Chapter Seventeen

"We are not watching Earth."  Jazz said forcefully, with her hands on her hips giving Quinn a look.

Quinn had a whiny look on her face, holding up a movie.

"C'mon Jazz, it's one of the greatest documentaries ever." Quinn told her. "Who doesn't love seeing a polar bear, humpback whale and a African bush elephant navigate through the wild."

"No we're watching Soul Surfer." Jasmine said rolling her eyes.

"That true story about a young girl who's arm got bitten off by a shark?" Quinn asked raising an eyebrow, waving towards me. "Yeah that's a great film to watch after Elena's nightmare of a fight with a scary vampire."

"It wasn't that scary." I muttered just listening to my best friends. "And technically I didn't fight it, I just helped set him on fire"

As planned Quinn and Jazz had shown up the day before prom. After hanging out in my room, we washed our hair, had a face scrub, and did everything you would at a DIY spay day at home. We were even dressed in fluffy jammies.

We headed back downstairs, once our Chinese food had been delivered.

Since today wasn't a game day, Charlie was more than happy to give up the TV and couch and Bella was kind of hanging out with us, she was on lockdown. She could only go to school, work, diner and home.

Jazz and Quinn were fighting over which movie to watch next, even though we have already watched about four. Bella stared at them and glanced at me every once in a while.

"The whole point of this was so we could help Elena relax." Quinn told her shaking her head. "Nature movies are relaxing."

"We've already watched a ton of your so called nature movies." Jazz told her glaring.

Quinn sighed and threw her hands in the air tired of fighting and turned to me.

"Elena what do you think?" She asked crossing her arms. "Should we watch wonderful relaxing Earth or shark eating scary Soul surfer?"

I glanced between them for a long time, they both stared at me causing huge tension. After a few minutes I sighed and got up, moving to the DVDs.

"As much as I would love to watch another one of your movies on nature and Jazz's surfing stuff." I told them picking up a movie. "I'd like to watch the Craft."

"What?" They asked in sync, opening their mouths in shock.

I smiled at them.

"A movie about four witches who join forces." I said bending down to place the DVD in.

"That actually sounds like a good one." Bella said drawing their attention, they nearly forgot she was there.

Not giving them any more chances to argue, I pushed play and I sat back down on the couch beside Bella.

Quinn took the chair and Jasmine sat beside Bella still glaring at each other.

I grinned at my best friends still acting like little children until the movie finally loaded and the opening scene came onto the screen.

A close up of the main character Sarah, she was very beautiful.

"So you're a witch who likes watching witch movies?" Bella asked.

"I love it." I told her getting up from the couch for a second.

I checked the Pizza, Jasmine had brought, it was cooking in the oven, grabbing bags of chips.

"Witch movies are my favorite... my top favorite is Practical magic." I added handing Bella a bag of chips. "I like seeing what people think of witches, every movie and tv shows are portrayed differently."

She smiled at me in thanks.

"It's interesting."

"It's not too late, we could still watch Earth." Quinn said grinning at me pleadingly, taking one of the snickers.

"Would you get over it." Jazz told her taking the other candy bar "We're watching the movie Elena picked out remember? Elena our best friend?"

"Fine..." Quinn said sighing heavily.

I laughed at her.

"Do you think we'll ever have a fourth?" Jazz asked watching Bonnie, Rochelle and Nancy.

"Do you need a fourth?" Bella asked looking between us.

"It would make our coven more powerful." I told her shrugging. "It would be cool if we had another sister witch but we do fine on our own too."

Bella nodded.

The scene changed to Chris and his friends messing with Nancy, my eyes were glued making the girls laugh at me.

The doorbell rang, I pulled my eyes away from it and got up, going to answer it.

Pulling open the door, I was met with Paul standing on the other side. I stared at him in surprise, looking him over. Smiling softly, I crossed my arms.

"What are you doing here?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

I wasn't expecting it to be Paul. Since I've been home I've been hanging out with a bunch of people. The night after I got back, I went to hang with Leah, spent time with Jacob and my boys, had a talk with Billy and the Elders. I also got to see the new Jared and give him a makeover.

"I really don't know." He said scratching the back of his neck. "I've been meaning to come by or thought I'd catch you at the Clearwater's or something but your kind of hard to flag down."

I nodded, laughing at that.

"Yeah I had a lot of people to make up too." I told him.

"I know."

"Hey bring some ice cream!" Quinn yelled impatiently from the living room, reminding me that she, Jazz and Bella were waiting.

"I guess since I saw you, I'll just head back." Paul said taking a step back from the door. He looked nervous about going back home. It made my heart hurt.

I gazed at him, stretching out and caught hold of his shoulder, making him pause.

"If you want you can stay, it's just Bella, Quinn and Jasmine." I offered giving him a gentle smile. "We're just watching movies and chilling."

"Nah that's okay."

"We got Chinese take out, and pizza and a bunch of other junk..." I told him using food to my advantage. "You can stay as long as you want, Charlie won't mind."

I gave him a knowing look.

He stood there silently staring at me thinking it over before shrugging and nodded.

"Why not."

I grinned at him, stepping aside to let him in. He followed me into the kitchen, shutting the door. I pulled the pizza Jasmine had brought from the oven setting it, in it's box.

"Do you want any help?" Paul asked making me look at him.

"You could grab the bowls and case of root beer." I said nodding to the soda stacked.

He nodded.

I picked up the hot and cheesey gooey yumminess and headed into the living room with the ice cream.

"Pizza and ice cream is served." I alerted walking into the room and sat everything down.

Quinn and Jazz both smiled big, grabbing a slice, blowing on it to cool it down and took a bite.

Paul walked in drawing attention, he stood awkwardly in the doorway with the stuff I asked him to grab.

"Uh who are you?" Bella asked looking him over.

I straightened up, moving over to grab the five bowls.

"Bella this is my friend Paul." I told her shrugging, moving to set the stuff on the table and kneeled down. "He's the one who likes to pick on Jacob..." I sat back in my spot beside Jasmine, scooping ice cream into bowls. "Paul this is my cousin Bella, you've officially met."

Jasmine moved from her spot beside me and joined Quinn, both of them had grins on their faces.

"Hi." Bella greeted short.

Paul just nodded at her and came over to join me, he handed out the sodas.

"So how many more friends of yours do I have to meet?" Bella asked.

I sat back against the couch with my bowl of ice cream and looked at her.

"Well you've already met Jacob, Sam and Embry." I told her shrugging. "There's still Quil, Jared and Leah and her brother. He's a goofy little kid but he's cool."

She nodded, I turned to eat my ice cream while all of them ate either Chinese food or Pizza. We all sat in silence watching the movie and munching.

I could see Paul's aura, this wasn't really his usual scene so naturally he was nervous so the girls and I just talked mostly about Prom tomorrow.

The movie was halfway finished when Bella decided to head upstairs to her room.  Charlie came out of his room for some pizza and a beer, he didn't say anything about Paul sitting in the middle of us girls, he gave him a quick wave and went back in his room.

I think my uncle knew about Paul's home life. Now that he couldn't hang out with Sam or Jared, he had no other place to go until his dad either went to the bar or passed out from drinking.

When the movie finished, I walked the girls and Paul to the door and said goodbye, before heading up to my room.

Laying in bed, I stared up at my ceiling cuddling with my kitty. I couldn't stop the smile on my face from growing, thinking about Paul crashing a girl's movie party...

Paul Lahote of all guys..  I mean I could imagine Jacob or Embry hanging out with us, but not Paul.

I giggled snuggling my face into Piper's fur feeling a bunch of butterflies fluttering in my chest.

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The next day was Prom.

"Are you sure this looks okay?" Bella asked.

We were in my room, Bella was wearing a pretty blue dress and sitting at my vanity, while I was doing her hair dressed in my own pretty outfit.

"You look fine." I told her putting the curling iron down. "Trust Alice, she's a fashion diva and knows good clothes, Edward won't be able to take his eyes off you."

Bella blushed a little making me laugh, we fell into silence as I finished my task and she turned sideways, while I grabbed a box off my bed and opened them, sitting down to put my heels on.

I saw the look on her face knowing what she was thinking about.

"I hope you know whatever you decide I'm on your side." I told her calmly.

She looked at me a little shock.

"I know you heard what Alice said and I know what she and Quinn have seen." I added shrugging it off. "As witches we won't interfere but you should think about it carefully."

She stayed silent and just nodded once. She stared grinning.

"Same goes for you." She said making me look at her.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you and that Paul guy from last night." She told me.

"Paul's only a friend." I retorted giving her a look.

"If you say so but I think he likes you and you like him... just a little."

I bit my lip not replying, I heard a noise from outside and looked away from my cousin, going to the window.

"Edward's here, we should get going." I told her, making her nod.

I thanked the Goddess for the perfect timing.

I grabbed my bag, and helped her stand up, walking out of my room and down the hall and downstairs.

Bella still had a cast on her leg and had to use crutches, she was actually fully healed thanks to my amazing healing power. But because the injury Bella should have had was a bad one, she had to fake still being hurt so no one would find out.

I helped her outside spotting Charlie sitting at the picnic table cleaning a fish with a big knife, Edward was waiting near his Volvo dressed in an elegant suit, but I could sense Edward was unnerved by Charlie's glare, I raised an eyebrow at my uncle.

'Glad I'm not Edward right now' I thought.

'Hey! Insulting.' Edward thought making me look at him for a minute and grin lightly.

'Come help me, one step to getting back in his good graces.'

I gave Edward a pointed look, he did as I said and walked over to help me get Bella down. Once Bella was planted firmly on the ground, I moved away from the happy couple and checked my phone.

"Alice lent me the dress." Bella told him. "It was the only thing that would fit over my cast...is it too...."

"You're perfect." Edward told her lightly.

He looked at Charlie.

"I'll take good care of her, chief."

"Heard that before." Charlie retorted.

"The girls and I will be there, don't worry." I told him sternly. "This time I'll keep a better eye on them."

I gave Charlie a look, making him nod at me approvingly.

I saw Jazz's Mercedes pull up to the curb with Quinn and Jazz inside, waiting for me. The girls and I didn't have dates, we were going together as a trio.

Edward moved to open his car door.

Bella and I gave each other smiles and started in our separate ways when Charlie pulled Bella back, making me stop and look back.

"I put new pepper spray in your bag." Charlie told her in a sotto tone.

I pictured her pepper spraying Edward in my head making me laugh out loud, earning an amused look from Edward, a stern one from Charlie and a blank face from Bella.

"Dad..." Bella trailed off.

"You both look beautiful." Charlie added looking between us.

Bella and I smiled at him; I gave him a quick hug.

"My sister would be proud of you." He told me pulling back. "David would be too."

I felt my eyes start to water slightly, reminding me this was my prom. Mom and Dad will never see me in this dress, I don't get to see my mother flustered trying to take pictures, crying because her baby is grown up or hear Dad do what Charlie's doing, threaten my date even though I don't have a date.

Shaking it off, I gave wrapped my arms around my uncle, giving him a tighter hug.

"Time to go, you'll be late." I heard him mumble.

I leaned back and nodded, smiling at him and turned heading to Jazz's car and climbed in.

The girls and I pulled up to an Inn called View Point, it was a pretty big mansion, Jazz, Quinn and I got out joining Bella and Edward who pulled up beside us and parked.

The girls and I stayed away from the couple, linking our arms.

"You know the elders aren't happy. " Quinn said looking at me. "They told our Grams that they needed to keep an eye on you."

"I know." I told them sighing, feeling Bella looking at me confused. "Makes it hard when I'm friends with both sides, I will never betray the Cullen's or the pack or the coven."

"Neither will we." Jasmine said nodding her head. "Our families believe in what you and your family has done."

I smiled at them, we headed inside to the Monte Carlo style and looked at it stunned. There were gaming tables and roulette wheels, guys in tuxes and girls in gowns, some were gambling for prizes, others were dancing or being sociable.

The dance floor had a gap formed, in the middle of it Alice and Jasper dancing gracefully but romantically. Rosalie and Emmett were next to them, dancing more slowly... All of them were absolutely stunning.

I gave them small look overs and spotted everyone else doing their own thing, Eric was at the turntables, making the room bounce, Angela was next to him wearing headphones and flipping through the stack of vinyl I had gathered.

Mike and Jesscia were doing their own thing.

Edward and Bella walked in making heads turn, Bella stared at them like a deer in headlights and looked around, we stared for a while and turned back to what we were doing.

Quinn pulled me onto the dance floor when a good song came on making me chuckle, we moved into the middle with the other Cullen couples.

Even though the girls and I didn't have any dates we were still having fun just being the three of us, but I wonder if I'll ever find someone other than the girls, and the Cullens that I can be myself around.

While dancing I could sense someone watching and paused a moment, looking around.

"What's up Elena?" Jazz asked.

I shook my head.

"I dunno." I told her feeling weird, before shaking it off and turned back to the group. "It's tomorrows problem."

I smiled and danced with my best friends.

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4/22/2024