So that's all, folks. One year, twenty five chapters later, I finally finish a story that's not even fully mine. At the time of writing this final Author's Note, Other Men has 172 reviews, 202 followers, 104 favorites, and 16,454 views. I know there are fanfictions on here that blow that out of the water, but to me, that's crazy. This ha definitely been a... ride, I'll say that. As usual, I want to thank jansails, Guest, Capricorn75, SarcasticBimbo, snowflakelover, PandaGirl01, Vagabonda, MusetteBlanchard, Guest, and nickaroos for the reviews, PJOAAR5TMIHPDIA4599, Honiahaka02, Ashburk712, and CheckAlexa for the follows, and ginkgo00 and csp4 for the faves. I will be posting a sequel hopefully by the beginning of July, so I'd advise anyone who wants to know when that's out to follow or favorite me as an author so you know when. I will warn everyone that things will get more AU (Alternate Universe) from here on out, so if you're expecting a carbon copy of New Moon... don't. Thank you all so much.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
THIS WAS RIDICULOUS. There'd been a reason, I kept insisting to everyone who would listen, why I hadn't wanted to go to the spring dance. Well, several reasons. One: I couldn't dance without looking like a robot having a seizure. Two: I didn't like the music they played at dances. Three: It was being held in the gym. Four: It wasn't as if I was going with anyone.
I was down one reason now, but the rest ought to have still applied, especially since I'd been wearing a cast on my leg since the end of March, and it was now the beginning of May. I wasn't getting the stupid thing off until almost July. I couldn't drive until then, and if I had been clumsy before… oh boy.
I would have thought the cast, the crutches, and the physical therapy would have been bad enough, but after I'd apologized to Dad and we both pretended that we hadn't started to cry, the swift hand of justice had come down on me. My curfew was six o'clock until summer vacation started. I was only allowed to see Edward outside of school on the weekends, even though I had explained to Dad countless times that it wasn't his fault I'd been in 'the accident'.
His response? 'You're right, it's not his fault, it's your fault, which is why you're being punished.' I couldn't even count on Mom to talk him down; she and Phil were busy moving into their new home in Stockton, and with preparing for the baby, which was, of course, due on my seventeenth birthday. Next week they were going for an ultrasound to find out the gender.
I was oh so thrilled.
Upon my return to school, I'd expected to be heralded as a celebrity… again. But, shockingly enough, the news of my accident had been kept fairly hush-hush, and aside from some odd looks and the usual Jess interrogation, things had been… pretty normal. I'd been going to classes, stressing about the SAT, and… dating my boyfriend.
I still wasn't used to referring to Ed as my boyfriend, even if we'd technically been 'dating' for even longer than what we actually saw as the start of our relationship. To my surprise, having a steady boyfriend was not that much different than having a friend. We hadn't really been able to go on any 'dates' since the 'accident', but he picked me up every morning for school, since I couldn't drive, and dropped me off every afternoon. It wasn't that much different than pretend-dating him, although we did… kiss… a lot more.
Kissing was never something I had put much stock in, since the few times I'd been kissed before Ed had been mediocre at best, but kissing someone you actually liked was a lot different. And we did it. Pretty often. Jess had theorized that my frequent near death experiences were only increasing our sex drives. I'd promptly smacked her with my copy of Jane Eyre, because we weren't quite at that level yet.
But when Ed had formally invited me to go to the junior prom with him, and by formally invited I mean asked me one afternoon while we were breaking the 'no seeing each other except on the weekends' rule and kissing in my backyard, I had just stared at him.
"What?" he'd said, defensively.
I'd pointed at my cast, and he rolled his eyes.
"We can slow dance."
"Or we could not dance at all and spend our Friday night taking advantage of having the town to ourselves with everyone at prom," I'd suggested brightly, but then he'd brought Alice, Jess, and Angie into it the next day and I'd promptly been shot down. Apparently, going to junior prom when you had a boyfriend, and that boyfriend was a Cullen, was non-negotiable.
Which was how I found myself trapped in a room with my three best friends, being forced to sit still while Alice finished curling my pin straight hair and Jess applied eye shadow, thinking about how ridiculous the whole thing was.
"Bella, if you don't wipe that bitchy look off your face I'm going to give you a clown look," Jess declared threateningly.
I acquiesced, smoothing the front of my dress. I'd ordered it from a catalogue, after conveniently scheduling a physical therapy session the afternoon Jess and Angie had gone back to Port Angeles for shopping.
The dress was long, flowing, deep blue, which, although I didn't think it particularly brought out anything in me, did look nice enough, I'd admit. It was V-neck, sleeveless, and Alice claimed it 'exemplified my small waist'.
Alice's own dress was suitably dramatic; black, ankle length, with a slit up the front ending in a ruffle that on a taller, curvier girl might have resulted in some protests from chaperones. It was cap sleeved, belted, and looked like something Audrey Hepburn might have worn, which meant that on gothic Alice it looked slightly demented.
"Done," Jess said happily, stepping back to check her own shimmering lip gloss in the mirror. She adjusted the pin holding her curly side bangs back. Her dress was just slightly shorter than my own, revealing her ankle-treacherous heels, and a vivid coral color, with a glittering, sequined bodice section and a halter style top. Her and Mike had been arguing over whether his tie was the right shade to match it or too 'orange'.
I immediately stood up, holding the chair for support, since Alice had finally backed off with the curling iron, and shared a look of exasperation with Angela, hunched in the corner due to my room's low ceiling.
"They've been waiting downstairs for ten minutes now," she said worriedly. "I don't think we should keep them waiting much longer."
"Oooh, someone's excited for Bennnn to see her," Jess snickered. Angie immediately went scarlet, almost matching her elegant, ruby red, asymmetrical dress, which showed off her impressive height and slim figure without being very showy.
She'd asked Ben, who was actually pretty short, to come with her to junior prom two weeks ago, shocking all of us, since she'd never mentioned him before, and no one had ever seen them so much as look at each other in school. Ben was friends with Eric, appropriately nerdy, but goodnatured, and, above all, seemed to worship the ground Angie walked on, to everyone's approval.
"Let's just go," I cut in, before it devolved into a spat, and snatched up my purse, which had been lying on my bed.
"Picture of you three first," Alice insisted, and forced us to shuffle in front of the doorway, before snapping a quick picture like an excited mother and winking at me.
I came down first, red faced as my crutches made the stairs creak and groan like nothing else, and glanced at Edward, who seemed caught between a triumphant smirk and a shocked look. Presumably at how well I cleaned up, since it wasn't as if I'd started wearing makeup galore in the last month or so. Mike, Ben, and Jasper looked similarly impressed. My dad, hovering in the background, gruffly made us all pose for just one picture, before sending us on our way.
"Bella, no after parties," he told me sternly, and I waited until I was out the door to roll my eyes.
"You won't be missing much," Jess snorted. "Lauren thinks she's throwing this massive rager, but Mike and I aren't even going."
"We're going camping over the weekend," Mike shrugged. "My dad will kill me if I'm too hung over to help pack up the car."
Our ride to prom was not a limo; it was Ben's mom's mini van, which was less than stately but could fit six, and that was what mattered. I mourned the fact that under my dress I was wearing a sandal on one foot, a boot on the other, and tried not to let my thoughts get too negative. I thought I was getting better; being around Ed, having actual friends, helped.
I had the summer to look forward to; I'd gotten a job working part time at the library, and another trip to the beach at La Push was imminent. I was going to spend the last two weeks before school started up again visiting Mom and Phil in California, before the baby came. Things were… things were looking up, which was kind of insane. Then again, what about my life was sane? I was dating a vampire, I was going to an actual dance, and I was going to be a big sister. If you'd told me any of that the year before, I would have backed away slowly.
The school parking lot was packed; it was overcast, but not very; no chance of rain tonight, to my relief. I ignored the fact that everyone had to slow their pace down entering the building to let me keep up with them.
Ed jokingly (or not) offered to carry me in, but from the look on my face clearly decided it wasn't worth the fallout. I spotted Lauren and a few hangerons by the gym entrance, sneering at me and my crutches, the stark height difference between Angela and Ben, and generally everything. Alice casually made a very obscene hand gesture at them as we entered, and it took a full two minutes for Jasper to calm down from the hysterical fit of laughter that induced in him.
The gym was decorated like every cheesy dance scene in a teen movie, balloons and ribbons galore. I resisted the urge to pop a balloon with a crutch, and instead sat down with the other girls while the boys went to get punch.
I was surprised Alice had so easily managed to slip into my friend circle. Ed was one thing- he was my boyfriend, and had already been popular enough beforehand. But I never would have imagined Alice and Jess chatting away like best friends, and even Angie seemed to speak up more when she was around. It could just have been Jasper's influence, but I had my doubts.
"It's this one thing that's got me trippin', this one thing my soul may be feelin'-'" was blasting over the speakers, and as soon as the boys were back Jess and Alice dragged Mike and Jasper onto the dance floor. Ben and Angela soon followed, albeit far more cautiously, leaving me and Edward alone at the table.
"If you really don't want to dance tonight we don't have to." He was looking at me in a way that made heat creep across my face.
"If we're here we might as well," I said stubbornly, but squeezed his hand under the table. "I'm… I'm glad I'm here with you."
He smiled, and looked younger than seventeen; it made something catch in my throat for a moment. "Me too."
After a few minutes a slower song came on, Christina Aguilera or something, and we hobbled onto the dance floor together. Our dancing was awful; he was quite good, but I couldn't move around much, although he did lift me up by the waist at one point- I yelped and everyone looked our way.
"Sorry," he muttered. "Couldn't resist."
I vengefully pecked him on the lips. "I'll get my comeuppance later. There's somewhere I want us to go after this."
"Your dad said no after parties," he reminded me, as we slowly moved in a spiraling circle that never seemed to end.
"Do you even know me at all?" I laughed. "You'll see."
We didn't dance all through prom; I was tired quicker than I would have been without having to lug around a heavy cast on my leg, and we mostly sat and talked. Alice and Jasper sat with us; when I encouraged them to go dance she just laughed and said they'd danced enough for a hundred lifetimes.
We talked about the present; to speak of the future seemed…. wrong right now. I didn't know what the future would be, if there would even be a future. When I'd gotten together with Edward, it had been with the unspoken agreement that we only think of the here and now. We couldn't afford to look that far ahead. And if Alice knew, she said nothing, and I was grateful.
By eleven the gym was clearing out; Ben and Angela dropped us all back off my house, where everyone's cars were lined down the street. Dad's cruiser was gone; I assumed there'd already been a call down to the station about rowdy teens. Mike and Jess left, as did Alice and Jasper, and when it was just Edward and I in the driveway we headed into the house.
"Wait here," I instructed him in the living room, and limped up the stairs as fast as possible. I struggled out of my dress and into some more comfortable clothes, and pulled my already fading curls into a ponytail. I limped back downstairs, and led him outside to Toy Truck, who, after a trip to the mechanic was looking good as new… mostly. He had to drive, of course, but the look on his face was worth it as we pulled out of the driveway.
"Where to?" he asked, bemusedly, and I began rattling off directions.
By the time we hit the end of the bumpy dirt road he was smiling, but as he stepped down from the truck said smugly, "I thought you hated riding on my back."
"Things change," I reasoned.
He set me down when we reached the meadow. The outline of the moon was just visible behind the clouds overhead. If the wildflowers had been blooming in March, they covered every inch of the meadow in May. In the dark Edward didn't need to stay under the shadow of the gnarled old tree; he sat down in the long grass and helped me onto the ground beside him.
We sat there in silence for a minute or two, watching the clouds drift by in the night sky above us.
"Do you think this place will always be here?" I asked suddenly.
He frowned. "Maybe. Maybe not. …I hope it will be."
I leaned my head against his chest; he'd left his suit jacket in the car and I could feel his heart thudding steadily under his dress shirt and tie.
"We're here, though."
"We are," he agreed, and we went back to watching the clouds.
I only think of you on two occasions; that's night and day.
- Babyface, 'Two Occasions'