2. THE ANNOUNCEMENT

The next day, my knee bounced around restlessly as I bit my lip and looked from the bookshelf in the living room to my old school portraits hung along the banister to the currently empty hook screwed rather haphazardly into the wall by the front door where Charlie hangs up his gun holster after work. I almost had a sudden urge to cross myself when I heard Dad's police cruiser pulling into the driveway and his steps, with those gigantic police boots of his, made ominous thud-thud-thud sounds against the pavement to an invisible time signature only I could see and hear. The keys rattled in the door and I couldn't help imagining the music of horror movies swelling in my head just then and my cheeks turned almost as white as the undead. In, out. In, out. Just breathe, Beau, breathe.

"Stop fidgeting, Beau. Please try to remember that you're not confessing to a murder here." I heard Edythe's mellifluous whisper in my ear and she squeezed my hand.

"Easy for you to say." I nudged her shoulder but didn't let her hand go, thinking it'll hold me up so I don't, like, collapse on the floor or something. Calm down, Beau. You got this. I repeated in my head, as if somehow, I might just be able to lie convincingly even to myself for once in my life. (It didn't work, by the way.)

The door swung open and slammed into the wall with a resounding BANG and I flinched like I'd just been tasered.

"Hey, Charlie." Edythe cheerfully started up and waved him over.

"No!" I protested in a vicious whisper.

"What?" Edythe just smiled at me and shrugged, but her eyes narrowed and glinted wickedly in the afternoon light.

"You've gotta wait until he hangs his gun up! It'll be me he uses it on, not you, by the way." My pulse spiked again as I thought of how bad this was going to look on my part before we could explain. Edythe, I guess looking forward to seeing Charlie jump to all the wrong conclusions at my expense, grinned hugely up at me, twirling a lock of hair innocently around her little finger and laughing when she saw my face, making it sound like a cough when Dad was within earshot. Keeping the front door in my line of sight I watched as my dad, still armed, rounded the corner past the dining room and ambled his way towards us at a nice, leisurely pace. He was in a good mood you could tell, but that wasn't going to last much longer because he's probably gonna want to kick my butt in roughly 10.7 seconds and I steeled myself for the inevitable.

"Hey kids. What's up?" His face eased into a friendly smile as he took a seat in front of the couch Edythe and I were sitting in.

"We'd like to talk to you." Edythe began, her golden eyes all bright and shiny. "We've got some great news we'd like to share." She looked at me then back up at Charlie, still all smiles.

My dad's face paled and his expression went from a rather-uncharacteristic joviality to that of black suspicion in two seconds flat. My god, a new record.

"Great news, huh?" he questioned, scanning Edythe's entire body from head to foot then narrowing his eyes sharply at me as he met my gaze, and I figured I should just start planning my funeral now if he thinks I did what he thought I did. I tried to smile, but it came out hideously crooked. Great. Beaufort Swan, first prize for most likely to incriminate himself when innocent.

"Don't worry, Dad." My voice cracked. "Everything's totally fine." Charlie pursed his lips and nodded very slowly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sure it is, Beau. Sure, it is." He shrugged and leaned forward, boring a hole into my skull with his glower. "Well, if everything's so great then why are you sweating bullets?"

"I'm not… sweating." I began ploddingly in my defense while my voice shook. I scrubbed a hand over my face in a failed attempt to destroy the evidence that can and will be used against me in a court of law and shuddered. "It's just that, well, there's this thing-" I choked and Edythe took up really quickly where I left off.

"Beau and I, we-" she bit her lip and looked from me to Dad again, a glowing expression lighting up her gorgeous face. It was sort of touching, in a way, that she was this excited to be getting married to a nothing human guy like me and I couldn't help but feel moved by her show of sheer enthusiasm, like it was a dream come true - like I was a dream come true. I squeezed her hand in mine. She showed me a soft smile and turned her gaze back on Dad. "We're getting married, Charlie. Surprise!"

"Married?!" Dad spluttered, his eyes beginning to bulge out of his head. "Oh, for the love of-! I knew it, I knew it! You're pregnant, aren't you?" Though the question was clearly meant for Edythe, Charlie glared aggressively back at me, the lines of his tan face turning red with fury and I could just see the bulging veins at his throbbing temple clear as day like in those cartoons I watched as a kid. "God! I can't believe you got her pregnant, Beau!" he roared and I could've sworn his hand hovered over the gun holster at his waist for one split second.

"No, Dad! Of course she's not." I cried out in defense of her honor as well as my own. When I said that, his face relaxed again and he let out a long, loud sigh - of relief, I'm guessing. It was pretty obvious on my face when I was telling the truth and I'm sure he believed me now. Ugh, I knew this would happen. Again, who gets married at eighteen? Obviously, people were automatically going to assume this - you know, the whole getting pregnant thing - when you tell them you're getting hitched fresh out of high school. I had talked to Edythe earlier about it; I warned her! This was going to be one long engagement, and we were only getting married in three weeks. But I can tell you right now that it can't come any faster, for more reasons than one and I actually felt a trill of excitement run up my spine just then, chasing away the clouds of doubt which were fogging up my brain.

"Sorry about that, kids." Charlie apologized, looking especially at Edythe.

"No worries, Dad." I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. Glad we got that cleared up. But just then, Charlie clapped his hands once really loudly like he was suddenly remembering something and let out a sound between a laugh and a wheeze.

"Fine. Go get married then, you crazy kids. But! You, young man-" he snapped his fingers and pointed at me. "You're going to be the one to tell your mother." The blood drained from my face as I thought of Renee. Getting married young was at the top of my free-spirited mother's blacklist. Yep, I am so totally looking forward very much to that conversation. Dad clapped his hands again and made to stand up from the recliner. "Well. Why don't we commemorate this special occasion with a trip to Carver Café? Steak and Berry Cobbler. My treat." Edythe was already up before I even had a chance to respond and just like that, I took my fiancée's arm and we followed Dad to the truck.

…

After dinner, Dad dropped Edythe off back home with the Cullens. (She took most of the steak and cobbler "home" with her, by the way - I knew she only did it to be polite, and she handed it off to me in the backseat when Charlie couldn't see.) Once we got back to our own place, I whipped my phone out and waited for Charlie to start taking a shower before calling Mom up, not particularly in the mood to see his smug face peering into my room from the doorway when he heard Renee's dial tone and she would undoubtedly chew my ear off with the, I thought, inevitable talks of moving too fast, being too young, not knowing what I was doing, yada, yada, yada. Exactly what Dad was hoping she'd do. Yet, no one could have foreseen Renee's reaction – not Dad, not me, not even Archie. As soon as the words "Mom, I'm marrying Edythe" clumsily fell from my lips, she let out a tiny gasp and a small, triumphant little squeal of delight. She then proceeded to scold me for not contacting her sooner about it after which I then had to calmly explain to her that even I didn't know I was going to get married up until roughly twenty-four hours ago myself and that the wedding will be held a little before Edythe and I went up to Dartmouth – so, exactly three weeks from today. Still stunned by her totally chill reaction and waiting for something else, I asked cautiously, "Where's the 'What were you thinking?' bit, Mom? Aren't you going to tell me I'm making some huge mistake? That I shouldn't rush into stuff like this?"

"Aw, honey. I figured as much. The last time you kids came down here, I already thought you two were signed, sealed, and delivered if you know what I mean." She chuckled. "I just want you to be happy, Beau. Does she make you happy?" Mom quickly asked.

"Yes." I smiled, easing myself down on the bed.

"Do you love her?"

"More than anything." It was the easiest question to answer.

"Well. There you have it then, sweetie." I couldn't see her face, but I could tell she was smiling.

"Congratulations, baby. You don't know how happy I am for you, honey." I could hear her voice breaking, but she fought against the tears. "Phil and I will be waiting up for those invitations!"

"Don't worry, Mom. We're already on it." I looked to my gray checkered address book which lay open on my homework desk. Scanning its contents, my finger stopped and lingered on Bonnie Black's address - Julie's address - and I felt a lump forming in my throat as I remembered her long raven hair, the images of her strong brown eyes, her full toffee lips, and the warmth which radiated from her like a furnace and it made my heart feel tight in my chest. They were still looking for her, you know, my dad and everyone else in his squad. Bonnie assured us that Jules was grown already and knew what she was doing – it's true – but I couldn't bring myself to even think of facing her now, remembering where we had left off last. She's still my best friend and I miss her, but I know she can take care of herself, so all I could do was just trust she'd come home when she was ready to. That's all I could give her – time. I closed the address book. "Talk to you later, it's getting a little late here." I quickly added, suddenly remembering I was still on the phone with Mom.

"Bye honey. I love you!"

"Love you too, Mom. And tell Phil I said hi." I hung up, tossing my phone on the bed and stretched myself out on it, letting out a huge yawn in the process. Not even bothering to change into my pj's, I went right to sleep.