Chapter 5: Heart
Chapter 5: Heart
The past few days of school, Edward had been absent. I couldn't help but feel partially responsible for it.
"Has any one person smelled better to you? Much better?"
"It's Bella, isn't it?"
"Do what you must to resist, son. I will miss you."
No, I was the reason for his sudden disappearance. And I felt worse because of it. As if, I didn't already feel like a pile of dirt. And the lack of sleep I've had just made purple semicircles under my eyes. But hey, I had a grade-point average to keep. No sleeping during class.
It was snowing today when I got up. I took an alternative route to my classes, seeing to it that I wasn't hit with any snowballs. Mike was organizing some kind of snowball wars or something. He didn't realize the dark clouds, indicating rain, which would ruin his plans. But hey, that was Mike.
It was lunchtime once again. When I entered the cafeteria, I felt anxiety in the pit of my stomach. I had no idea why, though. I decided to just buy a drink and sit down. I needed to fill my stomach with something. I knew that it was pointless, but I looked over to the Cullens' table only to find that…
He was back. I was whispering a stream of profanities in my head. You could call me a bit of a 'goody-two-shoes.' I saw the Cullens laughing and playing, which in some way thwarted my suspicions at their humanity.
Then, I saw Edward's head about to turn in my direction. I looked down before I gave a chance for our eyes to meet, hiding in my arms.
"Edward Cullen is staring at you," Jessica whispered to me.
"He doesn't look angry, by any chance, does he?" I asked nervously.
"No," she reported, "should he be?"
"I don't think he likes me very much," that was a major understatement.
"I already told you," she reassured, "The Cullens don't like anybody. Well, that is, they don't notice anybody enough to like them. But he's still staring at you."
"Stop looking at him!" I whisper-shouted. She giggled and then did what I said. The rest of the time was spent looking at the table. Even though I wanted to look some more. You know, try to give an incentive to think that the Cullens were human, and that I was probably overanalyzing like I usually do.
The bell rung, and with my very recently freed leg, walked to class. It wasn't that difficult. My leg was slightly cramping from the disuse, but it wasn't at all difficult. I got to my seat, seeing that Edward wasn't there yet. Was he going to cut class? That possibility fueled my hope. Hope that I wouldn't have to see those vicious, black eyes again.
I grabbed my personal notebook for sanity. I needed to do something. The notebook I took out was one I used for writing songs. But it was something I hadn't done in a long time. In this moment where I needed to take my mind to a place far away, I was about to continue something that was left hanging years ago.
Inside Your Heaven
The words that I (actually by Carrie Underwood) had written on top of the page, back when I thought that my heart was capable of loving… But over time, it hardened. I forgot how to trust, forgot how to love… Dormant was my heart now, creating a shell around it. I didn't want to get hurt. Not again.
I slightly jumped when I heard a metal scrape against the linoleum. But my heart didn't react, just to be expected. I tried to concentrate on putting words to the melody in my mind. I might as well finish what I started.
"Hello," a soft, velvety voice greeted. I jumped again, but once again, my heart didn't react. Out of courtesy, I finally looked up. He was smiling. I found myself looking into his honey-colored eyes, and he was staring back. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks.
"My name is Edward Cullen," he began politely, "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan." Who was this and what had he done with the cold-blooded murderer sitting beside me last week? This obviously was not the same person I encountered last week. He certainly looked the same. Same bronze-colored hair, same pale white skin, same facial features…
"Is something wrong?" he asked. I closed my notebook, deciding to finish it later.
"No… How do you know my name?" I asked.
"Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive," he answered. I frowned.
"No," I said, "I meant, why did you call me Bella?"
"Do you prefer Isabella?" he seemed confused.
"No, I like Bella," I blushed, "But I would think that my uncle, Charlie, would be calling me Isabella behind my back. I mean, when I first got here, that's what everyone called me."
"Oh," he said. After half a second he said, "My father, I believe you've met him, called you Bella when he was talking about you." Then he looked away quickly. Was he scrambling for an excuse or something? Inconsistency…
"Get started," Mr. Banner instructed. I had forgotten that Edward and I would be partners.
"Ladies first, partner?" Edward offered. I stared at him blankly in disbelief. What, was he raised in the twentieth-century or something? The chivalry was something I wasn't used to. "Or, I could start, if you wish," he said quietly.
"No, I'll go first," I blushed again as I looked under the microscope. After a moment's glance, I began to remove it, "Prophase…"
"Do you mind if I look?" his hand moved to stop mine. There was static, but it wasn't normal. It was an electric shock that emitted from a cold substance: his skin. I yanked my hand out of the way.
"I'm sorry," he said, and then looked under the microscope. "Prophase," he agreed. He wrote it down on the piece of paper with perfectly legible handwriting. He changed the slide and looked at it for half a second. "Anaphase," he said as he wrote it down.
"May I?" I asked idiotically. If he was able to identify the first slide correctly, of course he wouldn't get this one wrong. He slid the microscope towards me and I looked only to find he was correct. I frowned at my own stupidity.
"Slide three?" I held out my hand for the slide, not removing my eyes from the eyepiece. I felt him drop it onto my hand, not touching my skin. But I still felt the atmosphere cool down. I never noticed the temperature change last time because I left too abruptly.
I changed the slide and glanced at it, "Interphase…" I shivered. I held my sweater in closer, only to realize that it exposed the cuts on my wrists. "Shoot," I muttered as softly as possible as I too abruptly covered them, accidentally hitting the microscope and causing it to slide to the edge of the table. I reached to grab it when Edward's slender fingers beat me to it. Our skin made contact again; I immediately pulled my hand away.
"I'm sorry," I looked down.
"It's alright," he smiled –to comfort me, I guessed –crookedly. My heart thumped, and I was sure that he heard it. He made my heart beat… It was probably nothing. We continued like this for the next two slides, and it didn't take that long. We were the only ones done. Everyone else seemed to be having problems.
I caught myself staring into his eyes again, as he gazed back, noticing a slight… no, a major difference.
"Did you… get contacts?" I asked abruptly.
"No," he smiled.
"Oh, I thought that there was something different about your eyes…" Suddenly, Mr. Banner showed up. He looked over our answers,
"So Edward, didn't you think Isabella should get a chance under the microscope?"
"Bella," he corrected before answering, "Actually, she identified three of the five." I really wished he didn't say that.
"Have you done this lab before?" Mr. Banner asked.
"Not with onion root…" I blushed, embarrassed.
"Whitefish blastula?" he probed. I just nodded. "Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix?" I nodded again. "Well," he pursed his lips as he left, "I guess it's good you two are lab partners."
Sure, you could call it good… If good meant driving me insane with a lab partner who had a multiple personality disorder. What was worse was that we had another half hour left… I opened my notebook to try to finish the damned lyrics to the damned song, hoping that the rest of the time would be silent. I was wrong.
"It's too bad about the snow, isn't it?" Edward said.