Allergies (Edward's P.O.V)

Teeny Tiny Twilight.

Desolation finally took over when I scanned the very last place that I thought she would be. I smiled grimly at a large dark haired man who manned the counter behind the booming fast food restaurant on campus.

The school was busy with people coming and going to grab lunch. My stomach growled, empty. I hadn't stopped to eat; I wouldn't until I found that damn escape artist. She was there, right by my side and we were carrying on a conversation about how different this place was compared to her previous home. All part of my carefully constructed plan to make her fall head over heals for me. It wasn't going well. She should have thrown herself at me two days ago. Actually I should have gotten her number the very first day. Not going well at all.

She had been so close to my side, so close that I could feel the heat of her body and then someone bumped her and then…well she was gone. I searched that hall twice before trying my luck somewhere with food. There had to be something normal about her, she had to at the very least need food to sustain her, or was that going to be one more thing that I didn't have in common with her?

I had created a character traits list in my head of her so far. The good things:

Loyal: I had seen her when she had been playing basket ball with her friends—boys, other men who actually got the excuse to rub up against her.—She had stood up for her friends. No mater that it could have gone either way, the others could have taken that wretch Tyler's side.

Brave: She was not only willing to stand up to me, taller and stronger then she could ever hope to be, but she held her head high when she stood for something she believed in. Even when it was someone larger then her and hostile I didn't see even the barest hint of cowardice in her.

Passionate: When she talked about her home, her mother, she sounded like she was talking about her daughter instead of the other way around. She was fiercely protective of her friends and family, even the place where she lived and nothing I could do or say would ever change that. The main part of my plan was making her see that she could be home here, with me. I was already starting to see her as my home.

Fun: She wasn't like the other girls; she actually acted normal around me, like one would act around a good friend. She wasn't attention grabbing or touching more then really necessary. It was comfortable to be with her, easier then breathing. I was her friend. A friend who I hopped was well on his way to being her good friend. She liked to play sports and didn't play Barbie when she got hit; she took all the hits and laughed them off, unless of course I was being intentionally rough with her, then she gave it right back.

Interesting: When we did things that would usually bore me, like talking about her, I enjoyed it. I don't think I could do that with another girl now that I knew how absolutely fascinating Bella was. When she was looking for a word, or was becoming passionate about what we were talking about, she would talk with her hands, pulling words out of the air and painting a picture for me. I found myself becoming more and more involved with her, like I was a man, gasping for air above a churning sea. I fell gladly into oblivion.

Beautiful: She was beautiful, so beautiful that with just one look, just one smile my whole idea of beauty was so deftly trounced that nothing would ever look the same to me again. Blond hair seemed so plain now to all the colours of Bella's hair. To just say it was brown would be of the greatest insult. It was like looking at a white light. Yes, it was beautiful in its own way until it was shone through a crystal. That was when all the colours came out, dancing and shimmering. Her hair even seemed to glisten in the right light, like bronzed mercury. So beautiful it drove men insane. Her body was thin, not especially curvy, but her body was perfect, it was fit and soft, a contradiction like herself. How could something be so beautiful, so absolutely perfect that everyone was blinded by it? They were so scared that they pretended not to see it, turning their cowardice onto false angles, airbrushed to perfection.

Intelligent: Ask her anything and she will know. Even her eyes, when she smiles you had that peculiar sensation that you were missing some secret that twirled and danced before your eyes but remained unseen to everyone but her. She can dissect the world and leave you with a complete understanding of anything and everything.
Everything but math.

Caring: The way that she looked at people, even blond skanks that were so drunk they couldn't see that throwing her drink on a girl so above her it was so comical it was criminal. The only time she lost her temper was about ten minutes after I would have thrown her into the pool, taking great a delight in drowning her. I would have chewed Lauren out but the simple fact that Bella would have taken pity on the drunk even after all Lauren had done to her made me keep it light. If I did see her again though…well that was a different story.

And the list went on.

The bad things:

Nada, zilch, zero, nil, nothing. It was pathetic, every time I was sure I had found something about her I didn't like, or something that took away from her I would calm down and realise that the 'fault' I was so caught up on was nothing more then a cleaver cover for another on of her merits. Like her quick anger—usually directed at me—but that only supported her passion, her decentness to stand up for what she knew was right.

I growled under my breath as I mistook a short brunet with long hair for the object of my obsession— oops—affection.

It just didn't make sense! How could I have lost her? She was so absolutely unique and noticeable. Odd since she was so short, but I could pick her out from a crowd of thousands nonetheless. And yet right now, literally in a crowd of thousands, I couldn't find her.

Oh the irony.

I turned the corner of the small plaza in the middle of our grounds where all the shops and restaurants were horded. I had my hands stuffed into my pockets, purposely stepping on the cracks in the walk as I carried on in my petulant way, mourning my loss of company. It had been such a good day too; she had only threatened to toss me into the lake once.

I blew a weighted breath out as I leaned against a wall. I watched the cool breeze off the lake make the autumn leaves shiver as the sun lightened the yellow leaves a regal gold and the red and orange ones glowed like jewels. I wanted to share this with her, the way the afternoon sun shimmered off the lake. Would she find them beautiful or would they be too alien from her home in the Valley of the sun? I wonder if I would reach the few inches to touch her hand gently if she had been standing here. Probably not.

Someone tapped softly on my shoulder. The touch reminded me of that of a child. When I turned around and saw a short dark haired girl I nearly had a stroke.

"Hey, Alice." I meant to greet cheerfully. It came out sounding like a sullen mutter. I looked back towards the lake, not seeing anything because there was nothing worth looking at.

I caught Alice nod at me from the corner of my eye before she leaned against the wall beside me. We were both silent caught in our own meditations. After a few minutes it was starting to feel ridiculous. Why the hell shouldn't I be able to enjoy my day without her, she was just a girl.

Had anyone, whether they were 5 foot or 8 foot said that Bella, my Bella was just a girl, I would have hit them so hard they would feel it next week.

"So," I said casually, smiling down, down, down at Alice, "The trees are pretty."

"I know where she is you know."

I looked back to the lake, "Who? I don't know who you're talking about." Like hell I didn't. My nerve endings were jumping at just the thought of her.

"Okay," She shrugged, turning to leave. I had caught the sly look she threw me over her shoulder.

I debated for about three seconds before calling her back, wincing as I did so. The temptation to see Bella now instead of half an hour from now was too tempting. "Where is she?"

Alice spun around so fast that she blurred. "I knew it!" she squealed excitedly, "You love her. Bella and Edward sitting in a tree—" I clapped my hand over her mouth, taking her hostage.

"Would you shut-up? People are staring." I snapped angrily. I thought I had been subtle about my crush too. How disappointing.

I let go of Alice hesitantly, keeping a ready hand to silence her again if needed. She gasped, "You didn't deny it." She said slowly after a second of awed silence. I winced, that probably would have been a good idea. After dissecting my expression more carefully she smiled smugly, "She likes you, you know."

My heart stopped, and then went into overtime. It felt like a 10,000 volt light bulb had gone off inside me. I could feel my glowing expression from the inside and with the light came the heat. I could feel the warmth from the tip of my nose to my littlest toe. She liked me too? Did she like me as much as I loved her?

Oh God. I loved her. No, not love; it was some odd combination of lust, admiration, and infatuation so skilfully blended together that it just felt like love. It felt a lot like love. But maybe, she was in a similar boat as me. Did she feel even close to the way I felt for her? All I needed was for her to feel a tenth of what I felt for her and it would be enough for forever.

Alice watched the expressions with humour, it looked like, but then again it was so hard to concentrate on anything other then the tingling sensation that was spreading through my body. It was similar to the after shock of touching her for the first time.

"Yup. She said that you make a decent friend." Alice stated proudly, watching my face with an intensity that would have had me suspicious if I hadn't been so distracted with our conversation.

"Decent…friend?" I asked after I had taken a moment to get over the feeling of having acid shot into my veins. My face must have been as easy to read as Bella's—that thought made the weight in my chest disappear—because she smiled at my reaction, pleased. I felt a sudden aversion to the little black haired girl I thought I had grown to like after the last couple of days. She was evil, pure evil. Who would inflict something so… raw, so heart-rending, and then have the nerve to smile?

I glared at her before stalking away like a petulant child. "Go ruin someone else's day." I muttered as she skipped after me. Her soft steps made the anger flare sickeningly. How was something so small so annoying? Actually, better question. How did Jasper put up with her? I would have given her the boot a long time ago. I voiced my thoughts, "Amazing, how can something so tiny can be so annoying."

Alice gave me a dark look, and for a moment I thought—happily—that I had offended her, "Too bad you didn't figure that out earlier." She grumbled angrily. She mumbled something else so low I could hardly catch it, though I thought it sounded like, "would have made it so much easier."

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, curious despite myself, "What?"

Alice gave me a hard look, "If you hadn't been hitting on me and had entirely focused yourself on Bella, she wouldn't be regarding you as…well…scum. True as it may be, it sucks."

What hurt most about what she said was it was true. There was absolutely no way I could deny something so obvious, and then to have it confirmed though I had known in some part of my mind that Bella saw me as scum, too low to even want to get caught on her shoe. Stupid Alice, might as well just knock me over the back of the head with a cinder block repeatedly, it would hurt a whole hell of a lot less. That was what made my voice sharp while when I answered, "Why do you care?" I sulked, looking at my shoes. Suddenly the sunny autumn day wasn't so lovely anymore. I would gladly crawl into a hole and die right about now.

"Because you are obviously too stupid to understand subtle messages, I'll spell it out for you," she turned to look me head on. I made a face at her. I was achieving high 80's right now in advanced classes. I was a lot of horrible disgusting things and stupid, wasn't one of them. "I want Bella to be happy, and I think that she will be happiest with you. Don't know why, but I just know. I want Bella to start getting out more; she has a bit of a self esteem problem as I'm sure even you can notice. I want her to get out more, be active and really love someone." She started walking again. Alice was on my side? Well, that just brought her up a few thousand notches in my book. She can trash me anytime she wants.

Alice kicked her feet though a small pile of leaves sending them fluttering across the yard. My thoughts were just as scattered and not nearly as easily reconciled. "Do you know Bella has never even kissed a man? I couldn't get much out of her, but my guess is she never had a boyfriend before either, maybe she's never even hugged a boy." Alice looked horror struck. I could only hope.

I gave her a disbelieving look, though I would have lived happily to know that no man had ever really touched her. I saw some of the boys she played with hug her so that last part was obviously false. "I think she's hugged people Alice, she didn't grow up in a monastery." Though that would explain her surprisingly virtuous behaviour sometimes. Or maybe—surprise, surprise— Bella was just good.

"Yeah, I guess." Alice said, looking distant. I sighed too as we lapsed into silence. I was itching to push Alice for more information on Bella, but I didn't want to give her anymore to go on. If she wanted me to be with Bella, then I would work diligently with her to make that happen. Showing just how obsessed I was with Bella would not help.

I watched a small group of people run by, their ponytails swaying, a few boys were thrown in too. I saw one of the boys on Bella's team running. Seth was among them. I liked Seth, he was a cheerful kind of person and from first impressions alone I liked him very much. I was suddenly and almost violently thrust back into one of my memories of Bella playing basket ball. How she had walked over, not commenting on Seth's lack of aim, and lead by example, not wanting to embarrass him or make him feel lower then her.

I saw another one of the restaurants clustered in the centre square, one of the first ones I had gone to looking for Bella. An idea struck me and I turned sharply to catch the door to the restaurant, nearly clothes-lining a young boy in the process. Alice turned too, ducking under someone. I held the door for her, and then followed after her to get in line to order something.

If I had any luck at all Bella, was going in to be a doctor, she wouldn't be squeamish of blood like so many other girls were. She was stronger then that. My stomach twisted violently as the full realization of what I was doing sunk in. This could either work really well, or it would really screw me over. Rose used to tease me when I was younger because of my violent allergic reactions to mushrooms. I would be physically sick for days, anyone looking in from the out side would think I was dying of the Spanish flu, and then, like magic I would be well again. Perfect. My father even joked about feeding me mushrooms every year rather then get the flu shot. It prepared me just as well. What was the old saying? What didn't kill you only made you stronger.

I loaded mushrooms onto my plate, filling it to the top.

Please, oh please let Bella want to be a doctor.

I have a poll up, vote if you want (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!) if none of you vote i'll just do what ever the heck i want. That gets dangerous so vote please oh and lets not forget the ever awsome beta. anyone who asks for a sneak peek into the next chapter will not get one. don't ask.