Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight, I wouldn't live in the shittiest town in England.
Chapter 10
Changes everything
I see his grin before I see anything else, and for some reason I sprint up to him and jump into his arms.
"It feels good to be loved." He says, squeezing me when I make to let go.
"You're back."
"You noticed."
"It's hard not to - I mean, you're so tall."
"I'm also very handsome."
"Well, there's that too." I can't stop the grin on my face as I stare up at Jake. His happy eyes trigger something inside of me, something good and pure. He knows that I'm happy he's back; he doesn't need me to say it.
"Ruh-roh." He says, with a comical loosening of his collar. "We should probably remain a safe four feet apart, looks like someone isn't very happy with our friendliness."
"Is that all this is to you Jake? You're breaking my heart here."
"Don't even joke," he says, with a slightly forced smile, "I don't want to get beaten up again." I turn to look over my shoulder, and catch Edward's glare, just as he looks down at his shoes.
"Ignore him, he's an ass."
"Oh, sweetness, I know that...But are you sure you do?" I frown at him.
"I thought you said you didn't want to get beaten up again?" He puts his hands up in surrender, backing away just as Rose strolls up.
"s'up beeyotch, nice shiner you've got there."
"Ah, Thorn, your beauty and sweetness continues to baffle me." He responds, but with his joking tone lies an underlying respect and almost fear, as if by saying this he is taking a gamble, how she might not take his sarcasm that well.
"Be gone, before I make your face symmetrical." He smiles at me and then disappears into the masses of kids trawling up the school steps. "Well, he's a cutie, Chimes, but he's no Old English."
"You have no power here." I say, in a mystical voice, although there is a hint of touchiness to my tone.
"The auditorium – 4:10." She says and walks away; we are late today, and the crowd from the bike racks has mostly dispersed. I start to leave, not wanting to be outside alone, especially with the flock of cheerleaders at the base of the steps.
A hand snares around my arm, suddenly I'm spinning, and then my back is up against the wall. Back here we are almost hidden from view. Almost.
His nose grazes mine, his chest presses close enough to feel my heart beat, my feet are between his, his fingers laced through mine.
"Stop doing this to me." I hiss, but I don't sound convincing.
"Bella." Is all he says before his mouth covers mine, soft and slow. I struggle to breathe, and the breath that does escape, leaves as a moan. I pull him closer, melting into him. He's warm and hard, and his lips are perfect.
"Mr Cullen, Miss Swan, I do believe that school has begun." I push my hot face into Edwards neck.
"Sorry, Mr Banner," he says, pulling me up off of the wall, and trailing me behind him. "We got carried away." With his tongue in his cheek, Mr Banner leaves.
"That was so embarrassing." I say into Edward's shoulder blade. His chuckle vibrates my body. He hauls me forwards, leading me up the steps.
"How do I taste, Freak?" I stop in my tracks, one foot on the step, the other on the ground. I spin around, but Edward's hand restrains me from lurching forwards.
She's there, with her posse. She hasn't approached me alone; that makes me smug.
"Why don't you ask the entire football team?" I say, leaving my face blank, pushing my anger down, feeling Edward's thumb stroke the inside of my wrist. She grits her teeth together.
"You should watch your back."
"And you should stop spending so much time on yours." It's now that Edward pulls me away, I notice that he doesn't say anything in Tanya's presence, and it hurts me. Once through the doors he spins me around.
"You have to be careful." He says, and with his eyes closed and his agonised face, I don't argue. He leans down, and his lips brush mine once more. And my heart skips a beat. I wonder for a second if I'm dying, if this feeling I get when I see his face as he worries for me means that I'm having some kind of stroke.
I instantly hate myself; because I'm not that girl. I'm like Rose. I'm strong, and I don't need flowery emotions to keep me going.
"I knew this would happen." I struggle to say as my nose prickles and my eyes get glassy.
"What's wrong?" I bite my lip and push him back.
"Kissing someone you care about changes everything." And then I'm gone, because I want to pick up my words and somehow stuff them back into my big mouth.
What was I thinking?
Was I crazy?
I seem to ask myself this quite a lot. So I'm guessing that answers my question.
...
Biology is rough. My whole body is tense, and I can feel the warmth radiating from the thigh pressed up against mine.
Nothing has changed.
His pretentious handwriting begs me to answer, so I pick up my pen.
You know nothing.
He stares at the paper for a long while, and I suddenly wonder if perhaps I have broken him.
I know you.
This time I take the paper and scrunch it up into my pocket. He doesn't know me – no one knows me.
"Are you coming tonight, Old English?" I hear the voice and look up.
"I have things to do." He answers and Mike blinks as if this is the first time he's heard this answer.
"Well...uh...you're coming though, right Chimes?" My eyebrows furrow. "To my party?" I think of Charlie at home, and how we avoided each other the entire weekend. It will be nice to get out.
"Yeah, sure." His face breaks into a ridiculous smile, and I wonder if in his head, I've just agreed to marry him.
"Here's my address."
"You can go with me." We both turn to face Edward, who hasn't looked up from writing his notes.
"But I thought you had things-" this time Mike's voice is wary, and I suddenly pity him.
"My things are with Bella. If she's going, so am I." Mike sits with his mouth gaping for a bit, before he sees the disgust on my face, blushes, and turns around.
"You don't own me." I say to him, but don't look at him.
"No, but you own me." And then my heart is doing that thing again.
...
At lunch, I sit with Jake. Edward scowls at me, but the further I am away from him, the less I feel like I need to rip my own hair out. But it also means the less at peace I feel.
Being with Edward is like being in the rain, except I'm wearing a conduit and the lightning is striking me over and over again. The good thing is, I can't overload on anger when I'm with him. The bad thing is, my body wants other things instead.
"How do you feel?" I ask Jake, because Edward's glare is making me warm inside.
"Dandy, and yourself?" But he winces when his bottle scrapes his bust lip.
"You don't have to act like the big man."
"Ah, but I am the big man." I roll my eyes and eat my food.
"She's staring at you again." Alice says from on top of Jasper, who appears to be asleep under his beret. Her tiny chin points to Tanya.
"We had a run in this morning."
"Did you hit her?"
"I'm not that unstable, Rose."
"I know - it's just funnier if you hit her."
"I think maybe we need to talk," Edward says, and I almost groan, because I don't want to talk. But then I realise that he's looking at Rose, Jazz and Alice. Are they talking about some kind of elitist Freak meeting? That's cool, and yet, if it's about me I'm going to be a part of it.
"Don't think you'll be talking about me behind my back."
And then he does that thing again, the strange prophesying intelligence that sounds so unnatural coming from his hooded eyelids.
"Chimes, you'd be there anyway." Jasper says and when Jake and a few other boys who have been eavesdropping catch their breath, I realise just how serious and important that is.
It means that I'm one of them now, not just part of the Freaks. Jake looks at me and his eyes look a little sad, like he can't talk to me anymore. I think of his wary expression as he talked to Rose, as if she were about to knock his head off. I don't want that. I return his gaze and try to express that nothing is different. But his stare only softens a little.
"Tonight," Alice says, "before the party, that way, we can get dressed together Bella!"
"Great?" I say, a little scared.
...
It doesn't pass my notice that people are looking at me differently now, obviously something very monumental happened today; whether that was a result of befriending Alice and Rose, or by kissing Edward.
If so, then I was right. Everything changes when you kiss someone you care about.
My God! There I am saying it again!
Stop it!
'Care about?' What am I, a pussy? Gah!
By the time I'm sat in Edward's car at the end of the day, I feel strange, like somehow I don't deserve to be treated like I am. I mean, I've been here just a few days – and yet so much has happened. So much is different. It's like I arrived here one person, and quickly morphed into another.
It doesn't feel good.
And yet, old Bella was unaccepted and had no friends. She had no kisses, or parties to go to. Most of all, she had no Edward.
And that was suckish.
"You okay?" He asks as I watch Alice devour Jasper in a strange fixation through my window, her legs wrapped around his waist, one of his hands on her ass, the other on the back of her neck. I give my head a shake.
"Yeah, my head just hurts a little."
"You don't have to go to this party tonight you know, besides, it will end really late, and you'll be tired for school tomorrow."
"You don't have to try and talk me out of it," I give him a scathing look in the rear view mirror. "I'm going. I'll be fine. Just, don't let me drink too much, okay? If you think I get angry easily sober, you have seen nothing." He sighs heavily, looking as if he wants to protest me drinking at all, but he sees the quirking of my eyebrow and drops the subject, just as Alice launches herself into the car.
"Jesus, watch the upholstery."
"Thou shalt watch thy own upholstery."
"I hate you."
"Whoa! Stop!" Edward stops pulling out of the parking lot as I scramble to undo my seatbelt. "Shit, I forgot Rosalie's practice." They both roll their eyes at this one and Edward starts the car up again.
"None of us actually go to that shit." I make a disgusted sound and open the door whilst the car is still moving. Edward yells in protest but I cut him off.
"I promised." I say, slam the door of the car and walk away.
"7:00 at my house!" Alice calls from out the window, "Don't be late, sweetness!" she gives me a saccharine grin out of the window as the car drives past. I don't look at Edward.
...
By the time I find the auditorium, they've already began - Rose isn't in this part. I slip in a few rows from the stage; there are a few people dotted around on the seats, but I decide to sit as far away from anyone else as I can. I sit cross-legged on the fold down, aisle seat, placing my bag on the one next to me. I slip my glasses out of my bag, figuring I want to see everything as clear as possible for Rosalie's sake; I'm a little short sighted.
I grab my notebook and pen out of my bag, and then I twist my hair up on top of my head, securing it with a pencil. I note the actors, their character traits, their memorable lines; seen as I don't know their names, I record them through appearance. For example, pug girl – her face is all smushed up, like a pug.
Turns out, Rose is amazing; she plays the lead character, Acacia. From what I can tell, the play seems to have been written by one of the drama teachers; it's funny, with Shakespeare similarities, but in a modern way. Rose, knows exactly how to deliver each line; the perfect tone, the perfect facial expression, the perfect pauses.
She's rather ingenious, and perpetually fascinating to watch. Whilst I should be focusing on others, I can't help but watch her reaction, how she acts in the background with no insecurities.
With her stage makeup and simple costume she looks like a completely different person; so much so, that I start to forget that I'm watching Rose. Instead, I'm watching the funny, sweet, intelligent, slightly self-deprecating Acacia, with gorgeous flowing blonde hair, and sea blue eyes that stare deep into you.
This is why, at the end, I burst out in applause. Even though there are only a few other people in the huge hall; I can't help myself.
Rose is distracted, looking to the far row of seats, in the opposite direction to where I sit. I wonder if she's looking for me.
When her eyes finally meet me, she looks shocked and then incredibly pleased. She jumps off of the stage and saunters around to meet me.
"Well?"
"Yeah, you suck. Did you not hear me heckling?"
"Oh, was that you? I thought it was just the voice of friendship, shouting how fucking awful you are at it." I smirk at her.
"You were spectacular. No word of a lie – I couldn't keep my eyes of you the whole time." This is when her face lights up, and I am granted for the first time a true look into the beauty of Rosalie Hale. Her perfect white teeth full on display, her smooth skin wrinkled around her twinkling cerulean eyes, perfect blonde eyebrows carefree and arched and her face exposed from heavy black makeup.
"You look so cute with your little glasses." She says with a snigger, and suddenly she's back again.
"Fuck you."
"Anytime, gorgeous." I roll my eyes and she pulls my notebook towards her. "What's this?"
"Oh, I just took some notes for you. It's just about the other characters, maybe if you want to let them know about a few things that they could approve on...it's probably a stupid idea, but I figured I might as well do something productive whilst I was here."
"Where am I?"
"Don't be like that; you know you delivered your role perfectly."
"Honestly, Bella," she says, and I see the hint of insecurity in her eyes, "I need your opinion."
"You were mind blowing." I say sincerely, tapping my knuckle against her knee. She beams at me. "So, you ready to go? We've to be at Alice's at 7:00." She looks over my shoulder for a second.
"Uh, I've just got to go backstage for a second. Meet you out front?" she looks a little suspicious, but I don't question her, I just pick up my bags.
"No probelmo, Acacia."
"Oh and Bella," I turn around to look at her happy eyes, "Thank you. For writing the notes, for what you said and for showing up. It means a lot to me." I roll my eyes but smile.
"Please, I just did it so I wouldn't have to pay the ticket price to come watch it opening night." But she smiles at my sarcastic lie, and rolls her eyes back.
"Whatever, whore."
"Hurry up, bitch."
...
"Uh, Bella?"
"Yup?" She looks me up and down, and suddenly I'm self conscious.
"I mean, you look lovely but...this is a party." I look down at my shirt and skirt, figuring this is what someone would wear to a party.
"Yeah?"
"Well," Alice says, pulling me into her house, "this is a Freak party." I notice that she hasn't even started getting ready yet, in fact she's in a bathrobe, with a towel wrapped around her head.
"So, I should have dyed my hair green and pierced my face?" She sighs heavily and drags me upstairs.
"No, but Freak parties tend to require something a little more...daring, and a little less punch and cookies." I glare at her, and just as she's about to drag me through her door, someone snakes his arms around my waist.
A kiss to my neck. Mmm, he smells good.
"What do you want?" I spit out, and I feel him chuckle against my skin.
"You can have her for the twenty minutes it takes me to dry and style my hair, but then I need her. Tick tock, Old English." She slams the door with a disgusted grunt, just as Edward spins me around.
"Hello beautiful, you're looking particularly...beautiful." He smirks; I notice his words are a little heavy. I hit his chest, walk around him and stroll into his room, taking a seat on his unmade bed. I lean back on my elbows, shuffling so that my feet just dangle off the end and my shoes fall off onto the floor.
"Alice says I'm not dressed appropriately."
"Alice shmalice," he says, with a cheeky grin, coming over to the bed. He puts one jean clad knee on either side of my legs, climbing up so that he's hovering over my body. "You look delicious." He bites down on my neck and his head wobbles a little.
"Oh my God, you've started drinking already haven't you? You bastard."
"Well, Mike only lives a ten minute walk away, and Tex brought tequila." I roll my eyes.
"Of course he did." I push his shoulders back as he starts to sway forwards a little. "And where is dear Tex?"
"He's downstairs with Rose in the game room, they have a bet on the pool table. Sibling rivalry." His words sound sleepy, and I suddenly wonder if this party is a good idea.
"Edward, maybe you should have a little water before we go, you don't want go catatonic at Mikes, especially on a school night."
"Aw, listen to you, getting worried about me." He pushes forwards now so that I'm lying back and he's floating just above me. I sigh heavily.
"I am not carrying your ass back from Tadpole's." He kisses my neck again, and I can't help but tangle my fingers in the soft hair at the back of his neck.
"What did Charlie say?" He says, because apparently tipsy Edward is random.
"Nothing, we're not really talking. I just said I'd be out late and he grunted."
"Don't worry, I'll look after you." He says to my neck.
"I don't think you can look after yourself right now."
"I'm very helpful." I chuckle and roll him over; it's harder than I thought it would be, because he's fumbling like a toddler. He huffs when I push off of him.
"Stay," I order, like I'm talking to a dog, "while I go and get ready."
"Don't you want me?"
"What?" Did I suddenly turn into the guy and Edward suddenly turn into the girl? Wasn't he the one that told me we should just see where it goes and not get into anything serious? But then I realise he's not saying it in a whining voice, he saying it with a smirk.
"Don't you want me baby! Don't you want me, Ohhh oh oh oh!" Oh dear God. I just leave the room, leaving the door open a crack. "Call me!" He shouts after me, before chuckling to himself.
Stupid drunk Edward.
I turn to escape as soon as I open Alice's door, but she catches my arm.
"Oh no no, missy, welcome to Salon de Alice. Here you have your hair and makeup section, and right here we have your outfit for the night; a sexy blue leather dress and some navy studded heels...why are you looking at me like that?"
"Alice, I'm not a hooker, I'm not going to wear a leather dress."
"Dude, fuck you, that's my dress. I was going to let you wear it." Rose comes out of the bathroom then, her hair piled on top of her head; a short towel wrapped tightly around her but her makeup is dark and immaculate, with her black eye shadow fading into deep purple and ending in a point at the side of her eye. She looks like a devilish cat.
"Put it on, ungrateful child." Alice says, throwing it at me, "and then I'll do your hair."
"By the way, your brother is wasted already." She groans.
"He does that, he'll crash ten minutes into the party, and then he'll be fine. I don't think he likes being that drunk in a party full of barely clothed girls."
"...Why not?"
"There's another reason we call Edward Old English; We know that he fucks a lot of girls, but he'll never talk about it. He doesn't want to get so mortled at a party that he would do a girl and have everyone know about it. He makes her seem special; it's a little sweet, in a perverse, disgusting kind of way."
"Rose!"
"What? I said it was sweet!"
"He fucks a lot of girls?" I squeak, sitting down on the bed so that my dress reveals too much pale thigh.
"Well-" Rose starts but Alice shoves her.
"Not recently, he's been a little more preoccupied of late." I sigh and then let them attack me with numerous devices, slathering colour onto my face.
Somehow, in forty minutes Alice has managed to dress not only herself, but me too.
We stand and look in her full length mirror; I wink dramatically, Rose growls and Alice pouts like a glamour model, just as the camera snaps the photo. She prints it off quickly and sticks it to her collection.
I can't help but stare; there we stand, a short girl with inky black hair, standing up on its end, covered in different brightly coloured ribbons, her fluorescent yellow dress hanging off of one shoulder and sliding down her body.
Then there's the spectacular Rose, in a blood red playsuit cut too low to be modest; she looks deadly, with tanned legs that seem to run on forever and ice, white blonde hair, hanging pin straight down to her waist.
And then there's me, with my eyes looking deep and huge shrouded in heavy eyeliner. The blue dress clings to me like a second skin, and the studded heels aren't really necessary, what with me being tall already - but I comply, because I'm worried Alice will murder me. I have chains around my neck and my hair is a thick tangled mess. I look like a rocker, and I'm pretty sure, for this kind of party, it's a good thing.
I wonder for a moment, why we're going through so much trouble for a party? I mean, it's just one night! But Alice and Rose seem to think that getting this dressed up is no big deal, actually they act sort of casual about the whole thing.
"The boys are in the living room; we need to have our talk and then we'll walk down to Tadpole's. The guy's a cretin, but his parents are rarely home, so he holds some awesome ragers." Alice's voice calls me from the hall, and I take one last look in the mirror, before sighing and walking out.
"Ready?" Rose asks me, with a slightly evil grin.
"For the party?"
"No, for the horny drunkness that is Old English. He's a dog when he's wasted." I feel myself blush beneath my makeup. "Plus, when he sees how fuck hot you look, he's not going to be able to keep his hands off you." She winks as we walk down the stairs. Then she stops dead in her tracks and looks at me warily. "Don't get anything on my dress."
"Of course I won't." I say, confused at the turn of topic.
"No." She says, and suddenly I can see a little glint of mischief in her eyes. "Don't get anything on my dress. No matter how into it he gets." I stare at her for a moment and then when it finally clicks, she cackles at the look of horror on my face.
I shove her down the last few stairs, but she only laughs more.
"Just for that, I'm making you no promises." Her laughter stops then and she shoots me a dismayed look.
"You know, I started it, but I've managed to repulse myself. You win."
"Hell yes, I do." I say, with a smug glance over my shoulder, before strutting into the room ahead of her.
I don't even have time to walk fully into the room before his fingers have dug into my hips and dragged me down to sit on top of him on the seat.
"Edward!" I whisper, shocked. But he just looks at me with an innocent expression, rubbing a hand slowly up and down the outside of my thigh. I push him off, trying to stand up without flashing everyone else in the room. It takes me a minute to detach myself from his clingy hands, but I manage to escape and leave him pouting to go and sit by Jasper.
I glare at him.
He doesn't want to talk about anything seriously, he'd rather just kiss me all of the time – and I'm not complaining, because, man, are his lips great! But for some reason, it doesn't seem enough.
Not to mention he is the closest friend I have here in Forks, as soon as he makes it all about a physical relationship, he'll ruin the friendship and then who will I feel perfectly comfortable around?
He throws his long legs over the arm of the chair, leans his hand on his chin and stares at me, not looking away.
"Stop it." I hiss from across the room, but he doesn't, so I just try to ignore him, but it's hard because he's so pretty.
"Right, so I guess we should talk about why we're here." Alice says then, shaking her head at Edward, obviously deciding he is too far gone to bother about him anymore.
"Yeah," Rose inputs, "I think we're starting to reach the point where we have to do something." I stare at her.
"Hold on, you're talking about jumping one of the Greeks, aren't you." They all look at me.
"They got Wolf," Alice tells me, like this is news, "that means we hit back. I've explained this to you, Bella." She looks so pretty and bubbly with her beautifully stylish clothes, but for some reason, the way she talks about beating up another person as part of a game, makes her seem a little intimidating.
"I know, I know. I just think it's a little...barbaric."
"Chimes, it's going to be done with or without your support." For the first time, Jasper eyes aren't cool, they aren't relaxed – instead they're incredible piercing.
So I shut my mouth, because I was still new to this.
"Old English, you talk to the boys, I'm thinking we hit a boyfriend this time; it'll completely freak them out. And we need to get a big one too, because Wolf is huge." I don't yell at them that they're talking about human beings; but I can't help the lump that forms in my throat, or the stinging in my eyes as I realise that the people I've befriended can be cruel.
"You're probably best reminding him in the morning, I don't think he'll remember much from this meeting." Rose says and I look over at him and see that he's closed his eyes, half slumped off of the chair and looking like he is just about the slide right off of it.
"What about the whole Tanya thing?" Alice says now, looping her arm through Jasper's.
"Her fixation with Chimes, or her incredible skank-ness?" Rose snaps and I watch as her eyes shift angrily. Wow, she really hates that bitch.
"We can't just pretend like her obsession with Bella is nothing to worry about, she influences the whole group of them."
"I think Chimes has proved she can look after herself, just make sure you don't go anywhere alone where you might be cornered." Jasper's leg shakes impatiently as he says this, and I wonder if that's all he has to say.
I know that I need to stand up and speak out, I know that I can't just let my friends talk about severely hurting another person. I think of beautiful Jake and his bruised face; I'm surprisingly no longer scared for myself, but rather scared for someone out there, who doesn't have the same beliefs as me, they might even despise me, but still, I worry that they don't deserve what is coming to them.
"I think-" I go to say, but the living room door squeaks open and we all freeze, even Edward lifts up his head, his eyes looking a little more focused.
"Oh." Emmett says; he's in tracksuit bottoms and a plain white shirt, he holds a huge bowl of popcorn, and a bottle of coke is under his arm.
He appraises us all, but his eyes stop on Rose. He probably can't help himself; she does look ridiculously stunning – albeit sinister – tonight.
"The game is just about to come on," he states, his voice lower than usual, "do, uh, are you guys staying to watch?" He looks equal parts hopeful and anxious.
"No." Is all Jasper says, standing up.
"We're heading down to Tadpole's." Alice elaborated, although just as monotone as Jasper had spoken. I had a feeling they thought he was eavesdropping, but Emmett looked nervous, and so I just couldn't believe it.
"Okay." He said slowly, trying to smile. "You look nice." He mumbled with his eyes still on Rose.
"Thank you." She replied meekly, in a completely un-Rose manner.
"So we should go?" I squeak, and everyone nods. Jasper throws his arm around Alice's shoulders and leads her out. With her eyes on her shoes, Rose leaves too and Emmett's eyes follow.
I hold out my hand and Edward takes it with a smirk. I haul him up and drag him behind me, giving Emmett a small pat on the shoulder as I pass.
"You need any help, Chimes?" He says, eying Edward who seems to have glued himself to my back. I shove him.
"Nah, I'm good."
"You call me if anything happens." I don't know what 'anything' would be, but I give him a nod and a smile and then lug the huge drunk man-child out through the door.
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