HELLO Readers! So apparently there are just over 1000 of you reading this story now! I hope I'm not disappointing in any way. Please let me know if there is anything you'd like to see happen (Aside from an Edward POV – I'm not confident I can do that yet) that I can try and work in. Also I hope you are all okay with the slightly OOC Edward. I like to think he's sort of playing off of the confidence and sass that my Bella brings to him, instead of the more angsty and blank Bella of the real SM universe. But enough from me…
My truck arrived mysteriously and suddenly within the hour. I hadn't expected to hear it over the rain, but I had been checking every few minutes for some sign. When Charlie got home that night he didn't mention the biology incident, so he either hadn't heard, or didn't consider it too pressing. We started to watch a baseball game together, and I filled him in about the beach trip to La Push that was happening on Saturday. I think he felt guilty about leaving me alone too often, and I wanted to let him know that I was fine.
"Maybe you'll see Jacob and Billy when you're out that way. I think Rachel and Rebecca are still out of town, but there could be a couple of familiar faces." He smiled. I remembered Billy Black. He was my dad's best friend, and they went fishing together every weekend. If I saw Billy this weekend, I'd be seeing him with Charlie no doubt. Jacob was unfamiliar to me. Rebecca and Rachel I did remember as we'd been thrown together quite a few times when we were children.
"I'm sure. I'll also have most of my school friends too dad. Angela, Mike, Jessica, Ben, Eric, to name a few."
"Well, in case I don't see you before you go, enjoy it Bells." He signed 'Have fun Bells' and I smiled at him.
"You really have been working on your signing haven't you? Clearly aren't busy enough down at the station."
We sat quietly for a while longer, but as I really didn't know anything about baseball, or have any incentive to find out, I excused myself to go to bed early. I'd had a relatively exhausting day, after all. My dreams were once again restless.
I was in a car. Lights were flashing past me. Not streetlights, the headlights of a busy highway. I could hardly see out of my window because of the rain. I turned my head to look at the driver, and I was unsurprised. Instead of the usual girl from my school, Edward was driving us again, and his skin was shimmering with light. He looked at me, and like clockwork, I looked at the speedometer. We were going fast. Far, far too fast. As I looked back at Edward I noticed he was still looking at me, this time with a confident smirk. Suddenly the car jerked sideways, and my hair lifted in front of my face as if pulled up by strings. It fell to the right slightly, then left, then down to my chin again, as the lights outside danced in circles. My eyes focused back onto the golden ones. He began to move, unnaturally fast, towards me, protectively. His eyes never left mine as we spun helplessly – me cradled in his arms - and suddenly there was a bone shattering snap in my leg.
I woke tangled in blankets with my leg aching from the effort of tensing for too long. Daylight was streaming onto my face. It was lighter outside? Not quite sunny, but not as darkly overcast as before. I looked out onto the suddenly emerald green surroundings that had seemed so gloomy yesterday. I showered, and got dressed in an optimistic lace shirt and some jeans. I had a quick breakfast and looked for my schoolbag for a moment. It took a minute of me searching to remember that it was in the foot well of my truck. I opened the front door, locked it after me with the key from the eave, and hopped into my truck. There was a note, folded in half on my passenger seat. I opened it with a more than mild curiosity.
Bella,
I asked Alice to leave this on the seat for you.
My parents have decided to take us on an extended camping trip.
We leave early in the morning, and won't return for a few days.
Enjoy your weekend – and try not to faint about anything until I get back.
Edward
"Ha ha." I muttered as I put the note in my bag. His script was so elegant and beautiful that even this hastily concocted note looked like something out of a graphic design department. He'd cared enough about my well-being to leave me a note. He'd cared that I'd notice him gone today. I should probably give him my number if he wanted to fill me in like my other friends. Would he use it? These thoughts along with some unexpected happy feelings kept my brain occupied as I drove to school. No one was there yet. In my haste to enjoy the lighter weather I hadn't checked the time all morning. I had an hour to go until classes began. I sat at a table in the cafeteria, and dutifully tried to get ahead on my homework. I even texted my mom a little before a shadow appeared in my view of the table. I turned around to see Mike there.
"I was calling…"
"Sorry – I guess I was a little wrapped up in my thoughts." I chuckled. "How are you? Excited for the beach trip tomorrow?" I was trying to get him back to his old talkative self. He perked up straight away.
"Yeah! We've divided up the cars so that we should all fit in two." My stomach clenched and my brain whirled to find a quick reason to go early.
"Actually Mike, if it is alright with you, I have to drive my truck down there in the early morning. Something's a little off, and since the Blacks – the family we bought it from – fixed it up themselves, I wanted to check if they had any ideas." I mentally high-fived myself. That was by far the fastest, most plausible and detailed excuse I had ever come up with. Mike seemed partially deflated, until I added, "Honestly, I'll probably beat you to the beach. Need me to bring anything?"
We kept talking for a few minutes, until the bell rang. We headed to class as though everything were normal, but my day seemed abnormally dull, despite the lighter mood amongst students and even the weather. I could pin it to the absence of a certain family, although I kept fingering the note in my bag that Edward had left me. Of course there were the fainting comments from yesterday – Jessica seemed to get a kick out of them especially – but no one had really noticed Edward's involvement. At lunch time I kept Angela's attention for the whole hour, catching up a little on the events of yesterday's classes, and covering a little bit of mine and Edward's lunchtime conversation, without letting on that I had seen him again later in the day.
"I've never seen him sit with anyone but his family before." Angela said quietly. "I think that's a positive sign." She seemed quietly excited about my interaction with Edward, while Jessica was listening, and glowering at me. I could have sworn she muttered 'I thought it was weird' but I wasn't entirely sure. Lauren and her muttered amongst themselves, and I tried not to peek, but when I did, I caught my name.
" – why Bella just doesn't sit with the Cullens from now on." Lauren said. I really didn't know her well at all, certainly not enough for her to dislike me.
I tried not to look at whatever response Jessica had. I didn't need to be the topic of the school for a third time. I sighed. Which was worse: Phoenix Pity or Forks Focus? They sounded like bad car names. I was starting to miss the avoidance that came with pity, and dislike the jealousy that came with focus. Other than lunch, the day went by relatively normally and although it seemed to drag on, I tried to keep myself focused and busy. I got caught up and then extra ahead on my homework, and copied Angela's notes thoroughly – almost to the degree of neatness and detail that she had written them.
When I got home I was relaxed, and eager to get my chores out of the way so that I could look forward to the weekend ahead. I did laundry, cleaned the kitchen and started dinner, and was mid-way through cleaning my room when Renee called. I video-chatted with her as I cleaned, and made my way back down stairs to check on the lasagna I had in the oven. I nearly threw my phone up in shock when I saw a figure in the kitchen. It was Charlie, who had apparently managed to avoid my notice on his way in, and he looked up at me to apologize.
"Geez Bells, I didn't mean to scare you. You okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. Didn't hear you come in."
I said goodbye to mom, and checked on the food. It was almost done. I then asked Charlie for the address to Billy Black's place. I'd have to have some evidence that I'd tried to go there if Mike asked. Once I had the scrap of paper, and had told Charlie the excuse I had concocted to skirt out of carpooling, I went back upstairs to shower and hit the bed. I had intended to get up early, but the sun woke me before my phone started buzzing. It was actually sunny outside. Maybe today wouldn't be so horrendous after all.