Speak || A Twilight Fanfic

Chapter 23

Across town, and unaware of the danger her sister had been in, Bella was coming face to face with her past. It had blown in through her front door as though it belonged there. Almost like it had never left.

She wasn't sure what the best way to react was. For the first time since she encountered them, Bella didn't want to rush headfirst toward them. As happy as she was to see one of them, she didn't feel the overwhelming need to be by their side. She didn't feel the ache in her limbs to run toward the visitor and crash into them for a long-awaited hug. Instead, she remained frozen at the door, staring at the figure of Alice Cullen.

"B-Bella?" Alice stammered as her eyes fell on her. "You're here. I..."

"Well, it is my house," she chuckled softly as she shortened the distance between them, studying the vampire's features under the soft glow of the lamp light. "I should be the one asking why you're here. Especially in the state that you're in."

Her tone wasn't accusatory, nor was it degrading. It was simply an observation. Where Alice's eyes should have been a bright golden color, onyx dark orbs stared at the human girl. She could see how she struggled to keep herself from taking unnecessary breaths, how she kept her distance from the girl's irresistible scent.

"I'm sorry. I haven't hunted in a long time. I shouldn't let myself get this thirsty, but I simply had to rush here," Alice explained. "My surprise, though, Bella, wasn't that you came home. My surprise is that you're alive."

Bella's breath hitched in her throat at the realization. "You saw me fall."

"No," she disagreed. "I saw you jump."

Before Bella could respond, Alice was speaking again. "I told him something like this would happen, but he didn't believe me. No. 'Bella promised,'" Alice scoffed. "'Don't be looking for her future,' he told me. But just because I'm not looking doesn't mean I don't see," she continued. "I wasn't keeping tabs on you, I promise. It's just that I'm already connected to you. And when I saw you jumping, I didn't think, I just had to get here as soon as possible. It would be too late by the time I got here, I knew that much. But I couldn't just do nothing. I came here thinking I could help Charlie with something, anything. And then you drive up," she rambled on. Her head shook in confusion, her mind trying to connect the dots as to how Bella was standing right in front of her. "I saw you go into that water, and you didn't come up, Bella. I waited, and I waited, and you never did. What happened? And how could you do that to Charlie? Did you even think about him? And what about my brother? Do you have any idea what Edward..."

It was then that Bella cut her off. "I wasn't trying to off myself, Alice."

"So, you didn't jump off a cliff?"

"For fun, Alice," she asserted. "I was at the beach. I was bored. So, I jumped. I had seen some of Jacob's friends do it, and it seemed like something I might want to try. So, I did it. Just like you didn't think before coming here, I didn't really think about how the weather would have affected the water before I jumped in."

As Alice remained quiet, not quite believing her story, Bella had no chance but to continue. The vampire's perfect eyebrow cocked as she waited for Bella to keep talking, her hip popped to the side, and her arms crossed against her chest. Something fluttered in the girl's chest that had never been directed toward any of the Cullens. Annoyance. "Look, sure, if my sister hadn't pulled me out, I would have most likely drowned," she said. "She trod water for us until her friend Paul pulled us to the shore. But she did. Gabi pulled me out. It couldn't have been more than a minute since I was under that he did. So, if you saw me jump in, how come you didn't see either of them get me to safety?"

"Sister? Wait, so someone pulled you out?"

"Yes. My sister saved me."

"But your sister was back in Florida," Alice mumbled almost to herself. "And I couldn't see her?"