I looked around the table at each one of my friends. I had a gang. I'd never had a gang before.
After Alice's shopping triumph she'd insisted on calling 'the guys' to meet us for dinner. It'd been a blatant ploy to spend time with Jasper disguised by an insistence that I was missing Edward, which wasn't entirely untrue. The feeling was apparently mutual - Edward was at the restaurant sliding into a chair next to me and grabbing handfuls of thigh within thirty minutes of her call. Emmett arrived next, greeting Rose with a bellowing 'dinner five!' which she ignored in favour of sending him to fetch her a cocktail. Jasper arrived later than promised, obviously trying to play it cool in front of Alice but failing dismally - not only was she pissed that he'd kept us all waiting but his devil-may-care arrival was totally wrecked by his puppy dog excitement. Given the opportunity there was a good chance he'd lick her face.
I'd decided not to take up the whole 'so your Dad's a millionaire? Oh and he's also my boss' thing with Edward. I didn't want him to think that the family money made a difference to me - it didn't, truly, although the new designer dress wasn't the worst perk in the world.
I cornered Jas on the way to the men's room - completely nothing to do in any way with the issue of the bazillions of dollars.
"Jas!" I hissed, beckoning him over into a corner.
"Oh Swan, I thought we were beyond this," he smirked, "I'm with Alice now, you have to move on."
"Ha-de-fucking-ha dickwad."
"Whassup sista?" Jasper's inability to speak to me like a fellow human being was constantly baffling.
"You're never going to believe who Alice and Edward's dad is."
"Who? The big boss? Mr C? The man upstairs?"
"You knew?"
"Uh doy," he mocked, "the name was the first subtle clue and then I unravelled that mystery like a regular motherfucking sherlock."
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" I shout-whispered, grabbing him by his lapels.
"One, it didn't really come up. Two, isn't up to you to find out who you're doing the bad thing with? And three, doy," he tapped me on the side of the head, "now can I go pee please?"
I warned Jas not to say anything about Edward's father and he shrugged disinterestedly before sloping off to the bathroom.
"You okay Bella?" Edward asked when I arrived back to the table.
"Uh-huh. Ooh! Mushroom ravioli. Yummy!" He frowned in confusion then went back to perusing the menu.
Aside from Jas returning from the bathroom, patting me on the head and calling me 'shortbus', I managed to move on from the slight panic I felt knowing that Edward's father was my boss, I mean that son of a gun could fire me at will. But nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. Of course not.
Three bottles of wine down and another on the way - this drinking with the Cullens was something I was a big fan of and, judging by the way Jas was swooning all over Alice I'd say he was keen too - we were in full flow, Emmett arguing the merits of The Notebook in his loud voice, earning looks from the diners around us.
"I've got one word for you: Gosling. Am I right girls?"
"Something you want to tell me Em?" Rose arched an eyebrow.
"Yes Rose, there is actually," he got even louder, drawing the attention of the whole room, "I went to watch Blue Valentine without you. Not only that but I considered it to be Michelle Williams' finest performance since her days on the Creek. Say what you like."
"You watched Dawson's Creek?" I asked as Emmett retook his seat, waving an apology to an irate waiter heading our way.
"He has the boxset," Rose groaned from beneath the hands she'd cupped over her face in abject humiliation.
"Oh no," Alice murmured.
"Come on Al, it wasn't that bad. I mean yeah, Dawson was a douche but Pacey…"
She cut me off, shaking her head, "no, it's not that..."
"Bella? Bella Swan?" a voice behind me drawled.
"Hi Lauren," Alice greeted her with no enthusiasm.
"Alice! Long time no see!" she teetered around the table on high heels, pulling her into a hug that a boa constrictor would be proud of.
"Edward," she purred in greeting, running a finger along her collarbone.
"Lauren," he replied curtly, putting a protective arm around me. Her eyes widened.
"Trading down Edward? I would've thought you Cullens had had enough of this one in school."
I spotted Alice push a fuming Jasper back into his seat, "I don't mean to be rude but we're just in the middle of something here…"
"So I saw," she sneered down at Emmett before turning back to me, face full of malice, "so Bella how have you been? I heard you spoke to Jessica quite recently."
"We emailed, yes," Edward gripped me even more tightly.
"Hmm, I heard you were apologising for being so horrific back in high school. Funny thing, I didn't get anything from you yet. I guess the email got lost huh?"
"Seriously?" Alice was suddenly standing up, her fists curled at her sides, "you think you're owed an apology by anyone? At least Bella had the guts to do the right thing."
"I'd say she's doing more than just the right thing," Lauren threw a glance at Edward and I before calling back over her shoulder, "hey Jess, come say hello."
I groaned and slid a fraction further down into my seat. Jessica had made herself crystal fucking clear in her reply to me a few weeks back and I really wasn't sold on the idea of round two. But there she was, gleaming sheet of bottle blonde hair, business suit and stilettos, sashaying across the room to join Lauren.
"Hey," she gave us all a tight smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "let's go Lauren."
"Let's not," Lauren snapped, "I'm still really interested to find out how this bitch ended up getting herself a happily ever after with the King of the Nerds. No offence Edward."
"None taken," he said dismissively.
"You fell for her sob story I take it?" she didn't wait for an answer, "something about a tough childhood. Well, you know what Bella," she snarled, placing flat palms on the table and leaning over to glare at me, "nobody has a perfect childhood but you didn't see the rest of us behaving in such a disgusting way."
Emmett choked out a laugh at that, "no, some of us just slept our way through the entire football team."
"Don't forget the basketball squad," Alice chimed in.
"Chess club," Edward barely disguised his words with a fake cough.
"Oh, you're that Lauren," sadly for Lauren she didn't know that when Rosalie put on her sweet voice it normally meant there was a shitstorm coming your way, "Emmett's told me all about you."
"And you are?" Lauren looked Rose up and down, her confidence appearing to falter for just a second as she took in Seattle's very finest Ice Maiden smiling beatifically in front of her.
"Oh, I'm Emmett's wife and a very good friend of Bella's. Have you quite finished?"
"I…"
"Because let me tell you something; I know what a nightmare you were in school, not to mention the whoring around. Yeah, so Bella wasn't an angel either but at least she had the cojones to admit she was wrong because she's a good person,"
"A fucking awesome person," Jas corrected, suddenly finding his voice.
"Exactly. Fucking awesome," Rose cursing was pretty funny, "but you...you clearly haven't changed a bit. Well you know what Lauren? You're not head cheerleader anymore, in fact you're pretty insignificant as far as anybody on this table is concerned. So why don't you take your little friend - Jessica, right?" Jessica nodded, "who, incidentally, needs to find herself a better friend, one that'll tell her shoulder pads went out, like, twenty five years ago - and go be bitter somewhere else because right now you're just embarrassing yourself."
Jas and Emmett high-fived each other down low.
Lauren us her best haughty look - not so impressive after a Rosalie Cullen smackdown - and turned on her heel barking "come on Jess, let's go, this place has gone seriously downhill."
"Thanks Rose," it was only then that I realised I'd been holding my breath.
"Oh Edward," Lauren had turned back to look at us, her sidekick burning a bright red next to her, "does Angela know about this?" she pointed to each of us. Edward said nothing, giving her exactly what she wanted, "I didn't think so."
Jessica mouthed a silent 'sorry' at Edward before scuttling away after her so-called friend.
********************
"It just reminded me of how awful I was," I moaned, tracing patterns into Edward's upturned palm.
We'd left the restaurant soon after Lauren's outburst, Emmett pretty much dragging a still furious Rosalie away, saying something about 'angry sex', while Edward trailed me out despite my protestations that he ought to stay and hang out with Jas and Alice, finish up his meal. We sat out in his car in silence for a long time before he insisted that I talk.
"Bella, you're nothing like that now and that's what matters."
I sighed, Edward didn't get it, he never would. No matter how many leaves I turned over that Bella, the one who treated everybody around her like shit, was still there underneath it all and no matter how many apologies I made and how many people forgave me I couldn't forgive myself.
"Angsting about it does none of us any good you know," Edward closed his fist around my hand, bringing it to his lips, "do you really care that much what Lauren Mallory thinks?"
"No. But I care what you think. I don't know why you're with me. I mean look at you," I swept my free hand in his direction, "you're smart, kind, ridiculously hot."
"You're making me blush."
"It's not funny. You could have any woman you wanted, why me?"
"Silly Bella," he chuckled, "because you're smart, kind, ridiculously hot. And I don't care about anything that happened back then. Hell, based on the amount of hardcore boners I was nursing during biology class, I obviously didn't care all that much then."
I snorted out a laugh through the stupid tears that were leaking out despite my best attempt to get that shit plugged up.
"What about Angela?"
"What about her? We broke up…"
I interrupted him mid-flow, "she still deserves to hear it from you rather than Lauren fucking Mallory or one of her cronies."
"Sure, I'll call her. But can it be tomorrow Bella because right now I've got a problem that's giving me biology flashbacks."
I glanced down at the bulge in his lap, "Edward! This is serious!"
"So is this," he placed my hand on his crotch, "and it needs your attention much more urgently than anything else right now."
A/N: Sorry to cockblock you guys and especially when I'm away for the weekend and won't be updating again until Monday. Thanks again to those who have reviewed and to those that haven't do it! Do it now! Happy V Day :) EQx