The dance was over, and Edythe had driven me home. I stood on the porch and watched her drive off, knowing I would be seeing her later tonight. Once the taillights faded, I opened the door and found Charlie sitting in his chair watching ESPN highlights.
"How was your evening, kid?" Charlie tore his attention from the TV and looked over at me, "Wow, you look great. I hope you got lots of pictures to send to Renee."
I laughed, "Yeah, Mrs. Cullen got tons of pictures. She even asked for Renee's email so she could send them directly to her. I had a great time with Edythe, but honestly the dance itself was kinda lame. Not sure I want to go to Prom if it's going to be in the gym."
"No worries there, the Prom is always at one of the fancy lodges just outside of town. Much better atmosphere."
I was a bit relieved, "Bella upstairs?"
Charlie looked up the stairway and his face turned a bit red. "Yeah, she said she wanted to go to bed early, but she seemed awfully keyed up though. Like she had plans or something."
I looked closer at Charlie. I can't claim to know him the best, but he seemed a bit off tonight. "What's with that face, Charlie?"
He sighed, "I disabled her truck. So, she couldn't sneak off."
I chuckled and shook my head, "You worry too much. She won't be going anywhere, and she sure won't be sneaky in that truck."
He gave me a helpless look, "Me and her mom were that age when we started to sneak out and get into all sorts of… situations. I don't want her to follow in our footsteps."
"The tighter you try to hold her, the more you restrict her, the more she will resist just because she can, Charlie. I know I am young, but I have found the best way to get through to Bella is to tell her what you think and feel, then work out a compromise that you can both live with. If she starts feeling trapped, then she will bolt for the door as fast as she can, and she is nearly 18 as it is. Besides, she is more afraid of turning out like Renee than you are, no one our age thinks they want to be like their parents."
He gave another deep sigh after taking a swig of his beer. "I know kid, it's just hard. I just got her back in my life, and I want to be the best parent I can be. But… I find myself trying to force her to go the direction I want her to."
I laughed, "As much as I am looking forward to being a parent myself, I am not looking forward to feeling like you do right now. I am going to head up and get changed, the dance gave me a good idea for my class painting. Want me to grab you another beer before I head up?"
"Nah, think I'm done for the night after I finish this one. Night kid."
I went upstairs and paused at Bella's door, knocking softly. "You awake, Bells?"
"Come in, Thomas."
I opened the door and stepped inside her room. She was sitting on her bed, and I could tell what Charlie meant by her looking keyed up. For someone who wanted to go to bed early, she sure seemed hyper.
I laughed, "No wonder Charlie thinks you're trying to sneak out tonight, sis. You have a terrible poker face. Telling him you're going to bed early with that much excitement on your face. How was the meadow?"
She looked me over for a moment. " You look very handsome, Thomas. You better have gotten…"
I interrupted her, "Pictures for Renee. I know, everyone keeps reminding me. I gave Mrs. Cullen Renee's and your email so she could send a few of the hundreds that she took tonight. Now, back to my question."
She thought for a few minutes, "It was great, very sparkly. Edward and I talked a lot and just laid in the sun for the afternoon. We agreed to start going out officially. He told me that you knew about him and his family, why didn't you tell me?" She had a slightly betrayed look in her eyes.
"Mostly because it wasn't my secret to tell and there are ...consequence's to knowing. Besides, does it matter what he is? Does it change the way you feel about him?"
She sat up a little straighter. "No, he is a good person."
"Then everything will work out fine. I will leave you guy's alone then, watch out for Charlie, I'm sure he will check on you before going to bed himself. Goodnight sis, Goodnight Edward." When I spoke, Bella's face went red, and she glanced at her closet. I just softly laughed as I closed the door.
When I closed my own door, I was left in a bit of a quandary. I had never owned such nice clothes, and I was hesitant to throw them in the dirty clothes hamper. Hanging them up didn't seem right either as they were dirty. So, knowing that if anyone saw me doing it, they would laugh. I chose to carefully fold the outfit and gently placed it in the dirty clothes hamper. Shaking my head at my own ridiculous actions, I pulled on a shirt and shorts then grabbed my sketch pad and started to outline my idea for my painting.
I planned to depict that music to me meant the gathering at the dance. A mesh of actions all brought about by the music and the resulting dance. I left the room vague as I didn't feel that the gym walls and bleachers fit my idea of the freedom dancing represented. I also decided that drawing a band singing on a stage fit better than a simple stereo wired to speakers.
I had just started to outline some people when I heard Charlie come up the stairs. A smile broke out on my face when I heard him softly open Bella's door to make sure she hadn't escaped out the window. Then my own door opened, and Charlie poked his head in my room.
"Night, Thomas."
Before he could close the door, I quickly asked. "You going fishing in the morning?"
"Yeah, I'm meeting up with Harry Clearwater. You need me to cancel?"
"Actually, I was wondering if I could join you. Just remember, it will be my first time, so I will be a lot of hassle."
Charlie smiled, "I would really like that, Thomas. I will see you in the morning then."
He closed the door, and once I heard his own door close, I opened my window and returned to my bed and continued drawing. About 40 minutes later, Edythe came through the open window and closed it behind her before joining me on the bed. She picked up some of the discarded drawings around me and started to look them over.
"These are really good Thomas. I can't wait to see the finished painting."
I put my pencil down and looked off into space, my mind wandering. "I am having trouble with the clothing. It doesn't seem right to have everyone in the same style of outfits. I am thinking of changing it to major periods of fashion change. Going to take some online searching for that though."
"Most women's fancy clothing didn't change too much before the early 1900's in my opinion. Maybe material did, but not the overall cut and appearance. Well, there was the corset and basket dress look. Guess the more I think about it, the more different it does look."
We sat in silence for a bit longer before I asked her, "What do you plan to do for the time you can't be in the public eye the next few days?"
"I need to go take care of some things related to some of the companies we run. I plan to take Jasper as well so I'm sure Alice will want to come along. Luckily New York will be under cloud cover tomorrow evening for our visit and Monday our next stop will have no sun until Tuesday afternoon. Then I will be back here with you Tuesday night."
I put my sketch pad down and looked at Edythe, "How do you interact with the board members of the companies? I bet they don't take well to being told what to do by someone who looks so young. My mother was always complaining about her looks and gender being a hindrance in the workplace."
Edythe smiled, "I worked that one out in the 50's. All the board of directors are told the Cullens are a bunch of traditionalists who prefer to live in seclusion. But there are positions of power granted to the younger generations of the family. Edythe Cullen is a position that a smart young female member of the family is promoted to. Same with all the names of the family. We tend to use names of the others to confuse people who interact with us multiple times. For instance, if it is a pharmaceutical change, then one of us girls goes as Rosalie Cullen, or Edward can go as Carlisle Cullen, or vice versa. If it is about law or business strategy, then it's either Edythe or Alice Cullen."
I frowned, "So anyone can claim to be Alice Cullen and gain entry to the company so long as they are young and know the name?"
"No, there are certain codes that change continuously. And if someone shows up out of the blue claiming any of the founder's names, there is a protocol set up to contact the house and request clarification. We actually had a CEO try that with his illegitimate daughter, they tried to transfer some company assets into his name. We had to make that punishment public enough for the other board members to learn from it, but not so large that the police would get involved."
As interesting as this information was, I was starting to get tired as evidenced by a large yawn.
Edythe collected all my discarded drawings and my sketch pad and placed them on my dresser. "Let's get you to bed, I want to get all the cuddle time I can to hold me over until Tuesday night."
I pulled her into my embrace and sleepily told her about my plans to go fishing with Charlie in the morning, somewhere in her reply, I fell into a dreamless night of sleep.