A/N: I own nothing. Sorry for the extremely long wait. I was working, but now that's done. This is Chapter 13 in Edward's point of view. This chapter is titled after It's Not Easy To Be Me by David Gray. When you see ***, play the song Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap.
Chapter 14:It's Not Easy To Be MeEdward's POV
Monday. School. Sigh. I jogged down the stairs and grabbed my keys off of the hook by the door.
"Jasper! Emmett! Let's go!" I yelled up the stairs. Emmett and Jasper came rumbling down the stairs. More like Emmett came rumbling down the stairs. Jasper just rolled his eyes.
"Can you be any louder?" he asked sarcastically. Emmett scowled at him. I chuckled.
"Come on. The girls already left," I informed them. I went outside to my Volvo and started it up. The drive to school was the same as every day. Emmett and Jasper fought over the music. Jasper preferred classic music like me to Emmett's like of rap and hip-hop. There was a constant change of music. I just concentrated on the road and my one love. Bella. She was so beautiful. She hated it when I called her that. I did it anyway. I pulled into the parking lot next to Rosalie's obnoxious red convertible. I walked up behind Bella who was putting her book and ipod in her bag. I covered her eyes.
"Guess who," I whispered in her ear.
"Hmmm, let me see," she said. Sarcasm was the only language she spoke. "Jasper?"
I mentally laughed. "Nope."
"Emmett?"
"Wrong again," I chuckled. She laughed and pulled my hands from her eyes.
"Come one, Edward," she said pulling me along. We walked toward the stairs. Bella suddenly stopped and looked around.
"Bella? What's wrong?" I asked. She shook her head.
"Nothing," she said and turned back toward the school. The day passed uneventfully until right before lunch. Class was almost over. I happened to look out of the window and see something I wasn't expecting. James. He was standing in the trees just at the edge of school property. I turned to Emmett. I subtly nodded my head towards the window. He didn't catch it. I rolled my eyes and quietly tore a piece of paper out of my notebook.
Look out the window. In the trees.
I passed him the note. He opened and immediately whipped his head around to the trees. He crumpled the piece of paper up and threw it in the garbage. When lunch finally came around, we got met Rosalie and Irina by their lockers.
"Hey, what's up?" Rose asked kissing Emmett lightly.
"We'll explain on the way. Let's go," I said, "Where's Bella?" I asked looking around.
"She was lingering behind a little. Why? What's going on?" Irina asked.
"Come on," I said. We, quite literally, dragged the girls to the cafeteria where Jasper and Alice were waiting for us. Alice had her head on the table. I could feel Jasper sending calming waves toward her. We sat down.
"I'm going to assume that you know," I stated, looking toward the door. Where was Bella? I looked towards the windows in the cafeteria, scanning the tree line outside. Sure enough, James was standing there, watching, plotting. The sound of the doors opening caused me to turn my attention away from the crazed vampire. Kate and Tanya strolled into the cafeteria. I turned my attention back to James.
"Alice, what's going on?" asked a voice that could only be Bella's. I pushed a chair behind her and gently sat her down.
"James is back," Alice answered. Bella froze in her seat.
"How do you know?" she asked looking around.
"A security guard at a mill was killed," Jasper said. "Carlisle examined the body. It was definitely a vampire."
"But, how do we know it's him? It could be the other one. Laurent?" She looked around to each of us as we looked at each other.
"It could be," Rosalie answered.
"But it's not," Emmett said staring out of the window. Everyone turned to look at James in the trees. Bella pushed back from the table and walked outside. She made a gesture while saying something. I saw the fear in his eyes. He quickly wiped the expression off. It was replaced with a smirk before he turned and disappeared into the trees. Everyone tried to forget about him, but I could see on everyone's face. Tuesday came and went with no excitement. Wednesday afternoon while everyone else was running around decorating the backyard and the house, Bella tried to sneak out of the craziness. I smirked and trapped her against the door.
"Hi," I whispered in her ear. Her small giggle sounded like bells as she kissed my cheek.
"Hi," she answered back.
"Where are you off to?" I asked eyeing the letter in her hand.
"Mailing a letter to Teagan. I haven't been writing in a while. She probably thinks I abandoned her," she said. I smiled and planted a small kiss on her nose. I walked over to the small table and tossed Bella her car keys. She threw them back.
"I'm going to walk," she said. I raised my eyebrows and strolled to her side.
"Ya know, I'm perfectly capable of walking by myself."
"I know. But Esme needs some things from the store for Rose and Emmett's party on Friday," I informed her.
"I didn't hear her say anything," she said. I pointed to my head and smirked.
"Right, I keep forgetting you can read minds. Except for mine," she retorted. I rolled my eyes and lifted her onto my back.
"Hey, I can when you put your shield down," I said.
"Oh, those rare occasions that you crave so much," she said laughing. We were to meet back at the diner when we were finished on our escapades. I walked to the party store and proceeded to the far aisle. White lights. Red balloons. Gold and red streamers. The list went on. Sigh. I dreaded parties thrown by Rosalie. Everything had to be perfect. It took me a good 20 minutes to find the damn balloons. They were of course on the very bottom shelf in the extreme back. As I stood up, I bumped into someone behind me. I was surprised I didn't break any of their bones.
"Oh, excuse me, miss, I didn't see you there," I apologized. A small brunette stared back at me with a smirk.
"That's fine. My fault," she said. For a moment, I forgot why I was there in the first place. When I finally snapped back to reality, she was gone.
"Huh. That was weird," I said to myself. When I got to paying and leaving, I could have sworn I saw her again staring at me. When I did a double take, she was gone. Great. Hallucinations now. I jogged back to the diner. Bella wasn't there. I sat down on the bench. 10 minutes later she still hadn't showed. I began getting impatient. When she finally showed up, I snapped.
"Where were you?" I demanded standing up. She furrowed her brow.
"I went to the book store to get something," she said slowly. She held up the bag. I grabbed it. She lunged forward.
"No! It's a surprise," she yelled tackling me. I pushed her off and heard a loud crack. Bella yelped and stared at me in shock. "Edward, what has gotten into you!?"
"You're hiding something from me," I said. She stared up at me and ripped the bag out of my hand.
"Edward, I have never seen you like this. I don't know what's causing it, but I'm going to find out," she said as she turned and walked to the edge of the woods. I suddenly felt light-headed. Woah. What the hell just happened? I tried to remember the last 30 minutes, but couldn't. As I walked back to the house, I went over everything that had happened up until I went to the store. Then nothing.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked to thin air. When I got home, I started looking for Bella. I was about to go upstairs when someone ran into me coming down the stairs. I looked down and smiled at Bella. She threw a cold and hard stare back.
"Edward," she said through her teeth.
"Bella? Are you okay?" I asked.
"I think I should be the one asking you that, Edward," she said crossing her arms. I gave her a confused look. She sighed in frustration. "You expect me to believe that you have no recollection of what happened earlier in town?" I looked to Alice for an explanation.
"Bella, I have no idea what you're talking about," I said honestly.
"Ok, so you didn't mean to snap at me for being a tad bit late?" she snapped.
"What?" I questioned. She kept going.
"You didn't mean to ignore my pleas?"
"Bella-"
"You didn't mean to throw me against a fucking bench!?" She was on her toes screaming in my confused face. The doorbell rang just then. Bella stalked over to the door and yanked it open. Standing there was a brunette who looked oddly familiar. I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Hi," the girl said in a humble voice. "I need a place to stay. Would it be okay if I stayed here?" Bella went to close the door. I caught it above her head and let her in.
"Edward, can we continue our little conversation in the kitchen please?" she asked while tapping her foot impatiently.
"Hold on. What's your name?" I asked the girl. She smiled sweetly.
"I'm Blake," she said. Bella cleared her throat.
"Bella, can you please just hold on for one second?" I asked. She stared at me incredulously while I turned back to Blake.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
She frowned. "I don't know. All I remember is a fire and then waking up in the middle of a forest." She looked around at us with wide eyes. Bella looked at her like she was a vampire-eating virus.
"It's ok. You're safe here," I said. I called up for Esme. She came padding down the stairs and gave Blake an odd look.
"Well, who do we have here?" she asked.
"This is Blake," I answered. I turned to Blake. "This is Esme. Tell her what you told me. She'll make you feel right at home." I turned and followed Alice and Bella into the kitchen.
"Can we continue our conversation now? Or are you gonna go drool over Blake in there?" she snapped.
"Bella, I have no idea what is going on with you. What's wrong? What did I do?" I begged. She stared back at me with wide eyes. Her hand came up and I had a stinging sensation in my face.
"Bella, I don't know what to think anymore. You're acting insane. You make up stories about me yelling and attacking you. You're rude to a person who needs our help. You slap me for no apparent reason," I said.
"There are a million reasons for slapping you! You DID attack me and scream at me! And was I the one drooling over someone else while their girlfriend is standing right there?!" I looked away not believing what I was hearing. "Edward." I didn't look up. "Say something." I looked her square in the face.
"I think we should take some time to re-evaluate our feelings," I said.
"'Re-evaluate our feelings'? Our relationship isn't some equation that needs solving or 're-evaluating'," she said. I didn't say anything more. "Are you really breaking up with me?" I looked away.
"I just think we need some time alone, like a tim-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence. I don't believe in 'time-outs'. It's either we're together or we're not."
"Then I guess we're not," I said and walked out.
I couldn't believe her! Why would I attack her? I would never do any of the things she said. I walked out of the house and into the forest. I climbed up into the tallest tree I could find and sat on the very top branch. Blake had been hunting below when she saw me. She stopped and climbed up next to me.
"I heard what happened," she said looking at her feet.
"How'd you hear that? You were out here," I said.
"Vampire's keen sense of hearing. Even if I wasn't a vampire, I would've heard that," she said chuckling in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn't work.
"So, Blake," I started, "do you have any powers?"
"I can block out other powers," she answered with a smirk. I snorted.
"Don't tell Bella. She'll make up stories about you and attack you," I replied dryly. I shook my head. "I didn't mean that."
"It's okay if you did," she said.
"No, it's not. I love Bella. I don't know what's gotten into her," I said. I excused myself and jumped down the branches. I ran back to the house. I tried to get into Bella's room to talk, but Alice, however small she may be, was a force to be reckoned with. When school came around the next day, Bella didn't even glance my way. In Biology, she didn't look at me or talk to me. I ripped a piece of paper out of my notebook.
Bella, please talk to me. I wrote and passed it to her. She glanced once at it and pushed it back. I sighed. She was up and out of her seat the second the bell rang. I went through the rest of my classes without emotion. When lunch came around, I was going to talk to her, but she completely ignored me and bypassed our table and sat with Angela Weber and her friends. She looked over just once to see me staring at her. She swiftly turned right around. Thursday was the same routine. On Friday, we stayed home to finish up for the party.
Jasper and I helped Emmett get ready in his room. As I pulled my tux on, Jasper started with the questions. I held up my hand.
"I don't even want to talk about it. I don't remember what happened at all. I don't know why, and it's driving me crazy," I said. He looked at Emmett with a worried look. I shook my head and headed downstairs. I started looking for Bella when Blake came out of nowhere. I kept looking around through the crowd of people in my house for Bella.
"Hi, Edward," she said. I looked down. She was sporting a very revealing red floor length dress with one strap. She had a smirk on her face as she stared up at me.
"Hi," I said. "Have you seen Bella?" She frowned.
"No," she said. I went to turn away. She grabbed my face and pulled me to her. When my lips connected with hers, I felt an odd sensation. I wanted to pull away and go find Bella, but that plan was falling away for some reason. I broke the kiss and offered her my arm. I led her outside where a slow song had come on. I smiled as I pulled her onto the dance floor. She giggled as I gently swayed her in circles. We danced the night away, ignoring everyone's stares and comments about the girl in my arms not being Bella. There was no Bella anymore. Not to me anyway. I just stared into Blake's eyes. However, there was a nagging sensation in the very back of my mind that told me something wasn't right.
As the party died down, I went to look for Jasper. As I was looking, I was suddenly overcome with a headache. I couldn't remember anything. That was weird. I entered the foyer holding my head very confused. I spotted Bella helping Esme with coats. My face lit up when I saw her. She glared at me and stormed passed me. I caught her hand gently with mine.
"Bella, I didn't see you at the party. Where were you?" I asked. She stared at me.
***
"So where's your new girlfriend, huh? Where's Blake?" she spat. I gave her a confused look.
"Bella, who is Blake? And you're my girlfriend."
"I cannot believe you! You're saying you have absolutely no memory of you ogling over Blake? You have no memory of breaking up with me?" I opened my mouth to answer. She put her hand up. "I don't want to hear it." She paused and glanced around at everyone who was just as confused as I was. She took a deep, shaky breath. "I'm going back." I froze. What?
"You want to go back to Alaska tonight, dear?" Carmen asked. She shook her head.
"No, Carmen. I'm going back to Italy, back to the Volturi," she said. Alice's face fell. I stared at her in disbelief. She couldn't go back. No. She ran up the stairs with all of the girls hot on her tail. I slid down the wall to the floor.
"Ed, are you okay?" Jasper asked. I looked up at him.
"Does it look like I'm okay?" I snapped. I bolted out the door and into the forest. Emmett and Jasper came after me. Emmett tackled me to the ground.
"Edward! Calm down!" Jasper yelled. I couldn't help the tears. I never cried. Never. And now here I was on the ground, weeping.
"No! I will not calm down! My girlfriend thinks I cheated on her and broke up with her! I have no idea what's happened these past few days! Everything started when she came here!" I shouted. By now, Emmett had let go. I was sitting against a tree with my head in my hands.
"When who came here?" Emmett asked.
"Blake!" I shouted. Jasper and Emmett looked confused.
"Now you remember her?" They asked in unison. I stared at them.
"Yeah. When didn't I?" I asked. Now all three of us were confused. There was an evil laugh coming from the trees. Blake jumped down from a branch still in her dress.
"Aw, you poor dear," she said smirking. "And here I thought this was going to be a challenge." Another chuckle came from behind us. James's voice sent a chill through my spine.
"I knew it would be all too easy. Wouldn't you say so, Laurent?" Laurent came from the trees with an expressionless face.
"Yes, I would," he said with no emotion.
"What did you do?" Jasper seethed.
"Hah! What did I do? What didn't I do?" James mocked and turned to Edward. Blake smirked. "Let's see. I turned your girlfriend against you. Made you look mentally insane. Ruined your life, basically."
"Technically, it was all me," Blake said turning to James.
"Yes, dear, but I was the mastermind behind the whole plan," James said.
"Point taken," Blake turned back to us. I stared in disbelief at what I was hearing. James let out a chuckle.
"Blake, would you care to explain what you did to these poor fools?" James said chuckling.
"Well, let's see. Seeing as I'm a shield, I blocked out all of your powers, rendering each of you powerless to see what was happening. And because I can make you think anything I want and keep you that way, I made you turn your girlfriend against you. Then I had you not remember anything at all, and I topped it all off by making you break up with her. Some of my finest work if I do say so myself," she said with a smirk.
"Oh, don't look so surprised, Edward. I told you I'd ruin your life. Make you pay," James said. He barked out a laugh. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out earlier, what with you being so smart." Jasper was the first to strike. He took Laurent by surprise. He had no time to react before Jasper sunk his teeth into Laurent's neck. When Laurent managed to throw Jasper off, Emmett barreled passed me and made it a two-on-one fight. Blake fled like a coward, leaving me to finish off James. He had a smirk on his face.
"It was all too easy to turn her against you, you know," James taunted. A growl erupted from deep within my chest. He didn't waver.
"Shut up," I seethed.
"There were already trust issues between you two, weren't there?" he continued to mock me. I crouched low to the ground. He did the same. A sound from the left was my window of opportunity. James glanced for just 2 seconds to witness Laurent being torn apart by Jasper and Emmett. I took my chance and attacked with full force. I didn't even realize how much damage I had been inflicting until I had him quivering in fear on the ground one inch from death. I thought about finishing it; but I couldn't. No matter what James had done, I couldn't kill him. What would that have proven? I sighed. Emmett put a hand on my shoulder. I turned and started for the house. The sound of Jasper and Emmett ripping him apart made me wince for a fraction of a second. I shook my head and kept walking.
When we got back to the house, we found it empty with Bella's truck and Carlisle's car gone. I walked into the dining room to find a note on the table.
Boys,
We are taking Bella to the airport in Port Angeles. She'll be taking a small plane to Seattle where a private jet will take her back to Italy. We'll be back soon.
Love, Esme
As soon as I'd read the last word, I was in my Volvo with Jasper and Emmett speeding to Port Angeles. I hoped to God that I wasn't too late. As we screeched to a stop near the tarmac, I saw my family standing in a huddle watching a small plane. I jumped out of the car and pushed my way to the front. I saw Bella in the small window. Our eyes met as I gave her a pleading look. As the plane started to move, she looked away. And then she was gone. My Bella was gone.