I stood there awkwardly, teetering back and forth on my feet, the weight of the backpack feeling entirely too heavy now.

Hearing a voice that was clearly not his mothers or fathers, Edward lifted his forearm off of his face and quickly sat up, haphazardly shoving his glasses on his face, causing them to sit lopsided on the bridge of his nose.

"Um, Bella. Hi. What are you doing here?" He asked, adjusting his glasses, his gaze never meeting mine.

"Your mom let me in. Mr. Banner said you're sick...so I brought you some soup and tea. I didn't make the soup... I just heated it up. I'm sorry."

"Wow, thanks... you really shouldn't have though." Edward mumbled, swinging his sock clad feet around to sit off the edge of the bed.

"Oh! I also have you biology schoolwork. That's kinda lame I guess, but maybe since you're sick and everything, you might get bored and won't want to get behind." Yeah, definitely rambling now but I had no clue what else to say.

Hadn't I had some sort of idea as to what to say earlier?

"Thanks, you can just put it over on my desk, please," Edward instructed, pointing over to his book covered desk.

I emptied out the schoolwork and food onto his desk and zipped the backpack back up. Walking back to the door, I lingered, hoping that he would stop me, or say something or at least look at me.

But I assumed wrong.

I continued to linger way longer than necessary or what would look casual. Edward kept his face down, eyes diverted to the rug. This was one of my most awkward moments ever.

Well, maybe that one summer I spent here with Charlie when I was twelve and my "Monthly Visitor" decided to make its first appearance and I freaked out, too embarrassed to say anything.

I sighed and turned around, ready to admit defeat and go home.

"I'm not sick, you know," Edward said to my retreating figure.

I braced my left hand on the door frame, feeling a tightening in my chest.

"You're not sick? You haven't been in school though..." I trailed off, still facing away from him.

"I'm not sick. I just, needed some time off. So, while the soup and tea was a thoughtful gesture, you can take it back with you." His voice was quiet, unsure and almost cold sounding. I hated the thought that I could have caused this. But so far, he had only confirmed my suspicions.

I turned around, his eyes finally meeting mine. "Edward, I- I'm so, so sorry. If you would just let me explain, I was totally wrong." My voice was begging with him, pleading him to just allow me to explain, so I could lift this horrible guilt I felt.

"Bella."

"Edward, come on. I made a mistake. Please. Tell me what I can do to make this right," I pleaded with him.

He sighed, looking back down again. "I don't know. I think you should leave, Bella. Thank you for bringing the biology work."

His tone of voice held such finality that I paused, stunned at what was happening. I turned and left quickly, the two thermoses forgotten.

I skipped down the stairs, briefly saying good-bye to Esme when she called out to me from the kitchen.

I hopped back into my car and started it, letting it idle. I grasped the steering wheel with both hands, causing my knuckles to go white and let out an exasperated growl.

What did I expect though, really? I had done a bitchy thing, true, but the whole school treated Edward bad. How was that I did any worse? We weren't friends. We were barely acquaintances. Every day kids talk shit about each other to their faces and behind their backs. What I did was no worse. Right?

It was then that I decided to absolve my guilt and move on. Screw Edward Cullen.

"Edward Cullen." Jessica said, sitting down at the lunch table Thursday afternoon.

"What about him, Jess?" Rose asked, looking bored as she moved her food around on her plate.

"Mike took me to dinner last night and we saw him last night at the Lodge with his dad and his mom. We were seated at the table next to theirs. Talk about awkward, Mike started to try to cop a feel but there was no way I was going to let that happen. I mean, come on, Dr. Cullen knows my father, they golfed together or some shit."

"Jessica!" Rose called out, snapping her fingers. "Concentrate!'

"Oh," she giggled. "Anyways... Cullen was totally sulking about something and his parents were trying to be all supportive and his dad went all therapist on him and tried to get him to talk about his feelings. All I know was it's about some girl, something about some girl being a bitch."

"A girl?" Lauren asked, suddenly looking interested.

"Yeah, some girl. Although I can't imagine what girl. You'd have to be pretty hard up to fuck with Cullen. It was probably that gonorrhea girl in Chicago."

"Yeah, probably." Rose scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Are you okay, Bella? You've been awfully quiet," Jessica commented.

"Yeah. I mean no. I'm feeling a little hot." I touched my forehead with the back of my hand. "Yeah. I'm going to go to the nurses office for a bit."

"Are you sure, Bella? If you wait like thirty minutes more you can just ask to leave during class and get out of school for the rest of the day," Lauren said. "I can blow off my last three classes and we can go to the movies or something."

I shook my head, "No, Lauren. I'm really not feeling well. I'll talk to you guys later."

Gathering my book bag and the remnants of my brown bagged lunch, I stood and said bye to the girls.

I had every intention of going to the nurses office to lie down for a while. Truthfully, I didn't feel good. There was some sort of bug going around school though, so I just attributed it to that.

Walking past the open library doors though, my feet moved on their own accord and I walked into the library.

I was met with near silence, save for the soft sounds of fingers typing on keyboards and the quiet murmur of voices. I walked through the rows and rows of books, trying to justify why I was in the library.

I always loved to read. Before I moved to Forks, I spent most of my time with my nose in a book. But moving here and befriending Lauren, Jessica and Rose, I found myself going to parties, the movies and shopping.

So I decided that I would just browse the shelves and pick something out, knowing that neither Jessica or Lauren would come in the library.

I turned to go down one of the end aisles was against the wall, faltering my steps when I saw that it was already occupied by two people, a boy and a girl.

The boy had his head resting, eyes closed, in the girls lap and she was absentmindedly stroking his hair while holding a book in her free hand.

It was Victoria, the girl who Jessica and Lauren made cry in the girls bathroom, with her boyfriend, James.

Hearing me approach, Victoria looked over the top of her book at me and James angled his head in my direction, opening his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry," I apologized, feeling guilty to interrupt what seemed like an intimate moment.

"It's no problem," Victoria assured me. "Come, join us."

I looked over to James, who only smiled.

I hesitated. Feeling awkward. I mean, I didn't even know these people and here they were asking me to join them? I felt rude though to turn them down, so I smiled before sitting down, near James feet.

They were an interesting couple. Victoria had the naturally reddest hair I had ever seen, falling in waves and curls down her back. Her right ear was pierced from the cartilage down to her lobe and she wore lots of chunky jewelry. She opted for long, flowing skirts and sandals, regardless of the weather.

James, on the other hand, had long, dirty blond hair that he kept tied back in a low ponytail and both of his ears were gauged. He wore faded and torn camouflage pants and a leather jacket.

"I'm Victoria, this is my boyfriend, James." She introduced herself.

"I'm Bella."

"I know." She responded. When I looked confused, she continued. "You're friends with Jessica and them. Plus, you were big news when you moved here."

"Oh, yeah." Awkward silence. What could I say? Oh, I'm sorry my friends made you cry. They weren't my actions to apologize for.

We didn't talk the rest of lunch. Victoria resumed reading and stroking James hair, while he just laid with his eyes closed.

When the bell rang, we stood, stretching out our cramped muscles.

"We usually hang out here every lunch. It's better than any of the other options," Victoria said, grabbing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

"Okay, cool." Did that mean they expected me to join them again tomorrow? It actually did sound better than the cafeteria. But what would Jessica, Lauren and Rose say?

After lunch, I did go to the nurses office. Apparently, due to some bug going around the school, the nurse recommend that I be sent home.

Nurse Carmen called my father at the station and after a quick conversation with him, she handed me the phone.

"Your father would like to speak with you."

I took the phone from her and held it up to my ear.

"Hey, dad." I greeted him, hoping that my voice would convey some of the unrecognizable sickness I felt in my body."Hi Bells. Heard you're sick. Need me to come home? I can stop by the school on the way and come get you."

Hearing Charlies sincerely concerned voice made the knot in my stomach tighten minutely. "No dad. It's okay. I'm just going to drive home and sleep it off. Will you be home for dinner?"

"If you're sure, Bella. I'll be home around six, but don't worry about dinner. I'll pick something up for us at the diner. Call me if you start feeling worse."

"'Kay. Talk to you later."

When I got home, there was a brown paper bag with the top folded down sitting on my front porch. Inside the bag was the two thermoses, cleaned, with a note written in black ink.

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