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Love's Blue Flowers - Part 2

Tanya really annoyed me with her insistence on Edward's gayness and her analysis of every little thing he said or did and how it all proved he was batting for the other team. I was ready to confront her with her crazy negativity and throw her out the window. And I was let down that Angela was so wishy-washy and not championing my cause. That's what confidants are supposed to do. They tell you exactly what you want to hear, never mind what the truth is, and they try and keep you buoyant, even if you're floating on a raft of denial in a sea of ugly facts. Probably human best friends would have been a better option than a bi-phrenic ragdoll in out-of-date clothes, but the pathetic fact was that my best human friend was Edward is-he-or-isn't-he? Cullen.

I let them both have it the second I got home. Tanya's humble opinion was that I should just come straight out with it and ask him.

"Endearing? He could say that to anybody. And gay guys like straight women who'll cover for them," she said, insidiously.

Angela thought tact and diplomacy would always win the day, and I should play it all by ear.

"Just wait. He'll show his hand sooner or later," she assured me. Useless really, the pair of them.

My state of confusion was still keeping me in a non-communicative bubble the next day when a message came through from Edward just after the bell that announced the end of lunch. I'd been in the library avoiding him.

The message said, "Dire extreme emergency. You have to help me."

"So what's up?" I enquired with feigned casualness, sliding onto the seat next to him in Chem.

"Oh, Bella, this Sadie Hawkins Torture Night. Jessica invited me. Jesus! I wouldn't go anywhere with her if her father offered me three camels and a yurt," he hissed, clearly perturbed.

"There are some really nice yurts around," I said, and he groaned.

"I turned her down, because she's a fucking camel herself. But Bella..."

He looked away, and I saw his jaw muscles move as though he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. He was normally so confident I wondered what could have made him this uncomfortable. Finally he turned back and swallowed hard.

"Bella, I told her I was going with you."

"Wha - ?"

He spoke quickly. "She is a fucking bull terrier, you know it. She wasn't going to let me get away with refusing her. I had to have a reason, so I told her I was already going. It won't be that bad! Just take me with you, and afterwards I'll owe you. I promise, I'll do anything. All your homework for a month. I'll give you money, I'll name a star after you, anything. Please."

"What if I've already asked someone?"

He paled.

"I'm dead," he said. "You haven't asked anyone have you?"

It was so tempting to tell him that I had, but I didn't have the heart to.

"No," I sighed. "I wasn't even planning to go. But I will, and you can come with me. Please dress decently. Don't eat any garlic beforehand. Don't expect me to dance to anything from the eighties."

"I agree to your terms. All of those conditions. Thank you."

He was so grateful I felt bad. Why should he give a shit about Jessica?

"And I promise I won't even think about trying to kiss you. I'll maintain a respectful distance between us at all times," he was adding. "Scouts' honor."

No kissing? Rethink!

"Oh, well, um," I said, quite uncertain as to how to proceed.

He quirked his head. "Um? Is there a caveat? Something else?"

"I-didn't-mind-you-kissing-me-I-was-just-surprised-is-all," I mumbled, running all my words together.

A sly grin appeared on his face. "I'm not sure I understood that but I think I might have. Did you just say - ?"

"Go away, now! I have a bunsen burner and I'm not afraid to use it."

Anyway, he turned up to collect me on the night, and Charlie shook his hand with a grip that made him wince. Edward staggered and dropped something, and it turned out he'd brought a little posy of the blue flowers from Mt Kilimanjaro. Charlie picked them up, his face impassive, and I took them upstairs, leaving them on my dresser. On my way back down I heard him warning Edward, "Eleven-thirty on the dot, son, or the FPD will be on your tail."

"Overkill, Dad," I muttered, teetering out the door. I'd actually worn heels. It was cool to be nearer Edward's height so that I could take the piss out of him from five foot seven instead of five foot four. I think he noticed the difference.

"Enjoying the oxygen enrichment, Swan?" he smirked.

The whole night was eighties music so I didn't have to dance which was just as well, considering the ridiculous shoes. After one incredulous glare in our direction, Jessica avoided us completely, and her tits spent the evening jiggling with her date, Mike Newton, whose eyes never wavered north. I forgot I had any issues or problems, and Edward and I carried on the way we used to, before it had all gone wobbly. We sat so close our knees touched, and we talked and talked. We vied for the title of King of Sarcasm, and ended up awarding it to each other.

"Do you think maybe we should grace the floor for the last song? This is a dance after all, and dance is a verb as well as a noun," Edward said to me at ten to eleven.

Traditionally the last song is a slow one, and people can get a little smoochy-smoochy if they're so inclined, although there's a very high likelihood of getting a tap on the shoulder from a teacher if any lip action is observed. Butterflies started kicking the hell out of my stomach as Edward led me away from the safety and dark of our seats into the middle of the floor. I wondered if he'd try for a kiss. I wondered if I would.

As it was, he slung his arms around my waist loosely, so that our bodies were barely touching. I put my hands uncertainly on his upper arms, because that seemed to be about as close as he wanted to get.

"It's okay, Bella, I don't have anything communicable. I've been out of quarantine for several days now," he murmured, noticing my hesitancy.

"It's not you, it's me," I responded. "I finished the antibiotics but I find I'm still having to expel quite a lot of mucus."

"You are fucking gross."

We were all kicked out at eleven and Edward drove me home. I was fervently hoping Mrs Big Mouth was an early-to-bed sort of person. I hoped she didn't have night-vision binoculars. I hoped she wasn't looking out of her fucking window, as Edward pulled up outside the blue house. He and I had fifteen minutes until my curfew, as set by Charlie, but of course if Charlie had heard the car pull up and if I wasn't inside within that fifteen minutes, he'd be out on the porch brandishing a firearm. A girl could get pregnant in in quarter of an hour. Twice, if the guy was quick enough. Charlie was not ready to be the grandfather of twins.

"I had a really great time tonight, Bella," Edward said softy. He turned the motor off, which I viewed as a positive sign. "Did you?"

"Yes."

"We had a really great time, didn't we?"

"Yes."

He shuffled, reaching for me and wriggling a little, and I wriggled too, reaching for him over the center console, wishing for the olden days when cars had bench seats instead of bucket seats in the front. I'd seen it in the movies - you didn't have to climb into the back to make out comfortably. And then his lips were against mine like a prayer, and I wasn't thinking about old movies. I opened my mouth and so did he, and I wondered if it was as experimental for him as it was for me. I hadn't really done this before. My lips felt dry and I wanted to moisten them, and I slid my tongue out without separating from him, and he groaned slightly as my tongue touched his lips as well. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but his arms were holding me securely. His tongue came out to mine, and I started to shake. I was getting so short of breath I was worried I was going to start gasping.

"Is this okay?" he asked anxiously when I pulled back from him panting and completely flustered. His breath was labored, too.

"You've probably got about two minutes to live," I told him. "Charlie."

"Jesus. He has his finger on the trigger already, doesn't he?"

Giving the tiniest shrug, he came for me again. This time I worked out how to breathe through my nose, and I just stopped thinking about it. I got lost, in the slipperiness inside his mouth and the sloppiness of our lips sliding together.

It was way too soon when he pulled back from me.

"What do I say now? I'll call you?" he asked, voice not quite right.

I bit my lip and held my breath for a second.

"Do you want to come in?" I said. "I mean, later, you could come to my room like you did that other time. You know, when you climbed through the window?"

His mouth was on mine again almost before I'd finished the sentence. One arm was around me, the other hand was at my cheek, and his lips were busy. We'd discovered a method of communicating that gave a whole new meaning to the term speaking in tongues.

But he pulled back again and said unevenly, "I'd better not."

Huh? He couldn't kiss me like this and say goodnight, could he? Fuck! But we both knew the clock was ticking. I tried to estimate how long we'd been parked there. Ten, at least... Dad would appear on the porch any second now.

"I have to go," I mumbled.

"Will you be at church on Sunday?" Edward asked, quickly. Charlie and I weren't churchgoers as a rule, but the minister was holding a party on Sunday night to "foster community spirit" or some such bullshit, and my father had grudgingly said we'd go. He reckoned it was a poorly disguised attempt at Christianizing those amongst the townsfolk who were wayless heathens, and I thought he was quite right.

"Yeah, we'll be there," I answered.

After a quick check in the rearview mirror to make sure I wasn't dishevelled, I opened my door and climbed out of the car, and Edward walked me up to my front door, which opened the second we stood in front of it.

"Bella, Edward," my father said curtly, with a nod. We weren't late, and he couldn't complain.

"Thanks for taking me tonight, Edward," I said politely, and Edward shook my hand and made his farewells to me and my father. I didn't have a hair out of place, and I could meet my father's questioning frown with confidence.

Up in my room it was a different story. I was giddy with pleasure, and possibilities. Edward's mouth was my favorite thing on earth.

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I know I said two parts but I'm making it three.