CPW: So I know your boxes are full…
FLB11: tee hee hee
CPW: Yeah, I said it. Anyways, we know your 'inboxes' are getting inundated with updates today thanks to the efforts of Mrs. TheKing the her 'Readers Appreciation Day' that she has started, but you know that we always update on Sundays.
FLB11: So, since we're updating as per usual, we will just say that we love each and everyone one of our readers for their supportive reviews and continual support. Without you there would be no MIFFY.
CPW: Well there would be, but she would be a cute fluffy bunny and not a fuckawesome yet confusing story about Edward and Bella.
FLB11: True dat. We don't own Twilight; we did however post outfits on our profiles for this chapter and the last.
BPOV
"There was someone else-" I started to say when I felt an arm drape over my shoulder suddenly. I turned around, furious, because I knew it was fucking Garrett and I wasn't sure how I was going to keep my cool this time.
"Why the fuck do you keep bothering me?" I asked, anger seeping from what felt like every orifice in my body. "I can't keep playing nice, please leave." Garrett didn't look phased by my statement at all, instead he looked up to where Edward was standing and smiled smugly.
"No, it's okay. I've accomplished my goal," he said as I turned around and found a crowd of people where Edward had been standing just a second ago. What the fuck?
"Fuck off," I said as I pushed away from Garrett and walked away in search for Edward. Why did he leave? What the hell was going on, had I missed something?
I searched the entire gallery, seeing everyone but the person I was looking for; the person I needed. I was so confused as to why Edward would leave. Had he gotten the wrong impression about Garrett? Was he kidnapped or possibly abducted by aliens? I could feel Garrett hot on my tail as I made my way through the crowd of people and finally outside. I looked all around until I saw a head of bronze hair within a cab that was driving away.
"What the fuck," I said, the thickness of tears becoming clear in my voice. He was shutting me out? What the fuck had just happened? Edward and I had just fucked in a back office, what the hell did he think I was doing with Garrett? I turned around fiercely, knowing who I would find standing behind me.
"You're some piece of shit, do you know that? All these years you continue asking me out, but as soon as you see that I'm with someone you…" I trailed off, a single tear escaping my eye.
I didn't even think about what I did next. Before I knew it, my foot, clad with pretty high heels, came down onto Garrett's, and my fist connected with his face.
"Ouch!" I seethed, brining my hand to my chest and rubbing it. Punching that fucker was so worth it though.
"You fucking bitch! No lay could ever be worth this!" Garrett shouted, clutching his nose. There was no blood, so I hadn't hit him all that hard. I was still damn proud though.
"What the hell is going on?" I heard Rosalie's voice behind me as she ran quickly outside. More tears began to fall over my cheeks as the realization of what was actually happening hit me.
I'd been harassed by her younger brother for the passed few days, and now Edward was gone because of it, and now she was coming outside my gallery showing to find me punching the lights out of Garrett. To say the situation was screwed up would probably be an understatement. There were so many things that I felt like I was missing. How could everything that I'd been gathering up, everything that felt so right in my life for the first time, be falling down on top of me so fast? I was going to start setting things right, and I was starting with Rosalie. Losing Edward because I didn't want her to be upset by her brother wasn't worth any of this.
"I was just setting your brother straight, because apparently 'no' means 'take me, I'm yours' in Garrett-speak," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, but I could hear the rifts in it.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Rose asked, looking seriously confused. She looked at me and then at Garrett, who was still holding his nose and refusing to look at his sister. I wanted to punch him again for being such a coward and not saying anything.
"Your brother tried to kiss me the other night when we went out to the bar, and now he seems to have some sort of magnetizing action going on with my shoulder, because he can't keep his arm off it," I said angrily. "Edward just left without so much as a word, and I, for one, am seriously confused."
"Okay, so just to clarify, you didn't want Garrett kissing you, correct?" Rosalie asked, trying to keep her voice level but I could tell it was just the opposite. She looked furious, but I understood that she wanted to make sure she knew everything before she went off on him. He was her brother after all.
I nodded my head and she looked at Garrett. "What the fuck, Garrett? I thought you were better than this shit. We all knew you annoyed the shit out of Bella, constantly asking her out, but forcing yourself on her?"
"She can't seriously want to be with that fucking coward when she's got me. All I wanted was a chance to show her what she was missing," Garrett finally said forcefully. I moved toward him so I could give him a piece of my mind… or my shoe, but Rosalie beat me to it.
She kicked him in the junk, causing him to recoil and bend down, before she drew her hand back and punched him in the eye. I stood there, watching with my mouth hanging open as Garrett screamed in pain, trying to deal with the pain in his groin at the same time as the blow to the face that I was sure would give him a black eye in the morning. Rosalie turned away from her brother and came over to me, trapping me in a strong embrace. I could only imagine the fights they got into when they were younger and wondered briefly why the hell how they were still alive.
"Why didn't you tell me that my brother was such a douche to you?" she asked as I shed more tears, watered down with guilt.
"I'm so sorry. I know I should have, but I…" I took a deep breath before pulling back and looking at her. "It was a stupid decision, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with yet another one of my problems, least of all taking time away from your brother while he was in the city visiting for a few weeks. He was always so sweet to me before, I just don't know what happened."
"He may be my brother, but right now he's an asshole." Rose turned to look at her brother again. "I suggest you go take a long walk, and don't come back to the house until no one is around to see you," she said with an air of finality.
Forty-five minutes later, Rosalie, Alice and I were walking back into the house and I was completely exhausted. I needed to tell them everything about how I felt, especially about Edward, and about PBW, which I was even more confused about now than ever, because it had been so long since we'd spoken. I was certain that I didn't feel for him like I felt for Edward, not really in the physical way, anyway. Well, that could have been because I'd never actually met him.
I went up to my bedroom and changed into my pajamas, washed my face and went back downstairs. I grabbed three bottles of water from the fridge and sat back down in the living room where Alice and Rosalie were already sitting, waiting for me with sad, sympathetic looks on their faces. My chest fell at their expressions, because they shouldn't have had to carry around my guilt and frustration. I did it all to myself, and dragging my friends into it wasn't the wisest thing I'd ever done, but I was making it my life's mission to start looking before I leapt.
I sat down on the couch in between them, both of them wrapping their arms around me. The warmth of their embrace cracked my already cracking shell. I let out one sob, which ended up turning into constant tears, a runny nose and a sore throat before I knew it.
"Bella, Bella. What happened?" Alice asked, rubbing my arm and hugging me tightly. I knew Rosalie had told her about Garrett, but neither of them new that my feelings for Edward had simultaneously grown and been shot down in one night.
I took two deep breaths before continuing. "I have feelings for Edward," I finally said, another sob following quickly. I wiped my nose and looked up at my best friends, and I remembered why I knew I'd always be able to count on them. They were always there for me, even if it meant Rose tossing her brother out on his ass. "And it hurts, it really hurts. It hurts to admit it, and it hurts to feel, but I…" I trailed off; I couldn't stop myself from crying. It was too much, and I felt like an idiot for it.
"What, Bella? What are you trying to say?" Rosalie asked soothingly, moving a stray hair from my face that was stuck to my cheek from fallen tears. "It's just us, you can tell us anything."
"The feelings… the feelings I have for Edward are killing me, but I don't want them to go away," I said, wiping my nose on my hand again. Alice ran and got me a box of tissues and I took one, thanking her. I blew my nose as Rosalie kissed the top of my head. The action almost made the crying start again, because I'd knocked down the tough as steel wall that Rose always had up, and I was overwhelmed with emotion that I was someone who could do that; someone who she would do it for.
"But he left tonight, and I really don't know why. We've been so close lately, and it felt like things were starting to go in the right direction, and now I feel like my compass was stolen by a raccoon," I said with a little laugh at my ridiculousness, but even that came out with a small cry.
"Bella? My brother managed to screw with you so much over the past week, and I'm not sure what Edward thinks he knows or saw, so I think we should all sleep on it and see if he comes around. If he doesn't I might have to go kick him in the balls myself, okay?"
I nodded and Alice squeezed me tighter. "And I'll be right next to you, Rose. Edward was the one who kept hounding after you, there's no way he'd just give up and walk out on you for no reason," she said. I shook my head, because there was still something that they didn't know.
"But I think he got the wrong impression about what I was trying to say to him. I was trying to tell him something, and I think all I did was fuck up an already fucked up situation," I said in one breath.
"What do you mean?" Alice asked, her tiny brow furrowing in confusion.
"I was trying to tell him about… my online fella," I said, laughing at Alice's nickname for PBW. "And I think he may have thought I was talking about your brother," I said, nodding my head in Rosalie's direction.
"Well what did you say?" Rosalie questioned, her tone urging me to continue.
"I told him that there was something that I hadn't told him about, that there was someone else, and not that there is someone else, but that's when Garrett decided to make his appearance. Then when I turned around after confronting Garrett, Edward was gone." One lone tear escaped as I remembered how barren and lonely I'd felt at the sight of everyone but him standing where he should have been.
"Well shit, girl. You really dug yourself into a hole," Rosalie said. I sort of sob-laughed and nodded my head in agreement. "But honestly, I don't think this is anything you can't fix, so I suggest we all get a good night's sleep and decide what to do about this in the morning."
Alice and I readily agreed and we all headed into Alice's bedroom, and climbed into her bed. We all laughed because it was like we were fourteen again, sleeping in the same bed, but I kind of needed it, and they knew it. I was trapped in between the two of them as we talked about everything and nothing, eventually falling into a restless sleep.
The alarm clock went off at eight, and all three of us groaned, because we'd clearly stayed up too late to be getting up at eight o'clock. We all got up and I fixed us a pot of coffee. There wasn't a chance that I was going to Common Grounds and risk running into Edward. Even though I needed and wanted to talk to him, I didn't know exactly what I was going to say, and I didn't want to make the situation worse by not thinking and saying the wrong thing.
I got showered and dressed, making another pot of coffee for myself after Alice and Rose left for work. Just before nine, I walked out the front door towards the park. It was another joyful day of dog walking that I had to look forward to, just something else that got in between Edward and I.
I knew I would have some explaining to do, and hopefully whatever I had to offer him worked, because at that point, I didn't know what I would do without Edward in my life.
EPOV
When I woke up the next morning I rolled over at stared at my alarm clock for what seemed like ages, with no real reason to get up out of bed. I didn't have any major work to do today, but I did need to get to an appointment later in the day for a final review with a couple who was getting married on the weekend. Afton and Charles were a lovely couple who were a little young to be getting married in my opinion, but then again I thought anyone younger than me who was getting married was too young.
"What the hell… I'm becoming a cynic now?" I yelled out as I sat up in bed and scrubbed at my face. It was ten in the morning and the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed. However, if I got up now, I would definitely miss running into Bella at Common Grounds, and that idea was very appealing to me at that moment. She always went before now and I was so desperate for a coffee, that the idea of going over in a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt didn't bother me in the slightest. Little did I know what I would expect when I walked in the door of my favorite coffee shop.
"Has anyone ever told you that sometimes you messy hair makes you look like the devil?" questioned Alice as I rolled my eyes and ran my hand through my hair, trying to pat it down unsuccessfully. The second worst thing that could happen to me today, after seeing Bella, would be these two girls. "Don't you think so Rosalie? I think it has horns… on the right and left side. Kinda weird how it does that."
Rosalie silently nodded her head and narrowed her eyes at me as I stepped towards the counter and ordered the largest damn coffee I could get. Hell, if I could mainline the shit right now, I would. "Is there something I can do for you girls, because it seems a bit suspicious to me that in all the months I have lived across the street, this is the first time I've seen you in here."
"Well my friend Alice here doesn't usually need coffee since she is high on life most of the time, but I could use a fix after being up most of the night because of our sobbing best friend and my dick of a brother," said Rosalie as I looked at her face and could clearly see the bags under her eyes. Margaret handed me my drink as I paid her with a five dollar bill and tossed all my change into her tip jar. She gave me a remorseful look and I knew I was in for it the moment I started to walk away and Rosalie jumped up from her seat. "You may not need to talk to us, but we need to talk to you, Edward. So park your ass in that chair. We won't bite."
"Speak for yourself. Jazz loves when I bite…" began Alice as I covered up my ears after I had lowered my coffee cup to the table. The last thing I needed to hear about was anything having to do with Alice and Jasper's sex life. "Oh fine. I'll keep my mouth shut. I'm just here as the muscle anyway."
I quirked my eyebrow at Alice and Rosalie just rolled her eyes and laughed lightly at her friend. "Speak. I have stuff to do today, and until two seconds ago it didn't involve an interrogation."
"So last night you have no balls whatsoever and leave Bella in the lurch, but today you're all sarcastic and brooding. What the hell, Edward?" snapped Rosalie as I suddenly wished she was Emmett so I could smack her upside the head. Even though my mother and I didn't always get along, she did teach me never to hit a woman, and I wasn't about to start today.
"Listen… Bella is with Garrett, not me. There's nothing more to discuss. I really do have shit to do today, so if you girls are done playing Nancy fucking Drew or whatever, I've got to go."
"You always go places in your pajamas?" piped up Alice as I gripped the edge of my chair and found myself wishing that I had never woken up this morning. "Bella isn't dating Garrett. She hardly even likes the fucker. He's just a grabby little asshole who can't take no for an answer. No offense, Rosalie. I know he's your brother and all, but I wished I had kicked him in the baby maker last night for what he's done to Bella."
"What did he do to Bella?" I asked, the concern quickly escaping through my voice. Rosalie clearly didn't take offense to Alice's comment, even though Garrett was her younger brother. The girls spent the next few minutes telling me in detail everything that happened after I left the Gallery the night before, and to say that I was remorseful once they finished speaking would be an understatement.
Emmett had been misunderstood in what he explained to me, because Garrett had mislead him during their previous conversations into believing something that wasn't true. To make matters worse, Rosalie wasn't even aware that Garrett was constantly hitting on Bella because she didn't want to rock the boat, but Rosalie was downright furious with him. The thing that made me feel worst of all was had I just stayed with Bella, as Alice had repeatedly pointed out to me, I would have known this last night and probably would have gone home with Bella after we both took shots at Garrett for messing with us.
I now officially felt like shit, but at least Rosalie and Alice didn't actually hate me.
"Where's Bella now?" I questioned curiously, hoping that she wasn't about to walk in the door of the coffee shop. I wasn't quite prepared to see her and beg her for forgiveness yet, because I decided I needed to talk to her girlfriends. I was tired of walking around on eggshells and making assumptions that may not be true.
"She's walking the dogs. She'll probably be extra long today since she was such a mopey bitch when she left the house. Why… are you going to call her?" asked Alice as she finished off her tea and pushed the cup towards the center of the small table we were all converged around.
"No. I'm gonna go see her later, but I need to get some advice from you guys." Suddenly Alice began digging through her purse and pulled out her cell phone and looked positively panicked. "What's wrong now?"
I took a sip of my drink as Alice pressed a few buttons and then held her phone up to her ear, her hand raised to me so I wouldn't speak. "Hello? Uh yeah. You're gonna have to take my ten thirty appointment because it's like, 10:35, and I'm not there. Yeah, something important came up. You can handle helping Mrs. Murphy pick out a trench coat. This isn't rocket science," Alice stated firmly before she turned off her phone and turned her attention back to me. "Sorry about that, I just didn't want to miss dishing out advice. Jasper keeps telling me to keep my nose out of your business, but because it involves Bella, I so desperately want to toss in my two cents. You have no idea how hard it has been."
"This is about Bella, right?" Rosalie questioned as I looked between the two girls who were staring at me, their attention completely focused on my words.
"No, I was going to ask if you these shoes matched these socks," I replied sarcastically. "Of course it's about Bella."
"Okay, shoot."
"I'm her Paperback_Writer."
"You're her what now?" said Alice, as her and Rosalie both looked at me as though I was speaking a foreign language. I never once for a second thought that Bella hadn't told them about her online conversations, because she always seem so open and forthright with her friends that I was sure they knew. Apparently that wasn't the case at all. "What's a paperback writer? I thought you were a photographer, not an author."
"Jesus, you are thick. You must have seen her chatting online sometime in the past few months, right? She's in a Beatles chat room some of the time; at least that was where we met under our aliases. She's PennyLane84 and I'm Paperback_Writer. I only found this out a few weeks ago when she went home because of her dad's heart attack. The night I came over with the guys and Bella came home… you do remember me staying over, right? That was the night I realized she was Penny." I let out a huge sigh as Alice and Rosalie's faces both grew wide with excitement. The moment I finished speaking they literally looked like they were going to jump up from their seats and do a happy dance a la Perfect Strangers, and Alice would most definitely be Balki. "We were supposed to meet the morning she had to fly to Seattle, and I waited for her for hours in Central Park, but she never showed. When she finally told me via email what had happened, I put two and two together. "
"Oh. My. God. This is the best news ever. Does Bella know? How did you tell her? You guys are going to have the cutest babies ever. With your devil like hair and her big brown eyes… I can just see it now. Well, not as cute as the babies Jasper and I will eventually have, but you get the picture," stammered Alice uncontrollably as Rosalie reached up and grabbed her shoulder. I was kinda hoping she would smack some sense into her, but it didn't happen.
"Slow your roll little one," she told her friend before turning to me. "Now… does Bella know?" I shook my head in the negative as Rosalie raised her lips evilly. She was clearly concocting some sort of plan and I was getting nervous. "How are you going to tell her?"
"I don't know."
"Oooh… let's throw a big party and have a banner across the room that says 'Edward is your soul mate' and we can have the songs Penny Lane and Paperback Writer playing over and over again. She would pee her pants," shouted Alice excitedly as Rosalie laughed and I scoffed at the idea, because it was asinine. "Edward, are you questioning my methods?"
"I'm not questioning it, Alice; I'm saying it's stupid."
"Do you have a better idea?" she replied tensely as I shrugged my shoulders because even though her idea sucked, it was still better than the nothing I had going on. "Okay, let's brainstorm."
"I'm going to have to drink a lot of coffee to keep up with you two, won't I?"
"Probably," declared Rosalie as I motioned with my hand to Margaret and she brought me another coffee and started a tab at my request. We then spent the next hour and half chatting and developing ideas for how to break the news to Bella that I was her PBW. It was great to be able to talk to her friends about it, because they were quick to shoot down any idea that they thought she could misconstrue or get upset over. I didn't want this reveal to cause more turmoil between us; I wanted it to keep us together and solidify what we had. However, that was easier said than done.
"When all else fails Edward, just do it - call her! Stop being so testosterony," stated Alice as Rose and I both looked at her perplexed before Rose chimed in her two cents.
"Which, by the way, is the real San Francisco treat. "
~*~*~
Two hours later, after having a shower and calling Afton and Charles to push our meeting back by one hour due to an emergency, I found myself rapping against the door knocker on Bella's front door. I was a bundle of nerves, but I knew this was something that had to be done. I was shocked when the door opened and there stood Garrett with a black eye. I may have felt a little smug.
"Is Bella here?" I asked politely, trying to reign in my anger towards the guy who stood a few feet in front of me and had tried to ruin my burgeoning relationship with Bella.
"No," he replied tensely as he began to close the door, clearly not wanting to get into a situation with me. Unfortunately for him, I was high from my morning with Rosalie and Alice and he was going to have to deal with me, so I shoved my foot between the door and the jamb as I pressed my hand against the door, preventing it from closing.
"Well, how about I just wait until she gets home," I said forcefully as I moved inside the brownstone and looked around the place. It was a mess, but I got a little excited at the sight of luggage sitting by the front door. "You going somewhere?"
"Yeah… the airport. You aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you? I can't imagine what Bella sees in you," he said icily as he sat down on the couch and picked up the remote, flipping through the channels aimlessly.
"So who gave you the shiner?"
"Do you actually care?"
"Not really, though I'm mad someone got to you before me. I can't believe you thought Bella wanted you though. Did she say she wanted you? I mean, if she was dropping signals, I could see you getting your hopes up, but if this is how you act around girls than it's no wonder your single," I replied as I sat in one of the armchairs, trying to be patient. I knew Garrett was younger than us, and hadn't exactly been acclimated to the big city, but he was acting like an idiot. He would never be able to grow up or find someone for himself, anyone but Bella preferably, if he kept up what he was doing.
"Yeah well, you're not the only prick she was into. She's been sending emails to some douche online," he asked suddenly as I whipped my head towards him.
"Excuse me… what was that?"
"Nothing, I said nothing."
"Fuck off. What did you say? She's talking to who online?"
"You fucking idiot. She's been practically dating to some asshole online, although he's even worse than you. It's not exactly the smoothest thing in the world to make her want you online, am I right? Idiot. She won't be happy when she finds out that her online guy thinks she wants someone else. Perhaps this is a good thing though, because then she will come running to me to pick up the pieces," commented Garrett as he stroked at his chin like he had an imaginary beard or something. I wanted to wipe the smug grin right off his face, with my fucking fist.
"Oh and she'll be thrilled to know you invaded her privacy and was on her computer, clearly reading her private chat conversations and emails," I retorted angrily. However, Garrett just seemed glutton for punishment and kept egging me on, digging himself into an ever bigger hole.
"What the hell do you care? It's not like you have any confidence or faith in your relationship with her, otherwise you never would have left her last night at the Gallery. You're just a pussy and Bella will see that soon enough and you'll be all alone, crying onto your pathetic fucking photos," he replied as the door bell rang, breaking us from our argument. "That would be my cab to the airport."
"Well, let me help you," I said with mock kindness as my mind began reeling. Garrett had written the email that told me she'd found someone else, not Penny. I felt a bit smug that his plan had backfired so badly on him, but frustrated that it led to all this confusion in the first place.
I opened the front door for him, locking it behind us as he grabbed his bags and carried them down the steps. The cab driver took both of them from him and tossed them into the trunk as Garrett went to leave. "Wait a second," I called out as I grabbed Garrett's shoulder and he turned around slowly to face me. "You can't leave without me saying a proper goodbye."
The moment my last comment fell from my lips, I balled my fist up tight in my hands, my knuckles turning white before I lifted it eagerly and it connected with the side of his face. My hand ached slightly, but I had to admit, it felt good to get some revenge on this asshole. "Look, now I'm sure you will have a matching pair of black eyes when that bruise sets in. Now stay the fuck away from Bella, and Penny for that matter."
"Fuck you, Cullen. You're that fucking douche she's been talking to online?" Garrett replied angrily as he got into the back of the cab and slammed the door behind him. I just smiled bitterly and shook my head, not giving him the pleasure of actually answering his question. I watched with immense pleasure as the cab drove away, taking with it one of the most annoying and conniving people I had ever met. How the hell sweet, independent Rosalie had that complete douche for a brother was beyond me. I sat down on her stoop and began contemplating staying a bit longer to wait for her, but when I pulled out my cell phone, I noticed I only had 30 minutes to get across the city for my appointment with Charles and Afton.
I ended up hopping on the subway at West 4th St, just east of Washington Square Park and headed uptown to my meeting, which was at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, right near the 57th St. Station. The moment I sat in my seat inside the subway, I began typing out a text message to Bella, hoping I would see her soon.
B – There was a bit of miscommunication last night. Don't hold it against me. I need to see you. Are you free tomorrow night? –E
When I hit send, my heart started beating erratically because I wasn't sure if she was going to say yes or no, or even 'go fuck yourself, you coward.' However, I had to take a chance, like I had discussed with Rosalie and Alice, and put myself out there. She had to know I was falling for her.
E – Name the time and place, I'll be there. – B
A/N: And now that you have read this update, why don't you go check out our little Haiti Outtake "The beginning" that is on our profiles under "MIFFY: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." It gives a sneak peek into the start of the online relationship between our PennyLane84 and Paperback_Writer.