A/N: I love reading your theories. And I love it even more to debunk them. So, in this chapter, I've debunked one of your theories :)Before you start reading this chapter: please know that I made a mistake in chapter 2. Thanks to a lovely reader, otherwise I wouldn't have seen it.I wrote the word "petty" where I meant "pity". Bella didn't want Angela to pity her. She can deal with bullies, but she hates pityness (I wrote pettiness). Stupid mistake, I'm Dutch.Angela appears again in this chapter, so please keep that in mind. She has been kind to Bella before.
Chapter 7: A Boring Fight With That Bitch
As I woke up the next day and remembered what had happened, I immediately groaned.
Shit. This was fucked up. Even for my standards.
I knew my parents were hiding something from me. Something big. They might have done it for the right reasons, as Renee always longed for that picture perfect family, but still… It was messed up, whatever it was.
And if that wasn't horrible enough, I knew today would be awkward as hell as I had to face the Cullens after my dramatic exit yesterday.
My hormonal ass toyed with the idea to blame everything that had happened in the cafeteria on my imaginary twin sister Stella. It would be the perfect excuse, as I could tell them I was sick yesterday, or something like that.
And maybe if I acted totally cool and composed around Edward today, he might only think I was schizophrenic at worst if he found out I never had a twin sister to begin with.
And they say the perfect excuse doesn't exist.
I groaned again. All of that sounded way better than telling him my own parents hid something from me.
Oh wait, could it be they weren't even my own parents to begin with, and that was their big secret I couldn't know about? But that made no sense as I was the spitting image of Charlie, only with Renee's wild imagination. No, it had to be something else.
And second of all, as if I ever let Edward in on this topic! I thought about telling him for a second, but even I couldn't imagine a world in which he would believe me. I probably wouldn't even believe myself if someone else told me this. It was all too crazy, even for me.
Stupid hormones, they made my brain go to mush and I couldn't afford any distractions at this point. Not even good smelling distractions with soft hair, beautiful eyes, a welcoming family, an amazing physique and who shared the same hobby as me. Not even those kinds of distractions.
"Bells, you're going to be late for school!" Charlie shouted behind my door.
I gritted my teeth. I wished I could whine enough so my parents would let me stay home today, but I had never missed a day of school before, so I doubted they would even let me stay home at all. Even the emergency of not wanting to see Edward wouldn't be enough for them. Which absolutely sucked, if you asked me.
I had to go to school today. Shit.
"I'm coming," I shouted back.
'I just have a little existential crisis' I thought in secret.
If I had to pretend everything was normal and fine again, I might as well dress the part. So I went for my signature sweater, but paired with jeans instead of a skirt and my hair was loose, so I could hide behind it as a curtain. Perfect, I'll be even more invisible today than I was before.
I entered the kitchen to make cereal, and noticed my parents had already eaten their breakfast. Charlie was reading the newspaper and Renee made notes for her upcoming book.
I sat down at the table and everyone was silent. That wasn't really unusual, but given our talk from yesterday and the secret whispers in the night, it made me feel really uncomfortable. This wasn't just a normal silent breakfast, as it seemed as everyone was too afraid to talk.
"Maybe it's better if you refrain from the one that made you upset, Bells," Charlie suggested, breaking the silence but not looking up from his newspaper.
"It might be better sweetheart, we didn't want to see you so down." Renee happily followed as she reached out to grab my other hand, the one I wasn't eating with.
It became clear as crystal that this was something they had planned all along and discussed before I entered the room.
I chewed thoughtfully and frowned. I could play this in two ways. Or, I would play along and try to find the answers I needed on my own. Or, I would make a scène and try to threaten them in some way, but I couldn't see myself being angry enough at my own parents for them to give me the answers I wanted, so I decided the first option would be the best.
"Alright," I eventually nodded.
"You can make other friends."
I looked up at my mother, who watched me carefully with her big, curious eyes and part of me wished I shared her confidence in that matter. "I suppose," I whispered.
But maybe I didn't want to have other friends, I thought…
"You'll see, there are plenty of other fish in the sea." Charlie continued, still hiding behind his newspaper.
"You might be right." I mumbled into my breakfast.
As I got up to clean my empty bowl, I noticed my dad's shoulders were visibly less tense than before, as if he thought breakfast would be much harder than it was.
That day, because I tried to listen to my parents, I ignored the Cullens at school. As if they already knew, they didn't try to approach me either. Or, they were so weirded out by my sudden outburst, they moved on and didn't speak to me because of that.
Either way, part of me was happy, as it made avoiding them altogether a much easier job. However, a bigger part of me was unhappy. They didn't ignore me, but they didn't approach me either. They just smiled at me each time I longingly met their gaze and I realised they were maybe waiting until I made the first move.
Which, with a heavy heart I realised, might be never.
And maybe I was biased, but it seemed as if Edward and Alice had the most trouble staying away from me. I sure as hell knew I had the most trouble staying away from them, so I hoped the feeling was mutual.
During our lunch break, I almost felt Edwards constantly stare at me, but I focussed on my food instead, while I cursed myself for getting involved with people who ate a special diet. As if eating alone wasn't awkward enough without someone watching you. No, I was watched by someone who didn't even eat himself.
I knew for sure he watched me. Call it girly instinct or something like that, but the air became electrified when he was near. There was a constant pull between us, and each time I looked up as I couldn't take it anymore, I was met with Edwards longing gaze which -I was sure of it- matched my own.
Ignoring Alice hurt me in the same matter. As she entered our mathematics classroom, we directly looked at each other and her face lit up. Then, she remembered what a freak I was. Jasper placed his hand on her shoulder to protect his girlfriend from my weirdness, and she looked away.
It was so pathetic that I missed a group of people I hadn't even known for long, but I did.
So, after a few days -maybe a week perhaps?-, I was fed up with it. I craved normal, human contact now more than ever, now that I had a taste of it.
Before our Spanish lesson started, I made eye contact with Angela. She raised a brow at me, and I nodded at her. She sat down at the empty table next to mine and smiled warmly at me.
"Hey, Bella."
"Hey Angela. So, homework was horrible, right? I didn't understand anything." I enthusiastically brabled as I opened my textbooks.
"Oh, tell me about it. Even with all my notes, I still felt as if I did everything wrong." She rolled her eyes.
"Not gonna lie, that makes me feel slightly better." I grinned at her and I was pleased with how easy it was to talk to Angela.
After our lesson, she invited me to spend lunch with her and I happily agreed. We walked together to a table where Angela usually ate with her friends.
I noticed Mike Newton from my first day, who couldn't hide how surprised he was seeing me here. I couldn't really blame him. I giggled and his eyes widened even more. Oh, hormonal boys were all the same.
There were a couple of other boys I hadn't really paid attention to. I was sure we shared some classes, but they never grabbed my attention, I suppose.
Much to my displeasure, I also noticed Lauren and her boy-crazy companion Jessica, who only had eyes for her expensive manicure. But not Lauren, who frowned the second she saw me.
"What, now we're good enough to sit with you?" Lauren hissed -literally, she hissed- at me.
Who did that bitch think she was? She was talking to me as if she owned the whole school. But not on my watch.
"Lauren, please just shut up," Angela immediately interfered. I was glad she had my back, not that I needed it, to be honest.
I smiled sweetly at Angela and batted my eyelashes, pretending I was the sweet and innocent one. "Don't worry, Angela, I've been called worse by better."
She grinned at my comeback and much to my amusement, the whole table errupted into laughter.
"Oh shit," Mike laughed until the water he just drank, came out of his nose.
"Ieewww," Jessica cried out at that sight. She jumped up to grab some napkins but I could clearly see that she also tried to hide her chuckle behind her hand.
Laurens furious face was priceless. Her nostrils were flared and she pressed her lips so hard together, they almost appreared white.
I almost wanted to feel bad for her. Almost.
I almost wanted to make a joke about her in front of her friends. Almost. Just a little one, like: I love your haircut, I almost can't see your horns. Almost.
But other than Lauren, I wasn't a mean girl and I would never do that to her, even if she deserved it. And hopefully, my little comeback made her back off a bit.
Because truly, the way she sat there, without her minion Jessica, made me almost feel a little bit sad for her. Almost.
"Damn, that was savage," Mike breathed out once he was finally done laughing and gave me a fistbump.
"I'd rate your comeback a solid nine out of ten. I wasn't expecting that." Angela chuckled.
For some reason, I felt as if I had passed a test. A conquest. A mission. Because after that one single comeback, everyone casually started talking about the most random shit -would you rather play baseball with a vampire or ride a motorcycle with a werewolf?- and I enjoyed every minute of it.
After I gave my answer -riding a motorcycle is way cooler, duh- Mike immediatly nodded and agreed with me.
"Also, I suck at sports so the choice was rather easy," I grinned with him.
"But what if you play baseball with a lot of vampires and they're all hot?" Jessica's eyes lit up.
Angela rolled her eyes. "Jess, it's not an orgy."
"Oh my God, it should be," Jessica laughed hysterically and I couldn't help but laugh with her.
After all my lessons had ended and I walked towards my car, I noticed a tall figure standing next to it. My body reacted to him before I even recognised Edward. My throat became dry and I didn't know how I could walk towards him with my unsteady feet, but I managed to do it.
I took my keys in my hand, and the sound of it made him turn around. His crooked smile made my heart beat faster and I wanted to run into his embrace. Or run away. One of the two.
"Hey Bella," Edward said casually, as if we'd been talking everyday. As if I hadn't run away from him a week ago.
"Hello Edward," I mumbled, hoping he could hear me and hoping my armpits weren't as sweaty as my hands were. Lets hope my deodorant does what it's suppose to do.
"I'm returning your mothers book. It has been… interesting," he chuckled and I knew there was a joke somewhere, I simply didn't understand it at all.
"I'm glad you liked it," I stuttered.
"Very much so," he stared at me again and I blushed even harder. "And I couldn't help but overhear your discussion… I think playing baseball is also, how did you say it again…? Cool."
He quickly pressed the book in my hands before I could answer, and walked away. I looked down at the copy in my hands, the copy of "Vampires Don't Exist" I loved and enjoyed so much, and I wondered once again what he meant.
That night, I suddenly remembered the weirdest thing, without a headache this time. I remembered that my parents and I moved to San Francisco.
That wasn't really weird, of course. I mean, San Francisco is a beautiful city, I guess.
But what made it weird, were our clothes. I wore a jeans with a dress over it. And that hadn't been in fashion for over 20 years or something like that.
And that bothered me. I was never really into fashion that much, but I couldn't for the life of me remember I ever wore a jeans with a dress. Much less recently.
And what bothered me even more was the fact that I looked exactly the same. So did Charlie. And Renee. We all looked exactly as we did right how. How was that even possible?
And then I woke up.