Here is the next chapter! It's pretty much a rewrite of the last chapter from Edward's POV, but it is still interesting since he has a different take and a lot of different things happen to him in this chapter than to Bella. Thanks for reading!
Another thing: My wonderful, wonderful sister (who I love very very much despite what she's told me) has pointed out a whole bunch of "kinks" in my story. Which I have to agree with her on, there are billions of kinks-that being the only word I can use to describe it. I know there are lots and lots of things I've forgotten about, left out, or happened to early or too late or without cause, but I am trying really really really hard to fix it as best I can. Please be patient with me.
And if you haven't voted on my poll, be sure to!
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Edward's POV
I kept my eyes on the road, resisting the urge to look behind me at Bella.
So I compromised. I glanced up in the rearview mirror, as quickly as I could.
One arm was crossed across her chest, and she seemed to be contemplating something.
Before my mind could wander into what those contemplations may contain, I distracted myself. My eyes fell on the clock, the green numbers glowing only slightly in the gentle sun of the early morning.
It was 6:12.
I guess I should find that humorous, that I had driven halfway across a continent in seven hours. But I didn't. If it hadn't been for Jasper and Bella, I could have been to Alaska within a day. But, it didn't appear we would get there quite that soon.
I scanned through the thoughts of the car's occupants, seeing if there was anything that needed to be known, but there was pretty much nothing. Nobody was thinking anything. Emmett, being the odd one out, as would be expected, was thinking something, but it was merely trivial thoughts about the white landscape.
Alice's thoughts perked up, though, after a moment. She'd just realized something. She leaned over toward me, whispering.
"Bella'll need to call her father."
I paused, thinking for a moment, then nodded, pressing my cell phone into her awaiting hand.
She turned to the right, leaning toward Jasper and he leaned forward to hear her. Even though they were still whispering, I could hear them, though I presumed Bella could not.
'Bella needs to call her father, tell him… I don't know, something that'll make sure he won't worry. Give this to her."
And she handed him the phone, holding her hand against his just a bit longer than was necessary for the exchange of an object.
Jasper looked at the phone for a second, then extended his hand toward Bella, who sat to the left of him.
"Bella?"
She looked toward him, seemingly startled that he was speaking, much less speaking to her.
"We need you to call your father. He needs to know…well, not where you are, but that you're okay. Tell him whatever works."
She hesitated, then took the phone.
Edward! Are you crazy? She could call the police station and easily rat us out! I
Emmett's thoughts reached me in a frenzy, much louder than one could've thought possible for mere thoughts.
I looked over at Alice, letting my eyes tell her what I wanted.
She paused for a few seconds, then shook her head confidently.
Emmett saw, sinking back into the seat, not so much defeated as reassured.
Bella lifted the phone to her ear. I hadn't even noticed her dial.
"Um…is Chief Swan there?"
She stuttered.
There was a pause. Jasper was cringing under her anxiety, Alice keeping her eyes on Bella at all times.
Another pause-a separate one from the one before. I could hear her heart beating faster.
"Um…Dad. It's me."
More silence.
The Bella nodded, saying "yes" so quietly that I almost didn't hear her.
This was the pivotal moment. About halfway through the conversation she was already, though most of the conversation was held on the other line, and this would be the moment where she would either betray us or lie. Not like she really had a choice. Emmett was prepared, if she showed any signs of deceiving us, though it could hardly be called deceiving, to smash the phone to keep her from lying. Anything.
"I'm fine, Dad. I…Mom came and got me before Biology. She said…"
Bella paused. A single tear ran down her face, blossoming on the corner of her mouth, which was trembling.
"She said she hadn't had enough time to say goodbye to me. I'm with her. In Jacksonville."
It was almost like the entire car, and all of its occupants , sighed at once. She wouldn't betray us. Yet.
She hesitated.
"Yes."
A loud sigh erupted from the other end of the phone, static, more than an actual sound.
There was an angry whispering noise from the other line, I picked up a few words-not really trying to listen-crazy, week, now, Renee.
Bella cringed, listening to it. More tears fell down her face, silently crying.
"Yes. I'm sorry. Look, Dad, I need to go. I'll call you later."
She snapped the phone shut, dropping it on the floor. Emmett leaned down, scooping it up, fiddling with the buttons before handing it back to me. There was a message on the screen-
R U sure dat was right?
I groaned internally, shutting the phone with just a bit more force than was necessary. When I opened it, there was a small crack that ran from the topmost part of the screen to the right. It still worked, regardless, and it wasn't like I needed my phone that much. Alice, Jasper, and Emmett all had theirs.
The phone made a near-mute dinging noise in my hand. I looked at it, surprised to hear it making a sound. I flipped it open, looking at the screen. It had a blue envelope on it and a huge phrase on the top of the screen:
You've got mail!
I groaned, aloud this time.
Think bout it
I rolled my eyes, my fingers moving across the keypad.
I looked at the message before I sent it.
You can just think what you want to tell me, you know that?
I pressed the send button and waited.
The phone dinged again.
Thes si Mor3 fun
I rolled my eyes again, shutting the phone with as little force as I could muster. The screen didn't crack this time.
Edward? We need to go hunt. It's been a week for me and nearly two for you. We really need to find somewhere before we go crazy. Especially with Bella being so close.
I made a temporary decision in my mind, sending Alice a vision of what would happen if we stopped to hunt right here. No trees, no cover.
Well fine. Turn around and we can stop in that town we passed awhile ago. Wildlife aplenty. And Bella can take a rest. Anyone can see she's not comfortable sleeping in the car with us.
I made another decision, waiting as she received a vision of her telling Jasper and Emmett.
Right.
She started talking, keeping her face completely straight ahead. She was talking too low, too quiet, and too quickly for Bella to hear, but Jasper and Emmett would understand her just as well if she were speaking normally.
"We're going to turn around and stop for awhile, hunt before we keep going. Carlisle should be calling soon, as well. I would expect him to brief us on what's going on, what we need to do. Tell Bella."
Bella didn't react. She wouldn't, not being able to hear, but the movement as Jasper and Emmett leaned forward to hear her better would have, should have alerted her to something. It seemed she didn't care anymore.
I turned the steering wheel to the right, swinging the car around. Bella flew off to the right in response to the movement, almost ending up in Jasper's lap, but she held on to the bottom of the seat to restrain herself. Of course, none of us were affected by inertia.
"We're going to stop back at Fort Nelson, take a rest. We'll be back on the road by morning tomorrow."
Jasper was leaning away as he spoke to her, almost pressing his face against the glass in an attempt to get away from her scent. He hadn't been breathing the entire time he was in the car, and the hunting trip the other day hadn't really sustained him for very long, due to our little…spat. I could hear his difficulties and Alice always saw them. He had to hunt so much more often than the rest of us, and we tried our hardest to make things easier for him. In normal circumstances, which, obviously, these weren't. (A/N: Hope this answers your question, nothingleft!)
We reached the town quickly, driving at a speed of nearly 120 miles an hour it only took about fifteen minutes. We found a small, expensive hotel in the farthest end of the town, Alice, Emmett, and I going inside to get a room while Jasper parked the car. Alice walked up to the desk, a glistening smile on her face. She folded her arms across the desk, her shoulders barely over the height. She cocked her head, still with that smile on her face.
"What rooms do you have open?"
The man at the desk turned around, having not noticed that she'd appeared. He looked at her and his eyes nearly popped out of his head; he brushed his hands over his grey suit as he walked toward her. He tried to match her smile, but not coming anywhere near success. He leaned toward her, breathing in more loudly than he thought as he inhaled her scent.
"How may I help you, miss?"
Dang, she's beautiful.
Her smile widened.
"I need a room for…" she paused, appearing to calculate. "…five." She raised her hands up off the desk, intertwining her fingers and resting her head on them. Her smile was alluring.
"Certainly, miss. Give me a moment."
He typed on his computer for a moment, thinking overly crude thoughts, then turned back to Alice.
"I have a penthouse suite available. Six double beds, a small kitchen, whirlpool bathtub."
She shook her head casually, still smiling as her hair waved over her face, not as a denial but a show to catch the clerk's attention.
"That'll be fine."
His eyes bulged a bit.
"The rate is quite steep. Forty five hundred a night." He pushed a piece of paper toward her after scribbling a few numbers on it.
She didn't even look at the paper, only reached into her pocket and handed him a roll of bills. The out most one was a hundred, and the roll was at least three inches thick.
"This should cover it."
He blinked, then took the money, secreting it away in a pocket inside his jacket.
"Okay, I'll need some information for the computer. Name?"
She leaned closer toward him.
"Mrs. Alice Cullen."
Mrs? What? She can't be over eighteen! How can she be married?"
Ironically, at that exact moment, Jasper walked in the door.
Getting over the surprise, he typed the name into the computer. He asked her more questions, address, phone number, things that I highly doubted he actually needed, but more wanted. I didn't pay much attention as she rattled off a fake address, somewhere in Ontario, and telephone number, making up fake parents and a fake life story.
"We'll only be here tonight," Alice said, turning away from the desk and walking toward Jasper.
The clerk was trying his hardest to get over Alice, telling himself that she was rude and hideous and stupid, things that were definitely not true, things that he couldn't even get himself to believe.
We took an elevator up to the third floor, Jasper opting to walk, Alice following him. He wanted to avoid being in a confined space with Bella until he hunted. It bothered me too, of course, but being in the car for so long had..desensitized me, one might say. So Emmett and I took the elevator while Alice and Jasper walked. Of course, Bella was there too, but I was trying my hardest to ignore that fact.
The room was huge, the six double beds almost glaring at me, as a reminder of what could never be, what I was. Why this whole thing was happening.
Bella walked straight across the room, collapsing on the room farthest away from the door, closest to the huge window. She was asleep in an instant, murmuring as she fell deeper into her REM cycle.
I envied her in that moment, the ease of sleep. She looked peaceful as she laid there, the traces of worry and sadness erased from her face. Her arms splayed out from her sides, her legs intertwined in a knot I wouldn't have thought possible for a human. Alice stood up from her perch on one of the dressers, ripping a blanket off another bed and placed it over her, disappearing right after she realized that I was watching. I heard her in the kitchen a few seconds later, talking with Jasper.
Bella's face became distorted and her legs started moving in a violent motion. Within about thirty seconds, the blanket was on the floor. She curled up into a ball, quivering slightly. She'd picked the bed directly next to the air conditioning, which was, incidentally, turned on the highest cold setting. She began murmuring something about blood and vampires, which made me cringe. It seemed like she was remembering that day back in the biology room, when I'd nearly killed her. I couldn't imagine killing her now.
She rolled over, still shaking. On a whim, I stood, walking across the room. I lifted the thick blanket off the floor and draped it over her body. She stretched out immediately, sighing as she did.
Emmett came through the kitchen door, holding his cell phone, open, in his palm. He was smiling, widely.
"Carlisle called."
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Semi-cliffhanger, I suppose. But it's not a bad one, so I guess that's okay. I hope this will satisfy you guys for awhile! I'm surprised I could even write this, I took the practice ACT this morning and my brain kind of turned to mush. But, it's here!
Please please please review! And I need some help identifying kinks in the story and how to fix them, and I really need some encouragement to keep this going, so…compliments? Long reviews always make me feel good.
Oh, and another thing, I absolutely love answering questions from my readers! So if you have anything you're confused about, anything you just want to know for the curiosity of knowing it, absolutely anything, please please please ask me! I love answering questions! Sooo much!
And if you haven't, please go vote on my poll.
Thanks for reading and (hopefully) reviewing!