Chapter 23: Birthday Party
I come to a stand when I open the letter I received, my coat still in my hand.
It shouldn't be a surprise, but I hadn't thought about it until now. My first worry, as usual, goes to Bella.
She won't like it, but my mom will expect her there and already I'm shifting through possible explanations in my head as to why Bella couldn't join me to the annual birthday party. My parents both have their birthdays in the same week, and they insist the whole family gathers for a small party. Me and my sisters have worked all around the States, but we never missed one party and I won't miss this one either.
"What is it?" Bella asks casually, from the couch.
She gets up and walks over to me, trying to see what got me looking so worried all of the sudden.
I hand her the invitation and wait for her to read it.
"Oh, right," she mumbles, "I forgot about their annual thing. I didn't know it was still a tradition."
"Yeah, it is," I mutter. She still looks relaxed, so she hasn't reached the same conclusion I have.
When she keeps looking at me, I add, "she'll want you there too. She knows we're together and she adores you."
"What date was it again?" she asks, and then her face falls.
My mom has visited me several times, since I moved here, but I haven't been back home, and haven't taken Bella home with me to introduce her as my girlfriend to my father and sisters. I know I probably should have, but I know very well there's no way Bella would want to return there.
My parents still live in the same house I grew up in. And her parents are still our neighbors. That city, that street and that house will have way too much bad memories for her to simply enjoy a party.
"Don't worry," I tell her, "we'll figure something out."
By this I mean we'll make up an excuse to explain why I showed up alone. Even though my mother has her suspicions about the things going on in the Swan house, Bella made me promise to never tell her. And I won't. In the months since she told me, she's made a lot of progress in talking to me, but I know there are still a bunch of unresolved issues, a lot of guilt and shame to work through.
I notice Bella getting a hard look on her face, and then she states with a brave expression, "I'll do it."
"What?" I say, "you don't have to, they'll understand."
"No," she shakes her head, "I've been running for too long. I plan on being yours for a long long time, so eventually, I'll have to go home with you anyway."
"True," I say with a sweet smile, while I finally remember to hang up my coat and embrace her.
"I've been doing good with therapy," she continues, "it's been almost six months now. And it's probably better to try this while I'm still in therapy so Tom can help me through as well."
I try to ignore that familiar jealous feeling whenever she mentions Tom.
I understand that he's her hero, I know what he means for her healing process, but still… I like to be the one to help her through.
Instead, whenever something upsets her, he's the first to hear about it.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Bella tries to soothe me, oblivious to that stupid jealousy.
I won't tell her about it of course, even though I don't like him hearing about all our honest talks, all our little fights and even all our sexual endeavors.
It makes me insecure, knowing someone has to listen about this and possibly judge me. Bella tells me Tom never judges, and usually picks my side in our small differences, but still…. it's a little embarrassing.
Not that there have been many sexual adventures to talk about. She's mostly overcoming her inhibitions by herself. It's been two months since she had that diagnosis, and one months since she started seeing a pelvic therapist. She's hopeful about the medical side of the condition, but still struggling with the mental side. Whenever she's with me, it gets worse than when she's alone.
Still, we made a big step, only one week ago.
Just when I'm about to start, the door opens and I curse inwardly.
I like that she's feeling so comfortable with me that she can just walk in and out of the bathroom while I'm taking a shower, but unfortunately the shower is my preferred time for releasing some tension.
I have been washing myself in anticipation of the relief that is about to come, paying extra attention to my aching cock but before I have a chance to rub one out, she steps in to brush her teeth.
I'm too hard now to just ignore it, so I decide to wait until she leaves again. This happened more than once, but it's not all bad. On some occasions, the possibility to get caught makes this extra exciting and makes the orgasm more intense.
Suddenly, Bella moves the shower curtain to the side to ask me if I'll take her to the supermarket later. I'm too late to turn around and she notices my predicament with wide eyes.
Instead of the blush I expected to see, I notice a spark in her eyes and she starts grinning. At first I hope she won't make fun of me, but my excitement grows when I see her taking her clothes off. She steps underneath the hot shower and kisses me eagerly. Her wet hand traces my abs and slides over my rock-hard cock.
I groan with pleasure and she sighs into the kiss. She clearly loves making me feel good, and again I wish I could do the same for her.
I pull her close against me to kiss her passionately, and for a moment, we both lose ourselves. Her hand lets go of me as her arms wrap around my neck, pressing her body against me.
In the process, my cock slides against her hip and I can't help but move my body so that my sensitive flesh moves lower, between her thighs.
As soon as I realize what I'm doing, I expect her to pull back, but to my shock she moves her hips as well, causing my cock to move against her wet folds.
I open my eyes to check her expression, but there is no fear, just passion and surprise.
Both my hands move towards her ass cheeks and guide her movements, back and forth. The sensation of being enveloped by her warm wet body, even if I'm not really inside her, makes me moan in pleasure.
This is new territory, for both me and her. She's never let me touch her down there and now she seems to be enjoying it.
"God Bella, you are so close, it feels so good. Do you like this?"
"Yeah," she sighs, and I know she's not lying. Her hands grip my shoulders and pull me flush against her.
"I won't last long," I whisper, while trying to slow down my movements.
But she won't let me. Her hips move on their own, back and forth, gradually speeding up.
When she squeezes her thighs close around my cock, I let out a loud groan and suck hard on her neck while my body convulses against her.
"I love you, I love you, I love you…" I keep whispering as I slide down against the shower wall.
She sits down on my lap with a sweet grin on her face. I kiss her all over her face and the bruise I left on her neck and then she suddenly whispers back, "me too."
Three weeks later, we're sitting side by side on a plane.
Bella is clearly nervous, but oh so brave. I can't do anything less than admire her courage.
Her chatter is slowly turning into silence, as we get into the cab and drive towards our old neighborhood. We pass our high school and feel surprised that it still looks just the same.
When the cab turns around the corner of our street, she grabs my hand and squeezes it tight.
I feel sorry for her. Soon she'll be in a house full of happy carefree people, who will welcome her with open arms, but none of them will know why my girl is feeling so anxious. She'll have to smile and act all evening.
She assured me that she's used to acting, but I still wished she wouldn't have to do that in my home.
As the car stops in front of my house, I quickly pay the driver before helping Bella out. She stands with her back towards her old house while I take both our bags from the trunk. Hand in hand, we walk towards the front door, and before I get a chance to use my key, the door opens and my mother beams at us.
"Welcome back," she says with a warm smile.
The smells of food that I missed so much fly towards me and I can't help but grin back in anticipation.
While my mother makes a joke about Bella using the front door for a change, my sisters burst into the hallway and fling their arms around both me and Bella. It takes them a while to express their relief that I found a real girl and instead of a soccer groupie as they feared. Bella mutters that she'll take that as a compliment and even smiles a little.
When I feel like we have been polite enough, I tow her upstairs to my room to unpack a few things. As soon as we close the door behind us, she visibly relaxes.
"How are you doing?" I ask her, not referring to my loud sisters.
"Better than expected. It helps that this was my happy place, I only have good memories here."
I sit down on my bed, pulling her close for a hug. Her lips find mine and we share a long and slow kiss.
She suddenly chuckles, "I had my first kiss here."
I grin back at her, "me too."
After another long kiss, I hear my sister shout from down the stairs, "hey you love birds, stop what you're doing immediately. I'm starving!"
I shake my head and mutter to myself, "some things never change."
It's like being back here transports us back to being kids. I sure hope Bella isn't too trapped in the past, just from being here.
But she genuinely seems fine.
All through the delicious dinner, she is charming and full of smiles. I know she can act, but she's not grabbing my hand underneath the table or showing any of the nervous little tics that only I know about.
The house feels very crowded, now my sisters both have kids.
Even though they all behave very well, it feels like a bit of a relief when both families head off towards the hotel they booked to put the kids in bed. Our house is too small to host that many people, so only Bella and me will spend the night.
My parents, Bella and me sit in the couch, having some more of that wonderful birthday cake, when my mother suddenly does what I've been afraid of all evening.
She brings up the forbidden subject.
"So, Bella, have you been back home recently?"
While Bella mumbles something about plane tickets being too expensive for a student, I try my hardest to make faces to my mom so that she would drop it. Maybe she wonders why Bella and me don't visit the house next door, now we're so close, but she must suspect the reason behind that.
"I thought so," she continues stubbornly, ignoring my efforts, "your mother was here a while ago."
Bella tenses up besides me. Her mother never dropped by our house, they all kept to their selves, without making any contact, so this is a strange development.
I interject, "this was your party, mom, we came for you, let's not talk about the rest."
"She asked me if I knew where you were," my mother goes on, as if I hadn't spoken.
At this I tense up as well, and I notice that Bella is getting pale in the face.
"You didn't…" I whisper.
"I hate to lie," my mother continues, "but I'm sure you have a good reason to not give them your address."
Both Bella en me sigh relieved.
"Still, there is something that you should know."
Bella nods at her to go on, without making a sound.
"Your father is dying. He is diagnosed with stage four cancer. I know you probably don't want to talk to him, but as a mother and someone who cares about you deeply, I can strongly recommend that you go and see him, before it's too late."
AN: What do you think? Should she go see him?