Alright, so like I said, I am definitely going to be updating more often now that I am starting to get back into the writing mood for this story. I just hope that I can get some more people to read this story, but considering it's in the beginning of the story, then maybe I can get more people to be interested in this. Anyways, I will let you guys read this story and I hope that you all will READ AND REVIEW!

Also, I've made this Facebook page in hopes to attract more people to read my stories and get more notice about when I update and such, so here is my link:

(Facebook dot com)/ #! / MortalParalight (remove the spaces and please fill in the blanks that are written there, i.e.. (Facebook dot com) is the address of Facebook)

So now, without further ado, please READ AND REVIEW!

Disclaimer = I don't own Twilight or anything mentioned in here!

Chapter 3

A Confusing Day

Edward's Point of View

Yesterday had definitely not gone the way I expected.

Not that I minded being paired with Bella Swan, but things just felt really odd. It felt as though she was always questioning her every movement when she was around me. I wonder why… Could it be because I was dating her stepsister? Maybe…but that didn't seem very logical. What would she have to be afraid of?

Maybe it was just intimidation? I mean, she didn't seem very popular and I nearly had everything. Friends, grades, everything. Bella seemed to be the exact opposite of me. She didn't seem to have any friends, she didn't get involved in any clubs or sport teams. But at least Bella had good grades, or at least that's what my younger sister, Alice, told me once.

Alice and Bella both had the same Biology and History classes, but they never talked. But, seeing as this was Forks, rumours tended to go around. Bella Swan had some of the best grades in the entire senior class.

Now, it only brought more questions than answers.

Why would Mr. Berty pair us together? If we both had some of the best grades, then why would he put us together? Was he simply trying to put two and two together without rhyme or reason? Maybe…

I guess there was a reason behind his madness.

Thankfully, Tanya didn't have to hear about this, or she didn't have to hear about it until much later. My girlfriend was definitely the jealous type, and if she ever found out that Bella and I were partners for a school project, God knows what she would do. Tanya didn't have the same English class as us, but she had so many friends that someone was bound to tell her.

Today, I'd already received more than several text messages from her, asking me what I'd been doing yesterday with Bella.

My girlfriend is definitely the jealous type… I thought to myself while trying to ease her mind the various through text message.

It seemed to appease her for now, but I knew that I would be getting a mouthful come Monday. Tanya could not let this type of thing go, not for an instant.

And it would only get worse if she knew I was meeting up with Bella today to continue our assignment.

After lunch, Bella arrived in her monster of a truck—seriously, who drives cars like that anymore?—and knocked on our door. I opened it for her and smiled at her, glad that she was still able to come so we could work on the project.

"Hey, glad you could make it," I said enthusiastically, stepping to the side so she could come in.

Bella stepped into the threshold and nodded once to me, her brown eyes meeting mine. There was a certain beauty in her eyes, as if you could lose yourself in them. They were soft, warm and welcoming…but there also seemed to be a certain amount of torment and pain in them. It was as if I wanted nothing else but to remove that pained look from those magnificent chocolate coloured eyes… Wait, what?! Why in the world was I thinking this?! I had Tanya, so why should I be thinking about another woman?

I mentally shook those thoughts out of my mind as she spoke, breaking me out of those confusing thoughts.

"I'm sorry that I'm a bit late. Had to do some things around the house," Bella explained quickly, gripping the strap of her backpack on her shoulder.

Shaking my head, I smiled gently at her and said, "That's alright. We've got all afternoon to work on this anyways." Looking back at the living room, I watched as my mother grabbed a few things before walking upstairs, probably going to see my dad or something. "Unfortunately, we won't be able to use the living room because my mom has a book club meeting today. So…we'll have to go and work in my room. Does that work for you?"

Bella nodded slightly and looked in my eyes. "As long as we can work, I'm good with anywhere," she said nonchalantly.

Nodding, I guided her toward the stairs and brought her to my room, closing the door behind me and motioning for the bed. "You can sit on the bed, if you'd be more comfortable." Bella nodded and walked over, setting her things down gently upon the mattress and sitting down on the edge, placing her hands on her lap nervously.

I sat down on the chair by my desk and got my notepad out, looking over at her as she began to get her own things out. It was as if she was uncomfortable just being here, which I can't fault her for that. She probably had an earful from my girlfriend, or she was anticipating getting an earful, just like I was.

At least we seemed to have something in common. We both had someone nagging us about particular things we did.

"So, shall we get started?" I asked after a moment of silence before we began working again.

As time continued to tick, we kept throwing ideas around for the essay and wrote them down from time to time, but my eyes somehow kept darting to Bella's face. There seemed to be some bags under her eyes, indicating that she either hadn't slept well last night, or it was a culmination of many sleepless nights. Was that my only indication? No, definitely not. She also kept yawning every five minutes.

"Are you all right over there?" I finally asked after nearly half an hour of watching her yawn.

Bella nodded once and looked at me, looking apologetic. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be yawning so much," she said, looking down at her notepad to avoid my gaze. It was almost as if she was embarrassed by the action.

Looking at her, I closed my notepad and leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees. "How much sleep did you get last night?" I asked, my curiosity over her lifestyle getting the better of me once more. It was a mystery to me as to why I wanted to know more about her, but it didn't seem to bother her all that much, so I simply continued my interrogation.

Bella thought it through while wiping her tired eyes and finally said, "Two, maybe three hours, top."

It was a miracle that she was still awake, unless she had drunk a few cups of coffee before coming here. Even then, if she drove here this tired, then she could have been a danger to anyone on the road. How did Bella just get two hours of sleep?

"Any reason why?"

"I…had to help my stepsister with one of her project. It took us all night to get it done."

"You couldn't just stop at one point and just get back to it in the morning? I mean, that probably would have been the most logical thing."

"It probably was, but she wanted it done last night considering she had plans today," Bella explained, her eyes darting down to avoid my gaze. And her voice was barely above a whisper when she next spoke. "I guess she has her priorities…"

Silence fell over the room and I could only stare at her, at a loss of what to say next. Suddenly, I put my books down on my desk and stood up, looking down at her. "How about I get us some pop or something? It has caffeine in it, so maybe it can help you trudge through today?" I suggested, seeing her think it over before finally nodding, our eyes meeting once more.

Smiling, I nodded and said, "I'll be right back," before walking out of the room, going downstairs and heading toward the kitchen.

Mom smiled from the living room when spotting me coming down the stairs and stood up, walking over to me as I got two cans of pop out of the fridge.

"How is your assignment coming along?" she asked quietly as I took out two glasses from the cupboard and began collecting ice cubes from the freezer.

"It's actually almost finished. Well, part of it, anyways. We're nearly done the written part, so we're just taking a small break. I think we may be calling it quits in about an hour or so," I explained, looking over at her while pouring the contents of the pop into the glasses. "How's your book club going?"

"It's going well. We just began discussing the book itself, so it will take us a few more hours. I hope we're not bothering you both upstairs?" Mom asked, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder when I finished pouring the pop.

Shaking my head, I smiled at my mother and said, "Nah, you guys are fine. It's no bother at all." Mom smiled at me and my eyes dated over to the staircase before looking back at her. "I'm gonna go back up so we can finish this. I'll see you later, Mom," I said before walking up the stairs, a drink in each hand.

When getting back to my room, I pushed open the half closed door and said, "Alright, so I brought us two—" before noticing that Bella was asleep on the bed, curled up on her side with her arm pillowing her head.

You're kidding me… I thought in disbelief, standing in the doorway, looking at her with bewilderment.

Had she really fallen asleep in the short time that it took me to go downstairs and get us a few simple beverages? I was barely gone five minutes! We hadn't worked very hard today, barely two hours, but she was already fast asleep.

I walked over to her, annoyed that she would do this, and was about to wake her up when something within me stopped me from doing so. Looking down at her peaceful face, it looked as if she hadn't had a proper rest in a long time. It was as if she was enjoying every second of this short but peaceful sleep. It just…seemed wrong to take that away from her. I didn't know what had happened to Bella to make her this tired—it definitely wasn't because she had worked all night on a project, I was sure of that—or if this was a recurring thing, but I couldn't take this peaceful sleep away from her now.

Placing both glasses on my desk, I went over to my closet and took out a thick blanket, being very quiet all the while. When standing next to Bella, I looked down at her and noticed a strand of hair sprawled across her cheek, the tip of it touching the corner of her lip. My hand unconsciously went to her cheek, running the pad of my index finger upon the skin to place her hair behind her ear, when Bella suddenly whimpered softly and turned her head slightly into her arm.

I instantly pulled my arm back as she fell back asleep, not only because I had nearly woken her up, but also because of what had just happened. What had gotten into me? Why did I just do that? It wasn't like me to do stuff like this to a girl I barely knew…

But, wait…why did she whimper when I touched her?

Bella stayed fast asleep after this and I was able to place the blanket over her small body. Just as I was putting it on her, I looked down at the cheek I had touched and noticed that there seemed to be a sort of discolouration to her skin, almost like a bruise. Maybe it was the lighting or whatnot, but I know for certain that she didn't have it yesterday.

Would it be best that I ask her about it when she wakes up, or should I give her some time and let her tell me if and when she's ready? Bella didn't know me very well, and I didn't know her in return, so there would be no reason for her to explain her personal life to me…unless she needed a friend.

Could I actually become her friend in the future? Would she even want me to be?

It might be a little complicated, considering that Tanya was lurking over both of our shoulders, but it could be done later on…I think. We could possibly make it work.

After a few moments of staring down at Bella, I decided to go to my desk, open up my computer and begin typing down our essay, giving Bella a few more moments of sleep. From time to time, my eyes darted from the screen to Bella's peaceful face, but quickly made myself look away, returning to the task at hand.

Nearly forty minutes later, Bella began to stir and finally opened her eyes, rubbing them momentarily before sitting up on the bed tiredly.

Smiling softly at her, I turned my chair around and said, "Well, hello, sleepy head."

Bella looked at me, confused for the moment, before looking at the clock and gasping in shock, her eyes immediately widening. I don't think that she expected to have slept this long…or even fall asleep in the first place.

"I can't believe I fell asleep for nearly an hour!" Turning her gaze toward me, she gaped and asked, "Why didn't you wake me?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I put my computer down on the desk and said, "You were exhausted. I figured you could use a few more hours of sleep, seeing as you didn't get many last night." Unfortunately, Bella didn't seem to buy it, even though it was nothing but the truth.

"We were supposed to work on our project, not having you do the entire thing…" Bella said, her voice breaking at the end as her eyes darted down to her lap, seemingly ashamed of what she had done. Since when did taking a small nap become a crime?

Shaking my head, I smiled reassuringly at her and wheeled myself closer to the bed, placing my finger under her chin and looking in her eyes.

"Bella, you were exhausted. You needed to sleep, even if it was just for a little while. And I didn't do this project alone. All I did was type up what we had talked about and I haven't finished it yet. I can give you the rest of the file so you can finish it up, which means that I won't have done everything. So, you don't need to apologize for having rested for a little while," I explained, still keeping that reassuring smile plastered on my face, hoping to soothe her.

Silence enveloped us for a few moments as we continued to stare into each other's eyes. My fingers stayed under her chin, a small electric current flowing through me as our skins touched. Even when I decided to remove my fingers from her skin after a certain amount of time, I could still feel a tingling sensation in the tips of my fingers. What did that mean? I never felt that whenever I touched Tanya, so why did I suddenly have these sensations with Bella, someone I barely knew and just met—in a sense—yesterday?

This was all so confusing…

Bella sighed and said, "Alright, I suppose you're right…"

"Good. Now, seeing as we've done quite a bit, we can stop here so you can go back home and rest up a bit. I'm going to finish up the part I was writing down and I'll send you the copy so you can finish it on your own time," I suggested, never taking my eyes off of her. Bella nodded shortly after, which made me smile a little more. It made me happy to see that she was a little more compliant about resting and gathering her strength for our next work session.

Once again, why did I suddenly feel happier whenever Bella did something? I never had these feelings when I was with Tanya, so why was Bella so special? What made things different? I really wish I had the answers to these questions, but no answers were revealed.

Maybe I would get answers one day, but one thing was certain: this was definitely the most confusing day of my life…

So, what did you all think? Good? Bad? Getting there, but hasn't gotten good yet? Let me know your opinion in some REVIEWS!

Mortal-paralight

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