BPOV
It's a day away from being two weeks since my fight with Lauren. Due to Lauren's "injury" practice had been cancelled the last two weeks, but we were going back tomorrow. Ever since the gang and I had ice cream together, Edward and I have been shamelessly flirting, as Alice called it. I couldn't help but smile when I saw him and I couldn't deny the sensation I felt when he touched me, it was as if he could warm my soul by the soft brush of our shoulders. If you would have told me four weeks ago that I would be falling for Edward Cullen I would have laughed in your face and told you that would never ever happen, but it was happening, now. I was falling for Edward Cullen, hard.
Right now I was heading to IHOP to have Monday breakfast with the gang. I was already ready for the day because I wanted to work on my photography project.
"What, are you not hungry this morning, Bella?" Emmett asked, with a mouth full of pancakes.
"I'm not staying long. I want to get a good shot of the sunrise this morning," I replied, laughing.
"Photography project?" Edward asked knowingly.
"Yea, I couldn't figure out what to do so I'm just doing the sun at different times of the day." Our project was to show one object looking slightly different in each picture.
"How original," he said, jokingly.
"Why thank-you Edward," I smiled.
"Anytime, beautiful." As soon as the words escaped his mouth Alice flashed me "the look". The one that said, 'that's what I mean when I say shameless flirting'. I just rolled my eyes at her. She knew I was starting to like her brother a lot more, what can I say he was growing on me. I haven't been this happy in a very long time and I had my new best friends to think for it.
"See you later, guys," I said, standing up. I really couldn't miss this sunrise; the project was due in two days. They all waved and I headed back outside. People were scattered all over the campus, lounging around before class started. It was almost as if this was a college instead of a high school, I mean we were almost completely unsupervised. I went to a spot where there were few trees and sat down in the grass waiting. I leaned back on my elbows and enjoyed the warmth. It wouldn't be long until it was freezing cold outside as winter drew closer. When I heard the bell ring I guessed the sun would probably peeking over the horizon by now, so I grabbed my camera and stood up. I took a few shots of the sunrise and then walked around a little bit, taking shots from different angles. When I was sure I had the perfect picture, I headed towards English.
EPOV
I sighed, when Bella walked out of IHOP. I didn't want to be away from her at all. Lucky for me she only went a couple of yards away. She leaned back and stuck her chest out. The inner teenager in me was really turned on. I only looked away when I heard giggling beside me. I turned to find the source only to see Alice and Rosalie doubled over in laughter.
"Edward, you're drooling," Jasper laughed. I scowled, knowing damn well I wasn't drooling. The first bell rang, so we paid and hurried off to class. I couldn't help but take one last fleeting glance at Bella before beyond the trees that would block her from my sight.
"Edward, you'll see her in less than two hours," Rosalie said, pulling me towards class. I sighed, before turning around and breaking into a run.
I knew that I wanted Bella. I was just afraid that she wouldn't want me as more than a friend. Jasper and Emmett kept telling me to go for it and with any other girl I would have already done so, but this wasn't just any girl. This was the girl who had hated me less than three weeks ago, the girl who had punched me in the nose, the girl I was falling for, fast. This was Bella.
I couldn't focus all through first and second period. All I could think about was the way Bella's hair fanned out behind her this morning with the wind blowing through it lightly. By the time third period came around I had a serious…situation. I snuck into a bathroom for a few minutes to calm myself before continuing on my route to see Bella, otherwise known as third period, English. I visibly perked up when I saw Bella sitting there, lightly bobbing her head to whatever song was playing on her IPod.
"Hey," I smiled as I took my seat next to her.
"Hey," she replied, putting her IPod into her back pack.
"Did you get a good shot of the sunrise, beautiful?" I ask curiously.
"Yeah, I'm going to be up all night finishing this thing," she said, frowning.
"I finished mine last weekend," I smirked. My smirk fell into a smile as I remembered what I had done for my project.
"Of course you did." I was about to give another smartass comment, but the teacher interrupted me by starting her speech on classics. If I had to hear this old hag ramble on about Shakespeare, Austen, and Dickens for an hour I was going to die, so I raised my hand thinking of something to get us out of this lecture.
"Didn't you say we were going to have time today to work on our essays about the different genres of books?" I asked, knowing she hadn't said anything about this. The lady was at least seventy-five; she couldn't be that difficult to bamboozle.
"I don't believe I did Mr. Cullen," she said sternly. I could tell by her face that she was thinking back to see if she remembered saying such.
"Ms. Clark, I'm almost positive you said that we would have time to work on this today." I said, laughing on the inside. Shock crossed her old, wrinkled features and she again went to searching her memories, but she was interrupted by the sound of Bella's voice.
"I have to agree with Edward on this. I distinctly heard you say we would be given time for our project on Monday," Bella said, winking at me.
"Well I suppose if I said that," she started, but was interrupted by the sound of book bags and desks moving around. She sighed, but just sat back down at her desk and took out an old, worn out book. I turned in my desk to face Bella and smiled.
"Thanks for backing me up."
"No problem."
"I should probably actually work on that paper though. I haven't even started it," I said, grimacing.
"I finished mine last weekend," she said, laughter in her voice. I just sent her an eye roll before smiling at her.
"Then maybe you can help me with mine. Not all of us have taken advanced classes in Italy."
"Oh, shut up Cullen. I know for a fact that you're brilliant." I normally hated it when people called me by my last name, but it sounded very alluring coming from Bella. What was I talking about; everything sounded alluring coming out of Bella's mouth.
"I am a genius," I joked.
"That's stretching it a bit far."
An hour later….. (Still Edward's POV)
I casually slung my arm around Bella's shoulders on the way to lunch. She had helped me write my essay after we had stopped joking around and it was completely finished, I just had to type it. After we grabbed a medium pepperoni pizza to share we headed over to where our friends were seated. Apparently Emmett and Jasper were having another debate.
"Men want the same thing from their underwear that they want from women: a little bit of support, and a little bit of freedom," Emmett said.
"You did not just quote Jerry Seinfeld," Bella laughed. If I was already falling for her I would be now my girl watches Seinfeld. My girl where did that come from I haven't even asked her out on a date yet.
"We're debating over who has the quote that fits the man and woman perfectly," Jasper said, contemplating.
"Easy," Bella said confidently, "A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend, a successful woman is one who can find such man. – Lana Turner."
(AN- this was the original quote from the story and I liked it so much I put it on my Facebook page)
"Bella wins," Alice and Rose declared. The boys mumbled under their breath about how it wasn't fair, but after a look from their girlfriends they launched into a conversation about Halo verses Call of Duty. Bella, Alice, and Rosalie started talking about what they were going to do this week and weekend. I just stared at Bella and memorized every feature of her face, not that I hadn't already, but I don't think I would ever get tired of it. When she noticed my staring she blushed and quickly turned her attention back to the girls.
I just chuckled and tried to appear interested in the guy's conversation. All throughout lunch Bella and I would sneak looks at each other before smiling and looking away.
"Just ask her out already," Jasper said, knowingly.
"I don't think she likes me like that," I replied, frowning. Jasper snorted. Maybe he was right our glances could be a sign or I it could just be me getting caught and she doesn't want to be mean.
"Yeah and I'm an untamable vampire," he said, shaking his head. I thought about it for the rest of lunch and I was going to do it. I was going to ask Bella Swan out on a date.
BPOV
I sat back down at my computer, after a short food break, and looked at the time: 2:03 am. I had been working on my photography project since 3:30 pm after photography class. I couldn't get the pictures of the sun to work together. The project was fairly simple, photograph one thing a little different each time, but in my photos the sun looked the same each time. I then realized my problem, the sun never changes, only its location changes.
I groaned, what was I going to do for my project now? I had no time whatsoever to take new pictures, this project was due tomorrow. I went back to the main folder, so I could try and scrounge something up. I gasped; I had tons of pictures of Edward. I mean I knew I had snapped a few shots of him here and there, but I didn't know I had taken this many. I smiled; I had a new topic for my project.
EPOV
I groaned, looking at the clock, 2:03 am. I had put off typing this paper until 12:30 am because it should have been easy. I could type 78 words per minute; this should have been a piece of cake. Little did I know, that the whole time I wrote the paper I was going to be thinking about Bella. I grabbed a cup of coffee, sucked down a big gulp, before turning back to the computer. At about 2:45, a cup of coffee and ten too many thoughts about Bella later, I finally printed the paper out and climbed under my covers.
---
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I rolled over and hit the off button on my alarm. The morning came way too fast in my opinion. I had a very painful kink in my neck, from sitting at my desk into the wee hours of the morning. I realized as I stretched and looked at my alarm that I must have hit the snooze button a couple of times in my almost unconscious state because I had five minutes until class started. I quickly threw on some clean clothes, brushed my teeth, and grabbed my English paper and book-bag before taking off. I ran into Emmett in the hallway, where he was waiting on the elevator.
"What's nipping at your heels?" Emmett asked, laughing at my disheveled appearance.
"We only have five minutes until class," I said, still trying to catch my breath. Emmett glanced at his watch.
"That's an hour and five minutes," he said, sympathetically.
"Well then where are you going so early?" I asked, knowing Emmett had a knack for tricking people.
"Coach wants to have a meeting before class. I'll come get you after I grab my bag," he said, stepping into the elevator. I nodded, walking back down the hallway to my dorm room. I threw the book-bag on to the ground, started a pot of coffee, and stepped into a nice, hot shower. I was refreshed and ready when Emmett appeared at my door forty-five minutes later after I handed him a cup of coffee I carefully locked my door and drank what was left of mine.
"You look a little more alive this time around," Emmett laughed. I just rolled my eyes. Emmett and I debated about whom was the hottest Victoria Secret's model: Alessandra Ambrosio or Heidi Klum. (AN: If you don't know Victoria Secret's models you have got to go find a picture of these girls. They are both gorgeous.) Emmett eventually won, after reminding me of a certain picture of Heidi Klum's, but we both agreed that it was pretty close. We threw our coffee into a trash can before running our separate ways towards homeroom.
BPOV
English was boring, per usual. As Edward and I made our way towards lunch I couldn't stop thinking about how he would react to my project. Would he think I was stalking him? We were together a lot with our friends though so maybe he won't mind.
"I'm not hungry, so I'll go find us a table," he said, after he couldn't spot the others anywhere.
"Actually, I'm not that hungry either," I said, following behind him. The truth was I didn't think I would be able to keep anything down, with the butterflies in my stomach. I mean it never occurred to me at two am that my project topic would be weird, but now it seemed creepy and obsessive.
We managed to find a table on the outskirts of the circle, where we had a little privacy. Without food or friends to distract us, Edward and I turned to look at one another.
"Get your project finished?" he said, running his fingers through his hair. How I wished to run my fingers through his soft locks. Once I got over my love for his hair, I got back to the question he asked. I mean seriously, he couldn't ask anything else? It wasn't like I wasn't nervous enough about it, without him drawing extra attention to the thing.
"Yeah, early this morning," I said, yawning to show the lack of sleep I had gotten. He just nodded, seeming a little nervous about something himself. I opened my mouth to comment on his strange behavior when he turned and gave me a look. It was one of those intense looks where you didn't want to do anything to ruin to the moment. Well it seemed the moment was going to be wrecked anyways because our four best friends suddenly appeared at the table. They didn't really say anything, obviously noticing we were having a moment, but it was already wrecked so we engaged ourselves in pointless conversation with them.
--
The hallway leading to photography seemed shorter today than ever before and each step brought me closer to the room where I could possibly suffer the biggest embarrassment of my entire life. This could be more embarrassing than the time I put my bra on over my shirt in an attempt to make it to class on time, in my freshman year. When I entered the classroom only the teacher was there, but I saw a poster face down with Edward's name on the back, so he had obviously been here and gone already. Ms. Metts smiled when she saw me enter the room.
"Hello Bella," she said, warmly. I liked her; she was a nice, young teacher.
"Hello," I said, putting my poster on top of Edward's, also face down.
"I have a lot of stuff to grade before report cards go out next week, so I told Edward he could just go take pictures of anything he felt like you are free to do the same."
"Sounds good to me, thanks and good luck with the grading!" I said, heading back out the door to find Edward. Inside I was jumping for joy, knowing that my topic would be kept under wraps for a little while longer. I quickly found him, sitting on the bench where we had spent our first day of photography class together.
"Hi ya stranger," I smiled, sitting down next to him.
"Hi ya back," he said, flashing me his crooked grin. We settled into a comfortable silence that lasted about thirty minutes as we snapped random pictures of the scenery and each other. Edward took a deep, shaky breath before turning to face me.
"I was wondering, Bella, if you had any plans for this weekend?" As soon as the words left Edward's mouth, my breath caught. As not to seem retarded, I quickly responded.
"Not yet." It was a line Rosalie had taught me. She said it tells guys that you're free, but they better ask you out before you make other plans.
"Would you want to go see a movie or something…um…just me and you like on a date?" He sounded a little unsure and he looked so cute when he was nervous, so I couldn't help but giggle at his lack of confidence.
"I think that sounds great." His face broke out into a wide grin and I couldn't help but return it. The bell rang, shocking me, had we really been sitting her that long. Edward stood up and started walking away before turning around quickly.
"I'll pick you up at your room, does eight o' clock on Friday night sound good to you or should I make it seven and we can grab dinner first?" he ask, I just nodded as flashing me another grin. He then turned around and jogged away. The two girls standing nearby shot their glare my direction before whispering and stalking away, no doubt to spread rumors in their now jealous state. They couldn't ruin my mood though because I was going on a date with Edward fucking Cullen! I bet those two skanks have never been able say that! I was on cloud nine and really was so happy that I felt as if I were floating on it as well!
Just a little note to tell my readers thank you! I have enjoyed redoing this story and only have a few chapters left before I will be the one writing it. And once that starts my updates may end up being slower than what they have been. I love the reviews I am getting and would like to thank those of you who have so much and I want to apologize for the mistakes I have corrected anytime you notice something I need to fix let me know I appreciate it. So once again thank you all so much.
Tonya