HLAG Chapter 19

Edward's point of view

I smile down at Jenny who looks scared and a little eager. "You'll be fine," I softly say as the door opens.

"Hi," I say to the woman who answers the door.

"Jenny!" Paula, Jenny's friend, yells loudly. "Come on, I'll show you my room!" she carries on as she drags Jennifer into her house.

I look to Paula's mom who is chuckling as she turns back to me giving me a smile. "This has my numbers on it," I say as I hand the paper over to her.

"If you can't sign, I'd have her write it out." I start to pull at my hair as I look inside the house.

"This is the first time you've left her with any sort of stranger?" My eyes bounce back to her and I chuckle and nod.

"You can stay too, if you'd like," I shake my head at her.

"No, but thank you, I'll be back around eight?" She nods her head and I walk away letting out a soft breath.

Instead of going home, I head to Bella's school. I know she was staying after to talk about the art project. She has been on my mind since our small talk, and then what I learned at Tia's. Never would I image that D stood for dad, but now looking back it makes more sense in the fact that she never called me D unless Jennifer was there. She classed me as D when she was speaking to Jennifer.

Then there is the fight that went down with my mom. I still haven't spoken to my mom about it, but in truth, I am still very angry and upset about how she behaved. I still find it hard to believe that she hit Bella. That's not the mom I know and I have been looking over these past few month since I've arrived here. I know my mom has been acting like a different woman, not the nice person I know.

I walk in to the school and down the hall. I only get part way when I see Bella struggling to hold her school bag, art holder and what appears to be a locker door.

"You know they are meant to stay on front of the locker?" I say to get Bella's attention.

"What! But someone may steal it!" she shrieks out.

"No, it's to stop your belongings in your locker from being stolen," I bite back.

"By god that's what I have been doing wrong! Thank you detective Cullen, you have solved another case!" This time I just shake my head smiling at her.

"Pass it here," I say moving to her.

Bella frowns and looks at me, but does pass me her locker door. "You here checking up on me?"

"No, I thought since you were staying late and would miss your bus, I'd come to drive you home." I tell her and Bella snorts and I raise my eyebrow at her.

"You've come to quiz me, which is fine, but stay away from mom topics, that's both your mom and my bitch..." I swallow even hearing her talk negatively about her mom. Before this, it was the first time that it hit home that Bella has no love for her mom. If what Rose said is right, that would mean her mom may have been the one to cause her to be upset and the pain.

We walk out side by side, but we don't speak to each other. When I get to my car, I open her door letting her in before placing her belongs in the trunk.

"You know Rose could fix your door to save you from jumping over it all the time." I turn looking at her in shock and then chuckle.

"Your door is busted right?" Bella smirks out to me.

"How do you know?" I ask unsure of how she could have guessed since no one else knows that is the reason I jump out and in of my car.

She just gives me a knowing look. "Let me guess, you broke your key in the door?"

I bob my head and she turns looking out the front window "Rose can fix it, she's here babysitting anyway."

"I'll ask her."

I pull up outside my home and walk Bella all the way to Jennifer's room. She heads straight into the bathroom to change her clothes. I look at the walls and see they all have sheets in front of them. It has been hard not to take a peek, but seeing how much this means not only to Jennifer, but to Bella, I have been able to refrain from looking.

"Hey, no peeking!" Bella yells as she sits down on the floor.

"I'm not," I chuckle holding up my hands. She lifts one corner of the sheet, to only show a little of what she has done, but I can only see what looks like a lamp post.

"Okay, go," Bella says making me look at her, she keeps her focus on painting the wall.

"Do you take drugs?" I ask and Bella turns look at me.

"No, I used to smoke weed once in a while."

"You don't anymore?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"Why?" I ask and she sighs.

"Jennifer asked me not to." My eyes stay on the side of her face and I can see there's a flush that shows some shame on her face.

"I buy it for my father, for his pain. It helps a lot more than what his doctor has prescribed for him. I would smoke a little when I couldn't sleep or felt stressed. Jennifer could smell it on me. I didn't want to lie to her, but I did explain that my dad needs it." Bella stops and looks at me sadly. "She understood, she knows that it can be used for pain." Bella shakes her head almost as if she's in disbelief over it. "She asked me if I wouldn't smoke it, she was so sad when she asked me... I agreed and I haven't touched it since. I haven't even been in the room when my dad smokes."

I gulp as I look at Bella's face feeling a little overwhelmed that she stopped because Jennifer asked her to.

"I only smoked it at night on the roof of my house, and I would never have smoked in front of Jenny. Hell, I made sure her lights were off before I lit up just in case she could see me."

I give her a soft smile. "How do you know Ben?" I ask moving this topic on a little.

"He used to sell me the weed, but due to him being a dirty arrogant smug bastard, I moved on to another way." I chuckle and bob my head that she's not using him anymore, but in saying that this other seller could be just as bad.

"I am safe. My dad's not happy, but it's not like I can grow it in the basement." I just look at her with my eyebrow raised.

"Someone I trust goes with me." I keep my eyebrow in place.

"Jasper, Jasper, gets it for me," Bella sighs out and I give her a supervised looked.

"New start, you're meant to show that I can trust you," Bella gently reminds me and I nod moving on.

"What happened when you were in Jail?" I ask having been wanting to know this from when I first saw her in court.

"My roommate took a dislike to sharing her room." I place my hand on her arm making her turn to look at me.

"What happened?"

"She got a bee in her bonnet and got in my face," Bella replies making me sigh. This girl has to learn when to let some battles go without a fight.

"You have to learn to walk away."

"She had a homemade knife, it was either fight her or be stabbed, I chose the one I could live-or die with." My mouth drops open as I just look at her. "Beside, if the bitch was going to stab me, I thought I would get a few hits in first and I may have come out injured, but I was alive and uncut."

I swallow as I look at her "What were your injuries?"

Bella looks at me as if to see if I'm serious. "Three broken ribs was the worse of my injuries."

"What happened to the girl?"

Bella shrugs. "She has a history of attacking her roommates. I think it went down as a fight." I let out a soft growl, knowing they just pushed Bella aside after being so badly attacked, because it would be easier, less paper work for them to file.

"Move on," Bella says without looking my way.

I let out a breath and look to the wall. Seeing that Bella has colored a lot of the lamppost as we have been talking makes me smile. I wonder if I should talk to her when she is painting so I can get honest answers.

"Have you always stayed with your dad?"

Bella's eyes move to the side and her body posture changes and becomes more ridged.

"No, my dad left Renee when I was eight and since she's a selfish bitch, I stayed with him. But because she's also evil, she came back for me when I was thirteen and made me live with her while cutting my dad off from seeing me. It lasted till he tracked us down, and she just happen to need money too. I had only been back with him a few weeks when he had his stroke." Hearing the pain in her voice, I move closer to her and rub her back.

"You've always been this amazing at art?" I ask lightly no longer wanting to have this heavy talk if it's going to make Bella sad.

"Yes, I was born with a spray can in one hand and paint brush in the other," Bella jokes.

~HLAG~

"It's done!" Bella says happily and I look at her.

"It is?" I ask a little stunned, mainly because I was enjoying my chat with her.

"I need to do the final bits, so take your time getting Jenny."

I frown looking at the time. "Shit!" I hiss knowing I may be a little late in getting her. As I get in my car, it comes to me that Bella and I spoke, and joked with each other for almost four hours. "Shit!" I hiss out as it comes to me that she also hasn't eaten anything.

I pull up outside Jennifer's friend's home and call to order pizza to collect for Bella and me.

"Sorry," I say as soon as Paula's mom opens the door.

"It fine, she's been fine too," she quickly tells me.

I look down to her side seeing Jennifer standing there. "Ready to go, princess?"

She bobs her head and turns to Paula's mom. "Thank you for having me," she signs and I grin.

"Next time, Paula can come to our house," I say as Paula's mom helps Jennifer into her jacket.

I give Paula and her mom one last wave as Jennifer and I walk back to my car.

I pick up the pizza, and text Bella to let her know we are five minutes away. When I get home, I place the pizza on the kitchen table and walk upstairs with Jennifer.

"You ready to see your room?" Bella asks her and Jenny bounces on her feet as she bobs her head.

Bella smiles and opens the door. We walk in and my mouth falls open. The room looks very much the way I imagined Narnia to be when the snow queen was ruling.

"Wow!" I say smiling.

"Is there someone missing?" Bella asks and I frown looking around. I look at Jennifer who bobs her head.

"Call for him," Bella says and I look between her and Jennifer. "Out loud, even if it's a whisper, he'll hear and appear."

"Aslan," Jennifer mouths out with a breath my mouth drops open. As I feel myself go in to shock, the wall change. The snow changes to green, and the lamp post light switches on and Alsan seems to have appeared in the green hills. My eyes travel up her wall seeing the ceiling of her room looks like the night sky.

"Holly shit," I mutter. Fuck, this girl is more than amazing. Before I can mutter another word, a soft voice I have only heard mutter a few time when she'd been dreaming sounds.

"Magic." I look down at her unsure if she meant to speak or was the shock of the amazing art work made her.

"It's magic, daddy," she says looking at me. My insides come alive and I pull her into my arms smiling happily in her hair.

"It is magic," I agree. I turn to look at the door to see Bella is no longer there. I frown and move to Jennifer's window. I am in time to see her cross the garden. Throwing the window open, I duck my head out of it.

"Bella Swan, get you butt back in this house!" Bella jumps around looking at me as Jennifer chuckles.

"Please come back," Jennifer whispers, but she is loud enough for Bella to hear. Bella bites her lip and looks at me. I know she left to give me time with Jennifer, but Bella belongs here too. After all, this is all on her.

"I bought us pizza, and we could watch a movie? If you need to check on your dad, fine, but please come back," I say hoping to get her to agree.

Bella sighs and nods. "I can only stay for a bit."

I bob my head and move back into Jennifer's room. I take one last look around the room and look down at Jennifer who's looking very happy.

Her eyes move to mine and she smiles. "I only want to talk to you and Bella, just for now." Her voice is filled with worry, but I know she just made a huge leap of faith and for now, it's enough.

"That's fine, baby, that's just fine." I kiss her head and keep her in my arms as I walk down the stairs to find Bella already setting up our dinner.

"Why is Jenny so odd with my mom?"