Playlist: Loser by Beck
Chapter 2
2008
I run my fingers over the chain link fence as I walk, looking to the old field of the closed down elementary school I used to attend. I imagine the voices of children screaming and laughing as they play tag, making friends and memories. Alice and I met there in the third grade when she moved here. We've been inseparable ever since, in the figurative sense, of course.
I make it to my childhood home, sweat dotting my heated skin.
"You've been gone a while," Dad says, pizza box open on the coffee table.
"Yeah, just checking out the old stomping grounds."
"Are you excited?"
I shrug.
"Alice is still coming, right?"
"Yeah, she'll be there. Some of the old gang, too."
"Has it really been ten years since you graduated, Bells?"
"Sure has. It seems like yesterday."
1996
I play foosball across from Edward, making him laugh with my rude commentary about his players wearing lipstick.
"So your parents seriously kicked you out?"
"Yep."
"Right before your senior year?"
"Yep."
"And they only actually caught you once?"
"Yep."
"Pot?"
"Yep."
"Was that all you were doing?"
"No." He says it with a mischievous smile.
"Well, what were you doing?"
"Lots of girls," Emmett barks from across the room where he plays Donkey Kong with Eric. This home is an oasis for teenage boys. It's Carlisle's man lair—movies and video games galore. No one ever gets bored in Alice's home. No one.
Edward grins slyly, catching my eyes. He's flirting. I like it even though I don't like the idea of him 'doing lots of girls' as Emmett put it.
"You really want to know?" Edward asks.
"Yeah. I'm not a little girl anymore."
"You're not?" he asks, like he thinks I am.
"I'm sixteen, Edward. You're not much older."
"Eighteen."
"Liar," Alice yells from across the room, Jasper's arm's slung around her while they sit on the couch playing some sort of card game where you have to be as close to each other as possible. The rest of the sectional is covered in our friends—most of them girls trying to get Edward's attention.
Every Friday after the football game, this is the place to be. Esme decided when we started high school she was ready for laughter in her home again and invited Alice to make her house the party house. At least this way Esme knows where her daughter is and what she's doing, and, most importantly, if she's safe.
"Is that true? Are you a liar?" I score on him. "Ha! You suck!"
"You suck," he counters.
"Liar!" Jasper shouts this time. "Bella doesn't suck. Ask Tyler. Homecoming was a bust."
"I'm gonna kill you," I say, throwing myself over the couch and onto Jasper's lap where I mess up his hair.
Alice scoffs and protects herself, her hands going to her face.
Edward laughs as I continue to scuffle. Jasper throws me off eventually, and I sit on the ottoman joining in their card game, which is a really lame version of blackjack.
Unfortunately, while I play, Edward steals off somewhere, leaving me with a bunch of people I'd rather not be around right now. I just don't click with these people. Then again, I don't want to. My small group of loved ones is all I can handle, and they've proven themselves to me. I don't need anything more.
But Edward? He's interesting, so I want to get to know him. Plus, he is an extension of Alice's family, and therefore, could easily become a part of my life. If he proves himself.
Bored, I head outside to play darts and score an iced root beer. I hope Carlisle's outside nursing his own beer. He always entertains me when I get exhausted by the crowds. He's the same way—likes to socialize but needs a break now and then.
But I don't find Carlisle alone. Edward's with him. On my stool. Playing with my darts. Maybe I don't want to get to know him.
"You're a thief, you know that? Stealing my pseudo-family, my pseudo-dad, my pseudo-chair, my pseudo-darts."
"Your pseudo-heart," Edward quips.
"How old are you? Really?" I ask, standing in front of him so he can't make his shot.
He shakes his head. I look to Carlisle who smiles before bringing the bottle to his lips, taking a drink.
"I'm twenty-one." Dead serious tone.
"And I'm a stripper," I say.
"You let Alice hang out with strippers? Cool." Edward and Carlisle bump knuckles.
"I'd let Alice hang out with Bella any day over you, and you're my nephew," Carlisle says.
"That says a lot about you, Carlisle."
"Yes. It says I have good taste."
"It says you're disloyal." Edward's trying to sound stern, but he's not fooling anyone.
"Disloyal, my ass. I give you a roof and food and teach you my trade, and—"
"You're teaching him engines? I've been begging you for years. You never let me under the hood." My teenage brat comes out every once in a while.
"I've got nudie pictures up in my shop, and crass men work there. Besides, Esme teaches you to cook. We share our skills."
"Nudie pictures don't scare me. I've seen naked women, you know. And I already know how to cook."
"Oh, yeah, those hash browns," Edward starts.
And Carlisle continues. "And her quiche with the mushrooms and spinach."
"You're staying the night, right?" Edward's hopeful to eat my food. Though, I'm hopeful, too. Sometimes we bump into each other at night when I can't sleep.
"Yes," I say, putting my hands on my hips. "No breakfast for you." I turn my back on them and walk away, wrenching open the door.
Just before it closes Edward shouts, "Seventeen."
I laugh.
And I make him quiche in the morning.
-OP-
It's nearing lunchtime, and I should be heading home. Sometimes I feel as though I'm here too much and need to get out of the way. Today is one of those days. No one's said anything, but there's lots of stuff going on. Esme's at the grocery store, Carlisle had a friend over with an emergency truck problem, and Alice left hours ago to go on a date with Jasper. She didn't even say goodbye. It's just me and Edward. Although, Carlisle is just outside.
The idea of heading home to my empty, quiet house is not appealing, so I stick around and find Edward.
He's on the couch watching Pop-up Video and chatting on the phone. "Shut the hell up; you don't even know what you're talking about. No, it's not like that. It's—"
I plop on the couch beside him and lean over his body, my mouth next to the receiver. "It's exactly like that."
He makes a tch sound and throws his hand out wide. "Shut it," he says to the person on the other end and hangs up the phone.
"That was rude," I say, scrunching up my nose. He smiles wide, shaking his head at my antics. I stand and stretch. "Well, it's time for me to head home, I think." Please ask me to stay.
"You got a hot date tonight?"
"Ooh, so hot. With this long, thick, black —"
"Okay, never mind."
"Instrument. I have to practice my clarinet tonight. I'm trying to steal first chair on Monday."
"You will. So why clarinet?"
"My mom played it."
"You tight with her?"
I laugh and sit back down, pulling my legs up and facing him. "No, you? Close with your mom?"
"Nah. Where is your mom? I've only heard Esme and Carlisle talking about your dad."
"Mom left us when I was little."
"I kinda wish my parents would divorce. I think it would be better, you know."
I nod, but I don't know. I wonder what life would be like if Mom had stuck around. Would I feel so different from everyone else? Would I hold people at arm's length? I'll never know.
"My parents don't fight unless they fight over me. Which is never good. I create a lot of tension, I guess," he says.
This is getting pretty real, so I make a joke. "So maybe they should divorce you." I regret it instantly because they sort of have.
"Yeah, life is better without me. That's for sure."
I want to say something to dissuade him from thinking this because I know it's a lie. He gives me something to do, something to look forward to. Hell, he's doing it right now just being here. And unbeknownst to him, making me feel normal. Making me feel validated in my loneliness.
"I dunno what I'm talking about. I just know they seem happier now that I'm gone."
"Yeah, me, too. I mean, with my mom. She was a good mom, but now that I think about it, she was never really happy. She is now. Without me."
"We're a couple of throwaways, huh?"
"You have no idea."
"Wanna get some ice cream?"
"You payin'?"
"It's not a date, Swan." Wow. Rude. Whatever. Ice cream is ice cream.
"Right. Not a date. No sucking necessary. Got it."
He stands and holds out his hand, pulling me up. "There's something wrong with you."
"Ditto," I say and follow him out to his car.
We wave goodbye to Carlisle from the car, driving slowly, smoothly. Once we hit the corner, Edward guns it, making me squeal in delight. He laughs and shares that cocky grin with me—the one I'm learning to love.
Throwaway or not, Edward's fun.
A/N: I'm posting teasers on my blog a day or two after each chapter is posted here. Enjoy!