Twilight: But it's a Thriller and I Never Read Twilight

Chapter 36: Abrupt Endings

I watched from the front window as Leah wandered tentatively from the woods, her tall wolf form moving slowly against the night. None of the Cullens cared enough to move him off the driveway. They had just left him there and eventually a guardian of the forest came to take him away. I watched all of Leah's careful movements across the Cullens' property up until the moment she disappeared with Jacob's broken form in tow. I watched the darkness for a little while longer after that, wondering if he would live, or if it was too late, all because of me.

When I finally turned around, back into the house Carlisle had opened up to me, a piece of me forgot Jacob. It was as if he was filed away, to be heard from later and I had no worries to lay upon him. Instead, I found Edward and sat with him the living room, surrounded by the family that was going to become my own. Any words of rage and resentment died on my lips when I laid eyes upon him. My love for him ate up all the care I had for Jacob. When I looked at Edward, none of the people I had loved before existed.

We spent the evening in a comfortable pace, not mentioning Jacob or Charlie or anything that had happened before, but when I fell asleep in Alice's bed, I saw his bruised face when I closed my eyes. He was there, still alive, but bleeding out, if only in my dreams.

Another Monday morning greeted me with the sound of my transplanted alarm now sitting on Alice's vanity. I slammed the off button hard and sat up in the bed. A part of me wanted to fall back to bed and never get up, but soon after my alarm woke me, a hard knock came on the door.

"Bella, it's time for school," Alice called. My first thought was that she was a very obnoxious morning person, but I remembered just after that she didn't sleep at all. She'd been up all night doing who knew what and imagining just how she was going to wake me up in the morning.

I tried not to groan as I pulled myself out of bed and got dressed in a simple pair of jeans and that favorite blue blouse of Edward's. When I stepped out of the room, Alice was still waiting for me. She had a wide smile on her face that showed off her fangs as she looked at me straight on. I resisted the urge to jump at her sudden appearance.

"Esme's making breakfast," Alice said. "But if you want, I could do your make up before we go."

I blinked at her. "I don't really wear makeup," I said. I didn't have the coordination or the patience to line my eyes as thin as Alice did, and it had never panned out in Arizona where I walked home from school in the blazing heat most days. Even here, where it was cold and wet, I wasn't sure it would suit me.

"Oh come on," Alice argued. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into her bedroom, sitting me down before her vanity. "Every girl could use a bit of blush."

I couldn't really argue with a vampire and especially not Alice Cullen, so I let her make me up for the day. When I finally escaped her chair, it was with what felt like a whole new face. I didn't take the time to look at myself for too long, for the fear that I would like it without the actual ability to do it to myself later. Instead, I looked away the moment Alice let me free and ducked my head as I headed downstairs.

I found Esme in the kitchen, the only person to step foot in there at all. She was laboring over scrambled eggs and bacon on the stove and barely gave me a glance as I stepped in and took a seat at the counter.

"One egg or two," she asked without even looking up.

"Two, I guess," I said and watched her crack an egg into a bowl with one hand. I listened to the sound of sizzling food as she cooked and waited for the right time to ask about last night.

She'd stopped me from helping Jacob, and because of that, I had no idea if he was dead or alive. I shook my head to the thought. Whether he was dead or alive didn't really matter, because I'd never see him again. I was starting to think in terms of what was right in front of me. What mattered to me was what I had, the Cullen family welcoming me into their home. It was easier to deal with the loss of my Dad and of Jacob if I pretending they didn't exist at all. I'd never see them again, so what did it matter? All I had was Edward and the ring on my finger and his promises.