Word Prompt: Garden
Dialogue Flex: "I couldn't stop laughing."
Something True
Garden
This Fall
Biter jumps up onto the futon and lays his chin on Edward's lap, his wet nose touching Bella's arm where she's resting it over Edward's thigh. Edward tilts his head down to Bella. With a closed mouth, he grins. Then he's kissing her again, breaking off only to command Biter to get down.
He leans against Bella, guiding her back along the length of the cushion.
The song ends, all sound fading out until it starts over again. The strings of a guitar first, joined by a piano, and last a soft bass. It's a slow, quiet song, at once solemn and hopeful. Bella can feel the instruments inside her just as Edward's kiss moves through her. It's like they're part of the song or the song is a part of them. Maybe it is. Maybe the inspiration for this song stemmed from the two of them.
She's lying flat. Edward's on his side between Bella and the back of the futon. She's feeling the pull and release of her lips, the warmth and tingle of his tongue on hers. He drops his hand to her waist, bunching up her tee. Lifting her shirt to her ribs, he stops there, letting go of the material to brush his fingers over her skin. Breaking from her lips, he lowers his face to her stomach pressing kisses against her that make her stomach contract a little more with every one.
She slides her hands into his hair. He brings his face back to hers while letting his fingers rest on her stomach.
"Why did you move back here?" She asks, her voice rough at first. "Couldn't you have composed in Seattle?"
"That's what Angela said. But not as calm. She pretty much screamed it at me." He seems to be moving his fingers at her waist without notice. She notices, though. There's no way she couldn't. "It's something about the quiet, the lake. It's like this is where music comes from. I wanted to get away from city noise. It was like static everywhere. Intrusive. I wanted it to be just my head, nature noises, and music. She didn't understand. Do you?"
"Yeah, but..." She touches his wrist and drifts her hand along his arm. "You're here. You're not leaving."
Shaking his head, he lowers his face to hers. "I'm not leaving." He kisses her. The guitar strings pluck to a close. The song ends and begins again.
Biter whines.
Edward pulls away. "He's either sick of the song or needs to get out."
Hands clasped together, they walk the dog along the lakeshore. It's dark even though it isn't late, barely after five. The wind is almost icy, stinging Bella's face when it slaps too hard.
After the dog pees in weeds, they stroll to the dock and past the lamp that looks like the moon tonight. The real sliver of moon is hidden behind thick clouds. Beside the fishing boat, Edward stops to face her, slipping his hands under her jacket and around her waist. They kiss on the dock where Bella had jumped, and this, she understands, this thing with Edward is another kind of jumping.
The wind whips her hair at them and they still kiss. The water laps, rocking the dock, Biter barks, and they still kiss. Her hands at his waist clutch fabric and she doesn't want to let go.
...
For Bella, school is still just about getting through the day. The talk about her isn't as blatant. Most of the time it's as if people forgot, unless they get bored, or unless Bella talks to a male teacher or a male teacher calls on her for an answer. That'll stir things up again.
After the last bell, Rose is missing from the girls' group. At Lauren's locker with Jessica and Alice, Bella feels uncomfortable without Rose, who has become like her anchor.
"I couldn't stop laughing..." Jessica is saying about someone letting off fart spray in her math class. "Mr. Berty wouldn't let anyone leave until someone fessed up and..." Bella lets the conversation wither away as they head to the parking lot. Scanning the grounds for Rose, she spots her under the flag talking to Royce.
She comes to an abrupt stop. Part of her wants to drag Rose away, but she thinks her involvement made things worse before. Bella doesn't want to repeat that. Royce catches her looking, and she averts her eyes, rushing back into step with the other girls. They're still talking about the fart bombing incident.
"And Paul didn't even completely admit it. He just said 'For the record, it was me.' And Mr. Berty was all, what does that mean? Was it you or wasn't it?"
In the backseat of Alice's car, Bella checks her messages. There's another one from her mom. She says there are important things she would like to discuss with Bella that are better said in person, not left in messages. Bella agrees to let her mother pick her up and take her to her apartment.
She now lives an hour away in Port Angeles. On the drive there, her mother asks her about school, about Charlie, about Rose, and Edward. The question about Edward gives Bella a clue that her mother and her dad have talked. All of Bella's answers are short until the questions stop coming.
It's a second-floor, one-bedroom apartment in Port Angeles. There's a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a balcony with a container garden of flowers.
"Still living out of boxes," her mother says as they enter. Boxes are littered around the room, as well as stacked in a coat closet, Bella notices, when her mother hangs their coats.
"Pizza or Chinese?" Her mother pulls a phone book from a kitchen drawer.
An hour later they're sitting at the table with noodles on their plates and chopsticks in their hands. The old brass lamp hanging above the table is the only lighting in the place right now. The other end of the room, the living room, is shadows. Bella's foot taps against the aged linoleum. It feels like rubber under her shoes.
Her mother apologizes for her behavior over the years and for the pain she's caused both Bella and her dad.
Bella swallows the noodles and nods, but doesn't answer. She's not sure she can ever truly accept an apology for this. She likes better to remember her mom before Bella knew anything. That's the mom she wishes she was sharing a meal with right now. That mom would be in their real house with her dad.
"And, Bella, I need to apologize again for what I'm about to tell you."
Bella's breathing stops, her chopsticks fall to her plate and she backs up against her chair. She wants to tell her mother to stop talking; she wants to explain how true the old adage is that ignorance is bliss.
"I'm getting back together with Phil."
And the bile rises.
"Now, I'm not saying I expect you to have to spend time with him or get to know him, or anything. Though, in time, you know." She gestures with a chopstick as if that can continue her thought. Maybe she realizes circling wood in the air can't speak for her because she adds, "He'll be around after a while. Charlie already knows. You don't have to worry about that."
Bella thinks back, trying to figure out if there was a recent change in her dad's behavior or demeanor. She can't think of one.
"And your dad will move on, too. You'll see."
Bella looks into her mother's brown eyes feeling her own eyes narrow.
"We're not starting up yet. We're waiting. He's leaving his wife."
Her chair is knocked on its back when Bella shoots to her feet. "He's married?"
Her mother closes her eyes , dropping her forehead to her hand as if she has a migraine. "We stayed in our marriages for our kids." She rubs her forehead. "Tell me. Tell me how awful I am. I know, Bella. I know."
Bella swallows. "No. What's awful right now is that you're telling me this here. In this town. I'm stuck here in this apartment with you! Where am I supposed to go?" She throws her arms up at her sides whipping her head left to right, taking in her cage. "Take me home." Bella grabs her jacket from the closet and throws her mother hers. "And now I'm going to have to sit in a car with you and smell your fucking smell and listen to your fucking voice."
Bella slams the front door behind her rushing down the concrete stairs to the parking lot. The night is tar-dark. The atmosphere too thick to be air. She waits outside the car with her arms folded across her chest until the headlights flash and she hears the locks unlock. She gets inside.
She doesn't know why this information surprised her so much. Phil being married, having kids, it makes sense. She'd just never thought about him having an actual life outside of the life he messed up. Hers.
Her mother slides into the car and starts the ignition.
"I won't see Phil, ever," Bella says. "You can forget about that."
"What did you mean my smell?"
Bella turns up the radio. "I won't see him. Or meet his kids."
...
Bella skips another day of school. Her grades are suffering and she planned on staying home by herself to study but she goes to Edward's instead. She just wants to be with him. If he's working on music, she can play with Biter. She brings her backpack with her, but if she doesn't get around to studying there, she'll study when she gets home.