Burning Candles

Summary: (Set during Twilight) Curious because of Edward's strange behavior towards her, Bella decides on her second day in Forks to confront him and decides to pay him a visit… to his house. She never expected him to attack her though.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything…except for Devon Sanders.

Chapter 6: Nineteen Stars

"You're wrong." I stated simply.

He narrowed his topaz eyes playfully and looked down at our intertwined fingers and then back up at me. I was glad for the sunless day so that we could go outside. I bit my bottom lip tentatively as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my temple. "I am never wrong Bella, you shouldn't be so confident." Edward breathed against my skin and I rolled my eyes. Normally, I would have melted at this comment, but I was so used to his cockiness that it was just a usual thing for me.

"You shouldn't be so confident." I countered as he pulled me closer to him, wrapping an arm protectively around my waist. "I'm not the one who said that they could run the fastest out of all of us."

"Yes, but it's true." He protested.

I rolled my eyes good-naturedly at him and wrapped my arm around his waist. "Mhm, you are just so full of yourself, aren't you?" I asked and he looked up towards the sky innocently. "Knew it," I muttered underneath my breath—knowing that Edward heard me.

"School starts tomorrow," he said, deciding to change the subject. "Are you excited?"

"No," I moaned and pressed my head against his shoulder as his arm instantly tightened around my waist. "I don't want to go to school, school is so boring." I groaned and buried my face into the safety of Edwards' shoulder.

"But it's good for you Bella!" Edward protested.

"Thanks Dad, I always knew that school was good for me." I commented dryly and Edward sighed loudly—the feelings of my sarcasm sinking in.

Edward pulled away from me and proceeded to pull me to my feet. I groaned as he only smiled and pulled me back towards the house. Over the last week, we had become an official couple since the night at the lake. It had been exactly as I pictured it, utterly perfect. I was so amazed and delighted by everything that had been happening since Edward kissed me, that I couldn't believe I lived seventeen years of my life without him and the rest of the Cullen family. It was weird how things happened, but at the moment when Edward took me to the lake—I knew that I was in love with him. I was told a little later, that he was in love with me also. We had decided to take things 'slow' and just figure each other out before we did anything drastic like get married like Carlisle and Esme or Alice and Jasper or Rosalie and Emmett (who were going to go and get married another time that month for Tanya, Irina, Kate, Eleazar, and Carmen). We were far from marriage.

"What are you thinking about?" Edward questioned finally as the house came into view.

I shrugged instinctively. "Nothing really, I'm just thinking about the things that have been happening this week. Do you think that going to school is going to change…anything?" I asked and Edward knew what I meant by 'anything'. He shook his head and pulled me close to him, kissing me once.

"Nothing's going to change Bella," he stated and pulled me into the house. I couldn't help but feel a little bit of doubt—there were probably so many pretty girls at the school that we were going to attend, why would Edward need me? I hated feeling so self-conscious but it was like a second nature. It was something that I had gotten used to in my previous human life and it wasn't something I could shake just because my life had changed dramatically.

I glanced over at him and frowned slightly. "You can never tell something's change too quickly."

"You think too much." He decided.

"No! I just think things through thoroughly." I argued playfully as we entered the family room where Tanya, Alice, Rosalie, and Esme were sitting. I looked around the room and smiled at them. "What are you guys doing?" I asked informally. I had gotten used to referring to Tanya as a 'third mom', Esme being my second and Renée being my first. Alice was basically my best friend besides Edward. Rosalie was becoming more of my friend and older sister then she had been before. I was grateful for that thoroughly. Edward released my hand, pressing a kiss to my cheek before walking out of the room. Before I had time to protest, Alice spoke up.

"Bella, we're going shopping." She stated clearly and I looked at her puzzled for a moment. What did them going shopping have anything to do with me? "You're coming with us." She added matter-of-factly. Oh. Wait—what?

"Oh, um, well you see I don't really go shopping. W—why would we need to go shopping Alice? There's nothing to shop for. I mean seriously out here there probably isn't that much to go shopping for and why would we want to waste our time just shopping?" I knew I was rambling, but I had to do anything I could to cancel my 'shopping' trip with Alice, Rosalie, Esme, and Tanya. "It would be pointless." I panicked, I had nothing else to really say, all my words had already been spoken.

"There are plenty of good malls around here." Tanya said finally after the awkward silence that had followed my pointless babble. "I'm sure that you girls could find something that would fit your taste." Oh dear, they were teaming against me. I would have to go shopping—dread shot though my body as the word repeated in my mind.

I didn't return to Earth until Alice finally spoke. "Bella," Alice stressed and stood up, taking my hand in hers. "We're going and that's final."

"We?" I muttered my question meekly.

Rosalie stood up and smiled a weak smile. She probably knew how much I hated shopping. "Alice, you, and me." Rosalie said and she waved to Tanya and Esme before walking towards the door. Oh my God! Edward had set this up, this was all Edwards' fault…when I talked to him next time, he was really going to get it! I thought over my plans as Alice dragged me out of the house.

As soon as we arrived at one of the malls, I was surprised at how much it looked like a mall in Washington. I was even more surprised to see more people there that were around my age. The first store that we stepped into, we were bombarded by two salespeople asking if we needed help at the same time. Alice refused them politely and I was glad, I could never really handle the people that were 'supposed' to help you. They just seemed a little bit annoying to me and that was one of the reasons why I didn't really like shopping in general. At the store, Alice and Rosalie found me multiple things to wear that they said I could wear the next day to school. After buying the things—that I didn't try on, but Alice insisted that they would fit—we decided to go to a different place. Or more like Alice and Rosalie decided that we should go to another place, despite my multiple protests to how we should just be glad about what we had found. I was still amazed at how many people were there that were around my age, and I even predicted that some of them would probably be in my school tomorrow morning. At about our third store, I was pretty sure I was going to die so I told Alice and Rosalie that they could pick whatever they wanted out why I stood outside the store. I leaned on the railing and over-looked the people rushing around on the bottom floor.

"Hey," a voice carried over my way and it wasn't until the person gently touched my shoulder that I realized that they were talking to me. I turned towards the person and was greeted by a slender guy, the same age as me that was 'Mike' good-looking. Not 'Edward' good-looking, but 'Mike' good-looking. "I'm Devon Sanders, are you from around here?"

I nodded cautiously. "Bella Swan," I said automatically.

"Nice to meet you Bella," he said politely and leaned against the railing next to me. "What school do you go too?"

"Denali PEAK, I think." I said awkward and he nodded. "I'm not quite sure though, I just moved here a week ago." I explained and he nodded again. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Rosalie and Alice were both nowhere in sight. Who was supposed to save me from talking to this guy? Definitely not Edward, he wasn't even in the general area.

"That's cool; I go to Tri-Valley. It's near Denali PEAK, but it's not the same school." He looked over at me and smiled slightly.

"That's nice."

We stood there in the uncomfortable silence that followed after my lame comment. Not that I cared or anything, I would rather just avoid all conversation with strangers—also known as Devon Sanders who suddenly resembled Mike Newton in my mind—and just stick with my new family that I was destined to be with for the rest of time. I had gotten pretty pessimistic about people who weren't my family, what was the point of being friends with them if they weren't going to always be there. That was probably the reason why all the Cullen's avoided everybody at Forks High School.

"So," he said awkward and lifted his head and turned his gaze to me.

I smiled weakly at him and pushed off from the railing. "So, I guess that I won't be seeing you around." He nodded and moved away from the railing also. "It was nice talking to you Devon."

"You too Bella," Devon replied sweetly and I moved away from him and towards the store. Anything was better then having to talk—or more like stand in an awkward silence for long periods of times—to Devon Sanders. I walked through the open entrance to the store and soon found Alice and Rosalie at the cash register. I could have sworn I heard Devon say: "It won't be long before I see you again." But I was pretty sure that I was hearing things.

Edward was standing on the porch to greet us when we got home. "How was shopping?" He whispered into my ear after I had collapsed into his arms.

"Never ever make me do that again." I muttered into his shirt.

"Oh please!" Alice called from the background as I snuggled into Edward's embrace and Edward wrapped his arms around me protectively. "It definitely wasn't as bad as she makes it seem Edward," she said walking over to us so that I could hear her voice getting closer and closer by the minute. "She's just a little melodramatic if you catch my drift."

At that, I pulled my head from Edward's and turned around towards Alice who was smirking showing that she was contently pleased with herself and it was then that I knew she was teasing. "You're so mean!" I stressed playfully and turned around to walk into the house.

"How was your shopping trip dear?" Esme asked as I walked through the door.

I sighed drastically and sat down on the couch across from her. "I hate shopping. Does that mean anything to you?" I asked good-naturedly although it might have sounded impolite to bystanders.

Esme laughed. "Yes I know that, Edward told me about your fear of shopping."

"It's not a fear!" I complained. "It's just I've never really been into shopping before. I didn't even really go shopping before that trip that Alice and Rosalie took me on." Esme nodded her head thoughtfully and looked down to her lap where a book had been lying open. "Anyways, what's been going on around here?"

"Nothing really, well nothing exciting to say the least." Esme smiled.

I smiled back at her. "Well, I guess I better let Alice pick out my outfit for tomorrow." I said and stood up. "I'll talk to you later tonight, I guess." She nodded and turned back to her book although she didn't seem particularly interested in it. I should have taken better notice at how she was really looking at me out of the corner of her eye instead of looking down at the book. At that moment, I didn't notice it at all. Alice, Edward, and Rosalie entered the house, Alice holding all of the bags. She smiled brightly at me and pulled me upstairs. She dragged me to my room and let me sit down on the bed as she set the bags down.

"You have to wear something that is not anything like what you're wearing today." Alice said and tapped a finger thoughtfully on her perfect lips. I looked down at my attire and sighed, jeans and a t-shirt was a bad thing? Alice pulled out a long white flowing skirt that went to my knees and a pink knit sweater. "Perfect," she purred.

"I hate it." I said bluntly and Alice frowned deeply. "It's just not me Alice." I said trying to smooth things over.

"But it's perfect Bella! Please just wear it for tomorrow and then you'll never have to wear it again." Alice pleaded and I bit the inside of my cheek, thinking it over. It was one day and then I could change out of it the second I got home. It wouldn't be that bad actually; she was really cutting me a deal. I nodded and she threw her arms around me. "Thank you so much Bella! You'll let me do your hair also, won't you?"

I arched an eye-brow at her. "Um, well…I guess I can let you do that."

There was no way I was going to let her down since she was pretty much my best friend slash sister. She kissed my cheek and pulled me up off of my bed. "Thanks again Bella, you're going to look amazing—not that you don't already look amazing. Tonight, we're going to play baseball," she smiled secretively, "it's supposed to rain."

"Really now?" I questioned playfully and she nodded. "Is it supposed to thunder also?"

"Oh yes! Thunder and lightning are supposed to go along with the rain tonight. We were thinking that we would play against Tanya and her family. I'm not quite sure if Carmen is going to play, but it's going to be fun!" Alice said happily as we walked down the stairs. "You're going to play right?"

"No way," I said disgusted slightly. "I am not good at sports at all."

"That's too bad to hear," a new voice greeted us and we turned around. We had been standing idly at the bottom of the stairs and hadn't noticed that there was somebody else listening. Eleazar smiled slightly at us. "It would be fun for everybody to play."

"But Eleazar, then we'd have very uneven teams." Alice countered and Eleazar shrugged.

"I say it would still be fun." He said and waved slightly before walking away.

Alice sighed and leaned against the banister. She brought a hand to her face and wiped her dry eyes before closing them and massaging her temple. I looked at her strangely and then looked around. "Is there something wrong Alice?" I questioned quite concerned and her eyes snapped open.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong Bella." Alice said quickly and grabbed my arm. "We should find Edward."

"Edward, why?" I asked.

Alice looked at me like the fact should be obvious. I blinked and tilted my head slightly to the side. "To go and play baseball? Then we'll go and round up the rest of the family. I wish Eleazar hadn't left so quickly, he could have helped us round up everybody." Her voice was on the edge of something, but I wasn't quite sure what it was. I didn't take any note of it as she led me throughout the house.

Soon, we were leaving for the right place to play the baseball. Tanya told us that she had found the most perfect place and soon we were heading off towards it. When we got there, Esme and I sat out again while Rosalie sat out also to make the teams fair. It didn't bother her of course, she had already told us that she had gotten her nails down and she didn't want to ruin them again for this sport. We sat down on some rocks there were near the field that they were playing in and soon, Esme was being the referee once again.

"You have to admit," Rosalie commented suddenly. "They do get kind of competitive when it comes to this game." I looked over at her and she had a smile tugging at her beautiful lips.

"They?"

"I guess I meant we as in the whole family." Rosalie said and glanced over at me before looking back towards the field. "We all kind of get competitive during this game. Even Carmen is getting competitive! Look Bella!" Rosalie commanded and I turned my head at the game where Carmen and everybody else were arguing while Esme stood in the middle separating the two teams from each other. Rosalie and I laughed together as we watched and commented during the rest of the game. It ended up that both teams were tied when the thunder and lightning storm ended and it would have to be made up later.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here." I looked up to the new voice and bit down on my bottom lip. There in front of me stood Devon Sanders. My mind had been flashing back to the baseball game last night that had taken place during the thunder and lightning storm that I hadn't even noticed Devon walking into the room. We were in school now and I knew that I had lied, we weren't at Denali PEAK, we were at Tri-Valley. When Edward had told me that in the morning, nothing had really pieced together. I didn't put two and two together simply, I had totally forgotten about Devon. He sat down next to me and I mentally cursed that I was separated from the rest of my family and Edward. This was the only class that I had by myself. I cursed that I had been forced to wear the outfit that Alice had picked out also.

"I know," I replied lamely and Devon smiled slightly.

"You said that you were going to Denali PEAK, Bella." He said lightly and placed his hands in front of him before intertwining them. "But then again, I'm glad that I get to see you again. You confused me the last time we met. You're with the Cullen and Hale family, right?"

"Yep," I answered and twirled a piece of my brown hair around my pointer finger. "How'd you know that?" I questioned and tilted my head to the side slightly.

He looked into my topaz colored eyes and I saw a smile tugging at his lips. I shuddered in my mind. "I don't know, you just look a lot like all of them. I just put two and two together,"—I should have down that before I came to school—"and I figured that you probably came with them. Are they your siblings?"

"Well…Alice Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Emmett Cullen, and Jasper Hale are kind of like my siblings but we're not related. Edward Cullen is my boyfriend actually." I said quickly and Devon nodded, not hiding the fact that there was frown on his face. There was definitely something wrong with this boy. Why was he talking to me so much? He was so much like Mike that it scared me! What if they were cousins? That was a scary thought.

"That's interesting…" Devon said distantly and turned to look straight forward as the teacher, Mr. Morris entered the room.

I was glad that Devon had stopped talking to me. It was something that relieved me greatly. I was pretty sure that he would start asking some deep questions that I didn't even want to get involved with. Devon was exactly like Mike, I guess I couldn't escape him even if I lived in a completely different state. I sighed and twirled the piece of hair around my finger again and again until the period was finally over. Devon kept talking to me until we were outside of the classroom and I told him that I would be late to my next class—that thankfully—he wasn't in. Edward was there in the room to greet me when I entered. I slid into the seat next to his and tried to smile.

"How was your first class?" He asked and very gently took my hand in his.

"Horrible, this guy kept talking to me throughout the whole class." I retorted and Edward nodded, before flipping over my hand and tracing soft circles on my palm. "What are you doing?" I questioned him fiercely and he laughed.

"I'm bored, this interests me." Edward replied and started to draw imaginary figures out on my palm. He lowered his voice before speaking to me again although I knew that no humans could understand what we were saying since we were talking so fast. "I heard what that guy was thinking Bella, he's just like Mike."

"That's exactly what I thought!" I shouted, a little too loud for my own good. I shrank back into my seat and turned to Edward. "He reminds me so much of Mike."

"He thinks like Mike also." He stated simply.

I looked at him trying to meet his gaze, but he was starring intently on the figures that he was drawing onto my palm. "And what is that supposed to mean?" I questioned him and he looked up briefly before looking back down.

"Nothing really, it shouldn't concern you. Your ego might grow if I tell you what he's thinking." He smirked before I pulled my hand away and hit him on his upper arm playfully.

"My ego? You're the one who has a big ego!" I teased and he rolled his eyes good-naturedly before grabbing my hand again and sort-of intertwining our fingers. The teacher walked into the room before he could say anything more. The whole class went by faster then I expected, of course Edward was there with me and it interested me greatly at what he was doing. He kept repeating the different shapes with ten minute intervals. He would occasionally look over at me and I would roll my eyes at him before he would lower his head back down and repeat the different figure. I tried to keep track of the figures once, but it was too hard and soon I gave up. It wasn't long before the bell rang and we were up from our seats.

The next couple of classes I had before lunch were with Alice and Edward occasionally. I was disappointed that I couldn't have any classes with Rosalie, Jasper, or Emmett since they were a 'year older' then us. Alice dragged me through the cafeteria when lunch came and I was grateful when my eyes landed on Rosalie's familiar form. She waved us over and we all sat together. Edward pulled me towards him and wrapped an arm around my waist. He pressed a kiss to my temple and I smiled at him before I let my eyes wander around the cafeteria. Devon was looking straight at our table and he turned and said something to his friends before returning his gaze to me. I shivered and looked over at Edward who was semi-glaring at Devon.

"What's he thinking?" I breathed and Edward shook his head.

"It's not important." He replied.

We arrived home later in the afternoon and I changed out of the loose skirt and sweater and back into my regular attire of jeans and a t-shirt. Afterwards, I grabbed a book before walking towards my door. I was walking down the stairs when it happened. The voices were familiar and I knew that it was Edward and Alice who were talking in the hushed murmurs. I leaned against the wall gently and tried to listen very carefully to the conversation that was unfolding in front of me.

"We have to tell her Edward," Alice stressed. "It's her parents."

"We'll do this by ourselves, I don't want her to get into any kind of danger, and it would definitely be dangerous to tell her what happened." Edward replied and I looked away from the place I had been starring at to gather my thoughts. "Alice, you can't breath a word of this to anybody especially Bella."

"Edward, you're being ridiculous. Bella deserves to know and you're just being selfish. If she finds out from somebody else, do you know how that will end? She could get in more danger that way. We'll just have to trust that nothing will happen to them while we make up a plan of what to do." Alice snapped quickly and I gasped. Parents plus Bella equals…my parents! Something had happened to my parents and they weren't telling me anything about it.

End of Chapter 6: Nineteen Stars

Authors Note: So it's seven pages again and I just want to say how sorry I am about how late this chapter is! I have been very busy with final projects—although it is no excuse or anything—and I haven't found that much time for writing right now. I will try my best to update every Friday, but I don't know if I will always meet the deadline until school is finally over! Fourteen days left until school is over, so it won't be long until I can finish this story. I am so sorry about this, I just have so many stupid exams and projects, that I am dying and I find it hard to write when I have to meet a deadline for school. You understand, right?

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! I AM SO GRATEFUL!

Also, I am so sorry about the really bad chapter, I was on a brain freeze for basically the whole week and this is just a filler chapter for right now. Next chapter will be more intense. I think that there will only be eight to nine chapters and that will be the full story. Isn't that sad? Only like three more chapters left until the end! (Or four if I do nine chapters).

Facts for the remainder of the story:

1. Devon Sanders is not an important part of the story. This is the only chapter he will be in. He might be mentioned, but he will not be making anymore appearances.

2. Bella is going back to Forks.

3. I was going to put Laurent back into the story, but now I'm not quite sure. He might just be in the sequel if I make a sequel to it…which I probably won't, but I'm not quite sure yet.

That's all for the facts! Sorry about the long authors note.

Questions, questions:

1. Did you absolutely hate this chapter? (I will understand if you did!)

2. Any mistakes that you would like to point out? (I won't be mad if you point out something, I will be grateful at the least!)

3. Any ideas for the next chapter or the rest of story that you would like to tell me? (I will be so happy and grateful if you have any ideas! I love it when people give me input to the story! I am kind of at a lost for the remainder…but I just know that Jacob is returning soon!)

4. Anything else you would like to tell me?

That's it!

Please review!