Waxing Crescent (Alice Cullen x Bella Swan)

Chapter 8 - Family Meetings

"Do you think my blood has something to do with it?" I asked, drumming my fingers over my lap as we sped down the street.

It had been a few days since the meadow. Now that Alice was bringing me to meet her family it seemed like the right time to broach the topic once again. 

I definitely wasn't averse to a distraction. The prospect of meeting an entire household of vampires a very bitter pill that I wasn't so eager to swallow.

"What do you mean?" She looked away from the road, her eyes creasing with confusion.

"You know...? Like maybe my weird blood is why Edward can't hear me? Why you can't see me in your visions as clearly as other people? Why Carlisle thinks I'm-," I took in a strained breath, "-Gifted?"

The last word came out gruff and uninviting; I practically spat it out.

Just as I couldn't hide my disgust, I couldn't see how it was a gift to be so dense and immaterial that even supernatural beings struggled to perceive me. It just served as a reminder of the fact that I was an anomaly.

"It is possible, I suppose," She mused, lifting her foot an inch off the gas pedal after spotting my worried glances at the speedometer, "There is no way to tell, of course. It is not as if we can run a slew of tests and find out."

"I guess you're right," I conceded glumly, watching the trees fly past the car window, "It just makes me uncomfortable not knowing. What if I'm, like, a supernatural leper, or something?"

Alice's laughter trilled melodiously throughout the car.

"You can really come up with some of the most utterly preposterous ideas, Bella," She continued to chuckle, "You are totally fine! Trust me. No leprosy. This just happens now and then. Carlisle says it is rare, but some people are just... special." 

After noting my unabating incredulity she reiterated herself. 

"Truly, love, it is nothing. Carlisle even thinks that I might have had abilities before I was turned. I guess you are just awfully good at keeping people out? If you think about it, you do not need to be anything but human to do that. So, there is nothing wrong with you, is there?"

I turned to look at her, flicking my eyes away when our gazes locked. There was a beat of uncomfortable silence.

"You will not keep me out, will you?"

Her words were quiet and inoffensive, but unsettling all the same.

"As if I could even try," I forced, rolling my eyes, "You might be unable to snoop ahead and see my future, but you can be sure you're the one person I genuinely want in it." 

Alice smiled softly at the admission, but the fear in her eyes didn't fully fade.

"But why is it that there is a pit in my stomach? It is like I can sense something, but not quite place it. I cannot name it, or touch it, but I still feel it ebbing by the fringes. You are not lying to me are you? I can take it. If this is not what you want, I need to know. I would never blame you, Bella."

I closed my eyes, sinking my teeth into my lower lip. How could she not understand? The one that was going to leave was always going to be her. It had to be.

"To be honest, I'm still scared... probably always will be. Scared that you will eventually figure out that my life is mundane and unappealing, and you'll go and disappear on me. But I do want this. That's never going to change."

"Bella," She sighed heavily, "I am never going to leave you. It would be a lot easier to pluck the moon out of the sky and hand it to you as an offering, than to ever desert you. You would have an infinitely more agreeable go of desertion than I. With time, I think you will come to see that."