Chapter 1-Atlanta fucking Georgia?

EPOV

"Edward, I know you can hear me. Take the damn ear buds out of your head."

I knew resistance was futile at this point; the pixie was stalking her way towards the door to my room. My right hand pinched the bridge of my nose as my left had pulled the small speakers from my ears. The screeching guitars and the wailing piano could still be heard as they hung limply in my hands. At this particular volume, even human ears could have heard the music spilling from my hands.

Human ears.

I shuddered and gasped just as the door flew open. My sister stood perfectly still as she took in my pose.

"You did it again didn't you?" The anger and sarcasm that had colored her internal yelling just moments before were instantly gone and her eyes were filled with an emotion I had become all too familiar with over the last almost 5 years.

Almost 5 years. The shudder gripped me again.

At once, my sister's tiny arms closed around me and she pulled my body toward hers. She gently rocked us back and forth and her hand rubbed nonsensical patterns over my back.

"Edward, I swear you are the first vampire in history to give himself panic attacks. I'm sorry I didn't see this one coming. You were going to be difficult about what I was coming to talk to you about and then…"

"Alice, I am not having a panic attack, I was just thinking." I knew I was lying and so did she. What the fuck was it if not a panic attack? My muscles were locked down, my breathing was erratic and I was shivering convulsively. If I were human, I would have been sweating profusely. If I were human…

"Stop that Edward. Look at me." Her eyes bore into mine and I could hear the unvocalized concern in her head. Of all my family, Alice got it. She understood why I did this.

"Brother dear, I love you. We all love you. And we all understand." The look on her face broke my heart and endeared her to me at the same exact time.

"I know you do, although I'm not sure everyone understands." I tried to give her a grin, although from what I heard in her head, I think the expression may have more closely resembled someone with severe heartburn.

"Psh, we all know Rose is a bitch, but even she knows where it comes from. And even the bitch loves you."

The smile was more genuine now. Only my fierce elf of a sister could get away with calling Rose a bitch and not have to watch her back for the next week.

I blew out the unnecessary breath and my muscles relaxed a little. Alice was only one of two people in the world that could get me to relax.

"Ok, so what am I going to be difficult about?" Curiosity had always been a weakness of mine. Curiosity is what had lead me to… damn it, don't go there.

"Stop. You are giving me a freaking headache doing that. So here's the thing. We're going to Atlanta. All of us." The blinding smile she leveled at me was nothing short of a shit eating grin.

Apparently the look on my face shifted to anger, because Alice pulled back slightly from her embrace and cocked one eyebrow at me.

"And exactly why are you all going to Atlanta?"

"We are all going for several reasons. Carlisle has been invited to a medical conference and Rose wants to do some serious southern belle shopping. But the rest of us are going with you."

"And what, pray tell, are you going to do with me in Atlanta fucking Georgia?" I knew the words came out more harshly than she deserved, but the Deep South was not exactly high on my list of priorities for early September. Not that anything had been very high on my list of priorities for the last several years.

Her smirk was a little to knowing, but the words out of her mouth stunned me into silence.

"We, sweet brother, are going with you to see Everclear."

For the first time in I don't really know how long, my smile was genuine.