I thought the last one was a little short so I posted this. Aren't I nice? Don't I deserve some reviews?
20. Impatience
I woke up in a hotel, in a bland room. My dreams had returned, with no Edward by my side to fend me off. They were bad, it was James, or the movies version of James, I'd never seen the real one, and Logan. The two kept merging into one, or switching places, or teaming up. All the dreams ended with me being hurt some way; broken leg, drained dry, raped, tortured, sliced, tied up, and other things that really only made sense in the dream world, like being made to fade, or turning to smoke, or being videotaped and trapped in the picture forever.
Well, yeah, my night sucked, and when I woke, I wasn't surprised to see the familiar sheen of sweat coating my body. I was glad the bedroom had a bathroom connected, so Alice and Jasper didn't see me. I ran into the room and locked the door, glaring at my appearance. My hair was in ratty tangles, almost dreadlocks. My face looked oily with the sweat and tear streaks travelled all across my face, even at angles that didn't seem to make sense. My eyes were swollen and puffy, the whites red. My lips were dry and cracked, with scabs from where my teeth had bitten down.
My back was sore, my thighs ached, and I had a splitting headache that pushed against my eyeballs so hard I was sure they were going to pop out. My throat was dry, my nose was full, and my ears felt full. Of all the times to catch the flu, I had to catch it now.
I grabbed some toilet paper, cringing at the loud, disgusting sound. I coughed a couple of times, and after washing my face I stuck my head in the basin to catch some water in my mouth. When I pulled up half my hair was covered in water. If possible I looked worse.
I decided to jump in the shower, and let the warm water calm me. I closed my eyes and leant my head against the shower wall, letting the water run over my head. I squeezed the tiny shampoo bottle getting the small blob of stuff and scrubbing my scalp and hair. I rinsed and then squirted some conditioner onto my now dry dreadlocks. I grabbed a comb from my toiletries bag and wrapped a towel around my waist and prepared for the slow, painful task of unknotting my hair.
There was a knock at the bathroom door. "Are you decent?" I heard her tinkling voice.
"Relatively," I replied, and unlocked the door.
She laughed and opened the door then gasped. Her little hand covered her mouth which had formed a little 'o'.
"Bella, oh my... let me help you." She whipped out her own little comb and soon her fingers were deftly and painlessly combing the knots out of my hair. "What were you dreaming last night, you almost gave me and Jazzy a heart attack when you screamed, and Emmett even came around to see if James had found you." Emmett and Rosalie had their own room right beside ours. I cringed at the thought that I'd been so loud that they'd heard.
"Bad dreams, nightmares, of James," I explained. She didn't need to know about Logan.
She nodded understandingly and continued. She was more skilled and efficient that me, doing half my head in the time it took to do me a quarter. We talked while we worked, funny stories, jokes we heard, movies and songs we liked. Then we went to a topic we both got extremely excited about, shoes and clothes.
Alice ended up braiding my hair, and I returned the favour (not that she couldn't do it behind her own head). Her hair was as soft as Edward, but surprisingly strong. I was worried when I tugged it hard that I'd hurt her, and I voiced this worry.
She her laughter was like bells. "Oh Bella, you silly girl, of course it doesn't." So I tested it, pulling until I was sure that it would be uprooted from her scalp, but it didn't.
She wondered why I was so fascinated, and then I showed her how easy it was to pull my hair from my head. Yeah, I was stupid.
"Ow," I rubbed my head where I'd pulled the hair from. She laughed at me.
"C'mon Bella, let's get you dressed." She pulled me out of the bathroom; I had to grab my towel to make sure it didn't fall off. She almost slammed into the bathroom door and skipped out giggling.
I stopped, a blush rising on my cheeks.
Jasper was waiting outside, just about to knock. He looked embarrassed to, after he saw my lack of clothing. He turned around. "I'm sorry, I was just going to ask what was going on in there, and you've been in the bathroom for two hours."
Alice giggled again. I straightened, letting go of her hand to place on my hip. "You weren't going to spy on us were you Jasper?" I asked. He looked more awkward, I laughed at his discomfit.
Alice ran and pushed Jasper out of the room. "Shoo," she said with a last push and slammed the door in his face.
We both burst into laughter, my ribs hurt from laughing and soon I was gasping for breath. Suddenly Alice grew serious.
"Now for the important stuff, let's get changed."
Alice was very excitable, and very happy. She was nothing like my old mum when she played dress up on me. Alice asked my opinion, chatted while she worked, and complimented me. Also, Alice let me dress her. We modelled the clothes, and mismatched them, made them look silly, cool, gangster, pirate, and even lame sexy.
I was wearing a bra over a T-shirt and underwear over my jeans, and Alice was wearing a bra upside down on her butt and had rolled up only the front of her tank top. We were doing fake sexy poses and laughing each time.
Jasper remembered to knock this time, and we both screamed at the sound. Alice threw a pillow at the door and yelled, "Don't you dare come in here Jasper Whitlock Cullen!"
We laughed again. Then we took off our more embarrassing accessories. Alice was still shaking slightly when she opened the door. "Sorry, we aren't interested in buying anything today," she smiled.
Jasper smiled back, in the 'you're-so-not-funny' way and walked in. "Carlisle called, apparently the dark one Laurent went to the house to tell them he doesn't want to be involved. He isn't the leader, James was, and he wants to warn us about how deadly James is." Jasper smiled wickedly at the last part, not believing Laurent's opinion. "He's actually apparently a good willed vampire. He's very interested in our diet and is moving to Denali to be taught the habits of our better lifestyle."
"Thanks honey," Alice leapt into his arms and pecked his cheek. My smile faltered, and thoughts of Edward flooded back into my mind. I missed him so much. Right now, a kiss would be good.
Jasper walked back out, and Alice turned back to me, seeing my face she ran and gave me a hug. "It's okay Bella, you'll see Edward soon."
"Yeah, and it was my idea in the first place. I need to eat some more cement and toughen up." I laughed lamely.
"Okay, anyway Bella, you haven't eaten since last night, we should go get some lunch."
She ordered me some room service, and went a little extravagant. But I was so bored now I hate the whole tray of food, trying to keep my thoughts only on the food and my taste buds.
The tray didn't last long though, despite how slowly I ate. I groaned quietly and flipped the TV on. I sat on the couch, which was now quite cosy with three people on it, despite Alice's small size. I picked up the phone beside me, then put it back and picked up the remote. What? They were the same size and colour.
We watched a cooking show in silence, and then I groaned and started flicking through the channels, hoping for something good. I ended up watching a fishing show, because right after it was Top Gear.
Then the phone rang, and I picked it up quickly, holing to my ear and answering before the vampires might think to take it away from me.
"Oh, Bella," Carlisle was surprised I answered. "Well, could you hand me over to Alice; I want to see if anything new has happened."
Alice being right beside me heard, and just shook her head.
"Alice hasn't seen anything new," then Alice started telling me what to say. "But she says James will be here soon, so as soon as school is out Edward should come. She also says that Rosalie will need to go back there, because she sees her scaring off Victoria."
"Thank you Bella, and tell Alice thank you to. There's someone who wants to talk to you," he said warmly and I heard the rattling sound as he passed the phone to someone else.
"Bella," Edward's voice was frantic, but so beautiful.
"Edward," I replied.
"Bella, are you alright? What's happening there?"
"Nothing, you might find I'll die out of boredom rather than at the hand of James," I laughed.
He growled. It was a weirdly distorted sound on the phone, almost like a malfunction. "Bella, don't joke about that. James is really dangerous. I'll be there soon, just please keep yourself safe. I have to go, lunch hour is almost over."
"Have fun in Biology," I laughed. It'd be terrible having to be at school now, how anxious and irritated he must be. "Don't glare a hole through anyone."
He chuckled darkly. "Yes, a lot of the teachers here are wondering if I'm going to bring a gun out of my pocket and shoot them. I almost punched Mike when he asked me where you are."
"Damn," I said, remembering something. "I was going to beat Mike's ass in a shuffling competition."
"You can still do that Bella." His voice was gentle, and soon he said the words that made my heart stutter. "I love you Bella."
"I love you too Edward, be careful."
He chuckled, "You're the one who needs to be careful." He hung up.
As soon as I hit end the phone rang again. I pressed talk and held it to my ear.
"Bella, Bella, Bella where are you?" I heard a vaguely familiar frantic female voice say. It was scratchier than a phone would make it, and sounded so fake I almost laughed.
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