I didn't notice Eric standing by my car, so I jumped a bit when he said hi.
"What's up?" I asked as I finished texting and sent the message.
"Will you go to the spring dance with me?" he asked. Wow, braver than Mike.
"Sorry, I'm not going." I told him.
"That's cool, already have plans?" he asked casually. I had to hand it to him, he was good at being rejected peacefully.
"Actually I wanted to go shopping in Seattle." I said. "Sorry, but it's better than knowing I'm with someone else right?"
He smiled slightly. "Maybe some other time then,"
"We can hang out some other time," I agreed. It gave him a clear message of friends. Right? I got in the Lexus and pulled out behind Edward. He was waiting for his family, which were making no hurry towards the car. I heard someone tap my passenger side door. I pressed the button that would let the window down. Tyler was on the other side.
"Hey Nami," he said cheerfully. "I wanted to ask you something while we were stuck here,"
"Shoot," I said, someone shoot me!
"Will you ask me to the spring dance?" he asked.
"I'm busy that day," I told him. He didn't seem too beaten down by my cold voice. His smile was annoyingly cocky.
"We still have Prom," he said then walked back to his car, which was waiting behind be, engine running and door open. I looked forward and I saw Edward laughing. He found this funny? I was about the rear end his Volvo, not thinking about how Cyan would react, but his family had gotten into the car and he was already driving away.
Jessica called me a few minutes after I got home.
"He said he would go with me!" she said joyfully. "But I don't know why he waited so long, he just barely caught me in the parking lot," she wondered.
"Sorry, that was my fault," I said, "I didn't have time to put a good word in for you cause class started and then I suddenly got this major headache, so I wasn't in gym. I had to text him on the way to my car, I'm glad he caught you!" I explained.
"You put in a good word for me?" she asked, suspicious.
"I told him you two make a good couple," I told her. Not a lie, I had told him that, just not in the text.
"Oh, well what should I wear? I'm at a complete loss!" she sighed.
"Well, heels cause he's taller than you, it'll help if he tries to kiss you,"
"What? You think he might?" she asked.
"If you play your cards right," I said. All doubt that I was going to kill her plans was gone. She had to go because she wanted to call Angela and Lauren, a girl who didn't bother to talk to me.
Cyan woke up early, around eight. He stood in my bedroom doorway staring at me while I did my homework.
"What?" I finally demanded when he started tapping his fingers on the wall.
"Are you going to eat?" he asked. I froze. "You haven't eaten dinner for months, only when Emily was here." He continued. "You've stopped packing your lunch too." He said. "Is it that you can't eat or you just don't feel like it?" he asked.
"I just don't feel like it, I cannot feel an apatite" I told him.
"Come," he said. I followed him downstairs and into the kitchen. On the table was flour, eggs, milk, brown sugar, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, strawberries, gram crackers, butter, oil, cream and every other ingredient you could think of to bake. I tried to back up but Cyan caught me, his arms like iron around my waist.
"Oh, Cian no, no! Please don't make me!" I struggled against his hold, feeling sick. After a few minutes I gave up, closing my eyes and slumping to the floor. Cyan followed me down, keeping his hold on me.
"Nami," he said. I hadn't heard him say my name in so long. "Why did you bake?" he asked.
"So I could stop tears with sweets," I said, "To make a sweet that would stop anyone from crying." I told him.
"What does that have to do with Agito?" he asked.
"He loved my sweets. They would make him smile. They also brought him to me," I said. My voice was no more than a whisper.
"He wouldn't like it if you stopped baking just because he died," Cyan said. The words stung but I knew they were true. "Nami," he said. "Stop being weak," he ordered. He got up and pulled me up with him. He walked away leaving me alone with all the ingredients. I sat down in a chair looking at them. All the possibilities, all the things I could make. All the smiles I could create.
I couldn't stop my hands as they moved over the ingredients. I couldn't stop my mind from doing the calculations as I measured. I couldn't stop myself from counting every second when I put something in the oven. Eleven ours later, every ingredient had been used. Tarts, cakes, cookies, mille crepes, cream puffs, chocolate and candy sculptures; I had made almost every sweet I knew how to make.
"How do you feel?" Cyan asked when I was done. I was sitting on the floor, breathing hard and rubbing my wrist.
"Tired," I said weakly "And better than I've felt in a long time. Like I can swim, no like I can fly," I laid down on the floor, the cold tile feeling good on my flushed cheek.
"School." Cyan said.
"I just stayed up over twenty four hours dealing with an emotional barrier, and you want to send me to school,"
"I'll drive you," He said. I sighed and got up.
I took a quick shower and changed into a long, red and white, swirly skirt with a blouse that matched the color. I left my hair down, not wanting to style it. Noticing that the shirt dipped down a bit too much, I put on a jacket. I added white, one inch wedges to this outfit and headed down stairs.
Cyan was waiting for me with a full cup of coffee. "Here," He said handing me the cup. I took it and eyed him.
"You're not driving are you?" I asked.
"Drink," he said walking back upstairs. I rolled my eyes and drained the cup of bitter coffee. I managed to make it to school on time. When I opened the door and got out the keys slipped from my hand and fell to the ground. I heard the wind as he moved towards me and picked them up. Without looking I raised my hand and the keys fell into them.
"Thanks," I mumbled as I shut the car door and locked it. "I thought you were pretending that I didn't exist," I said, looking into his eyes.
"I wasn't pretending you didn't exist," he said, his voice smooth as velvet.
"So you were trying to irritate me to death, well too bad, it takes more than a vampire's petty annoyances to kill me," I told him. I started to walk away.
"I'm not trying to annoy you to death," he said keeping up with my pace easily.
"Then what was with the hold up, don't tell me you just wanted to see the look on my face,"
"Actually I did." He smiled. "I also wanted to see if you would reject him," he continued.
"Why would that matter to you? I'm just a human," I asked. It didn't make since for him to chase me. But now that I was able to bake, would I chase him? I had promised Agito, I was now free to make any decisions I wanted. Would I make the right ones?
"I wanted to ask you if, a week from Saturday, the day of the spring dance,"
"Not funny," I snarled and turned to walk again.
"Would you let me finish?" he asked still keeping up with me easily. When we were under the shelter of the cafeteria I turned around to look at him. I started to understand what Jessica meant by 'gorgeous'. That and more described him, had I really not noticed this before? He had been right there for months, was I that blind with Agito in my head? "I wanted to ask if you would go to Seattle with me," he said. That surprised me.
"Why?"
"Alice's birthday is coming up and I was wondering, because you're from Japan, if you would help me pick out a Kimono for her," he explained.
"Rosalie can't help? She should know Alice well enough to get her something she likes." I said. He looked like he was extremely offended. "What?" I asked when he didn't say anything. "Fine, I'll help," I said. Edward smiled. I felt that he really didn't want to stare me down to get my final answer, he was too much of a gentleman.
"Thanks," he said. "You really should stay away from me," he warned, "I'll see you in class." He left then, and made me late to English.
Mike kept throwing me glances every few minutes, which really ticked off Jessica. I managed to pull him aside and tell him to stop.
"But are you really okay? Yesterday you-"
"I'm fine, and I think you misunderstood a lot of things about me. I loved Agito, and he would never touch me, got that. God, I kicked your ass and you think I would let someone treat me that way?" He seemed to get the message.
At lunch, I couldn't stop my eyes from sweeping over the cafeteria to look for Edward. I didn't see him with his family. I turned my attention back to Jessica who was babbling on about the dance. "What is in that bag, it smells so sweet!" she said after looking at it for about a solid minute. I had actually for gotten about it.
"Sweets, like cookies, tarts, and a few jams and stuff. I made too much last night. Cian doesn't like sweets and I can't eat them all by myself so I was going to give them to you. The recipes are in there too, as well as nutrition facts and the number of calories in them. I tried to keep them low fat cause the dance is coming up," I told her handing her the bag. She looked surprised and touched. I got a hug.
"Oh, you are so sweet! Holy crap Edward Cullen is staring at you again!" she said letting me go. I looked at Edward. He was sitting alone, and motioning with his finger for me to come. "Does he mean you?" she asked. I shrugged, paying for my drink.
"Maybe he needs help with his homework," I called to her, already walking away.
"Why don't you have lunch with me today?" he asked. I pulled out a chair across from him and sat down.
"What brought this on?" I asked.
"I got tired of staying away from you," he smiled. "And I figured that if I was already going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly," he made a quick face as if realizing that he had slipped up.
"So you think by being a vampire that you're automatically going to hell?" I asked. I heard Rosalie hiss. Did she know I knew, or did Emmet not tell her anything? I allowed myself a quick glance at her. She wasn't hiding her dislike for me, and behind her back Emmet was giving me and apologetic look. So he hadn't said anything.
"Sorry about her, but what makes you think I'm a vampire?" he asked. So Emmet had really kept his mouth shut. I heard Jasper tapping impatiently on the table. I met his eyes for a second and saw, dislike? No, it was more like he had come to accept me but still didn't like the idea.
"Don't apologize, Rosalie-san has a good reason to be mad. I guessing from her point of view, by knowing, I'm putting her loved ones in danger," Edward raised his eyebrow. "I'm acquainted with Aro, he knows I'm still human and has given permission for me to remain so."
"Why would he-" I raised my hand to stop him.
"I don't like that memory, but he told me about Carlisle-san and Alice-san. I don't agree with his power hungry ways but, he does hold some valuable information," I said. I didn't want them to think I was a spy or something.
"You don't like him." He stated.
"No, I don't and to tell the truth most of them piss me off,"
"So why stay here if you don't like vampires?" he questioned.
"I didn't say that, I said they pissed me off. I have nothing against you or your family." He laughed a bit. "What?" I asked.
"Your friends don't like that I took you away, and your boyfriend thinks I'm being mean to you. He's debating about coming over here to break up our fight." He laughed.
"They'll live, and I don't have a boyfriend," I said. I listened for what they were saying. They were on a topic completely different from what Edward was saying. A beach trip to be exact. But when I looked at Mike I could see the slightest bit of annoyance at me being so close to Edward. It was like he knew what Mike was…
"Name a language that none of the humans in the cafeteria know," I said suddenly. He looked surprised.
"Japanese," he said. I shook my head.
"Jessica and Mike would know if I was speaking Japanese cause they've heard me, Jessica tends to get pissy when I don't include her either. If she sees you know Japanese she'll be even more of a bitch. Something else," I said quickly not wanting to loose my thoughts.
"Ancient Greek, then" he smiled. The look on his face was precious when I started speaking the language.
"This is just a theory but I think I'm correct, or at least very close. My hearing is better that an average human's and when I listened to their conversation just now it was revolving around a trip to the beach, not plans to tear me away from this table. But I didn't think you were lying, in fact you weren't," his face was completely surprised and horrified as I kept talking. "Their faces were tainted with bitterness. Also their heart beats matched the pattern for anger. So how did you know? I'm thinking you have the same power as Aro, but you're not going around touching people, they would notice that. I'm betting you can hear them with out contact, and all at once as well. You can read their minds," he opened his mouth to talk but I continued speaking. "But if you did you would have read mine a while ago. You would have known that I knew what you were from the first time we had biology together. You wouldn't have had to ask me anything, you would only need a few seconds to know my life story and what I was going through. You would have felt the same feelings I had felt and reacted to that when you first spoke to me. You would already know why I went to the Volturi, Mind reader," I finished.
"Far more perceptive than I counted for," He said. "Do you know anything else?" he asked.
"Just that Alice-san can see the future and that you don't hunt humans, oh and that my blood smells really sweet to you, nearly irresistible. That's it." I ended.
"You knew all this and you stayed?" he asked.
"You're putting every person in this cafeteria in danger just by being around me and you're here," I said. Rosalie hissed again. I deserved that.
"I'm giving up," he said.
"Giving up?"
"Yes giving up trying to be good," he smiled a crooked smile that nearly took my breath away, and that was saying something.
"So in plain English, we're friends?" I asked
"Friends," he said as if it weren't enough. "I'm not a good friend for you," he frowned.
"I disagree, you maybe just what I need," I looked down at my drink, wondering why I had let that slip.
"What are you thinking?" he asked. So he couldn't read my mind.
"Why are you talking to me? There's nothing special about me," Lies, I was barely human.
"You don't see your self clearly at all," He said shaking his head. I noticed that most of the room had cleared.
"We're going to be late," I said, standing up.
"I'm not going to class," he said. "Sometimes ditching is healthy," I raised my eyebrow, and then left for class.