Even for Eternity

Chapter 3

"Hi. I'm Edward Cullen." He wasn't smiling. His expression was stiff and his eyes were piercing straight into Bella's. Bella has never seen eyes like his. They were like butterscotch...like honey to her. But it wasn't only his eyes that were beautiful. Generally speaking, he was beautiful. He was tall but not really lanky. He's thin but he had muscles. His face was very angular. And his hair was bronze but it didn't look like it was carefully styled. It seemed like he just woke up with the way his hair stood up all over the place.

He walked slowly to Bella but still never changing his expression. Bella, being the shy girl that she is, looked down and blushed a deep red. Edward Cullen stopped in his tracks as the scent of the beautiful girl before him hit his senses. She's not human, he thought. Her scent was too strong for him. It was too floral. It was too delicious for it to belong to a human. But he could be wrong. Bella breathed in and out evenly before looking back up. But her blue eyes were gone and she was back with the brown. Edward saw the sudden shift. He was sure that it was just blue. It was the most beautiful shade of blue that he has ever seen. He sat in his seat and continued to stare at Bella.

"Hello?" Bella smiled awkwardly at him. He just kept staring, taking in her beauty. "It's rude to stare, you know."

He chuckled, shook his head and said, "Sorry. I was just...nevermind."

Bella smiled more confidently feeling a little smug, "I'm Bella. Bella Swan."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Bella." He gave her a quick nod and his signature smile. He tried to pay attention in class but the presence of Bella bothered him and that, he wasn't sure why. To him, she should be just any other girl. But she wasn't. There was a different energy from Bella Swan. And it didn't seem mundane at all. There was something about Bella Swan that made him want to figure it out.

Class went on differently but similar for both of them. For Edward, he didn't really listen to the teacher's discussion but he did watch Bella closely. And as for Bella, she could feel the new guy's eyes on her. It was a nuisance to an extent but she liked it. She had never felt such energy coming from anybody. The teacher distributed hand-outs and they started pair activities. Bella arranged the microscope and took a slide from the box before remembering that she had a partner.

"Would you want to go first?" Bella asked. She extended her hand that contained the slide.

"As a gentleman, I'll say...ladies first." His voice was smooth, like velvet. Bella's jaw dropped for second at the beautiful sound before proceeding with the task given. But what she didn't know was that to Edward, her voice were of an angel's. It was the most beautiful thing Edward has ever heard. Never in his one hundred years of living has he ever listened to such music. Yes, he considered it as music. He watched as Bella moved gracefully, changing slides and writing down observations. Bella smiled as she pushed the microscope towards him. He smiled back before taking his turn.

"So...what do you think of Forks, so far?" Bella decided to start a conversation to avoid the awkwardness that was creeping slowly to them.

"I think I like Forks. I mean, everyone's been very welcoming to us." He nodded then continued writing on his paper. It was taking all his strength to control his hunger. Besides, he couldn't hurt such a beautiful girl. But his mouth was suddenly flooding with venom. She was too delicious. No, he told himself. He wasn't giving up his one hundred years of trying to maintain a "vegetarian" diet. He smirked in pride. He hasn't hurt an innocent soul in almost a century. But that was the problem, he wanted to remember the taste of human blood.

"Oh. That's good." Bella let out a breath of relief and then smiled. And then she was curious but she was curious all the time so that was no surprise. "You're here with your family." It sounded as if it was an unsure statement waiting for some sort of confirmation.

He flicked his pen on the paper one last time then faced Bella with a smile, "Yes. My siblings and of course, our parents. They're easy to spot. I'm sure you have met them already."

"Actually...maybe I haven't. Unless, they visit the library every so often." Bella rethought back the whole day. But honestly, there was nothing that she could remember that was so important. She has been looking for some sort of explanation for the bluing of her eyes but even after all these years, she still hasn't found a clue.

Edward laughed a hearty one, "Yeah. Maybe not. They don't really love books as much as shopping."

Bella almost shivered. She wasn't really one who loves to shop - unless, you're shopping for books. She loved staying at home, reading books, cooking, listening to music and playing Plants Vs. Zombies. She's a homebody. Bella shook her head for clearance and looked back at Edward who was still staring right back at her. Their eyes met and Bella finally got a closer look of his eyes. It really was like honey. It was very fluid. It was beautiful, to her, at least.

"Your eyes..." She wondered, "They're so...different. But nice different."

Edward wanted to tell her how her eyes were so different from a normal human being, too. But he had to stay in character. A normal human being wouldn't have noticed what just happened a while ago. He smiled at her and just said, "Yeah." Letting an awkward silence fall upon them.

Bella sighed and the teacher finally dismissed them. She took her bag from the floor and dumped her Biology book in it. She slung a strap around her shoulder and swiped her paper from the table. She turned around to face Edward, "I guess, I'll see you later." She gave him a smile before submitting her paper and heading out.

She groaned realizing that she had Gym period, next. She didn't feel like moving around anymore and besides, her muscles were still stiff from yesterday's training with her dad. Yes, her dad teaches her how to punch and use a gun. For safety reasons, of course. It was one of his worries, especially with his current work, Chief Police of Forks. Bella walked to gym class sluggishly. It's not that she hated gym class but having "gym" sessions at home, already, was quite a pain for her - especially her muscles.

Bella decided to skip gym, after all. She hurried back up to the school library and continued on her search on her blue-eyes mystery. She searched through shelves and aisles for anything but found nothing. She sighed as she slumped down on the floor, dropping her bag next to her in the process. She took out the small compact mirror that she always carries in her bag and she looked at her eyes again. They were still brown. Still normal. Still ordinary. She ran her fingers through her hair and tugged at the strands. I will never get it, she thought. And then again, she lazily stood up and walked back to her rusty old truck. But she loved it anyways.

She drove straight home, excited to play Plants Vs. Zombies. She had no homework to finish immediately anyway, so she played straight away. There was something about PVZ that she loved. Probably the cute graphics or the awesome soundtrack or the way that nature fought off bad causes. It made her happy. Her mom, Renee, would always laugh at her rare shallowness. Charlie arrived, giving Bella a kiss on the forehead before giving his lovely wife a I'm-home kiss. Bella rolled her eyes, happily, at the sight of PDA. Actually, she was amazed that the romance never died between the two. She's been hearing stories about the parents of her peers, breaking it off at around their age but not her parents. And for that, she was happy.

"Have you heard of the new family in town?" Bella asked during dinner.

Charlie ate a forkful of the chicken pastel and downed it with a glass of water before scrunching his brows. "Cu...? C...? Cullens?"

Bella let out a short laugh at his father's adorableness. "Yeah. Cullens."

"Yeah. I've met the doctor. He's pretty good." He shrugged. Actually, Dr. Cullen can make a ton more money out there, anywhere. It was quite intriguing why they chose Forks. It's a small town for quite a big family, both literally and figuratively.

"I heard the wife really loves it here." Renee commented. She'd heard of this from one of her other neighbor, Mrs. Stanley. Jessica's mom. Jessica who has that big blabbering mouth, who probably got it from her mother. "But then again, it was Mrs. Stanley. Let's not make any assurance."

Bella offered to do the dishes that night. It was to give her parents some time to themselves. While she scrubbed and rinsed, she couldn't stop thinking about the Cullens. Even though, she hadn't really met them all. Her thoughts always went to Edward. She found him strange...and beautiful. And the color of his eyes...she'd never seen them before in other people's eyes. And she wondered if the whole family had inherited the same color. And then, she thought about Edward's angular face and the dazzling color of his hair. Technically speaking, Bella was fascinated with him. He couldn't be just any other normal boy.

She went to bed that night, dreaming about her last memory with Angela, her blue eyes stared right back at her. She tossed and turned in uneasiness. This hasn't stopped bothering her ever since. No matter how hard she'd tried to push it away, it always came back to her. Making her even feel as if her blue eyes were actually real, that it wasn't any form of hallucination. What she doesn't know was that her eyes had turned blue a lot more times than she thought. It turns blue when she's sleeping. It turns blue every morning ever since but the color only lasted for only a minute because it took that long for her to calm her nerves down. It turns blue, for a second or two, at the sign of supernatural danger. And it also turns blue whenever her emotions go on overload. But she was never aware, she was never aware of all of these.

She looked at her eyes again in front of the mirror, sighing once again in defeat. She realized that she had woken up earlier that day than usual and so she decided to take a walk in the forest. It's been a long time since she actually visited her true nature.

Mid-way through her walk, a growl pierced through the birds' chirping activity. Her eyes turned blue, her head whipped around and her heart pounded faster, stronger. Another growl, and she started backing away. But she was in the middle of the woods. She probably had no chance of running away. A cold arm wrapped around her shoulder and another pushed her hair away, leaving her neck exposed. The clouds grew darker as the predator growled softly, this time, and Bella ran through the normal combat procedures in her head. She twisted around and managed to escape his strong grip around her. But before she could even punch him, he was already out of sight. It was just then that Bella started running back, the hiking techniques that Charlie had taught her, finally coming of use.

She panted, partially stunned at what just happened. Her hands trembled as she took out her car key from her jeans' pockets. Her eyes finally returned back to her brown shade. She settled in her truck and took some time to reset and catch her breath. She was sure that she was just attacked by a man. If it wasn't a human being, it was a man. She shook her head for clearance. Was she going to tell her parents about this? No. She didn't want them worrying about her. As long as she wasn't dead yet. Besides, she's able to take care of herself. A proud smile danced across her lips. I'm strong enough, she thought.