chapter thirty eight
forks, washington, 2:14 pm
mixtape: television by you won't
It takes more than an hour for us to find a moment alone. Esme peeks her head in the living room to ask Edward if he would run down to the basement to get some of the nice china for dinner. I follow him down, the door closing behind us and he stops at the bottom of the stairs, turning towards me with a bright smile on his face. I stop a couple of stairs above him, our eyes almost level.
"Wow," he breathes.
"Yeah," I say and next thing I know, my eyes are fluttering shut because he is moving closer and closer to me, his lips pressing to mine gently at first but we start clawing at each other our mouths urgent and then I'm wrapping my legs around his waist and we're moving further into the basement, the lights not on so we hit the door frame leading to the finished part of the space and Edward laughs into my mouth. We back into a couch and his hands are moving to the hem of my shirt and I feel like I could burst into flames, I'm breathing so hard I'm practically panting.
"Jesus Christ, I've missed you," he says, his fingers kneading the skin on my abdomen. I let out a high pitched mewl and god this feels so good. How have I made it through the last three months without this?
"We can't have sex in Esme's basement," I say, not able to catch my breath. He groans and I feel his hips buck under me, just slightly.
Then we have sex in Esme's basement.
Everyone is staring at us when we resurface fifteen minutes later. It's been so long I'm honestly surprised we even lasted that long. My face is probably bright red and Edward's hair is all over the place, his button down shirt wrinkled beyond reason.
"We had trouble finding the china," Edward lies, setting the stack of plates down on the kitchen counter. Emmett barks out a laugh and Rosalie mutters under her breath, I bet you did. Alice looks stricken and Jasper is still focused on the game. My mom and Esme exchange a look but don't say anything while Charlie and Carlisle fuss over the turkey in the oven, oblivious to everything.
"Thank you," Esme says, her voice high.
"I'm gonna run to the bathroom," I say, desperate to escape the awkwardness of this situation. Emmett laughs harder as I flee from the room.
"Dinner's almost ready," Carlisle calls out and Alice lifts her hands in praise. We're all sitting on the living room floor, the game thankfully over, so we're watching old X-Files reruns. Edward's lying next to me, his head in my lap while I play with his hair. His eyes are closed and a small smile is playing on his face.
"'Damn, Mulder can get it," Rose sighs. Emmett is stretched out across the room and he rolls his eyes.
"If you like weird, know-it-all nerds," he mutters.
"I do," she shoots back, challenging him. Alice sighs her here-we-go-again sigh and Edward shakes with quiet laughter.
"Are they always like this?" he whispers, his eyes light and happy as they focus on me.
"Yes," I tell him and he smiles but a little bit of that familiar sadness seeps into his gaze.
"I wish I wasn't missing all of it, being out east and all," he admits and my heart squeezes at the sound of his voice. I let my hand rest on his cheek and his eyes fall closed again.
Dinner is loud, everyone half drunk and full of turkey and stuffing. Emmett makes my mom and Esme fall in love with him, all charming and funny, while Rosalie stares at him with an amused expression through all of it. Edward holds my hand under the table and when everyone is done, we volunteer to take plates and bring dessert out. In the kitchen, I scrape half eaten yams into the trash while Edward loads the dishwasher. We lean against the counter, our hips touching and I'm struck by how much I love being near him.
"I love you," I say softly, just because I do.
"I love you too. So much."
"Can I ask you a dumb question?" I don't wait for his response. "What are we?"
He stares at me for half a second before bursting into laughter.
"What?!" I shriek, horrified. He just continues to laugh, wiping invisible tears from his eyes.
"Oh, fuck you," I say, throwing my hands up. I move to walk around him to get the pies but he grabs me by the elbow.
"I'm sorry," he says, catching his breath. I wait for him to continue because he doesn't sound sorry at all.
"You just…you caught me off guard, I'm sorry. 'What are we' jesus, Bella, what do you think we are? I've been telling everyone at school that you're my girlfriend. I know that's a stupid, dated term and you mean so much more to me than that but it's easier you know? Why didn't you bring this up earlier?" Edward starts laughing again.
"I take it all back, I hate you," I mutter, embarrassed, which just makes him laugh harder. When we reenter the dining room Carlisle asks us what was so funny.
"Bella just asked me a stupid question," he explains.
"What was it?" Emmett asks, eager to get in on the joke.
"If you tell them, I will throw this fucking pie at you," I tell him under my breath.
"You had to be there," Edward shrugs, winking at me as he steps past me, rejoining everyone at the table.
Emmett looks disappointed and my embarrassment is waning.
"What did you say?" Emmett asks again once I sit down. Edward smirks.
"Stop bugging my girlfriend and eat your pie."
yaaaas finally right? I wrote this entire chapter in my exam period, half listening to art history presentations. The semester is basically over for me, time to finish this thang.