We took the shuttle from the hotel to the bus departure area. I was getting more excited by the second and my mom was acting like a 4 year old on Christmas morning. Normally her behavior would bother me but we were in a foreign country and while her chances of embarrassing me were high the chances of seeing anyone that I actually knew or cared about were less than zero so I let her enthusiasm carry me away. To be honest it wasn't very often in my life that I got to be young and carefree so although it was sad that I had to travel halfway across the world to get this feeling I was going to enjoy it.
We waited around with a growing group of people. It appeared that everyone was about three times my age but it still didn't bring me down. Everyone waiting was chattering with excitement about the trip ahead and my mother and I started chatting with those around us. Mauve and Henry were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary, Peter and Nina were on their honeymoon, and Carlisle and Esme were here with their twins celebrating their graduation from high school. Carlisle and Esme were about Renee's age but they reminded me of the couple from last night for some reason. It almost hurt to look at them they were so breathtakingly gorgeous. I didn't feel uncomfortable around them though because unlike the two last night they actually seemed approachable and friendly so my mother and I talked with them while we waited to board the bus. Esme would occasionally scan the crowd as if looking for something.
She noticed me watching and smiled at me, "Sorry, not trying to be rude but I'm waiting for Edward and Alice to get here. He was trying to help her condense her luggage since we are only going for three days not three months. He is the only one who can make her see reason sometimes so we left her in his capable hands," I was laughing with her when I saw her smile and wave across the crowd. "Finally," she whispered.
I turned in the direction that she was looking and for once instead of turning bright red all blood drained from my face. It was them, of course it was them. There was some small comfort in the fact that they were brother and sister and not boyfriend and girlfriend but there was no ignoring the fact that it was exactly these types of people that I had spent my life avoiding. I never fit in with the beautiful people at school and they were far above and beyond anything that Forks High School had to offer. I uttered some nonsense about finding a bathroom and ran away before Edward and Alice got to their mother. I stayed hidden until I saw the bus starting to load and quickly made my way back to the line. My mother had entered the bus without me and so I looked around once I got in trying to find out where she had sat.
Of course she was sitting across from Carlisle and Esme. Alice and Edward were sitting in front of them. Edward appeared to be trying to find a good location for his long legs. They stretched out in front of him and I tried to not notice the muscled perfection in front of me as I walked down the aisle.
Focus on making it to the seat Bella, focus. Don't look at his legs…the way his hair covers his muscles, his muscles, goodness even his toes were perfect, he had kicked off his flip flops and was wiggling his toes. His toes….
I was so enthralled with looking at his toes that I had failed to notice the purse sticking out halfway into the aisle in front of him. Luck was never on my side and today appeared to be no different. Before I even had a chance to right myself I was going down. I closed my eyes preparing for the feel of the hard floor against me and was surprised when a pair of arms broke my fall.
I just stayed there for a second not wanting to open my eyes. I dared to hope that it wasn't him who had caught me. Please let it be anyone but him.
"Are you okay," the voice was like velvet in my ears. Was there nothing about this man that wasn't perfection? Trying to be covert I inhaled quickly and confirmed that he was indeed perfect. His scent drew me in, I wanted to just cuddle into his chest and smell him for the rest of the day. Eventually he cleared his throat reminding me of exactly where I was and I pushed myself off him quickly almost falling again the process. I mumbled thank you and made my way to my seat looking out the window and avoiding all eye contact.
My mom decided that the best thing to do would be to ignore me and she continued on with her conversation with Esme as if nothing had just happened. I could feel eyes on me and I assumed that they were his and so I continued to stare out the window even though we hadn't even begun to move yet. I stared and daydreamed about meeting him under different circumstances. Circumstances where I didn't make a fool of myself and somehow he saw me and noticed something that no one else had and he….
"Bella…Bella," crap, how long had she been calling my name?
"I'm sorry, did you need something," I pulled my attention from the window and looked in Esme's direction.
"I just wanted to introduce you to Edward and Alice. Seeing as how you all are the same age I thought you might get along," there was that damn blush again. Perhaps I would change my major to chemistry and go to medical school and find a way to stop blushing. It was never convenient.
"Bella these are my children Alice and Edward," I waved my hand and smiled not sure of exactly what to say to either of them. Alice quickly fixed that, she almost vaulted herself over Edward and pushed him over to the window and started talking non-stop.
"Oh Bella you don't know how happy I am to meet someone my own age on this thing. I mean there is Edward but really how much time can you spend with your brother?" I'd be willing to spend lots of time with your brother. At least I managed to not say that out loud. "So are you going to college Bella? Where are you going? What are you going to major in? What did you participate in at school?" It continued on like this until our first stop. I noticed that occasionally Edward would move his gaze from the window to us as we talked but he never joined in despite the fact that Alice tried on several occasions to involve him. Her face lit up when I told her what college I was going to and she looked pointedly at Edward but still he said nothing.
So I just talked and talked. She knew nothing of the shy withdrawn Bella so why not be someone different here. I would never be able to capture the energy that she seemed to have but I could at least make more of an effort than I usually would. I was surprised to find that it really wasn't as horrible as I had always imagined it would be.
Time flew by as we talked and before we knew it we were at our first stop. Alice and I walked down the aisle while Edward hung back with his parents. I looked back at him and then decided to not let it bother me. I had Alice to hang out with and Renee seemed to be doing good with Carlisle and Esme. If Edward wanted to hang out with his parents than who was I to stop him.
As we walked out into the bright sunlight I decided to risk asking Alice about her brother even though I didn't know her that well. The worst case scenario would be that we would avoid each other for the rest of the bus trip.
"So is Edward always that friendly?" I avoided her eyes hoping that I hadn't upset her. I was surprised when I heard her laughing.
"Edward has always been a bit introverted. My parents joke that all the outgoing genes went to me and then there was none left over for him. I've never seen him act quite this bad before. I have a theory for that you know," she smiled at me and the devious look in my eyes had me worried.
"Okay, what would that be?" We had wondered off by ourselves and so there was no fear of anyone overhearing us.
"Well I think it has something to do with you." Me? Why in the world would I have any effect on him? I decided that Alice might be a little bit crazy.
"Um sure Alice, I suppose you know him better than I do," I started to walk again not liking the direction that this conversation was heading in.
"Bella stop and listen to me. You didn't see his reaction last night at dinner. He couldn't stop looking at you. I recognized your mom on the bus immediately today but he didn't put two and two together. When he saw you walk on the bus his whole body tensed up. I've never seen him react that way to anyone before." I don't know what kind of games she was trying to play with me. Maybe this is something the two of them worked up for fun. Find some unassuming girl who liked like it would be easy to toy with her emotions. Well I wasn't going to be part of their sick little game.
"So what you are trying to tell me is that I render your brother mute and unsocialable? I suppose it could be worse, I could cause him to vomit uncontrollably too," I had to laugh because the alternative to what she was saying was unthinkable and unlikely.
"Oh Bella you are funny. Don't worry you have me on your side and I have a feeling that things are going to work out quite well," she got a gleam in her eyes and before I could stop her she was taking off down the pathway and I didn't even try to keep up with her. I saw her approach Edward who had just finished taking a long drink of water. A small drop of it stayed at the corner of his mouth and it sat there glistening in the sunlight. I sat there staring, focused on the drop of water when I noticed that they had both turned to stare at me. Flustered I felt myself turn bright red. I swung around quickly hoping that they hadn't noticed me staring and proceeded to run right into a trash can causing it to fall down and spill trash across the sidewalk.
I got down on my knees mumbling to myself under my breath. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He had to notice you staring at him. Even if he didn't he had to have noticed you knocking down the trashcan. Way to go Swan, way to go…
I was interrupted by a shadow falling over my pile of trash. I ignored it. I had a feeling that I was better off that way. Immediately I stopped mumbling to myself and increased my efforts at picking up the trash. Two hands joined in my effort. They were long and pale with fingers that I couldn't tear my eyes away from, they were so graceful. I determinedly picked up now, avoiding him at all costs. When at last there was no trash I was forced to get up from the ground and face him.
The sun was behind him so it was impossible to actually see his face just the sun shining around his head like a halo. He held out his hand to me to help me up. There were no other readily available options so I grabbed it and tried to focus on the hand and not the face. I was successful up until the point where I was standing next to him. The sun no longer blocked his face and I looked up into his green eyes and couldn't focus on anything else. I vaguely noticed his messy hair and crooked nose; his mouth had a hint of a smile. There was no way around it, he was gorgeous. This type of boy did not usually talk to me so I had no experience from which to draw on. I did the only thing I could think of at the time. I mumbled a hasty thank you and ran to the nearest bathroom. Looking at my watch I realized that I would be hiding here for the next hour.
A/N Thanks again for reading. More coming very soon.