Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! College is staring in 14 days so I'm trying to get everything ready before it starts. So enjoy this chapter.
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Bella
She awoke to sunlight streaming from her maroon colored curtains. She could almost see all the dust particles in the air as the open window blew them around in a frenzy. She arose from her pillow and knocked off the dream catcher off the headboard of her bed. She picked it up gingerly in her hands afraid to break the delicate strings that created the beautiful design. It had been a gift from Jacob before he had left for deployment.
They had known each other for their whole lives but only for the summer months when she came to visit Charlie. During the school year they kept in touch online and over text. When everyone else had left Jake was always there, and it killed her to see him enlist to the Marines but she knew it's what he's always dreamed of being. She placed it back where it had been and got up from her bed.
She went straight into the shower and let the hot water run over her as she began to fully wake up. A loud rap on the bathroom door surprised her that she let out a little yelp.
"Hey Bells me and Harry are going fishing today. I won't see you until dinner." Charlie said.
"Okay Dad." she said looking to make sure he didn't try to enter.
She heard his retreating footsteps and once she didn't hear him for awhile she turned off the shower. She grabbed her towel and dried off then proceeded to put on a blue cotton t-shirt and a pair of long faded jeans. She blow dried her hair and after making sure all of the knots were out she tied it up in a bun.
Downstairs there was the smell of burned eggs and when she checked in the trash she found the culprit. Charlie couldn't cook to save his life. And to watch him struggle was painful to watch so she ended up doing all of the cooking. She looked around the kitchen for something to eat herself and kept it simple and put two Pop Tarts in the toaster.
After finishing her breakfast she went upstairs to tidy up my room. After that task was done she started the Sunday laundry, staring at the dryer as it turned the clothes. She thought about the party yesterday, and the strange and beautiful Edward Cullen. There was no doubt in her mind he was gorgeous, but she didn't know why he was interested in her and why his smile made her heart flutter. Just thinking about it her stomach did a gymnastics routine. And to think she would see it again tonight made her smile.
After all the chores were done around three she grabbed her favorite book, Wuthering Heights and began reading. She had chosen the sofa which turned out to be a bad idea as she had fell asleep in the middle of Mr. Earnshaw's funeral and when she woke up she fell off the sofa in surprise. It was 5:50, giving her 10 minutes before Edward arrived to pick her up.
She rushed upstairs which was another bad idea as she tripped and stubbed her toe really hard. She went straight to the bathroom and combed out her hair. She then proceeded to put it up in a ponytail when she heard the doorbell. She grabbed her jacket and quickly attempted to put on her shoes as she went back downstairs. When she finished she straightened herself before opening the door. When she did she gasped softly at the sight of him.
He was wearing a cream colored long-sleeved shirt and tan khakis. His bronze hair was unruly as it stuck from under the brim of his Marine Corps baseball hat. His emerald green eyes scanned her before resting on her brown ones. He had a jacket draped over his arm and he flashed me a crooked smile.
"Ready to go?" he asked.
"Yeah I'm ready." I said.
She walked out the door and locked it behind her. He lead her to his Volvo where he opened the passenger side door for her. She thanked him and got in, putting on her seatbelt to be safe. He pulled out slowly from the driveway and actually managed a decent speed down the road.
"You know Tessa has been dying to actually meet you ever since the party yesterday." Edward said.
"Who?" she asked.
He laughed. "The one who shot me. She's the Captain of her own team too. We usually work together on missions."
"And do you get deployed often?"
"I'm on a three month break now but for the rest of the year I'm deployed with holidays off of course."
"Wow." was all she could say.
"S'not so bad. I miss my family and all but-" he didn't finish his thought and instead just smiled at me. "Why do you want to know?"
"Curiosity." she said.
He nodded once and looked back onto the road. He then began to flood her with questions. Her favorite flowers, favorite color, favorite band, and what she was studying in college. She had answered the last one in detail and he listened intently interrupting her only to ask about something she had said or someone. In no time they had arrived at First Beach and Edward parked next to a group of cars near the edge of the forest and got out fast enough to open my door for me.
"You are really cliché." I said.
"It's not cliché it's being a gentleman, it's how Carlisle raised me."
She stepped out of the car and Edward lead her towards the small group around the fire. They all had drinks in their hands and seemed to be having the time of their lives. She knew only Edward's team but the other six around the fire were strangers to her. She didn't see Alice until she was right in front of her enveloping her in a hug.
"Bella!" Alice said. "I'm so glad you could make it!"
"Me too." she said.
Emmett had come over next and tried to give Edward a noggin but he stopped him.
"Eddie boy!" Emmett said still trying to give Edward a noggin. "Your finally getting some!"
"Shut up Emmett," Edward said. "Hey watch the shoulder it's still sore."
"Right, just wait till that heals, me and you are going to wrestle to get payback for what happened at the party."
Emmett held up his arms like a boxer and threw fake punches at Edward.
"Whatever." Edward said indifferently, like he wasn't worried.
A girl with long, wavy, raven black hair came forward and shook Edward's hand so firmly that both of their knuckles turned white. Her skin was much like Jacob's in color and she had bright blue eyes. Bella had remembered her from the party after they had attacked the Cullens. Her smile showed a pair of perfect white teeth and her voice was crisp when she spoke.
"Edward just in time," the girl said. "Your Dad was about to start."
"Good," Edward said then gestured to me. "Tessa this is Bella, Bella this is Tessa Faintree. We've been friends for a long time."
Tessa had extended her hand to shake and Bella took it. Thankfully she had not squeezed it as hard as she did with Edward and her eyes showed only kindness.
"I'm glad I got to meet you." Tessa said.
"You too."
"We should get over there. My brother's have been devouring the food."
Edward rubbed his hands together. "They better have not eaten all the hamburgers."
Tessa walked with us towards the group and she had struck up the same round of 20 questions Edward had in the car. Her questions though were more straightforward and she wasn't embarrassed at all to ask about Bella's love life, or in better words her sex life. She on the other hand knew her cheeks were as bright as cherries as she shot her down. No past boyfriends, mostly because she moved around a lot. When they reached the fire she was introduced to Tessa's team who seemed to all be slightly drunk. Once the introductions were done she sat in between Tessa and Edward on one of the many chairs around the fire.
"Hey Collin, Brady start passing the beers man." Emmett said.
I didn't take a beer, which resulted in some teasing from Emmett, but Edward came to my defense by quickly changing the subject. It was then that Carlisle stood up and cleared his throat so all attention went to him.
"A toast!" Carlisle started as he raised his bottle. "To our brave Marines. Thank God, you are all alright."
Everyone but her took a swig, even little petite Alice which almost made her laugh.
"Another toast to my team and Kayla's. For without them, I won't be standing here in front of you today." Edward said.
"Cheers." everyone said touching everyone's beer bottles with theirs.
"So who wants to tell a story first?" Quil said.
"Oh I got a good one." Kayla said.
"Back in '06 me and Edward just graduated from sniper school," Kayla started. Edward groaned which made everyone laugh. "You should see how bad he was back then, he nailed the targets in the stomach every time. It was horrible. So I kicked him playfully when he tried to shoot and he nailed the target in the head. After that, he got them in the head all the time."
"And I still think I have that bruise from that kick of yours by the way." Edward said. "Your boots hurt like hell."
"Hey it got you to be a better sniper, and it scored you a rank in Spec Ops. Besides no pain no gain."
Edward smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"How about the time where we were fighting on who had to babysit Claire" Seth said.
"Now that was funny." Brady agreed.
"So everyone was fighting on babysitting Claire so Quil made a deal. If you could shot the cupcake off of the pole you didn't have to babysit Claire. So only two can play, so Edward was picked since he had a good aim. So Edward went first and fired a single shot from his pistol and fired. It missed the target, but it was still Quil's turn. So Quil picks up a huge machine gun and splatters that cupcake to bits. So Edward had to babysit." Collin said.
Everyone started to laugh and so did I.
"It was so cheating, you were supposed to fire one shot and he fired at least 50 rounds."
"Whatever, I still won and I got my precious beauty sleep when I got back home.
"And I had to handle a grumpy 10 year old for a whole day. Yeah thanks." Edward said sarcastically.
"I think I still have a picture of you Edward from back in '07, with your new team." Kayla said.
"Oh no, don't show that picture it's horrible." Edward said.
Kayla waved the photo triumphantly in the air and she handed it to Seth.
"Oh my god, this picture makes me look old." Seth said.
It went around the circle and Edward and I were the last to see it. The whole team was wearing desert camouflage and they all had rifles in front of them. They all had crazy poses, Edward was holding his rifle in the air flipping off the one who took the picture. Everyone else was doing something inappropriate and it made her laugh.
"My god look at my hair back then." Edward groaned.
"That's when you lost that bet and the whole team shaved your head. You were miserable for weeks." Jasper said.
"I cannot believe you still have this picture, Kayla."
"Me too."
Edward passed the photo back around and Kayla slipped it back into her wallet.
"The good old days, where you were still boys." Kayla laughed.
"And now we are hard core men!" Emmett said.
Rosalie hit Emmett's arm hard with made Emmett flinch.
The stories continued around the fire, most of them involving Edward and Kayla, who were friends before the military. I knew Edward was brave from the little time they have known each other but know I got to see how brave he really was. Edward's smile never let up the whole night and neither did her's. Each time Seth or Emmett spoke it was the funniest story imaginable. Collin and Brady had started to yawn, causing the rest of the boys to follow their example. I was getting sleepy myself and I wondered what time it was.
"We should head back home, my girlfriend has been yelling at me all morning about not spending time with her." Brady said and he rolled his eyes.
"You mean the fiancé." Emmett said in a French accent.
"Yeah that too, she's driving me crazy with the amount of stuff she wants for the wedding and Alice helps her pick out more stuff than necessary."
"This is a once in a lifetime thing Brady! It needs to be special." Alice said.
"Yeah I guess you're right. I'm going back home. Tomorrow McDonald's, I want to eat a really greasy hamburger." Brady said rubbing his belly appreciatively.
"Yeah same here man, I could use a Big Mac." Collin said.
The two boys left using the same car to go back home. Carlisle and Esme got up next using his Mercedes and disappeared down the road.
"Ready to go?" Edward asked.
"Yeah." I muttered sleepily.
He chuckled and helped me up and walked me to his car. He made sure I was seated before going over to the driver's seat and starting the car. He turned on the radio and changed it to a classical station and turned it down until it was only background music. The ride back was silent until we reached my house.
"I had a great time thank you." I said.
He smiled warmly. "My pleasure Ms. Swan. Perhaps you could join us tomorrow we are going to Camp Pendleton to return the Hummers."
"No I can't I have work tomorrow."
"Alright," he said. He handed me a piece of paper. "Call me when you're free, then I'll take you to see the Camp."
I blushed and nodded to him. I got out of the car and walked up to the front porch. I grabbed the keys from my pocket and opened the door. I waved at him in goodbye and he sped down the road, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.
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