Chapter Six
MAYBE
Edward's Point of View
It was a lapse. I couldn't stop myself. Her whole body just looked entirely kissable, and I fell for it.
I prayed Alice hadn't seen this coming. I hoped Jasper didn't feel my guilt when I'd gotten back home. Above all, I hoped that Frankie didn't tell Bella.
Why would she tell Bella? She'd been in the wrong too, surely? Being so irresistible. So wonderfully amazing. Perhaps I could blame it on her?
"I'm sorry," Frankie's eyes snapped open, as if it was entirely her fault.
"What?"
"I'm sorry," Frankie stared into my eyes and at once I knew what she meant. She was sorry for the consequences.
"What the hell do we do now?" she whispered.
"I don't know," I said. "I don't know."
We sat in silence, as if deciding upon a course of action to take, when Frankie looked up.
"Well," she sighed, "We're screwed either way."
"I know," I realised miserably. Whatever we did, I was doomed for misery.
I caught myself. I was doomed for misery? What about poor Bella? Perhaps I should stop being so selfish and start being selfless, a courtesy that both Frankie and Bella extended to me which I never once returned. Poor Frankie as well. I could safely say that both girls were hooked on me, and I was hooked on both of them.
"I should go," I said, and before Frankie could object I'd jumped out of her window and sprinted back to my house, not looking back.
Frankie's Point of View
I felt terrible.
It was the morning after Edward's visit, and I was dreading facing Bella at school. I could just see her bright, innocent face, I could hear her questions. Angela and Jessica had always thought she never spoke. Even Alice and Edward thought she was quiet. It appeared she just loaded all of her thoughts onto me willingly, talking about anything and everything. She trusted me, and it hurt me to have betrayed her trust.
In fact, I decided to fake sick. My naturally cold temperature helped mildly, and my mother propped me up in bed with a bowl to throw up in and six hot water bottles. Then everyone went out to work.
I admit, I listened in on thoughts. There appeared to be no limit to my power, and I was greedy for information.
Does Bella think she can just sit with us whenever her pretty boyfriend decides not to talk to her? Because she can't. Jessica Stanley's voice filled my head, piercing and petty.
I'm worried.. Alice's voice.
Edward had closed off his mind. Damn my stupid lessons last night.
My stupid, stupid lessons.
It's like he's avoiding me. Bella was worrying. From her mind I could see she wasn't sat with the Cullens, and neither was Edward. He was gone, and Bella was sat with Jessica and Mike and friends. Weird.
That's when I started trying, really trying, to listen to Edward's thoughts. I stretched out further and further, listening absorbedly.
Bella…
It was like someone was tuning a radio, but I was only hearing snippets of the conversation.
Bella…
He was running. I didn't know where, but he was running, and fast. A foreign country. He was keeping to the shadows. A sunny country, then?
It was all quite blurry, as though I was peering through fogged glass. I couldn't make out the details. All I could tell was that he was running.
Anger boiled inside me. How dare he run? I hadn't. He was being a coward, running from a decision he couldn't bring himself to make.
Who would he choose? The vampire or the human?
Bella's Point of View
My cheeks were scarlet as I silently spooned food into my mouth. I could tell the other people on my table were thinking about me, internally asking why I wasn't sat with my new friends.
The truth is, I didn't think it would be a good idea to hang around with them without Edward. I saw Jasper's eyes, blackened by thirst, and Rosalie's snooty expression. I don't think I could deal with it when I did have Edward's crooked smile to reassure me.
It didn't help that Frankie was off sick, either. Usually we conversed about nothing in particular. It made me feel better than she wasn't special like the others. We could talk human, about human things, and it would be fine.
I'd been surprised when the other members of the group allowed her to sit with us so readily. Perhaps they sensed some freaky vibes off of her. Vampire sense. I didn't know. However, I was happy that they accepted her. It meant I had someone I could actually talk to, and they wouldn't rush home and tell everything else. She was human. She had a human's reaction. Everything was fine.
It was fine, wasn't it?
Edward's Point of View
The truth is, I didn't know what to do with myself.
All I could think of was running. Perhaps starting a relationship with Tanya, and letting both Frankie and Bella down. That was the only way I could think of being fair, and yet it all seemed incredibly unfair.
It struck me, even though I didn't want it to.
I had to choose.
Between Bella and Frankie.
That's when I turned on my heel and began running back to Forks.
Frankie's Point of View
The thought hit me.
Maybe he'd choose me.
Maybe he'd choose me, and let Bella think that he would never change her.
Maybe he would make her go to University, and then we could be together.
That could work, couldn't it?