ｂｒｅａｔｈｅ．{ʀ. ʜᴀʟᴇ}

35 | coming home

⸺THE FLIGHT HOME WAS an awkward encounter. 

Bella, when not making out with Edward, was sleeping. Alice sat in the ailse seat, while Rosalie was in the middle and I in the window seat. We weren't... talking. My hand was on hers, and my head laying on her shoulder, but there was an unspoken agreement between us: it's not going to be like this forever.

When we get home, I know that it's going to be hell. My phone is missing, Bella has barely communicated with Dad, and... Rosalie and I are going to have to talk about... the situation. 

She left me. She fucking left me. And yet she didn't come back, even if it was "killing her". But... didn't she see? Didn't Alice tell her? And she would rather me die a human then spend eternity with her. 

*   *   *

ROSALIE.

I left her. 

It was the thought that stuck in my head as her warm cheek rested against my shoulder, I left her. This wonderful, kind, energetic, beautiful girl. I left her. And it broke her... It broke her like it broke me, and it was like the fog had parted and I saw the reasoning: she wanted to spend her... eternity with me. What she wanted was the one thing it killed me to give her: The cold, blood-thirsty life I had been given.

But how? My mind grappled with the question. How could I do that to her? Take away her warmth and life and heart... How?

One of the things I had learned through my years living as a vampire was that the thing I hated most was myself. Not the men on the street, not the fact that I was turned, not the Volturi... In my eyes, I was a monster, and there was no one who could change that.  

But in Andie's eyes... What was her perspective? She knew what I was, she knew what I craved, and it amazed me she still wanted me. It amazed me more every time she implied or talked about how she wanted to be one of us. How she wanted our forever. It terrified me, because if that was what we both longed for, then what was stopping me from changing her? It was selfish for me to want to condemn her to this life, and I'd repeat that over and over for six months, until it got all too real and I needed to leave before she got hurt. 

But now I saw, and I was making her hurt more by leaving, but still... I didn't want to turn her. I just wish she was getting better instead of worse, but I wouldn't get what I wanted. 

Andie's breathing had slowed, and I realized she was asleep. I ran my hand softly through her hair, taking in her scent that I had been missing for so long. 

"You both need to talk to Carlisle when you get home." Alice exhaled. "I was waiting to tell you until she went to sleep." She turned to me, shrugging.

I sigh, my anxiety spiking at the thought of facing my parents and family after this. "What issue? The girls turning or us going home or... about Volterra. And... how bad will it be?"

"Well," Alice starts. "Esme is... frustraited, not at you, but just wishing that she could've worked harder to prevent it. Carlisle and her are willing to do anything to make sure it doesn't happen again. And Rosalie," She turns to me. "You need to... talk to Emmett. He's been worrying about you a lot these past 24 hours."

I nodded, feeling guilty already for what I had put my family through. I sighed, and turned back to Alice. "I'm sorry." I told her. "I can't imagine what you've been through the past day."

Alice nods her head, silently reserved. "I'm... sorry too. My visions are very rarely clouded like this. They were in La Push around the wolves and--"

"The wolves? In La push?" I ask her, stunned and angry, my voice louder with each word.