LL Chapter 9

LL Chapter 9




State of Confusion



Ok. The girl was just as insane as I originally thought she was. She was ignoring me completely. I mean, why would she be nice enough to bring me the notes that I missed and then not even acknowledge my existence the first time that she saw me? What the hell is that about? I decided that plain and simple the girl was crazy and I did not need or want "crazy" in my life.



But she was really starting to irritate me, in both classes we had together, with her know it all routine trying to impress the teachers by making the rest of us look bad. Well, two could play at that little game sweetheart. Come Monday, she would figure out quite quickly that I was smarter than her in every way.



I caught up with Alice on her way to the cafeteria for lunch and told her that I was going to spend my lunch hour in the library due to the need to catch up on the work that I missed and I did not think my stomach was up to all the food smells in the cafeteria. Really, I was starting on my plan to make sure that the Swan girl knew who the smartest kid in school was. I mean if she was so smart, she would have known how to say no, or at least how to properly use birth control.



The rest of my day went pretty quietly. Jasper and Emmett caught up to me on my way to my car after school to see if I was up for shooting some hoops and hanging out the next day. I was. I still was on a break from the NICU as they were still patient-less. If it continued much longer, they would temporarily reassign me in another pediatric unit. I had done that before. I did not mind helping where they needed me, most of the kids in the older units just wanted a friend or visitor that wasn't related to them. As one kid put it, he knew his family loved him but they were obligated to visit, he just wanted one visitor that was there by pure choice.



The next morning I came downstairs to find Mom letting the Swan girl in the house. I figured she must be babysitting again so I ignored them and continued to make my way into the kitchen until Mom stopped me.



"Edward, be a dear and help Bella take her things up to the guest room across from Alice." I definitely heard that wrong. She did not just say that the Swan girl and her baby were staying here. Mom grabbed Tanya from her and started cooing at the baby.



"That's not necessary, Mrs. Cullen, I can manage."



"Nonsense, Edward would be happy to help you out." Yeah, I'd be happy to help her right back out the door. But I sighed and grabbed up a couple of the bags and started up the stairs.



I dropped the bags on the bed and turned to leave but she was standing in the door blocking my way out.



"Look, I know you don't want me here. But it was the only option that made sense. Sue and Seth both have that flu and neither of us can be there. But we were both exposed to the germs and since your father is a doctor it is better for both of us to be close in case of problems. Besides, it will be more convenient since your mom is babysitting for me."



"Fine, whatever. Just get out of my way, I have plans with my friends and I am running late now." She looked down and just moved to the side and I went back downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat before Jasper and Emmett came to pick me up. She was just coming down the stairs when I heard Emmett's jeep pull up, I yelled goodbye to mom before running out the door.



After spending so much of the week laying in bed it felt really good to get out and play ball. We spent the whole morning on the court before deciding to go back to my house to clean up and play video games. I had forgotten that we had a house guest until I saw her car parked in the drive way. Damn. I hated that she was here invading my space.



The three of us went upstairs to shower and change. I let Emmett use my shower, while Jasper used Alice's and I used my parents'. I reached the downstairs at the same time that Alice came home from work. We both walked into the living room together only to see Jasper and Bella sitting on a blanket on the floor playing with the baby.



"What's going on here?" She was angry. You could not only hear it in her tone but you could see it in her face too.



But Jasper was always really good at diffusing her anger. He made a beeline for her, kissed her on the cheek, and led her back to the blanket and whispering in her ear. I do not know what he was saying, nor did I want to know, but whatever it was was making her giggle.



"Have you met the beautiful Tanya yet, sweetheart?" He asked her and Alice sat down and started playing with the baby too.



Rose showed up then for an afternoon of girly shit she had planned with Alice to get ready for their dates with Jasper and Emmett. She saw Bella in the room ran for her giving her a big hug. I swear the girl was like a fricken magnet the way that everyone was gravitating to her. Except for me, she wasn't going to suck me in too with that baby.



"BELLA! I didn't know you were going to be here! Are you here to work to dipsh** on that project or did Alice invite you to join us." Rose looked between Alice and I.



"Don't look at me. I didn't invite her over."



"Uh…neither actually…" Bella spoke up and then she went on to explain that she was staying here because Tanya couldn't be exposed to the flu. Then my twin sister did the unthinkable and turned traitor on me.



"You and Tanya are more than welcome to join us. If you want to that is." Really Alice? 'Et tu Brute?' I just glared at my sister for betraying me Bella must have caught the look I was giving my sister because her response was hesitant.



"I don't know if that's such a good idea."



"Of course it's a good idea. Come on, Al and I have a lot of fun with facials."



I caught all three girls looking up at me. Two of them wary and Rose was just daring me to say something mean. I just turned back to my game and ignored them the rest of the conversation. I did notice however that Bella did not stay in the living room with us, she took the baby and disappeared.



Hours later, after Jasper and Emmett had gone home to change for their dates and both had returned to pick up the girls I found myself sitting at the kitchen table doing some homework when mom asked me to set the table. I started to hand her back one plate when she handed me four, because Alice was out, but then I remember that we had a house guest. Damn, I had almost forgotten that she was here again.



When mom sent me upstairs to tell her that dinner was ready I found her sitting in a rocking chair that wasn't there this morning. She was rocking a sleeping Tanya and reading her history book for school. They both looked so utterly peaceful I was a little sorry to have to disturb them.



"Dinner's done if you're hungry?"



She startled having not heard me approach. "Yeah, I'll be right down. I just need to transfer her to her crib."



Did she think that I cared? I just shrugged and left the room mumbling "whatever". I



When I got to the dining room I found dad setting some strange casserole on the table that mom had never made this before.



"What is this?"



"It's a low fat, low cholesterol chicken casserole." Mom answered coming into the room with a salad.



"Since when do we eat like we're heart patients?" I asked a little aggravated.



"We could all stand to eat a bit healthier." Dad answered in that warning tone of his that said clearly that I was getting out of line.



Bella walked into the room and sat down across from me. "It smells great; Mrs. Cullen, but I told you that you didn't have to go through any trouble for me."



"It was no trouble at all Bella. And I told you to call me Esme."



So it was the Swan girl's fault that we were eating strange health food. Although I had to admit that the casserole wasn't that bad even if it did have carrots in it. Bella noticed that I had been picking them out of the casserole and putting them in a napkin and was failing miserably at holding back her giggles. When I tried to glare at her she started to outright laugh at me, saying that she was unaware that anyone over the age of three still attempted to hide their vegetables in their napkin.



"I'm not hiding all my vegetables. I'm eating the broccoli and the cauliflower."



"So what did the carrots to offend you so much that you cast them aside?"



"They taste funny. That's all." That just made her laugh at me even harder for some reason. After she finally calmed down we finished our supper in silence. It was my turn to do the dishes and I was standing at the sink running the water when Bella came in with her plate and stood behind me.



"Do you need any help?"



"Nah, I've got this. But do you have time to work on that project tonight? I'd like to get it done as soon as possible."



"Yeah, I have no plans except doing homework." Then I heard Tanya start to fuss through the baby monitor that Bella was carrying with her and she ran out of the room to get her.



A couple of hours later we had made a lot of head way on the project when it became glaringly obvious that Tanya needed a diaper change. I needed a break myself and got up to get a soda and left Bella to change the baby. In a moment where I actually remember my manners, I grabbed her one too.



"Thank you, but I don't drink soda."



"How can you not drink soda? I live on the stuff."



"I used to too, and I miss it terribly." She sighed.



"Is it all soda that you can't have or just regular soda? Can you have diet?"



"It's the caffeine I can't have. I can't have coffee either. It sucks when I've been up all night with Tanya and then I have to make it through a day at school" She must have noticed that it was all starting to fall into place for me. She was on a low fat diet, no caffeine, and she said that there had been complications….oh shit…



"I was having blood pressure issues throughout my pregnancy. Finding my mom the way that I did sent me over the edge and made my blood pressure skyrocket. They were already talking about inducing labor that night when things went from bad to worse and I had a heart attack. I've been under so much stress since she's been born that we still haven't been able to get my blood pressure back to acceptable levels."



"Oh." That was my brilliant response. But what else was I supposed to say to her. Sorry you have health problems because you went sleeping around and wound up pregnant? It wasn't my problem. It did suck though that she now had a bad heart. I mean it was apparent that Tanya's father wasn't going to be in her life but she could have lost her mother too. And even I had to admit that Bella was a good mother and took excellent care of that baby.



We worked for about another hour before Bella said that she needed to give the baby a bath and put her to bed. I retreated to my room and turned on some music while I did some other homework. But I really could not help but think about Bella and her problems. I wanted to know why she was in a victims group. I also wanted to know what had happened to Tanya's father I wondered if she would tell me if I asked her straight out at breakfast in the morning? I mean she did volunteer all of the other information she had given me without my asking. I decided that she probably would not as these questions were extremely personal it wasn't my business. I wasn't her friend and didn't want to be. I figured it was best to just to keep minding my own business as I settled into my bed to go to sleep.



A/N:



Another answer about Bella, and more Jekyll and Hyde as many of you are calling him! Lol. But there is more to her story. There will be another chapter tomorrow. Come join me on twitter. I'm branson101. I whine a lot about the skunks, the flooding, the heat, and I brag on my son whose new nickname is neener-teenage whiner. Poor thing is thirteen and more hormonal that a woman pregnant with triplets!