Chapter 9: Invitation
I came back to school, as usual. I got out of my truck, as usual… My life had a large missing chunk in it. My goals were about to be fulfilled, but what would I do then? My life was a recurring series of black and white. Frozen. Time seemed frozen. Everything seemed… so… monotonous. What have I been doing all this time?
Suddenly, while I was rambling to myself the hardest questions of life, I dropped my keys. They plopped into a small puddle with a light splash. I bent down to pick them up, but then a familiar hand picked them up before me. Edward. The one who gave my life a bit more color. But right now, all he was doing was creating splashes of red.
I leaned back onto my truck, "How do you keep doing that?"
"Doing what?" he asked, holding out my key. I held out my hand for him to drop it in,
"Appearing out of thin air."
"Bella, it isn't my fault if you are completely unobservant," his words were wry, as if he were telling a joke.
I felt my heart beat for the first time in a very long time. The rhythm was something I wasn't used to. I never noticed that the beating pattern occurred every half of a second. What was wrong with it? He only said my name… He really was slowly giving my heart life.
"So, why the traffic jam last night? I thought you were supposed to be pretending I don't exist, not making my death come sooner," it was difficult to speak. My heart was thudding in my ears. I hadn't heard it in a long time.
"That was for Tyler's sake, not mine. I had to give him his chance," then he laughed. My heart stopped. Finally, it went back to normal… Well, I meant, normal for me, which meant inactiveness.
"You…" I gasped. Not only was he creating splashes of red on this picture, he was making a big red dot in the middle.
"And I'm not pretending you don't exist," he said teasingly. Now he was adding crimson to the painting.
"So are you trying to irritate me to death? Since Tyler's van didn't do the job?" I snapped. Then he looked angry. Uh oh, time to run again.
"Bella, you are utterly absurd," he snapped back. I walked away. Since there were puddle everywhere, running wasn't exactly the best idea. "Wait," he pleaded. I ignored him. "I'm sorry, that was rude," he said, easily keeping up with me, "I'm not saying it isn't true, but it was rude to say it anyway."
"Why won't you leave me alone?"
"I wanted to ask you something, but you sidetracked me," he said. He started with a new sheet of paper, starting with the color pink. My heart was working again. Was this going to be a fourth? No, I wasn't going to allow it.
"Do you have a multiple personality disorder?" I asked.
"You're doing it again," he pointed out.
I sighed, "Fine then. What do you want to ask?"
"I was wondering if, a week from Saturday…" shock crossed my face, "You know, the day of the spring dance…" I wasn't going to allow a fourth rippling effect.
"Are you trying to be funny?" I finally looked at him.
"Will you let me finish?" I bit my lip. "I heard you say that you were going to Seattle that day, and I was wondering if you wanted a ride," he offered. I stopped, my face going blank.
"What?"
"Do you want a ride to Seattle?" he breathed.
"With who?" I was bewildered by his question.
"Myself, obviously," he answered slowly.
"Why?"
"Well," his tone was casual, "I was planning to go to Seattle in the next few weeks, and, to be honest, I'm not sure that your truck can make it." Why was he doing this to me? I started walking again, and he followed.
"My truck works fine. But thank you for your concern," I said. I realized that I didn't really say no.
"But can your truck make it there in one tank of gas?" he was persistent.
"I don't see how that is any of your business," I grumbled, realizing that it still wasn't a no. My heart pattern became every tenth of a second, and I swore that he could hear it.
"The wasting of finite resources is everyone's business," he countered. Then I found a loophole.
"Honestly, Edward, I can't keep up with you. I thought you didn't want to be my friend."
"I said it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be." I stopped. My heart was on the fritz. Maybe it was from disuse. Well, I certainly hoped that was it. I looked into his eyes.
"It would be more… prudent for you not to be my friend," he stared back into my eyes, "But I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Bella." I stopped breathing. It was like my whole body disconnected from my brain and was trying to reboot. "Will you go to Seattle with me?"
"No. No! NO! You can't and you know why!" my brain was screaming. But my heart and body teamed up against it. I nodded. Why couldn't I say no to him? Now the whole sheet of paper was light pink.
"You really should stay away from me," he warned, "I'll see you in class." Then he fled.
Time had a whole new meaning for me. No longer did it seem frozen. The shell was cracked. Everyone else was using a rock, but Edward was using a sledgehammer. And it worked.
I found myself looking forward to Biology. It was strange, because at the same time, I still had fear. But that fear was slowly deteriorating, along with the shell that encrusted my heart.
The pictures were no longer black and white. It was as if I was a paper doll that was brought to life.
I was living again.