Disclaimer: I do not own, only play. These are Stephanie Meyer's characters.
"The moon was my first. I've always been mesmerized by the moon, even when I was a kid. I used to sit outside all night and look up at it until my mom yelled at me to come inside."
Edward smiled.
"And I'm just kind of a night person," Bella shrugged, laughing at herself.
Edward reached up and pulled back more of her hair. "And the feathered wings?"
"Just something cool I saw on another girl."
"The cross?" His fingers dabbed along her skin, outlining the black lining of the tattoo. The detailed cross was obviously a newer tattoo as it was darker and more thorough with its ink lining.
Bella hummed, looking below at her rib cage. She closed her eyes. "I really like the idea of a higher power in control of my life." Her words were soft and genuine, but also very quiet and personal. As if she was talking to herself.
"I've been through a lot of shit… and I think it's nice to believe in something that's good. For a little while, at least."
His mind carried with her, to the private place she was taking him. It was made known to him that perhaps Bella was very candid with almost anything, but there were sides to her, depths to her that Edward couldn't even imagine. He sat up in his bed and delicately kissed her shoulder.
"I like this tattoo, then."
Even though she wasn't looking at him, Edward could feel her smile.
Resting his chin on her shoulder, he spoke into her neck. "Well, how about the fox?"
She turned around to meet his face, her breath swirling between them. "Well, I just like foxes," she murmured charmingly, kissing his mouth.
He hummed against her lips, spreading her mouth open with his tongue.
They sat there for a bit, doing whatever it was that they always did. But the point was that Bella had recently become very comfortable with this new routine. A habitat, a place of familiarity—a lifestyle.
Edward was easy for her, nice for her, good for her. And in every way, he was perfect for her.
They settled into a fairly common humdrum, wading out the week together. In bed, on the couch, at the coffee shop or on the streets. A part of her grew in him, became an extension of him; everything about their relationship was normal.
What was not normal was his mother's reaction that night of the dinner. And it had solely been on Bella's mind for a good while until she finally brought it up. Edward's apologetic behavior didn't make her feel any better, as it wasn't him she wanted to hear the apology from. It wasn't really even an apology that Bella wanted to hear but rather, an explanation. She thought she had made a good impression but apparently, that wasn't so.
"There's no excuse for her behavior."
"Well, I did say she was 'old-school'. Again, that's not an excuse."
"My father should have done something."
Bella's face had twisted with apathy; his concern for what should have been done left no abrasion on Bella's mind. Only why Esme had done it.
Maybe the hair coloring isle in the supermarket was whispering friendlier words than before.
But Edward's outlook on Bella had not changed one bit. In fact, he was more comfortable with it than ever. Even though Bella's dressing was still very much eccentric, it was all becoming customary for him. She could have dressed however she wanted to and he would still think she was extraordinary; Bella was never 'that girl with the purple hair'.
Although, Jasper thought of her like that.
As well as Emmett.
As well as his mother.
As well as everyone in his office.
For reasons, his business became everyone else's. And for a while, he had forgotten how intrusive his company was but then he had also remembered that he was never the guy with the juicy outside-of-work activities. And now that he had suddenly become interesting, in ways the office could talk about, he was all the office could talk about.
As well as Emmett's obsession with the college lesbian.
Jasper's grandfather going bankrupt and serving jail time for embezzling millions of dollars from the bank.
Even Kate's acclaimed 'sugar daddy'.
Everyone wasn't against him; Edward was just finally paying attention to the company gossip.
And they were talking about everyone. Not just him.
As he should have expected; his company made a living on exploiting interesting news to the public.
But he didn't want to be anyone's topic of conversation. Not when it came to anything other than his finance column. But honestly; who read that section of the paper?
Sunday came and went; the last day of Spring Break.
Rose told herself she wouldn't be sitting by her phone, waiting for a call, but in reality that's all she did that day. In her defense though, she went food shopping, window shopping and library book shopping; she was just looking at her phone the entire time while doing it.
And by 8 o'clock that night, Rose Hale knew it was a day gone by. And Leah was probably back from being away and in no way of having the energy to see Rose. So when Emmett unexpectedly texted Rose, asking if she was up for drinks, her afternoon class the next day seemed far enough away for her to get distracted on something else.
That, and maybe Leah. No, she didn't want to think about Leah at all.
Alice sat on her bed, while Bella sat on hers. Their mimicked positions—crossed legged, starring at their computers—was not planned however, comical in a sense that if someone were to walk in and see them.
Briefly, they had mutual conversation over their shared philosophy class but other than that, they kept to their typing independently. Only until Alice, abrasively, shut her laptop.
Bella looked over.
"Are we there yet, on that friendship level? Where I can ask you something personal?" Alice asked.
Bella squinted her eyes and let out a nervous laugh. "Sure, Alice."
Alice twisted her mouth, debating her decision. In her blue leopard sweats and gray tank, she looked younger than her true age. In truth, Alice was only a year younger than Bella and Rose. She had long hair, parted down the middle, and met at her collarbones. Her face was still mature, but somehow now, Alice looked like a scared twelve year old, about to tell her mom about something she did wrong.
She suddenly jumped down from her bed, hooked her fingers into the waistband of her pants to slip them over her hips, revealing her bikini style underwear. She then slipped those off too, until she was bared naked.
Bella laughed, covering her eyes with her hands. "What the actual fuck, Alice!"
"Bella, this is really important!"
"Oh my god," Bella laughed again, peaking through her fingers at her roommate.
"I'm not sure why, but it hurts."
"What hurts?" Bella asked, firmly removing her hands from her eyes. She still couldn't keep a straight face as her roommate stood in front of her, bare as a child from the waist below.
"My cootch! I think it may be razor burn or something but," Alice drifted off, looking down at herself and twisted her mouth again.
"And what do you want me to do about it!"
"I want you to check!"
Bella shook her head. "Alice, fuck no."
"Please! You're my friend. I would do the same for you."
"I'm not so sure I'd let you."
Alice frowned, bouncing on her leg frantically. "Please."
Her sigh was loud and filled the room; as she jumped off her own bed, Bella rolled her eyes and knelt before Alice. As she started to take a clear look, cocking her head to each side to get a different view, Rose walked in on the scene before her. And her only thought was that perhaps she just had very bad timing.
"Where were you? You've been gone all night," Bella asked, now sitting back on her bed with Rose beside her. Alice was now dressed again and on her own bed, in on the conversation between the three girls.
"Can we at least talk about what I walked in on?" Rose asked, a bit more concerned about why Alice had her pants around her ankles. Or maybe why Bella was fingering her private area.
"Alice has an ingrown hair," Bella laughed.
Alice made a face. "Stop laughing. Once you have one, you'll know how I feel."
"Been there." Bella and Rose said.
The petite girl crossed her arms.
"Who are you shaving for, anyway?" Rose laughed, meaning it as a rhetorical question. Alice's face saddened.
Bella interrupted. "It's 3 in the afternoon. What's up?" Bella asked, turning to Rose again for questioning.
As casually as Rose could muster, she shrugged her shoulders while responding. "I was out with Emmett last night."
"Really?" Bella arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah. We had a few drinks. Nothing serious."
"Then why did you come back this morning?"
"How do you know I wasn't here last night and just didn't stop by until now?"
"Because we see you every hour of the day," Alice offered, running her hands through her hair with her matter-of-factly attitude.
"You're makeup is smudged," Bella offered her more realistic answer. One Rose would see fit to agree to.
"I slept on his couch. Nothing happened."
"You know, just throwing this out here; it may not be the best thing for you to go out on dates with him if you aren't interested in seeing him. Long term." Bella pulled her lips into a tight line after.
Rose picked at her nails, dulling the conversation as much as she could without abandoning it completely. She didn't want to be judged for her choices even as much as she knew was might have been in the wrong.
"Look, no one is getting hurt here. It was just a few drinks. I didn't feel comfortable coming back to campus drunk so he offered his couch. He was a complete gentleman. I was a lady. I wore my own clothes to bed, for Christ's sake." She hopped off the bed then.
"Hey, no one is attacking you, Rose," Bella replied, leaning over the edge of her bed to catch her friend.
"Well, it sure seems like it."
Alice intervened. "We care, that's all."
"I'm fine."
"If this is about Leah, we can talk about it—"
"This is not about Leah." Rose proceeded towards the door, running from the conversation. And as she left the room completely, Bella and Alice shared a look of concern before the door slammed shut.
The absence of their friend left them wondering if what it really was about, if not Leah, something more personal?
Jasper was carrying some drafts under his arm, along with his old university's logo coffee mug in his hand, on the way to Edward's office. He wanted to discuss something with him about next week's taglines when he knocked on the door and found the room to be empty.
Jasper peeked inside, feeling the vacant space around him. He decided he would come back later, only until he realized that Edward had left his phone on his desk. Now whether Edward was out on his lunch—although it seemed pretty late in the day for that—or he had left early in general, Jasper wasn't sure if he would be coming back for his phone or not.
He held the black cell phone in his hand, deciding what to do with it until it buzzed right in his palm. A text message from Bella appeared.
Again, Jasper was left with an ultimatum of whether or not he should text her back, saying Edward forgot his phone. He decided against it, finding that it was not his place to do so, only until Bella sent him another text. An MSM text.
Accidently, Jasper opened the text and became wide eyed. He dropped the phone, his cheeks going pink instantly.
Giving him what felt like the second heart attack of the day, Emmett came barreling in, calling out for Edward.
"He's not here, Emmett," Jasper said roughly, rubbing the back of his head. Edward's phone buzzed on the table now.
"Oh. What are you doing in here?" Emmett asked.
"I came to talk to him. Why are you in here?"
"Same reason. But dude, seriously, I have to tell you about last night."
The phone's buzzing left the two men looking at Edward's desk before Emmett looked to Jasper.
"Edward left his phone behind?"
Jasper nodded quickly.
"Dude, you okay?"
Jasper looked to his co-worked and swallowed hard, not sure what to say. He slowly shook his head. "I accidentally opened up a text from Bella on his phone."
Emmett smirked, "Oh, really?"
"And it was a nude picture."
Emmett laughed at his friend's embarrassment, his shoulders moving as he placed one hand over his mouth.
Jasper took a giant sip of coffee from his mug.
"Was it nice, at least?"
Jasper gave him a grimace, bumping his shoulder on his way out. Emmett followed suit, closing Edward's door behind them both.
"Well, was it?"
At the last minute, before Jasper turned the corner, he looked around and said quietly "She's has nipple piercings."
Shit, Emmett thought on the way to his own office.
Edward was in his father' office, on the floor two levels above his own office. He was sitting in the chair across from his father's desk. Although the conversation was casual, it still felt like business because his was father had his glasses on. That always meant something different.
"Sun-Time's annual year event is coming up. It's going to be a big one this year. A lot of important people coming. It's crucial that you make a good impression."
"Was there any other option?" Edward asked, not helping much with the slight sarcasm. He knew every event was crucial, in his father's eyes. But all Carlisle really wanted for his son was for him to be successful in everything he did. He knew his son was a good writer, so why not try to show him off to the best publishers and editors out there?
"Mackie Aarons is going to be there. Along with Alec Simmons and Eleanor Cutherback. The editor-in-chief. Human resources. First page headliners. This is what you want to strive for, Edward."
"I know," Edward replied, with more grace this time.
Carlisle looked to his son and took off his glasses. During business hours, this meant his father was about to say something either very important or very rude. To Edward, he wasn't quite sure which was worse.
"Edward. For this event, I want you to be alone."
"Okay..."
"Meaning, you can't bring Bella."
And then it hit him.
Little did he know, back in his empty office, his phone fell silent to Bella's last text message, asking him if they were still on for dinner.
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