16

A Boring Baseball Match

After a few minutes of driving through neverending bumpy roads, we arrived at the forest. I didn't know how I felt being back again after spending the night here, but before I could open my mouth to address it, Edward opened his door and ran to my side of the car to open my door for me.

¨You´re fast,¨ I noticed.

He offered me his hand and winked. ¨Wait until you see me play.¨

I used his hand to steady myself as I climbed out of his car. My toe got stuck somewhere so I nearly tripped.

Luckily, he caught me in his strong arms before I could fall. I was pressed against his rock hard chest but you wouldn't hear me complain about that. Oh, quite the contrary, actually. I allowed myself to sniff him for a teeny-tiny second before I slowly pulled away.

I looked at his arms which were still firmly around my waist.

¨Oh yeah, I´m sorry.¨ Edward mumbled before he released me. My skin instantly missed his touch but we had to keep going if we wanted to be at the field on time. But damn it, I was still disappointed.

I looked around me since I could not find a path to walk on. ¨Which way to go?¨

¨About that, I had an idea.¨ Edward said wickedly. ¨Do you want to race me to the baseball field?¨

I raised my brows in surprise. ¨But I don't even know where to go to.¨

He laughed, but the joke was lost on me. He put his hands on my shoulders and leaned in.

¨Close your eyes.¨ He breathed on my face. The way he held me right now, I knew I would do anything he asked me to. I blinked a few times and tried to get my head clear again.

¨What?¨ I stuttered.

¨Just close them for a second. Try to hear my family. Can you hear them?¨

I rolled my eyes at him, but I did what he asked of me. I knew I couldn't hear the Cullens. What a stupid thing to ask of me. As if I could hear them from a distance. I didn't even know where they were, let alone freaking hear them.

But, I tried at least. Too bad it didn't work.

I opened my eyes again. Edward studied me and his smile faded slightly once he understood his plan didn't work. I apologetically smiled back.

A sudden sound made me stop dead in my tracks. A sound that didn't belong in a forest. A giggle. A familiar giggle. Alice´s giggle.

I quickly glanced at Edward who´s eyes beamed in excitement. I heard Alice. I could clearly hear her and I knew where she was.

Before I could grasp at what happened, my instincts took over and I dashed off. This was something I could add to the neverending list of weird things about me, apparently, I could also hear exceptionally well.

I heard Edward run after me. I guess I cheated a bit, but oh well. He could probably run twice as fast as me anyway.

The ground underneath my feet was unsteady and rocky, but still, I didn't trip. And to me, someone who trips and falls on the most even roads that existed, that certainly was something else. The wind through my hair felt wonderful and if I would close my eyes -I didn't want to hit any trees so I didn't do that-, it would feel like flying.

The forest got less dense, and a large open field got visible before me. I stopped running and noticed I was barely breathing faster than I normally did. Running came naturally.

Edward stopped next to me and laughed in amusement. His eyes sparkled and I realised that running clearly meant a lot to him. And I also knew why. The feeling of absolute freedom was overwhelming.

¨And you thought I was fast? You could practically outrun me,¨ he teased me.

I stuck my tongue out. ¨Practically? I believe I just did!¨

¨Maybe I just let you win.¨

¨If saying that helps you sleep at night…,¨ I giggled and rolled my eyes. ¨Which you don´t.¨

In an instant, he stood in front of me and reached out to caress my cheek with his hand. My face got red and he stroked his thumb down my cheekbone.

¨I´m glad you can joke about the not so obvious vampire traits that run in our family.¨ He smiled but I could sense that he meant it more seriously than he let me see.

¨I thought you hated that word.¨ I said to him, ignoring he just referred to mine and his family as ´our´. It was just a matter of speech, I had to remind myself. He meant we´re all not-human, and nothing more. Still, hearing him say that felt good. More than good, it felt right.

¨I do. But then I met you. And seeing how casually you use the word, makes me hate it a bit less.¨

I shrugged. ¨Well, I´m glad. After all, we fake magical creatures have to stick together.¨

Edward was perplexed. I guess it was a tad too early for sarcastic jokes. ¨I don´t know how you do it, Bella.¨

¨In all honesty, I haven't got a clue either,¨ I sighed. ¨But joking about it is better than moping about it.

And I´ve always felt like I didn't really belong to anyone at all the schools I´ve been to. Why do you think I enjoy reading so much? So, I guess some things just… feel right about this, if that makes sense?¨

Edward hummed. ¨And it still feels right, even after all the myths Renee made up in ¨Vampires Don't Exist¨?¨

He joked, and a part of me was happy he could joke about the absurdity of it all. My mother had written a young adult book about vampires, talk about irony. And worse of it all, I knew the book by heart and every vampire trait my mother came up with, were the commonly used ones everyone knew of. Afraid of garlic, die at a cross, die at sun exposure. Absolute bullshit to what real vampires look like, of course.

The hurt I felt when he mentioned my mother´s name was something I gladly ignored for now.

¨I completely forgot you´ve read her book.¨ I laughed, but it wasn't genuine. Edward opened his mouth, but I quickly interrupted him. ¨I can deal with being not human, however, I cannot deal with my parents right now.¨

He nodded and held my hand. He gently turned me around, so I could see the playing field again.

Right, we were here for something else. Distractions I needed.

Now that I had a better look, I could clearly see the Cullens practising their moves, something I hadn't seen before. The field was huge, however, I now knew how fast they could run so it wouldn't be too large for them.

Emmett and Rosalie were throwing a ball around, and they were so concentrated while doing so, I immediately knew it was going to be a hell of a game. They were so fast, so tremendously fast, it was hard to keep track of who was better. My mouth fell open and I heard Edward laughing. I just couldn't help it. The moment Emmett threw a ball, Rosalie already caught it. It was mesmerizing to watch the breathtakingly beautiful blonde with her godlike athlete boyfriend.

A couple of meters further away, Carlisle and Esme were mostly talking. They sat up the bases and watched their children.

I wondered where Alice and Jasper were, as I had heard her earlier in the forest. Just as I wanted to ask Edward, she came running to me with Jasper right behind her. I guess they practised somewhere else.

¨What took you so long?¨ She frowned at Edward.

I giggled at her obvious annoyance and I wanted to tease Edward a bit. ¨He's just a slow runner, Alice. It's not his fault.¨

Jasper looked at me wide-eyed before he burst out laughing. Alice laughed as well while she gave me a tight hug to welcome me.

Edward leaned in and whispered in my ear. ¨Et tu, Brute? You´re lucky you´re cute, but you´re going down.¨

¨Boys against girls,¨ Alice nodded in agreement while she tried to flex her biceps. Unfortunately, she was too petite. ¨So we better show them what we´re made off.¨

I cursed myself for my big mouth, as I was never really good at sports. I was more of a bench sitter, so to say.

Edward must have felt my unease, as he winked at me. ¨We´ll go easy on you,¨ he promised me.

¨Speak for yourself,¨ Emmett shouted from across the field. We all looked up and he gave me a thumbs-up, his shoulders shaking from laughing so hard.

¨Shut up, Em,¨ both Alice and Edward responded at the same time. Seeing how close they all were made me sad I never had any siblings.

Carlisle and Esme came and they said what we already established, that we would play boys against girls. He quickly explained the rules to me, as it was a long time ago I had played baseball. And even then, I had played it at a human pace, so I had no idea how vampire baseball would look like.

Once Rosalie and Emmett were done practising, we could begin.

The girls started playing offence while the boys played defence. That's what they told me. Not that I knew what that meant, but I nodded.

The first one up was Esme. Alice threw the ball at her and as expected, she swung the bat gracefully and sent it to the other side of the field. She started running and managed to run a homerun before the boys could record her out. She was so fast, and it was so exciting to watch her, I couldn't look away even if I wanted to.

Rosalie was next. Jasper threw the ball, Rosalie swung her bat and the ball landed perfectly in Emmett´s mitt.

¨Sorry, babe,¨ Emmett shouted at her, but she was way too annoyed by losing already. I was shocked. They were so good when they practised together and now she was out already?

The third one up was me. I looked at Jasper and hoped he would go soft on me. He threw the ball so hard the previous two times, and I didn´t know if I could even hit it right.

I honestly didn't know how I did it. It surprised me even, so to say. Because I took the bat, and I saw the ball coming my way. I swung the bat. And for some reason, I managed to hit myself with it -hard- before the ball hit me -hard-.

Edward stood next to me in an instant and held me before I would fall to the ground. I would! Believe me, I would.

¨Are you alright, Bella?¨ He held me close to his chest.

¨I´m fine, I´m fine. I just hit my shoulder so I´m fine,¨ I said into his body.

¨Should I put my hand on it?¨ He traced my sore spot with his fingers and I noticed it immediately felt better. Oh, that felt good.

¨Thank you,¨ I breathed out in pleasure.

Edward chuckled. ¨Anytime.¨

The rest of the Cullens had gathered around us in the meantime.

¨Damn Bella, if you didn't want to play, you could've just said so instead of injuring yourself,¨ Emmett jokingly told me as he rubbed through my hair.

I started laughing until three things happened at the same time.

First, Alice looked away and stared somewhere in the distance. Edward questionably looked at her. I wondered if he could see what she was seeing.

Then, I got a headache. I closed my eyes and focussed on my breathing, as that helped the last time together with Edward´s coldness. Flashes of lavalamps, Nokia cellphones and Gameboys flashed before my eyes.

The last thing I noticed before I closed my eyes were the familiar long locks of my mother's long hair, far into the forest. She was coming. Did the rest already see her? But that wasn't necessary, as I already heard her and I was sure, the Cullens did as well.

¨She's injured?¨