"Fancy seeing you here," Edward joked, hanging in the tree and leaning into my room. "What a coincidence," I said, laughing. I opened my window before I got in bed this time. "I missed you today," I told him. It was raining extra hard and we had to have indoor recess. "I missed you, too, Sweetheart."
"The weather sucks. When does the sun come out?" "Well," Edward said, kind of nervously, "I can't come out in sunlight, at least not where anyone can see." "You can't?" I asked, surprised. "Why not?" "It's- embarrassing, Bella." he said, picking me up out of my room and shutting my window. "Tell meeee…" I whined. "Ugh!" he groaned, jumping out of the tree. "I sort of… sparkle," he said quickly. I gaped at him. Was he joking? "Cool!"
He laughed. "You would think so!" "I wanna sparkle!" I exclaimed. "Maybe Alice can help you with that sometime." "Not pink sparkles," I checked. "No. Cool sparkles like blue or black or purple." "Yes!" I said grinning. He cracked up. "Alright, hold on," he put my arms around his neck and started running.
When he carried me into his house he flopped down onto the couch, putting his feet on the coffee table. "What do you want to do?" I shrugged. I didn't really care what we did, I was just glad to be hanging out with Edward. "I'll get some paper, do you want to color?" I nodded.
He only took a second and he was back with a big stack of paper, the nice kind that goes in printers, and colored pencils. I thought about what to draw for a long time. I looked around the room for idea's and remembered the flowers on the mantel. I got a black pencil for the outline, and set to work.
Lucky for me, Edward had erasables, because I messed up a lot. Eventually though, I got it done. Coloring it in was the easy part. "Do you want to be an artist when you grow up?" Edward asked. "I don't think so." I said, trying to make a shadow underneath the vase. "What do you want to be?" "I don't know." I never really thought about it. "I guess I could be a lot of things."
"You could. You are a very talented young lady." "I don't know about that." I said, thinking of all the things Edward could do. "Bella, love, don't say that. Just look at your drawing. It's even prettier than the actual flowers." I doubted that, but I didn't argue with him.
He got a piece of paper from the stack, and leaned back. He pulled a brown, a peach, a pink, and a purple colored pencil out of the box, and he started drawing. I couldn't see what he was drawing yet. I colored for a long time.
"Done!" I announced, holding it up. Edward looked at it. "Bella, that's incredible. Can I hang it on my fridge?" "Yeah!" I said, proudly. "I'm done, too." he said, showing me his picture.
"Whoa," I said. Edward had drawn a picture of me. It looked like a photograph. I felt my mouth fall open. "You drew me?" I said, blushing. "I couldn't think of anything in the world more beautiful to draw," "You're making me blush!" I said, covering my face, but I was grinning. I loved it when he said I was beautiful. He took our pictures and got up. I followed him into the kitchen. He pulled some magnets down and got the pictures put up.
His fridge had some other pictures I'd made when I was younger. Theres one with a mountain, one of his house… once I even tried to draw him, but it turned out awful. Edward is too handsome to draw. He hung it up anyway. He draws stuff that looks real. Mine look like cartoons, but he says he loves them that way, and its weird, but I can tell he means it.
Edward turned and picked me up, carrying me to the couch. "So you had indoor recess… what did you do?" "I absolutely kicked Mike's butt at Connect 4!" I said proudly, partly because I really did do amazing, but mostly cause I knew it would make him happy, since he hated Mike. "Good for you, babydoll."
"I also played a little bit of Barbies with Jessica, but only to make her happy. Barbies are so boring." I don't get why people think dolls are so exciting. They're not. "You don't need to do things just for other people, Bella. Just do what makes you happy."
"Like playing with you. It makes me happy, even though Mommy and Daddy wouldn't like it, me being up past bedtime, and without a grownup." "No, they wouldn't, lot's of people wouldn't, actually, but it makes me happy, too."
"That's what I want. I want you to be happy, and me to be happy, too. It's the same for me." Edward pulled me into his arms with a big cold hug that made me warm inside.
"Let's go stargazing. You can read if you want." "The book from your daddy?" "Yep. That one." "Cool." I said and he carried me into the room with his amazing sky. "What was your birthday wish?" "Edward you KNOW I can't tell!" I said, but I knew I'd tell him anyway. "But I'm your best friend, Bella… I won't tell anyone, I promise." he said.
I did a huffy breath and said, "-to go for a motorcycle ride." really fast and quiet even though obviously no one could hear except him. He lives alone in the middle of the woods! "I didn't know you liked motorcycles. Interesting." he said. "I don't know if I like them or not. Not yet." "Well, you'll know soon." he said. "Maybe," I corrected. I wasn't totally sure how birthday wishes worked.
When he lay down on the floor he immediately wrapped me in the blanket and pulled me close. He handed me the book and I kinda used his chest as a pillow as I flipped it open.
There were lots of hard words (it was a grown-up book!) so I mostly looked at pictures. I did read a little about deer- apparently their antlers fall off every year.
"Where are the mountain lions, Edward?" I asked, flipping through, but I couldn't find the page. "Here," he said, opening it to the middle. "Whoa," I said, seeing it. "It looks like a real lion!" Edward laughed. "They are pretty similar."
"If we met one together, would you be able to protect us?" I asked looking at the big claws and teeth and muscles of the lion in the picture. "Yes, but trust me, you won't be meeting one." his voice sounded kinda darker.
"Huh. You know- I actually heard Daddy telling Mommy about the CD player. He's bringing it home tomorrow." "I know. I put a CD with your lullaby on it in the CD player. I would give you more but your father would be suspicious."
"Thanks Edward, I love my lullaby. I wish I could play piano like you." "I can teach you!" Edward said, grinning. "Really? Thanks!" I didn't have a piano at home, and I'd never learned a whole song, just sort of played around on Edward's piano every once in a while.
"Tomorrow we're going hiking, but we can start whenever you want." "Cool. Is it hard?" "It can be, but we'll start slow, okay?" "Kay," I said. I shut the book, getting tired and curled up to him.
I peeked up and looked at the swirling galaxies above me. None of the other kids I knew would ever get this. They didn't have a best friend like Edward. It made me feel so special and loved and happy. "Thank you. You're the best friend in the whole world." "You're better. Are you tired, Bella?"
"Just a little," I admitted, hiding my yawn. "Bella," he said, with a frustrated laugh. "Tell me next time. I'll get you to bed." I folded my arms and twisted to see his face. "Maybe I don't want to go to bed." I challenged. "I could just stay here, you know." "Is that right?" he indulged me, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah," I said, but I didn't really feel the yawn coming this time and he laughed as I yawned right after I said that.
"C'mon, Bella," he chuckled, picking me up and cradling me to his chest. "I can't have you falling asleep in school tomorrow. Alice says the weather is nice, and cloudy, all day, so you'll see me at recess." Edward was carrying me outside.
I held on to his black t-shirt as he ran me home. It was soft and he smelled the way he always did, like honey and flowers. He got me inside and held me, laying down on my bed with me.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" I asked. It was bothering me, but I didn't know why. "Shh. No, Bella." "Hm. That's good." I muttered tiredly. I think he laughed a tiny bit, but it was so quiet, I couldn't tell if I imagined it.
He waited until I was practically asleep to get up and slip out my window. "Good night, Bella." he whispered from the tree. "Goodnight, Edward." I mumbled. "Come back." "I will, Bella," he said, closing my window and disappearing into the night.
Sorry this chapter isn't very good. I just started high school and it's been a little busy. I think the next chapter should be easier to write, so if I don't update sooner, hopefully it will be a bit higher quality. I've been meaning to ask for feedback on the subject of relationship development. I'm not going to jump into anything, but it would be great for some advice on how to proceed with out making it creepy (basically, what age isn't going to scare you away? lol). Last but not least, I'd like to say thank you to everyone reading this story. I didn't expect any readers, and every follow/favorite/review has been a wonderful surprise. Thank you so much!