Forever True

It took about five minutes to get to Jake’s house from the beach, and I walked slow. I wanted to calm down fully; I wanted to look like I hadn’t been crying; I wanted to be normal with him.

I slipped on the steps going up to his front porch, since my eyes had been on the black Mercedes parked in the driveway. I figured that was Dr. Cullen’s car, and was in awe, since I’d never seen a real Benz in person, and I slipped on the stupid stairs and scraped my right elbow up pretty good and ripped though the sleeve of my thermal.

“Aw, damnit,” I said, ringing the doorbell as I glowered at my arm. The door opened, and a tiny girl with short, spiky black hair and a stunningly beautiful pixie-like face stood before me.

“Hi, you must be Leona!” she said chipperly, but then she got a whiff of my blood and her hand went to her nose. Must be one of the Cullens.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, covering up my arm, and the doctor poked his angel’s head out of Jacob’s room.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” she chirped.

Carlisle came up behind her in an instant. “What happened?”

“Um, I… I slipped on the stairs.”

Carlisle gave a questioning look to the pixie.

“I was going to warn her, actually, I was on my way to, but she got here quicker than I thought,” said the girl. Ah, this must be Alice. The psychic.

Carlisle shook his head slightly, then turned his attention to me. “Come on inside, I’ll clean that up for you.”

“Thanks,” I said, and he led me quickly through the house, shutting the bathroom door behind us. I sat up on the counter.

“Sorry to rush you, it’s just that our newest vegetarian happened to be in the living room.”

“Vegetarian?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. The newest addition to our family, Jasper, has yet to master ignoring the scent.” He nodded to my arm.

“Oh,” I said darkly, looking down nervously.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Leona… I remember you.”

“Yeah, I remember you too. And I’m walking, so apparently you’re a good doctor.”

He chuckled. God, it wasn’t fair how handsome he was. “Well thank you.”

He methodically began cleaning up and bandaging my elbow.

“So, you met my son, Edward, correct?”

“Yes,” I said, happy that he was making conversation, since I was too shy and intimidated to. “He’s great.”

“Edward is very wise for his age,” Carlisle said, and winked. Ohhh.

“I’ll bet,” I joked back, and he smiled. I got jealous again. Freaking pretty people. “Um… how’s Jake holding up?”

“He’s very tired. He fell asleep after Bella left. He seems to be healing up fine. Are you aware that werewolves can heal themselves fairly quickly?”

“I knew, but I forgot. I keep forgetting. He’s just so… Jacob. He’s so normal. It’s like he hasn’t changed, except he’s a helluva lot taller and he’s really strong. And then there’s the whole wolf thing,” I said sarcastically, and Carlisle laughed.

“Yes. No major differences,” he said. “Well, your elbow is all bandaged and it’s safe to go among the others. I’m sure Alice would love to introduce herself now.”

“I’ll go see her then. And thank you, Dr. Cullen,” I said, automatically going in to give him a hug, since it was just my nature. He was hard and cold like Edward, but he did hug me back, although very gently.

“No trouble at all. And please, call me Carlisle,” he said, and I nodded.

“Will do,” I said, and headed out to the living room. Alice bounded over to me excitedly.

“So sorry I didn’t get to before, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Alice, and this is Jasper,” she said, pulling a very tall guy over to her by the hand. They were both incredibly good-looking and incredibly pale, and the guy looked very tense.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Leona,” I said, even though I knew she already knew.

“So nice to meet you too!” she said.

“It’s a pleasure,” Jasper said, looking like he wasn’t breathing.

“Sorry about him, he’s new,” Alice vouched, holding onto Jasper’s arm in a way that told me they loved each other very much.

“That’s what Carlisle said.” It felt weird calling Dr. Cullen “Carlisle” out loud, kind of like calling your teachers by their first names.

“So you’re Jacob’s girlfriend, right?” Alice asked, and then bit her tongue. “Or, um… you will be?”

I stared at her a moment, then remembered that Edward had said Alice was psychic. I would have to remember that.

“I certainly hope so,” I said, unable to help but smile at her. She was like a little perky, bouncy ray of sunshine.

“You can bet on me,” she said happily, her smile dazzling. The world was truly a cruel place.

Just then, a bear burst in through the front door, and I nearly fell over.

“Hi Emmett!” Alice said, bouncing over to the bear, who I realized was just a huge, burly human. He grinned at me, obviously pleased to have nearly scared the pants off me.

“Hi Alice. Who’s this?” boomed the bear.

Alice took my hand with her tiny, icy one and pulled me over. “This is Leona Sparrowsong. I told you she was pretty!”

I felt embarrassed, which seemed to please the bear more. He grinned, and I realized he was really, really handsome too. I was so going to become one of those anorexic plastic surgery junkies if this went on any longer.

“Nice to meet you, Leona. I’m Emmett,” he said, and when I shook his hand I knew that he could easily crush my skull with it, but he was really gentle with the handshake, as Carlisle had been with the hug. If tall, dark, and handsome was also a bodybuilder, it would definitely be Emmett.

“N-nice to meet you,” I said nervously.

“She smells good for one of them,” Emmett remarked. “Kind of like pine and flowers or something.”

“Emmett, enough,” came a woman’s voice, clear as a bell. She stepped in behind Emmett, and she was absolutely gorgeous. Now I had seen her before, with her copper curls and pretty face: this was the doctor’s wife, Esme. She’d come into Carlisle’s office one day to drop of his lunch (which was so normal it was weird) and met my mother and I. She was really sweet. “Hello, Leona. I don’t know if you remember me; I’m Esme Cullen, Carlisle’s wife.”

“No, no, I remember you,” I said, and to my surprise, she hugged me. She was definitely a mother figure.

And then the blonde came in, the amazingly beautiful one with the legs and the boobs and the confidence. Her heels clacked on the floor, as if she wasn’t tall enough already.

“Rosalie, I don’t believe you’ve met Leona,” Esme said, and the blonde came forward, sizing me up. She appeared to sniff the air, and then she smiled at me, not warmly, like Esme or Alice or the doctor, but it was a smile.

“It’s a pleasure,” she said in a crystalline voice, shaking my hand carefully. Emmett put his arm around her as soon as he got the chance, and they were so beautiful they looked like a painting.

“Likewise,” I said breathlessly.

“I brought some food, if you’d like some,” Esme said, “I rarely get the chance to use the kitchen, so it was quite fun, wasn’t it, Rosalie?”

“Oodles,” Rosalie said dryly, then laughed. The beautiful one made a joke. My self esteem took about seven more hits.

“Actually, I’m okay for right now, Ms. Cullen-”

“Esme,” she corrected.

“…Esme, but I’m working up an appetite slowly but surely,” I said, and she smiled.

“Just let me know.”

“Thanks. Um… I think I’ll go check on Jake, see if he’s awake,” I said, “Excuse me.”

“Sure,” Esme said. I felt weird, like I’d just added on a group of friends. Just wait till Dad hears about this… whew.

As I walked down the familiar hallway, I could hear Alice’s chirpy voice.

“She’s the one I told you about! The new friend!”

“She seems like a very nice girl,” Esme said.

“She’s pretty,” Rosalie- wait. Rosalie called me pretty. The end of the world was coming. Seriously.

“I like her,” Emmett decided.

“She’s very easy to be around. Her scent doesn’t give me much trouble, it’s so light,” Jasper said, which took a weight off my shoulders. I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.

I turned into Jacob’s room and nearly ran into Carlisle.

“Oh, pardon me, Leona,” he said.

“My fault,” I dismissed quickly.

“Are you alright? You look a little faint,” Carlisle said quietly, his smooth voice filled with concern.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Jacob!