Twilight: But it's a Thriller and I Never Read Twilight

Chapter 35: Eclipse

In the morning, Edward went to my house alone and got me my backpack and a few other things. I woke up in Alice's bed to him knocking loudly on the door like he was in desperate need to get in. I bolted upright at the sound and looked to where the door was shaking on its hinges against his volatile pounding. After a night of uncomfortable sleep through my thoughts clouded with Charlie's anger and my lost and smoking truck, I hadn't expected Edward to come banging on the door this early and this loudly.

"Bella," he snapped through the wall. "I brought your things."

I hesitated to open the door, but his knocking had come to a stop. Slowly, I climbed down from the high mattress of Alice's bed onto the cold floor and padded across the room to where I could feel him standing on the other side of the door. The knob turned slowly against my grip and as soon as it creaked open, Edward was stepping inside.

He held up my purple school bag aloft as he took a single step past the threshold into the bedroom. As I caught sight of my bag in his hands, dangling freely, I realized just how finished all of this was. My Dad had cursed my name and left me behind all because of the ring on my finger. The bag continued to dangle in his hand until I reached out and took it from him.

"Was my Dad there?" I asked. I wished I could talk to him. Perhaps when all the dust settled, I would be able to go back there and better explain this. For now, though, I depended on Edward and the rest of the Cullens to keep me sane.

"He didn't see me," Edward promised, but that wasn't what I asked. I wanted to see him, to explain myself in slower, more concrete terms. I never wanted to run away from him, not really.

I just nodded to Edward's statement. He hadn't told me exactly what it was Charlie had said, just that he didn't want me to come back if I was planning to marry Edward. I imagined, as I turned from him and placed my backpack on the bed, that he had misunderstood my Dad. I couldn't imagine Charlie to ever abandon me like this, but a deeper-seated part of me knew Edward would never lie, and that part had its hooks in deep.

"Is Alice here?" I asked. As much as I loved Edward, I couldn't help but feel a sort of resentment toward him right now. His ultimatum and my own decisions were the reason Charlie wouldn't talk to me. I would have much preferred to talk to Alice about this.

"Alice and Emmett went out to clean up the mess you made with your truck," Edward said. When I turned to him, frowning, he grinned like it was all a very funny joke. "Don't worry about it. I can drive you anywhere you need."

"I know," I said. The loss of the truck felt like adding insult to injury. Edward would take care of me fine, but that truck had been my gateway through town for the past year. It had taken me everywhere I needed to go with minimal whining and a sputtering, warbling engine. It was a piece of my freedom gone up in flames. I felt like I'd lost a friend.

"You should have some breakfast," Edward told me as I stood with my back turned. I could see his reflection in Alice's vanity mirror staring at me, his eyes soft and dark. The sunlight passing through the window caught his cheek, and a tendril of black crawled its way up his face.

"I will," I told him. "Can I have a second alone though?" He nodded and stepped out, leaving me in the room alone. He closed the door on his way out and I waited, listening to the sounds of his footfalls until he was far enough away that I felt alone again.

As soon as he was gone, I dropped down into the bed, pulling my legs up to my chest as I dragged my backpack toward me. He'd stuffed a few things into my backpack that I pulled out and laid before me. A blouse he'd said he liked once, a copy of 1984 that a teacher back home in Arizona had given me, a postcard from my mom in Florida, toothpaste, my toothbrush, and my CD player. He also had grabbed a change of clothes for me to wear which I threw on, tossing my dirty fishing clothes off to a corner.