Chapter 15 (part one)
"Oh!" I sat up so fast it made my head spin.
"Your hair looks like a haystack… but I like it." His unruffled voice came from the rocking chair in the corner.
"Edward! You stayed!" Well, he said he would. And what do you think would stop him? Just because you now know he watches you in your sleep? Well, doesn’t that stop most stalkers because the person they watched would put a restraining order on them? I rejoiced, and thoughtlessly threw myself across the room and into his lap. In the instant that my thoughts caught up with my actions, I froze, shocked by my own uncontrolled enthusiasm.
I stared up at him, afraid that I had crossed the wrong line. Yeah can’t get too rowdy, Jesus wouldn’t like that.
But he laughed.
"Of course," he answered, startled, but seeming pleased by my reaction. His hands rubbed my back.
I laid my head cautiously against his shoulder, breathing in the smell of his skin.
"I was sure it was a dream."
"You're not that creative," he scoffed. Huh? That doesn’t even make sense.
"Charlie!" I remembered, thoughtlessly jumping up again and heading to the door.
"He left an hour ago - after reattaching your battery cables, I might add. I have to admit I was
disappointed. Is that really all it would take to stop you, if you were determined to go?"
Okay, this is the first time in 15 chapters we got hint of Charlie being anything less then a good father and good man. He detached the battery cables on Bella’s car. I would only say that’s an acceptable thing to do if you have a delinquent for a daughter or son. Bella’s never done anything wrong, that Charlie knows of. But then again he really doesn’t know his daughter. Wasn’t the right thing to do, but compared to Edward’s behavior Charlie is still looking like he’d make a better boyfriend.
I deliberated where I stood, wanting to return to him badly, but afraid I might have morning breath.
"You're not usually this confused in the morning," he noted. He held his arms open for me to return. A nearly irresistible invitation.
"I need another human minute," I admitted. Yes, I am so human, therefore imperfect. Please forgive me, perfect God Edward!
"I'll wait."
I skipped to the bathroom, my emotions unrecognizable. So she’s never been happy? Not surprised with how she bitches about everything. I didn't know myself, inside or out. The face in the mirror was practically a stranger - eyes too bright, hectic spots of red across my cheekbones. After I brushed my teeth, I worked to straighten out the tangled chaos that was my hair. I splashed my face with cold water, and tried to breathe normally, with no noticeable success. I half-ran back to my room.
It seemed like a miracle that he was there, his arms still waiting for me. Why is it a miracle? He reached out to me, and my heart thumped unsteadily.
Christ, this so fucking boring! Bella saying “he’s to pretty to be real, and my heart is about to explode in my chest!” She’s said like twenty, thirty times. I think I actually miss her complaining. It wasn’t as boring and as painful as this shit.
"Welcome back," he murmured, taking me into his arms.
He rocked me for a while in silence, until I noticed that his clothes were changed, his hair smooth.
"You left?" I accused, touching the collar of his fresh shirt.
"I could hardly leave in the clothes I came in - what would the neighbors think?" Would they really notice?
I pouted.
"You were very deeply asleep; I didn't miss anything." His eyes gleamed. "The talking came earlier."
I groaned. "What did you hear?"
His gold eyes grew very soft. "You said you loved me."
"You knew that already," I reminded him, ducking my head. Ducking her head where? To look at him from sitting in his lap, is that what she was doing?
"It was nice to hear, just the same."
I hid my face against his shoulder.
"I love you," I whispered.
"You are my life now," he answered simply. From knowing each other two months! It’s so ridiculous!
There was nothing more to say for the moment. He rocked us back and forth as the room grew lighter. Lighter how exactly?
"Breakfast time," he said eventually, casually - to prove, I'm sure, that he remembered all my human frailties. Yep, basic human needs, like eating, are now frailties. Soon they’ll be suggesting that breathing is a weakness, too.
So I clutched my throat with both hands and stared at him with wide eyes. Shock crossed his face.
"Kidding!" I snickered. "And you said I couldn't act!"
He frowned in disgust. "That wasn't funny." It was a little funny, actually. I didn’t know Bella could be clever.
"It was very funny, and you know it." But I examined his gold eyes carefully, to make sure that I was forgiven. Apparently, I was.
"Shall I rephrase?" he asked. "Breakfast time for the human."
"Oh, okay."
He threw me over his stone shoulder, Ooouuu, granite is so sexy! gently, but with a swiftness that left me breathless. I protested as he carried me easily down the stairs, but he ignored me. Okay Edward, she’s not an infant. She can walk on her own! He sat me right side up on a chair.
The kitchen was bright, happy, seeming to absorb my mood.
"What's for breakfast?" I asked pleasantly.
That threw him for a minute.
"Er, I'm not sure. What would you like?" His marble brow puckered. I’m sure, even if he doesn’t eat, he would cook a meal that would put grandmothers everywhere to shame.
I grinned, hopping up.
"That's all right, I fend for myself pretty well. Watch me hunt." That’s kind of cute, I think. That line.
I found a bowl and a box of cereal. I could feel his eyes on me as I poured the milk and grabbed a
spoon. I sat my food on the table, and then paused.
"Can I get you anything?" I asked, not wanting to be rude.
He rolled his eyes. "Just eat, Bella."
I sat at the table, watching him as I took a bite. He was gazing at me, studying my every movement. Creepy! It made me self-conscious. I cleared my mouth to speak, to distract him.
"What's on the agenda for today?" I asked.
"Hmmm…" I watched him frame his answer carefully. "What would you say to meeting my family?"
I gulped.
"Are you afraid now?" He sounded hopeful. Why does he sound hopeful? Wut? This shit makes no sense.
"Yes," I admitted; how could I deny it - he could see my eyes.
"Don't worry." He smirked. "I'll protect you." And why is he smirking? Was he hoping she’d be afraid so then he would get to protect her, and he’s being all smirky about it? Is that what that was?
"I'm not afraid of them," I explained. "I'm afraid they won't… like me. Won't they be, well, surprised that you would bring someone… like me… home to meet them? That lines sounds like something a gay person would say in anxiety of being introduced to their boyfriend’s/ girlfriend’s family. But I don’t think Meyer caught that herself, being against homosexuals and stuff. Do they know that I know about them?"
"Oh, they already know everything. They'd taken bets yesterday, you know" - he smiled, but his voice was harsh - "on whether I'd bring you back, though why anyone would bet against Alice, I can't imagine. At any rate, we don't have secrets in the family. It's not really feasible, what with my mind reading and Alice seeing the future and all that."
"And Jasper making you feel all warm and fuzzy about spilling your guts, don't forget that."
"You paid attention," he smiled approvingly. Yeah, good for her, she was able to remember up to three important details about the Cullens. Her memory works, good for her!
"I've been known to do that every now and then." I grimaced. Why did she grimace? "So did Alice see me coming?"
His reaction was strange. "Something like that," he said uncomfortably, turning away so I couldn't see his eyes. I stared at him curiously.
"Is that any good?" he asked, turning back to me abruptly and eyeing my breakfast with a teasing look on his face. More of Edward’s crazy lighting fast changing emotions. "Honestly, it doesn't look very appetizing."
"Well, it's no irritable grizzly…" I murmured, ignoring him when he glowered. Why is he glowering, is it because of the cereal? I was still wondering why he responded that way when I mentioned Alice. I hurried through my cereal, speculating.
He stood in the middle of the kitchen, the statue of Adonis again, staring abstractedly out the back windows. I think I’m going to fetch some wine. Drinking game again! When ever Edward’s beauty is mentioned, I’m giving myself a treat.
Then his eyes were back on me, and he smiled his heartbreaking smile. ::lifts glass:: Cheers, Meyer.
"And you should introduce me to your father, too, I think."
"He already knows you," I reminded him.
"As your boyfriend, I mean."
I stared at him with suspicion. "Why?"
"Isn't that customary?" he asked innocently.
"I don't know," I admitted. My dating history gave me few reference points to work with. Not that any normal rules of dating applied here. Yeah, but still. Charlie doesn’t know he’s a vampire, he’s just some guy his daughter is dating. So for him the rules still apply, Bells. "That's not necessary, you know. I don't expect you to… I mean, you don't have to pretend for me."
His smile was patient. “Patient?” There relationship sounds more like father/daughter then boyfriend/girlfriend. "I'm not pretending."
I pushed the remains of my cereal around the edges of the bowl, biting my lip.
"Are you going to tell Charlie I'm your boyfriend or not?" he demanded. Demanded, huh? I might have to “sit” you Edward.
"Is that what you are?" I suppressed my internal cringing at the thought of Edward and Charlie and the word boy friend all in the same room at the same time.
"It's a loose interpretation of the word 'boy,' I'll admit."
"I was under the impression that you were something more, actually," I confessed, looking at the table. ::sigh::
"Well, I don't know if we need to give him all the gory details." He reached across the table to lift my chin with a cold, gentle finger. "But he will need some explanation for why I'm around here so much. I don't want Chief Swan getting a restraining order put on me." He should, Edward’s been stalking Bella. That’s what restraining orders are for, stalkers.
"Will you be?" I asked, suddenly anxious. "Will you really be here?"
"As long as you want me," he assured me.
"I'll always want you," I warned him. “Warned?” Okay, I don’t really picture having to warn my future husband that I’ll want him to be my husband till one of us die. I don’t think that’s supposed to be a warning, because isn’t forever the whole point? "Forever." I stole the quote from Whedon, one of the best fantasy writers in the worldJ.
He walked slowly around the table, and, pausing a few feet away, he reached out to touch his fingertips to my cheek. His expression was unfathomable. If his expression was “unfathomable” then why was it worth mentioning in the first place? Plus Ed says Bella is so good at reading him. He’s an idiot and that’s just a plain lie because she’s always saying he’s unreadable.
"Does that make you sad?" I asked.
He didn't answer. He stared into my eyes for an immeasurable period of time.
"Are you finished?" he finally asked.
I jumped up. "Yes."
"Get dressed - I'll wait here." Okay, Dad. This getting creepy.
It was hard to decide what to wear. I doubted there were any etiquette books detailing how to dress when your vampire sweetheart takes you home to meet his vampire family. That line would have actually been funny had I not known Bella doesn’t have a witty or clever bone in her body. It was a relief to think the word to myself. I knew I shied away from it intentionally. ::faceapalm:: Ok! She keeps saying over and over how she’s not afraid of Edward or what he is. And here she couldn’t even bring herself to think what he is before. That it cased her to shiver. I knew before that she was barely self-aware of herself, because then she would realize she’s not around people because she doesn’t like them, but this reaches a new level. She has feelings she’s completely repressing because they would interfere with pursuit to bang Edward. In the real world there would be negative repercussions here. Probably causing her to have an outburst and scream at a moment that Edward is showing off some super strength.
I ended up in my only skirt - long, khaki-colored, still casual. I put on the dark blue blouse he'd once complimented. When was that? Does anyone know when that happened? A quick glance in the mirror told me my hair was entirely impossible, so I pulled it back into a pony tail.
"Okay." I bounced down the stairs. "I'm decent."
He was waiting at the foot of the stairs, closer than I'd thought, and I bounded right into him. He steadied me, holding me a careful distance away for a few seconds before suddenly pulling me closer.
"Wrong again," he murmured in my ear. "You are utterly indecent - no one should look so tempting, it's not fair." Should she be wearing a dress that goes past her ankles and one that buttons to the top of her throat? I’m not a fan of much that comes from the Victorian Period. Expect the shoes, those are beautiful.
"Tempting how?" I asked. "I can change…"
He sighed, shaking his head. "You are so absurd." Well you did tell her that she looked “indecent,” what’s she supposed to think? And around Edward’s time women were wearing dress that had short sleeves and came to the knees during summer time. As well as ones that showed they had a shape. And then of course the 20s happened, and if Edward was still in Chicago he would have been in the thick of it, all the drinking and gangster activity and jazz, as his vampire self, of course, but still there. And has Meyer ever read the Great Gatsby? I think to often people automatically think that “in the past” means “better morals.” ::rolls eyes:: If Meyer wanted Ed to act like a Victoria then she should have made him a few decades older. But this just feeds into the fact that Meyer, as well as knowing nothing about biology or writing, she doesn’t know anything about history either. He pressed his cool lips delicately to my forehead, and the room spun. The smell of his breath made it impossible to think. ::drink::
"Shall I explain how you are tempting me?" he said. It was clearly a rhetorical question. His fingers traced slowly down my spine, his breath coming more quickly against my skin. That line was sort of hot. My hands were limp on his chest, and I felt lightheaded again. He tilted his head slowly and touched his cool lips to mine for the second time, very carefully, parting them slightly.
And then I collapsed.
"Bella?" His voice was alarmed as he caught me and held me up. Edward is just that damn attractive, right?
"You… made… me… faint," I accused him dizzily.
BAHAHAHAHA! Holy shit, that’s funny! You know when I first read that Bella faints once while Ed kisses her I thought “you can’t be serious,” but nope, it’s true. Edward didn’t even get to open mouth kiss her and she collapses. It’s so ridiculous, you have to laugh, there’s nothing else for it. Bella is like some swooning moron who’s supposed to be the prefect woman through the eyes of Victorian society.
"What am I going to do with you?" he groaned in exasperation. "Yesterday I kiss you, and you attack me! When did she attack him? When she hugged him enthusiastically? Today you pass out on me!"
I laughed weakly, letting his arms support me while my head spun.
"So much for being good at everything," he sighed.
"That's the problem." I was still dizzy. "You're too good. Far, far too good." His “flaw” is that he’s too prefect. I think I’m going to be sick.
"Do you feel sick?" Yes Edward, I do. he asked; he'd seen me like this before.
"No - that wasn't the same kind of fainting at all. I don't know what happened." I shook my head apologetically, "I think I forgot to breathe." Affixation is so sexy, guys!
"I can't take you anywhere like this."
"I'm fine," I insisted. "Your family is going to think I'm insane anyway, what's the difference?"
He measured my expression for a moment. "I'm very partial to that color with your skin," he offered unexpectedly. Does he put the lotion on the skin, because otherwise she gets the hose again? I flushed with pleasure, and looked away.
"Look, I'm trying really hard not to think about what I'm about to do, so can we go already?" I asked.
"And you're worried, not because you're headed to meet a houseful of vampires, but because you think those vampires won't approve of you, correct?" Well the “vampires” say that they would never kill humans, so why would she be afraid?
"That's right," I answered immediately, hiding my surprise at his casual use of the word. Well, he is a vampire. I use the words “white” and “student” and “geek” to describe myself and I don’t flinch. Buffy “I’m sorry is vampire offensive. Should I use the term ‘undead America?”’ Plus she used “vampire” casually when he was in Port Angeles and she saw his car.
He shook his head. "You're incredible."
I realized, as he drove my truck out of the main part of town, that I had no idea where he lived. We passed over the bridge at the Calawah River, bet she just got that name out of an atlas, the road winding northward, the houses flashing past us growing farther apart, getting bigger. It’s a mark of a Sue that they’re rich. It’s done to sue-up cannon characters, too. InuYasha is made rich for whatever reason in tons of fics. Which I think is strange since InuYasha, in cannon, lives entirely off of what he can carry and the clothes off his back. And then we were past the other houses altogether, driving through misty forest. I was trying to decide whether to ask or be patient, when he turned abruptly onto an unpaved road. It was unmarked, barely visible among the ferns. The forest encroached on both sides, leaving the road ahead only discernible for a few meters as it twisted, serpentlike, around the ancient trees. I like the description of the road.
And then, after a few miles, there was some thinning of the woods, and we were suddenly in a small meadow, or was it actually a lawn? The gloom of the forest didn't relent, though, for there were six primordial cedars that shaded an entire acre with their vast sweep of branches. “Primordial” ::facepalm:: Meyer really shouldn’t be allowed to historical terms unless she knows what they actually mean. If the trees were “primordial” that means that the tree were there before everything else in that area, before anything at all. I think the dirt had to be there first for the trees to grow on. The trees held their protecting shadow right up to the walls of the house that rose among them, making obsolete the deep porch that wrapped around the first story. What? “Making obsolete the deep porch that wrapped around the first story?” What the hell does that even mean?
I don't know what I had expected, but it definitely wasn't this. The house was timeless, graceful, and probably a hundred years old. It was painted a soft, faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned. How can a house be well proportioned? Does that mean all the windows are the same size or something? The windows and doors were either part of the original structure or a perfect restoration.
My truck was the only car in sight. I could hear the river close by, hidden in the obscurity of the forest.
"Wow."
"You like it?" He smiled.
"It… has a certain charm." I think here’s a moment that Meyer wanted to make Ed and Bella like Elizabeth and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.
He pulled the end of my ponytail and chuckled. Again, this is way to much like a father and his little daughter.
"Ready?" he asked, opening my door.
"Not even a little bit - let's go." I tried to laugh, but it seemed to get stuck in my throat. I smoothed my hair nervously.
"You look lovely." He took my hand easily, without thinking about it.
We walked through the deep shade up to the porch. I knew he could feel my tension; his thumb rubbed soothing circles into the back of my hand.
He opened the door for me. What a gentlemen, you know I open doors for people all the time, so I guess that makes me a gentlemen, too. ::rollseyes::
The inside was even more surprising, less predictable, than the exterior. “Less predictable?” Seriously, who edited this piece of crap? It was very bright, very open, and very large. This must have originally been several rooms, but the walls had been removed from most of the first floor to create one wide space. I don’t know anything about architecture, but I do know that when houses are built with rooms on the inside of the building there are load-bearing walls. You can’t remove them, otherwise the building falls down. Logic fail, Meyer. The back, south-facing wall had been entirely replaced with glass, and, beyond the shade of the cedars, the lawn stretched bare to the wide river. How the hell is this house standing up?! A massive curving staircase dominated the west side of the room. The walls, the high-beamed ceiling, the wooden floors, and the thick carpets were all varying shades of white. Like John Lennon’s New York apartment, that’s interesting. Since Meyer thinks music of that era is “ugh.”
Waiting to greet us, standing just to the left of the door, on a raised portion of the floor by a spectacular grand piano, were Edward's parents.
I'd seen Dr. Cullen before, of course, yet I couldn't help but be struck again by his youth, his outrageous perfection. I think I’ll drink to that. At his side was Esme, I assumed, the only one of the family I'd never seen before. She had the same pale, beautiful features as the rest of them. Something about her heart-shaped face, her billows of soft, caramel-colored hair, reminded me of the ingénues of the silent-movie era. For anyone who wants to know, an ingénue is an unsophisticated girl or young woman: a girl or young woman who is naive and lacks experience or understanding of life. I think it’s a bit odd to call a couple hundred year old vampire naïve. She was small, slender, yet less angular, more rounded than the others. Does that mean she has curves? Haha, I’m getting a mental image of Amy Poler in Mean Girls and her giant boobs. They were both dressed casually, in light colors that matched the inside of the house. They smiled in welcome, but made no move to approach us. Trying not to frighten me, I guessed.
"Carlisle, Esme," Edward's voice broke the short silence, "this is Bella."
"You're very welcome, Bella." Carlisle's step was measured, careful as he approached me. He raised his hand tentatively, and I stepped forward to shake hands with him.
"It's nice to see you again, Dr. Cullen."
"Please, call me Carlisle."
"Carlisle." I grinned at him, my sudden confidence surprising me. I could feel Edward's relief at my side.
Esme smiled and stepped forward as well, reaching for my hand. Her cold, stone grasp was just as I expected. What is Meyer’s deal with stone? I think she must get hot around them, that must make trips to the art museum with her uncomfortable.