Chapter 1: Crash Into Me
BPOV
Shit. Shit. Shit!
"If I am late again, Alice is going to throw away all of my t-shirts and hoodies and replace them with grown up clothes. Come on, turn green!"
Great. Talking to myself and a traffic light. I really need some coffee.
As soon as the light switched to green, I slammed down on the gas pedal a little harder than my old Chevy truck could probably stand, only to be stopped a block later at another red light.
This is why I hate the city. Chicago pisses me off.
Before I could throw two middle fingers up to the sky, my cell phone rang, breaking me from my road rage.
"Alice, I am on my way. The traffic today is even worse than it was yesterday. Give me ten more minutes," I pleaded, hoping Alice would find it in her heart to understand my dilemma.
"Bella, what am I going to do with you? This is the third time this week that you have been late! Do I need to threaten you with another closet raid?"
"No! No. This is the last time. You know I am not a morning person. It's only been two weeks since I graduated college. It's hard for me to get used to this whole real job thing. Not everyone can be such a morning person."
"Fine. I will cover for you, yet again. Only under one condition though." She spat at me but I could hear the smile in her voice. She was about to pull out the big guns.
"Go on," I sighed, no enthusiasm in my voice whatsoever.
"This Saturday at Jasper's party, you have to let me doll you up however I desire, and you have to bring a date."
Dammit. I could think of a thousand other things I would rather do than bring a date to Alice's long time crush's party, such as get buried alive or swallow a knife.
"Fine."
Before I hung up the phone, Alice's squeal of joy clamored through the phone and directly into my ear drum, causing a slight moment of deafness. As I threw my phone down on to the seat next to me, I eased my way into the intersection right as the light turned green only to suddenly get slammed by a silver car on the right front end of my truck.
It happened so quickly that I barely felt my head slam into the driver side window as everything faded to black in an instant.
.
"Isabella. Isabella. Can you hear me?"
I kept my eyes closed as I began to hear a voice calling my name. I had no idea what exactly had just happened, but it all finally came rushing back to me in an instant.
Traffic. Late. Road rage. Alice. Crash.
I suddenly opened my eyes and shot straight up from where I was currently laying, only to have strong hands grip onto my shoulders and lay me back down gently. I finally took the time to process where I was.
An ambulance. Perfect.
I struggled against the person holding me down and roughly spoke, "I am fine. I need to get to work, now!"
As I looked to my left to give the asshole forcing me to lay on a damn gurney a threatening death glare, I instead gasped in shock at the sight before me. His green eyes looked pained as he seemed to be pleading with me to stay still and his disheveled bronze sex hair was messily arranged, falling across his forehead. His jaw was very pronounced and strong and his lips were set in a straight line as he continued to study my face.
I was forced out of my ogling by the paramedic on my right as he removed the beautiful mans hands from my shoulders and began to hit me with a shitload of questions about my name, birth date and hometown.
The ambulance finally came to a stop and the paramedics opened the back doors to pull me out and wheel me towards the hospital. I managed to pick my head up and look towards the ambulance one last time as I watched the gorgeous stranger exit the vehicle and simply watch as I was rushed into the emergency entrance.
As the sliding doors closed and I could no longer see the overwhelmingly gorgeous man, I was suddenly very well aware of the pain I felt in my head and neck. Once again, the blackness washed over me.
.
"Oh my gosh, could one of you make use of yourselves and bring Bella some water for when she wakes up! This room is absolutely freezing, and she only has one pillow! She needs two!"
As I awoke from what seemed like hours and hours of a very deep sleep, my head began to throb as I recognized Alice's hesitant shouting as she ordered around the nurses from the doorway to my room. I cleared my throat, hoping to snap her out of her control freak tendencies.
"Bella! How are you feeling? What exactly happened? Who hit you? Do you need anything?" She crossed the room in a flash and sat on the edge of my bed as she held my hand in hers looking deeply concerned. I would have laughed at her ability to go from bitch to motherly in .6 seconds if it weren't for the throbbing in my brain.
"My head hurts like hell, I was hit by a silver car that ran a red light, I have no clue who hit me, and I need to get the fuck out of this place."
I sat up slowly, ignoring the pain that shot through my head and down through my neck and gently removed the neck brace that had been strapped onto me in the ambulance. I reached for the IV and was about to pull it out of my arm when Alice lunged for my hands.
"No! Bella don't be crazy. The doctor is coming in soon to let us know what's going on. Just stick it out a little longer." Just as Alice calmed me down, a nurse came in with a glass of water and a pillow. Alice winked at me before turning to the nurse and snatching the items from her hands. The nurse rolled her eyes and stomped out of the room as Alice handed me the glass and began to fluff my pillow.
After an hour, and still no word from the doctor, Alice insisted on going to get me something to eat other than hospital cafeteria food. I was left alone, in my least favorite of places, as I clicked on the tiny TV in the corner of the room and began to enjoy an episode of the Golden Girls.
As I began to giggle at one of the scenes, I was startled by a deep laugh coming from the doorway. I turned my head quickly, causing me to moan out in pain as it became apparent that my neck injury may have actually required the neck brace I so intelligently removed. I slowly leaned back onto my pillows with my eyes closed tightly as I waited for the pain to subside.
When I opened my eyes, I saw from my peripheral vision, the same beautiful man from the ambulance sitting in the chair next to my bed with his head hung forward and his hands pulling at his hair, causing it to stick out into more of a mess than it was before. Me likey.
I let out a deep sigh as I could feel the pain in my neck dissipate. I then heard his voice for the first time.
"I am so sorry I startled you. This is all my fault. Do you need anything for the pain?"
His voice was so smooth yet so worried that it almost made me want to comfort him. I had no idea who he was or why he was here but I knew that I wanted him to stay.
"Uh...no, I'm fine. It's fine. Not your fault." I managed to choke out as I pulled my sheet up to my neck, suddenly wondering what the hell I looked like. My hair was more than likely a mess and I was wearing an ugly hospital gown. For the first time in my life, I actually wished Alice would have given me some kind of makeover as soon as she arrived here.
His lips rose into a half smirk as he ran his hand through his hair once again. He sat back down in the chair before speaking, "I'm Edward Cullen. You're probably wondering why the hell I keep hanging around, huh?"
I simply nodded as I chanted his name in my mind a few times, committing it to memory.
"Well, there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. I am the guy that hit you this morning. I have never had a speeding ticket nor have I been in a wreck prior to this. I was simply in a rush and made a huge mistake. I hope that you can forgive me, Bella. I feel so awful and if there is anything you need, I am here. I won't leave until I know you're okay. You're truck is totaled, and I have plenty of money to buy you a replacement vehicle. I have already spoken with hospital billing and I will be taking care of any medical expenses. More than anything, I just hope that you can forgive me."
As he finished his speech, clearly rehearsed I might add, he honestly looked...scared? As If I would actually be upset with him for making a mistake. To be completely honest, I decided to forgive him as soon as I heard him say my name. I wondered how he knew I went by Bella.
Once he began to run his hands through his hair, yet again, I decided I should probably say something to ease his anxiety.
"I forgive you. I'm alive, so there's really nothing to be upset about, right? I loved my truck, so that kind of blows that it is totaled but I was planning on getting a new car soon anyway. So, please, don't worry about it."
I watched his face change from nervous to shock in 3 seconds as his eyes widened in response to my words.
"You forgive me. Just like that? Are you sure you're feeling okay? Most people would be screaming in my face telling me to give them my insurance information and get the hell out of their lives." He smiled then, and I could have sworn my heart leapt out of my chest.
Anyone who would ever order him out of their lives should seriously get their head examined.
I forced myself to ignore the beating of my heart and attempted to speak without sounding like a blubbering idiot. "Well, I'm really not like most people, so, it makes sense that I would have the opposite than normal response. Sorry."
He laughed heartily and it instantly made me smile as he leaned forward and spoke in a voice so low I almost shuddered with ecstasy, "I just crashed into you, and yet you're the one apologizing to me?"
I shrugged and smiled as I thought to myself, almost scaring me to the core, that part of me was actually glad he had hit me. Was it normal to be happy about something that killed people every single day? Probably not. All I could think of as he looked at me and smiled in return, was that I would hands down take being crashed into any day as long as I could be the one he was smiling at like that.
Fortunately, the doctor walked into the room before I could say something I would regret later. He probably shouldn't be informed of the extent of my feelings for him within the first five minutes of knowing him. Maybe not ever.
"Miss Swan, I am Dr. Banner. How are you feeling?" The doctor was old and balding and I could swear that there was some kind of green veggie piece stuck between his two front teeth, but I managed a small smile.
"I'm feeling fine. When can I leave, doc?"
"Well, Bella, you suffered a mild traumatic brain injury when your head hit the driver side window and the ligament in your spine was slightly stretched as well. You will need to take it easy for a while, get plenty of rest. There is a chance that the headaches you are experiencing could last up to three weeks and the soreness in your neck could last just as long. You need to wear the neck brace for a minimum of a week and take Ibuprofen as directed on the bottle. If you don't have any questions, you can go ahead and sign your discharge papers."
Before I could even think of any possible questions I had, Edward stood from the chair he was sitting in and began questioning the doctor at a rapid speed.
"Mild traumatic brain injury? So, a concussion, correct? What activities should she refrain from and for how long exactly? Do you think she should come back if the headaches don't subside soon? Is Ibuprofen the only pain reliever she can take or is there something stronger she could have for the pain? Does she need to be awakened every couple of hours to ensure nothing has gone wrong?"
Dr. Banner looked at me with wide eyes then back to Edward and answered each of his questions without hesitation. I rarely listened as I thought about how it felt to have someone taking care of me for a change. I was used to being the one taking care of everyone around me. My father was never around and my mother, Renee, was a bit out there.
By the time I was thirteen, I was cooking my own dinner each night and taking care of all of the household chores. I was always the one picking my mother up off her bathroom floor at 2:00 a.m. after she drank away the pain of yet another failed relationship.
Alice was the closest thing I had to family and I knew that she would take care of me, but I also knew that when it came down to it, I was her rock. She had gone through much worse experiences in her life than I had, so I would never ask or expect her to bend over backwards for me. Though, I knew she would in a heartbeat.
Edward was a complete stranger. A complete stranger who happened to wreck his car into my truck. He owed me nothing, yet here he was, acting as if he owed me the world.
I was snapped out of my inner thoughts as Dr. Banner handed me a pen and the discharge papers. I signed them quickly and thanked him as he turned and left the room.
"Bella, do you need a ride home? I don't have a car, obviously, but I can get us a cab."
The way he said us forced a grin across my face that I tried to hide as fast as I could.
"No, that's alright. My friend Alice should be back any time now. You don't need to worry about me, really."
His brows furrowed as he simply stared intently at me for a moment before picking up my tiny hand in his strong, large, long—
"This isn't me worrying about you, this is me doing what is right. I know you don't know me, Bella, but trust me, I do not deserve your forgiveness so easily. Let me help you. Let me make things better. I can't walk away from you without knowing I gave you something in return for what you have suffered."
I couldn't take my eyes off of our hands joined together because the feeling that was pulsing through my body the moment he touched me was still there. His words only intensified what I was feeling. So, I said the only thing I could think of.
"Okay."