Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Thank you to SunflowerFran, for beta'ing!
"Bella," a soft voice said, rousing me from dreams of being intimately touched by a certain green-eyed, bronze-haired Adonis.
"This better be life or death," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes and sitting up, already missing the sensual intimacy of my dream. Rosalie stood over the couch looking down at me with concern in her eyes.
"You're napping. You never nap. Are you sick?" she asked, the worry in her tone washing away all frustration at the fact that she'd pulled me from my dream.
I ran my hand through my hair, still thrown up in the messy ponytail we were required to wear at the small bookstore-slash-café where I worked. "I'm not sick, but Peter was, so he stayed home and Liam refused to call in a replacement because he's the biggest cheapskate in Washington State. If I had a dollar for every time he complained about me taking last week off, I wouldn't have needed to even go to work today."
Rosalie chuckled and shook her head. She had worked there alongside of me for all of freshmen year until Liam had drunkenly grabbed her ass and tried to make a move on her at the employee Christmas party. She refused to sue him on the condition that all employees received a pay rise and three extra sick days. Everyone at work considered her a goddess. "I don't miss working for him at all."
I groaned and moved away from the couch, in desperate need of a shower and clothes that didn't smell like coffee. "Yeah well, it keeps me on my toes."
She followed me into the bathroom, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet while I made my way over to the mirror. "I don't know why you still even work there. We both know you don't need the money."
"I'd go crazy if I had all of that spare time," I told her honestly as I pulled my hair out of its confines and attempted to pull a brush through it. She was right though, in no way did I need the money. But Charlie had drilled, the importance of being responsible with money to me at a young age, and despite the fact it wasn't necessary, I still liked earning it.
"Speaking of spare time, we're having pizza and drinks at Em's tonight," she said, wagging her eyebrows suggestively.
"You never give up, do you?" I groaned.
She beamed. "I just wanna see you get your groove on, B!"
"If I come, you can never say 'get your groove on' ever again. Understood?"
She gave me a sloppy salute and wink before she left the bathroom. "We're leaving in thirty minutes!"
"You gonna go talk to him?" Alice asked me when, she, Rosalie and I were finally alone. They'd discreetly ordered Emmett and Jasper to go pick up the pizza and alcohol.
"Talk to who?" I asked, shoving a pretzel in my mouth in hopes that she wouldn't ask more questions.
"My cousin, Edward Cullen. Part-time college student, full-time recluse." She lifted her brow and gave me a look so knowing that I was forced to look away.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Rosalie snorted. "Fuck off, B. Don't act like you haven't been thinking about doing the deed with him every fucking day since you met him."
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" I inquired dryly, desperately trying to avoid the topic.
"You bet your fucking ass I do! Tell Alice what you told me," she ordered and I groaned.
"He's … Attractive," I relented. Understatement of the year.
"She has an affection erection for him," Rose stated bluntly and I buried my face in my hands.
"An affection erection? How the hell do you come up with that kind of stuff?" Alice inquired, her eyes watering with the force of her laughter.
"Tumblr."
"Can we please just stop talking about this and never speak of it again?" I asked, praying they would drop it. I wasn't as confident as either of them were and while I did like Edward, I was still rattled by what he'd said last Saturday.
They both looked apologetic at my tone, realizing they'd made me feel uncomfortable.
"Sorry, Bella," Alice said. "It's just, Edward doesn't really let anyone up there. Like ever. I'm his cousin and I've seen less of his room than you have."
I blushed then, and felt a little guilty for not sharing details. I'd only given Rose the bare minimum, but I knew Edward was a private person and while we hadn't done anything, the time we spent together still felt intimate. I was worried that if I told them everything, it wouldn't feel the same.
"I'm sorry, Ali." She smiled me a half-smile that I realized was a trait she shared with her cousin.
"Don't be," she told me sincerely and I smiled back at her. I heard a car pull into the driveway and sighed with relief. I knew this conversation would come up again, even if I had bought myself some more time.
We all sat around the oversized coffee table in the living room, pizza boxes open and drinks in our hand. Jasper had given me a bottle of pear cider, and while I hadn't liked it as much as the drink I'd had that night, I'd been able to drink it without any problem.
We'd been laughing at Emmett having to lean back and undo a button on his jeans when Edward walked into the room. He said nothing as he sunk down onto the floor between Alice and me before picking up, and taking a bite out of a slice of my cheese pizza.
"Emmett, I bought you a pair of pants for your birthday specifically so we wouldn't have to deal with you unbuttoning your jeans every night at dinner," Edward teased, breaking the silence.
I said nothing, too shocked to talk.
In all the time I'd been coming here, not once had he come down to have dinner with us while I'd been present. And while the beat of my heart picked up at his close proximity, I was still too confused by our conversation on Saturday to be happy about seeing him.
"What pants?" Rosalie enquired, doing what the rest of us couldn't; act normal.
Emmett pulled a face and Edward grinned devilishly and chuckled. "Go put them on," he told Emmett, who shook his head, but lifted himself from the floor and left the room.
No one said anything during the time he was gone, all of us eating and drinking quietly, pretending as if there wasn't any awkward tension in the room. I felt his eyes on me, but I refused to look his way.
"Holy fuck!" Rosalie screeched as Emmett entered the room again. I looked up and nearly broke a rib with the force of my laugh.
"Are those maternity pants?" Rosalie asked and I laughed harder because they definitely were. They were like every pair of sweatpants I'd ever seen Em wear but these sagged noticeably around his waist and hips.
"Custom made," Edward said and I looked up to see him grinning proudly. He threw me a wink and I frowned and looked away.
His mood swings were giving me whiplash.
"How did I not know about these?" Rosalie asked, wiping away tears.
"Because they're horrendous," Emmett whined.
"They're hilarious," Jasper injected, making a pregnant belly motion with his hands. That motion caused Emmett to huff, stamp his foot and leave the room in such feminine way that had us laughing all over again.
"You deserve a freaking award for getting him those pants, Edward," Rosalie said, her laughter finally dying down.
He grinned and stole another piece of my pizza.
"I know."
Emmett came back into the room a few minutes later, having traded the maternity sweats for a pair of basketball shorts. "Let's play truth or dare," he suggested, picking up a beer and wagging his eyebrows.
We all groaned. "That's so juvenile, Em."
"Too chicken, Cullen?" he asked, sounding more like a fifteen-year-old boy than a twenty-two-year old man. Alice narrowed her eyes at him and I knew that we would be playing. Alice never backed down from a challenge. She'd once competed in a pie eating contest that had resulted in projectile vomit and my inability to even look at cherries without turning green in remembrance.
"Everyone gets one veto. If you refuse to do one, you have to wear Emmett's pants in a photo that will be permanently taped to the refrigerator. Agreed?" Alice asked and while we all knew it wouldn't end well, we all agreed.
Three drinks later, my head was starting to feel light and I'd cried with laughter at Emmett's surprisingly amazing rendition of Beyonce's Single Ladies dance and his revenge on Jasper, forcing him to spend the rest of the night talking with an incredibly accurate Swedish accent. Both Alice and Rosalie had been asked a list of embarrassing sexual questions and I'd used my veto when Emmett had asked me how long Jacob's penis was. Edward had informed us that he'd had sex with three different people and that the first time he had sex, he'd blown his load before he'd even pushed the whole thing in. I'd been forced to tell them about Charlie arresting me at sixteen, for breaking my curfew to makeout with Tyler Crowley in the back of his mother's minivan. Also I got to grab Rosalie's breasts, courtesy of Emmett.
"Truth or dare, Bella?" Rosalie asked a wicked glint in her eye that made me shift uncomfortably.
"Truth," I said, thinking it would be the safest option. Rosalie was not above daring me to stick my tongue down Edward's throat like a fifteen-year-old.
"What was the most amount of times Jacob ever made you come in one night?" she asked, smirking at me as my face grew red.
"Hedidntgivemeany," I mumbled, looking down at the half-empty bottle in my hand.
"What was that?" Alice asked and I turned even redder.
"He didn't give me any," I said quietly.
Not once in our relationship had Jacob attempted to bring me to orgasm. He'd never done anything more than touch me to check if I was wet before pushing into me and thrusting a few times before he was done. I wasn't sure I even knew what foreplay was.
"None?!" Rose asked and I looked up to see her looking at me, eyes wide with shock. "He never made you come?"
"Never," I sighed bitterly. I'd been responsible for my own orgasms since I'd turned sixteen and realized that if I moved my fingers in a particular way and used just the right amount of pressure that something spectacular would happen.
"I didn't think it was possible for me to hate the little weasel more than I already did, but I was wrong," Emmett said, shaking his head in disgust. "You're supposed to take care of your woman."
Everyone concurred with Emmett's statement with an amen.
"Wait, Bella. Has anyone ever given you an orgasm before?" Alice asked with unconcealed curiosity. I wanted the floor to open up beneath me and swallow me whole.
"Just me," I said, shrugging. I looked over to Edward, who was looking at me with an intense and unreadable expression on his face. I licked my bottom lip and I watched his pupils dilate before I shifted my gaze elsewhere.
"Wow," Alice said, shaking her head. "What a fucking idiot."
I chuckled and nodded my head, wishing I hadn't vetoed and had told them just how he'd been so small that he hadn't even broken my hymen the first time we'd had sex.
Or the second.
"Rose! Truth or dare?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Can I talk to you quickly?" Edward asked as we started packing up. It was past midnight and my buzz had worn off, but I was still thankful I didn't have any early classes the following morning.
"Sure," I said, avoiding the nosey stares of Alice and Rosalie as I followed Edward out of the room and into the hallway.
He said nothing for a few second, just swept his gaze over my face before running his hands through his hair in frustration. "I'm an idiot," he said finally, his gaze not meeting mine.
"I shouldn't have warned you off like that the other night and I'm sorry if I upset you. You're just such a fucking good person Bella and I don't want to be the reason that changes."
Confusion swept over me and I opened my mouth, struggling to come up with a reply that wouldn't make me sound pathetic, but he spoke again before I could.
"I know I helped you that night. But fuck if I wasn't fully prepared to kiss you hours after someone had attempted to sexually assault you. I'm not a good person Bella," he looked at me while he told me this and I hated the desolation in his eyes while he spoke.
"I wanted you to kiss me," I blurt out, surprising us both.
"What?"
"That night, in your bed, I wanted you to kiss me," I told him, sounding a hundred times more confident than I felt. "What happened with James was really freaking shitty and I'm endlessly grateful that you were there to help when you did, but I'm still the same person I was before it happened. I'm not scarred or broken and I wanted you to kiss me."
He nodded and we both stood there in awkward silence for a minute, avoiding each other's gaze until Rosalie walked out and told me that our cab had arrived. I'd muttered a goodbye to him and started walking away when he'd grabbed my hand, pulling me to a stop. I turned back to look at him, surprised to find that crooked smile on his face again.
"For what it's worth, I think Jacob's an idiot for not trying to make you come. I bet you'd look beautiful when you fell apart," he said, before dropping my hand and turning away, leaving me with weak knees and wet panties.
I blushed the whole drive home.
Fic Rec:
The Other Side of the Fence by Edward's Eternal. (Have the biggest girl crush on her writing)
He hides to protect those he loves, she hides because that is all she knows. Isolation is a way of life for both of them. Two neighbours. All that separates them is a fence. Who knows what waits on the other side? Can they be strong enough to find out?