Chapter 8

Hey all, Chapter 8 is up! Sorry for my lack of updates, I've been working a lot and life has hit me pretty hard the past few months. Thank you to those of you who are still reading!

"I'm here!" Bella texted Jessica as she pulled up to her apartment. It was 8:00 and they were meeting Edward at the bluffs trail in 45 minutes. Bella arrived early because she knew Jessica always needed an extra few minutes to get ready so she'd purposely told her an earlier time so they could leave at the actual time.

"Shoot! I'll be out in a few minutes, sorry!" Jessica responded. Bella smirked. Did she know Jess or did she know Jess?

"No problem!" Bella wrote back. She waited in her truck with the radio playing. Not as good as her Cake CD that she'd been playing on repeat since she'd gotten it, but it passed the time. She'd made sure to heavily thank Edward for the CD the following day and told him how much she liked the band. She'd heard them before and as much as she liked them, she surprisingly didn't have any of their music on CDs or otherwise and made sure to let him know how excited she was when she hit play.

Bella startled when she'd heard the tapping on the passenger side window and saw Jessica waiting for her to open the door. Bella waved and reached over to unlock the door manually before grabbing the handle and pushing it open for her.

"Sorry, I couldn't choose which leggings I wanted to wear. These ones are comfortable but there's the ones that are a little bit nicer looking… and then I have some that are just really cute but really uncomfortable… I decided on these because the others are a little tight on me these days. I guess I do need to go on this hike," Jessica chuckled. Jessica, the girl who was naturally thin and, granted, wasn't incredibly toned, she could fit into a size 2 without issue. She did look really cute and colorful. She had on some really cute multicolored leggings with a tank top that matched the light pink in her leggings. Her dirty blonde hair was shining and tied back in a "casual" messy bun and she had a cute headband to keep the flyaway hairs out of her eyes. Everything fit perfectly on her and with her skin tone. Bella subtly looked down at her own outfit of black leggings and a black "The Goonies" young men's t-shirt, feeling a little underdressed. Her brown hair was in a basic ponytail, with flyaways flying in whatever direction they wanted, and she had on some black sunglasses. She hadn't realized she was dressed entirely in black until Jessica sat next to her, and she realized how contrasted her pale skin was with the dark fabric. Feeling insecure about her ability to dress herself, she pulled out of the lot and made her way toward the freeway.

"So how were swim practices going this week?" Jessica asked.

"They've been really good, actually! I think I'm starting to feel less terrified as I walk into each one," Bella joked, relieved of the distraction from her insecurities. "How've you been? We haven't hung out like this in a while."

"I know! As much as I don't really like hiking all that much, I was hoping we could all do this more often. Maybe not hiking in particular but getting together like this. It's nice to see you out and about," she said with sincerity. "But I've been good. I've been trying out the dating scene a bit more lately. Monday night, I had a date with some guy… No, don't get excited. He was kind of a creep and he just seemed way more interesting on his profile. I told him he was nice, but I didn't see it going further and he actually took it really well. You know how some guys can get when they feel rejected. I half expected him to tell me how ugly I was and how he was only going on the date out of pity or something," she rolled her eyes. "I guess I've been a little desperate for male attention lately, especially since Eric." Bella was incredibly envious of how easily her friend made it seem to just outright tell someone she didn't see it going any further. How does someone bring that up so easily? Ever since Mike had come over after her first practice, she'd been accepting the fact that she just wasn't in love with him anymore. She thought about it a lot after practices and the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she just wasn't happy in their relationship and possibly never had been. He caused huge amounts of anxiety for her anytime she wanted to do something with someone else or had an idea to do something for herself and he'd make her feel guilty if he wasn't allowed to tag along. She felt completely trapped by him and she desperately wanted some freedom or some sense of independence.

"Oh wow, I'm glad he took it well. That was really brave to say outright! But, I'm sorry, I didn't even know you were dating again. I feel horrible."

"Don't! I didn't bring it up. After stupid Eric, I didn't really want to bring attention to it. But also because of Eric, I decided that I wasn't going to sugarcoat anything. If I don't like someone, I'm not going to hide it until there's a 10 minute passing period. I don't want to hurt anyone like that. That really sucked."

"That's really brave," Bella said quietly.

"Thanks! I've been trying to push myself a little bit out of my comfort zone. I don't want to be a pushover anymore, you know? It really sucks." Boy, did Bella know.

"Yeah. Well have you've at least been telling your mom you've been going on dates, right? I don't want you to end up on an episode of "My Favorite Murder" or something like that. If you don't want your mom in on it, at least tell me. I want to know what these guys look like, what their license plate number is, when and where you're meeting them. I mean it. I don't want you to get murdered or stuck in a bad situation!" Jessica laughed heartily, clutching her chest.

"Oh my god, are you still listening to that morbid podcast?"

"It's not… that… morbid! It makes me feel like I can be prepared if anything like that ever happens to me! They have some survival stories on there too. But I mean it! I want to make sure you're okay on those dates. I'll dress up in a disguise and creep on how it's going if I have to!" Jessica was touched by Bella's thoughtfulness. Bella really was a loyal friend, even if she no longer hung out as much.

"Okay, okay. I'll let you know. Thanks, mom," Jessica teased. They caught up for the remainder of the drive and Jessica teased Bella occasionally about how slow her truck was. When they pulled into the parking area, they noticed Edward was already there. Bella looked at the clock and made sure they weren't late but they still had about 2 minutes to spare.

"You said 9, right?" Jessica asked as they were getting out of Bella's truck.

"Yeah! Don't worry, I just left a little early since I haven't been here before, I didn't want to get lost. It's really beautiful. I'm glad we're doing the bluffs today!" He was wearing black shorts, running shoes, and a plain white shirt with a grey zip up hoodie that he was in the process of removing. Not that Bella was paying any attention. She quickly turned to look at the scenery instead. Jessica, on the other hand was unashamedly observing.

"It really is. Sometimes it's really sunny at home and then we'll get up here and it'll be really foggy and cold so I'm glad it's actually sunny today." Jessica gave her a "did you see his abs" look and Bella sent her a quick disapproving look before Edward had time to turn around.

"Oh hey! The Goonies! I love that movie," he smiled as he turned toward the trail. Bella smiled, no longer feeling insecure about her all black attire, and followed her friends.

It became very apparent that this "hike" was a little too easy for Edward as he kept having to stop or slow down to wait for the girls. Bella wasn't having a difficult time, but she didn't want to leave Jessica in the dust. Jessica wasn't struggling, per se, but Edward was walking at a quick pace and there were a few spots that had a mild incline. Jessica had worn her new shoes instead of her older ones, because the newer shoes matched better, and they hadn't been fully broken in yet, so her feet were sore.

"If you want, we can turn around," Bella said quietly to Jessica while Edward was a few feet ahead of them.

"No! It's not too bad! I need to break them in sometime, right?" Jessica held back a cringe and Bella gave her a look that said 'you're crazy,' shook her head, and smiled. She spotted some pelicans flying nearby and there just happened to be a bench overlooking the water.

"Oh, cool! Would you guys mind if we hung out here for a bit?" she asked excitedly. Jessica mouthed a subtle thank you before sitting down on the bench and removing her shoes.

"Oh, yeah! That's fine. I didn't know you liked birds?"

"Oh yeah! My dad is really into them and I guess I kind of picked up interest after a while." It was true. Bella's dad had a real affinity for birds and at one point had wanted to work in US Fish and Wildlife Service before he finished college but changed his mind last minute.

"That's awesome! My neighbor had a lot of interest in birds growing up and he used to take me out birding with him occasionally. It got me really interested but I tend to take interest of things in phases. I used to really be into rollercoasters, dinosaurs, trains, and planes… but never at the same time."

"Dinosaurs, huh? So, if I show you a picture of any dinosaur, you'll be able to ID it?" Bella smirked.

"I'm probably a little rusty, but maybe! I'm not going to lie, they're still pretty darn cool."

"Nerd," Jessica laughed.

"Hey! I never once said I was not a nerd!" Edward gave them a lopsided smile and all three of them laughed. Bella pulled out her phone and started frantically typing and scrolling, ignoring the cumulation of texts from Mike.

"Aha! What's this?" she presented Edward her phone excitedly. Edward smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Hypsilophodon. Please. You insult me! At least give me something difficult!" Bella and Jessica burst out laughing.

"Oh my god! Is he right?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah! At least, that's what the website says, anyway!"

"You dare question my expertise?" he joked. They tested him for several more minutes and he got every single dinosaur correct, much to Bella and Jessica's amusement.

"Alright, you've tested me. My turn," he stated with a devilish grin.

"What do you mean, 'your turn'?" Bella asked, confused.

"You said you like birds. I'm going to test your knowledge!"

"I never said I was an expert birder," Bella stated, getting a little anxious. She really did love birds and her dad had always been interested in them but she never got obsessive about learning to ID them or anything, just the common birds.

"Alright, what's that bird then?" Edward asked, ignoring her and pointing to a dark colored bird that was wobbling while soaring near the cliffs edge.

"Well that's an easy one. Turkey vulture. They're everywhere!"

"But how do you know it's a turkey vulture and not some other kind of vulture?" he asked.

"Because of the coloring. Vultures don't all look alike, you know." Edward looked at her as if waiting for her to continue her explanation. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Turkey vultures are "new world vultures so their faces look a little different from "old world" or African/Asian/European vultures and they have whiteish grey patterning on the lower half of the underside of their wings and a darker color on the upper half. You can see it from underneath when they're soaring. Their heads are bright red, they're a little on the smaller side, they wobble while they're soaring because they're so light, and I don't know… They're everywhere."

"See, that's a ton more information than I knew. I just know they're turkey vultures because they have bald heads and they're common enough I know what it is, but I never knew any of the details behind it."

"Yeah, Bells. I didn't know any of that! They're kind of ugly," Jessica joined in, making a face.

"Umm.. They're totally NOT ugly," Bella defended with a smirk. "They're actually really pretty if you look at all the colors on their feathers and their head coloration is really vibrant with the white of their beak and they've got really cute tiny feathers on their faces and then their eyes are really pretty..." she trailed off. Edward was looking at her with a goofy grin on his face as she spoke. He'd never noticed any of what she was describing and now that she mentioned it, he did see the beauty in them. This was something she was passionate about and a tiny bit of her true self started shining through what he was able to identify as a wall that she constantly held up. He'd been able to see it a few times before, but she was always quick to pull her defenses back up.

Bella couldn't look at either one of them. This was something she kept to herself, mostly because no one asked, but also because this was something she cared about and in the past when she would talk about it, she would get teased, mostly by Mike. She wasn't really embarrassed, she knew it was okay to have hobbies and all that, but she'd learned to just shut up about it. Most people didn't want to hear about how cool birds are.

"What about that one, soaring over there?" he asked, pointing toward the mountains.

"Again, easy. Red-tailed hawk. They're also super common and it's pretty obvious with their size and their reddish-brown tail. You can see it lights up a bit when the sun hits it," she smiled. That was her favorite, when they would soar where the sun would hit their tails just right and you could see the red almost illuminated." Jessica looked over to Edward to give him a 'silly Bella and her birds' look but when she glanced his way, she noticed he wasn't staring at Jessica or at the bird. He was staring at Bella. She'd had a feeling he was kind of into her before today, but this was her first piece of hard evidence. At school, she would see him glance Bella's way occasionally, but it was always so quick. Right now, he was blatantly staring as if he couldn't peel his eyes away from her. Only when Bella turned back around did Jessica see Edward's green-eyed gaze shift. She smirked to herself. She obviously thought he was hot, and she was hoping that he'd be interested in her, but it was more so because she just wanted to feel wanted by someone. She'd had a rough go in the dating pool as of late and she just wanted to feel some sort of acceptance or approval from someone of the opposite sex. In the months they'd been having lunches together, she realized that she and Edward didn't really have a whole lot in common. He did seem to have quite a bit in common with Bella though.

"Alright, what about testing Jessica's knowledge of things she likes?" Bella blurted out, trying to get the focus off her.

"Please, I don't think either of you care about all the spilled tea in pop culture," Jessica laughed.

"I'm not sure I'm even up to date on current pop culture," Edward joked.

"Oh come on, Jess! You're selling yourself short. You don't just care about pop culture stuff. What about your favorite books? We can find a line and make you guess!" Jessica rolled her eyes.

"Please, Darling. I have a very specific genre favorite and I don't think either of you can handle those quotes," she gave them both an evil smirk and Bella's face burned hot as she stared at the ground, anywhere but at her friends. Jessica would often joke to Bella about her love of romance novels, but Bella didn't think she'd bring it up now in front of Edward. Talking about that stuff in front of Edward felt intrusive and personal somehow, like he might find something out about her that he wouldn't like, and she didn't want to share. She could feel her defensive wall stacking itself quickly back up. "Alright, lets finish this hike, shall we?" Jessica got up from the bench and started walking, turning around to make sure they were following her. "I don't actually know where I'm going so I think it'd be helpful if one of you were in front." Edward gave Bella a quick crooked smile before moving along.

"She might actually hurt herself if she stays in the front," he joked.

"I heard that!" Jessica laughed. "You're not wrong, but still!" They all laughed and Bella started a light jog to catch up.

"This was really fun! We should do this more often," Jessica stated as they made their way to their respective vehicles after finishing the hike.

"Yeah, for sure! There's a lot of places to hike around here, we could do something like this like once a week or something like that?" Edward enthused.

"Oh, I think you're lucky you got me out on a hike this one time," Jessica joked. "Maybe a hike a month and something else fun a week?" All this planning was starting to give Bella anxiety. Mike would want to join them, or he'd be upset with Bella for not making enough time for him. She'd have to make up excuses to ditch her friends or to ditch Mike and neither of those options sounded pleasant.

"What do you think, Bella?" Jessica asked, her head cocked in question. Bella's eyes shifted quickly between Jessica and Edward. She'd zoned out a bit and had lost track of the conversation.

"Sorry, I got distracted by that scrub jay over there. What are we talking about?" Bella internally blew out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, proud of her answer. She didn't want to get into the nitty gritty of what she was actually thinking about. The more she shared, the more they knew about things she carefully hid away from the world.

"What we're going to do next weekend! Bella, oh my gosh!" Jessica teased. "Should we go bowling or go to the drive in?"

"Uh, bowling?" She didn't like making these types of decisions, but bowling sounded like the safer choice. The drive in would be close contact with low lighting and who knew what kind of movie would be playing. If it had a sex scene or god forbid some kind of sexual assault scene, she wasn't sure she'd be able to fake it through that.

"Yessssssss!" Edward's fist shot into the air victoriously. Bella pretended not to notice the muscles in his forearm and triceps.

"Aww really Bella? Not the drive in? Didn't you want to see that new Marvel movie?" Jessica whined.

"I do… But what else is playing with the new Marvel movie?" Bella inquired, knowing where this was going. Jessica paused, not wanting to admit what she had to say, and rolled her eyes.

"They might also be replaying How to be Single first," she stated begrudgingly. Bella made a 'yuck' face and shook her head.

"Ugh. I'm sorry, Jess. If it were just about any other movie, I'd break for you... but I do not feel the need to watch that movie again. You've made me watch it like 100 times already! Don't you own it?"

"I do! But it's so much more fun watching it with people and the drive in would make it super fun!" Jessica looked at both Bella and Edward, both looking equally uninterested in watching that movie, and caved. "Ugh, fine. Bowling is also fun… It's just so gross how you have to share shoes though… Like… That's a cesspool of bacteria just waiting to wreak havoc."

"Jess, they clean out the shoes," Bella chuckled. "I get what you mean but I'm pretty sure legally they have to clean them out."

"Ugh gross. Fine, we can go bowling…"

"Yay!" Bella and Edward celebrated quietly, both lightly throwing their fists into the air. Jessica just chuckled and rolled her eyes again.

"Alright, well we have our plans for next weekend. Let's go get some food now because I'm starving." And with that, they got into their cars and drove to Bella and Jessica's favorite BBQ restaurant. They hadn't worked up a huge sweat, but Bella had only chugged a quick protein shake before leaving and Jessica had forgone breakfast in favor of picking out the perfect leggings and they were starving. Edward had also gone light on breakfast having woken up later than intended.

"So, what should I get?" Edward asked, having not been to the restaurant before.

"We're both getting the BBQ beef sandwich and fries. Honestly, I think that's all I've ever eaten here. It's been my favorite for a long time. The fries are a must. Get whatever sandwich or burger you want, but you have to get the fries. They're my favorite of all time!" Bella enthused.

"Favorite of all time, huh? I guess it's hard to say no to that then!"

"They're the shoestring kind and they have some kind of seasoning on them and they're just literally the best fries." There it was again; Edward was able to get another little glimpse of something else that excited her. He scolded himself and tried to tell himself he was just excited to see his friend happy. He'd seen her get excited over a few things at work, but she usually kept a lot of it surface-level and professional. Today was one of the rare days he got to see something a little deeper and it thrilled him.

They all walked up, separately, to the window, ordered, and then found a table. "So, what did you decide on?" Bella asked.

"Mmm I think I'm going to keep you both on the edge of your seat to find out," he smirked, his eyes intending to look at both women equally, but lingering a bit longer on Bella. Their order was called fairly quick, and Edward volunteered to go up and grab them all in one go.

"So, what's Mike up to today?" Jessica asked casually. Bella tightened up a little bit in her seat and pursed her lips.

"Oh, I think he's hanging out with his friend Tom today. I'm not really sure," Bella responded curtly. She immediately bit the inside of her cheek in protest. She didn't mean to come off as rude, her day had been one of the most exciting days she'd had in a while and the mention of Mike had brought her crashing back down to reality. "Sorry, I… He's hanging out with Tom…" she finished lamely.

"I noticed you weren't on your phone the whole time we were out!" Jessica joked, taking a sip of her drink. As soon as the words were out, Bella flinched. She was always on her phone whenever they hung out, Jessica noticed it even during lunch at school she'd check it every few minutes. In the past, when they would hang out, Jessica would get a little annoyed at how in between Bella seemed. She was always half paying attention and responding to a text or looking at her phone. One time, Jessica had tried to have a phone free evening with some of the teachers at her place, and Bella was distracted the whole evening glancing at her phone in the basket, her knee bouncing the whole time. She wasn't always that way. Once she said it out loud, Jessica internally cringed. It came out a little harsher than she intended but she just as she was about to say something, Bella beat her to it.

"It helps that there wasn't any service," she half-heartedly tried to joke. "I'm… sorry…" she finished lamely.

"You guys… doing alright?" Jessica asked slowly, anticipating the answer. Luckily for Bella, Edward came back with the food and a second wind of energy.

"Dun duhduhdun!" he exclaimed with excitement. "I got the exact same thing as you guys! I figured why mess with something that's already been deemed 'favorite'?" He started passing the food around but slowed down and looked around a little bit, gauging the mood shift. "Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"No! Sorry, I hope you like it! It's so good and I'll only be completely devastated if you say you hate it," Bella quickly perked up and plastered on her fake smile and cheeriness. Edward seemed a little hesitant but went with it. Jessica looked at Bella, trying to read her. She hadn't been paying that close attention to her friend lately at work, she'd been a little more interested in getting Edward's attention and she realized her mistake and that she'd been missing cues. Bella's mood change was all too easy for her to shift into, and Jessica started recounting a few times she'd seen it lately. She'd have a whole 30 minutes to grill her about it on the ride home though, so for now she decided to drop it and partake in the conversation.

"Okay, I can understand why you wouldn't deviate from this order. And I will have to admit… These fries are possibly the best." Edward was really hungry but also the BBQ sauce with the beef and the lightly grilled bread was just too good. He may have let a bit of a moan escape his mouth when he took his first bite. And he was not even ashamed of it. Bella sat across from him eating her own sandwich, a smile playing on her mouth as she chewed. She actually looked rather pleased with herself.

"I told you! They're so good, right?" They enjoyed the rest of their meals and then walked back to their cars to head home.

"Alright, I'll see you guys on Monday then," Edward waved as he unlocked his car and opened the driver side door.

"See you!" both girls responded, getting into Bella's monstrous truck. As soon as the doors shut, Bella knew she was in for a less than fun ride home as Jessica turned to her, giving her all of her undivided attention. Bella tried to ignore her and focus on pulling out of the parking lot and getting to the freeway. The silence was deafening as Bella took a tentative glance at Jessica who was still focused on Bella.

"Oh my god, Jess, what?" Bella laughed, trying to ease some of the tension.

"Edward so rudely interrupted our conversation earlier… So, I'm just going to casually bring it back up…" Bella blanched and looked away to try and hide it.

"Casually…" Bella scoffed.

"Yes. So! How are you and Mike doing? The response I got earlier makes me think it hasn't been the best lately." Bella's eyes darted quickly to Jessica and back to the road. She wasn't sure if she was glad, she was driving because it gave her an excuse to look away or if she'd rather Jessica drive so she wouldn't have to endure her undivided attention. Definitely, she wished Jessica had been the one driving.

"Ugh Jess. I don't know… It's been… strained I guess..." Jessica gave her a pointed stare and Bella continued. "He's just been really… pushy… on hanging out and he's got this stupid fixation on me working with Edward."

"I mean, Hon. You two have some hot chemistry going on, to be honest."

"We do not!" Bella huffed, blushing beet red. She would not admit that to herself. Jessica was just looking for some gossip.

"You do… But that's a discussion for another time. What's going on with Mike?"

"I don't know, I just told you! He's been really needy and jealous, and it's just been frustrating to deal with lately." Bella's phone buzzed in her backpack next to Jessica. Jessica looked at it and looked back at Bella and then made a grab at it. Bella looked over to see what Jessica was doing and saw her going for her phone. "What are you doing?" Bella took one hand off the wheel to try and make a grab at Jessica, but she couldn't do much while driving and Jessica stealthily held the phone just out of reach.

"Your phone has been going off since we got in here. I'm just going to make sure nothing's wrong for you!" Jessica stated brightly, knowing full well she was being invasive.

"It's fine! Nothing's going on, I'm sure it's fine!" Bella glanced a little frantically toward Jessica who was now looking at the lock screen of her phone. Bella made a swipe to grab her phone again, but Jessica pulled it out of reach again. Bella didn't want to talk to Jessica about her relationship with Mike. As much as she needed someone, she wasn't sure that Jessica could keep it to herself.

"Bells, there's like 35 messages on here from Mike. You sure everything's okay?" Bella's face flushed again as she admitted defeat and turned her gaze back to the road. It suddenly became extraordinarily interesting.

"Yes, I'm positive nothing is wrong. He'd call me if something was wrong. He's probably just bored or something." Or high, she mentally added. Jessica narrowed her eyes and chewed on her lip but said nothing for a long while and put the phone back in Bella's bag. The snippiness of Bella's response told her she'd overstepped. She knew she'd overstepped when she grabbed the phone, but she didn't realize she would actually anger her. She took a couple quiet breaths and tried to assess the situation. Was Bella upset with her for grabbing her phone or was Bella upset and panicked at what she might find?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Jessica said quietly, glancing back at Bella.

"I know. I'm… sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked after about 2 minutes of heavy silence. Bella could feel Jessica staring but she couldn't look at her. She was trying very hard to remain stoic and she knew if she looked at Jessica, she might start to crumble.

"What do you mean? I'm fine."

"I mean…Are…" Jessica started again but stopped, trying to find the best way to phrase it. "Are you happy when you're with him?" Jessica asked quietly. Bella stopped breathing entirely for about 15 seconds, her eyes wide and staring very intently at the road. "And usually people who say they're fine… aren't fine…"