Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

Chapter 3- Take A Walk

Bella POV

I struggled to open my eyes as the sunlight streamed through my bedroom windows. I slowly sat up on my bed before letting my legs dangle off the side of my bed. It seemed like today would be a sunny one, a rarity here in Forks. I decided to make full use of this sunny weather today. I stumbled a bit as I tried to stand upright. Grabbing my toiletries and a white long-sleeved shirt with a pair of black jeans, I walked towards the bathroom. After I finished using the bathroom, I walked down to the kitchen. I made myself a sandwich and munched it down. Taking each step slowly, I headed back to my room before deciding to just grab my wallet. Before I headed out of the house, I hastily left a scribbled note on the dining table, informing Charlie that I was going to be driving around Forks.

My truck roared to life. I backed it out of the driveway before deciding to go to the bookstore, which was just a few minutes drive. I parked my truck and hopped out of it and pushed open its entrance door as I quietly slipped into the shop. I decided to see if there were any new releases and was surprised to find Edward skimming through a book titled Twilight. I stumbled backwards and bumped into an elderly man. I turned around and apologized to him profusely as I started to blush furiously.

"Bella?" I heard Edward call out to me from behind, with surprise.

Edward POV

As Bella turned back to me, I could see that she was feeling very flustered, especially since I could see her blushing. I quickly placed the book back on its shelf and took hold of Bella's shoulders with both of my hands seeing as how she was about to fall.

"Are you alright?" I asked, concerned that she may have hurt herself. Bella just nodded as she stabilized herself from falling. "I guess the rest weren't joking when they said that you are the clumsiest person I would probably meet," I teased her. She just smiled shyly back to me. "Are you going to purchase anything from her?" She shook her head. "Come on then," I tugged on Bella's arm, asking for her to follow me. She just followed behind me silently, looking curious as to where we were going. I held the door open for Bella as she passed by me.

We walked wordlessly side by side. I placed my right hand on Bella's back and gently pushed her towards an ice-cream shop located just a few shops away from the bookstore. I turned towards Bella just as we reached the counter of the shop.

"What flavor would you like?" I asked her. I watched her as she bit on her lower lip, trying to choose one out of the many flavors listed on the menu.

"I would like the Strawberry Cream Delight," Bella decided as she turned to me. I nodded my head and turned my attention to the menu, quickly searching a flavor for myself.

"We'll have one Strawberry Cream Delight and one Chocolate Fudge Classic," I told the shopkeeper before reaching into my pocket for my wallet and pulled out some notes. Bella tried to pay for her share but with much protesting and convincing, I finally managed to pay for both the ice-creams. We grabbed our ice-creams each and started licking away. We then headed towards a park located just opposite of the ice-cream shop and found a bench for ourselves.

While licking on our ice-creams, we watched as the fishes swam in the fountain just in front of us and sat in comfortable silence. After I finished my ice-cream, I angled my body towards Bella, who was just taking the last bite from her ice-cream and she shyly turned her body to my direction.

"So is there a reason why we're here?" She asked while gesturing around to the park with her arms.

"I just wanted to get to know you seeing as how we didn't get any chance to talk yesterday," I answered simply. "And besides, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other a lot, especially since you're Emmett and Alice's best friend," I added thoughtfully. She just nodded and started swinging her legs, as they dangled off the bench.

"Hmm… How about we play 20 Questions?" Bella asked, breaking the silence. I agreed with her idea and soon enough we started firing questions at each other.

"What's your favorite color?" I asked curiously.

"Green!" She blurted out before blushing. Before I had a chance to ask her why she was feeling embarrassed, she shot my question back to me. "What's your favorite color, Edward?"

"Blue," I replied. And so it continued on like that, asking basic questions for the other to answer. Soon enough, I learned a lot of things about Bella. I had a lot of fun with Bella as we kept on teasing each other and I am sure she knew a lot about me too seeing as how the list of questions seemed endless.

"H-how are coping now?" Bella stammered. I knew this topic would come up sooner or later. I sighed out loud.

"How am I coping with my parents' death, you mean?" I asked, trying to stall talking about it. Bella nodded.

"I'm sorry if I upset you. You don't need to answer that question. I'm sorry. I just wasn't thinking, really…" Bella started rambling but I cut her off by covering her mouth with my hand. Her voice soon became muffled.

"It's alright, Bella. When I found out about their death, I was devastated. I hardly ate or drank. I always stayed locked up in my room. I couldn't even bare to play the piano because it was my mother who had taught me how to play and she always enjoyed it when I played for her. But then, a family friend, Tanya, came over and finally knocked some sense into me," I told her as I removed my hand from her mouth and left it on my lap while staring down at my shoes and continued on, "I then returned back to my everyday life, without my parents of course, and then Carlisle adopted me and before I left Chicago, the doctor handed me my mother's wedding ring. He told me that my mother had wanted me to have it. I bring it everywhere with me. It's the most precious thing to me," I finished before reaching for the chain around my neck and pulled it out from under my shirt.

The wedding ring was hanging on the chain. It was a sliver band with a sapphire in the middle. Engraved on the underside of the ring were the words 'Till death do us part'. I placed the chain back under my shirt before folding my hands on my lap and continued staring down at the crack on the pavement.

Bella hesitantly reached out and placed her left hand on top of my right hand. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that. But you really were strong to have been able to move on and even move to a whole new state right after your parents' death," Bella told me sincerely.

"Thank you, Bella. Though, I'm still adjusting living here," I looked up into her brown eyes and I smiled gratefully at her.

"That's understandable. Oh! I have to leave now if I want to get back home in time," Bella exclaimed, and then only did I realize that I had to get home too. I got up from the bench and offered Bella my hand. She took it as she, herself, got up from the bench and both of us started walking back to the parking lot.

Surprisingly, Bella did not pull away her small warm hand, which was intertwined with mine. I walked Bella to her truck even though it was quite a distance to where my Volvo, a present from Esme and Carlisle, was parked.

Bella POV

I said goodbye to Edward before tiptoeing as I reached up to kiss him on the cheek before I yanked the door of my truck, climbed in and drove away, looking like a tomato with my blushing face. I dared not look behind to see what Edward's reaction was. The truth was, after Edward had finished telling me about his parents' death, I knew he needed a friend to help him adjust to the new change and I wanted to be the one to be there for him. And I was attracted to him. Edward was really sweet, kind, and honest. He too looked like Adonis himself.

Edward POV

Even after Bella had already driven away, I was still rooted to the ground, surprised that Bella had kissed my cheek. I reached up to where her lips had touched my cheek and I could still feel the warmth left lingering there. A grin found its way onto my face and it remained there throughout the whole journey home.

"Edward, why are you so happy?" Alice asked me suspiciously as soon as she saw me, grinning widely, enter the house.

"It's nothing. I just had a lot of fun," I replied, with my grin still plastered on my face.

"What did you do? And who were you with?" Alice asked me with raised eyebrows.

I sighed out loud, rather annoyed at Alice's persistence to find out what had happened. "I went driving around town and saw a bookstore. I decided to check it out and met Bella there. We bought ice-cream and we talked about," I paused dramatically before saying, "stuff." I grinned in satisfaction as Alice furrowed her eyebrows in frustration at my vagueness. I just continued on my way to my room. I took a pair of black shorts along with an old red shirt and headed into bathroom. After I was done showering, I went down to the kitchen and grabbed an apple and told Esme, who was preparing dinner, that I would not be joining the rest for dinner.

"Is there something wrong, Edward?" Esme questioned, concern etched clearly in her voice. I just shook my head.

"Nothing's wrong, Esme. I'm just not feeling hungry," I assured Esme. I headed back up to my room while munching the apple down. As I sat down on my black leather sofa, I clutched my mother's ring, and suddenly, Bella's face came to my mind. I smiled softly as I remembered my day spent with Bella and how she had been so sincere about my well-being what with me having to cope with my parents' death.

I quickly finished up my apple and headed down to the kitchen and tossed the apple into the rubbish bin while avoiding everyone's curious gazes. I was sure Alice had told everyone else about the grin I had on face earlier on. I sighed out loud before sprinting back up to my room. As I lay on my bed, I started rubbing the ring between my fingers and soon enough, fell asleep with the ring tucked close to my heart.