Chapter 2 : Getting my friends back
When I woke up the next morning my eyes were all red and splotchy and I had a killer headache. Nice combo to start the day! I took an extra long shower to bring myself to life and dried my hair. It was a sunny day so decided to wear something lighter with a jacket to hold and my old favorite sunglasses.
Charlie was having breakfast when I went downstairs. I didn't want a replay of our last morning together so I decided on a quick breakfast and I was out the door within minutes.
As I got in my truck I noticed the shiny new radio Emmett got me. I was immediately angry. I was seething. He forgot the radio? The vampire with the perfect memory that took all my reminders from me, my photos, the mixed CD, the tickets, FORGOT to take the radio from my car? I hit the wheel angrily. With a deep breath to calm myself I drove to school making a mental note to get rid of that radio as soon as possible.
I saw Angela and Ben pulling in a couple minutes later. With trepidation I waved and saw Angela coming over. After a quick chat I decided to take the leap. I asked if she wanted to come with me to the movies friday night, for a girls night. She frowned and I got myself ready for rejection.
"I'm busy friday night, my parents will go out and I have to watch the twins, why don't you come over?"
"If you don't mind the kids, that is" she quickly back-pedaled when she saw my astonished expression.
'That would actually be better' I thought. No Charlie to appease, not to mention I hate shopping and a movie maybe was not such a bright idea after all.
"Yeah I'd like that", I responded with a smile and we headed to our lockers to start the day.
During school that day I felt a little lighter, like there was light at the end of the tunnel and I was slowly reaching it. Of course the empty chair beside me in every single class wasn't helping until I decided to plop my bag in it. I couldn't believe how much better I felt just by that simple action. By the time lunch came I found myself sitting with my back straight and my head held high. I wasn't ok, not by a long shot but I was feeling a bit better, and that's better than nothing. At lunch Mike was talking about planning another visit to the beach since the weather was not awful (by my standards) and good (by everyone else's). On a whim I mentioned that if the weather stayed like that it would be a good idea. For a moment there was absolute silence as everyone but Angela turned to look at me in shock. I started fidgeting feeling as if I was the main theme in a museum.
"What?" I couldn't help but mutter.
"Oh look, it speaks" Lauren muttered.
Was I mute all these months? Just then my inner Rosalie decided to poke her ugly head out and I opened my mouth to respond "Did you say something Lauren?"
Before another word was spoken Mike quickly agreed with me and changed the topic. He and I started a slow conversation on how we spent the winter holidays with Angela joining us with a story on how the twins took in stride their skiing lessons. Since my winter was spent on feeling miserable I talked about the difference between winter in Phoenix (winter? what winter?) and how cold it got here and Mike added tails of snow sports. Everyone else was staring at us besides Lauren who openly ignored me and had her attention on Jessica and I judged on their 'glance at Bella and then keep talking' attitude they were gossiping about me. Great! As the bell rang the three of us stood up and headed to gym, kill me now passed through my head, Mike gave me a small smile and said that it was good to have me back and I couldn't help but respond with the truth, it was good to be back.
After school on my way home I needed to stop by the grocery store where I decided to treat Charlie on a good dinner and try to make up for my zombie months. After that I started on a full mexican dinner and worked on my homework. I e-mailed Renee and noticed her emails were more like a diary entry. So I filled her on my days and promised to mail her soon. On my way to do the laundry I realized that my closet still had all the clothes Alice had forced on me during one of the many Bella Barbie episodes and I started packing them up in black plastic garbage bags. I admit I felt bad about treating expensive clothing this way but in a way it was cathartic. I loaded all the bags in the bed of my truck thinking that for now what I needed was not to see them and in time I would think what to do with them.
Charlie returned home at that moment but thankfully didn't ask me what I was doing. He seemed impressed with the dinner and we held a light conversation over it. I mentioned the girls night with Angela at her place while looking after the kids and when he looked surprised I threw in the beach trip for sunday. I had to stifle a giggle when he was staring at me with his mouth opening and closing without a word coming out. As soon as he was able to cough and find his voice he agreed to me doing both and not wanting to go to my empty room I decided to join him for a comedy that was on.
When I went to bed a couple hours later while I wished the pillow I cuddled was colder, I didn't cry to sleep.
