"Hey, Bella!" I heard Ben say downstairs. I didn't feel the surprise that I could hear in his voice; the roar of Bella's truck was unmistakable.
"Hi, Ben. Er, is Angela here?" Wondering at the fear in Bella's voice, I stood and made my way to the stairs.
"Sure," Ben said.
"Bella!" I smiled at the two of them. Then a stuttering engine popped to a stop in the driveway. As Ben looked out the door to see what car it was, Bella relaxed a tiny bit; what had her so tense? I descended the stairs to say goodbye, certain that this was Austin, ready to take Ben to their movie.
"Austin's here," he confirmed as I came up to him and Bella. The horn honked. "I'll see you later. Miss you already." He pulled my face down to his for just a moment. I closed my eyes.
The horn honked again, startling me out of my wonderland.
"Bye, Ang! Love you!" Ben called back to me as he sped through the door and out to the waiting car. As I contemplated the happiness, the sense of fullness, those two words could bring me, I lost my balance slightly, and I could feel myself blushing. I wondered internally if I was turning into Bella, then scolded myself for what could be seen as an unkind thought, and waved to my Ben and Austin. Then I turned to face Bella, smiling apologetically.
"Thank you for doing this, Bella. From the bottom of my heart," I said. "Not only are you saving my hands from permanent injury, you also just spared me two long hours of plot-less, badly dubbed martial arts film." I sighed an exaggerated sigh of relief, hoping to get Bella a little more relaxed. She didn't have to talk about it unless she wanted to, of course, but it made me feel better if my friends were relaxed when around me.
"Happy to be of service," she replied with a smile. It seemed to work. Her breathing became less panicked than it had been, so I led her up the stairs to my room, nudging my brother's toys out of our path as we walked.
"Where's your family?" Bella asked. I smiled. It was rather quiet here this afternoon.
"My parents took the twins to a birthday party in Port Angeles. I can't believe you're really going to help me with this," I said as I opened the door and made a face. "Ben is pretending he has tendonitis."
"I don't mind at all," Bella said. We entered my room and she visibly started at the endless piles of black envelopes. "Oh!" came her gasp. I turned apologetic eyes on her. "I thought you were exaggerating."
"I wish. Are you sure you still want to do this?" If it was Jessica or Lauren, I wouldn't have asked. Either one would already be trying to weasel their way out by suddenly remembering an inescapable commitment. Not Bella, though.
"Put me to work. I've got all day." Relief, though not surprise, swelled in me. I had always wondered why Jessica and Bella were friends when the latter first moved to Forks. Their priorities were so different. I split the pile in half and put Mom's address book in the middle of my desk. We sat there for a bit, quietly going through the envelopes and the addresses. The scratching of the pens was soothing in the same way as when Ben massaged my palm when I was nervous. Thinking of Ben made me think of Bella's boyfriend, and I wondered where he was. I didn't know him very well beyond his attachment to Bella. It was strong, and that was enough for me to like him, but I doubted I saw the same things in him that Bella did. There had always been something a little strange about the Cullens, a little abnormal. But I didn't bring that up. It might have offended Bella.
"What's Edward doing tonight?" I asked, putting the first half of my minds wonderings into words. She started slightly, and her pen pressed into the envelope she was writing on.
"Emmett's home for the weekend. They're supposed to be hiking."
"You say that like you're not sure." It was odd, the inflection in her voice. Why would they only say they're hiking? Or was that why she was so jumpy? She only shrugged, so I didn't press her, turning the subject to slightly more neutral ground.
"You're lucky Edward has his brothers for all the hiking and camping I don't know what I'd do if Ben didn't have Austin for the guy stuff." Watching bad actors fight with each other isn't how I want to spend my day.
"Yeah, the outdoors thing is not really for me. And there's no way I'd ever be able to keep up."
I laughed, picturing Bella tripping over some nonexistent root or rock. I don't know what she was so worried about, though. There was no way Edward would ever let her hit the ground.
"I prefer the indoors myself," I responded. She smiled back tensely, and I noticed, after a few minutes of working steadily, that she was still sort of twitching at every noise. I let it pass, but after a few minutes a car drove by, and she half-jumped in her seat without a pause in her writing. I had to ask.
"Is something wrong? You seem…anxious."
Bella smiled embarrassedly and a faint blush crept onto her cheeks. "Is it that obvious?"
"Not really." Only to people who pay attention, people who care. People like me. Her brow furrowed slightly. "You don't have to talk about it unless you want to," I soothed her. "I'll listen if you think it will help."
Bella sat for a minute, silent. I couldn't tell whether she was trying to figure out how to phrase what was bugging her or if she was coming up with a polite way to tell me, "Thanks, but no thanks". She stayed silent for a bit longer than necessary, so I figured it was the latter.
"I'll mind my own business," I told her, ducking my head to work on the next address. I felt a little nosy, and before I could stop myself I wondered if this was how Jessica felt. I smiled to myself. It wasn't a particularly nice thing to think, but I saw the truth in it.
"No, you're right," Bella suddenly said. "I am anxious. It's…it's Edward."
"What's wrong?" I encouraged. It was good to talk about problems. A psychologist was one of careers I was considering. I hated seeing people unhappy, and in this situation I had personal ties. I really liked Bella.
"Oh, he's mad at me," she said, her tone a poor attempt at being casual.
"That's hard to imagine." Edward adored Bella. It was clear, you could see it in his eyes when he looked at her, his stance when she was threatened. "What's he mad about?" Bella sighed.
"Do you remember Jacob Black?"
"Ah," I said, understanding at once.
"Yeah."
"He's jealous." Poor Bella. But it was bound to happen, in any relationship.
"No, not jealous…" She paused, considering something, and then continued. "Edward thinks Jacob is…a bad influence, I guess. Sort of…dangerous. You know how much trouble I got in a few months back…It's all ridiculous, though."
I shook my head, disagreeing. Bella frowned a little in surprise.
"What?" she asked.
"Bella, I've seen how Jacob Black looks at you. I'd bet the real problem is jealousy."
"It's not like that with Jacob," she immediately protested.
"For you, maybe. But for Jacob…" I could see in her eyes, and her frown, that she knew exactly what I meant.
"Jacob knows how I feel. I've told him everything."
"Edward's only human, Bella. He's going to react like any other boy."
Bella grimaced at my comment, but didn't reply. I reached over and patted
her hand.
"He'll get over it," I reassured her.
"I hope so. Jake's going through kind of a tough time. He needs me."
"You and Jacob are pretty close, aren't you?" I phrased it as a question, though it wasn't really one.
"Like family."
"And Edward doesn't like him…That must be hard. I wonder how Ben would handle that?" While I genuinely did wonder, I was really sort of making an attempt to steer the subject slowly away from a topic that was clearly making her uncomfortable.
With a small smile, Bella replied, "Probably just like any other boy."
"Probably," I agreed, grinning. I could feel that this subject was officially closed. I didn't want to make Bella say any more than she wanted to.
"I got my dorm assignment yesterday. The farthest building from campus, naturally." College was safe, right?
"Does Ben know where he's staying yet?" Ben and I were both going to University of Washington. I was so glad we'd be at the same college. It made the whole thing a little less terrifying.
"The closest dorm to campus. He's got all the luck." I, however, was very lucky to have him. "How about you? Did you decide where you're going?"
She was silent a moment, seeming deep in reverie. I couldn't understand it, but I didn't ask. She'd explain if she wanted to.
With a little start, she seemed to clear her head, and answered with, "Alaska, I think. The university there in Juneau."
"Alaska? Oh. Really? I mean, that's great. I just figured you'd go somewhere…warmer." I'd been counting on it, actually. Bella hated snow, she hated cold, she hated wet. But I guess…
She laughed. "Yeah. Forks has really changed my perspective on life."
"And Edward?" I prompted, though I think I already knew the answer. Bella glanced up at me, and a grin lit her face.
"Alaska's not too cold for Edward, either." I smiled in response.
"Of course not." I sighed. "It's so far. You won't be able to come home very often. I'll miss you. Will you email me?" Bella and I were just really beginning to be closer, and it saddened me to think that I might lose her soon. I knew that high school friends often weren't the ones you kept as you went through the rest of your life, but I felt like Bella and I could be friends for a long, long time, if the universe would only let us.
She answered with a teasing smile and a playful note in her voice, "If I can type again after this." Her head inclined towards her finished stack of envelopes. We laughed.
"So what will you major in, do you think?" Bella asked.
"I've been thinking about psychology, actually." I hoped she wouldn't think I'd been using her as an experiment. She grinned in return.
"You'd be good at that, I think. You make me feel better." I smiled at her, pleased.
"But I'm also interested in sociology," I said. "Too many choices to know for sure just yet. How about you?"
"Oh, I have no idea," she said. The tone of her voice was almost dismissive. "I haven't really thought about it much." She looked out the window, very obviously avoiding my eyes. If she wasn't so terrible at lying, I would have thought Bella wasn't telling the truth. As it was, I was fairly certain this was half of the truth.
"Really? Why not?"
"Oh, you know. So much stuff. And graduation will be here before you know it…" Her voice trailed off a little, and her eyes didn't seem to see what was in front of her.
"How about English?" I suggested. "You love reading so much." Bella smiled.
We continued to chat easily about majors, classes, and things until we finished the envelopes.
"How's your hand?"
She flexed her fingers a little dramatically. "I think I'll recover the full use of it…someday."
The front door banged, and we looked up.
"Ang?" I smiled automatically. Ben was back.
Bella's smile became a little shaky. "I guess that's my cue to leave." She didn't sound too enthusiastic about it, though.
"You don't have to go," I assured her. "Though he's probably going to describe the movie for me…in detail."
"Charlie will be wondering where I am anyway." She was trying to convince herself more than me, I could tell.
"Thanks for helping," I said. I would never have finished without her. What a good friend.
"I had a good time, actually. We should do something like this again. It was nice to have some girl time."
"Definitely," I replied. Perhaps next time we could do something with Alice. Bella would enjoy that. And I sort of liked Alice. It was hard not to.
My thoughts were cut off by a knock on my door.
"Come in, Ben." Bella rose as I said this, stretching a little.
"Hey, Bella! You survived!" Ben exclaimed as he came over to sit by me,
looking at the piled of finished letters. "Nice job. Too bad there's nothing left to do, I would have…" Of course, he really wouldn't have, so he let the thought trail off. My Ben. I felt a rush of affection, which was cut off by his next words.
"Ang, I can't believe you missed this one! It was awesome. There was this final fight sequence--the choreography was unbelievable! This one guy--well, you're going to have to see it to know what I'm talking about--" I looked over at Bella and rolled my eyes.
"See you at school," she laughed.
"See you," I replied with a sigh. Bella left the room, and I turned to Ben, who was still going on about the movie, describing it even though I couldn't possibly imagine it correctly.