Crescent Night

Chapter 11

Saturday night came quickly, and I found myself scrutinizing my appearance in the mirror. Suddenly the pristine outfit Alice and Jasper had praised yesterday looked horribly inappropriate. The dress felt ill fit, the color didn't suit me, and it was far too tight in all the wrong places. The straps of the heels dug into my ankles, what was I thinking wearing these shoes? I can't walk in heels! Especially not thin heels.

¡Hay Dios! I look terrible and I'm going to fall flat on my face. I should change, no, I should just call the whole thing off. I'll pretend I'm sick, I caught the flu or something.

As I continued to make possible outs, the fact that Alice and Jasper had enhanced vampire senses or whatever destroyed each and every plan.

"Elle, dear, are you ready?" Miss Jennifer's voice came through the door, distracting me from my escape planning. "Your mom asked me to take pictures for her!" She opened the door, an excited expression on her face, and a camera on her hand. I supposed the universe was conspiring against me, throwing both my mom and Miss Jennifer's excitement at the prospect of me going to the dance after having missed last semester's.

There's no way out for me.

Not that Alice would allow me any sort of escape from this now that I was actually dressed.

Miss Jennifer excitedly took pictures of me, in my room, walking downstairs, taking a drink of water before leaving, and so on and so on. It was easy to see how she and my mom had gotten along so well, I was half convinced that my mom called her almost as much as she called me. They both had caring personalities, if a little overbearing, but I think that just meant they enabled each other and reinforced their friendship.

There was one more thing Miss Jennifer and my mom had in common.

"I wish you had a date for the dance," she said in an apologetic tone.

"I'm going with my friends, I don't need a date." I knew where this was going. Maybe it's because she only had boys, but Miss Jennifer was dead set on the idea of a high school romance. More than my mom was before my transfer.

"Oh yes! Alice and Jasper," she had a thoughtful tone I didn't like "Jasper's a pretty handsome boy, don't you think?"

Oh god please drop it!

"Uh-yeah, I guess. I hadn't really thought about it." Very casual Eleonor, ni tú te crees eso.

"The Cullens are a nice family, a bit private, but very polite and respectful," she wasn't dropping it, "And their kids are very well behaved too!"

God, if you're out there, please end my suffering.

Okay Eleonor, you can survive this conversation. My mom has asked about this too, but lying to her was easy considering the fact that she wasn't looking at me, but Miss Jennifer was right in front of me, and she had an agenda for sure.

She continued her pro-Cullen propaganda, I tried to keep a straight face through all of it, any sign of weakness would just encourage her.

"I think he's shy, you know?" She proclaimed, "He spends so much time with you, but I think he's scared to be alone with you. That's why he brings her along!"

You are so, so wrong.

The revelation that Alice and Jasper weren't siblings, but in fact vampire married and used the whole adopted siblings thing as a cover, still threw me for a loop. And I was really, really trying not to think about it. I didn't know if it helped my situation, or if it made it worse. Would I ruin a friendship with my feelings, or would I be a homewrecker?

I could feel heat on my cheeks, surely my poker face was shattering. But before she could line up another attack to shatter my emotional resolve, the doorbell rang. I was calm for a moment, until I remembered what was waiting behind the door. The two sources of my anxiety and emotional turmoil.