'You can do this, Edward. You can do this. You just need to take baby steps.'

I kept repeating said words in my head as I walked in the direction of the most difficult and nerve wrecking step I had ever had to take in my life. I would be sweating if vampires could. My nervousness was unparallel. The fidgeting of my otherwise calm hands was an indication to the mental state I had found myself in. I took a deep unnecessary breath, bracing and braving myself to do this. I needed all the courage I could gather….

Okay fine, my nervousness and melodrama in the current situation was a little overhyped. I was not out there fighting any war. I was just in the noisy, terribly painful for my mental health, cafeteria of our high school, but have you ever had to gather the strength to walk up to your crush and ask her if you could sit with her? It is shockingly, exhaustingly, nerve wrecking. And, Leah was not only just my crush. I was in love with her. The situation was a thousand times more serious. I could not afford any blunders over here. This had to go well. There were no two ways on this.

Leah Clearwater was a mystery in herself. She was no loner, at least her thoughts never indicated to that. Apart from her ex fiancé who was a year older than her and had been her best friend at one point of time, she had quite an entourage to herself. She had been extremely popular back in her old school. She had always been surrounded by friends and was never the loner of the year, but still, the Leah that had walked into the gates of Forks High wanted nothing to do with crowds or gossip. She kept to herself, never talking to anyone more than the necessary few words. She sat on the corner table in the cafeteria, alone, and never even looked up from her tray of food. She just did not want anything to do with anyone. She was broken and hurt…. and I was going to kill Sam Uley the next time I saw him.

I know, I know, it was not his fault. He did not mean to hurt her. He could not have fought the imprint. It was just not possible to fight it, but still I hated him for it. He had hurt the girl who meant the world to me. How could I ever forgive him for that… though in hindsight, if he would not have broken her heart, she would have never moved to Forks high and met me…. so, do I need to tell him 'thank you' for that? I hope not. I don't think I could hold a mature conversation with the guy after how he'd left Leah. It was just not possible.

At least I was sure of one thing though. I had made up my mind. I was just not going in this with the intention of only friendship, even if Carlisle insisted that that was all she needed at the moment. Sure I would give her time and patience, but I was not going to pretend that I only wanted to be her friend. That tactic just did not end well. I was not going to be the friend zoned guy, babysitting her children in the future, while she and her husband went out on a date… Nope, not happening. I shuddered at the mere thought of that. Yeah, I would be sure to tell her that I was looking for much more than just friendship.

Emmett's advice too was directly thrown out of the window, though I had taken a little more effort in dressing up this morning. I had worn the best clothes in my closet, and had even combed my mess of a hair. I could look attractive for her…. whatever worked to get her to fall in love with me. Rosalie's advice, was well crap, and so easily pushed aside. My jumping off a cliff, not like it would do any harm to me, was only beneficial to Rosalie Hale. Leah though had violent thoughts of killing her ex or at least permanently damaging him, was generally not a very violent person. She would not derive pleasure from another's pain, at least not until she knew that I had feelings for her. After that all bets were off…

Jasper and Alice's advice was good, but I wasn't sure of it. I did not want to depict myself to Leah as a useless spendthrift who tried to buy affection. She was not the kind to be won over by gifts….. maybe I could start with the small tokens such as flowers and chocolates, but I was not going to do that till I was sure of it, and also that was Sam's forte. He had loved gifting Leah her favorite candies….. So yeah, we were quite not going there. Esme's advice was by far the best one for me. I could be a gentleman. I was born to be a gentleman. Chivalry was almost like my middle name.

I almost pat my back in pride. I was not egoistical or narcissistic in any way, but I could easily do chivalry.

Yeah! 'Go Edward!' I cheered for myself, before realizing that I was an idiot for mentally cheering for myself. I hid the embarrassment of my face, before walking across the room, confidently. Girls liked confidence in guys. I had heard that in the thoughts of my female classmates. A person who was confident in his own skin was very attractive according to most of them.

I risked a look at my siblings; they were sitting on our usual table, staring at the tray filled with food lying in front of them. Alice looked angry and simultaneously annoyed. She still held hope that I would give into her wishes and put my efforts in wooing Isabella. Yeah, I was really not interested. I made the decision of ignoring Bella once again in my head and smirked when Alice pouted from her place across the room. It was just so easy to rile her up.

Emmett's thoughts and expressions were more on the verge on excited. He was always in the mood to experience something new that had the possibility to break the monotony of our life. He craved excitement. He craved newness. Poor guy was stuck in a life where nothing new happened, ever. My falling for Leah was the most exciting thing that had happened in our family in decades. Yeah, poor guy! I felt bad for him.

Rosalie's thoughts were murderous. She was making plans of burning my body parts, or at least hiding them so far from one another that I would never be able to find them again. So far she had settled on hiding my left leg in Alaska and right in Paris. My left hand was going to be hidden in India and my right hand in Australia. I quickly zoned out when she started thinking of where she would hid my little Edward.

I covered my said body part with my hand in defense. Hey, I may be a virgin, and even maybe… slightly prudish in my approach, but I was still a, stuck in a seventeen year old body, guy. That was practically the most important part of my body, and a threat to it would not be taken lightly.

Rose laughed loudly, almost as if she was the mind reader here. Huh! Revenge would be coming for you, Rosalie Hale, be rest assured.

Jasper's thoughts were supportive, to say the least. He did not like my mingling with a human. It was dangerous was what he said, but he also believed that if it had been Alice in Leah's place, he would not have been able to stop himself.

I nodded my head at him, silently sending him my gratitude.

I took one last deep breath before opening my mouth. I had reached my destination- Leah's table.

"Hey, can I sit here?"

She looked up from her tray she had been continuously staring into. Her beautiful brown eyes met with my light golden ones- I had fed last night. I could never be too careful with my singer being in the same school as me- before an expression of confusion took over her features. Her trademark frown then took over in place of the confusion that had been evident on her face.

Ahh, I recognized the gesture. It was the trademark Leah frown- her reflex whenever she wanted to show people that she was unaffected by their action. Anger was her cover up. It had been ever since 'it'. Damn it! I was going to kill Sam Uley.

"Why?" she said slowly, her eyebrow rose in judgment and disdain, she was scaring me into running away, like she had successfully done with all the other stupid kids who had dared to get close to her, Like I would even let them good close to her.

I smiled back at her, conveying my response without words 'Nope Love, that trick just won't work on me.'

She huffed audibly, her mind churning out new tactics to get me to leave her alone.

The smile on my face widened. I was here to stay. I was not going anywhere…. Now if only she would know that.

"Don't you generally sit with your 'siblings'?" she spat out the last word, her thoughts revolving around Seth and what she considered a betrayal. Her younger brother had betrayed her by choosing to join her ex's gang.

Oh, Leah, I wish you knew the truth.

I shrugged in reply, trying to be as nonchalant as I could "They will manage. Now, can I sit here?" I pointed towards the empty chair beside her.

She rolled her eyes, internally spouting creative curse words at me. Wow! She really did not like to be interrupted. I did not even know that these many abusive words exist. How on earth did she know so many?

"This is a free country," she said finally, as I sat beside her on the chair, my happiness out of control.

"I am Edward Cullen." I began. The name was generally the best place to begin a conversation.

She rolled her eyes again, almost as if I was burden she now had to face.

Okay, that hurt a bit…

"Like anybody could be unaware of the Cullen Kids, I would have to live under a rock to accomplish that in a small town and even smaller school that we had here." her voice was harsh. She was not going to make this easy for me, but I was also not one to quit easily.

"And, you are?" I kept the smile on my face, ignoring her harsh words. Love was difficult. You often had to work for it.

She sighed loudly. She hated talking about herself, even if was just the introductions, and more importantly, to anybody else.

"Leah," she said finally "Leah Clearwater."

I smiled big "It is nice to meet you."

She rolled her eyes, the only reply I got, before she went back to staring at her food. Silence took over our table, and I thought of ways to get us out of it. What could I talk about? There had to be something that would be the ice breaker here…..

"Don't you want to eat?" she broke the silence, her eyes looking at my untouched tray filled with food before she looked up to meet my eyes in question.

Right…. food. Why hadn't I thought of this? Of course, I would have to eat to keep up the pretense of being human.

"Yeah," I said nervously, picking up the piece of pizza that lay in front of me. It smelt rotten. How did people even eat this…. though obviously, it didn't smell rotten to the humans around.

'You can do this, Edward.' I gave myself the necessary courage. I had not eaten in more than a century. I would need the extra courage.

I took a small bite, the taste of it threatening me to puke it out. It was vile. Even in general human food tasted terrible to us, but this was a new level of horrible. This tasted like drinking the blood of a rabbit… those nasty creatures. Emmett had once dared me to drink their blood. Needless to say I had spat it out. Now, if only I could do that here.

I gulped the bite down, my face no doubt telling the story of my misery.

I looked up from my tray when I heard a soft laugh. Leah had just laughed, the sound too low for a human to hear, but she had laughed indeed.

I could eat a thousand pizzas for this laugh. She was even more beautiful when she laughed and smiled.

"Let me guess, not a fan of cafeteria food?" she asked amusedly.

I shook my head "Not really, you?"

She gave an almost nonexistent smile "No,"

I looked at the salad that lay before her in deep thought, before meeting her eyes once again "Yeah, I can totally understand."

She gave out a small smile, a small victory for me. I had taken the first step. I still had a long way to go though.

"So, why the sudden interest in sitting here?" she asked slowly.

I shrugged, lowering my voice to a whisper. An action done to clearly indicate that I trusted her with a secret "I was tired of being the fifth wheel. It can get exhausting."

She nodded her head in reply, deciding not to say anything ahead. Her thoughts swirled around her previous school days with Sam, and how often her old friends had complained that she and Sam would forget the world around them when they would be together.

I sat in silence beside her. Even being near her was enough for me, at least for now. Rome wasn't built in a day. It would take time to win her affection, and time was something I had in plenty.

Soon the bell rang, sooner than I would have liked it. She got up from her seat, pushing back the chair.

"I have got to go," she said hesitantly, still lost in the thoughts of her past, before she walked out of the cafeteria.

I sighed loudly, remembering back to my first actual conversation with Leah. It wasn't much, not from any angle, but it was a start nonetheless.

Now, I just had to crack the difficult shell that surrounded her, easy, right?