A/N: I am soooooo sorry this took so long to get posted! I was having problems with writer's block, working all the time, and...writer's block! lol...I kinda knew what needed to happen but didn't know how to get there...but I'm really happy how this chapter turned out :D
Anyhoo...like I said, I'm really sorry that it took me forever and a day to get this thing posted...please forgive me??? :C
Well...I guess if you're still reading this, then you've hopefully forgiven me :)
Welp, enjoy! :D
If there were a record for the shortest elevator ride ever, this death box would have to take the credit. I swear the thing had to have been on speed or something because it took no time to get down to the first floor from the third. Either that or I was just extremely nervous to get to our destination…yeah, I think I'll have to go with that answer. Sorry record books, maybe next time.
I actually started to feel a little dizzy stepping off the elevator. Maybe I really am sick, I thought as I very slowly made my way out of the stupid speedy box. My stomach began to tighten and I was getting worried. Suddenly I started to feel better as I leaned against the wall next to me and took a deep breath. Oh right, I should breathe. Breathing is good, it keeps me alive… and not to mention conscious, I thought as pushed myself off the wall before Alice could notice that I was lagging behind.
I followed Alice to the lobby of the hotel, where I assumed we would meet the rest of the family, who hadn't shown up yet, to go eat somewhere. Actually, I had no idea where we planned to eat. I hadn't taken the time to ask.
"Hey Alice? Where are we eating anyways?" I asked her as we settled down on a couch in front of a large plasma TV that we probably had no intention of watching.
"Oh! Did I not tell you?" Alice asked. I apparently gave her a look that answered her question because she continued, almost not even stopping to take a breath. "This hotel has a full restaurant downstairs. Mom and Dad had a private room in the back reserved for our first and last meals here…to, you know, say hello to the city and goodbye to the city," she said with hand motions and voice inflection on the last part.
I laughed. "Oh, okay. So, it's kind of like prison," I said with a smile on my face.
"Sure, if you want to see it that way," Alice said with a laugh. "We might actually eat here some nights throughout the trip…but if we do, we'll have to sit in the dining area with the rest of the people," she said with fake disgust on her face.
"Oh dear! How will we survive?" I said with overly dramatic hand movements.
A subtle throat clearing behind us interrupted our laughing. We both turned our heads at the same time to see who it was. I silently gasped and turned my blushing face down to my lap as Edward made his way around the couch to a close by chair and sat down. I looked through the corner of my eye in his general direction and noticed how much more interesting that chair looked when it had a thing like that occupying it.
Wow…that chair looks so sexy right now. The things I would do to that chair…Bella!! Snap out of it! Now try and act like a human being and engage in conversation! I thought angrily to myself.
I finally forced myself to look up at them, although making sure not to make direct eye contact with Edward, and tried to catch up with what they were talking about. After about 5.7 seconds of trying to understand their conversation, I gave up and turned to the TV in front of us, which was on some news channel. I stared boringly at it until suddenly I saw a finger make its way into my line of vision, right in front of my face, and headed straight for the tip of my nose.
"Oh my God!" I said startled, with my voice going higher on 'my' than the rest of the phrase. I tried to focus on the finger in front of me, but it was too close to my face, so I ended up looking like cross-eyed idiot that nearly fell off the couch.
Edward and Alice just sat there laughing as I composed myself. I looked over and couldn't help but laugh with them.
"Are you okay there, Bella?" Alice asked between her laughs.
"Yeah, I think so. What was that about?" I asked while I shot glances at Edward.
"You kind of spaced out there on us. We thought you were just interested in the TV but you just stared at the same spot and we swear you blinked maybe twice in the minute or so that we sat here just watching you."
I turned a horrible shade of red as I thought what I might have looked like in that sixty plus seconds that they both observed me. Although, I really wasn't too worried about what Alice saw. She's my best friend; she's seen me at my worst. But Edward? My stomach tightened at the thought.
I nervously tucked my hair behind my ear. Just play it off like you're okay, I thought to myself.
"Oh, so you're watching me now, huh? Just admit it…you can't get enough of me," I said, acting extremely full of myself.
"That's it! You've got us," Edward said holding his hands up as if to surrender. I was actually surprised he answered but I gladly welcomed it.
"I knew it," I said with a cocky smirk as I brushed the invisible dust off my shoulder.
Just then, Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett came up behind us and said that we should head toward the restaurant.
Edward was the first to move, stepping over to lend a hand to both Alice and I. We each grabbed a hand of his and he pulled us off the couch. This isn't so bad, I thought, I'm handling this much better than I imagined.
And then I looked at him. I mean, we actually made eye contact and realized that I was not handling this okay, that I had just been avoided looking at him. I blushed, once again, and looked at the floor as I mumbled my thanks.
I followed the group, standing in the back, in silence.
Okay, I really have to snap out of this. It was just a stupid mistake with his boxers. He probably doesn't even remember it by now or even care for that matter. I just have to stop being so stupid about this! I thought to myself as I stared at the floor.
After a quick elevator ride (stupid elevators), we made it to the restaurant. I looked around at the place and immediately felt underdressed.
"You look fine," Alice whispered, obviously noticing my nervous look around and then the tug at the bottom of my shirt. I did my best to smile back at her and felt better after I saw that the others were dressed similar to me.
The maitre d' (yes, this place had a maitre d') took us toward the back of the restaurant, which is where I assumed was this 'reserved room' Alice talked about. People watched as we walked by and it made me a bit nervous. But then again, everything was making me nervous tonight. The almost overly friend man opened the door and held out a hand to tell us to go ahead into the room. I smiled, shyly and nodded as I walked past him along with the others.
"Wow," was all I could say as I saw this room. It was beautiful inside with a long conference-like table in the middle. This room had obviously been used for special occasions like parties or when the Pope came to town.
"This room is beautiful," I whispered to Alice as we went around to the other side of the table and took our seats. Edward began to take the seat in front of Alice, who was to my left, but Emmett swooped in and took it right out from under him.
"Thanks bro," he said with a sly grin on his face. He knew exactly what that meant which is why he was grinning so much. Unless Edward wanted to sit on the other side of Emmett, which I don't think he would and it put him further than necessary from the family, than he would have to sit directly in front of me.
I shot Emmett a glare and he just beamed smugness back at me. He's going to make this as difficult as possible, isn't he? I thought as Edward, without hesitation but a bit of confusion, took the seat in front of me. I sighed. Well, he would be Emmett if he didn't.
I turned my attention to Alice and we began talking. Nervousness took over me again as I thought about ordering food. I'd never liked ordering food at restaurants unless I was with Charlie or Renee but that wasn't the case here. I asked Alice about the menus and she said that they were having sort of a 'catered meal' and that made me feel much better.
A few minutes later, the food arrived and holy cow, am I glad I didn't miss this! Just the wonderful aroma from the food made my mouth water. I'm couldn't see what main part of the meal was, but I saw mashed potatoes and that automatically won me over. The wait staff placed the food throughout the table as my stomach loudly growled. I blushed immediately as I looked around at the others and became very thankful that either no one heard it or was choosing to ignore it. Either option was fine with me.
Carlisle had everyone join hands as he said a prayer before we all dug in. He mentioned being thankful for 'guests' and even though everyone's eyes were closed, I knew their thoughts automatically went to me, which made me blush…again. As soon as 'Amen' was said, we all looked up and began to pass the food around. After everyone had gotten the dishes passed around, we all started to eat. I glanced down at Emmett and he had a full plate of food, half of which was already gone. I blinked, confused and then looked down at everyone else's wondering how he was already half done when most of us looked like we hadn't even used our forks yet. I rolled my eyes, turned back to my own plate and began eating.
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Once we were all finished with our amazing cheesecake, which I was very excited to see as our dessert, we sat at the table talking. Alice and I started to talk about shopping, more Alice than me, when Carlisle's phone started ringing.
"Oh, Carlisle," Esme said, sounding disappointed. "I thought I told you turn that thing off."
"I know. I told the hospital they could call me, but only if it was an emergency," he said standing up to take the call away from the table.
Esme gave a disapproving look but motioned for him to take it anyways, probably thinking that if it were an emergency, she wouldn't keep him from it.
I watched Carlisle walk toward the corner of the big room, pacing back and forth while on the phone. A few minutes later, he came back to join us.
He looked at Esme sympathetically before announcing that he had to do a conference call tonight, which meant that we wouldn't be able to do any family activity on our first night there.
"I'm really sorry," he said. After noticing he was mainly looking at me, I spoke up.
"Oh…no, no…that's fine. I bet Alice and I can figure out something to do." We both laughed. Knowing us, we were going to have a blast tonight, probably without even leaving the room.
"Yeah, it's okay," Emmett said, speaking up. "I was hoping to maybe watch a boxing match on TV tonight anyways. Anybody else want to join?" After a few seconds with no response, he spoke up again. "Come on people! Good quality fighting right there…two men punching each other in a box? I mean, who doesn't love boxers?" he said, finishing with a raised eyebrow and a smirk towards me.
My face immediately went red. I'm not sure whether it was embarrassment or rage but I swore that if he weren't such a big guy, I would've taken him out right then and there.
I stole a quick glance up at Edward and I saw that he was trying to contain his laughter. There was something else about him that seemed weird though. Is that a blush? Is Edward Cullen blushing??, I thought as I finally looked up at him. Esme looked around at us and then at me with a look that said 'Am I missing something?' I just rolled my eyes and started to stand up like everyone else was.
I saw Edward give Emmett a playful shove out of the corner of my eye. Well, if I really do decide to kill Emmett at some point this summer, at least I'll have help, I thought as I stole one more look at Edward before he caught me. I recovered quickly though as I suddenly engaged in conversation with Alice about shopping.
ta-da!!!! chapter eight is done!! Now, I just have to get chapter nine done and posted! woot!
I'm moving back to school on Thursday so I'll have better internet there and maybe more time to write...it's hard to write when I'm here at home cause the only time I get complete quiet is at least after midnight! :( so maybe I'll have a better chance at school...let's hope so :)
oh, and also...I don't know if the Cullen's pray (cause they said a prayer before eating)... oh well, I'm saying they do! lol...
alrighty, you know the drill...reviews?? XD pretty pretty please and thank you?? :)
