AUTHOR'S NOTE:
As always love all of you who have taken the time to read, follow and review. THANK YOU. Next update on Tuesday.
WARNING:
This story may contain content that could offend readers. Story will surround storylines involving acts of dominance such as domestic discipline. This story will not contain BDSM. This story has will have spanking themes in later chapters. The following story will use mature language. This story has already been written and will contain character death in future follow ups. Lemons will not occur right away and not in every chapter this isn't Fifty Shades of fun. Please do not read this story if you think you may feel offended by the discussed themes.
Story is mine; the characters are borrowed from Stephenie Meyer
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We walked hand in hand to breakfast the next morning and were immediately accosted by Emmett.
"Hot off the presses, sexy man on a magazine." He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
"Please don't do that, you're creeping me out." I laughed.
Emmett swatted me with his magazine as he handed over the Vanity Fair. Sure enough there was Emmett trying to smolder the hell out of the cover with his eyes. The caption read "Emmett McCarty the Ultimate Liberal."
"The ultimate liberal?" I muttered. "Thanks Emmett, I read it after breakfast."
I sat down at the bar waiting for the food to be ready. "Come on guys, I finally make it on a prominent magazine and you won't even take the time to read the article." He whined. I did kind of feel sorry for him. Directors rarely were celebrated on magazine covers unless it was a film magazine or they were an actor turned director.
Carlisle spoke up helping us all out. "Emmett let us have something to eat first." He had been making an omelet, while Esme readied the bacon.
Angela came down beaming, "Good morning everybody, Edward I just might have to steal that bed from you. Last night was amazing."
"I'll be sure to get you one for Christmas." Edward replied.
Emmett immediately jumped on Angela, "Angie pie, check out who's on the cover of Vanity Fair this month. And not only that but you get to read the article before anyone else." We all rolled our eyes. Angie Pie had been here less than twenty-four hours and Emmett had already saddled her with a nickname.
"Oh really? Awesome." She took the magazine and went over to the couch and made Emmett's day.
Breakfast was finally ready, and we all came to the big table. Angela seemed to finish the article so Emmett started polling her on it to see what she thought. Angela is fairly opinionated but she seemed uneasy.
"Well it was an interesting article and it was um definitely forward thinking, I guess." She looked over to me and gave me a concerned look.
It was all very weird but thankfully breakfast continued on without any more mention of it. Afterwards when we were cleaning up, Angela pulled me aside.
"Bella, I don't think you should read the article." She nervously said.
"What happened Ang? You seem weirded out, more than usual I might add."
"I just don't think you are going to agree with some of the views Emmett has, and I don't want it to ruin your friendship. Please trust me." Oh crap did Emmett mention the society of the spanking celebs?
"Hey what are you two whispering about over here?" Alice sticking her nose right in.
"Angela seems to think that there is something in Emmett's article that may upset me. But now I'm just plain curious."
"Bella." Ang pleaded.
Everyone was sitting in the living room, doing as promised reading Emmett's new claim to fame article. I picked up the apparently controversial reading material and began to read on. It was your standard Q&A with a short article at the beginning telling all the readers about Emmett McCarty Academy Award winning film director. The Q&A started off pretty mild, asking him where he found inspiration and all the questions writers usually ask.
The moment I read one of his replies to a question, I immediately knew what Angela had been apprehensive about. I could feel my face flame and I tried to remain objective but I couldn't. I looked over to her and she slowly shook her head and mouthed, "I'm sorry."
I tried not to tear up but she was right I shouldn't have read the article. In response to what Emmett McCarty would change about our country.
"I feel that too many of our freedoms are taken away these days. For example if a person wants to drive without a seatbelt they should do so. It will be on them if they get into a car accident and get hurt. If a person wants to do drugs and they wind up overdosing then that's their fault. They are not hurting anybody but themselves and we should be free to make our own choices in life. We as a nation need to start becoming more responsible for ourselves."
I had actually started shaking; I needed to leave the room. I got up and started to walk out.
"What did you think?" Emmett asked.
"Um congrats." I looked over at Angela and gave her the nod to come with me; she instantly got up and came to me.
"Bella, what's wrong." Edward asked concerned.
"We have to go upstairs." It was a shitty excuse but I really didn't want to go off on Emmett.
"Okay what is going on? You two are acting weird. If you didn't like the article just say so." Emmett replied.
"Alright I didn't like the article." I admitted.
"You didn't like the article." Emmett actually looked hurt.
"I'm sorry." I apologized.
"Well what about it didn't you like?" Edward asked. I knew he was just trying to help the situation but it wasn't working. Everyone was looking at me confused.
"Because I don't agree with your views and I would rather just walk away before I say something I might regret." I could feel myself lose whatever sanity I may have had left.
"Well you should just tell me. Why hide your feelings, everyone is entitled to an opinion, this just happened to be mine and I don't see anything wrong with it." Emmett defended.
I walked back over to the magazine and picked it up, I flipped to the page that had offended me and began to recite his words.
"I feel that too many of our freedoms are taken away these days. For example if a person wants to drive without a seatbelt they should do so. It will be on them if they get into a car accident and get hurt. If a person wants to do drugs and they wind up overdosing then that's their fault. They are not hurting anybody but themselves and we should be free to make our own choices in life. We as a nation need to start becoming more responsible for ourselves." I tossed the magazine back down on the coffee table. "I don't agree with this. There is a reason we have laws and I found this statement was completely ignorant."
"Ignorant?" Emmett exclaimed.
"Yes ignorant. You don't know the first thing about the effects that a person on drugs can cause. You don't know the pain that their choices make. They're not hurting anybody but themselves? Are fucking kidding me?"
I was starting to breakdown but it was my anger fueling me now.
"What about their parents who love them and sit there and wonder every single day what they could have done to save their child's life? Please go and share your insights with my mom and dad on how their pain is not valid because we should all be free to make our own choices in life. Tell that to people who had to put their daughter into the ground when she was only twenty years old. But hey it was her fault that she overdosed, right? Jessica was the one who hurt herself? Then why were we left here to deal with the pain?" I shook my head slowly backing out of the room; I could see everyone all with different expressions on their faces.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry" I turned and ran out of the room. I didn't even know where I was going to until I reached the roof. It had felt like a lifetime ago when Edward and I shared our first date up here. The table now gone replaced with lounge chairs, but the twinkle lights were still displayed. Of course they weren't on, since it was only eleven in the morning. The sun was shining, the exact opposite of what my insides felt.
I had tried not to think about Jessica, mainly because it usually resulted in me getting really pissed off or I would breakdown and cry myself to sleep. Angela had always been kind to me and my family; she always watched out for us. It's funny before Jessica's addiction I would have seen movies and laughed, read articles like Emmett's and think nothing of it, but after she died I would never be the same again. Isn't it funny how your whole life you could be apathetic towards a cause and then an event happens and it can affect even the tiniest thing?
It was about a half hour later when I was joined on the roof.
"Your boyfriend is going crazy looking for you." Emmett said sadly.
"Why does that not surprise me. That man would have a computer chip put in me if he thought he could get away with it."
"Bella, I never wanted to hurt you, I am so sorry that my stupidity caused you pain." Emmett said sincerely.
"Emmett you didn't cause me pain, pain is just something I have to factor into my everyday life. I'm sorry for going off on you, you didn't know. In fact I was just thinking about how blissfully ignorant I was once, before Jessica overdosed."
He sat down on the chair across from me, "Does it bother you to talk about it?"
"Not as much anymore, it was six years ago. I was in high school and she was in her first year of college. She was incredibly smart; she received a full ride to this great school. But the school's administration refused to acknowledge that they had issues with the student body and surrounding community's trouble with drug use. Even though my sister was smart she was also very impressionable. It was a year of hell, she changed, she was moody, she stole money from my parents. And at the end of it she died alone in her dorm room. My dad felt it was his fault because he was a cop, he was the law and his own daughter had died. My mom wonders if she had never allowed her to go to that school maybe she'd still be here. And I blame myself because even though I was only sixteen, I should have talked to her I should have done something."
"You can't blame yourself; her actions are not your fault. Your parents and you loved her, you supported her throughout her life but sometimes bad things happen. You can't allow yourself to shoulder that. You are an amazing person, I was worried for so long about Edward. He seemed to never find the right person for him, he kept taking it so personally and then you came along and you were perfect. But if you allow this pain to rule you, it could end up hurting the people around you that love you." Emmett and I weren't ones for serious conversation; in fact this was only the second time it had happened. He was a very cheerful person but he always became serious when it had to do with his friends.
"Thank you Emmett, I really am thankful that I met you. I never really said thank you for saving me from James that night. I have a problem with trusting people sometimes and you have been so good to me. Thank you." I professed.
"Edward loves you, and I made a vow if you will, a long time ago. I don't think you can even begin to understand just how many of us will always be here to support you. I knew he had feelings for you since the night at the bus stop; it was only a matter of time before he came to his senses and admitted it to himself. You became family to me even before you even knew it. So although I can be a dumbass, I will always be here for you." Emmett promised.
I couldn't help the tears in my eyes, his declaration was mind-boggling. How in the world did I ever have the good fortune to end up here surrounded by these amazing people? These celebrities who I had managed to lump in the same category as Lauren Mallory before this trip had shown more compassion for me then so called "normal" people.
"Thank you Emmett, you have no idea what that means to me." He stood up, and pulled me up and wrapped his huge bear like arms around me.
I don't know why I asked what I did but I couldn't contain myself, "So Emmett you really going to settle down someday and plan on spanking that poor girl, whomever she may be?"
Emmett laughed, "Well apparently that's the plan, when Edward first introduced me to this whole idea it was a tad unsettling but if you really knew just how much was involved the spanking really is such a small part of the picture."
"So do you like get together and plan seminars?" I joked.
"Something like that." Emmett had answered truthfully, a little too truthful, it had my mind racing. Emmett would go on to meet the woman he was to spend the rest of his life with and let's just say that Rosalie Hale made me look like a saint the first time he tried to punish her.
I was never happier to have Angela visiting, then that day. While I was up on the roof with Emmett, Angela had thankfully taken on the task to tell Edward and the others the details of my past. When Emmett and I had arrived back downstairs Edward just came up and hugged me and didn't say anything more than "I love you."
Angela and I had spread out maps and guidebooks on the kitchen table in hopes of planning out her stay. Of course I was still planning on working the next week, but Angela said she would come with us to Rome and go explore on her own. Of course you could see Edward fighting with himself, I knew he was dying to lay down rules for her but knew he had no jurisdiction. Thankfully Alice told Angela that she and Esme would love to accompany her if she wouldn't mind. Which she didn't.
We wanted to go to Sienna for the day, and the weekend after we were planning on staying in Florence. Edward made a phone call straightaway to the Four Seasons to book our rooms; he was planning on traveling up after filming on Friday and stay with us until Monday morning taking the train back down to Rome. I told him that he needed to be on his best behavior and make sure to keep his hands to himself when we were in public, I was a little nervous to be traveling with all this star power. Somehow I had visions of screaming girls chasing us through the streets of Florence.
Angela and I had the best time seeing Italy even with our chaperones in tow. Unfortunately she was supposed to be leaving tomorrow. I had secretly hoped that she'd stay for Christmas, but I knew she had family to get home to.
We were having dinner the night before Angela's flight when Edward made an announcement. "Bella, there is something that Angela and I have been discussing the past couple of days." Oh no, this can't be good.
"I have talked Angela into staying until the 23rd." I must have looked confused so she was staying two extra days?
"Ok?" I looked at her and she had the biggest smile on her face.
"She is staying because I have bought you a ticket to join her. I want you to go home and spend Christmas with your parents." He said genuinely.
"What? Are you serious?" My eyes started swimming.
"Yes, honey. We end filming tomorrow and I know how much this means to you. I booked you a return ticket for the 28th in hopes that you will spend New Year's with me."
Our last day of filming in Rome was tomorrow but then they were going to be filming just two days more in Venice after the first of the year. I couldn't believe what I was hearing; I stood up and wrapped my arms around Edward. "Thank you. Thank you." I cried. He gave me a big kiss and said, "Anything for you, my love."
"Oh you guys are just so cute together." Angela cooed.
"Well I know you both will be spending the majority of your time with your families, so I am hoping that I don't have to warn you to be good." Edward raised his eyebrow at me.
"Yeah, be sure to tell that to cougar town over here. The last time we went out she hit on a high schooler." I giggled.
Angela narrowed her eyes at me, "Whatever grave robber."
Edwards jaw dropped, "I'm offended, I can't believe you just said that. I'm not old, people." I couldn't help but laugh.
Edward turned back to me, "But I am serious, please be safe and make smart choices. I will not be happy if I find out you've done otherwise."
"Oh no! Not happy with me? How ever will you learn to live with these new feelings?" I mocked.
"Isabella…" he started.
"Calm down Edward, you think that I make it my mission in life to keep you on edge." I quipped.
"Don't you?" he inquired.
I made a face and he laughed. He didn't know just how good he had it.