I do not own Twilight or any of its' characters

BPOV

Chapter 3

Tori Amos and senior citizens

The next day when I woke up the sun was shining right in my face, I was happy to see the sun but unhappy to know that Edward and Alice would not be in school that day. I got dressed and lumbered downstairs and forced myself to eat some breakfast. Charlie had already left for work and the whole house was quiet. It was a little unnerving this morning for some reason. I grabbed up my books and keys and headed out to my truck. When I got in I realized that I almost sat on a single red rose that had been left on my seat with a note. The note read, weather report said it's going to be sunny for a few days, going hunting. Good luck on your final, see you Friday. Be safe, love, E.

Bummer, I thought to myself. Oh well, that would give me more time to study I guess. I started up my truck and headed to school.

I was distracted all day. I kept thinking about the discussion about my future I'd had the night before with Charlie. And every so often the bizarre prediction that Alice had made about Edward kept coming back to me. I did what I could to preoccupy my thoughts with something else.

"Hey Bella!" A friendly voice called as I stood by my locker. I looked up and saw Angela; the most down to earth girlfriend I had. I immediately grinned, shut my locker and headed over to her waving enthusiastically.

"Hey Angela!"

"What's going on? Are you doing anything after school today?" she asked.

"No, actually I'm not. I'm dying to do something. Oh wait, we have a trig final tomorrow, I should probably study for that." I said, my enthusiasm waning, that test was going to be hard.

"That's ok, I have the same final. We could study together and then head over to the beach or grab dinner or something." I was instantly relieved.

"That'd be perfect. I just have to let Charlie know."

"No sweat, I'll follow you to your house after school." Angela sounded relieved to be going out as well and rightfully so, she was in all accelerated classes this year and her parents really put the pressure on her. She definitely needed a break too. We started walking to lunch together not saying anything. Angela was a friend that I didn't have to talk to all the time. We could walk together in silence and it was never awkward unlike with some of my other friends like Mike and Jessica, if you could really call them friends. With them, one of us always had to be 'on' to make the time more enjoyable, it was actually stressful sometimes because when there was silence I was always suspicious of what they were thinking about me. Maybe it was just paranoia, but I never felt like that around Angela.

"So where's Edward today?" Angela asked innocently disrupting my inner monologue.

"Where do you think?" I said sarcastically as I gestured out the window at the glorious day.

"Oh, right. Is he hiking with his family today?" Angela didn't know anything about Edward's alternative lifestyle, but she knew a certain type of behavior was expected with the Cullen family on sunny days. She was the first one who told me that the Cullen family always went 'hiking' together on the few sunny days that Forks could offer.

"Yes, they're out together for the next couple of days." I explained

"How come they never invite you to go with them?" Angela asked, "I mean they must consider you family by now right?"

"No, no they do, but this is something they've been doing together since Edward was born." Into darkness I thought morbidly. "Maybe they don't want to mess with tradition, and besides, Charlie probably wouldn't like me skipping school very much."

"Yeah, I see what you mean." Angela and I entered the cafeteria, grabbed some lunch and joined the rest of our group.

Angela and I went back to my house so that I could drop off my truck and leave Charlie a note and then we left in her car.

"Where should we go?" she asked

"Well, it's such a nice day we should do something outdoors." I suggested

"We could head over to the beach with some coffees and study for awhile." Poor Angela, she had been drinking so much starbucks these days that she was starting to look like a vanilla macchiato. Her face was pale and drawn, like she was going on little to no sleep. This had been the first time today I'd gotten a close look at her.

"Angela, are you alright? You really look like you could use some sleep. Are you sure you feel like going out today?"

"Yes, yes absolutely, I really need this Bella." She said her tone suddenly panicked.

"Angela, what's going on?"

We drove to Starbucks and got a couple of drinks and then we headed to first beach in La Push. We were walking along the beach just sipping our coffee and then she spilled it. Her guts that is, not her coffee. That she held onto like it was a lifeline.

"Bella, I'm so stressed out. I don't know where to begin, between applying to the Ivy League schools, all the finals in our accelerated classes, in addition to the assignments, the community service for national honors, writing the speech for graduation, I, I, can't keep up."

Angela was never a person who ever brought up any of her accomplishments, ever. She never boasted or bragged or even patted herself on the back and yet she was one of the smartest people I knew. Angela had been accepted to three major Ivy League schools, she was our class valedictorian, was in the honor society, and it was never enough for her parents. Her parents had unreasonable standards for her to live up to. They would ground her if she got less than a 90 on her exams, so as a result, she never did. Angela didn't talk about this much to anyone, but occasionally she'd let it slip in front of me. We were comfortable around each other and we kept each other's secrets and neither one of us ever asked the other for more information than we wanted to give.

"I literally have hundreds of graduation announcements to send out to friends and relatives before the end of the month." She despaired. "I haven't had a chance to spend any type of quality time with Ben for months, it's a wonder he hasn't dumped me yet." Angela sat down on a rock and stared out into the horizon as the sun shimmered off the water's surface. She looked so small in front of the huge pool before her. Her black hair was up in a messy bun and she roughly pushed the loosened straightened strands out of her face as she took another swig of coffee. I sat down beside her on the rock and took her hand and just held it in mine, it was thin and cool to the touch. She looked grateful for the contact. She squeezed my hand back. Then she took her quirky horn rimmed glasses off her face and propped them up on her head she wiped her eyes quickly with her free hand.

"Angela, I can help you if you want."

"With what?" She asked.

"Well, with anything. Like those announcements, I can help you with those if you want. And Charlie could probably help you with the community service thing…Don't worry, it'll all work out. Edward could proofread your essays for you; he did with all of mine." I offered

She smirked and rolled her eyes, the tone lightened up a bit."I doubt he'd appreciate you signing him up for that god awful task." She said.

"No really, he wouldn't mind, he'd do anything to help you Angela, he likes you a lot."

"Really?" She asked in disbelief "how do you know?"

"Well, he said to me one time, he likes you because your thoughts are kind and truthful." I smiled at the thought of his velvety voice.

"How would he know that?" She asked lowering her glasses back down onto her heart shaped face.

"He just…he has good instincts about people." I said nonchalantly.

"Hmm." She muttered thoughtfully "I wish I had gotten to know him better while we've been in school together. He seems like a good guy, but he doesn't say much, is he like that with you too Bella?"

"Actually, most days I can't shut him up." I said smiling. "There was one day when we first started hanging out that he spent the entire day asking me questions like what my favorite color was, my favorite flower, food, smells… I felt like I was in front of a firing squad." This was nice, I didn't really talk about us with anyone, and I felt like a normal girl prattling on about her number one crush. "How about Ben? I don't feel like I know a whole lot about him either."

That was it, that was the magic word; Ben. Angela's eyes lit up and a look of serenity crossed over her face. "Ben is wonderful Bella. He's so odd and, and captivating. Whenever I'm feeling down or whenever we're apart for some reason, he cheers me up by telling me stories."

"Like, stories about his childhood or his family?" I asked, "Or like, stories like, Aesop's fables?"

Angela laughed softly, "No Bella, he makes up stories and tells them to me. He writes all of the time, that's usually what he does in his free time, he writes stories or screenplays or whatnot and then he reads them to me. Like, during Spring break he had to go visit some relatives in Florida, so we couldn't spend any time together so I was really bummed out. So, like a champ he would call me every day in the best of moods and try and cheer me up. He was upset that he couldn't be here either, but he didn't want me to be sad so he would call me every night around my bedtime and read to me." Angela's voice got really quiet and the end of her sentence like she didn't want someone to overhear her talking about her and Ben's secret bond.

"What would he read to you while he was in Florida?" I asked dreamily as I cupped my hand under my chin.

"Well, while he was in Florida he made up this story about a couple of senior citizens living in an over fifty community that fell in love and wanted to get married but their parents were still alive so the man had to meet the woman's parents to get a blessing before they tied the knot. It was kind of like 'Meet the Parents' with really old people. And every night that Ben called me there would be some new kind of hysterical drama that had to be dealt with." Angela's body language had completely changed at this point, she was waving around her hands while she talked and kept switching her feet under her body. It was like the thought of Ben animated her and brought her back to life. I just listened and watched as she went on with her story. When she realized how closely I was paying attention, she slowed down and smiled sheepishly, "I guess it probably sounds kind of silly to you…" she said, almost regretfully.

"Oh no, no Angela! I think it's…I think it's wonderful. I love it actually." I meant it; I did think it was wonderful. I thought it was wonderful that Ben added some levity and laughter in Angela's very serious life.

"Thanks" she smiled a smile that looked like I was not meant to see it, "I love it too."

"Tell me something else about Ben." I urged on

"Like what?" She asked

"Anything, I like listening you talk about him."

"What about Edward? What does he do for you that you know he only does for you?" she asked.

I didn't know what to tell her, he did so many things for me and we had so many things that we shared together, but then I thought of one. "Tori Amos." I said

"What about her?"

"Edward can't stand her. He thinks she tries too hard to be different and he that her music is 'maddening'." I quoted him, Angela looked confused, "But..." I continued, "for Christmas, he forced himself to listen to 'Little Earthquakes', my favorite album, and..." my voice trembled a little, "and he learned how to play the entire album on the piano for me and that was my gift. Now, whenever I can't sleep, he plays it for me."

Angela looked like she was going to cry, then she said softly with a smile, "It really doesn't take much to make a person feel special does it Bella?"

"No, it doesn't Angela." I smiled back at her. We were quiet for a minute and then I asked, "So is Ben going to go to school for creative writing?"

"I think so." She said, "But he's a little nervous as to how it will affect his future. His father wants him to be a chemical engineer."

"Does that interest him?"

"No, not really." Angela said sadly

"So shouldn't he be allowed to major in what he wants?"

"It doesn't always work out that way."

"No I suppose it doesn't." I agreed, "Well, I hope school works out for Ben, he sounds like he's really talented."

"Oh Bella, he's brilliant, he's so creative, I could just lose myself listening to him speak." Boy, did I know how that was. I couldn't believe Angela was sharing so much with me; she was usually a very private person. I guess when you reach an emotional point in your life you need some kind of release.

"It's too bad you guys didn't start going out sooner than junior year. You could have been spending more time together."

"We almost didn't go out at all. I'd liked him for years, and apparently he had liked me for a long time too but was too afraid to ask."

"So what made him finally ask?" I inquired as I played with a smooth stone I had found laying nearby.

"He said that he had to hurry up and ask me before some other guy beat him to the punch and he lost me forever."

"Really? Another guy? Who?"

"He never told me, I think he was afraid that I would get interested and ditch him. Which seemed odd because Ben usually has a lot of confidence about himself. It must have been some kind of heartthrob like Edward or something…" she rolled her eyes. I blushed and giggled at her joke.

We stayed on the beach just talking and drinking our coffee for hours until the sun started going down and the chill started coming in off the water. We left around six o'clock and went back to Angela's house. We ate supper with her family and then she and I went upstairs to study. By eight o'clock I was starting to feel like I might actually do well on this exam tomorrow and now all I needed was a good night's sleep. Angela drove me home in comfortable silence, I didn't know if I'd helped her at all with all of her pre-graduation stress, but she seemed to be feeling better and I guessed that was good enough for the time being. She dropped me off at the front door and we planned to meet at school a little earlier than usual to do a quick review for the test, I waved goodbye and smiled at my friend and she looked a little more at ease, I think she knew that she could count on me if she needed me. I decided to skip the shower tonight. I could still smell the sea water and the sunshine in my hair and I liked it, it was like aromatherapy. I went into the bathroom and washed my face and brushed my teeth. Though there had been a chill in the air when we were at the water, inland it was still very mild outside so I decided to keep the window open a crack for the night. Spring was here and I could smell the change in the air and the sweetness of it helped lull me into a still, dreamless sleep.