EPOV
Bella left shortly after our game of truth or dare ended. She mumbled something about an appointment and everyone just nodded and let her leave. No questions asked; nothing. That really bothered me. Soon after Rosalie and Jasper said they had to leave to get ready for dinner with there grandparents. Emmett, being their ride, left too.
That leaves me with Alice. Dear Lord what did I do wrong?
"So, Eddy, how's life?" Alice asks, picking up empty soda cans.
"Can't complain… how's Cynthia?"
"She's as much a brat as usual. She's still in school though, what with Seniors getting out early and all. So you won't see too much of her until they get out in two weeks."
"Pity."
"You just want a fellow ginger to hang out with," Alice says; I stare at her, and don't respond.
Alice's mother, Elizabeth, is my mom's sister; twin actually. They have the same red/bronze hair; except Mom's eyes are green and Aunt Liz's are blue. Cynthia has her mom's hair and dad's brown eyes. So Alice's 'ginger' comment is basically true. Cynthia and I look like we could be siblings.
"Well anyways," I say, "what's for supper?"
"Escargots."
"Funny."
"I'm serious… Mom is on a 'French kick'."
"So we really have to eat snails?"
"We don't have to. There will be another dish, but they'll be there to try."
"Ick."
"Tell me about it."
~*!*~
"Dinner was great, Aunt Liz," I say, picking my plate up off the table; Cynthia makes a face and Alice swats at her.
"Edward, you're so grown up, please, feel free to call me Liz," she says as she walks into the kitchen with more dirty dishes; not noticing Cynthia making gagging gestures toward the platter of left over snails.
"Uh, okay… Liz," I say, feeling awkward.
"You kids go enjoy yourselves," Uncle Peter says, taking my plate from my hands. He's insisting that I call him 'Peter' now.
"Yes, Daddy," Alice says, grabbing my hand and running to the 'chilling room'.
"You didn't really like that goop did you?" Cynthia asks when we take up spots on the couches.
"It wasn't bad," I say.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Alice offers.
"So how's school Cynthia?" I ask, trying to change the subject from our interesting dinner.
"It sucks."
"You're a Sophomore right?"
"Yeah, I'll be a Junior next year."
"No, we thought you were going to be a Freshman," Alice says, rolling her eyes and muttering something about 'stating the obvious'. Cynthia throws a pillow at her.
"Shut up, stupid sister," Cynthia says, "you're going to be a Freshman."
"Yeah in college," Alice argues.
"What college would that be, Ali?" I ask, tactfully deciding to change the subject.
"I'm going to the University of Washington in Seattle; what about you?"
"Berklee College of Music, in Boston."
"So you got the scholarship?"
"Uh huh."
"How do Esme and Carlisle feel about it?"
"They're ecstatic; both of them being from Boston, they couldn't be happier."
"It's gonna be weird not living in Chicago, huh?"
"Yeah, but I've been working myself up to it. We have the apartment in Boston, anyways so Mom and Dad will visit a lot. Plus, Masen is still at BC."
"Of course. He'll be a Senior right?"
"Yep."
Alice turns on the television and I sit back and pretend to watch the show. It's not very interesting for me. Something about a secret life of a teenager; I don't know. Cynthia and Alice keep arguing during the commercials about how this girl Amy should be with Ben or Ricky. Alice says Ben, Cynthia says Ricky; I say who the hell cares?
I think about my brother, Masen. I'm taller than him, but just barely. He got all his looks from Dad; the blonde hair, the blue eyes. People are shocked when they find out we're even related. There are similarities, of course. We have the same smirk and the same knack for not always doing what we're supposed to. He's at Boston College on scholarship, playing football for the Eagles; running back.
That's why I needed to get my scholarship. We have enough money to pay for me to go to Berklee. But the childish part of me needed to get the scholarship, and have some of the attention directed at me, and not Masen. It felt so good to have dinner not spent talking about Masen's latest achievement.
~*!*~
"We'll be there in two weeks," Mom says.
"Okay," I respond, brushing my hair with one hand, holding my phone with the other.
"Masen is coming."
"Huh?"
"Your brother is coming."
"Why?"
"He wants to. He says he hasn't seen Alice, Cynthia, Liz or Peter and wants to spend some time with them. Plus he misses his little brother."
"Misses giving me wedgies."
"He hasn't given you a wedgie since he graduated from high school."
"Yeah because he hasn't been around often enough."
"Do you want me to let him give you a wedgie?"
"No ma'am."
"Then stop complaining."
"Alright."
"Good night, Edward."
"Good night Mom, tell Dad I say good night, too."
"I will. I love you."
"I love you, too."
I hang up my phone and start brushing my teeth. Mom called right when I started getting ready to go to bed. It's like she has telepathy and knew that it was the perfect time to say 'goodnight'. I turn off the lights and climb into bed. It's not like my bed at home, but it's as comfortable as I remember. I nuzzle into the pillow and smell something sweet. It's like strawberries.
~*!*~
I stand in the shower, with the water as hot as it goes. My dream last night scared the fucking hell out of me. So I guess that means it was a nightmare, right?
It started with Masen giving me wedgies so hard that I flew out of my pants and landed in a large classroom at Berklee; in just my underwear. Where the professor and students proceeded to point and laugh. I ran out, got in my Volvo and started to drive. A red motorcycle appeared out of no where and crashed into me. The driver was face-lace, except for a mouth with pointed teeth. I ran from the crash site and into a field of strawberries. I started to sink into the strawberries like it was quicksand.
Sounds stupid, I know. However, it terrified me. I think that the reason it scared me is mostly due to how real it all seemed. The creepiest part was the motorcycle driver. I had expected it to be Bella. Instead there was just that monstrous mouth with the pointy teeth; almost like it wanted to eat me up our tear me apart.
I get dressed and walk downstairs. A picture hanging in the hall way of Alice picking strawberries when she was younger makes me shudder.
"Edwardo?" Alice asks.
"Uh huh?" I ask, looking up from my bowl of cereal. It's Special K… with strawberries.
"We have different cereal, if you want it," she says. I jump out of my seat before she even finishes. Aunt Liz had poured us the cereal before she ran out the door, muttering something about a meeting.
"What's wrong with Special K, anyways?" Alice asks as I rummage through the cupboard.
"Had a creepy dream about strawberries last night." I find the Trix and pour myself a large helping.
"A nightmare about strawberries?"
"Well part of it involved strawberries, I was sinking in a pit of them." I sit back down and tell her about the whole dream. Around the part when the motorcycle shows up she grins, like something obvious has dawned on her.
"I forgot to change the pillow case," she says when I finish.
"Pillow case?"
"In the guest room."
"Bella slept over last week end, and I bet I changed the sheets but not the pillow case. That's why it smelled like strawberries, because that's the smell of Bella's shampoo. So it triggered you to have a dream involving the strawberries and Bella as well."
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
"It's obvious."
"It's ridiculous."
"Whatever you say, Edward," Alice says, putting her bowl in the dishwasher and going upstairs. My cousin is crazy; that's the only thing that's obvious to me.
Hey guys. *guilty wave* So yeah, I know I said I was going to update every Friday and I know yesterday was Friday. But I was WICKED sick. I was so sick that I went to the school nurse and my mom came and got me. That's a big deal considering I've never gone to the nurse at my school. I had no idea what to do, but she was nice at least. Turns out I had a fever; I feel better now though, just have a really sore throat (I'm living on cough drops). I tried writing some of this yesterday but my head hurt too much and I just felt like it would be a jumbled mess. So I waited a day.
I hope I made up for the day-late-update with a good chapter. I'll be back to posting on Fridays after this. So, updating won't change to Saturdays now because of this one time.
~EM~