The night had started as fun.
It was only supposed to be a game.
Yet, everything turned and went to hell when when Tanya decided we should play a game of two truths, one lie.
Funny, how something so small and inconsequential can end up turning your life upside down, and making you realize just how petty some people can truly be.
We were all here to spend time for the holidays.
Alice and Jasper drove out from Galveston, Texas. While Rose and Emmett flew over from Rochester, New York. Edward and Tanya had flown in from Venice, California. While Jake and I drove down to Hoquiam from Forks.
It was great.
I had been looking forward to this week for months. It had been a few months since we last got together.
We had all grown up in the same small town of Forks, and eventually spread out to branch out, more or less.
Each of us coming a long way.
Jasper had managed to move down to Texas to take over his family's business. He managed to fix a financial problem that the company had been having, before flying back to Fork and asking Alice to marry him. Now both of them live down there. Alice opened her first clothing store, becoming an upcoming success within months. Now, she has stores spread out in New York, Texas, Florida, and California. She was trying to expand more, possibly adding a store in Seattle to the mix but it was still up in the air. I was happy for both of them and their success.
Emmett and Edward opened their own architectural construction company shortly after graduating from the university. It took them a while to build up said company but they wouldn't have any other way. Now, while the original company is located in Washington state, they have two branches in California and New York. Only traveling to Washington every six months to meet with their father, Carlisle, to check the progress of said branches with the company.
Rose left Washington all together as soon as she got the chance shortly after she got her masters degree in business, and a bachelors in English. Her father needed help running the publishing company, and she jumped for it. Becoming an Editor. She travels to Chicago, Florida, New York. Eventually she was offered position in the branch in New York, and the rest as they say is history.
She ran into Emmett one day, and they got to talking. They exchanged numbers and slowly began to get closer, eventually falling in love flying out to Vegas to elope. That one surprised us all.
Tanya was the newest member of our group. She moved down from Michigan for our senior year in highschool and we became friends with her shortly after. She was the only one of us that left the state to go to the university out of state. Coming to visit every chance she got. Eventually, she was offered a chance to become a model and it changed her life forever.
She travels a lot, constantly having to fly out of the country from modeling jobs in Milan, Paris, and other places, but she always stays in contact. Her and Edward ran into each other and they've been attached at the hip ever since.
As for me, I opened my very own publishing company here. It's by no means large or well known but it gives the chance to the little guy, and that's all I care about.
I met Jacob at the University while taking photography as an elective. We became friends, eventually going into a relationship. It was a constant strain.
From what I could see, neither of us felt anything more than friendship towards each other, yet we still tried to make it work. It sort of just happened, and we have been trying to make it work since.
The day we left we both drove out, due to conflicting schedules. He constantly travels for jobs, and I travel as well. When we're not traveling, our jobs have us both occupied beyond belief.
Anyway, I'm going off topic here.
We had all only just arrived, and gotten settled in when Tanya suggested that we go out on a nature walk.
It was snowing outside. Colder than any other night since winter began, and we decided for some reason that it would be a good idea to go on a walk around the lake.
Jacob brought his camera, and began taking pictures of our group as we walked around.
Eventually, Alice began to complain about her boots getting ruined, and Rose about her jacket being too thin for this weather, which caused Emmett to slip off one of his many jackets and drop it on her shoulders, kissing her forehead as he did.
It had begun to snow about halfway through, causing us to have to turn to head back to the cabin.
By the time we made it back, all of our faces were red, and wind-bitten.
I quickly made my way towards the kitchen and began making something to get us all warm again.
I made some hot chocolate, and ham and swiss pinwheels, along with some apricot pinwheels. Rosalie made us all hot toddies.
We all had two hot toddies before Emmett pulled out some brandy and whiskey and offered us some.
As we drank we all caught each other up on our personal lives.
Then Tanya suggested we all play a game.
It was Two Truths and One Lie. Or vice versa.
It was our decision.
We all took turns guessing.
It was fun, at first.
Eventually, it became Tanya's turn. She sat there tapping her nails on the table's wooden surface, a thoughtful expression on her flushed face.
"Hm. Okay, I got it. My middle name is Portia. My real hair color is black. One of the guys here has seen me nude." She said, hiccuping.
I frowned in thought. Suddenly a thought occured to me ... Her middle name is Nicole. Her hair is naturally blonde.
I looked around the room to find everyone frowning in surprise. Everyone except, you probably guessed it already by now, Jacob.
He was looking down at his apple watch, fiddling with the screen, as his ears turned bright red, even under his russet skin, it was clear.
His reaction was like cold water being thrown at me.
And just like that, my buzz was gone.
So, this is why he had been acting so strange lately
"For how long?" I asked him, calmly.
Jasper stood up, and jutted his chin towards the den silently.
Nothing was said until everyone left.
I stood up, and stared him down as I waited for him to say something. His eyes never looked up from his watch as I did.
Anything at this point would have been less paint than the empty, painful silence that had settled between us.
"Let's take a walk." I finally said.
He got up wordlessly and followed me out.
I trudged through the snow bank littering around the lake, until I reached the edge. My eyes fell on the frozen water that was glittering beautifully as the sun began to set.
"Look, I wanted to tell you..." he began.
I shook my head at him. "No, you didn't. You're only telling me because Tanya outed you! All this fucking time we have been trying to fucking make things work and you were fucking around with her!" I yelled, causing him to flinch.
"Hey, this wasn't my fault." He said defensively
"It never is… You know, if you had just told me you liked her, we could have avoided this. But no, you had to be a coward and now two people are hurt." I told him, scathingly.
"Bella, I…" he began.
"Save it for someone who wants to hear it." I snapped angrily.
I couldn't believe he had done this. I mean, if he wanted to move on, why didn't he just tell me? Why string me along like he did? Why allow this to keep going?
"No, you've said your peace now I want to say mine." He said.
"I don't want to hear your reasons. I don't need to, Jacob. Hell, I don't even want to see you right now. You need to leave. I want you out of my house, get your shit and go. I don't care where you go, but you can't stay there or here." I told him, facing away from him.
Unwilling to admit how much his actions hurt me.
"Bella, I—" He began.
"Just go…" I whispered, without looking at him.
I heard him leave, listening to his retreating steps as they eventually disappeared.
When I finally stopped hearing his footsteps, I made my way over to a small mound of snow and sat down, watching the sun as it slowly began to set.
After the sun went down, I sat there, staring blankly at my feet.
Not really thinking of anything in particular, yet thinking of everything at the same time.
So many things and questions I now needed an answer to. Yet somehow I knew that if I got those answers, I knew I would only end up being hurt. That wasn't something I needed at the moment.
I lost track of time, getting lost in my thoughts. Only the sudden feeling of a fluffy blanket falling onto my shoulders alerted me of the arrival of someone.
"Hey," A soft masculine voice spoke.
I turned to see Edward sitting right next to me. I turned to stare at him, wordlessly, before turning to stare back at the frozen lake.
"How long did he tell you that they did this for?" He asked me, quietly.
I opened my mouth to answer only to realize my teeth were chattering from the cold. And the movement almost had me bite my tongue off.
He sighed, as he looked me full in the face. "Shit. Your lips are blue." he murmured as he made a moved to stand, then proceeded to he try to get me to stand up.
My muscles refused to move as he did, and I ended up on my side, shivering as the snow touched my exposed skin. For a moment I thought he was going to leave me in the cold, before I felt him yank me into a sitting position and lift me into his arms like a sack of potatoes.
I blinked in surprise as he rushed in the direction of the cabin, he whispered something to me, but my mind failed to make sense of it before I passed out.
When I woke up I was in my room. I was wrapped the thick wool blanket, and along with a heated blanket.
As I moved to sit up my muscles twitched painfully.
"Stay put." I heard someone say from somewhere near the bed.
"What happened?" I asked, thickly.
Edward got up and moved into my line of sight. "You're exhausted, and you were beginning to get hypothermia when I found you. I got to you just in time. But your body is still going through recovery." He explained.
I frowned. I didn't realize it had been that cold. Just how long had I been out there?
"Jacob and Tanya left together shortly after he got back from where you two left. We'd been looking for you for over two hours when I found you. Are you—?" He trailed off as he saw me begin to frown.
"I don't… I didn't realize I had been out there so long. Where is everyone?" I asked him, as I finally succeeded in jerking my upper body off.
"Alice went to the store with Jasper. Emmett went to get some firewood to light a fire in the hearth, and Rose is making you some chicken soup." He said as I laid back down.
I sighed laying back on the bed, "Six months." I whispered, staring at the ceiling blankly.
"Huh?" He replied, furrowing his brow.
"Six months is how long they've been doing this. Possibly longer. He's been acting weird for a while now. I didn't ask, because I didn't need to hear the details." I told him.
"It makes sense. Tanya had this photoshoot around eight months ago and came back acting different too. I now know the reason why, I guess. She always did say I didn't pay her enough attention, I guess she found someone who does." He murmured, rubbing his hand over his face tiredly.
I sighed, before reaching out to grab his hand, causing him to lift his head up in surprise.
"What they did isn't our fault. We can't blame ourselves." I told him firmly.
He shook his head in response, frowning at the ground, before I felt his hand squeeze mine slightly. "You're right. Besides, this is supposed to be a vacation for us. A time to have fun." He said, nodding in agreement.
I raise a brow, wondering how I was supposed to have fun when I practically froze to death. A hot bath sounded pretty good right now.
Hot bath. Wait, wasn't there a hot somewhere around here?
Suddenly, a great idea occured to me. "How about we go for a soak in the hot tub?"
He sighed, before holding up a finger as he pressed the phone to his ear. Spoke quietly for a second before lowering the phone and turning to me.
"I called my dad. He said it was alright to go in the hot tub, unless you start feeling dizzy. So, how are you feeling?" He asked.
I smiled at him, "Much better, thanks for asking." I replied.
We spent a few hours in the hot tub, talking and drinking the beer Emmett had brought on their way here.
The next day we all went out to eat breakfast at a restaurant located in a town a few minutes away, before the girls decided that they wanted to go shop at the local shops.
The rest of the week passed in a blur.
~Five Years Later~
"Momma, why do we come here every year?"
Edward smiled before leaning down to pick up our five year old daughter, Cassie Monroe.
We exchanged a smile as she frowned at us.
"Well?" She demanded.
"Love Bug, we come here every year because this is where your mom and I came on our first date. It's where we both realized we loved each other." Edward explained as he smoothed down her bronze curls.
She frowned, "Aunt Alice says that she saw you two kissing in the hot tub when that happened." She told us, wrinkling her nose at us.
Edward bit the side of his cheek to keep from laughing as I smacked his arm.
"Yes, well that happened after a very long night. Now, let's go inside to eat." Edward said as he booped her nose.
"But I still have questions." She muttered, pouting.
"That's enough questions for now. We need to eat and your mom has to take your brother inside to get warmed up." He said as he turned us.
She eyed her two year old little brother, Charles Anthony, with an annoyed expression before sighing and nodding in response.
I smiled as we walked back towards the familiar cabin with a smile.
If it hadn't been for the game we played that night Edward and I would've never realized we had feelings for each other soon after. Before it was until it was too late.
Though it did take us a while for us to forgive Jacob and Tanya, but we eventually talked things out and we're on speaking terms.
To think that it was all thanks to that game that our lives changed. I can't complain with how things turned out.
Happiness truly does come when you least expect it.
Author's Note:
So, here is another one shot I wrote.
Just to keep y'all intrigued.
Anyway, hope you like it.
P.S, there won't be adding to this or anything else I post for the time being.