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CHAPTER TWENTY ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴏʟʟᴇᴅ ᴇᴍᴏᴛɪᴏɴ
Bella stirred from where she lay on the bed, her eyes blinking open to a confused expression as she glanced to each corner of the room. We were in a hotel, the cheap kind with the carbon copy wallpaper and bedsheets, which reminded me much of the room in Mrs Rochester's bed and breakfast.
I was envious of Bella's sleep. Especially after the previous night. Alice's warning and Jasper's accusation toward the complexity of my feelings, however well intended they were, took its toll. After Bella had been strapped into the back of the car, Alice had unsurprisingly took up the drivers seat and fled down the pitch black freeway at her usual super speed. We were silent, the sound of squeaking tires against black tarmac filling up the tense air.
Bella had fallen asleep on my shoulder, and all the while, I could hear the rhythm of her breathing and the distinct beating of her heart. Even at school, I could pick her up by the familiarity of the noise that came with living. There were moments when her breath would hitch, the pace of her heart beat quickening significantly, almost in fear of whatever was happening in her sharp brain. Alice's eyes somehow remained on me through the drive.
Even as we broke into Phoenix, somewhere I'd never been, the vast expanse of flat land stretching past the road in front, I could still feel the weight of Alice's presence beside me, despite the fact that her eyes were trained calmly on the direction we were headed. Palm trees zipped past the car, their shadows massive in the lowering sun. With the impending prospect of a hunter on our trail, everything seemed darker, able to hide even the largest of predators beneath their gloom. I was glad Bella had stayed asleep long enough to not witness it.
It wasn't until we were heading further into Phoenix from the outskirts that Bella woke for long enough to answer Jasper's first question. He'd asked where the nearest airport was, in case we needed a quick getaway. She'd answered, her face blanking at the idea of a needed escape, but despite her sudden onset of fear, she'd nodded off again before we'd reached the loop around Sky Harbour International.
She'd been asleep since then, having been carried in by Alice's trustworthy arms. Bella sat up, arms stretching out over the thin blanket that I'd draped over her. Her eyes immediately went to the alarm clock by the side of the bed, and then to the heavy curtains that covered the small window at the opposite end of the room. She stood, not noticing my presence, and opened the blinds, revealing the darkness of the night and the busy road that the room looked out onto. Turning back to the bed, Bella jumped, breath catching in her throat as her eyes zoned in on me.
"Sorry, I didn't see you," she said.
"It's fine," I chuckled, coming to sit where she'd patted the edge of the bed for me. "I should have been louder."
