Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

An Imperfect Life

By Midnight Dreamer

Chapter 23: Back Home Again

(BPOV)

We left the Cullen’s house a little after 11pm. I was angry with Edward, but I didn’t let it show. Forgiving him would be easy. I can’t stay mad at him for anything, but he don’t know that. When Emmett and I got home I decided to take out my frustration in the gym downstairs.

Alice had come before dinner and informed us on the extra company at the house. She told us that Kate and Irina shouldn’t be a problem, but that Tanya could be a trouble maker.

I changed into my boxers and tank top and headed toward the punching bag.

I agree with Alice. I like Kate she seems nice. I could be friends with her. Alice also said that the sisters were all single but the one to watch for again was Tanya. Tanya obviously has a continual hard on for Edward. Alice told me that Edward has told her time and time again that he has no interest in her but you know how some girls are they just don’t get the hint. I only got to meet Kate tonight really. I recall seeing the other two when I was playing the piano but was never introduced. I excused myself to the restroom and when I got back the only one in the room was Edward and he seemed to be thinking hard about something. I walked up and put my hand on his shoulder and he jumped! I made a vampire jump! How is that even possible? Then he questioned me about my playing and if I knew that I put them all into this trance like thing. Hell no of course I didn’t know I did that. I know I kind of did this out of body experience thing but I didn’t know it effected anyone else. He said he didn’t like feeling vulnerable. Which I guess being a vampire would be a bad thing. But what I didn’t understand is the fact that they all seemed to like when I played, and he seemed to be telling me that he didn’t want me to play for them anymore. That is what upset me. Yes I know I cried. He thought I was sad. Huh. Yeah right. My anger is like hardwired to my tear ducts too. So the madder I get the more I cry. Then the dickhead tried to apologize and say he didn’t mean it that way. Hello if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it’s a fucking duck. Right, right! So I passed it off and played all nice during dinner and for chats afterwards. If he thinks this is going to be as easy as him saying I’m sorry, boy does he have another thing coming. I can be a bitch when I want to be. Actually I have perfected it to a honed skill. One of my better qualities I think. I wonder how he will try to apologize?

I hadn’t even realized that my hands had started hurting from hitting the bag with the end of every thought I was going over in my head. I decided on a less painful way of release. I turned to the treadmill in the corner of the room. Perhaps I could run a few miles tonight before bed. I’m so glad we don’t have to get up for school or I would be so screwed. I set my normal pace and just let my legs do the rest. I continued with my thoughts about this evening. The more I ran through the nights events I remembered that Alice had said that they would be here for the rest of the week.

 Shit! That Tanya chick would be around Edward all week long with no barriers. I may have to devise a plan to keep him out of that house. I’ll need some help with that and I know just who to ask. Emmett! No one would suspect anything. They would just think he was bonding with his little sisters boyfriend. If indeed that is what Edward is? I would have to figure that out. I know he said he loves me but what does that mean exactly. We got to know each other better over vacation but where does that put our relationship. Maybe he loves me like a friend or a best friend? Oh great this doesn’t help anything.

 I’m supposed to be calming my thoughts not adding to them I may never get to sleep. Maybe a hot shower would help? I looked at the clock on the wall. 3am already. I headed to the newly remodeled Alice style bathroom. Oh yeah that girl knows how to pamper me. I stripped out of my clothes. Locked the door so I wouldn’t be disturbed. I turned on the shower. The water cascaded over my head and body like I was standing under a waterfall. The feeling was extremely relaxing. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the feeling. It was good. Not great like when I played the piano this evening. Damn it. I will have to buy me a piano for the ballet studio so I can play. Maybe I can have Alice order one so it will match her set up. Yeah that sounds like an idea. Now to clear the mind of all thoughts. I folded myself on the floor Indian style under the shower head. It was very peaceful. The rhythm of the water on the floor, my breathing slowing steadily, eyes closed.

Soon I was in that place again. Almost as if I was outside my body looking down. There was nothing. No feeling, no sound, no nothing. I reveled in it.

I don’t know how long I sat there like that, before I was brought back by this beautiful melody. I wasn’t sure if it was real but I sat listening to it. I could feel the notes pulsing through by body as I sat on the floor. I slowly came to stand on my feet. I turned the shower off and wrapped myself in a towel.

I walked upstairs to the living room and found the house empty. Emmett must be in bed. Where is this music coming from? I couldn’t see anyone or anything that could be producing this melody. I took a piece of paper and sat at the desk. I closed my eyes tightly and listened to the harmonies. My hands scrolled across the page like they already knew the notes to write. I was so lost in what I was doing I didn’t hear Emmett come into the room. I hadn’t noticed I was still in my towel or that the sun had already risen. Emmett cleared his throat behind me.

“Bells what are you doing up so early and why are you in a towel?” he asked me his voice still heavy with sleep.

“Well to answer your first question, I haven’t been to bed yet, and your second I forgot I was still in one.”

He looked at me questioning my sanity.

“What’s wrong Bells?” he asked.

“Well I kind of got into a argument with Edward last night and took it out on the gym equipment, then I got in the shower, that was around 3am. I was meditating when this enchanting melody over took me and I couldn’t find out where it was coming from so I sat here, took out a piece of paper and closed my eyes to listen to it and look!” I said holding the paper with the notes scribbled all over the page.

“Wow Bells. Do you know the song?”

“No Emmett I don’t but I will. I need to call Alice. I’m going to have her order me a piano for the Ballet Studio in the basement.”

“Why not go to the Cullen’s and use theirs?”

“I can’t that is what Edward and I were fighting about.”

I continued to explain to Emmett the “conversation” between Edward and I. I told him how I said I would never play around them again. Emmett almost looked heart broken. I know he loved to hear me play but he perked up again when I said I would continue to play here at the house when it was just us. He asked about Rose. I told him I wasn’t sure but if she wanted me to I would love to play for her too. I can’t hold Edwards insecurities against the rest of his family could I? On my way to get dressed I picked up my cell and called Alice. She told me she would gladly order me my own piano and that it would be here this afternoon. I thanked her and asked if she could be here to help me with it when it arrived she accepted willing. Even Kate offered to come. Alice mumbled something about a girls night, I said that would be fine as long as there was no Tanya, and it was here. Kate agreed but asked if she could bring Irina and introduce us. I said that would be fine. We disconnected the call and I got dressed in a pair of navy blue track pants and a old Forks High School t-shirt that belonged to Charlie. I might as well be comfy. By the time I made it down the stairs their was a knock on the door. Damn those girls were fast. I opened the door to a very smiley Alice and Kate. I invited them into the living room were I was properly introduced to Irina. She was a lot like Kate, just not as talkative. I guess they balance each other out. They told me some cool stuff about being twins. Like how they can communicate with each other mentally. To say the least I was jealous. Emmett and I had nothing like that, but he still seemed to know how I was feeling. We were just that close.

***Girls Night Out***

The piano showed up not long after all the girls were here. Rosalie took the longest. I guess she felt the need to bring the munchies. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like I don’t have them here but that girl just knows how to shop, so who am I to stop her. We bunked out in the living room. Emmett made for the door as soon as the manicure sets appeared, saying he needed to have Jasper look at something on his jeep for him. We all knew the truth. He just didn’t want to get wrangled into getting one. I made him get them with me all the time. His excuse was even more lame cause we all know Rose is the mechanic in the family. (chuckles to self)

Oh well. So after the piano showed up Alice and Rose set it up in the Ballet Studio. I thought the delivery guy was going to force us to allow him to help. That would have been hilarious. Try explaining to a guy that 5 girls were going to carry a large piano down a flight of stairs and set it up themselves. Well we agreed to let him place it in the living room saying my brother and his friends were coming by later to set it up for us. We laughed at this for hours after he left. Then for some god forsaken reason Rose and Kate asked if I would play them something. Great! I was hoping to not have to play with them here but I guess I have no choice. I asked what they wanted to hear. Alice came sashaying into the room carrying the sheet of music I had wrote this morning. I told her I hadn’t played that one yet and she said that was fine. I was nervous about this after what Edward had said. Alice noticing my hesitation asked what was wrong. I swear that girl could read minds too. I told her about what Edward had said and what I had promised in return. Rose growled at me. Then she told me just because he was an ass about it doesn’t mean the rest of the family feels that way. She told me how they all chewed him out about it last night. I laughed at her choice in wording along with everyone else. She would have blushed if it were possible once she caught on to what we were laughing at. So I decided fuck it. I positioned myself at the piano and set the sheet music on the stand in front of me. I looked around at all their faces, they were all smiling. I started to play. The melody was soft and sweet at first, then it seemed to get dark and angry, then sad, then it got light and airy again. I drifted into that emptiness once again as I played. It was different this time. I could feel the emotions in the notes. As if they were my feelings placed onto the paper now being put out there for everyone to see and hear. As I finished the piece I looked around and I swear I was surrounded by weepy teenagers. They all looked as if they had been crying. I reached over to Alice as she was closest.

“Alice what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong Bella. Why would you think that?”

“You have been crying Alice.” I said to her.

She placed her fingers on her cheek and sure enough there were tear tracks and wet trails. She gasped. The others did the same as they realized that they too had tear tracks down their faces.

“But how?” Kate asked.

“I’m not sure. Alice what do you think happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know Bella. I think we should call Carlisle. He might have an theory.” she said dialing her phone.

“Please Alice make sure he comes alone!” I shouted.

She nodded and spoke to Carlisle about what had happened. He said he would be right over. He would tell them he was going to the hospital on an emergency call. Alice hung up with him.

“Carlisle should be here shortly.” Alice said to us.

“Won’t Edward hear his thoughts though Alice?” I asked.

She laughed and said “No Bella, Carlisle has been hiding shit from Edward for at least a couple of decades now. He has it down to a science.”

Just then we heard a knock at the door.

“Wow that was fast!” I stated.

We all headed upstairs. I answered the door. Carlisle stood there with a smile on his face and asked us to tell him everything that happened. I escorted him to the living room where the rest waited. He took in their appearances and started with the twenty questions. We told him everything up until we called him. He then asked me to play the song for him. At first I declined, but he said that he could make a better guess at what was going on if he felt it himself. I couldn’t argue with that logic. We headed for the piano in the basement. Carlisle looked around the basement and raised his eyebrow at Alice. She shrugged and smiled at him. He shook his head and chuckled to himself. We settled into the studio and I took the sheet music out again. Carlisle looked at it with a strange look on his face. He asked if I composed this piece and I told him that I had just wrote it this morning. He asked if I had ever done anything like it before I said just the once. The one they heard at the house yesterday. He nodded and asked me to begin. I started playing and was once again in the emptiness. Then I was feeling the notes once again. Playing through the song I could feel my emotions shift as the song did. I wondered if this is what the girls were feeling when I played earlier. What Carlisle is feeling now. As the song concluded once again I looked to Carlisle and just like the others there were tears running down his cheeks. He raised his fingers to his face. Looking up at me he smiled. Then he started asking questions again. He asked what I was feeling when I wrote the song. I told him about the argument with Edward that he already knew about, how I was happy when I played for them and then I got angry with Edward for being an ass about it, then how I knew I couldn’t stay angry with him and was sad that we fought in the first place and then how I felt when I was in the shower upon hearing the melody for the first time. We discussed what happened the first and second times I played for them. He told me how they felt peaceful and calm. Which in a house full of wide awake vampires was not a thing that happens all to often. Actually he said it never happens, with Alice and seeing the future, Edward and his mind reading, and Jasper feeling everyone’s emotions all the time there was rarely a peaceful moment. That was why when I played the second time they all flocked to the piano. He said Edward’s reaction was typical of him. He is always in control of his emotions and actions. Then he told me the reason Esme was not affected by my playing is because she is always in a peaceful and calm state so to her it was just beautiful music being played by a beautiful girl. I smiled and of course blushed. We went back upstairs to discuss this more. Once we were all seated in the room Carlisle said that he thinks that when I play songs with emotions attached, whatever emotions I feel while playing said song is what they were feeling. He said he thinks that I may be very special, that if I were to ever become a vampire that I would be very powerful. I smiled to myself on the inside when he said this. The thought of me being a vampire was ridiculous. I couldn’t leave Emmett like that. I remembered the dream I had asked Alice about. I thought I should ask Carlisle while I had him here.

“Carlisle I have something else I would like to ask you about if you don’t mind?” I asked.

“Not at all Bella. Anything I can help you with?”

“Well I talked to Alice about these dreams I had a while back and she wasn’t sure what to make of them either and said I should ask you.” I replied.

“Go on” was all he said.

I began to tell him about all the dreams I have had. Before and after I met them. The meadow with the boy, then the meadow with just Edward and I, and then the one with Edward and I where I had golden eyes just like them.

He was unsure what to make of my dreams he asked if there was anything else. I told him about the prank I pulled on Edward that first night of vacation. He was interested in hearing about how I could slow my heart rate that low without dying, and how I could block both Alice and Jasper’s gifts. We continued to talk like this for several hours. It wasn’t long before his phone rang. It was Edward. Carlisle said he would like to talk to me about this more and he would do some research. He said he would keep this all from Edward for now until we knew more. I thanked him for his knowledge and that I would love to find out more about myself. With that he left us girls to our plans. Alice decided that we needed a full make over after all that girly crying. So the rest of the night continued in true G-N-O fashion.