*waves uncertainly* Hey, people. Not even gonna give you an excuse as to my lateness. Only that here is chapter 9, there is some language, and hope you enjoy!
Oh and I wanted to thank my awesome beta, Ohmyitsv. Plus my awesome motivators Sorcha Cullen and Shirley007. Love them all to death. :D
On with the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Chapter 9:
Edward's POV
"Ouch!" I cried after Alice dabbed a bit too much alcohol on my cuts.
"Stop crying like a baby." She laughed. "It's only a cut."
"Yeah, but it stings like hell," I muttered.
"Guess you should have thought of that before you went and got yourself into a fight, Edward," Alice reprimanded me. "Remind me again, who exactly did you get into a scrap with?"
James. Fucking. McGreggory.
I seethed in my mind. Of course, I couldn't answer with the truth here because it would get me into more trouble than that guy was worth. Plus, it would certainly dig up old memories for Alice and I didn't want to do that to my sister. She's had enough with justliving it, who was I to bring her more sadness like that. I tried evading the question as effectively as I could, but I think she knew there was something I didn't want to tell her. Just as she was incessant on finding out things, she was also good at knowing when not to push for more -sometimes. I tried averting my eyes away from her knowing ones, but it was impossible.
"Fine." She pouted. "Keep it to yourself. I'll find out anyway and then you'll be hearing from me."
That almost made me crack and tell her the truth. Finding out from another person would be worse than me telling her straight out. I kept my mouth shut, though. A second later, the stinging of the alcohol had me flinching and withthe force Alice dabbed at my cut. I guess I deserved that. She finished torturing - I mean, helping me, and gave me one of those sister-like glares before putting away the First Aid kit. As far as luck went tonight, it was most certainly not on my side. I was just about to hide up in my room when Esme and Carlisle walked in. They stopped laughing immediately and Esme practically ran over to me.
"What happened?" she asked frantically, ghosting her fingers over my cut. I winced as she touched a little too hard.
"Alice," Carlisle called out warningly as she was about to slip out of the kitchen. She turned around and walked back to the seat she had been occupying not a couple of minutes ago.
"What happened?" Esme asked again, giving both of us a stern look.
Now, I could either tell them the truth, or not tell them the truth. Either way, I was in trouble. Except that with one particular choice, I would be hurting Alice. Dammit.
"It's not Alice's fault, she can go," I replied, hoping they'd take my hint and let her go. Thankfully, Esme picked up on the subtly and let Alice head up to her room without anymore questions. Once my sister was away from the kitchen, Esme took her seat and waited patiently with Carlisle by her side. I had to be honest here, so I answered, "I saw James McGreggory."
An angry expression crossed both their expressions, but they remained silent and allowed me to continue. "I got into a fight with him at the theater in Port Angeles. That's all."
"Oh my." Esme touched the side of my shirt in concern. "You've got blood on your shirt. Carlisle?"
"It's not mine," I replied a little smugly. "It's his. I punched him rather hard, the bastard."
"Did he say anything, Edward?" Carlisle asked, seriously completely ignoring my language.
"Alice is looking rather delicious, if I do say so myself. Of course, she does hang out with Rosalie."
"That's something you'd know about. Right, Edward?"
I pushed past that and shook my head in response. Why I didn't just tell them the truth is beyond me. Besides the fact that I didn't want to worry them, it didn't feel right, and I had learned a while ago to trust those instincts. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll be letting Alice or Rosalie out of my sight unless they're with people I trusted. McGreggory was bad news. The last time I had seen him had been right before Rosalie's accident. I was convinced he'd had some part in the accident, but the police couldn't find any evidence to link him to it. He hadn't gotten away so easily with what he did to Alice, or almost did. The only reason why he's still around and not in jail is because of a miniscule technicality the judge had no patience to look past even through all the evidence presented.
"Edward?" Esme shook me gently, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"He didn't say anything," I told them.
I'm going to hell for all the lies I'm telling, I thought to myself.
"Can I go now?" I asked. "I've got practice tomorrow."
"Are you sure you should be practicing like that?"
"It's just a cut, mom," I assured her and added silently. And a couple of bruised ribs. "Oh, could you not tell Alice who I got into a fight with? I just couldn't tell her."
"We won't," Carlisle answered. "Go and get cleaned up, son."
I nodded at both of them and hurried up the stairs, thankful Alice wasn't waiting outside my room ready to ambush me. I found the reason why as I crossed her room silently; Jasper. His laughter slipped under the door and filled the empty hallway. I was about ready to do something irrationally stupid when I heard Rosalie's soft laughter follow Jasper's. I was left blinking in confusion. Not wanting to get an even bigger headache than the one I had already, I sighed and walked straight past their door to my room. At least my sister and her boyfriend weren't alone.
Once in my room, I felt the stillness around me begin to press in. I cursed myself, yet again, for lying to everyone. Not coming clean about anything, especially something that could be a potential for problem in the future, just made me feel like an even bigger douche. I banged my hand against the door in frustration and was instantly shocked with pain. I muttered angrily, "Dammit!"
Before I decided to further injure myself, I went tolay down on my bed and enjoyed the silence. Or rather, laid there hating it and missing my iPod. Where the hell did I leave it at? I had absolutely no idea how much time I spent just laying there until a hard knock on the door brought me out of my pity. I had a hunch as to who it was,and the fact that I heard a bear-like laugh seep in through the walls gave me a clue.
"Are you being emo in there, Eddie?" Emmett snickered. "Come on, open up. Alice said you beat up some poor guy on the street."
Ugh, Alice.
I shook my head and had no choice but to let him in or he'd ask too many wrong questions. As soon as I opened the door, Emmett strolled in like he owned the place and sat down on my desk, pushing aside my laptop rather carelessly. He sat in silence and stared at me; surely a joke already prepared if the mood got too dark.
"Start talking, Eddie-O." Yeah, like that.
"It wasn't some random dude I 'beat up'," I started from the get go. "It was James."
In the time it took for me to blink, Emmett changed from a regular pale to a startling shade of red and purple that almost made me yell for Carlisle. A murderous look took over his expression, which had me rethink my idea of telling him what had actually happened. He remained quiet, motioning for me to continue, and I did so hesitantly.
"Long story short, that . . . bastard," I spat through clenched teeth," brought up Alice and Rosalie. I knocked his ass out. Simple as that."
"That fu- uh, fudger," he censored himself. "I'm gonna kill him."
"Leave it, Em," I told him. "I want nothing more than to get rid of that bastard, but think of Rosalie and Alice. They went through hell and we're not putting them through that again."
He cursed under his breath and hopped down from the desk, instantly pacing in front of me. An occasional "bastard" would escape him every other few seconds or so. At least he wasn't exploding and drawing attention to our conversation from the other guys. I finally counted a dozen curses, three or four in a different language, when he calmed down enough to listen to what else I had to say.
"What happened after that?"
"I left him there on the floor of the theatre," I replied. With Tanya. "He got in a couple of hits, but nothing serious. He won't be bothering us for a while, and if he does, we'll be there to stop him."
Emmett nodded in response.
"I condensed the story for mom and dad, so don't let anything slip," I warned him. "Now, can I please be 'emo' in my room?"
Besides being a straw away from blowing up with anger, he snorted at me and walked out of my room without another word. This was a sucker punch to the nads.
I quitted moping around my room and changed out of my blood-stained clothes quickly. No use anyway. What's done is done, for now at least. One good thing had come out of this, though; I was no longer involved with Tanya. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to let everyone know without accidentally letting slip a thing or two I wasn't supposed to. I could just tell Alice;I'm sure she'd let everybody know quickly and efficiently. Yeah, I should tell Alice. Problem solved. The second I settled on that, I began feeling like a complete wuss. It was my situation and Alice shouldn't have to do anything. I was glad when Esme called us down for dinner; I was beginning to feel even more frustrated than before.
I was passing by Alice's room when Rosalie practically jumped out at me. She attacked me in a bear-like hug -must have learned it from my brother -and punched me in the arm. All happenedat the same time, so it was no wonder I was confused.
"Yeah, thanks for that, Rosalie," I muttered sarcastically.
"The hug was because you finally broke it off with Tanya." She laughed then turned serious. "The punch was because you didn't tell us."
I gaped at her. "How'd you know? Usually it's Alice that guesses these kinds of things."
Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Tanya called me and spilled the whole thing."
"She freaking called you?"
"Yep," nodded Rosalie. "You'd think she'd get the message that we're not friends and there's really nothing I would do to get you two hooked up. At all."
I wondered worriedly if Tanya had spilled everything that had happened or just the part that had ended it between us. After a quick inspection of Rosalie's happy expression, I concluded she hadn't been told the whole story, which was good.
"Sooo," she began casually. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You heard about Mike's party?"
"I have, in fact," I replied cautiously. "No. Don't even think about it, Rose. I'm not going."
She pouted. "But why? It'll be so much fun!"
"Yeah, for you." I shook my head. "I don't want to spend the whole night fighting off girls now that, I'm sure, Tanya will be spreading the word about this."
"Stop being such a party pooper, Eddie boy," teased Rose before a dangerous glint appeared in her eyes. "Besides, you'll never know who youmay find. Just saying." She punched me on the arm one last time and glided down the stairs, letting out a laugh or two on the way.
Seems like everyone wants to try Alice's style. Unless Bella magically appears, I doubt I'd want to be surprised by anyone. The chances of her being there, though, were slim to none.
"Bye guys!" Alice and Rosalie yelled from downstairs. "We'll see you at the party!"
I glanced at the clock in confusion and saw it was barely 6 P.M. Too damn early to arrive at a party, especially if this was Alice we were talking about, so we were all clearly surprised when she announced her early departure. I think even Esme was surprised by the news. I tried to shrug it off as an Alice thing, but the girls had been acting rather strangely for the past two weeks. In between all the secretive whispers amongst themselves and leaving the house practically all day, every day, I began to get suspicious.
Those girls were definitely up to something, especially with all the side glances they threw at me. It kind of made me feel like a lab rat, for some reason. Without even thinking very hard about it, I knew they were plotting something. It was the actual plan they had thought out that was unnerving me, and I wanted to know what. This was Alice and Rosalie we were talking about. As soon as the door closed, Emmett came running down the stairs and slipped on the last three steps, landing on the floor in a quite comical way. The confused expression was too much,causing me to burst out laughing, gaining his attention.
"Shut it, Eddie-emo-boy." He grinned from the ground. "Hey, was that Rose leaving with Alice?"
I nodded and plopped down on the couch, turning on the TV.
"Damn!" He hissed quietly and pulled himself up. "I wanted to see her too . . ."
Confused, I turned fully and faced him. "See who? You see Rose all the time."
Emmett looked like a deer caught in headlights. He began laughing then ran out of the living room shouting something behind him I couldn't quite understand. There went another suspicious person. Maybe I was looking too much into the situation - wouldn't be the first time.
About an hour later, Jasper walked into the house,talking on his cell phone. "Yeah, yeah, we're leaving the house as we speak, darlin'. No, of course I'm not just saying that."
I snorted loudly, I was torn between interrupting him and just leaving it alone. I should've probably interrupted him, but Emmett decided to do that for me. He snuck up behind Jasper and began yelling.
"Dude, where are my pants? Why didn't you wake me up from my nap?" He shouted as Jasper tried to cover his phone.
From this distance, I could hear my sister shouting,"You're still at the house?"
"I'm taking a long relaxing bubble bath," continued Emmett. "Should take about an hour or so."
"Jasper!" Alice shouted. "Get your butt to this party and drag those two idiots I call brothers with you!"
"Now I'm an idiot," I chuckled, getting up from the couch. "Let's go before she comes to the house and really drags us to that party."
"Ow!" Emmett hissed. "Damn, Jazz. Watch that fist, would you?"
"Stop being a baby, I simply punched you," laughed Jasper. "I'm not a goalie just because."
"Just get in the car," I said, shaking my head at their bantering.
The ride to Mike Newton's place was surprisingly trouble-free. I thought Emmett for sure was going to be jumping all over the place like he usually does. Instead, he remained a little too calm for my taste; even Jasper was giving him strange looks. Once I parked my car, he started fidgeting in his seat and threw open the door in his haste to get out, but not before pulling me out of the driver's seat. I nearly tripped in the process.
"What the hell, Emmett?"
"We're gonna be late," he answered simply. "You never know who you might meet."
"You and Rose spend too much time together," I muttered.
"Ah," grinned Emmett. "I'm gonna marry that woman."
"Not without a proper life plan you're not," Jasper interrupted. "This is my sister you're talking about. I doubt my sister wants to marry yet anyway."
"Stop crushing my dreams, man." Emmett smacked him. "Not yet, I agree. I want her to accomplish her dreams first."
"Aww, Emmy-bear. That was so sweet."
Rosalie greeted us, with a huge smile on her face, and jumped into Emmett's arms. Jasper and I gave them some privacy. We didn't want to see them making out anyway. Jasper may have been a calm, collected kind of guy,but mess with his sister and you're done for. As we neared the house, we began to hear the fast, heavy pounding of music vibrating through the walls and the chit chatter of the people inside. Alice immediately dragged Jasper away to dance in the swarm of people, leaving me completely alone and at the mercy of the first girl to notice me. Trying my best to sneak through the sea of students partying, I made my way from the front door and across the living room.
"Edward," Aiden called from somewhere in the room. "Hermano, didn't know you'd be here."
"Yeah, me neither," I replied with a shrug.
"Tanya's here, you know," he said.
"Great." I sighed. "What'd she say?"
"Ehh, not much," answered Aiden. "Keeping a rather low profile . . . that is, until she starts drinking. You'll be in trouble then. So, you broke up with her."
"You don't sound surprised," I pointed out.
He laughed loudly and clapped me on the shoulder. "Dude, I'm surprised it took you this long to do it, but I knew you would eventually."
"I guess." I shrugged again.
"After all, she's not the kind of girl for you," grinned Aiden.
"And you know this how?"
"Well, let's just say I'm a very good judge of character," Aiden replied mysteriously.
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better." He laughed and scanned the room before turning back to me.
"You're like my cousin," he began.
"If you start setting me up, I swear I'm going to kic-"
"No, no, no!" He interrupted me. "I'm just saying. You're like my cousin."
"Okay." I eyed him warily. He was one of my best friends, but he had the tendency of getting himself involved in my personal life a little too much, just like my family.
"You guys would be perfect, though," Aiden finally burst out.
"Aiden," I gritted my teeth warningly. Bella's sweet smile suddenly flashed through my mind. I don't think I could even look at another girl now that I'd met her.
"Hey, I'd prefer my baby cousin tostay away from boys," he said defensively. "But you're one of the nice guys."
"Don't nice guys finish last?"
He rolled his eyes at me. "Nah, that's just a saying to keep the competition away. Any 'nice guy' would know that."
"Good to know." I chuckled.
"She's in town . . ." He started, but Alice chose that moment to appear.
"Hey, Aiden." She giggled.
"Why hello, dolce ragazza," he greeted her.
"Stop putting the moves on my sister." I laughed.
"What?" Aiden lifted his hands in a surrender motion. "I just said hello sweet girl."
"That's all you better have said." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Sure, sure," he brushed me off non-chalantly.
"Come on, Edward, Aiden. We're at a party." Alice laughed freely. "Have some fun!"
"How many have you had?" I asked her.
"Puh-lease." Alice rolled her eyes at me. "I don't need that to have a good time;you know that."
Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie appeared at her side quickly. Emmett was trying to suck face with Rose, but she kept pushing him away. Can't say it wasn't hilarious watching him get rejected. As Rose pushed him away one more time -I'm sure she was secretly enjoying it -she turned to me and dropped her voice down lower so only we could hear.
"Tanya is looking for you, just so you know," whispered Rose. "And I think she's past sober, so I suggest you get a move on."
No need to tell me twice.
I ran into the sea of sweaty, dancing bodies in hopes to lose Tanya's eyes on me, if she hadn't seen me already. I got lucky and managed to dodge many fawning girls, safely reaching the other end of the living room. Most of the people in the hallway, and littering into the kitchen, were couples too involved with themselves to care about anything else around them. Not the most ideal place for me either. I didn't need to be reminded of ... Bella. My beautiful stranger.
Just as her beautiful face popped into my mind, one of the couples bumped into me roughly and broke me out of my stupor. I almost ran out of the hallway and into the big, spacious kitchen where they were playing poker. I was no expert, but they looked to be one game away from strip poker. Rather than witness that, I just grabbed a water bottle hidden in one of the cupboards and exited the kitchen through the other door leading to the Entertainment room, which was filled with more people dancing and chatting. Seems like I was running out of places to hide. Damn.
I believe I played this hide-and-seek game by myself for an hour or so. My siblings, Jasper and Rose would check up on me at random times. Aiden would pop out of nowhere,directing me to new areas of the house so I wouldn't meet face-to-face with Tanya. Although I was very grateful for that, I was beginning to get suspicious again. The side glances they happened to give each other weren't helping the matter. I finally had enough of it and headed into the patio, ready to find my friends and demand what was going on. I spotted Jasper talking to a brunette; he was chuckling and had a huge smile on his face. The girl's back was turned to me so I couldn't see who she was, but Jasper hadbetter not be flirting with her.
As I got closer to them, I heard faint and sweet laughter float around in the air. My heart almost stopped at the sound. I knew who that belonged to, but could it be? Could it be . . . my Bella?
Before I could crash through the glass doors leading outside, Emmett and Rose blocked my way. I growled at their intrusion and side stepped them, but when I scanned the deck for Jasper and the mysterious brunette, I found no one. There were just people messing around and enjoying the party. But they had just been there! I looked around, but came up empty.
Maybe I was finally losing it?
"So, has Tanya seen you yet?" Emmett asked. I could tell right away he was trying to stall me.
"Or any other girl for that matter?" Rose added in,smirking.
"Are you sure Tanya is even here?" I asked annoyed. "I haven't seen her at all, or her clique of friends."
They both shared a quick look then turned to me. "What were we talking about?"
I opened my mouth to yell at them, but thought better of it and just turned around and walked away. There was no point in having come here.I just wasted my time. I think I had enough of this party.
"Edward! Where are you going?" Emmett yelled behind me, but I ignored him, lest I say something I might regret.
I carried on in silence, walking past a group of giggling girls trying to get handsy with me, and headed out through the back door. The last thing I needed was to be seen and stopped by someone going through the front door. I imagine the rumors were already starting and I did not need something else to fuel that fire. Living in a small town could get really irritating with the way gossip spread some of the time. Careful not to bump into anyone, I sneaked out into the cold night. Immediately, the pressure of irritation lessened considerably with the fresh air and cleared my head. Even the music seemed to disappear in the silence outside, for which I was grateful.
My feet carried me to the side of the house where my car was parked not too far away. I didn't want to leave my siblings here with no ride, or Jasper and Rosalie, but I'm sure they'd find a ride back. I could come back for them later, though. With that settled, I began walking again when something heavy whacked me on the head.
"Son of a . . . biscuit eating bulldog!" I hissed in pain.
I blinked rapidly to try to get my vision to clear from the red spots and touched my head gently. I flinched as I neared the spot where, whatever it is that hit me, smacked into my head. There was no blood, thankfully, just a lot of pain. After glancing down at the ground, I noticed the most random item there. Most likely the main suspect of my injury; a shoe.
A freaking stiletto shoe. More deadly than a knife.
I picked it up carefully and looked up the side of the house. A large balcony rested above me. I caught a movement through the rails and had to walk back a bit to get a better look. There was definitely a person up there and if the shoe had anything to do with that, it was a girl. Why the hell would they throw a shoe at me? Not to be arrogant at all, but I was rather liked around here by the girls,so they shouldn't be throwing anything at me. The girl on the balcony kept moving around - pacing - and I had to step back even further to catch a glimpse of her face.
The only thing I could get a clear image of was her ruffled short skirt and tight blue top. As I took an even further step backwards, I caught locks of brown hair blowing in the breeze. For some reason,my heart sped up and dropped to my stomach. It wasn't until the girl stopped her incessant pacing and turned in my direction; the sound of a loud cell phone ringing breaking through the near silence. I finally caught sight of the girl and froze in my place.
"Bella."
My beautiful stranger gasped as her eyes connected with me. I expected her to smile and recognize who I was. The expression coming over her face, instead, was one of worry and apprehension. The words beginning to tumble from her mouth were not my name.
"Mom?"
So, what'd you guys think? Lemme know all the details.
Another little cliffy, I know. But there is a reason for it. Hehe.
Hope you guys liked it and thank you for reading.
~ * ~ Mimi-Love-4Ever