The next morning I woke up and ate breakfast as usual. This morning it smelled like bacon and toast, an unlikely combination. Wasn't it supposed to be toast and jam or bacon and eggs? Lizzy and Joseph, as I later found out, liked to do a lot of things out of order.

The moment I stepped outside, I smelled rain. It wasn't raining, but it had rained overnight. I smelled a lot of vegetation as well and this served to further clarify where I was.

Suffice to say that the rest of the day was unimportant until lunch. Again I sat down at a random table, and luckily it was Britney and her friends who came over to me first.

"Hey girl!" Britney said in a friendly voice, as if we'd been friends all our lives. "How's it going?!"

"Fine?" I answered, confused at her boldness. Why was she being so nice to me? I mean, she was nice to me the day before when she saw that I was blind but today she was slightly different. Just too friendly and seeming almost...eager.

"Did you enjoy the rest of school yesterday?" she continued, oblivious to my confusion.

"I guess so," I said, through a slight mouthful of the sandwich I was eating.

"And were your classmates nice?" she asked.

I turned my head to her, although it didn't make a difference. It was more or less so that she could know that my attention was on her now.

"Why do you ask?" I asked her, keeping my face serious. I don't know how her face looked at seeing me face her head on, but I sensed that she was getting slightly uncomfortable.

"Nothing, I...no, we just saw you strolling around with a friend to fourth period yesterday, and we were curious..."

"Who?" I asked, playing dumb. I could already sense who she was going to bring up. I wondered for a split second if she was making the same assumption Lizzy had the other day.

"Well um...Adrian Cullen," one of her friends, I forget who, interrupted. "You see, the Cullens don't really hang out with people who aren't in their family so we were a bit shocked when we saw Adrian with someone else."

The way she said 'someone else' almost presented a hint of jealousy in her tone. Not that I could tell, but it seemed that apparently Adrian was good looking and was well liked by the girls. Maybe all the Cullens were for all that I knew. Suddenly it had grown quiet around the table, clarifying that Adrian was in fact a girl-magnet. I already pinpointed that perhaps he'd rejected all of them. It was a growing temptation to ask him about that next period, if only for comic relief.

"What about him?" I asked, putting my head down and casually taking another bite of my sandwich. How this conversation had shifted so quickly to Adrian suddenly made me really aware of how these girls' friendship could easily waver.

"Was he nice to you?" Britney asked, false concern in her voice.

"Exceedingly," I muttered, rolling my eyes. I'm pretty sure I did anyway, but I'm not sure who saw.

Suddenly there were a few whispers across the table, but I didn't let them affect me. I continued eating my sandwich casually, not letting them know that I'd heard what they said about me. How they could say it almost to my face was beyond me. Just because I couldn't see them, didn't mean that I couldn't hear them just fine. Their words did little to anger me, but it did sting a bit hearing them.

"Must be because she's blind," a girl whispered in a low voice that not everyone at the table heard.

"Yeah," responded the girl next to her. "There's no other way he'd be nice to anyone, especially if she's not a looker."

I held my breath at the last comment, and just barely swallowed my sandwich. What had they just said? The first part didn't bother me, but the second part did, although I didn't show it.

Had they just implied that I wasn't pretty? They had no idea just how much that hurt. Even if I was blind, I was still a girl and I did care about what I looked like. I'd never even seen myself once though, so I couldn't tell if I was even decent looking or not. For all I knew, I could be hideous. I could feel my face just fine, but it wasn't enough to paint myself an image. What if I was bad looking? It hurt having to hear that from people I'd just barely met. I wanted to leave, only what would be my excuse?

"Hey," a musical voice from behind me said. "Mind if I take her for a while?"

I recognized him immediately, both by that unique smell of his but mostly his voice and also...by his uneven breathing. Even the day before his breathing had been uneven, only I hadn't noticed as much.

"U-um...sure." Britney sounded embarrassed.

I was about to stand up, but then Adrian grabbed my arm and pulled me away. His touch was...so cold. Almost like ice, so it made me shiver. Adrian showed no recognition of this.

"W-wait, my lunch..." I tried, but we were already outside.

"I have it," he assured me.

We walked on for a while, though I'm not sure where or how far, but then he finally sat me down on a wooden bench of some sort.

"Here," he said, putting my lunchbox in my hands.

"Thanks," I said, though I'd much lost my appetite. "What's up?"

"I thought that I'd be better company for you," he said in a friendly voice, but then it changed to something bitter. "And also I thought it best to get you away from those pricks."

I snorted, never having heard girls called pricks before.

"It's fine," I said. "I'm used to people being nice to me because..." I bit my lip, remembering their last comment about my looks.

Adrian sat down next to me. "Yeah, I know, but that's not why I'm around you. Not fully anyway."

I paused. "Then why...?"

"Because I'm more or less interested in you as a person," he said. "And what they said about you isn't true."

"About what?" I asked, wondering how he could possibly know.

"You're not bad-looking, Charlotte," he said.

It was a simple comment, but it made me smile. It made my heart flutter and my spirits rise. It was the first compliment I think I'd ever gotten. More than that, it was the very first time I'd gotten any indication about what I looked like.

"R-really?" I asked, wishing I knew.

"Yeah. I know you probably don't know this, but most people would actually call you pretty."

I smile widened. "Thanks," I said. I didn't mind, even if he was just saying that to be nice. There was no hint of a lie in his voice though...some people were just good at lying, I suppose. "Though I doubt that I'm very interesting as a person," I added.

He sniffed. "You wanna bet? Let's take this for example: I'm still curious to know why you're here. And I don't mean here in Forks, but here at this high school. Even if it's required by law, no one's actually going to come all the way out here to check that one blind girl is in high school, and not even a decent high school at that! And I personally don't think that it's even fair making you go to a public school like this. Wouldn't you prefer a blind school where you can communicate with blind people?"

I was amazed at how he tossed the word 'blind' around so casually, as if he used it all his life. I didn't mind it per say, but it was highly irregular for me to hear.

"I don't really know," I said. "I never had a preference for schools."

"Wouldn't a blind school suit you more though?"

"I don't know."

"Doesn't it feel better having people like you around you though?"

"What do you mean 'people like me'? Aren't I human too?"

"Yeah, but if I was blind, I'd find it unnerving to be around people who can see. Aren't you afraid that people might take advantage of you?"

"They never have."

"But I'm saying 'what if'?"

"What are you implying here?" I challenged. "Why would anyone take advantage of me? A blind person doesn't exactly have too many redeeming qualities that would be of help to anyone."

"Fine then, let's assume the worst. What if someone attacked you?"

I paused, never having thought of that. "I don't know."

"Don't you have opinions on anything?" he was starting to grow irritated.

"I do, just not a lot to do with my blindness. I don't think about it everyday you know! I've kind of..." I whispered the last part. "I've just gotten used to it."

"What about Forks then?"

"What about it?"

"Do you like it here in Forks?"

I took in a breath. "I have nowhere else to go."

"I get that, but do you like it?"

"I can't see it so it doesn't matter to me," I snapped, confused at why he was asking me so many questions.

Adrian sighed, as exhausted from asking all these questions, as I was at answering them.

"I just don't get you..." he said at last.

"Then don't try," I said calmly. I'd regained my composure a little and although I wasn't angry, I was annoyed at how Adrian kept prying into things about me. And everything he said seemed in one way or another to revolve around my blindness. Why did that bother him so much anyway?

For whatever reason, Adrian didn't talk to me later that day. He guided me to our classroom after I finished eating, not seeming intent on leaving me with Britney and her pals again. Then without saying anything, he also took me to our fourth period class. I knew it was him because of the cold touch. Then at the end of the day, he escorted me back to Lizzy, this time taking me directly to her car. Then he left without a word.

This time Lizzy didn't make any comments. Just drove me home quietly.

Adrians' P.O.V

"Hanging around the new girl a bit much, aren't you?"

I glared up at Rosalie, who was sitting smugly beside Emmett on the couch. They didn't have to tell me, since I knew that they were all interested in my recent actions with the new girl, Charlotte.

"Only two days have passed Rose," Emmett laughed. But then he gave me a skeptical look too. "But seriously dude, chill out. Why you so obsessed with her?"

"Wha-"

"Edward's been reading your mind, and he can tell that you're thinking about her," Alice said, emerging from the second floor with Jasper right behind her. "A lot of your thoughts relate to her being blind though."

I sighed. "Besides Edward, who'd find out anyway about why, none of you need to know why, got it?" I snapped.

Edward came from behind me, and put his hand on my shoulder. Since I wasn't past the newborn phase completely, I recoiled back.

"Just calm down," he said, sympathy written in his eyes. "I get why. And I admit that I was losing my patience earlier too after what those girls said about her."

"Oh right, thanks for reminding me," I said, since I'd just barely forgotten that.

Edward shook his head. "Come with me," he said, and we both ran outside and out of earshot of the rest of the family.

"I know why," Edward said slowly, carefully. "Only you're still coming on too strong with your reasoning, Adrian. Don't forget that she barely knows you."

"Yeah I know," I muttered. "But still I just..."

"I know what you're planning on doing if you get the right reaction out of her," Edward said, a threat in his voice. "Put it out of your head."

My whole frame shook. I was getting pissed. "But why Edward?! I can help her and...!"

"It's not your business to interfere," he said, using his voice of reason which I recognized well. "But these feelings you harbor for her are only pity and they'll wear off, with time. She's not a part of your life, and you shouldn't try to make her a part of it. Don't forget what you are."

"I-"

"Don't forget that we're only letting you around humans at all since you can take away your own sense of smell," Edward said, reminding me of an unnecessary fact. "None of us want her too close. If she finds out..."

I sniffed. "She can't even see Edward! She won't detect what we are easily."

"Easily," he repeated, an edge on his voice. "But she may be sharper than you think. She's already figured out that your breathing's not natural, and you've made your cold touch rather obvious." He seemed displeased at the last bit.

I sighed. Since I was a vampire now, I didn't need air anymore. Pretend-breathing wasn't an easy thing to master though, especially when my thoughts weren't always focused on this.

"Edward...Bella was human too," I said, using it as my last resort.

Edward's face molded into a look of pure sympathy and even a bit of pain.

"She was always different," he said at last, finding no better argument.

Then as he started to leave, I figured that the conversation was over, but then he stopped.

"Adrian, don't think about it," he said, but he knew as well as I did that I wasn't giving up. I almost felt like Charlotte was...my responsibility.

In this chapter, I've given everyone a bit more insight into how Charlotte feels about her blindness, and of course I've added in a bit of Adrian's thoughts as well. As to why Adrian cares so much about Charlotte's blindness, you'll have to wait to find out! And you'll also have to wait to figure out what Adrian wants to do, but most of you can probably guess.

Please tell me what you think! :3