Stephenie Meyer owns all TWILIGHT characters.
The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com
Prompt: 20 - vanish
Pen name: IngenueFic
Characters: Bella, Edward
Rating: G
All prompts can be found here:
www[dot]thetwilight25[dot]com/round-five/prompts/
Every morning at 7:24, Bella boards the 192 Express to New York City. She greets the driver with a smile and he – so long as it's the regular driver – smiles back widely. With the bus already on the move by the time she reaches the second row, Bella continues to walk unsteadily toward the back. She likes to sit there because it means she gets to sleep a little bit longer since everyone files out from front to back at the bus station in the city. She also likes to sit on the right side of the bus and where there aren't any frames of the large windows.
After about ten minutes, the bus pulls into her town's Park & Ride station. Part of the reason she likes sitting on the right is so she can see how long the line is and see who is coming on. She knows the regulars. Well, she doesn't know them but she recognizes them and exchanges pleasantries sometimes.
There are the two people – a couple – that live in the apartment complex nearby. There's a closer bus stop but she once overheard the girl saying she liked walking the extra two blocks back so that they could sit next to each other. She's a gorgeous blonde, tall and slender, and she's almost always in a suit. The only time she's not are Fridays but even then she wears pressed pants and fitted sweaters or blouses. She always boards the bus first and chooses the row for the two of them to sit, usually on the left side and a few rows ahead of Bella. The man follows her with a hand at the small of her back. He looks a bit like a body builder even in his tailored suits. He always places a laptop bag in the overhead storage space and puts his jacket there too, if he has one.
A middle-aged woman also rides the bus into the city with Bella. She's pretty in a plain sort of way. She must work at a hospital of some sort because she's in scrubs all the time. Bella assumes she works with children because one day, the scrubs have dogs and cats on them, then the next day it's the Cat in the Hat. She doesn't always appear, which only confirms Bella's thoughts of her in a hospital. When the nurse – doctor? – sits, she peers out the window and waves to a handsome man with blond hair and dimples in his cheeks. He looks like he's dressed for work too but he must work somewhere in New Jersey.
It's summer, which means a few tourists also get on the bus. It's rare since the town doesn't really have hotels or anything so the tourists are usually visiting family members. Today, it's a trio of blond girls. They look like typical teenagers and they talk like it too, all screechy sounding and chattering. One look from the suited blonde, though, and they lower their voices.
A new man walks on the bus and Bella can't help but sit up a bit straighter. She peers over the seats and watches as he walks down the aisle and sits in the row in front of her. In a suit, he looks, well, beautiful. His hair is a mess though. She watches through the reflections in the window as he settles into his seat. He unbuttons his suit jacket and pops in a set of headphones. She wishes she knew what he was listening to. By the time the bus pulls away from the curb, his eyes are closed and his head leans against the window.
Bella's morning routine is always the same not because she needs it to be like that but because she likes knowing what time she'll get into work – barring major traffic, anyway. She's deviated from her schedule before and that's fine too but she always likes coming back to the 7:24 bus.
For the entire month of June, Bella sees the new guy. He must have moved into the area recently because she's sure she would know if she's seen him before. It seems he's getting used to the regular bus riders too because by the end of the month, he high fives the big guy every morning and grins at the pretty blonde. He seems nice and he's always thoughtful when it comes to sharing the row with someone, leaning over just the tiniest bit so that he has his own space.
Bella does the same thing.
She's learned to really love her mornings so the week after the July 4th weekend, she's a bit bummed that the new guy – who isn't really new anymore – doesn't show up. On Monday, she assumes maybe he took a long weekend for the holiday and doesn't think much of it. A lot of people aren't on the regular bus but Bella didn't want to waste a vacation day, especially when she just stayed home to watch the fireworks on TV. He's not there on Tuesday either so Bella concocts a story about how maybe he's sick. When he doesn't show up on Wednesday, she realizes that she misses seeing him walk toward her. He almost always sits in the row in front of her and gives her a smile before he turns to sit down.
He doesn't show up Thursday either.
On Friday, Bella takes a deep breath and asks the body builder if he knows where the new guy is. The body builder's name is actually Emmett and his girlfriend is actually his fiancée and her name is Rosalie. The new guy's name is Edward or so Emmett tells her and he went to visit his family in Martha's Vineyard for the week.
He also lives about ten blocks from Bella's townhouse.
The following Monday, Bella can't help but breathe a happy sigh when she sees Edward in the line waiting for the bus. He's standing right behind Emmett and Rosalie and they're smiling and laughing like they're old friends. As usual, Rosalie boards the bus first but this time, she sits in the row across from Bella, smiling a hello at her. Emmett follows her with his hand on her back. He doesn't say anything about the row change; he merely puts his laptop bag in the storage space above the row and places a folded suit jacket on top of it. He says hello and then sits next to Rosalie before taking out his phone and checking e-mail.
"Hey." Bella looks up to see Edward standing in the aisle next to her row. "Can I sit here?"
She's surprised, not only because it's the first time he's ever talked to her, but also because no one ever really asks to sit next to someone. They just do it.
"Yeah, of course," she replies.
Edward smiles at her and sits after shrugging off his suit jacket. It's too hot outside and she's not really sure how he was surviving with it on. He settles into the seat but instead of putting in his earphones, he turns to her.
"I hear you were asking about me."
Bella starts coughing, mortified that Emmett and Rosalie told him.
"If I'd known you'd be worried, I would have told you I took a vacation."
She looks at him but he's not being sarcastic. He's smiling at her sweetly and that's when Bella notices that his eyes are a vibrant shade of green. It would be easy to get lost in them.
"I just noticed you weren't showing up. I notice the regulars on the bus and got a little worried." She glances at Edward but quickly looks away. "I've seen you talk to Emmett so I asked."
"That was nice of you."
There's a long pause and the bus pulls away from the curb only to stop three blocks down to let more passengers on.
"I'm Edward by the way."
Bella hesitates but through the window reflections, she sees a curious look on his face. She turns her head and meets his gaze.
"I'm Bella."
Thank you to oOza for the beta work.