Chapter 9 – Take Two
I jolt awake in my bed, startled at the images my mind conjured. No one else was at Field of Screams except all the actors. I had to go through each one by myself, leaving me vulnerable to the full attention of each and every actor. I can remember parts of each attraction, but my subconscious remembers things I can't.
I don't know what encourages me to tell him in the middle of the night, but I'm texting my new number before my brain can register that I've hit send.
I hope you're happy! My subconscious is making me go through every attraction alone! Beast, all seven Moore children, Crazy Grandma, and ten chainsaw dudes had me crying and shrinking into myself! -B
Imagine my surprise when not two minutes later my screen is lighting up my room.
That's my job ;) -E
Why are you awake at 3am? -B
Oh, you know, waiting for all my friends to call or text me telling me about the nightmares they have after visiting -E
Seriously -B
I am serious. Alice yapped my ear off last year. But since I'm hopped up on adrenaline after the night's over, I get a little workout in before kicking the hay since I don't particularly like squeezing one in before getting prepped for the night -E
Interesting -B
*Muscle emoji -E
*Eye roll emoji -B
*Eggplant emoji -E
Wtf is wrong with you? -B
Increased testosterone. I am manly man -E
Excuse me, I'd like the Cullen from several weeks ago back. This Cullen is too flirty and crude. Not sure I can handle him on Monday *thinking emoji -B
Can't back out. Nonrefundable agreement between us -E
*Eyeroll emoji. I'm going back to sleep -B
He pushes my buttons so much. He must do it just to get a rise out of me. But I do fall asleep with a small smile arising from my stupid conversation with him.
*Field of Screams*
"Should I be worried?" I mull over out loud as Alice does my hair.
"He's not a criminal, Bells. You've already been on a date with him."
"I'm not sure that qualified as a date." I mumble to myself, but Alice yanks my hair a little to roughly to show her disagreement. "He's got home field advantage!"
"Will you just stop? You two with your competitions! Instead of trying to one up one another, just enjoy each other's presence."
She's got a point. A lot of our interactions have centered around challenges at one another.
"Alright," I sigh loudly. "I'll stop thinking so hard."
"Atta girl!" she praises, finishing off my hair. "Be glad you've got a man who's willing to cook you dinner and plan secret activities for you tonight in the comforts of a home."
After some last minute advice and her jokingly slipping a few condoms in my hand on my way out, I am in my car and driving to Edward's apartment. Yeah, definitely not having sex with him. Hypothetically, if we did, we'd probably just try to one up one another like Alice said…
Not important. Since we're not doing fancy, I'm just in jeans, a red blouse, converse, and a trusty hoodie if I get cold in his apartment. Nice, but not too nice.
I find his apartment building easy enough and before I know it, I'm in front of his door. Being in front of his door makes everything so much more real. My heartbeat increases in anticipation. One final breath, and I knock on the door.
And there he is dressed in a black golf shirt and khakis. He greets me with a dashing smile and waves me in.
It smells divine in his apartment. He hadn't informed me of what he was going to cook us, but whatever it is, smells delicious.
"You look lovely as ever, Bella," he compliments, kissing my cheek and taking my coat.
"Don't look too bad yourself, handsome." It's nearly the same thing I said on our 'first' date with a handsome tacked on the end.
"I hope you like chicken stir fry over noodles. Homemade besides the noodles. I can cook, but I can't quite master the art of Asian noodles."
Turns out Edward is quite a cook. I never would've taken him for that kind of guy. He seems more like a takeout guy.
"I enjoy cooking, but with it being fall, it gets very busy so I don't have as much time to cook as I want."
"Where'd you learn to cook?"
"Mostly my mom and nana. I also took a few classes in high school."
The clanging of my fork hitting my plate in surprise echoes around us. "You took cooking classes in high school?"
"Yes, the male population is allowed to take those classes too. Though at the time, a class mostly filled with pretty girls for forty-five minutes a day wasn't a bad perk of choosing by my own free will to take them."
I lean back in my chair. "You're very weird, Edward. Every time you speak, you say something and take it the opposite direction I think it's going to go. Tonight, it's your superb cooking skills, and the other night your sneaky kiss."
He leans his elbows on the table and says lowly, "I don't believe that kiss qualifies as sneaky if you were more than willing to reciprocate it, Pumpkin."
"Why do you keep calling me 'Pumpkin'?"
He gets up and points at my pretty much clean plate. "You finished?"
I nod. He quickly removes our dishes and tells me to stay put while he puts them in his sink to soak.
We move ourselves to his plush couch that is a lot more comfortable than I thought it'd be. The remainder of the wine we had with our dinner sits in its bottle on the beautiful glass coffee table in front of us.
"So the couch," I start slowly, laying my arms over the back of the couch and crossing my right leg over my leg. "Bottle of wine, low lighting, just missing the chocolate and romantic music. You think I put out on the first date?" I send a wink and little laugh to let him know I'm joking.
He stares at me for a moment then chuckles deeply, shaking his head. It feels like I've been stabbed in the heart. The disappointment must be evident on my face because he notices and immediately sobers up.
"Oh, God no, Bella. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing thinking about how you'd think I'd expect my date to put out on the first date or it's over. I know you were joking, but it just made me laugh." He's obviously nervous by the way his hands are now running through his hair. "More wine?"
We quietly sip our wine. Each of send each other shy glances, not sure where to take the conversation now. I internally debate on whether or not to take him the question that's been racing through my mind.
"You can ask. I know there's at least two questions running through your mind. I'm prepared to answer either," he tells me, placing his glass back down.
With one final sip of my wine for courage, I ask, "What is this between us? We can't stand each other? We like each other? A competition? The others keep referring to us as school kids in the school year."
"How I see it in my head is it began as competition, a hatred for each other based on our surfaces. Then after you removed my makeup for the first time when we met in person for the first time, my lines began to blur." He shrugs, relaxing a bit more in the couch. "You're a spitfire that's for sure. I kind of started pushing your buttons on purpose even though you'd already proved yourself after I saw Rose that first night and a few of your other actors."
I can't believe it. They're right. He's pulling my pigtails.
"Well, you succeeded in pushing them." I deliver a friendly punch to his shoulder. He feigns hurt by rubbing the spot. "I dressed as Voldemort and had to sit in a diner at midnight to prove a point."
"You've got guts, but truce?"
"Truce."
"Cool." He leans forward and retrieves our wine glasses. We clink them together to seal the deal. "No promises I won't continue to challenge you to turn to the dark side."
"What did we just truce to then?"
"We truced to no more of me forcing you to go out in full makeup. Questions are your friend, Bella." He taps the side of my head with his pointer finger like an ass.
"I'm never joining your side. But what's this secret activity you had planned for us? I highly doubt it was just dinner."
That boyish smile of his lights up his face. He scoots closer to me, kicks his feet up on his coffee table without spilling the wine, and throws his arm around my shoulder as he turns on his TV and starts up his Roku.
"You know, I figured if you didn't run out of here hating me for taunting you the past several weeks, my plan was to show you It-"
I stop him right there. "No, I am not watching a horror movie! I will march my ass out of here right now."
"Let me finish, woman! The original plan was to watch It, which by the way is more of a thriller than anything, and I'd protect you from all the scary things. Then I thought of something so much better. It'll be a win-win for both of us."
He's zipping through Netflix so fast that it's giving me a headache. I have to turn my head away to avoid vomiting my wine and stir fry on his couch.
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days…" Ah, I'll get Alice off my back for not watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I guess he gets to revisit his childhood.
Two episodes later, I'm hooked.
"Bathroom break, eager beaver. We can probably watch two more episodes before it gets too late. That's a nice stopping point too. Do you want water or anything?"
I shake my head and get up to stretch while he uses the bathroom. As soon as he leaves, my body breaks out in goosebumps, and I'm freezing. I realize I forgot my hoodie in my car, but I don't want to go downstairs just to get that. The small closet in his living room doesn't have any small blankets. Figures. He's a male after all.
"Are you looking for the bodies of my victims?" he inquires, leaning against the hallway wall.
"Ha, ha, very funny. I have a hoodie in my car, but I don't want to go get it. Do you have a small blanket?"
He nods, turns and returns seconds later with a blanket. He drapes it over the both of us as we get comfy again. The blanket keeps me all toasty while watching the show, but the feel of his hand aimlessly caressing random parts of my body and playing with my hair awakens something else in me.
"So, what's your opinion of the first four episodes?"
"Don't look so smug, mister!" I poke him in the chest. "I'm a decade and a half late, but I'm watching it now, ain't I? It's good. Very good especially for a kids show. The animation is phenomenal considering its time. I may have to binge it now."
"Promise me something?"
"What?"
"The finale you watch with me. No exceptions."
I nod seeing no harm. At least he's letting me watch it on my own. I know some couples get pissed when they don't watch certain shows together.
It's late so Edward walks me down to my car. He asks me to text him when I get home and without hesitation, kisses me again. This time I'm prepared and wrap my arms around his neck. He may infuriate my sometimes, but damn, can the man kiss.
Posted: October 23, 2020