I woke up and stretched my arms, yawning. It was morning.
I glanced around my room and saw Edward sitting in a chair in the corner, "Hi there!"
"How are you feeling, Cassie? You were pretty sick last night..."
"I'm fine, it must have been a twenty four hour thing," I said.
"I'll drive you to school," Edward grinned. I glared at him, "I do have a perfectly good truck, you know?"
"A perfectly good truck that has scratched paint work, an insanely noisy engine, no CD player and is over half a century old?" He laughed, "And taking you to school was only a cover story, really I was going to kidnap you."
"Edward Cullen, I'm disappointed in you."
He grinned.
I got into the passenger seat of the Volvo slightly awkwardly; Edward had insisted I wear a several layers despite the rare low sun in the sky.
"Where exactly are we going?" I asked Edward when he started the car.
"Somewhere."
"That sounds like an interesting place," I grinned at him.
"Oh, it is," He flashed his brilliant crooked smile at me.
"Edward? There's something I've been thinking about..."
"Yes?"
I was suddenly embarrassed, I didn't know how I was going ask this, "Edward, how long have you been seventeen?" I wasn't even sure I wanted to know the answer.
"A while," he sighed. "I was...born in 1901, Chicago. I was dying of the Spanish Influenza in 1918 when Carlisle as working at the hospital. My mother told him to save me. She was half crazy from the disease."
I looked at my feet for a few moments, "I'm sorry."
He chuckled, "Don't be. It happened a very long time ago."
"There was something that I wanted to ask as well, actually," I said, sheepishly.
Edward laughed, I didn't think I'd seen him this happy yet, "Has no one ever told you curiosity killed the cat?"
"But I'm not a cat, I'm a tiger," I said, laughing with him. "Why did you leave Forks?"
"We left because...Carlisle was claiming he was claiming to be older than he could ever pass for. "
I still felt he was Edward was hiding something behind his velvet voice, another reason.
"In the house, it looked as if you had left in a hurry? Was there another reason?" I bit my lip, afraid I was being too curious.
He sighed, "Cassie, you don't want to hear this. I'm a monster, why would you want to hear about this?" His voice was barely a whisper.
His voice, so torn and sorrowful, broke my heart, "You're not a monster. How many times do I have to tell you before you believe me?"
He was silent. I could barely hear the purring of the car's engine through the thick silence.
"Don't you trust me, Edward?"
He sighed, "Of course, I do, I feel like I know you so much." He turned his golden eyes softening slightly as he smiled weakly. "We left because of me, of course," He chuckled but it didn't sound right, his laughter was strained, " I couldn't go into Forks High school everyday, doing the same things, 'learning' over and over again. I had been keeping tabs on Jasper, in case he decided to have a snack during class. The twin thirsts got much to bare. I was so close to... I hate to think what could have happened, if Alice hadn't come in time, she saw me and walked in to the class room, with a message for 'Edward Cullen'."
"Sorry," I said again.
He raised a dark copper eyebrow, "Why?"
"For asking."
"It's okay. I suppose you hate me now?"
"No, I don't hate you and I never will, you had your chance to kill me and you didn't. Now you never will."
"Thank you."
I laughed and the car finally stopped, outside a forest. "We're going hiking?"
"This is where I go in the sunshine," He flashed everyone's favourite crooked grin at me.
"Wow. Won't you get burnt? I should've brought sun screen."
Edward laughed again and I joined him.
We had been walking for twenty minutes, through the dense forest. I went past a particularly spiky bush and a twig brushed my arm, I cussed under my breath.
Edward chuckled at me, "I'm guessing you don't like hiking?"
"Oh God, how did you know?" I said sarcastically, "Some of these plants have thorns!"
He smiled, making my heart stop and my lungs forget to inhale, "Don't worry, we're nearly at the clearing."
He was right, we pulled through the last lot of trees and stumbled- I stumbled, he walked gracefully- into a sun-washed meadow.
"This place is lovely," I exclaimed, spastically but that was the only way anyone would have described the clearing. Small delicate flowers dappled the paint-box green grass, leaves from the surrounding trees hung over the edge of the meadow, making the rare, bright sunlight a pale, fresh, earthy green.
Suddenly I realised Edward wasn't beside me. I wheeled around. And gasped. Edward was standing just out of the shadows, his shirt open. His skin shone and sparkled as if it was embedded with thousands of small, finely cut diamonds.
"Oh." I could barely speak as I stepped towards him, reaching out, "You're beautiful!" He almost leaped backwards just out of reach. I followed grabbing his hand, leaning towards him...
He ran with lightning speed, to the other side of the clearing, "I can't do this, I don't know..." He exhaled slowly, "Sorry." He grinned slightly, "You surprised me."
Edward lay down in the grass, gracefully as if falling asleep. I carefully sank down beside him and turned to face him. He sighed again, his cooling breath lifted the hairs on my skin. "You're not afraid?" His smooth voice was disbelieving.
"Only of losing you. Never seeing you're face again. Never hearing you voice. Never touching your cold skin. That's what frightens me."
He kneeled on the ground, pulling me up with him and slowly moved his head to listen to my heart.
"So weak. If you aren't scared why is it beating so fast?" His voice was a whisper, speaking again before I could answer, "I've waited a long time for some one like you. So long."
Edward moved again, to my face like the first we met. Only this time he really did kiss me.