Bella woke up to eleven missed calls the next morning. All within a minute of each other. All Edward.

Groaning, she stretched, feeling her joints pop and her muscles ache. She had hiked about ten miles yesterday—around three of which were mostly downhill. Jasper had walked with her for the first six, and then deemed it appropriate for her to finish the remaining on her own, since they had been mostly down to civilization, and further from the Cullen hunting grounds.

She felt the discomfort in her calves and thighs as she waddled around her room, waddled to her bathroom, and then finally, dressed for the day, slowly made her way down the stairs.

With each step down, she winced.

Charlie was sitting at the dining table, and he pointed his steaming mug of coffee at her. "You didn't get beaten up did you?"

Bella laughed through the pain. "I went on a hike."

"Yeah? I think you need to go back to bed. You should get your endurance up, girl."

What she really needed was to stretch out. And then, she needed to work on her endurance. She had told herself she would resume running, hadn't she?

Her phone buzzed to life with another call from Edward. She put it on silent and tossed it onto the kitchen counter. She grabbed some tasteless, boring, good-for-the-heart cereal and scattered some into a bowl. Why did her dad love this stuff?

The screen blinked open to another phone call. She sighed, pouring some milk, and watching it drown the little wheat particles. She felt distant. A little out of body. The phone call reminded her that she needed to deal with this, and she didn't want to deal with it at all.

Charlie said something, but she didn't really hear it.

And then, he tried again. "You're a little off today, kid. What's up?"

She placed the milk down. "Nothing really. Just Edward." She sat down beside him on their dining table and reached for the pot of coffee. "It's fine."

"Just fine?"

"Yeah."

He took a sip from his mug. "Alright." He paused. "Do I need to get out the shotgun?"

"You definitely should not do that." Mostly because it wouldn't work.

"Yeah, old tactics don't work in the new world. Now, I can probably send him a, what, angry twat? Tweet?"

Bella groaned. "Please don't say twat."

He chuckled and tapped a hand on the table. "So, what's going on?"

Controlling behavior. Involuntary abstinence. He was a bloodthirsty vampire who could kill her at any moment. "I just don't know if we're right for each other."

"Huh."

Huh was right. For starters, they weren't even the same species. "It feels like we're on two different planets."

"Huh."

That was the extent of relationship advice she was going to get from her father. She sipped at her coffee, shoveled bland cereal in her mouth, and listened to him talk about college football. It was a good Saturday morning, until Edward came knocking.

Bella opened the front door to soft pink lilies. They were blooming wide and proud in a pretty bowed vase. Edward held them out to her.

Their sweet scent felt just a little sickening. "Why did you come?"

"Good morning, Bella." He smiled that smile. He knew what he was doing.

"Why did you come?"

"I wanted to check in on you. And apologize. You haven't been answering my calls."

"Let the boy in, Bella," Charlie called from the kitchen.

Edward was lucky her father had such good manners. She bit back a sigh as he shuffled inside.

"Coffee, Edward?" Charlie asked as Edward set the vase down on the dining table.

"No, thank you, sir." He then sat awkwardly, alone, at the table, as Charlie and Bella loaded the dishwasher.

"Are you following the Huskies this year?" Charlie asked, always quick with the small talk. "Game's on tonight."

"No, sir. I'm not much of a football guy."

"I can see that," Charlie muttered, and he probably thought Edward couldn't hear him. How unfair. "I think Bella's not much of a football gal either, but she'll humor me sometimes."

Bella simply smiled at her father.

"How's Dr. Cullen?"

"Business as usual, sir."

"Your mother came by and brought a few platters of brownies to the station. Thank her again for me, will you?"

Of course she had. Bella looked down at the linoleum. A vampire had just casually walked into the Forks Police Station and delivered sweets and treats.

"I will let her know, sir."

"Right." Charlie gave him one nod, and then a quick, wide-eyed glance at Bella—an apparent good luck. Bella mentally grumbled at him for forcing her to deal with her own problems as she watched him ascend the stairs.

She stood in the kitchen and crossed her arms, though she felt she couldn't be too stern. Edward's behavior yesterday had been scary, and she wasn't exactly sure how to address him without pushing him into that state again.

She had to be cautiously diplomatic with her boyfriend. How ridiculous that was.

But he was the one to initiate. "Bella, I'm sorry. For yesterday." He got up from his seat and approached her in the kitchen. Bella felt herself press against the counter as he stood just within a foot. "I hadn't hunted enough, and it impacted my emotional reasoning. I wanted you close, and I didn't want you to go home."

Bella tilted her head to look up at him. "If you're having issues with your bloodlust, shouldn't I be as far away from you as possible?"

"I can control it," he said, perhaps a little too strongly. "I can."

Could he? The boy frenzies with his bloodlust.

When his hand reached out to her face, she involuntarily flinched. And that seemed like it burned him.

"Bella," he said softly. The tips of his fingers brushed her cheek, her chin. He was watching her closely, intently.

She placed a hand on his forearm to encourage away his touch. His fingers only retreated because he let them.

"I want this weekend to myself."

His tone lowered, disappointed. "Bella—"

"Please, Edward." She looked over his shoulder. "I need to prepare for this exam."

He considered for a moment, eyebrows drawn. "At least answer my calls." When she refused to look at him, she felt two cold hands on her cheeks, directing her attention to his face. His eyes were deep gold. "Okay?"

She could feel her pulse in her throat as she swallowed. "Okay."

When she felt his lips on her temple, her eyes closed tightly. She released a breath of relief when he retreated to the dining table. Her heart was beating wildly, the cortisol keeping her on high alert, ready for the threat

He gestured at the flowers. "These are for you. I thought they would look lovely in your bedroom."

She could only nod.

"Let me know if you need anything. You're going to do great on your exam."

She nodded again. "Thank you."

He then smiled at her, kind and sincere. It was so different from the way he had looked at her yesterday. When he got to the front door, Bella followed like a good host. He stood in the doorway and gave her a grand smile.

"I love you, Isabella Swan."

The moment the words left his mouth, Bella's gaze flew over his shoulder. "Have a good day, Edward."

That was when she closed the door. And the flowers never made it up to her bedroom.

She threw them into the garden.

More lilies were at her doorstep the next day. But instead of Edward, Alice Cullen was the vampire that accompanied them.

She looked too pretty to be standing in their front yard that desperately needed weeding. She was examining their rusty outdoor grill when Bella opened the door.

"Good morning, Bella," she called warmly.

"Morning Alice," Bella responded, just a little warily.

"I brought you some flowers." Her hand gestured to the vase of lilies on the greeting mat. "I see the other ones didn't work out."

Bella could feel a hot wave of embarrassment travel up her body as her eyes darted to the bunches of lilies that were haphazardly thrown into the weeds.

"It doesn't matter," Alice dismissed. "Now you have fresh ones."

Her smile was wide, and she bounced over to her with a gleeful kick in her step. Looking at her through Jasper's lens, at that moment, she couldn't really understand what was so dreadfully frightening about her. Her premonition was unsettling in nature, but she was generally more overly-pleasant than threatening. "Do you want to go on a walk?"

Bella glanced up at the cloudy sky and leaned her side against the doorway. "No, not really. We were just about to have breakfast."

Her smile was plastered on like pure concrete. "I can wait."

Moments later, Alice Cullen sat on their decades-old loveseat, her hands folded neatly on her lap, and her legs crossed tightly. Bella ducked into the kitchen and poured herself another cup of coffee as Charlie tried to coax a vampire into breakfast.

"We got pancakes, scrambled eggs, two buckets of coffee, potatoes…" Charlie counted off as he placed silverware on the table. "Help yourself, Alice."

"Thank you, Chief Swan, but I just ate."

Charlie grumbled teasingly. "It's hardly eight in the morning. And a Sunday! You young people like to get up before the crack of dawn and finish your entire day before I even wake up."

Bella brought the pancakes to the table and set her mug down. "I know no one who does that, dad."

"Another unrealistic standard."

Alice made surface level conversation with Charlie as they got through breakfast. Bella silently picked at her eggs, occasionally smiled at her dad, but mostly watched Alice.

The warmth she emitted shouldn't come so naturally to someone who was dead. Her breaths were calm and even, and she blinked at appropriate intervals. Her tone was light, and her jokes were funny. She kept the conversation about Charlie and Forks, Washington. Her curiosity came off as endearing, as she listened more than she contributed. She never once mentioned jetting off to other continents on a regular basis. Her red Porsche wasn't even parked in their driveway.

Alice Cullen carefully curated herself to be approachable, and it was a skill she consistently excelled at.

Soon enough, Bella was lured into walking down a hiking trail at the back of her house. She was once again alone with a vampire, heading deeper into the woods. If she was going to keep up this trend, she should probably get better hiking boots.

"Please don't tell me you're making me do this to talk about Edward," Bella said. The discomfort in her muscles didn't help the tension in her tone.

"I'm sorry about Edward, Bella," she said. "The way he's behaving is unacceptable."

Her words felt refreshingly validating. "I agree."

"I hope you understand that his reasoning suffers when he doesn't hunt enough."

"That shouldn't be an excuse."

"It shouldn't," she agreed.

"I should have no reason to be scared of him."

Her smile faded only slightly. "Right."

"A relationship should imply equality."

"True."

"And if we're not on the same level, then—"

But Alice seemed to have enough. Her smile vanished, replaced by a cool, stern gaze. "Bella, he's working on it."

They walked in awkward silence for a few moments before Bella finally questioned, "Why are you here, Alice? You're not here for Edward."

"No, I'm here for you. My brother's behavior is not something I will tolerate. It's good to see that you won't, either."

She had still defended him, though, hadn't she?

And then Alice's smile was back, and her warmth turned back on. "I wanted to come by primarily to see if you had given my question some thought."

"Your question?"

"If you'd want to change."

There wasn't much she could do about that decision at the moment. Bella stared straight ahead. "I don't know enough."

"What do you mean?"

"As I've told Edward, I need to explore what exactly I'd be saying yes to." The idea itself was still an incredulous one. There were so many things she had to consider, and she probably hadn't even scratched the surface on what it would be like to be a vampire. And what about her future? Her father?

"Well, that makes sense," Alice murmured. "We can give you an idea on what being a Cullen is like."

"Being a Cullen is just a subset of your world, from what I understand."

Alice didn't reply for a beat. She opened her mouth, and turned to her. "You've been speaking to Jasper."

"I can see why he doesn't join the Cullen baseball team."

"And why is that?"

Bella smiled back, a little smug. "He's not a Cullen."

"No," she mused. "He is not. And neither are you, Miss Swan." There was a twinkle in her eye. "I hope we can do something about that."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, Edward loves you, Bella. He's going to propose." She placed a slender finger up to her temple. "I've seen it."

Bella's anxiety hit her abruptly. "We haven't discussed anything like that, Alice."

"It just makes sense. The family loves you. Edward loves you. I love you."

She was going to say it. She needed to. "But I don't know if I love Edward."

"Not yet, you don't."

"Alice—"

"These things take time, sweet Bella. You're already beautiful. Could you imagine what you would be like as a vampire?"

"But, I don't—"

"And you will figure it out." She stopped them and stepped in front of her. A piece of paper was in Bella's palm the next second. "Here's Jasper's number. I think he's the best resource for you to get a more… holistic view of our world."

Bella looked down at her hand, and then up at her suspiciously. "Why Jasper?"

"Why not? You seem to know plenty about him already."

She felt she knew nearly nothing about Jasper. She didn't even know his last name. "Shouldn't Edward be my resource?"

Alice simply smiled as they walked side-to-side. "I wish he could be. Really, I do. He can't give you what you're looking for."

"Because he'd rather be human?"

It didn't seem like Alice had expected for her to say that. "He'd rather protect your humanity. And because of that, he would be a… reluctant teacher."

"And Jasper—he's the right teacher?"

"For the moment."

Bella stared down at her left palm— at the tiny square paper. But then her hand closed in a tight fist over it, because her right forearm was burning. It was a sharp, crushing pain, and Bella bit her lip to prevent herself from crying out.

But the moment she turned her head to Alice, the pain was gone, replaced by a dull ache.

She heard Alice's voice. "Bella, are you okay? I'm so sorry."

She looked down at her forearm and didn't want to move it an inch with the fear of that searing pain jolting up her arm. The skin felt raw. Soon, red marks the shape of slender fingers began to form.

Her eyes flew to Alice's, which were wide with caution as they darted across the marks on her skin. "I had a vision, and I grabbed you. I didn't mean—"

"It's okay," Bella wheezed. It didn't feel like her arm was broken, and she probably didn't need an X-ray.

"Should I call Carlisle?"

"No, no," she said, then mustered the courage to touch the area. Too much pressure definitely stung. "It'll bruise, but nothing's broken."

"Good, good," she was murmuring, staring uncertainly at her arm.

"What did you see?" Bella asked, lightly touching and prodding the skin at various places.

"What?"

"Your vision."

"Oh." Alice's eyes were still wide, still fixated on Bella's arm that was getting redder and redder with the marks of her fingers. "Nothing too important."

"Okay." Bella didn't think she had ever witnessed Alice have a vision before. "Do you usually have some sort of a physical reaction?"

"Sometimes," she replied. "Occasionally, I could lose my sense of balance. I'll grab onto something to steady myself."

"And today, that something was me."

"Unfortunately." Alice held on tightly to her own hands, as if afraid that they might do something unexpected. "Should we start heading back?"

"Probably. I'd love to get some ice on this."

"Sweater weather to the rescue," Bella whispered to herself as she pulled on an overly long-sleeved sweater, effectively shielding her arms from the world. The dislocated shoulder was easy to explain, but bruises of finger marks on your skin? That would be hard to get past Charlie.

Alice had left Bella at the door right before another round of apologies. And within the next ten minutes, Charlie entered her bedroom and delivered a few boxes of chocolates and another big bouquet of flowers.

"Edward appears to be very upset," he noted as he placed the big basket of treats onto her desk.

But it wasn't Edward, Bella knew. This was probably the only way Alice Cullen knew how to show human sympathy.

Bella laid her injured arm out beside her on the bed. Now, both of her arms had seen the wrath of vampires. Maybe her limbs were just taking turns. By this theory, she'd need to watch out for her legs.

She glanced at her phone that lay beside her, in which she had already inputted and saved Jasper's phone number. The contact she had created for him stared back at her, and it was incomplete.

She decided to shoot him a text. It took annoyingly longer than usual, with only one hand.

Hi. This is Bella Swan. Is this Jasper?

She let her phone drop beside her and stared at the ceiling. Her phone buzzed with a response soon after.

Yes.

The plainness of his response made Bella smile. What is your last name? Not Cullen. Obviously.

He responded, almost instantly. Whitlock.

Bella stared at the last name, and then updated his contact name.

Jasper Whitlock.

And then she jerked up to sit when the phone screen blanked, and she was receiving an incoming call. From Jasper Whitlock.

She cleared her throat, her heart rate certainly elevated. "Hello?"

"Did Alice put you up to this?"

As a matter of fact, she had. "Maybe."

There was a pause on the phone, and then, "Use it sparingly."

The three distinct beeps told her that he had hung up.

Bella typed out another text.

You know, Alice doesn't seem as scary as you make her out to be.

But as she shifted on the bed, her arm stung. And Alice's reddish-purple fingers on her skin persuaded her to delete it.

A/N: This chapter: Sickening lilies, teaching arrangements, and slender bruises.

A little taste for what's coming up:

Jasper put the car in drive. "Esme has a cabin just at the edge of town. If you'd like, I can bring you there."

"A cabin?"

"A sanctuary, if you will."

"For what?"

"Solitude. The Cullens are a clan of six. No house is big enough for the separation one might need."

Bella thought for a moment. "Would she mind?"

Jasper stared at her. He wasn't very visible in the dark car, surrounded by the black night. But even the alcohol couldn't blur his sharp, crimson eyes. "No."

See you next week.