Chapter12 – To Catch a Thief
Esryl refused to let Edward put her down, so we took her with us and headed for the restaurant across town. On the way, I changed into one of my new and very distracting blouses, fluffed my hair, spritzed on some perfume, and did a quick pass with a little bit of makeup. Edward grinned appreciatively, so I knew I looked pretty good.
When we got there, they were just being served dessert. Both Jessica and Lauren looked like they had taken makeup lessons from a brothel madam, and they looked way older than high school seniors in the revealing outfits and heavily padded bras they were wearing. I whispered for Edward to follow my lead and not to take anything I said or did with the guys seriously.
"Oh, look who else is here, Edward," I said cheerily, as we pushed past the hostess to their table. "My, don't you two look lovely!" I cooed, as I leaned over their dates to take in their outfits. Both guys were pretty good looking and were obviously enjoying having me lean over their shoulders. Jessica and Lauren both shot nasty glares at me, as one of their dates hooked an arm around my waist.
"Why don't you introduce us to your friend here," the blond one said, as his hand slipped lower. I caught it in mine and held it around my waist, trying to help him keep it, because if he tried to grab my rear again, I was certain by the look on Edward's face that he would be losing it, and quickly. "My name is Chad, by the way."
Jessica and Lauren were seething, as I moved over to the black-haired one with the emo haircut and leaned against him. He looked up at me, and I had to stifle my giggle at his smudged guy-liner and cheesy grin. He really was kind of cute, just not my type. "I'm Stryker, and you're amazing," he mumbled, as I grinned widely at him.
"Hi, guys, my name's Bella, and I go to high school with Jessica and Lauren." Both guys' eyes flashed wide, as they looked at the girls, who were now blushing and glaring daggers at me.
"You said you were both juniors at PSU!" Chad hissed at Lauren.
"You're still in high school?" Stryker asked incredulously, and I nodded with a wide grin.
"Come on, man, we're out of here." The guys each dropped a couple of twenties on the table and got up to leave, but Jessica grabbed Stryker's arm.
"Please, don't go! We're legal and all. We're both seventeen, almost eighteen!" Jessica wailed.
Chad spun around and glared at her. "Seventeen? You may be 'legal' for consent, but we're not looking to hang with a couple of overdone minors with curfews and fake ID's. Buying you drinks could land us in jail. We're both criminal law majors; something like this could totally screw up our records and cost us our scholarships!"
"Oh, you're both studying to be attorneys?" I asked.
They nodded, and I smiled brightly at them. "That's so fortunate, because these two are going to need an attorney unless they cooperate with me," I glared at both girls as I continued. "There was a party at my house last night hosted by my siblings. Some pretty crazy things happened, including quite a bit of vandalism and theft. Would you two have anything to offer about that?" I asked the girls, but they shook their heads no. "Are you sure?" I asked, but they again said no.
Both guys were just mad enough at their deceitfulness to help me. I asked Chad to walk behind Lauren and pick up the clasp of "her" pearls and flip it over and observe what was engraved on it. "If you looked at the back of the clasp after you stole this necklace from my mother's closet, then you noticed my great-grandmother's initials, AIM, for Amelia Irene Martinelli, are engraved there. Chad?"
He nodded, confirming the presence of the initials, and then he unclasped the necklace. When Lauren felt the pearls slipping away from her neck, she reached up to stop Chad from removing them, but Stryker caught her hands. He handed me the pearls, which I immediately clasped behind my neck. I motioned to the ring on her hand, and Stryker slipped it off her finger and handed it to me. "Now, Jessica, if you please, my great-grandmother's earrings and bracelet?"
She shook her head no, but Chad and Stryker moved to either side of her. "You can take them off and return them to their rightful owner right now, or we'll do it for you. It's your choice."
By now, everyone in the restaurant had turned to watch our exchange. I winked at Jake and Vanessa, who had worked their way closer when we'd walked into the restaurant, and they both had their phones out, recording the whole thing. Edward had a sleeping Esryl on his shoulder, but he nodded in thanks to them as well.
Jessica finally relented and removed my great-grandmother's jewelry. I picked up her napkin from her lap and dipped it into her water glass, using that to clean the stems of the earrings, before inserting them into my own ears. "I know it was you two who trashed my room and ruined my baby book that was stored in my mother's closet, along with this jewelry. Did either of you bother to look up in the hallways of our house to see the security globes recording your every move? We have you both on video ripping my clothes up, taking cups of red punch into my room and pouring it on my stuff and slinging it everywhere. I think your parents are going to be very interested in seeing that footage, and you will be reimbursing my parents for the damages." Of course, I had no such proof, but they didn't need to know that. Both of their eyes went wide.
"We're so sorry! We were drunk, and it seemed funny at the time. Please, Bella, you know we didn't mean it!" Jessica was groveling pathetically, while Lauren was trying to get her to shut up. "It was all Lauren's idea, and Rosalie said she didn't care what we did one way or the other. Lauren's jealous that you have all the guys drooling over you, and she wants Edward…"
Jessica prattled on and on, spilling the whole sordid story, while Lauren looked like she was about to gouge out Jessica's eyes with her dessert spoon. Jessica continued to rat Lauren and Rosalie out, so Lauren picked up her dish of cherries jubilee and dumped it down the front of Jessica's dress. Jessica screamed in anger and picked up her dish of what looked like a very gooey chocolate brownie sundae and slammed it into Lauren's chest. They both looked ridiculous. Fortunately, I saw the whole thing coming and had backed away to avoid the mess. Everyone was staring and pointing, and some people were outright laughing.
"You two deserve each other," I sighed. I narrowed my eyes and lowered my voice. "My parents will be in touch with yours to settle on the damages. You also owe our dad and very pregnant mother a massive apology. This has upset her to the point of near hysteria, so I'd suggest you do it sooner rather than later, unless you want this to get even uglier. By the way, smile, you're on Candid Camera. Jake and Vanessa just recorded everything you've said, and it will be used against you," I pointed to my friends, and they waved and smiled, still recording the girls' shocked faces.
I took Edward's hand, and we left the restaurant. Jake and Vanessa followed us to the door. "Bella, that was pure genius!" Vanessa giggled, as she grabbed me up into a hug. Jake hugged me as well, and then he patted Edward on the shoulder. A look passed between the two of them, a sort of mutual understanding, and then Jake grinned before grabbing me again and spinning me around.
"Our girl is fierce! Dang, Bella, you had 'em shaking in their desserts. They didn't know whether to fess up or throw up from the looks on their faces when you said you had video proof. That was priceless!"
"Well, thanks to you guys, we do at least have a confession from them on video. I think my dad's going to want copies of those videos for the Stanley's and the Mallory's viewing displeasure, and maybe to even press charges," Edward said, giving Jake and Vanessa his dad's number, so they could send him the recordings.
We said our thanks and goodbyes to our friends and were finally on our way home when Edward spoke up. "He's a really good friend, isn't he?" Edward asked.
I looked up and saw the smile on his face and nodded. "Yeah, he is, and it looks like he and Vanessa are starting to get really close. I'm glad. They're so great for each other." Edward was quiet for a minute, and then he laughed softly to himself. "What?" I asked, curious.
"I always thought he had a thing for you, and I'll admit I was a little annoyed. He always seemed to be able to make you smile when you needed it the most. Unlike me," he said sadly under his breath.
I reached over and patted his knee. "You're rapidly getting there, Edward. Our budding friendship is a strange one at best, but you're quickly becoming one of my best friends."
He grinned and poked my side. "Best friend, huh? Think Jake will mind me taking his place?"
"He'll forgive me. Besides, that's what friends do. And he's been one of the truest friends I've ever had. He deserves to be happy."
"So do you, Bella. I hope you know how much your happiness means to me now. I can't apologize enough for all the crappy things I did to you over the years. I was an idiot."
"Stop apologizing, Edward. I've already forgiven you."
He took my hand in his and brought it up to his lips, leaving a gentle kiss on my knuckles. "Thank you."
I called my mom on the way home to assure her we had recovered my great-grandma's jewelry. They had gotten the texts from Jake and Vanessa of the recorded confession from Jessica that it had in fact been she and Lauren who had destroyed my room and clothes. She said they would contact the girls' parents to pay for the damages. Elliott came on the phone, and he sounded exhausted.
"Bella, you've totally made your mom's day. I just wish your siblings would've done the same. I ran by the house a while ago, and it's not much better than it was this morning. I'm so sorry. They just got their groundings extended until spring break, and they're all missing school tomorrow to finish cleaning up that mess."
That meant they would be missing football and cheer practice, and thus would be ineligible to participate at the big game next weekend. Oh, that was going to hurt because it was Homecoming, and they were all grounded. What was worse, Rosalie and Emmett had been nominated for Homecoming royalty and would have to forfeit.
Sometimes, justice was just too sweet for words.
We stopped and picked up Honey from Angela and then headed home. Edward pulled Esryl out, while I got Honey, and we walked in and past a very surly Emmett, Alice and Rosalie. I grabbed Honey's food and water dishes and followed Edward upstairs. He dressed Esryl in her pajamas from last night and put her to bed in the crib again before we headed downstairs.
Edward and I had talked about it on the way home, and we were both certain the only way the house was going to get put back together was if we stepped in and led the way. Neither of us deserved to have to help, but we didn't want our parents stressing out any more than they already were, and so we decided to do it for them, not for our siblings.
When we came back down to the family room, they were all standing around, looking at us like we were public enemies number one and two. Edward was too angry to care anymore.
"Emmett, you and I are on nasty furniture removal, high place cleanup and walls. Rosalie and Alice, you two are on floors, trash, spills, and barf, and Bella agreed to help with dishes, pantry, and supervision. That's how it is, now let's do this." They all started arguing again, until the sound of Edward's loud, angry voice silenced them.
"SHUT UP! If you three had done what you were supposed to in the first place, we wouldn't be standing here at almost nine o'clock on a Sunday night fighting over stupidity! Now, if you want our help, you'll shut your faces and get busy. Otherwise, Bella and I will go upstairs and leave you to it!"
They finally shut up and started working on the mess. I headed into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of rubber gloves and started loading the dishwasher, handwashing what didn't fit. I would help with some of the other stuff, but I refused to help clean the barf off the floors and made Alice do it, since some of it was hers. I never thought I would find satisfaction in watching someone else turn green, but I took a bit of sadistic pleasure in seeing Alice down on her hands and knees, scraping up spilled, spoiled food and vomit, all while trying not to further add to the piles of nastiness.
Rosalie grumbled the whole time, but she finally started picking up the trash and wasted food from all over everything. She obviously wasn't used to having to clean, and when I handed her the spray cleaner and told her to work on getting the splatters off the backsplashes, wash down the island and scrub the caked-on grunge off the cooktop, I thought she would start crying.
After four hours of intensive effort, we finally had the kitchen back in shape and sparkling clean. We moved on to the living room, where the guys had removed the ruined furniture. We began scrubbing and cleaning up spills, food, trash, and heaven only knew what else out of places I would never have imagined it could go. We then continued throughout the house, washing walls, sweeping and mopping, scrubbing and disinfecting the vomit-spattered bathrooms, and wiping down whatever else had survived the night that was salvageable. We cleaned what we could off the hardwood floors, but we were going to have to get someone to come in and repair the alcohol-damaged spots, and there were a lot of them.
We saved my room for last. I used my phone to take pictures of all my damaged things and the destruction, and then I kneeled with a sigh and started piling my now-useless clothes, bedding and personal things into trash bags, so the guys could get the furniture out. Rosalie came in and cleared her throat behind me.
"I-I'm so sorry, Bella. This shouldn't have happened." She looked around my room at all the red stains on my walls, curtains and furniture. "I should've kept an eye on them and stopped them. I didn't even know they were going to do something this bad. I just thought maybe they'd…I don't know…I just didn't think they'd do something like this," she said sadly, shaking her head, as she looked around the room. "This is just so…wrong. I'm so sorry."
I nodded, accepting her apology, and continued picking up my ruined stuff and shoving it into the bags. Rose knelt beside me and started helping me. Alice came in a minute later with a fresh bucket of soapy hot water, sponges and cleaning rags, and we began washing the punch off the baseboards and anything else that was staying in the room, which wasn't much.
The girls who had done this deserved to pay, but at least one good thing had come out of it. I finally had experienced peace with my sisters.