Midnight

Chapter 20:

Rings, Promises, and the Return of Royce King

Bella's P. O. V.

"Well, I'm going to go pick up Jasper… see you two lovebirds later!" Alice said in the chipper voice. I waved, and she left.

Edward turned to me. "Yes, well, we have approximately ten minutes to get out of here before she gets back," he told me. That wasn't a lot of time.

"Let's go to your room." He nodded, and we headed for the stairs. We climbed the stairs, I was surprised to see a crying Rosalie sitting against the wall.

I leaned down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong, Rose?" I asked sympathetically.

"I know," she breathed.

"Well, that's great! Why are you crying?"

"No, no, no," she began, sitting up, wiping a single tear from her reddened face, and smiling up at Edward and I. "I'm not sad, nothing's wrong; they're happy tears."

I smiled back. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked her.

She nodded, but began to stare Edward down. I looked at him too. He put up his hands. "Okay, I'm going, I'm going," he assured us before kissing me on the forehead and leaving.

I turned back to Rose. "Okay, start at the beginning."

She smiled; her mind miles away. "He is so sweet, I truly don't deserve him."

"Bite your tongue!"

She looked at me. "Do you want to hear?"

I nodded, and pretended to zip my mouth shut and throw away the key.

"Okay. I don't know where it came from, but after he pulled me into the room, he sat me down, and pulled out a soft, silky box.

'Is that what I think it is?' I asked him.

'Well, Rosie, if you think it's an engagement ring, no. But if you're talking about it being a promise ring, then yes,' he told me, pulling the ring out of the box so I could see it." –she held out her hand with the ring on it.-

"The first thing I thought was 'it's beautiful,' and I made a paint of telling him that. He smiled at me, and handed to me. It was gold, and it had an engraving on it that said 'I promise to love you forever.'

I looked up at him, and he began to explain. 'Do you really want to know why my skin is so cold, and why my eyes change color, and why I disappear for days at a time, and come back all happy again?'

I nodded. 'Don't laugh, because I'm serious when I tell you this… We're not normal, Rose. We're not human.'

I looked up at him, confused. 'Me and my family… we're vampires.'

He looked down, ashamed for some reason unknown to me. 'Em?' I asked, and he looked up. 'I don't care what you are; I just want to be with you forever. I promise that I will not run away from you, no matter what happens, on one condition.' He looked at me, urging me to go on. 'You have to promise to turn me into one of you someday.' He smiled.

'I promise.'

She looked at me, fresh tears forming in her eyes. I smiled back at her. Now my sister knew. I just wish I knew how much trouble that ring would cause us…

*:-:*:-:*:-:*:-:*:-:*

-Skip ahead to Monday-

Edward drove me today. When we got there, the first thing I noticed were that jasper and rose were behind us, talking with Emmett and Alice.

"Hey beautiful." I knew that voice. It belonged to none other than Lauren. Crap.

And then…

She basically jumped him! She actually had the nerve to launch her self at my boyfriend, for God's sake! She latched onto him by the neck, and tried kissing him.

But at least Edward was loyal. "Uh, can I help you?" he asked her while pushing her off of him, and grabbing my hand.

"Eddie, can I tell you something?" she asked seductively.

He rolled his eyes, but played along. Damn it.

She got up right to his ear, and whispered something.

"Alright, Lauren, you know what? I don't care if you hate her, because I do. Now if you'll excuse us..." he began to walk us away, but Lauren grabbed his hand, pulling him back.

"But Edward! Do you know how good we'd look together?" she asked desperately.

"But Lauren!" he mocked. "I don't care; I'm with Bella, so goodbye."

She stomped off. Ha! I win. But she wasn't one to give up. I had learned that the hard way today.

*:-:*:-:*:-:*

The rest of the day passed by normally... Or, rather, almost normally. Lauren kept trying to jump Edward. Ah, the wonders of mindreading.

Then lunch came.

After we got our lunches and met up with Alice, Rose, Jazz, and Emmett, that's when Little Miss Cheerleader showed up.

"Hey Ed," she called and came to sit on his lap. He tried getting her off, but she wrapped her arms around his neck, crushing herself to him. He grasped my hand, but she yanked it away, and no matter how much he struggled, she would only grip on tighter.

"Alice," I hissed. She leaned in, and I whispered in her ear.

"Tell him that he's going to explain why he isn't getting her off as soon as she leaves. I turned to him, and he nodded with my favorite crooked smile. The best part was that you could tell it was for me.

"Hey, Lauren," Rose called while getting up. "Could I talk to you for a minute?" she pointed over to the other corner of the cafeteria.

"Sure," she replied, hopping off his lap. As soon as she was off, he grasped my hand really tight, a sure sign that he missed me.

As soon as they were gone, Edward turned to me. "Bella, you know that I tried to free myself, right?" he asked, cupping my cheek in his hand. I nodded. "Honey, she is strong, and if I had tried any harder, I would have looked like some sort of super being."

"Which you are," I pointed out. He rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean."

I nodded, giggling a little. He leaned down and pressed his lips lightly to mine, and pulling away all too soon. "Rosalie is coming back. Later."

Rose P. O. V.

Lauren was all over Eddie again, and I could so tell that bugged the crap out of Bella. And I wasn't about to sit there and watch this play out.

"Hey, Lauren? Could I talk to you over there?" I asked her, getting up and pointing to the corner on the other side of the cafeteria. I knew she couldn't say no, because I was the new captain of the squad, and I could easily kick her off the team.

"Sure," she said while getting off Edward's lap. You could see how his face instantly calmed as soon as she got off. He gave me a grateful glance and i gave him a reassuring smile.

I smiled and grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the side.

"Okay, first off, he and Bella are basically dating, so get all those sick ideas out of your head and second, if you don't listen to me, remember? Captain of the squad? You could easily be replaced. There are a line of other girls at this school that could do your part good and even better than you can, so think before you act. At least, if you still want to be a cheerleader," I threatened.

She nodded. "Good. Now, do not, I repeat. DO NOT go and sit on Bella's boyfriend's lap again. Buhbye." I waved mockingly, and she stomped off. Oh, how I love being me!

I came back after a bit with this smug look on my face, and without Lauren.

"Yeah, I don't think you guys are going to be bothered again by Lauren," I said before sitting down.

"What exactly did you say to her?" Alice asked curiously, leaning in.

"Well, let's just say that being head cheerleader gives you plenty of advantages," I answered. Bella laughed at that.

'Thanks,' she mouthed mouthed. I nodded and gave her a warm smile.

Edward burst out in laughter. I hadn't even realized he was holding that in, in the first place.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked him.

His laugh slowed down to where it was only a chuckle. "Good one, with Lauren!" he managed to get in between laughs.

"Well, thank you, I-" I stopped my sentence short, because on the other side of the cafeteria, watching me, with lust- filled eyes, was my old boyfriend, Royce King. When I caught him staring, he just smirked, took out his cell phone. He typed something in, and put it away, my cell phone vibrated not long after.

I opened it, and read the text. It was from him. It read:

You're mine. I'll get you back, and you're not going to like the consequence for leaving me all those years ago.

I had a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. This wasn't good. Not good at all.

***********Uh oh, she's screwed! I will pay whoever can tell me what Royce means, and if they can tell me what he plans to do, I'll pay you even more!

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