Ness' Comet

Ch 41: Theory

Of course when I arrived home, both Jacob and I were in a load of trouble. Surprisingly, neither Edward nor Bella yelled or even raised their voices. They looked furious, but they told the both of us that we would speak in the morning.

    When morning came, I tentatively walked into the kitchen, my parents waiting for me. Jacob had not yet woken up. I made my way over to where we kept the cereal, as though nothing were amiss. If they had something to say then they should say it. I wasn't going to play into their nonsense.

    "Renesemee," began Bella. I cringed. "Why did you leave with Jacob last night? Where were you?" she demanded.

    I sighed. "Mom, clearly if I was with Jacob I wasn't in any danger. And it doesn't matter where I was."

    "Why were you at Lizzie's?" chimed in Edward. I momentarily had to calm myself because every time he read my mind I wanted to hit him.

    "That's unfair!" I exclaimed, turning my attention to him. "It's none of your business! I just wanted to see if she was okay! Okay? Why are you both so determined to treat me like I'm still a kid?"

    "Because we don't want you to get hurt," replied Bella, clearly working to stay composed. "Baby, I know you're going through a rough time right now and I understand this need for independence, but you have to understand that you might not always know what the best thing to do is."

    "But why can't you let me make my own mistakes? I don't want you there watching me all the time. I want to scrape my knee once in a while, and pick myself up. How else am I going to learn?"

    "We're not talking about a scraped knee Renesmee!" said Edward. "Our family isn't normal, and neither are you. I'm sorry but that's the way it is. If it weren't for Alice, last night you would have suffered far more than a scrape."

    I opened my mouth to respond, but no sound came out. I felt unwelcome tears stream down my cheeks. I wasn't crying because I was sad, but because I was angry. I hated that I cried when I was angry, because I felt like it sent the wrong message. I knew that what Edward was saying wasn't wrong, but it didn't change how I was feeling. I didn't want to leave Forks, and I didn't want to have to tell them everything. I thought they were backing off for a while, but after this year's episode of vampires trying to kill us, they definitely were going to keep a closer eye on me.

    "I see you haven't spoken with Jacob," commented Edward.

    Bella moved to stop him. "Now isn't the time."

    "The time for what?" I said, sounding almost exasperated, wiping the tears off my cheeks and taking a deep breath. At this point, whatever it was that they were keeping secret from me this time, I didn't even care.

    Edward shook his head. "Nevermind."

    "Whatever," I replied, pouring the milk into my cereal bowl and taking a spoonful. "So are you kidnapping me and forcing me to go to Canada with you and everyone else? Or can I stay here and go to school?" My tone was especially dry. I didn't have the energy to argue with them anymore.

    Bella sighed. "Actually, that's part of what we were discussing last night."

    I raised an eyebrow. "Okay?"

    Both my parents exchanged apprehensive glances before Bella continued. "We agreed that we can stay in Forks, at least until the school year is over."

    My eyes widened. "Really?" I nearly started crying again.

    "Yes," interrupted Edward. "We spoke to Alice, and we thought it would be best if she came and stayed here for a while. Her and Jasper of course."

    This was a pleasant turn of events. "Why?" I asked.

    "It's safer if we don't have communication barriers while we're here. If she sees something like what happened yesterday again, then she'll be right here to tell us."

    I nodded. "Okay. So I assume her and Jasper are going to take the cottage while they're here?"

    "That would be correct," answered Edward.

    I was satisfied with this. I didn't mind in the slightest the idea of my aunt and uncle coming to stay with us for a while. It was one more barrier between my parents and I while we were going through this momentary rough patch. Truthfully I didn't enjoy fighting with them and I didn't like when they were upset with me. I hoped that we could move past this with time.

    "So, are you at least going to tell me if Alice has figured out what they want yet? Vladimir and Stefan?" I asked, shoveling another spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

Edward sighed. "No. We don't. I have a theory."

"A theory?"

He nodded. "Obviously this has something to do with you since Alice saw them dragging you off. I think since the last time we saw them they have been angry with us. They didn't like the fact that we didn't end up in a physical altercation with the Volturi. This probably has something to do with that."

"So you think because the Volturi came for me the last time that they are going to use me to get some weird kind of revenge on you?" I clarified in disbelief.

"Why don't we talk about something else. We don't know anything for sure and I'd rather we not discuss Vladimir and Stefan. The last thing I'll say about it this morning is that I'm sure the werewolf pack will keep and eye out for them now that we know they're here. Hopefully they'll catch them before we have to be worried or they'll just run off."

I didn't actually want to end this discussion, but I could see it was bothering my mother. I didn't want to add to her anxiety about the situation, so I decided it was best to do as she asked and not talk about it anymore.