Why Me?
Drabble Ten: Fourteen
"Bella, I want to take you on a date."
I looked up from my chemistry worksheets for school long enough to look into Edward's enticing amber eyes questioningly. "You do take me on dates. Even if I don't want to. Why are you asking now?" I inquired, genuinely surprised.
Recently, he took up the action of sitting cross-legged in front of me on my bed while I worked on my homework. All he ever did was watch me work, and usually didn't say much so I could focus. Yet, with his eyes always on me, I could never focus right and usually didn't get much done. I pegged this new action to be one to annoy me. He told me it was because I made interesting faces when I concentrated. Bologna.
"It's different." He said, looking at me.
"How so?" I responded.
"I want to take you on a human date."
I groaned. "Again with the human experiences crap?"
"Just listen. Yes, I want you to go through with another human experience, but this is also for me. Just to try it out. You'll like it." He said, doing the stupid eye smolder thing to persuade me. Defiantly, I closed my eyes so I couldn't see him.
"What makes you think I'll like it?" I said, trying to be tough.
"Alice told me you would."
"I haven't said I would go!"
"Has that ever stopped me before?"
Unfortunately, it hasn't. But, I wasn't going to tell him that he had me cornered. I didn't reply and opted to pout instead. Sometimes he gives in to the pout…
"Why are you fighting me on this, Bella?" He asked. I opened one eye to peer at his expression. He looked a little upset. "I thought you liked going on dates."
"Oh, I do." I said in response. He frowned at my answer, obviously confused. "I just like giving you a hard time."
He continued to frown, despite my tease, but I could see the distinct change in the way his eyes softened that told me he wasn't upset anymore. "Are you saying you'll go with me?"
"I don't really have a choice, do I?" I sighed, watching as his face blossomed into my crooked smile.
--
I'm not really sure what came over Edward on the day of our date. He insisted that he do everything as formally as one would do for a first date. Which I thought was completely ridiculous and totally unnecessary.
I was up in my room, reading the newest book to my collection when Edward arrived to pick me up. I put my book down and grabbed my wallet on my way down to answer the door. Charlie sat in the living room watching the game and looked up when I passed.
"Going somewhere?" He asked.
"Edward wants to go on a date. I'll be back at curfew." I said in response traveling toward the door. I opened the dead-bolt and pulled the door open to gaze upon my too-good-to-be-true "boyfriend."
This is the exact moment when I picked up that this "date" wasn't going to be like usual. My first clue? The very weird and out of place jump Edward did when I actually opened the door.
"H-Hi Bella!" He stuttered, grinning at me. He swept his eyes over me, letting his grin falter a bit at the sight of my jeans and a t-shirt combo. "You look…. Pretty." I just stared at him. "Here!" He said suddenly, thrusting a rose into my face. "I got this for you!" I took the pretty red flower from his hand and looked at him again.
"Okay. What is wrong with you?" I asked, frowning.
"Huh?" His smile wavered a bit. "What do you mean?"
"You're acting like you're fourteen and on your first date." I told him, crossing my arms over my chest. Edward sighed and straightened, leveling me with a look that instantly reminded me of my Edward.
"Humor me, please." He told me, frowning slightly. "Pretend it's actually our first date, okay? The whole nine-yards. We've known each other for two months. Alice introduced us. We've hung out three times, and I finally got up the nerve to ask you on a date. Lucky for me, you said yes."
Un-amused by his sudden desire to role play, I had to ask him, "Why are you doing this?"
"To experience the joys of first love!" He said almost enthusiastically, doing the dramatic fist clamp. Unable to keep back the flurry of laughter that this action brought on, I waved for him to stop. Why did he have to look so adorable doing it?
"Fine fine. If only to humor you." I said, giving up on a hopeless argument.
"Oh, joyous day!" He trumpeted, doing the fist clamp thing again. I was almost too amused to see him do a little victory dance before suddenly turning on me. "Now, since this is our first date, you absolutely must take it seriously. Right now, I'm offended that my date calls for jeans and a t-shirt. At least wear a skirt."
"Excuse me!" I blurted, suddenly put off by his demands. "I don't need you telling me what to do! If it's our so-called 'first date' I get to choose what I want to wear."
"But… Bella…" Edward said, his mood swinging again. He looked away, pouting and sniffling. "You're hurting my feelings…"
Struck silent, I just let my jaw drop at how unbelievably vulnerable he could make himself look. If I didn't know how good of an actor he was I would have believed it myself. "Fine… fine. I'll go change." I sighed, turning to go back up to my room.
"Yay!"
--
Finally, I changed into a light purple shirt and a floral skirt that somehow appeared in my closet recently, and followed Edward to the Volvo. He politely opened my door for me (which wasn't usual) and stumbled his way to quickly get to his side (which was).
"So, tell me the requirements for this 'date.' Do I have to act like a blushing, totally embarrassed fourteen-year-old unable to do anything because I'm worried about how you'll take it?" I asked, smirking a little.
"That's exactly how I want you to act." Edward replied, completely deadpan. I stared at him again. Fine. If that's how he wanted to play…
"So, Eddie, where are you going to take me?" I giggled obnoxiously, totally amused.
"Well, my shining Bell, I am going to take you to dinner first! A surprise!" He retorted right back at me. Shoot. I'd have to try harder to actually get him uncomfortable.
I let there be silence between us for a short moment- feigning an awkward silence- and tried to come up with plan B. Edward broke the silence though, peering over at me as we zoomed down the street way too fast. "You look really pretty, Bella." He said, almost as if he were shy.
I put my hands up to my cheeks, acting as if I were blushing. "Why, thank you, Eddie!" I giggled a bit. "You look really nice yourself." I gave him a once over for show.
"Gee, Bella. That's too much, don't you think?" He said sheepishly, turning away to 'focus on the road.'
"No it's not!" I objected, getting ready to tease him over this subject. I mean, why not? He's already too beautiful for me to handle on a normal day, so I could just jab at him here for kicks. "I mean, you look like an amazing, totally god-like, delicious, juicy piece of-"
"That's a little over the top for a fourteen-year-old." Edward interrupted me, smirking a bit.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, try again. Though, I appreciate your thoughts, dear." He pressed his lips together tightly to keep his laughter contained. I frowned. Obviously plan B backfired. I'd have to try again.
That's about when I noticed our surroundings. It was still about 6 o' clock, so the sun was still up, and everything still visible. "We're going to Port Angles?" I said, genuinely surprised. Edward just smiled, facing forward. I swear, if it wasn't Edward, I'd have strangled him already for being so aloof… Maybe… Okay, maybe not. Arugh!
We pulled through the market place, past all the lit up stores, restaurants, and walking people to pull into a parallel parking spot right in front of a nicely lit restaurant. I stared out the window, surprised to see the Italian restaurant from the first night I rode in Edward's car before us.
"This is…" I started to say, but when I turned to face Edward, he wasn't there. I blinked, confused. I turned to look out my window again to see him pulling open my door. I hesitated for a moment then struggled to get out of my seatbelt and outside next to him. "Edward, this is-"
"My favorite restaurant." He replied, smiling softly. "I-I mean the breadsticks are to die for!" I turned my face away from him to hide the genuine smile gracing my features. Who would have thought.
He led us inside the distinctly warmer than outside restaurant, being careful not to touch me. Stupid fourteen-year-olds. His stupid favorite restaurant comment sent me wavering and wanting to touch him. Arugh!
The waitress at the door instantly zoomed her eyes in on Edward, then gauged the distance between us (which I so wish wasn't there at the moment) and smiled widely at him. I was suddenly struck with the similarity of this situation from when I first came here with Edward. Weird. It kind of was like our first date! Though, this time I did have him as mine and I wasn't going to let some dyed-blonde girl think she had something up on me! Uh-uh! Time to turn on the psycho girlfriend!
"Table for two?" She asked sweetly, gazing at Edward.
"Yes!" He replied, smiling back at her. Instantly I felt angry. Stupid polite vampire boyfriend. She took a short moment to glance at me. Mistake. I leveled a lethal glare her way and she blinked, surprised.
"Um, this way…" She said uncomfortably, leading us to a table near kitchen. "Will this do?"
"Yes, thank you." Edward said, smiling at me this time. I smiled back feeling smug when the girl frowned. She wished us a good dinner and scooted out of there and quickly back into the kitchen as we took our seats. Edward folded his hands and raised an eyebrow at me. "That wasn't very nice, Bella."
"Minor lapse into eighteen-year-old Bella. Sorry. I'll go back to being fourteen." I said, grinning. He just shook his head at me. "Oh, Eddie, this place is absolutely gorgeous! How did you first come across it?" I tried to bat my eyelashes at him. Mmm… Plan C in action!
To my displeasure, Edward just smiled at me. Though, I was pretty sure I struck a nerve. My stupidity of why the first time we came here didn't escape him. "Oh, I brought a girl here once. She was shopping with her friends, but got lost, so I took her here so she wouldn't be alone."
"A girl?" I said, frowning and acting as if I was jealous. "Is she prettier than me?"
"Oh, Bella!" Edward said suddenly, leaning toward me to enhance the drama. "Nobody's prettier than you!" I actually blushed this time because, due to our unruly luck, the waiter walked up to our table. He blinked twice at Edward's strange behavior before moving in to do his job.
"Hello, my name is Heath. I'll be your server tonight. Can I interest you in a drink tonight?" His bright blue eyes met with mine expectantly, a small smile gracing his lips. I noticed the way he leaned toward me and blushed at the strange close proximity.
"Um… a Coke…" I mumbled, turning away from him. I glanced briefly at Edward and noticed the distinct frown and tight look in his eyes. Uh-oh.
"And for you, sir?" Heath asked Edward. He didn't look up at him and just kept staring at me. Uh-oh. Edward frowned deeper, obviously annoyed.
"Just a water. And don't worry. Just take your time." He said tightly, an angry tone to his voice. Heath took a moment to look at Edward and rocked back on his heels from the dark look Edward gave him.
"Uh…okay…" The waiter stumbled and shuffled out of there.
"Now, Eddie. That wasn't very nice." I cooed, glad to be teasing him for once. Though, I almost regretted it from the look Edward had on his face after that. He closed his eyes and let out a tense breath before looking back up and smiling at me.
"Sorry, had to take a moment to be one hundred and six. I'm fourteen again." He laughed a little at his own joke, but I could tell he still wasn't very happy. Time for some damage control.
"I'm not surprised this is your favorite restaurant, Eddie." I said, unfolding my napkin. "I mean, look at all the girls who swoon at you! You're very popular. I'm so lucky for you to have asked me out on a date! I'll have to thank Alice later for introducing us." I grinned at him, opting to play out our game.
Edward took the bait and relaxed a bit. "Oh, thank God for Alice! I mean, I'm usually so shy, especially around you. I mean… is this a bad time to tell you that I've had a crush on you ever since we met?" He asked, instantly looking insecure.
I laughed, and smiled at him. "You have? I never noticed! How lucky! I've always adored you from afar. You were always in a different social class from me, I'm so lucky that Alice was a good friend of mine!"
"Here are your drinks." Heath said, placing our drinks and a basket of breadsticks on the table. "Are you ready to order?" he asked quickly, head down facing his notepad.
I laughed slightly in my head. "We'll share a plate of lasagna." I said, smiling. Edward and I decided recently that it was too weird that Edward always said he was not hungry when we went out to eat. So, my genius mind led us to saying "share" and solved the problem! Though… we always had extra dishes that we had to fake crumbs on. Ah well.
"Okayitwillberightout." Heath practically ran from the table back into the kitchen. I actually laughed and Edward smirked.
"Still got it." He joked. "Evil glare of doom that melts men's brains everywhere!"
"And the evil hotness of doom that melts women's hearts everywhere!" I joked back, loving the freedom of this.
"I'm just a killer person, aren't I?" He boasted, smirking.
"You've killed me a thousand times over." I remarked, taking a sip of my Coke.
"Just a thousand?" Edward asked innocently.
"I'm still fourteen. Still time to be slayed a couple billion more times." I took a moment to look at his folded hands on the table, and was instantly swept back to the first day we were here. The same desire to touch his long white fingers coursed through me and prompted this question: "Do fourteen-year-olds hold hands on the first date?"
Edward looked kind of amused by the question. "Not many. Though, if you want to hold my hand I'm not going to reject you. Just let me take your hand, since I'm the guy and all guys have to take the initiative. Right?"
"Who said I wanted to hold your hand?" I said defiantly, looking away. He just laughed and slid his cold fingers over mine.
"Better?"
I looped my fingers through his and smiled up at him. "Better."
"Another question: Do fourteen-year-olds kiss on the first date?" he asked, unfortunately trying the smolder on me. I turned away from his eyes to keep from collapsing easily beneath their power.
"Rarely. I mean, seriously, Eddie! You haven't even asked me to be your girlfriend and you're already talking about kissing? I feel so used." I complained.
"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" he asked instantly.
"That's so unromantic."
"Sorry, let me try again; Bella, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on and I'd be completely and utterly honored if you'd say yes to being my girlfriend."
"Pretty words are completely useless against me."
"I love you. Be my girlfriend."
"Too forceful."
"Nobody else captivates me the way you do. Don't disappoint me, and say yes! Be my girlfriend!"
"Completely the wrong feel."
"Bella… You're making this too difficult." Edward had a frown on now. It wasn't like I was rejecting him or anything. I was just enjoying this too much.
"Eddie, it's not that hard. Come on! You've been around for fourteen years. You think you could be a little creative." I said, pouting.
"What, do you want me to shower you with roses and present you with gifts as I get down on one knee to ask you to be my girlfriend?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Don't get down on one knee. But everything else is fine. Don't forget to buy me a super expensive necklace while you're at it. My love is expensive." I teased him.
"I'll do it." He got up then, eyes set on the door. Instantly, I panicked and shot out of my seat to grab a hold of his arm to prevent him from doing anything stupid. He stopped moving, but I'd already done the damage.
My chair careened backward and toppled over on one leg. Right in front of Heath who was carrying my lasagna. It was too late for me to react. So, everything started to move in a ridiculous slow motion. I saw the chair fall. I saw Heath look surprised as he stepped on the slick wood. I saw the look of panic as he slipped. I saw the plate of piping hot lasagna slide off his fingers and go flying through the air. I saw the square extract itself from the plate and land on me. Then… I felt the pain.
--
I sat in the passenger side of the Volvo, staring angrily out into the night. Arugh, my leg BURNED. Not only was the pasta ridiculously hot, the sauce must have just been poured right out of the pot because it splashed all over my lap and stomach scalding me silly. I was not very happy. Why? Because I hurt!
And guess what wasn't making my day right now.
Edward laughing.
Yeah, that's right. Laughing. He had a moment of panic and anger at the restaurant, then a moment of worry over me, but as soon as we got into the car, BAM, I'm hit with complete gut wrenching laughter spilling out of him.
"Y-y-y-your …. Hahaa…FACE!" He spat out, pounding on the wheel again. Luckily the car didn't move any closer to the impending cliff of doom to my right. He lapsed back into his giggles again and I frowned deeper. The burn was making me testy.
"Oh, would you just shut UP!" I practically yelled at him, fighting the stupid evil tears of embarrassment from spilling over.
"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetheart." Edward said sweetly, though he was still giggling a bit. He laid a cold hand onto my lasagna shaped burn on my thigh, taking away some of the evil heat. "You were just so adorably cute."
"How?! I was being burned. How was it cute?" I hissed, wiping at my eyes.
"Oh, Bella…" He said quietly, pulling the Volvo into my driveway. "Think about the build up! I mean, you leapt up so suddenly, then the chair, and the lasagna… hehe…" I frowned and pulled open my door to get away from him. The big jerk. "No! No! I'm sorry, Bella!" He said, chasing after me when I got out.
I sniffled a couple times, keeping the tears at bay. I'd have to find a cool compress when I got inside. This burn was bringing tears to my eyes! Arugh!
"Oh, sweetheart… Don't cry." Edward said lightly, taking me into his arms. I sniffled again, but found the drive to make a joke.
"Isn't this a little bold, Eddie?"
He laughed, glad to hear I was okay now. "Very bold. And I'm not letting go." He responded, holding me tighter.
"Good."
"Guess what I'm going to do next." He said lightly into my ear. I playfully pushed him away.
"Don't push your luck. You've already burned me once." I laughed. But then, he took my hands into his and stared smolderingly into my eyes. Automatically entranced, I couldn't look away. I felt myself slowly melting away.
"Bella, I'm extremely apologetic for what happened to you tonight. Have mercy upon my poor unworthy soul for laughing at you. Your revenge can be extracted everyday, if you agree to be my girlfriend." He said teasingly, but looking serious.
I smiled at him, finally deciding that I could give up. After all, I wanted a kiss. "Agreed."
"Lucky me." He whispered before sweeping in for that delicate kiss.
End.
strikes dramatic pose My second debut! Okay… I lazed off and forgot about this story for about… looks at date a year and a half. But, it kept getting hits! So, I thought, why not update? So, here you have it! A special super long drabble!
So, about this drabble. Lack of humor. Oops. But, my genre is humor/romance on here, so I thought, maybe I'll so some cutesy lovey-dovey stuff for once. Tell me what you thought!
Lesson of the Day: Before acting rashly, beware of your surroundings.
Kaytoko!!