Summer Girl
Chapter Seven
In a drastic contrast to the summer days, the next week was freezing. I went to school, sat in class, and went home again, not once detecting a change from my perpetual temperature of frozen, despite my ever increasing layers of clothing and how many times I turned up the heat.
I wondered if I was somehow causing myself to be cold, like my body was trying to tell me that I was a cold, heartless bitch and needed to warm up before I froze to death. Then I decided the cold was making me delusional and dismissed the thought.
I was walking down the steps of the school on Friday, adjusting my scarf for the millionth time, when I spotted him.
Jacob was standing by the front gates of Constance, seemingly watching the front doors of the school. I looked around myself to see who he could be looking for, but I was the only one outside, having deserted the school quickly as I usually did.
Looking back at Jake, I felt an urge to go up and talk to him. Even though I was the one who had initiated the break, I found that I still missed him. For a moment, I toyed with the idea of going over to him and asking if he wanted to get back to together.
I think I would have done it, too, had it not been for the distraction of Alice and Rose appearing behind me.
"Bella!" Alice cried, obviously exasperated. "You leave the school so fast. We barely have time to talk anymore."
"We're talking now," I pointed out, shrugging.
"Only because Alice and I ran our asses off trying to catch you," Rose contradicted. "Emmett's having a party tonight, and you're coming."
"I am, am I?" I said, half amused by her assumption.
"Yes," Alice chimed in. "You are. And Rose and I are coming over to get ready."
"Right now?"
"No, tomorrow. Yes, right now!" Rose said.
"Fine," I relented. "Sounds like fun."
Alice grinned. "That's the spirit. We haven't been hanging out enough, Bella."
I nodded, agreeing with that, at least. I had mostly been acting like a zombie for the past week, and I missed the company of my friends.
We took Alice's car to my house, reliving old memories and giggling all the way. We were laughing especially hard at the time we were all at the Central Park Zoo and Emmett attempted to get the pandas to act like grizzly bears when we walked through my door to find my parents sitting at the table discussing something. I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Mom, Dad," I got out. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."
"Well, of course we're here, sweetheart. We've got a dinner party tomorrow that still doesn't have all the details finalized!" Renee exclaimed.
"Dinner party?" I asked dumbly.
"Yes, dinner party, Isabella," Charlie answered, annoyed. "We've only been planning it for the past week."
I cringed. "Oh, yeah, sorry. Blonde moment." Rose elbowed me, fingering her hair, and I hissed a sorry at her.
There was a moment of silence before Renee set in on us. "Well, girls, come on in and sit. How are you, Alice? Rosalie?"
"Oh, I'm good," Alice chirped, sitting down in the chair next to my mother, while Rose took the one next to her, and I sat down next to Charlie.
"I'm great," Rose pitched in. "Emmett's throwing a party tonight, so—"
"Oh, how is Emmett? You two still going strong?" Renee interrupted excitedly.
I felt my face heat up and saw Rose's do the same. "Oh, yeah, we're good..." she answered awkwardly, shooting me a look. I shrugged helplessly at her.
"How about you and Jasper, Alice?"
"We're fantastic. I'm meeting him at the party tonight, actually."
"What about you, Bella?" my father cut in.
My face became even hotter. "Oh. Uh, I'm single," I stammered out.
"What happened to Jake?" Renee asked worriedly.
"We're taking a break."
"Oh, but he was such a nice boy..." my mother bemoaned as my father nodded his agreement.
I shrugged, getting annoyed at their prying. "It doesn't mean we won't get back together sometime," I said, standing up. "Alice and Rose and I are going to go get ready for the party now." Rose and Alice quickly stood up, following me.
My parents didn't comment as we ascended the stairs to my room. I ushered them into the bedroom and shut the door heavily behind me, leaning against it.
"God, they're annoying," I breathed out.
"No matter," Alice piped. "Clothes time!" She launched herself toward my closet, rifling her way through the hangers at a staggering speed.
Rose and I stood awkwardly, watching her, until I finally decided that she was going to be awhile and grabbed Rose's hand, pulling her toward my vanity. "Can I do your hair?" I asked, though I already had her sitting down and was running my fingers through her blonde curls.
After about a minute of my brushing of Rose's hair, she broke the silence. "I hear Edward's coming to the party tonight."
I paused for a moment, then kept brushing. "Your point?"
"Her point is that you need to make your move, girl," Alice's voice sounded from the closet.
I sighed. "I don't want to make my move. I don't have a move to make."
"Are you still going on about how you're still dating Jake? Because I thought I already told you that you're not. No matter how nice of a boy he is," Rose added teasingly.
"Well, it doesn't exactly feel as though I should be doing things with other guys," I muttered, twisting Rose's hair this way and that, trying to decide how to style it.
"Didn't I say you were letting love go and seeing if it came back?" Alice asked loudly.
"That doesn't mean I should be dicking around!" I cried, exasperated.
"Oh, as if. We didn't say to go fuck the guy again, we said to talk to him," Rose pointed out.
"I believe that you said to 'make my move', actually."
"It's not our fault you interpreted that in a way that involved sex."
I twisted Rose's hair into a bun, letting a few pieces curl beside her face and pinning it into place before mumbling, "Touché."
Both Alice and Rose giggled at me, and Rose got up. "Are you about done, Alice?" she asked, wading into the pile of clothes that surrounded the closet.
"About," Alice agreed, and then stepped aside so we could see her creations.
"Whoa," I murmured.
Rose grinned. "We are going to be smashing tonight!"
~*~
My silvery blue Prada dress flowed neatly down my body as I walked into Emmett's house, flanked on either side by Alice in her poufy bubblegum pink Versace number and Rose in her bright blue, skin tight Louis Vuitton dress.
We were exactly as Rose had said we would be: smashing. I was sure that every pair of eyes in the room was fixated on us as we entered.
That included the bright green ones in the corner. I flinched, falling a bit behind Alice and Rose, hoping the brightness of their dresses would distract from me.
I knew it was hopeless, though—he had seen me.
"Uh, Bella, what exactly are you doing hiding behind me?" Alice asked, turning and grabbing my hand, attempting to pull me forward.
"Don't!" I hissed. "He's over there."
"Who is?" Alice asked, scanning the room.
"Edward," Rose answered, gesturing to the corner of the room he was standing in.
"Don't make a move at him!" I stage whispered, trying to grab her arm.
Rose rolled her eyes. "You have got to lighten up, Bella. C'mon, why don't you go say hi?"
Alice nodded eagerly and tried to push me forward. I dug the heels of my stilettos into the ground. "Bella!" Alice complained. "It's not a big deal. Go talk to him, for God's sake."
I made a face at her, a plan formulating in my head. "Fine," I told them. "I'm going." I began to walk in Edward's direction. When I was far enough away from them, I ducked into the crowd and headed toward the kitchen.
I escaped scot-free and opened the fridge, scanning its contents critically. I frowned, not seeing any alcohol, and shifted a milk carton to the side.
Aha! I thought, withdrawing the bottle of Bordeaux blend wine. I eyed it, then decided it was good enough and shut the fridge door, turning to hop up on the counter. I arranged my dress, which came down mid-thigh, so that I wasn't showing anything improper, and popped out the cork of the bottle with little to no effort.
"Hiding in the kitchen, are we?" a familiar voice rung out before I could raise the bottle to my lips.
Edward appeared around the corner, that annoying smirk planted on his face.
"Maybe, maybe not," I answered. "What's it to you?"
He shrugged, leaning against the counter next to me, not even an inch away from my thigh. I shuddered involuntarily. "I was bored and I thought I saw you coming this way, so I followed."
I glared at him and tossed back a mouthful of wine. "So, now you're here. What are you going to do about it?"
"What's up with you and Jacob?" he asked bluntly.
I took another drink from the bottle before answering. "We're taking a break. We had some... issues to resolve."
"So you broke up?"
"No," I contradicted. "We're taking a break."
Edward nodded slowly. "Cool."
We sat—or stood, in his case—in silence for awhile, me drinking my wine and him staring off into space. Finally, I couldn't stand the blank look on his face anymore and held out the bottle of wine. "Want a drink?" I asked.
He took the bottle without a word and tipped it back. I watched as the liquid level of the bottle went down, admiring the way his fingers wrapped around it, and how his hair fell back from his head...
I blinked and snapped back to reality as he grinned at me, holding out the bottle. I took it from him and drank. I was sure I could taste him still on the rim of the bottle, all saltwater, honey, and green. It spun my mind places it shouldn't have been spinning to with the man in question standing right next to me while I wasn't exactly available.
"So, any weekend plans?" I asked as he took another, shorter, drink from the bottle.
He licked his lips before handing the bottle to me and answering. "Nope. Most likely I'll be recruited to help my mom with cleaning up the apartment or something equally as exciting."
"That sounds... fun."
"Oh yeah, so much fun," he laughed out. I studied his face, wanting to commit it to memory, and soon noticed that he seemed to be doing the same to me. We stayed there, staring into each other's eyes, for what felt like hours before he murmured, "You really haven't changed much."
I frowned. "Changed from what?"
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he seemed to change his mind, grabbing the bottle back from me even though I hadn't taken a drink yet. "Hey!" I protested.
He laughed again, holding the bottle away. "You want it?" he teased, waving it in my face and jerking it back when I made a grab for it.
"You jerk," I accused, making to jump off the counter.
Suddenly, his hands were pressed against the marble on either side of my ass, his face next to mine. "Just how much of a jerk do you think I am, Bella?" he asked, his breath fanning across my face.
"A really, really big one," I whispered, and for a moment I thought he was going to kiss me and I wanted him to, but then he pulled away.
"Oh, come on, Bella, I'm not that bad, see?" he said, holding the bottle out to me. I hesitantly took it and took a sip, still appraising him with curious eyes. I handed the bottle back to him and he took a sip as well, shaking the bottle and peering into it. "There's not much left."
"Hey, since you're not doing anything this weekend, do you want to come with me to my parent's dinner party tomorrow night?" I blurted, completely disregarding his previous comment.
He was quiet for a moment before saying, "Really?"
"Uh, yeah. Really," I said, though I wasn't exactly sure what I was talking about.
"I'd love to, actually," he said, his gorgeous grin spreading across his face. I got lost in the perfection of his white teeth before suddenly realizing what his words meant.
Edward was going to be coming to a party where my parents were. My parents were nosy. That was on top of the rest of the world being nosy and assuming I was doing something with Edward, and then Jake would find out and I'd be cheating on him.
But with one glance back at the happy look on his face, I knew I couldn't tell him no now.
Dear people,
Shit is going down on the Upper East Side.
Ever since B and J's breakup, the world has been in turmoil. Our world, anyway. The icon couple, split? However will we survive?!
N sure knows how she's going to survive—by leaving. The little punk rock princess is back in her nest, but I don't think we've seen the last of her.
Never fear, lovelies, I'm sure B, even if she hasn't exactly been acting the model student lately, has a plan to re-establish herself as half of the next idol couple. After all, she and E spent all their time together in the kitchen at a certain E-man's party. And—what's this? They're spending another night together at B's parents' dinner party?
Oh yes, shit is definitely going down.
I just get to sit back and watch it.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
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