Then

"Are you close with your parents?" Bella asked Edward. They were sitting on Bella's grandmother's front porch. It was a Saturday afternoon, and Helen was at the shop. The sun was out, but there was a light chill in the air.

"Yeah, I guess so." Edward shrugged. He'd had a relatively normal relationship with his parents. He didn't see them as much as he'd like. Consequently, they didn't know about his occasional habit of getting stoned. Bella and Edward hadn't been under the influence of anything other than each other since that first day. "Why?"

"Do they want you to follow in their footsteps?" She responded. Bella's own mother had been a nurse.

Edward raised his eyebrows. "Like, as in become a nurse?"

Bella nodded.

"No. I...am a little squeamish around blood," he admitted as his face burned. "I'd never be able to handle it."

"So am I," she said as she placed her hand on his. It didn't always make her squeamish, but she didn't like the sight of it. He gave her a small smile.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Did your parents want you to follow in either of their footsteps?"

Bella laughed. "No. In fact, they both told me to do something completely different."

"Really?" Edward grinned.

"Yeah, well they figured with my gift that I'd be more useful creating things."

"Your gift?"

Bella's eyes widened. She'd slipped. He didn't know about her capabilities yet. She looked away and didn't answer, hoping he would drop it.

"What gift is this?" He probed. "Can you show me?"

She shook her head as she felt him move her hair off of her neck. The touch of his fingertips made her shiver. They'd fooled around a few times and each time, they'd both been left wanting more. She had never wanted anybody as much as she wanted him. It frightened her. On more than one occasion, red carnations followed her path after she'd spent time with him.

Despite her feelings deepening, she still hadn't shared who she really was.

"You can trust me," he whispered. She closed her eyes. Edward waited. She sometimes did this when he showed that he cared for her. People - teenagers - were hard to trust, especially in her case. Surely, he had heard the rumors by now. Surely, he was aware of how she'd been ostracized by her classmates.

Bella glanced back at him, and he half-smiled. She thought he was so handsome. Sometimes she would catch him watching her when she wasn't looking. It was overwhelming for her at times that he would want her, too. She pulled away from him and stood. She ran her fingers through her hair.

Edward winced. He assumed he had gone too far. For some reason, he'd felt like any day Bella would run off like a frightened deer.

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly, not looking at him. He opened his mouth to respond, but she spoke again. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes."

She let out a shaky breath and then kneeled in front of him. She placed her hands in front of her, palms down.

At first, nothing happened. Edward was about to ask her what she was doing when a green stem poked through the surface of the earth. As the stem grew, small leaves began to sprout until a burgundy rose sprouted from the bud at the top. It all happened within seconds.

"Holy shit," Edward whispered. "You're like Flora."

Bella shook her head and laughed. She laughed because she was uncomfortable, and she was uncomfortable for two reasons - one, she'd shown her gift to Edward and two, he'd compared her to the goddess of flowers.

"You know your Roman gods and goddesses," she responded, not looking at him. It wasn't quite a question or a statement.

"Flora is the easiest to remember. Flora...flower...you know."

She felt his eyes on her, but she still hadn't returned his gaze.

"I'm not a goddess."

"No, not a goddess." he amended. "A witch."

Her eyes met his, and she was surprised when she didn't see fear there. Instead, she saw compassion and understanding.

"You knew."

"No, I didn't. There were some rumors going around about you, but nothing I believed."

That was true. It was the main reason why he didn't associate with his peers. They were cruel to someone who had experienced an immense loss, someone who had only shown kindness toward others, someone who he cared for.

When Bella's eyes began to well up, he reached over and took her hand.

"Thank you for showing me. It just makes you even cooler in my eyes." He then cracked a joke. "I'm super boring in comparison."

"That's not true," she laughed, pulling his hand to her lips and before kissing and releasing it. "You're the most interesting person I know."

He grinned at her before checking his phone. "Well, I gotta get home before your grandma kills me for being here without her permission.

"She would never," Bella said as she wiped her eyes. He stood and offered his hand to her. She grabbed it, using him to pull herself up, too. They didn't let go of each other's hands until they reached the gate.

When she opened the gate for him, he gave her a peck on her lips before backing away from her. He didn't break eye contact with her as he continued walking backwards away from her. She giggled.

"Edward, you should watch where you're walking, weirdo."

He was about to reach the street when a car rounded the corner. It was a red pickup truck that wasn't slowing.

"Edward, stop," Bella demanded, but he tripped over the curb and stumbled backward, landng in the street, directly in the path of the truck. It was too late. "Edward!"

Bella threw her hands out in front of her with one thought in her mind.

Protect him.

Suddenly, there was movement to her left - the weeping willow she had created when she first moved into her grandmother's home. She watched as it appeared to come to life. She understood, though, that this was her doing.

Its branches shot out past her and toward Edward right as he realized the pickup was a few feet from the spot he had fallen. The long green leaves wrapped themselves around Edward's limbs and yanked him out of the way.

Bella gasped and ran through the gate.

"Edward!" She yelled again, as the tree branches and leaves slid off Edward's body. She fell onto him and grabbed his face. "Are you okay? What were you thinking? Why didn't you watch where you were going?"

Edward looked shocked. "Jesus, I...did that tree just save me?

They both looked at the tree and then at the pickup that had slowed but took off after the driver realized the boy was alive.

"You have to watch where you're walking!"

"I will," he nodded, holding her hands that were on his face. "I...I normally do. I don't...I don't know what happened."

She hugged him. It wasn't the first time she had noticed that he was distracted by her; it had been out of character for how spacey he became around her. Bella assumed that he was just a boy with a crush.

This was the first time it had endangered his life, though.

She'd never expected his feelings for her were dangerous to him.

"Please don't do that again," she begged.

"I won't," he hugged her back, still confused by the entire situation.

Bella was, too. It would only be after she explained to her grandmother the state of the front yard that she would understand, for Grandma Swan had seen similar situations like Edward's. She would ask Bella about the missing heart from the jar of hearts. She'd ask Bella to go through the details of the spell with her. No matter how she tried to spin it, it was clear that Bella had done a love spell on Edward, whether it was intentional or not.

Thanks for reading.

I hope you all have a great week!

-Bravery