Waxing Crescent (Alice Cullen x Bella Swan)

Chapter 13 - Trouble

"So, you know how cats will, uh, cough up furballs? It is something akin to that. Not my favourite thing to do, but if it helps me to fit in then I will stomach it. Or, I guess, unceremoniously cough it back up in the girl's bathrooms. Yuck."

Alice scrunched up her nose in disgust as we walked hand-in-hand down the front steps of the school's main building.

"I can't believe that's what you have to do. Your body won't even digest it? Ugh. I can't decide whether that's just disturbing or, in a sick way, really kind of funny."

"I guess you could say it-," Alice's hold tightened, her words catching in her throat and her body growing deathly still. I turned to her quickly.

"Alice? Alice. Is everything alright?" I whispered, leaning forward to stroke a short lock of wild hair behind her ear.

Her eyes were far away and glassy. I had half a mind to think she was seeing something - something from the future - but when I followed her gaze I knew our problem was very much in the present.

Edward. He was here.

He was slouching lazily up against the hood of my truck, his legs tossed haphazardly over one another with his hands jammed into a thick grey overcoat. Despite the cold overcast weather, dark black glasses hid his eyes.

I figured at that moment that, if I was undead too, I'd be as rigid and stony as Alice.

"What is he doing here?" I breathed, unable to tear my eyes away from him as he watched us - a slow lopsided smirk clearly visible, "I thought you said you were keeping an eye on him."

"I am not sure I-. I do not know I-... I have been."

She was so still, so statuesque. The only thing that revealed her was the despair that creased at her brows and marked the corners of her lips.

Suddenly without warning Alice came back to life, stretching off Riga Mortis stillness and growing lithe and nimble once again, "I guess that we will just have to go and find out why he is here for ourselves."

The walk up to my truck was crushing. My feet felt heavy as lead, and every fiber of my being seemed to scream at me to turn around and run the other way. If it weren't for Alice and her calm, flawless, exterior... I just might have.

She squeezed my hand as we approached, her mask breaking for a fraction of a second as we shared a fraught look.

"Edward," Her tone was polite, but it balanced precariously on a knife's edge - I knew that one wrong move would easily break the illusion.

"Alice," His smile was unbearably smug, "And Bella. It is such a pleasure to finally talk to you. I know I have made quite the mess of first impressions. I am hoping that we can set that aside with this conversation. I think you will be very interested in what I have to say."

"You're quite presumptuous," I scoffed, my capacity for snark uninhibited by the fear that still jittered underneath the surface, "I can't imagine you'd have anything to say that I'd find even remotely interesting. Until you apologize to me, and more importantly, Alice, I don't think we have anything to talk about." 

He tossed his head back and laughed loudly.

"What would I ever have to be sorry about? What has Alice been telling you?"

"The truth, Edward," Alice cut in, her eyes narrowing - charcoal licking at the fringes of amber in stark warning, "Do not try to deceive and manipulate your way out of this. Our family will not lie for you. Any falsehoods you say now will quickly be dismantled later. Have some self-respect."