Previously…
I decided that stressing out about that again wasn't going to help me. I headed straight to my comfy bed, but a doorbell noise stopped me. I groaned. It had to be Alice, wanting to know every little detail of my date, and then she'd probably have a go at me for punching Edward and want to know why I had done it in the first place. Had Edward told her about us? Maybe Alice had guessed?
I lazily dragged my body to the door, before letting out a sigh and preparing myself for the onslaught that was Alice. Maybe she'd see how tired I was and let me sleep?
I opened up the door and mumbled a, "Hello Alice."
The response was not what I was expecting. "B-Bellaaaaa!" spoke, a weird velvet voice, followed by a man collapsing on top of me; throwing both of us onto the floor beneath us.
~PTP~
I think of you every night and day
You took my heart and you took my pride away
I hate myself for loving you
Can't break free from the things that you do
I want to walk but I run back to you
That's why I hate myself for loving you
-I Hate Myself For Loving You by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (A/N: love, love, love Joan Jett :) The Runaways comes out here in the UK in a few weeks; cannot wait :D)
Playing the Part
Chapter 11 – The Pissed, The Pissed Off, The Dickhead and The Meddling Moron
Bella POV
"Oof," I groaned as my back hit the floor and the huge weight of a body on top of mine crushed me down.
"Bellaaaa," Edward said again, a goofy grin on his face.
I pushed at his shoulder. "Get off."
"Oopshh," he slurred, pushing off of me. "I didn't mean to squisstthhh you Bella, I don't want you squisstthed 'cos then we can't talk and I need to talk to you, my baby Bell."
I stood up and then looked down at him, a puddle of drunken mush at my feet. "Hmm." I shut the door behind him, unsure that reasoning with him to leave me alone when he was in this state was going to work. "Edward." Just saying his name sent shivers down my spine. "We can't talk when you're like this, and I don't want to talk with you anyway."
His expression turned to one of devastation quicker than I could blink and it pulled at my heartstrings. "But I came to talks with you, Bel-" He suddenly stopped and then asked, "Why are there three of you?"
I rolled my eyes. "Because you're pissed off of your head, you stupid-" and adorable and sexy and charming and… okay, we get the idea Bella "-man." Then I frowned. "How did you know where I live?"
He grinned crookedly. "Alish."
I ground my teeth together. "Of course."
"Alish is verrry nice, ishn't she Bella?"
I ducked my head to hide my smile at his lisp. He really was the most adorable drunk I had ever met; I'd have to remember that and get him drunk more often. I froze the moment that thought passed through my head. What the hell? More often? We weren't friends anymore.
Edward got up then, swaying on his feet a little and leaning on the doorframe for support. He looked around. "Hmm. S'a house pretty you got here… I mean, pretty house."
"Uh. Huh." I made a mental note to get drunk more often since, apparently, it made my dull and cluttered apartment look like a pretty house. Or a house pretty.
Edward turned to me. "Can you tell the pink elephant to go way pleasshe? I'm not fucking Dumbo."
I raised my eyebrows. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Edward." I sighed and made my way through to the kitchen, trying to remember a kind of remedy for complete intoxication. Water? I shrugged and poured a glass of water; it couldn't do any harm, really. Unless I spiked it with Bacardi… which was an intriguing idea, but one I would not succumb to.
After a second's thought, I poured myself a glass of water too, because it sure as hell didn't look like I'd be heading to bed any time soon. I wasn't entirely sure what to do about Edward. I mean, I couldn't just throw him out in this state; he'd probably get himself killed. Or something. But, on the other hand, while he was harmless in this state, if I let him sleep on the couch, I would probably not get any sleep at all knowing that he was here and then when he woke in the morning he'd have a slightly clearer head and would be less than happy to wake up in my house.
Edward came stumbling into the kitchen then. I leant against the kitchen counter and watched as he assessed my tiny kitchen.
"Edward," I caught his attention after he didn't say anything for a long moment.
"Yesh?"
I held out a glass of water and drank from the other one.
Thankfully, he took the water and drank half the glass in a few short gulps. Then he put the glass down and smiled at me. "Me n' Emmett drinked lotsh a whitthhsky and I had some tequila too."
"I can see that." I didn't comment on the tequila; I was sure that that must have been a mistake since I had read that Edward didn't like tequila. Maybe he had bought some tequila for his girlfriend.
Suddenly Edward's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Where's the dickhead?" His words were surprisingly clear, but I didn't understand what he meant.
"What?"
"The idiot you were with. Jack… or something?" His eyes darted here and there as though he expected someone to come in and kill us or something.
I blinked. "You mean Jacob?"
"Yeah. That dickhead."
I frowned. "First of all, Jake is not a dickhead. Second, how the fuck do you know all of this?"
"Alish," he repeated.
How long had she been planning all of this? Well… knowing Alice, I would have guessed that a drunken Edward turning up at my door in the middle of the night was not a part of her plan.
In that instant, I could have sworn that a light bulb appeared over my head. Edward had been giving me the answer to this all along: Alice!
"Excuse me," I muttered, pushing past him and into the living area to find my phone. I grabbed it up and dialled Alice's number.
"You didn't tell me about the dickhead!" Edward whined like a small child as he followed me.
I rolled my eyes and waited for Alice to pick up. Of course it would go to answer phone. She was probably at Jazz. I tried again regardless. This time, though, I left a message. "Hey, Alice, it's me. Um… well… this is going to sound… insane… but I was just calling to ask why the fuck Edward Cullen has turned up at my apartment at half ten at night absolutely pissed off of his head? Oh, and he seems to know quite a lot about my private life- and he says that you told him? Well, whatever. Call me back, okay? Because I can't chuck him out but I sure as hell do not want him here." I hung up and then turned round with a sigh.
Edward was flicking through a stack of papers, his lips pursed. "You're a teacher?" he asked.
I snatched the papers off of him. "Yes. And these are confidential."
He stuck out his bottom lip and came over to me, stopping so close that he was completely invading my personal space. He looked deep into my eyes and said, "I'm rubbing you up the wrong way aren't I?"
I narrowed my eyes, suddenly suspicious. Was he even drunk at all?
But then his hand came up to cup the back of my neck. I saw what he was going to do before he made any move to do it, but I just didn't have it in me to stop him. He bent his head and touched his lips to mine.
The minute our lips were touching, blood boiled under my skin and I gasped into his mouth, my traitorous fingers coming up to knot in his hair in my eagerness. I kissed him back, making the most of the thing that I had wanted more than anything else for the last… God knew how many years. I groaned and hesitantly reached out, dragging the tip of my tongue along his perfect bottom lip and tasting him. He tasted like whisky, and tequila and… Edward.
Suddenly, I came to my senses. My eyes snapped open and I pulled away, blushing and looking down at the floor. Edward's finger came under my chin and he tilted my head up so that he could look into my eyes.
"Bella," he whispered softly, suddenly clear and sober-sounding. "I'm sorry."
I looked back into his eyes for a long moment, those dazzling green eyes that I knew so well, and I knew that I had to let him stay. I couldn't throw him out; I loved him too much. I pulled away from him and went through to my bedroom, opening the closet and pulling out a spare duvet and pillow and then going back through to the living room.
I threw them over the sofa and then turned to Edward, blinking warily and rubbing my hand through my hair. "Um… you can… sleep here. Just… don't… don't come and find me, okay?" I looked around again, swallowing to remove the lump that had suddenly risen in my throat at the absurdity of this situation. Then I muttered, "Goodnight," before leaving the room, closing the door behind me so as to emphasise the fact that I wanted a barrier between us; and I didn't want it broken down.
Then I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen from my jar of pens. I sucked on the end of it for ages, trying to think of what to write. When I took the nib to the page to write his name, I realised that it was broken. I went through four pens before finally coming across one that worked, and then took a deep breath before writing:
Edward,
I had to go out. Help yourself to coffee, or breakfast, or aspirin, or anything else you need. Do not go in my bedroom, please (the one door that's left shut). The spare key's hung up by the door. Use that to get out and then please pass it on to Alice. Do not bring it back to me. Please.
Also, I'd really appreciate it if you stopped taking Alice's advice because she is a meddling moron who appears to enjoy torturing me. Bit of a sadist, really. She may work for you but that doesn't mean you actually have to listen to her. If you do. I've heard that Hollywood 'hotshots' don't give a shit about anything but whatever.
Um… I think that's all. I won't be back til late so make sure that you're gone by then. Oh and, FYI, that 'dickhead' is my boyfriend so it'd be great if you backed the fuck off.
That really is all.
I hope you have a wonderful time in the future getting pissed and NOT appearing on my doorstep when I'm trying to sleep. Thanks.
Isabella
I didn't read the note over. I didn't want to re-read my harsh words. I didn't know why I was being so harsh to him. I would have given anything just to speak to him earlier, but now… Now it was clear to me that he was no different to all of the others. He thought, even when pissed, that one kiss was all it would take for him to own me. I was nobody's freaking property.
I left the note on the kitchen counter where he'd be sure to find it and headed to bed. I set an alarm on my phone for five am so that I could escape before he woke before settling into bed. I doubted that I'd be able to get any sleep knowing that he was in the next room, but that was okay; I needed to think up somewhere to go all day tomorrow since apparently I wasn't going to be at home.
Edward POV
A bright- no a blinding light entered my eyes, even with them closed, and forced my body awake. Slowly, very slowly, I rose my body from the unfamiliar surface beneath me. And that's when it hit me - the pounding head ache, accompanied with an aching stomach, like I was going to puke any minute. I needed a toilet. But where the heck was I?
I had no time to take in the unusual surroundings and wonder how the hell I got here as I quickly dashed around to find any place that I could be sick in - I wasn't rude enough to just throw up in this strangers house. I randomly looked in rooms; I headed towards the closed door first as people usually shut bathroom doors right? But no it was a bedroom. I moved quickly on to an open door at the end of the hallway, where there thankfully was a toilet; just in time.
Feeling a bit better after puking my guts up (though the mind blowing headache was still bashing my brain), I started to look around the hallway to see if I had any idea where I was; but the place was totally unfamiliar to me. Jesus, how wrecked had I gotten last night?
"Hello?" I called out; but got no reply or sound that anyone was in the house.
Oh no. What if I'd gotten so drunk last night that I had slept with a random girl and now she had ducked out on me to find the press member who would give her the biggest pay out to spill all about our night together? That was the last thing I needed at the moment! How could I have been so stupid! The story could be out already, and I was still here as proof – maybe she had locked me in the house before the army of paparazzi came to hunt me down.
I remembered seeing a laptop in the bedroom I had looked in, and decided to go and look at it, to see if any stories had broken out yet. I knew from experience that the internet would be the first place where any story would pop up.
I wandered into the bedroom, not caring if I was being rude now, and grabbed the laptop on the side before gently sitting on the warm bed. The clock on the side told me it was 11am, but I still felt as tired as anything and probably looked like shit.
I opened the lid of the laptop and then, just as I was starting to panic that it would be password-protected, the screen lit up. It hadn't even been shut down, or locked, or anything. I thanked my lucky stars and clicked the internet browser shortcut. Then I saw all of the documents open along the bottom of the screen. I wondered if they'd give me any inclination as to whose apartment I was currently in and opened one called 'Document 1' that hadn't been saved yet. Disappointingly, it was blank. So I clicked on another named 'Chapter 3'. I skim-read the words of what seemed to be a story – and a surprisingly well-written story at that. The first few paragraphs made little sense at first, but then, slowly, my messed up brain started to recognise the characters and then the story. My brain hurt too much at first to let me know where I recognised it from. I knew that I must have read it online… but where? I barely went online anymore but… then it came to me. The story I had read; the brilliant author who had so few reviews, but had written such an amazing story! Had I slept with her? What a bizarre coincidence. But she had seemed so nice on IM and now, if my suspicions were correct (and I couldn't see another reasonable conclusion as to her not being here) she was being such a bitch! Maybe it had been wishful thinking that such a talented person was nice?
Suddenly feeling a whole lot more guilty for intruding on something so personal to this girl, or woman, I minimised the chapter and re-opened the internet browser, heading straight to Google. Googling yourself is weird at the best of times. Googling yourself and finding that your name is the first on the predicted list for the letter 'E' is even weirder. Googling yourself and having no less than 20,800,000 results come up is beyond terrifying.
I tried not to think about what that meant, and how many people must type my name into Google every fucking day, as I scrolled past the fan sites to the most recent news results. I clicked on 'view all' and then started to scroll through them.
There was all sorts of crap listed.
Edward Cullen's character Justin Reeves loses out on EW's sexiest beast poll. I had no idea that this poll existed… and I hadn't played that vampire character in years. That movie was the one that had shot me to stardom.
Edward Cullen and agent pal Emmett McCarty have been known for having diva-like tantrums. Since when?
Edward Cullen almost killed by an elephant! Now that was just ridiculous.
Megan is said to be frantic about boyfriend Edward Cullen's mental state following his recent breakdown. There were many things wrong with that statement.
Cullen moves in with girlfriend in a posh pad in LA. Nope. Still in Seattle. I think…
Edward Cullen wins kissing contest! A contest I had no idea I was entered in…
Edward Cullen has reportedly refused to model underwear for the supermarket Marks and Spencer. I would refuse if they had asked me. But they hadn't.
The list went on.
That shit was bad enough. Then, even worse than that, there were some articles with bits of truth in.
Tanya Denali spotted outside an apartment block in Seattle that Edward Cullen is rumoured to be living in. How the piss did they know where I lived and when had they taken that photo of Tanya?
Edward Cullen voted sexiest man alive for second year in a row! That was just embarrassing.
A very drunk Edward Cullen spotted falling into a cab after press-release party. Girlfriend Megan leaves shortly afterwards looking worried. Damn. They had photographic evidence of my drunkenness.
Trouble on the rocks for Hollywood super couple Megan and Edward? They had the same drunken photos.
Cullen spotted at young brunette's door after drunkenly abandoning girlfriend. They didn't have photos but apparently a fan had seen me knocking on the door of this house.
Young brunette. That was all they had. I supposed it was only a matter of time before the whole story – whatever the fuck the whole story was – was leaked. This brunette was probably still looking for the highest bidder.
Now I just had to get out of here before she brought the press back to get more photos. Evidence.
I shut the laptop lid, leaving it on as I had found it, and walked out of the bedroom. My stomach was starting to grumble but I didn't know if the rest of my body was ready to take any food yet. I decided that I should probably drink some water before I scarpered, so I went to find a kitchen- the house wasn't big so it wasn't hard.
I walked in, heading towards the tap and sink; when a sheet of white paper caught my eye. Being nosey, I went over and picked it up. When I saw my name written in a messy scrawl that I could never, ever forget my pulse picked up and I read the note.
I took a big intake of breath, before slowly releasing it. This couldn't be true. I couldn't have gone to Bella's house!
But my thoughts were confirmed when I turned around to see a picture of Bella and her mum on her fridge door. It looked quite recent and Bella… well, Bella looked stunning. It was like the sun was designed to sparkle off of her perfectly and I could tell that, with age, Bella had gotten even more beautiful then I remembered her. And here I was in her house- I couldn't help but smile brightly at the thought.
I wondered how I had gotten here. But then I remembered the photo of me getting into a taxi. How had I known Bella's address? I went back through to the living room and grabbed my jacket. I dug in the pocket until I found the note that Alice had written. Just like Bella had said in her note. Her very cold, very bitter note that bit with sarcasm. Ouch.
If I had needed any proof that she hated me, there it was. I read it through again, my heart aching with sadness. It gave my heart that plummeting feeling, like I had lost it… lost Bella. Which I had. And turning up drunk on her doorstep and saying God only knows what to her had been one of the shittiest ideas I had ever had, but I had been inebriated. And maybe it was just as well. I would never have had the courage to do it had I been sober, and I had gotten the rejection I needed to stop obsessing over her. The rejection that I had known I would get anyway.
So why did it hurt so fucking much?
Maybe because of her biting sarcasm. Maybe because she had ordered me not to ever see her or speak to her again. Maybe because of her mention of a fucking boyfriend.
I wondered if he had been here when I had turned up the night before. Now, that would have been embarrassing. To me he was a dickhead and always would be; and no, I didn't even need to get to know him, to know that. He had the one thing I had ever really, truly wanted and it hurt badly.
Then something else occurred to me; something huge. Bella had written that amazing story. The person I had been IM-ing was Bella. I had spoken to her. To her and about her, no less. I wondered what I would have said had I known. A smile crept onto my face as I realised that I had a key to Bella's life. A very, very small part but I could speak to her all the same.
I thought about the story then. And then I wondered how on earth I hadn't put the pieces together before. She had said while IM-ing that her best friend had moved away to college and she hadn't spoken to him since. She had written about a boy, and a girl, and a beautiful, beautiful meadow.
I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and opened up the internet browser, going straight to the story via Google. I scrolled down to the last sentence of the prologue:
And she knew right then that she would never stop waiting. She would wait forever if it meant he would come back to her.
I wondered if that was true, if she would wait, if she did feel that way about me. Or was it just something to make the story more interesting?
I vowed right then that I would stay in contact with Bella using anything I could. In this case, it was my secret identity and her wonderful story. I didn't know what I was going to say to her yet, but I did know that I'd work it out somehow. And I also knew that I needed to see Bella again, in person; I needed to make amends with her, no matter what it took. So I needed to do something big, something amazing, to earn Bella back; but I wasn't creative so I had no idea.
There was only one person I could ask for help with this. So I hunted around for the few things I had appeared to have come with, stuffed Bella's note in my pocket and headed off to purposefully disobey Bella's demand about not following Alice's advice.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Dun-dun-duuuun! So Edward's pissed, Bella's pissed off, Jake's a dickhead and Alice is a meddling moron! Oh, and FYI they totally kissed ;)
BTW all of the false headlines in this chapter are current news results that come up when you Google Robert Pattinson, and that is the number of results that appear when you Google his name as well. Yes, a site is claiming that RPatz was almost killed by an elephant LOL
We (me and Laura) are soooo sorry about the month or so since the last update. I've been on holiday and Laura's been… busy? Lol I don't know. But we're back at school in just over a week so things should go back to normal then and our updates should be fortnightly :) At least, that's my aim :)
Thanks so much to everyone who have reviewed and those of you that send me begging messages for updates! You motivate us so much, which I'm sure is hard to believe with such infrequent updates but is really, honestly true!
Please keep the kind words coming! :) Reviewers can have an adorable drunken Edward turn up on their doorstep and kiss them. We are willing to stretch to French kissing if we really must ;)*
Thanks so much :)
-Steph (and Laura)
*Stephaniiie and Lauraaaaa cannot be held legally responsible if Edward Cullen does not turn up to French kiss you. He is a very busy guy, you know. Terms and conditions may apply. Flamers will receive no such gift.
