I promise, we are going to move the plot forward in the next chapter. I've been having too much fun writing these characters do nice, mundane things together. I didn't plan for the last three chapters (including this one) to end up so lengthy, but here we are. I guess I can't promise something like this won't happen in the future, either.
WARNING: This chapter does conclude with a little bit of lemon. It's not very graphic and it's quite sweet. Like a lemon bar rather than a straight-up lemon.
"Okay…" I began as Bella and I walked out into the backyard hand-in-hand, "The party is going to be here. There are a few spots far enough away from the pool that there will be zero chance of you getting splashed…" When I helped Alice rearrange the backyard with vignettes of outdoor furniture around the property, I made sure a few were far enough from the water so Bella could relax at the party.
Bella held up a single finger, asking me to hold my thoughts. Releasing my hand, she tripped lightly over to one of the coolers filled with beverages and dunked her hand into the ice water keeping them cold. She looked entirely at ease getting wet in public, but I rushed over to her in alarm. Looking down at her legs to see what scales the public could now see, I suddenly understood why she borrowed Alice's clothes.
"Oh!" I realized. Grinning, she wiped her hand on a nearby napkin. "The pants will cover your scales."
She nodded, obviously pleased with herself.
"You are as brilliant as you are hot," I marveled, "which is very."
A lovely blush warmed her cheeks as well as my heart.
"Oh! I have something else to add to our human act." I snatched a plate from one of the tables and led Bella into the back garage that was currently in use as extra food storage and rummaged through the back of the refrigerator until I found what I had hidden earlier that day. I showed Bella the small container of raw shrimp I had saved from being cooked and added half onto the plate. "So people can see you eating, today," I explained. Mainly Lauren. Then, I added a few cooked shrimps on top of her small pile to disguise the raw ones.
She popped a shrimp into her mouth—tail and all—and grinned. I smiled back. Hopefully, people will assume that her shrimp were de-shelled. When we left the garage, I arranged a plate for myself. Guests were migrating in from the house, including a few of the girls from Alice's room, who I only recognized because they waved to Bella as they passed.
"I have found the best way to spend parties like this is to find a good spot, stay there, and let people come to you."
Munching, Bella nodded.
I asked her to decide where she wanted to set up camp for the day. Bella chose to sit in the section of the garden Esme referred to as "tastefully overgrown" where vines and the surrounding trees hung low into a pergola. Under the pergola, one of the many small seating arrangements scattered around the backyard sat illuminated by the paper lanterns I had hung for Alice earlier that week. I settled in one of the comfortable chairs that looked out into the party—ideal for people watching—expecting Bella to take the one beside it. Instead, she perched on the edge of my chair. To give her a bit more space, I turned, kicking my legs over one arm of the chair and resting my head on the other.
We spent the first chunk of the party from our spot, watching the guests filter in. When the backyard was mostly filled, Alice strutted out of the glass doors, looking as if she had expected a round of applause. Instead, she received a large bear-hug from her biological brother, who promptly tossed her into the pool. Her friends jumped in after in solidarity with the birthday girl, and the party officially began.
When Angela and Ben showed up tastefully late, they found us first. I left Bella to chat with Angela while I struggled to converse casually with Ben; he still wasn't my biggest fan and was terrible at hiding it.
Thankfully, Emmett saved me. He beckoned me to where he stood behind a tree. "You gotta watch this. Later, Rosie is going to brag about how cool she played off her crush but watch." He pointed to where Rosalie was sitting in the hot tub with the same group of friends from her lunch table. Then, he pointed to a girl entering the party with copper skin, cropped dark hair, and arms as sculpted as mine. We watched Rosalie's face transform from casually aloof to dumbstruck—I could practically see the little cartoon hearts floating around her head. Emmett and I burst out laughing as she unconsciously stood right in the middle of the hot tub, realized what she had done, and sat back down with a bright red face.
"It's funny every time," Emmett chuckled to himself.
He pointed out all her friends to me, including her crush, then a few more people in the crowd that he recognized from high school. When he spotted a specific group, he called them over instead of just listing their names and how he knew them. The guys wandered up to us, and Emmett introduced them to me as his pals from the football team back in high school that now attended UCLA with him.
I turned to bring Bella, Angela, and Ben into the conversation only to see that Bella was all alone, eating shrimp and watching the party ensue. I looked around for Angela and Ben and spotted them in the pool with Lauren and Jessica.
One of Emmett's friends—Paul— took advantage of the situation and plopped himself down on the chair across from Bella, extremely pleased with what he was looking at. "Hey, I'm really glad to see you here. I've seen you in one of my seminars and I've been dying to talk to you all semester."
"High school," Emmett hid in a fake cough.
"Taken," I added in a clear voice, bringing my hand to rest on her shoulder blade.
He hid the embarrassment of getting caught in a lie well. "My bad, sorry."
I slid back into the chair I had previously shared with Bella and wrapped my arm around her waist, so no one could get the wrong impression of our relationship. Emmett's friends went around and introduced themselves to Bella. They didn't hide their surprise when Bella signed that she couldn't talk, but they weren't cruel about it, either. They just asked her the sign for every dirty word they could think of.
"Bella, what should I sign to capture the attention of that beautiful angel over there?" one of Emmett's friends asked, sticking his tongue out and signing sexy at the poor girl.
"Cut it out, man. It's not that kind of party. This is my little sister's birthday party," Emmett elbowed his friend in the side, getting him to stop. "My parents are right over there."
"Dude," another one of Emmett's friends exclaimed, "that's your mom?"
We all looked over to where Esme and Carlisle were lounging on their large, comfortable chairs. Esme had sunglasses and a large sunhat pulled over her face, obviously asleep. A fact Carlisle tried to hide by keeping their intertwined hands up in the air, brushing his thumb across her knuckles repeatedly.
"Yeah, that's Esme."
The guy was stunned. "How old is she?"
"Thirty-two. She adopted me when I was fifteen and she was twenty-seven." Emmett grinned. "Crazy, right?"
Everyone agreed that crazy was definitely the best adjective for that. Then, they asked Bella the sign for MILF and a few more after that.
The DJ announced that dinner was going to be served in ten minutes and Emmett and his crew left to be first in line. As they moved on, and Jasper and a group of his fellow art students replaced them. One of them was holding a huge bag and pointed to the coffee table under our pergola, "Hey is it alright if we use this table?"
Bella looked at the table, then me.
"Go ahead," I answered on the behalf of both of us.
Jasper sat in the available chair next to the one we shared and greeted Bella softly while his friend pulled out a board game and began setting it up onto the table.
"Do you guys want to join?" the guy asked us, "It's a murder mystery kind of game where everyone makes up stories and tries to figure out who the killer is."
Bella tapped her throat and shook her head. The guy didn't follow, so I explained on her behalf. "Bella can't speak."
"Oh," Jasper's friend frowned.
I felt Bella sink back into me and was ready to come up with an excuse for us to walk away, but Jasper's friend surprised me by pulling out a different box, "Charlotte, do you need to speak to play this one?"
The short girl glanced over at the box. Her blonde curls bounced as she shook her head. "Not necessarily."
"We can switch to this one if you're interested," the guy smiled back at Bella, who nodded eagerly.
"Have you ever played a board game?" I whispered in her ear, to which she shook her head. As Jasper's friends set up the second game, I quickly explained the basic mechanics of any boardgame: it will be turn-based so she will only be able to do things on her turn, she will have a pawn and a goal to reach using that pawn's abilities, there will be dice or cards that she will use on her turn that will affect what she could or couldn't do.
"You in?" Jasper's friend asked me, pausing before he offered me a role card.
"Nah, I think I'll be on Bella's team."
I gave her lower back a rub of reassurance and leaned back in the chair. She marveled at the small pieces Jasper's friend placed in front of her, inspecting each one individually. When he began explaining the rules, it seemed like Bella spent more time stacking her pieces into intricate towers than paying attention, but when the game began, she set herself up as confidently as everyone else around the table.
Bella's victory was swift and seemingly effortless, surprising everyone at the table. A few of them asked her to confirm that she hadn't played the game before. Jasper's friends packed it up and pulled out a third game, which Bella won just as easily.
Turned out that my girlfriend was the best board game player of all time. She would always draw perfect hands, the board always shifted in her favor, the dice would land just as she needed them to. At one point, I wondered if good luck was a standard mermaid trait, or if it was all Bella. Jasper's friends began queuing up, trying to challenge her beginner's luck with different games, only to be defeated every time.
"I got this," Jasper confidently sat on the table opposite of Bella. Placing his hands on his knees, he leaned over her, trying to seem intimidating. "Bella? Have you ever played ping-pong?"
Bella looked at him like it was the first time she had ever heard those syllables strung together like that—which was probably the case.
Jasper grinned widely. "Perfect. Let's go."
Bella looked to me for guidance, and I hesitated for just a moment, thinking how close to the pool the ping-pong table was set up. It should be okay—especially since the pants would cover any scales from the small splashes that could hit her. That decided, I urged her forward.
Jasper's friends followed Bella and me across the yard over to the ping-pong table, where a game was already in progress. While we waited for it to end, I explained the basic mechanics to her, but couldn't be too helpful for I never played the game myself. Far too quickly, she was up. Jasper waited expectantly on his side of the table, juggling the ping-pong ball on his paddle while she silently figured out how to hold hers. At the start of the game, she caught Jasper's first five serves instead of returning them. But, once she finally got the hang of actually hitting the ball, she quickly won the serve and caught up to him. Her reflexes were incredible for someone I had once seen trip on her own shoe, but I guessed those fast reflexes were necessary when it came to catching quick fish for dinner. To Jasper's shock and awe, ping-pong was added the list of games Bella had won. After her victory, Jasper's friends left to grab some food and regroup—promising to be back with a game they could beat Bella in—giving us a few moments to ourselves so I could give her a proper victory kiss.
When I released her, Bella wandered away from the table, into the hammock that hung between two large trees. I laughed as her eyes widened when it swung her forward as if she didn't expect it to move. Which she might not have. From the opposite side, I rolled into the middle of the hammock and snatched her to join me. Rolling over so she was laying on her stomach on top of mine, Bella propped up onto her elbows by placing them on my chest. She traced my smile with her finger, and I guessed she was asking what was making me so happy.
"Just happy to see you happy." It warmed every cell in my body to see her surrounded by people who genuinely enjoyed her after seeing her constantly ostracized at school. I gave most of the credit to my siblings, for befriending good people so she was surrounded by them at the party. No one made any rude comments on her silence, no one seemed irked when she had to stop the game and make everyone wait for her to write a question out on her whiteboard. It was wonderful.
Pleased with my answer, she closed her eyes and rested her head on my chest. We swung in silence as the party continued around us.
I was busy enjoying the feeling of her entire body resting on top of the length of mine, so I hardly noticed the large container of balloons Jasper set on the patio closest to us. Glancing around, I saw a few just like it scattered around the property, and Carlisle, Jasper, and Emmett were putting out more.
Across the yard, Alice took the microphone from the DJ stand. The music gradually lowered until the noise died down and Alice had everyone's undivided attention. "It is now time to the main event."
Those who knew what she was talking about—who seemed to be everyone besides Bella and me—whistled and cheered.
"Some of you have participated in this time-honored tradition since I was seven-year-old. Others have only been introduced as we worked to create a bigger and better experience every year…"
As Alice prattled on about her hard work I rolled off the hammock and walked over to one of the containers. Inside was filled to the brim of balloons filled with the confetti I had sorted that morning. I picked one up and gave it a squeeze.
Just as I feared. Water balloons.
Carefully helping Bella out of the hammock, I whispered, "Stay here, try not to panic."
Always the showman, Alice's introductory speech for a water balloon fight was still going on, "You all know the rules: if you get hit, get in the pool. Last dry person will be declared the winner. Would last year's champion like to offer any words of advice to our contestants?" She held the microphone out to a silent crowd. I could see her chuckle as she pulled the microphone back, "Oh right; that's me! And all I can say to you all is…duck!"
Suddenly, Emmett and Jasper had launched water balloons from behind her. Playful screams erupted from the crowd as everyone began to scatter.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck…" I muttered to myself repeatedly as I wove throw the chaos to find a dry towel. I snatched one off the ground, not caring who it belonged to—I could lie about a mix-up or something later—and made my way back to poor Bella, trying her best not to look frightened.
Wrapping the towel around her, I positioned myself in front of her and whispered softly, "Do you want to go inside?"
Her answering nod was so small, I almost thought I imagined it. I pulled her in the direction of the closest building—the back garage my parents used for storage. We were just outside the side entrance when Emmett stepped in front of us, blocking our path.
"Looks like I caught you without a weapon, little brother."
I wasn't in the mood for my weird family and all their theatrics. "Not the time, man," I almost growled, gently shoving Bella behind me.
He chucked his only balloon at my head, which I easily dodged. "You missed."
He looked oddly confident for someone who just made a fool of themselves. "Did I, Edward? Did I?"
His eyes dated to something behind us, and I turned just in time to see his friend Paul carrying one of the coolers. He dumped the entire container of ice water all over Bella, who had to cover her mouth with both hands to stop herself from shrieking. Laughing manically, the idiots took off immediately, already on their way to the next victims. Faster than I had ever moved in my life, I grabbed a soaking wet Bella, kicked open the side door to the garage, and closed it behind my back. I felt Bella grow heavier as her tail formed and heard a tear of fabric, but we were already safe behind a closed door.
Adrenaline still pumping through my body with nowhere to go, I couldn't help but shout. "Woo! Holy shit! Did you see that!? I think I experienced an adrenaline rush, baby. Oh my god!"
Feeling Bella quake against my body brought me back down to Earth immediately. "Hey, hey," I brought my voice down to a whisper. "It's okay. No one saw you. You're okay. I have you."
My arms were still sore from my workout with Emmett that morning, and they began to ache from supporting Bella's heavy mermaid tail. Glancing around for a place to set Bella, I finally noticed our surroundings. There wasn't just one good place to sit Bella, but several. This place had everything. Someone could furnish a second house with the stuff packed in here. Containers were stacked from floor to ceiling along the back wall. I assumed this was stuff from Esme and Carlisle's first place, before Esme inherited everything from her late family, including the house we all lived in.
A bit overwhelmed by the actual furniture outlet in our backyard, I sat Bella on the closest, sturdiest object to us and kneeled on the ground in front of her. The lower half of her was naked and I stupidly wondered what happened to her pants before common sense answered the question for me. I now understood why she always wore dresses. Not only were they quick and easy, but they wouldn't be affected by any tail incidents. I looked back towards the door and the white pants were ripped in two, sad pieces on the ground. I shrugged out of my shirt and draped it around her. She was too busy brooding to put it on herself, so I helped by pushing her arms through the sleeves and fastening the buttons.
Halfway through buttoning the shirt, I tried again. "It's okay, Bella. No one saw us, I promise."
The sleeves dangled well past her hands, so she had to push them up to her elbows to sign, "Can't be human."
"Are you kidding me? You were doing great out there! Everyone was having fun with you. This never would've happened at a different party. Parties normally don't devolve into water balloon fights. Alice is just unhinged."
"I ruined it." Her hands collapsed into her lap, miserably.
"You didn't ruin anything. The party still going on without us." To prove my point, a shriek followed by a whoop sounded right outside the garage.
She tapped my nose with her pointer finger, and I assumed that meant she thought she had ruined the party for me.
"Bella, my only goal today was to spend time with you, and I'm still doing that. No harm done."
She glared at me, unconvinced.
I sighed. Giving up on comforting her, I decided distracting her might be the way to get her out of her mood. It worked for me in the past. I spotted an upright piano sitting in the corner and was instantly inspired. Leaving Bella to mope, I searched around for a bench that could sit us both. I found one under a lamp and a shoebox and pulled it up to the piano. I tested a few of the keys like I would actually know if anything was out of tune and sat fluidly on the bench. I beckoned her to come along, to which she grimaced. After a few more waves, a couple of eyebrow wiggles, and a pout, she finally padded across the garage and sunk onto the bench.
"I've always wanted to play the piano." I tested out a few scales, not sure if I remembered them correctly from music classes years ago. "I feel drawn to it somehow."
I thought through my favorite playlists, trying to remember a song with a fairly simple piano melody. Once I got one, I plucked around on a couple of keys, trying to find ones that sounded right, and made out the few cords I thought I would need. There was one key in one of the cords that I wouldn't be quick enough to get, even stretching out my pinky all the way, so I thought to include Bella, who was still sitting glumly beside me, watching my hands with a frown.
"We're going to try to play a song." I played the cord and pointed to the note she would have to hit a half-beat after that cord.
She didn't look very eager—it didn't seem like she was paying attention. Nevertheless, I persisted. I clumsily played the first few chords, when it got to the point where Bella would need to play her note, I turned and gave the most other-the-top, enthusiastic smile I could manage. She did absolutely nothing but stare back blankly. I started the song again, my hands a bit more confident, and threw her the exact same look—slowly chipping away at the ice. The third attempt broke her, and I was rewarded with her smile—small, a tad sarcastic, but still beautiful. She plucked the key she was responsible for with her pointer finger, and I cheered.
I started one more time and she played along this time. When we finished the song, I began it again.
"I know you don't know this song," I mused as we continued to play together, "but this sounds terrible. "The song came to an abrupt halt for Bella to stop her laugh with her hand.
She laughed; I won.
I brushed my lips against her temple. I went for her cheek next, but instead of waiting for me to get there myself, Bella pulled my face down towards her lips herself.
"I know you think you've ruined your human façade, but ditching a party to make out with your boyfriend in a back room is classic teenage Americana."
Bella seemed to have no interest in what my lips were saying, just my lips themselves. She sat up on her knees to give herself a better angle and deepened the kiss. I ran my hands along her back. Grabbing fistfuls of loose fabric, I pulled her closer to me. It was unbelievably sexy to feel the gentle curves of her body under the fabric of my shirt. She must have been thinking something similar because her fingers brushed the planes of my stomach. Eventually, we would have to walk out of here—me bare-chested, and Bella in my shirt. And I realized, it wouldn't look incriminating. It would tell a story that had nothing to do with mermaids.
Before I even opened my mouth, I felt my ears get hot. "You know… people are already going to think we hooked up in here. There's no reason those rumors can't be true. Only if you want to make them true, of course. It's up to you."
She quirked her head to the side.
Right. Hooking up wasn't going to be a phrase commonly used for this sort of thing in the period drama romance novels Bella usually read. I had no idea how to put this delicately. "We could kiss over there on that chaise. Which could lead to, oh, deeper kisses. And maybe even a bit of…touch?" This wasn't my best work.
She smiled and gently caressed my cheek. I couldn't tell if she was messing with me or not.
"Yeah… that kind of touch. But also like lovers." I cringed internally at the word lovers. I had never used it before in my life and didn't think I ever would.
She either figured out what I was trying to say or decided I had enough and was going to catch me a break, but she rose gracefully from the bench and sauntered over to the chaise I had pointed out. While she was wearing my shirt, there was no other way to describe her slow gait but seductive, so I wasn't sure if this was her way of enticing me or not.
She relaxed back into the curve of the chaise, reaching for me, and I could only stare at the exquisite sight before me. Bella, dark hair haloed around her porcelain skin, her hands holding mine and pulling me towards her. Her eyes were dark with desire. I swallowed hard before joining her on the chaise and pressing my mouth to hers. One of her hands trailed along the back of my neck, bringing me closer. Her opposite hand slid around my shoulder, leaving a trail of heat despite her cold hands as her palm glided across my torso, her fingers slipping into my hair.
"God, Bella," I managed to say, my forehead buried against her shoulder, "You can have anything you want, for all of eternity. Just don't take your hand out of my hair." Immediately, her other hand joined the first, stroking and tugging just a little.
I didn't think it was time to go all the way—it would be too much too soon, and while she would probably be game, I didn't want to push. All things would come in time. Later, we would be able to find mutual satisfaction. For now, it was going to be about her.
I began touching her slowly, my fingers and palms sliding up her leg, making slow sweeps from her ankle to her knee and back again. I kneaded the slender muscle of her calf carefully, hearing her pleased hum as my hands loosened her anxious muscles. I tickled my fingers at the back of her knee, making her shake with silent giggles. Ever so easily, a breath at a time, I drew my hands up her calf and then her thigh, tender and slow. I kissed the top of her leg.
Her legs were not particularly open, but neither were they clasped firmly together. I stilled as I stoked my finger along the hem of her shirt. "Is this okay?"
Her face was red-hot, but she nodded.
She sucked in a deep breath the second my fingers touched her, and I continued to press gently, letting her get used to the feeling of my touch there. I ran my fingers down the impossibly soft inside of her thighs. She shivered, her breathing picking up again, as I moved my fingers slowly upward… searching.
With a small, strangled intake of breath—immediately silenced by clamping her lips tightly together—her hips jerked quickly under my hand. The reaction made me a little smug. Using the lightest touch, I stroked the sensitive bundle of nerves again. And again. And again.
There was nothing more beautiful than Bella in her true form, a golden light in the dark ocean, but seeing her like this was certainly up there. Her head tipped back, her mouth opened slightly, her hands curled into loose fists, one in her hair and one at her side, clenching and unclenching. When I brought her to her peak, she needed to clamp her hands over her mouth to stop herself from crying out.
The second she removed her hands, my mouth was on hers. I kept the kiss slow and languid, gently bringing her down from her high. I relaxed against the back of the chaise and circled my arms around her. She molded herself to me, like putty. Her eyes were closed peacefully, and I wondered for a moment if she would ever fall asleep in my arms.
"How do you feel?"
The corners of her mouth twitched, curving into a smile, and she opened her eyes heavily. Her expression was too lovely, and I had to pull forward to kiss her. She shaped the fingers on both hands into the letter "F", moved them forward until a sudden, jarring stop. Perfect.