Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of its characters etc, and I wish SM didn't own them either.

Chapter Fifteen – She Wants to Go Anywhere but Here

The next morning, Bella awoke with a yawn and a stretch. She smiled up at her ceiling, replaying images of a boxer-clad, dancing Edward from her dream. A giggle escaped her as she remembered that his little movie recreation moment had been real. Still laughing, she grabbed her robe and walked down the hallway.

After a quick shower, she stood in front of her closet. The gloomy day brewing outside helped her decision. She slid on her favorite jeans, the soft, well-worn denim perfectly fitting her mood. An equally well worn Forks PD t-shirt was next, and she slid Edward's faded green flannel over it, rolling the sleeves up to her wrists. A pair of chucks and a ponytail later and Bella was skipping down the stairs and rummaging in the cupboards for her cocoa powder and cinnamon.

Just as she finished pouring the steaming hot liquid into a pair of silver travel mugs, she heard someone pull into the driveway. With a few quick turns the lids were secure, and she raced out the doorway, smiling at Edward as he leaned up against her door waiting. He waved a plastic bag full of perfectly golden cookies and grinned back at her.

"Treats."

"I see that."

"Where's my chocolate, woman?"

She held up the mugs, and he opened the door for her. The leather was already warm, but that didn't stop her from reaching forward to crank the toasty ass feature for her seat up to high. A contended sigh had just escaped her when Edward climbed in and rested one hand on her shoulder. He turned to look between the seats as he backed smoothly down the driveway. As soon as he had the car in first gear he reached for the mug and took a long drink.

"Look! No strings attached."

"Jerk."

Reaching over, he tugged on the end of her ponytail. "Seriously, it's delicious. You'll have to show my mom how you make it."

"Or I can just show you," she pointed out with raised eyebrows.

"Everything tastes better when someone else makes it for you."

"That would explain why this cookie is like heaven in my mouth," she replied, and a crumb dropped out of the corner of her mouth. "Oops."

"These ones are my favorite."

"I can see why."

"Wait till you try her pumpkin ones next fall. They're amazing."

A tingling ran through her at his words…at the thought that he was picturing keeping her around all the way to October. The six month leap in time would have seemed impossible only days ago, but suddenly it felt probable even.

"So, I was thinking," she began nervously.

"One of my favorite things about you."

"Since you'd be all alone tonight," she continued, ignoring him. "And since I promised you traditional, American processed goodness…"

"Yes?" Edward asked, and this time he sounded nervous.

"I was thinking maybe you'd like to come over and let me cook you dinner…and meet my dad."

"I've already met your dad," he said quickly.

"Meet him as my boyfriend, not as a speeding delinquent."

"Well…ummm…"

"I've had dinner with your parents about a million times now – "

"A million?"

"Don't try to distract me with bickering, Edward. I think maybe I hurt Charlie's feelings. Not that he'd ever in a million years say it but…you should come over and meet him."

"I'm sorry," Edward sighed as he pulled into her parking spot. His fingers ran through his hair. "I'm not particularly good at giving parent."

"You're great with your parents."

"My parents have to like me. They paid enough."

"Edward," she warned.

"Yeah, yeah. Ok. Your dad freaks me out, is all."

"It's the guns, isn't it?"

"Well, that doesn't help," he chuckled, reaching for the door handle. "He's just so…serious. I feel like I'm fucking twelve years old around him."

"You were around him once," she reminded him, climbing out of the car as well. "And he had just pulled you over."

"I…what if he doesn't like me?"

"Are you serious?"

"Well, he's your dad and – "

"He'll love you. He already has kind of a weird crush on your mom – apparently she's been calling him when I stay for dinner since I'm a horrible daughter and don't do it – and he thinks your dad is great for volunteering so much at the hospital even though he's just here for that study whatever thing he's doing."

"But those are my parents."

"Edward, I like you, and he knows that. That'll be enough. I promise."

"Fine. If I get shot, I at least want it on my tombstone that I died for love."

Bella stopped mid-step to gape at him. His face had paled at first, but blood was starting to rush back in. His face was splotchy with his embarrassment, but the words to relieve him wouldn't come to her. All she could do was stare. She thought for sure that he would start talking, play it off as a joke, but as the silent seconds continued to tick by her wishful thinking was starting to seem less and less like it would become her reality. The warning bell rang, startling them both back to consciousness.

"Shit. We're gonna be late," he said, his words startling her. "Come on."

Edward grabbed her hand, pulling her along behind him. She stumbled for their first few steps, struggling to keep up with his quick, even strides. He slowed just enough for her to catch up, sliding his hand around her waist to brace her. The feel of him pressed up against her side, of his hand keeping her so close, was different, though she couldn't figure out how.

When he released her next to her desk in English, she felt less than she had a second ago and realized that his touch had seemed like more. She let her bag fall with a thump and when she looked up, she noticed Jasper for the first time that day. His entire body radiated shock, from his wide eyes and open mouth to his limp posture. Not waiting to watch the slow evolution back to anger, Bella collapsed into her seat, her mind automatically thinking back to what Edward had said.

It wasn't even his words that had her heart thumping like mad and her fingers drumming nervously on the desk. Technically, he hadn't said he loved her. He hadn't even really come close. He'd made a joke. What made her think was the fact that he hadn't bothered to correct it, or even to play it up. His words had clearly surprised himself as much as they'd surprised her.

Mr. Mason's lecture was intense, and he stood in front of Bella's desk for most of it. This kept her from communicating with Edward, but it didn't even come close to forcing her to pay attention. That word…the word…it slithered around in her brain, choking at every single available neuron until her thoughts were utterly consumed with it. She thought it especially strange that she dealt with her feelings for Jasper with such resignation and acceptance, but the mere possibility of Edward having those same feelings for her scared her senseless.

Her brain was such a jumbled, nervous mass of thoughts that she didn't even hear the bell ring at the end of class. The hand on her arm made her jump, and the smile she gave Edward was nervous.

"You're acting funny," he said to her as soon as they got outside. His forehead crinkled as he turned to stare at her, one hand on each shoulder.

"What? No I'm not," she replied automatically.

"You are."

"I'm just tired, I dunno."

"You were fine this morning."

"I was excited to see you this morning."

He rolled his eyes at her flirtatious attempt to distract him. "Do you need to go to the nurse?"

"No, no I'll be ok. English just kinda sucked it out of me."

"Yeah," he smiled. "I can see that. Come on or we'll be late, and every time Miss Robbins smiles at me when I am I feel all guilty."

His calm made her more nervous. Maybe what he'd said was a joke? Or maybe he was just being an ass – it wouldn't be the first time someone had messed with her in that way. Or maybe he was just so comfortable with the idea of it that it didn't really faze him. She couldn't decide which would be worse.

History passed much the same way English had, though this time she was far enough away from Edward that she felt like she could think again. Underneath all the fear and nerves, she realized that she was both pleased and annoyed as well. Edward was great. More than great. He was smart and funny. He paid attention to her when she talked and even when she didn't. He was ridiculously cute and his flannels were crazy hot too. He had a temper and a tendency to think he was always right, but he also knew when to apologize when those things got out of hand.

By the time the bell rang once again, she'd decided that when Edward was ready to let her know how he felt, he probably would. His forwardness had frightened her in the beginning, but that same need to say whatever he was thinking could only help her now.

"So, any food allergies I should know about?" she asked, reaching for his hand and sliding it around her waist.

"Would it get me out of this?"

"Definitely not."

"Then no, no allergies. What're you cooking?"

"I promised you processed deliciousness."

"Excellent. Nothing with a foreign pronunciation, right?"

"Unless meatloaf suddenly has French origins, no," she laughed.

They walked into math, and Bella ignored Jasper's cold stare and Alice's uncomfortable glance. The tiny clench of her stomach was still there, but for the first time she felt real annoyance that it wouldn't just go the hell away. She propped her bag over next to the table leg, and Edward dropped his behind his chair.

"All right, ladies and gentleman," Mr. Varner spoke, sounding tired and rubbing his hand through his thinning hair. "I've got a headache the size of Mt. Rainier, and if I'm miserable you're all going to be miserable too. Work with your seatmate and do the problems from Chapter Thirteen, due at the end of the period."

A collective groan ran through the class as Mr. Varner plopped back into his chair and promptly put his head on his desk. Even Edward sighed, flipping through the pages of his book until he got to the assignment. Bella opened her spiral to a blank page and turned to face him.

"I really hope you understand some of this, because I don't. At all," she told him quietly.

"It's easy. Come here."

He reached over, tugging her chair closer to his. For the next hour they sat with their sides pressed together while he quietly explained every problem she didn't understand to her. His patience stayed mostly steady, and those times he was exasperated with her failure to understand what he was saying he hid almost well enough for her to not see it. She found herself playing dumb just to get a rise out of him – to make hiding it harder – which only served to annoy him further. When the period ended, she was both incredibly amused by how hard he'd fought to be patient with her and equally as grateful – no one had ever made math make quite that much sense before.

"Thanks."

"Next time you pull that dumb girl crap on me I'm not helping you," he warned

"Who, me?" she asked innocently, grabbing her bag and waiting for Edward to fish his out from behind his chair.

"Has anyone ever told you what a pain in the ass you are?"

"All the time," Alice mumbled brushing past them, trying to catch up with Jasper, who had already practically sprinted from the room.

"Bitch," Edward said to her retreating form.

"Hey," Bella said, elbowing him lightly. "Don't."

"Why – "

"Because. I don't want to start stuff, ok? Don't sink down to their level."

"Fine," he huffed.

"So do you wanna eat – "

"Cafeteria. If we're not sinking to their level, no hiding."

"All right. Hey, I don't suppose you could pilfer some more of your mom's baked goods for dessert tonight?" she asked, thinking again about dinner.

"Sure. She left some fresh cannolis for me to make up for her being gone."

"Didn't you say they were amazing?"

"Like a taste of Italy in your mouth," he said, heading toward one of the isolated corner tables.

"What happened to not hiding?"

"We're not," he argued, digging for his lunch. He pulled it out and then froze, frowning, before diving back into his bag again.

"What?"

He didn't answer, just kept digging. He started pulling things out of his bag, tossing them onto the table. First his textbooks then his notebooks then a pencil bag and his iPod and what looked like a sketch pad. Two novels came out next, and his keys hit the table with a metallic clink as he started searching through the small front pockets.

"Edward?" she asked nervously, peering toward his bag. "Did you lose something? What is it? I could help…"

Again he ignored her, merely upending his bag on the table. A guitar pick, a pack of gum, and several torn scraps of paper fell out. He gave the bag one last scan before searching through the stack on the table. His eyes were frantic with fear, and all the color had drained from his face as he started flipping through the random assortment of crap for a second time.

Bella's stomach clenched nervously as she glanced around. The rest of the FHS student body seemed to have noticed Edward's strange behavior as well. They were all watching him out of the corners of their eyes, whispering behind their hands. Their malicious smiles only doubled her nerves, and she noticed for the first time the steady stream of students abandoning the cafeteria for the courtyard.

"Edward, you're freaking me out," she tried again, placing a hand on his arm. He flinched away, looking up and taking note of the attention being given to him for the first time.

"Oh no," he breathed. "Oh fuck."

"Wha – "

"I'll be right back. Wait here," he said, bolting to his feet.

"No I'm not – "

"Just wait right here, Bella. Please," he said, turning to stride away.

Her heart hammering in her chest, she jumped up and moved quickly after him. By the time they'd both stepped out into the overcast afternoon, she'd caught up to his side, but he barely even noticed her. He kept walking forward, more slowly now, toward the edge of the large crowd gathered around the picnic table by the parking lot.

"No," Edward whispered again.

There, standing on the bench with something in his hands, was Jasper, his gray eyes glinting in triumph. She moved closer, and the object he held turned out to be a composition book, the kind with the mottled black and white cover and black taped binding. The exact same kind of journal she'd seen on Edward's couch the day before…the exact same kind she'd seen him hurriedly jam into his bag before hiding it away.

"Ah, the man of the hour," Jasper said, spotting Edward for the first time and waving the book in the air. "Perhaps you'd like to grace us with a reading."

"Give me back my notebook." Edward's voice was steely, the nerves and fear of only moments ago now replaced by blatant rage.

Bella followed him tentatively as he pushed through the circle. Once they'd broken through the outer rings, she saw a smug Rosalie, flanked by Lauren and Jessica, standing to Jasper's right. Alice was on the ground to his left, twisting her hands and bouncing up on the balls of her feet and looking nervous…very nervous. Emmett stood just behind her, looking like he was torn between fleeing and decking Jasper.

"I don't think so, Cullen. We haven't gotten to hear the end yet."

"If you don't give me my fucking notebook back, you are going to regret it until your last motherfucking painful breath, asshole. Give it to me. Now."

"No," Jasper replied, smirking and reopening the notebook.

Edward went to take a step forward, but Tyler and Eric each grabbed one of his arms and yanked him back. He tried to pull himself out of their grip and couldn't.

"I'm just so sick of this bullshit," Jasper read in a high, girly voice. "This entire fucking experiment should be null based only on the stupidity of the fucking subjects. Alice with her backstabbing know-it-allitude and Jasper with his general fucking douchiness and his fucking sister with her big fish ridiculously tiny pond worldview. Her boyfriend who knows it's all ridiculous but is too apathetic to do something about it. Not to mention their god damn useless followers. The people in this town are all sheep. "

There was a pause in the reading as Jasper gave everyone a chance to glare at Edward. Bella wanted to reach for him, but he was still being restrained. His eyes were focused only on the boy in front of him.

"Stop it, dude. I'm asking now. Please, just stop." The pleading tone of his voice was like being plunged into ice, a million sharp prickles assaulting her all at once. Her heart slowed and her face paled and everything about her seemed to freeze in place.

"I don't know why I thought maybe it could be different, that maybe she'd get her head out of her ass and see things for how they are. God damnit if the plan didn't work fucking beautifully. I should have known that day at her locker that Bella was just as fucking pathetic as the rest of them."

Jasper suddenly stopped talking, looking up and meeting her eyes. She could barely make out the horror on his face through the salty tears now spilling silently down over her cheeks. Not even bothering to wipe them away, she turned her attention to Edward.

The sudden pause – a pause in which everyone had turned to stare at Bella – was enough for Edward to free himself from his captors' grips, and he flew with surprising speed at a still agog Jasper. He hit him with a crash, knocking Jasper's tall form off the bench and to the ground.

The notebook flew straight up into the air. She watched it flip end over end in the sky before falling with a thud to the grassy ground at Alice's feet. Alice picked it up, looking at it for a long moment before walking over and handing it quickly to Bella and turning to immediately move away from her again. No one noticed the exchange, too busy shouting about the first fight that had happened on school grounds in what felt like years as they ringed around Edward and Jasper.

Edward sat perched on Jasper's chest, pinning his thrashing form to the ground with his knees. His fist met Jasper's cheek with a sickening thud, but he barely got in that one blow before Jasper had thrown him off with a sharp push to the chest and leapt up. Edward had just made it to his feet when Jasper rushed him, tackling him to the ground and grabbing him by the shoulders. He lifted up and slammed them down, Edward's auburn head hitting the grass with a series of repeated thuds. Bella watched in horror as he reached up and raked down hard on Jasper's neck with his fingernails.

"What the fuck?" Jasper bellowed, leaning back enough for Edward to wriggle free. "Are you a fucking girl, Cullen?"

Edward swung wildly at him, and Jasper ducked, sidestepping and making contact with Edward's gut. The breath wheezed out of him and Jasper took the time to land a blow to the side of his head. The reaction was immediate, and this time Edward's blow hit Jasper square on his left eye.

"How's that for a fucking girly punch, asshole," Edward growled as Jasper let out a pained groan.

His arm reeled back for another swing when Bella found herself screaming.

"Stop it! Stop it! Fucking stop it!"

Everything seemed to pause as her voice broke into a whimper on the last word. Edward's hand remained suspended in mid-air as he remembered her presence for the first time since stepping outside. Jasper stood panting, dropping to put his hands on his knees but never taking his eyes off of her. Bella's whole body was shaking, her hands clenching the notebook to her chest. An eerie silence descended, punctuated only by her sobs, as the administrator's were spotted hurrying over.

"What's going on here? Break it up!" Mr. Hale called out. When he spotted his son and Edward staring at a sobbing Bella he froze. "Both of you. My office, now. And the rest of you, get your butts to class before I give every single person standing here detention for a week."

He waited for the two boys to slowly start moving toward the main building, each shooting furtive glances over their shoulders at Bella, before following them into the building. The rest of the crowd started to break up, scattering toward all the different classrooms.

Bella stayed rooted to the spot. She felt Alice's eyes on her, but couldn't even bear to think about talking to her. She wanted to run, but she didn't think her legs would support her weight much longer, and Edward had been her ride to school. Her sobs intensified as she thought his name.

Suddenly, she felt herself being gently lifted from the ground. She blinked through her tears to see Emmett, clutching her carefully to him as he made his way toward his giant jeep. Her whole body relaxed into his broad chest, her sobs quieting somewhat as he slid her into the passenger seat and buckled her in before jogging to get in and start the engine.

"Where to, Swan?" he asked gently.

"Anywhere but here, Emmett. Please. Anywhere but here."