Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight
The seconds seemed to slowly trickle by as I stared impatiently at the clock. Come on, come on! Get there! Get there! Get to that 3:45 mark!
I couldn't wait till Spring Break, which meant more time with Edward and less time with Charlie getting annoyed that I was spending an insane amount of time with the Cullens. And that also meant no making Charlie dinner; he was spending the time over at Billy's.
"Bella, you look tense," A cool hand grasped mine in a light, yet firm grip, "Are you okay?"
I turned and smiled at Edward. He smiled back, stroking his thumb against my knuckles.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just ready for school to be out." I sighed, and then shifted my eyes back to the clock. Just a few more seconds! Come on!
Edward's light, velvet chuckle made me soften even more, "Bella, relax, please?" He asked, and I tried.
The bell sounded, and we all cheered, standing up.
"Okay, class, have a nice Spring Break, and I'll see you all in two weeks!" Mr. Banner announced, clapping his hands together in excitement as we all pushed and shoved out of the classroom doorway.
"Hey! Watch where you're going Newton." Austin spat at Mike, who immediately moved out of the way. I knew that Mike was too chicken to go after Austin, captain of the small town's football team.
"Move it!" Another guy, I think by the name of Jared yelled at someone.
"Bella!" It was Angela, "Bella, Bella, Bella! Aren't you so happy that it's Spring Break?" She asked as Edward dragged me out of biology class, his hand still attached to mine as if it lived there. I wish it would. He let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist.
"Yeah, Angela, I actually am. That means less time at school, and more time…at home." I mean to say 'with Edward' but I felt that that may be pushing it with Angela. I was sure that she wanted to do something together, and I would looked forward to it, really I would, but it wouldn't be how I'd want to spend my Spring Break: away from Edward.
"Edward!" Alice's voice broke me out of my talk with Angela, and she ran up to us.
She looked frazzled, completely disorganized, and as if she hadn't slept for days.
She hasn't slept for centuries, but that was beside the point.
She looked awful.
"Alice, what's wrong?" I asked her, and Edward tightened his grip on waist.
"Alice!" Edward scolded, his tone low, but deadly and velvet, "I thought it was something important, Alice. That is not important! You're fretting over that?"
"Yes!" She moaned, dropping her designer bag onto the ground.
Alice never did something like that; she never dropped her designer, Louis Vuitton bag onto the ground.
"What happened?" I murmured in Edward's ear as she bent down to pick it up as well as the 'props', books, pencils, paper, which seemed to be filled pretty nicely, and money off of the ground.
"She had a vision." He stated, simply, and it must not have been bad; Edward's face did not reflect any signs of nervousness or anxiousness.
"About what?" I asked.
"About Jasper turning her down."
"Turning her down about what?" I asked, confused. What would Jasper turn her down for? What could Alice possibly ask that Jasper would turn down?
"She wanted to sleep with him tonight."
"Vampires can't sleep." I pointed out, and he laughed.
"Bella, Bella, Bella, you are so innocent." He gave me a crooked smile, and I pouted as he dragged me towards his car.
"Are you coming over for dinner?" I asked as he helped me into his car.
"No, I have some things to catch up on with Carlisle, some information I have to share. Basically like an information download session, I guess." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Information download session?" I asked, "I thought you knew everything!"
"I don't know everything, Bella, love." He said, giving me a smile. I smiled back. "Do you want to listen to some music today? We could listen to Debussy." His face turned up into a bigger grin, and I smiled back.
"I'd love to listen to Debussy." I found the CD case, sitting on top in the glove compartment, and opened it up, placing the CD in.
"Clair de Lune." Edward said, and I smiled, nodding my head as I flipped to the track.
"I know, it's our favorite."
We drove in silence the way home, Edward holding onto my hand the whole time as he drove.
The song ended as we reached my house, and he was over at my door in an instant, holding it open for me.
"My lady," He gave me a crooked smile as he reached his hand out to take mine. I smiled, taken it in mine as I stepped out of the car and onto the gravel of my driveway. As he pulled me out of the way so that he could close the door, I glanced over and noticed that Charlie's cruiser was not accompanying my truck and Edward's Volvo in front of my house.
I knitted my eyes together in confusion, but Edward didn't seem to notice as we walked towards the front door of the house, his hand still attached to mine. He opened the door up too and looked around.
"Charlie's not here." Edward stated, surprise definite in his voice.
"I don't know why." I was being honest as I let go of Edward's hand and started towards the kitchen. Propped up against the microwave was a small, white note with a familiar scrawl on it.
Bella It said, and I picked it up, opening up the uneven fold that my Dad had made.
Got a little duty in the forest today, a bunch of jokers trying to set off fireworks, they've already burned down a couple of trees and wrecked their car, a VW Rabbit. Don't bother making me dinner, I'll just get Jim to pick something up for me later, hope you had a good day! I won't, I'll have to arrest these kids. I don't want to do it, but they're disturbing us as much as those wolves did!
-Charlie
A VW Rabbit?
Jacob?
I dropped the note, my hands shaking.
"Love, what's wrong?" Edward's velvet voice broke through my nervousness, and I found myself dropping to the ground with a plop. He bent down next to me and placed his hands on either sides of my face. "Love, love." He said, "Bella Swan, talk to me, please. What's wrong?"
I wasn't even aware of Edward talking, his lips just kept moving.
The only thing that was on my mind was Jacob getting arrested. I could almost guess that the rest of the pack was there too, but why would they be setting off fireworks? And why did they have to be so stupid? Did I do something? I could almost see the expression on Charlie's face when he finally recognized the teenagers. It would be Jake and probably Embry and Quil too. I could almost picture it now; Charlie's disgusted, okay, maybe not disgusted, probably shocked expression as he placed the handcuffs on the three boys, shoving them into his cruiser.
Jacob, Jacob, how could he do this? How could he do this to me? Was he still trying to get me into more trouble for the motorcycle incident? I was already on house arrest, what else could Charlie do to me? But why would Jacob be out there in the woods setting off fireworks? Had he run into Victoria, hoping that the fireworks would create such a spark and commotion that she would either run away, or they would hit her?
I could feel myself pale, emotional and physically. I felt that I wasn't in this world. Instead I felt that I was in limbo between life and death. Everything was blurry, and my heart seemed to be pounding out of my chest. My breathing stopped, at least, I think it did, and I only became aware when cold, ice cold lips touched my cheek.
And then, like a light switch, everything came zooming back towards me, my vision, my hearing, and my breathing.
I was lying on the ground, my back was slumped against the cabinet of my kitchen, and my legs were sprawled all over the tile floor. Edward was bent in front of me and was kissing my cheek.
"Bella, Bella, Bella," He breathed in between kisses. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his face towards mine, kissing him on the lips. He broke off as I tried to get my tongue in his mouth, and he looked down at the ground, controlling himself, I believed, and then he looked back up at me, staring right into my eyes.
It seemed as if he was trying to see right into my very soul. He probably could, too, if he wanted to. He probably was, in fact, right now.
"What happened? Do you not want to talk about it? Where's Charlie, is he all right?" Edward asked, concern thriving in his words as they rolled off his tongue with ease.
"Charlie's fine. But he won't be fine when he finds out who's setting off fireworks in the woods."
"So that's what Alice was thinking about." He murmured, looking down at the ground and running a hand through his beautiful, reddish-brown hair.
"Excuse me?" I asked, annoyed. Had Edward told me a fake vision?
He gave me a crooked smile as he looked up at me, "Alice had a vision that the woods were on fire, but I didn't know it was because of the fireworks." He watched my face turn into an angry scowl. He lied to me! My face changed to an annoyed pout, and he ran the back of his hand across my left cheek sending a tingle up and down my body, "Sorry I lied to you, love. Truly, I am."
"It's Quil, Embry, and Jacob who are setting off the fireworks, Edward." I said, my voice low, but no expression or tone was found in my words.
He raised his eyebrows in complete surprise and smirked, "That will be a fun car ride to the police station. Too bad I won't be there to see Jacob get arrested." He smiled, and I slapped his arm. It didn't hurt him, but it definitely hurt me.
"That's not funny!" I commanded.
"Sorry, love." He smiled again, and I wrapped my arms around him.
"I love you." I sighed.
"I love you too, Bella Swan."
I kissed his cheek and he buried his face into my hair.
Edward and I eventually made it up to my bedroom, and Edward left, realizing he was late for his 'information download' session with Carlisle. It was about an hour or two before Charlie came back home, exhausted, mumbling on about how disappointed he was with Jacob and his fireworks stunt. I didn't say anything, but they have to keep his car at the police station until he's released. He's a minor, so he couldn't go to prison, and I could feel my mind and heart relax like a too tight belt had just been taken off, allowing me to breathe again. Quil and Embry would join him as the three of the boys would spend the night at the police station. Even in my room, the furthest from the kitchen, I could hear Charlie's voice yelling into the phone at Billy Black, who obviously didn't care that his son had just destroyed half of the Forks/La Push forest. He didn't even say goodnight to me, he was so angry, and he slammed the door to his bedroom so loudly that even I was startled.
Edward should be coming back soon, and I couldn't wait for his arrival. I could hear the water running for Charlie's shower, and the phone rang just as he turned it on.
"Bella?" he called, "Could you get that for me? I'm sort of…not decent!"
"Sure, Dad!" I called back, and then ran down the stairs to get the phone. "Hello?" I asked, out of breath.
"Bella!" It was Edward. I could hear my heart beat accelerate. This was not good. He didn't come over to tell me whatever it was he wanted to tell me.
"Edward! Hey, you…you're still coming over tonight, right?" I asked, keeping my voice down just in case Charlie could hear me in his shower. I doubted it, but I didn't want to take my chances.
"No," His tone was as if he didn't want to say what he did, "I'm sorry, I can't. I've got a couple of things to catch up on. But I'm sorry, Bella. Please, don't come over here. Alice will be watching you."
"Alice is coming over?" I asked, and I could hear him shake his head.
"No, Bella. She'll be watching you. In her visions." He groaned, "I'm sorry, love, but I have to go. Goodnight, and sleep dreams. I love you."
"I love you…" I heard a click of the phone and a dial tone came up, "…too?" I brought the phone away from my ear and stared at it, completely confused.
Edward just hung up on me?
Edward's POV
I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Alice sat, leaning over the daily crossword puzzle in the New York Times.
"Species of Chewbacca. Wookiee! Duh!" Alice thought, smiling, "Okay, so that was 52 down…W-O-O-K-"
I slammed the papers that I had in my hands over her puzzle, and she looked startled, looking up at my face and then back down at the information on the page.
It was eight first class tickets for London flying out of Seattle on Sunday, and five star, presidential suite hotel reservations as well as car rental confirmation forms.
She skimmed over the sheets, completely confused, shoving each one out of the way.
"London?" She asked, looking up at me, "London, England?" She asked, her eyebrows raising at England.
"We're going there for Spring Break. As fast as we can. Now." I could tell that my voice was turning into a growl, and I didn't care. The faster that I could get Bella out of Forks, the better. Victoria was not going to get her. She wasn't even going to think about placing a finger on her beautiful body without getting what was coming to her.
Bella needed to get out of Forks, and she needed to be unaware of why we needed to get out, fast.
"Why?" She asked.
"You're the psychic." I sneered, "You tell me." And with that, I snatched the papers back up, startling her again, and then stormed out of the kitchen, leaving her bewildered.