Bella Swan was relentless. She was stubbornly single minded in her pursuit of my friendship. For the rest of the week it felt as if I was being savagely hunted, and more than once I had found myself hiding in a janitors closet in order to escape her grasp. A fact that my brothers found endlessly hilarious, and I had to gracefully ignore countless tasteless jests about my new found vocation as a member of the Fork's High custodial staff. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why Bella coveted my friendship, but I was determined to keep my distance. Even though it pained me.

As the week progressed Bella became increasingly creative in her attempts to engage me. She began by asking me questions I knew she knew the answers to. This then escalated into her asking to borrow a pen, and when that didn't get her the response she wanted, she 'forgot' her textbook, forcing me to have mine opened between us so we could share. As each day passed it became increasingly difficult to refuse her offers of friendship. I could feel my will being deliberately stripped away from me, my resolve and determination was gradually crumbling and I was afraid of what would happen when it turned to dust.

A part of me wondered if this was Bella's doing. Did she somehow have mind-altering abilities? Was she capable of controlling my thoughts and actions? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to place the blame on her, instead of having to shoulder it all myself. Of course I knew that Bella was innocent. It was simply my own weakness. I wanted to give in so badly, and Bella's continuing presence and relentless character was making the task of not giving into my desires progressively arduous.

By the time the weekend came around, I felt like a bow-string about to snap. I needed to find a way to relieve the pressure, and the only thing I could think of would be to see her. I would watch her, nothing more. I wouldn't approach her or engage with her at all. Hopefully just the act of being near her would give me the strength to survive another week of ignoring her existence.

I left just after dawn on Saturday morning, claiming that I was going to spend my day hunting. My family replied with well-wishes and farewells, but I could read their thoughts, and they all doubted very much that I was going hunting. I didn't let their thoughts get to me, I needed to do this. I took down a deer or two on my way towards Bella's house, figuring that it couldn't hurt, and by the time I made it to her house it was mid-morning.

Much to my surprise, Bella's house was empty. Her father's police cruiser was gone, so he was clearly at work, but Bella's truck was still in the drive. Frowning, I circled around her house, keeping to the woods, and easily found her scent. I quietly followed her honey-suckle scent, and when I could hear her heartbeat I launched myself into the tree tops so I could follow her more stealthily.

I silently darted from tree-branch to tree-branch with ease, making almost no noise. Bella soon came into view, she was wearing a pair of loose fitting dark blue denim jeans and a long sleeve dark green shirt. It was such a simple and plain outfit, but I couldn't help but think that she looked utterly stunning. She seemed relaxed… jovial as she traipsed through the woods, daintily jumping over mossy logs and running her hands over the rough bark of the trees as she passed them. Did Bella spend a lot of her time in the woods? From the way she moved through them it certainly seemed so. She seemed at home there, comfortable, as if each tree and fern were a well acquainted friend.

I followed her through the woods, and soon we came across a bubbling brook. A small creek about ten feet across, shallow and crystal clear waters tumbled lazily over a stony bed. Bella approached the sloping embankment of the creek and peered curiously down at the water. Without warning, Bella's face broke out into a stunningly gorgeous grin. She retreated a few steps and started to pull hastily pull off her sneakers, she tugged off her socks as well and stuffed them inside her shoes before tossing them at the base of a nearby tree. Bella then crouched down and rolled up the legs of her jeans until they were cuffed just above her knees.

I risked moving closer, to see what she was up to. With that ravishing grin still plastered on her face she almost raced back to the embankment. Bella raised her arms to her sides like a tight-rope-walker and carefully made her way down the steep slope of the muddy embankment. The ease in which she did so made me more doubtful of her earlier claims of falling, and I once again considered the truth of how Bella's face became so battered earlier in the week.

With a subtle splash Bella entered the creek, and she quickly bent down to retrieve something from the water. I leaped through the trees again to get a closer look at her as she held up her prize to the muted sunlight. Bella had found a ragged piece of quartz in the river bed. A youthful giggle erupted from Bella's mouth. "Awesome." She murmured quietly as she turned it this way and that, letting the light hit the different sides of the stone. She hastily stuffed the stone into the pocket of her jeans, a proud smile on her face.

Adorable. It was the only way I could think of to describe her. I followed along in the tree-tops as Bella made her way up stream, she smiled and splashed in the water and seemed to relish in it. I couldn't help but think how cold that water must have been, and yet Bella didn't seem to mind at all. Bella abruptly came to a halt as she gasped in wonder before marching over to the other side of the creek.

Bella crouched down and drove a hand under the surface of the water, "Come here, you pretty little bastard." She muttered bitterly and I had to stifle a chuckle as she thrust both hands under the surface to try and dislodge whatever rock she had spotted and then desired. There was a sudden shriek, followed by a startled yelp, as Bella lost her grip and went tumbling backwards into the icy water. She landed on her backside with a splash, and then there was a beat of silence before Bella broke out in boisterous laughter.

Bella splashed her arms in the water for a moment before pulling herself out of the stream. She stood back up, thoroughly soaked to the bone, and rolled up her sleeves. "Okay, so that's how we are gonna play it. Huh?" Bella sneered mockingly at the rock she was fighting with. Bella returned to the opposite bank and crouched down once again. She sucked in a deep breath through her teeth and with a small grunt of effort she pulled a small boulder from the creek.

My eyes went wide at the show of strength. Bella easily lifted the rock that looked to weigh more than she did, she then hoisted it high up her chest before heaving it away from her. It soared through the air before it landed on the top of the embankment with a damp thud. That boulder looked to have weighed more than 170 pounds, and yet Bella didn't even seem to notice the tremendous weight. "Ha!" Bella crowed, "Yeah! That's what you get." She jeered.

I couldn't focus on whatever Bella did next as my thoughts spun around in my head like a whirlwind. This was more indisputable proof that Bella was… something else. She was strong, too strong. I briefly lamented over just how insufferable Emmett would be when I had to admit that he was right. Bella wasn't human, she couldn't be. I wasn't going to admit that to Emmett yet though, not until I heard it from Bella herself.

XxXx

I decided that the best way to get Bella to admit to me that she was more than human was to just… give in. She wanted to be my friend, and lord help me, I wanted to be hers. I would surrender to her, and I knew it would be easy to do so. Too easy. It was something I had been wanting to do since I had first laid eyes on her.

I tried to convince myself it was just about figuring out her secret, but I knew it was more than that. I was about concede defeat in a battle I never wanted to win in the first place. I had managed to ignore her for a week and that alone had been the worst kind of torture I had ever endured. And now, just the promise of finally being able to give into my desires filled me with such sweet relief. I could only hope that Bella wouldn't hold my atrocious behaviour against me.

I spent the last hours of my weekend carefully planning out how my conversation with Bella would go. I analysed all our previous interactions and conversations and decided my best bet would be to speak with her at lunch. I replayed every word I had ever heard Bella speak, either to me, or to others, and studied the memories in my mind as if they held the answers to life itself. All of Bella's previous interactions with the population of Forks High became my Rosetta Stone and I used them to formulate how our conversation would go.

All my carefully precise planning went to Hell in a hand-basket the moment Bella walked into the cafeteria.

I watched with eager eyes as Bella entered the room, her gaze sweeping across the cafeteria searching for her friends. Her eyes landed on mine and I smiled. I slowly lifted my hand and waved her over. I had been expecting her to smile back, perhaps even be excited and a little relieved that I had finally given into her attempts at friendship. Instead, she frowned. It was almost a scowl, lips thin and slightly down-turned with a small crease between her brows. Her eyes were wary, and she seemed a little bit annoyed. She paused to say something to her friend, but I missed it as I was too preoccupied trying to account for this unexpected reaction.

Bella dropped down into the seat across from me, her posture tense and defensive as she crossed her arms and gave me a questioning look.

I swallowed nervously, "Hello, Bella."

"He speaks!" Bella mocked,

Ah, defensive anger. I could work with that.

I chuckled lightly, "I guess I deserve that." I admitted ruefully. I hoped my display of humility would please her.

"Yeah, you really do." She muttered bitterly. This wasn't going to plan at all. I had expected Bella to be more agreeable, happy to have finally gotten my attentions. Instead she seemed moody and irritable. At least she was still here though, she had chosen to sit with me and she hadn't yet gotten up to leave. There was hope yet.

Bella shifted in her seat and reached out to grab my lunch tray with the tips of her fingers. She curled them slightly over the lip of the tray and pulled it across the table, she then started to pick at the assortment of food I had collected as props. I couldn't stop myself from smirking at her, she was so forward and I couldn't help but be amused by it. Bella's eyes flickered to my face for a moment, before she glanced back down at the tray of food. "Oh, I'm sorry. Were you going to eat this?" She joked, pointing down at the food. "I mean, I have never actually seen you eat anything, so I just assumed." She continued brazenly.

I stiffened in my chair and the smirk fell from my face. Bella was too perceptive for her own good. What else had she noticed over the past few weeks? Bella sighed, and the sound almost felt like an apology of sorts, "Was there a reason for calling me over here?" She asked gently.

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table between us. "I'm tired of trying to stay away from you." I murmured softly as my eyes trailed over her body in an attempt to judge her reaction.

Her heart skipped a beat, "Oh?" she squeaked out.

I smiled in quiet victory, "I would really like it if we could be friends."

"You're going to give me emotional whiplash." She sighed dramatically, "First you like me, then you save my life, and then you say you don't want to be friends and avoid me at all costs," Bella was ticking off each thing on her fingers, "And now, you want to be friends." She shook her head and levelled me with her stare, she was sick of the games, that much was clear. Luckily, so was I.

I needed to be clear about my intentions. "I said that it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be." I replied softly, hoping that the distinction was obvious.

Bella pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, "Yup, well that clears that one up." She drawled sarcastically.

I resisted the urge to sigh, "It would be." I asserted, "better that is, if we weren't friends, it would be safer." Her eyes met mine and I hardened my gaze. This would be the last time I warned her away.

"Because you are oh-so-dangerous." She mocked.

"Yes. I am." I snapped.

Bella worried her bottom lip for a moment, "We can be friends," I swear I felt my dead heart come alive in my chest at those words, "I would really like that too. Here's the thing though… friend's don't lie to each other."

"I can't tell you the truth." I sputtered.

Bella immediately raised her hands in surrender, "That's fine. Just don't lie to me. Simple. Any questions?" She cocked her head to the side as she gnawed on a carrot stick and looked me over.

I smiled at her, now was my chance. "Yes, just one."

"Go ahead."

"How did you push me away?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

Her heartbeat skipped a beat before it started hammering away in her chest, and yet she showed no evidence of her panic on her face. "What do you mean?" She asked casually.

"After the accident, you pushed me away so you could get up. How?" I smiled charmingly at her, "Remember, friends don't lie to each other." Easily twisting her own words into a weapon to use against her.

"Maybe you're just not as strong as you think." She spat out angrily as the bell sounded to announce the end of lunch. Before I could respond she was out of her chair and marching towards the exit, weaving between the clamouring crowd with unnatural ease.

I clenched my jaw and resisted the urge to slam my hand against the table. I was so close. Now she was on her way to biology, and I could not follow her. Today was blood-typing, a skills lab I was forced to skip for a number of reasons. I grabbed my things and left the cafeteria, purposefully ignoring my siblings thoughts on the matter. If they weren't going to try and help me, I wished they would just go away and leave me alone.

They were being insufferable, their thoughts a mix of juvenile taunts and meaningless threats. Alice was worst of all. Out of all my siblings we had always been closest, our gifts connected us in a way that the others couldn't understand. Only Jasper came close to understanding the unique burdens we were charged with. The knowing of things that shouldn't be known. But now, she seemed… distant almost. Once or twice I had caught the flicker of something in her mind before she purposefully blocked me out, a skill she had become particularly adept with over the decades.

Alice was hiding something from me, and her advice to me was in stark contradiction to that of her mate's. Jasper warned me away from Bella, she was an unknown and what was unknown was dangerous. Yet he did relent to admit that if I absolutely had to entangle myself with the girl, that I use her to the benefit of the family. Discover her secret while maintaining my own so that I could leverage her if the time came. I couldn't blame these thoughts of Jasper's, not all of them meant for my ears. He had spent almost a century surviving an endless war, and those instincts were not easily stifled. There was no way I could follow his advice, however. The mere thought of using Bella, abusing any trust she may decide to place in me felt unconscionable. In contrast to this was the advice Alice sent my way, which if I didn't know any better I would have thought sounded an awful lot like courting advice. Encouragements to engage Bella in conversation, discover her interests, walk her to class and carry her books. I had tried asking Alice why she thought any of that was a good idea, and all I had received in turn was a dainty shrug and a knowing smile. All my attempts to glean any context from her mind was easily thwarted by her. Sometimes my sister was nothing more than an irritating thorn in my side.

I decided to linger in the hall near biology class, far enough away that I wouldn't risk being close to a freshly bleeding human, but close enough so that when Bella left class I would have ample opportunity to approach her before she left for her next class. I was waiting for less than 5 minutes when I saw Mike Newton half carrying a listless Bella, arm clenched around her slim waist as she leaned on him for support.

"I think I might be sick," I heard her mutter miserably.

Bella Swan faints at the sight of blood. A comedy of errors indeed.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Just a reminder, this fic is 'In the Light of the Full Moon' from Edward's POV. It's not necessary to read that fic to understand this one, but it was written first and is now completed. Hope you all enjoyed the update.