Hello all! Here is Chapter Eight. As always, I own nothing. Please stay tuned, and leave me reviews if you can! Thank you and enjoy.
Chapter Eight: Their Secret Spot
"Visions? Are you sure," Edward asked me the next day. He had come over to my house again, even though he didn't have to anymore, it made me unreasonably happy. He had said it was out of concern for Mary Alice, which I believed. However, Mary Alice's mother had come early that morning to retrieve her, so he had just missed her. I trusted Edward very much so by that time, so I took this as an opportunity to tell him about Mary Alice's visions, and ask him what he thought of it. He was unbelieving at first, like anyone would be.
"Yes, she said that she's been getting these visions her entire life," I admitted, "I can't believe there's this whole other side of Mary Alice's life that I knew nothing about."
"It's not your fault, Isabella. It's not Mary Alice's fault either. She was just afraid, which is reasonable." He said calmly and gently.
"You are right, of course," it seemed he was always right, which was beyond annoying when it wasn't charming. He seemed to understand the meaning behind my words, because he smiled his perfect crooked smirk. "It's just that… Mary Alice's father shunned her, and he's visibly afraid of her. The coward." I could feel the venom that leaked into my voice at the end of my sentence. "He didn't even care that she did not return home last night, and he wouldn't listen to the reason why. Mary Alice's mother is very close to her. If she loses her mother, I don't know what we'd do, she's all she has."
"She would still have you," Edward said.
I couldn't accept that, "Yes, of course. But, it's her mother, Edward. I wouldn't be enough, not this time."
He looked down, and nodded sadly. He knew there was nothing to be said. I grabbed his hand, needing to feel him there. He squeezed my hand reassuringly.
"Hey, Bella, let's get out of here," he suddenly said, his eyes wide with excitement. Edward and I had never been anywhere alone since the first walk home. His sudden burst of excitement startled me, but I couldn't help the surge of excitement that coursed through me at the idea of going somewhere with him.
"Okay," I agreed, smiling broadly.
The smile that broke out across his face sent my heart in a frenzy, making it beat erratically. I was suddenly positive he could hear it beating out of my chest.
"I have a place I want to show you," We left the house then, walking by Mrs. Harbinger's marigolds again, and walking down the street. His hand never once let go of mine.
"Where are we going," I found myself laughing and smiling, forgetting the last horrible twenty-four hours.
His smile was just as radiant as mine, "You'll just have to wait and see," his pace suddenly became faster and he pulled me along behind him.
"Okay, okay!" I laughed, and I heard him laughing with me, and it was the most captivating sound I had ever heard. It sounded genuinely happy and carefree. His laughter continued as we ran down the street, hand in hand, until suddenly he stopped and I ran into his back, for the second time since I've known him. I wasn't sure what had happened until I looked around him and I saw two adults standing before him. A man and a woman. The man was wearing clothes similar to what Edward wore when I first met him. The man was tall, his posture perfectly straight, and he had a mustache that made him look like he needed to go through puberty to fill it out. His face was friendly, but a forced friendly. It looked like he was calculating everything just underneath the surface. He had bronze hair that reminded me of Edward's.
"So this is where you've been hiding, Edward?" The woman asked, her voice unpleasant. The woman was beautiful, and her eyes were a brilliant green just like Edward's. These were obviously his parents.
"I haven't been hiding anywhere," he replied, his voice curt.
"Well, I would beg to differ, son. We have barely seen you since we arrived in town," Mr. Masen's voice was trying hard to be friendly in front of company, but it was a losing battle. His cold eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second.
"You must be Isabella Swan," Mrs. Masen said, surprisingly friendly, as she extended her hand forward for a handshake. I complied, unsure how else to respond.
"Yes, ma'am. It's very nice to meet you," I heard my voice respond like it was through a tunnel.
"Quite," her friendly façade gone as quickly as it had come. Edward had not relaxed in the slightest. Mr. and Mrs. Masen looked at me as a bug, one that had to be squished as soon as possible. I suddenly realized what they must be thinking. My mother and I were the talk of the town, surely they had heard the gossip of us losing everything. Here I was, holding hands with their son, the heir of a big oil company. I quickly let go of his hand, and stepped back, suddenly feeling like I couldn't breathe. I was not a gold-digger. I could never use Edward like that. But what if he believed those rumors? I felt trapped all of a sudden, like I couldn't breathe or stop the walls from closing in. Edward looked back towards me, confused at the loss of contact, when he saw the look on my face. He knew my mind was in "flight or fight" mode. I chose flight, obviously.
"Isabella!" he called as I ran back the other way, afraid to look at his face.
I ran back to my house, and stopped in front of my door. He would know to find me here, I thought to myself. So, I kept going. I ran through streets, taking alley ways, shortcuts, and I found myself on the other side of the city. Where the streets of carriages and people melded with forests and streams. I kept walking until I found a big boulder next to a shallow part of the stream, and I sat down on it. Taking off my shoes, I let my feet soak in the ice cold water.
How had my life gotten so messed up, I remember asking myself as I sat there with my knees pulled up to my chest, and my head resting on my knees. I couldn't face Edward now. If his parents didn't scare him away from me, then surely my running away did. Guilty people always ran.
But, I wasn't guilty. The sad part was that I was only guilty of being in love. My heart clenched at the thought. There were about three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was rich. Second, Edward's parents believed me to be a gold-digger because of that fact. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
I didn't know what to do.
"I thought I might find you here," a voice suddenly broke me out of my train of thought. I gasped, startled, and looked behind me to see Edward standing at the forest edge. His eyes looked conflicted, and I had a good idea why. He was more than likely trying to decide whether to listen to his parents.
"How did you know," I asked, confused. His crooked smile broke out across his wonderful face again, and my chest pained at the sight.
"Believe it or not, this was the spot I was going to show you earlier," he laughed, "I guess I just believed you would find it on your own," he smiled, and I couldn't help but to chuckle humorously at the truth of that statement. Edward and I thought a lot alike, it made a lot of sense for me to find it.
"It's a beautiful spot," I said, looking forward again, leaving Edward to stare at the back of my head. Because it was too hard to watch him standing there like a roman god, with his hair shining in the sunlight. I could hear him walking further into the forest, twigs and leaves crunching beneath his feet.
"Bella, I am very sorry about my parents," he apologized.
"Please, don't. Don't feel sorry. I should've tried harder to push you away. I'm selfish though," I chuckled without humor again. He was behind me then, I could feel his presence.
"I am…confused," he finally finished, and I had to laugh because I could hear it perfectly in his voice.
"About what?" I asked.
"Why are you selfish?"
"Because, I knew my reputation in this town, but that doesn't mean I had to bring you down with me. I'm probably ruining your relationship with your parents. I should've pushed you away, and forced you to go home. I should've accepted your help that first day and never talked to you again," I sighed and frowned at the fact that it made my chest hurt again to even think of that.
"Bella, please don't do that," he said, sounding heartbroken. That hurt me above all else, the sound of him hurt.
"I have to, though. Because if I hadn't fallen in love with you then this wouldn't be an issue. It wouldn't matter what your parents said, or what the town said," and I stopped, realizing that my mouth had uttered the words I so desperately tried to keep hidden.
The silence that followed was almost tangible. I could've sworn that I would be able to reach out and touch it.
"You… fell… for me?" Now above any other time I really could not look at him. Instead I kept my back turned to him, and stared angrily down at the guppies that swam around my feet. I felt my whole face and neck heat up as I continued to keep quiet. "Bella," he tried again, and I shook my head, feeling the hot angry tears beginning to well up in my eyes. I was angry at myself, how I had ruined everything. "Isabella, I love you," I heard him whisper. Those words were so softly spoken I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly. I finally, finally looked up to meet his gaze. The first time I had done so since before he had even entered the forest. His eyes were burning with a passion so intense that I couldn't look away again.
"What," I asked, dumbfounded.
"I love you, Bella," he said again, louder this time. His eyes suddenly lit up, and he smiled broadly. "I love you," he said again. Excitement poured out of every word, and he rushed in front of me, getting his pants soaked up to his knees. He didn't seem to notice, his eyes never left mine. He took my face in his hands. "I love you Isabella Swan," he said in a tone of such finality that I couldn't deny him.
A smile so wide that it almost hurt, broke out across my face, "I love you Edward Masen," the feeling at finally saying it was so joyous that a carefree laugh escaped through my lips. I jumped up from my rock and straight into his arms. My arms going around his neck, and my feet lifting up behind me as he laughed with me and spun me around in the water, effectively soaking both of us. He set me back down on my feet, in the water, and it was there that we shared our first kiss.
