A/N: Geez, hey, nothing like writing an 'all human' to get the followers rolling in. Thanks to everyone who's signed on for the ride. I hope I don't disappoint.
Anywho I've finished another chapter, so I thought I'd post another one.
Vertigo
Chapter 3
"Mate, you still in the library?" Jake exclaimed from behind me while scaring the crap out of me.
"Christ sake—keep your voice down!" I replied, attempting to keep mine hushed. The librarian was the bloody Gestapo who'd throw your ass out if you sneezed too loudly, after all, but I didn't want Isabella to know I was anywhere nearby.
I glanced around him in the direction she sat, quietly eating her lunch, to double check that she hadn't heard. Jake followed my gaze and snorted loudly.
"You still pining after that chick?—Hey, she's pretty hot!"
"No shit, now will you shut the fuck up? Do you want to get us thrown out?"
He smirked. "Well, what are you waiting for? Just go over and talk to her."
"I'm biding my time..." I mumbled jerking my shoulder, wishing he'd piss off already.
"For what?" he asked, leaning up against the edge of the desk and folding his arms. "For her to choke on her sandwich?"
"Would you get out of the fucking way?" I grabbed his blazer and yanked him to the side
"Christ, you're a bitch." He scoffed, but moved to the opposite side of me, regardless.
I ignored him, keeping my eyes fixed to Isabella until she finally got up and disappeared into the storage closet.
Then, before I could talk myself out of it, I pulled myself from the cubicle desk and made my way to the front of the library; with Jake beside me. I paused several metres from the entrance of the storeroom, between two rows of shelves, and waited.
Jake sighed before nudging me forward. "Now's your chance. Go in there with her and shut the door."
"Yeah, as if that'd get me anywhere," I said dryly, elbowing him. "Would you seriously just piss off?"
"No way. I want to see this for myself."
I huffed before pulling up the sleeve of my blazer to glance at my watch. For the next couple of minutes, I alternated between keeping my eye on the time and the movement of the storage door. The hinges were getting rusty and every time it moved it let out a high pitched creaking sound.
"What the shit are you doing?" Jake eventually demanded, confused, and raising his bloody voice again.
"Fuck's sake—shut the hell up!" I snapped in a hard whisper, losing my patience with him. If he got me thrown out I'd kill him.
He rolled his eyes before grabbing my shoulders and attempting to move me forward. "Stop being such a wimp, will you."
"Jake—what the hell! Let the fuck go!" I struggled with him, flooding with panic and losing the fight to keep my voice low.
"Yeah, no. If I don't do something you never will. We both know it!"
I turned to him, attempting and failing, to shove him off me, when the screeching sound of the door opening behind me immediately snapped my attention back to Isabella. The front of the trolley was halfway through the entrance and she was about to follow it.
"I'm not kidding, Jake. Fuck off now!" I warned him, but I was becoming desperate, and he knew it.
He only scoffed, dragging me closer kicking and fucking fighting with him. Then, just as Isabella appeared from behind the door, no more than five feet from where we stood, he shoved me toward her.
He shoved me too bloody hard, sending me sprawling into her. I crashed into the trolley of books, knocking it over and taking her with it as her glasses flew from her face.
"JACOB BLACK, REPORT TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE THIS INSTANT!" I heard the librarian's pissed off voice from somewhere behind me, Just as I managed to grab hold of Isabella.
My actions were from pure instinct, but it wasn't enough to keep either of us on our feet. I landed awkwardly on my shoulder with her falling with me; my hands gripping around her upper arms, as hers clamped to my blazer.
For a single moment she only stared at me in shock, without blinking, her mouth open, when she suddenly yanked herself from my arms.
"I-I—shit—I'm so sorry. Let me help you!" I blurted out, stammering, and feeling my ears burn in mortification, before clumsily pulling myself to my knees to help her collect the books that were now scattered all over the floor.
Her face was blazing, only I couldn't tell if she was angry or embarrassed. Both I was guessing, and she didn't look up to meet my gaze once.
For the next minute I helped her stack the books back on the trolley, in complete silence. It was awkward as shit, and when we were done she glanced up at me, only she wasn't quite looking into my eyes.
"Are you...okay?" I asked after a moment when she only continued to stand before me looking more and more uncomfortable.
"Do...you know where my glasses went...?"
"Oh, shit—sure. Hang on, let me find them!" I quickly scanned the floor, discovering them almost instantly half poking out from under the librarian's front counter.
Bending down, I scooped them up and placed them into her out stretched hands.
"I'm really sorry," I apologised again as she slid the glasses over her nose. This was the closest I'd ever been to her, and I didn't realise how short she was. Or how nice she smelled.
Raising her head, she looked at me directly this time, when something, presumably me, made her immediately start. She visibly reacted to the sight of me standing before her. I'd never had that happen before, and I wasn't exactly unfamiliar with how girls reacted to me.
They usually threw themselves in my arms, not shrink away from me, and suddenly I wasn't sure what was worse. I fucking hated girls touching me, but this reaction...
"It's okay," she mumbled, immediately severing eye contact to fix her gaze to my chest. At my School Captain's badge I quickly realised.
"I'm Edward, by the way," I decided to introduce myself, thrusting out my hand; despite the fact that she'd obviously just read my name and knew exactly who I was.
Her eyes flickered back to mine and she almost smiled. "Bella," she reciprocated, the tone of her voice easing a fraction as she placed her hand momentarily in mine.
Bella? Shit! I'd been saying her name wrong for three years!
"I don't think we've ever met before," I added. It was the first thing that came to mind.
"I don't think so," she replied, her voice softening, but there was a cynical edge to it; as if she were blowing me off, but I wasn't deterred. After three years I refused to fuck this up.
"What year are you in?" I asked, playing dumb.
"Ten," she answered offhandedly before curving both palms around the handle of the trolley and pushing off.
Shit, she was leaving. Shit, shit, shit!
"Do-do you need any help?" I burst, sounding a lot more desperate than I was comfortable with.
She paused and turned back to look at me. "You want to help?" She arched a dubious eyebrow. "Don't you have cricket practice, or something?"
She was...patronising me?
"Not today," I answered, shoving my hands in the pockets of my trousers and shrugging; pretending I didn't notice.
Her gaze rested on me fully for a moment, as if she were gauging me closely for any signs I was bullshitting before she relented. "Then, sure."
For the next twenty minutes I helped her organise the books into alphabetical order, before handing them to her to place back on the shelves. I intercepted a few times when they needed to be placed on the top shelf where she couldn't reach, but it didn't exactly lighten things up between us. I wasn't sure if she was shy or if I just made her uncomfortable. She didn't speak a word to me, and I was too much of a pussy to say anything more to her.
It was really bloody painful. She clearly didn't want me near her, and ironically, all I could suddenly think about was escaping.
The end of lunch bell signalled and I sighed internally in relief.
"Thanks for your help," she said lightly, continuing to shelve the books without turning to look at me.
"No worries," I muttered, turning on my heel and exiting the room. "Fucking idiot!" I berated myself when I was safely out of earshot.
"How'd it go?" Jake asked, catching up to me as I was heading to the science block and slinging an arm around my shoulders.
"Shit," I replied glaring at him. He hadn't exactly helped, after all.
"Serious? Huh…" He sounded surprised; though, why I wasn't sure. Despite what the Slut Pack insisted, I was no ladies' man. "I got the cane for fuck-all, then."
"Suck shit!" I retorted. I wasn't in the mood for him. I was defeated and suddenly convinced I'd been completely wasting my time for the last three years.
"What the hell are you whinging for?" He squeezed his hand to the back of my neck. "She was probably just wondering why stud-boy, Edward Cullen was bothering her."
I paused to contemplate it, only to groan partially beneath my breath. I hadn't taken into account that my latest reputation, courtesy of Lauren Mallory, wouldn't work as a positive. Especially not for the straight-A student who hung out every day in the library.
"Shit—these fucking girls are doing my head in," I mumbled, becoming increasingly pissed off. "You know the reason I got a duck last week? Because Jessica Stanley flashed her tits at me—right there on the fence-line!"
He started laughing. "I heard that, but I thought she was full of shit! How big are her tits?"
"Small!" I grumbled.
"So, you have to convince 'library girl' that you're not the stud the year 11 moles are insisting you are," Jake murmured to me after fifteen minutes into Chemistry class.
I snorted. "No shit."
"Hm, that's a hard one..." He mulled it over for a second before seeming to come up short. "Dunno, mate. Why don't you just ask her out? If she's as smart as you say she is then she wouldn't be the kind of girl who paid attention to that kind of crap."
"Yeah, maybe..." I mumbled, releasing a deflated breath. I wasn't counting on it, though.
"If you chuck it in already, I'm going to dack you in the middle of the oval at next week's game," he half-heartedly threatened me.
I grinned to myself. It was a good thing he had confidence in me, because I sure as hell didn't. "Yeah, sure, mate."
I stopped going to the library. Final HSC exams were starting in a couple of months, and I didn't need the distraction. Pop had promised to buy me a car for my eighteenth birthday, but only if I got an ATAR higher than eighty. It was a stretch, but I really did need a car. He didn't like me or Emmett taking advantage of James, his driver, and taking the bus was shit. I was usually forced to scab a lift from Jake, and his car reeked of sex.
Of course, the Slut Pack offered to drive me to and from school, and anywhere else in between, but I'd rather take public transport. Especially when I noticed Bella was taking the bus home more often, as well.
After our run-in in the library, she'd returned to her natural stance around me. If I was able to catch her gaze, which wasn't often, she'd flash me a tight smile, but otherwise she kept herself within her own world of books and homework—even while waiting at the bus stop.
Then, Emmett, noticing how frustrated she was making me, decided to intervene.
One afternoon, not too long after the library incident, he brazenly walked over to her and sat beside her on the bench of one of the bus shelters she was waiting in.
She immediately looked up in surprise, while I almost died.
"So, I heard my brother knocked you for six last week?"
She only stared at him for a good several seconds, before replying, "Something like that..."
"Geez, what a prick. Want me to deck him?"
With my hands suddenly shaking, pissed off that he'd pull this shit and make a dick out of me, I whipped my phone from my pocket and sent him a text: I'll fucking kill you, you cunt!
"Uhm..." She looked lost for words, when my brother's message alert pulled his attention from her to his phone.
Smirking to himself, he typed back: You wish, pussy, before again turning to her. "Did he apologise?"
"Ah, yeah..." she replied, her entire expression flooding with uncertainty.
Emmett scoffed. "Yeah? I find that hard to believe." He turned to me. "Hey Edward, get over here and make it up to—what's your name again?"
"Bella."
"To Bella!"
She turned to me then, her eyes locking with mine, and there was something really wary about her expression.
"Well, hurry up!" Emmett added, raising his voice for added measure, and I really was going to kill him.
"Fuck sake..." I muttered beneath my breath, pulling myself from the pole of the street sign I was leaning against before walking reluctantly toward her.
I passed Emmett, shoulder barging him deliberately as I did. "You're a real cunt, you know that?" I said lowly.
He only snickered.
With a heavy sigh, I sat next to Bella—who by this point looked like her skin was crawling—and dropped my bag between my feet.
"I'm sorry." I leaned fractionally toward her without turning to meet her gaze. "Emmett's a...arsehole." It was not the word I wanted to use.
"It's okay," she replied simply. I expected her to be as awkward and uncomfortable around me as she was in the library but she almost sounded at ease.
Of course, right at that moment, Jake pulled up in the bus zone in his black beemer X5, and slid the passenger side window down.
"Get in, cunt!" he called out to me. Without waiting for a second invitation, I pulled myself to my feet, again with more relief than I should have felt, when Jake suddenly added, "Hey, you too, library girl."
I froze.
"N-No, it's fine," she insisted, but Emmett decided to get in on it until I started to suspect the bastards had orchestrated it.
Strolling back over to her, he grabbed her backpack. "Come on—what was your name again?"
"Bella."
"Well, come on, Bella. We'll give you a lift."
She opened her mouth to continue protesting, but ignoring her, Emmett grabbed her hand. "Where do you live?"
"She said she was fine, Emmett!" I snapped, and on impulse I grabbed her free hand, pulling her to a stop.
"Are you coming, or what?" Jake hollered again. "Make your bloody minds up before the bus comes!"
Neither I nor Emmett moved, while Bella stood between us looking like we were dragging her off to date rape her.
"Where do you live, library girl?" Jake asked. "I don't mind dropping you home—promise."
"Bellevue Hill," she answered, sounding so intimidated I felt the need to put her at ease.
"It's fine, Bella. You really don't have to."
"Bullshit, you knocked her over in front of half the school, you owe her one!" Emmett winked at her, before he released her hand and headed toward the car. "I bags the front seat."
It left the two of us standing just off the side of the road, holding hands. I let go of her immediately. "If you're more comfortable catching the bus..." She literally lived only a couple of kilometres away, after all.
"I don't mind," she seemed to decide, shrugging a shoulder before taking a step towards Jake's car.
Noticing she'd agreed, Jake jumped from the driver's side and rushed around the boot to pull open the rear passenger door for her. "After you."
"Thanks," she murmured.
"What are you doing?" I accused him in a whisper.
"Giving her a lift," he answered as if it were all really innocent.
"Fucking dickhead," I replied, only half under my breath before I climbed in the back seat after her.
Then after giving Jake her address, he entered it into his GPS and we left.
She didn't speak a word the entire trip, which was little more than five minutes. And when Jake pulled up in front of her house, a white Federation mansion you could barely see behind the huge iron gates and multiple Jacaranda trees, she thanked him politely for the lift, offered a simple "bye" to me and Emmett, and got out.
I never saw her waiting for the bus again.
*A guy calling another guy "cunt" is a part of the mate code. Don't ask me why.
*Spunk – Good looking.
*ATAR – Australian Tertiary Admission Rank. A rank of 70 is needed for, say, a Bachelor of Education, and a rank of 99 is needed to study medicine etc,.
*Dacks – Pants. To dack is to pants someone.
*A duck – Cricket term which means getting out without making a single run.
*Mole – Skank.
A/N: Thanks for reading :)
