This behavior continues on until the beginning of September. Edward sits as far away from me as possible in biology, leaving as soon as the bell rings, but still watching me when he can. I catch him everyone once in a while and he always has the same frustrated look on his face. Like I'm some puzzle he needs to solve but can't find all the pieces. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't doing the same thing. There is something odd about the family but I don't know what. He's gone back to not talking to me unless needed for class. A part of me wishes he would talk again but another says it's for the best. I'm not sure which one is correct. All of this changes very quickly one early September morning.
I start my day off as normal, to an annoying alarm clock. I shower, eat, and get dressed for the school day, debating if I should put my hair up. I decide against it as I prefer it down anyway. As I'm about to walk out the door, I look out the windows to see the weather outside, to see that it's not only raining but pouring and high winds. Typical. Pulling my hair into my raincoat I cross the short distance to my car, raining pouring on me the entire way. I sit there in the truck for a moment, staring at the raindrops falling rapidly on my windshield. For some reason mother nature decided she was going to make it rain much harder than normal today. I make the drive to school, being extra cautious as I fight against the heavy rain and the terrible wind.
Parking the truck I take a deep breath and hope out, only to get a full face of rain water. I turn around and grab the old umbrella I started leaving in there. My back is to the rest of the lot, fighting to get the jammed umbrella open, when I hear the screeching. I look up, startled by the loud noise, only for my heart to drop to my stomach. Heading straight towards my truck and the car parked next to me, was Tyler Crowley's van, and I'm currently standing right in the middle.
Adrenaline shoots through me and my brain goes into overdrive, screaming for me to move, but it's far too late, it's not humanly possible to move out of the path of the van before it hits me. A for effort though body, you tried. Instead, in my last few moments before I get crushed to death, I'm able to look at the horrified faces of the other students. More importantly I get to see Edward's face standing out in the crowd. Even as it's frozen in the same look as the others, I appreciate the fact that I get to see something beautiful before I go. And then I'm hit.
Although not from the direction I was expecting.
Instead of getting hit head on, something rams into my side, throwing me to the ground near the back of my truck. My head colloids hard with the ground and my vision goes black, ears ringing. I can feel the pressure of something pinning me to the ground and, thankfully, it's much smaller and lighter than the van. I hear the impact of my truck being hit along with the object, the van I assume, ricocheting back off again. My pressure leaves me and my vision starts coming back and, at first, I see the van returning, coming back to finish what it started. Then I see him.
Edward Cullen is crouching in front of me, hands out as if to catch the returning van. And he does. Not only that but he lifts the van up, with one hand. The other hand, in a blur of motion I can barely catch, grabs my leg and drags me towards him, spinning me around in the process. As my back gets pinned to Edward's side the back of the van falls, exactly where my head was a moment before. Glass explodes around us and the van finally comes to a complete stop, failing at its task of taking me out. For one brief second there is nothing but absolute silence, and then the screaming starts. Loud enough for even me to hear given my current state.
As the ringing fades I can make out the frantic voice of Edward speaking to me.
"Elliot, Elliot? Can you hear me?"
"Ya," I say, voice croaking, "I can hear you." I try to move only to realize Edward has me locked in an iron grip against him.
"Don't move, you hit the ground pretty hard. You might be hurt."
My hand goes to my head, where I finally notice the throbbing pain. "Ow."
"Told you." He says with a small chuckle.
"How did…" my voice trails off and I shake my head to try and clear it a bit. Turns out that's a bad idea as the throbbing intensifies. "How did you get over here?"
"What do you mean? I was standing next to you the entire time." His voice is completely serious now. Any previous trace of humor is gone, and if I could see his face I would assume it matched the same tone.
I try to move again and this time he lets me go. The van managed to simultaneously hit the front of my truck and the back of the other car, angling them both, before setting near the end of my truck. It effectively traps us in a very small triangle of space. I scoot back to the far end of the small space, trying not to think about how my head was almost flattened there. I get re-situated and move my, now dirty, hair out of my face before looking at Edward. I was right, his face is just as serious as his voice, but his eyes are filled with concern. His...gorgeous...golden...eyes.
Wait, what were we talking about?
That thought doesn't get very far because in that moment the panicked crowd of teachers and students arrived. Given the weather, all of the crowd had soaked hair and faces, but, if I had to guess, many of them had tears as well. They all moved very quickly around the area, wanting to get everyone cleared of the accident site. They start asking questions I couldn't hear due to the wind and still slightly ringing ears.
"You were over there," I shout over the wind, remembering what we were talking about, "by your car with your family."
"No." Fortunately for me Edward plays nice and speaks loud enough for me to hear.
"No? What do you mean no? I saw you across the lot Edward, we made eye contact before the van was supposed to hit me, which is another thing I don't understand. How did you stop the van?
"Stop the van? I think you hit your head a bit too hard Elliot, I didn't stop the van. I was standing right next to you and pulled you out of the way."
His eyes held determination in them, as if trying to make me agree with something I knew not to be true. It may have worked on other people but he has yet to meet my level of stubbornness.
"No, you didn't." My jaw clenches together, unwilling to back down yet.
Edward sighs and looks away. I smile a little and claim my victory, Edward 0 and Elliot 1.
"Elliot please, just trust me." When he looks back his eyes are pleading for me to listen.
"On one condition."
He raises a single eyebrow and I take it as a cue to continue.
"You have to explain everything later."
"Fine!" He spits out, anger filling the one syllable.
"Promise me."
I don't know why but I need to hear him say he promises.
"I promise."
Even over the rain and wind I can hear the paramedics arriving at the scene followed by the sound of them trying to move the van. In the end it took a total of six EMT's and two teachers to move the van, a feat Edward did by himself. They bring stretchers to us but Edward refuses his, and he, that traitor, tries to tell them I should be on mine due to a potential head injury. Luckily I was able to persuade them against it on the condition I would ride in the back of the ambulance to the hospital. Edward on the other hand gets to ride in the front. The whole school gets to watch as I load myself into the vehicle, great. It's embarrassing and to make matters worse Charlie shows up, sirens blazing.
"Elliot!" He yells with a panicked voice, running to the ambulance. "I heard the call to the school but I didn't know who was hurt. Are you ok, are you injured?"
"I'm fine dad." I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes. I know he's just worried but this entire situation is exhausting and overwhelming. I just want it to be over.
He turns to the EMT's to get a medical opinion. I, on the other hand, shift to get a look at my truck, wanting to assess how much damage has been done. There's damage all right, but the way the damage looks is...astounding...to say the least. There near the front of my truck is a very humanoid looking dent, probably from Edward bracing himself against it. I quickly take out my phone, somehow unbroken through this entire thing, and take pictures of the dent. Now I have proof.
As I'm putting my phone up I can feel someone's eyes on me. Looking up, I scan the parking lot and find the culprit, or culprits I should say. From across the parking lot Edward's siblings are all staring at me. Their faces ranged from disappointment to fury, all but the short one, Alice, who seems to be smiling a little. Not a single one actually seemed to be concerned by their brothers safely. Almost as if they knew he would be just fine. The paramedics close the doors to the ambulance and I take my seat, knowing that even though I still have a hell of a day still ahead of me, I now know without a doubt there is something up with the Cullens. And I will get to the bottom of it, no matter what.