Chapter 4: The Car Crash
Early next morning, I woke up with a start. Again. But this time, it was different. I remembered what I had dreamt about it. And I didn't wake up scared, I woke up happy. But when I looked out the window, my smiled was completely wiped off my face. Slush. My worst nightmare. Not even like how the snow was in New York. I was scared. I knew it was going to be extremely slippery, and being accident prone, I had a bad feeling about today. Atleast today was an early release. And I knew that I would be able to see Edward sooner than normal. And longer than normal too. Biology and trig were the only classes that they made longer on early release.
English, history, and trig went by pretty quick. I didn't have gym or spanish today, because they cut out electives. Lunch came sooner than expected. But I didn't mind.
" So, how was your day today?" Britt asked me, when we entered the cafeteria together.
" Good..." I answered. I was looking for Edward, glancing at the usual table he sat at. She then, hugged me and left me alone, in the middle of the cafeteria, without any invitation to her table.
"Why don't you sit with me today?" Edward asked me, from behind. I hadn't heard him move near me or close to me. I didn't jump, but I felt the electricity charge in my body. I turned around. We were only about half a foot apart. I looked up at him. His closeness made my heart skip a beat twice, one because of his body so close, and second because it was a surprise to me.
"Um...ok..." I said, more confused than ever. But the alone time was nice. I looked over at the old table, and saw Britt, Jasper and Emmett giving me a thumbs up. So they knew that I liked him and appearently, he had done this for me. I sighed. Crap.
He led me to the table, which already had two trays full of food set down. I blushed. He did know. I sat down, my face probably showing for horribly embaressed I was. My face was tomato red, for sure.
"You know, most girls in this school would have politely declined. You know, sitting at the table with us. Though, they were incredibly jealous of you yesterday. But they still would have declined. I can tell. They're scared of us." He said.
" How can you tell?" I asked, a little bit confused.
" People are easy to read, for me at least. Except for you." He looked at me, his emerald-turning-into-gold-eyes looking up from his long lashes. My mind went blank. Then, it returned a full thirty seconds later.
"Me? i'm not easy to read?" I asked. "My mother calls me an open book, I talk in my sleep and reveal every little secret I have, and I spill to much of my guts when I'm nervous. Like I am now." Oops. Way to much information.
" Why are you nervous? Are you scared like the other girls? They don't like us, for some reason." He smiled. My heart jumped again. I blushed looking down. He looked down too.
" Actually, I'm not nervous about you guys like those other girls...I'm nervous because..." I paused. I couldn't go on without revealing that I liked him.
" Because?" He urged me to keep going.
"...Because...I'm alone with you. And it's weird. It's not like I have an excuse to be. Britt and I have had way more...cheerful conversations. Our first conversation...you were angry. The second conversaion, we had had a debate. And the the third was about a frog that was basically bleeding pus. People can't talk about that like its normal...well, at least normal people can't. And yet, I'm sitting here, alone, with no excuse. Britt would be my excuse, because she had invited me to your table before, and we had talked throughout the whole period in English."
By this time, we had gotten up, and were walking together, to biology.
" Maybe it's because we aren't normal. And by we, I am including you as well." He told me, as we both sat down.
" Are you calling me weird?" I asked in a defensive tone.
"Yes, for a matter of fact, I am." He said, bluntly. But he also said it in a teasing tone.
" Most girls don't make it to our table by their second day of knowing the people who sat there. They always just sit down, awkwardly, make an excuse to get up when they see Britt glaring at them, and then run away pathetically. But...you made it to the table the second day we had known you were here. That is pretty abnormal." He said. Maybe that was why Jessica thought it was strange when they had invited me to sit over there with them. We finished the rest of our conversation, and before I knew it, we were walking outside to go home.
I was getting into the car, when I heard a sudden scream. I think it was my name. I turned around, and faced the direction of the scream. I saw Abby, and Emily open mouthed, and their eyes wide. And about three parking spots behind them, I saw the Cullens with the same expression. All in all, Edward was about six parking spots away from me, and I saw Britt reach over to catch him. But he was gone. And a second after, I saw the van coming at me, the front was going to crush me and my truck. I felt my mouth open wide, and then I tried to get out of the way. But I had barely moved an inch when I heard his voice in my ear.
"Not her." His velvet smooth voice said. My heart leaped with happiness, and then dread washed over me when I realized that he would probably die too if the car would have hit us. In a flash, he had me on the ground, and almost under the truck, his body over mine. The electricity was there again, but this time, it would probably be the last. I heard him say the words again and again.
And then, he did something that horrified me. He stuck out his whole arm, and tried to stop the truck from hitting us at full force. I heard myself whisper.
" No!" I said silently. But the van had stopped and dented around his arm, and he looked at me. His eyes full of fear. He realized, that I had realized what he had done.
But the van came back, for a second round of the big blue van, versus Edward Cullen.He held the same arm back again, and the van crushed into it. He then curled his fingers under the rim of the side of the van, and stopped it. He slid me under the space of where the van and the truck hadn't collided, and my head hit the concrete road. I gasped in pain. But I was still looking at him. He moved the van, closer to the truck, with one hand and then said one thing that amazed me.
" Can you move over abit?" He said, almost casually. I think he was trying to lighten the mood. He then looked at the cars windows, that were breaking, and moved my legs from where the peices would fall only a second later.
But when he looked at me, his eyes still had a fear in them. Like he was scared of what I had seen. By the time I looked away from his frightened eyes, I saw peoples shoes, and abit of their legs, moving towards us. Edward's other arm was still around my waist, where it had been the whole time. I was just to busy noticing that he had dented a car with his whole arm, to notice. Then, I saw Britt's unmistakable stilettos coming towards the car. I also saw Emmett's expensive sneakers following close behind. It took two teachers, and Jasper, Emmett and Britt to pull the car off of me, and Edward. Of course, Edward could have just lifted it with one hand, off of me and him.
When the van was removed, I could see Britt's and Emmett's faces. They were fuming. Jasper looked calm, and then slowly Emmett became calmer. But Britt was still pissed off.
" Liza! Edward! Are you ok?" Britt asked. She said this almost sarcastically. Her rage was showing in her voice. She pulled Edward by his shirt, away from (almost) under my truck, and helped me get up. My head throbbed a bit, but other than that, I was okay. At least my whole body wasn't crushed. At least I could still feel, cause if your dead, you can't feel anything.
" Edward...Are you okay? Liza? Are you okay? Is everyone okay?" Asked one of the teachers that had helped lift the van away.
" Don't worry Coach Baggs I'm ok!" I told the gym teacher. Every students eyes were planted on us.
"Are you okay Liza?" Abby rushed over. She looked at me, and then gave me a big hug. She hugged to tightly.
"Ow!" I said, my body was bruised, I was sure of it, but I didn't smell any blood, and I didn't feel any bones that had broken. I never had broken any bones in my body, even though I was very clumsy. I usually caught myself though.
" Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Abby said, putting me down. She was very tall and strong. Edward kind of leaned nearer to me, when I had complained. He sighed in relief when the paramedics told me that I hadn't had a broken bone in my body, and that I wasn't bleeding. Edward had absolutely no bruises, or scratches. I was surprised, seeing that he basically lifted a car off of me. And a big car at that. The paramedics still wanted to lift Edward in one of those stretchers. But he resisted. I tried to do the same, but Edward told them I had hit my head pretty hard. So, infront of the whole school, they put a neck brace on me, and lifted me into a stretcher, and into the ambulance. Of course, Edward wanted to ride to the hospital in the sam ambulance that I was in. Before they lifted me in, I asked him what the hell he did.
" I'll tell you later okay?" He replied. I tried to protest, but he put one finger over my mouth, forgetting the electricty that I was sure he felt too. " I promise." And his touch was like ice. Or something close to the temperature of ice. He pulled away, let the stretcher be lifted by the paramedics, and then got into the ambulence behind us.
He stood there, next to me, looking at me when the paramedic told me something.
" I need your parents number."
"I don't live with my parent's." I replied.
" Then your guardian's number." He said, a little annoyed. " I just want to inform them that you are okay because this is probably airing on the news." I gasped in horror.
"What!?" I almost yelled. Edward smiled, and then told the paramedic that he had to call the police station. So they did. Edward told them my aunt's name, and they contacted her. I could hear her worried voice on the phone, even if the paramedic talking to her, was as farthest as possible as he could get, from me.
Then the paramedic told her to meet them at the hospital, and hung up.
" So your Jeanette's neice huh? So you're Jamie? She talks...brags about you alot."
"Liza." Edward and I both corrected.
" And how does that transfer?"
" My middle name, Elizabeth, shortened to Eliza, shortened again to Liza." I explained.
"You seem well enough...Why did your boyfriend here think that you were hurt?" the paramedic said, pointing to Edward.
"Because, she was almost run over and killed by a van." Edward said. He didn't even protest to the whole "girlfriend" thing, like people do in movies. I blushed. "And because she hit her head pretty hard, I saw it."
The rest of the trip was quiet. When we got to the hospital, three minutes later, they pulled me into a room, where Mike, the driver of the van that had almost killed me, was pulled in right after me.
"Oh my god Liza! I am so sorry! I didn't see Cullen there until they moved the van! I thought I had run you over! I'm so glad that Cullen was there to pull you out of the way! I'm so sorry!" He said. He looked worse than I did.
"Don't worry about it. I'm ok, Edward pulled me out of the way just in time." I answered back, taking off the unnecessary neck brace. So Mike hadn't seen Edward too. I wanted to talk to him. And at that moment, him, and a very attractive male doctor came in.
"Hello Liza, I'm Dr.Carlisle Cullen. Edward's father." He smiled. And again, like before, when he had said Edward's name, my heart skipped a beat. It was very surprising that I had felt it, but I did. Dr.Cullen smiled at the exact time it had happened, and the glanced at Edward. Edward smiled back, and whispered something that looked like he was saying:
" I know, It's wonderful, isn't it?" I read his lips for any sign of something else I may understand. But when Edward noticed what I was trying to do, he kept on muttering faster and faster. I sighed.
" I have to check on Mike. Liza, you are free to go. There isn't anything wrong with you, according to the charts." Dr.Cullen said, pointing to the chart that he was holding. I remembered that a nurse had written in them before. Time went by in a blur, when you were waiting for the most beautiful boy on the planet.
"Thank you Dr.Cullen." I said as I tried to get up, and of course, I tripped over my own feet. Edward caught me. My heart, again, skipped beats. I didn't think I was going to get used to him. Even if we were just friends, I didn't like it that my heart reacted this way. It was creepy that I couldn't control myself.
" Are you sure she's allowed to go?" Edward asked his father. His breath smelled delicious as he talked. I hoped that he wouldn't notice me inhaling as much as I could, in. The electricity was back again, but this time, Edward didn't pull away, as fast as he could have. He actually lingered.
" Yes, from what I hear from the other students, she's naturally like that." Dr.Cullen turned away.
Edward let go of me. He held my hand, and helped me stnd straight again.
"We need to talk."I told him.
" Uh oh, that's always the start of a bad conversation. Come on." He replied, leading me outside of the room, into the hallway of the hospital.
" How did you do that? You...and...car...and...you...and your arm and...and..." He put a cold finger to my lips. When he took it away, I felt my skin still tingling.
" It was an adrenaline rush. It's actually very common."
"Then why did you tell me to move over, and then you pulled the car closer?" I asked." You sounded really calm! And, you held out your arm, and the car bent around it!"
" That was your imagination." He said, picking at my sanity. " Your truck's open door made that dent." I remembered that I was getting into my truck when the van came. I probably left the car door open, and there was a possiblity that it was the truck door that made the dent. It was more possible than the dent being made by Edward's arm.
" And, you were six parking spots away, and then, you just suddenly appeared next to me!" I whispered.
"You must have hit your head harder than Carlisle thought. I was standing right next to you Liza!" He whispred back.
" But I saw you! And Mike said that he didn't see you there until they pulled the van away!"
" So...You're saying that you think, I ran over to you in less than a second, from six parking spots away, saved you with my arm, and then lifted the van closer to us?" His tone questioned my sanity. Dor the second time now.
" If you did, I wouldn't tell anyone. I promise." I said, now desperate to find out how he had done it.
" No, you'll tell people."
"I know how to keep my promises, Edward." I said. Then I muttered "Unlike you." under my breath. He glared at me.
" I only promised to shut you up. I didn't want anyone to over hear." He snapped.
" Why didn't you want anyone to hear then? I thought you said it was normal for an adrenaline rush!" I whispered.
" I didn't want a whole production, everyone to freak out and stuff. That's all!" Edward said, not looking into my eyes.
"Why aren't you looking at me? You're lying. And I know it. I'll find out what you're trying to hide Edward-" My heart skipped again." But I won't tell anyone, because I promised before." I said, turning away, towards the waiting room. I was sure that Jeanette was going to be there, panicked and scared. I also remembered what Dr.Cullen had said, and turned to face him again.
"What did your father mean by: From what I hear from the other students? Is anyone in the waiting room from our school?"
He smiled, and then started to chuckle. " The whole school is out there. Well, at least our whole grade. And some seniors." He said this the last part with a bitter tone.
"Oh no...oh God..." I said. I was starting to have a panic attack. Did everyone really just come to see how I was doing? If I was still alive? Most of my grade hasn't even talked to me. And they come to see if I'm still alive?
" Stop freaking out. It's okay. I'll accompany you out there to meet Jeanette."
" That'll just make them stare more!" I said, panicked.
" Fine then...I guess you can just go by yoursel-"
"No! Just...cover me...They'll see me on Monday at school!" I interuppted. He grinned, glad that I had given in.
"Fine. I'll cover you. Just get next to me, and try to match my steps. I'll put half of my jacket over you so you'll go with out anyone knowing it' you." He sighed.
And that was exactly what we did. I had to get closer to him, almost hugging him, and he put his jacket, and arm over me. People didn't see who I was. They probably thought I may have been Britt, because of my height, and the fact that he covered my hair as well.
We finally got to the end of the waiting room, where Jeanette was standing.
"Is she okay Edward?" She asked. My heart jumped again. I was getting tired of this. He chuckled under his breath. By our close proximity, he probably felt my heart.
" Lets go outside." He said. He must have been gesturing toward my body because Jeanette obeyed and followed, calmly.
When we got out of the parking lot, Edward uncovered me. Jeanette spinned me around, and gave me a tight hug. She lifted me from the ground.
"Um...Aunt Jeanette?" I struggled to say. I was facing Edward, and Jeanette had her back to him. He smiled, teasingly. I didn't even bother to glare. I just gave an embaressed smile, and blushed. When Jeanette let me breath again, she rushed over to Edward and gave him a hug. I then smiled teasingly back, and he glared.
"Thank you so much for saving her!" My aunt said to him.
" It was no problem Cheif Morales." He prononced the Hispanic name prefectly.
" Thank you" They pulled apart, and he gave her a crooked smile. My heart lept, and his eyes went to mine.
" I'll see you around town." Edward said to us, smiling.
"You go on ahead into the car Aunt Jeanette." I said. I wanted to tell Edward said. His smile faded.
" What?" He said, in an annoyed tone.
" I want to let you know that I will find out."
" I wished you wouldn't try. And I should have stopped this before." Stopped what? I thought." We shouldn't be friends. I'm not good for you."
" Fine then. But I will find out. And I will keep my promise. We don't have to be friends then, but I will find out." I said turning away. I was pissed off.
Edward smiled again. As I opened the car door, I turned back. His face was serious. But his voice hinted friendliness. Probably for Jeanette's benefit.
" I'll see you on Monday then." He said. His face was grim. He turned and walked away.
Jeanette pulled out of the parking space, and started to drive home.
" That accident is going to be on the news tonight. I can tell you that." She said.
" Yeah...I know." I frowned.
I was still thinking about what Edward had said. I needed to find out his secret. His warning had a tone that hinted that he was dangerous. I had to find out what he meant, and his secret. When we arrived home, I locked myself in my room, and tried to think of explainations. I only had a few. But, I thought maybe one of his comments on them would maybe get me a little closer to finding out the mystery. But I had a whole weekend to figure it out. And that was what the proble was. I wouldn't be able to see him for two days. Over that time, his anger towards me could be multiplied. That, I was afraid of.