Chapter 3 – Volleyball Stalkers

EPOV ~ September 3rd

I ran into her again today. Well, she ran into me, but it's all the same, right? The frantic look in her eyes from the first time I met her was replaced with a look of surprise. It had taken all of my self-control not to laugh at her amazement that I had remembered her name. It's only been 2 days since she had told me it… and she hadn't left my thoughts since.

I quickly dismissed the thought, shaking my head and turning my attention to the clock above the door. 2:22. 3 minutes until I was out of here. Leaning down to retrieve my bag, I started to slowly and quietly pack up my stuff, setting off a chain reaction and soon the people around me started to pack up as well.

The teacher heaved a sigh, knowing he wasn't going to get our attention back; it was too close to the end of the day for that. He moved to his desk to tackle the large pile of summer homework that waited there.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

The shrill sound of the bell signaled the end of the school day. People rushed around me as they sped towards the door and into the crowed halls. I stood and slung my bag over my shoulder and trudged out along with the rest of the class. The halls were full, like always, but being a senior has its advantages. Freshmen shy away from you and sophomores just ignore you, leaving a pretty much empty path to walk through.

Suddenly, I felt a hand pat me on the shoulder and, without even looking, I knew who it was. "Emmett," I warned, glancing over my shoulder to look at my brother. He released me from his grip an held his hands above his head in mock surrender,

"Hello there dear brother of mine," Emmett said, lowering his arms, one resting around his girlfriend, Rosalie. "How are you this fine afternoon?" I rolled my eyes at him, chuckling to myself as we walked out the front doors, not answering. "That's nice to know…" Emmett pouted, his tone sarcastic.

"I'm perfectly fine…" I trailed off, noticing the very familiar curly, chocolate brown hair as it brushed past the three of us. She waved goodbye to her friends and headed off in the direction of the back o the school, what is she doing?

"Come on, man," Emmett said from next to me as he moved towards the parking lot where his Jeep and my Volvo waited for us.

I glanced away from Jane and towards my brother, "Uh, go ahead, I'll catch up to you guys later." I started after her, not waiting for a response from Emmett.

Jane was opening the door to the gym when I rounded the corner of the school and she was glancing around, as if she was looking for something or making sure that there was no one around. Was she meeting someone here? I wondered to myself, stuffing my hands into my sweatshirt pockets as I walked, not sure why I even cared.

When I finally reached the doors to the 'lobby' of the gym, I glanced inside and saw that Jane was looking in the doors to the gym, though she hadn't actually gone inside yet. I opened the door and walked over to her, "What cha doing?"

She immediately spun around, stumbling a little from the fast movement, "Wha- Um, n-nothing…" she nervously ran her hands over her clothes, straightening them out. I raised an eyebrow at her and walked over to the door and peering inside. There was a group of girls crowed around a teacher, probably a coach. They all had on spandex shorts and t-shirts, a few of them carrying volleyball's under their arms. The group dispersed after a while and split into smaller groups of 3 or 4 and each group started to pass the volleyball around.

I turned back to Jane, who was staring inside the door with a sad look on her face. She soon turned to me when she realized that I had stopped looking at, what I assumed was the volleyball team. "So why are you watching them…? Did you want to play or something?"

Jane bit her lip lightly and blushed, "U-um… no… Well, sort of. I played in 7th and 8th grade, but I decided against it because I felt like I wasn't really doing volleyball for fun anymore," she looked back inside of the gym then continued, "It was more because my parents wanted me to do some kind of exercise type thing and I liked volleyball so I was like 'Yeah, sure, whatever. Lets do this,' but I guess I realized that shouldn't be the reason I was playing… for others… You know?" She concluded, turning to me. I looked at her expression, trying to decipher all the different emotions that displayed and hidden there, but she looked away before I could.

"So you're just here to watch, then?" I asked, running a hand through my already messy hair. Jane bit her lip, nodded then sighed, running a hand through her own hair. She resumed looking into the gym, chewing on her plump bottom lip. We stayed like that for a while, her watching the team, me watching her, until she let out a soft, exasperated sigh.

"Whatever…" she mumbled then headed towards the doors, stuffing her hands inside of her gray Stanford University sweatshirt. She paused at the door open then turned back to me, "You coming? Or are you going to continue to stare at all those girls in spandex?" Jane raised an eyebrow at me, a small smirk on her lips. I rolled my eyes at her and walked to the door, holding it open for her. Her cheeks flushed red and she slipped through it, brushing against my chest and sending a small electric feeling tingling where she touched me. Her eyes flashed up to me then back to the ground, as if she had felt it too.

Once I had shut the door behind us, I had to jog to catch up to Jane, who had surged ahead and was now sitting on the curb of the parking lot. I stood next to where she sat, looking down at her quizzically. She eventually glanced up at me and looked at me like, 'what?'

I chuckled and she looked away, blushing a little then said, "Do you know what time it is?" I checked the watch on my wrist, a present from Carlisle.

"It's 4:00," Wait… 4:00? Shit! I turned to Jane, who was looking out at the parking lot absentmindedly. She had pulled up her knees to her chest and was hugging them tightly against herself, resting her chin on the top of her knees. She looked pretty adorable like that, Adorable? What the hell man! "Adorable"? What are you, a pedophile? I shook the thought away then continued, "I gotta go. I was supposed to meet my girlfriend half an hour ago," I explained, not 100% sure why I was explaining in the first place.

She looked up at me, her eyes suddenly saddened, "Mkay, tootles." She said shortly, flashing me an equally short smile before turning back to the road, "My sister should be here any minute now, so I won't have to sit here all by my lonesome for too long," she mumbled quietly, causing me to question if she had actually wanted me to hear it.

"See you later…" I said before turning away from her and heading back to my car. I checked my phone and saw that I had 5 missed messages; 4 from Tanya and 2 from Alice. I groaned and picked up my pace to my car as I called my voicemail.

"Eddie! Where are you? I thought you said you'd be here at 3:30 and it's already 3:45!" I flinched as she called me 'Eddie', Tanya's new nickname for me. I took the phone away from my ear and deleted all the messages from Tanya, knowing they'd all be the same as the first. The next message was from Alice, informing me that I owed her since I had apparently forgotten that I needed to drive her to the ballet lessons Esme had begged her into taking.

I sighed, clicking my phone shut after deleting her message as well, I would apologize when I got home. Right now I had to deal with my overly clingy girlfriend. Behind me I heard the voices of people. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the volleyball players had been released from practice.

Some of them greeted Jane, who had stood up, with hugs and pats on the back. She was grinning at them, saying hi to them all. Though she looked happy, I could tell she was holding something back, like she wished that she were also part of the team. Soon most of the team had climbed into their car, leaving only Jane and one other person, who she seemed not to know, leaving them both standing there awkwardly.

I stopped next to my car with the door open, my eyes lingering on Jane as the other girl jumped into a car then sped off, leaving her all alone on the sidewalk. All plans of meeting up with Tanya washed away as I watched as her face fell and she shuffled her feet against the pavement. We waited for a whole 10 minutes before she finally sat back down on the curb, her head in her hands. I watched her for a moment then shut my car door and headed towards her, my hands in my pockets.

As I approached her, I could ell she was upset. Her hands were clenched into fists in her hair and she seemed to be curled into herself, her legs once again pulled up to her chest tightly and her head on her knees.

I squatted down next to her, listening to her sigh heavily. I stayed like that for a silent moment before interrupting the silence, "I thought you said your sister would be here at any moment." I inquired, watching her jump at the sound of my voice, her head snapping up to look at me. Her cheeks were flushed, adding a tinge of color to her otherwise pale complexion. The bewildered expression and the blush made her look almost cute.

First it's 'adorable' and now it's 'cute'? What's next? 'Lovable'? Jesus Christ, man! I groaned at the internal fight I was having with myself.

Jane quickly recovered, looking away from me to stare out at the road, "And I thought you had to go see your girlfriend," she stated, her tone almost sounding harsh.

I ran a hand through my hair, "And leave you all by your lonesome?" I said, quoting her. I caught her rolling her eyes and almost laughed, "So, do you need a ride home, or something?"

Jane sighed and shook her head, "Like I said, my sister's coming to pick me up," she stated, thought the small hint of worry in her tone gave her away.

"Well, do you have a cell phone you could call her with?" I asked. Surely she'd have one, right? She shook her head slowly, her blush deepening. Apparently not.

"Erm, no… I dropped it in a puddle a while ago and never got it fixed…"

I almost laughed, almost. I probably would've laughed if the situation had been different. After fishing around in my pockets for a second, I pulled out my phone, offering it to her, "Here, why don't you call her on here?"

She shook her head again, her eyes downcast to the ground, her blush still prominent on her cheeks, "I don't know her number by heart…" she whispered, her tone of voice almost sounding like defeat.

"What about your mom?"

Jane seemed startled at the option then looked up at me, "I guess I could call her, but I think she's at work…" She took my phone gently in her small hands and entered, what I assumed was her mother's phone number then pressed it to her ear.

We waited for a moment, both of us listening to the sound of the ringing. Soon a woman's voice sounded on the other side of the line, the words were muffled to me but the way Jane's face fell told me that we had reached her voicemail. She ended the call, not even bothering to leave a message. "He phone's probably dead," she informed me. We let out a sigh then looked at each other. I gave her a small smile and she looked away, resting her chin on her crossed arms, which were on top of her knees.

"So, that was a failed attempt, huh?" I asked, my tone joking as I tried to lighten up the situation. She didn't reply.

I looked down at her and watched as she tried not to look at me. Key word; try. Every few seconds shed glance up from under her thick eyelashes at me then quickly look away once she realized that I had caught her looking, her blush never once fading from her cheeks.

After a few more minutes, my thighs and toes were starting to protest against the squatted position I was in. So I sat down next to her on the curb, my knee almost touching her feet, where they were brought up onto the curb. The same electric current buzzed between us. Jane's bare arms were suddenly covered in goosebumps as she shivered delicately, as if a shiver had gone down her back.

"You sure you don't want a ride somewhere…?" I asked again, checking my watch; 4:45. We had been waiting here for almost an hour; surely she didn't want to sit here any longer. She didn't say anything, so I glanced over at her and realized that she was purposely not looking at me. "Hey," I started, placing my hand gently, but firmly, under her chin and turning to so she had to look at me, "Are you okay…?"

Though she still refused to look at me, I could still see the tears in her eyes and her lower lip quivering as she tried not to cry. "S-she prom-mised she'd pick m-me up…!" she stuttered out, her voice so quiet I had to strain my ears to hear it. She took in a shaky breath, finally bringing her gaze to mine. Shit.

Her eyes were one of the most intense things I'd ever seen. On the surface they were full of worry and desperations, but it you looked deeper their was pain and sorrow, joy and embarrassment, and, what seemed to be, surprise. It was like looking into an endless well of feelings and mixed emotions. Like looking deep into her soul. It was amazing. It was beautiful.

Apparently she felt like I had seen enough because she started to tug her chin out of my iron-grip. I held her steady and repeated my earlier question, "Do you want a ride?" I said, softly but firmly. She looked at the ground then slowly nodded, her body slumping in defeat. "See, that wasn't that hard, was it, Jane?" goosebumps once again rose on her arms as I let go of her chin gently. I hoisted myself off the curb and felt Jane do the same next to me. I checked that she was behind me before starting towards my car.

When we reached it, I pulled open the passenger seat door open for her. She hesitated for a moment before slipping into the car with a soft, "Thank you." After she was all the way in, I closed the door and walked around to the driver's side and climbed in, shutting the door after me and starting the car.

"Nice car…" Jane said, smiling a little to herself as if she was thinking of an inside joke, wiping at her eyes.

"Hey, don't diss on the car, "I started, pulling out of the parking spot.

"I wasn't! I just think it's cute," She defended, looking out the window as she rolled it down. I rolled my eyes at her, Cute…? This car is so much better then "cute".

I drove out of the parking lot and headed towards Third Place Books, the bookstore/mall/hangout spot in Shoreline. There was also a Starbucks near it and I was in desperate need of some coffee. I glanced over at Jane and saw that she had rested her head against the window frame with her eyes closed, letting the wind rush around her face.

We sat in silence for the duration of the drive until I flipped on the turning signal to turn into the Starbucks parking lot. Jane opened her eyes and brought her head back in from the window, looking at me with wide eyes, "What are we doing?"

"I'm getting some coffee and buying you a drink," I smiled at her as I hopped out of my car and walked over to her side, opening the door for her. She started to protest, a blush rising up her cheeks again. I raised an eyebrow at her, telling her that there was no point in arguing with me. Jane heaved a sigh and slid out of the car, trying to straighten her hair before I ushered her inside, my hand on the small of her back.

AN:

Goodness! A late update! Again! So, so sorry about that!

Like my try at Edwards POV? You better have because I might never do it again. Gahhh it's so hard to write him! .

I've already started the next chapter, but I have to warn you, it might not be uploaded for a while because I have a whole bunch of school homework I have to do before school starts on the 1st, but I'll try to get it up ASAP :)

Anywho, thanks for reading! Please, please review!