Wide awake

Chapter Eight Triple Toffee Twilight

E.P.O.V

Esme wasted no time. When Carlisle arrived home from work he called both Emmet and I into his office. I wasn’t surprised when he asked us if we wanted to go over for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. But they were both very surprised to learn I was accepting the invitation. Luckily, they both kept their mouths shut.

Right as I was about to lift my sleepy, sniffling ass off the chair across from Carlisle’s desk, he made us both sit back down. I slumped back into the leather and quirked an eyebrow at him. His eyes got tense around the edges for a moment as he removed his glasses.

“Esme’s niece just moved here from Phoenix.” He started, for some reason only looking at me. “You probably don’t know her as well as Emmet does, Edward. But… you must be very careful around her.” I nearly snorted. Don’t know her as well as Emmet? If you only knew. But I had to keep up the charade, so I put on an innocent look of curiosity. “She’s very uncomfortable around people, and she doesn’t like being touched.” He frowned. I almost snorted again. But I could appreciate his compassion for her… situation, so I just nodded in understanding and went back to my room to wait for the very girl that ‘I didn’t know as well as Emmet’.

I took more of the cold medicine, even though I probably didn’t need it anymore. It kept me alert enough to just barely function. I probably had a total of four hours of sleep since I got sick. It was really wearing me down. I even tried going back to sleep Saturday after I woke up from another dream. But I just couldn’t do it. I could feel my brain turning to mush. Things were getting harder to remember, and I even forgot an entire Trigonometry class today. I had only had that happen a few other times before. I was pushing my limits. It was fucked up, and stupid, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

I was tired. And not just sleepy tired. Tired of being tired. Tired of constantly straddling the line between reality and unconsciousness and never being able to fully experience either one. I would give anything to just feel normal again. To be able to walk somewhere and have the ability to actually fucking register everything that was going on around me. I was tired. And completely fucking terrified that I’d never get the chance to know anything different.

---

I cleaned my room tonight. It kept me busy and hopefully would assure Bella I wasn’t a complete fucking pig. Even though I probably was. She came at exactly midnight like always. I never heard her coming up the house. She would make an excellent juvenile delinquent. She certainly dressed the part in her usual black jeans and hoodie.

But the clothes were always the last thing I noticed about Bella. I could see it wearing her down too. She didn’t just have circles under eyes. They were bags. She was pushing it too, I could tell. Her eyelids were in a constant state of half closed. She was straddling the line right along with me. I almost wanted to offer her some cold medicine, and then noticed she brought her own thermos tonight. Coffee, I assumed. For the third time today I had to bite back a snort.

She emptied her bag like last night and settled into her spot, reaching for my iPod which I left on the sofa for her. I like to think I got her hooked on music. It was something that was essential to my existence. I noticed she didn’t bring soup this time. Taking my spot in bed, I opened a large container of what appeared to be pasta. The smell of it almost knocked me over. Exquisite was an understatement. I ate with no inhibitions, just the way my girl liked me to. She’d let out the occasional lethargic chuckle, amused by my appetite.

“Hey…” I chided with a mouth full of noodles. “Don’t fucking laugh at me, I’m a growing teenager.” I glared, feigning offense at her amusement, which made her chuckle even louder. Then she leaned down and started unlacing her shoes to remove them. I cocked my head to the side, wondering if that bothered me, and finding no reason as to why it should.