Yeah! I updated! Bet you guys thought I'd take forever again :) haha, I did too.
But I didn't!
Enjoy!
(BPOV)
The morning sun was peeking in through my windows, gently touching half of my bed. I looked over to the other bed, but Tanya was not there, of course. If it wasn't for the fact that she never was in bed when I woke up and her covers seemingly never touched, I would have thought it were because of what happened yesterday. But since it was an often occurrence for me to wake up alone, I thought nothing of it.
I sighed heavily as I plopped back onto the bed, welcoming more sleep. We had nothing to do today, no concerts, no practice, nothing.
I tried to let my mind go blank, or at least to think of something other than Edward. He was becoming an obsession. There wasn't much else to think about anyways, except for the little incident yesterday, which made no sense.
There was that dream I'd had that night, though that made little sense either. Who had random dreams about vampires? Not even normal stereotypical vampires, but vampires that sparkled in the sunlight. Probably Tanya's little word problems yesterday triggered my mind to start thinking about vampires... but vampires that sparkled? I suppose the whole super speed and super strength part of the dream was acceptable. But didn't vampires have red eyes? Maybe that was just in a book I read. Not that it was real... Then there was the whole ice cold skin deal; I supposed it would make sense, since they're the dead... well, undead.
Edward's skin was cold, icy cold... But that could just be some weird skin problem. The topaz eyes in my dream were also the color of Edward's... but that didn't mean anything. I doubt Edward sparkled in the sun, of course I'd never seen him in the sun to test that out. In fact, now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen any of them in the sun.
My mind continued to compare and contrast my dream to reality. I kept coming back to the whole sun deal... why was it bothering me so much? I didn't really think that they could be vampires... right?
Maybe I should go and talk to Alice and Rosalie about it. Or not, they'd probably think I was crazy.
Well, even if Edward was a vampire, it's not like I'd ever know. Unless... Unless I somehow got him in the sun, or felt his skin again, or somehow got to see if he had crazy super speed. Wow. I think I was really going crazy. Maybe I should go to Alice and Rosalie, so they could help me get to a Shrink.
Maybe it wasn't crazy... Not if I didn't believe it fully... which I didn't. I was simply curious. Simply curious. Nothing harmful or strange about that; okay, so maybe it was a little strange.
That was it. I made up my mind. I was going to test out a few simple theories to see if Edward, just for fun, was a vampire, according to my dream.
Knowing I wouldn't get to bed after that, I got up and went to the breakfast the hotel supplied for us.
(EPOV)
None of us could do anything other than worry about the girls finding out we were vampires that night. Why did Tanya have to slip up? Actually, I knew why. It was slightly disturbing really. Not the part that she liked me, but the part where I never noticed this whole time until she suddenly went haywire on Bella for me kissing her cheek, her soft, warm cheek.
Our discussion for what to do was quick. We scolded Tanya for slipping up, but decided to continue our lame excuse about our crazy religion. None of us wanted to cancel the tour and get rid of the girls, except Tanya who offered us to stop for a hundred years or so and continue later. Our argument was that the music would change by then. Though, we were all secretly thinking that in a few hundred years, the girls wouldn't be alive.
After we had our minds set, we went out hunting. I came back early, after lucking out on a herd. The morning sun was just about to break so I quickly hid inside. Not wanting to go back in the room, I went to the continental breakfast provided for the guests.
In a corner tucked in by the shade was Bella. She was in a pair of jeans and a plain blue shirt. Her hair looked like she only took a brush through it twice before letting it travel wherever the brown strands wanted.
I hesitated about going over there, but the pull to hear her voice again won over my hesitation in the end.
I quickly and quietly came around to the other side of the table and smiled when she still hadn't noticed me. "Hello," I said and grinned as she jumped slightly and looked up at me with big eyes and a full mouth.
It took a little while for her to chew and swallow the food in her mouth, but when she did she greeted me back. "Hi." The stains of red were still on her warm cheeks, the cheeks that I had touched with my lips.
"How are you?" I asked lamely. What a conversation starter I was...
Bella quickly wiped her mouth off with a napkin before replying. "Um... good and you?"
"I'm doing well." I stopped myself from saying 'and you?' again. She leaned back in her chair, away from her food. I hoped I hadn't stopped her from eating. "Don't let me stop you from your food."
Her warm brown eyes widened a little as she shook her head. "Oh no, I was done anyways." Before I could start my protesting for her to eat some more, she asked, "What about you? Aren't you hungry?"
"No, I don't eat breakfast." It wasn't completely a lie.
Her smooth forehead crinkled. "You should, it's the most important meal of the day."
I found this statement very amusing. I grinned on reflex and of course, it went crooked since it never seemed to be able to go straight; I'd tried before. Her eyes widened as she stared at my lips.
It was silent for a little as she glanced away from me to stare at the table then to me, and then back to the table. It was extremely annoying how I couldn't read her thoughts. What was she thinking? Was she trying to remember more of the lyrics? Was she planning her next outfit out? Was she thinking about the kiss I'd given her the other night?
Finally, she spoke. "What are you doing today?"
I thought about it and shrugged. "Nothing."
She gulped and her heartbeat picked up. "W-would you like to go... shopping with me?" Her eyes stayed focused on the corner of the table.
My first answer would have been a 'Yes! I'd love to spend more time with you!' But then I had to think about maybe spending more time would make things more complicated. And there was the problem of the sun.
She looked up at me, an odd, unrecognizable emotion in her eyes. "I only need to go to the store down the street, you know, the street with all the shade canopies on it..." Her voice trailed off. Shade canopies? Why would she say that? Convenient for me I suppose.
I nodded my head, dismissing the oddness of it. "Sure."
She smiled and got up to throw the rest of her food away. We walked in silence to the front of the lobby except for the occasional times when I'd open a door for her and she'd say a quiet 'Thank you'.
I tried to make conversation when we got outside, still in the shade. "What are you getting?"
Bella bit her lip and looked down. "I need new... socks...?" She said it as a question. I nodded my head and let her lead the way. She began to drift over to the side closer to the street and closer to the sun. It was proper for me to be on her right, to shield her from the street, but she was beginning to drift to a dangerous close proximity to the sunlight. I should have worn long sleeves and gloves.
Bella managed to walk into the only sunlit spot of the sidewalk. She kept glancing at me oddly; most likely for my distance I kept between me and the sunlight and consequently, her.
She suddenly took a sharp left and walked into the store. I followed suit, happy to get away from any close sun encounters.
A grin began to form on Bella's lips, though I had no idea why. When she caught me staring, the grin quickly vanished. "I also need new shoes."
Bella chose the first box of shoes she found when we entered the shoe isle, not one for looking I guessed. She plopped down onto her bottom and began the process of trying on new shoes. As I suspected, since the shoes were size 10, Bella did not fit her puny size 6 feet into the shoes. She didn't look disappointed in the least that the pair did not fit. Instead, she quickly put the shoes away then held up her hand to me.
I was a little startled at first by the bold, for her, gesture, but quickly complied with letting her take my hand to help her up. Apparently, my hand wasn't enough support, seeing as when she was midway into standing up; she reached further up my arm for more leverage.
Her eyes turned thoughtful and distant as she gave a quick smile and 'thank you' to me for my deed. She repeated the same process of getting a random shoe box, trying it on then asking for my help, all with thoughtful and questioning eyes. I noticed that instead of using my right arm, like she used last time, she took my left, first grabbing my hand, then my arm.
It was slightly amusing the way Bella went about doing things.
(BPOV)
Did he think I was weird, when I hogged his arm space just to stand up? Probably. Even I felt weird. But it had to be done, at least if I wanted to test this ridiculous theory out, so far so good.
He had icy cold skin, not just on his hands. And I still hadn't seen him in the sunlight. I'd tried to walk as close as I could to the sun, but he kept his distance. Maybe he wasn't thinking and just walking straight, straight in the shade.
I still hadn't tested out his 'super' strength and speed, but I had an idea on how to. I placed the shoebox back into the proper slot like the good citizen, or should I say tourist, I was.
"I don't think I'll get any shoes," I said up to Edward who had a hint of puzzlement in his handsome face. I looked around the store for something heavy and high up... perfect. '
I pretended like I was looking at something interesting. Right before I walked away, I let my hand rest on the boxes of shoes so that they would tumble down towards the floor. Normally, I would have blushed tomato red and apologized profusely to no one in particular while I'd try to clean up the mess, but not that day; that day, I was on a mission.
Just like I had hoped, Edward quickly bent down to help me with the mess I'd made while I quickly walked away towards the back shelves against the wall to take action on my plan.
The shelves were getting closer and I'd yet to make a fool proof plan. My heart began to beat a little faster as I looked at the very top of the shelf to the very large, very expensive vase. This was stupid. What was I thinking? It's not like he'd really have super strength or super speed. I'd made it to the shelf right under the vase. What a stupid plan. I was about to turn around and walk back to Edward to help with the rest of the mess when a small child around five came running my way.
"Jenny!" the mother cried, but it was already too late. The child ran full impact into the shelf.
"Bella!" Edward yelled as I looked up to find the vase falling down right to where I was standing. I didn't even have time to flinch before Edward was standing in front of me with two arms outstretched over me. The sound of a wailing kid filled my ears and most likely those of a one mile radius.
When I could catch my breath, I slowly looked up to find, in Edwards hands, one large, very heavy vase. My knees felt weak but I refused to collapse.
There were many delayed gasps around the room as one of the employees started shouting, "Hey! Hey, you alright?!"
Edward quickly set down the vase and was in front of my face in seconds. He spoke softly, "Bella? Bella are you aright?" I was shocked by his close proximity to my face as his eyes scorched into mine. I was unable to respond. His face was just so close. His hand came up to touch my cheek as he stared deeper and deeper into my eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Miss? Miss are you hurt?!" the employee shouted again allowing me to shake out of my trance. I nodded my head and looked away from Edward so I could process what had just happened clearly.
Little kid, heavy impact, Edward over by the shoes, Edward right in front of me, Edward catching heavy vase...
"H-how did you...?" my voice trailed off, unable to get all the words out. Edward just stared at me, confliction in his eyes.
I watched as a few more employees ran over to check out the scene. "Is everyone alright?" One of the more loud employees asked. The mother with the crying child in her arms looked up and assured us all that the little child would be okay, except for maybe a little bump. I quickly gave my own reassuring nod that all was well.
Two of the stronger workers walked over to the vase to remove it and get it out of the way. One grabbed one side while the other grabbed the other. On a count of three they both pushed off the ground in order to lift the vase, but didn't get very far.
My eyes widened as I watched the scene. I gave a quick glance to Edward, whose face was in a grimace as he watched the sight from the corner of his eyes. He caught my eyes and walked over to bend down to my ear and whisper, "why don't we get out of here, you know, so you can get some fresh air." I nodded my head, not really thinking of what he asked but of what all this meant.
Cold skin, resistant to sun, pretty strong for such an average size and if I wasn't mistaken, pretty fast... But all that couldn't really mean that. I was probably just so preoccupied with the running child that I hadn't even noticed Edward already walking over. And the whole vase predicament... well... it was probably one of those crazy adrenaline rushes you hear about in the news. The cold skin, again, it was most likely a skin problem. Then there was the sun... maybe he just didn't like sunlight.
We walked out of the store but didn't head back to the hotel and instead continued to walk down the street. I walked at the edge of the sidewalk again while Edward dared to move a little closer.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Edward asked again, I hoped he wasn't going to make a habit over it. I just nodded and let the silence take over for a few strides.
"What's your favorite type of food?" I asked randomly, the silence being too awkward.
He thought about it for a second, his eyes looking up to the building, "Pizza," he said as we passed a pizza parlor. "Yours?"
"Spaghetti," I said, suddenly in the mood for some after he mentioned pizza.
"What's your favorite color?"
He looked down at me and grinned, "Am I under some inspection or something?"
"No I just—aw!" My foot skimmed off the curb as I began to fall into the street. Quickly, a cold hand grabbed my arm to pull me back in. I looked to where the hand grasped me and gasped when I had to close my eyes from the bright shine coming off it. When I was all straightened out, I wheeled toward Edward. "Was that—did your?" I couldn't say it right. This was so frustrating! Of course he wasn't a vampire! That was ridiculous! Then why did he have to be all crazy weird today? "How did you get there so fast?!" I stumbled and blurted out.
Edwards face turned panicked for a second but quickly smoothed over to a casual confusion. "Bella, I was right next to you."
"No, not right now, in the store! When I was by the shelf, you were way over by the shoe section and you just... appeared out of thin air!"
"You think I appeared out of this air?" He asked incredulously making me feel more stupid then ever.
"Well no, but... what about the vase? Those two guys couldn't even carry it but you caught it as it was falling!"
"Adrenaline rush," he offered. I huffed, frustrated. This made no sense, and yet it made perfect sense. How did I get him to fess up? "Bella, what are trying to say here?" That was easier than I expected.
I opened my mouth to state my presumption then snapped it shut after realizing how insane that would sound. I think I would need to sleep on this. I hung my head and sighed heavily. "Never mind." We continued to walk and head towards the park.
To be continued... Next chapter...Reviews are nice :)