A/N: Hey back to Bella's pov... considering Carlisle's condition (Haha not giving anything away in the Author's Note for once)... Thank you my Beta reader Missy... Read. Enjoy. Review....
Chapter Seventeen: Prom
I still hadn't change my mind like Alice had said I would by the day of Prom. All day at school Alice was eyeing me wearily. She was worried, and I couldn't blame her, I probably would be too, but it didn't make it any less irritating. I was so frustrated with Carlisle though, and I did not want to talk about it. I wanted to just go to the prom with Edward and have as much fun as I could.
I did miss Carlisle, I caught myself checking my phone at the points in the day that he used to text me, and my heart ached a little more each time there wasn't one. He seemed to have given up apologizing considering I was ignoring his texts anyways. At night when the day finally settled down, I was restless and a little angry - at myself mostly - that I was getting texts from Edward and not Carlisle. This I had expected, I loved Carlisle, he was my first real boyfriend, and it made sense for me to miss him, but maybe this was a little too much. I couldn't even count the number of times that I had cried myself to sleep over him in the time since we had broken up. I should be over him by now though, right?
Edward really didn't pay enough attention to notice my silent suffering, and I couldn't help but think that if I were still with Carlisle, he would be at my side at all hours of the day trying to make sure that I was feeling better. Then again, if I was still with Carlisle, I wouldn't be miserable. My misery didn't go unnoticed by my mom, my dad, and Alice. They had become so accustomed to my singing in the shower and bouncing around the house that my immediate drop in enthusiasm and happiness was about as subtle as a blunt axe. Dad had even suggested, more than once, that I give Carlisle a call, which I refused in tears each time. I really wasn't completely sure why I wasn't accepting any of his apologies or explanations. I guess I was just too mad at him. When Edward had started to come around, mom had started to get nervous. Who knew they had all liked Carlisle that much?
I hadn't spoken to Emmett since I had broken it off with Carlisle, and it wasn't like he was calling me either. Though, I just didn't want to talk to him because I knew just how much it would hurt if I heard Carlisle in the background at all. Allowing myself to be caught up in my miserable mind brought me all through school and until Alice and I were heading to our cars.
"So, Jasper's going to be here at like four for pictures," said Alice, "Should I text him and tell him to meet at your house or at Edward's?"
"Pictures are at Edward's," I said as she took out her phone to text him.
"You sure you're going to be ok?" Alice asked, noticing my absent tone and looking over at me worriedly.
"Yeah, I'll going to be fine," I said, rolling my eyes as I got my keys out of my bag.
"Ok," said Alice, "Because, I mean, we don't have to go, we can just head up to USC for the weekend so you can…"
"Enough Alice," I said as Edward came running up behind us, and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, the way Carlisle had always done, though this was slightly more awkward.
"Hey, Babe," He said, kissing my temple, and the skin burned out of pure self loathing.
Four hours later I was sitting in the Limo between Jasper and Edward. We had gotten a limo with just us, for the privacy, and to avoid the discomfort of sharing the limo with twenty other people. Jasper had his arm around Alice. I was thinking of punching Edward, who had his arm around me, and I would have if I hadn't remembered, a split second before I raised my fist, that he was my boyfriend now. Jasper gave me a little crooked smile before leaning in and kissing the top of Alice's head, then looking back to me.
"How you doing?" Jasper asked me, instantly calling Edward's attention to our conversation.
"Ok," I lied, instead of explaining just how much of a mess I was to him, but clearly I didn't need to, because he was already watching me like he knew I was not ok.
"They're both really worried about you, Bella," said Jasper.
"Well tell Emmett that I'm fine," I said and Jasper rolled his eyes, "And tell … Carlisle… he has no right to worry about me."
"Oh, c'mon, Bella," said Jasper, his temper rising a little, "This is all crap and you know it, the guy made a mistake, he loves you, and you know it."
"I love him, Jasper," I said correctively, "And if he loved me as much as he claims, he wouldn't have-"
"He didn't!" Jasper cut me off with almost a scream, "I know he didn't. Emmett knows he didn't. Micah knows he didn't and you do too!"
"Bella," said Alice, "C'mon. You love him, really what's accepting one apology."
"Can we change the subject, please?" I said as I curled a little into Edward, who was just taking the conversation in, not saying anything.
"No," said Jasper, "He found out you're dating this jerk and it's driving him nuts. He's just about as much of a mess as Alice's been telling me you are."
"Enough, Jasper," I said angrily, I didn't need to hear this right now, "I wanna just have a good time right now, ok?"
"Fine," said Jasper, sighing deeply as he rolled his eyes and brought his attention back to Alice.
"What was that all about?" Edward asked me as he turned the music volume up.
"Jasper's one of my brother's friends," I said simply, "So he hangs out with Carlisle a lot."
"Ah," said Edward, looking at the ceiling as if trying to figure out who Carlisle was, like he'd heard the name before.
"My ex-boyfriend," I said and he nodded.
"Oh, the college dude," He said casually and I nodded before Edward brought his mouth to mine, no doubt trying to claim me as his in hopes that Jasper would relay the message to Carlisle.
I wanted to scream that I was Carlisle's, redirect the car around and head up to go reclaim Carlisle, but I knew I wouldn't. It was too far gone now, and it wouldn't be fair to Carlisle to go back to him now. No matter what Jasper may have said, Carlisle had probably moved on by now, it had been months since our breakup. I tried not to picture him with Victoria, or one of the other girls that seemed to always be following him around, it made me nauseous.
Trying to not think about Carlisle - which if it were a sport, I would be a pro at by now - I occupied my mind until we pulled up to the hotel the prom was at. It was relatively fancy, well as fancy a place that would allow a public high school's prom, and Edward hopped out and ran to go talk to one his friends. I followed him out, then watched as Jasper helped Alice out of the car. Edward returned to the small group, showing off to his friends that I was his date as we walked through the door and into the ball room.
We sat down and ate while our principal was giving his little speech, reminding us that we were to be on our best behavior while on the premises. The dinner conversation was light, and mostly between Jasper and Alice. I just ate quickly as Edward just kind of shoveled the food into his mouth. I was a little relieved when the dancing started up, and we were no longer supposed to be talking.
I left my little clutch purse with my cell phone in it on the table and allowed Edward to bring me onto the dance floor with Jasper and Alice. We danced around as a group until the slower songs started coming on and then somehow Edward and I got separated from Alice and Jasper, but I just figured we'd find them later.
"I'm a little tired," I told Edward as we ended a seventh song, "Can we go sit?"
"Sure," said Edward, and he followed me over to the table, where I decided to check my phone.
I had eight missed calls from Emmett, all in quick secession, but no messages. Jasper and Alice were laughing happily as they dropped in their seats across from us. Jasper took a sip of his water before leaning over and kissing Alice. He pulled away tenderly before taking his phone out of his pocket and bringing it to his ear.
"Oh, hey Emmett," He said, I put my phone back into my clutch, and I waited as Jasper listened to Emmett, "Whoa, yeah, I'll get her and go out and wait for him. Is Carlisle…? Ok, yeah, alright."
"What's going on?" I asked – or rather heard my voice ask - as Jasper put his phone into his pocket and looked at me carefully.
"Bella, we got to go," He said and I felt like I was watching the scene from beside myself.
"What happened?" I asked as we all stood up.
"Carlisle was planning on crashing," Jasper said, "He was going to burst through the doors and pronounce his love and everything. Only, he crashed his bike about a half hour ago on the way here."
"What?" I said tentatively, not wanting to believe him.
"He's in surgery, they keep telling Emmett they're doing everything they can, but we got to go," He said, "Micah's coming to get us."
"Ok," I said as I grabbed my clutch and Jasper took Alice's hand.
"Wait," said Edward, "This is the guy that you broke up with? I mean, he's your Ex, and you're with me, what do you care if he kicks it?"
Alice looked as though he were speaking of Jasper and I slapped Edward right across the face. He whined a little, rubbing his cheek and glaring at me ruefully.
"Because he's Carlisle," I said, and suddenly everything was clear, "And you're Edward. How could I have been so stupid?!"
I didn't wait for him to answer before following Alice and Jasper to the door, where we had to assure Alice's Spanish teacher that we wouldn't want to come back in. I managed to keep myself together until we hit the curb outside, and that was when the tears started to fall. One had just stained my cheek as Jasper pulled me into a hug, letting me cry into his tux.
"Shhh, shhh shh shh," He said, stroking my hair as Alice kept an eye out for Micah, "No matter what's happening, Carlisle wouldn't want you to be so sad, so calm down, ok?"
His usage of Carlisle in the past tense was not a big comfort. I just found myself sobbing harder into his lapel as he rubbed soothing circles on my back. He carefully led me down so that we were sitting on the curb and Alice came and sat on my other side, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Shh," said Alice, "There's nothing we can do right now except wait here for Micah to come get us. Then, you can sit with Carlisle's mom and help her terrorize the hospital staff."
I chuckled a little through my tears, knowing that Carlisle's mom could handle that until I got there. Then I thought about that for a second.
"Maybe I shouldn't go," I said quietly, "I don't want to upset anyone."
"Bella, Carlisle wants you there," said Jasper, speaking to me as though I were mentally challenged.
"How do you know, he has every right to hate me," I said as Micah pulled up in his truck, lucky it was a double cab.
"No he doesn't," said Jasper, "If he hated you, at all, he wouldn't have been on his way to get you back. He would have no right to fault you in all of this, and he doesn't. He was ready to let Emmett kill him that night."
Micah hopped out and threw Jasper the keys to the truck as he ran over and gave me a huge bear hug. He basically carried me over to the truck, where he threw me into the front seat, sandwiching me between Jasper, who was driving because he could drive safe and fast, and himself with Alice in the backseat.
"How'd he look?" Jasper asked as he screeched out of the parking lot.
"I don't know, I just got the call from Emmett and came to get you three," He said as he wrapped an arm around me, "I haven't been to the hospital yet."
"Did he sound hopeful?" Alice asked optimistically as Jasper went right onto the highway.
"Not really," said Micah, "He said there were lots of Docs, running all around, took him right into surgery. He said he didn't look good."
"Bike accidents can be nasty," said Jasper and then the minute he said it, he looked at me with a little sorrow in his eye, "He'll be fine, Carlisle is the most hard-headed guy I know. If anyone could live through a bike accident, it's Carlisle."
There was a silent agreement from the rest of the car as Jasper drove. We were all silent, and I could hear Alice praying in the backseat, I joined in, ending my desperate prayer as Jasper screeched to a halt in the turn around by the front door to the hospital.
Micah ushered Alice and I inside while Jasper went to park the car. The minute we walked in Emmett ran up to us, letting me lean on his shoulder instead of Micah's while he led us over to sit in the waiting room next to Mrs. Cullen. Her eyes were about as red and puffy as my own as I sunk into an under-stuffed and uncomfortable chair next to her, with Alice beside me, and Emmett kneeling in front of us, Micah standing not too far behind him.
"Bella," She wailed, as she hugged me, using my shoulder as her tissue, as I had done with all three of the boys.
"I know," I said, trying to comfort the plump little Italian woman.
"Where's Krista?" I asked, realizing for the first time that his little sister had to be here somewhere too.
"She's home, she was already asleep, and I don't want to call her until I could tell her something solid," said Mrs. Cullen, "I didn't want to not be here… and Steve's there with her."
"Well, Micah, could you go get her?" I said, and he nodded.
"Thank you," said Mrs. Cullen as Jasper walked up, Micah took the keys from him, "Oh, Jasper."
"Hey, Mrs. Cullen," said Jasper, and I had forgotten that he had grown up next door to them, "Sorry I wasn't here earlier, I was at Alice's prom. We came as soon as we heard."
"No problem, Deary," she said.
I looked around at my surroundings; Carlisle's personal affects that they removed before surgery were beside me on the little coffee table. His helmet - which had a monstrous sized dent in the side, never mind the fact that it was split right in half – scared me the most. Underneath it the leather jacket he looked so good in was folded neatly, there was gravel and sand embedded into it, it had rips and tears all over it. His shoes were to the side, scuffed up, and missing a portion of the toe, but they were the shiny black tuxedo shoes. I started to cry harder as I looked back at his helmet and Jasper came and sat down beside me. He put an arm around me, letting me once more cry into his shoulder.
"Bella," He said, realizing the origin of the sudden reappearance of tears, "They had to cut the helmet off in the ambulance. They didn't want to pull it off in case of neck injury, ok? And the dent means the helmet did its job and that dent isn't in Carlisle's skull…"
"It's my fault," I said, "I should have forgiven him, I should've…"
"Bella, don't be ridiculous," said Emmett and Jasper gave me a tighter hug.
"Bella, Carlisle loves you more than anything, and if we let you blame yourself he will personally kill us, ok?" said Jasper, "So, no matter what, it's not your fault. He chose to take the bike, ok? I'm not saying it's his fault, but Bella, these things happen."
"Not helpful," I said and Jasper nodded.
"I know."
We all went silent as a doctor nurse combo walked across the room towards us. They looked ominous, and I knew, no matter what they were about to tell us, my life was about to change. Whether the change was good or bad was yet to be determined.