Three AN's for you lovelies today.
1) Thank you for the sweet reviews, they really lit a fire under me to get this chapter up! I'm glad you guys are liking it so far!
2) Updates may start coming a little slower soon. I've started writing a Twilight story I abandoned in the dark corners of my hard drive. Very little of it is written so it'll be a while until it goes up. Edward's Angel will be my first priority. :)
I looked at the clock, it was almost time for biology. A whole hour next to Edward. How would that go? The thought of hiding out in the bathroom until the end of class sent a welcome wave of satisfaction through me.
"Maybe I could go to the nurse, fake an illness," I thought. "No, I wasn't a good enough liar. Hm, I could throw myself down some stairs? Charlie would believe that."
No. I would be strong about this. I would go to class, ask him my question and demand an answer. If he decided to stare me down after that than I would ignore him. Its not like I could just skip class for the rest of the semester and I had already heard Ms. Cope tell Edward that there was nothing else open. I would have to face him at some point. And the weird part of it was, there was an undeniable part of me that wanted to go to biology and sit next to him.
I all but ran to class, desperate to get there before I lost my nerve. I doodled on the front of my notebook to keep from thinking too much. It wasn't working.
I could feel him when he entered the room and though I refused to look up I distractedly missed a loop or two in the pattern I was drawing. I went back over the rest of the sketch, trying to balance out the irregular rings. I put my pen down, flipping my notebook open, as I heard the legs of his chair scrape across the floor.
The charge I had felt as he entered the room was nothing compared to the sensation I felt now with him so close. It was almost as if he caused the air around me to vibrate.
I was still talking myself into peeking over my shoulder at him when he spoke, and I heard his voice for only the second time.
"Hello," he said. There was an edge of tentativeness to it. If it hadn't been there I may have been convinced once in for all that last Monday had been a practical joke of my imagination.
I was so confused by his compellation that I almost didn't register his introduction.
"I'm Edward Cullen," I stared unashamedly, dumfounded. "I didn't get a chance to introduce myself the other day."
He didn't hold his hand out for me to shake. I didn't offer mine.
Of all the possible ways this conversation could have gone, I would have picked this option to be the least likely. I had been so ready for confrontation that I seemed to have lost the ability of polite conversation.
"Aden," I blurted, not realizing quickly enough that the outburst made no sense on its own. I shook my head, "I'm Aden Swan."
"I know," he replied, smiling at me.
His whole face seemed light years away from how it had looked at our first meeting. His cheeks seem flushed in comparison, his countenance so much more at ease, and his eyes… his eyes were a completely different color.
I opened my mouth to say something about it but Mr. Banner cut me off as he began to explain the day's lab. Weird, I hadn't even noticed the bell ring. I shook the thought out of my head and focused on Mr. Banner's breakdown of today's assignment. I felt myself frown when I heard him say we were labeling onion root cells into the five stages of mitosis, I had already done the lab before.
"Too bad, today I could have used a little mental diversion."
"Would you like to go first?"
I turned my whole body towards him, feeling as if the breath had been knocked out of me as soon as he entered my view. His good looks were like a punch to the gut if you weren't prepared for them. My heart began to speed.
"Or… I could?" He asked hesitantly.
My expressions must be confusing the hell out of him. From distracted with my notebook to confused at his sudden desire to talk to me to upset because of the tedium and now my blatant gawking. I tried to level it into something most would consider normal.
"No," I said slowly, "I'll go first."
I tore my eyes away from his, moving the first slide into place and adjusting the focus of the microscope. It only took me a second to identify the cell.
"Its Anaphase," I said confidently, glad to be in my element around him.
It only took one question to smash it: "Do you mind if I look?"
My eyes leaped back up to his, narrowing. The suggestion had offended me more than it should have. I wasn't used to people questioning my work. I tried to shrug it off, pushing the microscope towards him. It scraped against the desk.
"Anaphase," he said with a nod, writing the answer onto the sheet we'd be given.
"Like I said," I mumbled smugly.
He chucked as he placed the second slide in. I wasn't sure he had even looked into the lens before he spoke, "Its Prophase."
I hardly thought before I asked, "Do you mind if I check?"
He looked bewildered at best and insulted at worst. Apparently he wasn't used to people questioning his work either. I tried to look with the same nonchalance he had and was a little disappointed.
"Prophase," I agreed weakly.
He continued to smile as he repeated my words, "Like I said."
We went to grab the third slide at the same time and our fingers touched. His hands were ice cold. Surely they should have warmed up by now? The room seemed too warm to me. But that's not what had caused me to gasp. No, that reaction had come from the shock that went up my arm as soon as our skin made contact. It was if all the electricity in the vibrating air had been concentrated into the tip of his finger, sending it surging into my body with the slight graze.
"Your hand," I muttered dumbly, "Its so… cold."
"Bad circulation," he mumbled before moving the slide into place and nudged the microscope back towards me. "I'm sorry," he continued, "it was your turn."
"Where were you?" The question had obviously come from me, though I couldn't recall making the decision to ask it. I quickly reverted to the lens.
He paused for a moment, "I was out of town for a couple days…"
This wasn't exactly an answer.
"Telophase," I said, waving absently towards the assignment. "I thought you were sick."
His eyebrows raised in interest instantly but he wrote my answer down and slid slide four into place before responding. "Why? Did someone say I was?"
I was so pleased by the fact that he hadn't looked to confirm my answer that it took a moment for me to answer him.
"No. Actually, no one but me seemed to notice you were gone."
He threw me an unreadable look but he didn't seem surprised by the information.
"Its Interphase, do you want to check?"
"No, I believe you," I said quietly, biting my lip. There was so much I wanted to ask him that the thoughts were getting jumbled inside my head.
I saw one corner of his mouth turn up in a smirk as he placed the last slide in and pushed it towards me.
"Have you ever been to Arizona?" I asked before the question could slip away again.
He looked slightly startled by the turn in conversation. "That's where you're from, right?" I nodded. "No, I've never been."
I felt the relief was over me, followed sharply by confusion. If he didn't know me and he hadn't been sick then what had Monday been about? I tried to keep my face neutral, peeking at the slide. If he saw anything in my expression, he didn't let on.
"Metaphase…"
He nodded once and wrote the answer in.
Mr. Banner came over then to check our progress, he seemed unpleasantly surprised when I told him we had already finished. He skimmed our answers, making a comment to Edward about the fact that the entire lab was filled out in his handwriting. I took a glance at the paper, there was no way anyone would ever mistake my scrawl for Edward's eloquent letters. Was anything about him not perfect?
"Aden actually got three out of the five," he explained, almost cheerful.
Banner looked over at me suspiciously. "Were you in advanced placement at your old school?" I nodded. "You've done this lab before."
It wasn't a question but I nodded again anyways. He walked away mumbling under his breath. Edward didn't seem to notice.
"So, how'd you like the snow this morning? Must've been a new experience for you."
I tried to smile but ended up making more of a grimace.
"That big of an aversion?" He laughed.
"I don't like snow - or rain - or anything cold, wet, thing."
His smirk returned, his eyes never leaving my face. "You seem to have made a rash choice in residence then."
I tried to keep my expression upbeat to make the words seem lighter, "Its complicated."
"I'm sure I can keep up."
I looked around the room, trying to buy myself some time. Everyone else was still working on their sheets. Lauren was looking my way, her smile wavering as her eyes danced from me to Edward before her partner recalled her attention.
A couple people had broached the subject of my move but only out of politeness. Satisfying their mild curiosity had been fairly straightforward. Just a few convenient words about college and having been away from my father for so long had been more than enough information for even nosey Jessica. I knew it wouldn't be so simple with Edward. I wondered silently if he made anything easy?
"Does it have anything to do with the bruises you had?" His words were hesitant but his eyes were intense. It made me want to lean further away.
"What?" The bruises. Funny, no one else had bothered to ask about them. "No," I lied, "that's just the result of being clumsy."
"So why did you move?" It came across as a demand just as much as it did a question.
I shrugged, "My mom remarried."
"So what? You don't like the guy?"
The question threw me, I shook my head. "No, Phil's great. My mom has just always wanted to travel… and now she finally can. She was just waiting on me… it didn't seem fair."
"And you moving here, halfway through the semester, away from friends and family, that's your version of fair?"
He was searching my eyes for an answer to a question he wasn't asking. If only knew what his question was, maybe it would answer some of mine.
I stuttered for a moment, I hadn't thought of it that way. It sounded wrong when it was worded like that. I felt the sudden urge to defend Renee. "I didn't have many friends," I said quietly.
The smile spread across his face slowly, conquering his eyes last.
His eyes…
"Did you get contacts?"
It was my turn to surprise him. His eyebrows furled. "No…"
"Its just…" I couldn't find the words, "your eyes were black the last time I saw you. And now they're… they're a golden brown."
He shrugged dismissively, as if he though I was being silly for making a big deal about it. It would have fooled me, if his face hadn't remained so hard. "Must be the lighting," he said considering.
I wanted to ask him how lighting could be the cause of his eyes' apparent ability to change color when the only times I had seem them it had been in the exact same lighting but before I could get the first word out, the bell rang and Edward was gone.
I sat stunned in my seat.
Out in the hall Mike fell into step beside me, dutifully walking with me to gym. Even now, almost two weeks of Forks High under my belt, none of them trusted me to walk to the lunch line without an escort, let alone to class. I suspected that Angela, with the best of intentions, had told everyone to keep an eye on me after finding wandering aimlessly, no better off than a child separated from him mother in a department store. I would have to ask her to call the dogs off.
"Man, how'd you get done with the lab so quickly? All the slides looked exactly the same to me," I smiled reassuringly at him. "You're lucky you have Cullen as a partner."
My smile snarled into a glare. How many people would underestimate me today?
"Well I didn't have any problem with it," even through his insult the words sounded harsh, "But I have done the lab before." If his feelings had been hurt, he didn't care enough to show it.
"Speaking of Cullen, I don't think I've actually seen him talk to anyone other than a teacher or his family voluntarily. What'd you do, blackmail him into having a friendly conversation?"
My eyebrows pulled together. Much like when Edward had made the assumption about my mother, I now felt the urgent need to defend him.
"I'm sure Edward has had plenty of conversations in his life without being coerced into it." Mike continued to look skeptical. "Maybe he's just quiet," I paused for a moment. "Maybe… maybe he feels like we relate somehow, being the only new kids this class has had in a decades."
The idea sounded plausible enough for me but Mike simply scoffed at the suggestion - reminding me once again of the Cullens' reputation. I was thankful when he changed the subject.
Gym had improved, if only slightly. Jessica had replaced a member of me and Mike's team. Though no one would admit it to me, I was certain the girl had begged Coach Clapp to be removed from my immediate area whenever a ball was near. They wouldn't confirm this, I figured, because they didn't want to hurt my feelings. My feelings weren't hurt. I, for one, thought the rest of them were idiots for not doing the same. Jessica had been eager to join which made me wonder how much of my Volleyball attempts she had witnessed.
Her and Mike learned to play around my weakness fast, covering their own position while taking turns covering mine as well. And they hardly ever laughed at my failed serving attempts which were nearly all of them. Though they did duck whenever they mistakenly let the ball get too close to me, Mike especially.
By the time I got into my truck I was simply glad to be in the dry, warm, cab. Two adjectives I rarely got to apply to anything in this town.
With the heater blowing full blast, I was almost able to unwind my mind from the days events. I cleared my thoughts, concentrating on nothing else but the warm air blowing across my face. My muscles started to relax as I pulled out of the parking spot.
It didn't take long for my serenity to shatter, however, as I couldn't help but notice Edward standing beside his shiny silver Volvo. He stared at me as I drove past him in the parking lot, his eyes following my truck until I was out of sight, reigniting the slew of questions I was sure he'd never answer.
I feel like this chapter could have been much better written but I've editted it four times now and it seems I can do no better.
Next chapter is my favorite and it will most likely be long, unless you guys would like me to split it in two? Let me know.
Thanks so much for reading, and make sure to let me know if you rather one long chapter or two reasonable sized ones. *Mwah*