Fighting
"That wasn't very nice…" I said to Edward as we walked to my Camry. I chuckled, but Edward didn't join in. I glanced at his face and saw he had a hard expression on his face.
"I don't like that guy talking to you, Bella…" He opened my door for me, but I stood staring at him. I cocked my head to the side and he sighed. "He gives me a bad feeling. I don't know…"
"Edward," I grabbed his hand and kissed his palm. "I'm married to you. I only want you. No one else will ever get in our way." We smiled at each other and he nodded at me.
Driving home was no better than driving to school. Rose was a little pissed at me when she had to tailgate me again. Alice, of course, can never wait for anyone and we got home 30 minutes after school had let out.
"Dang, Bella…" Jasper said in his slight twang. "We would've been home 25 minutes ago…" He laughed and Emmett joined in. Edward coughed beside me and I knew he was trying to stifle a laugh. I rolled my eyes at them and started to walk out of the garage.
"Bella!" Alice popped up in front of me and I gave a little yelp. "Where are you going?"
"Um, to my house?" I phrased it like a question and Alice rolled her eyes.
"C'mon, Bells. Esme and Carlisle aren't home yet… Let's all just hang out here for the day. I'll even make you lunch."
"Fine," I groaned and walked around her to the door that lead to the house.
I gasped when I walked in… The house looked gorgeous and almost the same as the big house back in Forks. The white-on-white rug and furniture in the living room and kitchen with the back glass-wall looking out into the beautiful stream and forest all reminded me of home. I heard everyone laughing at me like always. Why couldn't they just understand that I needed to get used to all of this stuff? But I couldn't complain. I had the best family in the world.
"Bella, how about some mac and cheese?" Alice asked as she flitted towards the kitchen.
"That sounds awesome." We all entered the house and took up our usual spots in the living room. Emmett automatically turned on the TV and we started watching the football game. I sighed and leaned against Edward's knees from my spot on the floor. Just when I got comfortable, the pixie called me in to eat my lunch.
"Thanks, Alice," I said as I sat at the table. The pasta covered in cheddar cheese looked wonderful. But then I remembered something earlier about that day.
"Alice!" I called before she left the room. "I need to talk to you…" She narrowed her eyes and took the seat next to me at the table.
"What's up, Bella?" Alice folded her hands on the table and sat on her legs. She reminded me of a little girl asking for candy. I smiled, but shook my head and got to the point.
"What was up with you in Trig?" I stared her down and she squirmed a little.
"Nothing, Bella…" Alice squirmed even more when I narrowed my eyes and stared her down. "I just had a stupid vision, okay?" she yelled and composed herself.
"What was it about?" I was worried she would say something about my dad being worried about me and what not. I told him I would call him in a few days.
"Let's go for a walk, Bella…" Her words didn't match what her eyes were saying. They were saying I don't want anyone else to overhear. I nodded and we walked to the front door.
"Where are you guys off to?" asked Rosalie as she came down the stairs.
"We're just going to take a walk down on the beach." Alice waved and closed the door.
"Don't leave me here with them!" she yelled loud enough for us to hear. We laughed and walked down the path next to my house that led to the beach's shore. We walked down the trail in silence and found the sand just a few minutes later. It was cloudy out, so Alice wouldn't be worried about any on-lookers. We removed our sandals and walked along the sand in silence for a little longer until Alice spoke up.
"I don't want Edward to know what is going on. And it was really hard to hide this vision from him, but I did it. So I don't want you to speak a word of it to him. It wouldn't be good for anybody…" Alice gave me a long stare and I nodded.
"Just spit it out, Alice. You're scaring me." She sighed and we both sat down on the sand.
"It was about that Lucas guy from school." My eyes widened and my pulse quickened. "I saw you kissing him." I gasped and she stared into my eyes.
"Alice…" I couldn't speak.
"I don't want to see my brother hurt, Bella. What is going on between you two?"
"Nothing, Alice! He showed obvious interest in me and we have two classes together. That's all." I stared back into Alice's eyes and she nodded slowly.
"Okay, but I think you should stay away from him. I have a bad feeling about him…" She stared off into the water.
I laughed so hard that Alice's gaze was almost murderous when she whipped her head to look at me.
"What?" she hissed.
"It's just hard to believe you and Edward aren't really related. He said the same thing with the same gaze." I laughed again and Alice's face smoothed out. "But there's one thing I know you'll do that Edward won't…" I said when my giggles stopped.
"What's that?"
"You'll try to explain what feels so wrong about him."
"Well," Alice began, "it's just one thing in specific that we all noticed. Something you can't even notice. Yet." She gave me a cheeky grin, but my face stayed serene waiting for her to continue. "His smell is off. None of us can put our finger on it, really, but we all admit it's there…"
"Well, I promise his smell won't have anything to do with me liking him. Your brother is all I really need." We laughed and stood up, shaking ourselves off of sand, and walked back to the house. The scene we walked in on seemed to be normal for Alice, but hilarious to me.
Edward was standing on the couch with his hands in the air like a champion. Emmett and Jasper were both sprawled on the floor pretending to be dead. Rosalie was in one of the arm chairs with her eyes squeezed shut and her hand covering her ears. She was muttering a lot of incoherent things. I laughed so hard, I had to grab my sides for support while Alice just walked in and smacked Edward on his head.
"Ow, Alice." He ribbed his head and watched Alice pick Emmett and Jasper up by their ears. "We were only playing."
"Yeah, but you're giving Rosalie here an excuse to rip all of your heads off." The boys grumbled and I walked over to Rose. I finally heard what she was mumbling about.
"…no matches in this house. I need the dang matches…" I chuckled and slowly touched her arm. Her eyes shot open and she smiled weakly at me. "I'm so happy you guys are back!" She removed her hands from her ears and stood up to hug me. "I thought I was going to have to kill them." I chuckled again.
For the rest of the day, we all just played games and watched TV. We all played Twister for a while. Of course, I lost because there were so many stone, hard bodies in the way. I also played chess with Jasper, only this time, he was giving me pointers on moves to make. I learned a lot and even won a game. Against Emmett, of course. Alice and Edward didn't want to stop playing chess for the rest of the day. We were so fed up and left them to their never ending game of psychics and mind-readers.
Esme came home at around 2 in the afternoon. Yeah, I know it seemed as we took all day to play games, but it was literally only a few hours. She smiled at everyone and went to make me a snack.
"Hey, guys?" Alice said coming into the living room. Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie and I broke into a chorus of 'Hallelujah' when we saw the two non-stoppers come out of the dining room. They both rolled their eyes and Alice continued. "How about we all go to the movies tonight?"
"Sure," we all said together and laughed.
"On one condition," said Emmett.
"What's that?" Edward gave him a skeptic look.
"The men get to drive!" We all laughed and walked out into the garage. Emmett was just excited to drive his new car. He traded in his Jeep for an even bigger, scarier looking car. The black hummer was a five-seater and the leather seating was very expensive looking. The heavily tainted windows served perfectly for what it would be used for.
Jasper had bought himself a car, too. His black Mustang V6 was his new baby. Although he has never gotten to drive it, he is very anxious and I can tell. Alice could, too, and she looke happy that he was finally able to get his own car.
We all got in to our cars and drove off to the nearest movie theatre. Edward kept looking at me the entire time he was driving and I had a feeling he was getting over his weird mood. Like I told Alice, Lucas was nothing but a classmate to me. I would never think of anything more toward him. Like I needed any more boys liking me anyway.
Edward was my husband and Jacob was always in love with me. I was in love with him, too, but marrying Edward proved who I really belonged to. And even though the last time I saw Jacob was not under good circumstances, I still cared about him as my best friend. I was surprised I haven't even thought about him until now. I wonder what he was doing right now….
"Bella." Edward's voice brought me out of my trance and I noticed he was holding my door open for me. Wow. I was out of it for the whole ride to the theatre.
"Sorry. I was just thinking." We chuckled together and I let him help me out of the car. We walked to the ticket stand where everyone else was waiting. They were chatting animatedly while we walked up to them. "What movie are we watching?" I asked.
"Avatar. It's supposed to be really good," Rose said and handed me my 3D glasses. I nodded and we all walked into the room where we would watch the movie. We were a little early so I went to buy something at the concession stand. I bought a water bottle and a bag of sour patch. On my way back to the room, I heard a familiar voice calling after me.
"Bella? Is that you?" I turned to see Lucas waving to me.
"Hey, Lucas." I waited for him to walk up to me and he smiled genuinely at me.
"Hey. Are you here alone?" He seemed a little hopeful.
"Um, no. I'm actually here with my family."
"Oh." His face fell just a little and he smiled at me crookedly. It reminded me so much of Edward…
"Well, my movie's about to start, so I'll see you tomorrow…" I started to turn away from him.
"Wait, Bella. Let me walk you. What movie are you guys watching?" He fell into step next to me and I rolled my eyes internally. He was so insistent.
"Um, that Avatar movie. Everyone wanted to watch it…" His eyes brightened and he stood in our path.
"I'm watching that, too. I'm here with a couple college friends." He smiled. "Maybe we can all sit together…"
I was about to decline, when I saw the desperation in Lucas' eyes. It looked like he desperately wanted a real friend, someone to really talk to. He just met all of his new 'college friends'. But he also just met me. So I wasn't sure if it was a desperation for friendship or companionship. One of them, I would have no problem with. But was I able to give him any of those?
"Look, if you didn't want to, it's okay…" he pouted and slumped his shoulders, turning to walk away. The guilt ate at me alive and I really hoped I wouldn't get in any trouble.
"Lucas! C'mon. Let's go bring our groups together." He smiled at me brilliantly and I smiled back, even though one thought kept going through my mind. Edward is not going to like this…
We walked into the theatre together. My family was sitting in the middle of the room and Lucas' friends were obviously in the front being loud and obnoxious. I really hoped they would be quiet if they came to sit around Rosalie. She wasn't good with controlling her temper. I stopped at my row and Lucas called a 'be right back' to me and I nodded at him. I went to sit next to Edward and everyone was giving me questioning looks. Ugh.
"Guys. You're overwhelming her." Jasper spoke quietly, but his voice cut through the air like a knife. Everyone softened their gazes, but never took their eyes away from me.
"Bella. Start explaining why those humans are walking over here." Rosalie moved her gaze to the group approaching us.
"Um, long story short, he gave me the guilt trip…" Everyone groaned, knowing that is my very weakness. That's when everyone started shifting seats. I guessed they were trying to protect me and Jasper, who were the weakest links in the family. I was in the middle of the row with Edward on my left side. Alice moved from the end of the row to the other side of Edward. Jasper sat next to her, at the end of the row. Emmett and Rosalie moved to the row behind us. Emmett was directly behind me with Rose on his right.
Lucas and his friends came, then, and took their seats. Lucas sat next to me, which earned him a look from Edward, and my brothers. Two of his friends sat on his other side and one of them hesitated in the aisle.
"Hey. Guys, this is Bella. Bella, this is Damien," he pointed to the guy next to him, "Luis," he pointed to the one next to Damien, "and Erik," he pointed to the guy standing in the aisle. They all murmured hellos.
"Hi. This is Edward, my husband. My sisters, Alice and Rosalie, and my brothers, Jasper and Emmett." I pointed to everyone in turn. Then I saw Erik's eyes widen and he finally took his seat. Right next to Rosalie.
"Hey, babe. You're too cute to be sitting by yourself…" Rosalie snorted and turned away from him. Emmett puffed up, like he always does.
"Sorry, man. But last time I checked she wasn't sitting alone. She was sitting with her husband, me." Emmett put his arm possessively around Rose's shoulders and she pecked his cheek. Emmett flexed his huge biceps with his other arm. He even went all the way and kissed his muscles. We all snickered.
"Oh, shoot. My fault, dude." Erik got up and moved three seats away from Rosalie. Emmett flashed him his brilliant smile and we all snickered again.
"Sorry about that, Bella," Lucas whispered to me.
"No, it's okay. My brother and sister know how to take care of themselves." I laughed again.
"Just be sure your friend stays away from Rose," said Alice. She would be crying from how hard she was laughing.
"Yeah," said Jasper. "Let's just say my brother doesn't do good with… Pests." We all laughed a little louder.
"You got that right." Edward finally spoke, joining in. "He either screams, or beats their heads in." We all laughed loudly. It was those laughs that make you rock back and forth and you slap your thighs. Well, all of us except Emmett.
"I don't appreciate y'all laughing at me…" Erik crossed his arms and glared at us.
"Trust me sweetie," said Rosalie. "We're not laughing at you." She looked to Emmett who was still glaring at us. "Aw, honey. You know we don't mean it." She tried to stifle her giggles.
"No. My pride is crushed…" Even Emmett would make joking about him a joke. He mocked hurt and grabbed his chest dramatically.
"Aw, guys. Just apologize to Emmett." Rosalie pleaded. We all complied murmuring our apologies.
The movie started then and we all settled into our seats. I was vaguely aware of Edward's arm wrapped around me and Lucas' arm on the armrest. At all the scary, surprising parts I would grab on the Edward's knee and hid my face in his chest.
Only when those really mean military people hit Home Tree and the explosions happened was when I grabbed onto both Edward's knee and Lucas' hand. Edward growled and Emmett's face came up close to my face. I looked over to Lucas nervously and removed my hand from his grip. He chuckled lightly at me and I blushed. Edward took that hand and kissed it, giving Lucas a mean look.
"Stop it," I hissed under my breath. He gave me an innocent/sorry look that made him look like a little boy. I chuckled a little and he kissed me. It was a sweet and passionate kiss. I rolled my eyes at him when he let me loose and it was his turn to chuckle.
The movie went on and I cried so much. It was one of those really nasty, snot-filled cries. Can you blame me? That guy Tsu tey was so good and loyal to his colony. And he just got trown over board that little airplane thing. I was afraid the Jake boy wasn't going to come back just like the other scientist didn't come back. And when he opened his eyes, I hid my face in Edward's chest and cried my eyes out. Edward patted my back and smoothed out my hair, and my sobs slowly decreased. When I looked at the screen, the credits were rolling.
"That's it?" I squealed. I wanted it to go on. What was going to happen to The People now? "They better make a part two," I said stubbornly as I got up to leave with my family. Everyone laughed at me. But I was being totally serious.
"Well," said Lucas awkwardly. We were all standing outside, in front of the movie building. His friends were slowly inching away from us. I heard Edward snicker next to me and I gave him a questioning look.
"That Erik guy got really freaked out…" I looked to see that Erik was already close to one of the cars parked on the curb.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, guys." Lucas moved up to me , but Edward stepped forward.
"Yeah, we'll see you." Edward grabbed my hand and we walked away with the rest of our family. I looked back and waved at Lucas. He waved back enthusiastically and I smiled. Maybe he just really needed a friend. I got in Edward's Volvo. We idled for a long time before I realized we were going to have a big talk. My cell phone rang in my pocket and I answered it quickly.
"Yeah, Alice?"
"Where are you guys? We're almost home…"
"Um, just go on. We'll be there a little later?" I phrased it like a question, and Edward nodded.
"Well okay. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Click.
"Edward…"
"Bella…" We both spoke at the same time.
"You go ahead…" I sat patiently as Edward pulled out of the spot and drove slowly. We took the long way home.
"Bella. I don't want you to think that I don't trust you… But what's going on with you and Lucas?" He looked at me and I stared at him in shock.
"That just contradicted what you said, Edward." I was starting to get upset and I felt him doing the same. "You say you trust me yet you think there's something going on between me and Lucas? That doesn't make sense!"
"Just answer the question, Bella…" He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily.
"No, Edward! You don't trust me so I won't answer!"
"I do trust you!"
"You have an awesome way of showing it!" I puffed and crossed my arms.
"It's him I don't trust, Bella." His tone softened and I felt the angry tears well in my eyes.
"Well to answer your ridiculous question, there is nothing going on between me and Lucas." I stared at him full on. "He's just a classmate. We hardly have any classes together. Only two!" Edward's head whipped around to look at me.
"Two? Two?" He roared and growled deep in his throat. "There's a class you have with him where I'm not there?"
"Edward! Relax! Nothing is going to happen between us. We only have writing together."
"Like I said Bella, I don't trust him." He shook his head. "I saw Alice's vision." I gasped and felt the betrayal settle into my chest. "Don't blame her. She let it slip by when she saw you walking into the theatre with him. And I don't know how much she told you about the vision, but it doesn't end well…"
"Wow, Edward. So he kisses me!" By this time we were idled in our driveway. "It's not like I asked him to. It's not even like I kissed him back!"
"Exactly why I said I didn't know how much you knew about the vision." His eyes tightened as he looked at me. "You obviously didn't put up much of a fight. And I'm afraid if Alice would have let the vision go on, I would have saw you kiss him back." I got out of the car and slammed the door, stomping my way to the front door. Edward was already there and he grabbed my hand. "Bella, please understand why this is a big deal for me."
"Understand?" I pushed passed him and walked into the house. I knew he would be right at my heels, but I kept walking to the kitchen. "What do you want me to understand, Edward? Can't you just take my word for it?" I turned to look at him. The tears spilled over and I saw pain and hurt flash across Edward's face.
"Bella. Please don't cry. It breaks me…" He reached his hand out to me, but I backed away from him. He flinched as if I'd slapped him.
"You're always so jealous about everything. Can't I just have a friend who's a guy?" Then I sighed, exasperated. "What am I saying? He's not even my friend. I just met him."
"I know, Bella." He moved closer to me and I continued to back away. I didn't want him to touch me and make me forget why I am so mad at him. "I just can't stand to go through this again."
I gaped at him.
"I've seen you in the arms of another man before, Bella. It hurt me too much and I can't bear it if I have to watch it again. I saw it in Alice's vision and that hurt enough."
"The future is subjective. It always changes! There's no guarantee you'll find me sucking face with Lucas. And stop bringing Jacob into this." His name closed up my throat and I felt on the verge of hysterics.
"But Bella…"
"No!" I cut him off. "It will always hurt me how much I hurt you and Jacob when I kissed him and realized I was in love with him. But does that matter now? He's no longer my lover, he's only my friend. The one who I have seen hurt by me too many times to count. You don't think I beat myself up about it every day?" More tears escaped my eyes and I wiped at them angrily.
"The day you find me kissing another girl is the day you can understand what I went through." He turned to walk away, but my screaming cut him off.
"YOU REALLY DON'T THINK I KNOW WHAT YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH?" My voice echoed around the house and I swear I saw the windows shake a little. "You left me, Edward! I think I understand more than you know!" He shuddered.
"I will never forgive myself for that," he said with his back still facing me. He walked up a couple of stairs before he turned back. "Aren't you coming?" He gestured to the second floor of the house.
"No." I was calmer now, but my voice was still cold. I walked to the front door.
"Where are you going?" The pain was now evident in his voice and it broke my heart. But I had to stay strong. I couldn't let this fight be unresolved.
"Outside. I need some fresh air to calm myself. Then, we'll talk." I slammed the door and walked out to the porch. I sat in the swing and cried into my hands.
Edward and I never fought like that before. I didn't want us to fight, but I couldn't let his speculations arise without me clarifying them. But will this hurt our marriage. We've only been married a couple of weeks, almost a month. I couldn't live if Edward left me again. I think I would just die.
"Are you okay, Bella?" At first, I thought it was Edward speaking to me. I was just about to tell him off when I recognized the voice. My blood ran cold and my heart stopped.
"Jacob?" I peered into the darkness to see my best friend's gleaming smile.
"Hey, Bells. I think we need to talk…"