Welcome back for another installment of COE. Can you believe the summer is almost over?
The usual love to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for taking this ride with us. They rock.
We don't own Twilight; CPW is glued to the Lollapalooza coverage online and Risbee is watching Shark Week. We never said we were exciting girls :)
Chapter Song: After The Storm by Mumford & Sons
BPOV
I'd always been one of those people that managed to do some of my best thinking in the middle of the night. Most of my papers were written between two and four a.m. My best paintings somehow threw themselves together when I was in a zombie-like state, exhausted and completely alone with just me and the canvas. Once I let my walls down and got rid of the distractions of day to day life, my ideas and thoughts usually became crystal clear.
Not tonight though. I couldn't sleep because my mind was going 800,000,000 miles per hour about everything that had happened here over the past week or so. Well, not everything…just one thing. Or two things, I guess.
Kate and Garrett. Kate and Garrett. Oh! My! God! Kate and Garrett!
It made so much sense, well, it didn't…but it did. The hatred, the fighting, the mood swings…all suddenly gone. Poof. Kate just needed to get laid.
So did I, if I was going to start thinking about it. Like in a bad way, bless Edward and his peen that I was now all kinds of up close and personal with.
But he was her step-uncle and she was his step-niece? What the fuck?
It was no different than Greg and Marsha Brady getting it on. And WAY better than Greg and Mrs. Brady, so they had that going for them. Plus, if Kate's ultimate goal of getting her dad to leave Tanya ever worked out, then there would be no issue at all. Hell, I knew of two sisters who married two brothers and I didn't think anything of it. I wasn't sure why this was blowing my mind so much.
Heh…I said blow. Which then made me worry that I'm never ever going to grow up and be able to function as an adult. I was going to be stuck at the proverbial children's table for the rest of my life because I couldn't have an internal monologue without veering towards the crude and perverse. Things were starting to get a bit ridiculous. I couldn't shut my mind off and I felt wound up like a spring.
It had to be close to two thirty in the morning and I was wide awake and I couldn't get comfortable. For what had to be the millionth time, I rolled over and rearranged the pillows, all the while trying not to wake up Edward who was sleeping like the dead beside me. Of course, I probably would be too if I had been able to sleep at all. Would it be completely wrong for me to wake him up to keep me entertained?
Yeah, it probably would. Though if I didn't pass out soon, I was going to have to do it. Or him.
What was keeping me up? Why wasn't I able to fall asleep? I tried to scooch down towards the foot of the bed and realized the problem.
The fucking sheets were tucked in. Oh, hell no. Forget not waking Edward up, we needed to talk about this and we needed to talk about it now.
I coughed loudly. Nothing.
"Edward?" Nope, still nothing. I pulled a pillow out from under his head. No response, though I wasn't completely sure he didn't smile just a little bit.
"I'm not wearing any undies," I whispered into the darkness and well, what do you know? Suddenly he was all handsy and grabby and awake. Ahem, very awake. Unfortunately for him, we were going to have to have a talk first.
"This is serious, Cullen. I absolutely, without a doubt, can NOT sleep with the sheets tucked in at the foot of the bed." I sat up in bed, straightened out the t-shirt he had tried to crawl under and gave him a serious look. Well, as serious as I could look with my messed up hair and swollen lips. I was determined though, and not even his bedroom eyes could distract me.
Those beautiful, green, incredibly sexy eyes that made me think that this conversation could wait until the morning…or at least wait another forty-five minutes, to an hour.
No, I would not be distracted. This had to happen now. All these nights, all these sleepovers, all the times I've slept curled up and around and under Edward's body…oh how I craved that body…and tonight I found out that he preferred to sleep with the sheets tucked in at the foot of the bed.
How was that possible? I mean, there were two absolutes for me to be able to sleep. One, I had to have white noise. A fan, a sound machine or something. Silence was a sleep killer. And two, I had to have one foot sticking out of the covers, or at the very least have the ability to stick one foot out of the covers. The idea of being trapped was almost nauseating and when I tried to explain to Edward that I was somewhat claustrophobic, he just shook his head and said that I was being ridiculous. That apparently I'd been sleeping like this since he started sleeping in here.
Um, excuse me?
"Yup. I'd make you pass out and then get up and fix the sheets once you were sleeping." If it were possible to strut sitting down, he was doing it. Holy preening. "And if I could get that kind of response from you before, just imagine what it will be like when we…"
Umfph.
A massive force came out of nowhere and barreled into my back, which pushed me on top of Edward.
Well, hello there handsome.
Hold on… what the hell was Charlotte doing here? Suddenly, it became a struggle to keep Charlotte from burrowing beneath our covers where Edward and I were in various states of nakedness. She pulled, we tugged, she fought but we won.
Hey, at least the covers are untucked on all sides now!
I was pulling the hem of my t-shirt down to make sure it covered all the necessary parts, as well as Edward's very necessary part. I wiggled against it and did a little bit of sit-strutting of my own when I heard the groan that Edward was trying so desperately to keep inside. He was, first and foremost, a gentleman after all.
So of course, I wiggled again. Because it was right there. Just one millimeter to the side and things would go where they most desperately needed to go. And we both knew it.
Why hadn't we fucked yet? Because, gah, it needed to happen.
Charlotte had given up on the covers and had decided to cover her head with our pillows instead. Her knees were bunched up underneath her and she was balled up so tight that I was honestly afraid that she wouldn't be able to breathe.
"What's going on with her?" Edward was fighting the urge to move so hard that his body was literally vibrating but hell if I was going to complain about that fun little side effect of our behaving ourselves. I wasn't stupid.
"No idea."
"Shouldn't you ask her? I mean, I don't want to sound inconsiderate, or whatever, but…" he thrust his hips up just a little bit and somewhere angels started to cry because Charlotte was in our bed. I tried to pull one of the pillows up, but she just tightened her fists around them. I really, really didn't want to move. Well, maybe that one little millimeter, but obviously that wouldn't be right since Charlotte was cowering beside us.
Sigh.
So I stared and I stared and did everything in my power to will her to move. To leave. To have it turn out that she was merely sleepwalking and that she'd get up and go back to wherever she came from. There may have been some under the breath chanting.
Leave. Leave. Leave.
"Baby, I can't believe I'm going to suggest this, but maybe you should get off of me and see if she's okay."
More tears, though they were mine this time.
With a gentle nudge, and not so subtle sighs of remorse from both of us, I crawled off of Edward and off the bed long enough to pull on some yoga pants. Edward went into the bathroom, under the pretense of giving us girls a few minutes, but I knew exactly what he was going to be doing in there and I'd give my left boob to watch.
That was sooo going on the to-do list.
But for now, I had to take care of my obviously traumatized friend. She looked so pathetic that I couldn't even really be mad at her for interrupting. Much.
"Charlotte, sweetie? What's wrong?" She pulled her head out from under the pillows and looked at me with huge eyes. She looked like one of those ridiculous 'Hang In There' cat posters that were always in school libraries and guidance counselor offices.
"Thunder." Then she was gone again.
I pulled at the pillow, but she held firm. I tugged at the pillow and she tightened her hold. I smacked her ass, she yelped and Edward gasped from the doorway of the bathroom. I shot him a look. "Not helping," I groaned as he grinned and shrugged and then went out on the balcony, but not before a gust of wind almost ripped the door from the hinges and a flash of lightening lit up the pre-dawn sky.
That got Charlotte's attention and she re-surfaced, crawling into my lap and almost strangling me.
"Shhhhh…It's just the angels bowling or God playing drums. Or…" I wracked my brain trying to come up with what my grandparents used to tell me when I was little, which was a little silly considering Charlotte knew exactly what thunder was. I mean, we were one year away from our college degrees. So I took another tactic…
"Where is Peter?"
She huffed and burrowed further into my neck as a rumble of thunder echoed through the room. "He's snoring. I tried to wake him up first, but I couldn't get him to move."
"I'll go get him. Why don't you two go downstairs and when I wake him up, we'll meet you in the living room. The storm seems to be off the coast and with those open windows, it could be pretty spectacular to watch."
Just as he closed the door to the balcony, lightning struck. I don't know where, but it was close, and suddenly the room, the house, the whole part of the island that we could see from our window, was swamped in darkness.
And Charlotte was in my shirt.
I lit the candle that was on my dresser and gestured for Charlotte to come with me. Edward was right about going downstairs…and with the windows, there was bound to be a bit more light…at least when the lightning flashed. Which it was doing every 1.5 seconds, or so it seemed.
I handed her the candle and pulled a bunch of blankets out of the hall closet. I figured at the very least, we could cuddle up on the couch and wait out the storm. Or better yet, Edward could arrive with Peter and then take me back up to my bed and make sweet, sweet love to me while Peter and Charlotte could wait out the storm and he dealt with her particular brand of crazy.
I grabbed a few more candles from the shelves and we walked into the living room to find that we were not alone. Kate and Garrett were there…and so was Peter.
Oh thank God! Charlotte relaxed the death grip she had on my arm and flew into his arms. How she managed to do that and still keep the candle upright, lit and not set the house on fire I wasn't sure. I walked over to her, took it from her hand and let Peter know that she was all his.
Edward joined us a few minutes later since he obviously wasn't able to find Peter in his room and I shivered as I felt his arms snake around my waist from behind as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Why don't we go back upstairs finish our discussion from earlier?"
Now, I wasn't a psychology major, nor was I a mind-reader, but I knew full well that talking was not what Edward was really talking about. Eh, talking was over-rated.
"Uh-uh. No way, you two. You aren't going anywhere until the power gets back on. So you might as well grab a beer from the fridge and get over it." Kate chimed in from over by the window. "I know that face, Bella. And there is no way you two are going upstairs and leaving us up here to pretend we're not hearing anything."
At that moment, I hated Kate, but we were stuck. We needed to get away from this house, from our friends and from people that thought it was okay to get in our bed, literally and figuratively. Or keep us out of it, in this case. For now though, we were stuck.
Edward chuckled behind me and grazed a boob. Traitor.
"But right now, its time for some dirty scrabble."
"Oh fuck me." I groaned and wanted to cry as he emerged from the cabinets with a board game and a smile.
"Exactly."
EPOV
"Okay, here are the rules," called out Garrett as Bella settled in beside me on the floor and her hand entwined in mine. Though we were all gathered around the coffee table, we were also all coupled up, which was kind of sweet. Though I would never mention that to the guys cause they would probably ask for my man card back. Stupid idiots. "The words you use can only be dirty words."
"Define dirty?" questioned Charlotte as Peter pulled her to his side and kissed her temple. Poor, sweet misguided girl. "Like, do I write down muddy or disgusting?"
"Oh god no! Porny, sexy, that kind of dirty," Garrett clarified as all of us looked game except for Charlotte. What the hell? The girl could burst out and tell us she was fucking Peter, but she wouldn't write down a dirty scrabble word? Candles flickered around us as Peter reassured her in his soothing voice that she could write some easy dirty words like vagina. I just cringed. Vagina wasn't dirty, it was clinical. "Okay, so are we all game? Don't back out now Princess Tree Hugger. Just think of words you scream out while Peter here is drilling you like the Texas oil fields."
"So like... holy fucking shit?" Char asked as Bella covered her mouth to stop from laughing. "or Jesus, you have a huge dick?"
"Uh... sure, those would work but you only need one word, so use fucking or dick."
"What about huge?"
"That's not that dirty," Kate replied, hoping to ease some of the frustration you could see on Garrett's face. I think I saw a vein pulsing on his forehead, but that was commonplace when he talked with Charlotte. They tolerated each other, but didn't particularly get along that well.
"Penis?"
"Sure, Penis works."
"What about slagathor?" Bella added as Charlotte shot her an angry glare, and I couldn't help my laughter. When the girls were all together, regardless of whether they had been drinking or not, they all tend to be 'no holds barred'. Anything goes, and I appreciated that. Garrett did too, but he was still expecting them to start wrestling in hot oil or something.
"Hey, she resembles that remark," tossed in Kate as Garrett sat down beside her and handed her a beer and we all finish arranging our seven tiles in our stands. "Now, shut up and let's get playing."
I have nothing useful and I can tell Bella has the same, so we all take turns to reach into the bag and pull out letters to decide who is going first. I have to fight back a laugh when Garrett pulls out a Z and Bella has A. As we start, Bella reaches into the bag and pulled out another letter, but was unable to make any sort of porny word.
"I have book," Bella whispers to me as I glance down at her letters. Sure enough, she can write book, but not much else. "If I had another b, I'd have boob." I quickly glance down at the v-neck of her shirt, admiring her cleavage. I want to tell her that I love her boobs, but I refrain and look at my board.
"I have sea," I reply back as Bella's hand snakes up my leg, getting extremely close to my crotch. Just as I am about to place my hand over hers, the talking at the table pulls us from our sneaky movements.
"This is gonna be boring for a bit," Peter explains as Garrett shoots him a look that says 'shut the fuck up'. It takes one more round of picking letters before Kate puts down her first word – lay.
"See Charlotte, you can go with something simple like lay," Peter says soothingly as Garrett used the L from lay to put down the word oil. I can't help but cringe as Kate starts to blush beside him. It's dark in the room, the only light coming from the three dozen candles placed around us or the lightning outside, but Kate's blush is obvious. I don't even want to know what the fuck they have done that involves oil.
It took a little while, but slowly, longer and dirtier words were put onto the board and, even though the storm was pounding away at the house outside, we were all getting nice and drunk inside. "No way, that doesn't count," I called out as Peter put down BJ as a word. "You have to use the full term of blow job. No short forms."
"Oh come on, it's dirty enough. Everyone calls it a BJ," Peter defended as Bella looked at me and pointed to my letters. "Fine, be a fucker." Peter pulled back his letters and using the A in lay, he added the word ass. "You good with that or is that too much of a short form for asshole?"
"Don't be a douche, Peter," Kate chimed in as I gave her an unexpected high five. Wow, I must have been drunk if I was agreeing with and high fiving Kate. Then I watched as Kate put down her letters and had a huge grin on her face. "I just put sperm off of Peter's ass."
"Hey, don't touch my man's ass," Charlotte said with a slur as she waved her hand stupidly at Kate and Bella just giggled beside me. "I got a good one for sperm – eat me."
"Woah, can she use two words? We're not making sentences here, bitch," Bella said through her laughter as Charlotte threw a letter at her and Bella picked it up grinning. "Woo hoo, now I can put down vibrator. Thanks, Char!"
"Ok, the only rule variation we were doing was that the words had to be dirty. No more sentences, slang, short forms or the like, alright?" Garrett clarified as Bella stood up, whispering to me that she needed another drink. Honestly, the last thing any of us needed was anymore beer, because it seemed like we had turned scrabble into a drinking game, but it's not like we were going anywhere anytime soon.
When Bella left to get her drink, we took a quick break and I scanned through my letters again, making sure I had what I thought I did. At least I would if Bella put down vibrator on her next turn. Just as I took a final swig of my beer and was about to shout out to Bella to grab me another one, there was a scream from the kitchen that scared all of us.
I jumped up anxiously and ran in to the kitchen to find Garrett cowering against the fridge. "What the fuck was going on?" His hand was clutching the handle like his life depended on it. "What did you do?"
"Nothing man, I swear. It was all your girl," Garrett said anxiously as he pointed at Bella. I squinted through the darkness and Bella let out a small sigh.
"Okay, I may have grabbed his ass thinking he was you."
"How on earth could you confuse me and Garrett?" I asked in frustration as Bella came towards me, Garrett backing away from her so she couldn't grope him again. "I'm like a foot taller than him."
"Fuck you Cullen."
"But you guys are wearing the same shorts," Bella said with a hint of remorse. If I could see her better, I was sure I would see regret on her face, but it wasn't completely obvious. However, I trusted my girl implicitly, so if she said it was an accident that she grabbed Garrett's ass, I believed her.
"It doesn't matter," I replied as I held her against me and kissed her lips sweetly. "I trust you and I know you would never grab his ass on purpose. It's not nearly as nice as mine. Anyways, where did Peter go?"
"He mentioned something about getting a flashlight since he couldn't see his letters that well,' Kate explained as we heard footfalls down the stairs and Peter appeared holding... what was that?
"I found a flashlight!" Peter declared triumphantly as he sat down in his darkened corner of the table and lifted it up, turning it on, as we all broke out into laughter at complete lack of light, and the random buzzing noise.
"Oh my god, Peter!" Charlotte grabbed, what I could now tell was a vibrator, from her boyfriend's hands and sprinted upstairs with Peter on her heels. The rest of us began rolling on the floor, laughing at the awkward situation as we could hear arguing upstairs, no doubt from Charlotte yelling at Peter for grabbing her vibrator and not a flashlight.
"I bet that is going to be an interesting conversation," Bella added in as we sat back down and she rested her head against my chest. "You'd think Peter would know about her toy obsession by now."
"Maybe she hasn't told him about it or he hasn't had a chance to use them on her," Kate added as Bella looked at me quizzically. "I never knew any girl who spent as much time researching sex toys as our Charlotte. They had to be environmentally friendly, which is odd considering that one was made of rubber."
"Oh, so she won't use plastic bags, but she'll fuck herself with a rubber dildo? That girl has issues," Garrett laughed as I felt Bella's hand against my leg and I wished more than anything I was alone with her in a room full of toys. "I bet the battery was rechargeable and that is her rationale for using it."
"Do you have toys, baby?" I whispered quietly as my fingers danced along the waistband of her shorts and I could hear her breathing hitch as I ran one finger under the fabric, closer to the apex of her thighs.
"Come on you two, let's get this game moving," Kate called as Peter and Charlotte sat back down, both of them looking rightfully embarrassed. Of course, we didn't help matters much when Bella put down vibrator and I was able to use the T from her word to put down masturbate. Charlotte and Peter both gave us death looks and pretended to laugh at our humor. Bella and I certainly found it funny as fuck.
"How long have you been saving those tiles?" Garrett exclaimed as I looked proudly at the board and calculated my score
"What? I found the perfect word. You're just bitter you didn't come up with it." I challenged as Garrett laughed me off and wrapped his shoulder around Kate before taking a swig of his beer.
"I came up with cum and anal," he declared proudly as suddenly Charlotte used the V from vibrator to add vagina.
"Triple word score bitches!" she shouted triumphantly as we all burst into laughter and Garrett proceeded to knock over the board and our letters went flying all over the place. "Oh come on, I was finally doing good. What the fuck?"
"Charlotte, did you just swear?"
"Just because I don't like to swear, doesn't mean I don't know how, asshole," she replied to Garrett as he stared at her slack jawed. This girl certainly was an enigma, it was no wonder Peter was so attracted to her.
Just as I was about to throw my two cents in to the conversation, the lights in the house suddenly came on. "Hallejuah," Kate shouted happily as she gripped Garrett's hand in hers and pulled him out of the room. "The storm is letting up and we can get some sleep. Let's go."