Chapter 2

The next morning I was sitting on the living room couch eating breakfast and watching TV. The phone rang and I reluctantly got up to answer it thinking it would be Renee. She'd been calling me nonstop about colleges and just to chat in my ear about Phil's minor league baseball career. In the back of my mind I hoped it would be Edward but he hardly ever called me. If he wanted to see me, he'd just open the window and come in here.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Bella, it's Jess," said my friend Jessica Stanley in her always perky voice.

"Hey, what's up?"

"So like, Angela and I are going to the mall in Port Angeles this afternoon. Do you want to come?"

Shopping wasn't exactly something did very often. Not that I didn't like it, but I didn't go very much. But maybe it would be nice to have some new summer clothes. "Sure, I'll go. When are you going?"

"We're gonna leave around 1. We'll pick you up around that time. Cool?"

"Cool. I'll see you then." I put down the phone and went to go finish my breakfast. After I ate I took a shower and went into my room and lay down on my bed. It smelled like Edward. Just about everything I owned had Edwards scent on it, my bed, my clothes, my car, but I was just fine with it.

After a few minutes I got up and started to get dressed. I combed my hair and put some money into my purse and just waited for Jessica and Angela to get here.

Soon I heard a horn outside and I went outside to Angela's white car. "Hi Bella," she greeted me in her sweet quiet voice.

"Hi Ange," I said giving her a hug. "Hi Jess."

"Let's go have some fun."

When we got to the mall we browsed through a few stores then bought smoothies from a smoothie stand. We walked down the mall past ass of the people.

"Can you believe we're going to college in just a few months?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah it's crazy. I'm really going to miss you two," Angela said.

"Well, we'll just have to hang out a lot this summer before we leave," I said.

"What school are you going to?" Jessica asked.

"Yale. You?" Angela replied.

"I want to be somewhere sunny so I'm thinking about University of California. How about you Bella?"

I actually had no idea. I didn't even want to go but Edward was trying to convince me to go for at least a year. But I planned on being a vampire by the end of the summer. "Um…Dartmouth."

"Ooh, let's go to H & M!" Jess exclaimed.

We trashed our smoothies and went into the store. We browsed through he store and took a few things to the dressing room to try on. Jessica came out in some shorts and a low cut flowered shirt and modeled it. "How does this look."

"Looks good," I said.

"Mike and I are going to New York next month so I need something good to wear."

"That's sweet," Angela said.

Jessica sighed wistfully. "He said he'd show me all around Times Square and Manhattan. It sounds amazing."

"Eric's family is going to the Bahamas and he invited me to come with them," Angela said.

"I've always wanted to go there!" Jessica exclaimed. She turned to me. "Are you going somewhere special with Edward this summer Bella?"

"No, I mean, probably not. We haven't talked about it."

"You should totally go somewhere with him! Maybe you can take him to Phoenix."

I imagined Edward in Phoenix. The intense diamonds coming from his skin in the hot sunlight and people getting into car accidents because they're distracted. "I don't know, maybe."

"So, how are things with you and Edward anyway?" Jessica prodded.

I felt a hot blush creep onto my face. "It's…amazing. Edward's a great guy."

"Aww, she's blushing Jess." Angela giggled.

"So have you and Edward…you know?" Jessica asked with a sly grin.

Angela elbowed her. "Jess! That's a personal question!"

Jessica shrugged. "What? I'm just asking."

Oh god, I sure did want to have sex with Edward. But he had his restrictions. According to him, he being much stronger than me could possibly hurt me if we did. I respected that but I still longed for him. "No we haven't…well not yet…I mean…"

"Well?"

"Jess let it go," Angela said. "You're embarrassing her."

"Alright fine. But still, you should totally go somewhere with Edward. It would be so romantic."

I thought about that. What would he say? He'd say it would be too dangerous for us to be alone together like that, that's what he'd say. But maybe, just maybe I could convince him. A romantic get away would be fabulous. I looked at the clothes I had in my hands. Some new summer clothes to wear on the trip wouldn't be half bad either. "Are you two ready to check out?"

That night I was in my room listening to one of my favorite groups and combing my hair. I had on some new silky pajamas I'd bought that day and I had my window open for when Edward came here. After running the comb through all of my hair about six times I was starting to grow impatient. Where was he?

I went to sit on my bed thinking about how I'd bring up the conversation of our summer trip.

"Hi."

I jumped when I heard his voice. He was sitting on my window sill with a wide smirk on his face. "You came."

He was by my side in half a second. "Of course I did."

I tilted my head back as he kissed my neck. "I was starting to think you wouldn't come."

"Nah, Emmett wanted me to arm wrestle him and he wouldn't leave me alone until I did."

I shook my head and laughed.

He ran his hand down my leg. "Where'd you get the silky pajamas?"

"I went shopping with Jessica and Angela today." I paused for a moment. "What do you think of taking a summer trip together?"

He raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"We could go somewhere like, I don't know, Phoenix together…just the two of us."

He was silent for a moment while he thought about that. "I don't know Bella. That seems kind of risky…"

I put my arms around his neck. "Please Edward. We don't have to do anything too risky. We can just go sight seeing and try out all the restaurants. And you know I trust you. I know you won't hurt me." I kissed his lips. "Please?"

He kept his arms around my waist and looked into my pleading eyes. Finally he sighed. "Okay, fine. We'll go. But only on one condition."

"Oh no. What's that?"

"We're not going to Phoenix."

"What's wrong with Phoenix?"

He gave me a "duh" look. "Bella it's extremely sunny in Phoenix. If we go there I'll have to stay inside all day and that won't be any fun."

"Oh yeah, right. So where can we go that's not sunny all day?"

Edward thought about that for a moment. "I don't know um…Seattle? It's pretty cloudy and rainy this time of year. In most places the sun doesn't hit it's full effect until afternoon so I should be able to be outside before noon or late afternoon. Unless you had another idea?"

"I actually hadn't thought of it. Seattle is good though. It'll be nice to spend our summer outside of Forks. Are there vampires in Seattle?"

"Me."

I pushed his arm. "Duh! I mean besides you."

"I'm sure there are. Vampires live in most places, or they usually migrate there and keep a temporary residence. Why do you ask?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, just curious."

"You afraid one is going to sneak up on us?" he teased.

I laughed. "No, I'm used to vampires sneaking up on me by now." Suddenly I heard a low growl rip through his throat and I paused. "Edward?" I looked up and saw him crouched beside me like he was ready to pounce with a smirk on his face. I inched backward. "Edward, what are you doing?"

He growled again but it was mixed with a laugh this time. Then he pounced on me knocking me onto the pillows.

"AH! Edward!" I exclaimed laughing as well.

He was on top of me holding my wrists down on each side of my head and his nose was less than an inch away from mine. I tried to get up but his cold body was pressing me onto the bed. "So, you're used to vampires sneaking up on you huh?"

I rolled my eyes. "You didn't scare me or anything, I was just pretending," I said stubbornly.

He chuckled. "Oh sure Bella, and I was really going to break your bones and suck your blood," he said sarcastically.

I tried to get up again but couldn't. "Can I get up now? Please?"

He loosened his grip on me and this time I rolled on top of him and straddled his chest. "Ha! I won!"

He gave me an amused look. "You realize I let you do that right? If I had tried, you wouldn't have been able to move me."

I crossed my arms. "Don't ruin it." Suddenly he was on top of me again. I tried to push him over but I couldn't. He was like a stone statue. He kissed my lips and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer, suddenly wanting more of him. But he broke our kiss suddenly and became alert. "Charlie's coming. I think he heard us."

"Go hide," I said.

He got off me and went in my closet and I got under the cover's pretending to be asleep.

"He's at the bottom of the stairs," I heard Edward whisper to me. "He's almost up the stairs…he's on the second to last stair." I knew he was just doing that to be funny now and it made me laugh. "He's at the top of the stairs…he's walking down the hallway…he's ten feet away…six feet…"

I was seriously laughing now. "Would you stop? He's going to hear you!"

"He's at the door."

I quickly lay back down and pulled the covers up close to my face. Charlie turned my light on. "Bella are you okay in here?"

I turned over and pretended to yawn. "What are you talking about dad?"

"I heard some noise up here."

"I've been asleep this whole time."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "You must be hearing things."

He seemed to take that. "Yeah it's getting late. All that Red Bull is probably getting to me. I'm going to hit the sack. Good night."

"Good night." Once he turned the light out, Edward was by my side under the covers in less than a second. He put his arm around me and I felt his cool breath as he kissed my neck. "You're crazy, you know that?"

He laughed. "And how exactly am I crazy?"

"'He's on the second to last stair'. 'He's six feet away'. Were you just kidding? You can't possibly know something like that."

"I wasn't lying. I was reading his mind and I could hear his footsteps."

It feels very weird for me to write about Bella hanging out with Jesscia because my name is Jessica.