Chapter 8
Insane
After school Jake picked me up and we drove to the beach. It was cool out, but not too cold; it was cloudy but at least it wasn't raining. So far Jacob wasn't talking, and it aggravated me since he obviously had something on his mind. Finally, after about five minutes of mindless small talk I got the courage to ask him what he needed to tell me. "So, what did you want to tell me earlier?" I asked bluntly.
"Oh umm, just thought it would be nice to talk to you about my umm, condition." He said looking away from me.
"What stuff did you want to talk about? I'm all ears." I told him hoping he'd feel more comfortable.
"I don't know, you're kind of the only normal person I have to talk to."
"Well, why don't just start with the basic stuff." I suggested, my patience wearing thin.
"As it turns out werewolves don't actually turn on a full moon." He said awkwardly rubbing his head. "Instead it's only when we get upset, or whenever we want to really."
"That's probably a good thing to remember." I said jokingly.
"Yah, I don't know it's supposedly helpful, but when there aren't any vampires around that you can kill it kind of sucks." Jake said fallowed by a slight chuckle.
"I thought you said the werewolf gene was only triggered when vampires were around?"
"Yah, but that doesn't mean we can kill them."
"What do you mean you can't kill them? I thought werewolves were built for that? Jake, it can't be good to have a vampire running around killing people!"
"You're still alive aren't you," my brows creased. "That particular clan says that they don't hunt humans. So we have a treaty with them; they don't bit another human and we don't kill them, and in return we can't tell anyone about them, or us."
"But Jake, you told me. Isn't that bad?"
"I didn't exactly tell you, plus, what they don't know won't hurt them."
"Is that all the treaty says?"
"Well they can't tell our secrets either, but that's part of vampire code apparently. Also there's a treaty line, we can't go in their territory and they can't go in ours. Lucky for me your house is on treaty line so it's no man's land. The school on the other hand is theirs."
"Well, it sure sounds like you break a lot of the rules Jake."
"Yep." He said popping his 'P'. "The major one though is me not telling you about them, so I would appreciate it if you didn't try and push it out of me." I nodded and Jacob continued telling me about werewolf stuff. We walked the beach as long as possible, until I had to return home to make dinner.
I walked into the house and saw Charlie watching TV. "Hey kiddo, someone called asking for you not too long ago. I left the number by the phone." I nodded and walked into the kitchen looking for something to cook. I decided to make spaghetti and started making the noodles, then I walked over to the phone and dialed the number before returning to the food to make sure it didn't burn. After a few rings someone picked up.
"Hello?" I almost dropped the phone when I heard Edward's voice. How did he even get my number?
"Hey its Bella…you called."
"Yah, I wanted to apologize for my behavior today."
"Uh, it's fine. Is that all you called for?" I asked not believing him.
"Not really." He replied.
"Well?" I pushed. I heard Edward sigh on his side.
"My sister thinks it's a good idea to invite you over for dinner, to umm properly apologize for all of my recent moodiness." I almost dropped the phone again; however, my mouth did fall open.
"Umm, what day were you thinking?" I couldn't decide if that was me saying yes or not.
"Is tomorrow after school too short of notice?" He asked, but I couldn't help wondering if this was Alice's doing too.
"No, tomorrow's fine." I replied.
"I'll see you at tomorrow then."
"Yah, bye." We both hung up and I stood there for a few minutes in shock. I put the phone back before finishing supper. I called Charlie to the table while poring myself a small glass of milk.
"So who was on the phone?" He asked as he got his plate and sat down at the table.
"Umm, a friend from school. I'm going over to their house for dinner tomorrow." Charlie nodded and dropped the subject. Thankfully I didn't have to go into any further explanation. I sat at the table next to Charlie and ate my food, then I dismissed myself upstairs to do some homework.
I didn't really have any school related work to do but I did want to look up some stuff on vampires. After what Jacob said I was really curious. I found a pretty promising site on Google and clicked on it. A new page opened filled with lengthy text; I scrolled down the page reading the subtitles and stopped when I saw How to Distinguish a Vampire. It had a bunch of stuff listed, but I ended up narrowing it down to a select few points. One, vampires are undead (that was a no brainer); two, they drink blood (another duh); three, they can't go in the sunlight (it didn't really say why); four, they're inhumanly fast, inhumanly beautiful, and inhumanly strong; five, they're pale; and six, they're graceful. Nothing really stood out as a real factor to spot vampire though because it's not like the go around running really fast and drinking blood out in the open.
I finished reading the webpage, and got ready for bed. I curled up into a ball under my covers letting sleep consume me. Just as I was almost out I heard my phone go off on my nightstand. I sighed as I reached for it to read the text.
Jacob: Don't go to the Cullen's tomorrow! I blinked a couple times flabbergasted.
Bella: Why? I put my phone down, and before I got Jake's text I fell into the darkness.
I walked out of the gym locker room wandering aimlessly not knowing where to meet Edward. Jacob's text form last night haunted me; all his reply was 'I can't say'. Little did he know it said a lot. In Biology I made small talk with Edward, but I didn't really say a lot because my mind was too busy.
When I read Jake's text this morning it really did have no meaning, but it slowly clicked. All through the day I noticed little things that matched everything I knew. I knew I couldn't cancel dinner with the Cullen's because that would seem weird; I had to talk to Edward fast, which was why I was trying to find him so badly.
I exited the building, and my solution hit my face like a ton of bricks…literately. I looked up to meet Edward's face; my cheeks darkened immediately. His light caramel eyes scolded against his white skin hypnotizing me. I searched for something to say but came out empty handed. I looked away from his face, over his shoulder, hoping to get my mind to process again. What startled me the most; however, was the fact that we were still pressed together and that he hadn't said anything either. I opened my mouth to speak; finally getting the courage to do so.
"Umm, sorry, I didn't see you." I admit it wasn't the most clever sentence ever, but it was still a sentence nevertheless. After my wonderful words, I backed up a little so we weren't touching, then the cobwebs in my mind cleared up a little more. "I suppose we should get going so your family doesn't get too upset."
"Rosalie took her car to school today, they already left." A small smirk played on his lips making my heart flip in a way I didn't understand. My lips formed a straight line as I nodded slightly. I stepped around Edward walking in the direction of the student parking lot. Within seconds Edward was walking beside me. Before I knew it, we were approaching his shinny silver Volvo. I was about to open the passenger door when a long pale hand beat me to it. Long behold, once I was in the car and I finished buckling myself up, Edward was backing out of his parking space. I took a deep breath preparing myself for what I had to do.
"Edward, I need to talk to you." I said simply; however, it was enough to get his full attention.
"I don't have much choice but to listen, now do I?" Edward replied in attempt to lighten the mood.
"Not really." I struggled to find a way to start the conversation. "Edward, you and your family aren't exactly, normal, are they?" I said in a monotone voice. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Edward's knuckles whiten around the steering wheel.
"Not really." He replied mimicking my tone.
"Then why did you ask me over for dinner? I know you said Alice made you, but I don't really see you as the type of person to just call someone up and ask them over."
"I think it had something to do with the fact that I'm trying to convince myself that you really believe I'm the good guy."
"If I believed any differently then I wouldn't be here. Plus, if what Jacob said was true then you really are the good guys." Crap, I just let that slip. I was NOT supposed to say that.
"What did Jacob say about us?" He asked purely out of curiosity.
"Nothing."
"Bella, stop beating around the bush and just get to the point." He said flatly.
"Okay, but I just want to confirm my theory before I make a fool of myself." Edward nodded encouraging me to continue. "You said your eyes change color based on your mood, gold when you're in a good mood and black when you're not, and I've noticed that guys in particular get moodier when they're hungry." Edward's gripped tighten once more.
"Keep going." He urged.
"You speak like you're from a different time, as if you read a dictionary in your spare time. You're extremely fast. You have freezing skin; it's pale as if all the blood has been drained from your body. You asked my over dinner, yet I never see you eat or drink anything." If it was possible Edward's face got even paler.
"Bella-"
"How old are you Edward?" He sighed when I interrupted him.
"Seventeen." I rolled my eyes.
"How long have you been seventeen, Edward?"
"Longer then you." If I wasn't paying attention I would have missed the slight curl of his lips.
"Every time the sun is out, you and your family miss school, why is that?"
"Our skin is sensitive to the sun." I looked at Edward's face; we were now pulled onto the side of the road. "Just say it, Bella." I knew Edward knew I figured it out, yet somehow my mind still couldn't' wrapped around the fact.
"You're a...vampire." When my mouth formed the word it felt funny. I can call Jake a werewolf all day long, yet when it comes to Edward I just can't say what he is.
"How did you find out?" I couldn't tell on Jacob, plus he didn't really tell me. He just planted the seed telling that they exist and I did the rest.
"I'm not oblivious, you kept on dropping little hints. 'I bite', really Edward."
"Yet you came to dinner." He said simply.
"You would never hurt me, Edward."
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do. Otherwise I wouldn't be here." I said matter-of-factly.
"Bella, you must never let your guard down around me."
"Why do you keep insisting you're the monster?" I said getting rather impatient.
"Because, that's what I am. I am a monster. That will never change."
"But you have already changed that, just the fact that I'm still here proves you wrong."
"Just the fact that I could kill you in seconds makes you wrong."
"I'm not afraid of you."
"You should be." I sighed heavily knowing I would never win the fight. "Bella, you have to tell me what you're thinking, you're driving me insane." Edward said after a few minutes of silence.
"I'm thinking that you're insane for trying to change my mind, and I'm going insane that you can't get that through your thick head." I replied, only after did I realize what he said. "Why would not knowing what I was thinking drive you insane?" I smiled at the fact that I used the word insane three times in the last minute.
"I can read minds, Bella. Everyone's apart from yours." I smiled inwardly at this fact.
"So, are we still going to dinner?" I asked completely changing the subject. Edward turned back onto the road before he replied.
"If that's what you would like, but I could also take you home."
"You're house is fine, Charlie's most likely watching baseball anyway."
"Just a warning, my family tends to overdue things." He did his smirk and it vanished just as fast as it appeared. He turned onto a gravel road then, going through all types of twists and turns. He stopped in front of a large house. It was in the middle of a clearing; three stories and sided in a warm wood. Edward opened my door and closed it behind me; I whispered a thanks. "Ready to go in?"
"More then I'll ever be." I said with a small smile, somehow the butterflies in my stomach returned leaving a warm tingly feeling telling me how much this really meant to me.