Chapter Twelve: Awkward and Odd Behaviour
"Edward," Dale said quietly as he reached us. I felt Edward stiffen slightly at my side. Whatever dale was thinking it wasn't pleasant towards Edward. I tightened my grip on his hand, not that that would stop him if he wanted to move. He looked down at me for a moment, an unfathomable look on his face, and then looked up sharply at Dale. "I apologise for me behaviour last night. I was just making sure that Bex was okay."
"I understand your motivation. Just know this Dale. I would never hurt Bex. She is too important to me." Edward's voice was intense as he stared down Dale. I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable as the silence between them stretched on. I was just about to interrupt it when Dale spoke suddenly as Edward looked back at me.
"Okay then. As long as we are on the same wavelength as far as Bex is concerned." There was no doubt in my mind that these two would not agree on much else. I sighed. This was going to make things increasingly awkward. I wanted to spend time with Dale, but if he was going to be at war with Edward then it was going to be difficult, as I was sure that I was going to be spending a majority of my time with him. I looked at Dale for a few moments. He was acting so odd at the moment, so hot and cold. I wanted to talk to him about it, but I couldn't think of any way of bringing it up, and around Edward I would have been even more.... tongue-tied. I wasn't going to deal with this right then. I would call him later to talk it out, or I would email him. I normally found it easier to express myself when I wrote it instead of speaking it. I pulled Edward's arm.
"Edward, let's go. I'm hungry," I grumbled. I was hungry, but it was the perfect excuse to get the two of them away from each other and their mental battle. It worked. Edward gave a short laugh, and then walked in the direction I was dragging him. I turned back for a moment. "See you later Dale."
He looked back at me with an inexplicable look on his face. He slowly waved his hand and nodded, as if he was preoccupied with something.
Me and Edward got to the cafeteria a couple of minutes later, my stomach grumbling all the way. He laughed every time it made a noise, I had no idea why that was. He seemed very... optimistic today, which contrasted incredibly when I compared it to his behaviour on that first, fateful day. That first day I had met him felt so far away from me at that moment. It felt years away, not weeks. I walked up to the hatch and grabbed an egg sandwich, coke and a chocolate muffin. I put it down on the counter and turned around to pull my purse out of my bag when Edward handed a five pound note over. He picked the food up and then carried it to a table, me following behind him. I was slightly annoyed that he had paid without saying anything, but I wasn't going to make a big thing out of it. There was no point. As I sat I unwrapped the sandwich and took a big bite out of it. It tasted good.
"Does that really taste appealing?" Edward asked with a curious look on his face. From the way he was eyeing my sandwich I could see that it didn't appeal to him at all.
"Hell yeah it does," I said after swallowing my bite. He smiled at that.
"You know, I love the fact that there is no set time for lunch here in college. In Forks we used to have to buy food, and pretend to eat it to make people think that we were normal," he said conversationally as he watched me eat. "Now I can come in whatever time you want to eat, and it won't look so odd that I don't eat, people will assume that I have eaten before, or am not hungry at that particular time. It helps that you eat so much as well."
I glowered at him as he said that last line. I knew I ate a lot, but he didn't need to mention it. He would make me feel fat! Not that I actually was fat. I was slender, from years of swimming competitively. I had given up doing the competitions when I got to college due to a recurring knee injury, but I still swam quite regularly at the sports centre where I worked. I would normally go in after work for an hour or so. I missed the competing, but I didn't miss the time that training took up. He just laughed at me. I felt like hitting him, but I had the feeling that it would do no good.
"Where have you been eating then?" I asked him, to try and get the attention off my eating habits. I did want to know the answer to this though. It had been bugging me for a while.
"Well it depends. You know that we usually like to hunt predators, and a lot of the time we do. Normally in the night we will run some place that has either predators, or maybe deer. It depends on how far afield we want to go, because distance isn't really a barrier for us." I nodded. This fit with what I thought was happening.
"So what's your favourite animal? I mean you know my favourite food is chocolate. What's yours." His face arranged its self into disapproval at my question. I shrugged. What, I wanted to know.
"It's not really the same. I don't enjoy my food as much as you seem to enjoy chocolate. But I have a preference for mountain lion. Not that there are many of them here in Basingstoke." I almost choked on my coke, which I had just taken a large gulp of. That wasn't what I had expected. Edward's face twisted with worry. I coughed for a few minutes, and then began to breathe again.
"I'd imagine that there aren't many," I said, my voice higher than normal. I cleared my throat and finished my sandwich.
"Despite the lack of hunting prospects here, I am finding that I like Basingstoke a lot. There are more people, which means that not everyone knows everyone, like it was in Forks. We are more anonymous. I like that people don't have to come to college. There are a lot less negative thoughts here, and I like that we can choose what to study. I like it here," He said conversationally as I demolished my muffin. "Of course that could have something to do with who I have...." Suddenly he broke off into a growl. I followed his eye line, and was surprised to see Dale walking through the door with Mitchell. Mitchell went up to the counter to go get some food and Dale picked a table. He looked over to us, and caught my eye for a moment, before looking back to Mitchell. I turned back to Edward. I wanted to know what he had been about to say.
"What's wrong?" I asked him as I took hold on his hand. He looked ready to jump up and fly across the room at Dale. I didn't want that.
"He is here to keep an eye on you. He is thinking that I am going to hurt you, and that he would enjoy hurting me quite a lot. And that he doesn't want to see you hurt again." He broke off. "What does he mean, hurt again."
This was the sort of question I didn't really want to have to answer. It told about my horrific past track with guys, and it went to a part of my life which had hurt at the time. It didn't hurt now, but still, it wasn't something I would choose to remember. Edward's hands began stroking my face.
"Bex? What is it?" he sounded worried.
"I haven't had the best experience when it comes to boyfriends and guys in general. When I was 14 I started going out with this guy. We dated for 6 months, and I thought that it was going to last. I was really naive back then. He broke up with me, saying that he had been leading me on for at least two months. Then he went out with the girl who was my best friend. Dale was there then. He saw it all. It hurt me real bad, that he could do that to me, break up with me in front of my friends, then go out with my best friend. It hurt that she would do that to me as well. Since then I haven't been able to let myself be vunerable around guys, and that pushed them away. As soon as I started to like a guy I would push him away, not say anything about my feelings, because I didn't want to get hurt again. Dale has been there since the begginging. He knows how difficult it is for me to be vunerable around anyone. I think that he doesn't want to see me the way I was back then. I closed up and didn't really talk to anyone. I cried every night for two months." Edward's hands cradled my face as I told him all this. He didn't say a word, just looked at me. "I think that is why Dale is being so off."
Edward stood up and pulled me up with him, grabbing hold of our bags. He led me out of the cafe and down the pathway to behind it. I looked up at him curiously, but I couldn't see anything in his face that I understood. He dropped our bags and gathered me into his arms, quite suddenly. He burried his face into my hair as I put my arms around him. I felt him shudder slightly.
"Bex," he said, his voice slightly muffled by my hair. "I will never hurt you like that. I will never do anything to hurt you. I want to promise you that. I want you to know that as long as you want me I will be here. I love you, and I doubt that will ever change." His voice shook with the intensity of his feelings.
"Thank you Edward," I said simply. "I love you."
He lifted his head from mine and took hold of my chin gently. He pulled it up so that I was looking into his eyes. Then, moving more slowly than I had ever seen him moving he lowered his face to mine. His lips brushed against mine, sending shocks through my body. They moved away for a second, as if Edward was gaging my reaction. I wasn't having that. I went up onto my tiptoes to kiss him again. My arms threw themselves around his neck, holding his face to mine. I could feel his hands on my back pressing me to his body. We kissed each other as if there was nothing else in the world. I ran my hands up his neck and through his hair. I kept on running them through that hair, what I had wanted to do since I had first talked to him. Our first kiss.
When he stopped it was sudden. He pulled back from my face, laughing slightly as I went back up onto my tiptoes to prolong the kiss. His eyes were excited, and for the first time I fully realised what he meant when he said my blood was more attractive to him than anyone elses. But there was a different type of excitement in them as well, one that I could identify with. I knew exactly what that was, becasue I was feeling it as well. I stood back down onto my heels and looked up at him. My arms were still around his neck, and his were still holding me to him. I wanted nothing more than to kiss him again, but I somehow controlled myself.
"Wow" was the only thing that I could think of to say. That had been one hell of a first kiss. I leant my head against his shoulder as I tried to calm my breathing. His was just as raged as mine. I was a bit dazed.
"Was that about my kissing prowess, or did something else amaze you?" Edward teased.
"Which do you think Edward? Hmm, difficult there. Well that tree over there is pretty incredible," I said dryly. He snorted slightly then lowered his head to my neck. He kissed slowly down its length sending shivers of pleasure through me. My heartbeat began to speed up. He could hear that. He kissed along my collar bone.
I struggled to think coherently.
"What was that you were about to say earlier, when Dale walked in?" I asked, struggling to get the words out in a rational sentence. He knew when I meant.
"I was going to say," he said, his lips brushing against my skin. "That it could have something to do with the person who I met. In other words, I could like Basingstoke because of you." That made me feel incredible. Of course, it could have been him kissing me right then as well.
First Kiss Yay!! i hope you enjoyed that bit and that it explained why Dale was being like he was. Please review me - i have the next chapter ready, but i would like some reviews
