Chapter 35 – Photograph

My day started a lot earlier than I had planned. If I had known that I was going to have a surprise visitor, I would have taken a sleeping pill the night before so I could shut off my brain and go to sleep. Instead, I stayed up late replaying the afternoon over and over again in my mind and sketched every facial expression that Evan had made that I could recall during our little tête-à-tête.

I was woken up by the effervescent being of perfection, whom I would have killed quite happily in that moment if I had been capable of it, when she barged into my room, bounced on my bed, and loudly encouraged me to "Wake up!"

"Eh…"

"Wake up, Cadence Rowan! You have to tell me everything!" she ordered, amidst all her bouncing and shaking and annoying prodding. She also pouted, "Evan won't give me the juicy details…even though he came home whistling so cheerily that Emmett thought he had 'done the dirty.'" She giggled a little and sighed in exasperation all at the same time at that last bit.

"Ugh…later…" I groaned out, trying to bury my head beneath my pillows.

Getting off the bed, she stated threateningly, "If you don't get up now, I'll just snoop through your sketchbooks…I know you have sketches somewhere…"

I wish that I had something like my steel toe boots to express nonverbally my displeasure. Unfortunately, I did not, so I rolled over and rasped out groggily, "Alright, alright, if you get me some coffee, I'll do as you decree."

"Deal! But only on the conditions that you sit up and open your eyes before I leave so that you don't fall asleep," she chirped.

I complied with her requests and even plastered a grimace of a smile on my face as a bonus.

She gave a satisfied nod, commenting, "That'll do. I'll be back."

While she was doing that, I decided to get presentable – as in putting my hair up, washing my face, and brushing my teeth. She was perched on my vanity's chair, delicately holding my favorite coffee cup: a blooming blue rose ceramic mug that Billy had made me. It wasn't perfect, but it was one of his best. The other was a jack o' lantern with the most hideous of faces. I had used it yesterday, or else I suspect Nessie would have picked that one instead to mock me.

After I plopped down on the bed and had a chance to savor my first few sips, she grinned, saying insistently, "So spill."

So I did, starting off slowly, but quickly gathering speed as I had a very attentive audience. When I was done, her eyes were a light and she declared triumphantly, "Oh, I knew it! I'll have you know that I predicted to Jake, when Evan was acting all moody, and then especially when he told us he had met with you and you two decided to 'be friends' that he was in love with you!"

I quirked an eyebrow, asking with some disbelief, "Really?"

She nodded vigorously, "Yes, really! Esme even agrees with me."

"You've talked about this with Esme?" This question was intoned with far more incredulity, and far less amusement.

"Mhmm, and with Jake and occasionally Emmett and Alice, but everyone else seems to think like you do that I need to mind my own business. Jacob sometimes agrees with them, when I do it too much," she informed me a little disgruntled, but she soon perked up and asked me, "So he really kissed you on the excuse that he had to stop you from biting your lip?"

Realizing that this was probably the only time she got to share in girl talk like this, I humored her, answering, "No, not exactly…" and my correction was soon followed in going over every minutiae of yesterday, nearly analyzing it to death. We only paused when I required a refill.

We only stopped when Evan showed up. Nessie saw him first and quickly made her excuses and danced out of the room, but not before winking at me impudently.

Evan took her place and sat on the chair, somehow looking very masculine while juxtaposed to the very feminine furniture. His eyes were twinkling with mischief even as he asked concernedly, "She didn't give you too much trouble, I hope?"

I shrugged in dismissal as I rose to direct him to follow me down and out to the Studio, saying only, "Nothing that I couldn't handle with two cups of Ian's java."

He laughed at that and gave me a brief hug before he made a general pest of himself for the rest of the afternoon.

I endured the ribbing I received when I injudiciously expressed my happiness when I came home that first night. Emmett and Nessie were the worst, as in the most vocal. Jacob eventually took pity on me and clamped a hand over her mouth before he dragged her outside to finish carving their ice sculpture.

The next morning I had to fight the temptation to go to Cadie's house early and climb up the tree outside her bedroom window in order to listen in on their conversation. I distracted myself with helping Esme in creating her own intricate ice sculpture. Apparently, there was now a competition among the family to see who could do the most complicated and beautiful tableau. Who is judging, I'm not sure.

That afternoon I went from one artistic endeavor to another. This time, however, I was a clueless participant. Once we arrived in the studio, she pulled out an easel that had large covered canvas resting on it. She set it up so that I would have to stand in the corner behind her in order to get a decent view of her work.

"My assistance" was limited to answering her peculiar questions concerning various members of my family and their relationship to shades of color that she would reluctantly show me an example of an her pallet. I would answer as best I could and then reach out and mix my own combination, dabbing it on her nose. I could never decide which was cuter, her funny little crinkling of the offended member or her huffing and puffing in irritation as she glared at me for offering her kisses in exchange for a sneak peak at her endeavor.

Needless to say, the only thing different about our relationship since the day before that one was that we were far more affectionate, or at least willing to express our desire to be affectionate.

The other changes came on Monday morning. I met her at her car and offered to carry her bag. As opposed to previous chivalrous offers of assistance, she accepted this one. I walked her to class teasing her about how long it took to get the paint smudges off her cheek, which prompted her to pull a face that although it was adorable, was not very attractive. We didn't hold hands nor did I put my hand proprietarily to her back as we maneuvered through the throng of students, but there was an energy about us that was noticeable to the student body enough that we received a few curious stares.

This soon became more than a few by lunch, when I elected to sit with her and her group of friends rather than my family. Regan was the boldest of the group, as she bluntly asked me, "So what gives?" (Subtext: Why are you sitting with the little people?)

Even Cadie was taken by surprise at this new development, anxiously asking, "Did you and Jasper have another 'fight?'"

Choosing to up the ante a little, I nonchalantly put my arm on the back of her chair, and with my most charming smile, I answered breezily, "No, there was no fight. I just happen to see them all the time, but you kick me out by nine o'clock every night that I'm over," hinting at our parting "debate" the night before.

She grumbled under her breath, "…Ian …my father, happens … be there," a statement, which was loud enough for her friends to hear and raise their eyebrows over, much to my amusement. Their reactions, though astonished at first, quickly resembled that of pleased mamas (or in Toombs' case, of a proud papa).

It was a new and different experience, sitting with her friends. Maggie always reminded me of how I would picture Nessie to be if she was without her vampiric qualities. Jacob, himself, has in the past commented that she would have inherited her mother's tendency to trip over flat surfaces just because her mind's energy and momentum would not translate adequately into the capabilities of her body.

It was also an easier experience than expected to overcome the natural aversion that humans have towards our kind. When I noted this to Edward later that day, he smirked and informed me that it was "a natural consequence of being in love; it makes you lose your edge." Not wanting to admit yet that I have gone soft, I will just say that the congenial fellowship experienced was due to the fact that we all shared a love of music, which was a topic that dominated our conversations that week.

My favorite part of those first lunches together, however, had to have been all the opportunities I got to lean down and whisper in her ear, tug gently on her hair, or draw soothing patterns on back of her neck with my finger "absentmindedly," all of which would make her blush. She eventually became comfortable with this more familiar, for the lack of a better word, behavior, and she even began to reciprocate some by doing things like holding my hand and leaning back against me while standing in the lunch line. It was also a good thing that neither Emmett nor Jacob was there to see the cutesy little smiles we gave each other, or else we would have had to witness their exaggerated gagging pantomimes.

Our behavior soon became the talk of the school, if not the town, and poor Cadie had to suffer the bulk of it as she was the more approachable of us. The Emilee girl was the quickest to pounce on her of her old clique, badgering her for as much detail as possible but I imagine not for the same reasons that Nessie had. Max also did not appear as genuinely happy for us as her other friends. He pulled her aside after Government to express his concerns and most likely using the rumors about me as the basis of his argument to judge by the foul mood she was in when I saw her afterwards. What Zach and her other garage mates thought of this new development, I don't know as their attitude towards me never changed.

Ian's did though. I had to endure a long lecture about being responsible and being gentleman when it came to dating his daughter, etc. on Friday night, while she was on the phone with her mother, which was too bad because it would have been fun to see her squirm in embarrassment. She did, however, have to sit through the laying down of the new ground rules, which included things like leaving the door open to her bedroom if both of us were occupying it. She found that one laughable as we spent most of our time in the Studio/shed, which in order to heat adequately needed the door shut; she did not point out this inconsistency, however, and nor did I, selfish creature that I am.

It was the following morning when I went out to my truck to join her and her friends on a last fair weather hike that my euphoria was deflated drastically. There was an envelope tucked under my windshield wiper.

Inside there was a photograph.

It was a picture of me leaning down just before I kissed Cadie.

On the back, in blood, there was just one word – Tasty.

AN: Recommendation: To get the total affect of the cliffie, mentally play the Jaws theme song ; )