I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.
A huge thank you to my beta Madmooey18 for putting in the effort and helping me make this story what it is.
Author's Note at the end.
She is quite tall and lean, with cascading reddish brown wavy hair blowing in the wind. Her heart shaped face is framed by fringes. Her upper lip is slightly bigger than the lower one and her nose and eyes are perfectly proportioned for her face.
She looks like a dream and frankly he wants to go talk to her and yet he is scared shitless of her.
His dreams are squashed when an older man walks around from the other side of the car and places an arm around her. Then he realizes that the man with her is Phil Dwyer. All of the color drains from his face. She is old enough to be his daughter.
He doesn't know what to make of this. How can the same man who called Alice a kid only less than a month ago and reminisced about the day her and his step daughter were in high school, go around and be with a woman young enough to be their age?
She is quite young. He wouldn't give her a day over 24 and he is being generous here.
He finds his siblings and Aro laughing and laughs automatically with them without checking if they are laughing at him. Aro wouldn't laugh at him. That is when she sets her sight on him.
His eyes are an unusual shade of green. She locks eyes with him and something in them makes her never want to look away. She almost leans forward; that is the wake up call she needs. She has no business staring at men and forming crushes let alone strange connections.
She tries to seek out the source of the laughter as she avoids staring at the green-eyed man until she finds it and then she nudges Phil and whispers, "I just spotted Aro."
As if just realizing that he is not alone, he turns towards her and asks, "Who is Aro?"
"He is my godfather."
Understanding dawns on Phil and he replies, "Let's go and say hi," and then she leads him in his direction. It's safe to assume that Phil never knew what went down, but he knows enough to know that Aro was a source of immense support for her.
"He is the guy with the long black hair," she whispers.
Phil stares at him for five seconds before his face expression changes and he replies, "I know the men he is talking to."
Mainly, the green eyed man and the other two guys. Just her luck. Now she can not just say hi to Aro and leave. She will be forced to chat with him.
Since when have you become afraid of speaking to a guy?
Since he got both of our tongues tied. Let's hope you don't say something stupid.
Me? Let's hope you actually say something.
For a couple of seconds, he stares into her eyes. Everything goes still. Everyone around them ceases to exist. It's like the entire universe is out of focus and she is the only thing he can clearly see. There is no one but them.
Then she breaks away and everything comes at him in a screeching halt. He blinks once, twice, trying again to get accustomed to the sounds and sights around him. He tries to seek out her eyes but she refuses to meet them despite looking in his general direction.
She whispers something to Phil and he whispers back a question if his expression is any indication. She replies with something that makes Phil look at him and Edward starts wondering to himself if they are talking about him. Then Edward notices that Phil isn't looking at him; he is looking in his direction.
Then Phil's eyes sparkle with recognition and they both walk towards him with purpose and he is left wondering again if they were talking about him, but not for long because soon he hears a voice say, "if I didn't know any better, I would say someone is blasting the soundtrack of a cheap horror film, but it turns out that's you laughing."
Before he can register the sound of bells he just got exposed to, Aro spins around and greets its source with a hug, "Bella darling, what brings you here?"
She pulls back and tells him, "It's always nice to see you, although I should be the one asking this question since last time I checked you don't call New York City home." Despite pulling back, she is still holding one of his hands and a smile teases the edge of her lips showing that she isn't serious despite her tone telling otherwise.
"Well, Bella, sometimes a person can have many places to call home and sometimes home can be where family is, in this case, my nephews," Aro replies.
Bella is surprised to say the least since she knows that Aro's sons are the only boys in his family but tries to not make a deal out of it when she replies, "Nephews? I guess I am in luck to run into you visiting them."
Smiling at her, he says, "Not as lucky as I, dear." Then he drops her hand and points at the three men behind him and says, "Speaking of my nephews, this is Emmett, Jasper, and Edward Cullen."
Emmett Cullen looks the older out of the three. He has quite the muscle mass that makes him seem intimidating. The dark eyes and hair add to the edge he exudes as he stares her and Aro down. His only saving grace is the dimpled smile he throws her way when his name is said.
Jasper is the most physically unique out of the three of them. With shoulder-length blonde hair and his arms folded against his chest, he stands slightly shorter than both of his siblings as he glares at her and Phil.
She fights the urge to demand to know what their problem is. It almost feels like walking into a fighting ring in the middle of a fight. What is their problem with her? What is their problem with Phil and Aro?
Then, there is the hottie.
Shut up.
Admit it. You think he is hot and you hate that you can't ogle him with too many eyes on you.
Shut up.
She is frustrated by the part of her that is attracted to him but before her inner filter kicks in, she says, "I would say, it's nice meeting you but I don't know you well enough to say that." She pauses in horror over what she said, but manages to maintain a neutral expression and turn to Aro to say, "Aro this is Phil, the man who had the honor of raising me in my early teen years. Phil, you already know who this is." She makes a show of saying that and throws one hand up and the other toward Phil, anything to get everyone to forget what she just said.
Dismissing her abrupt behavior, Aro rests his hand against her bicep and jokes, "Honor? I don't believe that for a second. Teen you sounds like a nightmare."
Both Phil and Emmett laugh at her, but she doesn't let it get to her and tilts her head to the side as she replies, "Oh, Aro, I didn't know that we have made a habit of being honest with each other. I mean I have always thought that you didn't have any nephews."
That sobers up Aro quickly and he rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment and replies, "You are right. I count them as nephews. It's a long story that I will explain to you later," as he rushed to the last part.
Edward watches as their discussion devolves into some cat and mouse game between Bella and Aro and realizes with striking horror that if he doesn't get involved, the discussion will end soon and he will have no reason to talk to her or hear her talk. If he doesn't speak now, he won't get the chance to make an impression on her.
"Aro, Jasper, Emmett and I happen to know Phil." Everyone turns to him as if noticing only noticing his presence.
"Really?" Aro asks looking surprised.
Phil nods his head and says, "John Hale and I happen to do business together." Aro nods his head in recognition and Bella makes sure to shelve that name for now and ask later since he is obviously someone of importance.
"You were friends with my girlfriend in high school too," Jasper states speaking for the first time since she met him.
"Really? Whom? Please don't tell me Jessica. I can't stand her," Bella tells him saying her last sentence dismissively. She hopes it's Jessica because she doesn't know this dude, but she doesn't like what she has seen so far. She really can't imagine any high school friend she had giving this man the light of day. Jessica ending up with him would make her feel so good about herself. That girl loved to mock her.
Phil rolls his eyes at her and tells her, "Bella thinks less frenemies and more best friends."
Bella looks at him, really looks at him and then she spots it, and it dawns on her, "Oh my God," she pauses for a second and takes a step back, and continues with confidence, "Yes I see that. How long have the two of you been together?"
That girl's taste in men didn't get any better with time. Good thing I am back in her life.
"Did you even figure out who my girlfriend is?" Jasper almost demands in an accusatory tone.
Looking at him like he is slow, she tells him shrugging her shoulders, "Duh! Alice." Bella ignores his rude tone. Any other time, she would have made a big deal out of it, but this is Alice they were talking about. She isn't interested in defending her honor if it will stand between her and Alice.
In retrospect, this interaction will mark the beginning of a tremulous relationship between her and Jasper. There will be moments when they will fight over Alice, and there will be times when he and Alice will fight over Bella, but ultimately, the moments that will be defining of their relationship will be the ones when they set their differences aside to protect Edward.
Trying to find an in, Edward jokes, "Do you have a sixth sense like Alice? Is having that contagious? Because I don't have it yet."
Turning toward Edward and addressing him personally for the first time, she states, "Alice does not have a sixth sense. Alice's sense is nothing but a bit of luck, a healthy ego, and a whole lot of delusion," then she returns her gaze to Jasper and tells him, "The scarf around your neck. Alice was obsessed with this knitting pattern in high school. I have a scarf like yours she gifted me in high school."
Noticing the slight change in Jasper's expression, Phil states, "I can see why you think that but it's not the same. It's slightly different."
Bella opens her mouth to disagree with Phil but the look he gives her makes her close her mouth then turn to Jasper and notices the vein popping in his forehead which prompts her to say, "Let me see," she steps closer and stares at the scarf for a minute, then continues, "Yeah you are right. This is more intricate. She hated this pattern and found it difficult to knit. You must be very special to her." She ends her statement with a smile hoping that she didn't throw her friend under the bus with her previous statement.
Noticing the rising tension, Aro interjects and claps his hands loudly then says, "What kind of luck."
Bella turns to Aro and smiles at him as she says, "I know, right? I am so happy that I ran into you. I have been meaning to try and find her but moving has been hectic. Can you send her my number?"
Then on second thought she turns to Jasper and asks, "Or would you like to give it to me?"
"I don't have my phone on me," Jasper states stiffly.
"I would offer to write it on your hand since I have a pen on me, but Alice is one to shoot first and ask questions later. I have no reason to believe that her aim has gotten any better with time."
It's interesting how within minutes of returning to her life, Bella has once again reverted to playing the defender and big sister role in their relationship even though Alice is a year older. He might take this statement as an insult, and in that case it's good for him to know that she is not to be messed with.
And if he doesn't, then he doesn't.
Interestingly enough Jasper doesn't take it as an insult and cracks a smile before saying, "Knowing her terrible aim, neither of us will get hit. It will probably be Edward."
Everyone laughs at that and before Edward can stop himself, he finds himself asking, "So you have seen her with a gun?"
He is finding himself more and more intrigued by the woman in front of him. She has no problem knocking his brother, someone people are very intimidated by, down a peg. She can hold her own against Aro. She is funny, sarcastic, quick-witted, and has this magnetic ability that is holding him captive.
Phil answers him, "I used to take both of them to the shooting range. Alice would aim for the head only to shoot the foot."
"Of my target," Bella adds.
Everyone laughs at her statement. Everyone in this group has been a witness to Alice's legendary shooting skills, or her lack of.
Edward decides to tell Aro, Bella and Phil his favorite shooting mishap with Alice and has everyone on the edge of their seats when he says, "So here we were following an excited Alice who wouldn't stop raving about her first kill, only to find our dad lying face down with a bullet in his butt."
Laughing loudly, Bella exclaims, "She didn't."
"Oh, she did, and after apologizing to dad, she saw a bird in the distance and tried to shoot it. Thankfully, mum saved the day and took the gun away. She could have very likely hurt someone else," Edward replies looking at her.
Then, and only then, does Bella realize that she has taken a step toward him. She can lie to herself and pretend that it has everything to do with Alice and nothing to do with the narrator of the story but Bella hasn't formed a habit of lying to herself and she isn't about to start now.
Hello lovely people,
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Tell me your thoughts, and theories in the review section.
What do you think of their first meeting and how do you think Edward will react when he finds out that Bella is Aro's goddaughter? What do you think will happen when Bella and Edward meet next time?
I will be updating the next chapter next Friday. Maybe two days in advance, if I can finish it earlier.
Until then,
Stay safe.