Previously…

Edward just laughed at me. "You know, Isabella, you're gonna fucking hate me by the time this week is out."

I doubted that, but I stuck my chin in the air in defiance. "Not if I already do."

He raised both of his eyebrows. "Whatever," he muttered, and then he turned and headed for the door. He turned back just before he disappeared. "Oh, and get out of my room. If you have any common sense, you won't sneak through my window again." Then he pulled the door shut behind him.

Once he was gone, I dissolved into a puddle of tears and climbed into his bed.

Who was this new Edward? And why on earth did he suddenly hate me so much?

~FOM~

Please remember, please remember

I was there for you

And you were there for me

Please remember, our time together

The time was yours and mine

While we were wild and free

Please remember, please remember me

-Please Remember, Leann Rimes (A/N: okay, so more of a BPOV song but… very perfect for this story. Big thanks to twiXlite for the suggestion)

Foundation of Memories

Chapter 8- Something's Gotta Give

Edward POV

I slammed the door behind me as I stormed into the house, going straight for the kitchen. Esme was stood there flicking through a home magazine as she waited for whatever was in the oven to cook, Emmett was trying to balance a spoon on his nose – ever the idiot – and Alice was on the phone. They all looked up when I came in with a face like thunder.

I ignored them and grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl.

"It's nearly dinner," Esme told me, raising an eyebrow.

I sighed and dropped it back again before taking the seat next to my idiotic brother just as he got the spoon balanced. Then I hit the back of his head and laughed when it fell to the floor with a clatter.

"You moron!" Emmett yelled just as Alice came and sat at the table.

"That was Dad," she said, stopping the fight before it had even started. "He said that Bella's been in A&E again." She rolled her eyes and snorted.

"Is she okay?" I demanded without even thinking about it; like an automatic response. Maybe my body remembered her, even if my mind didn't. I remembered her fall before her conversation with that muscly twat and instantly started to panic.

"She's fine," Alice replied, with another roll of her eyes. Then she grinned. "Fancy placing any bets gentlemen?"

"Tripped over her own feet again," Emmett said casually, as though they did this shit everyday.

"What?" I asked

My lovely sister ignored me. "I'll say that she… walked into something."

"What?" I repeated. "But she was ice skating!"

Their eyes snapped to my face. "How did you know that?" Alice questioned suspiciously.

"I saw her leave," I lied.

They seemed to buy it and Alice turned to me to explain. "Bella lands herself in A&E all the time. We place bets on how she got herself there. Well… you think it's kinda cruel and rarely join in but I've gotten a lot of money off of this goofball thanks to your girlf… Bella."

I pretended I hadn't heard her slip. Bella hadn't been my girlfriend, I was sure of it… had she?

"Wanna join? You're saying skating accident, right?" Emmett checked.

I glared at him. "What? No. Even though it was a skating accident, I'm sure, I'm not gonna take your money because of her."

Alice snorted. "Bella never hurts herself when she's skating. She's been skating for years and if she falls she never hurts herself; she's just a klutz off of the ice."

"Twenty bucks?" Emmett offered Alice.

"You're on," she agreed, shaking his hand.

"You guys are sick," I muttered, scraping my chair back and going upstairs.

I pushed my door open and went into my bedroom. Someone – probably Mum, judging by the way it was miraculously tidier – had been in my bedroom, and the photo of Bella and I that I had stuffed in the drawer sat on my bed. I went over and picked it up, looking down at her.

The strange thing was that whenever I looked at her face, I got mixed feelings. Memories and emotions struggled to get through, and pain filtered through a few holes here and there. And now… now there was a brand new hatred that came because of what she had said at the ice rink. Just remembering it made me shake with anger. I wouldn't even wish my worst enemy dead. And apparently we had been best friends.

I threw the photo at the floor, watching with satisfaction as the glass shattered and the photo tore right down the middle.

I went to the window and looked diagonally across into hers, noticing something I hadn't that morning: even our bedrooms mirrored the others.

I had deleted her from my phone; now I'd delete her from my bedroom.

I turned back to my room and started to push the furniture around, moving the wardrobe out of the way so that I could push my bed to the opposite wall. A few minutes later, the wardrobe was pushed up against the wall that split mine and Bella's bedroom.

As Esme called me for dinner for the second time in the last few minutes, I rubbed my hands on the backs of my jeans and sighed. I looked around my room, proud of my handiwork, but then my eyes caught a chocolate brown pair through the window. I froze, but when I blinked, she had disappeared. I frowned and walked toward the window, pushing it open and leaning out.

"Edward!" My mother's voice interrupted me. "This is the third time I've called you! Come and help set the table now!"

I briefly considered ignoring Esme's annoyance, but then I sighed and went back over to the door. Halfway across my room, though, I heard that tell-tale sign of relief. That pathetic, nosey hanger-on. Why was she spying on me anyway? Did she suspect me of something? Stupid cow.

I headed downstairs, and then an idea hit me. I mumbled some excuse to my Mum about needing the bathroom. She shot me a stern glance but told me to hurry up and I darted back upstairs. I pushed my door open and was unsurprised to find her stood in the middle of the room.

"Shit," she muttered and her cheeks flushed crimson.

That flush triggered feelings within me that disarmed me. And when I looked at her in the flesh, I realised that I couldn't stay angry with her, no matter what she had said. I looked at the floor; the bits of glass around her feet. "Do I really mean so much to you?"

She looked down at the floor as well before replying. "Everything," she whispered almost too-intensely. "You mean everything to me."

And as I watched her blush, I was suddenly taken over by the urge to hug her. So I went to her side and wrapped my arms hesitantly around her little body. I was surprised by how well she fit there; like she was made just to be in my arms. And then she hugged me back and a strange kind of electricity fizzed through my veins, making every hair stand on end and every thud of my heart harder against my ribcage. But of course the moment would be interrupted by my mother.

"I'm coming!" I shouted back after she called my name.

Bella jumped slightly in my arms and looked away from my gaze, embarrassed.

On impulse, I caught her chin with my finger and turned her head to face mine. My eyes wandered to her lips, and for an instant I wanted nothing more than to kiss her. I felt a furrow appear between my eyes as I wondered where these fucked up feelings were coming from. And then she kissed me.

A combination of shock, annoyance and confusion hit me instantly. But that wasn't why I pushed her away. What made me push her away was the strange familiarity mingled with the absolute necessity. As soon as her lips touched mine, I knew that I needed her and that scared the shit out of me. Because I didn't know her! And she hated the new me!

I pushed her a few feet back and stared at her in disbelief. "What the fuck?"

She started crying then and that hurt me too. "You're not even trying! You're not even trying to remember anything!" The anger in her tone annoyed me. It was as though she thought me incompetent. She was being so… selfish. Did she think that the whole world revolved around her or something? How could she go from wanting me dead to kissing me in the space of a few hours?

The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. "You want me dead!"

Her mouth fell open with a quiet pop. "What?"

"You're a two-faced little bitch, you know that?"

She didn't have a come-back this time. She hit me gently; I barely felt it.

"You know, Isabella, you're gonna fucking hate me by the time this week is out." And it was true. I wasn't going to take any of her shit anymore.

"Not if I already do."

I raised my eyebrows. "Whatever." I turned and headed for the door. "Oh, and get out of my room. If you have any common sense, you won't sneak through my window again." Then I left her standing there in the middle of my room. She could make whatever the fuck she wanted out of what I had just said; I didn't want anything more to do with her.

~FOM~

After dinner – and a lecture from my mother – I headed back up to my bedroom still in the goddamn awful mood that Bella had put me in.

The awful mood only flared when I opened my bedroom door to find her curled up asleep on my bed.

I went to her side and sat next to her, watching the bed dip slightly with my weight. I brushed a strand of hair out of her face and smiled sadly; she was so pretty when she was sleeping. Maybe I had been a little too harsh on her earlier. Maybe she didn't deserve the hell I had been intending to give her.

I was confused, and no doubt she was too. But then, my confusion probably went further than hers. Not only could I not remember a thing about her, but I had these damn feelings for her and I didn't know whether I should act on them or not. I knew what I should do; wake her up and talk to her, like a normal human being. We should talk it out, I should find out what I had been like and she should understand how I felt about her.

Two things stopped me from doing that.

The first was that I was a coward. I didn't want to tell her that I thought I was maybe in love with her- and I may or may not have felt this way before the accident.

The second thing was that this was real life. Not a fucking movie, or story with a 'happily ever after'. I'd wake her up and then get mad at her all over again. We'd end up yelling at each other and hurting each other's feelings. On top of that, she was hardly going to fall into my arms and tell me how much she loved me after the way I treated her. So telling her would just embarrass her and myself.

So instead of doing the thing that I should have done, I did the very human thing of stuffing the problem in the back of my mind and pretending that it didn't exist. Then, I scooped her into my arms and carried her gently over to my bedroom door; there was no way I'd be able to get her through that window.

I carried her down the stairs as quietly and carefully as I could, and thankfully no one noticed as I slipped out of the front door. When the cold air hit her skin, Bella whimpered slightly and turned into me, her fingers grasping my shirt tightly. The wind blew gently, whipping her hair up around her face and I caught a whiff of strawberries and freesia and intoxicating girl.

I walked around the picket fence that separated our front gardens and then up her drive, knocking on the door of Bella's house and then waiting for someone to answer.

A man who I vaguely recognised from blurred memories of watching him through windows opened the door and blinked at me. "Edward? What are you…?" Then he caught sight of his daughter in my arms. "Oh. What happened?"

I pursed my lips. "Um… I think she climbed through my window?" I chucked a question mark on the end of my statement for good measure.

The man blushed – that was where Bella must have gotten it from – and reached out to take her from me. "Oh. Sorry. She's… having a bit of a tough time at the moment."

"Mmm…" I mumbled as he took the girl from me. But she muttered something in her sleep and held onto my shirt tighter. I bit my lip and brought my now-free hands up to hers and attempted to loosen the grip.

Her father chuckled slightly. "She's always been a bit of a hanger-on," he joked. When I didn't laugh, he cleared his throat and asked, "So how are you?"

I finally pried her fingers off of my shirt. Then I shrugged. "Confused."

"I'll bet," he agreed.

"I'll see you around," I said, eager to end this awkward conversation, and then I turned and started to head back up his path.

"Edward, wait," Bella's Dad stopped me halfway down the drive.

I reluctantly went back to the door. "Yeah?"

"I just… I wanted to thank you properly. I know you can't remember it but…" He sighed awkwardly, and shifted Bella in his arms. "Bella told us that you… you pushed her out of the way. That you stopped her from being hit. I don't think she could have survived such a nasty accident; she's not strong like you are. So… thanks. I owe you my daughter's life."

I blinked; this was all news to me. "Um… you're welcome."

He nodded sadly. "That's all. I'll see you around Edward."

"Yeah. Goodbye… Sir."

He chuckled. "It's Charlie, Edward."

"Bye Charlie." I smiled slightly and then turned and headed back for my own house.

Once I was back in my own room, I lay back on my bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking. I had put myself in the path of the accident to save Bella's life.

I wished someone had told me that before.

Now I knew that I must have had these confusing feelings before the accident. No one would do that for someone they didn't feel this strongly about… would they? Would I?

I rolled on to my side and closed my eyes, trying to remember something – anything – about my old life. But all I could remember when I tried so hard that my head hurt was a girl laughing. A beautiful song-like laugh that made me wish I could go back to a time when I knew the laugh; a time when I was best friends with the beautiful girl that smelt like strawberries and freesia and did funny things to my heart.

I felt sleep coming and, though it was technically far too early for sleeping, I let it wash over me like a lullaby.

Just before I fell into the deep black hole that was a deep ad dreamless sleep, I heard the laugh again. But this time it was followed by some speech. First there was a deeper voice and I thought – though I couldn't be sure – that it was mine. And then was a beautiful light voice replying.

"Say you'll be mine forever." That was the deep voice.

"I will," the other voice replied. "Forever, and ever, and ever…"

I wondered briefly how long 'forever' really was… and then sleep took me.

~FOM~

The next few days passed in a whirlwind. I settled back into school 'really well' (Mr Banner's words to Mum, not mine), I fell back into an easy friendship with Jasper, Alice's boyfriend, and I managed to catch up with my school work by Thursday. Nobody mentioned the accident, or my amnesia; everyone tip-toed round it like my head would spontaneously combust if they said the word 'car'. It was ridiculous but in some ways I was grateful.

The only part of school that had been affected by my amnesia was a partnered project, which Bella finished for both of us. That had been the only time I'd spoken to her since the day I had found her in my bedroom. Both of us had been actively avoiding each other after that.

Unless you count the note I found under my window. All it said on it was sorry but I wasn't stupid enough not to know who it had come from.

Excluding that, though, we had had no contact. That didn't mean that I didn't watch her.

I watched as she unwillingly exiled herself to her solitary seat, and then I watched as she sat there throughout the lesson dutifully taking notes with a look of pure concentration on her face. Nobody ever took the seat next to her. Instead, they whispered about her and giggled about her in the cafeteria. They always referred to her as 'Edward Cullen's friend' or 'that girl in the corner'.

I watched as she made her way meekly along the corridors, letting people push her out of their way and trip her. Nobody offered to pick up her books. Instead, they laughed and called her a klutz as they walked by.

I watched as she waited to be picked last for every team in gym, and then I watched as she struggled to catch a ball or hit a shuttlecock on one of the rare occasions that a teammate would take notice of her. Nobody offered to help her up when she fell down. Instead, they trampled on her and shouted at her for losing them the game.

I watched as she walked to her truck after school, head down and arms filled with books. Nobody offered to carry them for her, or even said a polite goodbye. Instead, they completely ignored her, their eyes passing over her hunched body as though it were invisible.

I wished that I could help her. I wondered if her life had been different before the accident, whether I had stuck up for her then or let all of this go right over my head. But I just watched. And then I went home and watched some more.

I watched from the auditorium as she spent every afternoon perfecting her routine. Sometimes that Jake bastard was there, but sometimes she was alone. Whichever it was, her skating captivated me and made me want to tell her how talented she was. I should have done. But I didn't.

I watched as she curled up on her bed in the evenings, sometimes doing homework, sometimes reading a book. And sometimes, she just sat there and cried. I should have knocked on her window and held her while she cried. But I didn't.

I didn't do anything. And not only because of our not-relationship. I didn't do anything because the feelings I had for her were starting to scare me. They ran deeper than I had originally thought and it scared the shit out of me that I could harbour such feelings and not have a clue why. She truly had become my obsession now, and the way that felt just cannot be put into words.

But even though I hadn't got the guts up to do any of the things I knew that I should have done at school to make her life that much less shit, I was trying so hard to remember her. I had searched my bedroom and even crossed over to hers when she wasn't in to steal her shampoo. But all I could remember was her laugh.

At least I knew that that was a memory because I sure as hell hadn't heard it since the accident.

I was doing more watching when Jasper finally broached the subject with me one day. It was morning registration and Bella was sat at a desk right in the back corner of the room. She was reading and I was watching. Always watching.

"Edward," Jasper said hesitantly, "why don't you just talk to her?"

My eyes snapped to his face. "What?"

"Bella. You guys used to be joined at the hip. Like seriously joined, man." He gestured to her. "She doesn't really have any other friends."

"I noticed," I muttered darkly.

"And you're always staring at her," Jasper continued, either not hearing or choosing to ignore my interruption. "I mean, whenever you look at her, your brow furrows so hard that I think your head's gonna freaking implode!"

I felt my eyes narrow. "I wonder why that is?" I asked sarcastically. "Could it be because I have no flaming idea who she is, but everyone tells me that we used to be 'joined at the hip'," I quoted his words sourly.

Jasper sighed. "I'm sorry. But… I feel sorry for her. And I don't know her that well."

"I'm working on it, okay?" I snapped. "You think I can just go up to her and strike a conversation when I have no idea what I used to be like? What if I was different? What if I was a whole other person and she doesn't expect me to have changed?"

"Edward, you're no different," Jasper said with a laugh. "Trust me."

I looked back at the girl in the corner and thought about his words. Just as I was contemplating taking Jasper's advice, she lifted her eyes and met my gaze. A shot of electricity shot through my body at the eye contact, but I couldn't look away. Red lit her cheeks, but she didn't blink either. It was like I was trapped in her eyes.

And the scariest thing was that it was almost familiar.

I tried to hold onto that familiarity, but when someone passed between us her eyes shot back to her book and it was gone faster than it had come.

I sat back in my chair and shook my head in annoyance.

Really, these things come to a point where something's gotta give.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Aww… :)

Well… good news and bad news. Good news- this being all apart and mopey bit is not going to last much longer! Woo- about time much? :L Bad news- it's gonna be a short story, this one. By my standards at least lol I'll hazard a guess at around about 20 chapters? I don't really know yet… but not hugely long unless major inspiration strikes :L

Sorry about the late(ish) update but I was all set to post on Saturday but a facebook vote said that you wanted a longer chapter later rather than a shorter chapter earlier. Believe it or not, this is three pages longer than what I had been intending to post ;)

Btw! I've made a couple of banner-type things for this story, VTN and PTP (the collab). They're on my facebook and I'll probably post them on my website while I'm watching Glee in a couple of hours. So if you want to check those out then feel free :D

And I feel the need to say right here what amazingly awesome people you all are! 400 reviews for 7 chapters? That means an awful lot to me :) And you're all so kind too :D

Now… if you want to carry on putting a smile on my face throughout these long-ass revising days… I'd love it :D

Thank you! :)

Steph