I'll Never Let You Go

After forcibly getting dressed and redoing my hair, Alice and I were on our way to Portland in a short amount of time. I hadn’t questioned her on why we were going, or where to specifically, but I had a feeling I should have.

At this moment, I was just letting loose and not thinking about Zack, or Aria or the whole situation. Alice had some music station on that I wasn’t familiar with, but I couldn’t help but quietly hum along to the tunes. They were catchy.

“How do you feel about going clubbing?” Alice asked me after an hour in the car. I slowly looked up to her, my head turning towards her small frame in the driver’s seat of the porche. I only shrugged my shoulders a little.

“Not like I can object, right?” I said, matter-of-factly.

Alice just smiled and nodded her head. “Exactly,” sometimes she really got on my nerves with this stuff. I just stayed quiet and let her drive.

Within no time we were parked and walking towards the club. Even it was chilly, the shirt choice Alice had made for me worked. We both had guys looking at us left and right as we walked towards the club that I’m guessing was where we were going. Alice walked right up alongside the line of persons stretching half the block and flashed a smile at the bouncer. He seemed to know her, having grinned and pulled the rope aside for us.

“Thanks, Hef,” Alice commented before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the busy club. The line behind the tacky velvet rope was grumbling but once Alice and I were in the door all we could hear was the music coming down the small hall where we were. She pulled me through the darkly dimmed hall, heading towards a door where more flashing lights and a booming bass were evidently going on. We walked for a few seconds before we were let into a huge room, what seemed like hundreds of people were dancing and drinking to their hearts content. So many scents filled the room it was hard to pick out just one.

“Come on,” Alice said loud enough for me to hear over the blaring music as if I needed to. I followed her, my eyes drifting around the room before landing on a certain someone. As out of his element as he was, Edward sat in the very back corner of an upper level balcony, looking as clam as could be but I could tell he was irritated and disinterested in the festivities.

After walking through crowds of people and convincing guys we weren’t worth leaving their girlfriends for, we finally made it to Edward’s reserved table. As much as I detested him, I knew I had no choice in the matter of sitting. With only two empty seats left at the small table, I took the seat next to him and mumbled a small ‘hi.’ Edward laughed a little and nodded his head.

“Alice, remind me not to let you choose a meeting spot ever again.” He said as Alice laughed and sat on the chair to his left.

“You’re fine, I promise.” She giggled, crossing her small legs and turning towards us. “So, let’s get down to business….” Alice started to talk about the intruder, saying that it was some nomad who had a history of stealing from other vampires. I just scoffed and leaned back into my chair, not buying any of it.

“Because a random stranger of a vampire is going to leave my house in shambles, especially if they’re just stopping by. They wanted something and I have a feeling they got it..” I grumbled, “They stole my necklace… the one Rosalie gave me after being transformed. The matching one to hers…” I started pouting; I loved that necklace more than any piece of jewelry that I owned.

Edward shook his head a little and sighed. “I have no idea who could have done it. I stopped by the house and tried to see if the scent was still there, but all I could configure is that a human has been closer to one of you. Her blood is potent.” He said.

I glared and rolled my eyes as I looked at the table. “Meet my nightmare, Aria.” I muttered more hate and venom in my tone than usual. “She’s Zack’s singer… he thinks she’s worth protecting… I say differently.” Edward noticed my difference in attitude and gently squeezed my hand that was currently resting on my leg. I looked over at him, my hard expression slowly fading as I looked him over. “What?” I questioned a little bluntly.

“Nothing, I just get that you feel horrible about it.” Edward commented, I barely nodded my head before looking over to where Alice should have been. She was nowhere to be found. I wanted to slap the shit out of her.

“Guess it’s just us,” I pointed out as I leaned back into the chair from my slouching position and turned my gaze to Edward’s. He was giving me the smallest smile, his eyes soft for once when they looked at me. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of a smile form on my face. I wasn’t used to him looking at me like this. Or anyone anymore really.

Edward got up, a soft slow song coming on, and stood beside my chair. This whole level was empty, probably Alice’s doing, a nice big spot for dancing towards the middle.

“Care to dance, Scarlet?” I looked up at Edward, his hand extended for me to take as he waited.

“Oh, um… thank you.” I took his hand, a little surprised that he was asking me this. As I stood Edward whisked us to the small dance floor, his left hand keeping ahold of my right and his right hand finding my waist. I let my left hand drop to his shoulder softly and we slowly started to dance. The distance between our bodies was slim, maybe an inch or two.

“Besides what I have accumulated from reading your thoughts, what else is truly happening between you and Zack?” He asked me gently, his hand on the small of my back.

“Well… I can’t really tell you. I don’t even understand it, Edward. It’s like he hates me, and… and all I did was try to make him stay.” I explained, my eyes getting glassy with venom. “I-I Don’t get it. I just wanted to be happy with him, and for him to be happy with me… but he runs off with her all the time, like I don’t exist. He rubs it in my face like I don’t matter to him anymore.” I felt this small weight being lifted from my chest as I looked up into Edward’s eyes, so reassuring and deep. A dim golden color. He just listened to me as I poured my heart out to him, telling him everything that had happened since school started. All the while we were dancing in a small circle.

“Scarlet, maybe you should let him go.” Edward was forward, blatant and blunt.

“Edward you don’t – “

“But I do understand a lot, Scarlet.” He interrupted. “I had to learn to let Bella go. I thought she was all I could ever love, but she was not all I could. I thought my existence was pointless without her. Like there was no light without her. I just had to open my eyes and look around, to see the beauty that is around us all. I still love her, but I needed to let her go. To let her be happy and let her live on like I want her to.” Edward seemed a little more choked up than I had been.

I slowly looked down mumbling, “I’m sorry,” as lowly as possible, for a human to mumble anyway. “I didn’t mean it like that… I just meant that Bella’s choice was reasonable. His isn’t… I’m sorry.” I said again, feeling like I should have been crying. Edward simply stopped our dancing, another slow song coming on. He stared at me for a moment before he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug, my head on his chest. I let my small arms wrap around his middle, holding him close to me. We may have hated each other at one time, but he did know how to make me see the other side of things.

I kept my hands on the middle of his back as his gently rubbed the exposed skin of my upper and middle back. His skin was soft on mine, warmer than anyone else was either. We stayed like that for a while, just holding the other until we felt better. It was pleasant, enjoyable even. Edward pulled back first, still keeping his arms around my waist loosely.

“Are you okay now?” He asked me quietly, keeping my body to his.

I nodded my head, “Yes, thank you.” I gave him a small smile before slowly pulling away and looking at my cell phone. It was nearing two in the morning and I had papers to grade before class later that day.

“I hate to leave you like this, but I have to go…” I said slowly as I grabbed my coat and looked up at him. Edward seemed a little disappointed.

“May I drive you home?” He asked me politely, and pulled his coat on. “Alice already left.”

I just knew that she would plan something like this. “Thanks, Edward.” I said nodding my head, “A ride would be very nice.” Edward nodded and motioned for me to follow him. I did, I kept a step behind him as we managed our way back down the stairs and through the swarms of people to get out of there. His car was parked a block away, no big deal, but it was boring. We both kept quiet, I didn’t know if it was because he was concentrating on getting to the car, or because someone was bleeding and it was intoxicating.

We both got into the car with no incidents; I definitely needed to go hunting though. Having not gone in over a week and then being around kids every day before going to a night club with everyone’s heart racing… you need it.

I leaned back into the seat, my head on the head rest. The car was comfortable, surprisingly. Edward seemed a little more tense than usual as he sat in the driver’s seat and started up the Volvo. I chose to stay silent, letting him relax as he drove off and sped off in the direction Alice and I had come.

The long ride seemed to be filled with the sound of the engine, and only that if the station on the radio wasn’t playing thanks to me. Edward was more relaxed, but from his body language, I could tell that something was up. He sat up almost perfectly straight, his hands tight on the wheel and his arms looked a little stiff.
“Are you okay?” I asked after a good ten, twenty minutes on the road.

Edward turned his head to me and laughed a little, his posture relaxing more than before. “Yes, why would you ask that?” He questioned, still looking over at me.

“You just seem tense over there, like something was still bothering you.” I shrugged. “Just saying.” Edward just laughed a little and shook his head. He dismissed what I was saying and went on. Was it me, or were we getting along?