Disclaimer: I own nothing; this is all Stephanie's Genius!
I woke up to hear typing and I looked over to see Bella wearing my shirt from last night, typing away on her laptop while sitting up in bed, my head almost directly behind her back so I couldn't see the screen. I spent a blissful minute just watching her. She was so beautiful, hair curling softly from being slept on, skin pale and eerily perfect, and the face of a gorgeous angel.
"What do we do now?" I asked finally. I felt completely over whelmed. She smiled half-heartedly as she turned to look at me.
"I was thinking while you were asleep," she said, smiling. I nodded for her to continue. "I have this whole thing planned. We take a road trip," she said in an unsure voice, watching my eyes to see my reaction. I nodded again for her to continue. "I can take the next year off and in that time we can travel across America! We can drive from here to the East coast and then we'll just make our way around and we end at your parents' house."
I smiled at her. "The only problem I have with that is the fact you have to take a year off of school," I said, sitting up on my elbow. She smiled back at me, but soon her smile faded.
"Your parents?" she said again. I frowned thinking about them. They didn't know about our predicament. "What do we tell them? That we just decided to take a road trip? They wouldn't like that we are taking a year off school, and they would flip if we said that you were . . ." she paused, "if we told them. They wouldn't let us do this," she said.
"I think they don't need to know. We can just wait to tell them near the end. Along with everybody else for the matter. None of them need to worry about me until we've have had our fun for the last time," I told her, taking her hand and kissing the back of it.
She nodded and thought about it the whole time I talked and frowned. "I still think it's cruel to not tell them you're dying, and then we just tell them we are leaving for a year to travel around the country."
"They'll understand," I said, trying to be comforting. My plan was to not tell anyone. I just wanted to live my last year as normally as possible and a road trip with my girlfriend seemed to be the best way to do that.
She still had a worried look on her face, like she still wasn't sure about anything. Who could blame her? I was pretty sure this was normal, but I didn't want to push her into telling talking until she was ready.
"I know, but we need to get to work packing for the trip," she said and she got out of bed in a flurry or movement, running around trying to find the suitcases.
"Love, calm down. You still have finals in two days, why don't you go and study for them. I can pack and schedule all the hotels and stuff. We can talk to my parents another time," I said, trying to calm her down. I hoped she couldn't tell I was trying to put off telling my parents.
She took a deep breath and nodded. I was glad she was calming down. I sighed and got out of bed in search of my boxers and then for the suitcases.
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I came out of our bedroom to find her on the couch, the books all around her, but she wasn't studying. She was curled up. A movie was playing. I watched for a minute and instantly recognized it. The movie was one of the first ones we watched together: The Shop Around the Corner. It's a classic.
I remembered her saying it was completely cheesy, and a total romantic comedy at its worst. I told her it had its good aspects. I like the movie except for the ending. The ending is really not that great.
I sat down by her head, lifting it up and placing it in my lap. She was sound asleep like I expected because she hadn't slept in at least 24 hours. The movie was almost over. It was to the scene where everyone was leaving for Christmas, going home with nice Christmas bonuses, and Klara and Alfred are staying behind, talking about her 'boyfriend'.
I smiled. Our first kiss had been during this film. Presently, I kissed her forehead and she sleepily opened her eyes. She smiled at me, rubbing her eyes. She didn't make a move to sit up or break eye contact with me.
"I had a really bad dream," she sighed, still smiling. I furrowed my brow. What could be worse than this? I knew of nothing.
"What was it?" I asked and I smoothed her hair out over my lap. She kissed my thigh, smiling.
"You got cancer. You were going to leave me," she said. I took a deep breath. What do I tell her? This is normal to be in denial, but how do you get them out of denial? You always hear people talking about how hard people must have it to go into denial, and admittedly they do have it rough, but what about the people who have to get them out of denial? How do I explain to my precious Bella that it wasn't a dream? How do I explain that I was leaving her soon?
"What?" she asked, being much too observant, her eyes still staring into mine as they searched for my thoughts. I guess she saw the pain in my eyes. "It wasn't a dream," she stated, already looking crushed. "I figured it wasn't. It was worth a shot." I nodded, kissed her forehead again and we both looked towards the screen.
Klara and Alfred had their happy ending, kissing each other; finally Klara realized she loved Alfred. She loved him, he loved her back, and it was meant to be.
Are we forgetting something? I feel like we're forgetting something," she said as we hopped into the car.
"I hope not. We packed almost our whole apartment," I joked. She grimaced.
"Maybe we should do a double check?" She said.
"Honey, if we forgot something I'm sure we can just buy it on the road," I said as I backed out of the parking garage. She still had this expression on her face that I knew to be her thinking face. "Love, tell me what you're thinking."
She looked up at me and frowned. "We are forgetting something! I know it!" she said and I could tell she was about to get out of the car for another apartment check. I locked the doors and smiled at her.
Once we were about a mile from the apartment, she took in a deep breath. "Your parents!" She exclaimed. I frowned.
"No, we don't need to tell them," I said.
"Well you don't have to worry about their reaction- you will be gone," her tone changed from persistence to sadness. "I will be left behind and I would like for them to still love me after this." I could tell she was close to tears. I looked over and grabbed her hand.
"Sweetie, you don't have to talk like that. It will only upset you," I said, kissing her palm.
"It's suicide medicine," she answered. I swallowed hard.
"Fine, we can call them," I said, and dropped her hand to grab my cell from my pocket. After flipping it open, I dialed the number and shoved the phone in her hands. She quickly hung up, shutting the phone.
"We can't tell them this over the phone!" She yelled, throwing the phone into my lap. I rolled my eyes.
"Why not? They have to find out some way!" I yelled back the sarcasm coming out a little too much in my voice, hands flying up to accent my point.
"You don't have to do that you know!" She said. "Let's take out our frustration on the girlfriend who is just trying to help!" She said sarcastically.
"Isabella, stop acting like this. We don't need to tell them!" I said.
"Yes, we do! And take the next exit going towards Forks. We need to tell them in person," she said, crossing her arms and sitting back in her seat.
"No, we are heading towards California first," I said, stopping at a stoplight in the town before we entered the main highway. Bella was quiet for a minute, not fighting me.
"Edward," she said suddenly as she pointed across the road, "stop at that gas station, we need to fill up the car for the trip." Her voice was monotone, this conversation clearly over to her.
I sighed and nodded, pulling into the gas station. Once we stopped by the pump, I started to unbuckle and she said, "Can you go inside and get me a diet Coke? I'll fill the car up." She didn't even look me in the eye or wait for my response before she was out of the car and walking towards the pump.
I sighed and nodded again and went inside to get the diet Coke. The line was really long so I had to wait for about ten stupid minutes before paying for the stupid two-dollar Coke, only to come out and find Bella sitting in the driver's seat. I rolled my eyes.
"Bella, I thought we agreed that I was driving," I said as I got into the passenger seat.
"I don't want you to get tired. I feel wide awake for once, so why don't you sleep and I drive, and once I get tired I'll wake you up and we can switch?" she suggested. Frankly, I didn't give a damn, and this was no matter to get into an argument over, so I just nodded and went along with it.
After I reclined my seat, I was out like a light. Immediately.
I felt someone shaking me lightly and I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to push their arms away. I then felt little kisses along my jaw and I opened my eyes quickly to see Bella sitting over me, smiling weakly like she knew I was going to be mad.
I sat up slowly and saw it was almost dark out and we were in a very familiar driveway, in front of a very familiar house. I narrowed my eyes and looked towards Bella who wasn't smiling anymore, but had a completely serious face.
"I called them earlier to tell them we were coming. They said they would make us dinner. We can tell them after dinner," she explained, not looking at me anymore but at the house. I could see the living room and kitchen lights were on, and I could faintly see shadows in the kitchen, moving around making dinner.
"Do they know we're here yet?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
"No."
"Then let's leave," I said, already unbuckling my seat belt, ready to get into the driver's seat.
"No! We drove all this way and we are going to tell them. They raised you! They love you! We are not going to just leave and wait until it's too late," she growled.
I was about to fight back when my mom came running out of the house and towards the car. "Edward! Bella!" she yelled excitedly.
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