Chapter 10

Just as Bella pulled out of the school's parking lot, her phone rang with Ozzy Osbourne. She giggled and turned on speaker. "Hey Mom, I just left school."

"Oh right, high school. What's so funny?"

"Because you put 'Mama I'm Coming Home' for my ringtone, and I'm going home. OK, it's not that funny," she said over her mother's own laughter.

"But we're back in Jacksonville! Phil's team didn't make it to the playoffs this year," she informed her. "Maybe you could come for a weekend visit!"

"Isn't that like, a five-hour flight just from Seattle?"

"Oh, you're right. I guess a weekend wouldn't be much fun... How about Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah, that could be cool."

Renee went on about some of the things that she'd seen during her travels with Phil's minor league baseball team. Bella absently replied "cool" to her as she drove home, but she slammed her brakes in front of the old Lawson place.

"Bella! Are you driving?"

"The phone's on speaker," she sighed, neglecting to remind her mother that she had informed her this at the very beginning of the call in the first place. "Someone bought the old Lawson place."

"But not recently?" she guessed.

"Well, about a week ago. And today, Jessica said that her cousin's brother-in-law said they bought a new car, well actually an old Stingray I think?"

"Oh wow, I wonder if it was Charlie's?"

This sentence completely derailed Bella's train of thought. "My father owned a two-seater convertible?"

"His was a hard-top, what color is theirs?"

"Well that's the thing! It's not here!"

She chuckled. "He must be pretty cute, huh?"

Feeling her face flush, she replied, "They are both cute, yes, and probably extremely happy and in love with each other."

"A hot young gay couple? Forks must be screaming with gossipy glee."

Since this was true, Bella didn't bother acknowledging it. "I guess I can call Jessica, or maybe just go to the gas station and ask if they went someplace..." she thought aloud.

"Well, I was going to ask how school was, but clearly you have something far more important to focus on."

"Oh, come on. School is fine, they're letting me teach yoga again." The first year she started high school, her father and her doctor gave her signed slips recommending yoga rather than any real gym class, and a lot of the other girls got interested. The only time she'd ever interacted with Rosalie Hale had been last year during that class. Technically, she didn't have to take gym this year, but it counted as team-leading for her college applications, as well as "sports." Last year it had only been during her gym hour, but this year, since she had taken some AP classes in subjects that Forks High went no further in, she had lots of time. She was also taking an online class in English Romantic Poets, and had entered a contest about Wordsworth. The prize was a two week trip to the English Lake District, so she was crossing her fingers hard on that. She finished the drive home while telling her mother about it.

"That's like, Lake Windermere? Oh, wait, no, that's the fan."

"Lake Windermere is one of the lakes, yes. Oscar Wilde did write a play called Lady Windermere's fan, yes," she said in the patient tone she used when her mother was confused about something.

"That sure would be great if you won! Maybe we could make it our trip, even if you don't win."

"That would be great," agreed Bella.

"So aside from the hot gaybors, are there any boys on your radar?"

"Um, not really. There's some juniors taking the yoga class, but I'm pretty sure one of them is gay, and the other just wants to stare at girls doing downward-facing-dog. He won't last."

"I bet. I tried yoga for a while, and I'm really impressed you've been able to stick with it all this time. It's really not easy! I bet the flexibility is easier for sixteen-year-olds, huh."

"Probably." She looked around the kitchen and started on a tomato sauce that would take about two hours to mellow properly. They were out of pasta, so she decided as soon as the sauce was ready to simmer, she'd go to the supermarket.

"What about Charlie's friend Billy? Doesn't he have kids your age?"

"Well, you know, Rachel and Becky aren't around anymore, and Jacob is almost two years younger than me."

"So he's sixteen or seventeen?"

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, can I call you back? I want to chop some onions."

"First tell me how hot Jacob is."

"Mom! We practically wore diapers together!"

"Fine. Does he have any cute friends?"

Sighing, she replied, "I would say that Embry is cuter than Jake, but that's probably because of the diaper thing. Objectively speaking they are um, both kind of beautiful."

"Pics or it didn't happen. Bye Bella, love you!"

"You too mom," she grumbled, stabbing the power button.

Chopping of onions commenced. Garlic, fresh basil and oregano from the kitchen herb garden, bell peppers, and one carrot. She didn't bother bringing it to a full boil after adding the canned tomatoes; it would cook down either way. Plenty of time now to figure out where Jasper and Edward had gone. "Gaybors?" She wondered what her mother had been watching.

Besides pasta and a few other groceries, she had no luck at the supermarket. Oh, every woman at the store knew who she meant, but they hadn't seen them buying much. The gas station was even worse, since a young man was working and had no idea. Finally, she tried Mike Newton - or rather, the store his parents ran. She felt a little bad, as after he and Jessica broke up, he had made it quite clear that he was interested, although politely when she didn't seem to pick up on his subtle-but-consistent overtures.

But hell, apparently her mom wanted her to date, and if Jessica didn't mind maybe it wouldn't kill her. Maybe.

"Welcome to Newton's, how can I be of - Bella?" Mike was as shocked as anyone would be at seeing Bella Swan in a sporting goods store. "Uh, does your dad need more fishing line or something?"

"No, um," she laughed at herself, "actually - can you keep a secret?"

His eyes widened. "Yeah, of course," he said, making his voice quieter. "What is it?"

She whispered, "So you know the guys who bought the Lawson place? Edward Masen and Jasper Whitlock?"

"Yeah, they bought some camping stuff yesterday. They said they were going north for the weekend. Are they already gone?"

She leaned close to his ear; she could hear his breathing get louder. "They took a two-seater."

He gently took her by the shoulders so he could look in her eyes. His pupils dilated so widely that Bella could barely see the blue of his irises. "That Stingray Jess mentioned? Seriously?" He looked up and to the right for a second, then said, back in his normal voice, "Well, they're a couple, they probably share their tent and everything." He was trying not to frown, thinking about it, then looked back at Bella. "You think they aren't camping. You think it's a cover for something? I mean, they could just be hiking, whatever." He suddenly seemed to notice he was still touching Bella, and slowly removed his hands back to his sides.

"Right, but why would they lie about it?"

Mike shrugged. "Believe me, people lie all the time about all kinds of stuff for absolutely no good reason. Sometimes people are telling the truth when they come in here, but sometimes they can't be, and they don't even seem to care how obvious it is." Suddenly he turned back to look Bella in the eyes again; his pupils were a bit smaller than before. "Do you think they aren't even an actual couple?"

She hadn't, but now that Mike mentioned it - "Think about it. Two attractive guys come to town, buy a one-bedroom, everyone assumes they're gay, right? But what if they just let people think it? What if the secret is even more damaging?" As the daughter of the police chief, she was well aware of how damaging being known as gay could occasionally be in a small town. Forks was reasonably accepting of people who lived there for their entire lives - community sticks together - but there were always small minds everywhere.

Mike was clearly enthralled, with her or the story, she couldn't tell which. "Is that why came in here?"

"Well, I figured if anyone had noticed something, it would be you," she lied freely. Not that Mike was an idiot - they'd had plenty of advanced classes together - but it wasn't like she'd counted on him to make up such craziness. She'd seen them together - they looked at least as close as brothers, or like Rachel and Becky. Not exactly like Renee and Phil, not obviously still madly in love, but as if they'd shared their life so long they knew each other. Was it possible for two straight men to act that way, who weren't twins? She didn't know, but she would find out.

"I did notice something else weird," he said idly.

"Oh?"

"Well, so, they're from Quebec."

"Right..."

"But they have the same eyes as the Cullens, who were adopted.

Bella stared at Mike. "What?"

"That same amber-honey sort of color. I remember thinking how weird it was."

She managed to say, "That is kind of weird." But she was remembering that they both had brown eyes - Jasper's brown like hers, Edward's so dark you couldn't make out the pupil. Contacts? But were all of them wearing contacts? That was silly; none of the Cullens were actually related to each other. "You didn't mention the Cullens to them, did you?"

"Uh, well, actually, the younger one asked me if I would recommend Carlisle Cullen..."

"Really?" Now that was weird. "What did you say?"

Mike actually blushed. "I said they should ask you, since, well, you know."

Since she saw Dr. Cullen more than any normal human ought to, especially after the ice accident. "Yeah, I'm not offended, it's ok," she said, trying to laugh to make him comfortable.

"Well I didn't know if you were sensitive about it. I mean you started teaching yoga to avoid gym..."

"I like yoga, Mike!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, really." She smiled to show it.

He smiled back. "Hey, Bella, you know something?"

"What?"

"I think this might be the longest conversation we've ever had that wasn't school related."

She wasn't sure that was true, but there was physical contact, which would definitely make the memory stand out in the future. "I hate to break it up, but I've got dinner on the stove."

He shook his head. "I mean, yeah, go ahead, I just hoped we could have another conversation some time."

She flipped her hair. "That could be nice."

He grinned. "You busy tomorrow?"

"Call me."

His grin got wider. "Thanks for coming to Newton's, I hope you found everything you were looking for!"

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AN: You want more updates, well here you go! Bella/Mike!

This will just be a quick detour. I just wanted to make it clear that Mike Newton is a reasonably decent person, just not in a universe with Edward.