Chapter 17

"And now onto the main event!" Edward told me.

He stood up, letting me fall down. He told me to follow him. I grabbed the rest of the strawberries, and quickly took off after him.

"Edward, where are we going?" I laughed, popping another strawberry in my mouth.

"Just a bit further over here," he called back

We reached an area of land which had the sun beating down on it. I skipped ahead of Edward, enjoying the feel of the heat on my skin.

"I love the sun, it's lovely and warm." I closed my eyes and let the rays of light hit my face. I noticed Edward hadn't joined me yet, he was still lurking in the shadows.

"Are you coming?" I asked him.

"Bella, what you may see next might shock you a bit. It's actually quite surprising."

Then he stepped into the sunlight.

He was amazing. I could barely make out his features anymore, the light reflecting off his skin was blinding me. His skin looked as if it was made of tiny little diamonds, all reflecting a different colour of light. He was dazzling.

I was aware that I was staring at him. My eyes felt like they would pop out their sockets. He was covered in… glitter.

"What is… Your skin is… what?" I tried to find words to describe what I was feeling.

"Yeah, I look like a walking glitter stick," he said sadly. "This is the only downside of being a vampire, you know, besides the obvious, blood drinking."

"Well I think you look very cute," I teased, "Very masculine." I winked at him.

He groaned. "I'm not supposed to be cute. I was going for the sexy look," he pouted.

"You are sexy most of the time Edward, I just think you look cute just now," I laughed.

The pout on Edward's face stayed and he looked as if he was going to tackle me.

"Now for me to demonstrate my other talents," he said, whispering in my ear. He had just demonstrated his immense speed by coming right up to my ear. I didn't even see him move.

"For my first trick, I'm going to get you flowers," Edward said.

"That's not very impressive," I said, but Edward was gone. I stared round in bewilderment. Where was he?

I turned round, and when I turned back Edward was standing in front of me with a bunch of store bought flowers in his hand.

"Surprise!" he said, laughing.

"Where did you get those?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"From the store," he told me, as if it was obvious.

"I don't believe you. You must have bought them earlier and then hid them somewhere in the woods," I said, mainly to myself. "There is no way you just bought them."

"Well, I have a receipt, if you need convincing." He pulled it out of his pocket.

"Give me that." In a few strides, I had reached Edward and yanked the small piece of paper out of his hand.

"5:15... Thursday…" I mumbled, reading it. "Holy crap, you did just get it!"

I jumped and let go of the paper. Edward caught it before if hit the ground, showing off his lightning speed again.

"Oh, these are for you by the way." He handed be a bunch of gorgeous lilies. They were orange and other strange and exotic colours. I adored them.

"They are gorgeous!" I whispered. I inhaled their intoxicating scent. They smelled as good as they looked.

"Wow, that was really impressive," I told him truthfully. "What else have you got in store?"

"Well that was my super awesome lightning speed," he said. "Now, time for my amazing strength." He flexed his arm muscles, trying to show off.

I cheered as he walked over to the nearest tree. It looked really old, and it's roots looked really embedded into the ground.

"Come over to this tree, feel it." I done as he said and tugged on it. It didn't feel loose at all to my measly human strength.

"Now stand back, please," Edward asked.

I moved back quite far, unsure of what was going to happen. Edward took one hand and grabbed onto the tree. He lifted his arm above the his head and the tree went up with it. He was balancing a full grown tree above his head with only his pinkie now.

"Oh my god," I whispered.

He started to change hands it was balancing on, throwing it back and forth, throwing it in the air and then catching it.

"Neat trick, huh?" he said. He then turned the tree upright and set it back down where it was originally sitting. I just stared at him open mouthed. I ran back over to the tree and tried t pick it up again, putting my two arms around it and pulling with all my strength. It didn't move an inch.

"Jesus," I said, as I stopped straining to lift it. "How on earth is that possible?"

"It all comes in the package, babe," he said putting his arm around me. "That's what being a vampire is all about."

"Never do that again," I told him. "It was creepy."

"What part?" he said confused. "The lifting of the tree? I don't do that very often. Only on special occasions to show off."

"No, I meant calling me babe. It was completely unnatural," I said making him laugh.

"Calling you babe is unnatural but lifting up a tree isn't? Sometimes I think you need to sort out your priorities, Bella."

This made me laugh, and soon we were in stitches, laughing about the day we had just had.

I then remembered something important I meant to ask him.

"Hey, Edward? What was Lauren talking about at break today. Was there any truth or is she just delusional."

"Well, she did go on holiday," Edward said, frowning. "But the rest is completely untrue. If telling her to get off of my families property because her stalking was getting out of control counts as a step forward in our relationship, then that happened too."

This I laughed hard at.

"Stalking? Seriously, how many stalkers have you had over the years, my handsome boy?" I asked, giggling.

"Ugh, more than you or I can count. The one before Lauren was Jessica, that was a really awkward stage. She wouldn't leave me alone!" He groaned, remembering that time. I started giggling again, I found the situation completely hilarious.

"Stop laughing at me!" He made me stop by flinging me over his shoulder and shooting off back the way we came.

"My strawberries!" I wailed.

We stopped at the picnic basket and he packed everything away.

"I have your strawberries here," he said, shaking the box. "Would I really let you leave your favourite snack behind?"

"Gimmie!" I lunged for the box. He pulled it out the way and grabbed me with his free arm. He held me close, and then pressed his lips to mine. I loved these surprise kisses, and so I kissed him back eagerly, glad for the distraction. He pulled back, smiling his crooked smile. He was so dreamy. Between the kiss and the smile, my legs were like jelly.

"Time to take you home, beautiful."

I loved this knew nickname.

We arrived home and he kissed me on the doorstep.

"Are you coming tonight?" I whispered.

"I will, but I have to go home first, sort a few things."

"Ok." I went inside, reminiscing about the day.

"Where were you?" came a slightly angry voice.

"Oh, Char- uh, Dad," I said, flustered. "I was out with a friend."

"A friend who drives a silver Volvo?" he said, looking out the blinds. Edward must have heard or sensed Charlie, so he sped off. "Too late, 'friend', your number plate had been noted," Charlie muttered.

"Dad," I whined. "So I forgot to call one time, big deal."

"It is a big deal, Bella! Anything could have happened to you!"

"But nothing did, so lets drop it!" I started to walk out the room.

"There is only one kid in town that drives a silver Volvo. Maybe I should call his father," Charlie continued to mutter. He didn't mean for me to hear him, but I did.

"Dad, for crying out loud! I'm not a child!" I cried, exasperated.

"Then stop acting like one, tell me where you go in future," he said calmly to me.

I was literally lost for words. The difference in parenting methods between my mom and my dad were amazing. It was from one end of the spectrum, to the complete opposite.

"I am not acting like a child," I struggled to keep my voice mellow "but I am just not use to a parental figure wanting to know where I am. I am not that used to boundaries. If you had told me when I first arrived that there were rules to stick to then I would have. I'm sorry."

"But did you not think to call me at all! You were supposed to be home from school for hours! And your truck was in the drive, I had no idea what had happened or where you were!"

"I couldn't have gotten very far without my truck," I mumbled. He was blowing this way out of proportion. I should have just been able to apologize and we could have moved on. But no, Charlie had to give the whole speech.

"Look, I've said I'm sorry, there is not much more I can do about it. Tell me how I can make it up to you," I asked him.

"No, you can't make this up to me," He said. I could see the wheels in his head stopping as he came to a conclusion on what to do. "No, making it up to me sounds too business-like, like a friend or colleague would do. I think maybe it's time you got a little bit of parental discipline in your life."

He paused for what seemed like a dramatic effect.

"You're grounded."

I gaped at him. I had never been grounded before in my life. This was completely unreasonable! I was fuming. At least I hadn't been out doing anything I shouldn't have, this was an innocent date! I know half the girls my age would have been doing far more inappropriate things if they were on a date. I felt I should inform Charlie on this, as he possibly thought that is what I must have been doing to be out at this time.

"I'm a virgin!" I half said, half screamed at him. He looked extremely taken aback. Maybe we weren't thinking about the same thing.

"What are you talking about? And I should think so too, you're seventeen!"

"I just thought that's why you were grounding me, because you thought I was out, you know, doing inappropriate things…" I trailed off. Well this was awkward, I thought. Me and my big mouth.

"No, you're grounded because you didn't phone me to tell me where you were. As I said before, anything could have happened to you." He paused, thinking. "One week. You're grounded for one week.

That was it. I was in a rage.

"One week!" I screamed. "One week! Charlie, I was expecting one night, and you ground me for one week! It's not even that big a deal! It's just - I'm just - You're so - Gahhhhh!" I turned and stormed out the room.

"Don't you dare call me by my first name!" He shouted after me. I waited until I was up the stairs and made a rude gesture towards the living room. I then walked into my room calmly and lay down on the bed.

"What on earth just happened?" I said out loud. I never got angry like that before. I usually prided myself on being a mellow and calm person, always the voice of reason in an argument. But judging on what happened downstairs, it seemed like I was a natural hothead.

"Well, I think that Charlie was completely overreacting," Yvonne said. She was sitting on her favourite spot, my desk chair. This time though, she had a book in her hands and was reading it. "This is a good book by the way. 'Wuthering Heights'. I heard of it before, obviously, but its only now I felt the urge to read it. You are getting me to read classical books, Bella, Edward had been trying for years." She flipped the book onto the desk.

I cringed. That was a really old copy, a real treasure. I think I loved it because of how classic and real it felt when I read it.

"Yeah, Charlie's being an ass," I told her, although she already knew. "And I don't know why, that's the confusing part."

"It might have been because your mom was here earlier. I was waiting for you and I happened to over hear their argument. Your mom wants you to go and stay in the hotel with her. Charlie refused, of course, and now he's in really foul mood." She said this lazily, as if it was only half the story and she couldn't bothered to tell the rest.

I stared at her. "Mom was here? As in, in this house?" I couldn't believe. She always swore never to set foot in this house again.

I wonder what made her change her mind?