Finally, after three monotonous days, I was out of the hospital. Out of the plain, boring room that made me feel like a recluse. I had finally accepted the truth about my life, about how I was living in Forks, how I was in love, and how I was getting married. But now, I didn't want to be in love with- what was his name? Eddy? Edmund? Edward?
I flopped down onto my bed. Finally, peace and quiet. For the past three hours, I had listened to Jacob tell me about my life I didn't remember living. About how I was madly in love with Edward and about how I had become horribly depressed when said boyfriend moved to Alaska. He told me about the times he and I used to motorcycle together and about how he had promised to take me cliff diving one day.
"Cliff diving? Like jumping off a cliff into the ocean?" I remember asking.
"Yeah. It's pretty cool; I've done it once," replied Jacob.
"Jacob, tell me. Did I ever love anyone besides Edward?" I asked after a pause.
He looked up and into my eyes. "No," he finally said. "No you didn't."
Then things got weird. He told me he had to go, and just like that, he left. No good byes, just an, "I have to go." Did he love me? Did I maybe love him back? I wonder…
Knock-knock! My door slowly opened, and in came the boy whom I saw when I first awoke. "Bella? Bella, it's me, Edward."
"Hi, Edward," I said. Just let me sleep for crying out loud!
"I wanted to apologize for my actions on Tuesday. It was just hard to grasp that you didn't know who I was. We were supposed to get married that day, Bella. I'm sorry." I looked into his liquid topaz eyes. He looked so sad; I knew that he meant those last two words with all his heart and that he wasn't just sorry for his behavior, he was sorry for everything. Did he have something to do with the accident?
"That's okay," I said. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.
"You look beautiful today," he said while walking over to my bed. "Bella," he started, with the same sincerity, "Do you still want to get married?"
"Well, it's just, I hardly know you right now. I don't think you would understand. It's like, first I'm boarding a plane, and then I wake up in a hospital being told that I'm supposed to be getting married that day. I feel like someone has lived my life for me and now I'm back regretting everything that person did."
"You regret falling in love with me?" he asked. He sounded genuinely hurt.
"Maybe I didn't say that right. What I'm trying to say is, well, what kind of person gets engaged before she graduates?"
"You're mother," he replied.
"Oh. Well. Um. Well, look at her now. She married someone years younger than he and left my dad heartbroken!"
"Are you breaking the engagement?" he asked with the same pain as before.
"No, I wouldn't do that to you. I'll still wear the ring," I relented. He took my hand and kissed it. My eyes widened in shock; he felt like ice.
"Why are you so cold?" I asked.
I caught him off his guard. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "Bella, will you come to my house? You can meet my family… again."
"Sure, why not?"
He took my hand and led me into the hall, down the stairs, and out the front door. "Wait a minute," I called running back into the house. Pulling out a pen and notepad from a drawer in the kitchen, I wrote Charlie a note telling him where I would be. Running back outside, I noticed two cars in the driveway. One of them was a black Mercedes and the other a silver Volvo. Seeing Edward opening the passenger seat door of the Volvo, I thanked him and climbed inside. "Nice car," I said.
"Thanks, yours isn't half bad either."
"Are you suggesting that the Mercedes is mine?" I asked skeptically.
"I'm not suggesting it. It was my early wedding present to you."
"Nu-uh. No way. That must cost you a fortune! I can't accept that." He smiled and pulled out of my driveway. I decided to strike up a conversation with him about us. Us. "Us" was a new word to me. Never before had I been associated with the word "us" in the way I was now.
"So how did we meet?" I asked.
He seemed to think about before answering. "We met in a lot of places."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, I first saw you in the cafeteria in school. You looked stunning from day one, and I didn't know what to make of you. Then, you got in a car accident. Well, you almost did. I stop- I pushed you out of the way, which unfortunately caused you to crack your head on the ice. Then, later that day, we met in the hospital and had a conversation there. But, I think the place we really met was the meadow."
"The meadow?"
"I'll show you one day. Maybe tomorrow?" he suggested. "My house is just up this road."
"You live kind of far away from everything," I observed. "It's very isolated. You guys like to keep to yourselves?"
"You could say that." Edward parked his car in the driveway and took me inside his house. It was immaculate; one entire wall was made of glass and the house had a completely modern design. The ground floor consisted of a spacious area with couches, a big screen TV, and a dining table with eight chairs. The man I recognized as the doctor from the hospital was sitting Like Edward, he was inhumanly beautiful and had the same liquid topaz eyes.
"Hello, Bella," he said. "It's good to have you back."
"It's good to be back," I said politely. I was about to say something else when a short, spiky haired girl ran down the stairs.
"Bella!" she said. "I missed you! It's really too bad about the wedding. So are you really not going to have it?"
I was astonished. Who was this girl and how did she know? I made that decision all of twenty minutes ago. "How do you know I postponed the wedding?"
"I- I-" she stammered.
"Alice," said Edward testily, "Bella, why don't you come with me."
I followed him up a stair case and down a hallway. Through an open door, I saw another ivory white face staring at me with curiosity and… hatred. Her topaz eyes pierced into my chocolate brown ones with such unadulterated loathing that I wondered what kind of person I was before the accident. What did I do to make her hate me so bad?
When we entered his room, the first I noticed was that there was no bed. The soft, thick, gold carpet felt wonderful against my shoeless feet. Against the wall were hundreds of CDs in their cases and a stereo.
"I like music," he explained.
"I can tell. Who was that back there? She looked… murderous."
"Oh, that was Rosalie."
"And why did she look like she wanted to kill me?"
He thought about it for a second. "Rosalie… doesn't like you."
"I noticed. Why? And what about Alice? How did she-"
"Bella, you left a lot of things behind when you fell."
"Edward, what did happen?"
He turned toward the window that made up an entire wall of his room.
"Edward?" I asked.
Suddenly, the sun appeared behind the never-ending wall of clouds. The golden rays lit up the room and reflected off of the many CD cases. The sunset glowed in all different colors: red, orange, pink, yellow…
And then I noticed Edward. He was standing there in the sunlight, inhumanly motionless and… sparkling. He was sparkling! His pure white skin was twinkling like a star in the night sky. He looked like he had been covered in white glitter glue!
"Edward!" I said in shock.
He glanced up at me. "What?"
"Your- your skin. It's… glowing. It's sparkling."
He looked down. His eyes grew wide as he realized his mistake. Stepping out of the light, he said, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Step back into the sunlight."
Conveniently, the sun went behind another cloud. He smiled a half smile at me. "Right on cue," he remarked.
"Edward what was that? You were sparkling. Normal people don't sparkle," I said. He couldn't avoid me this time.
"Let's just say I'm not normal."
"Then what are you, Edward. What are you? You're inhumanly cold. You sparkle. As sexy as that is, it's not normal!"
He stared at me like he was dying, like my words were ripping him apart from the inside out. He opened his mouth and then closed it again.
"It's getting late," I said. "I should be getting home."
We drove in silence, he looking like he was being stabbed with a white hot knife and me sitting there feeling mad. Why can't people just tell me the truth?