Prompt #18: Fireworks
Genre: Friendship/Comfort
Rating: T
Word Count: 500 not including story details.
Main characters: Paul and Bella no pairing.
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight and all recognizable content and characters contained therein. All original content herein is property of the author.
Paul sits alone on the beach in the darkness. All around him he can hear the sounds of holiday revelers. Fourth of July is a time for families, he hasn't got one anymore though, and no prospects for a new one either.
He fists his hands in the sand, the wet texture of it is comforting to him in its familiarity. He remembers better days, running on this beach with his friends, now they've all moved on. They have families of their own, people who give a shit if they live or die.
He shifts, putting his hand into his pocket, and bringing out the ring. He was going to give this to Rachel, before he came home early from a business trip and found her having a threesome with his best friend and his best friend's wife.
He never did share well, and wasn't going to share his wife with anyone. The guys could call him what they wanted, Rachel could tell him he was being insane all she wanted, but the bottom line was that when he got married that was it, him and her, the two of them for life. That's what he wanted, and if that made him a prude, or old fashioned or whatever, then so be it.
Slut actually thought he'd want to join in, had gone so far as to take his hands and try to put them on her friends' body. He almost lost it, but he put a check on his temper, yanked his hands away, and walked out calling back over his shoulder that none of them should be there when he got back.
He looks at the ring, his mothers, and then stares out to sea, thinking about tossing the ring out into the waves. The voice stops him, "That would really be a shame, Paul…"
He turns and sees Bella Swan, his former best friend, standing a short distance away. He puts the ring back in his pocket, and sighing, asks, "Come to say 'I told you so', Bell?"
She shrugs, and indicates his wide spread legs, "Can I sit with you?"
He shrugs back, "Sure."
She sits down in the vee of his legs and leans back against his well-muscled chest, "If I thought 'I told you so' would do you any good, I'd say it… How are you?"
He shrugs, "I'm holding up."
She covers his hand with hers, once upon a time she and Paul had been very close to going from friends to more than that, but she hadn't known what to say, and then Rachel had come home, and that had been that.
He watches the tide approaching, "we're gonna get wet in a minute."
She shrugs, "I'm okay, it's sweltering anyway, and the fireworks are about to start."
The first of the rockets rends the night sky, Paul bends slightly, and kisses the top of Bella's head as the water rolls over their legs, he whispers, "Thanks for coming to find me."