A False New Start

The next three days were so much fun. There were a bunch of different welcome to Middlebury events including a concert, a trip to Target where we got free bowls of Easy Mac and Vitamin waters, and a barbeque. Catie and I went to as many as possible even on the day that it rained. That was the day of the concert and while I was waiting in the crowd with Catie, I glanced around and saw a flash of black hair at around the same height that Alice was. I shook the thought out of my head, why was I constantly thinking about her? I didn’t see anything else suspicious during the rest of the orientation days.

Classes began Tuesday and I was upset that my time with Catie was cut short. We had become close friends, sharing everything, or at least close to everything, about our lives and basically spending every moment together. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any classes together. I had the earlier class on Tuesday and by nine I was out of the room and heading across campus to my English 101 class.

The classes were small at Middlebury and my English class only had twenty seats in it. I was one of the first there, I had left the dorms a little early to ensure that I could find my way to the right building and room, so I got settled in my seat at the back of the class and pulled out a book I was halfway through. It was one of the required readings for the class and I figured it would be good to begin early.

The room steadily filled over the next fifteen minutes and a few people were chatting but most kept to themselves. Class was due to begin any minute when there was a tap on my shoulder. Placing my thumb in the book as a bookmark, I turned to the person sitting next to me with a smile on my face that quickly fell into frown.

The smiling pixie sitting next to me was the girl who had popped into my head the past few days, one of the few people I was sure I was never going to see again. Of course she looked the same as she had last September. Her hair, short, spiky, and black, her eyes a bright topaz, and her skin snow white and flawless except for the dark circles under her eyes. She had a broad smile on her impish face, a smile that began to drop as I glared at her.

Why the hell was Alice Cullen in my class?

“Hi, Bella,” she said, her voice low and soothing. I almost flinched, it had been so long since I had heard her voice, it almost hurt to hear her speak. It brought back too many memories.
With a scowl on my face I asked, “What are you doing here, Alice?”

Her smile vanished completely. Her voice dropping even lower so that I had to lean
in to hear her clearly, she said, “Jasper and I decided to go back to school. We’ve never gone here before and it’s a perfect location for us.”

“So you two just happened to decide to go to the same exact school as me? What a coincidence, huh?”

“Yep, it’s crazy,” she replied, her voice light.

“What’s even crazier is that we have a class together. We do just have one class together, right?” My eyes narrowed at her and I held out my hand. “Let me see your schedule, now.” Maybe I was being a little harsh but I had been doing so well and now she was here and everything was going to be screwed up.

Alice complied and handed over the piece of paper which she most likely didn’t need. She’d probably had everything memorized just by glancing at it. I scanned her six classes and compared them to the six I was taking. Along this English class we also had the same seminar and the Reading Women’s Writing class. I shouldn’t have been surprised that we had three classes together, it was something Alice would do. I was furious, though. These were supposed to be some of the best years of my life after the worst year of my life and now she was going to ruin it by being a constant reminder of what happened.

“What are you playing at, Alice?” I spat, throwing her schedule down on her desk. “Why are you here?”

“Okay, everyone,” our teacher, a middle aged woman who looked like she didn’t get out much, said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s get started. I’m Mrs. Langdon and welcome to English 102, your introductory English course here at Middlebury. This class will be the basis of all your English classes over the next few years…”

Alice dropped a note on my desk and against my better judgment, I opened it.

I know you’re angry with me. Please meet me after class so I can explain.

I crumpled the note up but, without looking away from the whiteboard, I nodded slightly. Even though I didn’t want to speak with her, I needed some kind of closure from her so
that I could go about ignoring her in peace.

I ignored Alice for the rest of the time we had in class. Mrs. Langdon went over the syllabus and what books we would need for the year. I kept my eyes focused on the front board and from the corner of my eye, I saw Alice looking at me.

We were let out early once Mrs. Langdon finished going through everything. She acted as thought it were a treat, I disliked her for it. Alice hopped out of her seat instantly and waited expectantly for me to get up. I took my time packing away the papers in my bag. Then there was nothing left to do and I couldn’t hold off any longer on following Alice out of the classroom.

“Do you want to come over to mine and Jasper’s house?” she asked when we were out of the building. She was back to smiling. “It’s right off campus. He’s not there yet, he has two classes today, but he’ll be there in about two hours.”

“No,” I stated, keeping my voice hard. It wasn’t polite but I was through with niceties, if she wanted to ruin my freshman year then I would be rude. “I want to stay on campus.”

“Okay,” she sighed, finally starting to realize that I wasn’t playing around. “Where would you like to go?”

“Let’s just…find a bench away from everyone.”

We walked through campus in search for an empty area. We finally came to a part that had little activity and where we could be out of earshot of anyone who would pass by.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked.

“Do you promise to let me explain myself before you say anything? I really want you to understand what exactly happened.”

“I know what happened,” I said, crossing my arms, “all of you left me behind because Edward,” my voice stuck a little on his name, “thought it was for the best. Well he was wrong. Do you know how much it destroyed me when you left? It took me months to get back to normal! If it wasn’t for Jacob, who knows how I would have ended up.”

She looked at me through sad, shining eyes. “Bella, please, just let me explain myself. If you still want to hate me afterwards, then fine, but don’t hate me until you’ve heard my side of the story.”

“Fine.”

“Okay but first, let me just say that I love your hair.” My eyes narrowed into slits and she moved right along. “Edward made us leave, he really did believe it was for the best that we leave you. He wanted you to have a normal human life without you being in danger whether from our family or from another vampire. It killed him to leave you but he was really only looking out for you. Can you at least understand that?”

“I would if it wasn’t completely insane,” I snapped.

“I know it’s insane but to him it was the only option to make sure you were completely safe. After we left, all of us broke off from each other. Edward began tracking Victoria to make sure there would be less of a threat for you. He killed her a few weeks ago. Esme and Carlisle moved to Vancouver, Esme found a house in desperate need of restoration and Carlisle was able to find a job at the hospital. Jasper came with me to find out more about my past. I was able to find a lot of information from the asylum I was kept in.” Her voice hardened slightly and I couldn’t help but soften a little. Alice had had a hard human life and I did feel bad about that. “Emmett and Rosalie took a long honeymoon to Africa. They just got back last month and they’re staying with Esme and Carlisle.”

“Alice, I don’t need to know what everyone’s been doing for the past year. I need to know why you stayed away for so long. Edward doesn’t control your life, you could have come back to see me at any time. I was miserable.”

She dropped her head and looked down at her clasped hands. “I know and I feel awful. I wanted to go back and see you, I really did, but Edward made me swear I wouldn’t return to Forks. He was so desperate that I couldn’t bring myself to disobey him.”
“So all of you just abandoned me?”

“Well…not completely. Edward did come back at one point.”

I sat up straighter and finally looked Alice straight on. “What? When?”

“Back in June. He wanted to see you, he was so unhappy that he just wanted to see you and make sure you were all right so he could see that he had done the right thing.”
I could already guess at what she was going to say Edward saw. June was one
of the best months for me over the past twelve months.

“He saw you with Jacob and from what he said, you were pretty happy. Because of that, his whole idea that you were better off without him was solidified. He could go off and be upset but know that you were happy without him in your life. Are you two still together? I’m just curious. I really am glad that you found him and that you two were happy.”

“Jacob and I had a short relationship,” I sighed. The few months we were together were great and it came to an end all too soon. He asked me out in May and it was great but there was so much stress from both of us. He had his…wolf problems and I was moving across the country. We mutually broke up in July and we’re still friends. When Edward saw us together, that was probably right before all the tension started. “Are you going to tell him all this?”

“No. Edward has no idea that Jasper and I are here with you. The last time he checked in was about two weeks ago right before Jasper and I left to move into the house. His tentative plans were to go to England, he’s been avoiding the US as much as he can. The only ones who know we’re here are Esme and Carlisle but I’m sure they’ll tell Rosalie and Emmett sooner or later.”

“Why are you even here, Alice?” I asked. I had lost all the anger in my voice, instead I just sounded tired.

“I want to make things right,” she said, reaching out and putting one of her cool hands on top of my own. “I hate that I left you, it hurt me to do so but at the time I had to. I’ll do anything to help you forgive me. Please, can we try to fix things and be friends again? I miss you so much, we were like sisters and now that’s ruined.”

I didn’t answer her, instead I looked down at our hands. Even though my skin was pale, hers was whiter. Our skin could have been the same, we could have been the same if only her brother wasn’t such an idiot. She may have been forced to leave me but she could have come back at any time. I was hurt and I wasn’t sure if anything could mend that.

“I really don’t know, Alice,” I quietly told her, removing my hand from under hers. “I need some time to think about this. There have been so many changes over the past few days and this just really screwed me up. Can you promise to give me some space until I’m ready?”

She didn’t look happy with my reaction but with a resigned sigh she said, “I suppose. Thank you for listening, Bella.”

I nodded and walked away, leaving behind Alice just as her whole family had left me behind. I didn’t feel bad for doing so, I thought it was only fair that someone else besides me was upset in this mess.

The walk back to my dorm seemed to take far too long. All I wanted to do was lie in bed and forget that this whole day had happened. Maybe I would fall asleep and wake up to find that everything had been a dream and Tuesday hadn’t started yet.

I made it into my building and my room before I broke down. Luckily, Catie had just left for her class and she had one right after it, I didn’t have to worry about her coming in and seeing me cry. I fell onto my bed and the tears flowed. Everything that I had been able to bury in the very back of my head ever since Jacob fixed me came flooding back. All of the hurt from being left by not only Edward but by six other people who I considered family hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t control my emotions, it was a mixture of hurt, anger, and just overall sadness. I had been able to stop thinking about all of that for the most part ever since Jacob entered my life and showed me how to live again. Now I was reliving that day when Edward left me all over again. It felt like my heart was being ripped out once more.

My big question at the moment was, is it too late to hop on a plane and go to school in Florida?