"Mike!" The curly headed girl screamed. I still didn't know her name.
I just stood there unable to move. My hands covered my mouth.
Edward had shoved Mike against the window by our table. Mike's nose had blood running from it from the first strike. Mike pushed back and punched Edward's eye. He must have been wearing a ring because Edward now had a bleeding gash just above his eyebrow.
The whole restaurant was in a panic. Everyone was screaming, but the fists kept flying.
I've never seen a real life fist fight before. It was terrifying. Mostly because someone I cared about was getting hurt.
"I'm calling the police right now!" The manager of the restaurant yelled holding the phone to his ear.
Just then the campus security showed up and pulled Edward and Mike apart and brought them outside.
Edward was still struggling with the security guard. Mike just smiled and spit out some blood. "You never cease to amaze me Cullen. This was easier than I thought." Mike laughed spitting out more blood.
Both Edward and Mike were taken to the campus security center. Mike had told them that he was not going to press charges so the police call was cancelled.
I was sitting in the waiting area of the security offices when Lauren and her friend came in. "See Jess, by the look on Bella's face, she has no idea what she's gotten herself into."
Jess looked at me with pure hate in her eyes. "Your friend better have not hurt Mike."
The door to the back offices opened and Mike walked out. His nose looked like it may have been broken. It seemed crooked, his left eye was bruised and half closed. Jess ran up and hugged him. "Let's get you to the hospital." Mike and both girls walked out.
I waited for Edward to come out.
And waited.
The security officer at the desk wouldn't tell me anything that was going on. Was he too injured to be released? No, they would have called an ambulance. Were the police coming to arrest him? It didn't seem like it. Wouldn't they be here by now? My mind was racing. Tears involuntarily started streaming down my face. It seemed like hours before something happened.
Dr. Price walked in through the front doors. He looked like he had been pulled away from a fancy dinner or something. He was wearing a very nice suit and tie. He didn't look mad. He looked more worried than anything.
He stepped up to the desk and told the officer that he was here to see Edward. The officer signed him in and ushered him through the door.
A few minutes later, Dr. Price stepped out into the waiting area. "Bella?"
"What's going on? Is Edward alright? Can I see him?" I cried.
"No Bella you can't see him. Not tonight. You should go home."
"…but?"
"I'll be taking Edward home. I'm sure he'll talk to you… when he's ready." He said putting a hand on my shoulder.
"You said that he's going home right? He's not getting put back…" I've let on that I know too much. I hoped that this didn't get back to Edward.
"No Bella, he's going home tonight. Don't worry. He'll be fine."
I took a deep breath and turned and headed out the door to go home.
When I got home I noticed that Alice was already in bed sleeping. I grabbed my P.J.s and went into the bathroom to take a shower. I stood under the spray until the water turned cold. By the time I dried off, got dressed, pulled a comb through my hair, it was well after 2am. I laid my head down and fell into a restless sleep.
"Wake up sleepyhead!" Alice chirped. She was standing next to my bed smiling.
"Al-ice, please let me sleep." I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. "Oh god! It's only 7am! It's Sunday Alice; I get to sleep in today!"
"Normally yes, but today we are going out with the Cullens' on their boat. Doesn't that sound exciting? You have to get up and ready. We're leaving in an hour."
"Their boat? Alice I can barely look at the ocean without throwing up. What makes you think that I could go out on a boat?"
"With these silly." She was holding out a packet of Dramamine.
"I'm not going. I still feel sick from last night, and I don't think that going out on a boat in the sea air will help things." I coughed. "My throat is still sore." Would she fall for it? I was a terrible liar.
She looked at me. Really looked at me. Could she tell that I was faking? "OK Bella, but we'll miss you today." I felt relieved.
Alice's phone rang. "Hello Rose, how are you? Uh-huh…Oh no!! What happened?" She listened for a few minutes until she spoke again. "Bella is still feeling sick…she's not coming with us. Are you sure they want to go still? Well if they're sure…" She listened a few more seconds and hung up.
"That was Rose. Emmett called to tell her that his brother had gotten himself in a fight last night. Can you believe it? He said that his parents still want us to go out with them but we wouldn't be leaving until 10am now. I guess they had to sort something out with campus security last night and didn't get to bed until after 4am! Crazy, huh?"
"Yeah…Crazy."
Emmett, Rose and Jasper came to pick up Alice at about 9am. They were meeting Carlisle and Esme at the docks at 10am. They were supposed to be gone until well after dark.
After dark. That's like over nine hours from now. I had a plan.
I quickly ate a bowl of cereal, brushed my teeth and hair, threw on some clothes and rushed out to my truck.
I parked to the side of the big white house. I got out of my truck and walked around to the front door. I rang the bell. Nothing. I rang it again.
Slowly the door opened and I gasped.
There stood Edward wearing jeans. No shirt. No shoes. Just jeans. I could see the waistband of his boxers sticking out around his waist. Emmett had said that he had been working out. It was obvious that he had. His chest muscles were very defined and his abs. Oh my…
It had only been a couple of seconds, but it felt like forever that I was staring at him in awe. I regained my composure and my eyes traveled from his body to his face. He looked like the doorbell had woken him up. His hair was sticking out everywhere and he had dark circles under his eyes.
The cut that he had gotten over his left eye was stitched closed and looked painful. His bottom lip on the right side was bruised and swollen. My eyes started to sting. I held back my tears.
"What are you doing here? How did you know where I lived?"
"Um…I wanted to see if you were Ok. Are you Ok? You had me worried last night and they wouldn't tell me anything and they wouldn't let me see you…"
He turned and walked into the house. "I'm fine" He left the front door open. I guess he wanted me to come in. So I did.
I followed him into the kitchen. "Wait a second." He said as he walked down a hall from the kitchen and into a room. He came back out moments later pulling a shirt over his head.
I leaned against the familiar counter. Edward sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar. He kept running his hand through his hair. He looked very uncomfortable.
He sighed. "I'm…sorry that you had to see me like that. I…"
"It's Ok Edward. I just want to understand. "Who is this Mike? Why do you hate him so much?" He was silent for several minutes before he sighed and began to talk.
"We met in the 4th grade. Believe it or not, Mike Newton and I were best friends. We were always at each other houses. Emmett was his friend too. Mike would always want to make a competition out of everything. 'Edward I can climb this tree faster than you',
'Edward, race you down to the flagpole and back', 'Edward, I bet I can drink this bottle of soda faster than you' and so on. He never let up. Most of the time I would win his stupid bets and he would sulk about it. You would think that if he lost enough times he would give up and stop making these dumb bets, but he didn't.
"When we reached high school we weren't really friends anymore, but the challenge was still there for him. Now the competition was all about school, well grades mostly. I couldn't help it. I tried even harder to beat him. Not because I had to have the best GPA in the school, but I had to have a better GPA than him.
"At first it was just annoying. He was getting on my nerves. It actually started to wear on me, and I found myself resenting him for it. Our friendship, if you could still call it that, came to a screeching halt when Mike accused me of cheating off of him during a big test. He wanted me to fail, or maybe worse, get thrown out of school. How could someone do that to a friend?
"The school even held a meeting about it. My parents were there and everything. My dad smoothed things over at the school, but people still looked at me like it was all true. The thing that hurt the most was that my parents questioned my honesty.
"What a jerk! How could he do that to you? I would have hit him too. If I see him again, he'd better watch out!" I said angrily.
He laughed. "Next time, I'll let you take care of him. Seriously Bella, don't make the same mistakes that I have." He looked at me with sadness in his eyes.
We walked back out to the living room. The 'lived in' living room. We sat on one of the couches. "Let me see." I said pulling his face towards me to better inspect the cut above his eye.
"My dad's a doctor. I'm pretty sure he did a good job." He chuckled. "But if you need to make sure, go ahead."
I looked at his stitches carefully. Then my eyes met his. We stared into each others eyes for what seemed like an hour. My hand was still on his face. I felt relieved to see that he was Ok. Not just physically but mentally too. Our faces were so close. I couldn't help myself. I leaned in closer and I kissed him softly on the lips and pulled away quickly once I realized what I'd done.
"Ow" He said smiling and touching his swollen lip.
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…" I stammered, but was cut off. Edward had moved his hand from his lip to the side of my face, cupping my cheek. He leaned in to me and his soft lips met mine for the second time. My eyes slid closed.
The kiss was soft and gentle. His lips parted and I could feel his breath in my mouth. His tongue traced my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth in acceptance. As soon as he touched his tongue to mine I lost control. My hand that was on his face slid back and into his hair. My other hand that was resting at my side traveled up his chest and clutched his shirt pulling him to me. His one hand remained on my cheek while the other one slid around my waist and to the small of my back pressing me into him.
We broke apart suddenly gasping for air. My face was flushed. I looked up at him and he was smiling his beautiful crooked smile. He took my hand and laced his fingers with mine.
We sat there on the couch for the rest of the afternoon watching movies and talking. It was getting late, and I wanted to make sure that I was out of the house before his parents got home.
He walked me to my truck, and I got in. He kissed me again quickly before he shut my truck door.
I grinned like an idiot the whole drive home.