Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Tanya has stayed with me every night since she told me about the Cullen's. Ever since she told me, I have had nightmares about that night again. I can't stop thinking about how much the Cullen's hurt me. I know the Denali's wouldn't do that to me, but there's still a small voice in the back of my head that says that's what I thought about the Cullen's also.
Tanya apologized profusely for telling me the way she did, but she says she wanted to tell me as soon as she got the news. Apparently it's very common for the Cullen's to visit them every couple years during summer vacation. Tanya said she was very tempted to tell them no, but she actually wants them to come. She says she wants to personally hear what they have to say about leaving me and the way they did. She also said, in a very round-about way, that she wants to show Edward how our relationship is better than what he had with me and that she's the one that ended up with the girl not him.
The Cullen's would be getting here just after we finished moving me in. I find myself wishing that I was still in school so that I could get a detention or claim I have some school activity to do and keep myself locked in the school so that I don't have to see them. I had actually asked to work that day, but Kate said she was closing the store that day so that they could all properly greet their family. Apparently they all are very anxious to hear what the Cullen's have to say for how they left me. I just hope I don't have a mental breakdown from seeing the family that abandoned me so easily.
"This is all that's left?" Charlie asked as we put the last box into the bed of my truck.
Just as planned, when Charlie was at work, the Denali's moved all the heavy stuff; which wasn't much. Tanya conveniently forgot to tell me that she had already gone out to get new furniture for my new room that she thought I would like. When I started to complain about how she didn't need to get me anything because I already had stuff, she was quick to say that the stuff wasn't for me but for the room. Apparently Tanya doesn't think I'll stay in my own room for long and that I'll quickly start moving into hers. When she told me that, I decided that I would purposefully procrastinate on moving into her room, since I had already thought I would move in there fairly soon, and see how she likes it.
"Yup, Kate has the room already furnished for when family visits, so I'm just taking over the space." I answered.
We both climbed into the truck, me driving since I know for a fact Charlie won't be able to find the house if he drives, and we left for my new home. The trip was spent in mostly silence. Charlie made the occasional comment about how remote they lived and how he was surprised I didn't get lost. Eventually when we got there, Kate and Irina seemed to be having a tough time lifting a bookshelf from the rental truck.
"I think I'll go help them real quick before we get your boxes Bella." Charlie said as he started to get out of the truck.
I quickly followed suit and did my best not to laugh at the face Kate was making at the strain she was having with lifting the bookshelf and Irina's look of lack of caring. It almost seemed like Irina wasn't even trying to make the bookshelf look heavy whereas Kate made it seem like the heaviest thing in the world.
"You ladies need help?" Charlie asked as we approached them.
"Guys, this is my dad, Charlie. Charlie, this is Kate and Irina." I introduced them, my hand motioning to the corresponding person when I said their name.
"Please, this thing is heavy." Kate said, her voice even sounding strained.
"No it's not, you're just weak." Irina said, sounding a little annoyed.
"Well, we can't all be workout addicts like you Irina." Kate said.
"Well, why I don't take your side Kate and Irina and I can take this inside." Charlie said.
"Thank you, we still have several pieces to move inside and I'm not sure how much more I could have carried." Kate said as Charlie took over her position in carrying the bookshelf.
"Right, well, Charlie, just inside are the stairs, this is going to Bella's room." Irina said.
They both then proceeded to carry the thing into the house as Irina gave directions to Charlie since he was walking backwards and left Kate and myself alone outside.
"You did that on purpose didn't you?" I asked Kate.
"Yup, I'm feeling a bit on the lazy side." Kate said.
I would have teased her a little about the fact that technically vampires don't get tired and so in theory she should actually still more than able to help me finish moving; but I happen to know she moved a lot of other furniture the last couple days. Not only did they get stuff for me, but most of them decided to upgrade or just simply change stuff they already had, so they've been moving furniture around for a while now. My stuff is already in, conveniently in Tanya's room, and the stuff we're moving now is just random stuff for the others that came in last and we're just saying it came from storage. I don't think Charlie would know the different between a new or old bookshelf.
"You're always feeling lazy." Tanya said, walking out of the front door.
Without thinking I quickly made my way over to her and launched myself at her. My arms went around her neck and hers went around me waist. My lips, almost like a magnet, went straight to hers. Even with the huge smirk on her face, she's still an amazing kisser.
"What was that for?" Tanya asked when she pulled back to allow me to breath.
"I'm just so happy. Today is my official first day living here with you guys; I didn't think I would be this excited." I explained.
"So you're just happy that you're moving in?" Tanya asked with a small pout and removed her arms from around me.
"Of course I am." I said, a little confused and concerned about what's making her sad.
"Here I thought you were happy because we were going to test the new and larger bed I just got us tonight." Tanya said, her pout becoming more pronounced.
My face, naturally, went red at her remarks and Kate's laughter wasn't helping either. Luckily Carmen arrived on the scene to save me.
"Why don't we grab a couple boxes and move them into your room Bella?" Carmen said with a smile.
I followed Carmen as she walked towards my truck and did my best to get my face to go back to normal. It was almost back to its natural paleness when Tanya walked up to my side and whispered into my ear.
"If you don't want to test out the new bed tonight, we can always try now. Though it we do, I can't promise Charlie won't hear you scream." Tanya said in a very seductive voice.
This time it was Eleazar that came to my rescue.
"Can you come help me carry this inside please Tanya. This is the last of the heavier pieces and I would like to get this started in before Charlie comes back downstairs." Eleazar asked as Carmen and I got to the truck.
"Can't Kate… not disappear into the house to get out of work? Don't think you're getting out of this conversation Bella, it happens to be my favorite topic." Tanya said.
We were having a conversation; since when? I decided to ignore her remarks and followed Carmen into the house. We passed Charlie and Irina on the stairs with Charlie tossing out a compliment about the house and how nice it was of them to let Kate keep it. As soon as we got to my room, I gave Carmen a confused look and she answered my unasked question.
"Irina explained to him that Kate has this large house per it was inheritance from her family. Eleazar and I are friends that got so close to the family that we are seen as family. Tanya and Irina are here to help you move but live elsewhere; apparently Tanya is taking time off work and moving in here to help recover from an apparently stressful work place. Kate offered to have us all move in with her since she apparently has a gambling problem, though it was only hinted at not actually said, and she needs help with covering the household bills. Irina was sure to ease any concerns he had about you being here." Carmen explained with an amused smile.
I like it, Kate our gambling addicted sister. She seems like the kind of person that would get lost in that scene. Then also Tanya not being able to handle a class full of kids, I can't believe it for a second. I guess Charlie never heard about how Tanya managed her classroom because anyone that's every had her class or just heard about new that she rarely had any problems with students because for some odd reason no one was brave enough to mess with her.
We put the boxes on the floor and went back downstairs. It only took maybe another two hours to finish moving the new furniture, or to Charlie the old furniture. The whole time Kate did her best to get out of work and tried to pull small pranks on everyone. Poor Charlie couldn't figure out why every time he helped Kate move something he somehow got shocked, or even just when he was too close to him. I think Kate took advantage of her vampire speed; poor Charlie never stood a chance against her. Irina though, she did her best to make Kate look like the one in the family that screws up the most. She never flat out said anything only ever hinting towards stuff and she always managed to make sure Charlie didn't too concerned and force me to not move in. By the end of the day, Charlie probably thought Kate was addicted to gambling, belonged to a gang at one point, and had a criminal record before changing her name and lots of other things that I can't even believe. I wouldn't actually be surprised if Charlie just figured Irina was trying to be mean to Kate by saying all this stuff.
"If you need anything you know where I'm at okay?" Charlie said as he opened the truck door.
I offered to give him a ride home since there was only one more box that didn't fit in the last load, so we are taking this time to say our goodbyes. I didn't think it would be this hard.
"I'll be fine dad, I promise." I said, trying my best to control my emotions.
It's not like I'm saying goodbye forever, I know for a fact that I'll still see. The hard part is that I know from now I'll be distancing myself from him, there's only so long I could make phone calls and stuff and still sound the same when I'm a vampire. This way is best, slowly distancing then gone. It's painful, but for Charlie and Renee, I think it'll be best.
"I'm sure you will be Bells; but just remember, you always have a bed here whenever you want or need it; okay?" Charlie said.
He seems to be having the same struggle that I'm having; though for entirely different reasons. I'm leaving him; he'll be on his own again. I know for a fact he got used to having me around, I'm sure he'll miss having me with him as much as I'll miss living with him.
"Okay dad." I said.
With a nod of his head he got out of the truck and made his way inside the house; my old house. I shook my head and cleared my thoughts of all this gloomy stuff, I need to be happy. I'm moving in with my girlfriend and I have nothing in the way of spending as much time as I want with her.
As quickly as I safely could, I drove home. When I left Tanya promised to have dinner waiting for me and Kate and Irina promised to have all the furniture moved to the appropriate room. Carmen and Eleazar promised to make sure the furniture got to the right rooms and that my room didn't having any lingering furniture in Tanya's room.
When I got home, I parked the truck in front and went inside, straight to the kitchen. Whatever Tanya made smells delicious and after all the moving I did today, I'm hungry. I found Tanya stirring something on the stove, so I made my way to her, wrapped my arms around her waist and put my chin on her shoulder.
"I thought it was going to be done when I got back?" I asked with a teasing tone.
"It is, this is dessert, pudding. You dinner is on the table honey, go start eating, I'll be there in a minute." Tanya said.
I hesitantly did what she told me to do. Her voice sounds very strained, much too serious for the situation. As I walked to the dining room, I looked at her from the corner of my eye and she seems a little tenser than what I've ever seen her.
As I was told, I started eating and waited for Tanya to get here. There's no use in starving myself when I can just eat and wait to talk to her when she gets here. It took longer than expected for her to get to me, she got to the dining room as I finished eating and she had a bowl of vanilla pudding in her hands. She set the down in front of me and then quickly, meaning too fast for me to see, put the dinner place in the kitchen.
"How was dinner?" Tanya asked as she sat down in front of me.
"It was good, thank you; you're an amazing cook." I said as I started to eat the pudding.
"Thank you, I had some good motivation." Tanya said with a smile that didn't nearly reach her eyes.
I put the spoon down and gave her my full attention. I need to know what's wrong; I don't like seeing her like this.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I've got some bad news." Tanya said.
"What news?" I asked carefully, reminding myself that she won't leave me. The Denali's aren't like the Cullen's.
"The Cullen's arrived sooner than anticipated. They should actually be getting here within the hour." Tanya said.
The look she was giving me, made me think that she's waiting for some type of dramatic and emotional reaction. As much as I would love to break down and just completely freak out about the Cullen's almost being here, I don't want the Cullen's to see that. I want the Cullen's to get here and see that as easily as they could leave me I got over them. Of course that isn't true, but they don't need to know that.
"Okay." I said.
Apparently my calm acceptance was the cue for the rest of the family to come in and sit around us.
"We have an action plan." Kate started right away.
"No we don't, if we did Alice would get a vision and Edward would see. The only decisive thing we've come up with is to talk with them, but we haven't actually decided what." Irina said with a roll of her eyes at Kate.
"Basically Bella, we want to make sure you know that whatever happens, we wills tick by your side. Whatever you want, even if it's just for the Cullen's to leave, we will support your decision." Carmen said.
"Our concern is how Edward will handle himself. A seventeen year-old is more than a bit emotional and can be unpredictable." Eleazar added.
"I swear if Edward does one small thing that I don't like, I'm not afraid to kick his ass." Tanya growled out.
"Meeting the Cullen's, especially Edward, will cause the more protectiveness of Tanya's nature to show." Carmen said.
"Well, let's go wait for them in the living room, we can at least watch a little T.V. in there." Irina said.
As soon as I stood, Tanya was immediately at my side with her arm around my waist and keeping me tightly against her. She led me, though I'm sure she would have preferred to carry me with how close she is next to me, to the living room and we sat on a slightly large recliner. The seat was just large enough for Tanya and I to sit next to each and just barely not have one of us sit on the other's lap. This is one of the new pieces Tanya had wanted and I'm sure she got this one on purpose.
Instead of turning the T.V. on, Kate and Irina started talking about pranks that Kate had done to Irina in the past. Well actually, Kate told her version, then Irina told her version then Carmen or Eleazar told me what had really happened. They kept this up for a full hour; the only reason I knew it last for an hour is because just like Tanya had said the Cullen's arrived.
The front door slammed open and Edward appeared in the doorway looking just as beautiful as ever. He didn't even move to allow the others to get through, though I could clearly see at least Emmett because of how tall he is.
"Bella?" Edward said, sounding desperate, confused, relieved and upset all at the same time.
"Mine." Tanya growled then tightened her grip on me even more as she started growl a little.
I barely registered Rosalie snapping at Edward to move to allow them all to come and I definitely didn't notice Alice tell Edward that this is what's best. All I could focus on is the fact that the former love of my life, my former family, are now here in front of me.
A/N: I don't like drama and I don't really like writing it. But I feel that Edward, from what I recall from the books and movies, if he didn't end up with Bella he would throw a temper tantrum of sorts. So I'm afraid there is going to be drama and hopefully I don't make it too unbelievable.