Solstice

VISITORS

'How much longer is she going to be in there?' Edward frowned. Ness had gone off to the girl's bathrooms after school to change and redo her makeup so she was perfect when she saw Nahuel. She had been fifteen minutes already, and Edward was beginning to chafe. I supposed it did seem an awfully long time when we were able to change our clothes and leave the house within five seconds.

'She wants to be just right for him, Edward. Don't comment on what you don't understand.' Alice glared in the backseat, and Jasper grinned. 'And like you didn't want to look good for Bella when you were dating?'

'Yes, but it took me all of a minute to pick out what to wear and get dressed,' he said smugly. His smirk was replaced with a frown. 'If she's not out of there in five minutes, Bella, you're going into get her.'

I looked at him in surprise. 'You seem more nervous than she does.'

'It's not every day that you get to meet your future son-in-law,' Edward muttered. Two minutes later, Ness hurried across the parking lot. She looked so glorious that one boy walked into the path of a car and had to be pulled back by his friend. Her expression was upset, though, and Edward's face was filled with concern. 'What's the matter? Don't you like your dress? You look –'

'Bullies,' said Ness flatly, sliding into the backseat. 'My makeup brushes will turn up in Puget Sound in a few months. She sighed and looked out of the window. One of the cheerleaders gave her a cheery little wave.

'I'm going to have a little word with those girls,' Edward declared, but Ness made it quite clear that she didn't want him fighting her battles for her.

'I could throw them through a wall if I wanted to,' she assured him. 'It's just irritating, that's all. I try to comfort myself with the fact that they're going to have very lonely, boring lives, and most of them will probably end up as alcoholics.'

'She's been watching Desperate Housewives again,' Alice said in response to Edward's look of surprise, and he shook his head, accelerating out of the lot. As we sped back to the house, I could hear Ness's breathing accelerate, and felt enormous sympathy for her. I remembered what it was like to be petrified with anticipation before a date: I'd once taken unnecessary cold medicine to knock me out for eight hours so I'd actually sleep before I saw Edward. As we pulled up in front of the big house, we saw an unfamiliar car on the drive, and Ness actually began to hyperventilate.

'Jasper,' I cried, and he laid a hand on my daughter's arm. Within seconds, her breathing was normal, and her lovely face was calm.

'Stay with me?' she begged him, and he nodded. He kept a hand at the small of her back as we climbed the three front steps and opened the front door. Carlisle and Esme rose as we approached, but Ness didn't notice them. She didn't notice anyone but Nahuel. She looked up into his face as if she'd come home. As if he was her home.

The rest of us, Zafrina, Senna and Kachiri included, withdrew quietly to the kitchen. Ness and Nahuel didn't seem to notice. They were holding each other's hands, and there was that look – the one that said 'I choose you'. The Amazonians smiled fondly at the pair before embracing us. I looked closer at them and saw, to my surprise, that their eyes were gold.

'We have become vegetarians,' Zafrina announced. She had renounced her usual leather pants and top and donned jeans and a sweater; it made her look far less intimidating to my mind. 'Since your young one –' she indicated me, and I felt embarrassed '– spoke so movingly about the value of human life, we found ourselves unable to keep up our usual diet. It has been difficult, though,' she said, frowning, and Kachiri and Senna murmured in assent. We went on to the back porch to give Nahuel and Ness some privacy, though I don't think they would have noticed if the house was burning down. They were completely and utterly rapt, their attention focused solely on the other.