Summer Girl

Chapter Three

I stood in the lobby of my apartment building, staring apprehensively at the doors. Somewhere out on the street, Edward was waiting for me.

The question was, did I really want to sit in his limo with him all the way to Constance? He was bound to want to talk to me, and I didn't want to talk to him at all. Hence, the ride would be pointless except in delivering me safely to the school, which could happen anyway. It was already too late to walk, but I had my own limo, God damn it.

So I have no idea what possessed me to walk out onto the sidewalk, yet I did.

And there he was, looking just like the first time I'd seen him in Manhattan, complete with the St. Jude's uniform with his thumbs tucked neatly into the pockets of the blazer and the lean against the limo. He was even looking around for someone—me this time, I realized.

I sighed and walked over to him. His eyes lit up when he saw me and he smiled broadly. "Good morning," he said, opening the limo door for me.

"It's never a good morning when it involves you," I mumbled, getting into the limo, followed closely by Edward.

"What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing."

The door shut behind us and we began to move. It was at least a thirty minute drive to Constance and I was going to have to listen to him try to talk to me the entire way—or was I? I peered at Edward cautiously to see him gazing casually out the window. He lazily turned his head toward me and smiled, no doubt planning to say something now. No, please don't do it, please don't do it...

"So," –no, he did it! Why me?—"I expected you not to show up. What made you change your mind about me?"

"What makes you think I've changed my mind?" I snapped. God, he was annoying me already.

"You showed up," he explained, seemingly unfazed by my attitude. "That indicates some sort of change, at least."

I huffed and stared straight ahead, ignoring him. He was silent for a moment before saying quietly, "Why didn't you come last night?"

I started to shift my eyes around nervously, turning to look out the window. That was definitely a question I did not want to answer. "Oh, um..." I tried to stall for time. "Er... oh, look at that!" I pointed out the window. He slid down the leather seat and peered out of my side of the car.

"I don't see anything."

"Well, we must have driven past it already..." I glanced out the window theatrically. "Yeah, it's gone." It was only then that I noticed how much closer he was to me. His knees were almost touching mine; if either of us moved a centimetre, they would be touching. Maybe that wasn't such a good plan...

Edward had an apprehensive look on his face as he stared at me. "Are you—"

"What's your favourite colour?" I interrupted.

"Blue," he answered, looking more confused now. "Bella—"

"Oh, blue's nice. I like the colour blue too. It's the colour of the ocean, and the sky, and..." I trailed off, unable to think of something else blue quickly.

"Dumpsters?" Edward added, frowning.

I blinked. "Not exactly what I was thinking, but okay..." He shrugged and shot me a mind-wiping grin. I continued to blink as if that would bring my coherent thought back.

"Bella, why is it that you keep trying to avoid the question?"

"Do you like M&M's?" I asked, completely ignoring him.

"Only the red ones. Bella, shut up and listen to me." He was starting to get annoyed now. Good, he's been annoying me ever since he showed up here. But I had to admit that I was running out of things to distract him with—or rather, he was getting too pissed to distract.

"Isn't liking the red ones more of a Smarties thing? Since you're supposed to be eating them last or whatever, you know. And besides, all the different colours of M&M's taste the same anyway, so I don't see—" My blabbering was cut short by the loud smack of Edward's fist on the seat beside him.

"God damn it, Bella, shut up."

"There's no reason to be harming the poor limo," I reasoned.

He glared at me. "There wouldn't be a reason to if you'd just answer my question," he hissed.

"Well, um..." Shit, I had no way out of this one... except... "I think I'll walk from here," I said hastily, throwing the limo door open and jumping out. I slammed the door behind me and weaved through the traffic parked at the red light to the sidewalk. I reached it just as the light turned green again and the vehicles all began to move. I sighed in relief. That car ride was obviously not a good idea from the start.

I started to walk down the sidewalk, checking my watch to see that traffic had been moving pretty swiftly, which meant that I was almost all the way to Constance—though I had better walk pretty fucking fast if I didn't want to be late.

I made it to my first period English class with only a moment to spare, sliding into my seat just as the bell rang. I breathed yet another sigh of relief.

"All right, class," Mr. Mason said. "I need all of your papers on my desk right now or you're getting a zero grade."

There was a flurry of movement in the room as everyone started to crowd around, trying to get to the desk to put down their papers. I sat stock still, not moving an inch.

I had left my bag in Edward's limo.

And the assignment had been in it.

It was worth thirty percent of this term's English mark.

I was screwed.

"Has everyone handed in their paper? Last call," Mr. Mason waved the stack of papers at the room. I buried my head in my hands. How could this be happening to me?

I heard the door swing open with a bang, and I looked up to see Edward striding toward me with a grim look on his face, holding my brown Prada bag. Everyone in the class erupted in whispers, staring at him making his way across the room. Mr. Mason tried to intercept him halfway, but Edward ignored him, continuing on his direct path. When he reached me he flashed me a huge smile and held the bag out to me. I took it from him, still stunned by his entrance.

And with that, he turned around and walked right back the way he'd come, closing the door behind him gently. I blinked, and then hastily dug in my bag, pulling out the paper. I got up, mumbling, "Um, I've still got to hand in my paper," and walking over to Mr. Mason, handing it to him and high-tailing it back to my seat.

"Miss Swan," he called out as I sat down again, "I trust this won't happen again?"

I blushed. "No, sir, it won't."

"Glad to hear it," he said, tucking the stack of papers into his briefcase. "If you have not handed in your paper, you officially have a zero percent mark. Now, let's begin..." He turned to the blackboard, still chattering away. I tuned him out, thinking instead of how Edward had come to my rescue.

Through the rest of the day, it seemed as if all anyone talked about was Edward, Edward, Edward. Every corner I turned there was another bunch of girls, whispering and giggling. It annoyed me to no end, but I also learned a lot of shit I may or may not have wanted to know about Edward, such as the fact that he was really smart, apparently, and he was shy around the other guys at St. Jude's. One girl complained that when she'd tried to talk to him he'd just brushed by her without saying anything. Many other girls empathized, but I wished I could be the one he just brushed by without saying a word to.

I didn't know what possessed Edward to want to talk to me so badly. As we'd said before our night even began, we were never going to see each other again, and thus there would be no need to discuss it with anyone, anywhere. To me, that included between us. Part one of that deal had been broken, but that didn't mean part two wasn't still in place. I didn't want to talk about it, even with him. I wanted to know why the hell he was here, of course, but the rumours were not worth hanging around him—I didn't want to know that badly. Jake and I had faced the summer and put it behind us; it was just too bad that part of the summer kept showing up in front of me, where I did not want him.

I sat on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and pulled out my iPhone. I suddenly felt guilty for barely even thinking of Jacob today, so I'd decided to call him and see how he was doing, maybe even if he was up for visitors. A little chicken soup and couch time was sure to cure him in no time.

He picked up on the second ring with a raspy "Hey."

"Hey Jake. How're ya feeling?"

He groaned. "Terrible. But I bet you could make it better," he hinted.

I smiled into the phone. "So you're up for visitors? Not too terribly contagious?"

"Oh... I probably am contagious. Maybe you should stay away." I could tell from his tone of voice that he was only half serious.

"And this only just occurred to you? No, I'm coming over with movies and soup. See you soon."

"Thanks, Bells. You know I love you."

"No problem. Love you too." I ended the call and got up from my perch on the steps, heading for the nearest Blockbuster. Once there, I headed straight for the horror movie section—I knew it would cheer Jake up to make fun of the bad staging and props. When I had finished renting the movies, I started for a bakery in the direction of Jake's house that I'd never been to before. I'd heard it was good, though, so I figured now was as good a time as ever to go check it out.

The little bell on the door tinkled when I walked in, and I smiled nostalgically. Automatic doors didn't make that sound, so it was something I associated with small businesses like this one, the kind I'd always loved.

But this time, as I walked through the door, I was met not with the sight of friendly little rows upon rows of baked goods, but Edward, tapping his fingers idly on the countertop as he no doubt waited for his order. I froze, debating whether or not to dash back out the door. I debated a moment too long—Edward turned around and spotted me.

He's not really the stalker here, now is he? A little voice in my mind murmured at me. I firmly told it to shut up, noted that I was going insane, and walked unsteadily up to the counter.

"Hello, Bella," Edward said.

"Hi," I replied, staring at the countertop. The guy working the counter came over and I ordered chicken noodle soup and some doughnuts. When I had paid and the guy had run off, Edward spoke again.

"What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"Oh, um, just taking Jake some soup and such." I fidgeted with the plastic bag that held the rented movies.

"That's nice of you. It's nice of you to actually answer my questions, too, I wasn't expecting that one."

"Well maybe you should just not expect anything! It sure would be more helpful in our current predicament!"

"And what predicament is that?"

"The one where you keep showing up where I am and attempting to talk to me about things best left buried. You made friends with Jacob—what's that supposed to mean? Using him to get to me is a bit low, don't you think? What are you going to do when someone asks Jake why he's hanging out with the person I cheated on him with? And don't even get me started on the reason you're even here at all!" I fumed, my voice growing louder with every word.

"I told you that I wanted to explain, but you didn't show up," Edward pointed out. I nearly growled.

"Do you know how stupid it would be for us to be seen together? Practically everyone but Jake follows Gossip Girl. You're only lucky you were able to get to him."

Edward looked genuinely sorry for a moment before he opened his mouth again. "I didn't mean to disrupt your life, you know. It's not my fault."

I slapped him. It was just absurd to me that he could even think like that. If he didn't want to disrupt my life, he sure could try a little harder. "Your own actions are always your fault," I spat, grabbing my paper bag off the counter and stalking out of the bakery.

I waved the hand I'd hit Edward with in the air as I walked, blowing on it. It fucking stung, but it had been worth it.

I managed to enter Jake's apartment relatively calm, though I was still a bit pissed off. Jake got up from the couch when he saw me and came over to hug me. I hugged him back awkwardly. That was strange—awkward had never been a word you could describe Jake and me with.

"I missed you," Jake murmured into my hair.

I pushed him away gently. "You missed me? It hasn't even been a day!" I didn't know why I was reacting like this, normally I'd consider that something amazingly sweet to say.

Jake didn't even seemed fazed by my tone of voice, just shrugging and saying, "You are my life, you know." His eyes travelled down my body, coming to rest on the bags in my hand. "What'd you bring?"

I motioned for him to sit back down on the couch. He obeyed, stretching himself out so that he took up the entire couch. I rolled my eyes and sat on the space in front of him, taking the movies out of their bag and handing them to him. He nodded approvingly and set them down beside himself on the couch, eyeing the soup that was now in my hands.

"That for me?" he asked.

I nodded. "Obviously." I handed him the styrofoam bowl and a plastic spoon. He dug in, mumbling something about love. I watched him, adjusting my position so that I was leaning against the opposite arm of the couch to him.

He stopped mid-spoonful and asked, "Are you going to put the movie in?"

"Yeah, I guess I will," I replied, getting up and doing so. Everything Jake said seemed to be pissing me off further and I wasn't sure why. I knew he wasn't trying to be controlling, he was just making a suggestion.

I settled back into the couch, sighing, and pulled one of the doughnuts out of the paper bag. Jacob immediately set his soup aside and said perkily, "Got one of those for me?"

"No, Jacob, I'm going to eat them both." I'd meant to say it in a joking tone, but it came across more annoyed than anything.

Jacob winced. "Really?"

"No," I said, instantly feeling sorry. "But you should finish your soup first."

He sighed and went back to his soup, occasionally snorting into it and pointing out some particularly stupid looking graphic on the screen. I only nodded where normally I would have laughed, still brooding over the situation with Edward.

"Toss me the bag, will you?" Jake asked when he was done the soup. I obliged, staring at the TV screen as I did so. Jake caught it and dug his doughnut out, immediately taking a gigantic bite.

"You keep eating it like that and it'll be gone before you know it," I pointed out.

Jake frowned. "Bella, what's wrong with you today?"

I instantly became defensive. "Nothing's wrong with me. I just... I need to go home. Feel better, okay?" I got up off the couch and grabbed my bag, pecking Jacob on the forehead and heading for the door.

Jake sat up and twisted around so that he could see me. "What the hell, Bella?" he asked, confused.

But I was already letting the door shut behind me.


Favourite line(s)? :)