Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or I would currently be rolling my pile of riches. I don't own the songs, either.
As promised, here it is. I don't know if it's my computer or FF, but the uploading is taking forever! The song lyric is from 'A Broken Glass' by Falling Cycle. I've never heard the song. I just liked the lyrics.
Thank you for all of the lovely reviews...and the alerts were crazy today! I think I have more Story Alerts than Reviews! And did you know there's a new feature that lets you track what country people who read your stories are from? It's very neat and I'm very tired, I'm sorry.
Chapter Six
BPOV(You know you missed her)
I walk back to the hotel in the rain. The way that it pounds against my skin is comforting. I let it wash the mascara from my eyelashes, allow it to stain my face. In a small way, it is cleansing.
If I had any skill at dancing, I'd dance in it, but I don't dance. I fall.
I reach the hotel just as Emmett is coming out and I run into him. "Hey, hey…slow down," Emmett says to me as he takes me by the shoulders to steady me. "Where have you been? It's five o'clock!"
"Out," comes my immediate response. I sigh as Emmett raises his eyebrows at me. "Sorry. I was in a coffee shop. I sat in there for a while and then walked all of the way back."
Emmett shakes his head. "Where exactly is this coffee shop?"
"A couple of doors from Rose's office," I respond, thinking nothing of it.
"Do you realize exactly how far you walked?" His eyes are full of surprise. I shake my head. "You walked three miles to get here. That's nothing in a car, but for you!" Now that he mentioned the distance my legs ached and my entire body started to shake with cold. I realized that my cell phone must be drenched and I would have to dry that out later.
"Sorry." I mutter, looking down. Emmett pulls me into the hotel lobby and peels my sweatshirt off.
"Come on. We need to get you up to Alice. Did you ignore all of our calls or did you have your cell phone off again?" Emmett has my sweatshirt draped over his arm and he pulls me into his side as he shoves me through the hallways.
"I don't know…" I say in confusion. I fumble to try to get the phone out of the pocket of my now skin tight jeans. The screen shows seventy-four missed calls. I didn't know a phone could count that high. I flip the phone open and scan through to find my ringer. It's on vibrate. "Apparently ignoring."
Emmett gets to our door and pulls out his wallet to find his key card. I note that he is dressed in a white polo and black jeans. "Going somewhere?" I ask as he opens the door. My teeth are chattering.
"Only you would catch a cold in California," he says, disregarding my question entirely. He ushers me into the room. I hear Alice in the parlor, chatting away nervously on a cell phone.
"Yeah. She just walked in. Thank God. Bye, Rose." Alice rushes me. I don't even know if she hung up the phone. She has her arms around my neck and I'm simply staring at the other side of the room, wide-eyed. "Where have you been! I called you, Emmett called you, Rosalie called you…I even called Jacob to ask him if he had heard from you!" Alice sighs again. She pulls away with her face scrunch up. "Why are you all wet…and shaking! Bella!" Alice went for one of the hotel blankets and wrapped it around my shoulders. "Emmett, where'd you find her?"
Emmett laughed. "Falling into the hotel lobby." He looked at his watch. "I'm going to be late if I don't go soon. Is she okay to be left here with you?"
Alice nods. She sits me down on the bed. "We'll have a girl's night in." She glances at the clock. "It's five-thirty. You're supposed to meet them at six. You better go." Emmett looks toward the door.
"Alice, if you don't want me to leave…"
Alice laughs. "You sound like you don't want to go!"
Emmett ran a hand through his curly black hair. "I haven't seen Jasper in a while, so…it will be good to catch up with him." He looked from me to Alice. "Keep warm, Bells. If you aren't entirely better by the time I get back that means I have to run to the drug store and get the cold and flu medication and I don't really want to do that after drinking." I laugh through my chattering teeth. I drink more than he does and he knows it.
He waves goodbye before walking out the door again. As soon as he's out, I begin the Spanish inquisition before Alice can get me. "Who's Jasper?"
"Ex-boyfriend." She says, turning her back.
"It's not over between you two, is it?" I say, picking up the television control.
Alice turns back to me on the defensive. "You sure ask a lot of questions."
I smile, triumphant for the first time in a long time. "Thought so," I say, flipping through the channels. I see nothing interesting and settle on The Tudors until I realize that I turned it on during a sex scene. The remote immediately flies into my hands to turn the television off. Alice rolls her eyes.
"By the way. There's something in your room you might want to see," she says as she picks up the hotel phone. I open my mouth to protest, but she stops me. "I suggest going now. Oh, and pizza or Chinese? I'm not paying twenty dollars for the tripe they serve in the restaurant."
"Pizza," I say, standing up and going toward the room I'm sharing with Alice. "What is so important that I just have to see it?"
Alice smiles. "You'll see." Her finger scrolls down a page that has been set on the table in the room next to the phone. She pushes numbers with one hand, balances the phone against her shoulder, and keeps her place with her other finger.
I turn away from the balancing act and open the door. I'm hit by an immediate aroma of flowers. I almost sneeze. I have to hold my breath and feel around for the light.
What kind of idiot closes the blinds in the broad daylight when no one is trying to sleep?
Oh, right. Alice.
I flip the light on to find the room covered in roses. Pretty roses. Fragrant roses. This is a rarity. I have gotten very few roses that actually had a scent. They breed the scent out of the roses for those of us with allergies. Too bad, really. The roses smell intoxicating.
"Alice! Did a gift shop explode into the room?" I rave, flipping off the light, pretending to be angry. They're probably from Jacob, trying to make up for not saying 'goodbye'.
"Not really." Alice said. She came to join me in the doorway. "Did you read the card?"
"No," I say, reaching for it. "Jake is so sweet."
Alice pauses, bites her lip and then sighs. "They're not from Jacob."
I pause, the card in my hands. "They're not?"
"Er…no."
"Emmett?"
"No."
"You?"
"No. I have a little better taste than to send you six dozen roses before even having a first date," Alice remarks with a laugh.
"Very funny." I stare blankly at the card. "Rose?"
"No."
"Then who?" I am getting annoyed. I feel like I'm at the butt end of a joke.
"Read the card."
I flip open the white cardstock and my entire body goes into a state of shock.
"Do I get to hear the card?" Alice asks, reaching for the card.
I jerk it away from her. "No."
Alice pouts. "Please?"
"No."
Alice crosses her little arms across her little chest. "It's not like I don't already know who they're from."
"This is…personal…" I mutter.
"Oh?" Alice leans over my shoulder and I'm suddenly thankful that I am six inches taller than she is. Despite everything, I didn't remember that Alice also was about as lithe as a Spider Monkey and could easily jump on my back, knock me to the ground, and run with the cardstock.
This is precisely what she did. What she HAD done at thousands of sleepovers. What I hadn't anticipated.
"To Bella…" Alice begins reading the top of the card.
"No, Alice!" I say, stumbling to my feet. "Please, don't, Alice!"
"'Though I know you won't accept my humblest of apologies,'" she just has to continue, "'I feel that it is my duty to attempt making amends."
"Alice!" I bark, holding my hand out for the card.
"'My humblest apologizes once more. I hope these flowers are at the very least one step toward friendship,'" Alice snorts. "'With sincerity, Edward Masen.'" She pauses for a moment and messes up her face. "'P.S.I don't need ceiling fans. I have people for that?' What the heck is that supposed to mean?"
I burst out laughing. "Nothing, Alice. Really. Inside joke."
Alice raises her eyebrow. "Oh? And when did you two decide to be friendly?"
I shake my head. "He tracked me to the coffee shop this afternoon," I say, sniffling, a stupid smile spreading across my face. "I made some stupid comment and that was his response. Inside joke really."
Alice drops the card and grabs her heart in mock shock. "Call a doctor, Bella Swan has fallen in love with Edward Masen!"
"I do not like him in the least!" I say, attempting a scowl. When his face comes to mind, all hope is lost. "It was just a nice gesture…which I did not accept," I saw, picking up a multi-colored vase and holding it over the trashcan.
Alice stops me. "Look me in the eyes and honestly tell me that you are going to throw them away."
"I'm going to throw them away," I say, looking at the trashcan.
"Oopsies...so now wouldn't be a good time to tell you about his girlfriend?"
The vase slips out of my hands into the trash with a 'crash'. "What?"
Alice twirls her fingers together. "Well…you see…That party that Rosalie wanted you to go to with him…it was…well, everyone there is going to have an escort, most likely. His is probably going to be one of his girlfriends. Either Tanya Denali or Victoria Devre. Actually, those are just random dates that Rosalie has set up through the years, but they're usually his fallbacks."
I glare at Alice. "And you just now saw fit to tell me this?" I ask her.
Alice walks back into the parlor. "You never asked." Someone knocks on the door and cordiality tells me to refrain from murdering her. "I think our pizza is here."
Sometimes I swear that girl has a sixth sense.
My cell phone vibrates. I pick it up. The number is unknown to me, but I know who it is when I get the message even before I see the bottom.
Emmett says you're ill. Don't run yourself into the ground. Rosalie would have a fit.
~Edward
I tap out a catty 'How did you get this number?' before Alice comes to my shoulder and forces me to put my cell away. I grab a piece of cheese pizza and wolf it down as I wait for my cell to vibrate again.
Emmett.
"Bastard," I mutter under my breath and flip my phone shut.
Alice looks up from her pizza. "What?"
"Where did Emmett go tonight?"
"The same bar Rose rented out for drinks with Jasper. Why?"
I scheme. "I need to go for a walk," I say, picking myself up off the hotel floor and making for the door, doing inventory to make sure I have my wallet in case I get murdered on my way there…or trip into a manhole…or a storm drain.
EPOV
Emmett, Jasper, and I sit around the table exchanging jokes. We're trying to get our minds off the day. When there is a lull in conversation, I ask, as casually as I can, "Did Bella ever find her way back to the hotel?"
Emmett nods, looking me directly in the eyes, like a defensive older brother. "She's probably knee deep in those roses right now, attempting to destroy them."
"At least she got them," I say, taking a drink.
"So…I hear Alice Brandon is in town," Jasper says, looking at me.
Emmett shakes his head. "What is with you two trying to go after two women who have no interest at all?"
"Rosalie Hale," Jasper and I say at the same time. Emmett doesn't protest after that.
"She's staying with Bella," I tell Jasper.
"Do you have her number?" Jasper asks.
"Why on earth…?" Emmett begins.
"Rose wants us all to have a date. If I'm getting dragged to some evening party for producers and big wigs, I'm taking someone I'm semi-comfortable around." Jasper says. He is very sensitive to the way that other people feel. He seems to be weighing his options: to call her and get rejected or to never know.
"I would call her," Emmett says, flipping him his cell phone. "She'll giggle like a school girl."
"As if we aren't gossiping like school girls," I mutter.
Jasper stands up to call Alice. I'm sure he'll find an excuse as to why he's calling after so long. It was Alice who broke off their relationship the last time. "What is this, the seventh time?" I ask Emmett.
He shrugs. "I wouldn't be surprised." He takes a drink of his beer. "Are you going with a date tomorrow night?"
I nod. "Victoria."
Emmett shakes his head. "Why on earth…?"
"Rose set it up and she's playing Isabella."
"Ah." Emmett says. "Office politics without the office."
"Yeah." I mutter.
"If you had the chance, would you go with Bella?"
My head snaps up immediately. "Emmett, there is no chance."
"You bicker like a married couple. There is always a chance," he jokes.
I shake my head. "That is one woman that wouldn't give me the time of day."
Emmett looked over my shoulder. "I wouldn't be so sure."
Before I can say anything, I hear the angel speak. "What the hell do you want?"
There you go! Reviews=quotes, I promise! Also, good critiques are appreciated.
