Made of Glass Chapter 21

The tour of the Cullen mansion!!

“I thought you said she didn’t like me,”

“No, they don’t approve of you. Well, they don’t approve of you and I. But she couldn’t dislike you. She’s never met you until today and she must have been impressed,” His words weren’t filled with confidence.

“But she seemed fine with us hanging out.”

“Yes she did, didn’t she? She must have changed her mind.”

“But why?”

“Esme’s only wish in life is to see her children happy. It’s pretty easy to see the difference between how I was just last year and now. She’s probably never seen me so happy which means she supports whatever could bring me that happiness no matter if it’s dangerous.”

“That’s nice. She seems like a wonderful woman.”

“She’s the best.”

“And you doubted Project Dark Side Cullens. We’re off to a fantastic start and we haven't even done anything yet!”

“We’re going to have to come up with a new name.” Eddie took my hand and led me toward the house. “Come on they’re gone.”

The large two story entrée way took my breath away. It was so open, bright and spotless. The floor was checkered in black and white tiles and there was matching décor spread out sparingly about the room. Even the stark white carpet on the stair with the black runner atop it matched perfectly.

“We’re not going to have time to see everything if you stare at every little thing,” Eddie tried to hurry me along.

 “Maybe we’ll have to come back then. This place is fabulous.”

“Am I changing your mind about furniture?”

I gave him a dirty look. “What’s next?”

Eddie slowly took me around the downstairs from the dining room to the large living that opened to the kitchen which I imagined was never used. It was hard to tell because the entire house was so sparkling clean. I looked down at my worn and dirty flats on the white carpet. I definitely preferred my apartment to this place. I could be comfortable in my apartment. Since I didn’t have any nice things I didn’t have to worry about breaking anything.

“Don’t worry about it.” Eddie said noticing my worry, “I don’t know how Esme does it but trust me we’ve brought in some pretty nasty stains to this place and she always gets them out. She actually likes cleaning,” Eddie said bewildered. “This is the one place we’re supposed to be comfortable so you don’t have to worry about being as spotless as the carpet.

“Come on. I’ll show you upstairs,”

I was surprised that we hadn’t run into any of the other Cullens during the small tour. I didn’t know if they were staying away because Esme had told them to or because they just really didn’t want to be around me. Either way I wasn’t really upset about that fact. I would put the Project on hold while I explored the beautiful house.

Eddie led me upstairs and down a long hallway gesturing to different doors and listing off the occupants. I bit my lip nervously thinking of who might be behind the shut doors. If they were in their rooms I was sure they could hear everything we did.

Eddie was unbothered. He probably had a lot of practice ignoring them though.

“And this is my room,” he said gesturing to the last door in the hall. He opened it with a grand flourish and waved for me to enter first. I walked into the room with my head on a swivel trying to gather every last detail.

Actually it was a pretty normal room for a young adult male. There were a few pieces of dirty laundry spread about the floor and flung on the furniture. Of course he didn’t have a bed but the large couch pressed against one wall looked infinitely more comfortable than my flimsy air mattress. Most of the rest of the space in the room was taken up with shelves upon shelves of books and cds and vinyl records and cassettes and even a couple of a-tracks. I picked one up curiously. Sometimes I forgot that Eddie had lived through so much more than I had.

“What were the sixties like?” I asked.

“You know I can't really remember,” Eddie joked.

“You were into the free love, weren’t you?”

“I did attend Woodstock.”

“Shut up! You did not!” I said shocked.

“There were a lot of my favorite bands playing.” He shrugged.

“I forgot how much of a hard core rocker you are at concerts.”

“Exactly,” he sank comfortably into the couch as I perused the musical selection.

“So which decade was your favorite? For music I mean.”

“Always the present one. The latest song to come out is always my favorite although I don’t let go of the past either.”

“I think you have more money sunk into this little collection than I have had in all my life.”

He shrugged. "Money tends to pile up when you live as long as we do.”

I continued on to survey the sophisticated looking player he had tucked into the corner of his room. It had like a bazillion cd disc changer and speakers that stood higher than I did. I decided it wasn’t something for me to touch. I jumped as it suddenly came to life and started to play a modern band I vaguely recognized as one of the cds he had given to me to listen to.

I turned around to see Eddie with a remote in his hand. “You did that on purpose,” I accused him.

“You’d think that reflex would get tired out and you’d just stop reacting when you got surprised,” he chuckled.

He had a good point. I certainly had gotten a healthy dose of jumping in fear these days.

I joined Eddie on the couch leaning my head on his shoulder.

“So this is what you do when you live for an eternity,” I said closing my eyes and absorbing the heavy beats of the music. “You just sit and listen.”

“Sometimes I seduce pretty girls into my room to listen with me,” he said stroking my hair.

I sat straight up and scooted to the other side of the couch. “I don’t know what you expect to happen here today, Mr. Cullen, but I am a respectable lady,” I said in mock offense.

“I already tricked you into coming up to my room with me,” Eddie said stalking over to me. He quickly closed the distance between us and leaned in closer to me. “Now I will do with you as I please.” He whispered in my ear.

I let out a shriek of giggles.

Eddie puzzled me when he sat back up and moved a little away from me. He wasn’t going to do with me as he pleased?

Then I sat upright too when I saw a creature the size of the Thing from the Fantastic Four standing in Eddie’s doorway. He even made Bucky look normal sized.

“Emmett,” Eddie greeted him drily without looking at him. Ah. The other brother.

“Edward,” the creature named Emmett said in reply.

“Did you need something?” Eddie said impatiently.

Emmett turned his gaze to me and looked me up and down with a stony face. I did the same to him. He had all the classic vampire characteristics with the golden eyes and pale skin and beautifulness but Emmett was far more rugged and stern looking than either of his brothers. This guy was intimidating. I could see him pioneering in the wild west centuries ago, wrestling bears with only his gigantic two hands, a real mountain man.

Eddie should have warned me he was related to the Thing before I stormed all willy nilly into his home.

But at the same time there was a light humor in his eyes. Some twinkle that I sometimes saw in Eddie when he was in a good mood. Contrary to his size and intimidating appearance I thought he probably had a good heart. He was a Cullen after all. I would have to keep that in mind during this interview because judging by the frown on his lips he wasn’t going to be as easy as Esme.

When Emmett didn’t answer Eddie’s question or take his eye off me I resorted to my default defensive maneuver. I flashed him a great big smile.

“Dolly,” I introduced myself with a friendly wave. He didn’t respond in the slightest.

Eddie stood up and placed himself directly between me and the bear at his door.

“Emmett,” he said in warning.

Finally Emmett looked away from me to Eddie. “I was just wondering when you were going to be done here. We did have plans this evening, remember?” Emmett said in a deep booming voice that wasn’t nearly as polite as his words.

“I haven't forgotten. That’s in several hours.” Eddie said in a flat voice with a slight edge to it.

Emmett grunted. He sounded just like an angry bull.

Things grew worse when a second unfamiliar vampire appeared next to Emmett in the doorway. She threw a long graceful arm over Emmett’s shoulder and gave me a dirty look.

I assumed this had to be Rosalie. The last member of the Cullen family. The one that was created as a mate for Eddie. My jaw almost dropped to the floor. She was the most beautiful of all of them. As gorgeous as I thought Eddie was he couldn’t compete with the goddess in front of me now. Her long slightly wavy blonde hair flowed perfectly down her back and around her shoulders. Her plump lips, flawless skin, and eyes heavily wreathed in luxurious eye lashes all hit one by one increasing my jealousy a little at a time.

“Dolly,” I said again giving her the same smile and wave.

She rolled her eyes at me.

“Weren’t you two planning on refitting the viper today?” Eddie said making clear they weren’t welcome here.

“You have a Dodge Viper?” I blurted out. “Can I see it?”

Eddie looked back to me and shook his head.

Emmett and Rosalie focused death glares at me.

“Some other time maybe,” I muttered.

“Okay. So you’ve met her. You can go now,” Eddie set shuffling them back out into the hallway. Rosalie said a rush of angry words to Eddie so fast that I didn’t pick up any of them. It sounded like Emmett grumbled his assent. Eddie pitched his voice low and responded in the same way.

I knew exactly what the new vampires were thinking. They wanted me gone. They were coming up with excuses like it was too hard to concentrate and I  was stinking up the whole place but Eddie was blowing them off one by one. He knew as well as I did they didn’t just want me out of the house. They wanted me out of their lives.

Finally Eddie raised his voice just a fraction and the two intruders disappeared.

“I’m sorry about that,” Eddie said joining me on the couch again.

“Eh, it could have gone much worse,” I shrugged it off. “You have a viper?” I asked again.

“Rosalie has a Viper,” Eddie clarified.

“What year is it?”

Eddie looked embarrassed. “Emmett gets her a new one every year for her birthday.”

“No way! That is freakin awesome! Sometimes I really wish I was rich too.”

“Would you like me to buy you a viper?” Eddie offered.

“Ugh.” I said standing up. “I believe you promised me a show on your piano.”

Eddie took my hand once more and pulled me eagerly back downstairs into the one room he had neglected to show me. It was located in one of the little towers on the side of the house. It was a smaller room with just the piano in it. Or maybe the gigantic grand piano just made it look small. He pulled me over to the bench and sat down patting the seat next to him. I sat with my hands in my lap on the edge of the bench looking at the shiny white keys in stark contrast to the black ones. It looked so expensive.

Eddie placed his long elegant fingers in their spots on the keys.

“What would you like me to play?” he asked.

“Your favorite,” I said.

He dove right into the song, his fingers dancing across the keys producing beautiful notes in rapid succession of each other. It started out as a very upbeat tune that had me tapping my foot along with it. It was something that was meant to be danced to. It was so fun and joyful. Then slowly it started to morph into something else. The notes became elongated and spread out. Rather than joy the music now evocated feelings of longing from deep within my chest. It was so poignant and intense. It was the sort of music I hated to listen to when I first arrived here because it made me think and feel. Now it just seemed so beautiful I never wanted it to end.

Eventually it did. The last note cut through the still air for a long moment until it faded away.

“What was that?” I said some deep emotion coloring my tone. “I didn’t recognize it.”

“I wrote it,” Eddie said looking intensely at me.

“That’s amazing, It was so . . . divine,” I said searching for the right word. Then I shook my head coming back to myself. “Rather full of yourself that your favorite song is the one you wrote yourself.”

Eddie didn’t react to my barb.

“I wrote it for you,” he said into my ear. “I can't help imagining you when I play it. That’s why I like.”

I felt like I was going to start crying. This was so not me. Nobody had ever written me a song before. No one had ever had such intense feelings for me before. It set me on edge. It was beautiful and flattering of course but also kind of . . . scary.

I sniffed trying to push back the tears.

“Thank you.” I said simply “Play that dun, dun, da, duuuunnn one,” I requested.

Eddie chuckled and turned back to the piano playing Beethoven’s fifth symphony flawlessly. He moved and swayed with the music with overly dramatic movements with his face all twisted up in mock agony. If only he had a long black cape the effect would be perfect. He got the tears to spill out that time from all the laughing.

By the end of the day I hadn’t made any real progress for Project Dark Side Cullen. I had been having too much fun with Eddie in his home to think about those other people who didn’t like me.

I wasn’t actually too concerned. Esme had said that I could come back anytime I wanted and I planned too if only to hear Eddie play the piano again. He was really quite fabulous.

I was thinking about that amazing song all the rest of the day. I needed to hear it again before I could recall all the subtleties of it and do it better justice in my head. Of course I would never be able to reproduce it exactly how Eddie had played but much like with Eddie himself just thinking about the vague details of it made me smile. When I was alone I found myself humming it to myself and the same great emotions swelled up in me. When Eddie wasn’t around and I could think clearly I could see how ridiculous it was to be afraid of a song and not of the fact he was a vampire. If I was okay with the fangs why should I be afraid of a serious relationship? But I knew the truth. Everyone who had ever loved me had betrayed me and broken my heart into little pieces. Eddie was just in the right position to do that again.

But Eddie wouldn’t do that. He was indestructible so he wouldn’t die and he didn’t like alcohol. I loved him so I was going to have to take the risk.

I realized I didn’t properly show Eddie my appreciation for the song. After I was done eating that night and was doing the dishes Eddie knocked on my door. I asked him what it was that he and Emmett had to do but he blew off the question claiming it was “guy stuff”. I wasn’t sure I wanted more details than that so I let it go, but I was very glad that he was back now. The time he had been away was agonizing for me. I skipped over to the door and yanked it open. I threw my arms around his neck and planted my lips firmly against his. He lifted me a couple of inches off the floor and walked into the apartment with me in tow. He closed the door behind him and then turned me around to push me against it making the kiss more intense.

“It’s nice to see you too,” he said with bright shining eyes after a few passionate seconds like that.

“Did you and Emmett have a nice time?” I asked absentmindedly.

He just grunted and kissed me again.

I think Eddie counted the amount of time I could hold my breath and kissed me for exactly that long. It was a good thing he paid attention to those sorts of things because if it was left to me I would probably pass out every time. This time when Eddie broke off to allow me to regain my breath he moved his lips done to my neck which didn’t exactly help the breathing the situation.

I used the opportunity to make my peace. “I really did like the song, Eddie.” I breathed. I wasn’t sure if he could understand what I was saying. My words sounded all funny to my ears.

Eddie stopped kissing my neck and looked me in the eyes. “The song?” he said just as breathless as I was.

“The song you wrote for me. I didn’t get across how much I liked it before. I did. I mean I do. I really like it. I love it.”

Eddie smiled and nodded before leaning back down toward me. I stopped him before he could kiss me again. He wasn’t getting it.

"I mean I really liked it,” I said again with more feeling trying to get the point across with my eyes more than my words.

Eddie took my head gently between hands. “I love you, too” he said. Then returned to kissing me.

I smiled. That time he got it.

Reviews

[Summer]

Cute. I loved it.