some kind of madness is swallowing me whole

part 8

"Welcome Isabella," Carlisle said once they entered the house. Bella glared at Edward for not telling him that she prefers Bella.

"Thank you, Dr. Cullen. Please just call me Bella," she said. Carlisle and Esme were the only ones to greet her.

"You can call me Carlisle, as well."

Does this feel awkward to anyone else? Maybe it's just me. I can only imagine what they are thinking about me. I'll have to squeeze it out of Edward at some point.

"Okay, well," Bella said after three minutes of no one saying anything.

"Bella, please join us in the living room," Esme said and directed Bella up one flight of stairs.

The oddest thing you think you would see in a house full of vampires isn't the fact that it is fully decorated or the hints that they've been around for quite some time, cue the graduation cap wall, it is the whole back wall being covered in glass windows. Although the house seems to be in the middle of the forest where no one would see them shine in the sunlight, you wouldn't expect it in a vampire house.

"Bella, please, tell us about yourself," Esme said, guiding Bella to sit in a chair. Vampires never needed to sit, but Bella knew Esme was doing this to ease the very obvious tension in the room. Bella felt less nervous now that she was comfortably in the room.

One by one the other siblings entered the room as Bella was telling her story, just about the same thing she told Edward last night. She spoke fast enough that no one would interrupt until the end with questions.

There was a long pause after her vampire origin story where no one was talking and it became awkward again.

"Tell us about the wolf," Edward chimed in with a smile on his face. Bella was thankful someone said something but he didn't have to show his excitement so much.

"Well, we have a sort of personal connection. It is a little difficult to explain because I do not believe any of you have experienced something like this. Vampires are the reason that wolves evolve and have to use their wolf abilities. Moving into town escalated that for one of them," Bella started. She paused to think about how she could delicately tell them she was friends with a wolf. "Ever since then we have bonded."

Even though Bella couldn't read thoughts, as Edward can, she didn't suck at reading people. She knew what they were thinking without needing Edward to tell her.

"You're friends with a dog?" Rosalie asked, stunned.

"Rosalie, be polite," Esme reminded.

"It's not like everyone wasn't thinking that," Rosalie said, turning to Edward for confirmation and he nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I'm friends with him. It's weird to say because we definitely should not be friends but it makes sense," Bella confirmed.

"If you don't mind me asking, how has it been on the new diet?" Jasper asked, changing the subject.

"Edward has told me that you have been having difficulties for a few decades adjusting to the diet. It makes sense why you would want to know how I'm handling it. It hasn't been too hard for me. At times, I even forget about human blood," Bella said. Everyone shared a confused look because that wasn't a normal vampire thought.

For a while, the Cullens went back and forth with questions for Bella. It was like they were just finding out about vampires' existence. Bella was a shiny new thing that everyone could play with.

"I think she's cool," Emmett said after talking about how many bears Bella has killed, the answer being "Zero, so far. I'm not opposed to it though."