Chapter 6

(Dinner Invitation)

Silent Forever

I bolted awake with ragged breaths. After a couple of minutes, my breathing returned to normal but my heart still pounded in my chest. I clutched my chest, hoping to get my heart to stop beating so fast.

I brought my hand up to my forehead, feeling the thin layer of sweat that had developed. Quickly, I wiped my hand on my shirt.

I looked at my door to see if I had woken Charlie up. Just to make sure - incase I had been screaming in my sleep.

This wasn't the first time that I had this dream. Each night I had the same dream, just in different versions.

I didn't tell Charlie or Renee about these dreams – I didn't want them to worry about me. This reminded me that I still had to email Renee tomorrow. Glancing furtively at my clock, I saw that it was four in the morning.

As I remembered what I had dreamt about, I shivered. Not because of the cold, but because I was truly terrified.

Tristan was a boy that went to my old school back in Phoenix. He was the same age and as me, and we had a couple of classes together.

Even though I wasn't in the popular crowd back in school, I was well known. That's what I had gotten for being the only deaf person back in my old school in Phoenix.

Tristan made it his mission to make my days in school living hell in school. Although he never physically hurt me, he definitely hurt me emotionally. In the hallways, he constantly made fun of me.

Even though I couldn't hear what he was saying to his friends, it didn't take much to know that they were making fun of me. They made fun of my clothing, and as crazy as it sounds, they threw food at me when they thought that I wasn't looking.

This is one of the reasons why I came to live with Charlie. I just wanted to have a fresh start in a new school, without Tristan.

On my last day of school back in Phoenix, I was opening my locker at the end of the day to get all my things out of the locker. Oddly enough I found a note inside my locker.

Goodbye Isabella, we will meet again in the future. –Tristan

Since that day on, I kept on getting nightmares that had Tristan coming back and hurting me. When I looked my clock again, I saw that it was already four-thirty in the morning.

I went back to my bed and I fell into a dreamless sleep.

***

After being woken up by Charlie gently shaking my shoulder, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready.

Once I was all finished, I started to run down the stairs in order to have some breakfast. Knowing myself, I tripped when I reached the third step and I fell down. It hurt, but I had worse.

Finally I got out of the house and I made my way to my beloved truck. What surprised me the most was that it wasn't raining. It was quite the opposite. The sun was shining and there wasn't one cloud in the sky.

I also noticed that it was pretty hot, so I took off my jacket and stayed in my long sleeved shirt.

After about fifteen minutes of driving, I had arrived at school. I parked in a parking spot that had another empty parking sport next to it.

I noticed that there weren't a lot of people in the parking lot, so I checked and I saw that I was about fifteen minutes earlier than usual.

Right as I was about to get out of my car, a silver Volvo pulled up. I recognized it as the car that Edward drives, so I got out of my car.

The door opened on the driver's side, and Edward got out.

Suddenly, I felt something inside of me. My stomach started doing flips and my heart started beating faster than normal. I didn't think that this was normal at all and I didn't know why it happened.

When Edward started smiling at me, the same feeling came returned. I managed to smile weakly back at him, but I think that I looked like a fool. I couldn't believe that I was so nervous around Edward.

Hi Bella, how are you? Edward signed.

I was really surprised that he even asked that. I think he only did it out of politeness though, and not actually caring. I still answered though, just to be polite.

Fine, I really don't feel like going to school though. I signed, with a smile on my face.

Don't worry, you aren't the only one. I don't want to go to school either. He signed. Then his shoulders shook with laughter.

This made me remember yesterday afternoon. I had put a frown on my face. I guessed he had noticed because he started frowning too, as if to apologize.

Out of nowhere, Alice had appeared and ran forward to hug me. At first I was surprised because I thought that she hated me after my outburst yesterday.

She was still hugging me, so I decided that the only other thing that I could have done was hug her back.

When we pulled away, we both smiled.

I'm sorry. I signed.

I guess that Alice knew what we were talking about because she signed, Don't worry about it. It's fine.

Guys, the bell rang already. We should get going inside. Edward informed us.

I guess I didn't notice all of the people that had started to arrive in the parking lot.

I just nodded, agreeing with Edward.

I looked up at him again and for the first time I noticed what he was really wearing. His hair was still messy, but in a good way. It looked as if he didn't even bother to brush it in the morning, but the look worked for him.

He was wearing a fitting long sleeved shirt and jeans. He wasn't bulky as Emmett, but he definitely had some muscles.

Once I realized that I had been staring, I immediately looked down and blushed.

Hey, where are Emmett, Rose, and Jasper? I asked. I realized that I haven't seen them in a while.

Alice smiled and said, Oh. Since they are seniors they have to get to school a little bit earlier than we have to. See that car over there? She pointed to this brand new BMW. It was a red convertible and a lot of guys had gathered around it.

Yeah. What about it? I signed.

That's our other car. They use it for the days when they have to get to school early. Edward explained.

Alice suddenly grabbed my arm and dragged me into the school. I smiled back at Edward and I waved a goodbye to him.

When we entered our classroom, we saw Mr. Whelan sit at his desk writing something down.

Noticing our presence, Mr. Whelan looked up and smiled at us. He motioned us to sit down and pointed to the board. We were starting with English today, so I took out my English binder and began preparing for today's lesson.

***

When it was finally time for lunch, Alice and I made our way down to the cafeteria.

So what did you think of the assignment that Mr. Whelan gave us? Alice asked.

Mr. Whelan had told us to read a Tale of Two Cities and write an essay about some of the themes that were presented there.

I think that it will be pretty easy. But that is only because I read it before. I signed and smiled sheepishly.

You are so lucky. I have to read it and I have heard that it wasn't that easy to understand in the beginning. She replied.

I'm still going to have to re-read it again. I don't exactly remember all the details, so we can work on it together. I suggested.

She nodded and we walked into the cafeteria.

After getting our lunches, we made our way to the tables. We saw all the Cullens sitting at a table in the center of the cafeteria.

Emmett spotted us and waved his hands around frantically. Seeing this sight, I started laughing, because seeing a grown man such as Emmett do something like that was just funny.

Hi Emmett! I signed.

Hey Bella. How was old Mr. Whelan? He asked.

Smiling, I replied, Same old, same old.

I turned and I saw Jasper and Alice looking into each other's eyes. Even though it was a small gesture, I felt like I was intruding on their moment. I looked around the table and I spotted Rosalie.

She smiled a forced smile on me and turned her head to talk to Emmett. I really didn't know what I had done wrong, but I knew that she didn't like me very much. I would ask Alice about this later on.

As I took the only empty seat at the table I noticed who sat across from me.

When Edward smiled at me, the feeling that I had in the morning came back.

I looked and I noticed Alice and Jasper were still staring at each other and Emmett and Rosalie were kind of making out in the middle of the cafeteria.

Is it always like this? I pointed towards the couples at our table.

He looked at them in faked disgust and signed, Yeah. It's always like this.

I kind of feel bad for you. I sympathized.

Nah. I mean, they found their other half so if they are happy, I'm not going to say anything about it. He said.

Doesn't it ever get lonely being the odd man out? I asked.

Yeah, I guess. But I never really notice that much. By the way, did Alice tell you about Friday? He asked.

No. What's on Friday? I asked.

My mom, Esme, invited you for dinner at my house. He signed, smiling.

Really? What's the occasion? I asked once again.

She just wants to meet you, I guess. So will you be there? He asked. I looked into his emerald green eyes, and I think that I noticed a spark of hope. Of course, I wasn't sure.

Yeah, sure. I will be there. I signed with a smile on my face.

A/N:

Finally, I updated. This update came quicker then the rest, because I actually had time to write the story. Surprisingly, I have a couple of chapters written already. I am going to post them up once I get 7-10 reviews on this one.

Thank you so much for everyone that has reviewed.

This chapter is dedicated to: CLAIRE!!!!!

Claire is my editor for this story. This is the first chapter that she edited, and she did an amazing job. –That's why this chapter was better written then the rest-.

Tell me what you guys think of Tristan. Should I make him come back or not????

-jess