Life as I Know It

Chapter 23

A/N: And I'm finally back, after so long! Sorry for taking so long to get back to this story. Its direction is kinda up in the air, so updates may be slower than usual until I can find a middle ground. Plus, school and work were kicking my behind lately. But I'm back! So, enjoy!

Life as I know it ch 23

Previously...

Letting the washing machine turn over my dirty sheets, I flopped on the couch and turned on the TV. My hand fell to the heart-shaped necklace around my neck from Edward this morning. Before he'd come back from work at around 2 AM, he'd snuck in my back door to wake me and give it to me in person. In my sleepy state, I almost hit him with my elbow, thinking he was a predator, but he kissed me fully awake, and I knew it was him. He'd also given me a $200 gift card to Amazon to buy more books for my blogs, which I'd thought was amazing of him.

I didn't need negative fucking people like Rosalie, or Phil or anyone else in my life if they couldn't abide to my decisions. I knew they were looking out for me, but they didn't have to be such assholes about it.

Happy birthday to me, I guess.

~oOo~

I heard my phone ring again, and I rolled my eyes to get it. This time, Alice's face showed, and I smiled a bit.

"Hey, girl!" she chirped in my ear, and I giggled, my mind still raw from my and Rose's conversation.

"Hey," I said.

"What's wrong? It's your birthday! Why aren't you happy?" Her tone turned sad, and I immediately felt bad.

I sighed. "Nothing, really. Rose just called."

"Uh oh. What happened?"

I flopped back on the couch, turning the TV on mute. Running a hand over my messy hair again, my mind recalled Rosalie's horrible words to me on what was supposed to be the most special day of my life. I didn't even realize I was crying until I heard myself sniffling and wiping away tears.

"Bella, I'm so sorry," Alice crooned, and more tears streamed down my face.

"I just don't understand how she could be so mean. Like, I know that I'm not the best at everything, but I'm trying, you know. I'm trying so hard, or maybe not enough? I don't know. I do well in school, I have friends but don't see them because you have your own stuff going on. I have an amazing boyfriend, I have a roof over my head. Granted, it's my mom's roof, but she's not kicking me out anytime soon, not that I want her to. It's just so fucking hard, man." My chest felt tight, and I tried to take some deep breaths to calm it down.

"People like that, who feel the need to bring you down even when you're clearly trying your best and doing your best, don't need to be in your life. And I've always said that about your sister. She's family, but there's no reason why she shouldn't be able to support you fully, without side comments. Do I think that Comm is the best, absolute spectacular major where you'll earn a billion dollars? Probably not." She laughed, but I knew that with her funny, quirky nature, she had a point coming. "But I mean, neither are half of the majors out there. Just because Business is near the top doesn't mean you shouldn't do what makes you happy. You like writing about media, celebrities, social media and books. That's fun for you, and that makes you happy, so I'm here for it. I like that too, sometimes. When you do your Scandal recaps, I fall out laughing so hard!" We both laughed over the phone. "But seriously, you do good shit, I don't know why your sister is being such a bitch about it."

"Probably because I haven't told her what I wanted to do. I still don't, but at least I know what I like, I guess." I smiled nervously, my mood already improving.

"Why haven't you told her?"

"I don't know, probably because she'd think it's just a hobby or not a real job, or something. I don't know." I shrugged, sinking deeper into the couch cushions.

"Well if anything, if that's the case, being a Youtuber isn't a job either, but people still do it. Getting millions of views and subscribers and shit. Ever think about that?"

"What? Becoming a Youtuber?"

"Yeah, like a booktuber-slash-pop-culture type of youtuber." She giggled.

"Eh...nah, I don't have the pretty face for the camera. I'm not shy, but I don't have that charismatic, quirky personality for the camera." I shrugged, rubbing on the small bumps on my face.

"But you have a way with words. You'd be so good!"

"And that's why I leave those words for the blogs and websites. If anything, I do Periscope and stuff like that, but not fully on-camera all the time. I just can't." I rolled my eyes playfully.

The talk with Rose slowly fell into the background of my mind. This is why I loved Alice. She knew how to make it both serious and fun at the same time. I just loved her positive attitude about things. It was a shame that she and Edward didn't get along that much; they were pretty much the same personality, except different genders.

She scoffed me off, but let it go. "Ugh ok, but one day, I'll get through to you one day."

"Yeah, okay, whatever."

"But yeah, your birthday. You need to get out of the house. Do you have class right now?"

"Um...." My eyes panned to my laundry and laptop open to Youtube videos, the ECampus website for school, and essay documents on Word. "Kinda, yeah, sorta."

"No you don't! So let's go out, let's do something, it's your birthday!" Her uppity voice rose in a high-pitched whine.

I groaned deeply in the back of my throat, my eyes rolling in the back of my head as I scratched my dirty hair. "I don't wanna go out, I just wanna chill and do laundry and be lazy..."

"But come on, Bella....you're only 23 once..." Her whining continued.

"Ugh, I don't wanna." I sniggered. "Why don't you come over?"

"Edward's not coming over?"

"He came over last night with my gift." My face burned warm at the memory of last night.

"He came over, or he came over?" We burst out laughing at her goofy sexual innuendo.

"No, but he really did come over at like 2 am after work and gave me this pretty little necklace. It's so pretty and I love it, and I love him, he's the best ever." My voice rose in this weird, girly, voice, and I didn't care, 'cause I loved him so much.

"Has that boy told you he loves you yet? Cause I know he does."

I chuckled a bit, but it fell after. "No, not yet. No pressure though, really. We already went through the bullshit when I accidentally-but-not-really said it to him, so we're not going through that again."

"Hmph. It's not fair. Now you have to hold in your "I love you's" when you really want to say it."

"I know. But when he says it, it'll be really special, and I can't wait."

"Awww you're in love, it's disgusting!"

"You're not in love with Jasper?" I giggled.

"Um...ehh. I wouldn't call it love, yet, but I like him a lot. I've liked him forever. So it'll be there one day."

We kept talking for another hour until my battery was at 20%, so I told her bye and we hung up. We'd have to do something on the weekend to make up for my birthday. I just hoped it wasn't anything extreme; Alice liked extreme.

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