Chapter Two: Arming and Attack
After seeing Edward, I dropped Alex off at our flat on my Yamaha motorbike, then whipped out my phone and called Nina. Nina was an old friend of Alex's, and now my best friend. When Alex had moved to Forks, Nina had come with him. They hadn't been in a relationship or anything, but good friends. Like Alice, she loved shopping, but with less expensive taste. She lived on the other side of the city, but it wouldn't take long for her to get here. She picked up the phone on the first ring, ever social-savvy.
'Hi Bella!' she said brightly. 'What's up?' right, I thought, lets do this.
'I want you to take me shopping.' Silence on the other end of the line. I was sure Nina's jaw must have hit the floor by now. A bit hesitantly, I checked she hadn't died of shock.
'So,' I asked nervously. 'What do you say?'
'Yes!' she squealed excitedly. 'I'll meet you at the mall in ten!' and with that the line disconnected.
A bit earlier than ten minutes later, I saw Nina come round the corner of the street. She was slightly taller than me, with dark red hair that fell to the small of her back. She was wearing a bright green silk shirt with black jeans and high heeled, knee length, dark green boots. She grinned at me, walking past a group of spotty teenagers whose head turned in sync with her walk.
'Hi!' she greeted me enthusiastically.
'Hi.' I responded. She grabbed my arm and smirked at me. 'Not having second thoughts about this are we?'
'…No?' she snorted.
'Anyway, why the sudden urge to go shopping? You've never bothered before.' Ah. I hadn't thought about this part. Oh dear.
'Well…my ex-boyfriend turned up today, and….'
'You want to show him what he's missing, right?'
'I suppose so.' She grinned her most toothy, most evil smile, her eyes dancing wickedly.
'Excellent.'
Several hours later, I was armed and ready to face Edward. I had an arsenal of shoes, dresses, impossibly short skirts and shorts, and tops that left very little to the imagination. Prepare to be jealous, Edward. Prepare very well indeed. For some unknown reason, she also dragged me into a lingerie store with an unpronounceable name and bought me several pieces there too, though I insisted Edward would never get even a glimpse of them. But then I thought of what Alex's opinion of the undergarments would be, and agreed to it.
We got back late, driving back to my apartment, the rear windshield barely visible behind the mountain of bags in the backseat. But I was glad. I had needed something to distract me from all the confusing feeling that were swirling through my head at the moment. I had no idea how to approach Edward, and absolutely no idea why he was here in the first place. Hadn't Alice told him I was here? And, above all, what did he think of the whole situation? Was he angry with Alice for not warning him? Annoyed with me for trying to talk to him? I dragged my many bags through the front door of the flat, dumping them on my bed as soon as I could. On my dresser, someone had stuck a post it note to the mirror.
Bella,
Gone out for some amusement with Harry,
Don't know what time I'll be back, most likely early tomorrow.
Love you always,
Alex.
I shrugged and started pulling out my new clothes to try on again. Harry was a vampire friend who we had met earlier in the year, and was currently staying in Rochester for the week. I tried on clothes for a few hours, then sat myself down to watch some late-night TV. It was a slow night.
I dressed the next day in a simple outfit; a charcoal silk dress that hugged me in all the right places, with a bubble hem, above the knee, and a scoop neck that showed of my collar bone. Shiny patent red heels to match and I wore my hair in a loose bun on the top of my head, a few tendrils framing my face to balance it out. I applied some eyeliner to bring out my eyes, and dark pink lip gloss, not too shiny, to make my lips look better. I picked out a bright red bag to put my books in, the marched out of the bedroom. Alex's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw me, his eyes bugging out all over my body.
'See something you like?' I teased. He shook his head, smiling to himself.
'You're unbelievable. Come on, let's go, or I'll have to say that you had the cold so we can spend the day at home.' I giggled, then took his hand in my own and walked out the door. It was only a short walk to campus, and it seemed like every male we passed stared at me, until Alex put his arm around my waist and glared at them all. I found it mildly amusing, to be honest. We arrived at school on time, and students were milling about, texting, chatting, hastily trying to finish their work before class started. As we walked towards the entrance, we passed the Cullen's, all but two. Edward and Emmett weren't there. Jasper looked at me, frowning, Rosalie shocked, and Alice, well…flabbergasted was near enough appropriate. She rushed over to me, throwing her arms around me and squeezing me so hard I thought one of my ribs might crack, vampire or not.
'Bella!' she squealed. 'I've missed you so much!' I laughed softly, and explained to Alex.
'Um, this is Alice, Edward's sister.' Alice stepped away, looking my boyfriend in the eye, gaining as much height as she could, which, considering she was only about 4 "10, was a good thing. Then her gaze travelled to what I was wearing, and she half grinned, half gasped in joy.
'Bella!' she cried. 'Where did you get this fashion sense?'
'A friend of mine helped me shop.' She pouted at this.
'You never let me help you shop.' I laughed.
'That was different, Alice. Nina doesn't try to drag me into Gucci or whatever every time I go near the mall.'
'Hmm.' She responded, thinking hard about something. 'I shall have to meet this friend of yours – Nina, was it? – she has excellent taste.' I gasped, pretending to be offended. Been friends with Alice was effortless, easier than thinking, so unlike the confusing doubts I had for her brother.
'Do you not think I have excellent taste, too?' I pouted.
'You never gave me the chance to see it.' She argued. The bell rang, signalling the end of our conversation, and I kissed Alex goodbye, said 'See you around!' to Alice, then walked off to my first lesson. One that was blissfully Cullen-free. I had a wonderful time going mentally through my list of new clothes, coming up with thousands of new combinations that I had not thought to try on last night. The lesson ended, and I strode out of the classroom into the shadowy hall. I pulled my planner out of my bag and checked on my timetable. Damn. The next lesson, English Lit, had Edward in it. I had been banking on a little more time to prepare that this, and now I just had to get the show on the road. I sighed, straightened my shoulders, and sauntered off to my next lesson.
***
'Emmett.' I groaned, 'are you sure about this?' I looked over at him, sitting in the passenger seat of my Volvo. He looked back and grinned his most cocky grin.
'It'll work Edward. Stop worrying. That's the reason we're here in the first place.' I winced at the reference, but knew he was right. Damn it. I really didn't like it when Emmett was right; it usually meant I had done something stupid. Which was true in this case – grade A, first class stupid. I had left Bella. I could still see the reasons why I had left, but somehow they now seemed…irrelevant. Why hadn't this situation occurred to me before? Bella was a smart, funny, kind and attractive person; of course she would have found a new boyfriend. Was I really so full of myself that I thought she would have forsaken all others for me, who had left her? I was sick. Btu still… Emmett's idea made me nervous. When I had told him about Bella and her boyfriend his response had been to laugh and say what was my game plan. I had frowned at him and asked what the hell he meant by that. He gawped at me, then started laughing boisterously.
'You honestly don't know how to win her back?' I shrugged, uncomfortable and wary.
'I'll just tell her I lover her.'
'Edward, Edward, Edward. You have to do much more than that.' I frowned, heavily.
'What do you mean?'
'Seduce her. Dazzle her. You know that sort of thing.' He waved his hand casually. I leapt off the sofa.
'"That sort of thing?"' I screeched, my voice going higher than normal from shock. 'I can't do that!'
'Edward.' He said flatly. 'What else are you going to do? She can't read your mind, you know. She won't believe that you still love her. You have to actually show her.'
' I looked around desperately for some support, but Alice, Rosalie and Jasper were all sending me their mental approval of Emmett's plan. I sighed in defeat.
'Fine. Tell me your plan.'
We pulled up outside school, just as the last students were drifting inside. I sat through my first lesson impatiently, waiting desperately for when I could see Bella again. When I walked into the English classroom, she wasn't there, so I sat down, took out my books and started going through Emmett's game plan in my head. I just hoped I was able to pull it off. I had already checked with Alice that Bella's boyfriend was not going to be here today, so all I had to do was do the deed. I heard the door creek open and my jaw dropped as I saw the vision in front of me. The dark grey dress set off her skin perfectly, making it seem almost transparent, and her topaz eyes seemed to glow from across the room. High heeled red patent shoes made her taller, with a matching handbag for her books. The thoughts of the males around me suddenly went into overdrive.
Shit, she looks hot.
Pity she has a boyfriend. That Edward bloke had better watch out for himself if he carries on looking at Bella like that.
Damn it. I just want to get her up against the wall and…
I stopped there before I could witness a violation of the woman I loved, imagined or not. It was sickening. There were only one man's thoughts who I found decent and respectable.
She looks nice. I hope I can find something to wear for tomorrow, though Carrie won't mind. She's going to look better than me no matter what, anyway. Why she likes me is a mystery. The origin of those thoughts was coming from a quiet man sitting at the back. He was about 5"11, with light brown hair and eyes, with a kind face. He reminded me a little of Ben Cheney in Forks, his loving commitment to Angela. It was nice to know that people like that existed in the world. I turned my gaze back to Bella, trying my best to make my look as persuasive as possible.
'Why don't you sit by me today?' I asked her, trying my hardest to dazzle her into sitting next to me. She smiled – sexily, I suppose that was the only way to describe it – and walked towards me, and I was entranced by the swaying motion of her hips in the heels. I turned my gaze away from that area of her anatomy before she could notice. She sat down, and put her bags under the table, stretching in a way that made me want to lean over and lick her neck, nuzzle her hair. She caught me looking, straightened up and smiled coyly. She rested her hand on the table, accidently brushing her arm against mine in the process. Before in knew what I was thinking, I had seized her hand. Her gaze burned into mine, her hand in mine hovering dangerously before our faces like a ticking bomb. Somehow, my plan popped into my head at that very moment, and, mentally checking that nobody was watching, I kissed her hand, giving her my most sultry look I could manage. Her breathing hitched infinitivally. Hearing her response to my action, I pressed on, moving my lips slowly down her fingers, getting more open-mouthed with every millimetre I covered. She didn't stop me. Just as I reached her fingertip, I reached out and licked the end, flicking it with my tongue. She gave a small gasp, snatching her hand back and turning to face the front of the classroom, her posture tense. I stared at the back of her head, as if willing her to look round from the sheer force of my will. Almost sensing me, she turned around for a half second, and I let every image of her kissing me, her hands in my hair, over my chest, fill my mind with want for her. I could almost feel my eyes darkening, smouldering at her. She turned away quickly. Then the lesson started, the teacher telling us to pull out or books and copy various passages from them. We didn't speak to each other for the entire lesson, and it seemed that in no time at all it was over, the students flooding out the door, the professor beating them all in some unknown hurry. Apart from me, Bella was the last to leave, standing in the doorway, facing away from me. I shivered at what I was about to do, and if I had been human I knew that my heart would be pumping frantically. I stepped closer to her, and I knew she could smell me, right next to her.
'Bella…' I trued to sound seductive, running my hand down the back of her arm as I spoke, leaning into her neck… she didn't move an inch. I trailed my arm up, along the slope of her shoulder, my index finger drawing a line up the side of her neck. I leaned in closer still, my chest pressing into her back, and my lips replaced my finger on her long, graceful neck. I rubbed them softly against her intoxicating skin.
'Mmm.' I inhaled her scent deeply, realising how much I had missed it in the time apart. My hand reached round her and traced her collar bone slowly, remembering how she used to react to that when she was human. Abruptly, I span her around so she was facing me, pushing her against the doorframe. Her eyes were closed, revealing nothing. I brush my lips over her chin, until my top one touches her full bottom lip, and then I press all the way in, kissing her earnestly. She didn't respond, so I tried harder, pressing the whole of her body against me, the touch sending spikes of pleasurable pain through me. Nothing. Then I push my tongue out, forcing her lips open, and she snapped. Suddenly she was kissing me back, her tongue fighting mine, her hand in my hair, tugging on it, the other fisting the back of my shirt in her hand. I forced us even further into the door, pushing her upwards so her head is level with mine, and she wrapped her legs around my waist, the heels on the shoes digging into my back. I groan, then pull back to look at her face.
Her eyes were tightly squeezed shut, refusing to look at me. I suddenly felt strangely desperate.
'I still love you, you know. I always will.' I declared, an uncertain note of petulance in my voice.
'I have to go.' She whispered, and then shot out of the door.
***
'I still love you, you know. I always will.' The words sent shockwaves through my body, and I desperately tried to reject them. He didn't love me. He left me. What he said was impossible. And cruel. As much as I loved Alex, trusted him, there was a darker, more primitive part of me that still loved Edward. It always hurt to think of him, and what he did, but kissing me had pushed me off the edge, and suddenly none of it had mattered. It didn't matter that he left me, that I had almost got killed by Laurent because of him, that he had taken my best friend, Alice, from me, that he had taken away a whole life I had chosen, so I could love him and keep him. He had ripped all of that away from me; but when he kissed me like that, all that mattered was that he was in my arms, holding me.
'I have to go.' I stepped past him and ran down the corridor, almost fell over, then tugged off my heels and ran faster, too fast for any human to see me. I didn't know where I was going, only that I wanted to leave this unbearable pain behind me, in the wind that rushed in my wake. I ended up in a secluded part of the park, hidden by trees and bushes, and I collapsed onto the grass and sobbed until the sun went down. My phone rang, and I ignored it, not bothering to answer, just lying there as the answering machine kicked in.
'Hi!' My voice spoke, bright and happy, laughing. 'I can't pick up at the moment, but if you leave a message then I'll het back to you as soon as I can. Here comes the beep; you know what to do!'
'Bella?' it was Alex. I made no move to answer the phone, just listened to the message play out. 'Bella, where are you? Please pick up soon. I'm worried about you.' I half smiled, half sobbed at that. He loved me so much, but I could never be in love with him completely. Why couldn't I just love one person? Why did I have to be so unfaithful? It wasn't fair! I made up my mind then. If Edward wanted me, then he would have to fight for me. I would play every trick in the book if necessary, but I needed to see him prove what he had said earlier. But how? I couldn't tell Alex, or Nina (because she would tell him), so I picked up my phone and dialled the one person who I knew would help me, the one person who would stand by me through pretty much anything, I reckoned. They answered on the third ring.
'Alice.' I sniffed. 'It's Bella. I'm in the park. Can you pick me up?'
