Waxing Crescent (Alice Cullen x Bella Swan)

Chapter 7 - The Meadow

A soft groan rumbled in my chest before my eyes fluttered open, my hands reaching and searching of their own accord.

Instead of Alice, I found empty bed covers.

I was about to panic - finally convinced it had all just been a hyper-realistic dream - but then she darted to my side and I could breathe easily again.

Her clothes were different. She wore a burgundy dress cinched at the waist by a brown leather belt, and her hair, although still disarrayed, looked like she had tried to tame it with a black bow.

"You left," I accused groggily.

"Of course I did! I needed to change. This is a small town, Bella. We do not want the townsfolk to think that you are shacking up with the local vampire, do we?" She smirked, "The rumor mill really would start to spin, then!"

Alice slid herself over the blankets to rest her knees on either side of my hips. The feel of her pressing into the covers sent electric thrills running right through me. She had to know what she was doing. She just had to.

"I think you need to have sex to shack up, Alice."

Uncharacteristically bold. She thought so, too.

My cheeks felt unbearably hot as Alice's brow quirked upwards, a crooked smile perking her scarlet lips.

"Hmm, in time," Alice pecked me on the mouth before disappearing as quickly as she'd come, her promise a tantalizing prospect that lingered in the air between us. 

"Did you at least get some sleep before you snuck out?" I yawned, propping myself up on my elbows so I could stretch out more thoroughly.

"We do not sleep," Alice stated matter-of-factly.

"What? Not at all?" My grogginess faded near instantly.

"Nope. Not even a little bit!" She chuckled, reveling in my piqued curiosity and, I suspected, the newly acquired freedom to share secrets.

"How about for now, we just focus on something far more entertaining than my eternal insomnia?" She wagged her finger at me, twirling across the room in entrancing pirouettes, "We are going on an adventure!"

"An adventure?" I questioned, my eyes tracking her every startling move.

"Yes," She grinned as she continued to twirl with a perfect execution that would make even Juilliard green with envy, "You should know by now how much I do love them!"

"Alice, I'm not sure a school excursion, or saving me from your creepy brother, counts as adventure," I slumped back into my pillows and tried to get comfy again, "And, anyway, what I was really asking, was where exactly are we even supposed to be going?" 

"If I told you, it would not be nearly as exciting, now would it?" She stopped mid-twirl - perfectly frozen - to send me an annoyed glance.

If I hadn't known better, I would have thought her a statue. Perhaps depicting Athena's ire at the simpleton? Or, simply depicting ire itself. Regardless, her cool glare made me squirm.

"Exciting for you or for me? I don't do well with surprises. What am I even supposed to tell Charlie?" I finally rolled out of bed - her stare a keen motivator. 

Alice broke out of her trance once my wiggling toes hit the carpet. 

She materialized at my side. A ghostly apparition too real and too beautiful to be the cause for screaming.

"First, Charlie is going fishing down on the reservation. Second, a little for you but mostly for me. And, as for you aversion to spontaneity, I think you like surprises more than you know. In my humble opinion, you have just never been surprised with something that is worth, well, the surprise."