Chapter 8
"Thanks guys," I turned to look at Edward and Emmett, "But I'm pretty sure I could've taken care of James myself." Edward's face flushed a bright red, I could tell this was not good.
"I'm sure James would have liked that…Maybe you would have as well."
"What?!...Look all I was trying to say was, I'm a big girl…I don't need a guy to save me." Oops, that came out wrong, I thought. Emmett opened his mouth to say something, but he wasn't quick enough.
"Really?..." I gave no response. To be quite honest it took a lot of effort to hide the shock I felt. "Well then, my apologies. I wasn't aware that when a girl tried to get away from someone, they wanted to be forced back into their chair!" He saw!
"You were watching me!" It wasn't a question, and by the look on Edward's face he knew it wasn't either.
"Does it matter?..." he didn't give me enough time to respond, "For your information, I was just looking out for you. James is a guy you don't want to get involved with, he's trouble. Just ask Jasper, I'm sure he would agree with me."
I didn't feel like arguing with him anymore. The truth is I didn't like him being upset with me, which frustrates me. I'm not used to caring if anyone is upset with me, much less a guy I've known for less than a month.
………………………..
Rose finally came back.
"Oh my God! That line was so freaking long!" She hadn't really looked at any of us until she sat down.
As she studied our faces, I did the same; I hadn't looked at the guys since Edward decided he was going to be mister protective. I looked at Emmett first. Poor guy looked so uncomfortable, he was glancing back and forth between me and Edward, probably waiting for us to go at it again. That definitely was not going to happen, somewhere between Edward yelling at me and Rose coming back from the bathroom, I decided I wasn't going to speak to him anymore. I figured it's for the best, maybe me not talking to him will keep him from staring at me, one could only hope.
It was time to look at Edward. I shouldn't! I can't! I won't!...Who am I kidding…I will…Just this one last time and then never again! NEVER AGAIN! I shouted at myself.
Slowly I looked to Edward, he was sitting across from me. He was looking at me, of course I already knew this. I felt his eyes on me since we stopped arguing. I quickly studied his face and tore my eyes away from him, if I looked at him any longer I knew I would give in and apologize for everything. I couldn't give in. As I stared at the table, I thought about Edward's expressionless face, he didn't look mad, or sad, he didn't look like anything but a blank face. However, his eyes were a different story, they were full of some emotion that at first I couldn't indentify.
"What's going on?" Rose was very confused; I would be too if I was her. No one said anything, I was glad no one did. I couldn't look at her otherwise I would spill everything, it's hard for me to keep anything from her, so I just continued to stare at the table. "Emmett?" If he didn't answer her, she's going to get pretty angry. If he doesn't answer her I will…no, no I won't she doesn't need to know, I thought.
"Um…Edward?"
"I need some air." I huffed as I pushed myself away from the table. I practically ran for the patio, hoping no one would follow me.
As soon as I got outside, I glanced through one of the large windows to the table where we were sitting. I was expecting to see at least one of three missing. Much to my surprise all three were still seated, staring right at me. I looked away as quickly as possible. I didn't want to see them right now, and I definitely didn't want them to see me, so I decided to find somewhere to sit that was hidden from their line of sight.
After a few minutes I found a bench that was perfect, it was completely hidden from any onlookers who were inside. I let out a heavy sigh as I sat. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them to keep them in place. I looked around once more, just to make sure no one had followed me out here, and then I buried my face in my knees. I needed to think, I haven't had much time to do any kind of thinking since I got here. I wanted to think about everything, but I couldn't, I could only think of Edward. His perfect face, his chiseled body, that beautiful bronze hair, his crooked smile, his melodic voice, the way his emerald green eyes watched me. It was then that I realized all those times I thought he was staring at me, he wasn't, he was watching me. Not in the creepy psycho stalker way. He was watching me the same way Charlie watched Renee before they got divorced, the same way Emmett watches Rosalie; with so much love in their eyes. That's how he watches me, like he's in love with me. I had to laugh at that thought. I lifted my head.
"Edward in love with me…HA!" I whispered out loud to myself. "Like that's ever going to happen." It can't happen, I'm with Jasper and I could never hurt him. Then it hit me I like Edward just as much, if not more, then Jasper. What am I going to do? That was my last thought before I was interrupted.
"Like what's ever going to happen?" I knew that voice, Emmett. He was standing no more then two feet away from me. How did I not notice him?
"How long have you been standing there?" I asked.
"Not long."
"Long enough to hear me say something." I stated.
He let out a little chuckle, "Yes…So if I sit here," he pointed to the empty half of the bench next to me, "will you stay or run?"
"I'll stay." I sighed as I put my head back to my knees. I could feel the bench shift as Emmett sat down. It was quiet for a few minutes, before he spoke again.
"Bella, I know…" He paused, and then it hit me again, how I feel about Edward and Jasper. All of a sudden I was crying, I couldn't help it, there was nothing I could to do stop the tears. Emmett put his arm around me and pulled me as close to him as he could.
"It's ok Bella…You'll figure it out." I tried to pull away from him, but he just tightened his arm around me. All I could do was look up at him. He knew, but how?
"How'd you know?" I asked once my crying slowed.
"I have my ways," He said with a smirk "and don't be upset with Edward, he really cares about you. If he hadn't beat me to it, I would have done the same thing. Only I think I might have punched James. I've been dying for an opportunity to teach that punk a lesson." He was so serious I had to laugh a bit.
"You have to promise you won't say anything to anyone."
"Don't worry I won't…but if I were you I'd try to figure it out fast, someone else is bound to notice something. And if they ask me, you know I can't lie. But yeah, I promise."
"Thanks Emmett…" I shifted under his arm to give him a hug, "so what did they say when I came out here?" I was curious, considering the way they stared after me when I left.
"Well Rose was gonna go after you, but Edward stopped her and said he go should since it was his fault you left. I figured you didn't want anyone to go after you so I told them to stay put and if you didn't come back in thirty minutes I would go to you." He paused and glanced at the door at the far end of the patio. "I don't think Edward was real pleased with that, but he agreed so yeah, we waited. Man does he have it bad for you." He said with a slight chuckle at the end.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I've never seen him act like this."
"Like what?"
"Like he's…it's hard to explain…it's just something I can see, you know?"
"I guess…" I wished he had at least tried to explain it to me, oh well. He looked at his watch and said, "We should get going, it's late." He kept his arm around me as he stood pulling me with him. We walked towards the door, I avoided looking inside. I didn't want to see Edward yet.
Once inside I had no choice to look at the table where Rose and Edward sat. Someone was missing, Edward. Rose was sitting there by herself, smiling at me and Emmett as we approached the table. Before Emmett or I had the chance to ask where Edward was she spoke.
"Edward's playing pool with Andrew, Seth, and Mike." Emmett and I looked over to where the pool tables were. I spotted Edward almost immediately, he was taking a shot.
"Hey look! There's an empty table next to Edward's, would you ladies like to play?" Emmett had the goofiest looking grin I've ever seen. Something told me he thought he could beat us.
"I'm in, Rose?" I said with a wink. She returned my wink with a devilish grin.
"Hell yes I'm in!" She shouted as she jumped out of her chair. "But we're gonna need a fourth if we're gonna play teams." Emmett looked around the room for someone to join us. He must have found someone.
"You two get the table before anyone takes it. I'll meet you over there." To be so large he was pretty fast.
"Hey Rose I'm gonna go to the little girls room, I'll meet you at the table." She nodded before she turned and headed for the table.
Once in the bathroom I went straight for the mirror. I needed to make sure I didn't look horrible after my little crying spell. I didn't look too bad, I was still a little splotchy from the crying. I took my small compact out of my wristlet and put a little powder on my face to even it out. My lips looked a little pale so I grabbed my tinted pink lip gloss and smoothed it on my lips. I looked at myself once more in the mirror to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, and I must admit I looked pretty darn good. I put my compact and lip gloss back in my wristlet, and left the bathroom.
As I made my way towards the pool table, I noticed Emmett had found our fourth player. He was taller then Emmett, but not as muscular, he had short jet black hair. His back was facing me so I couldn't see his face. I was almost to the table when I looked over to Edward's table, he hadn't seen me yet. I decided in the bathroom that I would apologize to him for acting dumb.
One of the other guys at his table had noticed me walking towards them. He nudged the guy standing next to him. He looked up and saw me; I was standing behind Edward now. The second guy who saw me cleared his throat, obviously trying to get Edward's attention. It worked; Edward looked at him then turned when the guy inclined his head towards me. He gasped when he saw it was me. I smiled and spoke before he could, although I think he was too shocked to speak.
"Edward, I just want to apologize for earlier. I'm sorry." I turned to go to my table when something stopped me.
Edward's hand was holding mine. I blushed when I looked at entwined our hands. I turned back around to face him.
"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have acted the way I did, and I should have never said those things. That's not how I was raised, it's just…it's…" he seemed to be struggling to find the right words, so I cut him off.
"Edward, it's ok. I forgive you." I smiled my biggest smile and squeezed his hand, before I released it. He grinned his crooked grin, I blushed again.
"Thank you Bella." He leaned in and kissed my cheek. I'm sure I was bright red by now. Thank goodness for Emmett, if he hadn't pulled me away from Edward I might have ruined everything.
"Alright, you've had my teammate long enough. I need her back now if you don't mind." Edward laughed and Rose handed me a q-stick.
"Wait…I thought you and I were going to partner." I said to Rosalie.
"Yeah well, big baby wanted to partner with you too. So we flipped a coin, I lost. Sorry." I smiled at Emmett who was making a pouty face.
"You say that like it's a bad thing Rosalie." I had almost forgotten that our fourth player was here. He had a nice deep voice, he was actually pretty cute. Not my type, but not bad. He turned extending his large hand to me, "I'm Marc. You must be Bella, Maverick's sister." I took his hand and shook it.
"That's me, it's nice to meet you Marc."
"Same here."
"How do you know my brother?"
"I'm on the Baseball team. Hey are you as good a pitcher as they say you are?"
"I'm alright." Rosalie snorted. I hadn't noticed that Rosalie and Emmett had already started playing.
……………………….
By the time we got home I was exhausted. I went straight to room, to shower and get ready for bed. After my shower I went to Jasper's room to say goodnight, but he was already asleep. I went back to my room and laid down on my bed.
"I'll tell him tomorrow." I said out loud.
My decision was made.