Random Disclaimer: I don't own any songs used or Twilight.
I peeled out of the parking lot, my thoughts revolving around brown eyes and the smell of strawberries.
BPOV
Monday went without a hitch, Alice and I followed the same routine we always followed. Instead of lying around most of the day, I tried to write for my story, but I had a major case of writer's block. I only got out a couple pages and they sounded forced, so I kept them for a small guide in case, but I didn't type them up.
Now, Alice was sitting at the kitchen table typing away at her laptop and I was standing at the kitchen counter working on lasagna. We didn't talk too much because Alice was so busy concentrating and I was getting kind of bored when the phone rang. I picked it up and put it on speaker so I could keep working. "Hello?"
"Bella? Hey, it's Edward." I paused for a second and Alice looked up, suddenly very interested in what I was doing.
"Hey, Edward, what's up?"
"Um, I'm just going to get to the point, um…" He paused for a few seconds, sighing. I could see him rubbing the back of his neck in my mind.
"Just tell me Edward." I said, smiling.
"Would you do a duet with me on Tuesday morning at Macy's? I already talked to the manager and he said it was a great idea… He said you've worked there before?"
"Uh… I have, a couple times." Alice and I were staring at each other with wide eyes. Alice looked excited and I was feeling horrified. I wanted to sing with Edward, that wasn't the problem, I was sure we'd sound pretty good together. I was more afraid of singing in front of everyone else, I'd done it before, but it always scared me before hand. "Uh…" I winced, what was I going to tell him?
"Of course, she'll sing with you Edward!" Alice jumped in. "Why don't you pick her up at 7:30? You start at 8, right?" I nodded.
"That sounds good, but do you want to sing with me, Bella?" Alice looked put-off that Edward was giving me a choice.
I took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'll sing with you. See you tomorrow at 7:30?"
"7:30. Good night, Bella."
I smiled "Good night, Edward." He hung up and Alice shrieked, making me cover my ears. She wrapped me in skinny arms and started bouncing up and down.
"I'm so happy for you!" She yelled.
"For what? I'm just going to sing with Edward… Oh, my gosh, I'm singing with Edward at Macy's. Do you think I'll need my guitar?" I started to freak out. "What if I mess up and make him sound bad? What if I fall on stage? What if I," Alice covered my mouth, halting my audible worrying.
"You will do great. Edward will be amazing too." I let my worry show in my eyes and she sighed. "Don't make this a big deal; you'll do better if you pretend you're just singing with him in the car again." She smiled and sat back down. "Just take a few deep breaths." I did as she said and put the lasagna in the oven, not feeling much better.
I woke up early the next morning to straighten my hair and put on some clothes slightly nicer than my usual casual attire. I wore a deep blue, v-neck, long-sleeved shirt over black skinny jeans. My outfit had already been pre-approved by Alice…Okay, she chose it. I waited out in the living room with Alice, who sat on the couch across from me, and picked at the strings on my guitar absently. Alice had called in sick and was going to meet Jasper at the cafe a little after Edward and I got there. I'd nearly played my fingers raw last night trying to play as many of the songs I knew, Alice stopped me before I could start bleeding fortunately.
When the door bell rang, Alice told me to wait a few seconds before getting up and answering it. "Hey, Edward." I smiled at him. He held out some freesias and I took them slowly from his hand. That wasn't expected. I remembered telling him once that freesias were my favorite flowers, but usually you forgot the answers people gave you to questions in games like '20 Questions.' "Thank you." I murmured softly, I'd never gotten flowers before. I sniffed them and smiled at the beautiful blooms. Then I winced "I didn't get you anything."
"You're singing with me, I already got my gift." He smiled crookedly and I blushed.
"Um, let me put these in water, come on in." I held the door open for him and walked into the kitchen to put the flowers in a vase.
"Hey, Alice, how are you?" I heard Edward ask Alice in the living room.
"I'm great and you?"
"I'm having a good day." I could hear the smile in his voice and it made me smile. I walked back out of the kitchen. "Ready to go, Bella?"
"Yep, are we going in your car?"
"Yeah." As we walked out the apartment door with a good-bye to Alice, I linked my arm with Edward's and he laughed, but continued to lead me down the stairs. "How was your Monday?"
I made a face. "Boring as ever, yours?" He just shrugged. He opened the passenger door to his car and I got in, setting my guitar between my legs. "Am I going to even need my guitar?" I asked as he pulled out of his parking space.
"I would bring it; I'd like to hear you play." I blushed and looked out the window.
"What songs will we be playing?"
He shrugged. "We'll probably each do a couple instrumentals, play a few songs we both know, and then take requests. They also have an amp and electric guitar if the song calls for it. I nodded and we lapsed into silence for the rest of the ride. It wasn't like when we first met, the silence was comfortable.
When we parked in front of Macy's, I got out of the car, thanking the skies for not raining down on my guitar or me. Edward held the café's door open for me and led the way to where the manager was standing on the stage, checking the microphones. "Hello, Edward, Bella. It's nice to have you back Miss Swan, it's been a while." Said the small, balding man; he shook my hand and then Edward's.
"It's nice to see you too, sir." He smiled.
"I'll pay you guys after the show; ten dollars every hour, plus tips, each. Bella, why don't you set your guitar case open at the bottom of the stage for tips?" I did just that and slung my guitar over my back. Subconsciously, I moved a couple inches further away from Edward then I already was so I wouldn't hit him with the neck of my guitar. "Now, you guys can set up and we'll open the doors in ten minutes."
An hour and a half later, the café was a bit over half full and Edward and I had each played two instrumentals and some songs we knew. We were now taking requests. Alice and Jasper sat at a table, watching us and talking. I smiled when I saw their hands clasped together under the table.
A woman, not much older than myself, stood up from a table with a man sitting at it. She walked over to the stage and I covered my microphone so she could talk to me. "Do you know 'Falling Slowly' from the movie Once?" She asked quietly.
"With Glen Hansard?" I asked hopefully. That was one of my favorite songs; I had never played it for anybody. She nodded and I looked back at Edward who was leaning toward us to catch the conversation, he nodded as well to signal he knew the song. "Yeah, we can play that." The girl flashed a smile and left to sit back down at her table.
When I thought about the string instruments that usually accompanied the song, I winced. "Is something wrong?" Edward asked softly and I shrugged.
"It'll just sound a little funny without the strings, that's all." Edward started at me for a moment and I was about to ask him what he was looking at when he suddenly stood. "Where are you going?"
"One minute."He left the stage and disappeared into the back break room. I stared after him for a second and then looked at the crowd uneasily. How long was he going to be gone? Should I play?
As promised, Edward returned a minute later with an excited looking Angela. "You play violin?!" I whisper-yelled at her.
She nodded "For three, almost four, years." Edward smiled at me. "I have the sheet music for this song; I've played it a few times."
"Oh, that's awesome, you'll play with us?" I grinned at her and then Edward.
"I'd be honored to." She set up a stand and Edward sat at the piano.
"One, two, three, four." Edward counted off softly and I started plucking at the strings of my guitar while Edward started singing. "I don't know you, but I want you all the more for that." I was excited to seriously sing with Edward for the first time, and on one of my favorite songs.
"Words fall through me and always fool me and I can't react." We both sang and then Edward continued again on his own. Our voices sounded so good together, I never wanted to sing without him again…
"And games that never amount to more than they're meant, will play themselves out." I started strumming softly and we sang together again, to my great pleasure.
"Take this sinking boat and point it home, we've still got time. Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice, you'll make it now." I went back to plucking at the strings along with Edward's soft playing. "Falling slowly, eyes that know me and I can't go back. Moods that take me and erase me, and I'm painted black." I stopped singing and turned my head to watch Edward. Our eyes met and he smiled at me, his green eyes glowing. I remembered when I had first met him, how emotionless his eyes looked and compared to now, he seemed a different person.
"You have suffered enough and warred with yourself, it's time that you won." Those words hit a little close to home for me. Would I be winning soon? That would be nice, maybe I'd become closer to Jasper, Emmett, Rose, and Edward. That would be a victory I wouldn't complain about. I started strumming again and I smiled when Angela joined us at just the perfect moment with the perfect amount of volume.
"Take this sinking boat and point it home, we've still got time. Raise your hopeful voice, you had a choice, you've made it now." I couldn't help looking at Edward again when I sang my favorite part with him. "Falling slowly, sing your melody, I'll sing along." Angela played a little louder as I kept up my strumming. Edward played his part without looking and after holding out one last note with us, Angela stopped playing while I continued picking at the strings of my guitar.
All the people I had forgotten about burst into applause and I almost fell off my stool. "I would like to thank Angela Weber for helping us with that song." Edward said and Angela bowed slightly, she waved and then walked off the stage back into the break room. I looked back at Edward and he smiled at me crookedly. I was more than a little annoyed that the song was over, Edward's voice was beautiful… There was no way to even describe his piano playing, even with such a simple part it was so… Edward. It was the only word that jumped out from my extensive vocabulary when thinking about his playing.
The manager came up to the stage, handed each of us envelopes with our pay checks, said we could go, and tossed two five dollar bills into my guitar case before he walked away. Edward said a few words of thanks to the crowd and Alice and Jasper exchanged a few words of congratulations before leaving with some of the other customers. Edward and I knelt by my guitar case and collected tips, around fifty dollars, and split it down the middle. I placed my guitar into my case gently and Edward held out a hand to help me up. We walked out into the light drizzle and I quickly put my guitar in the back seat. I closed the door and turned around to get into the passenger seat but ran into Edward's chest.
"Sorry." He said, steadying me. "Um, Bella…there's something I want." He finally said and his eyes looked a little worried though his face was blank. I held in my sigh, I didn't like that he tried to hide his emotions, even when I could usually read them plainly in his eyes.
"What's that?"
"I…I want to take you somewhere that's important to me. And I want to tell you my story." He looked up from his feet and I searched his expression to no avail.
"I'd like that." I finally said, I wanted to hear his story, but I also didn't want him to tell me if he only felt obligated. "You want to?"
"I want to." I smiled and he returned it with a small half-smile.
"Okay." He opened my car door and let me in, then walked around the car and got in. "It's not too far from here, at the most an hour away."
We drove for a few minutes in silence, the only sound being the soft patter of rain drops on the car's roof, until I spoke. "So, why is now the right time to tell me your story?"
He looked over at me briefly before returning his eyes to the road. "I want to tell someone, and I'd rather tell you than anyone else." I smiled softly; it was always nice to hear you were preferred.
My smile faded as I thought about when I'd told him about my own life. "You know… I didn't even tell Alice as much of my story as I told you." My voice was barely above a whisper as I watched the buildings start to space out as we got closer to city bounds. "How can I have known you for such a short time and trust you that much, when I've known Alice for years and she doesn't know it all?" I turned in my seat and searched his eyes for answers that weren't there.
"I don't know." Edward whispered and he reached over to take my hand, squeezing gently. The contact was welcome. We fell back into silence and I was distracted by the perfect temperature of Edward's hand. It was an odd thing to notice, but I liked that it wasn't so warm my hand was sweating, but it wasn't ice cold either.
I sat back in my seat and laid Edward's hand on my left one so it was palm up and open. I traced my finger down the lines in his palm, up to the light calluses on his fingertips from playing piano. "I don't understand why some people don't like calluses… I think it shows experience of some kind, and if you have a callus from something because you did it so much, you usually love the reason you have the callus." I shrugged and smiled when I saw Edward's watching me from the corner of his eye, not completely forgetting the road even though there were hardly any cars where we were.
He thought for a moment. "I think you're right, having a callus is actually a good thing I think…" I twined my fingers with his like he had before and leaned my head back on the head rest. "We're about ten minutes away. Do you want to hear a really powerful piece of music?" He asked suddenly I nodded and he hit the power button on his radio, flipped to CD 3, and hit play on track 10. "This called Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell." I'd heard of Mansell, but not the song.
Half way into the song, Edward pulled over onto the side of the road and sat back, closing his eyes. He conducted with his hand that wasn't still holding mine and I smiled as I watched him. I listened intently and decided to put the song on my iPod the minute I got home. When the song came to an end Edward kept his eyes closed as he flipped off the radio. We stayed quiet, letting the music ring through our heads. Then Edward sat up. "What did you think?"
"That was breath-taking, the strings were amazing." He smiled, seemingly pleased with my answer. He let go of my hand to get out of the car and the absence immediately annoyed me, but I shook off the feeling and got out as well. Edward led the way into the woods and I started to slow my pace a little bit so I wouldn't fall as much. Edward still had to catch me twice. "Are we there yet?" I whined after a while and Edward laughed.
"Just about, here." He covered my eyes with his hand and I stopped, I tried to pull his hand away.
"Do you really think that's smart? I've already fallen twice when I was going slow and able to see." I scowled at the darkness Edward had induced.
"Umm… ok, here we go." Suddenly I was being lifted and I could tell Edward was holding me sideways under one arm with the other hand still covering my eyes. I froze, not struggling like I usually might've done.
"Edward, if you drop me…"I warned and he chuckled, somehow I froze even further when he started to walk forward.
"Don't worry; I'm not going to drop you." I didn't reply, hoping if I didn't he would concentrate on his balance more. A minute later, Edward stopped and set me on my feet. "Ready?" His voice was excited and I couldn't help smiling.
"Yes, Edward, I'm ready." He removed his hands and I opened my eyes, shocked by what I saw.
A/N: OK, I'm pretty happy with this chapter :) I expect a lot of reviews, so don't let me down, you do want to hear Edward's story right? Well, prove it :P Cause reviews make me happy, why wouldn't they?! Links to the songs used are on my profile and if you can't find one, just ask me in a review or PM. Life is still a little crazy, but guess what?? I have 26 days left until school's out, including weekends! Woo, summer's almost here! I'll update when I can, but I guarantee it'll go faster if you review!! :D