Wide awake

Chapter Twenty Seven. Coconut Confession Confections

E.P.O.V

Fucking silence. I shifted uncomfortably in my stiff leather seat, making my leather jacket squeak loudly against it as Esme and Carlisle scrutinized me from behind the desk inside his study with pursed lips. Bella shifted at the same time, freezing to glance at me from the seat at my side. She looked fucking uncomfortable too.

She had obviously changed and showered after she got home. I was a little delayed, having to drop Jazz off at his house before I could come home and be subjected to all of this fucking… silence. And all I could hear in my head was the sounds of crickets chirping. Esme was sitting in Carlisle’s desk chair as he stood beside her; both glancing back and forth between me and my girl as if we were some twisted fucking science experiment gone awry.

I sighed quietly and turned my head to look at Bella again. She didn’t have her hoodie on, instead clad in a large sweatshirt. I was guessing that it was being washed or some shit. Fucking bloody. Her nose and eye were bruised and slightly swollen as she bit her bottom lip at the scene in front of us. It was really quite ridiculous, they way they were just staring at us. And making my girl uncomfortable. As if she needed any more of that shit.

With a disgruntled eye roll, I reached over the space between us and took her hand from her lap, grasping it tightly as they hung between the two stiff leather chairs. She turned her head and smiled at me while I rubbed it with my thumb. I tried to convey all my love to her as I gazed back into her tired eyes intensely, trying to relax her stiff posture with my caress. She eased back into the seat, turning her head again to face the parental figures.

And they were just fucking gaping at the space between our chairs. Like we had just stripped off all our clothes and began fucking on the desk in front of them rather than just holding hands. I didn’t let go. I would have thought our closeness would have been pretty fucking obvious by then.

Carlisle opened his mouth, piquing my attention, but then just closed it again as he stared at our hands with a furrowed brow. I propped the elbow of my free arm on the arm of the chair, dropping my cheek into my palm and tapping my head with my index finger.

Esme was the first to finally speak. “How…” She trailed off as she stared at our hands. I didn’t move from my position since I pretty fucking much anticipated the particular question she was attempting to ask.

Bella sighed deeply beside me. “You want to know why he can touch me?” She hedged in her awfully raspy voice that made me just fucking rub her hand with my thumb firmer. That shit sounded painful. Esme nodded, finally breaking her gaze from our hands to meet Bella’s tired stare. My girl squeezed my hand back, so I shifted my head in my palm to look at her. She straightened up in her chair, lifting her chin up and rounding her shoulders back. All grown up. I thought smugly, fucking loving when she did that shit. She looked right into Esme’s eyes as I gazed at her confident posture from my palm. “He’s different.” She rasped, squeezing my hand and turning her face to gaze back into my eyes. And she looked so fucking proud of that fact as she gazed at me lovingly, not giving a shit that she had to tell them. And I just fucking smiled back at her, because I loved that I was different too.

I shifted my head in my palm to look back at Esme. Her brows were furrowed as her gaze turned to me, scrutinizing me harder with her eyes, likely trying to find the difference. I decided to squash that line of thought quickly. “I just am.” I said a little too sharply as the thought of trying to explain the electricity made me internally cringe. That shit was private between my girl and I. And even if I wanted to explain it, I probably couldn’t.

She looked taken aback by my comment, and unsatisfied with the answer, but I resolved to keep that particular subject closed. I told her with my eyes that it wasn’t a topic meant for further discussion. I hated to be a prick to her, but there were a lot of questions I couldn’t answer, and many subjects that would not be touched upon. That was only one of them.