Disclaimer: God knows I don't own Twilight.
Chapter 24
Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
Bella Mercer
"I can't go with you?"
Bella looks away from her dressing mirror, absently, wiping a smudge of dark kohl beneath her eye. "No, chickadee. This is just me and Edward."
Laila's curls bounce when she shakes her head, a pout forming on her face. "But why?"
Hearing the whining tone, Bella quickly turns around. "Laila," she says firmly. "What did I say about whining?"
A small grin crosses the little girl's face. "You asked if I want some cheese with my whine."
Bella smoothes the copper curls. "That's right," she says softly, pulling Laila into a hug. "You'll have fun with Nana, tonight. She rented the new Snow White movie just for you."
"Really?"
"Yep," Bella smiles, a feeling of warmth exploding in her chest when Laila runs downstairs, yelling for Nana.
Parenting is hard, she thinks, recalling Laila's testing attitude from the last few days. Laila had, apparently, gotten more than comfortable with her life in Hallows Town, especially since the pink cast just came off – she was now testing Bella and Nana's authority, adopting a whining, spoiled attitude that Bella was intent to nip in the bud quickly. She was lucky Laila was such a good kid – this phase of testing wouldn't last long.
She hoped.
With a glance at the clock, Bella turns to her closet, nerves in her stomach.
It's just Edward, she tells herself. He doesn't care what I look like. I mean, obviously he likes what I look like. But he doesn't care what I'm wearing. Why didn't he tell me where we're going?
Rifling through her closet, Bella frowns. This moment of girlish excitement-slash-panic was getting to her, because all of her most favorite clothes weren't looking like good options.
She looks in the mirror – too much eyeliner, isn't it? And the time! I'm running out of time.
Her mind flashes to Edward's handsome face when he waved goodbye after band practice. His eyes shined with promise. He had a plan.
A plan that Bella was irritatingly not privy to.
"Bella!" Laila calls from downstairs. "Edward's here!"
"Crap," Bella curses softly, turning back to her closet. Her white skinny jeans with the rips on the knees, a black and lilac sleeveless floral top with a Peter-Pan neckline, and one of her nicer pairs of black ankle boots are thrown on. She turns to the mirror, hastily wiping away some of the smudge from her kohl liner, dabs on a bit of coral lip gloss, and finger-combs her hair into a simple braid that falls over one shoulder.
Staring at the mirror, she releases a sigh. Bella decides she looks good enough for her first date.
Downstairs, Bella sees Edward waiting on the porch, dressed in dark jeans, a white t-shirt, and a checkered red and green flannel shirt open on his chest. He looks remarkably handsome and shy, the tips of his ears pink as he hands over a single purple tulip. "Hey."
"Hey."
Laila bounds out of the house, car keys in hand. "You forgot, Bella," she says, wrapping her arms around Bella's leg.
"Thanks, chickadee," Bella smiles, smoothing away a copper curl. "Be good, okay?"
"I really can't come with you?"
Edward clears his throat. "Next time, Laila. I pinky promise."
Laila's eyes light up in a way only a child's can. "A real pinky promise?" she confirms.
Edward nods, kneeling so that he's eye level. "As real as you are," he says, holding out his pinky and hiding a wince when Laila's little finger enthusiastically squeezes his own.
When Laila runs back into the house, Edward nods over to Ester's car. "You'll drive?"
Bella eyes him. "It depends. Where are we going?"
Edward grins. "It's a surprise," he tells her, bending down to pick up a few items from the porch steps. He catches her wary gaze and winks. "Don't look so suspicious."
Bella settles into the driver's seat, adjusting the mirrors while Edward settles in next to her, a blanket and a brown paper bag in his lap. "So, you don't tell me where we're going, you have secret items, and I'm not supposed to be suspicious?"
"It's not like I'm going to kill you."
Bella snorts and backs out of the driveway. "No, you're right. You wouldn't make a very good axe murderer at all."
"I could wield an axe," he argues mildly. "Turn left."
Directing the car, Bella glances at him. "If by axe you mean guitar, then yes."
Edward scowls slightly. "A real axe, too. I do chop wood for Ester."
Bella thinks about the mysterious pile of wood near the shed in the backyard. She always did wonder where Nana got all that wood from; and now, the mystery was solved and Bella's eyes are drawn to Edward's biceps. "Thanks for that," she says after a moment.
His ears turn pink and he clears his throat. "Yeah. No problem. Uh, turn right."
Bella's brows raise. "We're going to New Haven?"
"Kind of."
As it turns out, kind of means that they were going to New Haven – rather, specifically, the outskirts of New Haven, sort of between Old Downtown and a forest area.
"Left," Edward directs. "So, who taught you how to play?"
Driving slowly through the poorly lit area, Bella shrugs a shoulder. "My Dad. He worked with recording artists in New York during the week, playing as a sideman, guitar, bass, piano – you know, whatever they needed. He was really good but couldn't carry a tune outside of instruments. Mom taught me the basics of singing and how to read music. It was kind of a family thing."
Edward smiles - reveling in the new information about Bella, her mystery was being unveiled. "You always wanted to do the band thing, then?"
Bella shakes her head with a distant smile. "Not…before, you know," she says sadly. "I wanted to just be a songwriter. But…after," she whispers, her voice catching slightly as she refers to her parent's deaths. "After…It just didn't seem right. I didn't feel like simply selling my music would honor them the right way. Mom never really wanted me to be only a songwriter anyway – she always said I belonged on a stage."
"You do," Edward tells her. "You looked so alive when you preformed for those kids last week. Oh, uh, right up there, at that fence."
Bella slowly eases the car through the fence, sparing a smiling glance at Edward. "You know, you belong on a stage, too."
"Yeah?"
Bella nods, enjoying his bashful blush. She took comfort in the fact that she made him as nervous as he made her. "We'll get signed," she tells him. "I have a plan after we do the church performance."
Wide coke-bottle green eyes look at her. "Already?"
Bella shrugs. "I don't really do anything half-ass."
"No, I don't guess you do," Edward laughs.
After bumping through the dirt road, bright light filters onto the ground and Bella pulls the car up to a vender booth; Edward passes money over her in exchange for two tickets. Bella studies the large white screen and the rows of cars and turns to Edward with a disbelieving smile. "Edward, is this a drive-in movie theatre?"
"Uh, yeah," he says awkwardly as Bella parks in the center of a field. "You don't like it?"
Edward's senses explode with a feeling of warm girl and the smell of orange blossoms as Bella leans over the center console and hugs him tightly.
"I love it," she tells him. "But I hope you brought popcorn!"
"Better," he brags through a deep blush. "All the candy you could ever want."
"What's playing?"
"Grease," he says. "It's one of my favorites."
"Mine too," Bella smiles. "This is perfect, Edward. Let's watch on top of the car."
Edward readily agrees. Together, they climb onto the warm hood of the car, leaning against the windshield as Edward covers them with the large flannel blanket and Bella raids the assortment of candy he brought.
She glances at him through her lashes, nearly laughing at how nervous he seemed, his bright eyes studying the scant inches between them. "Edward," she says, getting his attention.
He looks up, his curious expression turning mildly alarmed as she maneuvers his arm over her shoulder so that she can lean into his side, her head resting on his chest, one of her arms draped over her stomach. His heart beats wildly when she looks up at him.
"Is this okay?"
Edward swallows, nods. It was more than okay.
And the moment seemed so perfect, for them, that Edward couldn't resist.
He leans his head down and kisses Bella soundly, enjoying her gasp of surprise and taking advantage of her open mouth. Her hands reach up to grasp the back of his neck and pull him closer, her chest pressed against the side of his own.
A car honks. "Get a room!"
Edward pulls away, embarrassed, his ears hot and his jeans tight. He's thankful for the blanket.
Bella laughs and pecks his mouth with another kiss before laying her head on his chest again and offering him a Twizzler from the bag. They each quietly sing the songs of Grease between devouring candy, using each other to ward off the chill of the Connecticut summer night.
A/N: Sorry about the delay in posting! Last weekend sucked! Fingers crossed for a good weekend so I can get another chapter up!
Shout out to the first 10 reviews of the last chapter –
blnl0085 – But will he keep them?
Xmusecangelx – Ah, yeah, this is my idea of a "drabble" fic lol Chapters around 1,500 words!
soccergal4h – Thank you!
CdrIvanova – Pastor Asshat is a stinker! Lol
Nope – I love the Pomegranates! I considered using some of their lyrics, but went with Flyleaf in the end since they're more widely known! And I'm so honored by your review – it's currently my wallpaper, motivating me to write!
Dinotopian – Thank you!
LunaDiSangue85 – lol Hilarious. I might have to use that Jezebel line!
SoothemySoul – I'm glad you enjoy the Youth Night discussion chapters! I'm afraid that they get too boring! Lol
Cessperez – Ditto!
james3142 – LOL He did swindle it! And I like to think the Bella is the…I don't know, I guess the "Saint" that Pastor Asshat could never be and she doesn't even try lol
Super special shout out to the first review of the last chapter – Nalia-R – lol That's a good point. Oh, I guess your sweet boyfriend can still be The Man!
As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.
~cupcakeriot