Chapter 3: The Car Ride

He drove us out of the university parking lot, turned left and then we were suddenly on I-95. We sat there in driving silence until he broke it.

"So. How are your classes going Bella?"

"Good I guess. The syllabi are all the same pretty much. Don't cheat. Get at least a C or you fail the class, and a list of books I somehow picked up already. Nothing exciting happened."

He laughed looking over at me, "And I was the only one to put you to sleep?"

"Yeah I guess. Sorry about that." I must have turned the color of a tomato as he started talking trying to make me feel better.

"Well that's good. At least you didn't have to do what I did for my first day in criminal theory. Our professor walked in the room and told us to write a nine page paper about what we had learned in past criminal justice classes so far. It sucked."

I chuckled hoping my crime in america teacher wasn't the same person. I hadn't taken a previous crime class so what could I talk about in a paper like that. Then I wondered why he was a TA for a philosophy class, had taken the highest level criminal justice classes and was stuck in a tiny office in the engineering building. What is up with this boy? Is he taking classes in every major possible?

He continued I guess guessing my question, "My dad wanted me to be a doctor but I could never do it. It took me until I realized I was only registered in science classes to realize that I did indeed hate science. Then I tried switching to criminal law because lawyers and police are respectable professions. He seemed okay with the idea but then I realized my passion was the arts and music. I finally wound up with a major in Music Theory. I loved every class."

"So why are you a TA then? Why not be a famous composer or something? I'm sure you could have enough teen groupies no matter what kind of music you played."

He laughed and for the first time I could see tiny dimples on his cheeks. "Meh. I love teaching I realized. I'm not just a philosophy TA Bella. I actually do teach one of the upper level music classes on my own. I don't know how I managed it but I am Professor Edward to most music majors. And I almost have my masters degree."

"How old are you Edward? Geez to be a professor and everything?" He laughed at my exergerated geez.

"Bella I'm only 22. I skipped all the dumb general education requirements and started college as a junior. I was in a program called IB in high school and yeah...You don't have to care, don't worry."

He winked and I laughed watching as the truck turned down off the interstate and onto Eastside Blvd. "What about you Bella? Alice must love you if she offered to let you move in. I could have sworn she wanted the extra room to store all the clothes and shoes her closet can't fit."

"I moved down here after my father was shot in the line of duty." I paused not knowing he would want me to countine. "I grew up in a tiny town called Forks in Washington and we never had to worry about crime at all. I swear most of the time my dad just slept in his office at the Sheriff's Office. But for some reason this like kid tried to rob our one grocery store when my dad was shopping and my dad tried to stop him."

I stopped knowing I couldn't go on any longer before the tears would start to fall.

"I'm sorry Bella. That is so incredibly awful and tragic."

A single tear ran down my face, "Yeah I know. Strange how life changes in the blink of an eye."

Edward POV

I looked over at her hoping she wasn't crying. My sister never really cried. She knew how to seek vengeance on people who had wronged her though.

I glanced over and saw a single tear but it made me want to stop the car right here and hug her. Make her laugh again. God I adored her laugh already. No, this is wrong. You can't fall for a student. She's a baby.

She glanced at over at me trying to smile bravely. She contined, "So I applied across the country and they somehow let me in even though the deadlines to apply for the school were way overdue. A couple of months later I sold the house and moved here."

I looked over at her, "You sold the house or someone sold it for you?"

She blushed, "I found the buyer and listed it and everything. I just had to have one of my dad's friends figure out some of the paper work."

Beautiful and brainy?

I turned into the complex and quickly found Rosalie's old parking spot. Alice had always let me have the parking garage for my baby. Alice was pacing out behind her car I guess trying to figure out what took us so long. She was instantly happy when she realized we had finally made it home. "Yayyyyy you guys made it home finally! Bella you are going to love the apartment it is huge so you won't actually have to see Edward outside of class if you don't want to..." She continued babbling on and on about the apartment as they both started walking toward the door.

I looked over at her just as she glanced back to smile at me. I muttered under my breath hoping she could somehow here me. "Welcome home Bella."

Author's Note:

I was so delighted to see how many people added one of my three stories to their favorites/alerts when I was asleep last night.

This chapter was a necessary filler. If you all are good and review I might just post another chapter today. ;-)