Alissa Swan

Part 30

I pulled back. Edward let go, not wanting to hurt me.

"What is it?" I asked. "What is Alice seeing? What are you seeing?" I looked at Alice and then back at Edward.

"It's nothing," Edward said. "But we have to go. It's 8:18. So come on."

"I'm not 'coming on'. I'm not 'coming on' until you or Alice tell me what you two are seeing," I protested.

"Fine," Edward gave up. "Alice, is it okay if I tell her?"

"Yes," Alice replied.

"So," Edward said. "Someone is going to ask Alice out. They know that she's dating Jasper."

Jasper clenched his fists.

Edward looked over at him, then back at me. "Alice seriously doesn't know what to do, although I say 'just say no'."

"Exactly," I said. "Why can't you just say no?"

"I don't know if he's going to force me into the relationship," Alice said. "If he's going to do something bad to me."

I let go of Edward and walked over to Alice. "Whatever happens, never say yes if you don't want to."

Alice hugged me. "Thanks, Alissa," she said. "That means a lot. And it's pretty good advice. So thank you."

I smiled at Alice and walked back to Edward and grabbed his hand. "I'm ready to go now," I told him.

"Okay," Edward said. We walked down the stairs and outside, hand-in-hand. We separated to get in the car.

Edward got in and started the car. He started driving. "Can I ask you a question? I've been wondering this for a long time."

"Okay," I said. "What is it?"

"Vampires are killers, Alissa. It's unsafe and unhealthy to like killers and vampires. So why do you?"

"It's almost impossible to like you when people get to know you, Edward. I got sucked in. As you said: everything about you invites me in. Your face, your voice, even your smell. But you didn't need any of that for me to like you. Your personality. It just invites me in, way more than anything else does."

Edward stopped the car on the side of the road. He pulled me over to him and kissed me. I just couldn't pull away, so I picked up on what he started. We sat there for about ten minutes until I realized that I needed to be home.

"Edward!" I pulled away and looked at my watch. "It's 8:22! Eight minutes until I need to be home!"

"Oh, holy shit!" Edward pulled back onto the road and drove as fast as the speed limit would let him.

We got home at 8:29. When I walked in, it was exactly 8:30. I had done this to Charlie before many times.

"Sorry Charlie," I said. "But I got home when you asked! You said to 'be home by 8:30'. And I was!"

"Okay," Charlie laughed. "Go get Bella."

I walked upstairs to Bella's room. I opened the door. I saw Bella with a knife, about to cut into her skin.

"No!" I ran over to her and took the knife away before she could do anything more than what she might have already done. "Stop. Please," I said. "I'm not going to be able to bear to see you like this. Ever."

"I'm sorry," Bella replied and grabbed my hands. "But you know why I need to do it." She let go and backed away. "Is it time to do whatever with Charlie?"

"Yes," I replied. "So roll your sleeves down. It's time to go." I walked out of the room and turned around to wait for her.

She followed me downstairs. We saw Charlie waiting for us on the couch.

"Okay," Charlie said. "You guys ready for this?"

"I guess so," Bella said.

"Yeah, I guess," I added.

Charlie motioned for us to follow him, and we did, right out of the door and into his car. He started the car.

"What are we doing?" I asked.

"Yeah, where are we going?" Bella added.

"You'll see," Charlie said. "It's a surprise. But all I know is that there'll be a lot of traveling. Bella, you like that, don't you?"

"Yeah," Bella replied. That was one of her favorite things to do. I saw her smile at the thought of traveling.

While I saw her smiling, I realized something. That was the first time in such a long time that I'd seen her smile. Was that part of the cure for her depression? If it was, I knew exactly what I would do to get her fully cured.

Oh, my God.

I had the ability to help someone cure of their depression.