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Edward Cullen was in my living room.
For a quick moment, I thought about how I looked, but then my shallow moment was over. Now I focused on the fact that he was looking at me with a dangerous glint in his eye.
I sat there silently, my breath rapid and ragged. I could've run, but he obviously would have caught me, and besides, I was still in a shocked state.
"What is that?" he asked dully, gesturing towards the book. Of course, he had read back of the cover, which was facing him. He'd know, then, that I knew what a vampire was.
And idea suddenly occurred to me that he could probably read my thoughts right then. But, I figured, maybe his powers didn't work in this world? Surely things might be different?
"It's a book," I said slowly. "Starring you."
His eyes narrowed. I'd take a no on the whole mind-reading thing. "You know who I am?"
"Edward Cullen?" I said, phrasing it more like a guess, when I knew very well that it had to be him, given his hair, eyes, skin, voice, and just overall unbearable beauty.
"How did I get in Philadelphia?" he inquired, and for the first time I realized he wasn't breathing, although his eyes were still a frightening shade of black.
"No idea," I shrugged. "I was reading your–this–book earlier and just now I was dozing off to sleep when you woke me up in the kitchen."
"I'm sorry," he apologized, and looked at Twilight again. "May I see that?"
"Yeah," and I reached to hand it to him. He flinched back at my advancement, keeping an even distance between us, but he grabbed it anyway.
"It's in Bella's point of view," I explained, and his brow furrowed in confusion. Oh boy, seemed he doesn't know who Bella is…
"I would like to read this, and then talk to you about how I got here," he told me. I nodded. "Will your mother…" His voice trailed off.
"My mother!" I exclaimed, looking at the clock. It was past midnight, so I supposed she'd made it home, and also pulled a blanket over me. I guess I fell asleep longer than I thought.
"She's upstairs," he said. Of course–he could probably hear her.
"Don't worry, you can go in my room. She leaves early in the morning, before I'm usually up–you can probably read all night." But his expression went sour when I mentioned my room, like he'd smelled something bad. "I'll sleep here," I said quickly, and his face relaxed. I wondered why being in the same room where I slept could possibly bother him.
"Thanks. I guess I'll be back in the morning?" He still looked confused and out of place, but also a but less horrifying, even though his eyes were still a smoldering black.
"Right," I muttered , feeling a bit self-conscious. But before I could dwell very long on the current situation, sleep had claimed me once again.
The next morning, I was shaken awake by my mother. "Morning," she smiled. I groaned.
"Will you please stop waking me up before you leave for work?" I scowled. "This is not a time for normal humans to be up."
"Everyone else in the city is up at a reasonable time. You're the only one who sleeps until eleven." She smiled again. "Anyway, I just wanted to see you before I went to work."
"And you couldn't see me while I was still sleeping?" I grumbled, and she laughed.
"Have a good day. I left out the grocery list for you to shop today."
"Got it," I murmured, sinking back down to the pillows.
"Love you, Dan," she said, walking out the door.
"Love you too," I said, throwing the blanket back over my body.
I went back to sleep for another three hours, and I took a while to wake up, taking time to stretch and yawn comfortably. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Edward sitting on a chair, watching me. "Ah!" I jumped and fell off the couch.
"I didn't mean to scare you," he said, with the book in his hand, but he made no move to help me.
"Yeah, well, my reaction time isn't quite as sharp in the morning." I sat up on the couch. "So… you finished Twilight," I concluded.
"I don't like Jacob Black," he said simply, and I couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Wait 'til you read New Moon and Eclipse."
"There's more?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Don't worry about that yet," I said. "So, are there any, um, differences?"
"My family just moved to Forks," he told me. "Mike and Jessica and Angela are all at Forks High… but there's no Bella Swan."
"That's so weird," I mumbled. "How did you get here?
"I was kinda hoping you could help me out with that," and he grinned that half-smile. My breath got caught in my throat. I silently cursed him for being a charming, dazzling, gorgeous vampire.
I cleared my throat, willing myself to focus. "Sorry, Eddie. Can't help you there."
He looked at me, clearly amused. Well, he seemed to be taking it well, all things considered. "Where–" he began.
"You can stay here, of course," I said quickly.
He looked confused, as if that wasn't what he was going to say, but then grinned. "Thanks. Are you sure you don't mind?" he questioned.
"No. I figure somehow I got you into this mess. It's not like anyone else is home during the day anyway." I paused. "Do you want to–" and then I stopped. His eyes were back to being golden. I could've sworn they were black just last night…
"What?" he asked, and I was reminded, again, that he couldn't possibly read my mind.
"Last night, your eyes were black, and I thought you might want to hunt."
"I'm not thirsty. I hunted just last week. I'm just breathing as little as possible," he said pleasantly. "Plus, there's really no wind in here."
"Oh," I said quietly. I stole another glance at him. He seemed way too beautiful for the simple furniture.
"Danny," he said, interrupting my staring at bringing a blush to my face. I didn't ask how he knew my name. I figured he just heard it in my mom's head or something. "Dan," he continued, "you're Bella."
I'm WHAT?! "No, no," I told him. "I'm Danny. I'm nothing like Bella." Besides the whole clumsiness and sarcasm thing, I mentally reminded myself.
"I can't hear your thoughts. You're the first one that it's happened with." My suspicions were right! I smiled in triumph, but he seemed to take no notice. "And when I got here last night, your blood smelled so sweet, so strong to me." He shuddered. "It still does. This has never happened before."
I nodded. "I know, I read Twilight, remember?" I sighed. "I don't look like Bella. I have her hair color, sure, but it's shorter. Plus, my eyes are blue, not brown. And I'm pretty sure that I'm smaller than her." I gestured towards my body.
He raised an eyebrow. "You know the exact description of her?"
"I read the book, REMEMBER?" He kept looking at me. "Okay, okay. I read… more than once."
"You have it practically memorized, don't you?" he asked, smirking. When I didn't say anything, he went on. "I mean, it's not bad, seeing as it's all about me, but it's really not as good as the classics you have upstairs."
"You snooped!" I accused. He shrugged.
"You left them out. Besides, I was bored. I didn't want to come out of your room before your mom got up."
"I know that it's not actually brimming with intellect," I scowled. I shouldn't have to explain myself to him. "But it's sweet. It's a teenage girl thing."
"Every girl wants a love like Bella and Edward," he mused.
"Jus t because I like to read Twilight doesn't mean that all I think about it finding love." I lifted myself up to be sitting straight up. Besides, the guys in my school don't exactly want to date their best friend. "Well, I have to food shop. I'm gonna need a human minute," I said, using Bella's expression.
He laughed and then made himself perfectly still, like a rock. "I'll be here," he assured me.
"Right." I jumped in the bathroom and began brushing my teeth. After, I washed my face and brushed my hair. The hair thing was more for Edward's benefit than mine–I didn't actually care what it looked like, but I didn't want to look like an absolute slob.
"Alright," I said, appearing back in the living room. "I'm gonna go.. . do you wanna come?"
He looked out the window. It was very cloudy, and it suddenly occurred to me that he couldn't go out when it was sunny, on account of the sparkling thing. "Yes, I'd like that," he said.
"Okay, good." I grabbed my keys and phone next to me. "Let's go."
I watched him eye the keys in my hand, and I realized that he probably wanted to drive. "No, oh no," I said. "I see a bud clearly in the need of nipping. You're not driving." He frowned. "Trust me, my car's ten times faster than Bella's. Besides, you probably can't even drive in Philly. Going really fast and disobeying traffic laws doesn't really fly in a city crawling with cops."
"But how will I learn?" he asked, with something that looked close to a pout.
"You'll learn by watching," I said sternly, and he surrendered.
"Fine." He followed me outside and we got into my small Camaro.
"I like this car," he commented as I put it in reverse.
"Thanks. We get along on most days," I grinned. As we drove, I noticed him taking in all the people around.
"Smell anything you like?" I joked.
"Ha-ha."
We pulled up to the store and I got out of the car. "Do you always spend so much time by yourself?" he asked randomly.
"I do have friends. This is just the way it works out most of the time." He nodded, understanding.
I walked around and put items in the cart as he pushed it. We didn't speak much, so my thoughts were able to revolve around my current situation. It felt comfortable, being around Edward. What an extremely odd event, him poofing into my kitchen. I mean, how many fangirls got to walk around, grocery shopping with Edward Cullen? Probably just this one. He was good company, especially for me, who craved to be alone so often.
As I skimmed the cereal boxes and finally settling on Cheerio's, I could feel Edward's eyes on me. "What?"
He shook his head. "It's just so frustrating to not be able to hear what you're thinking," he grumbled.
"I can imagine," I grinned. It was good that he couldn't hear my thoughts. I mean in light of recent events, I was doing a pretty good job of controlling my thoughts from straying to his body. Or face. Or eyes. Or voice. But I couldn't help the fact that, in the past hour, my mind had abandoned the current thought and switched to thinking about Edward indecently exactly four times. Completely out of my power, of course.
"This hasn't really affected you, huh?" Edward asked, breaking my thoughts once again.
"Sure, it affects me," I told him. "For instance, if you weren't here, I'd be pushing the cart right now. Also, I would have gotten the milk that expires in three days if you didn't point it out."
He laughed easily. "Very true. But what I meant was that it doesn't seem to bother you at all that a fictional vampire just appeared in your house at midnight, staring you down like a piece of meat, and later revealing to you that he thirsted for your blood?"
I shrugged again. "What can I say? Shit really doesn't faze me anymore."
He frowned and looked like he was about to say something else, but as we rounded a corner, he was cut off.
"Hey Dan," the boy said. It was Adam, one of the guys I hung around with a lot. He was with his two best friends, Dylan and James.
"Hey Adam," I replied. I looked at what was in their arms–junk food and energy drinks. I could have guessed that.
"Hey, Danny, what are you doing here?" James asked. He was wearing my favorite shirt–the magic eight ball one. I'd often told him that.
"James, not everyone goes to supermarkets to just buy junk. There actually are products beyond the prepared food section," I reminded him.
Dylan grinned. "So, who's your friend?" he asked.
"Yeah," James chimed in. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Oh. Yeah. Sure. Dylan, James, Adam, this is Edward. He's–"
"Hi, I'm a friend of the family and I'm staying with them for a few days," Edward finished smoothly, nodding at them.
"Er, right," I said, feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable with Edward around my friends. They were so different. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine having to introduce these three to Edward Cullen.
"Anyway, Dan," James said, breaking the brief silence. "We're taking a ride down the shore tomorrow night. Wanna come?"
"Lemme guess–you're taking another guy's trip down to Wildwood to fool around all night and to make idiots of yourselves? You know, the one where no girls are allowed to come?" I grinned.
"No girls but you, Dan," Adam grinned.
"Yeah, Dan. Please come? We need someone like you to make sure we don't kill ourselves," Dylan pleaded. "Edward can come too."
"I don't know," I said. "I'll text you later on and tell you."
"Hurry up, or we'll give your spot away," James joked, and he winked at me.
"Yeah, like you could find anyone else who could put up with you guys," I snorted.
After the guys left, we resumed shopping. In the pasta aisle, when I glanced over at Edward, I noticed a smirk brimming with amusement. I scowled and put my hands on my hips. "What?"
"You wanna know which one of them likes you?" That tiny, crooked half smile, though extremely beautiful, was irritating.
"Uh, none of them?" I snorted loudly. Too loudly. I came out sounding unbelievable, and Edward noticed.
"Adam thinks you're beautiful," he said, then rolled his eyes. "Well, not in those exact words, but essentially, that's what he meant. James doesn't like me at all."
"He doesn't?" I asked, surprised. James was so easy to get along with.
"It's called jealousy, Danny," Edward said, still amused.
"James isn't jealous of you, Edward," I scolded.
"Alright," he said, putting his hands up. "I'm sure you're right. It mean, it's not like I can read minds or anything."
"Ha-ha," I said sarcastically, matching his tone from earlier.
We finished the last of the shopping and god in line to pay. I reached for the credit card that I used for food shopping, but Edward pulled one out of his own pocket.
"What are you doing?" I asked flatly.
"I just want to see if it works," he muttered so only I could hear, handing the shiny platinum card to the cashier. He smiled at her, and she practically melted. I rolled my eyes and Edward chuckled.
"Have a nice day," she said, faux sweetness dripping from every word.
"You too," I said, matching her tone. I grabbed the shopping cart and pushed it out of the store. I didn't even have to look at Edward to know he was smiling.
"You didn't have to buy 200 worth of groceries for me," I scowled as I loaded the bags of food into the car.
"Well, atleast a couple of good things came out of this trip," he responded, taking the bags out of my hand before I could even protest.
"Yeah, what's that?" I asked, pretty much giving up on putting the groceries in the car and sitting in the driver's seat, feeling a bit triumphant that I got to drive after I was stripped of the right to load my own food.
"One, you found out that your best friend is in love with you," he told me, sliding gracefully into the passenger seat. "Two, we found out that I'm not poor in this world."
I snorted for the third time that day. "Because moneys everything in the world?"
"Not everything," he smirked. "But a lot."
I rolled my eyes, but I knew he caught a glimpse of my smile.