Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.
Thanks to my betas, araeo and duskwatcher2153.
Last Friday Night
Saturday May 7, 2011
5:25 p.m.
I look up to find Rosalie standing in the open doorway to our apartment. Her voice may be derisive, but she's smiling at me. Her gaze drops from my face to my arm, and the smile morphs to a concerned frown.
"How's the hand?"
"Could be better."
She laughs. "Yeah, I imagine it could. Then again, that was one hell of a punch you threw last night! I didn't know you had it in you, Swan."
"You saw what happened?"
She rolls her eyes. "Well, yeah." She might as well have said 'duh'.
"And…?" Alice prompts.
Rose's eyes slide to Alice. "Hell, Alice, you were there. The two of you were practically making out right before it happened…" Her voice trails off, and she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.
Alice's cheeks flush bright red, and Rose chuckles in response. But at our blank stares, she once again frowns.
"Don't either of you remember anything?"
Alice scowls. "I told you in the message I left that we didn't remember anything."
"I thought you were joking. Just pretending that last night never happened. I know I'd want to pretend it didn't happen." She chuckles gleefully.
"No joke, Rose," Alice laments. "Turns out we unknowingly took something at the party last night."
Rose's eyebrow quirks. "Something?"
The scowl turns into a pensive frown, and Alice sighs softly. "Yeah. They think it was probably X."
Rose's eyebrows rise even higher, as if in disbelief.
"X? As in the drug? Ecstasy?" she asks, astounded. Then her eyes narrow speculatively. "And who the hell is 'they'?"
"The hospital—well, Edward—called this morning after Bella's blood work came back. She tested positive. Since we have the same symptoms…" Alice shrugs.
"Oh man."
"Yeah."
I'm getting impatient as Alice rehashes the generalities of the evening to Rose. I'm ready for the specifics.
"What happened, Rose?" I ask.
She turns back to me, and her furrowed brow relaxes. The gleeful smirk reappears on her lips.
"Well, you were dancing. With anything and anyone. And it really wasn't pretty," she says with a laugh.
Now, I'm the one scowling. "Yes. We gathered that from the pictures you so considerately posted on the internet for us," I remind her.
The cheerful tinkle of Rose's amusement echoes through our apartment. I have to admit that it rankles just a bit. My scowl deepens, and I cross my arms defensively on my chest.
"Trust me, Bella. Those pictures didn't tell the entire story. In fact, they barely scratched the surface. Most of those were pretty tame. I didn't post the really naughty ones; I wouldn't do that to you. But the way you went down on that pole… Well, in some states, that's probably illegal. You did make a buck or two when you flashed your panties at some of the guys, though."
"What!" I sputter. Wait. Is that why there was a handful of singles in my pocket this morning? "Oh, my God," I groan. "This isn't happening. This isn't happening…"
The giggle turns into a full-on guffaw.
"Sorry, sweets, but it did happen, and I have the photographic evidence."
She taps her pocket, where I assume her phone is stashed. Of course, that doesn't really even matter. Those pictures are all over the internet—and all of our friends already have access to them.
Closing my eyes, I bring my hands to my face. And once again bop myself with the damned cast. I, too, have evidence of the devastation from the previous evening, even if I can't remember it.
"Okay. So, after I danced—badly—what happened. Jake told me that he kissed me, and that I punched him, but he didn't really give me any details, and I was too embarrassed to ask."
The amusement fades from Rose's face. "Yeah, he kissed you all right. After you danced with the pole, you danced with him and his friend. And then Alice. I think the fake kiss you shared with Alice really pissed him off."
"Fake kiss?" Alice cuts in. She sounds incredibly relieved.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Of course it was fake, Alice. You like cock, remember?" She smirks.
"Thank God," Alice whispers and shoots me a relieved look.
"You guys did that thing where you put a hand over your lips and fake kiss," Rose continues. "But you did it at an angle where he wouldn't see it. Nothing turns a guy on more than two girls making out, and they were panting all over you two. When Bella went to the bathroom, he followed. I didn't like the determined look on his face, so I followed him. I got there just in time to see him grab your hand, spin you around and plant one on you. It would have been incredibly romantic, if you weren't standing there, stock-still, looking at him as if he'd lost his mind. You said something when he came up for breath, tried to pull your hand away, but he obviously wasn't listening and wouldn't let go. When he went in for the second attempt, you decked him. Left-handed, no less. It was really quite impressive."
"Impressive. Most impressive." Alice says in a faux-deep voice accompanied by loud breathing.
I roll my eyes. Now is not the time for Star Wars quotes. Especially when it's a shitty-at-best Vader impersonation.
"What a mess," I mutter.
"Well, it sounds as if it all ended up okay?" Rose adds in a questioning tone.
I nod.
"See? All's well that ends well."
I nod again. What else can I do?
"So, at that point, I assume we went to the hospital?" I ask.
"Not at first," Rose states. "You were adamant that your hand was okay, but when it started to swell up, we finally convinced you to go. We all piled into a bunch of cabs and went with you. Luckily, Alice's brother was there, and he got you in to see a doctor quick."
"Edward." It's a statement.
"Yeah," she confirms. "I don't exactly know where he came from, but he was there with you when we finally found you in the waiting room. He was the one who had to kick Alice out."
"What?" Alice squawks. "He kicked me out?"
Another devious smile sprouts on Rose's lips. "Oh yeah. It was classic. He had to drag you from the exam room, where apparently a 'Dr. McCreamy' was tending to Bella. Now, this is all second hand, but what I gathered is that after you asked the good doctor to join you in a 'more private exam room' because you had 'something you wanted him to look at', Edward escorted you from the room and sent you home. You refused to go, claiming that your 'destiny' was waiting for you in that exam room."
Alice is staring open-mouthed. "No…" she whispers.
"Yes," Rose declares gleefully. "Emmett had to throw you over his shoulder and carry you out."
"Oh, my God," Alice practically sobs.
"So, we all went back to your apartment to wait for Bella," Rose continues. "I guess that some of the guys stopped along the way, picked up some beer to make the wait more bearable."
She indicates the beer bottles that are still piled on the kitchen counter.
"Looks that way," I confirm.
"And speaking of the beer bottles," Alice recovers, somewhat, and takes this opportunity to change the subject. "We really should clean them up."
We walk to the kitchen, where I grab a trash bag from under the sink, and we all begin clearing the mess from the countertops. Surprisingly, it doesn't take as long as I anticipated. A few moments later, I wipe the cleared counters down with disinfectant, and then join the other two in the den, where they are restoring the furniture to its proper locale.
"Rose?" I ask.
"Yeah?"
"How did I get home? Did you see who brought me?"
Rose shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Bella, I really don't know. Around three-thirty, you called Alice and told her you were on your way home. Then everyone started crashing. Emmett wanted to go, so we left. Most people left at the same time."
The apartment is now clean. I offer Rose a soda, but she declines, saying that she needs to be on her way because she and Emmett have a date in an hour. So instead, I escort her to the door, where she bids us goodnight. As soon as she's gone, Alice and I plop down on the couch to catch our breath.
"What a day," I lament.
"Yeah," Alice agrees.
With a sigh, I slump back against the couch. My head lolls to the side so that I can look lazily at her. "Is it over yet?"
"God, I hope so," she states. "I think we've figured it all out, haven't we? Where we went, what we did?"
"Mostly."
There are just a few things left that we don't know. Such as who I did….
"Alice?"
"Hmm," she hums sleepily.
"There's something else. Something I didn't tell you earlier."
"Hmm…."
"Someone spent the night."
"So? There were probably a lot of people passed out here last night."
"No. I mean someone spent the night with me last night," I repeat.
"What?" She perks up a bit and turns to look at me. "Really?"
Just as I expected, she looks excited by this prospect. With an exasperated sigh, I just nod.
"Who?" she asks eagerly.
"That's the kicker. Just like everything else from last night, I have no fucking clue. Whoever it was was long gone by the time I got up, but I know that someone else—someone of the opposite sex—slept in my bed last night."
"So? Someone crashed in your room. That doesn't mean anything."
Looking down at my hands, which are clasped tightly in my lap, I sigh.
"The condoms were out."
"Oh, my God."
"I know, right. So…" Pausing slightly, I squeeze my eyes shut. "I think I might've had sex last night."
I sigh again, because I know where this conversation is about to head: somewhere I definitely don't want it to go. Besides, I can't really answer questions about a sexual encounter I don't remember, right?
Luckily, the interrogation is interrupted when Alice's phone rings. She answers with a frustrated huff.
"Hey, Edward."
My heart jumps into my throat at the mention of his name, and I can't help but listen to her disjointed side of the conversation.
"Yeah, we're home."
"No harm done, at least not that we can tell."
"Bella? Yeah, she's fine, too."
She scowls at the phone. "Well, if you wanted to talk to Bella, Edward, you should've called her, not me!"
"What?"
A sheepish frown displaces the scowl. "Oh."
"Sorry," she mutters.
"Yeah, sure…"
She turns to me and holds out the phone, much like she did this morning.
"It's for you."
A/N: Dun, Dun, Dun… I know that a lot of you have been hankering for more Edward, so here you go! Well, kind of. LOL. We'll hear more from the good doctor next installation, I promise. I just hope Bella's ready to hear what he has to tell her. Eep!
Wow! A lot of you really hated Eclipse Jake, huh? Glad to know I'm not in the minority. HeeHee.
Tomorrow will be a crazy day for me at work, so figured you guys would rather have an early update today than have to wait 2 days for the next one. Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter will post on Tuesday.
Thank you so much for reading!
KL
