Back to Reality(Twilight)

Chapter: 23

"Where are you going?" a little, high-pitched voice questioned behind me.

My hand stilled on the doorknob. I sighed. It was so hard to be upset with someone so sweet and nice and so completely dedicated to keeping me happy and trying (but failing) to stay out of my way as much as possible. But somewhere in my empty chest where a once compassionate heart used to lie was the strength to snap back at her with a, "The grocery store. You mind?"

"Oh!" she squealed, jumping up from the couch and tossing her Vogue magazine aside. "I'll go with!" she exclaimed.

Avoiding her seeing my eyes roll, I turned my back on her and opened the apartment door. I heard the clicking of her high-heels following me out the corridor and down the hall to the elevator after hearing her lock the door behind us.

"You know, Alice, I'm perfectly capable of traveling to the store and back without injuring myself and ending up back in the hospital," I commented as we hailed a cab.

She giggled to herself like I wasn't acting like a grouchy twelve-year-old. "I know that, silly. But if I'm going to be staying with you for a while, I'll need some food of my own. I can't just keep eating Chinese takeout."

I scoffed and turned my head to watch out the window at the passing city. Four days. It had been four days since I was released from the hospital. Four days since I had seen Bella. Four days since I had told the complete truth, and she had reacted exactly the way I had predicted all those months ago... she didn't believe me at all.

After she told me she had a boyfriend, she immediately walked out of the room, leaving me standing there shocked and unsure what to do next. Ten minutes went by, then fifteen and then thirty before Emmett walked into the room and found me standing in the same exact spot Bella had left me.

"You okay?" he asked, stepping slowly towards me like I was a ticking time bomb. When I didn't reply, he asked again, "Dude? You okay?" I blinked, focusing in on the immediate urge I had to punch something... anything. My fists flexed at my sides so tightly my arm muscles started to shake and tremor.

Adrenaline and anger started pumping through my veins harder and harder until I was shaking so badly I was starting to sweat, and my jaw was aching from the pressure of my teeth grinding. You're losing it. I told myself. Again.

Behind my eyes (even though they were still wide open) I saw flashes of Bella smiling and laughing with someone else. I saw her being held by the wrong arms and telling the wrong person how much she loved them.

Sweat dripped from my forehead as my tremors increased, and I could no longer even see Emmett in front of me let alone hear him trying to calm me. I saw only flashes of golden chestnut and ocean blues being swept away from my reach by an unknown dark figure.

"Dude, what the fuck happened to your hair?" Emmett's booming voice knocked me out of my own head.

In those four days, Alice had moved in with me and had not let me out of her sight except to sleep, and even then, I sometimes woke in the middle of the night to the feel of a small presence watching over me. Unnerving? I'd say so.

"Soooo...." Alice drawled out as we walked up and down the grocery aisles like an actual couple. I narrowed my eyes at her. I didn't like the way that "soooo" sounded. "I talked to Bella the other day," she almost whispered.

I paused our walking in front of the vegetables, staring down at her as she picked up tomato after tomato, testing the firmness. She hummed along to a song in her head (sounded like 'Pokerface') and pretended not to notice my stare.

"Oh yeah?" I questioned.

"Yep!" she replied, sing-song-y and totally annoying. "She, uh, told me what you talked about the other day at the hospital."