I threw my pencil down in frustration for the tenth time that evening. I just couldn't concentrate; not when I knew that Edward was coming in a few more moments.
Edward's nighttime visits never ceased when we started going out. The only thing that changed was the fact that he stayed the night instead of just going home after I went to bed. I can't say I minded. In fact, I was absolutely thrilled and loved waking up in his arms every morning.
I sighed and rubbed my face tiredly before picking up my pencil and starting up on my trigonometry homework once again. I only had one more problem and I knew that the moment Edward climbed through my window I definitely wouldn't finish.
The faint scent of freshly brewed coffee and cinnamon greeted my nostrils and I panicked. He was almost through the window and I wasn't finished with my homework!
Lemons and lilies…
Okay, so one over secant is the same as cosine…
…caramel and melting butter…
…and then you can just cancel out the sine. Which leaves me with…
…peppermint and fabric softener…
"Tangent over cosine!" I shouted as I leapt up and threw my pencil down in triumph. "I finished my homework, I finished my homework!"
"Congratulations," Edward said, his voice dripping in amusement. "Just in time too."
I turned to him and grinned. "I know. I was worried there for a moment. But I beat you, so there." I stuck my tongue out at him for good measure.
He smirked back. "Actually, you didn't. I was sitting out in the tree, waiting for you to finish."
My jaw dropped. "How long were you in there?"
His smirk widened. "Moooooon River! Wiiiiider than a miiiile…"
I gasped. "You heard that? I can't believe you!"
"Don't worry. You were very good."
I pouted and crossed my arms over my chest. "That wasn't very nice."
His smirk melted into a grin as he pulled me close to him and planted a firm kiss on my lips. "Is that better?"
I rolled my eyes. "You think a lot of yourself."
His smile grew and he kissed me again, this time with a slight gentleness to it. I kissed back willingly, letting myself get lost in the sensations his touch triggered within me. He pulled away after a few more moments and gazed at me with a strange intensity in his ocher eyes. "What about now?"
"Consider yourself forgiven," I breathed. My voice never seemed to work properly after Edward kissed me.
"Good," he said with a smile. "That means I can finally ask what I meant to when I first got here."
"Oh?" I asked with raised eyebrows.
"I was going to ask if we could reschedule our date this Saturday. I can't take you into Port Angeles because Alice said it's going to be sunny this weekend."
"Oh," I said in disappointment. I had been really looking forward to this weekend too. "That's cool."
He smiled as if he knew something I didn't. "But I did promise you that I would show you what happens when I'm out in the sun."
My disappointment left me when I realized what he meant by that statement. "You did. You did promise."
"So I think that this weekend would be the perfect opportunity."
I grinned when I realized that I wouldn't have to cancel our date after all. "Then where are you going to take me?"
"Some place special," was all he said. I pouted, but contented myself with the answer.
I put away my homework and rushed off to the bathroom to get ready for bed. When my teeth were brushed, my face washed, and my feet be-slippered, I ran down to the living room where my parents were watching TV, hardly able to contain my excitement. "Good night, Mom. Good night, Dad. I'm going to bed now."
My mother looked up from her cross-stitching and smiled at me. "Good night honey. Sweet dreams." My father repeated her sentiments and I hurriedly kissed them both on the cheek before racing back up the stairs, eager to get back to Edward. I found him sitting on my bed, as usual, waiting patiently for my return.
"I'm sorry for taking so long," I said as I sat down next to him on the bed.
"I didn't mind," he said as he wrapped his arms around me. Then he lifted the back of my shirt to see the bruises on my back. It had become a nightly ritual; he would assess the damage wreaked on my skin, beg and plead with me to stop taking naps in the forest and to get a new mattress and I would always refuse, telling him that I was fine and I hardly felt the bruising anymore.
"You really should get a new mattress, you know," he said with a frown after he was finished examining the wounds.
I shook my head. "I've told you before, I'm fine."
He still didn't look convinced, so I lay down and tucked myself in underneath my favorite blue comforter. He lay down next to me so that we were face to face, only several inches apart. "How was your evening?" I asked him.
He shrugged. "Uneventful. Rosalie continued to berate me and after a while, Emmett had to pull her off."
I raised my eyebrows. "And you call that uneventful?"
"It's been happening for the past week. How was your evening?"
"My father found a stray dog on the side of the street when he was driving home," I told him as I remembered the sweet, sad look in his eyes. "We tried to nurse it to health, but he was too wounded. He had this huge gash in the side of his stomach. We think he got hit by a car."
"What happened to him?"
"He died a few hours after we tried to take care of him. Dad dug a grave in the backyard and we buried him. It was so sad." He had bright green eyes that seemed so tragic, so wounded that it broke my heart. "I wish we could have done more for him."
Edward wrapped his arms around my body and hugged me close to him. "I'm sure you did all that you could."
I sighed into his chest and nodded. "I suppose. It just feels sort of ominous, you know?"
"What do you mean?"
Oh crap. "Like something bad is going to happen," I said. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.
He chuckled. "Have you been reading the horoscopes again?"
I snuggled into his marble comfort and closed my eyes. "No. I'm just tired."
I felt his smooth, cold lips press against my hair. "Go to sleep, then. I'll be here in the morning."
I sighed in contentment. "Thank you, Edward," I told him sleepily as sleep began to drift over me, weighing down my limbs and numbing my brain. "Good night."
"Good night, Bella," I heard his distant, soft voice whisper to me. "I love you."
But by then I was too far away to acknowledge anything.
"Are we there yet?"
Edward's lips quirked upward. "Not yet."
I pursed my lips in impatience and glared out the window. Five minutes later, I asked, "What about now?"
"You'll know when we get there," he said. "In the meantime, just sit back and try to relax."
"I can't relax," I whined. "You're driving too fast and we still seem to be getting nowhere. And you won't tell me where we're going in the first place."
I saw him roll his eyes. "If it makes you feel better, I'll let you drive on the way home."
This thought cheered me and occupied my thoughts for the rest of the drive. After twenty more minutes of driving, he finally came to a stop at the edge of a forest. I stuck my head out the window and peered into the shadowed depths of the dark green branches. "There's no sun here," I accused.
"We'll have to hike a bit," he told me as he helped me out of the car. He took one look at my horrified expression and laughed. "Don't worry, I'll help you. You'll be fine."
I still wasn't too convinced, but I really did want to see what sunlight did to Edward. So I followed him into the forest, taking care not to trip or fall over the brambles in my path.
We hiked in silence for a little while. Then he broke the silence and said, "Esme and Carlisle have been a little impatient to meet you. Every since I told you about us, they've been wanting to welcome you into the family."
I audibly gulped. "Y-your family?" I stammered. "You want me to meet your family?"
He chuckled. "I believe that was the implication."
I thought back to Rosalie's haughty glare whenever she saw me in school. "What—what if they don't like me?"
"Don't worry," he reassured me. "They'll love you. Rosalie's the only one who doesn't…well, she's not happy about the arrangement, but she'll be on her best behavior when you come to visit."
I was still a little unsure, so he took my hand and held it in his larger one. I loved the way his long, cold fingers wrapped around mine. "You'll be fine. I swear."
I reluctantly nodded. It was only fair, right? Edward had already met my family, so I might as well meet his. That's what people in relationships did, right? They met each other's families.
Fifteen minutes of hiking later, we finally made it through the forest and into the most beautiful meadow I had ever seen in my life. The sunlight was shining brightly overhead, and the bits of dew were glowing on the green grass and on the jewel bright flowers. The entire place didn't seem real—it was a million times more beautiful than my little clearing could ever be.
"Wow…" I whispered as I slowly stepped into the glittering meadow. Without even thinking, I ran out into the middle of it and collapsed into grass. I immediately knew that this was paradise.
I gloried in the warmth of the sunshine on my skin and the fresh feel of the dewy grass under my fingertips. I closed my eyes and listened the nearby birds chirping in the sky and relished the feel of the gentle breeze playing on my face. This was wonderful. The only thing that could make it absolutely perfect was…
I frowned when I realized that Edward wasn't lying next to me. I sat up and whipped my head around. "Edward?" I called.
I turned my head and saw him in the shadows of the trees, a little wary and slightly apprehensive. I stood up and waited patiently for him to step forward. And then he did.
I gasped as I watched the sunlight hit his cold white skin—except his skin was no longer white. He was glittering and sparkling like a diamond.
I tentatively reached out. "May I?" I whispered. He nodded and I touched his shining face, delighting in the feel of his smooth, marble skin underneath my fingertips. I couldn't believe that he was here with me, that someone so beautiful and so perfect would be spending the day with me.
Then, without thinking it through properly, I leaned forward and kissed him. He kissed gently back. I think the sun must have done something to the kiss as well; it was lighter, gleaming and beautiful. I couldn't let him go.
"I love you, Bella," he whispered when we finally pulled away. "I think I knew since I met you. Even if I recoiled at first, I think I was meant to love you."
My heart swelled and my throat closed with emotion. He loved me. He loved me. The most beautiful, the most perfect creature in the world loved me. And I knew with all my heart that I loved him. "I love you too," I whispered. "I love you so much."
"Bella?" Edward asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"I've got a bit of a headache," I admitted. But it certainly wasn't just a bit of a headache. It was a full on migraine; it felt as if my brain was spinning and sloshing around in my cranium. At times it felt as if my skull would split in two. But this wasn't the first time—I knew what to do when this happened.
"I'll be fine," I told him as I pulled myself out of my bed. "I'm just going to go downstairs and get me an aspirin."
Dad was already at work and Mom was out doing errands. It was a Monday morning and they were used to the fact that Edward was taking me to school daily. I smiled to myself, despite my horrible, throbbing headache; I was going to school with my boyfriend. I felt so normal.
I ate a banana before swallowing an aspirin. Edward followed me into the kitchen and smiled at me a little apprehensively. "Do you feel better?"
I knew better than to move my head; that would just make it worse. "I will," I promised. "I'm going to go and get ready for school."
He nodded and kissed me on the forehead before walking out of the house. While I was getting ready for school, he would go back to his home to get the Volvo so he would already be waiting for me when I was finished.
I felt the headache intensify as I climbed, the stairs, but I did my best to ignore it. I just had to wait for the medicine to kick in. When I was done getting dressed, I met Edward outside the door. We made small chit chat on the drive to school, while the throbbing got worse and worse. I could feel the blood rushing from my face and the cold sweat on my skin.
"Bella, are you sure you're okay?" he asked again as we walked up to the school.
"Edward," I whispered as the panicking feeling of weakness washed over me. I knew I was going to collapse, but I couldn't. Not in front of him. Not now. "I think—"
The last thing I heard before I succumbed to the darkness was Edward's panicked voice, calling my name.
A/N - DUN DUN DUN! Ahh, I hate to leave you guys on such a cliffie, but it must be done. If you guys review I'll be sure to get on chapter twelve really fast! I promise!
...oh, and just so you guys know, "I'm in a Dancing Mood" was performed and recorded by Dave Brubeck.