Chapter Sixteen
"My apologies," I stammered, letting my hand drop to my side. "Chief Swan."
"Daddy, stop being such a dick., Bella scolded, swatting her father in the chest.
I don't know what surprised me more. The way Chief Swan welcomed me or the way Bella was talking with her father. I stood there awkwardly while the two of them stared each other down. It lasted for about a minute before Bella cracked a smile and the Chief's booming laughter made me jump in surprise. A few people glared as they walked by and I'm sure I heard a baby cry, so his loud guffawing didn't scare just me.
Bella pulled my hand up and placed it in her dad's as he calmed down. "It's good to meet you, Edmund. I was just fucking with you. You can call me Charlie." He gave me a kind smile and squeezed my hand reassuringly.
"It's Edward, dad." Bella corrected. "Not Edmund, Ed or Eddie. Edward."
"Yes ma'am," Charlie mumbled sarcastically before letting go of my hand. "Let's get out of here. People are starting to stare and it's making me feel uncomfortable."
"Yeah, because you just hate attention." Bella rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand. "My dad is the king of karaoke night at The Lodge. He's an attention hog and loves to make an ass out of himself."
"Only when it comes to embarrassing you, Bells. Speaking of karaoke night, we're going tomorrow night. I've already told the guys at the station that I'm not to be bothered and I just had my suit dry-cleaned," he smiled wickedly.
"We're going to be busy," Bella groaned, rolling her head towards me. "Trust me when I say you'd choose a lobotomy over karaoke night."
"I think it sounds like fun," I told her, shrugging my shoulders, trying to get on the Chief's good side even though he seemed pretty cool. Bella glared at me while Charlie whooped loudly and started doing what I'm guessing was his very own touchdown celebratory dance in the middle of the airport. I'm positive that if we weren't in baggage claim, security would have come and taken Charlie into the little interrogation room, Meet the Parents style. From the horrified look Bella was giving her father, I'm pretty sure she would have left him there.
"Let's go take your medication, dad," she said loudly, giving apologetic looks to the people passing by. We finally made it out to the parking garage, bags in tow. Bella laughed at me when I yelped as the cold air hit me. Charlie offered me his police jacket, which I politely declined. I couldn't tell if it was a test or not, and from the way he'd been acting, I'm sure I'd never live it down had I taken him up on his offer.
Bella wrapped her arm around my waist and whispered her promises to warm me up later as we tried to find the car, the car being a police issued cruiser, complete with the red and blue lights on top and about a million buttons on the dashboard. Charlie and Bella argued for a good ten minutes about where Bella would sit, while I sat in the back seat separated from the front by the steel barrier. Bella wanted to sit up front with him, but he wanted her to sit in the back like a criminal. The argument was resolved when I told Bella that I wanted her to sit in the back with me to keep warm. They'd been fighting forever and I was freezing my nuts off in the backseat because Charlie hadn't started the car yet.
"Hands where I can see them boy," he threatened half-heartedly as we made our way down the gloomy streets. "Don't make me pull out my handcuffs."
"Dad..." Bella warned.
"Oh, is that something you like to do? Eww, never mind. I don't want to know," Charlie back pedalled and started talking to himself about not wanting to hear about his daughter's sex life.
"Eww, dad! Stop it please!" Bella pleaded, burrowing her head into my neck. I could feel the heat of her embarrassment on my skin. "This is ridiculous."
"I think it's fun," I whispered. "I can see why he and your mom got together. They're both absolutely insane."
"Well, we all can't have perfect families," Bella giggled. "Seriously, your family is straight out of a magazine or something."
"Hey, hey, hey! Secrets don't make friends," Charlie pouted. "Unless it's personal. Then I don't want to know."
"We're just talking, dad," Bella sighed.
"Well, you get to talk and hang out all the time. Include your old man."
"Oh, we're just talking about how we're going to sneak off to the courthouse and elope the first chance we get," Bella snorted.
"Hmm... well I'm off for the next three days, but Wednesday I have to go into the station from noon till midnight," he pondered, before smiling widely, his moustache shaking in excitement. "Or better yet we can just swing by the little chapel on the outskirts of town right now. How bout it?"
I was starting to realize that Charlie Swan could not be taken seriously. At all. I was positive until Charlie pulled over on the side of the road and got out. He then walked over to my door and opened it up, while I froze in fear thinking he was going to leave me in the middle of nowhere.
"What are you doing?" Bella asked curiously.
"I'm letting Edward drive home. My legs hurt," he shrugged, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the cruiser. "Keep it under eighty-five."
"No!" Bella cried at the same time I started to refuse, but her reasons were entirely different. "That's not fair! You never let me drive the cruiser."
"Oh, hush you." Charlie said. "This is my way of interrogating your boyfriend. Or should I wait until we get back to the house and I can pull out my hunting rifles?"
"Do it now," Bella and I said at the same time. My reply came out as a yelp, hers a sigh of defeat.
Charlie sat next to me in the front of the cruiser. My hands were shaking like a leaf as I twisted the key in the ignition, firing the car up. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was scared shitless. Charlie pointed out a couple of things on the dashboard, showing me how to properly turn the lights and siren on, even though I had no plans on using them. As soon as I pulled off the shoulder on the road, he started with the questions.
"What are your intentions with my daughter?"
"Dad!" Bella protested from the backseat.
"Um... to date her?" I answered. "Maybe go to prom."
Charlie snorted. "Good luck with that. Bella's got two left feet. Inherited it from me sadly. Where you going after graduation?"
"I want to be a teacher. I plan on going to the community college in town before moving onto a university."
"What grade?"
"Elementary," I replied, watching the road intently, scared out of my wits that I would wreck this car or god forbid get pulled over.
"So you like kids?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Are you planning on knocking my daughter up?"
"Dad!" Bella yelled, punching the barrier.
"I don't plan on having children until I've already gotten an established career," I replied coolly.
"So you're admitting that you're sexually active with my daughter?"
"NO!" Bella and I yelled at the same time. I could hear her pulling on the steel bars between us.
"Good. Now pull over here, Edward," Charlie instructed, pointing to an empty 7-Eleven parking lot. "Chinese fire drill!" he screamed before jumping out of the car.
And just like that. A nerve wracking interrogation turned into something completely ridiculous. I had a feeling that this spring break was going to be chaotic.
Two days later, Bella and I were sitting in the old Chevy truck she used to drive before she came to live with her mother. We had gotten off to a late start today because Charlie kept us out at The Lodge until four in the morning, while we watched him make an ass out of himself. He dressed in a black zoot suit and impersonated The King very, very badly. We were forced to endure three hours of people singing badly, but every time Charlie got on the stage, it was a riot. He sang 'Hound Dog', 'Heartbreak Hotel' and a few I can't remember, partially because I was practically on the floor in hysterics.
I was glad that we'd had fun the night before because now Bella was suffering. She sat two feet away from me on the bench seat, wearing all black. Laying on the seat between us was a giant bouquet of hydrangeas. Her eyes were closed and she was shaking with anxiety. Seeing her in this state of distress reminded me of her first day of school, minus all of the bruises, cuts and the crutches.
"Are you sure you want to do this now?" I asked softly, taking her hand in mine. "We could always go see Billy first and then come back."
"No. I want to do it this way," she replied, grabbing the flowers from the seat and opening her door before turning to me. "You're coming right?"
"Where else would I go?"
It was raining lightly in Forks. Something I'd grown used to in the three days I'd been here. Everything was green and as we made our way through the cemetery, I noticed that many of the tombstones were covered almost completely with algae-like growth. Bella had a death grip on my hand as we made our way through the rows reading the stones as we went.
I found what we were looking for before Bella. As soon as she noticed the giant dual tombstone, she froze almost taking a step back as the air was knocked out of her. Vanessa and Jacob's graves were covered with flowers, not one wilted or dead, so it was obvious that someone came daily to visit them. Bella let go of my hand and walked up to the stone, resting her hand on top of it with her head bowed. She spoke softly to them before placing the bouquet of flowers between the two of them and kneeling on the ground. I watched her talk softly as she pulled the necklace that held the engagement ring Jacob had left with her for safe keeping out of her shirt. She unclasped it and slid the ring off of the chain.
"Jake would want you to have this," Bella cried, digging a shallow hole in the spot above where Vanessa was buried and dropping the ring inside before covering it back up. She then stood up wiped her hands on her pants. "I can let the two of you go now, but I promise that I will never forget you, and I'll come see you again. I promise."
She cried for a while longer before kissing her hand and placing it over each of their names. Turning to me, her eyes swollen and red from crying, she smiled despite all of the pain coursing through her. I held my hand out for her to take and together we walked out of the cemetery.
"That hurt a lot more than I thought it would," she sniffed, wiping her nose with a tissue from the glove compartment.
"I'm sorry," I murmured.
The rest of our trip flew by. Bella introduced me to Billy Black. They had an emotional reunion, but it quickly turned to sentimental and sweet. I listened to them share stories of her childhood with his son and we learned that Vanessa's parents had moved. They weren't able to cope with the loss of their only child in such a small town, so almost overnight, they snuck away without telling anyone where they were going. Billy said it was like he woke up one morning and they were gone. The house across the street vacant except for the 'for sale' sign in the front yard. He'd tried to get a hold of them, but gave up, respecting their choice in grieving manner.
Charlie dropped us off at the airport, giving us both giant hugs and, much to my despise, kisses. He mentioned something about coming down to spend some time with Bella, refusing to miss her graduation, so we'd be seeing him in less than two months. I was looking forward to it.
Everyone returned to school the following Monday. Alice had bad sunburn, almost to the point that she had sun poisoning from her Disneyland vacation. Her chorus group won second place and she was proud of the small trophy she received in the mail a few days after she came home. Our bathroom smelled like Easter eggs for a week because of the vinegar baths she had to take to try to calm her burning skin, and she was completely miserable when she started to peel, claiming that she'd rather burn than itch all of the time.
She started eating lunch with us again in the cafeteria and actually tried to join in on conversations with the group, even though she had her moments. She no longer tried to avoid Jasper, but they still hadn't talked. Emmett and Rose ended up being shown on MTV's Spring Break Special on TV, resulting in them coming home as celebrities. Everyone wanted to talk to them after seeing them on TV, but they just shrugged and told people that they'd had fun and that they'd definitely do it again.
Prom was a disaster. It rained the entire night, ruining Alice's expensive dress and resulting in her crying almost the entire night over it. She didn't go with a date and Jasper didn't show up at all. Emmett got wasted less than twenty minutes in on the spiked punch, so Rose took him home, pissed as hell. The captain of the football team and head cheerleader were crowned Prom Queen and King but that was no surprise to anyone. Bella and I danced three dances before she twisted her ankle in the high heels that Alice forced her into and we spent the rest of the night dressed fancy in the hospital waiting room, waiting for her to be seen.
We had study parties before the five of us took our SAT test. The week of finals were hectic, everyone scrambling to get last minute projects done and cram for the exams that would depict whether or not we'd graduate. Bella and I had almost every class together, so we were able to spend time with each other, even if it was to study until our vision blurred and our heads pounded. The last day of finals was also the last day of school for seniors.
A group of boys were arrested the following morning, before graduation practice could take place, for their version of a senior prank. All we found out was that it involved every fire extinguisher in the school and the cafeteria. We practiced the ceremony three times before they deemed us perfect enough and released us for a few hours to go home and get ready. Bella went with Rose and Alice to get their hair and nails done for the ceremony, while I went out to lunch with Jasper and Emmett.
Dressed in our dark blue cap and gowns, the girls in white, we all waited for our names to be called and walked across the stage to receive our diplomas. Charlie had arrived just in time and, much to Bella's dismay, brought with him an air horn, blowing it obnoxiously when her name was called. The girls cried when we finally met up after tossing our caps into the air.
We'd all received our college acceptance letters in the previous weeks. Rose and Emmett were headed to California for filming school, claiming that they'd be the next Michael Bay. Alice was going to a local cosmetology school for hair and makeup. Jasper had informed us that he was staying close to home to intern at a local tattoo shop. Bella had received a letter from a school in Florida, offering her an entire scholarship for the classes that she would have to take to make her dream possible. My plans to just go to the community college in town had been thwarted and completely forgotten when I received a scholarship and acceptance letter to UAA (University of Alaska Anchorage). It would be hard, but after a long discussion with Bella, we decided to try a long distance relationship.
Fifty blue and fifty white helium filled balloons floated into the sky as the crowd cheered for the graduates. A pair of familiar arms wrapped around my waist and I turned to find my beautiful girlfriend smiling up to me.
"I LOVE YOU, EDWARD CULLEN!" she squealed loudly over the loud noise around us.
"I LOVE YOU, TOO, BELLA SWAN!" I yelled just as loudly before kissing her.
It had been the first time we said those three little words aloud to each other and it couldn't have been more perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment