The familiar ache in her chest flared when she opened her eyes in the morning and saw her empty room. She knew that it must be another hallucination and she should've known better. Yet she still hoped that he would be there when she woke up, last night's Edward was the most realistic one so far. She held his hand, she held him. It was getting scary, to admit to herself that she must be even crazier than she thought.
She sat with Charlie, slowly sipping her coffee, and moving the eggs on her plate strategically to make it seem like she was eating, as she always does. He talked about redecorating her room or the kitchen again, she told him it was his decision, and she didn't have a preference quietly.
When she arrived at school, she was a little surprised to see Angela waiting her near her usual parking spot. Angela stopped doing that a few months ago, Bella wondered what made her try again and tried to prepare herself to look a little more "normal", she tried to relax her eyebrows and forehead, to take slower breaths and look at her shoulder when Angela started talking. She couldn't look at people's faces anymore, she was tired of seeing the same pity, sadness or anger and hate each time. Shoulder provided a good point, most people didn't even notice that she was not looking at their faces.
"Bella… I…" stalled Angela. "Um… Are you okay?"
"Yes." she replied automatically.
"I mean… Are you okay with them being back?"
"Who?"
"The Cullens." Angela's quiet reply stunned her for a moment, making her eyes shot to hers for a moment. Was this supposed to be a joke? Like the time when Lauren gave her a piece of paper saying that Edward left it for her. Which just proved to be a doodle of penis. She didn't know if Angela hated her enough to joke about that, Bella accepted that she wasn't good at reading people a long time ago.
"Jasper and Alice are back with him." Angela added. "Jessica heard Alice telling someone that the others were also coming back."
"Why?"
"Esme didn't like where they moved."
She nodded in the appropriate places for the rest of their talk but Angela's voice went underwater. She heard them, but from a safe distance.
So, she didn't dream him last night. She tried to remember exactly what he said, he apologized a lot and hugged her. But apparently, he didn't mean to be with her again. Esme was bored. A understandable reason to come back. Maybe he just wanted to apologize because he was feeling guilty, especially now that their whole family was going to see her everyday again.
Yeah, the voice in her head whispered. Just stay away from their way. He wanted to get closure and that's it.
Yes, that was it.