Disclaimer: I do not own, nor will I ever (though I may dream), own Twilight or any of its affiliated characters.
Chapter One – First Sight
I took a deep breath as I paced myself. I tried to swallow my fear, that impossible feeling that was threatening to shatter my resolve.
I looked out the window of my car towards Alice and Emmett's house. It was a tall plantation style house with white-paned windows. The door was red.
It opened.
Alice appeared and Emmett followed.
I felt my lips twitch at the comical difference in their height.
Alice reached my car first and she opened the passenger door and slipped in. She looked at me. "What are you smiling at?"
"It's been a while since I've seen you two come out together, I guess," I replied, turning to look at Emmett as he moved into the backseat behind Alice—he would never fit behind me.
"I'm doing this for you, buddy," he said, barely hiding his distaste at the small space he had to squeeze into. He looked off longingly to their garage. "Poor, Jacqueline, she's going to miss me."
Alice rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Rosalie would love to hear you say that."
He scoffed. "She sees me every day, practically."
"I never see her," I commented.
"Yeah, well, if you left the house once in the past two weeks you might've."
I grimaced. "Sorry."
"It's okay, Edward," Alice assured me, placing her hand against my forearm. "Let's go, or we'll never beat the rush."
"So, why didn't Jasper and Rosalie come with you?" Emmett asked as I manoeuvred my way out their driveway.
"Rosalie doesn't wake up until...now," I said, gesturing toward the time. "And since she made a comment Esme didn't really like they're keeping her car from her, so...Jasper has to drive her to school."
"Tenacious," Alice said, shaking her head.
"Sometimes tenacity is a good thing," Emmett returned, grinning wildly.
I laughed. "That's my sister you're talking about."
"Yeah, well, Cullen, you're sister is sexy."
"Whoa, Beethoven, I'll get Carlisle to fix you, and then let's see if you're so hot," Alice sniped.
It seemed like the ride to school only made the anxiety return. I sort of knew that none of what the other students thought mattered, but just the idea of facing them made my stomach do little flips.
I clenched my hands around the steering wheel, forcing myself to breathe.
When I neared the school turnoff I breathed a sigh of relief at the nearly empty parking lot.
"Nervous, huh?" Alice said, laughing softly.
I made a face. "Maybe I should turn back, you know, quite while I'm ahead." I pulled into the parking lot and into an empty spot nearest the exit.
Emmett snorted. "You're not ahead, you missed two weeks of classes—you're lucky the teachers love you. I wouldn't get away with what you did."
"Not that what you did was extremely bad, or anything," Alice interjected, her voice high-pitched and nervous.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I agreed with Emmett. I turned the ignition off. "You guys can go ahead, I'm just going to sit here for awhile and listen to some music."
"Fine with me," Emmett said and got out. I listened to the sound of his door shutting with a sense of relief. Alice was far less easy to get out.
She looked at me with her dark eyes, her face inscrutable.
"What?" I asked, annoyed with her mother-hen take on what she deemed an illness—I was fine.
"Just making sure you're the same old Edward, that's all...of course, I have confidence you'll make it through the day—I can see it." She broke into a smile and I found that I couldn't help but return it. "I'll see you at lunch," she said in departure, opening her door and shutting it.
I watched her go for a bit before leaning forward and resting my head against the cool leather of the steering wheel. I stretched out my fingers, free from their stress-related clenching.
I felt relaxed and perfectly sane, but I couldn't be sure.
The memories of that night nearly two weeks ago was fresh in my mind. I could remember the sound of Mike and Tyler laughing as we all crowded around the fireworks Mike had bought on a trip to Vancouver. I could remember the cursing that followed when one of the matches dropped to the ground beside the Quileute community centre and the jumping flame that started and ended everything.
Suddenly, I couldn't stand it.
I pulled my key out of the ignition and jumped out of my car, ignoring the rain that had started to fall over the course of my reflections. I shut my door and locked the doors before making my way across the wet, mushy school grounds towards my first class—physical education.
I sat on the bench off to the side in the gym. I was in prime position for any other students to pass by me without noticing my presence, at least until they had to come out to the middle of the gym and actually look around at their surroundings.
"Cullen, hey, how are you?"
I looked up from my iPod, pulling out one earphone in the process.
It was Mike.
"Fine," I replied, turning back to scrolling through my music, looking with intent for something that would drown out his voice.
"Come on, Edward, I called the fire department at least."
As if that made up for everything that had happened.
I glared at him. "And just happened to leave out you're involvement?"
He made a face. "You could have said something."
I looked away. "You know I wouldn't have."
"Well, if I hadn't called that guy would probably be dead."
"Crippled is next to death in my book," I returned before sticking my other speaker into my ear.
Mike stared at me with murder in his eyes, before he shook his head. "Be that way," I heard him say before he turned his back on me. "Whatever, I just came to say hi and how you doing? You know, friend stuff—Alice told me you were in and I rushed over here. Fuck, Cullen, grow up."
I ignored him.
"Newton! Gym this afternoon, fifty push-ups, you know that language is inappropriate~"
I resisted the urge to smile as he passed me another murderous stare as he exited the gym.
It was with his departure that I finally noticed all of the stares directed at me, as if I'd done something truly terrible.
I sighed and stood up.
It seemed like this day was just going to get worse and worse, huh?
Alice was sitting with Emmett when I got to the cafeteria, and I readily took my seat with them. I faced away from the crowd.
"Aren't you going to get something to eat?" Alice chirped, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"I'm not hungry," I replied. "Besides, I don't feel like being stared at."
"I can go for you," she offered.
I shook my head. "Thanks, but I don't need people wondering why I'm getting someone else to get my food for me."
"Then get your ass up there and get food," Emmett snapped. "I don't want to hang around a guy that has manorexia."
I glared at him.
He smiled.
I laughed and shook my head. "Fine, whatever." I got up and walked over to the growing line-up.
"Look!" I heard some girl in front of me whisper, her eyes flicking to mine.
I counted to ten inwards and breathed out, turning my gaze away.
"Who's that?"Another voice whispered in reply.
It wasn't familiar.
I glanced towards the other girl in curiosity to find another pair of large, brown eyes watching me with matched interest.
I swallowed. She was beautiful.
"That's Edward Cullen," the girl replied, making a face. "He doesn't date," she said quietly, flicking her head away. I recognized her to be Jessica...something, a junior who had asked me out the year before.
I resisted the urge to smile at her comment on my dating history.
I didn't date openly.
The other girl turned to glance at me again, before looking back at Jessica.
"Don't waste your time," she said, this time without lowering her voice.
The girl laughed. "I wasn't going to," she replied and once more looked back at me. She caught her lip between her teeth, her eyes widely watching me with pure innocence and a faint longing that made my stomach clench.
I could feel my heart pounding heavily in my chest.
When I reached the lunch lady I gestured to an apple and a sandwich, grabbing a bottle of water before paying. I quickly went to sit down.
"Did you hear her?" Rosalie asked sharply.
I frowned and looked at her.
"What?" I asked.
"Jessica, she was giving some unflattering descriptions of us—she said I was "the hot mess with the stick up her ass". I mean, I understand her calling Alice "the weird pixie-girl" and Emmett "the guy who looks like he's an ex-wrestler"...but "hot mess"? Really? She's lucky I don't beat the crap out of her."
I laughed.
"To that girl?" I asked, gesturing discreetly in the direction Jessica and her friends usually sat.
She nodded stiffly, folding her arms across her chest.
"What's her name, anyways?"
She shrugged. "I heard her call her Bella, but I don't know anything else. Not much interested in her."
"Oh." I looked down at my sandwich and unwrapped it with a sigh. This was crap compared to Esme's high-end lunches.
I took a bite as I contemplated that the beautiful new girl's name was Bella and that she conveyed interest in me as we stood in the lunch line. I turned my head to glance around the cafeteria.
I spotted her sitting with Jessica and some other students, I recognised Angela Weber and Eric, and if my eyes didn't fail me that was Mike and Tyler sitting on the opposite side of her.
I sucked in a breath, trying to tamp down my annoyance with how close Mike was sitting next to her.
Her eyes suddenly lifted and caught mine, my heart jumped in surprise. I turned away immediately and felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.
The silence at my table was sudden.
I looked up and felt my cheeks grow hotter.
All four of them stared at me.
"You like her?" Rosalie said with her eyes wide open.
"No," I snapped. "I don't even know her."
"That doesn't really mean you don't like her, though, right?" Emmett asked. "I mean, all this crap about first sight and all—I remember the first time I saw Rosalie and I liked her right away."
Alice wrinkled her nose. "That was eight years ago—you were ten."
Emmett glared at her. "And you say I'm the one with the gutter thoughts."
Rosalie and Jasper laughed.
I only let myself smile as I fought the urge to turn my head to look at Bella again. The urge was strong, and I was barely stronger.
A/n: This goes at the end of the second chapter, because I got overly excited and forgot to write something after the prologue. I read some Twilight fanfiction and I was inspired to write this. Edward's point of view is extremely special to me, just because this story is about him mostly. This is my first Twilight story ever, so please be kind and please give me critique. I need it. If I have any grammatical errors, ignore them, sometimes people don't think grammatically. Anyways, thanks—by the way, I needed to write about something non-vampire-y just because I've been writing about werewolves for what feels like forever, if I ever publish that story; you'll see it on a book shelf...with my real name.
Also, this story might involve a tad bit more maturity later, but I'm still waiting to see how it pans out.
