Still don't own Twilight.

Chapter 4

Charlie

"So, Mr. Swan," I began. " Got any grudges against my mom for taking your spot as chief?"

"Nah," he told me as he dished out some lasagna. "I may not have the title to myself, but I still get the same pay, so I'm okay. And please, call me Charlie."

"Okay Charlie. This looks great. Thanks for having us over," I complemented.

"Actually, I can't cook to save my life; Bella made this," He told me.

"Well then Bella, this looks and tastes wonderful," I said after trying a bite. "What grade are you in?" l asked.

"l just graduated, actually." She told me.

"Oh, man," l complained. "l thought l was going to have a friend before school started. Oh well. We can still hang out. That is, if you're not going to college."

"Actually, my fiance and I are going to college together. Sorry to dissapoint you."

Woah. This girl is just out of high school and she's already getting married? Woah.

"So, uh, why're you engaged?" I asked. Smooth.

"Um, because we love each other?" This is going soooooooo great!

"Okay, that totally didn't come out right. What I meant to say was, um, well... Sorry..." Wow. This girl is going to hate me.

"It's okay," She said sympathetically. "I'm not exactly great with words either. Or running. Or doing anything non-clumsily for that matter.

Hmm... Maybe we'll get along better than I thought.

"So, who's the lucky guy?" I asked.

"His name is Edward Cullen," She told me.

Charlie visually tensened at the mention of this Edward guy. This obviously wasn't his favorite topic. He probably wasn't happy about Bella getting engaged to him. I tried to change the subject, failed miserably, and all I could come up with after a long akward pause was: "So, how 'bout those Yankees?" Nice. Yankees. We were in freaking Washington and all I coud come up with was the Yankees?! I mean I don't know anything about baseball; the only reason I knew about the Yankees was because I lived in New York, but at least try football and ask about the Redskins! But no, aparently my big mouth not only wanted to know: "Uh, why're you engaged?" but also about the Yankees! Man, I'm really good at looking like an idiot.

Even though I did look like a total moron, everyone laughed. Even me. Actually, everyone was probably laughing because I looked like a total moron, but oh well, at least the mood visibly lightened.

After dinner and some pleasant small talk over coffee, Bella asked me if I would like to see the woods next to the house. I may be clumsy, but I wasn't dumb. We both could see that our parents were hitting it off and we wanted to give them some space. I agreed and said that that sounded nice.

"So," Bella asked when we got outside. "Where's your dad in the picture?"

I don't know why I liked this girl so much. Maybe it was the big brown eyes that made her look so innocent. I don't know, but I did. I hadn't told many people about my dad because, while I was glad to get away for my mom's sake, he was my dad and I loved him. It hurt to be away from a loved one. But I told her everything. Having not told the story in a while, I didn't realise just how much I really did miss him until I sat blubbering, holding on to bella under a canopy of trees probably a half mile away from her house.

That's when we heard the rustling. My eyes grew large for fear of being eaten by a bear. It was way worse than a bear. It was a person. An extremely pale person. An extremely pale person with eyes as black as liquid ebony.

There. Look, I even gave you a nice cliffy to keep your nails nice and short. R&R please. Until next time, Zac.