Chapter Playlist- Like We Used To by A Rocket to the Moon and Bounce by The Cab
Previously…
Alice laughed. "Good luck. Not that you actually need it when it comes to Bella."
I hesitated on my way back to my car. "Alice?"
"Yes?"
"I hope one day I can do something this amazing for you," I told her.
"You have no idea how much you already do, Edward," she said, and then she pointed in the direction of my car. "Go!"
So I did.
The Hard Way To Learn A Lesson
Chapter 52- Further to Fall
Bella POV
Charlie came to the front door, when I kicked it shut behind me. "Ah, there's the daughter I had forgotten I had!" he exclaimed.
I snorted. "Yeah."
Then his brow furrowed. "Where's Edward?"
"The project's over, Dad," I reminded him as I dumped my bag on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and kicked off my shoes.
"But… aren't you guys like… a thing?"
I cringed; those are words that your father simply shouldn't say. "We're together, yes."
Charlie shrugged. "So why isn't he here?"
"But… what you mean he can be? You'd let him?" I stared at him.
"Sure," he replied. "He makes you happy. Why wouldn't I?" Then he gestured toward the kitchen. "Drink?"
I blinked in surprise. "Uh… yes please." I followed Charlie into the kitchen, where he flipped on the kettle. "But… aren't you gonna say how Edward and I are too young to… stay together?"
Charlie rolled his eyes at me. "Bella, you've been together for a while at the Cullens. If you two were gonna do anything, you already would have done it; I'm not stupid."
I didn't bother to correct him.
"Besides, how old are you and Edward?"
"Seventeen," I answered slowly, suspicious as to where this was going.
"And how old were your Mum and I when we got married?"
"Seventee… but that's different," I sighed. "You got married. And made the biggest mistake of your life, as you continuously tell me."
"You know what though, Bells? I wouldn't change it for the world. And you two wouldn't make the same mistake as us anyway. Because, though I hate to admit it, I know for sure that I never looked at your mother quite as intensely as that boy looks at you," Charlie told me as he poured two coffees.
I thought about that for a moment, fiddling with my charm bracelet. The photo Edward had given me sprung to mind; that was us before we were together, and it proved that Charlie was right. Even before we had been together, Edward was already fixated with me, just as equally as I was with him.
"Here." Charlie passed me the coffee, but I didn't take it.
"I'm going to call Edward," I decided.
Charlie laughed once and rolled his eyes, putting my coffee back on the side, as I went to the phone. I dialled his home number, and waited.
"Hello?" Esme answered.
"Hi, Esme, it's Bella. Is Edward there?" I asked, picking nervously at my thumbnail.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Bella. He just went out with Alice," Esme said, sounding genuinely sorry.
Disappointment flooded through me. "Oh. Okay. Thanks Esme."
"No problem, Bella. I'll get him to call you back when he gets in, shall I?"
"Um… yes… please," I replied. "See you." Then I hung up.
"You hang up first?" Charlie joked from next to me.
"He's not in," I said.
"Gone already?" Charlie frowned.
I shrugged. "I'm going to shower, okay?"
Charlie nodded, and headed into the living room, to watch whatever game was on this evening.
***
It was like the separation all over again, just a little bit worse. Last time had been bad enough, but now… well, now I didn't just miss him, but I missed the way he made me feel too. The way his kisses would make me melt, and his words would turn me to jelly. I missed everything about him.
I tossed and turned in my cold bed for ages, wondering why it refused to warm up. It was a clear night, the complete opposite to the last time I had been alone in my bed, and I could have sworn that it was actually colder inside the house than out.
I knew that the aloneness wasn't the only contributor to the lack of sleep; I was scared as hell about the following day's performance. Nerves flew through my body at lightening speed, and they certainly didn't make sleep any easier.
Eventually, I got sick of being awake, so I got out of bed and wandered down into the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of water, and searched the cupboards for my old box of prescription anti-anxiety meds. I checked the label to see that they were still okay to take, and gulped two down, shuddering.
Then, I got back into bed, and shut my eyes, allowing a light sleep to find me.
***
I was woken up by the hard rain hammering on the window. I lay there, listening to the rain… until I noticed the irregular rhythm that the rain hit the window at. I frowned, and kicked my legs out of bed, wandering over to the window. Slowly, I opened the curtains, and looked out.
"Bella!"
I pushed the window wide, and leant out, looking down at Edward. "What are you doing?"
He rolled his eyes. "Does that matter?"
"Um… I'll come down and let you in…"
"No!" Edward stopped me. "Just grab your dressing gown, and some socks, and put on some shoes."
I stared at him, wondering if I was actually dreaming.
"Please?" Edward said.
"God, I must be mad," I muttered, pulling the window shut again, and grabbing my dressing gown and socks, slipping my mobile phone into the pocket of my dressing gown, just in case. I pulled them on and headed silently downstairs and through the dark house. Edward was already there when I opened the front door. "What are you doing?" I repeated.
His eyes were lit up, excited as a little boy on Christmas day. It reminded me of when we went crabbing, and I knew that he was up to something. "Put on some shoes," was all he said.
I grabbed my boots, and stuck my feet in them. "Am I likely to be coming back?"
"Um… well, hopefully not," Edward replied.
I laughed at him. "You have some serious issues, darling," I told him.
"Why?" Edward said innocently.
"Well, you can't come and steal someone away at midnight," I pointed out as I dug through the pot by the door for a pen.
Then he was behind me, his arms around my waist and his mouth at my ear. "It's not stealing if they already belong to you."
I twisted in his arms and smirked at him. "I'm nobody's property."
Edward laughed and let me go. "You keep telling yourself that, Bella."
I went into the kitchen, located a piece of paper, and scribbled: Dad, I'm fine, I've gone out with Edward. I don't know when I'll be back, but don't worry about me. Bella xx
"Let's go," Edward said, taking my hand.
"Where?" I demanded.
He just grinned. "You'll see."
He helped me into his Volvo, that sat in our drive, and then started to drive down the road.
"I called you earlier, you know," I said, looking down at my hands in my lap. "Esme said she'd get you to call back."
"Oh. I haven't been home, Bella, I'm sorry. I've been with Alice."
"That's what Esme said. Where did you go?"
"Here and there," Edward replied vaguely.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously; what was he keeping from me?
Almost as though he sensed my eyes on him, he turned and smiled sheepishly at me. "It's a surprise," he said.
I sighed, and looked out of the window, watching the starry night sky pass by. It wasn't until we had been driving for a few minutes that I realised where we were going. I looked at Edward. "Why are you taking me here?"
"Why not?" Edward responded.
"Stop being so cryptic!" I scowled at him. "It's confusing me."
Edward laughed, and pulled up on to the grass verge by the dirt track leading to his meadow. Then, he got out of the car, and came and opened my door for me. I stared at him like he was mad. "In my pyjamas?" I asked doubtfully.
"You can take them off if you'd prefer," Edward said, as though it were completely normal to come out in the middle of the night in your pyjamas.
I gave in, deciding to stop second guessing everything he was doing. I'd just have to be patient. I took his hand, and let him pull me out of his car. As soon as the cold night air hit my bare legs, I shivered, and Edward wrapped a protective arm around me, leading me down the little path that he must have trodden down before. It wasn't until we got a little closer that I saw it. The whole meadow was lit up with hundreds of tiny little candles, their scent perfuming the air perfectly. A CD player sat in the middle of the candle-lit meadow, soft romantic music playing from it, and next to it was a pile of blankets, even including the duvet off of Edward's bed. On top of those sat several flasks, presumably full of hot drink.
I turned and gaped at Edward. It was a while before I could remember how to speak again, and then I squeaked, "You set your meadow on fire for me?"
Edward smiled, and shook his head. "There was never any risk of that; the candles will burn themselves out. We planned it well."
"We?" I questioned, letting him lead me toward the pile of blankets.
"C'mon. You want me to light one hundred and fifty-six candles myself?" Edward teased.
"Is that how many there are?" I gasped. We sat down on the duvet, and Edward arranged the fleece blankets on the top, before climbing under them with me.
"Yep."
"Woah," was all I could say. Then I looked around for the help.
"She's gone," Edward said, noticing my searching.
I looked at him again. "Alice?"
He nodded, and I hugged him. "You showed her."
"She deserved to see it," Edward stated.
"She did," I agreed. "Why did you do this, though?" I asked after a minute. "You could have just come round. Even Charlie said it was okay."
Edward took a hold of my chin and turned my head to face him. "Bella. I want to give you everything I can, and if you ask for something, I don't want to just give it to you." He bent his head closer to mine and whispered, "I told you I'd make it special." And then he kissed me, slow and building, and why we were here finally got through to me.
After a short moment frozen in shock, I kissed him back, my hands roaming eagerly under his t-shirt. He groaned, and let me pull it off his head while he stripped me of my dressing gown, revealing the scanty satin pyjamas Alice had given me the day before.
He looked at me, his eyes trailing from where the shorts ended all the way up, lingering on my chest for a few seconds longer, to my eyes. "You're beautiful," he murmured, and then leant in to capture my lips again.
I stopped him so that I could whisper, "I love you," and then pressed my lips against his myself, wanting control for one second before he took the drivers seat in an area I knew so little about.
That night, I could have sworn that I flew. It might just have been for a second, but it felt like forever. Edward had promised it would be special, but it was so much more than that; it was perfect.
If only I'd have known that in less than twenty-four hours, my whole world was going to be torn apart. If only I'd have known that flying now would only mean that I had further to fall, and that there would be a bigger crash upon impact…
***
Waking up in Edward's arms in the middle of his meadow, the wildflowers tall and beautiful around us, was the most surreal thing I'd ever experienced. And the most incredible.
I yawned, and looked up at Edward's face. He was looking up at the sky where, miraculously, the sun was beginning to poke through the clouds. Then, he looked down at me and smiled. "Good morning."
I smiled back. "Hi." Then, for some reason, I was speechless. I had nothing to say to him, despite the intimacy of last night. Remembering, I flushed red, and snuggled closer into his side, loving the warmth of his arm around me, his left leg entwined between both of mine.
Edward sat up and grabbed one of the two flasks that sat next to the blanket pile we were huddled up in. "Drink?" he offered.
I sat up too, careful to stay covered and not get cold, and took the cup of coffee he had poured for me off of him. I sipped at it, suddenly inexplicably shy.
"I'm not gonna bite, Bella," he teased.
"I know," I said stubbornly. Then I looked up at the sun in the sky. "What's the time?"
Edward leant over and pulled his watch out of his jean pocket. "Just gone eleven o'clock."
"What time do we have to be at school for the…?" I trailed off. Speaking the word contest aloud made it too real in this fantasy world, and that was daunting.
"Well… it starts at seven, and we have to be there an hour before. So six. We've still got more than six hours," he said, lying back down.
I chucked the rest of the coffee from my cup across the grass, and lay down beside him, fitting myself into the perfectly-sized gap that his arm made, running my now-warm fingers over his muscled arms, just as I had the last time we had come here.
"You know," I said suddenly, "when you brought me here was the first time I realised that I was in love with you."
Edward smiled. "I beat you."
"What?"
"I knew I was in love with you the morning after we kissed," he revealed. "I hated myself for hurting you, and it was then that I knew that I couldn't deny it anymore."
"But… you ignored me all day," I said, confused.
"I didn't want to hurt you again, and I knew that I hurt everyone I touched. It wasn't enough to have already hurt Alice, but I would hurt you too, and I couldn't stand that. But I couldn't stay away."
Then I realised. "You mean… you loved me the whole time? We missed out on so long together…"
"I know," he agreed. "So many almost-kisses, interrupted moments…" He laughed once. "Ironic really, isn't it?"
I decided that we should make the most of the time we did have, and crawled slowly up his chest so I could kiss him. He kissed me back, wrapping his arms around my bare back, and pulling me closer. His hands ran down me and rested on the small of my back, making me shiver against him.
"Edward," I whispered against his lips, as I ran my toes up and down his calf.
Just as his hands went to move to where I wanted them, we were interrupted by a loud and annoying ringing.
Edward froze. "But I left my phone at home."
"It's mine," I muttered, reluctantly moving away to pick it up. I glanced at the caller ID, which read Alice, before answering. "Hello?"
"Bella!" she exclaimed. "Where are you?!"
"What do you mean?" I asked. "I thought you knew?"
"You mean you're still there?!" Alice shrieked.
"Um… yes," I replied, sending Edward an uneasy look.
Alice was silent for a moment, probably out of shock judging by her reaction. "No! Stop screwing my brother and come round now!"
"Why?" I whined like a small child.
"Because," Alice sighed, as though she were talking to one, "you two are going on stage in a matter of hours, and I refuse to let you be the laughing stock of the school. Once you've had lunch, as you invariably will, that will leave me with about three hours to make you look gorgeous! Three, Bella! Do you not understand the seriousness here?!"
I groaned. "Yeah, just ruin the best day of my life why don't you."
Alice laughed then. "Wait till you marry him." Then her voice lost the cheerful edge. "Be here in half an hour if you don't want me to come and drag you out of there. God help me, I will do it- even if you're naked." Then she hung up.
I looked at Edward, and he looked back at me, having heard Alice's shrieks from where he lay.
"You know…" Edward said cheekily, "I don't mind being dragged off by Alice if it means I can buy an extra half hour with you…"
I slapped his shoulder lightly, but I was smiling. "Well… you can come round after the contest tonight. And, after that… well, we'll have forever, won't we?"
He grinned. "Oh, yes."
But little did either of us know that forever wasn't going to happen. Not today. Not at all.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Well they did it ;) I hope that all the build-up and the 'special-ness' was worth it :D Like I said- sorry, no lemons, but this is rated T
Okay so the drama hasn't actually started yet, but I think you can tell that it's gonna ;) Enjoy the fluff while it lasts though guys because this time next chapter, I have a feeling I'll be begging you not to send me hate mail :S
So… a LOT of people have been asking questions regarding the number of remaining chapters and a sequel. As it stands, I think (though I cannot be sure) that there will be about 66 chapters (maybe a couple more, maybe a couple less) so there's actually not that long left :( After the 66 (ish) chapters, I will do EITHER an epilogue, or a sequel. I'm not sure which yet. I have a small idea of what I would do for a sequel but, to be honest with you guys, it's really quite crappy and definitely not strong enough to survive as a story on its own. I will think on it as the story comes to a close, but I am not guaranteeing anything. Please don't beg me for one because if I can't do it, then I can't do it. If it makes you feel any better, I will be absolutely gutted if I don't come up with anything (N). So I'll be thinking on that, and will keep you posted nearer the time.
Now, there were a hell of a lot of you that had no idea what a hula hoop was :S So, because I am so nice, I have posted a link to a photo of a bunch of hula hoops at the very top of my profile- you really can't miss it XD
I, again, have a bit of the next chapter written but I can't tell you when I will update because I don't want to put any pressure on myself when my parents are already relying on me to pass all my mocks XD (dream on Mum… God I'm lucky they don't read this rubbish XD) But, because I'd feel terrible if I had it, here is a sneak peek:
Mr Golding was back on the stage then. "And now for our final performance. A duet from Edward Cullen, and Isabella Swan."
"Can I sit on the piano bench with you?" I whispered as the audience did another polite applause- they were clearly bored of crappy performances by kids who thought that they were talented.
"Of course," Edward replied, letting out a deep breath before stepping out on to the stage.
I was positive that I looked terrible as I came out behind him. The audience fell silent as we took our places at the piano bench.
Edward looked at me out of the corner of his eye. Then he turned to face me. "Bella," he murmured, "we can still pull out."
I shook my head, too scared to speak. I regretted it instantly; if I couldn't speak, how on earth was I going to sing?!
Guesses on the back of a postcard… ;)
And that's me done for another chapter :D Please tell me your thoughts- I don't even mind if you're thinking about goldfish (though how goldfish stem from Bella and Edward's… um… 'fun'… in the meadow, I have no idea…)
Over and out
Steph
