Stephenie Meyer owns all TWILIGHT characters.
The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com
Prompt: 21 – i39[dot]tinypic[dot]com/rmp7v8[dot]jpg
Pen name: IngenueFic
Characters: Bella, Edward
Rating: G
All prompts can be found here:
www[dot]thetwilight25[dot]com/round-five/prompts/
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
Bella's hand darts out and reaches out for her side table. She hits the snooze button on her alarm clock, knowing immediately where it is without having to look. A few more minutes won't do anything…
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
"No," she moans even though no one's around to hear her. "Not yet." She closes her eyes again.
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
"God, okay already." Bella struggles to a seated position, blinking at the clock. Her eyes pop open wide when she sees that it's almost 9:00. "No, no, no."
Jumping out of bed, Bella runs to her closest and pulls out clothes haphazardly She checks herself in the mirror as she dashes toward the bathroom to comb out her hair and brush her teeth. Running down the hall to the kitchen, she lets out a shriek when she sees Jake standing here with a piece of toast hanging from his mouth.
"Jesus Christ, what are you still doing here?"
"Me?" he asks around the piece of bread. He swallows quickly. "My shift doesn't start until one. What are you still doing here?"
"Snoozed too much." She grabs a banana and her stomach grumbles as if telling her that it won't be enough. "Listen, I have to go. Can you do me a favor and move the car? Alternate side parking today until six-ish."
"Sure. Just leave the keys."
Bella rummages through her purse and tosses them toward him. "Thanks. I owe you. See you later!"
A 20-minute train ride later, Bella dashes into her office building. Her foot taps impatiently as she waits for an elevator. The floor is silent when she steps out and her heart races. She sincerely hopes there's not an important meeting that she's missing. Just as she's sitting at her desk, she hears people down the hall.
"Benjamin!" she calls her assistant's name as he walks by. She notices the way he lets out a sigh of relief when he sees her. "What's going on? Where was everyone?"
"Bella, where have you been?" he asks urgently. He shuts the door behind him and walks to her desk. He sits and his knees start bouncing. "I thought you were done."
"Done?"
Benjamin's face is intense. "Bella, they just laid off about 30 people in the department, about 8 in our group."
"What?"
"It happened this morning. When you weren't in your office by the time they called the meeting… Jeez, Bella, I thought they'd let you go."
Bella sits back in her chair. She feels numb. Lay-offs. Again. The company did lay-offs about a year and a half ago and while her department was hit lightly, she hadn't lost anyone in her group. The fact that eight people – and she doesn't even know who yet – are no longer working with her makes her want to hurl.
"Who?"
A knock stops Benjamin from answering and they both stand up when Sam, the senior VP of marketing, walks in. His eyes are serious when he looks at Bella.
"Sam!"
"Bella." The way he says her name makes her stomach turn again. "We need to talk."
Benjamin stands up, knowing he's being dismissed, and for the next 45 minutes Bella and Sam talk about who's no longer on her team and what will happen for the next couple of weeks and then in the long run. Sam does most of the talking and Bella mostly just nods or asks a question. By the end of their impromptu meeting, she feels like she's been run over by a truck.
"I'm sorry, Bella, but we had to let go of people somewhere. I know you guys can handle the changes. Paul agreed," he says, mentioning the director whom Bella works directly under.
"Thanks for discussing this with me," she says, her voice soft and her brain muddled.
Sam hesitates. "Paul will be by to talk to you but Bella, with a large portion of this group gone, the ones who remain will have to pick up the slack."
"Of course."
"Paul and I are trying to get you a promotion. You will be getting one, actually, we just have to work out the logistics with a new title and what percentage we can give you. We'll let you know more as soon as we can."
Bella nods. "Thank you," she says but her heart is only half elated. Later on, she'll try to get excited about a promotion but right now, all she can think about are the coworkers who, well, aren't really coworkers anymore.
"Take it easy today," he tells her. "I think everyone's still a bit raw."
She listens to Sam and does the bare minimum of work. Paul stops in just after lunch and they end up having a meeting that lasts for almost two hours. By the time 4:30 rolls around, she's done with attempting to work. Her brain is mush and she's starting to see colored spots in front of her eyes from staring at her computer screen for the majority of the day.
After telling Paul she's leaving early, Bella steps outside the building to a torrential downpour. She doesn't have an umbrella and she's wearing heels.
"Seriously?" she mutters. After taking a deep breath, she makes a mad dash for the entrance to the subway, nearly slipping down wet steps. She apologizes to the guy she just bowled over but she can hear the announcement that her train is one station away so she runs as fast as she can down the escalator to get in. She manages to do it though she's not entirely sure how. Everyone smells like a wet dog, what with the rain and then packing into a subway car. It makes Bella want to gag and it doesn't help that the tall guy next to her has his hand against the ceiling of the train, therefore leaving a smelly armpit right by her hand.
The rain is gone when she emerges at the subway exit by her apartment. That's the only good thing to happen because as she's walking the two blocks uptown, the heel of her right foot gets caught in the sidewalk and she stumbles. The cement on her knees is painful and she knows – just knows – that she'll have scratches on her legs from the fall.
"Are you alright?"
Bella looks up and sees a somewhat familiar man. She nods hesitantly.
"Are you sure?"
The concern in his voice is touching and that's all it takes for Bella's eyes to tear up.
"Whoa. Okay, I don't think you're okay."
"I'm fine," she croaks out. Her hands swipe at her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's been a bad day."
The man smiles and holds out a hand. Cautiously – because a girl just never knows – she lets him help her off of the sidewalk. He brushes some pieces of the sidewalk from her clothes and pauses when he sees her broken shoe.
"How 'bout I help you walk home?"
"Excuse me?"
His smile grows. "You live in my apartment building. I've seen you a couple of times but you always seem to be in a rush. I'm two floors down."
"Oh." She squints at him. "I thought you looked familiar." She looks down at her feet then back up. "Some help would be really… Helpful." She grimaces at her word choice.
"Okay, then." He wraps an arm slowly around her waist so that she can pull away if she feels uncomfortable. Nudging her toward his side, he lets her lean into his body so she can limp a little more comfortably with uneven heels. "Okay?"
She nods. "Thanks. I'm Bella, by the way."
"Bella?" He frowns. "I thought your name began with an I."
"Huh?"
"I. Swan – that's what written by the buzzer." She backs away from him slightly and he laughs. "I've met your roommate. Jacob, right?"
"Oh, right." She lets out a sigh of relief. "Isabella," she informs him. "But I go by Bella."
"Bella," he rolls the name in his mouth. "I like it. I'm Edward." He gives her a stern look. "I don't like nicknames though, so it's just Edward."
"Just Edward," Bella says with her first smile of the day. "I like that too."
Due to a lack of time, this story has been posted without a beta. All mistakes are my own – my apologies.