Chapter 3 –Seeking
As hard as I tried, I couldn't concentrate in any of my classes. All I could think about was how weird everyone was acting. It was like I was in an alternate universe or something. Or maybe I was just going out of my mind. A lot weirder things have happened. I should know.
I breathed a sigh of relief when Biology came around. I would sit with Edward and it would totally normal. When I walked in, Mike must have been at the door waiting for me because he slid his arm around my waist and kissed me lightly on the cheek. I checked to make sure Edward wasn't around to see or he would have killed him, but there he was. Edward was in the classroom and he saw the whole thing and didn't show any sign of interest whatsoever. Now I knew something was wrong.
I walked over to our table and Edward was sitting in my seat. He must have not noticed the error because he didn't budge except to move his chair forward so I could get by.
I sat down next to him, "Are we playing musical chairs today or something?"
"Huh?" He turned to look at me and when he did, I could feel my eyebrows furrow and my mouth open slightly to say something. The sunlight came shining through the window and right onto Edward's skin. His skin wasn't sparkling. There were no diamonds, no dazzling, no little dingles. I could feel my heart start to pick up again.
"Bella, are you okay? You don't look so hot. Do you want me to take you to the nurse?" Edward had concern in his eyes as he looked at me. I nodded my head and grabbed my bag. "Leave it. If you have to go home or something, I'll make sure it gets to you."
Edward motioned for Mr. Molina to come over to tell him what was going on. Mike immediately had to come put his nose in our business. "I can take her Cullen, thanks anyway."
"No!" I almost shouted. "I mean, Mike I'll need you to take down all the necessary notes so that way when you come over we can study and stuff." If everyone else was going to lie to my face, why couldn't I do the same? "It's probably nothing anyway. A cold compress would be nice. Edward will make sure I get their okay."
"Yeah Mike. Don't worry about it. I'll have your girl back in no time." Edward placed his hand lightly at the small of my back to lead me out of the room. Once Mr. Molina shut the door behind us, I took Edward's hand and quickly pulled him to the nearest exit. "Yeah, the nurse is the other way I think."
Once we were clear from any possible eavesdroppers, I slapped Edward across his cheek.
"Owwww! What the hell was that for?" He exclaimed, rubbing the side of his face. It was amazing how fast the pink was darkening where my hand met his skin.
I shook my head in disbelief. "Any other time you wouldn't have felt that. You wouldn't have even flinched! Your skin is warm like mine. And what was that all about saying that I'm Mike's girl!?"
I was about to slap him again, but he caught my wrist that time. "Bella, you are acting like a crazy woman. First this morning when you gave me that more than friendly greeting, and now you're slapping me when I have no clue what I did to deserve it." He didn't seem to be as mad so much as he was baffled by my behavior.
"I'm not crazy," I started. "Something is seriously wrong around here. You, Edward Cullen, are my boyfriend. Not Mike Newton. I moved up here from Arizona because my mom remarried and moved to Florida with Phil. Don't you remember?" I searched his eyes for any unspoken answer indicating that he did indeed remember everything. But there was nothing.
"From the stories I've heard since I moved here was that you have lived here all your life. Grew up with Mike and everyone else in your group. You and Jessica are best friends. Look, I knew you kind of had a little thing for me when I first moved here, but I thought you were over it. Me and Jessica are kind of going out now." Just that last sentence sent me over the edge.
"You and JESSICA!? You cannot possibly be serious!" I was about to go into hysterics now. "What the fuck is happening to me!?"
"Bella calm down-"
"Don't. Don't you even dare tell me to calm down right now! You don't understand because you-," Slowly the tears started welling up in my eyes. "You don't exist to me anymore. My life is all wrong. My life is, gone."
He reached up and wiped a tear away from my face with his thumb. "Don't cry. I can't take it when girls cry. You must have taken quite a fall yesterday. Carlisle probably should have made you stay in the hospital."
"I don't even remember what happened yesterday. That's kind of ironic because I can remember every other important part of my life, but not yesterday. You are about the 4th person to remind me that 'something happened' but what that is, no one has yet to explain it to me."
"You really don't?" He asked and I just shook my head. All I wanted to do now was crawl into a whole and when I crawled back out, everything would be back to normal.
"Well. Carlisle said that you and some friends were down at La Push for some cliff diving. When you jumped, you didn't pop up through the water and your friend, I think his name was Jacob, pulled you out. You were unconscious so someone took you to the hospital." Now he was the one who was sounding crazy. Me, the clumsiest person on the planet going cliff diving? Not likely.
"And that's it?" I was waiting to hear more, but Edward just shrugged. "That's it. Well, that's all Carlisle told me anyway. He doesn't really like to discuss patient information but since we're school buddies, I got it out of him."
It took me a moment to process again everything that Edward said. So I was in some sort of accident, big surprise there, not! And, Jacob pulled me out and saved me. If anyone else had the answers I was looking for, it had to be Jacob.
"I have to go. Would you please just drop my bag off later? I have to go see someone. I-," How was I even going to get there, was I going to walk? "Did you drive to school today? Nevermind. I'll just wait until after school so Charlie doesn't have a fit about me skipping."
"And you mom too right? My parents are pretty cool about that sort of thing."
"Yeah, I know." I replied. Edward wasn't getting what I was saying. "Well, you just seem like you came from a pretty cool family."
He nodded and looked at his wristwatch, "Well, Biology is pretty much over now. I guess we should head back in now. Finished up the day so you can go where ever it is that you need to go later."
"Yeah. Um I am really sorry about your face. I promise I'll make it up to you. Somehow." That was a very loaded word 'somehow.'
"I'm sorry about your hitting me too." He laughed, and then there was that heart melting smile of his. I would have swooned had he not really been looking at me when he was doing it. "Hey Jess."
"Hi Eddie," Jessica Stanley came trotting over to stand next to Edward, looping her arm through his. "Hi Bella. I am glad to see you are okay now. Mike is looking for you by the way. Come on Edward, walk me to my next class?"
I had to try so hard to not just reach up and choke Jessica and her bobbly little head. "I'm going to be late for gym if I don't get going now anyway. See you later Edward, Jessica." Before I had the chance to turn around and do some more slapping, I quickly made my way back to the class to grab my stuff so I could finish out this hellish day at Forks High.
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Gym was over and I didn't even bother to shower. "I'm going to take the bus home and then I have to take care of something. I have an appointment actually so I most like will not be seeing you later. Bye."
I wasn't going to give Mike the chance to protest. I wanted to get home as fast as I could and take the car to go see Jacob. I hoped beyond all hope that he had some sort of answers that made sense. He was the only other link left in my life that I prayed was still there.
I jumped from the top step of the bus and to my surprise, I didn't even fall down. That was a plus, but it also concerned me because my stumbling about every second almost was a part of my life. Now it appeared that that very simple action was gone too.
Renee openned the door before I even made it there and I breezed past her, "Mom I'm going to need to take the car." I skipped every other step as I was making my way up the stairs.
"Now just wait a second. How did today go? I don't even need to ask that because I was already notified that you had to go see the nurse today-," What a snitch! God, Mike was really starting to piss me off now.
"Mom. It was no big deal. Turns out. I'm just PMS'ing. Yeah. I took some Midol and I am good as new now. I'm going to go see Jacob if that is okay. To hang out and stuff."
The look on her face was telling me that she thought it was a bad idea, but I just batted my eye lashes and puckered my lower lip out a little. That sort of thing usually only worked with Charlie, but apparently it worked on mom too. "Fine. You can drop something off for your dad to Billy anyway. Call me as soon as you get there and call me as soon as you are about to come home?"
"Thanks!" I ran upstairs to change and freshen up a little.. I wanted to appear somewhat decent and not mental like everyone was treating me today thus far. "Okay mom. I'll see you later." That was an odd thing to say considering that she should have been in Florida, but I didn't have time to go over the technicality of the situation. I needed to go see Jacob, and fast.
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