Recap of Chapter 28:
The Teens rouse themselves to experience some snowy cold fun at the Lodge, and this time Bella and Edward are not able to escape their friends again for some alone time. The two seperate and join their friends for some outdoor activity that only leads to Bella being on her own with a ski lesson. Thankfully she's entertained due to Ian being an instructor, which leads to the two spending time talking with one another casually about Bella's secret relationship. He gives her some words to chew on about her situation before he distracts her with an exhilerating snow mobile ride. The ride doesn't go unnoticed however from the girls and guys spotting her on it, which leads to a confrontation - both the girls demanding Bella spill the beans and the guys inserting themselves into the discussion. However, after some harsh insults from Emmett, Edward suddenly snaps at his brother and breaks down the facade that he's had to begrudgingly keep up in order to keep the secret of his and Bella's relationship a secret. The boys are pulled away by Carlisle and Esme, but now Bella worries that the trip is starting to cause Edward to crack from the pressures of hiding their romance, even more since Jasper is trying to put the pieces together - or is he? Is Bella overthinking everything? Time will only tell.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
~Edward~
"Damn it!" I shouted to myself while I slammed the door to the room behind me angrily. I shoved my hands into my hair roughly, growling and pacing in the small space. My chest was tight with a searing rage that I could only push harsh breaths out of my body to try and get some air into my lungs. I let a string of expletives fall from my mouth while I paced back and forth, stomping as I went.
The nerve of that fucking asshole! I couldn't believe that Emmett would say those words to her. She wasn't some fucking slut like he wanted to keep painting her to be. He was vile and infuriating to be around the more he spewed on and on about Bella. I wanted nothing more than to sock him in the jaw even if that meant my hand likely would've broken or I would've gotten a reciprocating punch to the face from him. But it would've been a well deserved punch and worth it in my eyes even if I got hit back. I could care less at that point in my mind; hell even now I desperately wanted to storm down to the room he shared with the other guys and pound his face in until he'd be bloodied. I don't care if he is my brother in all words other than blood - he had no right to hurl those insults at Bella. It's not her fault if her girlfriends were insinuating that an employee of this place seemingly likes her and everything he had done for her seemed more than friendly.
I knew Bella and I knew she wouldn't ever dare entertain another guy even if on the surface we're seen as hating each other. She was loyal as I was to her. I could see the way that Ian did look at her - he wasn't exactly laying it on thick with her like any other guy would if they knew standing right in front of them was the pretty girl that was Bella - pretty and on the surface, single. So far the whole time we've been here ever since I first saw him, his eyes sought out for her. He'd be smiling as soon as his eyes would connect with hers and he sure as hell made sure to go out of his way to talk to her, make her smile and giggle. It ate at me on the inside just watching him interact with her. Ian, I think that was what his name was, ate everything up that she gave when they'd interact and I felt such a surge of jealousy every time I'd have to sit on the sidelines and witness it. It should be me who is making her laugh and smile. It should be me who's able to talk to her openly without fearing it'd come to bite us back in the ass or without the sword that was our friends looming over us.
But what if she actually likes him?
Fuck off insecurities. She spent a large portion of yesterday with me in our room and we took advantage of our alone time. She was mine as much as I was hers; there was no room for anyone else to come in between us. But still... the fear sat in the back of my mind. What did I have to offer to Bella to keep her with me? I mean sure I could be a conceited jerk and say that I have my looks, my personality and humor, my athletic skill, my talent with music be it singing or playing the piano or guitar. Still was that enough for her to still be charmed by me? I shouldn't look at it just from a superficial standpoint when there can be more to which Bella loves about me. I mean there had to be since we've been in a whirlwind romance with one another ever since she came to FSA. I felt like I had fallen under her spell the minute I laid eyes on her that first day when the girls arrived - and it quickly exploded into deeper feelings the more I got to know her and was pulled in just by her mysterious magnetic charm. She had admitted as much of the same to me that she felt the same when she first saw me that day, that she was physically attracted to me but once we started getting to know each other, it was more. Beyond physical attraction, there was an emotional connection.
But what if she was now having second thoughts on feeling this way with me? She never seemed to give any second thoughts to any other guy at the school - her abusive ex boyfriend was there with an additional stalker to boot that wanted to lay claim to her due to some stupid 'clause' he had agreed upon with Joshua. Sure the rest of the male populace were also physically attracted to her, I could see it in their eyes each time any of them would spot her in the school. But she never seemed to give them a second glance. She only had eyes for me.
She does have eyes only for me... right?
A sudden knock on my door broke me out of my inner turmoil. I hurried over to the door and wretched it open, grimacing when I was greeted by the cold stare of my adoptive father, Carlisle. "Dad." I muttered and side-stepped to let him inside the room. Carlisle huffed and entered, coming in to stand in the middle of the room with his arms cross. I shut the door and turned around to face him. "Dad I'm... I'm sorry okay?"
"I know you are. But the question as to why did this happen? What is going on with you?"
I frowned and turned to scowl down at the floor.
"You can't refuse to answer me. Pouting or remaining silent doesn't work on me anymore than it had when you were younger, son."
"Dad it's just... Okay look I don't know if I can explain it."
"You can try."
I sighed at his answer and sulked towards my bed to which I sat down on the edge of it. Carlisle sat down next to me and waited for me to start explaining myself. I ran a hand through my hair once again and looked up at him before I finally chose to speak. "It's just... I'm feeling all sorts of feelings. I'm trying to remain calm and enjoy my time up here - really I am having fun. But... I don't know why I'm just having such a short fuse with a lot of things. I mean, I first snapped at Alice just because she gave me such a hard time when she found out with the others about our sleeping arrangement. She's so harsh in thinking I'm going to do something to hurt Bella when that couldn't be further from the truth - but you know how it is right now for Bella and I. I mean you and mom are in the know of the fact we have to keep our relationship a secret from our friends. So it's so frustrating that Alice gets to lay into me about everything acting as if I'm the spawn of Satan set out to hurt and defile Bella. So I snapped at her yesterday. I also can't help it dad - I have a short temper but also a bigger insecurity in regards to the employee that you heard Alice and Rosalie gossiping about -"
"That Ian kid that seems really friendly with Bella?"
"Yes." I quipped, locking my jaw into place.
"Son, calm down."
"Sorry uh..." I gulped down some air and shook my head. "Yes him. I've been watching him ever since we arrived and god dad... I never felt so jealous before in my life but I'm having to sit back and watch this guy being so openly friendly with her when I long to be able to do that with her; I want to have conversations with her that aren't some stupid ploy of what I have to put up as a front to her friends. I hate how I have to act like an idiot with her - I'm ashamed to admit to you dad but we act like asshats with the girls. It's horrible what comes out of us when we encounter them at the school. You would be so pissed off if you heard some of the insults that Emmett hurls at them; I've never wanted to punch him so bad like I had felt today. Ever since I've started dating her, I'm getting more and more irritated with him in how he treats her. She deserves better than that after all that she's been through. I just... I couldn't take it anymore after hearing him spewing the nonsense that he was saying to her." I ran a hand over my face in frustration.
"Edward," I looked up when Carlisle called me. His expression was unreadable. "You have to ask yourself - are you ready to stop hiding your relationship with Bella? Everything you've explained to me has read to me that while yes you're tired of your sister berating you, as well as hearing Emmett insult Bella like he has been doing so - it boils down to the fact that you want to stand up for your relationship with her. You're tired of hiding it are you not?" I nodded to him weakly. "I thought as much. Ever since I saw you snapping at that employee, I could tell that you didn't appreciate him talking to your girl. I didn't know that Alice had been giving you the third degree, nor do I know how extensive Emmett's bullying is at the school. But I can tell when my son is upset and just from the fact you two let your mother and I in on the secret, we know that you both would like to be able to have a normal relationship that doesn't involve you two hiding it from your friends."
"Yes but..." I sighed, shaking my head. "If we were to reveal to them that we liked each other, much less the fact we've been dating each other behind their backs - it's bound to end poorly for us and we're likely going to lose them as our friends." I muttered.
"Do they matter to you more than Bella?"
"No." I answered immediately, staring up at him wide eyed while he sat back with his hands on his knees. "Bella matters more to me than anything. But... we love our friends too - but if I had to choose between either of them -"
"You'd choose Bella every time." Carlisle finished for me and I nodded my head, which earned me a small smile. "But the fear of rejection and being ostracized by everyone else, the public 'shame' perhaps - that's what is holding you two back from letting out your secret?"
"Yes."
"Son, I get the predicament you're in to a point. But you realize after you have snapped at Emmett the way you did - I don't know what was said between you two before your mother and I arrived, but I knew it was bad since you both looked ready to get physical. I have no doubt in my mind that right now you two are at risk of having your relationship exposed and sooner or later you two are going to be prodded to give reasonable explanations. There's also only so many lies that they'll eat before they'll start really questioning everything and not believing any explanations that you two may give." Carlisle explained to me, raising an eyebrow at me when I nodded solemnly. "Sooner or later, something is going to happen to where you two can't keep up this façade anymore - the dam will burst. I feel as though it would be better for you and Bella to come clean to both your friends and hers. Even if that means the whole school hates you two, you can't keep up this act forever because it will be found out one way or another - and the real question is whether you two are going to be the ones to do it so the favor is in your court, or will you let the others find out themselves through some mishap which could result in a messier situation?"
"Well I'd like to be able to control things and tell them." I grumbled, ignoring his smirk. "But again... our friends are going to hate us. We'll be public enemy number one."
"And? At least you will finally have this whole ordeal out in the open, not bottled up anymore. This is eating away at you, I can tell. Bella, well I can't speak for her so I can't tell how she is feeling during all of this."
"She's feeling the same way as I am - she just has a better... grip on her emotions than I do I guess." I murmured. Bella always seemed to be able to keep her emotions in better check than I was, or at least on the surface she was. We've had our talks and I know that she wishes the same thing that I do - that we could stop hiding and let everything out in the open. But she cares about how the others would feel and doesn't want us telling them the truth at the wrong time. She'd like to be able to keep the friendships she has, mainly between my adoptive sister and Rosalie. I'd like to be able to keep my friends with Jasper, and Emmett (even if right now I'm pretty sure Emmett is already suspecting crap and probably wants nothing to do with me other than burying me into the ground). We loved having them as our friends, regardless of how annoying they can be sometimes. Emmett and Jasper have been there for me for years it seems through some stupid shit I've done in the past, and I've backed them up on their hair-brained schemes and pranks at our school that have landed them in a lot of trouble. We were thick as thieves after all. And I knew that Bella loved Alice despite her hyperactive energy, along with the fact she loved Rosalie's strong attitude where she'd take crap from no one. The three of them were so close and I knew both Alice and Rosalie were fiercely protective of my girlfriend; they threatened to chop off my dick in the earlier months of school after I had played that cruel 'joke' on Bella in the hallways. Especially after her past with Joshua, Rosalie and Alice would do anything to make sure Bella is safe from any dangers. Bella and I would be devastated if our friends came to hate us if they found out about our relationship.
But my dad was right - we couldn't hide this for forever. At some point it would be too much for either one of us and we would be bound to snap and come out. If not her, I knew for sure it'd be me. After today, I wouldn't be surprised if I would have to do so soon. I wanted to say I felt like I could care less if it had to be now - I was definitely getting tired of being hounded by Alice and Rosalie, and I was getting more and more frustrated with Emmett's bullying of Bella. Jasper went along with this nonsense since he acted just like a perfect mix between Emmett and I with everything regarding the ladies. It was never going to end unless we put an end to it ourselves and came out with our secret.
This would definitely be a topic I had to have a chat with Bella on.
"I think that you and her need to discuss this. You both need to be on the same page when it comes to something like this. You certainly didn't make it any easier on the matter by snapping out today as well as yesterday." Carlisle advised and I sighed.
"I know dad, I probably mucked everything up by acting like a jerk."
"More than likely, yes. But you realize that no matter what happens, you have my support as well as your mother's support. We care about you and Bella and we both want you two to be safe and happy. And if your friends, your siblings and everyone at that school hates you, we will be there for you two." Carlisle promised me, clapping a hand onto my shoulder. "I just want you two to realize this: if and when you two tell everyone the truth about what's really been going on, two things could happen. While yes everyone may hate you for awhile, either they may get over it in their own terms and time before they might reach out and be your friend again. And that's the best case scenario. But the worst case scenario? They may never get over it and view you two to be villains." I blanched at that last tidbit. "Oh don't get all nervous just because I said it out loud. If they hate you two for that long, then were they really your friends to begin with? If they were honestly your friends, they'd get over themselves and realize that you two are happy together and should care more about that versus caring about the fact you two were dating behind their backs."
"Well... that's a fair point." I muttered, nodding my head meekly.
"Besides, I frankly think they're hiding feelings of their own."
"Huh?" I looked up at him bewildered. Carlisle chuckled, a twinkle in his blue eyes.
"Well, I don't think they're hiding secret relationships of their own like you and Bella are. But I think they have crushes on one another. I've been only observing everything between you teens - Emmett and Rosalie have eyes for each other but are too bullheaded to even give the other the time of day if it doesn't involve some insults. And don't even get me started on Jasper making eyes at my little girl that is your sister." I laughed out loud when I heard my adoptive father bluntly explain the feelings that the others seemingly had for one another. It was especially hilarious just hearing the grumbling that came out of him when he made the connection between Jasper probably liking Alice.
"Is it that obvious between them?"
"Well to your mother and I, yes. But to them, they're likely denying everything they feel about their desired crushes." Carlisle said bluntly and I shook my head at him.
"Frankly I've noticed about as much of the same with them - at least from Jasper and Emmett. I just don't know if it's more physical feelings and nothing else below the surface." I told him, pursing my lips.
"We may never know until they both realize it themselves, son." Carlisle surmised, shaking his own head now. "I wouldn't think too much on what they may be feeling now though. I hope you take what I said to you to heart and please, don't hesitate to reach out to your mother and I if you and Bella are in need a support system to weather the storm should things come out." He continued to explain to me, looking down at me with his eyes shining and he gave me smile.
"Thanks dad, that means a lot."
Carlisle stood from the bed then, sighing briefly. "But do realize that for now, I still want you to keep your distance from your brother for the remainder of the day. I don't need you two starting up anything again. If by then when you two settle down, you can try working out your issues then. But if you're not able to, please just avoid one another until then."
I shook my head. "Well if he can learn to not spew nonsense..."
"Edward."
"It's the truth dad."
Carlisle narrowed his eyes at me ever so slightly and I shrugged my shoulders. "I had a chat with him before coming up here and frankly speaking I want to say this went better than what I had to go through with him. Your brother decided to sit there and try to defend himself in just acting like a heathen to the girls, and I wasn't having any of it. But don't push your luck in kicking him while he's down." he stated to me with a frown. "I don't approve of how he acts either. I plan on going back down to try again with him since nothing I said earlier was getting through to him. But I am still wanting you two to stay away from each other until you two can act civil with one another."
"That's fine. But am I grounded to my room for the rest of the day?" I joked lightly, and Carlisle rolled his eyes.
"At least for now, but no I'm not prohibiting you from leaving the room or going back out to go play in the snow or whatever you wanted to do. I'm just saying, stay away from your brother and I'll be ordering him to do the same. You both need to cool off from your fight because I do not want a repeat."
"I can do that. I'll stay away from him so long as he stays away from me. And I'd appreciate it if he stays away from Bella."
"Well I'm sure in either case, the ladies will be apprehensive in approaching either of you." He clarified while he turned towards the door. I frowned, worried now in thinking Bella wanted to avoid me, but I then realized that he meant my sister, Rosalie, Angela and Jessica and not my girlfriend. He opened the door to my room and turned towards me. "You should go down and get some food for lunch. If the girls or Jasper want to give you any flak for what happened just please, don't blow up on them. If anything just ignore them, or come up with some excuse that won't devolve into another mess breaking out." Carlisle added before he left my room, closing the door behind him.
I sighed, raking a hand through my hair. My stomach growled just then when I realized I was indeed hungry, so I figured at this point I should just suck it up and head down to get food. I left my room and made it down to the main floor of the Lodge, heading over to the restaurant. I looked around before spotting my mother at the table both with the girls and the guys minus Carlisle and my asshat of an adoptive brother. Her eyes connected with mine as it appeared she had been looking for me as well and she smiled before waving me over. Shoving my hands into my pockets, I trudged over and took the available seat next to her on her left. Next to me on my left was Jasper.
"Are you hungry son?" Esme asked me when I sat down. I glanced around the table and saw that the others already had their own food in front of them, ranging between sandwiches and salads. The site and smells from it all only made my stomach growl again and I sighed before nodding my head to her. "I'll flag a waiter down so you can get something to eat."
"Thanks mom." I murmured to her, and she nodded her head. Then she turned her attention over to the girls and busied herself with their conversation.
"Dude, you alright?" I looked over at Jasper when he voiced his question. His blue eyes were looking at me warily, almost in a scrutinizing manner, as he stared at me with pursed lips. I knew that he was definitely questioning everything from earlier. I knew I blew it so far just by acting out like I have been since we've been up here and Jasper most likely could sense something was definitely up with me. It was some weird innate talent of his to be able to detect if someone was going through the motions or some sort of off-kilter mood than whatever their norm would be. And being friends with him for as long as I have been, the guy knew when I was off and would never hold back on at least checking up on me and trying to get to the bottom of the matter. I had usual scuffs with Emmett since we were brothers in some form and while it was normal for us, this was not a normal disagreement that we are having. He's likely been watching me the whole time since we've arrived and how I have snapped at Ian yesterday when we were eating lunch, and now seeing as how I reacted in an explosive manner with Emmett, he's suspicious.
I shrugged to him. "I'm fine."
"Bullshit man." Jasper hissed in disagreement, narrowing his eyes at me. "I've never seen you get so pissed off with Em like that before. Sure the big oaf is an asshole sometimes, and he's got a temper to match but you're no better. Even then, you two usually patch things up quickly. But I've never seen you go at it with him like that before." he continued.
"Well we're brothers. And frankly I think he was just going too far with it." I muttered, turning my head away from looking at him.
"Ed, seriously. I know something's eating at you."
"No, nothing is eating at me Jazz."
"If nothing really was eating at you, you wouldn't be trying to brush me off like you are right now." I grimaced when he pointed out what I had tried to subtly do. I glanced over at him to see he was now glaring at me. "What are you hiding man? You know you can trust me, or at least I hope you know you can. But why do I feel like you don't trust me?"
"Jasper you're looking too deep into something that isn't there." I muttered, shaking my head at him.
"You're dodging me again."
"Look, I couldn't stand what the fuck Emmett was saying. You can't tell me that you were fine with what he was saying when that shit is degrading and low, even for him. I don't care if he doesn't like the girls, he doesn't need to be treating them like absolute shit every time we encounter them. It's childish to be constantly going out of your way just to make a scene with them when he could do the mature thing and just ignore them. He wants to treat it like we're in some elementary schoolyard by bullying them and annoying. We're all seventeen and in high school, Jazz. It's just pathetic and unnecessary drama." I snapped at him, wagering a cold glare at him. I felt like at least that answer was plausible enough and I could only hope that would placate him.
"Well... That's reasonable." Jasper relented at first, nodding his head. "But why now man? You never seemed to have issues with it before, especially when we're at school. And today of all days, you snap when Emmett's laying it on thick when he's getting into it with Swan just because she has the hots for some worker?"
"It's not that deep." I ground out, rolling my eyes. "Swan doesn't like me, in fact she's made that abundantly clear that she detests me. I could give two fucks if she likes some other dude much less a worker here." Liar, but continue to spew nonsense. "I don't like her all the same, but it's still just shitty nonsense to be really going that far. Did he really need to insert himself in the conversation that the girls were having? No. And you egging it on didn't help." I continued.
"Don't turn this on me now." Jasper muttered, scowling.
"It's the truth."
"You're still hiding shit from me. Why now of all times are you suddenly wanting to stop messing with the girls? We had an agreement that if they were going to give us a hard time we'd do the same back to them - we had made this agreement at the start of the school year when they made it clear as day that they wanted nothing to do with us. You were all for it and even encouraged it. Suddenly you're growing a conscious and want to stop?" Jasper argued, narrowing his eyes once again at me.
"I'm not hiding anything from you - it's the truth when I say that it's gotten old with this bullshit. I'm done playing this stupid game of having some checklist at the start of everyday; and especially so since the first item on the list is always 'lets go fuck with the girls and be assholes about it', it's gotten old and tiresome. It's not me hiding anything, it's something called maturing and learning to just ignore them. And that's something that Emmett will never realize in that he should grow the fuck up and quit it with his douchebag ways." I spat out, huffing just as a waitress came along finally. Esme had pulled herself away from her conversation with the girls and motioned to me, telling her that I wanted to get something to eat and drink. "I'll just have a roast beef sandwich with a coke, please." I ordered, turning away from Jasper and effectively ending the conversation with him.
The waitress had nodded and wrote down my order and then murmuring it'd be out in a few minutes, she walked away. I could feel Jasper's eyes on me the rest of the time we had our lunch but I chose to ignore him as I was done with trying to get him to see my side of things. He was obviously not convinced that everything I had said was the whole truth and wanted to get to the bottom of it - but he was not going to get anywhere further with what I had provided. The girls chose to ignore what was happening between us, or they were blissfully unaware - either way, neither of them acknowledged me coming to the table or our quiet discussion. I glanced over at Bella once or twice, noting that she was at least smiling and laughing at whatever her conversation was with the girls. I was happy to see that she seemed to be fine. But the insecurities still gnawed at my mind while I recalled what all had happened earlier. I don't know if she was upset with me for snapping out again over something related to Ian. Just because the girls weren't giving in that they thought he had feelings for her and was trying to flirt with her ever since we came here, I knew that I should've held it in better.
I knew why I snapped as half of it was the fact I was really sick and tired of hearing Emmett picking on her specifically and really being heavy handed with the insults he slung her way. But it was also jealousy. I didn't want to think about her being with another guy - I couldn't get a read on him whether or not his intentions were actually platonic or if he had ulterior motives whenever he'd chat with her. He seemed to be at least keeping up with his promise of keeping our relationship a secret from our friends. But that doesn't stop him from being able to mingle with her openly while he's working. I don't think I ever felt such a surge of envy when I had seen Bella ride by on that snow mobile holding onto who I could only assume to be Ian. If things were different, that would've been me driving one of those things and she'd be holding onto me while we drove around.
You sound like such a petulant whiny brat for not getting your way. You know that you can't have that with her since you guys are hiding your relationship from your friends.
Lunch ended finally when we were all finished with our food. Esme had paid for us and led our group of the restaurant. Carlisle never rejoined us, nor did Emmett so I had to assume they were still chatting out what had happened earlier. We stopped in the lobby when Esme turned to us. "Alright everyone, the day is still young. Carlisle and I were going to surprise you all earlier with this before the mess happened," she paused to throw me a knowing look and I winced. "But the offer is still on the table - we reserved a slot for you all to be able to go ice skating on the frozen pond outside! The staff gave the okay for guests to be able to go out on it and skate around since it seems it's frozen over completely and there's no worries about the ice cracking from what they can tell."
"Ooh ice skating!" Alice cheered, clapping her hands excitedly. "Ladies lets go do it!"
"That sounds exciting, I'm game." Rosalie agreed, with Jessica and Angela murmuring their agreements.
"Thank you for doing something like that, Mrs. Cullen. It sounds like fun." Bella agreed to it in her sweet voice, offering a smile.
"No problem, my dear. And you boys? Are you up for skating?" Esme then turned the attention to us four before her. Alice and Rosalie were not so subtle in showing their displeasure when they heard her ask us. Angela and Jessica played along as did Bella.
"I'm up for skating." Mike agreed readily, along with Ben.
"Sure, it sounds like fun and I'd hate to waste the effort you and Mr. Cullen had put into this for us. Thank you again for it." Jasper agreed as well, even though I knew he wasn't looking at my adoptive mother. I could feel his gaze boring into the back of my head as I knew he was still scrutinizing me, especially after I gave him the cold shoulder.
"Edward?" My mom then directed the question at me. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Sure."
"Alright then everyone! I suggest that you at least go upstairs and shift around your outfits - still dress warm and in layers but you don't need your snow pants as much as you think. When you're all ready to go, come back down as I'll gather up your rented skates from the Lodge workers and we can head out to the ice." Esme ordered with a smile. We all agreed to her instructions and we headed towards the elevators. The girls went up to their floor with Bella separating from them. The guys waited for the next elevator and I still did my best to ignore Jasper's gaze while he waited with Mike and Ben. Esme, Bella and I got into our own elevator and I kept my eyes trained to the ground while the doors closed before us. The ride up to our floor was silent and I knew Bella was tense with the awkward tension that settled over us - she was dying to berate me with questions about earlier but she was too shy to ask anything in front of my mom.
We reached our floor and Esme spoke over her shoulder to us while we walked down the hallway. "You two have at least fifteen or twenty minutes to get changed out before we should head back down to the others." she simply stated before giving us a smile. She then left us at our Lodge room. I keyed in the card and after opening the door, I motioned for Bella to get in before me. She walked in and I followed in behind her before shutting the door behind me. Bella was watching me while I walked over to my suitcase and was already unzipping myself from my large snow coat.
"We better hurry as we don't want to keep the others waiting." I muttered to her, slipping the coat off of me.
"Edward..." I looked over my shoulder to see her pouting at me. "Talk to me, what's going on?"
"Everyone has been asking that of me today." I grumbled, yanking my hat off of my head.
"Don't shut me out - something's bothering you and I would like to know." Bella argued, where I heard her taking off her coat. I slipped off my snow pants and began looking around my clothes to find another sweater that I wanted to stick on over my current one, as well as hoping to find extra pairs of wool socks that I brought along for this trip. "You're normally so good at keeping your emotions in check especially whenever Emmett's picking on me. But you snapped today and you've been so on edge ever since we came here. What's the problem?"
I sighed and dropped the clothes in my hands back into my bag. I turned around to look back at her, noting that she looked adorable just in her sweater she had on while her hulking snow pants was still on her legs, along with the hat and scarf she had left with this morning was still on her. She was frowning at me. "It's... I don't know how to explain it to you." I grumbled, straightening up to cross my arms.
"It's about Ian again, isn't it?" I winced when she asked. "Edward please! I told you already, he means nothing to me. I'm not into him like the girls think that I am! I told you as much yesterday, I don't have eyes for anyone else but you and I'd never let another guy think he has a shot with me." Bella argued as she shimmied herself out of her snow pants. Her brows were furrowed as she looked at me.
I raked a hand over my face and grunted. "Fine, yes, it's about Ian." I relented and she groaned. "I know you showed me plenty yesterday just how much you love me and don't think of Ian as anything more than a friend. But god damnit Bella, I'm sick and tired of listening to the girls thinking there's more - it gets to me no matter how much I try to ignore it. And as much as you'd like to think he views the same as you do for him, I see it from a different angle and I see the way he looks at you babe. His eyes read something more than friendly." I muttered, looking away angrily.
"You're obviously seeing things." Bella grumbled and when I whipped my gaze back at her, her frown deepened while she looked at me.
"No, I'm not. I'm seeing it through another guy's eyes and especially through the eyes of a jealous boyfriend." I countered, skulking over to our bed and sitting down heavily. "I know I'm sounding like a whiny brat when I say this but god damnit I just want to be able to show that dude that you're mine - openly and in front of everyone, not giving two fucks about what they might say about us. I'm dying here just having to put up with listening to the girls pester you about him and the fact he can talk to you as openly as he can, make you laugh and smile? It's eating at me!" I huffed, raking my hands through my hair to tug at the ends in frustration. "Everything about this just sucks to me, and I know in your mind that he wouldn't try anything since he knows you and I are dating. But I'm... I don't know I'm still getting vibes that he would still flirt with you or is flirting with you without you realizing it." I muttered helplessly, shaking my head.
"Edward enough." I jumped when Bella was standing in front of me. I looked up just in time for her to push my shoulders roughly which caused me to fall back onto the bed. She hoisted herself into my lap, straddling me and sat above me with her lower half on mine. Bella took my wrists in her hands and pinned me down while she stared down at me with a scowl. "Ian has no desires for me like you think he does - is he possibly flirting with me? Maybe but I wouldn't know since I'm bad in reading people - so I'm likely to be oblivious to it with him. But am I going to reciprocate these unknown sentiments? Am I going to start flirting back with him? Absolutely not. I don't view him to be anything more than a possible new friend. He's easy to talk to, and frankly he reads to me like you read to me - easy to converse with, he holds no judgement and listens to my troubles while trying to offer advice that he thinks would best suit the situation. He gave me advice about us for god's sake - he thinks we shouldn't care what our friends think and that we should just go public! If he wanted to come in between us, I highly doubt he'd be trying to help us!" Bella chastised me while looking down at me with a frown.
"Well... in that perspective, I guess he's not going to try and steal you away from me." I muttered.
"You guess, meaning you're still holding doubts." Bella grumbled back while frowning down at me.
"Yes." I stated bluntly. "But... I also hear what he's saying, seeing as my father said the same thing too when he came up here earlier to talk to me after I blew up on Emmett." I added with a sigh.
"So if two people are saying the same bit of advice then maybe that's what we have to do in order for you to not be wanting to castrate every single guy that comes towards me." Bella said then with a smirk.
"Yes, that's likely the answer." I muttered with a chuckle and a rolling of my eyes. Bella released my hands and sat back some to let me sit upright now, which I took advantage of our position by wrapping my arms around her waist. "Don't think I'm going to let you out of my hold just yet since you put yourself in this position." I murmured to her with a smirk, noting her cheeks began to redden.
"Look, I had to snap you out of your damn mood." Bella argued weakly, biting her bottom lip.
"Consider it gone, but now you've put me into another mood."
"Edward you realize we only have so much time up here like your mom said."
I sighed again. "I know, and really still I wouldn't think it'd be wise for us to get caught while on the trip..." I trailed off. I looked up at her and saw she was looking down at me with another frown. "My dad thinks we need to talk about us and our situation. And I'm inclined to believe he's right - now that I hear another person thinks it'd be smart for us to come out with the truth, I want to know what you think."
"To be perfectly honest? This whole thing of secrecy is eating at me too." Bella began with a deep exhale. "I try to not let anything get to me especially when the girls want to really make digs at you. Or the fact that I have to listen to drabble from other girls - like Lauren, Tanya and Irina - that want to gush about your good looks. Both ends of the spectrum drive me up the wall, and it is irritating that I can't say anything to defend you or stake my claim. So don't worry, I understand your frustrations that you have been going through. I guess I'm lucky in that I haven't seen a single random girl on this trip approach you yet and try to get into your pants." I snickered when she briefly scowled at the thought.
"I'll admit that I'm just good at avoiding contact like that. Although, there was the cashier at the main shop down at the activities area who was flirting with me this morning -"
"Stop there mister." I chuckled when Bella growled out her threat as she glared down at me.
"Not so nice to think about it, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's unpleasant." she mumbled.
"So while we're both sitting here having to deal with jealousy and anger... what can we do then to sort this out?"
"I'll be honest in that I don't think I could take much more of this secrecy as much as you're ready to blow your lid like you did earlier." Bella continued to try and explain her feelings, puffing her cheeks out in frustration. "And really in how I see it, we only have options a or b; either a, we finally pop open the can of worms and tell everyone our secret even if it means we lose our friends - or b, we keep hiding it from everyone so we can keep our friends, but we still have to sneak around as is and let our jealousy and anger continue to fester." she reasoned out begrudgingly, frowning over at me.
"And frankly speaking, if we let option b win out, we may just come out with our secret when we really can't take it anymore and that might lead to a messier solution that'll be out of our control." I added to her weighing of the options. "I think it'd be better for us to have control over when we tell them - but how I look at it, there's probably never going to be a right time. The longer we hold onto the secret, it's more likely the others will resent us." I continued.
"Ian said about the same to me." Bella mumbled and I nodded my head slowly. Again even if he's arguably 'competition' just because he's able to be around her, she has a point. If he wanted to come between us, he wouldn't be honestly offering sound advice. He probably would be telling us to continue to hide it and that'd make things worse. I thought briefly, sighing. I really needed to get my head out of my ass in thinking this Ian guy was going to steal Bella away when it sounded like he was honestly trying to help. "So... what's the answer then to this?" Bella's questioning pulled me back to the present.
I pursed my lips and looked up at her. "We need to tell them. And I think it should be soon. Not while we're on this trip - but maybe when we get back to the school?"
"So you mean after winter break?" Bella squeaked out, looking down at me with widened eyes.
"Yeah. I know, it's probably really soon - but I think honestly the sooner the better. I can't help but think at this point after how I've been acting on this trip... it's not been helping our case. Jasper was fucking prodding me at lunch, Emmett's not going to let this whole thing go in how I exploded on him. My sister's likely noticed I'm more snappy than anything and Rosalie's just as observant as she is." I reasoned with her, sighing. Bella pursed her lips then, looking off to the side - she was likely mulling over this decision. "The very latest I'd want to hold off on telling them would be Valentine's, baby. Remember, our baseball team lost the Christmas Dance bet. There's not a doubt in my mind that we're going to be auctioned off to other chicks - and tell me, are you going to be okay trying to explain to the girls that you're auctioning off money to get me? Or are you even going to be okay in not betting money? What if I get auctioned off to Irina, or Tanya or even Lauren?" I asked her then, grimacing at the mention of the three. They were still without a doubt in my mind, the sluttiest chicks of the school. I would still get flirtatious glances and waves from them when walking around the school, although they were still upholding the whole gender feud and in turn the agreement that both sides have taken to not flirting. That still didn't stop them from making themselves known to me when they could.
Bella's thoughtful looks morphed into irritation. "As if I'd ever let those bimbos win you at that damn thing." Bella growled and she looked down at me fiercely.
"Oooh, my girl is looking feisty - it's mighty sexy." I teased her with a wink, laughing when she huffed at me and smacked my chest. "It's honestly a turn-on seeing you jealous, love - but sucks feeling that way doesn't it? Welcome to my world." I continued to tease her and she sighed.
"You have a point then, I think if we waited until that damn auction event, that would be a worse idea." she grumbled. "So... Valentine's or at least before would be the latest but the sooner, the better?" she questioned me then. I nodded my head.
"Any time in January and before Valentine's I think should be our time frame." I surmised, and she nodded her head back to me in affirmation. "I know it's a lot for us to try and prepare on how to tell them or when exactly. But we'll get that sorted - just when you think we need to get it off our chests, we'll agree to a day and time together so we're not just springing this on the other without any sort of prep." I continued, squeezing her waist in reassurance.
"It's scary to really think we're now on a time crunch before the time is right but... I'll admit I'm excited too. Of course I'm worried that we're going to lose our friends and I don't know exactly if or when they'll forgive us. But finally, we won't have to hide anymore about our relationship - no more secrecy, no more coming up with lies and excuses of where we're going while leaving our friends confused. We can just be us out in the open." she mused with a smile. "We can be a normal couple in high school." she added with a giggle.
I gave the idea some more thought in what she was saying, and realized that while on one side I was scared shitless of thinking about this situation - coming out to our friends about our relationship and the fear of losing them while we're hated by everyone else -, in truth I was also liking the idea we wouldn't have to hide anymore. It was indeed exciting that we could finally be ourselves, and be a normal couple. I could imagine us waking up to a new day, greeting each other after leaving our dorms, hugging and kissing one another in greeting. And then the thoughts about us walking hand in hand to classes together, or us eating together at lunch, or even us just cuddling out in the courtyards in downtime. It was like a perfect daydream, but something that could become a reality should we go through with our plan.
I nodded to her then with a smile. "I'm just as excited by the idea love, but I'm also right there with you in being scared." I told her truthfully. "But we'll do this together." I added and she smiled.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. We jumped and looked up at one another in scared silence, worried it was one of our friends. But then I heard, "Edward, Bella it's Carlisle." and we both visibly relaxed. Bella reluctantly got up off from my lap and let me head to the door to which I opened it and there stood my adoptive father, my mother beside him. She was dressed up in warm clothes while my dad looked like he too was dressed up a bit warmer for the weather. He nodded to me in greeting. "You two should hurry up in getting ready since if you take any longer the others are going to come find you. We'll be waiting in the lobby for you all to join us for this adventure of ice skating. I only came up here to rouse you two in getting a move along and well... I'm here to forewarn you son that Emmett's going to be there so please remember - keep your distance from each other." Carlisle stated to us and I grimaced.
"I'm sorry he acted the way he did and I feel as if it's my fault -"
"Bella, stop right there missy." Carlisle immediately cut her off when she started to ramble out an apology. Bella bit her lip but kept silent. "None of this is your fault, so don't try taking it when it's the boys' faults. I already had my chats with them and both know that the way they acted was uncalled for and nothing that Esme and I would be alright with." he paused to give me a knowing look and I sighed, nodding my head to him. "I don't approve of what happened but more than anything, I want to apologize to you personally for how Emmett's behaved. I've heard through Edward just how bad he is at the school and while we're not their to admonish him then, Esme and I can do so now because we raised him to be better than that yet we're appalled he's acting like a fool of himself. I'd say though it is in your best interest to avoid Emmett today as well, but trust me that if he even remotely thinks of starting crap again - we'll be there to whip him." my adoptive father continued, smirking near the end of his statement when Bella chuckled.
"Alright, thank you. Trust me I'd like to avoid him too."
"Good then. Now, you only have a few minutes I'd say to get ready for skating before the hounds descend upon you so get to it you two." Esme teased us and then the two of them turned away and walked down the hallway towards the elevators. I closed the door when they left us and shrugged to Bella.
"Well, guess our private time is over for now. Let's get dressed and go out for ice skating." I told her while walking back to my bags. I smirked when the imagery came to mind then of just how Bella will be on ice. "I do hope you'll be careful with yourself while on the ice love. I can't be there to help you if you fall much or teach you without it raising suspicions with our friends." I said to her while pulling on an extra sweater over my current one. I heard Bella huff behind me and I looked over at her, she was pouting at me. "I'm not trying to make fun of you love, but you often struggle on flat surfaces as is."
"Hardy-har Har to you too, jokester." she muttered and I laughed. We finished getting dressed and hurried out of our room to head to the elevator in what felt like record time. And just as we got in and it started to go down, the elevator stopped on the second floor. Thankfully Bella and I were a distance apart from one another because none other than Rosalie, Alice and Jasper were sitting there. Rosalie and Alice looked annoyed to the fact that Jasper was waiting nearby, but they turned their stink eye to me when they saw I was in the elevator with their best friend. "Come on guys, we need to share a ride together which isn't going to kill us; Mr. and Mrs. Cullen have been waiting on us and we shouldn't make them wait any longer." Bella coerced them to come into the elevator, which worked thankfully. The girls huffed but stepped onto the elevator and huddled near Bella, taking either side of her to protect her from me. Jasper got on as well and hovered near me.
"Listen, I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier." I muttered to Jasper quickly when the doors had closed and the girls immediately began to chat with one another. They were sufficiently distracted and didn't bother paying attention to us. Jasper looked over at me with one eyebrow raised. "I was still pissed earlier at Emmett so my mood still wasn't settled enough to try and talk. I know what answers I gave were bull shit and... it's a lot on my mind that I just don't feel comfortable with talking about right now, even with you or anyone else. I want to sort it out myself before I can talk to you. I'm not trying to keep shit from you but... I'm not ready to let you in on this mess just yet." I tried to explain to him while pointing to my head, shrugging my shoulders. It wasn't completely a lie when I said this to Jasper, mind you. I did have a lot to think about, namely everything about the secrecy that was my relationship with Bella, but it was a lot to mull over and plan with her to try and figure out what to do to resolve it. But I felt like I should at least throw him a bone to try and get him off of my back so he doesn't go about snooping too heavily.
Jasper pursed his lips while his eyes searched my face. He was trying to get a read on me again, trying to really figure out if I was telling the truth or lying again to keep everything under wraps. I did what I could to keep myself calm and still while he scrutinized me but otherwise he sighed and nodded his head. "I can see you do have a lot on your mind, man. Look, I value our friendship with one another - I feel like we've always been able to tell each other anything without judgement and we get each other when one of us is off. I want you to know you can still come to me to talk to me and I wouldn't judge you regardless. But I won't try to prod you on more shit if you're not ready to talk about it. Just as long as you're not trying to hurt yourself, I won't overstep stuff." he relented finally.
"Thanks man." I breathed out with a smile, and shook his hand quickly. He smirked at me but nodded his blond head. The elevator dinged then and we looked up to see the doors opening out into the lobby of the Lodge which the five of us left the tiny space and wandered over to Carlisle and Esme. I could see that Jessica, Angela, Mike, Ben and Emmett were already there waiting for us. I avoided looking at Emmett but saw he was dressed up like the rest of us in an extra layer that wouldn't weigh us down while we'd be skating. He was not even facing our group but rather he was standing next to Carlisle with his hands in his pockets and was looking pissed but kept quiet.
"Alright everyone is here now?" Carlisle called out to our group once the five of us had joined them. We all murmured our answers that it seemed we were all here, and he nodded his head. "Excellent then lets head out to the skating area. There will be a little shop there of which we reserved our time and skates there for you all to use and wear." Carlisle announced and with a waving of his arm he led us out of the lobby and back outside into the cold. We shuffled our way through the snow towards the area of the Lodge of where the skating would be taking place which was a large pond that had frozen over due to the cold temperatures. The ice was at a sturdy enough point at least from what the employees could tell, that it wouldn't crack from visitors wanting to skate. So there were at least no worries of falling through. When we arrived there were only a few skaters already out. No doubt due to the fact that the pond, even if it was relatively large, the employees were still taking precautions and only wanted skaters out for a certain amount of time and rotate for others to come on and off so there wouldn't be too much weight out on the ice. We hurried over to the tiny little shop that was set up nearby and squeezed inside to escape the cold air for a bit while Carlisle and Esme went in to confirm our time slot and retrieve our rented skates. The girls huddled together and were chatting with one another amicably about going out to skate while they gave Bella encouragement that they wouldn't be leaving her by herself again like they had done so earlier. I stuck hanging around Ben and Mike while Jasper went to where Emmett was and tried chatting with him.
"You okay man?" I looked towards Mike when I heard him ask me that question under his breath. "I've never seen you so pissed off like you were earlier."
"I'm good, don't worry. I had my chats with my dad... and Bella." I muttered back to him. "It's a lot really."
"Well as long as things are sorted out, that's good. But you've been rather irritated ever since we've gotten here. You sure everything is alright?" Mike continued to ask while looking up at me with furrowed brows. Ben looked between the two of us and shook his head.
"Mike, don't pester him about it right now, especially someone could hear you."
"It's fine." I reassured him, sighing. "Trust me when I say there's a lot going on, but I'm sorting it out with B." I muttered back to the two of them. They looked at me, not entirely convinced. "I'll talk more about it when we're not at risk of exposing shit. If we get a moment of it on the ice I can talk more then." I continued and they nodded their heads then.
"Alright children! We have the skates, so suit up and let's head out to the ice." Esme's voice rang out to us which cut my little conversation with Mike and Ben, short. I turned to see Esme and Carlisle were walking back towards us with a plethora of skates in their hands. We crowded around them and took up the offered skates they had gotten us in our shoe sizes, to which we took our time sitting down and lacing up the skates. I watched out of the corner of my eye, Bella was struggling to walk comfortably with the skates on and was teetering about. I glanced over at Emmett as if silently daring him to speak up and tease her about her situation. But I was pleasantly surprised that he thankfully was silent. He was watching her too, but he scowled down at the floor instead of speaking up and cracking a joke at her expense while he remained focused on lacing up his skates on his feet. Soon enough, we were all ready and left the shop, trudging through the snow carefully and finally made it to the ice. I glided on and eased myself forward; after living here for years and having enough practice growing up, I knew how to skate well enough that I wouldn't be falling flat on my ass any time soon. Mike and Ben hovered nearby while Jasper and Emmett went off to the side after they had rented out hockey sticks and a puck for themselves while we were in the shop. Carlisle and Esme took off on their own to spend some time together. And the girls all worked together in helping Bella onto the ice where they kept themselves near her to ensure she wouldn't be falling over.
"So..." I looked up when I heard Mike begin and saw they skated towards me while I moved around on the pond. "Can you briefly tell us what's up?"
I sighed. "Long story short, I got stupid jealous over the whole situation that Bella's been ribbed into by the girls regarding that Lodge employee. I had a chat with her and my dad, and it boils down to the fact I'm not happy with keeping our relationship a secret anymore because it's getting to me. So after talking with her, we came to an agreement... January or no later than Valentine's we're planning on telling the truth." I quietly told them in hushed tones. Both of them looked at me with shocked expressions.
"What?!" Ben hissed.
"Dude, you're serious?" Mike asked me, blinking his blue eyes.
"Yeah, I'm serious." I muttered.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Ben asked in a rushed tone.
"Wise, no. But..." I trailed off, biting my bottom lip. "Bella and I are honestly gnawing at the bit here because hiding our relationship is taking a toll on us mentally. And well after coming on this trip, it really is getting to me if you couldn't tell. We mulled it over and well she had a talk with that Lodge employee - Ian is his name; he caught us making out yesterday during lunch when I left to go to the bathroom and she followed after me. But he's promised to keep our relationship a secret - and yet he thinks we should come out with the truth because if we hold back on it for long, it might do more harm than good. And my dad is in agreement when I talked to him about it too." I rushed out to them quietly.
The two of them were silent while we skated around for a bit. But finally, they broke the silence with humming. "Honestly, looking at it from that point, it's not a terrible idea." Mike reasoned out loud.
"I'm just concerned about how you guys will take the anger and hate that you're likely to receive." Ben muttered out apprehensively.
"We're going to try and mentally prepare for that, but honestly we're scared shitless - and also excited." I mumbled, shrugging my shoulders. "We're terrified at the idea we'll probably lose our friends but we have hopes they'll get over it too. Even if we're hated by the school, that doesn't outweigh the fact we'd be able to breathe now that we'd be an open couple." I added.
"I think I might talk to Jess about us coming out with the truth too." I whipped my head back to look at Mike in shock. Ben also appeared to be just as surprised by this admission. "No way in hell would I want you and Bells to go through this alone, I support you guys and think you two deserve to be happy. And I know Jess would want the same." he explained quietly, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well I'd do the same too, and I know Angie would as well." Ben muttered then. "But I think we're not as... brave as you guys are. But I'll talk to her about doing the same."
"You guys don't honestly have to do that. We don't want any of the hatred to land on you guys too." I countered.
"Quit with that mess man. You and B are our friends, and I'm going to support you two. We won't keep up with the lying acting as if we never knew - besides I want to show off my woman like you will." I snickered then at how he admitted he wanted to be able to be in an open relationship with Jessica like I wanted with Bella, and the fact he was trying to put on a show of swagger made it a bit funnier in his reasoning. "Who cares if we'll be hated by everyone? Eventually I feel like people would learn to grow the fuck up and move on from something like this; if they don't, they're too damn petty and need to re-evaluate themselves." Mike continued quietly, rolling his eyes.
"Thanks guys... If you do decide to join us in this, we'll be there to support you guys too." I said to them in a quiet, grateful tone. They nodded their heads to me with small smiles. We cut our conversation then because Japser and Emmett glided over towards. I remembered my partial punishment from my adoptive father and skated away from them, ignoring the three confused looks and the one scowling look. Even if we could try to work it out, I had no intentions of even remotely speaking to Emmett for the rest of the time we'd be here - not until the dude pulls his head out of his ass and realizes he was definitely in the wrong for what he had said. I skated away and looked over to see Rosalie and Alice had seperated from Bella, Angela and Jessica. The two of them were twirling around and practicing little jumps with one another a good distance away.
Just then I bumped into someone small, and fell onto the ice on my back. I blinked and looked around to see that it was my secret girlfriend that I had crashed into. I guess I wasn't paying attention all that well to what was around me, for I didn't see how close she, Angela and Jessica were to me. She was on top of me, sprawling and grimacing. Jessica and Angela were some distance away and looked frozen on the spot, to which they looked frightened and uneasy as they stared at us.
"Sorry!" Bella whispered, blushing.
"You're fine love. Here, let's get you up before we're hounded for how we're lying here." I whispered back to her and she shifted around to sit back some. I sat up and stood up on my feet carefully before I bent down and helped Bella up on her feet.
As soon as I did, I heard it. CRRAAACK! I froze then. Bella froze as well when she heard the noise and her eyes widened.
"Um... Edward?" she whispered in a tiny voice, staring up at him in shock. "Did... D-Did you hear t-that?"
"Mhmm." I hummed shortly, feeling my heart quicken in its pace then while we stood there. I was holding onto her forearms and her hands gripped onto me tightly. I looked down slowly to the icy floor below us and saw it, where my stomach sank even further. We were certainly screwed now.
At our feet were distinct cracks forming below in the ice. We somehow managed to break the ice after colliding with one another. I thought the ice was sturdy and solid enough but I guess that was far from the truth.
As if this day couldn't get any worse!
A/N: Uh oh! Looks like our couple is in danger of falling into the icy waters below. We'll have to wait and see how they'll get out of this.
Apologies for the lack of updates on my stories as of late; I'm hitting some writer's blocks here and there nowadays it seems. I'm trying my best to work past them and plan out chapters a bit more thoroughly so I can get some chapters out. But on top of writer's block, I recently started up a new job within the past month to which my work's taken up my hours of being able to come on here and put on some new chapters for you all to read. I'll do what I can in between work days and with days off, and just whenever inspiration hits me, to come up with something.
Apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes as I'm proof reading as I go but I'm bound to miss some stuff here and there.
Any feedback is always appreciated!
Until next time,
~Lady Eleanora~
