Will
I couldn't sleep a wink. Fucking idiot. Why did I shout at Flo like that? Obviously it's normal for siblings to argue but we'd never snapped like that. I always knew our Dad would cause us issues and this just proves it.
I got out of bed quietly so I didn't wake Dom, my roommate, and changed into my running clothes. One thing I missed about Forks and the Reservation was the running space, I could go for miles. One thing I used to love was running with the pack when they'd phased, it sounds stupid because there was no way I would ever outrun them, but I enjoyed running alongside them the best I could. I put my Airpods in and started running, I didn't really have a strict route around the campus, I'd just go until I was tired.
After a few laps of the small park I took a break. I went and sat under a tree to catch my breath. I took one of the Airpods out, turned the music down a few notches and listened to the sounds of the campus. There was always something going on around the campus, but on early mornings like these it was peaceful. It was around 7am so there wasn't much activity, the odd student making there way to the library or someone sneaking out of some dorms after spending the night with someone - I loved the look of guilt they always seemed to have on their face when really there was nothing to be guilty about most of the time, it was just sex after all.
I took a deep breath and stood up to go again. I started to run but came to a quick standstill as someone pulled up into the empty library parking lot. I squinted to see if I recognised who it was. I did - but it wasn't who I expected. I took a few steps back behind the tree as they got out of their car.
Shit. It was him. The bastard.
Florence wasn't lying.
I watched him head towards the main building rather than the library, he was out of sight in seconds. I pulled my Airpods out and shoved them in my pocket and pulled my phone out. I needed to call Flo. I found her number in my phone and waited as it rang, but she didn't answer.
"Fuck sake." I muttered to myself.
I sat against the tree again. I knew immediately I was angry about seeing him, to actually see him with my own eyes was unbelievable. I had to tell Flo.
Florence
"I wonder if he knows he killed Mom?" I looked up and watched Will pacing up and down my room, his hands resting on the back of his head. We'd gone straight into my dorm room as Liv had spent the night at the house the party was held at. "Why would he be here, at our College? I'm gonna…" Will suddenly punched the wall.
I stood up quickly and lowered his fist, "You are not going to do anything," I sat him down on the bed next to me, "we just need to agree on if we're going to make any contact with him or-"
Will scoffed, "Not a chance in hell," he said. He looked at me and his face dropped, "you want to, don't you?"
I shrugged, "You said it yourself last night."
He was right about me wanting a proper family. When we were younger, Charlie would always tell us about our Mom, we knew so much about her without ever meeting her. He never mentioned our Father much, but he didn't keep him from us, he would mention him when telling stories about her but never said his name. With what little information he gave us, my mind conjured up this image of him. As a young child I always pictured meeting our Father, or him returning to Forks to see us, but as the years went on that picture began to fade.
"I don't know Flo." Will said. He ran his hands through his hair and rested head in his hands, jerking his knee. He then reached under my bed for the picture box. He opened it and took out the picture of our Mom and Father together.
"What if we just… we met him… once," Will side eyed me, "just once, he's our Father, he owes us some sort of explanation or closure at least, right?"
Will sighed. He stayed silent for a moment, eying the photo. "Fine, but where do we find him?"
Ah, shit. I took the photo from Will and put it back in the box, "That I'm not sure of, but he must attend this College so we'll just have to keep an eye out."
The next few days Will and I kept our eyes out around campus but we had no luck. He was avoiding us, although I started to think that we were both going mad and had imagined our encounters. I tried not to let this become an obsession, and one place my mind was preoccupied was my History lectures. I sat in my usual seat in my Modern History lecture and opened my laptop. Our lecturer, George Holmes, was one of the most interesting people I've ever come across. From the first lecture I had with him, I could feel the passion radiating off him, it was inspiring.
"Now remember guys, your paper on the Spanish Influenza Pandemic is due on the 14th so you have plenty of time, don't forget to drop me an email if you need some support with it." He announced to us all. He took his glasses off and shut his laptop, "Remember, there's always a fine line between passing and failing when you leave things to the last minute so please work extra hard on this piece."
As the class filed out of the room, I hung around at the end. "Uh, sir," George turned around, "Hi, uh… can I book myself a slot with you now? My brother and I plan to visit family soon so…"
"Please, call me George." He smiled, pulling out his diary. As he fumbled through the pages I caught a peek at his laptop screen. The screen had a page up that said something about Italy. "Florence isn't it…" He muttered to himself. "So, is… the 4th OK? Next week?" I nodded as he scribbled my name down, "Florence… like the Italian city."
"I see you like Italy then?" I asked, nodding towards his laptop.
He chuckled, shutting the lid slightly, "Sort of, kind of doing my own research project."
"Anything interesting?"
He looked up at me and then looked at the time, "Another time, eh?" He smiled, shutting his laptop fully and gathering his things together.
I followed him out shortly after, my mind was already on the paper he'd set us to write. I headed straight to the library, my brain worked better there as people were focused on one thing. I always tried to sit further at the back nearer the books to avoid the stressed out students. Stress was an awful emotion to feel from people.
I headed to the section where I knew I'd find books about the historical side of the pandemic as well as some medical books. I browsed through the titles and had a scan of some of the pages before piling a few up in my arms to take back to my desk. As I was walking back someone knocked into my arm, causing me to lose balance and drop the books.
"Ah shit." I muttered, crouching down to pick them up.
"Can I help?" I hear them say.
I sighed, assuming it was the idiot who pushed past me, "No thank you, but maybe be more careful next time," I look up and see it's him. Our Dad. "oh, it's you."
"Florence." He says, taking one of the books. We both stand up at the same time. He looks down at the book and smirks, "The Lost Worlds Of The 1918 Influenza Epidemic."
"History essay." I take the book from him. "It's due in a few weeks."
"Well I can help you with it, if you'd like?"
I look at him in disbelief, "Seriously? I think you owe us some explanation about your sudden appearance before you start offering shit like that, don't you?"
He frowned, "Of course, how inconsiderate." He looks at me. This was the first time I'd seen him up close, all I could think about was how much Will looked like him. "Shall we…" he gestures at the exit.
"Sure." I say.
I checked the books out and put them in my bag. I met him outside of the library by what I assumed was his car. "I was thinking we could talk somewhere more public first."
He looked at his car, "Of course." He locked the car up and we began walking.
The walk was silent at first. I had no idea what to say, what are you supposed to say to your Father who abandoned you before you were born who has now randomly decided to turn up out of the blue. I decided to take us to a cafe on campus, it was quiet as lunch had just finished and most people were in lectures or the library now. We sat at a table towards the back of the cafe and the waitress approached us to take our order. She was back shortly after with my Mocha, he didn't order anything.
"So," I say as I take a sip of my drink, "I think the first thing to start with is your name."
"Edward. Edward Cullen." He says this quietly. The last name was familiar, I remember hearing Jacob, Charlie and some of the other pack referring to who I assumed were his family as 'those Cullens'. "I'm willing to answer anything you ask me, Florence, I owe you that. No lies."
"In that case…" I put my drink down and sit back. I had so many questions for him but I suppose it's always best to start with the basics. "Why… Why did you leave?"
He shifted in his seat uncomfortably, "I had to."
I scoffed, "Right, 'you had to', that's what all deadbeat Dads say, you've got to do better than that."
He frowned again, "I'm telling the truth Florence. Bella… your mother, she… I wasn't good for her, she deserved a happy life. A happy, human life."
"But you were able to stay with her long enough to fuck her, you got what you wanted from her and then suddenly you weren't good for her? Not to mention you got her pregnant." I took a deep breath after saying this.
He leant forward, "I didn't know she was pregnant."
I laughed out loud, "Bullshit."
"I said no lies." He sat back again, still sat up straight. "After we… we spent the night together for the first time, I saw how much I'd hurt your mother, I was too strong for her." He looked down, "I distanced myself from her for a few days, but I knew I had to leave."
He wasn't lying. I could feel so much coming from him, so much pain and guilt.
"How did you find out about us?" I asked.
"I always knew I wanted to check in on her, I left it a couple of months before I decided to return," He sighed and shut his eyes. "I always planned on keeping my distance, but I arrived to find she'd…" I could feel pure sadness radiating from him now. "I thought she'd done something to herself, taken her own life so… I planned on doing this myself, I was thinking 'you did this to her, you caused this' but then I saw Charlie and Renee lifting two babies out of Charlie's car," he looked up at me, sorrow in his eyes, "I knew I couldn't do that to myself, you couldn't lose another parent, but I also knew I couldn't be in your lives, I knew you'd be better off with Charlie, Renee. You deserved to be happy."
I felt my eyes begin to sting, I realised I had tears in my eyes. I wiped them away with my finger, "we never see much of Renee, it was mainly Charlie who raised us, that's who we lived with." He smiled at that. "And then as we got older, Mom's friend Jacob would spend a lot of time with us." I saw his smile subtly falter at the mention of Jacob's name. "So is it just you?"
"No, my family moved away with me. We all live a few miles from here."
We. I'd never thought about the possibility of having a full family before, I'd only ever thought about a Father.
"What are they like?"
He smiled again, "They're incredible. There's Carlisle and Esme, your… Grandparents, I suppose, and then there's my siblings, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Alice."
I sit back in the chair again, "And they're all here?" He nods. "What did they say to you coming to meet us?"
His smile vanished again and I could feel what I could only describe as shame coming from him, "Alice is the only one who knows about you both, they all know Bella died but… they don't know the circumstances surrounding her… death."
"Why does Alice know then?" I asked.
"Alice can…" He looked around him and leant forward, I did the same, "she can see the future, she has visions." He whispered. I could tell he was watching for my reaction. "When we left she would sometimes watch Bella, however around when I went to visit she stopped seeing her but didn't know why, she didn't tell me about it until I returned."
"How did she know about us if she couldn't see her?"
"She found me when I returned, she asked me what had happened as she could see flickerings of visions of you both but couldn't work out who you were… I had to tell her."
There were still so many questions I wanted to ask him. I also knew Will would have some too. I finished my drink quickly, "Listen Edward, I think we should talk somewhere more private and with Will, my brother. There are a few more questions I have and I think Will will have some too."
"Absolutely." He said.
"How about… you come to my dorm tomorrow night? Will lives a few doors down, we could all talk there? Let's say 7?"
He smiled, "Sounds perfect," We both smiled. We left the cafe and we walked in the direction of my building.
"Well, this is me, our roommates shouldn't be much of an issues tomorrow night."
He smiled, "It's been a pleasure Florence, thank you."
"You too, Edward."
