Chapter 4: Invitations

In my dream it was very dark and what dim light there was seemed to be radiating from Edwards skin, like there were thousands of little diamonds covering his skin that light was glinting off. Crazy, right? That would be soooooooooooooo stupid in real life. He was walking away from me which I thought was lame, because if I'm going to have a dream about Edward Cullen we sure as hell better be doing more than walking. But no matter how many times I cat called him or gestured seductively toward my vagina, he just kept walking away. Lame dream, I know, I kind of wish I hadn't brought it up, but too late now.

The month that followed the accident was uneasy, tense, and at first embarrassing, much like this transition. To my dismay, I found myself the center of attention for the rest of the week. No, seriously, I hate it when people try to make me feel better or treat me good, it's the worst, am I right? Huh? Huh? Tyler was the worst (you may remember that he's the one who almost ran me over with my van, but probably not because no one remembers the person who almost climbed Mt. Everest, or who almost stopped the Twilight series from happening.) Tyler kept following me around everywhere trying to make up for almost hitting me with his van. I tried to explain to him it was an accident, I know he didn't intentionally mean to hit me, to which he bit his lip, looked at the ground and said, "Heh, heh…yeah…."

No one seemed concerned about Edward. No matter how many times I told them he stopped the van with his hand they still only asked me if I was sure my head felt alright. I realized they must just not be as obsessed with him as I was, which made me mad because he's a beautiful creature and EVERYONE should be obsessed with him! (At least until the movies come out and everyone like's Taylor Lautner's abs better.) Making me sad, was the fact that Edward himself didn't seemed at all concerned for me. The entire school was worried about me and there were three perfectly nice boys in love with me (Tyler's in love with me now) which may sound like I have it pretty good until you learn that one of those three boys was not Edward Cullen. He didn't really talk to me in school, which he never really did before except that one day. There could be only one answer: he wished he'd never saved me and that I was dead as doornails right now. I sighed, was there no end to his perfection?

I watched him from a distance because I couldn't get too close. If only I knew where he "lived" so I could sit in the window outside his room and watch him sleep. If only I had a better understanding of irony.

Let's see…what else important happened that I should tell you about… Well, the snow washed away, slipperiness no longer being dramatically convenient. The girl's choice dance happened but I didn't go because dancing was far outside my range of abilities (much like writing.) Jessica asked me if she could ask Mike and I said, "Hell yes! Get this dog-boy off my back!" Which I guess means Mike is now a dog, boy, monkey hybrid, which is interesting. But Mike, of course, asked me, and so did Eric, and Tyler. I told them all to fuck off, which they misinterpreted as "You still have a chance" if their Twitter feeds are to be believed. I told Mike to go out with Jessica, he said, "Alright, if it will make you love me more." I said it wouldn't. I told Eric he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of EVER getting a girlfriend. And I told Tyler that if he really wanted me to like him he would have done some serious damage with his van, then I'd know he really loved me.

And that about brings me to today, when Edward looked at me!

I looked back at him, completely stunned that he would ever notice me again after deciding (too late, mind you) my life wasn't worth saving. And then he did the one thing more surprising—he spoke. His voice sounded so familiar, like I'd been listening to it my entire life instead of for just a couple weeks, and a bunch of other cliché's that signify we're soul mates. And those first words he spoke to me in a month were the most poetic of all.

He looked deep into my eyes, parted his perfectly curved lips and with one sweet breath said, "The Krebs Cycle."

My heart stopped. Then I realized he wasn't talking to me, he was just answering a question the teacher had asked. My heart started up again despondently.

After class though he spoke to me, for realsies this time, "Bella," he said.

"Yes, Edward?" I sighed leaning toward him and batting my eyelashes, "Are you talking to me again?"

"Not really."

I pouted though on the inside I was thinking about my dad and how he was never really talking to me either and how if I could get Edward to fall in love with me it would be almost like getting my dad to love me.

"Why are you so mean to me?" I inquired, hoping he would say what Charlie always did ("Bella, if only you could be a little bit better then I'd love you.)

But instead he said, "It's better if we're not friends, trust me."

My eyes narrowed. I'd heard that before (not from my dad, but from the public at large.)

"It's too bad you didn't figure that out earlier," I hissed through my teeth. "You could have saved yourself all this regret."

Edward was confused, "What regret?"

"For not letting the van squish me."

Edward raised his eyebrow, "You really think I regret saving your life?"

I could see where his incredulity came from, I mean it was kind of jumping the shark to think he wanted me dead just because he hadn't talked to me for a couple days. But the assumption made sense, you'd just have to be in my head to get it. Oh, wait…

"I know you do," I hissed, which is hard to do when not one word has an 's' in it.

"You don't know anything!"

Well, he had me there.

"Neither does your mom!" I snapped, then looked away, arms crossed frowning.

Gym was brutal. We were playing basketball now. My team passed me the ball a lot, which was good, but by pass I mean they pelted me with the ball while calling me names, which was not quite as good.

It was still raining.

As I prepared dinner—enchiladas—I thought about Edward Cullen. It was fine if he didn't want to be friends with me. I could leave him alone for a year and then get a scholarship to Hawaii University and live out the rest of my life bummin' around on the beach. Because if there's one place where they like pale people more than Washington State, it's Hawaii.

Charlie came into the kitchen. He seemed suspicious when he smelled the green peppers. I couldn't blame him—green peppers killed his family when he was a baby (I'm pretty sure.)

We sat down to eat, "Dad?" I said.

"I'm going to Seattle a week from next Saturday."

He looked like he wanted to ask a lot of parent-y questions about where I'd stop for gas and if I would get lost and mugged alone in the big city, so I quickly added, "Don't worry, this plot point won't go anywhere."

Dad shrugged, "Whatever."

With half an enchilada left on his plate he stood and walked into the next room. A couple seconds later I got a text from him: ddnt like the chiladas. dont make them again, k? watching football now.

Oh why didn't Edward like me!? I ran to my room crying.

The next morning as I was getting out of my truck I dropped my keys into a puddle just for shits and giggles. I reached down to get them out but before I could grab them something white zoomed down and snatched them up.

I looked up and saw Edward holding my keys out for me to take.

"How do you do that?" I asked him.

"Do what?" he asked as I took my keys.

"Appear out of thin air."

"I'm a vampire."

Maybe it was some sort of training models got. Maybe he knew kung fu. I saw a kung fu movie once. It was pretty bad. Nobody even killed themselves in the name of love. They were all worried about honor and shame and crap like that.

I scowled at him, projecting my annoyance at martial arts at his forehead, "So you are trying to irritate me to death," I accused.

"Bella, you are utterly absurd," he told me, which was the nicest thing he ever said to me and I was about to offer him a quickie in my truck bed before I remembered that I was supposed to ignore him until I could run away to Hawaii.

I started to walk away, trying to keep thoughts of his naughty parts out of my head.

"Wait," he called after me, "I'm sorry, I was being rude."

I stopped in my tracks, turning fiercely to face him. I looked him hard right in the eye, "Edward Cullen," I hissed, "Don't you ever, and I mean ever, apologize to me for being rude again!"

Satisfied that he knew I was being serious, I continued onward to class.

"I wanted to ask you something," he announced.

"Do you have multiple personalities or something?" asked him, unable to keep up with his constant mood swings.

"Just everybody's voices in my head."

"Well, what do you want?" I was growing impatient. If a person can really learn from history then he was about to ask me to the girl's choice dance like all the other boys in school. I couldn't wait to say to him yes, and to say to all the other boys once and for all that they just weren't pale enough for me.

"Will you let me drive to Seattle a week from Saturday?"

Well, wasn't this a surprise. Mostly because I'd been expecting an invite to the dance, and a little bit because the only person I'd told was my dad the night before and I was almost positive that he and Edward didn't talk regularly.

"No," I said, remembering how he hated me so much he wished I'd been run over by a van.

"Bella.." he gave me a look like I was a misbehaving child.

"Okay, you can."

As he walked away I smiled wistfully. Every girl should be so lucky to have an Edward Cullen in their life.