Summer Girl
Chapter Two
Where the hell am I? I stared up at the familiar ceiling, wondering why that corner was over there when it was supposed to be there, and that slant was the wrong way...
I sat up and realized I was on my couch instead of my bed. I rolled off and craned my neck so that I could get a better view of the alarm clock on the other side of my bed. Six in the morning. Time to go to bed. I got up off the floor and threw myself into the plush comforter, burying my head in the pillows.
And then reality came crashing back down on me. I couldn't go to sleep—not if I wanted to be on time for class. Summer was over. I groaned and pulled myself out of bed, stumbling into the shower.
School fucking sucks, I thought to myself as I rubbed shampoo into my hair. I washed it out and dressed in my school uniform, making a face at myself in the mirror.
I looked around my room for my purse, finally finding it under the bed. I didn't bother wondering how it had gotten there—my purse always showed up in the most random places.
There was a knock on my bedroom door, followed by the family's maid and my nanny, Angela, calling out that I needed to get up. I flung open the door and smiled at her.
"Good morning," she said, calm as ever.
"I'm not so sure about the good part."
Angela just shook her head and waved me away. "You'll be late. That was your 'you can't have a shower and you can't eat because you're going to be late if you don't move right now' call."
I rolled my eyes and brushed past her, heading down the large staircase to the elevator. I got in and pressed the button for the ground floor, idly tapping my fingers against the metal railing. The elevator went straight down without stopping at anyone else's floors—something I took as a sign of a great day to come.
I walked into the lobby, feeling like I should whistle and skip or some shit like that. I turned towards the front desk to wave at my favourite receptionist, Claire—she always worked mornings—and did a double take when I saw who was leaning up against the counter talking to her.
Edward. Of course. Because he was a fucking stalker as well as an asshole who breaks his promises. There goes my great day.
I immediately moved to the far wall, hunching over and praying that he wouldn't turn around and see me. Did he know that this was my building?
I inched my way across the room, finally making it across to the front doors. Just as I was about to grab the door handle, I heard Edward's voice calling my name from across the foyer. I did a double-take and hesitated, trying to decide whether or not to turn around or to keep going, pretending I hadn't heard him.
And then the door slammed into my head.
"Fuck!" I shrieked, clapping my hands to my head.
"Oh no, Miss! Are you alright?" A distinctly Jamaican accent echoed in my head. I looked up to see a delivery guy with a name tag reading 'Laurent' hovering over me, looking worried. There was a stack of boxes at his feet, I noted. Then I noted that there were more feet joining his, crowding around me. I looked up and almost groaned out loud.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just leave me—" The word 'alone' died on my lips as I noticed Edward at the back of the mob, trying to get to me. Oh no. That was not happening.
"Actually," I amended, "I think I might have a concussion or something. It hurts a lot." I leaned into the Laurent person and attempted to act like I was passing out.
"Can someone get some ice?" he called out to the crowd. I heard resounding footsteps echoing across the lobby, but kept my eyes closed. "Miss Swan, is it? Bella? Stay awake." He gently smacked my cheek and I fluttered my eyelashes, cracking my eyes open. Edward was stuck behind the throng of flustered people, looking hopeless. Good.
"Ow..." I moaned.
"Miss Bella, here's some ice." Laurent pressed the ice to my head. I grabbed it. I didn't really need it—the pain wasn't really that bad—but anything that kept Edward away from me was good.
"I'm going to be late for school," I whined, still holding the ice to my head. "Laurent, can you give me a ride?"
Laurent looked hesitant, but someone mumbled something unintelligible to him which made him nod decisively. "Sure, I will, Miss Bella." He guided me out of the lobby, letting me lean on him a bit. I didn't look back at the crowd—and Edward—though I wanted to.
Laurent led me to his delivery truck and helped me into the passenger seat, though I didn't need it. At one time I might have felt guilty or maybe even afraid of riding in a stranger's truck, but I had done much worse things and besides, I saw Laurent from time to time, when he was delivering things to the complex. He wasn't a stranger.
The ride to Constance was short and silent. I said a quick thank you to Laurent when we arrived, to which he replied, "Anytime, Miss, anytime."
I walked quickly through the gates into the courtyard, looking around for Alice or Rose. I thought I caught a glimpse of Rose's tell-tale blonde hair across the yard, and was craning my neck, trying to see over the crowd when I tripped over the bottom stair and found myself in a pair of familiar arms.
I looked up to see Edward smiling down at me.
My first thought: What. The. Fuck.
My second thought: Oh shit, he's going to talk to me.
My third thought: Run like hell.
I smacked my hands onto his chest, trying to push myself away from him, but he held onto my upper arms tight.
"Hey, hey, hey. That's no way to treat the person that just saved you from death by concrete," Edward chastised me.
I stopped struggling against his grip and glared, blurting the first thing that came to mind. "Why are you here?"
"I was waiting for you. I wanted to talk to you—and I figured you couldn't run from school. I thought I'd get a chance this morning, but that didn't work out, so..." He stopped talking when he saw me shaking my head.
"No, I mean, why are you here in Manhattan? I thought you said I was never going to see you again," I accused.
Edward looked uncomfortable. "Well, that's a bit harder to explain..."
"Bullshit," I spat, pushing away from him again and breaking free of his grasp. I stalked up the steps behind him, ignoring his calls for me to come back, to let him explain...
I spun around at the top and shouted, "I thought you couldn't explain!"
"I didn't say that," Edward lamented, wringing his hands together. I blinked, trying not to imagine those hands doing other, less appropriate, things. "Look, will you meet me at Jackson Memorial Park at six?"
The shrill sound of the bell cut through the air, and I turned around without giving him an answer. It would have taken me too long to think of one anyways.
~*~
Rose looked at me over the top of her mango smoothie, raising her eyebrows before taking a sip.
"And you think he's been stalking you?" she asked.
"He has," I insisted.
"Have you ever thought that maybe it's just a coincidence that he shows up in the same places as you?"
"He told me he was waiting for me at Constance!"
"That's once. It doesn't account for at the apartment building, or Blu's, or when he gave Jake a ride..."
"He gave Jake a ride! What the hell is that about?"
Rose shook her head. "I don't know."
I looked over my shoulder, at the front door, and then did a quick scan of the smoothie bar. No Edward. Thank God. I kept thinking he was going to show up at any minute and... I didn't know what.
I turned back to Rose to see her glaring at me. "Stop being paranoid," she ordered.
"I can't help it. He's monopolized my life!"
"Oh, as if. You're the one letting him affect you like this," Rose pointed out.
I sighed, not wanting to believe what she was saying.
~*~
I was pushing my way through the hallways to Biology class when I heard them talking and stopped in my tracks to listen.
"Have you seen that new guy?"A redhead asked her blonde friend. The blonde giggled.
"Yeah. Isn't he hot? With that messy hair and those green eyes..." She stared off into space dreamily.
"And don't forget that bod of his. And have you seen his hands?" The redhead sighed. "What's his name again?"
Don't let it be who I think it is. But I knew it had to be him. Who else fit that description?
"Edward something," the blonde said. I started to walk down the hallway again, feeling odd. By the time I slid onto my stool at my lab table, I'd figured out why. I was jealous. Why I was jealous, I had no idea. I shouldn't be jealous just because those girls were talking about Edward.
I heard the scraping of people sitting down on stools behind me and glanced back to see the same blonde and redhead that had been talking in the hallway—and they were still going at it. I looked back to the front with a sigh.
"So he lived in Africa with his mom?"
"Yeah, I heard he was there for most of his life."
"That must have sucked."
Now this was interesting, but I was still pissed off. I debated in my mind—did I tell them to shut up like I so desperately wanted to or did I keep listening to learn more about Edward?
What kind of a choice was that? I didn't care one whit about Edward, why would I want to listen to them talk about where he'd come from?
I turned around. "Could you two please shut up? I want to concentrate on the class." I turned my back to them before they could say anything to me.
They were silent for a moment before they started to whisper—this time about what a spaz I was. I put my head in my hands, groaning.
Then I realized—if I didn't care about Edward, why would I mind if they were talking about him? I'd never minded knowing things about other people before. What was my problem now?
I had no idea, and that scared me.
~*~
That Biology class was probably the longest one of my life, and I didn't remember a single second of it or the rest of the school day. I'd been so distracted that everything had just turned to a blur.
And now I had no ride home from school.
I could, of course, take the metro, or, an even better decision, call the car to pick me up. In fact, I probably would have had it not been for the smiling Jacob that met me at the bottom of the steps.
"Hey babe," he said cheerfully, putting his arm over my shoulders and guiding me toward the street. "Edward's going to give us both a ride back home. He told me what happened this morning—you really should be more careful, Bella. I don't want you hurt."
"I'm fine, Jake, don't worry." We turned the corner out onto the street and I furrowed my eyebrows, confused. "Who did you say was giving us a ride?"
"Edward Cullen." Just as he said his name, Edward's face popped up behind a nearby limo and he motioned us over. I felt the blood drain from my face.
"Oh, but it's such a nice day! Maybe we should walk!" I said, my voice taking on a nervous edge that I desperately tried to cover.
"If you want to," Jake said, obviously confused. "Just let me go tell Edward."
"Okay, I'll be here." I watched Jake run over to Edward, fidgeting with the zipper on my purse. Edward nodded and said something to Jake that made him look more confused, but he nodded and Edward disappeared inside the limo. Jake jogged back over to me as the limo pulled away.
"All right, we're set to walk. This is amazingly out of character for you, Bells." He shook his head in amazement.
I shrugged. "Yeah, well..." Edward is changing my entire life. "What did Edward say to you?"
"Oh, he wanted me to tell you not to forget about meeting him." Jake furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you two doing?"
"Nothing. I mean, I'm not going."
Jake's face visibly relaxed. "Well, that's good."
We began to walk in the direction of my apartment building. Jake took my hand casually, looking out onto the street. It amused me that he always had to do that while he was looking away, he never looked at me until he was sure I wasn't going to shake him off. I never did, so I didn't know why he was so paranoid. Then again, there were a lot of things about Jacob that I didn't know... such as why he was hanging out with Edward.
"So," I began, "how did you and Edward get so friendly?"
"He picked me up at the bus stop yesterday, like I told you, and I thought it would be mean of me to just ditch him once we got to school, so I showed him around and we just became friends from there. Why?"
"Oh, just wondering."
We stayed quiet after that, only stopping once to purchase some drinks at a cart. We arrived at my apartment soon after that and Jake hugged me goodbye, promising to see me in the morning. I feverishly wished for that meeting to be sans Edward, but didn't say anything. Sighing, I turned and entered the building, taking the elevator up to my apartment.
When the elevator doors opened, I was met with an impatient Angela, crossed arms and tapping foot included. "Where have you been?" she asked.
"I walked home with Jake," I explained, confused. "What's the problem?"
She sighed and uncrossed her arms. "Your parents are here."
"What? I thought they weren't coming back from the business trip until next month?" I dropped my purse onto the table by the elevator and followed Angela to the kitchen.
"Yes, well, they're here, and they want to know why I haven't been keeping better tabs on you. So run along and tell them that I've been doing fine like I know you will." She winked and motioned to the dining room. I sighed and headed out.
"Mom? Dad?" I called, stepping into the dining room cautiously.
"Bella. You were almost late for dinner!" my mother chastised me. Here we go.
"It takes awhile to walk here from the school."
"Why didn't you call the town car to pick you up?" Charlie asked.
"It was nice out," I explained. "I wanted to walk."
Renee furrowed her brows. "That's not like you. Is something wrong?"
Oh, not really, just that the guy I cheated on my boyfriend with is stalking me and I prefer to do whatever I can to avoid him. "No, nothing's wrong."
"Well then, sit down and eat with us." Charlie pulled out the chair next to him and patted the seat. I shook my head.
"No thanks, I'm not really hungry."
Renee raised her eyebrows. "You're looking skinny. Has Angela been feeding you at all?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, Angela's been great. Keeping tabs on me at all times, reeling me in for bedtime stories, waking me up for school, feeding me... yup, it's been a blast."
"Glad to hear it," Renee said.
"So I can be excused from dinner?"
"Yes, it'll be fine this time. But I expect you here tomorrow. We need to catch up on everything we've missed!"
I nodded and began to back out of the room. "Sure thing, Mom, Dad. Talk to you later!" I turned around and dashed up the stairs to my room, flopping down on my bed when I got there.
I let my eyes shut, settling into the comfortable bed. Maybe I'll take a nap... That thought was interrupted when my iPhone vibrated in my pocket. Groaning, I dug it out and found that the caller ID was just an unfamiliar phone number. I frowned and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Bella?" Oh my God. He's calling me. Why is he calling me? "I'll be picking you up for school tomorrow," he continued without waiting for me to say anything, "because Jacob called me and told me he's sick."
Well, that answered that question.
Well, dear Upper East Siders, we have ourselves a dilemma. And what a fine dilemma it is, too. So many questions, so little time for them to be answered...
Why has E latched onto J? Why exactly is J letting E latch onto him? What does B think of this? Where did E come from, anyway? What happens when B's parents come back into town? Who is B going to choose at the end of all this drama?
Only time will tell, as I've said many times in the past.
Spotted: E standing in front of the Jackson Memorial Park sign, waiting for someone. Question is, who? J and B buying drinks on the walk home from school. A and R, sharing ice cream with their other halves on the steps of the Met. And two unidentified girls taking pictures of E with their camera phones. It's stalker syndrome, taking over the minds of the young and uninformed. Beware, my friends.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
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