Knock! Knock!
"Ms. Bella" Gloria says peeking inside "Mr. Jasper and Mr. Riley are here"
I look up at her confused.
"How do you know their names? I don't remember telling you. You didn't ask them did you?"
"Of course I did. They're going to be around you and more importantly you're going to be in a car, by yourself, with them the least I could do was find out their names."
I roll my eyes.
"Please Gloria. If Edward trusted them enough to send them then so should you. He wouldn't put me in harm's way"
I was surprised by my own conviction. That I was so sure that Edward would protect me and that I trusted him so completely.
"You know Ms. Bella I was looking at them and Mr. Jasper is quite handsome and"
"Gloria" I warned.
"I was just saying Ms. Bella that if you insist on not dating Mr. Jacob you should look around for better options."
"Gloria you and I both know that the one that didn't want us to date wasn't me"
"Oh Ms. Bella, Mr. Jacob just wanted to….look around get some experience before marrying you"
"And I can't do same?"
"It's not that you can't" she contradicted "it's just not who you are Ms. Bella"
"Yeah well I got tired of waiting until he deemed sufficient dating around. I gotta go bye Gloria" I say kissing her cheek
"Hello Jasper and Riley" I said shyly.
"Hey you remembered this time" Jasper says laughing.
I blushed.
Riley opens my door and I slide into the back seat.
The ride to school was quiet and my mind drifted back to my talk with Gloria. For years now she'd been the one telling me that Jake was in love with me, that he was just confused or that he was scared and that I should be patient and wait until he found his way to me. Now that I think about it, it truly does sound pathetic.
And he was never scared or confused he just wanted to sleep around because he didn't want to end up married for the rest of his life and having only slept with one girl.
How sad not only had I been taken for granted but what's worse I was never enough for him. I had been content with him being the only man in my life but I wasn't enough for him. Could I even get him to love me?
I sighed
Jake.
"Bella we're here" Jasper calls.
I look around and notice that they're both standing outside my door waiting for me.
"Sorry" I say quietly getting out.
I go straight to Edward and hug him and kiss his cheek. He grabs a hold of my face and looks into my eyes.
"What's wrong?" he says frowning.
"Nothing" I say pleading with my eyes for him to let it go.
He nods and releases my face.
I'm thankful he doesn't press me.
"Oh Jasper, Riley" I say turning to them. "I'm sorry about Gloria this morning. I hope she wasn't rude."
"Don't worry Bella; she wasn't rude she just wanted to know our names" Jasper responds "Though I was a little creeped out by a couple looks she gave me though."
Riley laughs.
Of course she'd been obvious. Damn it Gloria!
"You flirting with older women now Jazz" Edward says laughing "trying to charm your way into Gloria's skirt?"
Don't blush! Don't blush! Don't blush!
"Who's Gloria?" Rosalie asks.
"She's Bella's housekeeper. She's what like 65 years old?" he asks turning towards me.
I nod.
Don't blush! Don't blush!
"Ew" she says "Jazz what's wrong with you?"
"Hey I was trying to calm her and reassure her so I used my southern drawl and I guess it worked a little too good" he says shrugging.
Everyone laughed.
"That's not why she was staring at you" I say quietly unable to keep quite. I couldn't have them thinking those things about her.
"What did you say Bella?" Edward asks.
"I said that the reason she was staring at Jasper wasn't because she liked him in that way but because she noticed 'what a good young man' he is"
"Wait" Edward says pulling away from me "are you saying that she liked HIM? That she'd be ok with you dating HIM but not me? Really? I would've thought the hair would be a turn off" he sounded slightly irritated by it.
Nobody was laughing now they were all tense.
Wow he thinks fast! He should be an actor or something.
"Don't take it to heart Edward. She just doesn't know what a good guy you are" I say soothingly, playing along.
"What does Jasper have that I don't have?" he asks ignoring what I just said.
He's so convincing that even I'm tempted to believe him.
"Better clothes" Rosalie answers before I can think of saying anything.
"Shut the fuck up Rose" Edward says angrily "not fucking now"
"I'm just saying what your little girlfriend here won't say. If you would listen to"
"Rose I said not now!" Edward says before turning to me expectantly.
"There's only one man I love" I say not knowing what else to say.
I could've sworn I saw a flicker of sadness but it was gone before I could be sure and then he leaned in and kissed me.
Just like all our other kisses this one's filled with passion, but it different it's like there's something he wants to prove that I can't quite define nor explain the closest I can get is that he's wanting something from me, kind of pleading as well but I'm probably just reading too much into things.
"Territorial much" Rosalie says from behind Edward.
Edward pulls away and flips her off.
"Come on Bella" he says taking my hand in his.
We walk to class with Jasper and Riley trailing behind us.
"We're here" Edward says giving me a peck "see you after class"
"Edward wait" I say wrapping my arms around his neck so he won't leave.
"You're a genius you know" I whisper excitedly into his ear. "I mean you just you thought so fast. I would've never thought to do that, to play the jealous boyfriend. Good thinking"
"Thanks" he says hoarsely "and yeah that just came to me so I went with it."
"Like I said genius."
"Can you let me go now? My neck is kinda starting to hurt"
"Oh sorry" I say letting go of him but not before giving him a peck on the cheek.
"See you after class" I say before going in.
FFL
I looked across the school cafeteria. Who would've thought that I would be sitting with Edward and his friends and actually feel comfortable. It maybe that it was because Edward was here, and all the time I had spent with him, but I really did feel comfortable in this table.
I caught sight of Jacob's table and saw that he and Tanya were sitting apart. I guess she was still upset over
"Hey do you know why they're sitting apart?" Edward whispers into my ear before pulling me closer with the hand he had across my shoulder.
His voice makes me shiver and I shake my head wordlessly saying 'no'
"Hey will guys cut that out?" Rosalie says from across the table.
'Thank you Rosalie you just saved me' I say in my head.
"I thought you guys were ready to be around normal society and that that was why you guys had decided to join the rest of society"
"Please Rose you're one to talk" Edward scoffs "you do way worse than this in public, things that I'm pretty sure 'society' wouldn't like nor be too comfortable around" he says smirking.
Rosalie just flips him off.
"Dude do you have to bring that up?" Jasper says "I'd just managed to get that image out of my head" he shivers in disgust.
Edward laughs
"You guys act like you're the only ones with disturbing images in your head. I have some of my own they're just as disturbing and they're curtsey of both of you"
I turn away and catch Jacob's eye.
I look away almost immediately, looking at him makes me feel guilty and the weirdest part is that it's not because I'm lying to Jake but because I feel like I'm lying to Edward.
It's stupid. If I told him he wouldn't care and think I'm even weirder.
I lean into Edward trying to hide….from Jake.
Lunch goes on and I lose track of the conversation going on between Edward, Jasper and Rosalie. I remain with my head on his shoulder and slightly cowering into him for the rest of lunch.
I don't think, I don't see and it isn't until Edward shakes me a little that I realize that lunch is over.
"Where did you go off to Ms. Swan?" Edward says as we make our way towards my class.
"Nowhere"
"Day dreaming about me huh?" he asks teasingly.
"You caught me" I deadpan "I was imagining our babies" I roll my eyes.
We both laugh.
"We'll figure out the sexes and names them later" he says giving me a peck on the lips when we arrived to my classroom.
It had become another thing we did like the hand holding, he had been doing it all day.
"I will say this one thing though one has to be a boy and be named after me"
He leaves before I can say anything.
FFL
"How about 'Anthony'" I ask when he comes to pick me up for gym.
"Anthony? For what? What are you talking about?"
I shake my head.
"You're neglecting them already" I say "you should be ashamed of yourself." I laugh "for the name of our child" I explain finally "I'm assuming you want him to be our first born"
"Yes that would be ideal and shouldn't you have been paying attention?"
"No it was boring"
"What's wrong with 'Edward' anyway?"
"I don't know it's kinda old fashioned and I'm not sure I want my kids having old fashioned names"
"Yeah like 'Marie' is any better"
"First of all it's a middle name and second of all you know my middle name?"
"Of course I know your middle name, and it might be only a middle name but it's still your name"
"Fine"
"We can name our second son Anthony and our third son Mason that way they're all named after me."
"You have 3 names?" I ask surprised.
"Yeah my mom wasn't sure if she'd have another boy so she said 'fuck it' and gave me all 3 names"
"Wait if you're having 3 boys then I'm having 3 girls and they're going to be spread out because if the boys are the oldest then they won't let the girls date, not if they're anything like their father"
We looked at each other and started laughing at our ridiculous conversation.
He gave me a peck and left.
Throughout gym I avoided looking at Jake, I just couldn't face him, just being in the same room as him brought back the guilt.
He doesn't need to know. He doesn't care. He doesn't need to know.
I kept chanting this in my head but the guilt wouldn't go away.
"Bella wait" Jake called after class.
"I…I really need to go Jake, Edward is waiting for me" I say trying to get out of there.
"It won't take long. I just wanted you know that I won't force you to tell him. It's your decision to make so can you please not avoid me anymore?"
"I'm sorry you're right. I just feel so guilty" I explain.
"You've got nothing to be guilty about Bella you have only been going out for like less than 15 days. You can worry about that when you have more time together and things get more serious between you guys."
Jake had always been able to make me feel better but oddly enough his words didn't work this time. I smiled anyway and thanked him and turned to leave.
"Hey Edward" I say trying to smile and smother the guilt.
He puts his arm around me and leans in and whispers "is there something wrong? You have that same look you had during lunch" and kisses my cheek.
"I actually have a question to ask"
"Shoot"
"You see I feel like I have to tell you something about Jake and I it's"
"Stop" he interrupts "I don't want to hear anything about you and Black. I'm not interested, trust me"
"Are you sure? This is something very"
"I'm positive" he interrupts again.
I tried.
"Ok"
He takes me to Jasper's car, where both he and Riley are already waiting for me, and gives me a kiss on the lips.
"So much kissing today" I say "are you feeling lonely or something?"
"You were the one who wanted me to kiss you more. I'm simply following your wishes"
I blushed.
"You know that's not what I meant"
"I wasn't nor have ever said you did. I was just stating facts"
"Oh" I blush deeper.
"Maybe it's someone else that's lonely" he smirks.
The ride home is quiet again.
"Riley" Jasper says and jerks his head outside.
"I didn't get a chance to tell you earlier but Rosalie agreed to go. Shopping I mean. When do you want to do this?"
Great. Rosalie is going because it's for Edward.
"I'll see you both tomorrow after school that way she won't miss anytime with her friends" I say sourly
I get out and stomp my way to my front porch.
"What'd you say to Bella" I hear Riley ask.