CHAPTER 5: CHATTY ALICE

Edward POV

Alice never shut up. At first we only drove for about a half an hour before Alice claimed that she had to go the bathroom. Of course I pulled off the highway at the next rest area and we both took off into the woods surround it. It was a good thing that Alice had thought to remind me too because with my surprise at seeing her when we stopped for gas I had forgotten that I had wanted to try and hunt then.

I'm not sure how Alice convinced Bella that we were in the restroom the whole time we were gone especially considering that Bella went in with her but she did. Bella didn't notice at all or if she did she didn't say a word and I didn't see anything in her face to make me think that she was suspicious.

I didn't think that I had ever hunted so fast in all my existence. I had gotten lucky and found two deer and a possum. I wasn't all that fond of the possum but beggars can't be choosers. I felt satiated and bursting and ready to handle Bella's scent longer this time.

It still was getting to me how the potency of her smell wasn't as bad as before. I had to believe that it had to do with the fact that I had been around her for almost a full day now. I wondered if we stopped at a hotel or something and were separated would it hit me the same tomorrow as that first day or would I still be somewhat desensitized to it.

Edward are you paying attention, Alice was asking. Truth was I had stopped really paying attention to her when she started telling Bella all about her childhood mostly so I wouldn't give her away. Alice knew nothing of her life before becoming a vampire but the way she was talking you would have thought that she had grown up in a nice if slightly dysfunctional family before losing her parents and twin brother and younger sister in a freak snow storm accident. Only Alice could make that sound believable.

"So Bella what does your mom do?" I tried to listen more in case Alice decided to pull me into the conversation.

"She was a teacher before she married Phil." Bella was explaining. "Now with his schedule she mostly tries to travel with him."

"That's why you were in Forks right?" Alice asked. "To give them time to themselves?"

"Yes" She was nodding but she wasn't looking Alice in the eye. It was the same as when she had been telling me the story. There was no happiness to it.

"Well that was very nice of you." Alice patted her hand not thinking about the difference in temperature. "It's not very often that people put aside what they want for others." I could see her looking at me in the rearview mirror. "Don't you agree Bella?"

"I guess" I looked up to see Bella looked at me too. I tried to smile at her but I had a feeling it came out all wrong. It was hard having her look at me like that when I knew that all this was my fault.

"Let's see" Alice was going down a list of questions she had in her head. "What was your school like back in Phoenix? Do you miss it? Did you have a lot of friends that you left behind? What about a boyfriend or someone special?"

I saw Bella's cheeks flush at the last question and I could feel the monster's glee. I could taste the venom pooling in my mouth but I stomped it back feeling a different concern about why that question should elicit that kind of response. Was there someone in Phoenix waiting for her? Was she secretly glad to be going back? And why did it matter to me?

"School was school" She shrugged. "All of them are pretty much the same I think. As far as missing it or my friends back there, I would say not really." She was looking down now and I so wanted her to look up so that I could read her eyes. It was bad enough that I couldn't get into her head but now I had no way of knowing what she was thinking. "I was mostly a loner."

"What about boys?" Alice pushed and I wanted to growl at her but I didn't want to make Bella any more uncomfortable than she already was.

"No, no boys." She wasn't looking up.

"So you never met someone that you liked?" She just wasn't going to let up.

"Umm" I saw her eyes flitter over to me fast and then continue to look down while her cheeks blushed even redder. The monster was screaming but I wasn't listening I was so focused on whatever Bella's answer would be and trying to figure out why I cared. "Not in Phoenix."

"I see" Alice laughed. "Well, there is always time and you never know. The right guy for you could be right around the corner."

I looked back at her wondering what she was doing. Surely she wasn't trying to put Bella and me together. She had to know that would be an insanely, stupid mistake. First off she was human, second I could barely be around her without wanting to attack her, and lastly Rosalie and Jasper where plotting to kill her if I didn't. And if all that wasn't enough we were taking her to Florida which was always sunny and leaving her. There was no way that we could be together.

Why did that thought make me….sad? I had known that I was just delivering her to her mother and moving on. That I was just making sure that she was safe and then she could go about her life and I could go about mine. So why did that all of a sudden bother me?

"What about pets Bella?" Alice had moved on to a different topic.

"I had a dog once but that didn't last long." She looked up smiling. "I was really too young to take care of it and my mom isn't what you would call the most responsible. I ended up giving it to a neighbor down the street. He was always sick and so I thought the dog might make him feel better and that way they could both have a better life." What kid gives up her dog to make someone else's life better?

"How about you?" Bella was looking between the two of us.

"No, we've never had any real pets" Alice was smiling. "I don't think they would last long in our house."

"Why not?"

I looked back at Alice wondering how she was going to answer that question. "Allergies" She threw in. "Plus we move a lot what with Carlisle's job and all."

"I see" Bella's face looked confused. "Can I ask you something?" My throat started to close up. Not with thirst but with nerves.

"Sure, anything" What was Alice doing? Didn't she know all the trouble one wrong question or answer could cause?

"You both are Cullens and so is the bigger one….umm…umm" She was struggling with the name.

"Emmett" Alice filled in. "Yes, we all are Cullens"

"But none of you were related before you were adopted?" How much had she put together or was this just normal curiosity? Did everyone in Forks have this same question? This was why we didn't get to close to humans. Too many questions.

"No, none of us were related before Carlisle took us in." Alice was nodding. "We just took on his last name because it was easier." Alice winked at me.

"But what about….um…umm" Again she couldn't think of the names.

"Rosalie and Jasper?" Alice provided.

"Yes" Bella nodded. "How come they aren't Cullens?"

"Well they could have been but Rosalie is quite fond of her name and status." Alice was really playing with words here. "Her parents were really important at one time and she likes to remember that. She struggled the hardest with losing her former life so Carlisle and Esme didn't see any reason to make her give up your name when that was all she really had left."

"But what about Jasper?"

"It was so long ago that Jasper was fine with whatever name he was given." Alice wasn't smiling anymore.

"That explains some." Bella was looking down again and I felt the nerves come back up.

"What do you mean?" I didn't mean to put myself in their conversation but I needed to know what she had figured out.

"It's just that you all don't really look alike." She told me.

"No we don't but deep down we're all the same" Alice laughed at her own joke and I rolled my eyes. Was she trying to give our secret away?

"What about you Edward?" Bella was looking at me now.

"What about me?"

"I told Alice about my life and she told me about hers. Now it's your turn." She was still looking at me and I stopped breathing. Not because of her scent or even the question but because her eyes were so focused on me. Those brown pools of curiosity were looking at me like they could see all my secrets and what's more I wanted to tell them.

"Edward doesn't like to talk about himself." Alice jumped in. "But I would be glad to tell you." I pulled my eyes away from Bella listening intently to what Alice was going to make up.

"Edward was actually the first that Carlisle adopted." Alice started. "He was extremely sick when they met. His father had already passed away and his mother wasn't doing that much better. It was a rare condition and Carlisle thought that he was going to lose them both." I shouldn't have been surprised that this story was closer to the truth than hers had been.

"By the time Carlisle found a way to help, Edwards mother was already gone and so Carlisle did what he could to save Edward and took him into his family." Alice finished with just the right note of sadness in her voice. Amazing. She really belonged on the stage.

"Wow" Bella was wrapped up in Alice's story. "Edward that's just….I mean….what you….and to be….." She was having trouble with whatever she was trying to say. Suddenly her hand was on mine and I couldn't move. It was like when she had grabbed me; I was frozen in shock but not fear this time. "I'm so sorry." She squeezed my hand and let go.

I couldn't speak I was so overwhelmed. I had taken her from her home and her father and here she was feeling sorry for me. "Thank you" was all I could say.

I told she was great, Alice was speaking to me again but my focus stayed on Bella.

"Are you hungry Bella?" Alice asked reaching for the chips that we purchased when we got gas. "Although maybe we should stop for some real food because these don't look all that appetizing." I laughed at her.

"I could go for a burger or something like that." Bella agreed with her.

"Let's look and see" She pulled out her blackberry with the pink diamond incrusted case. I saw Bella's eyes widen again. "Don't worry Bella. Once we stop somewhere good then I'll get one just like it for you." She closed her eyes. "But not pink seeing how you don't like the color. Blue or purple. You like purple right?" She sounded sure.

"Alice you can't get me a cell phone" Bella was complaining.

"Why not?" Alice shrugged not looking up at her. She was punching buttons on the phone. "You can't go around with that boring phone and you'll need something to keep in contact with your parents and everyone." She was smiling again. "Trust me Bella you are going to love it. That is once you stop complaining."

She didn't say anything else and Bella looked from her to me and then shrugged and turned in her seat. I was pretty sure I didn't want to know what she was thinking and at the same time I almost needed to know what was going on in her mind.

"What are you thinking?" I asked before really thinking about it. That was the second time today that I had spoken without any kind of thought.

"Just going with the flow." She didn't look at me when she answered.

"What do you mean?"

"I simply figure that it's easier if I stop asking questions." I could see one side of her mouth lift up. "The less I know the better right?"

"Right" I agreed. She was definitely handling this better than I would have thought.

"Look Edward they have a Dinner Wagon Ride in Idaho City" Alice exclaimed. "Doesn't that sound like fun?" And it would be an easy way to hide the fact that we don't eat from Bella, she was silently telling me. All we have to do is throw the food over the side of the wagon.

I hated to admit it but she did have a good point. I nodded quickly at her. "Bella?"

"Yeah, that sounds great but doesn't it take a long time to get to Idaho?" She was looking out the window at the dark sky. "And it's so late now."

"That's true." Alice agreed going back to her phone. "Maybe tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, they have skiing and hot air balloon rides and wildlife viewing." My eyes jumped to hers as she looked up. "No better skip that last one. Their all endangered species. That wouldn't be good."

She was scrolling down just naming off things. She had to be. "Oh my God, they have a giant potato drive-in." She was laughing really hard. "We have to see that. I am so glad I brought a camera."

"You brought a camera?" Bella sounded more shocked then she looked.

"Of course" Alice sighed at her. "Bella what is a road trip without pictures and music." She looked aggravated. "Too bad Edward didn't give me more time or I could have made a few mix cd's to listen too. But I did bring the laptop and my IPod so when we stop I can put together some great songs for later." Again Bella just looked at her and shrugged while Alice went back to looking through her phone.

"Okay so if we head to Boise then we should be good." Alice was informing us. "We can get a good night's rests and then do some sightseeing tomorrow." Her eyes squinted. "But I think we should sleep in just to make sure." It's going to be really sunny in the morning but a quick snow fall is going to make the afternoon good for us but we need to be out of there by the following last afternoon. I nodded again. If nothing else Alice was good to have along as a meteorologist. And Boise is right by a National Forest. We should be able to find something good there that won't hurt the environment.

"Sound's good." I answered both her spoken statements and her none spoken ones.

"Are we going to make it in time to really sleep?" Bella was still staring out the window.

"It's only eight o'clock Bella" Alice pointed to the clock on the stereo. "And we just crossed into Idaho about twenty minutes ago."

"We did" Her voice rose. "Shouldn't it take like almost a whole day to get from Washington to Idaho?" She looked over at the dashboard and started to hyperventilate.

"What's wrong Bella?" I looked over at her anxious.

"You're….you're going….you're going a hundred and fifty." She practically screamed.

"And?"

Her eyes widened even more than they were already. "Are you trying to kill us?" Of all the things about me to scare her, my driving was what did it.

"Bella I always drive this fast" I told her. "You perfectly safe."

"Are you kidding?" She didn't sound convinced. She looked back at Alice who still had her head buried in her phone. "Alice aren't you at all concerned?"

"About what?" She didn't look up.

"You're brother's driving."

She looked up then and her eyes darted to the dashboard. "No" She shook her head. "He lied too. Normally he goes faster than this." She went back to her phone. "He knows what he's doing. Just relax Bella." I looked over and Bella didn't look in the least bit relaxed.

"By the way, I found just the right phone and I'm about to order it so that we can pick it up when we go out tomorrow." Alice was smiling. "I went with a topaz stone because you'll end up liking that better than blue or purple in the long run."

Bella looked between both of us shaking her head. "Okay I have put up with a lot of different unexplainable things in the last twenty four hours but this is where I draw the line."

"I let it go when you pushed the van away with your fingers and then refused to tell me how." She saw that, Alice's shocked voice flooded my head. "I trusted you when you told me that I needed to leave with you before your family killed me and I didn't question when your sister showed up after spending hours in a trunk. I mean how could you have been able to breathe?" She was looking at Alice. She's very perceptive.

"I haven't asked about why the rest of them want me dead or what the big secret is." She continued. "I didn't say anything when both of you went off into the woods when we stopped both times to go to the restroom and didn't come back for way to long." That one had me shocked because I could have sworn that she didn't notice. She doesn't miss anything, Alice was saying, I just love her. "And against my better judgment I have agreed to go to Florida with you when I know that my mother isn't anywhere near Florida all because Alice says that she will be." She pointed at me. "But after everything I refuse to die in this car because you are driving like a maniac."

I had been trying to guess when she was going to snap. All this information; I was surprised she had hung on so long. The only problem was that I didn't know what to say. I couldn't tell her the truth but I didn't want to lie to her anymore.

"Bella, listen" Alice started having put down her cell during Bella's rant. "You have to trust us. We aren't going to let anything happen to you. And as far as Edward's driving, well that you'll just get use to but no matter what your okay."

"Will you eventually tell me everything?" Bella asked her.

Alice smiled. "Bella by the time we get to Florida you will know all you need to know."

I looked back at Alice. What did she mean by that? "You're sure?" Bella was asking.

"I'm positive" She looked over at me. "You just have to trust me." And so do you. She picked the phone back up. "Now which would you rather do? Hot air balloon ride or see an ice cave; cause I'm rooting for the cave."

AN: Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! I thought since it is a holiday that I would post an extra chapter just to make everyone happy. I hope you enjoyed (who doesn't want to go on a road trip with Alice and Edward). That is really it for this week. See ya soon and please, please don't forget to review!!