Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Chapter 11
Bella
The next morning, I woke up feeling well-rested and, oddly, excited to go to school. Well actually, it wasn't so odd seeing as Edward was the reason behind my excitement.
After rubbing my eyes and mentally preparing myself for another day of classes, I quickly jumped out of bed, getting showered and dressed in my dark green skirt, white shirt, and matching green blazer. I passed a brush, followed by my curling iron through my hair, allowing my hair to fall in wavy ringlets. Then I applied a minimum amount of light foundation, some mascara and lip balm, before I hurried downstairs, grabbing a bowl of cereal and pouring in a bit of milk. Then, in true Emmett fashion, I shoveled the food into my mouth, sipping some apple juice in between bites.
Up until then, I hadn't even realized that my parents were already seated at the kitchen table, until I turned around and saw both of them looking at me with their eyebrows raised – clearly suspicious.
I giggled nervously, explaining my rushed behavior, "I have a huge biology test this morning. I just want to get to school in time to do some extra studying."
Lie. Lie. Lie.
I hated lying, especially to my parents. I just wasn't sure whether or not I should tell them about Edward as yet.
I mean, my mom was especially a blabber-mouth - unable to keep anything to herself - so I knew that if I told her anything, the information would surely leak straight to Emmett. And I definitely wasn't ready to deal with that as yet. I'd already decided that the confession would come at Jasper's party, when I knew for sure he'd be in high spirits.
My parents still looked apprehensive after my explanation, but nevertheless, nodded, accepting the excuse. Good enough for me, I shrugged, before saying goodbye and heading out the front door.
It was then that I was hit by the freezing chill that I never seemed to get used to, bundling up in my winter wear. I practically ran to my Audi, opening and shutting the door as soon as possible before starting up the engine. I warmed up a bit, before pulling out of my driveway and heading to school.
I bit my lip, trying to hold in my enthusiasm at seeing Edward again. Even though I'd seen him less than twenty-four hours ago, it had felt like a great deal longer to me.
My mind started to wander off to the way his emerald green eyes sparkled when he talked about subjects of interest. The way his hair always managed to look oh-so-touchable even when it was the messiest thing on the planet. And last but not least, his crooked smile that managed to pull all of his attractiveness together into a neat, handsome package.
I blinked, snapping out of my reverie just in time to make the turn into my school's empty parking lot. I silently thanked the Lord that I could multitask. It would've, after all, been pretty embarrassing for me to drive past the school entrance in my daze.
I cut off the engine, opening my door and grabbing my school bag before heading inside the building to slip my books into my locker. For some reason, it felt quite eerie walking into school this morning. It was quiet - too quiet. In fact, it had been that way for the past week or so, yet I couldn't for the life of me think of the reason why.
I shook it off, slamming my locker shut before heading outside to wait for Alice and Rose to arrive. It was then that I felt my phone buzz in my skirt pocket, make me smile unconsciously as I opened up the message to see who it was from. My smile grew as my eyes skimmed over the text:
Hey beautiful, are we still meeting up before school? I'm leaving home now :)
I quickly sent him a reply, stating that I'd be waiting by the benches for him. Of course, I put an excessive amount of smiley faces, just because I always felt like conversations were too serious without them. It's weird, I know. Bear with me.
I continued to peer down at my phone, playing a few games to pass the time. Cars had slowly been piling in, but the lot still wasn't entirely full, so I knew that I'd still have plenty of time to hang out with Edward before we went off to our separate classes.
It was just as I was about to beat my high score on Fruit Ninja, that I heard a familiar clickity-clackity-ing of stilettos against the cement pavement at school.
Only one thing came to my mind: Oh. No. She was back.
Suddenly, the reason that school had been so... well, nice, lately came flooding back to me: it was because Tanya Denali had been absent for the past week.
Tanya Denali was Haydn's College's Queen Bee – she even had two evil minions to go along with that title.
All of the girls at Haydn's College were forced to bow down to her - anyone who didn't would go through hell. Of course not literally, but she had the power to destroy anyone's social life with the snap of a finger.
So, you could imagine how much less tense the atmosphere at school bad been what with her pleasant absence. Even her two bimbo sidekicks, Lauren and Jessica, had apparently taken a chill pill whilst she'd been M.I.A.
The alleged reason for Tanya's absence was due to the fact that she'd tripped somewhere and suffered a broken nose, desperately needing to go to the plastic surgeon to get it fixed. I mentally rolled my eyes at the thought. Anyone with a brain would've known that she'd just gone off to get a nose job, and had been recovering from it for the past week.
Looking up, my suspicions were confirmed when I saw the difference in angularity of her nose as she walked towards me. But then something else struck me: why the hell was she walking towards me? The only reason she'd ever glance in my direction was if I'd done something to piss her off, or if she wanted something.
And I didn't have anything she could possibly want, so I thought back to the list of possible things I could've done to get on her bad side during the period of a week. However, even after a few seconds of deliberation, I came up with nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I really didn't have a good feeling about this.
It wasn't that I was scared of her. Definitely not. I mentally scoffed at the idea me being scared of Tanya.
But the idea of expending energy on some sort of altercation made me queasy. I very much enjoyed my peace and quiet.
"Bella," Tanya smiled, coming to a halt in front of me. Her sickeningly sweet voice sent chills down my spine, especially when combined with the creepy smiles her two minions were shooting my way.
"Tanya," I forced a smile back.
"So, Alice is throwing a party for Jasper, huh?" Tanya arched an eyebrow at me whilst twirling a strand of her curly, strawberry-blond hair.
My body relaxed. Oh! So that's what this whole confrontation was about. I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding in. She was simply fishing for an invite to the party.
I mentally smirked at that thought. There was no way in hell that Alice was letting Tanya anywhere near Jasper, or her own house for that matter.
You see, a few weeks after Alice had moved to Chicago, around the time that she and Jasper had started dating, Tanya developed a little crush on Jasper. And by little, I mean gigantic. She'd shamelessly flirted with him in front of Alice, trying any and everything to get the couple to break things off so she could finally have him all to herself.
But their relationship was like a rock; tough to break. And when Alice realized what Tanya had been trying to do… Well let's just say, she didn't take it too lightly.
I plastered a look of feigned apology on my face, "Sorry, Tanya. Alice would kill me if I invited anyone without her approval, and the guest list is already pretty significant. You'll have to take it up with her." I almost had to resist the urge to applaud myself at how hugely convincing I sounded.
I noticed how Tanya's face hardened for a moment, most likely as she pondered all of the different ways she could manage an invite to the party. I waited patiently for her to say something else, watching as her face brightened after a moment, before she thanked me, waving goodbye. Her minions followed close behind.
I couldn't help but shake my head at the group of them. They were so odd.
Before I could think too deeply into the meaning of Tanya's actions, I got the shock of my life when I felt a pair of hands shoot out of nowhere, covering my eyes. My train of thought was lost, along with the calm state I'd been in for the duration of the morning.
Thankfully, it soon returned after I tugged onto those hands, realizing who they belonged to immediately. I felt the corners of my lips upturn into a smile, happy that he'd finally arrive, and of course even more pleased with his greeting.
Then my smile turned into a full-blown grin when I heard him bend down to ear-level, whispering, "Guess who?" As if I didn't know, I smiled.
Deciding to joke around with him a little, I answered, gasping, "Ryan Gosling?! Is that you?"
Then I felt Edward drop his hands from my face, and I turned around just in time to see him shoot a playful glare towards me, "Not funny, Bella."
I giggled, "Sorry. But you have to admit, that was pretty good, right?"
Edward shook his head towards me, running his hands through his already-messy copper-toned hair as he chuckled.
Naturally, I took that opportunity to wander my eyes over his body, taking in his presence. His navy blue uniform was kempt as usual, paired with a black fleece coat. I almost had to physically pull my eyes away from him, becoming so enraptured by how effortlessly amazing he looked.
And with that thought, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't yet said a proper 'hello' to him – if you get what I mean by 'hello'. I berated myself a little, before quickly getting myself up and walking over towards him. He got the hint as to what I was about to do immediately after seeing me move close towards him. Then, he followed along.
Edward smiled his perfect lopsided grin, pulling me towards him by my waist, thereby making my breath hitch. I loved it when he did things like that. Things that were so spontaneous that it took my breath away – literally.
I'd almost forgotten that we were on a school compound, until I heard some loud coughing behind me, making me flinch, before turning around slowly. School had been pretty deserted with the time still being relatively early, but it hadn't been entirely empty. So, it would've been logical if someone had seen me and Edward like this. I should've pulled him to the edge of the building or something, where no one ever bothered to go. I mentally slapped myself for not thinking that one through, hoping upon hope that we hadn't been caught by a teacher.
Edward had frozen along with me after hearing the coughing, but we both relaxed, somewhat, after realizing who it was. Alice and Rosalie, of course. Who else?
Both were fighting back smiles, while I blushed furiously, and Edward kept an arm securely wrapped around my waist.
It was at that time that I decided to glance around the school compound, and it was a good thing that I had. I suddenly noticed how many girls' eyes were on me and Edward – and our close proximity. To be fair, by a lot of girls, I meant about six or seven, since the rest were terribly used to seeing things of that nature. Technically, there was a strict 'no-boys-allowed-on-school-compound' rule, but most ignored it.
I was fairly uncomfortable with all of the unwanted attention though, so I shot a 'mind-your-own-business' look towards the few girls staring, making them all go back to whatever it was that they'd been doing before.
Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly do that to my friends, who by the way, were still smiling like freaks. Finally, Alice piped up, breaking the terribly awkward silence that had been ensuing.
"Good morning!" she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively towards me and Edward, thereby deepening my blush.
"It was," I mumbled, only loud enough for Edward to hear. He responded by chuckling, green eyes sparkling, making me smile up at him.
"What are you guys up to?" Rosalie grinned knowingly. I wanted to tell my friends that this was most definitely not the best time be having this conversation with me – while Edward was present. But I couldn't exactly say that without turning the situation from awkward, to beyond mortifying.
So instead, I desperately tried to find myself an excuse to get out of this situation that was only growing more and more uncomfortable by the second. But, before I could open my mouth to say anything, Edward spoke up.
"I was just saying 'hi' to Bella. She forgot her sweater at my house yesterday, so I was just dropping it off for her. I'm actually thinking of grabbing a quick breakfast at Lulu's. Do you wanna join me?" Edward ended his explanation, dropping his eyes toward me. They were smiling as if saying "Just go along with it."
I bit my lip to keep from smiling, "Umm, yeah, I do, actually." I looked from Edward to my friends.
Then I continued, speaking to Alice and Rose, "I'll catch up with you guys later."
They both remained pretty neutral, 'buying' the excuse we'd sold them to secretly get away from their prying eyes. But I knew that even on the surface, they both secretly wanted to kill me for ruining their fun. Hey, I was all for fun. But not when it was at mine or Edward's expense.
So, I waved 'goodbye' to my friends as Edward removed his arm from my waist, taking my hand in his instead. We both smiled as he squeezed it, leading me across the road. We really weren't lying about our whereabouts. We were going to go to Lulu's – a tiny café located conveniently beside Jarvis High. It's just that we weren't actually going to go inside and eat.
We walked a little to the side of the building, making sure that no one else was around. Then once, once we were certain that we were out of immediate view of any watchful eyes, Edward smiled, pulling me towards him again.
"So, where were we?" he inquired, looking down at me, making me giggle.
I looked up at him, smiling, before stating, "I think we were about here-" Then I reached up on my tip-toes, making him chuckle at how small I was compared to him, before he leaned down, meeting my lips halfway. I pulled him closer to me by his coat lapels, making him smile against my lips as he gripped my waist even tighter.
Our lips moved slowly and in sync. We both seemed to be taking our time, enjoying every moment we could of this uninterrupted bliss. My hands moved up to his neck, as I threaded my fingers through his hair. I had missed the silky feel of it. He sighed as I pulled on the ends of his hair, pulling me as close to him as possible.
When we both realized that we couldn't hold our breath for much longer, we pulled away, still keeping our bodies flush against each other. He rested his forehead on mine, breathing just as heavily as I was, but nevertheless, smiling.
I guess I was once again getting dazzled by his pools of green staring into my own. So, I wasn't thinking when I blurted, "I missed you."
Almost instantly, I shut my eyes, wanting to bury myself in the nearest hole. How much more pathetic could I sound? 'I missed you'. Seriously? I'd seen him less than a day ago.
Edward didn't seem to be noticing my inner conflict, so I was awfully surprised when I heard him reply with, "I missed you, too." My eyes flashed open to glance into his eyes, noticing the pure and utter honesty floating through them, making my lips turn up into a smile. I hadn't expected him to say that. Not one bit. Then again, when hadn't he been surprising me lately? He thought I was beautiful, he was great with kids, and he never seemed uncomfortable with my lack of filter.
Then, as if he wasn't surprising me enough, he planted another soft kiss on my lips, deep but gentle.
When he pulled back, we both stared towards each other for a good while. He caressed my cheek softly, and I leaned in to him.
I finally knew what it was like to have someone. And I was enjoying every second of it.
Edward Cullen was the definition of perfection, and even though it truly baffled me that he would ever want a girl like me –who was quite the opposite of perfect - I really wasn't complaining.
A/N: I decided to introduce Tanya in this one, because you'll be seeing more of her soon. Don't worry, I'm not going to make her unbearably annoying. Well, at least I'll try not to.
Thoughts? Loved it, hated it?
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Xoxo
LoveACullen
