Author's Note:
I did not have any intention of letting the first chapter of Treat Me Right stand on its own for a month and a half, but unfortunately life had its own plan for me. You know the drill - a harsh graduate program, a landlord, and a fiance who insists that he just does not remember how to open the dishwasher and empty it. Not excuses, just an explanation.
Does it help to say that I've been thinking about what storyline Treat Me Right is going to have ever since I sent out Chapter One?
As the semester winds down for the holiday break, I expect more time to write, and quicker updates. Fanfiction is a not-so-guilty pleasure for me, one that I turn to when I need to de-stress and step away from my original fiction, which often times needs a break, too. Original fiction novels are hard, guys. They don't tell you that in undergrad.
Anyways, I hope I still have some of you on board. I hope I pick up some of you on the way. Either way, here's this chapter that I've been thinking about writing for quite a while.
Edward Cullen is beautiful.
He lets his father do most of the talking for the introduction of their presentation. Though he stands off to the side while Carlisle remains in the center of the floor, Bella is fairly certain that he doesn't go unnoticed by anyone.
As the lecture on science ethics progresses, Bella quickly finds that she, like every other female in the lecture hall, can't look away. If blinking wasn't automatic, she would have forgot to do so by now.
Edward leans against the podium, casually flipping through the pages in Carlisle Cullen's plain black binder. He nods his head every so often as his father speaks and makes gestures to the presentation being projected onto the board, but he never bothers to look up at the PowerPoint.
Bella can't decide if he's arrogant or uninterested, or perhaps just preoccupied.
"So here," Dr. Carlisle Cullen is saying, "you can see that the embryonic stem cells are multiplying much more rapidly and successfully than the adult stem cells. You can understand, then, why scientists prefer to use embryos."
"They're more easily obtained, too." Edward lifts his head and starts scanning the room, and everyone around Bella sits up straighter, including herself.
Bella can't remember the last time she wanted a man to notice her as badly as she wants Edward Cullen's attention. Actually,she can't remember the last time she was interested in dating at all, but she certainly wouldn't mind a date with him.
"Adult stem cells come mainly from bone marrow," Edward continues. "Not easy to extract for the researcher, and not fun to provide for the donor."
Carlisle takes a few steps back, a symbolic handing-over of the floor. His eyes are wide with pride.
Edward steps away from the podium for the first time in almost forty minutes and shoves his hands in his pockets. "How many of you have ever donated bone marrow?"
All heads whip around to scan the room for volunteers, but only one student in a room of over 400 raises his hand. It's a skinny blond boy in the third row to Bella's left side.
"You have?" Edward asks, clearly surprised. "And what was the experience like?"
The boy's shoulders drop. "Painful," he says. "It was the longest needle I've ever seen in my life. But it was for my mom's bone marrow transplant. She has cancer."
Bella knows she'll likely never speak to this boy, but she's left oddly uncomfortable by his admission. In these classrooms, she finds comfort in the ability to forget her personal struggles. At the University of Washington, Bella is a number in a sea of students. Several times a day, for fifty minutes at a time, Bella can blend in and be normal instead of the twenty-year-old girl who's mother is dying from lung cancer. Hearing this boy speak of a problem that very closely resembles her own conflict at home, though, makes her realize that being in a classroom doesn't block all of that out like she wants it to.
Edward takes a moment to express his sympathy for the boy but quickly moves on. "People don't want to donate bone marrow. We can't force people to donate bone marrow. But people do donate unused embryos from in vitro fertilization." As he speaks, he walks a straight line down the front of the room, parallel with the long table that makes up the first row of seats. His dress shoes click against the linoleum. "This is where the ethical debate comes in, and it is at the very core of the abortion debate that is currently dividing many people in this country." He reaches the end of the room and turns to look at his father, resting against the wall.
Carlisle nods. "We aren't going to ask for your individual views. It's not our place to have an abortion debate in this classroom. All we want is to show you the science behind this stem cell research, as it has become quite the . . . hot-button topic, I suppose."
The lecture continues in much of the same way. Bella gets the feeling that Edward is really in the driver's seat in this presentation, and Carlisle is just a student-driver. Or perhaps, Edward is Enterprise and Carlisle is renting a Ford Escape.
When the class finally ends, students don't exit as quickly as usual, and eyes linger on the Cullen doctors as they stand in a semi-circle with Dr. Lister, chatting and grinning with crossed arms.
Bella lingers for a moment, too, but her phone starts to vibrate in her back pocket. She pulls it out to glance at it, and her stomach drops. Her mother doesn't usually call for another half an hour. She answers.
Renee's voice is stronger than it has been all week. "Bella! You'll never guess."
"Guess what?" Bella starts climbing the stairs towards the auditorium's exit.
"You'll never guess what happened!"
Bella thinks about the happiness that's projecting through her mother's tone, a mood she hasn't heard in quite a while. For once, Renee sounds genuine instead of put-on-my-best-happy-voice. "Is it something good?" she asks.
"I was accepted into a new clinical trial!" her mother hollers.
Bella squints in the sun as she tries to locate her car, lanyard dangling from her wrist. "What kind of trial?"
"It's this new form of chemo," Renee answers. "ChemoHide. It's chemo like I've always had, but it's a different chemical mixture."
"And it's a clinical trial?"
"Oh, it isn't quite brand new," Renee says, "but it's different. Pretty modern."
Bella reaches her car and dumps her backpack in the passenger seat, switching her phone to the other ear when she has two free hands. Jessica's silver Fusion is still parked next to hers from earlier in the day, so she leans against her driver-side door to wait for her friend. "Mom. You don't need a clinical trial."
"What do you mean?"
"Clinical trials are supposed to be for people who have no other options," Bella says. "People who have no shot with radiation or any of the normal chemos or surgery."
Renee is silent for a minute, and when she speaks, her voice is almost muted. Bella can hear the tears clogging her throat. "Bella, honey. That's me. I'm one of those people."
"No, you're not."
"Bella," her mother insists. "Yes, I am. I'm running out of options. Dr. Gregory says that ChemoHide is the best option for me moving forward to give me as much time as I can have."
"Stop saying things like that."
"Honey." Renee stops to blow her nose, and Bella wonders how much blood is in the tissue when she's done. "We're done trying to get rid of my cancer. We're just trying to hold it back as long as we can at this point - so I can see you graduate, so I can see you get married -"
"So my kids can go to their grandma's funeral?" Bella regrets saying it the moment she hears the words leaving her mouth, but it's a thought she's hidden for a while.
Her mother's pause is longer now, but when she responds, her voice is contained and careful. "I want to see my grandchildren, yes. I assure you, Bella, I'm not trying to stay alive so I can make my grandchildren suffer through a funeral service. Sue me for wanting to see you start your career and your family."
"I shouldn't have said that."
"No," Renee says. "You shouldn't have. I thought you would be happy for me."
"You're giving up."
"I gave up a long time ago, Bella. I just wanted you to think I hadn't," her mother answers quietly. "I wanted you to go about your life at school and be successful and not feel guilty because I'm down here and you're up there. But I can't pretend anymore, Bella."
To her right, Bella sees the doors to the Life Sciences Building open, and Carlisle and Edward Cullen walk outside. Bella tries not to notice how the sunlight makes Edward's red hair even more fiery-hot. They stop at the edge of the sidewalk, exchange a few words, and turn in separate directions.
Bella isn't the only one watching Edward walk to his shiny silver Volvo, but Edward doesn't seem to notice the eyes that follow him. His car looks like he's just driven it off of the dealership's lot that day.
"Please don't be mad at me," Renee begs in Bella's ear. "I'm your mother. It's my instinct to protect you in any way that I can."
Bella looks down at her shoes. "I know. I'm not mad at you." She sighs. "I'm mad at the universe."
"That sounds like the title of an amazing story," her mother answers. "Any news from Seattle Mag?"
"Not yet," Bella says. "Hopefully tomorrow."
"I'm praying for you," Renee says after a moment passes. "I know what this job would mean for you."
Bella wants to tell her how hard she's been praying, too, but suddenly it seems like she and her mother have been praying completely different prayers: one hopeful, and one desperate. "I just have to get through this semester with The Daily. It's been three weeks, and we've already had four reporters leave the staff. One kid just stopped showing up one day, out of nowhere."
"I have every faith in you, Bella. Success is unavoidable for you," Renee answers. "You will work until you achieve your goals, just like you always do, and everything will be fine."
Bella can, unfortunately, think of one problem that she cannot fix.
For two weeks, Bella's life is much the same. The copyeditor for The Daily forgets her password for the paper's database three times, so Thomas in UDub's IT department knows Bella's voice by heart. She is assigned and completes two research papers, one comparing Argentina's democratic values to those of Cuba, and the other about Shakespeare's Hamlet. She eats (or tries to) three meals a day, and sometimes stops at Cream and Crumbs on her way to and from campus.
And then, as she parks her car one sunny but chilly Tuesday afternoon, she notices a sparkling, recently waxed silver Volvo parked outside of the Life Sciences Building.
The projector screen is pulled down when she walks into the lecture hall for Science Ethics, and Dr. Lister is seated off to the side, a notebook in hand. Edward Cullen leans casually against the podium, his attention on his laptop screen.
The clock strikes 10:30 a.m., and the young pathologist claps his hands together. "My father was scheduled to join you for your class on Thursday," he says, "but he's been called away for an unexpected conference in Michigan, and he won't be back until the weekend. Thursday didn't work for me, so here I am." He glances at Dr. Lister. "I apologize if you were looking forward to an ethics-centered lecture today, but I'm here to present some more science to you." He presses a key on his laptop, and a PowerPoint presentation appears. "My father put this together, so forgive me if I need to consult the screen too much. Now. Stem cell research."
Bella finds herself four bullet points behind within minutes, unable to focus on copying down the screen's content as Edward paces back and forth across the floor. She stares at his face, wishing he would make eye contact with her, but he finishes the lecture without having granted that wish.
"That's enough for today," Dr. Lister concludes as if he hasn't been typing on his cell phone for the whole lecture while Edward does his job.
Students aren't in as much of a rush to leave as they are when Lister teaches, but the hall empties quickly. Bella squints against the sun as she walks to her car, and she doesn't notice until her hand is on the door knob that another vehicle is blocking her way. A red Mercedes is idling perpendicular to her car, and its four-ways are on. A man, presumably the driver, is leaning against the trunk, staring at his cell phone. He's a taller guy, complete with an almost-shaved head of dark hair and muscles, muscles, muscles.
When the man hears Bella open her car door, he straightens. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry, let me get this out of your way."
"Oh, no," Bella says, waving a hand in dismissal. "I'm not leaving yet. I'm waiting for a friend. Don't rush."
"I'll be gone in a second," the man answers. "I'm just waiting for my brother."
Bella climbs into her car, content to stay put until Jessica either shows up at the passenger side or sends a text saying that she's going home to FaceTime with Mike, but she isn't trapped very long.
Edward Cullen, briefcase in hand and sunglasses on, marches straight up to the red Mercedes after he exits the building. He doesn't notice Bella as he passes, already shaking his head at the other man.
She hears him call something to the stranger who's blocking her in as he approaches and cracks her window slightly so she can more properly eavesdrop.
"You're a nuisance," Edward is saying. "Why can't you just use your card?"
"It's maxed out til my last payment goes through," the man responds. "And you owe me twenty bucks, so I figured I'd collect it now."
"Remind me again why, exactly, I owe you twenty bucks?"
"Mom's birthday present. Remember? Alice already paid me for her third. And anyways, don't act like you're going to miss that twenty. You've got more money in your bank account than I have in student debt."
A puzzle piece falls into place, and Bella remembers an article she read about the Cullen family, one that Dr. Lister assigned before the Cullen doctors' first visit to the class. This must be Emmett, she thinks, the middle child of Carlisle and Esme, the only member of the family to avoid a career in medicine completely. Her phone vibrates on the passenger seat, but she's already straining to hear this conversation and doesn't take any chances at getting distracted and missing something. She wishes Edward would take a few steps forward so she could see his face in her rearview mirror.
"Take it," Edward says. "What do you need it for, anyways?"
"Rose wants to go on a goddamn date tonight."
"How terrible. Going out with your girlfriend, that's a crazy concept. I wonder where she got an idea like that."
"It's Tuesday," Emmett spits. "She has class tomorrow, so she won't even drink with me."
"I think you'll live," Edward responds. "I have to go. I have to be at the hospital in ten."
I hear a hand hit gently against the trunk of my car, and I turn around to see Emmett leaning down to peer in at me. "Hey, I'm moving now," he says. "Thanks for being cool."
Bella opens her door, ready to answer, just as Edward is walking by. He stops as her door swings open and blocks his path. For a second, bella just stares at his shoes, frightened to look up and have to say something to him. She has a gut feeling that forming a coherent sentence around Edward Cullen isn't an easy task.
"Sorry," she blurts.
Edward looks up from his phone to meet her gaze and places it in the coat pocket of his white lab coat. "Oh. No, it's no problem. I should be apologizing to you. I hope my brother didn't make you wait here too long."
Bella doesn't trust her voice, so she shakes her head. She starts to pull the door shut to give him enough room to pass by, keeping her eyes on the pavement as she does.
Edward takes a few steps, turning to squeeze between her door and the silver GMC parked next to her, but he stops before he passes the mirror. "You were in that lecture, weren't you?" he asks.
Bella freezes, hand still on the door handle, and whips her head up to stare at his face again. In the moment that it takes her to realize that Edward Cullen the Sexy Pathologist is still speaking to her, his brother revs the engine of the red Mercedes and takes off.
Edward is watching her intently with patient eyes. "Lister's ethics class," he clarifies, tilting his head towards the building they'd been in together.
Bella's cell phone vibrates against the leather seat once again, this time repeatedly, a phone call that she doesn't even consider picking it up. "Um," she mumbles, "yeah. I was."
"You were there last time, too," he says.
Bella can hear her frantic heartbeat in her ears, and she squeezes her right thigh to keep her hand from shaking. Realizing that she might not have blended in as well as she thought leaves an anxious tension in her stomach. "I don't skip class," she finally says.
Edward nods. "What year are you?"
"I'm a junior."
"How old are you?"
Bella wants to ask why he's so curious, but the words won't come. "Twenty," she tells him honestly. And then, though she's unsure why, she adds, "I turn twenty-one in a month."
"What's your name?"
"Bella."
Edward's right eye crinkles as he gives her a crooked smile. "You know, presentations aren't something that they stress in Med school. I always hated them . . . but maybe not so much anymore." And with that, he turns on his heel, and his dress shoes click against the pavement as he walks away.
A rush of energy flows over her body, and she shoots out of her seat. When she speaks, though, she still hides behind her open car door. "There are over forty kids in that lecture," Bella says. "I didn't - uh - I mean, I didn't think you noticed me."
Edward keeps an even pace as he walks away but turns around to give her a glance. "Oh," he says, his lips pulling upwards, "I noticed you."
Author's Note: I'm hoping to get Chapter Three up within a week or two. That's the goal, anyway.
Please let me know what you think. Feedback is a huge motivator for me.
See you in Chapter Three.