Chapter 6

Hey all, chapter 6 is up!

"Bella… Could you stop bouncing your leg? You're driving me a little nuts," Jessica laughed. Bella startled and looked in her direction and then realized she'd been bouncing her leg nonstop since she'd sat down in Jessica's classroom. She'd been zoning out and hadn't been paying close attention to what they were supposed to be talking about.

"Sorry," she mumbled, taking a bite of her salad and staring off again. She felt like she needed to keep moving, keep doing something to keep her mind busy so she would stop thinking about Alec. It'd been a couple days since she and Mike had sex at his parent's house and she still couldn't shake the feeling.

"You okay?" Jessica asked, her tone concerned. "You seem like you've been on edge the past couple days."

"Sorry, yeah. I haven't been sleeping well and if I stop moving, I just get really tired." It wasn't a lie. She hadn't been sleeping well and whenever she did stop moving, she felt the exhaustion starting to take over.

"Dang. Have you tried listening to the music Edward gave you?"

"Yeah, it hasn't been working. I just can't seem to turn my brain off."

"Is this because you're nervous about your first real practice? You guys will be in the pool tomorrow, right?" Bella thought for a second. She definitely was nervous about her first real practice where she'd be in charge but it wasn't what had been at the forefront of her mind. She didn't want to talk to Jessica about what was really bothering her. She and Jessica had been friends since she started working at the high school but she'd had such a hard time opening up to people and she preferred to keep her side of the friendship more surface level. She never liked to delve into personal things or things that were actually bothering her. Occasionally she'd rant about something she and her mom had fought about or something Mike did that bothered her but she never really discussed anything deeper than that. She didn't want to be a burden, she was embarrassed about her feelings, she hated showing her feelings, and she hated letting people think she was weak.

"Yeah, I think so," she lied.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Jennifer had a million questions about the test next week," Edward rolled his eyes as he walked through the door and took a seat. Bella smirked She was sure that was the only reason Jennifer had a lot of questions… It definitely wasn't because she wanted to ogle him.

"Finally! Can you talk some sense into Bella please? She's really nervous about practice tomorrow." Bella snapped her gaze toward Jessica and shot her a glare. Really? She had to blurt it out the second he walked into the room? Jessica just shrugged. "What? We were literally just talking about it!"

"Are you really that nervous?" Edward asked, his brows furrowed. "I'll be there with you if you need any help. I don't plan on leaving you alone entirely until you feel totally comfortable." Bella glared again at Jessica and before she was able to speak, Jessica beat her to it.

"And she hasn't been sleeping. She said your music isn't working anymore." Bella quickly flicked her glance toward the desk she was sitting at, jaw clenched. She didn't want to show just how furious she really was. She took a quiet breath to help her calm her frustrations and tried to mask her face. What the fuck was she playing at? He didn't need to know any of this. She shouldn't have said anything to Jessica. This just solidified her reasoning for never opening up to people. They just blurt it out first chance they get.

"Oh really? Do you want more music to try out? I have a lot if you want to borrow any?"

"I still need to give you back the last couple of CDs you leant me," Bella muttered with a tinge of bitterness in her voice, her face morphing from angry to seemingly indifferent to pleasant in a matter of seconds. She felt anything but pleasant but she didn't want to cause a scene so she bit her tongue and put on a happy face. Looking back at it, she knew a lot of her sour mood had to do with her lack of sleep and added stress and anxiety.

"No you don't! The Pink Floyd CD I made for you so you can keep that! The classical music you can just give back whenever you're done. I honestly don't care how long you hold onto it. Years even, if you want!" he smiled.

"Oh. I… Thank you, that was really nice of you," she said, flustered. She'd thought he'd made the Pink Floyd CD for her but something he'd wanted back. She didn't realize he'd made it FOR her. To keep. That was really nice of him.

"No problem! I have more music though that I think you'd like if you want? I'm happy to burn you another CD or let you borrow some more."

"I think you still owe us a trip to the music room," Jessica quipped, a smirk on her face and her blue eyes sparkling. Edward laughed a little nervously.

"Oh no. I thought I was going to get away with it!" he joked, his crooked smile teasing the corners of his mouth. Bella wasn't sure if it was her lack of sleep or what but she found herself ogling him like a schoolgirl. His face was perfectly symmetrical, he had a jaw line models would kill for, and she could tell he was cut even through his slacks and sweater. Why in the world was he a teacher? He could be anything just based on looks alone but she knew he was wicked smart as well. It wasn't fair that he could be everything. Suddenly she was jolted out of her reverie.

"Right, Bella?" Jessica said. Bella hadn't realized she'd been so zoned out and she had no idea what was going on in the conversation. Her eyes snapped to Jessica's and she saw Jessica roll her eyes with a smirk.

"Honestly, Bella," Jessica murmured, running her hand through her curly hair and mussing it up a bit. "I was saying Edward should send us a video of him playing the piano if he's not going to sneak into the music room with us. Don't you think?"

"I mean… That's up to him. I don't think he needs to if he doesn't want to." She heard Jessica huff and could feel her eyes rolling again. Bella felt like Jessica was trying to flirt with him by forcing him into doing something that he didn't really want to do. She hated when people guilt tripped her into things and she didn't like doing it to other people. Alec had guilt tripped her into telling him things about herself she didn't want anyone to know. He'd done things with her that she didn't want to do but she felt like she couldn't really say no without hurting his feelings. She didn't like doing that to other people if she could avoid it. Why the fuck did it matter if she hurt Alec's feelings? Because he wanted to be friends with her? Was she really that desperate for people to like her? She was starting to get the feeling of invisible hot hands making their way to her thigh and her chest and she could feel herself zoning out more, remembering the feeling of hands on her. Everything around her was starting to feel fuzzy like she wasn't really there.

"Bella. You're shaking the whole room with that bouncy leg of yours," Jessica joked. Edward's eyes shot to her leg and he frowned slightly before meeting Bella's eyes, his own dancing with concern. Bella hadn't noticed she was bouncing her leg again and she suddenly realized she needed to leave. She stood up abruptly and grabbed her mostly untouched lunch.

"Sorry! I didn't realize… I… Sorry, I need to prep for class. I'll see you guys later," she blurted with a quick smile and walked quickly out of Jessica's room and toward her own, her smile fading as soon as she was out of sight. She didn't really need to do anything in her classroom and she only had about 10 minutes left of lunch anyway. She just really needed to get out of there. Jessica was bringing too much attention to her today and it was making her uncomfortable. Once she made it to her classroom, she started rifling through her notes just to get her mind on something else.

The remainder of the day went by in a bit of a blur but the ability to have something specific to focus on helped her keep the invisible hands at bay for the rest of the workday. She was cleaning up her desk and collecting assignments that she needed to grade when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in," she said not looking up.

"Hey, Bella…" she heard Edward's voice and snapped her head up.

"Oh! Hey! What's up?" she said cheerily trying to overcompensate for how she reacted at lunch. She noticed that he stared at her for a beat before responding. 'He's going to ask questions,' she thought.

"I just wanted to check in… Are you sure you're okay? Are you really that nervous about practice tomorrow?" he asked, his concerned green eyes boring into her own. She released a small sigh of relief. She wouldn't have to explain herself, she just had to keep to the nervous about practice bit.

"Oh. Umm. I mean, I guess I'm nervous but I promise I'm not planning on backing out on you!" she tried to joke but it landed a little flat. "I think it's just coupled with the lack of sleep. Sometimes I just have a hard time sleeping."

"Yeah, I remember you mentioning that but I guess I just haven't seen it this bad until now. No offense… Uh… Sorry… I just…" he was rambling. It almost sounded like he had accidentally blurted out what he was thinking.

"It's okay! I know I look like crap. Jess was right, all the concealer in the world couldn't hide these bags," she joked, gesturing to her eyes. She rarely wore much makeup other than mascara and a touch of eyeliner but occasionally if the circles under her eyes were really bad she'd add a little bit of concealer to hide it. He smiled politely in response. "I'm okay, honest. It usually only lasts a few days." She filtered through her bag and pulled out a notebook. "Actually, I planned practice for tomorrow and I was going to ask you tomorrow about what you thought of it, but since you're here, wanna take a look? I figured we could combine freestyle and backstroke since they're pretty similar… And I used your notes on the drills to make up the first half. Thank you for making that, by the way, it's really helpful!" She handed him the notebook and waited, fiddling with her hands in her lap as he looked it over.

"This is good! I like it. Maybe add a cool down just so they get used to always doing that? Otherwise, I think it's really really good!" he smiled enthusiastically. He ran his hand through his bronze hair as he handed the notebook back to her. He really did like it and it eased his mind that she had written this out on her own and seemed prepared for practice.

"Really? You're not just saying that to boost my confidence?" she said, teasing but she really did want to know if he meant it. She took the notebook and immediately wrote in a cool down before she could forget.

"No, I promise. It's good! I like the flow of it and the drills are good for beginners to figure out the technicalities of the strokes. I love focusing on flip turns at the end. Those are so important and a lot of athletes don't focus on that enough." Bella felt a small swell of excitement and pride.

"Great! I really hope tomorrow goes well…" she worried.

"I'm sure it will be just fine! I'm going to have you be the lead on the JV practices and I'm just going to be your assistant tomorrow. I know you're nervous but I really think it'd be good to get them used to seeing you as the main authority figure on deck. Is that alright with you?" They'd discussed this before but it still sent a spark of nerves through her every time she had to think about it.

"Yeah, okay! Thank god Varsity is first. I remember how my coach used to coach me but I definitely want to try and imitate your coaching style so we're cohesive."

"Oh, I like that idea. I didn't even think of that. Smart! We can bounce off each other. JV is probably going to end up being a little… nicer… than Varsity since Varsity has a bit higher stakes. Once the team starts getting better and getting confident though, I think you can start being a little tougher on them."

"Okay, yeah! That makes sense."

"Feeling better about tomorrow then?"

"Yeah! Not as worried, I think. I'm sure that'll change once it gets closer. I tend to push off the nerves until it's time for the scary thing and then they all come rushing back and I feel like I'll vomit…" she rambled.

"Well we've got bathrooms on deck if you end up having to vomit so at least you'll be covered in that department!" he smirked. She could see the teasing glint reverberating out of his green eyes. They made her feel slightly giddy and she was frustrated with herself for becoming so attached to him. His attention was starting to become the highlight of her days but she didn't want to admit it to herself because it felt like cheating. He was just really nice… that's all… or at least that's what she kept repeating in her head. "Hopefully you'll be able to sleep tonight then, knowing that practice will be a total cinch tomorrow." She averted her eyes and instead started busying herself with some scattered papers that definitely needed to be moved into a drawer at this exact moment.

"I'm sure I'll sleep much better tonight," she lied, a bright smile on her face while she cleaned her already organized desk. "Thank you for taking the time to check in on me," she said honestly, stopping her nervous cleaning and looking up at him. It meant a lot to her. Mike had barely asked her anything about coaching swim since she first told him about it. Mike was more concerned with how physical he could get while she was in her scattered, self-hatred mood. She started thinking about the past couple of evenings that Mike had come over and how physical she'd let him get. They hadn't had sex again but they'd been heated. He had initiated everything and to get the feeling of invisible hands off of her, she allowed it so she could try and focus on the present and what was actually happening. She didn't really enjoy their heated moments either but it was better than what was going on in her head.

"Bella? Hey… Are you okay?" Shit. She'd been zoning out and getting caught in her own brain again. She blinked a few times and looked up at him with a small smile. His brow was furrowed and he was a lot closer than she remembered. His eyes looked like they were searching her own and she didn't want him to find anything there so she broke their gaze and looked back to her desk.

"Sorry, I guess my sleep deprivation is catching up to me," she chuckled, trying to save the moment. He smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Yeah, dang. Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you here any longer than you need to be. I just wanted to make sure you were okay for tomorrow…. Should you be driving today? I'm happy to take you home. Honestly. I'd actually prefer it." He looked concerned.

"I'm okay, really! I don't live far from the school so I don't think there should be any issue."

"People have crashed when they're only 2 minutes from home. Don't you remember the driver's ed videos?" he laughed a little flat. "If you're going to be stubborn, can I at least follow you home to make sure you get there safe?" His eyes were pleading with her but his body was casual.

"Fine! Follow me home, stalker," she joked. A smirk dancing on her lips and her eyes sparkling again. He rolled his eyes but smiled.

"Thank you for being, at the very least, minimally reasonable." It was her turn to roll her eyes with a smile. She gathered her things and they started toward the parking lot after she locked up her classroom. "I know what you'll say but I'm going to try one more time… Are you positive I can't just give you a ride home? I'm happy to pick you up tomorrow so you have a ride if that's what you're worried about? Honestly, I don't mind. I don't like how tired you look and I don't want to mix that with a large, dangerous vehicle…. Please?" And he did it. He gave her the puppy dog eyes. Like a monster. Bella took a deep breath and sighed dramatically.

"Ugh. Fine. If you're going to look at me like that. Jeez," she said dramatically. His eyes lit up like Christmas. Honestly, you'd think she'd given him the biggest present he'd asked Santa for by the way he beamed at her. She thought she might need sunglasses. "That's not going to work every time, you know. This is a one time deal with the puppy dog eyes," she mumbled grumpily but if she were being honest with herself she was happy she was able to spend a little more time with him.

"I'll make note of that. One time deal. Got it!" he practically skipped to his car and opened the passenger door for her. She fake glared at him to let him know she wasn't overly excited about the situation but he didn't care at all. He even bowed before closing the door for her. She laughed heartily as he walked around to get in the driver's side, still beaming. As he was getting in, she relished in the scent of his car. It was like she was hotboxing his scent and it was titillating. Again, she berated herself for thinking anything like that about her friend. That's what he was. A friend. She wasn't catching feelings for the guy. 'You're with Mike. Jessica is in love with him. You'd be a total monster to humor any thoughts other than that he's your friend. Get it together, Swan.'

As they drove, she quietly gave him directions to her apartment. They were in a comfortable silence aside from her directions and she was enjoying it. As they pulled up to her apartment, she noticed that Mike's car was parked outside, waiting for her. She paled a little and straightened up in her seat. She didn't know he was coming over today and he wasn't going to like her being in a car with another guy.

"Which one?" Edward asked.

"Oh, umm that one with the truck out front…" she said quietly.

"Oh is that Mike?" he asked innocently.

"Yeah… Um thank you so much for the ride. I'll see you tomorrow!" she said, a hurried smile plastered on her face as she grabbed at all of her belongings so she could hurry up and get out before Mike made a big deal out of it.

"No problem. See you at.. what? 6:30 tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you again!" She shut the door quick and made a hasty walk toward the truck. She had an idea of what the night was going to look like and she wanted to get it over with. She saw Edward pause before waving and slowly driving off. She sighed as Mike started getting out of the truck.

"Something wrong with your truck?" he asked.

"No… umm I was just really tired and Edward was leaving at the same time I was and he didn't want me to get into an accident on the way home."

"I thought you were going to be home like half an hour ago…"

"Yeah, sorry… I uh.. I planned practice for tomorrow and just wanted Edward's thoughts on it so I could feel a little more prepared. Sorry, I didn't know you'd be here tonight or I would've been on time."

"Oh, okay…" he said and started walking toward her apartment door. She sighed. He was going to linger on this. She followed after him, opened the door and they both walked in. After she set her things down, she started toward the kitchen to get out the leftovers for dinner. "So… you and this Edward guy have been hanging out a lot lately. Should I be concerned?" There it was. She fought HARD to not roll her eyes. He asked this about any guy she'd ever been friends with. Granted, she was attracted to this particular friend but she knew they wouldn't be going in that direction. She would never cheat on anyone, no matter what. She'd made that promise to herself long ago.

"We're literally working together. We're both English teachers and we're both coaching together. We start our first real practice tomorrow and I want to make sure I'm prepared because I'm really nervous about it." She was starting to get a little edge to her tone because she'd had a long day, stressful week, and she hadn't really slept well in several days.

"Well why are you doing it if you're so nervous? I mean you're already working a full-time job. Why add onto that if it's just going to add more stress?" She looked at him hard. His honest to god solution for when things get tough was to quit or not do it?! Really? Was this his version of support?!

"I want to do it. I think it'll be good for me and for the team," she said curtly. She paused for a minute and turned back to him. "You know… It'd be really nice if you'd be encouraging about this instead of dwelling on the fact that I'm having to interact more with some guy." At that moment her phone buzzed on the counter and Mike peeked over at it as he walked toward the microwave with his plate of food.

"Well seems like this 'guy' enjoys talking to you," he huffed and closed the microwave door a little harder than necessary.

"I'm allowed to be friends with men! It's not fair for you to dictate who I can and can't be friends with! We WORK TOGETHER," she yelled. She didn't often get upset like this and had she not been so exhausted, she probably wouldn't have started yelling but she was tired and stressed and just completely sick of it all. Mike's attitude changed immediately.

"I'm sorry, baby. You're just so damn beautiful that I can't help but think every guy wants to steal you away from me." He closed the distance between the two of them and ran his hand down her arm and tried to take hold of her hand. Bella tried with every ounce of her being to not cringe. His hand felt hot and unwelcome on her skin and she instinctually moved away from his grasp. As she moved toward the fridge, he grabbed her hand again and pulled her into a hug. Her back to his chest. It felt like a complete violation. His hands started squeezing her body and she hated feeling his groin up against her butt. Her panic was starting to envelope her and she made a couple moves to get out of his embrace but he held her tight.

"Mike, please," she said, her voice just barely above a whisper. "Please, I… I don't want to be touched right now… Mike…" He finally let her go and when she turned around, she saw that his eyes looked like she'd just punched him in the gut. Which, though she'd thought about it, she hadn't actually done it. He got really quiet, grabbed his food and walked out to the living room and started eating. Bella placed her food in the microwave and rested her elbows on the counter, head in her hands. She rubbed her eyes and temples to try and relieve some tension but it wasn't helping. Her phone buzzed again on the counter nearby and she reached for it.

"Hey, I just wanted to check in to make sure you're okay? You left in a bit of a rush."

"Sorry, I don't mean to pry… I hope you get some decent sleep tonight!"

Edward. What could she even respond to that? 'Sorry, no. My boyfriend just gets really jealous and controlling about me talking to any guys that I just didn't want to deal with a fight?' It was the truth but there's no way in hell she'd respond with that. She stared at her phone for a good 2-3 minutes before starting a reply.

"Babe. You gonna get the microwave or what?" Mike cut from the living room, shaking Bella out of her contemplative thoughts. She realized the microwave had finished heating her food a while ago and was now beeping every 10 seconds to let her know it was done. She took her food out and grabbed her phone again. How to respond…

"Hey, not prying at all! I just didn't realize Mike would be over tonight and I think it just took me by surprise. Sorry for the abrupt goodbye! Have a good night!"

She figured it was best for him to not text her again tonight while Mike was throwing a tantrum so she hoped that would end the conversation and it seemed to work. He responded quickly.

"Glad you're okay! Goodnight! :)"

She left it at that and went into the living room to join Mike who had already finished eating and had now started playing video games again. She ate quietly next to him, mindlessly watching the RPG game play out. Once Mike was done and the dishes were clean, they said a quick and quiet goodbye. Mike left in a brooding haze and Bella wandered off to bed to sit and stare at the ceiling for a couple more hours.

The next morning, at 6:20, Bella saw Edward pull into the parking spot in front of her apartment.

"Shit," she cursed, rushing to finish getting ready.

"Good Morning! I'm here a little early but take your time." Edward texted.

"Good Morning! I'll be out in a few minutes, sorry!"

"No worries, I'm early. Wasn't confident I'd remember how to get here so I left a little early just to be safe."

"Fair plan!"

Bella staggered out of the front door at exactly 6:30 and as she turned to lock her door, she dropped her water bottle and her lunch bag. She locked her door and when she bent down to pick it up, her backpack fell off her shoulder and onto the ground with everything else. Screaming internally, she closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and went to pick everything back up but noticed someone else had already beaten her to it. Edward had quickly grabbed everything and by the time her eyes met his, she saw the playful smirk dancing on his lips as he stood up.

"Having a bit of a morning, are ya?" he teased.

"You could say that," she grumbled, smirking back at him.

"Well, m'lady. Your chariot awaits." He turned quickly before she could make a grab at her stuff and walked down to his car, putting her stuff in the back seat before she could complain. By the time she'd made it down to the car, he'd opened the door for her and bowed as she walked by, smirking as he looked up at her through his ridiculously long eyelashes. She blushed slightly and thanked the gods that it was still somewhat dark out.

"Thank you…" she rolled her eyes with a smirk of her own.

"So how'd you sleep last night?" Both Bella and Edward were facing forward but Bella could feel Edward's concerned gaze on her.

"I slept a bit better. I got a solid 5 hours last night!" she smirked and gave him a thumbs up.

"I guess getting 5 hours is better than getting 3… but not by much. Hopefully tonight's practice will tire you out enough that you'll just conk right out as soon as you get home."

"Oh man. It really is tonight, isn't it? That came fast."

"Yeah it did. But Varsity's first! You'll get the hang of it there and then totally crush the JV practice!"

"I sure hope so."

Once they got to the school and Bella was getting out of the car, she looked up and saw Angela standing there with a sly smirk on her face.

"Oh jeez," Bella mumbled to herself as she got out of the car. This was a mistake, she realized. Angela had mentioned that kids were "shipping" the two of them and she didn't think about what it would look like to them when they both got out of his car in the morning. She quickly gathered her things and tried to make her way to her classroom unnoticed by anyone else.

"Are you okay?" Edward said as he walked around the car to help her get all her things together.

"Yeah!" she smiled. She noticed his eyebrows ever so slightly knit together and his head tilted minutely in confusion.

"Okay… You look like you saw a ghost is all," he chuckled nervously.

"Oh, no… I um…I just saw Angela walk by and… I… I wasn't expecting to see the kids this early. I didn't think about what it might look like to them with my truck still here and I'm getting out of your car." She was absolutely mortified admitting all of that to him, but she couldn't think up a decent lie. She could feel her face burning and she tried her best to hide it from him. She had her head slightly turned away and down so he couldn't see but she could tell it wasn't helping. He barked out a loud laugh and it almost made her want turn around and peek at him but she was too embarrassed.

"Kids are going to make up whatever scenario they want no matter what they think they see. I wouldn't think too much about it."

"Yeah, I know. Just not the way I wanted today to start and then lead into practice tonight…" She still wasn't looking at him but she could feel the slight change in his demeanor. She sneaked a peek in his direction and saw that his face had fallen quite a bit. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just… I don't want the team thinking we're not going to be professional or something… I'm just really putting my foot in my mouth aren't I?"

"No, I get it!" he chuckled lightly. "I'm sure they won't be thinking about that by the end of practice. They're going to be too tired and we're going to crush it tonight! There won't be any time for their minds to slide through the gutter!"

"I really appreciate you driving me today and last night. It definitely felt nice to not have to think while getting home. Really released some strain on the ol' eyes," she smiled. "Hey, I mean it though. Thank you. This week has been hard without sleep and you made my life easier."

"Anytime. I really hope you reach out whenever you feel too tired to drive or if you're having a bad day. I mean that." He gave her a pointed look. "I'm always happy to help! I'll see you and Jess at lunch!" They had made it to Bella's classroom and were standing outside the door.

"Thank you. See you in a few hours!" He smiled and made his way a couple classrooms down to his own room. Bella pulled out her keys and unlocked the door, set her stuff down on her desk and sat down with a bit of a huff in her chair. With her head in her hands, she rubbed her temples to alleviate some anxiety and stress before class started. Her door suddenly opened abruptly and Angela poked her head in.

"Hey, Miss Swan. I totally ship it," she giggled and then left. Bella sighed and put her head back in her hands for a minute. This was going to be a long day.