OK so I can barely function after seeing all SEVENTEEN of the leaked stills…but here I am with a new chapter for you lovely readers =D
So my beta kicked my butt and so I have got the next 2 chapters already written up as well. Chapter 9 will help answer a fair bit of stuff for you ;)
Love to my beta Kay, you totes made my day by emailing me the you-know-what pics.
Love to Snshyne for putting your shoe in my ass.
SM owns all things Twilight. I own a few sets of ruined sheets due to some specific leaked pics….
7. Equinox and Acquaintances
BPOV
I didn't know how I would go about telling Jake that I was heading out that night. It had been a long time since we had done anything apart. But I figured I would tell him only partial truths and only reveal my plans to hang out with Alice and Rose. There was no need to involve Em, Jasper and Edward.
I wasn't expecting Alice until ten, so Jake and I ordered in some Chinese and were lounged out on the couch fencing with our chopsticks to get the last dumpling out of the box.
"Bells, you already had three," he snarled at me as he continued to flick my chopsticks away from the dumpling with his own, "one more will make you fat."
"Gee thanks, Jake," I pretended to be upset and stopped my chopstick fencing.
Jake stopped at that and looked up to see if he really had upset me.
"Oh, Bells I was only kidding. I'm sorry I didn't mean it."
But while he was distracted apologizing to me, I stabbed the dumpling with my chopstick and quickly brought it to my mouth and popped it in.
"You sneaky liar!" Jake sneered at me. I just smiled up with my cheeks puffed out and filled with a delicious pork dumpling.
Now that dinner was finished, I decided to let him know of my plans for the evening.
"So you know that new girl, Alice? The one I went shopping with yesterday?"
"Yeah, she must be great company if she managed to get you to go shopping," Jake laughed out.
"Yeah, she's great. Well, I'm going to go with her to a bar tonight." I didn't offer for him to come as I hoped he would get the slight hint that I didn't want him coming along.
"That's cool. I was actually worried you would be home alone because I didn't think you would want to come with me while I enjoy a real traditional college experience."
"You're going to a frat party aren't you?" I stated bluntly.
Jake chuckled. "Totally! I didn't think you would appreciate being in a house full of horny teenagers, and I definitely don't want you in there anyway. So go have fun with your girlfriends."
Yes, girlfriends. Not to mention a few guys. But he didn't need to know.
I was cleaning up the plates we had used when Jake walked out from his shower dressed in only a towel.
"Would you put some clothes on? Alice is picking me up and I don't need her exposed to all your glory the first time she meets you."
"What? Bells, you know I like to hang free after my shower for a while until I need to get dressed. Im heading out so I will be getting dressed soon anyway."
It was true. He did enjoy walking around in his towel a lot. Im surprised he didn't just walk around naked all day!
Jake came to stand by me in the kitchen and watched as I finished rinsing the plates.
"You missed a piece," he stated, as I looked up to see what I had missed and that's when he splashed a handful of suds at my face instead.
"JAKE! Are you kidding me!?" I screamed at him before grabbing my own handful of suds and drenching him.
"Hey! I just had a shower, so I'm clean. No putting dirty dish water on me. At least you can go shower it off now," he complained. I swear he was such a child!
The dish water had trickled down my face and had now settled on my tank. So I left Jake in the kitchen, laughing at my soaked form, to head for the bathroom.
I'd only just stripped down when I heard knocking on the front door. Damn Alice, it was only 8:30 and she was already here. I guess she didn't trust me enough to dress myself. I know she was very unimpressed with the clothes I wore to classes saying that there was no thought that went into any of them.
I left Jake to get the door since I was just about ready to hop into the shower. I hoped he would be nice to little Alice.
"Bells, you have company!" I heard Jake yell out.
I yelled back through the door, "Jake just let her in and I'll be out really soon!"
I hopped in the shower and made it a quick one, not wanting Alice to be subjected to Jake for any amount of time.
I figured Alice would want to blow dry my hair or whatever so I left it down and wet, hanging around my shoulders. I then wrapped myself in a fluffy towel before stepping out to the lounge to drag her into my room so she could help me get ready.
But when I stepped out, all I saw was a tall handsome figure with a mess of bronze hair standing in my lounge.
SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! I was only in a TOWEL!!
I wrapped my arms around myself feeling very exposed in that moment.
"Um sorry. I thought I would come to pick you up, but I should have called first… not that you would have said yes …and I'm early too…shit," Edward nervously prattled out. I think I was beet red by this stage.
"Sorry. I thought you were Alice. She's supposed to be picking me up."
"Um yeah, some guy let me in and then I heard you tell me to wait. So here I am waiting." He was looking at the floor and not at me. Probably because I didn't have anything on besides a towel.
Shit. Go put some clothes on. Geez!
There was an awkward silence for about ten seconds that felt like a whole hour before Alice burst through the door, no knocking.
"Edward Anthony Cullen," Alice sneered out, "What did I tell you! I should have known. I did know! That's why im here to beat your ass."
It was as if I wasn't in the room.
"Sorry Ali, I just...I don't know," and with that Edward ran out the door without so much as a goodbye.
Alice turned to me then finally noticing me. "Hi," she smiled sweetly as if she wasn't glaring at Edward like Satan just a second ago, "let's go get you all delicious looking."
Alice steered me to my room while I was still dumbstruck at Edward turning up at my door, with me only in a towel, and then him running out. Not to mention the confusing exchange between Alice and Edward. But I let my worries drown out as they were replaced by all the pulling and primping Alice was doing to my body.
By ten she was done with me and we were off to the bar, Equinox.
Alice had put my hair up into a messy sort of do and squeezed me into the tightest dress. It was a red, black, and grey geometric type dress, one shouldered with straps and one long sleeve. It was a little short, but I didn't have any cleavage poking out or a bare back, so it was actually quite modest. Although, Alice did force me into towering heels.
"Stop fidgeting and don't pull that dress down! It will only ride back up faster," she bossed at me.
We were walking to the front of the building after Alice parked in one of the reserved spaces at the side of the building. I went to line up at the back of the line, but Alice tugged my hand and led me straight to the front where the bouncer immediately let her pass.
"Evening, Ms. Alice," the burly man nodded down to her.
"Evening, Demitri. Is everyone already here?"
"Yes ma'am. I believe they are all seated in your usual spot."
Alice said her thanks and we made our way inside. It was so strange to be treated like someone of importance. I didn't know whether I felt embarrassed or giddy. A bit of both maybe?
Alice led us through a sea of people and towards an upraised section of the bar to the left of the stage. I could see a raised platform that was on the opposite side of the stage, that was the same as the one we were now entering - VIP areas. I was definitely feeling a little more giddy now. Between the two VIP platform sections was the dance floor with the stage in front and the bar behind. In our section there was only one person sitting there.
This woman could be in the middle of a photo shoot for all I knew. She sat so elegantly on the lounge, her blonde hair cascading down her back and off her bare shoulders, her candy pink cocktail dress set off beautifully by her nude pump shoes as her fingers nimbly ran up and down the side of a martini glass. She reminded me of a Bond Girl.
Once she saw Alice, she got up and greeted her enthusiastically kissing her on the cheek before turning to me.
"Rose this is Bella. Bella this is Rose," Alice introduced us.
Rose towered over me and the goddess gave me a judging look before giving me a weak embrace, but I didn't mind. Alice had warned me that Rose took a bit of warming up. Alice pushed me down to take a seat as she had to run off backstage to ensure all her bands for the night had turned up. This left me with Rose and the cold awkward silence. And to make the situation more awkward up walked Edward.
"Hi," he said to me in a tentative voice.
My god, did he look good. I didn't know how good someone dressed in dark denim pants and a black button up shirt could look. Not forgetting the pretty awesome Nikes he was sporting.
My brain automatically generated a 'hi,' as I finished my ogling.
Edward gave a curt hello to Rose before settling himself down next to me, leaving at least a foot of space in between.
"Look I'm sorry for just coming over earlier and sorry for just running off."
"It's ok. I should be the one apologizing for coming out looking less than decent in just a towel," I replied as I blushed from the memory.
"Oh, um.." he began before pausing to clear his throat, "No that was fine. It's your home, dress as you will."
I gave him a nod as the platform suddenly became crowded by the presence of three other people. Alice was there with who I assumed was Jasper. You could definitely tell that this was Rose's brother. He too was blonde and looked like a supermodel. We exchanged pleasantries before Emmett quickly interrupted.
"Bella!" he boomed out before lifting me up in a bone crushing hug. "So glad you could come."
"Yeah Em, I had to come and see if it was true," I panted out as air flowed back to my lungs.
"See if what was true?"
"See if it was true that you of all people have become the most successful of our group."
Em laughed at my response, but stopped abruptly as he looked over my left shoulder.
"Aww Rosie baby no need to get jealous. Little Bella here is like family," Em explained before going over to give Rose a bone-crushing hug and a big smooch. She giggled like a school girl and it seemed all anger was forgotten.
Everyone settled in for the night except for Jasper, who had ducked backstage to ensure all the bands tonight went on and off stage, and played their sets with no problems.
The others chatted amongst themselves and I could tell they were a tight group of friends. Rose and Alice would chat about clothes and the newest trends and the boys talked about some sort of sports that involved a ball. I felt a little left out and as if I was intruding on their circle of friends.
Emmett must have realized my awkwardness and began chatting with me to try and include me.
"Hey we're being rude. We should get to know you more. I expect you will be hanging around us a lot more from now on if Alice has anything to do with it."
I didn't want to feel pitied. "No it's fine. You guys catch up on whatever it is you talk about."
"I suppose I should give you the cold shoulder a bit for ruining my shirt the other day," Em said to me in a serious voice.
I couldn't help but begin to apologize for spilling the coffee on him, but he began to laugh and told me he was only joking. That broke the ice and suddenly everyone was talking to me. Well besides Rose and Edward; he was being rather quiet beside me.
Emmett was never one to be subtle at anything, and it was obvious he had not changed by the bluntness of his next question to me.
"So B, who's the lucky guy who has claimed you as his own?" he asked as he pointed to my engagement ring, which was shining rather obnoxiously on the hand that held my glass.
Everyone froze with that question. Rose glared at Em's bluntness. Alice went through a range of emotions, she glared at Em then looked sympathetically at me before looking worried at Edward. Edward had choked on his drink at Em's question and was silently trying to clear his wind pipes by beating on his chest.
I turned back to Emmett, who was staring at me expectantly.
"Oh we haven't been together for a while now. I guess I forget it's on most of the time," I frowned down at my ring as I worried about telling my new group of friends too much.
"It wasn't that tan kid we saw you with the other day was it?" Em pushed.
Rose gave him a smack up the back of his head as she could tell how the subject had made me uncomfortable. She gave me a gentle smile and I returned it to thank her.
"No not the 'tan kid', but I do live with him. His name's Jake." I hadn't realized Emmett had seen me with Jake that day and then he said 'we' so I assume Edward saw me with him as well. This was already getting a little messy with all the miscommunication, but tonight was not the night to burden all these new people with the sob stories of my life.
"Well we will bring him by next week, now let me take you backstage to check out the bands," Alice declared effectively pulling me away from the tense atmosphere that had formed after my evasive answers.
We met some of the bands, hung out with Jasper for a few songs, and it was during one of the songs that I decided I owed Alice the truth. She had been a really good friend up to now and I hoped we could be closer. We were sitting off to the side of the stage looking out on the band when I gave her an explanation.
"Look Ali, I know you're super curious about the whole ring thing."
She looked like she was going to stop me, but I shook my head and continued.
"It's Jake's brother. Well it was. Paul and I were together for about two years before he surprisingly asked me to marry him. I love him to bits, well I guess loved now. He died over a year ago."
It disturbed me how I now had to change things to past tense. It was things like this that I still did in my mind that forced me to keep the ring on and not move on.
Alice said nothing but gave me a loving embrace before turning back to watch the band, still holding my hand in hers for support. She really was a great friend.
On our return to the platform to meet back up with the others, I told Alice that I didn't mind if the others knew. I figured it would resolve some of the confusion. I went to the bathroom as she returned to the Platform before me obviously to inform them of what information I had just divulged. I couldn't say it to the group and have them all stare at me with such sympathy. I'd had enough of those stares when I was still in Arizona. And I couldn't be the one to tell them all because hearing it again would make it seem so final and so complete. I didn't want to answer any more questions about it, and I really just wanted to live this life in Seattle where I was surrounded by people who knew nothing about my situation these past few years. I wanted to forget all about Arizona, but at the same time I didn't.
One thing was for certain, I couldn't exist as a zombie any longer, I would have to wake up and start living again.
When I returned to the platform, everyone gave me a quick sympathetic smile, but I was glad it was only for a moment. Emmett began a discussion of how he had to kick two patrons out before we got there as they were going at it in the bathrooms. I was mildly disgusted by that fact. I mean, people go in there to do unsanitary things and there they were in there half naked? It was so very wrong!
Although none of the others seemed to have been as disgusted as me. Rather they giggled nervously and looked every which way. I had to wonder how many of them had done the exact same thing!
Emmett was definitely the night's ice breaker with the conversations.
"So Bells, Eddie tells me that your dad is Chief of Forks?" Emmett grinned.
"Yeah he is," I confirmed, but frowned out in confusion when everyone around me laughed out loud while shooting glances at Edward, who had stiffened by my side and was glaring back at all the others.
Seeing the confusion on my face, Alice tried to assure me "It's just an inside joke Bella, I'm sure you will learn it one day."
Well at least they were willing to give me the chance to get into the inner circle.
"Who wants another round?" Em asked loudly.
There was a collective murmur of 'yes', and he got up to head towards the bar with Rose following behind him. Alice and Jasper headed off backstage to ensure everything was running smoothly, and I found myself and Edward alone on the platform.
Neither of us looked at one another or spoke, and the tension in the air was palpable. We sat like this for a moment before he turned to me abruptly and went to speak, but I cut him off.
"Please don't," I whispered out.
He seemed a bit hurt by it and backed off.
"I'm sorry, I just really want to have a night out and not dwell on the past like I have been doing everyday for this past year, and I know we have to talk, but just not tonight," I pleaded to him.
"No it's ok. I understand. I guess we don't exactly know each other anymore, and you must have a lot of questions about what went down back then."
He was right. I did want answers and I did want to know the full story, but not tonight.
Tonight I just wanted to be someone else. I didn't want to be the poor girl who's fiancée died. I didn't want to be pitied. I just wanted another chance to live life, find happiness and maybe even love again one day.
Outfits -
www(dot)polyvore(dot)com/cgi/set?id=16054243
Music –
Covers that the various bands do on the night at Equinox
Oasis - Morning Glory
Breaking Benjamin - Evil Angel
Faber Drive - Tongue Tied
Hoobastank - The Reason
The Veronicas - Heavily Broken
The Wreckers - The Good Kind
