Chapter 6

The man that deserves you the most

is the man that thinks he doesn't.

*

"So tell me about your siblings," I started, hesitating.

"That's not really a question," he said putting his car in park and turning it off in my driveway. I knew he was teasing, but I couldn't help but blush.

"I'm sorry..."

"You don't have apologize," he said looking at me questionably and then decided to answer me, "We're all adopted, my parents died when I was very young."

"I'm sorry... I didn't know," I looked down, having a minor flashback, but trying to block it out and concentrate on the present, where I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet.

"It's fine, I was very young, I barely remember them," he said shrugging.

"So are you the oldest?" I asked.

"Hey, no cheating!" he said flashing me a smile, "It's my turn."

His smile was blinding, and I couldn't think of anything, my head feeling full of air and I was suddenly aware of how little I had been eating lately. I just nodded, and looked at my hands, afraid of what he would ask. This could be a very dangerous game, and in my sporadic thinking had failed to think of that.

"You like to read?" he stated more than asked. I was very taken aback by this, not expecting something so easy for me to talk about.

"Yes, I love it," I said, nodding my head and smiling lightly.

"Do you have any particular favorites?"

"I thought you said no cheating!" I said before answering.

"That's hardly cheating, it is a follow up question!" he defended himself as I looked up.

"So was my sibling question," I pointed out.

"Not even close, we went from me being adopted to the sequence of age!" he replied cooly, I looked out him without blinking before I saw the defeat in his eyes.

"Fine, I'm in the middle. Rosalie and Emmet are older, Jasper and Alice are around the same age, I consider them younger," he paused for just a brief moment before we got to what he wanted to ask, God knows why, "Now, your favorites."

"Everything," I replied shyly, "Anything to get me in a different universe."

"Shakespear to King?" I just nodded, unable to explain how I felt about reading. It was the one thing that I could always count on to distract me.

"Shakespear is actually one of my favorites," I added. He nodded and I was reminded it was my turn.

"What are you listening to?" I reached for the button on his stereo. It was a simple question, you could tell a lot about a person by what they were listening to. Edward reached for the stereo at the same time as me and accidentally hit my hand. I was shocked by the coldness and just in general how I felt an instant spark, almost like a jolt go through my body.

I involuntarily flinched away, like I always do with anyone, and he stared at me. I looked down and started playing with my hands. He didn't say anything and instead stared fidgeting with some buttons and the music started playing. It wasn't the average rap music anyone would expect to come blaring from the speakers. Instead a calming, beautiful melody danced across to my ears. I recognized it immediately, my mom on rare cleaning days would play this. She said it calmed her and helped her concentrate more than normal. I could almost smell the Windex and toilet bowl cleaner now as a natural reaction to hearing the music.

"Debussy," I whispered. His head snapped to look over at me, his eyes wide and disbelieving. He had always been good at covering up reactions, if he had any around me, wearing a mask of sorts. Not right now though, he looked shocked.

"Yes... How did you know that?" I looked at him again, braver than before.

"My mom used to listen to it when she cleaned. It was one of my favorites," I explained.

"You miss her don't you?" he asked quietly, looking in my eyes as if searching for something. His stare was so intense I had to concentrate so I could stare at him and not look away like I so desperately wanted to.

"Yes, and no. I miss her, not so much Phoenix," I replied carefully.

"But you don't like the rain?" he asked sounding confused. I remembered the conversation we had in Biology, me saying I hated the cold. I realized he was cheating, that it was my turn to ask him a question, but something inside me pushed another answer forward.

"No, I don't."

"Then why don't you like Phoenix?" he questioned. I didn't know how to answer that question without him knowing about my past. He was getting too close for comfort and I didn't want him to. It wasn't Phoenix I didn't like, it was the people or more specifically the person who had hated me so much I started to hate myself. The person that made me doubt anyone could love me, the person who gave me both physical and emotional scars that I would have forever.

That was why I didn't like Phoenix. It was a scared place for me forever.

"It's my turn," I stopped him there.

"Okay," was all Edward said seeming to know I couldn't answer the question, or just not caring. "Your turn."

In the short thirty minutes Edward and I had played twenty-one questions in his car I found out a lot about him, without making myself vulnerable by exposing too much of myself.

I found out his favorite color was a warm chocolate brown and he in return found out mine was a golden honey. When he asked why though I blushed and said I didn't know. I was relieved when he didn't press me for answers, and he never did.

He eventually told me about his family, he said he was closest with his sister Alice, he said since they were very close in age they went through a lot of the same things. I felt as if there was more store behind this, but I didn't press him like he didn't press me. I didn't even realize that twenty-one questions was turning into just a normal conversation.

Before this night I would have imagined Edward Cullen as very reserved, I'm pretty sure we hadn't talked for over a minute before this, but as I suggested I had to go finish my homework, noticing the sun was setting I had a totally different image of him. I wondered if he had one of me too... I was scared to wonder.

"Speaking of homework, when are we going to start our biology project?" he asked before I left.

"Oh... um..." I stopped, unsure of what to say. I hadn't given it any thought at all.

"Would you like to come over tomorrow and start it?" he asked.

"I think that would work," I said warily.

"If not, I'm free this weekend," he offered. I could tell he was unsure about my uncertainty. Just two minutes ago we had conversation flowing freely, so comfortable. I couldn't believe how comfortable...

"No, tomorrow would work," I said trying to convince myself, everything would be fine.

"Okay, good," he said smiling hesitantly, "Then you'll get to meet the crazy family I've been telling you about all night." I looked at him with sheer terror on my face. He wanted me to meet his family? What did he just say!?

"You were asking about them all night, it's not a date or anything!" he quickly said trying to erase what ever was on my face a moment ago.

I nodded, and I was more relaxed.

"It should be fine," I answered, "I will see you tomorrow?" It came out as a wary question, and I didn't know why. I shouldn't care if he was at school or not, or if I never saw him again at all for that matter. But I did, I wanted to know he was going to be at school tomorrow.

"Yes, I will be at school," he answered my unasked question, and I wonder why that relieved me a bit. He smiled gently and I didn't know if I was imagining it but there was some other emotion behind his eyes. His gorgeous eyes....

"Okay, goodnight Edward," I said, trying my hardest to sound confident. I reached for the door handle.

"Goodnight, Isabella," he paused before he said my name. The texture of his voice wrapped around my name making it sound beautiful. As if he believed that...

I nodded, and got out. All the way up my driveway I wanted to believe that this wasn't just me. That he had felt the spark tonight too, that he thought I was beautiful the way his voice made it sound. I didn't look back but I knew he waited until I got inside and closed the door before leaving.

Him leaving made my self doubt return. I couldn't believe that, it would be stupid of me to even think anything of the sort. Edward was a gorgeously handsome man, and I was nothing. I was supposed to be keeping a diary of my eating habits for crying out loud! I pushed the thoughts of Edward aside and climbed the stairs, homework and a restless night awaiting me.

*

At least his family will be home, I tried to convince myself as I walked into school, preoccupied with the thought that six hours from now, I would be going with Edward to his house. I started to backtrack in my thoughts. What if that wasn't such a good thing... his family being there?

We had been dating for three months. James had already met my mom and Phil and I suggested I meet his parents. I didn't know how they had never been mentioned in conversations and I felt liek this was serious enough for me to be introduced by now.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," he said when I asked him about it.

"Oh, come on!" I replied, giggling, taking his arm while walking out of school one afternoon. I kept pushing until he revealed to me what I thought the main problem was.

"Is, my mom is dead." He said it so sure and steady, without a shred of remorse. I knew there was an emotion though, I could hear it laced with his toughness.

"Oh James..." I paused looking at our hands interwoven, "I'm so sorry."

"I knew you'd say that," he said rasing his voice and pulling his hand away from mine. "Everyone says that! But it's fine! It really is! She died in labor and even though I was the one to kill her- it's fine! I didn't even fucking know her!" He spatted off. I stood there, shell shocked. It was the first time someone had yelled seemingly, directly at me. I knew he wasn't mad at me, but it felt like that. He was still upset with himself, he blamed himself. I knew that, but it still didn't help the tears that were threatening to spill over.

I'm such a baby, I remember thinking. And damn, if only I knew what was to come.

"Is, I'm sorry," he whispered taking me in his arms, "I'm not mad at you, I'm sorry." I just nodded. Chuckling a bit to lighten the mood.

"Would you like to meet my dad?" he questioned quietly, still hugging me.

"Yes," I replied almost too quickly.

I could hear the smile in his voice just a little bit. "Okay, lets go."

I don't remember the car ride over, we probably joked or something. Something simple, because it always was up until this point. Everything was calm and easy, nothing to be worried about, nothing to be scared of. It was just James and Is, and I thought I was in love with him.

We got to his house, it was just a normal suburban house, much like mine. Walking in, we were holding hands, looking so in love I remember hoping people were jealous. We walked in, and the first thing I remember was it reeked of smoke. Which was weird, James never smelled like smoke. This house smelled of stale tobacco.

"James, is that you!?" I heard a bellowing voice boom out from somewhere close.

"I'm sorry," James whispered to me immediately, which I thought was weird.

"What?" I asked, very confused about the scene that was in front of me.

"Yeah dad, it's me, I want you to meet someone," James said, not as confident as he usually sounded. We started walking forward going out of the mud room, toward where the voice had come from.

We walked into his kitchen and I saw his dad for the first time. He wasn't what I expected at all... You could see some of James in him, but not much. If you could, it was faded by the bags under his eyes and the sunken cheek bones.

"Dad, this is my girlfriend, Bella," he said, his hand never leaving mine while his voice quivered.

His dad didn't say anything to me, just stared at me for a moment.

"It's very nice to meet you Mr-"

"Upstairs. Now." His dad growled at him, I almost wanted to flinch at the harshness of his tone, but I didn't dare move as James pulled his hand out of mine. His dad walked up the stairs.

"I'll be right back," he said, his voice hiding something from me, and I was already scared enough.

"James-"

"Stay here." He followed his father up the stairs, leaving me standing in the kitchen wondering what the hell was going on. I was scared, but I wasn't sure why, and I knew I didn't want James to go up those stairs. I sat there for two minutes before I head a loud bang from upstairs and I was tempted to go up, but the urgency in James' voice when he told me to stay put was too serious to test.

I only waited a couple minutes after the bang before I footsteps were running down the stairs and flying past me. It was James and he was running out where we had just came from. I quickly followed, not caring if he didn't want me to follow, I sure as hell wasn't staying in his eery kitchen.

I ran out the garage where he was sitting, back against his car, shaking. I went and kneeled close to him, grabbing his hand.

"Hey what-" I stopped mid sentence looking at his face. There was a clear red mark, from a slap or punch. Some force that stopped me in my tracks. Shocked, inside I knew, this was not the first time.

"James..." I started but he just pulled me to him, clinging to me.

As if I was the only one keeping him alive.

"Bella?" I heard Edwards voice pull me out of my trance. I was at my locker, putting my stuff away, not even realizing it.

"Oh, hi Edward," I replied, blinking a couple of times. I grabbed my books and closed my locker, ready to go to first hour.

"I'll walk you to class, if you don't mind?" Edward said cautiously. I stared at him confused as to why he'd want to do this, but replied with a simple,

"Sure." And so my day began, with Edward.

A/N: Sorry if I confused anyone, I erased some chapters and reworked them to make them all overall longer! So this was originally Chapter 10, but I've compiled them all into different chapters, etc, etc! Hope you enjoyed!!

Please review! It's my 18th birthday today! :)