"Bye, Mike." I tried to swallow the lump of guilt in my throat but I couldn't manage.

He hugged me and gave me another Invisalign-smile before leaving me in the Biology room. Edward had been the first one out, as he had all week, but I would see him in a few minutes if he meant what he said. In truth, I couldn't have gathered my books and shoved them in my bag faster; in the week he'd been here, Edward had captured my full attention and I wanted nothing more than to pay it to him. But I didn't want to seem too eager, so I walked as slowly as I could without looking like an idiot towards the library. Why would I be eager though? I only wanted to catch up with him, see how he's been. Then why do you feel guilty about Mike? Because I lied to him. You lied to him before you agreed to meet Edward. Shut up.

"Bella."

I turned towards his voice and sighed (in relief?). "Edward." Lost in my thoughts, I'd almost passed the library door. "Why did you want to meet here of all places?"

He smiled, a lopsided smile that insert cliché here: took my breath away/made me swoon/made my heart race. I almost groaned at my pathetic-ness. "So," he said, taking a few lazy steps toward me, "where do you want to go?"

"For what?" I asked stupidly. I was still swaying from that smile.

He laughed, a smooth rich laugh that…oh, the clichés. "Well, my initial idea was to talk, but if you had other things in mind…"

I did.

"No, no, sorry, I just…" I stumbled. My face grew hot with every word I stuttered. I took a deep breath. "Talking sounds great. We could talk at my place." My place.

"You place?"

Oh God. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "If you want, I mean, the library here is not much of a library unfortunately, meaning the privacy is out of the question." Privacy?

"Privacy?" God, Bella, you're on a roll today. He grinned widely in amusement at my flustering and threw his bag over his shoulder. "Same house?"

I nodded. "You can follow me, if you need to. I've got the monster red truck over there. You'll hear it."

He laughed. "Okay, I'll see you there then." I kept glancing over my shoulder as he walked to a shiny silver Volvo and got in. After bringing my own offensive beast to life, I pulled out of the school lot onto the main road, followed by the Volvo.

In no time, we'd arrived in front of my house. Edward was shutting his car door as I opened the front door. "Welcome to my humble abode," I said dramatically with a flourishing sweep of my arm.

He gave a low whistle. "Nice."

I laughed harshly. "Thanks."

"Hasn't changed much," he said quietly, more to himself, I imagined. I watched him take in every detail, from the yellow walls to the flower pattern on the stair rail to the framed yearbook pictures of Bella on the wall into the kitchen. At these he smiled, much to my embarrassment.

"Shut up," I said, pushing him into the kitchen. "Go ahead and sit. Do you want anything, are you hungry or anything?"

He shook his head as he pulled out a chair. "Um, water would be nice, thanks."

"So," I started, "California, huh?" I handed him the glass and sat across from him.

He took a gulp of water, as I've noticed a lot of men tend to do often, and it should have disgusted me, but somehow it didn't. "Yep, Santa Cruz. Nice place, but in all honesty, it was too sunny."

I smiled. "Too sunny? I'd have loved the be there."

"I'd have loved for you to be there, too." He winked and my heart jumped. I liked the way he said that too much. Stupid Bella. Stop having these reactions. That is dangerous territory.

"So," he continued, "How've you been?" He looked up from his glass from under long eyelashes and for a moment I had forgotten the question.

"Um, good, I guess. School's, well…school. Charlie is holding up. I've decided to be a psychology major and—"

"Why psychology?"

The question shocked me, mostly because I had never wondered myself. "I guess I never really thought about that. I did really well in the psychology class I took last year and everyone just says I have the mind and ability for it."

"Who's everyone?" Did he enjoy interrupting?

I sighed. "My guidance counselor, Angela-well, she approved when I told her my decision-and Mike, and Charlie said he was fine with it."

"Hmm." He looked away thoughtfully. "Continue."

I cleared my throat. "Right. And I've got pretty decent grades, and nice friends, and Mike. Mike's a great guy."

Edward leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Mike…Newton. If I recall, he is the boy who sits at the front of the class in Bio and also the boy a bunch of us made fun of in fifth grade for wetting himself when he fell asleep in science class."

"Shut up, Edward," I huffed, concealing the tinge of surprise at how easily his name rolled off my tongue. "It was fifth grade and he doesn't do that anymore, so it couldn't matter less."

"How did you meet?" he asked still smirking.

Just then the front door opened. Both our heads turned towards the hall where the sound of heavy boots made its way to us.

"Charlie," I whispered. "He won't like that you're here. He's still worked up with Mike."

"Bella?" Charlie called from the hall.

"Kitchen, Dad."

Charlie was initially unaware anyone else was in the kitchen; he headed straight for the refrigerator.

"Dad," I started quietly so as not to startle him, "This is Edward."

"Huh?" He closed the fridge and turned around, the wary boy-with-my-daughter look already set. The expression quickly changed to polite, but I noticed he hadn't put up his gun belt. "Oh, well, always nice to meet a new friend of Bella's." He extended his hand.

Something similar to…resentment?… passed through Edward's green eyes but when I looked again it was gone, replaced with a stiff courtesy. He stood and took my father's hand.

"Sir." He turned to me, a very false smile threatening to slip off his face. "I should probably go, Bella. I'll see you at school." He gathered his stuff, and I didn't argue. It could get very awkward with Charlie. We walked to the door and I followed him to his car. He pushed his things into the front seat and turned to face me.

"Bella, I…" His eyes seemed to fill with some kind of sorrow and I had to fight a small urge to reach out and hold him. Instead, he lifted his hand and brushed a stray hair from my cheek. My cheek burned where he'd touched it and my neck was on fire where his hand lingered. I knew it was quite possible that Charlie was spying out the window but at the moment I couldn't care less; thought I felt I should be comforting him, his touch sent thin ribbons of fiery silk through my body and it brought a comfort I hadn't known I lacked. As if a void in my chest I was unaware of had been filled.

"What," I whispered, falling into the sea of green looking back at me.

"I missed you."

The words I didn't know I needed to hear. "I missed you, too."

"Bella!"

I sighed. Leave it to Charlie to ruin important moments in a teenage girl's life. "I'll see you at school, Edward." When I looked back into his eyes I almost flinched. They looked past me, darkened with anger.

"I'll see you at school," he muttered before getting in the car and driving off. I sighed and turned to face Charlie.

"Bella," he called from the doorway, "you never told me about this new friend of yours."

I pushed past him into the house, suddenly pissed off. How did he forget such an important period of his life so quickly? "He's not a new friend, Dad. It's Edward."

"Edward?" I heard him follow me into the kitchen.

"Yes, Dad, Edward. Remember that boy that sort of lived with us for three years?" My words were acid and Charlie cringed slightly before realization dawned on his face.

"Esme." Pain appeared in his eyes and I wondered if I should have brought this up.

"Yes, Dad," I said more quietly, "Esme."