Chapter Thirty-Seven

I sped across town to the mall in record speed. It would be closing in like fifteen minutes, so I had to hustle to get to the dress store. As I sped walked through the mall, I could see the stores starting to close, and I moved faster.

I was out of breath by the time I had gotten to the fancy dress store. I walked in and saw Rosalie sitting on a bench, her face in her hands, and dressed in a sparkly white, spaghetti strapped dress. There was a sales lady standing beside her.

"Hi, I'm here for her," I said.

"Are you here parent?" The lady asked.

"Yeah," I said quickly, "What's going on?"

"She's stuck in the dress. She can't leave the store unless she pays for it."

"She's stuck in it, what do you mean?"

A sympathetic look passed over the lady's face, "Maybe she should tell you herself. But I need to close the register in like two minutes, and I can't let her leave in the dress."

"Rosalie where are your clothes?" I asked.

"I don't have them." She said through sniffles.

I nodded, now realizing what was going on, "Okay. Um, I'll pay for it. How much is it?"

"Three-fifty."

I nearly choked, "Three hundred and fifty dollars?"

The lady shrugged, "Sorry."

"Just put it on my credit card. What's the return policy?"

"I'm sorry you can't return it. The designer tag was ripped off, and we can't accept it."

"Okay," I felt like my knees were going to buckle. Nearly four hundred dollars for a dress that I couldn't return. It was pretty, but I didn't think it was three hundred dollars pretty. Lord help me.

I took my jacket off and wrapped it around Rose's shoulders. Once the dress was paid for, we left and walked halfway across the mall to the parking lot.

"Just stand here and I'll pull the car around. I'm right here."

Rosalie didn't have shoes and I didn't want her walking across the parking lot in her bare feet. God only knows what's littered on this ground.

I quickly pulled the car around and she got in. She kept her face in her hands, utterly embarrassed. The drive was uncomfortably quiet.

"You know, Rose—," I started.

"Please, please don't." She said quietly.

I decided against pursuing her anymore. I'd wait until later, after she got out of the dress and had some time to calm down.

I knew what had happened, her so called friends took her clothes and ran while she was in the dressing room. It was mean and just girl's being catty. I felt bad that it happened to Rosalie. All I really wanted to do was get the names of the girls and go to their mothers.

But I knew that in teenaged girl world, that would make things worse. Honestly, there wasn't too much I could do. Rosalie had to toughen up and show them that their antics, didn't bother her. It sucked.

We got back to the house and I could see Edward's SUV sitting in the driveway. I wanted to wring his neck; why the hell didn't he answer his phone.

Rosalie ran into the house without stopping. I sighed and followed behind her.

Edward and Jake were in the living room. I let my bag thumped to the ground and crossed my arms.

"Hey Bella!" Edward said with a big grin.

"Hi momma," Jake said, a grin matching Edward's.

"Hi, you two," I said, "Edward, where's your phone?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. He made a face when he looked at the missed calls and messages on the screen.

"Oh, crap. I'm sorry. Is everything okay?"

"No, your daughter needed—, what's going on in here?" I said as I looked around at the baseball stuff scattered on the floor.

"Uh, we have something we need to tell you." Edward said, "I signed Jake up for baseball."

"Y-you did what?" I said, my eyes widening.

"It's okay, see I signed up to coach and I can drive Jake to practices and everything. You won't have to worry about any of it."

"Can I see you upstairs." I asked.

"Yeah."

We walked up into the bedroom and shut the door behind us.

"You signed Jake up for baseball?" I said, "Without asking me. Why would you do that?"

"I'm sorry, I should've asked. I know I stepped over a line, but the deadline was today, and Jake really wanted to sign up because all of his friends were signed up. It'll be good for him and I'll be there."

"Edward, I know you think it'll be easy, but there's practices and games. It requires a lot of time. Have you thought about that? You need to be present for all of those things, because you decided to coach."

"No, I know. I'll work it out, don't worry. I'll be at everything."

I sighed and fell back against the bed. I kicked my shoes off and rubbed my temples.

"What happened with Rosalie?"

"Well, did you remember that you were picking her up from the mall?"

"Oh, crap." He said, "I forgot. I just got wrapped up—,"

"I know. She called me. Apparently, her "friends" played a mean joke on her. I ended up having to buy a three-hundred-and-fifty-dollar dress that I can't return."

"Wait, what happened?"

"The group that Rosalie was hanging out with took her clothes and left her in the dress department store."

"What? Why would they do that to her?"

"Because their little bitches. All these emotional issues that Rose has been having, it's probably due to those girls."

He took a deep breath, "I'm going to find out who these girls are and I'm going to tell their parents."

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea."

"The hell it isn't a good idea. These girls are not going to get away with doing this."

"You might make it worse on Rosalie. Why don't you just talk to her and make her feel better."

"I am going to talk to her but I'm also going to put my foot up the asses of those girls."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, "Maybe you should leave Rose alone for right now. Just let her calm down and then go talk to her."

He walked out of the room and into Rosalie's without waiting. I sighed shook my head. I knew it probably wasn't going to end well. Rose had just been hurt and she wouldn't be in the mood to talk about it.

After about five minutes, he walked out of her bedroom. I was still sitting on the bed as he walked into the room and shut the door behind him. I could see from the look on his face that things hadn't gone well.

"So? Did you get names?" I asked.

He gave me a look, "You don't have to be sarcastic."

I shrugged, "I told you to wait. Just wait until the embarrassment fades a little."

"Maybe I should call the school. I know she was with girl's from cheerleading."

"No, do not do that. If she didn't give you the names, then she doesn't want to pursue this any further right now. Just let it die down," I said, "But back to the baseball thing, I told you why I'm not comfortable letting Jake play."

"Bella, I promise you it'll be okay. He won't get aggressive or be anything like your ex."

"It's not just about the aggression or him becoming like Paul."

"Then what's wrong."

I shook my head, "I'm taking a shower. It's been a long day."

"No, let's talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about. You signed Jake up for baseball. It's done."

"Are you mad because I didn't ask you?" He said.

"No, I'm not mad about that."

"You're mad at something."

"I'm not mad."

I was in the bathroom stripping my clothes off and he was standing in the doorway. I heard the bedroom door open, and before I was caught naked, I stepped into the shower.

"Mom, are you mad?" Jake asked.

"I'm not mad," I answered.

"I asked, I swear," He said.

"I'm not mad at you, hon."

"Jake, just give me a sec to talk to your mom, okay?" Edward said.

I heard Jake leave the room. I had finally got the temperature of the water perfect when the shower door opened. I jumped and spun around to see Edward, standing there. He had taken off his clothes and stepped into the shower with me.

"Okay, you're mad. I can tell." He said.

I crossed my arms, "I'm not mad."

"Liar," He said, crossing his own arms, "Why are you mad? Seriously?"

I turned away from him and turned to the spraying water. He made a sound that sounded like a growl and turned me back to face him.

"You're pissed about something. Is it because of the money? I'll pay you back for the dress."

"I'm not mad about the money."

He rubbed his hands over his face, "Oh my god, please tell me what's wrong so we can talk about it. I don't know if I've expressed this, but communication is kind of a big deal to me."

"I'm pissed because I'm going to have to go to his practices and his games and see Paul," I finally ended up yelling, "When Paul left, I burned everything of his. Anything that reminded me of him, I got rid of. The only thing that was left of Paul's, was Jake. I don't know if you've noticed, but Jake doesn't exactly look like me. Every time I look at Jake, I see Paul. I had just gotten over seeing Jake's face and seeing Paul walk out on me."

"What does that have to do with baseball?" He asked.

I threw my head back and groaned, "Because he'll look just like him in that uniform. Paul was an avid baseball player. That's what he did. He was a minor leaguer for a couple months before he messed up his shoulder and it jacked his whole game up. It was the reason why we came to Phoenix."

"Bella—,"

"And I know it's selfish," I said, "It's not fair to Jake, I understand that. But god damn it, sometimes I'm allowed to be selfish. I give everything I can. I gave my everything to a relationship that was doomed the second we came to Phoenix. I do anything I can to make the people around me happy. I would do anything for Jake, but this was one thing I was being selfish about. One little thing. He could play football or basketball, I don't care, but not baseball."

He grabbed me by the shoulders, "No one is accusing you of being selfish. That's not the issue. Jake is nothing like Paul. He may look like him, but he got your personality. And this isn't about baseball."

"It is," I said.

"No it isn't because if it was, you'd have a better reason. I'm not buying that crap about Jake reminded you of Paul when he puts his uniform on."

"That is the reason." I said defensively.

"Then look me in the eye and tell me that." He said.

We stared at each other for a very intense moment. I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me.

"I'm done. I'm going to bed."

"No you're not because we're going to discuss this."

I threw my towel aside and pulled the covers down to the bed. I should really dry my hair, but I was so mad that it didn't bother me.

I felt Edward grab me from behind and throw me onto the bed. He jumped on top of me and straddled hips and held my hands above my head.

"Edward, let me go." I said in a low voice.

"Not until we talk about this," He said, in a voice just as low.

I tried to wriggle out from under him, "There's nothing to talk about."

He growled against and pressed me harder to the bed, "Tell me. We tell each other everything, why won't you tell me this?"

"Because I'm embarrassed." I snapped.

"Embarrassed? About what?"

"Because I was the dumb, fat wife who knew her husband was cheating on her and didn't say anything because she didn't want to lose him."

He stared at me for a moment, "I didn't know that."

"No one knows. I didn't tell anyone because it's so embarrassing. It's embarrassing that I'd let my husband have multiple affairs just for the sake of keeping him."

"He… told you about the affairs?" Edward asked.

"No, but I knew he did because I would look at his phone and he would leave at night without telling me where he was going. I knew what he was doing though. Get off me," I shoved him off me and rolled onto my knees.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes, "Do you know how embarrassing it is? How humiliated I am?"

"Okay, I understand it's embarrassing, but I'd never judge you. Ever."

I groaned and rubbed my temples. I had never talked about any of this; I vowed that this shameful secret would be buried with me.

"I'm sorry. I should've asked before I signed him up. I just got excited and I guess I'm still trying to win over Jake." He said.

"It's fine. I just hate being reminded of Paul, and especially the cheating. I associate baseball with him cheating, because he didn't do any of that crap before he was signed."

"I should've asked. I'm sorry."

I shrugged, "It's done now, if I tell Jake he can't then he'll hate me."

"I'll tell him."

"No, he's happy and I want him to be happy. I'll just suck it up."

I pulled my wet hair into a tight bun and crawled under the covers. I turned my lamp off and laid on my side. From my body language, Edward could tell I wasn't in the mood for further discussion. He just sighed and turned off the other lamp.