A/N: Oh, Edward...
Chapter 26
Seven Days 'til Prom
Edward's POV
Since the baseball final I'd decided to take a step back with Bella. We were going to the prom together, but I really didn't know what the hell we were going as. We were more than just friends, but I couldn't say Bella was my girlfriend, and considering what happened at the pool hall it didn't seem like it was going to change any time soon. I still wanted to kiss her—fuck me, that was the least of it—but I didn't want her to pull away from me again like she thought I'd fucking date rape her.
I guess the poolroom was a pretty seedy place to try and kiss her—especially with Jazz and Alice going for it like a couple of fucking porn stars a couple of feet away.
I don't know; playing pinball with her had made me horny, and I wasn't really thinking about anything else. Still, when she pulled away it was like she'd punched me in the fucking stomach. Actually pulled, doesn't seem like exactly the right word. It was more like she flinched away from me. But then she had to go and feel remorseful—staring up at me and telling me she wanted to kiss me, while her eyes flooded with so much guilt that I had a nagging fucking feeling that she felt like she had to kiss me.
And there was no way I was going to force her to do anything with me.
I should have expected her to react that way, though; I should have anticipated it. It was only a few days ago that she'd been completely ignoring me, and even now it was all on her terms. She'd agreed to go to the prom with me, she was even flirting with me in Bio and after the game on Friday, but I knew she still didn't trust me. That's why I decided to start over and let her lead; instead of trying to work her out all the time, and ending up fucking questioning everything again.
Only over the weekend Bella seemed really comfortable around me—really fucking flirty, actually—but at the same time, she seemed distracted, and her eyes were reflecting that endless fucking sadness again that immediately made me feel edgy.
I always felt like I was on tenterhooks around her—fucking always.
On Saturday night, she stayed up to chat with me. I ironically had my horny brother and sister to thank for that. While they were doing god knows what with Rose and Jazz, Bella came in search for me.
I was hanging in the living room with my eyes glued to the television while my mind was focused on everything but. Bella was almost in front of me before I realized she was even in the room, and the sight of her standing before me staring with that secretly amused expression on her face, caused me to practically jump out of my skin.
"Hey," she said simply, with a warm smile, her brow slightly quirked. "You okay?"
"Yeah," I finally admitted, thudding my hand down on the sofa beside me for her to join me.
She sat beside me, and without thinking about it I wrapped my arm around her back and pulled her closer to my side.
Naturally, she immediately stiffened, but it didn't take too long for her to relax against me.
"What do you think Carlisle meant about us?" she asked after a moment.
"Erm..." I reached out and rubbed the back of my head, contemplating it.
I suspected Carlisle—without mentioning the entire house, and let's face it, half of Forks—knew how crazy I was about her, and that was behind his reasoning. Though, a part of me had a mortifying suspicion that my dreams were attracting more than just Emmett's attention.
I wasn't about to tell Bella any of that; my dignity was already in shredded ruins, but as she gazed at me waiting for my response my eyes zeroed in on her lips and my brain turned to Jell-O. I began to stutter and clam up while my skin began to burn, ignited by the fact that she'd placed her hand on my knee.
"Y-you think those rumors about us got back to him?" she asked, seeming to ignore my lame ass horniness.
I hadn't even considered that.
"Possibly," I answered, grabbing her hand and changing the subject—if only so I could get control of myself. "Tell me another one of those Kiwi jokes?" I asked her, fighting the urge to grin as she immediately frowned in response.
"No," she stated, flatly.
"Why not?" I asked, attempting to put together some charm and throwing her a hang dog look.
Her brow quirked cynically this time. "Really, Edward?"
Seeing directly through me, as usual...
I sighed internally and changed direction. "They make me laugh."
Releasing her breath, she shook her head slightly to herself, before leaning her elbow on my shoulder to curl herself closer to me. "How can they make you laugh if you don't understand them?"
I only shrugged, flashing her a conceding grin, while her face suddenly deepened and she broke my gaze.
It was a rare moment when I made her blush, and just now was one of them. It wasn't as if I had any idea why, though. Her behavior didn't exactly follow any patterns that I was able to decipher.
Taking a resigned breath, Bella turned back to me. "Ok ... what's error buck?"
"Error buck..." I repeated in thought, hoping it was some weird ass New Zealand way of Bella telling me she was going to sneak into my bed that night. I shrugged, coming up blank.
"The language they speak in Libernon," she answered before she laughed; though, I think it was more at my expression.
I laughed with her, despite the fact that I still didn't get it, before tightening my arm around her.
She seemed receptive to it this time, relaxing more against me, before something caught her attention, and she turned to look toward the stairs. It was at this moment that I suddenly found myself mesmerized by the soft part of her neck beneath her ear, and on impulse, I pressed my lips to her skin; inhaling the scent of her in.
I felt her tense again, before she turned back to me; her eyes locking with mine.
"Edward," she said softly, blinking slowly, and fuck me if I knew whether it was in some kind of encouragement, or whether she spoke my name as a question.
I only paused, staring at her, all the nerve that I'd worked up to kiss her slipping away the longer I contemplated it, while the crick between her eyes deepened until her expression was all out confusion.
"…What's the matter?" she finally asked me.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I cupped my hand around her cheek and pulled her to my lips. I immediately felt her resist, before she pulled back, severing from me completely.
"Jazz," she explained in a whisper, just as the asshole walked into the room.
Fuck!
He hadn't even fucking attempted to tuck his shirt back in, or hide the fact that his fly was undone, as he sat fucking languidly on the sofa facing Bella and I, grinning like the asshole he was; while wearing freaking Alice's lipstick.
The pissant had to know that it would piss me off, but Bella, beside me, seemed to find amusement in it; quickly concealing it behind her palm.
"Hey, dude. What's happening?" he asked—his fucking eyes glazed over as if he was drunk.
I was on the verge of asking Bella to exit the room immediately with me, when Alice entered. I expected she'd allowed what she thought was an inconspicuous amount of time to hold off suspicions of their activity. Maybe it would have worked, if her fucking shirt buttons were done up in proper alignment.
I released my breath stiffly, fast becoming impatient with their bullshit sexual fucking activities that they were constantly throwing in my face.
"Alice, I think you've had a wardrobe malfunction," Bella said lightly.
Laughing, the little rat half shrugged, before sitting herself square on Jazz's lap. "So what are we doing, guys?" she asked enthusiastically. "Want to watch a movie?"
I knew it would be beyond torture to sit in their presence while they were fucking post climactic, but my alternative was to take Bella to my room—something I knew would test my self- control beyond what I was capable of. Though, even if I did manage to get her there, no doubt the wall banging and window vibrating generated from Emmett's side would all but stifle our conversation.
I only released my breath, feeling weary all of a sudden. Having to constantly fight off what I was physically feeling, while knowing I was unable to do anything about it was fucking exhausting.
As it was, Bella crashed not long into the movie—not that having her completely unconscious against me relieved any of my discomfort—and around 2:00am Mom ushered us to bed.
. . .
The next morning I had to remove myself from the kitchen as soon as I spotted Bella sitting at the breakfast table. Not to mention how fucking horny I'd woken up, with the smell of Bella all over me, but I knew there was no way I could be in the same room with her looking so freaking adorable in her pajamas with her hair a mess. My only alternative was to retreat back to my room, while contemplating the idea of relieving my tension in the shower. I ended up having several.
Bella went back home around midday. She knocked on my bedroom door to say goodbye, throwing in that freaking smile for added measure before reaching quickly up on her toes to kiss my cheek.
"Bye," I mumbled, echoing her as she headed for the stairs. I was almost swaying, feeling fucking dazed, and rapidly becoming daunted by the amount of sexual frustration I was fighting.
Turning, she only flashed me a broader version of that smile from over her shoulder, before she was gone. There was no suspicion in it anymore, I noted, not that I was confident enough to know what the hell she was feeling toward me.
. . .
The next week of school leading to prom, was finals. Bio was first up on Monday. Bella sat with me at lunch, her head inclined towards mine as we went over her notes, while everything but the sound of her voice bounced off my brain. I only sat, fucking drunk by her proximity, my eyes glued to her lips as she spoke. Every so often when her eyes rose to meet mine, she'd smile, and I was convinced she was fucking with me again. She seemed to take secret amusement in how pathetic I was, before she went back to reading her notes aloud.
And apparently it wasn't only obvious to Bella.
Across the table from us, I heard Jazz snort to himself, and when I looked up and caught the asshole's gaze, he was staring at me with a mixture of curiosity and repulsion seeping into his expression.
"Dude, you are such a poof!"
"What?" I asked him blankly, feeling a wave of irritation rise in me. I'd heard Bella describe weasel with that word before, but I'd forgotten to ask Alice to translate, and it pissed me off that Jazz not only knew what it meant, but he was fucking mocking me with it.
Bella immediately threw her plastic cafeteria fork at him. "Stop mocking me, Jazz!" she exclaimed. She sounded good-natured about it, but for a brief moment I suspected she was serious.
"Cut the crap, Jazz," I warned him.
"Jesus, okay, you're gay then!" His lips twitched like the asshole he was.
Bella only sighed, heavily and full of frustration, and I was about to knock the pissant on his ass, when Alice arrived, effectively distracting him for the rest of lunch.
The Bio exam wasn't the lost cause I presumed it would be. Though it was probably due to the fact that Bella squeezed my knee under the table before turning to me and wishing me good luck that had me coast through it on an adrenalin high. In all honesty, the first ten minutes of the exam were written off as I contemplated the idea of squeezing her leg back in response.
By the time it was over, I was confident I'd scored in the eighties.
At the end of the day Bella hung out with me, chatting while prick Jazz sang out smart ass heat related comments. Something about how I was hotter than a whore on dollar night. That one was my favorite to date, and only because it made Bella laugh. She turned to me and smiled, completely jarring my glare to Jazz, while the heat abruptly retreated from my ears to my dick.
"Later, gator," she teased me before she headed to her car.
Monday was the day I learned the meaning of "poof".
The next day Bella came to school looking unwell. Her voice was nasally, her eyes a little too bright, while her face was pale and blotchy. It made her all the more adorable, but since Jacob and Nessie were still on hiatus from the outside world, I began worrying. In fact, I grew increasingly fucking anxious as the day went by. She kept up an obvious front that all was well, but by the end of the day she began looking really sick.
I held her hand on the way to Bio—it was clammier than mine was—while the heat between us was, for the first time, coming from her. In class, she kept her coat on, while trying to hide the fact that she was trembling. By that point, though, it was obvious how sick she was. She was sneezing and coughing constantly, until everything she did, from walking to blinking seemed labored.
"Bella, you're sick," I said to her gently, after she sneezed a couple of times in succession. It wasn't the first time I'd spoken it during the day. I'd already asked her more times than I could remember if she was feeling okay, but this time I was serious.
She turned to me, all bleary eyed. "I'm okay, it's just a cold," she insisted stubbornly, while her voice clogged and broke, and sighing, she bent her forehead to her hand.
"Do you want me to drive you home?" I offered.
"On your tricycle, Edward?" she teased me, while her head remained resting in her hand, before looking up and throwing me a teasing grin.
I only smiled back at her wryly.
She sneezed again and then shuddered; something she tried unsuccessfully to hide. I was on the verge of pulling her against me when Mr. Banner walked into the room.
I watched her intently for several minutes; she was beginning to look terrible.
"When I get home I'll have a bath and take some Phenergan. I'll be right," she added, becoming obviously frustrated by my constant attention.
I only smiled at her—too freaking gently.
She glanced up at me while shrinking further into her coat, her forehead bunching, and looking almost annoyed for a moment. "What's so funny now, Edward? Did I say bath wrong?"
I fought back the laugh; if she didn't look so pathetically sick, I would have. "No, you didn't say anything wrong."
Sighing deeply, she lowered her eyes, and my pulse quickened. She looked as though she was going to faint, and she was going steadily paler by the second.
"Bella, you don't look well. You really should go home."
"Edward..." she complained, but she was unable to manage enough energy to make her conviction stick.
I raised my hand. "Excuse me, Mr. Banner."
Bella threw me a hard glare, and this time I fought the urge to all out laugh.
"Mr. Cullen?" Mr. Banner asked.
"Bella's sick. Do you mind if I take her to the nurse?"
The teacher's scrutinizing gaze immediately fell on Bella—whose cheeks were at that moment an open flame—his expression edging with concern. She lifted her head higher, but the obvious effort it took to keep up her facade was wavering before my eyes.
"Miss Swan, are you feeling unwell?"
She cleared her throat to speak and that seemed enough to convince Mr. Banner, who immediately turned to me. "Help her to the nurse, Edward, please."
Bella rose out of her stool defiantly, a huff escaping her lips. "Come on then, you," she muttered to me begrudgingly, her voice already sounding clogged.
Bending down, I retrieved her bag quickly, before following her out of the room.
"Edward!" she exclaimed hotly once we were out of earshot from the class. "I said I was okay!" But the broken, husky state of her voice immediately contradicted her.
I only smiled at her warmly.
She sighed, running her palm across her forehead. "Mrs. Cope will call Billy, and I don't want to bother him at wor—" she broke off to suddenly sneeze.
Without thinking about it, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and drew her against me. "Bella, you're sick—as much as you're trying to convince me you're not. I just want to make sure you get home safely."
"I'm okay to drive," she mumbled.
"Okay, what if we bypass the office and you drive home, but I accompany you?" I suggested.
She paused and looked up at me, her expression uncertain. "I don't want you to get into trouble, Edward."
I sighed with deliberate exaggeration. "What do you think will happen to me? I'll explain to Mr. Banner—I can be very convincing when I want to be."
"I'm well aware of that," she said quietly, scoffing softly to herself.
. . .
I knew where Chief Swan lived—everyone who resided in Forks, and just on the fringes knew—but with Bella it was the first time I'd ever had a reason to go there. It was strange entering the house where she lived; despite the fact that it was her asshole cousin's home as well.
Bella unlocked the front door and as she stepped inside, I followed closely behind and was immediately confronted by Jacob's accusing glare. He was sitting on a sofa in the living room looking pasty and pathetic, with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.
"Jacob," I said, almost warm in my greeting.
"Princess," was his reply, still managing a fair amount of sarcasm despite the hoarseness of his voice.
Bella only huffed out her breath, placing her palm to her brow.
"Bells, you okay?" Jacob asked, focusing for the first time on her.
"No I'm not! You open your mouth and I end up getting bloody sick!" she grumbled, before taking a breath and exhaling wearily. "I'm going to bed."
"Sorry, Bells," he replied, throwing her an apologetic grin.
She rolled her eyes and managed an affectionate sort of smile—if she didn't look like she was about to drop. Reaching out, I enfolded my arms around her waist, pulling her clumsily against me before helping her up the stairs. She was warm in my arms—too fucking warm.
"You're so needy, Edward," she teased me, but she sounded jaded.
I only chuckled and helped her up to the landing, feeling Jacob's eyes boring into me the entire fucking time.
Bella's room … what can I say? It was exactly like her. Clean, and tidy, and maybe slightly dysfunctional by how organized it appeared. There was a double bed in the middle of the room covered in a blue checked quilt, which Bella immediately dropped onto, laying immediately back on the pillows and covering her eyes with her arm.
She moaned softly, then louder with what sounded like frustration. "I'm never sick!"
"Why am I not surprised by that?" I replied, smiling to myself.
Moving her arm, she peeked at me, returning my smile warmly. "How are you going to get back to school?" she asked after a moment.
I shrugged. "I'll text Alice and get her to stop by and pick me up. I left my tricycle at school, remember?"
She went to laugh, but ended up going into a coughing fit, sounding like she was about to choke to death.
"Bella, are you sure you're okay? Do you want a glass of water?" I asked her gently; she was paler than I'd ever seen her and she began shuddering again.
"No, I'm okay. Thanks, Edward," she replied, her voice barely a whisper, before closing her eyes drowsily and turning to hug her pillow to herself.
She seemed to doze off for a moment, and taking the advantage to properly take it in, I glanced around her room. It was a surreal kind of reality being in Bella's bedroom—the one girl who had turned my life upside down since the moment she'd entered it—and for the first time, I was beginning to feel like we could be something. Something real. It wasn't something I ever thought I wanted until I met her, and was probably the reason why I fucked it up so much in the beginning, but now I just wanted to sigh in relief. How the hell I'd got here was any one's guess, but I had.
I caught sight of a photograph that was on the other side of her bed on the nightstand, propped up against the base of her lamp. It was a picture of Alice and me during our trip to the Grand Canyon over the Presidents' Day weekend. The same photo Alice had kept in her room ever since; she must have given it to Bella.
I felt the smile before I became fully aware of it, and a moment later—as I spied the pink pen that sat beside it—it turned to full blown fucking goofy.
She'd forgiven me.
Sitting beside her, I reached out and gently pushed her hair from her face. Her eyes slowly opened, they were the same dark brown, but shining too brightly, and hinting with an affection that reflected in her expression.
What was she feeling?
"I hope you're not going to watch me sleep, Edward? That's just creepy." She attempted to sound teasing but her voice was already going raspy, causing a flood of emotion to suddenly ache in me. It made me feel almost on edge, but at the same time I couldn't stop fucking smiling.
I loved her. This pathetically sick, drop dead gorgeous girl from Australia was the love of my life, and I suddenly wanted to tell her. In fact, I wanted to start shouting it out like a fucking dickhead—like Jazz!
"You have a very high opinion of me, Bella. I love that about you," I teased her. My voice was too soft, too tender, betraying me as always, but to hell with it. This start over shit was old already. I was struggling; I always would when it came to her.
Her forehead puckered and she squinted as though she'd been asleep for hours. "I don't want you to catch this... Maybe you should go down stairs and talk to Jake?"
I exhaled into a warm smile—always too fucking compromised by her. "Okay, I'll let you sleep."
She only hummed softly in reply, her eyes already closed as a faint smile curved on her lips.
On impulse, I bent down and pressed my lips to her temple. She was hot—it was so foreign when it came to her. Usually it was like sliding up to an ice cube.
Sighing, I made a move to get off her bed, when her hand reached out and grabbed mine.
"Thanks, Edward," she murmured, smiling at me warmly. "You really are a sweetheart."
"Just get well, Bella," was my husky-toned reply.
I was well past the point of no return.
. . .
I spent the most uncomfortable, awkward hour of my life downstairs with Jacob while I waited for Alice.
The small talk was strained—at best. It was mostly semi-polite questions answered by one-word answers. Then Jacob got a phone call, disappeared into the kitchen, and preceded with the most sickening display of baby talk imaginable.
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me," I muttered barely under my breath, after the third "I wuv you Nessie-wessie" in a row.
It suddenly became very clear to me why Bella referred to their affections as "slop".
The minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly while I attempted not to fucking hurl; it wasn't easy.
When Jacob returned to the living room he had the decency to acknowledge that I'd heard, and at least look somewhat embarrassed by it. Handing me a can of coke, while going a shade redder, he mumbled, "Ness."
I nodded; though, my grin might have been more mocking than what I'd intended.
He immediately scowled at me, looking like he wanted to respond, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the doorbell. "More Cullens," he muttered before heading to the door.
"Hey, Jake!" was Alice's bright greeting, followed by one of Jazz's "dudes".
"Hey," Jacob replied, bluntly, before walking back into the living room with Alice and Jazz in tow.
"Well, well, this is an interesting turn of events." Jazz smirked, sitting himself on the sofa next to me as Alice disappeared up the stairs. "You didn't kill each other, then?"
"Obviously not," Jacob croaked out sarcastically.
This was followed by a few minutes of awkward silence, broken only by Jazz's asshole whistling. "You feeling better then, Jake?" he asked, after even that couldn't ease the tension.
Jacob shrugged. "Yeah, getting there."
Jazz cleared his throat loudly, before muttering, more or less under his breath, "Awkward..."
Alice emerged from Bella's bedroom not a minute too soon, and both Jazz and I practically leaped to our feet.
"Well, take it easy, Jake," Jazz said, offering his hand, only to wipe it on his shirt the minute he turned toward the door.
I sighed, and followed him, before turning back to Jake. He was already gazing at me; his expression was hard, but more like a pissed off bloodhound.
"See-ya, Cullen," he said after a moment of gauging me—not in the slightest bit threatening.
"Bye, Jake," I replied, only half trying to disguise the fact that I was fighting the urge to laugh at him. Bella's cousin or not, he was a dick.
Of course, the little rat being who she was went one step further and hugged him, before Jazz dragged her out of the house.
I was the last to walk out, and just as Jacob was about to close the door behind us, the sound of Bella's coughing travelled into the room. My eyes instinctively flew to the door at the top of the stairs, just as Jake's did, before he turned slowly back to me.
"She'll be all right in a few days; call her then," he grumbled to me begrudgingly before slamming the door on me.
I wanted to call her that night and see how she was feeling, but I knew it was probably better I didn't disturb her. The fact that she was sick had put me on edge; though, Alice, didn't seem too concerned.
"She'll be fine, Edward. She has the flu, not man-flu," the little rat stated, rolling her eyes, after she caught me sitting on my bed, after dinner staring at my phone.
"I … yeah—I know," I stammered, before huffing impatiently, I reached out with my foot, kicking the door shut.
"Well screw you too, brother dearest!" was her protest through the door.
. . .
The following day was my English and Spanish final. They were moderately easy enough, and it was the only two hours of the day where Bella was pushed from the forefront of my mind. I was finding I was thinking—and worrying—about her more now that she was finally coming around to me again, than I did for the months where she wouldn't even look at me.
The rest of the day was pretty much written off. I was distracted, not to mention the fact that my body heat remained static all fucking day, and it was pretty fucking ironic that I was all of a sudden bothered by it.
Of course, my idiot brother didn't miss this fact either.
"Holy fuck it's cold in here today! Where the hell is Rosie? I need her to warm me up!" he rose his voice just short of the entire fucking cafeteria hearing, as he passed our table during lunch.
Naturally, Jazz found it fucking hilarious, adding, "No favorite jacket today either, douche bag?"
I threw him a sarcastic grin and continued eating, wondering how the hell I'd become his fucking subject of ridicule. I had always been Emmett's, after all.
By the time we arrived home that afternoon, the temperature in the house was so fucking hot it hit us like a heat wave as soon as we walked through the door.
"Emmett—what the hell!? Turn the heat down!" Alice yelled in exasperation.
The moron stuck his head up from the other side of the sofa and smirked, despite obviously attempting to maintain a straight face. "What do you mean? I'm cold."
"Very funny, asshole," I retorted, making immediately for the stairs.
"Oh, by the way, bludge?" he called after me.
I turned slowly to face him. "What?" I asked dryly.
"Tell Bella I'm rooting for her, yeah?"
I rolled my eyes, and despite myself I scoffed beneath my breath, shaking my head. "Sure."
Bella's phone rang out to her voice mail both times that I called. On the second I left a quick message and was almost tempted to ring her a third time just to listen to her voice mail again. Instead, I decided to call her house, and after the third ring, the stern, deep sounding voice of Chief Swan answered with a short, gruff, "Hello."
"Uh … hi—it's Edward Cullen. I'm just calling to see how Bella is," I replied, stammering and feeling like I was five.
He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Edward. Bella's asleep, and I really don't want to disturb her at the moment."
"That's okay … I was just wondering how she was doing."
"Hmm ... well, she's not very well at this point, but I'll let her know you called," he added, his tone blatantly edged with disapproval—not that I could blame him at all.
After uttering a stiff sounding, "Goodbye," I hung up, reefing my hands back through my hair. It was one fucked up awkward conversation that left me feeling tense and uneasy.
A moment later my door swung open. "Hey, you ready to go?" Alice asked.
"Go…?" I repeated, looking up at her, my forehead creasing blankly.
The little rat only rolled her eyes.
"To Port Angeles ... to get Em's graduation present..." she stated, speaking in fucking monotone for emphasis.
"Okay, so I forgot already. Jesus!" I snapped, feeling a sudden surge of irritation, and shoving my phone in my pocket.
She quirked an eyebrow at me and gauged me steadily for a moment, before adding flatly, "I'll meet you in my car."
"I don't think Bella's going to be able to make Prom," I mumbled to Alice after several minutes of driving in silence.
Alice merely scoffed. "Is that why you're so mopey? Edward, Bella is less likely to miss prom, than Em would miss his party."
Her tone was blasé, and as I stared at her, I wondered what the little rat knew that I didn't.
She continued to drive, her eyes glued to the road as I watched her, when she deliberately rolled them. "Edward, have you learnt nothing about Bella this whole time?"
"What-what do you mean?" I asked her, suspecting that I hadn't learnt a thing about Bella other than how she made me feel.
She sighed. "Let's just put aside the fact that she's almost as neurotic as you are. She's also as stubborn as an ox. She'll be at prom."
That I was aware of, and it made me feel suddenly more at ease.
"Well, that's true," I replied quietly, smiling to myself.
Stubborn she was.
At Alice's suggestion, we had pre-ordered Emmett a framed, signed Jersey of Matt Hasselback a few months back, and up until a few days ago we didn't think it would be ready in time. It had taken all of Alice's power of persuasion to abuse them into compliance, with her usual cower inducing tone, whilst keeping Emmett in the dark about it. Emmett usually didn't miss a thing, and I still wasn't entirely sure he hadn't been playing dumb.
Now in the store, and no doubt due to Alice's hostile-to-the-point-of-threatening phone calls, the sales girl was blunt and denied all knowledge of the promised discount. The little rat immediately went into outrage mode, and I was forced to distance myself, pretending I didn't know her.
"Where's the bloody manager!" Alice's high-pitched voice rang out, just as I hauled ass to the furthest corner of the store, coming face to face with a display pens—several of them pink.
These pink pens were going to haunt me forever, and thinking it over for three seconds, I grabbed one and headed back to the counter.
Freaking Alice was intimidating a middle aged man to the point that he was breaking into a sweat, mopping his brow with a handkerchief.
The poor bastard; I'd been in his shoes enough times...
"We'll take this too," I said, interjecting the evil little ferret's tirade, and forcing her pointed finger back, before placing the pen on the counter.
The sales manager immediately turned to me, his eyes flooding with relief. "It's on the house, and please accept our extended apologies."
From beside me, Alice only harrumphed.
I paid for the jersey, giving the man an empathic smile in the process before dragging Alice—who looked like she was about to start shit with the sales girl—out of the store.
"Jesus, Alice!" I exclaimed once we were safely outside.
"What? I got us twenty-five percent off. Not bad, huh?" she said folding her arms across her chest smugly.
I rolled my eyes. "The entire town stopped by to watch you act like a fucking sociopath."
She only smirked to herself, adding a moment later, "Bella's gonna love that pen, by the way."
I only took a breath, mumbling out my reply, and turning my head further from her scrutinizing fucking gaze.
"Come on, Romeo. Let's get a coffee," she suggested, snorting to herself.
While we sat in the cafe waiting for our drinks to be served, my phone rang, and my heart paused. It was the song I'd recently added for Bella's number.
"Hey, Bella," I said gently, while a mocking grin twitched at Alice's lips.
"Hey," was her broken, hoarse reply.
She sounded so pitifully adorable that I felt the goofy grin immediately penetrate my face. "You don't sound very well."
"I'm fine," she insisted weakly, before she broke off and started coughing.
I wanted to laugh.
"Bella, go back to bed. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"I am in bed. I'm so hot. I've discovered I have to be crook not to be cold in this country."
"You're adorable."
Alice deliberately rolled her eyes; I threw a packaged sugar at her.
"Sick, I mean—shut up," Bella replied quickly, her voice catching in her throat before she cleared it roughly.
I laughed too gently, exposing my freaking soul to the little rat. "Bella, you sound terrible. Go back to sleep. Okay…?"
"I'm going, but I probably won't come back to school. So, I'll see you Saturday…?"
"If you're not well enough—" I began, but she interrupted me.
"Edward, you sound like my uncle. I'm going. Try and stop me."
She was stubborn, all right.
"I won't. I promise, I won't." I chuckled.
"Okay." She sounded satisfied, before she began coughing again. It sounded all gross and horrible.
"Sleep!" I ordered her with feigned authority, my voice still too freaking tender for Alice, that the length of her grin grew.
"Goodbye, Edward," she said in a hoarse whisper.
"Sleep well, crocodile," was my reply, and fuck it that Alice was right there to hear how much Bella had compromised me. I didn't care.
The waitress placed our coffee before us, and it gave me a fucking reprieve before Alice started. She decided to delay it, dragging it out deliberately as she added her sugars and stirred.
"Get on with it, Alice. I know you noticed my ring tone." I folded my arms across the table, feeling my expression growing darker the longer she tested my fucking patience.
"It's fitting, alligator." She sipped her coffee, smiling fucking slyly.
"Funny!" I replied, sarcastically, throwing in a couple of sugars and stirring my coffee roughly, and making it spill over the sides.
She laughed, raising a fucking mocking, all knowing eyebrow in my direction. "You're a lost cause, Edward. Worse than Jazz—worse than Jacob."
What the fuck else was new...
. . .
Thursday, finals were over, and Bella sounded no better than the day before when I rang her after school.
It wasn't often that I had the house to myself, so I decided to call her from the living room, winding the pen through my fingers as I chatted to her.
"What did you tell Mr. Banner about why you didn't come back to class Tuesday?" she asked, and she sounded like death.
I thought about it for a moment, before deciding to tell her the truth. "I told him before you made it to the nurse you puked all over the place, as well as over me"—her voice drew in sharply—" Then I explained how you were really embarrassed and just wanted to go home, so I took you. Plus I had to change clothes."
"Edward!" she protested, her voice all but failing her altogether. "I am embarrassed!"
I chuckled softly. "Bella, we both left the school grounds without permission. We could have gotten into serious shit, so I had to make it convincing," I explained.
"Oh my god..." she mumbled, before clearing her throat roughly and then going into a coughing fit for a solid minute.
"Bella ... freaking hell..." I sighed, considering for the first time that she might not be well enough to go to the prom, regardless if she went or not. As much as I wanted to go with her, I didn't want to drag her around sick.
"I'm fine," she said like the stubborn pain in the ass she was. "My throat is just really scratchy."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
I wasn't convinced, and she knew it. She assured me a couple of dozen more times that come Saturday she'd be fine, and I reluctantly let it go.
Then like the fucking monumental idiot that I was, I retreated to my room leaving the pen on the coffee table. When I realized—practically bolting back into the room to retrieve it—it was too late. Emmett sat watching TV with it sitting behind his ear.
Shit!
"Hey, bludge. You looking for something?" he asked me, flashing me a wise ass smirk.
"Very funny," I replied dryly.
He pulled the pen from his ear. "Nice pen by the way. You gonna get it engraved?" He sounded sincere, if I was gullible enough to fall for it.
I made a move to grab it from his hand, ineffectually.
His grin widened. "You could put: Dear Bella Down Under, you make me so hot I threw away all my sweaters, love Dudley Doo Root."
"Yeah, hilarious, bro—just hand it over." I sighed, becoming impatient.
He shrugged, then tossed it to me. "So how is she anyway? Has your rooting done any good?"
"Emmett—what the fuck!" I snapped, immediately pissed off
"What? I'm serious—Jesus you're uptight!"
"What the fuck ever!" I muttered under my breath, before turning to head back to my room again.
"If anyone needs a good root, it's you, Edwina," I heard Emmett mutter to himself.
That was the understatement of the century…
. . .
Friday dragged. With finals over, Jazz and Alice talked about nothing but prom like it was their fucking wedding day, while Emmett went back to slipping the word root into every conversation with me again.
It was almost fucking painful.
"I'll be fucking for you for tomorrow night's root," he said casually at lunch with a mouthful of burger, before he made a deliberate show of slapping himself in the head. "Oops, I got that backwards."
Jazz knocked his can of coke over me, laughing like the pissant he was, while I only sighed to myself.
Fuck Emmett, and refusing to be pulled into his bullshit, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, sending Bella a text message.
How are you?
Better. You? Was her reply.
All good. Sure you're going to be okay for tomorrow night?
Shut up!
Before I could stop myself, I laughed, drawing the attention of everyone at the table as I sat grinning down at my cell, no doubt looking like a freak show.
Emmett grabbed my phone from my hands.
"1-900-root-me?" He shot up a wise ass, fucking suggestive brow.
Groaning, Rose snatched my phone from him, handing it back to me.
I shoved it back in my pocket.
"How is Bella, anyway?" Rose asked, directing her question at Alice.
Alice went to see her the day before. Bella had forbidden me from coming, since I was a "sooky la la" and didn't get a flu shot.
"She's not the best, but she's going to be drugged to the hilt—as she said—for tomorrow," Alice answered.
"Slop One and Slop Two are back at school today. Did anyone notice?" Rose added, rolling her eyes knowingly.
I had. Jake had thrown me an almost civil grin as I passed him in the halls between second and third periods.
"It was just a matter of time for Bella to get sick—being constantly subjected to those two. I wanted to projectile vomit that day they sat with us at lunch." Rose grimaced, before openly shuddering.
"What day was that?" I asked, my curiosity surpassing my confusion.
"It was when you had one foot in the grave, Edith," Emmett answered, winking.
"That was the day Bella punched out Newton." Jazz chuckled, just as the table jolted violently, and I felt myself impulsively tense.
"If she pushed Newton off his bike for being a dud root, why did she try and kill you, bludge?" Emmett asked slyly.
I sighed again, but this time attempting not to smile to myself.
"Emmett, this is so old now. Can we please change the subject?" Alice rolled her eyes and went back to schlepping over Jazz as they I love you'd through more of their prom discussions.
I tried to remain in denial that they weren't in fact talking about their post prom night of sex and turned my attention away from them, when I caught Emmett glaring at Jazz in a rare display of candor, and broke into a small grin.
"We're so gonna have to do something about that little prick soon, Dudders," he said lowly to me, his tone only half joking.
. . .
Friday: Bella sounded slightly better; though, she barely had a voice, while I asked her, more times than her patience was able to hold, if she was positive she was going to be well enough.
"Edward—bloody hell!" she exclaimed, her voice cracking and turning hoarser. "You sound like you don't want me to go at all."
"Of course I want you to go," I insisted, softening my tone. "I just don't want you ending up worse."
"Believe me, that isn't possible," she stated matter-of-factly.
"Well, okay, I'll see you tomorrow at six," I conceded, looking down at the pen I'd been clutching, wondering if she'd even want another pen from me.
Wondering if we were even past the pens...
A/N: Just an FYI: "Poof" is pronounced the same as "woof".
Later, gators.