Alright, sorry for the delay but I didn't want to update until I had another few chapters writen, and now I do. Thankyou for reading, I do not own 'Interview With A Vampire', 'How I Met You Mother', 'Law & Order' or the information on Jasper from 'Eclipse' or The Twilight Series. Or any noticeable bands.
Previously – I was in way over my head.
Chapter Two - Gym, Her House & Major Whitlock
I didn't leave my seat once the bell signaling the end of lunch rang. I had noticed that Bella and her family didn't leave either and wondered if Rosalie was still mad. She was glaring at Bella, who had a scowl on her face, and was leaning across the table towards her. Her lipstick coated lips were moving fast, faster than I would expect. She shouldn't be able to make real words talking at that speed. I started to fiddle with my IPod, turning the volume all the way down to try and hear what they were saying. There was almost no one left in the cafeteria now so this should have been easy, but I couldn't here a thing. Sparing a glance over at her table, I could see that Rosalie's lips were still moving, faster than before, and she was shooting glances at me all the while. Something that she said must have pissed Bella off, because she leaned forward and starting talking to Rosalie. She looked like she would be shouting, but I still couldn't hear anything and her lips were moving really fast. Bella shoved away from the table, leaving a gaping Rosalie and her tray behind her and then walked up to me.
"You know the Bell's rung right?" She smiled softly.
"Oh, I hadn't realized" I lied easily, and she raised her eyebrows, but didn't question me.
"Are you going to go to class?"
"Oh right." I smiled at her, pulling my IPod out of my ears and grabbing my bag.
We left the cafeteria together in silence, we were almost to the science building before I couldn't take the silence anymore.
"So what were you and Rose arguing about?" I tried to make my voice nonchalant, but I don't know if that worked. She snapped her head around to look at me, fear swimming in her eyes.
"Did you hear what we were talking about?"
"No, you were talking to softly and fast. I couldn't hear a thing, plus I had my IPod on."
"Oh right," She looked like she was trying too stifle her smile. She couldn't know about the music being turned down could she? No, there was no way. "So how did you know that we were talking, or that what she was saying was upsetting?"
Didn't she realize that Rosalie seemed to hate me, or was she like this to everyone, except Emmett? "Well, she was angry before lunch, she was glaring at you, me and Alice when I walked past you at the beginning of lunch and at the end of lunch she was glaring at you again and you looked upset, then told her off."
She shrugged. "Me and Rose are similar in the fact that we don't like change, but she's worse than me. She doesn't like the fact that I made….friends with the new kid." She frowned to herself and I felt my world light up. She thought that we were friends. Bella Cullen saw me as a friend! Her eyes widened though and she turned to look at me, raising one hand as if she were about to touch me but then thought better. I wished that she would. "I mean, that I am talking to you. I mean…."She was stuttering and she looked torn." I see you as my friend, but I don't want you to feel like you have to be mine – I'm not good at this whole 'social being' thing." She laughed awkwardly and turned away from me, focusing on the path ahead of her.
"Don't worry about that, I'm no good at being around most people either. And I think that we're friends." I said shyly, but she smiled brightly, finally showing me her teeth. They were perfectly straight and white. Surprise, surprise.
"Good." She nodded, and we made our way to class in silence. It was good to know that she was one of those people who did not feel the need to fill the silence with mindless small talk, we could be quiet but perfectly comfortable and content like that. I love it.
I was concerned that Bella was fighting with her family because of me though, I didn't want to cause any trouble for her, and it seemed like that was exactly what I was doing. She didn't seem overly concerned though, maybe Rosalie was like this a lot. We took our seats in biology just before the bell rang, so Mr. Banner couldn't be too angry. He started the lecture, but just continued from yesterday. Wasting no time, I tore a page from my note book and wrote – So when do you think he will start anything interesting? And shoved it towards her. She took it ; eagerly reading the note and smirking, before pulling a pen from her pocket and responding, before sliding the note back towards me. How did she manage to make paper graceful?
That depends what you up to, but if you were in advanced freshman than probably, Ohh, next year.
I looked at her, pouting, and then groaning and letting my head fall onto the desk. She giggled and when I looked up, her face was hidden in her hands. She looked up at me, and she was a vision to behold. Her golden eyes were sparkling with humor and joy. Her full lips were spread wide across her face in a heart breaking smile, and I was glad to see that she was still showing me her teeth. I stared at her, wanted to smile back at her but unable to get my body to do anything that I wanted. Her smile dimmed and she looked at me curiously, before a look of shock and recognition crossed her features and she stopped smiling altogether.
"Sorry." She whispered, crestfallen, then looked back at the front of the classroom.
"What are you apologizing for?" What was she sorry about, being beautiful?
She shook her head but took the paper back from me writing another question about my music taste. I was glad that she was 'talking' to me again, and responded eagerly. But I was still confused as to why she was sorry. Biology went quickly, as does all the time I shared with her. At least I got to go to gym with her. We packed up our things, and started to make our written conversation verbal. Looking over her shoulder, I saw that Mike and Jessica were talking to each other, but shooting glances at me and my lab partner. Jessica was glaring at Bella. I felt a protective instinctive rise in me and I had to resist the urge to wrap my arms around Bella and protect her from Jessica. I settled for glaring back at her, and her eyes widened in shock when she was my facial expression.
"What are you glaring at?" Bella asked curiously, looking over her shoulder and seeing the two annoying teenagers. "Oh, right." She smiled tightly. We started to walk from the block and towards the gym. "So I'm guessing that you don't particularly like Jessica and Mike?" I laughed at her comment. How had she guessed? Insert the sarcasm.
"Oh, what gave me away?" I put my hand to my chest and looked at her in mock horror. She started giggling and put her hand over her mouth, shaking her head and closing her eyes. I could see Alice and Jasper, standing up ahead of us. Alice was smiling at us and bouncing, she seemed to do that a lot. Jasper was looking us, his head tilted to the side slightly with a slight smile on his face, but he also looked curious and calculating. Alice energy must be wearing off on him. We parted ways at the locker rooms, but what hadn't escaped my notice was that Jessica and Mike were walking behind us, close enough to listen to our conversation. Bella had realized this to, because she had stopped talking about the others and steered our conversation back to music. I had seen Mike and Jessica's faces, and they looked confused when we were mentioning band names. They probably had no idea what we were talking about. Mike had followed me to the change rooms, and was getting closer and closer, sparing a glance over at the girls locker rooms, I could see that Jessica was doing the same to Bella. As soon as we were in the locker room I went to a stall and changed, I didn't usually bother about getting changed in the bathrooms, but I just wanted to get Mike away from me. When I was done, I left the stall only to see Mike dressed in his uniform and leaning against the sinks, waiting for me.
"So Edward." He began. "What's up with you and Bella? She never talks to anyone apart from her family, she even ditched me, and now as soon as you come, she's all open and friendly and walking you to classes." I was elated to learn this. Out of everyone in the school, even if the school was rather small, Bella had chosen me to speak to. She decided to open up to me and I was not complaining, I was just confused. Maybe she didn't like the uniformity that most of the other people here seemed to follow, and could tell that I wasn't like that, much like I could tell with her?
"I don't know, were just friends. What do you care about me and Bella?"
He smirked, but looked confused. "Well, I was just curious. Why would she suddenly go out of her way to be nice, no offence or anything man." He shrugged but then smiled. "On the plus side, if she's talking to people and opening up, maybe she will finally go on a date with me." I stiffened.
"Have you asked her before?" I tried to play cool, act like I didn't care about him and Bella dating, but in all honesty, the very thought of my only friend apart from my mum in this town and the girl that I liked, going out with Mike Newton of all people, sickened me. But Bella was a shy and quiet person, she obviously didn't like Mike in anyway, our earlier conversation proved that.
"Course' I have."
"Has she ever gone out with you?"
"No."
"Than why would she now? No offence man." I mimicked him, than walked to my locker and put my clothes in. I went to the court, wanting to see Bella again and trying to stop my inner victory dance. She chose me. Bella was already waiting anxiously when I went to the court, but her head snapped towards me when I was halfway across the court towards her. She walked towards me, with determination in her step.
"Hey!" She said. Her eyes were tight.
"Hey, are you alright?" I was much more concerned than I should be about a person I mad met only one day ago.
"I'm fine. Do you want to be partners again? I reckon that we could make it to fifty today." She laughed. I joined her laughter and nodded. We walked to the coach and got our volley ball, then walked back to where we had met and started to practice. Bella tripped over her own shoe after about five minutes of practice, but didn't fall. I was scared that she had hurt herself, and without think about the consequences I ran over to her, forgetting about the volleyball that was flying in the air towards where I had just been, and grabbed her still stumbling shoulder.
"Bella! Are you alright?" My voice was laced with panic and concern, but I couldn't seem to control myself. She laughed at my over-the-top concern and told me that she was fine, that she was always a klutz.
I raised my eyebrow at her. "You're always pretty graceful Bella. I've seen you trip twice now, but one of those was over a stick that you didn't see coming." I tried not to smirk. "You were too busy looking at me."
"Hey, I was laughing at what you said, I was being a good friend!" I shrugged.
"Whatever, I was just being a good friend by saving you from them gym floor, but you laughed at my panic." She laughed again, and I could spend the rest of my life listening to that sound.
Wow – where did that come from? You haven't even known her for forty eight hours and you're all like 'the rest of my life'.
But that was just a catch phrase, right? I didn't really mean that, right? No I couldn't, I barley even knew her. Alright, that wasn't entirely true, I knew her better than anyone else I had ever known, except for my mum. But still, I couldn't want of spend the rest of my life with her. I was starting to scare myself, so I reluctantly (again scaring myself.) let go of her to go and get the ball that had rolled towards Lauran and Jessica. I jogged towards them, grabbed the ball and ignored their annoying "Hey Edward" 's, than jogged back to Bella. She was glaring at Lauran and Jessica. She couldn't have heard what they said, and why was she glaring? She was so confusing, but I wouldn't change that.
We won the digging competition , we got 51 digs, better than what she joked that we could get. After another volleyball game, the bell rang signaling the end of class. Almost everyone was covered in sweat, the girls make up running and their hair was everywhere, but not Bella. Of course, she didn't wear make up, but she wasn't sweating and her hair was still perfectly smooth and shiny. She didn't look tired or flustered, and she wasn't breathing heavily. How was that? She hit the ball more than any of the other girls. I filed that away for later consideration, there was definitely something different about that girl.
Everyone went to the locker rooms to shower and change. Mike was avoiding me, talking to Eric instead. That just boosted my mood even higher than it already was. I showered and changed quickly, hoping to catch up with Bella before she left. I knew that Rosalie was impatient, and Bella was kind, she wouldn't want to annoy her sister any more. I stubbed my toe when I ran to the locker, hit my elbow on the locker after I put my pants on and somehow punched myself in the jaw, effectively biting my tongue whilst trying to put on my shirt. This is why I don't dress in a hurry. But it was worth it, because when I was finally dressed and had limped my way to the court, she was still there, sitting on the bleachers and flipping her phone absently. I walked up to her, the tugging in my head and chest retreating with each step.
"Hey."
"Hey," She smiled softly. "So, did Mike come up and talk to you? Before gym?" I smirked and nodded.
"Yer, how'd you know that?"
She smirked. "After you went to change he can up and asked me out, again." I stiffened. "I mean, I said no but you would think that he would take my hint after all of this time. But he said that because I was talking to you, I would probably be more open to him."
"I told him that you probably wouldn't go out with him. Then I threw his own words back to him and shoved them in his face, it was fun." I smiled and she laughed. I grabbed her hand and helped her from the seats, basking in the electricity but letting go once she had her footing.
"He's just lucky that he doesn't appeal to me." She muttered.
"And why do you say that, what's wrong with you?" There was nothing wrong with her. Any guy would be lucky to 'appeal' to her.
"I just don't think that we would be a good match. We're too….um….different." She was smiling widely now, chuckling at her own joke. I looked at her curiously.
"Well, I'm glad that you said no too him, I can't stand that guy, and as your friend, I would have to talk to him." She laughed at me.
"I wouldn't make you do that." We joked about all the cons of dating Mike until we got to the car park, where she stopped short and said. "Oh they did not."
"Bella, what's wrong?" I turned around and followed her direction of sight. The car space where her car usually is was empty, and none of her siblings, or their car, could be seen.
"They left without me!"
"Wow, Rosalie really was upset, wasn't she?" She nodded. "Sorry." She turned her head to me and cocked her head to the side.
"What do you have to apologize for, you didn't do anything wrong."
"The reason she is angry at you is because of me."
"Not completely, she's angry at me too. Plus, me and Rose have never completely gotten on well. I mean, we can talk and have 'girl time' as Alice calls it together, but we are just too different. I am much closer to Alice, even if we are pretty much polar opposites. We just click."
I nodded, I had expected that. Alice was always much more happy, and she seemed to really care for Bella. At least, that's what I had picked up from the two or so conversations I had with her. I mentally rolled my eyes at myself.
"Well where do you live, I'll give you a life home, it's the least that I can do." Her eyes widened.
"Oh you don't have to do that, I can walk, I don't want to be a pain."
"Bella you are not being a pain, I want to give you a lift, now get in the car." We had stopped conveniently close to me car, so I walked over, unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for her. Her eyes widened and she raised an eyebrow, still staring between me and the car door.
"What?"
"Do you have any idea how long it has been since someone opened a car door for me?" She smiled.
"Well I guess that you'll just have to ride with me more often, I'll always open the door for you." I smiled and her own smile brightened.
"Alright, I might just have to." I was going to hold her to that. She walked over to me and stepped to the car, sitting gracefully and I closed the door for her, walking over to the drivers side with a spring in my step. My mood was so high that I was practically floating. I opened the door and climbed into the car, starting the ignition and pulling away from the school before either of us spoke.
"I like your car." She nodded, looking at the CD/IPod player . I plugged in my IPod and pressed play, starting the Flyleaf CD that she had gotten me listening to.
"I love this CD!" I smiled, that was why I was listening to the music.
"I know, you talking about it made me feel like listening to it. I hope you're happy, I spent Spanish trying to translate 'There For You'." She laughed. "So where do I go?"
"Umm. Keep going on the highway, we have to go to the other side of town." I nodded, maybe she lived close to me, I was on the other side of town too. But then we passed my street, and than all of the other houses.
"Where are we going, what do you live in the forest or something?" I was joking but she said "Mm-hum." And I snapped my head around to look at her. She turned around from looking at the trees to look at me confused.
"What? Oh! Right, I don't live in the actual forest, but my house is in the forest, we didn't want to live to close to the main center of town, and Esme couldn't find any spare land big enough for her likings, or an old house that she wanted to do up. But then she found this one and insisted that we get it. The place is beautiful."
"Your mum redecorates houses?" That was pretty impressive.
"Yer, she's really good at it." We drove in silence the rest of the way, apart from Bella telling me to turn when we reached her hidden drive way. Their driveway went for miles. After a while, a huge white house, or mansion, came into my view. Bella was right, this place was absolutely beautiful. I pulled up in front of the 'house' and Bella sighed, picking at the seat belt. She looked so nervous.
"Do you want to come inside?" She asked slowly.
"Sure." I smiled brightly. This was one more step in unraveling the mystery that was Bella Cullen. She smiled back at me, unclipping her seat belt and picking up her bag. I turned off the car and opened my door. Once I had exited the car, I went around her side to open her door, but she had beat me. I pouted at her and she laughed, just saying. "Next time." I smiled, there would be a next time. She walked me up the white porch steps and opened the door.
"Guys, I am home. Jasper, Emmett behave, we have a guest." She called.
Jasper and Emmett were wrestling on the living room floor, but stopped straight after they heard Bella's call. They snapped their heads around to stare at me and I smiled timidly. Their eyebrows raised simultaneously, and then they smiled.
"Hey Edward." They said, followed by Emmett saying "I win!" and Jasper getting his wallet from his pocket and handing over what, well, more then I could count. Bella stepped further into the entrance hall and I followed her. She closed the door and asked absently. "What did you bet on this time?"
"That it would take you less than two weeks to bring him home." He laughed and I blushed. Bella looked like she would be, but she wasn't.
"Hey Edward, It's great to see you again!" Alice skipped from what I assumed to be the kitchen and hugged me again.
"Yer it's great to see you too Alice." I hugged her back, smiling, but still confused. Bella rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. But then she whipped her eyes to the stairs as did Alice. Alice whispered to me "Don't worry about her, she's like this a lot more than I would like to say."
"What – " But I didn't get to finish my sentence. Rosalie strutted onto the stair case and stared, no, glared at me, before turning to Bella and pointing to me. "What is he doing here?" She demanded. Ouch.
"He is my guest, and in my house. We all live her too Rose." Bella's voice was stern but patient.
"And he is my friend too!" Little Alice chimed in, and I smiled brightly down at her. Great, I had won over two of the seven, but one hated me. Better than nothing. Rosalie huffed and walked back up the stairs. I heard a door slamming somewhere up the hall way and Emmett walked past me. I hadn't even heard him move.
"Sorry about that, she just doesn't understand - just don't worry." He smiled softly at me. I liked him, he was intimidating , but once you got over his massive size, he seemed like a generally nice person. "I'll be back soon." And with that he walked up the stairs and disappeared up the hallway. Another woman walked from the kitchen area. She had cameral coloured shoulder length hair and had a motherly smile on her face, which was, of course, beautiful. Straight features, perfectly curved and shaped eyebrows and golden eyes.
"Hello dear, I am Esme, Bella's mother." She stopped in front of me, and her hands, and arms actually, twitched towards me. It was like she wanted to hug me. If she was anything like Alice, she probably did.
"I'm Edward Masen, it's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Cullen. You have a beautiful home." She smiled even more brightly, she too had the perfectly white and straight teeth. What was up with these people?
"Thankyou, we all put a lot of effort into it. Would you like anything to eat or drink?" She asked sweetly, and she seemed generally concerned about my appetite. It was strange, but I liked it. "And please, call me Esme." This woman just got into my top five.
"Oh I am alright, but Thankyou for offering." She smiled still and nodded.
"Alright, well I'll be up in Carlisle's study if you need anything, why don't you give Edward a tour of the house Bella." She started to walk up the stairs but turned round when Bella called after her.
"Is Carlisle at work?"
Esme nodded. "He will be back from the hospital at eight." Than she continued up the stairs.
"Is your dad a doctor?" I turned to Bella. She nodded.
"Doctor, surgeon, he does pretty much everything."
"Cool." I hadn't realized that Alice had gone over to the couch. She was sitting talking to Jasper.
"Come, I'll give you a tour." I nodded and followed her. We walked through the house and showed me everything except for the bedrooms and Carlisle's study. She was right about Jasper and the Civil war. He had a study and half of the book there were on the war. They also had a library, and a music room. The piano in this room was smaller than the white grand piano in the living room, but it was still wonderful. The last room on the tour was Bella's room, it was on the third floor at the end of the hallway. She hesitated nervously before opening the door and stepping in ahead of me.
"Wow." The room was huge, the wall that her bed was on was a midnight blue, the other two were a creamy white. The last wall was made up completely of glass, the whole backside of the house must be. As I said, wow. Her bad was massive, King sized with a blue and white comforter. She had so many pillows, I wanted to run up and jump on them. On the opposite wall, she had shelve after shelve full of books on one side, and music on the other side. There was also an advanced looking stereo that I was just itching to try. The spare wall had two doors, one that slid. I assumed that they led to a bathroom and a closet. I looked at the CD's and then at her. Seeing what I wanted, she grabbed my wrist and we both gasped at the electricity. She pulled me towards the wall, and let go of me once we were there. She went and turned on the stereo to a classical music station. Yiruma's 'River Flows In You' was playing. She had quite the collection. There were even vinyl's here. There was even stuff here from the fifties. There was more modern stuff than older, and I saw heaps of my favorite bands and CD's. The girl had taste, I couldn't deny it.
"You have quite the collection."
"Thankyou, I like to think so." I finished my study of her music collection and moved onto books. She had heaps of classics, and a lot of romance. She also had Sci-Fi and mystery, and I even saw some Anne Rice. I smiled to myself.
See, there's nothing wrong with Anne Rice.
Once I was done with that, I turned around to see her sitting on her bed, looking at me, she looked like she was studying me now. I walked towards her think about what question to ask first, I wanted to know everything. Start simple.
"So, what's your favorite colour?" I smiled and she smiled back laughing.
/*&*/
I was driving home, and it was 5:58. I was late home, and mum was probably worried, but she hadn't called me yet so I wasn't too concerned yet. The past two house and thirty eight minutes had possibly been the best two hours and thirty eight minutes of my life. I had learnt so much about her, but she was hesitant to talk about her family, either one, or her adoption. She seemed to be as curious about me as I was about her. Every question that I asked her, she would make me answer, or would ask one of her own. I found out that her favorite animal was a panther (she had laughed continuously when I had asked that, and I swore that I heard laughter from somewhere in the house. She had laughed when she had told me panther too.), she was born on September 13th in Chicago, hated people who used their words wrong, or when people used to much slang. After that I talked like a try hard gangster for the next then minutes by which time she was pulling her hair and threatened to throw me through the window. Bella loved the sun, but she had accepted the rain happily, but she wouldn't say why, just muttered something about family. She couldn't stand polka dots, and didn't like anything pink. Her IPod was one of her most prized items, and she didn't like her phone. She said 'no comment' when I asked her favorite food and when I thought about that, I hadn't seen her eat at lunch today either. She didn't like shopping and tried to leave that to her sister, but she usually got dragged to the shopping center. She didn't like rap, but I already knew that. She wasn't a very social person, but I could have guessed that. She had never had a boyfriend, and my face almost cracked with my smile when she told me that, I didn't even blush when I told her I had never had a girlfriend. She seemed to like that. I told her about my mother and what she was like. I told her about my dad dying and what kind of relationship we had. I almost told her about the death, about what had happened, but I couldn't, not yet, I didn't want to ruin the mood anymore, and I didn't know if I actually could tell her that. She offered her sympathy when I told her about my dad dying, but I told her that I didn't want her pity, she said she wasn't trying to, but that she understood. She was stock still when I told her about my relationship with him, or lack of, like she was made of a statue, she didn't even blink. She said that she got what I meant, and could relate, but didn't offer anymore details, and I didn't ask her. I didn't want to push her, she would tell me when she was ready to. Her favorite colour was blue. So when I had realized that the time was after five, I had told her that I was so sorry and that I had to go. She apologized for keeping me and I rolled my eyes at her. She walked me to my car and waved at me as I drove away. She was absolutely perfect.
When I got home, mum's civic was already in the driveway and I hurried to get inside, grabbing my bag and locking the car before stepping up to the porch, where she opened the door for me and smiled knowingly.
"So you were with Bella, that girl that you don't like?" She smiled knowingly. How did she do that? She always seemed to be intuitive, that was what made her so good at her job. She just knew things, and she was really good at getting people to do what she wanted. It was a good thing that she didn't abuse that particular gift.
"Yer actually I was, sorry that I am late, we just kinda lost track of the time." I started to fiddle with the strap of my bag that was over my shoulder and stuffed the other hand in my pocket.
"That's fine dear, so what did you do with her?"
"Her siblings left school without her so I offered to take her home. When I did, she asked me to come in. I met her mother and then she took me on a tour of the house. We spoke for a few hours and that's when we lost track of the time."
"So you found out a lot about her?"
"Yer, why do you ask?"
"Well you said yesterday that you would tell me about her when you knew something, and now you do."
I sighed. "Do you need me to do anything?" We were in the kitchen now and she had her laptop here, playing the Chicago soundtrack on ITunes. She loved that movie, and the soundtrack. I rolled my eyes.
"You can make the salad, now tell me about the girl, what did you learn?' I could tell that she was smirking. I grabbed all of the things that I would need for the salad from the fridge, a knife and the spare chopping bored.
"Her mother is really good at decorating houses, and her dad works at the hospital, he does pretty much everything apparently. She loves music, and the sun, and reading and her family. She hates shopping, people not speaking properly and rap music. She isn't a very social person, and gets embarrassed easily. She's born on September the 13th and doesn't have a favorite food. She doesn't know what she wants to do when she finishes High school. Her favorite gemstone is emerald-"
"I wonder why." I heard mum mutter and rolled my eyes.
"She's closer to her sister Alice, who likes me, than to her sister Rosalie, who doesn't like me. Jasper and Emmett like to bet a lot I think, they even bet about me and I hadn't even spoken to them yet."
"What did they bet about? And why do you think that Rosalie doesn't like you?"
I was cutting the tomatoes now, and the juice was getting on my hands. Tomatoes annoyed me. They tasted weird and they felt weird when you tried to cut them. "They bet on how long that it would take for Bella to being me home. Emmett won. And Rosalie because she continuously glares at me, Bella even told me that she didn't like change, and she didn't like that Bella had made friends with the new kid, but Bella didn't mean that offensively. She also said 'what is he doing here' when I showed up there."
"Well, I am sure that she will warm up to you." Mum put the chicken on the stove and started to cook them. I added the tomatoes to the salad and started to toss the salad.
We worked well as a team. We moved efficiently around the kitchen and soon dinner was ready. We ate in silence for a while before she asked what else had happened today. I told her about the boring classes and how Bella made them better. I told her about the volleyball competition and how we won again. I asked her the same question, and she told me that she was working on a new case involving a five year old girl. Her mother was dead and her dad was abusive and a drunk. My mother was a social worker, she worked for the office at Port Angeles and she took her job very seriously. After dinner, we cleaned up together then moved to the living room, where she turned on the TV but picked up a book to read. I got my homework and started the easy Trigonometry questions. I was done sooner than I would have liked. Needing something to do, I ran up the stairs and grabbed 'Interview With A Vampire' by Anne Rice, Just because of the Irony. I walked back to the living room, put my IPod on and started to read. I was only onto the second page of the actual story when I stopped, unable to read anymore. The passage that had caught me eye was the third paragraph ' The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue.'. As stupid as this sounds, this sounded surprisingly like Bella and her family. But that was just crazy, even for me. Vampires were mythical creatures. Right? I kept on reading and was reassured. Bella and her family didn't wear cloaks and they weren't scary. Not really. Annoyed, I threw the book away from me, ignoring my mother look of concern and concentrated on the music, trying to memorize all of the lyrics. At 11, I said goodnight to my mum,, kissed her forehead like I did every night and walked up the stairs, trying not to think about Bella or her family or vampires or Anne Rice.
/*&*/
I woke up to "In Fates Hands" again and was glad to be awoken, kind of. In my first dream, Bella and I were in the forest but we were talking this time, she was smiling and laughing and I was in return. She told me that she liked me, better than Mike Newton, and that she wanted to date me. After that ended we were at the Cullen house and Bella drank my blood, with Rosalie watching and saying "I told you so human boy – you don't mess with the vampires, they bite." I said, "Well, maybe I want her too." Than she flipped her hair and told me I was stupid, and Bella looked up from my neck, smiled and than kept on drinking. The dream was strange, and I was happy to wake up and start my morning routine, wearing light blue tight jeans and a long sleeved white shirt. Remembering my hoddie, and my phone and IPod, I walked to the kitchen, saw mum eating breakfast again and decided to eat with her. I was up early today, so I took the time to make toast and ate it with her. She wished me good luck at school, and with Bella, and hoped that I made progress with Rosalie as I walked to my car and put my IPod on the dock. The Flyleaf CD was still playing and I hummed along to "Again.". When I got to school, later than I had expected but still early, Bella was already there, leaning against the car. I pulled up in the spot next to her and she smiled at me through the window, turning off her IPod and waiting for me.
"Good morning." She was cheery, I wonder what happened last night after I left.
"Good morning to you too." I smiled back at her.
"Did you sleep well?" She didn't seem as concerned as she did yesterday. Her eyes were twinkling.
"Yer, it was good."
"Nice dreams?" Now she looked curious, hopeful.
"Very." I nodded, if only she knew. "What about you, nice sleep."
She looked away and nodded, starting towards the english block. "I had a nice night, very nice night." What didn't escape my notice was that she didn't say nice sleep, she said nice night.
"Where's the rest of your family? Did you leave with out them this morning?" I laughed. She turned her head around to look me in the eyes, her own twinkling still, but mischievously now. "What, did you?"
She laughed. "No, but I think that I should do that tomorrow. They all expect me to be the last one to the car, so they won't expect me to leave without them. But they would probably take another car."
"How many cars do you have?" If the family liked cars, then maybe I could find a way to talk to Jasper and Emmett about them. I knew about cars, but I knew more about the finer details and types of cars, not the mechanics.
"We all have our own, but we also have the school car and Jasper has a motor bike instead of a car, he just rides with one of us if he goes out. Plus, he barley goes anywhere by himself."
"How come?"
"Well Alice goes everywhere with him, or Emmett and Emmett and Jasper won't fit on a motorbike together, plus Alice loves to drive."
"Makes sense. So where are they?" She shrugged.
"We got here early and they all went off one their own, I waited for you." I smiled brightly as my world lit up. She waited for me.
"Great." I probably said that a little too happily. She looked at me, still smiling and giggling.
"I think that they are going to leave without me again." She said thoughtfully, chewing on her plump bottom lip. I turned my head away from her hoping to avoid those teenage thoughts. "I managed to piss Rose off even more and nobody else messes with Rose unless they have to." She smiled tightly. This was excellent.
"Well I could give you a lift home if they do, or we could go back to my place, mum might get upset if I'm home too late." Then I realized that I had practically invited myself to her house, and I went to correct my mistake, but she turned to me and she was still smiling.
"I would like that." And my day just got that much better.
I had my hoddie today, so as soon as I left Bella at her classroom door I put it on and plugged in my IPod, hiding the cords in the material of my clothing. The music made form and english pass quickly, and before I knew what was happening I was, happily, sitting next to Bella in history. We were watching a DVD today, still on the civil war. It was focused mainly on the tactics of the southern soldiers. They showed a picture of some of the men in Huston, 1864. The picture wasn't very clear, and it was only on the screen for a few moments, but the man in the middle, the major, looked familiar. He looked just like Bella's older brother Jasper. That was not possible. The vampire theory popped back into my head. Vampires are not real. Than the mans voice came back on the screen as he started to describe the positions and responsibilities of the men that had been there.
"Major Jasper Whitlock was the youngest major in Texas by the battle of Galveston. He was placed in charge of women and children from the city when the unions motor boats reached the harbor . He went with the first column of civilians to convey them to Huston. As soon as he reached Huston, he got a fresh horse and than made the trip back to Galveston. Unfortunately, he never made his was back. He went missing on the way back and was never seen again." I had stiffened in my seat. JasperWhitlock. And the major in the picture had looked just like Bella's Jasper. That….no, just….no. I looked over at Bella, she had stiffened and her fists were clenched on the table top. She looked upset, shocked and worried. She turned her head towards me, and smiled stiffly.
"Wow, freaky name coincidence." I said, I wasn't sure that the name was just a coincidence but I wanted to make her comfortable. She relaxed slightly, but I knew that she was still uncomfortable
"Yer." She was silent for the rest of class. I was worried that she was still upset, and that she would start to avoid me now. We walked out of class together just as quiet, and when she left my side she didn't look me in the face, just said a soft "I'll see you later." Than she lopped across the yard towards the foreign languages block, towards where her brother was standing with Alice. When she met up with him, she spoke with a concerned look on her face, and his almost immediately went the same. I spent some time studying Jasper, he looked just like the other Jasper in the picture. But how could he be? He would be over a hundred years old. Alice stayed indifferent the whole time, but I could see a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She turned her head to look at me and let the smile take over her face. She waved at me and I waved back, and started to quickly walk towards the math block and my trigonometry classroom before Bella could see that I was staring at her. I tried to block any thoughts of Bella and her possible-vampire-family as I blasted the music during trigonometry and Spanish, but by lunch I was going crazy in the need to not only see Bella, but talk to her too. I wanted to ask her about what happened during history but I could be patient enough for that. Just to talk about….anything would be fine, even if we just sat there in silence, That would be enough. I all but ran to the math block, hoping to catch up with Bella before we went to the cafeteria. She probably wouldn't want to sit with or near me. My luck was still there apparently, she was waiting, leaning against the block wall and staring at her hands.
"Hey Bella." I said, walking up to her hesitantly. Did she still want to speak to me? She looked up, hurt swimming in her eyes. I walked towards her faster, and the hurt slowly started to disappear. Odd.
"Hi." She smiled back. "How was class?"
"No idea?" She looked curious. "I had my IPod on the whole time." She smiled in recognition.
"While I agree that IPod's can help, you really should pay attention."
"But I've done all of this."
"Well you should at least try and take some notes, especially when we start to do new stuff."
"I will once we start that new stuff." I reassured her. She nodded and looked happier. We were walking to the cafeteria by now. I didn't want to sit with Mike and Eric and the others, I didn't know if I would be invited to sit with them anymore, not after yesterday. I decided that I would go to the library or my car for lunch, after I got some food. We were almost there when Alice skipped up to us, hugging each of us again before taking Bella's hand and leading is to the cafeteria. The smell of pizza was wafting through the room, which I could normally like, but this pizza was crappy cafeteria pizza.
"You should sit with us today Edward." Alice didn't even look at me as she spoke, but Bella rose her eyebrows and looked at her sister.
"What?" I asked, was she sure that that was a good idea? I would love sit with Bella, and I wanted to get to know her family better, they were so important to her, but Rosalie would not appreciate me sitting with her, that was for sure.
"Sit with us, come on, you know you want to." She laughed.
"I want to, but what about Rosalie."
"Forget about Rosalie."
"Alright than." I was getting what I wanted earlier than expected, who was I to complain?
We got our food and headed to their table. I could see the people from my old table looked at me with wide eyes, as was most of the cafeteria, the Cullen's really never sat with anyone else did they? Emmett and Jasper smiled at us as we sat, but Rosalie didn't move her head away from her nails, which she was staring intently at, she was trying to hard to look indifferent.
"Hey Eddie, what's up?"
"Don't call me Eddie." I really tried not to glare at Emmett, but I did and he just smiled.
"Wow that really annoys you." I nodded. Jasper laughed and said. "I know how you feel." This made the rest of the table crack up laughing. Bella covered her mouth with her hand, Alice wrapped her arms around her waist and Emmett leaned forward on the table. Rosalie just rolled her eyes. I smiled, I suddenly felt so happy. The rest of the cafeteria was staring at us and a lot of the room had stopped talking. What were they looking at, had they never heard them talk before? Actually that might make sense, they hadn't been noisy at lunch since I had been here, but that had only been for almost three days. Wow, only three days. "What?" I asked.
"I have a nickname too, they all call me Jazz and I used to get annoyed at them, but now I've just learned to live with them calling me Jazz."
"You don't mind Alice calling you Jazz when you two are-"
"Emmett!" Bella and Jasper said. That was weird. When they were what?...Oh. I blushed.
"Hey look, he's blushing." Emmett was pointing at me and staring like he had just seen the most amazing thing. Jasper slapped him on the back of the head and Emmett narrowed his eyes, dropped his arms and turned to face his brother. "You'll pay for that when we get home." Jasper laughed and kept on throwing his apple. He had been doing that for a while, but still hadn't eaten anything, none of them had. I picked up my pizza and took a bite, trying to ignore all of the grease and just focus on all of the cheese. It was working. They all looked at me, then turned quickly when they realized that I realized that they were staring. I kept on eating, hoping that they would start soon, but they all sat, playing with their food but not eating anything.
I thought better than to say anything. I already know that something was different about them, and what happened during history only proved that. Now they weren't eating. I really wanted to know what they where, but they had to be human. Maybe their coldness was really because of Alaska, maybe they worked out or something. They probably just didn't the like cafeteria food and ate before and after school, maybe Bella just wasn't hungry yesterday. The Cullen's probably just had a knack for adopting beautiful children. That had to be what was going on, right?
"So, what are we going to do tonight?" Emmett looked at Jasper, who was playing catch with an excited looking Alice. Why couldn't he just eat that apple?
"We continue our chess game?"
"You two play chess?" I asked, I wouldn't have thought Emmett the type.
"Oh we play extreme chess." Jasper said.
"Dude, I thought that we decided to call the game mega chess time ten!" They started telling each other about what name they had chosen, and I was looking amusedly between the two of them. Bella sighed next to me.
"They get ten chess boards, put them together and play chess, and you decided on extreme chess times ten." They stopped talking and looked at her. "Oh."
For the rest of lunch, they explained the rules to their game and then tried to convince me who was better at the game. I spent pretty much the whole time laughing. This family was great, if only I could get Rosalie to talk to me. Lunch went quicker than I would have liked, but at least I could be alone with Bella now.
We were walking to the science block when she apologized for her brothers behaviors. I shook her off and said that I thought that they were great. She laughed and said that she was glad that I got along so well with them. I told her that I was too. We passed notes during biology and she told me about some of the strange things that her brothers had done over the years, including Jasper loosing a bet and having to do karaoke wearing Alice's clothes. What you have to realize is that Alice is about 4'8 while Jasper is 6'2, or about that. The dress had been short to start with. We spoke about them some more during volleyball and we one the digging competition again. Mike tried to speak to me again, but didn't talk about Bella. We had left the gym quickly, Bella said that she didn't want to make me go to her house again and wanted to get to the car quickly. I stalled. When we got to the car park, the Mercedes was gone, and I smiled.
"Your place or mine?" I asked still smiling as I opened the passenger door for her. She smiled again as she got into the car.
"Lets try your place, if that is alright."
"Sure." I was just glad that the place was clean, my house had nothing on hers after all.
The drive was a lot shorter than the one to her house, and we were there within ten minutes. She complemented the house as we were walking up towards the porch, and I rolled my eyes, telling her that hers was way better. We kept our bags on our shoulder as we walked to the kitchen. I offered her anything to drink or eat, but she said that she was fine. I was getting concerned. She hadn't eaten anything at lunch, she should be starving. I gave her a tour and she complimented pretty much everything, and admired my CD collection when we got to my room. My collection wasn't as big as hers, but it was my pride. We dropped our bags and sat on the bed, talking about anything and everything until she suggested that we work on our homework. I nodded and turned on some music, grabbing our bags and opening up my book. She nodded at my selection and we worked quietly. When we were done I complained about Spanish and she laughed at me. We spoke about our old homes. I told her about Chicago because she was curious and hadn't been back since the adoption. She told me were she had lived and I rose my eyebrows. The street that she had lived on was filled with old houses, most of which were inhabited by families that had owned the house for generations. It had been close to where I lived, but I hadn't heard of her family. She told me to ask my mother if she had, she said that she was curious to find someone that new her parents, but I don't think that she was telling the truth. She told me about Alaska and the 'family' that they had up there, but she didn't tell me too much about them. She told me why everyone had been so shocked when I had sat with her and her family today at lunch, and when they had laughed so loudly. Apparently they had only ever sat with themselves, and were usually pretty quiet. At school at least. She told me that talking to her was probably going to get me a lot more attention, and a lot more stares. I told her that she was worth the stares, she smiled cutely, looked like she could be blushing again and said. "Thankyou."
My mother came home and at the same time her dad called her and said that he was coming to pick her up. I walked her to the kitchen where my mother was looking for food in the freezer.
"Mum, this is Bella Cullen. Bella, this is Elizabeth, my mother." I gestured to each of them as I said their names. They said hello, Bella shyly and mum brightly. They hugged each other, much to my surprise. They made simple small talk about mum's work and Bella's family, then her dad knocked on the door and I got all nervous. He had raised his daughter and I was old fashioned, I wanted her parents approval before I dated her, and I had decided that I wanted that.
I left Bella and mum in the kitchen and walked to the door way. Dr. Cullen had golden blonde hair, perfect features obviously and was deathly pale, but he, like the others, made the snow white of their skin look good. There was a kind smile on his face and it looked in place there. Even I couldn't help but trust him, and it usually took a while for me to trust anyone. At least I knew what he had in common with his daughter.
"Hello, I'm Carlisle, Bella's dad." He extended his hand for me to shake, and I did. It didn't escape my notice that he was wearing gloves.
"Hello Dr. Cullen, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, I'm Edward Masen." I tried to use my 'best manners' and I think it worked. He smiled even more brightly and chuckled good naturedly.
"It's good to meet you Edward, and please, call me Carlisle. "
"Carlisle." I nodded. "Would you like to come in?" He nodded and I stepped to the side, letting him in. I led him to the kitchen where my mother and Bella were still talking.
He introduced himself to mum and put his arm around Bella's shoulder. The adults made pleasantries, and Bella and I continued our conversation about Alaska from upstairs. After a few minutes, Bella and Carlisle went back to the car and I went back to the kitchen, trying to come to the terms of not being able to see Bella again until tomorrow. Mum and I ordered Thai food from the little place that was next to the DVD store. It was delicious and we lounged around the living room watching re-runs of 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'Law & Order'. It was great. I eventually broached the subject about Bella's family.
"Hey mum?' The criminal had just been caught, again, and she turned her attention away from the screen to look at me.
"Yer?"
"You know back at Chicago, that street near ours that had all of the old houses it?"
"Oh, of course I do, what about them?"
"Well, I was wondering if you knew the names of any of the families that lived there? I mean, a few years ago, when I was just a kid even?
"I knew some of them, and the history of more, did you know that some of those houses were built in the eighteen hundreds, they survived the Spanish Influenza!" She liked history too, she would probably get along with Jasper. I nodded politely.
"Did you know if the Swan family lived there?" She looked thoughtfully past my shoulder.
"I think so, but I think that that was a long time ago, as in the early 1900's. But I don't remember for sure. Why? Where did you hear that name?" The early 1900's? No……..
It took me a moment to compose myself. "Just wondering." I think that she could tell that I didn't want to talk about the Swan's anymore, so she turned back to the TV.
The early 1900's, she had to have the wrong family, that was the only logical solution.
But what else about that family was logical?
Shut UP!
Oh bite me.
Maybe Bella will.
You know that you are crazy when you start to fight with yourself.
Bella Point Of View –
I sat next to Carlisle in the car, and we were quiet.
"I like him, he seems nice and he is polite."
"Thankyou dad." I smirked.
"Alice told me about her vision." He said quietly.
"Which one?"
"The one where he finds out."
"Did she tell you when, because she hasn't told me, just that he finds out, and that it is a good thing."
"She didn't tell me when, just that it would happen." He smiled softly.
I nodded. "Alright."
Alice had approached me last night, after Edward had left, and dragged me back up to my room.
"He knows." She had said happily.
"What!"
"Well not yet, but he will. And what happens is good, he needs to know Bella! Trust me. The sooner that this happens the better. You should drop some hints about your age or something. Stuff will happen tomorrow."
"But why does he need to know?" Why was I so happy that he would know, I didn't want to lie to him anymore. Telling half truths were hard, I wanted to tell him everything.
"Because he does, don't fight this, please, because you know that you want him to."
"I know." She had smiled bright and sat on my bed. We talked for hours until Jasper called her and I got shot with a wave of lust. I went for a run, not wanting to hear what was about to happen there.
"I dropped hints, like she said too, but I think that he already knew that something was going on, he keeps on giving me funny looks, but not scared looks. Plus he sat with us at lunch today and saw that we didn't eat and I didn't eat any food at his place this afternoon. Plus Jasper was mentioned in history today."
"What did you two talk about that concerned Jasper?" He asked curiously.
"No I mean Major Jasper Whitlock was mentioned on the DVD that we watched in history, they told his story, they even mentioned that he disappeared and showed a picture of him and some of his team. The picture was on the screen for only a few moments, but he saw it. Jasper was a mix of shock and pride. He's all like 'score history remembers me' but 'shit now people might know about me'."
We laughed together, but I could tell that he was still a bit concerned. "Don't worry, everything will be fine." He nodded.
"Alright."
I spent the rest of the night in my room, reading and listening to music. But by night, I meant until twelve o'clock. He would probably be asleep by now. Yer, I had become a stalker. I actually watched the boy sleep, but it was worth it.
Edward said my name in his sleep. Multiple times.
I ran from the house. They were all having sex now and I had no mate. I wasn't paying attention to where I was running, but the fact that the tugging in my head and heart was getting better should have been notice enough. Before I knew what was happening, I was outside the house and staring at his bed room window. The bedroom light was off and the only thing that I could hear was two heart beats from the house. They were steady and they were obviously asleep. Sighing, I let myself indulge in my feelings and ran to the front of the house, up the tree and looked through his window. He was laying his side with his lips pulled up in a smile. He was wearing cotton pajama pants and no shirt. His chest was incredibly sculpted for a teenage human, which was understandable considering his apparent love of sport. The bed sheets were tangled around his knees, and he was resting his head on one of his arms. He was adorable, but still I couldn't help but feel attracted by him. I hadn't felt this way before. I know I had some kind of feelings for him. He was kind and sweet and different from all of the other teenage humans, he didn't listen to their music or dress like them or even think like them. I loved it.
But I was also physically attracted to him, and that had only happened a few times before, but never anything like that. And I couldn't stand to be away from him, whenever I was there was a tugging in my head, thinking about what he was doing, where he was, if he was alright, if he was happy. There was a tugging in my chest that only went away if we were close or touching.
He sighed and moved his head further into his arm. He sighed. I opened the window and slid to his room. I looked around, breathing in his scent and trying to get past the thirst and just think about the scent, the apples and lavender and sunshine. I sat on the chair in the corner of the room, the one next to the window and watched him sleep for about twenty minutes, before he sighed again and murmured
"Bella." He started smiling again and I swear that he almost laughed. But he said my name. Something in me was changing, I could feel it, and I love it.
"Bella." He said again. And than the word shifted again and I gasped. Suddenly everything brightened and I realized what I had been on the urge of feeling, but hadn't left myself. I love the way he spoke and the way he thought. I loved the way that he was different and the way that he already seemed to know that something was different about me, but he didn't seem scared. I loved that he wanted to spend time with me and that he seemed to actually like me for me, and not for my looks. I loved him.
"I loved him." I whispered. "I love him."
He sucked a deep breath, before saying. "Bella."
"Edward." I whispered.
And yer, this made me a stalker, but I was going back tonight, but it was worth it, because I loved him and I wanted to tell him but I couldn't because we had just met and that would scare him probably more than the vampire thing and he was human and I was a vampire and….and now I was rambling and my thoughts were going crazy.
But I loved him. And I was going to tell him, soon.
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