A/N: Here is chapter 21 - Remember I speak Spanish, so I'm sorry for the mistakes this might have. Okay if I don't receive one comment at least, I won't post anymore.
Haha, jk :P But please tell me what you think!!! Enjoy!
Chapter 21
I stayed frozen for some seconds without being able to react. I had Alice crying on the other side of the phone line and I couldn't make my body react!
Edward suddenly look at my face and saw my torn expression – his eyes gaining impatience and worry with each second passing by. But I did my best to look to anywhere but his eyes, I couldn't lie to him looking directly to his eyes. Not if it was about Alice.
"B-Bella, please I need you to come pick me up." I could hear the rain through the phone. Alice's voice more hysteric with every moment passing, my heart beating faster.
I cleared my voice and looked for the words that were buried deep down my body. "Alright, just, tell me where you are," Edward was mumbling 'who is it?' with a frown. "I'll go now, Jasper." It was the only way.
Edward laughed a bit bitterly and after mumbling something incoherent, he stared at the ceiling – his arms crossed over his chest.
Alice's voice sounding again took me from my hypnotizing state as I tried to decipher Edward's weird reaction. "Jasper? Oh, is Edward next to you? Please don't tell him it's me, please don't!" She cried again, her voice more hysteric.
"I promise I won't, please tell me where you are!" I was more impatient too. My brain wouldn't stop showing possible things that could make Alice cry. And some weren't nice at all.
She tried to breathe deeply. "I'm somewhere near Marcus' pizza, but in the woods. Well, in the road… there is no one here, Bella, no one! He left me alone, and it's dark, please Bella, please come look for me, I'm scared!" I wanted to cry myself. I was almost at the edge of tears. Just knowing that Alice could be in any possible danger made my heart crack.
"I'll go now, I'll be there in some minutes, please just try to calm down, okay?" With that I was already on my feet and with my raincoat on my hand.
"Alright, I'll try…" I heard her cry a bit more and then hang up the phone.
Edward was behind me in that same second, mimicking every step I did. "Where are you going?"
"I've to go look for Jasper," I almost choked and begged that he wouldn't question me too much, I didn't know what to tell to him!
I was reaching the door now, he was like my shadow behind me. "Why?"
"Because he needs me now, Edward," I said as I had my hand on the handle of the door.
He sighed deeply. "Let me go with you."
"What?" I turned around and frowned at him.
"It's raining like hell, Bella, and you seem pretty upset, just---" He breathed again. "Let me give you a drive, please."
I was more than upset, I was practically going crazy! But it didn't matter, I needed to go and now. "Jeez, Edward, stop stepping in my relationship with Jasper, it's really annoying!" I snapped at him, silently apologizing for what I'd just said. It was the only way for him to leave me alone right now.
His eyes widened with this sudden state, and I think I could see some sorrow in the depths of his emerald green eyes. "Alright, I was trying to help… I'm sorry."
Ouch. That hurt - his expression, his voice… That hurt a lot. Without thinking it twice I turned around and stormed through the door.
"Just be careful, please!" He shouted from the door. But I was already inside my car.
I turned on the engine and made the gas pedal reach it top as I had never done. Not caring about anything but the girl that could be hurt some miles away. I ran through the wet, dark road, my hands tight in the steer wheel, my eyes a hundred percent concentrated in the way.
In less than possible I had already reached Marcus' Pizza. Slower now, my eyes started scanning its surroundings. But there were lights and people here, so it couldn't be the place. I pressed the gas pedal with force again and went forward a bit more.
Now the woods were surrounding me from my right side. And my heart beat with violence as I was reaching the place. I could now see a girl in the road, covering her arms with her hands and with her head down.
I stormed out the car too fast and my body found the hard asphalt. I moaned in pain one as I felt my hands crashing to the road and then a red, grouse, thick liquid going through my left one.
Not caring a bit about it I made my best to stand up and run to Alice. "Alice!" I shouted at her when I was reaching her spot.
She looked up at me, her features a bit more relieved. "Oh, Bella! You are here!" She gasped, and then my arms found her in a big hug. I embraced her as if she was my own daughter. Tears coming from my own eyes as I saw her there, safe.
I was already going to take her to the car, my hands already in the wheelchair, I didn't want to torment her with questions now, I wanted to take her to a warm place. When suddenly the light of another car made me froze.
I flickered once and then I could already see a cold, angry, familiar face coming to meet us. Alice stood in silence too, almost as the statue as I was right now.
He ran to us in impossible speed and took my hands off the wheelchair. Without even saying a thing, without even looking at me once, he started pulling it to his car. With again incredible skills and speed he reached it. His hands found Alice in a second and placed her inside it. He put the wheelchair in the trunk and then stormed to the driver's seat. With an impossible maneuver he turned over and sped through the wet road.
I stayed there, froze, completely wet now. With my hand still with the red liquid and aching. But that was not what ached the most, oh hell, that didn't hurt a bit comparing with how much my heart was hurting.
I had never seen Edward with an expression like that on his face. I had never seen his eyes so angry towards me, his features so cold… I could sense his disappoint through every pore of his body and that was just killing me. Without warning tears started to stream down my face, but it looked like the pouring rain caressing strongly my cheeks.
A minute later the lights of a car illuminated the place again, the speed was only too much. And for a second I feared something bad could happen to me. But then the car pulled over, too near from me. The shiny Volvo passenger's seat window opened.
I saw my best friend sighing deeply and then muttering. "Get in the car Bella, I'll pick your truck tomorrow. Get in the damn car, now."
I gulped in my place and walked slowly to his car, too shocked to run. I climbed it silently and then the car came to life again.
The car was surrounded by a supernatural quietness. The only thing that could be heard was Alice's silent tears and the pouring rain outside the car. No one wanted to talk, no one dared to talk.
I peeped at Edward once just to wish to not have done that. He was completely serious, rigid, tense. His hands clenched to the steering wheel, his mouth in a thin line. But the worst were his eyes. They were so distant… as if this was the first time we met.
I wanted to cry, cry like hell. I had a lump in my throat and was trying to gulp me tears as much as possible. I had so many questions I wanted to do to Alice, but I knew I couldn't do it. Now I was stranger, at least for Edward.
Suddenly a huge pain invaded my left hand, and a moan escaped my thorax involuntarily.
I didn't want to look at it, I was scared to see to much blood and faint here and now. No need to add more drama to this night.
"Let me see that." Edward commanded to me with that same cold voice and waited with one hand in the air. I put my hand on his and saw his worried eyes as he scanned the graze. I really didn't know how he managed to do everything at the same time, driving, being tense and a doctor? But I knew this wasn't the best time to ask.
"I'll clean it at home." He muttered and took the staring wheel with both hands again.
We reached the Cullens' house in less than expected. Edward did the same procedure than before and in seconds we were already inside the house. Everyone still too quite, everyone still too tense.
"Alice," Edward breathed when we were already up the stairs reaching Alice's room, his expression like the one of a dead. "Please tell me what happened."
Alice shook her head, still sobbing. "I-I don't want to talk right now Edward, I just want to go to bed."
"Please, Alice, please tell me." Edward begged from behind his sister. He seemed desperate.
"I DON'T WANT TO! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Alice shouted back. Now sobs turning to tears one more time. She stormed through her room and shut the door closed.
Edward splashed his arms to his sides in a defeated way and collapsed to the wall. He slide down through it till he was in a crouch, his arms crossed over his legs and his head hidden in them.
I was standing, like an idiot. Not being able to comfort two of the persons I cared most in this world. But I needed to say something, I couldn't stay like this!
Without even moving and with almost a yarn of voice I spoke. "I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "Please don't, not now." He mumbled with his head still in his knees.
I nodded once. I knew I had screwed it up and big. I knew I should have told him that it was about Alice, that I shouldn't have lied to him like that. But what could I do now?
I had had what I deserved with the cut in hand. No, I deserved worst. I had let down my best friend, and hurt him with one of the things he loved most in this world. I deserved much, much worst.
So I went to see if I could fix things a bit from the other side. Besides, I was dying to know what had happened. And I knew she needed to talk to someone.
"Alice?" I called from the other side of the door. "Can I come in, please?"
"Go away, I don't want to talk to anybody!" She gasped back.
I took a deep breath. "Okay, don't talk…"
She sighed deeply and gave me the ok. "Come."
Alice was in her bed, her eyes to the ceiling her nose red for the excess of crying. She looked like a hurt, little doll. But I knew she didn't need drama right now. I knew she needed to talk in a soft, quite way. Without anything that pushed her.
So slowly I went to her side, and rested my head on the bed beside her. "Are you alright?" I whispered to her.
"How does it look like?" She mumbled back. Well, at least she was talking.
"Right," I breathed. "I don't want you to be sad, Alice."
"How can I be with what happened to me?" With that she started crying again.
I took her in a big hug and waited for her to cry all she wanted. Calming her from time to time with some 'Shhs,' and 'It's okay,'.
Suddenly she was calmer, only sobbing silently. And it was the time.
"What happened, Alice? What did he do to you?" I whispered to her.
She shook her head, and I thought she wasn't going to continue but she did. "I hate him."
"Why?"
"Because he isn't what he seems! He went out with me because…" She trailed off.
"Because?"
"Because of my condition! He knew that as I was in a wheelchair no one would ever want to be with me and so he thought he could take advantage of me!" She shouted, her voice faltering again.
I could just picture Edward with a grim, his eyes programmed to kill. I could just picture him totally focused on what Alice was saying and just thinking of a way to kill Alec.
"But, what happened, Alice?" I tried to hide the impatience in my voice but it was growing with every second passing by.
She breathed deeply and stared at the ceiling one more time. "We went to Marcus' Pizza, we ate and everything was awesome. He was funny and sweet… Then he told me if we wanted to go on a drive and I knew he wanted to kiss me there, I wanted too." She said that last part in a whisper as if she knew Edward was hearing from the other side. "So I said yes and we went and he parked the car there next to the woods… I just thought he wanted to just kiss me but then everything turned more serious and I tried to pull him away and he wouldn't stop, so there I slapped him. And he turned really angry and took me outside the car in a rush and violently and then he left, Bella. HE LEFT ME ALONE! And before going away, he… he told me I didn't worth anything, that no one would ever love me as I was. And it's true Bella, who would like to be with someone like me?!" She started crying again. Oh, that b*st*rd. I could so cut him his eyes right now!
I hugged her strongly. "Alice that's not true, how can you even think that?!"
"I-It's true, Bella… who would love someone like this? Who can't feel half of the part of her body, huh? WHO?" She cried again. I was making my best to not cry myself; I was really, really making my best. But it was just too hard.
"Alice," I said in weak a whisper, caressing her hair. "That is not true… please you know how sweet you are, how nice and beautiful you are. That boy made you a favor, because you deserve someone way better, Alice. You are going to fall in love with someone that loves you too, and he will love you till the ends of the days. I promise you Alice, you just have to be patient and take a deep breathe. I promise you, you'll find someone that loves you as you deserve Alice."
We stayed quite for some minutes then. When she sighed again. "Have you found him?" She suddenly asked me, her eyes deep on mine.
And I just stayed frozen. Something inside suddenly made me think I had, I had found that one that would love me as much as I would till the ends of days.
"Is Jasper the one that will love you like that?" She asked again when I didn't answer.
But that answer was just too obvious. "No, he's not."
"I hope you find him some day, Bella. You deserve it." She smiled at me. And then she suddenly looked to my hand. "What happened to you?" She frowned.
I rolled my eyes. "I fell down when I tried to act like the Wonder Woman I am not." I tried to smile though I was still with a lump in my throat.
"I'm sorry," She pouted. "And now Edward is angry with you…"
"Don't worry about that, you don't have anything to do with that. Just rest, alright? You had a tough night, but I'm so proud of you, that you slapped him and did what you feel. You are really brave Alice." I smiled at her. That wasn't something easy to do. I was sure about that. It's not easy to say no when you think the other one that you like is thinking of a yes. And it was nice to know that she could do it, it was really good.
"I know, I know," She smiled back. "Yes, I think I'm going to sleep now, I'm pretty tired." She yawned and closed her eyes.
I kissed her forehead and slowly went out of her room; turning off the light as I walked passed it.
Edward was still in the floor with the same pose as the last time I saw him. He looked up his face and his eyes seemed red as if he had been crying. Silently I walked to his spot and sat beside him. He didn't look at me; he was staring at the front.
"She's asleep now," I needed to say something, the silence was killing me.
"I know, I heard her." He said coldly and rested his head in the wall. "I'm gonna kill him, I swear to God that tomorrow I'll go and kill him." He growled and ground his teeth. For a fraction of a second I actually was scared of Edward.
"Don't say that, it won't do anything good."
"Please don't tell me what to do, not you." He growled one more time and closed his eyes.
My heart cracked a bit more with his words, his tough words. "I'm sorry, please… forgive me. I didn't know what to do, I just—I'm sor---" But another moan came off my system. The bleeding in my hand was starting again and I was starting to feel actually dizzy.
He took my hand in his in a second, his eyes worried now. "Do you want me to take you to the hospital?"
Scared flash through my eyes. "Not the hospital, please." I whined.
"Okay," He breathed. "Just let me take my dad's things and I'll try to clean it here." He stood up with that, his hand still grabbing mine.
We went to the kitchen, the lightest place. He sat me in a chair and placed my hand on the table. He suddenly seemed so serious, so focused, that he reminded me of his father.
He took some transparent liquid with a lint. "This might sting a bit; I'll try to do it as soft as possible." He reassured me with his eyes.
I nodded fast and closed my eyes. "Ouch!" I complained when the icy cold, hideous liquid touched the graze.
"Sorry," He sighed, his hand suddenly stroking mine. For some seconds everything became too quite, I only could feel his thumb stroking my palm. For some reason my heart started to beat faster than necessary.
Automatically I turned my eyes to his, just to find out he was looking deeply into mine. Our eyes stayed connected in a too weird, too new way for a moment. A moment in which my heart beat even faster and my breathing accelerated.
Suddenly I felt a huge drop of that liquid in my graze that made me jump. "OUCH!"
He jumped too and looked down to my hand. "Shoot, I'm sorry!" He said huskily. He took the lint that he had in his other hand away from my own and started blow on it softly. "Better?"
I breathed. "Yes."
"I'm gonna put some more of it there, alright? Promise it will be just seconds." He explained as he took some more of that liquid on another lint.
"'Kay." This time he did it very softly, almost inexistent touches between the graze and the lint. And then he covered it with new lint.
"I really am sorry, you know? I know I don't have excuses, I just didn't know what to do, Edward," He breathed deeply and continued with his job. "Please, Edward, say you will forgive me, please." I pouted, trying to hide the sorrow this situation produced me.
He sighed deeply and stared at my eyes. "It's not that I don't forgive you because that goes against my own sake. It's only that I thought I could trust you; it hurt to find out that you were doing something like this behind my back. I could understand if anybody else did it, but you? You that are the only one who truly knows how I feel towards this situation, I don't know," he shook his head. "It just hurt." His voice showed the pain he was talking about and I just wanted to cry. I really needed to cry.
So I did. I started crying there, in front of him. Crying and crying. Lately I had been feeling that I had heard everyone cry and this time I needed to hear me. I needed someone to wipe my own tears away.
He suddenly took me in his arms and placed me in his lap. "I'm so sorry, please don't cry, Bella. I'm sorry, I'm an ass, don't cry, please." He pleaded a he placed my head on his shoulder.
I wanted to stop, to tell him it wasn't him. To tell him that I was the one that was sorry for crying in this time, that I should be supporting him now. But I couldn't. I really needed this, and I needed to smell his smell, and to feel those only arms that would always make me feel safe don't matter what.
"Please, don't cry Bell. Please don't," He kept begging. His own voice now faltering. "I can't see you crying because it makes me want to cry myself."
I shook my head in his shoulder. That was the only thing I could do right now, the words just wouldn't come.
"I'm an ass," He sighed, in an angry way.
"N-no, you are not! It's me; I haven't been feeling so way lately but I promise it isn't you." I said truthfully. Maybe it had to do with him, but the problem wasn't him, the problem was me.
He looked deeply into my eyes. "You want to talk about it?"
And again my stupid heart beat faster than necessary. "Not really, I think we have to discuss first Alice's issue." I mumbled. I didn't really want to talk about Alice issue either, because I knew the madness towards me would come again even if he didn't want to. But I also knew he needed to talk about it.
He sighed deeply. "What do you want to talk about?"
Then I remembered and I unconsciously frowned. "First of all, how did you find us? And why did you come?"
He shrugged. "Call it instinct… I really don't know. But I guess I was scared that something wrong could have happened to you, you seemed really upset. So I decided to follow you. I sounded like a stalker, didn't I?" He chuckled.
"You are, E," I smiled back. The smile would appear alone as I saw everything between us turning to normality. With our craziness and all, of course.
"Was she too upset when you found her?" He muttered. His voice showed the same pain that in his eyes appeared.
I bit my lip. "She was, yes. But she was also relieved that I was there."
He shook his head in an angry way. "I'll kill him tomorrow, I promise you that. I swear that." He growled and punched the table hard with his fist.
I jumped in his lap and took his face with both of my hands so my message could go across better. "Edward, stop. STOP! This won't do any good, Edward. It won't change things. That's why she didn't call you in first place, because she didn't want this to happen!"
His eyes were showing me all the furiousness he felt towards the situation. I really had never seen him like this, so angry. But then he dropped his eyes to the floor, suddenly showing a deep sorrow in them – an old, deep sorrow.
"It's just that--- I can't believe she thinks that, I can't believe she feels no one could ever fall in love with her. It just kills me." He almost choked at the end.
I instantly wrapped my arms over his shoulders. "She will find her love, that's something that we all think I guess, but… of course she'll find him, she's amazing." I reassured him.
"I know," He smiled half heartedly. "I sometimes think why her and not me. You know? She didn't deserve it…"
"And what? You would?" I shrieked as I stared deeply into his eyes. "No one deserved it, Edward. No one. You can't be always blaming yourself for something that wasn't you fault, it was nobody's fault. Bad things happen, but that's just life. We have to learn to live with those things and try to live it the best way possible, you know?"
He nodded once. "I know, but it's hard. Life it's just too hard."
"I know it is," I pouted. "But we also have nice things, you know? Like friendship." I smiled at him, realizing how true my words were. Friendship was one of the best things in life.
He sighed in a teasing way. "Yeah, considering the friends I have to endure I really don't know…"
I punched his arm. "Shut up, you love me." I grinned in a smug way.
"Hell I do!" He chuckled back. And for a millisecond that same weird feeling in the pit of my stomach surrounded me again. The quietness appeared in the room again. I was still in his lap, my head now resting in his shoulder again. But I was comfortable. I felt protected this way. I felt good. I felt loved.
"It's anybody else?" He whispered to my ear in some moment, bringing me back to reality.
"Huh?"
He breathed deeply, so close to my ear that it produced tickles to every portion of my body. "You really never answered Alice's question; you said Jasper wasn't the one that would love you till the end of days, but you never said if you had found him. Have you?"
Irrationally I sat up and looked into his eyes. And just stayed frozen.
But there the door opened, and a noisy Emmett appeared in some seconds in the kitchen, followed by Carlisle and Esme.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Emmett said with suspicious eyes. I jumped to my feet in that second, a fire suddenly burning my cheeks.
Edward cleared his throat. "Nothing," he said in that second and took the frasco of the transparent liquid in his hands. "Bella cut herself with a knife," He lied. But I don't think Emmett was referring to that and I don't think Edward thought that either.
"Are you alright, sweetie?" Esme came to my side and took me in a hug.
"Yes, Esme. I'm fine, Edward already took care of it." I grinned.
"Do you want me to check it?" Carlisle offered, coming to my side too.
"Nah, it's fine, really." I tried to sound as casual as possible. The truth was that if he saw the graze he would probable know it wasn't a knife cut. And that would lead to other things.
"Is Alice home, yet?" Esme asked, her voice suspicious. I guess some kind of mother instinct told her something wasn't right.
I let Edward talk, not wanting to screw up anything else. I had done that part perfectly tonight.
"Yes," Edward muttered, I could sense him trying to hide the angriness. "She's already asleep."
"Anything juicy?" Emmett asked, thrilled. We all glared at him. "What? Jeez, you are boring." He complained and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Sorry," Edward rolled his eyes at his brother.
"So did she spend a nice time?" Esme asked, a grin started to play with her lips.
Edward tensed in the chair, his features suddenly rigid. "I don't know, ask her tomorrow." He said coldly.
"Alright, I will." Esme said with a frown, the mother instinct in her voice again.
"So I should go, Charlie must be waiting for me." I really wanted to get out of there, too many questions.
"Umm, Bella… Where's your truck?" Of course. Of course Emmett needed to ask that.
Edward and I stared at each other with scared faces for a fraction of a second and then he chuckled. What? Had he lost it again?
"It's a funny story," Edward laughed. Alright, what did he have in mind?
"Cool! I love funny stories!" Emmett shouted, excited.
"Yep, but you know… it's really late and Charlie should be waiting Bella. I'll drive her home and tomorrow I tell you. 'Kay?" So what would he say tomorrow? Ha! Luckily I wouldn't be here.
Before anybody could say anything else he grabbed me from my elbow and took me outside the kitchen. I could only mouth a 'bye bye,' – luckily. With my record of how much I could screw up something with my big mouth; this was surely the best thing that could have happened to me.
The way home was quite, but this time it was relaxing too. As if we were too tired of all the drama we had today and we needed to rest. The soft music was making its thing so was the rain.
"So tomorrow is the big date, huh?" Edward chuckled when we were already close to reaching my house.
I gulped. I had forgotten about it again, as if my brain wanted to suppress it completely. "We do…"
"It's gonna be a bit weird, don't you think?" He frowned. Hell it was.
"Yeah, I mean… it's not like we don't know each other, anyway." I shrugged, trying to hide how desperate this date really had me.
"If you say so," He shrugged back. And then a weird quietness came in the way again.
"Do you really think that I come between Jasper and you?"
"What were you gonna ask me before Alice called?"
We both asked at the same time, already reaching the block of my house. We were going to talk again when suddenly something outside the car took our attention. Our eyes posed in a black thing parked in the beginning of the block.
"Is that…?" He frowned, sharpening his sight to the dark place. "What the hell does Black think he is doing here?" He growled and with that he stormed out of the car.
