A/N Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great day! Thank you for the great reviews yesterday! They all mean so much to me! Anyway, here is another chapter! Enjoy and please review! :)
Chapter 29 – The Phone Call
When Bella spotted Edward leaving his third period classroom she started to panic. He looked absolutely livid and she needed to know what had happened. Her third period class went off without a problem so she expected his would too. After all, it was her issues that had caused all the problems, right?
She approached him and placed her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her level and looking him in the eyes. "I missed you so much, Edward. How was class?" She knew she was fishing but she really didn't see any other way. On the one hand she wanted to demand answers from him about what was wrong because there was obviously something wrong. On the other hand, she knew that he would tell her on his own terms.
When he just shook his head and tried to pull away from her, she tightened her grip around his neck, lifting her face to his for a kiss. She heard his sigh of acquiescence right before he their lips met. "I love you, Edward. You know that. Please tell me what's bothering you."
Just as she finished her sentence, Lauren Mallory stepped out of Edward's classroom with Jessica Stanley sucker fished to her side in a heated discussion. Edward just glared at their retreating forms and growled slightly under his breath. When they reached the end of the hall, Lauren glanced over her shoulder and Bella was shocked to see that she looked… scared?
"Oh god! Edward, what happened? Seriously!" Bella was really panicking now. Lauren must have said something to Edward to piss him off, but what? Yes, he knew she was the reason that Bella had almost ended her life; he had heard her entire story, but what could she have possibly said to him to make him this angry?
She watched as he brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes tightly. The kept thinking the situation was bad but she didn't know what she should do. Should she call Esme? Should she beg Edward to take her home for the rest of the day so they could talk? Should she just let him work it out on his own? There were so many possible options that she was at a loss.
Finally, Edward opened his beautiful green eyes and his gaze seemed to penetrate her soul. He took a deep breath and then apologized to her. "Bella, I'm so sorry. I lost my temper because Lauren was talking to Jessica Stanley about you during class. To make matters worse, I ended up being paired with her for a project and she tried to come on to me, caressing my arm and batting her eyelashes at me. I was literally sick to my stomach because of it." Bella watched Edward's body shudder at the mere memory of what happened.
"Bella, I've never had even the slightest inkling to hit a girl before today but I wanted to knock the literal shit out of her this morning. She's a mean, spiteful, vindictive bitch who doesn't deserve the air she's breathing. It's a complete waste of oxygen. And apparently, Jessica Stanley is falling into her traps and is no better at all. She sat there at the beginning of class and just let Lauren talk crap about you, giggling and smiling the whole time like a schoolgirl with her first crush. It was nauseating!" In what seemed to be an unconscious movement, he wrapped Bella in his arms, crushing her to him as he spoke. She didn't complain in the least though because the contact seemed to calm him down somewhat.
"Come on Edward," she said as she started to pull him to the parking lot.
Looking completely confused, he didn't move for a second. "Where are we going Bella? Why are you trying to take me to the parking lot?"
Bella smiled over her shoulder at him and saw his lips pull up in return. "We're going out to your car for some privacy so that we can call your mom." She had to laugh at the look on his face when she said privacy and then even more so when she mentioned his mom. He had looked shocked and excited which quickly turned to disappointment and good humor. Edward would do anything for her though, so he allowed her to pull him to his car.
…..
Edward had tried to calm himself down and appear as if nothing had happened after his run in with Lauren, but he apparently was unsuccessful. When Bella came up to him in the hall, she immediately asked him about class. Yes, it was a general question, but her eyes told him that she knew something had happened; she was just too polite to ask him outright.
He started to shake his head and pull away from her to lead her to their next class, but she wouldn't let him go. She tightened the grip she had around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. He felt himself give in and sigh. He never minded kissing Bella; he just wasn't sure how to tell her what he'd done.
After their brief kiss, she had told him that she loved him and asked what was wrong, but before he could explain, Lauren and Jessica came out of the classroom with their heads together, talking passionately about something. He stiffened as soon as they exited and Bella noticed. He felt a growl build deep within his chest and was surprised when it slipped out.
Neither of them said a word as they girls retreated around the corner, but just before they disappeared, Lauren looked back at them and she looked scared. Good, he thought to himself. Maybe my threat actually made an impact.
Bella began to panic as she asked him again what had happened. He didn't want to tell her, but he also knew that she deserved to know; that she had a right to know.
Feeling an ache start to beat around in his head, he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose while squeezing his eyes shut; it was usually the only thing that helped. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and she was there, standing inches from him. Her chocolate brown eyes were boring into him with so much love and devotion and understanding that he knew he needed to apologize.
"Bella, I'm so sorry. I lost my temper because Lauren was talking to Jessica Stanley about you during class. To make matters worse, I ended up being paired with her for a project and she tried to come on to me, caressing my arm and batting her eyelashes at me. I was literally sick to my stomach because of it." He shivered in horror just remembering back to last period.
When the horror he was feeling faded, it turned into rage. He wanted to hit something so badly. No, he wanted to hit her and the thought was shocking. "Bella, I've never had even the slightest inkling to hit a girl before today but I wanted to knock the literal shit out of her this morning." I still do, he thought to himself. "She's a mean, spiteful, vindictive bitch who doesn't deserve the air she's breathing. It's a complete waste of oxygen. And apparently, Jessica Stanley is falling into her traps and is no better at all. She sat there at the beginning of class and just let Lauren talk crap about you, giggling and smiling the whole time like a schoolgirl with her first crush. It was nauseating!"
Without really thinking about it, he pulled Bella into an embrace, holding her tightly to him. Her presence and the contact they had was easing his anger and he finally began to relax.
After a second of just standing there holding her, she pulled out of his embrace and grabbed his hand, tugging him toward the parking lot, urging him to come with her. Completely confused, he just stood there for a second. Finally, he asked her where they were going; why she was taking him to the parking lot.
Bella simply glanced over her shoulder and smiled as she continued pulling him to the parking lot. "We're going out to your car for some privacy so that we can call your mom." When she said car and privacy, his eyes automatically filled with hunger but it was quickly sedated as Bella continued on to mention his mom. Talk about a mood killer.
When they got to his car, Bella climbed in and waiting for Edward to join her. Once he was in with the door closed, he looked over to the love of his life and saw her smiling at him expectantly. On some subconscious level, he knew she would do anything for him, but he was starting to realize it on a conscious level now.
She knew he needed to talk about the Lauren thing sooner rather than later, and so instead of letting him brood over it for the next hour until lunch, she led him here to call Esme. With a resigned but grateful sigh, he reached into his backpack to grab his cell phone. He was about to call his house, but Bella grabbed it out of his hands before he could.
She already had in her hand Esme's card with her personal cell phone number on it and was punching it into the phone. He should have known he wouldn't be able to simply leave a message. When she said they were going to call Esme, she meant they were actually going to speak to Esme.
…..
Once they were in Edward's car and he had his cell phone in his hand, Bella grabbed it from him. She had the suspicion that he was just going to try to call the house and just leave a message. She knew it wouldn't do any good. Esme and Carlisle were both at work by now and Edward really needed to talk to someone about what had happened. He seemed reluctant to open up to her about it so she was going to made damned sure that he would talk to Esme.
She already had Esme's card in her hand, so once she grabbed the cell phone from Edward, she dialed and hit send with a smug look on her face. She glanced at Edward and saw his lips fighting the smile that was pulling at them. He didn't want to admit that she was right, but she would tell he was giving in.
Esme picked up the phone right away and sounded worried. "Edward, what are you doing out of class? What's wrong?" She must have looked on her caller id to see that the call came from Edward's cell phone. Bella put her on speakerphone before answering.
"Hi Esme, it's Bella. Edward and I are sitting out in his car in the school parking lot with you on speakerphone. Something happened last period that's bothering Edward and he needs to talk about it. The first thing I though of was to call you. Do you have a minute?" Bella mentally crossed her fingers that Esme wasn't busy and breathed a sigh of relief at her response.
"Bella, I told you to call me if you needed anything and I meant it. I'll talk to Edward in a minute but right now, I want to talk to you. How are you holding up, my dear?"
Smiling at the term of endearment that Esme used, she went on to tell her that things were going great. She mentioned that Edward was transferred into four of her classes and having him there with her was helping her confidence grow. She hadn't felt uncomfortable even once today while Edward was at her side.
She even explained that her budding friendship with Angela Webber was still obviously in place and that they had spent the entire last hour passing notes back and forth talking about this weekend.
She glanced at Edward after that last bit and smiled at him before giving him a wink. She laughed when she saw him flush an adorable shade of red.
After she finished telling Esme about her last hour, she finally got to the point in her story that she was really calling about. She relayed what Edward had told her about wanting to hit Lauren and the fact that he was looking so living that she thought he was actually capable of it. Before handing the phone over to Edward she said one last thing to Esme. "Please help him." It was a strangled sob, but she knew Esme had heard her.
…..
Edward sat silently as Bella shared her day up to this point with Esme. When she was talking about her last class and her note passing with Angela, he couldn't help but smile. He was extremely grateful for Angela Webber. She seemed to be a very shy girl but had become a good friend to Bella in a very short amount of time.
When Bella explained the content of the note passing, Edward hadn't thought much of it; at least until Bella looked up at him with the most adorable guilty smile on her face as she winked at him. He thought about it for a brief second realized that the note had probably been all about him and he found himself blushing to the point he could feel his ears getting hot.
Right before Bella handed him the phone she begged for his mom to help him. The way it came out sounded almost like a sob and it broke his heart. He wanted to toss the phone down and pull Bella into his arms.
He wanted to hold her and comfort her and tell her everything would be okay. He needed to show her everything would be okay. When she looked up at him with pleading in her eyes, he knew that she thought this was the answer. As much as he wanted to hold her in his arms right then, he knew what she needed more was for him to talk to his mother.
With another resigned sigh, he lifted the phone to his ear and spoke. "Hi mom."
"Edward, what happened?" His mother's voice was very calm as she addressed him. He could tell she was worried about him, especially after Bella's description of his appearance a few minutes ago, but she was going to listen to what he had to say.
He took a deep breath and explained all about last period from starting bell to dismissal bell. He told her about listening to Lauren laugh with Jessica at Bella's expense while the teacher was getting set up for class. He gave details about what was said, all while watching Bella's reaction to it.
He had been worried about telling Bella what he had overheard because he thought it might put her into a tailspin. It had been less than a week since her attempted suicide and he thought her emotional scars might not have had enough time to heal. This was the reason he was reluctant to tell Bella exactly what happened, but as he watched her, he realized that he had underestimated her.
She sat there calmly, listening to him tell his mother everything. She looked sad at what he said, but she also looked strong. He knew then that as long as they talked to each other and worked together, they could handle anything.
He reached over to hold her hand as he finished recanting everything to his mom. When he was finished he listened to her for a minute more. She was telling him that she would be calling the school to speak directly with the Vice Principal about the situation. She also said that if need be, Charlie would get involved by filing harassment charges. She explained that Bella would have to be the one to actually file them and asked if it would make her uncomfortable to do so. When Bella said she wouldn't have a problem with, the conversation continued.
Before they hung up, Edward asked his mom one more favor. "Mom, since I've already got you on the phone and you know that Bella and I didn't make it to forth period, can you please call the school to excuse us?"
"Of course, Edward. I think your reason for missing class is very acceptable and have no problem calling to excuse you. I'll call Charlie and have him excuse Bella as well; just make sure that you both make it to your classes for the rest of the day."
"Yes, mom. Thank you for listening. Bella was right; I definitely needed to talk to someone about what happened." He smiled at Bella and she returned it looking much more relaxed. "Bye mom. I'll see you at home later," he said before disconnecting the call.
He placed his phone back in his bag but pulled out his keys and put them in the ignition.
"Edward! What are you doing? You just promised your mom that we'd go to the rest of our classes!" He smiled at how cute she was.
"Bella, my mom just said she was going to call and have us excused from forth period. There's still more than 35 minutes left and then we have lunch for an hour. That's over an hour and a half of time I can spend with my girlfriend away from school. I'm not passing up this opportunity!" He turned to her, smiling the smile he knew she couldn't resist before winking at her and pulling out of the parking space.
Her quick intake of breath showed that the smile and wink had its desired affect. She knew exactly what he intended now and he couldn't wait to get her back to his empty house. Ninety minutes, although not as long as he wanted with her, was plenty of time.