Chapter Ten: What Is Love, Baby Don't Hurt Me
Well it looked like I wasn't going to get an answer…today, at least. Alice knew what was going to happen but wouldn't tell me, Emmett understood, but didn't seem weak in the slightest way. So it seemed the only person I could really have help me was Jasper, and Alice had already claimed him for the night, so I was left to solitude.
I climbed the steps up to my room, and when I walked in a light snow was falling, and with the moon in the background it seemed like a dream—if I could dream at all. Then a train of thought hit me: I would want to dream of Bella, her sweet face, but what if it was a nightmare? Because I remembered vaguely from my human life that you didn't exactly have discretion over what you dreamt. What if I had a nightmare, and drank from her? Okay, granted my vampire senses would take over me, and it might not seem like a nightmare, but at least to my conscious self it seemed dreadful. I don't think I could bear with myself if I ever hurt her, but sometimes that feeling just came out of me, and I couldn't help it.
And that was what I was scared of the most (and I was rarely scared of anything), was having the vampire temptations come out of me like The Hulk (yes, I am knowledgeable of current comic books), and having no control. That's what I went to Denali for, and I felt I had a good handle on it, but who knew what Bella could pull on me. She did some things purposefully sometimes, just to see my crazed reaction. She wanted to see the real me—
Stop.
Whoa. Stop, stop, stop.
That was not Bella.
Hell, that wasn't me. How did I get so crazy?
Deep breath in, and out. Okay.
Bella was a sweet creature, practically an angel. That warm color in her face (I wouldn't think how it was due to the blood rushing through her), her long beautiful hair, her deep knowing eyes. Her human imperfections became apt, like she was designed to be impossibly right. And that simply amazed me; I'm supposed to spot every flaw. Due to vampire's superior vision, we see everything ten times cleaner than 20/20 vision.
How was she an angel in my eyes?
And how was she a demon sent to destroy me?
Things made sense, and no sense all at the same time.
Was this love?
And believe it or not, I basically thought of that till daybreak. The only other thing that crossed my mind was Alice and her vision from earlier.
Just then, Alice's head peeked in my doorway, obviously checking up on me. She took one quick glance, giggled, then ran away. I had the same reaction to sisters as humans did, though really I love Alice dearly, but sometimes she acts like the cliché little sister.
Guessing it was about time for school, I changed out of last night's clothes, then hurried down the stairs. And at the foot of the stairs I saw Jasper, by himself, no Alice around or clinging to him. This was my chance. I sprinted down the stairs, and halfway to Jasper I heard Alice chime from somewhere, "Don't count on it," as she suddenly materialized next to him.
Damn.
"Let's go," I muttered, as I made my way out to the car. It was a bit early to be leaving for school, but if I stayed any longer I might have had to strangle Alice.
I heard her giggle. I gave a grunt of frustration, and took the drivers seat. Shortly after, Jasper and my frustration came out and got into the car. I heard Rosalie thinking that her and Emmett were going to be late.
Upon arriving at school I could tell we were early, as there were few cars parked in the lot, most of them teachers. I was planning on waiting for Bella to get here, in an attempt to talk to her more, but I didn't want to give Alice something to talk about, so I went into the school with her and Jasper, with the intention of ditching them.
I stopped at my locker to quickly stow my books away, and grab the ones needed for the morning (as if I needed to take notes on something I've learned a million times; they were props). I made my way to my car, dodging the piles of snow the plow scraped from the parking lot to make room for the cars, and leaned against it waiting for her.
When she was less than a mile away I could hear her car wheezing as it drove here. And soon enough after, she pulled in, not noticing me. She jumped out, and in carefully walking to the back of her car, looked at her back tires, noticing the chains around them. Clearly, Charlie must have put them on for her this morning.
I heard the mechanical squealing noise before she even looked up, and then I heard the panicked thoughts of Tyler Crowley. His car had lost control on the ice and it was heading for Bella.
Shit.
There was no other choice but to save her, and no other choice but to discretely use my super-human speed and strength to ensure that. I dashed over to her, snatched her out of the car's path, then crashed onto the blacktop with her in my arms beneath me. (Ironic how panic can erase all other matters; e.g., Bella's smell to me). Then we both heard the metallic scratch and crash of Tyler's car into the back end of Bella's truck, and flinched. Unfortunately, it touched another spot of ice and spun in a different direction—towards us.
It came fast at us (fast even for me)—it was a snap-decision –so I used my vampire strength to protect us from the car. It collided with my outstretched hands, and left a large relatively hand-sized dent in the side.
Behind me, lying on the ground, I could hear Bella wincing slightly with pain, and trying to sit up. I could have possibly hurt her in the rush and grasp to get her out of harm's way, plus the pinning her beneath me for protection from the car. I rushed over to her, while pulling her further away from the car catastrophe, and whispered in her ear, "Bella? Are you all right?"