Author's Note:
Okay, I was totally going to update sooner but my best friend turned 21 this weekend and my brother's bride-to-be had a wedding meltdown (her caterer canceled less than two months out!) and my mom had to go to the hospital plus truckloads of homework and a seminar for work. It was a long week. And this isn't our usual fluffy, funny chapter. This is a little bit of touchy-feely stuff. But it needs to happen.
Here we go!
I don't own anything except a car that's a year younger than I am that really needs an oil change.
The next morning I woke up with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I un-stuck it as best I could and felt around in my mouth. My teeth felt like they had bunny slippers on. I opened one eye to examine where I was. I seemed to be in my room. Slowly, painfully, I sat up, head pounding and realized that I was still wearing a crumpled and twisted version of what I had been wearing the night before. Deciding that needed to change, I got up and stripped and replaced the previous outfit with a comfortable t-shirt and yoga pants.
Once that was done, I felt much better and decided that it was time for breakfast and some Asprin so I went out to the bathroom to get some and then to the kitchen to make breakfast.
As I got into the kitchen, I heard hushed voices and smelled the most wonderful thing I had smelled in a long time: bacon.
"Morning," I mumbled, not really looking up as I grabbed a mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee, creamer and sugar.
"Morning," Rosalie said, chipper.
"Morning," Edward said casually.
"Can you pass me the bacon?" I asked sitting at the table, then my head snapped up to attention. "Edward, what are you doing here?" I started running my hands through my hair, trying to make it look decent, though it looked like a haystack. Finally I decided to just throw it up into a ponytail with the hair tie I always have on my wrist.
"When I brought you home last night, I didn't want to leave you alone in case you needed something so I was waiting for Rosalie to get home and I must've fallen asleep." He looked down at his plate. "You want some eggs?" He stood and walked over to the fridge and pulled out the carton of eggs.
"Sunny side up, please." I glanced over at Rosalie who was sitting back in her chair, holding her coffee mug with her hands under her chin. She was staring at Edward with pursed lips.
"I'm going for a run," she said, standing suddenly, crossing to the sink swiftly and setting her mug in. Without another word, she left the kitchen and went to her room before the front door slammed loudly.
"What just happened?" I asked Edward who was poking at my eggs in a frying pan.
"Nothing," he said, plating my eggs and grabbing a fork from a drawer before setting it in front of me.
Even in my half-alive state, I knew that something was happening under my nose. I salted my eggs and looked up at him.
"What did I miss last night?" I asked casually.
"Well, after Tanya left, I went back inside and you were pretty toasted. There was that guy that was trying to get you to go home with him and you didn't want to and he grabbed your wrist and I got him off of you and took you back here and put you in bed and here we are." He grabbed a piece of bacon off of my plate.
I looked down at my wrist, which was bruised. Awesome. "Why did Tanya leave again?"
He looked at the floor. "She wasn't feeling good."
"Liar," I said gently.
He took a deep breath and let it out in a big puff, raking his hands through his copper hair, which I knew to be incredibly soft from those times in high school in the back seat of his dad's Taurus. "We had a fight. She was mad that I wanted to go out and see everyone. This whole thing is so stupid!" he smacked his hand on the table.
"Why was she mad that you have friends?" I asked and at some egg.
"You're going to laugh," he warned. "She's threatened by you. She thinks there's still something there," he looked up at me. "Stupid right?"
I nodded, swallowing hard. "Is that why you slept here?"
"Yeah, she told me not to bother going home." He shrugged.
I finished my eggs and bit my lip. Tanya is scared of me, I thought. "Edward, can I ask you something?"
"Didn't really give me a choice, did you?" he smiled, crookedly.
"Be serious," I said and then I took a deep breath. "Are you happy? Like really happy?" I took a sip of my coffee.
"Of course I'm happy," he said. "I mean, I know that we fight a lot but I made a commitment."
"Are you in love with her?" I asked.
He looked down at the floor again. "I love her," he said. Somehow, it was like he was trying to convince himself. "I do."
I bit my lip at him. "Edward, you're one of my best friends and I hate seeing you like this." I rested my hand on his arm.
He recoiled immediately, glaring at me. "Yeah, Bella, who are you to talk about how to live life? What have you been doing for the past year? You sure have been making leaps and bounds, not caring about things that happened, just moving right along in life."
His words stung me and I looked up at him, wishing I could come up with something witty to say back that would hurt him just as bad but, let's face it, I wasn't on top of my game that day.
And then, just as quickly as he flipped to being angry, his eyes softened and he looked at me apologetically. "Zero to asshole in six seconds flat. Bella, I'm so sorry. I'm angry and Tanya is driving me insane but you don't deserve that."
"It's fine," I cleared my throat. "I have a lot of stuff to do today. Maybe you should go to Emmet's or something." I stood and put my dishes in the sink and fled to my room.
Edward stayed in the kitchen a few seconds too long and mumbled a quiet "Dammit." He followed me to my room. "Bella, I'm sorry, really."
"Edward, I haven't been trying to thrive this year, I've been trying to survive and it's hard enough as is. I can't have people making it harder. Please leave." And with that, I shut and locked my bedroom door in his face and crawled back into bed. I pressed a button on my radio on the nightstand, switching it on to drown out the sound of him walking out the front door and closing it behind him.