The Return of Me
My head is groggy and hurting before I even open my eyes. Images of last night flash behind my lids, and they open in an instant. I'm not where I was last night when I fell asleep. Although I'm still in bed, my head is now on my pillow and my covers are over me. There's no Edward to be seen.
I reach to my bedside table and grab my phone.
Sorry about last night. My hormones rule me. I text.
I roll out of bed and make my way to Alice's room. Curling up on her bed, I hug her pillow to me.
"Well, you were wrong," I talk to her empty room, "I have fallen for Edward's charm."
I sit up and crawl across the bed to her jewellery box and get out the gold necklace,. I stand up and walk to her window to look at the necklace under the sunlight.
"I can't believe you dated Jasper and I didn't even know. Where has my head been all these years? Did I shut you out too?"
I look out the window and watch as old man Jimmy across the road drags his rubbish bin out to the kerb.
"So, Angela is sweet on Jasper." I pause and look back down at the necklace in my hands. "Should I be upset at her? Were you guys really serious? I mean, I don't think her father will allow her to date, but I should probably be pissed that she likes my sister's ex yeah? You know, sisters before misters and all that." I can almost hear her laugh at me and I can't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of what I just said. I know Alice well enough to know that no matter what they were, or how they ended, she would want Jasper to be happy.
"Yeah, you're right. He should be allowed to move on with whoever he wants."
I put her necklace back and head for the bathroom.
The rest of Sunday is spent doing homework and reading.
When Monday comes, I am almost bursting with excitement to be going to school, then I promptly slap myself mentally for thinking such things. But school has got to be better than being cooped up in here.
I'm surprised to see Angela waiting for me the moment I get out of the car.
"Hey!" she says, much too brightly for a Monday morning.
I look at her sceptically. "Uh, hello."
"What?" she says, trying her best to look innocent.
"You don't drink coffee, so I'm wondering how it's possible that you can be this chipper on a Monday morning?"
"Oh, it's just – never mind," she says quickly and I'm about to question her further when I look up to see Jasper and Edward approaching with their entourage.
"Hey, Little Mumma," Jasper greets. "Angelic Angela," he looks to Angela and smiles. Angela turns an alarming shade of beetroot.
I'm about to tell him off for my nickname when Edward holds his hand out. "I'll take that."
"What?" I look at him in confusion.
"Your bag."
"Errr I can carry my own bag, thanks."
"You're meant to be taking it easy, remember?"
"Thanks, Mum, but I'm sure carrying my bag isn't going to jeopardise my health." He raises his eyebrows at me and I promise him that it's fine, I want to carry my own bag.
He looks to Jasper and shrugs.
We all walk to the English block and the group starts to disperse as they each go to their lockers or classrooms. Angela is walked to her class by Jasper and I find myself standing with Edward at his locker across from my homeroom. He opens it, grabs out some books, closes it and looks down at me.
"You sure you're okay?" he asks with genuine concern.
"I'm fine, I promise," I assure him. "The other night … sorry about that. I just –"
"Hormones," he finishes for me, with a dimpled smile.
I chuckle and nod.
"I got the text," he explains, as he leans against his locker.
"Hey? How'd you get out? You didn't climb back down the tree did you?"
He laughs. "No, your parents were asleep so I snuck out the front door."
"Ah, good, because that would have been … weird."
"You didn't think it rather Romeo-esque of me to climb up to your window?" he asks with a smirk.
"Hmmm, Romeo, no. Drunken stalker-ish, perhaps," I joke.
"Hey! I wasn't drunk!" he points out.
"Hmmm, but you don't deny stalking me," I clarify as I slowly edge my way across the hall to homeroom.
He smiles and shakes his head in amusement. We hold each other's gaze as I walk backwards toward my class. Then I turn and walk to the only spare seat available.
Homeroom is barely fifteen minutes long. We're simply ticked off the roster and then left to our own devices until the bell rings. If there's school news we need to know then that's shared as well, but nothing ever happens here. I sit and listen to the Brittany's behind me as they gossip about their weekends.
I zone out until I hear Edward's name.
"Stupid … abort it in the toilets … he didn't call me back …" I only get snippets of their conversation and I decide to ignore it.
Angela resumes her friend duties by walking me to every class, but I tell her not to worry about her strange ritual come third period because our classes are at opposite ends of the school. I am just about at the door to my health class when someone bumps me from behind. They hit me so hard, that I stumble and land on my knees.
I look up to see one of the Brittanys with a smirk on her face. "Sorry, I didn't see you there." She's a terrible actor.
I get up and collect my bag. I look her in the eyes and take a step toward her. "Did the bleach seep into your brain and fry your occipital lobe?"
"My what? No! God, you're so stupid," she retorts.
"Yes, I'm the stupid one here." I shake my head in amusement and continue on to my class.
The lunch bell rings out and I'm barely out the door of my class when I feel someone grab me by the arm and pull me to the side.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Edward asks beseechingly.
I roll my eyes at him. "God, I'd forgotten how fast news travels around here."
"I heard you got into a fight. What the hell?"
"Yes, Edward, I kicked the bitch's head in with my newfound pregnant karate skills. You should have been there. I was awesome," I reply offhandedly. He doesn't look impressed. I huff out in frustration. "It was nothing, she bumped into me and I just told her to open her eyes next time, that's all."
I realise that his hands are still clasped gently around my forearms and I look down at them. He notices, too, then and lets go. We walk to lunch and I'm surprised to find Angela already there with Jasper and a few of the other guys.
Edward introduces me to his group of friends, most of whom I know names of, but I don't know them personally. Of course they know my name too, but it's nice of him to introduce us formally. Most of them are year twelve seniors like Edward but I recognise one of them from a couple of my classes, so I assume he's in my level.
I take a seat next to Angela and Edward squeezes in next to me.
"So, I heard you got into a fight," the boy in my grade, Eric, pipes up.
"Eh, it was nothing," I shrug and hope they move on to another topic of discussion.
"She is such a bitch, she's lucky I wasn't there," Angela proclaims angrily.
I look at her with raised brows. This is a side to Angela I haven't seen before.
"What? She is," she affirms, before shoving her sandwich in her mouth.
I smile, amused, and then start to eat my own lunch.
"She's lucky I wasn't there," Edward joins in.
I roll my eyes and growl in frustration. "I can look after myself! She's just a Brittany. I'm not scared of her. Besides, it's done now. Nothing happened."
"You know they're saying that you tried to abort the baby in the toilets?" Angela states furiously.
I cringe. I had a feeling that's what they were talking about in class earlier. I look around and notice that everyone has stopped eating and they're now watching me, waiting for my reaction.
"Can we please change the subject?"
They all go back to eating and the subject is changed instantly … to football. I zone out, until I feel Edwards hand on my leg. He squeezes my thigh gently. I look over to him and see him looking at me, his eyes swimming with empathy. He mouths 'you okay?' and I nod. After giving me a disbelieving tight smile, he takes his hand away and jumps back into the conversation.
The heat of skin on skin disappears, and I instantly miss his touch.
AN: I did plan to post this sooner but I literally just finished writing it now, so it's likely full of mistakes. I apologise.
I have an 18 month old that seems to have mistaken himself for a pair of my pants, constantly attaching himself to my leg, plus I'm trying to pack as we're moving house. One could say I've bitten off more than I can chew, but I say what's life if not lived on the edge.
The story will probably skip ahead a little again after this chapter.
Thank you to all the kind readers who have reviewed with such amazing compliments and inspiring messages to keep going.
Okay, I'm going now ... see you in the next chappy, or the review box :)