Chapter 11: Undead slumber party


~The truth needs so little rehearsal. - Barbara Kingsolver~


The frosty wind continued to flow without a break and it whipped my hair harshly against my cheek. I tried to pull it back but it kept slapping all over my face.

"Let me..." Sasha stood behind me and attempted to pin my hair.

"God, I'm going to freeze to death!" Heidi shivered, pulling her Dior bright red coat tight around her body.

"We can always sue." Jane offered, taking her iPhone out of her raspberry color tote.

"Sue Mr Hale?" I scoffed. "He'll somehow find a way to get out of it."

Jane sighed dramatically and dropped her iPhone back into her tote.

"There!" Jasper -Mr Hale- called out suddenly.

We followed him like we were expected to but the trip back from the forest was extremely boring and chilly. I stood on my tiptoes and looked around. We had reached the edge of the forest where the school bus was waiting for us.

All the girls surrounding me let out relieved sighs. I was dead on my feet and wanted someone to carry me. Maybe Alec would. Then I remembered that we hadn't talked the entire morning and he was huddled with his friends in the front.

He was avoiding me.

I didn't blame him. He was doing the right thing. I assumed that he did not want to get another bruise from Edward. I didn't know what Edward's problem was, getting into a fight with Alec as soon as I had told him about the kiss.

Was he angry or was he simply protecting me?

Everything was complicated and confusing when it came to Edward.

"Hey," Heidi nudged me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I pretended to be distracted by a piece of lint on the sleeve of my soft red cashmere sweater.

"I know you Bella," She sighed, playing with her thick curly red hair. "Maybe I hadn't been there always for you….but you can tell me anything, you know."

"I know." I gave her a smile then heaved a sigh.

"Then tell me." She commanded, as she wetted her bow shaped lips.

I took a deep breath and blurted. "It's Edward…and Alec."

Sasha joined us, looking confused at the thick atmosphere. "What's going on here? Do I sense a catfight?"

Heidi rolled her green eyes at her. "Bella's having boy trouble."

"Boy trouble? Oh, do tell!" Jane clapped her hands. I wondered if she had been eavesdropping from the beginning.

"Nothing," I looked around suspiciously. "Tell you what, how about sleepover in my house tonight? Today is not a school night since tomorrow is Sunday. "

"Cool." They nodded, and high-fived me.

At the same time, Jasper commanded, "get on the bus."

Everyone had to share the same bus. As I settled into my window seat next to a sleepy Sasha, I got a peek of Edward and Randall at the back of the bus. Rosalie and Emmett were by their side.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Weren't Edward and Rosalie kind of...together? Then why were they not sitting together? Maybe they had a fight.

I shrugged and turned away. I was not going to let my good mood be wasted.


"It's a girls-only slumber party, no?" Mom asked, as she shrugged into her fleece jacket.

"Yep," I chirped.

"Okay, dad and I will be back by tomorrow morning. We're just going to Port Angeles, if we hear any complaint from the neighbors, we'll come straight here." She warned.

I walked her out to the front door where dad was taking his car out of the garage.

"Mom, there's only four of us." I rolled my eyes.

"I doubt it," she eyed me suspiciously.

"Seriously," I rolled my eyes again.

Mom shook her head and got inside the car. I waved and watched them disappear down the street.

I was free.

Just then, another car appeared on my driveway. Sasha and Heidi ran and threw themselves on me for a hug.

I laughed breathlessly. "They're gone. We have the house to ourselves."

Another figure emerged. Jane's short hair was pulled into a side ponytail and she had her pink sleeping bag thrown over her shoulder.

"Can we go inside?" Jane whined. "I'm sooo cold."

We went inside my house and I locked the door behind me. I opened my bedroom door and ushered them in. They threw their shiny designer bags on the bed and their sleeping bags on the floor.

"This is going to be awesome," Heidi gushed as she unbuttoned her cardigan. "It has been a long time since we had a sleepover."

"All change!"

We quickly removed our formal clothes and started getting into our sleepover outfits. Sasha admired herself in her white satin pajamas in my floor-length wooden mirror.

Suddenly the doorbell rang.

I froze in confusion. "Who's that?"

"No clue." Heidi and Jane avoided my eyes.

I scowled at them, waiting for information. Finally, they both sighed.

"I kinda...invited Randall." Heidi bit her lips, looking at me with pleading eyes.

"And I think Alec will also come." Jane looked down, ashamed. "Our parents are fighting again and I did not want to leave him alone in my house. So I told him to drop by if he wanted."

"Oh God, I promised mom that this is a girls'-only sleepover." I glanced at Sasha. "Did you invite someone too?"

"No," she was standing near the window. "But I think you might want to take a look at this."

We joined her and I gasped. Alec was leaning against Sasha's car and Randall along with his siblings stood on the other side, near the door.

"You said you invited Randall," I said slowly. "Then what is his whole family doing here?"

"I don't know!" she cried, panicked. My head started to spin.

"I'll let them in," Sasha volunteered after the second ring of the bell. "They are here and it would be rude if we sent them away."

I didn't reply. Instead, I walked to my bed and slumped against the headboard. So far, nothing was happening as I planned.

"So so sorry, Bella." Heidi apologized, taking my hand in hers.

I shook my head and faced the other side. After a thought, I opened my bathroom door and locked the door behind me. Hundreds of possibilities ran through my mind.

"You are not going to lock yourself in there...are you?" Sasha's worried reached my ears.

I let out a nervous breath when I realized everyone was already in my room. How awkward would it be, to have both Alec and Edward in the same room with me?

I opened the door slightly and shot her a glare. "Have you planned that too?"

There was lot of feet shuffling in the room and then silence.

I sighed again and finally let myself out of the bathroom and into my crowded bedroom. Jane straightened her pink camisole and shorts.

"God!" Rosalie exclaimed as soon as she saw me. "Wear something over that!"

I held my nose up in air. I wore a knee - length black slip that had small slits on both sides and tiny crisscrossed laces held them together. I glanced at Edward and was surprised and pleased to see him staring at the diamond - shaped pattern the laces made across my chest.

"Gawd, wear something over that!" I mimicked her, mockingly. "What are you, in the medieval period?"

She huffed and tossed her straight golden hair back. "I wish."

"You were the one who crashed the slumber party. Not me." I folded my arms across my chest in defiance.

That was when I remembered something. If Edward was from 1918; then Randall, Rosalie and Emmett must also belonged to the same century. I immediately felt sorry for mocking her.

"Listen," Heidi said authoritatively. "This was supposed to be girls-only slumber party but since you're already here, we'll divide. The boys can have one half of the room and the girls will have the other half including Bella's bed."

"I'm not sure about that." Alec scratched his head, peeking at Edward at the corner of his eye.

I sighed and pushed him to the other side near the window. "Go!"

Randall, Alec, Edward and Emmett removed their coats and sat down on the floor. Randall immediately dived in for Alec's brand new iPhone. All four got engrossed in it.

Heidi sighed and cracked her knuckles. "Problem solved."

We moved to the bed and sat down. Rosalie fidgeted with her silk black scarf.

"Is that Hermes?" I asked reluctantly, moving closer. I wanted to play nice with her.

Rosalie glanced at it self-consciously. "Yes."

"I have the same one!" I stuttered surprised. "Come on, I'll show you."

I pulled her to my medium size walk-in closet. Her sapphire blue eyes widened at my closet, which was stuffed with colorful stacks of sweaters, glittery tops, button down shirts and silk tank tops.

I tugged on the red boa that hung from the room's ceiling and bright white light lit inside the closet. I prowled through it and found the same exact scarf Rosalie was wearing.

"See," I smiled and showed Rosalie the scarf.

"Nice," She smiled back appreciatively. It was the first time she had actually smiled at me -or at anyone for that matter- and it was dazzling.

"We have the same ones," Sasha grinned and threw her arm around my shoulder. "Bella always makes us buy scarves when we go for shopping."

"Scarf fetish." Someone muttered softly.

I blushed when I realized that it was Edward who had spoken. He was staring at me from where he was seated, his green eyes dancing in amusement.

Rosalie cleared her throat. "My mom Esme usually takes me for shopping. So far, I had gone only to the Seattle mall."

"How are malls in Chicago?" Jane asked, wounding my Marc Jacobs purple scarf around her neck.

Rosalie paled slightly. How would she know how the malls in Chicago were? She was from 1918, for God's sake.

"I'm sure she doesn't shop all the time. You spent most of your time shifting from foster homes, didn't you?" I intervened.

Rosalie nodded and sent me a grateful look

"Ta-rue!" Heidi was busy rummaging in my drawer.

"What are you searching for?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"This!" she shook my pink iPod excitedly. She connected it with my computer speaker and put it on shuffle. Ellie Goulding's 'Anything could happen' burst through the speakers.

"Dance, ladies and gentlemen!" She whirled around, dancing on her own.

Stripped to the waist

We fall into the river

Cover your eyes

So you don't know the secret

I've been trying to hide

We held our breath

To see our names are written

On the wreck of '86

That was the year

I knew the panic was over

We burst into giggles as we joined Heidi's giddy dance to the rythem of the song.

"I think she said we can also join them." Randall grinned and nudged Edward.

Randall slipped before Jane and started dancing with Heidi.

Anything could happen

Anything could happen

Anything could happen

Anything could happen

Anything could happen

"How exactly do you dance to this song?" Edward stepped in reluctantly.

I felt stupid and sorry for him when I remembered that he had skipped the entire era.

"Like this." I stretched my hands over my head and swayed from side to side to the beat.

Edward chuckled and shook his head. He moved forward and placed his cool hands on my hip. We both started swaying together.

Heidi had her arms in the air and was doing a slinky, sexy dance I could never pull off. She winked at me and leaned closer to Randall. I was beyond shocked when I saw Rosalie and Emmett trying to dance together.

I twirled Sasha around and she giggled. When she skipped to dance with Alec, Edward's hands starting to move over my body. He pulled me closer, lifting my hands up and placing them at the back of his head.

I sighed contently when my hands gripped his soft hair. This was moving too fastly, but I felt very safe and secure in his arms. I still could not digest the fact that he was an undead. It was unbelievable that the spell had actually worked and we had woken him and so many others.

God. My stomach churned violently. How many other people were roaming Forks, freshly awaken from their centuries-long sleep?

"You have to tell me something." I said to Edward over the loud pounding music.

"What is it?" Edward asked, his breath cool on my bare neck.

"What are Emmett and Randall...to you?" I opted for the safer one.

He sighed, his delicious breath washing over my face. "We all fought in the same line in the war."

"And..." My breath quickened. "Rosalie?"

He stopped dancing and faced me with a serious look. "Rosalie and I were engaged."

Holy shit. As Heidi would say it, Merda.


Any thoughts?

-BEJL