Chapter : Ben Cheney Is The Man
note: This chapter is very silly, but I do want to make it clear I"m not making fun of virginity AT ALL or chastity clubs in general. It's just being used for comedic purposes since we have sexually active vampires sitting in on the meetings...lol
note: I have no idea how Chastity Clubs are conducted. I googled up a True Love Waits pledge and then made the rest up. Wanted to put that disclaimer out there!
note: Thanks for all the reviews-you gals are all sorts of awesomeness!!
BPOV
Two minutes left until school was out--and then we were to all head out to the Chastity Club meeting. But more importantly, I needed to speak to Edward immediately. When I asked him if I was speaking to the "real" Edward, the pain in his face broke my heart. I tried to apologize to him, but that only made things worse. He told me he only had himself to blame for my reaction, before hurrying off to his next class.
The bell finally rang, and I rushed out the door-to find Edward waiting. He gave me a sad smile, and I went on my tippy toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't be sad, honey-I was just making sure you weren't going to sop me up like a biscuit in gravy while quoting Kid Rock." He winced and shook his head--oops. My attempt at making him laugh only made him feel more like crap.
He took my hand as we headed to the classroom where the meeting was to take place. Edward turned around suddenly. "Bella, I"m myself completely. Please don't worry that I"m overtaken by anything else. It's just..."
"Hey Edward! You ready to join a club that took 107 years in the making for you?" Rose was screaming across the hall.
Edward rolled his eyes and shuffled me to a corner. "The only thing that's a little different now is that...well, Bella-I can't forget about that night-OUR night. The night of the exam. I DON'T want to forget." He had such a pained expression on his face-as if I was going to judge him harshly for that fact.
I smiled widely and whispered in his ear, "Me neither. I think it's okay to admit we can't go back to how things were completely before that night too."
A warm grin of relief and understanding splashed over his face-before I had Rose grabbing me roughly: "Break it up you two. Bella is sitting with Alice and me during the Virgin meeting, Edward. You can go sit with your nasty brothers and impress eachother with all the wads of human numbers you collected."
"Rose, I didn't collect human digits, remember? I already have my human." He winked at me.
"Fine. Well, you still have penis, so stay away from us.We are having a Cullen Sisters only meeting."
--
APOV
Rose and I were not going take this lying down-we weren't going to let the "Cullen Brothers" get away with all the attention while we were dressed like rejects. It was time for the "Cullen Sisters" to make their debut tomorrow. The Virgin meeting was starting soon-the seats were filling quickly--so I wanted to make sure Bella would be on our side of the family battle.
"So, Bella, are you in?" I whispered as she sat down next to me. I then gave Jasper a sneer from across the circle of deskchairs as he and Emmett were busy counting their crumbled pieces of girl numbers.
Bella looked at me in confusion. "Alice, I"m not mad at Edward since he wasn't trying to get any numbers from the human girls. So, why would I participate in a revenge plan?"
I rolled my eyes. "Because you are suppossed to side with US first. WE are your sisters! Sisters always come before boys! WE have been on your side the whole time you tried to get laid by Edward if you haven't forgotten!And he's our brother!"
"Um, AHEM...the True Love Waits meeting will begin shortly, so if you could please lower your voices..." Ben Cheney looked straight at us with a shocked face.
"Alice, shut up with all your "let's get Bella laid" talk." Rose motioned over in Ben's direction. "You are totally scaring Virgin Boy over there."
Bella gasped in embarrassment as she pinched Rose. "Sorry, Ben, we'll keep our voices down."
Ben and his girlfriend Angela then went to the front of the classroom and began the meeting.
--
BPOV
Ben and Angela looked so cute up front, holding hands. I had no idea they were the head of the True Love Waits Club. They were easily my two favorite humans at the high school. Angela called the meeting to order.
"I'm so glad everyone could make it. And we are thrilled to have some new faces join us today. It's great to see the Cullens and Hales present, as well as my good friend Bella Swan." She winked my way.
"Since we have some visitors today, I'd like to just go over the pledge that basically unites all of us in here, and if any of you visitors would be interested in taking the pledge at some point in the future, just let us know. There's no pressure either. The pledge that we have all committed to uphold is the following..." She let Ben take over the honors.
"I, Ben Cheney, promise to abstain from sex until my wedding night. I want to reserve my sexual powers to give life and love for my future spouse and marriage."
Alice's head tilted to the side as she whispered loudly enough for the entire classroom to hear, "Well, I hope all the huma-I mean... high school girls understand that poor Jasper's "reserves" only shoot blanks if you know what mean...no life giving with be coming from THAT reservoir of love." Jasper stopped the counting of his human digit papers and shot Alice a glare. He then looked down quickly.
"Crap, I lost count! I have start all over, Emmett..." Alice laughed smugly. He threw all the wads of paper back onto the desk and restarted the counting.
"1,2,3..."
Ben tried to regain control. "Ahem...I will respect my gift of sexuality by keeping my mind and thoughts pure as I prepare for my true love."
Rose nodded with interest. "Wow, I never thought of my sexuality as a "gift" before...I only thought of it as a weapon..."
Ben cleared his throat. " I commit to grow in character to learn to live in love and freedom."
Rose giggled while she leaned in--why she leaned in was the question. She didn't try to whisper--she used her regular voice. "Well, poor Virgin Boy better hope he can grow ALOT. Cause he only reaches Angela's shoulders. I mean seriously, how are they going to work it out sexually?Is she always going to have to be on top to neutralize his hobbit stature? Well, at least she can mix it up with a Reverse Cowboy position here and there..."She laughed loudly as a thought came to her..."Or maybe they can borrow Edward's sex swing!" I slapped her leg fiercely to shut her up.I wanted to curl up and disappear at that very moment.
Poor Ben's face was bright red. In a firm voice he responded to Rose:"Um, Rose? You discussing my girlfriend and me in sexual ways was extremely disrespectful to the both of us right now. If you could apologize to Angela, I would really appreciate it."
DAY-UM. Everyone watched in stunned silence-even Jasper and Emmett stopped counting. Edward was trying his hardest not to laugh. NO ONE ever tells Rose what to do like that. Especially in that tone.
Rose's eyes narrowed--and then out of nowhere she let out a huge smile. "You got some big 'nads on you Virgin Boy that make up for your shorty status." She turned to Angela. "Sorry Angela, I didn't mean to disrespect you."
Ben grimaced. "And Rose, if you could please call me by my name and refrain from using the word 'nads, that would be appreciated too."
"Sure thing...Ben." Alice and I both cocked our head in Rose's direction--did she just use her "sexy" voice on 5'3" Ben Cheney?
--
EPOV
It seems every week the True Love Wait Club worked on an activity that related to keeping the pledge's meaning in mind. This week Ben and Angela were demonstrating ways for people to work on character growth so that they would eventually be ready to find their mate. I didn't think I would enjoy the meeting, but I was actually getting some good tips from it. I think I was enjoying it so much because Angela and Ben were really great instructors-and examples. They seemed to have alot of peace with their relationship-maybe Ben would be someone to talk to later for some pointers.
Ben was illustrating this week's activity in front of the class.
"So, one way we can all work on our character growth is to actually look outside ourselves and appreciate the ones that mean most to us. Angela?"
Angela walked up with a small cookie jar that was full of little pieces of paper. Somehow I had a feeling they weren't wadded up pieces of human digits.
"This is my Valentine's Day gift that I got from Ben this year. Well...one of several gifts that he gave me." She smiled at Ben. "But this was the gift that meant the most to me. Because within this jar are 365 notes for each day of the year that Ben hand wrote that tells me something he loves or appreciates about me. I take one out every morning before school and it lets me remember all the things that make me special to him. And it's those very things we have been able to discover within a chaste relationship.Today my note read that Ben loves hiking with me, because we can share the beauty of a sunrise or sunset together like we are the only two people on earth. "
"(Cough)...kiss ass...(Cough)..." I smacked Jasper for his rude display towards Ben, while Emmett let out a huge chuckle.
Alice and Rose, who seemed enthralled by Angela's presentation, shot both their men warning glances for their outburtst.
Rose suddenly raised her hand all impatiently. Oh dear Lord...
"Ben? Ben, can I ask you a question from a male perspective?"
Ben looked very scared."Uh, that's fine, Rose, as long as you keep it clean."
"Well, I see you collected a bunch of wads of papers for Angela to express your love for her. How should a girl feel if HER man collected a bunch of wads of papers in his pockets--but instead of love notes for his woman, they were a bunch of numbers he was collecting from other girls just to make himself feel more potent because his live giving reserves were on empty?" Emmett shook his head her way as she smiled triumphantly.
Ben grimaced. "Well, Rose, this scenario touches on two points from the pledge. Pure thoughts are the precursor to our actions-if a guy is trying to get a whole bunch of numbers from girls while he's already in a relationship, that means impure thoughts are already being put into action. He's only one step away from actually calling these girls...and one more step away from actually trying to meet up with them. He's playing with fire. And secondly, what kind of character growth is being shown here if some guy feels insecure enough to have to prove his manhood by asking AND collecting random women's numbers? It's sort of pathetic really."
I couldn't help myself, I let out a huge laugh at the same time that Rose and Alice did. Emmett and Jasper were livid. Emmett stood up.
"Listen ...BEN...I may have collected a couple digits today..."the pieces of paper on the desk told otherwise..." But don't get on your virgin high horse and say I"m pathetic. The main reason I got all these digits is because my BROTHER and I have a bet to see who could get the most digits. It's nothing more than a friendly family wager." Emmett stood as tall as he could as Ben stared on.
Ben snickered, and refused to look intimidated by my bear of a brother. "I'm sorry Emmett, but you aren't helping your case. You are a big guy, and I respect your size, but your size and strength don't change the facts of the matter. If gambling and your vanity are more important than the honor and respect of the woman in your life, where you are actively pursuing others for their numbers, that IS pathetic. And another thing, Emmett-trying to taunt me for being a virgin won't work-I only hear it as a compliment every time you throw it out at me."
The whole room grew unbearably silent as Ben and Emmett stared eachother down. Rose and Alice began to hold eachother's hands and bounce up and down in their seats in condonement of what Ben had just expressed. Rose squealed out, "Emmett, you so just got pwned by someone who you outweighed by 3rd grade! I never knew virginity was so butch-a-fying!"
--
BPOV
Edward was able to calm down the situation by getting Emmett to sit down, thanking Ben for his commitment to his ideas, and then making Emmett understand that Ben was simply answering questions in the capacity of the club President. Emmett eventually apologized to Ben and Ben gladly accepted it with a handshake.
"Well, I think this has actually been a VERY productive meeting, and I would like to thank everyone for coming." Angela was honestly the sweetest girl ever--if I was her, I would have said the Swans, Cullens, and Hales were banned for life from all future meetings.
Rose shot her hand up again--she looked like a first grader who was overeager to answer a question the way she darted her hand up and waited impatiently for Angela to acknowledge her. "Yes, Rose?"
" I want to take the pledge. I want to be a True Love Waits member."
Angela looked a little surprised. "Are you sure Rose, you can think about it a little bit and come back next week."
Rose shook her head. "No way! I want to get my pledge on!"
Alice raised her hand. "Me too! I totally want to become a recycled virgin!"
I looked at Edward in alarm. What were they up to?
Emmett whispered loudly: "Rose...let's talk this over... AT HOME..."
She glared in Emmett's direction. "Oh, you can talk to me all you want... AT HOME. But that's all you'll be getting from me from now on. Ben and Angela showed me the light, skank. And the light is all about not giving up the sexual honey to vain, prideful, gambling, empty reserved boyfriends like you until you make an honest woman out of me."
Ben and Angela smiled widely and then gave eachother a celebratory high five.Ben offered an encouraging handshake to Rose. "That's the spirit, Rose! That's the Holy Spirit!"
--