A/N: And here is the second installment. Hope to have the third part up soon as well. :) And once again, I have taken the liberty of using the deleted scene from the classroom since I did love Edward's little comment about Emmett in there.
Thank you to everyone reading my attempt at canon here, and for your support. :)
The movies are always so much better than the books...
I think this has to be the best portrayal on film. Thank you, Mr. Berty...
I should really start reading the class assignments. I was so not ready for this. Don't do it, Romeo! She's not really dead!
You need to pass, Newton. Don't fall asleep...damn it! Great, now Jess is gonna be all sappy and clingy all afternoon. Fabulous. Why didn't I just stay single?
Movie day in English; never entertaining. The droning, scattered thoughts of my classmates filtered through my head, and there was never anything unique or different about them. Regardless of the passage of time or the changes in culture, one thing was always unanimous—Shakespeare was unfailingly either over- or underrated.
The only difference that time around was the presence beside me, though I could still feel the discomfort of what had transpired in the corridor earlier radiating off her. And with a short intake of breath, I knew that my one source of comforting silence was about to come to an abrupt halt.
"Edward, I really hate...being celebrated."
Shifting slightly, I kept my voice low to reply to her, feeling the need to impress upon her the importance of that evening.
"Come on. The last birthday any of us had was Emmett. And that was when Bing Crosby was top of the charts," I began and could not help but chuckle. It was incredible; the different meaning that time held for a vampire, when the passing of it ceased to hold any importance. There was nothing to gain or lose; we all just simply existed. Until Bella, and she needed to understand that. "They're all very excited about this. Something fun. Different. Please."
With a small, resigned sigh, she broke eye contact and looked away, and I could not help but marvel briefly at just how beautiful she was in that moment. Although she did make her displeasure with me at my statement abundantly clear, it was obvious that she knew I was right, and she would do anything to make my family happy, even at her own 'expense'.
"There are worse tragedies than a party," I murmured softly, yet her posture remained stiff, staring blankly at the television. The feeling of her being upset with me over something so simple unnerved me more than I could have ever imagined being affected by anyone. Nothing had ever shaken me as much as the one human girl seated beside me; however, the differences between us came across strongly at moments like that. I needed to break it down for her in a way that she could truly understand. "I mean look at Romeo. Killed his true love out of sheer stupidity. Imagine living with that."
And with that thought, my mind traveled momentarily to another place and time; to a moment I felt the same pain and anguish as the character on the screen.
"Though I do envy him one thing."
"Juliet is like perfect. If you like that obviously beautiful sort of thing." Her response came immediately, and as usual, her assumptions were far off the mark.
Which, naturally, I found highly amusing, as with so much when it came to her. It was truly difficult to determine which of us was the most self-deprecating at times, though hers was completely unjustified.
"No, not the girl, the um...the suicide," I replied, and her expression shifted ever so slightly, leaving no doubt that my response had been the last one she'd expected.
And too stunned to give any more of a reaction.
"It's nearly impossible for uh...some...people," I smirked at the extremely loose term of definition for what we were, though I could not escape the sour taste it left on my tongue. "For humans, a little poison, a dagger to the heart. So many different options."
Finally turning my gaze back to her, I half-expected to find anger etched across her features, but instead, I was met by confusion. Distress. Everything I never wished to see in those beautiful brown depths. "Why would you say that?"
It was a discussion I had never planned to have with her; never let her know the darker, morbid thoughts that crossed my mind at times. Yet, what better way to exemplify her meaning to me, I thought as I reached my hand to rest over hers on her lap.
"Because I had to consider it once," I responded, my eyes moving unseeingly to the front of the room, my face tensing as more unwelcome memories flooded through me.
Mirrors.
Fire.
Her screams as the venomous teeth pierced her skin.
Rage.
Fear.
"I didn't know if I'd get to you in time. I had to come up with some kind of plan." I was so lost in my reverie that I barely took note of her reaction, trying as hard as I could to dispense the images racing through my mind. The despair of imagining my existence without her in it—it was unbearable.
"What was the plan?" she inquired, sharply tearing me from my thoughts.
"That I'd go to Italy and provoke the Volturi," I replied as if it were the most casual topic of conversation before I became entirely aware of whom I was having the conversation with.
"The what?"
The uncertainty in her voice caused my attention to return completely to the current moment, and the uneasiness to consume me. "The Volturi..."
If there's one thing I cannot stand, it's talking during a lesson. These Cullens are all the same, Mr. Berty's annoyance at the disruption seared through me, along with his distaste for my family. As did so many others with the superiority complex he possessed.
"Now, who would like to repeat the last few lines of iambic pentameter just to show they were paying attention. Mr. Cullen?"
The barely contained, arrogant smirk on his face would have been easily missed if not for my insight into the inner workings of his mind, firmly believing that he'd trapped me into a corner.
Inhaling deeply, I gave the air of discomfort, allowing him just one more moment of that feeling of triumph. "Yes, Mr. Berty," I replied, shifting slightly in my chair and begrudgingly releasing Bella's hand, as every eye in the room turned to me. A wide range of their thoughts flooded through my mind, but my attention remained locked on the man in the front of the room as I began to recite the lines I'd memorized long before he was even born.
Yet, as I began to utter the familiar words that had crossed my lips dozens of times over the decades, the impact they had on me was entirely different. Never before had I possessed the ability to relate to the pain and anguish in Romeo's desperate speech—all of which had become frightfully familiar. Every word was akin to my own thoughts as I made my way to Phoenix, after learning that Bella had disappeared. The images that played in my mind at Alice's vision of the lifeless form of the love of my existence if I had not gotten there in time. Through James' eyes as he gazed down at her broken body. The agony at hearing her cries as I drew closer to that studio, all the while plotting my 'contingency plan', knowing I had no desire to exist if Bella was not a part of it. The terror that flooded through me at the prospect of being unable to stop and becoming responsible for draining the life from her that I treasured so much.
"O, here will I set up my everlasting rest. And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last. Arms, take your last embrace. And lips, o you, the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss, a dateless bargain to engrossing death."
Show off little punk, he mentally sneered before beginning to turn back toward the television. "Eyes on the screen, people."
A single battle won, and yet another to go, I thought as all but one pair of eyes left me. I knew for a fact that the newly revealed aspect of my world would only peak her curiosity, and lead to a long discussion I was not certain that I was prepared to face with her. She was about to become aware of the one part of my world that I never wanted her involved with, as they would never understand or condone her knowledge of any aspect of it, let alone her existence within it.
