Rated M for drug use, some sexual content, and dark themes. If you're sensitive to any of these topics, you may want to pass on this story.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I'm just playing with them.
Chapter 8: The Surprise
James had picked her up at the corner of Jasper's street, outside of a convenience store. It had started to rain as Alice had left Jasper's house and by the time she got to the convenience store, it was pouring. She climbed into his car and immediately turned the heat up, trying to get dry.
"So...why am I picking you up here, again? I thought I was going to meet you at the end of your driveway?" Alice still hadn't let the Cullen family know that she was seeing James. She would just tell them she was going out with a friend for a few hours and that was the only information that they really required. She had been afraid that bringing James around would cause them to worry... or that they would forbid her to see him.
"I was... helping a friend move," she said slowly. It wasn't a lie... she was just careful about not mentioning that her friend was a guy. Or that she had forgot that she had had plans with James tonight.
"What friend? I wasn't aware that you had made any friends here," James said, squinting out the windshield as the rain fell harder.
She shrugged and wrung her wet hair out. "Someone I met through Rosalie is all."
"Should I know Rosalie?"
Alice frowned. "Probably not. She was at that party where you and I first met up again, though?"
He shook his head.
Alice put her hands against the vents blowing heat, trying to get warm. Being cold was one of the signs of a vision, and she was going to do all she could to stay warm so she wouldn't have one around James. It was bad enough that Jasper had witnessed one... she was relieved he hadn't pressed her for information about it. She wasn't sure what James' reaction would be.
"So... where are we heading?" she asked lightly.
"It's a surprise," he said, smiling.
"I hate surprises," she grumbled, and he laughed.
"You'll like this one."
They drove for a few minutes more before James cleared his throat.
"Just out of curiosity...what's the name of your friend who you were moving?"
She bit her lip before answering. "Jasper."
His hands tightened on the wheel. "Does he...have a last name?"
She raised her eyebrow at him. "Hale, I think. Though his dad introduced himself as Whitlock. So maybe Whitlock. I'm not sure which he goes by."
"Jasper Hale, eh?"
"I suppose. Do you know him?" The way he was acting, she figured he either knew him or wanted to know exactly who it was that Alice was hanging out with.
"Mmm, nope. Can't say that I do."
She hadn't been expecting that answer, but she shrugged it off in hopes that if they changed the subject, he wouldn't be upset that she had been spending time with another guy.
"So if you won't tell me where we're going... how long til we get there?" she tried.
"Minutes," he said. "Think you can wait that long before you explode or something?"
She laughed, relieved by his slightly lighter tone, and settled back into the seat. "Maybe."
They drove for a few more minutes before pulling over in front of a house that she didn't recognize.
"So... this is the surprise?" she asked, getting out of the car and throwing her hood up to block the rain.
"This is it," James said, coming around to take her hand. "This is Laurent's new place."
"Laurent?" She wracked her brain for some memory of him.
"Yeah, you know Laurent. We used to hang out with him all the time."
James entered the house without knocking and nodded to a few people sitting on the couch before making his way to the basement door.
"You'll know him when you see him."
But when they were finally introduced, Alice only had a very vague familiarity associated with him. She wouldn't have been able to recognize that she knew him if she had seen him without any background information from James.
It only took her a few moments to realize that they were at a party full of what she assumed to be their old friends. She knew some of the people there, but not all of them.
"So... surprise!" James said, heading over to a tray of brownies. "Partying like the old days, finally. Welcome home, Liss."
She shifted uncomfortably, knowing that it probably wasn't good of her to be here. She took in a breath and tried telling herself that it was okay as long as she didn't do anything.
"Brownie?" James offered, but she shook her head, not knowing what was in them, but suspecting highly that it wasn't just a brownie.
He nodded. "Okay. What do you want, then? 'Cause I can pretty much get anything I think you'd want. Except pot. I won't have that til probably Sunday, now. But anything else, just ask, and I'll find it for you."
She smiled at him. "That's sweet, James. Really. But I think I'm just gonna... chill."
He looked offended. "You mean you're not gonna do anything?"
She shrugged. "I can't. I've told you already... I get sent away if I get into that kind of stuff again."
His eyes narrowed, but he finished eating his brownie and the nodded. "Okay. Well... I guess just do your chilling, then. I'm gonna walk around and see what's up."
And before she could say anything more, he walked away from her, almost as if she had embarrassed him.
She bit her lip at the sense that she had done something wrong and wandered over to a corner. It was cold in Laurent's basement. She crossed her arms in front of her and leaned against the concrete wall, scanning the room and trying to focus on the faces she saw. If she could ground herself in this reality, she wouldn't be pulled into another one in her mind.
Alice knew that if she took the right type of drug that was being offered, she'd be able to get her temperature up, but she also knew if she did drugs she'd end up right back at Volturi. And she promised herself that she'd do anything to avoid going back there ever again. Plus, she wouldn't be able to stand letting Esme and Carlisle down after all they had done for her.
...And she did want to get better.
She suddenly felt overwhelmingly guilty. She had let James down because she wasn't going to party with him. She felt like she was letting Carlisle and Esme down by even being at this kind of party. And then Jasper...
She took her phone out of her purse and sent a quick text to him.
sorry again for having to leave so quickly. i'll make it up to you. movie night. i promise.
"You're okay," she murmured, "James'll be back in a bit. Just stay here."
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to read what Jasper had texted back.
not a big deal. thanks for your help w/ the living rm. not sure if i can do a movie night tomorrow...supposed to have a friend from home over to visit. i'll let you know if it doesn't work out. just one question: extra butter popcorn or kettle corn?
She grinned at his question and quickly texted back: extra butter AND kettle!
"Alice!"
She sent the text and then blinked as Jane and Heidi ran up to her, both grinning and definitely on something.
"Wow, hi guys," she stammered, for once speechless. She hadn't seen either one of the girls in over two years.
"James said you were coming, but we didn't believe him, did we Jane?" Heidi said, eyeing Alice up and down. "I can't believe you're still so skinny. My cousin had to go to rehab and when she came out, she had gained, like, twenty pounds or some shit. But you look great," she gushed.
Alice wasn't sure what to do. She had used to feel so comfortable around these people, but now... it was like she had grown up and they hadn't.
"You need something, Ali?" Jane asked her, her tone more calm and collected than Heidi's. "Heidi and I were thinking of grabbing Laurent and going upstairs for a bit to play. You could join us, if you wanted..." She held a tiny pill between her thumb and finger as she cocked her eyebrow questioningly at Alice.
Alice shook her head. "I'm okay for now. Except..." Well, it couldn't hurt to ask, "You wouldn't have any pot on you, would you? I can pay you..."
But Jane was shaking her head. "None on me. Just some at home for coming down later. James didn't give you any?"
"He said he can't get it till Sunday."
"You should ask Riley," Heidi said, looking up from texting.
"I don't know Riley," Alice admitted and both girls nodded understandingly.
"He started hanging out with us about a year ago, after you had already got caught. You should get some from him. It's a lot better than what James gets," Heidi told her.
Jane got a weird look in her eye as she smiled. "Yeah, c'mon Alice. We'll introduce you to Riley."
She swallowed and didn't move from the wall, suddenly feeling colder. "Um... that's okay. You know, I should probably just find James..."
"Can't hurt to meet him, Ali. What if James falls through on you? Then you're out all weekend."
Heidi reached to take Alice's hand in hers. Heidi's hand was on fire and Alice didn't want to let go of it because of that.
"Fine, I'll meet him. But don't force the pot thing. If it happens, it happens," she told them, her hand squeezing Heidi's like her life depended on it. She hoped that some of the fire would be enough to burn itself into her own palm so she could stay out of the future.
Jane smirked and Heidi grinned, "Deal. C'mon!"
She let herself be dragged upstairs, all the while realizing that she hadn't seen James in a while. She wondered, briefly, where he might be as Heidi pulled her down a hallway into Laurent's bedroom, where two guys Alice didn't recognize were hanging out.
Laurent's room was lit only by a black light on his desk. Everything glowed purple except for the trippy black-light poster on his closet door and the white shirt that Alice was wearing under her blue zip-up hoodie.
"Jane, Heidi," the guy with curlier hair greeted the two of them with a respectful, yet wary smile.
Jane smiled approvingly. "Hello, Diego. You wouldn't mind giving my new friend, Alice, some time to get acquainted with our friend Riley here, would you?"
"No problem." Diego nodded at Riley and left rather obediently, which made Alice suspicious.
Jane noticed her look and smiled cruelly. "Diego and I have a rather... special... relationship."
"I don't think I want to know, do I?" Alice said, shaking her head.
Jane chuckled. "Probably not. Anyway. Riley, this is Ali."
Riley was about the same height as Edward, which was a little shorter than James. He had dark hair and eyes so dark they were black in the dim lighting in Laurent's room.
Alice watched as Riley's eyes started at her feet and crawled their way up her body, lingering slightly at her chest, before he finally met her eyes.
"Ali," he repeated, his voice low and huskier than she had expected. He smiled, revealing extra-white teeth that glowed in the room.
Heidi remained quiet, transfixed, in her state, by Laurent's poster.
"We'll let you two get to know one another," Jane said, sharing a look with Riley before she ducked out of the room, pulling Heidi behind her.
Alice hadn't had time to protest, but now she was a little annoyed that Jane had left her here with him. At least she was out of the coldness of the basement, though. It was still chilly in here, but not freezing.
"I'm sorry. This is really awkward," Alice said immediately, not trying to hid her discomfort. "To be honest, they wanted to introduce us because I asked them for weed earlier... You don't have to 'get to know' me. In fact, I'm... just going to... head out. I'm sorry to bother you."
She tried to back out of the door, but Riley moved quickly, getting up off the bed and closing it. "You don't have to be sorry, Ali. If you're a friend of Jane's then I'm sure you're cool."
She bit her lip and looked past him at the now closed door, her heart starting to drum as the darkness started to settle in on her. Her fingers were ice cold and she tried to focus on something to stay out of the vision that was, without a doubt, going to overcome her soon.
"Don't look so nervous. You want me to smoke you up? All you have to do is say so."
She took in a hopeful breath as she looked up into his dark eyes. If she could smoke, just a little, then she could probably hold off the vision.
"Sure..." she said quietly, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. Her mind was only on one thing right now. "In here?"
"It's as good as any place," he shrugged, locking the door and reaching into one of Laurent's drawers. "This is the stuff I sold him. I'll just replace it before we go."
"You're sure this is okay?" she asked, slightly warily, as her sight began to dim. She quickly looked to the purple glow of the black light, trying to ground herself.
Riley eyed her again, but Alice didn't notice this time. "Absolutely."
He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the end of a blunt before passing it to her. "Ladies first."
The blunt was bigger than she was used to, but she took the hit anyway and immediately felt the effects. The room became more solid... like somehow the furniture had all been floating and fading and was now starting to solidify again.
She took another hit deep into her lungs and let it warm her before exhaling slowly.
Riley looked impressed as she passed him the blunt. "Now there's a girl who knows how to smoke. None of that hacking up a lung shit."
She wasn't sure if it was a good thing that she didn't cough because it probably meant her lungs were used to smoke. She had noticed, lately, that sometimes when she woke up in the morning, she had a bit of a cough, but by the time she got to school it would go away.
Right now, though, she didn't care about lungs or coughing. She was just glad that the world was back to being real again. Already, her body felt warmer. She felt that after a few more hits, she'd be able to feel her fingers and toes come out of their ice blocks.
Riley and Alice ended up laying back on Laurent's bed and staring up at the other black light poster he had on his ceiling. This one was just swirls, but Alice swore that they were moving. They were like a black hole or something.
Riley laughed when she told him that. "A black hole. Or a rabbit hole. Only in the ceiling. You know, your own version of Alice in Wonderland. Instead of a rabbit hole outside it's a black hole in the ceiling." He clearly considered himself a genius for putting those two things together.
Alice started to feel weird after a few more hits. Normally, weed would put her more in touch with reality and with herself. She felt in control of everything. If she got high enough, she could feel her heart beat against her chest and hear the blood pulsing through her in her ears. She could feel that she was real and so that made everything else around her more amplified. There was no way she could be conquered by a vision when she was sufficiently high.
But right now, along with feeling those things, she also felt... different. She brought her fingers to her lips and realized that she couldn't really feel her fingers. She stared in wonder at how they seemed to be touching one another, but she couldn't feel them touching.
Riley chuckled next to her. "What are you doing, Ali?"
She made to sit up, but laid back down quickly as a rush of dizziness hit her. She felt her heart start to race as her fingers and toes turned cold again. Why were they turning cold again?
"I'm cold again. I don't know why. Why am I cold, Riley?" she asked, tilting her head to the side to look at him.
"I don't know why you're cold. Can I try to help? 'Cause I'm hot."
He wanted to help. And he was hot. She needed to be hot, too. She nodded.
He rolled over so that he was on top of her, his body pressing against hers. "Does that feel warmer?"
She shook her head because she really couldn't feel anything from him. It was weird because her mind was freaking out, but she couldn't get her body to do anything to react.
He moved closer to her and put his lips against her neck. "Warm, yet?"
Alice was frozen, too dazed to react as he took off first her jacket and then her shirt, followed by his shirt. His skin burned, then, against hers as his lips kissed over her collarbone, making their way to her breast. He moved her bra aside and then he moved his head down a bit to suck on the skin outside of her nipple, leaving his mark on her.
"W-what-" she managed breathlessly, but he put a finger to her lips.
"C'mon, Ali. Be fair. I smoked you up, calmed you down, and I'm not even gonna ask you to pay me. Just be with me for a bit. I won't hurt you."
She was scared out of her mind, now, but she was suddenly back in the mindset she had been in when in Volturi.
At Volturi, her doctor, Aro, had tried everything he could to figure out how her body reacted while she was on drugs. He had done what he called "research." During "research", she was so fucked up on whatever he had given her that all she could do was lay there in just a hospital cover and let him do his "tests."
She shivered as she thought of it, feeling strangely feverish, now. She felt herself reverting to the 'give in' mindset that she had had there, as Riley slid his fingers into her jeans.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she listened to him breathing heavily above her, moving his fingers and his hips in ways that made him feel good.
When he had warmed her up enough to thaw her hands and feet, she made herself push him off of her and rolled off of the bed, grabbing her shirt from the floor.
"What are you doing, Ali?" he asked, his dark eyes watching her with irritation. "We weren't done hanging out, yet."
She hastily managed to get her arms through her jacket sleeves and found her voice. "I'm done hanging out, Riley."
Still semi-dizzy, she tripped out of Laurent's hazy bedroom and made her way down the hallway to the stairs.
"Hold on!"
She heard Riley coming behind her. Focusing on the steps beneath her feet, she clung to the railing and took the first step down.
She felt Riley grab her arm and whip her around. "We're not... done yet, Ali," he said again. He stood there, shirtless, with his fingers around her wrist and a glare on his face.
"We're done, Riley," she said, feeling more confident now that she was out of the dark, smokey room. If she screamed, there would be people to hear her. "Now fucking let go of my arm."
He stared at her for a long time, his eyes burning, until he finally must have realized that apart from lifting her up and forcing her, there was nothing more he could do.
Riley roughly let go of her.
"Fuck you," he spat in a low, vicious tone.
Her piercing eyes glowed up at him as she backed down the stairs, one at a time, until she reached the bottom. When she got to the bottom, he had turned around with one last glare and walked away.
She breathed a sigh of relief, but knew that she had to get out of there. The further away from that room, the more clear her head was getting.
Jane appeared before her. "Done so soon?" she asked with a smirk.
Alice stared at her, feeling dirty and used. It was obvious that Jane knew the whole time what would happen if she went in with Riley.
"I'm not like that anymore, Jane," she said quietly, but firmly, still gripping the railing.
Jane raised an eyebrow. "No? New Alice too good for her old friends? We were just trying to help you, Ali. You said you wanted to be high and now you are. Lighten up."
Alice shook her head, disgusted with herself, and turned to walk away from Jane, not caring anymore about where James was or if Riley was coming after her or not. She needed out. She needed to go back to her room and away from... all of this.
She dug her phone out of her purse and pressed Emmett's speed dial as she made her way out the front door and into the rain again. She put her hood up to shield her phone from getting wet and started to walk.
"Hey, Pix!" he greeted as he answered the phone. "So, listen to this. And I can only tell you real fast right now because I walked outside to take your call, but you would not believe where I am right now!"
"Em - - " she started, but he cut her off.
"- - Well, maybe you might guess, but you'd never guess with who. Okay... so I'm just hanging out, minding my own business, and my cell rings - -"
"- - Emmett - -"
"- -And it's Rosalie. Apparently, her parents bought a new washer/dryer for her uncle and Jasper and they need help getting the damn thing over there and unloaded because it's really, really heavy. Jasper can help, but Rosalie's dad has a bad back and Jasper's dad has, like, weak knees or something? I don't know. But anyway, she calls because that fucker Royce was working and they needed some muscle and the first person she thought to call was none other than moi. So I'm over at her cousin's place right now and I must say you have quite an eye for decorating. Mom would be impressed. The living room looks awesome! Jasper said you were over earlier. But yeah, so we got the washer in but then it really started to pour, so we're taking a break with some cold pizza - -"
"- -Emmett, stop!" she finally said, picking up her pace as she started walking to where she thought was back toward Jasper's house. She would have been amused at how much Emmett sounded like herself, if she hadn't been scared that she wouldn't make it home. "I need you."
His tone changed immediately from jovial to serious. "Alice? For what? Where are you?"
She tried to keep her voice from cracking. "I'm not... sure. I went out with some old friends and now I need picked up. I'm walking... I'm sorry for asking you to leave Rosalie, but can you come get me?" She felt like shit for asking, knowing very well that Emmett was totally in love with Rosalie, despite the fact that Rose was only nice to him when Royce wasn't around.
"Are you okay? What's around you? I'll find you."
She looked around. "Trees and houses. I'm sorry..." Her voice cracked and she felt tears spill over onto her face.
"Calm down, Pix. It's gonna be all right. You've gotta listen to me, though, okay? I need you to find a street sign and the nearest house number and then find somewhere safe to wait for me. Don't go under a tree 'cause Dad always told us you can get struck by lightning under trees when it's storming."
She felt a little lighter as he said that. She knew he was being totally serious, but it was such an innocent, Emmett-like thing to say.
"Alice?" he asked again when she didn't respond, trying to squint through the rain at house numbers as she got to the end of the street.
"I won't go under a tree. And I'm standing outside of 115 Maple."
"Hold on, I'm going to enter it into my phone GPS and see if anything comes up."
A few seconds of dead air went by and then he came back to her. "Street, avenue, or road?"
"Avenue," she answered, pulling her hoodie tighter around her. She was starting to feel cold again, despite still being pretty baked. And that scared her.
"Okay, I'm on my way." He lowered his voice a bit, "Any drugs or drinking?"
She decided to be honest with him. "Just pot, but then things got weird and I... I had to get out of there, Em."
"Weird, how?" he asked, no judgment at all in his voice. She heard muffled voices in the background and then the sound of a car starting up.
"Just... me being stupid and too high. I shouldn't have... he didn't... I should have stopped..."
"He who? Did someone hurt you?" he growled.
"I don't know," she said quietly, swallowing the lump in her throat. She didn't want to think about it. Any of it. "Em, does the GPS tell you how long til you're here?"
"Just five more minutes. Alice, do I need to go kick someone's ass? 'Cause I'll fucking kill someone if they hurt you."
She heard someone talking sharply in the background, but couldn't hear what they were saying.
"No, Em. I just need to go home. Who's with you?"
"Rosalie and Jasper. Don't be mad. They insisted," he said, his tone lightening up a bit as guilt seeped into his words.
Surprisingly, she didn't feel mad. Or even numb. She felt... kind of relieved. She could see Jasper again and apologize for leaving earlier.
Jasper...
She assured him that she wasn't mad, feeling that if anyone should be mad, it should be Emmett. She waited until she saw headlights in the distance before she spoke again.
"Is that you?"
The car flicked it's high beams off and on and she felt a warm rush of relief surge through her as she hung up the phone, the car getting closer.
Emmett pulled to the side and Jasper jumped out of the back seat and into the rain.
"I thought car rides made you sick," was the first thing that blabbered from Alice's mouth. As soon as the words were out, she wished she could just suck them back in. She knew she wasn't supposed to know that, but she had realized it when she had driven the stuff over from his house.
But Jasper looked more surprised than anything else. "They do."
His eyes met hers, silently searching to see if she was okay. He didn't ask out loud, but she understood what he was doing.
"I'm trying to be," she responded, answering his silent question with brutal honesty.
He nodded, his broken eyes seeming to understand her more than anyone ever had, and held out his hand. She took it, letting him guide her into the warmth of Emmett's Jeep.
"Make sure she stays warm, Jasper," Rosalie said as the two crawled in and shut the door. "Alice, take your hoodie off and put Jasper's on. It's dry."
Alice listened to Rosalie as Jasper wrapped his hoodie around her. He hesitated, but then left his arms around her, too.
She snuggled into the warmth of him and met Emmett's eyes in the rear view mirror.
"We don't have to tell my parents about this," Emmett told her.
Rosalie shook her head. "No. You can come over to my place and we'll get you warmed up and dried off."
The two of them talked to figure out a way to cover for her during the ride to Rosalie's house, but Alice barely heard them. She felt so... at ease. Jasper was surrounding her and her cousin, who was more of a brother, and Rosalie, who was the closest thing to a best friend she had ever had, were sitting in the car with them. She felt protected. Safe.
These three friends had rescued her from a situation that scared her. They hadn't abandoned her.
She knew that this feeling wouldn't last. She'd have to face James again and explain why she had run out. Jane might tell him what had happened with Riley, and then she'd have to deal with all of that...
But for now, she was content in the warmth that surrounded her. She closed her eyes, her fingers stroking the back of Jasper's scarred hand.
She felt even warmer when his fingers ran over the back of hers, responding to her touch.
Author's Note: To those who reviewed, this chapter is for you. Thank you so much for your words and encouragement. Please continue to let me know what you think!