Postcards

Chapter 8

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! It makes my day. Huge thanks to my beta, Heather, for her awesome beta'ing skills.

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I spent New Year's with Mom and Phil, watching the countdown in Time Square and drinking soda to ring in the New Year. Of course, I didn't have anybody to kiss when the ball dropped, but I did send a text to Edward with a few party emojis.

My phone rang a few seconds later, and I excused myself, making my way up to my room which was looking quite sparse since a majority of my stuff was packed away.

"Happy New Year!" I blurted out as I answered the phone, and he let out a laugh.

"I've still got three hours to go, silly girl," he teased, and it was my turn to let out a laugh.

"Yeah, I forgot about that. Well, happy New Year anyway."

We talked for several hours, and I told Edward that I was all packed and so ready to get back to Washington. He told me that he was ready for me to come back as well, and I couldn't help but smile at his words.

"I'm a bit nervous about starting school in such a small town," I confessed a few minutes later. 'In Jacksonville, I was just one of hundreds who pretty much went unnoticed. I have a feeling that won't be the case in Forks."

"Yeah, you'll definitely be noticed, sweet girl, and not just because you're the new girl either."

A blush crept up my cheeks, and I was so glad that Edward couldn't see me.

"I highly doubt that," I muttered.

"You're beautiful, Bella, but you don't even realize it, do you?"

"Oh, please tell me you're not going to break out into that One Direction song," I begged which caused Edward to let out a loud laugh.

"I wouldn't do that to you," he said, and I let out a sigh.

A little after three in the morning, Edward and I said goodnight, and I was surprised at how wide awake I was. Tiptoeing down to the kitchen, I peaked into the living room, glad to see it was empty. I would have hated to interrupt Mom and Phil while they were snuggling, kissing, or doing anything else intimate-like. I'd already done that once before, and it had been embarrassing for all of us.

Opening up the fridge, I stared at the contents before grabbing a yogurt and a bottle of water. I grabbed a spoon out of the drawer, and snagged two chocolate chip cookies out of the cookie jar, and made my way back to my room.

I sat on my bed, eating my snacks and watching videos on YouTube, for an hour until sleep finally kicked in.

Mom woke me up around eleven the next morning although I could have probably slept for a week. She told me that we needed to ship my stuff so that it would arrive shortly after I did.

With Phil's help, we loaded all of my boxes into the back of his SUV and drove them to the local FedEx. Within an hour, all the boxes were labeled and ready to be shipped. I hoped like hell that none of my stuff got lost or broken along the way

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"You're coming out for spring break, right?" Mom asked as we waited for my flight to be called a couple of days later.

"Yep. I'll get the dates to you as soon as I know them," I promised, and she sniffled a bit. Saying goodbye to my mom was harder than I thought it would be, and I had to blink back tears.