Bella and the Bum
By SDFreeze…Sandi
Chapter 2
Edward lives life on his own terms and meets a woman who needs to learn what life is really all about. They make a deal to spend a day in each other's world. Someone will have to change if they want a relationship, but each one is certain their way is best. Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight Characters.
This story will deal with some mature themes with regard to abuse. If this is a trigger for you, you may want to read THE CUBE instead.
2
I woke up and stretched my body before climbing off the floor and making my way over to my fridge. I got some milk and made a pot of oatmeal for breakfast. The storm had moved in and it was raining hard. I would have to ride the monorail to play today.
I made my way to the ticket booth and bought several tokens for the day. I climbed on board and moved to the very back car. I sat on the top of the seat with my back against the train car. I played softly until people began to filter to the back of the train, then I added vocals and played louder.
I got several rounds of applause, which meant more to me than the offered change. As the train passed over my usual corner I saw Snapper waiting there with irritation. She was smoking and glancing up and down the street. I jumped off at the next stop and rushed to my corner. She saw me coming and angrily threw down her cigarette.
"Explain," she demanded.
"Okay, particles from space erupted into a big explosion forming a …."
"Who the hell are you?" she interrupted me, obviously not interested in how the universe was formed.
I smiled and she only grew angrier. "I'm Edward Cullen," I finally admitted.
She laughed and took a step back, then laughed again and looked around like she wanted to share the joke with someone else.
"No you're not," she said softly, and suddenly wouldn't look me in the eye anymore.
I pulled out my worn wallet and looked at my license. "Yep, I'm him alright," I announced.
She stepped forward again and grabbed it out of my hands. She not only looked at my identification but she opened the slot to look at the cash I had inside. Maybe she planned on robbing me and I had been taken in by her pretty face.
"All you have to do is ask and I'll give you some cash," I said honestly.
She threw the wallet at me, hitting me in the chest, an odd thing to do for a woman building a shelter to stop domestic abuse.
"Is this some Howard Hughes, pay it forward kind of shit you're pulling here?"
I laughed loudly at her reference. I wasn't afraid of germs like Hughes was, and I certainly didn't have a debt to repay. I was simply a man of means filling a need in the community. It was her trying to make it into something sinister.
"Are you laughing at me?" she asked, appalled.
I leaned in a whispered loudly, "You ask as if it would be something new. Don't you get laughed at often in that costume?"
She looked down at her designer suit as if expecting to see she forgot her skirt. She had no idea I meant the farce of trying to appear important just because of a label instead of her actions and ideas. This was too easy and I needed to rein it in a bit. She was hard on the outside, but I sensed something fragile on the inside.
"I'm serious about my offer; if you need a shelter you have one," I said honestly. "No need to throw anymore fancy parties to help the abused, thank God."
"You just don't get it," she said and turned to walk away. It surprised me she would give up so early, I mean, I got off the monorail to fight with her. She didn't seem like a quitter to me. I jogged up to her and noticed how well she balanced on her thin heels. How in the world did women learn to do that?
"I'm a humble man," I admitted vainly. "Enlighten me, what don't I get?"
"We work hard," she said loudly as she turned to lay into me. "We eat and breathe our jobs, so we need to feel like part of the community by giving back. We don't have time so we give back money,"
'No, you don't get it," I said and stepped up closely to show her I was not intimidated by her kick ass personality. "You walk past people and give them your change because you don't want it jingling around in your purse or pocket. You hope it makes us disappear so we don't mess up your pretty city with the sight of us. You are the one in shackles, not us."
I could tell my diatribe kicked up her anger. She was almost shooting steam from her ears when she pointed her finger and me and declared, "Us, you are not part of any us. You are the ring leader of people like me. Where do you get your money from Mr. Cullen? I know all about you."
Her declaration amused me greatly. She knew nothing about me but the dribble she read online.
"What's my favorite color?" I asked, to prove she knew nothing about me. She wasn't amused. Her mouth tightened and her hands pulled into fists. I got the feeling I would be the first resident of my new center for abused people. "Okay, I can't help it if my family has money, I didn't ask to be born a Cullen, but I can damn sure change the course of my life."
"It's a cop out and you know it," she said angrily. "You wouldn't choose to live like this if you had no other options. It is easy to be sanctimonious when you have billions to fall back on."
"This isn't some rich kids attempt at redemption," I said angrily. "These are my values and nothing will change them. I suggest you lighten up and enjoy life, it doesn't last long and regret is a hard pill to swallow."
Yeah, that sounded good. I had no idea if it was true, but it sounded true. I had always been different and walked to the beat of my own drum, or in my case, my own guitar. I hated designer clothing and huge homes with more staff than family. I found my parents associates boring and predictable. The people I met on the street were exciting and so much deeper.
"I enjoy my life," she said, but not nearly as forceful as someone enjoying her life would speak.
"When's the last time you walked barefoot on grass? Or skipped rope? Or made up a poem?"
"I'm a public defender; we don't have time for that. When was the last time you had an abuser locked away or helped a mother get clean and get her children back? Your life is a joke."
"That would make an awesome song," I said, and pulled out my pen and wrote on my hand. She stood there with her mouth hanging open and I totally expected her to walk away. She surprised me, and I liked it. It was unusual coming from a predictable woman.
"Your poor parents," she murmured.
"Yesterday you called me a fornicator of my biological female parent, now you pity her?"
"You are Edward Cullen, act like it," she yelled, and it only proved my point. I was expected to be a certain way because of my name. In reality I was being true to who I was. I loved real life, not the façade so many people created for themselves.
"What's your name?" I asked yet again.
She gave me a wary look and then said softly, "Isabella Swan."
Oh man, were her parents pretentious. I couldn't call her Isabella, it didn't fit. It was like her designer suits, too much for a real person. I decided to call her Bella.
"Bella, let me show you my world for one day. Then you can decide if I'm pretending to be something I'm not," I bargained.
"I don't have time for childish games," she said, but I could tell she was a bit intrigued. Childish games were exactly what she needed, and I would happily oblige. I was the greatest player of childish games.
"One day, anyone can spare one day after getting an entire center funded with just one yacht party," I said, and added my most charming smile, the one that got panties wet and forgiveness for anything.
"Fine, one day. Impress me," she said and held out her arms toward the city center.
"Um…you have to change first. I don't hang out with people dressed like that," I pointed out.
She looked me up and down and then said sarcastically, "I don't have gutter clothes."
She probably expected me to make do with her power suit, but I was prepared. "I have some clothes you can borrow."
She gasped and then added hatefully, "I'm not your size."
I raised my shirt to show a rope holding up my too big jeans. "I'm not my size either, but I have more rope."
I could tell by the look on her face she wasn't about to wear some of my second hand jeans. "I'll go home and change," she said hesitantly.
I decided to take her past Cullen Manor first. She would feel more secure in her suit, then I would teach her life's most important lesson, you can't judge a book by its cover. "Do you want to see my parents' home?" I asked and saw her eyes light up.
"Seriously?"
"Come on," I said and walked to the bus stop.
She looked up at the sign and then shook her head adamantly. "Oh no, I'm not riding a city bus," she demanded.
"I don't have a car and it is too far to walk," I told her.
"I have a car," she said and turned to head back to the parking garage. I didn't complain. I would let her drive to my parents' home and to her place to change, and then I would insist on public transportation.
Because she was predictable her car was predictable too, a black Lexus 350. I went to get in and she spoke over the top of the car. "Are you clean; I mean do you have anything on your pants?"
I think she seriously wanted to know if I urinated or shit my pants. She was mucking up the environment with her gasoline engine but she worried about tainting the leather. I refused to answer, because it was a bit emasculating. I was bohemian, not barbarian.
She drove to my parents' home without needing directions, because everyone in Seattle knew where the Cullen Mansion was. We pulled up to the security gate and I punched in a code. A woman's voice came over the intercom and I leaned over Bella to talk to her. Bella raised her hands and moved back as much as possible so she wouldn't have to touch me. I had an overwhelming desire to lick her, but I refrained.
"Hi Carmen," I said into the speaker. "It's Edward."
"Come to the back door, dear," she answered, with excitement in her voice.
"Who's Carmen?" Bella asked.
"The love of my life," I said with a smile, then gave her directions to the back of the house. We walked through a large courtyard and up some cement stairs when the door flew open and an old portly woman walked out with her arms spread wide.
"Edward, we miss you so much, come in, come in," she said and hugged me tightly with her huge bosom.
"This is Bella," I said, and walked through the large kitchen as Carmen gave Bella a big hug.
I loved the kitchen; it was always warm and filled with amazing smells. Carmen had worked for my family for years and she never kicked me out of the kitchen. I peeked into the hallway and saw my mother's secretary, Tanya.
"You don't have an appointment," she said angrily at me. I could only see my mother by appointment and it was just what I wanted Bella to see.
"She doesn't have five minutes to meet a friend of mine?" I asked, and tried to act contrite. I knew I wouldn't be able to see her, but I pretended to be put out.
"Her schedule is full. You know better than to just show up, what is wrong with you?" Tanya chastised.
I looked at Bella and said, "I'm sorry, my mother is too busy to meet you or to see me." I glanced back at Tanya and asked, "What about my father?"
"You know I have no idea about his schedule, I don't think he is even in town."
I tried to act disappointed as I nodded and then led Bella up a back staircase to a large wooden door. "I'll show you my childhood room," I announced, and opened the door. The furniture was large, dark wooden pieces. The drapes were heavy and blocked any light from the windows.
"It's beautiful," Bella said, and I frowned because she just didn't get it. There was nothing in the room to prove I had ever been there. I spent eighteen years of my life in that room, but it didn't have one single piece of me even though nothing in the room had changed over the years.
"Great how everything matches, isn't it?" I said sarcastically. "Imagine how lucky I was not to have Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers to mess it up."
Bella turned to face me and gave me a disgusted chuckle. "Poor Edward, he was raised in a beautiful mansion but he missed out on the marketing of mass media."
"I bet you had a Barbie," I challenged her.
"No, I had Teresa, her brunette friend," she informed me.
I was stunned; I didn't know Barbie had a friend. I thought she only hung out with Ken, trying to get him to pull the trigger and marry her, but he couldn't because he was gay. I really needed a sister, being an only child left me clueless to so many things.
This is the link for the TWILIGHTED forum for the Cube story. All Sdfreeze story discussions should take place in THE CUBE discussion forum, to keep them together.
http:/www(dot)twilighted(dot)net/forum/viewtopic(dot)php?f=44&t=11931&p=1178902