Hey folks! :D
Well what do you know, I'm still alive. :p
Thank you for the awesome reviews; She Isn't Here, Goldeyedsoul, Jm1708, SuperSayjinPanny, MyBabyBlues, HiddenInTheWords, Lizzy, Lisa, Dhampirbina, J5girl31012, Avery Shane, Gnomegirl13, Ghostbunnieseatcheese, AutumnOtts, Lauren and Sprinter1! You guys made me smile! :D
And thanks for the year's supply of cookies and muffins, Lizzy, thanks for the fake (FAKE!) contract to own Twilight, Ghostbunnieseatcheese (lol xD), and thanks for the peanut M&M's, AutumnOtts! :D
Today everyone gets free Ben&Jerry's, because it suits the chapter! xD
To Lisa: You are a very bad employee, but an awesome reviewer. :p In your face, Lisa's boss! xD
To J5girl31012: Yeah, I did consider sending out previews, but the thing is, with the daily updates, I really don't have much time to do that. At the moment, my inbox looks like a bomb has exploded in there, and some of my typing monkeys are already threatening to strike. ^^"
Alright, new chapter! Have fun!
Visitor
"And? What do you think?" Rose asked excitedly.
I was sitting on the couch, eating my way through a year's supply of chocolate ice-cream, while she was twirling around in front of me, showing the elegant, red dress she was wearing.
"You look hot, Rose. If Emmett doesn't like this, he's blind." I stated.
"Thank you, thank you! I just love this dress." She gushed as she let herself fall down on the couch next to me.
"It suits you perfectly." I assured her, cracking a tiny smile.
She frowned as she eyed me and my beloved ice-cream. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you tonight? I can have dinner with Emmett some other time." She offered for the fifth time this evening.
"No Rose! Go and have fun, alright? I'm just going to sulk here, while I eat more ice-cream and watch Vampire Diaries reruns. I can handle it."
Rose sighed. "Okay then… In that case I have to go, I'm late as it is."
I managed to grin at her. "Yes, what are you still doing here? Emmett is waiting for you!"
Rose got up, and as she searched the room for her purse, the doorbell rang.
I groaned. "Not Jacob again, he's the last thing I want to deal with at the moment." Not that I truly expected him to bother me again, not with Charlie watching his back.
Rose walked up to the speaker and smirked at me. "If it's him, I'll shoo him for you." She pressed the red button and used her businesslike voice. "Hello? Who's there?"
There was a rustling sound, as if someone was taking a deep breath, and Rose and I exchanged a look of confusion.
The confusion only lasted a few seconds, for the next thing I knew a familiar, attractive voice filled the room. "It's Edward… Cullen. I would like to speak to Bella, please." His tone was cautious and Rose gaped at me.
"Just a second." She told him, turning off the speaker, turning to me. "Should I shoo him or let him in? It's up to you."
I dropped my tub of Ben & Jerry's, and gave Rose a bewildered look. "I- I'm not sure."
"It's simple, either you want to talk to him, or you don't. I, for one, don't blame you if you don't feel like talking to him right now." She said dryly.
I nervously played with the spoon that I was still holding, deliberating. Did I want to talk to him? Why would he bother to come over here and talk to me in the first place? Oh, right, he needed me to keep his secret, that's why he was so desperate to talk to me. If I told one of the teachers about him and Lauren, he was toast.
"Well? We can't make him wait forever." Rose pressed.
I sighed dramatically, and threw my hands up in the air. "Fine, let him in, it's not like this day could get any worse."
Rose gave me a sympathetic smile, pressing the green button. "You can come up." She told Edward.
"Thank you, Rosalie." His velvety voice said.
I heard him coming up the stairs and I gave Rose a panicked look.
"It'll work out fine, I'll go now, so you guys can talk in private." She encouraged me. She planted a swift kiss on my cheek before she headed for the door, opening it to let Edward in.
"Hello." Edward greeted her as he passed her.
"Hi." She replied curtly. "I'll see you later, Bella. Take care." She added in a louder voice.
"Bye Rose, have fun tonight." I called after her.
The door slammed shut and I got up from the couch, neglecting my tub of ice-cream and walking up to the front door where Edward was standing, looking a bit uneasy, which was very out of character for him.
"Hi." I muttered, forcing myself to look him in the eye.
"Bella…" He sighed as he spoke my name, and he sounded like a huge weight had just fallen off of his shoulders. His pretty eyes were troubled and the expression on his face looked rather pained.
Regardless, I didn't give myself a chance to be distracted by his perfect face, and I skeptically raised an eyebrow at him. "Edward?" I questioned flatly, basically telling him to get to the point.
"Can we sit down for a minute?" He murmured.
"Sure." I replied, trying for an indifferent tone.
I sat down on the couch, and he followed me, doing the same. He sat rather close to me, and I unsubtly moved away from him, to the other end of the couch.
"Well, you came here to talk, so talk." I was hoping that I didn't sound too unfriendly, but I really couldn't find the motivation to act polite, either.
He warily watched me, and ran his hand through his tousled hair in a swift movement. "What you saw this morning, Bella… That was not…" He trailed off, probably looking for the right words.
I rolled my eyes at him. "I'll save you the trouble, I know why you're here."
He raised those perfect eyebrows in surprise. "You do?"
"Sure… I saw something that I wasn't supposed to see, and now you want me to keep my mouth shut. Don't worry about that, Edward, I won't tell. It's not my goal in life to make my English teacher lose his job, I have better things to do." My tone remained indifferent, dismissive. I made it sound like he wasn't important to me at all, nothing more than one of my high school teachers.
I wasn't usually a good actress, but he seemed to buy it, seeing as he winced a little at my words.
"No Bella, I didn't come here to ask you to keep your mouth shut. I came here to tell you that there is nothing to tell, really. Nothing happened between me and Lauren, and nothing ever will happen between us. When you entered the room this morning, Lauren was throwing herself at me… I thought she was already going too far, sitting on my desk like that, and I was about to tell her to leave when she put her hands on me…" He rambled his explanation.
"Oh…" I mumbled. I wasn't sure what to make of his story. Was he telling the truth? Maybe, but it could also be a trick to save his ass, or rather, save his job.
"I swear I don't have feelings for Lauren… She came up to me after class, claiming that she wanted to talk about that paper that is due tomorrow, and as soon as everyone had left the room, she threw herself at me." He added, his tone indicating that he desperately wanted me to believe him.
I bit my lip, staring down at my hands, avoiding the eyes that managed to melt me every time I gazed into them.
"Please look at me, Bella."
I hesitantly lifted up my head, and I was met by his worried stare.
"If Lauren were the last girl in the world, I still wouldn't want her." He said softly, looking up at me from under those long lashes.
My heart was a stupid traitor, always speeding up at the mere sight of him. No one should be allowed to look this beautiful, I didn't stand a chance when he used his dazzling-powers on me like that... I did wonder why it was so vitally important to him that I believed his story, and that I believed that he wasn't attracted to Lauren. Hadn't I already told him that I wouldn't spread the news?
"Bella?" He whispered, he looked anxious.
"I guess I… believe you." I said quietly, letting him off the hook.
He had sounded sincere… and other than that, it was hard not to believe him when he stared at me with those hypnotic, green eyes.
His soft, kissable lips turned up into a smile, and my heart did some more flips. "Thanks, Bella. That means a lot to me." He said, subtly moving a few inches toward me again.
This time I didn't move away, instead I leaned a little closer to him.
"Anytime." I was nearly whispering.
He was dangerously close now, his minty breath blowing against my face. I was lost in his emerald eyes, and it took me a second to realize what I was doing… And that it was wrong. I leaned back, letting out a small cough, breaking the spell. Edward blinked and also sat a bit straighter.
"So…" He started. "We're cool?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess we're cool."
He smiled my favorite, uneven smile. "Does that mean that we're friends?" He asked.
I gave him a puzzled look. "Is that even allowed?"
He frowned and quirked one of his eyebrows. "Actually I'm not sure…" He admitted. "But where's the harm in us being friends? I mean it's not like we're… dating." He added, a bit unsure.
I snorted. "No… a teacher and a student dating would be bad." I said, trying to keep my face straight.
"Yeah… bad." He agreed, although it didn't sound very convincing. "But hanging out, that's not bad, right? I mean let's say, purely hypothetical of course, that you wanted me to stay for a while to watch Vampire Diaries reruns with you… surely that wouldn't be a problem… We would just be two people who happen to sit on the same couch, looking at the same flat screen." He continued, throwing in another crooked smile.
I had to laugh at his unsubtle proposal and I smirked at him. "No, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem… Do you want to stay?" I asked, playing along with his little game.
"Only if you want me to stay."
"I want you to stay."
"Good." He said cheerfully. "Let's watch vampires kill people."
"Yes, let's."
I turned up the volume of the television, and we both made ourselves comfortable on the couch. I made sure to keep a reasonable distance between us, even though my whole body was screaming at me to move closer to him.
Just as I was wondering if I was already sitting too close, Edward noticed the tub of ice-cream on the small table in front of us, and a grin spread across his face.
"That's my favorite, are you eating that?" He asked, giving me his most adorable look.
I shook my head. "No, go ahead. I've had enough for a lifetime."
That was all the confirmation he needed in order to attack the tub of ice-cream, and he looked like a small child who had just gotten a shiny, new toy.
"Silly Edward." I muttered.
This morning I had never expected my day to end like this. This morning I had felt like a hole had been punched through my heart, and right now, Edward and I had a great time, watching television, chatting and eating ice-cream. It wasn't tense, it wasn't complicated, and I was completely relaxed, happy to spend some time with him.
Naturally, resisting the temptation to move closer to him was an impossibility for me, and I gradually closed the distance between us, subtly moving closer, inch by inch. Luckily I wasn't the only one to blame, seeing as he was doing the same, every time he thought I wasn't paying attention to him. A small part of my brain was hoping that it meant that Rose could be right… if he didn't want us to be more than friends, why was he also moving closer?
I didn't know how I finally ended up with my head leaning against his shoulder, but he didn't protest, and neither did I.
After a while my eyelids started to droop, but I did a last, feeble attempt to keep my eyes open. I glanced at the TV screen one last time, and recognized the part where Stefan dumped Elena, but eventually I lost the fight against my heavy eyelids…
xxx
A rather bright flash of light startled me, and my eyes fluttered open. I was still half asleep, but my woozy brain vaguely noted that the light was caused by some commercial on TV. I stirred a bit, and I noticed that I was leaning against something soft and comfortable. Something that smelled a lot like Edward, sweet and intoxicating. I was positive that I was still dreaming, not fully awake yet, and I snuggled closer to him, enjoying the dream while it lasted, closing my eyes again.
Slowly, I became aware of the fact that I was getting more and more awake, and I gasped as it occurred to me that this couldn't be a dream.
"Edward…" My slurry voice said.
His musical laugh was the next thing I heard. "Yes Bella, I'm here. But I think I should leave now, it's late, you're tired, and it's a school night." He listed.
I sat up straight, offering him some space and an apology. "Sorry for falling asleep, I must've bored you." I said, blushing heavily.
Edward chuckled. "Not exactly, you're interesting when you sleep, you talk. It's like reading your mind."
My eyes widened in horror as I remembered that annoying habit of mine that Rosalie had often mentioned before. "God no… I didn't say anything embarrassing, did I?"
"Depends… On what you qualify as 'embarrassing'." He mused, giving me a wicked grin.
I groaned, hiding my face in my hands. "I don't think I want to know."
"I suppose you're right, in this case, ignorance is definitely bliss." Edward confirmed, amusement evident in his voice.
"Great, leave it to me to make a fool of myself, even while I'm asleep." I huffed.
"Hmm, no, I don't think you're a fool."
"No, just a nutcase who talks in her sleep." I said in a mock sour tone.
That brought on another small round of laughter, but when it ended he was deadly serious again.
"I mean it, I had a great time tonight, I'm glad I came over to talk to you." He said sincerely.
"Me too."
He was leaning closer again, but I was barely noticing it, only paying attention to his eyes. I also didn't notice that I was doing the same, unconsciously moving my face closer to his. The only reason I became aware that he was a bit too close, was his nose, which was lightly skimming against mine. This had to be it, solid proof that he was attracted to me like I was attracted to him… Or perhaps he was only caught up in the moment, because why on earth would he ever want me?
We both flinched and jumped up when the doorbell rang, and I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.
I sprang up from the couch and made my way to the front door, wondering who would visit at this hour.
"Who is this?" I asked as I pressed the red button on the speaker.
"It's me of course, I forgot my key. Let me in, it's cold!" Rosalie whined.
I made a weird face at Edward and he grinned back at me.
"Then you're lucky I'm still awake, girl." I snorted and pushed the green button.
Edward got up from the couch; he was getting ready to leave, making his way over to where I was standing. I heard Rosalie stumbling up the stairs on her ridiculously high heels, and she started to talk the second she walked in.
"That was the most amazing date ever, Emmett really has…" She stopped in the middle of her sentence, as her eyes landed on Edward, who was standing behind me. "Oh god, are you still here? That must've been the longest talk in the history of mankind." She noted in her blunt, no-nonsense way.
"Thank you for pointing that out, Captain Obvious. I'll tell you later." I hissed at her.
Edward looked nothing but amused as he observed our little exchange. "Alright, I think this is my cue to leave, I'll see you guys tomorrow." He said casually.
"Yeah, see ya." Rose muttered as she wobbled to the kitchen on her uncomfortable-looking shoes.
"Goodnight, Edward." I said my goodbye.
"Sweet dreams, Bella." He murmured, bringing his hand up to my face and lightly brushing against my cheek with the back of his long, pale fingers, leaving a burning trail.
"That won't be a problem." I told him honestly.
He smiled one last time at me, before making his way down the stairs. I closed the door, a goofy grin plastered on my face. Oh yes, I would have very, very sweet dreams tonight…
The Vampire Diaries, mentioned in this chapter, is a series that does actually exist. Team Stefan for the win! Okay, never mind. *Shuts her pie hole*
Thanks for reading, new update tomorrow! :D
