That night I was busy making chicken enchiladas when my phone started buzzing so quickly I thought it was ringing. It wasn't. Jessica was so excited about her texts that she was sending them one sentence at a time.

OMG.

Mike said yes!

I can't even believe it.

It's going to be so much fun.

We HAVE to go dress shopping soon.

I am so bummed you can't come.

I laughed aloud in the kitchen, and suggested Angela ask Eric, and Lauren ask Tyler to Jessica. Another buzz told me she thought the idea was amazing. I mulled over Edward Cullen. I wondered if I could possibly leave him alone. Could I stay angry at him? Probably not. Not with all I owed him. Plus – he was amazingly beautiful, graceful, mysterious, and just about everything else I had ever wanted. Even his scowls were attractive. I put the spoon down and rubbed my sore thigh. I started into a warrior pose to stretch out my legs and bent backwards towards my left leg to stretch my back and sides. I wobbled a lot but I managed to stay up. Yoga was easy on my own time. It was when I was rushed that I had problems. I transitioned to the other side and suddenly I saw the light flicker ever so slightly. I stood up and looked around the kitchen door.

"Hey Dad!" I called. He actually saluted me back – the ASL way of saying 'hello'. I smiled in return. He was working so hard. I wondered how he found the time to practice. He came in as I put the enchiladas on the plates. He was brave enough to take the first bite, even though he had probably never eaten Mexican food in his life. He was starting to enjoy my cooking, and trust me more in the kitchen – which was a big self-esteem booster.

"Dad?" I signed and said. He watched me closely. "I wanted to let you know that I'm going to Seattle, a week from Saturday, if that's okay."

"Why?" He asked, surprised.

"I wanted to check out the bookstore, get some new clothes, that kind of stuff. The bookstore here is poorly stocked."

"That truck probably doesn't get good gas mileage."

"Yeah not really, but there's plenty of places on the way to stop and get gas. I can even take an extra container if you're really worried."

He looked thoughtful for a minute and I didn't push. I stuffed another bite of enchilada in my mouth and waited.

"You going alone?"

My mouth was still full so I signed a 'yes' with my hand while I chewed quickly.

"I dunno Bells. Seattle's a big city."

"Phoenix is five times the size and I was fine there." Charlie looked at me skeptically. "Well mostly fine there. You know what I mean. I'm going to be okay. Plus I'll have my phone on me."

"Do you want me to come?" He signed 'meet' instead of 'join' and I didn't feel like correcting him.

"I'll be in and out of clothing stores and dressing rooms for most of the day, but you are welcome to come I guess if that'd be okay for you. I thought you had a fishing trip planned?" He shuddered slightly.

"No thanks. I'll stay and fish." He started eating again. Then stopped. "Hang on, isn't that the dance day? Will you be back in time?"

"Ugh. Only in a town this small would you know when the school dances were. Yeah it is. But you `know me. I'm not good with that. I suck at coordination, and my leg hurts after a while. All around unpleasant experience."

Charlie's face darkened again, and he looked thoughtful and sad.

"Right. Sorry."

We finished dinner in silence, and I headed upstairs to finish my homework, note copying, and even set up a playlist of songs to download from my ancient desktop to my phone. I had enough free time and running time that I felt like I needed some music – however warped it sounded to me now. I fell asleep, wondering if Edward Cullen would like my kind of music

In the morning, I drove to school slowly, and parked on the far end of the lot, as far from the silver Volvo as I could. I had headphones in, and the music turned up pretty loudly to try and drown out the rain, the other sounds around me, and my thoughts of Edward. Getting out of the truck I dropped my keys, and began to bend to retrieve them, when a white hand flashed out and grabbed my keys from the puddle. I jerked upright. Edward was leaning casually against my truck.

"How do you do that?" I snapped angrily. My hands froze as I realised I had also signed it at him. He was spinning the keys around his fingers, looking at them determinedly. I wondered briefly if he'd seen me sign.

"Do what?" he asked, loudly and clearly.

"Pop in and out of thin air. I'm beginning to think you have some teleportation skills you haven't shared with the rest of us." I slammed my door, and reached out my hand for the keys. He dropped them into my palm. I pocketed them and began to turn away. A light touch on my jacket shoulder pulled my head back towards him. He took the opportunity to speak again.

"I would like to think that if I had developed teleportation, I'd be using it to travel," he circumvented. I rolled my eyes at him, and focused on his lips.

"Why the traffic jam last night? I thought you were supposed to be pretending I don't exist, not irritating me to death."

"That was for Tyler's sake, not mine. I had to give him his chance." He snickered. My teeth clicked together as I ground my teeth in annoyance. This man was probably the one reason I should have pretended to be fully deaf. I could ignore him all the more. Half of me really didn't want to though.

"Jerk." I said, signing 'dick' in my head.

"And I'm not pretending you don't exist." He started again. "I just wanted to express to you that it's better if I could pretend you didn't exist. Thankfully, I don't appear to be strong enough to keep away from you."

I had clearly misread and misheard some of those words wrong. Either that or he was speaking in riddles. I closed my eyes for a second to process. Nope. Still didn't make much sense.

"What?" I asked, sighing. Why did I want to know so badly? I wasn't watching where I was going – too busy looking at his lips for a response – and my foot caught a curb I hadn't noticed was there. I didn't make it to the ground though, Edward had once again managed to catch me, pulling me gently upright before letting me go.

"Would you please watch where you're going?" he snapped quickly at me. Now it was my turn to get angry again. Fantastic way to start my morning.

"I can't." I spat back. "Too busy –" reading lips. I blushed at what I'd almost admitted, and turned away quickly, angrily sloshing through the rain. Another tap on my shoulder as his dark figure settled into pace quickly beside mine.

"I'm sorry. That was rude and inconsiderate of me. I seem to let my - get out of hand with you." I was moderately sure I'd heard 'ton' and had to consider the context before clicking the word 'tongue' into the sentence. I'm sure my extended silence was taken as a rejection of his apology and suddenly he was in front of me.

"I truly am sorry. For everything." I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. He looked so sincere that I couldn't doubt him. He was apologizing for the rudeness, the distance, the quips, all of it. I shouldn't have looked at his eyes. I could barely remember the things he was apologizing for. They were so intense.

"It's fine." Now that we were inside, I looked around, trying to catch sight of a clock, and suddenly noticed that people were staring at me – at us. Oh great. Another reason to be the center of attention. A quick tap on my arm brought my attention back to Edward. Had I missed him saying something? He didn't look impatient, just like he was catching my eye before he wanted to speak next. That was something that Charlie and Angela did, but no one else. My eyes squinted in suspicion at him. Had he guessed I was hearing impaired?

"Anyway. You distracted me. I had something to ask you, and you sidetracked me," he explained. I waited. I was definitely being the rude one this morning. "I was wondering if, a week from Saturday, you know – the day of the spring dance…."

"Are you trying to be funny?" I whispered angrily at him. I thought about repeating myself, but he seemed to have heard me, and held up a gesture of 'wait'.

"Will you please allow me to finish? I heard you say you were going to Seattle that day and I was wondering if you wanted a ride."

I blinked, confused. I had definitely read that wrong. It sounded like he was trying to give me a ride to Seattle. What else could he have said though? Worried a rice?

"I'm sorry – did you just ask if I wanted a ride to Seattle?" I confirmed. He nodded in response. "You want to drive me to Seattle?" He nodded again, smirking, but patient. "Why?"

"Well, I was planning to go to Seattle soon, and I figured some company wouldn't be disagreeable. Also I'm not entirely convinced your truck can make the trip." Sass and quips. So much for that apology.

"Well I'm not entirely convinced that your company wouldn't be disagreeable. And lay off my truck." I hadn't said no though. The idea thrilled me. A four hour journey, one way with Edward Cullen. Eight hours overall. Could I stand that? Would we be impartial and quiet, or talkative and sassy like today? I almost said yes, and then I remembered that awfully crippling fear I have regarding other people driving. That was a little bit of a mood dampener for sure.

"Honestly Edward. I'd like to say yes," I started, letting down the mean and offensive character I had built up with him over the past few minutes. "But I kind of have an issue with other people driving. I'm not… I mean… I don't feel safe." I was definitely blushing. Hard. Angry and self-shaming tears were making my vision every so lightly blurry and I scowled at myself, beginning to turn away. He caught my attention again, by ducking his head into my vision.

"I…" he paused, looking pained, "wouldn't be entirely opposed to you driving us." Such a liar. He was totally opposed, and was only offering out of gentlemanly courtesy. His hand were clenched into fists and he looked like he'd rather eat mud, but he tried to smile at me. "Honestly."

I laughed. He must be reaaaaally wanting to prove that he was not a total jerk. "You'd absolutely hate it wouldn't you?" I clarified. His smile dropped and his nose scrunched.

"Yes. But I want to prove to you, that I'm… well that I'm not the awful person I've made myself out to be. I'm tired of trying to stay away from you Bella. And if that means I have to endure your truck for a few hours, I can deal with it."

I stared back at him in real surprise. It was probably the most honest, and yet nicest, thing that had come through his lips in the past few minutes.

"Okay." I agreed, hoping my expression conveyed my newfound appreciation. He straightened, and nodded.

"Good. See you in class."