I'm gettin really excited about this fic. I actually know what's going to happen B4 i write it. I know, I'm amazed too. N e who... Yes, Charlie is dead. I sowwy :( Please refer back to the last chapter if you don't remember what happened. I know I constently lose my place in fictions since I read so many of them.

N e who, ON WITH THE FIC!

Angel in the Bathroom

It seemed like forever since we went to school. In reality, it had barely been fourteen hours. Could so much really have happened in such a short amount of time? I suppose it could... I showered in cold water this morning, trying to prove that this wasn't some sick daydream I was having. I felt like retching. Oh, if only I could. I would feel so much better once it was all out of my system. Too bad it would always be there. I hadn't noticed when Edward came in, but at some point he had gotten in the shower with me.

"Why is the water so cold?" he asked me, turning the heat up.

"Uh, I just needed it," I answered quietly. As I turned to face him, he tilted his head to the side, questioning me with his eyes. I shook my head. He looked so tired, worn even. Yesterday had been a strain on both of us. As the water warmed my body, I wrapped my arms around Edward's waist and rubbed my head against his bare chest.

"Rough day..." he muttered into my hair.

"Indeed..."

My clothes reflected my mood today: dull and gloomy. It was rare that any of us Cullens wore black, but it seemed that most of us were today. Edward wore his now regular punk look, all black and drab. I let my hair fall down to my shoulders, a knotted mess. I wore a grey jacket over a black speggetti strap shirt and a long black skirt. Easy and boring. Yet, as I looked in the mirror, I still looked like a runway model. It was the first time that my reflection pissed me off. I blew out of one side of my mouth, sending a lock of my hair flying into the air. Great, even at my worse I still looked amazing. I rolled my 'perfect' eyes and walked out of the stupid 'perfect' bathroom, into my 'perfect' stupid closet, which lead into my 'perfect' stupid bedroom where my 'perfect' husband was currently messing up his 'perfect' hair. God, today's taboo word was 'perfect'. Anyone who said it would be dead. I would personally claw their eyes out with a very happy little smile on my face. After that I might just run them over with Emmett's Jeep.

Yeah, I was feeling evil today. I collapsed onto my opposite-of-flawed bed, watching Edward mess with his hair. Finally he decided it looked messy enough, like he'd woken up that way, and he sighed.

"School," he muttered.

"Don't wanna go," I muttered back.

"Yeah..."

Ug, the room was too full of dread. It was like someone died... Oh, wait, someone did. Anyway, I had to cheer it up. Fun for me...

I hopped up, skipping over to Edward, and placed a light kiss on his cheek. "We better get going!" I said, my voice sounding too high pitched even to me. Edward flashed me a smile before he walked up the stairs with me. If I thought yesterday was a long day, then today would be an eternity...

Without either Edward or I knowing, Alice slipped behind us and grabbed our shoulders, causing both of us to jump.

"Geez, Al!" I cried. She just giggled.

"You two must be lost in thought if you didn't hear me calling," she explained. I just rolled my eyes. "Anyway... Bell, think you could ride with me today?" Her request was so innocent I normally wouldn't have thought anything of it... but I was on high alert today, something had to be up.

"... Sure..." I answered hesitantly, glancing at Edward before speaking. He held me close to him and kissed me as if we wouldn't be seeing eachother for months, not just ten minutes. Quickly, Edward walked over to his Volvo and backed out of the driveway.

Alice was bubbling with false delight. She had to be faking it. I got into her bright yellow car, shivering slightly out of nervous curiosity of what could have formed my sister's request. Once she sat in the driver's seat, she backed out of the driveway while fiddling with the radio. Finally she just turned it off.

"You know," she said suddenly.

I sighed. "So you know that I know," I muttered.

"And you know that I know..."

"Does Edward know that I know?" I had to ask... although if he knew we would be discussing it right now, instead of Alice and I talking about it.

"No."

"So Edward doesn't know that you know that I know?" Now I was just babbling like a fool.

"Bella..."

"Sorry."

"Why are you holding it in if you know?" she asked me, turning to me with concern burning in her eyes. It was a tough question.

"I don't want Edward to know that I know..." Oh god, not this again.

"Why?"

"Because he went to all that trouble to protect me from it... I don't want him to think it was a waste..."

Alice sighed this time. "It wasn't the feeling of loss he was trying to protect you from..." she said quietly.

"What then?" I too whispered.

"He was trying to protect you from yourself..."

Had I heard her right? Myself? "What?"

"Bella, don't hold it in." Her voice was hard, demanding... almost reprimanding.

"I'm fine-"

"Dear god Bella, don't bottle it up! Do you know what happens when you do that?!" She was angry. Although, I couldn't be sure why. I hated it when people just wouldn't come out and say things... They had to make me think and find out for myself.

"Um, it goes away?" My light sarcasim went unappreciated.

"BELLA!"

"What happens then, Alice?!" I screamed aswell.

"It explodes in your face. It gets to be too much and you lose control. You CAN'T afford to lose control Bella, you can't!" Her voice was almost pleading. It was asif she wanted me desperately to grasp a concept I knew all too well. I never lost control. Not after the last time. I was thoroughly offended that she would suggest that I would.

"I'm not going to explode, Alice," I said calmly. I was either missing a major detail in the story, or Alice was having a freak out session. Maybe she had somehow turned human again and she was PMSing. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Not right now, not at this moment... But Bella, if you hold all of it in, then it will have to come out at some point, and it will be too much to handle."

"I've never been given too much to handle..." I muttered almost silently.

"Just let yourself grieve, Bell..." Then Alice left. I hadn't realized that we'd arrived... It was the longest ten minutes of my life for eternity. I sighed, pulling myself together, then stepped out of the car and into the light drizzle of the morning.

Edward stood, leaned against his car ever so slightly, waiting for me. Once I got over to him, I gazed into his eyes for an unmeasurable amount of time before grabbing he face roughly and kissing him with the heat of the conversation Alice and I just had. When I pulled away, he just smiled at me.

"I missed you too," he said softly. Then we intwined our hands and walked into the dreaded building together.

Eventually lunch came. I scanned the room for miss Alyza Martin. She was at a different table today, but there she sat, glaring at Edward.

"Do you see her?" he asked me, following my gaze.

"Yes, but don't look, she's staring right at you," I told him quietly, fixiated my gaze elsewhere. He nodded in response and looked no further for the girl. "Can you hear her?" He nodded again.

"She thinks we're after her..." he said in a low tone, his brow puckering out of confusion.

Slowly but surely the cafeteria began to fill in and our brothers and sisters joined us. Once Emmett sat down on the table, Alyza's death glare shifted to him.

"She's looking at Emmett now..." I said quietly.

"Martin?" Emmett questioned me. I nodded.

"She thinks you're an absurd muscular mass," Edward said quickly, still listening to Alyza. I glanced over at her again. Her hair fell over her shoulder in a messy braid today, allowing me to see her deep blue eyes more clearly. They truely were startling... Emmett was still trying to understand what that meant. I just rolled my eyes. Edward was listening to the girl so intently that he didn't notice when another, more average looking girl walked up beside him.

"Hey there," she said seductively. Edward's head snapped around, looking at the girl with utter surprise in his eyes. I tried to control a giggle that was bubbling to my lips. "I know, I know... I'm gracing you with my presence, but don't worry. I would be honored if you would take me out to dinner as well."

This girl was so conceded. Edward scoffed, then turned his gaze to the table.

"What's wrong? Did I embarrass you?" she asked sweetly... Too sweet actually. It was like a toothache. It was high time to step in. I gently took Edward's face in my hands and planted a soft kiss on his lips. The girl was in utter shock.

"And I would be honored if you left now," I said, taking my eyes from Edward's for a breif second to look at the girl. She moved her mouth like a fish.

"Are you going to do that every time someone asks me out?" Edward asked slyly.

"More or less."

His eyes lit up. "Who's next?!" he called. What an idiot. The girl glared at me, then walked away to her table of preps who all rubbed her shoulders and gave her words of encouragement.

"That was mean!" Alice gasped in between laughs. Rosalie merely patted my back.

"What was she thinking?" Jasper asked, a smirk evident on his face.

"Well, she wants to jump Bella now, but before she thought I would be another 'victory' over the opposite sex," Edward said quietly before bursting into his own laughing fit.

We spent the rest of lunch just laughing like idiots. Alyza had been completely ripped from our minds.

During our seventh period class, Edward really riled the teacher up. He was asked to stay after class. In response, Edward was awarded with some 'ooh's and 'aww's from the peanut gallery. He just smirked and shrugged. After class, he was awarded with detention by the teacher.

"Amazing," Edward had said. "I've never gotten detention before. I kinda like that I've finally gotten it though."

He can be so weird sometimes. So I waited up for him. I mainly hid in the girl's bathroom, every once in a while I walked up and down the halls. It was odd how everything in the school was painted red... The walls, the lockers, the bathrooms, the carpets... Even the window treatments had a red tint to them. I mused over that fact for a few moments.

As I walked back into the girl's bathroom, I heard someone crying. I looked around, but I saw no one. They must have been in the stall.

"Hello?" I called out gently. The crying stopped. "Is someone in here?" I called again. Nothing. Apparently this girl didn't want to talk about it. "Are you alright?" I asked, stopping before the stall I sensed the girl was in. "Do you need some help?"

"Go away!" came a strangled voice.

"Are you ok?"

"LEAVE!"

"But I have to go..." I almost giggled at that.

"Then go and don't bother me..."

"Fine..." I walked into a stall, sitting on it as though I was actually going. I grabbed some toilet paper, crumpled it in a ball, and flushed it in the toilet. It was a waste of paper, but I figured that gods would forgive me. I washed my hands and pretended to leave the room; I made loud noises with my feet, then made them get gradually quieter before grabbing the door and opening and closing it. The girl fell for it.

She came out, her eyes rimmed red from tears and her hair a mess. She gasped when she saw me.

"You never answered me you know," I said, answering her stare. She turned to go back into the stall, but I was already there. "Oh no you don't." I told her. "No more hiding. Come on, lets talk."

"Why?!" she spat out.

"Because you're a mess to be quite honest, and it looks like you could use an open ear." I gently grabbed her shoulders and tried to make her sit, but she brushed me off. No sense in forcing her yet.

"Why do you care?" she corrected me. Oh. Hm, good question.

"Girlish compasion," I said, shrugging. Only excuse I oculd come up with. I sat down; she sat too, this time willingly. "So?"

"My dad's dieing."

Fate hated me. She looked like she was ready for round two, so I quickly grabbed some paper towels and handed them to her.

"Thanks," she said weakly, dabbing at her eyes.

"What happened?"

"He's really sick... I'm not quite sure what it is, no one would tell me. They wanted to 'protect' me from what ever it was. But he's the only parent I have left! My mom died when I was really young, so when Dad dies, I'm all alone!" By the time she was done her body was shaking with sobs. I held her, rubbing her back and rocking her slightly. I made slight 'shh'ing noises, trying to calm her. Eventually, she stopped.

"None of my friends understand..." she said quietly after a long period of silence.

"My Dad died recently too," I said before realizing what I was saying.

"He did?" she choked out.

"Yeah. Nobody told me at first, I found out by reading a newspaper. They wanted to protect me too."

"It sucks when people do that! They don't realize that they're just hurting us..." She blew her nose into the paper towel.

"They're blinded by love."

We sat through a long period of silence again. She seemed to be feeling better. Her sniffles were decreasing in amount, her eyes were starting to return to white, and her breathing had returned to normal.

"Feeling better?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah... Sometimes you just need to let it all out, you know?" she said, laughing slightly.

"Yeah, I guess."

"It's like, after holding it up inside for so long, you feel like you're going to explode at some point. Like you're a ticking time bomb, the littlest thing could set you off at any given moment. Boom!" She made a little mushroom cloud with her hands. I gave a quiet laugh. This sounded oddly familiar. Damn you Alice... Suddenly, the girl stood. She walked over to the sink and washed off her face.

"Thank you for staying with me..." she said quietly.

"Anytime. I'm always here when someone's in the bathroom crying their eyes out. Call me Girl-Talk-Woman," I teased, lightening the mood a little. I stood in a stance that would make Superman die of envy just to emphasise what I'd said. She laughed; it worked. She nodded to me before leaving the dark bathroom.

I sighed to myself, thinking about what had just happened.

"Ok," I said to God, if there was one. "I get the picture, you can quit sending me hints and let Alice know she was right." I laughed despite of myself, leaving the bathroom.

I walked over to where Edward's detention was being held, glancing in the tiny window in the door. Edward was talking to the teacher as he was walking to the door. I backed away as he opened it, catching the last bit of the conversation.

"And don't let it happen again," the teacher ordered.

"Whatever," Edward said curtly before shutting the door in the teacher's face. He was good at this. His arm wrapped around me as we began walking out of the hell hole also known as school.

"So what have you been up to?" he asked me as we walked into the parking lot.

"Self reckoning," I said as-a-matter-of-factly. This earned a questioning look from Edward. "Don't worry about it."

"You know I will," he replied.

"I know."

What an interesting day... I couldn't help but feel... happy. Was that sick or what?

CmH signing off. Hee hee hee... I felt good about writing this chapter! I hope it turned out ok... I know the title suggested something else XD I hope no one was disappointed. lol