Chapter 9.
I groaned leaning away from the toilet, my head pounding and my stomach hurting. It wasn't just the morning sickness that made me this way; it was the actions of Gabrielle in the past week.
She pushed everyone away from her. She hardly ever talked to me; she rarely talked to Danielle, and a couple days after our screaming match she broke up with Eric. You could tell that she was upset; every one of her friends knew it. Everyone in the school knew it. She ignored everyone and didn't listen to anything. She didn't pay attention in class, and some of her teachers even came to me and told me about her abnormal behavior in class.
To make things worse Alice was forcing me and the girls go to her daughters' birthday party today.
Not only would I be seeing Edward for the first time in a week, but the girls would be forced to face him, and the rest of their family.
To my surprise, Esme and Carlisle were going to be there also. I didn't particularly want to see them, seeing as I was once again pregnant with their sons' child but Alice begged me to come.
The party started at noon, but I told Alice we would come over early to help her out.
I dragged myself off the floor and turned around to turn the shower on. Once the water was nice and hot I stripped out of my clothes and stepped into the shower. The warm water felt great against my skin. I could practically feel the tension and nervousness leave my body. Though once I stepped out of the shower it all came crashing back to me.
When I walked out to the kitchen I saw Danielle dresses and ready, but Gabi was still in her pajamas. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed.
"Gabrielle go get ready, we have to leave soon" I said turning to get water from the refrigerator.
"I'm not going." She said staring at her bowl of cereal.
"Of course you are. Alice invited you." I said
"I don't care. I'm not going." She said not looking up.
"Why not?" I said after swallowing the water.
"I don't want to be near Edward or anyone of his family." She said his name like it was the plague.
"You going and that's final. Technically they are your family too, so get over it and get dressed." I said forcefully.
"No" she said defiantly.
"Gabrielle" I warned
"Mom, I'm not going you can't make Me." she said standing up I noticed a lone tear in her eye.
"Damn right I can. You are my daughter, you are under 18 and you will listen to me. Go get dressed" I said staring at her.
She just shook her head.
"Gabrielle! I am pregnant and I feel like crap, I don't really feel like dealing with you being stubborn and uncooperative right now. So I am telling you go get dressed."
"I hate you!" she screamed "why do we always have to conform to them. Are you telling me you seriously want to see Edward? The guy who ditched you, who ditched us?"
Before I could even respond she continued "because it sure as hell feels that way. Forcing me to go to a party I don't want to go to, to meet people I don't want to meet. Why? So you can be happy and go and be happy with Edward, and his perfect family with our perfect cousins."
"Gabrielle! I don't want to see Edward. I don't particularly want to see Esme and Carlisle, but I am doing this for Alice. Who has been nothing but nice to us. She was my best friend and now that she's back I can't exactly ditch her again. I'm sorry if you don't want to go, but you are going."
"Whatever!" she said moving towards her bedroom.
Danielle who had been watching the entire thing spoke up. "Maybe now isn't the best time to tell her Eric might be at the party."
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Well nick invited him. He is Brooke's brother after all."
I nodded. "This could get interesting."
Ten minutes later we were driving towards Alice's house. Gabrielle was shooting daggers at anyone or anything that she saw, and Danielle was looking back and forth between us expecting us to break out yelling at any moment. I felt bad for subjecting her to this.
When we arrived at the house I saw that Danielle let out a gush of breath. When they both looked up at the house even Gabrielle looked amazed. It was all white with blue shutters. Around the house were flowers of various colors. The house looked old, but extremely nice. This is something a Cullen would own.
Alice answered the door without hesitation.
"Hey Bella. Danielle, Gabrielle." She acknowledged.
"Hey Alice, what can we do to help." I said following her into the foyer, the twins' right on my heels.
"You two," she said pointing to the girls "can go help Nick and Eric sat up the chairs outside."
I noticed Gabrielle tense. "Eric's here?" she asked din a nervous tone
Alice nodded. "Nick invited him"
Gabrielle nodded looking a little upset.
"They should be outside"
The girls went outside but I noticed Gabi was a little hesitant.
"What can I do Alice?" I asked after the girls were out of ear shot.
"Could you help Emmett, Jasper and Esme with the food?" she asked.
I nodded; glad to do anything to help my old friend. I was just a little nervous about seeing them again.
"Ok, there in the kitchen." She said pointing towards it, "I'll be upstairs getting Brooke ready if you need me."
"Subjecting your own daughter to torment now?" I asked a laugh escaping my lips.
"Not everyone hates getting dressed up like you Bella." Alice bit back. I help up my hands in surrender another laugh coming out.
Alice turned on her heel and walked up the staircase. I smiled and turned in the direction Alice had pointed.
I pushed open the swinging door.
Jasper and Emmett were placing food on trays and in containers, discussing something.
"No Emmett." Jasper said staring at the carrots he was putting around what looked like a ranch dip.
"Why not!" Emmett said forcefully throwing ships into a pink bowl. Esme noticed me and came over to give me a hug. "It's good to see you again Bella." She whispered, trying not to interuppt the guys.
"Because I don't think rose would like that."
"So," Emmett said grumpily.
"Emmett! You can't adopt a bunny!" Jasper said stopping to look at Emmett.
I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. It was just like Emmett to want to adopt a bunny.
"Bella!" Emmett said loudly. He pulled me into a bear hug.
"Emmett let her breathe" Jasper said moving to stand next to me.
"Sorry." Emmett said letting me go and ruffling my hair. Jasper pulled me into a hug too and said "It's so good to see you Bella. Alice was really upset when you left."
I nodded.
"So, how can I help?" I said pulling away from Jasper.
"How about you cut up the cucumber. The last time Emmett tried he almost cut off my finger." Jasper said in a very serious tone.
"You're exaggerating dude." Emmett said waving him off with his hand.
"Yes and that is why I have a scar on my finger and it was bandaged for a month."
Emmett shrugged and went back to working.
Jasper handed me a cutting board, a knife and 3 cucumbers. I cut off the end of the cucumbers then cut them down into slices.
"So how has life been for two?" I asked.
"Good." Emmett said "did Alice tell you me and Rosalie are getting married?"
I nodded. "Yeah she told me at the hospital."
"Hospital?" Jasper and Emmett asked.
I looked up and then back down at the cucumbers. Why didn't Alice tell them?
"Yeah, Gabrielle had an asthma attack." I said.
"Is she okay?" Esme said concerned. I nodded.
"When?"
"Doesn't matter" I said quickly.
I saw them nod out of peripheral vision.
"Did you see Edward?" Emmett asked followed by a loud smack down.
I looked up to see Emmett glaring at Jasper "Why did you hit me!"
"Could you be anymore insensitive?" Jasper asked.
"Boys!" Esme scolded looking over at me. I smiled back at her.
"It's fine. Yeah I saw him, it was just my luck that he happened to be Gabrielle's doctor and the doctor that gave me this awful cast." I said looking down at it like if I stared long enough it would just go away.
"Fall down?" Emmett guessed a smile on his face.
"Tripped up the steps." I said trying to cover my blush with my hair. "In my defense Alice was distracting me!" I said over Emmett's laughter.
"Bella!" I heard someone scream behind me. I turned around just in time to see Rosalie throw her arms around me.
I hugged her as best as I could, one of my crutches falling to the ground.
"Still clumsy?" she said pulling away from me to pick up the crutch.
Emmett continues to laugh.
"Come on, I want to introduce you to, practically, your nieces and nephews." She said leading me away from the kitchen and out into the backyard.
"This is my daughter Brittany." Rose said putting an arm around a girl that looked almost identical to Rose except for the cute dimples Emmett had.
"Nice to meet you Brittany." I said.
She nodded and played with her blonde hair.
"Mikey is asleep right now, so you'll have to wait to see him." She said continuing around the backyard "Alice is getting Brooke ready so you'll se her when she comes down. This is,"
I cut her off "Nick, nice to see you again and hi Eric." Nick looked over at me and said "hey Miss Swan."
"When were not at school you can call me Bella." I said.
Rosalie looked confused so I said "I teach them. They are in Danielle and Gabrielle's' class."
Her mouth formed an 'O'
I looked at the girls and saw that Gabrielle was effectively ignoring everyone around her. When Brittany screamed "Uncle Edward!", though, she wasn't the only one to flinch.
I looked over at Gabrielle trying to read her expression. It showed hate. Danielle wasn't looking at me, or any one else for that matter. She was staring at Gabrielle like me
Gabrielle, however, was staring at Edward. The look she gave him was a mixture of hate, love, and anger.
I figured one out of three good expressions was bad. Everyone seemed to be frozen. Brittany and Eric looked confused. I guessed that Alice had told Nick what happened because he was looking at me, Danielle, and Gabrielle.
Rose, looked like she was contemplating what to do.
I broke the silence by saying "hey Edward."
This caused a bundle of movement as everyone tried to go back to what they were doing.
"Hey Bella." Edward said staring at me.
I nodded at him then turned to Rose "have you met the twins?"
She shook her head looking from Edward and back to me.
I pulled her as best as I could towards the twins.
"Danielle, Gabrielle this is Rosalie." I said.
They nodded towards her though Gabrielle's was a little forced.
I gave Gabrielle a warning look hoping that she would be nice.
"Nice to meet you Rosalie." Gabrielle said. Rosalie pulled me in the direction of the house.
"Why didn't I know that you had already seen Edward!" she demanded once we were alone.
I shrugged. Why didn't Alice tell anyone?
"When!" she said
"When Gabi had an asthma attack and when I broke my ankle." I said easily.
"Twice!" she gasped.
"Just wait till you hear the other news" Gabrielle said moving past.
"Where are you going?" I said trying to distract Rose.
"To get a drink. Don't worry I'm not going to sneak off and burn the house down just to get out of this stupid party." She said moving towards the swinging door.
"What other news?" Rosalie said
"nothing." I said a little too fast.
"Tell me." she demanded.
"Nothing! Rose please just drop it." I begged.
"She'll find out sooner or later." Gabrielle said walking towards the back door two cokes in hand.
"Find out what!" Rosalie said a little irritated.
Gabrielle stopped and turned around. "Gabrielle! Do it and your grounded. Nothing. No phone, computer, you wont be allowed to go anywhere. For a month."
"Why won't you just tell her? It apparently doesn't affect you the way it does to me or Danielle!"
"Gabi please." I said closing my eyes a headache forming.
She turned around and walked through the door.
"Please forget about it." I said. "Why destroy another family" I murmured to myself.
She nodded and dropped it.
Alice came down with Brooke a little while later. The girl had Alice's hair color, though it was long, and she was just as petite as Alice was. She had Jaspers eyes, and curly hair.
She looked so cute standing there in a princess dress.
We ate lunch soon after that and much to Gabrielle's displeasure Eric sat next to her, and much to my displeasure Edward sat next to me.
When lunch was over Edward came up next to me and said "can I talk to you?" I looked around and saw that no one was looking at us so I nodded. I hopped over to the house, following Edward.
"Why is Gabrielle glaring daggers at me?" he said walking into the kitchen.
"Because she and I don't exactly get along right now, and she kind of hates your guts." I said seriously.
It took him a moment to respond and said "why?"
"Because… of what happened." I said staring at my feet.
"Think she will ever grow out of it?" he asked sounding like he was hurt.
"She's as stubborn as me." I said.
He groaned and I couldn't help but laugh.
"This cant be good." He said.
I nodded. Just then Gabrielle came into the kitchen followed by Danielle. They both froze, and the smile that was on my face immediately left. Gabrielle tried to turn around to leave but stopped when she saw her sister guarding the door.
"Danielle move." She said fiercely.
Danielle just shook her head. When I caught her eyes I realized that she was just as sick of Gabi's attitude as I was.
This should be interesting.
Authors note. Watch out there's a cliff! Lol. Not really. …
I know, I know. This chapter had taken forever! Don't hate me. I was working on finishing Tortured. And I went on vacation... I also had my toenail cut off because it got so bruised that the toe nail like died. And my friend Rachel kicked it on vacation which made my mom realize that I should get it cut off.
The next chapter will be the confrontation between Gabrielle, Bella, and Edward. I haven't started it and I probably won't have a chance this week. I have a school thing Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Then my great uncles funeral on Tuesday. So Wednesday and Friday, if I'm not doing anything I will try to update. … School starts in 15 days, and my birthday is in less than a month! I can't wait.
Reviews are like a new phone. Totally texttacular.
Seriously
Reviews are like my friend Britt… totally awesome. (Sorry she said that... (: )
PS. Sorry if there are a lot of mistakes i dont have time to edit it, but i will go back later, and correct it. If there is anthing major feel free to tell me.
Xx
Danielle.