A/N: I wrote this for TwiFicPic's Banner and Drabble Spring Love Challenge. The goal was to write a o/s based on one of the banners, but the story had to be 1000 words or less. This is what I came up with! It didn't win, but I kind of like it anyway. I'll be expanding it to a full multi-chap at some point.
As always, thanks to Kas90, Sammielynnsmom, and KrisScott :)
Enjoy! ~Kimberly
Title Here Comes the Sun
Penname MoreThanMyself
Based on Banner Entry # 3
Link to Profile .net/~morethanmyself
Word Count 1000
I think maybe it was the sun shining into my soul that woke me that morning, the rays streaming bright through the window, yellow and warm. My blood sang in my veins, and I vibrated with excess energy, too big for the confines of my skin. One glance out of the window confirmed what my body had instinctively known - spring had sprung. Not the promise of spring, not the yellow-green tentative newness and half-thawed tepid warmth of late winter, but technicolor, vibrant, bursting with life, Spring.
I bounced down the stairs, confident for the first time in months that it was going to be okay... because he loved me. I burst into a giggle at the thought, causing my mother to raise her eyebrow questioningly, but I just shrugged. I was a girl in love, there was no limit to my joy, no room for embarrassment.
My father looked up from his eggs-over easy, with whole wheat toast and black coffee on the side; the same breakfast our cook had prepared for him every morning for forever. "You were out late, Isabella. I hope you called Peter when you finally came in. He was worried."
As the only child of Charles and Renee Swan, I was expected to marry well, cementing our family in the upper echelon of Seattle society. Peter Lockwood was an up-and-coming lawyer from old money.
"I told you we broke up. I didn't call him last night; I won't ever be calling him," I stated firmly, though even this tired conversation couldn't still the bubbling, gurgling, babbling-brook happiness skipping through me.
"Oh, Isabella, really," my mother interjected exasperatedly. "It's just pre-wedding jitters. They call it cold feet for a reason. I won't allow you to throw away your future on a silly whim!"
I smiled at her, shrugging unapologetically. "Well, allowing it or not, I'm flying out in two days."
The sound of my father's hand angrily slapping the breakfast table caused me to jump in surprise. The normally staid and impassive man was glaring at me furiously. "I have sat by for the last month and said nothing, assuming that your mother would be better suited to talking sense into you." He threw a withering look at her. "But I will not be silent any longer. Isabella Marie, you will call Peter. Do whatever you have to make it right. But you will fix this, and you will marry him. Am I clear?"
In the past, his ire would have sent me cowering back into my role as the devoted and obedient daughter. But things were different now. I was different now. My devotion was no longer to my parents. My lips twitched at the corners, desperate to burst open at the wonder of that.
"Or what, Dad? I'm out of the will? Keep it, I don't want it. You won't support me? You never have before, so that's not exactly a threat. Unless you're planning on forging my signature on the license, I'm not marrying Peter." I didn't even raise my voice; there was nothing left to fight over.
They both were shocked into silence. Never before had I stood up to him. But never before had I been so sure that losing them wasn't a sacrifice at all, not when it meant I would have him.
"If you get on that plane, you will have nothing, little girl, do you hear me? Nothing! You will be alone and on your own!" My father had recovered more quickly than my mother, his face red with anger, the vein in his forehead pulsing in reiteration of his promises.
When I finally made the choice I should have made months ago, after I almost lost him, we knew this was the most likely outcome. I had cried on his shoulder anticipating the pain of their rejection. What I never expected was the lightness flying through me. I felt like I was made of air or sunlight. I felt impossibly strong and invincible.
"Not alone, Dad. I'll never be alone again." This time I didn't even bother holding in the smile.
"That boy? You're doing all of this because of that...that...nobody?" my mother screeched.
I shook my head at the idiocy of this whole conversation and walked towards the stairs, heading back to my room. "I love him, Mother. That's all that matters."
I grabbed the bag that I had ready, everything I cared about taking with me tucked inside. I had withdrawn from school, given notice to my roommates, and the last part of the plan was this final effort to reason with my parents before I left. What I hadn't planned for was him finding me and begging to know if it was really true I was leaving. I hadn't dared to hope that he could forgive me, much less that he would want to come with me, to start a new life together.
"I swear to you, Isabella, if you walk out that door you will be making the biggest mistake of your life," my father threatened.
Just before I closed the front door, I faced my parents fully. "The biggest mistake I ever made was thinking that your happiness was more important than mine."
Turning my car down the dusty dirt road, I pulled off to the side when I saw the field...our field. And there he was, in exactly the same place I'd first seen him last summer, on an old disc swing hanging from a huge oak tree.
I jumped from the car, sprinting through the grass, heart bursting with happiness. He was running towards me. The force that I threw myself at him, knocked us down. I landed on top of him, both of us laughing, as he held me close.
"Edward." I sighed, wrapping my arms around his chest, completely consumed with love for this man, overwhelmingly grateful for the future spread before us, and perfectly content with the sunshine on our faces.