Edward POV
I watched Bella running through the back door of the house in awe.
Was I this harsh to her? I didn't think so. I just wanted to understand why she blocked me. Sure, we had just met, but it didn't make any sense for her to just walk away like this when all I asked was an explanation as to why she didn't trust me enough while everybody else in her family seemed fine with me.
"I'll go check up on her, see if she's okay." As I stood on my two feets, the blonde chick, Rosalie I think, stopped me.
"This probably isn't a good idea. At all." She said. "Jasper, would you run after her? You're probably the one she needs right now."
"But I'm the one who upset her," I said. "it would be normal that I'd be the one to go after her, no?"
Jasper turned to look at me then.
Look, he said, I know you can hear my thoughts so listen. Bella has a lot to deal with and you're probably not the best person to comfort her right now. I'm her brother. Let me take care of my sister.
He wasn't harsh to me. Just… protective. As any caring brother would have been. Just as I was with Alice. Only a hundred times stronger.
Don't worry, Edward, he continued. She'll come around… eventually. You just need to wait until she's ready to let you in. But it will happen, one day. I'm sure.
Tom looked at me too. "There are a lot of things you don't know about Isabella, Edward. Let Jasper take care of this for now."
Jasper patted me on the shoulder and, with that, he ran away, after his sister.
Leaving me more confused than I ever was.
Jasper POV
After my silent discussion with Edward, I ran, and ran, and ran.
Happily, Bella wasn't much of a runner. An excellent fighter, but a little slow when it came to running. I guess it was normal: human, she would always trip. She lost her clumsiness when she turned into what we are now, but she never got to run really fast. On the contrary, I was the fastest runner in the family.
I was right: it took me about a minute before I found her, sitting on a rock near a small river. She was sobbing.
I approached her, slowly, not to frighten her.
"Bella?" She didn't look up to meet my eyes.
"Bella, honey? It's me, Jasper. Don't worry." I was standing just beside her. When I touched her shoulder with my hand, patting it slowly, she sobbed even harder. "Oh, Bella…", I whispered.
I scooped her small frame into my arms and put her in my lap, hugging her, soothing her hair. "Shhhh, I'm there, it's okay. No one will hurt you Bells. I swear."
Her sobbing became less violent and she finally lifted her head to meet my eyes.
"Better?" I asked her.
She nodded and gave me a weak smile. It was enough for me.
"Edward didn't want to upset you, you know? He's pretty upset with himself right now. Actually, he wanted to be the one to run after you after you left us."
"Really?" she stood up, looking into my eyes. Clearly, she wasn't expecting this. Waves of surprise and confusion from her were aiming towards me.
"Do you think I'm lying?" I asked her, a grin on my face.
"Even if I thought you were, I know you're not. Remember?"
Aaaaah, Bella's power. Quite useful when it came to meeting new people.
"Even if you didn't have that power, I wouldn't lie to you. You know that."
"Yes, I know."
And we were in silence, once again. There never was an awkward silence between us. Only comfortable silence. We didn't need words to understand each other.
"So," she started, "what do you think about them?"
"They look really fine. They were all ecstatic to stay in our house."
"Of course. It looks like a bloody castle." I laughed at that. "I saw you looking at Alice. She's pretty you know."
Oh, there she was. I knew Bella wouldn't miss that.
"I guess… she's pretty enough."
Bella smiled.
"You know you can't lie to me, bro. You were completely enthralled by her. She's cute. She's perfect for you."
"What? Now you want to match me with a girl?"
"Oh, come on, Jazz. You know she's the one. I'm not the one who's able to feel every emotion in a room, but I know you enough to tell that you already love her."
This was ridiculous.
"Bella, I cannot fall in love with someone I met for less than 10 minutes."
"Yeah, you say that. I bet that in less than a week, you'll be making out with her as if your life depended on it."
"Well, technically, I'm dead."
"Oh, don't try to change the subject, Jasper. You can't escape me."
I sighed. "Yes. I know. What about you, though? Before he went aggressive, I felt your lust for that Edward boy. I didn't know you had a thing for… hmmm… how did you say it? Ah, yes! I didn't know you had a thing for weird, stuck-up pianists."
That was all it took. She threw a small piece of rock at me.
"Shut up."
I could only feel the embarrassment waving off her at that moment.
"Bella, if you like him, you can't hide away from him. I've seen you alone for too long. It's time for you to take things into your hands and to trust him if you like him."
Once again, she stayed silent. She did that whenever the subject would turn to something she didn't want to remember. Of course.
"He's not like him, Bella. He won't ever hurt you. I know it. Just… trust me on that."
"I'll try." She stopped talking, once again, before saying "We should probably head home, they'll worry. I wouldn't want to make Edward feel guilty."
With that, we ran together, hand in hand, home.
Bella POV
When we came back home, everyone was still waiting for us in the living room.
"Bella!" That was Rosalie. "Are you okay, sis?"
She was hugging me by now. I hadn't even been in the house for 4 seconds.
"Of course, Rose. I'm fine. Thanks."
When she released me, Esme came to stand next to me. "Could I have a word with you, Bella?"
Okay… this is weird, I thought. Well, it was weird, but not that much. Esme always was like a mother to me, even if Lisa had been there for longer.
"Sure."
She led me to the only room of the house that was sound-proof, so that no one would hear us. Wow, this must be pretty important stuff.
"Bella… I'm worried about you."
I think she was waiting for me to say something. But I stayed silent. I didn't know what to respond to that. After a few seconds, she continued her speech.
"Just… hear me out before you start to scream and kick, okay?" I nodded. "I know your life wasn't easy. I know it takes time to get over these things – if there is a way to get over what you went through. But… I think you should talk to someone about this, honey."
I interrupted her.
"Actually, Jasper and I talk about it a lot. A lot more than I would want to."
She shook her head, closing her eyes, as if this was extremely hard for her to say.
"I'm not talking about Jasper, sweetie. I'm talking about… about a professional."
I stood silent for about a minute before I whispered, dumbstruck, "You want to send me to a shrink?" My eyes felt like popping out of my head. I can't believe this!
"Bella, don't take it like this. You know I don't think you're crazy. But… Carlisle talked to me. He's a doctor, Bella. He used to work in a mental aisle. He's used to that type of problems."
I let this sink in me.
"Do… do you really think it could help me?"
I wanted to get over this. Jasper had tried to help me for all my existence and I wanted to move on. I wanted to trust men.
"I think it would, Bella. Carlisle is a sweetheart, love. And he would be more than happy to help you. Actually, he's the one who asked if he could help first."
I contemplated the idea for a few minutes.
"Okay. I'll try it out."
I started to walk out of the room.
"You should probably go tell him this by yourself Bella. And get to know him at the same time. He's a lovely man, really."
When she said this, I stopped.
"Oh! Do I feel a little love in the air?"
"What? Of course not!"
That's when I sensed it: my power hit me, with full force.
"…you're lying!"
She shook her head. "No! I'm not!"
"Oh yes you are! AGAIN!"
"Just.. go tell him that you're interested, I'm done here."
"Yeah, I'll do that."
There were days like these when I loved my power.
I walked out of the room and met Tom on the way.
"Bella! Are you better?"
"Yes, I am. Do you know where I could find Carlisle?"
"Sure. He's in his office."
"He already has an office?"
"Of course, Bella. He's a doctor. What do you expect?"
Wow. The man is pretty serious. He just moved in. "Where is it?"
"Second level, third door on your left. It's huge. You can't miss it."
"Thanks dad." With that, I got off to meet Doctor Cullen.