We walked back in to the house and the first thing Rose did was throw her arms around me like she hadn't seen me in months. When she pulled away her eyes were a mixture of worry, happiness and sadness. I smiled at her as she looked me over making sure that I was ok much like her bother had done to me on the beach before we had gotten back to the house. I looked around and found Alice and Emmet in the kitchen and if I was right someone was cooking something and by someone I mean Rose because Alice didn't like to cook unless she had to and Emmet just made to much of a mess when he did so he normally didn't and if I still remembered correctly Jasper couldn't cook for shit.
"Don't ever do that again" Rose told me and I laughed at her "it's not funny Bella, something could have happened to you and you were gone for a while" she said the panic clear in her voice and I smiled softly at her and tried not to laugh, she was worse than my mother.
"I'm fine Rose. I just needed to think" I said and she nodded, understanding what I meant. It wasn't everyday your first love walked back in to you life a few days after the man you were supposed to marry cheats on you. I lead her and Jasper through to the kitchen when alice called the food was ready and I was happy to see grilled bacon cheese sandwiches on a plate, they were my favourite kind of junk food and right now thats exactly what I needed. Jasper looked a little uncomfortable with the whole situation but there wasn't much I could do about that, he and Rose had to sort their own problems out without me because I wasn't going to take side's.
We sat down at the table and dug into the food but we didn't speak much and I could tell that the awkward atmosphere was getting worse until Emmet spoke up.
"Well this isn't awkward" I shot him a look which he returned with a huge grin.
"No need to state the obvious" I said deciding to join him, it might help to get the conversation rolling.
"I see you two haven't change" Jasper said smiling at us and Rose gave him a look that looked so lost it made my heart break for her. Her blue eyes looked like they were going to be over come with tears. It hurt to see my best friend like this.
"Why did you leave" Rose asked as Emmet was going to say something but he closed his mouth and looked at his old best friend, his brown eyes asking the same question. Jasper looked down at the table and started to pick apart the sandwich he still had on his plate, a nervous habit he had when he didn't know what to do or say. "why" she asked again calmer than I thought she would be and he looked up at her, pain written all over his face.
"I wish I had a good enough answer for you but I don't" he scoffed at him self and then frowned "I tried to justify it as me just wanting to do something with out dad's money for once in my life but if I'm being honest I was just an asshole who was looking for fame and glory"
"Got that right" Emmet said and I shot him a glare which shut him up pretty fast. I loved the shit out of that man but sometimes he needs to know when to be quite and when to speak up but Jasper just laughed at him and continued with what he was saying.
"I regret leaving everyday of my life" he said and looked at Rose who was crying now. Emmet put his arm around her shoulders and brought her closer to his body so that she could have some kind of comfort and I wish I could just stand up and go hug her but we had to get past this discussion first.
"Why did you never call or write or anything just to let us know that you where alive. Do you know how many nightmares I had that you were dead in a ditch somewhere and no one would know who you were" she cried and I silently agreed with her, in the first year or so that he was gone I had a recurring dream that he died and I could never reach him, like something was stopping me, they got better when I started seeing Mike but I would have them every now and then and when I did he would always be there to hold me until I could fall asleep again.
"I wanted to but I was ashamed and scared and every time I picked up a phone I would just chicken out" he said and frowned "I've been doing that everyday for the last few years until a good friend of mine told me to be a man" he smiled at himself, the memory fresh in his head.
"But why did you come here" Emmet asked and Jasper looked at him.
"I was just passing through before I drove to mom and dads and then Rose" he said and looked at Rose with a smile.
"And your band" Rose asked with a little irritation in her voice and Jasper got this sad look in his eyes.
"That didn't work out to well" he said "I think we were there for six months and our lead ran off with some girl our drummer went home and soon after our bass followed. I stayed, thought maybe I could make it solo but it didn't work out and when I was finally running out of funds and got tired of working dead end jobs I left back for the states. And before you ask I thought about going back home but just the thought of dad saying I told you so made me chicken out and so I got a job and applied to a college in Texas, I studied and worked part time to work off the tuition and my second year I qualified for partial scholarship and so that helped a lot. I graduated and went on to study further and I am now a qualified history professor" he smiled and looked proud of what he had done and I smiled with him, I remembered that he loved history when we were in high school and we always joked that he should be a teacher when he got out of school and now he was "thats how I meet Peter and he convinced me that instead of being a pussy I should grow up and say sorry to my family and here I am"
"So you've been here all along" Rose said tears rolling down her face and I could see that she couldn't understand why he hadn't come to see her if he had been home for the last few years.
"I won't lie and say I wasn't but I regret every day that went past and I didn't go see you guys. Instead I did the cowardly thing and looked you up on Facebook" he said trying to lighten the mood by joking with us but rose didn't laugh if anything she looked annoyed.
"So you looked us up but not contact us, are you serious"
"Yes" he said sheepishly and looked down at the table "look Rose you have every right not to forgive me, I wouldn't either if I was you but can I at least have a chance to make it up to you" he said looking hopeful as he looked at her, to see what she would say to him. She looked confused and she frowned at him, I knew that look. She was going over the pros and cons of the situation but in the end she knew that there were more pros than cons.
"Well then" Rose said after a while and sniffed. "your going to have your work cut out for you. If I say jump you say how high" she said giving him a small smile and he laughed at her. "and there's going to be a lot of jumping"
"how high" he said and we all laughed with them and Rose. It was nice to laugh like this again like no time had passed since high school and now.
"I'm glad your back Jazz" Emmet said a huge smile on his face and for the first time I realised that it wasn't just me and Rose who were affected by him leaving. Aside from me Jasper was Emmets best friend and he probably missed him just as much but never let on.
The five of us spoke for a little while after that and it was nice and I was slowly forgetting about Mike and how broken I was supposed to be. We spoke about how college was, how we meet Alice and all the fun times we had, we tried to stay away for subjects about Jasper leaving but he did tell us about his time away when he was studying and how he meet his friend Peter and his girlfriend Charlotte and how they all lived together in a two bedroom apartment somewhere in Texas and conversation continued to flow like this for a while, I also noticed that Jasper and Alice joked around a lot with each other and while they probably didn't know they were doing it they were flirting with each other.
And the fun times ended when I got a phone call and I didn't bother looking down to see who it was when I picked
"Bella" I froze when I heard her voice flow through the phone "are you there sweetie" she said when I didn't say anything and I got up and moved away from my group of friends and towards the kitchen so I could talk privately. Rose noticed my absence and shot me a look while I was walking away but I stopped her when she stood up to see if I was fine.
"Hi Mrs Newton" I said my voice cracking a bit and I cleared my throat "how are you?" I said not sure what else to say to the woman I had been so close to for the last three years.
"oh i'm fine sweetie but enough about me. Im so sorry about my idiot son" it would have been funny but instead of laughing I felt tears start to form in my eyes again.
"Um yeah... its... its not your fault" I struggled to find the right words but I just didn't want to talk about this with her, she was his mother after all.
"Oh I know I just cannot believe he acted in such a vile way, that was not the son I raised" she said and I could hear a hint of crying in her own voice "and can you believe he tried to lie to me and said it was nothing he did. I had to find out from your mother when I called her earlier today" she finished and the first wave of tears fell down my cheeks.
"Oh um yeah its... its hard to believe" I said trying to control my voice so that she could actually understand what I was saying.
"I know that I am probably the last person you want to hear from" she said sounding a little sad "but I have always thought of you as a daughter and I hope that what Mike has done wont ruin that" I thought about it for a while not sure what to say. She sounded so hopeful when she asked me and I felt my heart breaking. Could I still be close to her and not Mike. Yes, I could. I wasn't going to give up a relationship with a woman that I genuinely loved spending time with just because he couldn't keep it in his pants.
"Mrs newton.."
"Amy" she cut me off and a small smile graced my face, she was always correcting me
"Amy. Although your son has ruined our relationship that doesn't mean we have to be on bad terms" I never knew older people could squeal so loud but she proved me wrong.
"Oh thats wonderful. Perhaps we could get coffee soon and talk face to face about everything. I know its hard but I would like to know what happened since i'm not talking to my son at the moment" she sounded so happy that I couldn't help but smile at her even though she couldn't actually see it.
"Actually I'm out of town at the moment but when I get back I'll give you a call" I said and hoped she didn't think I was just making excuses for not seeing her
"Thats perfect dear but please don't be a stranger" she said, no indication that she didn't believe what I was saying.
"I wont I promise"
"Good, I have to be on my way now but it was so good to speak to you sweetie" she said and after I said goodbye and with one last promise of calling her every once in a while we hung up and I took a minute before going back to my friends who were laughing at something Emmet had probably said.
"Are you ok" Alice asked when I flopped down on the couch next to her, I nodded my head and took a deep breath "who was on the phone"
"Mike's mom"
"Amy?" Alice asked, more comfortable with using her first name than I was. "what did she want"
"She wanted to see how I was doing and to tell me that her son is an idiot and that she wants to have coffee as soon as I get back into town" I said and Alice and Rose giggled while Emmet rolled his eyes and Jasper looked confused.
"That woman obviously adores you. What did you tell her" Rose asked
"I said I would call her and set a date and then promised to keep in contact until then" I smiled at Rose when she laughed again and Jasper lent forward to look at me.
"Let me get this right you cancel your wedding with her son and she wants to set up a coffee date" he asked looking even more confused the before.
"Please, if that woman had a chance she would exchange Mike for Bella in a heart beat and that was before he cheated on her" I laughed at that because it was most probably true, Amy liked to joke that I was the only thing Mike had done right in his life and now that I was no longer in his life he would go back to being a disappointment in her eyes. It was a harsh thought but a true one.
"I'm pretty sure she would exchange all her children for Bella" Emmet added in and Rose agreed with him.
"I wouldn't go that far" I looked at him but he just shrugged his shoulder's and smiled. "maybe not Maggie" I said earning a laugh from Alice. Maggie was the youngest of three and was a little angle, a musical protégé not to mention smart and i'm pretty sure when she was older she would be leaving behind a string of broken hearts.
"That little girl is going places" Rose said and then yawned. She looked tired and was probably feeling it as well, it had after all been a long day for all of us and I was also pretty tired myself.
"I think its time we all hit the hay" Jasper said and I looked at him with a raised brow.
"Hit the hay"
"You can blame peter for that" he smiled and then got up and stretched. "Well ill see you guys in the morning then" he said and then headed for the stairs and the rest of us followed behind, we said goodnight and went into our respective rooms. I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.