Sweet Sixteen- B.B. King
Sensational- Bing Crosby
Edward opened the passenger door to my car for me, extending a hand needlessly to help me. I let him help me in, of course, taking any excuse, no matter how superfluous, just to touch him. He bent down and delicately moved the wisps of silk and chiffon of the train of my dress into the car, closing it behind me.
When he had me settled, he got in the driver's seat and pulled out of his driveway. I waved to Alice, who was standing in the doorway, already in pajamas.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" I asked, excited because he was, and wary of any surprise. He had pinned flowers into my styled curls- courtesy of Alice- and I hadn't gotten him anything because no one, my family included, would tell me what he had planned.
"I'm sh-shocked th-that you haven't f-figured it out yet," he was smiling, both hands on the wheel as he carefully drove my souped up vintage car. As much as I appreciated his chivalrousness, at least if I drove we could hold hands, and make eye contact.
"I did mention that you looked very nice, didn't I?" I verified. And it was the truth. He was, for a reason I couldn't discern, wearing an actual tuxedo, and I had never seen anyone look as completely, heartbreakingly beautiful and sexy in my existence. I had never seen him anything other than jeans and sweaters, and to see him a well-fitting, obviously tailored tux was… well, when I walked down the stairs to see him waiting for me in the kitchen, I about ran into his arms and devoured him right there in front of his sister and Charlie Swan.
"Yes." Edward blushed, his mood boisterous. He had started more readily accepting my compliments since I had returned from Seattle a few weeks ago. I told him as often as decorum allowed how beautiful I found him, how much I loved him. Where he used to brush me off, or anger at my adoration, he now allowed me to shower him with affection, though I often noticed that he didn't really seem to believe it himself. That was fine for now, I would show him just how much I meant it.
I hadn't told him, though. I knew I should have, and I kept telling myself that I would. But I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I would soon be leaving on an indefinite trip, possibly to never return to him again.
"You're taking me to the prom!" I yelled as Edward drove into the school parking lot. I hadn't even thought of prom, though I knew that it was today. I had seen the posters plastered around the school, heard the excited chatter of the junior and senior classes. But the high school prom was the last place I expected Edward to take me. My family never attended school events, and Edward had never shown even a modicum of interest in school activities or extracurriculars.
Edward pulled in next to Rose's BMW, and I knew that the two were so in on it, though I had no idea how they had conspired behind my back without me finding out.
It was twilight, the sun down and the last rays of light peeking out behind clouds far to the west.
He got out and walked around the car to open my door, again holding out his hand for me to take. I gratefully accepted, weaving our fingers together.
"So, prom?" I asked, hoping to pry his reasoning for not only going to prom, but for surprising me.
"Em m-mentioned that you g-guys never go t-to stuff like this, so I th-thought i-it could be s-something we could sh-share." Edward shrugged, but the tips of his ears turned red. I opened my mouth to reply, but I couldn't find the words.
Edward led me to the gym and bought our tickets at the little table Mrs. Goff was sitting at. She was smiling and dressed in a dress- I had never seen her look so nice. In fact, everyone seemed so clean and well-dressed; and the sky seemed a little brighter, the world around us more vivid. I felt so happy and high that I could have joined one of the birds soaring hundreds of feet above us, gliding along on the warm summery breeze.
Inside, there were actual balloon arches and twisted garlands of pastel crepe paper festooning the walls, and a whole table dedicated to punch, just like in the movies.
The last time we went to prom had been in the eighties, and Emmett took me. Rose was supposed to go as well, with me as their eternal third wheel, but he had upset her by calling an actress "hot" on a television show just before we were leaving, and she refused to go. To spite her, Emmett went anyways, dragging me along. We danced for a while and then left, Emmett's anger dissipating and his need to go grovel to his mate mounting and making him antsy. It hadn't been an enjoyable night.
I had never gone after because there was no real point. Proms were something humans took dates to, where they swayed with their partner under twinkling lights and took awkward couple pictures by a cheesy photographer. I certainly couldn't accept a date from a human male, though many had propositioned, and if I went alone, I would have just stood along the wall with the other dateless teenagers, looking at those luckier than we were. It seemed a depressing venture that I never bothered with.
Until Edward. My existence was so clearly divided by "Before Edward" and "With Edward". I was feeling things I never knew possible, and doing things I had never dreamed of.
Emmett and Rose were already spinning out on the dance floor, humans pressing to the sides of the room to give them space. Emmett and Rose were both physically imposing people anyways, and add in the natural human aversion to vampires, I was surprised anyone was out on the dance floor with them.
We turned to the dance floor, and Edward twirled me elegantly towards my brother and sister, though the music wasn't exactly waltzy.
"Are y-you g-going to be o-okay?" he asked with a grin, the dimples in his cheeks soft and delectable.
"Why?" I asked in confusion, letting him pull me close to him so we could step together.
"W-Well, I know that y-you set a t-table on fire while d-dancing once," he chuckled at the memory, and I was stunned. I had no idea that he was actually awake when I had told him that story, much less remembered it well enough to tease me!
I swatted his arm playfully, careful, as always, to moderate my strength, but couldn't hold back my smile as I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him whirl me out on the dance floor, dancing in a near-effortless waltz, though Edward missed a step occasionally.
"Why are you so good at this?" I groaned, only half-joking. It was getting a little ridiculous. I had yet to find anything he wasn't good at- music, school, dancing, kissing. The boy was sweeping me off my feet.
"We had a little something to do with that," Rose said, smiling at Edward conspiratorially. Again, I was taken aback. I had rarely left his side, so I didn't see how it was at all possible for Rose and Emmett to teach Edward how to dance.
"He's a natural at it, anyways," Em winked, pulling Rose back to him to spin her around, her red dress twirling around her.
I looked back to Edward, narrowing my eyes at him and waiting for an explanation.
"W-Well, we h-had time when y-you went hunting," he started. I had only been hunting twice since returning from Seattle, though Esme did drag me away for half the weekend. "And Alice k-kept taking you sh-shopping…"
"So Alice was in on it!"
"Who do you think picked the dress?" Rose called out again, unable to not listen to our conversation. Edward looked down at me, his eyes following my dress up my body. It was a nice dress, I could admit that much, a nice royal blue color that offset my pale skin and dark hair, with off-the-shoulder straps and a full skirt. Edward swallowed thickly, his cheeks splotching with his embarrassed flush.
"I can't believe you did this for me," I whispered, pausing our smooth steps to reach up and nuzzle my face to his neck, breathing his scent in deeply before kissing his jugular.
We whirled around more, elegantly dancing. I let Edward lead me, though I kept him going when his feet tripped or mis-stepped in the way humans so often did. It was wonderful, to be pressed so close to him, music and the throbbing of his heart encompassing me so completely. I had been thinking of this for so long, not even knowing what I had been yearning for.
Edward spun me in his arms once more, and I saw him.
Jacob Black was leaning against the wall near the entrance of the gym, dressed in a white button-down and black pants, his arms crossed as he scanned the gym. It had been three weeks since we had last seen Jacob Black, when he drove Alice and Edward home in the early hours of the morning, but he appeared to have grown at least three inches- a feat I didn't know was physically possible.
When he spotted me looking at him, he smiled weakly and waved. Edward followed my gaze, and his brows knitted in confusion when he saw his friend.
"What's he doing here?" I asked, wondering if Jacob was a date for a Forks High student.
"I th-think he wants t-to t-talk to me," Edward mumbled, the v between his brows prominent.
We waited for the song to fade away before leaving the dancefloor, Edward's arm around my waist, and the crowd of students parted for us.
"Hey, Ed, Bella," Jacob greeted us sheepishly, looking down at his shuffling feet, "I was hoping you'd be here."
"Hi, Jacob," I smiled, "What's up?"
"Do you mind if I talked to Edward for a sec?" he asked, looking down at me. The embarrassment and apology on his face was obvious.
I looked up at Edward, who shrugged and squeezed my waist before letting me go.
I stepped away, leaving Edward standing next to Jacob at the edge of the crowd, but kept close enough so I could both hear and see him.
"Can you believe my dad paid me twenty bucks to come here?" Jacob admitted, shifting his weight uncomfortably.
"Why?" Edward asked, his face still scrunched up, like he was thinking deeply.
"Bella!" Jessica screeched, accosting me as I tried to melt into the background to better eavesdrop, "You look so nice, I love your dress!"
I was grateful to be a vampire at that moment, because holding a conversation while listening in on another was not difficult in the least.
"Don't get mad," Jacob begged, looking back down at his feet, "I swear my dad is losing his mind."
"He w-wants y-you to w-warm m-me about Bella?" Edward asked, guessing at why Jacob was there. Billy must have said something to Edward while he was in La Push. I internally groaned. I already knew that Edward could leave me at any moment, I certainly didn't want anyone encouraging him to do so.
"He asked me to tell you 'please'." Jacob shook his head. Billy Black was lucky that Edward liked his son. Otherwise, perhaps I would have made a bigger deal about Jacob completely breaking the treaty and not only telling Edward all about vampires, but telling him about me and my family specifically.
"S-Superstitious, huh?" Edward smiled mirthlessly.
"I wouldn't have come, but he promised to get me the master cylinder I need for the Rabbit," he confessed with a sheepish grin.
"Th-There's s-something else though, r-r-right?" Jacob groaned at the question, kicking the air with his sneaker-clad foot.
"Forget it," he mumbled, "I'll get a job and buy it myself. I didn't mean to ruin your prom night."
"What i-is it?" Edward pushed.
"Okay... but, geez, this sounds bad." He shook his head. "He said to tell you, no, to warn you, that — and this is his plural, not mine" — he lifted his hands to make little quotations marks in the air — '"We'll be watching.'"
I laughed aloud, startling Jessica. She had actually been very nice for the time she had apprehended me.
"I wanted to really apologize for everything," she had started, smoothing the front of her revealing dress, "I wasn't a good friend. It's like this crazy teenage hormone that make you want to be mean to someone you don't know. But, um, seeing you guys together tonight, you look, um, you look really good together." She was flustered under my stare, but I appreciated the sentiment. I had liked Jessica. She was emblematic of teenage humanity- flighty, acting on impulse. Being around people like her was one of the reasons I continued rotating through high school and college- she made me feel grounded in my humanity and reminded me of what it meant to be a teenager.
"Thank you, Jessica. I appreciate it, and I accept the apology," I said with a smile, my eyes returning to Edward. Jessica looked over her shoulder to the object of my adoration.
"He looks really good tonight, too," she added, pointing out the absolute obvious, "He cleans up well."
"He does," I mumbled in agreeance, frowning at Edward calling Billy merely 'superstitious'. 'Meddling' or 'treaty-breaking' or 'inappropriate' would have been more fitting.
"And the way he looks at you…" Jessica shook her head, "I wish Mike would look at me like that." I glanced around and noticed Mike playing around with Tyler, both wearing ill-fitting rental tuxes, and I understood Jessica's melancholy.
Edward had excused himself from Jacob, assuring the boy that he didn't blame him for his father's behavior, and I extricated myself from Jessica to meet him in the middle.
We gravitated back to the dance floor together, Edward's arms wrapping around me as the next song started. It was up-tempo, and Emmett and Rose were dancing right on beat, but I leaned my head against Edward's chest, content to just hold each other as we swayed to our own rhythm.
"You heard?" Edward asked, and I could feel the vibration of his vocal cords.
"Yes. And I know it's not exactly personal, I just wish he wouldn't overstep his bounds," I said tactfully, not wanting to scare Edward with exactly how angry I was with Billy Black. Edward tightened his arms around me, and I felt as his body gave way and molded to my marble figure.
"You l-look b-beyond b-beautiful tonight, Bella," Edward sighed, pressing his face into my hair.
I laughed, and looked over at Rose, the epitome of beauty. "You might be a little biased." Edward pulled back and moved a hand from my waist to my chin, pushing my head up to look at him.
"I'm not," he promised, his green eyes piercing and intense. I swallowed thickly, a familiar heat of lust spreading in me. The song changed, breaking our stare as Edward pulled me into a different dance, one hand on my waist and the other holding my hand as we stepped to the beat.
"I'm curious," I started, "How did you get Jacob Black to tell you so much at just one bonfire?" It was a question that had been plaguing me for months. "The boy clearly doesn't believe any of it."
A fresh blush blossomed across Edward's high cheekbones as the dimple on his cheek appeared again, from where he was holding back a smile.
"Ah, I d-don't know h-how t-to explain it," he murmured.
"What, did you flirt with him, or something?" I teased, enjoying as the blush spread.
"It's m-more like… I knew h-he w-wasn't telling me s-something, and I k-k-kept pushing… I d-didn't m-mean to get him in t-trouble, though."
"Intuitive," I pointed out, but Edward shrugged dismissively.
"I'm c-curious," he parroted back, eliciting a smile from me, "Where d-did you think w-we w-were going tonight, if n-not p-p-prom?" My smile faded. I didn't want to tell him.
"Oh, I don't know, but I certainly wasn't guessing prom!" I laughed, trying to brush it off. He didn't buy it.
"What are y-you th-thinking?" he pushed.
"I don't want to make you uncomfortable," I sighed, looking down, away, anywhere other than his face.
He considered for a moment, then changed direction, his feet momentarily getting caught between mine as I wasn't expecting the move. I let him lead me to the other side of the gym, skirting around the dance floor, where Jessica and Mike were awkwardly dancing with a gap between their bodies, and Angela was resting her head on Ben Cheney's, swaying and totally in their own world. It felt so temporary, the human lives as fragile as the paper mâché that plastered the decorations.
Edward led me outdoors, where the sun was dropping below the tree line, casting long shadows with its faint orange glow.
We walked slowly through the dewy grass, our hands entwined, watching as the sun sunk down and listening to the chattering and music drifting from the gym. Once we were several yards away, Edward turned and gathered me into his arms, resuming our slow dancing position and swaying us to the beat of the song inside. I would have preferred the beat of his heart, a steady thumping in my ear.
"I h-hope," Edward breathed deeply, "I h-hope that one d-day I'm strong enough f-for you to t-talk t-to me."
"Edward, you're the strongest person I know," I said forcefully, honestly. He arched his brow, and I shook my head. "You know that's not what I mean. Physical strength is negligible compared to mental and emotional fortitude."
"N-Not s-strong enough for y-you to t-tell me what you're th-thinking," I opened my mouth, but he interrupted, "But I u-understand. I know th-that I'm n-not r-ready for s-some things yet. I j-just w-want to be. For you."
"I love you," I told him, the only response I could muster that would be at all adequate.
"I love you." He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, not closing his eyes so we could look upon one another. In that moment, I knew everything would be okay, it would work itself out. Breaking laws, escaped vampires, the Volturi. It is all inconsequential when a love such as ours exists.
Shall I continue this tale within this story, or make it a separate one? Either way, stay tuned for Full Moon