A/N: Thank you so much to 'Alice is my sister' & 'Sierra Swan' for your insightful reviews, which have inspired not only my dialogue technique but also to keep going with this story. So this Chapter is for you guys!

On another note – just to be clear this is an All Human story just in case I hadn't made that clear but I did list it in the story description.

And as always, I don't own anything Twilight - SM does – I only own my Hardcover 4 Book Set of the Twilight Series that I got for Christmas and my tattered Twilight movie stubs. Oh . . .but I do own the character of Beca, she is all mine.

Chapter 3

EPOV:

Her warm chocolate eyes beckoned to me. Her face was out of focus but those eyes. God, I could drown in those eyes and be happy until I took my last breath. "Don't leave Edward. Stay . . . please . . ." How could I leave? I felt like I was being pulled to those eyes and that voice . . . oh just the sound of her voice was haunting and it sent shivers to tingle all the nerves in my body that I didn't even think existed. If I could only get closer to her, she was too far away to touch. I reached my fingers out as far as I could . . . for the little piece of heaven that seemed just beyond my grasp. "I need you Edward please just stay a little longer . . . "

BEEP BEEP BEEP! The alarm buzzer loudly screeched in my ear. "Ugh! No!" My hand slammed on the alarm clock. Why can't I have just 30 more minutes of sleep with those eyes? Maybe if I could just get farther in this dream that kept plaguing me. But no instead of reaching her in my dream, the beautiful girl with the warm chocolate eyes always eluded me. She always slipped just out of my reach every time I had the dream – the same god dammed dream all the time! I didn't know how much more of it I could take. Instead of finally reaching her in my dream, I always felt the cold metallic button of my alarm clock, finally silencing the hateful sound that took me away from my favorite pair of eyes.

BANG BANG BANG! "Edward! You'd better hurry or Emmett and I are going to leave you behind!" My cousin Alice slammed her hand on my door as she cheerfully chirped and danced by my bedroom door.

Ever since I had moved to Forks, Washington after the death of my mother before my freshman year in high school, I was stuck in this rainy hell that never let any sunshine into its town limits. Before Forks I lived in Chicago and everything had been great, well as great as it can be for a single mother, who worked way too much for too little money and a preteen son could be.

My mother, Elizabeth had left my father, ugh if you could call him that a long time ago. I barely remembered him, until mom died. I really just thought of my father as the 'sperm donor', who had beaten and abused my mom. I was only 4 years old when the 'sperm donor', Edward Sr. started belting me around and that's when Elizabeth had decided to leave for good. Now my mom was gone, a car accident. I didn't like to think about it much. I was supposed to be in the car with her but she was running late to pick me up from my piano lesson, when . . . now all I had left was the 'sperm donor's' name which I hated, Edward.

When my mom died the 'sperm donor' had shown up to the funeral, yelling at my Aunt Esme that I was his son and that he was going to take me to live with him. But my Aunt Esme had other plans. She and her husband, Carlisle Cullen had already gotten a lawyer to make things official. Even though Elizabeth had sole custody of me and had legally stated in her final wishes that Esme would be my primary custodian, if anything ever happened. The 'sperm donor' kept hassling them until Carlisle threw a bunch of money at him and we hadn't heard from Edward Sr. again. Now I was living with my mother's sister Esme, her husband Carlisle, and their two kids Alice and Emmett. Alice and I were the same age and in our junior year of high school but Emmett was a year older and was a senior.

Scrubbing my fists against my eyes, I looked at the clock again. Shit! Alice and Emmett would leave in 5 minutes, if I didn't get my ass downstairs. I ran to my bathroom. It was something I still wasn't used to, my very own bathroom. I brushed my teeth and glanced at the mess that was my hair. It never did anything that I wanted it to, so fuck it. I just ran my fingers through it and grabbed my backpack and ran down the stairs crashing into Emmett along the way at the bottom of the stairs. He had a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth.

"Hey Edward! You almost made me drop my breakfast!" Emmett groaned.

"That's probably your 5th piece of toast anyways, so what would it matter?" I teased back.

"I am a growing boy ya know. Gotta keep up my strength for football practice!" Emmett mumbled around his mouthful of toast.

"Boys, boys! Calm down. You guys had better get going or you will all be late." Esme's soothing voice always reminded me of my mom

"Come on b-o-y-s!" Alice chirped as she drug out the sound of the letters just to piss us off, as she danced out of our reach and out the doorway.

As we all climbed into the Silver Volvo, Emmett of course yelled "Shotgun!"

I drove. The Volvo was supposed to be mine and I did love how sleek it looked and the engine purred so softly that you could hardly tell the ignition was on. But this was just another thing I still hadn't gotten used to, having my own car. It had been 2 years of all these niceties, since I had come to live with my aunt and uncle but I still swore that someday, maybe if I made enough money I could pay back Esme and Carlisle for being so good to me. But I guess love isn't something you can pay back with money . . .

"What is eating you Edward?" Emmett complained

"Nothing, nothing." I murmured. "Just thinking about my piano composition." That would shut Emmett up. Nothing killed Emmett's questioning like my talking about my music.

"Oh Edward, your composition is beautiful and if you practice it any more on the piano your fingers will fall off and make some poor girl very sad someday!" Alice beamed in the back seat.

"Yuck Alice. You are my little sister you can't talk like that!" Emmett spat out.

"What?" Alice chimed so innocently. "It wasn't like I was going to say exactly what that poor girl would be missing when Edward lost his fingers."

I rolled my eyes and swore to myself I wouldn't talk the rest of the way to school. All I wanted to do was drone on through my classes today, until I could get the choir room and get my hands on the piano again. I could just feel that something was off on my composition but I just couldn't figure it out yet. It had something to do with those warm chocolate eyes that had been haunting me in my sleep . . .

"Edward! Watch out you almost hit Eric Yorkie!" Alice screeched.

I slammed my foot on the brake as I slid into our usual parking space. Strange, an old rusty VW was parked next to us. No one usually parked by my car.

As I got out of the car, I heard Yorkie yelling. "Hey man! Watch it! You would have crippled the band's trombone section, if you had hit me!" Yorkie stomped past me and started running like he had suddenly seen Santa Clause come to life before his eyes.

Whatever . . . I thought. The band would definitely not miss Yorkie. He had hopes of being 1st chair this year but I sincerely doubted he would make it. I had heard him practicing his scales in the Band room. It was located next door to the Choir room where I spent most of my free time, when I wasn't in class or when I could get out of a class. The school's piano wasn't as good as the one that Esme had bought for me but it served its purpose, so I could get through the tedious school day and stay sane.

I walked like a zombie through all my morning classes hardly paying attention. I was still being haunted by the eyes in my dream. Plus I had stayed up way too late last night looking through an old photo album that my mom had made, so that had also contributed to my zoning out. I skipped 4th period lunch, with Alice and our usual crew in favor of going to the Choir room to practice. I wasn't hungry, even though I had missed breakfast. I'd grab a coke later to get me through the rest of the day. Nothing like a sugar and caffeine rush to keep you going.

I heard the bell ring, as I stuffed my leather bound composition book back into my backpack. Great, yet another day of 5th period Biology with Mr. Molina. The class number wasn't even and I had gotten stuck with having no lab partner, which suited me just fine. I didn't want to waste my time listening to some girl click her gum during labs or hear about some poor guy's girl friend problems. I pretty much kept to myself except for in Choir. I didn't sing. I just played the piano for the Choir class, which was being taught by Miss. Ashby this year. It was my penance for being able to have free use of the piano there, whenever I wanted. Occasionally I would play accompaniments for soloists but that was the extent of my interest in Choir – the piano.

I took my seat at my stool at my empty lab table and got out my notebook getting prepared to zone out again and do my imitation of being in deep thought as I took notes. The second bell rang and I heard Mr. Molina talking to someone.

I looked up and felt this tingle run through my body. Mr. Molina was handing some papers to a new girl and was pointing in my direction. God she was beautiful, no beautiful didn't even come close. She was a goddess. She had soft brown hair flowing around her shoulders and she was nibbling on her lip as she started to walk towards my lab table. What I wouldn't give to be that lip right now and feel that nibble. She looked blankly into my eyes, like I had scared her. She looked like a deer staring into the headlights of a semi truck. And that's when I noticed her eyes more closely - they were my eyes, the ones in my dream! The warm chocolate eyes that always melted my insides at night and had been haunting me for months on end.

Just then she tripped and practically fell onto the stool beside me dropping a paper as she stumbled. I quickly reached down to grab the paper that she had dropped. As I bent down, her hair lightly brushed past my face and I could smell the heavenly scent of vanilla. This must me a dream – am I still sleeping I thought? No I could still smell her hair and something else, some light aroma of soap. Lavender I decided. Esme had tons of lavender growing in the back yard and I could always smell it through my window at home.

A million things were running through my mind. Where did she come from? Who was she? Was she real? Did she have a boyfriend? Will she marry me? Whoa! Where the hell did that one come from? Say something you idiot! Don't just sit there and hold her paper!

"Hi, I am Edward Masen. I think you dropped this." I handed her the paper as she dropped her backpack onto the ground. Waiting . . . waiting . . . please say something. I was inwardly pleading.

"Hi, I'm Bella." She croaked out.

She let her soft hair fall over her shoulder and it hid her face. Shit! What did I do? Did I scare her? Did I say something wrong? Crap! I hadn't had time to take a shower this morning. Did I smell? Oh my god, my dream girl was sitting beside me and she was completely ignoring me, as she got ready to take notes on Mr. Molina's lecture. It was one thing to have a mystery girl torment me in my dreams at night – that I could handle. But it was an entirely different torture to sit so close to her in real life and have her act like I didn't even exist.

There was no lab today, so she wouldn't be forced to talk to me. Just a long hour of a lecture to torture me, while I inhaled her heavenly scent and made me suffer feeling like I was burning in the 7th circle of hell. I had to find out more about her. She said her name was Bella. Bella what? I needed Alice. Alice knew absolutely everything that was going down on campus even before it actually did. She was kind of creepy like that sometimes, like she had a 6th sense.

I rummaged through my backpack and grabbed out my cell phone. I hid it under the lab table. If I got caught texting in class, I'd lose my phone and get an unwanted talk from Esme and Carlisle. Then Emmett would tease me endlessly on why I had lost my cell. But I just had to know.

- E: Alice have you heard of a new girl in school?

I didn't want to give too much away. If Alice knew too much from my perspective, she would meddle and I didn't know if I could handle that, when I was sitting next to my angel.

- A: Oh yeah – I met her in 1st period – Bella Swan she's the Police Chief's daughter. She's great I can't wait for you to meet her!

- E: K – just heard some kids talking about her.

I didn't want Alice to know that I was sitting right next to Bella right now. All I wanted to do was go hide in the Choir room. Calm down. Calm down. I pleaded with myself. Breathe. I realized I had been holding my breath and now I inhaled deeply and was hit again with her compelling heavenly scent. Beside me Bella twitched and darted her eyes to stare at me behind her shield of soft hair. She did it so fast that I wasn't sure she actually did it. If Alice knew Bella, then she would be around. This was a good thing right? I found my angel, my muse that started my current composition. God I absolutely cannot fuck this up.

I had never had an official girlfriend but I had kissed a couple of girls at a few parties over the last 2 years in high school, drinking had been involved – probably some drinking / kissing game . . . But right now I couldn't even think of who they had been or what they had looked like. All I could think of were the eyes that had been haunting me in my dreams and now those same eyes had found mine and it wasn't even a dream! She was real! Ok. Ok. Calm. Calm. Alice knew her . . . I'd definitely see more of her. And Biology was definitely going to become my favorite subject. Carlisle would be so happy if my grades went up in Biology, since he was a doctor at the local hospital.

I had to plan. I needed to get to know Bella. I had to get to the Choir room – I could hear the notes in my mind flowing. But right now I was content to just stare at my Bella. Where the hell did that come from? It wasn't like she belonged to me. But I was definitely under her spell. Would she be my muse? I didn't want to think about her rejecting me.

Suddenly behind the notes in my mind I could see Bella with me, holding my hand. My hands were intertwined with hers and then were suddenly on her shoulders pulling her closer, her vanilla and lavender scent flowing around my face. Her soft lips were closer, closer. I closed my eyes.

RING! Fuck! What happened? Biology ended and I looked up to see Bella Swan quickly walking to the door. It almost looked like she was running away. Away from me. She stubbed her toe on the way out and quietly swore under her breath. I smiled. I was going to find out more about her. I had to figure her out. I needed to – I just couldn't explain it but it felt like my entire existence depended on it.

A/N: It was fun to play in Edward's head – it completely absorbed me. I think we'll hear more of EPOV in this story so don't worry.

© Neonapple

Melting Heart

Edited: 03/08/2009

Chapter 3