Act III
Chapter 32 ━━ The Iconic Duo

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After Esdras and Shelley figure out about Riley's visit, Esdras decides that it'll be best to gather a meeting at Cullen residence. 

Edward paces around, frustrated while Alice is stressed. Esdras is staring into the air as if he's in between a battle with himself in his head. 

Bella tries to track their fast-paced conversation with Carlisle, Rosalie, and Esme. And here Shelley is, digging into the Torta tenerina without any pressure or worry in her mind about the situation around her. 

Well, don't blame her. The moment Esdras announced that the scent of the stranger is of a vampire who proved to be her ex boyfriend, she was traumatised. But then again, when Esme offered a handful of pieces of her famous Torta tenerina, she was back to herself, enjoying her delicious piece of Torta tenerina. It's truly heaven. 

"Who was it? Someone we know?" Alice asks. 

"Just a stranger. I didn't recognize his scent." Esdras says, not daring to look up. 

"It's him. Riley." She replies, swallowing down another piece of her Torta tenerina and licking the chocolate layer on her lips in delight. 

"What if it's just a nomad passing through?" Esme says, smiling at her childish behaviour. 

"A passer-by wouldn't have left Bella's father alive." Rosalie points out. 

Shelley drops her fork, losing her appetite, chilled by the thought and Esme wraps an arm around her just as the door bursts open. 

Jasper enters. "His scent disappeared about five miles south of Swan residence." 

"Someone's orchestrating this." Edward states and Carlisle looks at the twin with a certain look mixed with worrisome on his face. 

"Victoria?" 

"I would've seen her deciding." The pixie Cullen says. 

"It has to be the Volturi." Edward tells. 

"I don't think it's the Volturi either. I've been watching Aro's decisions, too." Alice responds. 

"So what now?" Esdras asks, snapping out of his gaze once again. "We can't let this go. This is not just about Bella, it's about Shelley's protection as well." 

"We keep looking?" Emmett says. 

"We also take shifts, guarding Bella & Shelley at her house." Carlisle says, shifting on his seat. 

"Another protection detail?" Rosalie asks, her voice lacing with annoyance. 

"Rosalie." Esme says in disbelief at her rudeness. 

"No, she's right. You can't protect me & my sister, watch my dad… and search for the intruder. And for Victoria. And keep yourselves fed." Bella states. 

"We can't leave you two here defenceless either." Esdras says, crossing his arms. 

"Well, we're not gonna let you starve. And either Bella or I wouldn't be unprotected, I have…" Shelley stops as an idea begins to occur in her head. She looks at him, a tiny glimmer of optimism flashing on her face. 

"What?" Esdras narrows his eyes trying to read the blonde and he succeeds at the end. He groans immediately, not having the slightest liking of the idea. "Oh no." 

She smirks widely. "Oh yes." 

Standing in the front yard of the Swan residence at the curb, frozen in place, waiting eyes unblinkingly watching the front door, Esdras grumbles. "And you had to bring your dogs into this."

"They're our only option." Shelley states, crossing her arms in complete irritation of his behaviour. "What is your problem anyway?" 

"My problem?" He chuckles coldly. "Why do you always have to crawl to that animal?" 

"That animal and I are soulmates." 

Esdras huffs dramatically at this. "Oh yeah, soulmates my ass." 

She shoots him a dead glare and he rolls his eyes in response. 

Finally, it opens gaining their attention. Bella exits. Behind her, Jacob. 

Esdras meets them halfway as the blonde trails behind his tall figure. Gosh, why on earth is Esdras so tall? 

While she complains about Esdras's abdominal height with her conscience inside her head, Edward walks past Esdras and her to embrace Bella desperately without a word. She completely forgot his existence. Poor guy. He must be tired listening to Esdras and her non stop bickering. 

The hotheaded boy kisses the blonde's forehead and shifts his eyes to Esdras waiting for a reaction. Which Esdras gives a cool but one calculating look instead of his fractious mood. "Whoever it was, he left his stink behind. It'll be hard to miss when we cross it again. We'll handle it from here." 

"We don't need you to handle anything. Or anyone." Esdras says, mockingly. 

Jacob steps toward Esdras who doesn't move. "I could care less what you need." 

Shelley swears she can cut the thick tension between Jacob and Esdras with a knife. 

"Alright, we're done here." Edward says, trying to pry his brother away sensing the incoming fight. "Ezra. Let's go. Come on." 

"No, I'm not done here." Esdras says. His eyes are showing the emotion of hatred towards the wolf boy. 

Jacob on the other hand, standing waiting for Esdras to burst out his angry bubble. His eyes are challenging silently and that annoying smug is visible on his face. "What a coincidence. I'm not either." 

And for some reason, which the blonde obviously assumes as one of Jacob's inner thoughts, Esdras deepens the deadly stare as if he's planning to figure the quickest way to behead Jacob and throw the head off the nearest cliff. 

The grim on Edward's face explains how disappointed he is at his brother's immature behaviour. "Ezra, control yourself." 

Bella gives her sister a look and the blonde moves between the duo who are busy with their staring contest. Seriously? What is this? Cold war? 

"Stop. I'm tired of this. From now on I'm Switzerland, Okay?" The blonde tries to push them apart, it's like pushing boulders. "Stop!" 

Esdras simmers and Jacob just looks at him, his smug is yet to fade. 

"I don't expect you guys to chuck a football around together. Fine. But we have a lot of problems. And this is one temporary solution. Are you willing to at least try?" 

Finally, Esdras nods. Then Jacob. Bella drags Edward towards the house, excusing themselves out of the situation, giving Shelley the full power to handle a hotheaded dumb wolf and an over dramatic vampire. 

She sighs and looks at the two guys in front of her. "Alright, so you need to coordinate. You know, schedules and stuff." 

Neither says anything and the blonde sighs once again before turning to Jacob. "Would the pack prefer days or nights?" 

"Nights." Jacob replies. 

"Will days work for your family?" She asks Esdras and he nods. 

"Good. See? How hard was that?" The blonde drapes her arms over the boys, determined to make this truce work. "This is bloody brilliant." 

Esdras curses under his breath and shakes his head while Jacob looks amused. 

Shelley places the last graduation announcement on the massive stack of graduation announcements in the 'done' pile. It is an achievement since she did most of the work alone while her supposed to be helper here just watched her, doing absolutely nothing. "Yay! All done! It wasn't that bad." 

"Are you kidding me? It was like drowning myself in a bathtub again and again." Esdras, who is currently lying on the bed, cuddling into her pillow, groans. She tries to avoid rolling her eyes in return. He's complaining. And all he did was do nothing. Isn't he wonderful? 

Something pops up in his mind in the next second. "Oh wait. You tried that once." 

This time, Shelley cannot (she swears she tried her best) stop the urge to roll her eyes at his poor attempt at humour. "It wasn't funny at all. I appreciate the attempt by the way." 

"Good to know. Now I officially hate you." He mocks with a fake girlish, high pitched voice, throwing his hands in the air dramatically. Sometimes the blonde wonders if he's secretly a girl under the disguise of a guy. And of course, he has to read her weird thoughts and give her his famous 'that wasn't funny as well' look. "You're really making me want to drown myself in my bathtub." 

Shelley pats on his shoulder with a grin. "Don't worry, Ezzy Boo. Angela will be here soon for the girls' night and you'll be free to go home and drown yourself in your bathtub." 

"So you don't like my company?" Esdras asks, now sitting on bed beside her. 

She snorts, shrugging her shoulders freely. "Not really." 

"Ouch." Esdras holds onto his chest with a pout. "That hurts." 

"Aww… my poor boy." Shelley cooes at him and wraps her arms around him. Esdras always manages to bring her comfort in any situation. He's her personal healer and she's extremely happy to have him as her best friend. 

After a several minutes of silence they spent on their hug, her mind decides to shower her with extraordinary thoughts. 

"Sebastian Stan is hot." 

Esdras breaks the hug to give her this look. And that's when the blonde realises that she said that loud enough for him to hear it. Of course. He's a freakin vampire and a mind reader. He could hear her anyway. 

"That was my random inside thoughts." The blonde reasons as her face turns crimson red. She coughs to hide her embarrassment. 

Esdras laughs, shaking his head. "You are one of a kind." 

"You know? We can be that iconic duo in our own superhero universe." She rambles with her newest, genius idea. Note the sarcasm. 

He raises his eyebrow with an amused face. "Like what?" 

"You're Professor X, I'm Wolverine." 

Esdras's face turns into a disgusted expression at the mention of 'Wolverine'. The blonde almost forgot his allergy to wolves. "No. No wolf stuff. I hate dogs. I'm more of a cat person." 

"Beside I'm team DC." He adds. 

"Drop that team DC thing. Marvel heroes are more fantastic than your DC underwear heroes." She points out. 

"Underwear heroes?" He laughs heartily. "Seriously?" 

Shelley shrugs once again and yawns. She's super tired right now but she cannot cancel the girls night with Angela. The asian girl was too excited when she brought up the idea and it'll upset her if the blonde turns it down. "So vampires have mates?"

"Yup."

"Do you?"

"I do and it's complicated."

"Is it me?"

He shakes his head with a sad smile. "No, it's not you."

Shelley pats on his shoulder with encouragement. "Whoever that person is lucky to have you, Ezra. You're a good guy."

"I love you." 

Shelley turns to face him and shoots him with a sarcastic reply when she notices his expression. He is waiting, gauging her reaction for his confession. It is not the friendly Esdras talking anymore. He's the Esdras, Renee talked about over the phone. The love triangle. God, she's not ready for this. 

Reading her mind in the instant moment, he speaks. "You need to hear the truth, Shelley." 

"No. No. I don't wanna hear it." Shelley shakes her head vigorously, not wanting to go further on the upcoming subject. 

"Yes, you do." He insists. 

"No, I don't." The blonde replies quickly. She's so done with this conversation. But he's not. 

He then takes both her hands. "Understand all your options. You need to know… That I'm in love with you. And I want you to choose me, instead of him." 

She stares at him, momentarily speechless. 

"I know you like me." 

"More than anyone. But… that's all." She says, clearing the necessary. Why can't he take the hint? 

"Because of Jacob?" He chuckles darkly. "Look, I know you still love him even after what he did. But you need to know I would never, ever do that to you. I promise I will never hurt you. You can count on me." 

"I already do. You don't know how much. You're my best friend but… I don't think my feelings will change." 

He takes this in, it's hard. "But I'm the one who's always there for you. Not him." 

"Ezra, I love you. You're my best friend. But… I can't change how I feel. Please don't make me choose." She says quietly, emotionally as she caresses his cold cheek, gently which he leans into her hand automatically. "Because it'll be him. It's always been him." 

"I don't buy it." 

Shelley stops her action and takes her hand away from his cheek. "What don't you buy? That's how I feel." 

"You feel something else for me, you just won't admit it. So I'm not giving up. I'm gonna fight for you." Esdras states, confidently, in his words. And that's where it strikes which makes her angry within seconds. 

"There's nothing to fight, Esdras! I know what I want and what I want is Jacob! It's him and only him!" 

Esdras stares at her in rejection, jealousy, crazed, enraged, grief stricken for a long pause before he yells back, getting up on his feet. "Fine. Don't expect me to wait on the other end with open arms when he breaks your fragile little heart again!" 

He almost looks guilty at his outburst. The keyword. Almost. He's too angry to take it back and the damage is done anyway. 

Grabbing his jacket, he heads for the door in a hurry. She follows him, trying to stop him, which fails at the end. Esdras pulls open the front door to meet up with Angela, who is about to knock on the door. 

"Hello, Esdras." Angela greets with an enthusiastic smile which falls as he rudely stomps past her, completely ignoring her. The asian girl turns to the blonde with a frown as she stands in the doorway with a sad face. "Did I do something wrong?" 

Shelley hears Esdras's car peel out and watch it disappearing into the night. She lets out a heavy sigh and tries to ignore the ache of her heart. "Don't worry. He's mad at me. We fought like a thousand times for the day. It's pretty normal for us." 

"Wanna come in?" She invites her friend, standing aside to make space for her friend to slide in, which she does and closes the door behind. 

"You two are like an old married couple." Angela comments. 

"Yeah. I just hope his anger dies soon. It's hard to live without his company." The blonde responds after another sigh. 

Angela nods in understandably and looks around, trying to turn the conversation. "Where's Bella?" 

"She's with Edward. They're on a date." The blonde says with a grin. "They'll be late. I heard Edward arranged something romantic." 

Angela smirks. "Sounds like a chunk of fun." 

"Yup. You wanna go up?" The blonde asks. 

"Hell yeah. I'm here for the girls' night." Angela exclaims and holds up her grocery bag to show a huge tub of ice cream. "I bought ice cream for us." 

The girls night goes better than Shelley expected it to be. Angela is a nice friend and super supportive. 

Currently, Angela is rambling about something about a guy she saw at the grocery shop earlier while the blonde stands in the window, looking down at the dark, silent forest beyond the yard. Stillness. 

Suddenly, she sees a movement in the trees. Then two gleaming eyes peer out, belonging to… her protector, a wolf skulking at the edge of the tree line. It looks up at her. It is not Alpha since Jacob is on his patrol at the LA Push borders right now. 

"U.W. sent me and Eric our dorm assignments yesterday…" The blonde turns back to the room where Angela lies on the floor. The empty ice cream tub lying next to her. "I'm in the furthest dorm from campus. Eric's in the closest, of course. Did you choose a university yet?" 

Shelley looks at her, missing her already. She lays next to Angela, taking up a card to address. "Not yet." 

Sensing the worry in her voice, Angela looks up at her. "Is something wrong?" 

"No, why?" 

"You keep looking out that window like you're hoping Esdras will show up with a mariachi band." 

"Angela what if Eric was like secretly a member of this… violent gang, and… your brother was in this other gang, and they wanted to kill each other, and you couldn't tell anybody?" The blonde asks and her slightly odd remark just kind of sits there for a few seconds before Angela speaks again. 

"It's okay. You don't have to talk about it." 

"There's nothing to… I mean there is but…" The blonde struggles to explain. How is she going to talk about it? She debates with her mind to figure a way, then sits up, cross legged, choosing her words carefully. "Okay. You remember Jacob Black?" 

"Ah. Your hot boyfriend. So… I assume Esdras's jealous?" 

Shelley raises an eyebrow. "You say that like it's so obvious." 

"Oh, it's not?" Angela asks. 

"Ezra just thinks Jacob's dangerous or something… bad influence on me." The blonde scoffs into the air. "And Jacob is completely a dick. He always tries to do things that's pissing Ezra off and challenge him?" 

Angela smiles, shakes her head. 

"What?" The blonde asks in utter confusion. 

"I've seen the way Jacob looks at you. That guy is under your spell. And here comes Esdras, he's a love sick puppy for you. Of course, there's a competition between them to win you. They're only human. It's possible to react like that." 

"It's more complicated than that." Shelley says. 

"Say the words Shell, jell-oh-see." Angela mocks with a smirk. 

"I've told Esdras how I feel before we argued before. He has to accept it. It's better to be best friends than nothing." The blonde mutters, not wanting to imagine a life without her best friend. God, she already misses that stupid vampire.

"Okay, so the words are dee-nighoul." 

"You're saying I'm an idiot." 

"Just a little oblivious."

Shelley sighs in distress. "Well, I don't want this. Every move I make hurts someone." 

"They're big boys. They make their own choices. Don't worry it will work itself out. It's not life or death or anything." Angela says and the blonde glances back at the window at her reality which is obviously different from Angela's.