Bella's POV:
"Okay, do you know what I want you to do now?" Edward asked me.
"What?" I stared at him. We were sitting inside Edward's Volvo, which was parked directly outside my house.
"I want you to take your fine ass upstairs, so you can change your shoes." I was instantly confused. What was wrong with the shoes I was currently wearing? What were we doing anyway? I looked down at the blue flats on my feet, but didn't see anything wrong with them.
"Why?" I scrutinized his face, trying to look for any sign of where he was taking me. I found none.
"Just do it. I don't want to hear any arguments, or smart ass remarks from you. All I want to hear is the sound of your footsteps going up those stairs." He said with finality and pointed to the door behind me. I scowled at him, causing his lips to twitch.
"Please." He said much softer. "Please, go change into some sneakers or something you can walk comfortably in." His bottom lip jutted out in the form of an adorable pout. So I immediately agreed and went upstairs to change.
I sat my book bag down onto my bed, and took one last glance at it before I went into my closet to find some comfy sneakers. I searched around for a few seconds before I found my grey Levi Payton shoes. They were comfortable to walk in, yet very fashionable.
Edward honked his horn from outside, and I huffed in annoyance. I walked to my window and pulled aside my curtain to stared at him. He was grinning at me and I flicked him off, automatically wiping that grin off his face. I shut the blinds and smiled in contentment.
I ran to his car and got in while he looked at my shoe choice. I pulled one foot into my lap so he could get a better look. "Do you approve?"
He pulled one side of his mouth up to form a crooked yet alluring grin that made my breath hitch every time I would see it. "I do."
"I love when you smile at me like that." I said truthfully. What was the point in lying anyway? Edward told me how beautiful I was on a daily basis. I wanted him to know I loved him just as much. Wait, love? Bella Swan is not falling in love! Is she? Am I?
"Like what?" He started up the car, and pulled out of my driveway only to speed down the road and make a sharp right.
"Like that crooked grin that you do so well? One side is always higher than the other. It's beautiful." I murmured while looking down at my hands.
He sighed in contentment. "You're beautiful," One of his hands reached over to hold both of mines tightly in his on my lap. "And you know what I love about you? I love the way that you always blush or look down at your hands when your slightly embarrassed. Or how you don't take anyone's bullshit no matter who they are. Or hmm... how about being able to make me smile without even trying? The list kind of goes on from there."
I blushed and looked down at our joined hands. His larger, paler one held my smaller one in his. I played with his fingertips with my other and said, "You forgot to mention the fact that I can literally kick your butt if you were to ever get out of line with me."
His eyebrows raised at my challenging remark. "Oh, I didn't forget to mention that."
"Edward Cullen, one day your bold ass attitude is going to get you into major trouble."
His thumb started caressing the back of my hand. "Well if it's by you, then I won't care."
I smiled at him which he happily returned. We both fell into a comfortable silence after that with only the sound of both our breathing and some classical music playing in the background to hear. I started to drift off to sleep but not before hearing, "Goodnight, my Bella. Sleep well. I'll wake you when we get there." I felt Edward's hand on my thigh, moving it in a rhythmic motion to help lull me to sleep faster. I was almost completely gone when I thought I heard a quiet whisper of, "I love you."
If I had heard Edward saying that he loved me, I knew for a fact that I was dreaming. It was still too early, in my opinion, for that. We had only been dating for about a month now. Granted, we had been friends for a while before we started dating, but it was strictly platonic between Edward and I back then, right?
I woke up to the sound of Edward whispering my name and his hands squeezing my thighs. "Bella," Squeeze. "Wake up for me, baby."
I opened my eyes slowly to the sight of Edward kneeling outside my opened door. "Are we there yet?"
"Almost. We actually have to walk the rest of the way, but it's not that far. I promise."
"Mm-hmm, well wake me back up when we get there." I murmured.
He snickered. "You have to get up, Bella. Come on, it's not far."
He finally coaxed me into getting out of the car. The sun was, surprisingly, shining extremely bright today. We were surrounded by tons and tons of green trees, and it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere.
Edward took my hand and pulled me into the right direction. I finally snapped out of my tired state to walk along with him. "What's so special about this place that your taking me to?" I wondered.
"Well, I actually like to think it's only a place I know about. It's a good place to escape off to when your overwhelmed or upset or anything. It's quiet." I was a little worried that Edward was going to end up getting us lost but he seemed to know exactly where he was going. We took a left turn at a tree that had a red shoe lace tied onto one of it's branches.
"How did you find this place anyway?"
He let out a breath. "When my family first moved here, I was only fourteen. Carlisle and I got into this huge argument about the differences between right and wrong. See, this one kid at my school started bullying me. He would say shitty things to me that I didn't really care about. At first, I didn't do anything because I thought he'd get tired and stop. That didn't happen. The things he said got worse, and Emmett begged to help me talk to the shit face, but every time I refused because I didn't want to need him every time I was in trouble."
"Like a pride thing?" I questioned.
He nodded. "I wasn't very temperamental, but anyone would get mad if you constantly bothered them, right?"
I nodded and he continued, "One day, he called my mother a whore and hit me, and I snapped. Up until then, it had always been subtle verbal abuse towards me, which I could easily handle. But when you talk about my family and physically attack me, is when I take it personally. So I hit him back. But instead of his weak ass push, I punched him... hard. And repeatedly. All those months of bullying were packed into those punches, and I ended up breaking his jaw, giving him a black eye, and bruising his rib cage."
I gasped quietly, not expecting that. "But how did you and Carlisle end up fighting?"
"The guy I attacked didn't want to come back to school to face me when he had healed so he transferred to another school. When Carlisle heard what I had done, he was sympathetic but he was also very disappointed in me."
"Why? Weren't you just sticking up for yourself?" I asked.
"That's what I thought I was doing. But Carlisle thought I was being overly aggressive. I argued that the fucker deserved what I did to him and Carlisle just kept saying that I went too far. So I got frustrated and yelled, 'Okay, I'll let any douche bag call my mother a whore and not do anything next time!' Then I ran out the house and wondered into the woods."
"And that's how you found it?"
"Yeah, I stayed there a couple hours or so before I went back home." We were both silent for a few minutes after that. He still looked upset about it, so I didn't say anything to him until I knew he was okay to talk.
"What happened when you got home?" I said quietly.
"Everyone was relieved. Carlisle apologized; Esme hugged the crap out of me. And both, Emmett and Alice scolded me for being so completely stupid."
I smiled slightly at the last part. I could totally picture them doing that. "Oh, I'm sorry."
He suddenly smiled and put his arm around my shoulders. "Don't worry about it. That happened a long time ago. Doesn't matter now." His other arm reached out in front of me to pull a branch out of the way. "Here we are."
I stepped through and saw the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my entire life. It was a clearing surrounded by evergreens. Randomly colored flowers scattered the grassy floor, making it look like a rainbow mosaic. The sun was directly overhead that would usually make it kind of hot, had it not been for the small breeze that came at just the right moment to cool us down. In the upper right corner of the clearing, I saw a small dock that connected to the bluest lake known to man. It looked like something out of a picture book.
"It's unbelievable." I said in awe.
Edward wasn't looking at our surroundings, he was looking at me, gauging my reaction. "I had the same reaction when I first saw this place."
"It takes your breath away." I reached down to pick up a blue flower, and marveled at it's soft textured petals.
"You do..." He said, and of course, I blushed at his words.
His fingers lightly touched my heated cheeks and he slowly grabbed the flower from my hand and put it behind my ear, making his eyes soften. I watched him with total adoration in his eyes, as he lifted my chin with his hands.
I leaned forward to gently press my lips against his. They moved against each others softly at first, but became more ardent and powerful as the kiss grew. I moved my hands to his shoulders, and he moved his to my waist. My lips sucked on his upper lip, while his nipped at my bottom one. Neither one of us breathed. Or moved. Or even made a sound, for we did not want to ruin the beautiful moment that had been manifested.
After a few more seconds, I heard a soft grunt escape from Edward's lips, causing a gentle moan to escape from mine. I felt his lips pull up into a smile against my own, and we slowly pulled apart from each other.
"My Bella..." He uttered, while looking into my eyes.
Mine were still transfixed on his now red lips. He sighed quietly before bending down to peck my lips once more. Satisfied, I looked up at him and said, "This moment is so... enchanting." I shook my head softly and continued, "I'll never forget this, Edward. Thank you so much."
He beamed and searched my face. "I'm trying so very hard to find one flaw about you, but I can't. You're perfect."
I stood on my tip toes to peck his cheek, and embraced him. I softly ran my fingers through his messy hair, reveling at it's soft texture. My fingernails grazed against his scalp, and I heard him sighed in complacency.
We stood there hugging for what seemed like forever, but was probably just a couple of minutes. "Can we lay down?" I asked. This moment was just too good to have to go back home and study.
"Sure." He laid down first and pulled me down on top of him, so I my head was tucked in his warm neck and his arms were wrapped securely around my waist.
Neither of us spoke a word as we laid together. To soon, the sun started going down and we knew that nightfall would be coming soon, which meant that we had to leave now or risk not being able to find our way back to the car.
"I don't want to leave." I said honestly, while nestling further into Edward's neck. I breathed in his scent, and tried to memorize it to keep it in my head to remember forever.
"Me neither." He whispered. "But we'll come back soon, I promise. Now that you've been here once with me, I feel like this is our meadow. It wouldn't be complete with just one of us here."
"Mm-hmm." I muttered.
He kissed the top of my head, lingering there for a few seconds. "We have to go, it'll be dark soon." His voice was hesitant.
"I know." I said.
We stood up and look around ourselves one last time, then at each other. He pecked me on the lips, and then on the forehead.
All of a sudden, a thought occurred to me: I think I love you, Edward.
A/N: There it is. I hope you guys liked this chapter because I had a lot of fun writing it. Next chapter will be up by Friday, May 13, 2011. It might be up before then, but no promises. Reviews always make me write faster! :)