SONGS: Linkin Park - One Step Closer, Evanescence - Going Under

Chapter 18

Revelation

EPOV

I drove over to Bella's house slowly.

Well, it was slow for me anyway. I mean, doing 45mph on a 30mph road wasn't exactly slow, but considering the fact that I normally did about 60 on 30 road then, yeah, I was driving pretty slowly.

The reason I was driving slowly was because, if I was being perfectly honest, I was....nervous.

Really fucking nervous.

So nervous that I couldn't even grip the steering wheel properly because my palms were sweating so badly. So nervous that my stomach felt like it was doing somersaults, so nervous that my heart was hammering away in my chest, so fast that it threatened to explode.

Why the hell was I so nervous?

I didn't know. All I knew was that it had something to do with Isabella Swan.

I had been perfectly fine, perfectly normal – until biology. When she had sat and let down her long, chestnut locks, her sweet scent wafting around me, my body had started reacting in this crazy way. And ok, I guess I made it worse by sitting close to her again and brushing against her arm intentionally a few times, but I don't know, I couldn't help it. She smelt so good and her skin was so flushed, I mean, even her arm was pink. I just couldn't help it.

I wanted to just, touch her.

It got worse when she was telling me about her punishment for sneaking out to our party. Her lips started pushing out in that cute little pout again as she spoke, and the involuntary smile had once again made an appearance. The strange feeling continued on at lunch. Whenever I glanced at her – or I should say, at her hair, seeing as it was covering her face again – my pulse seemed to start speeding up a little, which was crazy because I wasn't even sitting next to her. Tanya kept giving me strange looks occasionally and then casting angry looking glances at Bella. She was pissing me off. Why did she keep on looking at her like that? What was her fucking problem?

When I had gotten home from school, I couldn't help watching the clock, waiting for 5:30, the time I said I would call her. But then when it had gotten to 5:30 and I was about to pick up the phone to dial her number, I suddenly felt stupid. I didn't want her to think that I was, like, excited or something to call her. I mean, I was calling her to do homework for crying out loud. So I had waited another few minutes and then called her.

She said that her dad had let her off her punishment, just this once, so I said that she should come over to our house to do the work. And I swear my heart rate sped up a little as I told her I was coming to pick her up. I mean, this girl had a weird effect on me, and that was when we were in a full classroom or a crowded cafeteria. How the fuck was I going to be when I was alone with her in my car, or in Carlisle's office?

So I was driving over to her house, on edge and mentally telling myself to get a grip. I got to her house and parked on the road in front of it and was surprised to see that old red truck parked in her driveway. So it had been her truck all along. I smiled at the old rusty thing. It suited her. She must like it a lot to have it, I mean, she could easily get a cheap car that was newer and I'm sure that thing needed a lot of gas too.

I sat in my car for a while, pondering whether to get out and knock on the front door or to beep my horn and have her come to the car.

Why was I thinking about everything so much? Things that I never even had to think about before were like big deals when it came to her. I decided to get out and go to the front door, I mean, it would have been a little rude not to. I walked up to the door slowly and knocked. She answered it really fast, almost instantaneously; I mean my hand was still in the air when she opened it, about to knock again.

She smiled at me, going pink, and said,

"Hi."

I realised she had changed from what she was wearing at school. She was now wearing a soft royal blue v-neck sweater, and the deep pink of her face and slender neck against the sweater was just.....mesmerizing.

I couldn't stop looking at her.

She shuffled under my gaze, her skin going even pinker, and looked down at her feet.

I forced myself to tear my eyes away, mentally scolding myself for acting like a freaking weirdo, and said,

"Hey. You, err, ready?"

"Um, yeah." She said, still avoiding my eyes, "Let's go."

We walked over to my car and got in. And as soon we were both in, I swear the car got ten times warmer. I had to roll down my window.

We drove in silence. I tried very hard to keep my eyes on the road and was back to my regular speed, going at a smooth 60mph down the road. The cool breeze coming through my window and the speed calmed my nerves down a tiny bit. I decided to risk a quick glance at her. She was holding on to her seat belt tightly, eyes wide.

"Are you ok?" I asked her, puzzled.

"Do you always drive so fast?" she said, her eyes fixed on the road in front of her.

I smiled. "Yeah. Why, are you scared?"

She nodded quickly, still focused on the road. Then she glanced at me and her eyes widened even more.

"Oh my God, you're not even wearing your seat belt?" she almost yelled.

I wanted to laugh at her tone, but held it back.

"Shit, I forgot." I let go of the wheel with one hand and strapped the seatbelt on.

She breathed out, relieved, and frowned in my direction.

"That's really dangerous you know, and can you slow down please?"

I snickered and turned to her.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" she yelled.

"Chill, I'm not trying to kill you; it's just the way I drive. And I've never even scratched my car before so..." I shrugged.

"Ok, you're an excellent driver, whatever, but can you please slow down a little?"

I rolled my eyes and slowed down to 45 again.

We got to the house and I saw Alice's Porsche parked in the front.

"What's Alice doing here?" Bella mumbled, more to herself than me.

We got in the door and Alice and Jazz were on the couch, Alice sitting on Jazz's lap. She turned when she heard the door.

"Bella!" she dashed over to her, grinning excitedly.

"Alice, what are you doing here?" Bella asked. Were her teeth clenched a little?

Alice chuckled.

"Err, I don't know, let see, maybe my boyfriend lives here and I came to see him?" she said sarcastically.

Bella rolled her eyes a little.

"Hi Edward." Alice said to me, smirking.

Bella shot her a glare. "Alice we've got work to do. We'll talk later." She said, and turned to me.

"I'll bet." Alice murmured, snickering.

I was completely baffled.

Bella ignored her and said, "Edward?"

I led her up the stairs to Carlisle's office. Esme was in there when we reached it.

"Um, sorry Aunt E, can Bella and I use the office? We're doing an essay and want to use some of uncle Carlisle's books."

"Of course!" Esme said, gathering her stuff. She smiled at Bella, "Hello dear, I'm Edward's aunt, Esme." She shook Bella's hand.

"Hi." Bella replied, "Your house is really pretty."

Esme beamed. She loved compliments on the house because she'd decorated it, and didn't fail to tell everyone that fact.

"Thank you dear. I decorated it you know."

I rolled my eyes.

"Make yourself at home ok Bella. If you're hungry there's food downstairs, help yourself to anything, or you can ask Edward to order a pizza or something. He'll pay." She winked at me.

I internally grimaced. How embarrassing.

She finally left the office and Bella and I got started on the essay. We sat next to each other at Carlisle's big desk. We pretty much worked the same way as we did in school, mostly in silence, talking a little about the work. There was space for two chairs at the desk but it was tight and we were squashed pretty close together, and this time it wasn't intentional when my arm brushed hers. My heart started pounding quickly again and I started getting really hot. I removed my long sleeve shirt, leaving my black t shirt that I was wearing underneath. Bella was flushing again. Maybe she was hot too.

"Do you want a drink?" I asked her.

She nodded silently.

"Ok. I'll be right back."

I went down to the kitchen and Jazz was in there, he grinned broadly when he saw me.

"What?" I asked him, puzzled.

He shook his head, an innocent expression on his face.

"Nothing man."

I took two sodas from the fridge and went back up to the office.

My cell started buzzing at around 8:00pm. Tanya, the screen said.

"Fuck." I muttered.

Bella looked at me curiously for a second; then continued writing.

Tanya kept calling me again, over and over, like before. The buzzing was distracting and I could see Bella frowning a little.

I turned off the phone.

About an hour later, we were almost done the essay and I thought we should take a break, you know, eat something before finishing off. I was just going to suggest it to Bella when I heard the doorbell. Strange, I thought. Who could that be at this time? I heard voices downstairs. I could hear Alice's high tone and someone else, someone I couldn't quite recognize.

Footsteps came bounding up the stairs and Tanya burst into the office.

She smiled a huge fake smile.

"Edward!"

I was stunned. What the hell did she think she was doing, coming over unannounced and barging in?

"Tanya, what-"

"Bella!" Tanya said, fake smile stretching wider, "I didn't know you were here. You and Edward are working on that assignment right?"

Bella seemed equally stunned. "Um Yeah."

I stood up and walked over to Tanya.

"Tanya, what the fuck are you doing here?" I said, teeth clenched.

She smiled up at me sweetly and reached up to touch my face. I moved my face away from her hand.

"I wanted to see you baby. I mean, I tried calling but, I don't know, I think something was wrong with your phone."

I heard Bella packing up her stuff.

"I should go." She said, "I mean, we've basically finished, the stuff that's left can easily be finished off in class tomorrow."

She shoved her stuff into her backpack.

"No, wait Bella; you don't have to go yet."

"I think I do." She said, "Alice can give me a ride home. Bye Edward."

She brushed past me, completely ignoring Tanya, and went out of the door and down the stairs.

I was fuming.

Tanya reached out for my face again, and I grabbed her wrist, holding it in the air.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked her

She tried to pull away from my grasp. I held on tight.

"Edward, let go of me."

"No Tanya, answer my fucking question! Can't you take a hint? I don't want you, I was never interested in you and I never will be. I fucked you because....well I was drunk and you even know that you took advantage of that. And I took you out on that one date, one fucking date, because I felt bad, you know, I felt sorry for treating you like a slut. But you know what? I shouldn't have felt bad at all because you are a slut. Don't fucking call my number again and if you come over here, it better be to see Rose. Don't talk to me at school, don't touch me. I don't want anything to do with you!" I ranted.

I didn't care about hurting her feelings at that moment, I was too livid to care about anything. She was driving me nuts and I needed to end it right there. Who the fuck did she think she was coming here uninvited, harassing me? Making Bella leave.

She was sobbing by the time I had finished my rant, shaking her head.

"No, Edward, no you can't do this, you can't do this."

I was incredulous.

"Do what Tanya? I can't even call this a break up seeing as I wasn't really dating you in the first place. I don't know how you got it in your warped, twisted mind-"

"Please Edward, don't do this to me. Please. I'm in love with you."

What the fuck?

"You're the only guy, since Garrett, that hasn't treated me like shit. All the guys I meet, they just want me for one thing. They fuck me and then kick me out the next morning without as much as a goodbye. But you, you took me out, you were nice to me, made me feel wanted-"

I shook my head fiercely.

"No Tanya, I didn't do anything at all to make you feel that way, if guys are treating you like crap then you need to take a look at yourself and see why."

"Garrett liked me the way I was; he didn't like me for just my body. He cared about me. He loved me." she sobbed.

"Yeah, well Tanya, I'm not Garrett ok? I don't love you, in fact, I barely even know you."

"Garrett and I, we were going to be together forever, you know, when we got old enough we were going to get married. We had it all planned out." She broke out into more sobbing.

I closed my eyes. What the hell did I get myself into? This girl obviously had problems.

I sighed. I suddenly felt a little bad, I mean, if she had mental issues I didn't want to make her worse.

"Tanya." I said gently, "I'm sorry ok, I really am, but I don't love you. I can't be Garrett. Maybe you should, you know, find him and make up with him or something...."

She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face.

"He's dead!" she cried, "He's gone and I'll never get him back!" she shook violently as she sobbed.

I just stood there helpless.

I mean, I wanted to reach out to her, hug her, I don't know do something, but I didn't think that would be a good idea.

I spotted Jazz and Esme outside the door in the hall watching us, eyes wide and confused, mouths open in shock.

Tanya wiped her face roughly.

"I'm sorry Edward." She whispered.

She turned and walked out of the office, past Esme and Jazz, who watched her, bewildered, and went down the stairs.

We heard the front door slam and then an engine start up as she drove away.

Author's Note:

Any reviews for me?

Savannah-Vee