"Bella?" I felt cold fingers on my arm. "Bella?" Impulsively flinching, I came to consciousness as soon as I realized the voice was beside me.

"Bella, what's so funny?" Alice was laying on her stomach, an arm's length away, her white feet tracing dainty circles in the air. She was thumbing through what looked to be a thick fashion magazine.

I rubbed at my eyes, momentarily forgetting where I was. "What's funny." My throat felt like sandpaper erupting from my raw throat, and I could still taste a hint of acid lingering on the back of my tongue from the orange juice.

Alice giggled. "I'm not sure, that's why I asked. You were laughing in your sleep. You might've been dreaming." Her voice was smooth and sweet like Edward's, only a few octaves higher and airy, like cotton candy. "You laughed some earlier, too. I wondered what was so humorous, do you remember?" She flipped another page of the glossy magazine, barely even glancing down at it.

Now, I had heard of talking in your sleep, which I myself did quite often, as Edward usually made a habit of pointing out. But laughing in your sleep? That just sounded bizarre. Scoffing at myself, I shut my eyes and thought about what I might have found so funny in my sleep.

I remembered seeing the color red, dark and vivid, almost showy. There was a bird in an oak tree. As the rest of the dream reassembled itself, I chuckled at how completely random it was. Alice looked up, her eyes sparkling through her long eyelashes.

"It was Edward. He was sitting on a branch of this huge tree. Next to a tiny rainbow-colored bird." I spoke slowly as I replayed the dream in my mind. "The bird would peck him on the hand. Every time he did, these bright red words would form all over Edward's skin. Like graffiti or something."

Laughing, her eyes cornered me and she furrowed her brow. "I can't imagine a tiny little bird pecking huge Edward. I bet it was a funny sight."

"It really was. And, I mean, the bird wasn't trying to be mean or hurt Edward or anything, so it wasn't very frightening."

"Do you remember any of the words? On Edward's skin?"

Pulling at some of the tangles in my hair, I considered this. After a minute of nothing, I decided that I didn't remember any of the dream words I'd seen. I shook my head.

"Hmm. Well, it's interesting, nonetheless." She cocked her head to the side, her still-animated voice floating above us in the room. "More pressing, though, Bella, is how in the world did you dream up something like a rainbow bird?"

Smiling in embarrassment, I shrugged. "I'm sure I didn't make them up. They have to exist somewhere, don't they?"

Our collective laughter eventually died down as we mused more about the dream. Looking out the window, I noticed it was completely dark outside. The only light around us was the table lamp sitting on the nightstand. It threw a golden hue on Alice, making her tight, gentle body look like a bronzed statue of a garden nymph.

Changing the subject, I decided to ask something I'd been wondering ever since I woke. "Where's Edward?"

Sitting up, Alice closed the magazine with a grin. I supposed she could sense my apprehension of his absence. "He's hunting."

I nodded, recalling the ghostly shade of purple I'd seen underneath his sad eyes just before I'd fallen asleep. In all honesty, I couldn't have been more glad that he was hunting. No matter how painful it was being away from him, I had to convince myself that he needed food more than I needed him. Plus, seeing the life and color drained out of him like that somehow always made me feel like I was accountable for his suffering.

"He's been gone for a few hours now, but he should be back soon."

"Did he go alone?" I asked, clearing my throat and sniffling. A deep tickle situated itself in my nose. Reaching over to the nightstand, I grabbed three tissues trying to be as nonchalant as I could.

"No, he wasn't alone," she said, carefully watching me. "Carlisle, Jasper, and Emmett went, as well."

The tingle set in even deeper. I was a nervous wreck as I felt Alice studying me, her eyes piercing me through. Pushing myself up to a sitting position like hers, I stared at a spot in front of me on the comforter, trying to ready myself. Before long, the sneezes surfaced and I pressed the tissues to my face as hard as I could to muffle the sound. "hitChmm, hehtCHmn!"

Looking up from my tissues, I found Alice still staring, her eyebrows arched in curiosity and her mouth hanging slightly open.

I felt another tickle in the same nostril, but this one emerged much quicker. "hhs— suhorry," I tried to say, bringing the wet tissues back up. "ehSHew, hehSHuu!"

"Oh my gosh." She waited to see if I was done. After a few seconds of silence, she finally spoke. "Blesses, Bella."

A certain guilt wrapped around me. I emptied my nose as best I could before meeting her glance. "Sorry, thanks."

"We'd been hearing about you— well, doing that, but I didn't imagine it being this bad at all."

Grabbing another tissue, I looked up, half-suspicious, half-mortified. "We?"

Alice shrugged her petite shoulders. "Word gets around quick in the Cullen family. Carlisle was telling us so we wouldn't be worried."

I could feel the crimson creeping up my neck and face. After another awkward silence, Alice questioned me, her voice quieter this time, almost in a whisper. "What does it feel like?"

"What does what feel like?" Already, I think I knew what she was wondering and could feel my chest starting to cave in from the humiliation of it. But if she wanted to know badly enough, I was going to make her say it.

"You know," she whispered again. After reading my confused expression, she refuted it sharply.

"Oh, come on, Bella. It's just me. It's not like you're talking to Emmett here."

"Yeah well, if word gets around so quick in the Cullen family then telling you may very well be like telling Emmett." I threw my arms across my chest in defense and watched her roll her eyes.

"Why do yhou want to huh," I took a quick and short breath in. "esshhoo." Blowing my nose, I waited for another, but felt nothing. I silently cursed myself. I had just disproved Edward's Bella-only-sneezing-doubles-while-sick theory, and he wasn't even around to witness it.

"Bless," Alice said, twisting a section of her short black hair around her pinky.

"Thanks, but um," I tossed the filled tissues over the side of the bed into the trashcan. "Why do you want to know."

"I . . . just haven't done it in so long. I kind of forget." The sadness from her voice quickly bled through me. I was sad for Alice, for Edward and Carlisle and Emmett and the rest of the Cullens. For all vampires, for the simple things they missed about being human. But I made it up in my mind that when I would change— not if— I would never miss such a stupid, faulty thing as sneezing. Before I could verbalize my thoughts, Alice stood, the life having soaked back into her tone. "Do you want some medicine or are you feeling better?"

I remembered Edward being upset with me for having sneaked double my dosage earlier in the evening. "Am I allowed more?"

Alice shrieked with a sigh. "Geez, Bella, what are they going to do, withhold medicine from you so you can't get better? Of course you're allowed to take some. Plus Carlisle said it was fine to see if you needed more when you woke."

Returning from the office, she sat next to me and held the little plastic cup filled with red to my lips. Suddenly, I felt odd and wonderful all in the same second. Odd because with a cup of scarlet liquid in front of me and the thought of no longer being human freshly stirring my brain, I imagined that the medicine was not medicine at all. Tonight it would be blood. I would merely be inhaling an everyday vampire essential.

And wonderful because Edward had mentioned earlier that he liked me being silly. And this medicine made me silly. Tonight I would be a silly, blood-sucking vampire. A chill ran down my spine in excitement. Smiling, I swallowed the thickness as fast as I could.

"So? What's it like?"

I made a face. "Uggh. It tastes gross."

"Not the medicine, silly."

"Alice."

"Oh Bella, please. I swear I won't tell a single person." Her voice sounded desperate and sweet. As usual, I found it hard to refuse.

Really, it was a simple question, and I wanted to give her what she wanted, but I didn't know how to begin explaining it. The thought of even trying to explain it made me self-conscious in ways that only Edward had known in me.

With a huff, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Um."

Alice settled into her spot with the small smile of someone who rarely didn't get what she asked for.

"It's like," I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "I don't know, the sneeze builds up, all of your senses heightening to the max, to where uh, where you lose control of everything for a split second on the release. I don't know how to explain it." I pressed my hands to my hot face as she sadly smiled.

"That sounds nice. I wish I could lose control like that."

"No, Alice. No you don't. It just . . . hurts."

Suddenly, as if she hadn't heard any of what I'd said, she perked up sitting completely straight, her eyes darting to a different spot in the room. She looked lost in concentration. "They're back," she whispered, standing and opening the door. Five seconds later, Edward immediately walked in without pause, his body much more relaxed than it had been a few hours earlier. He and Alice made eye-contact, their lips barely moving in a silent-like whisper, something no one would have picked up on if they weren't consciously watching for it. She waved to me and closed the door behind her.

"Hi, love," Edward said, slowly taking Alice's spot on the bed. His eyes searched me up and down.

"Hi." I wrapped my arms around his neck as he leaned down to me. He slid his arms underneath my back, pulling my tee-shirt down from riding up against the hot mattress. I felt his cold fingers brush against my lower back.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," I whispered, my voice sounding much more content now that he was back.

"Excellent." He pulled his head back to look at me. "I'm sorry it took so long, I tried to hurry home as fast as I—"

Home.

Completely panicking, I pushed myself out of Edward's arms. "What time is it?"

Sitting up, he flipped his wrist over to look at his watch. "Almost 11:30."

My stomach clenched into a thousand different knots. As quick as I could, I started trying to free my legs from the comforter.

"I have to go," I said, a hard lump forming at the back of my throat. I had told Charlie I'd be with Edward for the afternoon, not the entire night. Surely he would ground me for an entire year. Then he would forbid me from ever again seeing Edward. Or maybe it would be the other way around—the forbidding part first. Either way, I could certainly live with one of those punishments. The other, not so much . . .

As I shot off the edge of the bed, Edward lunged and grabbed me by the waist. "Whoa, hey, what's going o—"

"CHARLIE!" I forced through my collapsing lungs, desperately trying to free myself from iron arms.

"No, no, no, whoa. Bells," his voice was urgent but quickly calmed me as he turned me around, looked me in the eyes, and sat me sideways in his lap. My tears were about to spill over as he cupped my chin in his hand. "Bella, it's okay. Carlisle took care of it. He gave Charlie a call earlier this evening."

"What does he—" I tried to speak through my gasping breaths and dry sobs.

"He's fine, everything's fine. He's over at La Push for the weekend. I think he's staying with that uh, with— Billy Black."

"What did you tell him?" I asked, sniffling, a few tears streaking down my face. Edward touched my cheek with his finger to dissolve them. He rubbed the wet into his dark jeans.

"Carlisle told him you were still feeling a bit under the weather, that we'd keep you here so you wouldn't be home by yourself."

My head started to feel light and wobbly. The medicine must have been catching up with me again. Edward wouldn't be happy if he found out. Or on the contrary, maybe he would say how great he thought I was as silly Bella. Either way, I had to control myself this time. "What d—did he say? He was mad?"

"Not at all. He thought he should come home, but Carlisle convinced him that we're perfectly capable of nursing you back to health. At least until he's back."

I sniffled again and wiped at my eyes with the now-stretched out collar of my white tee-shirt. "Well you aren't doing an amazing job of putting me back healthy," I said, my sobbing starting to fade.

Edward chuckled. "I thought you were feeling better."

"Oh." I nodded. "Guess I forgot."

I dug my warm arms under his, embracing him around the waist, and pressed my face into his chest. I felt tiny in his arms. The first thing I noticed was his scent. If it was, at all, possible he smelled sweeter tonight. Tonight he was a hint of lime doused in sugar. He was mixed with green forest and sprinkled with cold rain. I wanted to inhale him forever, but my nose started to itch after a minute. It was a truth about me that Edward knew: That not every part of me could always handle him.

My breathing quickened as the tickle built, but I didn't want to stop inhaling his scent. Closing my eyes, I knew I was going to have to conceal this from Edward. I had just told him I was feeling better. If he heard me sneeze, he would know something was up.

I brought my right hand up, pinching my nose shut and hoped that the pressure would disappear. After a minute, I released it, but still felt the tickle. Taking a subtle but deep breath in, I stifled the first sneeze, feeling it strong in my stomach and chest. Another breath in and then the second. Yes, I thought, I got these two past Edward. Somehow, I had stifled them silently.

"Bless you, bless you," Edward whispered into the top of my hair, his tone soft. He rubbed my back in continuous circles. "Are you sure you're feeling better?"

Looking up, I nodded with a scowl. There was no way he had heard me sneeze. He must have been cheating again. "What about you, Mister?"

His eyebrows lifted in a curious playfulness. "What about me?"

"Well, how much did you sneeze when you weren't here?"

Edward smirked and looked away from me.

"How many times was it," I said, poking him in the side with my finger, which I'm sure he didn't even feel.

"That's beside the point."

"Look." Shaking my head against his chest, I tried to fidget out of his arms. "You are right here. The point is over there," I said, pointing at one of the pillows behind him. I grinned as big as I could to his face. "That is to the back of you, not beside you."

"Oh yeah? Well how many times did you sneeze while I wasn't here?"

I shrugged. "An odd number, I know that."

"An odd number, as in oddly big, right?"

I made my voice little. "No. Odd as in, I beat your theory."

One of Edward's eyebrows dipped. "My theory?"

"Your silly-Bella-only-sneezes-twice-times-when-she's-si ck theory."

"I see, and how did you go about disproving that one?"

"I just did, okay? Just ask Alice, she was there."

He smiled and ran a hand through his tousled hair. "Alice said you sneezed about six times while you were awake. Six is, clearly, an even number."

Hunching my back in defeat, I madly slid from Edward's lap onto the bed. He turned and faced me, obviously proud of already having trampled clean over my supposedly false claim of having sneezed a single.

"No, there is a huge difference."

"A difference in what?"

"In six and about six."

"And what is the difference there, hm?"

I took a deep breath.

"This is me kissing you," I said, rising to my knees. I locked my arms around his neck and pressed my malleable lips to his with as much power as I could. Squishing my lips, I tried to make hard shapes around and inside his lips, letting his mouth mold mine. But still not being able to fully breathe through my nose, I pulled away after fifteen seconds.

Drawing backward, I saw that Edward's eyes were the size of shiny half-dollars, a wavering smile plastered on his freshly kissed lips.

Finishing my point, I held my face right in front of his, not even an inch separating our lips, our noses touching side-to-side. "And this is me about to kiss you," I whispered almost drunkenly. I could hear my own heavy, sick breathing against his perfect mouth. Without breaking our closeness, I blindly found one of his hands and placed it on my heart. Slowly slipping it over my chest and up my neck to the spot just underneath my jaw, I placed two of his fingers on my racing pulse.

Still maintaining proximity, my breath started to hitch with exigency. My nose obviously couldn't have chosen a worse time to act up. I tried to control my shallow breaths, but I knew I wouldn't be able to hold the sneeziness in this time. Finally uncoiling my limbs from him, I turned away at the last moment, planting my hands beside me on the mattress to absorb the force. My hair was hanging over my shoulder, so I ducked my chin into my chest. "heehtCHEW!" Trying to finish my point, I continued. "See, thhhehre's ah huh, hehiSHUU!" I cleared my throbbing throat.

"There's a gigantic difference," I concluded, wiping at my now-running nose with the back of my hand, not making eye-contact with Edward.

Without a word, he stiffly handed me some tissues. "Bless you, Bella," he finally said, his voice low and airy with a tinge of uncertainty.

After emptying my nose, I looked up at him from underneath my straggly hair. My voice was small and hesitant just like his. "Do you believe me now?"

His expression readjusted. His jaw relaxed and his mouth formed a small dot, his eyebrows slightly lifting. He slowly shook his head. "Almost, but not quite."

"Fine. Don't move." I slid off the bed and headed for the door.

"And where are you going?"

Without pausing, I answered him in finality. "To get Alice."