I thought I'd have this chapter posted a couple days ago, but as we all know, FFN was offline over the weekend…and knowing the site was down kinda killed my drive to write, so that when it came back I didn't have a completed chapter ready to go anyway. So that's what I get for being pessimistic.
When Bo first brought up her idea of taking Bella to Seattle for the weekend, having been inspired by Dyson mentioning that he had some old friends in the city he'd like to look up while he was so close, Kenzi wasn't sure how to feel about it. She'd been stunned when Bo told her that the lovey-dovey-est couple she'd ever seen had hit the pause button, not because she didn't think their codependence was problematic, but because she hadn't expected Bella to ever snap out of that gag-inducingly lovestruck attitude she always slipped into around Edward long enough to see the red flags.
Now that she had, Kenzi supposed she deserved some credit and that her efforts to reclaim her missing backbone were admirable and all that, and naturally Bo was the best person to help her do it…but she still couldn't pretend she was thrilled at the idea of them going away for the weekend, leaving her behind with the vampire family straight out of a 1950s sitcom.
"I'll make it up to you," Bo promised when she saw Kenzi's crestfallen expression. "Maybe we can do something together soon, just the two of us. After all, Bella's still in school most of the time."
Yeah, for about three or four more weeks, Kenzi thought glumly. Then she'll be out for summer vacay, which means she'll be hanging around Bo even more.
Before she could figure out how she was going to survive an entire summer with Bella, Alice piped up. "And if you're worried about getting bored this weekend, you can always go shopping with me and Rosalie. We need to start working on our prom looks, and we'd love to have your input, wouldn't we, Rose?"
"Sure, why not? I'm sure she'll help us put together the perfect outfits – if the prom committee decides to go with a gothic dungeon theme this year."
"Hey, you two can't hog her all weekend," Emmett complained as Kenzi responded to his mate's teasing by sticking out her tongue at the blonde. "She promised to play the latest Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto games with me!"
"Don't worry, I think I can squeeze kicking your butt into my busy social calendar," Kenzi assured him. Then she turned to Bo and said magnanimously, "All right, I guess you can have this weekend for yours and Bella's excellent adventure; looks like I'll be able to find other stuff to fill up my dance card."
"Thanks, Kenz." Bo hugged her and kissed her on the cheek, relieved to know her best friend wouldn't be left at loose ends without her. Even though Bella needed her more right now, she didn't want to make Kenzi feel that she was being pushed aside. It was also good to see how the Cullen family as a whole had embraced her, to know that they appreciated her quirky charms even if their lifestyle was a bit too tame for Kenzi's liking. "You're the best."
###
Kenzi wasn't the only one who received the news of the sisters' planned outing with mixed emotions. Though Edward wasn't present when Bo broached the subject with Kenzi, he was able to hear their conversation from his room, which he hadn't left since he'd returned home. Learning that Bo intended to take Bella into the heart of fae society, where she would meet creatures who possessed a wide array of dangerous powers she'd never encountered before and lived by rules she didn't understand (if they were lucky enough not to cross paths with renegades who chose to ignore the rules) was almost enough to break him out of his self-imposed isolation; he leapt off his sofa and stormed across the room, fully intending to charge downstairs and demand to know if Bo had utterly taken leave of her senses, when a sudden burst of doubt froze him in place with his hand on the doorknob. After all, wasn't this precisely the sort of behavior that had driven Bella away?
He was positive she wouldn't appreciate any attempt on his part to interfere with her plans, and angering her even more than he already had was the last thing he wanted to do, but was he really supposed to stand by silently while she walked straight into a potentially dangerous situation? How was he supposed to do that?
Of course, she wouldn't be exploring the secret society of the fae alone; she would be with Bo and Dyson, the latter of whom had successfully navigated their world for centuries, and the former… Well, she might not have seamlessly integrated herself into the world she belonged to, what with her determination to spit in the face of ancient customs that had endured for thousands of years, yet somehow, against all odds, she had survived. Together, the two of them ought to be able to keep Bella safe in spite of her remarkable talent for attracting danger, which seemed to be another trait she and Bo shared.
Perhaps there was something more at play here than his fears for Bella's safety…like the possibility of her meeting someone new, another fae who was just as capable of satisfying her appetite as Edward. Was that the true source of the dread that seemed to be gnawing at his insides – simple jealousy?
If he was honest with himself, he'd been afraid of losing Bella from the moment he fell in love with her, though his reasons had changed recently. At first, when he thought she was human, he had expected that she would eventually come to her senses and realize being with him wasn't worth constantly risking her life, or that one day she would simply outgrow him. She might have said she would always want to be with him while she was swept up in the passion of first love, but surely she couldn't ignore the reality of what she would miss out on by spending her life with someone who was stuck at seventeen forever. Surely, whether it was in a year or even three or five years, it would dawn on her that she wanted to experience the full range of what life as a human had to offer, and she would want someone who could grow and change along with her, who didn't have to hide in the shadows both literally and figuratively.
Yes, he could have stopped that from happening by making her a vampire, which seemed to be the outcome Alice's visions were pointing toward, but he was convinced Bella would have come to regret it once she realized, too late, what she had given up, however long it would have taken for that day to arrive. Maybe she would even have resented him for it, and he couldn't have borne that.
Then James' attack revealed her true nature, and his entire world had tilted sharply on its axis. In the blink of an eye, all his guilt over pulling her into the dangerous world of the fae and his worries that she would want to leave it behind one day, to retreat into the safety and normalcy of the world she belonged in, were wiped away with the revelation that Bella actually belonged to the same world he did. He wasn't depriving her of the normal life she would have had without him, she didn't have to become anything other than what she already was in order to stay with him, and there wouldn't be an issue with her outgrowing him when feeding on his chi would effectively halt her own aging before she got any older than him.
He should have been thrilled, overjoyed, ecstatic, and he was…even if a tiny part of him couldn't help wishing she had been almost any other species of fae. His brothers may have thought he was incredibly lucky to have a succubus for a mate, but try as he might, he'd never been able to completely silence the little voice in his head (which for once belonged to no one but himself) that kept reminding him that, unlike his own species, succubi were not known for devoting themselves exclusively to a single partner. In fact, conventional wisdom held that monogamy was practically impossible for them, that even if they found a fae lover who could provide them with the chi they required, they would soon tire of being with the same person all the time.
Edward had tried to tell himself that Bella wasn't that type of person, that it would be different for them, and indeed, she'd never shown any real desire to be with anyone else while they were together, even if she had enjoyed herself a little too much for his liking when Bo persuaded her to practice using her powers of seduction on those bar patrons in Port Angeles. They weren't together now, though, which of course meant she needed to find other sources of energy. Surely that wouldn't be a problem for her – Edward had always believed she could have anyone she wanted…and the thought of what might happen when she realized he was right made him feel as if the ground beneath his feet was crumbling away, leaving him to plunge headlong into a bottomless abyss.
What if, once she discovered the plethora of options available to her, she decided she didn't want to restrict herself to just being with him anymore? …Even worse, what if she no longer wanted to be with him in any capacity, and their break became permanent?
As that thought, which had been looming on the edges of his consciousness for some time, solidified in his mind at last, Edward slowly sank to the floor, where he sat with his back pressed against the wall, his breath coming to an abrupt halt as his chest constricted sharply. The knowledge of how many others desired Bella had always bothered him, and the idea of having to share her attention with anyone else was intolerable, but to not have her in his life at all…
He already knew he couldn't survive that.
###
Edward remained holed up in his room for most of the week, only emerging when it was time for school, until one day he received a phone call from one of the last people he would have expected to hear from: Charlie Swan.
"Listen, I hate to bug you, but we just got this new computer system down at the station, and I can't make heads or tails of it. Bella mentioned that you might be able to straighten it out…"
Edward remained silent for a moment as he weighed Charlie's request. Yes, his computer skills were sharp enough that he was confident he could handle whatever technological conundrum Charlie had gotten himself into, although he did not particularly want to go to the police station since that would entail leaving his room and mingling with other people while trying to act normal, as if his life wasn't falling apart. Surely there were other people Charlie could turn to; given Forks' limited funds, he doubted the city had managed to purchase anything that couldn't eventually be figured out by an average fifth-grader.
On the other hand, helping Bella's father might earn him some goodwill, whereas refusing almost certainly would not improve her feelings toward him one iota. With that in mind, he finally replied, "Yes, I can be there in twenty minutes."
Upon arriving at the station, however, Edward soon began to suspect he'd been lured there under false pretenses, since there was nothing wrong with Charlie's computer apart from a couple of programs that weren't loading correctly on the new system – an irritating problem, to be sure, but one Edward was certain Charlie could have sorted out himself sooner or later. Then there was the fact that Charlie hadn't spared a single thought for his computer since he'd entered Edward's telepathic range; all he was thinking about was how to segue into the topic of what exactly was going on between Edward and Bella.
Finishing his work in less than ten minutes, Edward announced, "Well, it looks like I'm done here," and stood up, but Charlie moved to block his way before he could escape.
"Before you go, I'd like a word." He gestured at the chair Edward had just vacated, and Edward reluctantly sat back down. "Look, I'm still not sure I understand everything that happened with you and Bella-"
"It was my fault," Edward interrupted. "All I ever wanted was to protect and take care of Bella, but it seems I took it too far, to the point where she felt smothered."
"Yeah, that's pretty much what she said. What I want to know is, what are you doing to fix it?"
"I'm not sure what I can do," Edward answered wearily, then added in a much quieter, smaller voice, "nor am I sure she wants me to."
Charlie's bushy eyebrows shot up as he fixed the vampire teen with an incredulous stare. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Bella told me that she needs time to rediscover herself, so I'm giving it to her. I suppose when she's finished reevaluating her life, then we'll see where I fit into it…if I still do."
"Don't be stupid," Charlie said sharply. "I see her every day when she comes home from school, and even though she tries not to show it, I can tell she isn't happy without you. I want her to be happy, Edward."
"So do I. Her happiness is all I want; I just don't know what it is she wants from me, or if I can give it to her."
Charlie exhaled hard through his nose while gazing down at Edward with a frustrated expression, feeling that his effort at knocking sense into the boy who had his daughter all tied up in knots wasn't going quite as well as he'd hoped. "Well, if you really do care about her as much as I think you do…just try, okay?"
"I'll certainly do that," Edward promised. Unfortunately, it was a promise he had no idea how to keep.
###
On Friday afternoon, Bo loaded a weekend's worth of clothes into her car and set out to pick Bella up when she got home from school. Kenzi waved goodbye as she drove away, then let her forced smile fall once she was out of sight. Sure, she had her own plans with various Cullens – stuff she was even looking forward to, since most of the family was actually pretty cool once you got past the fact that they were all law-abiding Light Fae – but no matter how much she liked them, none of them were Bo.
Dyson was gone too, having left on his bike hours ago, because even though he and the succubus sisters were going to the same city and intended to meet up there, he didn't want to intrude on their bonding time, and did want to have his own transportation available in case his plans for the weekend didn't always align perfectly with theirs. Kenzi had no idea how he'd managed to pack for a whole weekend while staying within the confines of what he could fit into his motorcycle's saddlebags, unless he'd borrowed some of Bo's trunk space; granted, he'd been forced to work with the same limits for his initial trip to Forks, but he had a lot more clothes now, since Alice had deemed his wardrobe woefully inadequate and took it on herself to remedy that.
Of course, he wasn't Bo either, but he was one of the first friends Kenzi had made among the fae, and he was the one who'd consoled her when she thought she was going to die from eating that aswang's stupid poisoned foot soup and Bo was off trying to get the cure with Lauren. Not that she didn't appreciate their efforts to actually save her life, but since Dyson couldn't have helped with their undercover mission, it meant a lot to her that he had taken the time to make sure she wasn't alone, just in case Bo had been too late. Now, even though she knew it wasn't entirely rational, that was exactly how she felt – alone.
As she clumped upstairs, intending to spend some time sulking over being abandoned by her best and oldest friends before she commenced having fun with her new friends – of course she wasn't going to waste the whole weekend being miserable, but she felt entitled to a short pouting session – the low strains of the most depressing music she'd ever heard reached her ears, reminding her that there was someone else in the house who was having a much worse time than her: Emo Eddie himself.
Abruptly changing course, Kenzi marched down the hall to Edward's room and flung open the door. Unsurprisingly, he was lying on a couch that had apparently taken the place of a bed in his room's layout, staring blankly up at the ceiling; Kenzi had never been in his room before, and it wasn't quite what she'd pictured, but his despairing pose was exactly what she would have imagined if she'd ever bothered to guess how he was spending his free time lately.
"Okay, that's it, enough with this mopey emo routine already. You're actually starting to make me feel bad for you, which is weirding me out since I normally have zero patience for the whole uptight, brooding, take-yourself-way-too-seriously vibe you put out."
If she was expecting Edward to be impressed by her dramatic entrance, she was sorely disappointed; his gaze barely flicked toward her for a second before returning to the ceiling. "I'm terribly sorry my heartbreak is inconveniencing you."
She was pretty sure he was going for derision, but his delivery was off – instead of snappy and acerbic, his voice just sounded dull. "You really aren't handling this whole break thing well, are you? I mean, how far down in the dumps do you have to be when you can't even pull off that sardonic dry wit you're normally so good at that's practically the only thing that keeps talking to you from being a total drag? Well, today's your lucky day – I just decided I'm going to help you turn that frown upside down."
That got him to look at her again, and this time his eyes stayed on her. "And just how do you propose to do that?"
"Easy-peasy – you're all sad over being on the outs with Bella, so I'm gonna help you get her back."
Instead of being properly grateful for this amazingly generous offer, Edward went back to staring at the ceiling. "Good luck with that. I've been thinking of nothing but how to mend our relationship all week, and I still don't know if I can do what needs to be done."
"Are you for real right now?" Kenzi scoffed. "Is not being an overprotective, controlling asshat really that hard?"
"Apparently so, since I didn't even realize I was being one until it was too late."
"True, but now that you know there's a problem, isn't that like the first step to fixing it? Pretty sure I read that in a self-help book somewhere. Now all you need is an attitude adjustment."
"Easier said than done, I'm afraid."
"What are you talking about? If you lurve Bella as much as you say you do, isn't it worth changing yourself a little to get her back?"
"You don't understand; humans are always growing, learning, evolving, so I'm sure achieving an 'attitude adjustment' must seem very simple to you, but my kind are different. When a person changes from human to vampire, it isn't just our bodies that become frozen in time, it's our minds as well. Yes, we're still capable of forming new memories, acquiring new knowledge, but our personalities, the essential core of who we are… That becomes set. Permanent. Unchanging. Immutable."
"Okay, okay, I get it," Kenzi exclaimed, waving her hands in a 'stop' gesture. "You don't have to resort to dictionary speak to get your point across. But I don't think you're really as much of a walking, talking time capsule as you're making it sound like – like you said, you can still learn stuff, and you're not still running around in powdered wigs and those stupid short pants guys used to wear that only come down far enough to meet your knee-length stockings."
"I never wore anything like that. I wasn't born until 1901, and Carlisle changed me in 1918." At Kenzi's blank look, Edward elaborated, "The attire you described went out of fashion sometime in the 1800s. I'm not that old."
"Good for you. Anyway, my point is that you have made some changes since then-"
"There's a substantial difference between updating your clothing to keep up with the times and altering a fundamental part of your worldview," Edward interrupted, exasperated. "I haven't done that since I was changed. Deep down, I'm still the same person I was more than a hundred years ago… At least I was until I met Bella. Suddenly, I began to want things that had never interested me before, to feel things I had never imagined I was capable of. I truly thought she had changed me…but I guess it wasn't enough. I brought into our relationship certain attitudes and behaviors which I suppose are terribly outdated from her perspective, which were only reinforced by my initial impression that she was human and what I had learned about how humans and fae are meant to relate to one another, and I don't know if I'll ever really be able to leave them behind. I don't know if I can be who she needs me to be," he finished sadly.
Once again, Kenzi felt a discomfiting stab of sympathy, like a bony finger poking her in the back; Edward's default state of mind might involve unreasonable amounts of angst over his vampiric nature and life in general, but it was obvious that he was in some serious, legit emotional pain right now. Making an effort to tone down her customary brusque flippancy, she said, "Maybe you just need some practice. Get up…scoot over…"
She yanked the throw pillow out from underneath his head, then proceeded to tug and push at him until he sat up and moved over so that she could sit beside him. "Now, let's try a little roleplay."
"Roleplay?" Edward repeated warily.
"Yup. I'll be Bella."
"And who am I?"
"You get to be Edward Cullen. Think you can handle that?"
"Well, it'll be challenging, but I'll do my best," he replied with a level of sarcasm even Kenzi considered excessive.
"Great. So, I'm Bella, and I tell you I want to do something risky like, say, mud wrestling with a wolf. What do you say?"
Her choice of hypothetical scenario earned an incredulous look from Edward, but he endeavored to treat it seriously nonetheless. "Well, I… Obviously I couldn't forbid you from partaking in whatever activities you wish, but I would strongly urge you to reconsider. Admirable as your bravery is, you could get hurt."
"Okay," Kenzi sighed, "maybe I'm not the best person to be doing this, because you're right – I could get hurt. Hell, Dyson could probably pound me into hamburger if he wanted to. All right, let's try something different; pretend you're doing this scene with Bo instead."
"Now you want me to pretend that you're Bo, pretending to be Bella?" Edward asked, eyebrows shooting up once more.
"What, is that too much for you? You know, for a guy who writes his own tunes, you're surprisingly lacking in the imagination department. Anyway, Bo-playing-Bella says she wants to bungee jump off the CN Tower, and you say…?"
A moment of silence ensued as he considered the proposed situation carefully. Unlike Kenzi, there was no doubt Bo possessed the physical prowess to pull off such a stunt; in fact, she was stronger and faster than he would have expected a primarily non-combative creature like a succubus to be, though he didn't know whether that was because some unknown factor had given her a natural advantage over the rest of her species (after all, her father – and Bella's – was still unidentified, so there was no telling what they might have inherited from him, although Edward suspected he was the source of their immunity to his mind-reading, which was definitely not a standard succubus ability) or if her edge was simply due to the fact that she had spent years actively training herself to fight and honing her physique. Even if she did sustain an injury, she still had her healing power to fall back on.
"If I were comparing Bella to Bo," he said slowly, "then I would believe her capable of doing anything she set her mind to."
"And you don't think Bo needs a guy hovering over her all the time, waiting to save her from slipping in puddles or stubbing her toe, do you?"
"Definitely not."
"Voilà, breakthrough accomplished," Kenzi declared with obvious satisfaction. "Just start treating Bella like she's Bo, and you've taken the first step on your journey to not being an overbearing jerk. You're welcome."
Edward, however, couldn't quite bring himself to share her enthusiasm. "The problem," he said in a much more subdued tone, "is that if Bella becomes any more like Bo…I'm not sure I'll still be able to relate to her. Truthfully, I already felt I was losing her before she requested this break."
"…Okay, that could be an issue," Kenzi admitted. Probably a big one, because if she was being honest, she couldn't see a girl like Bo with a guy like Edward. But then, even if Bella wants to be more like Bo, she's not going to literally turn into her…and there must be a reason she wanted to be with this guy in the first place. Out loud, she said, "Maybe you should talk to D about it, since he seems to have cracked the secret to successfully dating stubborn succubi, and you and me can keep working on your attitude shift."
"Thank you. I really do appreciate your time, especially since I know I'm not exactly your favorite person." He paused for a second, one corner of his mouth quirking upward ever so slightly as he added in a deadpan tone, "I want to learn from you, but I don't want to dress like you."
Kenzi blinked at him in astonishment. "Did you just quote Angel's line from when that Whistler guy pulled him out of the gutter and told him there was more to his redemption quest than subsisting on rat-burgers?"
"Why does that surprise you? As you may have noticed, there are several televisions in this house. We do occasionally turn them on."
"Yeah, but I figured you just watched boring stuff like golf tournaments and documentaries and, I don't know, guys in suits blabbing about the stock market – not anything good."
Edward responded to her disbelief with an innocent shrug. "Yes, well, when your survival depends on keeping your existence hidden from humans, it's always advisable to stay abreast of current popular perceptions of your species, just to see how close they are to the truth. Besides, some of the fictional portrayals of vampires throughout the years have been…rather entertaining. Others were simply, as you would say, cringe-worthy."
Kenzi let out a laugh filled with incredulous delight. "You can say it was just research all you want, but if you've watched Buffy and remembered actual dialogue, maybe you're not as much of a lost cause as I thought."
###
Upon arriving in Seattle, Bella was taken aback (and more than a little dismayed) to find that Bo had driven her not to some super-secret underground haven for supernatural creatures, but to a mall with throngs of what appeared to be perfectly ordinary humans streaming in and out of its doors.
"This is where all the fae hang out?" she asked, trying and failing to hide how underwhelmed she was. "In a mall? Or is the mall just a front, and the fae gathering place is underneath it?" she added hopefully.
Bo turned her head toward the passenger seat, eyeing her with obvious amusement. "What were you expecting, something like the vampire nightclubs from the Blade movies?"
Bella flushed at her sister's knowing smirk. "Well…yeah, I guess so."
Bo laughed, though not mockingly. "The truth is, you're not far off; Dyson says there are plenty of places like that – I've actually been in one back in Toronto – and that in this city, the clubs are probably the best place to meet fae in the late-teens-to-twenties age bracket, but… Can I be brutally honest with you?"
"About what?"
"Well, I'm assuming you don't want to hit the spots where older fae have bingo night, but if we're going to go somewhere we can meet people our own age…you'll never get in dressed like that."
"Huh?" Bella looked down at herself, mentally compared her jeans, t-shirt, and beaten-up old sneakers to the clothes she'd seen people wear in nightclub scenes from various movies and TV shows, and had to admit that Bo had a point. Then something else dawned on her, and she jerked her head up to fix Bo with a horrified stare. "That's why we're at the mall!" she exclaimed accusingly. "You want to take me shopping!"
"You don't have to make it sound like I'm dragging you off to some torture chamber," Bo replied defensively. "There's nothing wrong with putting a little effort into your appearance."
Bella ran her eyes over her sister, taking in the older woman's subtle yet artfully applied makeup and typically sexy outfit that already looked nightclub-ready, and blushed again at the realization that she might have unintentionally insulted her. "Sorry, I didn't mean… You look great, as always. It's just that the kind of shopping you and Kenzi must do to pull off your styles…it's not really my thing. I only shop for clothes when the ones I've got wear out or I outgrow them, although that's not such a problem anymore now that I don't think I'm getting any taller, and then I just go to the discount racks at the supermarket and buy whatever fits me."
By the time she finished her nervous rambling, her face was even redder, and she couldn't meet Bo's eyes anymore. Holy crow, she must think I'm pathetic.
When Bo spoke again after taking a minute to digest this, however, her voice didn't sound scornful, only curious. "Why? I mean, do you really not care what you wear, or…?"
"I've never been interested in following the latest trends, no. I figure as long as I don't look like a street urchin, what does the brand name on my jeans matter?"
"And you still felt that way after meeting Edward?" Bo asked gently. "It's just that you've told me that one of your major issues is that you never felt like you were good enough for him, and you mentioned feeling insecure about how you looked compared to vampire girls…"
"Who wouldn't feel insecure around Rosalie?" Bella retorted, before answering her own question. "Oh, right – you wouldn't, obviously. But it's different for you – you'd be stunning even without the leather and the makeup, but me… It doesn't matter what I dress up in, I'm still the same old boring Bella underneath."
"Except that's not true anymore, is it? Anyway, I thought you said you didn't like the person you turned into when you got all wrapped up in Edward and you want to reinvent yourself; isn't that the whole point of this weekend?"
"And you think new clothes will help me do that?" Bella demanded with a skeptical frown.
"Clothes make the fae," Bo said sagely, then sighed. "I'm not saying a new look is the answer to all your problems, but it helped me once. When I left home, I really did look like a street urchin for a while, and I lived like one because I didn't think I deserved any better…until one day I decided to quit feeling sorry for myself and start looking for answers about why I kept waking up next to dead people. It was also around that time that I realized my adoptive mother was wrong about people who happen to enjoy sex being depraved deviants, and that's when I started dressing like this. Showing off my assets was helpful in getting people to talk to me once I started searching for information, but more than that, it made me feel better about myself – like my sexuality wasn't something to be ashamed of. It took some time for me to really get comfortable with the person I'd decided I wanted to be, but sometimes changing what you see on the outside is a good first step toward changing how you feel inside."
Bella considered that for a moment, reluctantly concluding that what Bo said made sense. Although she still couldn't muster much enthusiasm for shopping, she did want to find for herself the same sense of strength and confidence her sister had, and if putting on a pair of leather pants was what had kickstarted Bo's development into the amazing person she was today…
"Fine," she said resignedly. "Make me look like a real succubus."
Oh dear, what has Bella gotten herself into?
Next time we'll get to see her adventures in the fae world – and since it's Bella, you can be pretty sure something will go wrong.