Just something I wrote to pass the time (aka put off studying for my IChem midterm). Super short, super fluffy, only rated T because of the occasional swear word nestled in to my otherwise risque-free writing. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: BTW, I obviously have to rights to Twilight. It really doesn't need to be said.
"Thanks for doing this Alice," Bella said, as the Pixie flitted around her.
Alice as busy pinning back the rest of Bella's newly styled curls. "No, thank you for actually wanting to dress up tonight."
Bella stared down at her fingers. "Yeah, well I figured it's my 18th birthday, I should probably do something special."
"Uh, huh," Said Rosalie as she sauntered out of Alice's closet carrying a shoe box. "That's totally why you willing surrendered your comfort in favor of Alice's fashion."
Bella quickly reached for the shoe box and played with on of the strappy sandals within, carefully trying to avoid eye contact. "What do you mean by that?"
Rose sighed and settled on the edge if Alice's frilly monstrosity of a bed. "Bella, we're not slow. We know exactly why you are doing this."
Bella shook her head, "I don't-"
"Oh please, Bella," Alice interrupted. "You can't possible think that we actually believed you when you said you wanted to wear a dress solely because it was your birthday?"
"Damn," Bella sighed. "Am I seriously that transparent?"
"Pretty much. Also it doesn't help that up until this year you required everyone to dress in sweats on your birthday." Rosalie nodded in agreement. "So do you want to tell us the real reason why you asked Alice to make your outfit a dress tonight?"
"What's the point, I'm sure you to already know the answer to that question."
"True," Alice nodded, "But hearing you say it out loud makes it more real."
"Fine," Bella conceded. "I did it as a birthday present to myself."
"What?" Rosalie exclaimed, clearly confused.
"Explain," Alice ordered, tiring of Bella's roundabout answers.
Bella took a breath before launching into her twisted and selfish reasoning. "It's just, well it's my birthday and I decided that I was going to give myself the ultimate present."
"Which is...?" Rosalie pressed.
"I'm going to be completely selfish and potentially lose my best friend tonight." Bella bit her lip before continuing, "I'm going to tell him."
Rosalie and Alice looked at each other and smiled before exclaiming, "Finally!"
"So why tonight?" Alice asked.
Bella turned away from them and faced the mirror, dropping her gaze to the table top so as not to see her own reflection. "I just figured there was no way I would be able to leave Forks without letting him know. If I do it tonight, then I'll still have time to fix the whatever mess I've made and I can get our friendship back on track. I mean, when this blows up in my face, at least if I do it now, Edward is still stuck with me hanging around for the next 11 months before we start college. I'll still have a chance to fix things. But if I wait until we leave? I don't want to lose touch because we may separate to go to college and he decides to avoid me because I made him uncomfortable. At least this way I can leave Forks knowing that I still have my best friend."
Rosalie got up and stood behind her, wrapping her arms around Bella's. "Bella trust me, there is no need for that contingency plan."
"Right," Alice said kneeling by Bella's chair in order to drop her chin onto her friend's shoulder. "Something tells me you'll be happy at the end of the night."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
It was the night of Bella's 18th birthday and she was sitting next to Edward in the Cullen living room for the traditional mini-birthday celebration. All the Cullens were present, including Emmett who had gone to Seattle for college. The Hale twins were also there as Rosalie had returned from the city with Emmett and Jasper was always around since he had opted to wait for Alice to graduate in order to attend college. As much as she hated being the center of attention, Bella relished any time she could spend with the people she grew up with.
By now Alice had given her a year's supply of makeup, Rosalie a new peacoat, Jasper a complete collection of Jane Austen's work and Emmett a new stereo that he managed to install in her big red truck when she wasn't looking. Esme and Carlisle had given her a spa weekend with Rose and Alice, on top of throwing this small celebration.
Now she held in her hands her gift from Edward. It was a tradition that had held strong over the last 15 years, Edward's would be the last present she was to open.
Bella and Edward had forged a friendship at the tender age of 3, that had miraculously survived the trials of youth, from cooties to puberty. In fact it was exactly 15 years to the day that marked their first meeting and the first time Edward had invoked her nickname. Not once over the years had their relationship faltered and without a doubt, they were best friends.
She stole a glance at Edward, who gazed at her with a wide smile filled with anticipation, similar to what a child would look like knowing that they made their parents happy. The look of sheer joy on Edward's face automatically brought a smile to Bella's own.
Wow, she thought, this must be some present for him to be beaming like that.
Bella shook her head before removing the final piece of wrapping, eager to finally be done with the gift part of the evening. Then she looked down to examine this last present. Almost instantaneously her face fell, the smile dissolving from her lips.
Edward shook with excitement as his gift was unveiled. Just before its covering was done away with, he looked up eager to witness the look on his best friend's face when she first saw her present. Unfortunately what he saw, was not what was expected.
Confusion, sorrow, hurt and finally anger flashed across Bella's face. Her cheeks reddened in a combination of embarrassment and fury as she took in what she held in her hands. Her eyebrows furrowed with dismay as she tried to figure out how Edward's emotions could be in anyway attached to this gift.
"Ducky?" Unable to take the silence, Edward spoke, invoking the name that he had bestowed upon her in her youth.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?" Bella spat, still unable to believe that Edward would stoop to something so low.
Edward recoiled at Bella's words, as if she had physically slapped him.
Alarmed by Bella's tone, Alice stepped in, "Bella what is it?"
Bella looked around to see the shocked faces around her before revealing what she had been gifted. She briefly thought about Esme and Carlisle's presence in the room, but quickly shoved that aside knowing that someone would eventually tell them of the cruelty that their youngest son was capable of.
She let out a mirthless chuckle before turning to address Alice, "The Ugly Duckling, your brother gave me a copy of The Ugly Duckling." Without another word, Bella shot up, dropping the book in her place next to Edward, grabbed her coat and walked into the kitchen.
The rest heard the audible click of a door being forcefully closed, indicating that she had gone to the backyard.
Emmett was the first to speak, "You are an idiot." This comment was obviously directed to his brother, who he thought was in fact the biggest jackass currently on the planet.
"What?" Edward asked in confusion. "What the hell did I do?"
Emmett opened his mouth to speak, but instead shook his head as he could think of nothing to say. He was fully ashamed to have Edward as his brother and was contemplating disowning him in favor of having Bella as a sister.
Rosalie and Jasper glanced at each other before turning to Edward and simultaneously shouting, "Seriously!?!?"
Edward, once again taken aback by the room's reaction, stood up in defense. "What?"
Esme looked on, shocked that Edward was being so thick headed about what had just transpired. When he looked at her, eyes pleading for some sort of explanation, she merely shook her head and gave him a sad smile.
Carlisle, filled with pity for his son's imbecile moment, turned to his wife. They shared a look knowing that it would be best to let the younger ones knock sense into their child.
"We'll leave you to sort through this," Esme said to the teens. "I'm going to make some hot chocolate for when Bella comes back inside. Carlisle, you better go to your study and bring down the first aid kit. There's no telling what distress will add to her clumsiness."
Carlisle nodded as he watched his wife walk into the kitchen. Then he made his way to the staircase, but not before shooting a pitying glance at his son.
Alice shook with fury, standing in silence trying to calm herself down before turning to her brother. "What were you thinking? The Ugly-freaking-Duckling? Seriously Edward, how could you possibly be so insensitive?"
Edward let out an exasperated sigh, "What are you talking about? Can someone please explain why you all are looking at me like that? And why the hell Bella took off like that?"
"You seriously don't know?" The look of despair on Edward's face was enough of an answer. "Oh my god, there is no possible way I can be related to you." Alice then dropped into Jasper's lap, hoping that his calming nature would alleviate some of the anger directed at her brother.
"What did I do?" Edward asked again, beginning to sound like a broken record.
Rosalie stepped in to explain the atrocity that was Edward's present. "You just gave Bella Swan, your best friend of 15 years, a copy of The Ugly Duckling. Is there anything at all about that sentence that would indicate why we are all looking at you like you've lost your mind." She pronounced the words of the last sentence as slowly as possible, hoping that a light bulb would go off in his bronze covered head.
Edward tired of being out of the loop and attacked for his gift spoke to defend himself. "What is the matter with that book? I thought it was a great present! It was the first book we were able to read aloud to each other. The first time I won a carnival game, the prize was a yellow plushie duck that I gave to her. For crying out loud, I call her 'Ducky'!"
Jasper was aware that Edward was not going to see the error of his ways without it being spelled out for him. "Edward..."
"What Jasper?!?" Edward interrupted.
"Hey don't snap at me, I'm trying to help you here."
"Fine," Edward breathed, dropping back into his seat. "Help me understand what it is that I did wrong."
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Jasper smirked, "What was Bella doing before she opened presents?"
"Eating a cookie?" Edward responded stupidly.
"No jackass," Alice sighed, "He meant before she came downstairs."
"Alice you know very well that you held her hostage in your room playing Bella Barbie for the 3 hours."
"Yeah but let me clue you in on a little something, this time, she actually asked for it. You of all people know how much she hates getting dressed up."
"Fine, she asked you to dress her up. Big deal. What has that got to do with anything?"
"Seriously, my brother is an idiot," Emmett muttered.
"It has to do with everything," Jasper explained, "Do you think you can you tell us what she was wearing?"
Edward shook his head, unable to connect the dots. "It was a midnight blue dress and matching heels. Which is crazy because she is always calling those things death traps."
Rosalie stared with disbelief, It should not be this difficult, she thought. Aloud she tried to steer Edward's thought process, "Think Edward. Bella, the most insecure person on the planet, was in a dress..."
"That she actually asked Alice to buy," Jasper continued for her.
"With stilettos strapped to her feet," Alice took over.
"In your favorite color," Emmett added.
...
...
...
"Oh. My. God." They could almost hear the gears in Edward's head turn. "She got dressed up for me." The rest nodded.
"She braved 4 inch deathtraps for me." More nodding.
"She's the one girl on this planet that doesn't see herself clearly and I gave her a copy of The Ugly-fucking-Duckling!" The others now relaxed into their seats, knowing that their job was accomplished. "I am an idiot," Edward mumbled.
"That's what I've been saying!" Emmett shouted.
"I have to fix this." With that Edward grabbed the book and shot out to the back porch, where he knew Bella would be.
~.~.~.~.~.~
Bella was sitting on the porch swing, staring into the darkness, when she heard the door open. She knew it was him, she recognized the buzz in the air that was present whenever he was around. She sat still, rubbing her palm to her heart in an effort to soothe the ache.
Edward walked toward her and took a seat on the porch swing. "Bella..."
"It's fine Edward, I get it. Very funny." She interrupted.
"I didn't mean-,"
Bella cut him off once again, "You know I expected that kind of thing from Lauren Mallory or maybe Jessica Stanely. They're always making jokes about my plainness. But you, I thought you would have known better. " She shook her head before continuing, "Hell, I should have known better. Having gorgeous you as a best friend surrounded by girls throwing themselves at you feet. And to think, tonight I was actually going to tell you.
"Whatever I'm over it. I'll never be more than just Ducky, your best friend. At least I figured it out now before I made an ass of myself."
Edward's heart broke at the defeat evident in her voice. "It wasn't a joke." Her eyes locked on his, disbelieving. "I swear it was never meant to hurt you. It was supposed to go along with that plushie you have and the fact that I call you Ducky. I thought it was cute."
He moved closer to her, shoulders touching before continuing, "And Bella, you'll never be anything less than the most important person in my life."
Bella saw the truth in his pleading face. She realized that there was no malicious agenda behind the gift. Just her best friend doing what had to be one of the sweetest things she had ever heard of.
It was her own fault that she had let her inferiority complex get the best of her. So what if Lauren and Jessica used to called her an ugly duckling since the moment they heard Edward's pet name for her? It should have been clear that Edward would have never done anything so cruel to her, not in a million years.
She simply nodded before placing her head on his shoulder, as she had done countless times before. "I'm sorry I overreacted," she whispered.
"Don't apologize, I was too blind to see how badly my intent could be misinterpreted," he responded while resting his temple on the top of her head. "Will you at least read the note I wrote on the inside cover?"
Edward felt Bella nod in agreement and handed her the book. He held his breath as she opened the cover to the message that he agonized over for the past two weeks.
Bella situated the book so the inside cover rested on her left thigh and Edward's right, before reading the inscription.
Bella,
Today marks your 18th birthday and the 15th year of our friendship. I would never be who I am today without you standing there right next to me.
My earliest memory of us together is of you sitting in a high chair in my kitchen, wearing my bib with the yellow duck. Your cheeks flushed as you giggled when I pointed at you and said 'Ducky'.
I remember that day at carnival, the day I finally won the baseball toss. You looked so proud of me and I wanted nothing more than to share that moment with you. Then I saw the smile on your face as I handed you the plush duck. Since then I have made it my life goal to see that smile as often as possible.
I remember learning to read this with you, even though everyone said it was too hard to use as our first book.
I could not imagine a life without you by my side. But here I am, ready to throw that all the way in favor of taking a risk. One that I've wanted to since we were 12.
So here it goes...Ducky, I love you. I have for the longest time and there is no other way to say it.
I can't go another day without you knowing how I feel. I want you to be mine.
Please, if you feel 1/1000th of what I feel for you. Say you'll be mine.
My girlfriend...My Ducky...My Bella.
Yours Always,
Edward.
Edward heard her sniffle and felt the coolness of her tears as the soaked through his shirt. Slowly lifting his head from hers, he raised his hand to caress her cheek.
Bella looked up and saw the sincerity in his expression. She responded to his note with the only thing that came to mind, "I love you, Edward."
The smile on Edward's face was unmistakeable, lighting all of his features. He shifted, drawing her head closer to allow their foreheads to touch. "Really?," he whispered in disbelief.
Bella nodded, "And I've always been yours."
So that was my first Twilight fic...if you have the time please let me know what you think!
So I went back and added a bit more so it didn't seem as rushed. If I get a chance, and people think it's a good idea, I think I might write up the little adolescent scenes (first meet, reading the book, the carnival). They'll be short but I think they could be cute.