Ebb and Flow (Twilight x Reader)

Chapter 28

I cocked my head. "Alice?"

"Alice!" Bella hurled herself at the vampire and locked her arms around her. The sound of sobs filled the quiet room.

"Bella?" There was a strange mingling of relief and confusion in her voice.

Alice pulled Bella to the living room and I followed hastily, only pausing to lock the front door. She rubbed Bella's back in a gentle rhythm, the two of them seated on the couch.

"I'm...sorry," Bella blubbered. "I'm just...so happy...to see you!"

"It's okay, Bella. Everything's okay."

"Yes," Bella bawled.

Alice sighed. "I'd forgotten how exuberant you are," she said, and her tone was disapproving.

It was only then I realized what color her eyes were. She was thirsty.

"Bella, maybe give Alice some space," I said.

Bella looked up at Alice and must have seen the absence of yellow in her irises, because she pulled away. "Oh. Sorry."

"It's my own fault. It's been too long since I hunted. I shouldn't let myself get so thirsty. But I was in a hurry today." The look she directed at me then was a glare. "Speaking of which, would you like to explain to me how you're alive?"

"Whoa, what?" I said. "What do you mean? What did you see?" I immediately assumed the worst. Did she have a vision about Victoria?

But Bella spoke before I could ask. "You saw me fall from the cliffs."

"No," she disagreed, her eyes narrowing. "I saw you jump."

Bella hesitated.

"I wasn't keeping tabs on you, I swear, Bella. It's just that I'm already attuned to you...when I saw you jumping, I didn't think, I just got on a plane. I knew I would be too late, but I couldn't do nothing. And then I get here, thinking maybe I could help Charlie somehow, and you drive up." She shook her head, this time in confusion. Her voice was strained. "I saw you go into the water and I waited and waited for you to come up, but you didn't. What happened? And how could you do that to Charlie? Did you stop to think what this would do to him? And my brother? Do you have any idea what Edward—"

Bella cut her off then, as soon as she said his name. "Alice, I wasn't committing suicide."

She eyed her dubiously. "Are you saying you didn't jump off a cliff?"

"No, but...It was for recreational purposes only."

Her expression hardened.

"I'd seen some of Jacob's friends cliff diving," Bella insisted. "It looked like...fun, and Jacob was supposed to meet me there, but I was bored waiting...."

Alice waited.

"I didn't think about how the storm would affect the currents. Actually, I didn't think about the water much at all."

Alice didn't seem to be buying it, and I could understand that. It was only natural for her to be worried, but honestly, she should know that Bella was prone to getting into trouble.

"So if you saw Bella go in, why didn't you see Jacob?" I asked.

She cocked her head to the side, distracted.

Bella continued. "It's true that I probably would have drowned if Jacob hadn't jumped in after me. Well, okay, there's no probably about it. But he did, and he pulled me out, and I guess he towed me back to shore, though I was kind of out for that part. It couldn't have been more than a minute that I was under before he grabbed me. How come you didn't see that?"