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Chapter 11: A twirl of snow…
BPOV
It was almost time for the school to give us a break. Seriously though, it was that time of the year where everything is merry… The snow was thick on the ground and we were on the last two days before Christmas break and we were waiting on the cafeteria for some sort of announcement from the principal. Even when we were indoors, Edward was bundled in a warm sweater and a black scarf that covered part of his face. He got worse over the last few days and Carlisle wasn't taking any risks. We watched over him just in case we needed to take him to the hospital or call the Cullens. He was pale and coughing a lot but tried to hide it when we were together.
The principal went to the center of the cafeteria and everyone got quiet, I snored lightly because, seriously, what's the worst he could announce? He could make you come to school next week too… I shook my head and rested it against Edward's shoulder. I felt him trembling slightly and I turned to look him in the eye…
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing… I'm just cold."
"We're inside and you are all bundled like a snowman…" he chuckled lightly "Really, let me know if you don't feel okay and then I'll drive you home"
"I'm fine. It's just the weather…"
"Does this always happen to you…?"
"Well, it does, after… you know. I'm always cold no matter what. I actually spend the nights by the fireplace just to keep warm. Esme found me the first winter I spent at their house and almost had a panic attack. They were looking for me all over the place"
"Why didn't they ask Alice?"
"Who do you think kept him in the sofa all night?" Alice said with a smile "That's why Esme was so scared. She couldn't find either of us and Emmett was snoring in his room oblivious to everything"
"Hey! I don't snore!" Emmett protested and Rosalie snorted.
"Right. Keep telling yourself that, Emmy boo"
"Rosie. You tell them, I don't snore"
"Emmett doesn't snore… he rocks the house with his breathing"
We all laughed while Emmett sulked. We were interrupted by the static of the microphone and the voice of Principal Greene greeting the student body. I wanted to tune him out but couldn't. God, his voice is so… annoying!
"Tomorrow is our last day at Forks High for this amazing year. We wanted to make it special, so the classes will be until noon. Then, a really nice gallery will be presented at the gym. From the gardening course, the journalism and the art classes, the professors all provided enough works to elaborate this small gallery and it will be a way to see your talent of course, and also you'll be able to enjoy the day with your friends before the break. Your teachers will announce at the last period who's going to participate in this project tomorrow. Have fun, everyone."
"Well, that was interesting" said Jasper with a slight twirl to his accent
"What's interesting is who's taking Gardening as an elective…" said Rose with a shake of her head "I mean, I could do it for fun, sure. But what happens if the plant doesn't grow? Bad grades? Too risky"
I agreed with her but I was taking Art, for Christ' sake. I was pretty sure I couldn't say anything about anyone in the Gardening class. I went to the line to get some food and saw slices of chocolate cake. It looks soooooo good! I got two and went back to the table. Alice was trying to convince Edward to draw some sort of dress she had on her phone but her twin wasn't having it.
"Please, Edward? I wanna have it on paper. I wanna recreate it adding my own touch and it's a pain to have I on my phone!"
"Do it yourself, Alice. You draw your own designs all the time"
"Exactly! My own designs. I can't draw a design from a different person, you know that." Edward wasn't having it, so she retorted to blackmail "Come on, I'll buy you a chocolate cake. I won't tell Esme you were having sweets at school unsupervised"
"Find another bargain chip, you devil pixie." I said while placing my tray with our cakes in the table in front of Edward. He laughed and Alice scowled.
"Bellaaaaaaa"
"Nope. Leave him alone, Alice"
She sulked big time, so we left the cafeteria as soon as the bell rang and went through Bio without incident. Being the last few days before the break, Mr. Banner didn't make us do anything besides reading a few texts for next semester. Edward doodled on his notebook after reading and I wrote a few lines for my Advance Literature class. I wanted to be sure to be able to review it when I was free of school. Edward was still shivering so I passed my arm around his back and tried to give him a little warm back. He smiled at me but ended in a coughing fit and the bell rang. We needed to get to Art. I grabbed our things and Edward's hand and headed to Art class. Miss Sue was sitting at the front desk with a huge smile on her face and waving in to everyone. Edward led us to our desks and we waited for Miss Sue to start.
"Ok, guys. I hope you all heard Mr. Greene earlier when he explained the Gallery Show we're having tomorrow. Of course, I had to summit some artwork from this class for it. I chose several pieces that are unique and very artistic. Miss Weber, for example, with her rendition of the forest" Angela, a shy girl with big rimmed glasses blushed from a desk at the front "then there's Mr. Brown with his abstract skyline of New York City…"
She kept babbling on and on about different pieces and people and how artistic they were… If she doesn't mention Edward I'm so gonna yell a few colorful and artistic words to her… Just when I was selecting which words exactly in my mind I tune her in again when I heard Edward's name.
"… and I hope Mr. Cullen doesn't mind that I chose 4 of his art projects to be exposed at the gallery." Edward smiled and shook his head making Miss Sue smile even more "I suppose you have to tell some people they will be part of the gallery so they don't be so shocked tomorrow" I looked at Edward but he wasn't meeting my eyes. What are you hiding, Cullen? "Make sure to bring the projects I told you tomorrow so we can add them to the Gallery"
"Of course, Miss Sue. Will do."
I tuned the teacher off again and kept staring at Edward. I don't know why but I was kind of trying to read his mind. I know he was an amazing artist so I wasn't shocked that he got that many projects in but, why wasn't he meeting my eyes?
The hour passed by quickly and he got up to say goodbye to Miss Sue and then I grabbed Edward's hand again and started to head to the truck. I was having dinner with the Cullens since Charlie was working late today, and of course I was driving Edward.
"Which projects are you going to bring for the gallery thingy?"
"The gallery thingy?" he laughed and I tugged at his hand "Miss Sue asked for some specific ones, so…"
"Which ones?" I pressed and he shook his head "Edward!"
"You're gonna know it tomorrow…"
"I wanna know it now!" He laughed again and got in the truck. I followed and we started the way to the Cullen house. "I don't understand why you can't tell me"
"I gonna tell you about one. Just one, okay?" I nodded, eager to get some details "One is the portrait of the 6 of us. Remember the one where I added parts of our personalities?" I nodded again with a smile, it was one of my favorite drawings ever "Well, she wants that one"
"And the others?"
"Bella!"
"Oh, come on! I just wanna know which ones are yours so I can brag about my awesome artistic boyfriend"
He laughed and looked at me "Oh, Bella! How much I love you…" Wait, he said what?!
I pressed on the breaks as soon as his laughter stopped and turned to look at him. He kept his eyes on the window and wouldn't look at me.
Edward loves me?
"You… love me?" I whispered and he turned around. His cheeks and ears were pink. Aw, he can blush too! "You just said you love me…"
"Is that something bad?" he asked in a whisper
"No. It's just… it's the first time you tell me you love me…"
"And I meant it…"
I looked at him and a car behind us honked so loudly that made me jump and give the other driver the finger while starting the car again and turning into the Cullen's property. Edward was quiet and I knew it was because of what he said and that I didn't answer… I parked the truck and Edward got out of it and started to get into the house when I knew I had to stop him.
"Edward, wait!"
He stopped and looked at me. The snow was falling a lot quicker now and I was bundled in my winter clothes looking ridiculous.
"Bella, we should get inside. It's freezing"
"Come here or I'll turn around and go home right now, Cullen!" He sighed but came to my side and I wrapped my arms around him. I had to bend my neck almost all the way backwards so I could look at his face "Silly, Edward. Do you honestly think I don't love you, too?" he looked at me with those pretty little green eyes open wide "I just didn't know how to tell you…"
I stood on my tip-toes and kissed him. He tasted of chocolate and coffee and his nose was cold but it was perfect. I pressed my head against his chest once we stopped kissing and wished we could stay that way forever… however, Edward's lungs had different ideas and he started coughing so bad that I had to fetch a handkerchief from his bag and handle it to him with a bottle of water. He coughed a couple more times into it and when he put it away his eyes opened wide. He went to hide it quickly but I caught a flash of red on the pristine white fabric and my heart stopped.
"Come on, Edward. Let's get inside" So your father can check on you and explain why are you coughing up blood now…
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I was about to eat my bagel before I had to rush out, since I was already late for school, even if it was the last day before the break, when the house phone rang, making me jump. Charlie snickered before taking the phone.
"Hello?" my father said while holding his coffee mug that said 'trust me: I'm a cop' "Oh, hello Edward. No, she's still here" I ran to take the phone from his hand and he muttered "teenagers" before leaving the kitchen.
"Edward?"
"Hi, love" his voice was raspy, like he had a cold and stopped to cough before speaking again "I just wanted to let you know that I won't be at school today before the gallery show. Alice is taking my art projects so they can be added to the gallery" more coughs followed and I was getting nervous.
"Are you okay? What's going on?"
"I'm fine, love. I think I just got the flu or something..."
"You... you got the flu? How?" I knew that, with his lung problems, even a mild cold could be dangerous and my mind flashed to that red splash on his handkerchief the day before.
"Don't worry, Bella. My dad is checking everything is cool even as we speak"
"Can I still come over to your house after school? Or do you need to rest?" I was actually worried because, even though Edward missed enough school with his health issues. I couldn't help it. "Are you coming to the gallery show at all?"
"I'll try to be there, love." he stopped to cough again "I'll do my best even if I have to carry Bob"
"I'll carry it for you, if you want. If you can't come I'll be there by 3, I promise" I could hear his heavy breathing over the line "Get some oxygen and rest, okay? I love you, sweetheart"
"Love you, too"
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I was getting anxious about getting more information about Edward but Alice and Emmett weren't very helpful. Emmett just repeated what Edward said over the phone and Alice, while protecting Edward's art projects, told me Carlisle was trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Alice, will he be okay?"
She sighed and hugged me "I hope so, Bella" whispering in my ear.
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With Edward's health in my mind all day, I didn't even try to catch his artwork before the gallery. Not that Alice wanted to show me, by the way. She reminded me that Edward wanted it to be a surprise and that she wasn't going to spoil it.
When we were directed to go to the gym, I couldn't help but hope that Edward would be there. What was the point on exposing his art if he was too sick to see it?
I grabbed my bag and slowly went to the gym. I could hear Mr. Greene talking with someone very animatedly and that someone had a really melodic and familiar voice…
CARLISLE!
I ran to the doors of the gym and there they were. Esme was hugging Edward and Carlisle was explaining something to the principal with a little smile on his face. Edward looked my way and I tried to get to him faster when I saw his smile. I also tried to be gentle when I hugged him.
"I think someone missed you, Edward" Esme joked while I tried to watch her while I was still holding Edward.
"You can't imagine how much, Esme…" Edward laughed softly and I searched his face "Are you doing better now?"
"I'm doing better, love. I didn't want to miss this" he had the cannula on his nose but that wasn't a weird sight. Not anymore.
"Can I see your artwork now?" he laughed and nodded.
He directed me to a corner of the gym where the art class had their little expo going on and as soon as we got there I knew which one was Edward's. It was a picture of me, in the snow. I had my head thrown backwards and was feeling the snow on my face. It was the first snowfall of the year and I was so excited I ran outside of the Cullen's house and just felt the snow on my face and hands. Edward captured with so much detail that I could even see the scar on my arm. It was perfect and I could now understand why he didn't want to tell me about all this.
"I hope you don't mind. If I told you this was going to be here you would have flipped" he said slowly and watching my face.
"It's… perfect" I looked at him and smiled but his smile didn't reach his eyes… "What?"
"There's more…"
He directed my eyes to a central piece of the show and I didn't get it at first, because it didn't seem like a painting but I got closer and… it was my face, from the side, but made only of sentences written in different colors and sizes. And when I read it I knew it was from one short story I had to make for Literature and Edward simply loved it. "This is amazing, Edward… how did you do it?"
"Remember the one Miss Sue said it was the one that opened her eyes to the new aspect of art or something like that? Well, I wanted to do something different and that came out. You like it?"
"Like it? I love it. You are amazing, you know that, right?" he blushed and I kissed him quickly.
The other two were the one he did on the first art class of the group and our personalities and the other was a picture of him and Alice, she was laughing carefree and he was just watching her with a smile on his face. My boyfriend is awesome…
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The show was a success and we were on the way to the Cullens at three. As soon as we got there, everyone started talking about all the good criticism that everyone gave to Edward's work while Alice returned the pictures to his studio, all but one.
"Bella? I want you to have this one…" he said and gave me the picture made with words. I shook my head "It was yours from the beginning. So, please, take it as an early Christmas gift, if you like"
I couldn't say no to him so, I got it and kissed him softly before Emmett started to clear his throat and make kissing noises at us.
Edward went to sit on the sofa and I went to help Esme in the kitchen. Alice was preparing everything while the others went to change clothes.
"Alice, ask your brother if he wants some salad too. Besides the sandwich. He didn't eat much yesterday or this morning…"
Alice went to the family room and I started to make the sandwiches when we heard Alice screaming for Carlisle. I dropped everything and ran to their side and saw Edward lying on the sofa coughing violently while Alice tried to support his head. Emmett's huge form came to our side and raised his head and as soon as he did that, Edward tried to open his mouth to get more air and we gasped when a thin line of blood came out of his mouth. As another coughing fit started, Carlisle told Emmett to get him in the car and Edward passed out.
My vision was blurry and I don't remember how but I was inside Carlisle's car and stroking Edward's hair. The tears were streaming down my face because even I knew that, if Edward was coughing up blood it wasn't good.
Please… let him be okay…
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AN: I know. I suck. I'm so sorry for leaving this story hanging but real life is a pain in the ass and I had some problems that I had to fix before I could start writing again. This is not beta-ed so all mistakes are my responsability. I just wanted to bring you guys something to ask for forgiveness and see if there was someone here still... *hides behind computer*
Anyway, hope you like it. See anything funny? Let me know. And next chapter will be here soon, I promise.
By the way, I'm starting with a new idea. Royalward is my new obsession and if anyone wants to pre-read it or beta-ed my new story send me a DM.
Love ya!
AYEN