this chapter obviously came slower than i wanted it to, since i planned on updating daily. however, i would appreciate any reviews i can get, guys, and thanks for reading! it always excites me when i wake up in the morning to find more people have put my story on alert or left a review. this is my first twilight fic and while i still plan on taking things slow, i'm glad you guys are here with me! :)
The next morning, the first thing I realized was that I was starving. The second thing I realized was that I probably looked disgusting, and it felt like days since I had had a shower. But I didn't want a shower; I wanted a nice, long bath. A nice long hot bath. I decided to get up and do just that, and as soon as I moved, I realized Edward's arms were around me. I also realized I was due at the Cullen's home today to work more on—sigh—wedding plans. There were still tedious things to look over, and while that sounded incredibly dull, it had to be done, and Alice had to get my input on every little thing. I curled up into Edward and kissed his neck.
"What time is it?" I asked him, whispering in his ear. I could feel his face breaking into a smile.
"It's about eight, love." He told me, looking down at me. "You're up earlier than I expected. Alice isn't expecting you for a few hours."
"Mmm," I closed my eyes for a minute. "That's perfect. I need a few hours to myself anyway."
One of Edward's perfect eyebrows went up. "A few hours to yourself?" he asked, his eyes lighting up from confusion.
"I feel disgusting." I told him, and he laughed quietly at that.
"You're far from disgusting, Bella." He murmured, kissing my hair.
"Well, I feel disgusting, and I think I'm going to take a nice, hot bath. So, you can go home and tell Alice—"
His face was hard. "Do you recall what happened last time I left you? We're not taking any chances for a few days."
"Really, Edward," I said dryly, "I think Charlie would get a little angry if we decided to take a bath together—"
He cut me off again. "You're very funny, Bella. No," he stretched out on my bed and closed his eyes, smiling contentedly. "I think I'll just stay right here."
I rolled my eyes and began to slip out of the bed. Before I could go anywhere he pulled me back, holding me against him for a second, playing with a piece of my hair. "You don't have to just leave so unceremoniously, you know." After a while he let got of me, and though I momentarily wanted to crawl back into his arms, I went into the bathroom instead.
I let the hot water run into the tub and paced the bathroom, thinking. Of course, Edward hadn't fought Leah the night before because it would have been an uneven match. Leah was new—Edward probably didn't want to hurt her—he didn't even want to fight Jacob, and look how big he was! He didn't seem mad at me any more, and that was good. Maybe he understood that I had snapped out of my reverie, and I was learning to face the truth. When the tub was full I turned off the water, undressed, and stepped inside.
Immediately, I could feel my nerves calming themselves. The hot water seemed to smooth muscles I hadn't even realized I was tensing. I had a lot of stress on me in the past few days, and I was sure it had been taking a toll on everyone around me as well. Today I would calm down. Today I would get things straight and make things better. Even in my little shelter, I still couldn't think of the wedding positively—but I would get better about that, hopefully. I felt like I drifted into a dreamlike state, my mind drifting off into different places, until I finally felt completely calm. Once I was out of the tub, I put on some old clothes I had brought into the bathroom, and went to find Edward lying on my bed, just as he used to be.
"Your hair smells nice." He said calmly, reaching his arms out for me. I walked toward him instinctively, ready to take my spot back until we had to leave, but Edward suddenly sat up and tensed.
The doorbell rang.
"If I asked you to stay upstairs, you wouldn't do it, would you?" Edward asked calmly, already reaching for the doorknob.
"You know I wouldn't." I replied, right behind him.
Edward, of course, was the first one to get to the door. I didn't know who to expect, though Edward's features were hard—it was obviously not someone he wanted to be face to face with. My heart flitted momentarily, but I couldn't get my hopes up.
However, it was completely unexpected when Sam Uley was standing at my door, looking as if he were tensed for battle himself.
"Sam." Edward said softly, looking as if he was trying his best to be polite. I knew this had to be awkward, Sam very much so disliked the Cullens.
"Hello, Edward." Sam replied, easily keeping his calm. They exchanged a look for a moment. Edward pulled his hand away from the door slowly, and then turned to me.
"Bella," the look in his eyes was hard to define, but I was sure it was not a happy one. "Sam would like to speak with you."
I turned to Sam, who did not seem too happy about Edward's abilities at the moment. He had a slight scowl on his face. "Yeah, of course." I told him, leading him into the living room. Instinctively, Edward wrapped his arm around my waist before we sat down; holding me as close to me as I thought was possible without me sitting on his lap. Sam sat opposite us in the chair.
Sam looked as if he was trying to be diplomatic, sitting up straight, speaking calmly, enunciating every word. "The way Leah acted yesterday is not something I condone. I would have sent her here to explain this herself— but I feel at the present time that would not be the best idea." I heard Edward laugh, but he tried to keep it quiet. Sam tried to ignore this and continued. "She was angry, and not with you particularly, Bella, but with the whole situation." He paused, surveying my reaction. My face was calm. "As you may or may not know, and I'm assuming you do, we have not heard from Jacob. It seems that as soon as he realizes we are within our other forms, he phases out so we can't hear his thoughts and figure out where he is. It's very tricky, and we've been trying to find him by searching the forests instead. However, it doesn't seem to have been working." Sam leaned forward suddenly, and Edward's arm tightened around my waist. "Do you have any idea where he could be?"
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. I knew this was the first test that I would actually pass. It had to be. "I have no idea." I told him, shaking my head, and I realized my hair was still wet. "Jake and I haven't talked in a long time—I assumed we weren't talking because he was sick of me…" I looked out the window, wondering where in the world he could be. No matter what, I just wanted him to be happy.
Sam nodded, standing up. "I thought so, but it's best to try everything we can right now." He looked at me fleetingly before his face brightened slightly, for the first time since his appearance he looked hopeful. "He'll come back. Bella. I think he just needs time."
And with that, he was gone. As soon as he was, I turned to Edward, who still seemed interested in the little joke he had found in Sam's head.
"What's so funny?" I demanded of his amused expression.
"Two things," he told me, playing with my fingers while he spoke. "One, Sam was less than happy to see me here, though I don't know what he expected. Second, Sam was much too polite about Leah. He seemed to be very irritated with her, but he didn't want to show weakness with his pack." He paused, looking thoughtful. "Intriguing. Very intriguing."
Though I didn't feel as comfortable as I had after my soak, I still felt kind of okay. Better than I would have yesterday if Sam were to give me this kind of information. Edward seemed to be able to tell that I was okay, because he didn't ask once. However, he sat me on his lap, turned me around so I was facing him, and stared into my eyes for a long time.
"You do smell so nice when you get out of the bathtub." He whispered, his voice like velvet, sounding like he was singing a song. He picked up a piece of my hair and smelled the shampoo. "You know, I'll need to thank this shampoo company." He teased, suddenly picking me up and carrying me up the steps. He stopped off in the bathroom, putting me down on my feet and handing me the hair drier. "I don't want anyone else getting to smell you." He joked as I reached out to turn it on. "We have to leave soon, Alice is expecting us."
After being able to handle the time with Sam, I was sure I'd be able to handle anything Alice and company could throw at me. Of course, I was more than likely under-estimating Alice. Once we got there, the whole family seemed to be sitting in the living room doing different things. As soon as we got there, they all snapped to attention. Out of nowhere, Alice appeared with a clipboard in her hand. She was smiling widely, looking much too excited. I groaned and reflexively shrank into Edward's side. Edward laughed.
"Calm down, Bella." Emmett told me from his position on the couch. "I tried to talk Alice out of all that fish and chicken nonsense and to go with a couple live grizzly bears in the back of the reception, but she just wouldn't understand the beauty of the idea." He shook his head in mock disappointment. This was obviously supposed to make me feel better, and my face twitched in a sort of halfway-smile, but I was still worried about what Alice had planned.
"Well," Alice said, suddenly flipping through pieces of paper. "All the dresses are here, and the tuxes are all in and looking very nice, might I add. I'm glad I picked them out, no one else would have found such nice ones." She tutted to herself, appreciating her skills in finding nice tuxedos. "I've already made everyone try on their dresses, and of course everything fits perfectly!" she smiled, and I watched as she put a gigantic checkmark on one page, turning to another. "Oh, Bella." She said suddenly, turning toward me. "You really should wear your ring all the time now, people are beginning to wonder." She cracked a smile, obviously thinking she was funny in her own little joke. I didn't bother questioning her. The ring was currently on my finger, and I spun it around once without thinking about it. I had been trying my best to wear it every day, but it was hard. I liked having it on, because Edward liked it on, but soon I'd be wearing it for eternity. What was so wrong about wanting a little time off beforehand?
Edward pulled me to the couch and sat me on his lap. Esme was sitting beside of us, and she smiled and reached over, taking my hand.
"Thank you so much for this, Bella," she said suddenly, and I was surprised. "This is making Alice so happy—and I couldn't be more excited for you and Edward. I already think of you as one of my daughters, you know." She learned over and kissed me on top of the head. My cheeks burned.
"You know," Emmett said thoughtfully, on Edward's other side. "I do kind of think of you as my sister, even though you're still all spongy." He laughed, a big, booming laugh, and Rosalie, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, arms crossed, rolled her eyes. She didn't seem to want to get close to me since our last altercation, but just then, it was the least of my worries. I had forever-- literally-- to make things up with her.
Sitting in that room with Edward's family, I felt more comfortable than I had in a while. Just then, Alice was pushing some papers into my lap, and I looked down to see different names scribbled into little boxes, with smaller boxes beside of it.
"These are the seating arrangements!" she told me happily, doing a little twirl. She was honestly so excited, I thought that on the wedding day she might burst into confetti. That might have been the end of the reception, I thought to myself, grinning. She was prattling on before I could continue this thought, though. "I think that I've made sure everyone is with people they like, and all the important people will be close enough to you. We're making them place cards!" she stared at me, obviously expecting me to be enticed by this news. "I thought about releasing doves, but honestly, doves seem like such bad taste these days." She was already off, thinking about something else, making more plans.
I turned to Esme, who smiled. "Alice gets excited easily," she whispered in my ear, and Emmett, on the other side of the couch had obviously heard her, because he went into a roar of laughter again. "She's more than excited, I don't know how she does it!" he shook his head. "Me, I'm not too enthralled with standing around in one of those itchy tuxes and then picking at some nasty human food for a few hours. No offense, you two." He shrugged, obviously not really thinking either of us had taken offense.
"So, where's the honeymoon?" Carlisle was standing up, leaning against a wall. Before he spoke, he had looked quite thoughtful.
"It's a surprise!" Alice said suddenly, with a wide, toothy grin. I thought she'd never get off this high. "I've got it all planned out, but they can't know, because obviously that will ruin it."
I rolled my eyes. I didn't really care where the honeymoon was, more like when the honeymoon was. And how long it would take to get there, get the door open, and get onto that bed. Jasper suddenly snorted and raised an eyebrow, though I couldn't tell if it was at me or Edward. Damn him for being able to read my emotions.
Alice suddenly stopped flitting around the room, her face becoming distant for just a moment. "Your mother's coming tomorrow!" I thought she would literally jump for joy. "She was supposed to come later, but I suppose she wanted to surprise you—oops." She said lamely. I thought that maybe the excitement had been too much for her to bear alone. "But that means we can start rehearsals much earlier, of course, and then maybe you'll be able to walk in the heels a lot better, Bella, we all know how much you fall."
Jasper and Emmett both laughed at that, and I glowered. "Heels?" I said finally. All of this I could deal with, but heels? That was asking too much.
"You'll be fine." Edward promised, whispering in my ear. Before then, he seemed to have absently been listening to the conversations flow, rubbing his fingers along my thigh, tracing it in little circles. "I won't let you fall."
"You'll be up in the front." I reminded him, not about to let this one drop.
"Well, I'll just come pick you up so quickly that no one will notice that you even fell, I'll make Emmett burp loudly so everyone paid attention to that just in case, and then I'll be back in my spot in half a second." He shrugged.
Alice stuck her tongue out at him. "You will not ruin my beautiful ceremony that way!" she demanded, and Emmett cracked a smile. Though I was in a room full of vampires, and I was discussing something that would soon turn out to be awful, I felt very much so at home.