Hey guys. So here is chapter 17. This chapter will give you a little insight into Bella's past. Enjoy!
Just a quick answer to Yoko89 question about the marks
The marks appear as a tattoo on the person's skin. When they want to use their mark it will crawl from their skin and then expand to the size they desire. When they no longer need to use their mark it basically just shrinks and crawls back into their skin and appear as a tattoo again. Hope that clears it up a bit more.
Alice and I drove down to midtown Los Angeles. It felt good to get away from the university for a bit. Alice drove a fancy convertible car. As I know absolutely nothing about cars other than how to drive them, I couldn't even tell what model the car is. Alice had put the roof down and we were cruising with the wind in our hair and the sun on our faces. It felt wonderfully relaxing and freeing.
"I forgot how much I love driving," I said as I laid my head back on the headrest to soak up the sun. I was even happier to be the passenger and not the actual driver.
"Oh, I know. It feels amazing to get out of the university." Alice said with a big smile.
"Thanks for bringing me along. I really needed this." I thanked her.
"I couldn't go shopping without you. Plus I had a feeling you were going to need it," she said. I wonder if she meant she had one of her special feelings or just making a general comment. I thought it would be better to ignore the comment and not ask since I didn't want to bring up the troubling feelings and dreams she has been having.
"You're right. I have had an eventful week and need some relaxing time." I said and immediately knew she will question me about it.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she said giving me a kind smile. Alice didn't know about my telekinetic power nor about my mark. There was really no way I could tell her about what happened with the banshee attack or about me and Em going into the Unknown. My mind was running in circles trying to figure out who to trust and still manage to keep my secret hidden. What is the point of having a secret if so many people know? Would it really still be considered a secret? On the other hand what is the point of having friends when you can't trust them with your secrets? I guess it all boils down to whether or not my friends are more important than a secret. I suppose if they are my real friends my secret will still be safe. I started thinking back to the less than stellar reaction my mother had when she found out about my mark.
I only became aware of my mark when I was around the age of seven. That was around the time I started paying attention to my clothes as I no longer wanted to be dressed by my mother. Yes, I know it was a late age to pick out your own clothing and not have your mother do it. In my defence, my mother was an anal-retentive control freak. She used to set out an outfit for me to wear for every day of the week on Sundays. I was not allowed an opinion or to change an outfit. It wasn't until I asked my grandmother to talk to my mother about it. I felt like a freak in school as my mother had an old fashion sense of style. I was the only girl wearing dresses that went from my neck down to my ankles. After a lot of convincing by my grandmother and eventually my dad, my mother relented and allowed me a little freedom. I still remember the first time I noticed my mark. My mother and I had gone on a rare shopping trip. My mother was never fond of shopping nor spending quality time with me. We went to some strange clothing store and I finally got to pick things to try on.
There was this beautiful white dress that had daisies printed along the bottom. I had instantly fallen in love with the dress. I had to beg my mother to let me try it on as she was very much against the colour white. She had always dressed in dark colours and dressed me similarly. I never understood her avoidance of bright, cheerful colours. She relented after I started crying and was drawing attention. I ran into the dressing room to try on the perfect dress. I looked myself over in the mirror and spun around happily. The dress fitted perfectly and I was over the moon. My mother told me to hurry up and get dressed so that we could go home.
As I got dressed again I noticed on the left side right underneath my armpit was a big black spot. I walked closer to the mirror to figure out what it was. That was when I saw my mark for the first time. I was so absorbed looking at it that I was too slow getting dressed and my mother burst through the curtain to yell at me. When she was done yelling at me to stop wasting her time and left, only then did I turn back to the mirror to stare. When I looked back in the mirror my mark was no longer there. My mark must have wanted to be kept a secret and moved freely around my body to hide as my parents were not aware of it until I asked them about it one day. That was the only explanation I could come up with.
I was afraid of telling my parents about the mark on my body. When I was thirteen I told my dad about the mark. I told him before I talked to my mother about it. I was always a lot closer to my dad than my mom. I only told my dad about my mark after Emmett had shown me his. At first I thought it was a guy thing and that there was something wrong with me. When I told my dad he thought I was joking. That was until I showed him my mark and left him speechless. He told me not to worry about it and that he will discuss it with my mother as she would know more about it.
I went up to my room and after a while of waiting for my mother to come home I decided to just go to bed. Later that night my mother flew into my room and pulled me out of bed and demanded I saw her. She was shaking and looked terrified. I showed her my mark and she gasped and went white in the face. She started chanting things in a language I didn't understand. She kept chanting 'Scorpio renatus fuerit. Sacrificium oportet incipere'. She kept chanting as she ran from my room and into her private library. She locked the door and I didn't see her until the next day. She wouldn't look me in the eye and every now and then I would hear her chanting. After she found out about my mark she became increasingly distant and spent more and more time in her private library. I had asked her on many occasions to explain the mark to me and to tell me about what she was chanting, but she always refused. I spent more and more time with my dad and my grandmother as my relationship with my mother became severely strained.
My mother's reaction to my mark has left me worried to reveal it to people. I'm always afraid of the reaction I will get when people find out. My dad and Emmett had openly accepted me but at the time they had no idea what it had meant. My mother clearly knew what it meant and all the secrets attached to it, but it all died with her.
I looked over at Alice and started thinking about our relationship so far. It was true that we have only known each other for a short amount of time. Even so she has confided in me about Jasper and about her special talent. She had been so worried about me after the banshee attack that she had sent me a total of 22 messages. I trusted her enough to give her a few details about my relationship with Edward and she had been understanding and supportive. I decided that I will tell Alice about my mark and telekinetic power but just not today. Today I wanted to relax and have a girly day. I wanted to talk about dresses and parties and things of no importance. Today will be a stress-free day and talking about my week will just put a damper on our moods. I decide to take a different approach to her question and talk about Edward.
"I slept with Edward." I blurted out.
"What?!" Alice screeched as she stepped on the brakes of the car. My head nearly collided with the dashboard as the car came to a sudden stop. There were people yelling and honking at us to get off the road.
"Jesus Christ Alice! Do you want to kill us!" I shouted at her. She pulled over and parked in front of a lovely little restaurant. The front of the restaurant was made completely out of glass and had a round table with delicate white table clothes. The sign read 'Nana's kitchen'. It looked homey and inviting and there was a smell coming from it that made your mouth water.
"The other cars have brakes and they sure know how to use them. We were never in any danger," she said with an eye roll. My neck begs to differ from her opinion. Maybe I'll get Edward to give me a massage later tonight...a naked massage...
"We are here anyway and it's time for you to spill," Alice said while giving me her serious eyes. I followed Alice into the restaurant.
As we walked in Alice waved at a woman behind the counter.
"Oh my god! Ally bear is that you," the women said happily and moved to hug Alice. The woman was in her late fifties, curvy with a round face and a head of curly strawberry blonde hair with streaks of grey. She wrapped Alice in a tight motherly hug and kissed both her cheeks. I was strangely jealous at the display of affection. My mother never gave me warm loving hugs, but my grandmother always did. I missed her so much. She is currently in a mental institution and due to the extreme nature of her psychosis the doctors won't allow me to see her.
"Bella I'd like you to meet Mrs. Cope," Alice said.
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Cope," I said and extended my hand. Mrs. Cope pulled me forward by my hand and wrapped me in a big warm hug. It felt nearly as good as the hugs my Nana use to give me.
"Oh dear, call me Shelly," she said brightly. She led us to a table and gave us menus and then wandered off to talk to another customer.
"She seems lovely. Have been coming here long?" I asked Alice as I tried to decide what to order.
"Yeah, Shelly is amazing. I've been coming here since I started in Aluthsia. It's my favourite place to eat." she said with a fond smile.
"That's nice. So what's good here?" I asked scanning the menu again.
"Everything is amazing. The blueberry pancakes and syrup is to die for," she said excitedly. Alice jacked up on sugar should be interesting. Shelly came back to take our order and we bother order coffee and the blueberry pancakes. After a few minutes, Shelly brought us our coffee. It was hands down the most amazing coffee I've ever had. It was even better than the coffee in Billy's! I actually moaned as I sipped on my coffee. I'm Isabella Swan and I'm a coffee addict.
"Ok Bella, it's time for you to spill," Alice said as she looked at me over her coffee cup.
"What's there to say? I slept with Edward last night and it was amazing, well mind blowing really." I said as I thought back to last night and this morning in the shower. I could feel the blush spread across my face.
"Oh, look at that blush! It must have been good." Alice teased.
"Hell it was fucking amazing. Hands down best sex I have ever had." I gushed.
"You have to give me more detail Bella. You have been holding out on me." Alice whined.
"Ok. Ok. Well, after the whole Tanya debacle in Defence I moved out and in with Edward..."
"What?!" Alice cut me off in shock.
"Relax Alice. Edward and I went back to my room and fell asleep and then Tanya threw a shit fit. I stayed with Edward that night and went to make a complaint and request a new roommate the next morning. I'm staying in Edward's room until I get a new room assigned." I explained. Our pancake came before we could talk more. I was starving and dug in. Oh my god! They were amazing. They were the fluffiest pancakes I have ever had in my life. I kept shovelling my pancake into my mouth. Alice just laughed at me.
"Told you they were amazing," she gloated. She really wasn't lying. I now understood why she came here all the time.
"So are things getting serious between you and Edward now?" she asked between mouthfuls of pancake.
"It's been like a week Alice. How serious can things be after only a week?" I lied. I knew damn well that things were getting serious and Alice could tell as well.
"You're lying Bella. You're afraid of how fast things are between the two of you," she said understandingly.
"I've never felt like this about anyone before and it terrifies me Alice. I'm scared I'll mess it up. I'm scared to want it and then to just end up losing him." I confessed as looked down to my empty plate. Alice placed her hand on mine and looked at me sympathetically.
"It's ok to be afraid Bella. This is new to you but trust me I can tell he feels the same way. I think it will take a lot for you to mess this up." she said as she continued to pat my hand. She managed to calm down my insecurities. She really was a good friend and I was lucky to have someone like her in my life.
We paid our bill and headed back out to her car. Alice drove us to her favourite shopping mall. We chatted about random things as we drove to the mall. She told me about her love for fashion and how she would love to either work in fashion or biology. It was quite a stretch going from fashion to biology, but that was Alice. She was a free spirit and refused to let anything confine her. We arrived at an insanely large shopping mall and Alice dragged me out of the car. She was buzzing with excitement and I couldn't help but laugh at her. She dragged me to a crazy amount of dress stores and we ended up trying on a ridiculous amount of dresses before finding the perfect ones. Alice decided on a pale pink backless bandage dress that made her look extremely sexy. Oh, she was going to have Jasper drooling all over her. I settled on a figure hugging black lace dress that a low neckline. My boobs looked amazing in the dress and I knew it will drive Edward crazy. I had to admit that I was having a ball. I never had any girlfriends to shop with and my mother rarely took me shopping. I never knew it could be this much fun.
Next Alice dragged me to shoe stores and then we needed accessories. I ended up with skyscraper heels that scared the life out of me. I was sure that I will be clinging to Edward all night trying not to fall. We got great jewellery and cute little clutch bags that matched our dresses. Our final stop was Victoria's Secret. I ended up buying a few hundred dollars worth of lingerie and planned on driving a certain bronze haired god crazy tonight. Alice approved of my shopping and gave me a wicked smile. She had gone just as overboard as I had. It was a friendship made in heaven.
We headed over to Starbucks to get coffee. I wanted more of Shelly's coffee, but Alice wouldn't budge so here we were sitting in Starbucks with frappuccinos and large chocolate chunk cookies.
"So tell me what happened in defence, after Emmett and I left. Edward told me Rosalie slapped Tanya across the face." I asked as I took a bite out of my cookie. Damn you really can't go wrong with chocolate chip cookies.
"Oh yeah, she did. It was amazing. You could actually hear the slap echo of the walls. It was brilliant. Unfortunately I had to help Jasper take Tanya to the nurse." she said as she delicately sipped her frozen coffee.
"You got to spend time with Jasper and you're referring to it as unfortunate?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yup. That bitch Tanya kept talking about their summer and about Maria, Jasper's girlfriend. The poor guy didn't know what to say and neither did I. It was so bloody awkward." she said with a frown.
"Tanya is a bitch and so is Jasper's girlfriend. She treats him like shit and she's cheating on him." I said.
"What?! How do you know that?" Alice shrieked.
"Rosalie told me. I asked her about Jasper when we talked last time. She was telling me about how shit Maria is and how she doesn't understand why he is with her since he is clearly in love with the sea shell girl." I said innocently. Alice was looking at me with wide shocked eyes.
"He is in love with who?" she asked dazed.
"Rosalie told me that Jasper told her about the girl he met when he was twelve that got tangled with a jellyfish and cried over a sea shell. She said he doesn't know who she is but that he is madly in love with her." I said with a smile.
"Oh my god! You're not lying right?" she asked while bouncing in her seat.
"I swear I'm telling the truth. We need to come up with a seduction plan and we need to find a way to get rid of Maria." I said as I ate the last piece of my cookie.
"Ok, well what do you have in mind?" she asked nervously.
"I think we need to ask Rosalie for help. She knows him well and she has an evil streak and is desperate to get rid of Maria." I said. I'm pretty sure Rosalie will have no problem helping us.
We grabbed our bags as it was time for us to head back to campus. Just as we walked towards the door we got a surprise. In walked none other than Rosalie followed by Esme. Well, this just got a lot more interesting and nerve wrecking. To my surprise, Rosalie gave me a big hug.
"I heard what you did for my dad Bella. I don't know how you did it but thank you so much," she said as she hugged me again.
"You're welcome Rosalie," I said as I hugged her back. Rosalie let go of me and moved over to greet Alice. The two of them started chatting. I had no doubt it would be about Jasper. I was happy Alice and Rosalie were talking, but this left me alone with Esme. I was a nervous wreck. Esme moved and gave me a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you for what you did for my husband Bella. I will forever be in you debt," she said in an emotional voice.
"I'm just glad I was able to help. His death would have been too tragic to bear." I said quietly. Alice was heading back over to me with a big smile. Guess things went well with Rosalie. Rosalie called her mother over as Alice started walking out the door. I went to follow her when Esme grabbed my arm.
"I'd like to talk to you about your power Bella. Please meet me in my office on Monday morning." Esme whispered to me and then went over to Rosalie. Oh, shit I really hope Monday never comes.
Next chapter will be about Edward and Bella's date :) You will have to wait to see how much Bella will tell Esme :)