Hiya guys...Ohkay, so this chapter is dedicated to papierblumen who sent me a hell of a long-ass review which I had to read several times before I finally understood it (and who you have to thank for reminding me of the edward-bellaness!), and to theninjafrommars for inadvertently causing my death by giggle-fit (and who you also have to thank for the eddie-bellaness!).
I was currently in the midst of a very interesting dream. I was in a bar, where the totally hot Robert Pattinson was playing his guitar and singing. I noted that Rob looked a bit like Edward. Anyway, Rob's shirt was left open, showing off all his presumed deliciously defined muscles. I grabbed his shirt, pulling him down to my level, and began to kiss him.
"Well Bella, as...pleasant as this awakening is, I think we had better start getting ready for school instead." My eyes flew open and I let out a bloodcurdling shriek.
"Holy fuck! What just happened!?" My breathing quickly turned into hyperventilation. How-what-ARGH! Why the fuck am I in Edward's bed? Why is Edward half-naked? What kinda sick joke is this!?
"Oh my god, Oh my God, Oh my holy frigging god!"
"Stop hurting my feelings. Am I that bad of a kisser?"
"No, Edward, you're fantastic actually." I took my daily daily dose of vitamin blush as my words caught up with me.
No need to feed his ego, Bella.
Bugger off. In case you can't tell, I'm kinda in the middle of a dilemma.
Edward smirked.
"Oh, fantastic, is that so?"
"Don't flatter yourself; that was a reflex reaction," I lied. I pulled the gold covers over my head, but Edward ripped them right off of me.
"Reflex reaction? Do you say that to every boy you kiss?" His customary breezy laugh came off as a bit uneasy. I arched my eyebrows before responding.
"Does it matter?"
"Well, yes it does. After all, I am your boyfriend..." The now familiar butterflies revisited me. Stop thinking of that, Bells. You're not really going out with him, I mentally scolded.
"Correction: you're pretending to be my boyfriend." Edward's face was suddenly dangerously close to my own. the butterflies fluttered faster than ever.
"Maybe I'm not pretending anymore." He quickly drew back and left the room with a unfathomable expression on his face, leaving me alone and confused.
I stormed into Rosalie's room, hoping to find answers to my latest batch of questions.
"Mary Alice frickin' Cullen!"
"Isabella Marie frickin' Swan! Yes?"
"Why the hell did I wake up in your brother's bed?!" Alice furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Ohkay, clearly you don't know. Rosalie!"
"To what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your dulcet tones at 5 in the morning?"
"As I asked Alice, why the fucking hell did I wake up in Edward's bed?!"
"You didn't ask Alice that; I believe the word 'fucking' and 'Edward' was not in use in the original question, though I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened between you two last night. Some of the noises..." Rosalie trailed off smugly.
"Rosalie!" So not in the mood.
"What can I do for you?"
"Why did I wake up up in my boyfriend's bed," I asked through gritted teeth.
"It could be the same reason I'm here," Emmett called out from under a mound of pillows.
"Somehow, I doubt that."
"Oh, Bella. Tell me that you're not scared of rats too."
"What? What the hell do rats have to do with anything? By the way, to answer your question, no, I am not scared of rats."
"I came here in the middle of the night because I heard rats scurrying around in my room." There was a long silence before I fell to the floor in a heap, laughing hysterically. Emmett Cullen, scared of rodents and the like? Ha!
"Why's Bella laughing?"
"You don't ask why she's on the floor, Jazzie?"
"No, Alice, love. I'm too used to it by now." I sent a dirty look in Jasper's direction in between, who replied with a smirk and a shrug.
"I am laughing, and on the floor, because I learned that Emmett is scared of rodents." Jasper gave a sly laugh when Emmett scowled at me.
"Hear rats again last night, Emmett?"
"How did you know?"
"Because I was the rat." A pillow flew through the air, almost hitting Jasper in the face before Jasper grabbed it.
"Bastard!"
"Aww, mad, Emmett-poo?"
"I'm not sure. Do mad people attempt to rip other people a new asshole?"
"Emmett, Emmett. Let's not have such language around such a lovely girl as my own," a velvety voice chided. Once again, my shoulders were surrounded by Edward's arm.
"You're kidding me, right? Earlier, Bella's cursing made me blush like, well, for lack of a better example, Bella." I stuck my tongue out childishly at Emmett.
"What did you do to induce such foul-mouthedness from my sweet, perfect angel?" I overdosed on vitamin blush again. I was no angel compared to the rest of the Cullen/Hales.
"I didn't do anything. I think it was Rosalie."
"Of course."
"What do you mean, 'of course'?"
"I mean, 'of course this is your fault as this would be the kind of evil thing you would do'."
"I wouldn't go so far as to call it evil. Maybe iniquitous or reprobate, but not evil."
"Iniquitous and reprobate mean the same as evil, but I digress; what did you do with my girlfriend?"
"Iniquitous and reprobate aren't as common as evil, but I digress as well; I didn't do anything to Bella except move her to your room." To my synchronous surprise and unsurprise, Edward chuckled. He does that a lot, it seems.
"Can't say I'm mad at you now. It was a very welcome surprise." My face heated as it always does during such occasions. Nice to know that somethings never change.
"Hey, you know we have school in two and fifteen minutes, right," I said, trying to get off the subject of where I slept last night.
"Oh shit! There's almost no time left to do my hair!" Rosalie sped out of her room into the adjoining bathroom. Emmett, Alice, Edward and I very nearly laughed our posterior regions off when Jasper ran off to do the same thing. I'm serious, I think I've lost 200 calories from that session.
"Guys, I think we should follow their brilliant example and get dressed," Emmett said.
"Bella, let's go to my room," Alice suggested
"Why?"
"Rosalie forgot to get you clothes for school."
"So?"
"So you need to get clothes."
"Can't I just go back home?"
"Nope; I would love it if you went to school looking like a normal person instead of a hobo for once."
"Oh thanks Alice. It's nice to know that you have such confidence in my ability to dress myself."
"Yeah yeah yeah." Alice rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand, leading me to her familiar Parisian style room. I sat on the bed, not bothering with attempting to pick out my own outfit. I knew Alice would find some issue with it.
"What do you think of this outfit?" Alice held out a long white-and-navy striped cardigan, a dark brown tank top, dark-rinsed skinny jeans, and a brown pair of knee-high boots. To my genuine surprise, I loved her choice, but was wary of the boots. The heels were three-inches high. There was no way I would survive an hour in those shoes.
"Actually, Alice, I like it, but we'll have to get rid of the boots."
"Why?" Alice pouted at me.
"Because by the end of the day, your dad will be fixing the broken leg I got from tripping in those shoes."
"Fine," Alice said as she rolled her eyes and rummaged through her expansive closet only to find a brown pair of brown, lace-less converse (converse? converses?).
"What about these shoes?"
"Better. I won't trip as much anyway."
"Get dressed already then!"
"Yes, ma'am." Shockingly, all of the clothes fit me. They also looked suspiciously unused.
"Alice?"
"Hmm?"
"Why do you have clothes in my size?"
"Emergencies."
"You scare me, you know that?"
"Indeed, I do. Now wait here." After flipping through the pages of some magazine which displayed abnormally skinny woman in ethereal clothes, Alice stepped out, wearing a t-shirt with The Who logo, skinny jeans, black suede booties, and a hoodie with the Rolling Stones logo. Silly Alice. I was confident in my knowledge that Alice would be the first person to know that her suede shoes would be ruined by all the predictable rain.
"Feeling band-y today?"
"There's never a wrong time to wear a band shirt."
"Right-o."
"Since we're finished, let's get going."
"What about breakfast?"
"Oh yeah. We'll stop by Dunkin' Donuts."
"Because nothing screams healthy breakfast like a glazed donut and coffee."
"Let's just go already."
"Kay." We walked down the stairs to meet...no one. Did we really spend that much time in Alice's room? Anyway, where was Edward? We were supposed to be keeping up this whole charade together.
Who says it's a charade anymore?
Oh, not you again.
Come on, Izzy-bee. You know you wish it wasn't a charade anymore.
Weren't you telling me yesterday that I "hate" Edward?
Well you wouldn't listen.
So now it's my fault? Anyway, don't call me Izzy-bee.
Of course it's your fault. It can never be my fault. By the way, I think I'll continue calling you Izzy-bee.
Why am I arguing with you? You're just a part of Bella's overactive imagination.
So are you.
So she's arguing with herself?
Spot on.
Does that mean that she's crazy?
Her best friend is Alice Cullen; whadya think?
"Hey, Alice isn't that crazy!"
"Uhm, thanks for defending me, but there's no one here." Alice looked like she very much wanted to send me to a mental asylum. Oops. I guess I was thinking out loud again.
"About that, why isn't anyone here?"
"From the sounds of it, they're still showering and stuffs." From the sounds of it? What the fuck? There was only dead silence.
"Oh-kay."
"Yeah...Let's get going already."
"But what about the others?"
"You mean what about Edward?" I flushed red once more.
"He is my boyfriend," I replied in defense.
"He can wait. Come on. It seems every time we talk, Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, or someone else is always around. Let's just have Bella and Alice time." Nodding my assent, we walked into the garage.
"Who's car are we going to take?" The Cullens typically didn't flaunt their wealth around, so I wondered how everyone else would go to school if we took the Volvo. The one time they took Rosalie's convertible, it had taken nearly ten minutes for them to walk through the crowd of boys surrounding the crowd. This fact was particularly shocking as their could only be about 180 boys at Forks High School.
"Mine, of course."
"Feeling brave?"
"As always." The crooked smile Alice gave in my direction was shockingly similar to Edward's famous smile, which led me on the beaten path of my thoughts. But I wouldn't allow myself to think of Edward just yet. I crawled into the passenger of the yellow Porsche, which I hadn't ridden in until now. Used to Edward's Volvo and Emmett's Jeep, the Porsche was a new, strange experience.
"Ahh, hello, my baby. It's been a long time."
"When was the last time you rode in it?"
"I think Friday night?"
"To go where?" Alice rolled her eyes at me.
"It's like you don't know me, Bella! I'll give you a clue: it's one of my usual haunts."
"The mall," I queried in a monotone voice. Why doesn't she just buy a mall already?
"Of course the mall!"
"Alice, we were out until 11 that night."
"Your point?" I sighed and shook my head. Alice grinned at me, her white teeth glinting in the unexpected sunlight as we made our way out of the garage.
"There is never a wrong time for shopping, Isabella. In fact, instead of school..."
"No!" The heartbreakingly beautiful grin grew larger still.
"It's insanely fun, messing with your head."
"Oh, something's insane all right," I mumbled. Alice just continued smiling.
"You're happy today," I noted.
"Well, we've been off to a great start: Your fiasco with Edward-" I groaned and this point, but allowed her the courtesy of continuing.
"-Rosalie's vanity, you actually wearing an outfit I chose for you-"
"It's not like I had a chance persuading you otherwise," I joked. "But seriously, thanks for the jacket-sweater thing. It's insanely soft and warm." Even though the temperature was only in the upper 50's, it felt as if I was back in Phoenix-sorta. The rare sunlight peeking out at us through all the vegetation only helped the bubble of elation slowly developing in me.
"You know Alice, I think you're right."
"I'm always right, Bella, but what am I right about this time?" I laughed freely, the bubble swelling up dramatically.
"We have been off to a good start today. Even your manic driving at 100 miles per hour to go to Dunkin' Donuts can't bring me down."
"That's the spirit Bells." We continued our lighthearted conversation on the way to Dunkin' Donuts.
James Pov (!!)
Oh look, she's finally leaving the Cullen house. Even through the dark windows of the other girl's Porsche, I could recognize the goddess's beauty anywhere. Despite the other girl's - what was her name? Alice, I believe - insane driving, there was no mistaking Isabella Swan for some common girl like Jessica Stanley. I quickly revved up my car's engine and followed them closely, only about 20 miles slower than them. Therefore, no way could Alice or Bella accuse me of following them. Which I wasn't. I just happened to be going to the same place they were...wherever that was.
Alice - I'm pretty sure that's her name - gradually reduced her speed to seventy miles per hour, and soon (of course, at the speed she was going) reached an intersection on Main Street. She went left, and I found myself following the girls to Dunkin' Donuts. They got out of the yellow Porsche and walked into the fast-food place.
"Ohkay James, you can do this. Get your A-Game on."
I walked into the restaurant, trying not to lose any confidence. Finally, after nearly three months of loving from afar, here was my chance to ask out Bella. I had heard rumors about her new relationship with Edward Cullen, but I brushed them off for what they were - rumors. Surely Bella, sweet, lovely Bella, with her amaranthine blush, wouldn't settle for someone as like Edward Cullen. He could hardly be considered heterosexual; much too pretty.
I, on the other hand, was perfect for Isabella. Sure, I wasn't brawny, but I was told to be very charming and intelligent; Beautiful Bella couldn't possibly someone with those traits, right? I shook my head, glued a winnign smile to my face, and went to tap Bella on the shoulder.
"Hey, Bella." Bella whipped around, her hair momentarily forming a halo around her. I was dazzled by the sight of her exquisite looks for a second, then remembered my mission.
"Uhm. Hi. I'm sorry, I don't know you." Even in her confusion, she was still lovely as ever, her pert little nose scrunched up cutely. My smile relaxed a bit.
"Oh, I'm James. I go to Forks High School, senior class."
"Oh! You're in my drama class, right?"
"Mhmm." I switched into that horrid class only when I heard the new girl was taking out. The class was quintessentially hell, but to be with Bella made it the tiniest bit better.
"Yeah."
"So, Bella, I was wondering..."
"Yes?"
"How do you feel about watching that movie Mamma Mia! with me?" I normally wouldn't watch a movie with annoyingly catchy songs, but I would do anything for Bella. Bella's face flushed ravishingly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Cullen girl shaking with laughter. My face slowly fell into a frown. She couldn't reject me, right?
"Uhm, James, I would love-" She said love!
"-to go out with you, but, well, the thing is, I'm kinda dating Edward Cullen." My entire world fell apart at that moment.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry."
"It's ohkay. I understand."
An uneasy silence fell between us. Bella then looked down at her watch.
"Oh, Alice, we better get going. Only 20 minutes until class."
"Yeah, that's a good idea."
"See you later James," Bella called as she walked out of the restaurant.
"Yeah, later," I said quietly. I went back to my car without buying anything. As I drove to school, I started thinking. All this was Edward's fault! I progressively grew angrier, and lusted after sweet revenge.
"Edward Cullen, you will rue the day you took Bella Swan from me!"
WARNING! SUPERLONG AUTHOR'S NOTE. READ IT!
Oh God. What's James gonna do now?!
Ahem, ahem. Correction to the above author's note which was written yesterday: this chapter is dedicated to my current review team (enter the song When I Grow Up): papierblumen (who is super-dedicated and responsible for most of teh happenings of teh chapter), theninjafrommars (who makes me laugh. a lot. her latest review had my mother ask me what I was choking on (but in true mother form, she didn't check on me d:)), bellaXXtheXXklutz (extra kudoz for reviewing "New Beginning", my side project), LisaMackXx, ABroadwayLvr (who's on the team for no reason other than the fact that she's a complete nag), and our newest member, Aliya Regatti! She has reviewed (looks at review page/stats) 3 chapters of this story, New Beginning, The Demise of Emmett Cullen's Eyebrows, and even Tomatoes, which is my worst work! Did I mention she's a great writer to boot? I'm sorry guys, but she's beaten you up to a pulp (in the review-y type way anyway. I've read theninjafrommars, LisaMackXx and ABroadwayLvr's work, and it's all pretty dang good. Now if only bellaXXtheXXklutz wood get over her writer's block and papierblumen wood finish a story :P . Don't worry guys. We're rooting for yas).
Also to be mentioned in el dedicacion is a special girl who is pretty damn special herself. She's only been a member since 8/05 (yesterday for me, maybe you too?) but already, she's read SIXTY chapter's worth of fanfiction (those are only her favs!). Oh, and the word count to all those chapters? According to my calculator, 121,121 words. First of all, WHOA! SPEED READER! I probably coodn't accomplish all that, and I pride myself on being a fast reader! Second of all, this girl has added me and my story to her favs, story/author alerts, AND reviewed! AMAZING! Her name? haleighrose7. Also, she was the 70th reviewer. Great accomplishment (; Keep this up, and you'll be added to el Review-o Team-o soon (:
But we're not finished yet. Also to be mentioned is: Maureen B. for being the 45th story alert adder person (sorry I didn't thank you until today)!
One more thing: ABroadwayLvr needs some help with her HP story, 10 ways to impress a pretty girl. If you do help, I'll give you a free cookie basket (or a slice of Edward flavor cake depending who you are (;)! If you don't get them, blame WALMART (who has yet to send me my pre-ordered copy of Breaking Dawn!). Or the USPS. W/e. Seriously, it's her birthday today (8/06)
Ohkay, this author's note is nearly as long as the chapter.
Finally, after two days and countless times trying to finish this chapter, I am DONE! Wooo! 4:21 a.m. as usual!
Oh yeah, by the way? Over 5000 reads! Wh-hoo!
Much love,
abroadwayluver