A/N: Hello!!! I know I haven't written in like over a week, I've been busy with school starting and all but this chapter is here now. Bear with me for just this one little chapter because it isn't fun filled and adventurous but I just needed to get a couple of things out of the way. Ok, enjoy! Bitten.

Two: Mischievous Games

I lay awake, not wanting to surrender to sleep, convinced that my terrible dream would return. I tried to appear as though I was asleep so that I wouldn't have to discuss my unease, Edward wasn't fooled for a second.

"Is there a reason you are depriving yourself of something so delicious as sleep?" Edward made sure the blanket was securely around me and then pulled me closer to his chest.

"Sometimes it isn't so delicious." I mumbled.

"Why's that?"

"Well, sometimes you don't get enough sleep or sometimes you have nightmares or sometimes you could spend the wasted time with the boy you love." I threw it in hoping he believed it was the reason I was holding my eyes open so that I wouldn't even consider sleeping.

"I would be here even if you were sleeping. You know that." His voice was practical and made me feel like a small child.

"But it's not the same." I whined, "I don't consciously know that you're right here with me."

"That's silly Bella."

"I'd be the first one to admit it, trust me. But that doesn't make it any less of a reason."

"Yes. I supposed but nightmares…" His voice was patronizing.

"What about them?" I asked defensively.

"Well, five year olds have nightmares."

"Five year olds also believe in vampires." I grumbled into his cold chest.

"What's that supposed to mean? You have nightmares because you believe in vampires or that you're five years old." I had trapped myself in a corner, if I said either he knew I would mean that I believed in vampires.

"No. Just that maybe five year olds aren't as childish and unknowing as you think they are, they just might be justified in their beliefs and in having nightmares." I was proud of my quick thinking and Edward let it drop.

He hummed in my ear and as much as I fought back the sleep, it fought two times harder and I was soon overcome. My dream did not return and I dreamed of superficial things that escaped with the darkness when I opened my eyes to the cloud covered morning.

"You slept well, though you did say something in Chinese." I looked at him, incredulous. "I swear it was Chinese…or something Asian." He shrugged carelessly.

"So, are we going to school today or are we playing hooky again?" I made a face. Hooky in Forks was less than exciting.

"I suppose school is alright, if you're willing to get dressed this second and waive breakfast." He gestured at the clock, we had ten minutes.

"Why don't you wake me up anymore?" I complained as I half walked, half fell to my closet. I grabbed at the first shirt in my vision and the jeans I had worn three days ago. I tried doing a tricky move that was supposed to make my shirt right-side-out and let me put it on at the same time but I ended up all tangled.

"I have been to school for decades. I've only been with you for months." He explained, gently straightening my shirt out and planting a kiss on top of my head.

"Yeah well, this is my first time and they're going to drop me if I miss too much school and then you'll be dating a high school drop out." I tugged my knotted hair into a high ponytail.

"Well mother would never have that." He laughed in mock concern.

"Can we go please?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"If you wish," He stood back and surveyed me. "Alice would be so disappointed." I could just imagine her expression at the sight of my hair in disarray and my plain jeans and t-shirt. "But I rather like it, the t-shirt especially." The t-shirt, now that I looked at it wasn't mine at all.

"Is this yours?" I was shocked. If Charlie had seen it, oh god, I cant even imagine.

"Well Bella, if I come here after school and spend the night and then go to school the next day, I would be wearing the same thing. Now that gets a bit suspicious when you and I arrive together everyday at school. We wouldn't want anyone becoming alarmed and notifying the Chief." He laughed at my bewildered expression.

I had no idea he even wore clothes. Well, that isn't true. I didn't pay attention to what he wore. "So you keep clothes here?"

"That's the conclusion. Come on, you don't want to be late." He hurried me down the stairs and out the door.

"So, how much stuff do you actually have here?" I wondered. I tried to remember washing something unfamiliar or seeing something foreign in my closet.

"Well, sometimes I don't home for days. When I leave while you and Charlie have dinner, I usually wander through the forest around the house." He smiled sheepishly, "I don't like leaving you there. Alone."

"I have Charlie." I didn't feel nearly as safe with Charlie as I did with Edward but I hated depriving Edward of his family and vice versa.

Edward snorted as he maneuvered my truck into one of the last spots in the parking lot. In a second, he was at my window. "Sure, of course. I forgot Charlie could lift whole vans off of you." My door swung open and I stepped out in to the crisp, Washington autumn air.

School was dull and incredibly uneventful. I was beginning to wonder why I had actually dragged myself out of bed to be submitted to this torture.

At lunch I began to think of inventive ways to have fun but none of which could be achieved without Edward's handy mind reading ability, which he refused to use for malice.

A few of my ideas were: listen to people's thoughts and slip notes commenting on them into their lockers, listen to people's thoughts at lunch and have a huge laugh, find people who thought badly about me and Edward and try to befriend them by using their thoughts to have everything in common with them, listen to people's thoughts about what they want and then put the items in their lockers, listen to people wondering what someone else was thinking and then writing down what the other person was thinking and put it in their locker.

The locker adds anonymity. But Edward steadfastly refused the games throughout lunch.

"I cant believe we have another seven months of this." I looked around the cafeteria at the familiar people. A group of freshmen had gathered at the end of mine and Edward's table and it confused us.

Edward made eye contact with a small girl at the end of the table and I could just imagine what she was thinking as his eyes bored into hers. Amusing even more was the flush of red that rose from her neck up to her cheeks. One side of Edward's lips rose into his most irresistible crooked smile and the girl's mouth opened slightly at his beauty.

Her eyes watered from refusing to blink and her features were frozen into an expression of shock and awe.

Edward turned away trying to contain his laughter as I gave him an accusatory look. "Please explain to me how that wasn't mean." I glared at him. "You could have caused her to faint."

I could see the strain in his neck from trying to stifle the laughter and he wouldn't dare speak in case he began to laugh. "So I was in English and we were reading this passage in…Romeo and Juliet and everyone was silent and all of the sudden, Mike Newton's pocket started playing Killer Queen by Queen and it was his phone. I think he may be sexually confused." I told the fake story loud enough for the group of freshmen to hear and it made Edward break the hold on his laughter.

"English class, huh?" He asked in a hushed voice, "I'm in your English class, I must have missed that."

"Well, you should get your hearing checked."

"It must be the old age." He mused.

"Ugh. You're not the one getting old." The thought depressed me and I inadvertently looked at the poor girl that Edward had mischievously toyed with. She looked pleased that our conversation appeared to be going downward.

"Not now please Bella." He smiled warningly. "So I have a new admirer. She seems to think we're fighting because of her."

"We aren't fighting." I retorted defensively.

"She doesn't know that. She also seems to have a crush on me." He glanced in their direction briefly.

"Gee, I wonder why." I rolled my eyes.

"It was worth it. Her mind literally froze up. She didn't know what to think, who doesn't know what to think?" He smiled at his discovery and reached across the table for my hand. Our fingers twined together. "So I was thinking we could do something this weekend. Away from Forks, my family, Charlie, all of these people."

"And what purpose would that serve?" The only answer I truly wanted, the one where he told me that he would make me like him, was the only one I knew for certain that he wouldn't say.

"I miss being just us." He pulled our twisted hands up to his mouth and kissed the back of my hand, "Please?"

There would never be a day that I refused a trip to be alone with Edward. But I wouldn't dare tell him that, he was concerned that I was too attached. There was no denying I was but still no reason to bring it to his attention even more.

"Of course. We can even take the Volvo."

"But…" Edward prompted me, he knew there must be a catch.

"No but, I'm just glad to be able to be with you. I mean you could have left. Alice saw it and I know her visions aren't permanent but it means that it really could have happened. So if you're there, I'm happy."

"I can drive?"

"It matters?"

"Well, if you drove, we wouldn't get there for years." He smiled and my heart was sent into a frenzy, pumping the unavoidable blush into my cheeks. I couldn't believe that after everything, a smile could topple my delicate balance of calmness.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he brought his cool hand up to me cheek probably in an attempt to calm the blush but the tiny public display of affection sent another wave of warmth through my cheeks.

"I should just stop trying to help huh?" He chuckled at the flush of red, "I was hoping you would come to Seattle with me. Sort of the trip we never took."

"There are people everywhere in Seattle." Didn't that defeat the purpose of 'just us'?

"Not people we know. And we could actually go on a date." He looked as though he had thought our weekend rather well.

"Going on a date seems so…I don't know. I didn't realize…I don't really know what I'm saying. I guess I don't really know how to go on a date." I just put it out there. What else could I say?

"Well, we went to prom. And that day in Port Angeles, I bought you dinner. And the meadow sort of counts." We both looked at each other wide-eyed and laughed freely at how strange this was. We were put on this planet to be together, I could feel it and I was sure Edward could too but somehow we had managed to skip the actual formal dating. Maybe it was a good thing.

"What then? Like dinner?" I asked awkwardly. That would be so strange. Not just because it would be an actual date with Edward but also because he wouldn't eat anything.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a movie. What piece of crap film has the movie industry most recently polluted the public with?"

"I'm sure there's an excellent vampire movie we could see." I teased.

"No such thing." Edward scoffed.

"You're kind of limiting our date options." I complained, "How about we just get a hotel room with-" Edward cut me off at the mention of a hotel room.

"No that's not the greatest-"

"Hi. My weekend too. Plus I wasn't going to suggest anything dirty. I was going to say that we could get a hotel room with a view of Lake Union and order room service and it would be like going to a cozy little restaurant without the fussy waiters and waitresses and sterile white linen." I thought it was a rather ingenious idea myself but he made a face.

"It wouldn't be a real date then. It would be a date substitute." The bell rang and he rose fluidly, still with my fingers locked in his. "I think we should go to Seattle, buy you something especially nice and then go out to dinner."

"There's just this one thing, you don't eat my food. Oh and another thing, I cant afford something especially nice." I knew what he was going to say next, or at least in response to my feeble financial excuse.

"Well Bella, I can. And though I know that I would never need to buy your love, I was hoping you could let me buy your forgiveness." I could feel him looking intently down at me and it took everything I had not to look into his eyes or else I would forget everything except for him.

"Forgiveness? For what?"

"Well, my brother nearly killed you and that same night I announced that I was considering leaving you. I feel as though a simple I'm sorry isn't enough. I need to do this for you Bella. I want to do something nice so that I know you know that I made a grand gesture." I had to look up at him, not being able to see him was beginning to hurt because I knew he was so close.

Damn. His eyes melted every word that had been forming in my head and I managed a weak "No." before slouching into his side as we walked into our classroom We were taking an elective entomological biology class. Apparently it sounded excellent on a college resume, something about well rounded and educated in all areas. Regardless, Edward had forced me.

"And Bella, just because I don't prefer your food doesn't mean I wont eat it so that this can work." He whispered into my ear as we walked to our seats.

"It actually sounds nice," I mumbled as I slid into my seat. I wanted him to be happy and feel good about doing this and if it made him happy, I wouldn't stop it. "Thank you."

"Thank you."He said softly and gave my hand a squeeze. Quite unexpectedly, Edward began to laugh and a moment later, I found out why.

"What can you all tell me about vampires?" Our teacher called from the front of the class as the bell rang again to signal the start of classes.

Inadvertently, I inhaled too suddenly and managed to choke on my own saliva. I gripped my desk to steady myself and stared unblinking at our teacher, I just called him Mr. Bug. What? Vampires? Weren't we in a class about bugs? Luckily no one had noticed my tiny episode and I righted myself, giving Edward a questioning look. He just smiled at me and rubbed circles around the crescent scar on my hand.

The usual string of characteristics were rattled off and with every example I had a fighting urge to laugh at the childish picture that my classmates were painting.

Mr. Bug smiled at the story book explanations, laughing slightly at one or two. "Now how about the vampires of nature?" The man asked. He was met by a deafening silence. "Mosquitoes."

That time I did actually laugh and every head in the class turned to me. "Yes Ms. um," he consulted a list of names he had at his desk/podium. "Swan? Why is this so amusing?" He smiled pleasantly, did he actually think I would give an insightful, meaningful answer for my giggle.

"Well, I guess I never really thought of mosquitoes as vampires." I stated dumbly. But they were small and pesky. They left itchy bumps everywhere and could be crushed between two fingers.

My vampire was strong and beautiful. He was perfect and indestructible, nothing like a stupid mosquito.

"Oh yes. They feed on the blood of anything with exposed flesh and have become a bothersome component of Washington's…" He droned on about the habitats of Mosquitoes and what not while I dreamed about my weekend with Edward.

A/N: Wow. It took me a while to get that out. (and for those of you who don't know what entomology is, it's the study of insects) Ok so this was kind of a filler chapter. Sorry, but the story begins to actually start developing next chapter so it will not all be like this. So hope you liked it. Next chapter will come quicker and will be more interesting, I promise. Ok. Don't forget to review! LOVE-Bitten