Bella The Babysitter: Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty Four

Bella Swan POV

I sat in the back corner of a dark cafe with a large latte extra foam and a bridal magazine. My nerves were frayed, they had been for the past two weeks since Edward proposed and I accepted. The first thing I had wanted to do was call my best friend and sudo sister, but she and Emmett had decided to go visit Rose's great aunt that lived in Chicago. Okay so I lied, the first thing I wanted to do was cry, kiss Edward and cry some more.

As soon as the excitement calmed down and Edward took Lucas and I home, I wanted to share my news. I hadn't seen Rose since the black Friday debacle of 2010 and we seemed to be missing each other by mere moments. Phone tag was something we had been playing for a month and every time I did get her, she was busy with something else. A quick request that I allow her to call me back would be said before she hung up sometimes without so much as a 'love yah bye'.

I saw Emmett whenever I wanted to, he worked just a short walk from the house so all I had to do was bundle up and strap Lucas in his stroller for a quick walk. Emmett seemed to be his always happy self when we showed up and many of our afternoons while Edward was back at the house working on his articles were spent playing one of the various game systems that Emmett had restored. I learned quickly in the early days of my friendship with Emmett that even if something was bothering him, he wouldn't show it. Hell, we lived together and didn't find out that his Grandmother died until a week later when he came home in a monkey suit and red rimmed eyes. Finding out what was going on with Rose was going to be easier said than done. After Christmas I stopped taking Lucas on walks down to the game store thinking that maybe Emmett would notice my absence and call me. My efforts were futile two weeks and no call, from either of them.

Yesterday I sent her a text message basically telling her that if she didn't meet me today that I never wanted to talk to her again. Yes it was immature but damn it I was bitter. I had been engaged for two weeks and she didn't even call me on New Years.

I smiled remembering how I spent my New Years.

Esme and Carlisle had a charity event to attend in New York and Alice and Jasper decided to go down to the Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans leaving Lucas, Edward and I on our own seeing as my family (Rose and Emmett) couldn't be bothered with me.

Edward and I stayed up and watched the ball drop sharing sweet kisses and a bottle of wine. It was the first time I had ever had someone to kiss on New Years that wasn't a platonic friend and it was nice. Lucas had been asleep for about two hours and we cuddled on the floor in front of the couch watching the pre ball drop festivities while sipping out of the bottle because I forgot to grab the glasses and we were both too lazy to get up once we realized it.

He kept playing with the ring on my finger, his new favorite hobby of sorts. It wasn't uncommon for me to wake up to him sliding the ring back and forth or watching the light reflect off of the diamond. An hour before midnight Edward refused to kiss me on the lips. Instead he showered my cheeks, forehead, arms and shoulders with light kisses murmuring his love for me. As soon as the countdown started he pulled me into his lap and waited until everyone in times square screamed '1' before we shared a kiss so passionate that when it ended a good ten minutes later, I had tears pouring out of my eyes.

He pulled away breathing heavily and pulled my face so that I was meeting his heated gaze. "I want to be married by new years next year."

So I started planning a wedding, not knowing one thing about what the hell I was doing. Esme and Alice offered to help me but it was something that I wanted to do on my own. They both had jobs and lives while I stayed home and took care of Lucas who was getting more and more independent as the days wore own. Just this morning he refused to let me brush his teeth so I sat him on the counter and watched him brush the three teeth in the front of his mouth. Edward wanted to be a part of the wedding plans so we split them up to tackle them separately and planned to spend Monday nights going over what we came up with.

This Monday would be the first meeting and I hadn't got anything picked out yet.

I flipped open the somewhat scary magazine and the small notebook that I had to take notes. I read the first article about how not to freak out when I heard the door to the cafe jingle. Rose rushed over to the counter and barked out her order to the poor barista behind the counter. She handed the girl a twenty and told her to keep the change as she snatched her coffee and searched for me.

I gave a gentle wave and hid the bridal magazine in my giant purse before she made it to the table.

"So are you going to tell me why you sent me a threatening text message?" she snapped before she even sat down.

"Yeah, sorry about that." I sighed. "I resulted to drastic measures to get you in front of me after not talking to you since thanksgiving."

"Well Bella some people have jobs and lives that don't allow us to make lunch dates or hang out on the phone all day long. I'm sorry that I couldn't be on the phone with you twenty four seven."

I recoiled from the table burned by her words. "Ouch. I'm starting to wonder why I even attempted to get a hold of you. I obviously should have taken a hint when you hung up on me the twentieth time."

"Oh lay off Bella. Seriously when are you going to learn this world doesn't revolve around you and the pity party you seem to have for yourself on a daily basis? I have had to work twenty four hour shifts at the hospital, I've been a little tired. It's my bad that I didn't have the energy to talk to you when you would call me fifty times in a day. But wait you don't know what I'm talking about, you've never held a solid job to know hard work if it looked you dead in the fucking eyes."

I felt tears prickle my eyes. Rose and I had fought before, I mean we've been friends for too long and no relationship is absolutely perfect. I was also used to her being straight to the point but this was pure evil sprouting from her mouth.

"You know what this was a waste of time." I grabbed my purse and coat standing up. "It's not like you care or anything but I've been trying to get a hold of you because Edward proposed to me on Christmas. Yeah two weeks ago. I was trying to get a hold of you because I thought you would be happy for me and to let you know to take August first off because I was going to ask you to be my maid of honor."

"Bella." Rose said sadly immediately trying to back track.

"Save it." I held up my hand and realized that her eyes followed the ring. "You and Emmett have been my family since I lost everyone and I don't deserve this. Lucas and Edward are the only people that matter anymore. Thank you for making me realize that."

"Be-"

"I said save it Rose." I snapped earning the attention of the people sitting around us. "I won't call you anymore and just so you know I do have a full time job that's more important than anything I could have gone to school for. I'm a mom and raising my son earns me something money can't buy."

She opened her mouth again but I ignored her, clutching my things and walking out into the frigid weather. In my haste to get away from her I hadn't put my coat on and my truck was parked a good two blocks away. Not wanting to stop just in case she was behind me, I sniffled and shivered the entire walk back to my truck receiving strange looks from curious pedestrians.

Once inside the cab I started the engine and cranked the heater and gunned it back to Forks, back home.

I hadn't done anything to Rose and couldn't see why or how she could treat me that way. The logical side of me told me that maybe she was just having a bad day, but I was tired of being the brunt of peoples bad days.

I made it back to the house in about half the time it usually would take, still crying as I grabbed my bag, jacket and the bag of crap I picked up from the bridal shop that Alice recommended. I could hear Edward and Lucas playing in the living room but went straight upstairs to the bedroom to wash my face and calm down.

"Bella baby is that you?" Edward called as soon as I made it to the top landing.

"Yeah I'm home early I'll be down in a moment." I croaked rushing into the bedroom and locking the bathroom door behind me as I rushed over to the sink.

It took him less than a minute to be at the door knocking softly and calling my name. "Bella love, is everything alright? Talk to me." followed by loud pounding on the lower part of the door. "MAMA! MAMA DOOR."

"I'll be out in a second." I called over the running water.

"MAMA NOW." Lucas whined as Edward carried him away from the door.

I calmed down enough to wash my face and found the two of them laying across the bed. Edward had his legs stretched out and his arms behind his head and Lucas was mirroring his actions. The scene made me smile.

"I'm decent." I said.

It was funny how they both moved the same way leaning up on one arm to look over at me, even if Lucas did do it clumsily.

"What happened?" Edward asked gesturing for me to come lay down with them. I wedged myself in between them and wrapped my arms around Lucas trying to find words to describe what happened.

"Rose was mean." I said simply ignoring when I felt him shake with laughter. "She basically trash talked me before she even sat down."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked rubbing my back soothingly.

"I don't know how to without coming off as a whiny baby. Seriously for the five minutes I interacted with her it was like being in first grade again. Like we were fighting over who's sneakers made them run faster or something."

"When your ready." he kissed my neck.

I love that he didn't hover or try to push me when I wasn't ready. He always gave me room and allowed me to come to him when I've had time to collect my thoughts.

I ended up falling asleep, crying usually made me tired so I wasn't exactly surprised when I woke up under the covers with Lucas still tucked into my side. I slid out of the bed without waking him up and went to the bathroom deciding to take a shower so that I would feel refreshed. I hurried through my regimen just in case he woke up, having not yet mastered getting off the bed I didn't want him to roll off and crack his head open.

I could feel a head cold coming on and took a healthy dose of decongestant before dressing in my favorite lounge clothes and gently waking Lucas up so that he would sleep tonight. He wasn't happy but after a diaper change and a couple of tickle fights I got him smiling and went downstairs to find Edward.

I could hear him talking to someone in the kitchen so I took Lucas to the living room to give him some privacy until I heard my name. Instead of heading to the living room I stopped short.

"No Emmett you don't seem to understand." Edward growled. "Bella came home upset and I don't like that. The only thing she would tell me was that Rose was dogging her or something." there was a pause, I could hear Edward sigh and pictured him pinching the bridge of his nose.

"She was upset and crying in her sleep Emmett, that's the only reason why I'm calling you. I won't sit idly by and let my fiancé be treated that way." "Yes I proposed to her on Christmas." "Well how in the hell were you supposed to know Emmett? You and Rose haven't been around since thanksgiving." I heard a dull thud and knew that Edward had punched something. "She's been trying to fucking call Rose for almost a month and a half. Did you even realize that she hasn't been down to the shop in almost three weeks?" "You're her family Emmett. You don't treat family this way." "Yeah your doing a fucking great job there eh? Don't you fucking worry about her because my family can be there for her." "Your apologies don't mean shit to me because I'm not the one that you owe them to." I heard him slam the phone on the hook and then pick it up and slam it down a couple more times for good measure.

"As mad as you are, the phone didn't do anything to you." I joked trying to make him feel better. I was over it but apparently he was holding a grudge that wasn't his to bear.

"Oh, I thought you were still asleep."

"No I woke up. I'm glad I did because it's sort of late in the afternoon and I want to sleep tonight." I sat Lucasin his highchair and gave him some cheerios to eat before turning to Edward. "You didn't have to call Emmett."

"Yes I did. We're getting married. Your pain is my pain and I know your hurting." he pulled me into her arms.

"You were wrong though. You and Lucas are my family." I kissed his heart. "Rose and Emmett were just roommates. Friends to help me through the hard times that I faced a few years back."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to let them treat you like this Bella. You don't deserve it."

"Rose brought up the fact that I haven't had a steady job and that I didn't know what hard work was. I think that's what upset me the most all of that time that she and Emmett supported me, apparently I was just a thorn in their side." I sniffed, apparently not over the stuff that happened earlier.

"Is that when you left?"

"Yeah after I told her that I had the best job ever." when he quirked his eyebrow I shrugged. "I'm a stay at home mom. The feelings I have when Lucas achieves something is worth more than the highest paying job ever could."

"Your right. Your awesome at your job too." Edward smiled leaning down and kissing my lips.

The rest of our night consisted of a lot of cuddling and unfortunately staying up late on Lucas's part because of the late nap we had. That night Edward gave me a back massage lulling me to sleep despite the fact that I was wide awake. The next morning I was woken up by my phone ringing. The familiar ring tone informing me that it was Rose.

"Baby your phone's ringing." Edward grumbled.

"I'm not worried about it." I yawned rolling over and snuggling into his side.