Aeipathy • Paul Lahote

Arizona

When the tickets were mentioned, Ella was skeptical. She loved her mother just as much as Bella did, but had opposite feelings about the heat and blazing sun, and the possibility of her burning to a bright red had her weighing her options.

"Bella has one companion ticket that my parents gave her, and I figured it has been a while since you've been able to visit your mother as well," Edward commented.

"Or," Bella stated, turning to the boy, "we could grab a third ticket so you could come as well." The two shared a look that wasn't missed by Estrella, proving that they were disagreeing on the travel situation.

Before Estrella could make any further comment, the front door was opened by Charlie and he was followed with a smiling Alice. "It was honestly no trouble," she finished saying to him before turning to the trio in the living room with a wide grin. Edward grimaced subtly.

"What was no trouble?" Bella questioned, looking between Edward and Alice.

"Well," the petite girl began, "When Carlisle and Esme mentioned the tickets from your birthday, I knew that you'd want to bring Edward to meet your mother, but then remembered that your sister is now here. Rosalie and I agreed that you shouldn't have to pick between bringing Estrella or Edward and mentioned it to Esme, so she was quick to grab up another ticket so all three of you can go." She ended with a wide smile.

The reactions of the three were all too subtle for Charlie to pick up on, but the four teenagers all picked up on what the others were thinking. Edward was slightly glaring at Alice, making Estrella realize that, for some reason, he didn't want to go to Arizona. She knew that it was hard for vampires to stay concealed in the sun, but the excuses for Renee would came very easily since Estrella herself could barely stay in the sun for five minutes. Something else was up with him and she would make sure to bring it up later. Bella, on the other hand, sported a small smile that was easily recognizable as her excited grin when things went swimmingly for her. Estrella had a different reaction.

She was still conflicted on whether or not she wanted to go to Arizona. She enjoyed the dreary rain of Forks. The surrounding forest was constantly welcoming to her and she could breathe so easily within all the nature. And, for some reason, the thought that she would have to spend an entire weekend without seeing Paul weighed her chest down. She knew both he and Rosalie would be understanding that she would have to cancel their previously scheduled plan, Rosalie was one of the ones who got her the ticket after all, but missing out on the movie her and Paul had been planning on seeing made her sadder than she thought she would be.

Their friendship had been blooming beautifully and she didn't go a day without holding a conversation with him in some form or other. If she wouldn't be seeing him that day, she would still either be texting him or calling him. Calls were few and far between, usually after her days with Rosalie, when Paul would insist that he was missing her voice. They weren't long calls, but it was enough to send her to bed happy.

Aside from that, they were texting throughout the day. They were both busy individuals and there would be times when a response from the other would take hours, but neither minded too much. Paul had been apologetic at first, but Estrella assured him very quickly that she didn't expect constant communication and understood that he was a person who had his own things to do.

So, when the Cullens left, Bella went to her room, and Estrella called him at an unusual time, he picked up the phone in a panic.

"Elles, are you okay?" was the instant answer she got from the boy. "What happened, what's going on?"

She let out a laugh at that, ignoring the slight red tint to her cheeks caused by his worry for her. "Geez, Paul, you can miss my voice but I can't miss yours?"

If she had been next to him, she would have seen his prominent blush that caused one of the pack to fall off their chair in shock. She waited patiently as she heard uproarious laughter from his side of the phone followed by him barking at the other boys to shut up before she heard a door shut and concluded that he was now alone. "Sorry," he mumbled before clearing his throat. "I'm just not used to you calling without us talking about it first and I got worried that something happened and you were in danger."

"Maybe in danger of wicked sun burn or getting smothered," she laughed again. She sobered up before continuing. "I just... I wanted to call because I have to cancel our plans for the movies this weekend." There was a small bit of silence before she continued. "I hate to cancel because I was really looking forward to it but apparently the Cullens got Bella some tickets to Arizona to see our mom and this weekend is the last weekend to go and Esme got another ticket so I could go too. I couldn't refuse when they've already spent the money."

"So you're going on a trip with the Cullens?" he questioned. His voice was tense but he was holding back a lot of the anger he held towards the idea of the girl on a plane with the entire Cullen clan.

"Not all of them," she explained. "Honestly, it's just Edward coming with us. So really, he's going on a trip with the Swans. Bella wants him to meet our mom."

Paul relaxed a bit at that, knowing that Edward was only focused on Bella and no one else. "Well, maybe while you're there you'll pick up a bit of a tan?" he teased, making the ginger girl smile again. "You sure do stand out when you're down here."

Estrella laughed, falling back onto her bed instead of packing so she could continue her conversation with the boy. "I doubt it," she chuckled. "You're just going to have to deal with the fact that I'm almost reflective."

"I think I can put up with that."