Word Prompts: Sidewalk

When I woke up Friday morning I was excited to start my day. Edward and I had made plans to grab lunch together since I was starting my first shift of 'Sober Sister' with Alice that night, and the ASP guys had an event planned with their pledges to try and help with bonding because, as Edward had explained to me, he didn't feel like most of them were initially bonding well with the core group of guys. I knew they were as picky as the Tri-Delta's house was known to be, but Edward assured me that all of the guys given bids seemed like they'd fit, and while a few had risen to the occasion, a couple others were already on their second warnings. Internally I cringed upon hearing that because I couldn't imagine getting one warning, let alone be on my second in the first few weeks of pledging. Of course, that didn't mean everyone took pledging as seriously as I did, but I really didn't understand why anyone would want to waste their time all semester just to be turned away at initiation. I knew de-pledging happened from time to time, but it had to be embarrassing especially if you're kicked out versus dropping because you had to for some reason.

I also knew Alice would be a bouncing ball of energy on duty tonight since Jasper's parents were arriving and she'd be meeting them the next day, leaving me on SS duty with Natalie for Saturday night. My plans were just to stay in my dorm and work on some school work to pass the time, than sleep in on Saturday, and do a movie night with Edward until I got called. The sister's didn't have an organized event, but any one of them could call me at any time of the night and it was my job to see that they got home safely. Thankfully, I had my own car so I didn't have to worry about borrowing one because that seemed more nerve wracking. While I had a clean driving history, anything could happen at any given time and I didn't want to be in someone else's car if I did.

As I stretched and gathered my things to take to the shower I looked up at my calendar and cringed a little when I saw the red circle around the date I went home. I really had no idea how my mom, specifically, was going to handle the whole pledging thing, but I really hoped she'd be reasonable. Of course, even if she wasn't, I wasn't backing away so she'd have to deal with it. It did make me wish she would have explained why she wanted me to stay away from sororities so badly, though no matter what her reasoning was I highly doubted it would have changed my mind. After being on the UW campus for a while now and having interacted with most of the Greek community, I could tell who fit the stereotype and who didn't. To me, the Tri-Delta house just sat above them all, though I didn't think any of them were snobby or pretentious. They had the best house, hands down, their bonds and friendships were strong with little to no real drama that I had seen or even heard of, and of course, as I began listing everything in my head I realized I was trying to justify my actions. I sighed and left my room resigned to writing down a list of why I wanted to join a sorority before heading home because I knew once my mother started I was going to lose my train of thoughts.

Edward had asked me where I wanted to go for lunch a few hours later and I just shrugged my shoulders telling him to pick wherever he wanted to go. So he did, and it was how I found myself at a Pub for lunch. It was pretty quiet and further away from the campus bar scene, which I liked. So far the staff was nice, but I preferred to focus most of my attention on Edward, or well, Edward's hand as he held mind lazily across the table.

"Please make sure you're careful driving tonight," Edward warned after we ordered an appetizer, and I did my best not to roll my eyes at him.

"I'll be fine, and I don't even know how much driving I'll really have to do," I replied and he nodded. "But, I'll have Alice with me so I'll be fun."

"I think the drunk pick-ups were the worst part of pledging for me," he recalled a story when a brother of his threw up in the back of his car, and I cringed at the thought of that happening in mine. "See, you thought about it and made a face."

"Well sure, I obviously don't want anyone to throw up in my backseat, but I figured it was an easy way to get a chunk of hours. Even if I'm not called, as long as I'm on-call, it counts so I'll be getting hours towards pledging while doing homework," I reasoned.

"That was one of the reasons I did it a lot, too," he agreed before asking me if I had talked to Alice yet.

"No, why?" I answered. The last time I had talked to her was last night on the sidewalk in front of our dorm, she was going in as I was going out to the library.

"When Jasper left to pick his parents up at the airport, Emmett and a few of the guys got to work," he explained before handing me his cell phone. The picture on the screen was obviously a bedroom, but every single item on one side was covered in pink or purple wrapping paper, including the bed, desk, dresser, and shoes?

"Are those shoes?" I asked, while Edward held in his laughter and nodded. "You wrapped his entire room?"

"Me? No, I only did a few things; it was mainly Emmett and his roommate, Greg, who did most of the work. Jasper didn't know when he'd be getting back to the house since he planned on getting his parents settled in, but I figured if you hadn't heard from Alice, he hasn't been back to see it yet," Edward went on.

"Exactly why did they do this?" I questioned because I didn't understand the prank.

"It's a tradition," he answered with a shrug. "Emmett caught sight of Alice's necklace at the pizza party and started planning something. I do think Jasper is getting off lucky though, Emmett faired a little worse with Rose. If you ask him to tell you the story, he'll swear we tried to drown him in a freezing cold lake."

"So you haze a guy because he gives a girl a lavalier?" Again, I was completely thrown by their actions, though I thought it was funny as hell and knew Alice would call me when she found out.

"Pretty much," he replied as I shook my head.

Our conversation moved onto other things but the story about Jasper stuck in the back of my head. I knew Jasper was probably expecting something since the tradition seemed so commonplace, but it also made me wonder if Edward had plans to give me one. Obviously, he'd expect a hazing if he did and it didn't sound dangerous so I wasn't too worried about that, but it did make me wonder if a lavalier to Edward was the equivalent to sex; another topic we hadn't talk about again. In truth, I wasn't sure how to bring it up and I didn't want him to think I was being pushy. Anyone with a pulse would find Edward attractive, so while I was no different, I had to admit his values were a bit refreshing. My experiences, or well, what I had done wasn't much to think about, but I did wonder why he had chosen to go the route he had. From what I knew of Edward in high school he didn't date much, if at all, so were his experiences from college only? Were the girl's that serious? I really didn't know when it was appropriate to talk about stuff like that, but my plans were to hint at it tomorrow night during movie night.

Before he dropped me off he gave me a soft kiss on my lips and a very warm hug. He also chuckled when I breathed two lung fills in of his cologne, but he really smelled that good.

"Remember," he reminded. "If you need anything tonight, just call me."

"You're worrying for nothing," I teased him with a smirk, but in the end did promise to call him if Alice or I ran into any trouble. It was sweet that he worried, and after the Brad incident at the party, I could tell it was his natural inclination to protect me so I didn't think much of it.

I ended up taking a nap for a few hours after lunch and only woke up to Alice knocking at my door. She had planned to use my room to do her homework since her roommate had asked for some privacy that night and neither one of us really wanted to know what that was going to entail. We both set our phones on our desks after receiving a text from Stephanie letting us know that we were 'on call' and to please keep our phones ready.

Alice and I talked for a little bit as we'd get bored with our assignments. I had asked if she talked to Jasper and she had, he was very excited to spend time with his folks since he wasn't local and didn't see them near as much as he wanted to. He ended up just staying at the hotel and not coming back, so I had to keep the wrapping papered room a secret which was hard. She asked me about Edward and our lunch, and I told her that I'd bring her to that Pub sometime because the burger was amazing.

Our first call came in just after eleven; two of the sister had ended up at a frat party on the far side of campus and needed a ride home. Since my car could fit us all, Alice and I both drove together to pick them up and drop them off at home.

The phones stayed silent after that for over an hour until our next call came in, followed by another. Alice and I took turns driving if there was a large amount of sister's to pick up, otherwise, we road together each time when we could. By the end of the night, I had figured we'd done five or six trips, until one final one came in right as the bars started to shut down.

At two-thirty when the call came in, I could tell Alice was dragging a little more than me and the call was for five sisters to be picked up at a local bar in town.

"Are you sure you want to go, it's my turn." Alice yawned, and I knew she'd go if I said so, but she was yawning every two seconds and two of us, plus five of them, was seven and my car could not fit seven, so even though it was her turn, she wasn't going to fit nor was she awake enough to drive. Even fitting six was going to be a challenge once I got there I feared.

"I'm sure, logistically it makes sense and I've been to that area before so I know where to go this time," I explained since Alice had been the GPS extraordinaire for every call we've taken together. "Besides, you look like you're about to crash and this will probably be the last call before we're off duty. Officially it ends at three."

"If you're sure," she gave in and I left my room with a wave.

If I could have gone back in time, I might have listened to Edward's warning about the roads being a little crazier in the middle of the night on a weekend in downtown. If I could have gone back in time, I wouldn't have taken the shortcut I knew about because it cut threw some of the downtown streets a little more than the main roads.

Really though, if I could have gone back in time I would have told everyone I loved that I loved them one last time, because that night, I never got to pick up the sisters who needed a ride. In fact, the last thing I remembered from that night was the brightest of lights and the sound of crushing metal. And then, nothing.

Rule #1: No freaking, she is not dead. I wouldn't kill her because that would just be mean.

Comment #1: The next chapter will not be in Bella's POV.

Now my official note, I'm sorry this is later than what I was updating at before, but I had come to a crossroads with where I thought this story was going and where it was really going. In reality, a car accident was never in my initial thoughts, but it actually turns out better for the rest of the story if I do it this way, so excuse the clique car wreck I try to avoid. If there was any other way, I would have done it ;p Just think of this as a messier way to be non-messy in the future.

Also today is my daughter's 3rd birthday so I may or may not update later tonight, it really depends on how our day goes since it's all about Alice :) Yes, she was named after Alice Cullen, blame my husband ;p #truefact

And, for those who know about the recent weather, please keep the midwest in your thoughts as we experience more severe weather next week!