Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight world, not I.
A/N: Happy Wednesday! I replied to many reviews this morning, but still could not get through them all. If you didn't hear back from me, I'm sorry! Hopefully next time I will be able to give you a reply because I really do read and love everything you guys send my way! Thank you!
A few things I would like to address from the reviews:
TrulyAGeek asked: "Do dragons come in orange?" haha To answer you, yes. In my enchanted world dragons do come in orange, and of course red for Alice as well as the classic green.
iread.don'twrite. had a good question that many of you may need the answer too. There's a predicament we are facing as maroon zip up hoodies are seemingly harder to find than we all would like. Pull over hoodies, however, have been much easier to locate. The question is: "Can I pull over my love?" haha That made me laugh and the answer is, of course, yes! It can be the special "pull over" division of the MHA, just for those of you who have issues with the more classic IEWIS zip up style.
Also - on the topic of finding the maroon zip up - many of you have asked where I found mine. I got it at a wholesale T-Shirt store that I randomly came across. That is your best bet for finding something plain I think, since they carry every color in bulk. Hopefully that helps!
On more thing I should address that I didn't make clear before, sorry - it's my bad - is that the boys have decided to go naked swimming at one in the morning, not the afternoon! They got to the hotel in NM pretty late so they are not frolicking all their Cullen goods around in the middle of the day! haha I know I never made that clear. Naked Five O'Clock also refers to 5am, not 5 in the evening. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I hope, even though it's all still slightly ridiculous, that it makes more sense now :)
Alright, the rest can wait until the bottom of the chapter.
On we go...
Chapter 37 - Up Nights
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Our eyes got wide and we started giggling again as the very slow knocking broke our attention from the TV.
"Answer it!" I quickly said to Alice in a whisper.
I'm not sure why I was whispering, it's not like they didn't know we were inside. For some reason my only instinct was to hide though.
"No! I did the dirty work, you answer it!" She whispered back at me with a small push on my shoulder towards the door.
"Um, no thanks! You are the one that has to answer to what you did!"
I was trying to get out of going over to the door, yes. I was not prepared for what was on the other side. Knowing them, they just tromped right back to the room sans clothes. In theory it was a funny and somewhat interesting situation. In practice I was not prepared to meet any "Little" Cullens tonight.
"What's wrong Bella? Still afraid of the pretzel I see." Alice snickered at me quietly.
"What the hell is the pretzel?" Rosalie cut in then, not whispering at all, looking at me like she already figured out exactly what the pretzel is.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The knocking was faster this time, a bit more urgent.
"Go!" I whisper yelled at Alice.
"NO! You have to face your fears Bella. Take the pretzel by the horns!" She threw herself into a fit of giggles at her twisted little made up saying and rolled over on her back kicking her little feet in the air with glee.
"Why 'the pretzel'?" Rosalie asked me over the flailing Alice in between us. "Wait, is there something wrong with it?" She gasped and looked truly concerned.
"Oh my God! No! I mean, I don't think so...I don't know!" I was already fire truck red and I could feel the blood burning in my cheeks as I threw my face into my hands.
Alice now had pillow over her face, trying to muffle her laughter.
"Well if you are going to nickname it 'the pretzel' it suggests that there might be some... issues," Rose informed me. She let one side of her mouth droop down and made an "oops" kind of face as she looked at me sadly.
"Alice nicknamed it... on accident...she didn't mean to... her grandmother!" I was trying to spill out information to explain the nickname but I was trying to talk between my own fit of laughter now, joining in with Alice. It wasn't helping Rosalie to understand at all.
"Alice's grandmother nicknamed it?" Rosalie was more confused then ever as both Alice and I shrieked out, "No!" and then fell into even more laughter.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
It was a command now.
"We know you are in there ladies!" Emmett's voice came from behind the door and shut us up.
"And we know what you have." Jasper added with an edge to his voice.
"Well since you two are clearly no help I'm going to go check out this pretzel business myself." Rosalie got off the bed and walked over to the door. Just before she opened it she asked, "Who is it?" in a very sweet and mocking tone.
"Housekeeping!" a very high pitched and fake ethnic voice answered, followed by deep musical and rumbling laughter.
"Sorry, we don't want any," she replied with the sickenly sweet voice from before.
"Rosalie Hale don't make me break down this door! You can't hide in that room forever so you should just let us in now!" Emmett used a deeper voice than usual and pounded on the door with a very loud BAM.
"Plus, it's fairly cold out here ladies." My Edward's velvet had some humor mixed in with it and I smiled faintly as the voices on the other side agreed with his statement.
"It's up to you Bella." Rose looked at me and smiled evilly. "Are you really going to keep the boys out in the cold? Or are you ready to face the potato chip?"
"Pretzel!" Alice laughed out, correcting Rosalie.
"Whatever..." Rose said with wave of her hand.
"What about you Alice, are you BFF with Little Jasper yet?" I raised an eyebrow at her and smirked, trying to get some of the pressure off of me and my unfamiliarity with, well you know.
"No, for your information we aren't even acquaintances yet. Not that I wouldn't be pleased to meet his... acquaintance..." she giggled some more and I hid my face again. "Little Jasper doesn't scare me though." She said it confidentially enough, but I'm not quite sure I believed her. Something was off in her eyes. "It's not like you and the big scary pretzel at least!" She used a dramatic voice and lifted her arms up like you do when you are telling a little kid a monster story when she said "big scary pretzel".
"The Pretzel and Little Jasper." Rosalie said, shaking her head sadly. "I am certainly glad you two don't get to nickname my family jewels. Talk about getting a complex..." She shook her head at us then turned to the door. "Ok boys, tuck 'em in, you've been granted entrance."
She pulled the door open slightly to ease them in, but suddenly everything exploded at once.
The door flew open and Emmett ran in, grabbed Rose by the waist, and flung her over to the bed with a big yell.
"Waaaaaaaa!" I screamed and ran.
Well, I made any loud noise that escaped my mouth when it first opened and jumped out of the way, rolling over the roll away bed and pushing my self up against the mirrored doors of the small closet.
Alice squealed one loud "EEE!" and rolled the same direction that I did, then ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
We had to roll over the beds because the only way to cram the roll away in the tiny room was to put it at the foot of the other two beds, blocking the walk way to the bathroom, closet, and the little counter that sat in between the two. It wasn't that inconvenient to have to cross the beds to get to this corner of the room. At least it wasn't until we were trying to escape a possibly naked charging Emmett.
Everything calmed down almost as quickly as it had exploded and I took a second to look around the room and take inventory of the situation.
Rose was still laughing slightly, pinned underneath Emmett on the hotel bed we had just been laying on. I was still pushed up against the closet doors, panting slightly from my swift escape from the bed. Alice was poking her head out of the bathroom, still clutching the pillow and peering out into the room. I knew she was more nervous about naked Cullens than she let on.
I finally got a good look at the boys then. Emmett was straddling Rose on the bed, Jasper was hunched over by the still open door laughing to himself, and Edward was standing casually at the other end of the roll away bed, smirking at me amusedly.
All three of them were wearing tiny towels like loin clothes around their pelvic regions. They were the little white towels that even the cheapest hotels provide. It was covering enough of them, but not much. They had been crafty and tied two together so each of them had one small towel in front, and one in back.
My face flooded redder than ever before when I realized exactly how much Cullen was exposed in this room. No "Little Cullens" were present, exactly, but there was a lot of leg and torso action going on.
I looked down at the floor and fixed my gaze on a very old looking brown stain, only looking back up when I heard movement.
Emmett finally rolled off of Rosalie and stood up next to the bed, putting his hands proudly on his hips.
"So who wants some Emmett first?" He winked around the room and we all laughed lightly, me and Alice nervously, and Rosalie scoffed as she sat up on the bed.
"I've had my share for the night, thank you." She smiled at him and he gave her an extra special wink, making her smile extra special back. It was almost cute until I re-registered the ratio of Emmett to towel.
"Alright then, that just leaves the 2 ladies in the corner!" He pointed at the corner the bathroom and the closet created, the one Alice and I had fled to.
In an instant he very gracefully jumped up on the bed and ran over it, then jumped off right in front of us.
Alice screamed and then slammed the bathroom door shut again, her shrill laugh echoed inside as I ran over to the door, but tripped and got there too late. She had already shut it in my face and I was leaning on it helplessly.
"Bellarina! Come hug you brother! Or kiss if you like my new outfit that much." He took 2 big steps towards me and held out his arms, scooping me up easily against his bare body.
"Edward!" I screamed to him for help out of habit, forgetting that he was wearing the exact same "outfit" as Emmett.
I was laughing incredibly hard as I heard the others break out in their own laughs around me. I even heard the door behind me open and then Alice's quick little movements take her to the other side of the room, to safety as I consumed all of Emmett's attention.
Finally I saw Edward's face appear behind the small section of Emmett's shoulder that I could actually see over.
"Bella, close your eyes." He said softly to me. His green eyes were dancing with amusement and I was captivated for one small moment, just by them alone.
"Huh?" I asked in a daze, suddenly remembering if I tilted my head down I could get a different view of him.
"Close your eyes, love. There's only one way to bring down the bear." He tilted his head towards Emmett and smirked at me right before I closed my eyes, trusting Edward knew what he was doing.
Emmett yelled, "What the crap?!" right before dropping me instantly.
I kept my eyes shut and prepared myself for the ground, knowing that even if I landed on my feet my balance issues would bring me tumbling down anyway. In the darkness of my shut eyes I could hear the others laughter break out even louder as I was dropped and Edward took whatever action was necessary for Emmett to permit my release.
Edward's arms caught me just as my senses caught his lovely scent and his equally as lovely laugh. I curled my arms around his bare torso out of habit then froze when I remembered the small bit of cloth that was separating me from...I sighed inwardly at Alice infecting my thoughts... the pretzel.
"Can I open my eyes now?" I asked quickly as I withdrew my arms from around him.
"Yes, it's safe now." He chuckled at me, backing away as he sensed my obvious discomfort.
I opened my eyes and choked out a laugh when I took in the sight before me.
There was Emmett to my left glaring at Edward and holding the ice bucket that had been sitting on the small counter outside of the bathroom up to...um... "Little Emmett."
The towels/loin cloth he had been barely wearing before were on the ground and I figured out what Edward had to do to get me free.
"Well, there goes any hope of chilled drinks tonight," Jasper said with a smirk at he glanced down at the bucket pushed against Emmett.
"You... de-toweled him?" I asked with amusement as I glanced up at the safest spot for me to look at this moment, Edward's face.
He shrugged and smiled devilishly at me as I quickly looked away before my gaze wandered.
Emmett had his back up against the door to the bathroom to keep anyone from getting any peeks at his backside, but he looked far too comfortable standing there holding the bucket up with only his one hand.
"Rosie, I know you are enjoying the view, but do you mind getting me some clothes?" He smiled at her and she rolled her eyes at him but grabbed some sweats and a T-Shirt out of his bag and threw them at him.
I noticed Jasper was now leaning against the closed front door, and Alice was sitting on the roll away bed, stealing small glances at him every few seconds.
After Emmett retreated into the bathroom I felt Edwards arm wrap around me as he drew me closer to him. I gulped and felt my face heat up as I felt more and more of his flesh against me. It didn't even matter that I was fully clothed, I could barely handle him fully covered, how I was supposed to get through this if he decided to tease me?
"Bella, you haven't looked at me for more than 3 seconds at a time since I've gotten back." He was speaking lightly in my ear and I shivered slightly.
"Sorry." Is all I could say with a small laugh.
I felt him return the laugh more than I heard it. I shivered again at that sensation.
"Is there something wrong with me, love?" He cooed in my ear.
"No, there's something very naked about you Edward."
Did that even make sense? Probably not. Thinking was out the window at this point. Now I was just concerned about breathing.
"We are going to take a walk... to return the towels," I heard Alice say in the background of my mind.
"We'll be back soon," Emmett said in a tone that sounded like a warning more than a statement. Oh, so he must have changed and come out of the bathroom already. Huh.
"Hey Eddie, you want to throw me your towel so I can return it for you?" I heard Jasper laugh out, it sounded distant like the others but still I knew he was teasing.
"No thanks." Edward said very clearly next to me. "I think it's a bit necessary at the moment." His body shook slightly with laughter and I accidentally let my gaze fall to his chest. It was maybe the second safest place to look since I had seen him shirtless before, but still slightly dangerous since the cloth hung a lot lower than his pants usually did.
"Alright..." Alice's voice sounded farther away now, "Bella, don't be greedy and eat the whole pretzel in one sitting..."
I heard her high pitched giggle ring out in the far away place it came from and right after that Emmett's distant voice boom, "Pretzels?!" until the door shut and there was nothing but silence and Edward's slow breathing hitting my ears.
"Bella are you alright?"
Edward's voice broke the silence and his chuckle followed it.
I smiled and continued to stare at his chest.
"Mmm-hmm," I said as I let a smile creep across my face. It wasn't so bad now that the others were gone...and I was still looking at a "safe zone".
He put his finger under my chin and slowly pulled my head up to meet his gaze. I smiled wider when I realized he was going painfully slow on purpose. It seems Mr. Ego was out to play again and someone wanted their girlfriend to get an eye full of the goods they knew they had.
"What?" He asked as my smile and gaze turned accusing.
"Showoff." I said clearly as I looked into his eyes.
"Why Miss Swan, I have no idea what you are talking about."
The most charming version of the crooked grin took over his face and I felt my knees buckle underneath me as it did. God he was perfect. No, more than perfect. What word describes more than perfect?
Oh right. Edward.
I threw my arms around his neck and attacked him with my mouth with enough force to back him up against the small counter behind him. Apparently the others being gone helped me shed my nervousness considerably.
He pulled away after a moment and laughed.
"Who's showing off now?" He smirked at me and I blushed, suddenly realizing that I'd basically just jumped him while he was wearing next to nothing.
"Sorry." I said as I released him and backed away a little. I let my gaze wander now, no longer afraid of what was before me. "Never mind. I'm not sorry at all." I said with a shake of my head as I took in his perfect torso, legs, arms, neck, face, everything.
He threw his head back and laughed. He was way too comfortable standing in nothing but that towel.
"I'm starting to get the feeling our clothes got stolen for more than just comedic purposes," he said with a sly smile.
"Oh no, Alice did all the stealing!" I defended with a laugh. "Rose and I were not involved until she came back with her findings."
"Oh really?" He eyed me skeptically and put a hand up to his mouth as if he were examining me closely. "I am to believe this was not a group effort?"
I shook my head. "No sir. I have an alibi. Rosalie was proposing to me while Alice was playing thief."
I gestured towards the bed where Rose had been down on one knee acting out my faux proposal.
"She proposed marriage to you?" Edward asked as he dropped his hand and turned confused.
"Mmm-hmm," I said with a smile and a nod. "It was very beautiful. She went down on one knee and everything." I spoke of it casually but let a light smile spread across my face as I did.
His face dropped. "Well that is no good, I wanted to be the first to propose to you."
He fake pouted and I chuckled and filled with warmth at his words. He was so cute when he was pouting I almost forgot he was nearly naked.
Almost.
I swept my gaze across him again and felt the rush of adrenaline I did the last time.
"Well nothing's stopping you now. Better late than never right?" I winked playfully and he smiled at the gesture.
"Good point." He said as the crooked grin made another appearance.
Then he pushed off of the counter he was still leaning on and sauntered the one and a half steps it took to get to me. He took my hand in his and stared into my eyes as he started to lower very slowly to the ground.
I was entranced with his close proximity again so it took me a few seconds to notice what was going on.
No way.
I grabbed his bare shoulders just as his gaze was level with mine and he was bent slightly at the knee, causing him to stop his downward motion.
"What are you doing?" I said quietly and urgently.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" He asked just as quietly with a smirk.
"Going down on one knee?" I asked it because I couldn't state it for some reason. It was so unexpected.
"Very perceptive, Bella. That's one thing I love about you." He smiled more devilishly as he teased me and started to lower himself even further, all the while holding my eyes with his own.
"No." I kept speaking quietly as I tightened my grip on his shoulders and he stopped moving again.
"Why?" He asked sternly, the smile turning into a seriousness that set on his face.
"Because...your...naked!" I said it quietly and frantically glanced down at his very uncovered body. That was the first reason that popped into my head.
The smile returned to his face but he simply said, "Not entirely. The towel, remember?" He reached a hand down and tugged the towel a bit, which caught my eye and distracted me for a second.
"Now can I get on with it?" He asked through the smirk that might as well be living on his face now.
"Don't you want to be clothed when you...for this?"
I couldn't say it. I could not say "propose" for some reason so I frantically spat out the clothing suggestion. Yes, I truly enjoyed the image I had been seeing when Rose pretend proposed to me as Edward, but he was not towel-clad in it. It just seemed wrong.
He searched my face, smirk still in place, and then lifted himself up back to his full height.
"You're right." He said confidentially. "I'll just get dressed then."
He leaned down and kissed me chastely before turning to walk towards the bed he had to climb over to get to his bag.
"Wait!" I said suddenly before he stepped up onto the furniture.
"Yes?" He turned and asked me casually. Well his posture, voice, and smirk were casual. His eyes were dark and alluring.
"Um, let me get them for you. Too much movement in that," I pointed loosely at the towel wrapped around him, "might cause...um, problems."
I pushed past him and hopped onto the bed with ease. I wasn't sure if I could handle the idea of him possibly proposing to me 2 minutes after I got a peep show during his trek to his clothes.
I dug in his bag and pulled out the black sleeping pants I loved him in and the maroon zip up.
I threw them across the bed and he said, "Thanks, love" with that damn smirk a wink before going into the bathroom and changing.
I sat down on the side of the bed that was furthest from the bathroom door and stared at the wall.
Is he seriously going to get dressed and then pop down on one knee and...do it?
My heart raced at that thought. Was this it? Had Rose merely been taking me through the dress rehearsal not 2 hours before this?
My thoughts were frantic until I heard the door open and I stood up quickly and turned to look at him.
He looked up and smiled at me, our maroon hoodie hanging open on his body. He ran a hand through his hair and then slowly lifted his foot onto the bed and walked across it over to me.
It was during this time my frantic thoughts calmed. As my Edward walked towards me I filled with warmth and excitement, shedding all the frantic feelings I had been experiencing before. I could do this. I was ready. It must have been that damn towel making me nervous earlier.
He hopped lightly off the bed and landed next to me as his feet hit the ground.
He held his arms out for me and I knew what he wanted. I smiled as I reached out and "zipped up my love" for him.
He pulled me into him then and just hugged me tightly and I squeezed back.
When he pulled away he asked, "Am I decent enough to continue now?"
I nodded and kept my eyes locked onto his as he started to lower himself again, more quickly this time.
As his knee hit the ground I braced myself for his beautiful voice to start spilling the most beautiful words I had ever heard uttered to me. I stared at him and waited to be swept off my feet in classic Edward fashion. I waited. And waited. And waited...
I frowned and he put his other knee on the ground and stared back up at me with a small smile.
"You actually let me get all the way down." He sounded surprised when he said it. Almost as surprised as I felt.
"What do you mean I 'actually let you get all the way down'? Aren't you...weren't you...?" I trailed off in disbelief and he just laughed and took my hand in his and kissed it, moving his one knee up back into proposal position.
"I was just fooling around Bella! I never thought you would let me get onto my knee in the first place. You're reaction when I was still in the towel was exactly what I was expecting... you allowing me to get to this," He gestured with his free hand to his position on the floor, "was a surprise."
He raised his eyebrows and I settled down a little bit, understanding. It was a test, a game, a tease.
"Oh." I said simply.
It wasn't filled with disappointment or hurt, because that's not what I felt exactly. It was just a realization.
He kissed my hand again and smiled. "Please do not believe for one moment that it has anything to do with you, love. I simply cannot imagine asking you that beautiful question here, and the oh-so-luxurious the Crash Inn." He raised his eyebrows at his sarcastic remark and I smiled, understanding. "There's no possibility of me ruining that moment for you by doing it in an unfamiliar and rather dumpy hotel room."
He shook his head and I lightened up. Of course it couldn't be here. Edward was impulsive sometimes, but he was also quite the romantic. He would need a different setting to be in the right frame of mind for something like a proposal.
He was still on his knee when the door flew open and Emmett yelled, "We're back! Finish up or make room for more!"
Laughter filled the room as they all entered and I looked up like a deer caught in headlights. Everyone paused in the doorway and Alice gasped very loudly.
"It is freaking Secret Proposal Day!" The craziness started clouding her eyes and I started to panic.
I pulled Edward up to stand next to me and started shaking my head.
"No, no, no! That's not what this was! We were just joking!" I was searching for the right explanation but I was not finding it.
"That's right Alice, it was more like a run through. Not the real thing. No questions were asked, no rings handed out." Edward calmly explained next to me, but I heard a little panic in his voice as well.
"Liars!" Alice yelled at us. Then she turned to face Rosalie an Emmett and pointed at them. "All of you are liars!"
She went over to her bag and grabbed what looked like pajamas out of them, then stomped across the beds and shut the bathroom door loudly, the whole time mumbling to herself something that sounded like, "good-for-nothing secretly engaged lying best friends...wedding will be crap if they don't let me get started soon...fine just fine..."
After the door closed we all started laughing and Emmett looked pointedly back anf forth between Edward and I.
"So?" He asked suggestively.
"No! Honestly." I said as I raised one hand in an oath-like manner.
"Really?" Jasper asked with a raised brow.
"Truly." Edward said, lifting my empty left hand up for show.
"Well that doesn't mean anything." Rosalie said quietly as she leaned into us. "We aren't getting my ring until we get back to LA."
Edward just shook his head and replied, "I know, but we were seriously just messing around. Nothing happened. We'd tell you."
They believed us then because there was no reason to keep it a secret form the 3 of them if it was true.
I laid in the hotel bed that night snuggled up against Edward and I smiled as I imagined the various ways he would propose to me someday. It had taken a while to calm Alice down, but once we finally did she agreed that there was no way we were engaged.
"Edward would look smug and Bella would be glowing." She said confidentially as she informed us why she suddenly believed us. "I won't need there to be a peep out of either of you when it finally happens. I can read you like books."
That was the last thought I had before my one and only night in the Crash Inn ended. I would be glowing indeed.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
After New Mexico we went through Texas (where many River Bottom Back Door Band jokes were made) then up through Oklahoma, through St. Louis.
The tour was going great. The shows were fun, even if the crowds were small. In St. Louis we met a bunch of great people and hung out at a pizzeria next to the venue with them afterwards, only to find out they were on vacation from New York and would be back there by the time we got there and they decided to attend that show as well.
That was one of the great things about the musician's life: people. We met, talked with, laughed with, shared with, and sang with more people in the past two weeks than I had ever met in my life! It was fantastic. We all had the same thing in common, the music, and it was enough to bind complete strangers together for a few short hours.
Nothing was better than being with our small family though. Well, except for the one night we ended up sleeping in the jeep at a rest stop. I could have done without them that night.
"Looks like we are here for the night ladies and gentlemen." Jasper announced as he turned off the jeep in the parking lot of the rest stop.
We were having oil issues or something right outside of St Louis. We had been attempting to drive most of the night to the next destination in Illinois, but the jeep started having problems so we pulled over at the rest stop and the next thing I knew Rosalie and Edward were closing the hood and getting back in the car saying something about oil, so I assume that's the problem. I'm not exactly up to date on Car and Driver if you know what I mean.
Emmett leaned behind him and Rose in the back seat and pulled out 3 blankets to be passed around the car.
Edward and I were in the middle seat and it was at least big enough for me to lay down on for the night. Edward curled his body around me and I was grateful for the extra warmth. I think his feet hung off the end of the seat a little, but he didn't seem to mind. I'm sure the boys were used to this from previous tours. The blanket he wrapped around us was thick and warm and it was my night with the hoodie which was good since winter weather was still haunting the mid west and the days had been getting colder as we traveled north.
We were settling in for sleep and it was almost quiet. I was dead tired since today had been one of those days we got up insanely early. Also, Edward and I hadn't made the best decisions the night before. Well I totally approved of the decisions, it was the repercussions that were troublesome. We had retreated to the jeep to have some "privacy" and we got a little carried away. No, there was no "pretzel eating" as I had to keep reassuring Alice (in the jeep, really?), but what we did do ended up leaving us a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes worth of sleep.
So Rosalie's giggles from the backseat were not exactly what I wanted to be hearing as I tried to let sleep have it's way with me.
I groaned and nestled my head deeper into Edward's chest.
"Hey guys, it's bedtime, remember?" Jasper said from the front seat, making Alice giggle a little bit for some reason.
"What kind of a jeep slumber party is this if we are actually going to sleep?" Emmett asked with a laugh.
"A good one." I mumbled against Edward's chest tiredly.
A few moments of silence went by and then Edward broke it, "Emmett stop playing footsie with me." He sounded annoyed and stern.
Laughs broke out from either side of us and I groaned again.
"I'm not tired." Alice whispered loudly to Jasper from the front seat.
"Me either." He said back to her.
Great.
She started humming the Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast and I rolled my eyes, even though they were closed. It was better than talking but my head wouldn't stop singing along with her hums!
Once she got to the famous line Rosalie decided to egg her on by singing loudly, "And every last inch of me's covered in hair!" in the deep man voice she used whenever she sang that song.
The car burst out laughing and I felt Edward trying not to shake with his own laughter next to me. He must not be as tired as I felt. Figures, he would be more energized than ever after making out in a car practically all night. Boys.
"I beg to differ!" Emmett said after she sang that line, then did something that threw her into another fit of giggles.
"Please be quiet you guys! I'm seriously tired." I knew my whining wasn't going to help, but in this state of tiredness my voice just automatically falls into the whine.
"Awe, someone spent too much time snacking on the pretzel last night to get the proper amount of sleep." Alice joked from the front seat.
"I still don't get the pretzel thing," Rosalie said seriously before I could retort. We never really got to explain it to her after the small discussion in New Mexico.
"I keep hearing things about this pretzel too," Edward mused suddenly. "What does it mean?"
I felt him tilt his head down towards me and I cursed him in my head for crossing over to the dark side where the people who were awake carried on conversations.
Alice burst into giggles at Edward's question and Jasper spoke up then.
"I don't think I've even heard about it before. Alice?"
It was silent for a few moments and then he said, "Oh!" with a chuckle and I realized Alice must secretly have told him an abridged version of the story of how "Little Edward" got his nickname.
"That's funny." He said matter-of-factly after a bit more laughing.
"I want to know!" Rosalie demanded from the back seat.
"You already know, kind of." Alice responded with a small giggle.
"Alright, I know what the pretzel is, but I don't know why." Rosalie corrected herself casually.
"Is it food?" Emmett asked. "Because I could really go for some pretzels."
I rolled my closed eyes again. Emmett's need for food wasn't going to help my "Let's go to sleep" campaign.
"Edward?" Alice asked suggestively, like he should be the one help Emmett with his craving. I groaned again at how out of hand this was getting and also how very far away from shutting up and letting me sleep everyone was.
"Why does it always refer back to me?" Edward wondered with a bit of annoyance in his tone.
Alice lost it then and she exploded into the story as I laid there in disbelief. "...suddenly my grandma walked into the room and I had a bowl of pretzels in my lap..."
This is hell. I cannot sleep, I cannot escape the embarrassing stories, I cannot make them shut up...
"Oh." Edward said with understanding as she finished the story.
"Now I get how grandma was involved." Rosalie exclaimed happily.
"Dude, The Pretzel. How unmanly is that?" Emmett laughed from the back seat.
"Excuse me, I don't find anything feminine about it." Edward defended.
"Well it's not exactly complimentary in any way." Jasper added in, fueling the fire that was this dumb conversation keeping me up.
"Does it really matter?" I half groaned as I rolled away from Edward as much as I could. When I'm annoyed I don't like to be touched.
"It matters to guys." Emmett said with confidence.
"Well it shouldn't. That's dumb." I said angrily throwing my arm over my face in an irritated manner.
"We should go to sleep," Edward said carefully to the group as he took in my body language and stopped worrying about stupid boy nicknames.
"You're right." Jasper said and I heard him and Alice settle back into the front seat.
"Fine." Emmett said with a heavy sigh. "Goodnight guys. Goodnight Pretzel," he taunted in a sweet voice and snickered. I felt him kick Edward's legs at the edge of the seat.
"Get over it Emmett." Edward practically growled. I was surprised at how angry he was with the teasing.
"Ease up bro," Emmett kept going, apparently he was determined to push me over the edge of anger. "It could be worse. It could be Bako Bit or Small Fry."
Now Jasper joined in the laughing and I heard muffled giggles mixed in as well.
"Stop teasing him!" I yelled suddenly, determined to end this and actually feeling like I needed to stick up for Edward.
"Bella it's fine, Emmett's just being Emmett," Edward sighed and pulled me back towards him.
I was still angry though. If I was going to be kept up I wasn't going to lay by and let my Edward take all the heat.
"At least I don't call Edward little like some people I know." I said smugly. "Alice." I stated is accusingly and I heard her shift in the seat in front of me.
"Bella..." She warned with her bell like voice.
"Wait, what do you mean 'little', Bella?" I smiled at Jasper's question. It seems his curiosity got the best of him.
"Nothing Jazz. I only happen know that Alice throws around the term 'Little Jasper' pretty loosely, that's all." Alice squealed angrily and Emmett barked out a laugh as Edward just reached down and kissed my forehead.
"That's a bummer dude," Emmett said as his laugh faded out.
"Whatever, it's actually pretty funny," Jasper said quietly and unconvincingly from the front seat causing Emmett to laugh at his brother's expense again.
"Emmett I don't know what you are so entertained by," Rosalie said suddenly. "I have a nickname for you too... I've just never told anyone."
"Spill!" Alice said happily from the front seat, probably excited at the prospect of it being worse than a name that contained the word "little" and hurt her Jasper's feelings.
"Felicia."
Rose said it confidentially and with flair, catching us all off guard.
The whole car burst laughing then, even I cracked a small noise or two through my tiredness.
"A lady's name?!" Emmett asked in a shocked tone. "Rosie, why? Why would you do that?" He sounded helpless but Rose was too locked into her own laughter to respond right away.
"I'm just kidding Emmett... I don't have a nickname for you, I just wanted to get a reaction out of you." She sighed as she finished laughing and explained the name to him.
"Ugh. But now whenever you girls are talking about us it will come up and you'll joke about 'Felicia this' and 'Felicia that', and it will become permanent. I know it." He sounded hurt and I imagined big Emmett pouting and folding his arms in a sad manner.
"You know girls pretty well." Alice giggled from the front. "Felicia it is!"
We laughed a little bit more and I wrapped an arm around Edward, trying desperately to will everyone to silence by settling myself back into sleeping mode even though I was amused now.
"I'd rather be 'little' than be a girl, man," Jasper said with what sounded like a smile.
"Yeah, I bet The Pretzel sounds good to you now," Edward smugly stated.
"Your pretzel will never sound good to me brother. That's gross." Emmett retorted, still sounding bummed but keeping his sense of humor.
"Alright sleep time." I said loudly and prayed they would all be too wrapped up in private thoughts of nicknames to keep talking.
Alice kept snickering though.
"You know, we could make our own musical about Edward and Bella," she said quietly after a moment. "Screw Lady and the Tramp, we have 'The Ladies and The Pretzel'."
I groaned and Rosalie said, "That's sick Alice," and 2 of the boys just laughed.
"That sounds an awful lot like pornographic media, Alice." Edward said calmly. There were quiet laughs at his use of the term we had given him permission to use.
"Ewe, I guess it does," Alice said with realization, clearly not having thought about the implications of the name before hand..
"Sleep! Please?" I started begging the car. We were going to remain awake forever at this point, talking about pointless nicknames and 'pornographic media'.
"Sorry, love." Edward said quietly to me and held me tighter. We were still for a few moments then he said loudly, "Emmett! Feet. Move them. Now."
Emmett laughed one more time and I literally hated them all for keeping me awake for so long. I will pay for a motel room myself if I need to next time. I will push the jeep to the next town myself. I will find a way to get some decent sleep and never ever have a jeep sleep over again when I am this tired. The spirit of the jeep just kept everyone too awake.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We arrived in New York about 2 weeks into the tour and it was the most exciting thing that happened after the horrible Jeep Sleep Over from Hell.
After St Louis we went through the bottoms of Illinois and Indiana, then Ohio, Pennsylvania and arrived in finally New York, New York.
It was amazing driving into the city. We had to stop for gas right outside of it so I took that opportunity to call my mother before we entered into the craziness of Times Square. Renee had requested a call from New York, she'd always wanted to visit and was planning on living vicariously.
"Bella! How are you?" Her voice was happy and excited and I missed her suddenly upon hearing it.
"I'm really great mom, tour is pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to me." I smiled and winked at Edward who was pouting at me at my last statement. "Ok, the second best thing."
He smiled at my correction and my mom laughed at me knowingly.
"Well honey, where are you now? New York? Please tell me it's wonderful."
"We aren't in the city yet, but I can see it from here and it looks pretty great so far. I'll call you to give a full report from wherever we end up staying tonight if that's ok. I know it's with Rose's cousin, but I'm not sure how late we will get there."
"That's fine Bell, you can call whenever. It helps that you are 3 hours ahead of me now, remember."
"Oh yeah! Ok, I'll call later tonight then."
Just then something happened that I was not prepared for. It was insanely cold out these past few days, but Alice had purchased me a very nice heavy coat before we left Hollywood (I only learned about it yesterday, when the coat became necessary) so I was holding up pretty well. Edward and I were sitting in the open doorway of the jeep, waiting for the others who were pumping gas or using the restroom and suddenly, as I was on the phone with my mother, one white flake drifted past my face.
Then another. And another. And another...
"Oh my gosh, mom. It's snowing."
My mouth dropped open and I stared in disbelief. Snow? Oh no. I think I hate snow. I don't really know because I've never been in it , but I know I don't like cold all that much so snow probably falls into the "things Bella doesn't like" category as well.
My mom was ecstatic however.
"Oh Bella! Catch a snow flake in your mouth for me!" She sounded like she really wanted me to do it. I made a face at the phone.
"No thanks," I said almost rudely. Is that sanitary?
"Let me talk to her," Edward said to me as he held out his hand for my phone. He could probably hear her excited tone through the phone. He loved talking to my mother when she was excited.
I handed it to him and started fiddling through my purse, looking for some money for a warm drink from inside.
"Hello Renee," Edward's smooth voice said next to me. I smiled as I imagined my mother's own smile when she suddenly heard his voice. She loved him entirely already.
Apparently Charlie had voiced a new found liking for him too, so that helped my mother's own love grow for some reason. Not that Charlie had problems with Edward before, he just seemed to "trust him now" or something. That what my mom had said after we left Phoenix at the beginning of the tour. It didn't matter much to my why they approved of him, just that they did. He was here for good and things would be easier for the rest of my life if everyone was happy with everyone else.
"It is indeed," he said with a smile as he looked at the snow now falling steadily around us. He chuckled and then smirked at me. "She won't? Well she's no fun, is she?"
I shook my head at him and sighed. He loved to egg on my mother when it came to me.
"Well I will catch one for you, hang on." He smiled and then stood up in the door way of the jeep and lifted his head towards the sky and opened his mouth.
I laughed at the image. He was catching a snow flake in his mouth for my mother because I would not. I love him.
I stumbled upon my camera in my purse and lifted it out then snapped a picture of him hanging out of the car with his mouth open and holding the phone up to his head.
"I got one!" He said happily into the phone after the camera clicked."It's my pleasure mom. Ok. Bye. Love you."
He sat back down next to me and smiled as he held the phone back to me and leaned in to kiss my cheek.
"He spoils you," I said as I held the phone back up to my ear.
"Oh please, it's nothing compared to what he does for you," my mother laughed and I agreed.
I said goodbye to her soon after that then went inside and bought a gigantic hot chocolate for Edward and I to share. We piled back into the jeep and drove over the bridge and into the city.
The excitement of it filled me up as the buildings and lights started to surround us from all sides, and I just knew New York was going to be another great memory for the 6 of us to make.
More tour fun, yes?
Well I haven't had time to update the pin site yet, but I will definitely get thad sone soon. I have a lot of suggestions centering around the dragons and the propagate comment from Emmett that I want to play around with :) Also there may be more from this chap if you guys get inspired, so there should be a good update brewing whenever I get time to do it.
Also, someone asked me if they could take my pin designs and make them flair on facebook. I couldn't find that review to reply to when I had some time to reply this morning so hopefully you are reading this now! Of course you can! That's actually really flattering to me. Thank you!
Ok, that's almost it. I may have some good news for you all tomorrow, I have to see how tonight goes first though. Not to be too vague or anything, haha, but I just wanted to put that out there.
Reviews are love people. Zip it up and send it my way!!
LOVE YOUS :)