I wasn't going to post until next year lol, but you guys are too nice :"3 I couldn't wait!
Chapter 4
Secrets
The first thing Lily did when she woke up the next morning was smile. It was the light. She had missed that grayish greenish glow so much, like the light filtering into a forest. But something about it was different this morning—brighter somehow, even with the clouds. She stretched and slowly got up to go check on the weather.
At first she thought it might just be the lack of fog, but when she reached her window, she gasped in delight as the difference became clear.
Snow. It was just a dusting, but it was beautiful. Yesterday's rain had frozen solid and coated everything in a delicate wintery layer. It felt like looking at the inside of a snow globe, just begging to be shaken. One look at the road, however, had her stomach doing a snow globe impression itself.
Ice. She hadn't really thought about driving on it. She had enough trouble just walking on it. There had only been two actual snow days back in Mobile—only flurries really—and a few more of frozen rain, but they were all filled with memories of an adolescent Lily slipping and sliding all over the place. She hadn't cared back then; it was fun, even when it wasn't on purpose nine times out of ten. Now the thought of accidental acrobatics had her skin heating up in proactive embarrassment.
Oh well. Crippling clumsiness had never stopped her from enjoying life before. It was going to be a beautiful day, and she would do her darnedest to savor it.
Lily took the steps two at a time as she came down—good practice for the dexterity today would require. If only there was such a thing as snow cleats, she thought. But even the idea of landing on her rear in front of everyone couldn't keep her excitement down for more than a few seconds. She got to the bottom of the staircase and called for her dad, excited to make him look outside and tell her what he thought...only to realize that the house was empty, of course….
Lily assembled breakfast. She hurried and scurried and thought about the loneliness weighing on her heart. At least it was a familiar loneliness. A natural, non-melancholy kind of lonely. She needed to get used to it. After all, she was old enough to be left by herself more than ever now, and Charlie didn't need her forcing him to hang around like a babysitter. This could be fun—like having her own place, yeah! Every teenager's dream. ...Yeah….
She stood at the table munching on a bowl of fruity cereal and feeling sorry for herself, just a little. Then she shook off the gloom, reminded herself that she had come to Forks for change, and ran out the door with a smile. Positivity. Today would be beautiful, and it was gonna go way, way better than yesterday. For sure.
Her good mood didn't falter even when she fell on her butt—the very instant her foot hit the icy driveway. She hadn't even made it to her truck without slipping. Oh well! Lily easily laughed it off. The air was sharp and clear. The world was still and lovely. If there had been a blue sky, the scene would've been perfect. Neither icy roads nor loneliness could dampen her spirits now.
Of course, high spirits didn't apply to road safety one bit. Her drive to school was ginger as a grandfather snail. Just because she was optimistic didn't mean she was insane. She had heard about black ice before, and Lily kept her foot ready to spring off the accelerator at a moment's notice. Leaving early meant she could drive as slowly as she wanted to. This was just a better chance to enjoy the scenery, all covered in a fine layer of snow and ice that made the world look ready for Christmas, even if Christmas was nearly a month ago.
Not everyone was a jolly happy soul, however. An impatient car sped up to her butt and then zoomed around her. She stuck her tongue out at his bumper, certain he wouldn't be so rude if he could see her mental image: mailboxes eviscerated, fire hydrants spewing water, trees toppled and cars crushed to bits on the side of the road. Her bubble-butt truck wouldn't even get a scratch as it carved a swath of destruction through town.
But that didn't happen, much to her surprise and relief. She hadn't driven on ice once in her life. Heck, she'd only had her license for about a year, despite turning seventeen last November. Yet she never so much as swerved! Today was her lucky day, it seemed.
When Lily finally pulled into the high school parking lot and climbed down out of the truck—sans much slipping, thank goodness...she saw the reason for that good luck. There were thin silver chains crisscrossed in diamond shapes around her tires.
"Snow chains?" she murmured.
Something had felt a little odd as she drove, but she'd written that off as the ice. It was why she remembered to get out and check her tires now, for fear something might be wrong. She had been worried about low air pressure or mechanical trouble, but it turned out that she didn't need to worry at all. Her father may have left her alone for breakfast, but he would never leave her unprotected, even in a little way like this.
Charlie's unspoken concern ticked her good mood up another notch. She flipped around with a happy sigh, only for her eyes to lock with Edward Cullen's across the parking lot. He was standing four cars down from her. His staring didn't bother her one bit. Nothing did, on such a beautiful, wintery day.
She smiled and waved at him—or at least she started to. Her hand wasn't even halfway up when she noticed two things, both at the same time: Edward looked utterly horrified, like he was about to be sick, and the whistling sound that had just started wasn't a whistle at all. It was a high-pitched, ear-splitting screech.
Lily was too startled to even scream as she turned towards the painful crescendo of sound. A dark blue van was heading towards her like a tidal wave, skidding and spinning across the icy parking lot. It would hit her and then her truck, squish-crunch, unavoidable. That was one thought; the other was, Oh no—Dad. Instead of Lily's life flashing before her eyes, she saw her father's disgruntled but adorable face with its blotchy blush as she teased him. That was all she had time to consider. An unstoppable death, and the man it would devastate. Not her mom, not Edward Cullen and his horrified expression, not even the other driver who might also die. Just poor Charlie.
The van hit her a moment before it should have, but maybe that was just what it looked like to her skewed sense of time. She felt the impact before she ever saw it, slamming her to the ground right before the bumper crunched into the bed of her truck. She only had one instant to think, Wait, that's not right—and also, Ouch, as the side of her head knocked against the ground—before she saw that the van was still coming. It had enough momentum to fold around the back of the truck and turn her into the meat in a car sandwich.
Although adrenaline made it easy to notice the van's deadly trajectory, it wasn't enough to get her to move. She couldn't have, because something cold was pinning her to the ground behind the tan car she'd parked next to. Part of the van must have flown off, she thought—until the cold thing swore in a low, heavenly voice, and then moved just enough for two white hands to shoot out over her, stopping the oncoming vehicle not a foot from her face. This happened too quickly for her to make sense of what she saw at first, but the image of those pale hands splayed within two matching dents in the van's side was like a snapshot in her brain, crisp and frozen. Just like this lovely morning had been before she went and died.
Suddenly she was being moved, cradled. Maybe the arm around her waist belonged to an angel here to carry her to heaven. Poor Charlie. But no, the arm was swinging her body, pivoting it away from the place that was suddenly covered in shards of glass as the van thudded on the asphalt. Her legs would have been destroyed if they had been in that spot one second longer. She looked away from the narrowly-avoided double disaster and up into the face of her angel.
It was Edward Cullen.
For one silent moment, Lily wondered if she was imagining all this. But no, he was here, and the picture of his hands against the van's body stood out as clearly in her mind as his white face stood out in her memory, four cars away from where she was now.
Edward's quiet, urgent voice cut through the screaming that had just then erupted from all around them. "Lily? Are you all right?"
"I don't know." Her voice was raspy. She cleared her throat and tried to sit up, only to realize that he was keeping her tightly pinned against his side...just like he'd pinned her to the asphalt. When he knocked her out of the way of an oncoming van. After standing four cars away from her.
What. The. Hell.
She struggled to sit up, and he warned her, "Be careful. I think you hit your head pretty hard."
He was right. The place above her left ear throbbed when she straightened up off the cold ground, but she didn't care about the sharp ache or the icy asphalt or the frantic screaming that was getting closer and closer. There was only one thing on her mind at that moment. "You saved me. How did you do that?"
His arm slid off her waist as he scooted away from her—as far away as he could. His back pressed against the side of the van as he said, "I was standing right next to you, Lily."
She frowned and opened her mouth to argue, but the golden weight of his eyes was too much for her addled mind. She shook her head, unsure whether or not the impact of that concerned gaze was more disorienting than the one she had just missed. ...Not missed. Evaded, thanks to him. She was sure of it.
"Don't move," a voice instructed vehemently.
Lily looked around for the first time. Outside the sheltered pocket of metal was a crowd of crying, shouting people.
"Are you hurt? Are either of you hurt?"
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my—"
"Get Tyler out of the van!"
"Tyler," she breathed. Horror and dread stole her voice. She looked at Edward, afraid of what she would see.
"He was driving," he confirmed with a somber nod. Her stomach churned, but before she could even think about how to ask, he reassured her, "He's alive. A little banged up, but in no danger."
"Thank goodness," Lily sighed and closed her eyes. She noticed then that something hot and wet was running down her face. "Am I bleeding?"
"No."
She touched her cheeks and forehead and didn't see anything when she looked down at her hand. "Are you sure?"
Edward said, "I would know if you were," and for some reason, she thought he sounded...amused? Or maybe he was just relieved.
Lily wiped her cheeks again. Oh, tears. She was just crying.
"Are you sure you're all right?"
"Yeah," she said and scrubbed at her face. "I'm okay." And she was, thanks to him...which made her brain go: wait, and, Oh yeah, and, What the hell...all at the same time. She did a double-take at Edward. The question wasn't meant to sound accusing, but that's how it came out when she demanded, "Okay, how the heck did you do that? You were way over there."
"No, I wasn't."
"What? Yes you were! I saw you at your car—and then suddenly you were here."
"Lily, I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way." He sounded so serious. His eyes bored into hers, and she blinked and shook her head. It hurt, but the pain from her goose egg just helped her to focus.
"No you weren't. I saw you."
"Please, Lily."
Eyes shut tight, she shook her head again—in frustration this time. "I saw you!"
"Please," he begged.
It got her to look up at him, and the blazing golden gaze that met her robbed the air right out of her lungs.
His voice was soft but full of desperation as he urged, "Trust me."
"...Okay," she said so quietly, it was almost drowned out by the sound of approaching sirens. The unguarded expression of relief on his face made Lily's heart flip flop. The look turned to dismay, however, when she told him, "But you have some explaining to do later."
He glared and clenched his teeth together; she could practically hear them grinding as he hissed, "Or you could just let it go." His eyes were wide and livid...but there was something else there too.
For one moment, she considered doing what he asked.
It was a very brief moment.
Lily felt her face scrunch up as she whispered, "Please." She didn't know if he heard it over the growing uproar around them. She didn't even know why she said it—why she was still asking Edward Cullen to confide in her, as if she expected anything but his glare in return. Maybe it was the desperation in his stare, apparent even now beneath the contempt she also saw there.
"You can trust me too, you know," she said with her best attempt at a smile. The hostility melted away from his expression, leaving behind something sad, almost pained. Her heart panged again, both from the look on his face and the sudden realization her words brought.
For whatever reason, she really wanted Edward Cullen's trust. He hadn't done anything to make her want it, but she did.
A deep voice said, "Hey, Edward," and a face that was all five o'clock shadow and shaggy eyebrows peered over the side of the wreckage. "You kids all right?"
"Perfect, Brett," Edward answered immediately. "Nothing touched me." His voice was serious and suddenly very calm as he addressed the man in the navy blue uniform—an EMT, she realized. "But I'm afraid Lily here might have a concussion. She really hit her head when I yanked her out of the way."
Lily did her best to match his composure when she spoke, both to convince the EMT that she was fine, and to disguise her irritation with Edward; he made her sound like a pitiful, wounded invalid. "I'm all right. I did hit my head, but I'm not bleeding or dizzy or anything."
The man hummed doubtfully and replied, "Better get you on a stretcher, just to be safe. Don't move around too much, okay?"
It was a challenge not to be mad at Edward after that. When the next EMT tried to get him to stay still like her, he just shook his head and said, "I'm not injured, but I'll be sure to check in with my father, Dr. Cullen, once I get to the hospital." It was kind of amazing how easily he got a trained medical technician to believe him with nothing but a name-drop and a steady gaze. He looked so calm and sounded so confident. She couldn't help but be jealous. Lily could barely convince her mom that she didn't have a secret boyfriend every time she was late coming home.
Her envy turned to annoyance, however, when Edward handed her the spotlight. He sat there and described how she'd hit her head with an absolutely unnecessary amount of detail. It was ridiculous—he almost sounded like an EMT himself. All she could do was sigh and accept her fate as the first responders completely skipped over Edward to focus on her.
Moving Tyler's van took six EMTs, Lily's trig teacher, and a coach. It would have taken the entire student body to move her behemoth of a truck, not that they wouldn't have happily done so. Everyone had turned out to watch the commotion, and the faculty was constantly shooing away curious young faces.
When there was finally a big enough gap between the two vehicles to get a stretcher in, Edward once again diverted attention to her. She was told for the hundredth time that she shouldn't move, not until they could give her a neck brace, oh joy. As if that prospect wasn't humiliating enough, the young technician who tried to lift her had to stop and ask for help. It took two of them to get all of her 200 pounds onto the stretcher. And then they added insult to injury with the clunky neck brace; Lily could feel her double chin bulging out of the top.
It was already getting hard not to start crying in earnest, so of course that was when her dad showed up. So much for her tentative composure. She heard him shouting her name as they were loading her onto the ambulance.
"Lily!" he yelled and ran over to the stretcher.
"It's okay, Dad—I'm not actually hurt at all," she assured him, trying not to weep. Her smile must have looked horribly unconvincing, because he immediately turned away and began badgering the EMT for more information. His overt display of concern would have been heartwarming if she hadn't been so mortified already. But she had other things on her mind that demanded more attention.
She had seen it as they wheeled her away from the wreckage—a particularly shoulder-shaped impression in the tan car, like somebody had braced against it. That sounded crazy, of course. Any normal person wouldn't even have thought of it, because any normal person who tried what Edward Cullen had done would be dead. Seeing him deflect a van like it was nothing but a memory foam mattress, however, left no doubt in Lily's mind that his shoulders would fit perfectly into the unassuming dent.
Unassuming was something that could not be said for Edward's family, looking on from a distance. Even the most unfeeling siblings would have appeared shocked, let alone concerned and upset. The Cullens and the Hales wore expressions of dismay, but not distress. The two boys looked disapproving, the blonde girl looked furious, and the tiny wild-haired one looked utterly calm. Not one sign of horror at the life-threatening situation their brother had just been in. It both confused Lily and cemented her conviction that she hadn't imagined anything. Edward Cullen had a secret, and the rest of his family knew it.
He got to ride in the front of the ambulance while she reclined reluctantly in the back. They got a police escort even though the school wasn't really that far from the hospital and it wasn't an actual emergency. Oh well. One more embarrassment wouldn't bother her anyway, especially when she was too busy thinking about Edward Cullen.
The emergency room of the Forks community hospital looks the same as any big city's does: nondescript walls and tile floors, a long row of beds, and pastel dividing curtains with the vague pattern of hotel decor. Lily's nurse neglected to close those curtains. She had intended to take off the neck brace as soon as she got some privacy. She looked around nervously now, wondering if she should just go ahead and remove the velcroed irritant...or would she get in trouble?
Before she could decide, there was a flurry of activity signalling the arrival of the other "victim," and this time the term actually did apply. Tyler Crowley's head was wrapped up in a blood-stained bandage as they wheeled him into the room. Lily's heart ached for the boy from her Government class; he was indeed banged up, as Edward had said. But that didn't stop him from worrying about everybody but himself. When they put him in the bed next to hers, he immediately began to apologize.
"Lily, I'm so sorry!" His eyes were wild with concern and remorse.
"Aw no, don't be, Tyler—I'm one hundred percent fine, seriously," she told him, just like she'd told her father. Lily looked him over anxiously as the nurse began unwinding his bandages. His forehead and left cheek were covered in cuts. "Geez, are you okay?"
He was too worked up to notice her question. "I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast, and I hit the ice wrong…." His words trailed off with a wince as one of the nurses began dabbing his face with a white cloth.
"It's okay," Lily urgently assured the wounded boy, "for real. I was afraid of doing the exact same thing on my way this morning—it could've happened to literally anyone. I'm not hurt or mad or anything, so please don't worry, okay?"
"You're really not hurt at all?"
"Nope, I promise. Just knocked my head a bit, but that was barely anything."
"Man, that's amazing…." The boy's eyes closed in relief and then, a few seconds later, they opened back up wider than ever. "How'd you get out of the way so fast? You were there, and then you were just gone."
"Uh, well…." She hesitated, scrambling for a believable poker face that wasn't just blank; she settled on a look of concentration. "It's a little fuzzy," she went on after a moment or two, "but Edward pulled me out of the way."
"Who?"
"Edward Cullen. Tall? Red hair? Well, reddish. Bronze? I'm still not sure that's the right—anyway, he was there. Standing next to me, I mean. Well, uh, close to me." Bravo, Lily. You'll definitely get an Oscar for that one.
Lucky for her, Tyler didn't seem to notice the shaky delivery.
"Cullen? I didn't see him…. Wow, it was all so fast, I guess. Is he all right too?"
"I think so...or he said he was, at least," she added, unsure what Edward's story would be, on second thought. "They let him ride in the front of the ambulance. I, uh, don't know where he is right now, but he seemed fine."
He seemed more than fine, but "miraculously unharmed" would obviously sound a little strange. Bizarre was a better word for the phenomenon she had witnessed.
Of course, there was always the possibility that she was genuinely crazy. That would have been a way easier explanation. But her rescuer's odd behavior kept her from giving that option too much thought. If he'd had nothing to hide, he would have been bewildered, not hostile. No, she knew what she saw, even if she didn't understand it or how it could have happened.
If her brain had a stomach, it would have been distended with so much food for thought. She got an X-ray, but she knew the drill for that like an old routine, leaving her mind free to wander.
His eyes were a small detail compared to the many other strange features of the day, but they stuck out to her. In the parking lot, her glance at the rest of the Cullens showed that their eyes were different too. At least some of them were—she had been focusing more on their expressions than anything else, but she was sure of it. What were the odds of siblings getting matching contacts for no reason? Maybe they were all eccentrics...or maybe Edward's change in eye color meant something.
She couldn't be sure though, and it still didn't tell her much about him either way. The questions were enough to keep her distracted even when she got back in the ER—where Tyler literally did nothing but apologize. Her replies quickly turned into a basic set of responses and platitudes, while her roommate's regrets became a low, continual mumble of remorse. She would have been more concerned that there was something actually wrong with him if she hadn't been so preoccupied…. Where had Edward gone? Was he having his turn getting examined, or did he get to skip that too? Could the hospital have let him leave already?
She was just wondering what lengths the boy might go to in order to avoid her questions—and telling Tyler for the thousandth time that he shouldn't feel guilty at all—when Edward appeared.
His voice broke in on her reverie like a wave sneaking up on the beach. "How are you two doing?" He was standing a few beds away from them with a look that was equal parts calm and concerned.
"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry," Tyler began, but Edward lifted a hand to halt his apology.
"No blood, no foul," he said with a stunning smile. Geez. How could anyone's teeth be so white? How could someone make any sentence sound like a song? How did he move across the floor like a one-man waltz when Lily could barely avoid tripping over a completely smooth surface?
She closed her mouth with a snap when he came and sat on the edge of Tyler's bed. He smirked again, a crooked grin that had her whole face red within seconds. Suddenly she realized the neck brace was still on.
"So, what's the verdict?" he asked as Lily began pawing at the brace.
"Nothing, really—there's nothing wrong with me. I just haven't taken this off yet is all. I forgot." Finally the Velcro cooperated, and she flung the cushiony neck prison on her bed. "I was about to go ask about leaving, actually."
"Well, that's perfect, because I actually came here to spring you."
"Can you do that?" she asked with open skepticism.
"You can when you know the right people," he answered with a look over her shoulder.
Lily followed Edward's eyes and practically had to pick her jaw off the floor when she did.
He was young, he was blonde...and he looked exactly like the boy in front of her. At least his white skin and perfect features did—features which included the same late-night under eye circles, although perhaps that was to be expected for a doctor.
"So, Miss Swan, how are you feeling?" asked Dr. Carlisle Cullen. She knew that was who he had to be. His voice had the dulcet quality his son and wife seemed to share, and Lily's already firm suspicions cemented further.
"I'm okay," she said, as she had been saying all day long. But she didn't mind saying it one more time, at least for a man like this. Hoo boy.
"Your X-rays look good," he said. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard."
Only the distraction of Dr. Cullen's face—because of the similarity to Edward's, not just the supermodel factor—kept her from looking over at his son. Edward had talked about her? What did he say? How much had he told his father about what really happened? Her curiosity was eating her alive, but she managed a relatively normal answer after a few seconds.
"Um, no sir. I mean, I hit it, but not hard."
When the doctor's fingers probed her head gently, she flinched. Not because it hurt, but because his hands were ice-cold.
"Tender?" he asked. His voice was the exact opposite of his icy hands, apart from the gentility inherent in both.
"A little, but not much—really. I've had worse. No biggie."
Dr. Cullen chuckled a little, and it was like bells across a valley.
"Yes, I saw as much in your X-rays," he replied with a smile. It was wonderful, but not as painfully beautiful as his son's. Good thing, too. If a doctor went around with a smile like Edward Cullen's, his heart patients would be in big trouble.
"I fall down a lot," Lily said absently. "Oh, uh, not suspiciously or anything like that though—from a doctor or social worker point of view, I mean. My mom's just as clumsy as I am. We get matching bruises all the time."
He laughed again, and this time it was in harmony with another laugh, one which set her heart racing. She looked over at Edward who was ducking to hide his grin.
Dr. Cullen cleared his throat, and even that sound was bell-like somehow. "I understand you would like to go home now, Miss Swan. You don't have to, of course, but if you are feeling well enough to leave, your father is in the waiting room. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all."
"Oh. Um...thank you, sir, but—you said 'go home,' but, uh...can't I go back to school?" Lily would normally have jumped at the chance to play some officially sanctioned hooky. Unfortunately, leaving her classmates in suspense for a day might make them all the more eager to interrogate her when she came back. It looked like Tyler would be out tomorrow, and she had a feeling nobody would dare bother Edward Cullen, which left her as the main source of firsthand information. Better to nip that bud before the account got overgrown into something more interesting than it was. Besides, her friends might be worried.
"Maybe you should take it easy today," Dr. Cullen answered.
She glanced over at Edward with a little irritation. She wondered if he was allowed to go back to school, but she chickened out of asking. And anyway, the last thing she wanted to do was argue with such a nice doctor.
Edward seemed to get more out of her look than she meant him to, however, because he smiled and said, "Someone has to spread the good news that we survived, so I'll be going back to class."
"Oh. Okay." Lily thought he sounded a little smug and looked a little superior. Even so, she kept her voice polite when she asked him, "Could you please do me a favor and tell my friend Angela Webber that I'm, um, okay?" Ange would be sure to tell the rest of their group, but if she asked him to tell Jessica...well, that just seemed like bad news. Besides, she felt the oddest objection when she pictured Edward talking to the short, beautiful girl. Almost a possessive reluctance to give her a reason to speak to him...but that was a pretty petty thought. Jess was her friend, after all, just as much as Angela was.
"Actually," Dr. Cullen interjected pleasantly, "I believe Miss Webber is in the waiting room now, along with most of the school."
"Sir?" she asked as her brain caught up with his words. When it did, Lily put her hands over her eyes and groaned, "Ugh! Oh, great."
"Do you want to stay?" came the doctor's kind voice.
"No sir," she said from inside her hands. "Just...not looking forward to the procession is all."
"You can wait here until they leave, if you like," he offered.
"It's okay." Lily hopped out of the bed with a sigh. It was nice of him to offer her extended refuge, but— "Better to get it over with now. Thank you, Dr. Cullen." She turned to the bed next to her, careful to look only at Tyler. "Bye Tyler. I hope you get better real quick. And that somebody brings you some ice cream. Or, uh, some hot coco, I guess, actually." She gave him a goofy smile. "No more ice."
He smiled back at her and said, "Right," but then he was right back to anxious apologies. "Thanks—and sorry—again. Really sorry. Are you sure you're okay?"
"You can ask Dr. Cullen if you don't believe me," she assured him with her most chipper, no-prob-llama tone. Poor Tyler. He had enough to worry about with his own injuries.
Her words seemed to be a cue for both Edward and Dr. Cullen; the former rose off the bed as the latter stepped towards it.
"Miss Swan is right. You're all very lucky."
Lucky that Edward was there, Lily thought pointedly, with whatever the heck magical powers he's got.
As if he'd heard the thought, the boy looked at her then, and he seemed to understand her intentions too. He nodded the tiniest bit.
The two of them said goodbye to Tyler as Dr. Cullen began checking his cuts, and then they walked out together. Lily was practically vibrating with expectation. Edward looked rigid when she glanced up at him.
"Okay, talk time," she whispered as soon as they were far enough out of earshot.
Edward's expression instantly darkened all the way into a scowl. "Your father is waiting for you."
"Well, he can wait a little longer."
"That isn't very respectful," he quibbled.
Lily had to resist crossing her arms; that was a bad sign, she knew. For the sake of reining in her temper, she turned and let them walk away a little farther. Then she stepped in front of Edward.
"We can talk here, or we can talk somewhere else, but you and I are talking—right now."
She hadn't expected his scowl to be more intimidating with this lighter eye color, but it was. Before, his eyes were black as night in a deep-sea trench. It didn't make sense that his glare should be so much more frightening with gold instead...and yet Lily felt like she was being burned alive.
"Please," she whispered helplessly, just like she had back in the wreck, and back in Biology too. Would she forever be begging this boy for his confidence?
Something shifted in the set of his jaw. He did an about-face and stalked away from her around a nearby corner, leaving her shocked and alone. It was almost comical when, a moment later, his head of tousled hair popped out and he hissed, "Will you please come here?"
She blinked and ran over to the short hallway. Edward was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"What do you want?" The words were terse, and his open unfriendliness was intimidating. But she had heard him speak rudely before. It hardly fazed her now.
Lily squared her shoulders, carefully checked her temper, and told him, "I want the truth."
He snickered and rolled his eyes. "The truth?"
"I want to know how you saved me, and why your eyes are that color, and how you and your family all look so much alike even though you aren't related at all."
The snicker had irked her, but that was nothing to the full on laugh that slapped her in the face as he tilted his head back for a brief guffaw. Were it anyone else, the sound might have been ugly, but the best musician couldn't have rivalled Edward Cullen's worst laugh.
"What on earth are you talking about?" he demanded with a careless smirk. She blinked and shook her head, resisting the effect his expression had on her train of thought.
"Do you want me to repeat myself? I said I want the truth, as concise as you'd like to make it."
Edward Cullen opened his mouth. She bravely interrupted him.
"And yeah, I know that I sound really demanding and all, but…." Her eyes flickered over his face, and she felt hers soften just a little. "You really can trust me. Maybe you think I don't mean it, or that I do but I'm not reliable or capable of keeping a secret or something, but I am." She thought for a moment and added for the sake of honesty, "When it counts."
"The truth, Lily," he began—she was almost on tip-toes with anticipation— "is that you hit your head, and you don't know what you're talking about."
This time she couldn't keep her arms from crossing. "My head is fine. You heard your dad—who, by the way," she told him in a lower, hissing whisper, "has the exact same skin tone as you, even though neither of you are related."
His answer was sardonically slow, and he enunciated almost every other word with a small nod as he said, "A family from Alaska is pale, and you think that means there's something to tell?"
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from lashing back at him. What a jerk. A sleazy, condescending jerk.
"It's not just that," she grit out through her teeth. "I saw what happened in the parking lot."
"And what do you think happened?" he snapped.
She sucked in a breath and opened her mouth—but closed it just as it was all about to rush out. Instead of talking, she put her hands over her face and counted down from ten, and then back up and back down from it one more time. It was almost half a minute before she spoke.
"I can hear your foot tapping," she muttered stormily, "but you can just wait one cotton-pickin' minute while I gather my thoughts."
He snickered again, and once again she marveled how such a rude noise could still sound so elegant.
After another minute had passed, she lowered her hands with a satisfied huff and looked Edward Cullen in the eye. It was like trying to stare down the sun.
"What happened," she began in a tight but careful voice, "was that I saw you standing about four or five cars away from me, and I waved at you. You looked like something was wrong, and then I heard Tyler's van. I turned around to look at it, and just before it hit me, something knocked me out of the way. I did hit my head on the ground, but it wasn't hard enough to make me, like, hallucinate or anything." She threw an obligatory scowl at him with the last part.
"After that, well, um...it's not like it's fuzzy or anything, but it all happened so fast—but I do remember a few things really well." Lily looked away from his eyes; it was necessary if she planned to do any more breathing. Instead, she looked down at his crossed arms and the hands neatly folded there. Hers were square, splotchy, and clumsy compared to the long white pair that had saved her life. "I saw your hands shoot out and stop the van. They made dents in the side. I remember that really, really clearly, so don't try to tell me I imagined it. Then I guess you...got me out of the way of the glass or something—because my legs were suddenly somewhere else, and...and…."
Tears were beginning to gather in her eyes even though Lily knew she was doing super well, A-plus, pretty darn calm and concise. But she dared to glance up at his face again, and when she saw the look of skeptic incredulity there, there wasn't anything calm or concise about her anymore.
"Look, I know how crazy it sounds, but I know what I saw! You lifted. A freaking. Van. And I saw the dent your shoulders left behind in the other car too. And! I saw your family, and they didn't even look concerned at all. They looked like...well, like they...they…." Lily could feel herself losing steam, but she pushed on anyway. "Well...like they weren't afraid. Which they wouldn't be. If...you know...if they knew that you, um…."
"Are you finished?"
She glared at him with every ounce of venom she could produce.
He said, "Nobody will believe any of that, you know," and his voice had a derisive edge to it that matched the rigid, mocking expression on his face. Well, it gave her back her steam at least.
"I don't care what anybody believes!" she lashed at him in a vicious whisper. She was handling her temper with the skill of a monkey on a steamroller, but she couldn't bring herself to care. "It's not like I'm gonna run out and tell people, you big fat jerk! Geez." She scrubbed at her eyes. Her cheeks and neck and ears were red, and her scalp itched with shame, and she had one mother of a headache.
When Lily looked at him again, she caught the tail end of some emotion as it left his now-steely expression...but she hadn't been quick enough to decipher it.
"Then why does it matter?" he asked. His words were severe, and his eyes were piercing.
"It matters to me." Her voice cracked on the last word, and she clamped her mouth shut for fear of what might come out next—something embarrassing, or something cruel, she didn't know.
"Can't you just thank me and get over it?" he demanded with a scowl.
Lily scowled back at him and did her best to match his callous tone. "I'll thank you when you tell me exactly what the heck I'm thanking you for." It was her turn to tap her foot impatiently after that.
"You're not going to let it go, are you?"
"Oh, what gave you that idea?"
"Well then...I hope you enjoy disappointment."
She stared him down—a difficult thing to do when he was at least a head taller than her—and kept silent for a long, seething minute. Why had he even bothered to save her life when he couldn't so much as deign to spare some civility? He was nothing but a callous jerk, and she shouldn't have cared whether he trusted her or not. He could go shove his trust in the trash can, as far as she was concerned.
"Fine. Fine! You know what? Forget it," she fumed and flipped her back to him; she resisted the urge to flip something else at him too, but Edward Cullen wasn't worth the effort it took to even lift a finger. "Keep your stupid secrets—I don't care anymore."
Lily marched away without one more look, positively blistering with fury. The worst fight she ever had with her mother hadn't made her so angry. She wanted to punch through a wall or two. All she did instead was scream a little as she pushed through the double door of the waiting room.
She had forgotten that half of Forks was in there. Each and every one of them jumped and stared when she crashed into the lobby with a shriek for all to hear. Lily looked around at the shocked faces of her classmates and slumped in defeat. This might as well be happening.
Her father rushed to her side. She leaned her face against his chest, letting her arms dangle limply as she did. "Dad," she pleaded, her words muffled, "can we please go home?"
"What's wrong? What did the doctor say?"
"He said I'm fine and that I can go home," she grumbled.
"Lily?" a familiar, gentle voice asked. "Are you hurt?" The raw anxiety in the words made her look up. Even when it was puffy and red from crying, Angela's face was still very pretty. Not like Lily's—she was one heck of an ugly crier.
Knowing that Ange had been worried enough to come and see her—let alone cry about her—warmed Lily up inside. The room got warm to the point of discomfort, however, when she saw that Jessica and Mike and Eric were there too. They all gathered in close, and suddenly the concern was overwhelming in an unpleasant way. If she'd had claustrophobia, it would have been a heartwarming nightmare.
"I'm fine, guys," Lily said and did her best to look nonchalant. No need to make her friends worry unnecessarily—they looked worried enough as it was. Besides, it wasn't like any of them could help with what was bothering her the most. "Thanks for coming to check on me. That was really sweet. Um, Dr. Cullen said I should spend the rest of the day at home. I don't suppose anyone would like to, uh, take notes for me?" She threw a hopeful look to Angela, who nodded back at her with a watery smile.
Jessica put her hand on Lily's arm. "We're here if you need to talk about it," she told her with a smile just as sweet as Angela's had been. It made Lily feel worse than ever when a cynical part of her brain wondered if Jess was just hoping for the thrilling tale. She didn't deserve such nice friends.
"Thanks, Jess. I'll see y'all later." She wrapped her arm around her father's, who then escorted her out of the waiting room while everybody called goodbyes and get-well's.
"I don't even know half the people in there," she muttered to her dad once they were outside. He pulled his arm out of hers; Lily's heart stung for one moment before the arm was back again, a light but comforting touch behind her back.
She breathed a huge sigh of relief as she slid down in the passenger seat of the cruiser. As a child, riding in her father's patrol car had always been a treat. It still put a smile on her face to be there, even now. She didn't get many ride-along's anymore.
Her father drove in silence, and Lily was grateful for it. She wouldn't have been a very good conversation partner at the moment. Edward's behavior in the hallway still burned her up. Lily knew that she should have been thinking about his reaction and what it entailed, but she was still too mad to do so.
"Um," her father said once they got to the house. He sounded hesitant. "You'll need to call Renée."
Lily scoffed. "No way, Jose. Can you imagine how she'd react to…." She gaped at his guilty expression. "Dad! You didn't!" But it was clear he had.
He hung his head in shame and muttered, "Sorry." He'd already called her himself. Great.
She sighed and tried not to sound too grouchy when she said, "You know she's gonna be in hysterics. What if she wants me to leave now?"
He shook his head as he got out of the car. "You're a big girl, Lil' Bit. Just tell her you wanna stay."
"Gee, thanks," Lily mumbled. Darn it. Calling her that nickname was a dirty trick to keep her from being mad at him. It didn't stop her from slamming the car door a little more forcefully than she needed to. What a pain in the neck.
...And the ear, too. The phone call was bad enough to make her wish she was deaf, although the shouting didn't start right away. Her mom was crying to begin with, which was even worse, heartbreaking rather than head-pounding. It didn't last long, for better or worse. After five minutes of tears and concern, her mom switched to the next stage of trauma—anger. If Lily had just been more careful somehow...if she had left for school earlier, if she had gone inside quicker, if she had parked in a safer spot...if she had found some way to be more responsible instead of her usual reckless self, blah blah blah. It wasn't in so many words, of course, but the meaning was crystal clear.
Lily was tempted to just hang up at one point, but that would guarantee a night spent in regret and more tears for the both of them, so she toughed it out until her mother started crying again. After she calmed down for good, she started begging Lily to come home in earnest.
"Mom, the house is literally empty."
But that didn't matter, because Renée may have been high-strung and flighty and completely irrational when it came to unavoidable accidents...but she was also one of the most basically selfless and caring people Lily had ever known. Maybe she wasn't the best mother in terms of level-headedness, but she would have jumped off a cruise ship and swam to shore if her daughter had asked her to come home in the middle of her honeymoon. And that was precisely why Lily couldn't go back now. Her mother was too good. She didn't need another scatterbrain adding to her troubles and, much worse, bringing her down. She was better off without Lily, and Lily was probably better off too—without her helicopter mom constantly hovering and second-guessing her daughter's choices for fear that she would repeat the mistakes a young Renée had made.
Sometimes she wished that her mom wasn't such a caring person. It would have made distancing herself so much easier. A part of Lily ached with sadness as she declined her mother's offers and entreaties to reunite in Phoenix. Part of her wished she could accept. Maybe it was true that they weren't good for each other, but that didn't stop them from missing one another.
The lengthy conversation with her mother had proven cathartic, and her head finally felt clear of anger now. It meant she could appraise Edward's behavior honestly without her feelings getting in the way. ...Well, at least without them obscuring the issue entirely.
If he hoped that she would follow through with what she'd said and actually drop the subject, he was going to kick himself for it tomorrow. Take a bone away from a dog, and that bone is all it thinks about. Out of sight did not mean out of mind with her, and her mind was made up more than ever now.
Edward Cullen had a secret—a big one. His defensive rudeness proved that to her, and although Lily wasn't very good at reading people, her gut said that she was spot-on here. Saving her life was a mistake, if he wanted to keep her out of things. She had the knowledge of his oddities like a loose thread tickling her brain, and she was going to follow it, wherever it might lead.
With that resolution, she laid down and determined to put Edward out of her mind entirely...at least until the next day. Instead, she dreamed about him and his glaring golden eyes all night long.
I'll be camping with my friend in the woods (at her grandma's) for New Year's, woot. But it's going to be in the 70's, meaning bugs. Mosquitoes, spiders, and, at worst, roaches. I just thought of that last part jn. I wish I was in Forks with Lily. Some people have all the luck.
Happy New Year's Eve-Eve, buddies!