Three Weeks Later

Life went on. Life. Went. On. I couldn't believe it. I think I was the only one that noticed that I was gaining weight. Rose said that she could tell my "funbags" were getting bigger, but Rose always said that. Lies, all lies.

Edward was super duper cool. He started hanging out with me at school more often. He sat with me at lunch one day, but we worked on our Bio project, which was cool. It needed to get done.

Other than that, though, everything was normal. I hung out with Rose or by myself most of the time. I took my vitamins and weighed myself every day. I started phoning adoption agencies. Life was good.

Then Alice Brandon started being nice to me. That's when things got weird. I wasn't meant to be socially accepted. It was, like, against the rules of high school.

It started out slowly. She'd say hi to me in the hallway or ask me questions during class about random shit, like what I was doing on the weekend and all that junk. It was like we were...friends.

Finally, after a week of being weird around me, she invited me, me, to sit with her, Emmett, Jasper, and Edward during lunch. I was completely flabbergasted.

"Can Rose sit with us, too?" I blurted. I needed a partner in uncharted territory. The buddy system was genius.

"Sure," she replied with a smile. "Then we won't get any losers trying to sit with us today. Our table will be legitly full!"

I snickered. She looked at me curiously.

"It's just that I'm kind of the biggest loser in school," I explained. "And you're saying I'll keep the losers away." She looked confused. The irony of the situation was lost on her. How unfortunate.

Alice chatted away as we walked into the cafeteria together. I waved Rose over and quickly explained the situation. She was cool with it, but let me do all the talking, the whore. We grabbed our lunches and then we walked to the table. It felt like everything was in slow motion, like on Mean Girls. People literally stopped chewing their food to watch me walk by. People walked into chairs and tables and spilt their trays. People stared at me.

"Hey, guys," Alice greeted. All the boys were already chowing down their meals. "I asked Bella and Rose to sit with us today."

Emmett winked at Rose immediately. I rolled my eyes when Rose smiled at him. Well, at least one good thing would come out of this. Jasper, however, looked completely disgusted. Edward gave me a small smile and avoided looking at me. I sighed as I sat down.

"Hey, dickweeds," I greeted in a mumble, opening up my sub to pick all the onions off.

"Hey," Emmett replied with a grin. "I think I like you. Can we keep her Alice?"

I snorted as Alice replied, "I guess that's up to Edward."

Edward's head snapped up. He looked shocked. "Why's it up to me?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "You know why it's up to you. I don't know why you think I don't know these things, Edward. So, is she in or out?"

Edward looked back down at his tray before mumbling, "In."

Alice grinned triumphantly and squeezed my shoulder. "This is Edward giving me permission to give you a makeover, Bella. I hope you're not doing anything after school. I've got big plans for you. Do you want to join, Rosalie?"

"Sure thang, Mustang," she replied gleefully. "I've never had the guts to toy with Bella's look. She's got charisma coming out the yazoo, so I thought I'd let her be. She's authentic and what-not."

Alice nodded. "You've got a point, Rose. Maybe I'll wait, hmm, six or so months."

My mouth hung open. Did she know? How'd she know? Why'd she say six? Alice raised an eyebrow at Edward who was ducking away from her stare. Oh, for the love of God, he was going to lose it. He would be forever damned to the lowest rung on the social ladder because of me. Fuck my life.

"That seems like a long time, Alice," Rose said with a scowl. She didn't get the math. "Why not do it right now? Just mess with her a bit, make her look a little prettier. Don't leave the poor girl hanging like that."

Alice had an evil smile on her lips as she looked me over. "Barbie Bella. I like it. You're going to be my new favourite toy, I think, Bella."

"How lovely," I murmured before taking a bite of my sub. "Can it wait 'til tomorrow though? I've got, um, an appointment."

"Oh, what for, Bella?" Alice asked innocently.

"You know, the usual annual check-up," I replied. "Gotta make sure everything's going good."

"Maybe I could take you there," Alice said.

"No, my stepmom's taking me," I answered quickly. "It's our only bonding time."

"Okay, but tomorrow you'd better make sure your schedule's clear," Alice told me. "Rosalie and I are going to make you look like a star."

I nodded meekly and continued eating my sub.

"Don't torture the poor thing," Emmett said, winking at me. "I want her to stick around for a while."

"She'll be around," Alice replied nonchalantly. She looked at Jasper. "What's up your ass?"

He shook his head, getting that sour look off his face. "Nothing's wrong."

"Why the hell did you look like you'd just seen something completely horrifying then?"

"It's nothing," he promised.

"Fucking better be."

I smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be half-bad. Maybe I'd be okay. If Alice would just get off my back, this would be alright.

Conversation flowed freely between Rose, Emmett, and Alice. The rest of us kept to ourselves. I was afraid I would slip up and say something about my pregnancy, Jasper obviously didn't like the fact I was sitting with him, and Edward was just being himself. He liked talking to me, but only if no one else knew about. He liked being with me, but only if we were alone. And I understood that.

Edward and I walked towards the Bio lab together. Nobody even made a fuss about it.

"So, I'm getting another ultra-sound today," I told him. "Just so you know."

"Do you want me to come?" he asked.

"Meh, up to you," I replied with a shrug. "Doesn't matter to me, really. Dr. Cullen's like my uncle."

"Oh, okay." He thought about it for a second. "I think I'll come anyway."

"Right on."

Bio went by without anything interesting happening, as usual. Edward and I finished our work quickly and then filled the dreadfully awkward silence occasionally, mostly by my chattering. He was probably just nervous because Alice obviously knew what was going on. And that sucked for both of us. She could destroy Edward. I mean, what was a little more teasing for me? I already put up with a shitload of it every day, it wouldn't matter to me. But he would be devastated by the force of it all. He wouldn't be the same.

"I'm skipping to go to the doctor," I told Edward. "Don't come if you don't want to. I can handle myself."

"I'm coming," he replied smoothly. "And I'm driving, too."

"What am I going to do with my truck?"

"We'll get it later." The way he said it told me it was time to shut up, whether it was conscious or not.

After the bell rang, Edward immediately left the room, not bothering to wait for me. I sighed as I walked into the parking lot alone; trying to remember what car he drove. Luckily, he was waiting at the front doors for me. I would have never remembered that he drove a Volvo. The only vehicles I knew of were Chevy's and that's because I drove one.

"Wow, Masen, you look pretty snazzy in that car," I complimented as I closed the door and put on my seatbelt.

"Thanks."

The rest of the ride was silent. No music, no talking, nothing. It was the most awkward time of my life and that was saying something.

"What time's your appointment?" he asked as we parked the car.

"Two-thirty," I answered quietly. He was making me feel awful, and I didn't know why.

"Okay, I'm going to talk to my mom quickly while you wait. Make sure you don't leave me behind, though."

"Sure," I murmured, walking into the hospital a few steps in front of him.

I waited by myself. I was used to being alone, but I'd never actually felt this alone in my life. It felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. It felt like this was entirely my fault. It felt like nothing in the world could make my life any worse than it was right now.

"Bella?" Dr. Cullen called when it was my turn. "You ready?"

"Yeah, but I'm supposed to wait for Edward," I answered with a sigh.

"What's the matter?" he asked, sitting down beside me with a concerned look on his face.

"Well, a girl at school, the most popular girl at school, knows about this whole thing," I explained. "Edward isn't ready for people to know, I don't think. He probably won't ever be ready for people to know."

"What does that mean?" Dr. Cullen didn't know that I was the weird girl.

"I'm not the most popular crayon in the box," I mumbled, looking at my lap. "I'd be like that gross green that everyone's tempted to discard."

"Oh, Bella, I'm sure it's not that bad," Dr. Cullen disagreed.

I shrugged. "There are two people that talk to me like I'm a person, Rose and Mike Newton. And I only like one of the two of them. Edward was being nice to me, but now..."

"Bella, there are some things in life that you shouldn't dwell on," Dr. Cullen said, pulling my chin up so I'd look him in the eyes. "High school is one of them. It can go one of two ways: heaven or hell. Most of the time its hell, even if you're the popular one. Small towns aren't made for unique people, trust me. I grew up in small town Montana, and I hated every second of it. I was a loser in high school, but look at me now. I'm flourishing in the real world. The people who excel in high school usually end up reliving the glory days through their children. The people like us are the people that go places. You'll end up at some big college out east and I'll hardly ever hear from you." He smiled. "Don't worry about it, my girl. You'll live, trust me."

I wiped the almost-tears away from my eyes. "Thanks, Dr. C."

"You're welcome, Bella."

Then Edward strolled onto the scene. I quickly sniffled and wiped my cheeks on my sleeve before smiling weakly at him. He scowled at me and then looked up at Dr. Cullen. Dr. Cullen was giving him a cold look.

"Are you finally ready, Mr. Masen?" he asked coolly.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he mumbled. "I needed to talk to my mom."

Dr. Cullen led us into his office. He quickly checked me out. He didn't force Edward to watch this time, thank God.

"Everything's coming along nicely, Bella," he murmured. "Keep doing what Sue's been telling you to." He chuckled at my grimace. "I know you hate it, Charlie's been ranting about it, but she's right. The baby will be healthy if you keep this up."

"Oh, yeah, Sue wanted me to ask you about adoption agencies," I said. "Do you know of any good ones? We've been phoning around and we haven't had much luck."

Dr. Cullen froze. "You're giving the baby up for adoption?"

"Yeah," I replied. "I – we – decided that we weren't old enough or close enough to take care of a baby by ourselves."

Dr. Cullen gulped.

"What's the matter with you?" I asked accusingly. "Is there something wrong with adoption?"

"No," he croaked. "It's not that, it's just that..."

"What?" I demanded. "Spit it out already."

"Esme and I were looking for a baby to adopt."

Posting a day early 'cause I'm going house shopping all day tomorrow. Ugh. Kill me, please. Speaking of killing me, I wouldn't mind a bullet in my throbbing skull right now. I've got a hangover from hell and I'd like nothing more than to curl up in a ball and die.

FYI, I'm a cliffy whore. Seriously. I'm such a sucker for leaving you guys hanging. It's my favourite thrill in the fandom world.

There'll be a teaser Monday on A Different Forest!

Got questions for me about TBL? Here's how you get a hold of me, besides reviewing, which is always nice:
Gmail: ladyinblue6(at)gmail(.)com
Twitter: maryinblue6
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I decided I'm gunna start recc'ing stuff because I read a lot. So, for this week, check out Midnight Son of a Bitch by greeengoldish. She's on and ADF, and it's so funny, you guys. So funny. (I read a lot of romantic comedies. And I think I write them, too. Do I? IDK.)

Mary