*Author's note: Hello again everyone! I hope you are all still here after the emotional letting of the last chapter. Our girl is finally opening up! The story will start picking up now that Bella is starting to wake up again. The reader may recognize parts of New Moon within this chapter and future chapters. It is inevitable that this would happen as I am going based somewhat off the book. I'll source the book and chapter that was used at the end of each chapter here. Again, I do not own anything recognizable as the intellectual property of Stephenie Meyer. I am making no money from writing this. I just need to get the plot bunnies out of my head. *
Waking up from a fog felt worse than it sounds. I looked up from my breakfast without realizing I was eating, let alone having a conversation with Charlie. What was he talking about? Sending me home? I am home… I didn't do anything wrong. Why are you punishing me?
I hadn't realized I was saying this out loud to Charlie.
"That's just it! You didn't do anything! You never do anything! Trouble would be better than whatever... this is! You're lifeless Bella. I just want to do something. Anything!"
Well, that stung. "I'm sorry. Tell me what you do want me to do then…" I sighed.
We sat in silence for a few moments. "Honey, I think you need some help. Maybe that would make it easier on you, talking to someone. When your mother left," he began, frowning," and took you with her… well it was a really bad time for me. But, I handled it. Honey, you aren't handling it. We both know it's not getting better."
"Look," I eventually said with a flat voice. I'll go out tonight, if you want. I'll call Jess or Angela."
"No, that's not what I want. I just want you to be happy- no, not even that much. I just want you not to be miserable. I think you'd have a better chance of that getting out of Forks."
I looked up, eyes flashing with emotion for the first time in too long. "I'm not leaving. Its my last semester of school. It would mess everything up." Charlie kept coming up with reasons for me to leave. I kept returning with reasons to stay. In the end, he brought up the forbidden subject. Him. I couldn't even think without the void threatening to take back over.
"Its been months. No calls, no letters, no contact. You can't keep waiting for him."
"I'm not waiting for anything. I don't expect anything. Look, I have to get to school," I interrupted, standing up and yanking my breakfast from the table. "I'll make plans with Jessica" I called over my shoulder. "Maybe I won't be home for dinner. We'll go to Port Angeles and watch a movie." And was quickly out the door.
I was one of the first people to arrive to the school. Nobody tried speaking to me and nobody bothered me. They had gotten as used to the void I had become as I had felt. It was time for Calculus and even though I hadn't talked to Jess sense everything happened it was the first class I had that day that we shared together. I knew my antisocial behavior had offended her so it wasn't going to be easy asking her for a favor, but I couldn't face Charlie again without some sort of interaction to report.
Jessica didn't look up when I sat next to her. The class was small and flew by quickly. Class was finally over and I was able to turn to Jess.
"Jess?" She twisted in her seat to face me, looking incredulously at the sound of my voice. "Are you talking to me, Bella? What, do you need help with calculus or something?" She sounded sour.
"No, I actually wanted to know I you would…go to the movies with me tonight? I really need a girls night out."
"Why are you asking me?" Jess countered, still unfriendly.
"You're the first person I think of when I want girl time." I smiled, and I hoped the smile looked genuine. It was probably true. She was at least the first person I thought of when I wanted to avoid Charlie. It amounted to the same thing.
"Well… I don't know"
"Do you have plans?"
"no… I guess I can go with you. Let me ask Lily if she wants to join. What do you want to see? Do you want me to pick you up after school?" she asked a little mollified.
I wasn't sure who Lily was but the rest of my day passed by quickly.
"Thanks for coming with me Lily. I wasn't sure what Bella is planning, but I guess we are going to find out." Jess said to me once we pulled up to Bella's house. She came out her door and climbed into the backseat behind me.
The two girls tried to make small talk, but it turned out that Bella was just as bad at making it as her father was all those months ago. When Jess brought up having gone out with Eric Yorkie Bella finally seemed to wake up. She managed to get Jess to fill the car ride all the way to the movies with how that managed to happen.
The movie ended up playing early so we all got our tickets and decided to eat dinner later on. The previews played while Jess kept talking. But once the movie started Bella freaked out.
"I thought we picked the zombie movie," she hissed at Jess. What the heck? SHE invited us out and now she's upset by the movie choice?
"This IS the zombie movie." was Jess' reply. Bella looked confused and upset. "Then why isn't anyone getting eaten?"
Bella decided to get up after that to bring back popcorn. She came back after a while, but she missed everything. She at least seemed happy now that people were turning into Zombies. She ended up leaving again later on for a drink when the movie was almost over. Maybe the movie was too scary for her.
We talked about how that was the scariest movie we had all seen in a while. We were all definitely having nightmares tonight. Leah would have laughed through the movie for how dumb it had been. But then again, she had been a bit busy dealing with… Emily and Sam. We hadn't seen each other sense the accident. She wanted space and to be honest I don't blame her. I don't know what's going on any more than she does.
Lily- "Hey, wanna hang out tomorrow? I'll bring coffee 3 "
A few minutes later Leah decided to respond.
Leah- "Sure thing Tinkerbelle. Black, two sugars. And bring snacks."
Great. I really hope that nickname doesn't stick. I have enough on my plate without that being my identifier. But, knowing Leah it's already too late.
Crap. Where did Jess and Bella go? I was too distracted texting to realize I had been left behind a bit. What was Bella doing with those men?
I quickly jogged over to where Jess was dragging Bella away from the street. She was yelling at Bella for something.
"I'm not going in, I just wanted to see something…." Was Bella's slow reply.
"Are you crazy?" then, in a lower voice Jess asked Bella "are you suicidal?"
"No, I'm not. Just go inside and get something to eat, I'll be right there." And with that Bella started walking back towards those men. They seemed dangerous. What the heck was Bella playing at? In the end we managed to get Bella to leave the men and we stopped by McDonalds to get something to eat really quick. Bella kept trying to restart the conversation but Jessica had obviously had enough weirdness for the night and I sure as heck wasn't interested in whatever craziness possessed Bella today.
After dropping Bella off first, I motioned for Jess to drive a little further away before dropping me off. I looked over at her, concerned when she looked really pale and shaken up.
"Jess, are you ok? Do you want to spend the night and eat ice cream before passing out from whatever the hell today was?" She seemed to think about it, but ultimately declined. She just wanted to get home and forget ever agreeing to spend time with Bella.
"Well, I'm glad I at least got to spend time with you. I still can't believe you dropped your drink when that one guy jumped out from behind the wall." That seemed to get a soft smile from her. Lily ended up hugging Jess gently before heading inside. It wasn't too late for a weekend night but after today Lily just wanted to get some sleep and mellow out before seeing Leah tomorrow. Hopefully whatever today turned into was just a fluke and not the hint of a new trend.
*All recognized content took place in New Moon, Chapter 4 titled Waking up*