Chapter II
Skye A. Lee
EdwardCullen didn't show up the next day. Or the second, or the third or the fourth. He disappeared. For the rest of the week.
I didn't know if I was supposed to cry or laugh.
I learned the names of almost everybody.
Stanley and Mallory were the queens of almost everyone on the school. Stanley's mother was the worst gossiper in town and her daughter was no better. Mallory was a real bitch, snarky and with a sharp tongue that few could go against. Almost everyone served under them but they had a privileged "gang" of six other girls – Williams, Moore, Thompson, Harris, Walker and King and their boyfriends. They imitated Stanley and Mallory as much as they could and were the duos very loyal subjects. Then there was a gang with wannabe Brits where I didn't even bother with names. They immediately took a dislike to me, just like Mallory and Stanley's group – just because I was British for real. I heard them whispering about my accent "being soo fake!" behind my back and I shook my head at their jealousy.
The only other seemingly nice kids were Angela Weber and Ben Cheney – the first a shy but smart girl that was very tall and the second a reserved nerd.
The school of my dreams.
It was ridiculous, but the absence of the youngest Cullen made me nervous. His siblings – especially the beauty queen Rosalie – glared at me at lunch when they could, but I found Alice giving me sympathetic gazes. Or maybe I was just hallucinating to give myself some kind of hope in this mess.
Except Edward, school went pretty well. Class was all right and the others left me alone. It was very plain, but during those first three weeks it was a blessing. Plain was exactly what I needed then.
But then the cursed Cullen had to interrupt my plain everyday.
In the parking lot that morning I saw a silver Volvo in the Cullens usual parking spot, instead of the red cab that they had used earlier. Just that little change made my heart beat slightly faster in some kind of fear while I went through the day and I had trouble concentrating. The first thing I did when I entered the cafeteria was looking at the Cullen table.
Edward was there, looking just as bored as the rest.
So it's his car.
It felt like I had a cold, heavy stone in my stomach, slowly sinking through my inner organs.
I hesitated before entering the classroom. I was one of the first ones there, fortunately, and I went straight to my seat.
No Cullen yet. Thank god.
Mr Banner was going around placing out slides and microscopes – it was still a few minutes before the lesson would begin – and to kill some time, so to speak, I started doodling on a free page in my notebook. Around all the other notes I had taken during the day there were artful doodles of roses and vines.
I started drawing on an empty page, just letting the pencil wander over the lines, trying my hardest to focus only on the movement of my hand.
I noticed immediately when Cullen came into the room, just a few minutes before the lesson would start. I turned a little more to the side when he sat down beside me and stared intently at the paper, not wanting to meet his black gaze.
"Hello."
I froze, couldn't believe that he was talking to me. Alarm bells rang loudly in my mind. This can't ever lead to anything good.
"My name's Edward Cullen. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself accordingly last time."
I sighed and relaxed. There was no getting out of this, so I might as well give in. I turned around to face him.
"My name's Skye. Nice to meet you." Really, Skye?
I was immediately distracted by his eyes, so the thought about my dishonest phrase was lost. They weren't black anymore. They were golden in the same nuance as honey. Did he get contacts? Why?
"Nice to meet you." He sounded sincere, at least. But they always did.
Or did he remove his contacts? It's probably more likely to have black eyes than golden, though.
Mr Banner started the lesson and I turned from Cullen, with an apologetic smile, to the teacher to listen to his instructions, thankful for the chance to ignore the strange boy.
But no such luck. We were doing a lab in pairs. Shit.
"Ladies first?" Cullen offered.
"Sure." I put one of the slides into the microscope and put my eye to the glass. "Prophase." I'd done this before.
"Would you mind if I had a look?"
Wordlessly I pushed the microscope over the table. I was right.
"Prophase" he confirmed after a quick look at the slide and wrote it down. I couldn't help but notice that his handwriting was fancy, to say the least. Calligraphy more than handwriting.
He put in the next slide and looked at it very briefly. "Anaphase."
I didn't protest as he wrote it down.
"Your turn." He put in slide number three and pushed the microscope back to me.
"Interphase."
He wrote it down with his beautiful handwriting and I pushed the microscope to his side of the table.
We were done long before anyone else and to escape Cullen's curious gaze, I returned to doodling in my notebook. His clothes made a rustling sound against the wooden chair as he moved to look over my shoulder.
Didn't your mother tell you that it's rude to do that? I was very tempted to say it out loud.
Mr Banner came over to our table to check why we weren't working, but when he found that we were done, he looked at the paper very carefully.
"Well, Edward, why didn't you give Skye a chance with the microscope?"
"She actually identified three out of five."
Mr Banner sceptically turned to me. "Have you done this before?"
"Yes. I was in an advanced placement in London."
Mr Banner looked at us for a second. "Well, it's probably good that you two are lab partners." He mumbled something more as he walked away.
I returned to doodling in my notebook.
"Isn't it too bad with the snow?"
Why was he doing this? I didn't feel confident enough in his presence to tell him off like I'd done with Lisa; couldn't he just stop?
And really, the weather?
I shrugged.
"You don't like the cold." A statement, not a question.
"I'm fine with it, actually. I just don't care if it's snow or rain." I released my pencil and turned to face him; though it made me nervous, it was better to do it and pass as a normal person. Well, as normal as I ever could pass as. "Though it's nice that there won't be anymore snowball fights that I have to avoid."
He nodded and then became quiet again. I was hoping that he would stay that way the rest of the lesson, but just as I started doodling again he fired a new question at me.
"Why did you move here?"
I irritably sighed, let go of my pen and turned to him again. I can't see why that is any of your business, Cullen.
"I just needed a change" I repeated instead.
"That's not an answer" he protested. "You haven't even visited in almost two years, and then suddenly you decide to move here. It makes me curious."
I noticed that his hands were fisted under the table, though he managed to keep an untroubled expression. Why?
"It's true. I needed a change. And yes, it is an answer."
I brushed through my hair with my fingers, eased the tangles out. I really didn't want to keep on talking.
Cullen murmured something and lifted his gaze from me. I relaxed further and put my hair between us as I continued doodling.
Thankfully he didn't try to make contact for the rest of the lesson. As I watched Mr Banner explain to the others what I had easily detected in the microscope, in the corner of my eye I saw Cullen turn away slightly and grip the table.
What is wrong with him?
When I opened my eyes the next morning, something was different. It was the light, I concluded as I lay in my bed and watched the window. Still the same colour but somehow … brighter.
It was snow. A thin layer of snow and ice reflected the sunlight and almost blinded me when I peeked out the window.
Charlie was already gone when I came downstairs.
Another reason why I don't live here.
Without feeling any meaning with the procedure, I made myself a bowl of cereal and milk and ate standing at the kitchen island. The frozen rain outside comforted me in some way, and I found myself staring at it while I listlessly chewed. The reflected light almost made me blind and everything seemed darker as I turned away from the window to put my bowl into the sink.
While I walked along the road, my breath came out as white mist and I found myself doing something very childish; I pretended to smoke a cigarette. Disgusted with myself, I let my hand fall to my side and prayed that no one had seen.
Still, I couldn't deny the illogical happiness that the cold brought me.
I was much later than usual when I entered the parking lot – a lot of people were there and I was usually one of the first. I'd walked carefully so that I wouldn't slip on my way here, but the break in routine still made me feel a bit uneasy.
I crossed the parking lot in a hurry, with my books tightly pressed against my chest and my head ducked down, and I didn't see the van until it was too late. A shrill screeching made my head snap up, and the adrenaline that filled my body made me see everything unnaturally clearly. A blue van was skidding over the ice, with me in its path. The people closest to me stood still, with varying expressions of fear or shock, but they melted together in a faceless crowd. Everyone, except one.
Of course, the face that I found without intending to, was Edward Cullen's, four cars away. His golden eyes – a shade darker than yesterday – were wide in fear, his features coloured by shock.
The realization that the van would crush me between itself and a red truck dawned on me – as did the conclusion that it was far too close for me to get out of the way.
This is what you've wanted all along, Skye. Don't be scared.
And I wasn't. I merely stood there, waited for it to happen. All emotions disappeared and were replaced by acceptance. I didn't fear the van coming toward me.
Then something hard hit me, and we fell. I hit my head on the asphalt in the exact same moment that the van hit the back of the truck. Something compact and ice-cold held me on the icy asphalt as the van came skidding toward me again.
Somebody cursed lowly – it was a person that held me to the ground – and the voice was unmistakeable.
What the hell are you doing?
A pair of pale hands shot protectively out before me and the van stopped, trembling, some three decimetres before my face. The big hands had made dents in the blue metal, dents that fit the hands perfectly, like a pair of gloves.
Then the van crashed into the brown car next to the truck and finally stayed still. The silence was total for a second, the only sound being my frantic breaths and heartbeat, and then people started screaming. Some shouted my name, others just let inarticulate noises out from their mouths, but over everything else I heard Edward Cullen's low, frantic voice in my ear.
"Skye? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine." My voice sounded weird. I tried to sit up, but realized that he was holding me to him with an iron grip. My helplessness scared me and made me feel slightly panicked.
"Be careful" he warned me as I struggled slightly, though I knew it was pointless; he was impossibly strong. "I think you hit your head pretty hard."
A point above my left ear was pulsing with pain, but I already knew that I'd hit it.
Instead, I asked:
"How did you come here so fast?"
"I stood right beside you, Skye" His voice was serious and persuading. I was immediately on my guard, refused to be fooled.
He released me and I sat up, pulled one of my legs up toward my torso and tried to comfort myself to get rid of the slight panic after being restrained. Cullen backed away from me, as far from me as the confined space allowed, but his face and golden eyes only showed concern. I once again wondered over his eye-colour, but the thought drowned in the power of him looking at me. I shook my head and blinked.
Then they found us – a group of people, crying, shouting at each other and shouting at us.
"Don't move!" someone instructed.
"Get Tyler out of the van!" someone else shouted.
Everyone was moving at once around us and the air was tense with activity and fear. I sat still and waited, wanting to ask Cullen about his supernatural sprint across the parking lot but the courage to actually do it. After a few minutes, I heard the sirens and then six paramedics and two teachers – Mr Warner and the PE teacher, Mr Clapp – worked together to get the van out of the way for the stretchers. Without protesting, I lay down on mine but Cullen stubbornly refused. The paramedics put on a support collar – after Cullen told them that I'd hit my head and probably had a concussion, though I felt fine – and then we went to the ambulance. The whole school was standing around the scene, watching, and something akin to stage fright curled into a compact ball in my stomach, along with the sickening memories that hammered on my mental defences.
They loaded me into the back of the ambulance while Cullen got to sit in the front, as if he hadn't been involved in the accident at all. And because the world is sadistic and hates me, Chief Swan showed up before we could leave.
"Skye!" he shouted, panicked, when he saw me on the stretcher.
"I'm fine, Charlie" I sighed. "There's nothing wrong with me."
He turned to the closest paramedic to get a more thorough estimation. I ignored them and tried to make sense of the whirlwind of things I'd seen that spun around in my head. Clues, if you will.
When they'd carried me away, I'd seen a distinct dent in the brown car; a very limited dent that matched the contour of Cullen's shoulder perfectly. Like he'd leaned toward the car with enough force to leave a mark in the metal.
Then there were his siblings. I'd caught expressions varying between dissatisfaction and anger – nothing that showed any concern for their brother.
There had to be an answer to this.
I was placed in a bed in the ER, with a blood pressure cuff around my arm and a thermometer under my tongue. I felt sick - wanted to just escape from my horrible past that tried to force its way into my mind.
Cullen was nowhere to be seen, but soon after me, they came with Tyler Crowley, a guy from government who I barely recognized under all the bloody bandages. He looked a thousand times worse than me, but still he looked worried.
"I'm sorry, Skye, I'm so sorry!"
"I'm fine. But you look horrible."
A nurse started to free his head from the white cloth and revealed numerous shallow cuts on his forehead and left chin.
"I thought I would kill you! I was driving too fast and the ice …" He made a face when the nurse started to clean his wounds.
"Don't you worry. You missed me."
"How did you get out of the way so fast? One second, you were there and then you were just gone"
"Edward Cullen pulled me out of the way. He was right next to me." I didn't know why I lied. It just felt right. Besides, this talking was making me uneasy.
"Cullen? I didn't see him … But it went really fast, I guess. How is he?"
"He's fine." My tone was unintentionally rude.
They rolled me away to X-ray my head. I told them there was nothing wrong with me, and I was right. Not even a concussion. But I didn't get to leave; I had to talk to a doctor first, and waited for one in the ER while Tyler bombarded me with apologies and vows of making up for the accident. I completely ignored him and lay with closed eyes, trying to escape his words and focus on something else than the assault on my thoughts.
"Is she asleep?"
Seriously, fuck you!
"No, she isn't!" I snapped and opened my eyes to glare at the grinning Cullen at the end of my bed.
"Look, Edward, I'm really sorry-" Tyler began.
Edward cut him off. "No damage done." He smiled and sat down at the end of Tyler's bed, facing me. "What did they say?"
"I am perfectly fine. I just have to speak to a doctor, then I can go."
"Good thing I came then." He smiled again.
A young, blonde doctor came around the corner with better looks than any celebrity I had ever seen. But he had the same tired, purple shadows under his eyes as Edward and I guessed that this was Doctor Cullen – my "saviours" adoptive father.
"Well, miss Lee" he said with a pleasant voice. "How are you?"
"Just fine."
He lit up a board above my head. "Your x-rays look good. Does your head hurt? Edward told me that you hit it fairly hard."
"My head feels fine." I just wanted to get away from the torture this place brought me as soon as possible.
Doctor Cullen's cold fingers carefully squeezed my skull, without me feeling anything but a slight discomfort in the same area that had been hurting earlier. "Your father is waiting in the waiting room and you can go home with him now. But come back if you experience any nausea or the slightest problem with your sight."
I nodded and slipped out of the bed as the doctor turned to Tyler.
"Thanks for saving me, Edward" I muttered and then went out. I still didn't have the courage to question him. But I'd figure it out.
I wouldn't rest until I had.
A/N - Chapter Two! So, Skye doesn't like interacting with people. Hmm ... Anyway, thank you for reading and don't forget to post a review with your thoughts! They are my fuel to keep on writing, remember? Oh, and also; if you're a guest, please get a "name" other than guest, so that I maybe can answer your reviews here? What do you think of that, eh?
I had to re-read Twilight - my least favourite book in the series - to get everything straight, since I managed to write in a full day before I realized that this was the day of the accident. For now, I'm saving it for the next event ... Edward trying to stay away! Let's see how Skye reacts to that!
My soundtrack when I write this, BTW, is Darling Parades album Battle Scars and Broken Hearts. I almost wanted to name this story to "Battle Scars" or something like that, and a possible sequel (Ya'll know what I'm talking about) "Broken Heart". But then I changed my mind ;).
Bye, bye, readers! See you in chapter three!
EDIT - I changed a few small things - you probably won't notice though - around the whole hospital-thing, to be more accurate with Skye's past. And also, I've found myself a Beta! Yay! Hopefully, WalkingInAWinterWonderlandxx will Beta chapter 3!
Peace out, folks!