Reconciliation

Edward was in torment. He tried to look for her, to apologise, to explain. But he couldn't find her anywhere. He was also waiting for Mr Goff to call him into his office and reprimand him for harassing another student but it never happened.

He had to ask Weber in the afternoon, Bella's friend and she directed him to the music rooms. "She's been acting weird today," Weber noted, staring up at him from her desk.

He winced at that comment, thanked her and left for the Music Block. He stepped into the blazing heat of the building, which was always very warm and headed underneath the building to the practise rooms. He walked along the line of soundproofed rooms glancing in each window to try and find her.

And he did.

She was sitting in the last practise room, her fingers flying across the piano keyboard. He smirked when he saw the bag of sweets on top of the piano a few spilling out onto the lacquered wood. Her hair was tied off her face in a French braid, but wisps curled away from her face as she played with vigour. He knew about her music scholarship and heard that she was going to be the first Potts Academy female graduate to go on and study at Conservatoire de Paris. He strained to hear the notes fly from her fingertips, as she played something furious and storm like.

She was exceptional.

He gathered his resolve and knocked three times. Bella jumped, turned her head. She stared, her face unreadable before she motioned with her hand for him to come in.

He pushed open the door, entering the stuffy small practice room while closing the door behind him. "Cullen? What is it?" she asked, swivelling on the piano stool so that she could talk to him.

He tried small talk, "You're really good, y'know." He gestured to the piano, "what were you playing?"

She arched her eyebrows, giving him an incredulous look, "uhm…thank you?" she glanced back at the music sheets, "Rachmaninoff. Prelude in C minor."

"Ah…" Edward nodded. The silence was thick, humming, waiting for something to happen. Edward swallowed and said. "Bella…" That was the first time he'd ever used her first name in this place. Odd. "I wanted to apologise for that note I sent you. It was the wrong version."

"I guessed," she replied, shutting the keyboard away and leaning back against the piano, "what was in the version I was meant to read?"

"An apology and explanation…it was more formal, less-"

"Anatomical?"

He smiled sheepishly, "Yes…I hope you're not offended."

Bella's face began to flush, "no, I'm not and I haven't reported it either so you're safe."

"That's not what I came to check," Edward said hastily.

Bella's eyes became wide, "I know."

Another silence.

"Its been there for weeks," she said suddenly, worrying her bottom lip, "ever since the pool." She paused to organise the bits of whirling paper in a hurricane that were her thoughts. She wished she hadn't been playing Rachmaninoff. He always skewed her thoughts, always pushed her into a whirl of strong emotions.

Edward said nothing, watching her carefully, waiting for her to elaborate. He had a feeling he knew already. She pulled a deep breath, fingers fiddling with the hem of her kilt, "maybe even further back than that. But you knew first." To his chagrin, she pulled out the note, staring down at the folded paper before looking back up, "everything seems so different now. I'm even seeing everything differently now. Bumping into you, the presentation, the pool, this note, its all…" she let out a hysterical sound and he wasn't sure if it was laughter or a sob. She stood up, shoving the piano stool back with a scrape, and pulling shaking hands through her hair, the note dropping to the floor with a flutter "I can't ignore it anymore."

"It?"

Her eyes shone with something unreachable, untameable.

"You do know what I am talking about, right?"

There was a pause, as he thought it through, "Yes."

A tear, hot, wet and shining slipped down her cheek.

"Why are you crying?" he asked. His body was humming, humming with something just outside of his fingertips.

Laughter bubbled to her lips, but it was another hysterical sound, "Isn't it obvious?"

There was another silence, as something shivery and frail started to grow. Finally, Edward's resolve shattered. "Of course it is," he said before taking her shoulders and pushing his mouth onto hers.