I hate Edward's Aunt Bonnie. No, seriously, I do. Apart from giving me the job, which I admit, I am thankful for, she hasn't made a good decision since.
In addition to the horrible Sing-A-Long Sunday idea, she now had the bright idea to lease the building directly next door and open an arcade. This wouldn't have been such a big deal if the owner hadn't agreed to install a door between the theater and the soon-to-be-arcade so that patrons of both the theater and the arcade could enjoy the concession stand.
When she came into the theater during my shift to break the news to Edward and I, she kept going on and on about revenue streams and cross merchandising opportunities. All I heard was how much fucking more work I would have to do.
Apparently Edward was just as displeased as I was, though it wasn't the increased work that had him sour – it was the increase in workers.
"You can't be in two places at once, Edward," Bonnie said when he'd balked at the news of three new hires. "Plus, I need someone who knows how to work on those large arcade-style games. Lord knows I don't have a clue how to do it."
"This is a bad idea," Edward shook his head.
"Edward, remember what your parents said? All change isn't bad. Plus, I promise not to hire anyone without your input," she said to appease him.
"Pshh," he rolled his eyes and looked over at me. "That's what you said last time."
"Oh, don't be a brat," she swatted him playfully before addressing me directly. "He adores you. His sister told me-"
"I said she was tolerable!" Edward yelled. "That hardly means I adore her."
"Yes, well, nobody else I've hired has been tolerable to you, so in my book, that screams of adoration," Bonnie winked at me.
I offered her a fake smile, because let's face it, true or not, being "adored" by Edward is no prize-winning feat. Though he does have a good pair of hands on him, and those lips…
"Isabell?"
"Huh? Um…yeah?" I asked distractedly. I really had to set this broad straight on my name.
"Would you be interested in learning the closing responsibilities for the theater? Because if Edward would be willing to close the arcade once it's up and running, I wouldn't have to hire another person on the night shift. We don't really need another body on the night shift, and that's your only availability during the week." Bonnie reminded me.
"Yeah, that's cool," I shrugged.
"Great!" she exclaimed. Then she tapped Edward on the chest, "you'll train her this week, and then I'll train you on what I want you to do in the arcade."
"I'm not closing every weekend," Edward complained.
"Of course not. I'll trade off with you," Bonnie smiled.
Something about the way she handled Edward made me think that she was only telling him what she thought he wanted to hear. It was a thought that became a bona fide fact a week later when we met the first of three new co-workers. And unlike Bonnie had promised, Edward had had no say in the matter.
Ronnie was a small, thirty-two-year-old "gamer" who took one on-line course at the community college each semester just to keep his dad – whose basement he lived in rent-free – off his back. He was lazy, cocky and knew a shit-ton about video games.
Edward hated him immediately.
It took three days for me to start hating him.
"1980."
I looked up to see Ronnie standing in front of me with the most ridiculous grin on his face.
"What?" I frowned.
"1980," he said again.
"O-kay," I rolled my eyes when it became apparent that this string of numbers was supposed to mean something to me.
"Betcha don't know what happened that year," Ronnie went on.
"It was the last time you had pussy?" Edward muttered as he walked behind me.
I laughed so hard that I snorted, but since Ronnie hadn't heard Edward's statement, he took my laughter to mean that I couldn't possibly know what happened in 1980.
"That's the year Pac-Man came to the United States," Ronnie told me.
"Oh really?" I quipped with disinterest.
"Yep. Of course it was released in Japan first under the name of Puck Man, but I wonder if the United States was afraid that people would associate it with hockey so they changed the name."
He might have said more, but I think I fell asleep from boredom at that very second.
And if I thought I had it bad, Edward had it even worse. Ronnie tried to practice some outdated version of "bro-bonding" with Edward and he couldn't have been further off the mark on how to communicate with him.
"Dude, did you see that Baywatch marathon last night?" Ronnie followed after Edward as he moved from the cash register to the popcorn machine. "Man, Pamela Anderson is smokin' hot, right?"
Edward didn't bother to answer.
"Oh, Yasmine Bleeth more your type? Yeah, she's hot, too."
Again no response from Edward and I looked up to see him eyeing me like he was going to kill somebody. No, not somebody; Ronnie.
"He's a quiet one, isn't he?" Ronnie asked me, pointing to Edward. "Doesn't like to talk about girls or games."
I kept my comments to myself, but Edward saw the way my smile betrayed me, and I saw him smirk too when his back was turned to Ronnie.
Finally. Finally Ronnie took the hint and went back onto his side of the wall to monitor the video games and probably play a few.
"If he doesn't stop talking so much, I swear I'm gonna punch him in the mouth," Edward exhaled.
"That sounds a little ghetto, even for you, Edward," I laughed. "But yeah, I could definitely do without all of his nonsense. Though, if I had to choose, I'd rather hear him talk about Ms. Pac Man than Babewatch, because at least then I don't have visual images of him beating off to an electronic cheese wedge."
"Ugh! Thanks for that!" Edward exclaimed with no gratitude. "Now I need brain bleach."
"Oh, come on. Like you weren't thinking it."
"I wasn't."
"Seriously? The way he was going on and on about watching the girls in that show and you didn't once think about him buffing the banana a time or two?"
"Yes, because that's exactly what I want to think about. Ronnie, sitting on the floor with his pint-sized dick in his fist," Edward spat out.
Yeah, now that he'd put it that way, even I was grossed out at the fact that I'd brought it up.
"Buffing the banana?" Edward stopped in front of me fifteen minutes later. "Where do you come up with this shit?"
"Urban dictionary. You should try it sometime. It might give you some ideas for categories you can use on your website."
At the mention of the website, Edward clammed up. He kept his distance and didn't say anything more to me for the rest of my shift.
It was a little odd, and I wasted way too much time that night thinking about it. But I knew we were working together every day that week and I figured he'd get over whatever was bugging him by the next time we saw each other.
But the next day at work, I was too distracted by a new development to tell if Edward was still pissy or not.
Ronnie had gotten a new co-worker.
And it was Alice's curly-top.
And that mother-fucker was cool as hell.
He told me his name was Jasper, and I didn't let on that I already knew. Instead, I made fun of his name a little because, let's face it – Jasper? Anyway, he also knows a lot about video games, but in a non-creeptastic way, unlike Ronnie.
In the first two hours of working together, I learned more about Jasper than I'd learned about Edward in more than two months. Of course, Jasper spoke with an accent, so it was obvious that he was from down south. This led to a conversation about why in the hell he'd move to Port Angeles, Washington.
"Ever heard of a city called Dellview?" he asked me.
"Nope."
"I'm not surprised. There're only about 25 people who live there and I'm related to 95% of 'em."
"Is that some kind of hippy commune or something?"
Jasper let out a hearty laugh at my question and proceeded to tell me that Dellview was some tiny town in North Carolina.
"My daddy owns a few car dealerships out this way, which is why we moved here," Jasper went on to explain.
"You still call your dad 'Daddy'?" I questioned.
Jasper looked at me with wide eyes. "Well not to his face!"
His facial expression told me that he was joking, so it was my turn to laugh.
"So if your dad owns car dealerships, why work here? Why not just work for him? Or even better, why not just sit back and bask in the spoils of his plunder?"
He shrugged and it was the first time in two hours that he looked completely serious. "My daddy's money comes with a price tag that I'm not sure I want to pay. So I'm just workin' on seein' what it feels like to earn my own way."
Edward walked by then and 'accidentally on purpose' bumped into my chair.
"Oh, didn't see you there. I didn't realize you were working since I haven't seen you do a damn thing all night," Edward sneered at me.
I rolled my eyes and ignored him, but Jasper quickly stood up to return to work.
"Don't mind him. He's always like that," I said, waving off Edward's attitude externally, but internally I was afraid that I had somehow destroyed what little camaraderie I'd developed with him and that we'd be back to how things were when we'd first started working together.
"I don't want to get you in trouble," Jasper nodded in Edward's direction. "Plus, he's the boss's nephew, so…"
"Actually, he's kind of the boss. Assistant Manager," I flipped my own title-less nametag as I spoke.
"Okay, well, then. Back to work."
As Jasper walked away from me, I wondered about the silent agreement that we'd entered into. I didn't ask any questions about Alice and he didn't offer any information about her, yet I knew that he knew who I was and had seen me with Alice at school.
He was probably just as secretive as she was, and I left it at that.
"What's your problem?" I asked Edward when it was just he and I on the theater side. Edward had sold approximately four tickets that evening. It was an unusually slow night. Too slow for him to be acting as if I'd left him high and dry in the help department.
"My problem is that I shouldn't have to do all the damn work myself when someone else is scheduled to work with me."
"What work?" I asked, looking around. I'd cleaned the lobby two hours ago and it was still in tip-top shape. "Nothing needs to be done."
"I thought you and Alice were friends," he said the words as if he'd pulled them haphazardly out of thin air.
It took my mind a few seconds to register the fact that he'd changed the subject.
"Hello, random."
"It's not random. You've spent the entire evening flirting with your so-called friend's boyfriend."
"Okay, first of all, that wasn't flirting, and second, is Jasper Alice's boyfriend?"
Edward clammed up then, as if he'd said too much.
"Oh come on; don't hold out on me now," I insisted. "What's the deal with those two? I've never even seen 'em so much as stand next to each other, but she can spot him a million miles away. Like he's got some kind of homing device on him or something."
I waited for Edward to answer my question, but he tossed a dirty rag at me instead and it landed on my arm.
"Hey!" I yelled.
"Make yourself useful for once and clean the counter."
"Fuck you, Edward."
Yeah, something had definitely gotten ruined between us along the way, but when, and why? I had no idea.
I managed not to have another encounter with Edward until later that night. He was practically invisible until it was closing time, when he appeared to show me what all needed to be locked up. At just about the same time, Jasper's shift was ending so he came over to tell me goodnight before he left.
"I'm workin' tomorrow, so I'll see ya then?" Jasper asked.
I nodded in answer to his question before glancing over at Edward in time to see him glaring at me…or rather at Jasper.
"Dude, chill out," I told him after Jasper had walked away. "What's your problem tonight?"
Once again, Edward acted as if I hadn't spoken. He went around performing his nightly closing routine, and it wasn't until I was about to head out to my car that I remembered that he was supposed to be showing me how to close down the theater.
"Hey! I yelled at him when he bypassed me on the way to our respective vehicles.
"Let me guess…you ran out of gas again? Shall I run and tell Jasper that you'd like to ride him…oh, I mean that you'd like him to give you a ride home?"
"Fuck you, Edward." I didn't have time for this. I was tired and hungry, and frankly, I didn't want to deal with issues with Alice if Edward told her I was hitting on her boyfriend – which, for the record, I wasn't.
Jasper was just a nice guy. He was funny and easy to talk to, but I wasn't into him. I'm not sure why, except that I guess I liked Alice enough not to want to see her hurt in that way. She was crazy about the guy and I knew it.
And Edward knew it too, thought he wouldn't tell me how he happened upon this knowledge. Instead, he took my expletive as our parting words for the evening and the next time I saw him he was sitting in his usual seat in Physics willing himself to be invisible to the rest of the world.
I, on the other hand, was paying attention, for once.
It all started late last week when I took a quiz in Physics and, since I'd been doing the homework, I passed. Then I took a test and passed. Suddenly I had a passing grade in Physics – a real passing grade, not like that courtesy D- teachers throw seniors just so they'll graduate. I'm talking a real bona fide C; a C so high that if I squinted, it was practically a B-.
So yeah, all of a sudden I was really protective of that grade, hence the reason I was paying attention in class. And as I was paying said attention, I listened as the teacher began explaining a project which was to be thirty-five percent of the final grade… and then he said the dreaded words…
Group project.
Since the class was not a very large one, "group" meant "partner" and we had to pair off with only one other person. I watched as three other guys had the same idea I did. We all looked over at Edward as our first choice. I looked because he was the only person I knew in the class. The others looked because everyone knew about the large letter "A's" written in red Sharpie marker that always adorned Edward's homework and tests. He didn't flaunt them, but he didn't hide them either. The Physics teacher was one of those dense people who dropped all papers to be returned on the desk of the person who sat in the first seat of the first row and watched as the papers filtered throughout the rest of the class to their respective owners. Needless to say, despite my recently raised marks, everyone had seen enough of my "D's" and "F's" to steer clear of me. Which is probably why Edward wasn't exactly seeking me out either.
I waited until he so eloquently shot down the other guys' partner requests. Two of them he simply ignored until they went away and the third – I think I heard him growl at him. That's when I made my moved.
"I'm doing my project alone," Edward said when he saw me shift into the desk beside his.
"That's an option?" I asked, considering it for myself.
Edward shrugged his shoulders.
"Well if you don't know if it's an option-"
"It's an option for me. I don't know if it's an option for you."
"How is it an option for you and not me? How does that work?"
Edward heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes – or eye. I could only see one.
"No," he said simply.
I couldn't tell if I was hurt because he blew me off like the rest of these bozos or that, after all this time he still didn't consider me at least partially as a friend. Whatever his aunt had been talking about when she said he "adored" me was a bunch of bull. Like I said, I hate that woman.
"Fine. But you'd better hope you don't need a favor someday," I told Edward as I moved away from him.
"Pssh. You owe me a million favors already," Edward spat back.
I looked around the classroom at who my other prospects were and the outlook was grim. For starters, it appeared as though everyone else had paired off while I was having my little tête à tête with the goth spawn. Add to the fact that I might have had the lowest grade in the class, and the chances of anyone volunteering to partner with me were slim. Almost as slim as the odds of Edward owing me a favor.
So color me surprised when the oddest turn of events put him at my mercy by the week's end.
We worked together all week and Edward was uncharacteristically "charming". On Thursday, Alice actually stopped by to see Jasper. She came over to say hello to me as well, but she and Edward acted like they didn't know one another. It was odd, but then everything concerning Edward was, so I didn't give it much thought.
I couldn't give it much thought because the arcade had brought in the town's youth and we were actually busy. I was manning the ticket booth and Edward was behind the concession stand because he said I was too slow. I didn't mind. The foul way he treated the middle-schoolers was kind of entertaining. He flipped them off when they weren't looking, insulted them in a way that they didn't even recognize and completely ignored them when he'd had his fill of their stupidity.
But when Edward continued to be a prick, even to the kids who weren't being jerks, I was less entertained and more worried. Suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore.
"Hey, you want me to take over back here? I think I can handle it. It's dying down," I offered as I stepped up to the popcorn machine.
"No," Edward shirked my offer and continued to move about behind the counter. I was just about to leave when a small blonde boy, about thirteen years old, came to the counter and ordered a soda. He plunked down his money to pay the inflated price but then made the mistake of changing his mind on the kind of soda he wanted.
Then he asked Edward to half fill the cup with cola and then fill the other half with lemon-lime.
I couldn't even blink before the kid was covered, head-to-toe, with soda.
"Edward!" I called out, flabbergasted.
Edward chucked the cup across the room and then stalked off toward the staff area, leaving me to make nice with the mess he'd just made.
I quickly gave the kid a towel to dry off with, before sending him on his merry way with a free soda and the largest box of candy I could find. I don't know who or what I was protecting, the theater, my job or Edward.
"Dude, would you like some cramps and bloating to go with your fucking PMS?" I asked when I found Edward slumped down in a seat in the makeshift break room.
"Who's watching the counter?" Edward scowled up at me.
"Oh don't act like you care about the customers now, Edward," I crossed my arms in front of me. "You just dumped a 32-ounce cup of soda on that kid in there!"
"So."
"So?"
"What the hell is wrong with you? I didn't say anything earlier because you get pissy with me all the time, but…that kid? And he wasn't even one of the punks from earlier. What's going on?"
"This is all your fault, you know," he said in an eerily low tone.
"My fault? How the hell are you going to blame this on me?"
"Be your own person, Edward. Fuck them and their meds. You shouldn't take 'em," he mimicked my voice.
"You quit taking your meds?" I asked with wide eyes and a smile. "That's great, Edward."
"No, it's not great!" he growled. "I haven't taken them in almost a month and now I'm all whacked. Things aren't working the way they're supposed to."
"The mood swings? Is that why you've been so angry?" Now it was all starting to make sense. He seemed to have one or two less zits, too.
Edward's answer was to sigh and lean over the desk, resting his forehead on his arms.
"Are you feeling sick?"
"No."
I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I pulled my fingers in an upward motion through the hair at the back of Edward's head. I was attempting to be soothing and it must have worked because he didn't tell me to knock it off.
So I did it again. I raked my short fingernails against his scalp, taking notice of the untinted, reddish roots that caught my eye.
I was partway through my third downward stroke when Edward's words finally resonated with me.
"Wait, what isn't working?" Halfway through the question I already knew I wouldn't be getting the answer, so I didn't take much offense to Edward swatting my hand away from his head.
"We have to get back to work," he grumbled.
I followed him out to the lobby and groaned inwardly when I saw the few loitering kids, hoping to see a repeat of Edward's earlier tantrum. When Edward didn't acknowledge them, I stepped up to the counter and filled it while Edward shuffled back over to the ticket counter.
We worked in silent tandem for the rest of our shift. Edward made no crass remarks to me, not even about Jasper, who'd called in sick for the evening. In accordance, I didn't call him Satan, Lucifer, Crypt Keeper or any of the other nomenclatures (SAT word) I had for him.
"Maybe it just takes a while to get out of your system," I suggested quietly as we each took a turn retrieving our jackets from the break room.
"It's been almost a month," Edward said stoically beside me.
"Well…maybe you have to try different things to…you know…get in the mood."
"I've tried everything," Edward emphasized.
"What do you mean you've tried everything?"
"I mean I've tried it all. Nothing makes a difference."
He'd tried everything? I mean, I knew he'd probably tried jerking off, watching porn, listening to the sounds on his website (which in a roundabout way means that he was listening to me), but everything insinuated that he'd taken matters out of his own hands and involved someone else.
There was someone else. A not-me someone else.
I mean, I knew we weren't exclusive or anything, but … well if there was someone else, I should know about that person, shouldn't I? I have a right…right?
And speaking of rights, why didn't he ask me to help him out with this "little" problem? Pun totally intended.
"Did you ask your dad about it?" I asked.
"Why would I do that?"
"Isn't he a doctor?"
"How'd you know that?"
"You told me."
"No I didn't. I said I lived with a doctor. I never said it was my dad."
"Oh. Well I just assumed." Uh-oh. I needed to be careful or I was going to reveal the fact that I knew a little more about Edward than I'd let on. "Well I wouldn't suggest you ask your mother about this."
"I wouldn't suggest that I ask either of my parents about this, since I don't want them knowing I quit taking my meds. It's sort of…not up to me. At least not until my eighteenth birthday."
"When's that?"
"June."
Well, he definitely had a few months until that was an option for him.
My mind was spinning with the numerous things I wanted to suggest to Edward and as I tried to focus on a prominent thought, I noticed that Edward had yet to pack up his laptop that was sitting on the table across from me. I quickly took a seat in front of it and navigated to the only search engine I ever used.
"What's the name of that medication you were taking?" I asked. Edward knew immediately what I was doing and he supplied the name without a fuss.
"You're not going to find anything though. I already looked it up," he said.
"It doesn't say anything about impotency?"
"I'm not impotent!" Edward raged.
"So you can get it up?"
Edward's features morphed into a mask of absolute hatred before he flung his jacket over his shoulder and headed for the door. I grabbed onto his arm.
"Hang on. I'm not being a smart ass. I'm serious…" I waited until he had calmed down and was looking at me. "Can you?"
He hesitated a moment before shaking his head that he couldn't.
"Well…"I considered my words carefully. "I'm sure it's just temporary, Edward. And whomever the girl is that you were with will probably forget all about it by the time you're…functioning again."
After I was finished speaking, it was really quiet and I looked over to see Edward smirking at me in irritation.
"What?" I asked.
"You're pathetic." And then, before I had the chance to offer up some lame excuse for what I'd said, he countered, "If you want to know if I'm with someone, just ask me. Don't try all your little head games."
"Fine. Who were you with?"
"No one."
"But you said you tried everything."
"Well, within reason. I obviously can't try that if I can't…you know," Edward gestured below his waist.
His words gave me hope – for him, not for me.
"Edward, if everything you've tried is on your own, it's no wonder it's not working. I mean, you can't trick yourself into being turned on."
"I've never had to trick myself before. Maybe that's shit girls have to do, but guys are guys. See a naked picture? Bam! Turned on."
"That's what turns you on? Seeing a woman naked?"
Edward looked me up and down for a moment, like he half expected me to start stripping right then and there.
"No, not just seeing a naked body, and not just any body." He shuddered at some imaginary image.
"Well what gets you hot?" Come on, tell me."
Edward opened his mouth and shut it several times. Then he walked over to his computer, closed it down and moved to the door.
"We can talk outside. I'm not talking about this shit in here, though."
Outside was actually in the front seat of Edward's car. He started the engine and turned on the heater and the two of us sat in silence for a good ten seconds before he turned the question around on me.
"What gets you hot?"
I hope he didn't think I was too shy to answer that question or something.
"Sex, plain and simple. Like, hot, wet, dirty sex. I also like it when guys are vocal, when they use both hands and when-"
"Both hands?" Edward interrupted.
"Yeah, like…well you did it. When I was sitting on your lap that time and you put both hands up my shirt…I like that. Or, when you did that G-spot thing that one time and you used both hands…like that."
Edward shook his head as he held back laughter. "Do you always talk about sex like you're talking about what you had for breakfast?"
"Hell yeah," I told him. "I refuse to be ashamed of the fact that I like to fuck. It's my business and anyone who has a problem with it can just shut the fuck up. I mean, it's such a double standard, you know? Fuckin' chewing gum companies use sex to sell me fuckin' gum, but when I want to hook up with some body, suddenly I need weekly therapy. What the hell is that shit?" I looked over to find Edward staring at me like I'd just made the Theory of Relativity make sense to the common man. "So…your turn."
"Is it hot in here to you?" Edward fiddled with the heater.
"Why? Are you getting turned on?" I asked hopefully.
"No, which means something is definitely wrong because what you just said would… well it definitely would have done the trick."
"Maybe you need more than words. I've been told I give great head," I hinted. I didn't really want to give Edward head…
…Okay, that's a lie. I did, but not as much as I wanted to see his cock. It was starting to be like the major show attraction behind the velvet curtain – too much speculation and not enough action. I just wanted to see it already!
"I can't," Edward said. "I already told you…"
"Just let me try."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because."
"Is this a pride thing?"
"Hell yeah it's a pride thing. You're not going anywhere near the Major when he's not at attention."
"The Major? Original…not."
It was getting late, but oddly, I didn't want my time with Edward to end. I kept trying to keep the conversation going, but he wasn't cooperating. However, he wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to get going either.
After another half-hour I reminded Edward that he'd never actually answered my question about what turned him on.
"Lots of things turn me on," he said vaguely.
"Like this?" I lifted my shirt and flashed him unexpectedly.
"Mostly I'm turned on when girls aren't trying to turn me on," he told me. "Though there are some exceptions," he mumbled.
"Like what?"
"Well…like if you're making out with a girl and she's really going at it…putting a lot of effort into it – I guess that's a turn on."
"You sound like a girl."
"See, that's why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd say that shit."
I laughed. "I'm only messing with you. I enjoy kissing and stuff. It's just rare to find a good kisser. Guys can't kiss worth shit."
"I'm a great kisser."
"You think you're great at everything."
"I just know what I've been told." Edward smirked at me and I knew he was joking…I think. Either way, it made me curious.
"When you stand at the popcorn counter, when you're waiting for it to start popping, and you kind of chew your bottom lip and stare off into space…that's kinda sexy," Edward revealed suddenly.
I wasn't expecting him to say anything at all, let alone something so, for lack of a better word, sweet. It left me momentarily speechless. But then I didn't want him to think that I'd had a problem with what he'd said, so I rushed to fill the chasm of quiet between us with random words.
"I know what else you're good at. Physics. And I desperately need a partner…"
"Ugh," Edward rested his head against the driver side headrest. "I told you I work alone."
"I'd do it alone, too, if it wasn't going to affect my participation grade. Come on, Edward. I'd help you."
There was a moment of contemplation while Edward pretended to consider what I'd asked. He finally relented, but only under the condition that we do no work outside of school hours.
Fine by me.
I sighed and craned my neck to get a look at the clock on Edward's dashboard. I knew that if I didn't get home soon my mother was going to call in the FBI to look for me.
"Well, I'd better get going," I told him.
"Yeah, me, too."
But neither of us moved. And then I did something really weird.
I leaned in for a kiss.
And even more strange – Edward returned the action and our lips came together over the swanky center console of his Cadillac Coupe.
And he wasn't lying.
Edward was a great kisser.
It was as if his lips were long lost puzzle pieces, finally rescued from afar and being welcomed back where they belonged. His caress was forceful and passive, needy and giving, rough and soft, selfish and compromising, torrid and sweet. It fed me and made me hungry for more at the same time – I couldn't get enough.
Tentatively, as I indulged on what Edward was offering my mouth, I moved my hand to rest on his knee. When he didn't break his stride, my fingers crawled a little higher on his thigh. I kept up the ascension until my palm was at his crotch. And then, while partaking of a searing kiss from Edward, I slowly began to rub the area where his erection should have met my touch.
Only it didn't.
Despite that, I didn't stop rubbing, and Edward didn't ask me to.
At least, not until I went for the snap on his jeans.
"Bella. Don't." He moved my hand away.
It broke our connection, but only temporarily. We went our separate ways that night, only to come together again the next night, and the night after that, and every night for two straight weeks. Each time, we tried something new as we both became more and more desperate to see Edward restored. Whatever he asked of me, I did. Fondling myself; pinching and pulling my nipples; masturbating with the vibrator while he watched; letting him touch me while we watched porn on his computer in the backseat of his car; touching him (over his underwear) while we listened to some of the earlier recordings we'd made.
None of it made any difference, except that Edward was growing more and more angry and less and less hopeful for any permanent solution to his problem. I was trying to be as optimistic as I possibly could, but secretly, I was beginning to think that the medication had permanently damaged Edward.
"Maybe if we try-"
"Just fuckin' forget it, Bella, okay?" Edward bellowed after two weeks with no improvement. "Just shut the fuck up about all your little lame-ass moves and techniques. It doesn't work. None of this shit works. I never should have fuckin' listened to you in the first place. Like you ever know what the hell you're talking about."
Edward completely ignored me during our entire shift, and if that wasn't bad enough, he joined forces with Ronnie and made snide remarks at my expense all through the night. I planned to confront him as soon as we locked up the theater, but Edward stomped off to his car and left me reeling with unshed aggressions.
I'm used to Edward's tantrums, and I understood the motivation behind his words and actions; how scared and alone he must have felt. But that understanding still didn't stop the words he'd assaulted me with from stinging a little bit…okay, a lot.
My lame-ass moves and I moseyed on back to Forks, where I made up some dumb excuse about having allergies to explain my red eyes and foul demeanor to my mother. I told her I felt wiped out and that I just wanted to go to bed. No, I wasn't crying over Edward. It's just that he'd made me mad, and my eyes always water and get red when I'm mad.
Nonetheless, even though I'd lied about why I was feeling the way I was feeling, I was exhausted and I went to bed pretty early, only to lie there for a good portion of the night plotting my revenge on Edward. I had finally concocted a halfway decent scheme of retribution when my cell phone rang at nearly eleven o'clock that night.
"Bella?" He voiced in a tense whisper.
"Oh hell no," I cursed. There was no way he was going to call me, after the way he'd treated me, and offer a simple 'I'm sorry'. There was absolutely nothing he could say that would make me give him the time of day at this hour of the night.
"I…uh…I think I'm cured."
"What?" I sat up straight in my bed, instantly forgetting that he was my sworn enemy.
"I'm cured," he repeated and this time I could hear the excitement in his voice.
"What do you mean you're cured? You're…"
"Yeah."
The neighbor's dog started barking then and it was as if I was hearing it in stereo.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Sitting in my car across the street from your house. Can I come up?"
I wanted to tell him that what he could do was stick his now erect penis up his ass and hightail his multiple-personality-disorder-having-self back to Satan's lair where he belonged. I wanted to tell him that he couldn't be my friend one minute and then treat me like a leper the next. I wanted to tell him that I didn't give a flying fuck that he could actually fuck now. I wanted to tell him a lot of things, but I couldn't possibly focus on that and how to get him into my bedroom without my mother waking up.
"Yeah. When you come along the back of the house, it's the first window on your left," I said.
I pushed out my screen and pushed open my window wide to welcome Edward and The Major into my room.
