I love you all and your "Free Bella!" banners lol
Lots of tinkers on this one, all mistakes are mine.
Chapter 24.
"I can't believe you made me do this!" Emmett crosses his arms next to me while my eyes roam the sea of people walking by us.
"C'mon…" I sigh and clasp a hand on his shoulder while I check the time on my phone. "I drove. You napped. I even paid for gas. Can you please just relax? It's not a big deal."
"It's going to be a big deal to them, you'll see," he warns with a lazy shrug.
"You can thank me later." My tone is casual, nonchalant, downplaying the fuck out of it and trying my best to remain calm. I've never done something like this.
The truth is, I'm anxious. I'm sweaty. My heart is slamming in my chest. I just need to see her. I can't wait.
"This sets a precedent though," Emmett continues, still sounding annoyed. "Now she's going to expect me to pick her up at the airport all the time."
I don't hear what else he complains about because out through the gate comes Bella, coat hanging over her arm, purple hoodie on—mine, which is way too big for her. She's looking down at her phone as she walks, her hair hiding half of her face. When my phone buzzes in my pocket, I don't even take it out, I know it's her.
She had texted me from the airport after checking in, when she finally got her phone back.
I focus on her until she gazes up and her eyes land on me.
Her face brightens immediately, and my heart skips a beat as she's running to me.
"No, you didn't!" She crashes into my body, her arms closing around my neck.
I pull her up to me while she wraps her legs around my waist, and I just breathe her in, with one hand in her hair and the other holding her up, wondering how I will come up with a plan to keep her from going home ever again.
She pulls back a little, holding my face in her hands. Her smile is breathtaking, but her eyes look so tired. "You came to get me from the airport?"
I seal her lips with mine, breathing out in relief through my nose. She's finally here, with me, in my arms.
"Are you okay?" I ask as I set her down, reaching for the strap of her duffle bag and moving it from her shoulder to mine.
"I'm okay." She smiles widely and holds my hand, as I finally notice Emmett and Vicky disentangle next to us. "Just a little tired."
"Did you check any bags?"
"Nope, that's it." She gestures to my shoulder as we start our walk through the terminal.
Bella chit chats about her life off the grid for the past three days as we walk to the parking lot. She hated being disconnected, but she loved not having the pressure of her social media persona. Apparently, her dad took over her posts during that time. I wonder how much he'd gone through her phone, but luckily, I don't think I've ever sent her anything particularly incriminating…or too embarrassing.
It is not lost on me, however, that through everything she says about her trip, she neglects to tell me what her parents freaked out about or why they grounded her and took her electronics away. I mean, it's not hard to guess that it had something to do with me, but since Emmett and Vicky are following closely behind, I'm hoping we'll get a chance to talk once we are alone.
Emmett offers to drive the forty minutes back to Ogden, and I'm glad, as I get to hold Bella in the backseat. I press my lips to her forehead, and before we are even out of the parking lot, she's fast asleep on my shoulder.
~.~.~
"You sure you're okay?" I ask as I set Bella's bag down next to her bed. She was snuggly but quiet after she woke up in the car, and she seemed a little sad as we walked to the dorms. I'm glad Vicky headed straight into my room with Emmett so Bella and I head to hers instead.
"I'm fine," she says, sitting on her bed with a sigh. I take the spot next to her, wrapping an arm around her. "I'm just glad to be back." Her hands cup each side of my face, and she brings her lips to mine, deepening the kiss before I can object.
"Swan—" I manage to get out, but she moves to straddle me, pushing me down so my back is flat on her mattress.
Her hands roam down my chest and then travel over my abdomen, until they reach the buttons of my jeans.
"Bella…" My hands circle her wrists, and she groans, moving back on my lap as I sit up. "Please, talk to me."
She crosses her arms over her chest, avoiding my eyes altogether. When tears pool in hers, my stomach sinks.
"Hey…" My fingers reach for her face, forcing her look at me. As her eyes meet mine, she tries to smile. "I've been so worried about you."
"I don't really want to talk about it." Tears spill out of her eyes, breaking me in two.
My breath comes out through puffed cheeks in frustration. I want to respect the fact that she doesn't want to talk, but I also want to know what the fuck happened.
"I'm sorry for worrying you." She pulls on my shoulders, bringing me closer. "I promise, everything is okay."
I inspect her eyes, unconvinced, while I tuck her hair behind her ears with both hands.
"They just don't get it," she starts. "They want me to focus on cheer and school and…" Her fingers scrub under my jaw and then reach behind my ears, threading in my hair. I know what she's doing, she's aiming to quiet my anxiety away. "They're just trying to protect me, I guess…"
"From me?"
She smiles, shaking her head. "They don't know you." She presses her lips on mine before pulling back. "They don't know that you'd never hurt me." Her hands trail down my neck and over my chest before they wrap behind my back, and she hugs herself to me, still on my lap. "That you're the best part of being here."
I take a calming breath and run a hand over her hair as she lays her head on my chest.
"It's going to be okay," she adds softly. "They know about us now, so we don't have to hide anymore."
"Even if they don't approve?"
"My mom is fine with it, with us dating. She just freaked out about the tattoo of all things. I honestly thought she would like it." She looks down at her arm, traces her fingers over the little birds inked on her skin. "And Phil," she says with a sigh, looking back up at me. "He''ll get over it. I just had to renegotiate my terms with him."
"Your terms?"
"Just…stuff for our company, our brand." She rolls her eyes as if it'd unimportant. "He is just afraid that I'll make bad decisions."
"Because of me?"
"Because I have a lot going on," she explains, her eyes as careful as her choice of words.
I have a feeling she's not telling me everything. I take a deep breath, trying to not get angry, trying to not make it worse. My anger is not directed at her, but at the fact that it sounds like Bella's dad only cares about their business, the money they make off of her, and not her. Not her at all.
I think I scoff, and Bella notices it.
"He quit his job to do this full time, you know? To manage me and my brand." Her tone is between defensive and sad, and it breaks my heart. I don't know if she's trying to convince me or herself. "I don't care about the money anyway. And he's happy having control over that."
"So, you gave him financial control of your company and now he's okay with us dating?" I can't hide my indignation, and I don't try to either.
"I just gave him what he had before I turned 18." She shrugs as if it's nothing.
"Bella, I don't think that's—"
"Can we not talk about this?" She groans, her hands clasping on my shoulders. "It's boring business stuff, and it doesn't really matter. I can still attend school here, compete with Summit, and be with you."
"Yeah, but at what cost?"
"No cost. Nothing changes." She grabs my face in her hands. "Please, don't worry about it."
She brings her lips to mine—once, twice—softly at first until she moves further up my thighs, rubbing herself on me.
"Swan…" I breathe out against her lips, while her hands trail from my neck, resuming the patterns from earlier, until her fingers reach in between us for the button fly of my jeans.
"I missed you." Her words do me in, my hands clasp around her waist. "Touch me," she says. "Please."
"Are you sure?" I manage to ask, she has me already in her hands.
Her lips are back on mine, roughly, desperately, while my hands roam all over her.
I pull her to the bed, so we're laying side by side, and she gasps when my hand reaches into her leggings. She lifts her head, her eyes on mine, her lashes still wet.
"Bella—" I want to tell her that I love her. That I won't let anything bad ever happen to her. That I'll work my ass off so she can be free from her parents. The words catch in my throat though, my senses in overdrive.
"It's okay," she whispers, moving closer, letting me in.
Under her covers—with her fingers around me, and my fingers in her—we comfort each other, we pleasure each other, we make each other forget. The fact is she's back. She's here. And she's going to be okay. Nothing else matters, just me and her, right here, right now.
~.~.~
After cleaning myself up quickly in her bathroom, I return to Bella's bed, surprised to find her eyes already closed.
I turn off the lights and drop a kiss on her forehead with one knee on her bed.
"Can you stay?" she asks in a whisper, her hand reaching for my neck.
"Of course." I get in next to her, reaching for her face and running my thumb on her cheek.
"I missed you so much," she mumbles, snuggling up to me.
"I missed you too. You don't even know." My fingers trail in her hair, hugging her closer, glad to be of comfort to her.
She seems in desperate need of sleep, and all I want to do is take care of her. It doesn't take long until she passes out.
I want to sleep, too, but all I can do is watch her.
It's clear her trip home was rough. I have never seen her so down, so…broken. I am so glad that she's back, that she's here with me, but I worry about what she had to agree to in order to be back here. I worry she's not told me half of it.
I think her parents are going to be a problem, regardless of their new arrangement. I don't know what else to do, other than be there for Bella, and hope in time I get to show her parents that I am good for her. That I want nothing more than to make her happy. My main concern now is that I am not so sure her happiness is what they're after.
My worries settle down as Monday morning rolls around and Bella is back to her energetic, happy self. Seemingly well-rested and in a much better mood, the topic of her parents is left behind, things go back to normal, and we focus on the upcoming end of the semester. With classes, finals, practices, and performances at games, we'll surely be insanely busy, but in the back of my head, spending time with her becomes the priority before she'll eventually have to go back home again.