Complications

I massage my temples as my publicist and agent begin to squabble, some of the other actor's and actresses' agents and publicists doing the same.

Two hours ago I received an email from Victoria, the director for Pretty Popular Girl, demanding a meeting with all of the actors and actresses.

As soon as possible.

She has yet to show up, and when I reviewed the recipients for the email not five minutes ago, I noticed Jacob and Kate weren't on the list, even though they were supposed to be starring in the movie as well.

What was this all about?

I look away from Bree and Diego, my agent and publicist, to stare at the fully crowded table.

Everyone was here, I spotted Tanya Denali who gave me a friendly wave. She and I were good friends, despite her sister, and even though she had once fancied me, I let her know, kindly and in a gentlemanly fashion, I didn't share the interest. She hadn't taken it badly, and things got better between us when she found Garrett, her fiance. Her agent and publicist were also squabbling, filling the room with hushed but tense chatter.

Across from me sits Mike Newton and his girlfriend Jessica Stanley; they're whispering to one another, heads bent together as their publicists and agents pass notes.

Emmett was here too, sitting three chairs down from me, conversing with his agent, both of them laughing and having a good time.

I scanned the room for Bella, she had arrived before me and I hadn't had time to say hello.

I found her a few seconds later, sitting five chairs away from me, across the table, whispering to her agent and publicist.

Two weeks ago, she had emailed me and asked me to come over. I did, and that was when she kissed me.

Since then, things had felt as if we were teetering on the point of a knife.  I had taken her out once, but almost immediately the press descended on us like hawks, and we had to leg it out of there if we wanted to make it out alive.

Bella and I had agreed to keep our relationship quiet for now, whatever the relationship was. So dodging questions and evading the press was key. That night we just regrouped at Bella's house, eating Chinese take-out and watching old rom-coms until I had to go.

She kissed me again before I left, and when I got home, I was still grinning like a blithering idiot.

Alice called me later that night, she apparently could hear the smile in my voice, and after shooting an email off to Bella to double check, I coughed up entire the story.

My ears are still ringing from her squeals.

"This sucks," I mutter to myself as someone next to Bella, an actor, gets up and leaves the room.

Seize the opportunity.

I get up and quickly walk over to his seat, plopping down next to Bella who is looking at me in disbelief.

"Couldn't resist, could you?" She teases, wrinkling her nose. "I'm just too irresistible, aren't I?"

I laugh, ruffling her hair. "You would like to think that, wouldn't you?"

She nods, pursing her lips to keep from giggling.

The actor returns, and I get up from his seat just as a woman with wild red hair walks into the room.

Victoria.

I take my seat as she heads to the head of the table, a large folder in her hands. Papers are bursting from the thin, plastic thing that looks like it has seen better days.

"Alright," Victoria calls, the room falling silent as everyone turns towards her. "I have some news. Jacob and Kate have walked."

The room erupts into hushed murmurs, steadily growing louder as people get worked up.

"What does this mean?" Tanya questions

"Is the movie over?" Mike asks

"Seriously? The contract stated that we had to stay!" Jessica snaps

"Everyone!" Victoria holds her hands in the air, silencing everyone. "LionsGate has decided to scrap the movie, Jacob and Kate were too valuable to the script - and to the public - apparently, for the movie to continue without them."

Everyone turns their head to whisper to their agent.

"Diego, what does this mean?" I hiss.

"I don't know." He scowls, turning back to glare Victoria "But I'll promise you one thing, you won't be working with LionsGate much longer if they're going to pull this kind of bull."

That's when a script is placed in front of me.

"I got LionsGate to reconsider, they rewrote the script, editing Jacob and Kate out. Now, this is a different movie, but everyone's already been cast and there will be no more additions, just a different name and different plot line."

Lovely Deception, is what is scrawled onto the front. After a few minutes of silence, the rustling of papers being turned the only noise, someone slams their hand down on the table.

My head jerks up to see it's Bella, and she's quivering in anger, tears threatening to spill over.

"No," She croaks "I won't do it."

I hurriedly flip to the back where the small summary is written, and read this:

Lovely Deception - A tragic story where Didyme (Bella Swan) finds her boyfriend cheating on her...

I shove the script away from me, my blood boiling. How could they expect Bella to do something like this?

"This isn't a very funny joke," Tanya muses. "But if you're serious, I don't know if I want to do it either."

"I'm not," I second "If Bella walks, I'm gone."

Victoria stares at us in disbelief.

"Well, it's not very kind, doing that to Bella." Angela Weber explains "And, well, I support her. So, I'll walk too. That is, if this goes through."

Ben Cheney, her boyfriend, nods in agreement.

"This is all you're going to get, you know." Victoria snaps "This is it, LionsGate won't offer you anything else--"

"Universal Studios, Pixar, Summit, heck even Disney--" Ben argues

"Okay, okay, fine. But they'll smear you all over the press, you'll look bad." Victoria seems to be desperate now, but I didn't care.

I wasn't doing this, especially if Bella wasn't on board.

Speaking of Bella, I turned to see her packing her laptop into a bag, as well as her wallet. Her agent and publicist are arguing with Victoria, as well as the majority of the actors and actresses, and their agents and publicists.

She rises, passing me and giving my shoulder a soft squeeze, before exiting.

Tanya's eyes trail after her before she too, begins packing. Angela catches the drift and also packs up, Ben following her lead. I copy, roughly shoving all my things into my bag before slinging it over my shoulder and leaving, Bree and Diego promising to call me with answers after all this clears up.

When I open the door, cool air slams into me, and I take a deep breath, trying to clear my head from the cloud of anger that's blocking my judgement and ability to make coherent decisions.

"Coming, Edward?" Angela murmurs, holding Ben's hand as they pass me and head towards the elevators. "We're going to go see if Bella is okay."

I nod, following them as Tanya appears by my side.

"I can't believe them!" She rants "I never supported Kate in her decision to ruin Bella's life - we were friends in middle school. She's always been a year older than us, and she took care of us, you don't betray someone like that. And, when they're on the road to healing, it's considered rude to rub the pain in their face!"

I place a soothing hand on her arm, steering her towards the elevators - where Ben and Angela wait - as Tanya takes deep breaths, calming herself down.

"It'll be okay," I tell her as I go to stand beside Ben, who presses the button marked with an L.

We stand in silence, Tanya taking out her phone and muttering to herself as Ben squeezes Angela's hand in - what I assume - reassurance. She gives him a thin smile in return.

"We just walked." She breathes "What happens now?"

"Well," Ben says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as they begin to slip "Technically, LionsGate can smear us to the press--"

"In which we retaliate and tell the truth." Tanya blurts out

"--Right, anyway, this can go two ways. They smear us, which is a definite possibility, or..."

"Or?" Angela whispers, looking desperate for another answer.

I am too, no one likes getting smeared by the press, even if the public may or may not believe them.

Tabloids make good money, you know.

"They stay quiet and act as if nothing happened, which is more likely now that I think about it." Ben muses as the elevator dings, the doors sliding open to reveal the Lobby. Corner windows reveal a storm, rain thrashing violently against the glass. Thunder rumbles overhead, lightning dancing across the sky.

"How so?" I inquire, stepping out of the elevator.

"Well, if they smear us, the press will want our side of the story because the public will be upset if we don't get our say, we're little darlings remember?" He bats his eyelashes and everyone chuckles "Which we reveal the truth. And who're they going to believe? Some big, scary company? Or the actors and actresses they've loved for who knows how long?"

"People like familiarity, and they're willing to trust whoever they're closer to." Angela says, satisfied. "So we won't get in trouble?"

"Of course not, Ang." Ben swings her hand, pressing a small kiss against her knuckles. "I'll protect you."

They smile at one another before Angela presses a kiss to Ben's temple, his cheeks going from a flushed pink to a vivid scarlet.

"Where's Bella?" Tanya inquires, glancing around the room.

To my left is the doorway, in front of it lies a large table where a red-headed woman sits, manning one of three stations.

The rest of the room is empty, besides the elevators on my right and chairs lining the far wall.

"Okay, I'll ask the woman if she's seen Bella, you all go look around the room. If she's not here, Tanya, you back up and check to see if Bella's still up there, Edward, you and Ben should go check the parking lot while I'll check around the rest of the building." Angela strategizes

"You really are worried about her, aren't you?" I ask, just before everyone leaves.

"Yes, I am." She whispers "I was there the first time, and it wasn't pretty. If this triggers something, anything, remotely close to what happened then, I want to be there for her. I wasn't the first time, and that's something I regret."

I nod before heading towards the desk along with Angela, taking a left as she heads towards the woman.

"Excuse me?" Angela murmurs as I poke around, coming up fruitless

"How may I help you?" The woman responds, her voice tired. 

"I'm looking for a friend of mine, she's short... Maybe 5'4"? Has dark brown eyes..."

"She's Isabella Swan," I say, turning around to face the woman. 

Her wild, curly hair is much frizzier than Victoria's, and it's a slightly duller shade. Behind her thick rimmed glasses, her beady brown eyes widen as she gives Angela and I a once over.

"I think she went that way." The woman points to the doors.

I turn once again to stare out of the glass doors. A small overhang covers the front steps, keeping them dry, but any farther than that, and the plummeting rain covers anything worth seeing. But, on the last stair, someone sits.

Bella.

I dart out of the doors, vaguely hearing Angela call my name from inside.

As the door snaps closed, I'm swallowed up by the sounds of the falling rain and crashing thunder.

And Bella's small cries.

"Bella?"

Her head raises, and she looks behind her, staring at me as small tears slip down her cheeks.

"Go away," She tells me, her voice breaking.

I knew she didn't mean it, but it felt as if the wind was knocked out of me.

It hurt.

"Bella," I whisper, sitting down next to her, my shoes sticking out into the rain and getting wet. I wrap my arms around her as she turns her face into my shoulder, her tears slowly falling down.

"Why is it always me?" She screams, jerking away from me and rising angrily to her feet. "Why?!"

I sit there, letting her rant. After all, it wasn't fair.

I can see it, a woman, with deep blue eyes like the stormy skies above. Her hands, strings tied to her fingers, and below her, Bella, as a puppet. Despite all her good intentions, nothing worked. The blue eyed puppet master would yank her strings and something would go wrong.

Jacob's cheat.

Kate's betrayal.

Her mother's cancer.

Her father locked inside his own mind.

Those were the few that I knew, and I bet I had barely scratched the surface.

Beside the woman with stormy eyes sat others, disregarded puppets. A woman, surrounded by auburn colored hair around her head, even though she appeared bald. Her blue eyes looked lifeless as she was cast aside, a man next to her. He had dark hair, his eyes were shut, but I knew who they both were.

Charlie Swan and Renee Dywer, Bella's parents, who she devoted her entire life to as soon as she was an adult, more like, as soon as she could.

Beside them were two more, a man and child. Their forms kept changing, sometimes with blonde hair and grey eyes or dark hair with pale blue eyes, for I had no image of them, I didn't know what they looked like.

But they were Jane and Phil Dywer, Bella's step-sister and step-father. 

The woman let's out a cackling laugh that booms in harmony with the crashing thunder, her stormy eyes glinting with dark humor as she swings Bella's puppet form around haphazardly, her stringy mahogany colored hair swishing with the uneven motions of the doll.

I'm jerked back into reality as someone places their hand on my shoulder, I look up to see Tanya, Angela and Ben beside her, their eyes captivated by something in front of them.

I turn my head to see Bella screaming loudly, crying uncontrollably, and stomping into growing puddles in the middle of the vacant street.

Salt water streams down her face just like the rain as she tilts her head towards the sky, throwing her hands up in anger.

"What do you want from me?!" She screams "I've given you everything, or you've taken it from me! What more could you possibly want? What more can you possibly take?"

Angela gulps, turning her head to bury it into Ben's shoulder as Bella continues screeching at the top of her lungs, I was almost positive that she would lose her voice soon.

But, in due time, she stops screaming and just stands there in the vacant street, sniffling.

I get up and walk over to her, careful to make sure she knows I'm there. Gently, I wrap my arms around her and tug her close to my chest, blinking water away from my eyes as I press my lips to her hair.

"You know what?" Bella says, her voice oddly strong, full of some sort of emotion I couldn't put my finger on.

"What?" Tanya asks, walking forward to rub Bella's arm soothingly.

"Yeah, what?" Ben questions, appearing on Bella's other side, Angela holding an umbrella out to her. She politely shakes her head no, turning around so she's looking at me.

"I can't stop now, can I?" She muses, a small smile on her face.

I beam back at her. "You're doing so well, why quit now?" I tell her, water pooling into my mouth from the rain.

"I am doing well, aren't I?" Her eyes set in determination as I nod.

"You are doing well."

"Edward?"

"Bella?"

"I'm going to get my life back, my parents back, even if it kills me."