chapter 4: Friendship
"Come on Bella. Keep your head straight and talk in a straight line"
"Are you nuts? I can't walk in a straight line dead sober and you want me to do it on a balance beam and heels?"
Did I mention that Lexi while having a perfectly working brain she likes to go overboard? This isn't America's next top model and I'm not Caridee!
"Yes! Now keep your back straight, shoulders back, boobs out, belly in, butt out, eyes looking straight ahead and take small steps"
"Were you in the military in a past life?"
Lexi let out a very unladylike grunt and fell back on the couch. Seeing her collapse I allowed myself to do the same after putting the bowl from my head on the table and started munching on one of the bananas in it. For the past 2 months Lexi had been training me in the fine art of walking in a straight line without falling over my own two feet. The bruises on my knees from the coffee tables showed just how well that went!
For the past three months this has been our ritual. Every morning after breakfast Lexi would help me (or rather train me like a show dog) in walking safely, with and without shoes on, preferably high heeled. Then we'd have lunch and as soon as sun went down we'd head to the bar for another night filled with dancing and helping Bree out.
It worked out pretty well. Working for Bree was a good way to make money, even though Lexi was adamant every time I wanted to pay rent. She still let me cook and help with the housework though, mainly because she almost set the house on fire while adding milk to the cereal (don't ask me how she managed that - I was in the shower) and was also a great passtime to keep my mind occupied so that I wouldn't think of E.. him or how Charlie and Renee acted. Didn't act, actually.
I had no response to my letters from three months ago. Sure, they lacked my address as I sent the letters from the airport in Charlotte but last time I checked I have the same mobile number since I was fourteen and the same email address since I was 17 and moved to Forks. If they wanted to they could have communicated. I guess 'if' being the key word...
Lexi was running away from something as well and is not her nature. Yes, I know what was wrong with her. I was chopping chicken breasts for sweet and sour chicken noodles for dinner about a week after moving in with her here when I overheard her and Bree talking about my living here.
Truth is that if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Lexi's reaction to me scraping my knee at the bar, her 'allergy' to the sun and the strange cooler she protects like a nun protects her virtue. I glanced at her sideways and smiled as I thought back to the night the masks fell.
Flashback
"Lexi are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Yes Bree, I'm sure"
"She's human"
"And broken. Do you see her?"
"Yes, I do. It's a painful thing to see"
"Exactly. I feel I need to help her get well again"
"Who did this to her and why is her hand bandaged?"
"She was purposely vague but it has something to do with her ex"
"Back to the main issue. Do you promise me you won't hurt her?"
"I'm disciplined Bree and you know it"
"Yes I do know it. I also know her balance is worse than a toddler's"
"Don't worry Bree. She's safe; I won't take a bite out of her"
Bella was about to enter the living room when she overheard Bree and Lexi talking. The subject of their discussion made her freeze in her tracks and then escape to the kitchen where she could think.
Bree was in the living room mixing cosmos for dinner hoping to calm her frazzled nerves after her talk with Lexi. Lexi entered the kitchen with her long blond hair still wet and wrapped in a towel turban style. She was dressed in her work clothes aka the black miniskirt and cherry red corset top. In her left hand she had a blow dryer and in her right one a big round brush and the can of mousse. She wanted Bella to help her straighten her hair for work tonight. Bella, also dressed for work, had her back to her and was busy chopping veggies and something that smelled like chicken on the counter. Good! One of the human foods Lexi still liked and loved to eat (even though it provided no nutrition whatsoever) was chicken.
Bella took a deep breath and purposely made a small cut her left middle finger. As the coppery smell hit Lexi she felt her fangs extend as she preferred to eat food before her nightly amount of blood.
Hearing the wooden brush clatter on the floor Bella turned slowly around. Meeting Lexi's now black eyes with all the veins popping out and watching a pair of fangs protruding her eyes widened. This wasn't exactly what she expected! Still succumbing to her fate she closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side exposing her throat to the blond girl. This action, combined with the words that slipped out of the brunette's lips jumpstarted Lexi's self discipline and she took hold of herself.
"Go ahead. Just make it quick please"
"Bella? What are you doing?"
"Surrendering"
Lexi breathed through her mouth and took a few steps back.
"I'm not going to hurt you"
Bella chuckled darkly and then gasped in pain as a flash memory passed in front of her eyes of a certain copper head vampire-being-a-boyfriend saying similar warnings to her not so long ago. She waited for a pair of teeth to bite her but when nothing happened she forced herself to ignore the pain the rejection brought and looked the blond girl in the eyes.
"Why not? Am I not good enough?"
At that moment Bree rushed in the kitchen and despite herself she gave a quick flash of a migraine to Lexi causing her to cower away from the bleeding Bella and Bella herself look at her like she had 3 heads...
End flashback
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship as Rick told Louis in Casablanca. After mumbling an excuse having realized she had outed everyone and everything Bree gave us the night off and left. Lexi and I went for a walk in a park as we told each other our sob stories. Lexi told me about her parents and how she was changed back in 1840's after surviving a car crash and how she still visits her sister's descendants every ten or so years. I told her about him, his family and what happened. She had heard about the 'glitter vamps' but never met any. We talked about how different the two kinds are and what are the telltale signs to recognize them.
Strangely this revelation brought us closer and we're good friends now. She even decided to give it a go with one of the bar's most faithful patrons, Lee. The cute guy that had helped me on my first night at the bar. He is human, Lexi has no qualms over human/vampire relationships, for now...
Tomorrow Lexi and I would take the car and head northeast to a small town in Virginia where one of her bestest and oldest friends lived now. He had his birthday in two days. The big 162!
A/N: A huge shout to SunDrop17 as the way Bella found out that Lexi is a vampire was her idea, thank you sweetie
