Hidden Kisses At Midnight

Chapter 7

Elise sat at home waiting on Edward to come over to work on their project. It was Thursday and the days had passed quickly. She loved when he came over to work on the project because there was something about him so attracting and so unreal in a wonderful way that she could never quite describe. Waiting for him to come she fixed her hair and made sure everything I the study was in order. Tara sat back on the couch laughing at Elise who had never been so persistent about a boy.

"Shut-up." Elise said as she rushed from the bathroom into the living room making sure everything like nice. She ran to the mirror in the living room and made sure her hair was in it's exact place where she wanted it.

"I think it's adorable really that you like him. I know he likes you." Tara said matter-of-factly as she popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth. Elise turned to her.

"How do you know?" she asked as she turned away from the mirror and then to Tara who was in a fit of laughter.

Tara calmed down from her laughter before talking, "Have you not seen the way he looks at you?" she questioned. "He wants you as much as you want him."

"No way." Elise said as she turned back to the mirror and the there was a knock at the door. Elise quickly turned and grabbed Tara by the arm. "Time for you to leave."

Tara pouted and then burst into the laughter. Both Tara and Elise walked to the door and of course Edward was standing there when the door opened. Tara waved goodbye and gave Elise a look that only best friends give to one another before walking to her car. Edward walked inside and Elise closed the door behind him.

"Ready to get to work?" Elise asked.

"Of course." Edward said. They both walked into the study and took their normal seats. Elise turned on her laptop to show him what she had done so far with the presentation. As always she knew he wasn't really watching it, but her because she always felt his eyes on her. Once the presentation finished she turned to him. "So does Tara know you are a witch?" he asked.

Elise actually was shocked by his question, but just smiled. "No, she has no clue." She then laughed. "She thinks my parents are on a second honeymoon."

Edward put his elbows on the table and looked at Elise, "Where are they?"

"At a council meeting." Elise said as she opened one of the history books that they were using for their project.

"Council meeting?" he questioned.

"The Council of Wizards and Witches, they have a meeting like twice a year." Elise explained. She remembered all those times her parents left her there with her older sister who was so much of a goody two shoes and told her parents every wrong thing Elise did while they were gone and she was so lucky to not have Liz around this time because she would let it known that Elise was home alone with a guy even though nothing wrong happened. "So I figured in since the visual presentation is finished for the next three weeks we can work on the actual artistic part of the presentation, our debate." Elise then said in urge to change the topic.

"Sounds like a plan." Edward said still looking at Elise. She turned her head to hide her face that was beginning to turn red.

"I figured we can use podiums. There are a few downstairs." Elise said, but for now we need to figure out exactly what we are going to say before practicing with the podiums. There was a silence between the two of them and Elise's eyes met his. She felt butterflies in her stomach as their eyes stayed connected and then he smiled and ran his thumb over Elise's cheek. She shuddered at his cool touch and she bit her lip. It was like she couldn't feel herself moving as they neared their faces to one another. She felt his cool breath over her face and a woozy feeling rushed over her body as her eyes closed and his cool lips met her warm lips. The kiss was quick, but long enough. When Edward moved away she couldn't help, but just stare at him with sheer disbelief.

"I'm sorry." He quickly said.

"It's okay." Elise said biting her lip. "Really…I liked it." Her face suddenly turned bright red and Edward smirked.

"I better get home it's late and I'm sure Tara will be back." He said standing.

"I'm sure of it." Elise said as she also stood and walked with him to her front door. Before walking out he ran his hand over her face and with a smile walked out of the door. Elise placed her hand where his hand had been just a moment before. Watching he was gone in no time and she closed the door. She had never imagined that it would be as wonderful as it was. He was an incredibly wonderful guy, but then she thought of the code of the Wizards and Witches council and that they frowned upon any association with vampires. Shaking the feeling she walked into the living room. She was on the couch for only a moment when she heard something at the door and jumped thinking that maybe it was Edward coming back, but as soon as she made it to the door her dad was walking through carry the suitcases. "Daddy you're home early."

"The meeting ended quickly." Her mother said in her all so snooty voice as she walked into the door and placed her coat on the coat rack.

"How was your week cupcake." Her said as he hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

"Great, Tara stayed every night." Elise said as she watched her mother who didn't exactly give her a hello walked out of the room. Elise simply rolled her eyes knowing her mother was still upset with her about the incident that happened during the test.

"Why is the study to messy?" came her mother's voice at once.

"We are doing a project in history class and my partner came and we worked on it all week. I knew it would be a good place to work since dad has all his World War Two books." Elise explained quickly as she looked at her dad and then to her mom who walked back into the front room with a hand on her hip. Elise frowned at the fact that her sister Liz looked exactly like her mother. "So how was the meeting?" Elise asked quickly ready to change the subject.

Her dad walked over to the couch and sat down. Her mother sat in the chair opposite of him. "Well we learned that there are new developments in our area." Her dad said.

"Really?" questioned Elise who sat on the couch with him, but on the opposite end.

"There is a coven of vampires that have moved into our area. We are planning a meeting with them now and apparently the young ones are attending school with you. They just started at the school last week." Her dad explained.

"The Cullens." Elise said at once.

"You know them?" her mother asked applauded.

"Yeah, Tara and I sit with them at lunch. One of them Edward is my history partner." She said.

"YOU HAD ONE OF THEM IN OUR HOUSE?!" her dad was now furious. Elise jumped she had never seen him angry before and it took her a moment to form her words.

"They are so nice. Tara and Alice both love to shop and Edward is a nice guy. The rest of his family seems nice also." Elise said in their defense.

"ELISE VANESSA BERNETT YOU WILL NOT…I REPEAT NOT BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE LIKES OF THEIR KIND DO YOU HEAR ME?" her dad was now on his feet and starring down at Elise who was now shaking. Her dad was never the person to yell or call her by her full name the way he did.

"Daddy…" Elise started now feeling tears forming in her eyes. "They are not bad, they are really nice and I don't see any harm."

Her dad starred at her for a moment and Elise really thought she had a breakthrough with him, but then suddenly his yelling became louder. "YOU WILL NOT BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE LIKES OF THEIR KIND!"

"Daddy…"

"DADDY NOTHING, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!" Elise looked at her dad who had rage in his eyes.

Suddenly she stood and ran up the stairs to her bedroom where she slammed the door behind her. By the time she was in her room she had tears falling down her cheeks. She was now in a place where she didn't know what to do. She couldn't figure out why they hated vampires so much. She understood that their were problems in the past, but the way that Edward had described his family she didn't see anything wrong with being associated with them and her only thought was that she should have to change their minds about them, but she knew if her dad was so furious over this then it was going to be extremely hard.

There was then a knock at her door. "What!" screamed Elise.

Then came a small and scared voice. "It's me." Came Tara's voice. Elise stood and walked to her door. It took her a moment to open it since she had slammed the door so hard. Tara stood at the door and looked at Elise. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Elise's voice was shaking as she wiped her tear stained face.

"Come on nothing…I'm your best friend and I know something is wrong." Tara said as she closed the bedroom door behind her.

"I had a fight with my dad." Elise said as she sat on her bed.

Tara looked at her dumbfounded. "Your dad?"

"Yeah." Elise responded.

"I understand your mom, but your dad?" she asked.

"Crazy I know." Elise said with a forced laugh. "Well…"

"So Edward how was studying?" Tara emphasized studying as if that was not what happened. Elise then laughed and her face became very red. "So more than studying happened?" Tara asked in shock.

"We kissed." Elise said as she looked out her bedroom window and she saw something outside. It was as plain as day a silver Volvo at the corner. She closed her eyes and smiled. Thinking to herself she thought it was like 'Romeo and Juliet' two families who did not associate themselves with one another and a boy and girl from the family finding their way to one another in defiance of their families. Elise wasn't listening to Tara who was going on and on as always while she looked out of the window. She then shuddered at the thought that her parents were going to make sure that she stayed away from Edward and with the anger her dad possessed he was going to make sure of that at every cost.