Summer Girl
Chapter Four
For the past two weeks I hadn't seen much of Edward—in fact, I'd never seen him. I had been staying home most of the time, trying not to put myself in any circumstance where I could possibly meet up with him. I'd even gone so far as to try and back out of the NYCSD Science Department Field Day, which I knew Edward would be attending. My attempts had been unsuccessful, and that was how I found myself in the Natural History Museum, wandering aimlessly and dodging behind displays or people whenever I spotted a St. Jude's uniform.
I decided to meander away from the crowds of students and teachers, heading for the bottom floor, which most of the others didn't seem to be too interested in doing just yet. I hoped that meant that there would be no people from St. Jude's down here.
I walked aimlessly and soon found myself standing in the mineral section, surrounded by rocks. I scanned them as I moved, noting the ones I recognized and looking at the labels for the ones I didn't just to pass the time—and then I bumped into something.
Or rather, someone. Edward's hands wrapped around my upper arms, steadying me. I was too stunned to speak and I was sure I was blushing. His hands dropped and he smiled tentatively.
"Hey," he breathed out, hesitantly smiling wider.
"Why does it seem like you're everywhere I go?" I stammered, growing more and more upset.
He stayed silent for a few moments, his smile dropping into a frown immediately. "What happened to you?" he asked sombrely, shaking his head slightly.
"Excuse me?"
"You're nothing like I remember," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"How am I different?" I didn't exactly think I'd changed all that much in two weeks.
His eyes widened slightly and he looked down at the ground, then up at the ceiling before saying, "It might be the florescence down here."
I snorted. "That makes no sense whatsoever. What kind of logic are you using?"
He shrugged. "None, obviously."
"You got that right," I mumbled, starting to make my way around him.
He grabbed one of my arms again, saying quickly, "No, Bella, wait."
I stopped and turned. "What are you under the impression that I need to hear about, anyway?"
"I thought you might like to know where I came from," he said simply.
I raised my eyebrows. "Africa?"
He didn't look surprised at my knowledge. "Yes. But before I lived in Africa, I lived here in New York City. My father works for Doctors Without Borders and my mother is a Professor of Anthropology at Columbia, so she wanted to go out to Africa to do some studies. I stayed with my father in the summer while my mother came back to teach, and with her for the winter when she returned."
"Why did you move back?"
"My mother finished all of the studies she wanted to do," he said simply.
"Must have been a great life," I commented, probing for more information.
He sighed. "You could say that. But moving around constantly doesn't give you much time to make friends, so it was pretty lonely."
"Oh," I mumbled. That would explain why he was shy.
We stood there awkwardly for a moment, Edward's expression oddly hopeful looking. As I watched, it slowly turned to a disappointed frown as he obviously decided that I had no other response to his past. He sighed again.
"Why are you down here anyway?" he asked, breaking the silence.
"Oh, um, I'm..." Well, shit. I couldn't very well tell him I'd been trying to avoid him. "...very interested in rocks and minerals. They're really, erm, interesting, you know?" I started to back away from him. "I should get back and find my school. See you!" I turned on my heel and walked away as fast as I could without running. I slowed down once I reached the elevators and checked over my shoulder. Edward hadn't followed me, not that I'd particularly expected him to.
Though, with him, you never knew what to expect.
I leaned against a wall and took deep breaths, trying to regain a normal breathing pattern. Once I'd succeeded, I decided to head back in the direction of where I'd run into Edward. He would probably be gone by now.
Wandering aimlessly yet again, I spotted what was obviously the underwater section up ahead. I'd always been fascinated by sea animals, and just the sea in general, so I made a beeline for it.
I froze just before I reached the area. I'd spotted Edward, looking intently at one of the stuffed sea animals. Damn, why is he in every single place that I go to? And something I actually want to look at, too! I hovered in place for a moment, trying to decide whether it would be worth another run-in with Edward to see the exhibit or not. I decided I could always come back later, when he was gone, and turned to go.
Unfortunately, as I turned, I tripped over my own feet and nearly went flying, only just catching myself before I fell, and making a grunting noise. When I straightened up, Edward was looking in my direction. He noticed me looking back and lifted one hand in a wave before walking over to me. I didn't move, choosing not to run childishly, and not to make the contact happen any sooner.
"Hey there," he said jokingly when he reached me. "Did you have a nice fall?"
"Hardy-har-har," I said sarcastically, crossing my arms. Borderline childishness, Bella, I chided myself, uncrossing my arms.
He paid no mind to my seemingly random movements and asked, "What brings you to this section?"
I raised an eyebrow. "The lure of the sea life. What brings you here?"
He looked thoughtful for a moment before he broke out his gigantic smile again and said, "The same thing, I suppose. Also, I had a feeling you'd be back this direction."
"So you admit to intentionally stalking me?"
"No," he said calmly. "I just thought I might need to save you from your own clumsiness. In fact, I think I may need to stick with you for the rest of this trip, how about that?"
"Um, no, thank you. I can take care of myself. I've been doing it for longer than I've known you."
"I don't think so..." he said quietly, smiling sadly.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Never mind, I still don't trust it. I better stick with you." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off with "It'll make me feel better. Please?"
I sighed. "Fine. Lead the way." I gestured to the open aisle in front of me.
He shook his head. "No, you lead. That way, I'll see if you're going to trip."
I rolled my eyes and began to walk. After a few steps I looked back to see that he was standing perfectly still, just watching me. "Are you checking out my ass, Cullen? I'm not going to walk in front of you if that's all you're doing."
"Wha...? Oh!" He hurried to catch up with me. "I wasn't checking you out. I was merely thinking about how easy it was to get you to agree to look around the museum with me. You barely put up a fight." He sounded awed, as if he'd never expected me to agree in a million years.
I laughed awkwardly. "Sure you were."
"I was!" he protested.
I rolled my eyes again. "I believe you, don't worry. And, for your information, I've decided that you'd just end up wherever I go anyway."
Edward chuckled. "Well then, doesn't it seem like we should be together?"
"Maybe," I mumbled.
We walked quietly for a moment or two before he asked, "So, do you go to that cafe often? Blu's, I think it's called?"
"Yeah," I replied shortly.
He seemed put out that I didn't elaborate more and said, "I haven't been there very many times, but it seems nice. Do you think the food there is good?"
"Mhm, it is."
He looked at me with a perplexed expression, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with me. He waited a few moments, as if expecting me to say more, then sighed. "I'll have to actually try the food there, then. I've really only had iced tea there. That one--"
"You do realize you're practically carrying on a conversation with yourself?" I interrupted his tirade.
He shrugged. "Well, sure, but I was hoping you'd join in at some point."
"And if I didn't?"
"I guess I was just going to have a nice long conversation with myself. I had a lot of topics lined up, believe me."
"Such as?" I asked curiously.
He grinned. "Well, next was what classes I'm taking in school, then it was going to be if I was interested in the exhibit we happened to be passing at that point in time, and then—"
"Okay, that's enough. I'm glad I stopped you."
Abruptly, Edward turned so that he was standing in front of me and grabbed my shoulders lightly, forcing me to stop walking. "Why are you stopping me?" he whispered, and I knew he wasn't talking about the conversation. I stood there, unable to think of a response, just staring at him. He sighed and dropped his arms. "We're at the end of the exhibit. How about we actually look?"
I looked around to see that we were, in fact, at the end of the Human Origins section—on the other side of the museum from where we'd started. I hadn't even realized we'd walked so far.
Edward had already vacated the space in front of me and was off looking at something. "Hey Bella! Did you know..."
He trailed off and I walked around the exhibit to where I could actually see him, asking, "Did I know what?"
"Hey Bella," a tall guy that I didn't know sneered. Edward was stiffly backing toward me in a protective stance. I moved to the side to get a better look at the guy and his friends. They were all wearing St. Jude's uniforms and the same mocking sneer. I grimaced. Greasers.
"Um, hello," I replied.
"We heard you fucked some guy over the summer but still sleep around with Jake. That true?" the same guy asked, taking a step closer to me.
I took half a step back. "Er..."
The guy didn't wait for an answer. "We were thinking, you know, since you're so willing and all, that you wouldn't mind hanging out with us sometime."
"Um..." I struggled to find my voice to tell them to fuck off, but couldn't manage to do anything except concentrate on breathing properly.
"She's a bit busy," Edward said fiercely, stepping in between me and the creep.
The creep continued to try and force his way past Edward, his beady eyes focused on me and not on the person blocking his way. When he finally decided he wasn't getting past, he stood back and glared, still focusing on me. "You fucking her, too, man? It's nice to share, c'mon." His friends laughed and nodded from behind him.
I could practically feel the anger coming off Edward's body. It seemed the creeper finally realized something, too, because his eyes slid off me and onto Edward. At that moment, Edward launched himself at the guy and knocked him to the ground, smacking his head on the floor. The creep was obviously not a bad fighter though, because he immediately flipped it so that Edward was pressed to the floor and punched him straight on the nose. There was a sickening crunch and the creeper got up off the ground, grumbling something I couldn't hear and wiping his hand on his pants.
"Let's go, guys," he said, looking down at Edward with a disgusted expression. His friend started to amble away and he began to follow before he looked back at me and said, "Don't think we've forgotten about you, Bella." He winked and then turned to go.
I stared after them a moment before shuddering and looking back at Edward. He was sitting up now, holding onto his nose. I ran over to him and crouched down to his level. "Are you okay? What the fuck did you do that for?"
Edward coughed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, smearing blood across it. "I told you that you were going to need protection."
I frowned. "You said you were protecting me from myself. That's not myself, that's a gang of creeps that could have done much worse." He didn't say anything, just picked up the end of his tie and put it over his nose. I snorted. "You still haven't told me why the fuck you did it, you know."
"I figured it was obvious. I didn't like them talking to you like that," he mumbled, his voice muffled by the tie covering his face.
I rocked back onto my heels and made a perplexed face. "Are you trying really hard, or is that just me?"
Edward looked up at me, surprise in his eyes. "I don't recall trying hard..."
"I think you have a bad memory, then. The real question is, why are you trying so hard?" I pursed my lips and tilted my head to the side questioningly.
He continued to look up at me, blinking rather stupidly. "Uh..."
I waited for a few more endless moments of continuous 'uh'ing before I shook my head and said, "I think he knocked your brains out as well as snapping your nose."
To my surprise, Edward laughed, however messed up the noise sounded coming from him, with his broken nose. "You always were really funny when you got nervous."
"How do you know that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
He blinked a few times in a row rapidly, then widened his eyes and stared at me with what was surely supposed to be an innocent expression. "Uh..."
"Oh, shut it. I don't want to hear any more noise from you unless it's actual words that one can deduce meaning from!"
"You always were feisty, too," he muttered, barely audible.
"What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything," he insisted quickly.
"You are so..." I couldn't even think of a word to describe him.
"Sexy," Edward completed.
"Conceited," I shot back.
"I can't deny it," he said, shrugging.
I shook my head at him disdainfully. "Is your nose going to be okay?" I asked, changing the subject.
He took the tie off his nose, wincing, and turned his head in my direction. "What do you think?"
"Well..." His tie was so completely soaked with blood that I couldn't even see the yellow stripes anymore, and his nose... I was pretty sure it was going to need a little help to be straightened out. "You need a new tie and a doctor. I think maybe it stopped bleeding, though. A bit."
"That's your verdict?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
I nodded.
"I would snort, but that's not the best idea right now."
I rolled my eyes and rose to a standing position, offering Edward my hand. He sat there looking at it for awhile before he raised his hands and said, "You sure you want to be covered in my blood?"
I dropped my hand to my side. "Well, fine then. Help yourself up."
Edward put his hands down on the floor and pushed himself up. I looked down at the floor and noted the presence of two faint, but noticeable bloody handprints on the ground, as well as a couple other spatterings of blood. "What are you planning to do about that?"
He looked down and shrugged. "Nothing. The janitor can clean it up."
I nodded. "Fair point..." I looked back up at him. "Do you think we should go find a teacher or something?"
"Good plan. Lead the way." He made a sweeping gesture forward.
"Maybe you should keep your hands on your nose," I suggested, beginning to walk in the direction of the main entrance. Edward followed right behind me. He didn't say anything in reply, but he did keep his hands securely on his nose after that. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw him trying to put it back into place by himself, but he stopped when he noticed me watching and smiled sheepishly.
"I know all I'm doing is making it worse," he attempted to excuse himself.
"So... why would you be doing it then?"
"No idea."
I snorted. "You have good reasoning for everything, don't you?"
"I like to think so," he mumbled.
We made it to the main entrance faster than I thought we would and stood by the doors awkwardly. "Um... " I began.
"Oh, there's the principal of my school," Edward interrupted, pointing at a burly man who was walking toward us with a grim expression.
"Hey, Mr Smithers," Edward greeted when the principal was within earshot. I laughed internally at the absurd name.
"Mr Cullen. What are you and Miss Swan doing standing here?" I was surprised that he knew my name—but then again, who didn't?
"Actually, we were looking for a teacher," I said. "Edward here broke his nose, and I think it needs medical attention."
Mr Smithers looked intently at Edward's face, and then nodded to himself. "Well, come on then, Cullen. We'll get someone to take you to the hospital. Miss Swan, I suggest you find the rest of your school. It's almost time to go home."
I nodded and turned to go only to be stopped by Edward's hand gripping the top of my arm.
"What?" I asked impatiently.
"Just wanted to let you know..." he leaned down closer to my ear, "I was checking out your ass earlier."
And then he was gone, following Mr Smithers. I shook my head.
He's a perv and he just left a nice bloodstain on my blazer.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Things are getting iffy on the Upper East Side. Take that lovely field trip today. I'm sure you all just wandered around, bored as hell, wondering when it would end. But two of our favourite people were up to something.
Found in the back of the Human Origins section of the museum: blood on the floor. Question is, whose? Rumours say it's E's, lost in a battle to save B's honour.
What is there between E and B? Only two people can answer that question—and sadly, I'm not one of them.
And where has J been all day? For all I know, he's looking for that elusive pot of gold that's supposedly under the rainbow. Use your imagination, sweethearts. Everyone's got one.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
This story updates every second Friday (or "every other Friday". Whichever. It means the same thing). If you want an update every Friday, you have to read Miss Universe Pageant as well, which is this weird fic about Bella fighting off aliens while dressed in a swimsuit. :) Edward's in it somewhere, too.
Review, please. Tell me your favourite line(s), maybe. xD
