Renesmee's POV-
The light shining through my window and through my eyelids was enough to give me a headache. I rolled over onto my stomach, pushing my face into my pillow for a few seconds. I knew I couldn't stay like that for very long. Unfortunately, I still needed to breathe oxygen every so often, so I was forced to turn back over after a few seconds.
I heard a light knock on my door. I didn't know who it was, but I softly said that they could come in. I heard the door open, and a familiar chuckle escape the lips of my guest. I kept my eyes closed, not bothering to see who it was. I felt the side of my mattress drop slightly as they sat down.
"I must say, I'm surprised to see you still sleeping. I was under the impression that you were a morning person." I heard Rosalie speak. I still didn't know what time it was. I figured it couldn't be later than like 8 o'clock. I slowly opened my eyes, allowing the blinding sun to temporarily render me blind, and sat up a little.
I didn't respond to her statement. Rather, I let out a tired yawn and looked for my phone. It was sitting on my bedside table and I grabbed it. When I turned it on, the first thing I saw were the large numbers across the top of my screen. 10:14 it read and I could feel my eyes widen.
"Oh wow! I had no idea it was so late." I told her honestly. She smiled at me.
"Long day yesterday?" She asked me and I tried to recall. The memories flooded my mind quickly—Alice finding my pictures, explaining my story to her, my dress fitting, my dad getting suspicious, and the phone call with my mom. To say it had been a long day would be an understatement.
"I guess you could say so." I told her. Once again, she was smiling at me, but it seemed as if in a single moment, her smile went to a worried expression. "Are you okay, Rosalie?" I asked, concerned. She nodded and gave me a small smile.
"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I just…I thought I heard something." She said, quietly. I couldn't imagine what it was. I hadn't heard anything.
"Such as?" I pushed. She looked at me sheepishly, which kind of threw me off. She was so beautiful that it was odd seeing her look embarrassed.
"A scream." She said and I understood. Thankfully with my limited hearing, I couldn't hear my family feeding in the throne room.
"Oh." I responded.
"Sorry. It just threw me off. Aro told me to come tell you to stay in your room. I figured that that meant that you wouldn't be able to hear it from here." She added.
"Actually, I can't since my hearing isn't as strong as a typical vampire's." I explained.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot that little detail." She chuckled to herself. "You were almost as quick as Edward when we were hunting the other day, it must have slipped my mind that your other senses aren't as developed as a full vampire." The way she said full vampire almost made me laugh. It was obviously new for her talking about the concept of a half and full vampire, so she was trying to choose her words carefully.
"Yeah, I don't know why my speed hasn't really been affected as much by my human side. Everything else definitely has—my hearing, sight, smell, strength, bloodlust—although I'm kind of thankful for that one." I joked.
"Yeah, I'm sure." She responded, smiling. "I feel like such a hypocrite sometimes. The thought of what is going on out there absolutely appalls me, yet a good part of me has to fight not to go out there and join them." She admitted.
"I can only imagine." I said, shaking my head. "It doesn't happen often, but sometimes when I don't go hunting for a while, I get that urge too. It's not as strong, I'm sure, but it's there." I told her. She looked at me surprised by my confession. "It's sickening to think that a part of me is craving a living being's blood when I myself have human blood running through my own veins." I added.
"I was actually thinking about that since we got here. How did you and your mother get introduced to drinking animal blood?" She asked.
"Well, I know for my mother, she was always appalled by the idea of drinking human blood after she had me. As for myself, I just hate the idea that I'd be drinking from humans because that's half of who I am." I vaguely replied.
"How did you two come across the alternative though? I know that if Carlisle hadn't been there after I was changed to introduce me to animal blood, I probably never would have even considered any alternatives." She explained. Oh, lord. How do I get myself out of this one?
"My dad actually was the one who told my mom about it. He hadn't known she'd become a vampire, but he mentioned it anyway." I admitted. She looked intrigued.
"Were your parents dating before they had you?" She asked me. I became worried. If I said they had dated, she'd become suspicious. I mean, how rare is it that a vampire and a human date, especially if said vampire was believed to drink human blood, which she'd ask about. Then, if I told her he had drank from animals, she'd become even more suspicious because 'vegetarian' vampires were extremely few and far between. I can't lie though!
"I believe so. My mom doesn't talk about it much, but she knew that he was a vampire and she knew how to find her way here, which doesn't seem like information you'd tell just anyone." I told her.
"No, of course not." She agreed. "This is all very new, I just would like to know as much as possible." She spoke. She turned her head, to take a look at the rest of my room. When her eyes saw my dress hanging in the corner of my room, she immediately forgot the topic we had just been discussing (thankfully).
"Ooh! Is that your ball gown?" She asked and I nodded, smiling. "Can I take a peek?" She looked so excited that I couldn't refuse her. She sped across the room and looked at it thoroughly. "It looks great, Ness! I'll admit. I wasn't so sure how the blue would look when you first mentioned it, but this is amazing!" She told me.
"Thank you!" I replied.
"I almost forgot. Alice and I insist that you let us do your hair and makeup for tonight…unless you already have your own personal makeup artist." She added. I raised and eyebrow and she smiled, putting my dress away. "What? You have your own tailor! I wasn't sure." She defended.
"I'd love for you and Alice to do my hair and makeup. I just ask that you don't go too overboard. I want to be recognizable at my own party." I told her. She smiled.
"I promise, but Alice is a different story. She does her own thing." Rosalie joked. "I believe they're finished in the throne room if you are hungry for breakfast." I looked at my phone again and saw the time.
"More like lunch at this hour."
After Rosalie left the room, I quickly got ready, wearing the outfit Alice had picked out for me and placed at the front of my closet. It was a pair of high-waisted patterned black shorts and a sparkly golden blouse with a black blazer. I substituted the black pumps she'd picked out for a practical pair of nice black combat boots, and added a few pieces of jewelry.
I was able to survive lunch without running into Jordan and the Denali's. I felt bad for absentmindedly associating my bad feelings about Jordan to the rest of them, but I couldn't help myself.
After lunch, even more guests were arriving for my ball. I helped out with decorating the ball room/throne room so we would be finished decorating sooner and because it would have been annoying to keep walking back and forth between my bedroom and the throne room when more people arrived.
We had been working on the decorations for a while now and everything was seeming to come together perfectly. The color scheme I'd decided on incorporated the colors black, white, grey, and blue, so everything was found in one of those four colors. There were abundant amounts of balloons, streamers, and paper lanterns lining the walls and ceiling. Alice had came in to help a while after I started, although I insisted that she didn't have to help, and had helped to line the walls with fairy lights. Rosalie, Emmett, and my dad also came to help out, and they worked on assembling an area for a photo booth.
I could hear more guests making their way down the hall leading to the throne room, so I hopped down from the ladder I was on and asked Alice to take my spot, helping Alec to put up a banner.
I made my way over to greet them, as I usually did. I couldn't help but notice that every time I went to introduce myself to the new guests, Alice and my father's eyes would follow me, watching me carefully. I'm sure my father was also trying to read everyone's minds as well to make sure there weren't anymore sleazeballs like Jordan.
Around the time the last of the guests came, everyone was almost finished with the decorations. I was about to offer to show our guests around the castle when Aro suggested that Heidi take them instead so that I may begin getting ready.
"Aro there's still three hours until the ball starts." I told him. I saw Alice skip to my side and begin pulling me.
"I know we're already pushing it! We must begin soon, Ness." Alice responded for him pulling me away with Rosalie.
"We have everything covered in here. Now, go get ready, my dear." Aro told me, right before I was pulled out of the room. I sighed.
"I can walk on my own you know." I told the two girls holding onto me. They both chuckled and lead me to my room, immediately sitting me in front of my vanity. Rosalie showed Alice my dress, and they immediately began doing my hair.
I don't even know how long it took for them to finish. They were really going all out! They curled all of my hair before beginning on the updo they had planned. When they were done, it was half-up, half-down and there were two large braids that swept the side of my head and led into my ponytail. They had also taken the time to add an assortment of small white flower pins that were surrounded by small diamonds all throughout the sides and back of my hair. It was truly beautiful!
They then proceeded to do my makeup. Rosalie and I informed Alice of my desire to have a natural look, and thankfully she agreed quickly. It didn't take near as much time to do my makeup as it did to do my hair, and I was thankful, not knowing how much longer I could sit in this stupid chair.
"Okay. We're going to go get ready now. It should only take about fifteen minutes. In the meantime, you get dressed in your ball gown, and when we get back, we'll do any finishing touches!" Alice beamed. She and Rosalie exited quickly and I didn't hesitate to start getting dressed. I put on my gown and was overjoyed when I realized I had opted for a gown with no annoying zipper in the back. I looked at myself in the mirror, admiring how well Alice and Rose had done with my look.
Soon enough, Alice came back into the room in her gown, looking radiant. I expected Rosalie to be right behind her, but Alice closed the door behind her as soon as she came in.
"Where's Rose?" I asked.
"She went to make sure Emmett was actually getting ready. I told her I'd check on you." She answered and I smiled. "You look stunning, Renesmee." She told me and I blushed, turning away so she wouldn't see. "You're mom used to do the same thing when I told her she was beautiful." She chuckled. "She'd blush like crazy and hide her face in Ed—you're father." Her smile seemed to fade a bit.
"What's wrong, Ali?" I asked her. She shook her head.
"I can't help but wonder what will happen after tonight." She told me. I knew what she was referring to. "We'll have to leave, but then what? Ness, now that I know that I'm an aunt and my best friend is alive— I can't leave you guys. I don't think I could possibly bring myself to make that mistake again." She said, honestly. I could hear the heartbreak in her words. I wondered what she meant about again. I was going to ask before she pulled me into a hug, carefully avoiding messing up my dress or hair.
"The past hundred years hasn't been easy for any of us, so I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for you and Bella." She looked extremely sad while she said this. "I just want you to know that from now until forever, you have us—both you and Bella." I smiled, blinking back the tears in my eyes. She pulled away and held my hands in hers. "I love you, Renesmee. In fact, all of us do, whether they realize or not." I froze, replaying the words she had just said in my mind. Before I realized what I was doing I threw my arms around her and pulled her into a hug.
"I love you too, Aunt Alice."
Author's Note:
Sorry, this was more of a filler chapter. The next chapter is the ball. I apologize in advance. This week I have a gigantic research essay to write, so I don't know that I'll be able to update next Sunday (I'm sorry! Don't kill me! Senior year is ROUGH).
I hope you still enjoyed the chapter.
Leave any predictions or questions in a review. I love reading your reviews! I think a good goal for this chapter would be to get to 255 reviews.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and alerted! You're amazing!
Until next time, Taylor