A/N: Hi all! Grey-Eyed-Blonde here!! Ok, so, Leon needed a bit of a break, but he did write the beginning of this chapter so be sure to thank him for that. Then I took over and wrote the rest, so I hope you all enjoy it. SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT, I know, I know, I suck. Next chapter will be up soon. I PROMISE.
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
BPOV
"Hey there," he whispered against my lips, hands settled on my hips as he pulled me toward him. I smiled and pulled slightly away, just outside of kissing distance to tease him.
"I'm sorry. Is there something I can help you with?" I asked, feigning disinterest. He chuckled and moved one hand up to my head, pulling me back and kissing me softly.
"There might be," he said, punctuating with another kiss. "I'm not sure." I laughed and wiggled out of his grasp, but just as I turned, he tightened his arms around me. "No, no, no. You're mine, little girl."
I slumped into him and laid all my weight back, forcing him to support me. He chuckled louder and lifted me over his shoulder. I squealed as he banged on Nessie's door and began to walk down the stairs of the apartment. He called her out as he bounded down quickly.
"Felix, st-stop!" I laughed out as he jumped the final steps and put me back on the floor, capturing me in his hold around my waist again. He started to run his hands along my stomach and hips and kiss my neck. I couldn't stop giggling as he tried to make ridiculous noises on purpose - he was always so playful. A clearing throat interrupted his game and we both turned to see Nessie standing at the top of the stairs, her hands on her hips.
"Please, get a room. No one wants to see you two do the freaky," she muttered as she came down the stairs, dressed well for the party tonight. She wore a lilac colored ball gown, expensive jewelry, and had her hair styled impeccably. Some rich kid was hosting a party across campus, and while we weren't ones to typically attend, Alice had come out of nowhere after disappearing these last quarters. She insisted we attend this one occasion, and while I was resistant at first, Nessie and Felix finally convinced me that it might be a good idea.
Ah. Felix. After that fateful day at Starbucks, things couldn't have gone better. He was the perfect gentleman on our first date, quickly followed by our second date, and then the third, and then the fourth… and things had just been amazing. There were no mindless conflicts, worrying, fearing the worst. Everything was easy. How it should be.
Not much time had passed, but I wasn't going to complain. For once, everything was simple sailing.
"I think people would pay good money for that, actually," I quipped. "Your whore-fests on the other hand…"
I trailed off, snickering as her eyes narrowed and huffed. "You know, you better be happy I don't want to mess up my costume, or I'd jump you right now," she shot back.
"Yeah, yeah, come on. Let's go." I laughed as Felix pulled me to his side again.
"Bella?" Nessie said, indicating I was forgetting something. "You could do better with your outfit babe. May I?" Oh yah, I forgot I was still wearing my jeans-and-tee uniform.
She dragged me away from Felix into her room where she instantly began fluffing my hair, spraying hairspray everywhere, then applied mascara, blush, and all sorts of other products that were foreign to me.
When she stepped out of the way for me to look in the mirror, I was a new person. My hair was bouncy and fell in soft curls around my neck and shoulders, accentuating my bare neck that was exposed in my gold halter-neck gown. Tracing the low neckline were little Swarovski crystals -- an indication that this dress must have cost Nessie a fortune.
Something about the way that girl spent money and clearly had a taste for the finer things in life made me wonder about her past… and how much money she really had versus what she lead on. It seemed like I was the only girl ever who was broke and working to earn a living. Whatever. Felix didn't care about any of that status rich-kid stuff like you-know-who did. I felt on par with Felix, even though I knew his family had a bit of money. Let's say he was more… modest about it. Same with Nessie. She didn't care… but the fact that we had a sick upscale apartment at Brown was all thanks to her.
"Wow bitch, I look hot," I said, my eyes bulging out my head in awe.
"Yeah, yeah, stop being so full of yourself," Nessie joked, giving me a quick squeeze and then taking my hand. "Now get your man dressed and we're ready to go," she ordered.
***
When we arrived to the party butterflies started twirling in my stomach. Expensive cars and limos with chauffeurs lined the block around the massive house where the party was being held.
"Fucking hell Nessie, what'd you bring me to?" I never saw such a beautifully decorated exterior of a party. Dainty lights trailed along the house and accented the shrubs and trees around the lot, and a path of candles let us down the driveway to the front door.
A buff dude who appeared to be in his 20s carefully examined us and then looked at clipboard in front of him. "Name?" he asked flatly. He was no doubt a football player.
"We're Felix's plus two," Nessie answered; I could tell by her voice she was already giddy about attending this classy affair. "That's Felix Volturi, as in the Volturi's."
"I had no clue you were into these functions," I muttered under my breath to Nessie as the dude checked the list for our names. "It's like a friggin debutante."
"Masquerade, actually," the security dude corrected.
Whatever. "Yah, one of them," I replied sarcastically. "Who's joint is this anyway?"
Before the security guy could answer, a dainty little pixie, dressed as a pixie, rummaged her way through the crowd over to greet us.
"Ahhh!" she shrieked, loud enough to scare the fur off a cat. "I am so glad you came! I totally didn't think you would come, B" she ran up to me and embraced me in a hug as big as her delicate frame could handle, and deeply inhaled my scent. "Beautiful fragrance, btw."
"Uh, thanks. You look good as usual. You're a -?"
"Fairy," she confirmed. "Sugar plum fairy. Oooh masquerades are so much fun! Besides, both of you looking stunning," she said to Nessie and me. "Seriously you guys, you look so good I wouldn't have recognized you if it hadn't been for hearing your sarcastic banter over the crowd."
"Uh, thanks," I repeated, not sure if it was a compliment that I looked so good she could hardly tell it was me.
"Anyone else we know around tonight?" Nessie asked as we merged into the entry way toward the bar area. The interior was even more stunning than I could have ever imagined; I swear to god Alice had chandeliers installed just so she could weave gold ribbon through them.
"Um, well Rose and Emmett are crashing a bit later; she's arriving as a cat and Emmett's just... well, Emmett with a mask I suppose," Alice furrowed her brow as we approached the bartender who was also masked.
"I'll have a cosmopolitan, and whatever these girls want," she ordered to the bartender, who upon recognizing her jumped up and quickly whipped up her drink.
"Three shots of tequila for me," I said. "Ness?"
"I'll take a vodka tonic, thanks," she said as she scanned the room for prospects.
I turned to take Felix's order but he went off somewhere, likely to connect with his buddies that were arriving here tonight.
Alice flitted off to go yell at someone who wasn't using a coaster, and after throwing back my three shots, I linked arms with Nessie and led us toward the dance area.
"So I wonder if Alice planned this whole getup," I hollered over the music to Nessie, who was swaying back in forth in tune to the music, already slightly hammed.
"Yah, some tool with a big trust fund no less," she replied. I took her hand and we started dancing and giggling and just being drunken fools with each other when I felt a strong pair of hands wrap around my waist.
"Baby, I'm gonna head outside for awhile with the guys. There's a sick patio out back and we're just gonna chill and catch up for a bit. Do you wanna come?" I could smell Felix's thick cologne as I breathed in his scent and shook my head.
"Nah I'm good here with Ness. Thanks though." Just as he turned to walk away I quickly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in for a deep, passionate kiss before releasing him. "You're incredible," I whispered. He grinned back widely and nestled in closely to whisper in my ear.
"No, you are Bella. You look fabulous." And with that, he headed out of the room with a posse of guys, leaving me and Nessie to get recklessly drunk so we could be belligerent fools on the dance floor.
After throwing back a few more drinks, the room was fuzzy and the trance-like music pulsed through my veins. Nessie took me by the hand and led me into another room, insisting on showing me some hot 'sex-on-a-stick' guy that she couldn't resist any longer.
"Fine, but if he's into a three-way, I'm splitting," I reasoned, guessing the sex on a stick fella noticed us grinding up against each other and made eyes with innocent naive Nessie.
"Deal, he's all mine." She took me to the living room which was dark with twinkly lights giving the illusion of stars in the sky, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Five guys sat on a big leather couch, four of them snorting coke off the glass table; the fifth one just sat there solemnly looking around bored out of his mind. Occasionally a chick would approach him and wrap her arm around him but he'd shrug it off and remove her hand as if it carried the plague on it. His lack of regard for the girls and blatant dismissal of them actually made me laugh a bit.
Nessie needed some liquid courage so I just waited there for her return, watching the guy more closely, who now looked so bummed I almost felt sorry for him. I knew exactly what it was like to be bummed, so when someone looked like their dog just got hit by a truck I wanted to help them out.
Unfortunately I was drunk and not so smooth, and my opening line of "Did your dog get hit by a truck," was responded with a furrowed brow, a small grin, and an "I wish."
Uhh... sadomasochist?
"Nope, but if you knew my dog, you'd wish he was dead too," he replied.
Shit. I called him a fucking sadomasochist out loud?
The guy just looked at me curiously and let out a small chuckle, then held out his hand. "And you are?"
"No names," I insisted. We already had masks on and all I could see where his perfect sparkling eyes, and that's all the temptation I needed for tonight. We didn't need formalities and phone numbers, and damn it you're dating Felix Volturi! What's wrong with you!
"I need a drink." I quickly stumbled out of the room leaving the guy sitting there puzzled out of his mind. I bumped into Nessie – like literally bumped into her, making her spill her drink all over her dress.
"Whoops," I said sheepishly, backing away from her before she beat me to a pulp.
"Whore!" she snapped back, but then gave me the telltale smile showing me she didn't really mean it.
"So I saw you macking on my sex on a stick man, I hope you put a good word in for me."
Whoops again. I didn't bother explaining to her that for a split second I contemplating jumping his bones because, hell, he was just so fucking irresistible, but I did opt for telling her I needed to get some air with Felix.
"You're leaving me high and dry with this guy aren't you," she whined, wringing her hands nervously.
"Stop it! You're reminding me of myself! You are a hot, confident woman. You need to march up to him and say, dude, I wanna jump your bones." Good motivational speech, Bella. "And my friend does too," I slipped in quickly. Before she could screech at me, I bolted for the door and stumbled onto the patio where Felix was having a bromantical discussion with his friends who looked to be straight out of Little Italy. Maybe big Italy, actually.
I caught a drift of their conversation which was something about a den, and bait, and catching something... I wasn't coherent enough to understand so I just ran up to Felix and pecked him on the cheek. "I missed you," I said, giggling uncontrollably because I was drunk and thinking about something funny Nessie told me earlier today – something about a commercial for a diaphragm.
"Hey babe, these are my cousins, Caius, Alec, Demetri, and their girlfriends are inside, Heidi and Jane," he said, "And the others are –"
"Whoaaa, too many names," I interrupted, backing away slowly. "I need to go inside." There were too many people at once, and they all looked the same to me. It was overwhelming.
I turned around to walk away but Felix grabbed my arm, a little too tightly for comfort. "Hey, take it easy!" I protested, pulling away from him. He brought me in closer to him and looked me straight in the eyes; his expression was piercing and sharp. It made my heart beat faster than necessary, in a bad, nervous kind of way.
"Bella, you're wasted. Let me take you home." His voice was too demanding and assertive, and damnit all I wouldn't have a boyfriend tell me what to do.
"No!" I protested, wriggling free of his grip. "Let me go find Nessie!"
I bolted inside nearly tripping and falling on my face before some Good Samaritan caught me. I looked up to see it was the beautiful stranger from the couch and sure enough, Nessie was by his side. She had a concerned look on her face which kinda freaked me out, but whatever. No big deal.
"Bell, we need to get you home. Felix stays here," she ordered rudely, her voice a lot harsher than I'd ever heard. I turned around to see Felix standing behind me with his hands on his hips.
"If you don't mind Nessie, I'd like to take Bella home. She is my girlfriend after all," he argued.
"Yah Ness, whatever. Just someone take me home. I need to fucking rest up. I'm waaaaaasted." I began hiccupping and giggling and just being a hot mess overall which is when the hot masked guy steadied me with his hands and then gently lifted my chin up with his finger. I was kinda worried why this dude was making such intimate contact with me so I darted my gaze over to Nessie for an explanation, but she just shrugged her shoulders. Then the hot stranger looked me in the eyes for a long time, then carefully untied the string of my mask, letting it slowly fall to the floor.
"Bella, I need you to listen to me," the sexy stranger said, his voice sounding smooth and velvety and so strangely familiar.
All of a sudden it hit me. It hit me like a brick wall.
Edward.
I gasped, then covered my mouth and looked him in the eyes. There was no mistaking those topaz eyes. I ripped his mask off to reveal his face, and I was dumbfounded.
I never realized how incredibly gorgeous he was. I never fully appreciated his beauty as much as I did right then and there. Seeing him standing there on his own, alone and vulnerable, made me realize how lucky I was to have him.
And then I remembered how he left me to screw around with other girls.
Other girls.
That's when I saw them. The two scantily clad women wearing something that passed as lingerie moreso than a costume approached him and wrapped their long, bronze arms around him; one slut on each side. Just the way he liked it.
A panicked look formed on his face, and oh don't be so shocked, Fuckward. He knew he was in the wrong, and here he was looking like fucking Hugh Hefner with the playmates of the month salivating for his balls.
What pissed me off the most was I fucking knew those girls from class. I remember bumping into them and thinking they were fucking gorgeous and beautiful and I wanted to be them.
They had him now. He obviously left me for them.
They were fucking goddesses. They were Aphrodite and he was Adonis.
And I was Bella. Plain, simple, boring Bella.
I felt myself getting faint and angry and full of hate. I didn't know if I wanted to punch him or kick him or scream or cry, but just as I was about to make some sort of attack on him, everything went dark and I fell.
***
I regained consciousness and woke up on a bed surrounded by the playmates, Edward, Felix, and Nessie. I was uneasy being around this crowd of people and just wanted to be the fuck home... and away from Edward. All of a sudden my sugar levels came back to normal and I took advantage of it.
"You fucking skeeze, how DARE you come here when you said you were going to Harvard?! How dare you stalk me here to shove them in my face and make me miserable just like I was a year ago! How DARE YOU!!!" I launched out of bed ready to strangle the motherfucker and he made no sign of stopping me but then fucking Nessie jumped in front of him to block my wrath and then restrained me. "Whose side are you on, Judas?" I snapped at her.
She gave me a concerned look and sighed. "Bella, you need to settle down," she began.
"The fuck I do! Fuck you, Nessie. Fuck you for bringing me here. Did you know this was gonna happen? Did you fucking KNOW?! You were rejected by him too, remember? He fucking ditched you too!!"
I screamed and wailed and acted like a two year old, and looked over at Felix who looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"What are you looking at, huh?!" I spat at him, but he just backed away and looked down at the ground. I fucking terrified everyone.
I terrified myself.
"Bella, you're fucking insane," Edward said flatly, showing no emotion, showing no nothing. His face was dead and his eyes were void of any emotion. He looked like Cokeward.
"I'm insane?" I began, my chest heaving as I started to hyperventilate with rage.
"She is... very nice, mais oui?" One of the playmates said, the blonde whore, who was pretty and beautiful and could be a cover girl for any magazine out there. Fuck her. The brunette rubbed her shoulders and played with her hair affectionately, then whispered something foreign to her.
Fucking skanks. They were probably dykes no less. Only Edward.
"Nice new girlfriends," I sneered, glaring daggers at the beauty queens.
"Bella, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I don't want to see you anymore," Edward said without even looking up at me. He was a fucking coward. His eyes were red like he'd been crying or some shit, or maybe shooting coke, yah, probably shooting coke, and his fucking face was blank and his voice was dead. He was dead.
He couldn't even fucking look me in the eye anymore. He couldn't even fucking give me the respect of looking at me when he spoke.
He was a fucking sad excuse for a man.
"You're a fucking coward, Edward"! I screeched, trying to launch myself at him. "Fucking tell me that to my face, you fucking pussy! Fucking tell me you can't --- can't," I started heaving uncontrollably, then began choking out tears and hyperventilated some more.
So slowly he brought his eyes up to my face, took a deep breath, and clenched his jaw tightly. Without fucking stuttering or blinking or even showing any emotion he said flat out "I don't want to see you ever again."
I looked over at Felix who was sizing Edward up, likely ready to kick his ass for me -- no doubt they'd have a fair fight. When he noticed me looking at him, he came over to me and lightly pecked me on the cheek. "Come on babe, let me take you home," he whispered. I tried to gauge Edward's reaction as Felix touched me affectionately, but he remained with his jaw clenched, face blank, still looking at the exact spot he was looking at when he told me he didn't want to see me ever again.
"Let's get out of here," I said, propping myself up to get out of the bed but then I stopped before I got up and grabbed Felix's jaw, bringing his mouth to mine, then I crushed my lips against his passionately in a deep kiss. I groaned into his lips and made sure to throw in lots of tongue action, and then I released him and got up. Before I left the room I made sure to flash Edward a wicked glare, who was still just staring into the abyss.
Felix drove me home against the wishes of Nessie and Edward, but whatever, fuck them both. He was rude to me and she was dead to me so that was that.
I was super car sick but Felix was a good driver, so I leaned back into the plush leather seats and let myself fall asleep, knowing that he would take good care of me and make sure I got home safely.
When I woke up, I wasn't in my apartment. I was disoriented and the room was spinning uncontrollably – it was the strangest sensation for a hangover ever. I'd drank tons more before and never once felt like this afterward. I shrugged it off and laid back down into the bed that I soon realized was Felix's.
A few minutes passed and I was only feeling worse, so I hobbled out of the bed to find Felix and get some water. When I entered the living room he was on the phone and raised his finger up for me to be quiet.
Whatever.
I found the kitchen sink, which was a huge surprise in my disoriented state, and poured myself a glass of water.
I brought the cup up to my lips, but before I was able to get a sip I felt a pair of hands handle me roughly from behind, wrap their arms around my neck, and pull me down to the ground where I involuntarily fell unconscious.
A/N: Review like mad bbs!