I sighed. This was going to take a while, and I didn't feel up for it. I was exausted. Obviously I hadn't gotten much sleep last night...
But I did feel really bad, too. Poor Alice. She must have thought that...but I couldn't think about that any more than I had to.
"Oh. I'm sorry Alice...I understand how that must have loooked, but..." I paused. "that's obviously not what happpened." I whispered.
"Bella, please. Just say it. I have no idea what happened, and do you know how insane that's driving me?" She asked, and it was true, there was mad curiousity in her eyes.
"Okay, well..." I started.
"You saw what happened for most of it...and then I asked him....that, and he said no, but at the same time these huge wolves came out of the bushes, and I didn't understand it, but he ran away, and..." I was babbling at top speed, and I had to stop and take a breath. When I spoke again it was more under control.
"And then...as you saw I was on the ground. I...fainted from the stress." Everyone is right, I thought, I am a horrible actress. I did not sound convincing at all, even to my own ears, so I was sure I had not fooled Alice.
Sure enough, when I finally looked up at her again, her expression was sarcastic but, to my relief, not raging with curiousity. When she saw the look on my face, she seemed to know the truth, and let it go, looking back at the road. I looked at the road, too. We were on the main road now. I had been so engrossed in out conversation that I hadn't noticed.
I grew nervious when she did not speak. After all that curiousity, you'd think she would have a couple quesions, right? Comments? Anything?
But she stayed silent, her expression unreadable.
I desided that if I wanted to talk to her, I'd better start now. I was most likely in for the grounding of my life, so who knew when I would have another chance to talk to her. And I had no idea how much time I had before she left again, in any case. I started to think that she didn't care about me at all. So...he had left...but why did she leave? it's not like she had to...At the time I had thought it was because of Jasper, but if she really, cared than why hadn't she come to see me once in all these months? Why hadn't she sent a letter? Picked up a phone? She knew how I felt about him, so she must have known how crushed I would be. Did she care?
I turned to the window so that she could not see me wiping the tears from my eyes. I could not blame her, I decided. If I were her, I wouldn't care about me either. I was stupid, clumsy, and completely ordinary. Nothing special about me. So, why should she care?
But I had to stop whining to myself and get to the damn point. What was the point in feeling sorry for myself the whole time she was here? I might as well make the best of the time I had with her.
"Alice?" I asked quietly. She turned to me again, something that always made me nervious while he was driving, but I suppose that was a silly human thing to think.
"Yes, Bella?"
"Why are you here?" I figured I would start from the beginning. She looked at me like I was crazy. I was really getting tired of seeing that expression on everyone's face who I spoke to. Exept Jacob. Well...He did not used to, but who knew about now? It wasn't like him to avoid me like this...
"Because I thought you had been turned into a vampire." She said this as though it were very obvious.
"No, I mean...why would it matter? Why would..." I looked out the window, away from her eyes. "Why would you care?" I asked even more quietly. I could barely hear myself, but I knew she could.
"Why would I care?" She demanded in disbelief. "Bella, I love you, and I wanted to be here for you. Not to mention that the whole reason for all this mess was because he did not want-" She was yelling in the truck, but she stopped short. I was very curious as to what she was going to say, so I looked back into her eyes to ask, but it was obvious that she had no intention to.
"Oh, Alice..." I cried, wrapping my arms around her. Though she was driving, she wrapped one of her arms around me, too. I tried very hard not to cry, but I was so happy that she did care. After a few moments, she released me, and pulled into Charlie's driveway. I wiped my tears and prepared myself for what was coming. I took a deep breath and got out of the truck. I was about to walk inside when I noticed Alice had not moved an inch. I started panicing again. Calm down, Bella, I told myself. She said she's going to stay. She'll stay. She'll stay. I repeated this a few more times until I believed it, and then walked over to the driver's side door and opened it.
"Aren't you coming inside?" I asked her.
"Bella, how do you think it would look to Charlie if you were gone all night, and just happened to run into me?" She asked, and I saw her point. My story didn't seem as believable with her here.
"It would seem like you were lying about the whole thing." Her eyes went out of focus, far away. "Trust me." she added as her eyes focused on me again.
"Okay," I said slowly, wondering where she would go instead. Would I have to go to her house? I didn't think I could handle that. She seemed to see the worry on my face, so she said quickly, "I'll wait in your room."
The relief was instantaneous.
"Okay, I'll see you inside," I said, giving her one more squeaze and inhaling her scent before letting her go, and walking into my house. I opened the door slowly, cowardly, hoping he would not hear me. I glaced into the living room, not fully in the door yet, and my hopes were crushed. There, standing in the middle of the floor with dark cirles under his eyes, was Charlie. This did not look good.