Chapter 9
I open my eyes
I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light
I can't remember how
I can't remember why
I'm lying here tonight
And I can't stand the pain
And I can't make it go away
No I can't stand the pain
~Untitled – Simple Plan
"Well here we go." He breathed and gestured for me to sit down in one of the metal chairs. I just looked at him blankly as he continued to point towards the chair.
I was not a dog nor was I going to be treated as such. Edward let out a haggard breath.
"This would go by very quickly if you just do as I tell you." I stayed where I was.
"Please." He gritted through his teeth. "You are messing with my patience right now and I already have little as is." I huffed and sat down.
I knew I wasn't acting my age and more of my shoe size but I was just so irritated at being here and with him. He just rubbed me the wrong way.
The faster I got out of here the better. Edward just smirked at my compliance.
Stupid bastard.
"The name's Edward not bastard sweet cakes." He leaned back against the wall and glared at me.
Shit, I had said that aloud.
"Well mine's not Sweet cakes its Bella, now use it." I retorted.
"Are you always this defensive?" Ed— the bastard grinned.
"Are you always this annoying? Let's just get this over with. Just sitting here is getting on my last nerve, your ugly mug is all in my face and the fact that I don't like you isn't helping. I just want to be put out of my misery and head home alright." I replied snidely.
Okay maybe he wasn't ugly at all, pretty far from it actually but that still didn't mean I wanted him in my face.
I watched as his jaw tightened and his usually bright green eyes darken in anger. I must have hit a soft spot. Edward grabbed the chair next to me so forcefully that it made a loud scraping noise against the floor as he placed it in front of me.
"Look sweet cakes, your face isn't on the top of my list either. I could be off doing way better things than dealing with you, but I'm not because I like to help people. So it would make my job a hell lot easier if you tried to work with me instead of acting like a selfish brat who's mad at the world." He growled at me. I felt my breathing hitch.
As much as It pained me to say, Edward was even more attractive when he got angry. The tenseness of his jaw and the slight protrude of the veins in his neck, gave him a James Dean allure from Rebel Without a Cause.
It made my breathing hitch and my mouth dry, causing me to involuntary lick my lips.
"Is everything okay in here?" It was Ms. Esme's voice.
"Everything's perfect." Edward replied but I could still see the anger hidden within his eyes. I hadn't noticed how close he was to my face until I watched him scoot back from my face pulling the chair along with him.
"Oh now the cat's got your tongue? Nothing to say now huh? " I still stared at him speechless as my chest continued to heave with labored breaths.
"Good maybe now this time you'll listen."
…...
After grudgingly listening to the bane of my existence for another ten minutes I was finally free…at least until I had to see the jerk again tomorrow for the stupid group activity.
Everyone had left after their assessments were finished; leaving the room empty and eerily quiet. Phil was still preoccupied with something involving the staff, leaving me to fend myself until he was done.
For the first ten minutes I lay waiting, I just sat there staring at the wall. It appeared that Phil was going to take his grand old time doing whatever he was doing and my patience was beginning to wear thin.
I hated silence. It made my thoughts go wild and made me feel like I was going crazy.
Sitting here was doing just that. I sat there for another fifteen minutes before I became fed up and realized that I needed to do something before I lost it.
Resigning, I got up and began browsing through the halls on the first floor. This place was huge. While the house and furniture were modernly designed, the various artworks and décor that adorned the wall told a different story.
All of it was themed around the Victorian era and made me wonder if Ms. Esme and Mr. Carlisle thought it 1838 instead of 2008.
Even that seemed to bore me after a while and my moment of sightseeing the second floor gave me a mere eight minutes of entertainment.
I was just about to resort to my thoughts when I noticed a mahogany colored baby grand in the corner of the hall by the staircase.
It was an odd spot to place a piano, but then again looking around their home, nothing was normal either.
I hadn't seen a piano of this variety since I had left and came to Forks. It reminded me of the one my mom used to play, except hers was slightly worn against the edges from being moved around so much.
I remembered how when I was younger, she would place me upon her lap and guide my fingers under hers as she played. She would sing to me random songs that she had made up, no matter how silly usually soothing me to sleep in her arms.
It was my one of my favorite memories of her and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I ran my hand along the cool wood of the lid, feeling the smooth texture soft against my skin. The lid of the keyboard was up, telling me that someone had played upon it not too long ago.
I ran my fingers against the keys gently and I could feel the tendons ache as they tried to apply pressure. I looked around to make sure that no one was around and quietly pulled out the seat and sat down.
I stared at the keys for a moment and looked at my hands. They were tensed in position; ready to familiarize themselves once again. All the hours I would spend as a child randomly pressing down until I created something that I hoped sounded like a melody. My mom and dad would dance around to whatever piece I made, making me feel like the proudest kid in the world.
I gently pressed down on the keys, suddenly hearing the beginning of my lullaby filling the air. My mother had created it for me when I was five, my dad adding what random notes he knew as well, giving me a melody that lulled me to sleep for the years to come. It was one of the first pieces that I learned and could play it in my sleep.
Slowly I began playing the opening notes and before I knew it, my fingers began picking up in tempo; my lullaby erupting in the air and meeting my ears until I abruptly stopped, feeling wetness begin to fall down my face.
I hadn't realized I had been crying and roughly used my cast-covered to wipe the stray tears away.
"I shouldn't be surprised that you can play. Your mom always had a knack for that kind of thing." It was Phil's voice. I quickly got up and turned around seeing that he wasn't alone. They were all there of course, including the green-eyed bastard who was looking at me with an unfathomable expression. I felt my face flush in embarrassment of being caught.
This was just perfect. Not only had they all heard me, but probably seen me cry as well. Staring at the floor, I barely managed out a whisper.
"Can we go now please." I heard his response of a yes and quickly walked towards the door whilst keeping my eyes towards the ground. I didn't want to see the sympathy or pity in their eyes, because I didn't deserve it.
I didn't deserve it one bit.
…...WTF….
"You two aren't going to yap off my ear are you, because I don't think I will make it through the drive if you do." I asked.
"Well good morning to you too." Alice grinned beside me. I rolled my eyes. Today would mark our first outing as a group.
On freaking Sunday of all days.
Day of supposed rest my ass.
We all had to meet at the parking lot of the high school at the butt crack of dawn and I was less than impressed and so had the others while the staff were so happy and excited to take a trip.
Apparently, we were traveling to some unknown destination in Yakima.
Freaking Yakima…which meant five and a half hours of my life were going to be spent traveling to a city that reminded me of bovine.
Add in the fact that we were all squeezed in a mustard colored travel van, this was going to be one hell of a day.
"Yeah who peed in your cereal?" Edward asked.
Did I mention I was situated between the two of them?
Yeah it was my lucky day.
"Fuck off." I grumbled. I was half-awake, hungry, and between twiddle dee and twiddle dum.
"Language Bella." Uncle Phil hollered from the front. I heard the others snicker.
I looked at him in bewilderment. He was sitting two rows in front of me and deep in conversation with that James man and Rosalie making me wonder how in the hell he had heard me.
He was developing the parents' ear whereas no matter where you were or what you said, they somehow heard what you were doing or saying.
I just wanted to spend the duration of the ride in peace and maybe sleep a bit but Ms. Esme had some other ideas.
An hour and a half into our ride she decided it was sharing time. She turned around in her seat to face us.
"Okay I think we should all get to know each other better don't you think?" She was way too happy this early in the morning.
We all groaned in response.
"Teenagers these days." She giggled. "Come on, how about we discuss our favorite hobbies huh and perhaps elaborate on why we like it?"
No one said anything.
"Okay, how about I start hmm. I like to decorate; it's one of my favorite pastimes." Esme grinned as if it were the best thing in the world. "Now who's next?"
No one said anything, so she began picking in a random order.
This continued until it was my turn.
"I have no hobbies." I huffed.
"Sure you do." Alice grinned beside me.
"I don't think so."
"Um we heard you play the piano yesterday, isn't that a hobby?" Rosalie asked and I narrowed my eyes at her.
"No it's not." I replied shortly. I rolled my eyes in my head as Phil sent a glare my way.
"Fine it used to be. Not anymore and I don't feel like explaining why." I replied. Esme continued to smile at me.
"Well that's fine. Let me say that it was a nice hobby to have and if you ever decided to pick it back up there are many things you can do with it. Maybe even get a degree in it." She grinned. I let out an un lady like snort.
"Yeah okay." I retorted. College was a joke.
"Is there an issue?" I shook my head and she moved on to Alice and finally Jane.
"What about you?" Esme asked. Jane ran a manicured hand through her dark tresses.
"Uh I do nails and hair." She grinned smacking on a wad of gum.
"That's nice dear and do you plan on pursing that in college?" Esme asked.
"Ew no. College is not for me. I'm just going to marry rich and not work a day in my life." She grinned. I found myself nodding in response….at least not the marrying rich part, I wasn't that shallow.
I just didn't think college was for me.
"Uh Bells I don't know why you're nodding your head back there, because you're going to college." Phil beamed from the front.
Again I wondered how in the hell he did that.
I shook my head from side to side.
"Girl join the club." Jane stretched out a hand for a high five. I just looked at her.
"Okay then." She placed her hand back on her lap dismissively. I crossed my arms and huffed. He couldn't make me. As if he knew what I was thinking, he turned around again and looked at me.
"Yes I can." With a grin, he turned back around, leaving me to my thoughts.
…...
"You seriously brought us all the way out here to hike?" Levi huffed.
"What's wrong with that?" Charlotte asked placing her hands on her hips. Those two had been going at it the whole drive over here. I personally found it amusing and encouraged it as much as possible.
"Considering we live in a place full of trees and shrubbery we could have stayed there." He growled back.
I giggled in amusement. We were standing out in a large dusty field where various cars and tractors were parked. As the afternoon approached, the sun was high in the sky and heat belted down on us causing a nice sheen of sweat begins to form on our skin.
Jane was complaining about walking in heels, while Brady and Felix argued over some game and Samantha seemed to be afraid of her own shadow.
I continued to giggle. We had been out the van for less than ten minutes and we were ready to kill each other. How were we going to make it today let alone the next couple of months remains a mystery to me.
"Relax. There is more out here than just forestry. We are going on a little hike." Esme started trying to ease the tensions and we all groaned again.
"Once again, we could have done this in Forks, that's all I'm saying." Levi raised his hands.
"If I could finish, one of my colleagues owns an apple orchard back here. To get to it we must walk a bit as it is inaccessible by our van. Now as you know this marks our first group activity, but first off, I want to make sure that you and your mentor talk to each other a little bit. You guys will be spending a lot of time together and it's best that you guys get to know one another." She continued.
I really hope she wasn't about to say what I think she was.
"Before we get to the orchard, I would like to say that you will all separate off with your mentors to collect apples and in an hour and a half we'll meet up for lunch and then get a tutorial on the many uses of their apples, including some of their pies with the apples we harvested." Esme continued despite the disbelief and annoyance on our faces.
"There are four paths that lead to the orchard. Two pairs will go down three of those and one pair down the forth. Carlisle, Phil, and I will all be near the holding house if you need us for anything." She handed each of us a wooden basket that seemed to appear out a thin air.
"Okay you guys, I hope you all have fun and enjoy and remember to talk to one another." I watched as she along with Phil and Carlisle headed down one of the paths leaving us standing there.
"So now what?" Felix asked Emmett. Emmett just grinned.
"We do as she says bro." he smacked him on the shoulder and pulled him towards one of the paths.
Everyone paired off leaving me and my new "best friend" to go down the last path by ourselves.
As I found out the path alone took fifteen minutes to get the orchard and we were already behind everyone else since he just had to go to the bathroom.
Seeing that we were by ourselves, he smirked madly at me.
"Anything to get me alone eh sweet cakes?" I flipped him off and began walking towards our intended path. I heard his footfalls behind me as he attempted to catch up.
"Hey slow down, we're supposed to be bonding here, not you running away and me chasing after you." Edward answered breathless. I shoved the basket against his chest and continued walking but as usual, his long ass legs caught up with me quickly.
"Are you really going to make things that difficult for me?" He asked.
"As if you aren't doing the same with me." I responded. Edward sighed in defeat.
"Look can we just compromise here. If I try to be nice; which I have this whole time by the way, can you?" he asked.
"What are you getting out of this?" Edward groaned and rubbed his face roughly.
"Do you always believe the worst of others? Not everyone had ulterior motives. Besides this is my job and I'm trying to help." He breathed.
"Haven't you heard that you can't help those who don't want to be helped?" The look he gave me was so full of defeat that it made me feel bad.
Just a little.
"Fine, I'll try. I make no promises though. You tend to piss me off sometimes so I can't be responsible for anything I might say or do." Edward nodded his head.
"The same goes for me as well. I nodded my head back as we continued walking.
"So is this where I get to know all your deepest darkest secrets?" Edward grinned wickedly at me.
"Don't push your luck."
Surprisingly picking apples with Edward wasn't that bad. He asked me general questions and didn't try to press me for anything too intrusive….well of course he tried but after a near miss of an apple to the crotch, he left me alone.
Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
So I try to hold onto a time when nothing mattered
And I can't explain what happened
And I can't erase the things that I've done
No I can't
I made my mistakes
I've got nowhere to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me
Thoughts? Leave it in a Review!
Until again,
xoxo Sylvia Cullen