Chapter 9

Bella

The morning light was just beginning to filter through the thick curtains of the hotel room, I rubbed my bleary eyes, trying to wipe away the sleepiness. I had never slept so well in my life. I felt a comfortable heat surround me, it was protecting me from this chill of the morning air. His arms were protecting me from the chill I realized. His skin was a deep caramel mocha color and I felt secured by the roping muscles of his forearms.

My phone buzzed from the nightstand beside me and I checked it. I had several missed calls, voicemails, and texts. I pulled the sheet up to cover me as I snaked out of Sam's arms and made my way to the small bathroom on the other side of the room. Upon closing the door, I grabbed a plastic cup and greedily drank the cool tap water before checking the messages.

The first was a text from Charlie, just sent a moment ago, Hey Bells… just wanted to see what you wanted to do today… what do you think about spending some time with your old man? I smiled, happy to see that he'd finally learned how to text, I waited to respond though, I could give him a call on my way back to Forks.

The next three messages were texts from Rosalie sent throughout the night. Bella, where are you? Should I be worried? Was the first text I'd gotten from her.

You are responsible, I know if something was wrong you would have let me know… so what is it that you're up to? And the final one was, Ok girl. You pulled an all-nighter. I NEED details!

Oh boy. I thought, I had some explaining to do… but first, I'd have to figure it all out myself. I save those texts to address later on as well.

I had also received a text from Jess. Dude, how do you and Jacob know each other? And DAMN what happened? Ange was pretty upset, but I get it if you don't want to talk to her. Either way, let's catch up, just the two of us, coffee sometime? I chuckled a little upon reading Jessica's text, it was dramatic and long winded, just like she inherently was. I quickly texted her back, Sure! Let me know when!

After going through all the texts, I listened to my voicemail, I only had one. "Hey Bella… it's Angela… Look, I'm sorry for not telling you about Jake before… I know you deserved to know. I was afraid though… I was scared that, well this would happen. I want to give you your space, but call me when you're ready to talk… and you should know, Jake… um things that happened between you and Jake those years ago, they weren't what they seemed, and I hope you give us both another chance. Anyways… just call me, okay?" I could tell that she was genuinely sorry, and I wanted to believe that things weren't what they seemed, but things had been so black and white when Jacob ended our friendship, and I couldn't really see how it could have been anything other than it was. Aside from that even, I felt so betrayed by Angela, and I knew that it was going to take time for that to heal too, if it ever could.

I washed off my face, willing the cool water to wake me up. Even though last night had been extremely restful, well the sleeping part at least was restful, I was still really tired. I quietly peeked out the bathroom door to make sure that Sam was still asleep on the mattress before sneaking out of the room to get dressed. I looked at him as I got dressed and just took in the sight of him. He truly was a vision. He looked peaceful in his sleep, less bogged down by the stresses of life. I wondered what kind of burdens he carried. He'd told me the night before that he had his own construction business, I'm sure that that weighed on him, but something told me that he had seen things, and he held more stress on his shoulders than most men did.

As if feeling my gaze, Sam snored lightly and rolled to his other side. I took this as a sign to quit staring and leave. After putting on my clothes and grabbing my bag I briefly thought about leaving a phone number, feeling some amount of guilt wash over me at the thought of just running off. But this was a one night stand, I don't even know where he is from, so I'd likely never see him again. I settled on just scrawling a quick note, void of my contact information, and silently slipped out of the room and away from the incredible stranger I had lost my virginity to.

When I got outside the air had warmed a bit, and the sun was still shining, so I chucked off my shoes and carried them in my hands so that I could be barefoot as I walked across the beach to get to my car that was on the other side of downtown Port Angeles. As beautiful as it is, and full of life, Port Angeles really wasn't a big town, it just felt like it compared to Forks and other surrounding towns that were even smaller.

I tripped a few times over the broken pieces of driftwood as I made my way to the lot, ever the clumsy girl, no matter how much I had grown in that last few years, hell, in the last few days. I breathed in the salt permeated air and felt the sea breeze on my skin. I closed my eyes for a moment and savored the feeling. An intense and consuming wave of freedom drifted over and wrapped around me as I thought about my future. The opportunities were endless and much to my surprise, I wasn't afraid of that unknown.

When I made it back to the car Dad had let me borrow for the night, one he had gotten some time recently to use when it was not appropriate to drive the cruiser, I yawned a mouthful of air and decided to text Rose back before I hit the road.

I've got so much to tell you. Headed back to the motel now, see you in an hour. In what seemed like faster than the text could even manage to send, I had already gotten a response from her, Glad you are alive, I'm excited for all the news!

After that, I climbed into the car and set up to call Charlie. The ringing came over the car speakers as I put the car in drive. Our call was short-lived, as neither of us were much for talking, but we made plans to meet at The Diner. There were a few joint in town, but it was the only one we would religiously eat, and it was literally called The Diner.

The ride home seemed quicker than it was, and I had enjoyed driving with the windows down, some music I didn't recognize on the radio turned on as I hummed along. Before I knew it, my mind was drifting with thoughts of Sam and the night we had shared together. It had been passionate, raw, sensual, and life-changing all at once! If I would have known that sex could be that good, I would have started having it a long time ago! As that thought crossed my mind though I could feel my expression sour. I didn't think I could have that sort of feeling with anyone else, and honestly I had no desire to be intimate with anyone that wasn't Sam. I was really starting to regret not leaving him my number, even if it would have only been sex.

I made it back to the Forks motel shortly after that and was met by a beautiful Rose standing right inside. Rose was not the type to be bouncing in excitement, she's not the bubbly personality that Alice always was. That said I could still tell she was excited. She was smiling and slowly combing her fingers through her hair.

"Someone's excited," I said, laughing lightly at her expense. I dropped my bag at the foot of the bed nearest to where I still stood at the door. She tilted her head, then brushed past to the dresser to grab her lipstick. She shrugged her shoulders, pretending not to be excited at all and said, "Not really, more just curious about where you were last night." Then pursed her lips and applied the flaming red stain.

"Yeah sure, not excited, not one bit." I said, holding in my laughter. She just rolled her eyes and moved to sit at the edge of the bed. She leaned back and put her weight on her arms. I pretended to take this as a sign that our conversation was over and quickly sent Charlie a text to tell him I was beat and asked if we could meet for breakfast instead. "Well, can you hardly blame me? You disappeared!" she finally blurted out as I slipped my phone back into my pocket.

"I'm just surprised you weren't more concerned." I told her. It's not that I had been thinking about it at the time by any means, but I am surprised the she wasn't more worried about my lack of communication and by me not showing back up here last night.

"Bella, I'm not Edward, or Alice… you're a grown ass woman and I respect that." She shook her head. I think she knew that she would have to reassure me often of that… it's easy to forget what is normal and what isn't. And Edward and Alice's incessant need to know where I was and who I was with, and what I was doing, was not normal, it was controlling. "Sooo… are you going to tell me or not?" She drawled.

"Ugh. Fine!" I could feel my face heating up already, and I hadn't even told her where I was or who I was with or any of the details. "Well I went to Charlie's and then to Port A as you know… I met with some high school friends at a dive bar there. I was with Mike, his girlfriend, Tyler, his boyfriend, Jessica, and Angela. Do you remember them?" I asked her. There was no need to tell her everyone's last name because Forks High was so small there were rarely any repeat names. When Rosalie nodded, letting me know she remembered them I continued. "It was a lot of fun, I was catching up with everyone, you should see them! They are all so different now, grown up… anyways, out of nowhere Jacob Black shows up!" I say and her eyebrows shot up, showing her surprise at the situation.

"You didn't! Not with him…" She stated more as a question than anything else.

"Oh my god! No!" I nearly yelled. "He was there because him and Angela are together, like together together now! Can you believe that?" I asked rhetorically. "After that I was just so mad I went for a walk."

After a moment of relative quiet between us, Rose pushed her face forward, raised her eyebrows again and outstretched on hand, gesturing me to go on. I sighed deeply, then continued my story. "Theeen.." I drug the word out, hoping that some catastrophe would strike and I wouldn't have to finish telling her what happened last night. My face heated again and I felt like it had suddenly gotten hot in the room. "Then I walked to another bar. There was a guy there, and he was cute and the bar was cruddy, and I asked him to go for a walk with me. Andwehookedupanditwasamazing," I started talking faster and faster as I went, but Rosalie was a vampire. Of course she heard exactly what I'd told her.

"Oh a stranger, huh?" She asked suggestively. Then laughed before asking, "Who are you, Bella?"

"Rose… I don't know." I told her, suddenly serious. "I honestly don't know." I repeated, then yawned, kicking my shoes off, then laid down beside her. "I'm sleepy…" I mumbled, nodding off immediately.

I don't know how much time had passed since I'd fallen asleep, but at some point in the night I woke up to Rosalie gently shaking me and whispering my name, her cool breath fanning across my face was what eventually roused me. I could tell that there was something else she was trying to say but my vision was spinning slightly and everything sounded like I was underwater.

"Bella...Bella? Can you hear me?" She continued to call out to me, her perfect features twisted with worry. Her bell-like voice started to become more clear and the walls and furnishings of the room stopped dancing around in my jumbled mind.

"Yeah, what?" I finally was able to get out. She frowned just slightly, and tilted her head to the side.

"Are you okay?" She asked. I had no idea what she was talking about, I was asleep, she is the one who woke me up. I inventoried the space around me, looking for some sort of disaster. But there was none. The television was lightly playing, so light in fact, that I could not hear a word the man in the sitcom looked like he was yelling at another man. On the bed across from the one I had claimed as my own, Rose's book was left open and face down. I scanned the cover page to find that it was just about cars and nothing worrisome like a horror novel. Not that she had anything to fear anyways. Eventually, my wandering brown eyes met her crisp blue ones, I wondered if the confusion I felt was written on my face. It must have been because then she said, "You were sleeping pretty restlessly and talking in your sleep, calling out for Edward…"

"Um. No, I'm fine, I don't think I was even dreaming." I told her, and it was true, it had been a dreamless sleep. I got up and changed out of the clothes I had been wearing all day and into a large tee shirt that hung to just above my knees. I climbed back into bed, still completely exhausted. All the while, Rosalie watched me, her concern evident.

The next morning I woke up groggy, my head spun and I felt hungover. I hadn't drank yesterday though so it was a weird feeling. I figured that I had to be getting sick or something. I didn't think much of it, just brushed the feeling off and took a hot shower. The steam lifted the brain fog and my spirits. After the shower, I got dressed in a pair of dark-wash skinny jeans and a light gray blouse that didn't really fit my style. It was long-sleeved though, and there was a chill this morning, more so than yesterday, so I needed it. I also needed a coat, so I grabbed one from the suitcase and walked to the parking lot. The clouds hung low, saturated and weighed down by the rain waiting to fall to the ground.

I took the car I'd borrowed and was at The Diner before I could count to one hundred. I forgot how close I was to it, I should have just walked. But Charlie's cruiser was already there waiting, so I guess it was good that I'd driven.

I stepped out of the Camry and hugged the coat I'd slipped on tighter to my body as I made my way to the entrance. A little bell rang when I opened the door and everyone in the room looked up at me, I blushed, but scurried my way to Charlie, who was sipping coffee and reading the morning paper.

"Nothing going on around here lately." He stated, taking another draw from the steaming porcelain cup. "Suppose that's a good thing though." he smiled and patted my hand with his larger one. "Want a cup?" He asked.

I merely nodded, still shivering from the cold. The room was warm, but still my body refused to adjust.

"You okay kiddo?" He gave me a look, like he was trying to figure something out. "You look tired."

As if on command, I yawned. He laughed a little at my perfect timing and I just said, "I guess so… mostly I am cold though." I answered.

"Really? I thought it was getting kinda warm in here." He responded. That was when I noticed that he was wearing only a t-shirt with a light jacket sitting beside him on the wooden booth seat. In fact, everyone in here was in similar attire, everyone besides me. I really must be getting sick, because I was freezing.

Before I said anything about it though, the waitress had come by, taken our orders, and was going to grab another coffee for me. I grabbed a book on my way out this morning, knowing that Charlie and I had a bit of a tradition of spending quiet time together. So I read Impulse, by Ellen Hopkins. It was a quick read, written entirely in poetry. It was about three teens who were in some sort of psychiatric facility, working out their respective issues while simultaneously becoming something of friends. It wasn't my norm, I particularly enjoyed classics, but I had started to branch out the last few years. It was good so far, but I'd only just started.

Service was quick this morning, so I hadn't gotten too far into the book when our food arrived. Charlie excitedly dove into his eggs and ham he'd ordered, but when my omelet came out I felt my insides churn in my stomach. I only took a bite or too before it was cold and I'd completely lost my appetite.

"You're looking a little green there kid, why don't you head back to get some rest, I'll cover things here." He offered. I felt green, if that was a feeling. I was a little clammy and sort of dizzy again, but not so much that I couldn't drive, but I didn't want it to get to that point so I just nodded and muttered a small "thank you."

As soon as I'd made it back to the room, Rosalie still was not there and I had passed out before my head even hit the pillow. Still in my jeans, and still dizzy.

Author's note:

Alright, back as promised! Hope that it wasn't too long before I could get another chapter up!

~Happy reading ~