Chapter Three: Fight

So, Port Angeles was something Jess wasn't letting go anytime soon. She started sitting with her old friends again and got quite the verbal lashing from Eric and Mike when Jess had run her mouth about what had happened. Not that Bella had taken any notice.

Even sitting in the back of Mr. Ambrosius' class, she could hear Jess yammering on about it to her desk neighbor and they were on the other side of the room but Bella couldn't care less. Her chocolate brown eyes watched the teacher with scrutiny as he paced in front of the board; lecturing of the sixth century England in such detail she had only ever heard from the Cullen Patriarch; with experience.

But he wasn't a vampire. His eyes – albeit gorgeous – were not gold or red and the colour of them had far too much detail to be contacts. His skin was warm to the touch, pale? Yes. But not alabaster and it was cushioned just like human flesh apart from the muscles of his arms Bella had felt hugging her when she collapsed that night.

Charlie was not happy when she got back, having been called by the teacher. She wasn't going to lie, she felt bad.

After a long talk, Charlie made it explicitly obvious this was her very last straw before Jacksonville and she was skating on paper-thin ice with the balance of Bambi and weight of the Hulk. Any moment it would collapse, and she would be swallowed whole.

And honestly, she wasn't sure what she wanted. She wasn't sure what was making her hold on.

The bell let out its shrill scream and this time, Bella didn't waste any time in leaping up. She didn't want to be in here anymore. Maybe she could convince the nurse she was-

"Miss Swan." Fuck no. She stilled to a complete stop before the teacher's desk. He pulled her back again. Was he really stalking her? He was absolutely acting like it. "Hold back for a moment. I need to have a word with you." Her eyes turned to him, raising a questioning eyebrow as his eyes slid to a narrow. He glided to his feet, stalking over to the door and throwing it shut with the regular routine of locking it and lowering the shades.

It was when he turned around, Bella felt like the floor was fallen out right from under her again. The similar feeling of her heavy breaths, his infuriated glare. She felt caged. She would say like she was against a lion but he was far more majestic than that. He was like a dragon, and she the mouse. Her hands trembled.

"You never answered my question, Isabella." His voice was somehow even lower – damn near demonic shadows hovering over his eyes and hiding them from the world. "What the hell were you thinking? Your father is the police chief so I doubt he forgot to express the term 'stranger danger' to you."

"No." She gulped; her mouth as dry as her throat. Like a desert. "He didn't-"

"Then what were you doing?!" He moved as fast as a vampire; stood right before her with his arms and pale hands clamped around her biceps. Bella let out a little squeak; truly sounding like a mouse, his grip surely leaving bruises tomorrow. "Well?"

"I don't know!" Fell from her trembling lips, her head hanging in shame with her eyes squeezed shut but it didn't stop the salty streams slipping through the cracks. "I don't know!"

"Not good enough!"

"I'm sorry!" She cried, a sob finally escaping her that she held down right to the bottom of her lungs. There was a moment between the two of them, Bella squinting into the darkness from behind her eyelids searching for something – the only sound between them was their shared raggedy breaths. The vices were lifted from her arms. She couldn't help it. She had to look.

His dark brows furrowed, bright blue pools watching her. Analyzing her. And yet again it was something Bella had never seen before on him – sadness. He wasn't angry like before or even disappointed like she expected. He was sad. His lips turned down in the ever graceful little frown with a gap, allowing his wet warm breath to escape.

"Where is your fight?"

She only blinked at him; broken. He didn't want to ask the obvious question and she didn't answer.

Who took it from you?

He swallowed the frog in his throat, spinning on his heel and pacing towards the door. It clicked open. And he hid behind his desk yet again.

"See you next class, Miss Swan."

It took her a moment for her feet to respond, carrying herself as fast as they could to the door. She stopped when her hand made contact with the golden handle and turned her head back to him.

He was pensive. Hunched over his clenched hands that pressed against his lips, staring into nothingness before him. She observed herself, her entire figure trembling like an unexploded emotional volcano, her breathing still running rampant and heart going a hundred dozen. Sweat trickled down her back in a singular bead simply by watching him.

"What are you doing to me?"

He looked up.

But she was gone before he could answer.

It wasn't until later that Bella let herself feel again after that. In the comfort and safety of her room, far away from him. A shaking breath escaped her as she stood before the mirror in the corner of the room. 'Where is your fight?' His voice was there again. Not Edwards- but her own teachers. Everything he said always stuck with her. Her tearful eyes looking over her figure, practically now skin and bones. The hollows of her cheeks were deep, dark circles surrounding her red-rimmed eyes. She sniffled again, daring to do what she had been covering since Phoenix.

With a twig thin arm, she reached over to her left wrist, pulling up the sleeve and gently taking the end of the black tied bandana within her paper fingertips. And slowly she pulled away.

"Holy shit!"

It had gotten worse. So much worse.

The natural blue and purple of her veins in her arms were gone – replaced with a black, tar thick looking substance chugging lazily under her skin. She could see them moving, pulsating from the end of her hand to the end of her 'I survived a vampire attack' badge. It pooled around each of the teeth indents. Bella used her right hand to cover her mouth – feeling her dinner wanting to make an appearance again.

She wrapped the bandana around it so it was hugging the bite in a tight knot that it could have cut off her circulation to her wrist.

This can't be happening.

This can't be happening.

No. Fucking. Way.

This one is really short I am so sorry but don't worry. As I said, when we get into the New Moon storyline, the chapters will meaten themselves up and it's not too far away. There is a perfect moment I have in mind and it's coming up very soon. So, like always, review the chapter to get a sneak peek of chapter four! Thanks guys! =-]

-Crystal Queen of the Diamond Domain. x