LL Chapter 21

LL Chapter 21




One Step Forward



I had been looking forward to seeing Bella ever since my alarm woke me this morning. I had to keep biting tongue to keep from yelling at my sister to hurry up getting ready because I was so eager to get to school.



By the time I was finally able to get Alice out of the house we were running late and we made it to school with just enough time to get to our first classes. I saw Bella’s car in the lot as I was running into the building and it made me feel better knowing that I would see her again soon.



Little did I know that my first opportunity to see her this morning was not going to be a happy occasion. I was walking to my second period French Class with Alice when I heard the horrible screeching voice that could only be Lauren calling someone a whore. We hurried around the corner in time to see Jessica shove Bella hard and telling her that everyone would be happier if her and her little bastard went back to where she came from and that no one wanted her here. We ran for them but we could not make it to them before Bella fell to the ground. She had put out her arms to break her fall and was now cradling her wrist and I was livid. How dare they put their filthy hands on her.



As Alice started helping Bella up off the floor, I stepped in front of the both of them to protect them from the bitches that were hell bent on hurting Bella. I was going to make sure that Lauren and Jessica knew never to mess with Bella again, “Don’t you ever, and I mean EVER, put your hands on her again you will regret it, because you will have to deal with me!”



“And me.” I looked to my right and found an enraged Rose with Emmett standing behind her. Looking behind me, to check on Bella and Alice and saw that Jasper had joined them and was examining Bella wrist.



“No, they mean that you will have to deal with all of us,” I heard Angela say from my left.



“And we want Bella here a hell of a lot more than we want your skanky asses here.” Alice spoke up from behind me.



“Hey Jasper!” Jessica spoke up try to be coy, having noticed that Jasper was standing with Alice, “When are you going to drop miss good two shoes over there and let us show you what you’ve been missing out on?”



I rolled my and looked behind me again to see Jasper pulling Alice to his side and kissing her on the temple before turning back to Jessica, “I know exactly what I missing out on. An STD, a round of penicillin, and a criminal record for minor in possession. How many times has Chief Swan arrested you two for public indecency now?”



Everyone in the hall started laughing at Jasper comment which just made Jessica angrier, but before she could respond we were all interrupted, “What is going on here?” I looked up to find Dr. Banner standing in front of us.



“Jessica and Lauren attacked Bella, verbally and physically, I think they hurt her wrist,” I told him.



“Did you see this happen?” he asked me.



“Yes he did and so did I”, Alice spoke up, “She needs to see a doctor. Her wrist is starting to swell.”



Dr. Banner walked up to Bella and reached out for her wrist, “May I?” He continued when she nodded. “I don’t think it is broken but it might be sprained. I agree. You need to see a doctor.”



“I’ll take her to my dad’s office. Her step mom works for him.”



“No, Edward. You have to make up the quiz you missed yesterday. Someone else can take Ms. Swan to the doctor.”



“I’ll do it.” Alice volunteered, “Just give me your keys, Edward.”



“Thank you, Miss Cullen. I will tell the office that you two are gone seeing as I need to take these two to see the principal.”



I handed over my car keys to Alice and she ushered a now crying Bella out of the school.



I attempted to continue with my morning but I could not concentrate on anything that my teachers were talking about. By lunch time I was obsessively checking my phone for any message from my sister. I was just sitting down to lunch when Alice rushed in and flopped down in her chair, in true Alice dramatic fashion.



“What happen?”



“It’s just a sprain. I stayed with her through all of the x-rays and then drove her home.”



“At least it is not broken.”



“Yeah, well, she is still not going to be able to drive for away. I’ll call her afterschool and offer to drive her to and from school,” Angela volunteered.



“Oh, don’t worry. I kind of already volunteered Edward and myself to do it.”



“Oh, that’s ok, I’m sure that Edward isn’t going to want to cart her around. I’ll call and tell her that there was a change in plans.”



“That’s ok, Angela. I don’t mind doing it.”



“Oh, that’s fine, I guess,” and that was the last thing that Angela said through lunch.



By the time that school was out I was bouncing in my seat again. I had arranged to meet Rose at her house after school since we each drove our own cars and Alice was going out with Jasper. I sat in my car waiting for Rose to show and stewing over how I was going to even start this conversation with her.



No one else was at her house as both of her parents worked as lawyers. Rose detoured to the kitchen and grabbed us a couple of sodas, and a sandwich, a bag of chips, a bag of cookies for herself.



“You know,” she started when she finally sat down with her ‘snack’, “when you called me last and asked if we could meet to talk this afternoon, I foolishly thought that you were thinking about planning your best friend’s birthday. But after today, I think that I am wrong.”



“Shit! I forgot that Emmett’s birthday is coming up soon.”



“Obviously. So tell me, Edward, why did you need to talk to me?”



“Ok. I like Bella. I mean I want to go on a date with her, but with her history I don’t think that I could just ask her and I need help with getting to the point that she would considering not only dating but dating me. And since you know what she went through you are my best option.” And then she started laughing at me.



“OH MYGOD! You realize the irony in you falling for a teen mom don’t you?”



“Yes.”



“And you know that the kid is part of the package deal.”



“Her name is Tanya, not ‘the kid’ and yes I do.”



“Ok. Next question, has she told you everything that happened in Phoenix?”



“I think so. I mean she told me a lot the other night in regards to what happened that night, who they were, and what happened afterwards with her so called friends during the trial and her mom, she told me about her Mom.”



“Way to answer that while not giving away any details! But seriously, I didn’t know that you were so close.”



“We’ve talked a lot. I mean she was staying at my house over the weekend. Will you help me?”



“Yes I will. Because deep down I know that you are a good guy that can make her happy and she deserves to be happy after what happened it Phoenix.”



“Thank you Rose.”



“Yeah, well, I didn’t say that it was going to be easy. First, I’d say take your time in getting her more comfortable spending time with you. And do nice things for her. Here,” she reached into her bag, “I grabbed her homework before I left school, and you should take it to her. And maybe offer to help her with it?”



“She’s too smart. That might offend her. We do still have our project, we could set a time for that and then suggest that she bring her other homework and we could help each other with it.”



“You do know her well don’t you? Well, the best thing that I can tell you is to go slow. Stay with being her friend but show her that you want to spend time with her and getting to know her. But don’t push too fast, she may not act like it most of the time, but she is still traumatized by what happened, you accidentally cause her to have a flashback.”



“Yeah, no more flashbacks, I really hated seeing that.”



“She had a flashback recently?” I told her about the strawberry debacle and she was a little upset that my mom didn’t think that through.



“Hey Edward, I have one question for you, do you have any idea where you would take her if she said yes to a date?”



“Yes, I found out that the hospital fundraiser got pushed back due to a conference. It’s a month from now. I want to ask her to be my date. She told me that she had never been on a date before and it’s a kind of romantic, all dressed up in evening gowns and tuxes and dancing the night away plus it has the added perk that-“



“—again, it will be a group setting and with so many people will be attending she’ll feel more comfortable than being alone with you all night. It sounds perfect. But, now that we have a plan for you to start with, we should decide what we are going to do about Emmett’s birthday.”







“Ok. I think that we can safely say that last year’s disaster should be avoided this year at all costs.”



“I would say so, Mom is still angry about her garden getting destroyed. Man, I had no idea rose bushes were that expensive. I can guarantee that Mom and Dad are not going to allow a party here again.” We had thrown a surprise party for him at the Hales and somehow Mrs. Hale’s garden was set on fire and the fire department had to be called. We still think that it was Lauren that did it; we just don’t have the proof.



“Yeah, my parents either. How about we do a quiet group dinner, just the six of us, in Port Angeles, and maybe a movie?”



“Bowling would be better. Emmett likes slasher films and I don’t see that going over well with your future girlfriend.”



“Dinner and bowling as a group. She’d be comfortable with that, I think. I better go get this to her. Thanks Rose.”





A/N:



A little longer than normal and we have a group confrontation with the tramp twins and a heart to heart with Rose. Next chapter will be a face to face with an angry Leah!