Hi there! I just finished this a second ago, but I was writing it in bed last night! This is my last update until next week. I'm heading to Halifax tomorrow for a music festival, and I won't be back until Sunday. I'm going to bring most of my stories to write, and I'll hopefully finish this one and Stuck! while I'm gone, but it will take me a while to type it! I hope you like this, our favourite secondary character is in it! Yayay
I actually hate him.
Oh, well.
Chapter Two
I couldn't help it. My smile grew wider as I saw the playful smile and the gleam in his eyes, I shyly waved. He gave me a crooked, toothy grin, perfect pearly whites. The paper was taken away and he looked down for a moment before replacing it.
"My name is Edward," it read.
The stupid grin on my face had to be enough for him to have continued and he watched me expectantly. I laughed. Was this really happening? I figured, whatever. I'll make the most of this. On the page next to what I was working on I wrote "Bella."
I looked at him and his eyes were dancing all over the place. He looked back down, writing again I was assuming, so I took the opportunity to catch my breath. I'm pretty sure breathing in his presence was impossible.
I looked up when movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. His paper was back. "Very pretty name. You live in London?" I laughed again and blushed, looking down. He had a perfect smile on his lips and was studying my face. The intensity in his eyes was nearly frightening. I found myself staring at him while my hand wrote, resulting in his return message being sloppy.
Our conversation continued this way, our universities (same), where we lived (rather close) until I heard my station approaching. We both paused as the announcement was made and I looked at him with a small smile as I gathered my things and stepped out onto the platform. the wind blew all around me as I pushed my notebook back into my bag and dug out my ticket. I closed the button, put the bag over my shoulder and shoved my hands in my pockets, ready to head for the connection train.
"Hello," a musical, velvety voice called. My head shot up, there he was. Plaid scarf, grey peacoat, and now that I could see it, rather fitting dark jeans and black shoes. The headphones were around his neck, on top of the scarf and his hands were in his pockets as he slowly walked towards me, a smile playing on his lips.
"Hello..." I said back quietly, turning towards him.
"Nice to meet you," he grinned and held out his hand for me to shake. I took it, but jumped when I touched his skin. An electric current ran through me and he must have felt the shock too, I could tell it from the way he was looking at me.
"Would you, um..." he looked around nervously, as if the sudden jolt between us had changed something. "Would you mind if I accompanied you, as we live in the same neighbourhood and are taking the same lines?"
Seriously, now. Was this actually happening to me? I decided that as this was definitely one of the best moments of my life, I was going to play along.
"Certainly," was my reply, and together we headed towards the Picadilly line.
"Twelve stops," I said, looking at the map above the door. Edward was standing behind me while I counted, and when the train took off I stumbled. I felt Edward's strong hands on my back, holding me upright, and I grabbed one of the poles, bracing myself. I turned to him, my face bright red, I was sure. "I'm sorry," I muttered. He gave me a crooked grin that was amazingly charming, and shrugged.
"So, what do you do for a living?" Edward asked.
"I'm a writer," I said. "And a substitute teacher. I'm currently working on the sequel to my first book."
Edward sat down across from me, nodded appreciatively. "It's nice though, that you got to accomplish something like that. That's your dream-- I'd imagine. At least, it would be mine if I wrote, and you got it." Sounds a lot better when you put it like that.
"Thanks, I'm very happy with what I do. How about yourself?" Edward grinned and leaned forward onto his knees.
"I teach piano from my house, I sometimes substitute as well, but I'm trying to get a full time position." I smiled and leaned forward as well.
"What about any dreams?" I asked teasingly, since he'd put my career in such terms. He chuckled and sat straighter up, though still inclined towards me.
"I would love to compose music and have it performed by a large orchestra..." he said dreamily.
"So why haven't you yet?" I challenged. Edward grinned.
"It takes me forever to write songs," he said simply. "And once I do, I'm so tired of hearing them that I don't want to go over them. At least, not for a little while." The door to the carriage opened, announcing we were at Green Park. When the doors opened, a small group of people came inside, so rather than have to deal with the chatter of many people I moved across the carriage and sat immediately next to Edward. He grinned at me.
"What are you listening to?" I asked, motioning towards the headphones around his neck. Edward chuckled.
"I'll let you listen as long as I can read what you were working on," he challenged. I couldn't help the smirk rising on my features.
"Deal," I said, pulling the headphones from around his neck. He snatched my purse and pulled out my notebook, opening it to the very beginning. A little part of me inside thought that that might have been a bad idea, since I tended to make really stupid notes about characters and such at the beginning. Oh well. He'd just handed over his iPod and given me free reign over his music, and I was known to judge people based on their tastes.
We both became very quiet and the people around us settled, the train taking off again. When I pressed play, beautiful piano and violoin chords met my ears, the middle of a song. I looked at the title; Esme. The artist was unknown, and when I backedup to the playlist there were even more unfamiliar titles, the name of the playlist read 'Originals'.
"What is this?" I asked him, holding the screen for him to see. He smiled brightly, eyes playful once more.
"Those are mine," he said simply, and turned back to my page. The fact that my mouth was hanging open probably was evidence enough that I was shocked. This music was GORGEOUS.
"I thought you didn't write many songs?!" I exclaimed. "It takes you forever!"
"That doesn't mean I don't write any at all," he replied cheekily. He just looked back down to my notebook, a finger following each line he read.
At Picadilly Circus a larger group, for this time of morning, climbed onto the train. Among them was a group of teenage boys, clad in jeans and t-shirts, backpacks over their shoulders, all laughing heartily. I moved on to Edward's artists, seeing how much we had in common- which was everything, essentially.
One of the boys, extremely tall and well built, jerked when the train started, falling into the seat next to me. His friends all laughed and sat down across from us, but he was just grinning widely.
"Sorry," he said, turning to me to apologise. I smiled at him politely before turning back to the iPod screen. Then, suddenly, I felt an arm wrap around my waist, pulling me closer to Edward. I looked up at him curiously, my cheeks turning a light pink. He simply smiled softly before looking back up to the boys.
"I'm Jacob," the one next to me said, alerting me for the first time to his american accent.
"Bella," I said quietly, only glancing at him briefly. "And this is Edward." My friend shook Jacob's hand with the one he had wrapped around me.
"Nice to meet you!" Jacob said cheefully, completely undeterred by Edward's protective gestures. "We're all here on a trip for a few months- heading for France in a couple of days."
"Aren't you cold?" I asked lightly. They were dressed for summer, whereas we were bundled up entirely. Jacob shrugged, the other boys laughed again.
"It doesn't bother us so much," he explained. "We're used to it, from where we come from." I nodded, and felt Edward's hands tighter around me, so instead of continuing with the conversation, I looked at the page he was reading.
Jacob attempted to start up the conversation again, but we politely ignored him. Thankfully, at Covent Garden he got off, taking his group with him, and leaving us in an echoing silence. I sighed, and Edward chuckled at me.
"What was up with the arm thing?" I asked as I sat up straighter and he took his hand back. I noticed I felt a lot colder without him wrapped around me, and it hurt a little, if that was possible.
He shrugged. "I didn't like the way they were looking at you," he said simply. "And I'm very good at reading people. Those boys' thoughts were far from noble."
"You're good at reading people?" I asked, then giggled. "Can you read minds, then, too?" Edward laughed loudly, a beautiful smile on his face.
"Not that much, no. But, I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I can tell, from body language, and expressions, what a person might be thinking. It's a pretty useful talent." I angled my body towards him and smiled, hoping I didn't look like an idiot.
"So what about me?" I asked quietly. Edward's eyes glimmered as they stared into mine.
"You..." he murmured. "You I can't tell. You're something else, entirely."
My profile has been revamped (ah ah ahh) and I have a new poll up, so check it out and review and all that lovely stuff, and I shall see you all next week!
