Bloom Later by Jesse
"Can't do it alone anymore in the dirt
Even when it rains, I need your little rays."
XVII. Night
Abby unlocked the door with a large smile on her face because the best thing in the world had happened to her. Staying away from Edward was the dumbest thing she had ever done, and she hated every second of it. Damn all her insecurities, she just wanted to be with him. And, by the grace of faith, he wanted to be with her too. Being vulnerable might've scared her, but being with Edward was entirely worthwhile.
"Hey there smiley," Jay commented with a raised brow and munching from a bag of nacho chips that was on the coffee table. "What's got all you happy?"
"Huh?" Abby swiveled around from taking off her coat and putting it on the coat rack. She softly shook her head and fibbed, "Oh, it's nothing. Just thinking of a funny joke Jess told me." So, she wasn't completely ready to come clean to Jay just yet. She was worried how he'd react when he was convinced any man near her was 'bad for her'. Abby knew deep down that Jay didn't truly mind and was simply protecting her...still, she had to know if bullets could harm Edward or not because the man still calls him 'Judas'.
"Ah," Jay said, turning back to the TV in front of him. "I suddenly don't care."
Abby released a breath of relief, grateful for the lack of inquiry, before walking into the kitchen with socks upon her feet. Jay was never the one to delve into her business - he liked his space and he gave Abby her space. They were the best of siblings who knew when to be there for each other, but knew when to back off and let the other person lead their life.
Her eyes furrowed at the box of pizza on the kitchen table. There was another box on top of the garbage bin. Huh, she didn't think she'd come home that late. It couldn't have been past 8 o'clock, and Jay usually ate dinners later at night on weekends.
"Charlie came by with pizza and a couple of more guys from the station," Jay called from the living room, answering her unasked question.
She hummed in response before opening up the cardboard box and stealing a slice of pepperoni. It was slightly cold, but still delicious and grabbed a glass of water. Abby hastily finished the slice over the sink and drank her cup of water in two lung gulps before placing the rest of the pizza in the fridge.
Jay was too engrossed in his movie to care about why his sister was in such a rush to get upstairs. So, she took the advantage and ran up the stairs into the conjoined bathroom that Abby and Jay shared. Their parents had their own bathroom in their room, and Jay and Abby had always fought over the bathroom for years every morning. She couldn't be more grateful that their shared bathroom had quickly become hers, and her parents bathroom now had most of his stuff.
She walked into the bathroom, knowing her soft wool bathrobe was hanging off the door and her towel placed neatly on the towel railing. First, she quickly brushed her teeth to remove any remnants of pizza between her gums, and then she did her lady business. Abby turned on shower, turning the hot water valve as far as it'd budge before stripping down. She let out the largest breath of relief the second she felt the scalding heat against her tense muscles, unknotting each and every one of them.
Abby took a leap of faith today. It almost hadn't felt real. She was wondering if today had actually been a dream and that Edward won't be coming to her room tonight because she had dreamt the events of today. Then, she thought back to the kiss - his cold yet soft lips kissing her passionately, and felt the muscles in her lower region suddenly tighten. She clenched her thighs, yeah, no today definitely wasn't a dream, she concluded.
It had felt natural - being with him, touching him like they were meant to happen. He made her blush, ridiculously, but she didn't have a single anxious nerve being near him. In fact, all she felt was comfort and protection and love. And being with him, she felt it in her very soul, was written in their stories.
Her wet hair was tied within her towel and placed haphazardly atop of her head. She was warm, relaxed, and cuddled in her beige wool robe that stopped above her knees. Stepping out of the bathroom, she locked her door behind her so that if Jay had decided to use their bathroom her door would stay locked. Though it was a rare occurrence that Jay ever bothered her when she was in her room. But with precaution, she went over to lock her room door.
After locking her door, she looked at the latch of her window and quirked her lip, wondering her plan of action. Walking over to her dresser, she opened up her pajama drawer and pulled out a pair of cotton shorts and an old oversized college sweatshirt she stole from her father years ago. Stepping out of view from her window, she dropped her robe getting dressed as quick as possible. She picked up the robe off the floor, pulled the towel off her head, unlocked the bathroom door and recklessly chucked her things into the hamper. Locking the door once again, she walked over to the window and unlocked the hatch wondering if Edward was already near.
Abby stood in front of her vanity grabbing her moisturizer from atop of her lotions and pumped out a few squeezes on the tips of her fingers. In a short moment, she felt the cool breeze against her bare legs causing goosebumps to spike up before the draft abruptly disappeared. She looked up at her vanity mirror and held in a gasp when she saw a smirking Edward sitting comfortably on the edge of her bed.
"You're here," she whispered, a small smile making its way to her lips.
His smirk softened and he replied, in a tone just as quiet as hers, "Everything I said today was true, Abby."
"Me too," she blushed, staring at the lotion on her fingers. And then he beamed at her, a smile so bright it nearly blinded her when she looked back up at him in the mirror. "I'm almost done, just give me two more human minutes,"
"I've got nothing but time," he cheekily grinned at her.
"Hilarious," she deadpanned.
He released a chuckle at her sarcasm before watching her place her fingertips against the skin under her eyes, leaving a trail of three dots of moisturizer. She did that to her chin and forehead as well, then using the pads of her fingers she rubbed the cream all over face and neck delicately. She finished with her face before moving onto a chapstick that she slathered all over her lips. She reached out for her hairbrush after she finished and brushed the knots out of her dark chocolate wavy hair. And he was mesmerized.
"What?" Abby wondered catching his golden eyes, plaiting her hair into a simple side braid that she'd done for years to keep her hair from matting. She wanted to understand why it felt so normal being with Edward. They'd really been together for a total of less than one real week and yet, it felt like they had known each other - forever. It was like...a natural instinct being with him, like she wanted to show him every little thing about her without having a single fear in the world. And she basked in the feeling.
He watched her turn around and give him the same puzzled look she gave in her reflection. Her skin was glistening due to the application of the lotion, and her frizzy hair was tamed within her braid. The sweatshirt she wore practically engulfed her, falling off her left shoulder, and made it seem like she wasn't wearing anything for bottoms with her bare soft-looking creamy legs exposed.
"You really are a magnificent being, Abby," Edward finally replied and watched as his beloved shook her head.
Abby felt heat flood her entire face all the way to her hairline. Then, in a flash of bronze hair and pale skin, he was in front of her tilting her chin up, examining her flawless face. She gazed up at him with her big brown eyes, and he felt as though the only meaning to his life was Abigail Davis. He didn't believe in much, but even God knew that he was willing to put all his belief in her.
"Does it bother you?" She mumbled out, her eyes looking to his lips for a brief moment before glancing up at him again. "To be so close to me?"
Edward shook he head and bent his face closer to hers, laying his cool cheek against hers, "Not even a little," his breath tingled the hollow beneath her ear. He felt her shiver slightly against his hold when he glided his nose across her jaw, brushing her damp braid off her shoulder.
"Do you," she gulped, and allowed her hands to rest upon his broad shoulders, "know why that is?"
His lips left ghost kisses on the skin between her neck and collarbone, and couldn't help but inhale her sweet, honey aroma that only made him want to hold her closer. His answer was swift, "I've got my theories." His arms encompassed her waist, pulling her flush against him. The vampire smirked against her neck when he heard her breath hitch at the movement. Abby hummed sweetly when she felt him press a soft kiss against her neck, causing him to pull away slightly.
"Am I making you uncomfortable?" Edward wondered, then pressed his lips against her jaw.
She quickly shook her head, and shakily mumbled out, "No, quite the contrary." At the quirk of his eyebrow, Abby answered his unspoken question, "You're..." she gritted her teeth feeling blood rush to her face, "driving me crazy, Edward."
He considered that briefly, and when he spoke again, he sounded pleased, "Really?"
Abby immediately rolled her eyes, taking her arms off of his shoulders, and said, "Even as an 1000 year old vampire, you're still a male. Has the ego trip ended, pretty boy?"
Edward smirked down at her, his arms still wrapped around her, and said, "I'm simply surprised. I'm not 1000, but the decades I've been alive I never believed I'd find someone like my siblings have. I never thought that my soul would intertwine with another, and then I meet you. It's just nice to know that...I'm good at...being with you."
"Yeah," Abby drawled out, wrapping her arms around his neck, "but you're good at everything."
He shrugged, knowing the statement as being true, and they both released quiet laughter. And in the laughter, Edward unfolded truly. It wasn't just that he was good at being with her - she made it simple. Abby had completely enraptured him, mind, body, and damned soul. There was no turning back for him, no denying the indisputable fact that Abigail Davis had caused his undead life to begin, that she gave his life meaning once more.
And in the quiet dark room, he leaned forward to press his head against hers, their breaths mingling.
Edward pulled away and released a sigh, "We're about to be interrupted."
On cue, Abby heard her brother walk up the creaky wooden stairs, and Edward suddenly vanished somehow turning on her desk lamp in the process. She let out a breath of disappointment before dumping a textbook on her desk to make it look like she was studying and heard a knock on her door. She reluctantly trudged her way to open the door and saw her brother with a confused look on his face.
"Is something wrong?" Abby wondered.
He started to scratch the top of his head with the same confused stare, "Yeah, have you seen my leather jacket anywhere?"
Abby gave him a look of displeasure, of course, and replied, "You mean the one that you gave to the dry cleaners?"
Jay snapped his fingers, and grinned enthusiastically, "Yes! Oh, god I thought I lost it." He peered into her room, seeing her books strewn over her desk, and said, apologetically, "I'm sorry I didn't know you were studying, but listen, I won't be home tomorrow. I'm going to a bar with a couple of friends from college."
"In Port Angeles?" Abby raised an eyebrow. She thought most of his old college friends were in Seattle and Olympia.
"Yup, remember Dan?" At Abby shake of her head, he laughed and agreed, "Yeah, he wasn't that memorable. He was at graduation, but anyways he's got some job to do at Port Angeles with a mutual friend of ours, and he wants to grab some lunch and watch the game."
She nodded, leaning against the door frame, and practically scolded, "Alright, just no driving under the influence. Call me if you need a driver."
His eyes softened at her concern and said, "You know I'd never. And I'm a cop."
Abby shrugged, "Still,"
"You'll have the house to yourself tomorrow, invite Leah over or something and finish the pizza," he suggested, already headed toward the stairs to continue watching his cop-buddy comedy movie.
Or a vampire she's sure she's in a relationship with, Abby felt her lips twinge into a tiny smile. She nodded, bidding her brother a goodnight before closing her door and locking it once again. As soon she turned around, Edward was lying comfortably on her bed.
"Shoes off, Edward," and he called himself civilized. She watched as he did as told and went back to lying on her bed, motioning for her to join him. So, she did - forcing him off for a moment so she could get under the covers and he slid in next to her, wrapping an arm around her.
The side of her face was placed against his chest wondering if she'd heard a heartbeat. She didn't. But he still breathed, and the motion of his cold chest moving up and down like on treading waters almost lulled to her sleep. Almost.
"So," Abby started off, "if you're not 1,000, how old are you exactly?"
His lips were at the crown of her head, and he was playing with the tail of her braid. She lifted her head and rested her chin against his chest instead, awaiting his answer.
Releasing a long breath through his nostrils, he responded, "I was born in Chicago in 1900." He gauged her reaction, and she remained unchanged - a curious look still dawned upon her face. A tiny smile came to his lips as he continued, "Carlisle found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was eighteen, and dying of the Spanish influenza."
Abby swallowed harshly, watching his eyes glance down at her, "I'm so sorry."
He shook his head, holding her tighter against him, "It was a long time ago. I don't remember it well. My parents had already passed from the influenza. I was alone. That was why he chose me. In all the chaos of the epidemic, no one would ever realize I was gone."
"How," Abby cleared her throat, wondering how to ask this question, "...how did he save you?"
A few seconds passed before he answered, "It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us… I don't think you could find his equal throughout all of history." He paused. "For me, it was merely very, very painful."
"I know I didn't know you then, but still," Abby placed a hand on his check, causing him to peer down at her with gentle eyes, "no one should have to go through that pain."
He kissed the palm of her hand before saying in a musical tone filled with affection, "My life brought me to you. I'd go through worse affliction a hundred times over if it brought me to you each time."
Abby felt the immediate flames that erupted through her body due to his words. She could've cried into his chest with the way he made her feel. And she knew then, there would not be single moment in time, a single moment even in a different reality, where she wouldn't be irrecoverably bewitched by Edward Cullen.
"You're such a sap, Edward," she smiled brightly at him in the dark and he could only smile back at her. Completely and utterly bewitched. "So, after you in your family was...?"
"Esme," he answered instantly. "She fell from a cliff. They brought her straight to the hospital morgue, though, somehow, her heart was still beating."
"Do you have to be dying…?" Abby wondered.
"No, that's just Carlisle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice." The respect in his voice was profound whenever he spoke of his father figure. "It is easier he says, though," he continued, "if the blood is weak."
"Interesting," Abby said, honestly. Truly she was full of intrigue about Edward's way of life. There was so much to digest, she was worried she'd never hear all of it! "And the others?"
"Carlisle brought Rosalie to our family next. It was two years later that she found Emmett. She was hunting — we were in Appalachia at the time — and found a bear about to finish him off. She carried him back to Carlisle, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself."
"And she did it?"
He nodded, a faint smile upon his smooth lips, "Yes," he murmured. "She saw something in his face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place. Forks seemed perfect, so we all enrolled in high school." He laughed. "I suppose we'll have to go to their wedding in a few years, again."
"How about Alice, Elizabeth, and Jasper?"
"Alice, Lizzie, and Jasper are very rare creatures. They both developed a conscience, as we refer to it, with no outside guidance. Jasper belonged to another… family, a very different kind of family. He became depressed, and he wandered on his own. Lizzie was once another...type of being. She was alone for most of her life like Carlisle, adopting the same diet as us when she turned, and then, Alice found both Jasper and Lizzie."
"She saw Jasper, Lizzie, and knew that they were looking for her before they knew it themselves. She saw Carlisle and our family, and they came together to find us. She's most sensitive to non-humans. She always sees, for example, when another group of our kind is coming near. And any threat they may pose."
"Are there a lot of you guys?"
"No, not many. But most won't settle in any one place. Only those like my family, who've given up hunting you people" — a sly glance in Abby's direction which caused her to scowl — "can live together with humans for any length of time. We've only found one other family like ours, in a small village in Alaska. We lived together for a time, but there were so many of us that we became too noticeable. Those of us who live… differently tend to band together."
"And the others?"
"Nomads, for the most part. We've all lived that way at times. It gets tedious, like anything else. But we run across the others now and then, because most of us prefer the North."
"Why is that?" She wondered. What was so good about the North?
"Remember weeks ago when you asked if I burnt in the sun?" She nodded, staring up at him with wide curious eyes. "I don't burn but the sun does do something to me. And I'd like to show you tomorrow, if you'd like?"
Abby grinned and whispered, "You've got me sprung, pretty boy. I want to do everything with you."
If Edward could blush, he was sure he'd be as red as a rose. He figured this was Abby's form of torture since he always made her deeply flush. It wasn't fun, he concluded. Still, he was never going to tire of seeing the flow of rouge rushing to her cheeks. And he was sure he could elicit a similar reaction by leaning his head toward her own.
Her breath stuttered.
And Edward kissed her, capturing her bottom lip between his. It was just as explosive as their first. Abby's hand found his sharp jawline, and he shifted them so he was at a lower angle to give them easier access to each other. Her mind was everywhere - her mind was home, a place she hadn't been to in a long time. It was a place she refused to leave because being in Edward's arms felt like home.
Their lips moved in sync as if they had done this dance a million times before. He kissed her like she was the sole being that created the universe, desperate to thank her in the only way he knew how. Abigail Davis was the stormy ocean, and he had gotten lost in her endless waves. She had revived his accursed immortal soul, and he would belong to her forevermore even if she chose to never want him again. He would always be hers.
Abby was the one to separate, out of breath, and she softly smiled against his lips saying, "I don't think I'll ever get tired of that."
"Neither will I," Edward replied truthfully. He was convinced her lips would be the very reason he'd become human again.
Then, she leaned her head back slightly pressing a hand to her mouth as she released a long yawn with her eyes closed. He chuckled at her expression before settling them back into their first position and watched her cuddle into his chest sending a flood warmth through his vessels.
"I think it's time for the human to get some sleep," he commented.
She sunk into his chest, already half asleep, and mumbled out, "Will you stay so I know you're not a dream?"
"Always," and always he would.
A/N: And another one! Tell me what you guys thought of this! Don't you love them together? I do. They make my heart feel so good.
I wonder what's going to happen in New Moon. And I do think I made Edward a little OOC but also, I'm tired of him being so self-hating. Aren't we all?
Also a lot of this dialogue was taken from Twilight the book because ya know, he's explaining everything. Explanations and little things like this will be taken from Twilight but DISCLAIMER: under no circumstances do I own Twilight.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know I did. Reviews, follow/favorite, love you guys always, let me know your thoughts in the review section *kisses*!
