Chapter two : ) I don't know if there will be any after this, but I felt like it needed something more. I think Ive left it at a good ending, but Ive also left some openings for further chapters if you want me to carry on.
Honestly, Im surprised Ive got this far; two really long chapters in the space of a week! At the moment, this is a record for me, Im pretty proud of myself. Hopefully this means my writers block is coming to an end! :D very happy about that!
The usual Disclaimer applies: if you recognise it, it's not mine.
There is a reference to another book in here, a particular scene that was my inspiration for most of this story. If anyone can tell me the book or the author, or both, I will write and dedicate a chapter to you : )
I'll give you a few hints! There is a wedding at the start of the book, some dodgy people trying to buy a house and there is a chance that 'Gina Laing's Show' might just turn into a 'Sex Romp in Art Gallery.' ;) There is a character called Rose, and one called Hamish, and a roaming ram named Houdini!
If no one can guess, I'll give you the name of the book in a few days, it's definitely worth a read. The main character is who inspired my Bella : )
Anyway, read on!
Raging headache, check. Dry mouth, check. Feeling like death-warmed-up, check.
Definitely overdid things last night. What the heck happened?
I sit up slowly and try to open my eyes, groaning as the world seems to shift around me. One eye is stuck shut with what I think – and seriously hope – is mascara. Clearly I neglected my take-the-makeup-off routine last night, and honestly, I'm not surprised. I don't actually remember anything after Emmett turned up at our booth. I don't remember getting home, or getting myself into bed.
I especially don't remember my room having an en-suit bathroom…
Holy shit! This is not my room!
I open my eyes wide – small victory over the mascara demon, but I have bigger issues at the moment – and try to ignore the intense thumping of my head as I take in my surroundings.
Where the hell am I?
Well it's certainly not my room; that much I've already established. It's not Rose's either, far too tidy. And there's only one wardrobe so definitely not Alice's.
It's a fairly good size room, with the king size bed I'm sat on taking up about a quarter of it. There's a wardrobe and set of drawers against the wall opposite me, and a fairly large desk next to the en-suite door. The door is open and I can see the edge of the walk in shower from where I'm sat. At the end of the bed, I can just see the top of a leather sofa. All in all, it's a pretty nice room, with good, expensive looking furnishings. It's definitely stuff I would pick for myself if I had the money, but it still doesn't tell me much about the owner of the room.
I see a photo in a silver frame on the desk, and carefully make my way over, trying not to stumble as the pain in my head increases.
It's a group shot, with four fairly tall, good looking guys, and a beautiful petite brunette in the middle of them all. She doesn't look familiar, so I look at each guy in turn, trying to work out if I know any of them. The first one looks to be in his early twenty's, and has blonde hair coming down to his eyes. I normally don't like longer hair on guys, but he pulls it off well. He doesn't look at all familiar, so I move on. The next looks like he's maybe late thirty's to early forty's, with slightly brighter blonde hair than the first, its slicked back against his head, but doesn't look greasy as that does on many people. Again, nothing sticks out as being familiar, which is the same with the woman.
I glance at the next person and the feeling running through me tells me I know him, but how? Copper coloured hair sticks up in a messy array, like he's been running his fingers through it too much. His piercing green eyes seem to be calling to me, and I try to remember how I know him. It's something to do with a bar, and drinks, but other than that my brain comes up blank.
I move onto the next person and my heart thuds hard against my chest, and not in a good way. That's Emmett!
Oh my god! Am I in Emmett's room? Did I sleep with Emmett?
I'm so dead. Rose is actually going to kill me.
A groan breaks my chain of thought as I wonder how she would kill me, and I jump and spin around to face the sofa. I try to ignore the violent shooting pains in my head as I gaze down at what is clearly a person sprawled across the seat.
Well at least they weren't in the bed with me; I think I might have had a heart attack waking up like that…
…or spontaneously combusted…
The blanket covering the person shifts lower and a flash of copper hair appears over the arm of the chair followed by the briefest glimpse of the most beautiful chest and abs I have ever seen, and my insides squirm at the sight. The man rubs his hand against his face and groans again, before sitting up and running his hands through his hair. The blanket falls to the floor revealing him to be sat in just his boxers, and although it is a wonderful sight, I immediately feel my cheeks flame and look straight down at my feet.
It's only now that I notice what I'm wearing. Gone is the beautiful blue dress from last night that Alice had bought me, and in its place, is a faded Limp Bizkit concert t-shirt, and a pair of black boxers.
"What the hell?" My throat feels tight, and although I feel like screaming I can barely croak the words.
Copper look over at me and smiles, "Well 'hello' to you too."
"Where the hell am I?" I look around for something hard to throw at him, but all I see is that photo. As much as I want to throw something, my gut twists at the thought of breaking it.
"Not a morning person, are you?" He crosses the room to take a glass of water off the top of the drawers and I have to remind myself that he is a stranger, and I should not be gawking at him. At least till I find out whom he is.
"You have about five seconds to tell me who you are and where I am, before I call the cops." Well Charlie; and he is a cop so it's not like I'm lying. But as I look quickly around the room, I can't even find my phone or my bag.
"Will you calm down, geez, Rose was right your hangovers suck." He picks up a second glass and walks over to me, holding it out towards me. "I'm Edward, we met last night. You're in my house. Well in my room actually." As I reach out to take the water, I can't help thinking about what he said, and of what I'm wearing. My eyes pop open wide and I look up at him. "Before you ask, nothing happened."
"What? What the hell was I doing in your bed then?"
He shrugs and puts the glass on the desk next to me, moving back to sit on the edge of the sofa to look at me. "We didn't want you to roll off the sofa and hurt yourself, Rose said you bruise like a peach and your dad is a cop, and she would kick my ass if she had to explain the bruises to him. She's tiny, but I'm pretty sure she could take me on, I really don't want to get in a fight with her."
"So she just left me here and let me sleep in a stranger's bed, with him in the room?" Ok, now I'm the one doing the killing. Rose is dead.
But Edward just laughs. "She was a little pre-occupied, she just mumbled that you needed to sleep on a bed, not the sofa, and then she and Emmett disappeared to his room. You should be glad you were out of it; I will never get these sounds out my head. I might need to bleach my brain."
Ok, well at least she didn't leave me at his house alone; she just left me alone in a room with him.
My thoughts are all jumbled and I try to remember when we left the club and how we ended up here. I vaguely remember being in a taxi with Rose practically straddling Emmett, Alice sat very close to the young blonde from the picture, and Edward sat next to me with his arm around my waist, but it's still a little bit of a blur. I remember stumbling into a house, basically collapsing on a large comfortable sofa and complaining because Rose wouldn't give me another drink. I remember almost falling up the stairs, and then being carried by someone.
But that's it. Even my vague memories end there.
I look down at myself again and then back up to Edward, who just stares right back.
"Did you undress me?" I know I should feel angry, or violated, but all I can think is how much I wish I remembered that part.
Edward laughs again, bringing me out of my thoughts. "No, you did that yourself. You picked out the clothes too. Didn't even ask, you just started rooting through my drawers until you found something comfortable. And then you made yourself at home in my bed, told me it was better than yours, and passed out." He smiles again, but it doesn't reach his eyes. Something squirms inside me again, and a delicious vision flickers through my head. Was that a memory, or a dream?
"That's it?"
He runs his hand through his hair and tugs gently on the ends, looking away from me sheepishly. "Well, you did kiss me."
"What?" My voice is barely a squeak and my chest feels tight. Why did my brain choose to block that memory?!
"Only goodnight, and then you passed out. I kept hoping you might wake up and finish what you started, but sadly you didn't." He sighs dramatically, before smiling and winking at me and making his way over to the drawers. He pulls a clean t-shirt and a pair of loose jeans. As he pulls them on, he turns to me and gestures to the drawers. "Help yourself, I'm gonna go start breakfast before Emmett wakes up. He gets seriously grouchy if he doesn't have lots of food with his hangover." He crosses the room and drops a soft kiss on my forehead, leaving me alone with a million thoughts running through my head and making me wish I could remember what happened last night.
A warm tingly feeling washes over me, and I seriously hope my stupid brain doesn't take that small moment away from me.
"Good morning!" Rose and Alice say together as I enter the kitchen ten minutes later. They are loud and smiley, looking the most upbeat I have ever seen them after a night out. Normally, I would be the same, but right now I want to find the controls and turn their volume down.
Bitches know I have a raging headache, I knew they would rub it in. "Ugh, prove it."
"Feeling rough?" Emmett manages to mumble through a mouthful of toast.
I drop onto one of the empty seats at the breakfast bar and pull a bottle of water towards me. "Sandpaper." My head drops down onto my hands as I try to force my headache back.
His brows knit together, and he swallows the large chunk of toasts in his mouth. "What?"
Rose giggles and starts to explain, which is good, as I don't have the energy to do anything right now other than drop my head onto my arm. "It's a sort of in-joke we have. Alice started it; she's a woman of very few words, only when she has a hangover."
Alice raises one hand in mock-celebration, and quietly returns to her steaming mug of coffee. So at least we know she has a hangover, just a smaller one than me.
I raise my head slightly and observe Rose sitting with her own steaming mug, chatting and giggling away to Emmett. "How are you so upbeat? I swear, you had the same to drink as me."
She laughs and reaches over to pat my hand. I would normally call her out for being patronising, but right now I don't have the energy. "No sweetie. I stopped after the third round of cocktails. You, my friend, were blitzed and still kept ordering more. I can't say it's a surprise you don't remember most of the night."
"Oh and what a night it was." Alice giggles and winks at me, before glancing over at Edward.
I follow her gaze and watch as he continues to move around the kitchen. He told me nothing happened! "What the hell did I do?"
Emmett bursts into fits of laughter, almost falling off his chair in the process. "Oh Bella, your face!"
"What didn't you do?" Rose smirks.
"Yeah that would probably be an easier question." Alice giggles again and thumps Emmett on the back as he starts to choke on his toast. Serves him right!
"Oh god, what happened?" I groan and eye them all up, trying to see who will be the easiest to question right now.
Emmett stops laughing long enough to look at me, a serious expression crossing his face before he nudges Rose and winks at me. "I think we should hold out a little longer, make her sweat a bit."
"Emmett!"
He looks at me innocently, but with the quirk of a smile on his face. "What?"
I glare at him, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have any effect on him. "If my arms didn't feel like they weighed about a million stone right now, I would hit you. "
He just smiles widely and steals another slice of toast from the pile. "I'm sure you would, but you can't."
I try to glare again but stop as I hear Rose and Alice laughing loudly next to me. I nudge Rose with my shoulder and lean over to take a slice of toast. "You're loving this, aren't you?"
"It's quite a sight to be honest. I can't remember the last time you had a hangover this bad, it's actually rather refreshing."
"You're mean!" I throw my slice of toast at her, but I can't help the giggle that escapes.
Rose carries on as if nothing has happened, talking mainly to Emmett this time but occasionally glancing over to Edward. "I think the last time would have been in college. After that she kept telling us we shouldn't drink so much, and we wouldn't feel so bad."
"It was true."
Her eyebrow raises as she pokes me in the side. "Pot, kettle."
"Shut up." Just then, Edward slides a plate of food in front of me, and hands me a steaming mug of what smells like tea. Hmm, Rose must have told him I don't drink coffee. I look up at him but the glare of sun streaming through the window forces me to look back down as pain shoots through my head again. "Do you have any aspirin?" I ask as I mentally curse whoever served me last night.
"Sure." It takes him a few seconds to collect the pills and a glass of water, he places them both in front of me before he starts to dish out food for everyone else.
I take the pills and pray they work fast, and I'm just about to take my first mouthful when Edward takes the seat next to me, wraps one arm around my waist and places a kiss on my neck.
When I look up, he's turned his attention to his food, his arm still wrapped around me. I can feel my cheeks start to heat up, and quickly check if Alice or Rose have noticed this. Alice smiles before she too starts to eat, but Rose seems to be too caught up in Emmett to notice anything.
I look down at my food, and try to summon up the will to eat it, but all I can focus on is the heat of Edwards hand on my waist, and the tingling sensation growing outwards from my neck. My heart thuds as my chest tightens and I wiggle off the chair away from him.
"I'll be right back." My voice is quiet, but I can't manage anything else right now. I force my feet to move and make it just out of the door when I hear Alice speak.
"Wait, I'll go. I'm sure she's fine." She appears at the door, a look of confusion and concern across her face as she places her hands on my shoulders. "Are you ok Bella?"
So many things float through my mind, so many questions that need answers and its only ten in the morning. "What the hell happened last night?" I whisper frantically, pulling her across the room to the large sofa I remember collapsing on.
Alice laughs lightly, her smile growing as she takes hold of my hands. "Oh, sweetie. It's really a shame you don't remember anything. Let me tell you, it was a brilliant night."
As she delves into her story, images flood my mind and I slowly start to piece things back together.
"Isabella Marie Swan, you get off this table right now!" Rose says, the Mama-Hale voice on in full force. This only serves to make me laugh more, and continue to dance. Rose and Alice both reach out to me, but I twist away from them both.
And that seems to be my downfall. Quite literally. I feel myself falling towards the floor, bringing my arms up to cover my face. As I brace for a hard impact, I feel two strong arms wrap around me.
My arms shoot away from my face, and I almost hit whoever caught me. I look up and see the man from the bar, a scowl and concerned eyes replacing the dazzling smile.
Emmett chuckles, and whisper shouts to Rose, "I told you, women throw themselves at him."
My heart is thumping, embarrassment and adrenaline coursing through me. My head starts to spin, and I promptly pass out in Edwards arms.
The next thing I remember is listening to Rose and Alice whisper close to me, giggles escaping every so often. I open my eyes blearily, expecting to be back home, but one look around the room shows me I'm wrong. We're in a large office, furnished in the same colours as the last club we were at, so I assume we're still there. For a second I wonder how we ended up back here, but then I remember Rose mentioning Emmett owning the place.
"Oh, you're awake." Rose says as she looks up at me. They're both sat on the floor, shoes discarded and they each have a cocktail. I reach out to take one, but they both pull back and laugh. "Nope, you are cut off Miss Swan."
"Aww come on Rose." I try to put on the begging voice Alice always used to persuade us to go shopping, but they both just snigger at me.
"It's not up to me, Edward said so." She points to the door, which I assume leads back to the bar as I can hear the music coming softly from that direction.
"I should tell them you're ok." Alice pulls herself up and leaves the room, leaving me with a still smiling and giggly Rose.
"Edward kept saying he was gonna ring an ambulance but we said there was no need."
The name sounds familiar but my head feels fuzzy. "Edward?" I ask, sitting up and taking the offered glass Rose hands me. I frown when I realise that it's only water.
Her smile grows. "Oh he's just gonna love that you don't remember him." She says sarcastically, adding a laugh before she pulls herself up from the floor, then me up from the chair. She grabs hers and Alice's shoes and we make our way out to the bar.
As we walk down a long corridor toward the stairs, Emmett and the guy from the bar appear at the top. Emmett slides his arm around Rose and leads her away. "Be nice, Edward." Rose laughs before she disappears.
Edward stops me and lifts my chin gently to look at me.
"You feeling ok?" He asks, his voice just as velvety smooth as before, but I can hear the concern in his tone.
"I'm fine." I suddenly remember my embarrassing table dancing, and my less than graceful fall onto him. "I'm sorry about before. Thanks for catching me."
"You're lucky I was there, you could have been seriously hurt." Something flashes across his face and a small frown line appears on his forehead. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't." I answer simply. He frowns at me again. "What does it matter? Nothing happened, thanks to you, and I won't do it again."
He looks like he's about to say something else, but I slip away from him and walk towards the stairs. I turn to ask him if I can get a drink, and feel my heels twist on the top step.
Before I fall for the second time tonight, Edward reaches out and wraps his arms around me, pulling me towards him.
"Will you please just watch what you're doing!"
"Stop yelling at me, it was an accident!" I push him away and try not to let my mind wander, the wonderful smell of him surrounding me still.
"You seem to get into a lot of accidents. Is that just when you drink, or all the time?" He quirks an eyebrow, and runs his hand through his already messed up hair.
I want to say something back, but I have to agree. I do not want to tell him that though! I turn and head down the stairs, ignoring Edward as he calls for me to come back. When I make it to the bottom, I open the door and slam it behind me, pushing myself quickly through the crowd towards the booths where Rose, Alice and Emmett are sat.
Before I get there, the song changes and I make a detour further onto the dance floor. I don't usually end up dancing on my own, having Alice or Rose with me made sure the sleazy guys didn't hit on me too much. But right now, I couldn't care less.
I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, singing along to the song and dancing like I don't have a care in the world. I spin around and my eyes flick across the crowd, wondering if Alice and Rose have decided to dance yet.
My eyes land on a guy stood at the other side of the dance floor, my body freezes and I feel my mood suddenly deflate.
Is that Jake? That looks like Jake. What the hell is he doing here, of all places? He hates clubs!
I duck quickly as he looks in my direction, and squeeze myself through the throngs of dancers, hoping to hide myself. I do not want to see, or speak to him right now.
"What can I get you?" I turn towards the voice and notice I've somehow ended up at the bar. Obviously Edward hasn't told them I've been cut off, maybe he just said that to Rose and Alice. I silently thank them for not taking my bag off me, and order a Sex on the beach, and two shots. I know I shouldn't have any more, but if I'm going to be forced to see him at some point, I will need all the courage I can get. If that comes as alcohol-induced courage, I'll have to take it.
The shots are quickly gone, reawakening my buzz from earlier. I grab the cocktail and check to see where Jake has gone. I can't see him anywhere. Maybe I imagined it.
I move to the end of the bar instead of heading towards the booths and jump up onto a stool near the dance floor. The drink is gone quickly, as are the next two each with two shots, and I'm halfway through a fourth when I spot him again. He's leaning up against the wall across from me, smiling and chatting to a pretty blonde. I laugh out loud, wondering whether he's still will the girl too. My Mom always used to tell me, once a cheater always a cheater, so it wouldn't surprise me if he is.
I finish the fourth cocktail and turn to order more, coming face-to-face with a smiling Edward. "Oh dear, what are we going to do with you Bella?"
I feel a smile tug at the corner of my mouth, a giggle escaping as I try – and probably fail – to look innocent. "Busted."
He laughs and turns to one of the bar staff, whispers something to him and points at me.
Great, now I guess I really am cut off. The message is passed along to each staff member, who each look at me in turn. The main girl who had been serving me smiles and laughs, mouthing a quick 'Sorry,' before turning back to her orders. When I look back to where Edward had been standing, he's gone. I turn my head, wondering if he's gone back to the booth and thinking I might be able to sneak at least one more drink, when he appears at my side.
"I think you need to dance off some of this alcohol." He smirks and holds out his hand. "Join me?"
My eyes flicker from him to Jake, still chatting up the blonde. For the last two years, any time we managed to get him to come out, which really wasn't very often, he refused to dance with me. I want to erase every part of him from my life, and what better way to erase memories than to create new ones?
"Sure, why not?" I place my hand in his and jump down off the stool.
Edward pulls me to the middle of the dance floor, twirling me around as the music changes.
I laugh out loud at the song choice, Edward smiles an looks at me questionably.
"My ex is over there. The song seems appropriate." I start to spin and sway to the music, singing along and laughing at the irony.
As more people flock to the dance floor, I feel myself being pushed further towards Edward, my back brushing against his chest. As his arms settle around me waist, I raise mine and link them around his neck. It feels so natural dancing with him, he just makes me feel comfortable.
Actually, I already feel more comfortable with Edward than I ever did with Jake. And I barely know him.
Well that's definitely going to change, I'll make sure of that.
We continue to dance together, and when the crowd starts to thin a few songs later we're still holding onto each other. At some point during the last song I've managed to turn to face him, and my arms once again loop around his neck, his still resting around my waist. His fingers draw patterns against my back, and I laugh and wiggle at the tickling feeling.
A slower song start and I rest my head against Edward's chest, a soft sigh escaping as I tighten my hold on him.
"You ok?" I hear him say. I look up and smile.
"Perfect."
We stay on the dance floor for what seems like hours stopping occasionally to get a drink – water or coke for me, although I do manage to have a few sneaky shots with my new favourite barmaid Angela when Edward goes to the loo, or goes to see what the rest of the group are up to.
Alice and Rose have come down to dance a few times, but now that Emmet's brother Jasper has appeared Alice doesn't stay with me for long. I really don't mind, I'm enjoying spending time with Edward. People slowly start to drift away, either to sit down or just to leave.
As we make our way onto the dance floor once again, Edward's arms wrapping around me as a slow smile crosses his face, I feel myself being pulled back away from him. The hand around my wrist is much too big to be Alice or Rose, and I don't think Emmett would ever hold me that tightly.
I look up, and see Jake's furious eyes boring into mine, before he shoots a murderous look towards Edward.
"Off limits mate." He snarls, trying to pull me behind him.
"Excuse me? You have no say in who I dance with, much less anything else." I try to pull my arm out of his grip, but he holds me tighter and tried to pull me away with him. "Hey! Let me go!"
Edward takes hold of my hand, and wraps the other arm around my waist, pulling me gently away from Jake. "I would listen if I were you." He says. Jake practically growls and tries to yank me towards him, but Edward already has me tucked securely against his chest.
His hand tightens around my wrist as I try to wriggle it free, almost to the point of pain. "You should come with me Bella. What the hell are you doing with this guy?"
"Not that it's any of your business anymore, but I'm finally having fun. You should try it some time."
A dark look crosses his face and he pulls on my wrist. "Bella, come with me. Now!"
Frustration and anger swell up inside me and I stamp the heel of my shoe right on his toes, his hand dropping my wrist immediately. "I am not a pet you can command and control, Jake. You no longer have any say in what I do, or who I spend time with. If you've already lost interest in the girl, go find some other Bitch to play with, I'm done with you."
For the first time ever, Jake looks like he's about to hit me. I flinch and step back, but Edward quickly pulls me against his side and takes the hit for me.
Everything happens pretty quickly after that. Before Edward has a chance to fight back, the bouncer who let us in grabs Jake and leads him away as he screams about this not being over. Another bouncer seems to be rounding up everyone else for closing time. Emmett and who I assume is Jasper both appear with Alice and Rose in tow, fighting their way through the parting crowd.
I look up at Edward and notice a small trickle of blood on his lip. The bastard actually split his lip! As Emmett walks off, mumbling something about an office report, and Jasper is lead away by Alice, I pull Edward to sit next to the bar.
Angela hands me a towel filled with ice and a first aid kit. I'm pretty sure he doesn't need much but at least I can clean away the blood.
Edward sits on a stool and I move to sit next to him. I reach up to hold the ice to his face, but really don't want to stretch so much. I stand up, and lift myself up onto the bar, sitting in front of him and pulling him so he is sitting between my legs.
"Thank you." I whisper as I hold the towel to his face. "You didn't have to do that."
He takes hold of my free hand and laces his fingers with mine. "Oh course I did, I couldn't let him hit you."
The staff work around us, cleaning away the glasses and wiping down the bar. Angela laughs as she reaches where I'm sat, but simply carries on down the bar. When I look up to collect wipes from the first aid kit, Edward and I are the only people in the room.
"You're might have a pretty big bruise tomorrow, but I don't think it should be too bad. It's only a small cut too." I tell him as I wipe away the small amount of blood on his lips. I normally can't stand the sight of blood, but right now I couldn't give a damn.
"War wound." Edward smirks. "It was worth it."
"Oh really?" I laugh as I put everything back in the little box. "And why is that?"
His answer is to pull me down so I fall onto his lap, and lower his head to kiss me. As soon as his lips touch mine, all thought of Jake leave my mind. I'm surrounded by Edward; the masculine smell of him, the feel of his lips against mine and the softness of his hair between my fingers. He pulls away to breath and rests his head against mine.
"I've been wanting to do that all night." He admits with a smile, his voice husky and oh-so sexy.
"Hmm." I can barely think straight, my mind clouded with Edward rather than alcohol now. I'm glad he has his arms around me, otherwise I might have slipped straight off him. "Better late than never."
Edward smirks and kisses me again, pulling me closer to him as the kiss deepens.
"I told you." Alice's voice floats through the fog of Edward and I pull back slowly, my eyes never leaving his. "It's the Florence Nightingale thing."
We stay a bit longer to have a few more drinks. Edward seems to have forgotten my drinking ban, and I quickly tumble back into being seriously, seriously drunk as a few drinks turns into quite a lot of drinks. Although now, rather than being giggly and playful, I just want to sleep. I snuggle closer to Edward and hear something about a taxi.
"I don't want to go home." I mumble into his shoulder as I wiggle my face closer to his neck and kiss it.
"Yeah, the girls seem to think the same. Your all coming to our place. I assume you don't mind that?" He chuckles and kisses the top of my head.
"That's fine."
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember is Edward lifting me out of the taxi and carrying me towards the house. He puts me down so he can find his keys, and as soon as the door opens I walk through and stumble straight onto the sofa, which is warm and soft, but I hear Rose mutter something about bruises and my Dad. Yeah, that would be an interesting conversation.
Feeling a little bit awake, I stumble towards the stairs trying to get to Edward's room, but he picks me up before I can make it past the first step. "No falling down stairs, remember?"
He takes me to his room and sits me on his bed, then leaves to go get some water. I look down at my dress and grimace at the thought of sleeping in it. Instead, I make my way over to the drawers and open a few, trying to find something to wear. The smell of Edward hits me and I smile, taking out a t-shirt and a pair of boxers. I go back to the bed and start to undress, just as the door opens and Edward walks in.
As soon as he sees me, his eyes go wide and he spins around, slamming the door shut with his foot. "Shit sorry, didn't know you were changing." He mumbles as he places two glasses on top of the drawers.
I smile and finish getting dressed, kicking my dress and underwear away from me. "You can turn around now."
He looks quickly over his shoulder and I laugh as he groans at the sight of my clothes on the floor.
"Sorry, I didn't want to sleep in the dress, I like to be comfy for bed." I explain as I climb into his bed. I look up at him, wondering if he will join me or not. "This is really nice, so much better than mine."
I feel myself sink into the softness of the bed and sleep start to take hold of me, but not before I catch a glimpse of Edward as he undresses. I watch the muscles in his back bunch as he lifts off his shirt, and feel my body tingle all over.
"Hey, Edward?"
He turns towards me, in the process of taking off his jeans. "Yeah?"
"C'mere." My voice is getting quieter as I start to drift off, but there is one thing I need before I can sleep.
He shuffles over and squats down, so his face is level with mine. Perfect. "Yeah?"
I lean forward and brush my lips gently against his. "G'night."
"Night Bella."
As Alice finishes telling her version of the night and I stop replaying the memories over in my head, Rose pops her head around the door. "Everything ok in here?"
I smile and nod my head, finding it a lot less painful and a lot clearer than before. I can't believe I forgot everything! Well actually I can, alcohol usually does that, but I've never forgotten pretty much a whole night before.
"There's still some food if you're hungry, I told Emmett he had to leave some. I'm honestly surprised he doesn't weight a million stone, my man can certainly eat." She smiles and leaves the room.
"Come on, you need to eat." Alice pushes me back in the kitchen and straight away my eyes fall on Edward. As though he can sense me looking at him, he turns around.
"You ok?" He asks, putting down his drink and turning to face me as I sit down again.
"Not quite."
I smile at the slight look of confusion across his face. I move closer to him, slip my arms around his neck and run my fingers through his hair. He seems to catch onto my thought, and as I move myself closer, he lowers his head and meets me halfway.
His kiss is every bit as good as I remember, if not better. I pull myself closer, and my stomach chooses that moment to rumble. I feel Edward smile against my lips as he pulls away.
"That's better." I smile and turn back to my food, Edwards arm wrapped firmly around my waist once more.
Hmm, so maybe I did over-do things last night. But it was definitely worth it!
This is not a song fic, but they were obviously at the club for the flashback and I used a few songs for inspiration. Some of them are not exactly clubby songs, but they are what I was listening to and it helped me to write.
The first song Bella is singing along to, before she notices Jake, is Daughtry – Ghost of Me. I don't know why, but this felt like a good choice for her, and I pictured her thinking back over her relationship with Jake and all the things she never got to do, and picturing the person she had been with him, the Ghost of herself.
The song she is laughing about when she dances with Edward, and what helped me write the confrontation with Jake is Taylor Swift – We Are Never Getting Back Together. Appropriate much? Please let me know if you loved the irony of this as much as I did, it came on just as I started writing that bit and I really couldn't help it.
A few others that don't have a big significance to the chapter, but would probably set the mood of the whole dancing bit are: Kelly Clarkson – You Found Me, Daughtry – Feels like the First Time and Demi Lovato – World of Chances. The first two are more about Bella and Edward, the last one is Bella thinking about her past with Jake.
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it : ) Let me know what you think!