Take an apple round and red
Don't slice down
Slice through instead
Right inside it you will see
A star as pretty as can be!
--The Apple Star

Where the Wild Apples Grow
Chapter Five: In Which She Smells Smoke

NOTE: Thank you guys for the reviews, story alerts, and favorite adds! And sorry for it going slow. I'll pick up the pace soon! Oh, and the chapters will eventually get longer! (:

When I spotted Alice, she was right in the middle of a clump of people, laughing and smacking at the two guys with her. The blonde girl looked at them, annoyed, but she was smiling as well. Behind them, I saw a shock of red hair, but then it was gone. My heart started pounding faster; I knew Alice was going to come over.

Did she know how much it would kill me to talk to her friends? Especially those boys she was with. And Jasper. Jasper, Alice's super-cute-senior boyfriend. Alice smiled at me, and tugging the two guys' hands, pulled them over to meet me.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked atit, there was nobody else in line, so I didn't get much time in preparation for the coming onslaught of questions that were sure to come. I took deep breaths, and, as casually as I could, let my hair fall in front of my face.

"Bella!" Alice exclaimed.

I looked up and tried to look surprised that she was there. "Oh, hi, Alice…" And then I looked carelessly at Jasper and the other two. "…and company."

The two guys nodded at me. The blonde girl looked me over and smirked at a person behind her. I blushed, trying to cover my face with my hand. Alice sat on the table, and Jasper wrapped his arms around her. She giggled and rolled her eyes at me.

"So, Bella, let me introduce you to my friends."

I nodded.

"This is Jasper." She smiled at him, and he smiled back at her. "And the big guy over there is Emmett. The welder, remember? And the, ugh, seriously ugly one who nobody can stand to look at for more than five seconds without looking for a paper bag" she took a deep breath "is Rosalie Hale. Ew."

"Oh, shut up, Alice." She punched Alice on the arm. And Alice winced dramatically.

"She's also incredibly violent. Beware."

They all laughed, and I felt sort of...excluded. I bit my lip and tried to smile at their happiness, and look like I was paying attention.

"And where is the other one?" Alice chuckled.

"He's hiding behind me." Rosalie answered and then she grabbed the person behind her by the arm and pushed him forward. He stumbled forward and almost ran into the table. I jumped back.

"Way to be a bitch, Rosalie." He glared at her, running his hand through his red hair.

"Shut up, you douche bag."

"Hag." He shot back.

He looked at me then, the boy with the red hair, and my jaw almost dropped open.

And it wasn't because was handsome, or because he was ugly. He was just unusual looking. He didn't look like anyone else. He had thin lips and high cheekbones. His eyes were a little farther apart then were conventional, but they were a bright, cool green and had long, thick eyelashes surrounding them. His nose had a little bump, but, in a way, that made him seem more…different. His face was pale – paler than me, even. He had a chin that stuck out a little with a small dimple in it.

He didn't look like he belonged in this tiny town. He looked like…I don't know. Otherworldly, I guess.

But he wasn't cute. He wasn't ugly, either. He was face was a mix-match of features that didn't fit together, but, somehow, did.

I looked away, blushing harder.

Alice was right, before, when she meant I had to see Edward.

He smiled at me, and one side of his mouth lifted higher than the other. Oddly, this seemed to go with his face. A crooked kind of smile.

"Sorry. 'Scuse my language. I'm Edward." He held out his hand for me to shake, and I cautiously held out my hand for him to take. He gripped it firmly; his hand was cold and so much larger than mine. I looked up at him from under my hair, and he was still smiling at me.

"Bella," I finally answered. I gulped. My face felt like it was on fire.

He let go of my hand then, and shifted away from me and went to stand next to Emmett, who, I saw, did actually have a tattoo.

And that was it.

That was it.

Alice's friends didn't try to talk to me again or ask me any questions. I felt sort of disorientated, though people still came up occasionally. Edward didn't look at me again. Instead, he sort of wandered off by himself, and eventually disappeared among the trees and crowds of people.

Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice didn't seem to notice, which I took to mean that he did that a lot. Took off, I mean, without telling anyone. I was kind of interested by Edward, I had to admit. That face of his made me want to look again, to see if someone could really look like that and still be real.

"Hey, Bella, if you want to take a break and go pick some apples, I'll take over for you."

Alice offered. I tried to ignore Jasper, whose hands were wrapped around her waist tightly.

"Thanks Alice." I stood up without further ado, and, waving good-bye at everyone, left to go apple-picking.

---

It was weird, I had to admit, seeing other people in the orchard, and stripping the apples from their trees. I wanted to go see how they picked them, and maybe amuse myself for a while, seeing how most of them didn't have ladders or anything, but decided I had had enough of people for the day.

I finally found my tree again, where, thankfully, no one else was. I decided just to stay up within the bottom branches, and pick one or two of those delicious apples. It was a little easier to go up a second tree, though I got a long scratch on my right arm that bled a little when I pushed the skin together.

When I was in the middle of eating my second apple, I saw Edward.

I panicked, and scrambled up to a crook in the tree where I was pretty sure I couldn't be seen. My apple got all dirty, and I laid it next to me. I tried to see what he was doing through the branches, but all I saw was his plaid jacket.

Plaid jacket.

He was the guy from Alice's picture.

Geez, I'm so unobservant. And stupid.

Then I smelled something that seemed out of place with all the apples and trees and sunshine. I sniffed harder, and I was surprised when I finally placed it.

Cigarette smoke.

Holy crow!

Edward smoked.

What the heck?! What—how old was he? Seventeen? Eighteen? And how old did you have to be to smoke? Eighteen or something, right?

Why did someone so young smoke cigarettes?

Did Alice know about this? Or Jasper? His parents?

Maybe that's why he snuck off. To kill himself with drugs.

Despite knowing that somehow I was going to embarrass myself, I jumped down out of my tree, startling Edward so much that he jumped and dropped his cigarette on the ground. He quickly snuffed it out with his boot.

"What the hell? Where did you come from?"

I just looked at him.

"What?"

"Why were you smoking?"

"None of your business." He wiped his hand on his jacket.

"Oh, sorry, then for worrying about second-hand smoke. And your health. I won't do that again." I sounded firm, surprising myself, and started to climb back up the tree.

"Wait!" I turned back to look back at him, raising my eyebrows. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? You just surprised me, is all."

"Right."

"Seriously though, where did you come from?"

"I was in the tree." I pointed up to prove my point.

"You climbed that thing? Without a ladder?"

"Obviously."

"I'm impressed." He smiled unevenly, some of his teeth showing.

"Thanks, I suppose."

"No problem."

"You really shouldn't do that though." I said.

"What? Be impressed?"

"No, smoke. It can kill you. You shouldn't throw your life away like that. Life is precious." I blushed hotly and sat on the roots, wrapping my arms around my knees, trying to hide my embarrassment.

Why do I talk to people?

"Well, that's nice, that you care so much."

"You're welcome, I guess."

He coughed. I sat. We were silent.

"I better be going. They'll be wondering where I am." He finally said.

I nodded, and he left, leaving me alone with my dirty old apple and a cigarette.

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