Aurora sat on her front porch in boredom. She had called Bella about twenty times with no response. It was no surprise. Following the brisk departure of Edward Cullen and his family, Bella had fallen into a depressive episode; only recently she started to reach out to her friends again. Despite this, she had become increasingly worried for her friend as she glanced down at her phone, many texts to Bella unanswered.

Aurora's attention was stolen however when she saw a familiar car pull into her driveway holding Bella and Alice, the latter with her window rolled down.

"Get in," said Alice, nodding her head towards the door. Aurora didn't question her, recognizing the slight panic in the vampire's voice.

Alice pulled out of the driveway quickly, barely giving Aurora time to buckle herself in. "So where are we going?"

"Italy." Alice answered simply. Aurora blinked, it wasn't the mall or movies, or any other answer she would have expected.

"Uh, Alice?" Alice hummed in response. "There's this little thing in the way called the ocean."

Alice rolled her eyes, "We'll get there. Don't worry. We just have to get there on time to stop Edward from killing himself."

This, of course, panicked Aurora. "What? Why on earth would he do that?!" Though Aurora didn't necessarily care for the bronze haired-boy, seeing as he left Bella making her go into a state of depression, she didn't want him to kill himself.

"Alice, we can't drag Aurora into this." Bella mumbled, still overwhelmed by everything that was going on.

"Trust me, I've seen it." Alice reasoned. "We'll need Aurora with us."

Alice was a reckless driver, not that Aurora didn't understand the urgency, but that didn't stop her from fearing for both her and Bella's safety.

"Why are they all wearing red?" Bella asked anxiously, bringing her knees to her chest and grabbing her hair. She wanted to think about anything other than her boyfriend - ex-boyfriend? - killing himself.

"They're commemorating the expulsion of vampires from the city." Alice answered, "It's the perfect setting. The Volturi will never let him get far enough to reveal himself."

Aurora tuned out Alice and Bella, too focused on the festival going on around them. Everyone looked so happy, it brought a smile to her face and made her momentarily forget why they were there. She had always wanted to travel, and Italy was at the top of her list.

Suddenly a couple of police were waving their hands, not letting Alice pass. Bella threw open her car door, running on foot following Alice's instructions .

Alice reversed down the street, finding a building she could park alongside without being too far from their desired destination.

"Why did you just jump in the car so quickly?" Alice asked calmly, though her hands were tightly gripping the steering wheel.

"My foster parents are never home, I highly doubt they'd notice if I was gone for a year let alone a day." Aurora explains, her voice free of any bitterness toward the couple. "Besides," she started. "It looked like you two were pretty freaked out, I wanted to help. Not that I understand how I could possibly be of help."

Alice didn't reply, exiting the car and pointing to their destination- a large clock tower at the city center.

Aurora struggled to keep up; Alice was fast and they were surrounded by citizens celebrating. Eventually, she managed to grab onto Alice's cold arm and allow her to guide Aurora to the clock tower.

Alice came to the door and, for lack of a better method- broke it open. She unwrapped the scarf around her head as Aurora carefully closed the door, hoping that the vampire royalty wouldn't sue for it.

"Come on guys. It's a festival!" Alice said "Wouldn't want to make a scene."