Ebb and Flow (Twilight x Reader)

Chapter 17

That morning I woke with the salt of dried tears crusted to my cheeks. James had showed up in my dreams again.

I'd been dreaming of what happened in Phoenix ever since we'd gotten back. I guess it was my way of processing things, though I wish it wasn't. The dreams never went how things actually did. Sometimes Dad would be there, for some reason. Sometimes James escaped. Sometimes Edward drank from my wrist until I had no blood left to give.

That night, I'd dreamt Bella had been bitten instead. It was the worst of them so far.

***

All my morning classes passed slowly. I was impatient to see Alice and ask her all the questions I'd been thinking: How was Jasper this morning? What had they said when I was gone? What had Rosalie said?

Alice usually beat everyone to the lunch table, but she wasn't there today. I wondered to myself if her class was running late—until I saw Conner and Ben, who were in her fourth hour French class.

Bella must have seen the same thing, because she turned to Edward anxiously. "Where's Alice?"

He looked at the granola bar he was slowly pulverizing between his fingertips while he answered. "She's with Jasper."

"Is he okay?"

"He's gone away for a while."

"What? Where?"

Edward shrugged. "Nowhere in particular."

"And Alice, too," Bella said with quiet desperation.

Of course, if Jasper needed her, she would go.

"Yes. She'll be gone for a while. She was trying to convince him to go to Denali."

Denali was where the one other band of unique vampires—good ones like the Cullens—lived. Tanya and her family. I'd heard of them now and again. Edward had run to them last winter when Bella's arrival had made Forks difficult for him. Laurent, the most civilized member of James's little coven, had gone there rather than siding with James against the Cullens. It made sense for Alice to encourage Jasper to go there.

I swallowed, trying to dislodge the sudden lump in my throat. Guilt bubbled up in my stomach. I'd run them out of their home, just like Rosalie and Emmett.

"Is your arm bothering you?" Bella asked, seeing my change in expression.

"Who cares about my stupid arm?" I muttered. "We should be worrying about Jasper and Alice."

Bella didn't answer, and Edward was silent as well.

Maybe I should distance myself from the Cullens. Bella should too, but she'd never agree to it. She was hopelessly in love with Edward and nothing was going to change that, unfortunately. But what if something had happened to her? What if she had fallen in the shards instead? Would Edward have been able to resist her, or would he have killed her in a frenzy?

If only things could have gone back to the way they were before the start of junior year. Back before Bella and Edward were dating, before we had to leave for Phoenix, before the two of us grew closer with the Cullen family.

That afternoon work was a grateful distraction, especially because Mike and I usually were scheduled for the same shifts at his family's store.

Mike had beaten me here today, and he smiled and waved when I came in. I grabbed my vest, nodding in his direction.

"How was your guys' birthday?" he asked.

"It was fine," I replied vaguely. "We went over to the Cullens."