A/N: Hey! New short chapter- and I'm surprisingly okay with that. I just needed an update to really capture their frames of mind. It's been a while. And unfortunately I'll be gone a month, so it'll be a while longer after this.

I'm a little disappointed with this recent story arc… I keep feeling like I'm venturing into cliché-dom… help!

Also, when I'm back, Breaking Dawn will be released, so the world of fanfiction will be changed… I'm feeling kind of sentimental about this. Fortunately all the Breaking Dawn clones will be null and void.

Disclaimer: Twilight doesn't belong to me. Neither does the section I lovingly ripped off from Pirate Perian. I'm so sorry for the blatant theft, but it works. –shrug- Think of it as an homage.

Distance

Edward Cullen was avoiding me.

It wasn't obvious to anyone who wasn't watching for it; I mean, he wasn't refusing to speak to me or walking the other way when he saw me. No, to anyone who might care to look, nothing at all had changed between us. But I could sense a coolness in his demeanor that was there before- before he ever decided to let me in.

It has been five days since I kissed him- well, he kissed me- and even though I only let him dip a toe into what I want to do with him, I was beginning to think that even that was too much.

At the time, he seemed a little confused. A little on edge, a little shocked, a little… is it vain for me to say satisfied?

But as time went by, I became more and more convinced that he regretted it. And that's the thing that made me the angriest.

He was the one who decided to do it- and because of that I must be punished? It didn't make much sense to me.

And neither did this slide. I stared at it for another moment before passing it back to the ever-glacial Edward.

He glanced at it momentarily before scribbling down the answer. I leaned over to look at the answer. My hand accidentally collided with his. We both jumped simultaneously.

For a moment, a shy smile replaced the perpetual half-grimace. I looked up into his eyes to see that the wall was back in an instant.

I guess old habits die hard.

"Sorry," he murmured, almost too quiet for me to hear. I shrugged and copied down the answer successfully.

"No big deal," I said as lightly as I could with another shrug.

And it wasn't. It shouldn't be. Then why did I feel so crushed that he felt compelled to apologize when our hand accidentally touched?

I turned my attention back to the confusing slides and away from the perplexing Edward Cullen.

Bella Swan was avoiding me.

It wasn't obvious to anyone who wasn't watching for it; I mean, she wasn't refusing to speak to me or walking the other way when he saw me. No, to anyone who might care to look, nothing at all had changed between us. But I could sense a coolness in her demeanor that wasn't there before. Her warmness was gone and my good mood had departed with it.

It has been five days since she kissed me- well, I kissed her- and even though I only let her dip a toe into what I want to do with her, I was beginning to think that even that was too much.

At the time, she seemed… I couldn't really tell as she had fled the scene immediately. Perhaps that was a sign.

As time went by, I became more and more convinced that she regretted it; she realized that I was dangerous. That was what was good for her- what was right.

Then why did it feel so wrong?

The feeling of wrongness accompanied me through my daily routine- night, day, school, Biology.

Today was a lab on something meaninglessly dull. It was hard to concentrate with her sitting so close and yet so far away. She slid the microscope over to me and I examined it quickly before automatically writing down the answer.

I wished, just for a moment, that she could get close to me again.

As if answering my fervent prayer, Bella suddenly inched closed to me. I felt something warm come into contact with my hand. I jumped just as she did.

I felt a smile break out across my face and reveled in the moment. I felt her eyes searching my face and I carefully turned away.

I waited a moment before speaking. "Sorry," I said as quietly as I could.

"No big deal," she said in an equally small voice accompanied with a shrug.

I turned my thoughts away from the mystifying Bella Swan and back to the mundane Biology slides.