Chapter 8 – Party of Too Many
I left the stage area to find the SHAGNICs congregating at the picnic tables. I was thankful Clarissa had gotten Esryl's stroller out of the truck and had it reclined all the way back and waiting with her blanket. I laid Esryl down in the stroller, tucking Honey in next to her. Jake came up, carrying a plate of food and a drink for me, and I had to hold myself back from lunging at him.
"Thanks, Jake! I was starting to get a little light-headed up there."
Jake looked at me and scowled. "You sure it wasn't from that juicy smooch Masen planted on you? You two looked pretty cozy up there, I must say."
"It was just a brotherly thing, Jake. A congratulatory peck for making it through a whole solo without barfing on the stage from nerves, nothing more." As I said this, I could hear the disappointment in my own voice.
"Yeah, right, Bella. Whatever you say," Jake drawled and looked at me skeptically. "Are you going back on stage?"
"No, I'm done for the day. I promised Esryl I'd take her around trick-or-treating to all the booths and get her face painted and stuff. I also want to spend some time thanking all the businesses that showed up and contributed. We're supposed to wrap everything up by four o'clock, so we can help clean up. Are you guys staying to help?" I asked hopefully.
"Yeah, all of us SHAGNICs are," Jake replied and then grinned sheepishly. "Hey, they offered us the leftover food, and you know how motivating that is to a bunch of growing boys," he laughed. "The hotdog vendor guy is a friend of my dad's, and he's saving us a case of hotdogs and all the trimmings. Once everything is cleared away and all the people are gone, we're planning on building a bonfire here in the parking lot and having a weenie roast and eating whatever else the other vendors throw our way. I think s'mores might be involved, too."
"Okay, now I see how you work. Thanks, Jake, really. And thank you, all you guys, for coming and helping today," I said to all the SHAGNICs still at the table. "I know this wasn't exactly your project, but your help was greatly appreciated, and it wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly today without all of you." I was going to make sure Mr. Anderson had them mentioned in the Monday morning announcements at school and recognize them all, too, for all they had done today. The SHAGNICs might not have been a school-sanctioned club, but everyone knew us, and I wanted everyone to know just how awesome my friends really were.
"Are you guys staying for the weenie roast?" Jake asked, as Vanessa slipped in beside him at the table.
"I don't know, Jake. We have Esryl with us, and it gets pretty chilly now after dark. Besides, Emmett, Alice and Rosalie are throwing a party at our house tonight, so I can only imagine what we'll find when we get there." Jake was deep in thought for a moment before a wicked grin spread slowly across his face. I knew that grin, and mischief usually followed it. "What are you thinking, Jake?" I asked warily.
"Just wondering something," he said innocently. "Isn't there a huge fireplace inside your very generously-sized, enclosed pool house that'd keep the harsh elements off your very hard-working and therefore most deserving best friends? And doesn't it have a lovely, heated pool, hot tub, space heaters, and a very large and comfortable seating area with nice tables, and padded loungers and chairs that would feel better to our tired, aching bodies than the harsh gravel on this cold, cold ground?" he said with big puppy dog eyes that would rival Honey's any day. I couldn't help but giggle, and he waggled his eyebrows at me. I could see what station this train wreck was headed for.
"Yes, my dear friend, but unfortunately, Rosalie and Alice rule the roost tonight, and all the jocks, cheerleaders and preps will be there. How well do you think it'll go over if we crash that party?"
"The more important question, my dearest Bella, is do we care?" he said with a wink and a smirk. "Besides, it's your house, too!" The rest of the SHAGNICs had gathered around and were getting excited about the prospect of having more than just cold, hard gravel to sit on. And they deserved it given all the hard work they had done today.
"You're absolutely right, guys. As soon as we get things settled here, the party moves to my place!"
The afternoon finished out a complete success. After the band had played their last number, the director of the center, Mr. Watson, took the stage and quieted the crowd to make an announcement.
"We here at the Humane Society want to thank all of you for coming out, and for your generous contributions of time, money and goods today to make this event such a great success. I want to extend a special thanks to Mr. Anderson's class from Stanford High, especially Miss Isabella Swan, for her beautiful song, and for all their wonderful music and hard work coordinating everything. These are truly unique and special young people," he said proudly, which garnered a loud round of applause.
"I'm pleased to report that, as of four o'clock, we've collected almost thirty-seven thousand dollars between merchandise sales, vendor contributions and attendee donations. We've also had many items on the shelter's wish list graciously donated, such as animal food, toys, bedding, cleaning stuff, grooming items, and office supplies. Your kind generosity will help the shelter stay open as a no-kill facility, and it'll help us to serve many more animals in need than we would've been able to otherwise.
"We're also happy to report that twenty-two of our adoptable animals found new homes today. Thank you from everyone here at the shelter, and from the furry friends you helped save today. We wish you a happy Halloween, and a safe and fun night to you all."
The crowds dispersed quickly, as we began helping with the cleanup effort. I invited all the guys from class back to the house as well, and they were as anxious as the SHAGNICs to join in, so everyone scrambled to get finished. By the time it was completely dark, everything was packed away, and the vendors had gone. Mr. Anderson called all of us together, including the SHAGNICs, for a quick huddle.
"You guys really kicked benefit butt today," he said with a huge grin. "That was some of the best stuff I've ever heard from musicians your age. You all should be proud of how well you did." He then turned to the SHAGNICs. "Thanks to you guys as well for showing up and supporting your classmates with this event. I'm truly grateful and proud of how all of you represented Stanford today. I hope you'll all work together with us on the other events coming up throughout the rest of the school year. Good job, people. Now, go have some fun!"
We were all getting into our cars when Mr. Anderson called to me, "Bella, can I have a minute?" Edward was getting Esryl into her car seat, so I walked over to where Mr. Anderson was standing by the edge of the parking lot.
"What's up, Adam?" I asked, forgetting for a moment I was supposed to only refer to him as Mr. Anderson. The smile that flashed across his face as we stood, illuminated by a full moon, was wide and warm.
"I just wanted to tell you again how incredible you were today. That song and the way you sang it melted every heart in the audience," he said softly. "Every heart."
"Thanks," I smiled, hoping my face wouldn't glow too red through the darkness. "Hey, you know, everybody's coming back to my house for an after party. Would you like to join us?" I asked. The smile on his face grew bigger, that was until he looked over my shoulder, and it quickly faded. I felt Edward coming up behind me before I heard him.
"Bella, we need to get going. Everyone's waiting for us to lead the way into the lion's den, and Esryl's asking for you," Edward said without ever breaking his stare with Mr. Anderson.
"Thanks for the invite, Miss Swan, but maybe some other time," Mr. Anderson said before climbing into his car and pulling away. I turned to look at Edward, and he was looking back at me with a blank expression.
"What?" I asked. "Everyone else is coming back to the house. It seemed only polite to invite him, too." Edward just shook his head and then followed, as I turned and headed towards Sir MANSLUT. We rode home in uncomfortable silence, Esryl falling asleep before we'd even gotten out of the parking lot.
The SHAGNICs took off to get their towels and swimsuits, and to acquire some drinks and s'mores fixings, while we headed home to secure rights to the pool house. Once we got through the main gate and pulled onto our street, we found cars parked bumper-to-bumper around the circle in front of our house and down both sides of the cul-de-sac, making parking near our house impossible. Edward ran inside and found the people whose cars were blocking our driveway and had them come move them, so I could park my truck where it belonged.
I finally pulled into the garage, and as I got out of Sir MANSLUT, loud hip-hop music assaulted my ears, blaring and pulsing from inside the house. Every light in the house was on, and mobs of costume-clad people were wandering in and out, leaving the doors of the house standing wide open. I hated to think about how high the utility bills were going to spike from this, and I certainly didn't think this was what Elliott had meant when he'd agreed to a "small get-together." It was only about eight o'clock at this point, and I was afraid of what it would be like in another few hours.
Edward helped me unload everything, and I got Esryl out of her car seat. We made it inside, and keeping a death grip on Esryl and Honey, I worked my way through the crowd to the attic stairs, so I could put Esryl to bed in the attic room, away from all the chaos. By the time I made it up the stairs with them, Honey was whimpering, and Esryl was crying loudly and clinging to me, scared witless from all the pounding noise and weirdly dressed and scary-looking partygoers. Edward ran downstairs and came back with Honey's crate, Esryl's rag doll that she slept with and her pajamas. He helped me get her cleaned up and changed for bed, and then I sat in the rocker with her, rocking her and singing lowly, until she fell back to sleep. Edward sat on the bed, watching us with a smile.
"You're a natural at that, Bella. I don't know how she'd survive without you," he said softly, "how any of us would, for that matter."
"Well, you're getting pretty good at it, too," I smiled back at him. "She loves you and is beginning to trust you to take care of her a lot more. I guess that'll be good when we get another piano," I giggled, and he rolled his eyes, remembering what she had done to the last one. "Besides, we're going to have another baby in a few months to juggle, and I know my mom. She loves the challenge and bustle of her career way too much to stay home for long. She'll be back to work before this new baby's even over the ugly newborn stage, you mark my words. His care is going to land on us, too," I sighed.
"It's not freaking fair, but what can we do now?" Edward grumbled. "I know my dad's excited about it, though. He loves us, I know he does, and I overheard him telling Uncle Carlisle that he's pushing for a few new-hires to take some of the load off, so he can be home more with the family, or else he's finding a different job."
"I wish I could say the same for my mom. She loves us, but she's always been more career minded than family oriented. I was an accident, as were both these kids, but I wouldn't trade Esryl for anything." I smiled down at my sister and kissed her little forehead. "To me, she's everything, and I'm sure this new baby will be, too."
I laid Esryl down in my old crib and then grabbed the baby monitor before I followed Edward out the door, locking it behind me. I hung the key around my neck, so no stray partiers could get in and wake Esryl or defile my sanctuary. Edward stopped at the top of the stairs and looked back at me, shaking his head. "By the way, we're going to need to go shopping for new mattresses and bedding," he said with a disgusted look on his face. "We should've installed keyed locks on our rooms before we left. As I was getting Esryl's stuff, I passed by both our rooms. The doors were closed and locked from the inside, and there were…noises…coming from both rooms. You'll want to come up here to sleep later. There's no telling how much of other people's disgusting bodily fluids will be on your bed before the night is through. I'm just glad I didn't catch anyone in Esryl's room. They would've needed immediate medical attention," he scowled. We both looked at each other and shuddered at the thought.
As we were walking through the house, I was becoming more furious by the second. Edward had to drag me out through the backdoor before I went looking for blood from Alice and Rosalie, as I took in the horrible condition of my kitchen. The rest of the house was quickly deteriorating as well, and Elliott was going to be livid that someone had brought a bottle of something really powerful and had spiked that horrid red punch everyone seemed to be sucking down. I suspected it was Everclear from the strong smell that wafted off everyone drinking it. I wanted to confront our siblings about how things were going and make them shut the party down, but Edward stopped me.
"They got permission, but they're abusing it, so it's going to be their heads. They'll get to deal with dad about the booze, but they'll have to deal with me if they try to get out of cleaning up this mess," Edward promised. "You're not to touch a thing in here, Bella. I mean it," he demanded, angry about the messes they had made and left. "I'm so sorry," he sighed. "I know you didn't do all the work of cleaning the house just for them to have a party, and for them to trash everything you've done is total crap. They're going to pay for this. I'm hoping they'll step in before it gets any worse," he said, but I seriously had my doubts.
To me, it looked like the place was already a huge disaster area and getting worse by the minute. Edward had way more confidence in his siblings than I did. If they had any ideas about leaving it that way for me to clean up, they were in for one devil of a fight this time. I had made sure the house was spotless before we'd left this morning, without the help of any of them but Edward, so they had their work cut out for them.
The SHAGNICs and the rest of the guys from class had to park out along the cross street because of the excessive number of cars on ours. This had to be some kind of fire code violation. Jake called me to open the gate, and I let everyone in. We met them around the side of our house and led them through the backyard and into the pool house. Fortunately, the party inside had yet to spill out there, so the guys went in and staked our claim, starting up the fireplace and turning on the heaters. Everyone was in the process of taking turns changing into their swimsuits in the pool house bathroom when Edward and I came in.
"Hey, guys, grab your guitars and shakers!" Jake yelled, and Edward went back into the house and brought them out. The SHAGNICs and our bandmates had brought their own bongos, a harmonica, a couple more guitars, a keyboard, and a synthesizer. The guys had gotten the fire going really nicely, and the girls were busy laying out the food. Seth came into the pool house with a huge bundle of wire clothes hangers, bragging about how he had used his ninja skills to acquire them, and Colin and Paul began teasing him.
"You know you're going to have to go buy your mom some plastic hangers tomorrow and re-hang all her clothes, or else she's going to beat you like a red-headed stepchild, right?" Colin laughed at him.
"Hey, you guys should be thanking me, not harassing me. Without my talented hands, none of you'd be getting your weenies warmed tonight," Seth shot back.
Silence fell on the entire crowd for a few seconds before everyone burst out laughing. The orange soda that splattered across Jake's chest from Vanessa's nose was only a hint of how the rest of the night would go.
Two hours later, both parties were in full swing, and our group was all sitting around out in the pool house playing, eating, singing, and having a great time. So long as the doors heading into the main house stayed closed, the obnoxious music from inside was well muffled, and we could hear ourselves sing and play. But occasionally, someone from the party inside would realize what was going on out in the pool house, and they would wander out to see what we were doing.
I had passed my guitar to James and was sitting with Edward in one of the reclining loungers, trying to stay awake. James played one of my favorite songs, the Jasper Steverlink version of It Must Be Love, and Edward and I sang it together, while a couple of our bandmates played along on their keyboard and synthesizer. The couples among us swayed along, holding onto each other, and I noticed some of the SHAGNICs had paired up for the evening. Despite how Edward and I had always been so distant, our personal boundaries had slowly expanded to include each other now, and us gravitating toward each other seemed to just happen naturally. We had gotten to know each other better and had been getting closer, as we worked together at home and on the song, so it really didn't feel all that strange. I eventually found myself sitting between his legs, leaned back against his chest, his arms wrapped around me to share warmth, and it felt amazing. None of the SHAGNICs said anything, though Jake did shoot me a raised brow and a head tilt that bespoke of confusion.
Two of Rosalie's buddies wandered out the back door, their trashy costumes making them look like they were dressed for standing on a street corner. They noticed Edward and James outside with us and frowned. Lauren and Jessica had never been favorites of mine while they were sober, having tormented me mercilessly in years prior. But tipsy, they were insufferable, dropping to the bottom of my list like lead bricks.
"What are you two doing out here with the losers?" Lauren drawled, as she and Jessica staggered out into the pool house.
"Yeah, anybody worth partying with is inside," Jessica swayed, as she was trying to climb into James's lap, but he was holding her off, trying to keep her from spilling her cup of spiked red punch all over him.
Lauren must have had a death wish, because she grabbed my arm and actually tried to pull me away from Edward. "Move it, troll!" she screamed at me. "Go crawl back under the sweatshirt rock you were hiding under before school started, geek girl." She really shouldn't have done that…
I shot up and got right in her face, backing her up and into the pool before she even saw it coming. Jessica fished her out, and they ran into the house, no doubt looking for Rosalie to whine to about my abuse. What Lauren had said didn't affect me. I had found my backbone and was no longer a timid mouse who hid under bulky clothes in the corner. I'd grown claws and fangs, and I had no problem biting and scratching now when provoked.
Edward came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. "Are you okay? You know she's just jealous, right?"
I turned around in his arms and wrapped mine around his waist, laying my head on his chest. "I'm fine. Besides, she's the one who's wet and mad," I giggled against his shirt. Edward was pressing a kiss to my temple just then when the back door burst open, and Rosalie and Emmett came barreling out, both looking like they had been sampling the punch. Rosalie was yelling profanities at me for abusing her guests, but Emmett stopped short when he saw me wrapped up in Edward's arms.
"Dude! She's our sister! What kind of incestuous freak are you?"
I'd had enough.
"Dude!" I turned and yelled back in his face sarcastically. "In case you've forgotten, we're not actually related!" Emmett looked at me like I had three heads. "I'm glad you see me as your sister, Emmett, and I see you as my brother, but I've never thought of Edward as anything!"
Crap.
Edward looked like I had slapped him. He pulled away from me and stalked into the house, leaving me standing there, surrounded, but feeling so alone. In that moment, I'd finally realized the truth.
He was not just anything to me, he had become everything.