Chapter Four.
(Almost.)
stephenie meyer owns all characters, and i do not! :)
"That was insane!" Emmett cried from the backseat of my Volvo. I chuckled; today there was layer of black ice covering all the streets. In the Volvo, I drove to some deserted roads and slid and skidded around the ice. Now we were on our way to the school.
Alice had been either singing annoying songs or thinking X-Rated thoughts about Jasper. And everything in between that might try and get me out of her head. Right now, she was sitting in the passenger seat, singing "Baby Got Back".
Rosalie and Jasper were laughing at Emmett's reenactment of what his reaction was to the looping around the lonely streets.
We got to the school early, like every other morning. I parked in our usual spot, and turned off the car and sighed. I looked around to see if Bella was around to torture me with her appallingly luscious scent. No rusty red truck. All of my family got out of the car and headed for their buildings walking hand in hand. I got out of the car, slowly even for human pace. I leaned up against the side of the car, waiting for Bella's arrival. What excuse would I tell my family if they saw me waiting for her? I didn't know. I could barely come up with an excuse to tell myself, all I knew was that I wanted to. I didn't know if I wanted to talk to her, all I knew was that I wanted to see her.
Bella pulled up then in her old pickup truck. She hopped out and walked to the back of her truck. She cocked her head to the side and stared at the metal chains, covering her tires. There was the slightest gleam in her eyes. How did those snow chains make her feel? Oh, how I wished to be in her head for at least ten minutes.
Then I heard it. There was a high-pitched screaming but it wasn't a human screaming… I looked over to where the sound was coming from, it was Tyler Crowley's dark blue van screeching along the black ice, like the way I was this morning. Only Tyler hadn't control over his van, and he was heading straight for Bella's truck. The thing was Bella was in the way.
Bella brought her eyes from the tires and searched for where the sound was coming from. She finally locked eyes with the van that was bound to hit her in just a few heartbeats. Bella's face was panicked. There was no way for her to escape.
I grabbed at the car behind me, knowing I wouldn't be able to do anything without risking my family's secret. Bella was going to die. No, no she wasn't. Not her.
I shot forward and grabbed Bella knocking her out of the way. Her head slammed against the ground with enough force to give her a concussion. I was worried she might be hurt, but I was mostly filled with relief that she wasn't killed.
Then I realized that the truck didn't stop at Bella's truck, but it bounced off of it, heading in our direction. I cursed under my breath, if I hadn't known better I would think Tyler's van had it out for killing Bella. There wasn't enough time to get Bella away from the van that coming our way so I braced my self against the tan car behind me and shot out my hands in front of me to stop the van from crushing us. I then gripped the underside of the van and swung Bella's legs to the side before it could crush them. The van had finally stopped with a groaning thud. When the van settled glass popped onto the asphalt. There were chaotic voices and thoughts and screams all around us, attempting to give a vampire a very bad migraine.
I leaned over Bella, who was parallel with the tan car, and asked "Bella? Are you all right?"
"Im fine" her voice sounded raspy. She tried to sit up from my iron grasp holding her to the side of my body.
"Be careful" I warned, "I think you hit your head pretty hard."
"Ow." She said sounded surprised.
I tried not to chuckle, Bella was so amusing. "That's what I thought."
"How in the…" she started, shaking her head. "How did you get over here so fast?"
Oh no. She had seen me? I sobered up instantly and turned serious. I had risked my family's secret and Bella had possibly seen.
"I was standing right next to you, Bella." I told her.
This time when she tried to sit up, I let her, sliding as far away from her as possible in the tight space. I looked right into her eyes, trying as hard as I could to make her see that she hadn't seen anything, that maybe she hadn't recognized me next to her yet. I tried putting on an innocent and concerned expression on. Innocent because, she tried blaming me of something humanly impossible, and concerned for her sanity for her thinking that.
"Don't move" someone ordered
"Get Tyler out of the van!" someone from the forming crowd shouted.
Bella then tried to get up but I put my hand on her shoulder restraining her. "Just stay put for now." I instructed.
"But its cold." She complained, I couldn't help but laugh at that. Even when she was threatening to know my secret she was cute. Wait, did I really think she was cute?
Her eyes flashed suddenly, "You were over there" she said with confidence in her voice. "You were by your car."
I narrowed my eyes, willing myself to make her believe me. "No, I wasn't."
"I saw you"
"Bella, I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way." I tried to make her believe me, I stared right into her eyes, mine pleading, for her to believe me.
"No." she clenched her jaw.
"Please, Bella." Oh no, why did this girl have to be so stubborn?
"Why?"
"Trust me" I whispered her, begging with me eyes for her to believe me.
The ambulance had arrived and the sirens were going off but I could clearly here her answer, "Will you promise to explain everything to me later?"
"Fine." I snapped, unable to think of anything else to say. She could think I was going to tell her all she wanted; there was no way Bella was finding out my secret. I would have said no, but I needed out of this confined space, her scent was driving me mad.
"Fine" she repeated just as angry.
It took 6 EMT's and two teachers to move the van far enough out of the way to bring in stretchers. When they tried putting me in one of those, I immediately declined and persuaded them I was completely fine but Bella had slammed her head on the ground and had a possible concussion. I swore under my breath, if only Bella were that easy to persuade. It was probably her blocked mind, I usually read peoples mind and found what it was that was needed for their opinion to be shifted. But Bella's mind was like a blank piece of paper to me, so I couldn't work that way. And I had absolutely no practice in making her believe me the old fashion way. There was no way she would believe me. But there also was no way, Bella would ever find out mine and my family's secret.
I hopped in the front seat of the ambulance and waited to be taken to the hospital, where I told the EMT's that my father would examine me and confirm I was perfectly fine.
I could hear my angry family's thoughts in the distance, screaming at me. But I blocked them out. I would deal with them later.
I walked around the corner to my father's office. I stopped in front of the door took a deep breath and opened the door to find Carlisle sitting at his desk looking up at me.
"So what happened Edward?" Carlisle smiled.
I exhaled, wondering where to begin. I smiled weakly, "So there was an accident at school."
"Yes, I know. I meant, what part includes you in this? Was it just you, or are your brothers and sisters included as well?"
"No, it was just me." I took a deep breath and said, "Well, Tyler Crowley's van was headed straight for Bella. I was standing 5 parking spaces down, and right before it crashed into her I ran over to her and knocked her out of the way." I stopped for a second, to evaluate how he was taking this. He was wearing a shocked expression. I hesitated, and then kept going. "But Tyler's van didn't stop; it just bounced from Bella's truck and headed in our direction again. There wasn't enough time to pick her up and run again, so I stopped the van with my hands."
Carlisle's mouth was hanging open, but by the time I finished, he had managed to compose himself. "Did you leave a dent in any of the cars?"
"Yes, but Alice told me she would destroy any evidence."
He nodded. "Did anyone see you?"
"No… well except…"
"Except what?" "Edward who saw you?"
I sighed, "Bella Swan."
His composed mask fell to pieces. "She saw you?"
I nodded.
"She saw everything?"
"I'm not exactly sure, she saw me standing by my car. And she was asking about how I could have gotten over to her car so fastly."
"Well whatever she did see, you need to convince her that it's not true."
"Right. I was going to go over there right now."
"Okay. I'll be in there once I'm done with this paper work; I'll be over there to check on…" he looked down at some papers in front of him "Bella Swan and Tyler Crowley." He nodded "Well seems like Bella has a possible concussion, you seem to be in luck."
I pursed my lips. Luck? Yes it was lucky that Bella saw me running at inhuman speed. And it was also lucky that she remembered it even after she hit her head.
I nodded anyway and turned around and headed for Bella's room.
I rounded the corner and walked into the ER, hearing many apologies coming from Tyler Crowley. I walked into view of both Tyler and Bella. Bella was lying still with her eyes closed, though her breathing didn't seem as even.
"Is she sleeping?" I asked Tyler.
Bella's eyes almost immediately flew open, staring at me. I smirked, and she glared at me.
"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry –" Tyler started to stay, but I lifted my hand to cut him off.
I smiled, "No blood, no foul." Not that there would be any…
I walked over and sat at the foot of Tyler's bed angled at Bella. "So, what's the verdict?" I asked her.
"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go." She complained, "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"
"It's all about who you know. But don't worry I came to spring you." I said, knowing Carlisle was just about to walk in.
Bella gawked at my father, taking in his inhuman beauty. I didn't like the way she looked at him, was she interested? Couldn't be. Maybe it was just because he was my father; maybe I would feel like that if anyone found Carlisle attractive other than Esme.
"So, Miss Swan, how are you feeling?" he asked her
"I'm fine." She said, sounding like she was beginning to grow tired of repeating these words.
Carlisle walked over to the light board that hung on the wall, and stuck the X-rays on them, examining them.
"Your X-rays look good." He said. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard."
"It's fine." She said again with a sigh, topping it off by throwing a quick scowl in my direction.
Carlisle began examining her head, doing routine things you would learn in med school. Bella winced when his fingers traced right above her ear. "Tender?"
"Not really." She said. She was so stubborn, I had to laugh. Bella narrowed her eyes at me, and I threw her a beaming smile.
"Well, your father is in the waiting room – you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all." Carlisle said to her.
Bella frowned, "Can't I go back to school?"
"Maybe you should take it easy today." He warned.
She looked over at me and said "Does he get to go to school?"
I chuckled, "Someone has to spread the good news that we survived."
"Actually, most of the school seems to be in the waiting room." He informed her.
It was true; I could hear them and all their thoughts.
Bella covered her face with her hands and moaned, "Oh no."
My father raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to stay?"
"No, no!" she insisted hopping out of bed, and maybe a little too quickly. Bella staggered to the side but Carlisle caught her before she could trip over her own feet and fall.
"Im fine" she assured him
"Take some Tylenol for the pain." He suggested.
"It doesn't hurt that bad."
"It sounds like you were extremely lucky." He said as he picked up her chart and began signing it.
"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me."
"Oh, well, yes." He said flipping through the pages on her chart, then walking over to Tyler's bed. "Edward, you need to fix that."
Bella's eyes flashed, I could see the wheels in her head turning.
Carlisle began checking Tyler's cuts and checking on him when Bella walked over to my side and hissed "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
I took a step back, clenching my jaw. The scent was going to drive me insane. "Your father is waiting for you."
She looked over at my father and Tyler. "I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind." She pressed.
"Edward now is the perfect time. You saved her life and that's wonderful but you need to fix this before it gets out of hand."
I turned and walked out, walking up the long hall way. I heard Bella struggling to keep up so I spun around, she stopped a few feet away from me dead in her tracks.
"What do you want?" I asked.
She seemed startled a bit, but regained her composure. "You owe me an explanation." She said blowing her wonderfully deadly breath in my face.
I locked my teeth together. "I saved your life – I don't owe you anything." Why would she even care? This girl was such a strange human. Any other normal human would be showering me with gratitude not interrogating me and punishing me with their attractive scents.
She flinched. "You promised."
"Bella, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about."
Her heart beat rose, and her face flushed. "There's nothing wrong with my head."
"What do you want from me Bella?"
"I want to know the truth. I want to know why I'm lying for you."
"What do you think happened?" I snapped. This way I would know everything. God if only I could read her mind, I wouldn't need to ask.
"All I know is that you weren't anywhere near me – Tyler didn't see you, either, so don't tell me I hit my head too hard. That van was going to crush us both – and it didn't, and your hands left dents in the side of it – and you left a dent in the other car, and you're not hurt at all – the van should have smashed my legs, but you were holding it up…" she stopped grinding her teeth.
Amazing. She had seen everything. All of it.
I stared at her incredulously; attempting to question her sanity for thinking I could do such things. When really she was dead on.
"You think I lifted a van off you?"
She only nodded.
"Nobody will believe that, you know." It was true, no one would. They all too would question her sanity.
She said each word slowly, "I'm not going to tell anybody."
What? Then why would she care so much? "Then why does it matter?"
"It matters to me. I don't like to lie – so there'd better be a good reason why I'm doing it."
There was no chance in me telling her. I wouldn't even be able to read her mind to know if she would even keep her promise. There were rarely ever any humans who did what they actually said they would. "Cant you just thank me and get it over with?"
"Thank you." She said fuming.
I narrowed my eyes, "You're not going to let it go, are you?"
"No."
"In that case… I hope you enjoy disappointment."
We were both silent for a moment, glaring at each other. Finally she broke the silence, shocking me with her words. "Why did you even bother?"
"I don't know" I whispered. I turned on my heel and walked away thinking about why I had bothered. I didn't even know why I was waiting for her there in the parking lot in the first place. Would I have done this for any other random human? No. Because every other random human didn't have Bella's scent. I know that if one drop of her blood had even spilled I would have lost all humanity within myself and sucked her dry. The monster would have taken over. Was that why? The situation would have delivered a bad consequence either way. I had to choose the lesser of two evils, I may have risked my family's secret to one girl but that's a lot better than to everyone.
