAM-u-el, not SAM-yool

Jamie: Jay-me

Tabitha: TAB-ith-uh

Jonathon: JON-uh-thin

So if you haven't noticed some of the pronunciations are different than how they would usually sound.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or the starting song, I do own OC's and plot! I also don't own the song I think I love you by Kaci

Chapter 12: I think I love you

I think I love you
So what am I so afraid of?
I'm afraid that I'm not sure of
A love there is no cure for
I think I love you
Isn't that what life is made of?
Though it worries me to say

Saturday went by without any incidents. Or should I say minimal incidents? Zach did damage the front of his Turbo when racing. It was his own fault though; he refused to swerve for the other driver.

It was now Sunday, the first day of March; Allina, Loretta and I were getting ready to leave to go shopping. Alice and Rosalie would be joining us as well. I was just ecstatic in the most sarcastic way possible.

"Buy me a new car while you're out." Zach told Allina while she curled Loretta's hair. I was sitting behind her on the ledge of the tub and I could see her roll her eyes in the mirror.

"For the last time, Zach, your car isn't totaled. We'll fix it; we're just waiting on the parts." Allina was not happy to be going out with Vampires and it showed.

"Allina." He said forcefully. She glanced at him before snorting.

"Oh yeah," That had me worried, before I could think any more on it, she smacked Loretta on the top of the head, "Loretta stop twitching so I can finish curling your hair."

"I didn't want it curled in the first place. My hairs never been curled and now look at it; I look like you!" Loretta wasn't much happier than her sister. In her nervousness or whatever you wanted to call it, Allina somehow managed to get Loretta to agree to have perfectly straight hair curled.

Zach groaned at the change in topics, "I'm going to leave before this turns even more feminine and she decides to work on me next."

"Been there, done that." Was all Allina said and that scared me a bit. I didn't even want to know what she did to him.

Nikel walked in just as Zach left, rubbing his eyes. He finally woke up, "What the hell are you guys doing this early in the morning?"

"It's eight."

"Great job, Allina, now what's two plus two? I know the time and it's fucking early."

I gave him my saddest look, "Allina woke me up at six-thirty to get ready to go shopping. She is evil. You didn't even budge when she literally dragged me from the bed by my arm. What are you doing up this early anyways? Usually nobody sees you before ten on a weekend."

He blinked confused, "I rolled over and nobody was there."

I raised an eyebrow, "It took you an hour and a half to figure that out?"

He moved further into the bathroom and grabbed his toothbrush and comb, "I was tired. So you guys are going shopping?"

"Do you not remember this conversation? We're meeting Alice and Rosalie for some shopping. Ring any bells?"

He stared at me for a moment before snapping out of it, "I'm sorry I didn't hear a word you said. Who are you again?"

I groaned. Allina apparently had enough of her brother, who was not a morning person on weekends, "Get out, Nikel."

"God, be a bitch." He grumbled, heading out of the room. I glanced in the direction where Nikel just left and then at Allina who kept looking at me like she was deciding she wanted to re-do my look for the day.

"I'm going to go make sure Nikel doesn't fall down the stairs." I said quickly running from the room. I hate playing Barbie Bella.

"You people are still here?" I turned to see Jamie standing in the hallway just outside his room.

"No, I'm an illusion." I replied in my best ghost voice before heading down the stairs. It was true though. Jamie woke up when Loretta starting yelling at Allina around seven this morning for waking her up. I had to agree. What was the point in waking us up at so early when we weren't leaving until eight-thirty?

I walked into the kitchen to see both Nikel and Zach sitting at the table. They weren't speaking to each other in fact they sat on opposite ends of the table. It wasn't until I saw Zach attempt to catapult a cheerios off his spoon at Nikel that I understood why. He was an idiot. Especially since all Nikel had to do was put up his hand and deflect the cereal piece with his powers.

"Zach, if you even think about hitting me with one of those I will personally make you eat your own tail the next time you transform." I threatened, taking a seat next to Nikel. I was getting good with my threats thanks to this family. Zach stuck out his tongue, but put the spoon down.

"So you're going to be gone the whole day with my sisters and those bloodsucker females." Nikel questioned sounding resigned. I gave him a light kiss and laid my head on his shoulder.

"You know you could always join up with us later and save me." He laughed at the hopeful tone I had.

"I don't know, Bella, I might just be too busy helping Zach with his vehicle if the parts come in." He sounded thoughtful, as teasing smirk on his face.

I pouted, "Fine, Nike, but if this shopping trip kills me it'll be your own fault."

"Seriously, how long do you think you'll be gone?"

"You've shopped with Allina; Alice is like a second her. Put them together and let's see…hmm…I'll see you tomorrow I guess."

"Very funny."

Zach looked up then, "Dude, Nikel, I think she's serious. Remember when Allina went shopping at Mall of America?"

"I try not to."

I covered my ears, "Don't tell me, I'm already having nightmares about this trip."

"Let's put it this way, under no circumstance is she allowed in an Aeropostale store." Nikel told me, "If she does happen to get herself in one, sneak away or else you'll never leave."

Zach nodded, "They always have this one type of sale that takes Allina hours to make a decision. Just run and don't look back."

"Wonderful," I grumbled to myself as I heard footsteps coming down the steps.

"Let's go, Bella. Since you so kindly invited those two Vampires we have to meet them at their house. They better drive their own vehicles, because I refuse to allow them in my car." I stood up and pretty much ignored Allina's angry rambling. I could faintly hear Zach mutter drama queen under his breath.

Nikel caught my arm as I started away and pulled me into a quick kiss, he slipped something into my pocket and smiled cunningly, "As soon as this Victoria fiasco is finished with I'm taking you out somewhere really nice, okay?"

"Okay," I replied a little confused. I followed the other two girls out and into Allina's Charger. I have her directions on how to find the Cullen's driveway and before I knew it we stopped outside the house. I stared up at it; thousands of memories at this house came flooding back to me. I turned away unable to look at it anymore. The memories were painful, bittersweet.

A tap at the window drew my attention back to the outside world. It was Alice and she was practically bouncing in excitement. There was the Alice I remembered. Rosalie was behind her a little more reserved. She went around to the other side and talked to Allina for a minute.

They disappeared into the house and Allina shifted gears to go.

"What's going on?"

Allina rolled her eyes and made a rude noise, "They'll meet us there, and I think some extra members are coming if you know what I mean."

"Wonderful. I should've known he couldn't leave well-enough alone."

Loretta stuck her head up from the back seat, "I've always hated that saying. Allina we're stopping Build-A-Bear, right?"

"Yes, Loretta I promised you we would, didn't I?"

"I know but if we don't-"

"You'll tell Mom, we know."

"No, I'll make sure your hair stays permanently pink."

Allina cringed, running a hand through her hair. She was almost as bad about her hair as Nikel was about his Mustang and Aero. Obsessed people. That couldn't be healthy. Sadly the whole drive was filled with games of I-spy and twenty questions. It was more like five questions when Loretta guessed though; she was good.

When we pulled up to park at the Mall I was surprised to find Alice pulling up right next to us. Distracted by the girls I didn't realize they caught up to us. Rosalie came out the passenger side and Edward, Esme and Jasper came out from the back. Poor Jasper, Alice probably dragged him along for bag carrying purposes.

"Bella!" She yelled, hugging me as soon as I was far enough out of the car "Isn't this just exciting, I missed you so much. We haven't had much time to talk."

"Okay, Alice, I'd prefer not to be squished thank you very much." I couldn't help, but tease as she let go looking at me sheepishly. I withheld a sigh, no matter how much I didn't want to admit it, how much I tried to make myself believe I hated their whole family, I missed Alice. I knew what she was trying to say. We haven't had time to talk and let me hear her side of the story. I suppose it was only fair. Though I wanted to be mad at her, she left me just as he did.

"Well, Alice, we have the whole day to shop and talk." I told her. She smiled happily as she began to pull me towards the mall. Allina made her way over to my other side.

"So I was thinking we could stop at Aeropostale first." Allina said trying to ignore the fact she was shopping with vampires.

I turned to glare at her, "No, Nikel and Zach warned me about that. You are not allowed anywhere near that store. Especially to start with."

She pouted, "Damn those brothers of mine."

Alice snorted, "I know what you mean. Edward says we're not allowed in Barney's Seattle but they have the best manolo blahnik shoes ever!"

"You have enough shoes." Edward told her from behind us. She turned her head to stick her tongue out at him before looking back at us.

"See, boys are so stupid. You never have enough shoes."

"Exactly, when will they learn?"

I rolled my eyes; I just knew they would end up getting along. Loretta skipped ahead of us but remained in our sights. Not that it really mattered I suppose, she was stronger than most humans with her Cosmic Troublemaker powers.

"Alice please stop repeating the 'boys are stupid' mantra it is rather annoying." Edward complained, making her snort.

A thought suddenly came to me, "Allina, do their powers work on you now since we're outside the protection the house casts?"

Allina blinked before catching up with where the conversation switched to, "Oh they shouldn't. I'm a high class of Supernatural so my natural defenses should keep me safe. They can smell me now though and such. Their extra powers shouldn't work. They can work on Sam, Gabriel, Jamie and Zach outside the house."

I glanced back at Jasper which he noticed and nodded at me, telling me it was true, "Weird." Was all I said.

"Ahh, its Hollister, we are going in there!" Allina yelled suddenly dragging me in there with Alice on her tail blabbing happily. The two attacked the clothing like a starving person seeing a steak. Rosalie followed their lead in a more leisurely way. I stayed back by the boys and Esme. Loretta trailed behind Allina, holding the clothing she tossed at her. Well at least they had a system going. I noticed Allina was warming up to Alice and even Rosalie, at least from the way they were talking about clothes it seemed that way.

"I think we'll have to build Alice another house just for her clothing." Esme muttered, shaking her head.

Jasper nodded, "As long as she doesn't try to dress us up we're safe."

"You just wait," I replied, "with Allina around she will for sure. At least dress me up, ugh."

I leaned against the shelving wall and put my hands in my pocket to wait out clothing heart attacks. I frowned when I felt something in my pocket. Confused, I pulled it out a bit to see a rectangular card with writing on it. I remembered Nikel telling me we were going somewhere nice when Victoria was done with.

Rolling my eyes I put it back in my pocket, muttering, "That ass."

Both boys looked at me concerned. I chuckled nervously. I was saved from saying anything by Allina who walked over to me laughing, "So you found Nikel's little present. I'm supposed to take you to a nice store later."

"I hate him." I said, blankly.

"Come on Bella, don't be like that. Mom spent 200 years collecting money, don't worry about it. Because if you're mad about getting a dress with Nikel's money, you're really going to be pissed later…"

I gave her a flat look, "What are you talking about?"

"Um…nothing. Let's get you a shirt."

I narrowed my eyes on her, "I will destroy you."

She rolled her eyes, "Bring it, mortal."

I have her my most sweetest smile, "No problem. Oh Loretta!"

"Shit…"

Loretta made her way over to us, "What?"

"Let's go to Build-A-Bear. I have a proposition for you. Continue shopping Allina we'll be right back."

"I'm coming with you." Alice chimed in, dancing her way over to us, "We'll meet you guys at the food court in a half hour okay?"

The rest nodded and noticed Edward nodded more slowly, I knew Alice was saying something to him silently. I wonder if I should be concerned.

As soon as Loretta was in the Build-a-Bear store she took off like a rocket trying to find an animal she liked. That left Alice and me alone to wait for her right outside store on the bench. I figured I would talk to Loretta about revenge against Allina in a bit.

Alice glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, "I'm sorry, Bella." She whispered.

"You don't have to apologize, Alice."

"Yes, I do. Edward…he thought he was doing the right thing, us leaving you. It was just too dangerous and I don't think he knew how to deal with the danger coming from one of our family. He convinced us all a clean break would be the best break and if we saw you to say goodbye it would be that much harder. I should've seen, should've known it wouldn't be that easy. He made me promise not to look into your future anymore. To let you live your life. I'm happy you found a great family to be around."

I couldn't help but smile when I thought of the Cruor's, "Yeah, they really saved me. I missed you guys when you left. It felt like a part of me was ripped out. Then they came and it was like someone was calling me home. I don't even know when I started falling for Nikel. I thought of him as a friend and all of a sudden I realized I loved him." I covered my mouth with my hand, my eyes wide with realization. I removed my hand and looked at Alice shocked, "I really love him. I told myself I would never be able to feel that emotion again. That, when Edward left he took every piece of my heart and love with him. I mean I've associated the word love with Nikel but I never realized it's the real emotion."

"You should tell him." Alice told me, smiling.

"What?" I gasped at her, "I thought you'd be pushing me back towards Edward."

Alice sighed, "To be honest I was thinking about it. I would love to have you in the family Bella but when I see your future now. You're no longer a vampire. You don't belong in our world, Bella. Fate is calling you in a different direction. Whether it's with the Cruor's or not, I don't know but it's calling you away from our lifestyle. Bella, you're my best friend that never changed –at least for me- I just want you happy. You look happy, but I haven't seen too much with you and Nikel so I reserve judgment on him."

I laughed, "Okay Alice, whatever helps you, well not sleep but make it through the night."

She giggled, "That would be Jasper."

"Ew, Alice."

She snickered, "Sorry, couldn't help myself."

"So, what's this plan you have?" We both looked up to see Loretta standing there, a white bear in a black dress tucked in her arm.

"We need to prank Allina. Seeing as you are the queen of pranks, I beg you to help me."

She smirked, "Oh fun. I love playing with my sister. Let's see…I know exactly what to do, just wait until we get home."

"What are you planning?"

She smiled innocently, "Need to know basis and you don't need to know. Consider the prank done."

I exchanged a look with Alice, "I'm scared."

She pouted, "Oh I wish I could see this now."

I chuckled, "Welcome to the feeling normal people have."

Loretta rolled her eyes, "Come on, we need to get to the food court. Pom-Pom is hungry."

Sometimes I forgot Loretta was just a seven year old child. She was kind of creepy at times and her inhuman abilities made her seem older. We booked it over to the designated area realizing that we were already going to be late.

"Have enough bags?" I asked as soon as we met up with the others. Allina was holding three huge bags already looking very proud of herself. Rosalie had three as well making me shake my head.

"We have to go get Bella a dress next."

I groaned, "Can't we just skip it?"

"No!"

Sticking out my tongue, I headed to go find some food. I caught Edward glaring at Alice and I knew he must've asked what we talked about and got a least some part of the answer in her head. Well, he'd just have to deal with it.

We quickly ate lunch with the vampires looking disgusted the entire time. It was a slightly awkward and we tried to hurry through it as fast as we could. Too bad that mean we were in this expensive dress store that much sooner.

I was pulled by Allina, Alice and even Rosalie and Esme to try on dress after dress. They were all different colors, designs and patterns but none were right. Edward and Jasper watched this fiasco with minimal input. The wonderful thing about guys is they know where they're not needed.

Finally Loretta walked out with a blue satin form fitting dress with a V-neck. There were three layers of asymmetrical ruffles that cascaded to the floor on the right side. It wrapped around the neck leaving the back open. Tossing it at me, she forced me to try it on. I put on a matching shawl and looked at myself in the mirror. I had to admit it looked really good. With a sigh, I opened the dressing room door and walked out for everyone to see.

I was met with a ton of stares.

"Wow Bella." Allina finally got out, "You're wearing that."

"You don't think it's too much?"

"You look really good," Alice gushed, dancing around me to get a full view. Soon everyone was throwing compliments at me. Allina dug in the pocket of my discarded hoodie and grabbed Nikel's debit card to pay for the dress while I examined it in the mirror. It really was perfect.

"Damn, Chica."

I spun around to see Zach standing behind me a wide smile on his face.

"Zach, what are you doing here?"

"He made me drag him along."

I turned to my right to see Nikel standing there, Allina behind him giggling. I put my hand on my hip and leaned on one leg, staring at him.

"So what do you think? You bought it."

He walked over to me and walked around him slowly. Once he was in front of me, he grabbed me around the waist and spun me in a circle. He gently kissed me as he set me down.

"You look amazing, love." Was all he needed to say. I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly.

Loretta made a disgusted noise, "Why are you two here?"

"I promised Bella I'd try to join up with you guys and Zach whine and bitched until I took him along."

"Wonders." I heard her say as I went back into the dressing room to change.

Once we made our way out of the dress store we spent the rest of the day running around from store to store having fun. Occasionally I would catch Edward glaring at Nikel but just ignored it. If he couldn't act like an adult I wasn't going to treat him like one.

Nikel was giving me a piggy-back ride out to the car, which I noticed made Alice smile and nod, when they all suddenly stopped. I slid off his back as they began sniff around.

"Vampires." Zach growled, before looking at the Cullens, "Not you."

"Obviously." Edward replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Victoria?" I couldn't help but ask.

"No, I don't recognize this scent. It couldn't have been one of the newborns; they wouldn't have that much control."

"Unless she has another, experienced, vampire with her."

"Let's hope not."

Nikel tugged on my arm bringing me towards the Mustang, "Come on, we need to get you home."

I followed almost immediately; worried about the people who had been at this mall and the danger they had been in.

Alice turned to me before we left, "Thanks for inviting us along Bella. Since its spring break this week, do you want to come over tomorrow? Just for a little bit."

I glanced at Nikel, measuring his reaction. He rolled his eyes but nodded.

"Sure," I said, smiling, "Just for a little bit though."

"We race tomorrow night, Chica." Zach told me.

"Wonderful."

Zach jumped into Allina's car much to her annoyance while I drove home with Nikel alone.

"Did you have fun?" He asked, staring straight ahead.

"Yeah, I had a great talk with Alice."

"Oh, what did she have to say?"

I shrugged, "Nothing much, just she's happy that I'm happy. She also thinks you're a great guy and she helped me realize something. Something I never told you."

He glanced at me, almost worried, "What's that?"

"That I love you."

Thankfully we were the last one to leave parking lot for Nikel slammed on his brakes and pulled to the side of the road. He turned to face me.

"Really?"

I blushed, "Yeah."

He moved forward and gave me a searing kiss. He pulled back just enough to speak, "I love you too, Bella."

He captured my lips again, biting my lower lip gently asking for more which I willingly gave. And for that moment, there was no Victoria, no newborn army after me, and no dark past. There was only Nikel and me and a bright future. I just hoped it lasted. I liked the sound of forever on that one.

I pulled back from him suddenly, "What else did you buy me? Allina made an interesting comment about how pissed I'd be later."

"Damn her," He grumbled, before looking at me innocently, "There may be a chance that Zach decided to get a new racecar and that's where Allina and he are heading. There also may be a chance he's giving the Turbo to you after we fix of course, I already ordered and paid for the parts, so you can race with us on the back track."

"I changed my mind I hate you."

He snorted, "Whatever you say, love."

What do you think of the chapter? I think it's the longest one I've written so far. Don't worry Edward will have his say next chapter.

You know what I just realized. In every one of my stories I've ever written somebody dies. I don't just mean the bad guy; I always kill of one good guy. Hm, makes me wonder who might go in this one. Not saying anyone will, but it always tends to happen with me.