Disclaimer: All Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.
Edward and I were inseparable at school. He would always meet me after my classes and walk me to my next. Edward had also taken it upon himself to pick me up in the mornings and drop me off back at my house after school.
Today was Wednesday and we were sitting in Biology together working on another lab. Edward and I were asking each other questions about what we did or didn't like.
"Where was your favorite place to go when you were a kid?" Edward asked me.
I knew that answer right away. "My mom and I used to drive west and go to this beach on the southern tip of California. The water was always warm and it was really quiet there because it wasn't a popular beach." Whenever the doctors cleared me to leave the hospital my mom and I would drive there to celebrate.
"Do you have any pictures? I would love to see it. All the beaches around here are cold, so we don't go very often."
"No. We never really took many pictures of us there." The truth, I would never show pictures there because I never had any hair. It was never my shining moment there, but at least I was happy.
"My mom would always say that my smile was always the biggest at that beach." I laughed remembering how my mom chased the seagulls around trying to get me to smile.
"There was this place I found when I was hiking one time. It's no beach but it's peaceful enough. Having four siblings is never quiet," Edward explained.
"That must be nice."
"It is nice to have a place to go to when you want to get away."
"So does that mean you're not going to show me this magic place?" He smiled at me.
"Do you want to go? It's supposed to be warm on Saturday." His face looked so eager it was hard to say 'no' but I had therapy on Saturday.
"I had plans but I think I can rearrange them." He was too cute to say 'no' to.
"So Saturday it is?" He smiled as we both started to get up and grab our things before the bell rang.
"Yup." Edward walked me to gym and gave me a quick kiss on the lips before he turned and headed towards Spanish. My heart was flying. Why did he have to do that to me?
I was too excited about Saturday to even focus on what was happening. I was completely off in my own mind walking around the gym when all of a sudden a basketball came hurtling towards me and hit me in the head.
The force knocked me over. Lying on my back a bunch of people began to crowd around me.
"Bella? Can you hear me? How many fingers and I holding up?" My gym teacher asked me.
"I'm fine and you're holding up two fingers." There was a slight ringing in my ears though and there was already a lump forming on my head. I tried to get up but it took Mike's help for me to stand up straight.
"Mike take her to the Nurse's office and make sure she's okay." Mike nodded and led me towards the nurse's station which was in the next building over.
"I'm sorry about hitting you with the basketball. I threw it to Eric but he missed it and it went out of bounds."
"It's fine Mike. It doesn't even hurt that bad."
"Why do you walk in gym class instead of participating?" He asked me.
"Sports induced asthma. I've never been in gym class." I lied.
We finally made it to the nurse's office and Mike held the door open for me.
"Oh sweetie look at that bump. I'll take her from here, you can go back to class," she ordered to Mike. Thank goodness he left, of course the nurse knew about me.
"Come over here and make sure there's no damage." She lightly probed against my head taking notes about where I winced.
"Well I think you'll be fine but that will leave a huge bruise. You should also tell your doctor about this just in case." I wasn't even listening at this point. I just kept the ice pack on my head thinking about the grief Charlie wasn't going to put me through about not being careful.
"I'll be fine." I promised.
The bell finally rang for the end of school. I left the nurse's station with a note to give to my dad. I walked back into the locker room and changed knowing Edward was waiting outside.
I pushed open the door and sure enough Edward was leaning against the opposite wall waiting for me.
"How was gym class?" He asked me. Clearly he didn't see the bruise on my forehead yet.
"It was fine." I lied as I reached for his hand to take it in mine. "How was Spanish?"
"Pretty boring until…" he broke off noticing the massive lump on my head.
"Bella! What did you do?" He was holding my face between his hands while inspecting the lump for himself.
"It's nothing. I was walking when Mike accidentally threw the ball in the wrong direction and it hit me in the head." I explained.
"Mike did this to you?!" Edward looked very angry. He let go of my face and started to search the sea of students for Mike. Edward finally found him and started to walk away but I grabbed his hand and held him back.
"Edward" I warned. "It was an accident and I'm sure I'll be fine. Leave him alone." Edward took one look at my pleading face and he sighed in resignation.
"Fine but if he ever hurts you again he'll have me to answer to." Men and their over protectiveness. Edward drove me home like always and left when he dropped me off. He would stay but my dad had been taking earlier shifts which meant he would get home earlier.
Charlie was as upset as ever. The moment he saw the bruise he jumped to terrible conclusions. He made me promise to be careful before I could even start my homework. Of course this all worked out because Charlie made me an appointment with Dr. Cullen after school tomorrow so he could check out my head and decided that he could do my therapy while I was there.
Saturday
I opened the door before Edward even had a chance to knock. He smiled, "Are you ready to go?"
"Um yeah, just let me get my jacket." I grabbed my jacket off the sofa and shut the door behind me when I left. "So where are we going exactly?"
"I told you. It's a place I found when I was walking in the forest. It's not that far off the trail on the southern end of town."
It only took about 10 minutes to get there and when I stepped out of the car that I noticed how nice the weather was. The sun was shining brightly and there were only a few clouds in the sky.
"Ready?" Edward asked as he held his hand out for me to grab.
"So how long of a walk is it?"
"It's only about 20 minutes. It's not that long." He was right. It only took us about 30 minutes to get there with my slow pace.
It was a huge open field that had small purple flowers everywhere and a small creek that ran right through the middle of the field.
"Wow," was all I could say. "How…when…this is incredible."
"I told you." Edward sat down on a spot right next to the creek. He took his backpack off and opened it up. Inside was a small bag full of food.
"This is amazing. A picnic on a beautiful day. What more could I ask for?"
"How about a kiss?" Edward asked. I laughed as I sat up and gave him a kiss.
"What's for lunch? I'm starving!" Edward laughed.
"We have one BLT sandwich, one Italian wrap, potato chips, fruit salad, and two bottles of water."
"And what's for dessert?"
"Me of course." I slapped Edward's shoulder.
Edward and I spent the whole afternoon asking each other questions about our favorite things.
"What's your favorite genre of books?" He asked me.
"I really like English literature. The classics like Wuthering Heights and Mansfield Park but those aren't my favorite books."
"What's your favorite then?" I knew he was going to laugh when I told him.
"The Little Prince." He did laugh. "Hey. Don't make fun! I can't help it. My mom used to read it to me when I was little and I've never gotten sick of it."
"What do you like so much about it?"
"Um…probably how the little prince never grew up. He always saw the bigger picture in everything because he didn't understand the little troubles life throws at us. It just makes me think that life would be so much easier if I never had to worry about the stupid things in life. Why? What's your favorite book?"
He smiled when he answered. "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Emmett used to read it to me when we were younger. I'm not even sure I like the book but whenever I read it I just think of time when we were younger."
Edward and I laid there in silence holding each others hands while watching clouds form in the sky. I give it an hour before it rains.
"Tell me a secret," he said.
"I hate it when people chew gum with their mouth open." He laughed.
"That's not a real secret. That's a pet peeve." I sighed while thinking about whether I should tell him. It wasn't fair to keep whatever we had going if I wasn't honest. But one look in those green eyes and I couldn't bear to hurt him.
"When I can't sleep at night I like to stay up at night and think about all the things I want to do in life. Like college, career, and everything that comes with." It was true. "But now that I've told you a secret you have to tell me a secret."
He rolled over one his side and I did the same. He kissed me very passionately on the lips. When we broke apart he said, "I think I'm falling for you." I stared into those green eyes and completely forgot anything I was thinking.
Edward and I spent the rest of the afternoon kissing and holding hands until it started to rain.
"I knew the weather couldn't hold out." He laughed and packed up all of the Tupperware and we ran back to his car. When we got back to my house we were completely soaked.
Edward and I sprinted up to the door and I used the key up on the ledge to open it. "Come on, I'll get you a towel." The house was freezing giving me goose bumps.
"Here," I said as I handed him the towel.
"Jeeze Bella. You're freezing! He took the towel and wrapped it around me while hugging me against his chest.
"Then maybe you should warm me up." I reached up and locked lips with his. The towel wasn't enough to keep me warm and I started to tremble in his arms. "I'm going to go change. I'll be right back down." I ran upstairs and threw on a pair of sweats. When I came back down Edward was no longer in the living room.
"Edward?"
"In here." His voice came from the kitchen. When I walked in I saw him staring at the picture on the bulletin board in the corner.
"Oh no. Don't look at those." He laughed and I walked over to him.
"You were such a cute baby. Is this your mom?"
"Yeah."
"You look just like her."
"Ha-ha. She's a lot prettier than me. These on the right were taken before my parents split up. And then the ones on the left were when my dad would come down to visit."
Those were the good memories I had of the rare times when I was in remission. We had so many good times together but then I would relapse and the happy memories were gone.
I was thinking about what to make for dinner when Charlie walked in the door.
"Bella? You home?"
"Hi dad. Edward's here too."
"Oh." He didn't seem too upset. "I got pizza on the way home. I thought you deserved a night off. Edward, why don't you join us?"
"I'd be delighted Chief Swan."
"Call me Charlie." I didn't think I would see the day when Charlie would be so warm towards Edward. I knew Charlie meant well. He would never purposefully be mean to Edward. He was just protective of me.
"So what did you guys do today? Edward's clothes look soaked."
"We were taking a walk when it started to pour. Took us a few minutes to get back," I responded. Edward and I laughed at the memory of us getting caught in the rain.
Dinner was great. I didn't think Edward and Charlie would get along so well. After dinner the two of them decided to watch ESPN together. I didn't really get football but the two of them went at it for almost 3 hours talking about drafts and Emmett playing in college.
It was getting dark and the game was over. "I need to get going so my parents don't worry. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Okay." He leaned down and kissed me before hugging me goodnight and running into the rain to get to his car. I waved goodbye and went back into the house.
"I like him," Charlie said. "Good kid."
"And you thought you had to be all protective," I said in a mocking tone.
"I just want you to be safe. I think he's really good for you."
"I do too. I'm going to hit the sack. I'm really tired. Goodnight dad."
"Night sweetie."
Hope you guys liked it. Thank you for your reviews. I should be updating soon. 3
