Disclaimer: SM owns it all.
BELLA
"Mommy, look!" Anthony yelled, even though I was walking right beside him, trying not to wince from the vice-like grip he had on my hand. It was amazing how strong a five year old could be.
"What do you see, baby?" I replied, not seeing anything out of the ordinary in the mall we were walking through. We had come here to buy him new cleats for soccer, since he had thoroughly destroyed his in the game he played last Saturday. He played extremely well, even scoring two goals. He had a wonderful knack for sports, and his father and I were immensely proud.
"A new toy store opened! Oh, please can we go in?" my son asked, giving me the puppy dog eyes he learned from John. Thankfully I had become immune to said puppy dog eyes. From both Anthony, and my husband.
"Why don't we go buy your new shoes honey? And then after we meet daddy, we can see how much time we have. Does that sound good?" I asked, though even at age five, Anthony was smart enough to know that I wasn't really asking. I didn't want to keep him from the happiness of a new toy, but we had to buy his cleats, and then meet John afterwards. I didn't want to get held up at the toy store for three hours because Anthony was unable to choose between an action figure and a toy car.
He definitely got his indecisiveness from his father, I thought, smiling at the thought of John.
He was my savior. I had met him during sophomore year at the University of Washington. After my horrible senior year, and a tried-but-failed relationship with Jacob, I had chosen a school very close to home. Not wanting to be far away from Forks, or Charlie.
My father had endured hell because of me. Between the stunt with Edward where I had disappeared and "fell down a flight of stairs," during my junior year, and my catatonic zombie months in senior year, I'm sure my father had suffered more than his fair share of heartache.
My freshman year of college, I mostly stayed to myself. I had majored in English, and dove straight into my studies. My grades were impeccable, mostly because I really didn't have many friends. My roommate and I were nice to each other, but we never had a deep relationship. And I was still trying to deal with my abandonment and trust issues.
But once I met John in sophomore year, everything changed. He noticed how reclusive I was, and started joining me for lunch.
"Hi, my name's John. Mind if I join?" he asked, ever so casually, with a warm, bright smile on his face.
"Um, sure," I replied, not entirely sure how I was supposed to react. I moved my books over on the table to make room.
"So what's your name?" he wondered, while digging into his lunch.
"I'm Bella," I said, with a little more confidence. His happy smile seemed to thaw me. And for some reason, I felt at ease.
After the first couple of weeks of the superficial conversations we had, I realized how genuine of a person he was. Our conversations started with me not really contributing, and him talking to me about his major, how crazy he thought his professors were, and then about his friends, and then his family. It was amazing how comfortable I felt with him, and soon enough, I was talking just as much as he was.
It was only normal that our relationship evolved to more. We went from the everyday lunches, to roaming the campus together. And from there, we took it further.
He wasn't healing me like Jacob had. The hole was no longer present in my chest, I was just wary of trusting people. And John fixed that. He didn't take me out of a zombie-stupor; he just made me a better person.
Yes, Edward did hold my heart once. But that was a long time ago; and he had let me go. I've come to terms with that now. It took me a while, but I got there. And now, I had John. He held my heart now. And he would, for always and forever.
When John asked me out on a date, two months to the day after he first sat down at lunch with me, I held no hesitance. I had seen this coming, and I was beyond happy.
John was my savior, my angel.
"Okay, no problem." Anthony agreed, drawing me out of my musings.
I smiled down at my beautiful baby boy. He was never a problem, always going to bed on time, never purposefully causing trouble. He was truly wonderful, and I could only hope that the son or daughter that had been growing inside me, for almost three months now, would be just as easy to parent.
Anthony and I walked into the shoe store, and he immediately dragged me to the wall that was completely covered with shoes.
"Hmm…" he said, contemplating. "I think I want that one!" he exclaimed, as he pointed to a bright red shoe for basketball players.
I was about to explain to him that he needed cleats when a nice saleswoman approached us, and steered us in the correct direction.
One hour and one pair of black cleats later, Anthony and I were walking out of the store.
"So when are we meeting daddy?" he wondered. I checked the time, and we had ten minutes before we were meeting John at the fountain in the center of the mall.
Someone needed to explain to me why a mall needed a fountain…
"We've got ten minutes, sweetie. Let's make our way there." I replied, and he nodded his head enthusiastically. He hadn't seen John all day since he had to leave early this morning for a meeting.
As we made our way to the fountain, Anthony kept up his chatter about his day at school.
Apparently a girl named Mary had gotten a perfect score on a spelling quiz they had, and was bragging about it to everyone. It got to the point where their teacher had to take away her quiz and have a stern talk with her outside.
I Mmed and Ahhed in all the right places, but was mostly focusing on the expressions and emotions Anthony held in his face. John always told me that Anthony was just like me in that respect. That you could see everything he was feeling through his expressions and eyes.
We sat down together on the bench as he finished his story. Him, looking utterly exasperated at the girl's behavior, and me, trying to keep the amusement off my face.
A wide smile came over my face as I saw John walking towards us. He smiled beautifully back at me and picked up his pace.
I couldn't help but giggle.
"How're my two favorite people?" he boomed when he was ten feet away from us. Anthony smiled brightly and launched himself into John's arms.
"Daddy!" he practically shrieked. I laughed joyously as I approached both of them. Anthony was already telling him the story of "Mary and the Spelling Quiz."
John looked at his son animatedly, and winked at me over his head. He put his undivided attention back on Anthony as I looked on.
"And then Ms. Cook brought her outside and took away her quiz!" He finished, while flailing his arm all over the place. I just managed to dodge a thwack in the leg from his over-excitedness.
"Wow! That's a whole lot of drama, kiddo!" John laughed.
"I know. It was really intense, dad," Anthony said seriously, and I just managed to contain a laugh. How I loved my baby boy.
"I can only imagine," John agreed, nodding his head.
"Hello there, beautiful." He greeted, while wrapping his arms around me. And of course, I blushed. I was twenty-seven years old and still blushing at the smallest things.
I leaned up on my tip-toes, and John bent down to kiss me whole-heartedly while Anthony was inspecting his new shoes on the bench across from us.
"How was your day?" I asked with my arms still around his neck.
"Nothing to interesting happened. I'm more interested in your day. How's my baby girl doing?" he wondered, while putting his right hand on my stomach, leaving his left hand on the small of my back.
"You don't know it's going to be a girl," I chided, but still smiling at the exuberance in his eyes.
"Oh yes I do. I just know these things," he said, still smiling and gazing into my eyes.
"Really?" I giggled, leaning in for another hug.
"Really," he whispered into my ear.
We stayed hugging, just enjoying the feel of one another, until we were called by our son.
"Come on guys!" he said exasperated. "I want to eat!"
John and I broke apart, while laughing at his antics.
"Alright, alright." John said, leaning down to Anthony's eye level. "Where do you want to go for dinner, kiddo?"
"Hmm… I don't know. Somewhere close! I'm starving!" he replied, flailing his arms once again.
John lifted him, and held him in his right arm, and reached for my hand with his left.
"Where do you want to go, beautiful?" he asked me, as the three of us made our way out of the mall and to the car.
"Well, I've heard good things about the new Italian restaurant in town. Want to check it out?" I asked both of them.
"Sounds great, Mom!" Anthony replied from John's arms. "I'm in the mood for some pasta…" he trailed off. John and I looked adoringly down at him as he planned out his meal in his head; concentration covering every inch of his face.
"Italian it is," John said, and he kissed me once more. Love shining from his eyes.
These two boys were all I needed in life now. And soon, we'd have another addition. All I could feel was happiness and joy, and with them is always where I would stand.
ALICE
I watched as Bella and her son made their way throughout the mall. I could hear the second heartbeat coming from inside Bella's stomach. She was pregnant. I couldn't contain the smile the made its way across my face.
I kept watch as they bought new shoes and chatted aimlessly. Anthony had her large brown eyes and chocolate brown hair. He was practically the spitting image of her.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I flipped it open and read the message from Jasper quickly, not wanting to miss the story that Anthony was telling Bella.
Did you find them yet?
Oh, Jasper. Straight and to the point as always. He didn't necessarily agree with this little detour we took. He wanted to honor the promise we had all made Edward: Stay out of Bella's life.
I wasn't planning on saying hello to her, or anything crazy like that. I just wanted to make sure that she was okay. That she was happy. She was my sister after all.
I watched from behind a pillar as Bella's husband greeted her and their son. You couldn't miss the love shining from his face when he looked at Bella.
Good, I thought. She's with someone who appreciates her.
I kept my eyes on Bella's face; judging her reactions through her expressions as they walked to the parking lot.
It was clear as day, Bella loved him. She was happy.
I could hear Bella and him talking quietly, murmuring words of love, in the car as they drove away.
My sister is happy, I thought as I flitted back to the car where Jasper was waiting for me.
Please take a moment to review.