Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
I'm not really sure how, but I currently find myself lying in bed, next to my teacher. It's a full sized bed, so even though there's plenty of room, we're right next to each other. I can feel the cold radiating from her body seeping into mine. As I start to drift off to sleep, I find myself vaguely thinking its Edward next to me; that he finally came back. But then I smell Tanya, not Edward, she smells a lot better the Edward.
I wonder if all vampires like to watch humans sleep. Edward always said it fascinated him. Whenever he got the chance he would always watch me sleep. In fact, he would watch me do a lot of things. He would watch me eat; sleep, do homework, read and I honestly thought at some point he would ask to watch me use the bathroom; which is wrong on so many levels.
I had gotten so used to him watching me all the time that I never thought to ask him about it. The other Cullen's would also sometimes watch me, only when I ate though. Except Rosalie and Jasper; Rosalie never wanted to stay in the same room as me if she could help it and Jasper never wanted to push his luck with his control. So I just automatically assumed vampires like to watch humans do most things because they no longer can; and what they can still do is no longer done the same way.
With all these thoughts going through my head with addition to how tired I am, it's no real wonder that I voiced my thoughts out loud. I wanted Tanya's opinion on it; I know she'll have one.
"Is it a vampire thing to like to watch people sleep?" I sleepily asked.
"What makes you ask that?" Tanya asked quickly, sounding a little tense.
"Edward always watched me sleep, like you are now." I said.
I heard Tanya lightly growl before she answered me.
"First off, I'm not watching you sleep; I'm simply doing the closet thing I can to sleep next to you. I'm lying with you, not watching you. I have no intention of doing this every night or even most nights. Edward watching you is very much an invasion of privacy and I swear next time I see him I will…have a conversation with him." Tanya said.
If I was any more awake than what I was, I would have made a mental note about the threatening tone Tanya's voice took at the last part of what she said. Instead I just turned on my side, perfectly content to just fall asleep. If I wasn't just about to fall asleep, I would have realized there was a cold arm snaking around my waist and pulling me into a cold, hard body. As it were, I just relaxed into what I was pulled into and fell asleep.
I woke up to the smell of something delicious. I couldn't quite place what it is through the haziness of just waking up, but it did smell really good.
"Good morning." Tanya said from somewhere in the room.
I mumbled some sort of response before climbing out of bed and barely walking to the bathroom. When I came out, Tanya was looking at me with a giant grin. I, of course, chose to ignore it and just looked at what she ordered. Next to where Tanya was sitting was a nice looking pancake meal on a tray.
"You ordered me breakfast?" I asked, a little touched at her kindness.
"Of course, I wasn't sure what you liked, so I hope this is fine. I thought this was generic enough to be safe to get you. So you know; I won't be joining you this time since we are in private; if you don't mind of course." Tanya said with the last part laced with a little concern.
The way she said that makes me think that if I said I did mind and wanted her to eat with me; I almost think she actually will. If I wasn't such a nice person, I would have tested that theory, but I can't do that to Tanya. She already went through so much from eating with me twice yesterday, I can't make her eat anymore.
"Thank you Tanya, pancakes are fine." I said and sat down to eat.
As I ate, I couldn't help but feel Tanya's eyes on me. Whenever I looked at her to confirm she was looking at me, she always had a huge grin on her face. It was the grin that someone has when they have a secret that they want to tell someone. So I naturally, wanted to find out what Tanya is smirking at me like that for.
"What's so amusing? Do I have something on my face?" I asked while fighting the urge to wipe my face just in case. Tanya giggled at me before answering.
"No, you're pretty face is just fine. Although, I feel I should tell you. You talk in your sleep…a lot." Tanya said with a smirk.
I felt my face pale immediately. I have no idea what I dreamed about last night. I also know that there's no way Tanya would have that smirk if I didn't say anything embarrassing.
"W-what did I say?" I asked quietly while cursing at my stuttering.
"That, my dear, is something I will have to tell you later. If you don't remember, you have an opening shift at Kate's store and I'm opening with you. So finish eating so we can leave, I'll get us checked out now and meet you downstairs." Tanya said as she stood and left.
Knowing she could still hear me I told her: "You could have told me while I was eating." I said with a huff then proceeded to quickly eat my food.
Once I was done eating I met Tanya in the lobby. Tanya was kind enough to grab out bags that held our outfits from last night, saying she's going to keep hold of them just in case their needed in the future. That means that Tanya already has a plan to take me out again. If I had this knowledge just a couple days ago, I would have laughed at myself and said it would never happen. But now I'm actually looking forward to Tanya taking me out again.
The ride back into town was a tense one. I had called Charlie to let him know I was okay after the storm, but instead of going back to the house, I was going straight to work. Charlie offered to have Jake pick me up from the hotel to drive me (he still didn't know I was in another town with Tanya), but I quickly declined. I said that I wanted to walk to know the town I live in a little, to get a feel of where everything is. Even with that stupid excuse, he believed me.
Jake, at one point while talking to Charlie, had taken the phone from him; which I'm sure he'll get yelled at for doing after the call. He waited a few seconds before talking. I'm guessing he wanted to get out of hearing range of Charlie before talking.
"Bella, I know you're with that leech. Did she do anything to you? If she did, I swear I'll kill her for you." Jake said. I'm guessing that last part was because he thought it would make me think he'll be my hero for me.
"First off, her name is Tanya; not leech, blood sucker or any other name you can come up with. I don't know if you've noticed, but she's been nothing but civil with you. I think you should return the sentiment. Secondly, if something bad did happen, would I really be calling you right now? No I wouldn't. I really don't want to listen to what you have to say right now, I already told Charlie everything I needed to." I said.
I heard Jake say something, but I couldn't make it out since I had already pulled the phone away from my ear to hang up. Before I could actually hang up though, Tanya took the phone from my hand.
"Excuse me honey." Tanya said as she took the phone from my hand. "Listen Jake, as much as I would prefer not to say this over phone, I'm going to tell you this anyways. If you are ever rude to Bella again, it will not bode well for you. I will not hurt you because that would upset Bella and I would never do that; but there are other things that can be done besides causing pain on one's enemy." Tanya said.
I can only guess Jake must have said something about me having a poor choice of friends. He's done that plenty of times when I was with the Cullen's. I never yelled at Jake about it before because I didn't want to lose his friendship. Plus I understand why he hates the Cullen's, or really just vampires in general, so much; but I guess Tanya isn't as forgiving.
I can just barely hear Jake from my seat, so I know he's yelling at Tanya. He probably wasn't expecting to be talking with Tanya and I'm sure what she said really pissed him off.
"Again, Jacob, I do not want to have this conversation with you over the phone. You have insulted Bella and myself enough, I will not allow it to continue. I know you're young, but surely you can muster enough respect for Bella and be adult enough to have this conversation in person, with both Bella and myself. We can meet at my sister's store. You can smell out our scents to find the place. As much as I find it rude to hang up on someone, I feel I must with you or you will continue to yell at me. So until later Jacob, goodbye." Tanya said then promptly crushed the phone in her hand and tossed the pieces into the backseat.
Tanya is tightly gripping the steering wheel. I can see in her eyes that she's very pissed right now as I'm sure Jake is right now. Unlike Jake though, Tanya is doing a good job at hiding her anger. The only things that are giving away her anger are her hands on the steering wheel and her eyes. I'm not even sure if others, besides probably her family, would be able to tell how upset she is right now.
I gently placed my hand on her arm in an effort to try and calm her down a little.
"You okay?" I asked softly.
I didn't think Jake would have this big of an effect on her. I mean I know he's said some mean, even if juvenile, things to and about her. She took one hand off the steering wheel to grasp mine and held it in her lap.
"I'm fine; I just don't like it when people talk bad about you. That boy needs to learn some manners. I'm sorry about your phone, I will get you another by tomorrow, I promise." Tanya said with a small smile.
I felt myself blush at Tanya's admission. It feels nice to know that someone cares enough to defend me like that, from someone they don't even know. I know Edward would do that, but his form of defense was to take me away from everyone. Tanya's defense is to fix the problem, she invited Jake over to get his problems with her resolved and she's taking me with her. If it were Edward, he would go off and talk with Jake by himself and have someone, most likely Alice, babysit me.
At the time I thought Edward was very endearing and romantic; but now, not so much. I can't help but compare him to Tanya, even though we are by no means a couple much less going out (at least I don't think we are), Tanya is doing so much better than Edward.
Even knowing that Tanya is better than Edward, I still can't help but still remorse about what I'm doing. I'm not naïve enough to know this wasn't a date, though I do refuse to say that to Tanya, I feel guilty about going along with it. I feel guilty about not putting more of a fight to go against it. Even though Edward made it clear in the woods that I was nothing to him; I still can't help but feel that maybe he does still feel something for me.
He said that we are soul mates; that we belong together. In my head it still makes sense. What better person to be with a mind reader than someone whose mind can't be read? Somehow, I still hold feelings for Edward and I don't know what to do about it. I know I have feelings, at least I'm starting to, for Tanya.
I can still hear Edwards's words in my head though almost every time Tanya talks. I can hear Edward say I don't belong in his world; I don't belong in the vampires' world. So what is Tanya doing with me? Is this going to end up like the Cullen's? I fall in love with the family and they leave me? I don't think I could survive that happening again, but I'm not sure I want to avoid it from happening either. I don't like the repercussions that I foresee happening, but I can't find myself wanting to stop getting closer to the Denali's.
I really don't know what to do or how to feel.
Before I could contemplate anything else, I felt Tanya literally slam on the brakes and let go of my hand. Looking at our surroundings, I found that we are already at Kate's bookstore. I must have been lost in my thoughts longer than I though. In front of the bookstore is the reason why Tanya slammed on her brakes. In place of where we should have parked stands a very pissed off looking Jake that seems to be struggling not to wolf out.
I don't think this talk is going to go very well.
A/N: Tanya's about to give Jake a new way of thinking about vampires.