Hello Sister, Goodbye Life
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. All recognisable characters, content and locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Warning: Adult themes. Language.
Chapter Thirteen
Bella Swan
Maddie's birthday dawned bright and early on the sixth of July and Rosalie and I were seated in the middle of Maddie's room, squeezed in between a mass of balloons with number 2's printed all over the multicoloured rubber. We'd spent a good three hours the night before blowing up the balloons and stuffing Maddie's room to the brim with them. There was a small cake waiting for us in the fridge for breakfast and we were going to have a small gathering that afternoon.
Edward and I had spent a lot more time together over the past six or so weeks we'd been together but we hadn't gone farther than suggestive brushes and intense make out sessions when we got the chance.
Emmett and Rosalie were also getting closer and it was a common occurance for Rosalie to spend the night at Emmett's flat or Emmett to come over for dinner.
Edward and his kids, Eva and Tony, would also come over, as would Alice and Jasper with their son Noah. I was growing to love Eva and Tony as much as I did Maddie and I wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing. Edward seemed thrilled by it, though, so I just went with it, caring for the two of them like I would Maddie, just as Edward treated Maddie as if she were Eva or Tony.
Maddie began to stir awake and, as she sat up and looked around, an adorable expression on her face, Rosalie and I began to sing Happy Birthday to her. She looked at us wearing party hats and clown noses, at the balloons all over her bedroom floor, back at us... and burst into tears.
Rosalie and I shared bewildered looks. The clown nose and party hat Rosalie was wearing, with the expression on her face, sent me doubled over in laughter, Rosalie doing the same after she registered what I looked like.
Once I was composed enough to tend to Maddie, I removed the hat and nose before scooping her up and singing Happy Birthday to her. Rosalie joined in as we exited the room and headed downstairs. In the kitchen, she pulled out the cake we'd planned to give her for breakfast and placed it in front of her.
As she quite literally began to dig into her breakfast, Rosalie prepared our own while I prepared the coffee.
The Cullen family was joining us for the gathering, as was Billy, Kate and Angela, Jake and Leah and their son, Seth. As Rosalie set up the fold out play pen in the backyard near the porch, filling it with balloons, I made small snacks for people to nibble on – corn chips and dip, carrot and celery sticks and guacamole, cookies etc. Etc. As well as setting out the cake we'd baught in the center of the outdoor dining table, placing the snacks around it.
Meat to be grilled was set on a tray next to the barbecue for one of the men to cook.
"I wasn't expecting that reaction to the balloons," Rosalie commented as I blew bubbles and Maddie popped them. "Bubble!" She cheered, "Momma, bubble!" I'd tried to get her to continue to call me 'Ma', but the last week, she refused and began to call me the newly formed 'Momma'.
After blowing another round of bubbles for Maddie, I replied, "No, neither did I. The photo of when my parents did the same to me shows that I was giggling like a loon."
Rosalie snorted as she placed the last balloon in the play pen and moved over to one of the poolchairs, lounging back against it as a squeal announced the arrival of Eva, Tony and Edward.
"Bella!" She squealed, launching herself at me and wrapping her tiny arms around my knees.
"Hey, green eyes!" I exclaimed, bending down to wrap her up in a hug. Letting go, I held her at arms length. She was wearing a yellow frock and her copper hair was up in a ponytail.
"Don't you look pretty today?" I asked rhetorically, causing her to giggle and cover her mouth with her little hand. I grinned and ushered her off towards Rosalie who was carrying Madeleine and Anthony towards the playpen.
With the childrens' attention occupied, Edward laced his hands around my waist and I smiled up at him as he rested his forehead against mine.
"Hey," I greeted after giving him a chaste kiss. "How are you?"
"Better now," he grinned rogueishly and I gave him a shove.
"Moron."
He laughed and kissed me again. "Missed you." His green eyes were dancing when he pulled away, a perfect lopsided grin on his angular face and copper hair shining in the rare Seattle sunlight. Edward wore a pair of khaki pants, those kinds that had pockets everywhere and cutting off below the knees, and a dark green polo shirt with the buttons undone, showing a small sliver of his surely glorious chest, some tennis shoes on his feet.
"Missed you, too," I replied, grinning again as he swooped down for another kiss. I let him before I stepped away, laughing and moving to press play on the iPod dock.
Jake, Leah and Seth were the next to arrive with Billy wheeling along in his motorised wheelchair, two presents in his lap.
He set them down with the other presents, lots from Rose and I, two from Edward and now two from Billy.
The four greeted me with hugs and Leah went off to leave Seth in the playpen with Eva, Tony and Maddie before coming back and sitting with Rose and I, the guys going off towards the outdoor bar where drinks were being supplied.
Next to arrive was emmett baring three gifts. He set them down on the dubbed 'present table' and scooped Rosalie up in his arms, planting a lingering kiss on her lips before setting her down and giving me a hug and introducing himself to Leah.
Once the speedy greetings were made, he rushed over to the playpen and greeted the kids excitedly. He scooped Eva into his arms and planted a sloppy kiss on her forehead, doing the same with Maddie and Tony and ruffling Seth's hair. He slowed down, finally, as he neared the other three men. He gave his brother a hug, introduced himself to Jacob and Billy, and accepted a guinness from Edward.
Angie and Kate arrived next with Angela's boyfriend Ben and Kate's boyfriend Garrett. After being introduced to both men, they were shepperded off to the other men and the five of us girls began talking about them, particularly Garrett, whom Kate only officially started dating the week before.
It was how Alice joined us, pushing a stroller with Noah in it and Esme soon after.
To my surprise, Grandma and Grandpa Swan arrived ten minutes later baring more gifts. Rose promised that they were the last of the guests to arrive and believing her, I helped gather the children for a day of playing kids games including pin the tail on the donkey in which Emmett won – I think he cheated – duck, duck, goose and musical chairs, in which Billy won due to the fact that all he had to do was move his chair around whenever the music played.
The cake was cut and shared amongst everyone.
Eva helped Maddie unwrap her gifts and Maddie enjoyed the wrapping paper more so than her gifts, much to everyone's amusement. Most of the gifts were toys or clothes and Emmett, grinning as the present was opened, gave her a set of felts and crayons.
"Brace yourself, Bella," Esme warned, also grinning, "You'll never see clean walls again."
"Ode to joy," I muttered, rolling my eyes and mock scowling at Emmett as he began to prep the grill for lunch.
When all the guests had departed, Rosalie with Emmett, and it was just Edward, myself and our respective children, we set the three down for a nap and snuggled up on the couch to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
"I hate Umbridge; imagine having to put up with a Professor like that." I pretended to shudder and he laughed, slinging an arm over my shoulders and pulling me closer to him. "I love the Weasley twins, though, and Lupan and Sirius. I can't believe what happens in the seventh book – I just about dropped dead. How can JK do that?"
He shrugged. "What happened to Dobby... that elf was awesome."
"I know! And Moody!" I threw my hands up. "Worse was Lupan and Tonks, though. They did not deserve that."
We continued on, discussing our opinions on a lot of books that we both enjoyed. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Jane Austen's Wuthering Heights. The conversation migrated to opinions in TV shows including Doctor Who, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bones, NCIS and everything else I, and he, loved so much.
I learnt a lot about Edward that night, and I learnt that we had a lot in common, too. We could talk about practically anything for hours, what we did, in fact, until I fell asleep against him, exhausted from the events of the day.
I was braught round by an incessant poking in my knee. Looking around with bleary eyes, I was greeted with the green eyes of Eva looking up at me owlishly. My mind registered that I was leaning against something warm and slightly animate and, looking up, I found a dozing Edward with an arm wrapped around me and head against the back of the chair.
Smiling slightly, I wiggled my way out of his arms, dropping his arm beside him, and scooped Eva up into my arms, carrying her into the kitchen.
"What can I do for you, Eva?" I asked, leaning on the opposite side of the counter as she kicked her legs off the edge of the bar stool.
"You love daddy."
I was taken aback at her statement and just stared at her for a long while, mouth hanging open like a demented – possibly dead – fish. It was true I had feelings for Edward, I knew that much. But love? I wasn't sure of that. I knew I could grow to love him, but really, we'd only been dating for six weeks. My parents had said that it was love at first sight for them. How could they know that, though? Perhaps it was – puppy love, I mean, and they'd grown to love each other as they grew up, physically, mentally and emotionally. Alice claimed that there was a spark and a connection when you knew that you'd found the one. The spark and connection was there, faint as it was, it was there. Perhaps it grew stronger as my feelings for him grew?
"Eva, grown ups have to get to know each other before they can start to love them. I've gotten to know your daddy for a while now and I'm only beginning to love your daddy. I don't love him just yet, but I will."
"You make daddy happy."
I smiled and said, "Your daddy makes me happy too, Green Eyes."
The baby monitor on my hip let out a loud wail and I told Eva to follow me up into Maddie's room. Maddie was sitting up in her crib, gripping onto the side of it with tear tracks on her little rosy cheeks and big blue eyes wide.
"Hey Blue Eyes, what's up?" I asked, scooping her up into my arms as Eva trotted in behind me.
"Momma," she wailed and I held her closer to me.
"What's wrong, Princess?"
"Scawwy wady," she whimpered, her little arms tight around my neck and her tears and mucus dirtying my shirt. She cried herself back to sleep and I set her back into her crib, turning to find Eva reading one of my old alphabet books.
"Eva, I'll be right back, okay, sweetie?"
She nodded and I headed to my bedroom. Inside it, i clicked my door shut and moved into the walk in wardrobe where I began to rifle through my clothes to find a suitable shirt. Midway through removing the one I was currently wearing, there was a knock at my bedroom door. "Come in!" I called, pulling the shirt over my head.
Reaching to remove my shirt from it's hanger, I pulled it on and began to do up the buttons in the front. Midway through, I looked up to see Edward standing in the doorway to my walk in, frozen and eyes glued to my half revealed torso. I looked down at it, at Edward, back at my chest, back up at Edward and said, "Hi?"
Author's Note: The balloon wake-up call Maddie received happened to my sister when she turned two and she burst into tears, too. Granted, I wasn't even alive then, so I've only seen photos and, man, those photos are funny.
The awkward moment when your boyfriend-whom-you've-only-made-out-with walks in on you changing...
So the shitty family crap I mentioned in the last chapter was dealt with. Who knew confrontation was the key... and I've started chapter seventeen and am redoing chapter sixteen, so I though, eh, why not. Plus, I'm desperate to get 200 reviews. Uh, well I go back to school in eight days so there will be less updates from then on. I'm actually hoping that I'll try hard and focus on school this year and next, given that they're the two most important years of my schooling life. Yeah, so I thought I'd just give you some forewarning. Thanks for reading, please review! x