I don't own Twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.
Thanks to my Beta MadMooey18 for her constant support and help in making this story what it is today.
Bella sighs as the phone rings yet another time and the caller ID tells her that it's Edward. He has been calling her for the last two week, but she refuses to answer.
"Aren't you going to answer that?" Phil asks her from the kitchen where he is cutting the vegetables for the soup.
"No," Bella states and then goes back to her homework. The teacher her mum hired is great. Mrs. Cooper is amazing. She explains everything to her in the best way possible. She is so good that now Bella loves science. Her mummy is even impressed by the changes she has made in the last two weeks, so that is a win.
It turns out that Mrs. Cooper's daughter has ADHD. Granted Miss Amanda hasn't finished all of the tests to decide if Bella has it. However, when Mrs. Cooper found out what her therapist was testing, she adjusted her teaching methods and Bella has been very cooperative. As far as Mrs. Cooper is concerned, the official medical diagnosis is just a formality.
The phone rings again and Phil just silently stares at Bella. "What?" she demands in frustration.
"Nothing," Phil tells her shrugging but continues to stare at her.
"Don't look at me like that, it's weird," Bella demands angrily.
Phil looks away and says, "I just think you shouldn't hold a grudge that long, Bella. It's been two weeks."
Bella shakes her head and twists her arms across her chest and shrugs then tells him, "Not before he tells me why he lied and that he is sorry."
Phil rolls his eyes at Bella being dramatic and asks, "How can he apologize when you refuse to answer his phone calls?"
"By visiting me, duh," Bella states, giving Phil a look that shows how stupid his question was.
Phil nods his head in understanding and returns to the vegetables he is cutting and asks her after a minute, "Are you hurt by the fact that he lied, or the fact that he hasn't come to apologize yet?"
Bella shrugs then tells him, "Both, I guess."
"For what it's worth, I think he is stupid for hurting you. You are the best, and he is missing out on a lot," Phil tells her as he transfers the cut vegetables into the pot.
"I don't think that is true," Bella tells him sadly.
He leaves the kitchen and walks to her and asks, "Why do you think that, Bella? You are an amazing friend to me."
Phil's attempt to cheer Bella fails as she shakes her head and tells him, "I think he is having too much fun with his friends to care about me."
"Well then, if that is true, he would be stupid. You are the best," Phil tells her ruffling her hair then goes back to the kitchen to finish making the food leaving Bella to wallow in her thoughts.
"Phil?" Bella calls out to him a minute later.
He turns around to face her and finds her looking unsure. "You think I am an amazing friend to you?"
"Of course," he replies smiling.
"You don't think I am a burden?" she asks him, seeming skeptical of his answer.
"Of course not, Bella. You are an amazing young lady and anyone would be lucky to be friends with you," Phil reassures her.
Bella is quiet for a full minute before she tells him, "I think you are right. I am a good friend." Bella is a good friend. She gets people gifts all the time. If she makes a mistake she apologizes. She is always nice. She is also even kind. Some people are very nice, but they aren't kind. They don't even know the difference and think that being nice is enough.
Bella know that being kind is more important than being nice, and she is a kid, not like those stupid adults.
"Of course I am right," Phil tells her keeping his eyes on the pot he is stirring.
"You know what, I will not be sad over what he did. I was the only person who befriended him. When Jamie tried to bully him, I defended him, and now he does not want to be friends with me anymore. I don't want to be friends with him either," Bella exclaims loudly.
"Hell yeah." Phil drops the spatula in his hand and walks over to high five her.
"Hell yeah," Bella exclaims giggling as she slaps her hand against his.
"Phil! Are you teaching my daughter to curse?" Both of their smiles drop as they turn to find her mum at the top of the stairs.
The look on Phil's face is one of a kid that got caught with his hand in a cookie jar. "Of course not ma'am. I was just showing my excitement."
Renee doesn't seem impressed by his excuse and tells him, "Next time, refrain from cursing when showing your excitement and come here and help me come down the stairs."
"Of course, ma'am," Phil swiftly replies and then takes the stairs two at a time. Bella tries to hide her smile as she watches Phil's expression when he helps her mummy, but obviously fails by the glare he throws at her.
It's very funny, because Phil likes her mummy but is also scared of her which is very weird and doesn't make any sense to her. Oh well, boys are weird.
"Have you finished the homework Mrs. Cooper gave you?" Bella's mummy asks as Phil helps her sit down at the dining table beside her.
Bella shakes her head feeling embarrassed. "Well then, get to it," her mummy orders her.
Bella ignores the smirk Phil is giving her behind her mummy's back and turns her eyes toward her book.
By the time the doorbell rings, Bella is already finished with her lunch. "Stay down. I will get it," Phil tells her once she starts getting up to answer the door.
She opens her mouth ready to argue, but one look from her mummy gets her to sit down in disappointment. Apparently, her doctor thinks she doesn't eat enough and her mummy has taken it as an excuse to force her to eat. Bella hates that the doctor told her mummy that, but she uses that to her advantage and asks her mummy for more chocolate since she needs to eat more. Bella is worried that her mummy will soon figure out that it's an excuse to have more chocolate and Bella doesn't need it which is why she has a place where she hides some of the extra chocolate for when her mummy catches on.
She hears the door being opened by someone and Phil thanking them. "Phil, who is it?" Her mummy asks.
"It's me, Jamie, Mrs. Renee," comes the reply from the door.
Bella's mummy gives her a look as if to ask her why is your classmate her, and Bella just shrugs back, so her mummy invites him in, "Come in, Jamie."
After a couple of seconds, Jamie walks in shyly with Phil behind him holding a plate covered with aluminum foil. "My mummy made some chocolate cake and told me to bring some over for you."
Her mummy smiles warmly at Jamie and tells him, "That's very nice of you and your mummy. Thank her for me."
Jamie nods his head and then turns around and walks toward the door put pauses when her mummy calls him. "Bella and I are going to watch a documentary about sharks. I know you love sharks. Would you like to join us?"
Bella gives her mummy a scathing look unhappy with her invitation to him but her mummy ignores her and keeps smiling at Jamie. "I don't know if that is okay," Jamie tells her, unsure looking at his feet.
"You know what, why don't you go ask your mummy if it's okay?" her mummy asks, smiling.
Bella glares at her mummy even harder but Jamie doesn't see her and nods his head smiling and leaves.
Bella waits for five seconds after the door closes before she opens her mouth because she knows better than to have Jamie hear that he is unwelcome. "Why did you tell him to join us?" Bella hisses.
Her mummy rolls her eyes at her and tells her, "Because you need to socialize with people your age."
Bella folds her arms across her chest and grumbles loudly, "I hate socializing. I don't want to socialize. I don't want Jamie to watch the movie with us."
Her mummy shakes her head then reminds her, "Just because you are an only child, doesn't mean that you get to act like one."
Bella frowns in confusion and opens her mouth to ask her mummy what she means, but is stopped by the door opening. She turns to the side and finds Jamie walking into her house.
"Because the door was already open, I walked in. Is that okay?"
"Of course it's okay. Why don't you go and sit on the couch with Bella while Phil and I make some popcorn?" Her mummy dismisses his apprehension then gets up and slowly makes her way to the kitchen using her crutches.
Bella stares at the seat her mummy just got off trying to make sense of how her mummy was acting. Since when does popcorn need two people to make it? Making popcorn is so easy that even she can make it alone. Sure, she has never tried making it, but she has seen her daddy and mummy make it so many times that she can't imagine it's hard.
A hand waving in front of her face, catches her attention. She turns to look at its owner and finds Jamie staring at her looking worried.
"Do you need help going to the couch?" he asks her sincerely.
"I can do it on my own," she tells him in an angry tone and when she sees the hurt on his face, she smiles at him to make it seem like she isn't angry.
She really shouldn't be mad at him. It is not his fault that he is visiting her when her best friend abandoned her. Jamie has always been nice to her. Yes, he sometimes does dumb stuff, and he tried to bully Edward, but every time he was rude to her, he would later come and apologize. He has been nice to her since his family moved next door when she was three years old, and before she became friends with Edward, she used to play with Jamie in her backyard all the time.
They sit together on the couch and wait for the adults to come, but Jamie seems to get bored as he turns and asks her, "How are you feeling?"
She shrugs at him unsure of how she feels with everything that has been going on. She looks to the couch to her right then turns away. This used to be her daddy's favorite couch. He used to always sit on it. Sometimes, he would lay on the really big couch and tell her to lay with him, but most of the time the couch used to be her daddy's couch.
Now, it's just a couch in the living room.
"School is not fun without you," he tells her not bothered by her silence.
"Really?" she asks him in surprise. She didn't know that Jamie thought that she made school fun. They didn't hang out a lot in school. She spent most of her time with Edward.
Jamie nods his head and tells her, "Yeah, now Mrs. Lina just keeps asking me stuff I don't know, making me feel stupid, and Alice and Emmett make fun of me."
"Alice, and Emmett?" Bella asks in confusion unsure of whom he is speaking of. She knows everyone in their class. They don't have an Alice or an Emmett.
"They are new students. They just moved next door to Edward. Them and Edward are friends."
No wonder he stopped being her friend. Why would he still want to be her friend when he has two new friends living next door. Not just one, two. For as long as Bella and Edward have been friends, which is two years, the house beside Edward's family house has been empty. He always used to talk about how fun it would be if they were neighbors. Guess she wasn't that important. Specially since two fries were more than enough to replace her.
"Edward didn't tell you about them?" Jamie asks her in surprise since they are best of friends.
Bella shakes her head and tries to tell herself that she is okay and doesn't care. She tells him, "Edward and I aren't friends anymore. That is why they are his friends."
Jamie is silent for a moment, then he shrugs and tells her, "We are friends."
Bella smiles at him despite the sadness she feels. Jamie always thinks of things like that. His daddy drinks and wakes him up yelling in the middle of the night, but it's okay because he will sleep when he comes home. When his daddy lost his job, Jamie challenged himself to buy as few things as possible. His mummy spends more time working than with him and his daddy never wants to be around him, but he does get angry at them. He just has to have the maximum amount of fun with his mummy when she is at home. No matter what happens, Jamie just does what he can.
"You know, I have a teacher and she explains things to me really well. If you want, I can explain stuff to you that you don't understand so that Mrs. Lina would stop picking on you," Bella suggests as an afterthought. Edward used to explain stuff to her all the time, and if Edward can do it, then she can too. Plus, she really hates Mrs. Lina.
I actually love the one Mrs. Lina in my life. She is my aunt who happens to be a teacher.
Hello lovely people of the internet,
I know I have been absent for some time, but I won't apologize because with everything that is going on in Palestine, I am doing the best I can. I won't rehash what I already posted in the author's note of the last chapter of my other story: Risk it all, but you are free to go and read what I posted there. You should also read it, if you haven't yet.
Also, remember to contact your representative daily to demand a ceasefire, and if you are team no ceasefire, stop reading my story. The free labor of Palestinian women is not for the people who want Palestinians dead.
You can find me as Aseel Ayelia on Instagram, Substack, and Tumblr, if you are interested in reading my original writing.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe