A/N: Last Bella POV for a while. If you hadn't noticed already, the POV's aren't balanced in this story. It does, and will, have more Bella chapters than Edward chapters. Anyway, please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and all connected to it. I only own this story line and any characters not included in her original saga!
I'll Always Find Peace In The Meadow
Previously...
Lauren looks between me and Edward with narrowed eyes before pushing her shoulders back and strutting over to Edward. Her eyelashes flutter as she sits gracefully on the seat beside him.
His eyes grow wide, as do mine, when she leans closer to him and kisses his cheek, her hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. As she turns her head towards me, I drop my gaze to my bag, pulling out the items required. For some reason, my heart feels heavy and I have a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. It's making me feel sick.
Lauren stays there the whole lesson, earning some baffled looks from Jessica and others in the room. I don't look over at the two of them sat beside one another.
I can't. And I don't know why.
Chapter Seventeen: 'a line of intimidation' (Bella POV)
Monday 15 May 2017
When it's time for lunch I'm feeling fed up. The glaring hasn't seized. Through all of Biology and then French, Lauren regularly sent glares my way. I don't usually let things like this get to me, but today it's hard to ignore. It's constant, and highly irritating.
By the time I walk into the cafeteria, I'm pissed off. I practically stomp to the lunch line. I start fidgeting, unable to stand still as I wait to get food. Someone taps my shoulder, and I pivot on the spot to face behind me, ready to verbally rip the head off the person who dares to touch me. Unfortunately, they will be at the receiving end of my anger.
But when I'm face to face with those green eyes I've become so familiar with, my anger dissipates. It doesn't disappear completely, but it does lose its verocity. Edward smiles warily, slowly lowering his hand. "Calm down," he whispers, his eyes jumping around us. I nod slowly, gradually turning to face the front of the line, my back now to Edward.
I turn my face a bit to the side, so it still seems like I'm looking ahead but I can speak to Edward in the meantime. "What do you want?" I whisper, now also looking around. A couple of eyes from the center table are on us, including Lauren's. My hands clench involuntarily.
I feel Edward's fingers gently brush against the knuckles of my right hand. My hand immediately relaxes, and Edward's touch is gone. "You're angry. I can tell. I'm surprised no steam is coming out of your ears. Will you calm down?" he whispers heatedly from behind me.
I breathe out slowly, releasing some of the anger. And then I nod once. I feel him pull away, standing further back from me.
This is the first time I've really felt resentment towards the way we act around other people. It's ridiculous. Here we are, whispering, pretending we aren't conversing or even knowledgeable of each other, when in reality, we are friends. We speak to one another on a daily basis, we meet up at lunch times and have conversations about life and school and the people he has to pretend to like.
...Is he pretending though? It's a question I have to keep asking myself. He makes out to me like he can't stand to be near the girls of the group. The guys, apart from Jasper, aren't too bad apparently. They have their moments, but it's nothing in comparison to the nuisance of the girls. Today however, when Lauren kissed his cheek, he didn't pull away. He looked shocked, yeah, but did he look disgusted? Against it? No. He didn't. He only looked shocked.
I wait for him to say something else, to speak to me again, but he doesn't. He stays silent. And when I reach the front of the line and grab the items I want, I quickly look behind me to find that he isn't even there anymore. As I walk to my table, I glance fleetingly at the center table, and there he is, sat in between Lauren and Tyler.
He looks up briefly, his eyes meeting mine for only a second. A small, almost imperceptible smile pulls at the corners of his mouth, and then it's gone; the eye contact, and the smile. I sigh, picking up my pace on the way to my table. I pick at my food, eating miniscule bites. I end up leaving most of it. With fifteen minutes of lunch left, I pull out my current read from my bag. I open it up, pull the bookmark out and sit silently as I read.
That feeling from before, the unsettling curdle in the pit of my stomach, returns. I glance up warily from my book, my eyes falling on the center table. Every single pair of eyes belonging to the occupants of that specific table is trained on me.
Every single one of them.
Most are looking at me with pure hate burning in their eyes. I can feel it attacking me from all the way over here, at the very edge of the room. A few are filled with mischief, evil shadows dancing in their eyes. And then there's one pair, regretful and brimming with apologies. I tilt my head to the side ever so slightly, hoping no one but him reads the question in my eyes. I silently ask him what's the matter. He just lowers his gaze to his lap, his shoulders slumping.
My eyes scan the others again, just in time to see Lauren and Rosalie stand slowly, both motioning to the others with their hands. And then they all stand. Including my friend, though his movements are heavy and reluctant.
I drop my eyes quickly, returning my attention back to my book. Please don't come over here, PLEASE don't come over here. My heart races, thudding against my ribcage violently. I can hear the blood rushing in my ears, the moisture of my palms a clear sign of my nerves.
The echoing sound of the tons of voices filling the cafeteria slowly seeps away, silence taking over. There's a buzz in the atmosphere, anticipation brewing in the air. Their bodies cast shadows across my table as they come to stand in front of me, a line of intimidation.
I lower my head further, wishing I could fold myself into the pages of the book that I'm gripping tightly in my hands. Wishing I could hide.
The book is suddenly ripped from my hands. My grip obviously wasn't tight enough. "What ya reading?" Lauren asks. I look at the group formed around me. The girls - Lauren, Jessica, Rosalie and Alice - are towering above me, stood to my left. The guys are spread out, not as close to one another as the girls are. Jasper and Tyler are standing rather close to me, directly to my right, while Emmett is a few feet behind them. Edward is stood opposite me, on the other side of the table.
I turn my attention back to Lauren and the girls after a long stare at Edward, who's eyes are downcast, unwilling to look at me. Lauren is glaring at me, my book folded harshly in her grasp. I cringe slightly at the sight. I'm a book lover, and I hate any mistreatment of literature.
"Can I have my book back, please?" I ask politely. Lauren smirks, looking at the cover. Her nose wrinkles as she reads it. I hold my hand out for the book, waiting. But, as I should have expected the moment it was stolen from my hands, she doesn't give it back willingly. She moves around me, first out of my sight as she walks behind me, before coming to stand in front of Tyler and Jasper at my right. Both of them move back to give her room.
My heart skips a beat, and then starts pounding harshly as my nerves build. I have no idea what they have planned, but it's not good. I just know it. I close my eyes for a second. I will not retaliate. I will not fight back. I will not encourage them. I repeat the words in my head like a mantra. I hold my hand out to Lauren again, turning away from the other three girls. "Lauren..." I begin, my voice steady even though it should be shaking right now. "Can I have it back?" My request is a little firmer this time, but still said with caution.
"Um..." she hums as she taps her chin with one finger, pretending to think about it. "No," she says casually, before they all giggle and laugh. All except for Edward.
I glance at him. Not purposefully. I need to look away from Lauren before I decide to harshly rip the book from her hand, like she did to me, so I look ahead of me and take some deep breaths. Edward is there, eyes now staring right at me. His hands are clenched by his sides, his jaw tense. And it makes me feel a tiny bit better about the situation, because I know that he's not liking this. He's angry. I offer him the smallest lift of my lips - the absolute tiniest smile. His hands relax slowly, but not completely.
"I wonder, Jessica," Lauren begins, her voice loud in my ear. I turn to watch her. Her face has flushed red, her hand almost crushing my book in a fist. She's angry. I know the signs, but I don't know why. Her eyes throw fire at me, her glare the most lethal I've ever seen it. "If Little Miss Freak Show here has any more books."
My head whips round to the other side of me as Jessica picks up my bag that was on the floor by my feet. I stand abruptly, my chair falling back, loudly hitting the floor. The evil smiles on their faces are what I've been trying to avoid. I've reacted now. Shit.
I couldn't help it, though. The thing is, they can't go into my bag. They just can't. There is another book in there: my journal. "Oh. Well, Lauren, shall we have a look?" Jessica says, placing my bag on the table top, before slowly reaching for the clasp.
"Don't even think about it," I warn, stepping forward. Before I can get any closer to Jessica, I'm pulled back down to my seat. I look up, startled to see Tyler was the one to push me back down. He keeps his hand on my shoulder for a few seconds longer, the pressure warning me to stay down. My heart rises to my throat as fear consumes me. Please don't hit me.
"Make sure you wash your hand, Ty. You don't want a disease," Rosalie sneers. They all laugh again. Tyler cringes as he removes his hand from my shoulder, before wiping it on his trousers. I resist the urge to roll my eyes. How petty.
Jessica opens my bag. "I mean it. Don't," I warn again. She turns to me, a smirk on her lips. She starts with dramatics, her hand rising high in the air for everyone to see. She looks around at her friends stood around me, each and every one of them, apart from Edward, grinning, waiting. Others around the room, people watching from afar, cheer and clap. I can't take my eyes from Jessica's hand. And then, after she's satisfied with the attention, her hand starts it's descent. It lowers and lowers, gradually, until the tips of her fingers disappear into my bag. And I snap.
"I said NO! GIVE IT BACK!" I scream as I stand, thrusting my hands forward for my bag. Jessica laughs manically. They all do. She pushes my bag off of the table. I'm too slow, and don't catch it in time. It lands on the floor with a thud, tipping to the side. A few things fall out, including the makeup I'd shoved in this morning, and I quickly drop to my knees to pick them up.
"Listen here, Bitch," Lauren whispers in my ear. I've just finished putting the things back in my bag. I look up at her from my place on the floor. She's sat on the chair I was sat in, her head bent down to me. Everyone else is preoccupied, laughing and joking about what has just happened. Everyone else, apart from the only person who hasn't laughed. He's stood silently, eyes closed.
Lauren leans closer. "I've seen you looking at him. And I can promise you, he's not interested, so forget it," she says, her voice low and full of warning. Who? I furrow my brow, completely confused. Then it clicks. That note I got last week, the one that told me to 'stay away' from someone… that was from her! This realisation shouldn't be shocking, but it is. Lauren sits back up, straight, in the chair, smiling evilly down at me.
I'm about to stand, to try and escape, but just as I start to pull myself up, I'm drenched in cold water. It happens so suddenly that I freeze in shock. My hands drop my bag as I shriek loudly and clench my eyes shut tightly. Everyone watching erupts with a united roar of laughter. Once no more water continues to fall, I open my eyes. I'm stunned, still on my knees as Lauren stands from the chair beside me.
I slowly follow suit, using the tables edge for support as I stumble to my feet. My head is lowered as I look down at my soaked clothes. I slowly turn to my left and see Rosalie with a big empty plastic bottle of water in her hands. She grins at me, a Cheshire cat like grin, stretching from ear to ear.
I raise my shaking hands to touch my head as I turn back to the table. My hair is dripping wet, sticking to my neck and face. My face! Oh God! The bruise! The makeup! The water will wash it off! My eyes widen as realisation hits me. I bend to pick up my bag and then push my way past Rosalie, Alice and Jessica. They let me pass them, thankfully.
I slip, catching myself on one of the nearby chairs as I try to escape in a rush. "Bella!" I hear Edward shout my name over the noise of the cackling students. I quickly glance at him as I make my escape, and I don't miss the look of concern on his face. Concern and apology. I don't have time to dwell on his expression, though, or what he wants. I have to get away from people before one of them notices what the makeup was hiding.
I slip and slide, running from the room. I skid around corner after corner until finally, I make it to the toilets. I crash through the door, almost crying out in relief when I come to the conclusion that no one is in here.
I stand in front of the mirror over one of the sinks. I look like I've been for a swim. My charcoal gray top is almost black in colour, sodden with water. My hair is sticking to my skin like glue. To my ultimate relief, the makeup is still somewhat intact. It's running down my face slightly however. I quickly rush to one of the cubicles and rip off sheet after sheet of toilet paper. I go back to the mirror and dab the paper all over my face, hoping to dry it. I try to be as quick as possible, before someone comes in here. Once my face is relatively dry, I pull out my makeup and make a rushed attempt at redoing my mornings hardwork.
It looks nothing like it did before, but it'll have to do.
Just as I pull the brush away from my face, the door swings open. One of the school nurses, Nurse Shelley I think her name is, enters. "Bella?" she asks me, unsure if I'm who she's looking for.
I nod silently, looking away from her as I rush to pack away the makeup, for some reason feeling a bit embarrassed. I look to her as she starts speaking. "A young man sent me to see you. Said you'd probably be in here," she tells me, her eyes running over my soaked form.
"Why?" I ask. I don't have to question who the young man was, that being fairly obvious.
"I'm not sure. He wouldn't say. What happened?" she asks. I shrug, looking down at my hands.
"Nothing," I mumble. I hesitantly look at Nurse Shelley to see she has her head cocked to one side. I sigh and cross my arms over my chest protectively. "Just teens being teens I guess," I grumble. "It's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine," I say, looking up at her once more with a shrug.
She looks at me silently for several seconds, before she sighs. "I would really like to know who did this to you." I don't respond in any way. I will not be the person who rats out Rosalie Hale and her click. They hate me enough already. "Okay," the nurse gives up and sighs again. "I'm going to write a note for you to be sent home. You can't stay in wet clothes for the rest of the day."
"Um, okay. Thanks," I answer.
"Come to the nurses office once you've finished up in here, okay?" I nod silently, and then she turns and leaves me alone. I slump back against the sink behind me, feeling very exhausted all of a sudden. At least I'm allowed to go home.
I briskly walk to one of the cubicles and lock myself in. I yank off my top, deeming it unwearable, and put on my black hooded jacket I'd luckily put in my bag this morning. I zip it up to the very top, not chancing any more humiliation, for example someone seeing my bra underneath.
I unlock the cubicle door and then wring out my wet top into the sink. Once it's drained as much as possible, I empty the front pouch of my bag of all the bits and pieces I store in there, and then fold the top down to the smallest it can go, before stuffing it into the front pouch. It's not a very big area to work with, but after a few attempts I've managed to zip it up almost all the way with the top inside.
For the next few minutes, while I wait for the bell signalling the start of the next lesson to ring, I dab at my hair with some more toilet paper, hoping it will absorb some of the moisture. The bell finally rings and I bin the last bit of paper I used before making my way out. I poke my head out the door and look left and right, praying the hall is empty. Fortunately, it is.
I then slip out of the toilets and run for the nurses office. Nurse Shelley is sat at the desk, waiting for me with the note in her hand when I arrive. She raises an eyebrow at me when I enter, a scowl fixated on her face. "There you are. I was starting to think you'd forgotten," she says, holding out the note to me. "Hand this in to reception on your way out, they'll sign you out for the rest of the day," she says with a sigh.
"Th-thank you," I stutter, taking the note from her hand. She stands and leaves the room without a "goodbye", entering one of the doors leading to the singular examination room.
I slowly make my way to reception, the events of lunch starting to settle in my mind. That was a close one. If I'd left it another minute, the bruise on my face would have become really visible and Edward would have definitely noticed. Edward. I'm thankful for him sending the nurse to me, though I don't know why he thought I'd need a nurse. I wasn't injured, just drenched and humiliated.
After handing in the note, I head out to the bike racks and unlock mine. I walk with it beside me as I exit the school grounds. I stop down the road from the gates and pull out my cell phone, sending a text to Edward.
Thank you. - B
I swing my leg over my bike and sit down. I am just about to set off when my phone buzzes against my ribs in the pocket of my jacket. I have a new message, a reply from Edward.
Are you okay? - E
Yes. I'm going home. - B
That's good. Are you sure you're okay? - E
Yep. I'm alright. I'll talk to you later. - B
I sigh, pocketing my phone before cycling home.
As I walk through the front door, I drop my bag on the floor and walk like a zombie into the back living room. I collapse onto the sofa and cover my face with a pillow.
And then I scream into it. I scream at the top of my lungs.
A/N: Let me know your thoughts on this one! Next chapter we'll see Edward's side of the story! See you Friday!