A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Stephanie Meyer does.
Chapter 4
"Well Bells, that's everything" Jacob said as he brought the last box of my things inside my apartment.
"Thank you so much for your help Jake, it really means a lot to me." I smiled.
"No problem hun. You can make it up to me by buying me dinner."
"Dinner would be great. What do you feel like having?" Seeing he helped me, I should at least let him choose the restaurant.
"Hmm…. How about we go to this great little steak place downtown? Then we can meet up with Sam at the club right around the corner?" Sam was Jacobs new "boy toy" as he likes to call him.
"Steak sounds good, but I'm not so sure about the club. It's been a while since I've been on the social scene and I'm not sure heavy drinking is a wise idea for me tonight." I was unsure because every time I had a drink with Jacob in the past, we always ended up drunk. And since I was in California, I learned that me, drunk was never a good thing. I've gotten into plenty of situations. The last situation Daphne came to my rescue and helped me out of. That's how we became friends.
"Oh Bells! I'll be there to protect you and to make sure you stay out of trouble." Jacob pleaded while giving me his puppy-dog eyes and his bottom lip jetted out making his adorable pout.
"Jacob, don't give me the pout, you know I can't resist it!" I tried not to look at him, but he was too darn irresistible.
"Then just give in to your wild side tonight and come shake it with me and my sugar. Who knows, maybe we can find you a good time tonight too." He waggled his eye-brows.
"Oh all right. Dinner than the club. Let me go get showered and changed. Be right back."
"I'll be right here waiting!" he called out to me as I made my way to my bedroom.
I haven't even bothered to unpack all my clothes from the boxes yet, but I managed to find my old clubbing outfits that Daphne bought me when we would hang out in the clubs in California. I pulled out a pair of dark wash skinny jeans that hugged my ass sinfully, a backless black halter top that had just a string to tie around the middle of my back and one to tie around my neck. I paired it with a pair of high heeled Carlos Santana shoes that my mom bought me for Christmas last year. "Can't go wrong with an awesome guitarist who has fabulous taste in women's footwear," she said.
After my shower, I blow dried my hair and curled it with the hot iron. I left it down, giving it a tussle to create the "sex hair" and I applied my make-up. I kept it light, used a little shimmer and created a smoky look to my eyes then applied mascara. I didn't bother with blush because ever since I was little, I tended to blush furiously every time someone either looked at me a certain way or even just complimented me.
I took a look in the mirror and deemed myself club worthy. My outfit showed off the tattoo that I got after my grandmother, Rose, passed away. It was a rose with angel wings, thorns wrapped around the wings and a flame on top. It represents her personality. The rose was for her name, the wings were because she's an angel, the thorns were because she was always a little bit on the bitchy side, and the flame represented the eternal flame that she will always had. I was really close to her and I miss her terribly.
I grabbed my cell phone, my I.D., my credit card, and my car keys, I learned to carry light when going clubbing. You couldn't leave your purse everywhere in those places and I knew I would give my stuff to Jacob to hold onto for me in his pockets. I headed out to the living room where Jacob was still standing looking out the windows.
"Ahem," I cleared my throat to get his attention.
"Holy smokes Bells! You look amazing! But not as amazing as me though. I'm going to have a hard time keeping the jerks off of you tonight," he stated.
"Thank you and of course you will always look better than me," I replied.
"Ready to go?" he asks.
"Let's get this party started!" I said happily.
Of course we took my 1986 Stingray Corvette convertible. It was my baby and it had class. Phil bought it for me and restored it fully as a college graduation gift. It was a metallic blue with tan interior. I had bought black seat covers, with pink and white flowers at the corners, to protect the leather. I always had a heart for classic cars. My dad bought me my first classic in Forks. It was a red 1956 Chevrolet pickup truck. It was Jacob's father's truck and Jacob rebuilt the engine for me before my dad gave it to me as a welcome home gift. All of my friends hated that truck, but it was my first love.
We pulled into the restaurant and Jacob ushered me inside. It was a beautiful old fashion restaurant. All made out of wood. There was sort of a classy western theme to it and it was dimly lit.
"Hello! Welcome to Steer N' Stine!" said the hostess. She was beautiful. She was a tall blonde with piercing blue eyes that oddly looked familiar to me. I couldn't place where I've seen her before.
"Party for two please," Jacob answered her with a smirk.
She paused for a moment, staring at Jacob intently. Her eyebrows knitted together as if she was trying to do a hard math problem.
"Jacob Black?" she asks.
"Yup that would be me," Jacob replied in a confused tone.
"Oh my gosh! It's me! Lauren Mallory!" she said with excitement.
My eyebrows must have shot up to the ceiling by now. Now I know where I've seen her before. She went to high school with me. She was part of the "Bitch Squad" as we dubbed them back then. I only hoped to God she doesn't recognize me.
"Oh hey Lauren. How've you been?" Jacob asks.
"Oh I've been doing ok, still going to school. Classes are killing me," she replied now taking us to a booth in the corner of the room.
"That's great," he replied casually.
The chatted for a few minutes. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to draw attention to myself. It was no wonder she hadn't recognized me. I've changed since then. I've filled out more and worked out a lot. I've cut my hair and it was a little lighter than it was seeing I lived under the sun in California for four years. Not to mention my balance problem had finally been solved with the help of doing yoga, kickboxing, and some dance classes. If she was here working in Seattle, I could only wonder who else is here. My chance of fleeting my past is growing slim.
Dinner was great. Only light conversation filled the silence and I found it comfortable to be back around my best friend again. I missed being able to just sit and chat with him. We talked about his job and how his relationship is going with Sam. He asked me what I expected out of Seattle now that I've returned to the area.
We walked over to the club, called "Twilight", which was literally behind the restaurant and didn't even have to stand in line. Apparently Jacob knew the bouncer and got us in immediately. Sam was waiting at the bar for us and smiled when he took me in.
I remember Sam growing up. He was always tall for his age. Now he stood just a little taller than Jacob and is built just as well. His black hair was cropped short and his eyes were a muddy brown. His smile made crinkles at the corners of his eyes. He was still as handsome as I remembered.
"Hey Bella!" he yelled over the music while picking me up and twirling me around.
"Hey Sam! Long time no see!" I smiled.
"Well you've been gone an awful long time! It's about time you moved closer to home. We've missed you like crazy!"
He leaned over and gave Jacob a quick kiss on the cheek and turned to the bar to order us our drinks.
"What will you have beautiful?" asked the bartender who smiled at me. He sort of creped me out with his smile. It was so huge and you could see all of his teeth.
"Jack and Coke please," I replied. It was my usual social drink.
"Coming right up," he winked at me. I shuddered in displeasure. He really creped me out.
Once drink was in hand, I was relaxing, leaning against the bar with my eyes closed, listening to the music provided by the disc jockey. My head was bobbing up and down with the time of the bass. One song seamlessly mixed in with a new one. Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" blared through the speakers.
Ugh! What's with Washington? Couldn't they listen to something better than this?
I looked at Jacob and Sam and saw that they were in deep conversation while holding on to each other tightly. I sighed and took a sip of my drink then decided to take a look at the crowed for the first time. There were girls grinding up against the guys in the most shameless ways imaginable. All this reminded me of the time I used to dance with a certain guy like that back in high school. I shook my head to clear that thought out of my head quickly. I can't allow myself to think about him now.
I finally looked to my right and saw a bunch of booths with people sitting at them. I scanned them all trying to see what type of crowd was there and not dancing. All of a sudden I saw a glimpse of strawberry blonde hair. My view was obstructed by the dancers so I shifted to my left a little and what I saw made my blood boil. It was her, Tanya Fucking Denali. The leader of "The Bitch Squad" herself.
I turned away quickly and downed the rest of my drink in one gulp.
What was she doing here? I thought to myself.
Jacob must have known something was wrong because he looked at me with a confused gaze.
"What's wrong Bells? You look a little pissed off now?" he asks.
"Oh it's nothing," I reply.
"Bullshit. If it were nothing you wouldn't be looking like you want to kill something or someone." He knew me so well, even after all these years. He has seen me pissed off more than enough times to know when I got the look in my eyes.
"Really it's nothing. I just saw someone I really did not want to see. Don't worry though, I'm on my best behavior tonight, I promise," I assured him.
He looked me over and decided that I was telling the truth. Although I was, I couldn't help think that if she started trouble first, then I was more than happy to reciprocate the feelings. I can only be good for so long.
I wonder if I walked passed her what would she say or think. Would she recognize me? If she did, would she get in my face and flaunt what she did to me? Would she try to act like we were still friends when clearly we aren't? These are things that were running through my head while I was sipping my drink while trying to zone in on what Sam is saying.
I was pulled out of my thought process when Jacob started to whoop and holler when the song changed to Lady Gaga's "Love Game". He pulled both me and Sam out onto the dance floor.
"I love this song! She is one talented singer who also supports the gay community! What's not to love about Lady Gaga?!" Jacob shouts over the music.
As the song went on, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I noticed that a few familiar faces just walked into the club. A tall, long legged, blonde with hair that fell down to the middle of her back in soft curls, with piercing blue eyes was what caught my attention first. She was dressed in a tight red halter dress that showed off her curves just right. It fell at mid thigh on her, and red pumps to match. She looked like a real life Aphrodite. No doubt about it, this was Rosalie Hale. She demands attention from everyone by the way she just walks into the room.
Next to her was a short pixie like woman. Her hair was cropped short above her shoulder. It is dark in color. Her eyes are a beautiful hazel color. She is wearing a nice pink flowing dress that hits just above the knee with black pumps. She looks like she has enough energy to last days on end. I knew her immediately as Alice Cullen, sister of he who shall not be named.
Coming in behind them I can see their significant others, Emmett and Jasper. Emmett is his and Alice's brother. He's tall, muscular, brown curly hair, blue eyed, and when he smiles wide, his dimples on his cheeks show. He may look mean, but he's really a big, oversized, teddy bear. Emmett is dating Rosalie, and doesn't mind guys coming on to her because he knows Rose can fend for herself.
Jasper is Alice's boyfriend. He's tall and lanky. He has semi-long, blonde, curly hair and piercing blue eyes. He is the total opposite of Alice. Where she is energetic, he is calm and collective. Jasper is also Rosalie's twin brother.
As they walk by, I can hear part of their conversation.
"I swear that's her car! Who else would have a license plate that reads "IMSwan"?" Alice hisses at Rosalie.
"Alice, it's been four years, she hasn't even been back to see her father. That's not her car because lets face it, she's not coming back," Rose hisses back at Alice.
Crap! The license plate on the Corvette. I forgot it says "IMSwan"
I ran to the bar and ordered a shot of patron. Jacob and Sam follow me, after he sees the group, to see if I'm ok. I just assure him that I'm fine.
I don't see him with them so I'm assuming that he's not coming so I relax just a little. Turn towards Jacob and Sam and try to listen in on their conversation when all of a sudden I feel an all to familiar electric current in the air. My heart speeds up and begins to beat out a tattoo in my chest. I tried to ignore it but I soon give into the urge to look at him.
What I saw was breath-taking. The teen-aged boy I loved looks like a walking, living, breathing, Greek God. His bronze hair was in it's usual disarray. It looks like it's due for a cut. His jaw was strong and his nose was perfectly straight. I dare not look at his eyes because if I do, I'd become lost. Instead I focus on the rest of his body. I realize that he obviously works out because even though he's thin, you can clearly see the definition of his biceps and chest through his shirt. He's not as buff as Emmett, but he's not as lanky as Jasper. He's wearing dark wash jeans with a blue button down, long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbow.
I finally decided to look into his eyes and immediately lost my breath, as well as myself, with what I saw. His eyes are the same jade green that I remember. They are so expressive that I could look into them and know what he's thinking or feeling without him saying anything.
Like he can feel my gaze upon him, he quickly turns his head in my direction and we lock eyes. I quickly looked away and unsuccessfully fought the blush that was creeping up. I quickly flagged down the bartender and ordered another double shot of Patron and downed it without the salt or lime. I welcome the burn as it races down my throat.
The music changed to Hinder's "Use Me" and I immediately started to sway to it. Hinder is one of my favorite bands to party to in college. I pulled both Jacob and Sam to the dance floor and started to dance with them. With Jacob in front of me and Sam behind me, we started to bump and grind.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Edward watching with a confused look because he didn't recognize me, or if he did, he couldn't understand why I was back. I continued to dance with the boys until I saw Tanya make her way across the club towards Edward and jealousy flared within me.
She leans into his ear and starts whispering something to him. And I started to see red. She now has his attention. Something in me stirred and made me think irrationally. I want him to look at me and see what he's missing. I wanted to hurt him like he hurt me. I quickly started to think of a plan to get his attention back. I decided to do something I used to do in California with my girlfriends when we wanted attention.
I noticed that behind Edward, on the bar, was a poll that went to the ceiling. I quickly went up to the D.J. and requested a certain song that I knew would work out perfectly with what I had in mind. Then I went over to the bartender and asked if I could do a little dance on the bar to get a certain guy's attention. The bartender was all to egar to let me. Creep!
The music changed to Britney Spears and Lil' Wayne's "Bad Girl" and I climbed on to the bar. Singing to the song, I sauntered over to where Edward was as sexily as I could. Once I was where I wanted to be, I started to work the poll as if I was a stripper, minus taking off my clothes. I made eye contact with him and winked before I climbed up the poll and hung upside down and held on with my legs, letting my hands roam my body. His eyes were huge and he had a big smile on his face.
The look on Tanya's face was fury. She was fucking livid because I was flirting with Edward and obviously gained his attention away from her. As soon as the song ended, everyone broke out in applause.
Emmett, who thankfully didn't recognize me, held out his hand and helped me down off of the bar. He gave me a huge smile and I blushed.
"One hell of a performance!" he shouts.
"Thank you," was the only thing I can think of to answer him.
"You sure got my brother adjusting himself," he snickered as we noticed Edward sticking his hands into his pockets and not so subtley adjusting his pants.
I blushed further.
I can hear Tanya over the music yelling at Edward about what took place and how he reacted to it.
"What the hell was that about Edward? Who the hell is she and why was she flirting with you? Why can't you ever look like that at me?" She shrieks.
"I don't know who she is or why she did that but I do know one thing, I will never look that way towards you especially after you ruined my life!" He shouts at her.
"Oh here we go again! When are you going to realize that she was a whore and SHE ruined your life when SHE slept with HIM? I was only trying to be there for you and to give you what you deserve!" She retorted.
At this point I was pissed. How dare she talk shit about me. But wait, were they talking about me? It's been four years. They could be talking about anyone. After all, I didn't sleep with anyone while dating Edward. He was my first and only at the time.
"Bella and I could have worked it all out! You didn't have to try to comfort me by dragging me upstairs away from everyone and trying to climb all over me like a bitch in heat!" he argued.
Okay! I've had enough. They were talking about me.
"You think you could have worked it out?" she asked incredulously. "Once a whore always a whore."
At that point I hit my breaking point. I turned around and got in her face.
"Who the hell do you think you are talking shit like that?" I growled.
"What's it to you? You should mind your own fucking business. This has nothing to do with you," she retorted.
Oh this is classic. She doesn't even recognize me.
"Let me put it this way, bitch. You better shut your mouth before I shut it for you." I seethed.
"And you better back the fuck off." At this point Jessica and Lauren walked up right behind her and crossed their arms over their chests. Like they are going to back her up. I smiled and took a step closer to Tanya to let her know I was not backing down.
"What are you going to do about it if I don't?" I asked.
"Step outside and you'll find out."
"You think your bitch squad will protect you from me? You're even more of a pussy if you can't stand up to me by yourself."
At that point the look of realization hit her.
"Bitch squad? Where the fuck have I heard that before?" she asks.
"I'm pretty sure a lot of people have used that name when they see you and your bitches around. But let me tell you this, if you want to make threats and promises, you better make good on them. I'm not a patient person."
She took another step towards me where we were nose to nose when Jacob and Sam came over to break us up. Jacob grabbed me from behind while Sam stepped in front of Tanya and pushed her back gently.
"Come on Bells, she's not worth the effort," Jake murmured in my ear low enough where no one else could hear him.
I stepped out of his arms and walked over to the bar still pissed off. Flagging the bartender down yet again, I ordered a shot of Jameson and quickly downed it. Glancing over my left shoulder I noticed Tanya and her friends make their way back over to the other side of the club while Tanya glanced at me with a dirty look.
Edward stepped up to my left side and decided to talk to me. I didn't really care for friendly conversation so I kept my answers simple.
"So, uh… that was some show you put on up on the bar there. Was it all for me or for the hell of it?" he asked.
"Don't let you ego get too big. I just did it to piss that bitch off," I retorted.
"Well it worked. What's your problem with her anyways?" he asked.
I scoffed.
"Seriously? You really have to ask?" I asked with a chuckle.
"Come on, tell me."
I looked in his eyes and could see that he was really interested.
"Fine. She stole my boyfriend at one point in time."
His brow furrowed.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Now if you'll excuse me. I'm going to start heading home."
"Wait!" he called after me.
I stopped and turned to look at him. He took 2 steps towards me and stopped.
"Could you at least tell me your name so I'm not up all night trying not to call my worst enemy for information about you? Seeing you two seem like you know each other," he asked.
"In your dreams buddy. And just an FYI. Jake would never kiss and tell. Not unless he values his life," I scoffed.
With that I walked over to Jacob and Sam to let them know I'm going home. We hugged and said our goodnights with promises to call each other tomorrow. I walked out of the club and to my car with my head held high. It wasn't until I got into my car that I let the tears, which I was holding back, fall. I realized that I am still in love with Edward Cullen. And he doesn't even know who I am anymore.
