A/N: I'm a terrible person for keeping this from you for so long…I doubt anyone still cares what's going on in this little story of mine. Inspiration was gone for a long, long time, but I think that the onset of Halloween in the real world helped me figure it out. So, after much toiling, here's Chapter 13…
Chapter 13: Halloween is Scary Again
I was pacing in my room. The girls, along with Emmett and Jasper were setting up in the living room for the party. I couldn't get my mind off the fact that right now, Edward and Tanya were off on a date somewhere. "Why did she get to go on a date with him?" I muttered to myself as I dug a hole in the carpet as I passed my bed back and forth. "Edward wants ME to be his girlfriend, not her! It's not fair!" I sounded like a five-year-old, but I didn't care. Edward made me crazy. In a good way, though. In the, I want you all to myself way. Not the, I can see the little green men racing me on the sidewalk way.
"Bellisima!" Emmett bellowed his nickname for me. "Come out here! I won't have my favorite girl in the world hiding away on Halloween!" Then a thud. "Ouch! Rosie, you know what I meant!"
"Thanks, but I'd rather suffer in silence." The pacing continued.
"I will NOT let my idiot brother's problems ruin your day or my party. Now get out here!" Alice sounded terrifying in that moment, but I held out. All of a sudden, I heard booming footsteps and my door fly open. Damn my lack of foresight for not locking the door. In one fell swoop, Emmett had me thrown over his shoulder and carried me out to the couch and dropped me onto the cushions.
"Ow!" My head hit the arm of the couch, which was not as soft as one might expect, "Emmett, was that necessary?"
"Sorry, Bells, but I would punt Tanya over a fence if it meant that she ruined your day. And I'll do the same to you if you let her! Argh, I can't stand her!"
"The whole 'obsessed with Edward' thing kind of freaks him out," Rosalie explained. "Frankly, I don't know why he still likes you, Bella." She gave a wicked smile, and I threw a pillow at her.
For the first time since I got back from my afternoon class, when the living room was a disarray of lights, centerpieces, and costume pieces, I looked around the apartment. Orange and white rope lights hung from the ceiling in scalloped patterns. On the wall was a giant spider web with a glittery black spider placed slightly off-centered. Two blacklights were on opposite walls, off for now, but clearly would be turned on later in the night. There were bags of black and orange Solo cups on the clothed table, ready to serve the beer housed in the keg taking up residence in our kitchen. I was amazed at what Alice had done in such a short period of time, although I shouldn't have been. She was currently perched on the dining room chair, a knife digging into a pumpkin, carefully carving out a skull design that she no doubt got off a Martha Stewart website or something.
"Alice, this place looks amazing," I said, still in awe of my surroundings.
"Yeah, don't worry, we couldn't have used your help or anything," Rose chided.
"Sorry guys, I feel really bad. I wish I helped out now. Can we take pictures of this before the college party undoubtedly runs its course and ruins it?"
"Not until you change into this," Alice thrust a garment bag at me, with what I knew was going to be some tiny costume that would make me uncomfortable all night, and have Mike trying to get me to show him my room. I warily unzipped the bag, but my expression changed the instant I took in the outfit. I had thrown $50 at Alice about 2 weeks before and told her to pick out any Halloween costume she wanted. She chose for me an Elvis costume. It was still pretty sexy, a studded jumpsuit with a plunging neckline almost down to my bellybutton. Crisscrossing over the neckline, a string was laced up. The jumpsuit itself was sleeveless, but came with a jacket. The whole thing had rhinestones and jewels everywhere. In a separate bag were gold pumps and gold-framed sunglasses. It was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for a better college Halloween debut. I turned around to hug Alice.
"It's perfect! I love it!" I exclaimed.
"Knew you would," was all she said with a smile.
Rosalie turned to Emmett, "Babe, it's already 9:00. You guys should probably go get showered and changed so you can some back and we can pregame a little bit before people get here."
"Okay Rosie," I felt like Rose was going to have the sexiest costume alive with the way that he eyed her up and down as she told him the plan.
"Oh my God, it's 9?" I suddenly remembered Jacob and the Rez boys. They were supposed to be here like 2 hours ago. "Jacob's not here yet. They should have made it by now. I need to call him." I pulled my phone out of my pocket, found him in my contacts, and hit send. Jacob answered on the second ring.
"Guys shut up I can't hear! Ouch! Quil turn down the music, I can't hear! Oh, Hey Bells, what's up?"
"Where are you guys?" I asked, still not sure how I should be feeling; it sounded like everything was fine.
"Oh we're like 20 minutes out." Just like a boy to be vague and give no explanation as to why they were late.
"I was just expecting you guys earlier."
"Yeah, well we got a flat and then hit some traffic. It's all good though."
"All right, well I'll see you soon. Oh! Did you get the part for my car? Rose was asking about it earlier."
"Yup. The carb's in the back. See you in a few!"
"Bye, Jake."
"Bye."
Whew! One crisis averted. The Rez boys were safe and sound…if only until the drinking binge began. I made my way into my bedroom and changed into the costume, which fit like a glove. Alice called me into the bathroom and I knew that it was time for hair and makeup. I was getting too used to this treatment—I'll have to become an actress so I can keep living the high life.
"Bella, I want to talk to you a little bit about Edward," Alice started.
"Did he call you or something? Is he on his way back yet?" I wanted to vomit almost as soon as I responded. I was really starting to sound insane—something that needed to be remedied. Edward was amazing, that was to be sure, but I didn't want to be the girl that was dependent on a man. I had never really bothered with relationships before. That was mostly because school and trying to get away for college was the most important thing to me, but also I've always been pretty independent. Constantly thinking about Edward couldn't be good for me.
"Well that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. I mean, he's my brother, and I love you to death, so naturally I would love nothing more than to see you together…" she paused, trying to figure out how to form her next thought, "But don't you think that your feelings are developing kind of fast? You guys really haven't known each other long. I just don't want to see either of you miss out because you're so obsessed with each other." She giggled a little bit at the way she ended her speech.
I couldn't help but find hypocrisy in her words, as much as I agreed with the core of what she was saying. "Wait, you're the one telling me this? Didn't you just kind of, set your sights on Jasper and decide that you were soul mates? And weren't you the one telling me how Edward was completely in love with me the day I met him?"
"Firstly, I was just noting how Edward was completely infatuated with you the second he laid eyes on you. I didn't expect it to get so serious so quickly. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that my brother can be really intense. I would hate it if you two ended up rejecting the outside world in order to live in your own.
"And secondly," she continued before I could interject, "I don't know what Edward told you about Jasper and me, but we didn't just jump into being in love at 15. I mean, yeah, we have been pretty inseparable since, but we have a good balance: we know how to take time for ourselves. That's why Jasper's with his friend Peter right now, and not hovering here."
"You're right. I don't know what it is, but I just get a little nuts when it comes to your brother. I do need to tone it down though…if for nothing but stopping myself from coming on too strong."
"Honey, that ship has already sailed. Luckily for you, you're both crazy-infatuated." We both chuckled a bit and as she finished getting me ready we changed the subject to more light-hearted conversation.
After all of us were in costume: Alice as Tinkerbelle with Jasper as Peter Pan, Rosalie as Hugh Hefner—clad in pretty much just a mid-thigh length silk robe and some heels and Emmett as a giant rabbit, or "bunny," we took pictures of ourselves and the "before" pictures of the party. We set up the beer pong table and played a couple games before people started to show up. Surprisingly, I'd become pretty decent; a far cry from where I was at the beginning of the year.
Before I knew it the party was in full swing and I had almost completely forgotten about Edward. Jake and the Rez boys were taking full advantage of the "inexperienced high schooler" routine on the beer pong table and were currently running the show. I got tons of compliments on my costume, and there were upperclassmen that I was introduced to. I was a huge fan of Jasper's friend Peter and his girlfriend, Charlotte. They were seniors, Peter from Atlanta and Charlotte a San Diego native. They initially bonded over their love for travel, and through their four years together managed to go to London, Mexico, Costa Rica and were planning a trip to Brazil over Spring Break.
"Costa Rica is the most amazing place in the world, Bella" Charlotte was telling me. "We met so many cool people there and while we were in Santa Theresa we met a restaurant owner who closes his restaurant every day just to go surfing for like 2 hours."
"Wow, really?" I was so intrigued. Traveling has always been something I want to devote a good amount of my life to. "That sounds so cool. I definitely want to go to Costa Rica eventually."
"Bella," Alice pulled me out of the conversation, "we need you." She was really serious and I knew something was wrong. In that instant, I realized that Edward still wasn't at the party.
"Is everything okay?" I barely got the words out as concern choked my throat.
"Tanya's not taking things well. Apparently Edward decided that it was a good time to 'break up' with her again. She threw a fit in the restaurant and drove off. Unfortunately, now we can't find her, Edward feels like shit and is going crazy trying to find out if she's okay, and Rose and Emmett are so wasted they've already passed out. Jazzy and I have been trying to figure this out on our own, but we're not doing so well."
"Okay, so let's try to figure this out. Where's Edward?" I tried my best to remain calm. We have a missing girl who should probably be on suicide watch, a passed out drunk roommate and the biggest Halloween party on campus raging in our apartment. Awesome.
"He's driving around trying to call her and find her."
I didn't understand why I felt this responsibility to this girl who was really nothing to me except a hindrance to my happiness. Half of me wanted to say screw it, she's gone and not our problem anymore, but the other half knew that we couldn't just forget about it. She clearly was in a vulnerable state and needed help from someone.
"Okay, well he's probably not going to find her. I'll call him and tell him to go back to the apartment. We'll try to work stuff out there. Jake will hold down our apartment and Angela will definitely help. I'm sure Peter and Charlotte will look out too. There's no sense in ruining everyone's night by sending them all home now." I really hoped that we could find her and get her calmed down.
"That sounds good. Ugh I could KILL Rosalie and Emmett right now. She would probably answer Emmett's phone call. She really looked up to him like an older brother because he was really protective of her in high school."
"Alice, you're a genius!" I exclaimed as I was pulling Edward up in my recent contacts. "Go grab Emmett's phone out of Rose's room and call Tanya from there. Hopefully she'll pick up and you can at least figure out where she is."
"Oh! What a great idea, Bell!" She ran off to go fish through Emmett's bunny costume for his phone.
I only had to wait one ring for Edward to pick up. "Bella, are you okay? I'm sorry I'm not at the party. A lot has gone down in the last few hours."
"I'm fine, and I heard. I don't want you driving while you're so frantic right now though, so come back to campus and we'll set up an Operation: Tanya Control Center in your living room. We have a plan that I'm really hoping will work." I figured I would explain everything later, and hopefully we will have found Tanya by the time he got home.
"Okay, I trust you. I'm not far. I'll meet you there in about 15."
"Be safe."
"I will." And with that we hung up. I went to find Alice who was furiously banging on our bedroom door.
"The door's locked. And they're definitely asleep. I've tried calling both of them…nothing."
"Shit." I couldn't even figure out what else to say, let alone formulate a new plan without Emmett's invaluable cell. I shook my head trying to collect my thoughts. "Okay. Let me figure this out." I was coming up blank though. A giant string of profanities coursed through my brain. I just wanted this girl out of my life, not to try and rescue her off the streets.
I had all but given up hope when I heard a bear yawn from behind the door. I slammed my palms as hard as I could against the door. "Emmett! Open this god-damned door!" After a minute of shuffling, a half bunny-clad Emmett cracked the door open.
"We need your phone and then you can go back to sleep." Alice said quickly, holding her small hand out.
I walked away, looking for Jacob, Quil, and Embry. They had since been thrown off the beer pong table, but were still nearby getting into the game in front of them.
"Jacob," I rushed over to him, "can you hold down the apartment for a while? We need to go handle something." He immediately sensed the worry in my voice.
"What's going on? And of course I'll watch over everything." In that moment, he looked 10 years my senior, instead of the kid that was still in high school. I quickly told him what was going on and that I would explain fully later. I could tell that this was exactly the kind of thing he was worrying about with Edward. "He had a girlfriend all this time?" The stern look almost scared me.
"No, Jake. I really can't go into all the details right now, but I promise I'll explain tomorrow." Alice was waving at me to get going, "I really have to go. If you need anything, talk to Angela or Peter. Tell them we had to take care of some stuff and all of you are in charge in our absence. Hopefully I'll be back soon." I reached up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
He grabbed me by the waist, "Please be careful, Bells."
I hurried out the door with Alice and Jasper. She was dialing Tanya's number with little success. We practically sprinted into the boys' apartment, a mix of adrenaline and the chilly October air. Tanya's phone was still ringing, which we knew to be positive, because that meant that she hadn't turned it off. I made some coffee all of us. As sobering as the situation was, I figured it couldn't hurt to be perfectly clear-minded. Just as I was emerging from Edward's room to grab the mug I knew was always in there (I had finally convinced them to keep 3 in the kitchen, but Edward always had one by his bed), he walked through the door.
"So what's this plan you have?" He looked too serious. It wasn't my joking, carefree Edward anymore.
"It's gone to shit. We figured Tanya might answer Emmett's call. Of course, he's passed out drunk so we got his phone and Alice has been calling. But she's not answering, so it's not really working out. Isn't there anyone who she'll listen to?" I really just wanted to find this girl and get her out of my hair. As heartless as it sounded, I hated that she was ruining my Halloween.
Edward grabbed my hand and led me to the couch. "Sit. Relax. This shouldn't even be your problem, Bella. I'm so sorry."
"I hate when you apologize for everything all the time. If I didn't want to help my friends, I would've stayed at my party." I was crazy about Edward, but it really irritated me when he tried to take responsibility for everything.
He went into the kitchen and poured the coffee, handing it first to Alice and me then Jasper who up till now I had forgotten was in the room; he was silently massaging Alice's shoulders as she was visibly stressed. As Edward sat down next to me, I instinctively curled into his side even if I was a little bit mad at him. Alice turned the TV on and sighed, saying, "Well, what are we gonna do now?"
"I definitely don't want to talk to her mom. All it will do is worry her." Edward responded.
"Yeah," I interjected, "but maybe she'll answer her mom's call. Or maybe she's already called her mom. I know if I was upset that would be the first person I'd call."
"Bella has a good point, Edward. You're right though, her mom wouldn't be able to stay rational long enough to help us out." I could see the wheels turning in Alice's head, looking for another option. I had started to give up on being helpful. My mind was wandering, although it was still Tanya-centered. I mused on the weird buildup to my actual first meeting with Tanya, to the breakdown I witnessed in this very living room, to Edward's telling of her sad, sad story. I found it hard to believe that the only people who would look out for her well-being were in this room, or asleep in the apartment.
"Kate." It was the first word Jasper had said since everything had gone down. At first I was confused, but suddenly it made sense to me. Edward had told me that Kate was Tanya's sister. Why had no one thought about this earlier?
"Emmett doesn't have Kate's number in his phone," Alice said as she was scrolling through his contacts.
"Does he have Garrett's?" Jasper asked. Suddenly it was like the two of them were the only ones in the room. Even though they were just trying to get a hold of Tanya, it seemed like in the midst of it they were having a private moment. They locked eyes and were having a wordless conversation, about what I would never know. Alice broke only to look at Emmett's contacts long enough to find Garrett's number and dial it. Since they seemed to be handling that, I focused my attention on Edward.
"How are you doing?" I asked him. He looked slightly more serene now than he did upon first walking in, but he definitely wasn't calmed down yet.
"I'm fine," he sighed out.
"Don't lie to me." I knew exactly what he was trying to do. "Cut the 'I don't want to worry you with my problems' crap. You said you wanted me to be your girlfriend, right? This is what girlfriends do. Deal with it." I felt bold, bolder than I ever had. Maybe Alice was getting me out of my shell and making me confident. Damn, I wonder when she'll figure out she was right.
"Fine. I'm pissed off. I'm mad at Tanya for running off, I'm mad at her dad for making her like this, I'm mad that I didn't end things with her more finally before, and I'm mad at myself for everything that's happening right now," Edward exhaled all in one breath.
"Was that so hard?" I teased, poking him in the side.
"You have no idea."
"So what was it that made you decide to 'break up' with Tanya for good this time?" I emphasized with air quotes. After everything I'd heard today, this was really the one thing that made the least sense to me.
"Oh I don't know. It just seemed like a good idea. In hindsight, I guess it wasn't." He looked around the room for a minute, but at what I wasn't sure. Maybe he was just thinking. He continued, "I mean, I was tired of this charade, and I thought that being blunt would be the best approach. And like you said," he flashed me a small smile, "I want you to be my girlfriend." Edward laced his fingers through mine and brought our hands up to his lips, kissing the back of mine. In that moment, I forgot all about Tanya and the search, the party back at our apartment, and even that I still looked like Elvis. Nothing mattered to me except what was going on in that instant. In all the chaos that surrounded us, I felt completely safe. As if life knew that things were too perfect, I heard our names being shouted from across the room.
"Bella, Edward, let's go. We got her. She's not far, although I guess she decided that driving back across the state was a good idea right now." Jasper looked completely exasperated as he told us this. I could tell that he wanted to be anywhere but here right now, but wouldn't bail on Edward or Alice.
"You should stay," Edward said to me. Before I could protest, he went on, "Even though I want you to come, I think that it would just make the situation that much worse. I promise that we'll keep you updated."
"Okay." I knew that I would be arguing a moot point. As much as I wanted to be there, there was no way that my presence would help calm Tanya down—in fact I was sure just the opposite would happen.
"My car's on the street," Edward directed his attention toward the other two people in the room. Turning back to me he said, "Let's go. I'm still going to walk you to your door," and kissed me on the cheek with a smile.
We quickly made our way back to my apartment door and he pulled me into him kissing me as our bodies almost melted together. "Be safe." I half-whispered to him.
"I'll try to be back soon," he said, squeezing my hand before he rushed off to catch up with Alice and Jasper. He looked back over his shoulder, "Try to have a good time without me!"
"Well that'll be easy," I retorted. But in my head, this night had been too much of a mess for me to go back into the party like everything was fine. I turned the knob and went in to find Jacob.
"Oh good, you're back," Angela hugged me excitedly. I could tell that she was pretty drunk, but the good thing about Ange was that even when she got drunk she was still pretty level-headed, just slightly more enthusiastic. It seemed like everything was going well. I ran into Peter who told me that there was a little incident with a couple guys getting rowdy, but he and the Rez boys booted them quickly. With nothing else for him to report, I decided that getting my buzz back might not be a terrible idea. I figured that Edward wouldn't really be texting me while they were with Tanya, so something should occupy my time. It might as well be booze and good company.
As I made my way over to the keg, I heard someone yell, "Keg's empty!" Well, shit. I guess there goes that plan. What time was it? I checked and realized that it was already 1:30. I guess with all the drinking games and people going in and out, it wasn't that big of a surprise. Well, at least good company was still on the list. I looked over heads to find Jacob. Sure enough he was leaning against a wall with Embry and Quil, who had a bunch of girls fawning all over them. They looked like they were in heaven.
"Don't make me tell Jen what's going on here," I joked, making my way through the gaggle of my classmates.
Jake wrapped his arms around me, "Nah, you're the only girl who could steal me away." I could tell that he was wasted. I was just glad that he was being all lovey-dovey to me while my best friend/his pseudo-girlfriend was in Arizona. It would have been the cherry on top of a crappy night to see him flirting with other girls; even though I knew he would never do anything with them.
"Bella, why do you sound so sober?" Embry asked me, sounding eerily innocent.
"Because I am. I haven't been at the party for like, an hour and a half. Thanks for noticing." As soon as my words registered, Embry had me thrown over his shoulder, parading me through the party.
"My dear friend Bella is sober in her own apartment! We need to fix this immediately!" he shouted to anyone that would listen, and even those who wouldn't. As he set me down near the kitchen, Peter walked over to me.
"I'm gonna collect some money and then do a beer run," he told me.
"Cool. How much do you want?" I responded.
"Oh. No, you don't have to pay. Everyone drank the beer that you pitched in on. This one's on us."
"Thanks."
"No prob. See ya soon."
Peter left to go hit up party guests for money, and I hopped onto the kitchen counter to hang out for a minute. My cell phone buzzed in the gold clutch sitting next to me on the counter.
She's in a rest stop off the freeway. I feel like I'm in a scary movie right now. –E
I answered him right away:
Creepy. Please be careful. Text me when you get a chance.
Will do. By the way, I never got to tell you…you're the sexiest Elvis I've ever seen.
Stop it…I'm going to blush.
Oh shit. Things aren't good. I'll text you later.
A/N: I know, I suck for waiting months to post and then leaving you with a cliffhanger. But I promise that I'm actively working on this story again. So if you haven't given up on me completely yet, thank you and I hope you like where I'm headed. Please let me know what you think!