Bella's POV
I woke up the next morning to a brutal pain in my chest. Last night Charlie must have busted one of my ribs. I would have to get that checked.
I slowly turned my head to my dresser. 7:52am! Oh no! I was late!
My alarm must not have gone off!
I jumped out of bed and a surge of nausea hit me. Then, as if to add icing to the cake, I heard a loud car horn outside.
And it wasn't Charlie.
I looked out of my window and saw…a shiny, silver Volvo!
I quickly turned away. There was no way I was going to go down there and face him. Edward. Why was he even here in the first place?
I jumped when I heard a sudden banging on the door. They were so forceful, I could feel the vibrations.
Maybe I could pretend I had already left. My truck was still out, but he might assume I'd caught a lift with Charlie…
"Kitten!" I heard from the front door. "I know you're here! I saw you in the window! Come on out!"
So much for that idea.
I looked at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a tiny tube top, shorts that could pass for a belt, and my hair looked like a haystack! I couldn't let anyone see me like this! Especially him!
"Come on out, Kitten! Game's over!"
I sighed. I knew he wouldn't stop until I opened the door. And, quite frankly, I doubted this ancient house could stand for another one of his 'knocks'.
I walked down the stairs, trying to ignore the stabbing in my chest, and opened the door. And there he was. The same stupid smirk on his face. Somehow he seemed to get more beautiful every day. His hair was messed, as if he didn't bother to brush it this morning, and it had a slight glisten to it. Probably from the early morning rain shower.
When he saw what I was wearing, his smirk got impossibly wider.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" he started. "That's a good look for you, Kitten. Planning on wearing that to school? Because if you are, I'm going to have a hard time holding back from attacking you in the middle of class."
I rolled my eyes, but then looked down to hide my blush.
"I love that," he said. "The way I can make you feel anything I want with the push of a button." He smirked again.
"What are you doing here?"
"I thought you might need a ride to school. Though as easy as I thought you would be to read, I have to admit that I didn't expect to be greeted by a half naked girl with sex-hair."
"Sex-hair?" I questioned. But then I quickly waved it off. "Never mind. I don't think I wanna know."
I yawned. Maybe I should skip school today. I was pretty sure I'd miss the first two periods anyway. Then I thought back to what Charlie would do if the news got to him.
Well, better late than never I guess.
"Are you going to just stand there staring into space all day, or are you going to invite me in?" he asked me.
My first instinct was to tell him to fuck off. But I knew that I would get to school a lot faster in his Volvo than I would in my truck.
I groaned. "Fine. Come in."
He walked in slowly.
"I'm gonna go take a quick shower. I'll be down in a minute." Ouch! Even breathing hurt!
"A shower, hmmm. Mind if I join you?"
I rolled my eyes, though a part of me wasn't all that sure he was kidding.
Once I was washed, I walked back to my bedroom. Closing the door behind me, I walked over to my wardrobe to find something to wear.
I chose a long-sleeved brown top, skinny jeans and my favourite pair of Converse.
When it was layed out on my bed, I dropped my towel to the floor.
That's when I realised I wasn't alone.
"Nice," I heard Edward say from across the room.
I hurriedly picked up my towel and covered my naked body from his view.
"What the fuck are you doing in here? Why didn't you tell me you were in here?" I half shrieked.
"Now, now. Don't have a panic attack," he said. "You'd be no use to me dead."
Did he honestly think this was funny?
I growled. It hurt my chest.
"Okay, okay," he said. "Well, I thought you were taking too long, so I came up here to check on you. And about the letting you know thing…" he continued. "Well, as much as I knew that I should have been a gentleman and told you, I thought it would be better to see how it played out. I thought it would be rather entertaining." He chuckled.
"UGH!" This was beyond frustrating! Not to mention embarrassing!
"Can't say that I was wrong," he said, completely unconcerned about the fact that that he just saw me naked. "If you don't mind me saying, you are remarkably unperceptive."
"Actually," I said turning away from him. "I DO mind you saying!"
My cheeks were beyond burning red by now. "Maybe you should just leave, okay! I don't need a ride!"
I could almost feel him rolling his eyes at me. "I'll be downstairs," he said, walking towards my door. "Get dressed."
He opened the door, but turned back to me. "And try to make it snappy."
I changed, trying to ignore the fact that this guy, who I've known for only two days, had just seen me naked.
I ran downstairs, hoping he wouldn't bring it up, and found him leaning against the door frame.
He didn't say anything, which must be a first for him. Instead he just motioned for me to come with him and opened my door for me.
I got in without saying anything. He was never silent, so I figured I'd just go with it.
We were about 5 minutes into the drive when he looked at me.
"What happened to your chest, Kitten?"
My breath hitched. I didn't respond. This could NOT be happening!
"Ummm...I don't know what you're talking about…"
he turned back to the road. "In your room. When you were…naked…I saw bruises on your chest. How did they get there?"
I swallowed hard. "Oh...well…I…um…fell. Down the stairs. Last night. It was pretty bad," I lied. I'd never been a good liar, and I prayed that he bought it.
"Oh. Okay." He seemed to be in deep thought for a moment, then his face relaxed into a smirk again. "My clumsy Kitten. You really need to be more careful." I sighed, relieved. "Although it did look pretty bad…maybe I should take you to my father. He's a doctor. Maybe-"
"No!" I shouted. Then I took a deep breath. "No, I…it's alright. It's already been checked out and it's just a bruise. Really, it's fine!"
He considered that for a moment, but seemed to accept my excuse.
"Well, okay then." We were parked in the school parking lot and the bell rang. I was shocked to see notice that it was already the lunch period.
"Wait here, will you?" Edward said, as he got out of the car.
I wasn't going to actually do as he said, but when I tried to open the door, it was locked. The arrogant bastard.
He came back 10 minutes later with a stack of papers in his hand.
"What's all that?" I asked as he opened my door for me.
"My new schedule," he announced, proudly. "We now share every class. You're welcome."
Oh boy. Would this guy ever quit?
"Woo-hoo," I said, unenthusiastically.
He chuckled.
We walked into the cafeteria and, strangely, I followed him to a table.
We sat in silence for a minute, then I noticed a table of people staring at us. I'd never seen them before.
There were two guys and two girls. I looked at the guys.
One of them looked tall and thin. He was blond, and seemed to be about my age. His eyes were blue. Sea blue.
The other guy was big and brawny. Almost big enough to be a body builder. He had deep brown hair and…purple eyes? Well, whatever colour they were, they were unbelievably beautiful! Almost…mystical.
I turned my attention to the girls.
The short one was pixie like, with an elfin face and tiny, acute features and warm, hazel eyes. Her hair was drop dead black, and cropped into spikes around her small face. And she was drastically skinny! Even thinner than me, and I barely passed for 100 pounds! She was the type of girl you would call 'pretty' instead of 'beautiful'.
The tall one was…perfect. As far as I could tell. She had long, light blond hair, almost bleached, but not quite, and clear, sky blue eyes. Her features were perfect and her skin was flawless. It reminded me vaguely of what a swimwear model in a magazine would look like.
They were all different, but the one thing that stood out between them was their pale skin. They were paler than anyone here. They were as pale as Edward.
Wait! Those must be the rest of the Cullens! Of Edward's family!
"What are you staring at?" I heard him ask.
"Why are they staring at us?" I asked back.
He looked over his shoulder. "My family? They're not staring at us."
I exhaled.
"They're staring at you," he finished.
"Why?" I asked, turning away from them.
"Don't worry," he said with a chuckle. "They're just surprised. Let's just say I've never been one for making new friends."
"I wonder why," I said, sarcastically. He chuckled harder.
Suddenly, there was a stabbing pain in my chest, and I fell to the floor, gripping the table.
"Kitten? Kitten?" I heard Edward shout.
I felt arms around my body, then everything went black.
When I woke up I was in a hospital bed. I could tell by the frosty air and smell of the room. Then I noticed that I wasn't alone. There were two other people in the room with me. One, I noticed, was Edward. The other was a doctor. A handsome one at that. With blond hair and deep blue eyes. Judging by his pale skin, and my lack of recognition towards him, even throughout all my previous visits to the ER, I assumed this was Edward's father.
"Look who's finally woken up!" he exclaimed, a glorious smile on his face. "How do you feel?"
I ignored his question. "What happened?"
"You blacked out from extreme pain coming from your chest."
"Oh," I remembered the excuse I gave Edward, who's face now went from relieved to furious. "I fell down the stairs and got bruised badly."
"I find that hard to believe…Isabella," the doctor told me.
"How so?" I asked, trying to maintain my calm expression.
"Because, Miss Swan, you had a severely cracked rib and there are foot markings all over your chest."
I stopped breathing for a second. "Look, doctor-"
"Please," he interrupted."Call me Carlisle."
"Carlisle," I continued. "I don't know what you're talking about. I fell. That's that. Now can we let this drop?"
"No, we cannot. You are lucky you didn't puncture a lung. I managed to get it stitched up, but you're going to have to stay here a little longer, just to test the results."
"How long have I been here?" I asked, hoping it wasn't late.
"Just two hours." I let out a large sigh.
"Now, Isabella, I need you to tell me something before I can let you go."
I nodded, my eyes on Edward.
He sighed, sitting down at the foot of my bed.
"Who did this to you?"
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A/N Ooooooh…cliff hanger! I'm so evil, aren't I? Mwahahahaha! Phew! This was by far the longest chapter I've ever written.
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