Chapter Three
Breakdown
.
.
An unknown number flashed up on my phone, and I muted the television to answer it. I don't know why I thought Jacob was phoning me, but let's call it blind hope. Last night, he was the last person I thought of before I went to sleep and astonishingly the first person I thought of when I woke up. Call it hormones, or sudden infatuation, but I was crushing on him hard. Understandably, when you think of someone so much, it was hard to think the other person wasn't doing the same about you.
Teen logic in a nutshell.
"Hello?"
"Is this Bella?" a girl asked, catching me by surprise.
I couldn't recognize her voice.
"Er, yeah?"
"Oh, hey!" Her tone got friendlier. "It's me, Rosalie. I got your number from Seth, hope that's okay. I thought we could all meet up in Port Angeles today, and get to know each other better, since we'll be hanging out in the same circles. I want to know everything! How Seth met you. Who made the move first. This is so sweet! We only have six months till we graduate, but Seth got himself a high school girlfriend! Maybe it will be Edward's turn next."
She chuckled to herself. "One can hope."
"I – Errr – " I searched for an easy escape. "My mom needs me round the house. Thanks for the offer but I'm really sorry -"
"Can you put her on the line?"
"Huh?" I said, not expecting her to circumvent. If she was a mongoose battling a black mamba, I would be pinned helplessly right now. Mom and Phil were at work and wouldn't get back till late afternoon. Then I told myself to relax. There was no way she could know I was alone right now unless she was a mind reader.
Rosalie lowered her tone. "I'm good with mothers. I can sweet talk them into anything."
I bet she could…
This left me in a jam.
For a serious second, I thought about altering my voice and pretending to be an older lady. I could do a mean grandma voice, the type that baked cookies and shit and Rosalie would be none the wiser. But then I chickened out, because Rosalie had already challenged my first lie and I didn't want to be caught on my second.
Looking over my shoulder, at the piece of banister I could see, I projected my voice upstairs and called "MOM!"
It was an empty house so of course I wasn't expecting an answer.
But pretending I was getting one, I told Rosalie, "I think she's in the bathroom."
Her simple answer made me sweat.
"I can wait."
I closed my eyes and cursed the situation. If I was meaner, I would sneer and hang up. But I couldn't be mean to someone who was being much nicer than expected, and I began to think Seth was right. Maybe his group of friends were good people and yesterday's aloofness had been a one-off. Also, I had a few personality quirks myself and I wouldn't want people making snap judgements about me based on one encounter either.
But did that mean I had to lose autonomy to this group?
All my social outings predetermined to match with theirs?
"So whose going?" I made small talk while we 'waited'.
"For our trip to the mall?" Rosalie sounded surprised. "Oh, us girls will go in one car. So Jess, you and me. And the boys will come in another car. That's Seth, Emmett and Edward."
"What about Jasper?"
"Oh, he works at his grandfather's farm on the weekends."
Jasper had autonomy from the group! That gave me hope, that if I agreed to this one trip, it didn't necessarily mean I was signing away all my Saturdays at once. Drumming my fingers on the armrest, I came to a snap conclusion with all the information I had available.
"Forget what I said. I can come."
"But your mom -"
"She'll be cool with it," I told the truth. "I'll make her cool with it. What time will we be going?"
"Around two."
I looked at the clock, and realised there was plenty of time left.
"Whose car are we taking?"
"Mine," she said, sounding happy. "Can't wait, Bella! Maybe we can listen to tunes for the hour drive. Jess loves Drake, and I'm into Selena Gomez, do you have a preference?"
"What about the live action Aladdin soundtrack?" I said.
Rosalie laughed, like I said something cute. But then she did something that made me see her in a different light. "Okay, done. We'll alternate every third song with an Aladdin OST."
"You definitely know how to sweet talk," I mused.
After giving her further details to my house, I left the conversation feeling optimistic. Some apprehension lingered but that was the fear of the unknown. I knew Jess from the student body committee and she wasn't afraid to make enemies when she wanted. However, she wasn't a bully and generally worked for the greater good.
Then I thought of the three boys. I wondered if Edward and Emmett thought I was weird, when I rushed off both times yesterday on an awkward note. I was determined to leave a better impression today with them, and maybe I could rewrite history if I made eye contact and smiled.
Girls would kill to be in your position.
So act friendly, Bella.
Whatever happened after that couldn't be laid at my door. If things turned out well – brilliant. If they didn't, well I tried my best and I was never doing this again.
The next few hours I wandered around the house, doing small chores, until I decided to dress for outdoor purposes and wait for Rosalie on my porch railing, dressed in skinny jeans, cute ankle boots and an oversized emerald sweater. My lips had a brush of gloss; the falsies from yesterday had made a reappearance and undereye concealer was packed on with powder.
It was a compromise of yesterday and my normal attitude to make up.
As my legs swung freely and my head tipped back to seek the wintry sun, I heard a car drive down my road. When I shielded my eyes and looked down, I saw a white Toyota Prius with two girls sitting inside, waving at me.
Music was playing, though it was turned low and both looked when I came down the driveway in their direction. I said hi to Jess and Rosalie and got in the backseat.
Once I was settled, Rosalie pulled away.
"The traffic shouldn't be too bad," Rosalie said, continuing on down my road.
"Oh, okay." The music was barely audible so I asked, "What are you guys playing?"
Jessica reached out and shut off the music.
My eyes bulged out when I saw that.
"Good question." She took it literally and I wanted to bang my head against the headrest. "On the way here, we were playing Kiss, Marry and Kill and Rosalie was given the options of Emmett, Jasper and Edward." Jess gave an uncharacteristic giggle, and I wondered if it sounded weird because I'd never heard it from her, or because I was hearing it from her. "Now you're here, she has to give an answer! Well, Rose?"
There was an expectant silence, of which I was no part of.
Despite myself, my eyes fixed on the back of Rosalie's head.
Damn it.
"That's easy," Rosalie breezed through. "I'd smooch Edward, get hitched with Jasper and kill the last one."
"You'd kill Emmett?" I echoed. "You haven't made up with him yet?"
Jess gave a hoot of laughter. "Oooh, boy! You just went there!"
She turned around and beamed, like I belonged there and this wasn't the first time we were sitting in a car together like complete strangers. Well, I guess we were acquaintances now.
"What have you heard?" Rosalie pounced, looking at me in the rearview mirror with suspicious eyes.
"That you fought."
And because I didn't know Rosalie well enough to care about eggshells and how to tiptoe around them, and also because I'd witnessed the frigid aftermath and last but not least, I didn't want to leave an awkward silence, I asked, "What about?"
"Well," Rosalie responded. "Well."
"Number one," Jess playfully interjected, like it was the start of a list.
"Jess," Rosalie whined. "This isn't funny!"
"It is now!" Jess contended. "And you wouldn't be this chipper unless you were actually thinking of getting back together."
Rosalie shrugged.
By the end of our hour drive, I knew the whole saga. Rosalie and Emmett were caught in a tempestuous on/off relationship. Around Halloween, Rosalie called it off and she started sleeping with Brian. Emmett began doing the same with a girl called Lauren. Despite the bed-hopping, Rosalie expected them to find a way back to each other like they always did and was waiting for Emmett to invite her to Sadies. Somehow she didn't get the memo that the girls had to invite the guys. She waited and waited and it didn't come. Emmett on the other hand was waiting for Rosalie because he did get the memo, but kept sleeping with Lauren until it came.
This lead to a massive fallout just before the dance. The whole group got involved and it left everyone in a bad mood.
Edward got pissed because he didn't want drama interfering with Emmett's play.
Jasper got irritated because tequila sunrise got spilled on his mom's afghan rug.
Jess was the one who spilled the tequila sunrise, so she got angry at Jasper for getting irritated with her.
Seth left early to pick me up, so the blow up affected him least.
Listening to all this, I was surprised all five made it to the dance in one piece. I knew high school could be dramatic, but they were certainly living out their share for the rest of us.
When we got to The Landing Mall in Port Angeles, Rosalie parked in a spot that was far from the entrance, as the parking lot was packed on a Saturday afternoon and we walked to Lola's café for iced tea since the boys were fifteen minutes away. I ordered Chai tea latte with soy milk and Jess decided to resume playing Kiss, Marry and Kill as she had a new person in her sights.
Me.
"Seth, Edward and Jasper. Go!"
"Well that's easy," I said. "I'll kiss Seth, marry Seth and kill Emmett for Rosalie's sake."
"You can't do that!"
"I can't?" I feigned ignorance, poking a straw through the sealed plastic. I took a long pull, my cheeks hollowing.
"You used Seth twice and Emmett wasn't even part of the draw! You fraud!"
"My bad." I stirred my drink with the draw.
"Let's rehash. Seth is banned from the game, because it's too fucking easy when you're his girlfriend and not mad at him, so we'll replace him with Emmett. AND you can only use each person once."
"Okay, well I'll get rid of Emmett," I said, because Emmett was becoming the easy option to get rid of these days. "I'd marry Jasper and…. neck Edward?"
Jess wrinkled her nose. "Edward deserves to know your filthy fantasy."
"Getting possessive, are we?" I joked.
Jessica gave me a reproachful look just as Rosalie peeked out the shop and stood up. I followed her gaze, thinking she'd spotted the boys but instead she grabbed her keys, wallet and drink and walked to the door. Since it looked like she was making a mad exit, and Jess was following her, I trailed behind because I still wasn't quite sure what the rush was about while scanning the parking lot for the boys.
"Bella!" Rosalie said, standing in an empty parking space practically right outside Lola's cafe. She was dressed in a mini skirt, halter neck and a long tailored coat, with knee high boots. Sunglasses were perched on top of her glinting blonde hair. "Save this spot!"
I walked over on command as they both raced back to Rosalie's car. Did they want to park closer to the mall? Is this what it was about? If another car wanted to honk at me because I was putting a claim to a spot they wanted, I was going to feign blindness and deafness until Rosalie and Jess came back. Sipping from my drink, I took out my phone and acted like an unbothered queen who was secretly bothered inside, holding it up for a selfie.
A car honked at me.
I flushed and hurriedly brought my phone down.
Then it had the audacity to double-honk me.
"Hey, Bella!"
I shot an evil look on reflex at the person who called out at me, for making me scared.
"Were you waiting for me?"
To my surprise, Seth's truck was adjacent to the bay I was standing on and he was leaning out the window. I hurriedly got out the way for him to reverse in, then my arms went around his neck as he got out of the truck, and strode over to lift me up and spin me around. He kissed me on the cheek five times as I went bright red, and I hid my face in my arms. Feeling Seth's hard body pressed to my own, shoulder to knee, made me all kinds of confused because it felt really good.
One of his hands went to my butt, as if to boost me up and I instinctively twined both legs around his hips and panted.
A hand soothed up and down my back.
"You okay there?" he softly asked and I shivered as it tickled my inner eardrum.
My heart was racing.
"I'm okay," I mumbled, enjoying the hold while it lasted. He smelled amazing.
"I didn't realize you were a snuggle bear," he jested, and I leaned back to stare at his face. At that moment, I was so tempted to brush back his bangs and maybe kiss him back on the cheek.
Seth put me down, but I could tell he was unnerved. I stumbled away and put out a hand to steady myself on the hood of his red truck. Knowing Edward and Emmett were close by, and my mission was to smile at them, I looked around and made eye contact with Edward. He was leaning against the side of the truck, arms crossed and eyebrows raised, looking at me as if I was an unidentified species from a dangerous terrain. There was equal parts disgust, mixed with equal parts fascination as he scanned me up and down.
My smile went unnoticed as he licked his lips.
Startled, I watched him look away and blow out a long breath.
Was….
Was Edward sexually frustrated himself?
Feeling gross that we'd incited that reaction from him, I scurried around the drivers side and bolted back to where the girls were. All the Prius doors were open, and Rosalie's front half was bent over the dashboard, disappearing inside the car. When I peeked in, I noticed all the lights were flashing and Jess had popped the hood up and she was staring blankly down at the engine.
"The engine won't start," she said, when she saw the three boys behind me.
Jumping, I scooted to the side not realizing they were so close and let them go pass. Emmett went and stood next to Rosalie, holding the car door open for her as her ass wiggled in the air next to his legs. He cleared his throat and paid close attention to Rosalie's muffled voice from inside, as well as her ass, but otherwise didn't let her know he was there.
I ignored Edward and focused on Seth.
He'd gone up to Jess, and was frowning down at the engine.
Rosalie finished whatever she was doing and backed out, bumping into Emmett's legs. She sat back on her haunches, glaring up at him before she got up and turned to make sure all of us had congregated around her car and we were focused on her big problem.
"What are we going to do?" she griped.
"Careful," Seth warned Jess suddenly. "Don't touch it while it's hot."
Jess guiltily drew her hand back from where it was hovering over the oil tank.
"Tell us what happened," Edward directed at Rosalie.
"Well, all the lights in my car started flashing and I can't switch my car on. I've tried fifteen times now. I can't believe this! Why does my car have to break down here of all places? Do any of you know what's wrong?"
I threw my thoughts into the ring.
"I think we should call roadside assistance or a tow truck."
Seth glanced up, and reached into his backside pocket. He scrolled through his contacts and called someone. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, when the person answered in several seconds and Seth instructed them to meet him out here. It sounded exactly like when he talked to Jacob last night. I had no idea where his cousin was currently, but for Seth's sake, I hoped I was mistaken and he was actually calling a tow truck and being smart about this. Paying close attention to the call, I edged closer and closer that I had to nudge Edward out of the way and he grunted as he fell against the car.
Seth got off the phone a few minutes later.
"Who was that?" I asked, not caring as Edward rubbed his elbow.
"Jacob," Seth answered.
"Why did you call him?" I tried to gently go about it, trying to hide how agitated I was getting.
"He knows how to fix cars," he shortly replied.
I pointed at the partly concealed dashboard through the window. "Even if he gets here, unless he tows a fully kitted garage on the back of his motorcycle, I doubt he'll be much help."
"Oh?" Seth said, still discounting me.
"Yeah, you need a tow truck."
"We'll wait until he gets here," Seth said, beginning to look annoyed. He physically stepped back and moved away from me, like I was a nuisance and that irked me enough to follow. Seth walked the full length of the car and stood near its trunk as he placed his hands on his hips while he looked up and down the lot. There was a lot of people around, with shopping bags or children, but no-one looked willing to stop.
He turned around and I bumped into his chest.
I stared up at him.
"How long will it take?"
He crossed his arms.
"An hour and a half. He's in Forks right now."
"What was he doing before you called him?"
"Does it even matter?"
"It would matter if he was doing something important and you disturbed him."
"Please," Seth scoffed. "He never does anything important." The way he said it so derisively rubbed me the wrong way. I don't think Seth meant to come across as insensitive to his cousin's time, but to say he never did anything important? Come on! The guy knew how to fix cars and had an interest in motorbikes. Those skills made him pretty important.
Seething, I glared at him.
I got a glower back.
"Uh, guys?" a voice called.
"What?" we said not taking our eyes off each other.
When an answer didn't come, I stopped the contest and looked back at the rest of them. Rosalie, Emmett, Edward and Jessica were staring at us like they couldn't believe their eyes. My eyes dropped, and I noticed Emmett was holding Rosalie around the waist and Edward's hands were perched on Jessica's shoulders from where he was standing behind her.
"What exactly are you fighting about?" Rosalie asked timidly.
"We're not fighting," I said.
Seth said something under his breath and walked away.
.
.
AN: This chapter is meant to be MUCH longer, but the decision was made to split it into two.