I could feel his glare penetrate my back, as I sat in the cafeteria, my head down and shoulders hunched, overwhelming guilt washed over me and I glanced up quickly to scrutinize Alice's face.
My small movements however did not go unnoticed as she unrelentingly shot a grin at me and turned her head to face, undoubtedly, back in the direction of Edward. My heartbeat began to stutter and its irregularity I was sure would not go unnoticed. I sighed loudly in Alice's direction, making my discomfort abundantly clear, my apprehensions about her plan for the two of us to sit together today unchanged from the moment she had dragged me to the seats in our current location.
"He is going to be angry" I hissed under my breath, "at the both of us"
"Don't worry, he won't be at all hostile towards you" she trilled back, her eyes darting with flashing speed around the cafeteria, "only at me"
"Although I can't understand why" she added as an afterthought, "he knows as well as I do the inevitability of our friendship" she grinned at me, "I just want to embrace it earlier than he had planned. I think he just wants to keep you all to himself"
"Alice," I hissed at her, "you are crazy.. and you have no idea what you're on about. Your brother barely tolerates me, I don't think he will appreciate having me perched on his table and forcing my company upon him during his lunch hour"
"Shhh Bella, don't be silly" she trilled waving her hand at me and dismissing my comments,
"Alice you don't understand he really doesn't like me, he only just began even talking to me, sometimes he comes into Biology and just glares and ignores m—"
"Hello," Edward cut in sliding in next to me, his leg brushing my own with a gentle ease that sent chills radiating to every corner of my body, "you're sitting with us today Bella" he continued, his voice brimming with an odd formality,
"Yeah," I whispered quietly, lowering my head again. Although I was sure out of the corner of my eye I could see him raising his eyebrows and cocking his head questioningly at Alice.
"Wouldn't you rather sit with your friends?" he asked me although he continued to look straight in the direction of Alice, who was almost bouncing in her seat with excitement,
"I am Bella's friend," she shot back at him, her eyebrows raised as though challenging him to argue with her.
For someone so small, Alice had amazing powers of persuasion. It never ceased to shock me the way in which she was able to wrap almost anyone around her finger, when she wanted to of course.
"I'm being selfish and cashing in on our friendship early" she continued, "Besides, Bella knows I'm not going to have her for a meal anytime soon"
I glanced up at Alice's last comment unable to help myself from grinning at the ease with which she let me share her most darkest secret. Edward however, seemed to tense up next to me and very slowly edge towards the wall. His mouth tightened into a line as I watched him dig his fingers into the palm of his hand.
Confused I turned my head to look at Alice, surely she had told her family that she had divulged to me their secret? But Alice gave me no response or explanation for Edward's reaction, in fact she wasn't watching me at all, instead her head was tilted towards the front of the cafeteria,
"they really don't like you sitting with us do they?" Alice grinned, satisfaction etched all over her features,
"that you can be sure of," Edward replied turning his head,
"who are you ta-", I began following his gaze but I didn't bother finish my sentence as my eyes collided with a group of very disgruntled faces, the faces of my new friends in fact.
Mike Newton was precariously balanced on the edge of the bench, his whole body leaning towards the back of the cafeteria where I now sat, his face strained with an odd vein pulsing in his forehead as he no doubt struggled to try and hear what was being said. Similar expressions seemed to be adorned across the faces of Tyler and a few others. However they seemed to diminish somewhat as the group realised I'd turned my head to look at them and instead of staring they turned awkwardly towards their food or piles of books strewn out across the tables.
Two faces however I noticed unrelentingly continued to look at me, Lauren an odd mixture of fury and jealousy seemed to be played out across her poorly arranged features. She unabashedly looked me up and down her eyes darting across my body and what I was sure she thought was a poorly chosen outfit. Jessica on the other hand seemed to possess little judgement only a look that seemed somewhat desperate,
"She's hoping you might invite her to join you and sit with us," Edward said coolly and I snapped my head back around to look at him twirling an untouched apple around in his fingers.
"I doubt she'd be thinking those same thoughts if she knew what we really were" he continued his voice expressing a somewhat resentful tone, and I sighed quietly, sure such anger was due to my unexpected presence.
"So, how can you tell that it's Jessica whose thinking that and not someone else?" I asked him softly, hoping to brighten his mood. Most of my other friends had seemed to enjoy it when I'd provided them with opportunities to talk about themselves.
"People's minds and thoughts are expressed in a very similar tone to their normal voices" he replied, "it's easy to distinguish between people once you've heard them speak" he said matter of factly, as though he was bored with the conversation.
I felt a small stab of disappointment hit me as he turned his face away from me again to stare out the window and I wished frantically that I could stare into the deep pools of his eyes again.
"well not everyone is distinguishable" he added as an afterthought turning to look at me again, his eyes studying me strangely.
"don't worry about him," Alice cut in, "he just doesn't like not being able to know absolutely everything about everyone" she grinned at him. At this comment his mood seemed to lighten slightly.
"I'd like to see how she'd feel if her powers became useless and you were immune to her" he smiled looking at me again and flicking his hand in her direction.
"weelllll" Alice trilled at him, "she's not, so deal with it and move on"
Edward just shook his head her, his expression twisted into a look of defeat
"besides" Alice continued, her eyes flickering between us, "it's a good thing because…." She paused for emphasis.
"I have forseen that…"she paused yet again, a grin plastered across her face as Edward flicked a piece of tomato towards her.
"Ew fine," she complained pulling the tomato off her face and returning to her normal speaking voice, "we're having a sleepover this weekend!" she gabbed in excitement, "Charlie wants to go on a fishing trip in La Push and he doesn't want to leave you alone,"
"I'm not a baby, I can stay by myself Alice" I said shaking my head.
"plllleeeaassseee Bella, because you love me"
"your parents will not want a human staying over for the weekend Alice" I argued, although it seemed more that the person who would have the biggest problem with it was sitting right next to me.
"they won't mind Bella" Edward's cool voice rang in my ears, "and you're not going to spend a weekend alone, you've only been living in Forks for three weeks"
Shocked at his willingness to let me spend a weekend at his house when he seemed almost incapable of spending one biology lesson with me I sat for a moment,
"But I, I-"
"Oh be quiet Bella, I've already seen it, it's going to be a fun weekend. Although I am going to need to go home with you this afternoon so that I can suggest you stay with us when Charlie approaches the matter"
"fine" I mumbled, defeated. Although on the inside my stomach seemed to be somersaulting and my entire being thrilled about the opportunity to be around Edward, see where he lived and how he behaved at home.
"Hey," I said the thought only just having hit me, "where are your siblings and where's Jasper?" I asked confused.
"Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett have gone on a weekend hunting trip up North" Edward said smoothly.
"You didn't want to go ?" I asked confused,
"of course not!" Alice replied shocked, "Why would I want to go hunting when I have the option of spending a weekend with you?"
"nawwww you're making me blush" I grinned at her, mockingly fanning my face.
"Esme has already started planning out food she wants to cook for you" Edward smiled, "I hope you're prepared to be stuffed full of everything she can lay her hands on" he chuckled.
"ohhh I'm late" Alice said jumping up all of sudden, I was sure I saw her knock a tray off the table, catch it and put it back but it was so lightening fast that I couldn't be certain, "I'll meet you in the parking lot after school" she yelled running off towards the doors.
"you seem apprehensive about spending the weekend at our house" Edward said turning to me and ignoring his sister's abrupt departure, "have you finally gained a normal sense of fear, realized that you should be scared of a bunch of vampires?"
"Oh, it's just" I paused momentarily, should I tell him why I was apprehensive? Tell him I was excited about the prospect of being close to him and at the same time terrified that he might begin hating me again, I decided that I might as well tell the truth, editing out the majority of it of course,
"well, you always tell me it would be better if we weren't friends" I began, "and you only just began talking to me again, do you really want me staying at your house for an entire weekend?" I continued, rushing the last part of the sentence, embarrassed to be even bringing it up.
He seemed to consider what I'd said momentarily, "Bella" he began slowly pulling out each syllable of my name, "when I say that we shouldn't be friends, it's not because I don't like you or because I don't enjoy spending time with you." He continued his eyes searching out my own and locking on them, "it's just that you know what we are, being around me is a constant danger for you, I don't want to put you in harms way"
"Alice has no problem spending time with me, or being around me" I said aware that I was pouting a little.
"It's different for Alice" he mumbled in response,
"I don't' understand though-" I began but he cut my question short.
"Look Bella, I don't have a problem with you staying over this weekend, I want you to be safe and comfortable, well" he said grinning, "as much as possible when you're spending time with vampires"
"So you're not angry with me?" I continued happy to thrash out the subject a little longer, "I mean for sitting here today"
At this he chuckled lightly, "of course not, If Alice insists that she spend time with you I can hardly keep blocking you out of my life Bella, I'm just going to have to be careful. When it comes down to it all though, I simply find it too hard to ignore you" with this last comment I felt butterflies rise in my stomach and any words I wanted to utter get lost at the back of my throat as my mind gave in and I allowed myself to be mesmerised by the deep depths of his stare. He didn't want to ignore me….
At that point the bell rang shrillingly, piercing the moment as Edward turned away and in one fluid motion was standing, books hanging at his side.
"come on, I'll walk you too Gym," he smiled at me, "much to the dismay of your friends of course"
"oh they wouldn't care" I said grabbing my books and tucking them under my arm. But as I walked towards the door I couldn't help but notice the shocked and affronted looks of my friends. Jessica's mouth gaping open as her eyes trailed along where we were walking, I just shook my head and followed Edward's lead.
"Oh my God!" yelped Jessica, bounding across the Gym towards me, "you just sat with Edward Cullen AND he walked you to class!" she exclaimed
"It's no big deal Jess," I said quietly, attempting to counteract her misplaced enthusiasm.
"Yes it is! The Cullens don't even associate with anyone else, let alone sit with them at lunch"
"I'm friends with Alice, that's the only reason I was sitting at that table today Jess, it's really not a big deal. Although Alice is really nice" I added, "you should get to know her".
"yeah, yeah" she said dismissively, "but wow, I mean Edward Cullen, you were basically sitting mere inches away from a god!"
Thankfully Mr Peters blew his whistle at this point and I was spared from having to listen to Jessica's continued rants on the attractiveness of Edward. Like I didn't already realise it myself…
I smiled subtly at the thought of how she'd be reacting if she knew I was going to his house this weekend. Ha! Spending my weekend with a bunch of vampires…
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