A/N: It's been a bit of a gap between this upload and the last i know. School's been busy and i've been ill. sorry. Thanks to reviewers and new favouriters and alerters! it's much appreciated. I quite like this chapter, hope you do too so enjoy :)
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing
Butterflies and Hurricanes
Chapter 11
*~Bella~*
The next morning Charlie joined Alice and I for breakfast. Unable to take a full day off work, he decided to go in for half a day instead. I shook my head in mock sadness; he truly appeared to be married to his job. Besides the god awful mood I was in, I was feeling a lot better than the previous day and insisted I was well enough for school.
Truthfully, I wanted to see Edward again.
Alice's expression told me I was fooling no one with the 'importance of education' crap.
About halfway through my bowl of cheerio's Alice cleared her throat and informed Charlie of our planned escape from the spring dance. Unfortunately, he decided that that particular day was unsafe for us to be travelling alone.
"Are you sure? Seattle is a big place. You could get lost or attacked." He fretted.
I raised my eyebrows and let a sardonic smile twist half of my mouth upwards, while Alice answered his worries by fully turning in my direction and tapping her forehead knowingly at him while winking at me.
Charlie got the point fairly quickly but his eyebrows were still scrunched in concern. It felt nice to know someone cared but in all seriousness, his worry was unnecessary. 'Maybe it was a parent thing.'
-
The ride to school was fairly uneventful, Alice tried to convince me to let her drive but I was adamant; besides, she'd end up breaking the poor vehicle attempting to exceed the speed limits.
"You should probably be more careful with you're thoughts." I mentioned casually as we neared the tiny school.
"Already taken care of," she assured me confidently "We wouldn't want them to have the upper hand now would we?" she teased with a grin.
"No, we wouldn't" I muttered softly, a faint bitterness lacing my tone that even I could hear.
Alice acted as though she hadn't heard me.
I found a parking spot fairly quickly and climbed out of the cab. I fumbled with the keys and it fell into a puddle at my feet. I sighed and bent down to retrieve them but a white hand flashed out and grabbed them before I could. I jerked upright in surprise only to see Edward Cullen leaning casually against the side of the truck in all his perfection.
"How do you do that?" I asked in amazed irritation.
"Do what?" He handed me the keys as he spoke, dropping them into my open palm.
"Appear out of thin air." I stated this as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Bella, it's not my fault you are exceptionally unobservant." His voice was quiet as usual – soft as velvet.
I scowled up at his perfect face and glared into his eyes – which were a lighter honey today.
I then had to look elsewhere in order to reassemble my now bundled thoughts. I swept my gaze around the parking lot to find Alice only to notice that she had mysteriously disappeared.
'Traitor!' I growled in my head.
"Why the sudden desire to speak to me again? I thought you were supposed to be pretending I don't exist, not irritating me to death." 'Stupid mind reading - I don't know what you are – Cullen'.
"Can't I check to see if someone is alright? Last I saw you were rather ill…" he trailed off and looked down at me with an amused smile quirking his flawless lips. I narrowed my eyes at him which only seemed to amuse him further.
"And I'm not pretending you don't exist." He continued.
"So you are trying to irritate me to death? Since the van didn't do the job!"
Anger flashed within his tawny eyes, his lips pressed into a hard line and all traces of humour gone.
"Bella, you are utterly absurd." He said in a quiet but cold voice.
'Oh if only my touch hurt you Edward Cullen…' - I didn't really mean that but my gloved hands twitched nonetheless. I quickly arranged my expression into a hard mask, breathed heavily through my nose and stalked away from him before I did something I would greatly regret later.
"Wait!" He called, and was suddenly by my side, easily keeping pace as I continued sloshing angrily through the many puddles littering the walkway.
"I am sorry," he apologized but I ignored him, "It was rude, not untrue, but rude to say anyway."
"Why won't you leave me alone?" I grumbled, desperately wishing Alice would come rescue me.
He chuckled, seeming to have recovered his good humour, "I wanted to ask you something but you sidetracked me."
"Do you have multiple personality disorder, or maybe Bipolar?" I voiced my thoughts from the first time we met.
"You're doing it again." He pointed out.
I sighed. "Fine, what do you want to ask?"
"I was wondering if, a week from Saturday – you know, the day of the spring dance-"
I cut him off, making a sound like a choking animal, "Are you trying to be funny?" I stopped dead in my tracks and glared at him furiously. He seemed taken aback by the force of my anger but his eyes were wickedly amused.
"Will you please allow me to finish?" he asked as Alice came hurtling around the corner with wide eyes.
I bit my lip and interlocked my fingers, pressing my tingling palms together behind my back so I wouldn't do anything rash. Alice was briskly walking towards us with a disapproving glare at Edwards back. 'What, did she see me kicking the crap out of this perfect looking ass?' He certainly had a perfect looking ass… 'STOP IT BELLA!'
"I heard you were going to Seattle that day, and I was wondering if you wanted a ride." Despite my bad mood I had to smother a small smile. No one but ourselves and Charlie knew that Alice and I were planning on going to Seattle; everyone else thought we were just going 'away'.
Then the rest of what he said registered.
"What?" I couldn't have heard correctly.
"Do you want a ride to Seattle?"
"With who?" I asked, mystified.
"Myself, obviously." He spoke as if talking to someone who was mentally handicapped, enunciating each word.
Irritation crept in again, "Why would you do that?" was it some kind of joke?
"I'm not sure if your truck can make the journey and besides, I'm going to Seattle in the next few weeks anyway."
"The truck is perfectly fine thank you and I don't see how this is any of your business." I replied curtly and continued walking again.
"The wasting of finite sources is everyone's business." He kept pace with me easily, I rolled my eyes sceptically; why was he being so pushy?
"Honestly, Edward." I hated the thrill that rushed through me as I uttered his name; I mentally slapped myself again for abominably acting like a teenage girl. "I can't keep up with you. I thought you didn't want to be my friend."
"I said it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be."
"Oh, now that's all cleared up!" my voice was heavy with sarcasm. We were under the shelter of the English building now and I tilted my head upwards in order to see his face and read his expression.
This did not help my clarity of thought, whatsoever.
"It would be more…prudent for you not to be my friend," he explained. "But I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Bella."
His eyes were gloriously intense as he uttered that last sentence and I felt as though he saw straight through me and into my soul, his voice was smouldering and obscuring my senses in the most pleasant way.
"Will you go with me to Seattle?" he asked, with the same level of intensity.
I couldn't speak, heck I couldn't even breathe. I was saved from answering however, as Alice appeared by my side at that moment and answered for the both of us.
"We'd love to!" she beamed at him with a glint in her eye I couldn't quite care to understand.
He smiled briefly at the two of us, a beautiful crooked smile that did not help my current attempts at remembering the process of respiration. Then his face abruptly became serious.
"You really should stay away from us," he warned the two of us before directing his next comment at me. "I'll see you in class."
He whirled around and stalked back down the path we had just come.
'What the hell?' I thought, still dazed.
-
"Come on, we should head to class, we're already late." Alice murmured, guiding me by the arm.
I blinked, and then frowned down at her. "Where the hell have you been?" I accused shakily. 'Get a grip Swan!' I admonished myself.
Alice shifted her eyes slightly and got an uncharacteristically sheepish look on her face.
"I, uhh… I had some things to do." She explained lamely.
"Things?" I repeated sourly. "You left me to face the big bad wolf alone because you had some things to do?" I was particularly miffed that she could have prevented me from making a complete fool out of myself. She nodded and pulled me faster towards the English classroom. I looked down at her again only to see her blushing slightly. 'Since when does Alice blush?' I thought completely bewildered.
Then it clicked.
I gasped and stared at her with wide eyes. Hearing my gasp Alice whipped her head around and stared at me with a wild expression when she registered my own.
"You were with Jasper!" I accused, more amused than affronted.
She was acting like the kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar; it was quite a funny comparison, so I laughed.
"Thank you for joining us ladies." Mr Mason said in an annoyed tone, saving Alice from my attack.
Still chortling, I casually followed Alice to our seats.
-
It wasn't until the end of the lesson that I noticed than mine and Alice's admirers were not sat next to us as they usually did. I perhaps should have felt slightly guilty, but I didn't.
However, Mike caught up to us as we left English and walked with us to next lesson so I figured we were 'forgiven'. He became more animated as we walked, chatting non stop about the beach trip this weekend he desperately wanted us to come to.
"Sure," I answered half heartedly after sharing a brief glance with Alice. "Why not?"
"Awe-some" he beamed, lengthening the phrase into two words.
'I bet it is' I thought with a wry grin. 'I just can't wait'.
*~Alice~*
Being a little more reliable than the local weather man, I knew that the rain was going to let up this weekend making the beach trip possible.
"It's going to be a nice weekend, quite sunny." I informed Bella quietly as we walked to our next class. She nodded and grimaced slightly, knowing she had no excuse not to go now.
I know she was still a little upset that I wasn't there for her this morning, but I honestly didn't see it coming. Also, I was otherwise occupied.
Bella was right, embarrassingly enough. I was with Jasper and my conversation with him had been similar to Edwards and Bella's. I'd approached him after exiting the cab, noticing him stood alone and staring in my direction. We'd greeted each other as usual but he was looking at me with longing and pain.
-
"We shouldn't be friends" He'd said. I frowned slightly, remembering his words exactly.
"Why?" I asked in a hurt voice.
"I'm not a good friend for you."
"You are. You are Jasper." I insisted, annoyed that he would think so little of himself. Usually it was the other way around. People didn't want to be friends with Bella and I, because of us.
"What if I'm not who you think I am?" he demanded looking pained again.
"You're not. I know who you are." He was beginning to eye me wearily.
"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, not everything is as it seems?" I spoke through clenched teeth, laced with hurt. Before I had turned my back and stormed away to find Bella with tears stinging my ducts, I released the observation that proved how much I was aware of him and left him dumbfounded, "You have four scars on your face, the one above you're left eyebrow is particularly difficult to see."
I rounded the corner only to find Bella having her own conversation with Edward, and she didn't look particularly happy.
I chuckled, remembering Bella's face as Edward walked away from us.
-
The rest of the morning passed in a bit of a blur, until I got to History; my one class with Jasper.
After our disagreement this morning, I wasn't sure how he was going to react so I shuffled to my seat keeping my eyes firmly away from him. 'Does he think I'm some crazy stalker?'.
He was silent for a moment before he murmured in his quiet voice of warm honey, "I'm sorry Alice."
I glanced up at his from under my lashes. His golden eyes held conflicting emotions and he looked at a loss of what to do. He was beautiful.
"I don't want to stay away from you," he continued in a tortured voice.
"Then don't." I whispered.
"You don't know what you're saying." I sighed, while his expression belied his tone.
"I would," I insisted. "If you'd let me."
He stared at me intensely with an unfathomable expression clouding his ethereal features and said no more as the lesson had begun.
-
When the bell ended, signalling the end of the lesson I turned my head to speak to him again.
But his seat was empty.
I swept my gaze around the room but he was nowhere in sight; he'd already gone. Riddled with disappointment, I sighed unhappily and headed for the cafeteria to find my sister.
-
When I entered the lunch room however, it was to find my sister sat with none other than Edward Cullen at a vacant table away from the rest of the student population. I shook my head slightly with a smile and reminded myself for warn Bella of the blood-typing assignment Mr Banner suddenly decided to spring on his students next lesson. She would definitely want to miss that.
Unexpectedly, Edward's gaze flashed to meet mine as the thought of blood-typing crossed my mind; he looked away just as quickly as he'd glanced at me but it was quick enough to notice the alarm in his eyes.
'How strange, maybe he dislikes blood also' I thought to myself while I began focussing on the beach trip this weekend to keep Edward out of my head.
I grabbed some lunch and sat next to our usual lunch companions. Still throwing questioning glances in Bella and Edward's direction I turned towards Jessica, "Why-?"
"I don't know." She interrupted me in a hard voice practically overflowing with irrational jealousy, and most likely anticipating my question. The majority of the student body were staring their way; Lauren should be, by all rights green with envy.
"Doesn't he know what she-", her shrill voice was beginning to travel and I saw Bella's shoulders stiffen.
I cut the pathetic bimbo off before she could finish her sentence; I wasn't sure if I could restrain Bella a second time… or help her. "Finish that sentence Lauren," I began ominously. "And you will regret it for the rest of your life."
My threat seemed to have reached home for she paled slightly and glanced once more in Bella's direction before hurriedly striking up a conversation with Connor. 'Good girl' I thought lowly.
I began absent-mindedly chewing on my not so nutritious cafeteria food while curiously observing my sisters interactions with Edward Cullen.
*~Bella~*
The morning sped past in a mix of colours and meaningless conversation. I was having a difficult time believing what Edward had said earlier, and the way his eyes had looked. Perhaps this was an extremely convincing dream I had confused with reality, heaven knows I dream about the boy far too much already. I definitely couldn't possibly appeal to him on any level other than our similar apparent desire for social alienation.
This train of thought resulted in my impatience and nerves as Jessica and I entered the cafeteria. I figured that I could just read his face to see whether he was serious or not or if he had returned to the cold, indifferent being I had become accustomed to these past weeks. Or, if my mind had indeed not being over imaginative this morning.
Jessica continued to babble as usual about her plans for the dance, completely unaware of my lack of attention to her annoying verbal flow. Earlier I had, (slyly, in my opinion) suggested to Jessica that Lauren - the bitch face - Mallory should ask Tyler to the dance, I'd heard he was single; and that Angela – kind and quiet – Weber, could ask Eric. Alice had been ever so thankful afterwards and had informed me that the girls would ask and be accepted. Excellent.
Disappointment surged through me as my eyes zeroed in on the Cullen table situated in the corner of the room. The others were there, but he was not; had he gone home? I followed the still blabbering Jessica through the lunch line now in a foul mood. I bought nothing but lemonade, prepared to transcend into an almighty sulk and listen to death metal; no one was safe. Except maybe Alice.
-
I was pouting at the table top, ferociously glaring at the laps of everyone in sight as they attempted to include me in conversation, when Jessica tentatively elbowed my ribs and said, "Edward Cullen is staring at you again," Saving herself from my wrath and capturing my attention by uttering his name. "I wonder why he's sitting alone today."
My head snapped up and I followed her gaze to where Edward certainly was sitting in all his pale skinned glory, a crooked smile upon his beautiful face as he stared at me from across the cafeteria at a usually empty table. Once he caught my eye he raised one hand and crooked his index finger in a 'come here' gesture. As I stared at him with bare faced incredulity, he winked. 'He winked at me!' I thought in disbelief.
"Does he mean you?" Jessica asked with insulting astonishment. I levelled a hard gaze towards her for a moment before answering.
"Perhaps he wishes for me to describe the inner workings of your mind to him, he's that enamoured with you." I uttered solemnly with a mocking edge. 'He wouldn't need me to tell him how her mind works. He probably has to listen to her all day long, poor guy.'
I could feel her staring after me as I ambled towards Edward.
-
When I reached his table I hesitated behind the chair opposite him, unsure of what to do.
"Why don't you sit with me today?" he asked with a smile, simultaneously kicking the chair in front of me away from the table.
I sat down cautiously and watched him warily. He was still smiling; how could so beautiful be real? I was afraid he would suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke and I would suddenly wake up to reality. He seemed to be waiting for me to speak first.
"'Sup?" I said, nodding my head a little and imagining tumble weed blowing across our table to a slight breeze. "This is…different." I continued awkwardly.
"Well…" he paused before rushing out the rest of his sentence in a breath of attractive vocal noises, "I decided that as long as I was going to hell, I may as well do it thoroughly."
'What the figurative hell?'
My mind went completely silent for a moment before I said something completely off topic and what my brain filter managed to let escape.
"What did you do that would warrant such a fate?"
He stared blankly at me for a moment before throwing his head back and erupting in enchanting laughter that very nearly sent me into hyperventilation. I soon realised everyone was staring bemusedly at us and that the rest of the female population were in a similar state to myself. I mentally slapped myself again. Edward returned to a sitting position and wiped his curiously tearless eyes, still chuckling quietly. I waited patiently for him to recover from his mirth and to latch onto his composure again.
He smiled at me and changed the subject and effectively avoiding my question, however bizarre the question was. "I think your friends are angry at me for stealing you."
"I don't have friends, I have Alice." I said automatically then amended slightly before he could question me about that, "They'll survive." I could feel all of their stares boring into my back.
He tilted his head to one side slightly and raised his eyebrows an inch, but said nothing to my previous comment. "I may not give you back though." He said with a wicked glint in his eye.
"That's fine. I'll just call Alice over here," I paused before grinning slyly at him, "You can bring Jasper of course." He looked a bit surprised and a little bit happy which in turn, made my grin widen.
He sighed, "I give up."
"Give up?" I repeated in confusion.
"Yes, giving up trying to be good. I'm just going to do what I want now and let the chips fall where they may." A hard edge crept into his voice as he spoke and all traces of amusement drained from his expression.
"You've lost me."
The breathtaking crooked smile reappeared. 'Jesus, he really is bipolar.'
"I always say too much when I'm speaking to you – that's one of the problems."
"Don't worry - I don't understand any of it." I assured him wryly.
"I'm counting on that."
"Why?" I asked curiously.
He sighed again and sounded older than he looked when he spoke again, "We can try to be friends Bella, but I'm warning you – I'm not a good friend for you." The intense look returned, he was still smiling slightly but behind that, the warning was clearly real.
"I've never been a good friend." I said casually. "Did you ever think that maybe I'm no good for you?" I raised my right eyebrow and gave him a self mocking smile he would not understand.
I was right, he didn't understand. In fact, he looked slightly angered that I would think that.
"You're not." He said firmly.
"Neither are you."
He breathed heavily through his nose, sat back in his chair and frowned at me.
"If you were smart, you'd stay away from me." He persisted, annoying me with both his insistence and what he was insinuating.
"I believe you've made your opinion on the subject of my intellect clear too." I uttered lowly with narrowed eyes.
He smiled apologetically.
"So… I guess, as long as I'm being not smart, we'll try to be friends?" I attempted to sum up feeling like a five year old asking for her first friend.
"That sounds about right." He nodded his head, staring at me curiously.
I looked down at my hands wrapped around the lemonade bottle, unsure of what to do or say.
-
"What are you thinking?" Edward asked curiously. I looked up into his deep golden eyes, became slightly befuddled and almost blurted out the truth. Almost.
'Oh no you don't, you aren't getting inside this head.'
Instead, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"The square root of pi."
"Really?" He was genuinely curious. Oh dear.
"I love maths." I choked out, struggling to sound convincing with a disgusted grimace on my face. He didn't look convinced, I wasn't particularly surprised but damn him to the fiery pits of Hades because he didn't let the matter go.
"Won't you tell me?" he asked, tilting his head to the side with a shockingly tempting smile.
'Resist, Swan! Resist this ridiculously persuasive demon!'
I shook my head vehemently.
"That's really frustrating you know," He complained.
"No," I contradicted, my eyes narrowing into slits, "I cannot imagine why that would be frustrating at all – just because someone refused to tell you what they are thinking, especially if they keep making cryptic little remarks designed to keep you up at night wondering what they could possibly mean… now, why would that be frustrating?" I was almost out of breath by the time I had finished and my chest was heaving.
Edward grimaced.
"Or better yet," I continued having let loose the flood gates of my pent up annoyance, "say that person did a range of bizarre things – from saving your life under impossible circumstances one day to treating you to the cold shoulder the next. Never explaining himself even after he promised. That also, would be very non-frustrating would it not?"
"You've got a bit of a temper, don't you?"
"No, not usually, I just don't like double-standards." I get enough of them elsewhere thank you.
We stared at each other, unsmiling.
He glanced over my shoulder, then unexpectedly snickered.
"What?" I asked annoyed but still curious to what amused him.
"Your boyfriend seems to think I'm being unpleasant to you – he's debating whether on not to come over and break up our fight." He sniggered. The only way he could know that was if he either heard this from across the cafeteria or from the thoughts. I decided to go with the latter but filed away this observation for later.
"I have no boyfriend. I'm sure you're wrong anyway." I said frostily, knowing the probability he was referring to the retriever.
"I'm not. Most people are easy to read remember?"
"Except me." I rubbed this fact in his face a little without letting him know I knew how he was such a good reader.
"Yes," his mood shifted abruptly, his eyes turning brooding. "I wonder why that is."
I avoided his penetrating stare by focusing the entirety of my attention on unscrewing my bottle lid and taking a swig of it's bubbly substance.
-
"Aren't you hungry?" He asked, distracted.
"No. Are you?" I focussed on the empty space in front of him.
"No, I am not hungry." His tone and expression were laced with amusement – like he was enjoying a private joke I didn't understand.
After a few moments of silence, I asked the question that had been bugging me all morning.
"Why did you say that I should stay away from you?"
He looked conflicted before he answered, "What if I'm not the person you think I am Bella? What if I'm the bad guy?" His eyes were impenetrable.
"Oh," I said as several of his hints fell into place. "I see."
"Do you?" His face was abruptly severe, as though he regretted making me aware but relieved at the same time.
"You're dangerous?" I guessed, leaning back in my seat, my pulse quickening slightly as the truth of what I said dawned on me. He was dangerous and he'd been trying to tell me it all along.
He just looked at me sadly, with eyes full of some other emotion I couldn't comprehend.
"But not bad," I continued, shaking my head. "I don't believe you're bad."
"You're wrong." His words were almost inaudible. He was looking down and he reached out quickly to steal my bottle lid, spinning it between his long nimble pianist fingers. I wouldn't be surprised if he played.
"I don't think I am Edward," I disagreed, thrilling to his name rolling off my tongue once again and wondering why I wasn't afraid. "I'm not comfortable with many, if any people. But with you…" I trailed off, realising why I wasn't really that frightened. I was fascinated definitely, but there was a chord that struck within when I was with him and something about him made me feel…whole. At peace; home.
He was about to say something else when I realised that the cafeteria was steadily emptying and Alice was rapidly skipping to my side with a concerned and thoughtful expression clouding her features. She dipped her head a few inches to level with mine and whispered quickly and quietly in my ear.
"Mr Banner changed his plans in biology today," her tone mirrored her expression. "He's suddenly planned blood typing and I don't know how to get you out of it."
I looked at her in alarm. I glanced subtly in Edward's direction to see his reaction to our exchange; he looked as though he had heard Alice's information clearly as I had.
Interesting…
His expression also seemed to mirror my exact sentiments; 'crap, what the hell do I do?'
-
A/N: You know the drill. Please review and tell me what you think, i like knowing if i'm doing right or wrong :) *smiles persuasive Edward smile...*you know you wanna... VV