Resident Geek: Chapter Thirteen
Title: Resident Geek
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings: Edward/Bella
Rating: NC-17
Chapter: 13/?
Warnings: Strong language, sexuality, and underage drinking.
Summary: Geeky Edward thinks he has absolutely no shot with the popular, beautiful Bella. Is he right, or will she be one of the many girls who thinks geeks make for better lovers? OOC-AH.
A/N: I don’t know how your respective college handles sorority/fraternity events, but this is how mine did it. So if at any point something confuses you, read the end A/N first, then PM me or say something in your comment if it still doesn’t make sense and I’ll try to explain it in a different way.
Thank you to lejen01 and anniej13 for finding the things I missed, pointing out stuff that needed to be expounded on, and generally for just being awesome.
~*~*~
Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
~"Stuck In The Middle With You" by Steeler's Wheel~
~*~*~
Chapter 13
EPOV
The week passed quickly. Classes started, notes were taken, lectures ignored, and information in chapters that magically remained in short-term memory for exactly as long as needed in order to later regurgitate it on tests was assigned and read.
Bella and I didn’t find any time to spend together face-to-face Monday through Wednesday, but we did talk at least once a day and text even more about trivial things, like how our day was going and what we were doing at that moment. Every day I was grateful when the subject of last Saturday didn’t come up. It seemed to me like she was willing to overlook my slip, and I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I didn’t bring it up either.
But my limited contact with her after having the greatest weekend of my young adult life was frustrating, at best. Somehow I strove on, seeking the occasional tryst with my hand in the shower or when I woke up after a particularly hardening dream, always imagining her.
In the throes of passion, moaning my name.
In a scorching red lace lingerie set.
In my bed.
That was the dream. The one I kept coming back to time and again. The one I was determined to make a reality, if I didn’t screw things up any more than I had already.
I drummed my fingers on the small, faux wooden desk in front of me, impatient for Dr. Speegle to finish explaining the difference between a relational database and an object database - both which we would be covering the entire semester. I could have easily learned all of this by reading the chapter he assigned us in half the time he used to explain it and I was adamantly cursing the day he was born when he finally wrapped up the class with a half-hearted apology for keeping us behind.
I had found a mere thirty minutes in Bella’s and my schedules where we were both free for lunch today and now thanks to Professor ‘Hold Us Over Five Minutes,’ I was going to be late.
I grabbed my bag and raced out of the room, crashing through the doors leading outside and barely managing to avoid the crowd of students coming inside. I shouted ‘sorry’ to whomever it was that I hit with my backpack, but didn’t pause as I hauled butt to the Student Union building, otherwise known as the SUB.
Nearing the closest entrance, I slowed down to catch my breath and wipe off my forehead with the sleeve of my shirt. My glasses refused to stay in place with the thin layer of perspiration that had collected on the bridge of my nose, making the eye pieces slippery, so I whipped them off and bent over, using the bottom hem of my shirt to clean off the sweat. Replacing my glasses, I blinked a couple times to refocus my eyes and then headed inside.
It didn’t take me long to spot Bella, who was talking to a petite, cute girl with light brown hair close to where I entered the main part of the SUB - the part with the tables, school computers, couches and LCD TVs arranged in the open space. She glanced over to the entryway when I started toward her and then she did a double-take when she realized it was me. I smiled at her and she returned it.
I felt relieved to finally see her again, like a giant weight lifting from my chest, but also nervous since it was the first time we were going to share the same space since… that night, aka the night my mouth revolted against common sense. And I prayed hard that we would continue mutually ignoring what I had blurted out in a moment of post-coital bliss. It was better this way, at least that’s how I rationalized it, because if we never talked about it, then maybe it would go away.
Bella turned to her companion as I reached them. “I’ll talk to you more about the French assignment tonight, alright Jen?”
Jen glanced at me and then back at Bella, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “Sure, Bella. See ya tonight.”
I barely caught Jen’s meaningful parting look aimed at Bella before the girl in question directed her attention to me. “Edward…” Bella greeted, a slow, but glowing smile appearing, which lit up her face.
“Bella…” I replied, her infectious happiness making me almost giddy.
Then, without a single glance around the room or a thought to the proper etiquette when showing public affection, she reached up, gripped my shoulders, and kissed me in front of everyone. The feel of her soft lips pushed all thought aside and when I wrapped my arms around her small waist, she melted into me. I tightened my arms, enjoying her supple curves and warmth against my body, and moaned against her lips, the sound reverberating inside my mouth.
Thankfully she had the presence of mind to pull back before things heated up between us, but I instantly missed her in my arms. Bella’s eyes shined as she bit her lip and grabbed my hand, guiding me through the crowded tables toward the food court.
We decided on pizza since it was quick and we had limited time together. I paid for our lunches, ignoring Bella’s insistence that she could pay for herself, and we lucked out by finding a small table in a relatively quiet corner.
“How was class?” she asked as we dug into our food.
I shrugged, trying to buy time so I could swallow and not answer with my mouth full of chewed up pizza. “The usual. Code this, debug that. And sorry I was late. My prof decided to hold us over today, which does not set a good precedent for the semester. I’m hoping it doesn’t become a habit. How is your day going?”
Bella made a disgruntled sound. “I don’t know why I decided to take French for my foreign language requirement.” She frowned and paused for a moment. “Okay, I know why I did it, but wanting to read ‘Les Miserables’ in its original language doesn’t seem like a good enough reason anymore.”
I laughed at her cute, pouting expression. “What made you dislike French so much in one day? Weren’t you just telling me yesterday how you wanted to live in France for a year after graduating and how glad you were that you would be able to communicate in their native tongue?”
“Yes,” she agreed reluctantly. “But that was before class today when my teacher decided to pick on me.”
“What did she do?” I probed when Bella didn’t offer up specifics.
“Well, we’re supposed to converse exclusively in French during class and she called on me to answer a question, but I couldn’t remember what a word meant, so I had to look it up. While I was doing that, she starts hassling me about how I will never be able to fully understand French if I don’t practice everyday and she just kept harping on it for like, ten minutes, turning it into this huge lecture about the importance of being disciplined about practicing French every day, even during summer break.”
She took a deep breath while I covered her hand with mine to stop her from picking at her napkin. “It’s bad enough that I didn’t get the question right away, but she didn’t have to lecture me about it.”
“I’m so sorry, Bella. It sounds like she’s a real bitch,” I said sympathetically like the good boyfriend that I was.
Bella chuckled warily. “Yeah… she’s pretty uptight. But, eh” - she shrugged - “what can you do?”
“Still, I’m sorry it happened.”
“Thanks,” she replied with a grateful smile. I squeezed her hand in a show of support and we quickly finished off the rest of our lunch in silence. Once we had thrown away our trash, I pulled out my cell and glanced at the time.
“Crap,” I said. “I need to go. My shift starts in ten minutes.”
“Okay,” Bella sighed. She interlaced her hand in mine and we walked outside, lingering for a minute before we went our separate ways.
“Oh! I almost forgot,” she announced suddenly, swinging her backpack around under her arm. She released my hand to unzip her bag and pulled out something pink. I had a horrible suspicion I knew what she was going to say next.
“Here’s your shirt for the party tomorrow,” she said, thrusting the offensive pink thing in my hands. I just knew she was going to say that. I shook it out and grimaced at the overall pinkness of it.
Bella laughed at my expression. “Everyone has to wear that color. It’s not a personal affront to you.”
“But why did it have to be pink?” I whined.
“You don’t have to wear it to the actual party, just during the day.”
“Oh, like that helps my street rep,” I shot back.
She laughed. “I think your street rep will be okay… and just think, Ben has to wear the same shirt,” she said, smiling smugly because she knew she’d won me over with that fact. Just imagining Ben having to suffer along with me was enough to accept the shirt without any more complaints.
With a quick kiss on my cheek and a wave, she bounded away to her next class, her ponytail swinging in time with her hips. I sighed and hurried to the library, shoving the shirt in my bag while wondering how I had become involved with a sorority that forced guys to wear pink.
~*~*~
The next morning, I stepped out of my room, giving myself a self-esteem boost by saying there would be other guys wearing the same shirt because I knew, knew I was going to be maligned for wearing preppy pink when I was supposed to be rocking geek chic. I was just glad I didn’t have to work today because those guys were absolutely merciless.
I was exiting the kitchen with a breakfast bar in hand when Ben came out of his room, swinging his messenger bag over his chest. My jaw dropped in astonishment, followed quickly by outrage.
“What the FUCK is that?!” I exclaimed, pointing at his chest.
He looked down and then back at me, a smug ass smirk on his face. “Not a gay colored shirt?”
I stormed toward him, indignation radiating off me at the sight of his identical shirt, except that it was black. “No! You do NOT get to wear that shirt while I have to wear this one!”
The bastard had the nerve to shrug nonchalantly in my face. “What can I say? My woman knows better than to force feed me pink.”
I glared at him, my free hand curling into a fist while my pissed off side screamed at me to punch that smirk off his face. Taking a couple deep breaths, my initial outrage cooled enough for me to unfurl my fist.
“Whatever,” I retorted vehemently, spinning around and grabbing my bag off the couch where I had thrown it last night. I left the apartment in a worse mood than I had started the day with, trying to condense the rant that was running through my mind into text message form to send to Bella. I couldn’t believe she’d made me wear pink while Ben was kicking back with a black shirt.
I ripped the crinkly aluminum wrapper off the breakfast bar and tore off a mouthful as I stormed down the street toward campus.
Sure, to an outsider this would appear to be a peccadillo, but I had standards, damn it! And one of those standards was never letting the color pink touch this body unless it was wrapped around a girl.
But, my rational side countered, Bella didn’t know Ben’s shirt was black, did she?
That made me pause. Because she hadn’t known.
Double damn it.
My anger dissipated with each step I took toward my first class until I felt guilty for being mad at Bella. It wasn’t her fault whoever was in charge of making the shirts chose the color pink. But I could always hunt that person down and make her pay.
Thoughts of revenge flickered through my mind, making me smile as each one became more creative. I finally settled on creating a giant cotton candy machine, wrapping her, whoever she was, in pink cotton candy, and then making her walk around like that all day.
~*~*~
This was ridiculous. After spending all day in degrading pink, you would think I’d jump at the chance to pick out my own shirt to wear to the party tonight. Yet here I was, standing in front of my closet, staring at the clothes hanging in some semblance of order blankly. Not only that, but I was starting to get cold standing around shirtless for so long.
Okay, need to go with something nice, but not dressy. Maybe a plaid button-up?
I looked over the two plaid button-up shirts I owned critically.
No. What about a plain color shirt?
I moved the line of shirts down one by one and glanced at each one. Crap. I sucked at this. Whatever happened to letting my mother pick out my clothing? I never had to worry about looking stupid because she always knew what looked good on me.
I briefly thought about calling her… but then quickly decided that was retarded. I was a big boy now. I just needed to put on my big boy pants and pick something.
I snorted at that thought because I was already wearing pants. It was a shirt I needed to put on.
Laughing at myself, I grabbed a short sleeved, dark blue striped button down and pulled that on, buttoning it up as I walked into my bathroom. My hair was a hopeless cause, as always, but that never stopped me from playing with it to see if maybe today would be the day it did what I wanted.
Unfortunately, today wasn’t that day so, with a last ruffle of my hair, I left my bathroom, grabbed my wallet and keys off the desk and exited the bedroom.
Ben and I had decided to walk to the party since parking would be a headache to deal with on a Friday night. I had tentatively forgiven him for this morning, but it was still a quiet stroll through the campus. I think he could feel how nervous I was and for once was giving me a break.
Nearing the KD house, we came upon a scene of chaos. College students spilled out of the front door, every one of them holding a Blue Solo plastic cup in his or her hands, thrashing around in time with the heavy beating of bass and drums emitting through the open door.
I rolled my eyes at the blue cups, wondering if that was little detail was chosen by the same person who was in charge of the shirt color.
Ben looked at me before we turned onto the walkway leading up to the house and, adopting a poor Dr. McCoy accent, asked, “My God, Jim, where are we?”
I smirked and answered with my best Captain Kirk impersonation, “Out of control and blind as a bat.”
We smiled knowingly at each other and with a look that asked ‘shall we?’, we headed inside, pushing our way past the people milling around the entrance. Our heads swiveled in opposite directions once we hit the main room, seeking out the girls.
“Do you see them?” I yelled in Ben's direction once my searching was deemed futile.
“No!” Ben shouted over his shoulder at me. “Wait! …Bella’s over there!” He pointed at a cluster of bodies on the opposite side of the room. I craned my neck over the gyrating people in the open space in front of us and caught a glimpse of perfection, known to others as Bella.
I smiled broadly and pushed my way toward her, not even waiting for Ben to spot Angela before I abandoned him. All my thoughts were focused on reaching Bella. On seeing her smiling face again.
God, I was so whipped.
But somehow, I didn't care. If it meant being graced by her presence and kisses and smiles, then I would gladly be 'whipped' and do her bidding. Hell, I'd worn pink for her, hadn't I?
I think that said it all right there.
“Bella,” I shouted to catch her attention, finally breaking through the last line of people who were between her and me. Turning around to see who had called out her name, she smiled when she saw me. She reached out and I grabbed her hand, pulling her close and encircling her waist. She reciprocated by wrapping her arms around my waist and relaxing against me.
Suddenly the music, the crowd, the feeling of being pressed inside an enclosed space, and my anxiety from that was gone. All because she was in my arms again. I leaned forward and rested my forehead against hers.
“I'm glad you're here,” she said over the noise. I smiled and hugged her, burying my face in the side of her neck and breathing in deeply.
“Me too,” I replied after lifting my head so I was close enough to see her face, but not far enough away where I had to shout for her to hear me over the music and the other people yelling at each other. She reached up to run her fingers softly across my cheek and then chastely kissed me.
“I want you to meet some friends of mine,” she said after pulling away. She grabbed my hand and tugged it in the direction of the group of people she had been talking to before I showed up.
I followed along and stood by her side awkwardly as she shouted to them that I was Edward and then proceeded to point to each person and introduce us. First up was the girl she had been talking to in the SUB yesterday. “This is Jen. She's in French class with me.”
Jen and I shook hands and exchanged 'Hi's. Then there was a pretty, straight brown haired girl standing beside Jen. “This is Annie. She's the sweetest person you'll ever meet.” Annie laughed like she couldn't believe Bella had said that and shook my hand.
Standing next to Annie was Alice and Jasper. Alice and I nodded at each other and Bella looked at me with an inquisitive expression. “Have you met Jasper yet?”
I shook my head 'no' and was then formally introduced to surfer-slash-model boy. I was surprised to hear a slight twang in his voice rather than the young, Californian Keanu Reeves tone I’d imagined he would have. Taking his hand in a firm shake with my right hand, I slid my left hand around Bella's waist in a show of possession. Just to let him know what was what. He raised his eyebrows slightly in response, but appeared amused more than put off that I would stake my claim where Bella was concerned. Once introductions were over, Bella asked me if I wanted something to drink.
“I can get it,” I insisted, glancing around for the entrance to the kitchen.
She placed a hand on my chest and rose up on her toes to speak at a normal volume into my ear. “Don't be silly. I'm one of the hostesses of this party so it's my job to make sure every guest here is well supplied with alcohol and salty snacks. Now, what do you want?”
“Um, a beer would be alright, I guess.”
“Be right back,” she replied, giving me a quick peck on the cheek before walking away. I was left by myself with a group of people I didn't know, a situation I usually tried to avoid.
Annie smiled sympathetically, probably seeing my distress, and asked me the usual five questions you ask when you meet another college student, much like name, rank and serial number for any soldier. I answered them quickly, on the lookout for Bella's reassuring presence more than thinking about my answers. Annie drifted into the main conversation taking place between everyone else once I didn't try to engage her in the same questions because I was too antsy for Bella to get back. Crowded rooms and new people invoked the flight response in me. I needed Bella around to stop that from happening.
Turning to Jen, who was closest to me, I asked her where the kitchen was and she pointed to my left. I excused myself and went in search of Bella because if she wasn't coming to me, then I was going to her.
I made it through the bodies of people and rounded the corner into a hallway, thankful that the music was a little muffled in this part of the house. The kitchen was right in front of me but there was no sign of Bella, so I turned left down the hallway, keeping an eye out for her. It was crowded here as well, but it was mostly couples chatting it up without the blasting music impeding their 'getting to know you' conversations.
I made slow progress down the hallway, then the couple to my right shifted and I saw Bella. She was leaning back on the wall with a tall, muscular, tan guy hovering over her, his right arm holding his weight against the wall next to her head, hiding her face from me. It felt like a shift kick in the gut when I saw them all cozy in a dark corner of the hallway.
What the hell was she playing at, inviting me here only to drop me the second I show up for this guy? This guy who looked strangely familiar with his black hair...
The heavy weight of betrayal hit me, making me stagger under its weight. I became blindingly angry at being played for a fool. I may be a nerd, but I wasn't someone's play thing. Seething now, I pushed past two guys who were walking the opposite way and had momentarily blocked my view of Bella and my new arch-nemesis. They came back into view and I paused, the air whooshing out of me and taking all my feelings of injustice with it.
Because Bella wasn't canoodling with this guy, she was struggling. His arm had moved so I could see her face as he stroked her hair. Her teeth were clenched as she said something to him that I couldn't hear and she looked like she would bring fire and brimstone down on his head if she could. He whispered something in her ear, forcing her to turn her head in my direction, but she didn't see me because her eyes were closed tight and she was grimacing at whatever he said.
My anger abruptly switched its target to the guy touching my girlfriend against her will. I knew he was going to kick my ass, but that wasn't going to stop me. I had to defend my lady, even if it meant certain harm. So without letting myself think about what I was doing, I strode forward and grabbed his arm, yelling out, “Hey!”
He spun around and I instantly recognized him from the party a week and a half ago, the one where Bella and I had met. It was for this guy's benefit that Bella had pretended I was her boyfriend. When he turned I saw that his right hand was gripping Bella's wrist. Her hand was fisted like she had been trying to pull away, but couldn’t.
“Get your hands off her!” I shouted in righteous rage.
He snorted like I wasn't worth his time. “Scram, dork. I know you're not her boyfriend. I asked around.”
I glanced briefly at Bella's fearful face and grabbed her other wrist, hoping this would show Goliath that I meant business. “Well, your information's wrong, asshole, because I am her boyfriend. Now let go of her.”
He sneered, dropping Bella's wrist, and looked at her. “You sure get around, don't you?”
Bella's face became a thing of livid, raging beauty, so much so that I was a little afraid for my life for about a split second. I quickly let go of her hand, seeing her intention before the jerk taunting her did. She gritted her teeth and drew her fist back, then punched him square against the jaw.
He appeared stunned that she would strike him, which was probably why he didn’t protect himself when she kneed him with so much force behind it that I felt it.
I sucked in air through clenched teeth, empathically feeling the guy’s pain because what guy didn’t know what it was like to get kneed in the balls? It hurt. Like a mother.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t derive some pleasure from his face twisting in agony as he grabbed his balls and fell to his knees. Bella leaned in really close to his face after he fell and spat out, “Don’t ever come near me again or you won’t walk for a week. You got me, Jake?”
He nodded grimly, probably too out of it to fully understand what she had said. I glanced around us in surprise as applause broke out. It seemed we had attracted quite the crowd, giving the people some soap opera entertainment to liven up the party.
Grabbing Bella’s hand, I led her away from the crowd and the moaning Jake, who was still kneeling on the floor. Some people clapped Bella on the back as we walked by and offered their opinions on how ‘awesome’ that was. Bella grimaced, but otherwise took the praise well as we made our way to the kitchen.
It was less crowded in here and Bella propped herself against the center island, farthest away from the short line of people who were waiting for their chance at the keg. The noise and everyone around us faded into the background as I focused on inspecting her knuckles and wrist for any bruising or cuts. Checking each finger, I pressed here and there, quietly asking if it hurt. She shook her head ‘no’ each time, but I caught the slight frown she made when I extended her middle finger out.
“Stay here,” I commanded before walking over to where the non-alcoholic drinks were lined up and wrapped some ice in a couple napkins. I placed the wrapped ice on top of her knuckles when I reached her side again and told her to hold it there for a little while to help with the swelling.
She gave me a small smile. “When did you become pre-med?” she joked lightly.
Pushing the hair away from her face, I cupped her cheek and stared into her eyes, letting all of my concern for her show. “Are you okay? Really okay? Because if that dipshit touched you-”
Bella shook her head. “I’m fine, Edward. Please stop fussing over me. But… thank you for showing up. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get away from him.”
I snorted in disgust. “Fat lot of good I did. You’re the one who brought him down.”
She smiled sadly and tilted her head until it rested against my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her close, slowly letting the adrenaline that had been pumping through me since I first saw Bella and my mortal enemy number one, aka Jake, run through me. I hoped his balls turned black and blue and fell off. That'd teach him to mess with Bella.
Bella shifted around, placing her right hand with the ice on it on top of the island counter, and then hooked her left arm around my back, pressing us together tightly while she clutched the back of my shirt. I held her against me, occasionally rubbing her back as I let her ride out her own adrenaline rush. Coming down from that kind of high could lead to shaking, incoherent babbling, and hyperventilation, all of which wouldn't help right now.
A thought cropped up, nudging aside my concern for Bella a little bit.
What had they said to each other before I interrupted? And why hadn't she mentioned that this Jake guy was more of a threat then she'd let on? All she had said was that he was 'an unwanted admirer'. Had he tried shit like this before? And what had he meant when he said 'you sure get around'?
This whole thing was a blaring 'you don't know this girl as well as you thought you did' sign. Just when I thought I was moving ahead one space, something like this knocks me back three and I find myself farther back than where I had started.
So many questions... ones that only Bella could answer. But could I burden her with them right now?
Her grip on me loosened and she released my shirt. Her arm slid down my back until it reached the top of my jeans, then she pulled back and sighed.
“We should probably get back in there. I want to know what happened... after,” Bella said, raising her right hand up, the one she had punched Jake with, to look at it.
“Bella-” I started to ask my most pressing question - What did he say to you before I interrupted? - but we were interrupted ourselves. Coincidence, meet irony.
“Bella!”
Bella and I both turned in the direction her name was shouted from and saw Alice, wide-eyed and bearing down on us with Jasper in tow. She slid to a stop in front of Bella and grabbed her arm.
“What the hell happened?! I heard you kicked the shit out of Jake! Is that true?” Her head swiveled back and forth to look between Bella and me.
“Alice, it wasn't as dramatic as that. I just reminded him that I'm not the pushover he thinks I am,” Bella explained, stepping away from me and focusing fully on Alice. I left her to reassure Alice, giving them some alone time, but really I wanted some information. Walking the short distance to where Jasper was standing, we nodded at each other in the universal guy language that said 'hey, man'.
I stuck my hands in the back pockets of my pants and took a deep breath before plunging in. “Is he still here?”
I didn't have to clarify who 'he' was.
“No, a few guys who are friends of Bella's heard what happened and took him outside to finish off the job that she started.” He chuckled and added, “I heard she made him cry.”
I shook my head. “I wish. She kneed him hard enough that I probably would have wept like a baby.”
“Man, that's harsh. But that's Bella for ya.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, confused that this guy who, as far as I knew, met Bella two days after I did would have more insight into her personality than me.
Jasper shrugged. “Ya know, she doesn't take crap from people. Like what happened last year... you never would have guessed it went down like it did because she never seemed affected by it.”
“What are you talking about? What happened last year?”
“Shoot... I thought you knew.” He glanced over at Alice and Bella nervously. “I should let her tell you. It's her story anyway. I only know what I heard from other people and you know how unreliable that can be.”
We fell into silence, watching the girls talk while I brimmed with excess energy, bursting to ask more questions about this mysterious event that surrounded Bella’s past.
Bella smiled brightly, shook her head at something Alice said, and then motioned to the other side of the kitchen. Alice shrugged and then walked over to us, while Bella went over to the line of people waiting for beer, throwing away the napkins now dripping from melted ice without breaking stride.
“What's she doing?” I asked Alice, keeping my eyes on Bella.
“She said she needed something to drink.”
“Huh. I'll see you guys later,” I said distractedly, walking away before they responded. Or if they did respond, I didn't hear them. Stopping behind Bella, I placed my hands on her hips and bent my head down until my mouth was even with her ear. “Do you want to get out of here? Just go somewhere quieter?”
She shook her head, gripping my hands and pulling my arms around her like a blanket. “Alice said John, Bryce and Chris took care of Jacob,” she said quietly.
Those names vaguely registered from last week at the pizza place and I felt a twinge of pity for Jacob because the guys who went with those names were by no means scrawny.
Bella retrieved a plastic cup full of beer from the guy handing them out while I removed my arms from around her. She quaffed the beer down, seemingly in one gulp. Holding the cup out, she had it refilled and then started to walk away. I followed behind her, not really sure what to do.
Was it wise to watch her drink herself into a superficial stupor? Because at the rate she was going, it wouldn’t take long.
We headed back to the main room and through the tumultuous swell of bodies, I saw Angela and Ben at the same time they saw us. They must have been waiting for us because they wasted no time making their way over.
“Bella! Are you okay?” Angela asked, concern written all over her face. Bella grimaced and waved her hand in front of her face while she raised her cup with the other and took a drink. I guess that was her way of avoiding answering.
Angela’s eyebrows rose in question and she looked at me, silently asking what was going on with Bella. I shrugged because I wasn’t sure. Was this normal party behavior for her or was it something else?
I had to guess it wasn’t normal party behavior if Angela was wondering what was going on, so that left coping mechanism. And drinking as a coping mechanism never ended well, for anyone.
“Bella, baby, why don’t you slow down on the beer?” I suggested lightly.
She stared at me for a couple beats and then slowly nodded. “Okay…”
I breathed a sigh of relief when she went back to the kitchen to switch out drinks. Angela practically tackled me for details about the encounter with Jacob once Bella was out of sight. I told her everything I had seen and when I relayed Jacob’s parting words before Bella went Chuck Norris on him, she grew very quiet and introspective.
I really needed to learn what happened last year because my nescience on the subject was becoming irritating. Everyone but me seemed to know about it.
Bella came back with what looked like red kool-aid in her cup and we switched topics to something safe, like how the first week of classes had gone. We ran out of things to say and Angela and Ben drifted away. Bella went back to get a refill and I tagged along to grab something as well.
We talked to mostly people that Bella knew for another hour or so, running only into a few people I was acquainted with, either from class or helping them with an IT problem. Mainly Bella talked. I nodded, sipped my drink, and tried not to feel too uncomfortable meeting so many new people in one night. I even caught sight of Emmett at one point, but he was too engrossed in some blonde to take notice of me.
And it was all going fine, that is until some pop song started pumping through the speakers and Bella pulled me out into the middle of the room - the designated ‘dance floor’ - claiming this was one of her favorite songs. I went along with it, even though I hated dancing. I was horrible at it. I knew this, I accepted it and I even told Bella as much, but she waved me off, saying I would be fine.
It was one of those fast, upbeat songs and the girl was singing about how this guy was first hot and then cold toward her. It sounded to me like he was bipolar and she should get him some sort of psychiatric help, but Bella seemed to enjoy the song. And damn did I love watching her enjoy the song.
Her arms were raised over her head and she swayed in time with the music, her hips making little figure eights. So fucking delectable… I wanted to just grab her, drag her against me and never let go.
I wasn’t really paying attention to my erratic movements. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was just standing still, staring at Bella’s hips. But suddenly I was jarred out of fantasy land when Bella jumped in the air and then wrapped her arms around my neck, almost falling in the process. I held her steady with my hands on her hips, just where they had been itching to be only seconds before. It was a gratifying feeling that she literally fell into my hands like she had.
Until I noticed she was drunk. Slap happy drunk, by the looks of it.
Bella smiled sloppily up at me, entwining her fingers in my hair. “God, you’re gorgeous,” she said loudly, probably thinking she was being quiet.
Shit.
I leaned in and smelled her breath, which reeked of alcohol. I thought back to the last few hours. Had she been sneaking drinks?
No. I had been with her the entire time… except for the first time she went to the kitchen.
Crap. And the third time. She had offered to refill our drinks so I could finish explaining to Brian, this guy who had been in one of my classes last year, why Simon Pegg in the upcoming Star Trek movie was a brilliant casting decision.
It must have been the punch. She had been steadily drinking it for the past hour or so. It must have been spiked.
Of course it had. This was a party. The punch is always spiked at parties.
Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I should have figured that out before now.
I sighed, frowning down at drunk Bella and trying to ignore how cute she looked when she was completely out of it. Because it was wrong to entertain sexual fantasies of drunk girls.
There were rules about that.
I looked around for Alice or Angela, wondering what the procedure was for handling an intoxicated person who was underage. But I didn’t see either of them.
And Bella’s hands were suddenly inside my shirt.
I backed away, gently extracting her hands from underneath my shirt, much to my body’s disgust because damn, her hands on my skin had felt heavenly.
Focus, Cullen.
I needed to get her out of here before she did something she’d later regret. Hauling her off the dance floor, almost supporting her as she was unwilling to leave, I found a relatively quieter and less crowded spot against a wall in another room.
“Bella,” I said, trying to get her attention. She was too busy running her hands through my hair to concentrate.
“Bella,” I tried again, forcing her hands away from my hair. She pouted and looked at me from underneath her lashes prettily. My heart contracted at the sight, but I refused to be distracted. At least she was paying attention now. “I’m going to take you to your room now, okay? You need to lie down.”
She looked at me quizzically. “Are you going to lie down too?”
“Umm…” I wasn’t really sure how to answer that. “If you want me to…”
She nodded enthusiastically, biting her lip, and then giggled. I have no idea why she giggled, but it was very cute and very distracting. I found myself grinning at her, involuntarily catching her playful mood.
Gaaaah! Focus, man!
Shaking it off, I hoisted Bella to an upright position and we somehow made it up to her room with her stumbling a lot and me trying to keep us from falling. I deposited Bella on her bed and went back to shut the door, making sure it was locked so no party-goers could interrupt Bella while she slept the alcohol out of her system.
Turning around, I watched as Bella tried to get her sneakers off. She tugged one off but the other one appeared to give her some trouble. Grabbing the bottom with both hands, she pulled as hard as she could and ended up falling over on the bed, laughing.
I rolled my eyes at her silliness, which was fucking adorable, and proceeded to kneel on the floor by the bed to remove the troublesome shoe for her.
“Thank you, Clark,” she sighed, running a hand down my face. “I always liked you better than Superman…” Then she rolled over on the bed and curled into a ball.
Well… crap. Should I stay? Should I go?
And know I had The Clash song playing in my head.
Perfect.
I stood up and stared down at her, hoping she’d give me some sort of hint to help me with my decision. She looked so peaceful that I didn’t want to disturb her, but damn if I didn’t feel like I was owed some answers.
“Bella,” I said softly, shaking her shoulder.
She stirred and rolled onto her back, rubbing her eyes. “Mmm… Edward? Hey…” She smiled sleepily and reached for me.
I allowed myself to be pulled onto the bed and sat down next to her. “Can I ask you something?”
“Only if you lie down,” she insisted, scooting over to make room for me.
With a sigh of defeat, although I was secretly jumping around like a little boy at a monster truck rally inside, I kicked my shoes off and stretched out beside Bella. She curled into me, snuggling her head into the crook of my shoulder.
“Much better,” she said, sighing contently. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her, agreeing with her that this was indeed much better.
I tried to ease into my question, softening the blow by rubbing her side with my left hand and covering the hand she had on my chest with my right. “Bella… was this the first time Jacob tried something with you?”
She shook her head. “He asked me out before, but never got rough.” She propped herself up on one elbow and studied my face. “Has anyone ever told you you have greateyes? They’re so… green.”
Bella reached for my glasses and I let her slide them off my face, my vision instantly blurring. She placed them on the bedside table and then leaned in closer, sweeping a thumb under my eye and across my cheekbone. “How did you get to be so cute?” she asked, grinning slyly.
“I don’t know about ‘cute’, but really it was just a matter of the dominant genes surfacing while I was in my mother’s womb from the combination of hers and my father’s DNA,” I answered, not really understanding the question.
“You’re silly,” she giggled. Then she bent her head down until her lips were millimeters from mine and breathed, “I want you.”
There was that swift kick in the gut again, but this time it came with a surge of breathless lust, causing me to harden almost instantly. I sputtered, clawing my way up to a sitting position. Bella advanced again, climbing onto my lap and burrowing her hands in my hair.
“Do you not want me?” she gently asked, running one hand down to finger the topmost button on my shirt.
“Yes. Oh, god, yes. I do. It’s just that you’re drunk and I can’t do…this while you’re intoxicated. It’s wrong, Bella. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
She pulled back abruptly and blinked several times in quick succession. “It’s because I’m a whore, isn’t it?”
“What?!” I exclaimed, my eyes going wide with shock. Where the hell had that come from?
Bella actually started to tear up, which frightened the shit out of me. Here was this strong, brave girl who had taken down a guy twice her size only hours before, something I would never be able to do, and now she was crying because she thought I was rejecting her for being a whore.
I officially didn’t understand girls.
“Bella, you’re not a whore. Sshh, sshhh, it’s okay,” I said soothingly, drawing her back into my arms. She collapsed against my chest and hugged me tightly. “You’re not a whore. That statement has no veracity to it.”
Bella let out a little sob and my arms contracted around her, holding her closer. “Oh, god, Bella. Is this because of last week? I know we moved a little fast, hell, I moved a little fast with what I said, but in no way does that mean you’re a whore.”
“Did you mean it?” she asked.
“Did I mean what? That you’re not a…” I couldn’t say the word. Because words have power and by saying it again, I felt like I was giving that word unneeded power and subconsciously implanting it in Bella’s drunken mind. So I skipped over it. “Yes, I meant it.”
“No,” she sighed. “Did you mean what you said after we… about loving me?”
Heh.
Wasn’t expecting her to turn the questioning around like that.
“Umm… yes, I mean, I think I do,” I said quietly. “But I never meant to disclose it so soon.”
She nodded slowly and then became really serious. “Make sure you mean it. Because you can never take it back. Once you say it…” Her head dropped down and then she swiped the palms of her hands across her eyes, lifting her head back up. “Once you say it, it belongs to that person,” she fiercely whispered.
She grabbed my face, squishing it together, and stared intently into my eyes. “You have to trust them with your heart. Do you understand? Because you can’t take it back!”
I felt like I was on the verge of discovering something important about Bella. This was pertinent to whatever was going on inside her and maybe if I asked the right questions, she would talk about it more.
Encircling her wrists with my hands, I pulled them away from my face and wiped away the tears that were threatening to spill over onto her cheeks. “Did you tell someone you loved them?”
Bella nodded ‘yes’ slowly, frowning.
It hurt to know that, but I strove on, wanting to get to the heart of the problem too much. “Did they not say it back?”
She shook her head ‘no’. “I trusted him.”
“I know, sweetie. It was wrong of him to abuse your trust.” I was so close to getting all of the clues. The hum of anticipation ran through me as I asked the next question, “Did this occur last year?”
Her face scrunched up and she started crying again. “I just… I just…” A small sob escaped her lips. “I want it to be over.”
My forehead furrowed in confusion and my mouth started forming another question, but Bella continued on, her face smoothing out as if she had just realized something.
“But you... You’re different. Different from all of them.” She looked thoughtful as she softly added, “Maybe that’s why I want you so much. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to go insane if I don’t touch you all the time.”
I blushed against my will, knowing this wasn’t the time to get flustered from Bella’s admission that she wanted me the same way I wanted her, but it happened anyway.
“Especially when you blush,” she said, which made me blush even more.
“I want you too, Bella.”
“Even though I’m a whore?”
Damn it. I thought we were past this.
I tried once more to convince her. “You’re not a whore. No one thinks you’re a whore.”
She tilted her head to one side and smiled sadly. “But he did.”
Who did? Jake? Did Jake say that? Was that what passed between them before I arrived?
“Who thought that? Jake? I’m going to kill him,” I muttered, my vision narrowing to wiping the floor with that asshole’s face.
“No,” she whispered. “Paul.”
Paul?? I didn’t know a Paul, nor had I been introduced to one recently.
“Who’s Paul? Is he involved with this thing that happened to you last year?” I asked impatiently, because I had to know. I had to know who he was, what happened to her. But most of all, I wanted her to be okay.
Bella shook her head and sighed into my neck. “Tired… Tomorrow…”
I swallowed my anger and complied, holding her while she fell asleep, plotting this Paul’s demise and wishing I could protect her from harm forever.
~*~*~
A/N: You sort of got an answer… Heh.
Oh! Before I get the PMs from Team Jacob about how he was portrayed in this chapter, let me say my piece. I like Jake. I do. But I needed an antagonizer and... I'm too lazy to create an original character. (Hey, at least I'm honest.) Eh, it’s not like he didn’t have it coming to him after Eclipse anyway.
Defs and Refs-
Database difference - In designing a database, you can have a relational design to it, which consists of tables and views (queries). Or you can have an objects database, where the entities and relationships are mapped directly to object classes and named relationships. If you’ve never created a query (like SQL), you won’t understand what any of that means and I wish I was you because SQL is the devil.
Debug - To test or re-write a program in order to remove problems and clean up any unnecessary code. What Microsoft should do more of before releasing software and operating systems for public use.
The shirt thing - For clarification’s sake, at my college every event, party, fundraiser, group - EVERYTHING had its own shirt. And you would wear the shirt that corresponded with whatever was going on that day/night all day. If you were in or dating someone in a sorority or fraternity, you probably accumulated somewhere between twenty to forty shirts a year.
Dr. McCoy and Capt. Kirk quotes - From 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,' which is the one where they go back to the 80s to bring two humpback whales to the 23rd century to save Earth and the Star Fleet. The second best original Star Trek movie, after 'The Wrath of Khan,' in my opinion.
The 5 Questions - What's your name, what's your major, what year are you, what dorm are you in, and where are you from. They probably vary a little depending on where you attend, but those are the core five. (Kristen, that core was just for you. Mwahahahaha)
Chuck Norris - Did you know this guy’s tears can cure cancer? It’s too bad he never cries…
Song they dance to - “Hot and Cold” by Katy Perry, which was pretty popular at the time this story is supposed to be taking place. Now it’s just irritating and overplayed.
Simon Pegg - actor and writer, most known for being in ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, and now ‘Star Trek’. I love this guy. And if you listened to the ‘Extras’ from Mini Episode 3 of the podcast with me and Danielle, you’d hear just how much I love him. (Who else thought he stole every scene he was in throughout ‘Star Trek’? I think they should make a spin-off movie featuring just him.)
The Clash song - ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ The chorus keeps stuck in my head all the time. It’s too damn catchy.
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings: Edward/Bella
Rating: NC-17
Chapter: 13/?
Warnings: Strong language, sexuality, and underage drinking.
Summary: Geeky Edward thinks he has absolutely no shot with the popular, beautiful Bella. Is he right, or will she be one of the many girls who thinks geeks make for better lovers? OOC-AH.
A/N: I don’t know how your respective college handles sorority/fraternity events, but this is how mine did it. So if at any point something confuses you, read the end A/N first, then PM me or say something in your comment if it still doesn’t make sense and I’ll try to explain it in a different way.
Thank you to lejen01 and anniej13 for finding the things I missed, pointing out stuff that needed to be expounded on, and generally for just being awesome.
~*~*~
Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
~"Stuck In The Middle With You" by Steeler's Wheel~
~*~*~
Chapter 13
EPOV
The week passed quickly. Classes started, notes were taken, lectures ignored, and information in chapters that magically remained in short-term memory for exactly as long as needed in order to later regurgitate it on tests was assigned and read.
Bella and I didn’t find any time to spend together face-to-face Monday through Wednesday, but we did talk at least once a day and text even more about trivial things, like how our day was going and what we were doing at that moment. Every day I was grateful when the subject of last Saturday didn’t come up. It seemed to me like she was willing to overlook my slip, and I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I didn’t bring it up either.
But my limited contact with her after having the greatest weekend of my young adult life was frustrating, at best. Somehow I strove on, seeking the occasional tryst with my hand in the shower or when I woke up after a particularly hardening dream, always imagining her.
In the throes of passion, moaning my name.
In a scorching red lace lingerie set.
In my bed.
That was the dream. The one I kept coming back to time and again. The one I was determined to make a reality, if I didn’t screw things up any more than I had already.
I drummed my fingers on the small, faux wooden desk in front of me, impatient for Dr. Speegle to finish explaining the difference between a relational database and an object database - both which we would be covering the entire semester. I could have easily learned all of this by reading the chapter he assigned us in half the time he used to explain it and I was adamantly cursing the day he was born when he finally wrapped up the class with a half-hearted apology for keeping us behind.
I had found a mere thirty minutes in Bella’s and my schedules where we were both free for lunch today and now thanks to Professor ‘Hold Us Over Five Minutes,’ I was going to be late.
I grabbed my bag and raced out of the room, crashing through the doors leading outside and barely managing to avoid the crowd of students coming inside. I shouted ‘sorry’ to whomever it was that I hit with my backpack, but didn’t pause as I hauled butt to the Student Union building, otherwise known as the SUB.
Nearing the closest entrance, I slowed down to catch my breath and wipe off my forehead with the sleeve of my shirt. My glasses refused to stay in place with the thin layer of perspiration that had collected on the bridge of my nose, making the eye pieces slippery, so I whipped them off and bent over, using the bottom hem of my shirt to clean off the sweat. Replacing my glasses, I blinked a couple times to refocus my eyes and then headed inside.
It didn’t take me long to spot Bella, who was talking to a petite, cute girl with light brown hair close to where I entered the main part of the SUB - the part with the tables, school computers, couches and LCD TVs arranged in the open space. She glanced over to the entryway when I started toward her and then she did a double-take when she realized it was me. I smiled at her and she returned it.
I felt relieved to finally see her again, like a giant weight lifting from my chest, but also nervous since it was the first time we were going to share the same space since… that night, aka the night my mouth revolted against common sense. And I prayed hard that we would continue mutually ignoring what I had blurted out in a moment of post-coital bliss. It was better this way, at least that’s how I rationalized it, because if we never talked about it, then maybe it would go away.
Bella turned to her companion as I reached them. “I’ll talk to you more about the French assignment tonight, alright Jen?”
Jen glanced at me and then back at Bella, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “Sure, Bella. See ya tonight.”
I barely caught Jen’s meaningful parting look aimed at Bella before the girl in question directed her attention to me. “Edward…” Bella greeted, a slow, but glowing smile appearing, which lit up her face.
“Bella…” I replied, her infectious happiness making me almost giddy.
Then, without a single glance around the room or a thought to the proper etiquette when showing public affection, she reached up, gripped my shoulders, and kissed me in front of everyone. The feel of her soft lips pushed all thought aside and when I wrapped my arms around her small waist, she melted into me. I tightened my arms, enjoying her supple curves and warmth against my body, and moaned against her lips, the sound reverberating inside my mouth.
Thankfully she had the presence of mind to pull back before things heated up between us, but I instantly missed her in my arms. Bella’s eyes shined as she bit her lip and grabbed my hand, guiding me through the crowded tables toward the food court.
We decided on pizza since it was quick and we had limited time together. I paid for our lunches, ignoring Bella’s insistence that she could pay for herself, and we lucked out by finding a small table in a relatively quiet corner.
“How was class?” she asked as we dug into our food.
I shrugged, trying to buy time so I could swallow and not answer with my mouth full of chewed up pizza. “The usual. Code this, debug that. And sorry I was late. My prof decided to hold us over today, which does not set a good precedent for the semester. I’m hoping it doesn’t become a habit. How is your day going?”
Bella made a disgruntled sound. “I don’t know why I decided to take French for my foreign language requirement.” She frowned and paused for a moment. “Okay, I know why I did it, but wanting to read ‘Les Miserables’ in its original language doesn’t seem like a good enough reason anymore.”
I laughed at her cute, pouting expression. “What made you dislike French so much in one day? Weren’t you just telling me yesterday how you wanted to live in France for a year after graduating and how glad you were that you would be able to communicate in their native tongue?”
“Yes,” she agreed reluctantly. “But that was before class today when my teacher decided to pick on me.”
“What did she do?” I probed when Bella didn’t offer up specifics.
“Well, we’re supposed to converse exclusively in French during class and she called on me to answer a question, but I couldn’t remember what a word meant, so I had to look it up. While I was doing that, she starts hassling me about how I will never be able to fully understand French if I don’t practice everyday and she just kept harping on it for like, ten minutes, turning it into this huge lecture about the importance of being disciplined about practicing French every day, even during summer break.”
She took a deep breath while I covered her hand with mine to stop her from picking at her napkin. “It’s bad enough that I didn’t get the question right away, but she didn’t have to lecture me about it.”
“I’m so sorry, Bella. It sounds like she’s a real bitch,” I said sympathetically like the good boyfriend that I was.
Bella chuckled warily. “Yeah… she’s pretty uptight. But, eh” - she shrugged - “what can you do?”
“Still, I’m sorry it happened.”
“Thanks,” she replied with a grateful smile. I squeezed her hand in a show of support and we quickly finished off the rest of our lunch in silence. Once we had thrown away our trash, I pulled out my cell and glanced at the time.
“Crap,” I said. “I need to go. My shift starts in ten minutes.”
“Okay,” Bella sighed. She interlaced her hand in mine and we walked outside, lingering for a minute before we went our separate ways.
“Oh! I almost forgot,” she announced suddenly, swinging her backpack around under her arm. She released my hand to unzip her bag and pulled out something pink. I had a horrible suspicion I knew what she was going to say next.
“Here’s your shirt for the party tomorrow,” she said, thrusting the offensive pink thing in my hands. I just knew she was going to say that. I shook it out and grimaced at the overall pinkness of it.
Bella laughed at my expression. “Everyone has to wear that color. It’s not a personal affront to you.”
“But why did it have to be pink?” I whined.
“You don’t have to wear it to the actual party, just during the day.”
“Oh, like that helps my street rep,” I shot back.
She laughed. “I think your street rep will be okay… and just think, Ben has to wear the same shirt,” she said, smiling smugly because she knew she’d won me over with that fact. Just imagining Ben having to suffer along with me was enough to accept the shirt without any more complaints.
With a quick kiss on my cheek and a wave, she bounded away to her next class, her ponytail swinging in time with her hips. I sighed and hurried to the library, shoving the shirt in my bag while wondering how I had become involved with a sorority that forced guys to wear pink.
~*~*~
The next morning, I stepped out of my room, giving myself a self-esteem boost by saying there would be other guys wearing the same shirt because I knew, knew I was going to be maligned for wearing preppy pink when I was supposed to be rocking geek chic. I was just glad I didn’t have to work today because those guys were absolutely merciless.
I was exiting the kitchen with a breakfast bar in hand when Ben came out of his room, swinging his messenger bag over his chest. My jaw dropped in astonishment, followed quickly by outrage.
“What the FUCK is that?!” I exclaimed, pointing at his chest.
He looked down and then back at me, a smug ass smirk on his face. “Not a gay colored shirt?”
I stormed toward him, indignation radiating off me at the sight of his identical shirt, except that it was black. “No! You do NOT get to wear that shirt while I have to wear this one!”
The bastard had the nerve to shrug nonchalantly in my face. “What can I say? My woman knows better than to force feed me pink.”
I glared at him, my free hand curling into a fist while my pissed off side screamed at me to punch that smirk off his face. Taking a couple deep breaths, my initial outrage cooled enough for me to unfurl my fist.
“Whatever,” I retorted vehemently, spinning around and grabbing my bag off the couch where I had thrown it last night. I left the apartment in a worse mood than I had started the day with, trying to condense the rant that was running through my mind into text message form to send to Bella. I couldn’t believe she’d made me wear pink while Ben was kicking back with a black shirt.
I ripped the crinkly aluminum wrapper off the breakfast bar and tore off a mouthful as I stormed down the street toward campus.
Sure, to an outsider this would appear to be a peccadillo, but I had standards, damn it! And one of those standards was never letting the color pink touch this body unless it was wrapped around a girl.
But, my rational side countered, Bella didn’t know Ben’s shirt was black, did she?
That made me pause. Because she hadn’t known.
Double damn it.
My anger dissipated with each step I took toward my first class until I felt guilty for being mad at Bella. It wasn’t her fault whoever was in charge of making the shirts chose the color pink. But I could always hunt that person down and make her pay.
Thoughts of revenge flickered through my mind, making me smile as each one became more creative. I finally settled on creating a giant cotton candy machine, wrapping her, whoever she was, in pink cotton candy, and then making her walk around like that all day.
~*~*~
This was ridiculous. After spending all day in degrading pink, you would think I’d jump at the chance to pick out my own shirt to wear to the party tonight. Yet here I was, standing in front of my closet, staring at the clothes hanging in some semblance of order blankly. Not only that, but I was starting to get cold standing around shirtless for so long.
Okay, need to go with something nice, but not dressy. Maybe a plaid button-up?
I looked over the two plaid button-up shirts I owned critically.
No. What about a plain color shirt?
I moved the line of shirts down one by one and glanced at each one. Crap. I sucked at this. Whatever happened to letting my mother pick out my clothing? I never had to worry about looking stupid because she always knew what looked good on me.
I briefly thought about calling her… but then quickly decided that was retarded. I was a big boy now. I just needed to put on my big boy pants and pick something.
I snorted at that thought because I was already wearing pants. It was a shirt I needed to put on.
Laughing at myself, I grabbed a short sleeved, dark blue striped button down and pulled that on, buttoning it up as I walked into my bathroom. My hair was a hopeless cause, as always, but that never stopped me from playing with it to see if maybe today would be the day it did what I wanted.
Unfortunately, today wasn’t that day so, with a last ruffle of my hair, I left my bathroom, grabbed my wallet and keys off the desk and exited the bedroom.
Ben and I had decided to walk to the party since parking would be a headache to deal with on a Friday night. I had tentatively forgiven him for this morning, but it was still a quiet stroll through the campus. I think he could feel how nervous I was and for once was giving me a break.
Nearing the KD house, we came upon a scene of chaos. College students spilled out of the front door, every one of them holding a Blue Solo plastic cup in his or her hands, thrashing around in time with the heavy beating of bass and drums emitting through the open door.
I rolled my eyes at the blue cups, wondering if that was little detail was chosen by the same person who was in charge of the shirt color.
Ben looked at me before we turned onto the walkway leading up to the house and, adopting a poor Dr. McCoy accent, asked, “My God, Jim, where are we?”
I smirked and answered with my best Captain Kirk impersonation, “Out of control and blind as a bat.”
We smiled knowingly at each other and with a look that asked ‘shall we?’, we headed inside, pushing our way past the people milling around the entrance. Our heads swiveled in opposite directions once we hit the main room, seeking out the girls.
“Do you see them?” I yelled in Ben's direction once my searching was deemed futile.
“No!” Ben shouted over his shoulder at me. “Wait! …Bella’s over there!” He pointed at a cluster of bodies on the opposite side of the room. I craned my neck over the gyrating people in the open space in front of us and caught a glimpse of perfection, known to others as Bella.
I smiled broadly and pushed my way toward her, not even waiting for Ben to spot Angela before I abandoned him. All my thoughts were focused on reaching Bella. On seeing her smiling face again.
God, I was so whipped.
But somehow, I didn't care. If it meant being graced by her presence and kisses and smiles, then I would gladly be 'whipped' and do her bidding. Hell, I'd worn pink for her, hadn't I?
I think that said it all right there.
“Bella,” I shouted to catch her attention, finally breaking through the last line of people who were between her and me. Turning around to see who had called out her name, she smiled when she saw me. She reached out and I grabbed her hand, pulling her close and encircling her waist. She reciprocated by wrapping her arms around my waist and relaxing against me.
Suddenly the music, the crowd, the feeling of being pressed inside an enclosed space, and my anxiety from that was gone. All because she was in my arms again. I leaned forward and rested my forehead against hers.
“I'm glad you're here,” she said over the noise. I smiled and hugged her, burying my face in the side of her neck and breathing in deeply.
“Me too,” I replied after lifting my head so I was close enough to see her face, but not far enough away where I had to shout for her to hear me over the music and the other people yelling at each other. She reached up to run her fingers softly across my cheek and then chastely kissed me.
“I want you to meet some friends of mine,” she said after pulling away. She grabbed my hand and tugged it in the direction of the group of people she had been talking to before I showed up.
I followed along and stood by her side awkwardly as she shouted to them that I was Edward and then proceeded to point to each person and introduce us. First up was the girl she had been talking to in the SUB yesterday. “This is Jen. She's in French class with me.”
Jen and I shook hands and exchanged 'Hi's. Then there was a pretty, straight brown haired girl standing beside Jen. “This is Annie. She's the sweetest person you'll ever meet.” Annie laughed like she couldn't believe Bella had said that and shook my hand.
Standing next to Annie was Alice and Jasper. Alice and I nodded at each other and Bella looked at me with an inquisitive expression. “Have you met Jasper yet?”
I shook my head 'no' and was then formally introduced to surfer-slash-model boy. I was surprised to hear a slight twang in his voice rather than the young, Californian Keanu Reeves tone I’d imagined he would have. Taking his hand in a firm shake with my right hand, I slid my left hand around Bella's waist in a show of possession. Just to let him know what was what. He raised his eyebrows slightly in response, but appeared amused more than put off that I would stake my claim where Bella was concerned. Once introductions were over, Bella asked me if I wanted something to drink.
“I can get it,” I insisted, glancing around for the entrance to the kitchen.
She placed a hand on my chest and rose up on her toes to speak at a normal volume into my ear. “Don't be silly. I'm one of the hostesses of this party so it's my job to make sure every guest here is well supplied with alcohol and salty snacks. Now, what do you want?”
“Um, a beer would be alright, I guess.”
“Be right back,” she replied, giving me a quick peck on the cheek before walking away. I was left by myself with a group of people I didn't know, a situation I usually tried to avoid.
Annie smiled sympathetically, probably seeing my distress, and asked me the usual five questions you ask when you meet another college student, much like name, rank and serial number for any soldier. I answered them quickly, on the lookout for Bella's reassuring presence more than thinking about my answers. Annie drifted into the main conversation taking place between everyone else once I didn't try to engage her in the same questions because I was too antsy for Bella to get back. Crowded rooms and new people invoked the flight response in me. I needed Bella around to stop that from happening.
Turning to Jen, who was closest to me, I asked her where the kitchen was and she pointed to my left. I excused myself and went in search of Bella because if she wasn't coming to me, then I was going to her.
I made it through the bodies of people and rounded the corner into a hallway, thankful that the music was a little muffled in this part of the house. The kitchen was right in front of me but there was no sign of Bella, so I turned left down the hallway, keeping an eye out for her. It was crowded here as well, but it was mostly couples chatting it up without the blasting music impeding their 'getting to know you' conversations.
I made slow progress down the hallway, then the couple to my right shifted and I saw Bella. She was leaning back on the wall with a tall, muscular, tan guy hovering over her, his right arm holding his weight against the wall next to her head, hiding her face from me. It felt like a shift kick in the gut when I saw them all cozy in a dark corner of the hallway.
What the hell was she playing at, inviting me here only to drop me the second I show up for this guy? This guy who looked strangely familiar with his black hair...
The heavy weight of betrayal hit me, making me stagger under its weight. I became blindingly angry at being played for a fool. I may be a nerd, but I wasn't someone's play thing. Seething now, I pushed past two guys who were walking the opposite way and had momentarily blocked my view of Bella and my new arch-nemesis. They came back into view and I paused, the air whooshing out of me and taking all my feelings of injustice with it.
Because Bella wasn't canoodling with this guy, she was struggling. His arm had moved so I could see her face as he stroked her hair. Her teeth were clenched as she said something to him that I couldn't hear and she looked like she would bring fire and brimstone down on his head if she could. He whispered something in her ear, forcing her to turn her head in my direction, but she didn't see me because her eyes were closed tight and she was grimacing at whatever he said.
My anger abruptly switched its target to the guy touching my girlfriend against her will. I knew he was going to kick my ass, but that wasn't going to stop me. I had to defend my lady, even if it meant certain harm. So without letting myself think about what I was doing, I strode forward and grabbed his arm, yelling out, “Hey!”
He spun around and I instantly recognized him from the party a week and a half ago, the one where Bella and I had met. It was for this guy's benefit that Bella had pretended I was her boyfriend. When he turned I saw that his right hand was gripping Bella's wrist. Her hand was fisted like she had been trying to pull away, but couldn’t.
“Get your hands off her!” I shouted in righteous rage.
He snorted like I wasn't worth his time. “Scram, dork. I know you're not her boyfriend. I asked around.”
I glanced briefly at Bella's fearful face and grabbed her other wrist, hoping this would show Goliath that I meant business. “Well, your information's wrong, asshole, because I am her boyfriend. Now let go of her.”
He sneered, dropping Bella's wrist, and looked at her. “You sure get around, don't you?”
Bella's face became a thing of livid, raging beauty, so much so that I was a little afraid for my life for about a split second. I quickly let go of her hand, seeing her intention before the jerk taunting her did. She gritted her teeth and drew her fist back, then punched him square against the jaw.
He appeared stunned that she would strike him, which was probably why he didn’t protect himself when she kneed him with so much force behind it that I felt it.
I sucked in air through clenched teeth, empathically feeling the guy’s pain because what guy didn’t know what it was like to get kneed in the balls? It hurt. Like a mother.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t derive some pleasure from his face twisting in agony as he grabbed his balls and fell to his knees. Bella leaned in really close to his face after he fell and spat out, “Don’t ever come near me again or you won’t walk for a week. You got me, Jake?”
He nodded grimly, probably too out of it to fully understand what she had said. I glanced around us in surprise as applause broke out. It seemed we had attracted quite the crowd, giving the people some soap opera entertainment to liven up the party.
Grabbing Bella’s hand, I led her away from the crowd and the moaning Jake, who was still kneeling on the floor. Some people clapped Bella on the back as we walked by and offered their opinions on how ‘awesome’ that was. Bella grimaced, but otherwise took the praise well as we made our way to the kitchen.
It was less crowded in here and Bella propped herself against the center island, farthest away from the short line of people who were waiting for their chance at the keg. The noise and everyone around us faded into the background as I focused on inspecting her knuckles and wrist for any bruising or cuts. Checking each finger, I pressed here and there, quietly asking if it hurt. She shook her head ‘no’ each time, but I caught the slight frown she made when I extended her middle finger out.
“Stay here,” I commanded before walking over to where the non-alcoholic drinks were lined up and wrapped some ice in a couple napkins. I placed the wrapped ice on top of her knuckles when I reached her side again and told her to hold it there for a little while to help with the swelling.
She gave me a small smile. “When did you become pre-med?” she joked lightly.
Pushing the hair away from her face, I cupped her cheek and stared into her eyes, letting all of my concern for her show. “Are you okay? Really okay? Because if that dipshit touched you-”
Bella shook her head. “I’m fine, Edward. Please stop fussing over me. But… thank you for showing up. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get away from him.”
I snorted in disgust. “Fat lot of good I did. You’re the one who brought him down.”
She smiled sadly and tilted her head until it rested against my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her close, slowly letting the adrenaline that had been pumping through me since I first saw Bella and my mortal enemy number one, aka Jake, run through me. I hoped his balls turned black and blue and fell off. That'd teach him to mess with Bella.
Bella shifted around, placing her right hand with the ice on it on top of the island counter, and then hooked her left arm around my back, pressing us together tightly while she clutched the back of my shirt. I held her against me, occasionally rubbing her back as I let her ride out her own adrenaline rush. Coming down from that kind of high could lead to shaking, incoherent babbling, and hyperventilation, all of which wouldn't help right now.
A thought cropped up, nudging aside my concern for Bella a little bit.
What had they said to each other before I interrupted? And why hadn't she mentioned that this Jake guy was more of a threat then she'd let on? All she had said was that he was 'an unwanted admirer'. Had he tried shit like this before? And what had he meant when he said 'you sure get around'?
This whole thing was a blaring 'you don't know this girl as well as you thought you did' sign. Just when I thought I was moving ahead one space, something like this knocks me back three and I find myself farther back than where I had started.
So many questions... ones that only Bella could answer. But could I burden her with them right now?
Her grip on me loosened and she released my shirt. Her arm slid down my back until it reached the top of my jeans, then she pulled back and sighed.
“We should probably get back in there. I want to know what happened... after,” Bella said, raising her right hand up, the one she had punched Jake with, to look at it.
“Bella-” I started to ask my most pressing question - What did he say to you before I interrupted? - but we were interrupted ourselves. Coincidence, meet irony.
“Bella!”
Bella and I both turned in the direction her name was shouted from and saw Alice, wide-eyed and bearing down on us with Jasper in tow. She slid to a stop in front of Bella and grabbed her arm.
“What the hell happened?! I heard you kicked the shit out of Jake! Is that true?” Her head swiveled back and forth to look between Bella and me.
“Alice, it wasn't as dramatic as that. I just reminded him that I'm not the pushover he thinks I am,” Bella explained, stepping away from me and focusing fully on Alice. I left her to reassure Alice, giving them some alone time, but really I wanted some information. Walking the short distance to where Jasper was standing, we nodded at each other in the universal guy language that said 'hey, man'.
I stuck my hands in the back pockets of my pants and took a deep breath before plunging in. “Is he still here?”
I didn't have to clarify who 'he' was.
“No, a few guys who are friends of Bella's heard what happened and took him outside to finish off the job that she started.” He chuckled and added, “I heard she made him cry.”
I shook my head. “I wish. She kneed him hard enough that I probably would have wept like a baby.”
“Man, that's harsh. But that's Bella for ya.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, confused that this guy who, as far as I knew, met Bella two days after I did would have more insight into her personality than me.
Jasper shrugged. “Ya know, she doesn't take crap from people. Like what happened last year... you never would have guessed it went down like it did because she never seemed affected by it.”
“What are you talking about? What happened last year?”
“Shoot... I thought you knew.” He glanced over at Alice and Bella nervously. “I should let her tell you. It's her story anyway. I only know what I heard from other people and you know how unreliable that can be.”
We fell into silence, watching the girls talk while I brimmed with excess energy, bursting to ask more questions about this mysterious event that surrounded Bella’s past.
Bella smiled brightly, shook her head at something Alice said, and then motioned to the other side of the kitchen. Alice shrugged and then walked over to us, while Bella went over to the line of people waiting for beer, throwing away the napkins now dripping from melted ice without breaking stride.
“What's she doing?” I asked Alice, keeping my eyes on Bella.
“She said she needed something to drink.”
“Huh. I'll see you guys later,” I said distractedly, walking away before they responded. Or if they did respond, I didn't hear them. Stopping behind Bella, I placed my hands on her hips and bent my head down until my mouth was even with her ear. “Do you want to get out of here? Just go somewhere quieter?”
She shook her head, gripping my hands and pulling my arms around her like a blanket. “Alice said John, Bryce and Chris took care of Jacob,” she said quietly.
Those names vaguely registered from last week at the pizza place and I felt a twinge of pity for Jacob because the guys who went with those names were by no means scrawny.
Bella retrieved a plastic cup full of beer from the guy handing them out while I removed my arms from around her. She quaffed the beer down, seemingly in one gulp. Holding the cup out, she had it refilled and then started to walk away. I followed behind her, not really sure what to do.
Was it wise to watch her drink herself into a superficial stupor? Because at the rate she was going, it wouldn’t take long.
We headed back to the main room and through the tumultuous swell of bodies, I saw Angela and Ben at the same time they saw us. They must have been waiting for us because they wasted no time making their way over.
“Bella! Are you okay?” Angela asked, concern written all over her face. Bella grimaced and waved her hand in front of her face while she raised her cup with the other and took a drink. I guess that was her way of avoiding answering.
Angela’s eyebrows rose in question and she looked at me, silently asking what was going on with Bella. I shrugged because I wasn’t sure. Was this normal party behavior for her or was it something else?
I had to guess it wasn’t normal party behavior if Angela was wondering what was going on, so that left coping mechanism. And drinking as a coping mechanism never ended well, for anyone.
“Bella, baby, why don’t you slow down on the beer?” I suggested lightly.
She stared at me for a couple beats and then slowly nodded. “Okay…”
I breathed a sigh of relief when she went back to the kitchen to switch out drinks. Angela practically tackled me for details about the encounter with Jacob once Bella was out of sight. I told her everything I had seen and when I relayed Jacob’s parting words before Bella went Chuck Norris on him, she grew very quiet and introspective.
I really needed to learn what happened last year because my nescience on the subject was becoming irritating. Everyone but me seemed to know about it.
Bella came back with what looked like red kool-aid in her cup and we switched topics to something safe, like how the first week of classes had gone. We ran out of things to say and Angela and Ben drifted away. Bella went back to get a refill and I tagged along to grab something as well.
We talked to mostly people that Bella knew for another hour or so, running only into a few people I was acquainted with, either from class or helping them with an IT problem. Mainly Bella talked. I nodded, sipped my drink, and tried not to feel too uncomfortable meeting so many new people in one night. I even caught sight of Emmett at one point, but he was too engrossed in some blonde to take notice of me.
And it was all going fine, that is until some pop song started pumping through the speakers and Bella pulled me out into the middle of the room - the designated ‘dance floor’ - claiming this was one of her favorite songs. I went along with it, even though I hated dancing. I was horrible at it. I knew this, I accepted it and I even told Bella as much, but she waved me off, saying I would be fine.
It was one of those fast, upbeat songs and the girl was singing about how this guy was first hot and then cold toward her. It sounded to me like he was bipolar and she should get him some sort of psychiatric help, but Bella seemed to enjoy the song. And damn did I love watching her enjoy the song.
Her arms were raised over her head and she swayed in time with the music, her hips making little figure eights. So fucking delectable… I wanted to just grab her, drag her against me and never let go.
I wasn’t really paying attention to my erratic movements. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was just standing still, staring at Bella’s hips. But suddenly I was jarred out of fantasy land when Bella jumped in the air and then wrapped her arms around my neck, almost falling in the process. I held her steady with my hands on her hips, just where they had been itching to be only seconds before. It was a gratifying feeling that she literally fell into my hands like she had.
Until I noticed she was drunk. Slap happy drunk, by the looks of it.
Bella smiled sloppily up at me, entwining her fingers in my hair. “God, you’re gorgeous,” she said loudly, probably thinking she was being quiet.
Shit.
I leaned in and smelled her breath, which reeked of alcohol. I thought back to the last few hours. Had she been sneaking drinks?
No. I had been with her the entire time… except for the first time she went to the kitchen.
Crap. And the third time. She had offered to refill our drinks so I could finish explaining to Brian, this guy who had been in one of my classes last year, why Simon Pegg in the upcoming Star Trek movie was a brilliant casting decision.
It must have been the punch. She had been steadily drinking it for the past hour or so. It must have been spiked.
Of course it had. This was a party. The punch is always spiked at parties.
Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I should have figured that out before now.
I sighed, frowning down at drunk Bella and trying to ignore how cute she looked when she was completely out of it. Because it was wrong to entertain sexual fantasies of drunk girls.
There were rules about that.
I looked around for Alice or Angela, wondering what the procedure was for handling an intoxicated person who was underage. But I didn’t see either of them.
And Bella’s hands were suddenly inside my shirt.
I backed away, gently extracting her hands from underneath my shirt, much to my body’s disgust because damn, her hands on my skin had felt heavenly.
Focus, Cullen.
I needed to get her out of here before she did something she’d later regret. Hauling her off the dance floor, almost supporting her as she was unwilling to leave, I found a relatively quieter and less crowded spot against a wall in another room.
“Bella,” I said, trying to get her attention. She was too busy running her hands through my hair to concentrate.
“Bella,” I tried again, forcing her hands away from my hair. She pouted and looked at me from underneath her lashes prettily. My heart contracted at the sight, but I refused to be distracted. At least she was paying attention now. “I’m going to take you to your room now, okay? You need to lie down.”
She looked at me quizzically. “Are you going to lie down too?”
“Umm…” I wasn’t really sure how to answer that. “If you want me to…”
She nodded enthusiastically, biting her lip, and then giggled. I have no idea why she giggled, but it was very cute and very distracting. I found myself grinning at her, involuntarily catching her playful mood.
Gaaaah! Focus, man!
Shaking it off, I hoisted Bella to an upright position and we somehow made it up to her room with her stumbling a lot and me trying to keep us from falling. I deposited Bella on her bed and went back to shut the door, making sure it was locked so no party-goers could interrupt Bella while she slept the alcohol out of her system.
Turning around, I watched as Bella tried to get her sneakers off. She tugged one off but the other one appeared to give her some trouble. Grabbing the bottom with both hands, she pulled as hard as she could and ended up falling over on the bed, laughing.
I rolled my eyes at her silliness, which was fucking adorable, and proceeded to kneel on the floor by the bed to remove the troublesome shoe for her.
“Thank you, Clark,” she sighed, running a hand down my face. “I always liked you better than Superman…” Then she rolled over on the bed and curled into a ball.
Well… crap. Should I stay? Should I go?
And know I had The Clash song playing in my head.
Perfect.
I stood up and stared down at her, hoping she’d give me some sort of hint to help me with my decision. She looked so peaceful that I didn’t want to disturb her, but damn if I didn’t feel like I was owed some answers.
“Bella,” I said softly, shaking her shoulder.
She stirred and rolled onto her back, rubbing her eyes. “Mmm… Edward? Hey…” She smiled sleepily and reached for me.
I allowed myself to be pulled onto the bed and sat down next to her. “Can I ask you something?”
“Only if you lie down,” she insisted, scooting over to make room for me.
With a sigh of defeat, although I was secretly jumping around like a little boy at a monster truck rally inside, I kicked my shoes off and stretched out beside Bella. She curled into me, snuggling her head into the crook of my shoulder.
“Much better,” she said, sighing contently. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her, agreeing with her that this was indeed much better.
I tried to ease into my question, softening the blow by rubbing her side with my left hand and covering the hand she had on my chest with my right. “Bella… was this the first time Jacob tried something with you?”
She shook her head. “He asked me out before, but never got rough.” She propped herself up on one elbow and studied my face. “Has anyone ever told you you have greateyes? They’re so… green.”
Bella reached for my glasses and I let her slide them off my face, my vision instantly blurring. She placed them on the bedside table and then leaned in closer, sweeping a thumb under my eye and across my cheekbone. “How did you get to be so cute?” she asked, grinning slyly.
“I don’t know about ‘cute’, but really it was just a matter of the dominant genes surfacing while I was in my mother’s womb from the combination of hers and my father’s DNA,” I answered, not really understanding the question.
“You’re silly,” she giggled. Then she bent her head down until her lips were millimeters from mine and breathed, “I want you.”
There was that swift kick in the gut again, but this time it came with a surge of breathless lust, causing me to harden almost instantly. I sputtered, clawing my way up to a sitting position. Bella advanced again, climbing onto my lap and burrowing her hands in my hair.
“Do you not want me?” she gently asked, running one hand down to finger the topmost button on my shirt.
“Yes. Oh, god, yes. I do. It’s just that you’re drunk and I can’t do…this while you’re intoxicated. It’s wrong, Bella. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
She pulled back abruptly and blinked several times in quick succession. “It’s because I’m a whore, isn’t it?”
“What?!” I exclaimed, my eyes going wide with shock. Where the hell had that come from?
Bella actually started to tear up, which frightened the shit out of me. Here was this strong, brave girl who had taken down a guy twice her size only hours before, something I would never be able to do, and now she was crying because she thought I was rejecting her for being a whore.
I officially didn’t understand girls.
“Bella, you’re not a whore. Sshh, sshhh, it’s okay,” I said soothingly, drawing her back into my arms. She collapsed against my chest and hugged me tightly. “You’re not a whore. That statement has no veracity to it.”
Bella let out a little sob and my arms contracted around her, holding her closer. “Oh, god, Bella. Is this because of last week? I know we moved a little fast, hell, I moved a little fast with what I said, but in no way does that mean you’re a whore.”
“Did you mean it?” she asked.
“Did I mean what? That you’re not a…” I couldn’t say the word. Because words have power and by saying it again, I felt like I was giving that word unneeded power and subconsciously implanting it in Bella’s drunken mind. So I skipped over it. “Yes, I meant it.”
“No,” she sighed. “Did you mean what you said after we… about loving me?”
Heh.
Wasn’t expecting her to turn the questioning around like that.
“Umm… yes, I mean, I think I do,” I said quietly. “But I never meant to disclose it so soon.”
She nodded slowly and then became really serious. “Make sure you mean it. Because you can never take it back. Once you say it…” Her head dropped down and then she swiped the palms of her hands across her eyes, lifting her head back up. “Once you say it, it belongs to that person,” she fiercely whispered.
She grabbed my face, squishing it together, and stared intently into my eyes. “You have to trust them with your heart. Do you understand? Because you can’t take it back!”
I felt like I was on the verge of discovering something important about Bella. This was pertinent to whatever was going on inside her and maybe if I asked the right questions, she would talk about it more.
Encircling her wrists with my hands, I pulled them away from my face and wiped away the tears that were threatening to spill over onto her cheeks. “Did you tell someone you loved them?”
Bella nodded ‘yes’ slowly, frowning.
It hurt to know that, but I strove on, wanting to get to the heart of the problem too much. “Did they not say it back?”
She shook her head ‘no’. “I trusted him.”
“I know, sweetie. It was wrong of him to abuse your trust.” I was so close to getting all of the clues. The hum of anticipation ran through me as I asked the next question, “Did this occur last year?”
Her face scrunched up and she started crying again. “I just… I just…” A small sob escaped her lips. “I want it to be over.”
My forehead furrowed in confusion and my mouth started forming another question, but Bella continued on, her face smoothing out as if she had just realized something.
“But you... You’re different. Different from all of them.” She looked thoughtful as she softly added, “Maybe that’s why I want you so much. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to go insane if I don’t touch you all the time.”
I blushed against my will, knowing this wasn’t the time to get flustered from Bella’s admission that she wanted me the same way I wanted her, but it happened anyway.
“Especially when you blush,” she said, which made me blush even more.
“I want you too, Bella.”
“Even though I’m a whore?”
Damn it. I thought we were past this.
I tried once more to convince her. “You’re not a whore. No one thinks you’re a whore.”
She tilted her head to one side and smiled sadly. “But he did.”
Who did? Jake? Did Jake say that? Was that what passed between them before I arrived?
“Who thought that? Jake? I’m going to kill him,” I muttered, my vision narrowing to wiping the floor with that asshole’s face.
“No,” she whispered. “Paul.”
Paul?? I didn’t know a Paul, nor had I been introduced to one recently.
“Who’s Paul? Is he involved with this thing that happened to you last year?” I asked impatiently, because I had to know. I had to know who he was, what happened to her. But most of all, I wanted her to be okay.
Bella shook her head and sighed into my neck. “Tired… Tomorrow…”
I swallowed my anger and complied, holding her while she fell asleep, plotting this Paul’s demise and wishing I could protect her from harm forever.
~*~*~
A/N: You sort of got an answer… Heh.
Oh! Before I get the PMs from Team Jacob about how he was portrayed in this chapter, let me say my piece. I like Jake. I do. But I needed an antagonizer and... I'm too lazy to create an original character. (Hey, at least I'm honest.) Eh, it’s not like he didn’t have it coming to him after Eclipse anyway.
Defs and Refs-
Database difference - In designing a database, you can have a relational design to it, which consists of tables and views (queries). Or you can have an objects database, where the entities and relationships are mapped directly to object classes and named relationships. If you’ve never created a query (like SQL), you won’t understand what any of that means and I wish I was you because SQL is the devil.
Debug - To test or re-write a program in order to remove problems and clean up any unnecessary code. What Microsoft should do more of before releasing software and operating systems for public use.
The shirt thing - For clarification’s sake, at my college every event, party, fundraiser, group - EVERYTHING had its own shirt. And you would wear the shirt that corresponded with whatever was going on that day/night all day. If you were in or dating someone in a sorority or fraternity, you probably accumulated somewhere between twenty to forty shirts a year.
Dr. McCoy and Capt. Kirk quotes - From 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,' which is the one where they go back to the 80s to bring two humpback whales to the 23rd century to save Earth and the Star Fleet. The second best original Star Trek movie, after 'The Wrath of Khan,' in my opinion.
The 5 Questions - What's your name, what's your major, what year are you, what dorm are you in, and where are you from. They probably vary a little depending on where you attend, but those are the core five. (Kristen, that core was just for you. Mwahahahaha)
Chuck Norris - Did you know this guy’s tears can cure cancer? It’s too bad he never cries…
Song they dance to - “Hot and Cold” by Katy Perry, which was pretty popular at the time this story is supposed to be taking place. Now it’s just irritating and overplayed.
Simon Pegg - actor and writer, most known for being in ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, and now ‘Star Trek’. I love this guy. And if you listened to the ‘Extras’ from Mini Episode 3 of the podcast with me and Danielle, you’d hear just how much I love him. (Who else thought he stole every scene he was in throughout ‘Star Trek’? I think they should make a spin-off movie featuring just him.)
The Clash song - ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ The chorus keeps stuck in my head all the time. It’s too damn catchy.
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