Chapter 5
A Day of Peace
Bella's POV
I was floating, floating inside my memories, watching little bubbles with pictures of people in my life float by. I was awake, but yet I wasn't. I was awake, my mind was working, I could get up, I could hear the shower in the next room turn on, I could smell bacon and french toast coming from downstairs, I could feel Selena walking along my back, stretching form long nights sleep. I was awake, but yet I wasn't.
I yawned a few minutes later and turned over in my bed. Selena perched beside me, her black fur vibrant on the white comforter. I shot up. White comforter? I had a purple blanket. Where the hell am I? I thought looking around the room. White walls replaced my light lilac ones, my carpet, once grey, was now white. I blinked and blinked again. I looked at Selena, she was twitching her tail, looking completely at peace.
"Well I'm glad you're happy, Selena. Now where the hell are we, girl?" I asked her running my hand through my tangled hair. Slowly I pulled the covers back, and stepped down from the bed. The floors, which are usually freezing, were toasty warm. It was peculiar. I was somewhere I didn't know, but oddly enough I felt...safe. Sort of like I knew the people I was with. I looked down at my body, I was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Weird.
These aren't mine... I thought looking around the room. My backpack sat on a couch on the far side of the room. I ran over to it, but stopped when I saw a photograph on the table beside it. I smiled picking it up and sitting down on the black couch. The photo was of a younger Edward and a older blonde man, sitting in chairs on a patio. They both were smiling and laughing about something, and had a cup of coffee it looked. They looked like they knew each other very well. Maybe this is his father? I thought putting the frame back and dug through my bag.
Two tank-tops; one dark blue, one bright purple. Two pairs of jeans; one pair of light blue skinny-jeans with rips in the knees, one pair of white skinny-jeans with black and grey splotches down the legs. Three long-sleeved shirts; one pure black, one white and black stripped, and another grey and black stripped. My pair of black and white Etnies. A brush, multiple hair ties, a black ribbon, eyeliner, mascara, and clear lip-gloss.
Quickly, before anyone decided to come and check on me, I jumped into the light blue skinny-jeans, threw on the dark blue tank and the black long-sleeved shirt. I yanked the brush through my tangled mess of hair, until I was satisfied with it falling carelessly down my back in large ringlets.
There was a knock at the door, and when I didn't answer, Edward walked in. I smiled and sighed a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "Hey." I said looking through my bag for a mirror. "Aha! Found you!" I said to myself ignoring the snicker that came from Edward, who was leaning against the bed frame. "You know, I could file for kidnapping." I hinted running the black pencil along the bottoms of my eyelids.
He smiled, came and sat next to me. "Well you're more safe here than you are at your house, trust me." he said softly running his hands through my hair.
"What time is it?" I asked ordering my brain not to remember the pictures and note from last night.
"It is..."
"Breakfast is ready!" a warm voice was carried throughout the house.
"Breakfast time," he said picking me up.
"Hey!" I yelped loudly throwing my mascara wand and tube into my bag, before we were too far from it. "Ok, Edward?" I asked as he slowly made his way down the stairs.
"Yeah?"
"Where exactly am I?" I asked turning around in his arms, so now I was cradled and my arms went around his neck. I blushed when he looked down at me, our faces were so close together...
"Bella, where else would we be?" he chuckled and put me down at the bottom of the stairs. "Bella this is my house and you are about to meet my family."
My eyes widened and my body went completely ridged. "You know what on second thought, I'm just going to go back upstairs..." I said attempting to get past Edward and run back to his room.
"Oh no you don't." He caught me around the waist and pulled me to his side, making me walk with him towards the laughter in another room. "They can't wait to meet you. Plus, you've already met my siblings."
"I have?" I asked confused. "I've only met Alice. Who else are you related to?"
He sighed heavily. "I thought you knew." I shook my head, thinking about the people I knew, that he knew. "Bella, I'm adopted."
I froze, looked at him, and cocked my head to the side. "Since when?" I asked.
"Since I was five. Alice is my twin, but the others, I'm not blood-related to." he said pulling me into the dinning room.
There sat Rosalie, next to her was Emmett, across from him was Jasper, and beside him was Alice. At the head of the table was a blonde man with piercing blue eyes, pale skin complexion and perfect cheekbone structure, and to his left was a woman with caramel hair that framed her heart-shaped face, and hazel-green eyes that rested just above her high cheekbones. The funny thing was, they both looked oddly familiar to me. I just couldn't recall ever meeting them.
"You must be, Bella." the woman with the caramel hair said standing from her seat. I nodded walking over to her to shake her hand. She wasn't having any of that, taking me into her arms and hugging me. "Well, its great to meet you. Edward never shuts up about you. Not to mention Jasper hasn't either. Which is very odd, because he never speaks of people as fondly as he does you." she smiled as Jasper turned bright pink. "I'm Edward's mother, Esme Cullen."
I smiled, something about that name triggered something in my mind. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Cullen."
"Please, just Esme. Have a seat, honey." she said gesturing to the two seats that would put me beside Mr. Cullen and Edward beside Rosalie.
Edward held out my seat, I smiled and gently kissed his cheek as a thank you. When he sat next to me, I could see his face was flushed pink. I chuckled, before looking around the table. Esme had a bright smile on her face, Alice and Rosalie were smiling as well. Emmett and Jasper were snickering at him. "Shut up..." he muttered to Emmett when he had whispered something to Jasper that I had not heard.
"So," I started looking at Mr. Cullen. "What is it that you do, Mr. Cullen?" I asked trying to get an idea on how I knew these people.
"I'm a doctor, and call me Carlisle, please." the man said smiling and patting my hand. "It's great to meet you, Bella."
I smiled, but I was hiding the tears when I didn't look at him. I stared down at my plate, moving the syrup on my pancakes around. I tried to ignore the mini-flashes that were going on in my head. I tried to stop the tear from falling from my eyes down to my plate.
Edward noticed immediately. "Bella? He asked, concern filling his eyes when he moved my head to look at him. "What is it?" he whispered rubbing my hand with his.
I shook my head and wiped my cheek. "Nothing." I looked up at Dr. Cullen and Esme. "I knew you guys looked familiar." They looked at me in question. "Dr. Cullen, you delivered my little sister, and Esme, you helped my mother through labor, because my father was stuck in traffic."
Esme smiled. "You're Renee's daughter?" I nodded smiling slightly. "How is she?"
I stopped myself from answering the obvious truth. "Great! She's great!"
"How's Miss Reneesme?" Carlisle asked smiling, looking right at me.
I sighed, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. I reached for the orange juice, taking a huge gulp before looking at Carlisle. "She, um, she's good." I lied. I couldn't ruin their breakfast with my bad news. "She's going through those horrible annoying 14 year-old stages. One day she's happy, the next she thinks her life is over."
"Yep!" Alice piped in and I was glad for it. "All girls go through that stage! Rose, don't you remember those years?"
Rosalie nodded smiling sheepishly. "If I didn't have an outfit one day I would consider my life over, then by the next day, Mom would have gone and bought it for me. Then my life was complete."
"Before the next thing she wanted came along," Emmett muttered quietly. Rosalie frowned and popped upside the head. "Ouch!"
I snickered along with everyone. Throughout breakfast no one asked me any questions about my sister or anything else. But if they had, I knew Edward was there for me. Because from the moment the tear fell, his hand was linked with mine; his thumb stroking knuckles every so often. I think that was the only why reason I kept smiling and didn't stop.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X
I sighed, dropping down on top of Edwards plush queen-sized canopy bed. He followed soon afterward. I smiled and rolled over to my side. "Your family is so cool!" I said poking him in the chest. "How come you never let me come over before?"
He shrugged rolling over on to his belly. "I don't know, how come you never have let me meet Renee?" he asked poking my belly-button.
I giggled and punch his shoulder. "Because, she's a bitch. I'm ashamed of her. She makes us seem like white trash and I don't like it." I said frowning. "She's nothing like she use to be. She use to like singing along with me, she use to enjoy cooking for her family. Life would have been nothing to her, without us. Now it seems like life would be so much easier if no one was here with her." I rolled over on to my back and looked up at the ceiling. "I remember when I was twelve, she was shit-faced drunk and I couldn't do anything for her, not to mention if I tried she would beat the hell out of me. I told her not even God could save her! She was pissed and she knocked me out after that." I sighed. "The next morning she was passed out beside the toilet and I was in the middle of the floor. I wrote a song after that indecent."
Edward pulled my hand so I would roll over on my side and face him. He ran his hand through my hair. "Sing it for me?" he whispered softly, his warm breath fanning against my chin.
"Um...uh...what?" I asked leaning forward a bit more, trying to get more of his taste in my mouth, he breath tasted so good, I wondered what else tasted that good?
He smiled and kissed my forehead. "Sing for me, please?" he asked, his eyes smoldering into mine. ""Please sing for me, Bella?"
I sighed and his eyes clouded with something that made my stomach do dramatic flips. "S-sure." I said, having an excuse to get as far away as from him and his eyes as I could. "Um...do you have my iPod?" I asked digging through my bag. "Never mind..." I chirped pulling it out and plugging it into his iHome. I took a deep breath and pressed play. The melody from my keyboard came from the speakers, the notes took me to another world, another dimension, where I could see what was happening to me and Renee, when it did.
(Supernatural By Flyleaf)
Her headaches are constant
increasing in pain
with each passing day.
She can't even manage
to stand on her own
it's gotten so bad.
But you think that saying
there's no use in praying,
and still she bows her head
so she can say...
thank you for just one more day...
Super...natural patience
graces her face and her voice never raises.
All because, of a love
never let go oh.
Never let go oh.
He has every reason
to throw up his fists in the face of his God
who let his mother die...
through all the blood and tears
she still past and gone away.
Now you think of saying
there's no use in praying
but still he bows his head
so he can say...
"Thank you for ending her pain..."
Super...natural patience
graces his face and his voice never raises.
All because, of a love
never let go oh.
Never let go oh...
(Instrumental...)
He is teaching me
what love really means...
Super...natural patience
graces his face and his voice never raises.
All because, of a love
never let go oh...
Yes! It's Super...natural patience
graces his face and his voice never raises.
All because, of a love
never let go oh.
Never let go oh...
He is teaching me...
what love really means...
I was out of breath when I stopped, I smiled and pressed pause. Edward was quiet for a minute. "What?" I asked laying down on the bed beside him. "Did it not make any sense?" I asked worried had made a huge mistake singing that song. It was supposed to be what I thought about the times that Renee had came home, sick and dunk. She never saw how much she was hurting herself or me. She never realized how much time she was wasting while getting wasted.
"No..." he whispered after a few quiet minutes. "No, it made sense. I loved it. I was just surprised that you would write such a song." I was confused. He had heard a few other of my depressing songs...why would this one be any different? "The God thing is what I didn't understand. You haven't ever mentioned anything about you believing in such a thing..." he trailed off wanting me to explain.
"Well, that night after that, I had called Angela; one of my old friends, she moved to Pittsburgh. Anyways, I had called her and told her about it and she had said that she would pray for me and I should do the same for Renee. So I got to thinking about how I had said that even God couldn't help her, and what Angela had said." I pause, pushing my hair off my neck and on to the pillow underneath me. "Then, the lyrics just started pouring out. I had thought about another situation, where Renee was giving up and blaming God for my sisters death. That's where the second verse came in."
He nodded, I think he understood. "That's sounds very logical."
I smiled and turned over on my side, facing him. "So, about the Christmas Vacation Talent Tour thing..."
"What about it?"
I shrugged. "What are we going to do? As in what are we going to perform?"
He shrugged same as me. "I don't know. Are they all duets? Are some of them solos? I don't know anything about this."
"Well, I looked it up a few weeks ago, and it said that two high school students will perform three songs for each college that they visit; one duet, one solo, and one of their own creations." I looked down at my hands. "Have you ever written a song?" I asked looking back at him.
His eyes were filled with awe and nervousness. "Yeah, but I've never put music to them..." his voice trailed off and his eyebrows shot up in question.
"What? You want me to write the music?"
"Well, look at your own stuff. You have a talent for it. I got the lyrics, you got the music, put them both together and we got us a song." he compromised grinning at me.
I blew out a gust of wind. "Can I see the lyrics?" I asked sitting up and leaning against the headboard.
He got up and walked to his closet and came back with a shoebox in hand. He sat down beside me and opened it, flipping through a pile of papers. "These are all songs that I've written, but this one," he said pulling out a folded piece of paper, "is my utmost favorite."
I grabbed it from his hands and peeled it open. I scanned the paper quickly and read the title out loud. "If You Only Knew?" I said in question, he nodded and pointed to the chorus and I read it out loud as well. "It's 4:03 and I can't sleep, without you next to me, I toss and turn like the sea. If I drown tonight, bring me back to life; breath your breath in me. The only thing that I still believe in is you. If you only knew...if you only knew..." I stopped and looked at him. He was anxious to hear what I had to say about it. "A love song? Really?" He looked disappointed, I smiled and shoved him playfully. "No! I love it, but I never thought you would write a love song."
"It's really about a guy who is trying to make this girl understand what she means to him." He sighed, put the box at the foot of his bed, and layed down. "See, he can't live without her, he doesn't want to live without her; he'd rather die than be without her. But if she wants to be with him then he would let her be. She could have the strength to make him come back to life, to bring him back to he way he use to be." He stayed quiet for a minute. "I know how he feels..." he said to himself.
I didn't think I was supposed to hear that, so I would act like I didn't hear it. "Well, it's still a great song. I think I can make a good tune for it."
He smiled and kissed my forehead, I blushed and he chuckled. "Thank you, Bella...you're amazing you know that."
This made me blush even harder. "Stop!" I laughed lightly and layed down with him again. "So, what duet will you want to do during the first college?" I asked after a few minutes.
He sighed. "Um...I don't know. Did you have any ideas?"
I shrugged. "Oh! I don't know...something dramatic, but not something stupid. Something meaningful but nothing too meaningful. Do you get where I'm coming from, Edward?" I asked after a few regulations.
He nodded rolling over on his side, I did the same. "How about something, like Evanescence?"
"Well, there is Broken, Bring Me to Life, and...I don't know anymore." I sighed placing my hand in-between us. "What about Skillet?" I asked thinking of some of my most favorite songs by them. "There's Last Night, Awake and Alive, Hero..."
"Don't forget Rebirthing!" he exclaimed putting his hand on top of mine. "I love Skillet. Why didn't you tell me you liked them?"
I shrugged. "I never thought about it." I reached over to his iHome and pulled out my iPod. I scrolled through my artists, found Skillet, pressed the first song, and placed it back in it's rightful place. "I have all their songs." I said as Hero, came on first.
The hand that he had placed between us reached and grabbed my hand and entwined our fingers. "I do too." he whispered, his thumb caressing my knuckles.
And that's what we did for the rest of the day, until Renee called bitching that I wasn't home; layed in his bed, listened to our favorite bands, and held hands with Selena on the pillows above us. I didn't even think about the man outside my house, the pictures, the threat or my fucked up life even once.