Don't Look / No Promises

TWO

Bella

Bella woke the next morning, sore in all the wrong places.

Her feet ached, but that was because of the stupid shoes she’d worn last night. Her thighs burned, but that was because of the two mile walk home in those stupid shoes. Her lungs creaked, but that was because of the joint Rose had produced halfway home to ease the agony of their trek. Her back was covered in scratches, but that was from jumping into the bushes when a random three a.m. car roared by, loud yelling voices spilling from the cab.

Her mouth was dry and sticky and her arms were numb. She was pinned under Rose, who was pinned under Alice, all of them tangled in Alice’s not-so-giant bed.

It wasn’t until Bella was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, washing her face, that she remembered exactly where she’d seen that car before. The blue one from last night, the one they’d abandoned somewhere up the mountain. It had been parked in front of the ice cream shop last Saturday, the one that Alice decided to fall in love with. The one that was really just a shed painted blue with the hand-churned ice cream and the picnic table out front underneath a giant shady tree. The girls had been going there for weeks now and usually those boys were sitting on the porch swings, eyeballing them from afar.

Those boys.

The ones with the slicked back hair and the vests. The ones that rolled their packs of cigarettes up in their shirt sleeves and smirked when they caught the girls looking back. They wore boots and tattoos and a blatant disregard for authority, licked ice cream from their hands and lips and looked dangerous from far away, even more so up close, draped all over that blue car like they were selling something rare and expensive.

They probably wouldn’t like having their pretty new ride ripped off.

Oops.

By the time she emerged from the bathroom, Rose and Alice were awake and already going at each other. Rose was still in her dress from yesterday, rumpled hair and grouchy face with her arms folded over her chest. Alice was half-naked and completely agitated, pointing her finger at Rose.

“You’re a slut, that’s what you are,” Alice accused.

“Who are you calling a slut?” Rose barked. “I wasn’t the one who let Mable Hendricks kiss me in the locker room last year.”

Bella’s mouth dropped open.

Alice blanched.

“That’s not true,” she whispered.

“Yes, it is,” Rose stated. “I saw it.”

“It was her idea,” Alice stuttered, the pale turning bright red as she flushed.

“What’s worse? A slut, or lesbian?” Rose sneered and Alice didn’t even blink before she lunged. With a shriek of fury, she had Rose pinned to the mattress, a pile of nails and sheets and screaming. Alice sat on Rose’s chest and slapped at her as Rose clawed Alice’s sides, her face sandwiched between Alice’s thighs and her hair caught beneath Alice’s knees.

“You conceited bitch!” Alice yelled. “You let guys you don’t even know put their - stuff - between your boobs!”

“Say it, Alice,” Rose sneered. “Just say it. It doesn’t hurt.”

Alice only hit her some more.

“Dick,” Rose moaned, loud and theatrical and on a roll. “Cock,” she cried as Alice hit harder. “Prick,” she groaned. “Fuckrod.”

“Okay, okay, enough!” Bella yelled, wrenching the girls apart, arms spread between them, warding them off to opposite ends of the mattress. “We don’t have time for this today. We gotta figure out what we were actually doing last night, in case anyone asks.”

Alice was red-faced and panting hard, either pissed off or turned on, but Bella wasn’t sure which. “I was burying Rose’s body behind the old windmill,” she growled. “It took me four hours and I was home by ten, tucked in bed, fast asleep.”

“I was letting some guy put his stuff between my tits,” Rose jeered.

“No,” Bella sighed, rolling her eyes. “We were at my house watching a movie and then we came here because my bed is too small and you’re both too conceited to sleep on the floor.”

---

Edward

Edward wouldn’t admit it, but he was stalking those girls.

That girl.

They were easy to trail. All that matching pink and the legs and the hair, they stood out. Made it simple. He spotted them walking down Baker Street and lagged behind a couple hundred feet all the way to the ice cream shop. They were giggling and looped together at the elbows, the brown haired one smashed in the middle, her butt swinging, and her hair bouncing behind her. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He knew it was wrong, knew his leering was going to get him noticed, but he didn’t care. Played it cool. Let them tromp right up the steps of that little ice cream shop before he ran clear to Seth’s house, eight blocks away.

“We’re going for ice cream,” he said, bursting through the door.

“Again?” Seth’s mouth fell open.

“Fuck, yeah!” Jacob jumped to his feet, heading for the door, counting his change. It was seven cents a cone and Edward usually had to spot him a nickel. Seth groaned from the couch.

“I’m getting fat, man, I can’t keep going there like this.”

“You sound like a woman,” Jacob laughed.

“No, seriously, what happens when we can’t get on our bikes, or behind a steering wheel, ‘cause we got no self-control?” Seth palmed his gut, the paunch bulging underneath his shirt.

“I ain’t gaining.” Edward straightened, his own stomach flat despite the sporadic indulgence that was now much too regular to claim spontaneity.

“That’s because you let that damn cone slide clear down your arm, staring at those girls. Half of it ends up on the ground,” Seth scowled. “Plus, you could eat a damn horse and still be a skinny motherfucker.”

“Hey, fuck you,” Edward spit.

“Woah there, ladies,” Jacob chimed in, stepping between them. “Let’s not get our knickers twisted.”

It took so long to pry Seth off the couch, Edward missed the girl by a matter of minutes.

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