Disclaimer: It's Meyers. Not Rainwater's.
Thank you guys for your reviews on that last chapter, and for not hating the epic size of that chapter lol
This one is not even half as large, but I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless.
BellaPOV:
Three weeks. Three weeks have passed since James left that bottle of wine in front of that hotel room door. In those three weeks, several things have happened:
One, I moved into the little apartment above the Cullens' garage, and I have to say it was five times nicer than the hole I had been renting in Seattle, and they were only allowing me to pay four hundred a month for it. It easily fit into my budget, and all of a sudden, I had money to make long-overdue repairs to my truck, which had began to wheeze like an old man who had seen his fair share of tobacco in life.
Two, Dad had made me promise to come up to Forks for Labor Day weekend, and I was under orders to have Alice and C.J. come with me. This was a scary predicament not only because Alice would be seeing where I come from, but because she would be meeting Leah, and Jacob. I was not excited about either prospect, considering the jealous and temperamental nature of the two, but I figured it was something that all Quileute people share; just let a woman look at my father the wrong way, and Sue turns into a whole new being.
Three, Alice and I have not spent a single night together since I moved onto her parents' property. Esme decided that she would help us slow down our relationship by forbidding Alice to even walk past the threshold of the front door to the place I rented, saying that in time the ban would surely be lifted, but in the mean time she meant what she said, and Alice didn't want to know the consequence of her mother's admonition. We behaved, and merely went out for dates, if that's what you can call them, by walking within the walls of the estate, holding hands as we talked about everything from the Dalai Lama to Lady Gaga, whom she adored. It was too risky for the two of us to be alone in society, and Em was especially freaking out because it had been so long since we'd had a sign of James, so the no outside dates rule had been established not long after my move here.
Four, Jane had quit Volturi Music after a major falling out with Aro, who had been sick recently, and had handed all the responsibilities of running the damn thing to me. Emmett's partner Garrett Liberty, a laid back cop with a blonde hair and a mischievious grin, and I had developed a friendship, as he had spent so much of his time with me at my job in the past few weeks, and I was now tutoring him in guitar, as well. He was trying to learn to impress some girl he had met in his kick-boxing classes. For me, it was more money in my bank account, and I had no complaints.
Five, Alice had received an official letter from an attorney affiliated with the United States Army in Fort Hood, Texas, concerning a meeting with them in a week, on C.J.'s behalf as his sole caretaker. Alice had been very quiet with me on this subject, as we both knew it had something to do with Jasper, but she couldn't say anything to her son... he was about to start school the same week that Alice would have to fly to Texas for the meeting, and his head was full of not being able to sit around and play guitar all day, every day. Alice had set a limit on it to an hour and half before bed time every night, as long as his homework was completed and checked over. When he appealed to me about it, looking for support, he was very disappointed that I told him his mother was right, that school was more important than guitar.
Alice had giggled at the face I had made when he walked away to his room at his grandparents, knowing that it killed a small part of me to say anything was more important than guitars.
Now that I've hashed out the events that have taken place over the last few weeks, onwards...
I was tapping my pen to the rhythm of Tool's "Parabola" as it played on the speakers at work, doing Aro's job now that my own was through. I had to make a bank drop, and I had to do it before five, but I was procrastinating as long as possible; the banker at the private bank Aro did business with had developed a teensy crush on me, and flirted relentlessly every time I came in. I couldn't handle any toothy smiles from preppy guys today. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts to politely defer to him, and it was making cranky because I was getting a headache from the constant hum inside my head. I was sure my boss would not be happy with me if I took out unnecessary aggression on his banker.
Garrett was sitting in a folding chair across the room with his feet up on a filing cabinet, tossing peanuts into his mouth as he waited for me to finish the numbers so we could leave for the bank. It was sad that he had learned the drill over the last week since Aro had not been able to come in. Emmett was asking me questions about it, and it made me uneasy, because though he tried to make it sound breezy, I felt like there was purpose behind his curiosity.
"Jeez, aren't you done, yet?" I looked up to see Garrett had switched around and put his feet on the floor, leaning forward with a frown as he looked at his cell phone. "It's nearly four-thirty, Bella. You're usually done and out the door by four."
I shrugged and looked back down at the paper in front of me. It was done, but as I had no desire to do this today, I was in no hurry to go... it was only a ten minute car ride from the store, I saw it as plenty of time to make the drop and go. "I guess I'm ready, if you are," I muttered, clicking the pen closed and lying it down on the desk.
"Finally," he sighed, and I rolled my eyes at him, knowing he was being over dramatic on purpose just to poke fun at me; he knew I had a lot on my mind, though he didn't exactly know what.
"Shut up," I said, picking up the bag of cash and credit reports, along with the carbon copies of the reports I had just filled out. "Let's just get this over with so I can break Romeo's heart again today."
"Poor guy," Garrett said playfully, nudging me in the side as I drew level with him at the door. "Hasn't a snowball's chance in hell, but has heart enough to keep trying. Bless him."
I chose to ignore that comment as I turned out the lights in Aro's office and shut the door behind us as we exited into the store. Heidi was messing around on a drum set as we neared the front doors, and I pointed at her, silently telling her that she was in charge until I returned, and she nodded with understanding as I left. We took Garrett's unmarked Crown Victoria, riding through the few streets between the store and the bank, and I was subjected to the country music that Garrett seemed to be in the mood for that day. I looked at my phone, noting that I hadn't received a text from Alice in hours, and my brow furrowed a little; that was a little abnormal. We were horrible about texting constantly, no matter what we were doing. I could be knee deep in customers, and Alice in the middle of a corporate business meeting, and we would be zoned out on our phones, giggling about whatever the other was saying. Edward was highly annoyed by it, being Alice's partner as well as her brother, as her distraction with me left him to do most of the hard work by himself while his sister merely supervised.
I sent her a quick text, just saying that I was trying to be home by seven, but I wasn't sure if I'd make dinner. Esme fed me as well as everyone else in the house, every night at six-thirty sharp when Carlisle came home from his regular shift at the hospital. I hadn't been able to be home before eleven for the past two nights, so I had promised her I would do my best to make it home before it got dark, so that we could walk after dinner.
I let loose a breath that I had been holding since I got out of the car when I entered the bank and saw that Romeo was no where in sight. I did the deposit with a small gray-haired lady instead, and got out of there fairly quickly, much to my pleasure. Garrett was surprised to see me exit the building not ten minutes after entering it, because he was so used to waiting in the parking lot for twenty to thirty minutes every day while Romeo spat his crap at me.
"I take it he wasn't there?" he said, putting the Vic in reverse to go back to the store.
"Mmm," I said, not really answering him, not giving him room to make any more fun of me than he already did.
He chuckled. "Yeah, didn't think so," he said in a smug tone, and I merely raised the middle finger of my left hand to him as I stared out of the window and waited for Alice to text me back.
It wasn't Alice's name that appeared on the screen of my phone an hour later, however, it was one that I had only acquired recently. It was Rosalie calling me.
I put the phone to my ear as I stepped to the storeroom for some quiet, and no sooner did I greet her, did she get right into why she is calling me.
"Bella, I think you should come home," she said in a tone that made my blood run cold.
"What? What happened, is it- is it Alice? Is she okay?" I said, panicked, beginning to freak out.
"She's fine, physically, it's just... God, Bella, it's horrible news. She found out what the meeting in Texas is really about."
I stopped in my dash for the door, falling completely still, my hair raising on end for some reason. "And? What is it?" I asked her, hearing her take a shuddering breath on the other line.
"It's about what Jasper left to C.J. in his will," Rosalie told me, and I lost my breath... that could only mean one thing. "Bella, Jasper's dead."
I found Alice in her room at her parents' house, sitting on the stool in front of her vanity, staring at her reflection in the silver-backed mirror mounted to the antique piece. I stopped in the doorway as she looked back at me, and I saw the red rings around her eyes, and the puffy cheeks swollen beneath them, tears still glistening in her dark blue eyes.
"Baby," I whispered painfully, my heart clenching with the sight of her looking so heartbroken, so lost.
She tried to force a smile on her face at my endearment, but failed miserably as she broke out into a sob instead. "Bells, he is gone, he's really gone, not coming back... my son is never going to know his father," she cried, burying her face in her hands, leaning onto her elbows while her shoulders shook with grief.
I quickly entered her bedroom and shut the door behind me, striding across the room to pull her into my arms, hugging her close as she cried, my heart breaking with hers. My father had been everything to me growing up, and I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have Dad in my life, just as much as I couldn't imagine Renee coming back into it. I suppose C.J. had the same situation, only the other way around from mine. I knew how it felt, not having two people in your house when you came home from school.
"Shh, it's okay, Alice," I whispered, running the fingers of my right hand through her hair as I held her close with the left.
"I am by myself with this, how do I explain to him... he has always been so sure that Jasper would want to meet him, eventually," she said in a hoarse tone a few minutes later, her face against my shoulder.
"You're not by yourself," I disagreed, shaking my head. I put a finger beneath her chin and raised her tear-stained face up to look her in the eyes. "I'm not his father, I could never take that place, but I am here for him, and for you. I'm not going anywhere any time soon, Alice. I swear, I am here to stay." I stopped short of what I was going to add onto that, my eyes widening at the realization of what I had wanted to say to her. I love you.
"Bella..." Alice's whisper died off as she read in my expression exactly what I did not say to her in words, and I saw her eyes light up with a blazing look I had seen only once before.
"Oh, god, not again," I breathed as I realized what Alice was going to do about half a second before it actually happened. She stood up fast, pressing against me hard as she rose up onto her toes to kiss me like I had not felt from her before. There was a certainty to this kiss, a purpose in its ferocity, and it was hitting home in my soul, stoking a bon fire that quickly consuming every coherent, intelligent thought I possessed. She made a small jump up, and I reflexively caught her by the back of her thighs as she wrapped her legs around my waist, squeezing tightly in her intensity. I felt her hands pull at the bottom of my shirt, and I knew then and there that she intended to go all the way this time, whether I stopped her or not.
So I gave in. I let her pull my shirt over my head, and even moved my face aside when she attacked my neck, unable to stop the whimpering pants she was making me have, feeling my knees becoming weak with the invasion of arousal ravaging my body now, and the added weight of my darling pixie in my arms, sucking on my neck so well.
The back of my knees thankfully connected to the edge of the canopy bed the sat against the opposite wall in her room, and I sat down hard, Alice pulling away to rip her own shirt over her head and fling it behind her before coming back with an insistent kiss.
This was not how I pictured our first time. Our first time was not meant to be rushed, with the both of us shredding clothes from each other, not slowing down enough to appreciate what we were discovering about each other's bodies, exploring and experimenting with soft touches and kisses. It wasn't meant to be an outlet, goddamn it, I wouldn't let it be.
"Alice," I said as her mouth did fantastic things around the edge of my collar bone, working her way down. Her name came out in a breathy whisper, and could have been misconstrued as encouragement, rather than me trying to get her attention. I willed my hands to move from her hair to the sides of her face, pulling her head back from me gently to look at her while our chests heaved against each other.
Her eyes were pleading with me, her bottom lip trembled, knowing I was about to turn her down for the second time. "Bella, please," she said in a strangled whisper, her hands tightening around my belt buckle, where they had been fumbling moments before. "You don't know how much I need you right now."
"Not like this, Alice, please... I want it to be just me and you, no elephants in the room, no hurries, just us and our experience," I whispered back, watching as tears welled up in her bloodshot eyes, and she let out a soft sob, her hands moving from my belt up to the straps of my bra, gripping them but not trying to slip them off. I knew she just needed to hang on to me, and I was completely okay with that.
"Why are you so fucking perfect?" she wailed, letting her head fall into my neck as she broke down again, and I just held her, rocking her back and forth, trying my best to be there, but not knowing what the fuck to do. I sat there for the next hour in that same position, long after her outburst of tears had died down, and no one bothered us at all, leaving us in utter silence... until my stomach rumbled.
Alice shifted in my lap and let go of my bra straps to sit back and look at me. "I'm sorry, I did it again," she said guiltily, her cheeks tinting pink beneath the tear-stains. Then her gaze left my eyes and traveled down my body from my neck to my waist line and back to my eyes as she bit her lip. "I can't lie and say that I don't appreciate the view, however." The smile she gave me was a ghost of the ones of which I she was capable, but it was a start, and I would take it.
I let my eyes fall down her body as well, taking in the elegant slope of her neck to her shoulders, then down to the valley created my the swell of her beautiful breasts, pushed up by the very expensive looking black lace bra she was wearing. I swallowed hard at the slightly darker shade of pink in the middle of the cups, knowing that lace was giving me glimpse of what lie in my lips' future, and forced myself to look back up into her face, seeing her eyes twinkling in mirth at my expression. "You approve?" she asked me, and I did a double take, shaking my head. Did I approve of what? Her breasts? Jesus, yes, completely...
"I'm sorry, come again?" I said instead of assuming her meaning, and she smirked.
"The bra, Bella," she said in a amused tone, making my face grow darker with the knowledge that she knew what my mind had automatically gone to. "You like it?"
"Y-yeah," I stuttered, glancing back down at it, zeroing in on the hint of her areola before shaking my head again to clear it before looking back up at her.
She giggled at me, taking a turn to shake her own head at me before leaning her face to mine and kissing me sweetly. "You're too cute for your own good," she told me seriously as she stood up off my lap and held out a hand to pull me to my feet.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked her after mulling it over for a minute, taking my shirt when she picked it up from the floor.
"You just are. Now come on, let's get you fed, and we'll take our walk," she said, pulling her shirt back on and flattening her unruly spikes that my hands had not helped in the slightest.
I grabbed her hand as she tried to walk to the door, and she stopped to look at me questioningly. "Are you okay?" I asked her, concerned about her sudden change in demeanor.
Her eyes dimmed a little, and she gave a short sigh, looking away to the window, and then back to me. "It's just a shock... it's not like I expected him to come back, and us be some happy family like in the movies, but I wanted... I wanted him to know his son."
I gave her a sympathetic look, and she gave me a half-hearted smile and a tiny shrug. "I am surprised that he even had C.J. in his will at all, is another thing. How can you spend six years away from a beautiful thing that you helped to create, but think about it long enough that you wrote him into your will?" she said in a rhetorical way, considering we had no real answer for the question. Only Jasper knew his reasons for staying away, and he took them to the grave.
We were silent for a second, but then Alice scoffed, throwing her hands up. "Enough... let's go eat. I have to figure out a way to let C.J. know about his father," she said irritably, and I followed her out of her room and down the stairs.
Esme was in the living room with the television on but muted as she played with what looked like a crossword puzzle book, and when Alice and I appeared from the confines of her room, she looked up quickly. "You girls hungry? There's left overs in the kitchen," she told us, and though Alice nodded and walked in that direction, Esme gave me a look as if asking if her daughter were okay. I gave her a little shrug, and a half nod, because I really didn't know but it seemed so for the moment. Her mother's eyes softened at the answer, and I knew her heart was going out to Alice and C.J., though he did not know, yet.
I wished I could go to Texas with Alice when she had to go, but there was no one to run the store at all if I went, and I couldn't afford the trip at all. Emmett was going to go with her, and Rosalie would stay at the estate while they were gone for the two days they would be out of state. I had seen Alice every day since James had broken into my apartment over a month before. I did not know how I was going to feel with her gone, and knowing how far away she would be. God, this was creepy... I was clinging. No. Not really. It would just be... different.
I sighed as I watched her make my plate and hers, contemplating the words that had sprung to my lips earlier, the three words that would change everything but nothing, the eight letters that have caused adults the world over the pain of life. It was too soon to have those feelings, wasn't it? But how the hell should I even know? I had never had feelings like this for anyone, save Leah, but even that was different. Leah was more like taking a swim in a pool, whereas Alice was like taking a dive off the tallest cliffs you could find and crashing into icy cold, unforgiving waves at the bottom.
She was the one that no one really believed existed, the mythical soulmate.
Knowing this deep down in my heart, is it okay that I am already in love with her?
"Oh, Bella?" Alice's voice jerked me out of my thoughts, and she gave me a grin as I focused on her face, and saw her eyes were staring right at my neck.
"What?" I asked, feeling around my neck, wincing when I hit something a sore spot.
"You might want to borrow some concealer from me to cover up that gigantic hickey I left before my mother sees it," she said conversationally, moving past me to sit at the table.
Well... shit.
A/N: So that's 15... what do you think? Any guesses as to what might be going on between the lines?
Also, I have updated Hide and Seek, effectively making it a narrative. I don't know if you're here because of my astounding talents (ugh gag) or because of the hotness that is Bellice, but if you like my writing style, and you would like to see more, read When You Think You Know Her, and follow it with Hide and Seek... It is an Alice/OC story, but I get great reviews on it. So I hope new readers can enjoy it as well :)