A/N: Thanks to MsWDarcy my fantastic beta. She beta'd this from vacation with her family. Send her some love.

Thanks to nowforruin my Twilighted validation beta.

Warning: adult content and violence.

Disclaimer: all recognizable characters and Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer, the rest is copyrighted 2010 ElspethGordie

xoxo

Chapter Thirteen: Curveball

"Happy Birthday!" Charlie crowed as he pushed my door open with his shoulder. His arms were busy holding a box with a big blue bow on it.

I pushed myself up in my bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Glancing at my clock, I noticed it was nine o'clock, and yes, indeed it was by birthday. Yay.

"Happy Birthday, Bells! The big one-eight. You are officially an adult now. Makes me feel ancient." I laughed as he set the box down on my legs, and stood back with a smug grin on his face.

"Come on, dad. You're not that old." I smiled up at him. "You know you didn't have to get me anything. Living here is enough of a present."

He blushed and shrugged. "Don't you want to see what it is?"

I grabbed the box, and lightly shook it. Squinting my eyes, I looked up at him, "Is it a pony?"

Laughing, I opened the lid of the brown box. Inside was a silver laptop computer. "Oh my gosh, Dad! This is awesome!" I lifted the computer out of the box. "You shouldn't have! This must have cost a fortune!"

"Naw. I got it used, and had a buddy clean it up for me and made it run fast. It should work a lot better than your old one." He bashfully pulled off his ball cap, and rubbed his head, before putting it back on.

I beamed up at him. "Thanks, Dad. It's really great."

"Oh, wait one more thing."

"Dad."

"It's not from me. Your mother sent something in the mail."

I watched as he hurried out of the room. He quickly reentered with another brown box, much smaller this time, with FedEx stickers all over it. My mom went over board a bit.

I tore off the tape, and opened to find a digital camera with a note.

Isabella,

I'm sorry I'm not with you today on your birthday. I'm trying to understand why you left, even if I don't agree with your choices. You are always welcome back home. Here is a little something to help catalog the months. I wish you were older, but I know you'll wish you had taken pictures later on. I love you. Happy Birthday.

Your Mother

We agreed to disagree.

My dad sat down in my desk chair. "So what'd you get Bells?"

I showed him the digital camera.

"That's great honey. What'd your mom say?"

"You know, happy birthday. She misses me. The usual."

He looked a little lost in thought for a moment, staring at his hands, before settling his eyes on me. "So, what's the plan for today? Party? Cake? Alice and crowd?"

I shook my head. "Nope, just me and you. Is that okay?"

He smiled—beamed. "Of course that is okay. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. You decide. You know the area better than me."

Giving Charlie the control was a good idea. We had a great day. He roped me into playing putt-putt with him, and he didn't even let me win. We drove around town, as he regaled me with stories about the area. If he wasn't a cop, I'm pretty sure that he'd sign up to be a tour guide. He went past all the huge houses telling me who lived there, how much it was worth, and what kind of domestic disputes had been called in. We stopped at a south western style restaurant, where I had a ginormous taco salad, and he had the servers come and sing to me. They sang 'happy birthday' in Spanish. It was more humiliating that usual. At least I got a double chocolate chip cupcake out of it. We ended the afternoon going to a movie. We saw the latest kiddy flick that was out, because Charlie was dying to see it, and said that going by himself was just creepy.

It was nice. It was the most time I had spent with him, in longer than I could remember. I felt guilty though. Despite how light-hearted everything was, I still felt this huge weight on my shoulders. My secret constantly reminded me that I was going to ruin his life. But he was my dad, he did have a right to know—I just couldn't tell him, not yet.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store. Charlie made me wait in the car, while he ran in. He returned quickly with a small white box from the bakery.

"Dad. What's that?"

He grinned. "It's a birthday cake!"

"But I had that cupcake during lunch."

"I know, but you didn't get to blow out candles. And I didn't get to sing." I raised one eyebrow at him. "You know I can't cook. And these are really good; they had one at the department party for the fourth."

He tapped his hands on the steering wheel to the beat on the radio. "This is gonna be great, Bells."

"Dad, this has been the best birthday ever. You didn't have to trouble yourself."

"No trouble. It's not every year I get to spend this day with my favorite girl." He looked over his shoulder at me. He reached over to pat my knee; I quickly evaded by placing my bag on my lap. He touched the bag instead of me, not even noticing my quick maneuvering.

My phone rang, and I scrambled through my bag to find it. It was mom. I hadn't called her after her present, and note. I didn't want to talk with her, but I guess that wasn't fair. Today was the day she gave birth and went through excruciating pain for me. She deserved a phone call.

"Hey, Mom. Thanks for the camera." Just because I had to talk to her, didn't mean it had to be prolonged.

"Hey, Honey. How's your birthday?"

"It's been great. We've had a lot of fun today."

"You got my gift?"

"Yea, it's a great camera. I really appreciate it." I tucked my hair behind my ear, biting my lip. I hoped she wouldn't ask about the note.

"Make sure you use it, okay?"

I nodded. "Yea. I will."

"Oh, and Isabella," her voice raised an octave higher. "I have a surprise for you! A friend of yours has been bugging me to talk to you. He said that you didn't call him back."

My eyes widened, and my breath hitched. "W..w..what?"

"Jimmy's been dying to talk to you. He's sorry about last year."

"You're talking to him? That bastard, after what he did?" My voice trembled, and I could feel my dad's gaze from the seat next to me.

"He says he still loves you."

"What the hell, Mom? And you believe him?"

"Isabella."

"No, mom."

"Just hold on a second." I could hear shuffling on the other side of the line. My mom was whispering to someone nearby.

What the hell was she doing?

I waited patiently, hoping she hadn't completely lost her mind. Charlie raised his eyebrows at me. I shook my head, trying to deter him.

"Izz, baby? Is that you?" The voice was male and deep. It was the voice from my nightmares.

I gasped.

Immediately, I ended the call and dropped the phone into my lap like it was on fire. I stared at it, unable to believe what had just happened.

Not a second later it began ringing again. I froze. That ring tone would be the new soundtrack for my nightmares.

I let it ring, staring.

"Bells, are you going to get that?"

I shook my head, not taking my eyes from the phone. I ignored the call and dropped the phone back into my lap as if I was going to get burned. It was my mother's number again.

But I was sure that it was him.

The noise stopped and I began to breath steadily again.

"Bella, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

I could feel the car accelerate sharply. "Who was that?" His voice was hard.

"Mom."

"Why did you hang up then?"

I looked out at the landscape, suburban ranch after suburban ranch flying by. Charlie, cut a sharp right turn, pulling onto our street. Yanking the car into park, directly in front of the house, he turned sharply in his seat.

"Bella, what is going on?" He had his cop face on. "Why did you hang up on your mom?"

"Mom put my ex on the phone. He wanted to talk to me."

"And you don't want to talk to him." He pursed his lips, and a few wrinkles in his forehead bunched up. "You'd tell me if you were in trouble, right?"

I looked down at my hands. He was too insightful for his own good. I nodded. I would tell him—eventually.

"Alright then. Let's go eat some cake."

He was opening the door to the car, when my phone rang again. I shrieked, and flew out of the car.

"Turn it off! Turn it off!"

Charlie walked around the car looking like I had grown three horns. He leaned into the car, and picked my phone off the floor looking at it.

His eyebrows narrowed, as he stared at the number. Instead of turning it off, he answered it.

"Hello?... No, she is not available. Who exactly is this?... Let me speak with Renee." He looked up at me, and mouthed at me to breath. "Renee, what's going on?... Well, she obviously does not want to speak with him…. No, he may not…. Renee, don't push this…. I don't think that is wise… I'll ask her, but no promises. Bye." He ended the call, and promptly shut off the phone before handing it to me.

"You need me to get you a new number?"

I shrugged.

"Just let me know? Kay, Bells?"

I nodded, and watched as he began walking up to the house. "What'd she ask?" I called after him.

"She wants you to call her later." He sighed. "You don't have to if you don't want to." Rolling his eyes, he tried to make light of my mother's flighty behavior. "Enough interruptions! Cake time."

I smiled and followed him inside.

OoOoOoOo

I grabbed the plates from the cupboard in the kitchen, and forks from the drawer, while Charlie scrounged around looking for the birthday candles.

"Victory!" He exclaimed, pulling two candles out of the back of a junk drawer. I need to clean that out.

I watched as he placed the two candles on his store bought cake. Part of me wished he had told me that he wanted a cake. I would have made my own cake, and it would have been from scratch. Mmmm no-fail chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting.

I sat down in front of the cake, while Charlie lit the candles, and proceeded to take too many pictures with my new camera. After picture ten, I was concerned that the wax would melt all over the cake. Even if it is store bought, a cake can never be wasted.

"Dad! Come on. Enough pictures." I hid my face in my hands.

Charlie laughed, then took a deep breath and winked. "Haaaappy—"

He was cut off by the sound of the house telephone. I jumped in my seat, surprised by the interruption.

Charlie shrugged his shoulders. "One sec, Bells."

Mom wouldn't call the house phone. Charlie told her to lay off. Would she give the number to Jimmy? Dammit. He had her wrapped around his little finger. He knew I was with my dad. He knew I wasn't at home anymore. He couldn't keep stalking me like this.

"Hello?" He leaned into the receiver, flashing me a big smile.

"No, Alice, I was just about to sing Bella 'happy birthday.'"

Crap.

I heard a shriek on the other side of the line—all the way across the kitchen. My dad winched, and pulled the phone away from his ear. He shot me a guilty look, promptly handing me the phone.

Alice was still ranting, as I brought it up to my ear. "…celebrate without me? Charlie, how could you do that to me!"

"Uh, hello? Alice?"

"Bella Swan! How could you?"

"Um, what?"

Alice growled into the phone. "How could you not tell me about your birthday! Your eighteenth birthday, for goodness sake!" I thought I heard her stamping her little feet. "I can't believe you did this to me!" She continued to wail. "I thought we were friends!"

"Alice! We are friends. It's just not that big a deal."

"What!" Her voice got even higher. "How can turning eighteen not be a big deal! You can vote! You can buy cigarettes! You can be tried as an adult and be sent to jail!"

I laughed at her reasons that eighteen is so great. In all honesty, nothing good really happens until you turn twenty-one anyway.

"You can get drafted!"

"Alice, I'm sorry. I should have told you."

"Damn right you should have!"

"What can I do to make it up to you?"

I swear I heard a sniffle. "Anything?"

I sighed. "Sure."

The sniffle came back again, in exaggerated form. "Promise?"

"Sure."

She began squealing and clapping on the other side. "Oh, I'll need streamers, and confetti, and a sound system. I'm going to have to talk to Rose about food."

"Whoa, whoa! What are you talking about?"

"Your birthday party silly."

"But my birthday's today!"

She growled again. "I know. Which is why I am going to throw you a party next weekend."

"Alice, I don't want a party. That's why I didn't tell you in the first place!"

"But you promised!"

"Do you remember what happened at the last party?"

She didn't respond. I was pretty sure she was pouting. "Alice, please!"

She sighed. "Okay, how bout this—just your friends, nothing big. But still a party."

I felt like this was the best compromise I was going to get. I would much rather have a small get together with my few friends, than a huge party debacle, that only asked for trouble, or injuries.

"Small get together."

"Super small!"

"Okay."

She squealed. "Yay!" I switched the phone to my other ear. I needed to give my right one a break. The high pitch noise was a bit too much.

"I'll call you tomorrow with all the details!"

"Okay. Thanks, Alice."

"My pleasure. And Bella?"

"Yea?"

"Happy Birthday!" She yelled into the phone. My eyes rolled back in my head, and Charlie started laughing. If he didn't hear the whole conversation sitting next to me, he sure heard that.

OoOoOoOo

Once again, I found myself standing in front of my full length mirror. I tugged on the empire waist dress that Alice put me in, wishing that it didn't show so much leg. I'll be honest… my legs looked really good—like worthy of random whistles and catcalls good—but I would have enough attention focused on me. There did not need to be another reason.

During school I tried to talk Alice out of any kind of party but she wouldn't have it. No one would help me out. Both Emmett and Edward said that they were not going to incur her wrath. Rose just rolled her eyes, and Jasper shrugged. Then again he is the oblivious one who didn't know what was happening when she basically flashed him as much as possible without being accused of indecency in public.

By the end of the week I gave up, and submitted myself to enduring it.

The party was planned for Saturday at the Cullen's. Rose took care of the cake and food, while Alice decked out her pool and living room like the happy birthday section of the party store puked all over.

Ironically, Alice made me help decorate for my own party. She declared it penance. I thought the party was penance. I told her so, and received another armful of streamers as revenge.

I heard Emmett pound on the front door, and hastily checked my hair once more. There was nothing I could do, it did what it wanted. Charlie got to the door before I did.

Emmett with a big goofy grin on his face yelled. "Happy Birthday Bellarina!"

He stepped into the house to reveal that Edward had joined him. "Hey birthday girl." His voice was gruff, but his eyes were bright. I blushed.

"Hey guys." I looked up at all three men pleadingly. "Can't we just skip this? I'll buy you ice cream."

Emmett snickered, and Edward stepped forward. "That's why he brought me. In case you decided to book it."

I rolled my eyes. "What are you gonna do? Carry me over your shoulder like a caveman?" Hmm, that had possibilities.

He laughed. "I have to live with Alice. You have no idea the whirlwind she's been this week. If you don't show, she'll never forgive us."

I sighed dramatically and offered my wrists. "Fine. Take me away!"

Charlie just sat back and chortled. "Have fun kids!"

Emmett bounced through the doors first. "Hell yea!"

Edward laughed, and I waved goodbye to my dad. "Sure, sure. See ya, Dad!"

"Hey, Bells?"

I turned back to Charlie. "Yea?"

"If you get any more calls, let me know, kay?"

My smiled dropped immediately, and I nodded.

I had gotten several calls from my mom this week. I hadn't answered any of them. She left me a few voicemails, but I didn't bother listening before deleting them. There was no way to know if it was actually her. I texted her asking to leave me alone. Charlie even called once, to tell Renee to give me a little time. He didn't really see the whole picture, but he was on my side no matter what.

That meant the world to me.

Charlie kept bugging me to get a new number. I was mad at mom, but I didn't know if I could do that.

I quietly followed Edward out to the car, and let him open the passenger door. I smiled, but it didn't reach my eyes.

He lightly touched my arm. "What was that?"

I sighed. "Someone back home keeps calling me."

"Your ex?"

I nodded, peeking up at him through my lashes. His jaw was tight and his eyes flashed. "You let me know if he bothers you anymore?"

I patted him on the shoulder, and used him as leverage to hop into the jeep. "It's not a big deal."

He rolled his eyes, and slammed the door, promptly jumping into the back seat.

Emmett cranked the music, smiling at me, completely oblivious to any tension between me and Edward. He began tapping his hands on the steering wheel and bobbing his head to the "Lollipop" song.

"Ready for birthday fun!"

I laughed. "As much as I'll ever be."

Reviews receive my eternal gratitude and a sneak peek of the next chapter!

Rec: The Silent Mind by ilovethehappybunny

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