Chapter 23.
"How do I look?" Emmett asks as we walk to Coach Hale's door.
"Fine," I say, looking at my phone screen. Still nothing from Bella. She posted something on her Instagram earlier, but it was an ad for a nutritional supplements company. It felt cold, somehow, unlike the regular stuff she posts, so I'm not sure if someone posted it for her or if it was previously scheduled. I check again, and she hasn't replied or engaged with any of the comments on the post yet, which she usually does.
"Would you put your phone down?"
"I'm just worried about Bella." I sigh, throwing my phone back in my pocket. "Can you ask Vicky again?"
"Babe, chill." Emmett clasps a hand on each of my arms, standing in front of me. "Has it even been 24 hours?"
"No. It hasn't." Not since she texted me when she landed in Florida yesterday. But she hasn't answered Vicky's text either. I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse. I had to bug Emmett all morning to get him to reach out to Vicky and check if she had heard from Bella. "What if something happened to her?" My voice is a whisper, worse case scenarios swimming in my head.
Emmett locks his eyes with mine. "C'mon. Nothing happened to her. It's Thanksgiving. She's home. Busy with her family. She'll call you back today."
I take a deep breath and pull my phone out again. Check the texts. All seen. All unanswered.
Something happened. I am sure of it. My mind replays again every possible thing that could have gone wrong. If I don't hear from her today, I am asking Coach to call her parents. I'll call the police if I have to. I don't fucking know. I'll fly to Florida.
"Hey," Emmett says loudly, patting my arm to get my attention. "No spiraling," he instructs, pointing a finger at me. "Best case scenarios only."
I groan, looking up and slipping my phone back in my pocket.
"She's okay," he insists, taking a step back. "Think about something else."
"Like what?"
"Like how do I look tonight?" He nervously fiddles with the lapels of his sports jacket, so I decide to play along. Maybe a distraction would be good for me.
"You look dapper." I say and he frowns, even though I don't tell him that I think he's overdressed.
"Dapper? Is that the opposite of frat boy?" He pauses, looking down at his jacket again. "I think this jacket is dope."
"Did Coach Hale call you a frat boy?" I chuckle as I take the first step up to the house.
"Sort of. She said I acted like one," Emmett says, rolling his eyes, making his way up to the door. "Emphasis on boy."
"Oh…" I take a serious look at his outfit, cringing at the sight of his bare feet inside of his loafers. "I mean, socks would have been nice."
"And you mention it now?!" His eyebrows shoot up on his forehead as he stares at his feet.
I laugh loudly, patting his back and stepping up to the front door. "I really doubt she'll notice, or care, whether you wear socks or not."
"She looks at me a certain way sometimes, you know?"
"You're delusional."
"She told me not to come into her office by myself, or unannounced…" he says proudly, like that's a big achievement.
"Did you make a move or something?" He wouldn't dare.
"Right, so she can chop my balls off and feed them to Jasper. No thanks."
"Then what are you doing?" I lift a hand to knock on the door, but he stops me, his fingers wrapping around my wrist.
"I don't know..." He takes a deep breath as if in preparation, and runs a hand down his face. "I can't stop thinking about her. I don't know what to do."
I take a look at my best friend, in this uncharacteristic nervous state. Emmett is usually at ease, confident, sure of himself. I've never seen him like this. I feel bad. Having the hots for your coach is less than ideal. So I attempt to offer him some actually helpful advice. "You could try to go without saying 'dope', for starters. That might help."
He laughs, amused. He's back.
"Or calling me babe."
"What?!" He looks at me, eyes wide. "What's wrong with babe?"
"It's annoying."
"You don't like it?" He sounds genuinely surprised, saddened almost, by my comment.
"I mean, I don't love it." I shrug. "I've told you several times. I've gotten used to it, so I've stopped complaining."
"I didn't think you were serious." Emmett takes a step closer to me. "Like when you say you don't like how I leave my socks on the floor."
"I hate when you leave your socks on the floor," I say, and he laughs again.
"I don't know the meaning of life anymore." He smacks his hands on his side theatrically.
I chuckle, shaking my head, and bump his shoulder, wondering how long we can stand in front of Coach's door before someone notices.
"Okay, I can stop only one of those things," he proposes. "Your choice. Socks or babe?"
Easy. "The socks, please, the socks."
"You got it, babe." He fixes a broad smile on his face before knocking on Coach's door, but his face falls flat as Roy is the one to open
"Honey, more kids are here!" Roy announces over his shoulder, opening the door wider and gesturing for us to come in. "Cullen, right? How've you been?"
"All's good, sir," I say as I shrug off my jacket and hand it to Roy. I see Coach coming from the hallway, her eyes actually on Emmett, but what brings a smile to my face is the little firecracker that's running past Coach Hale straight to me.
"Edward!" Sammy crashes onto my legs.
"Hey, chicken nugget," I say, going down on one knee to hug her back. "What's up?"
"Aunt Rose made me wear this," she says, looking down at her blue felt dress in disgust. "But I got to pick my shoes. Check this out!" She stomps her sneakers and the heels light up in neon green.
"Oh, that's cool!" I play along, standing back up and nodding at Coach who's caught up with us. "I wish mine did that."
Sammy smiles triumphantly and holds my hand, pulling me to the stairs. I hold her back as Coach stands in front of us.
"We'll eat in like an hour," Coach Hale says with a half smile as Sammy continues to pull on my hand. "I hope you're both hungry."
"Starving," Emmett replies, getting Coach's attention back to him. Now that he's mentioned it, she does kind of look at him a certain way, but I'm quickly distracted by the kid who incessantly demands for me to move.
"The others are downstairs," Coach says, gesturing to the basement and giving us the green light to go ahead.
Emmett says he's staying with the "grownups" to "help with dinner" while Sammy rushes down the steps with me trailing behind her. Jacob and James are already there, perched in front of the huge home entertainment center, their attention on the football game. To my surprise, Jessica apparently didn't go home for Thanksgiving either. She's standing behind Jacob, her eyes find mine as I come into the room.
I shake hands with Jacob and James and nod swiftly at Jessica, coming closer to her.
"Wow, no Swan in tow. I thought you two were attached at the hip." She says it as a joke, I think, but I don't know if it's her tone, or her face, but something rubs me the wrong way.
"She went home," I say, smiling halfway just to be polite. At the mention of Bella, my fingers itch to pull my phone out and check on her again.
"Want to play Just Dance?" Sammy asks as I sit on the couch.
"Not a chance, kiddo."
"Do you want to see my hamster?" She climbs onto the sofa's arm, staring down at me. "His name is French Fry, but we call him Frenchie."
I smile, but before I can reply, my phone vibrates inside my pocket. I pull it out quickly to find a text from an unknown number.
hey can you talk? It's Bella
I type and send a "yes" as fast as I can while I get up from the couch and find the quickest way out of the basement. Luckily, there's a door that leads outside. Bella is video calling me as I step out onto the steps.
My video is dark, only the lights from the basement door window reflecting on my face, but when her video appears, my own screen lights my face, and there she is.
I breathe out in relief.
"Swan…" I say, and she smiles. Her eyes are sad though, and I think I can make out the remnants of tears on her eyelashes. "Are you okay?"
"I am now," she says, sniffling.
"What happened?" My heart is speeding inside my chest. She's okay. She's okay.
"My parents are being unreasonable."
"About us?"
"About everything. My little birds didn't help." She lifts her arm to show her forearm, the dove bracelet shines with the light of her screen, and then her tattoo is on the frame.
"Shit…" I take a deep breath. I didn't even think the tattoo would be a problem. I'm an idiot.
"How are you? Where are you?" Bella's eyes roam the screen. "It's so dark."
"Just outside of Coach's house."
"Isn't it cold?"
"It's not too bad…" I smile at her image on the phone. She'd probably be cold in this 40-degree weather. "Where are you?"
"Hiding in the bathroom." She laughs with tears still in her eyes, and it feels like my heart skips a beat. "On my cousin's phone."
"They took your phone?" Of course.
"And my laptop."
"Shit…"
"I know…" She runs a hand on her nose, her eyes never leaving the screen. "I can't wait to get back."
"Three more days," I say, sitting on the steps with a sigh.
"Three more days," she repeats. "I know it sounds crazy, but I miss you already."
"Fuck, I miss you too, Swan. So much." We've been apart just one day, and it already feels like too much.
She smiles broadly, wiping her tears while I run a hand in my hair, wishing I could hug her instead.
"Are you going to be okay?" I ask with my heart in my throat.
She nods softly, her eyes still watery. "We might not be able to talk much though. I don't know when I'll get my phone back."
"That's okay…" I smile at her, hiding my disappointment, not wanting to make this any harder for her. "Nothing of interest happens here with you gone."
"I doubt that…" She laughs a little, effectively buying my distraction. "Is Emmett there, with Rose?"
"Yeah…" I chuckle, playing along. "He's upstairs, helping her with the food." My air quotes make Bella's face light up.
"Of course he is." Her laughter fills me with hope that she is okay, or that she's going to be at least. "Who else is there?"
"Jacob and James. Jessica. Sammy, too."
"Huh, Jessica didn't go home?" Bella's eyebrows knit together, her face sobering up.
"I guess not." I shrug.
"Do you have plans with them later?"
"Nope," I say quickly. "I plan to eat copious amounts of food, then go to sleep."
She laughs again, shaking her head, but then her eyes divert to something in front of her, and it sounds like someone is knocking on the door, but the noise is muffled by her hand covering the phone's microphone.
"I have to go." Bella frowns, her eyes turning to the phone in slight panic.
"Are you going to be okay?" I ask her again, because I am not convinced.
"I'll be okay."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"Just don't worry, okay? I'll be back Sunday. I'll text you as soon as I have my phone back."
That's in three days. I hate everything about this arrangement.
"Okay," is what I say instead. "I'll see you Sunday, Swan."
"Bye, Cullen," she says quickly, then her image slightly freezes before it's gone.
I stay outside for a while, overthinking the crap of what just happened, until a shudder snaps me out of it, and I head back inside.
Roy has now joined the basement crew and is sinking in the couch, half asleep. Sammy is distracted on her iPad. Jacob and James continue watching the game as Jessica's eyes are on me. She takes a step in my direction, but I head for the couch instead, dropping next to Sammy.
My mind, my thoughts, are all with Bella, wishing I knew exactly what is going on. Hoping that her parents are just overreacting, that it's nothing more than them being overprotective of her. But most of all, I hope the next three days go by fast so I can have her in my arms again.