Runaway by Kibibe
Girly time
Bella woke up a little disoriented. How had she gotten to bed? The last thing she knew she was downstairs on the living room floor playing Jenga with Alice, Edward and Jasper. Rosalie had come by at some point being all … difficult and Emmett had left to console her. Apparently she was upset that they were playing without her or something like that. At least that was Jasper and Edward's explanation. Well whatever. Bella thought brushing it off. It was Rosalie after all. Let her be. She turned on her back gazing at the ceiling. It had been so much fun spending time with them again. Laughing and joking around. Feeling kind of carefree again for once. Not worrying about … everything. And she was kind of feeling the butterflies in her stomach again, now when she thought about Edward. Maybe it wasn't just sentimentality. Maybe. He however was certainly not unaffected with her attire last night – knickers and a little shirt. She had to giggle thinking of it. He had been looking. Trying to be all discreet about it, but she had noticed.
That was when the door flew open and Alice came bouncing in, plopping down on the bed beside her. "What's taking you so long? You woke up like ages ago." She wailed and Bella rolled her eyes at her. "Okay maybe more like 15 minutes." She corrected. "So you're getting up now or what? You can have a shower and when you come down we'll have breakfast waiting." She watched Bella overly exited, who sat up on her elbows trying to shake the sleep from her head. "Well good morning to you too." Bella waited for an answer but Alice just grinned eagerly. "Aaaalright. See you in a few." Bella finally agreed. "Great." Alice squealed skipping out of the room. Then stopping abruptly and leaning in the door again. "Oh and I laid out some clothes for you." She informed with a serious expression like she was trying to mind wash Bella into actually putting them on this time. Bella deliberately ignored that. She would so not let her get her way with this.
So Bella went into the bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush. While she was brushing her teeth she gave herself a once over in the mirror trying to straiten out her tousled hair a little. She wouldn't need to wash it again today. Just a quick shower and she should be fine she decided. After she got out of the shower she examined the clothes Alice had laid out. Just for her own amusement. A dress again. Light blue with frills. Whoa creepy. Definitely not her taste. She put it down and went to her bag. She decided on Jeans and a band T-Shirt arranging her hair in a messy bun. Alice would totally freak out. She couldn't wait to see her face.
When she made her way downstairs, Bella noticed there were just Alice, Rosalie and Esme. "Morning." She greeted. Rosalie send her a forced smile. Was she still upset about the game last night? That woman was definitely a hand full. Poor Emmett. Bella sat down at the kitchen counter where her food was waiting for her – eggs on toast. Alice sat next to her. Glaring at her outfit. Bella had to keep herself from laughing out loud. While Esme was leaning over some cooking book on the counter. "Where is everybody?" She asked before taking the first bite. "They're out hunting. We're being extra … cautious with you here." Esme phrased carefully. Bella nodded. Right. Nobody would want a repeat of the infamous birthday party fun. She thought sarcastically.
"So it's just us girls, huh?" She joked. "What are we gonna do?" Alice sighed. "I don't know. Maybe we could play Barbie Bella." She suggested with a hopeful expression. "No way. Forget it." Bella blew her off and Esme laughed at their exchange. "Let her be, Ali. If she declines a little fashion education and insists on wearing those ratty clothes of hers, so be it." Rosalie remarked condescendingly and Bella almost choked on the food. Resentful bitch. She thought. "Oh come on Rose. Get over it. Besides you could have just come and played with us." Alice tried to reason with her. "You didn't ask." Rose muttered sulkily and left the room. Alice sighed deeply. "She'll come around." Esme reassured.
Bella and Alice ended up hanging out in Alice's and Jasper's room longing on the bed. Bella was propped against the head board doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper while Alice was drawing a picture of her. "So that lullaby you were singing last night was really sweet. You have a nice voice, you know?" Alice was making conversation. She was on a mission to win her former best friend back. Bella had changed a lot in that past few years. She was a lot more confident. She stood up for herself. And Alice realized now that their friendship might have been a little unbalanced in the past. She'd been pushing Bella around a lot. Taking advantage of her insecurity or lack of assertiveness. It seemed that they would have to redefine their relationship now.
"Thanks." Bella answered absentmindedly focused on her crossword puzzle. "Alliance dissolved in '77? Five letters?" She asked. "SEATO. So your friend sounded kind of upset. Is she ok?" Alice inquired. Bella frowned. There are really no secrets in this house. "I don't know. She's really stressed out with her family around 24/7. They don't have a very good relationship …" She sighed running a hand over her hair. "But it was three o'clock in the morning. Things always look like really bad and insurmountable around that time of the night. Depends on how she is feeling in the morning." Alice nodded thoughtfully. "You two are very close, aren't you?" To be honest she envied Roxie a little. She and Bella seemed like real best friends, while she was just … something else. "Yeah. We hit it off right away. We both have a lot on our plate ... and she reminds me of Rene sometimes." Bella added with a remorseful look on her face. "I'm so sorry. It must have been so hard to leave everyone behind and be all on your own." Bella nodded blinking back some tears.
"How did you get this papers, by the way?" Alice asked curiously redirecting the conversation to a safer ground. No need to upset her now. Bella cleared her throat noisily. "From a guy in Las Vegas." "Las Vegas?" Alice looked a little surprised. Bella figured she'd want the whole story so she started at the beginning. "Yeah. I left Forks on the bus. I figured it might make it harder for her to track me down if I used public transportation. You know, lots of scents, changing busses and most importantly no easily traceable noisy red truck that would possibly break down in the middle of nowhere anyway?" Alice nodded. "Well I made it to Portland and took a flight to Las Vegas. I had stolen some girl's briefcase on one of the busses and used her ID. Vegas seemed like the perfect place to go. Very inconvenient for a vampire – sunny days and lots of nightlife." Bella explained. "Clever." Alice commented and Bella gave her a smug smile. "Anyway I found that guy who sold fake papers – they're pretty expensive, if you're looking for quality that is." Alice nodded. She knew about that. "How did you pay for them?" Finally somebody thought about the money part. Bella commented in her head. "I used up all my savings and the girl's money, but it still wasn't enough, so I payed the rest in installments. Pretty tricky on a waitress's salary." "Must have been tough." Alice mused. Bella smiled sadly.
"So where have you been all the time?" She quickly changed the subject before Alice could ask any more questions. Alice shrugged. "First we were in Denally … or at least some of us were." She sighed sadly and Bella looked at her questioningly. "It was pretty hard on our family in the beginning. Edward was … away checking in sporadically. Rose and Emmett spend a lot of time in Africa. They don't particularly like it in Denally. So it was just Jasper, me, Esme and Carlisle. Although Carlisle was burying himself in work. He didn't spend much time home either." Alice sighed. Bella tried to look sympathetically, but secretly she couldn't help being a little pleased that it wasn't a walk in the park for them either. "Eventually Edward couldn't stand it anymore and returned to Forks. He wanted to beg you to take him back." She looked at Bella meaningfully who was a little surprised by that revelation. "But you were gone without a trace." She continued. She opened her mouth to say something else but decided against it.
There was some uncomfortable silence going on, while Bella busied herself with the crossword puzzle again and Alice diverted her attention back to her drawing. "Berliner's 'I'? three letters?" Bella looked up at Alice. "I-C-H" Alice answered and groaned frustrated. "I'm bored." She wailed. "Can't we do something christmassy?" Now Bella groaned. "I swear Alice if you say that word again …" She snapped. Alice was taken aback be that outburst. She was blinking rapidly and her lower lip began to tremble. She stood up and turned to leave. "I'm sorry that I seem to be so annoying to you." She whispered.
Bella sighed exasperated. "No Alice wait. That's not what I meant." She pleaded. Alice stopped at the door. "No. Everything I do or say just seems to irritate you." Bella quickly jumped from the bed taking Alice's hand. "No it doesn't. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings. I didn't think when I said that." Alice shook her head. "It's not just about now. Ever since you woke up yesterday … I'm not blind and I'm not stupid, Bella. I didn't need Jasper to realize that everything I did or said seemed to set you off. And I wondered what I was doing wrong. I was just trying to be your friend again. But no matter what I do …" She trailed off and Bella heard her sob. "Alice? Are you crying?" Bella tried to take a look at her but Alice hid her face. "No. I'm a vampire. We can't cry." She sniffed. "Would that make you happy?"
She stepped in front of Alice, who tried to turn away. "No Alice, please look at me." And Alice glanced at her timidly. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to be like that. I like you. It's just …" She closed her eyes searching for the right words. "I'm not used to … all this cheerfulness. I'm grumpy in the mornings. I'm not used to all this holiday madness. And I hate to be dressed up like a doll." She shrugged. Alice sighed turning away again. "So you basically hate everything about me. Thanks. That made me feel all better." She walked back to the bed since Bella was blocking the door now.
"No. Alice please!" Bella pleaded. This was getting really frustrating. Why did everything just come out so wrong? "You've got that all wrong." Alice turned around. Her eyes were red and puffy although there were no tears. "Oh really?! Well enlighten me." Bella took a step closer wringing her hands. "I do like you. And I'd like to be your friend. Maybe we should just try a different approach. If you wanna dress me up you could just let me have a say, for example. We could find things we both like. I mean we were having fun last night, didn't we?" She smiled at Alice pleadingly. Alice nodded. "Although it was kind of unfair with Edward and your cheating." Bella joked and Alice shrugged sheepishly.
Bella's expression turned serious again. "About the other thing." Alice's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "The Christmas madness." Bella cleared up. "Oh that." Alice glanced at the floor sadly and Bella approached her taking her hands. "What is that all about?" She whispered softly. "Well ... you know I don't really have any human memories, right?" Bella nodded. "I want to know what that fells like, you know? Magical time and everything?" Bella thought about that for a moment. "So you want a magical christmas experience or something?" Alice nodded sniffing. "Well alright. Come on." Bella tugged at her hands. "Where are we going?" Alice stammered confused. Bella laughed. "Can't you see?" Duh. Alice nodded her head. "Right. I was ... preoccupied." She stated a little embarrassed.
They stepped into the living room, Bella turned all the lights out except for the Christmas tree and she and Alice led down under it. Alice glanced at Bella. "What now?" Bella rolled her eyes "Now you glance up at it and enjoy the view." "Aaaaah" They lay there in silence for a moment. "This feels nice. Do you do that a lot?" Alice asked and a sorrowful look flashed over Bella's features. She composed herself and cleared her throat. "Not anymore … more like when I was little and we still had a tree." Alice glanced over to her. "You didn't have a tree when you were older?" Bella shook her head. "No. we were living in Arizona. A tree would have looked a little ridiculous there. Or at least that was Rene's opinion. And Charlie didn't really bother with all this decorating stuff." Alice nodded thoughtfully. "And you didn't really decorate for yourself the past two years." Bella sighed deeply. "No, I tried not to think about it actually. It would have reminded me too much of … what I had lost." Alice grabbed her hand. "Na it's OK. Can't change the past now, can we?" Bella brushed it off. "We'll try to make it up to you."
Bella sighed again looking back up the tree. There was nothing anyone could do to make it up. But she didn't wanna be all whiny. After all she probably wasn't the only one with a screwed up life in this house. She didn't know much about Rose, Emmett or Jasper but she knew that Esme had tried to kill herself, Alice's memory loss was probably due to some kind of majorly traumatic experience and Carlisle had been all lonely for centuries before he turned Edward and Esme.
Then the light was turned on and Bella had to squint her eyes from the sudden brightness. "What are you doing? Something wrong with the tree?" They heard Emmett say. Bella sat up frowning. "No." Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper and Edward were standing across the room clearly amused. "We were having a 'magical Christmas expierience'." Alice quoted excitedly. Jasper looked at her concerned. "Hey, have you been crying?" Alice looked down ashamed as did Bella. That got the guys worried. "What's been going on here?" Edward asked. "Alice was annoying. Bella was a bitch about it and made her cry." Rosalie summed it all up as she descended the stairs. Edward's eyebrows rose in shocked surprise and Jasper glared at Bella. "It wasn't that bad. Otherwise I would have intervened." Esme reassured them stepping up besides Carlisle. "It's alright. We're good now." Alice walked over to Jasper and snuggled up to him. He put his arm around her protectively.
Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett retreated to their respective rooms, while Carlisle and Esme snuggled up on the couch leaving Bella and Edward in awkward silence until Edward cleared his throat nervously. "You … you wanna go up to my room?" Bella nodded quickly standing up. "Sure." "Great." As they were walking up the stairs Carlisle and Esme couldn't hide a smile. "You think they're gonna make this work again?" Carlisle asked. A knowing smile played around Esme's lips as she answered. "Probably." He tugged her closer to his chest and whispered in her ear. "By the way, what was going on with that quarrel?" Esme shook her head smiling. "Don't worry about it. They just have to work things out with Bella's new temper."
A/N: Took a little longer this time. Mainly because I did the next chapter first. & I thought now might be a good time to clear up the time line for anyone who didn't get that from the text. Rereading New Moon and considering that Bella was born in 1987, I figured (and correct me if I'm wrong) Bella must have met Laurant in march 2006. So she left shortly after that. And it is now two years later Christmas 2008. So Bella is 21.