4. Wicked

MPOV

I walked upstairs to the bathroom to wash my face and check the damage on my face. I was just expecting to see a pink cheek, so what I saw suprised me. My cheekbone was already starting to bruise a little bit.


Goddamnit.


Sick of looking in the mirror now, I turned back to the steps and went back downstairs to hang out with Katy. After a few more cartoons, we colored for a bit before she started yawning.


Wasn't she asleep when she got here?


Obviously, that didn't matter, because a minute later, her head was laying in the middle of the coloring book and her hand went lax, the crayon falling out of it.


Okay, then.


I picked her up and took her to Charlie's room, laying her on his bed. After tucking the blankets around her, I walked out, leaving the bedroom door open, and went to my room. Relieved, I knelt down on the floor and started prying up the floorboard where my hidey-hole was. Edward had showed it to us. He put Bell’s birthday presents down in it to hide them from her, before he abandoned her. I don’t know why he did that, it seems fucking cruel…but, regardless, it gave me a special place to hide the things that were just mine. Only mine. Bell’s not allowed to touch it.


I smiled as I pulled out my tin box. I opened it and got out the small bag of marijuana and my rainbow sparkled pipe. This is what I need to relax…I was getting excited just thinking about it. I grabbed my goodies and then went over to the stereo and turned on the Tupac cd. I wanted to blast it, but I was mindful of the sleeping baby across the hall, so I kept it low. Ah, but weed and loud music were my sanctuary. Tupac started singing ‘Hail Mary’ to me as I opened the bedroom window wide, to ventilate the smoke I was about to produce. I could feel the cool breeze against my face and I smiled.


I took my shoes and socks off, then unbuckled my belt to slip my jeans off, getting comfortable in only my shirt and panties. Satisfied, I went over to the bed and started packing my pipe with the goods, taking a second to inhale the delicious aroma of it all. I got my lighter, flicked it, and lit up. The first inhale was bliss, and I found myself starting to lay back on my pillows and relax. Another inhale, and I was soaring. I sighed. This was what I needed. I closed my eyes and let Tupac’s rap drown out the static in my brain.

EPOV

I had rushed through feeding and was now running to Bella’s house. I was so worried about her. Her behavior today was just not normal. Her headache, then her silence, then the rush of anger, then that anxiety attack. Something was definitely wrong. I made my legs move faster, intent on being back with my Bella. I had to see her. To see that she was okay.


I was getting close to the house and could hear rap music coming from her window. Something about ‘revenge is like the sweetest joy next to getting pussy’.


What is she listening to?


That’s when I smelled it. Marijuana. I became very familiar with the scent on humans in the 60’s. I felt a rush of anger.

Is she getting high?

Looks like my worries pertaining to her health, didn’t stop at lack of food and sleep.

Damn it.


Bella, what am I going to do with you?


I sighed and climbed up to her window. I slipped in gracefully, without making a noise. The sight in front of me made me tense up and stop dead in my tracks. Venom pooled in my mouth and I had to swallow it back convulsively.


My Bella was laying on her bed on top of the covers dressed in only a tight black camisole top and lacey black panties.


Fuck. I want to taste her.


Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful. However, after a closer look, she had a few tears streaming down her cheeks and I immediately wondered what was wrong. I couldn’t allow myself to speak yet, so I examined the room some more. Her jeans lay, crumpled on the floor by the side of her bed. Her shoes thrown on opposite sides of the room. There was a tin box on the bed with her. She had a pipe in one hand and a lighter in the other. Rap music flowed through the speakers of her stereo, and I watched as she lay completely still, her chest moving up and down from her breathing. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was sleeping.


I glared at the pipe in her hand. This was going to be a problem. I would not allow this to continue.


Just then, her arms moved. I watched as she put the pipe to her mouth and started bringing the lighter over to it.


No.


I swallowed again, shut off that annoying music, and spoke. “Bella, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”


She jumped to a sitting position and her eyes flashed open. She started breathing hard and stared at me.


“Holy buzz kill, Batman!" After she caught her breath, she smirked, "What do you think you’re doing? You can’t sneak up on me like that.”

Then she brought the pipe back to her mouth and lit up, inhaling the smoke. The sight enraged me. I walked over to her and yanked the pipe out of her hand.


She looked stricken and immediately reached for the pipe, which I raised up in the air, out of her reach. “Hey…”she said softly. “Give it back,” she whimpered, looking like a little girl who just got her candy taken away from her.


“No, Bella,” I told her sternly. “And I told you I was coming back around six, it’s 5:53. So I didn’t sneak up on you.”


I took the pipe and threw it out the window. Then I stuck the lighter in the tin box, which I noticed had more marijuana in it, and closed it up. I set it on the window sill, fully intent on taking it with me later to destroy. I turned back to her then, to give her a glare and stare her down.


Damn it, I can't believe she's doing this. And for fuck's sake, why? What's the point?


She sat there, ignoring my intense gaze and looked at me curiously, her eyes traveling up and down my body. Then she moaned.


It caught me off guard....and Christ, it was the sexiest sound I had ever heard.


“Hmmm, you look deliciously fuckable tonight, Edward,” she purred. She had a mischievous glint in her eye as she looked up at me through her eyelashes and patted the spot beside her. “You wanna come lay next to me? I missed you.”


Oh. My. Fucking. God.


I exhaled sharply and stared at her in stunned silence. I started to shake my head at her. What was she doing? She knew how dangerous this could be. And when she said things like that…Jesus, just the word ‘fuck’ coming from her pretty little mouth made me want to do unspeakable things to her body.


That didn’t deter her though. “Are you sure?” she asked. “I could make you feel good, baby….make you moan my name. We could…“ she paused and took a deep breath then breathed out, “oh, god - do so many thiiiingssss.” She smiled up at me.


Right. She was high. My Bella, under the influence, was a horny Bella. Who knew?


I could start to smell her arousal and I growled low in my chest. This had to stop. I had to stay in control.


But...ugh, she is so goddamn sexy.


NO. Stay in control.

She is high, damn it. Remember that, and don’t let her talk you into this. Stay in control.

Shit.


I stopped the rumbling in my chest and looked at her evenly, then said “Sweetheart put your pants on, ok? Why are they on the floor anyway?”


She didn’t answer, instead she just pouted at me and said, “Don’t wanna.”


“Yes, Bella. Come on,” I insisted, then grabbed her hand and pulled her from the bed.

She winced and I looked at her with concern.

Did I hurt her?

“Baby, what is it?”

She didn’t answer. We stood looking at each other for a few seconds. She seemed fine now, so I shrugged it off. I bent down to pick up her jeans, and handed them to her. That’s when I saw it. A bruised mark showing up across her cheek bone.


I dropped the damn jeans and growled. Loudly. I couldn’t help it, and I growled again. The neighbors were going to think a lion escaped from the fucking zoo if I didn’t stop soon. My lips curled back over my teeth in a snarl and the growl stayed rumbling low in my chest.


What the fuck happened?!


I tore my eyes away from her marked flesh and looked in her eyes. She simply cocked her head to the side and stared at me. I was trying my best to get control of my anger and she seemed to sense that because she stayed quiet, while I tried to calm myself. She didn’t look dazed anymore. All this commotion must be sobering her up.


Then a small cry came from across the hall.


What the hell?


I had been too preoccupied with a half-naked Bella to notice there was another heartbeat in the house. I looked towards it and Bella started walking towards it. She went straight into Charlie's room, making shushing noises and then walked back towards me with a little girl in her arms. A very little girl. Her long blonde curls were a mess, hiding some of her face and she had some tears coming down her cheeks. I looked at Bella, curiously.


"Who is this?" I asked softly, trying not to scare the girl. My growling had obviously woken her up.

Poor little thing.


The little girl looked up at my voice and smiled, then quickly hid her face into Bella neck and started giggling softly.


"Her name is Katy and I'm babysitting her tonight. I need to bring her with me to your house for that fuckawesome dinner Esme is making me. I'll share some with the munchkin, ofcourse."


I stared a second longer at the child, and then answered her. "That's fine, love. Her parents...where are they? When will they be picking her up?" I asked as I started worrying about what everyone's reaction to this little girl would be.


"Her mom will come get her around eleven," Bella said nodding and starting to lightly bounce the little girl in her arms.


"Momma?" the little girl called.


"Nope, sorry kid. Momma will be here later tonight, though," she said, then kissed her cheek.


"Kay, I wanna cowor in my pwincess book, pwease," she asked sweetly.


Bella put the child down and said, "Yeah, go get it and then bring it back up here to color, okay?"


"Kay!!" and then the little girl went skipping out of the room. She was adorable.


I looked at Bella's face again, and tried to keep my calm as I eyed her bruised cheek. I reached a gentle hand toward her. I ran my fingertips up and down the length of her arm and stared into her eyes, then whispered, “Love…please tell me what happened?” I pleaded with her.

She didn’t answer, instead she asked, “Why do you make those noises?”

I stared at her puzzled by her question. She had heard these animalistic sounds from me before. From all of my family. Why is she acting as though it is new to her?

I blinked, “Bella?”


“Ok, we need to get that little matter straightened out,” she said, looking at me pointedly.


My brow furrowed.

What matter?

“What matter, love?”

What is she talking about?


She gave me a skeptical look and then breathed out, “My name…”


Now I was really confused. “What about it? You don’t want to be called Bella anymore? I can call you Isabella, it’s beautiful too - “


“No,” she interrupted me.

“What?”


She didn’t answer me though. Katy came back in the room, a book tucked under her arm and her little hands overflowing with crayons. She sat on the floor and started humming while she scribbled on the paper.


Bella started running her fingers up and down my chest and my arms, occasionally looking at my eyes in wonder. She started murmuring words like, ‘gorgeous’ and ‘growly’. I just stared at her, utterly fucking confused.


After a few minutes of her explorations, I brought the subject up again. “Baby, what happened?” I asked, then ran my cold fingertips in a caress across her cheek, to point out what I was talking about.


“Dad says I’m a bad girl. A stupid girl,” was all she said, and very matter-of-factly.


I started to shake my head. That didn’t explain anything.


But, before I could question her further, she continued on and relayed this afternoon’s events to me. While she talked, I ran my cool fingers up and down her back, her sides, her arms, and finally, her bruised flesh, just trying to sooth her. I can’t believe he hit her. Nobody harms my Bella. It was all I could do not to hunt him down and snap his fucking neck right now.


“…so I punched him in his big fat nose and it started to bleed.” She sighed after her explanation, and then muttered to the side, “motherfucker.”


I was surprised at this information. Not to mention her casual use of profanity now. Bella and violence just didn’t go together. And that she hurt her own father, was another shock. I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her soft lips, trying to apologize for not being here to prevent it all.

She smiled up at me and hummed in appreciation. “You done rubbing on my ass now?” she asked out of nowhere.


I laughed, just now realizing that I had let my hands drift there, and kissed her cute button nose, whispering, “For now…” then softly patted her delectable little bottom.


I sighed, not wanting to ruin the moment, but knew I had to. I backed away from her then, and gave her a stern look. “Bella, you can’t smoke anymore,” I told her, pointing to the box on the windowsill. “I’m getting rid of it, and I never want you touching that stuff again, do you understand?”


She looked stunned for a second at the change in my mood, and then she looked at me curiously before squinting her eyes and cocking her head to the side. “Was it wicked of me?”


Wicked? Uhmm..


I nodded. “Yes."


Sure.


"You are not going to be smoking anymore. Do you understand?”


She seemed to consider this for a minute, before I saw the shift in her posture. She lifted her chin up defiantly and then glared at me. “No.”


Only Bella would glare at a vampire.


I simply glared back and said, “I’m serious, Bella. I’m going to do whatever I have to do, to make sure you are healthy. It is my job to protect you, even if it’s from yourself. No. More. Smoking.” My tone left no room for argument.


She didn’t respond, so we stared at each other for a minute. “No more, Bella” I reminded her before I walked over to get the box.


Bella looked from me to the box, then back to me and I held her gaze. Then she started blinking. A lot. Blinking and looking at me. I started to worry that there might be something in her eyes. But then she suddenly stopped blinking and gasped.


“Edward?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe I was here.


What the hell?


I sat the box back down. “Yeah?”


She looked around the room, pausing her gaze where Katy was sitting on the floor, busy with her coloring book, then she looked down at her self and gasped again. She looked at the floor with frantic eyes, and then practically lunged for her jeans beside me. She started putting them on in a hurry, muttering apologies to me.


“Bella?”


She looked at me, her hands still fumbling at the buckle on her belt. There were so many emotions running across her face right now, it was throwing me for a loop.

“Yeah?” she asked. Then she turned away from me and looked at the clock, then out the window at the night sky. I heard her whisper 'shit' before she looked at me apologetically.


I grabbed a hold of the tops of her shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “I really think you need to tell me what going on, love. Why are you acting like this?”


She looked down, ashamed and whispered, “I’m sorry…” her voice trembled a bit.


No, please don’t cry.


I put a finger to her chin and lifted her face back up towards mine. “For what?” I asked, and used the pad of my thumb to wipe a few tears away. I was so confused, it was driving me insane. “Baby, what’s wrong?”


Just then Alice appeared in the doorway and happily announced, “Dinner time, Bella!”


Katy startled at the noise and looked up at Alice. Alice smiled softly down at her and gave her a little wave. Katy stood up, coloring book completely forgotten, and ran over to Bella, wrapping her little arms around Bella's legs, trying to hide her face.


Wow, she's a cutie, huh Alice thought.


Bella sighed and bent down, bringing Katy up in her arms. Katy buried her face in Bella's neck.


Shy, though Alice added.

I just nodded at her.


"Hey," Bella whispered, rubbing Katy back and swaying slightly. "Look at me," she said softly.

Katy lifted her gaze at Bella and I saw Bella smile. Katy immediately smiled back.

"You wanna play with my friend?" she asked Katy.

Katy looked at Alice and stared at her. Alice gazed back with a smile on her face.


"Will you color with me, Katy?" Alice asked.


Katy smiled and nodded so Bella put her down and Katy walked over to Alice.

"Hi!" she said brightly to Alice.

Alice giggled and said 'hi' back.

"You wanna cowor with my pink cwayon?" Katy offered, holding out said pink crayon.


It looked like they were going to get along just fine, so I turned my attention back on Bella.


Bella held my gaze for a second, before she broke it and wiped at her eyes. She looked over towards where Alice and Katy were coloring and spoke.

“Great Alice, just give me a minute to use the bathroom real quick, and we can leave. Katy is pretty much ready to go, we just have to put her carseat in your car,” she said and then she strolled out of the room.


I went over to where Alice was and sat down beside her. Katy smiled up at me, then went back to her picture.

“Any ideas?” Alice asked me, referring to what happened earlier at school.

I just shook my head. “I’m so confused. Her behavior is all over the fucking place today. Did you know I came here and caught her lighting up a pipe?! She was getting high, Alice,” I said through gritted teeth then ran my fingers roughly through my hair, frustrated. I picked up the tin box and handed it to Alice as evidence. Then I snarled, “And then I found out that Charlie hit her across her face this afternoon because of a speeding ticket she got in the mail. She has this bruise,” I choked out, unable to finish the sentence.

“Oh my god,” Alice whispered.

“I know,” was all I could say.

“She is so broken,” she whispered sadly.

I let out a pained sound from my throat and Bella walked back in the room. She had washed her face and brushed her hair.

I gave her a small smile, “Are you hungry?”


She nodded and picked Katy up. Katy started to whine and reach for her crayons but Bella just shook her head. "Alice is putting them in your bag for you."


"Edward, will you go install her carseat, please? I'm going to go refill her sippy cup," she said, then took Katy downstairs and went to the kitchen.


I followed her down and grabbed the carseat by the door, going out to Alice porsche in the driveway. Just as I was finishing buckling it in, I turned around and saw Bella standing there. Immediately, Katy reached her arms out to me. I hesitated and Bella noticed.

"It's ok," she reassured me.

I sighed.


Alright. Remember: Delicate as a soap bubble, handle with fucking care.


I put my hands under Katy's tiny arms and brought her inside the car, over to the car seat, sitting her down in it and buckling her in.


Well, that was easy.

Good job, Cullen.

She smiled up at me. "Juice?" she asked, holding her hand out.

I turned to Bella and mimicked Katy. "Juice?" I asked, holding my hand out.

Bella snickered and handed me the little cup with the wierd looking top on it. I handed it to Katy, "Here you go, little one."

"Thankoo.." she said, then put the cup to her mouth.

Alice got in the backseat with her, holding Katy's bag and handed me the keys, telling me to sit with Bella. I opened the passenger door for Bella, but stopped her before she got in.

"Hey," I said softly, getting her attention.

S bit her lip. "What's up?"

I leaned in, kissing her cheek and nuzzling her neck. I breathed in deeply, taking her scent into my body and loving the burn in my throat.

"Bella...love, will you please, please, talk to me. I am so worried about you. I love you," I whispered into her ear.

She looked at me sadly. After a minute she finally responded. "I love you, too," she said back, and I could have swore I heard her whimper.

I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her to me tightly. "Please just tell me what's wrong...fuck, why are you so sad?" I breathed against her neck.


"I'll tell you what's going on, I promise. But not right now. Not outside in my driveway, standing next to Alice's car with a hungry two year old waiting inside of it," she whispered into my chest.


I sighed.

Damn it, she has a point.

"Alright..."


She got in the car and I shut her door gently behind her. I got in the driver's seat and started up the car, listening to Katy and Alice singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the back seat.


I held Bella's hand during the drive to my house. I needed to know what was going on with my angel. I was determined to find out by the end of the night.