Soleil

12. A MIKE CULLEN FREE ZONE

Friday zipped by with no dialogue scenes between her and Edward. The skewed set of time she was alert to without Edward's presence left her feeling uneasy.

It was with great relief when Bella found herself standing outside of Newton's Olympic Outfitters on Saturday morning. Edward had called it, today was a sunny day. Soleil. She remembered the book and prayed to the God of this cruel reality that Edward did not bring it with him. If he had a choice to? Did they ever when time blanked out? Sometimes she awakened to clothes she did not recall putting on or a hairstyle she did not agree with. There was a whole crowd of people in the parking lot, classmates from school that were of little importance for her to engage with socially. She only needed to focus on one of them. Edward.

At least he looked relieved to see her when she walked up. No stupid book obstructing his view.

"You came," he mentioned nonchalantly. "And I said it would be sunny, didn't I?" She narrowed her eyes. What a dick, once again. He was playing games with her. She knew those were not his words. She scanned his hands, seeing a water bottle and a pair of sunglasses. No book. She released a breath she had not realized she had been holding.

"I told you I was coming," she replied, her smile tight. A line for a line.

"No…plus one?" he asked, a cautious edge to his tone. His shoulders stiffened before he surveyed the parking lot.

"Nope!" Bella answered, her giddiness blatant.

Edward's posture eased. Bella was curious as to what issue Edward had with Mike. Her annoyance towards Mike's character was well deserved. Edward's seemed out of left field unless…he was jealous? She suppressed a smile and told herself to get a grip.

"I think we have to go to the beach." Edward looked over his shoulder to the others. "Did you want to ride up front with me?"

"You're assuming I am choosing your suburban over Eric's minivan?"

Edward quirked his right eyebrow. It was a given she would, but she liked the idea of throwing him off. Even if it was for a quick second.

"Yeah, yeah I call shot gun," she admitted, waving him off. Bella felt the heat of Jessica's stare as she turned to look in her direction. It was unfortunate that Bella ended up wedged between Edward and Jessica on the ride over to La Push. No way in hell she was giving up the middle seat up to Jessica.

Bella knew she could speak freely despite the car full of people. It was safe. Without Mike. Despite all the chatter, soft music played in the background that Bella recognized as one of Debussy's works, Clair de Lune. She was going to ask Edward about it when Jessica began rolling down the window and a fresh breeze rolled through the car.

"So you like-"

A swirl of colors, forest green, dark gray, dull yellow, and bone white, flashed in front of her before she was walking on the beach, following Edward. "Holy Crow!" She snapped. "I hate these skips. We need the time."

Bella recognized Eric and another familiar looking boy in the distance gathering broken branches of driftwood.

"They are going to make a driftwood fire."

"I don't care, Edward. Aren't you just as frustrated that we lost time?" She threw her hands up in the air, exasperated.

"I am," he admitted. "But instead of complaining we can figure out what our next move is."

"Well, where was this problem solver back at the nurse's office?" she quipped, rather annoyed with him.

"I was solving one of our biggest problems then."

"Oh really?" Bella rolled her eyes. "Do tell."

"Where the plot is going."

Her eyes bulged. "Impossible."

"It would have been without that book."

"The book in French?" She asked skeptically.

"I lied then because I was caught off guard. I can read French." Bella gave him a pointed look.

"It's this story, Bella. This world. Soleil tells us what is going on. In…" He hesitated and Bella's stomach churned. "Your point of view."

"Like my diary?" She asked aghast.

"You could liken it to that. It's in first person. And you tell your love story with Mike." Bella covered her ears, not wanting to hear another word more on this. She was torn being mortified over the story's perspective and ashamed her love story was confirmed to be with Mike. Knowing herself, her face had probably already turned a deep shade of red.

"Why in the world is it called Sun?" She moaned. Her embarrassment allowed her to ask this question instead of hundreds of more important questions surrounding the book that dictated her existence. Or even why he had lied or supposedly could read French all along.

"I am only three chapters in, Bella, so I can't say. But I am up to the point of the accident." The words 'the accident' were delicate. There was something more to them or how he felt about that event. Bella wanted to press him on this, but Edward continued. "When Mike saves you. Something is off about him. I sensed it before, but I now know my impression of him has never been wrong. Have you figured out yet how he is different or saved you?"

"Where's the damn book, Edward? Let's just spoil it for us," she demanded. Wasn't that obvious? And why was he reading it from start to finish? He should have skipped to the end like any reasonable person in this situation would have. That is what mattered. The ending.

"So now you're wishing I brought it with me?" he teased. She wanted to punch the smug smile off his face.

"Did you or did you not bring it?"

He gestured to the beachfront with his hand. "Does it look like I would have brought a book with me today?"

"So, no choice there?"

"None at all."

The color drained from Bella's face. "Will we ever get it back? What if it disappeared into a void with a time skip?"

"Don't worry about that yet." Edward appeared too calm and composed for Bella's liking. "I will check the janitor's closet at school. I am hoping it is an object that resets to its original location once the time skip occurs. We have time to figure this out." He offered Bella an easy going smile but she didn't buy it.

They walked towards the others unwillingly. There was a reason they were on this beach today and they needed to figure out why. During the hike to the nearby tidal pools, Edward and Bella exchanged vital information. Edward summed up the first three chapters of Soleil for Bella, and Bella informed Edward the results of her testing limits with Mike on Thursday.

When Bella and Edward returned to First Beach from their hike, others had joined their original group. From their straight black hair and copper skin it was easy to infer the newcomers were teenagers from the reservation. Bella was just as hungry as all the boys returning from their hike, but her course was steered towards Angela. Her face turned ashen as she reviewed their surroundings. "Edward," she called out in a panic, her voice sounding shrill. Edward appeared by her side in an instant and her impending panic attack receded.

"What is it?" His voice was low as he leaned closer to her, and Bella heard the sincerity in his words. She reminded her racing heart it was just because he was her ally.

Her legs kept walking forward until they spun her body around and planted her butt in the seat next to Angela. Every step of the way, Edward followed her. It was different then when they first met. He was not following her around because he was forced to. He chose this path.

"You can't control where you are supposed to go now," he observed, squatting next to her on the opposite side of where Angela was sitting. Edward's mouth twisted as he assessed her. Bella squirmed, though she was unsure if it was from Edward's scrutinizing gaze or her fight against what she was being forced to do.

"Hey, it's okay." Edward reached for her hands that she was wringing in her lap. They stilled when he covered her hands with his own. "I will see if he is here," Edward offered before letting her hands go and standing up. Bella's hand shot out faster than reason to tug on the hem of Edward's shirt.

"Please don't leave me," she requested in a voice that was shaking. It was pitiful, she could admit. But after Edward summarized the beginning of Soleil, her mind devolved into irrational thinking and poor judgment. She was acting weak when she should be like Edward. A strong spirit and a willingness to do anything needed to fight this storyline. Bella ignored the argument that Edward could disregard her at any point if she no longer served his purpose to escape as well. Sacrificing her out of desperation or necessity. Maybe he did not feel that way now. But he would. As he retold the story to her during the hike to the tidal pools, she obsessed over his tells that she had learned over the last few weeks of their time spent together. The inflection points in his voice. How his body shifted. She studied every facial tick and hesitation to continue with the story telling at some spots.

"Okay," he relented and sat next to her on the sand. His face was unreadable. Bella hoped he was not disappointed, but she needed him now. She needed the assurance she could survive everything with her sanity in check. She needed him. And she was absolutely sure he did not want to need her. She swept that under the rug to deal with at another time.

They waited a few minutes, and nothing passed. No Mike. Angela said nothing and it was obvious they were cutting into the story flow. Bella heard Angela's stomach rumble and then her own stomach mimicked Angela's.

"Food? I'll still be in your line of sight."

Bella nodded and watched Edward get up. With his absence, she noticed a younger native boy sitting on the stones near the fire. He glanced up at her, interest shining in his eyes that Bella ignored as Edward was walking back with sandwiches and sodas in his hands.

Bella ate in silence, by choice. She was not relaxed. She was restless. Edward was quiet as well. They were rarely awarded moments of awareness like this, where they could be lost in their own thoughts without any external moments their body still had to participate in. In this moment, there were plenty of important things she should have been reviewing after her conversation with Edward. Instead she decided to let her mind go blank and enjoyed the company of Edward by her side, as if they chose this moment for themselves.

As they finished eating, people started to drift away in twos and threes. Edward stood up and Bella's panic resurfaced as she was unable to get up with him.

"Sorry," he apologized. "Looks like I can't stick around any longer. I have to go to the one shop in the village." He frowned at her. "It will be okay, Bella. I will be back. Also…be weary of that one boy staring at you. Something seems off about him. If Mike comes, just remember I'll be back. Okay?" He patted her head, and she knew he was lingering. But the longer he stayed she too understood time would be frozen in this moment. They needed it to go forward for now. Today was Saturday and they could not read more of the story until Monday, if the book was at school like Edward had theorized.

Bella nodded at Edward because she knew her emotions would seep from any answer she could provide. After his departure, she mentally checked out. She had only noticed Angela had left when one of the teens, the one Edward warned her about, from the reservation sauntered over to sit in Angela's seat. She observed he had a pretty face besides being on the younger side of the crowd on the beach.

His name was Jacob. She was supposed to remember his family from when she was younger and visited Charlie…but were those even real events she wondered in horror? Why was she forced to talk to him? Maybe she could use him as a shield from Mike? She defaulted to auto-pilot mode when chatting with Jacob so she could suffer through this existential crisis internally.

Bella's ears perked up when she heard someone mention the name Cullen. She instantly snapped back into the conversation at hand, putting her inner meltdown on pause.

"The Cullens don't come here."

Bella noted that the statement was made with such an authority that it closed the topic. She gnashed her teeth together in disapproval of not paying attention sooner. What had sparked the Cullens to even be included in the conversation? A light bulb went off in her brain. This was the reason she was here. She was 'supposed' to be coming up with theories according to Mike of why he could have saved her. Perhaps, there was a theory or two to learn here. If that was the case, it meant no Mike! She clapped her hands together with a renewed vigor.

Jacob interrupted her celebratory thoughts. "So is Forks driving you crazy yet?"

Bella burst into a fit of laughter that sent her bending over to clutch her sides. Oh, the irony of her intended response. "Oh, I'd say that is an understatement." She found it odd in given moments she related to who she was 'supposed' to be. Were they one in the same? Was she at her core the Bella telling the story 'Soleil'?

Without thinking on the line that came next, she asked, "Do you want to walk down the beach with me?"

Dear lord, was she attempting to flirt? This was going to be awkward as hell. But Bella put together she had an agenda by busting out her non-existent flirting game. She was going to probe young Jacob here for information. Curious about this impending train wreck she would be forced to watch, she decided she may as well at least have some fun with it. She would learn the information regardless of what she said.

"How long do you think it will take for Edward to return my feelings?" She asked, knowing she was an idiot for asking.

"I just turned fifteen." He seemed flattered. But of course he was, she was supposed to have guessed he was sixteen years old.

"So you're saying fifteen years? That is a long time to wait. I doubt this plot expands for that length of time. Why do I even like him?" She mused.

"I'm tall for my age." Bella muffled a laugh. She offered Jacob a sympathetic smile, poor thing never had a shot with her.

"Do you think he thinks about me often?"

"Not too much," Jacob admitted with a frown. Then he followed up about getting his driver's license. The other Bella's skipped lines were successively luring him in with little to no effort, aka terrible flirting skills.

Then her and Jacob touched on Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam who dropped a major hint about the Cullens. Turns out he was 19 and of a more appropriate age for Bella to flirt with. But the storyline called for Jacob here. Why? Because he was a 'family friend'? But perhaps it was because of his loose lips since Jacob finally revealed that the Cullens were not supposed to come to the reservation.

"Can I move here?" She asked impulsively. This was perhaps her best idea to resolve the problem. If the story would allow the cut and run.

He bit his lip and Bella wished it was because he was working out in his mind how to inform Billy that she would start living with them from today onwards.

Alas he responded though, "Oops. I'm not supposed to say anything about that."

"Please. I will even be your girlfriend," she suggested, all in jest. While a side of her wanted to be like 'screw Edward if this was her ticket to freedom', she knew she could never abandon him in her escape. Plus, it would never work. There was no home that Jacob lived in here in this world. Once his scene with her served its purpose, he would vanish into the void with everything else she knew. Waiting for the story to summon him again.

She pitied him. Jacob was friendly and for when she paid attention their conversation seemed to have flowed cohesively. To her own surprise, she found herself wondering if a kiss would bring Jacob to life like it did with Edward? She would be like a prince in a fairytale who awakens the sleeping princess. But in this case, she was whoring her rescue efforts out to different princesses to increase her likelihood for freedom from Mike and this pre-determined life.

She was on fence of puckering up her lips when Jacob ominously asked, "Do you like scary stories?"

Her decision on attempting the kiss could wait. She was intrigued to see how this 'quest for a theory' subplot played out. Then she could throw another wrench in Soleil's direction.

"Sure," she answered. She followed Jacob to a nearby driftwood tree. They perched on the twisted roots jutting out from the tree and Bella was all ears waiting on Jacob to begin.

The story was fine. More of an urban legend so to speak in Jacob's eyes then holding any truth to their ancestor's past. The Cullens came into the picture. Enemies of the tribe, the same enemies since his great-grandfather's time, that were the cold ones. To be honest, Bella listened half-heartedly. She was a tad more focused on how La Push would always be a Mike Cullen free zone.

Finally, she was tuned into an important question asked by the other Bella. Clarification on the term cold ones.

"What are the cold ones?"

Jacob smiled darkly. And Bella did not laugh because something compelled her to take this information seriously.

"Blood drinkers." Bella's heart dropped in her chest. "Your people call them vampires."

"No freaking way!" She screamed. That was the theory she was supposed to uncover? A scene she could not skirt around or avoid, just to learn this?!

"You have goose bumps," he laughed delightedly, but that's because the little twerp didn't know better. Bella did. Wasn't it obvious?

She was not living out a romance story, it was a horror story.

Note: What another atypical chapter length. If you don't review, I can take my sweet ass time to update this. Be warned if you do, you will most likely force me to update this faster than I expected because y'all are just as interested in this story as I am T_T

My thoughts on this? A bit of drama, humor and…dun, dun, dun…horror (lol on this one)

I think they both were a little relaxed on reading the rest of the book because bella deep down trusts edward's confidence the book will be at school on Monday AND that this is a love story. Nothing crazy to worry about. When they speculated something was off about Mike, I am sure they hoped it was an experimental drug and not just what bella found out lol

Next update we will see Edward return as Jacob and Bella are talking. Things are heating up. But the real heat occurs when they get back to school and look for that book to find out how 'Soleil' ends.

Feel free to ask questions about what is going on! :) ~pixelephant

P.S. original chapter title was, IT'S LA PUSH, BABY (lol)