Summer Girl
Chapter Five
Calculus. One of the worst parts of my day. I may be a smart student, but I never was one for any sort of math.
I sighed and shifted in my seat, staring blankly at whatever Mr Varner was scrawling on the board. All of a sudden, the door swung open and in walked Edward, heading directly toward me. He sat down in the desk in front of me, turning to face me and grinning. "Uh... what the hell?" I asked as the class gathered around us.
As I watched, Edward seemed to become younger and younger. I looked down at myself to see that I was shrinking as well, becoming a little version of myself. I glanced back up at Edward, who was still grinning at me—only he was only about five now. My eyes widened as a shrill beeping noise cut through the air. Edward seemed oblivious to it, but it grew persistently louder and louder, nagging at my ears, until...
"Oh shit," I mumbled, sitting straight up in bed and bringing my hand smack down on top of the alarm clock's snooze button as I did so. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stumbled to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
My mind was in a haze as I showered, but as I stepped out into the chill bathroom air, my head began to clear, and by the time I was fully dressed and standing in front of the sink, brushing my teeth, I was able to think clearly.
Sadly, even then, my only thought was what the fuck was that? I need to stop eating burritos before I go to bed.
I sighed and spat into the sink, shaking my head.
~*~
The dream lingered, against my will, in the back of my head for the rest of the day. The whole situation with Edward pissed me off, and I preferred to just not think about it, but my mind wouldn't let me. It was irritating as hell, and by the end of the day, I was about ready to bite anyone who came near me's head off.
This is why the person who dared call me not five minutes after the final bell got a snappish, "Bella is currently dying, leave a God damn message," delivered straight into their ear.
"Uh, Bells?" Jake asked timidly. "Is everything all right?"
I sighed. "I'm fine. What's up?"
"Nothing, just wondering if you wanted to go out for dinner tonight. It's been awhile since we've been out, and our two year anniversary is coming up..."
"Sure, Jake. That's really thoughtful of you."
"Great! I'll have the car pick you up around six thirty, then. Love you, Bella," he said cheerfully.
"Love you, too," I replied before ending the call.
I stood on the sidewalk outside Constance and looked at my phone, contemplating what to do. I decided it would be a good idea to call Rose and Alice and ask them if they wanted to help me get ready for my date—as long as I was spending time with people I hadn't been spending much time with lately, I may as well include everyone.
I flicked through my recent calls list, looking for Rose. I spotted her right below a call from , but just before I was about to hit call, I noticed Edward's number right below Rose's. My thumb hovered over the screen as I contemplated calling Edward, just to see what he was doing. Maybe I could ask him if he found any significance in that dream I'd had...
I shook my head and hit call on Rose's number, putting my phone up to my ear. I listened to it ring patiently, starting to walk down the street toward my house.
"Hello?" I froze in the middle of the sidewalk at the sound of Edward's voice in my ear. I lowered the phone and glanced at the screen to see that I'd called Edward instead of Rose. Shit. "Hello?" Edward persisted. I hit end, my heart beating wildly.
I breathed a sigh of relief and decided that maybe I should just get ready on my own instead.
~*~
By six thirty I was standing outside my apartment building, waiting for Jake to get there. I was kind of cold, mostly owing to the fact that I was wearing a knee length deep blue Marc Jacobs number with my silver flats, and I wished it were still summer. The more I thought about it, the more steadfast I became in that wish. I wished I could go back and change the night that Edward had, for lack of a better word, seduced me. I wished that if that were not possible, that he could have at least kept his promise that I'd never see him again.
I sighed in exasperation and wrapped my arms around myself, rubbing my upper arms in an attempt to warm up just as the car rolled up in front of me. I hastily pulled open the back door and slid in, waving off the driver's attempts to stop me. Jacob grinned lazily at me from across the backseat.
"Hey, Bella," he said.
"Hi, Jake," I replied, smoothing out my dress over my knees as the town car began to move again. "Where are we going?"
"Oh, it's this cute little fancy restaurant I found. You'll love it," he assured me.
"If you say so," I agreed, nodding.
We arrived in due time and were seated in a secluded little spot in the restaurant, which was, surprisingly, quite nice. When had Jacob acquired actual good taste?
I had opened the menu and was scanning the lists for something vaguely edible when Jake prodded me in the forearm and pointed over my shoulder. "Isn't that Edward Cullen?" he asked.
I looked over my shoulder to see Edward standing at the entrance, waiting for the hostess to come seat him. A pang of some emotion—shock?—went through me; not at his presence, but at who was with him.
Standing at his side, clinging on to his shoulder as though it were her lifeline and whispering into his ear, was a tall girl with layered red hair, not unlike the colour of Edward's, wearing a pair of ripped up black skinny jeans and a band T-shirt, along with red Chucks. Her bangs hung in her eyes, which were heavily outlined with eyeliner, and I could see a lip piercing glinting in the dim light.
I turned back to Jacob and mumbled, "Yep, that's Edward."
"Who's that with him? I've never seen her before," he mused. "She's kind of hot."
I glared at him.
"Nothing compared to you, of course," Jake amended.
I sighed and went back to looking at the menu. Jacob was right, in any case—the girl was hot. But why was Edward out with her? Were they dating? What had happened to stalking me? For some reason, she didn't seem like Edward's type.
Then again, who was I to say what Edward's type was?
The same emotion I'd felt when I'd first seen the two standing at the restaurant entrance continued to haunt me as they were led past our table and to a booth even farther back in the restaurant. I puzzled over what it was for a long time as Jacob continued to hold a conversation with himself about how scrumptious the menu looked.
I finally pinpointed it just as the waitress came up to take our order. I was jealous of the punk girl with Edward. I sighed to myself—you'd think I could recognize my own jealousy quicker, given how much I'd been feeling that way lately, but I was as emotionally incompetent as ever.
After we'd ordered—Jacob giving the waitress explicit instructions and me just pointing to a random thing on the menu distractedly—I excused myself to go to the washroom. Jacob nodded and I headed off in the direction of the washroom—but when I reached a point where I knew Jacob couldn't see me anymore, I turned and started to go around and back, towards the booth where Edward and Punk Rock Chick sat.
As I crept up on their table, I heard snippets of conversation.
"God, don't you remember how fun that was?!"
"Ha! It's been so long. I do remember, though. God, what a ride that was."
I halted and felt my body go a little cold, a sweat breaking out for some reason. I froze against the wall and pushed my back against it, listening intently as their words came in mumbles.
"Oh yeah, it was so hard, but definitely worth it. You don't get it like that anymore!"
I gasped and my mind began to race, desperate to know what they were talking about. I couldn't imagine why I felt the strike of fury as I imagined Edward and that girl ... together. Naked. Touching.
I shuddered and willed the thoughts away.
"But it's always over so fast!" I heard the girl complain, and I choked on a cough, nearly falling over. Instead, I caught myself and found myself flung over, hands gripping the booth where Edward and the girl sat.
"Bella?" Edward asked with confusion in his voice.
I cleared my throat and giggled nervously. "Yep, yep, hi."
"What are you doing over here?"
"Well, um, you see, I'm here with Jake, you know, my boyfriend? And I noticed you over here and I thought I'd come say hi, and uh, ask to be introduced to this lovely girl!" I giggled a bit again, trying to ease the tension, but both Edward and Punk Rock Chick kept staring at me blankly.
Edward blinked and shook his head. "Well, Bella, this is Nessie." I stuck out my hand politely as Nessie smiled up at me, seemingly attempting to wipe the blank look off her face. She's probably annoyed that I interrupted their sex talk.
"Hi, Bella," Nessie said. "I'm Edward's cousin, as he so nicely left out."
His cousin? Well, shit. They better not have been getting it on, then.
"Oh, cool," I said, trying to be nonchalant. "That would explain the... same coloured hair."
Nessie smirked and nodded. "Yeah."
Edward coughed. "Nessie and I were just talking about that old amusement park that closed down. That one on the north side? Do you remember it?"
I shook my head blankly.
"Huh. Well, the rollercoaster was to die for."
Suddenly it all became clear to me.
They weren't talking about sex.
They were talking about roller coasters.
I felt like a fucking idiot.
I opened my mouth, intending to stammer out something unintelligible before running away as fast as possible, but a hand on the small of my back stopped me.
"Bella, honey," Jake's voice said from next to me, "what are you doing?"
I looked up at him and shrugged. "I came over here to say hi to Edward."
Jacob nodded. "Uh huh. But Edward and his girlfriend probably want to enjoy their dinner in peace, kinda like I wanted to enjoy ours, so—"
"Oh, Nessie's not Edward's girlfriend," I said, cutting Jake off. "She's his cousin."
"Oh," Jake said, pulling me closer to his side. "Well, our food should be coming soon, so we better get back to the table." He began to steer me away from their booth, but Edward stopped him abruptly.
"Hey, Bella, wait," he said hurriedly.
I stopped walking. "Yeah?"
"Did you call me earlier?" he asked.
"Yeah, I accidently called you instead of Rosalie," I forced out shakily. "Why?"
Edward shrugged. "I just wondered if it was about anything important or not."
"Oh. Well, it wasn't, so don't worry." I immediately felt stupid the moment my words left my lips. He probably wasn't worrying anyway, making my statement completely worthless.
"I won't," he assured me, a smile playing on his lips.
Nessie sighed and smacked her hand down on the table. "Eddie, pay attention. Cousin to cousin time, remember?"
Jake tugged on my waist. "Come on, Bella. I think our food is ready for us." I nodded and allowed him to lead me over to the table, where our food was indeed waiting.
As we sat down to eat, thoughts ran through my head. I still couldn't comprehend why I was so jealous, but this was clearly something I was going to have to address.
I stared blankly down at my food, every once in awhile bringing the fork up to my mouth and shoving a bite in. At one point, I glanced up at Jacob to see him staring across the room, at Edward and Nessie's table. He seemed to be glaring, but his eyes shifted a tad and the emotion in them turned to sympathy. I frowned.
And now my own boyfriend does things that don't make any sense to me.
Does life get any worse than this?
Very late update, and it's shorter than usual. Feel free to shoot me. I shouldn't put deadlines on myself, that means I'll inevitably miss them by miles.
Say thank you to Leon. :)
