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I Should Go copyright 2013 nikkipattinson
I Should Go
Chapter Fourteen
Emmett seemed better the next morning. We went to the diner for breakfast and Alice made him laugh until he shot milk out of his nose... all over me. This just made him laugh even harder. I thought he was going the rupture something as I tried to get the milk/snot mixture off of my glasses.
By the time we made it back to my house, and he was climbing into his Jeep, I think that he might have convinced himself that he truly was better off without her. I wondered how long this attitude would last. I fully expected a drunken phone call later that night.
I waited until Tuesday to call Alice. We had a nice conversation, where I laughed until I almost wet myself, and made plans to go to Port Angeles for dinner on Thursday.
I was walking home from the office on Wednesday afternoon when I saw the most perfect ass sticking out of the trunk of a red Mustang convertible. Bella had apparently been to the grocery store and was unloading her purchases. I quicken my pace and met her as she was standing up with her arms loaded down with plastic bags.
"Let me help," I said and reached for the bags on her right arm.
"Thank you so much. These are so heavy." She reached up with her now free hand and closed the trunk.
"No problem," I said as I followed her to her front door. She fumbled with her keys, but finally managed to get the door unlocked.
"Just drop them on the counter," she said as we entered her kitchen. "I'm glad you're here," she said as she began to put away her refrigerated items. "I can show you my most prized possession. Let me get these things put away before they get too hot and I'll go get it."
"Need some help?" I asked.
"No, I've got it. I'm making lasagna for dinner. That's why I have all of this cheese. Jasper's coming over."
"Oh," I said. I was surprised that I felt slightly angry that Jasper would be there alone with Bella; that she was cooking for him. Why would that make me mad?
She finished putting the cheese and the meat away and said, "Wait here. I'll be right back." She left the room and I heard her go up the stairs. I took the time to look around her kitchen. I had to admit that it was cozier in that one room than in my entire house.
Within a minute she was back with a box that looked disturbingly like the boxes in which Tanya would bring home lingerie.
"You ready?" she asked with a huge smile on her face.
"I guess," I replied warily.
She removed the lid and a layer of tissue paper. My breath caught in my throat. "Is that...?" I managed to choke out.
"It is," she said with a triumphant smile.
"Holy shit!" I looked up at her and asked, "May I?"
"Sure," she replied. "Just be careful."
"Of course," I said as I gently removed the item from the box. "I can't believe I'm holding an 'Uncanny X-men' number one." I held it in the palm of my left hand as I traced the cover with my right index finger. She had it boarded and bagged, but I still didn't want to risk getting my grubby fingerprints all over it. "Is it a first printing?"
"It sure is," she said, proudly.
I placed it carefully back in the box. "I'm afraid to ask how much this cost you."
She put the tissue paper back over the comic book and replaced the lid. "More than I care to admit. But it was so worth it. I told you that you'd want to see it."
"It's beautiful," I said as I turned toward her. She was standing closer to me than I thought. She looked up and our eyes locked. Her lips were just a few inches from mine. She licked her lips and I forgot how to breathe.
The pull toward her was almost impossible to ignore. The room around me blurred and all I could see was Bella and her full, kissable lips. What the hell was I doing?!
"I should go," I said quickly and took a small step away from her.
She bit her lip and blushed. "Yes... maybe you should."
"Um, thanks... for letting me see the book. It's... it's great." I stumbled backward.
"Anytime," she replied as she took a step forward.
"Okay... okay. I'll see you later," I said before I turned and practically ran out of her house. I was down the block and around the corner before I started to be able to breathe normally again. I sat down hard on my front steps. I ran my hand through my hair and tried to figure out what had just happened.
"You almost kissed your buddy's girl, that's what happened," I mumbled to myself. "What the hell was I thinking?"
Sitting there on my front steps I made a decision. I had to stay as far away from Bella Swan as possible.
I arrived at Alice's house a little before six o'clock on Thursday to pick her up for our dinner date in Port Angeles. She lived across town from me and her house matched her perfectly. It was tiny too.
I didn't even get to ring the doorbell. The second my feet were on her porch, Alice jerked the door open.
"Come in. I'm almost ready," she said breathlessly as she bounced back into the house.
I smiled and shook my head as I entered her home. Her movement caught my eye and I turned to what I think was supposed to be a small dining room. Instead it was filled with racks of clothes. I could see Alice flitting around the room, so I walked to the door and peeked inside.
Alice saw me staring at the ungodly amount of clothes and said, "Welcome to my closet!"
"You turned your dining room into a closet?" I asked.
"Well, yeah," she said as if I had said something really stupid. "This is an old house. There are almost no closets and there's only the one bedroom. I had to do something."
"Obviously," I said sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes at me as she slid her feet into a pair of impossibly high heels. "This," she said as she gestured around the room, "is why I work weekends at the diner. I have a shopping problem."
She breezed past me and into the living room across the hall as I said, "Why don't you try curbing the shopping problem instead of working two jobs?"
"Yeah, whatever," she said, picking up her purse. She walked past me again and opened the front door. "Men just don't understand. Are you ready?"
"I was waiting on you," I said as I followed her out the door. I opened her door and helped her into the car.
The hour drive to Port Angeles passed quickly. Talking to Alice was easy. She always had something to say and it was usually funny. I began to wonder if she was ever sad or serious. I had to assume that her students loved her and that her tips at the diner were probably huge. I just couldn't imagine anyone not liking Alice.
We entered the only Italian restaurant in Port Angeles, Bella Italia, and had to wait to be seated. We sat on the bench by the door. Every time someone came in, the cool breeze from outside would come through the door and Alice would shiver a little. I took off my jacket and draped it across her shoulders.
"Thanks," she said. "I didn't think that it would be this cool tonight or I would have worn a coat."
"It's okay. I'm kind of hot natured," I replied. The hostess said that our table was ready so we followed her through the restaurant.
After we had placed our orders I said, "So, you teach art. I assume that you're an artist. Do you paint... draw?"
"Well, I really wanted to go into fashion design, but that's really hard to get into. My mom encouraged me to get my teaching certificate, just in case. I found that I just loved teaching. I love the interaction with the kids. I still design clothes and I make a few things, but I think that teaching is my true calling. It doesn't pay much, but it's fulfilling and I love it.
"Plus, I can't imagine not living in Washington. This is my home. I don't think I could be happy in New York or Los Angeles. I'm happy in Forks."
"Where are you from originally?" I asked.
"Oh, I grew up in Forks," she replied as the waitress placed our drinks on the table."
"Wait. I grew up here. I think I would have remembered you," I said.
"How old do you think that I am, Edward?" she asked, taking a drink of her tea.
"That's a loaded question. My mom taught me to never answer that one or the 'do I look fat in this' one."
Alice giggled and said, "I'm only twenty-three, Edward. You're almost seven years older than me. You were graduating from high school when I was graduating from the sixth grade. I don't think that we would have run the same circles and if we had it would have been weird."
"Wow, I guess I thought that you were a little older. Is this your first teaching position?"
"It is. I'm lucky that I found a job at home. I really didn't want to go anywhere else. What about you? Why did you come back to Forks?"
I hated answering this question. It was embarrassing for me to admit that I was betrayed like that. I ran my hand through my hair as I tried to think of how to answer Alice without sounding as bitter as I felt.
"It's complicated," I began. "Well, actually, it's not that complicated. It's really quite simple, I guess."
"You don't have to answer. I shouldn't pry. My mother says that I pry. I'm sorry." I saw her frown for the first time since I had met her and I felt really bad.
"It's not you, Alice. You didn't ask anything that everyone else I've run into since I came back hasn't asked. I'm just embarrassed about it."
"That bad, huh?"
I looked into her clear blue eyes and I knew that I could tell this woman just about anything. "We're friends, right?" I asked. She nodded. "Okay, here it is. I came home from work earlier than normal one day and caught my girlfriend, for whom I had bought a ring and was planning to marry, in bed with another man. See, that's not exactly the kind of thing that you want the entire world to know. It's embarrassing.
"It was a bad break up and I was severely depressed. I'm still not exactly the happiest person in the world. I actually think that may be you. Anyway, a few months after I kicked Tanya out of my apartment, Mr. Masen had a stroke. My dad called and said that Mr. Masen needed some help and asked me to come home. I didn't have anything holding me in Chicago anymore and I really wanted to get away from all of the memories of me and Tanya... and Tanya and him... so here I am. I never expected to come back here, but I guess life has a funny way of putting you where it wants you."
Alice reached across the table and placed her tiny, delicate hand on top of mine. "I'm sorry that happened to you, but I'm glad that you're here."
I turned my hand over and closed my fingers around hers. "Me too," I replied. I didn't feel the same pull toward Alice that I felt toward Bella, but I liked Alice. She was smart and funny. I felt happy around her. I shouldn't be thinking about Bella anyway. She was with Jasper and that was that. I had made the decision to stay away from her and I intended to follow through with that decision.
Looking across the table at Alice, feeling her warm hand in mine, I made another decision. I would see where this thing with Alice went. I wouldn't think about Bella Swan anymore. I decided to give it go with Alice.