A one-shot taken from the pit of my soul. It was written in the wee hours of the morning, but it was honestly very painful to write. Please let me know what you think of my art.
*
Something was terribly wrong.
I had pulled up beside his Volvo that morning in the old Chevy, pulling my keys out of the ignition and practically running to the driver's side where I knew he'd be sitting. His eyes flashed with mirrored excitement when he met my gaze, his hands tightening around the steering wheel and a crooked grin creeping onto his lips.
I tossed my school bag over my shoulder, smoothing the wrinkles from my skirt as I stumbled over to meet him.
But then the strangest thing happened.
As soon as I stepped into view, Edward changed.
His lips, full and formerly curved up into a devastatingly beautiful smile, faded into a deep frown before falling completely open in horror. His dazzling, golden eyes melted from a glimmering happiness to complete and utter disappointment. He sat against the dark, plush leather of his car, his mouth gaping and his expression one of terror, causing me to stop dead in my tracks.
"Edward?" I whispered, knowing that he could still hear from behind the glass of his shut window.
He watched me for another beat, the same look on his face, before suddenly springing to action and darting from the car.
"Bella," he quietly acknowledged, nodding in my direction before shoving past me. He moved too quickly. If he wasn't careful, the kids at school would realize that he was…different.
"Edward, slow down!" I called harshly, gathering fistfuls of khaki in my hands so I could run to keep up. "Hey! Wait up!"
Suddenly, Edward was inches away from my face. His eyes were gazing just over my shoulder, as if he were afraid to look at me. "I'll talk to you later. Just…not now, okay?" His cool, sweet breath fanned over my face, and I was momentarily too enamored by the crushed velvet of his intonation to argue.
"O-okay," I stammered, my body suddenly tense as a board as I froze in place on the sidewalk.
Edward sighed, still hesitant to meet my eyes. "Good," he said simply, turning on his heel and walking away. As I watched the perfect muscles of his back flex with some sort of strange irritation, something sunk in.
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
It was all that I could think about all day. I played that moment on the sidewalk over and over in my head, searching for answers.
Edward had been over the night before. Everything had been perfectly normal. He'd been sprawled across my bed as soon as I said goodnight to Charlie, startling me when I flipped the light on. He'd wrapped me in my grandmother's afghan, planting frozen kisses along my cheeks, my jaw. With my arms locked helplessly around his neck, my lips had molded around his as they had so many times before, always much more eager than he was. And, as usual, he pulled away before things went too far.
I'd woken up alone, the gray fog of another Forks morning sending bars of muted, ashy light through my blinds. I'd dressed in a hurry, eager to see Edward and knowing that he often arrived at school rather early.
I thought about his face, how excited he'd been when I'd pulled up beside him. But between then and when I'd stepped out from behind my truck to approach him, something had gone terribly, dreadfully, horribly wrong.
I pushed the heavy, dark green doors of the cafeteria open, my eyes scanning the tables for Edward and his family.
I immediately recognized their divine and devastating beauty out of the hundreds of students in the crowded lunchroom, breaking into a sprint as I approached their table.
"Have you seen Edward?" I gasped, my chest heaving as I fought for breath.
Alice shook her head. "Nope," she answered, her voice a high soprano. "He left after second hour."
Emmett nodded. "He seemed upset about something. Just got up in the middle of Mrs. Goff's lecture and stormed out."
"Wait a sec," Alice cautioned, her golden eyes suddenly blurring out of focus. Anyone who knew the Cullens, anyone who knew their secret, knew that Alice wasn't anywhere close to the room full of high school students that we were currently in. She was in the future, somewhere that none of us could see yet, somewhere that held the answers for what would soon come to pass. "Well, he didn't go home," Alice giggled. "He's sulking in the Volvo. He'll tell you what's going on later."
Why was Alice giggling? The way Edward had looked at me that morning…his eyes had been full of pure, unadulterated hatred. They penetrated the skin of my face, sending uncontrollable shivers of fear down my spine. That morning he'd looked like…well, a monster.
"Is something wrong?" I begged, my tone weak and whiny. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rosalie cringe with annoyance.
"Yes, there is something very, very wrong," Alice answered, her voice pained. She gave me a once-over, her topaz eyes full of worry and pity.
I tore from the cafeteria, my back sliding against the side of the building as I crumpled into a pitiful heap of Bella.
I waited out the hour, sulking off the Biology when the bell rang and the other students of Forks High filed from the cafeteria and on to their next class. I struck up comfortable conversation with Mike Newton, something in the back of my mind telling me that Edward would not be in Biology today.
Mike droned about insignificant things, like sports and prom and Jessica Stanley, and I pretended to listen. I sat in Eric Yorkie's seat, volunteering to partner with Mike while Eric was out of school with the flu. But as Mike explained his summer basketball camp plans in full depth and detail, my eyes kept flittering over to the coupling of seats that Edward and I usually occupied, my heart falling into the pit of my stomach after seeing how cold and deserted they were.
Something was very wrong. Something was very wrong. Something was very wrong.
Mike was in the middle of a sentence when the bell finally rang.
"So do you want to come with the group of us to Seattle next week? It will be really f—,"
"See you, Mike," I interrupted, not really hearing what he said. My brows furrowed heavily over my deep brown eyes, scanning the hallways for any signs of Edward. The students passed me, each with a dull shade of brown, black, red, or blonde hair, and none with the mop of bronze that I so desperately craved. Aside from Emmett, who shot me a half-hearted grin when I passed him, I saw no deathly pale skin with a subtle glow to it as I had hoped. Edward was still missing, and I had a sick feeling that it was because of me.
My last hour of the day was gym. I dreaded the physical activity, forcing myself to drag my feet behind me on my way to the gymnasium. I looked up to grab the handle to the gym door when, suddenly, a white, ghostly hand shot up and slammed the door shut.
"Edward!" I yelped, jumping a bit in shock.
"Hi," he said harshly, his mouth terse and his eyes carefully composed.
"Where have you been all day?" I asked timidly, crossing my arms over my chest.
He ran a hand through his coppery hair, his brows screwing together. "Are you opposed to skipping gym today?"
*
Edward insisted that he drive me home.
He drove his own car, claiming that Alice would drop my truck by home after school let out. I knew he wasn't going to stay long after he parked in Charlie's empty spot.
"Come for a walk with me," he whispered, his musical voice haunting and enticing.
"Okay," I breathed. He grabbed my school things from his trunk, racing into my house quickly and coming back out empty-handed within a matter of seconds.
He looked back at me, his face drawn with some sort of pain, before taking my hand and tugging me behind him as he started off for the backyard.
"Where are we going?" I asked quietly in a small voice. He ignored me, pummeling over the tall, unmowed grass and under the cover of trees.
As soon as he stopped beneath the awning of a tall maple, my heart stopped in my chest. He turned to me with the coldest glare on his face, his cold hand pulling from my grasp and falling lifelessly to his side. "I need to talk to you about something, Bella."
"Yes?" I asked, my voice barely audible.
"I…I love you. I always will…in a way," he muttered, his golden eyes against the forest floor. "But you're not good for me anymore."
The blood drained from my face as tears sprung to my eyes. I had known that something was wrong. I'd said it to myself all day long, ever since the parking lot. I'd told myself something was terrible in the cafeteria, and as I listened to Mike Newton speak. But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that it would come to this.
"I…You…what?" I stammered, the breath knocked from me. "Edward, please," I begged, the darkness in my mind swallowing me.
There was silence between us, only the sound of lightly falling rain and forest creatures permeating the stillness.
He sighed, dragging his eyes up my body to settle on my own muddy brown ones with an almost sort of reluctance. "Look, Bella, I'm sorry. But…this can't be. It was good throughout its duration, but something had come between us."
I took in a shaky breath, my trembling knees threatening to give out beneath me. "And that is?" I gasped, pinching my eyes closed in fear of the answer.
"It's…it's your…it's your skirt," he answered. I choked out a sob, my worst fears confirmed. "I'm so sorry, Bella, but I simply cannot be with one who honestly and religiously wears a floor-length, khaki skirt. It is awful, and ugly. You embarrass me whenever you wear it."
"I understand," I choked in strangled spurts.
"This is the last time you will ever see me," he breathed before planting one last, snowy kiss to my forehead.