Me: Hello world this is my second fanfic and my first time posting a one shot. Let me know what you think
I do not own anything Twillight, the characters all belong to the wonderful author Stephenie Meyer.
Present Day- July 20th 2012
"Isabella, take a deep breath everything is going to be alright. You have waited for this day for the past nine years!" I could hear Alice, my older sister, yell through the locked bathroom door. I had been currently sitting on the edge of the bath tub hyperventilating for the past half hour and I couldn't get myself to calm down long enough to finish my hair and makeup. This was my wedding day for Goodness sakes! Why am I getting so nervous and emotional!
"Ali, I just need a minute!" I hear her make a frustrated sound and give muffled instructions to someone on her side of the door, probably our little brother's girl friend Angela or our mutual best friend Rosalie. "Bella you have five minutes to open this door before I have Ben break it open for me and drag your ass out!" That got my attention, there was no way in hell I was going to be able to live down the fact that my nineteen year old brother saw me in my "after-the-reception-undies" as Alice liked to call my lingerie set.
I took a deep breath as I hopped up from the tub and made my way to open the door. As I opened it, to my lovely surprise, I was greeted by an amused looking Rosalie holding a shot glass containing the liquid of the Gods…Jk it was only tequila…which might as well be the liquid of the Gods. I gave her mumbled thanks before grabbing the glass and drowning the shot in one gulp, tequila being my drink of choice since sophomore year of college (WARNING underage drinking is bad for you!), without missing a beat she takes the glass and fixes me another as I make my way to my bed. Reaching said bed I flop down, take the glass and drown shot number two noticing for the first time that the three of us were alone…I wonder how they got my mom and grandmothers to leave...
I feel the bed dip on either side of me as Alice and Rose sit on either side of me. Alice didn't waste any time in trying to get to the bottom of what I would like to consider my mini breakdown. "What the hell is wrong with you?" the scolding comes complete with a smack on the back of my head. Before I can retaliate Rose steps in…she is used to breaking up our fights by now (when siblings are only seventeen months apart there tends to be a lot of disagreements). "What Alice is trying to say, is that we are worried about you. Today is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life and here you are freaking out."
"Sorry, I guess I'm just thinking too much, I feel as though I'm psyching myself out."
Alice put her arms around me. "Damn straight you are! If you are having second thoughts I told you just say the safe word and I will smuggle you out through the back, we can be across the border and in Canada by night fall. I never liked that Cullen kid anyway." Rose and I just rolled our eyes and giggled, we have heard this all before. "I'm serious! I will never understand what you saw in him all those years ago." All I can do is sigh as I remember that first day of band camp exactly nine years ago today…
July 20
th 2003
"Swan! Duckling!" Our band director called to Alice and I from his office. It was my sophomore year of high school and I was a gangly and uncoordinated fourteen year old while Alice, a sixteen year old junior, was as graceful as our last name implied. Since we were both on the band council and in the woodwind section the nicknames helped us know who was being yelled at and who was needed for whatever it was we had to do.
"Yes Mr. Stevens?" we both said as we ran, in my case tripped, into the office doorway.
"I need you two to head down to the practice field and direct the newbies to the band room."
"On it!" we both yelled as we raced outside. Sadly before we could get to the field Alice ran into her long time fling Jasper Whitlock and I had to go stand at the top of the field by myself…considering how awkward I was in front of strangers this wasn't a good thing. I went to start walking/sliding down the hill to the field when I lost my footing and started to fall on my ass, only the impact I was expecting never came. I found myself in the arms of a boy only a little taller than myself, a bit gangly with glasses and the greenest eyes I have ever seen.
"Hey, are you alright?"
I shook my head out of my daze. "Um…yeah. Um, thanks for catching me, I have a habit of falling down this hill." I could feel my face heating up as he chuckled softly.
"No problem, I take it from your statement that you aren't a freshman this year?"
"Um…nope, this is my second summer. I haven't seen you before, are you one of our new freshies?"
"Yes and no. I'm a sophomore as well. My family just moved here at the end of last year, since I play trombone as well as the piano I figured I would join the marching band. From what I have heard its one of the best even if it is only a one A."
Present Day- July 20
th 2012
"Bella! Bella! ISABELLA! Answer me damn it!" I was being shaken so hard I'm surprised it wasn't because of an earth quake.
"Alice calm down I think she was just walking down memory lane again."
"Are you sure it isn't the tequila starting to take an effect on her?" That snapped me out of my memory.
"Alice, you know for a fact that Rose and I can down half a bottle each and still walk straight right?" Alice snorted as she stood back up from the bed, "Come on Bells let's get your hair and makeup done before we fall too far behind schedule." Rose helped me up and led me to the vanity before forcing me to sit down. "Where did your mind wonder off too by the way?"
"The day I met Edward."
I looked in the mirror to see that Alice had a faraway look on her face. "Ah high school, all the fun we had. Cullen was smitten with you from day one! Granted you took your sweet ass time in finally saying yes to the poor guy after he kept trying to ask you out for years."
Rose let out a horrified gasp, "Bella you didn't!"
I shrugged my shoulders. "He was my best friend! I didn't want to mess up the relationship we had! Ouch! Alice watch how hard you pull on that brush, I would like to have some hair after today!"
"Well then stop moving! To make matters worse she not only didn't agree to date him until senior year, she broke the poor guy's heart shortly before prom by dumping him for no reason." Leave it to Alice to be able to gossip and fix my hair at the same time. I felt a painful slap on my upper arm. "Jesus Christ, Rose that hurt!"
"Why did you break up with him?"
I sigh. "I was scared and so was he, I was going away to college and he was joining the military at the end of the year. We both needed a chance to grow up a little and it was a mutual break up!" I stated, shooting my sister an evil glare as she turned my chair around. "What are you doing?"
"Making sure the final product is a surprise duh. Anyway the two of them call it quits; however, they continued to talk constantly and even wrote letters back and forth while Cullen was away at boot camp, they were so sweet they gave us all a tooth ache. Everything was fine until she got a phone call from him shortly after she started college."
Alice and I ended up going to the same college after I finished high school. Incidentally this is where we met Rosalie, she was Alice's roommate in the dorms their freshman year and the two were both so similar yet different than each other that they quickly became the best of friends. When I got accepted to the same school, mom and dad put the two of us in an apartment mainly because dad thought having shy little me in the dorms would traumatize me for life…it pays to be daddy's favorite. Rose was over all the time to escape from her new roommate so the two of us became best friends as well…granted that didn't happen till later on.
"Spill Bella!"
September 16
th 2007
It started out as a normal evening, both Alice and I had off from work and it was my turn to cook dinner. I was just putting the finishing touches on the table when my cell phone went off and it was Edward's ring tone. The two of us had been talking none stop again and I was starting to think we could make a long distance relationship work.
"Hey Edward!" I motioned for Alice to go ahead and eat as I went to talk in my room. "What's up? You don't normally call me until later." I mentioned as I shut the door and sat on my bed.
"Um…nothing much, is this a bad time?"
"No, its fine…you sound a little off. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, I just figured I would call you now….um…actually I don't think I will be able to talk to you much anyway."
That struck me as a little odd. "Do you have to do something for the Navy? I mean it's okay if you can't tell me about it."
"It doesn't have to do with the Navy Bella." He sounded as though he was talking to a child, and I got an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Bella I haven't been completely honest with you over the last couple of weeks. You remember Tanya right?"
I had no idea where this was going. "Yeah I was her section leader last year; she is a year younger than us."
"Well, we started talking when I went to visit my folks after boot camp and she has been to visit me a couple of times." The pieces were starting to come together as I was beginning to understand where this conversation was headed. I got a painful feeling in my chest and tears started to pour down my cheeks. "I asked her to be my official girlfriend when she was here yesterday. I don't think it's a good idea for us to be talking every night like we have been."
After he said that to me I remember Alice walking into my room to check on me and asking why I was crying. Edward heard her and started freaking out that I was in tears, at that point Alice grabbed my phone out of my hand and there was a lot of yelling. I couldn't hear what Edward was saying, I couldn't move to stop Alice. I felt like my world was ending.
Present Day- July 20
th 2012
"That Asshole! Why didn't either one of you tell me this earlier!"
"Because Rose, after I yelled Cullen's ear off that was the last we had heard from him until a little over two years ago. Poor Bella was shattered, you remember how hard it was for us to get her to let lose again. She didn't go on another date until her junior year with that Jacob kid. Now Bella close your eyes while I spray this, all I need now is for you to end up blind before walking down the aisle." I could see the headlines now….bride blinded by hair spray a mere hour before walking down the aisle. Yeah, Rose's boyfriend Emmett would never let me live it down.
After Alice finished the last touched on my hair she got to work on my make up, I had won my argument with her last night that I wanted it to look natural, that way I would be recognizable as I walked to meet Edward.
"Anyway Rose, I didn't feel the need to bring the past back up when it was already done and over with. I had forgiven Edward for the whole thing after a month or so. We weren't dating at the time so it wasn't as though he was cheating on me or anything. What really hurt was that I had lost my best friend completely. I loved him enough that if he was happy I was going to be happy for him."
"You are way too selfless girl. I don't think I could have forgiven him."
I let out a snort. "Rose let's not forget that the only reason you are dating Emmett now is because Edward introduced you to his best friend at my graduation party last year."
"Details, details. When did you start talking to him again anyways? It was after Ali and I graduated but before Ali's wedding right? Because I met him for the first time at the reception."
I nodded my head a little bit only to have Alice roughly hold it still…whoops, I don't think eyeliner going across my face would have been attractive.
Alice didn't finally land Jasper until the year Edward stopped talking to me. Alice had gone to her Art of Disney class a little late one day to find her usual seat taken. When she went to give the jerk a piece of her mind she was shocked to see that it was Jasper. Turned out he had just transferred in from UCLA to be closer to home and the rest is history. They got married August 25th 2010. Coincidentally, it was about a month or two before then that I had run into Edward again…literally.
June 10
th 2010
I was home for the first summer since I started college, I had decided to double major in English and Education so I needed to take summer courses in order to have all my credits completed before my student teaching course I had to take in my last semester. I didn't have to worry about the apartment since Rose had moved into the extra room after Alice graduated and got engaged and she had agreed to look after everything. It was also a good thing I was home because Alice was one hell of a perfectionist when it came to her upcoming wedding and I was needed to keep the peace between her and mom (dad was no help because he had either fishing or work to keep himself out of the house and all Ben cared about was if he would be allowed to have more than one piece of cake…Boys!).
It was on this day that mom and Alice had a particularly nasty argument about who was going to go to Sweet Esme's to double check the cake order, both claiming to be way too busy doing other things to drive into town. Being the sweet and loving sister/daughter that I am, and to get away from the two of them, I volunteered to go. It didn't hurt that Esme and Carlisle Cullen loved the hell out of me and would probably give me a better deal on the cake.
Yep that's right folks I said Cullen. Esme and Carlisle just so happened to be Edward's parents and they loved me even after I broke up and stopped talking to their son. Hell, the two of them sent me a Christmas card and present every year with a batch of my favorite cookies asking me to keep them informed on how I was doing. Carlisle was my doctor for every clumsy moment I had in high school, and Esme owned the best bakery in town. It was only a ten minute drive and I felt very lucky for not getting stuck at the never changing red light and for getting a parking spot right in front of the door, by the looks of things no one else was there and I could gossip with Esme about the wedding (score!).
Everything went normal until I walked through the door and saw Edward standing behind the cash register. And damn did he look good enough to eat! He was wearing a regular short sleeved polo shirt and kakis, but you could see the muscles on his arms and how the shirt strained at the muscles on his chest. His hair was still in slight disarray is shorter than I remembered it being. And he was tall as hell (granted I am only 5' 2'' so everyone is taller than me…except Alice…she's 5' even).
He must have heard the bell from the door because he turned towards the door. "Welcome to Sweet Esme's! How may I- Bella!"
I could feel my face start to heat up as we stood there staring at each other for a couple of seconds. Why was I here again? Oh yeah, Alice's cake!
"Um hey Edward long time no see…um…is your mom here?"
"Um…yeah she is in the back office on the phone with an order at the moment she should be back out in a few minutes…" Was it just me or was it quiet in here…way too quiet…well this is awkward…
"What?" Oh damn it I said that out loud!
"Um…I didn't say anything…I'm just going to take a seat over there." I pointed to the waiting sofa Esme put in for customers and moved to sit down. We once again sat in silence.
"So…Bella, how have you been?"
"Um…good I guess. I didn't expect to see you here, last I heard you were stationed in California."
"Um I am…I uh, I'm on leave actually, I figured I would help mom out at the shop today to get my mind off things."
"Oh…is Tonya not able to hang out with you?" I could see his face visibly cringe after I said her name and he ran his hand through his hair, an old nervous habit of his that I was happy to see he still had.
"Um…actually I broke up with her a couple of months ago."
"Oh?" my voice might have sounded a little too cheerful at the news.
"Yeah, turns out she had been cheating on me for a while. I wasn't too upset about it really; I think things were done for a while anyway. "
"I'm sorry to hear that." It surprised me that it was an honest statement, I was really sorry he had been hurt.
"It put a lot of things into perspective for me. I didn't realize how many people I had lost touch with since I started dating her." I hadn't realized that Edward had been moving towards me as he spoke until he was kneeling down in front of my face. "I'm really sorry that I lost contact with you and that I hurt you. I have really missed you."
I had started to tear up a little bit but I was able to choke out "I missed you too." Sadly before anything else could be said Esme had finished her phone conversation.
"Bella! It's so good to see you again! Come here and give me a hug." I learned a long time ago one doesn't tell Esme no.
"Hey Esme, I'm actually here about finalizing Alice's wedding cake."
"Awe I'm so excited for her! I know your mother hasn't been able to talk about anything else for months! And who knows you might be next, you still with that Jack boy?" I noticed that Edward had a scowl on his face and visibly stiffened.
"Um…it was Jacob, and actually Esme we ended things a little while ago." From the corner of my eye I saw Edward relax. "Turned out that we weren't into the same things."
"I'm sorry to hear that sweetie; I guess you don't have a date anymore for the wedding." I tapped the tips of her fingers on her chin a few times before randomly breaking into a huge smile. "I know! The wedding is the 25th of August correct. Well Edward doesn't have duty that weekend; he can be your date!"
Present Day- July 20
th 2012
"So Esme set you guys up again? Man I love that woman."
"He agreed to being my date to the wedding, we started talking again, even visited each other a couple of times before we started dating again. And the rest is history."
"Alright, if you two are done reminiscing, I need you to shut up and suck it in Bella so I can finish putting you in your dress."
"Alice I do not need to suck anything in!"
"Well just shut up and hold the front part over your boobs so they don't fall out."
Rose snorted, "It's not we haven't seen her naked before." That was a Cinco de Mayo none of us would ever forget…well the parts we remember anyway.
After they finished with my dress and I put the finishing touches together I realized that I didn't feel nervous anymore. Edward and I had been through a lot, both together and apart…we could deal with this. Before leaving my room to head out to the limo Rose poured the three of us a round of tequila shots…well Alice had water, it wouldn't be a good idea for the matron of honor to get tipsy, wouldn't want anything to happen to my future niece or nephew (only four more months to go!).
I was clam as my mom saw me and started crying, I was able to joke around with Ben about what he would be expected to do if Angela caught the bouquet, and I wasn't worried as we drove to the church. It wasn't until we were all lined up and I watched as one by one my two bride's maids and Alice disappeared behind the door and the wedding march began to play that I started to get nervous again.
I felt me daddy's hand tighten around my arm as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. "It's not too late kiddo, we could still sneak out the back and make it over the border to Canada before nightfall, just give me the safe word and I will have you out of here."
I laughed as the doors opened for my father to walk me down. I looked straight ahead and saw Ben and Jasper as the groomsmen and Emmett standing in his dress blues as Edward's best man. The person standing next to Emmett took my breath away. Edward was dressed in his own dress blues, standing tall and relaxed, but was looking at me with such intensity and love in his emerald green eyes.
"Its okay dad, I'm ready for this."
Throughout the service my memories of the last nine years flashed through my head. All the good times and all the bad, the love and the heart ache. Who would have thought all those years ago that I would end up marrying my best friend? It was the happiest moment of my life when I heard Edward say those two simple words with so much joy without hesitating. When the priest said "You may now kiss the bride" Edward gave me a kiss I was sure wasn't allowed in a church (Father Ericson had to clear his throat a few times), and whispered "I knew from that first day when I saw you at the top of the hill that you would be mine."
All I could do was blush as I kissed him until Father Ericson had to once again clear his throat…we were meant to be.