Whaddup folks? Surprise Friday Post! Hahah!

We headed out into the rain, and I tilted my face upwards to let the cool water refresh my face. I felt a million times better than I had, and focusing on the cold sensation was exactly what I had needed. I opened my eyes again and realised that Edward was staring bemusedly at me.

"What?" I asked, defensively. "What do you do when you're sick?"

"I don't get sick," he frowned slightly, then smiled in a nasty and reminiscent way. "Well I had the flu once, and it killed me."

"Well I've never had the flu, but I feel queasy enough around blood that I've thrown up a few times. Think I gave myself a concussion once when I lost consciousness." We were walking towards my truck when suddenly Edward pulled me backwards. I stopped instantly, turning to look at him in confusion.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" He looked annoyed and sort of scary.

"I'm...I'm going home?" I stated, but I definitely felt like I'd asked it.

"You're not driving yourself home," he snapped back "Didn't you hear me promise to get you home safely?"

I glared at him sarcastically. "Actually no." I hoped my annoyance filtered through. He didn't back down though, dragging me towards his car. He let me go when I was right beside the passenger side door. He walked to the driver's side and raised his eyebrows at me.

"Do you have a memory forming or retaining disorder?" I asked coolly. His anger flickered and was replaced by confusion.

"No. Why?"

"Because you already forgot about my inability to hear low conversations, and now you're forgetting the entire conversation about driving to Seattle we had this morning." I quipped. I could feel angry tears welling. "I. Don't. Do. Passenger."

We stared at each other for a moment, and he closed the driver's side door and rested his arms against the car roof.

"You are not fit to drive home," he started.

"I could walk." I countered. "It's only two miles, and I run further than that all the time." He stood up fully again, opened the door, put his keys in the ignition, left them there, and closed the door again. He then walked around me and we began to head towards my truck. So I was driving then? I was about to ask when he opened his hand for my keys.

"It's not the car that's the issue," I began, but this time he interrupted me.

"I'll need your keys if my sister Alice is going to be dropping your truck home after school." he clarified. I dropped them into his hand, and he placed them in the ignition, and my school bag in the footwell on the passenger side. He shut the door, and looked at me.

"Lead the way."

I blinked a few times.

"What?"

"I said 'lead the way'." he repeated it slower and louder.

"No I heard it, but I'm not sure I follow. You are going to walk, two miles in the rain with me, to keep a promise to Mrs. Cope?" I scoffed. He looked deadly serious for a moment.

"Not for Mrs. Cope. I will keep that promise though. I will deliver you home safely," his face lightened again. "We can call this a practice run for Seattle if you like."

Being alone with Edward for 45 minutes would not even be close to the worst thing to happen to me this year. Especially this new, talkative, and slightly charming Edward. Was I crazy to want to be around the super fast, super strong, super secretive stranger that had so ardently despaired at the thought of even looking in my direction for several weeks? Oh yes. Completely.

"What are we practicing, sarcasm?" I laughed gently, resigned.

He smirked back at me and got out his phone as we began walking. He quickly typed a text, undoubtedly to Alice, informing her of the situation she was now in.

"Alice doesn't have to bring my truck home. I could just walk in tomorrow morning." I offered. Edward shook his head as if that were the most ridiculous thing proposed today. And we walked.

It was raining on and off, and misting between, so as we walked we both got progressively drenched. We started out in silence, and then Edward hopped in front of me, walking backwards and facing me, presumably so that I could see his lips more clearly.

"I appreciate the effort. But you're going to fall over."

"I have excellent balance Bella. I'm fine. This makes it easier for you?"

"Yes, of course. I can read your lips and the sound of your voice is more direct."

"Well then I shall endeavor to face you when we converse. And of course, catch your attention in the first place."

"Please don't go out of your way." I rolled my eyes at him. "Although today's trek makes me think that I'd be better off trying to convince you to juggle swords than to go out of your way."

He looked thoughtful for a moment while he continued walking backwards.

"You know, I don't think I've ever tried to juggle," he confided. "At least not that I recall."

"Well don't look at me. I can barely catch."

"Your coordination does seem a little limited sometimes." I scrunched my nose in response and he smiled. And then we were quiet for a long stretch.

"Can I ask a question?" I blurted.

"You can ask," he said, carefully, his eyes guarded.

"Why did you start speaking to me again? Really." I watched him frown slightly and then he answered in a slow and careful way, as if he were unsure or trying to translate something.

"I didn't want to keep ignoring you. It would have been better if I had been able to, but you are too tempting a - to me. What were you thinking? Why did you say that, or do this? It got infuriating. I think the last straw for me were the boys lining up at your door. Were you really going to Seattle or just trying to be diplomatic?"

I waited a few seconds while he shrugged and wiped a long strand of wet hair away from his eyes.

"Okay I'm relatively sure you said "mystery' but it totally looked like "mistress' so I was confused for a split second." I clarified. He nodded and smiled again "And you could have just asked. I didn't realize I was being so confusing." Or that you were watching. I added silently. I wasn't used to being on someone else's mind. "Also, I really wanted to go to a bookstore and avoid the school dance, so it was a two birds, one stone, kind of scenario."

"If I had asked you, would you have said no?" He blurted speculatively. I laughed.

"Go to an event I hate with a supernatural boy who hates me? Lemme think about that one." He glared at me for bringing up the reason he wasn't supposed to be speaking to me. I smiled back and then really thought about it. "I probably would have said yes at the time. You are easy on the eyes after all." I deflected from the seriousness of my statement. This time he laughed and louder, more freely than before.

"Well thank you Miss Swan. You aren't bad yourself." He looked up at me seriously and I blushed, but tried to cover it by wiping rain away from my face. "Wait - you said 'at first'. What do you mean by that?"

"I would have figured out a way to cancel. Faked an illness or injury. Actually injured myself. The usual." I shrugged. "Can I ask another one?" We were approaching my house and I wanted to know something. He looked at me expectantly.

"I know why you started talking to me, and even why you stopped talking to me... But what I can't figure out, is why you risked all that you did to save me from that van in the first place." I waited quietly.

"That wasn't a question." He diverted.

"Why did you save me from the van? You can't share how, I know and will respect it even, but why?"

We were on my driveway. And I watched as he frowned and stared off down the road we had walked down. I turned to look too there was nothing there. I looked back at him.

"I don't know, Bella. I don't know." His eyes burned with some untold emotion as he stared at me. All of a sudden he started to walk past me, back towards the school.

"You're welcome to come in." I stammered out. He had to walk another two miles back. He turned back toward me so I could see his response.

"Thank you, but my siblings will be along any moment. And I have some explaining to do... Don't worry. Alice will have your truck here before Chief Swan gets home."

And he walked briskly out of sight.