The Cullen

Things kept switching in and out of focus. Alice and I stood there immobilized as everyone hugged and laughed. Jasper made the connection. He walked over to Alice and started to shake her. I looked away before he could make another. To fake my awareness, I gave Jasper I troubled look. I broke the embrace in which my uncle held me to walk over to Alice. I put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at me in awe. Everything came into focus as I touched her.

“How?” she asked lightly.

“How what?”

“I have to go.” She said quick goodbyes to everyone. She was gone before I could catch up with her.

I considered following her on foot but decided that it would be better not to. I returned to house filled with weary eyes. I shrugged. I walked over to the couch. The Cullen family left soon after. That was the last time I saw them.

***

I turned around as I heard a shriek come from behind me. I duplicated this shriek. I ran to the person who uttered the scream. I placed my hands around her and hugged her closely.

“KATIE!”

“AMBER!”

“Oh it is so good to see you,” I said, ignoring the fact that she called me Amber. Everyone called me Amber before I moved to Forks.

We had some time to spare as we waited for our flight to Scotland. We walked around the airport, wandering into many different boutiques. We sat down in a café and drunk some frozen coffee. We talked about our lives and everything.

“So how are you and your cousin’s ex-fiancée?” Katie asked curiously.

“Um…” I bit my lip.

“Well?”

“That relationship is nonexistent. He left a few months back. He went traveling,” I lied.

“Oh okay. Do you two talk much?”

I blushed and put my head down. “He left because of me, so no, we don’t talk much.”

“Oh, girl I’m sorry. So anything new happened in your life?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

“Actually yeah,” I said, stuffing a piece of muffin in my mouth. “I met my real father.”

Katie half spit out her food. “What!”

“Yeah. He’s pretty cool though. For graduation, he gave me his house in England. A house!”

“Oh my gosh,” she responded, spitting out the rest of her food. “:All I got were gift cards to Barnes and Noble and this trip.”

I laughed, “That’s not bad. Oh, I have good news.”

“What?”

“My graduation present from Carlisle and Esme, Edward’s parents, was a cabin for us to stay at while we are in Scotland. They own one out there and decided to let us use it. We can stay for as long as we want.”

“Yeah, but I only brought clothes for a week,” she laughed. “That was really nice of them.”

“Yes, it was. All my gifts made me cry. They were all so wonderful.”

Katie was interrupted when a voice came over the intercom to announce our flight. We hurried to the plane, getting stuck by the security scans. As soon as we were done with that, we raced our way to the boarding area. Katie was gasping for air.

“How are you not out of breath?” she managed in-between breaths.

“I still run,” I laughed, mainly to myself. If she only knew how fast I could really run.

“You suck.”

“Not in a while,” I joked.

She gave me a “I don’t want to know stare.”

“I was joking, geez. People don’t know what jokes are anymore.” I handed the lady my ticket as I boarded the plane.

We took our seats and got settled for a long trip. It was five o’ clock when we left. Katie and I talked a little more but became quiet soon. We took out our I-pods and began to sing out loud. We were corrected once and almost died laughing afterwards. We settled down though. We fell asleep at about nine central time only to be awoken two hours later. We arrived in Scotland at the break of dawn.

We got off the plane and wandered around the strange airport in hopes of fining our luggage. Finally, some kind stranger lead us to the pick up area.

“Thank you,” we yelled at the stranger as he walked away.

“Thank God for him. We probably would have wandered past it all night if it were not for him,” I commented.

Katie laughed, “Yeah. So what now?”

“I’m hungry.”

Katie laughed again, “When are you not hungry?”

“I don’t know. Good question. Think they have a McDonald’s around here?”

“I hope so. Do you know where you going anyway?”

“Nope. They gave me directions to the cabin, but I do not remember what I did with it.” I started to scrounge through my purse for the piece of paper. I gave up. “Can we eat first?”

“Sure.”

Of course when we walked out the airport, there was a McDonald’s across the street waiting for us. We crossed the street. When we realized that the inside had yet to open, that we still has our luggage, and we forgot to get our rental car. Great. We walked back across the street to get it.

We walked up to a lady dressed in a blue blazer and a white blouse. She looked up just before I could ask my question. She startled me. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, I was wandering about a rental car.”

“Okay did you book it when you booked your flight?”

“Yes.”

“What is the name?”

“Amberlynn Roberts.”

“Okay, here we go.” She grabbed a pair of keys out and handed then to me. “It is out the doors at the end of the hall. There should be someone in the garage to get it for you.”

“Okay, thank you. Also, how do we,” pointing to my friend and I, “get our money exchanged?”

“There is office in the following area,” she pointed behind her.

“Thank you.”

We walked across the opened area to the office she was talking about. The door was wide opened. There was a gray haired man sitting in an office chair behind a mahogany desk. I knocked lightly on the door.

He looked up, not expecting us. “May I help you?”

“Yes, we need exchange our currency,” Katie answered this time.

“Oh yes, yes. Come in. Please, take a seat.”

We did as instructed. We took out our money so that we could exchange it. It was amazing how much less money we walked out with. I disliked the fact that American currency was about half of the currency here.

We walked down the hall leading to the garage. As soon as we walked out, we were greeted by a man waiting for us.

“Keys, please,” he asked monotonously.

I handed him the keys, and he was sprinted away. We waited there for one moment before we heard tires screeching through the garage. We turned around to see what car that we were given. I don’t remember booking anything fast. We faltered in our turning as we saw the car. I knew the car only because I have only seen one other like it: an Aston Martin Vanquish.

Katie leaned over to my ear and whispered, “What is that thing?”

I answered, still in shock, “An Aston Martin Vanquish.”

“It goes fast?”

“Very.”

“Oh.”

I laughed, “Yeah.”

The man got out. He looked like he didn’t want to. I couldn’t blame him; the car was nice. Katie and I walked over to the car. We looked at each other. We were trying to decide who was going to drive it.

“I’ll drive,” I said.

“No, I’ll drive; it’s okay.” Katie grabbed the door handle and pulled the door opened. She plopped down in the seat with triumph, which faded quickly when she realized she got in the wrong seat. I was in the driver’s seat already.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Katie,” I laughed.

She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out.

I peeled out of the garage. It felt nice. The car was easy to drive, and it rode nice. The Vanquish was very comfortable. We pulled into the drive-through at McDonald’s and finally got something to eat. As we waited for the food, I rummaged through my purse until I found the directions to the cabin.

“Aha!” I shouted when I did.

Katie gave me a stare of retardation. “Idiot,” she mumbled.

“Hey, I heard that,” I said, smacking her across her head.

“Hey, I felt that.”

“You were supposed to,” I said as I smacked her head again.

“Ow,” she laughed while rubbing her head. I was careful not to hurt her.

“They need to hurry up, geez. I’m starving.” As soon as she I finished saying that, food was thrust in front of my face. “Uh… thank you.” I stomped on the gas pedal, and we were out of there.

Katie gave me the directions with a mouthful of food. I missed a few turns but was easily able to turn around. The cabin was in a woodsy area, of course. We saw a lot of elk. I never noticed how big they were. I never paid attention when I hunted.

We finally made it to the cabin. It was probably a regular thirty minute drive, but since I missed some turns, it took about forty five minutes. We grabbed our luggage and finally looked at the cabin. Cabin was the wrong word for this place. It was a two story version, woodsy of their house in Forks. Katie’s jaw dropped when she saw the house.

“Come on,” I called after her. I was already half way to the door.

She scurried to my side. We got stuck in the door way as we tried fitting in the door at the same time. I stepped back and let her through. She tripped over the rug.

“You never saw that,” she laughed.

I nodded in agreement.

“Ah, but I did,” a familiar voice said. “What took you two so long to get here?” the gorgeous creature asked as he glided down the stairs. A smile formed across my face. Alice’s and my vision was coming to life.