AN: It's Sunday, Sunday, makin' new chapters on Sunday. Everybody's looking forward to Melody, Melody.

Okay, that was a bad opener.

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GAH! IT'S THE MEADOW CHAPTER! I'M SO SUPER PUMPED!

DISCLAIMER: STEPHENIE MEYERS OWNS TWILIGHT. CONGRATS TO YOU LADY.

Let's get it started!

Saturday I woke up incredibly happy. I put on the outfit Erica and I chose the night before, a smocked charmeuse spaghetti strapped shirt, dark blue stretched denim jeans, a brown drape front jacket, and upper suede, tall pull on boots). I made absolutely sure that we weren't matching. I honestly thought it was kinda weird when they matched.

Erica was still in her pajamas, because when Alice called the day before, she told her not to bother, because they were going to be doing makeovers anyway.

I calmly ate my breakfast of jam and toast. I had no idea why I was so calm. I got to see him sparkle today! God I hope it wasn't really weird like in the Twilight movie.

I heard the doorbell ring and immediately dashed to answer it. I practically flung the door open, and there was my vampire, who was...not wearing what he was supposed to be wearing.

Instead, he was wearing black jeans, and a black, button up t-shirt.

Well colour me impressed. He stared at me for a few seconds, and I looked down.

"What?" I said. "Do I have jam on my shirt?"

Edward shook his head. "No. No, Bella. You look..." He paused. "...beautiful."

I blushed and looked down. "Thanks." Thankfully, Erica came and stood next to me.

"Erica! Erica," I said quickly, hooking my arm through Erica. "It's my friend Erica that came to visit me. Erica," I finished nervously.

Erica and Edward looked at me funny. "What?" I wondered, then changed the subject. "Let's go people! We're losing daylight!"

We left the house. I closed the door and locked it. Edward opened the door for me, then he opened the door for Erica. Then he climbed into the drivers seat, and we pulled out of the drive way.

We pulled into the Cullen driveway, and I saw Alice's tiny body in front of the door, waving her whole arm.

Erica sighed. "Wish me good luck. I may like fashion, but there's an extent to it."

Edward chuckled. "You'll really need it, Erica."

She took a deep breath and got out of the car. We waited until she'd reached Alice, who wrapped her arms around Erica, catching her off guard. Catching Erica off guard was hard to do. I should know, my pranks never worked on her.

We sat in the car for a bit after they went inside. Then I said, "Fifty bucks that she comes home with a piercing."

Edward nodded, starting the engine. "You're on." We pulled out of the driveway.

I turned to him and took a deep breath. "SO! Where are we going this fine day? I mean, you mentioned something about staying out of the public eye, so it makes me wonder what we will be doing."

"Relax, Bella. After we get off this exit, we're going to get on a country road. When the pavement ends, we're going somewhere on foot."

"We're hiking?" He nodded. "Okay, then. It's a good thing I didn't wear heels, then. But I'm not really a hiker."

"That's okay. It's only five miles or so. It's not that hard."

"Where are we hiking to, exactly?"

"Just a place where I like to go when the weather is nice."

I nodded like it's no big deal, but on the inside, I was collapsing. I WAS GOING TO SEE EDWARD FREAKING CULLEN SPARKLE! AND THEN I WAS GOING TO KISS HIM!

"Bella? What are you thinking? You look like you're going to explode again."

I took a deep breath. "It's nothing. I'm just worried about Uncle Charlie. He's been really tired lately. He was putting a lot of overtime in at the station."

Edward nodded but didn't say anything. He was probably thinking about how James' coven was around. Edward's smart, he put everything together really fast.

I filled the awkward silence. "Oh yeah. I noticed that the weather was nice. You sure you won't burst into flames on contact with the sun?"

He chuckled. "No. That's just a myth. You'll see what I mean when we get there, Bella."

We pulled up to the end of the pavement, and Edward was opening the door for me before I could even take my seat belt off. He held his hand out for me. I grabbed it and got out.

"How long will it take? I hope it's not later than mid-day before be get there,' I said.

"I don't know. Depends on how fast we walk." Edward answered.

We started walking. And we kept walking. And walking. And walking. I forgot how long it took to walk to the Meadow, I only thought about being at the Meadow.

He kept asking more questions (seriously I think that even the FBI couldn't come up with these many questions). He asked about my birthdays, which weren't very exciting, considering I didn't have many friends, but for my sixteenth birthday, I had the biggest party.

He asked if I had any pets. I already told him about Dennis, but I told him that I also had a boy German Shepherd named Dan, and my parents bought a grey ragdoll cat named Phil a month before I left for Forks.

He looked at me like I was crazy. "What? We're an animal family. I've had Dennis since I was 7, and I've had Dan since I was 9."

We kept walking. I think I heard him mumble something along the lines of, "I'll take you home", but I pretended not to hear it. I'd been waiting for this day, it was marked on my private day planner, and I was going to see him sparkle IF IT KILLED ME.

We kept freaking walking. I was going to stay in bed all day tomorrow like the lazy person I was. "Are we there yet?" I couldn't help but whine.

"Nearly. Do you see the brightness ahead?"

"Well, since I have human eyes, no. All I see is forest."

"Well, maybe it's a bit too soon for your eyes," he pointed out.

After 100 years (okay, so maybe it was actually twenty minutes) I finally saw that light he was talking about. I tried to pace myself, but I couldn't help it. I started running towards the light. I slipped on some mud, but Edward caught me before I fell. I smiled up at him, took a deep breath, then I walked straight into the meadow.

And it was gorgeous. It was so cute, like if someone had painted something out of fairytale land, this was what it would look like. It was specked with flowers of all the colours I knew and even then some I didn't. I turned around and saw that Edward was standing in the clearing in front of the meadow. Seriously, man? The WHOLE reason I came here was for you.

I looked at him expectantly, then I saw him take a deep breath. I took one too, preparing myself for whatever happened to me once I saw something that I'd dreamed of seeing.

He took one step into the mid-day sun, and I almost fainted.

Diamonds. Sparkling diamonds. Everywhere. On his arms, his face, on his eyelashes. Even in his hair. He took more steps closer to me, until we were practically chest to chest.

He looked at me expectantly. "Well?"

"I...I..." I stuttered, at a loss for words. "I think I have to sit down," I finished, slipping down to the ground. Edward did the same.

"You're...so...pretty.." I whispered softly. Then I mentally smacked my forehead. Four years I had been dreaming about this moment, and all I could say was PRETTY?!

"I mean, you're beautiful. I mean, handsome, I mean.." I actually had no idea what I meant.

He looked amazing. It was too bad he didn't think he did. "You're not scared?"

Uh, hello? Why would I be? I wasthe one that wanted to see the 'aversion to the sun' thing. "No, of course I'm not." His death stares scared me, but him sparkling? Absolutely not.

"If I don't scare you, then why did you need to sit down?"

"Two reasons," I began, holding up two fingers. "Number one, we've been hiking for maybe hours: I'm human, Edward, I need to rest. And two, I was just surprised. You know, caught off guard?" Oh wait, you actually didn't know. You read their minds before anything happens. Silly, silly me.

He smiled. Whoa. Even his teeth sparkled. Without thinking, I reached out for his sparkling hand. Only after I touched him, I realized something, "May I?"

He smiled again. "Of course, you can't imagine how that feels."

Oh, Mr. Cullen, I think I could. It felt like electricity was just passing from our bodies. I traced along the lines in his hands and arms, all the while trying to contain my fangirlish screams. Really, it must have been the hardest thing I'd ever done, maybe even harder than studying for finals.

"Tell me what you're thinking," Edward begged after a few minutes. "It's still so bizarre for me, not knowing."

"I'm thinking about being calm, I'm thinking about how overly excited I am. I'm also pondering about what you're thinking. You've been very quiet," I told him. Then I blurted, "I'm also thinking about other different things."

"Like?" He pressed.

I kept tracing, but I looked straight into his eyes. "I've been thinking about if this was just a dream. It's so...impossible," I breathed. It was impossible. The Cullens shouldn't exist. The wolves shouldn't exist. Edward shouldn't exist. But here he was. With me.

Speaking of me, what was my future now? I mean, I always wanted to be an actress, but I'd always wanted to be with Edward more, even if back then it was all impossible. Now that I was Bella, my whole future has been laid out for me. And you know what? I had no idea what to think about. I was angry about having it, since I didn't like to be told what to do, but I was glad that it was there, because I liked to know that I had a sense of security. What would my parents think about having a vampire as a son in law? What would my siblings think about having an in-law family of vampires? Amy would be okay with it, actually. UGH, how did Twilight get so confusing?

"I don't want you to be afraid," Edward practically mumbled.

I felt the urge to put my hand on his face. So instead, I leaned in closer. "I'm not afraid of you. I'm more afraid of something else."

He leaned in closer, too. "What are you afraid of then?"

It was like it was an instinct, to look over at his mesmerizing lips. Again, it was instinct to lean even closer to him...

And then he was gone, twenty feet away from me. Since he couldn't read my mind, he was probably not expecting me to lean into him as close as I did. I just wanted him to kiss me already. My face slightly flushed at the thought of how close we were to kissing.

"Give me a moment," he called from where he was. Okay. I could wait a moment. I would rather him be in control if he was going to be near my neck. Hang on, when he got back he was going to have his 'I'm the greatest predator' tantrum. I was honesty getting sick of them.

He walked back to me and sat down. "I am so sorry. Would you understand if I told you I was only human?"

"Yeah, I would. Considering that I was being kinda human, too." I hesitated. Oh, well. It must be said and done. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..."

And then he gave a mocking smile. UGH, here we go...

"I'm the world's greatest predator, aren't I?" The guy didn't even give me a chance to answer. He was already standing up again. "Everything about me invites you in-my face, my voice, even my smell." And then he was gone, running around the Meadow.

"As if you could outrun me!" I swear, didn't he like, TWO minutes ago say he didn't want me to be scared? I needed to take him to a psychologist that would confirm that he was bipolar.

I made the mistake of talking. "Why on earth would I try?"

Again, that was my mistake. That just seemed to make him angrier. He tore off a huge branch and sent it sailing into another tree, almost breaking it in half. The ear-splitting crack made me instinctively jump, making my heart miss a beat. Stupid heart, didn't you know that he was a vampire?

Suddenly, he was two feet in front of me. "As if you could fight me off."

I cleared my throat, straightened my shoulders, and stared directly into his smoldering gold eyes. "Why would I try?" Okay, that was a lie. My voice broke halfway as I said it. I was kind of terrified. I hadn't seen animal Edward before. It truly did scare me at times, but I know that even if his heart didn't beat and that it was ice cold, I knew there was a warmth in there. I would just have to thaw it out first.

He thought I was scared, and he walked closer to me. I slowly and hesitantly took his hand.

"Don't be afraid. I promise...I swear not to hurt you."

I smiled up at him. "I know. I trust you. More than anybody." We sat down together. But the thing was, I didn't know if I could trust him. He said he swore he wouldn't hurt me, but the second he told me in New Moon time that he didn't want me, didn't care for me, didn't love me, he would hurt me. And even if hurting can't be stopped, maybe him leaving can.

"Please forgive me. I can control myself. You caught me off guard. But now. I'm on my best behaviour."

I smiled at him. "Edward, there is nothing to forgive."

He placed his hand in mine, and I automatically took it and started to doodle. "Are you all right?" He asked.

I had just seen him in his animal raging side, and he was asking me if I was okay? Was it possible to be the smartest person yet still be the dumbest person alive? "I'm fine," I promised.

"So where were we before I behaved so rudely?"

Ahh, being a 1900's gentlemen was so cute. "You mean, before you threw a fit like a young child?"

He grimaced slightly, and I tried to keep myself from laughing at the look on his face. "I think we were talking about how you claimed to be afraid, but not of me."

How did I put this? It felt like I couldn't put it in anyway without it sounding like I was more of an advanced version of Alice. 'I'm afraid when you leave me and I'm a broken mess.' 'I'm afraid of hurting Jacob Black's feelings if he falls in love with me.' 'I'm afraid of the Volturi.' 'I'm afraid of Victoria and her army.' 'I'm afraid of having a half immortal child and the Volturi coming after us when I do.' See?

Complicated.

"I'm...afraid...of possibly losing you," I finally settled on. That sounded normal, right? "I don't know what I would do if I did. I'm also worried about my future just, in general. I don't know what I want to do anymore, because all I see myself doing right now is being with you."

"That is something to be worried about. Being with me. It's not in your best interest."

Was he trying to repel me? "You don't know what's in my best interest. Only I can know that. And right now, that's you. So shut up about it."

He smirked, but wasn't convinced. "I should have left a while ago. I should leave now. But I don't know if I can."

"Edward, don't you listen to yourself talk?" I asked, frustrated. "You keep saying that You feel protective of me, and then you say you should leave. How will that be protecting me?" I reasoned. Ooh, I was SO referring back to that if he tried to leave me in New Moon time.

"You're right, Bella. I'm a selfish creature. I crave your company more than wanting you to be safe."

"I do know that you care about my safety, but you have no idea how glad I am that you can't leave." At least for now.

"Don't be! Never forget that it's more than your company I crave! I am more dangerous to you than I am to anybody else."

I groaned in frustration. "You think I don't know that? You act as if I have short term memory loss. Edward, I am completely aware of this. And the fact just is, that I couldn't care less. If I had stayed home and have been the normal human I should be in your eyes, then I wouldn't have met your family. I wouldn't have met you." I took a deep breath. "I wouldn't have fallen in love with you."

He was speechless. I felt quite proud that I made Edward Cullen speechless. I took it as an opportunity to keep talking. "It's so cliche, isn't it? I have only ever read about a vampire wanting a human's blood more than wanting the actual human sometimes. Is the fact different from fiction?"

He recovered. "No, not really. To Jasper, all humans smell the same. He's the most recent to join our family. It's a real struggle for him. He hasn't had as much time as the rest of us to grow sensitive to the differences in smell, in flavour", Edward grimaced, noticing which way he actually put it.

I urged him on, though. "No, it's fine. Continue."

He hesitated but continued. "Well, Jasper isn't sure is he's come across someone as...appealing...as you are to me. Emmett's been with us for longer, and he understood what I meant. He says twice, once stronger than the other."

I nodded. "So it hasn't happened to you before now?"

"Never."

"No other Bella Swans that smell appealing?"

He chuckled. "No, I swear," He gave me my crooked smile, which caused me to blush.

"Sorry, does my blushing bother you? I'm not in danger if I do so, am I?"

"No! Of course not. I mean, of course I won't...it's different for us. Emmett...these were strangers he came across. It was a very long time ago. He wasn't as practiced, as careful as he is now."

"So for instance, if I met you out in the parking lot on my first day, and there was literally no one around...I would most likely not be here right now, would I?"

"It took everything I had in me not to jump up in the middle of class-and when you walked past me, I almost ruined everything that Carlisle had built for us. If I hadn't been denying my thirst as long as I have been, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself."

Made me shudder to wonder what would have happened if I met him as a newborn. "Maybe I should have left the room. That might have helped you." 'Cause, to be honest, I wasn't being very fair, since I knew what I must have been putting him through.

"No. I would most likely have followed you and taken you then. In that one hour, I must have thought of at least one hundred different ways to lure you from the room with me, to get you alone. And every time, I fought them back, thinking of my family, what that would have done to them. I had to run out, to get away before I could say the words that would make you follow..." He didn't finish that sentence.

"What makes you think-"

"That you would have followed me? You told me before that I dazzle you. What makes you think that you wouldn't have come?"

Uh, maybe because I'd read Twilight and Midnight Sun? I already knew what he thought even before he thought it. "Maybe. I guess we'll never know, now will we?"

"I suppose not. Anyway, when I tried to rearrange my schedule in an attempt to avoid you, you were suddenly there. So close, in that warm, little room. The scent was maddening. I very nearly took you then. There was only one other frail human to deal with, but I stopped myself. I don't know how.

"I forced myself not to wait for you, and not to follow you home from school. It was a bit easier outside, when I couldn't smell you anymore, to the clearly, to make the right decision. I left the others near home-I was far too ashamed to admit how weak I was, they only knew something was very wrong-and then I went right to the hospital to tell Carlisle that I was leaving. I traded cars with him-he had a full tank of gas and I didn't want to stop. I didn't dare go home, to face Esme. She would not have let me go without causing a scene. She would have tried to convince me that it wasn't necessary. By the next morning, I was in Alaska. I had spent two days there, with some old friends.."

He trailed off, because he noticed that I hadn't interrupted him once. "Well keep going," I told him. "I'm listening."

"Right," he said. Then he continued. "So I came back. I took precautions, hunting, feeding more than I usually do before seeing you again. I was so sure that I was strong enough to treat you like I would any other human. I was very arrogant about it. It was unquestionably a complication-

"More complications? How much of a bad boy are you, Mr. Cullen?"

He smiled. "Can I continue?"

"Be my guest," I gestured.

"As I was saying, it was unquestionably a complication that I could simply read your thoughts to know what your reaction to me was like. I wasn't used to having to go to such desperate measures. listening to your words in Jessica's mind...her mind isn't original, and it was annoying that I had to stoop that low. And then I had no way of knowing if you really meant whatever you said. It was very irritating."

"Oh, Edward. You could have just asked me, or looked into Angela's mind. She's way nicer that Jessica is, which makes me often wonder how on Earth they're friends."

"Me too. And I did look eventually, so when I spoke with you, I tried to talk like I would with any other person. I was quite eager, actually, hoping to decipher some of your thoughts. But you were much too interesting. I found myself caught up in your expressions..but every now and then you would stir the air with your hair, or your hand, and the scent would stun me again.."

I looked at him interestingly. "Oh, so I'm stunning, am I?"

"Ha ha, very funny. Of course, then you were nearly crushed to death in front of my eyes. I thought of a perfectly good excuse why later for my actions at that moment-because if I hadn't saved you, if your blood had spilled in front of me, I don't think I could have stopped myself from exposing us for what we are. However, I only thought of that excuse later. At the time I saved you, all that was running through my mind was, 'Not her'."

"Really?" I pretty much squeaked. My tears were threatening to fall over. I'd read this scene almost five hundred times, and out of all of those times, maybe 6 or 7 times I cried. But to hear them being spoken about me...it broke my heart. Edward moved his hand out of mine and brushed away a sneaky tear that had escaped.

"And you know that I'd have fared better if I had exposed us all at that very first moment, than if now, here-with no witnesses and nothing to stop me-I were to hurt you."

"Yes, but i'm fairly certain that Alice is keeping a watchful eye on you in the future, isn't she? I mean, she's most likely busy with Erica, but I'm fairly sure that she'd let you know if I came back dead."

"Yes, Alice is watching, but even she makes mistakes sometimes. But she knows something that you don't yet."

"Oh yeah? And what could that possibly be?"

"Isabella," he laughed when I winced slightly at him saying that name. "Bella," I still winced, "I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don't know how it's tortured me. The thought of you, still, white, cold...to never see you blush scarlet, to never see the flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretenses, or not being able to see your perfect eyebrows scrunch together whenever you're concentrating, or confused, or frustrated...it would be unendurable."

"You like it when I scrunch my eyebrows? My dad gets annoyed with it, ever since I played that one game of poker with him and his friends."

"Bella, you are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever."

I really couldn't control my tears after that. They just flowed like Niagara Falls. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to hear that," I said honestly. Then I leaned over and gave him the biggest hug I'd ever given anyone. I didn't care if he could relate it to something else, or if he found it suspicious, I just didn't care anymore.

His cold chest gave me shivers everywhere, even more so when I realized the rumbling I was feeling was him laughing.

I still had the goosebumps when I pulled back, since my stupid crooked smile was still there. "Well, I've already said how I feel about you before. I said if I hadn't come, I wouldn't have fallen in love with you. And don't try and say anything to change my mind. It's not going to work."

"I wasn't going to," he assured me. Edward then turned really serious. Usually I hated his mood swings, but this time, I liked this one. He leaned close to my face like he was going to kiss me.

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb…"

That caused another wave of tears. I didn't care what Edward said, I was the most selfish person in the world. I had fallen in love with him already, but I should have stayed away from him so that he wouldn't have fallen in love with me. I was not Bella Swan. And the real Bella Swan, wherever she was, if she even existed didn't stand a chance now. But, I could stop myself from following along with my favourite line in the whole book. "What a stupid lamb."

"What a sick, masochistic lion."

"But it's not the lion's fault. I think. It's the lamb in the situation that's the stupid, selfish, and completely insane one. She's the one that stole something that didn't even belong to her to begin with...and now...she doesn't ever want to give it back."

"And I thought I was the one with the secrets…I'm not sure what you mean by that, Bella."

For some odd reason I didn't panic like I thought I would have. "Edward, if I promise you that I'll just explain it later, will you drop it for now?"

To my huge surprise, Edward didn't pry. He just wrapped his arms around me and nodded.

After a few seconds, I said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, Bella."

"At first, why did you run away? A second ago, I pounced on you and it didn't seem to bother you." Then I added, "Much."

"I think I saw it coming. You had that look in your eye that you were about to do something, so I braced myself. Before, it was just how close you were. Most humans instinctively shy away from us, are repelled by our alienness…I wasn't expecting you to come so close. And the smell of your throat."

My hands went instinctively to my neck. "Does it bother you? I could cover it up..."

"No, really, it was more the surprise than anything else." He reached to my neck and took my hands away from it. Then he replaced them with his own. Wow, was he cold! I started getting goosebumps on my goosebumps, and it probably wasn't helping that I was blushing so much. "You see, perfectly fine."

"Maybe for you," I groaned, trying not to pass out. "I'm the human here, remember?"

He chuckled softly and placed his hands on my cheeks. He sighed. "The blush on your cheeks is lovely." That only made me turn redder. "Stay still," he all of a sudden commanded.

I froze, just like he said to. The only thing that was moving was my chest, because I had to breathe.

Every time he moved his cold hands somewhere else around my neck and chest, my skin would break out into goosebumps. I sort of wondered if that would bother Edward, but no, he kept moving along down my throat until he finally rested his head gently on my chest. I don't know why, but his head on my chest just felt...right. Like he was the missing piece of a puzzle.

I looked up to see that the sun was beginning to set a bit. Edward noticed me move, and looked up himself. "It won't be so hard again," he was happy with himself.

"Just to be clear, I wasn't in danger just now, was I?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Bella…"

"Hey," I put my hands up. "Can you blame me if I was just checking?"

"Here," he took my hand and stuck it on his cheek. "Do you feel how warm it is?"

It was pretty warm, actually. It felt like my warm skin when it was cold. It was actually kinda close to being normal. I don't know what my 'look' was like, but I hope I gave it to him when I slowly inched close to his cheek and very softly kissed it.

My face was just inches from him when he spoke again. "I wish, I wish you could feel the…complexity…the confusion…I feel. That you could understand."

"I think I understand more than you know."

"I know you can understand the hunger—the thirst—that I feel for you. I've told you enough about it. Though, as you aren't addicted to any illegal substances, you probably can't empathize completely."

"Well, I haven't exactly been addicted to anything before. But I feel like I'm addicted to your presence. Does that count?"

"No, silly Bella. But there are other hungers. Hungers I don't even understand, that are foreign to me."

"Now I definitely know about that. I just told you I was addicted to your presence, didn't I?"

"I'm not used to feeling so human. Is it always like this?"

"I wouldn't know, I haven't felt this way before," I told him honestly. "But I've read all about it. It's like a string that's connects you to that person. Sometimes that string breaks. But most of the time, the string just gets stronger."

"I don't know how to be close to you. I don't know if I can."

I leaned forward and touched my forehead to his. "I think you're doing a fine job of it so far."

Just like I was expecting, he wrapped his arms around me, creating yet another layer of goosebumps, and pressed his face against my hair.

I was perfectly content with just sitting here with him for the rest of my life, but I noticed that the sun was just passed below the trees, which meant that Edward wasn't sparkling as much as he was before. Again, he noticed me staring at the dumb thing in the sky that served as our clock.

"You have to go."

"Stupid sun, stop setting!" I murmured against his chest.

"Come on, Bella, don't you want to see how Erica's day went? I'm personally excited to see what horrors Alice put her through. Because when Alice gets a new toy, she uses it until it's too bad even for the trash."

"That's right!" I said, really excited. I wanted to see what Erica's reactions to the whole Cullen clan was like. I totally forgot that she wasn't just seeing Alice, but she was meeting everyone else, too. We got up, and Edward suddenly got really excited. "Can I show you something?"

"Is it dangerous?"

"To you, maybe," he answered with a devilish grin.

I clapped my hands together. "Then let's do it."

"Well, unless you want to walk through a dark forest, I can show you how I travel in the forest. Don't worry, you'll be very safe, and we'll get to my house much faster."

Oh, this should be good. "What do I do?"

He turned around and crouched to his knees. "Climb on my back."

I did as he requested, then suddenly, he took off. I didn't dare close my eyes. I could see the trees blowing right past us, and even though it was disorienting, it was incredible, too.

I don't see what Bella was complaining about; this was the best thing.

Then, as quick as it started, it was over. "Exhilarating, isn't it?"

I took a deep breath. "That...was...amazing," I choked, a goofy grin spread across my face.

He bent again so I could slip off. But as soon as I was on the ground, I fell. Edward caught me before I hit the ground, of course. "Bella, what's wrong?'

"My legs feel weird," I replied, as if that explained everything.

Edward picked me up and sat me on the hood of his car. Then he sat next to me. "Better?"

"A little. Just give me a second to rest."

"You rest? You didn't do anything!"

I turned my head to look at him. "Yes, I did. I had the hard job of clinging to you for dear life. Even if I loved it, it was still a human instinct."

I closed my eyes and tried to steady my heartbeat.

"Open your eyes, Bella," Edward whispered.

I instantly opened them, and there he was, his face so close to my own.

This was another moment that I was waiting for all day. "Bella, while I was running, I was thinking..." He hesitated. "Close your eyes."

I groaned. "Make up your mind, please." But I did as he asked, my heart thumping way too fast.

A few minutes later, I felt his cool breath on mine. His hands were on my face, and my heart thumped harder. Then I felt his cold, marble lips on mine.

Oddly enough, I didn't act as Bella had, I kissed him back the exact way he was kissing me. For some reason, though, that didn't satisfy him, because his lips pressed against mine harder. I did the same, and then he pressed harder. For my first kiss, and with Edward Cullen, I was the one to pull away.

Weirdly, my face wasn't flushing. "And you say, you're the one in control," I laughed at the expression on his face.

He laughed too but embarrassingly. "Sorry about that."

I shook my head. "Don't be. It was very interesting." I slid off the hood. "Now, if you don't mind, I would like to hear my best friend explain her case to me before she sues your sister for over-excessive makeover-ing."

He chuckled, and we got into the car. He drove like there was no tomorrow. And I didn't mind. After running through the forest with vampire speed, him driving like a maniac was virtually nothing compared to it.

We pulled into his driveway, and I saw Erica standing with Alice in front of the door. Alice gave Erica a hug, and then Erica came to the car. She got in, and the first thing I asked is, "How bad was it?"

She laughed. "Not bad, actually. I'll tell you about it when we get home."

We pulled into my driveway. I turned to Edward. "Thank you for a very...interesting day," I told him, giving him a knowing smile.

Edward returned the smile. Erica climbed out, and before I got the chance to, Edward grabbed my arm again. "Oh, Bella? I was wondering if you were up to meeting my family tomorrow."

I swallowed. Tomorrow was supposed to be Game Day. I took a deep breath. "Sure, but it has to be before 5. At 5, I'm going with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Sarah for their anniversary dinner."

He nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow then," he said, giving me my crooked smile.

I blushed and got out. "Goodbye, Edward."

He drove away as I waved goodbye, a dreamy look on my face. Erica and I turned to each other at the same time, grabbed each other's arms, and screamed, "TELL ME EVERYTHING," then we laughed together.

"You first," I insisted.

"No, you first."

"Erica, that might take a lot of time. Besides, you know the basics of what happened with me, today. So you are going first." We hooked our arms together and walked towards the house.

"Okay. Let's start at the beginning."

That might have been the longest chapter I've ever written. Be happy.

Oh, and congratulations. This used to be my favourite chapter, but since it took me forever to write it, I think it's now probably the one I hate the most. I hope you're proud of yourselves.

Next chapter is going to be super-special awesome. Thank you to princessaangelbebe for the wonderful idea.

Question of the chapter:

How do you think Erica's day with the Cullens went?

Leave answers in the Review seciton, or leave them in a PM! REVIEW! THANKS! And, as always, stay tuned people.