A Summer vacation to Remember
Disclaimer: I do NOT (unfortunately) own any of the Twilight characters, they belong to Stephanie Meyer.
Chapter 16: End of the Road
Jasper POV
Here it was, our last day in New York before we started the long drive home. Everyone was feeling down about it as we started putting our stuff back into our suitcases. New York was the place where so much changed for us and it felt like this was home more than Forks, Washington was now. But at least we were all going back together, and staying together for university and probably even longer after that, because we are a family, a weird, dysfunctional, thrown together family. The thought makes me smile as I'm folding my clothes and putting them into my suitcase. Emmett hasn't even started packing yet in typical Emmett style and I can hear Rose telling Alice that refusing to pack doesn't mean that we aren't leaving.
"But Rose I don't want to go back! Forks is so boring!" Alice whines. Rose sighs.
"For someone who was nagging at me to start packing to come here you're sure taking your sweet time for packing now."
"That's because I was excited to come, and I'm not excited to leave." I chuckle at Alice's logic.
"I'm not either but we still have to go. We have to get ready for university this fall and we told our parents we'd only be gone for 2 weeks we have to start driving home tomorrow."
"Alice come on, we'll come back after university. Or maybe we'll come for a short vacation next year." I can hear Bella say.
"Promise?" Alice asks.
"Promise," Rose says wearily now start packing.
"Fine," Alice sighs.
Rose walks over to our room. "Guys, it's official. We're coming back next year."
"Ya, I heard," I say grinning. Rose rolls her eyes.
"She's your girlfriend," she says accusingly.
"She's your best friend," I say back teasingly.
"I can still hear you!" Alice calls from across the hall, which causes everyone to start laughing. I love my family.
Rose POV
Our last day. After finally getting Alice to start packing we decide to go out for some last minute gift shopping/ sightseeing/ just walking around.
"Do you think Charlie will like this?" Bella asks holding up a NYC clip-on tie.
"Yup," I say nodding my head.
"Isn't Charlie your dad?" Emmett says. Bella nods. "Why do you call him by his first name?"
"I just do," Bella shrugs, "Sometimes I call my mom by her first name too but not to their faces, they say it makes them feel old," Bella grins. "I don't know what to get my mom!" Emmett whines.
"Why don't you just get her a snow globe or something," Alice says.
"Because snow globes are so generic," Emmett says examining some t-shirts.
"I'm sure you'll find something," I say, "We've still got time."
"Not very much of it," Bella sighs. We all sigh a little bit. New York really does feel like home. It's where our little family was created and where we all met the people we love, platonically and romantically.
"We'll be back," Emmett says with a grin, "And New York won't know what hit it."
After leaving the store with some souvenirs for friends and family, we walk on and head to time square in 2 taxis. We look around for a moment, taking it all in one last time. And then our silence is broken by a squeal from Alice.
"Guys! Guys! It's the naked cowboy! Come on let's g et a picture with him!"
"Who's the naked cowboy?" Jasper asks.
"He's a fixture here in time square. He plays the guitar wearing only cowboy boots, underwear, and a cowboy hat," Bella explains.
"Awsome!" Emmett exclaims, "Let's go!" he races after Alice. We all laugh and follow them. After getting some random strangers to take some pictures for us we each have 3 pictures on our cameras, one of us 3 girls, one with of the guys and one of all 6 of us. We walk through time square in our big, loud group and all feelings of melancholy are gone for now. Now we're just having a great time, in a great, city with the people we love.
Edward POV
I watch Bella as she laughs with our friends and just radiates contentment. I had been really worried about her when we'd run into that jerk but she didn't seem to care about it at all anymore. Rose and Alice had assured me that she was OK and they would know they are her best friends. Bella sees me staring and turns and smiles at me.
"Penny for your thoughts?" she says.
"Just thinking about you that's all," I say smiling at her.
"I'm sure you have plenty for interesting things you could be thinking about" she says teasingly.
"Never," I reply and give her a quick kiss. Suddenly I hear a chorus of OOOOooooo's from our friends. Then I hear the click of a camera and Bella and I turn to look at Alice with a camera in her hand a smile on her face.
"Just collecting memories," she says innocently.
"Somehow I doubt it's just that," Bella says quietly to me.
"That picture will probably show up again in a couple of years in a very strange and big way," I say quietly back.
"Well that's our Alice," she says fondly.
"Yup," I say. And she is our Alice. I never would have thought that Bella would be saying that Alice is our Alice in a million years before this trip. But so much has changed and now I have 2 new sisters and my soul mate. And I owe it all to New York, and serendipity. I look at all my friends with fondness. And then I realize that one's missing.
"Where'd Emmett go?" I ask. Everyone shrugs, confused.
"He must have gone off to look at something," Bella says. Suddenly we hear a loud cheer coming from where the naked cowboy had been performing. We all share looks and then run over to where the cheers had come from, only to see Emmett playing air guitar beside the naked cowboy. Shirtless. We take our cameras and take tons of pictures. But I'm almost laughing too hard to keep the camera steady. Bella, Rose, Alice, and Jasper aren't in a much better state.
"That our Emmett," I say to Bella. She turns and smiles at me through her tears of laughter.
"That he is."
Emmett POV
After I had put my shirt back on and rejoined my friends, we continued walking and stopped whenever anyone *cough Alice cough* saw a store they wanted to go into.
"That naked cowboy guy is a cool dude he didn't mind at all when I joined him. Maybe that's what I should do for a living. I can be the naked cowboy's successor," I say with a big grin. Sounds like a good idea to me.
"Emmett, you don't even know how to play the guitar," Edward says.
"I can learn," I reply, "But I won't do it if it would make Rosie jealous of all the New Yorker women seeing so much of this all the time." At this a flex my muscles and show off my athletes physique.
"I don't mind at all," Rose says, "As long as I can play guitar in my underwear too," she smirks. I stop. No way.
"On second thought I'll stick to going to school for now." Everyone laughs at me. They can laugh there was no way my Rosie was going to be on display in her underwear for every teenage hormone ridden boy in New York to see. Rosie gives me a kiss on the cheek.
"Sounds good," she smirks.
"You are an evil woman did you know that?" I say with a mock frown.
"Yup," she says popping the P, "But I'm your evil woman, just like you're my nutcase man."
"That's right," I say nodding and giving Rose a sweat kiss. Then I realize she called me a nutcase, but she was kissing me again so I didn't care. Not at all.
Finally it was reaching late afternoon and we had to head back to get ready for one last dinner out. We were going to a fun restaurant called City Lights where they had a dance floor and cool music, and awesome food. Or so we had heard anyways. We guys knew the drill for getting ready to go out and spent about a half an hour just chilling out in our room waiting for Alice and Rose to be done torturing my poor sister from another mister, Bella. We could her exasperated sighs and groans through the wall. Finally we heard a knock on the wall and Alice's muffled voice saying, "OK guys you can come over now we just have to finish one last thing and then we'll be ready to go."
"Typical Alice," I mutter as I roll my eyes.
"Hey Rose is her cohort. Alice wouldn't create nearly as much trouble alone as she does with Rose to help her," Jasper retorts with a smile.
"And poor Bella is just a victim in all of this," Edward says. Alice opens the door just in time to hear Edward's last statement.
"Bella is not a victim. We take good care of her and we don't hurt her much as long as she doesn't struggle," she says indignantly. Jasper gives Alice a kiss on the cheek and smiles at her taking in her pink and black, sparkly ensemble. She's wearing high heels so she almost reaches his nose. Shorty I chuckle inside my head. But Alice scares me sometimes so I figure it's best to not say anything to upset her while she still has many beautifying torture weapons in reach.
"Ow! Rose!"
"Stop moving Bella!" Edward raises an eyebrow at Alice.
"Ok she was struggling that time." The door to the bathroom opens and out comes Rose and Bella. Rose is wearing a red strapless dress that goes to her knees but has a slit up the side to her mid thigh.
"Hey sexy," I whisper in her ear as I give her a quick kiss. Bella walks over to Edward and latches onto him like she hasn't seen him in weeks.
"Rose and Alice were attacking me again," she says with a little pout. Edward gives her a kiss to make for it. Bella had on a black tank top and a knee length blue skirt, and no high heels of course so she and Alice almost look the same height.
"Let us go," I say and open the door with a wide sweeping gesture. Everyone laughs and off we go to hail a taxi.
Bella POV
After the torture of getting ready for dinner is over we get a taxi because Alice and Rose wouldn't make it the 6 blocks to our restaurant and then still be able to dance in those shoes of theirs. Once we get and open the door to the restaurant we can smell the food and hear the loud music coming from the dance floor. Most of the people are dressed like Rose and Alice although I'm not the least dressed up one there. We get escorted to our seats right by the dance floor. It's so lively and loud and energetic. It's the perfect atmosphere to lift our last night blues.
"What would you guys like to drink?" asks a perky young waitress only a minute after we've sat down. We all look at each other and then Emmett says, "6 martinis please."
An hour or so later everyone was full and happy. Rose and Emmett had gotten up to dance and Alice was pulling Jasper up to join them.
"Bella, want to dance?" Edward says looking at me. I cringe.
"I'm really not much of a dancer, you know that."
"I've seen you dance with Rose and Alice, come on I'll lead," he says with a smile that makes it nearly impossible to say no.
"Fine," I say, "but it's your feet." We walk up to the dance floor and start dancing to the music. Edward led like he said he would and I found I was actually enjoying myself. I find myself thinking in flashbacks of our time here. So much has happened and changed in just 2 weeks. Soon we would be off to university together, the 6 of us, and who knows what kind of fun and trouble would find us there especially with Emmett around. I smile faintly at the thought of all the trouble we would most likely get into in the future. Edward kisses me softly and smiles.
"I was thinking just the same thing. We'd better get a lawyer." I laugh but then I realize he'd done it again!
"Stop reading my mind!" I say indignantly. Edward laughs and kisses me again.
"Not gonna happen."
We decide to take a taxi to Time Square to see it at night one more time. Time Square at night is breathtaking, the lights, the neon signs, the people. The air feels like it's humming with music and energy. The 6 of us stand in silence for a bit. Emmett starts to sing New York, New York.
Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York!
Edward, Alice. Rose, Jasper and I join in.
These vagabond shoes
They are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York!
Slowly other people start to join in and soon most of the Time Square crowd is singing. We sing through the whole song, humming along when we don't know the words. At the end everyone starts clapping and cheering. I'm laughing so hard I can hardly breathe. Emmett had started a sing a long in the middle of Time Square. "Guys," Rose gestures to the clock. It's nearly midnight. It's time to go if we want to get up to start the long drive home tomorrow. I take one last look and then we climb into a taxi and drive back to the hotel.
Alice POV
The next morning I toss last minute things into my suitcase and Rose, Bella and I do a last sweep of our room to make sure we didn't forget anything. I run around the room saying goodbye to everything.
"Goodbye couch, goodbye chair, goodbye beds, goodbye window, goodbye view, goodbye, small bathroom that I had to share, goodbye shower-"
"Alright Alice come on let's go!" Rose says impatiently.
"Oh don't pretend like you're not going to miss this place any less than I am," I say forlornly.
"Of course I am Alice," Rose says in a softer tone, "But it's time to go and we'll be back."
"Ya..." I sigh. We'll be back.
"Come on," Bella says leading me from the room. We look where the guys' door is wide open and we can see Emmett throwing last minute things into his bag very much like I was just seconds ago.
"Hey," Jasper says walking down the hall carrying our last New York coffees.
"Hey," I reply sadly.
"Come one Alice we'll be back soon. And just think of all the fun we'll have at university," Jasper says handing me my coffee and giving me a kiss.
"You're right Jazz, I should be more positive," I say taking a deep drink of my coffee.
"If coffee was all it took to get her to stop moping I would have gone and grabbed some hours ago," Rose mumbles.
"Alright," Emmett says dragging his suitcase to the door with Edward right behind him, "Time to load up." We load everything into our cars which have been sitting neglected in the hotel parking lot for about 10 days. Edward and Rose head back in to hand in our keys as the rest of plan out stops on the way home.
"I say we switch up the car arrangements," Emmett says.
"How about we switch them up now, and then go back to our original arrangements for the end of the drive. We should probably explain to our parents what happened on the trip before we go home in cars they wouldn't recognize," Bella says.
"You're only worried because your dad is the chief of police," I say teasingly.
"You got that right," Bella says.
"Fine with me," Jasper says.
"Me too I just want to sit with my Rosie," Emmett says.
"What about me?" Rose says as she and Edward come back over.
"Oh we're switching the seating arrangement a bit," Bella starts to explain. I zone out as I look at my friends, family really, and then I look around at New York, our city. We would go home, go to university, get jobs, marry, have children, and grow old but New York would always be home and we will always come back.
"Alice," Jasper says, "Time to go you're with me, and Edward." I smile and nod.
"But we're switching again," Bella says, "Edward and I shouldn't be the only couple that has to get separated." As we climb into our cars, I shout a few words of warning and threats at Emmett if he damages my car in any way, and then we're off again.
Goodbye New York, we won't forget you or this summer. And don't you worry, we will be back.
Here we are, the end. I'm going to make an epilogue but no sequal. I don't want to ruin the story by trying to drag it out any longer than it should be drug out. I hate it when that happens. So ya no sequal but I will be writing other stories. Mostly oneshots and probably not any more twilight but who knows. I just wanna say thanks to anyone who read this and to anyone who put up with my procrastinating and delaying and such. hope I didn't dissapoint too much. xo
~Brie 3
PS in the time it took me to get this chapter out I have been to New York on a school band trip. I must say it was amazing! i loved it so much and I will most definetely go back some day. So ya any extra cornyness in the ending is probably due to my own newly developed attachment to NYC. PEACE LOVE + DYNAMITE