Tammi Tallulah Takes Edward and Bella: Chapter 3
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BPOV
Yes, I cried.
I turned into a girl and prayed this guy who I only semi-knew from high school would have pity on me. I committed the ultimate cliché for girldom.
But, I knew this Eddie Cullen owed me. That fucker left me without a bra and top in high school!
I didn’t want to let him on to that bit of information, in case he didn’t know I knew. In fact, I knew he didn’t know. I got it out of his friend Peter, one of the four notorious potheads who smoked on the corner at all hours of the school day.
Jasper, Peter, Vicky, and Eddie were known as the Quatro in school. Everyone was pretty sure that they all did each other. Jasper Hale was the cool-headed blonde, probably the most stoned of them all. Peter had a Caesar haircut through most of high school, before completely shaving it off before graduation. Vicky was half Chinese, half white with the fiercest red hair.
Eddie Cullen was the long haired, shaggy auburn haired guy, quietest of the four.
How did I know all this? It was my job to know all this. I was among the popular crowd in high school. We knew little bits about everyone, only to use it for our own amusement, but once in a while to get what we wanted.
I never did use any of the pothead’s information, but that’s because they were surprisingly boring for smokers.
Aro Alabaster came into the store a little after ten a.m., about fifteen minutes before the next clue would be announced according to Eddie. Aro ended up calling Felix and asked him to come in early, which he obliged to do. I’d have to deal with any favors Felix would need me to do for him later on.
The big buff scary looking men saw Eddie with the doll gift wrapped from outside the store. They took the case and papers from me and were off on their own merry way. There was a small crowd of people outside the store that moaned and groaned when they saw Eddie with the doll, before they dispersed.
I put my coat on, grabbed my bag and stepped outside the store with Eddie. I shivered slightly at the harsh temperature change from toasty warm to bitterly cold.
Eddie looked down at my legs. “Aren’t you really cold in that? Its damn near freezing out here, your legs are ripe for frostbite.”
“I have leggings on.” I glanced down at my legs, twisting my body slightly to the side for a clear view of them. “I like wearing skirts. They make me feel more sophisticated.”
He chuckled before typing something on his phone.
“So…what do we do now?” I stared at his fingers moving on the phone's flat surface. The phone emitted music from its small speakers.
“The clues are announced on a radio station. They are clues that have something to do with the show, but they seem to be kind of hidden. Like, the clue that led me to your shop was ‘What were the colors of Tammi’s boots for her very first dance performance, as described by her shoe designer? You want the lighter of the two’. The answer was alabaster. Aro Alabaster’s Book Shop.” Eddie pointed blindly to the store sign behind us.
“Man, they sure don’t make it easy.”
“Nope. Okay I think it’s time.” Eddie held his finger to his lips as we waited.
I stepped closer to him; he smelled really nice. Like apple cider and cinnamon and not like pot.
“Okay the second clue in the Tammi Tallulah giveaway.” Some cheesy drum roll sounded off in the background. “Not nickels, dimes, or quarters. What did Tammi and Glenda collect for the Bundle up Babies fundraiser?”
We stood thinking about the options. Eddie was like a pro at deciphering clues because he had the answer faster than I could come up with any.
“Shit.” Eddie cursed. “That is way too easy.”
“So that’s a good thing?”
“No because there is only one real option. That clue is a complete wash.”
“What’s the answer?”
“Tammi and Glenda collected pennies. Then I just deduced that Tantamount Studios would like to make some profit off of this thing, hand out the doll at a place that already sells merchandise for that damn singing teen actress who plays her. The answer is JC Penney’s. Or Penney’s for short.”
I smiled up at him, despite the grimness of the situation. “That was impressive.” The whole corporate bullshit aspect of it wasn’t, but everything else was.
He shrugged. “I just like being really thorough with things.” He sighed. “So, do you want to go get some breakfast?”
“Sure, my treat. Since I feel somewhat responsible for this.”
“Alright. Let me get my bike.” Eddie unchained his bike from a post.
What was I going to ride on? “How is this going to work?”
“How’s what going to work?”
“You have a bike, I have legs.” I’m not exactly made of horse power here.
“Yes, you have legs. Sophisticated legs.” He stared at them for a few seconds.
“No my skirts are. Nevermind.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’m just walking the bike. If we need to get somewhere quick, you can stand on the pegs.” He kicked the round, hollow cylinders in the back by the wheel.
“And I’m supposed to trust that I don’t get thrown from your bike, Mr. Armstrong.”
“Aren’t you trusting me leading you blindly already?” He smiled a charming crooked grin.
He had me there. “Fine. Let’s get some omelets. Go to Maggie Mae’s.” It was my favorite spot for breakfast, which was a couple blocks away from the shop.
The place was a typical fifties style diner with old five cent Coke ads and a jukebox, which stopped working long ago; now music boosted from speakers in the ceiling. We were sat in a booth by the hostess. I browsed the menu, always finding some new omelet to try on it. The Denver omelet was looking good, but I was thinking of getting the Popeye omelet, spinach with a little bit of garlic.
Putting my menu down to shed my jacket, I caught Eddie looking at me. “What?” I took a sip from one of the cups of water that had been placed on the table.
“Your hair is a lot shorter than in high school.”
“Yeah, and yours is too?” I looked around for our waitress to place our order.
“Yeah, that's true but I’d say my overall style is the same. Not only is your hair shorter, but you now you have piercings and dress more like a punk than a Sweet Valley High girl.”
He hit a nerve with me and I didn’t feel like dealing with that right now. “Well, thank you for pointing that out. And you look less like a stoner.”
“I didn’t mean you look different in a bad way. It’s nice to see people…grow up past high school.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and made them dance. “This…” I gestured to my garb. “…is a very touchy subject, so if we can avoid that little bit of conversation, then you and I will be golden.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Okay. No talks of piercings, tattoos, short skirts or leggings.”
“And hair and thank you. I never said anything about tattoos though.” Did he automatically assume that I had one?
“Well I saw you had one behind your ear.” Eddie gestured with his hand behind his earlobe. I followed his hand run down his neck, skimming a very nice jaw line. If he wasn’t a complete druggie back in high school, I might’ve considered him attractive.
“Oh. Sometimes I forget I have it.” I pushed my hair forward, covering the tiny heart tattoo.
The waitress came by and took our order. I got the omelet, while Eddie decided on toast, eggs and home fries.
“I gave up pot smoking a while ago.” He folded his hands behind his head. “That and the illegal gambling.”
“Illegal gambling?” What did that even entail?
“Yeah, people get together and bet in underground casinos. Very shady but, also great way to make some quick cash.”
“Oh.”
He placed his hands on the table, grabbing the straw paper and wrapping it around his finger. “But, I decided to give that all up.”
“What made you stop doing all that?” The waitress brought us both our cups of coffee.
“It’s kind of a personal story. I’d rather not get into it right now.” He relinquished his actions to stir in some milk for his coffee.
We feasted on our greasy food and kept checking the clock for when it came close to the time to be on the look out for clues.
Eddie seemed like a nice guy; he was helping me out even though we were barely acquaintances in high school. Stoners and popular chicks didn’t hang out or breathe the same air as each other.
We finished our breakfast, slipped back into our coats and entered the bitterly cold city air again.
I watched Eddie pull out a set of ear buds and plug it into the socket of his phone.
“Here. Put this in your ear.”
“Okay.” I dragged the word out.
“So no one else will listen to the clues. You never know who might be want in on this.”
He had a small point, and what was the harm? The cord on the ear buds was short, so I had to step close to him once again; I did need some apple cider to finish off my meal anyway.
“The third clue in the Tammi Tallulah giveaway…” The DJ announced. “… Tammi took a ‘day off’, lit ‘sixteen candles’ dressed ‘pretty in pink’ and held a marathon of movies by this prolific nineteen eighties director. He really put himself on the map.”
We removed the ear buds, but didn’t step away from each other. I thought about what the hell was just told to us. They were riddles within riddles.
“What are you thinking?” He asked me.
“Uh…well the answer is obviously John Hughes?” I scrunched my nose, hopeful the answer smelled right.
“He’s part of the answer, but…John Hughes has what to do with a location around the city?” Eddie brought his hand to his chin, stroking the stubble there.
What else is part of the clue? The movies and their locations didn’t take place anywhere near New York City.
Edward snapped his finger. “ ‘He really put himself on the map.’ A map. Something to do with a map.” I looked up at him; his eyes were searching for some sort of connection.
Then it clicked. “Shermer, Illinois. He made up a fake town in Illinois, in essence putting himself on the map.”
Eddie smiled at me. “Nice. Let me see if I can find something related to Shermer in the city.” He began plugging away on his phone. “Okay, wow…I had no idea that not one, but two even existed. There are apparently two restaurants and gift shops called Shermer Shacks, dedicated to all things John Hughes movies.” He laughed bright and clear.
I laughed with him. “That sounds like the coolest thing ever invented.”
“But, like I said, there are two of them. One in the West Village and the other near Times Square.”
We were in the East Village. “Shit, hmm…I have no idea.”
“Well, JCPenney’s is a few blocks from Times Square and your shop is here…maybe they’re going all over the place?” He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s up to you what you want to do.”
Great, making decisions never were easy for me. “Let’s go with your theory.”
“Are you sure?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s as good as any.”
“Alright. We can subway it there and then bike it for some of it.”
We headed toward the subway station, purchased our Metrocards and hopped on the train that would take us a few blocks from our hopefully correct destination.
The subway was packed not only with people, but also their giant gift bags. Their bulky coats also took up some much needed room on the small traveling car.
Some heavy set man stepped onto the train, forcing me to stand close to Eddie, as he held his bike standing up. My hand pressed into his chest, his arm holding me steady as the train stopped far too short for anyone’s liking.
I could feel his breath tickle my ear and I looked everywhere but up at him.
“I like your tattoo. It’s cute. It looks very kissable.”
I scoffed, reaching my hand up to touch it. “Kissable?”
“If I had a girlfriend with a tattoo like that, I’d kiss her in that exact spot every day.”
He was making me blush. I all but forgot the bitter meaning behind that little ink marking. “Well, if I knew a guy with a pink heart tattoo, I’d be suspect to know of his sexual preferences.”
“Shoot, I’ve got one on my ass.” He hung his head in mock shame. “Would you kiss it for me?”
We reached our subway stop before I could answer. “To be continued.” I stepped out of the car, with Eddie not far behind me.
I helped him cart the bike up the stairs, and then stealthily hopped on the pegs as Eddie rode. I grabbed onto his shoulders to steady myself as he weaved his way through traffic. I cringed a few times when he had to slow down because the road was getting a little slick from the snow that had started falling.
As we reached Shermer Shack, there were already two couples standing outside the doors of the place. It looked like we were out of luck on this location as well. There was a small panic starting to set in that my search for this toy was all in vain.
An older gentleman who looked a little like John Hughes, stepped out and spoke to us. “Sorry folks, this shop don’t have the toy you’re looking for.”
Everyone groaned, including me. “It was the Times Square store. Fuck.” I stomped my foot. It really was a day filled with girly clichés, dolls included.
“Sorry.” Eddie sighed out. “I think I led you on a little bit with that clue. I did suggest this location over the other one. Uh…let me make it up to you.”
It seemed like we were constantly tipping the scales in the course of the short amount of time we’d been together. “What do you have in mind?”
“How opposed are you to shopping at the Shermer Shack?”
“Not entirely opposed.” Who doesn’t love John Hughes’ movies?
Entering the store and restaurant, we were bombarded with everything to do with some of the best movies of all time. There was memorabilia in the store with many black and white set pictures and pieces of the script scattered inside frames on the wall. There were also photos of the cast, signed and unsigned.
There were replicas of some of the clothing seen in the movies that you can purchase, like the infamous pair of panties in ‘Sixteen Candles’ and Bender’s fingerless gloves in ‘The Breakfast Club’.
Eddie was eying those fingerless gloves, trying them on and stretching his fingers around them.
“I think you should get the Jake Ryan sweater.” I told him, holding my soon-to-be purchase.
He darkly chuckled. “Do I look like a wool sweater kind of guy?” He held up the sweater against his body, clearly amused that I thought he could pull it off.
It did look a tad dated and dorky. “Maybe not. But I have a hunch that you are more of a Jake Ryan than a Bender kind of guy.”
Eddie and I made our way to the register. He did end up getting the fingerless gloves, and also paying for my ‘A Princess and A Criminal’ Breakfast Club t-shirt.
“Here you go, Mr. Edward Cullen.” The old man clerk smiled from behind the counter, before handing him his receipt and items.
“Thanks.” Eddie grabbed the bag, throwing a half smile the old man’s way.
We re-entered the cold air once more, Eddie unchaining his bike once again.
“Say, why do you call yourself Eddie?”
“Because it’s a nickname for Edward?” Eddie shivered at the though of calling himself Edward.
“But why?”
“I don’t know…I just never felt much like an Edward. Edward, to me, implies being older and responsible.”
“And you don’t feel that way?”
“No, not yet.” Eddie walked along side me with his bike, gripping the handlebars tightly under his Bender gloves.
We walked a couple blocks in silence. I was trying to find a way to put it to him that I too felt that way sometimes. That there is no going back to being young and stupid.
“Do you remember in high school when everyone called me Izzy?”
He nodded his head.
“After college, I asked people to stop calling me that. So now I go by Isabella. I decided that I had to take that step toward responsibility at my own volition. You have to be your own motivator sometimes. I mean, you stopped smoking pot, you can certainly handle people calling you Edward.”
“It’s more than a name, its more like…I don’t really have instances in my life where I am responsible for anything. I live…now don’t laugh, but I live above my sister’s garage. I never have the desire to leave and don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
Emptiness. It kind of saddened me that he felt like he had nothing in his life that gave him passion. He was a floater and I wouldn’t mind helping him get to shore, as corny as that sounded.
“You went to college, right? What did you study?”
He rolled his eyes. “Probably something to do with pot, probably biology or chemistry. I flunked out of college because I was so high all the time.”
“What made you quit pot?”
He steeled himself, shaking his head no. “It’s a long downer of a story; it would dampen the good time I’d been having today.” He smiled down at me.
“Alright. And I’m having a good time too, by the way.” I patted the top of his hand resting on the handle bars. I felt my cheeks brighten and not from the wind that was hitting them.
“Oh!” Eddie pulled out his phone, unwinding the earphones for us. “Time for another clue.”
We listened again to another clue that could easily make anybody’s head explode. It led us to a small candy shop. To our amazement, no one had arrived yet.
I jumped up and down at our fortune. I was going to get this doll after all!
“Eddie, thank you so much! I couldn’t have done it without---”
That’s when I saw him. Him. The one person who had fucked up my life and he was heading in our direction.
Chapter 4
Chapter 2