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Chapter 6 – Homecoming

I squirmed in my seat, already stiff and uncomfortable. "How much longer?" I asked.

"We're about halfway done," Angela said, winding another lock of my hair around the hot curling iron. "Bella, you'd better stay still or I'm going to end up burning you."

"Halfway? Seriously? I've been sitting here for hours," I whined.

Angela let out a long-suffering sigh. "It's only been about twenty minutes. And I'm sorry, Bella, but you have a lot of hair to curl. It takes a while."

Crap!

I felt ashamed of myself for griping at her. It wasn't her fault I had no patience when it came to this girly stuff. She was doing me a favor helping me get ready for Homecoming. I just needed to shut up and make her job as easy for her as possible.

"Sorry, Ang. I won't move," I promised.

"And the whining?" she asked teasingly.

"Well, I'll do my best, but I make no guarantees," I quipped, grinning at her in the mirror.

Angela threw her head back and laughed out loud. Luckily she'd released the lock of hair she'd been working on and didn't have the curling iron in my hair at the time.

This was what I liked about Angela though. She lived life with such joy. I was just sorry that more people didn't know that about her.

I hadn't known. Even though I'd technically known her since kindergarten, Angela had always been extremely shy. I couldn't even remember her uttering a word in school until the fourth grade. So even though I'd always wished we could be friends, we'd never gotten a chance to develop our acquaintance into a friendship until we'd been thrown together in our freshman English class.

Our English teacher, Mr. Barrett, had given us Wuthering Heights as our first reading assignment of the year and broken us into small groups of three to discuss the novel after we'd finished reading it. I had immediately teamed up with Edward, of course, but we'd needed a third. And while everyone else was rushing around and grabbing their friends to make up their groups, I had noticed Angela standing off to the side looking extremely uncomfortable and out-of-place.

I looked at Edward, catching his eye, and then shifted my gaze to Angela. He immediately knew what I was thinking and readily nodded his head in agreement.

"Hey, Angela!" I called over to her.

When she looked my way I waved her over.

Once she was standing in front of me, uncertainty clearly written in her expression, I smiled at her and asked, "Why don't you join us? Edward and I need another partner."

I could see the relief in her eyes as she exhaled a breath she'd obviously been holding. "Thanks, you guys. That would be great," she said, returning my smile.

I helped Edward scoot three desks into an intimate triangle for our discussion and soon we were going through the book together.

Angela and I had both been swept up by the novel. We loved it. Edward…most definitely did not.

After Angela and I had gushed about how much we enjoyed the love story, Edward sat staring back and forth between us and looking at us like we were slightly unhinged.

"What, Edward? What is it?" I asked curiously.

"I just don't understand why you actually like this book," he said. "The characters are ghastly people who ruin each others' lives. I don't know how Heathcliff and Cathy end up being ranked with couples like Romeo and Juliet or Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. It isn't a love story, it's a hate story."

Angela and I frowned at each other before I looked back to Edward and snapped, "You have some serious issues with the classics."

He put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Honestly, Bella, I'm just trying to understand. What is it that appeals to you?" he asked earnestly.

"I'm not sure," I answered, looking at Angela to see if she wanted to jump in and help me out. When she just shrugged, I struggled with words to explain. "I think it's something about the inevitability. How nothing can keep them apart – not her selfishness, or his evil, or even death, in the end."

I could tell he was considering my answer carefully. "I still think it would be a better story if either of them had one redeeming quality," he countered.

"I think that may be the point, Edward," I told him. "Their love is their only redeeming quality."

"What do you think, Angela?" Edward wanted to know. "Do you agree with Bella?"

"Yeah, I do," she agreed. "And then there's…"

Angela stopped talking abruptly and quickly clamped her lips tightly shut as if she were trying to lock away her words before they completely escaped. She looked down at her desk and blushed furiously.

Edward looked at me curiously, but now it was my turn to shrug.

"There's what, Angela? Please go on," Edward requested.

If it were possible, Angela's face became even redder. She just sat there silently for a while. But just when I thought she wasn't going to answer him, she said. "Well, it's just… You know… Heathcliff is kind of hot."

The expression on Edward's face was priceless. I had to stifle a giggle as his mouth hung open for a moment or two. "Hot?" he finally asked, stunned. "You think Heathcliff is hot? Heathcliff? He's… Well, he's a brute for most of the book."

Angela was still blushing but now she smiled slyly. "Exactly, Edward. Totally hot." She raised her hand and started fanning her face.

Edward looked at me like he still didn't get it.

"It's a bad boy thing," I explained simply.

He sat back in his chair and seemed to be weighing our words. "Bella, do you feel the same way? You know, about Heathcliff?"

Now I felt a blush spreading across my own cheeks. The truth was that the Heathcliff in my imagination wasn't the dark gypsy that Emily Brontë had described. No, my Heathcliff – the one that played out the love story to my Cathy while I read – was tall with an athletic build, blond curls, and grey eyes. Jasper. How could I tell Edward that I had fantasized about Heathcliff that way, but in the guise of his brother? Yeah, that wasn't happening.

After weighing exactly what I could and could not admit to Edward, I finally hedged, "I don't know. Heathcliff is intense. And that's just…"

"Sexy," Angela finished for me.

Edward stared incredulously at first Angela and then at me. "Intense?" he finally asked me. "So that's what girls want? Someone who devastates and destroys everyone around them?"

"No. That's not what I'm saying," I sighed. How did I explain this to him? "Girls dream about someone powerful and compelling and passionate. Someone like Heathcliff who would throw his entire being into loving them. They want someone who wouldn't even let death be the end to their love story. That's what girls want."

My eyes met Edward's and held.

And for a moment I was completely frozen.

I couldn't look away. I couldn't even blink.

There it was. There in his eyes. All that intensity that I'd just been talking about.

Inexplicably, I felt my stomach do a flip.

And just like that, it was gone. He was the one who looked away from me, focusing on Angela instead.

"You do know that a guy doesn't have to be a bad boy to love like that, right?" He directed the question to her and not to me.

I didn't hear Angela's answer. Honestly, I couldn't concentrate on anything but the unfathomable moment Edward and I had just shared.

I felt confused, off-balance. I shook my head slightly, trying to clear it.

I didn't understand what had just happened.

I couldn't have just seen what I thought I had. I must have just let my imagination run away with me for a moment. I must have read something into Edward's expression that hadn't really been there.

I had had Heathcliff on the brain. That had to be it. I'd been talking about all that white-hot intensity and must have just imagined that I saw it reflected back at me in Edward's eyes. He was my best friend. He didn't think about me that way.

No, I'd just let myself get carried away by the discussion. That was all it had been.

"Bella!"

I started as Angela's voice broke into my thoughts. "What?"

Looking up into her exasperated expression I realized this probably wasn't the first time she'd said my name.

"Sorry, Ang," I apologized. "I guess I let my mind wander a bit."

"A bit?" she asked dubiously. "I've been practically screaming in your ear for at least a minute. Wherever you were, it definitely wasn't here."

"Sorry," I said again sheepishly.

She smiled at me. "It's fine. It was kind of interesting watching your face. I don't know what you were thinking about, but that was a lot of different emotions in a very short amount of time. Do you need to talk about something?"

I felt my heart clench in my chest with panic.

No! That single word of denial reverberated through my mind.

I couldn't! It was impossible. I just couldn't tell Angela what I'd been thinking.

Well, I could. I mean, I was physically capable of speech and all…even though it didn't seem likely that I'd be able to force words past my suddenly tight throat. Actually the truth was that I didn't want to tell Angela.

Of course Edward couldn't possibly have those kinds of feelings for me. And telling Angela what I'd imagined seeing in that moment with Edward – saying the words out loud – would just make me sound like an idiot.

"No, Ang. Thanks for the offer. But I really was just daydreaming."

"Okay," she said dubiously, the tone of her voice making it clear that she didn't quite believe me. "I'm here if you ever need a friend though. You know that, right?"

She really had become a good friend. Next to Edward, she was the best friend I had.

Edward would always come first, of course, but it was different being friends with Angela. It was nice to have a girl to share things with. But I couldn't share this with her. There really wasn't anything to share, was there?

I smiled at her, hoping it would reassure her that I was fine. "Yeah, I know. Thanks again."

I could tell that she wished I would confide in her, but thankfully Angela let it drop. "Well, I think it's about time for the big reveal. Are you ready for this, Bella?" she asked as she turned me toward the large mirror above my dresser.

For a second I just stared at the girl in the mirror.

That was me?

And it was me.

Angela had gone light with the makeup, so it didn't look like it had been spackled on. But she had managed to artfully play up my eyes, my cheeks and my lips without overdoing it. My hair was curled in gentle waves over my shoulders and down my back, the sides pulled up and secured with jeweled clips. It really was me, but the best me possible.

"Oh my God, Ang. I love it! Thank you." I gave her a quick but heartfelt hug…and I might have squealed a little bit too.

She laughed at my enthusiastic embrace. "You're welcome, sweetie. Edward won't know what hit him when he sees you tonight."

And just like a balloon the day after the party, I felt myself deflate.

I stepped away from Angela, putting needed physical and emotional distance between us. "You know we're just friends, Angela," I said firmly and a little coldly. "Edward won't even notice how I look."

She arched an eyebrow at me. "Are you sure about that, Bella?"

I bristled. The last thing I needed was Angela poking around the edges of something I didn't even want to look at too closely myself. Edward and I were friends. We'd always been friends. Only friends. And if we weren't, I didn't know how my world would work.

"I'm very sure," I answered decidedly. "Edward is a friend. That's all. Okay?"

She nodded. "Alright then. Just friends." She grinned at me. "I think you're wrong about him though."

I swallowed nervously. Had Angela somehow read my mind?

"He'll most definitely notice how gorgeous you look."

I let out a relieved breath and rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah…sure…right," I said sarcastically.

"Hey, whether or not he's just a friend, at least you have a cute date. You should be grateful," Angela mock-scolded, "you could be stuck with someone like Eric Yorkie the way I am."

Seeing the comic way her face screwed up at the thought of dating Eric, I couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry, Ang," I apologized. "I really shouldn't find humor in your suffering."

"It's okay, Bella. When I think about slow-dancing with a kid named after a yappy dog, I want to laugh too…if just to keep myself from crying," she joked.

"Why are you going with Eric anyway?" I asked. I knew she could do so much better than the tall, gawky A.V. nerd with greasy hair and bad skin.

Her good-natured grin faded a little and she sighed. "Because he was the only one to ask me. Why else?"

"Oh, Angela," I said, slipping my arm around her shoulders and giving her a sympathetic half-squeeze. "It's just because you don't let guys get to know you. If you were a little less shy…"

"I know. Believe me, I know. But it's just so difficult for me, Bella. I want to be more outgoing, really. I just don't seem to know how though."

"Maybe you shouldn't try so hard. Take baby steps. Start out by just being friendly with a guy. Maybe try a little conversation. You don't have to worry about saying anything too deep or profound. Keep it light at first."

Angela took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "I'll try. I may suck at it, but I promise to try."

~*~B~*~B~*~B~*~

It was a typical high school dance. Even with the dim lighting and decorations, all I could see was the same cafeteria we ate lunch in every day. Who did they think they were fooling, anyway?

The middle of the room had been cleared to make a space big enough for us to dance in and there were large, round tables with chairs set up around the edges of the dance floor. At the front of the room, a D.J. had set up an area to work from complete with lighting that sent nauseating swirls of white illumination through the dimness.

The overall effect was like a middle-aged woman in too much makeup and tight clothes desperately trying to convince everyone that she could transform into the young, beautiful girl that she'd probably never even been in the first place – pathetic, sad, and depressing.

By unspoken agreement, however, it seemed that we weren't supposed to notice. Groups of friends were laughing raucously at some of the tables. Couples were dancing together, while others stood together at the fringes of the floor, yelling into one another's ears to be heard over the din of voices and loud music.

Angela looked warily over her shoulder as Eric led her further into the room. I could see the "help me!" look in her eyes. I gave her a sympathetic glance and felt Edward's fingers tighten around mine. I knew we were all thinking the same thing…this was not exactly our idea of a good time. Still, I was willing to make the best of things. We could talk and laugh and dance like everyone else. As long as we were together, we could salvage this night.

We found an empty table further away from the dance floor. Eric wasn't exactly happy being so far from the center of things, but he made up for it by dragging Angela away to dance the moment she'd set her purse down on the table.

Edward and I sat and watched through several songs. Finally he leaned over to me and asked, "Why are we still sitting here, Bella?"

I looked at him and saw the challenge in his eyes. "What?"

He gave me that crooked smile of his. "I distinctly remember you saying you were going to ride me hard and put me away wet tonight…"

Oh God! I had said that, hadn't I? What had I been thinking?

"But here we sit," Edward continued. "Are you going to chicken out on me again?"

"No," I said automatically, loath to back down from any challenge he threw at me.

Then my brain caught up with my mouth. "Yes?" I phrased in the form of a question.

Great. What was this? Jeopardy?

"Come on, Bella," he said, his knee bumping against mine playfully. "There's nothing to be afraid of. You're a great dancer."

I smiled weakly. "I'm an okay dancer, Edward…in your bedroom with the door closed and only the two of us. But on a crowded dance floor? I know my natural klutziness will kick in."

"Bella," he said softly, looking earnestly into my eyes. "I won't let anything hurt you – not even yourself. I won't let go of you once, I promise."

And just like that, I felt my fear melt away. I reached out and slipped my hand into his. "Alright, Edward. I'm all yours."

I thought I saw another flicker in his eyes then. I wasn't sure what it was…a softening, maybe? Some inner spark? I just knew that it made me feel like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie just out of the oven – all warm and gooey. And just like before, it seemed to vanish in an instant, making me wonder if it had ever really been there in the first place.

Confused and a little shaken, I let him lead me out onto the dance floor. Luckily the music was a rock song with a thumping bass line. The last place I wanted to be right now was in Edward's arms.

Preoccupied, I put my body on autopilot and just followed his lead. It was easy enough to do – we'd danced like this together so often in private. Actually, I probably danced better this way, because I wasn't letting my brain overthink every move I made. If my head had been in the game, I probably would have taken out half the people on the dance floor around me with my terminal clumsiness. As it was, I thought I at least didn't look like a total spaz to anyone who might be casually watching me.

Inside my head, I was wondering what was going on. I knew Edward only thought about me as a friend, so why did I keep imagining seeing something else in his expression? I bit my lower lip in concentration. What could it be?

"Bella," Edward's voice startled me. I looked up at the boy in front of me and suddenly realized that he was no longer a boy. He had grown up on me when I wasn't looking. He had had another growth spurt over the last few months that had added a couple of inches and several pounds to his once too slender frame. He'd gotten tall and strong, his looks more rugged and masculine than before. He had become a man.

Realization dawned on me. That was it! We weren't kids anymore! We were fifteen now. It wasn't Edward at all! He wasn't throwing off any sort of secret signals my way. It was just that we were growing, changing, looking at things in a different kind of way. It was my fifteen-year-old girl hormones that were going wonky on me. That was all.

Before, the only one who'd made my hormones sit up and say howdy was Jasper. But as I was getting older, becoming a woman, it made sense that they'd be a little out of whack. I just had to accept that it was normal and realize it was something I was going to have to get used to. It didn't mean anything.

And speaking of Jasper… Where the heck was he, anyway? Edward had said he would be here.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked me.

"Hmmm…" I hummed distractedly. He had interrupted my quick glance through the room for any sign of his brother. I quickly looked up at Edward and saw that he was frowning at me.

I answered his scowl with one of my own. "What do you mean?" I asked him.

"Well, you're here, but not here. I mean, you're here in body, but your thoughts seem to be about a million miles away. What's up?" he demanded.

"It's nothing," I reassured him quickly. I didn't want to tell him about my less than brilliant realization…that he'd become a man while I wasn't paying attention. Or the one about my wayward hormones either. Can you say, AWK-WARD! "I was just thinking that I hadn't seen Jazz tonight. He's here somewhere, right?"

Edward snorted. "Bella, you should know better," he admonished.

There was clearly something here that I just wasn't getting. "What?" I asked, confused again.

My best friend raised his eyebrow at me in disbelief. "Come on, Bella. You can't be that naïve."

I shook my head at him. "Apparently I am that naïve. Just say it, Edward. What am I missing here?"

Edward blew out an exasperated breath as he twirled me into his arms, my back coming to rest against his chest. Then his lips were at my ear, his breath making my skin tingle. "He's with Lucy. What do you think they're doing, Bella."

Oh! I felt my breath leave my body in a mad rush as if I had just had the wind knocked out of me. I kind of had…not physically, but emotionally. When I finally got some air back into my lungs, I said, "You mean, they're…ummm…" I couldn't make myself finish the thought.

Edward looked down at me with his crooked smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Yes, Bella. They're ummm. I'm sure they're umming like rabbits as we speak."

I felt my cheeks go up in flames.

I had heard rumors about Jasper and his "friends" of course. But I didn't like thinking there was any truth to the rumors. When did gossip become so reliable, dammit? And Edward had never said anything about it before. I was surprised he had said anything to me about it now. It just wasn't like him.

Luckily I was saved from having to say anything further as the song ended and Edward steered me off the floor. We returned to our table and he started to sit down until he noticed that I was still standing. He paused, looking at me with questions in his eyes.

"Ummm…" There went my cheeks flaming again as I was reminding of Jasper and Lucy umming. "I'm going to head to the ladies room. I'll be right back, okay?" I felt like I needed some time to get myself back under control. God, I hated being like this. Being a teenager sucked…all hormone crazy and emotions flying all over the place. And I only had another four years of this? Just kill me now.

"Okay, Bella. I'll be here when you get back," Edward assured me.

Turning away from him, I walked quickly toward the doors of the cafeteria and pushed my way through them. But once I found myself inside the restroom, I wasn't sure what I should do. I felt like splashing water on my blazing skin. That's what I would ordinarily do. I couldn't though…not without destroying the makeup Angela had taken so much time getting just right for me.

I leaned my hands against the cool porcelain of the sink, and looking up into my reflection in the mirror, I took several deep, steadying breaths. The girl peering out of the mirror at me didn't look too out of the ordinary. Yeah, she was flushed. But that could have been from the dancing. Nothing screamed that I'd just had my still-beating heart ripped out of my chest and my fondest wishes shattered.

The girl smirked at me cruelly. Yeah, Jasper doesn't want you. And you needed Edward telling you that Jasper is sexing up Lucy to realize that? I don't think so, sweetheart.

I closed my eyes to block out my reflection. I didn't like the girl in the mirror very much at the moment.

I stood there, concentrating on taking slow, even breaths until I felt myself calm down a little. Well, at least enough that I thought I could face going back to the dance again. I never looked into the mirror again. I turned my back on the malicious girl who'd done nothing but tell me the truth, hurriedly left the restroom, and returned to the cafeteria.

As I entered, my eyes immediately went to our table seeking out Edward. He wasn't there. Nobody was.

I scanned the clumps of kids standing around, looking for my best friend. Maybe he'd seen someone he wanted to talk to. But he wasn't among any of the groups I saw encircling the dance floor. Nor was he sitting at a different table. Or in line to get something to drink.

And then I found him. He was near the middle of the floor, dancing with Angela. The music was a slow ballad. Edward had his arms around Angela's waist, holding her close, and her arms were wrapped around his neck. He was looking down at her with an eager smile as she spoke to him. He looked charmed by her. And then he suddenly threw his head back and laughed out loud.

As crappy as I had felt about Jazz and Lucy, I felt a thousand times worse now. Actually, I felt like I might get sick right there. The pain almost doubled me over.

That was my smile. That was my laugh. That was MY best friend. What did Angela think she was playing at?

An unbidden, unwanted thought hit me full force. I remembered Edward looking at Angela…at Angela and not at me… "You do know that a guy doesn't have to be a bad boy to love like that, right?" he'd asked her.

For the second time that night it felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest. Had I just lost my best friend…my Edward…to Angela?

I know it's been another long hiatus for this story. I apologize from the bottom of my heart. It was all Bella's fault. She was being very difficult and didn't want to talk to me.

Thanks to DeltaSwan90 and my2galspal for doing beta duties for me and to Vican for making the Destination Wedding banner!

If any of you have any questions or comments about Destination Wedding, you can find me on the Destination Wedding thread on twilighted. http:/www(dot)twilighted(dot)net/forum/viewtopic(dot)php?f=44&t=14195&start=0