Chapter Three
Willow's POV
I don't see Edward Cullen again for a week. Every day, his siblings walk into the lunchroom without him, and every day Bella complains out loud and I complain in my head. Every day, I walk into Biology thinking he's going to be there, but he's not. The other kids start talking at lunch about going down to La Push, where Jacob lives, that weekend, because the weather was going to be nice. Plans ended up changing to the weekend after because some of the kids had to work. I could've cared less.
The next Monday, rainy as always, I walk into the lunchroom and glance up at the Cullen's table, doing a double take. Edward is back today, looking, if possible, even more beautiful than before. Maybe he was sick or something. I take my seat next to Bella, absentmindedly.
"He's back today," she gushes at me.
"Does he look angry?" I ask.
"No, but that's only because he's looking at me, now stop looking at him, Willow," she says, and I turn my face back to my food.
"You shouldn't let her push you around like that," Angela says, and I sigh.
"I can't help it. It's been that way since we were kids. Besides, I don't think he likes me very much," I say.
"Are you kidding? He can't take his eyes off you," she says, and I glance up. He is indeed looking in our direction.
"He's just looking at Bella."
"If you say so," Angela says, and goes back to her food.
I walk into Biology, feeling slightly nervous. I just wish he wasn't so angry with me. When I take my seat, however, I notice his eyes seem lighter, and he doesn't give me the look of death.
I sit down, preparing for an hour of silence, when he speaks. "Good afternoon," he says, in the most beautiful voice I've ever heard. I turn to look at him, and notice his eyes are indeed a different color. They're topaz.
"Did you get contacts?" I blurt out, and immediately feel warmth creeping up my face. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "I mean...your eyes are a different color. They used to be black, and now they're gold. I'm Willow Swan, by the way," I say.
He smiles, and chooses to ignore my comment about his eyes. "Willow, that's a pretty name," he says. "I'm Edward Cullen."
"I know," I say. "My sister won't shut up about you." He laughs again.
"Your sister is Bella, right?" he asks, and I know, just like always, he's using me to get to her.
I sit up straight, and stare right into his gold eyes. "Look, I'm tired of boys pretending to be nice to me to get to Bella. Yes, she's available, and yes, she likes you, so just leave me alone, okay?" I say, and turn to look forward again.
"Do boys do that a lot?" he asks. He sounds genuinely concerned, which surprises me.
"Yeah, I mean, I guess. She's the pretty one, you know," I say.
"Oh," is all he says. Then: "I don't have any interest in...dating your sister," he says.
Of course he doesn't. But I can't let Bella know that. "Why did you move here?" he asks, as the teacher walks in and begins a lesson on something I've already learned. I suppose I can spare some time for a conversation.
"We had to. Our mother is dating this new guy, and he had to go to Florida to play baseball or something. I suggested that we move here to live with our dad, and Bella hated that, of course," I say.
He frowns at me. "Does she not like your father?"
"It's not that, it's just that she doesn't like this place, or him, or anything but clothes and boys and makeup very much at all."
"Do you like living with your father?" he asks. I think about that for a moment. I've never really considered whether I liked living with Charlie or not.
"I'm not really sure yet," I say.
"You're hard to read, Willow," he says, and I'm not sure how to respond to that. He keeps talking instead. "Usually, I can read people very well, but you-you're different. That's not necessarily a bad thing, either," he says, when I give him a strange look.
We talk about idle things for the rest of the class period. My mother's boyfriend, Phil, and his strange career that I don't understand, about Bella, and eventually how she is so mean to me. He almost looks angry when I tell him about the time that she cut the heads off all of my Barbie dolls and hid them under my sheets.
"You shouldn't let her do those things to you," he says.
"It's alright. It was seven years ago. It's almost funny, now, really," I say. The bell rings, and he gets up and walks out without a word.
I sigh, and get up as well, still confused. Sometimes he seems really nice, and sometimes he seems like he hates me.
After school, Bella runs up to the truck, a very excited look on her face. "Willow, we're going down to the beach this weekend, do you want to come?" she asks.
"Wait, you're seriously inviting me?" I say, confused.
"Sure, why not?" she says, and I get a feeling she's planning something. Something awful just for me.
"No thank you," I say, and get in the truck.
"Please, Willow, I swear I won't do anything to you," she says, and I sigh.
"Fine," I say, and pull out of the parking lot.
"Thanks," she says.
Two more days pass before my life flips itself on its head. Within those two days, I only barely speak to Edward during Biology and I watch it rain, and then turn to snow on Thursday morning as I walk out to the truck. The rust-bucket doesn't have any snow tires, but I assume we'll be okay. Bella comes outside, shivering, and climbs into the car. We sit there for a moment, letting the car warm up.
"I heard from Mike you talk to Edward every day in Biology," she says coldly, and my head jerks up.
"Oh really? I didn't even know Mike was in that class," I say. "It's not anything serious, I'm just trying to be nice."
"Sure," she says.
"It's true," I insist. I wouldn't ever dare take anything that Bella thought was hers.
She doesn't say anything back, so I back out of the driveway, feeling guilty for some reason even though I haven't done anything wrong.
We pull into the parking lot, and we've just gotten out and are standing in the parking lot, when several things happen at once. If you asked me what happened afterwards, I probably wouldn't even be able to tell you. It starts when a van comes spinning towards us; having lost control on the ice. My life flashes before my eyes, and I can hear Bella screaming next to me. That's when I see him, Edward, running faster than I've ever seen anyone run before, towards the two cars.
Everything seems in slow motion, I feel something surge up inside me, and I remember faintly screaming "No!" and some kind of blue flash goes off, and the van flies in the opposite direction, but unfortunately so does everything surrounding us, except Edward, who catches Bella before she cracks her head on the pavement, not taking his eyes off me.
He doesn't look scared, just amazed. I, however, have never been more terrified. I stare at my hands, and at the boy stunned in the van across the parking lot with a smoking crater in his back door. I did that, I think, before everything goes black.