Chapter 49 Chapter notes

This is a short chapter. Charlie has been mulling over what Maya told him about the legends and beliefs regarding the Cullens. Bella won't cop to it, but her father is certain that something is up with that strange, good-looking family.

The chapter title belongs to The Beatles

Chapter 49 I'm a Loser Wednesday, November 1st

Bella paces her small room, knowing there will be no more sleep tonight. Her clock solemnly blinks 2:35. Finally, she crawls into her warm bed and imagines Charlie doing the same, trying for sleep but too worried or preoccupied to get any real rest. She hears him up before it's light outside and knows that the Swans will stumble through this day for sure.

She gets up as well. Tears and sobbing have stuffed up her sinuses and she can't breathe right. Her stomach hurts and she thinks she might vomit, but she gets dressed, does her brief bit in the bathroom and drags her bag downstairs.

Charlie sits in the kitchen with his morning coffee in front of him. She offers to make breakfast but he just shakes his head. "Will you be able to see Maya today?" She sits with a bottle of juice and waits for an answer.

He fiddles with his coffee cup, turning it one way and then another. "Maybe. I'll call when the sun comes up."

"What's wrong, Dad? Did you get any sleep?"

"Maya said some things about the Cullens that didn't make any sense to me. Do you think you could tell me what she might have meant?"

Bella nearly chokes on her juice. "Um, what did she say?" She knows that Maya is half Quileute. What has she told Charlie?

"Well, she was shocked that you and Edward had dated. She said something about 'legends and beliefs'. I asked her what any of that had to do with the Cullens, but she wouldn't say more."

"That's something you'll have to discuss with her, Dad. I don't know what she meant."

Charlie slams a fist down on the table. Coffee sloshes out of his cup, soaking his placemat. "You do know! He was here, in the middle of the night, when I came home and found you bleeding out. How did he get here? And the other times during the storm? He said he ran here? What is he, freaking Superman?"

Bella is speechless. Again. It seems to be a semi-permanent state recently. "He was just a regular guy, Dad."

"Bullshit!" Charlie picks up the cup and hurls it into the sink, spraying the sink and counter with coffee, which covers Bella's phone. The cup declines to break and clanks around for a moment. "I went up to their house last year to take a deposition from one of them. I watched Alice fidget. She crossed and uncrossed her legs exactly twenty seconds apart. Twenty seconds, Bella. And they're all perfect looking! Like Edward, with their white teeth and long legs. Beautiful hair. Expensive clothes. They don't even look real! Where does the money come from? There was almost a million dollars' worth of automobiles in their garage!"

"Dad, calm down. You're worried about Maya and it's making you suspicious. And…I don't know where the money comes from. Edward and I only went out for a couple of months."

Charlie holds up his arm, palm out. "Tell it to the hand."

"What?" Bella's mind whirrs with explanations and excuses.

"You only dated him for 'a couple of months', and then fell apart so completely when he left that you quit eating and almost had to have a feeding tube put in? Moped, cried, howled, screamed, sobbed, bawled, for weeks. SO DON'T LIE TO ME AND TELL ME YOU ONLY DATED HIM FOR A COUPLE OF FUCKING MONTHS."

Bella hasn't ever really heard her father shout before. Dang, his voice is loud. He sits perfectly straight in his chair, glowering at her. "What the fuck is going on with that family," he demands. His voice has grown quiet, and seems even more ominous that it was when he was yelling.

Bella swallows, trying to keep her face blank and slow her pounding heart so she can speak. She doesn't wipe up the coffee or pick up her sodden phone. "I'm going to school. Have a great day."

"Get back here, young lady!" he shouts, but Bella hurries out to the foyer. She throws on her raincoat, grabs her bag and slams the door on her way out. As she drives, Bella doesn't want to think about what Maya will tell Charlie when she recuperates. Maybe an asteroid will land on Forks before that happens. She's keeping her fingers crossed.

School is the same old nightmare. She's ignored her friends to the point that they act like they don't know her. She sits at the same table that she and Edward had shared, before he didn't want her any more. Two sisters sit at the table next to hers and she overhears their frantic conversation.

They'd gotten home from school to find their house had been robbed. Along with items such as a wrapped candle and her mother's tote bag, some of their clothing had been taken, along with the older sister's wallet and brand-new leather boots. A jar full of money was left untouched.

Bella thinks of her kidnapped blue sweater, and wonders if they have a klepto, running around Forks, preying on the wardrobes of teenage girls.