Sunset

by LaLadyCavalier

Against the far wall of the cafeteria, Edward was sitting all by himself—and, to Lily's horror, he was looking right at her.

9. Predators

Ey just so y'all know (nothing to do with the chapter lol), I hope it doesn't sound like ragging on Renée is my thing. It's like this: Bella is responsible and gentle, and very much the parental figure in their relationship, which means Renée is free to be her best self; Lily, on the other hand, is very much like her mother, so not only do they naturally butt heads, but it also means that Renée is more anxious, under more parental pressure, and a lot more short-tempered because of that. It's tough, but true. Different daughters = different ways their mom's disposition has developed over the years. u_u

(The pro to this major con is that Charlie and Lily are way closer thanks to her personality/whatnot, AND, believe it or not, he and Renée are too. I'll put a blurb abt it at the end [oh my gosh it went from a blurb to a freaking mega-chunk aaaa sorry] if anyone's interested lol.)

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Chapter 9

Predators

When Jess got tired of singing, she talked over the music—about Mike, mainly. Their dinner had been a win, and she was hoping for another this Saturday, where she also hoped to progress to the kissing stage. Once again, Lily and Ange shared a knowing look that said this was not a subject with which either of them had any experience. It prompted Lily to be bold.

"Have you had a first kiss yet, Ange?" she asked with insolent eyebrows.

Angela blushed in her pretty, delicate way and shook her head.

"Maybe you'll get a chance to fix that," Jess enthused playfully, "with owl-eyes Eric."

"Jess," Angela scolded. Lily didn't know whether it was about the kiss or the nickname.

"It's perfect. You're cute, he's geeky—he'll def wanna make out with you." Jessica made kissing noises, followed by brief retching. "Just muscle through it. I know the guy's a loser, but—"

"Aw, Jess—" it was Lily's turn to scold her— "that's not nice! Eric's great."

Jessica snickered. "Yeah, great for getting a first kiss out of the way, if you ignore how greasy he is. I mean, have you seen his face? Breakout Central."

"Um," Lily said in an excuse-me-ma'am tone, "so is mine, Jess."

"Yeah, well...you've got a nice personality." Jessica gave her a taunting grin; Lily handed her back a sassy head wiggle and a scrunched-up smile. "Anyways," her friend enunciated, separating every syllable. "Just keep your eyes closed, Ange, and you'll be fine. You have to make out with someone—it's practice for prom—and I guarantee Eric won't expect anything afterwards. You are way out of his league."

"I'm not really...um, that is…. Eric isn't really…. He's very nice, but…."

Lily giggled. "Ooh, that's right—your mystery man. Don't worry, Ange. If the guy is smart, he'll get jealous of Eric and ask you to prom."

She could have kicked herself when Jessica demanded, "What mystery man?"

"Uh, figuratively speaking, I mean," she covered as smoothly as she could. "Don't we all have a mystery man out there somewhere? Y'know." She wiggled her fingers lamely. "Soulmates and stuff."

Jess didn't take her eyes off the road, but she didn't need to; Lily's voice couldn't have been less confident if she'd been asked to sing the national anthem backwards.

"A soulmate," Jess repeated with heavy skepticism. "Here in Forks."

"Well, uh...I mean, if Ange isn't planning on moving, then where else would he be?"

Jessica's face was as sarcastic as anything, but her "Mm-hm" sounded more like it was poking fun at the idea of finding your true love in a place like Forks, rather than Lily's obvious fumble with the truth. A glance at the backseat revealed a pink-faced, wide-eyed Angela staring straight ahead, fingers woven together tightly on her lap.

"Yeah, I'd feel sorry for anyone who had a soulmate in this boring, backwater town. There's, like, three cool guys at our school, and all the other hotties are in La Push. Good luck even meeting someone who isn't a total bumpkin." Jessica went on to talk about "inbreds," gas station clerks, and boys who smelled like fish sticks. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and shot Angela an apologetic frown. The girl's face was still pink, but her smile was genuine when she shook her head back at Lily.

Unfortunately, not following the conversation meant that Jessica had free rein of the subject, and it took Lily completely by surprise when she asked, "So, who was your first kiss?"

"Me?"

"What, you haven't had one yet? A-a-aw."

"I don't appreciate your tone, ma'am," Lily snarked with another squinty-faced expression.

Jessica was way too good at condescension—she smiled right back with wicked innocence. "It's nothing to be ashamed of; lots of insecure girls don't put themselves out there. But you shouldn't wait until after you move, even if most of the guys here are lame. If you go to the dance with us, you might get your chance." Jess paused thoughtfully and then suggested, "What about Ben Chaney? He's kinda short but, like...nice too. Mike hangs out with him, so he's probably cool. And a kiss is a kiss. Just get it over with."

Lily was only half-listening to Jess at that point. She was looking over her shoulder at Angela's wide, light brown eyes. Her friend stared down at her lap, looking practically catatonic. Her face was now pink to the hairline.

"Nah," Lily answered after a few more moments. "I think he probably likes someone else."

Ange blinked up at her. She looked too stunned to smile, so Lily did that for her, and she hoped the expression clearly said: yeah, once in a while, I'm not an oblivious idiot.

Jess looked at Lily and demanded, "Are you listening to me? Do you want to be alone forever?"

"Meh." She put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes like she didn't care. "I think I'll just be a nun. I've always loved The Sound of Music."

"Pshaw. Nerd."

The drive continued in that way, full of pleasant back and forth and the girl talk Lily had only ever seen in movies or from the outskirts of a friend group, never as an equal participant. By four o'clock, they had arrived in the seaside tourist trap that was Port Angeles. She missed the small-town feel of Forks the second they stepped out of the car. The boardwalk did look really pretty, but there was shopping to be done. They made a beeline for the biggest department store in town, a red brick building with lots of windows on the second story. It looked straight out of the fifties.

"Isn't this cute? Do you think you can see the ocean from the top? Which way are we facing?"

"I don't care how it looks as long as it's got the goods. Yeesh, maybe we should've gone to Sequim instead."

"My mother bought her graduation gown here. She thinks they'll have everything we need."

"Let's start on the second floor!"

About half an hour later, they were deep in the junior section—second floor, but not near the windows, sadly—trying to figure out what semi-formal meant exactly. Dangerously low necklines? Floor-length skirts? Each of them had a different idea of what school dances were like. Lily told them how her first school had banned anything that dipped below the collar bones, whereas the school in Phoenix had okayed dresses open all the way down the back.

"All the way?"

"Well, technically it was to the waist, but I think most girls wore things down to the small of their backs and stuff. My old-old school was small enough to do a dress-check first, but there were, like, a thousand people in my grade back in Phoenix. I never wore anything like that anyway."

"Why not?"

Lily lifted up the dress she was holding—it looked more like a slip than a gown—and smiled at Jess through the ten-yard V that bisected it. "Pizza back," she said ruefully. "I've had acne everywhere since I turned fourteen. Back, shoulders, the works."

"Aw," Jessica said, and, this time, she wasn't teasing. Her frown looked sympathetic. "There's lots of different kinds of dresses. You don't have to wear an open-back one when you go to prom.

"If I go," Lily answered, only half-joking. She put the sequined dress back on the rack with a sigh.

Jessica disappeared behind the wall of slinky gowns. "What do you mean 'if?'"

"I mean 'if' as in 'if.'"

"Lily, you aren't going?" Angela asked. She looked and sounded oddly concerned, or maybe just confused. It must have been a small town taboo, skipping out on prom.

"I'm not sure," she answered honestly. "I mean, I wasn't looking forward to finding a good dress and having to do all the makeup and stuff—"

"Girl, I can do your makeup," came a disembodied voice.

Lily laughed a little. "Thanks, Jess. That'd be cool. Well...I guess I would like to...if I can find someone who wants to go with me." Her cheeks began to heat up a little. The vision of Edward holding her close, slow dancing with her—but she didn't even know how to slow dance, and that was a serious reason to hesitate. "But I doubt anyone will ask, not to rag or anything. Besides, I can only waltz. Probably—"

"Wait, what about Tyler?" Jessica asked, still out of sight.

Lily answered her question with a cautious question. "What about him?" She looked at Angela, who had gone from vaguely concerned to outright worried. "What, Ange?"

"Um…."

Jessica poked her head out from around a different rack of dresses and informed her with wide eyes, "Tyler's been telling everyone that he's taking you to prom."

"What?"

"I just thought you were being, like, shy about it."

"...What?"

"I told you it wasn't true," Angela murmured.

Jess merely shrugged. "Is it really a bad thing?" she asked Lily. "He saved you the trouble of being awkward, right? And now if you wait for prom, you can get your first kiss with someone hot."

"I am...I'm not...what?"

Jessica giggled. "Why else do you think Lauren hates you?"

That hardly even registered. "What the heck? Why on earth would he do that? Does he, like...does he think that he already asked me or something?"

Jess and Ange exchanged a doubtful glance. The former looked amused, and the latter looked pitying. ...Pity, aha—that was it.

"This is because of the wreck! He's just doing this because he feels sorry for me." Lily clapped a hand to her chest and breathed a sigh of relief, even as she realized that the epiphany offered no practical help.

Angela hummed anxiously. "I'm not sure that that's—"

Jess interrupted the quiet words with a snort. "He doesn't act like he feels sorry for you."

"Well he certainly can't be interested in me." Lily rolled her eyes. "You know, I'll bet he still feels like he owes me, and he sees this as a way to make up for the whole van thing. Dang it."

"Or," Jessica offered in a wickedly knowing voice, "that's just the excuse he's using to get a free date."

"That doesn't make sense either! He's so popular, there's gotta be tons of girls who would go with him."

"Like Lauren," Jess pointed out with a snicker. "Maybe Tyler wants someone easy. Someone he thinks will give him anything he wants." Her voice was thick with implication. She giggled—apparently Lily's face was hilarious—and then added, "Oh, come on, Lily. You're too nice. He's betting you won't say no to him. The owing you thing is just an excuse—if he's even thinking about that at all."

The thought made the back of Lily's neck hot. Through her teeth, she pondered, "Maybe if I hit him with my truck, it'll be my turn to owe him. There. Problem solved."

"But what if he just uses that to make you go with him anyway? Uh oh." Jessica giggled yet again, obviously enjoying this way too much.

"He can't dance with two broken legs," Lily fumed. Even Angela laughed at that, nervous though the sound was.

The next chunk of shopping was spent in relative silence. Lily managed to put Tyler out of her mind, a surprisingly easy feat; her thoughts had quickly drifted back to Edward. Would he go to prom? Who would he take with him? He probably just wouldn't go—the Cullens didn't seem like the types who enjoyed socializing to say the least. ...But if he did, it would be with someone who looked like Ange or Jess—or Lauren, much as it pained her to picture that. Lauren's silver hair done up like a princess, her head resting against his chest...but nope. Nope. She would just imagine him ditching the dance instead, probably with another camping trip like the one he was on right now. She wondered what he was doing at that very moment...and if she would ever see him again….

Lily sighed big enough for Angela to notice, but her friend didn't ask, thankfully. She just gave Lily a soft, almost sad smile. The expression was hard to define, let alone explain, but it looked awfully close to sympathy. Lily's face must have told all. Or maybe Angela was just good at reading people...just like Edward.

Their trio eventually went back down to the first floor where they decided to divide and conquer. Jessica went to look at jewelry, and Lily went with Ange under the pretext of needing more shoes. She actually did need shoes, but her ulterior motives took precedence. All the silent stewing had given gloom a foothold in her head. She looked at Angela who was inspecting a pair of strappy pink heels, and began, "Hey, Ange?"

"Yes?" Her friend lowered the shoe and smiled at her.

Lily swallowed. "Do you know if, um…. Is it normal for the Cullens to go away a lot, do you know? Like, to be out of school camping and stuff?"

She nodded and let Lily off the hook, looking back down at her shoe as she answered, "Oh, yes. They go backpacking whenever the weather is nice—even the doctor. They're all real outdoorsy."

"Do they always stay away for days?"

"Sometimes. It's not uncommon for them, I think. Especially if the good weather holds."

Lily smiled and bumped her shoulder against Angela's in affectionate gratitude. She appreciated the lack of questions, and she wanted to say something about secrets being mutually safe with her—something about keeping mum's-the-word on her mystery man...but, in the end, she just picked up the other pink shoe and said, "These look great."

"You think so?"

Jessica popped back up soon after that and escorted them forcibly to the jewelry department, where they spent at least ten minutes ooh-ing and aw-ing over rhinestones like they were diamonds. Jess needed help deciding whether a particularly sparkly selection matched her silver shoes or not. Once her friends had voted yes on the jewelry, Jess made her shiny purchase, Ange bought the pink heels, and that completed their spree—including a pair of beautiful dresses.

The two shopped-out girls decided to drop their purchases into the trunk of the car and then walk down by the bay. Lily would have loved a seaside stroll, only she remembered her need for new reading material and suggested a trip to the bookstore instead. Jess thought that sounded boring, so they all agreed to split up and meet at the restaurant La Bella Italia in a little under an hour.

"Besides," Lily told them, "I actually prefer to do my hardcore book shopping alone, unless I'm just going for fun. Is that weird?"

"Kinda," Jess said, and, "Not at all," Ange said.

"See y'all in a bit!" Lily called to them as they walked away, chatting to each other happily with their plastic-covered dresses slung over their backs.

It took a lot longer than she would have liked, but she finally found a bookstore. It wasn't, however, the kind she had been hoping for. The crystals in the windows looked pretty cool, but the books about holistic medicine and spiritual healing weren't her style. She stared at the crystals and hanging gems, waved to a long-haired, dreamy-eyed woman behind the shop's counter, and then left in search of a more conventional bookstore.

Lily could feel time creeping up on her as she meandered through the streets. She thought about asking for directions to the downtown area, but if she just followed the flow of traffic, that was sure to lead her there, right? As long as she stayed where there were lots of cars, she wouldn't be in any trouble.

Unfortunately, that required actually focusing on her surroundings, something she wasn't any good at—and something she had always known would bite her in the butt one day.

There had been a topaz pendant hanging in the window of the new-age bookstore, round and shining and made of clear liquid gold. After seeing that, her stomach had dropped and her attention had waned. Lily walked without looking where she was going, feeling more miffed than despairing at this point. Ugh, he should have told her how long he was gonna be away….

But, then again, it wasn't like he owed her that. Edward had been right. He didn't owe her anything. ...Why did the thought make her so sad? What did she want—for him to be beholden to her? Dang, she really was a crummy person. Crummy and dramatic.

She jumped when she saw a silver Volvo parked on the street, and then slouched harder than ever when she saw it had a white interior. Her face heated up in embarrassment. Definitely not from her quickened heartbeat or the stupid hope she'd felt or anything.

Stupid Volvo. Stupid vampire. Stupid Lily for wishing it was a vampire's Volvo.

She leaned back against a brick wall and scrubbed her face in frustration for a long minute. Tonight was supposed to be awesome, and it would be awesome, even with the lack of literary purchases and her impending tardiness. She would go to dinner with her friends, eat some tasty Italian food, and enjoy even more girl talk. After that, she would go home to her free truck and her low-rent housing and her laid-back, no-stress father. Her life was a freaking cake walk right now, even if it wasn't very exciting or completely happy. It was uncomplicated, and that was a lot better than what a lot of people had. She needed to be more grateful for that instead of trying to wish vampiric problems into existence.

When Lily finally looked up from her hands, she took stock of her surroundings—for the first time in a while, unfortunately. The traffic had dwindled to almost nothing, and most of the buildings around her had very few windows. Oops. Time to head back to Kansas, Dorothy. She definitely needed to ask for directions the very next chance she got.

That chance was not forthcoming. Lily was surrounded by warehouses and storage units with only a closed up pawn shop or car garage here and there. Corrogated metal siding, brick walls, and one or two half-empty stores; she thought about going inside to ask for directions, but she kept walking instead, hoping to see a friendly pedestrian or a helpful road sign just around the corner.

It was a decision she quickly came to regret. The sun was setting, and the streets and sidewalks were incredibly deserted now. She was beginning to feel panicky from all the isolation. Bad things happened when single women were out by themselves, her mother always said. Brave as she was, Renée would have been terrified right now. She certainly wouldn't have run up to a group of men when she found them around a corner—and maybe Lily shouldn't have done so either. She regretted it as soon as her call of "Excuse me" had the four strangers turning around to look at her.

"Do you know how to get back to the main part of downtown?" she asked with surprisingly few stammers.

"Sure, we can show you," one of them answered, a stocky guy with a big smile. His eyes were fixed unflinchingly on hers.

"No, that's okay," Lily said and stood her ground. "If you can just point me in the right direction."

"Don't worry about it," the smiling man insisted; his companions were beginning to smile too. "We don't mind walking you there."

A chill slithered down Lily's back. They didn't look rough—maybe just a little intoxicated...but this was not gonna be the one time she ignored her gut.

She took a step backwards and said, "Sorry, but I've got some friends waiting for me, so I'm in a hurry."

The grinning man strolled forwards slowly. He stared at her. Maybe it was just the fear, but his dark, unblinking eyes reminded her of a shark. "Aw, don't be like that, sugar," he pleaded.

One man asked, "Are your friends pretty?"

Another one slurred, "Hope they're prettier'n her." The other men laughed.

The leader hadn't stopped walking towards her, so she said, "Never mind, it's fine," in an unswervingly brusque voice and turned around to walk back the way she came. Every inch of her brain and body were screaming danger danger danger when she did so. An animal putting its back to a predator would have felt the same way. Still, the warning sirens in her head calmed down a little when she didn't hear footsteps as she hurried off. She rounded the corner and went all the way to the end of the road before reluctantly looking back.

She had been dreading it. She fully expected to see the group of men following behind her in the deepening shadows of the street. That expectation didn't make it any less of a shock when she saw that one of them was. Just one, but yeah, he was definitely following her.

Lily felt her stomach churn. For a few seconds, she couldn't do anything but stare at him. He wasn't the one who had been all smiley, and it didn't even look like he was looking at her now—he had his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the buildings beside him as he strolled leisurely forward—but her hair stood on end. Danger danger danger!

As soon as she made it around the next corner, Lily began to jog. She was on an almost identical street. A few empty lots, a deserted shop or two. Those were the only windows that weren't way up high or covered in burglar bars; they were all dark, no friendly faces looking out at her. Other than that, there was nothing around but brick walls, locked doors, and the metal siding of warehouses and storage units. It felt like a graveyard.

If there were any road signs, she wasn't aware of them. All she did was follow the sound of traffic, which was somewhere ahead and to her left. She walked straight, intending to turn left as soon as she got to the end of this street.

Another man appeared at the end of the road. She was relieved for about three seconds, until she recognized him as one of the men from the group.

Oh. Shit.

Lily swore out loud for once—her voice sounded like an old woman's—and turned ninety degrees to cross the street, her panic in high gear now. She stopped being able to hear the traffic after that; the blood rushing in her ears was too loud. She stopped noticing her direction and surroundings, only aware of the two men following her, side by side the next time she looked behind herself. So this was what it felt like to be prey.

She was hardly cognizant of the turns she made, only thinking of putting as much distance between herself and her pursuers. Eventually she started to hear the traffic again, but it didn't matter, because she took one wrong turn too many and came face to face with the man who had accosted her to begin with.

Way at the back of Lily's head, part of her brain laughed. Talk about a dead end, huh? She was standing in either a very wide alley or a narrow one-way road. There were cars nearby, but she could only hear them, not see them. She was all alone.

"There you are, honey," said her potential future murderer. He and the man beside him wore matching grins.

It was getting dark. Jess and Ange would have been worrying about her for a while now. Would they always wonder what happened to her, or would they eventually forget? "Oh yeah, back in high school I was friends with a girl who disappeared." Would they still count as friends even after she was dead? Would anyone miss her besides her mom and dad? ...Would Edward?

Idiot—that's no way to think! She needed to scream, and she needed to make it a good one. Even if it looked like there was no way out, one little scream might be the difference between life and death. Maybe somebody somewhere would hear her.

The swarthy man's confident smile never changed, even as Lily backed away from him; he simply shrugged off the wall he was leaning against and walked into the middle of the lane, his friend copying each motion. The leader asked her something, and his voice seemed loud in the darkness, but her brain didn't bother to make sense of the words. If she was going to scream, it was now or never. She straightened her posture, breathed in deeply, and backed into something firm and warm. A pair of hands landed on her upper arms. Her well-prepared scream came out as a measly shriek.

"You tuckered out from the detour, baby?" someone asked right in her ear. The hands didn't hold her, but they pressed to her skin when she pulled away, leaving trails of warm, invisible dirt behind as they slid off her arms. She could still feel the touch as she flipped around and backed away from the newcomer and his buddy—four predators, a complete set—like a total idiot. An idiot who forgot she was completely boxed in until the leader's booming laugh made her spin around again.

"Still feelin' lost?" He was only a few feet away from her now. He took his hands out of his pockets and flexed them, eyeing her up and down with a sickening leer. "I'll bet I can show—"

He was interrupted by a sound she'd only been half-aware of until that point. A car roared around the corner at the end of the road in a blinding sweep of headlights and screeching tires. It was driving straight at them.

Lily considered two alternatives in the space of a few heartbeats: jumping out of the way and making a break for it while the men were distracted, or staying put and getting the driver's attention. Even if it meant getting run over—and that seemed like a strong possibility with how quickly the car was moving—she thought a sudden death might be better than whatever fate awaited her here with these men.

Lily prayed the car didn't make street pizza out of her and stood her ground. It was surprisingly easy, on account of her entire body being frozen. She couldn't have moved if she tried.

She didn't have to.

The thugs barely managed to leap out of the car's path as it sped towards her. It didn't hit her though. Instead, it fishtailed around in a sharp ninety degree turn; the force of such a sudden stop fanned Lily's hair. The passenger door flew open not a foot from her face, and a voice that was low and thick with fury growled, "Get in."

Relief immediately flooded her entire body. It thawed her frozen limbs and made time spin forward again. Lily fell through the open passenger door without hesitation, slamming it shut behind her. And then, silly as it might have been, the instinct to buckle up kicked in. There she was having just escaped ye olde fate worse than death, and it still occurred to her to click-it-or-ticket. Would her father be proud, or exasperated?

She hadn't even snapped the seat belt in place before the car had fishtailed once again without so much as scratching the walls of the narrow street. The headlights flashed over astonished faces. He drove so fast, Lily didn't even know if he hit anyone as they sped away. By the time she thought about looking in the mirror, they'd already turned off the road.

"Did you hit them?" she asked as the car blew through one stop sign after another. The calm words felt out of place after such a life and death situation. It gave her deja vu for the moment when she'd realized that the van hadn't squished her. This time, however, her rescuer's reply was anything but soothing.

"If only," Edward snarled, his voice a rough tangle of rage.

The sound of his anger didn't hinder the waves of pleasant feelings that washed over her—maybe a reaction to the shock of the situation. She doubted it though. The sense of safety rooting her in place and lifting her in the air at the same time was euphoric, but there was more to her relief. She was with him again. Finally. It was textbook wish fulfillment, and even the sickening knowledge of how close she'd come to being another statistic couldn't quell her grin.

There was no light inside the car. She could only see his face in the glow from the headlights bouncing off the road and the faint illumination from the dashboard. His skin seemed paler than ever before. His wide eyes blazed a nearly luminescent gold in the gloom. His teeth were bared in a wild white snarl. Altogether, he looked like a destroying angel.

She stared at his perfect, livid face, and laughed. She had never felt so safe in all her life.

"I can't believe it," Lily marveled. "You did it again. Wow…. We have got to stop meeting like this." She laughed one more time.

He didn't respond. His expression was still frozen in fury. It was only then that she noticed it, the leather of the steering wheel splitting open around his tightly clenched hands.

"Hey...everything okay?"

Edward spoke through his teeth in a burning-hot voice. "No."

She stared at him. It didn't even look like he was blinking. What should she say? Why was he acting like this? Was she missing something?

Without warning, the car lurched to a stop, brakes squealing. The poor Volvo was taking a beating tonight. Lily looked around, but it was too dark to see anything except what might have been trees on her side of the road. Were they not even in town anymore?

"Lily?" His tone wasn't livid now, but it was too tight to be anywhere near normal either. His face was a mask of aggressive blankness—one she had seen from him before, although the when and why escaped her.

"Yeah?" Her voice was suddenly raspy, as if she had managed to get out that big scream after all. Maybe she had and just didn't remember it.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I am. You?"

Another terse, "No."

"What's wrong? You look mad."

"That," he seethed, "is a very small word for it." The venom was back in his face, but it returned to a state of volatile restraint seconds later, like the smooth surface of the ocean with a rip current beneath it. The steering wheel creaked as he relaxed his hands. His sharp exhalation was practically a hiss.

She swallowed and asked in a whisper, "You're not mad at me, right?" He was probably just stressed out, or in shock, like she probably was, but still….

"No," he answered in the same brusque tone as before, "of course I'm not." A beat of silence, and then, "Distract me, please."

Lily blinked at the abrupt command. "What? What do you mean?"

"Just prattle about something unimportant," he said urgently, "until I calm down." His face was scrunched up and his eyes were shut tight. One bone white hand lifted to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Oh. Okay. Um. Like what?"

"It doesn't matter." His sharp words might have set off her temper at any other time. Now all she could feel was concern.

Small talk. Okay, she could do that. She had literally spent weeks trying to irritate him into speaking to her with nothing but small talk. If there was anyone better prepared than Lily was at this moment, she would like to meet them. ...And maybe get some pointers from them, because she was drawing an absolute blank. More than a blank. Her mind was a blackhole into which all possible conversation topics suddenly disappeared.

"Uh—um—well," Lily stammered frantically as the seconds ticked by.

The steering wheel creaked again.

Finally, she managed to blurt out, "I threw up on your seat Friday." Boy, what a subject to pick, but it was the only one that came to mind. "Like, right on it. That's what always happens, but it hasn't in a while. I'm lucky because I actually only get sick from other people's blood—mine doesn't bother me. I found that out when I first gave blood on the Red Cross Blood Bus. I was fine until I looked over at the other girl's blood bag. I projectiled on the nurse and then fainted. Um...remind me why you need me to, uh, prattle at you?"

Edward's answer was immediate. "Because I might hunt those men down if you don't," was all he said in little more than a whisper. The word 'hunt' sent a shiver down her spine.

Lily remembered the subject she'd been dying—haha—to talk to him about. This was definitely not the time for that topic, no matter how desperate she was for conversation fodder. Something about Edward's posture made him look a moment away from bolting; he looked like he was clinging to the steering wheel, fighting a magnetic pull that was trying to drag him out of the car.

"Um, okay, hold on—let me see." But she couldn't. Not a single opportunity for lighter conversation occurred to her. "Uh...uh oh...heh, nothin' in my noggin. Um, any suggestions?"

"Tell me something else about yourself," he practically begged. His voice was tighter than ever. His shoulders hunched as he shifted forward a few inches. His eyes were wide open now and a little frenzied as they stared straight ahead.

Seventeen years' worth of material, and nothing jumped out at her one bit. Lily panicked and, frantic from a lack of ideas, started at the very beginning.

"I was born on a Friday the 13th—my mom and dad always joke that that's why I have such bad luck. I arrived early, too. I mean, uh, not too early, but I caught everyone by surprise, my mom says." Her fingers bunched and un-bunched the soft brown blouse as she rambled out an autobiography as fast as possible.

"She was on a walk in the woods because she was mad at my dad. I wasn't due for another week. She went into labor, and a nurse was bicycling or something and helped deliver me. That's why I'm Lillian—after the nurse. She was going to name me after my great-grandma, but my mom's impulsive. I mean, I am too, but I wish she had stuck with her original plan. I could've been an Isabella. Lillian is such a frumpy name, don't you think?''

"No, I don't," he replied in a gentler—if still somewhat strained—voice. It sounded a lot more composed than before, at least.

"You don't?"

"No. Lillian is a beautiful name, and it suits you."

She smiled a tiny bit. "Heh, thanks. I don't mind being a Lily, at least. ...Do you feel better at all yet?"

"Not particularly."

Lily frowned at the bleakness she heard in his words. "What's wrong?"

His only response was to lean his head back against the seat and stare up at the ceiling of the car. Just below the tangle of unruly red hair, his eyebrows were furrowed. He looked pained, like he had a killer headache. She lowered her voice to a whisper, just in case he did. "Do you feel sick?"

"...Sometimes I have a problem with my temper, Lily," he whispered back.

"Oh, good," she quipped quietly. "We match."

The smallest ghost of a smile flickered across his pale lips so quickly, she really might have imagined it—especially considering the darkness of his next words, uttered as if she wasn't there and hadn't spoken. "But it wouldn't be helpful for me to turn around and hunt down those…."

He didn't need to finish the sentence for her to know how deadly the quiet threat was.

Her voice was hushed like his when she said, "You would have killed them."

His lips pulled back in an echo of the earlier snarling expression. "I'm trying to convince myself that I should do otherwise," he admitted, and a big part of her was thrilled by his honesty. Maybe that was just the shock...but shouldn't there have been something more? Numbness and nausea, or at least some shaking or coldness or disorientation—something abnormal, right?

Maybe she couldn't even get shock right. After all, it should have shocked her that he wanted to murder those men. Add that to the fact that she was alone with a potential vampire, and a sense of utter peace and safety should have been the furthest thing from her mind, logically speaking. Apparently her brain didn't care about logic. If anything, Edward seemed like the one who was closest to a breakdown.

"I could give you some reasons not to, if you think it'd help," she suggested in a conversational tone.

He was looking away from her now, his face towards the door, but she thought the edge of his cheek twitched just a bit.

"Perhaps you should."

Lily nodded. "Okay. For one thing, you're wearing really nice clothes, and you're in a really nice car. It would be a waste to ruin either of those. Oh, also the whole matter of being really conspicuous and, uh, memorable and all. Not very conducive for discreet murdering, so I hear."

He didn't laugh at her lame attempt at humor, but he did say, "Go on," after a few seconds of silence.

"Let's see, um…. Reason number two: me. I'm like a bomb. A shock bomb. I could lose my cool at any moment. It would be irresponsible to leave me here by myself." It was another attempted joke, but he turned to look at her, and his eyes were wide.

"Just kidding," she assured him. "I feel fine. But, um, who's to say that you might not go into shock? And then you'd be left defenseless."

Oh, now he laughed, just when she was actually being serious.

"I was actually being serious."

He only shook his head, eyes closed, still smiling. "Forgive me."

Lily sighed. "You're unfathomable, you know that?"

Another chuckle. "You can't imagine how ironic that is coming from you," he said cryptically.

She rolled her eyes. "Anyway. Another reason is that...I've got a ton of questions to ask you, and if I go one more minute without asking them, I'm literally going to combust. So, you choose. Messy murder clothes and a Lilly explosion to clean up, or…." Days of pent up anxiety and pining made it impossible for her to keep up a joking tone as she pleaded, "Stay with me." It was the hot coal that had been making everything inside her smolder, and exposing it to the air now only made it burn hotter.

Edward sighed. She saw him look pointedly at the clock on the dash. Oh no—Jess, Ange!

"Agh, I was supposed to meet two of my friends at a restaurant, like, an hour ago! They're gonna be worried sick."

She hadn't even finished the first sentence when he had the car cranked and smoothly turning. They sped towards town and were under street lights again before Lily could think of anything else to say.

"What about now?" she finally asked. "Any better?"

"Quite the contrary," he answered. The snarl was back in his voice and his face.

"You're gonna grind your teeth down to nubs, dude."

This time his short laugh had zero humor in it. "I highly doubt that."

"...Do-o-o you wanna talk about it?"

"I would rather not."

The ride was quiet after that. Just the hum of the road beneath the tires and the occasional whoosh of a car passing by. But Lily found herself too busy mulling over a million-and-one things to be put out by the silence. What she would tell her friends...how she could finagle her way into more time with Edward...what she could have done differently to avoid such a horrific close call...if she should go to the police about it...etcetera and ad infinitum, in no particular order of priority.

She didn't even think about giving him directions to La Bella Italia until they were already near the restaurant.

Surprisingly near, actually….

Her jaw dropped as he pulled up right beside the building, and it wasn't from the incredibly impressive parallel park either.

"How did you—" Lily's mouth snapped shut. The back of her neck caught fire, and it felt like the rest of her was about to follow suit, she was so mad. "You—oh my...you lied!"

Edward blinked at her, his hand still on the keys in the ignition. His face appeared blank with confusion. Or maybe he just knew he was caught.

"Don't give me that stupid look!" She glared him down and thought as hard as she could, You big fat freaking liar. There's no backpedaling now!

"What is it?" he asked. The genuine concern in his expression only made her mood worse. Maybe she had no right to feel as betrayed as she did, but it stung anyway.

"You said you couldn't read minds," she whispered fiercely, as if anybody could overhear them from inside the car. "Care to explain how you knew what restaurant it was? Or where I was, for that matter?"

His face turned hard. When he opened the door and got out without a word, Lily thought he was leaving her there for one strange, heartbreaking second, and all she could do was stare at his empty seat; she did a lot of that, apparently. His place in the cafeteria, his chair in Biology…. But she didn't have time to figure out whatever pathetic parallel it held for her, because Edward was opening the passenger side door and holding out his hand.

"I'll explain," he promised in a low voice that was both reluctant and resigned, "but right now, Angela and Jessica are waiting for you."

His hand was ice cold. She rested hers there on his palm for no longer than was necessary, like any friend would.

Speaking of which.

Lily turned towards the door to go see if they were still inside, but Edward held his arm out to stop her. Without touching her, sadly. No, wait. Not sadly. That would be weird for a friend to want another friend to touch them for no reason. Lily, you weirdo.

"This way," he said, dropping his arm and stepping away from the entrance. "They were about to search for you."

She stood there and stared at him completely slack-jawed for only a few seconds, to her credit. He waited with a begrudging look on his face while she gawked. He wasn't trying to hide the truth of his inexplicable knowledge anymore, and that fact—along with the magic trick itself, of course—left Lily speechless. Questions fluttered around in her mind like moths with a porch light, but she shook those away. First things first.

"Guys, hey!" Lily called when she and Edward had rounded the corner. The two girls were down the sidewalk about a half the building's length away, heading off into the night without any idea what lurked down empty streets. It occurred to her then that the most lethal predator out there was actually right here, hovering protectively a few steps behind her. Lily couldn't help laughing at the thought, and she could practically feel Edward's questioning gaze when she did.

Her friends stopped walking and turned to look. Even from that far away, she could clearly see the heartwarming relief on both of their faces—followed by surprise when they realized who she was with.

"Where were you?" Jessica demanded as the two girls hurried on over. It was difficult to tell whether she sounded worried, annoyed, or suspicious.

"Well, I...sort of got lost. In a bad part of town. Fortunately, I ran into Edward." Lily turned to smile at him, amending a moment later, "Oh, not that he was in the bad part. I mean, he was just passing through, and he happened to see me and gave me a lift." There, that didn't sound completely phony, did it?

He smiled down at her, his expression serene apart from the tension she could still see in his eyes. But there wasn't a lick of tension in his irresistibly silky tenor when he said, "It was my pleasure. Would it be all right if I joined you?"

Jess stuttered a little before breathing, "Sure."

"Wait, join for what?" Lily asked.

Edward's smile held firm. It actually had a hint of amusement to it now. "For dinner," he clarified.

"Um, actually, Lily," Angela said meekly, "we already ate while we were waiting—sorry."

"Oh. Well, um…." Lily chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked between her friends and her impromptu guardian. She was starving, and this was suddenly just the sort of chance she'd been hoping for: a way to get more time with Edward. If only she could broach the subject of a solo dinner for the two of them without sounding weird or like she was ditching her girls. "I mean, I'm sort of hungry—not that I blame y'all for eating or anything. Totally fine. Maybe I could just, uh…."

"If it's all right with you, ladies," Edward interrupted her gently, "I can drive Lily home tonight. That way you won't have to wait while she eats."

Angela bit her lip and looked like she was covertly scrutinizing Lily's face as she said, "Uh, no problem, I guess…." There was a question in her eyes for a few moments, but whatever she saw in Lily's expression apparently answered it. "Okay. See you tomorrow, Lily...Edward."

Ange practically had to drag Jess to their parking spot, and the latter threw curious glances over her shoulder the entire way. Lily waved to her friends as they got in the car. Ange waved back shyly, but Jessica almost flung the fingers off her hand in her eagerness. It was already clear that there would be a merciless interrogation the next time they saw each other.

"I think tomorrow's gonna be Spanish Inquisition themed," Lily remarked lightly, but then frowned a little. "I hope they don't feel like I'm blowing them off."

"Not at all," he assured her. "Angela is happy that you're safe, and Jessica is only concerned with what she can ask you tomorrow."

She sighed and said with thick melodrama, "I suppose it's only to be expected. Going to dinner and then driving home with the most popular boy in school…. What will become of my reputation?" She heard him chuckle a little as she threw one arm over her eyes.

Lily's smile quickly turned into a glare, however, as the implication of his words sank in. That's right, she was still mad at this perjuring asshat.

"Okay, explanation time, Mr. Pants on Fire," she addressed him stormily, crossing her arms in front of her. "Would you prefer I communicate out loud, or should I just think everything—now that you don't have to act like you're not hearing every freaking thought in my head?" Her face was getting red. I hope you're half as uncomfortable as I am. You deserve it, you big fat psychic jerk.

Edward sighed. "Don't jump to conclusions," he cautioned her. She rolled her eyes and snorted.

"You literally. Just read. Their minds. I'm jumping to facts, not conclusions."

He shook his head, the soft smile lingering on his lips even as the rest of his face grew noticeably pensive; his eyebrows resumed their furrow. She thought about warning him that they would get stuck like that.

"You should eat something," he said as a segue to dinner—alone, with him! ...Ugh, it was such a weird mix of feelings. She was mad at him for lying to her, but, at the same time, there was so much anticipation bubbling inside of her at the thought of having dinner together...like a date….

"Fine." Lily made the word as curt as possible on principle. "But you're buying dessert."

Edward walked in front of her as they returned to the restaurant's entrance. He held the door open, and her stomach dipped a little. Not a happy dip though. It looked like he was dreading this. Of course he would be, when she was no better than Jessica waiting to spring a customized barrage of questions. Still, she hoped that's all it was, and not just being alone with her that made his face so rigid beneath the glued-on—but still heavenly—smile.

Lily had felt something similar, albeit more drastic, when she'd thought he might not come back to school again. As she looked at him now, speaking politely to their waitress, the feeling returned.

She could be wrong about the vampire thing...but it didn't matter. Whatever he was, it was a big secret. What if telling her the truth meant he had to leave? Even if he believed that she wouldn't tell, would the rest of his family? Would they make him leave—move somewhere far away where no nosy girls knew their secret?

Lily pictured the incredibly kind faces of his mother and father. Lying to them would be terrible, and asking him to do so would be unforgivable.

So what did that leave her then? Either a million unanswered questions and a possible vampire for a friend, or the answers she wanted and no friend at all. ...The decision was so obvious, it could hardly be called a lesser of two evils. She would've done anything if it meant Edward would stay, so much so that almost getting assaulted seemed worth it when it meant he would rescue her.

Wow. Almost worth getting assaulted. Concerning much, Lily? Yeah, concerning for all kinds of reasons, the least of which was that it showed just how deep in trouble she was with this boy. Deep, deep, way too deep.

She was also too deep in thought to notice much of what was going on around her, mechanically following Edward when he moved and only noticing anything when he said, "Perhaps something a little more private."

Lily looked up to see their table in the middle of a crowded room. She barely had time to frown at it before the hostess was leading them away—with a single, neatly folded bill in her hand. Wait, had he just bribed her? For a better table?

Wow. Just like in the movies.

She felt like a lady with a high class gentleman, and her ears started turning pink—even more so when the seating hostess showed them to an empty ring of booths on the other side of a fancy partition. "Intimate" was the word for this kind of secluded setting. It looked like the sort of room people reserved for parties or quiet business lunches. Were they even allowed to be in here?

Apparently so, because Edward said, "Perfect," and gave the poor woman an absolutely heart-stopping smile. Lily was surprised she just looked dazed instead of dropping dead. Of course there was no trouble getting seating like this with a smile like that. He probably could've gotten them seating on the moon.

As soon as the older girl had staggered out of the room, Lily complained, "That's just not fair."

Edward looked at her from across the shiny table, the confusion clear in his expression as he asked, "What isn't?"

"Stunning someone to get what you want." Attractive people had no idea how lucky they were.

"Stun?"

She couldn't tell if he was confused, curious, or just mocking her, so she rolled her eyes and stated the obvious. "Yeah. Stun, dazzle, whatever. Like with the nurse and now her. Give them the smolder and get your way."

"Do I stun you?"

Lily's heart stopped a little, and it wasn't just from the way his head tilted to the side. His eyes in this low light were utterly merciless.

It was embarrassing that she had to take a few seconds just to get her head in order. It made her justification sound a bit defensive when she insisted, "Dude, you do it to everybody. Of course I wouldn't be an exception. I mean, it's not my fault that you've got literal golden eyes and…."

"And?"

"You know." She gestured to him, up and down.

His head tilt was more exaggerated now. She had a gut feeling that he was just playing clueless to get more out of her at this point.

"Come on—you look like a freaking Raphael angel, Edward," she admitted in a rush, only to immediately amend, "Um, not to be weird or anything. And not that that's all that matters, of course! You seem like a really cool person to get to know—that anybody would want to get to know, I mean." Especially me….

The waitress cleared her throat. Lily looked up at her with a reddening face and no idea how long she had been standing there. But the woman wasn't even looking at her, for better or worse.

She pushed a strand of short black hair behind her ear and smiled at Edward. The smile was beguiling.

"Hello. My name is Amber, and I'll be your server tonight," she enthused. "What can I get you to drink?"

Lily patiently waited her turn. She kept her eyes on the table so she didn't have to see the pretty waitress so much. Jealousy and low self-esteem, never a fun combination.

"Lily?"

Edward was staring at her expectantly.

"Oh. Um, can I please have a Coke?"

The waitress looked her up and down skeptically, the way Lauren Mallory had at the beach, hummed a dismissive "Mm-hm," and went right back to staring at Edward.

Okay, now her jealousy was taking on a much nastier edge. The look raised Lily's hackles not just because of its rudeness, but because of the knowing, come-hither look to Edward that followed after. It was a combination that said, Yeah, you're nothing important; he might have come in with you, but he's gonna be leaving with me in his head.

Affront and something oddly possessive writhed around inside her. Cue the impulse to be cruel with some one-upmanship on the side.

"Actually," Lily added in a brisk voice, "I'll have a root beer. Lemon and light ice. Crushed. If you can manage that?" She fluttered her eyelashes at the waitress and smiled with lots of teeth, like she was posing for the cover of a Mean Girls magazine.

"Two root beers," Edward practically chuckled. That and the way his eyes stayed on her—instead of on Miss Can I Get You Anything, ha—were nearly enough to smother the regret that bit her a minute later.

The server walked out with their orders and undimmed eagerness as she promised, "I'll be right back with that." Of course Lily's childish outburst hadn't deterred her flirting one bit. Why would someone older and way prettier feel threatened by someone like her? All she had done was embarrassed herself in front of Edward and shown him how petty she could be.

As soon as the woman was out of earshot, she muttered, "I should've just stuck with Coke. Stupid. I was trying to one-up her. I swear I'm not the kind of person who's rude to their servers. Ugh. Sorry."

"Don't be," Edward said. The flutter of amusement was still there in his voice, and it was enough to draw her eyes back up from the table.

She smiled at his smile. There was still more to apologize for, however.

"Another thing, while we're on the subject of me being dumb…. I guess I shouldn't be so miffed about you lying. I fib to my friends all the time—I mean, I'm trying to cut back on that, obviously, heh. But, um...you have a way better reason to, in your case."

His eyebrows scrunched together in a puzzled look she knew by heart; it had haunted her ever since she captured it on a page. Even that simple expression took her breath away. His full lips parted, pure and pale and closer to the silky petals of her namesake flower than Lily would ever be. She looked like a mushroom next to him.

"There's another thing," she rushed. She shut her eyes and thought about how to say this without showing her hand. Shocking him with the revelation of her epiphany was the last thing she wanted. And anyway, their waitress could return at any second. "It's about, um…."

The footsteps came with what would have been perfect comedic timing, if Lily wasn't so impatient. The young woman walked quickly around the partition, their drinks and a basket of bread sticks artfully balanced on a tray in one hand. Show-off.

Once the tray had been cleared, she held it under one willowy, blemishless arm and, with her back firmly to Lily, asked, "What can I get you?"

The green eyed monster reared its head again, although it simmered down quite a bit when Edward responded with another heavenly, "Lily?"

She would never get tired of hearing him say her name. Ever.

Lily looked down at the menu she had hardly noticed before. The first thing that jumped out at her looked pretty tasty.

"I'll have the mushroom ravioli, please," she requested with a much bigger helping of meekness than before, even if the "please" was a little flat.

Their server took her reluctant emerald eyes off of Lily, plastered them to Edward, and practically purred, "And you?"

"Nothing for me."

"Let me know if you change your mind," she insisted with the same sticky-sweet smile. But Edward wasn't looking at her, and the pretty waitress went away disappointed.

Lily tried not to preen under his attention. Otherwise, she'd be no different than that...that hussy.

"You don't eat much," she remarked absently, "do you?"

Oh, now she could do small talk, great. ...It was true though. All those lunches, and she had never once seen him eat.

The lopsided smirk reappeared and played havoc with her heartbeat. "No, not much."

He said the words like there was something funny to them. Lily wondered what the inside joke was, and what it could mean to her theory. He didn't eat much—as in he wasn't a big eater, or as in he didn't do it often? Could any creature go without eating? Did vampires even work like any other creature?

His next words gave her deja vu, especially when he leaned forward to ask them, his white hands splayed on the table. "What are you thinking?"

She frowned. She didn't want to lie to him, but somehow the answer "I'm wondering what you are and if you have to drink blood to survive" didn't sound like a good idea.

"I'm wondering about your diet," she answered instead. It was honest and kind of funny too, her own inside joke.

Or maybe not. Edward froze. He looked...either terrified or really upset, or maybe she was just projecting onto his tense, frozen features.

She was starting to think she'd been right the first—or was it the second—time, that he really couldn't read minds. She'd thought the v-word at least half a dozen times so far, and yet he only reacted oddly now. Hm.

The tense silence stretched on, but, for once, Edward was the one who looked the most uncomfortable between them. Lily's theories spun back and forth in her head...but she shrugged, hoping to let them both off the hook when she said, "It can't be healthy to eat nothing…. Okay, now it's your turn. Tell me what you're thinking."

His face calmed down instantly. "I'm thinking that you should follow your own advice," he said. His eyes flickered to the breadsticks and back up. She grabbed one and started nibbling, happy to see him thaw even more when she did. His back didn't look so ramrod straight anymore, and he was actually blinking now.

Between bites, she asked, "What else?"

"I'm waiting for you to go into shock."

Her eyebrows shot sky-high. She almost laughed. "What? ...Oh. You're serious. Um." She munched the breadstick and thought about it. "Well, I guess I kind of should, huh? Or at least I should have by now? I don't feel shocked—but I guess I wouldn't. But at least I don't feel numb or cold or confused at all. Not queasy or anything either. I actually feel really…." Happy to be here with you. Afraid you might have to leave if I guess what you are. Concerned by how much that hurts to think about. "Really calm."

"Well, let's not test that, shall we?" He eyed the soda now. Lily took a few last chomps of her bread stick and then a few more gulps of icy root beer. And then a lot of sips. She was thirstier than she had thought.

He slid his glass across the table right before her straw slurped.

She grinned at his generosity. "Not thirsty either, huh?"

There was something strange in his answering smile and, once again, an inexplicable weight to his words when he replied, "I can live with it."

Another clue? She stared at him thoughtfully, accepting his drink. It was half gone by the time she stopped. He noticed when she shivered and asked if she was cold.

"A little. But I have a—" Lily looked at the booth beside her, left and right. "Oops. Never mind. I think I left my coat in Jessica's car."

Before she even finished the sheepish explanation, Edward had shrugged out of his beige jacket. Lily's cheeks turned redder than ever, and she kicked herself for admitting she was cold, no excuse for the blush now...but who could have helped it? Under the light-colored, expensive-looking jacket, he was wearing an equally light-colored and expensive-looking shirt. It was an off-white turtleneck that fit him perfectly. More than perfectly. It highlighted how well built he was...and made it super freaking difficult not to ogle his chest. Why had she ever thought of him as less muscular than his brothers? Maybe it was just because he'd been sitting next to the big one—Emmett, right?

She accepted the jacket with a mumbled thank you and slipped her arms into the surprisingly chilly sleeves. They were way too long on her, but she didn't want to wrinkle such a pricey looking piece of leather. She pushed it up just to her hands, letting it bunch around her wrists and her fingers peep out. It would be warmer that way anyway...eventually. There wasn't a shred of warmth in it right now.

"That color brown looks lovely on you," he said out of nowhere. Lily glanced down at her blouse to hide the extra shade of maroon suddenly darkening her cheeks.

"Thanks," she replied with a short, nervous laugh. "Brown makes my eyes look greener. I mean, I hope. I wish they were green." Ugh, fantastic, Lily—you can't even take a compliment without looking insecure.

"Your eyes are a lovely shade," Edward insisted in what almost sounded like a scold. He was frowning too. "Like a meadow just as spring is coming on."

She felt her face slowly break out in a grin, not to mention a blush that was 360 degrees—both in temperature and surface area; she could feel it spreading all the way down to her neck. Her voice was breathless and a little shaky when she joked back at him, "Yours are way better. Mine don't change color."

He stared at her for a moment, and then he sighed, shook his head, and shoved the basket of bread all the way in front of her.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Really think I'm not going into shock at this point, but okay. I'll never turn down a breadstick."

She took one, but it didn't seem to satisfy him this time.

"You should be—a normal person would be. You don't even look shaken."

Normal…. Her stomach shifted in a way that had nothing to do with hunger.

"Normal, huh?" She failed to make it come out jokingly and took a bite of breadstick to cover it up. Edward's eyebrows furrowed harder than ever. Against her better judgment, she continued, "Guess you're starting to realize the truth. And here I thought I had you fooled."

"No." His voice was serious and his words were slow. "You are without a doubt the strangest person I have ever met."

Oh.

Well.

Lily couldn't seem to remember how to breathe. Usually that wasn't an unpleasant thing when she was around him. Usually it was from his smile. Not this time though. Her eyes ached a little too—and that was plain stupid, right? Like a stupid little girl who cried just because a boy called her weird.

"I've hurt you," he said. His voice sounded tight. Lily wasn't looking at his face to see if it matched.

She shrugged. "No, you're right. I am a weirdo. It's just that I'm not weird in an interesting way at all, so it's less cool. Y'know. In comparison to other people. I mean, there's unique and then there's...me, heh." Just the fact that it hurt this bad to have him see through her act proved how strange she really was. Someone who was normal wouldn't have cared so much.

"I didn't necessarily mean it in a bad way." It sounded like he was trying to console her now, and why wouldn't he? She was starting to realize just what a nice guy Edward could be—the kind who would rescue a girl when it only made his life more complicated to do so. Twice.

What a turn of events: the infuriating boy who glared daggers at her for no reason and who might not even be human...was the normal one out of the two of them.

"Perhaps it's selfish of me," he went on, and she could hear the raw honesty in his words now, "but I don't think I would want you to be normal."

...What?

"What?"

"If you were, you would run from me." It was his turn to look down at the table and her turn to stare.

"Because of what you are?"

He nodded the barest inch, still staring at his hands. They were flat again.

Lily took a deep breath. "I'm trying to be more honest," she confessed with a valiant but awkward attempt at composure. "So I'll just say that you did hurt my feelings a little, but it's fine, because it's true. I'm not normal, and I never really thought I was anyway, so I shouldn't be upset that you know. But it's very nice of you to say you don't mind, whether or not you mean it. Anyway."

She cleared her throat, intending to move on as fast as she could from such a surprisingly painful subject and her stupid reaction to it.

"I did mean it," Edward said. His golden eyes captured hers. They were either apologetic or sad—she wasn't sure which. "But you must understand that it isn't an entirely good thing, regardless of our being friends."

"What isn't? Me not being normal, or you not wanting me to be?"

"Both."

Ah, lovely.

She tried to laugh it off with a question that was only half-joking. "Because deep down you don't actually want to be friends with me?"

"No. Quite the opposite…." He smiled—definitely sad, she decided, although she couldn't guess why...until he went on a few moments later. "I know that I shouldn't want to; it's not a matter of 'deep down' at all. However, there is a larger, greedier part of me that desires your friendship regardless of the consequences."

It was challenging not to blink at such eloquence, and even more challenging to find the meaning in it.

His smile lost a little of its gloom when he said, "In an endeavor to be equally honest, I will admit that you make it very difficult to resist."

She understood him then, and suddenly she was trying to resist a grin. It was just like that day at the lunch table. Even after everything, he wanted to be friends! Maybe that simple word wouldn't have meant so much to a normal person. As for Lily, her jubilant heartbeat could've beat the drum line of a marching band.

"I must also apologize for calling you strange. I meant the word in its best sense—" his crooked smile had turned roguish by now, and obviously teasing— "inasmuch as it doesn't compromise your own wellbeing."

She took a moment to sift through his words. This guy has the syntax of a nineteenth century nerd. Lily wondered if he read a lot.

"You mean...me being strange is okay when it isn't doing stuff like...delayed shock?"

"Among other things."

Lily sighed. More riddles, more deja vu. She didn't even try to figure that one out though, because his talk of apologizing had reminded her….

"Speaking of other things." Speaking of strangeness and honesty and riddles. "There was something I wanted to talk to you about. It probably won't be very pleasant—for you, I mean. But, well, I've really gotta know. Just...don't freak out, okay?"

Was it her imagination, or did he physically brace himself?

He asked, "More theories?" His voice was tight again.

An anxious laugh escaped her. "One more time, are you sure you can't read minds?"

There was a beat of silence, and then Edward replied very softly, "Just one."

She should have expected the waitress and her painfully perfect timing to interrupt right at that instant. Lily could've absolutely screamed with suspense, but at the same time, it was a relief to have another few moments to collect her thoughts. She hardly noticed the dish that was set down in front of her. She didn't feel hungry anymore.

"Did you change your mind? Isn't there anything I can get you?" Not even the double meaning in the server's enthusiastic words bothered her.

"No, thank you, but some more soda would be nice." One long white hand gestured to the glass in front of Lily.

"Sure."

She breathed a sigh of relief when the waitress went away, and then she leaned forward to ask, "What do you mean, 'just one?'"

Edward shook his head with a smile. "You first. And please," he looked pointedly at her plate, "eat."

She rolled her eyes, forked two or three raviolis, and shoved them in her mouth with a look that said, "There, happy?"

Lily kept her volume very low when she spoke again. "I guess it's good for me to go first, actually. You might not want to talk to me afterwards. But I get it, if you don't. That's another part of it all."

She put on a brave, determined face; Edward's was rigid with some emotion she wasn't sharp enough to define. She didn't have time to guess what it was anyway, because the overly friendly server came back with their sodas just then. Lily hadn't even noticed her taking them before, and she didn't pay any attention to her now.

"Go ahead," he prompted after that.

A deep inhalation did nothing to help steel her nerves. All this time to think of what she needed to say, and it still wasn't any easier when she said it.

"I think...um, at least I'm pretty sure...that I know what you are now."

Edward's entire body went stiff as a board. His eyes, his hands, his jaw, they all tightened up and froze.

"Is that so?" he whispered.

"Yes, but," she rushed to reassure him, "it also occurred to me that, well...you might not be...at liberty to tell me. That's what I was talking about—that it's totally okay if you can't, and I get it with the whole mind reading thing too. Why you lied, I mean. I'll admit—"

He interrupted her tersely. "I didn't lie to you. I have said—far more times than I should have—that there is one exception, and that is all."

She stared at him for about half a minute, waiting for him to explain, or for his words to make more sense. When it did click all of a sudden...wow she felt stupid.

"Wait, are you for real?" It was hard not to gape. His riddle, 'Just one,' suddenly made sense. "Me? Only me? That's what you were saying? Are you serious?"

He smiled in an extremely rueful way.

"Wow. Okay. Wow."

Lily beamed. She couldn't help it. Not only was she right after all, and not only was he finally being truly honest with her, but this also meant that he had no idea about all the embarrassing, revealing thoughts she'd had in his presence. Elsewhere too. Did that matter? She wondered how it all worked, but her grumpy companion spoke before she could ask anything about it.

"It's the most frustrating thing I have ever encountered," Edward growled. His frown was intense.

"But it's kind of hilarious too, right?" She giggled a little. "The one person with the worst poker face on earth is the one person you can't mind-read? That's pretty good stuff!" His ultra crabby expression set Lily giggling again. The sound was probably ridiculous, but she couldn't help it. The mixture of relief and success and amusement were too strong to deny.

Her smile quickly faded, however, as reality came pressing back in. Being right didn't matter. All the questions she had about his superpower didn't matter. Not in light of the thorny bush she had been beating around this whole time.

"So, um...the thing I've been getting to—or, well trying to get to...it actually matters more than that. More than anything about all of this. Like I said, I'm pretty sure I've got you figured out, for the most part…."

"Still stealing from television?" he quipped snappishly when she paused for breath and thought. "Or did you delve more deeply into comic books this time?" His face was still pretty grumpy.

"Shush, no more tangents! ...But no, I actually got it from somebody else, who shall remain nameless for his own good." She stuck her tongue out to show she was kidding...a little.

When it came to his eventual reaction to the truth, Lily felt nervous, not afraid. But when it came to Jake…. While she was confident that Edward would never do anything to hurt the boy, his siblings were another matter—they might not appreciate a broken treaty. The frighteningly beautiful blonde and the incredibly strong-looking older brother came to mind. Even if Jake's werewolf legend was completely true, the Quileutes were defenseless these days, as far as Lily knew. She couldn't risk it.

Edward stared, oblivious to her thoughts—thank goodness once again—and the darker turn they had taken. "You were saying?"

"I was saying...that I needed to apologize for not considering something else, the last time I talked to you. I think I asked if the rest of your family were like you, but it didn't occur to me about the, uh, well, possible repercussions if they were. If they are. I assume they are."

She started to push the plate of ravioli out of the way. Edward cleared his throat and gave her a honey-colored glare. Lily sighed, picked her fork back up again, and ate in silence for a minute. That wasn't so bad. The answer she was after might prove to be a lot scarier than anything else, the existence of vampires included, so delaying the question even by just one minute was a relief.

After another swallow of soda, she continued, her voice heavy with dread.

"I didn't think about how you have to think about protecting them too, and how much trouble you might get in if someone found out. About you guys—even if I promised not to tell anyone—which I won't, of course, and I hope you believe that. But I realized that even if you do, it doesn't mean that they'll believe me." Her voice was getting more and more frantic. Edward lifted one hand and hushed her gently, and Lily noticed she was gripping the edge of the table. She locked her fingers on her lap and took a deep breath, but her words came out faster and more anxious than ever when she continued.

"And if it means you'll have to go away, I don't wanna know. Like, at all. Like, if they'll make you leave Forks because I know, then don't tell me. It can't be too late if I haven't even said my theory yet, so I just won't. I won't mention the van thing again, and I won't ask any more questions, not even about the mind reading."

Even when she was so full of dread, Lily couldn't help a frustrated huff and a vent for her curiosity. "Ugh! I mean, I'm absolutely dying to know, of course—like, why doesn't it work on me, and how does it work at all, and how did you even find me out here if it doesn't, and do you have any other psychic powers and stuff—" She cut herself off, shook her head firmly, and stomped down the questions that might never be answered. "But even so, I just...I don't want you to have to go into, like, mythical creature witness protection or whatever. I want to know more about you...but it doesn't have to be about what you are. Especially if it means you might not be able to stick around, if I happen to guess right."

She had probably said more than enough already, but the rest of the truth came rushing out of her all on its own, like water out of a hydrant, the cherry on top: "I want you to stay here. With me."

Frick, she said it.

She waited for Edward to gape or frown or whatever, but he just stared at her. And it wasn't even an "omg you did not just say that" kind of stare. His face was a total mystery as she forced herself to look at it; intense was the only word she could come up with for the expression she saw. His mouth was neutral. His eyes were fathoms deep. His brow was furrowed, but in a way she had never seen before. Not anger or confusion. Something else.

Lily could pick apart pieces of an expression just fine, but she was rarely ever good at putting the whole puzzle together. Edward's expression had never been more alien to her than it was now. Concern? Confusion? Discomfort? There was no way to know. She would have given anything for just a minute of his superpower in that moment.

"This is more complicated than I'd planned," he breathed at last, his eyes dropping to the table—it sounded like he wasn't even talking to her. He leaned back in his seat slowly and commanded, "Eat," without looking up.

Lily frowned. "Not until you answer my question."

"You haven't asked me a question."

"Will your family make you leave if I know the truth?"

He smiled just a tiny bit, his distant gaze still aimed at the table. "No."

"Will they leave?"

"No."

"Nobody will leave?"

Edward sighed and pinned her with a pointed look once again. "You eat, and I'll talk."

She shoved a few more raviolis in her mouth, and he leaned forward.

"There is quite a lot to address, concerning what you just said," he murmured. It still sounded like he was talking to himself. "Firstly: will my family leave? No. Will they be displeased? Yes—a few of them, at least. But, as it is, they are already familiar with the possibility of your...knowledge."

Her heart thumped. She was oddly pleased with the thought that he had talked to his family about her.

Edward frowned at her over his steepled hands, which he then clasped firmly on the table, like a student in class. Or maybe like a teacher, and she was a student who was getting lectured.

"Secondly: my ability, and how I was able to find you…." He dropped her gaze in favor of the table.

"What's wrong?"

He laughed under his breath like a whisper of music, but it didn't sound happy. "I shouldn't be so reluctant to tell you. A little more fear might do you a world of good. I shouldn't be here with you at all, really...and yet I can't help but be somewhat glad of my own weakness, considering the good it's done in regards to your own bad luck."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean your propensity for attracting trouble. No, that's not a broad enough classification. It's an irresistible pull, yes, but not just a magnet. You are the magnetic pole of trouble. If there is anything dangerous within a ten-mile radius, it will invariably find its way to you."

Lily looked at Edward's unhappy expression and took a wild guess that he put himself firmly in the danger category.

"Some trouble's not so bad," she said quietly, wishing she were brave enough to reach across the table and touch his hand. "You said that you shouldn't be here at all, right? But if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here at all either. I wouldn't be here twice, counting the van."

Somehow, his face grew even more somber, and his voice was softer than ever when he said, "One more than that." He looked away from her yet again, and she found herself wishing he'd stop doing that. Usually she hated being stared at. But somehow, at some point, she'd apparently gotten used to Edward's eleven-out-of-ten level of eye contact. She missed it now.

"You sure love those mysterious little comments, don't you? You put the cryptic in cryptid, dude."

Lily waited with a smile on her face, hoping to see his expression relax. Her vague stab at humor appeared to fail miserably, however. When he finally looked up at her, the pain in his eyes was loud and clear, although its cause was anything but.

"The first time we met," Edward told her. His words had the tone of a confession—they were barely louder than a breath—and they solved one of the biggest riddles he'd ever presented her with. "That was the first time your life was in danger. Every other instance hasn't been half so perilous as the day you walked into that classroom with me."

The room seemed to grow colder as his meaning fell into place. That Monday back in Biology. The frightening black glare, the instinct that had said he was going to attack her…. So she had been right after all.

Well then. It seemed she was better at reading people than she thought...or was it just him? Wouldn't that be yet another hilarious irony: she was the one enigma to his gift, and he was the one exception to her handicap.

"You remember?" he murmured.

Lily blinked at the face in front of her now, so different from the mask of hatred floating in her mind. Grave gold instead of livid pitch black.

She nodded. It took a quick swallow to find her voice. "But why? Because you couldn't...read my mind?"

"No, it isn't that."

When he didn't say anymore, she did her best to let go of curiosity's nagging bite. It was easier than she thought, now that she knew they had time. He wasn't going anywhere—not if she could help it. There would eventually be answers to all the mysteries.

"Well, whatever the reason," she conceded, "I'm here now, and it's directly because of you. That's gotta make up for the first time, right?"

His boyish face softened into an adorably earnest expression, eyes bright, lips halfway to a smile. He looked so young and happy all of a sudden, like a little kid with a cool new secret to share, and Lily thought her heart would burst. When Edward leaned across the table with his hands braced against its surface, she had to ball hers into fists on her thighs just to keep from touching them.

"That's precisely why I can't help but be grateful for my interference," he said in a voice that bordered on jubilant. "In an odd, backwards way, I'm something like a protector to you now, even from dangers you can't imagine. ...But, of course, there is no greater danger to you than myself. Every minute spent with me is a risk to your life."

His face had grown somber again, but then the corners of his angel's mouth lifted into a sunny smile, and the sight stunned Lily out of all curiosity for the riddle. Who cared about risks? Not her. Not when he was smiling so gently. She could've been in the path of an oncoming semi, and it wouldn't have bothered her one bit. Edward would've just stopped it anyway.

His tone was lighter than ever when he said, "Even so, it's impossible to regret staying when I know you will be safe—at least from hazards other than myself. That's why I followed you to Port Angeles, you see."

For one instant, barely a second, Lily wondered if that information should have upset her. It was hard to think about it impartially, however, when her heart was beating with enough exuberance to crack a rib. She didn't know which part of what he said had her dialed up to nine—whether it was about not leaving or keeping her safe or even following after her. All she knew was that he was still leaning forward and speaking in a rush, and she was so happy for the chance to just listen to him.

"I've never tried to keep a specific person alive before. I wouldn't have believed it was so much trouble. But that's probably just because it's you. Ordinary people seem to make it through the day without so many catastrophes."

She stuck her tongue out at him but was unable to hide her smile. He smiled back at her. Maybe it was a mistake to open her big mouth during such a nice moment, because his expression immediately reverted to something heavier when she asked, "Okay, but how did you even know where to go to stop the catastrophe? Tonight, I mean."

Edward leaned back, brow furrowed and lips pursed. Displeasure? Concentration? She couldn't tell. After a few seconds, his narrowed eyes flashed down to the plate and back up again meaningfully. At least that look she could interpret. Lily hardly even sighed as she picked her fork back up and dug into some more ravioli. She was starting to get used to not having her questions answered...which was why it surprised her when he continued.

"It's harder than it should be—keeping track of you. Usually I can find someone very easily, once I've heard their mind before. I was keeping tabs on Jessica, not carefully—like I said, only you could find trouble in Port Angeles—" Lily would have stuck her tongue out again, had her mouth not been so full of pasta and her attention so invested in his story— "and at first I didn't notice when you took off on your own. Then, when I realized that you weren't with your friends anymore, I went looking for you at the bookstore I saw in Jessica's head. I could tell that you hadn't gone in, and it looked like you were going north, so I knew you wouldn't be anywhere too deserted. ...But then I realized you had turned south, which meant you'd have to turn around somewhere. I was waiting for you, randomly searching through the thoughts of people on the street—to see if anyone had noticed you. No one had...and I grew strangely anxious…."

"Guess you were right to be," Lily admitted sheepishly, tucking her chin down with an abashed smile. She had caused him a lot of trouble, hadn't she? At least he'd been around for her to trouble though. The alternative wasn't pleasant to consider.

Edward's smile was half-hearted, and his eyes quickly returned to their place just over her shoulder. He looked lost in thought and sounded like he was talking to himself again as he went on in his cool, quiet voice.

"I started to drive in circles, still...listening. The sun was finally setting. I was about to get out and follow you on foot. And then—" His mouth shut suddenly; she heard the sharp, surprisingly loud sound of his teeth snapping together. The look of fury was back on his face in full throttle.

"It's all right," she whispered after a few seconds. "We're all right."

This time the urge to touch him was too much to deny. Lily reached across the table and covered his fist with her hand. It had to be an awful, blotchy color in comparison to his skin, but she didn't care at the moment. Edward was blinking at her, and the icy stone beneath her fingers was gradually turning back into a hand again. When he slid that hand away a few moments later, she almost thought, Ah, there it is. Embarrassment burned...but then it was muted in the background, because she saw that the rage had gone from his face. The hands resting flat on the table weren't so tense anymore. A smile haunted his lips, making him look like a wearier male version of the Mona Lisa.

"Shouldn't I be the one comforting you?" Edward asked. His voice matched his eyes, soft and golden.

Lily gave him a goofy grin and reminded him, "Well, I'm the one who's too weird to go into shock, remember?"

"Perhaps that's not such a bad thing after all."

After about a minute of her eating pasta and sipping soda, when she thought he looked completely calm again, she asked, "What happened next? You found those guys and read their minds?"

The placid expression disappeared in a flash. It was replaced by that lip-curling snarl she had seen in the car. His molten eyes burned a hole in the air above her head.

"Yes," he growled. "I heard what they were thinking. I saw your face in his mind…."

Without warning, he slumped forward. His eyes were suddenly hidden behind one white hand, and the motion was so swift, Lily almost gasped. There wasn't a moment to spare for amazement, however, because then he was speaking again in a grievous, strangled whisper.

"It was very...hard—you can't imagine how hard—for me to simply take you away, and leave them...alive."

She could hear an immense weight in his word, could see it in his posture, and she had to resist reaching over yet again. It took so much not to interrupt him, to lean forward and touch the back of her fingers to his hand.

"I could have let you go with Jessica and Angela," he continued. "I wanted to...but I was afraid if you left me alone, I would go looking for them…."

For one long minute, they both sat in silence, and Edward looked as frozen as the ice his skin so resembled—or was it more like stone? Pure white marble, like Michelangelo's David…. Lily shook off the errant rabbit trail and focused on the strained young man in front of her. She should've made him order something to eat and not forced him to talk so much about an event that had to be traumatic for the both of them. It hurt to hear his voice so grim and grave.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it anymore," she assured him. "You don't even have to think about it or anything. It's over with. ...Well, um, I guess I should report it to the police or something, actually, but we can worry about that later."

He looked up so quickly, she didn't even see the movement.

"That's true," he said through his teeth, an odd look on his face. It seemed almost...resigned?

She nodded in encouragement and suggested, "Rotting in prison is a way better punishment for that kind of person, don't you think? Versus a quick death?"

In a voice that was as low and hot as a blue flame, Edward muttered, "Who said anything about quick?" Then his eyes blinked shut, and she watched him breathe in slowly.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said, his voice a different kind of quiet now.

Lily found herself speaking quietly too, matching his gentle tone. "Don't be. I like that you're being honest with me, whether it's about homicide or not."

His smile was, once again, just a ghost of the brilliance she had seen before, but it was better than no smile at all.

Neither of them spoke right away after that; Lily chewed her lip anxiously and fiddled with her fork as the silence stretched on. She was suddenly afraid that if she let the subject drop now, she'd never find a good way to pick it back up again.

"Um...can we keep talking about this more? When we get in the car? I mean, not the homicide part necessarily—not that I'm, um—I mean, if you need to talk about that part, that's totally fine too, of course. Closure and all—or, uh, catharsis. Whichever it is…. But, um...I was hoping we could talk about all the other things too."

"Your theory," he guessed with a solemn nod.

Lily shrugged. "I mean...yeah, that would be nice. Heh."

Edward scoffed. He muttered something about "nice" under his breath before asking, "In the case, are you ready to go home?"

"Not really," she answered honestly. "I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't, like, expect this conversation to end here. I do have ju-u-ust a few more questions…."

She was rewarded with an unexpected smile, and this time it had the crooked angle she'd been missing.

"What if I make you a deal? You tell me your newest theory, and I'll let you ask 'just a few more questions,'" he said with sarcastically audible air quotes, as if he knew she wanted way more than a few.

Her reply was immediate. "Deal."

He snorted softly at the word—snorted, would wonders never cease?

"Shall we go then?"

Before she could even nod, let alone answer, the waitress appeared as if by magic. Black magic, probably. Abracadabra, time for one last move.

"How are we doing?" she asked Edward. "Would you like something sweet now?"

"We're ready for the check, thank you," he answered flatly. Even when his tone bordered on brusque, it was ten times sweeter than any dessert.

Lily had to feel just the tiniest bit of pity for the woman as she stared down at him, blinking and bewildered—either from his briskness or his beauty. When he finally looked up at her, she floundered like a fish out of water for a few seconds.

"Uh...sure. Here you go."

Lily reached into her pocket to pull out a twenty, but Edward was already handing the small leather folder back to their waitress.

"No change," he said with a smile. He rose from the booth with the same enviable grace that went into everything he did. Lily, meanwhile, nearly rolled an ankle when she stood. One white hand reached out to steady her, not quite touching her arm.

"Pins and needles," she confessed, rubbing at the half-numb leg. His hand never touched her, but his eyes never left her, even when the server spoke again.

"You have a nice night," she told Edward. Her smile went unnoticed by its target.

He said a polite, "Thank you," without looking away from Lily's face. It made her heart do something similar to her leg, which was tingling painfully as the blood rushed back in. For a moment, she forgot that this reaction wasn't a good thing, as far as emotional organs went. They were just friends. Just friends, Lily. Geez.

Still, any girl on the planet would have gone into cardiac arrest if Edward Cullen looked at her instead of someone older and prettier and obviously interested. It was...flattering. Dangerously so. He couldn't possibly mean anything by it. Just one of his strange eccentricities. Lily tried to push the image of his intense, attentive gaze out of her mind as they exited the restaurant.

Or maybe it's a gentleman thing, she thought when he opened the door for her, and then the car door too. It could just be that she wasn't used to gentlemen—she certainly had never gone to dinner with one. Or his steadfast eye contact could have been a reaction to the waitress, a convenient way to avoid her flirting. Nothing to do with Lily at all.

Edward turned up the heater when he got inside the car, and it seemed to prove her gentleman theory. The jacket, the check, the door. More and more she was seeing how courteous he really was. A sweet boy, like his mother had said. ...But she tried not to think about it too much, just like she tried not to enjoy the smell of his jacket. It was simply too close to her nose for her not to notice, and she was simply too unfamiliar with boys for her not to notice when he did nice things—for her heart not to flutter like a stupid bird.

That's all it was, all of it. Yep, no girl on Earth would have felt any other way in her shoes. Nothing to do with how she felt about him, because they were just friends, and feeling anything more than that would only mess things up.

Lily knew what it was like to like someone who didn't like you back, how awkward it was for them when they found out, all the space it suddenly created between the two of you. Her one and only crush had ended that way. Boys and gentlemen might have been mysteries to her, but one thing at least was clear: "just friends" was the best way to avoid a ruined friendship and a broken heart.

"Lily?"

Her heartbeat accelerated at the sound of her name in his voice. Stupid heart. No matter what it did, the head knew better...when it was paying attention, at least.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Are you feeling well?" He looked concerned. The car hadn't moved yet, even though she must have been sitting there in silence for at least a minute.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, just lost in thought. ...Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"...Still waiting for me to go into shock?"

"Yes."

Lily buckled up firmly, a symbolic gesture intended for the both of them. "Well, I'll let you know if anything changes, but my brain's pretty darn stubborn. As you already know, Mr. Minus-One Mind Reader."

His white face seemed to glow in the dim light, and the small smile that bloomed there had Lily's heart rushing the tempo her head tried so hard to set. So much trying, so much failing. At least Lily knew that he wasn't going anywhere now—plenty of time to try, try again. And again, and again, and—

"In that case," Edward said pointedly as he reversed out into traffic, "it's my turn."

---

Alrighty!

If you want some major backstory, read on! If not, see y'all next time! (It's totally optional lol. Love y'all either way! XD)

(And even if you DON'T read, I still apologize for having such a giant chunk of backstory stuck at the bottom of the chapter like this...)

OKAY. So. This also concerns the reason for Lily and Renée living down South instead of out West. The lynchpin here is really Grandma Dwyer. According to Meyer, "When Bella was born, Renée went back to her mother, who was still difficult, but who doted on Bella." Lily, on the other hand, was a very pesky little kid, and definitely not the kind her grandma would have "doted on." Renée was free to earn her degree in elementary education since Granny Marie was watching Bella—not to mention that Bella was probably a terrific kid, like letting her mom study and doing chores so she didn't have to and stuff. Lily was the opposite. She demanded a lot of attention, she was bad about letting her mom have quiet study time, and she and Granny Marie basically hated each other. The whole environment was a major source of stress for Renée. Her mother was constantly criticizing her parenting and complaining about Lily, and Lily was always complaining about her grandmother. It was bad enough for her to turn to Charlie, who happily agreed to watch Lily over Christmas break so that Renée could study for exams. Charlie even offered to help pay so Lily could be in a daycare program. This was a major point of reconciliation for Renée and Charlie, but the breaking point for her and her mother. Marie (canonically!) hated Charlie. She demanded that no contact be allowed between him and Lily, or else she would withdraw all her support—housing, financial, etc. Renée refused to cut ties with Charlie, and she and Lily moved out a year before she graduated.

When Bella was six, they moved not too far away from her grandma, and Renée began teaching kindergarten where... "She made many close friends among the other teachers, and she got a lot of sunshine." Instead of that, Renée and Lily moved into an apartment in Riverside, CA, still pretty close to Grandma Dwyer, who really did cut them off. (Look it up, she totally seems like the kind of person who would do that, I think.) Renée did finish her degree, but she was drowning in debt and bills and everything, even with Charlie's financial help. She got a job at her university's library and made just one friend, a woman who worked as an administrator in the dean's office. (Did you know libraries have deans? Lol crazy.) Just one friend yeah, but a good friend though! When Renée sold her car in desperation to pay child care and buy food, this lady drove her to and from work every day (lucky for Renée, Lily's school was within walking distance of their apartment) and even brought her lunch all the time.

By the time Lily was six, eviction was looming over our sad little fam. Even with the benefit of a college degree, the assistance of government welfare, and the frequent contributions Charlie sent, it wasn't enough. But! When her friend in admin learned of Renée's dire circumstances, the woman put her job on the line and begged the dean to find a livable job for the desperate mother. Enter...the SOUTH! Mobile, Alabama. A relatively new and comparatively promising university had just opened its doors and was eager to gain employees. It was to this institution the dean reached out on behalf of the earnest, charming young Renée. She was offered a job in the Registrar's Office at the University of South Alabama, in the second rainiest city in the country. Renée was more than willing to sacrifice her dreams of sunshine and smiling students for the daughter she loved above all else.

Renée never moved past a desk job, even though she did get a good bit of sunshine despite the rain. Her mother died in December 1999. They moved to Phoenix about a year and a half later, just as Lily was finishing 7th grade. The two of them would live there in the Paradise Hills region for a little over three years (just checking my math lol, '01-02, '02-03, '03-04 yea good whewf). Renée, born in the sun, loved it; her daughter, raised in the rain, did not.

...Alrighty, so if you read this far, then you understand why Renée was a lot more unhappy in general. Combination of bad luck, worse circumstances, and a completely different (much more difficult) kind of child. Renée really did give up a lot for her (but hopefully any parent would do the same). In a way, Lily is her 'pearl of great price.'

BUT! Renée is now free to follow her dreams with Phil, and, after travelling a lot, she really is gonna settle down at a cute little school where Phil also coaches baby baseball. AND, thanks to her leaning on Charlie during the hard times and choosing not to keep Lily from her father even when Grandma Dwyer demanded it, Renée and Charlie are way closer now! Lily dragged her mom along with her on summer vacation a lot (although Renée usually stayed for just a few days, a week at most, because she still hated Forks lol), and I'm happy to report that during those times, Charlie was able to work through a lot of old baggage with Renée, including the whole never getting over her thing. They're actual friends now, vs. just the canonical "oh, that Charlie, such a hermit, but we both love our daughter so we ignore the awkwardness and appreciate each other as parents."

Still, Renée's mom's death definitely hit her hard, although she and Marie actually did make up with each other right before she died, when Marie was getting sick, but there was still all the old wounds and lots of unresolved pain and stuff. (Again, she was canonically kind of a sucky person, just look up the part about Renée inviting her to the wedding). I think her death and the resulting stress and regret etc. really contributed a lot to the, well, disintegration of Lily and Renée's relationship. But don't worry. If you managed to read your way through this big backstory dump, then you freakin deserve to know that it will ALL work out with Renée. Maybe even better? Than in canon? Hmmm but who can say? owo (Bruh I got plans all the way past Breaking Dawn. Heck, I have ideas for appendices, plus all the titles picked out and the covers already designed—they were one of the first things I did when this dadgum story popped up and kicked me in the teeth.) It's gonna be wild, if I ever get there. ...Also, you probably already guessed (like Chapter 1 probably XD) that I'm from Mobile myself. I just wanted you to KNOW that I know that you know. :3 And yee I definitely graduated from South Alabama too, if that wasn't obvious already lol. My mom actually works there. In the registrar's office. ;)