Thanks to those who read and/or reviewed! You hold a special place in my heart and I appreciate anyone who took the time out to give this story a chance!
This is a disclaimer. I do not own anything but a car and a sweet TV so none of the recognizable characters or settings or plots or blah blah blah belong to me. I'm not making money off this, I'm just celebrating being done with finals.
Chapter 2 - This Charming Man
I always dreaded the drive back to Forks.
It'd been a week since the night of the party at Emmett and Alice's house; I was on my way home from a night in Port Angeles with Alice and the current object of her affections, Jasper. We'd gone by a coffee house that Jasper insisted we stop by to see a few singer/songwriters play. It was a bit overly pretentious for me and the music was painfully embarrassing to listen to, but Alice enjoyed doing "college" things with her "college" crush. I was still unclear on how they'd met and I was sure he was a college freshman, part-time resident of Forks and worked somewhere she frequented when he wasn't at school.
Ever since he'd popped up on her radar I've heard nothing from Alice that wasn't related to "college" or "the campus". Thankfully Jasper had volunteered to drive Alice home, sparing me a play by play of the last few hours of the non-date that I'd had the unfortunate pleasure of enduring. I was glad he was taking that duty because I had no desire to sit there and listen to her ramble on about how she wondered what each little gesture he made meant when it was clear to me that he was into her. It was so clear, in fact, that I had felt like a total third wheel and was counting the minutes until it was socially acceptable to bow out.
The drive itself wasn't too bad, just very little to see in the total darkness the forests created. I craved the moments when the treetops and cloud cover broke and I caught a glimpse of the stars. Every time I saw the stars it reminded me of just how much bigger the world was outside of the Olympic Peninsula. How much bigger than the world the universe was.
I was only fifteen minutes into the drive when my headlights caught a distinctly human shape wandering in the middle of the near empty highway. Thank God the roads were dry because I slammed on my breaks so hard my truck shuddered under my foot. The figure stumbling in the middle of the road turned and one hand up their eyes from my headlights and stuck their other hand out in the universal hitchhiking gesture.
Not on your life asshole.
I laid on the horn but the person didn't move from the road. Instead they just shrugged and turned around continuing their staggering gait down the middle of the highway. I thought for a second about going around but the road was curvy enough to be too dangerous for using the opposite lane for passing. Stupid fucking rural Washington and it's stupid fucking one lane highways.
I could feel the frustration building up, the kind of frustration that made me lash out and do things that were beyond stupid. I inched along behind the jerk walking up the lane blasting my horn every few feet, but was met with them just lifting their hand and waving broadly at me to go around. After about three time the person flipped me off and that's when my grasp on self control snapped. I slammed on my breaks and leaned out the window, feeling a slight drizzle on my face. I wanted to get home before a downpour started.
"Get the fuck out of my lane, jackass!" The person's head snapped around when I started shouting.
"Just go around, bitch!" The voice was terribly familiar and it only took me about ten seconds to match the slurring yell to the last swaggering drunk person I'd spoken to. I was mad. Mad enough to have lost all my behavioral and common sense filters. Maybe it was that he'd called me a bitch – though my own choice of words wasn't an improvement either – or the building irritation at his "I own the world" attitude, either way I pulled over and threw the car into park. I slammed my door as hard as I could before stomping my way over to where he stood in the middle of the road.
"What the fuck is your problem, Edward." I stormed up to him and the idiot had the gall to look amused. I was going to hurt him if he didn't stop looking so fucking amused all the time. "Too much speedballing? Or are you just so fucked up in the head that you can't walk straight even when you're sober?"
"You've got quite the vocabulary, Isabella." I froze in my tracks when he spoke my name. I know we'd never exchanged a word before the party last week and while our town was small, it wasn't small enough that he'd know the names of every person he crossed paths with. He was all status quo smirks and cockiness but I could smell weed and booze with three feet between us. Lord only knows what else was in his system. How did his mental processes function so well when he could barely walk?
"How did you know my name?" the genuine confusion colored my tone, I didn't sound nearly half as venomous now. He shrugged in reply.
"How did you know mine?" he was grinning now with his retort.
"Everyone knows your name." It was the honest truth too. He may not know everyone in town but everyone sure knew him.
"Yeah, you're right. I've made my name well, haven't I?" He took on a contemplative tone as he swayed slightly on his feet.
"Cut the shit, Cullen, and answer my question."
"Everyone knows the police chief's daughter," he smirked mimicking my tone.
"You didn't know me last week," I countered.
"True, but I do now." He thrust his hand toward me. "Edward Cullen."
"Bella Swan." I kept my arms crossed and made no move to change that.
"I wished I'd noticed you sooner. Bedding Charlie's little girl would have been a nice way to get back at him for all the unjust treatment he's given me over the years." He mused dropping his hand and looking me up and down. The drizzle was quickly becoming a downpour and I instantly felt stupid for playing into his stupid game.
"Dream on, jackass" I spit the term at him again before I turned back toward my truck. He was drunk and I had no qualms with running him down now that I knew he wasn't some random innocent guy with a wife and kids at home. I jerked the door open and heard his steps on the paved road behind me.
"Hey…you heading back to Forks?" he asked having lost his joking tone.
"None of your business." I snapped not turning around.
"It's starting to rain and I could use a ride." He said sounding a little more humble and I groaned. Wonderful, he was going to guilt me. "Besides I'm obviously too fucked up to walk home without getting hit by oncoming traffic."
"Fine." Even though I'd been contemplating being the one to hit him a moment ago I knew I'd feel bad if he got hurt when I had the chance to prevent it. So I had a humanitarian streak, who knew? "But keep that mouth of yours shut. I've had a bad enough night as it is and I don't need your attitude right now."
He merely nodded and moved around to the door of my truck slogging through the now waterlogged shoulder I'd parked on. The silence was beyond awkward this time as I started my car. He locked his eyes on the windshield when the car pulled back on the road where we had both just stood.
"So, why was your night bad?" I groaned. I knew I couldn't rely on him to keep his mouth shut for long. "Hey, I'm not giving you attitude, just asking a question. It'll be one hell of a boring drive if we don't talk."
He forgot to mention the drive would be awkward and ridiculously long given that my truck didn't take well to speeds over fifty. I sighed and decided to humor his suddenly sincere and social side.
"I had to chaperone my best friends date. It was fucking torture." I shook my head a bit to try and clear that other fresh bout of awkward from my mind.
"Was it like a double date?" He asked his eyes never leaving the road, his voice so casual I had a hard time believing this was Edward Hotshot Asshole Cullen I was talking to.
"Seriously? You're questioning me on my social life?" This was beyond fucking surreal.
"Just making conversation." He shrugged.
"You hardly know me." I mumbled narrowing my eyes at the dark road as if it had committed some offense.
"That's kind of the point of conversation, you know. Getting to know someone better?" He finally looked away from the road to shoot me a yet another cliché amused smirk and for a moment I wondered if he was more sober than he let on. "If you'd like I could tell you about my amazing night if you'd prefer. I met this stripper-"
"Fine! I'll tell you. Just spare me the fucking details." I felt like I was going to be sick. He was grinning triumphantly at my reaction and I almost felt pissed that he'd gotten the response he'd wanted. This guy was ten levels of fucked up. "My night sucked because my best friend dragged me out to hang with this guy she has a crush on. We sat at a café all night, just the three of us, while they flirted with each other and ignored me completely. On top of that I was forced to listen to the crappy open mic shit the whole time. Now please just drop the polite chatter."
Then he was laughing. Laughing hysterically. Over something as unfunny as my little rant.
"I could just drop you on the side of the road and let you walk if you'd like. I really have no problem letting your worthless ass get hit by traffic." I snapped slowing the truck a bit to make my point. It may have been a bluff but it worked. He made an effort to quiet his laughter.
"I'm sorry, you just get worked up into a fury so easily over the smallest things. How can one person be so angry and serious all the time?" He sighed mirthfully.
"I'm not like this all the time. You just bring out the worst in me." I muttered taking a brief straightening of the highway to glower at him.
"Perhaps. Or maybe I just bring out a different side of you. You can't really know if it's better or worse because we've only actually spoken to each other twice." He did have a point with that one. I didn't chose to acknowledge the fact that he was right, instead I chose to go on the offensive in typical Bella Swan style.
"And why is it that you're suddenly speaking to me? We've lived in the same town for our whole lives and I doubt you even noticed my existence before that stupid party." He looked contemplative as I spoke.
"Of course I noticed your existence, Drama Queen, it's hard not to see the same faces popping up in a town this small. I recognized you, sure, I just never bothered to learn a thing about you." He shrugged. "As to why I started talking to you? I honestly don't know. Maybe because of the way you were looking at me."
"I have no fucking clue what you are talking about." Was he crazy? What the hell did he mean how I was looking at him?
"I'd just been kicked out of that lame party McCarty was throwing and then I see this..." His tone had taken on a bit of an angry edge and he paused as he chose his words, shooting a wary glance at me. His face was a bit more angry and intimidating and I forced back frightened response my body had to seeing him like that. "I see you sitting on the steps looking at me with disdain. It really pissed me off because you were looking at me like you were already judging me and you didn't even know me. You scoff at me and say I didn't notice your existence, but let's face it the facts here. I may not have made an effort to know you but you didn't make one either."
"Oh please," I scoffed. "Like you'd even give me the time of day. Besides I do know quite a lot about you. You don't exactly lead a solitary life out of the light of the public eye, Edward."
"That's what I'm talking about," He gestured with his hands in exasperation. "Just there, you judged me. You think you know me but you don't. You only know what everyone else thinks they know about me. Everyone hears what they want about my actions, disregarding my reasons for acting in the first place. They view me as they want to, whether I am that person they've created in their minds or not. So let me assure you; neither you nor anyone else in that stupid shithole logging town knows a single fucking thing about me."
He'd been worked up into a frantic angry pace through the course of his own tangent. I would have made some remark about him getting worked up to easily but he obviously had some kind of disdain for his perceived public persona and that wasn't something small to him it seemed. I was a bit shell shocked. I don't think I would have been more shocked if he had just cut his gut open and pulled out some intestines and laid them on my dashboard for me to look at.
"Jump down my throat some more, why don't you." I mumbled trying to mask the guilt I felt. Here I was feeling all high and mighty and self assured because he was the town scum but I was wrong. I wasn't even an ounce better than him. I was pissed that he had made yet another good point. I hated that Edward Cullen was sitting in my car schooling me on my own twisted sense of morality while he was high on…whatever combination of drugs and booze he was on. "Sorry I made assumptions, but even you have to admit that you wouldn't have given little ol' sophomore me the time of day if I just strolled up to you in the hallway at school and struck up a conversation."
"No I can't admit that." I opened my mouth to counter him but he beat me to the chase. "For fuck's sake, would let me finish speaking before you get all uppity?"
I wanted to laugh like he had done a few minutes before. Now I could see what he meant when he said it was funny watching me get worked up over little things. I hadn't even said a word and he got pissy. I didn't say anything just nodded and bit my lower lip in hopes of hiding my grin.
"I'd say that if you did come up to me in the hall and started talking to me I would have definitely given you the time of day." I must have involuntarily rolled my eyes. "Hear me out, Bella." His voice was stern and I felt myself focus as he spoke my name. "I've only talked to you twice and I have to admit, you are a very engaging person to speak to. Your temperament, the way you phrase things, your body language and facial expression…it's all so different. Definitely interesting. I mean, fuck, you've held my interest in two conversations now and if I'm being honest with myself, I'd say your straightforward way of reading me and calling me out on shit is pretty intimidating. It kind of pisses me off. I'm usually the one doing that kind of stuff and I can't quite figure you out."
"Hmm," It was the only answer I could give at the moment. He sounded shocked himself for admitting those things about someone he'd overlooked for so long. I could sympathize with that sentiment at least; I was astonished that someone I'd viewed as a total waste-of-space douchebag for years was triggering these kind of revelations. It made me even more uncomfortable than I had been before. The car was silent for more than a few moments when I spoke again.
"Okay then," I spoke slowly. Not sure of what to say next. "Why don't we agree we've both been stupid about judging people we don't know and do our best to not be so horribly and needlessly prejudiced ever again?"
He was laughing again. I glanced over at him for half a second, trying to gauge if he was laughing at me or with me. He seemed genuinely amused rather than typical normal prickish superior state of amusement.
"Sounds like a plan." I saw him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. "I don't think I'd ever understand the way your mind works, even if I spoke to you every minute of every day."
"Yes, well, let's be grateful that you don't." I sniffed a bit trying to dissipate the tiny thread of companionship I could feel between us. "I'd probably go crazy from your constant presence."
I think I only half meant it.
