Chapter 15: Waterfall

"Aunt Cathy?" I couldn't believe it.

"Bella!" she ran, arms spread out wide. I met her halfway, and we embraced each other.

"Oh, Aunt Cathy, I missed you," I allowed the tears of happiness to flow from my eyes as I embraced my true mother.

"I missed you, too, Bella," she kissed my forehead and released me.

Her yellow hair flowed down her shoulders, reaching her waist. Her light skin was as clear as ever. She wore a blue, button-down blouse and denim skirt that reached below her knees. She had blue high-heeled shoes on her tiny feet.

"Bella," she shook her head, "You're a mess. You haven't been getting enough sleep, have you? Look at those eye bags!"

"I…" I began, but she cut me off,

"Please don't tell me you went back to the same monotonous outfits!"

"But…"

"And look at you! You're nothing but bones. Haven't you been eating?"

"Well…"

"It's a good thing I showed up; Charlie was right to be worried."

"Aunt Cathy!" I interrupted, "I'm extremely happy to see you and all but… What are you doing here? Where's Uncle Charlie? How long…?"

"First of all," she began, "I came because Charlie called me, and I was worried about you. He told me that you're still having nightmares and that you're depressed, and that you haven't been eating enough. So I came straight away."

"I'm fine," I insisted, "And you know how easily Uncle Charlie gets worried."

"Second," she continued, "I told Charlie to stay over at a friend's house so we could spend some 'quality time' together. And so he's staying over at the Blacks' place. Third, I'm staying over until Saturday."

"Saturday?" I exclaimed, horrified. Of course, I hadn't forgotten about Edward.

"What's wrong, Bella?" she asked.

"Bella and I actually had plans on that day," Edward informed. He stood beside us, carrying my things.

"Who's your friend?" Aunt Cathy asked.

"Aunt Cathy, this is Edward Cullen," I introduced, "And Edward, this is my Aunt Cathy."

"A pleasure," he smiled, "Bella has told me much about you."

"It's very nice to meet you, Edward," she smiled back, "Bella, is he your boyfriend?"

"Aunt Cathy!" I flushed. They both laughed.

"We're good friends," Edward said, "I think I should be going now."

"Oh, do come inside," Aunt Cathy invited, "I would very much like to know about your relationship with my niece."

"If you insist," he agreed.

* * *

"So you saved Bella from a car accident?" Aunt Cathy asked.

"Yes, and we've been friends ever since," Edward answered.

"Yeah," I agreed, "I can never thank him enough for saving my life."

"I am curious," Edward said, "What do you do, Cathy?"

"I have my own radio station and recording studio," she explained, "I'm a musician, you see."

"I assume that's where Bella gets her musical talent."

"Oh, if you like her songs, you should see what she writes."

"NO!" I retorted.

They ignored me. "Is Bella a writer?" Edward asked.

"She used to be," Aunt Cathy replied, "The last thing she wrote was a book of short stories, essays, and poems. She called it 'Word Collage (actually written by me).' You can read it if you want, here." She searched through her large purse and took out the homemade book that I had written.

"Why do you have that?" I scolded.

"I was going to return it to you," Aunt Cathy said as she handed the book to Edward.

"Oh no," I covered my face, sure that it turned bright red. First, he hears my music, now he reads my pieces.

"This is good," Edward commented as his eyes glanced swiftly upon the page. He closed it and held it out to Aunt Cathy, "Well, I should be leaving now."

"Keep the book," she pushed the book back to Edward, "Just return it to Bella."

"No, just keep it," I shook my head.

"Well, thank you for your hospitality. Have a nice evening," Edward left. After we heard his Volvo leave, Aunt Cathy faced me.

"Bella, he's very handsome," she remarked.

"Yeah," I agreed. Handsome was a major understatement, though.

"So, what are you going to wear?"

"Huh?"

"To Seattle? Surely, you must have something special you want to wear."

"Um… Aunt Cathy, I'm pretty sure you know that I have a 'special' reason why I can't wear anything else," I reminded.

"Don't worry. I have an outfit that will look good and hide your scars." She opened her suitcase and looked for something. She handed me a pile of clothes, "Go try them on."

"Gosh, Aunt Cathy, you didn't have to."

"Of course I did. You can't wear pants all your life, after all. Now go and try them on."

* * *

I woke up. Today was Saturday, finally. I jumped out of bed. I scrambled to the kitchen to stuff my face with a granola bar. I went back upstairs and brushed my teeth. Then I dressed into a white long-sleeved shirt, brown turtleneck sweater, pants, and rubber shoes.

I was happy that Aunt Cathy was still asleep; she would've bothered me about wearing that dress she bought for me. Just then, the doorbell rang.

I ran to the door and opened it. Just as I hoped, Edward was there.

"Hi," I greeted.

"Hello," he smiled, fighting back a laugh.

"What?" I asked.

"We match," he informed. I looked at what he was wearing. He was wearing the same sweater. We laughed. "Ready?" he asked. I nodded.

I walked with Edward to the driveway. His silver Volvo was there –I guess since Aunt Cathy was okay with me spending the day with Edward, he could drive. He opened the door for me and I got in. A second later, he was beside me. I wasn't surprised anymore, because I got used to it.

"Where are we going?" I asked as Edward started to drive.

"A place," he answered.

"What place?" I pressed.

"It's a surprise," he smiled.

"Can you at least give me a hint?"

"Hmm… let's just say… it's a place that you've wanted to go to for a long time."

"You read my book, didn't you?" I accused. I remembered writing about places that I wanted to go to, although, I didn't exactly remember what they were. I had written that book four years ago, after all.

"I'm finished with it, actually," he admitted, "I've just been reading it over and over. It's really good."

"No it's not," I shook my head, "I wrote that when I was thirteen."

"Why did you stop?" he asked. Time to lie… again. I hated lying to him. Maybe I could be as honest as I could be.

"Four years ago," I began hesitantly, "I… had a really bad experience. I was depressed… and the accident with my parents just made it worse…" Well, at least it was honest. "That's why I'm so grateful to you. Because I was wallowing in my sorrow, and I wasn't really living. When I met you, I became happier."

"You've done the same for me, as well," he said, "So once we get there, I'll tell you everything."

That struck a chord. He was going to be honest with me. Now I was obligated to tell him the truth. But I wasn't ready. I wasn't prepared. I would tell him, just… not yet. But what was I waiting for?

Then the car stopped. I looked up. We were at a forest. How fast was he driving?

Before I was able to completely haul myself from my subconscious thoughts, Edward opened my door for me. I internally cursed myself for being slow, and took his hand. We walked to the mouth of the forest.

"Are you ready?" Edward asked.

"We're going to hike?" I clarified. He nodded. "Well then, let's get to it." With that, he led me into the woods.

The trek seemed to take hours, but it wasn't long enough. Because I wasn't very graceful, I would trip every so often, and Edward was always there to catch me. When our skin came into contact, I could swear that my heart could beat again.

"We're almost there," Edward had said when we got to the bottom of a slope. And then we climbed up it, which I had a lot of trouble with. About halfway up, I heard rushing water and suspected a river. But I was enjoying my day with Edward too much to really think about it.

Strangely, we got to the mouth of a cave. I was hesitant, but I followed Edward in. It was completely dark –to the point that I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face –so I had to hold Edward's hand the whole time. This took another hour, and halfway there, the sound of rushing water became more defined.

When we reached the other side of the cave, where the exit was, I knew where we were. The rushing water, the cave, the slope –we were at a waterfall. I carefully walked to the opening.

The afternoon sun shone right above us, reflecting on the rushing water that covered the cave's opening. I looked down to find that we were about thirty feet above the ground. The view was amazing –the exact vision I had when I wrote about the waterfall. It was beautiful –more beautiful than I'd ever hoped it would be.

I turned to smile at Edward –the first time I'd smiled in a very long time. He was hiding in the shadows. Was he hesitant about showing me something? He took a deep breath and sighed. He walked to me, and my eyes widened at what I saw.

Edward was… shimmering. The sunlight that reflected off his skin created rainbows. He smiled back at me, showing my favorite crooked smile.

"It's beautiful," my voice was filled with awe.

"Yes," he agreed, "I remember the first time I found this place." He sat down, his legs dangling on the edge of the rock. I sat beside him. "It was nighttime. My family and I were having an argument… about you." He stared out into the sky. "Alice predicted that I would fall in love with you… I guess she was right after all."

"She can see the future…" I guessed.

"She sees the consequences of any decision," he explained, "She sees the path that a person is on. Once their decisions change, the future changes, too."

"What do the rest of them do?" I asked, staring out into the sky, too.

"Emmett is the strongest one among us. Jasper has the ability to control people's emotions. Carlisle has his compassion, Esme has her love and Rosalie has her tenacity… or you could call it pigheadedness." I laughed at that comment.

"How did you become vampires?"

"It was in nineteen-eighteen. The Spanish Influenza epidemic… I was going to die, but Carlisle saved me. Then, when Esme fell off a cliff, Carlisle changed her, and ever since, they've been in love. Then he found Rosalie on the street, dying. So he changed her, in hopes that she would mean to me what Esme meant to him." Then he faced me. "But we only love each other as relatives, nothing more."

"Rosalie found Emmett in the forest," he continued, "about to get finished off by a bear. She asked Carlisle to change him for her. As for Alice and Jasper… well, they found us together. Alice has no idea how she was changed though. She just woke up to find that she had been changed."

"I don't know if I'm scared or not…" I admitted.

"I don't want you to be afraid," he said. But he didn't say that I shouldn't be afraid.

"Where did you go… after my first day in Biology?"

"On that first day, I nearly… I went to Denali," he explained, "I couldn't get your face out of my mind. But I promised myself that I wouldn't give in to the monster. So I came back. But when I saved you from that car accident…"

"I justified later on that if you had died, with your blood spilled all over the concrete, I wouldn't be able to control myself, and I would surely expose my family. But the only reason I thought of at that moment was, 'Not her.'"

"Thank you," I said suddenly, "For letting me know more about you, and for showing me this place."

"You're welcome," he smiled.

"So…" I hesitated, "Are we going to hike back down?" He raised his eyebrow. He looked down, and then back at me, giving me a mischievous smile. "Oh no!" I stood up, "We are not jumping!"

"I promise you won't get hurt," he stood up, too, holding his hand out to me. I hesitated, but thought, "What the hell." I took it. "Are you ready?" he asked. I nodded.

Then we jumped. I screamed in exhilaration and thrill, as we splashed into the water. All my fear had disappeared, so now, I could enjoy spending time with Edward to the fullest.

I swam to the river's edge and pulled myself up. Edward was already there when I got up.

"So, how was it?" he smiled. I looked down; a pained expression crossed my face. "Bella, I'm sorry if I hurt you," he came closer to me. I looked up at him with a devilish smile. "Don't even…" Before I even gave him a chance to finish, I pushed him into the river. He grabbed onto my sweater, pulling me in with him.

Edward and I ended up splashing water at each other. We were laughing and playing like little kids. And at that moment, I could have sworn that he wasn't a vampire. He seemed so human.

We eventually got out of the water. We sat down by the river.

"That was fun," I remarked.

"Yes, that was very enjoyable," he agreed.

"So, how do we get back?" I asked. He stood up.

"Get on my back," he said. I was confused, but I did it anyway. Then, he was off.

Edward ran. Everything was a blur because of the speed. Was this how he felt whenever he ran? The wind in his hair and the feeling of freedom? Because that's how I felt. And in a few second, we were by his car. Now that everything was still, I began to feel nauseous.

"Bella, are you alright?" Edward asked, gently setting me down on the ground.

"I… I think so…" I said slowly. My head was whirling. Even so, I noticed Edward's close proximity to me. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"I just want to… try something…" he smiled as he inched closer to my face.

What did he mean?