"Are you gonna be okay?" Edward asked. We have been sitting in his jeep in front of his house for twenty minutes now while I buried my face in my hands to cry as silently as I could.
I felt a warm hand touch my arm and I lifted my face to look at him. How could I have not known him before? Why have we always been strangers at work up until just recently? Edward seems like the only constant in my life right now.
"It'll be alright." He whispered, rubbing his thumb back and forth by my elbow. The touch alone comforted me. "I have a plan."
"And what is it?" I asked, my voice hoarse and nose stuffed. I sniffled.
"We'll video chat. Skype all the time and that way, Donnie will see you. Maybe it could work."
I rubbed at my eyes, then dropped my hands down into my lap. "Okay. We can try that."
"I'll make sure everything will be as okay as it can be." I nodded and he shifted in his seat to slightly face me. "Would you like to go inside?"
"Uh," I looked out the passenger window at Edward's house and I immediately nodded. "Yes. I have to wake up early anyways."
After entering the house, the warm pleasant smell of brownies and cinnamon reached my nose. We padded into the kitchen to see Alyssa and Grace just finish cleaning up while Riley pulled on their golden retrievers tail under the table.
"What's all this?" Edward asked, walking up behind his mom to give her a quick 'hello' kiss on the cheek.
"Well, me and the girls were thinking that Marley would like some dessert since you didn't invite use to the small party earlier." Heather teased.
"All we had were sweets and treats." Edward defended. "And she didn't have any."
"I thought it was a dinner thing." Heather said, looking to Alyssa who only shrugged.
"Even if it was, she didn't have anything to eat." Edward told them.
"Why can't we have dessert for dinner?" Riley asks, standing up next to me as their dog sniffed my hands at my sides.
"Marley?" Heather asked.
"Uh, yeah. It's been a while since I had brownies." I answered.
"They also made cinnamon rolls from scratch." Riley informed. "But Alyssa made the dough, so I'd stay away from it if I were you."
"I will stuff you in the next batter if you don't shut your mouth." Alyssa threatened. We all began to laugh.
* * *
"Holy shi-"
"You better not finish that." Heather scolded Edward while he leaned away, patting his flat stomach.
"Sorry. I'm just stuffed. Good job on the rolls, Alyssa." Edward complimented.
"Thanks." She responded, smiling triumphantly at Riley.
"Just wait for the explosion. I'm sure she put a bomb in one of them." Riley said.
"It might have been one of the ones I ate, then." I smiled.
"Well, that's a shame. I like you." Riley told me, his coffee brown eyes meeting mine.
"Hey, back off." Edward playfully interrupted our conversation.
"I meant that I like her as a person. Enough to shed at least a couple tears when she dies from Alyssa's baking."
"Riley, you stop insulting Alyssa's baking. She did a wonderful job." Heather scolded.
"Okay, mom."
"Would you like some help cleaning up?" I asked as Heather got to her feet and collected the dishes at the table.
"No, you go and relax. The girls and I will clean, but thank you for the offer." She smiled.
"C'mon, Marley. You can sing me a song." Riley suggested, pulling on my hand before running upstairs with the golden retriever chasing after him.
Edward followed me up and we entered the twins room, Riley already laying on his back on the floor with the dog licking his face.
"Piglet, off." Edward scolded the dog. I raised an eyebrow.
"Piglet?"
"Yeah. Piglet is Grace's dog. We got him as a puppy and Grace was obsessed with Piglet from Whinnie The Pooh. It kind of stuck."
"It's a cute name." I said, nodding.
"Marley, what song are you gonna sing for me?" Riley asked, settling himself on his bed.
"Uhm, what song would you like to hear?"
"What was the latest song that you uploaded to YouTube?"
"Uh, Warrior by Demi Lovato."
"Oh, that's a good one. Alyssa loves Demi."
"So do I."
"What's your favorite?"
"'In case'."
"Can you sing that one for me, then?"
"Uh," I watched Edward sit down next to Riley on the young boys bed and they both smiled at me. "Sure?"
"Wait," Grace's voice shouted before she rushed in and sat on her bed. "Don't start without me."
"Oh, I-"
"Can I get in on this?" Alyssa asked, walking up beside me.
"Sure, but I don't do good in front of-"
"What's going on?" Heather asked from the doorway. We all looked at her.
"Marley is gonna sing us 'In case'." Riley announced, informing his mom and beckoning me to begin while he informed.
"Would you like to stay and watch?" I asked Heather hesitantly.
"I'd love to." She took a seat beside Grace while Alyssa moved to the floor.
"Okay, I just want you all to know that I hardly sing in front of an audience, so I'm sorry if I screw up. But, here it goes." I took in a deep breath, cleared my throat and projected my voice out clearly, trying my best to match the pitching of one of my most favorite idols.
"Pictures in my pocket are faded from the washer,
I can barely just make out your face..
Food you saved for later in my refrigerator,
It's been too long since later never came...
I know, one day eventually..
Yeah, I know one day I'll have to let it all go,
But I keep it just in case...
Yeah, I keep it just in case..
In case, you don't find what you're looking for,
In case, you're missing what you had before,
In case you change your mind, I'll be waiting here,
In case, you just want to come home..
Strong enough to leave you,
But weak enough to need you,
Cared enough to let you walk away..
I took that dirty jacket from the trash right where you left it,
'Cause I couldn't stand to see it go to waste...
I know, one day eventually...
Yeah, I know one day I'll have to let it all go,
But I keep it just in case...
Yeah, I keep it just in case...
In case, you don't find what you're looking for,
In case, you're missing what you had before,
In case, you change your mind I'll be waiting here,
In case, you just want to come home...
In case,
You're looking in that mirror one day and miss my arms, how they wrapped around your waist,
I say.... That you can love me again, even if it isn't the case...
Ohh, you don't find what you're looking for..
Ohh, you're missing my love...
You don't find what your looking for,
In case, you're missing what you had before,
In case, you change your mind I'll be waiting here,
In case, you just want to come home....
In case... Yeah, ooooo."
After I finished up the song, I took in a long drag of breath as silence filled the air my voice had just rang in. I opened my eyes that I didn't know I closed, probably somewhere in the beginning of the song.
Riley's smirk slowly grew before his hands came together, Grace followed her brother a second after and clapped erratically. Edward joined soon after and Alyssa, along with Heather, cheered loudly.
I was stunned, I think that's the right word to use. My eyes were a bit big and my face was warm, my lips parted and my breath held.
"You've got some talent, Marley." Riley commented and I looked down, becoming somewhat shy at the compliment. But, I had no idea why.
"Thank you."
Alyssa left the room shortly after and Heather brushed Grace's hair before the twins went to bed.
"Wanna go to my room? We can watch a movie?" Edward suggested and I smiled, giving a soft nod.
Before leaving the room, I turned my head to wish the twins a good night. They wished me the same and before I made it down the hall, small arms wrapped around my waist and I stopped. I looked down and expected Grace, but Riley was the one clinging to my side. I wrapped my arms around him before he pulled away.
"You're a nice person." He told me. "I really hope your plane doesn't crash so you can come back and hang out with us again."
"Well, I really hope my plane doesn't crash either." I told him with a small chuckle. He smiled and hugged me again before running off to bed so Heather wouldn't scold him.
I turned back towards Edward's bedroom door and saw him standing in the doorway, a cute smile on his face.
Cute?
Yeah, it was cute. It lit up his face. He was cute.
"I really hope your plane doesn't crash either." Edward teased as I walked past him into his room.
"Har har." I rolled my eyes which made him chuckle as he shut the door. I turned around at the sound of it locking and my jaw clenched.
"Sorry, I always lock my door. It's a habit." He turned the little notch on the door knob to unlock it.
"It's alright. I'm just.... I don't know, flattering myself, I guess?" I pulled my eyebrows together in embarrassment and mentally slapped myself. Because of me, an awkward silence danced between us and I mentally slapped myself again. "So, uh, what movie do you wanna watch?"
"I don't have a wide selection." He confessed. "I like to watch on my laptop, but on the shelf behind you are the movies I have."
"The Lovely Bones?" I asked, picking up the case in my hand. "What is it?"
"You've never seen it?"
"No."
"Have you read the book?"
"No."
"It's really sad- or emotional, I should say." I nodded as I looked at the cover. I didn't want to turn it over to read about what happens or see the pictures from some of the dramatic scenes so nothing will be given away.
"Can we watch it?" I asked.
"Of course."
I held the DVD case out for him and he took it, setting up the DVD player to the TV. Wires behind the stand that they were both on were a tangled mess and I giggled as he struggled with which wire belongs to which input.
"Okay, I think I got it." Edward sighed, turning everything on. I watched as he put the disk in and stared at the TV screen for the movie to come up.
Black and white static pixels danced across the screen in front of us and I smiled.
"Ooooh, it's got me so far." I sarcastically said.
He huffed and looked at the wires again. I walked up behind him and peeked behind everything, reaching my hand to fix the mistake of the colored inputs in the TV, matching yellow to yellow and white to white.
"It was dark back there." Edward defended himself as the movie selection screen appeared on the monitor.
"It's alright, I make that mistake all the time. It's how I knew you did." I smiled.
I sat down on his bed by his pillows and waited for him to have a seat with me. But instead, he pulled a big pillow off and grabbed the blanket that was folded neatly at the end of the bed, setting them on the floor.
I felt bad for taking his bed, simply because it was his. I never slept over someone's house until last night so I've never experienced taking someone's bed while they slept on the hard and cold floor.
"Edward?" I called quietly.
"Yes, Marley?"
"I feel bad."
"For what?"
"Taking your bed." I confessed, sighing. "I've never done it before, and I'm sorry."
He chuckled. "Don't worry about it, really. Unless you're hinting you'd like to sleep with me in bed with you?"
"That's a bit intimate, though. It's why I freaked out. I've never-"
"Woke up with a guy before?"
"With anyone before."
"It's okay, Marley. I'm fine down here. I've done it before, when Alyssa had nightmares. She used to sneak into my room and sleep in my bed and literally hit me in her sleep until I settled on the floor. It's not so bad when I'm asleep."
The movie began to play with a young girl in a toy infested living room, her father reading the morning paper while sitting on a chair. A snow globe with a penguin catches the young girls attention.
"Marley?" Edward asked, his voice a bit shaky like he was nervous.
"Yeah?"
"I'd like to confess something, because I know you're leaving tomorrow and I don't know when I'll be able to see you in person again."
"Okay." I said hesitantly.
Edward got up from the floor and sat at the end of the bed, watching my face. "Remember earlier, when you asked me why I was being so nice and brought up how we've barely known each other at work, like hardly ever seen each other?"
"Yeah..."
"I've seen you." He informed, chest rising and falling from deeper intakes of breaths. "Marley, I've always seen you."
"I don't know what your trying to say.."
"I've liked you for a while now. I was supposed to have left the marine park and purse a better job after my eighteenth birthday, but I stayed for the chance of knowing you. And now that I have finally got that chance, I don't regret a thing."
He paused, watching my face. "Keep going." I whispered, really wanting to know more. He smiled.
"I was there, in the back of the office the day you applied. Martin asked me if I could show you around the next day, but I was too shy." I giggled quietly at the thought. "But I was there to make sure Martin didn't scare you off. I was captivated by you, Marley."
I looked down at my thumbs as they twirled around each other, drinking in Edward's words.
"I don't want this to make things awkward." He said, capturing my attention again and our eyes locked. "I just had to tell you."
I can't tell him that I like him, too. I'm leaving for England in a mere hours and it wouldn't be fair. But...
"Sleep with me." I offered, but his cheeks became crimson and I was quick to correct myself. "I mean, sleep in bed with me. Like, just sleeping."
I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands. I can't believe I just said that, it sounded completely inappropriate and wrong. Edward chuckled and patted my knee before collecting his things from the ground and settling into bed opposite of me. I leaned back across the pillows and peeked at him to see he was already looking at me. He flashed me a dazzling smile, which I returned.
We watched the movie as it continued. I was lost for a bit before Edward explain that Susie Salmon was now dead and lost in the inbetween of heaven and earth because she wasn't ready to let go of life.
Halfway through, my eyes began to get heavy, but Edward recited a small poem that Ray had written for Susie and it woke me up just enough to look up at his face.
"If I had but an hour of love, if that'll be all that's given me," He turned his gaze to me, watching and speaking as I slowly slipped into my slumber. "An hour of love upon this Earth, I would give my love to thee.... Good night, Marley."
(Please Read.
Quick note!: I wanna say oops for not updating sooner. The earthquake that came before the hurricane caused the lava to erupt in the wrong direction of the ocean and now it looks to be destroying most of the Puna coast here in Hawaii, taking houses, forests, and towns. Everything is crazy and hectic, but I made a playlist of songs for me to listen to for inspiration to write my chapters, so hopefully that will hold up.
Okay, I love you guys and keep reading and voting and sharing and commenting and following x <3)