HEART. ❪ new moon ❫²

𝐢𝐢. DISASTROUS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Bailey thought to herself. This was a tense atmosphere, right? What did people usually do to liven up the mood? To make people feel better? Laughter. Bailey thought of something to say, something that would be appropriate to the current situation. She moved out of the kitchen standing at the entryway readying her joke. 

"I could always blow you up if you want," she suggested. 

Bella jumped in surprise and Edward turned to look over the back of the couch at Bailey. 

Bailey was standing there examining them both—neither of them laughed and she furrowed her eyebrows. They didn't laugh, did that mean that her joke wasn't funny? What constituted a funny joke anyway? Where are there rules to this? She sighed. Maybe there was a book on jokes, she could learn from. 

"No thank you," Edward finally said in response to Bailey's comment. "But the thought is... appreciated. At the time, I wasn't sure how to do it—I knew Emmett and Jasper would never help... so I was thinking maybe I would go to Italy and do something to provoke the Volturi." 

That was a new word Bailey hadn't heard of before. She looked at Edward closely, inspecting him. "What is a Volturi?" she demanded. 

Edward's golden eyes were brooding, focused on something far away in the distance as he contemplated a way to end his own life. Bella didn't want to believe that he was serious, and abruptly she was furious. 

"Answer her," Bella said. 

"The Volturi are a family," he explained, his eyes still remote. "A very old, very powerful family of our kind. They are the closest thing our world has to a royal family, I suppose. Carlisle lived with them briefly in his early years, in Italy before he settled in America." 

A royal family of all vampires? Bailey was highly intrigued. 

"Anyway, you don't irritate the Volturi," Edward went on. "Not unless you want to die—or whatever it is we do." His voice was so calm, it made him sound almost bored by the prospect. 

Bailey was about to ask more about the Volturi when Bella exclaimed in horror, "You must never, never, never think of anything like that again!" She said taking his marble face between her hands and holding it very tightly. "No matter what might ever happen to me, you are not allowed to hurt yourself!" 

"I'll never put you in danger again, so it's a moot point." 

"Put me in danger! I thought we'd established that all the bad luck is my fault?" Bella was getting angrier. "How dare you ever think like that?" 

"What would you do, if the situation were reserved?" he asked. 

"That's not the same thing." 

Bailey looked at them entirely unamused by this exchange. They rattled one with each other talking about how their intense love and whatnot. Bailey wasn't paying attention anymore. The thought of the Volturi was far more inciting. How had they been appointed? How did they manage to be so well known amongst vampires? Why Italy? Was there history there? Maybe just convienece? 

Abruptly, Edward pulled himself into a more formal posture, shifting Bella to the side so that they were no longer touching. 

"Charlie?" Bella guessed. 

Edward smiled. After a moment, Bailey heard the sound of the police cruiser pulling into the driveway. 

Bella reach out and took Edward's hand firmly. She thought Charlie could deal with that much. 

He came in with a pizza box in his hands. 

"Hey, kids." He grinned, then looked at Bella. "I thought you'd like a break from cooking and washing dishes for your birthday. Hungry?"