I got into my car and made my way back to Charlie's. I knew Charlie was at his place now by his thoughts, but I parked my car normally anyway. Alice remained in there as well because it seems Charlie was more than willing to allow this. I figured Alice could take my car home for me anyway, since as far as I could tell, Charlie doesn't pay much attention to the little details. I got out of my car and turned my direction behind me. "I see you found out who killed that hiker." I said with an angry tone. "Yeah we did. Where is she?" Jacob asked slightly demanding. "She is no longer here in forks. She's focused her attention elsewhere." I admitted. Jacob grunted and turned back into the forest to alarm his pack. I didn't care too much about him, so I just made my way to Bella's window. Alice had apparently caught my intentions as she already had Bella in the room waiting on the bed. Alice waved to me and Bella turned her attention at me in response. I sighed and opened the window casually as I entered. Alice lifted Bella up at the same time as she got up herself.
"Bella and I have some things to discuss." I admitted gesturing Alice to leave.
"Oh sure." Alice said letting go of Bella and proceeded towards Bella's room door, since Charlie had to see her leave. "Alice?" Bella called. "Yes?" Alice said turning her attention to Bella. "Thanks for staying." Bella said with a smile. "No problem." Alice returned the smile and then glanced at me. I smiled at Alice for her efforts as well then she finally left the room to climb downstairs and exit normally. I shut the window and turned my attention to Bella. "We should sit down." I said gesturing to the side of Bella's bed. She nodded in agreement as we both sat down next to each other facing towards her room door. I sighed not looking directly at Bella for a moment.
"What's wrong?" Bella asked in confusion.
I turned towards her and stared at her face. I tried to analyze her expression before asking my question. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked curious to see if her decision has changed. "There's nothing you can do to stop me." She responded already aware of what I was asking. I looked down as I rubbed my forehead slightly. I turned my attention back to Bella with no expression. "There's something I want to ask before your death comes about." I noted. "Don't refer to it like that!" She hissed trying her best not to alarm Charlie downstairs. "I want you to do something for me." I said ignoring her response. "And that would be?" She said still slightly irritated by my last response. "I want you to marry me first." I said wasting no time. "What?" She said alarmed by my forwardness. I smiled at her varying facial expressions as I waited for her to come up with another response.
"Are you serious?" She asked looking directly at me with cautious eyes.
"I couldn't be more." I responded. "Do you have any idea on how you would pull off such a thing? You're impossible!" She hissed still compressed for Charlie's sake. "Carlisle knows how to handle things for us. Should you agree to this, of course." I said with a reassuring tone. "I need some time to think about this…" She responded. "It didn't take you long to condemn yourself to an eternity of being one of us, but marriage gets you thinking?" I said confused. "It's my mom. She's pretty strict about marriages at a young age." She answered. "And why would that be?" I asked curious. "She told me that young couples that get married are twice as likely to divorce later on down the line." She responded confidently. "This isn't just some ordinary marriage, you know. I think we can be the exception." I said smiling. "You're not going to stop until you get an answer. Are you?" She said slightly annoyed. "Nope." I responded still smiling. "Can I just have a few seconds to think about it while you're here?" She asked. "Sure. I wouldn't want you to feel rushed." I said with slight laughter. Bella smiled at my response because she did feel rushed. "All right then. What's the verdict?" I said after a few seconds.
"… Yes." She responded with a cautious look.
I grabbed Bella's hands as she looked in my eyes. I moved close to her face and slightly smiled. "You know this won't change things between us. We'll still be the same as we are right now." I said letting go of her hands. I placed my hands on both sides of her face and waited for her response. "I know. I want you to be happy too…" She whispered as she kissed me. We broke away slowly. "I think it's time you went to sleep now." I urged lightly. "…What?" She responded a little dazed.
"Oh, right." She said laughing a little.
The night seemed to have flown by quickly as Bella slept quietly in her bed next to me. The sun started to rise into the clouds as Bella yawned and awoke herself to peek at the window. She stretched out her arms and hugged me for a moment. I knew she didn't like talking in the morning, so I just smiled. She broke away from me slowly and made her way to her closet. I sat up from her bed as she gathered her clothes and headed to the bathroom. I stood up and looked out the window. It seemed Charlie was on top of things as he planned to discuss colleges with Bella as soon as she was at the breakfast table. I sighed and ignored this fact, but there was nothing I could do to warn Bella of the coming annoyance of applying for Colleges at the moment. Charlie's footsteps made their way downstairs as Bella was still preparing herself for the day. I heard the water shut off and turned my attention from the window to Bella's room door. She opened her room door shortly after the water shut off and entered the room with towel dried hair.
"Colleges." I said blankly.
"Oh no! I forgot about that!" Bella said with condensed alarm. "It's fine. Charlie's on top of it. He wants to discuss it with you when you eat breakfast, actually." I alerted her. "This will be fun." She sighed. "Do you want me to attend? I can magically show up at your front door." I said trying to ease the annoyance. "I would prefer it." She responded with a slight smile. "He's waiting. And it appears he's mastered making a meal." I joked. "Oh? What kind?" She asked curious.
"It's bowls for cereal. He's got one for himself and one for you." I laughed lightly.
"I guess I have to humor him." She responded with a blank face. "It'll help things move along." I assured her. "Here we go." She said turning around to leave her room. I was already at the front door knocking before she left her room. "I got it!" Bella said loudly while climbing down the stairs. She opened the door and greeted me with an anxious smile. "I hope I'm not intruding." I said with a smile. "That damn kid has annoying timing." Charlie said to himself. "Not at all. Come in. Are you hungry?" Bella said inviting me in with a smile. We both made our way to the kitchen to see Charlie sitting there with the newspaper covering his face. The two bowls rested on the table for Bella and Charlie. "Oh, hey dad." Bella said trying to mask the fact of her knowing he was there.
"Hey, Bells." He responded lifting the paper down while flicking his eyes to my direction in one quick motion.
Bella looked at the table and acknowledged the milk, cereal, bowls, and spoons silently. "Is this bowl mine?" She asked Charlie. "Oh, right." Charlie responded folding up the paper and placing it next to his bowl on the table. Before Bella reached for her bowl, Charlie stood up from his chair and grabbed the cereal and milk from the table. Bella looked confused, but I knew what he was doing. "I didn't know there would be company. I can't expect Edward here to eat cereal too. Maybe you can make us something more suitable?" Charlie asked Bella while quick glancing at me again. "Oh… sure." She responded. Charlie put the items away and put his focus on the empty dishes. Bella grabbed them and handed them to Charlie. "Thanks." He responded to the gesture. As he placed the items back where he got them from, he turned his attention to me. "Edward, do you already have a college lined up." He asked breaking in the topic between Bella and him. "No, sir. But Carlisle is helping me locate one." I said lying about the fact. "Then maybe you can help Bells find one too. I'm sure Carlisle knows some nice colleges based on his level of education." Charlie admitted with slight appreciation for my association with Carlisle. It seemed he was relieved about not having to discuss this with Bella directly.
"I'm sure he can work something out, sir." I answered.
"Great. I'll be in the living room." He said hinting at Bella to cook. Bella and I went quiet for the time taken to cook the meal. She avoided making me something and I appreciated that. She got the servings out to Charlie and came back to where I waited. I walked myself to the table where Charlie once sat and smiled in Bella's direction. She returned the smile before turning around to prepare her plate of food. She walked herself to her table and sat down. "Thanks for helping me avoid that awkward conversation over a bowl of cereal." She said smiling at me. "Don't thank me. Thank Carlisle." I laughed a little. "He will help me find a college, right? So I can get my dad off my back?" She asked concerned. "Of course he will. Or he can fabricate a college for you if you just want to do that thing." I said lightly to avoid Charlie's ears. "We'll figure that out later." She said quietly. Bella finished her meal and we made our way outside of Charlie's house. We had a lot of obstacles to face. Taking in everything we had to do, it made everything else that happened in the past look easier for us. However this new road shapes up, we'll still find a way to stay on it. We have to.