All characters are owned by Stephanie Meyer.
I’m just borrowing them.
The events of Bella's party set a series of things in motion that will change Bella's life as she knows it.
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The Party
Bella closed her eyes, allowing the happiness and contentment she was feeling to wash over her in pleasant, all consuming waves. She hadn’t really wanted a birthday party, and she still didn’t want to be celebrating getting a year older, but she couldn’t deny that she was moved by the love and consideration being shown to her by the Cullen’s. And, learning that Alice was responsible for organizing it, and that it was Alice who had decorated and cooked for her, made Bella feel especially warm inside.
She had seen more of Alice after their talk on the beach, but things between them hadn’t quite gone back to how it had been before they had given into their attraction to each other in her room the week before.
They still held hands, and she still rested her head on Alice’s shoulder as Alice wrapped her arm around her waist, but their actions were self-consciousness in a way they hadn’t been there before. They were tentative with each other, cautious in a way that they hadn’t been in the past. They were constantly vigilant around each other, trying to guard against any slip ups like the ones that had happened in her room and on the beach. They were chronically afraid that they would say something or touch the other in a way that would ruin everything.
Over the past few days, Bella had begun to fear that things would stay awkward between them, however, the party, the way Alice had hugged her so warmly when she arrived, and the way their eyes would sometimes catch and Alice would wink at her, gave Bella hope that things would return to normal between her and Alice one day. And, that while it was difficult now, that there would be a time when they would again be able to look at each other, and hold each other without the painful, desperate longing for more that inundated their current interactions.
“Open mine and Edward’s next!”
Bella opened her eyes, a smile automatically coming to her face as she looked into Alice’s eyes. Alice’s voice was an excited, high-pitched trill, and she held a medium sized square box in her hand. She was practically jittering and as Bella began to approach her, Alice’s excitement made Bella smile even more brightly.
“You promised,” Bella said, though she couldn’t quite force a whine into her voice as she came to a stop in front of Alice. “You both did,” she added turning to look at Edward as she reached out to take the present from Alice’s delicate hands.
“I promised not to buy you a present,” Alice said, her voice twinkling with mirth. “And I didn’t buy you anything. I kept my promise, I don’t know about him,” she continued jerking her thumb in Edward’s direction before turning to grin at him.
“It’s as Alice says,” Edward responded smiling serenely. “I didn’t buy you a thing.”
“Oh, aren’t you two clever,” Bella murmured sarcastically, eyeing them wearily as she weighed the box in her hands. However, despite her words, a smile edged up at the corner of her lips and displayed her true feelings on the subject.
“That’s what mother says,” Alice piped up smiling over at Esme winsomely as Edward chuckled beside her.
“And I think she means it about as much as Bella did,” Edward responded, looking over at Alice with a smile.
“Maybe when they’re talking about you,” Alice retorted grinning. “I’m brilliant,” she added smugly, smiling even wider as Edward rolled his eyes at her.
“Children, please,” Esme interjected, a lovely smile on her face as she looked between Edward and Alice, her eyes caressing them adoringly. “You’re both absolutely perfect. Now let’s give Bella a chance to open her present.”
Sparing a moment to smile over at Esme, Bella then turned her attention to the package in her hand, sticking her finger under the edge of the paper and sliding it to the side to break the tape.
“Damn!” Bella exclaimed a second later, looking down at her finger to see a pinprick of blood dotting the pale pad of her index finger, the spot of blood growing in size as Bella observed her wounded finger.
Bella shook her finger rapidly, wincing. She didn’t understand how paper-cuts could hurt so much.
“No!” Edward yelled.
Bella looked up, her head beginning to turn in his direction, but before she could see what was happening she found herself flying through the air, her body scattering the cake and presents, the flowers, and the plates as she did.
She landed roughly in a mess of shattered crystal, and distantly, in some foggy corner of her mind, she realized that she had been cut again.
Blinking dazedly, Bella tried to figure out what had just happened. But, before she could even get her vision to focus, Alice was beside her, wrapping her arms around her waist and picking her up, cradling her in her arms.
“Wha …” Bella managed to utter, but before she could say more Alice’s arms tightened around her and the room began to blur.
As Alice ran with her, Bella was just able to register Edward and Jasper crashing into each other, snarling furiously, and then, the sitting room and the rest of the Cullen family disappeared from sight as Alice continued to run.
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The first thing Bella became aware of – when the disorientation from running with a vampire disappeared – was that wherever Alice had taken them was dark. The second thing she became aware of was that Alice was standing a few inches away from her shaking faintly, and breathing very, very hard.
“I didn’t think that vampires could get winded,” Bella said, the words coming out of her mouth as she thought them, her brain still not quite operating at maximum capacity.
“I’m not winded,” Alice said. Her voice was low grumble, and she seemed to be struggling to speak at all.
“Alice, are you okay?” Bella asked reaching out for Alice with her wounded arm, placing hand on Alice’s shoulder.
A moment later she felt Alice’s body go still beneath her hand, and though her eyes were still adjusting to the dark, Bella was certain that Alice had stopped breathing.
“Oh,” Bella gasped, suddenly realizing what the problem was.
Her eyes darted over to her bleeding arm, staring. She hadn’t realized that she had been wounded so badly, that she was bleeding so much. The shock of everything that had happened after Edward had yelled had distracted her, her confusion temporarily numbing her to the pain in her arm.
Bella realized very quickly that she needed to move her arm. However, before she could do more than think ‘I really need to move my arm’, Alice’s hand was on hers, her fingers wrapping around her wrist, holding it steady in a vice like grip that bordered on painful.
Alice did no more than grab her hand however, and for a few seconds they stood still, gazing at each other, locked together by their hands, surrounded by silence.
Bella blinked as a horrible, pained wailing filled the space around them. It sounded like an animal nearby was in terrible pain, and Bella’s eyes began to tear up at the sound of suffering. However, it wasn’t until she heard the sound for a second time that she realized that it wasn’t an animal making those piteous sounds. It was Alice.
Bella opened her lips to say something, to try and sooth Alice’s pain. But, before she could utter even a syllable, Alice moved her hand, slowly drawing it up to her parted lips.
And then it was Bella’s turn to mewl.
Bella’s eyes fluttered closed, a soft, wanting sound escaping from her as she felt Alice’s cool lips wrap around her wounded finger, a sharp spike of pleasure rippling through her and settling between her legs as Alice’s tongue swirled over the wound.
Alice purred, her arm wrapping around Bella’s waist once more, and she tugged Bella roughly into her body, sucking on Bella’s finger more urgently as she did, her lips and tongue desperately caressing the flesh, trying to coax more blood from the superficial wound.
There was no more blood to be had there however, and Alice’s lips soon moved.
Bella’s finger fell from Alice’s mouth with a wet ‘pop’, and then Alice was licking at Bella’s wrist, and then along her arm, her tongue caressing Bella’s skin as her mouth sucked at it, cleaning the pale surface of the blood that had trickled down her arm from where the shards of crystal had cut her.
Then Alice’s lips were gone, and Bella found herself staring into a pair of impenetrably black eyes, smoldering only inches from her own. Alice growled softly, black eyes blinking slowly as she stared at Bella. Her head then tilted to the side, almost quizzically, and she licked her lips.
Bella shivered.
A moment later, Bella inhaled deeply as she found Alice’s lips suddenly pressed against her own, kissing her hungrily and urgently as Alice’s body pressed against Bella’s forcing her to move backwards. Bella sighed into Alice’s mouth as her back collided with a wall. Alice pressed her body into hers, pinning her with her hips and continued to kiss her as her hands began to trail up Bella’s body.
Bella brought her hands up to Alice’s shoulders and tried to push her away.
Alice didn’t move an inch. She didn’t even seem to register the touch, and Bella realized with a start that she was too far gone to pick up on the motion. The combined factors of her blood, her scent, and her body had clouded Alice’s mind too much.
Bella arched, a low groan escaping from her throat as Alice’s cool hand pressed against the overheated skin of her stomach and began to crawl upwards until her bra clad breast was resting in Alice’s palm.
Automatically, one of Bella’s hands moved to cover Alice’s, pressing the vampire’s hand more firmly against her breast, encouraging her to squeeze. Alice whimpered and kissed her again, her hips rocking into Bella’s body, grinding against her as her hand roughly manipulated Bella’s breast.
They had to stop. Bella knew that they had to stop. Alice might have been beyond conscious thought, but she wasn’t … yet, and they had promised each other that they wouldn’t touch each other like this again. Not to mention the fact that Alice was operating entirely on instinct at the moment, and that that could be very dangerous for her since Alice had mentioned wanting to feed when she was aroused.
Bella breathed in deeply, fortifying herself, and then withdrew her good hand from where it had been covering Alice’s. She had to at least try. Releasing the air she had taken in a moment before, Bella then drew her hand back, and slapped Alice across the face as hard as she could.
Immediately, Bella winced. She had known that it would hurt to smack Alice’s marble skin, but she didn’t think it would hurt quite that much. Tearing her attention away from her pain, Bella focused in front of her to see Alice staring at, dark eyes blinking uncomprehendingly, as if she couldn’t quite understand what had happened.
Then she growled, and Bella began to think that she might have just made a very, very big mistake. Alice growled again, and Bella was sure that she had made a very, very big mistake. Alice growled once more, and … Bella blinked, watching as Alice stepped back, and began to stumble away from her.
Bella brow furrowed, her brain refusing to believe what she was seeing. Alice didn’t stumble. Alice was grace personified. She hadn’t thought it was possible for Alice to be anything but lissome. Yet, there she was, falling over her own feet as she scrambled backwards.
Finally, Alice came to a stop a few meters away from Bella. She swayed lightly in that spot where she had stopped, and then without warning she doubled over. In that hunched over position, Bella could see Alice’s back rise and fall rapidly as she took deep, rapid breaths … and then she was still. Alice stood prone and hunched over for a few seconds, then, she tilted her head back and screamed.
Bella flinched away from the sound, pressing herself back against the wall – which she now realized was the outside wall of the Cullen’s garage.
Alice screamed again, and again, and again. And just when Bella thought that the pain in Alice’s voice would cause her heart to break into a thousand tiny pieces, Alice stopped.
Bella took a careful step forward. Her eyes were trained unwaveringly on Alice who was standing still, staring at her intensely. Her lips were curled up slightly, revealing a hint of gleaming white teeth.
“Don’t.”
Bella started and turned to the side, blinking rapidly as she saw Edward standing beside her. She stared at him for a moment and then looked over at Alice, only to find that Esme was now standing beside her, her arm wrapped lovingly around Alice’s shoulder, as she pressed her forehead against Alice’s and whispered in her ear.
Bella looked around her then and saw that Emmett and Rosalie were outside as well. They were the farthest away from her, close to the house, while Carlisle was approaching her from her other side, only an arms length away when she spotted him.
Watching as Carlisle settled in beside her, Bella realized that Alice’s screams had drawn the Cullen’s to their location. All but one, Bella become conscious of, remembering that she hadn’t seen Jasper on the lawn.
Bella shivered as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning sharply, she relaxed a little when she saw Carlisle smiling at her reassuringly.
“It’s okay,” he said softly, rubbing her shoulder lightly.
Absently, Bella nodded. Her mind was still awhirl.
“Stay out here for a while,” Carlisle said in a regular speaking voice, looking away from Bella to address the rest of his family, though he kept his arm securely around her. “I’ll take care of Bella inside,” he explained, his voice clear and calm, as if he was trying to reassure everyone.
It was then that Bella noticed that Esme now had her hand in front of her face covering her nose and mouth. Looking closely at the other then, she saw that Emmett and Rosalie had their faces angled away from her, down wind, and that Edward was shaking faintly beside her, and not breathing.
Bella’s eyes fell on Alice. The petite brunette had her head bowed down and was staring at her feet. Her shoulders were slumped over in a pose of utter and complete defeat. Bella had never seen anyone look so cowed and beaten before.
Without thinking Bella tried to take a step towards her, but Carlisle’s gentle hold restrained her.
“She needs some time,” Carlisle said softly. “Don’t worry,” he continued in the same soft, soothing voice, “Esme will take care of her. She’ll be fine.”
Bella nodded vaguely, her eyes scanning the grassy area around her, cataloguing the destruction she had wrought on the Cullen household in a matter of minutes, and all because she had given herself a paper-cut: she had forced Edward to fight his brother, who had now disappeared lord knew where. Rosalie was glaring at her with so much hostility that Bella was almost surprised she hadn’t yet dropped dead from the sheer force of it. Esme looked embarrassed and ashamed as she kept her hand in front of her face. Emmett had his hands fisted tightly together at his sides, his body so tense that it almost looked like he was going to snap. Edward could barely look at her, and Alice looked like she was about to fall to pieces any second.
“Come along,” Carlisle said taking Bella’s good hand.
Bella blinked rapidly, automatically beginning to follow him as he started to lead them towards the house.
“No, Edward. Stay here,” Carlisle said gently a moment later.
Looking behind her, Bella saw that Edward had begun to trail behind them, his chest still motionless as stone.
“It’s okay,” Bella whispered. Her voice was so soft that she could barely hear it. “Stay here. Please,” she said knowing that she couldn’t bear it if being around her blood did the same thing to him that it had done to Alice.
She couldn’t stand to have her heart break twice in one night.
Edward looked as if he was about to protest, but after a moment of indecision, he reluctantly nodded and took a step back.
Carlisle nodded at him, their eyes holding each others for a moment, and then he and Bella continued on towards the house.
To be continued …
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fembuck
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Date: 2008-08-12 07:06 pm (UTC):] Can't wait for more.
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Date: 2008-08-15 07:28 pm (UTC)The next chapter should be up soon :D
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Date: 2008-12-07 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-07 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-15 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-15 07:30 pm (UTC)I take it you're going to rewrite New Moon then?
Yeah, that's pretty much the way it turned out, lol. The basic plot points of New Moon will be there, with the Alice/Bella romance switching some things up, and making the ending much different.
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Date: 2008-08-16 01:14 am (UTC)Oh yes, I'm very much looking forward to that! :D
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Date: 2008-12-01 07:20 pm (UTC)I liked how you worked the scene in and twisted it. But poor Alice! She'll be devastated!
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Date: 2008-08-13 09:15 am (UTC)I'm lost to your great writing and storytelling, again...So, essentially, want more, now...;-)
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Date: 2008-08-15 07:36 pm (UTC)Try and avoid it. I picked up the books because of the vampires, and then I stayed because of the Alice/Bella moments, but the books are NOT good. They are very very bad in fact. Edward and Bella are absolutely sickening together, Edward is a huge douche-bag, Bella is a doormat, and it is ridiculously melodramatic (I'm actually kind of mad at SMeyer because this story is much more melodramatic than I'd normally write, because everything has to be so 'Oh, I've got a touch of the vapours *faint*' in this universe for the characters to be in character!)
I kind of hate myself right now, because I'm actually thinking about reading Eclipse (though, once again, that's mostly so that I can see more Alice/Bella) If you do read one though, read New Moon, there's lots of Alice/Bella interaction and there's very little Edward until the end.
/end rant
So, essentially, want more, now...;-)
The next chapter will be up very soon!
Thanks so much for the kind words!
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Date: 2008-08-16 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 01:53 pm (UTC)I kind of felt like Mike throughout this chapter, you know, with the loss of coherent thought and me being reduced to a bumbling idiot and all.
I love you forever for keeping up with this epic awesome story.
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Date: 2008-08-15 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-15 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-14 04:10 am (UTC)So, thanks for writing this, can't wait to read the next update! :D
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Date: 2008-08-15 07:42 pm (UTC)*reaches out for your hand* I feel your pain, I feel your pain. Let us curse SMeyer together.
I was wondering if anyone would explore this pairing cause hello(!) get-a-roominess subtext.
Oh, I know. In Twilight when Bella was talking about Alice hugging her and kissing her cheek when they first met, and then Alice carrying her about in her arms all the time, I was like "'dem gey". Then finding out that Alice was the one helping Bella shower during her recovery time, and all of the hugging, and the Alice is so beautiful descriptions, and the Bella sitting in Alice's lap and I was like "'dem really really gey".
I wonder if SMeyer has any idea who gay they come across. Finding out she's doing it intentionally could do the impossible and actually make me like the woman.
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Date: 2008-08-14 04:48 am (UTC)I owe her. Big time.
This is absolutely gorgeous. You just made me like Bella, and I thought that was impossible. I will be stalking you from this point on for more lovely, lovely Alice/Bella.
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Date: 2008-08-15 07:45 pm (UTC)You just made me like Bella, and I thought that was impossible
LOL! Why thank you *grin* And dude, I understand. I want to throttle Bella the majority of the time when I'm reading these books. I nearly didn't make it past the first few chapters of New Moon because I found her so unrelentingly unlikable. So, I'm really glad that my Bella isn't as hateful ;)
I will be stalking you from this point on for more lovely, lovely Alice/Bella.
I'll keep an eye on the shadows!
Next part should be up soon, so I'll see ya (or will I???? da da daaaaaaa)
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Date: 2008-08-14 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-15 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-15 09:58 am (UTC)I'm workin' on that cherry for ya too.
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Date: 2008-08-15 07:46 pm (UTC)I'm workin' on that cherry for ya too.
Awesome! I'm looking forward to it :D
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Date: 2008-09-11 06:16 pm (UTC)i hope alice can still think rationally around edward.....
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Date: 2008-11-12 09:16 am (UTC)So heartbreaking though.. poor Alice.
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Date: 2008-12-22 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 02:48 am (UTC)i'd write more – i really would – but there's this urge to read the next chap. it's insane!
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Date: 2010-07-12 05:41 am (UTC)Very hot but angsty. I love it!