Chapter Eight
They set me up. The whole bulletproof glass, no visitors in the room, and seeing him all bandaged up? It was good. I mean, I almost bought it. But see, they made a mistake. The doctor was too calm. They should have picked someone else to portray him. He wasn't convincing enough. Through all of the third-degree burns and skin graphs and surgery talk, he slipped when he said Edward had a 35 percent chance of survival.
That's when I laughed. I knew they were full of it.
"You're funny," I told the doctor. "But you're also a lying sack of shit. Edward's fine. I bet that's not even him in there."
So I banged on the glass. I yelled and screamed and kicked and told Edward to wake the fuck up. That he promised me we'd go to the park today. That he wasn't getting out of this just 'cause he couldn't hang on to the monkey bars as long as I could. That we had to stop by Alice's house on the way 'cause she borrowed my shoes and never returned them. How we only had another week before senior year started, and I wasn't taking Trig without him. And how Mr. Garrett hated me anyway, and he'd probably fail me on purpose. So he needed to get up. Take off the bandages. Rip out the IVs. Stop fucking around 'cause I couldn't take it anymore.
"Do you hear me, Cullen?" I hollered, tears running down my face. "Get your ass out of that bed! I promise I won't even be mad. You win. Best prank ever. But you can't lay there 'cause we have to go. Call your mom and tell her we're on the way. Tell her we'll pick up Paul and Leah. Tell her you're a fucking moron, and you're sorry, and we'll even take the kids to the park with us. Tell her how we'll let Leah go down the slide first 'cause that's her favorite, and we'll make sure Paul doesn't throw his basketball in the tree again, and we'll bring her some ice cream and how none of this is true, and you're fine, and you're gonna wake up and how you're not gonna leave me 'cause I need you… and…"
When my words lost their strength, so did my legs.
Mom caught me before I fell to the floor. She rocked me side to side and whispered lies that everything was going to be all right. Her deception brought red spots to my vision. What did she know? She was no psychic, no clairvoyant with the ability to see the future. Crystal balls could be shattered. It was those who were left to bear the tragedy of misfortunes that were cut the most. I tuned her out. I didn't want to listen to her; I wanted Edward.
I wanted his goofy smile, the one he made when he knew he'd eaten the last bag of potato chips. I wanted his laugh. It was the laugh that made me laugh, and no matter how down I was feeling, it cheered me up. I wanted him to run his fingers through my hair and to tell me how red it was in the sun. I wanted to go home and curl up and watch a movie and sprinkle way too much salt on the popcorn just because I knew he hated it.
But what I wanted was irrelevant.
"Bella, honey, we're going home now."
Dad shook me awake, stirring me from a slumber I so desperately needed. I rubbed my eyes, feeling the strain on my neck from an uncomfortable chair I never remembered lying on.
"We can't leave," I mumbled, stretching my legs. "What if Edward wakes up?"
Dad's eyes shifted to Mom, then back to me. "He's in a medically-induced coma. He's not going to wake up for a while."
"But he's going to be all alone!" I protested, balling my fists into anger. "We can't leave him here." Why did they insist on abandoning him? Didn't they see he needed us? He had no one. No one at all.
"Police tracked down his family," Mom explained. "They were unable to find Edward's biological father, but he has a brother that lives in Forks. That's Carlisle and his wife, Esme."
I frowned as mom pointed to a couple talking at the nurse's station. "Who are these people? How come I've never heard of them or seen them before?"
Dad sighed and patted my back. "Bella, that's their story to tell, if they decide to. For now, you can go introduce yourself, and then we're going home. It's late."
I looked at my watch. It was almost midnight. We had been at the hospital all day.
It wasn't long enough.
"But-"
Even in the midst of tragedy, Dad never failed to surprise me. The stern look on his face told me I didn't have a choice. I groaned and stood up, following my parents to the strangers. We waited patiently as the nurse had them sign paperwork.
"Carlisle? Esme?" The couple turned around, replacing their sad looks with a fake smile full of pity. I hated them already.
"I'd like you to meet our daughter, Bella," Dad said, pushing me forward. "She's Edward's… Edward's…"
No one in Forks ever knew how to finish that statement. Love of his life seemed too extreme, so I settled on something less dramatic.
"Best friend," I said, filling in the silence.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Carlisle answered.
"Hello, Bella," Esme chipped in.
He and Esme both were wearing dressy clothes, and though they were wrinkled, I knew designer labels when I saw them. The distaste in my mouth grew by the second.
"Where have you been?" I asked bitterly.
"Bella!" Mom gave me a sharp glance, but I ignored her.
"No, I would like to know. I think everyone would like to know. Ms. Lizzie struggled every day of her damn life trying to feed three kids and put a roof over their heads. Now they're all dead and you think you can show up wearing Gucci and a gold Rolex and fix everything? Edward doesn't even know you! And he hates his father for what he's done. So by extension, he'll hate you! So please, give me one good reason why you should be here!"
Esme's red eyes watered, and she stepped forward as if she were trying to soothe a child throwing a tantrum. "Bella, I know you're angry. You have every right to be. Trust me. I wish we could have met under different circumstances. But we didn't even know Edward existed. Billy and Elizabeth ran off and got married, and we hadn't heard from them in almost 19 years. They shut everyone out. We didn't know about the children. If we'd known that… If we knew Elizabeth was even in Forks…"
"Lizzie," I interjected. "She prefers to go by Lizzie."
Esme nodded and continued. "Yes, Lizzie. I'm sorry. What I'm trying to say, Bella, is that we were kept out of the loop. Your dad told us how they divorced after Edward was born, but Billy kept popping back in out of nowhere. Then Lizzie had Paul and then Leah to raise all by herself. Trust me when I say that if we had known, Edward would've never struggled a day in his life. None of them would have. And so for us not trying hard enough, we are sorry."
Her words hit me like a ton of bricks, its weight crushing me to pieces that would never be whole again.
I wanted to hate them, to despise them for the awful life Edward had lived. I wanted to punish them for their ignorance, but I couldn't. I wasn't angry with them. Not even at Edward's dad, Billy, or at Ms. Lizzie for making poor life choices.
I was mad at the fire. I was furious at an entity that I couldn't control.
And that rage, I couldn't let it win.
Otherwise, it would fuel flames not even water could contain.
Who else feels bad for Bella? :(
