Soleil

9. BELL OF THE BALL

Bella almost had a stroke when she rounded the corner of her truck's tail bed and found a tall, dark figure leaning against the side of her truck. Realizing it was Eric and not Mike, she quickly wiped away her tears.

"Hey…Eric." Her voice warbled, still caught up a tail wind of emotions.

"Hi, Bella." He replied, an awkward air to him as he scratched the back of his head.

She was unsure as to why she was the one forced to greet him first when it was he who forcing this conversation.

"What's up?" She unlocked the truck door to hint she was about to leave and was not sticking around for conversation.

"Uh, I was just wondering…" no! No! No! This is not happening. Bella felt like she was being smothered. "-if you would like to go to the spring dance with me?" Eric's voice broke on the last word in unison with Bella's brain.

Why was she being forced as the object of affection of these boys? She was counting Edward still despite him not wanting to lean into that plot line. Free will and all.

"Thank you for asking me, but I am going to Seattle that day." Bella forced a diplomatic smile because her impending mental breakdown would not fast-forward this scene and her frustration minutely lessened given her expected answer was that of rejection.

Eric's eyes twitched. Then his neck. As if he was short circuiting. "Well, yeah."

Bella's lips pursed to the side as she pondered his response. It seemed off. Had she cut a line? Again without recognizing it?

"Oh," he said. "Well, maybe next time."

That seemed more appropriate to her. And another example of the conversation skips she could have if she didn't follow a built-in script like the others. She was getting better with figuring this out, except around Mike it seemed. And Edward. Or maybe if she wasn't in control of her emotions, she would lose control of her tongue…?

Bella refused to be amiable and placate Eric with the "sure" itching on her tongue to be released. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders and yanked her truck door ready to be finished with this mine field of conversations with the opposite sex today.

She didn't bother to watch Eric slouch off back toward school. Her mission was to figure out what was next for her, if she was even allowed that time. That focus made her oblivious to the low chuckle of Mike Cullen passing by.

To her dismay, her getaway from hell was of course blocked by Mike. She was stuck behind Mike in her only exit from the school parking lot. It looked to her like he decided to be an asshole by stopping the flow of traffic for no good reason she could come up with. Even for his slow ass walking siblings to his Volvo. Bella took a deep breath, not allowing herself to succumb to aggravation. She turned up volume of the Spanish radio station that was mostly static and began to move to the music. She closed her eyes, willfully ignoring this moment that was probably supposed to matter. She wasn't giving it, aka another set up with Mike, any time of day.

It was only when she heard a knocking sound that she engaged with reality. She opened her eyes and found Tyler Crowley tapping on her passenger side window.

Her mouth gaped open because Tyler did not look mad. He looked confident. She wanted to hurl as the 'being forced as the object of affection of these boys' theory popped in her head again. Because there would be no way he would be standing here if he wanted her to move forward. He would have honked, obviously.

Bella leaned across the cab to crank the window down, eager to get this dance invitation over with as well.

"Yeah?" Bella asked. She screamed with delight on the inside as she watched his face fall along with his confidence.

"Oh, I know - I just wanted to ask you something while we're trapped here." He grinned and it looked like the confidence resurged in full force. How? So fast?

Bella waited.

"Will you go to the spring dance with me?" he continued.

Out of patience with this bullshit scenario of being the bell of the ball for all the boys to ask, Bella just smiled. Because something dawned on her.

She was supposed to refuse.

While Mike was two cars in front of her.

She was supposed to refuse.

For some future set-up with Mike.

She was playing into this plot somehow when she thought she had some sort of minuscule control.

"I was going out of town. But my plans were just canceled. Thanks for asking me, but I should go with who asked me first. "

"Yeah, Edward said that," he admitted.

"He did?" But that didn't seem right. She just made this impromptu change of plans now. There was no way for Edward to know she was going to the dance with him. If anything, there was the possibility of Seattle that Bella just took off the table.

Tyler shrugged. "I was hoping you were just letting him down easy..."

Bella dipped her head in the palm of her hand not on the steering wheel. A dizzy spell was starting to overtake her as she pieced together another conversation that strayed from the correct path. She had to assume her original answer was maintaining she was still going to Seattle. But it was odd her gut didn't put her in check this time with such a drastic change to her future plans or make her question her instinct of saying what she wanted.

Still stuck in traffic, Bella wrangled herself from her thoughts to respond to Tyler. "Nope. But guess he wins with first come, first serve."

"That's cool. We will have prom."

Bella didn't bother responding before Tyler was walking back to his car. She looked forward to finally see Mike's siblings piling in his Volvo, ready to get the hell out of this parking lot. Like some horror movie, Bella caught Mike's eyes in his rear-view mirror. He was unquestionably shaking…possibly in anger? As if he heard Bella's promise to go to dance with Edward. Bella smirked and resisted from revving her engine and busting the shiny silver rear bumper of his car.

That moment slipped away, and her consciousness awakened when the phone rang in her house. Apparently, she was in the middle of cooking dinner. Jessica was on the other end of the line when she answered the phone and jubilant over the news. Edward had accepted her invitation to the dance.

Edward was going to the dance with Jessica.

And not her.

Bella could not even pretend to celebrate the news and hung up after faking that she whiffed some food burning.

Her head was spinning as she tried to analyze their broken but somewhat real conversation earlier that day before Biology. Did Edward really want to go with Jessica? Had she misunderstood him earlier? Was he back in line with how things were supposed to progress for them all?

She needed a friend. She needed to feel not crazy. And in her few real moments with Edward, she caught glimpses of how he was interesting…and brilliant…and mysterious…and perhaps perfect…and her only ally in Forks.

She was hardly allowed more than a few seconds to process everything before she was shifted into a conversation with her father centered around the upcoming dance and her alleged trip Seattle. Unable to bear yielding to her true feelings any longer, she resumed an auto pilot mode. Responding in this conversation with the words that were always meant to come from her mouth.

Author's Note: Woah Nelly, it's been way too long since I last updated. I was a bit annoyed with how this chapter was going to turn out which caused me a loooong pause. Sorry!