perennial - rosalie hale of twilight

Chapter 3

Rosalie Hale's POV

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked, still controlling the mood. Five stressed vampires in a place full of humans? Not the best scenario if things got out of hand. The fact that the stranger was thirsty didn't help either.

   "My thoughts. She can hear my thoughts," Edward said through gritted teeth.

   "Are you sure, man?" Emmett asked.

   "Yes, I'm sure. I didn't notice right away. She said she was focusing more on the blonde's—Rosalie's—thoughts, that's why she didn't notice mine at first but then she heard I was interpreting her thoughts to you. She interrupted me through her mind, and asked me if I could hear her thoughts, I answered, and she said, she hears mine, too . . . and everyone else's."

   Emmett's mouth fell open. "Woah,"

   Great. Another mind-reader. And focusing on my thoughts, too.

   We all stood straight as we heard her approaching.

   "Hello," she was friendly enough that we all relaxed our stance. Though, I'm not sure if that was just Jasper. Edward tried to act at ease but was obviously troubled by the newcomer.

   She had long wavy, bronze hair. She was probably around 5'5" in height—taller than 4'10" Alice, but smaller than 5'9" me.

   And her eyes were . . . black.

   "Hi! Welcome." Alice gave her friendly a hug. The girl didn't seem surprised by it. Then I remembered: right. Mind-reader.

   Emmett and I exchanged a look. Jasper stood closer to Alice. Jasper was overprotective like that.

   Edward, have they met before? I thought without removing my eyes from the new girl.

   "No, we haven't," she answered me before Edward could. He tried to hide his annoyance at that. The newcomer may be a shock to us but it's almost nice to see Edward get a taste of his own venom.

   I suddenly fell into realization that this girl was focusing on my thoughts earlier and wondered how much she'd heard. As annoying as Edward's mind-reading was, he was family. We can live with that. This girl, on the other hand, was a stranger.

   "I'm Edith," she held out her hand to me.

   I took it. "Rosalie,"

   "I'm Alice, by the way. This is Jasper, my mate. These are Emmett and Edward, our adopted siblings." Alice added, "Emmett is with Rosalie."

   Jasper put his arm around Alice, subtly pulling her closer to him.

   Emmett grinned at her.

   Edward glared at her.

   "Why don't we all come back to our place? I'm sure Carlisle and Esme would love to meet you, Edith," Alice said, grabbing her arm. "You can ride with me and Jasper. Rose, Emmett, and Edward can ride home together."

   We all hesitated at Alice's suggestion.

   "Trust me," she assured us. "And Edward will explain to you," she told me and Emmett.

   At this point, I just shrugged and went to pay for the clothes we'd promised to buy. Emmett followed me. All of us were talking in a speed and volume that human ears wouldn't understand, but I saw the staff and some shoppers still trying to catch something from the seemingly tense conversation. Humans are so nosy by nature. I wondered how the scene appeared to them. We probably looked like we were about to start some petty teenage trouble in this expensive shop. Most of the observers were eyeing us nervously even before Emmett and I walked away from the exchange. They pretended not to notice as we got closer. Though, one staff was brave enough to pry.