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Waiting in the Wings II– Comfortable (Chapter II)
Forks High hadn't changed much, I thought.
"You'll have to get this signed and returned to me by the end of the day, Miss Swan," Mrs. Hill, the secretary, said to me with a fake smile on her face. "Alright," I replied in a monotone as I pocketed the slip and turned to leave.
"Teenagers these days," she muttered under her breath. Had I been human, I wouldn't have been in hearing distance. "They're so ungrateful."
Bella, you don't want to get a reputation this early on, do you?
My hand was on the doorknob when I heard his voice. It should not have surprised me at all, seeing as I had been conversing with him for most of the morning. But surprise me it did, and I gripped the knob so hard that I probably left a dent.
Destroy all evidence, Edward said to me. I reshaped the knob into a ball in my hands, or as close as a ball as I could get. I figured that a dented up doorknob wouldn't look too out of place here.
Figuring he was right about the reputation thing, I looked at Mrs. Hill with a forced smile planted on my face. "Thank you, ma'am," I said.
I swiftly exited the office building and sat down on the picnic tables. Nobody had arrived to school yet, which I was grateful for. I needed to speak with Jacob. I pulled out my phone to check the time. I still had about half an hour.
He answered on the first ring.
"Bella?" he whispered.
"Hi, Jake," I whispered back. After a moment of awkward silence, I had to ask. "Why are we whispering?"
He chuckled. "Addie is still asleep."
"Oh... okay. Wait… What do you mean she's still asleep? Jake, you have to get her up. She's got to go to school, and her attendance secretary told me the other day that she's been late too many times already."
"She doesn't have school today. Teacher meetings and all that jazz, remember?"
"Oh, right. Well… I just wanted to say thanks. For the house, I mean."
"You're welcome, Bells."
"And… Don't look at the credit card bill for about a year, okay?"
"Okay, well-"
I let out a sigh of relief. He was okay with it.
"Wait, what?" he asked incredulously. "Why?"
Damn.
"I kind of went shopping for furniture yesterday…" I said, trailing off uncomfortably.
"So?" he asked. Obviously he didn't know how much money one could spend buying furniture.
"Never mind," I sighed, exasperated.
"So… how is it back in Forks, Bells? You like it?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "It's okay. How's Monique?"
When he answered, he sounded really and truly happy. "Bella, Mona is the best. She understands me better than I would have expected, and Addie… well, I think she likes her."
"How did she take the fact that you have a daughter?"
"Well, she was pretty peeved at first that I didn't tell her. But after I explained the imprint thing… She really likes her, Bells. And she is trying."
"I believe you. It's just hard to know that I won't be there to make her breakfast any more."
"Bella… I am so sorry, and if I could take it-"
"Jake, stop. Right now. I get it, and I would really just like to not talk about it, if that's okay with you," I insisted.
"Yeah, okay."
There were students in the parking lot now. "Hey, Jake? I gotta go… Tell Adaline I love her."
He was silent for a minute. I heard voices in the background and then Jacob spoke again. "Addie wants to talk to you."
"But Jake-"
He wasn't listening. I heard the handset being transferred over to my daughter and braced myself for what I knew was coming.
"I told you I was going to chew you out, now here I go. Why didn't you take me with you?!" she shouted.
"Hey, honey, I love you."
"Don't change the subject!"
I stayed quiet.
"Mom! Just answer the question already!"
I sighed and avoided the question, answering one that I'm sure she was asking. "You were sleeping, and I didn't want to wake you up."
"Seriously? I am never going to see you again, and you didn't want to wake me up? Jeez mom, I thought you loved me." The last part of the sentence was dripping with sarcasm, so I didn't let that bother me.
"Hey, now. Of course you're going to see me again."
"Oh, yeah like in a year or two. I'm talking about soon! Do you think I actually want to stay here with dad and his new girlfriend when I could be out there with you?" She started rambling on. After the first couple of minutes, I decided it was best that I said something.
"Addie, Angela is going to fly you out to Seattle in two weeks for Spring Break.
"… and he spends all of his time with her and – wait… what? Really, mom? You promise?"
"Yes, hon. I promise," I said, chuckling.
She pretended not to let that faze her.
After a pause, I added, "and be nice to Monique."
"Why should I? She's taking your place and she does everything wrong."
"She can never take my place, Addie," I scolded. "That is up to you alone. And it's only been a few days, darling."
"So that matters? Mom, she put blueberries in my pancakes yesterday morning. Blueberries! Dad didn't even stop her, and he knows that I don't like blueberry pancakes."
"Adaline, as your mother, I demand you give her a chance. She's trying, why can't you?"
"I am trying! She isn't doing anything right!"
I sighed. She was determined to yell at me for something or other. "Addie, I'm sorry, but-"
I stopped speaking abruptly.
"Mom?"
"Hang on a second," I whispered.
From the highway, a shiny silver Volvo came pulling in the parking lot. It smelled like what my room had smelled like upon entering it two days ago: Honey, Lilac, and Sun. No human smelled like that, and I couldn't smell blood. I had to infer that the driver of the Volvo was a Vampire. On the other end, Adaline was rambling on. "Addie, let me call you back." Without waiting for a reply, I hung up on her and pocketed the phone.
Even with my enhanced eyesight, I could not see through the tinted windows. The Volvo had pulled into a parking space some distance from me, but nobody had gotten out. After I had stared at the Volvo for over five minutes and nothing had been revealed to me, I got up from my seat and made my way to the building that I had my first hour class (English) in, all the while thinking.
Who was in the Volvo? I knew that there were many, many vampires out there that I had never met before. I also knew that, in order to be at a high school filled with humans who's necks may or may not be particularly appetizing, whomever was in the Volvo had to have had quite a bit of self control.
A vegetarian vampire, then.
The Cullen's were vegetarians. No, Bella. I chastised myself. They left you, remember?
But it was all that made sense. After all, Tanya's family was the only other family that chose to live the way that I chose to live, and she would have told me if she had suddenly decided to vacate her home in Alaska, wouldn't she?
From the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of bronze hair just outside the door.
After the incident in the forest, I assumed that this was just my imagination again, making up images and pictures of what my mind wanted to see. What it desperately needed to see.
What it would never see again.
I was sick of letting myself get my hopes up. I needed to get on with my life, as much as I didn't want to. What I wanted to do was let my mind do whatever the hell it wanted to do, but I couldn't any more. I needed to let go. I wanted to hold on to his voice, to his memory, like a lifeline, but I couldn't. I felt like I was on the Titanic. As if I knew the Ship of Dreams was sinking, and I was going to die. As much as I wanted to stay alive, it would be better to take a gun to my head. Less painful and drawn out. I needed to get this over with.
I was in the deserted parking lot, so I thought that I would do this out loud.
"Edward."
I waited until I heard him.
Bella..?
I closed my eyes and inhaled, preparing to do the impossible.
"Please, just go away. I can't stand seeing you and hearing you and knowing that I can never have you. I… I love you, Edward, so much. And that's what's killing me. You don't love me, and I can't keep seeing your face and hearing your voice knowing that you are out there, loving somebody else."
"Bella-"
I stifled a gasp at how clear his voice was to my memory all of the sudden. But that did not drive me off course.
"I want you gone. I can't keep wishing you were here, Edward. I just, I can't. So please, please just go away." I had no more energy left. Emotionally, that is. I wished that my knees could give out so I could just collapse right here on the pavement. They weren't going to move on their own accord so I forced them into a crouch and buried my head in my chest and dry sobbed. The only thing that could affect me in this moment was the feel of a silky smooth hand caressing my cheek. Thoughtlessly I looked into the face of my comforter.
I saw Edward's face, although I was sure that it couldn't have been him. My eyes locked with his and we stayed quiet for a few minutes. My eyes bored into his as I looked for any hint of anything other than what I saw on the surface.
And then I realized that his hand was still on my cheek. Without thinking about it, I placed my own on top of his soft, marble-smooth one only to pull back again. I was fully prepared for an ice cold hand that had met my own that first day in biology, but this one was warmer. Not hot, like Jacob's had been, but more natural. Comfortable.
I had to have been dreaming.
My hand was still hovering in the air, two inches from my face. I was still staring at it in shock, and Edward chuckled as he took his hand from my face and placed it in my hand, entwining our fingers together. Finally he broke the silence and whispered, "You don't have to wish anymore, Bella. I'm here."
Review. ;
I'm so sorry I let this one go too long. Writers block on a thirteen year old is tough stuff, and I've had it sitting on my hard drive for a while. After looking at it for the umpteenth time I still wasn't able to change much. Anyway, there was nothing more to it. I'll probably rewrite it later when I'm feeling more in the mood for writing fluff.