Disclaimer: I thank Stephenie Meyer for sharing her character but I do not own them.
Chapter 13. Insult and Injury (Bella's Point of View.)
When Alice and Rosalie finally finished getting me ready for prom I had a huge headache. I reached for my bag and found an old bottle of Tylenol. I took the prescribed two pills and headed down stairs for a glass of water. Esme was standing in the kitchen, "My dear you look beautiful!" She threw her hands up and ran for her camera on the counter. "Oh, umm thank you Esme, could I get a drink before pictures though?" I'm sure my dad would be asking for copies of those photos so I had no choice but to take a few. She humored me and poured me a glass of water watching me as I put the two Tylenol's in my mouth and swallowed them. I walked with Esme to the living room where Alice and Jasper waited for me. They were so perfect together, each of there features complimented one another, I often wondered if Edward and I appeared that way when we were together.
Esme started taking pictures one by one then all three of us together and then just Alice and Jasper. I put on my best fake smile for the photo's and grabbed the ridiculous purse that Alice bought to match my outfit. The limo was already waiting for us outside, Esme gave us all hugs before waving us on by as the limo pulled out of the drive way. I adjusted myself as much as I could trying to make sure that if Mike had to ride in the limo with me, he would at least have to sit far away. It would be safer for him in my mind if he kept a good distance from me tonight. I felt bad about dragging him to prom with me when I really didn't even like him. Jasper could sense my frustration and motioned to Alice to talk to me. "Bella, what's wrong?" Alice's pixie like voice rang in my ears as we were approaching what I assumed to be Mike's house. "I really don't like this guy Alice." I let out an exasperated sigh before the limo pulled to a stop. Mike opened the front door and started walking towards the limo. "Bella, it's only for tonight, it'll be over soon anyways, and you don't have to talk to him after this." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms slouching back against the seat. Mike climbed into the limo and immediately went to sit as close to me as possible.
"Bella, you look good!" Mike's tone was annoying. He looked me up and down like a piece of meat. Even Jasper made a screwed up face before turning his head to look out the window. "Thanks." I muttered softly as kindly as I could possibly manage through clenched teeth. "Mike you look nice as well." Alice was trying really hard to make this night go as smoothly as possible. It seemed that Jasper was the only one who noticed my frustrations. Probably because he could feel whatever it was that I could. I tried to lighten my mood in hopes of cheering up Jasper. I didn't have to be nice for Mike's sake; I could be nice for Jaspers. As if he noticed my gesture he turned his head and smiled at me. Instantly the mood changed, the limo ride was still a disaster in my opinion. I kept up with the happy charade and would continue to do so throughout the evening. At least, that was my goal. When the limo pulled up to the school I could see everyone outside staring at the tinted windows trying to figure out who was inside. They should have automatically known that it was the only missing Cullen's. I would have made that assumption. They were the only ones in town with enough money to rent limos for stupid little events like prom. Jasper and Mike climbed out first allowing Alice's dramatic entrance into prom. Alice was the first one out placing her hand in Jaspers and walking towards the gym door like a couple of movie stars. Mike stuck his hand towards the door to help me but I refused it.
When we walked into the gym I noticed that Edward was dancing with Angela. I really liked her, but even that couldn't stop my blood from boiling. I know he noticed us come in just like everyone else had noticed us. He glanced in my direction offering me a huge grin, there was something in the way he looked at me that made me feel peaceful and at home. I offered him a smile and turned to face Rosalie and Emmett. "Hey it's about time you slow pokes made it!" Emmett's voice boomed over the music and Rosalie hushed him playfully. Mike had moved in front of me and was facing Alice and Rosalie at my side. Jasper was standing next to Alice and Emmett was next to Rosalie. He reached for my hand to pull me away and pulled my hand back. "Bella, what the fuck is wrong with you?" My jaw dropped. Did I deserve that? Maybe, I did but I wasn't going to listen to it from him. I felt Rosalie and Alice both tense at my side. Emmett made a grumbling noise and Edwards head jerked over to the side. "Excuse me? What did you just say to me?" I was trying to somewhat forcefully whisper. I hated drawing attention to myself but it seemed as if this situation was doing just that. "I said what the fuck is wrong with you? Is this why Edward broke up with you? You won't even let me touch you! You're really acting like a stuck up bitch!" He practically yelled in my face. I was madder in this very moment than I had ever been in my life. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Emmett and Jasper securing both Rosalie and Alice in place. Edward was already making his way towards me. I felt my vision get hazy as my eye brows shot up and my eyes squinted together. I was at a lost for words. I wanted to scream that he was a pathetic excuse for a human being, but instead I settled for punching him. I reared my arm back and before anyone else could grab me I hit Mike in the face as hard as I possibly could. Instantly I felt my self being carried out of the gym that I just entered.
It took me a minute to realize that Emmett was carrying me to his jeep. Rosalie was walking smoothly behind us making sure that no one was looking. He tossed me in the backseat and buckled me in. "I'm sorry guys!" I was still fuming mad, I wanted to go back in there and hit Mike again. Rosalie and Emmett hoped into the jeep and smiled back at me. "It's ok Bella, that guy deserved to be hit." Rosalie's tone was almost creepy. She sounded as mad as I felt. Emmett just smiled, "Looks like those kick boxing lessons that Jasper is giving you finally are starting to pay off!" Emmett let out a loud laugh and started the jeep. "Where to?" He looked from me to Rosalie as he started to pull out of the school parking lot. I didn't want to go home just yet, and it didn't seem as if Emmett wanted to either. "Rose, babe, let's go to a karaoke bar!" She looked down at her dress and back at me, Emmett had a huge grin on his face and a mischievous look in his eyes. "Emmett we wouldn't be able to get Bella into a bar." She was starting to calm down and I noticed that Emmett was antsy to find someplace else to go. "Let's go ride go carts!" I was feeling rebellious as I leaned towards Emmett placing my head on his shoulder and offering Rosalie the same toothy grin. She smiled back but still insisted that go carts was not a good idea in our prom attire. I put on my biggest puppy dog face and began to plead with her. Emmett joined in and we finally convinced Rosalie to let us have a small amount of fun.
Once she agreed, Emmett sped towards the Putt Putt location in Seattle. It took him approximately 30 minutes to get us there. I still could not understand there need for speed. It would have taken me 2 hours to drive as far as it took Emmett to drive 30 minutes some place. We pulled into the deserted parking lot and climbed out of the jeep. No one was there except for a lonely cashier standing outside smoking a cigarette. Once the cashier saw us he quickly put his cigarette on the ground and moved towards the register window. Emmett took Rosalie's hand and we made our way towards the go carts. "Can we get three tickets to ride the go carts?" I pulled out my wallet and was starting to pay the man when Rosalie threw a credit card up on the desk. "We want to ride for several hours." I looked at her stunned, several hours? That might make me nauseated Emmett let out a low chuckle and looked down at me to offer a smile. "Right this way." The cashier seemed friendly enough as he led us to the go cart track allowing us to select our carts before turning them on.
We sped around the track in our prom attire laughing the entire time. Emmett couldn't help but try to play bumper cars with Rosalie as she whizzed by him. It was a refreshing change to the disastrous night that had been my life a few hours before. I knew I would have to face the music when I got back to the Cullen's house. Alice would probably be furious with me for ruining her prom. I felt a small tingle in my stomach as I remembered Edwards face when I hit Mike. He was angry, more than angry he looked furious. I couldn't tell because everything happened in a blur who he was madder at. Me or Mike. I sucked in a swift but soothing breath of air before our ride had come to an end. I still didn't want to go to face the evil pixie that was probably waiting for me or the absolutely infuriated ex-boyfriend's glare. So I suggested Emmett's first idea. Rosalie looked at me surprised and shook her head. "Bella, we don't have an I.D for you to get into a bar with." I looked down at the ground defeated when Emmett advised that he would just 'convince' whoever was the door to let me in. I looked up at him and Rosalie smiling. "Rose, what's the worst that can happen? They tell us that I can't go in?" Rosalie let out a sigh as Emmett and I put back on our puppy dog pleading faces. "Fine." She turned and started walking towards the jeep. I was going to need to remember that face, it seemed to be working in my favor. I was willing to do anything but go home and face the wraths that await me.
"So, Bella you want to make a little bet?" Emmett looked up at me in the rear view mirror smiling a huge toothy grin. Rosalie shot him a dirty look but made no attempt to speak up. "What kind of bet Emmett?" I knew that he was capable of just about anything so I walked closely on this thin line before actually accepting his offer. "When we get to the bar, if I can get you in you have to take shots until you're willing to go upstage a sing for us." I listened to his words carefully and then choose mine just as careful before giving him a yes or no answer. "Emmett that sounds more like a dare than it is a bet, what do I get out of this?" His smile broadened and Rosalie crossed her arms peering at Emmett from the corner of her eye. "Well if you accept my 'dare' I will do whatever it is you ask." I thought this over in my head…what in the world would I want to convince Emmett to do? I don't think that anything would warrant me drinking or singing on a stage. I sat back in the seat thinking quietly to myself of what would be worth it for me to do something like that. "Ok, I'll do it." I had a plan in my mind; I was going to make Emmett force Edward to come with us this summer. I wanted to make things right with him so bad this summer that I would do just about anything and well this fell into that category. Rosalie scrunched up her eye brows and looked at me questioningly before replying, "Oh, this is going to be very interesting. Its shame everyone else is going to miss it." Emmett let out an evil chuckle before pulling the jeep to a stop in front a small karaoke bar. We climbed out and headed toward the entrance.
Of course Emmett had no problems convincing the young female bouncer to let me in. He faked that I was a cousin from out of town who had forgotten her ID at home and just found out that my husband had been cheating on me. She took pity on me and placed the '21' stamp on my hand. I let out a sigh and put on my best sad face before entering the bar. I had only ever had a small amount of champagne with my mom on New Years so when Emmett ordered me three shots of Tequila I just stared at them at first. "Alright little sister, you know the deal… drink until you sing." I looked up at the stage and back at the shots on the table. Rosalie snickered and sat impatiently staring at me trying to determine what choice I was going to make. No one had yet asked me what Emmett was going to have to do in return. This was good because I wanted to tell him my plan when Rosalie was not around. I looked back from the shots to the stage again, and decided that the drinks looked less threatening than the stage did.
The shots burned the back of my throat and made me gag every time I downed one, Emmett kept ordering more and more until I was so drunk that I could not feel my face. I was completely numb and the entire room around me was warm and glowing. Rosalie had been telling jokes all night that I totally did not get for some apparent reason. They both just sat there looking at me laughing hysterically. Finally after ten shots I decided that I had enough, I really thought that Emmett would have given up and not let me get this drunk but as usual I thought wrong. Renee had always told me to never assume because you make an 'ass out of you and me.' I had never taken that term so seriously until now. I was definitely making an ass out of myself as I tried to walk up to the podium to select a song. Rosalie followed balancing my steps and holding me up straight. I ran my finger along the song selection before stopping on the shortest song I could find. They announced me and my song selection as I made my way to the stage. The lights were blinding and there was a small chair that I slumped into so that I could start singing I will survive by Gloria Gaynor. Emmett laughed so hard that I swear I saw him fall out of his chair. Rosalie had a very big grin on her face as she snapped a picture on her phone. That was not good, I didn't want any proof or evidence of this night and now Rosalie had taken a picture.
Once the song was over and I was bright red I made my way carefully off of the stage and back to my seat where Emmett was still laughing hysterically. "Oh my god! I didn't think you would last so long, but then you still got up there and sang! "Emmett's laughter was causing the entire crowd in the bar to stare at us. "Can we go home now? I think I'm going to be sick." Rosalie sighed and motioned for him to stop laughing, they helped me out of the bar and once in the parking lot Emmett picked me up and placed me into the jeep, again securing me in tightly. I fell asleep on the way home but didn't remain that way very long." What the hell did you do to her?" I noticed that familiar angry voice. The wrath that I had been avoiding all night was now directing his anger towards Emmett. "Nothing dude, she took a dare and got drunk before singing about how she will survive. It was hilarious!" Emmett was still holding back laughter. I could not move from the back seat. I could barely hold my eyes open. Every time I tried to open them everything got blurry and started spinning so I decided to keep them closed. "Edward." I was able to partially mumble his name and instantly I was moving. I could feel his cool arms wrap around me holding me close to him before sitting me down on a bed. "No don't go." I didn't want him to leave me so I was making my best effort to mumble enough to keep him here. "I'll be right back; Alice wants to get you out of that dress anyways." I had totally forgotten that I was still in my prom dress. "Alice?" I called out to her but still couldn't make out anything of the two figures in Edwards room with me, I think Esme was helping Alice get my pajamas on and my dress off. "Yes, Bella?" She called back to me; she didn't sound the slightest bit mad at all. I was really expecting that she would be. "Are you mad at me for hitting Mike?" I heard Esme gasp and from what I gathered from there mumbling voices no one had told Esme yet about what happened at prom. "No I'm not mad at you silly. He deserved it, I wish you would have stuck around though, Edward really let him have it for you." She let out a light snicker and I couldn't help but smile. My Edward had defended me. It was sweet; too bad I was in trouble now.
Once I was in my pajama's Alice sat on the bed next to me talking to me about how scared Mike was after Edward embarrassed him in front of everyone. "I wish I was there" was all I could mumble out. My eyes kept getting heavier but I was fighting sleep until I could apologize to Edward. "He's not going to kill Rose or Emmett right? It was kind of my idea, or at least I think most of it was my idea." Alice laughed at my remark and promised that Edward was not going to kill them or at least he hadn't made up his mind to do so yet. I sighed and instantly noticed that Edward was back at my side. He sat on the bed on the other side of me; I could feel him trying to keep a safe distance. Alice stood up and told me good night before leaving and turning the lights off. "Edward, I'm very sorry. Please don't be mad." I could feel my entire body pulling towards him; I wanted to sleep in his cool arms all night. I would have been happy with that. He didn't move an inch towards me though. He didn't even speak, he must have been very mad at me now. "I'm sorry about all of this" I tried to sit up and open my eyes to look at him but his arms pushed me with ease back on the bed. "Bella, you need your sleep. We can talk about this in the morning." I didn't want to talk about this in the morning. I wanted to wake up and this whole entire thing to be a nightmare. I wasn't going to give in. "Edward?" I could hear him sigh; he was still laying close by. I stuck my hand out to search for him and when I finally found him I pulled myself closer to him. There was a sporadic pulse radiating between us. "Yes, Bella?" His voice still sounded forced, did he really want me to sleep that bad? Was he that mad at me? I tried to sit up again but this time he wrapped his arm around my waste pulling me closer to him and laying my head on his chest. I moved my body as close to him as I possibly could pulling one arm up to run my fingers through his hair. "I miss this." I could feel him tense up around me, his chin dropped and he kissed the top of my head. "Do you?" Did he not believe me? Was it not painfully obvious that no one held a candle to him? "More than anyone knows I do." I took a deep breath before kissing his neck. He shuddered beneath my lips which made me want to kiss him more. "Bella, you made your choice." I could feel heat pouring through every pore of my body, I didn't want to be mad, I wanted to enjoy this moment. I decided that maybe he was right, I should go to sleep. No use in discussing this right now. I shifted my head around his chest and closed my eyes. "And you made your's. But I still love you." He held me closer, while whispering in my ear, "I love you Isabella Marie Swan "while I drifted off to sleep.