Ch 2: Unrequited?

"Hey, dad? You home?"

Silence met my question and my stomach sank.

He was gone.

Probably out drinking.

I walked slowly through the house, double checking to make sure he wasn't passed out somewhere. But the house was empty.

It was both terrifying and a relief.

I checked my watch.

7:09 pm.

It was too early to tell if he'd come home or not.

I tried to not let the worry overtake me.

Moving to the kitchen I started on my homework, glancing at the microwave clock every so often.

Fifteen after ten, I heard the front door jiggle.

"Dad?" I stood and moved towards the shuffling sounds.

"Hey, Bells." His speech wasn't slurred. Yet. I eyed the twelve-pack of beer in his hands, knowing they would all be gone by morning.

"Hey." I followed as he shuffled back towards the kitchen.

He paused to eye my homework sprawled across the table.

"Hmm. Working hard on the first day?"

"Yeah. Senior year, gotta keep my grades up."

He nodded and turned to put away his purchase. But not before opening a can and taking a long pull.

"Gonna get all sorts of offers I bet." He mumbled looking at me with a mixture of sadness and pride.

I shrugged.

"Maybe."

He nodded again, taking another swig. The can was already half empty.

"Well, it's been a long day. I'll be in the living room if you need me sweetie." He kissed my forehead before meandering back out the way he came.

It was all too familiar to let the tears come.

At least he was home. And safe.

I gathered my things heading upstairs to my room, pausing only for a moment to eye my dad as he relaxed on the couch watching some fishing channel on the TV.

After readying for bed, I sat at my window looking out to the moon. It was full and bright.

I let myself unwind a little as I enjoyed the peaceful night air.

Closing my eyes, I imagined a different life.

One where I could come home to warm smiles. Hugs and kisses.

A life where most minutes were filled with joy.

To feel loved, fully, completely.

Sounds from across the yard startled my eyes open. Hardly a hop skip and step away was the Cullen house. And directly across from my window, was Edward's room.

I watched curious, looking to see where the noise came from.

A moment later lights came on, and Edward walked across the room.

He always left his curtains open. I wondered if it was because he was that confident no one was watching, or so self-confident he just didn't care.

It had been some time since I had watched the window.

Pre-high school days, I had woken eagerly each morning and rushed to look out. Often Edward would already be there waiting for me. We'd wave excitedly and hurry to get ready, meeting at the gate between our houses, then decide what sort of adventures we'd have.

It was the best time I could remember.

Before the reality of life crept up and ruined everything.

I indulged a moment in the old pastime, watching Edward as he moved about his room. I felt my brow raise as he suddenly removed his shirt and pants, standing there only in his boxers.

I'd always thought he was beautiful, but age had definitely done him justice. He stood at least six feet tall, and though lean had muscular shoulders. His abdomen was well defined by years of sports, now mainly football. He had powerful thighs and calves I was certain were sculpted by the great Greeks of old.

Too bad his attitude sucked.

He knew he was good looking. Knew he could have almost any girl in the school if he wanted to. And if the rumors were anything to go on, those girls were lucky as hell. Eyeing his mostly naked form now, I felt the rumor-mill probably wasn't wrong.

Knowing I was being borderline creepy, I moved away from the window to my bed.

As I snuggled down for the evening, I watched the moon shadows dance on my bedroom wall and wondered what sort of things Edward was thinking.

…

~Edward's POV~

I couldn't help the excitement and disappointment that welled inside as she moved away from the window.

She sat on the ledge most nights, her eyes closed, head tilted up to the moon, asking it to touch her face.

And I longed to.

She looked so soft and inviting.

Sometimes she would sit there for hours, a whisper of a smile on her lips, her journal in hand. And I wanted to know what thoughts roved through her mind.

What made her smile?

She never looked my way. Never even glanced.

I was so written off, her mind spared me no thought.

It burned me inside and out.

I wished for her to look my way. To notice, just for a second. And tonight, she did.

Granted, I had knocked over a stack of books and with both our windows open, she probably couldn't help but wonder at the sound.

Still, she didn't just glance.

She looked.

Needing so badly to be seen, I turned on my lights, pretending I had no clue she was watching me.

My skin felt hot as her eyes stayed on me.

I needed more.

Stripping almost all the way down, I wondered when she'd look away.

But she didn't.

It was cruel to be so close, to know she was watching, and yet still not be able to touch her.

She ended my sweet suffering soon enough when she walked into the dark recesses of her room.

Hot need filled me.

As it always did when I thought of her.

Turning off my own lights, I fell into bed thinking how badly I wanted to know what was on her mind. And what she thought of me.

1 week later

~Bella POV~

"Your week is up, and partner assignments are here!" Mr. Danvers announced at the beginning of class. We all perked up feeling confident with our choices. "Unfortunately, some of your classmates failed to find appropriate partners. And still some other chose not to pick anyone at all."

This wasn't good. I looked nervously over at Angie. She gave me a helpless look.

"In light of this, I have had to make some adjustments to your requests." Almost everyone groaned. Even I felt annoyed. "If you want to be mad, you should consider aiming it at your classmates for not following directions. This would have gone smoothly otherwise."

I saw Lauren and a few other blush under Mr. Danver's heated stare.

So they were the culprits.

Should have known this wouldn't go as hoped.

I waited in resigned annoyance for our new partners to be called.

"I was able to keep most of your choices, with a few exceptions. Today we will spend time outside. You and your partners should start to get to know other. Keep in mind you will want to record your first impressions so you can write the first part of the paper. Today should be light, easy. Small talk folks. It's really not that difficult. I'm even giving you a question sheet to get you started."

I just wanted this to be over already.

"When I call your names, you may exit to the front lawn. You can adventure out, just stay in sight." At least we got some outdoors time. I looked outside happy to see it was nice and sunny. We listened as our names were called, some students cheered when they got their preferred person. "Weber and Cheney."

I turned to Angie with an excited face.

"Lucky ducky." I winked. She blushed and hurried to meet Ben at the front of the room. I noticed only a few of us remained. Seeing Mike hadn't been placed either, I prayed for anyone else.

"Okay, Swan you're with Cullen."

I felt my eyes go wide.

Well played Mr. Danvers. I had just hoped for literally anyone else.

More than a little uncertain, I scanned the room to find Edward. He was watching me from the far corner of the room.

His intense gaze made my stomach flip in an odd way.

Get it together Swan!

I nodded at him and went to meet up.

We walked in silence out of the building to the front entrance. There was a ton a green space surrounded by a perimeter of trees. There was still plenty of room even though previous partners had first pick.

"Any preferences?" I asked Edward looking for a semi-secluded area.

Not that I wanted to be alone with him. But if we had to talk, as awkward as that was going to be, we might as well not be in earshot of anyone else.

"Big oak?" He suggested.

I felt my brows raise in surprise. I didn't expect him to actually have a response. And it so happened the large oak at the perimeter of the lawn was one of my favorite spots. I wanted to ask why he suggested it, but I resisted.

"Uh, yeah. That'd be good."

It was a little further out than any of the other couples, providing us a little more privacy. Not that we needed it, I reminded myself.

I sat down in the shade, near the base of the tree and pulled out my notebook.

Edward chose to stand, leaning against the tree, looking out over the lawn.

Opening my notebook, for lack of anything else to do, I started to write down things I felt I already knew.

Edward Anthony Masen Cullen

Born June 20th; single child

Words to describe: Popular; Aloof; Confident; Ass

Dislikes: being called Ed; spiders

Likes

Hmm what did he like?

Sports probably.

And sex. Or so I'd heard.

But I wasn't going to write that one down.

"What's this?" The notebook was gone before I realized what happened.

I glowered up at Edward.

"Notes. Can I have them back?"

He read the page with a raised brow.

"Confident ass, huh?"

I rolled my eyes.

"There is some very important information missing here." He tutted.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was preparing your biography." I told him dryly.

He gave me a strange look. One I couldn't quite place.

Sitting close beside me, he handed me back the notebook.

"So, is this the part where you ask me a bunch of dumb questions?"

His eyes were teasing, and I could feel the movement of air from his breath.

"Probably."

I pulled out the 'superficial' question sheet we had been given, more to focus my thoughts than out of need. Most of it I already knew the answers to. Generic facts, that didn't really tell you much of anything. My eyes stopped at one that had me a little curious.

"What about this one?" I pointed to number eleven on the page. "What do you look forward to the most every day?" I wasn't sure if it was really a superficial question, but I was curious.

Edward looked contemplative. His brow was drawn in, and he looked at me intently.

"Too many things to choose from?" I joked trying to dispel some of the tension I felt.

He didn't respond.

Uncomfortable with the sudden silence, I looked back at the paper trying to find another question to ask.

"What do you look forward to?" The quiet question caught me off guard. I almost told him I wasn't going to answer until he did. But when I looked at his face, I could tell he was really struggling.

I thought for a moment.

What did I look forward to every day?

Immediately I thought of my dad. It wasn't so much I looked forward to seeing him, as it was the relief in knowing he was okay.

My own brows drew in.

"Hmm, that is a hard question." Heavy silence filled the air. "I guess spending time with Angie."

Edward looked at me, waiting for more. But conversation was supposed to be a two-way street, so I waited for him.

I didn't have to wait too long.

"How did you and Angie become so close?"

I felt my brows raise at the question. It wasn't a bad question; I just wasn't prepared for it. I took my time before I responded.

"We clicked when she moved here in ninth grade. Her parents had just divorced too. I think we were both spiraling a little. I guess the whole kindred spirit thing happened."

It was honest.

Omitting some other key factors, like how mine and Edward's friendship died.

But really it did explain how Angie and I became besties.

Edward was quiet for a long moment. I wondered if he was thinking about how we used to be best pals.

"You know, I had no clue your parents divorced that summer." I gave him a curious look. "You kind of just disappeared. I didn't find out until school started again."

I frowned thinking back to the summer after eighth grade.

Even with all the crap I dealt with now, I still counted it as the worst time of my life.

I shrugged, not certain what else I was capable of saying without sounding incredibly pathetic.

"You able to think of something you look forward to?" I asked redirecting the conversation. I avoided looking at him, finding myself particularly interested in an ant crawling across my shoe.

"I don't know about the day. But I like evenings." There was a note of humor in his voice.

I cocked my head to the side, watching him. He was looking up at the tree rather than at me.

"Oh yeah? What do you like about them?"

He turned to give me a smug look.

"The view."

His cryptic response had me frowning in confusion.

What view?

I thought of how I looked at the moon most nights. Did Edward do the same thing? As kids we had often laid in the back-yard naming constellations until our parents made us come inside.

But I had never seen him looking from his window.

Then again, I had ingrained myself not to look over at his house. Had I been wrapped up enough in my own head, I never noticed?

And on that vein of thought, did he see me at my own perch?

Is that what he meant?

I felt my eyes widen and my heart started working overtime at the thought.

His deep chuckle sent a wave of pleasurable chills through me. I could feel the tremors of his laugh on my neck. The heat of his skin was radiating out towards me, and my traitorous body was starting to respond to it.

"Did something embarrass you Bella?"

His light taunt made me want to bury my head in my lap.

"I have to say, I'm enjoying how deeply you're blushing right now."

"What can I say, I'm part tomato." He laughed again. "You know, spying isn't very friendly."

I tried to give him a severe look. He just grinned.

"I didn't know you wanted to be friendly. I could always use a new friend."

The emphasis in his tone was not lost on me. Nor was the head to toe body check he gave me.

"The way I hear it, you don't need any help making those kinds of friends." I shot back.

His eyes darkened a fraction; an annoyed look cross his face.

I wondered exactly what caused it.

We were just teasing one another. Surely he wasn't offended by my dig at his supposed sexual prowess. I mean if anything it was a compliment. Right?

After an extended amount of silence, I couldn't take the tension anymore.

Standing up, I stretched my arms and legs. Sitting so close to him had my body tense.

In an attempt to relax, I moved into the sun laying out in the grass and closed my eyes to let the rays warm my face.

As a distraction from the obvious stress between us, I listened to the world around me.

I could hear the hushed murmurs of other partners as the wind carried their voices. The birds at the edge of the forest twittered delightfully to one another. I imagined they were talking about their day, telling each other the strange things they saw the funny humans do. It made me smile to think about such ridiculousness. My fingers itched to write, even as the story played out in my head.

"Earth to Bella."

Edward's voice close to my ear, had me jumping in surprise.

"Huh?"

I sat up slowly, slightly confused.

He was sitting in the grass next to me, a curious expression on his face.

"You fell asleep." He told me quietly.

Had I really?

I almost couldn't believe it. But as I looked around, I saw everyone was getting up to go inside.

"Oh." Well hell. "Sorry about that. I didn't even realize."

He nodded.

We gathered our things in silence, before heading back.

I wondered how I had fallen asleep so easily. I knew I was tired from the night before, but to fall asleep in the day was rare for me. But the sun had felt so nice, and the sounds soothing.

Almost back to the building I turned to Edward.

"I really am sorry about falling asleep. I guess I was more tired than I thought. I'll be sure not to lay down next time." I gave a half-smile hoping he would at least tease me about it. His easy shrug plummeted my hopes.

We parted ways without any further exchange.

Feeling low, I walked slowly to my last class.

It was going to be a long year.

AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave me some comments if you like how this is going so far, and want to see more!