Fire of Your Soul

Chapter Eighteen

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Chapter Eighteen

"I don't know if eating food with chopsticks was the wisest decision," Bella said, scowling at her bowl of fried rice and beef and broccoli. She growled lowly at the chopsticks next to the bowl. "I'm also not very adept at eating with my non-dominant hand. Add in two pieces of wood to try and shovel this into my mouth? Yeah, no."

"You've got this, Bells," Rosalie said, handing her a spoon. "I could always spoon feed you."

"I'm going to drop kick you," Bella grumbled. "This is so humiliating." She sighed, picking up the spoon and began eating.

"I bet you don't feel this self-conscious when you're with Edward," Alice chirped, slurping up her lo mein. "God, this is so good."

"I don't feel self-conscious because he's been with me every step of the way while I've recovered. I've got a long way to go, unfortunately," she sighed.

"How so?" Rosalie asked.

"My broken wrist ... I'll have to have surgery on it," Bella explained, scowling at the aforementioned wrist. "I went to a specialist, at Edward's insistence, since my wrist is still hurting. It shouldn't be this painful, almost two weeks post break. My ribs feel better, but I'm still taking pain meds for my wrist. I tried to use something over-the-counter, but it didn't help. It barely scratched the surface when it came to pain management."

"What are you on?" Alice asked.

"Tramadol," Bella said. "I didn't want to be on anything stronger, like oxy. If I stay on a schedule, my pain is manageable." She dipped her spoon into her meal and managed to not spill it all over shirt. "Speaking of which, I need my pain pill. Rose, next to the stove, there's my prescription bottle. Can you grab my meds for me?"

"Got it, Bells," she said, hopping up and opening up the medication. She handed Bella two pills. "So, I heard that you went to the police station today. How did that go?"

Bella swallowed her medicine, grimacing. "It's over. They just needed some information about what happened in the apartment, to close up the case, since my mom was a little confused. When she's stressed, she gets very scattered. She lost some time. Her memories were fuzzy."

"You also lost some time. You were knocked unconscious," Rosalie said, her lip curled into a snarl. "I also cannot believe that Peter fell in with Aro."

"Peter is a douche ... was a douche," Bella said. "My dad had every right to fire him. He obviously couldn't cope with that."

"I looked into Peter, specifically into his psychological evaluation," Rosalie smirked. "He applied several times to the fire department. He had a history of mental health issues and he wouldn't be accepted until he had his issues under control. He didn't like to be on medication. Well, that's what was said in his file."

"Is that allowed?" Alice asked.

"What? Me looking up his psych evaluation or him not being approved to work for the fire department until he got his shit together?" Rose snorted, arching a brow at Alice.

"Both," Alice chuckled.

"Most high-stress jobs have a psychological test that new hires need to pass," Bella said. "When I went into medicine, I had to take several classes about the psychology of medicine and the stresses it causes to your body, especially when you're in the midst of residency. I was rarely home. Essentially, I lived at the hospital. My specialty was not as intense as a surgical residency, but it was insane."