Wild Card
Quiet as a mouse in a house full of cats, not wanting to make a sound to disturb anyone that should be sleeping. I tip-toed out of my room. Leaving the door ajar, I walked through the hallway.
Walking down the stairs, I appreciated the quiet. It had been a noisy night, followed by a very loud morning. I wasn't sure how Charlie, and especially Edward, with his vampire hearing, could stand it. But they somehow did. Both of them never complained about the noise.
Not even once.
Stepping into the living room and heading for the kitchen, I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall by the fireplace.
It was 12:45 pm, only thirty minutes since Edward left for the market and fifteen minutes until our lunch break ended, and we would have to be back on our school laptops for our next class. This meant I still had a little time to eat something. I was glad because my earlier task, in my room, seemed to take forever. I honestly thought it was later that it was.
Inside the kitchen, I passed the table where schoolbooks and two laptops were spread out. My stomach began to growl, telling me I needed to eat.
Opening the fridge, I sighed. If Edward would only change me, I would have no need for food or any other human inconveniences. But he doesn't want to do that until after we graduate in June, which is less than four months away. It feels like an eternity, and I hope he doesn't change his mind.
Frustrated that no food looked appetizing, as well as being irritated that Edward was making me wait to become a vampire since agreeing to it last spring, I slammed the door to the fridge.
Edward could be so infuriating with his demands. I wanted him to change me last year, but he wouldn't, not until I was eighteen and a high school graduate. I wanted to be the same age as him, but he wasn't having that. Why did he want me to be older than him, when he would always be seventeen?
"Ugh!" I huffed. The old frustration from him not seeing things my way bubbled up inside as I peeked inside the freezer, checking if anything was lunch worthy.
Nothing was.
Shutting the freezer door, my eyes scanned the magnets and papers on the refrigerator until they landed on a catfish magnet. My irritation towards my vampire boyfriend softened as my eyes focused on the black and white wavy image, which was held up by said magnet. My name, Bella Swan, was in the bottom right-hand corner, and a squiggly, peanut shape was in the middle of what could only be described as a white circle. I felt lucky to be Edward's girl. There are so many things he and I have gone through since we began dating in the middle of my sophomore year.
Some of those events were wonderful. Like our first date in his meadow where we kissed for the first time. There were others that were not so pleasant, such as being on the run from James and hiding out in Candia for three months. But being on the lamb from a psychopathic vampire was one of the downfalls of smelling too appetizing. Not much I could do to change that.
Staring at that picture that was a product of Edward and me, my love for him grew, and my heart felt like it was going to burst. I knew he was the home where my heart rested, and I was sure I would spend forever with him. Just as he had promised a while back while we were at the mall, people watching, which has sort of become an odd hobby for us. We usually watch old married couples that still gaze at each other like they are looking at one another for the first time, while we sit and talk about our future.
We would spend forever together. I loved the way it sounded.
Unable to find anything worth eating in the fridge or freezer, I made my way to the pantry. In a hurry to eat, my eyes scanned the shelves, hoping to find something appetizing and quick to make.
I spotted a large blue and yellow box on the second to the bottom shelf. Well, actually, there were twenty-four identical boxes all neatly stacked on that shelf.
"And you're the winner!" I said aloud to the blue and yellow box of Easy Mac.
I know it's silly, but sometimes I feel the need to talk to inanimate objects. It's just for fun and nothing weird.
Shrugging off my foolish behavior, I grabbed one Easy Mac cup from the box. I quickly shut the pantry door and twirled around - like an uncoordinated ballerina - going over to the sink. I needed to add water to the noodles before I heated them, and that's exactly what I did.
In a matter of seconds, the little blue and yellow cup was spinning in the microwave. I stood there, shifting my weight from foot to foot. I was trying to wait patiently for my food, but it wasn't easy. I was starving, and my mind began to drift.
I wasn't sure if it was out of boredom, hunger, or lack of sleep, which I had been no stranger to in the last several months - in fact, I often felt like a zombie functioning throughout the day. But whatever it was, I began asking myself why we had an overabundance of Easy Mac and Cheese.
It was a long story that started out with Edward not being eager in the slightest to turn me into a vampire. What a surprise. Though, it did end with him putting aside his century-old notion of marriage and virtue, which I was so grateful for. Even more excited when he began acting like an average seventeen-year-old boy and began to kiss me more passionately and fool around. We began to explore each other and figure out how our bodies worked in my room late at night. Those make-out sessions were heaven.
During one of those late nights when the moon was shining brightly through my bedroom window, I discovered just how magical Edward's tongue could be while it was buried between my legs. It was then that he made me cum more times than I could keep track of. What a euphoric feeling that was. There was no doubt he enjoyed it just as much as I did.
Though someone should have put a warning label on Edward that would read, 'Warning: Hot, sexy vampire may cause severe cravings of Mac and Cheese.' Or something like that. Because the simple answer to why we accumulated so many cheesy noodles could only be simplified by one thing. It was my overprotective vampire boyfriend's fault.
Well, that's what my dad would have people believe, anyway, minus the overprotective vampire part. Though he's aware of what Edward and his family are. But of course, he would never bring that up in a conversation with outsiders. He's aware of the laws and, therefore, keeps it a secret.
Having Charlie in the know made things much easier for us, especially now since Edward does his online classes here with me and practically lives here—which my dad tolerates.
Though how my dad came to be in the know about vampires and other mythical creatures being real, was not at all easy, to begin with. It also is the reason why my dad's kitchen contained so much Easy Mac, which really had to do with me if we were going to get technical.
It all started during the pandemic, toward the end of the lockdown. I came down with what my dad assumed was COVID. I was very sick and couldn't keep anything down. Food seemed to be my enemy.
Then one night at 3 AM, I woke up with a sudden craving for Easy Mac and Cheese. Being the wonderful boyfriend who doesn't need sleep, Edward didn't hesitate to jump out my window and get what I needed. He was ecstatic that I wanted food.
That was the start of a beautiful relationship between me and Macaroni and Cheese. I describe it as beautiful, since that was the one food I was finally able to eat. Since that was the case, Edward actually purchased a pallet of it. The downfall to that was it made Charlie very suspicious.
With Charlie being an attentive father who raised me alone after my mother walked out on us, he's a cop who can piece together a puzzle. It wasn't very practical to keep our secret. Especially after Edward showed up in Emmett's Jeep with 280 boxes of the food I was craving. He WAY overdid it. That was obvious, but I understood why he bought so much. He wanted to make sure I had a good supply of what I was able to eat.
Of course, after that incident, my dad insisted Edward come in and sit so that he could talk to both of us. Trying to get to the bottom of things, he asked a series of questions, which both Edward and I answered truthfully, though a bit reluctantly, I might add. But it wasn't like we'd be able to keep our secret hidden for all of eternity.
That was months ago, around the time half of my high school was going back to in-person learning. Most kids, and Alice, couldn't wait to go back to school and finish out the year in the classroom. However, Edward and I were among the few who stayed on distance learning. It was more convenient for us.
The microwave beeped, letting me know my food was done. The sharp sound pulled me out of my thoughts, bringing me back to the present … back to the kitchen, where I was standing in front of the microwave, feeling like I was in a fog of sleep. Even though I was awake.
Simultaneously, the microwave beeped again, and a squeak from upstairs was heard. The sound that started like a dog's squeaky toy began to sound like an unhappy cat meowing as I removed my food from the microwave. The noise got louder by the second, and I knew I couldn't ignore it.
"Damit." I breathed the word as I placed my food on the counter.
With no time to add the powdered cheese to my noodles, I left the kitchen. All the while, I wondered what was taking Edward so long. What could be keeping him at the market? He didn't have a long shopping list with hard-to-find items. All he had to get were bananas and milk. I know he's a vampire, and grocery stores are unfamiliar territory to him, but seriously! Picking up two items should not take almost an hour.
Without tripping over my own two feet, which isn't easy for me, I climbed two stairs at a time, in a hurry to go straight to my bedroom, right to where the noise was coming from before it became unbearable.
Another loud squeak rang out in the air. It was an ear-piercing sound that made me wince.
"I'm coming," I said calmly. I didn't have to shout; I knew my words would be heard no matter how low I spoke.
In a matter of seconds, I was at the top of the stairs. Quickly I went to my room and pushed open the door. As soon as I stepped inside my bedroom, I was greeted with the sweetest of all crooked smiles.
A smile on an angelic face that melted my heart and always would.
