VI. Dangerous Pollen

„Pollen is essentially 'plant sperm'. Therefore, this makes Hay Fever an STD. And since no one voluntarily intakes pollen, I have concluded, we are all being raped by plants."

I was about to return to our provisory home, after the school had finished. My Golf had been standing quietly in the carpark behind the school, under some tree, the branches of which provided pleasant shadows to it. The first second I came near to the piece of flora, however, a loud sneeze defeated me, closely followed by loads of others. In the end, I wasn't able to see anything through the veil of tears; my eyes burned, while my nose wouldn't stop running. Luckily, there was a random handkerchief in the pocket of my jacket, which was pulled out by me and used feverishly enough to end up as wet as a fish. I would rather not speak about my futile attempts to find the keys of my poor, little Golf in the bag of mine, not to mention searching for the right key among the others. That was literally mission impossible...
It was my fault though. This mess I happened to appear in was the matter of my rashness. Did I mention I was allergic to the pollen of certain flowers? No? Well, here you have it. On my defence, I have to say there weren't any trees on the list of plants I had been allergic to. At least, not until then.

I gasped for air, feeling a strong pressure inside my chest. It was as if my lungs had bloated, and were currently trying to force their way out of my chest. It took next few seconds for my head to start spinning uncontrollably; afterwards, nothing but darkness appeared in front of my eyes. I'm afraid I can't tell you more about what happened that afternoon, because the next thing I remember was Hayden's worried face over my body and the awful smell of some disinfectant.

"Oh, thank god you're awake, Honey, I was so worried!" My aunt jumped onto her feet, squeezing my hand in hers. I wanted to lift up my head, to look around a bit, but a tubule inside my nose stopped me. Please, just don't tell me, that the lack of my interest in the trees I had been parking my car under, brought me into a hospital... please, please, please!

"W-where am I?" I whispered huskily. "What happened?"

"You're in the hospital, Sweetheart. You suffered from a severe allergic reaction to the pollen of elm. We were told elm was the tree your car had been standing under," she said, pressing her fingers to the sides of my neck, then shining a light into my eyes and ordering me to open my mouth. I guess it was a medical inspection.

"How long have I been... out?"

"For two and half hours since Alice Cullen brought you to the hospital," Hayden was probably going to say something more, yet, I interrupted her.

"Alice Cullen? Wait, what exactly did she do?" The question of mine was more curious than anything else.

"She found you, lying next to your car. If it wasn't for her, I don't know if you'd manage to get to the hospital in time," Hayden answered sadly. It was apparent that she was trying to supress the tears really hard. In the end, nevertheless, she managed to lift the corners of her lips up little bit, in somewhat supportive smile. "You can ask her yourself, if you want. She's been here for all the time, waiting for you to wake up."

I shifted uncofortably, my hands subconsciously firing up, to my hair. I tried to sleek the bunch of mess on my head slightly, before Hayden would let one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in. "Erm... really? How do I look?"

Hayden smirked at me, crossing her arms over her chest. " Sweetie, how do you think a person, who woke up only a few minutes ago, after nearly three hours of deep sleep, could look?"

"Terrible? Awful, sleepy, appalling, hideous, dead, -"

"Alright, it was supposed to be a joke! You look as lovely as ever," my aunt tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. She then walked over to the door, while I kept drumming my fingers against the washed-out fabric of the blanket. It wasn't helping, just to let you know.
"And Gwyn," the blonde called, therefore, I looked up at her. "I'm glad you've found such a good friend already."

Hayden winked at me, disappearing behind the door. I wasn't left alone for too long though, mainly because my aunt was replaced by the presence of the pixie-like, petite brunette, whom I was starting to adore slowly. Even though she was dating the guy I had clearly been attracted to... To hell with boys! What did we - independent women - even need them for?

"Hello there, Honey," Alice's lips widened the moment she spotted me, for that, I smiled back at her. "How are you feeling?"

"Not that bad. Well... better than when I ate walnuts, before they found out I'm allergic to them," I shrugged, as the brunette chuckled quietly.
"Here, take a seat." Gesturing to the chair next to my bed, I waited for her to settle down. I noticed that her eyes got a darker shade of golden color, than they had had in the morning; and I would have preoccupied myself with that, if I hadn't considered it to be a stupidity to think about, after she saved my life. That was why I let it go.
What I couldn't have let go, however, was the fact, that Alice seemed worried, or... uncomfortable even. She agreed to sit next to my bed, yet, kept at least five feet distance from me. As if I was contagious.

"I am really happy to hear that," she reached for my hand, but stopped herself just in the middle of the movement. Alright, that was far from the normal state of her behaviour, for as much as I could tell. "I-I... I'm sorry! I didn't want to-"

"What on Earth are you sorry for, Alice?" I asked, surprised. "You saved my life! There's no way I could ever repay you for that."

"In fact, Gwyn, it wasn't me who found you in the carpark. All credit goes to Jasper, he gave you the first aid. I just... drove you to the hospital."

"Oh," I exhaled, biting on my lower lip. That information wasn't helping me to forget about him. "Well, thank you for telling me, but that doesn't change anything on that you got me to the hospital in time. My aunt said it was crucial."

Alice forced out a small smile, then rubbed her hands against each other nervously. "Carlisle - my adoptive father - told me your aunt started working in here today. He's a surgeon as well - isn't that a pleasant coincidence?"

"I guess so... Listen, Alice, I would really like to thank Jasper for what he did in person. Do you think you could tell him to... I don't know, stop by some time tomorrow, perhaps?"

The brunette swallowed hard, as she stared at me absentmindedly. I wasn't sure what exactly she had been staring at, but the point of her attention weren't my eyes. My hand automatically lifted to my chest, which was the next, most popular place for people to stare at. But that wasn't the thing either. After a few moments, I figured that Alice was staring at my neck. I had no idea why, naturally, and the lustful look of her dark eyes was honestly scaring me.

"A-Alice, what's wrong?" I cleared my throat, moving my hand in front of her eyes. She blinked for a few times, her pupils widening, as she looked back up at me. This time, it was the real, unique, unreplaceable me she was looking at; not my neck.

"E-excuse me?" The brunette blurted out, bringing her melodic voice back. "My apologies, I got stuck up in my thoughts for a moment. What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing. It was a bad idea anyways," I shook my head. "Look, it's getting late, you seem tired. I think you should go home and take some rest. Today was a hell of a day."

"I... I suppose you're right." After that, Alice got up rather sternly, not saying another word. She rushed to the door as quickly as a flesh, and before I noticed, she opened it.

"Alice!" I called after her, making her flinch. "I'm sorry for any trouble I caused to you and your family."

She nodded once, leaving me alone, in the small hospital room. The way she acted made me wonder, what did I do wrong? Did my telling her to take Jasper with her to visite me, offend her? Even though it definitely was an option, I wouldn't put much chance on it. Her mind seemed to be absent ever since she had come in. No, there must have been something else going on with her.

And that was the moment I decided to stick my nose into the Cullen family for the first time.