A/N: I forgot all of this last time...Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, I am just playing with her creations a little bit, no harm, no foul!
I'm hoping to update this every Friday, but it may be more frequently, it all depends on how things are going in real life since my hubs and kids insist on things like clean clothing and hot meals...*wink*
Hope you are still enjoying this and things will be come more difficult very very soon!
Chapter 2
I continued the files once I returned to school, using that time to primarily document my past with Bella, such as it was. I didn't write every day, whenever I got the chance. I hoped that by getting it down on paper and out of my head, I could be more objective, maybe even move on.
I took Tanya out on a couple of dates the beginning of the spring semester and our relationship slowly started to grow. It was different than anything else I had ever experienced, and seeing as how I hadn't experienced much up to that point, that wasn't difficult to achieve. We moved slow, I had no desire to rush things, especially since Tanya had no clue about Bella and how I was working on purging myself of her. There were times I felt like I was cheating on Bella with Tanya, but that was stupid. You have to have a real relationship to cheat on someone. If anything, it was the other way around, but I was working on it.
I planned to stay on campus for Spring Break, crank out a couple of papers while the dorms were quiet, but Emmett had other plans.
"Come stay at U Dub with me for Spring Break," he begged. Emmett didn't beg for attention, he didn't need to, so I wondered what his actual reason for dragging me to his college was about.
"I really need to work on these papers," I argued weakly.
"Ed, man, that is no way to spend Spring Break. Come to Seattle, I'll introduce you around, the girls here don't know you, Sir Dork-A-Lot," Emmett teased. "Maybe you'll get laid."
I rolled my eyes, wishing Emmett was there to at least see my expression. "I have a girl here, remember?"
"Yeah? When did you two make it official?" Emmett knew about Tanya from Mom, I certainly hadn't told him, but he always asked about her in his emails to me.
"Uh, well," I hesitated and Emmett laughed.
"No commitment means Eddie can come and play. Come on, don't make me pull out the big guns."
"Fine Em, I'll come and visit U Dub, but you are playing for my flight," I agreed reluctantly.
"Awesome!" Emmett yelled. "You and I are gonna have a blast bro! And I didn't even have to tell you that Bella is single to make it happen."
"I am over Bella, I've told you that," I reminded him.
"Uh huh, sure Eddie, sure. We'll see," Em said in a voice that told me he didn't believe me.
"I'll book my flight and you pay me back, got it?" I told him and once he agreed, I hung up. I closed my eyes and shook my head, wondering what I was getting myself into agreeing to spend a week with Emmett at the University of Washington.
The next couple of weeks flew by between classes and trying to get the papers done I had originally planned to work on over the break. Tanya and I saw each other for coffee or for study dates, but that was about it. I was even neglecting the Bella files, too caught up in something other than her for a change. Before I knew it, Tanya was dropping me off at the airport, giving me a soft kiss goodbye and waving to me as I walked through security on my way to Seattle. She hadn't kissed me up to that point and it had felt nice. Nothing like the kisses Bella and I had exchanged on New Year's Eve, but then again, I hadn't expected that. That had been all drunken passion, while this was nice, something to build upon.
Emmett met me at the airport, grabbing my bag and leading the way to the waiting car. I climbed in the back, saying hello to Rosalie, who was perched in the driver's seat and the three of us headed toward campus. Em and I discussed my flight, then the car grew silent and the silence was awkward.
"Edward, look, you need to stay away from Bella this week," Rosalie started.
I looked at her in the rear view mirror and shook my head in surprise. "You make it sound like I'm going to assault her or something the moment I get there."
"She's just got a lot going on right now and she doesn't need to have to fend you off, okay?" Rose snapped.
"Fine Rose, whatever," I grumbled, not really knowing why she was warning me. I knew she had to know about Tanya. If Emmett knew, he would have told Rose. "Tanya kissed me when she dropped me off," I blurted out, wanting to get the conversation off Bella and remind Rose that I had moved on.
Em turned around and grinned at me, holding out his fist for me to bump. "Was there tongue?" Emmett asked and I rolled my eyes in disgust.
"No comment," I replied, causing Em to laugh again.
"You totally should have been a girl Eddie," Emmett announced, not for the first time. Just because I wasn't testosterone city like he was, he had been saying all our lives that the doctor got it wrong and I should have been named Edwina.
Em peppered me with questions about Tanya for the rest of the drive to campus and once we reached his dorm, Rose left us to go to her own, promising to come over later. We walked up to the room Emmett shared with two other guys and with manly head nods of greeting, I was brought into the fold. Emmett shoved a beer in my hand, tossed my bag in a corner and flopped down on a bean bag chair to watch his roommates battle head to head in a video game. I sat down on the corner of his bed and watched the action.
"So, Ed, you go to school out East?" One of the guys asked, not looking away from the screen.
"Yeah, Dartmouth, in New Hampshire," I clarified when I saw a look of confusion cross his face.
"Why would you go all the way out there? Got a thing for uptight pussy?" The other one asked with a laugh.
I choked on the mouthful of beer I had and all three guys started laughing at me. "Easy there tiger, don't want to have to call Mom and tell her I broke you on the first day," Em said with a smirk.
I flipped him off, took a deep breath and shook my head to clear it from the coughing fit.
"Ed's got a thing for being his own person," Emmett explained. "It's tough being my twin ya know."
"Yeah, I would move half way around the world if he was my brother too," the first guy said, earning him a punch on the shoulder from Emmett. "But seriously, how is the pussy man?"
I shrugged and thought about how to answer that. I couldn't tell them that I had yet to sample the wares of the East Coast girls so I decided to be non-committal.
"They are bundled up all the time, kinda hard to admire for 9 months of the year," I told them.
The second guy nodded. "I told you guys, but once the sun comes out, so do the bikinis," he said with a laugh. He saw my blank look and explained further. "I'm from Vermont and yeah, the winter parkas are hell on girl watching, not that Seattle is much better, but I got a scholarship here."
We continued to talk for a while and I slowly relaxed around Em's roommates. The guy from Vermont was named Jerry, while the other guy was Tom, making Emmett snicker about living with cartoon characters once he was buzzing some. Pizza was ordered and before I knew it, they were shoving me out the door, declaring we needed to make an appearance at a party off campus. We joked and laughed as we walked from the dorms to the house right on the edge of campus where the party was being held. Em told me it was one of the football houses, which all three of them were on the team, and it wasn't really a party, seeing as how they technically had class the next day. Once we were in the house and a red cup of warm beer was pressed into my hand, Em ran off to find Rose, Tom and Jerry disappeared, which left me to wander. I really didn't know anyone and for the most part, no one came over to introduce themselves. I wasn't the kind for social situations, that was definitely Em but I liked to people watch and I got plenty of that at this party.
"I don't know you," I heard a voice say behind me. "But your hair is fucking awesome." I turned and found a small blonde girl staring at me, her head tilted to the side. Once she saw she had my attention, she moved forward and practically had me pinned against the wall. She looked me up and down and a feeling like I was being sized up for dinner ran through my mind. "I'm Jane, and you are related to Emmett Cullen, right?"
I nodded, wondering how she could know this. Em and I were twins, but only because we shared a birthday and really nothing else. We looked nothing alike, though Mom swore we had the same eyes, just different colors. Em was body builder large, thanks to football and blond, like our father, while I was lankier, again thanks to Dad, but had crazy brown hair with weird red pieces that I got from Mom. Jane continued to study me before closing the small distance that had remained between us and pulling my head down so my ear was level with her mouth.
"Wanna get out of here and you can show me if any part of you is the same as your brother?" She whispered, her tongue darting out of her mouth to lick my earlobe. It felt wet and weird, and all kinds of wrong. Before I could figure out a way to turn her down, I was saved by a familiar voice.
"Edward? Emmett's looking for you and sent me to find you," it said and I looked up to see Bella standing there, staring at Jane and I. Jane turned and glared at Bella, the hatred clear on her face. I managed to extract myself from Jane while she was distracted and quickly walked over to Bella's side. She gave me a small smile and kissed my cheek once I was next to her. I tried not to let my surprise show and when she wrapped her arm around my waist and led me away from a still glaring Jane, I decided to forget thinking and just enjoy the moment. Once we were out of Jane's sight though, Bella's arm dropped and I felt cooler than I had moments before.
"Sorry about that. Jane is a bitch and Em's stalker on campus. The only thing that scares her is Rosalie and by association, me," Bella explained. She took a drink from her red cup, grimaced and then gave me a grin. "Welcome to U Dub," she said once we reached Emmett and Rosalie.
"Oh good, you saved him," Rosalie said when she saw Bella and I approach.
"Yeah, it was close, she was all over him," Bella explained, which made Emmett shiver in response.
"She's weird, try to avoid her all week bro, if possible. She does live in the same dorm, so be on the lookout. I wouldn't put it past her to get all Fatal Attraction and shit, ya know?"
I shook my head and pointed my cup at Emmett. "I thought she had a thing for you, I should be fine."
Rosalie wrapped her arm through Emmett's and got a cold look on her face. "She knows better than to come anywhere near Emmett, but you, not so much. Just be careful, okay?"
I wondered at Rose's concern and mentally shrugged at it before answering. "Yeah, okay," I told them, earning me a hard slap on the back from my brother.
"How about we get out of here and head back to the dorms?" Emmett suggested. Rose agreed and grabbed Bella, leading her off, their heads bent together, talking low enough that they couldn't be overheard.
Emmett and I followed and I glanced around, looking for Tom and Jerry. I voiced this to Em and he shrugged and drained the beer remaining in his red cup. "They're big boys, they'll find a way back if they choose to."
We followed behind Rose and Bella be a couple of steps and they talked quietly between the two of them the entire way. There was tension between them, easy for me to pick up on and I poked Em in the ribs and nodded toward them.
"Are they okay?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah, just goes back to Rose's warning in the car, okay?" Emmett said and I nodded. Right, Rose's warning to leave Bella alone this week. Not a problem, I could do that, I had been doing that for years now. I could manage another week, right?
We reached the girls' dorm and while Rose and Emmett said a passionate goodbye, I did my best not to watch. I happened to see Bella doing the same and I gave her a small smile, which she hesitantly returned.
"They are always like that," she explained. "It's worse when you come back from class and can't get into your room because you are afraid you'll see Em's naked ass." Her voice rose as she spoke until Emmett and Rosalie could hear the end part very clearly. Emmett tore is mouth from Rose's and looked over at Bella.
"One time Swan, and it's not my fault you don't know the universal code for your roommate is getting some," Emmett defended himself.
"Universal code?" I questioned.
"Yeah, a sock on the doorknob, everyone knows that," Em said like I was dumb. I hadn't known that and I turned to Bella and shrugged.
"Yeah, no clue here either," I said, earning me a full smile in response. "But I have a single, so no roommates to worry about actually."
"And no action to warrant a sock-covered knob to begin with," Emmett snorted in laughter. "Get it, knob, in a sock," he laughed.
"Yeah, you're a riot Em," I said sarcastically.
"Well, we better get in," Bella said, breaking up the party. Rosalie nodded and with a quick kiss to Em, they turned and headed into the dorm.
"Good to see you again Bella," I called out, then mentally kicked myself.
Bella looked over her shoulder at me and nodded. "Yeah, you too Edward." Then she was gone.
"Damn boy, if looks could kill, Bella would be smoking from all that heat," Emmett declared, pushing against me.
"Shut it Em," I told him and surprisingly enough, he did. We made it back to his dorm, got me settled on the couch that the guys had procured from the lounge for my stay and fell asleep rather quickly. I woke the next morning to Emmett singing along to Barry Manilow as he got ready for class. It was nice to see something hadn't changed. I saw that Jerry had returned at some point in the night, but Tom was still MIA.
"What time is it, Lola?" I asked, pushing my hair out of my face.
Emmett paused in his singing about a little club in Havana and turned to look at me. "Almost 8. I have an early Bio lecture, then I'll be back and we can grab breakfast at the caf downstairs before I have to head to the lab for a little while, but you can tag along if you want."
I nodded and let my head fall back onto the pillow. Emmett returned to singing, getting to his favorite part about the shooting but I managed to tune him out. I must have fallen back to sleep because next thing I knew, Em was sitting on my chest and I was gasping for air. Emmett laughed, got off me and took the blanket with him.
"Rise and shine butterbean," he declared. "Rosie is meeting us downstairs in 10, so shake a leg."
I pulled on some clothes, ran my hands through my hair and followed a whistling Em downstairs to the cafeteria that was housed in the basement of his building. We found Rose, then gathered food and looked around for a table.
"Make sure there are four," Rose told us. "Bella will be here once her Lit class lets out."
Emmett nodded and found a table for four. We were barely into our food when Bella ran in, collapsing at the table in a huff. Emmett tossed a muffin at her, which Bella grabbed in mid-air and immediately shoved into her mouth. She must have seen my surprise at the move because once her mouth was empty, she started to explain.
"I have 10 minutes, then I have to haul ass to my Brit lit class which is on the other side of campus, so Em feeds me on Fridays," she told me.
"Why not pick a cafeteria closer to your class?" I asked.
All three of them looked at me in surprise, then Emmett spoke up. "He's not from here, he's not schooled in the cafeteria hierarchy yet."
Rose and Bella nodded and Emmett proceeded to explain. "There are three cafeterias on campus, this one, Pioneer Hall over near the gym, and Grady Dining by Bella's next class. Pioneer and Grady are staffed by the culinary students, while our slice of heaven here is catered. Those who actually live here and in the girls', well, we get first dibs on it. It's not open to the rest of campus usually, it's too small, but it has the best food of the three."
I nodded, sort of getting the logic. Dartmouth only had one cafeteria for the campus so I didn't really understand, but the food was good and I didn't have to go here, so whatever worked for them.
Bella glanced at her watch, cursed silently, then sighed. "Okay, off to class again." She stood and gave us a wave, then walked out of the cafeteria.
"She looks tired," Em remarked.
"She's always tired," Rose responded, giving me a quick glance.
"Is Bella okay?" I asked, concern for her immediately filling me.
Rose nodded and started to pick at the napkin in her hands. "Yeah, she's fine. Just carrying a huge course load and has to run from class to class."
I nodded, letting her know I understood and wouldn't ask anything else, but I wasn't satisfied with Rose's answer. Something was off with Bella and I had watched her enough over the years to pick up on it. She was usually happier, like a bubble of happiness would surround her and since I had been here, that bubble was missing.
"So, wanna come and watch me play with my rats?" Emmett asked once we were done.
"Sure, why not?" I replied and we headed to Emmett's lab, dropping Rose off at her Psych class. Emmett was majoring in Physiology, with plans to become a sports trainer after college. His rats were part of a bio experiment that he was conducting with a couple other people and his professor. Apparently, Friday was his day to observe and clean the cages.
"Ed, let me introduce you to Ken and Barbie," Emmett said, pointing to the white rats that were in the cages in front of us.
"Original names," I remarked. "You?"
Emmett nodded and I shook my head. It didn't surprise me at all. Em started to go about his routine while in the lab and I sat back and watched. He didn't say much to me while he worked at first, keeping all of his comments for the rats, but then, he started talking to me and I was surprised.
"Bella's pregnant Ed," Emmett announced, not looking at me, but focused on wiping down the outside of the glass cage.
I felt my eyes widen and my mouth drop open in shock. "What?"
Emmett glanced over his shoulder at me, then returned to his task. "Yeah, apparently it happened on New Year's Eve. Bella's kind of freaking out, because she was sure it was Jake, I mean, who else could it be, but Jake swears that he didn't go anywhere near her that night. You watch her all the time, who did you see her with at the party?"
Em turned and leaned against the counter, all of his attention focused on me. I tried my best to not let him see my panic because unlike Emmett, I knew who the father was, I didn't need Maury Povitch pulling out an envelope and announcing it to the world.
"She doesn't remember anything?" I asked, purposefully not answering Em's question.
"She was trashed, I mean seriously trashed that night. She had broken up with Jake and apparently decided to hook up with someone. Just tell me it's not Newton, though I love the idea of punching him in the gut for taking advantage of her while she was drunk and all."
"You'd love any excuse to punch Mike," I said off-handedly. Em nodded, then sighed.
"There is no love lost between Fig Newton and I, that is for sure," Em said. "Come on bro, you have to know who she was with."
I shook my head, hoping that Em would believe me. "No clue, I saw her with Angela and Jessica, then she disappeared."
Emmett nodded slowly, staring at me the entire time. "Okay, well, if you can think of anyone, let me know. Just don't tell Rose or Bella that I told you. Rose'll have my balls."
Emmett went back to his rats and I pulled my phone from my pocket, pulling up Alice's phone number and sending her a text to call me as soon as possible.
She didn't call me back until Em was in the shower, which gave me time to talk to her without fear of him listening in.
"Alice, fuck, I really fucked up," I said frantically when I heard her voice on the other end.
"Edward, calm down and tell me what's going on? What did you do, kill someone?" She giggled at the thought.
"No, I got someone pregnant," I blurted out. That shut her up.
"What? I thought you and Tanya were taking it slow," Alice said.
"We are," I replied and let her work it out for herself. When she gasped, I knew she got it.
"No way! You didn't use a condom?" Alice shrieked.
"I, I thought I had, I was a little drunk myself you know," I said defensively.
"You either know or you don't, idiot," Alice said.
"Well, obviously, that is a moot point right now, Alice," I said with a huff.
"Yeah, yeah, true. So, what are you two going to do?" Alice asked.
My hand covered my eyes and I rubbed them hard, making all sorts of colored lights appear in my vision. "I don't know what she is planning, fuck, she doesn't even know it's me," I said.
"What?" Alice screeched. "What the fuck Edward? You need to man up and-," she yelled before I cut her off.
"I plan to, I just need to figure out how, without her hating me," I said.
"Oh, I think the hating goes without saying Eddie," Alice said simply. I knew she was right. Bella was going to hate me for taking advantage of her when she was drunk. Fuck, Em was going to kill me, if Rose didn't do it first. And don't even get me started on Chief Swan.
"Yeah," I agreed glumly. We both grew silent for a moment, then Alice started talking again.
"Let me know how it goes okay?" Alice said in a sympathetic voice.
"'Course," I assured her. Emmett walked back into the room at that point, so I ended my call quickly.
"Was that Shorty?" Emmett asked. "Why didn't you bring her along?"
"We go to different schools Em, different spring breaks," I reminded him.
"Oh yeah, right. Any ideas man? It would really help if Bella knew who it was, at least had a name, you know? Though when I get hold of him, he's never gonna be able to stick his dick outside of his pants to piss, let alone knock up another girl." Emmett was angry and I swallowed hard. I decided it was time to man up.
"Actually, I am pretty sure I know who the father is," I told him. My heart was pounding, my palms were sweating and I felt like I was going to pass out.
"Yeah? Fuck, that's great! Who is it?" Em said quickly.
"Me," I said, then everything went black.