Edward's POV
"I've never seen anyone trip over air before." I admit, not hiding how stunned I am by that.
Blush heat fills the small space on the park bench between Bella and me. The heat that's rolling off of her in waves, makes me feel very warm. I like that feeling very much.
There's no need to look her way, I already know she's blushing. But as I hear her take a bite of her ice cream cone my eyes can't help but look from the ducks in the pound, and over to my side. Where the most beautiful girl in the world sits next to me. She has lovely brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a dark pink blush that covers her face.
That delicious brush has her beautiful face looking all rosy. It's even more vibrant than when we were in the ice cream shop, and she tripped over absolutely nothing when we were standing in line. Of course, I caught her before she could connect with the tile floor and hurt herself. But not before her hand hit the woman's back that was in front of us. I heard her angry thoughts and apologized before she could turn around and yell at Bella, like she planned on doing. My smooth voice put the woman at ease, and everything turned out fine.
As much as I enjoyed holding Bella in my arms, not letting her go for a few seconds after she tripped. I have to admit, her clumsiness concerns me. I don't believe it's normal for one human to be so uncoordinated. I've never seen this before.
Bella makes no attempt to respond or even look at me. She continues to eat the rest of her cookie dough ice cream while her body is rigid, and her eyes are staring forward at the pound.
With that delicious blush ever present on her face, she keeps her eyes on the ducks instead of looking at me. She takes the last bite of ice cream, completely ignoring me and I begin to wonder if I've upset her.
Could it be possible that me teasing her about tripping over her shadow made her mad at me? I didn't mean to upset her. I like her too much to ever want her to be angry with me. The very thought of that brings me sadness.
"Bella, I'm sorry if I made you mad." I apologize wholeheartedly. "The way you stumble around like a baby giraffe is very cute."
Bella turns her head very slowly. Her eyes meet mine and the expression on her face is so disbelieving it's comical.
"What?" I try not to laugh.
"Your apology got very strange at the end." She explains, looking shocked.
"I was just being honest." I shrug my shoulders. "I didn't mean to offend you and make you stop speaking to me."
She rolls her eyes. "I wasn't offended or giving you the cold shoulder. If that's what you thought." Her tone is a bit annoyed.
I raise one eyebrow. "Weren't you though?"
Not understanding why she's not agreeing with me, I think back to when we walked from the ice cream shop to the park. She had been talking to me then. She only became silent moments ago, after I pointed out that she tripped on air. It seems as though I offended her. Am I wrong? That doesn't seem possible.
Her chin juts out in stubbornness. "No, Edward, I really wasn't." She says in a strong voice. "I was enjoying my ice cream and thinking. Just thinking."
"What were you thinking about?" I wonder.
It's really strange to not be able to hear her thoughts. I wonder what's going through her mind right now.
"Honestly?" She asks, seeming apprehensive.
"Yes."
She bites her bottom lip which makes warmth spread in my core. My eyes linger a little too long as her teeth dig into her bottom lip and once again, I feel myself becoming hard. I gulp as her teeth release her bottom lip that's now pleasantly plump.
"I was thinking if I was a superhero what my superpower might be." She says shyly.
I gaze at her. Well, that wasn't what I was expecting her to say.
"What?" I ask, wondering why she thought of that.
"Well, you're really strong and you have the power to read minds." She begins slowly, her voice barely a whisper.
I nod my head, encouraging her to go on. I can't imagine where she's going with this.
"So, after you teased me about being a klutz." She glares at me, pretending to be angry. "I started thinking then, about what my special ability would be if I had one. But it isn't very good."
Just as she begins, spiking my curiosity and I'm itching to know what else is going through her mind, she stops talking. If there's anyone in the world that is going to be the reason why I lose my mind, I'm certain it will be this girl right here. Mainly because I can't read her thoughts and she edits too much of her spoken words.
"Go on." I say eagerly, hoping she will.
"It's too embarrassing." She shakes her head, giving me a salient 'no.'
"Bella, you can't do that. You can't begin something and then randomly stop speaking, leaving me to wonder what you were going to say. That makes me very frustrated." I complain, my voice sounding childish.
She rolls her eyes. "I really don't have to tell you everything, you know."
I groan out of frustration. How easily irritated I am without being about to use my gift of mind reading with her. Will this ever get easier?
A smile plays on her lips. Does she get enjoyment out of withholding information from me?
"Okay," She says, closing her eyes.
"Okay what?" I wonder. I don't know what she means and I'm feeling like I missed something.
"I'll tell you." She opens her eyes, and our eyes meet. "Please don't laugh."
"I won't." I promise, not breaking eye contact.
"When I was thinking," She begins, her eyes twinkling. "I came to the conclusion that my special ability would be extreme clumsiness. Like tripping over nothing and falling while walking up stairs. You know that sort of thing. Since those are things that I only seem to be able to do." She says this like a joke.
"Falling upstairs?" I'm dumbfounded by that.
With a nervous laugh she nods her head. "I've actually done that once when I was five. It was at the apartment where my mom's boyfriend lived. The three of us were walking upstairs. I guess I tripped over my own feet because I fell backwards, rolling all the way down. I ended up breaking my left arm, spraining my right ankle, and brushing my hip."
Oh, for the love of all that is holy. Why must she be so graceless, fumbling through life with danger lurking around every corner?
"Oh my god." I can't keep the horror out of my tone even if I tried.
With that horrific scene in my mind that I can't shake, my lower body goes back to its natural state.
"I've also bumped into a lit candle while dancing to a Backstreet Boys music video in my living room. That was three years ago when I believed I could dance well." She shakes her head. "Dancing really proves to be a dangerous sport for me. But at least my dad put out the candle before the whole house could go up in flames. Only a rug was burnt." She says this light heartedly. Though she's clearly not making any of this up.
My mouth falls open. I knew she was clumsy, but I didn't think she'd actually been injured by any of her mishaps. Of course, not. Who would have ever guessed this madness?
"I've also ended up in a neck brace from a failed attempt to climb a tree when I was a little kid." She says with a giggle.
"Then we will never climb any trees." I make a mental note of that.
"The tree incident happened when I was seven. I haven't climbed trees since then. I learned my lesson." She smiles.
"What made you climb a tree?" I'm curious since she doesn't seem like the type.
"A character in a book." Bella's face lights up with the mere mention of books.
"What book?" I just have to know.
"An American Girl book about a girl from 1904 named Samantha." She says a bit wistfully. Her sudden shift of moods seems out of place. "It was my favorite story from my childhood. I wish I could go back and read it for the first time again."
Aha. Now I think I understand why I see a gloominess in baby doll's brown eyes. There's nothing like reading a book and living in that moment for the first time. Being an avid reader myself, I've experienced that feeling too.
"I've never read about that character before." I admit.
"I wouldn't have expected you to." She grins. "It's a girly book that came with a doll my dad gave me for my birthday that same year."
"Oh."
"Anyways," She says. "The main character was nine years-old. She was able to climb trees while wearing fancy shoes and a frilly dress. So, I figured why not? I tried climbing a tree, but I learned the hard way that I don't belong in trees." She explains shrugging her shoulders. "Unless you count my tree house that's in my backyard."
"You have a treehouse?"
Why does the mere thought of her crawling up a ladder to an old rickety tree house frighten the hell out of me?
She nods her head, answering my question, and giving me a silent 'yes.' Taking a deep breath of air, I taste her sweet perfume. Her fragrance clams me down. I brace myself for what will probably be another terrifying story about her getting injured in an unconventional way.
In my mind I can picture this sweet girl tumbling out of her tree house and getting stuck in quicksand. Or sitting inside her tree house, innocently reading a book, and getting struck by a fallen satellite. Or something equally as disastrous. I swear anything it's possible when it comes to Bella Swan.
I try to shake these thoughts out of my mind. But I can't.
I'm beginning to think Bella has really, really bad luck. Maybe I should wrap her in bubble wrap to better protect her.
"It's a very nice tree house." She says in a happy tone, pulling me out of my train of thought. "My dad built it for me when I moved in with him, I don't use it so much anymore since I'm older. But when I was younger, I loved going up there to hang out by myself."
"Did you ever fall out of your tree house?" I just have to know.
"Never." She answers honestly.
I'm as equally shocked by that as I am relieved.
"It's a very big tree house." She says, ignoring my expression. "On the inside it's set up to look like a little house. It has working lights, curtains on the windows, and even a door. There's a bookshelf which covers one wall, a couple of big bean bag chairs, and even a mini fridge. Oh! There's also a slide at one end of the tree house to exit it."
"That sounds lovely." I grin at the way her face lights up when she talks about it.
Despite the anxiety I'm experiencing from hearing about all her accents and fearing what is to come next in this conversation, I enjoy listening to everything she has to say. There's a deep fascination I'm experiencing from learning about her childhood and things that are meaningful to her. I can't say I've felt like this before and maybe it's because I can't see into her mind like everyone else's.
"I'll show you it sometime." She promises.
"I'm looking forward to that." I smile at her. "And you're sure you have never fallen out of this tree house?"
I'm scared to know her answer. Though at the same time, I just have to know.
"Edward, I already told you," She says, a bit annoyed. "I never have. Please don't ask again, you'll get the same answer."
"Amazing." The word leaves my lips with a sigh of relief.
She rolls her eyes. It's a bit dramatic and makes me laugh.
"Well, if you think that's amazing, you're going to love this." She says with a devilish smirk. Her smile, which seems out of place, has fear coursing through my body. "On a 5th grade class field trip to the Aquarium, I somehow managed to fall headfirst into the touch tank. Still don't know what happened. I blacked out for about thirty seconds, my teacher saved me, and I was sent to the hospital."
"Oh god." My tone is shocked.
"I ended up with a concussion." She admits.
Feeling an over exaggerated amount of anxiety, which comes from hearing her frightening stories about her past accidents, my breathing speeds up. Every muscle in my body locks in place, and my head feels superficially dizzy. I think I'm having some form of a panic attack.
While I sit here, trying to not make my sudden anxiety attack noticeable, she begins telling me about more of her misfortunate incidents of the past. I cringe and she becomes very animated while she tells me about the time she was riding a Razor Scooter down a large hill. There's so much emotion in her eyes as she explains how she was going too fast and picked up speed, feeling scared she let go of the handlebars, and flew off the two wheel toy. She goes on to say she then tumbled down the hill, scraping her hands, elbow, knees, back, and sides very badly. Only did she stop rolling when she made a crash landing in a rose bush.
Not good at all.
My breathing becomes jagged, I fight the urge to become still. The kind of stillness that no human is capable of duplicating as she switches topics, explaining how she once got stuck in a bounce house that collapsed.
My nerves are shot to hell now. Though I don't think she notices how riddled with stress I am.
"That was four years ago at a birthday party." She goes on talking fast. "While I was trapped inside along came a huge gust of wind that led the bounce house to take off like a hot air balloon. With me still inside! It was a wild ride."
"I can only imagine." I run my hand through my hair.
"The fire department had to rescue me. I was even on the News." She explains with a sheepish smile, looking at her shoes.
Despite being a bit bashful about it, her tone is too light. Does she understand that this sort of thing isn't normal? That normally people don't have all these near-death experiences from being uncoordinated. I don't think she does.
As she goes on, saying how she wasn't hurt during that unfortunate incident, but did suffer a broken toe when she got her foot stuck in a trampoline during the same week. I begin to think back to my earlier assumption about Bella needing to be wrapped up in bubble wrap.
I'm no longer convinced that will protect her.
No. Not at all. She needs to be placed in a plastic bubble, or a giant hamster ball. Whatever is more durable. Something that will keep her safe from EVERYTHING. Since danger seems to be drawn to her like a magnet.
I must come up with a solution to make her less vulnerable from the disaster of her clumsiness. But what could be the answer?
Instinctively, I put my arm around her, bringing her closer to me. The sound of her heart drumming against her ribs echoes in my ears. Her body heat surrounds me, and I wish we weren't on this topic right now. But we are.
"Why are you telling me this?" I wonder, trying to keep my tone leveled.
"The truth is I'm not graceful at all." She answers a bit too fast. "I can barely stand up without falling down, as I demonstrated without meaning to. I just want you to know what you're up against and what my unlikely superpower would be, if I had one.."
"Good to know." I say, feeling the hum of electricity plush between us. "I'll invest in a very large first aid kit."
"Haha." She laughs sarcastically.
Obviously, she thinks I am kidding. However, I am 100% serious.
I look at her and she looks at me. Our faces are inches apart, her lips are right there, and I know this is it: the perfect moment for our first kiss.
The ducks in the pond provide background noise while a light breeze blows through my hair and hers as well. Despite my nervousness of never kissing anyone, this seems like a picture-perfect moment.
Seeing my opportunity, I lean in. A nervous giggle escapes her ruby red lips as she pulls back. Her moving away from me made me miss kissing her lips. Well, I'm not going to give up.
My face is right next to hers. My head feels heavy in an odd way that goes along with how much I adore her and always will. I want to kiss her so bad. I lean in a little more. Her breathing is shallow while mine is heavy. Her heartbeat speeds up and I know mine would too if it still worked.
My stomach is in knots now. The uneasiness which I periodically feel when having to give a presentation on a project at a school Science fair, overwhelms me. It makes me feel strange in front of the girl I love and always will. I'm sure she feels that way too.
Puckering my lips, I try again. At the speed of lighting, she turns her head, and my lips brush her cheek.
The sensation of hot and cold creates a burn without pain. Pulling back from the side of her face, which I was definitely not trying to kiss. I take a deep breath. I didn't think kissing would be like this. This is not the way it's portrayed in movies or books.
In films and literature, a first kiss all happens so smoothly. Not awkwardly but so perfectly without any hesitation or fumbling. Why isn't it that way for us?
She looks at me with a rubbery smile that gives away how nervous she is. An odd giggling sound slips from her lips as I gulp.
Maybe she's nervous about this one action that will seal the deal on our relationship, making it. Is that why she's acting this way? But can't she see I'm just as unsure about this as she is?
Without being able to read her mind I have no answers to offer myself. But the thought of having her lips touching mine thrills me in excited waves I have never known before. Automatically I take in a sharp breath of air.
Breathing in her magnificent scent, I feel giddy and less scared. I try again, hoping the third time will be the charm.
That proves not to be so as she dodges my kiss by ducking her head down, then doing some weird bob and weave maneuver. What the heck was that?
My eyes lock with hers. At once I catch the reflection of me and the doubt in my eyes in her deep chocolate brown irises. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.
After school she said she wanted me to kiss her. Did she change her mind and just isn't telling me to spare my feelings?
"Bella?" I say, my voice is low and unsteady.
"I'm sorry for spazzing out." Bella apologizes. "I want to kiss you, I just... just. I'm freaking out."
I can't fight the smile that appears on my face.
"What?" She asks.
"I am too." I reassure her.
"Really?" She wonders.
"Yes. Now hold still."
Very gently I place my hands on either side of her face. Aligning my face with hers, she shuts her eyes and I close mine. With her being still this is easier to do. I move in closer without skipping a beat.
Our lips meet. Hers are soft and warm and feel like silk next to mine. My lips move against hers, praying I'm doing this right. First our kiss is a bit hesitant as we move our mouths together then more eager as our lips move in harmony.
Dropping my hands from her face and placing them on her shoulders while her hands copy mine. I feel her mouth part and I know what comes next, without overthinking this I open my mouth and stick my tongue inside hers. She draws back but stops.
Her tongue peeks out and touches mine. It feels a bit weird but at the same time, I like it. I like this. It's interesting and very thrilling.
We keep kissing on the park bench. Our tongues dance together, and her pulse is racing under my fingertips. Ducks quack, a dog barks in the distance, running feet, and people talking pass us by. Life in the park goes on around us and someone shouts in a joking way, "get a room." But neither Bella nor I pay attention to any of it.
I move my hands from her shoulders to her waist. I pull this beautiful girl - the only girl in the world for me - closer to me while her hands find their way to my hair. A beautiful smell - the unknown mouth watering aroma comes from Bella as her hands tug at my hair, and our mouths move together. Her breathing comes in thick waves, and I remember she's human and properly needs a break.
I pause our kiss to regard her.
With a goofy smile on her face and a dazed look in her eyes, her eyes meet mine.
"Hi." I whisper.
"Wow." She whispers back.
I smile my crooked grin. "That was better than I imagined."
"I'll say." She breathes the words. "I want more."
"As do I."
We share a bright, giddy, and happy smile. Both of us just experienced our first kiss. Never will either of us be "never been kissed" again. The alchemy of the whole event has my head spinning and I want more. I want to kiss her and never stop, though I know it's not practical to think like that. But I can't help it.
I lean back in, her lips part to meet mine.
Every cell in my body comes alive. I've never felt happier than to be able to hold her this close. It's a euphoric feeling that I've never known before, not even when I was human, I'm sure.
I'm sure this is what heaven feels like because Bella's my angel. Her fingers wind through my hair and pull at my locks as I gently continue holding her waist. Our kissing becomes more eager, more passionate and I'm as hard as a rock.
Of course, I am. I'm beginning to believe this is my body's permanent state when I'm with her: having an everlasting hard-on.
Oh well.
I focus less on that, and more about this magnificent task that can't be ignored. Kissing my Bella is definitely the most important thing in the world.
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Thanks for reading.
Hope you liked Edward and Bella's first kiss as much as he did. Haha!
Please leave a pleasant review.
If there's anything you are hoping to see in future chapters, such as makeout scenes between E&B, Edward getting a sex talk from daddy Carlisle, or anything at all. Please don't hesitate to ask. I love hearing from you guys and would be more than happier to add your suggestions in. :)))