A/N:

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns the plot and characters of Twilight, not to mention all the money it makes. I make nothing but fanfiction.

This next chapter has been my favourite to write so far. I'm not sure why, it's a little awkward and it leaves you feeling slightly disoriented (it left me feeling silghtly disoriented anyway) but I love it all the same. It's my baby. So I couldn't cut it up and it's longer than the other chapters.

Chapter 5 – Phenomenon aka "Ride"

"Son? Is that you?"

Who else? But I stopped at Carlisle's study anyway, letting him see that yes, father dearest, it was I, your son.

"How was school?"

I shrugged. "Not bad. I ditched biology class."

"Oh." He frowned, unsure what to do with this information apparently. "Well… don't do that again."

I nodded absently. "Is that all?"

"Of course." He cleared his throat and replaced his reading glasses back on his face, leaning over his book. I walked away. It was so easy.

In my room, I put on a Deftones CD. I hadn't really listened to any Deftones in years, but I wanted something loud to drown out my thoughts. It was all getting to be so strange. I couldn't make any sense of the day, and I sure as hell couldn't make any sense of Bella.

That night, I had my first dream about her.

***

"Do you love me?" I looked at her, and I was stunned, by her question and by her appearance. She looked like she was glowing in a lacy white dress, all wrong for her - too soft, too feminine. Her voice was musical, her eyes warmer, and she tilted her head as she asked me again, "Do you love me?"

I was unable to answer, and finally she sighed and turned away. She walked down a long hallway, her hand sliding along the wall to her left as she hummed a strangely familiar melody, and I watched her leave me behind. At the end of the tunnel, you could hear a motorcycle engine being revved.

***

The sound of my alarm was welcome; it drowned out the bike. I rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, remembering bits and pieces of the dream, trying to put together a coherent thought. Today, I'd pick Bella up for school.

Away from her, from the intoxicating quality of her voice, from the pheromones stinking up the place – she smelled like flowers and oranges – it was easy to imagine that the encounter had been a dream. That all of yesterday had been a dream, and that my week of life in Forks without her was still going on, uninterrupted.

I would find out for sure whether it really was a dream when I showed up at her house in a few minutes to take her to school.

Fucking fabulous.

Sternly commanding myself to be casual, I threw on my jeans – standard issue manly casualness – and a faded Star Wars t-shirt. My jacket won out over my hoodie, not wanting to overdo the casualness, and sneakers. Ok. Time to go. Ten minutes to get ready, not bad at all.

Not at all gay.

In the car I fumbled through my CDs. What the hell did I feel like listening to? I always had music on, because I was always in the mindset for something specific to listen to. What the hell did I want to listen to now? AFI? Thrice? What artist or album would match perfectly the tension and strange buzz of expectation that accompanied me on my way to pick up Bella Swan? To drive her to school. It wasn't like this was a date.

The thought of dating her terrified me on so many levels I couldn't even begin to make sense of it at all.

And Forks being the shitass small town it was, I was there too soon, and I still had no idea what I wanted to listen to. When I pulled up to her house, I was immediately aware of two things. One: Bella Swan was standing at the window, peeking out between the curtains, a strange smile on her face. Two: there was a police cruiser outside her house, and leaning against it was a man with tight brown curls and large brown eyes. Her dad. A cop. Fuck me.

My memory presented me with Lauren giving me this information some time ago. Bella's father was the Chief of Police. Well, what a wonderful way to be reminded. An interview. Clearly, he was waiting for me. Clearly, Bella was amused.

As soon as I got out of the car, he stepped away from the cruiser and smiled, a polite I-hate-you smile. "Edward Cullen," he said as he shook my hand, and I nodded and tried a smile of my own, even though it wasn't a question.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir."

He raised his eyebrow as though he saw right through my loved-by-all-adults façade. He probably did. He was a fucking cop. "I heard you're taking my daughter to school today."

"Yes, Sir, I am. If it's all right with you, of course," I hastily added as he looked around me at my car.

He eyed it with some satisfaction, then turned to me again. "Edward, do you happen to own a motorcycle?"

A motorcycle? "No, Sir. I'm not really sure I know how to drive one."

He smiled. Obviously, that had been the right answer. "Good. Drive safely. Don't be late."

And with that, he turned and got into the driver's seat of his cruiser, pulling out of the driveway and driving off without a backwards glance. The door opened then, and I turned to glare at Bella. She had orchestrated this. She could've come out while he was still there and acted as a buffer, but nooooo. Why ruin a perfectly awkward moment?

"Let's go," she beckoned to me from the passenger side of my Volvo, and I dragged my feet back to the car, mumbling loud enough for her to know I was complaining about her. Like the name thing, like the glaring, like trying to get out of being my lab partner, this was another one of those things you did to someone you hated that wouldn't hold up in a court of law as truly malicious. I was quickly discovering that Bella Swan was the queen of non-malicious hatred. She was wearing her jeans again, and a pale yellow cotton blouse under that damned leather jacket. The scent of flowers and oranges was strong when I got in the car.

I started the engine and cleared my throat. "So, that's your dad," I offered in the silence presented by my inability to find the right soundtrack to this tension-party.

She shrugged as though it didn't matter. "He likes you all right, if it makes any difference."

I raised skeptical eyebrows. "Oh does he?"

She nodded. "You're sort of awesome by association. Your dad."

I groaned. She didn't need to say more. Awesome Carlisle Cullen, medical genius, doctor extraordinaire, what more could possibly be said about him? Palming my eyes against the oncoming headache – an inevitability in the face of thinking about Carlisle – I shook my head to clear it. When I looked at her again she was looking at me, her eyes wide and strange and so deep brown and fuck… Those eyes were going to do something funny to me one day. "What?" I had to get her to stop looking at me like that!

"Nothing. Do you smoke?" she asked in a sudden subject-change, pulling a little tin case out of a zipper in her bag and rattling it.

I shrugged. "Not too often."

"Mind if I do?"

Again, I shrugged. She took out a little pipe the length of her finger and unrolled a baggie, and I fumbled again with the CDs. Really, had the world not written a soundtrack for this? Suddenly, her hand was on mine, pushing it gently away, and she was rifling through my CDs, clucking and chuckling randomly. I knew it was random because she wasn't making sense. No way was she chuckling at my Linkin Park CD. That shit was just fucking wrong. It must be random.

Finally, she grunted, taking a CD case out of her bag and picking one up from near the front. She slid it into the slot and turned it up before I had a chance to protest or ask what the shit music she was playing in my car.

"The rain falls hard on a humdrum town…"

Morrissey? "Morrissey?"

She glared at me over her pipe. "The Smiths."

Ah. A purist. Well. How about that. She hummed as she held her breath, and I shook my head in wonder. Her eyes were closed, her head rolling from side to side slowly on the headrest as though she heard something strange, something special in the beat. When she released the breath she'd been holding right at the chorus, she bit her lip and opened her eyes lazily. "Fuck…"

And I kid you not, I popped a fucking boner right then and there. Fucking. Hell.

She moaned at the parts of the song that I assumed she liked best, her eyes squeezing tightly shut in pleasure. Unbelievable. This girl was getting hot and bothered over this song, I could see it in the way her skin started turning that delicious shade of pink. Her eyes, watery and bloodshot, were darkened with passion. Her breathing became shallow. It was getting harder to keep my eyes on the road, and I wanted to clear my throat and shift my erection in my pants, but I was afraid any sound I made, any sudden movement, would break the spell and she'd go back to being Bella Swan, non-malicious hater extraordinaire.

The track ended. She kept her eyes closed until the next one started. "All men have secrets and here is mine…"

And she gasped and shuddered and turned to look at me then, unleashing the full force of her gorgeous brown eyes on me, and I was lost. I was so fucking lost, there was no way I was going to escape this. No way I was going to escape her. Escape the fact that Bella Swan was real. Even if she disappeared again, to visit her mother or perform community service or serve hard time, I would never be able to escape the fact that she was out there somewhere, and I would think of her. One track moved on to the next, and my heart raced. And we were at school, and all I wanted to do was drive right past the thing and take her somewhere beautiful and tell her amazing things. I pulled into a space and turned to stare at her. Her eyes were surreal. They made my entire body tingle. How could a girl's eyes be so powerful? She could have been naked and I wouldn't have been able to look away from her eyes. Mmm, naked Bella… I wanted to touch her. I wanted to kiss her. When the fuck did that happen?

"Bella…"

And without warning, she reached out and placed her fingers on my lips, and I struggled to swallow. I struggled to breathe. I couldn't look away. "Don't spoil it, Edward." She smiled, sighing, before she shook her head and got out of my car, and a wave of cold air came in to chase away the warmth from her proximity. It was the first time she'd ever said my name. It sounded like a prelude to something wonderful when she said it, the way her lips shaped themselves around it, the way her breath caressed it. My internal organs were doing some kind of rain dance, and I couldn't focus my eyes on any one thing. I touched my lips carefully where she had, swallowing again. She was stoned. She was just being an idiot. I was being an idiot. Was I ever going to stop being an idiot around her?

Clearly, not anytime soon.

***

Alice was less talkative than usual at lunch, leaning her head on Jasper's shoulder while he stroked her hair absently. He'd been giving me strange looks all through gym, but I'd chosen to let him decide when he would bring up whatever he wanted to say.

Bella and Rosalie were discussing something with their heads put together, giggling behind their hands while Emmet smiled proudly at them. "Bella, what's the deal with the truck? Is it dead?"

She looked up at him and gave him a strange look. "Again, with this?"

Emmet's grin got wider, and he shrugged in faux innocence. "I'm just asking because you haven't driven it to school lately. You know, getting a ride with Cullen, or that kid, Black."

Jasper turned a warning glare on Emmet, but Emmet just rolled his eyes in response. Rosalie's brow furrowed, and Alice lifted her head to look at Bella. Bella pouted. It was so fucking adorable. "It just needs a little work. I left it in La Push."

Emmet nodded again, his smile still in place. "I see. It must need a lot of work seeing as how it's been there all week."

Jasper interrupted before Bella could react. "Let it go, Emmet."

Rosalie fidgeted and shot me a glance, as though wishing to say something she didn't want me to hear. I blinked innocently at her, and she scowled at me. "You know, Bella, if you needed work done on your truck, you could've called me."

Bella pursed her lips. "I know you know what you're doing, Rose, but that truck was Jacob's pretty much his whole life. He's just more familiar with it. It's nothing personal."

I frowned before I could help myself and twirled my bottle cap on the table in agitation. Nothing personal? That guy sticking his tongue down her throat was nothing personal? What the fuck?

Jasper snorted then, and I looked to him for support. I desperately wanted him to say out loud something that would reflect my thoughts. "Bella, you of all people know that everything is personal to Jacob Black."

Okay, not really what I was hoping for. But at least he didn't seem to like it either.

"Thanks, Mommy, but I'm sure I'll manage not to fall over and die without your vigilant supervision," Bella growled, and a part of me growled back at her. I wanted to argue with her desperately, but I had nothing to say. I had no ammunition. I didn't even know what was going on. Wordlessly, I picked up my tray, dropped it off, and left the cafeteria.

Fuck it. I was being needlessly agitated, and I wasn't even sure why. It was obvious this was some old argument among the five of them. I couldn't contribute either way to it. Besides, Rosalie's look at least told me there were things they would have an easier time discussing without my presence. Let them discuss what they wanted to. What did I care about Bella Swan or her personal relations with Jacob Black who apparently was fixing her car? For a week. And then dropping her off at school and licking her in front of everybody. Christ.

I sat in my Volvo and turned up my music. I chain-smoked and refused to allow myself to wonder what else Bella and Jacob fucking Black did that week. Of course, my mind went and thought about it anyway. I mean, if he was doing thatto her in public, what would he do to her in private? Rhetorical question. So why did I care?

Because she looked so delicious when she walked into a room and looked at everyone like they were her property? Because she acted like her company was a precious gift to those around her? Because she got off to Morrissey in my car this morning? I thought of the way she had looked again and groaned to myself. It was sexy as hell that she didn't even look like she was trying to be sexy as hell. Rosalie was sexy, but Rosalie must wake up at the asscrack of dawn to look like that by the time she got to school. Bella looked like she rolled out of bed and did it. She probably did.

When the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, I turned up the volume on my stereo. I was so not going back in there. So what if this was the second biology class in a row I was missing? I knew that shit. I was getting a little nauseous and dizzy from all that nicotine in my system, coupled with not having eaten anything all day. My head felt like it was floating a little, which wasn't so bad except that the rest of my body seemed to be in some sort of panic about getting it to come back down.

But of course, I should have known Bella wouldn't let me get away so easily. She was walking over to my car, her hands in the pockets of that jacket I fucking loathed. She looked pretty hot in it, but still. Didn't she have any jackets of her own? I mean, didn't this Jacob Black get cold without his jacket? Shouldn't she give it back already?

She slid into the passenger seat without asking permission, then turned down the volume on Claudio Sanchez without permission. I stared straight ahead and pretended she wasn't there. Yeah right. Like I could ever pretend I couldn't feel the warmth of her against my side. Like I could pretend I couldn't smell her – flowery and citrusy – cutting through the cigarette smoke cloud around my head.

"You're upset," she murmured, like she was talking to herself. "I wonder why."

I locked my jaw. I wondered why, too.

"You don't want to be around me?"

I looked at her, shocked. "Didn't we have this conversation already? You're the one that hates me, remember?"

She smiled at me, a small smile that made her look so devastatingly beautiful I had to look away. "The way I've acted towards you. It couldn't have made you like me."

Wasn't I just thinking I wanted to escape her?

"Who's going to drive you home?" I asked instead.

She bit her lip, and I was reminded of my earlier urges to fuck her. "Why?"

"I think I'm ready to go now," I invented, but realized it was a brilliant idea as soon as the words were out of my mouth. I wanted to get out of this place. "I want to make sure you get home okay."

She smiled again. "Let's blow this popsicle stand." And she buckled her seatbelt.

I stared at her in disbelief. Did she actually just say that? I hadn't heard anyone say that since I was a kid. I swallowed. "You want me to take you home? Now? What about class?"

She shrugged, still smiling. "Let's go someplace else. I'm kinda hungry actually. Have you eaten anything?"

I shook my head. Apparently, I looked unconvinced though because she laughed a little. "I'm a good student. I can get away with missing a few classes." Yeah, I'm sure her stellar grades were the reason she got away with so much shit at school. She laughed again as she seemed to read my mind. "Relax, okay? Let's go."

I could have said no. I should have said no. I should have taken her straight home and gone to bed where I could rest. I still felt sick from all that nicotine. She was fucking with my floating head though, and her smell was intoxicating in the enclosed space. But I was realizing that, coupled with being an idiot around her, I couldn't say no to Bella.

I backed out of the parking lot and concentrated on controlling the vehicle. The nausea was getting worse. "Hey, are you okay?"

I glanced at her and her face was such a picture of utterly sincere concern, I let myself believe she cared. I nodded slightly, looking back at the road, but she leaned over and reached out her tiny little hand to place it on my forehead. Her closeness was doing strange things to my already floating head, so I gently brushed her hand aside. "I'm fine," I lied quickly.

She sat back down and pouted again, and I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Take the next left," she gestured to the left, and as her arm came up I was hit with another wave of her scent. Was she trying to kill us both by distracting me into wrapping my car around a tree? Biting back a groan, I took the turn she indicated, then pulled over in the parking lot outside the little diner she pointed to. When I was parked, I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief. No major accidents. I hadn't lost control of the car. I'd never considered either of those things a major victory before, but I was willing to overlook how short my change was in this scenario.

Bella jumped out of her seat and came around to my side. I watched her open my door and squat on the ground so she was next to me.

"You sure you're okay?"

I nodded. She really did look like she cared. It was hard to come to terms with that, hard to imagine it. Her sudden politeness, kindness even, was disarming. It came on suddenly, like a strange phenomenon, like a miracle or a meteor or something. I couldn't understand it. I couldn't figure it out. I didn't know what to do around her all of a sudden. I forced a small smile, and it seemed to please her. She stood back up and held out her hand, and I hesitantly took it. Standing up, she was so much smaller than I was. It made her seem fragile, somehow, and I realized why her friends seemed to worry about her so much. Her features were so soft, and her skin was so pale, and I wanted to protect her, too. Unthinkingly, I reached out and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. Blame it on the dizziness.

She looked shocked for a moment, then there was fear in her face. She dropped her gaze to her feet, and I wondered if she'd let go of my hand, but when she looked back up at me she seemed determined. She smiled and started to lead me into the diner, and I had no choice but to follow and wonder what the hell that was all about.

Inside, it was dim and smelled like fries. The smell of the food brought on the nausea, but my traitorous stomach actually growled. Bella looked at me over her shoulder and giggled. She'd heard it. Brilliant. She slid into a booth in the back corner, and the closest patrons were three tables away. When she let go of my hand to pick up a menu I felt a pang of loss and missed the contact. She seemed not to notice, or maybe she did, because she was smirking at me. "I'll order for us."

I groaned and put my head on my folded arms, resting on the tabletop. I was in no state to deal with her. Even in perfect condition, keeping up with Bella Swan was a challenge I wasn't sure I was up to. In my current condition, I didn't have a prayer. I let her giggle at me and couldn't even muster up the energy to glare at her for it.

The waitress came soon and asked if I was all right. "He's fine," Bella reassured her, "He's just got a tummy ache." Would the mockery ever end? She ordered too much food and I wanted to stop her, but I was too out of it to even lift my head. The waitress left, but not before offering to bring some tea for my stomach, which Bella graciously accepted, adding a coffee for herself. "Hey," she spoke softly, and then I felt her fingers on my scalp. She was smoothing my hair away from my face, and I opened my eyes to see her. Damn, she was beautiful.

I lifted my head from my arms and she dropped her hand back on the table. "Thank you," I offered awkwardly. I had no idea how to talk to her. And her gentleness was disarming.

She blinked at me. "For what?"

I shrugged. "For worrying, I guess."

She rolled her eyes. "No problem." Clearly, she thought very little of it. Clearly, I was obsessed with her because I didn't. I thought her worrying about me was wonderful.

"So, why does everyone hate this Jacob Black person?" I asked hesitantly, wondering if this was okay. She was being nice to me, so maybe it was okay if I asked her a few questions.

She looked at me for so long without speaking, I thought she was going to pretend she hadn't heard me. The waitress brought my tea and Bella's coffee, and still she didn't say anything. "Drink your tea," she ordered, "and I'll tell you some of the story."

I obeyed instantly, subsequently burning my tongue on the scalding hot drink. I winced, and she smiled. It looked so unfamiliar after seeing her glare and scowl and pout at me all the time, it was almost like she was a completely different person.

"Jacob and I sort of grew up together. His dad and my dad are old friends, so I spent a lot of time around Jake and his sisters as a kid. About two years ago, though, we started dating." I pretended this revelation meant nothing to me. "But, of course, Jasper and the rest of them didn't think he was good for me. They said I got a little out of hand when we hooked up. I started acting reckless, irresponsible. And I developed some sort of anger issues, too, apparently." She smirked as though she didn't take any of their concerns seriously. "Jake and I were only together for a few months, but I guess they'll always hate him."

I eyed her suspiciously. "Are you sure that's all there is to the story?"

She looked surprised, then her pleasant smile was back. "No, there's more. But I'm not ready to tell you that part yet."

I nodded. At least she was being honest. "So last week when you disappeared…"

She shrugged. "Jake and I are still friends. Whenever I get a little restless or fed up with Forks, or I just want to get away from the world, I go down to La Push and we hang out. He's not so protective of me, so we have fun together. Sometimes, Jasper makes me feel like he's my babysitter more than my friend. He disapproves of a lot of things I enjoy - motorcycles, rock climbing, cliff-diving."

"Cliff-diving?"

She nodded, suddenly excited. "They do it all the time in La Push. You find yourself a nice high cliff, and just throw yourself off it into the ocean. It's invigorating."

Extreme sports? Bella? "It sounds kinda crazy," I confessed. What was the fun in literally throwing yourself off a cliff?

She smirked at me. "Scared?" I frowned. Edward Cullen was not fucking scared. She laughed at my expression, and the sound was throaty and sultry.

I harrumphed and drank my tea. She grinned and shook her head at me, and I smiled into my cup hoping she wouldn't notice. I liked her laugh. And I liked that she was teasing me. Totally obsessed, Cullen. You fucking pussy.

The waitress brought the food then, and Bella inhaled two double cheeseburgers like it was her last meal. I ate my own cheeseburger in shock, wondering if she always ate like this. When she finally pushed the second empty plate away and sat back in her seat, she had a satisfied look on her face. "Feel better?" she asked, and I nodded. I actually did. The food was settling my stomach and my head seemed to have reattached itself to my body for now.

"Can I ask you another question?" I asked, and she narrowed her eyes at me.

"One."

I nodded and thought for a minute. If I only had one question, I wanted to choose it carefully. "Why are you suddenly nice to me?"

She sighed as though she expected as much, smiling softly and looking away. "Later, Edward. I'll tell you later."

I frowned. "That wasn't right. I get another question, right? You didn't really answer that one."

She laughed, amused. "All right, go ahead."

I thought again. "When Jacob Black brought you to school yesterday on his bike…" How could I word this in a gentlemanly way? "You seemed like more than friends."

She wasn't smiling anymore. "That's not a question."

I rolled my eyes in exasperation. "You said you two broke up, but then you act like that in public, and there seems to be some sort of inconsistency in your story."

"Still not a question, Cullen."

Uh-oh. I was Cullen now? "What kind of relationship do you really have with Jacob Black?" I almost snapped.

Her eyes narrowed. "We're friends."

"Friends who lick each other?"

I wanted to take the words back as soon as they were out of my mouth, but it was too late. "Friends," she repeated through gritted teeth.

And I was too far gone to let it go. I had to know, it was driving me crazy. "So naked friends. Friends with benefits. That sort of thing?"

She growled, and it was so cute. Like a kitten trying to be a lion. Not the time, Edward. Focus. "Why do you even care? What's it to you what kind of friends Jacob and I are?"

I sat back when I realized we'd been leaning in towards one another unconsciously. Her scent was distracting, and I didn't want to be distracted right now. I needed the full use of my brain. "I just want to know what kind of person you are, Bella. I mean, I've seen so many moods and heard so many conflicting stories, it's like you're eight different people. Of course, if you don't want to tell me, I can probably gather some gossip and come to my own conclusions."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh gawd. Please not the gossip. The shit some people say about me, you'd think I was Elizabeth Bathory."

"So, just tell me. What's the big secret?" I was growing increasingly frustrated and so was she. Groaning loudly, she threw herself back into her seat and covered her face with her hands.

"We're friends, and sometimes we fuck, okay? We have an understanding, and we're not getting back together. It's just something else we do that I enjoy and that Jasper disapproves of."

I hated that. I'd asked for it, but really really I hated it. Before it had been speculation. Now I knew for a fact that the behemoth had been with her in the most intimate of ways, and it made my skin crawl. She must have seen my disgust on my face.

"Don't you dare fucking judge me." She was glaring at me like I'd backstabbed her.

"I'm not judging you," I ground out. "I just don't like it." Stupid word vomit. Shut up!

She looked surprised at this. "Why would it bother you?"

I shook my head and refused to answer. She apparently saw this because she was angry again. "I should get you home," I said quickly before she could start in on me. The final bell would be ringing now in school.

I pulled out my wallet before she could reach for hers and motioned to her that she shouldn't bother. She accepted with poor grace, getting up from the table and waiting for me by the door. I rolled my eyes at her. She was being childish.

The ride back to her house was quiet and tense, and I wondered if I should make conversation or something. But every time I got to talking to Bella Swan, I either sounded like an idiot or made her angry. Even if I did end up befriending Jasper and Emmet, and even Alice with her mindless chatter was growing on me, I knew Bella and I wouldn't be friends. It was actually easier winning Rosalie over. Bella was just out of the question. I was fine with that. Yeah, I was. Fucking fine. I totally didn't care.

Outside her house she sighed, and again didn't get out of the car. "Can you pick me up for school again tomorrow?" I looked at her in disbelief. Had I just imagined that disastrous lunch? "Please?"

And she looked at me, and I was so fucked. No way could I say no to her. Forget it. I was so fucked. I nodded silently and she looked relieved and pained at the same time. Shaking her head, she took her bag and got out of the car, not stopping to look back as she made her way to the door and into her house.

***

"Edward?"

I frowned. Carlisle wasn't supposed to be home today. "Yeah."

"We're in the dining room." We?

I walked into the dining room hesitantly, my eyes peeled for any sign that I should race up the stairs or out the door. Carlisle was standing in the center of the room, which was still empty, with a picturesque woman with chestnut hair and a motherly face. She smiled when I came in. "Oh, Dr. Cullen, he looks just like you!"

Huh?

Carlisle smiled proudly at me. "Oh, I don't know. It's all his mother I think. Especially those green eyes."

The woman nodded, still smiling at me.

"Edward, this is Esme Platt. She's going to be helping us design the new place." The way his voice caressed her name made my eyebrows shoot up my forehead. Whoa. Seriously? Carlisle had a crush? That had certainly not happened since my mother.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Platt," I responded, offering her my winning smile and trying to make my eyes sparkle. She seemed to respond, smiling widely back at me.

"Miss," she corrected, and I nodded. "You're a senior, aren't you, Edward?" I nodded again, offering another smile. "Then you must know my daughter! She's in your grade. Rosalie Hale?"

Whoa. Seriously?

AN/

The album Bella plays in the car is Hatful of Hollow, and it's a compilation album. It's also the first album I ever heard by the Smiths, and one of my favourites of all time. Check it out if you can.