It was quite icy and cold when I woke up. All of the rain had frozen, making the roads icy. I sighed and got dressed, pulling on my grey long sleeve shirt, black pants, and sneakers. Once I was dressed, I brushed my teeth and went downstairs. Dad was already on his way to work. Mom made me some French toast with a side of sliced oranges. My mom was the cook in the house, though I wasn't too bad.

After breakfast, I headed off to school. I put on a deep blue parka, and headed out to my car.

When I arrived at school, I parked in my normal spot before getting out. I noticed Bella by a red Audi next to Alice. Though Alice was babbling on and on, Bella just kept staring at me.

I was looking through my backpack for my ipod and earphones when I heard a loud screeching noise. I turned and saw Tyler Crowley's van zooming right towards me. My eyes widened, and I knew that I would die.

That's when I heard a sound like metal crushing. I looked and saw Bella there, her shoulder in the side of the van. How was it not dislocated or broken? She looked fine, like she wasn't in pain.

"Edward, are you alright?" She asked me in her musical voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."

She smiled. "Don't worry about it." The space was very tight, but suddenly, Tyler's van started moving farther and farther away. I felt like something was expanding to push it away, but I saw nothing. I felt blind.

Bella stood up and left the scene just as many students started rushing over to my side, panicked. I rolled my eyes.

That's when I heard ambulances in the distance, and groaned. I hated the idea of riding in one.

The EMTs were easily able to get me away from the scene. Bella insisted she hadn't been touched, and I tried to do the same, but she was quick to contradict me. She told them I'd hit my head, and then made it sound worse than it was, throwing around words like concussion and hemorrhage. I wanted to die when they put on the neck brace. It looked like the entire school was there, watching soberly as they loaded me in the back of the ambulance. Bella got to ride in the front. It was a thousand times more humiliating than I'd imagined today would be, and I hadn't even made it to the sidewalk.

I started to think. When they'd lifted me away from the car, I had seen the deep dent in the tan car's bumper—a very distinct dent that fit the slim shape of Bella's shoulders… as if she had braced herself against the car with enough force to damage the metal frame.…

And then there was her family, looking on from a distance, with expressions that ranged from disapproval (Emmett) to fury (Rosalie), but held no hint of concern for their little sister's safety. I remembered the sensation of almost flying through the air… that hard mass that had pinned me to the ground… I tried to think of a logical explanation that could make sense of what I had just seen. All I could come up with was that I was having a psychotic episode. I didn't feel crazy, but maybe crazy people always felt sane.

When we arrived, Bella got out first, gliding through the hospital doors on her own. They put me in the emergency room, a long room with a line of beds separated by pastel-patterned curtains. A nurse put a pressure cuff on my arm and a thermometer under my tongue. Since no one bothered pulling the curtain around to give me some privacy, I decided I wasn't obligated to wear the embarrassing neck brace anymore. As soon as the nurse walked away, I quickly unfastened the Velcro and threw it under the bed.

There was another flurry of hospital personnel, another stretcher brought to the bed next to me. I saw Tyler Crowley class beneath the bloodstained bandages wrapped tightly around his head.

Tyler looked a hundred times worse than I felt. But he was staring anxiously at me.

"Edward, I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine, Tyler—you look awful, are you all right?"

As we spoke, nurses began unwinding his bloody bandages, exposing dozens of shallow slices all over his forehead and left cheek. Blood didn't bother me, luckily.

He ignored me.

"I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast, and I hit the ice wrong.…" He winced as one nurse started dabbing at his face.

"Don't worry about it; you missed me."

"How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there, and then you were gone.…"

"Umm…...Bella shoved me out of the way."

He looked confused. "Who?"

"Bella Cullen—she was standing next to me." As usual, I didn't sound believable at all.

"Bella? I didn't see her… wow, it was all so fast, I guess. Is she okay?"

"I think so. She's here somewhere, but they didn't make her use a stretcher." I knew I wasn't crazy. What had happened? There was no way to explain away what I'd seen.

They wheeled me away then, to X-ray my head. I told them there was nothing wrong, and I was right. Not even a concussion. I asked if I could leave, but the nurse said I had to talk to a doctor first. So I was trapped in the ER, harassed by Tyler's constant apologies and promises to make it up to me. No matter how many times I tried to convince him I was fine, he continued to beg for forgiveness. Finally, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore him.

"Is he sleeping?" a musical voice asked.

My eyes flew open. Bella was standing at the foot of my bed, her expression more a smirk than a smile. I stared at her, trying to put the pieces together in my head. She didn't look like someone who could stop attacking vehicles with her bare hands. She was so small and skinny. But then, she also didn't look like anyone I'd ever seen before.

"Hey, um, Bella, I'm really sorry—" Tyler began.

Bella lifted a hand to stop her. "No blood, no foul," she said, flashing her bright white teeth. She moved to sit on the edge of Tyler's bed, facing me. She smirked again. "So, what's the verdict?" she asked me.

"There's nothing wrong with me, but they won't let me go," I said. "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"

"It's all about who you know," she answered. "But don't worry, I came to spring you."

Then a doctor walked around the corner, and my mouth fell open. He was young, he was blond… and he was handsomer than any movie star I'd ever seen. He was pale, though, and tired-looking, with circles under his eyes. Was this Bella's dad?

"So, Mr. Masen," Dr. Cullen asked in a gentle voice, "how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," I said, for the last time, I hoped. He walked to the lightboard on the wall over my head, and turned it on.

"Your X-rays look good," he said. "Does your head hurt? Bella said you hit it pretty hard."

"It's fine," I repeated with a sigh, throwing a quick, questioning look Bella's way. She avoided my eyes.

The doctor's cool fingers probed lightly along my skull. He noticed when I winced.

"Tender?" she asked.

"Not really."

"Well, your mother is in the waiting room—you can go home with her now. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all."

"Can't I go back to school?" I asked, imagining my mother playing nurse. "Maybe you should take it easy today."

I glanced at Bella. "Does she get to go to school?"

"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," Bella said blithely.

"Actually," Dr. Cullen corrected, "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."

"Ugh," I moaned.

Dr. Cullen raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to stay?"

"No, no!" I insisted.

"It sounds like you were extremely lucky," Dr. Cullen said, smiling as he signed my chart with a flourish.

"Lucky Bella just happened to be standing next to me," I amended, shooting another glance at the subject of my statement.

"Oh, well, yes," Dr. Cullen agreed, suddenly occupied with the papers in front of him. Then he looked away, at Tyler, and walked to the next bed. It made me sure the doctor was in on it. "I'm afraid that you'll have to stay with us just a little bit longer," he said to Tyler, and began checking his cuts.

As soon as the doctor's back was turned, I got up and I moved to Bella's side.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I whispered under my breath.

She took a step back from me, her jaw suddenly clenched. "Your mother is waiting for you," she said through her teeth.

I glanced at Dr. Cullen and Tyler. "I need to speak with you alone," I pressed.

She glared—but it wasn't the same as that first day, not nearly as homicidal, so I just waited. After a second, she turned her back and stalked quickly down the long room. As long as my legs are, I nearly had to run to keep up. As soon as we turned the corner into a short hallway, she spun around to face me.

"What do you want?" she asked, sounding annoyed. Her eyes were cold. Her unfriendliness intimidated me. My words came out with less certainty than I'd planned.

"You owe me an explanation," I reminded her.

"I saved your life—I don't owe you anything."

I flinched back from the resentment in her voice. "Why are you acting like this?"

"Edward, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about." Her tone was cutting. Her anger only made me more sure that I was right, though.

"There's nothing wrong with my head." She turned up the heat of her glare. "What do you want from me, Edward?"

"I want to know the truth," I said. "I want to know why I'm lying for you."

"What do you think happened?" she snapped. It was harder to say the words out loud, where I could hear the crazy. It shook my conviction, but I tried to keep my voice even and calm.

"I know that you weren't standing next to me—Tyler didn't see you, either, so it's not concussion damage. That van was going to crush us both—but it didn't. Your shoulders left a dent in the other car, but you're not hurt at all." It just kept sounding worse and worse. I couldn't continue.

She was staring at me, her eyes wide and incredulous. But she couldn't entirely hide the tension, the defensiveness.

"You think I lifted a van off you?" Her tone questioned my sanity, but there was something off. It was like a line delivered by a skilled actor—so hard to doubt, but at the same time, the frame of the movie screen reminded you nothing was actually real.

I just nodded once.

She smiled, hard and mocking. "Nobody will believe that, you know."

"I'm not going to tell anybody."

Surprise flitted across her face, and the smile faded. "Then why does it matter?"

"It matters to me," I said. "I don't like to lie—so there'd better be a good reason why I'm doing it."

"Can't you just thank me and get over it?"

"Thank you," I said, and then folded my arms. Waiting.

"You're not going to let it go, are you?"

"Nope."

"In that case… I hope you enjoy disappointment." She scowled at me, and I stared back, thoughts scattered by how beautiful her anger was. I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused. I was in danger of being totally distracted. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel.

"If you were going to be like this about it," I said, "why did you even bother?"

She paused, and for a brief moment her perfect face was unexpectedly vulnerable. "I don't know," she whispered.

And then she turned her back on me and walked away.

It took me a few minutes until I was able to move.

When I could walk, I made my way slowly to the exit at the end of the hallway. The waiting room was unpleasant, like I'd expected. It seemed like every face I knew in Forks was there, staring at me. Mother rushed to my side; I put up my hands.

"There's nothing wrong with me," I assured her, abruptly aggravated by the whole crazy situation.

"What did the doctor say?" Mom asked.

"Dr. Cullen saw me, and he said I was fine and I could go home." Mike, Eric, Jessica and Lauren were all there, beginning to converge on us.

"Let's go," I urged. I retreated quickly toward the exit doors, waving halfheartedly at my friends. Hopefully they will forget about this by tomorrow. Unlikely.

It was a huge relief—the first time I'd ever felt that way—to get into my mom's white car.

We drove in silence. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I barely knew Mom was there. I was positive that Bella's defensive behavior in the hall was a confirmation of the bizarre things I still could hardly believe I'd seen.

I was consumed by the mystery Bella presented. And more than a little obsessed with Bella herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I wasn't as eager to escape Forks as I should be, as any normal, sane person would be.

I decided I might as well go to bed early that night. Mom, and then dad when he came home, continued to watch me anxiously, and it was getting on my nerves.

I stopped on my way to grab three Tylenol from the bathroom. They did help, and, as the pain eased, I drifted to sleep.

That was the first night I dreamed about Bella Cullen.