Chapter 3BPOV

I stayed quiet; I wasn't going to admit I was scared of him on some level, a level which involved me having feelings for him.

"I suppose I deserve it," Edward said, hanging his head sadly, "Who wouldn't be scared of the monster who tried to kill them.

"You're not a monster." I said shocked by his choice of words.

He looked up and smiled, "Thank you. But you're wrong."

He turned around and headed back to the piano. Even after I knew the truth I still refused to believe he wasn't dangerous. There was something about him that comforted me. I followed him over to the piano and stood next to him with my arms crossed,

"No, I'm not." I said stubbornly.

He turned on the stool to face me, a smirk on the edge of his lips, "Well? Humour me. How am I not a monster?"

I thought for a second. This was going to be harder than I first thought, I hardly knew him and yet I stood there trying to tell him how he wasn't a monster, a guy I hardly knew. Alice would have helped me if she was here. Damn.

He laughed, "You can't think of anything, can you?"

I narrowed my eyes and clenched my fists, "I hardly know you, but there's something about you that tells me you're not dangerous. You're not a bad person, you're just a good person put in a bad situation, you didn't have a choice."

He shook his head, sadly now and turned away from me, staring at the black and white keys in front of him.

"I don't want to hurt you but I can't be sure that I won't. It's so frustrating," He sighed,

"Before I met you everything was so clear, I knew what I was, what I was capable of, but now . . ."

"What?" I asked, my voice nearing a whisper.

"I'm not sure of anything." He finished, "Don't get me wrong, sometimes it helps to be unsure about things, but now it scares me because I'm not sure if I'm capable of hurting you. And I don't want to."

He hung his head and hit a random key, causing me to jump.

"You should go and see Esme, she's waiting for you." He told me keeping his eyes on the piano.

I nodded and with one quick smile in his direction I left him on his own, making my way into the kitchen to see Esme.

I woke up that night, hot and bothered, sweating after going through a disturbing dream involving what happened on my first day at school here. I wiped my hand across my forehead and sighed. What was I doing? Sitting here knowing Edward was blaming himself again while I slept was heartbreaking. I got up, grabbed a piece of paper off my desk and started writing.

Edward, I wrote,

You won't believe me when I tell you so maybe you'll believe me when I write are not a monster and what happened wasn't your fault, none of it was. You're such a nice person from what I've seen and from how you've taken the blame I can see you're just a good person trapped in a nightmare and caught in a bad situation. I would never tell anyone about you or your family. I can see that you all mean so much to each other and I would never take that away from you.

You should be blaming me for not walking away when you asked me to stay behind, not yourself.

Believe me, you're not a bad person.

Love Bella.

I thought that I was stretching it by adding 'Love Bella' on the end but I'd already put it in the envelope by the time I had realised or thought about the fact I shouldn't have done that.

I crept out of my room and up the stairs to where Edward's room was listening out for any sign of Edward or his family. I could here loud pop music from Alice's room and classical from Esme and Carlisle's room but as I crept slowly to Edward's room it was still quiet.

I couldn't see any light coming from through the glass door and it was tinted slightly so it looked pitch black in there, so I guessed he was down stairs with Emmett. I opened the door slowly and walked in.

I jumped and dropped the letter as I caught the sight of Edward, slouched on his black leather couch, book in hand, shirtless.

I spun around quickly, giving him some privacy.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you were down stairs." I rushed to say as I heard him throw the book down and get up.

"It's okay Bella. I wasn't expecting any visitors at two o'clock in the morning." I could hear the sarcasm in his voice and he chuckled.

I turned around then slowly, to find him right behind me. Still shirtless, except he had a shirt in his hand. I tried to avoid looking at his chest, trying to look at his face but failed and my eyes drifted to his chest again.

"Bella? My face is up here." He chuckled.

I blushed profusely and brought my eyes to his. I was searching my head for something to say when the word 'letter' fluttered through my head and I ducked down to grab the letter. I searched the floor around me but it was nowhere in sight. Edward watched me curiously for a few minutes before asking,

"What are you looking for?"

I continued to search for it, crawling around on the floor turning over papers I knew it couldn't be under because I dropped it by the door.

"Bella?" Edward asked again. This time he was right next to me on the floor, on his hands and knees same as me.

He stared at my face and into my eyes sending chills down my spine. I stared back into his smouldering golden eyes and unconsciously leaned forward.

I didn't know what I was doing until it was too late and his cold lips touched mine. I pulled away immediately against my will and got up as quickly as I could, running out of the room.

I threw my door shut and flung myself on my bed, covering myself in my covers. What had just happened? I'd kissed him! What had I been thinking? He had told me he was dangerous, my blood appealed to him more than others and he's a vampire! Seriously I think I have some unconscious death wish. He's a vampire, a creature that isn't supposed to exist one that is extremely dangerous, needs to be avoided and here I am playing best friends with Alice and kissing Edward! I don't know what I was thinking but I'm guessing he's either utterly repulsed or going into shock at my stupid behaviour. I rolled over and groaned into my pillow.

I tiptoed down the stairs in the morning, hoping nobody would hear me. My bag was in my hand, packed and ready to go. I just needed my keys for my truck and then I was gone. I stepped carefully across the living room, watching where I was going so I wouldn't trip. That would completely ruin my 'escape' plan. I reached the small rack by the door and tried to unhook my keys silently. Unfortunately due to my bad luck, they rattled and jangled as I did and I cursed silently. I shoved them into my bag and opened the door. It didn't creak or whine like I thought it might and much to my surprise I was able to shut it without making a sound as well. I slowly made my way for the steps, celebrating on making my escape a little too soon.

"Where do you think you're going?" I spun at the voice and came face to face with Rosalie Hale. She was just as beautiful as I remembered from the cafeteria, but her face was full of menacing rage. I cringed.

"I w-was just . . . erm I was –" I stuttered and then turned to make my escape but Jasper was there, blocking my path. His lean frame toward over me and his stiff jaw sent a shiver down my spine, remembering what Carlisle had told me about him. "Jasper is our newest vegetarian. It's a little hard for him to be around humans still. Especially now with how close you are, just try to keep your distance, he'll appreciate your effort. Same goes for Edward. He can restrain himself but it's still difficult for him. I hope you understand."

I stepped backwards into Rosalie and she scowled at me,

"I told them you couldn't be trusted with our secret. That you would run and tell the first person you saw. I was right. We were right." She said, looking at Jasper as she spoke.

Jasper nodded his head, his jaw still tight and stepped forward.

"I said we should have gotten rid of you when you arrived. Faked an accident or something. Dispose of the risk to our family." She continued her voice not as angry but still as menacing. "Do you know what that entails?" She asked growling ever so slightly I'm not sure I heard it.

I gulped and shook my head and could hear my heart beating faster. Too fast. I should be on the verge of passing out now. She was looking at me like I was her prey and she was about to pounce, I looked at Jasper and he nodded at her again. Never speaking, just silent nods.

I was suddenly being pinned to the ground and I screamed before Rosalie could stop me. Jasper as holding my arms down as Rosalie hovered over me. I thrashed my legs but couldn't move anything other part of my body. She clamped a hand over my mouth and tilted my head to the side. I knew what she was going to do. I knew what my end involved.

She moved her hand away from my mouth to grip my shoulder and head and I took that opportunity to scream as loud and for as long as I could. I wasn't going without a fight. I thrashed my legs and kicked Rosalie. She growled. I managed to hit Jasper's wrists with my hands but he didn't move a bit. He strained his head away from me but kept my arms out straight. I screamed again as Rosalie moved my hair from my neck and didn't stop this time.

Rosalie was thrown off of me and Jasper let me go instantly. I gasped in relief as soon as her hold was gone and I looked to see Edward crouched down in front of me, protecting me. His growls were fierce and Rosalie crouched as well, her stance cat like. She hissed a little and Edward growled at her again.

"This isn't your business Edward. I'm doing this for us, so she won't run and tell the whole town what we are." Rosalie told him, not moving out of her stance.

"It is my business if you try to kill an innocent girl." He replied, "And after I tried so hard to keep her alive I don't appreciate your attempts to ruin my effort."

Rosalie scoffed, "You nearly killed her, and we were just finishing what you started. She knows too much. She's a liability. She needs to be disposed of." She curled her red top lip and hissed again as I moved to sit up.

"That was a mistake Rose and you know it. You know how much I hate myself for nearly taking her life; you know how I'll never be able to forgive myself for nearly doing that." His voice was full of rage but he never moved out of his protective stand. "Knowing that, and yet you still go ahead with this. We all agreed as a family that she would not be harmed as long as she could keep the secret. So why the sudden change of heart sister?"

"She had her bag packed; she was sneaking out of the house, she had her keys and was heading for her truck. She was running Edward." Rosalie spat at him, "Your precious human, the one you tried so hard to save was going to go back on her word and tell, most probably, her darling father, the chief. She doesn't care about you; she was going to tell on us all without a second thought. So much for saving an innocent human, Edward." Her lies made me want to scream, but I knew she would silence me with her stare. So I kept quiet.

"She . . ." Edward said slowly, his voice heartbreaking, "I don't believe you." He said hopelessly.

Rosalie grabbed my bag and threw it at him, spilling the contents. My keys fell out of it, and my purse, along with my clothes and my purple toiletry bag. He stared down at it, his back to me and then he hung his head and relaxed his stance. Rosalie relaxed as well and I got on up onto my knees as Edward turned around to look at me, his eyes sad and broken with betrayal.

"I wasn't going to tell anyone. I swear." I told him, "I promised I wouldn't, I wasn't going to break it. I would never do that. Not after everything you've been through. I wouldn't dare . . . Edward, please . . ." I pleaded. He just had to believe me.

He just shook his head and mumbled, "Go. Tell whoever you want but we'll be gone as soon as you say anything."

I was taken aback and I searched for the right words, "I would never . . ."

"GO!" He shouted.

I nodded, tears threatening to brim over. I grabbed my bag, stuffing everything back in it and picking my keys up from in front of him. He continued to look past me when I stood up and looked at him.

"I'm sorry I've caused you so much pain. As soon as I get back I'll ask Charlie if I can go stay with my mother's friends in Arizona. I won't come back. Your secret will be safe." I told him. He continued to look away.

"Goodbye Edward." I said and walked past him, "I don't regret meeting you. I never will." I whispered as I headed for my truck, hoping he would hear me.

I drove slowly, tears streaming down my face, unable to see clearly. The road was misty from the falling rain and I could hardly see the road. I tried to keep the truck steady and straight but I couldn't see and from the horn blares behind me I knew I was swaying. I pulled over into the dirt and put my head on the steering wheel. I shouldn't have tried to sneak out. The sensible and best thing to do was to tell them I wanted to go home. But I made it worse by trying to creep out. I shivered a I remembered Rosalie's face when she pounced on me. I cried as a new wave of emotion swept over me. Fear. Delayed reaction to what had happened. I could still hear her growls and threatening words as she cornered me. I could still see the way she crept, as if I was her prey and she was the predator.

I stopped crying eventually and the rain stopped as well, giving me a chance to get home safely. Charlie didn't know I hadn't been at school all these days. Carlisle had told me he had set up an alibi with the school about me having to stay at home due to an illness which would pass soon enough. So basically I was going to have to lie to Charlie about so many things I couldn't count. I reached the house soon enough and sighed after noticing the drive was empty. But just as I pulled in Charlie pulled in behind me. Oh crap.

EPOV

I ran upstairs and slammed the glass door to my room. Shattering it completely. I cursed loudly and threw all my books on the floor. I growled when Rosalie followed me and shouted at me to calm down. I cursed at her and she was taken aback. I'd never cursed at anyone in this family, ever. I continued to throw objects around the room and stopped suddenly when I recognized something that was not my own. A copy of Wuthering Heights. I stopped my rage and opened the book looking at the first page, it read;

This belongs to Bella Swan. 15th September 2000

I placed the book on my leather couch and sighed. All anger gone. All frustration gone. All that was left was betrayal and hurt. How could I believe her? I couldn't read her mind to see if she was telling the truth so I had no idea if she would tell or not. That was my problem when she was first told about us. How would I know if she was lying about keeping the secret? I sat down and addressed Rosalie,

"Would you go please?" I asked calmly.

"Fine. I'm not telling Esme about the door though. You are." She huffed and left quietly. "What is his problem? I was just trying to protect us. She was a danger to us."

I blocked out her thoughts and concentrated on calming myself down. I couldn't do it. I needed to see her. I needed to get the truth out of her. I suppose as soon as Alice warns us about our future we would leave and I'd know the truth. But that wasn't good enough. I would need to ask her why then. Why did she betray us? Why did she betray our trust in her? I began clearing my room then. Putting books up on the shelves, CDs back on racks. There was paper all over the floor. A lot of it from my journals, other from my compositions. I gathered them all into one pile when an envelope caught my attention. It was covered in glass from my door so I shook the glass off it and noticed it was addressed to me and I recognized the script too.. It was Bella's handwriting. I ripped the envelope open in a flash and opened the paper, reading it carefully, inquisitive;

Edward,

You won't believe me when I tell you so maybe you'll believe me when I write it. You are not a monster and what happened wasn't your fault, none of it was. You're such a nice person from what I've seen and from how you've taken the blame I can see you're just a good person trapped in a nightmare and caught in a bad situation. I would never tell anyone about you or your family. I can see that you all mean so much to each other and I would never take that away from you. You should be blaming me for not walking away when you asked me to stay behind, not yourself. Believe me, you're not a bad person.

Love Bella.

I stood there, stunned. I couldn't believe it. It clicked then that this is what Bella came in for last night. To put this in my room, but I caught her. This was what she dropped. That was why she was scouring my floor for it. That's why she was on her hands and knees mumbling to herself. That's why I crouched down and offered to help. That's when she kissed me. And I shocked myself by not being repulsed by it. I liked it. She was warm and open and shy and quiet. And I was drawn to her. And it was dangerous.