A/N: I'm doing my best to keep this rolling…I kind of want to get this story wrapped up so you're all where I am. I'm estimating another 4 chapters after this, but that's obviously flexible…it might be fewer if the rest of the chapters are as long as this one.
For all of you that wanted more Alice time, here we go!
Thanks to my awesome betas! I couldn't do it without you... Blynn practically flags me until I write and Adrena finds ALL my many mistakes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of the characters. I do however own White Carpet and Wall Sconces.
Bella's Point of View
"Bella," a softer version of Alice's high pitched normal greeting met my ears as I exited the bathroom, hair piled high on the top of my head but still dripping down my back, yoga pants hanging low on my hips.
"Hi Alice," I replied, once I'd realized where the voice had come from. "What's up?" I was curious, and to be honest, a little nervous as to why the tiny girl was speaking to me at all. Lately the only words we'd had were polite and distant hellos and goodbyes.
"Do you do yoga?"
"Uh…" I just stared at her, pajamas and shampoo piled in my arms. "No?" I wasn't sure where the conversation was going.
"Oh," her face fell slightly and she ran her fingers through her choppy hair in a very Edward-like gesture. "Do you maybe want to learn?" She sucked her top lip into her mouth in a nervous gesture and looked through her dark lashes at me, almost pleading. "I have videos. It's not hard."
"Um…okay," I agreed, figuring maybe she was making an effort and I should too. "Let me just put my stuff away okay?" I nodded at the pile in my arms and she agreed quickly.
Alice skipped lithely down to the basement, me following close behind, keeping pace with a far noisier gait. "You've probably never been in here," she began to prattle, turning right at the bottom of the stairs and opening a white door. "The guys have their room, and well, I have mine." She opened the door to me and practically shoved me through, strong for such a tiny little thing. Inside was a wide screen television and one wall was completely mirrored. Along the mirrored wall was a bar, about the height of my waist. Along another wall was a series of weights, exercise balls and other things I didn't recognize. "My parents had everything installed before I moved in." She danced across the floor and picked up a complicated looking remote from a shelf next to the television. "Grab those yoga mats," she ordered, pointing to two rolled up, rubbery mats stashed behind the exercise ball. "Exercise increases endorphins. Not to mention I get to keep this killer bod." She gave a tinkly little giggle and I began to wonder if her strange, hostile behaviour of the past couple of weeks was completely fabricated on my part.
"Mine's the pink one," she continued as she inserted a DVD into the drive and set it up to play. She came to settle beside me and the video began. "It's easy. Just follow along." I came to realize that Yoga was maybe close to my speed. Everything was slow and calculated, though my muscles did groan in protest to the new positions. Alice's body could contort into some crazy positions that I didn't even dream of having the coordination to accomplish. "Feels good, huh?" She was hanging half upside down, and somehow her face wasn't even pink. In a similar position my face was scarlet and scorching.
"Lookit' Bella," she started, holding herself up on her hands, legs extended in a V shape in front of her. She was no longer following the video but seemed to be making it up as she went along. I forced myself into the downward facing dog and turned to look at her. "I'm sorry I've been such a bitch lately," she continued, gracefully pulling herself into a pose that the lady on the video called the camel. "I guess I let my emotions run wild, and since he's my brother I didn't want to see him hurt again." She moved into the downward facing dog and looked at me. "The video changed ages ago," she informed me, pointing to the screen where the woman was now explaining the sphinx pose. I scrambled into position, which made it a bit easier to focus on Alice in, and nodded.
"I understand," I told her passively.
"Yeah, maybe. But that's not much of an excuse," she continued, changing her position once more into the dolphin pose and groaned as her shoulders stretched. "I haven't done this in a while," she commented, as I followed along with the video and moved into some sort of lunge. "Anyway, my point is it seems like you're going to be around a lot, and I thought maybe we could start over. Try to be friends. We got along quite well before, and well…I feel terrible about how I treated you, plus it would probably make Edward happy." She gave me a pleading look through her wide, Maya blue eyes and I returned her look with a weak smile.
"Do you promise not to parade my underwear around the house on your fingers?"
"Do you promise not to leave your underwear in the main living areas?"
I nodded. She smiled brightly. "Friends?" She asked.
"We can try," I conceded, still nervous about her mood swings, which were nearly as violent as Edward's.
"Okay," she agreed. She stood and stretched her back once more before rolling up her yoga mat. I followed suit. "You won't regret it," she assured me as we headed back upstairs. "Green tea?" she asked. "I always drink green tea after yoga," she hurried for the kitchen and put the kettle on. One thing about Alice, she could carry on a conversation with herself, all you had to do was be present and semi-alert.
"Sure," I finally replied as she took out the teapot and proceeded to drop the teabags in.
"I cheat. Rosalie says its better with loose tea, but the bags are just so much more convenient," she prattled as she waited for the water to boil. "And really, I think it tastes pretty much the same." She hurried around, hopping up to kneel on the counter top to reach the cups and hopping gracefully down, scurrying to find the sugar bowl, ("Emmett never puts it back where it belongs,") and pulling spoons from the drawer as she flicked the kettle off and poured the boiling water over the tea bags. Her multi-tasking skills impressed me beyond belief, and although I wanted to offer to help I thought it better to stay out of the way rather than disrupt the flow.
"There," she said finally. "Should be done in about five minutes." She turned the television on in the living room as the front door opened. In strode Rosalie, looking irritable.
"Morning Rose," I greeted her as I took a seat in the armchair to watch Regis and Kelly. Alice loved morning talk shows and I was in no mood to argue.
"Yeah, morning," she replied passively with a tiny wave in my direction. "Is there tea?" she asked Alice pointedly.
"Three minutes," Alice replied, stretching her legs on the couch in front of her. "Emmett?" Alice asked knowingly.
"Of course," the blonde beauty replied, plopping herself angrily onto the end of the couch next to Alice's feet. "I don't want your feet near my new pants," she snapped, shoving the tinier girls' feet off the edge of the sofa. Alice rolled her eyes and curled them underneath her. I wondered why she let Rose boss her around like that.
"Baby?"
Were they still on about that?
"He's being so unreasonable."
Alice rose, saying nothing, which was odd for her, and went to pour the tea. She came out with two cups in her hand, handed one to Rosalie and one to me, and hurried back for her own.
"He doesn't want one yet," Alice stated bluntly.
"Nope," Rose said, popping her 'p' hard.
"It's a big commitment," Alice continued softly.
Rosalie huffed indignantly "How much more committed could we possibly be?" she snapped.
"Rose," Alice continued in her soft, convincing tone. "You don't even live together. Wouldn't it be best to see if you can stand each other before adding another human being to the equation? Maybe you'd like to be married? You said you've always wanted that. The big white wedding…it would kind of kill it if you already had a baby. Maybe you should talk to Emmett about taking the next step if that's what you want. I mean, you love Em right? You don't just want our fabulous genetics?"
"I have my own fabulous genetics. No child of mine will be anything short of perfect," she snapped nastily.
"Rose," I decided to butt in.
"What?" her face was full of anger and distrust and pain. I wondered what on earth could be bothering her. There had to be more than her twenty three year old boyfriend's refusal to have a baby.
"There's more, isn't there?" I leaned forward and set my cup on the coffee table. "What else is bothering you?"
"What?" her voice softened slightly but her eyes were still cold and flat.
"What else is wrong?" I said again, looking her directly in the eye.
Rose shook her beautiful blonde head, but her eyes softened and I thought I saw the trace of a tear pooling in the inside corner. Alice obviously noticed it too because she scooted closer and bravely wrapped her thin arm around Rosalie's shoulders. "Tell us," Alice urged.
Rose buried her face in Alice's bony shoulder and took a shaky breath. "I went to the doctor back in January…"
Edward's Point of View
Jasper and Emmett had kidnapped me for breakfast. We went to one of those off-the-beaten-path diners where their bacon is too greasy and their toast is too heavy and the curtains are checkered, but fuck if I cared, I was getting free food and time with my brother and new found friend, and frankly, as much as I loved Bella, a guy needs his space once in a while. That's not saying though, that by the fourth cup of coffee I wasn't starting to get anxious to get back.
"You're leaving her at the mercy of Alice and Rosalie," I reminded them as Emmett ordered yet another short stack. I mentally chastised myself for not bringing the Volvo, leaving myself at the mercy of Jasper's driving and Emmett's eating.
"She's fine," Jasper assured me. "Worst case scenario: her hair is pink thanks to an Alice make over gone wrong."
"Or right," Emmett mumbled through a mouthful of sticky pancake. "We know how much she loves pink."
"I like Bella's hair," I grumbled, draining the dregs of bad diner coffee from my cup.
"For God's sake Edward. You're getting a little pathetic. I mean before you used to be with those guys…you were with them all the time and we never saw you, and although they weren't the greatest influence on you at least you were out. Now…now you're only with her and we still don't see you."
"What are you suggesting?"
"That you both need a fucking life," Emmett snapped. "This is an intervention breakfast," he said, waving his fork around. "We all like Bella. We all see that Bella is good for you. But you two need to intermingle. Alice and I are going home for Easter next weekend. Rosalie has agreed to come, and Jasper's going to come as well as long as he can get it off work. Maybe you should come home this time."
I shook my head. I wasn't doing the whole family and friends meet and greet Cullen style.
"You've been home since. It didn't kill you. You can bring Bella. I talked to Dad last night and he gave the okay."
"I'm sure Bella would love to see her own family for the holiday."
"I'm sure Bella will go wherever you go, dude," Jasper argued.
"Please, Edward." Emmett's voice was serious and almost sad. "I miss my brother. I've almost kind of got him back."
I heard the pleading under current in his voice and I knew he was tossing his pride aside and really asking me, and how could I deny him? He'd been there for me. Sure he'd been an ass at times, and he'd pissed me off more times than I could count, but he was my older brother, and I knew he was having a tough time with Rosalie lately. He was trying to finish his last year of school, apply to graduate school, plus he was stressed and tired, but he was still managing to hold everyone together in typical Emmett fashion. So how could I say no? I couldn't. Against my better judgment I nodded. "I'll ask Bella. I'll book the tickets," I told him, trying to illustrate through my eyes that I was sorry and that I would try harder. He nodded his face somber for just a moment longer than normal and then his face broke out into the signature Emmett grin. He clapped me on the shoulder with a giant hand and shoved the last bite of pancake into his mouth, washing it down with orange juice and slapping some cash on the table.
"Let's get the fuck outta this joint," he boomed.
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I asked Bella if she'd come home for Easter with me. We had a full blown argument about payment, which I eventually won, though not without a whole lot of sulking on her part. She told me it was just one more way for me to rub it in her face that I had more money than she did. I told her that there was no point in her breaking the bank to pay for a plane ticket when it wasn't a problem anyway. I told her that I would ask my parents for their frequent flyer miles so the ticket would cost less. Of course I wouldn't do that, but it made her feel better.
She cleared the trip with her father, explaining that she would come home two weekends later to spend time with him in exchange for a trip to Chicago for the long weekend. He seemed to agree relatively willingly and she informed me that I was lucky we were negotiating with her father, and not her mother. "Renee would never agree to me missing a holiday meal," she said, with almost a scolding tone to her voice. I grinned, victorious.
********************************************
"When was the last time you saw your mother?" I asked her as she settled herself at my desk to start writing yet another essay. She'd been writing papers all week.
"Hmm?" she hooked her glasses over her ears and peered at me through the lenses. "New Years," she proclaimed, pulling her feet under her and leaning over the desk.
"Do you miss her?" I leaned against the desk, watching as she skimmed a page of a heavy book, finger tip running smoothly down the page. There was a strand of hair hanging just beside her left eye and I wanted to brush it away. She huffed out a breath, batted the curl herself, and pressed her fist to her forehead in concentration.
"You're going to miss me if you don't shut up and let me work," she snapped. "I'm way behind here, Edward."
On a deeper level I knew she was right, that she was being rational and responsible and that she needed to do her school work, and that I wasn't the only thing in her life. I supposed that perhaps I should take the same stand and write a paper or two instead of sitting here, watching her work, wishing to push her hair out of her eyes and fantasizing about her lips and all the incredible things they could do to me. But it really wasn't my fault that I found my already irresistible girlfriend even more irresistible in her glasses, and I knew that any attempt at school work would be futile and I was sure none of my professors wanted a play by play of what I would ask Bella to do later that evening. (Or maybe they would love that, but I sure as hell wasn't giving it to them), so I settled for sitting on top of the desk and distracting her by clicking a clicky pen and shooting staples across the room in a very immature manner.
"For the love of fuck, Edward!" she screamed, shoving herself out from the desk and piling her books on top of her lap top angrily. "Will you grow the hell up? We have midterms! Maybe you should try studying so this big expensive education doesn't fucking go to waste!" She gathered her things in her arms and threw me a nasty look. "And stop wasting staples. Someone has to vacuum those up you know. They'll get caught in your socks."
I sat back, watching her display as she strode quickly out of the room, anger punctuated with her every step, and then I felt my stomach sink. She really was angry. I had taken it too far. It was obvious she was stressed about school and we were supposed to fly out the next afternoon and she was scrambling to get work done so she could have a relaxing weekend. And here I was irritating the fuck out of her while she tried to write a paper for a class she already hated.
"Fu-u-uck," I croaked, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger and squeezing my eyes shut. I would have to go and apologize. I hated apologizing, but something about Bella made me do it.
I sat there, thinking, flipping through one of my own text books and giving her time to cool down. I would apologize, but not to the flame that was roaring now…no I would wait until the anger had eased to a smoldering ember and then I would apologize. She was much more willing to listen then. So I took her advice and I read my textbooks, because she was right and I did have midterms coming up.
Finally, after I gave her an hour or so to calm down and really get some work done, I braved exiting my room and then began to wonder where she would have gone. In the basement, Jasper and Emmett were playing pool, and Jasper informed me that Bella was studying in Alice's room.
"I got kicked out so she could study man. She looked pissed right off," he told me, leaning on his cue as Emmett took a particularly forceful shot. "Solids, Em, you're playin' fuckin' solids," Jasper said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes at my older brother. "What the fuck is wrong with you, man? But yeah, Edward, Bella's with Alice." He turned back to the game and Emmett. I saw my brother rub his face with his giant hand. The creases I'd been noticing forming between his eyebrows were getting deeper and more pronounced and I made it a priority to ask him what was going on once I was done dealing with Bella.
"Thanks man," I told him. "Take 'er easy Em," I added, taking the stairs two at a time.
I knocked on Alice's door and was blinded by the pink when she opened it just a crack. "She's busy," she snapped, standing in the opening and not letting me into the room.
"I need to talk to her."
"Ooh," Alice crooned in a fake eerie voice. "Gonna shoot me with some staples? Stab me with a clicky pen? Grow up, Edward. We're busy. Unlike you, we care about our academics." She went to close the door but I held fast.
"Do you know what's going on with Emmett?"
Her face clouded over but she shook her head quickly. "Haven't a clue," she said passively. I could tell she was lying through her teeth.
"He's fuckin' out of it," I told her, leaning on the door frame. "And what's going on with Rosalie? You guys think I don't notice shit but the change in dynamic in this place is fuckin' obvious. And Bella, I need to fucking talk to you!" I shouted over Alice's head. Alice's tiny fist collided with my shoulder sharply. "What?" I snapped, looking down at her angry little form.
"Rosalie will tell you if and when she's ready. I don't even know if she's told Em yet. And don't you dare shout at Bella, you immature brat. She's trying to do her work so she can hand it in before we leave for Chicago. Now you need to leave so that she can finish this up and then I'll drive her to school to hand it in since her car is at her place. Then we'll stop by her apartment so she can pack whatever she needs for the trip. Then, and only then will you be able talk to her and hopefully apologize for the bullshit you've been pulling. Do you understand?" Her eyes pierced into me and I almost felt a pain in my forehead. I nodded gravely and backed out of the room.
"Just let her know I'm sorry, "I said quietly.
"I'm right here," was the reply from inside the room, still bitter with frustration. Alice nodded and closed the door on me.
Bella's Point of View
"Seriously, he's my brother and I love him, but sometimes he is a complete idiot," Alice said as she plopped herself face down on the pink comforter and picked up her highlighter. I turned to her from the desk and smiled.
"Thanks again, Al, you have no idea how much more peaceful it is in here, even among all the pink and stripes."
Alice giggled and nodded. "You better get that done. It's best if we drop it off before office hours are over." I knew Alice was right and focused back on the task at hand, cursing Edward for distracting me so long that I was so far behind. I knew it wasn't going to be a quality paper. I also knew that if I wasn't careful, letting Edward influence me, was going to bring my average down and I could not afford to lose my scholarship.
Sometime in the early afternoon Alice closed her books and left me alone in Candy land. By that point I was finally editing and making any final changes and although I wasn't thrilled with the outcome, I wasn't absolutely appalled either and began to think that maybe, just maybe there was a chance that I could scrape a half decent grade.
I stretched my back and heard the vertebrae pop satisfactorily as I waited for the pages to print, and began to think that maybe the yoga Alice insisted on wasn't such a bad thing. I bent sideways off the chair and realized for the first time in my life that I wasn't going to topple over thanks to such a maneuver. She had tried to get me to join her and Rosalie for Pilates and aerobics but I drew the line there. Yoga was my speed. I could keep up with yoga. No way was I attempting aerobics. Besides which, I was pretty sure there were some heinous pictures of my mother in a fluorescent spandex suit, obviously pregnant doing aerobics in the eighties, and there was no way I was going to be associated with that.
I smiled to myself as I stacked the papers neatly and fastened them in a folder, ready to be handed in. It was such a relief to have the work done and the whole long weekend to enjoy myself. I hurried down the stairs and found Alice lounging on the couch, head hanging off the side, upside down, and legs hooked over the back. She was watching The Young and the Restless.
"Hey Alice," I announced my arrival, curiosity evident in my voice. "Whatcha doin'?" She raised her head slightly to look at me, grinned, and hung her head back down, focusing her eyes back on the TV.
"This show is stupid. I thought maybe it'd be better from another angle." She scrunched up her nose disapprovingly.
"What's the verdict?" I asked, shifting my bag to a more comfortable position.
"Still crap, but it's funnier." She rolled herself down and smoothed out her clothes. "You wanna go hand that in?" I nodded.
Alice was a much more relaxed driver than Edward. She spun her little car out of the driveway and I could practically hear the tires squealing as she took a corner too tightly. "I really want a Porsche, but my parents said I'd have to make do with the Beamer for now. Apparently Porsche's are ridiculous to insure." She floored the gas as she sped out onto the main road and reapplied her lip gloss in the rearview. I was secretly thanking God that her parents had said no to the sports car. "Are you excited about our trip?" she asked as she drummed along to the radio on her steering wheel, seemingly looking everywhere but at the road."Oh shit! Yellow light!" She slammed on the brakes, sending me lurching forward into the locked seatbelt, and then back into the seat again. I was looking forward to getting out of her car!
"Yeah for sure. Though I'm a little nervous as to what Edward will be like."
Alice laughed her tinkly giggle and ran both hands through her choppy hair, accelerating with no hands on the wheel. "I'm sure he'll be alright," she assured me, reaching across in front of me and opening the glove compartment.
"Do you want me to hand you something?" I asked, a little panicky now as she fiddled her left hand on the steering wheel, glancing up every so often to make sure there was no one about to hit us, and then going back to the glove box again.
"Oh no, I've almost got it….here we go. Come on!" She yanked her hand out to produce a tiny tin of hair wax. For the love of all that is holy, she was going to fix her hair in rush hour traffic!
She proceeded to jerk us through bumper to bumper, Seattle traffic while she ran the wax through her already over processed hair and texted someone on her cell phone. The joys of agreeing to be friends with Alice Cullen.
She spun the car onto campus and only slowed down for the speed bumps. "Once I bottomed out on one of these suckers and there was like a grand worth of damage," she told me as she hit the brakes to slow for yet another yellow lump in the road. She finally pulled up in front of the main building and pulled her own messenger bag from the back seat. "Meet you back here in twenty minutes?" I nodded weakly, pleased to be out of the car and hurried towards the building where most of my professors had their offices. Alice headed in a different direction and I checked my watch to make sure I would be back in time. I was seriously considering begging to drive my truck back to her place to avoid another ride in the bat-mobile wannabe.
