I don't own twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and the plot of the story.
A huge thank you to my beta Madmooey18 for putting in the effort and helping me make this story what it is.
Author's Note at the end.
Bella smiles at herself in the mirror. She likes the braid she did with her hair. Since becoming a mum, she never has the time to put her hair in any braid that isn't the simple three strand braid, not in her day to day anyways. Today, she did. She put her hair into a fishtail braid, and it's not for an event. It's for running errands. Having Seth around has meant that she can delegate things, like making breakfast in the morning. Now, while Seth prepares the food, she does her hair. To many, it may seem stupid, but those small things give her quite the dopamine hit she isn't looking for but is always happy to have.
Giving herself a last look in the mirror, Bella spins around and goes to the kitchen. "Adam, unless you wanna be late for school, you need to come have breakfast now," she tells him. As she picks Peter up from the ground she goes to sit on one of the kitchen stools with Peter on her lap right as Seth starts dishing out the food and she smiles with thanks. She then digs in while giving Peter the occasional bite. She keeps an eye on the clock and once the clock hits 8, she gets up and tells Adam to go wash his hands.
In three minutes, the four of them are out. First, they drop Adam at his school, and after that Seth and her take Peter to the park where he plays and runs around for an hour before Seth takes him home, and Bella goes to her acting workshop.
She accepted Tim's offer and after passing through the audition with flying colors, she decided to try her hardest at this acting thing. If there is anything Bella hates it's being bad at something. She still doesn't think of herself as an actress, and no, she doesn't want to be one of those models turned actresses. It's a matter of work ethic. It will be a cold day in hell when someone says that Isabella Swan half assed her way through something.
Bella enters through the door and makes a straight B-line to her acting partner Tyler. "What's with the indoor sunglasses? Are you trying to set trends? You could have told me and I would have done it with you," she tells him.
"Hush, you are being too loud," Tyler whispers.
"Ohh, someone had too much fun yesterday," Bella whispers back in a sing song tone.
"And I am not ashamed to admit that I feel like shit, now shut up. I can literally feel the smugness coming off you in waves," he growls at her in irritation.
"Fine," Bella tells him, smirking. When she first met Tyler, she wasn't sure what to make of him. He is a 20 year old guy who just moved to New York to pursue acting from a small town in the Midwest that she never bothered learning its name, but then as she got to know him more, she thanked her lucky stars for being paired with him. In comparison to some of the male divas, and anxiety balls in this class, she lucked out by being paired with a chill guy like him. If there is anything Bella doesn't like, it's people who are dramatic, anxious, or both.
Before long, Bella and Tyler are done with their scene and they move to the back to quietly chat while everyone else finishes up. "So a bunch of us are hanging out tonight, how about you join us?" he tells her. He has invited her to those gatherings before, and she declined every time, but Tyler always assumes that the next time he invites her, she will accept.
"Another party? You're still hungover!" she tells him instead of her usual no thanks.
"I won't be drinking. It will be a chill one," he tells her defensively.
"In other words, you will get high," she concludes.
"Bella!" he exclaims loudly, and at the glare their acting coach, Maria, gives him, he whisper yells, "Why don't you say that louder? There are people who haven't heard yet."
"Sorry," she tells him, not feeling sorry at all.
He glares at her for a minute before his shoulders sag and he tells her, "The only thing anyone can bring to those parties is weed. It's not very bad. So, will you come," he finishes insistently.
Bella frowns as she tells him, "Sorry, I can't. I have to attend a party for daddy dearest."
"What is the event for?" Tyler asks her curiously.
"Hell if I know. He wants me there, so I will be there. These days I am too busy to scratch my head let alone know many details. On the good side, Edward will be there so between him, and Phil, I won't die from boredom," she reassures him leaning back into her chair.
"Sounds like you are the one who will show up tomorrow with a hangover," he tells her, smirking.
"Shut up," she admonishes him louder than intended.
Before long, the time passes and Bella finds herself examining her look in the mirror. She is wearing a tuxedo inspired gown. It's a sleeveless, strapless full length gown with a V-neck and a thigh high slit. She is wearing strappy heels. Her hair is in a high ponytail with the bangs and the end of the ponytail curled. To match the navy and black dress she is wearing, Bella went with a subtle black eye cat and a navy lip. At first she thought that it was too much, but if the Swans are good at anything, it's being shamelessly bold. She will be damned if she doesn't follow in her mother's footsteps.
She notices her mobile phone lighting up alerting her to a message from Phil telling her that he is waiting for her in the car below. "Seth, do you need anything before I leave?" she asks from her room as she sticks her mobile phone, lipstick, and powder into her navy clutch. He shakes his head and follows behind her, thencloses the door.
"You look amazing as usual," Phil tells her as she gets into the car.
"No surprise there," she tells him with a wink and then she scoots to the middle to kiss his cheek before she goes back to the side by the window.
After a minute of silence interrupted only by the traffic outside, Phil remarks, "You know, I still don't understand why you called me three days ago to tell me that Edward will be your date, only to call me this morning and tell me to come and pick you up."
"Well, I couldn't show up alone, now could I?" she asks him, smirking.
"What? Did lover boy bail on you? And here I thought that he is a dependable guy. Tsk, tsk, tsk," he tells her with a sarcastic smirk. They both know that Edward is no lover boy and they aren't real, but Phil loves to crack jokes at her expense every once and awhile. He says that it's his fatherly duty to teach her the art of banter and self-defense from jokes.
Bella rolls her eyes at him before she tells him, "Wouldn't you love for that to happen?"
"What? It's not the truth?" he retorts in a mock shocked face.
"We were supposed to ride together, but something urgent having to do with business came up at the last minute, so he will arrive later," she tells him seriously.
"You're sure it's not to see his secret mistress," Phil tells her jokingly.
She laughs at that. "You think that? But we have been together for less than a month. He can't be bored with me already. I mean I haven't even shown him all of my tricks in bed," she tells him seriously.
Phil makes a disgusted expression as he tells her, "Bella! Time out! Gross! You do not say something like that to me. I am practically your father," he pauses for a minute and looks like he just swallowed a lemon before he continues, "I think I just vomited in my mouth."
That shut him up.
Bella smiles sweetly at him and then turns away to the window and smirks to herself. She loves winning those verbal battles against Phil. She might have fought dirty with her comment, but real life means fighting dirty, and she no longer shies away from that.
"So, please raise your glasses for a day that marks a new beginning for prosthetics and Dwyer Enterprise," Phil exclaims from the stage ending his speech. Bella claps her hands aggressively while standing. She doesn't care that hardly anyone else is standing. Screw what everyone thinks. She is very proud of Phil and she will show her excitement for him. Anyone that has an issue with that can suck it.
As Phil walks down the stage, she means to go to him and give him a hug, but others seem to have the same idea and swarm him so she decides to stay back and wait for him to finish with them. She doesn't need to be the first to congratulate him after this announcement.
"Isabella, I almost didn't recognize you. You have grown," states someone to her side. She looks toward the speaker and sees a woman in her fifties in a red dress staring at her. On closer look, she realizes that the lady was one of the first people who shook hands with Phil once he got off the stage.
Yeah, that happens with time.
"I'm sorry, but do I know you," Bella asks her. Her voice sounds familiar, but for the life of her she can't pinpoint it.
"I am Julia White," she tells her as she thrusts her hand forward. While shaking her hand, Bella makes a conscious effort to not squeeze too hard.
"Nice meeting you," Bella tells her through clenched teeth.
"You know I didn't expect to see you here. It's great that Phil still invites you to the important events despite everything," Julia tells her, giving her a faux sympathetic smile.
Does it sometimes bother her that people act like Phil and her aren't family? Yes, it does. Phil might as well be her dad. To her, he wasn't just her mum's fiancé, but people don't care for human connections in this case. They care about technicalities. They can have their shifty attitude and jokes now, she is the one who will still be calling him Pops, and attend these events twenty years down the line. No one will take this from her. She won't allow it. Her relationship with Phil is the one thing she will never give up with him.
"Kind of hard not to know about important events in Pop's life when we have dinner together every Sunday," Bella tells her, matching her tone.
"You do?" Julia asks, failing at hiding her shock.
"Oh yeah. My kids just love hanging out with their grandpa Phil, and he simply adores him," Bella tells her smiling.
Julia's smile drop before her lip form a hard line and she asks her, "So what do you do? I know that you didn't join Phil's business. Not that there is any surprise there."
"You know, I majored in IT and minored in business, but if I am being honest with you, I found it pretty boring," then she pauses and leans forward until she is close to whisper, "it's not such a tragedy. The pay is great for fashion prostitutes."
Bella leans back and smirks as she watches as Julia's face turns multiple shades of the rainbow in a minute.
You think mum didn't know that you called her that behind her back? Try guessing what else mum knew and told me.
Julia shakes her head to clear it and is quick to find another topic to latch on. "I hear that you are dating Edward Cullen. When I heard that I was surprised but then I wasn't. Really, you couldn't have done a less surprising thing if you tried."
Bella raises an eyebrow. "Really? I didn't know that I have an extensive history of dating Edward look-alikes," Bella tells her playing dumb. She knows exactly what Julia means, but she wants her to explicitly state her thoughts out loud, so that Bella won't feel guilty when she hits her where it hurts.
"Silly Isabella. That's not what I mean. I meant that it's not surprising that you would date someone like Edward. After all, your mum dated Phil. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Which speaking of Edward, where is he? I don't see him anywhere," Julia ends her sentence by looking around as if Edward will magically arrive now that she has mentioned him.
He isn't the genie in Aladdin, you idiot.
"Let me look through the GPS app I have. I did plant a chip in his arm to track his movement."
Julia throws her head back and laughs a laugh that is faker than her hair extension before she tells her, "Bella, you're so funny. You missed your calling as a comedian."
"You never know. Maybe that will be my next career step," Bella claps back.
Julia shakes her head dismissing Bella's statement then tells her, "I mean that Edward would never miss such an event and especially since his rumored girlfriend is attending."
Bella fights the urge to roll her eyes at Julia's predictable dig as she tells her, "My boyfriend had prior commitments he couldn't dismiss. If they are finished in sufficient time, he will join me." Bella doesn't tell her that Edward is coming. It has been two hours. If he wanted to come, he would have. That said, she doesn't want to look like an idiot in case he shows up either, so she isn't about to give her a definitive answer, but from the look in her eyes, what Bella says doesn't matter. Julia, for sure, thinks that Edward stood her up.
I know just the thing that will wipe that smirk off her face.
"Julia, there is this thing that I have been thinking about. You don't mind me asking you about it, do you?" Bella asks her innocently, .
"Of course not," Julia tells her, too high of her perceived superiority to notice the sing-song undertone of Bella's voice.
"Only if you are okay with it. This talk about apples and trees got me thinking," then she leans in to whisper, "Does your son go to the same rehab you went to in your twenties?"
At the shocked look on Julia's face, Bella hugs her and pats her back as she continues, "I am really proud of you. Nose candy isn't easy to get over."
After a minute passes of Julia being numb in her arms, too shocked by Bella knowing that about her, Bella pulls back and places her hands against Julia's shoulder and holds them at arm length then tells her, "You will always have a supporter in me. I am proud of you. Never forget that."
She smiles at Julia, a genuine smile that is only interrupted by Phil. "What are the two of you talking about that is interesting?"
"Apples. I was just telling her that she should try the apple crumble cheesecake. It's to die for," Bella answers him swiftly, not missing a beat.
Then Bella leans to kiss Julia's head which is interesting since Bella is a couple of inches taller without the heels then she whispers, "Never forget what I told you. I am always around."
The double meaning of her statement is not missed by Julia.
"So, Pops, why don't you take me on a spin on the dance floor," Bella tells Phil as she places her hand in his.
"Sure, just let me finish my wine," Phil tells her.
In a second, Bella snatches it from him and drains it before placing it on one of the tables, "Now that we got your wine glass out of the way, let's dance."
"What's with the intense discussion the two of you were having," Phil asks her a minute later as they waltz around the dance floor.
"She was being an itch that starts with a B. I will tell you the full story later," Bella answers.
Once Edward answers, Bella doesn't stop to say, "Hello." She lays it on him. "I have been calling you since yesterday. Couldn't you send me a message telling me that you can't come. I called you so many times and you wouldn't answer. I got worried sick about you. And now that you answer, I am so angry at you. Do you know that there are multiple articles claiming that you stood me up yesterday? God, Edward. You say that we are friends, but friends don't stand each other up and then not have the decency to even call."
Once Bella is done with her angry rant at him, she hangs up the phone. Now she feels better that she gave him a piece of her mind. Let's see how he plays it out.
Not a minute later, her phone rings and she picks up after the third ring and raises it to her ear. "You might be angry at the fuss being made about me not coming, but you are lucky. The fuss being made by the gossip rags isn't even half as bad as the one they would have made if I showed up yesterday with a bullet in my shoulder."
Hell lovely people,
I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I especially enjoyed Bella clapping back at Julia, and speaking of apple cheesecake crumble, you should definitely try it. It was the first recipe on the internet that I feel in love with, and I badgared my mum to make for me. Since then, I have learned baking, but also cut dairy out of my diet, so I haven't had it in years as I haven't figured out how to veganize cheese cake, but I do remember that it was amazing.
Please leave a comment in the review section. It could be your favorite part, thoughts, feeling, or even criticism. Any and every comment you leave is read and taken into consideration. Your comments motivate me to update faster, and help me grow as a writer.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe