A/N: I'm not gonna bother you guys with a lot of chatter about how horrible I am! But just know that I have the plot line worked out for the rest of this book and going forward I will make a solid chapter by chapter plotline for the books to come! Were back to our original story line this week and I've sped up the time a little bit. This chapter encompasses the month that Edward didn't speak to Bella after the accident.
So now that everyone is caught up I'll see you at the bottom!
Disclaimer: The worlds of Supernatural and Twilight belong to their respective owners. I claim nothing but the adapted plot lines!
Chapter 10: Mending Fences
October 1, 2007
It was almost like it was the first week of school all over again.
Everyone fussed over me, which was irritating, and they kept giving me that fake sympathy crap. The worst one was Jessica's constant blathering about how I could have died and that she would have been so sad to see me gone, and basically turning everything back on herself.
In the month after the accident Edward had gone right back to ignoring me. Mike was terrified that after he'd 'dashed to the rescue' that we were now bonded or something. I was quick to reassure him that in fact the opposite had happened. He never showed up for lunch, and in class, it was as if there was an invisible barrier separating the desk we shared.
After that first night of being angry at the guy, I realized that he did save my life, regardless of how irritated I was that he wouldn't share how he had done it. I had tried to apologize for my bad behavior on the first day I had gone back to school. He was already sitting at our table staring out the window. I bit my lip and walked back to the table and sat down.
I turned to him and tried to make my smile as friendly as I could manage. "Hey. I'm sorry about what happened the other day."
He turned slightly and nodded in my direction and then turned back to the front to where Mr. Banner was getting ready to start class and that was it for our social interaction.
Well I was not going to let him make me feel guilty. I tried to make it up to him and then he snubbed me like that? I pressed my lips into a hard line and turned to face the front of the class.
Mike got a little braver each and every day. He would linger by my desk a little longer than he had the day before. He even invited me to go out to La Push to a beach trip but I had to turn it down, I didn't want to run into Billy and have it out with him in front of Mike and his friends. That would bring up too many questions.
"Why not?" He asked with his lip poked out a little. I didn't miss the small glance that he threw at Edward, as did I. His head had turned without him realizing it in our direction, and when he noticed our glances he turned back to the front.
"I have a… thing that day." That was horrible, I could lie better than that.
Mike looked at me skeptically. "A thing?"
"My cousin is coming into town." I could make myself look like I normally am and set up the charade just in case anyone came to check up on me. But I highly doubted he would, Edward on the other hand… "I haven't seen her since I moved back in with Dad."
"Oh, some other time then." His shoulders slumped and he went back to his class.
Edward smirked, shook his head, and looked down.
"What are you smiling at?" I scowled at him.
He shook his head again and chucked to himself. "Nothing." His fists were balled up again and he was leaning away from me.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Whatever…." I took out my notebook and started taking notes. What he said next should have made me fall out of my chair.
"I accept your apology."
I stopped writing and was frozen for a moment. Did I really just hear that or had I imagined it? I peaked at him from my peripheral and saw him dutifully taking dictation from Mr. Banner. I shook it off and went back to writing.
When the bell rang he was the first to get up again, but this time he didn't make a break for the door as he usually did. He was standing by his chair absently, staring at me curiously.
"This is usually when you run away from me." I smiled as I started putting my books away. Don't ask me why I was being so nice to the guy. Maybe he was just a strange guy; I had met plenty of those in my line of work.
He grinned and laughed a little. "I'm sorry. You must think I'm avoiding you."
"Ignoring me is more like it." I swung my backpack over my shoulder. I was trying to be nonchalant about it as I backed away from him. I got a little bit of distance between us before I turned to walk out the door.
He caught up to me quickly and fell in step with me. "I'm not ignoring you, I just think it's best if we weren't friends."
"That makes a lot of sense." I remarked sarcastically. "Like we were friends before the accident?" I laughed, it sounded off though, and I was reminded of that first day, when he had attacked me.
"Of course not." His smile was grim, as if he were thinking about the same thing. He was walking right up to the gym with me I kept expecting him to just disappear again like always does and then I could go back to my semi-normal life. I was slightly freaked by how close he was. It was closer than he had gotten since before the accident. I pulled my hair back over my ear, smiling a little as I moved a bit further away.
"Well, this is my stop." I hinted slightly.
"I suppose so." He looked up at the clouds forlornly. I looked up too, they were not as dense as they usually are, and the weatherman said that it would be nice this weekend. I might actually get to see the sun, was it still a big round orange ball? I wasn't sure.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" He looked back down at me and smiled.
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled back. "It depends on what it is, but I guess so." What if he asked me more bizarre questions?
"Why did you turn Mike down?" His smile was teasing but his eyes were tense.
"I don't see how that's any of your business." My face turned a little pink and I turned away from him; he didn't want to go there with me. I couldn't understand his interest in the two of us. My reaction to his question set a playful smile on his face this time it spread all over his face and even got into his golden eyes. I rolled my eyes and headed for the gym door.
"I'm sorry, it is none of my business, I'm just curious." He called back. I could hear the smile in his voice as he started laughing.
My anger pushed me through until I realized that the coach had handed me a tennis racquet. Now mind you, I'm not much of a sporty girl to begin with, and I had more experience than most do with various forms of weaponry, but that racquet felt like the most dangerous weapon I had ever been given.
Mike jogged over to where I was pacing. He seemed like he was over me not going with him this weekend, but I can't be sure, sometimes teenage boys were harder to figure out than monsters.
"Alright cupcakes!" the coach commanded after he made sure everyone had a racquet. "Pair up!"
"Do you have a partner?" Mike asked hopefully.
"Nope." I twisted the racquet in my hands until the duct tape started to come off.
"Great! We'll beat the crap out of anyone they throw at us!" He grinned and bounded up to take the first player position on our court.
"There will be beating." I muttered to myself. "Just not how you think."
I managed to hit that infuriating little ball once and nearly took off Mike's head. After that fiasco, I kept my racquet close and let Mike carry on with his one man tennis show. The coach came over a few minutes later and chewed out Mike for not letting me play.
"Winchester!" he barked at me. "This is gym class, not knitting! I need to see some participation!"
I rolled my eyes and grumbled something very unladylike under my breath and then floundered around for two minutes trying to catch the ball so I could serve it. The two girls on the other team, Amanda and Drew, snickered and my face got hotter.
"How's this for participation?" I sighed quietly as I threw the ball up to serve. Then it just went downhill from there. I don't really know what happened but somehow I ended up tripping over my own shoes and sent the ball hurling towards the other side of the gym and ended up getting tangled up with Mike, whom I had clipped on the shoulder and then myself on the head with the racquet.
"Good luck Newton." The coach put his clipboard over his face to disguise his laughter. The both of us were trying to get out at the same time but we managed it and resume gameplay.
Still, being handicapped by me, Mike won three out of four games. He was waiting for me outside the locker room. "Hey, I'm really sorry about today. How's the shoulder?"
"It's okay; I've almost got the feeling back in my fingers." He joked lightly. "How's your head?"
"I'm down a few brain cells." I joked back. "But it's alright."
"Why were you late today?" He asked as he started following me.
"Edward wanted to talk to me." I noticed that he tensed up a little when I mentioned Edward.
We had just walked out of the gym and I had taken off my jacket. The combination of embarrassment, the heat generated by me running around a tennis court today, and the fact that it was an almost nice day out because it wasn't raining; I didn't have to wear my rain jacket.
"Hello." A musical voice came from nowhere Mike and I glanced over our shoulders and didn't see anyone until we turned back and Edward was standing a few feet away from us.
"Geez! Do you want to give someone a heart attack?!" I glared at him. Mike shifted uncomfortably, looking between the two of us.
"My apologies." Edward dipped his head a little and bowed slightly, he looked like he was auditioning for a role in The Importance of Being Earnest play that the school was putting on.
"I gotta get home Bella." Mike turned his attention to me. "Mom will have it out with me if I'm late. See you tomorrow." And then he trudged off towards the parking lot.
I glared at Edward, starting towards my car. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" I prompted with a growl of frustration.
"No, not particularly." He smirked. He was enjoying this too much….
"Are you following me then?" I challenged him with a steely glare.
"No, just talking."
"There's a fine line between 'talking' and 'stalking.'" I was tempted to make a break for it, but he could probably keep up with me. And he hadn't made a move to do anything yet.
He snorted. "I suppose there is."
"Honestly, I can't keep up with you. I thought you didn't want to be friends with me and now you won't leave me alone? Are you sure you don't have multiple personality disorder?" I frowned, growing more irritated.
"I said it was better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be." Edward countered. "You'd be smart to stay away from me."
"Well that makes a lot of sense…." I rolled my eyes as we reached the parking lot. "So why are you being friendly now?"
"I've decided I am giving up." He looked at me with determination blazing in his eyes. "I'm just going to do what I want and let the chips fall where they may." He took a step towards me. "I'm tired of trying to stay away from you Bella." I gulped as he reached out and tucked a stray piece of my hair behind my ear.
We walked past Mike's car and he narrowed his eyes as he gunned the engine to life and raced out of the parking lot.
"What is up with him?" I said more to myself. Mike was acting more jittery than usual.
"He's angry with me for stealing you away." Edward remarked as he watched the little Toyota drive out of sight.
"No one steals me away." I smirked playfully. I was becoming less and less terrified of this strange guy and more at ease with him. That should have scared me to death, but it didn't, I was more interested in trying to figure him out. He wasn't that dangerous, if he was something malicious then he would have killed me that first day, or let Tyler's van do the job.
He smiled back at me. "I'm sure."
"So you're hitting on me?" I grinned, deciding not to push the issue any more with Mike.
"The way Mike thinks, yes." He smiled back.
"I believe you." I rolled my eyes, why was it so easy to talk to him? I guess in a little way he reminded me of Sam, with a little bit of Dean here and there. "I don't think my brothers would approve of you hitting on me." He didn't know how Dean reacted when I told him about the attack.
"Brothers?" he gave me that lopsided grin again and I tried to ignore the way I felt, the spasm inducing pit in my stomach, the goose bumps on my arms that were thankfully hidden under the long leaves of my shirt.
"Yeah, an older brother and a twin."
He looked down at the concrete and then turned to me with a small smile. "And another piece falls into place."
I snorted "Yeah." We had just reached my car and I leaned up against it. He stood across from me and fixed me with those golden eyes of his.
"What?" Not that I didn't mind the staring, I had done plenty of staring for the both of us over the past month.
"No wonder you are so headstrong." He grinned.
"Yeah. I haven't seen them since I moved back. I guess I won't see them until…" I stopped short. I had almost goofed up, telling my most guarded secret. I looked down at my hands. It was easier not to blurt out the truth if I wasn't distracted by him.
"Until what?"
I contemplated telling him the truth. If he wanted to turn me in to some insane asylum then fine, I was just as good at disappearing as he was. But he didn't need to know all the gory details.
"My oldest brother only has a few months left to live." I replied quietly. "That's why they sent me back here."
"I'm so sorry Bella." I was still looking down, so I didn't see his face, but I was sure it was the same as all the others. Once they found out something like this they try to run away from it, giving some lame excuse like, 'I'm sorry for your loss, I think I left the stove on at home.'
I gave him a mocking laugh. "It's fine. I know you don't really care anyway. It's just something people say."
His voice sounded a little hurt. "What makes you think I don't care?"
I shook my head as the tears threatened to spill over. "Because everyone always says the exact same thing." I pushed off of the hood and started for the door. He had no right to make me cry, I wasn't going to let him see this moment of weakness either. His strong hand latched onto mine, but he didn't turn me around. I didn't turn to face him until I was sure the tears were gone.
When I looked back at him there was nothing but concern on his face. "Bella, I do care, despite what you think of me."
I smiled a little. "Thanks." No one had ever done that before, it was a shock coming from him. I looked down at our hands, his were still icy cold but I didn't mind that as much. Then I looked back up at him and laughed a little.
He cleared his throat and muttered an apology and let me go.
"It's alright." My hand stung a little and my skin had turned white where his had been and faded slowly back to its original color. "I should get going. Charlie's expecting me."
"Alright." He stepped away from me and back onto the sidewalk. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I guess." I smiled and turned back to my door and climbed into the car.
By the time I had looked back at where he had been standing, he was gone. I chuckled to myself, had I expected anything less from the infamous Edward Cullen?
So what do you guys think? Hopefully the little bit of fluff will be enough to spare me from the wrath! Let me know in a review how you feel!
