((THAT DAY))
That day.
It was a strange way to refer to it, but they could think of no other way to describe it. That day was the day someone realized what they were…and, like most dull-witted humans, he was essentially too dull-witted to perceive what he had stumbled upon.
This is how it went…
That day dawned gray and overcast in Forks, Washington, just as it did every day for more than three quarters of the average year. If people in Florida breathed water, the residents of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington were made of it, and by seven o' clock in the morning, there was already a fresh layer of rainwater dewing the tips of the lawn grasses, dripping down from the highest boughs of the verdant trees.
Despite the dark cast of the day, however, the clouds were quite high, and the forecast called for brief intervals of sunlight to pierce through before the end of the school-day, when more rain was expected to seep its way into the world.
The eighteen-year-old girl began that day with much too lively a jolt to her step for someone living in the world's soggiest city. She dressed in a navy blue sweater and faded denim jeans with an off-key tune humming in the back of her throat, and she didn't seem to notice at first that her thick, water-proof boots were on the wrong feet—an unfortunate occurrence that she corrected around a mumbled curse whilst she sat at the kitchen table before a bowl of cereal that was even soggier than the lawn beyond her front door—if that was possible.
When the doorbell rang suddenly, she leaped to her feet—now correctly shod—and, breakfast utterly forgotten, she raced to invite her guest into the pleasantly warm sanctuary of her home.
He stood on her doorstep just as he did every morning—weekends not withstanding. She gazed upon his inhuman beauty—his pale skin, his angular features, his copper hair, beaded with raindrops, his aureate gaze holding her immobile before him—for a moment longer than was necessary, and then stepped aside, allowing him access to her home. Gracefully he glided past her, but not before reaching out and—tenderly—ghosting his fingertips along her jaw, causing her to sway where she stood with her hand braced against the tarnished doorknob.
At his heels dodged one who might have been his kin for their appearances—ashen pallor, perfectly symmetrical physiognomy, ochroid-shaded eyes—yet this kinswoman of his bore hair that was several shades darker than his, and their heights were noticeably varying. Yet she, too, greeted the girl beside the door with a touch to her face, accompanied by a swift kiss to the cheek.
" It's so good to see you, Bella!" The small woman exclaimed cheerfully. " I know it's only been a few days, but I've been dying to hang out with you again! I wish Edward would bring you around more often…things are always so boring at the house without you there. Oh, and you won't believe what Emmett did this weekend…"
She prattled on about trivial things as the tall boy reached for the hand of the girl in the blue sweater, and guided her gently to the couch, where they sat, his arms wrapped around her, his chin situated atop her hair. The small woman seated herself upon the floor with sinuous precision, not pausing for the most unnecessary breath.
"…And boy, was Esme mad! I've never seen her fly into a rage like that! But it's understandable…I mean, it was her good china that he broke, and even if she doesn't use it often, it belonged to her great-great-grandmother's mother! I bet it's as old as Carlisle! Emmett simply has no respect for other people's property, and…"
As she chattered incessantly onward, her kin-like companion grew more rigid upon the couch, until, at last, he sighed.
" Alice, please." He interjected, his tone firm, even, his words esthetically articulated. " Please, hold your tongue. If for nothing else, then for the sake of my sanity." The girl sheltered within his arms offered him a brief smile of gratitude, while smaller woman merely sighed.
" By your leave, Edward." She relented at last. " But we'd better get going. We don't want Bella to miss any part of school the first time through." She offered the other girl a shrewd smile, and received a glare in return as the young woman rose gracelessly from the couch and hurried to do away with her inedible cereal before their departure.
Garbed in rain jackets with their hoods lifted to shield their faces, the three youths trekked through the light, misting rain, to the silver Volvo parked in the house's drive. Small Alice slid daintily into the backseat, while graceful Edward took the seat behind the wheel and maladroit Bella stumbled into the fore-passenger-seat and sat with arms crossed against her chest, angling her eyes to the window.
" Why did you guys come to school today?" She spoke for the first time since their arrival as the pretentious vehicle gained speed, its driver weaving the mass of the automobile skillfully through the early-morning traffic clotting Main Street. " I mean, the forecast called for some breaks in the clouds today, and…" Her tone grew steadily more anxious, until Edward reached over and rested one fingertip against her lips, silencing her. When this method proved instantly effective, he wrapped his arm around her waist, and turned his searing gaze upon her.
" Alice hasn't seen any disturbances in our future." He assured her gently. " I trust her…and I don't trust you." Though his words were light, teasing, young Bella took obvious offense at them.
" Thanks a lot." She muttered, turning away from him.
" It's not that I don't trust you, per se, Bella." He attempted to reassure her. " But I am aware of your faults…though you have few of them…your most prominent one being your inability to remain upright for the greater portion of your mobile days. You are quite prone to catastrophes, remember?"
She grunted noncommittally, avoiding his gaze as it seared into her from aside—attempting, unsuccessfully, to decipher her deeply hidden thoughts.
" Still." He continued after a moment. " I am flattered. You would rather spend seven excruciating hours locked in a classroom with myself than at home, reading a good novel? You could probably feign an illness and spend the day at home, in solitude…after all, you still haven't recovered fully from your recent run-in with Jacob Black." His eyes darkened considerably at the name, and her arms uncrossed reflexively from the iron bar they had formed against her waist, her left hand brushing against the brace stationed upon her right, which concealed her broken knuckle.
Then she shook her head swiftly, and attempted a wan smile.
" I'm fine." She assured him. " And yes, I would prefer to spend the day in a classroom…with the vampire I love." She reached out to run her fingers hesitantly along the length of his jawbone. He sighed lowly, turning his head aside so that his nose brushed along the place where her bruise-colored veins shone most prominently beyond the translucent veil of her skin.
" Beautiful." He murmured.
Small Alice hummed in an attempt to ignore their conversation.
They arrived at the school just as the last of the rain slackened, and, due largely in part to Edward's swift driving capabilities, they were greeted with a deserted parking lot. Bella sighed heavily as she gazed out at the familiar school, anticipating mentally yet another day of boring drudgery—despite her earlier words, she still very highly disliked the long hours at school.
" Here we go." She murmured.
She had scarcely moved to unbuckle her seatbelt when her door swung outward, and Edward offered one icy hand to her, his accompanying smile full of mirth. She accepted his outstretched fingers with a wide grin, and he pulled her with ease from the car, slamming the door at her back.
However, he did not allow her to move far from him; as Alice emerged from the far passenger door and glided with a graceful lope toward the cafeteria, he blocked Bella's path, and rested his hands on either side of her head, pressing her near to the Volvo's side door.
" Shall we begin the day on a more promising note?" He inquired, his low voice beguiling. " I noticed you seemed a bit preoccupied…has the thought of our possible exposure to sunlight taken hold of your mind?"
" Um…" She struggled to form a coherent thought, turning her head slightly aside from the touch of his cool breath. " Yes to both?"
He chuckled quietly.
" If there was any danger of us being found out, Bella, I wouldn't be here—and neither would you. We would be in our meadow, wasting away the precious hours reveling in each other's company." As he spoke, he closed the distance between them, until his lips pressed gently against the curvature of her chin. " So you can see, there really is nothing to worry about."
His lips glided upward to hover over hers.
" Right." She gasped.
Before he could claim a kiss upon her lips with his, however, a bass, resounding explosion lashed past their ears. A low snarl ripped through his chest as he spun aside, his back to her, and she pressed herself against the Volvo's sleek, damp door, her heartbeat accelerating within her chest.
" E-Edward?" She stammered after several still, endless moments in which he held his stance before her, his arms extended, his posture utterly rigid. " What's wrong?"
He relaxed at the sound of her voice, though he did not turn to face her.
" Nothing is wrong, Bella." He assured her. " I was merely aggravated."
" About?" She inquired breathlessly, unsteadily, as her respirations gradually returned to a stable cadence.
" The city workers are reconstructing a paling around several species of endangered trees that grow right here, on our very own campus. It's a noble undertaking, undoubtedly—though they should realize that wooden stakes are much less sturdy than metal ones—but their interruption could not have been more badly timed." He pivoted to face her at last, and his aurulent eyes were brimming with resentment. " Now I've lost the chance to kiss you."
Even as he spoke, a ribbon of vehicles in variegated color tones began to stream into the parking lot. With a low groan of utter despondency, she withdrew her book-bag from the seat that she had abandoned, and resealed the Volvo's side door with much more force than was necessary. Smiling slightly at her reaction, he moved gracefully at her side toward their first class, taking her hand as they walked.
The morning classes passed in a relatively uneventful state—although Bella did find herself caught in the throes of utter humiliation as she quite literally ran into Lauren Mallory between the first and second periods, sending the blond girl's books and papers scattering all about the narrow hall. Bella's own necessary inanimate attributes of the day had been rescued from almost certain destruction by Edward's quick and skilled hands, which had snatched her possessions from the air with swift, deft movements.
Lauren, of course, had been furious concerning the whole incident…Bella could not begin to comprehend what manner of holy hell she would raise at lunch. When she had expressed her fears to Edward during a quiet moment between classes, he had merely pressed his lips to the hollow beneath her ear, and chuckled softly.
" Bella, do you honestly think I would let an obnoxious young woman with a goddess-complex harm you?" He had inquired, his tone amused.
" No." She had sighed.
" Then you have nothing to fear."
Now she found herself seated at one end of the faux-wooden lunch tables, Edward on one side, Alice on the other, with Mike Newton and Angela Webber seated across from them while the others—including Lauren Mallory—clustered together at the far reaches of the table. Bella ignored the malevolent glares the grudge-bearing Lauren was undoubtedly offering her, instead concentrating on avoiding the hideous scent of the garlic-smeared potatoes heaped plentifully upon her lunch tray.
Edward smiled at the expression of disgust upon her face, even as he shifted his chair aside to avoid the thin beams of sunlight that had begun to pierce through the windows at the far end of the cafeteria.
" This stuff looks terrible." Bella intoned to him, her voice wreathed with revulsion. " Even I would rather drink blood than eat this."
Edward's answering smile was fleeting and forced.
" You become more like a vampire every day." He murmured, shifting his chair once more as the sunlight beamed nearer to their table.
" Why are you moving around like that, Cullen?" Mike demanded as he swallowed a long drought of soda from the can beside his books.
" I'm not terribly fond of the sunlight." Edward replied. " It makes me…restless. It makes me yearn for the outdoors. I've found that if I avoid it, I don't ponder on camping or hiking so much…out of sight, out of mind."
His thoughtful explanation only diverted Bella's attention from her unappealing meal for a moment. Then she was forced to gaze down upon it, and to contemplate what to do with the tray and its vile contents.
" Not hungry, Bella?" Angela inquired sociably as Bella shifted the platter toward the center of the table and lifted her water bottle to her lips instead.
" Not really." Bella replied, though, in truth, her stomach was emptier than the school's front-counter donation box. " Just thirsty." She ran her thumb along the edge of the bottle's label, studying the words " Holy Mountain Springs", which, she assumed, was the carrier's brand name.
" You really aren't hungry, Bella?" Edward inquired, and she bit her lip at the casual coaxing of his tone.
Deciding to retaliate, Bella turned aside to face him, and smiled.
" Aren't you, Edward?"
His eyes narrowed slightly at her deflection.
" I, for one, am not a fan of garlic."
" Well, neither am I." She retorted, settling the score.
" I think you're both crazy!" Mike Newton admonished unashamedly as he choked down another mouthful of the supple potatoes, having already forgotten to be suspicious of Edward's aversion to the sunlight. " These are delicious!"
" You can have mine, then, Mike." Bella offered.
" Hey, thanks." Mike replied brightly, pulling her tray closer to his own. Then his eyes flickered to Edward's passive face, and his gaze became speculative. " You know, I never see you eating, Cullen. Why don't you at least have a drink?" He nodded slyly to Bella's water bottle.
She frowned; this was not part of the game.
Edward's face remained serene as he responded.
" I don't think I will. Holy Mountain Springs uses a chemical filtration system that I don't approve of…besides, one of their anti-clotting agents makes me sick. Allergies." He explained.
" Oh." Mike's face fell, and he resumed his conquering of the potatoes with much less enthusiasm that he had previously exuded.
Edward chuckled lowly, and leaned his lips down to Bella's ear, so that he could speak in a voice pitched too low for even Mike—sitting not three feet away from them—to hear.
" Mike thought I had an eating disorder." He murmured. " He was trying to show you how a real man eats."
Bella coughed to hide her laughter.
At that moment, a loud, resonating pounding disruption echoed through the cafeteria. The student body fell silent briefly, as one, then resumed their chatter as they realized it was merely the sound of the city workers driving the paling stakes into the ground.
Edward's lips curled slightly, and he growled.
" Damn them and their insufferable stakes." He muttered.
Angela glanced around, her eyes wide, and Edward blinked apologetically.
" Terrible history, I'm afraid." He explained.
She gazed at him a moment more, then turned aside.
Mike swallowed audibly then, and cleared his throat.
" You're something else, Cullen." He snapped. " You don't like garlic, you hate Holy water, you avoid the sunlight, and you don't like stakes…what are you, a vampire?"
Bella grew incredibly still, but Edward laughed freely at the words.
" You've found me out, Newton. I'm a turn-of-the-century bloodsucking parasite who intends to spirit Bella away and drink her dry of her fluids when you're all distracted."
Mike's cheeks colored scarlet with embarrassment at his own foolishness, and he stabbed his next mouthful of mashed potatoes with more force than was necessary.
" Shut up." He muttered. " I was kidding."
" It was hardly worth the laughter." Edward replied curtly.
Mike grew—if it was possible—even more crimson of the face, and he turned to speak to Angela, ignoring Edward, who reached out, seizing the frozen Bella's hand and pulling her to her feet.
They exited the cafeteria and returned to Edward's shining Volvo, where they sat in utter silence for several moments.
Then Edward leaned his head against the headrest, and glanced aside to meet Bella's searching gaze.
" Something bothering you?" He inquired, watching as her brows knit together in a pensive frown.
" I was just thinking about what you said to Mike…that was a close one, by the way." She added, sternly.
" Indeed it was." He agreed, his tone offhanded. " And what were you thinking of, concerning what I said to Newton?"
" Well, about drinking me dry, and all that…" She began, hesitantly.
His ocher eyes grew soft.
" Yes?"
" Did you mean it?" She demanded, quietly.
" Did I mean what?" He prompted, abruptly frustrated by her indirect questions.
She glanced down, and inhaled deeply.
" Are you thirsty today?"
He laughed freely once more, the sound of his mirth filling the small car, and he reached out, seizing her chin in his fingertips, lifting her head until their gazes met.
" Is that what you're worried about?" He inquired, and she nodded sheepishly in response. He shook his head " Silly Bella." His tone was heavily laden with amused disproval. " Just because you're hungry, doesn't mean I am, as well. What I told Newton was just a divergent…except for one thing."
His eyes became abruptly calculative, and then he swiftly leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss lasted for no more than a heartbeat, yet she was still breathless when he pulled away, retaining his hold upon her chin.
" What…one…thing?" She demanded breathlessly.
He laughed, and leaned away, jamming his keys into the ignition so that the Volvo roared to life.
" I am spiriting you away." He announced grandly. " We are going to ditch school and drive to La Bella Italia, and you are going to eat and drink your fill of quality food."
She blinked, taken aback by his spontaneity.
" Alice will be mad." She reminded him.
" Alice can walk…or run, rather."
Bella mulled over his response, and then she laughed.
" Mike will be suspicious." She noted.
" Newton can quite simply go to hell." Edward replied brusquely. " You are my…my everything, I suppose you could say, and I have the freedom to do what I will with you…within certain boundaries, of course." He added hastily as the Volvo idled beneath them.
She smiled, and shook her head.
" I was disappointed in Mike." She revealed lowly.
" And why is that?" Edward inquired.
She grinned broadly.
" Isn't he too old to believe in vampire stories?"
And that was how it happened, that day…the day Mike Newton unknowingly discovered what they were. Of course, he never spoke of it again. He was far too embarrassed to be heard speaking of vampire stories.
But sometimes, he still did wonder.
After all, Edward did seem to find Bella most appealing…