AN: Some of you may have noticed I shortly deleted this story. For this, I think I owe you an explanation.
It's a fairly simple one at that: My mind's a mess. I continuously make small improvements in all of my stories. This includes all five of the ones I am currently working on. As I was – upon revision – all but satisfied with this story, I saw it better to simply restart for I had only posted two chapters and the amount of changes I have made is quite extensive.
So, take some love and laughs, add some tears and a bucket full of drama and mystery and thus: War of Neighbors is born.
I do hope you enjoy it and know that your reviews are greatly appreciated.
Love, MM.
Edward
'Get some booze.' That was my assignment. Couldn't be hard, right? Wrong. It's like everyone has decided to go to the store on the same freaking moment. And as it seems to be almost 40° outside, it's a miracle no one has dropped dead yet. Although I am now convinced I'll be the first one, someone's gotta be.
"C'mon Eddie, we haven't got all day," Emmett - my younger brother - says impatiently. He immediately starts making his way to the aisle we need, barely giving me a chance to grab our shopping cart. Apparently there never is enough liquor at a bachelor party. Who am I to argue this wisdom? Yet since Jasper has given him a green light for almost anything concerning tomorrow's event, there wasn't a lot I could do to refuse. Knowing my older brother, I knew he wouldn't mind it either way. He is all focused on his wedding and lost most of his interest for partying when their son – my awesome nephew – Riley was born.
Within a few minutes Emmett has managed to grab two crates of beer and starts putting them in the cart, stating it won't nearly be enough. I start fearing my life, but join him to pick out a bottle of tequila and other coma-inducing liquors.
"So now we got booze, snacks. I took care of the music and hired some strippers. We're all set."
"Strippers?" I ask in disbelief. He has been talking about it all week, but I didn't think he would actually pull through with it. Especially since Alice – Jasper's fiancée - specifically prohibited it and his girlfriend said she would castrate him if she'd find out there would be scarcely dressed women present. Knowing Rosalie, that isn't a threat to take lightly.
"It wouldn't be a bachelor party without," he responds nonchalantly.
Of course not. "You forgot about one thing little brother. Where is this all going to take place?"
"Well.." he hesitates, "I kind of told everyone to meet at your place."
Hell no. Not again. Last time he threw a party at my place, it ended with me convincing the cops we'd keep the noise down and Emmett lying unconscious in my bed. However it seems his wild days are behind him, since things between him and Rosalie got serious. Most of them, at least.
"You did what?" I ask clearly not amused. No way he is pulling this shit again.
"It's his bachelor party. It may be the last time we'll be able to do his like brothers. We can't ruin it and there will be a girls-night at my place," he says in an overdramatically tone.
"Then why does my house have to suffer? Shouldn't the groom be sacrificing his?"
He smiles, patting me on the shoulder. "Alice described him a horrible to die, if anything were to happen to her dress or to any other of the wedding-stuff that's stored at their house." Hard to see Alice – who could just as well be a little fairy - getting angry, though I can imagine it must be terrifying.
I sigh, "Fine. Whatever. But you better help me with the mess afterwards. And no cops. Otherwise I'll be the one killing someone."
"Promise." He smiles satisfied and I just roll my eyes, letting out a chuckle. A good party doesn't actually bother me and Emmett was right, it's a special occasion. The Cullen-brothers together one last time as unwed men - again. For a while it seemed that time ended a long time ago, when I was the first one of us to say his vows. But I'm sure Jasper's marriage won't crash and burn like mine did.
"Like I'd believe you, with the amount of alcohol lying in front of me," I state, gesturing at the shopping cart.
"We're not all wusses like you, Eddie. Some of us take their liquor well." He laughs. "Or do I need to remind you of the last time you got drunk and stupid?"
Shit, he's never going to let that one go.
"I should kick your ass, only for reminding me of it," I grin widely. But he only seems to take it as a challenge. I should've known my little brother would've seen the opportunity to tease me, which he willingly takes.
"It's not that I didn't enjoy your little Tarzan-routine, really," he continues casually, although I can hear him trying to suppress his bouldering laugh. "Some people might even say that your attempt of recreating the outfit with nothing but a towel, was quite brave and creative." He sighs, staring into the void as if he's reminiscing about his past. "Especially the dance was real impressive."
You know what? The dance was impressive. I pulled out my best dance-skills, as far as I can remember. Though the 'remembering' really isn't that trustworthy from my part. "Shut up, Emmett," I say, stomping his arm.
"No, continue," I suddenly hear a soft, female voice say. "It sounds like an interesting experience."
Shit. Someone heard us? I slowly turn around, only to find a beautiful brunette standing on the other side, looking through the bottles of white wine. She doesn't even seem to be paying any attention to us, until she looks over her shoulder and pulls up the corner of her mouth.
"He didn't mention how good I was looking at that moment," I respond and give her my most charming smile.. Might as well do any attempt to saving some of my dignity. Unfortunately Emmett apparently no longer finds the strength to suppress his laugh.
"Oh, I imagine," she states with a hint of sarcasm, as she picks out a bottle. "Too bad I missed it."
"You should be," Emmett cuts in, wiping away some tears. "It was a once in a life-time thing. Luckily we have it on tape."
Wait, I didn't know that. He's kidding, right? "Please tell my you're lying," I beg him, to which he simply shakes his head. Well, fuck my life. The fact that he hasn't showed it to anyone by now, can't be good. It means he's waiting for the perfect opportunity to embarrass me.
The brunette grins. "I'll let you two to your relationship-issues," she tells us, distracting both of us of the mental war we're having.
"Wait. No, we- We're brothers," we say simultaneously, partly in shock. Even the thought of it. I mean, I'd be a catch to any guy, even to Emmett. But having him as a partner? Yuck.
"You sure?" she teases, as she skeptically raises an eyebrow. "That seemed a little too synchronized to just be a coincidence."
I smile when I realize she's messing with us and so does my brother. "Edward Cullen," I simply inform her. "And this is my little brother, Emmett."
"Little?" she asks surprised. Not hard to understand why, since Emmett – figuratively and nearly literally – reaches head and shoulders above me.
"Well, yeah…"
"I got the good looks of the family," Emmett mentions smoothly, though in an obvious non-flirty way. A few years ago he'd be all over her, so it still surprises me when he doesn't fall into his old Casanova-habits. Rosalie somehow managed to tame him, simply by not putting out. She made him suffer and beg, and he loved it.
"Yes, and I got the brains," I add. Burn.
"Is that what helped you through the Tarzan-dance?" she asks and winks, turning around. "Have a nice day, gentlemen." Alright, she wins this round.
Before I can turn around and start making my way out of the store, Emmett yells at her. "We didn't catch your name!"
"Bella!" she responds in the same tone and disappears from our sight, without giving us another second of attention. For once I am grateful for Emmett's big mouth. I really did want to know the beautiful stranger's name.
He pokes me with his elbow. "She likes us," he says, yet eventually turns around and starts pushing our cart.
As fast as we can we try to make our way out of the store, though it didn't go as planned. After getting through the mass of people, we still had to stand in line for about half an hour 'till we could pay. Emmett and I started making devious escape-plans, in which we described how we could take as mayy bottles as possible with us without being caught. After a while it just became a contest of who'd be the best grocery store-defeating spy. I won.
Another half hour later, I finally pull up my driveway and notice the rusty pickup truck parked in front of the empty house next to mine. I knew it was sold, but I suppose my new neighbor finally is moving in. The truck makes me imagine it's going to be an old redneck with a love for hunting. This should be fun.
"I"ll grab the beer," Emmett says as he gets out of my car and I nod, doing the same.
"Try not to dr- Ugh!" Suddenly I am slammed against the grass by someone. "The hell- Hey I know you!" Safe to say I don't know why Bella is now sitting on top of me or how she is even here. She's also a lot stronger than she looks.
For a second I smile, but I immediately let it fade – seeing how pissed off she looks. "Are you following me?" she asks me. The woman is out of her damn mind. She can't be serious, right?
"What? Follow you? Why the hell would I do that?" I ask in a state of shock. What in God's name is happening right now?
"Nate, thank God," she says as a young boy comes running, though he doesn't seem nearly as confused as both Emmett and I.
"Mom, what are you doing?" he asks surprised. Mom? She's a mother?
She groans. "Nothing to worry about, sweetheart. Just go grab mommy's baseball bat."
Did she say..? "Bella, no. You don't understand! I wasn't following y-" Within seconds the kid has again disappeared.
She cuts me off. "Like hell you weren't."
"Stop, Bella!" For the first time since the whole chaos, Emmett finally speaks up. I kind of forgot he was even still there, but now I am eternally grateful he is. "He lives here!"
"Yeah, listen to the big guy. I live here!" I add.
For a second she seems to ponder about what we just said, but keeps sitting on top of me. "You live here?" she asks cautiously.
I carefully nod. Any sudden movement might still freak her out, for all I know.
A beautiful blush spreads across her cheeks and she hides her face in her hands. "Shit," she mumbles. "I'm so sorry!"
"Can you perhaps get off me now?" Not that I mind at all, to have beautiful woman on top of me.
"Yes, of course," she says hastily and stands up, after which I do the same and start patting off my clothes. "Damn it. I'm so sorry," she repeats.
Then Emmett suddenly bursts into laughter. Leave It to my little brother to make something less awkward. "Man, that was awesome! She totally decked you, dude," he says. "A girl-" With a simple, deadly glare from Bella he corrects himself. "A woman owned you."
"I never saw her coming," I say in my own defense, but I know I'll be hearing about this for a long time.
"Though I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed you chose Edward instead of me," he continues.
"I already hurt myself running into him," she says, painfully rubbing her shoulder. "I don't think I could get you down." Somehow I feel guilty for causing her pain.
To make it even better, the kid suddenly comes running with a wooden baseball-bat in his hands. "I got your back, mom!" he yells, as he comes to a halt and tries to catch his breath, until he sees me standing. "Wait, what happened?" he asks confused.
Bella lets out a beautiful chuckle. "Thank you, Nate," she says, ruffling his hair, "But I won't be needing it anymore."
"Awww," the boy sounds sincerely disappointed. Gee, thanks kid.
"So ehr, care to explain?" I ask, to which the boy shyly takes a step back. Not that it bothered me that much, I just don't get tackled by women every day and would like to know what set her off.
"I'm just.."
"We just moved over there," the boy cuts in and points at the house next to mine, helping out his mother. Smart kid.
"And now I will be known as the crazy woman who tackles people," Bella adds, with a dramatic sigh.
"So you're my new neighbors, huh?"
Bella once more hides her face in her hands. "Crap. Now I'm going to have to come up with some grand gesture, to prevent a grand war starting between our houses."
"Mom, not again!" the boy suddenly states. "I don't want the cops to come this time." The cops? What did she do? Though I doesn't really surprise me, as she tackled me simply for walking on my own lawn.
Emmett simply looks at me with that wide smile of his and crosses his arms, completely amused by the whole situation. "The cops? What horrible thing did you do?"
Bella looks at us even more awkward than before. "Ssssht, Nate," she mumbles. "We're trying to make a good impression on the new neighbors." Yes, she definitely is crazy.
"Oh right, sorry mom," the boy says, obviously trying to come up with a good lie. "Did I say cops? I mean.. ehm. Doctors! Yeah." It's nice to see how much they love each other.
"Yes, that's much better, Nate," she grins, then turns to us and ruffles through his hair again. "I'm blessed with a son who cannot lie."
I couldn't help but laugh, though I didn't forget Emmett's previous question – although I want to know more out of curiosity than fear.
"I know. Amazing right?" she answers sarcastically with fake enthusiasm. Alright, she's not gonna tell that easily. I get it. "Come on, Nate. We have two more bags filled with unnecessary food to unload from the truck. The ice cream won't wait."
This immediately catches his attention, but first he turns to me and Emmett again and reaches out his hand. "Nathaniel Charlie Swan," he introduces himself politely with a smile and shakes both our hands for a second, making Bella look pretty damn proud. Not hard to see why, the kid's a real little gentleman.
"Are you like superstrong or something? You're huge!" he whispers when Emmett crouches for a second to reach for his hand. Emmett always has had a talent for getting along with children.
Of course his question makes Emmett's ego grow ten sizes. "I totally am," he whispers back and the kid just profoundly nods, completely impressed by him. Bella rolls her eyes for a second, but can't suppress her smile. She adores her son.
Then he turns around and runs to the rusty truck. Hard to imagine such a beast of a car belongs to a tiny woman like Bella. Though she just made me crash to the ground, so who am I to judge.
"So ehr.. Nice to meet you both," Bella adds and walks away as well, to help Nate with the bags as he tries to take em on both.
"You didn't kill anyone, did you?" I ask loudly, before she can escape completely.
To which she simply responds, "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Who knows?" She looks over her shoulder and smiles beautifully, then focuses on her kid again, as they both start making their way inside.
"I think I'm going to like your new neighbors," Emmett says chuckling.
I nod, and I don't take my eyes of them until they disappear inside. "So will I."
