Chapter 22
March of Bella's senior year at Bridgeton Academy
Alice's POV
Through the cracks of my shut door, I could still hear them. I tightly covered my ears with my hands, not wanting to hear it. Their pain sliced me as if it were my own. Even though I was squeezing as tightly as I could, noise seeped through my barrier.
"What do you want me to do?!" Bella yelled angrily. I've never seen them this worked up before. Of course, they had reason… but still. It hurt me to see them so torn, to see them so unsure of their relationship together.
"I want you to decline it! I want you to go to California with me!" Edward answered; I could hear the hints of pleading in his tone. It was completely quiet for a short second.
"Why?" Bella asked softly, "Is it because Tristan is at Dartmouth?" She chose her words carefully, timidly.
"Of course it is. I want you with me. I'm afraid. I want to be able to buy you coffee every morning, I want to be able to tell our kids that we lasted through high school and college; I don't want you across the country, Bella… I don't want to lose you because it feels like I just got you." Edward answered in a rush; I barely caught his words through the door. There was a silence and a light sigh. I heard the sound of Bella's cry and my face softened and my lips formed into a tiny smile, the fight was over.
Jump forward to high school graduation
Bella's POV
It was complete, insane, madness. Alice and Rosalie were running around the apartment frantically while I sat at my desk in my room checking my e-mail in my faded black sweatpants. There was no need, though; Charlie was already here in Forks for my graduation. I would see him in a few hours.
Rosalie busted into my room, and went straight to my closet, searching viciously. I continued typing, responding to an email from one of my old friends in Phoenix. It was best to let Rosalie do her own thing when she was stressed out.
"Bella have you seen my-," she stopped mid-sentence when she finally met my eyes. Her eyes turned even more frantic, something I didn't think was possible.
"Alice!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, "We have a major problem!!"
My stomach dropped, oh shit. I looked down at my clothes, hoping I didn't look too bad. I grimaced, I looked down right trashy. My sweatpants were faded, torn, and had contrasting white bleach stains against the black ragged cotton. It was obvious that my white camisole I had was the same one I wore in 5th grade.
Alice ran into my room, grabbing onto my doorframe to stop her momentum. She looked around my room, at Rosalie, and then at me. Her eyes widened,
"Bella! What in the hell are you wearing?! The guys are meeting us here for graduation in 10 minutes! 10 minutes!" She was absolutely fuming. She's been bothered about my wardrobe before… but this; this was a new level of concern. This was just crazy.
"I just have to get changed, and that only takes a couple of minutes." I defended myself quietly, frightened for my life.
"You don't have any make-up on, your hair looks like it does every day…people will be taking pictures!" she said the last part as if it would make me enthusiastic. Instead, I shrugged. Alice screamed in frustration and turned on Rosalie,
"You should get Bella dressed and get make-up on her, meanwhile I will find the shoes for you and the hair-pin for me," Alice instructed Rosalie quickly, Rosalie nodded once and pulled me into my closet.
She raked through my clothes at an intense speed; finally she found what she was looking for. It was one of my new dresses Alice got me the last time she went out shopping with Jasper.
"Thank god she picked this up for you," Rosalie breathed and hurried me to put it on. Once I had it on, I looked into the mirror that hung on my closet wall. It was short, hitting my mid-thigh, and a dark navy blue. Black embroidery created black stripes on the bottom part while tiny; barley noticeable black dots decorated the top part. With bow detail around my empire waist, I looked thinner than I was.
I didn't get too much time to look at it though; Rosalie pushed me off into the bathroom, pulling the Juicy Couture tags off in the process. I was seated in the chair and she attacked my face. After many products and five minutes, she backed off and began brushing my hair roughly.
"Alice what do you want me to do with her hair?" Rosalie called out, plugging in a curling iron and flat iron, just to be prepared.
"Uhh…I'm thinking big curls and that thin black headband," Alice answered. "What is she wearing?" she added. I saw Rosalie smirk in the mirror.
"The black and blue Juicy dress you got her," Rosalie laughed. Alice came in from her room with two pairs of shoes and her hair-pin in her hands.
"Perfect," she smiled at me deviously.
"She put everything on the counter in front of me while Rosalie grabbed the curling iron and wrapped a chunk of my hair around it.
"I'll help," Alice stated and went to her sink and pulled another curling iron out of a drawer; she unplugged the straight iron and plugged in her pink curling iron.
"Want to see your shoes?" Alice asked me excitedly. I winced,
"Not really." Alice took that as a yes because she told me that she would go get them and promptly left the bathroom. She came back with a pair of strappy black heels. They were perfect for the dress.
"Are those…" Rosalie's voice trailed off, she looked enviously at them.
"Yup. Christina Louboutins…" Alice answered. Rosalie sighed,
"They're beautiful, Alice," the way she said it made it seem she was talking about a baby or something- definitely not a pair of shoes. Alice just smiled proudly. I, well I got smacked in the back of the head… after I rolled my eyes and muttered,
"Sweet baby Jesus."
Once my hair was curled, thin black headband in place, and shoes were on… I was ready. All under fifteen minutes. Alice and Rosalie smiled at me, proudly. I was their crowning achievement.
Alice and Rosalie were just brushing up on their make-up when there was a familiar three knocks on the door. Jasper always knocked three times. In a hurry, we checked ourselves in the mirror one last time, put a hair or two back into place and on the way out, flipped the switch to turn out the lights.
Alice and I stood near the door while Rosalie opened it for our dates. One by one, they walked through the door, standing in front of us, just looking.
"All this for graduation, huh?" Emmett chuckled. He got the second slap in the back of the head that night from Rose. The boys snickered at his sad, sad, sad mistake.
"I think you ladies are looking positively radiant tonight," Edward commented, his hands behind his back, smiling like an idiot. I narrowed my eyes at him skeptically at him. Alice huffed at him,
"Get that from a commercial, Edward? Cause that was as tacky as last years Mossimo collection from Target."
All eyes were on Alice for a completely silent two seconds before Jasper took the step toward her and gave her a full on hug, patting her back reassuringly…and slightly timidly.
"Fashion school in New York will be good for us, little munchkin."
Alice snuggled back into Jasper's side, reaching up to place a small, delicate kiss on his cheek. Only Jasper could get away with calling Alice a 'little munchkin'.
Emmett and Edward did the intelligent thing, and followed Jasper's lead and came over to greet us with kisses and cuddles. To say we responded well to their love was an understatement.
Edward took a look at his platinum wrist watch and suggested that we begin our walk to the graduation ceremony. It was already 6:04 and we were supposed to be there at 6:15 to get into order and lines.
Edward held my hand all the way there, rubbing soothing circles into the back of my hand with his thumb. My Dad was here for my graduation, and he knew how stressing that was to me.
I still hadn't told him.
"Breathe Bella; there is no pressure on telling him tonight. Take your time, whenever you feel is right," he reminded me, but I was barely listening to his words, barely taking them in. The musical sound of his voice was soothing enough. I could never forget how soothing his voice was in the worst of times.
When we finally got to where we were supposed to meet before graduation, we each put on our robes and caps while listening to our vice principal direct us where to go. Unfortunately, we were all separated far away from each other. I took a deep, calming breath.
"I'll find you as soon as it's over," Edward wrapped me up in a tight hug, were I felt safe. He kissed the top of my head and I wrapped my arms around his waist, wishing we didn't have to be apart, even for the shortest of times.
"You should be more excited than this, Bella. We're graduating from high school tonight!" Edward reminded me, making my heart light again. I smiled up at him; my arms remained around his waist.
"See you, love," Edward said in a quiet voice and kissed me deeply before we separated and went our separated ways.
Once every single senior found their place in the alphabetical line they split us up, cutting the line up in six parts. There were two entrances to the ceremony, and they were alternating between the two. They moved my line up next to the line of A-F.
I found Edward in the line next to mine and held my hand out. He grabbed it and squeezed. One by one, the names began being announced from a distant microphone. Slowly, less and less kids were in front of Edward.
"Edward Cullen," a female voice calmly spoke his name. I immediately heard cheers- which were expected- and he brought my hand to his lips, like a gentleman, before walking out.
"God he is soooo sexy…" I heard a girl groan behind me. I turned around to meet Jessica Stanley. I raised an eye brow at her and she just smirked and shrugged. I couldn't help but laugh in response.
"You are so lucky, you know," she told me with envious eyes.
"First you land Tristan Ashburn and now Edward Cullen…I'd give anything to find a guy like that," her voice was one of longing. Her eyes diverted mine, she was trying to peak out at the ceremony.
"Don't worry, your perfect guy is out there somewhere," I tried to soothe her. But it was hard. I knew there were only one Tristan Ashburn and one Edward Cullen. She threw me a skeptical eye.
"So where are you planning on going to school next year?" I asked her, trying to change the subject. It worked out better than I had planned.
"I got accepted into UC Santa Barbra and that was like my first choice because it's right by the beach so I'm going to go there. Mike Newton got accepted also and we're planning on hanging…" she went on and on and as soon as I knew it, I heard my name being called.
"Isabella Swan."
I froze though we'd rehearsed this nearly ten times already. Jessica pushed me from behind,
"Go Bella!" she hissed at me and I continued to walked forward and out into the crowded outdoor quad that was now filled with folding chairs and parents. I heard all of my friends cheer extra loud for me.
Carefully, so I didn't trip, I walked down the aisle way to my white chair where I sat down next to the person who stood in front of my in line. It felt like I was sitting in the chair forever. My butt started to hurt from the hard plastic.
I swear we went through at least 10 different speeches and then finally, our principal began calling out names to get diplomas. I saw each of my friends go up, shake hands with three Bridgeton administrators, smile for the camera and walk off, back to their seats.
You can do this Bella. You already walked down to this seat unscathed…just focus on your feet and where you're walking.
It seemed like the principal was calling out names more rapidly than before, because as soon as I knew, before I was ready, the guy in front of me was walking up to the podium to receive his diploma.
"Isabella Marie Swan."
She spoke my entire name this time I was announced, this time must be more important I gathered. I walked up to the podium, as rehearsed, briefly shook hands with the administrators and was handed my rolled up diploma. I shuffled my way back to my seat in a daze…I didn't make a fool of myself!
The rest of the ceremony went slower, much slower. I sagged down in my seat in boredom. The rest of it was pretty much a blur.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce to you the graduates of 2009!" The principal announced proudly. This was our class's cue- everybody jumped up and cheered, throwing their caps wildly into the air. I threw mine back up as far as I could- which wasn't very high at all.
I accidentally elbowed the boy next to me in the ear.
We were free to go find our families so after finding my hat, I found my father, Charlie. Once we made eye contact I saw his crinkly-eyes grin. I'd missed that. I quickly made my way over to him and gave him a tight hug.
"It's so great to see you Dad!" I almost squealed. Although I would never admit it verbally, it was hard to be away from Charlie for so long; all my life I had gone to school at home and lived with him at home. I guess Bridgeton was good practice for college this fall.
"You too Bells. Congratulations my high school graduate!" Charlie's words were sincere and excited.
"Thanks Dad," I smiled back at him, accessing him. He didn't look much older- except for a couple of gray hairs. I heard somebody scream from behind me and I knew exactly who it was without having to turn around.
"Bella! We did it!" Alice yelled from behind me in a high voice, she held her parents hands as they each stood beside her. She dropped their hands and came to give me a hug.
"You couldn't even wait for me?!" Rosalie's mockingly angry voice interrupted our hug. Alice and I released each other and held our arms open for Rose.
"Yay!" she shrieked and rushed over to join us. Our parents laughed at us as we screamed.
"I'm glad you girls are spending the summer at home," Rosalie's father stated happily, his blue eyes were shining brightly. It got hard for him to be away from Rose- she was a spitting image of her mother.
"I don't know if you want to say that just yet, Trevor. Remember the summer three years ago…" Alice's mother, Mary, cautioned. My father chuckled quietly.
"That slip and slide was tossed out in the trash as soon as we got home…as well as those boys next door," Trevor laughed, rolling his eyes at Rosalie.
"Maybe we should just send you somewhere else for the summer…" Charlie joked, "Florida maybe?"
Alice's father, Nick, shook his head very seriously.
"No, Florida has too many hurricanes…" he was grim, "Plus I was thinking much further… Greece perhaps?" his gloomy façade immediately disappeared and was replaced with a teasing, white smile.
"Perfect," Mary agreed.
"I wonder if those guys still live next door…" Rosalie pondered, "We should invite them over again this summer."
The only ones who were still smiling were Alice and I. Our fathers' good moods were gone.
"Who said something about inviting boys over? I hope they have my number." Emmett's loud voice made us turn to see him walking over with Edward and Jasper. Their parents were in tow.
Although I'd met all of their parents before and Charlie had met the guys- our parents had not.
"What makes you think I'd want you over at the house?" Rosalie teased back. Emmett raised his eyes brows suggestively and Rosalie blushed pink. She was so lucky, all of our parents were too busy talking and introducing themselves to each other to notice.
Edward came over to me and gave me a big, Emmet-like, hug, lifting me off of the ground and swinging me around once. He set me down and kissed my lips lightly once.
"Congratulations Bella," he whispered against my lips, our foreheads touching softly. I forgot how to breathe for a second.
"Congratulations to you, Edward," I responded after a moment. Somebody cleared their throat. I took Edward's hand in mine and he squeezed it gently, I turned to face my friends.
"Can we go to the dance now? You can finish that later," Alice asked impatiently. I rolled my eyes at her and nodded while Edward sighed.
"Dad, we're going to the dance, now," Alice called out to her father delicately. He nodded at her and waved a good bye.
"We'll call you tomorrow morning so we can get together for breakfast!" she promised to our fathers as we headed off to the last, senior-only, graduation dance. Before we went to the dance, though, we headed to our rooms to drop off our caps, gowns and diplomas.
"I waited in the living room to pee. Everybody was out here except for Rosalie, who was in the bathroom. Alice had already gone and Rosalie was in there- taking a long time I might add. She must be touching up on her make-up and hair. After a minute, she came out.
"All yours Bella," she announced and went to stand next to the chair Emmett was sitting in.
"Hurry up, Bells. I really want to get going…" Alice complained, fidgeting. I gave her an incredulous look. She couldn't even wait for me to pee?! Edward spoke before I could verbalize my frustrations,
"You guys can get going, I'll wait for Bella," he suggested and the problem was resolved as Alice jumped up out of her seat- her small figure managing to pull Jasper along behind her. Rosalie and Emmett followed, except with less enthusiasm. Regular enthusiasm.
"See you two at the dizz-ance," Emmett said before he shut our door. There was an awkward moment between Edward and me,
"I'll be right back," I said slowly and retreated to the bathroom. I could hear his chuckles through the door. I went pee and washed my hands quickly, not wanting Edward to miss much of the dance. Unlike me, he actually liked dances and school events. I didn't want to hold him back.
I opened the bathroom door and Edward was sitting on the leather couch, he was relaxed, sitting back on it with one arm draped over the top. I walked over to him, and he kept his mesmerizing green eyes fixated on me. I felt self-conscious. I stood right in front of him and pushed my knees against his and held out my hands.
"Ready to go?" I asked him, trying to distract him; trying to get the attention off of me. Instead of him getting up, he wrapped his arms around my waist, twisted me around and pulled me down to him. I was sitting on his lap and his arms were around me, pulling me closer to him. I felt him breathe in my ear and shuddered in a good way.
"I don't want to go to the dance anymore…" he whined playfully and kissed the spot below my ear. I twisted my body so I was sitting sideways on his lap and could see his angelic face.
"We have to go… Alice would kill us if we didn't show up," I laughed, his green eyes pleaded with me.
"Please…" he tried again. I took a deep breathe to compose myself.
"No," I said firmly. He gave me the puppy dog eyes I couldn't resist. His lower lip jutted out slightly, making his angel face so cute…
"No!" I suddenly screamed, more to myself than him. Edward blinked in surprise and his mouth was just barely open.
"Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't know you wanted to go that badly…" he apologized and stood us up on our feet, taking my hand. He began to pull us to the door to leave but I stopped him, embarrassed.
"Edward, that's not what I meant. I didn't mean to yell at you. I was more…yelling at myself. I never can say no to you," I admitted, my face was blushed a light pink, and I was staring down at my shoes. Beautiful shoes, I noticed.
"Oh…okay, then," Edward shrugged. I peeked through my eye lashes at him and caught him smirking. He looked down at me, and laughed musically. I giggled along with him.
"Let's just go already, silly Bella," Edward pulled me out of the door, shutting it firmly behind us.
It was getting darker, though still quite lighted. Twilight. Summer was gradually stretching out the days. It was quiet, though the faint beat of the music thumped in the distance. A light breeze whipped around my hair. I looked down at me and Edward's adjoined hands, he squeezed fingers lightly and I looked up at him to meet his green gaze.
"I'm going to miss you Bella," he said quietly. I pressed my lips into a tiny smile. He grinned down at me with adoring eyes, my cheeks flushed light pink.
"I'm going to miss your blush," Edward added, sweeping his fingers across my face. I blushed even darker pink and averted my gaze, looking to the side at the tall green trees.
"I'm going to miss not being able to look into your beautiful brown eyes everyday," At this, I looked up at him. He didn't disappoint, he gazed down at me with more than loving eyes. My heart melted.
"How do you know I'm going anywhere?" my tone and curiously raised eyebrow didn't give anything away. "I haven't told you my decision yet."
Edward chuckled his musical laugh and lifted one side of his mouth up, creating my favorite crooked smile.
"I know…you wouldn't believe how anxious it makes me, too," he said teasingly, though the undertone of his voice was wary. I knew by the tone of his beautiful voice that he had more to say so I waited. He led me to the center fountain which served as the focal point in Bridgeton's quad and we sat down on the cement edge of it.
"I just want you to know that which ever school you decided on going to…I plan on making it work between you and me. 'Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something.'"
"Randy Pausch said that," I commented, mumbling. Edward smiled and nodded at me in approval and continued on his little speech.
"You and I both know that I want you Bella, I need you, actually. So if a long distance relationship is our next brick wall, I'm going to break it down." He said this confidently, his hands holding one of my own and green eyes ablaze, how they often looked during basketball games.
"Bella I don't care who or what is in our way. My whole life is about you now; you're always my priority…even if you're thousand of miles away." Edward's eyes were intense, the conversation was intense. But behind this fierceness, he was hurting.
And then he bent down in front of me with one knee on the gray cement. It was almost in slow motion, he pulled out a small blue box out of his jean pocket. Gently squeezing the velvet lid between two fingers, he opened the box. Inside was a ring.
But not just the average ring. The central diamond was large and square. The thin platinum band was encrusted with a few small diamonds on each side of the dominant stone, accenting it perfectly. It shined in the orange-ish sunset light, giving off an enchanting glow. The moment was so perfect.
"Bella…will you marry me?" he asked with nervous eyes. His blinking and usual calm breathing was abnormal and he gulped noiselessly.
I saw us in gold and light blue robes, graduating from UCLA, holding hands. I saw me in a flawless white dress and Edward in a stunning black text. I saw our picture perfect wedding kiss. I saw an older version of myself announcing that dinner was ready and green-eyed children running inside the house with mud covered feet. I saw Edward and me with wrinkles on our faces, sitting on the porch, sipping iced tea and watching the sunset together, holding hands. I saw Edward. I saw myself. But more importantly, I saw us together and I knew what I wanted.
"Yes…on one condition," I answered and Edward's uneasy face was erased and a wide, breath taking smile took its place. He stood up from the ground with ease.
"Anything you want," Edward quickly agreed. I rolled my eyes at his anticipation and laughed freely, I knew he was waiting so I caught my breath.
"Can we have the wedding on the beach…in California?" His eyes widened and I nodded.
"UCLA here we come!" Edward shouted elatedly to nobody in particular. He lifted my left hand and kissed the back of it like a true gentleman before quickly sliding the ring onto my finger. His angelic face was so happy, the epitome of true beauty. I knew that I wanted to make him this happy everyday for as long as I lived.
And with only a small, but significant, step I bounded into Edward's strong arms. He lifted me high into the air so my feet lost contact with the ground and swung me around in circles, holding me tight. He made me feel as if I weighted nothing, my heart felt as if it weighed nothing.
He put me down so my on the ground once more, but didn't release me, just looked down at me through his dark, thick, black lashes. The way we were facing had the sun shining directly at Edward's face, making it glow even more. Like a light was illuminating an angel's face.
"I'm never letting you go…ever again, Bella. You know that right?" he cautioned me, playfully warning me. I nodded joyfully along.
"I'm aware of it all right."
And with just the press of my calves I raised myself onto my tippy-toes and bonded my lips to his, effectively closing the space between us, forever.
This is the end as you might have guessed.
Believe it or not, that chapter was so hard to finish.
I really want to get to 1,000 reviews.
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Once again, I am so sorry for the long time between chapters- I just started school again and it seems that I never have any down time. Ick.
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