Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight
Bella was smoking on her front porch when she noticed the small frame of her neighbour creeping around her own house from across the road, thinking it odd that the woman was trying to be a peeping tom into her home, she decided to investigate.
She crossed the road and stood just behind to where Alice was intently looking into the front window.
"What are we doing?" Bella whispered, effectively giving Alice a heart attack and making her jump a mile into the air.
"D-Don't d-do t-that!" Alice yelled and then clutched her palpitating heart, hoping that it would calm.
The smaller woman took a few breathes and noticed that Bella had the audacity to look sheepish, "I-in answer to your q-question, I'm locked outside of my h-house."
Bella almost laughed out loud, the Alice Cullen who always had an answer for everything, who had the uncanny ability to predict the outcomes of events, the cool, calm and collected Alice, was locked out of her house. She would have found it comical if it weren't for her neighbour's distressed state at the moment, instead, Bella just scratched the back of her neck.
"Do you want to call your housemates?"
Alice was currently trying to jimmy the base of her window open with her bare hands, "They're in Seattle at the moment and won't be back until tomorrow, so there's no point in calling them and I really wouldn't want to interrupt them."
Every few months, Rose and Leah went away just because they could, like a couple's retreat and Alice never wanted to intervene, besides, it was nice to be away from the doting couple sometimes. She loved them both dearly, but sometimes their affections and amorous adventures would keep her awake until the early hours of the morning, and no one should ever hear their sister yell to the god's in worship of another person.
No one.
Alice stopped her attempts to break into her house and then leaned against the wall underneath the window.
Bella looked at the forlorn expression on her neighbour's face, "Is there someone you can call that has a spare key?" When Alice shook her head in the negative, Bella rolled her eyes; her neighbour could be quite dramatic sometimes.
"Come on," she ordered.
At this Alice's head perked up, her neighbour was towering over her and the beams hit her in just the right light that she looked like a saviour of some description, "Pardon?"
Bella held out her hand for Alice to get up, "You're not going to stay out here for the night; Jake would kill me if I let his new friend perish in the San Francisco sun and, call me a gentleman but I can't sit idly by on my couch and watch a pretty defenceless and pitiful soul starve to death, so come on."
Alice took the offered hand and with a grunt she got up.
"Did you just call me pitiful?"
Bella started walking towards her house, "I also called you pretty, but trust you to only hear the negative."
Alice followed her neighbour, "You think I'm pretty?"
"I'm also beginning to think that you orchestrated being locked out of your house so that you could hang out with us," Bella replied, opening the door to her house.
"Hey! I did not, I just happen to be very forgetful is all."
"Who forgot what now?" they heard from Jake, who effectively broke their verbal spat.
Alice quit her glaring at Bella and then rushed toward Jake, almost tackling him to the ground.
"ALICE!"
"Hey Jake!" They greeted each other in unison.
"What are you doing here? Not that I don't enjoy your company," he exclaimed and then put her down.
Alice blushed, "I locked myself outside of my house, so Bella has been a kind enough person to not let me catch my death out there." At this, Jake looked at Bella to confirm the information; however she was busying herself in getting a drink and then settled in the middle of the couch.
"Well, isn't that kind of her? First she saves you from your ex and now this? Methinks she's getting a bit soft in her old age," he commented haughtily.
"That's nothing, she even called me pretty not but ten minutes ago!"
"No!" Jake said scandalously.
"Yes!" Alice affirmed in the same tone.
"And she can hear what both of you are saying and is not impressed," Bella intervened faintly noticing the heat rising to her face, They're as worse as each other she thought to herself as she slouched backwards on the couch.
Unbeknownst to her, Jake had craned an eyebrow at her form, "Wow Alice, she is getting soft, the old Bella would have kicked us both out by now."
Alice was about to agree when Bella again cut in their conversation, "She can still hear you and will revert back to the "old Bella" if you continue."
Letting yet another Bella's display of chivalry go, Alice went to the couch and sat beside said woman, "So, what were the master plans today, had I not butted in?" she asked casually.
Jake noticed the ease in which Alice had settled into Bella's home and the way she interacted with his friend. "You're not butting in, Bella wouldn't have invited you into her home if she didn't like your presence and I've decided that we're going to watch a movie," He replied, making his way towards the stack of DVD's next to the TV.
"What movie?"
"Twilight" Jake said and then watched for Bella's reaction.
At the mention of that particular title, Bella chocked on her drink and glared at her friend who quickly turned around and busied himself by placing the disc in the DVD player.
"I love that movie and the books!" Alice squealed in excitement.
Bella recovered from glaring and then looked at Alice queerly, "Seriously? What do you like about it? The 100 year old vampire with bipolar going after a teenager girl with the personality of a postbox? Or maybe you like the weird love triangle surrounding said doorknob? I've seen better love stories between a car and a fencepost."
Alice craned an eyebrow at the venom of her neighbour's words and Jake took the silence as Alice being offended.
"Dude, chill, it's just fiction," he tried to mollify and then he moved to sit next to Bella.
"Yeah Bella and it's just so romantic," Alice further added, trying to goad Bella into another passionate display of emotion.
"Yeah Bella sooooo romantic," Jake swooned along with Alice.
Bella just resigned herself to sitting back onto the couch, "Fine, but I'm not enjoying this and you can't make me," She said with finality.
"Not asking you to," Alice replied, "Have you read the books?"
Bella blanched at the question, she had not only read the books, because funnily enough, she had actually written them.
It started years ago when Bella was just becoming a writer, she had produced a fantasy-romance novel as a joke, just to get her creative momentum going, what she hadn't expected however, was for her partner at the time to send in her novels under a moniker to random publishers. And Bella certainly could never have anticipated that her novel would become an international best seller, much to her chagrin.
Jacob's grin almost split his face; he had always found it exceedingly humorous that his best friend was mortified by the attention of her so called , shit work that a brain dead squirrel with nuts up its ass could write, her words, not his. But today, he decided to spare his best friend the agony of a thousand questions.
"Yeah I read them when they first came out years ago," he replied nonchalantly.
"What did you think?"
Jake turned around to face Alice and was about to say how much he loved the series because he would love anything that his best friend wrote; however, as he turned his head, he noticed the glare in his peripherals. As Alice was sitting behind Bella, she couldn't see the non-verbal warnings the brunette was directing at her best friend.
"Errr, I thought the writing was shit, the movie is way better."
Bella just scowled further at Jake and almost opposed his words, for her stories were her pieces of art to shamefully bash, it was like how you're able to verbally demean your own mother, but once anyone else said anything then that person was in for a world of hurt.
"Reallllyyy?" Alice asked sceptically, she had never heard that about the writing before.
"Err yeah, it's a total load of shit the authors writing," he said a bit more confidently, causing Bella to scoff, her friend was terrible at lying.
"It's too bad that the author's never participated in any interviews, on tv or written media's."
"Yeah real shame, now let's get this over with," Bella intervened, resigning herself to her fate and effectively changing the topic.
They all sat back and watched the opening scenery, Bella tried not to cringe at the use of the word irrevocably, because it seemed that now everyone was using that term, in and out of context, a feat that she never thought possible.
Bella glanced at her watch, six more hours to go.
"Oh come the fuck on! What kind of vampire would sparkle in the sun?" Bella said in exasperation, she seriously had meant that part to be a joke, no respectful vampire would sparkle, that would be like having a beacon for Federal Agents to come and dissect them.
"A vampire pro-pride?" Alice answered tentatively.
She had no idea why her neighbour was so against the series, however, it wouldn't be the first, nor the last time anyone would articulate their dislike towards it, so she decided that agreeing to disagree would be the best option. "Though, I do concede with your sentiments, the vampires in this story don't seem very dangerous at all, I much more like the wolves in this."
It was at this comment that Jake decided to straighten up, "What? Why? They're too emotional, they lose their temper easily and you can totally tell that that main guy is on steroids or something, no-one is that buff when they're that young."
Bella and Alice just gave him a questioning look and stared at his huge muscles that were almost exploding from out of his shirt, "Riiiigggghhhhht, so, you like the vampires?" Bella queried.
Jake smirked, "Of course, they go against what's normal vampire behaviour and I respect them for that and I, for one like the sparkling of vampires. It's like a metaphor or something."
"Metaphor for what?" Bella asked.
"Being gay," he answered without missing a beat, at the confused faces of Alice and Bella, he continued.
"It's like, when you're gay, all your life, you're in the dark, you feel like you're a monster, that you're a terrible person and no matter how hard you try, you're still that person that cringes at your own reflection because you're not "normal". Until, one day and, unfortunately this doesn't happen for everyone but, you decide to snap and be honest with yourself. To be honest with someone that you trust either implicitly or explicitly and then they accept you. And, everything just seems to be that little bit brighter; you become a little bit brighter and maybe, just maybe, you're not a terrible person after all. Because isn't that what we all want to do in the end? To just shine or sparkle for even just a little bit?"
"So, you believe the sparkling of vampires to be a metaphor? Like in True blood?" Alice asked.
"I'm not sure about true blood, I've never seen or read it. But, I'd like to believe that the author is trying to say that it's ok to be yourself and to sometimes wish to be something more." Jacob replied to his audience.
After his little speech Alice saw the young man in a new light, she had always seen immature and flamboyant Jake, never serious and actually has deep thoughts Jake. It was at this moment where Alice understood the relationship between Bella and Jake, she understood why it worked so well, they complimented each other with their different personalities and yet, their passions where within the same vein. It was actually quite a beautiful thing to realize.
Bella however, was not having the same epiphany as Alice and scoffed at her friends words, "Jake, you need to lay off of the coke, I'm sure that that so wasn't what the author was thinking when she put that in." She really hadn't.
"Maybe not consciously" he added with a wink and then settled down.
"Well, if that's the case, then I hope that everything worked out for the author." Alice commented. Bella furrowed her brow, contemplating that remark.
Jake smirked at his best friend, "Here's to hoping."
"What did she do? Cut a fucking artery? What dipshit cuts an artery on packaging?" Bella yelled at the TV for the hundredth time.
Jake and Alice rolled their eyes at Bella's prejudice against the series; it occurred every time the main male character said something demeaning to his supposed love, every time the leading lady would do something obnoxiously human and whenever the vampires did something that vampires weren't stereotypically meant to do. Which was often.
It was like a movie or TV drinking game whereby, whenever a character does something, a participant takes a shot, however, for Bella; it was take a shot at yelling at the characters.
Alice watched Bella with amusement, she had never seen the other woman so passionate before and it made Alice smile knowing that her neighbour had an emotion other than embarrassment, indifference and immaturity. Albeit, her neighbour's passion lay within her hatred of the current viewing, but this side of Bella made her seem so much more real and it humbled Alice to be privy to such a sight.
After several hours of viewing, the three noticed that the sun had settled and replaced by the high moon.
Jake was the first to stand up and stretch, "I'm going to bed now, I can only take Bella's constant whining for so long, goodnight ladies." he said, he heard their goodnights and smiled before sleepily trudging off to Bella's study room.
Bella turned to Alice and noticed that the smaller woman was almost drifting off into a light slumber.
"You can sleep in my room," Bella announced to Alice, who, in reply just shook her head.
"I-I'm the guest, I…"
"Exactly, which means you get the honour of sleeping on my new, freshly made bed," Bella articulated in a tone that left no room for discussion.
"Thanks Bella, it seems like that's the only thing I say to you." Alice she stood up and allowed Bella to lead the way.
"You're welcome," Bella murmured.
The last thoughts that Alice had before she fell asleep was that firstly, Bella had a very nice smile and that she should use it more often and secondly, Bella's bed didn't smell like her at all.
The morning sun crept onto Bella's face and it caused her to grunt unattractively.
"Cute when she sleeps isn't she?" she could vaguely hear a deep voice interrupt her.
"Yeah just look at her, cuter than a button," this was more of a high pitched feminine voice.
This better be a dream, she thought to herself before opening her eyes, in doing so, she was met with the towering faces of Jake and Alice, who were both looking like children waking up their mother.
"Seriously guys, why is everyone awake at this time of day?" she groaned, shutting her eyes again, hoping that the visions would go away.
"It's 12.30 in the afternoon Bella and we tried making loud noises so that you would wake up," Jake replied.
It's true, the two took painstaking lengths to make loud noises opening and closing doors, cupboards, letting the water run for a few minutes, turning on the T.V.
"You sleep like the dead honey," she heard Alice giggle.
"I've heard that before," Bella replied.
Jake and Alice after completing their duty to wake Bella up decided to head to the kitchen.
Bella placed an arm over her eyes to blind herself from her surroundings as if it could block out all her sensory perception as well, "Another day, another mourning" she murmured to herself.
"Bella, we need food, now!" She cringed at the loud noise and rubbed her face with her hands.
When she felt somewhat awake, she shook herself from her reverie and then got up.
"Fine, fine, what will it be?" she asked as she drudged into the kitchen.
"The Bella Bonanza! The Bella Bonanza!" Jake exclaimed, it was a breakfast feast that Bella had instigated years ago for special occasions, think a Big Breakfast but with more proportions.
Alice strode to the kettle in order to make Bella coffee, she suspected that the woman couldn't function without it and hoped that it would make her a little bit more agreeable.
Bella noticed this action and appreciated it greatly, it was such a small gesture, but one in which spoke volumes.
"So, what's on for today?" Bella heard Jake ask.
Alice poured the hot water into the cup and smiled inwardly, watching as Bella rolled her eyes at her friend.
Thank you for reading.