Téméraire: A Rosalie Hale Fanfiction

CHAPTER XII: FADE INTO YOU

She spent her Sunday counting down the ticks of her clock like a fool. Jules could feel it, feel that she was teetering on the precipice of some great big cataclysmic event in her life, the adrenaline of anticipation pumping in her veins. She did not wish to admit it, but she could feel the way it had began to cloud her judgement.

She hadn't got much of her work done. She'd had a hard time sleeping since Friday, tossing and turning, the deep lull of dreams eluding her overactive mind. She could've sworn she had jumped bolt upright on a few occasions with goosebumps erupting all over her skin- but there was never anything lurking in the shadows beyond her vision, never any glowing eyes staring at her through the curtains like she envisioned in her nightmares. This was why she had slept until noon on Saturday, and why she had repeated the same routine on Sunday.

Had it not been for her alarm waking her up quite rudely on Monday morning with the blaring snares of Eye of the Tiger, Jules probably would've slept in once more. Instead she glared slits at her ceiling as the loud song continued to bang on somewhere behind her head from the radio clock. Fuck off.

Jules was lucky her alarm clock flew out of the shelf and got yanked back by it's own cable- Charlie would not have appreciated her smashing something he had scavenged just for her. Her hand drops from where she had aimed it in the general direction of the clock, the image of it flying out of it's shelf fading in her mind as a familiar face replaced it instead, the abrupt end to the song bringing her attention to the sound of rain slamming harshly against her window.

Rosalie would be coming as promised, then.

It wasn't a difficult prediction to make, rain in Forks, but something about the way things fell so perfectly into place unnerved her. Not for the first time, Jules felt as if there was something she was missing, just out of reach from her understanding. Pieces in a puzzle she could not make out the final picture of.

An hour later, exactly as she had promised in her warning text, Jules found a now familiar red BMW parked out on the curb, using an umbrella to get to it as quickly as she was able as the rain sloshed down hard. The weather was the kind she loved to sleep to, the promise of rolling thunder in the far distance an assurance that this was going to last quite some time. The perfect weather to lie in bed and never emerge. Instead, she rushed to get into the passenger seat of the car as swiftly as possible, trying in vain to keep the rain out and keep from getting the expensive Napa leather seats wet.

Rosalie looked lovely as ever, a strange look of relief on her face as Jules struggled to shrink down the telescopic handle of her compact black umbrella. It was as if she had been worried that some strange tragic fate might have befallen her on her journey from her front door to the car. "Good morning to you too."

"Why does everyone always greet me like that?" Jules was trying to be cordial, but the lack of sleep had brought forth her usual morning demeanour, a scowl set on her pretty features as she set the umbrella on the floor of the car, between her boots. Rosalie chuckled, shifting her car into drive and pulling off from the curb as Jules sighed and leaned back in relief, sipping her coffee with one hand while bringing the seatbelt around her with the other. "Good weekend?"

"It was...enlightening." Rosalie takes a moment to settle on the right word. Jules raised an eyebrow at her over her steaming coffee. "How about you? Get any work done?"

"Do you actually care?"

"Yes." Rosalie's eyebrows knot together, and Jules feels the guilt ebb away at her.

Shit. "I'm sorry- I'm not a morning person."

"I gathered as much." Rosalie's tone is flat, but the amusement is back in her eyes. Jules grumbles under her breath, but she swears she can see Rosalie's lips twitch upward. "I have a question."