Chapter Eleven

Alice hired a limo for our trip back to Forks. It was... ridiculous. And I told her so.

"Honestly, Bella, this is better. This way we can talk on the way home," she insisted, waving me off.

"We talked on the way here."

"That was different. Besides, now Edward's coming home with us, too. This will be much more comfortable."

"But what about your car? What about Edward's car?"

All I got was a shake of her head in response, another wave of her hand as she donned a pair of oversized sunglasses. The matter was closed. Alice had spoken.

I climbed into the ridiculous car, curling up in a far corner while Edward and Alice sat next to each other on the side bench. The upholstery was black and leather and expensive-feeling. The wood paneled trim on running along the windows and fixtures looked like legitimate wood rather than that decal garbage they apply to the inside of cars. There were flat screen televisions recessed into every available surface. There was no bar, no tacky lighting along the ceiling or under the seats, no disco ball or neon piping... this was nothing like the limo my mother had ridden in for her bachelorette party. The one that she had allowed me to peek into before it pulled away from the curb. This was nice. Classy. Still ridiculous, though.

I was idly watching the city roll by through the heavily tinted glass when a rather pronounced gasp to the left of my seat caught my attention.

"Alice?" I asked, concerned. Her posture was rigid, her mouth a tight line across her face.

Edward grimaced next to her, his formerly placid expression dissolving into one of... frustration?

I watched as Alice reached a hand out, wrapping her tiny fingers around his wrist.

My phone rang and, still concentrating on the odd behavior of my riding companions, I answered it, assuming it was Charlie.

"Hello?"

"Bella!" Mark yelled in excitement, loud enough for me to pull the phone from my ear. "How are you? We haven't spoken in forever!"

I remembered my dream the night before. I remembered my text. Edward's fingers looked like they were about to gouge holes in the denim covering his legs. Alice took both of his hands in her own.

"Sorry about that, Mark... it's just been so hectic here... I'm good. How are you? How's Phoenix?" I asked, trying not to notice the way Edward's eyes had snapped to mine when I said Mark's name.

"Not the same without you," he lamented, sounding a bit too wistful for my comfort. "Nothing's the same anymore. I miss you so much, Bella..."

I thought about what I had seen. Him climbing through my old window. Him beating his fists against the wall. I shuddered. Edward tensed further.

"I miss you, too, Mark," I lied, toying with a piece of my hair. "Tell me about-"

"When are you going to come home, Bella? Everyone's asking about you. Jennifer asked me every day this week if we had spoken, and Carly keeps bringing you up at lunch, and I just miss you so much..."

"I live here now," I replied, my voice quiet. I wanted desperately to ask him about breaking into my house, but I didn't know if it had happened yet...

"I know, but you could visit. We could spend the weekend together, just you and me. I could get us that hotel room again..."

Edward's hands moved into his hair, fisting the copper strands as though trying to rip them out. What was going on here?

"Mark, I don't think that's appropriate. I mean, I just got here, and-"

"But I miss you, Bella. The way you smile..."

Alice was now completely wrapped around her brother, as though restraining him from something. It was odd, seeing such a tiny person acting as though they could physically influence a larger one. Even odder because I couldn't for the life of me understand what was going on between the two of them.

"Mark, please," I whispered, turning my body into the window, unable to juggle Edward's behavior and my increasingly uncomfortable phone call any longer. "You know I'll always care about you, but we're not like that anymore..."

"I don't see why, Bella. I did everything for you. I was there for you when Renee wasn't. I was your life! And you can just leave it all behind, leave me? After all I've done-"

"That's not fair," I said brokenly, fighting back tears.

"No, it's not. It's not fair at all. It's not fair that I took care of you for so long, only to have you push me away like I was nothing. I can't believe you, Bella. I can't believe how selfish you are."

"Mark-"

"Is there someone else? Did you meet someone up there? Did you?" his tone had turned ugly, his voice nearly unrecognizable.

"I don't-"

"You did, didn't you? You met someone already. I can't believe you, Bella. Such a slut-"

"Mark!" I gasped, sobbing openly now. Who was this boy? What had he become?

"Does he know I was your first? That I got in there before him? That I broke you in?"

"Mark, please-"

"Please what, Bella? This is your fault. You're the one who left. You're the one who opened your legs for another guy. Well he's welcome to you, whoever he is. You were always such a shitty lay. I almost feel sorry for him-"

"That's enough," Edward roared, suddenly beside me and wrenching the phone from my hands. "Now you listen to me, you unbelievable piece of garbage. Isabella Swan is no longer a part of your life. Period. You will not contact her, you will not speak about her, you will not so much as think about her or, so help me god, you will be begging for death by the time I'm through with you. Understood?"

Without waiting for a response, Edward ripped the phone from his ear, crushing it in his fist and winding up to throw it against the window before Alice's hand on his arm stopped him.

"You don't want to do that," she said quietly, her eyes on me rather than her brother.

He took a deep breath, dropping the mass of twisted plastic and wires to the floor before taking his head in his hands, gripping his hair again.

"You will never talk to that boy again," he said, a definite edge to his voice.

"He's not normally like that," I whispered into the car by way of explanation, humiliated that the first boy I had ever loved had spoken to me like that. Humiliated that Edward and Alice had heard every word. "He's never spoken to me like that before."

"You will never talk to him again," Edward repeated, raising his head to look me dead in the eye.

And the sobs came back full force, ripping their way through my body, leaving me gulping for air. A pair of cold arms wrapped themselves around me and still I cried, not understanding how anyone could say such things to me, let alone Mark, the person I had trusted above all others.

A velvety voice was whispering soothing things in my ear, running fingers through my hair, rubbing circles on my back. Strong arms held me to a strong chest, guiding my head into the crook of a pale neck and rocking me like a child.

"I don't know what happened," I bit out after an age, the tears receding.

"I'm sorry it you feel I overreacted," was Edward's reply, his chest rumbling beneath my cheek as he spoke. "I cannot abide anyone speaking to you in that manner."

"I don't understand..."

"You are none of the things that boy accused you of being, Isabella. Do you understand? You are goodness and light and so beautiful that it takes my breath away. You are kind and giving and gentle and the most amazing person I have ever known."

He lifted my chin with a finger, guiding my face up until I could comfortably meet his eyes.

"You are none of the things that boy said, Isabella," he repeated softly.

"You don't have to-" I began, but he cut me off with a cool finger against my lips.

"I do."

I ducked my head, tucking it into the crook of his neck again and smiling into the soft fabric of his sweater.

"You killed my phone," I blurted suddenly, once my mind had cleared a bit.

"I'll by you a new one," he said simply, shifting me impossibly closer to him. I sighed happily.

"Good idea," Alice agreed, reaching for the intercom button to speak with the driver. "We need to make a stop."

The driver found us a mall on the outskirts of Seattle, and the moment we stepped out of the car, Alice insisted on feeding me.

"It's a long drive back to Forks, Bella Bear," she reasoned, "and we won't have time to stop again."

The three of us travelled to the food court as a group, but Edward broke away the moment we arrived, explaining that he wasn't hungry.

"I'll go get the paperwork started on your phone," he suggested, already walking away from us. "That way all the time consuming stuff will be out of the way by the time you're finished."

I opened my mouth to protest, but he was already gone, moving smoothly through the crowd and out of sight. I wanted to choose my own phone, damn it. My flip phone had been ancient, and I was rather excited about the opportunity to choose a new one.

Still, he was gone already and there was nothing I could do about it.

Alice and I got into a shouting match about who had the right to pay for my lunch. It wasn't until I reminded her of exactly how much money she had spent on me over the weekend, and how gracefully I had accepted it in the end, that she allowed me to fork over the $9.31 for my orange chicken and brown rice.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked Alice, halfway through my plate and only just noticing that she hadn't purchased anything to eat.

"I don't really eat this stuff," she explained, waving her hand in the general direction of the food stalls.

"Mall food?"

"Sure."

"What about at school?" I continued, suddenly remembering one of the many little quirks all the Cullens seemed to share.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, you don't really eat at school, either. And you didn't eat anything yesterday... what do you eat, Alice?"

"This is... another one of those things, Bella," she said quietly, looking me in the eye.

"Something we'll talk about later?" I asked, leaning forward.

"Exactly."

"Alright," I shrugged after a moment. She'd already told me that she was... older than she looked. And that she had visions of the future. And that she never slept. How much more could there possibly be?

"Let's go find Edward," she suggested once I finished with my lunch. "He should be about finished by now."

"You got me an iPhone?" I asked for the tenth time, back in the car on the way back to Forks.

"It was the most prudent option," Edward replied dismissively.

"I don't have AT&T," I argued, stunned.

"You do now," was his only response.

"What the fu-"

"Bella," Alice rushed, moving to sit next to me in the car, "Edward and I decided to add you to our family plan. It made the most sense."

"Made the most sense? How does that make the most sense? You can't pay for my cell phone!"

"I can, and I did," Edward said with a sniff, staring out the window.

"Well you can take it back."

"No."

"Edward."

"No."

"Edward!"

"No! No matter how many times you repeat my name, I will not take it back, Isabella! It was a gift. I bought you a gift. Now be gracious and accept it."

"But to add me to your plan-"

"Is only fair," he finished for me stiffly. "A gift isn't a gift if the recipient must pay to use it."

"But an iPhone-"

"Is both utilitarian and reliable. My entire family has them. It is the best phone on the market. You deserve only the best."

"But-"

"That's the end, Isabella. Say 'thank you' and move on."

I glared at him, crossing my arms like a child, but he was unmovable.

"Thank you," I snarked, still furious. My prepaid plan had been a major drain on my savings account, but it had been mine, damn it.

"You're welcome."

Alice commandeered my new phone almost immediately, programming her number, as well as those of the rest of her family, into my contacts and downloading an obscene number of apps, insisting that I would never be able to exist without them.

"Where are the rest of the bags?" she asked her brother after apparently exhausting her app options.

"Trunk," he grunted, pulling a pair of earbuds from his pocket and plugging them into his own phone. "I'm taking a nap."

He stretched his legs out in front of him, tilting his head back onto the seat and closing his eyes. He looked graceful and casual and... delicious.

"What rest of the bags?" I asked, forcing myself to stop staring at the boy -man- in front of me.

"Just some extra things we decided to pick up," Alice replied dismissively, waving her hand.

Again with the hand! I was ready to chop the damn thing off.

"Extra things for who?" I demanded, not liking the way she wouldn't meet my eyes.

"You," Edward answered, eyes still closed.

"Me? What for?"

"School and things. Don't worry about it," Alice insisted, trying to distract me by showing me another feature on my phone.

"School? What did you get me for school?" I persisted, undeterred.

"You needed a computer," Edward said calmly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked, trying not to raise my voice. "How did you know that?"

"You did need a computer, Bella," Alice repeated, her eyes wide and pleading.

"What do you mean 'did'? What did you do?"

I looked from Alice to Edward and back again. And then I started to hyperventilate.

"What did you do?" I gasped, feeling like the car was getting smaller and smaller around me.

"Isabella? Isabella, you need to breathe."

Edward was in front of me in an instant, his hands on my shoulders, gently guiding my head between my knees.

"What did you do?" I panted, focused.

"I bought you a present," Edward said, gathering my hair into a ponytail and holding it away from my face.

"I don't want any more presents," I bit out, unable to catch my breath.

"Alice got to take care of you all weekend. I wanted to get you something special. I'm sorry, Isabella. Please calm down. I didn't know it would upset you. Please, please calm down."

He began rubbing my back in long strokes. I focused on his hand, applying cool, gentle pressure from the base of my spine to the nape of my neck and back down again.

"That's it, baby. Just breathe," he whispered soothingly. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I preened at the term of endearment falling so easily from his lips.

When I could finally breathe again, Edward seated himself next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and drawing me into his side.

"Alright?" he asked, studying my face.

"I'm not used to this," I said quietly, hoping he would understand. "All this... everything. It's too much, Edward. I'm sorry, but it's too much."

"You don't even know what I got you," he reminded me, a small smile playing on his beautiful lips.

"You got me a phone," I replied. "A very expensive phone, and a plan to go with it. That alone is too much."

"The phone was more from my family than it was from me. And nothing could ever be too much for you, Isabella. I could have bought you everything in that mall and it would never be enough for me."

"You don't... please try to understand. I don't have what you have. I didn't grow up the way you grew up. I'll never be able to repay you-"

"Your existence is payment enough, Isabella. You owe me nothing."

I was uncomfortable. His eyes were too serious, his words too affecting.

"Please, just stop," I said quietly, looking away from him. From the corner of my eye, I saw his head drop dejectedly. He slowly removed his arm from my shoulders and put space between us on the seat. I immediately felt bereft at the loss of physical contact, but was too muddled to do anything about it.

The silence in the car was crushing, the dim hum of the road beneath us the only reprieve. In my mind, I replayed every interaction with Edward, and then with Alice. I studied every smile, every gesture, every word. I went back over the entire week, marveling at how thoroughly my life could change in such a short amount of time.

When the car breached the town limits of Forks, I spoke again.

"My mother moved me around a lot. You probably knew that, but I'm telling you anyway. Every time I would start to make friends, start to get comfortable, she'd get bored or hurt and we'd be gone. I've never been close to anyone. Not my mom, not kids at school... not even Mark, I guess. I don't... I don't think I know how to have a real relationship. I don't know how to get comfortable. Even in Phoenix, I always felt like it would slip away at any moment. Even with Mark, I kept reminding myself not to get too comfortable. And I wish I could blame my mother, but it's me. It's me who doesn't know how to put down roots. It's me who has never really trusted anyone. It's me who questions the motivations behind every little thing."

I paused, looking out the window. We were parked in front of my house now. Alice and Edward were sitting stock still, watching me.

"Even when I came here, even when Charlie welcomed me into his house with open arms... do you know that when he first showed me my room, I wondered who had lived there before me? I figured he'd had a kid with another woman or something... maybe rented the room out to locals. Outwardly, I knew that he'd put the space together for me, that he was taking care of me, but somewhere inside I just wouldn't believe it. He's been so generous, so kind, and still I sit there sometimes and wonder why. And it's killing me."

A tear made it's way down my cheek and I brushed it away angrily.

"It's killing me. All of this time and energy spent wondering what everyone's motives are, wondering when it's all going to be yanked away from me again..." I looked at the house that had become my new home, watched the treetops sway gently in the woods just beyond it. How quickly life can change.

"And then I met you. Both of you. And it felt, feels... permanent. Permanent in a way that I've never experienced before. And against my will, I'm so comfortable. And it's just so damn easy to get lost in you, in your presence, your existence..."

I looked at Alice, smiling sadly at her concerned expression.

"You know you were the first friend I've ever had that hugged me? Hugged me. How pathetic is that? And you listen to me when I talk, and you always know that right things to say... and you know me better than anyone has ever known me in my entire life. You know my secret, my biggest secret, and you don't think I'm a freak of nature or some sort of scary witch girl... I told you, and you didn't run away, and that alone meant more to me than any coat you could ever buy me."

I shifted my gaze to Edward, wondering at the naked vulnerability in his eyes.

"And you," I barked out a quick, nervous laugh. "I don't know what to do with you. You're... so much. So right. And I don't have to try. I don't have to convince myself. When you look at me, I breathe. When you touch me, I come alive. And it's everything I don't believe in. It's sonnets and sunshine and birds and happy endings... and I don't know how to trust it. I want to so badly. But I don't understand. You're so easy with me, so natural... and I don't know why. I can't read your mind. I don't know what's going on. And you saved my life. And you lied. And I keep trying to be angry, but it's so damn hard..."

Movement outside of the car caught my eye, and I looked to see Charlie on the porch, squinting at the long black car now parked in front of his house.

"I'm going to go, but I need you both to understand... I need time. And I need patience. And I need you to listen to me when I ask you not to do things. And you've done so much for me... so, so much... but I need you to try to see where I'm coming from. This is so foreign to me... these feelings and the... the gifts. I don't know what to make of the gifts. I'm not used to them, and certainly not in this volume. Or this level of extravagance..."

Charlie began walking up to the car, and I slid towards the door.

"I really did have a wonderful time this weekend," I said apologetically, reaching for the handle. "And I'm very, very grateful for all that you've done for me. More grateful than I could ever possibly express..."

I opened the door, getting one foot onto the pavement before a cool hand wrapped around my arm, stopping me. I looked back to see Edward's face inches from my own, his eyes amber eyes swimming with emotions that I couldn't sort out.

"Isabella, there is so much to say," he breathed, tilting his head so his forehead rested on mine.

"I need some time," I whispered, pulling away even as my body begged me to stay. "Just give me some time."

A/N: Big thanks to IssaBissa for getting this back to me so quickly.

Review.