I did not want to leave the comforting warmth and rumble of my truck to brave the pouring rain that fell on dreary forks. I did not want to face the looks that would surely accompany me, the new student of tiny Forks High, for the next few days until the novelty wore off. I just… did not. I wanted to go home and curl in the new comforter that Charlie had bought. I wanted to eat junk food and read tragic novels until my eyes were raw from angsty teenage tears. I wanted to methodically clean what had seriously become a middle aged man's bachelor pad in the years of my absence.
I did not want to face this day.
Still yet, I turned off my truck with a sigh that would put the melancholy musings of Edgar Allan Poe to shame and lifted the hood of my jacket before stepping out, my backpack slung over one shoulder. I hurried as much as one cursed with the aches of clumsiness could into the school, already feeling the eyes of everyone burning into the back of my ducked head.
The day was a blur of faces that had offered names I had already forgotten, save one.
I had been led, nearly unwilling, into the cafeteria by a bouncy brunette who had latched onto my side like we had known each other for our whole lives. We were accompanied by a snarky blonde whose hair in question had been flat ironed within an inch of death. How she managed to keep it frizzless in this weather made me suspicious that she had her styling tools in her backpack rather than her textbooks. We sat at a table in the center of the cafeteria, much to my dismay and I had only just noticed that the unending chatter that came with the girl had stopped. Her eyes were trained on the table before her, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson and I looked around the table curiously.
"You must be Isabella." It was said as soon as my eyes landed on the most beautiful boy I had ever seen in my entire life. Green eyes and bronze hair and flawless pale skin and my my what was this feeling? My heart fluttered as he made love to my name. It rolled off of his lips sinfully, as if he were trying to thoroughly taste it with the tip of his hellish tongue. Amusement glinted in his eyes and his throat flexed with the sound of his chuckle, drawing my attention the to the black ink that decorated the side of his neck. I shook myself mentally and brought my dull brown eyes back his face.
"Bella," I corrected automatically, stoning myself against him. He was trouble with a capital T-R-O-U-B-L-E, uh-huh. No, thank you. Charlie would have my metaphorical balls if I went panting after the likes of this guy.
"Bella," he repeated, no less sexually and I felt my cheeks flush. "Bella Swan." The girl at my side gave a little whimper and I could not hold the weakness against her. If it weren't tragic enough that our puberty ridden bodies were raging with festering hormones, this guy had to go lacing people's name with his roofie spiked voice. He extended his arm across the table to be, his long fingers opening to offer me a hand shake like he were giving me the greatest gift in the world. And the record stopped. The imaginary music in the background that often accompanied situations like this dissipated because, by damn, he was suddenly pissing me off. I felt my chin lift and my eyes cool.
"What do you want me to do, kiss it?" My voice was dry, disinterested, and I prided myself. Shock flitted across his ethereal features before laughter erupted from the boys surrounding him. Boys that, though handsome, I had glossed over entirely as I often did with groups of people. The giant burly one smacked the copper haired teen on his back.
"Can't get them all, can you Edward," He brayed and Edward scowled at him, his beautiful mouth twisting into a mockery of what it had been before. Lunch passed without Edward's gaze returning to me. Instead, he spent the period unleashing his eyes on the brunette who had lapsed into silence when we sat. She quivered at my side, stuttering at his lusty comments and I felt the pity well in my chest for her. It wasn't that she wasn't interested per se. It was more that he made her so at a loss for words that talking to him seemed to be a painful process. It was painful to observe, at least, but I endured. It seemed like she didn't really want to be rescued and who was I to step in the way of a girl's first heartbreak?
Soon the bell signifying that lunch was over rang and I stood, the brunette rising quickly with me, and strode from the room with the strange sense that Edward was watching my exit. Good. Let him see that his first impression did little to impress. Though his face impressed very much. Not that it mattered really at all.
To my utter chagrin, it seemed that the fates of whatever beings looked over the human race did not smile upon me, for when I walked into biology, the only open seat was by him. I took it without hesitation because he would not see me falter. He didn't even look like an Edward. He looked like a Blade or a Shank. Something obnoxiously dangerous. I couldn't believe he just waltzed around with his tattoos all on display like that. Back in Phoenix, if you had tats, you had long sleeves and collars as was per dress code. It seemed Forks was entirely too small for a dress code and I should have figured that when I saw the snide blonde adorning a mini skirt that could probably pass for crotchless panties, denim style.
I let my chestnut tresses fall between us, hiding his crooked smile and catty eyes. It was easy to play the game of defiance when you had a table full of witnesses, but one on one could possibly leave me like the bouncy girl and I'd be a puddle on the floor. No thank you. Not for Edward or any guy like him. Half the class had passed before I heard a sound beside me. I glanced through my hair and nearly pulled back. He was glaring at me. Glaring. Surely, Edward wasn't the kind of person to get riled up when someone was maybe a little snarky. I mean, was he?
You did just say he looked like a Blade. With my luck, I pissed off some sort of Forks gang member. He might have been a serial killer or a hitman. With the deadly look in his eye, I would have to say they were all a possibility. Cringing, my eyes flew back to my notes and my hair was back in place, the comforting shield it had been before now nothing but a flimsy weightless thing. What? Had I hurt his feelings and his pride and now he was out to hate me forever? I had a feeling that would make my life a lot more difficult. He seemed pretty popular, revered even and if I was on the receiving end of his wrath, then I would also be the target to at least half of what could only be considered as his gang. The bell rang before I could think more about the outcomes of the tiny lunch exchange that apparently wasn't so tiny. He was up and out before I had closed my notebook. He brushed by my seat as if it were empty and was gone.
"Jeez, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what?" came a voice from behind me and I turned. He was cute, in a safe and comfortable way. Blonde and tan and blue and safe. And so I smiled at his attempt at a joke though, considering Edwards reaction to me, it could have been true.
"No, but I would have liked to," I chuckled, and the boy's face lit up like a golden retriever being offered a yummy treat for being such a good boy. Oh boy. At least Charlie wouldn't have my metaphorical balls if I ever thought this one was worth panting over. I doubted it, but still- safe.
Let me know what you think so far! I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter because it's so fast paced but I've always hated when stories take forever to actually Get Started.