Ever After |all human| COMPLETED

Chapter 37

We got to my house, and I parked my car in the garage. We stayed in the parked car for a few minutes, while Bella continued crying on my arm, until she got the strength to lift her head. She looked at me And gave me the smallest and most unconvincing smile. Then she got out. I followed behind her, grabbing her bags quickly before walking her through the door to the house and down the hallway.

"Edward, is that you?" I heard my mom call. She came around the corner, and I turned to Bella, gesturing for her to go on upstairs to my room, and that I would meet her in just a moment.

She hesitated, standing in front of us. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes blood shot. "Thank you for allowing me to stay, Esme." She whispered. I could tell how much it hurt her to talk, and evidently so could my mother.

"Of course, dear." She said, "why don't you go get some rest?"

Bella sniffled, nodding her head before going up over the stairs. I sighed, laying her bags at the bottom of the stairs before following my mother into the kitchen.

"How is she?" She asked.

"She's been in that state since we arrived at her house, those were the first words she's spoken since." I sighed, going into the fridge and grabbing two bottles of water.

"Poor girl," mom sighed, "she just needs time."

"I know." I agreed.

"What I wanted to talk to you about.." she began, and then paused, thinking it over.

"What?" I asked.

"You're eighteen," she said.

"Yes?" I confirmed, confused.

"You're legally old enough to move out on your own, and therefore, your father and I talked about it and we aren't going to make you and Bella sleep in different rooms, nor are we going to be poking our heads in, mostly for her sake, I know she needs you right now, and she doesn't need us clinging and being in her personal space, however, if you end up doing anything we ask you do it safely, and in your own room because I don't want to see it."

I was beet red when she was done speaking, I was staring at her, and I knew I looked bewildered.. well, I was bewildered.

"O..okay." I agreed, nodding my head once.

"I'll let you know when dinner is ready, of course she doesn't have to eat right away if she doesn't want to, but when she is ready make sure she knows she is welcome to anything, alright?"

"Thank you, mom." I said, picking up the water bottles and kissing the top of her head before heading out and grabbing Bella's bags and going upstairs to where my love was waiting for me.

Waiting was the wrong word. She had changed, into a pair of my sweatpants and one of my shirts, and was curled into a ball in the middle of my bed, sound asleep on top of the covers, holding onto my pillow.

I couldn't resist the temptation to take my phone out and snap a picture of her, before straightening her up in the bed and covering her with a blanket from my closet. I got undressed myself, pulling on some pajamas and climbing into bed with her. I knew I wasn't going to fall asleep yet, so I took her into my arms and turned on my tv, flicking over to Netflix and turning on The 100, a show I had been watching.

She didn't budge, thankfully. I knew she needed her sleep, so I kept the volume low enough so that I could hear it but it wasn't too loud, and had the subtitles on. She slept for hours, through dinner. I decided I wasn't hungry myself and would wait for her to be ready to eat, so she didn't feel uncomfortable eating alone.

It was half past eight when her eyes finally began to flutter open, somewhere in the middle of her nap, I had managed to fall asleep too, and I had only woken up just minutes before she did. She looked up at me, with her sad, innocent brown eyes, and finally spoke to me.

"Hi," she croaked out softly, her voice scratchy.

"Hey." I whispered back. She asked me what time it was, and I told her, then I asked her if she was hungry, and she said she was. So, hand in hand, we headed downstairs. I could here the television on in the living room and knew right away that's where my parents were, which was fine. I didn't think Bella was ready to face anyone.

We warmed up some of the pasta my mother had made for supper and I poured us some drinks before we sat at the island together and began eating. She seemed to be feeling somewhat better, in the way that I could get her to laugh and smile.

"You need to try this." I said, holding out a forkful of my food.

"Edward, we're eating the same thing." She said.

"I know, but I'd bet it would taste better if you let me feed you a bite." I said, she narrowed her eyes at me and reluctantly opened her mouth, I moved the fork closer to her, and she took the pasta in her mouth. She chewed, and swallowed before looking up at me.

"Best pasta ever." She said.

"Told you so." I smirked.

"Your turn." She said, taking some up on her fork.

"Oh, no. I don't like when people feed me." I told her.

"I did it for you," she reminded me. I rolled my eyes playfully and opened my mouth, allowing her to give me a bite. I ate it dutifully, humming at the garlicky taste. My mother was an extraordinary cook.

Once we finished eating, Bella cleaned up the plates, and I dried them. And though we just ate, I raised the pantry for snacks for us both before we went up over the stairs together.

Bella called her father to check in, and see if they found anything. He informed her they found some fingerprints they were going to run through the system and see what came up. Unfortunately, if whoever did this didn't have a criminal record, they wouldn't be much help.

**

The next day, we decided to stay off of school. It had been a long day yesterday and both our parents decided it would be a good idea for us to have a relaxing day. Bella and I were spending it, wearing pajamas and watching tv, curled up in each others arms.

The day after that we were back at school, and the rumour mill was floating. Bella began receiving threatening notes in her locker. She handed them over to the police, but again there wasn't anything usable on the notes to find out whoever was torturing her.

The weeks clicked on, Bella was still staying at my house, in my bed. The notes kept coming and getting aggressively more threatening. However, the week prom rolled around, she was still insistent that we were going together and not letting me talk her out of it.

I was worried that something was going to happen, and my gut screamed at me that we should just stay home.

I would later find out, I should have listened to it. For what happened at prom was worse than what any of us could have anticipated.