Chapter 2

In his absence, I began to feel like maybe Edward had just been a figment of my imagination. My compulsive glances toward the Cullens' table at lunch went seemingly unnoticed. Meanwhile, I began to notice even more similarities between Edward and his siblings other than their good looks.

On Tuesday, the girl whose name I learned to be Alice walks past me in pursuit of her boyfriend, who'd left seemingly in a panic. Jasper wore an extremely similar expression to Edward's the last time I'd seen him. Despite hastened gait, she moved so fluidly it looked as if every step was choreographed. My interest peaked when I realized the steps they were taking made no sound. Not even the slightest shuffle. It was like they were ghosts.

On Friday, I discovered the one constant I'd been missing as I glanced towards their table for the umpteenth time; they're food was untouched. I searched their trays for even a sign of a bite, and watched as they occasionally pushed things around on their tray. I also watched as every single one of them threw their full trays in the trash as they left the cafeteria.

The following Wednesday was bright, warm, and made me more homesick than I'd been since I moved to Forks. Lauren convinced us with little effort to eat outside, where Jessica noticed my usual attempts to find the Cullens.

"They're not here," she interjected. My head whipped around in surprise, not realizing how obvious I'd been. "They don't come to school on days when the sun is out," she gestures towards the clear sky, "Daddy Cullen brings them all hiking, or camping, or maybe just tanning in desperate failed attempts at fighting off their paleness. No offense" She says the last sentence as she looks me up and down, regarding my borderline translucent skin.

"None taken..But..never?" I push, not understanding. "Isn't their dad a doctor? Doesn't he have patients, even on sunny days?" My mind is racing through everything i've learned about the Cullens in Edward's absence. Jessica shrugs.

"I guess when you're rich it doesn't matter." she turns her face back towards the sun, and that's the end of that conversation. For the rest of the week i'm grasping at straws, trying to make sense of it all. Edward and his family had taken up an almost permanent residence in my brain. It was as if the pieces i'd collected over the past two weeks were all to different puzzles and I was forcing them together.

I was giving up, deciding there was no use in torturing myself with the sight of empty chairs every day.

Then Edward came back.

Entering the cafeteria, I nearly bumped into Lauren in front of me when my eyes landed on him, sitting at his usual spot with his family, smiling. The nerve. His brother Emmett was shaking snow out of his hair, and they were all laughing for what seemed to be the first time since i'd been here. Angela gently nudged me into motion and I went back to walking, doing my best not to look back over at the table until I couldn't take it anymore. My heart skipped a beat when my eyes met his.

He's looking at me. He's LOOKING at me. I broke the contact and looked down at the tray in front of me, blood rushing to my cheeks in embarrassment. He was already looking at me first. Why? Where had he been? What was WITH him? Question after question turned over in my head, until finally I resolved to get some answers.

I paced myself as I entered biology class, knowing the likelihood of being so close to one of the Cullens was now much higher. I struggled to maintain a vague expression as I sit down, finally, next to Edward. Mr. Banner runs through the class assignment expectations as he passes out microscopes and cell identification worksheets. My lips part to say something to Edward, but he beats me to it.

"Hello," says a smooth, tenor voice and I turn in surprise towards the culprit. "I'm Edward Cullen." The corners of his mouth are turned up into a small smile, but as my eyes search his face I notice his eyebrows are still pushed together in what seems like...frustration? Pain? Was he just inflicted by a chronic illness that sometimes sent him into long insane bouts of pain. Maybe they all had it, and a side effect was all the same strange ethereal beauty. Maybe their father treated them all for it and that's how he ended up adopting them all. Like a weird corrector.

My inner monologue was interrupted by the realization that I hadn't yet responded to this new, more hospitable Edward. He was staring again, the small smile he'd created falling in the silence. I blinked, shaking my head. "You're Bella Swan." He offered, as if I was a two year old who needed conversational guidance. I nodded as I finally found my voice through the confusion.

"Yeah, Bella. Are you okay?" The words tumbled out of me and resulted in his turn to be surprised, he flinched away as if I'd moved to slap him.

"What? I'm fine" he asserted. His small smile returned, and it was more forced this time, I noted.

"Okay." I nodded again, "You just seemed like you were in a lot of pain the last time I saw you. You've been gone for two weeks." I pointed out.

"Family stuff." He mumbled in response. A part of me panicked as he turned away from me to face forward, no longer smiling. I was prying too quickly.

"Alright," I was nodding again, so much that I probably looked like a bobble head. "Well, I'm glad that you're okay." I pulled our microscope towards me, and looked into it, "Prophase." I said decidedly, and he looked back at me again, his head tilted.

"Do you mind if I check," he asked, and I laughed. I wondered if all beautiful people were naturally controlling.

"Be my guest." I slid the microscope over to him, and it continued like that until we'd identified all of them long before the rest of the class. We sat, looking at each other in a moment of awkwardness now that we had nothing else to occupy our conversation. Admittedly, I couldn't help to admire how handsome he was. It was truly unreal. The arch of his cheekbones, his perfectly tousled amber hair, and his golden eyes that crinkled in the outer corners when he smiled.

Wait. Golden?

"Did you get contacts?" I inquired, deciding this was a safe enough question to ask someone in your first conversation ever. "Your eyes were black before." I added for context to my sudden interest in his optical health. Edward grimaced.

"No. They've always been like this." He insisted. "It's just the lights." he flicked a hand to the ceiling above us, and the class bell rang.

Right then. That moment is when I realized he was lying to me. There was something he was hiding about himself, and probably his entire family. I was going to find out what it was.

*Authors note*

Hey! If you've read this far, I appreciate it. I just felt the need to tell you all that I don't want to force you all to basically re-read the whole book, but there's a lot of scenes I have to rewrite in order to establish the different characterization for this Bella, and why the "new" stuff ends up the way that it does. So I promise I'm getting to it as quickly as I can and there will be MAJOR differences soon. Thanks again for reading! You can also soon find snippets of this story portrayed by me (rolesofrye) and poppysportkey on TikTok. Poppy will be filling in as Edythe, Edwards femme counterpart in Life and Death