(Disclaimer- i'm a stephenie meyer wannabe. thats it, though. sigh)

hola!! okay. so. i must admit that i've acquired a much...uhmmm. better idea for my story than i originally intended.
but don't fret, young ones (and not-so-young ones, too, to be fair.) this idea is ultimately my own and did not in any
way come to me BECAUSE of the fact that I've read breaking dawn. so what i said before remains truthful. BD has not
affected my views or opinions for this story at all. i just happened to think of something that would make my story
a little bit more interesting, i suppose you could say. and who knows, anyway. i may not even go along with it.
my fingers always wind up doing their own thing with the keyboard, anyway. my ideas are never precisely concrete.
but anywhooooo! heres the next chapter. i hope that you enjoy it. and i promise that things WILL get more enjoyable soon.
this is all just kind of boring, i realize. but i think its kind of needed as of the moment. so. bear with me, please.
thank you for the reviews, as always. i plan on making a video some day soon to thank all of you people.
i'll put a link up here for it eventually, when i get around to making it. :D alright, i'll shut up! byee!

When a Stranger Calls

Edward raised an eyebrow as I paced behind the couch. He'd turned completely around so that he could watch me more carefully, leaning over the back of the sofa with his knees digging into the cushion below him. His observant black eyes followed me as I continued my small circle, both his brows rising incredulously as I started to sway, getting dizzy.

I braced myself against the back of the couch beside him, avoiding his stare, trying to keep up with the flow of questions burning my ear.

"Yes. I made it." I repeated for the twelfth time. Edward leaned further over the rear of the couch, still trying to look me in the eye. I turned my back on him, flipping my hair over my shoulder to hide my face. I didn't need to look directly at him to see the curiosity of his expression, to understand that he wanted to know who I was talking to. I also didn't need him to tell me that he could hear both sides of the conversation, which ultimately must have made him even more interested.

I sighed, watching Edward silently wander over to the wall of glass. He stared out into the misting sky, pretending to be unconcerned with my conversation for a minute. He must have realized by now that I wasn't about to explain this to him, stupid as it may be.

My reasons for keeping this a secret from him were kind of stupid. I could at least admit that to myself. I just couldn't seem to bring myself to look at Edward, to even so much as raise a finger to let him know that I needed a second to brace myself. I didn't want him to know about Kyle or the promise I'd made him. The thought of telling Edward that I'd hitchhiked to get here, that I'd beaten down an older woman and broken out of a psych ward just to see if he existed—him and Jacob—was enough to make me hyperventilate. It didn't help, either, that I'd all but screamed and chucked the phone out the door when it 'rang' five minutes ago. I'd forgotten about the thing completely, sitting with Edward on the couch. He'd had his arms around me, our faces inching closer together, when my pocket started to vibrate. I'd almost choked to death on the gasp it caused me.

Edward was immediately shocked by my reaction to the phone call, his concern increasing more and more progressively as I continued to ignore him. But what else could I do? The idea of telling him about my…adventures was absolutely petrifying. I could only imagine how he would react to all of that after all of the times that he'd told me to keep myself out of danger. I could easily have gotten myself killed doing those things—or at the very least arrested. If he knew that…

I shuddered, nearly dropping the cell phone propped up against my shoulder.

"So you found what you're looking for, then?" Kyle prodded, sounding a little subdued. It was an innocent question, a result of his constant worry and his compassion for random hitchhikers like me. Still, I froze. Edward responded immediately to my lack of breathing, turning slightly to peek at me from the corner of his thirsty eye. I turned away.

Of course he'd heard Kyle ask me the question, so of course I had no idea how to answer it. If Edward hadn't been able to hear both sides of the conversation, my response would have been simple. "Not yet," I would have said to him. It would have been true, seeing as I was looking for one thing in particular—that one thing being six feet and seven inches of russet Indian. But I couldn't possibly say 'not yet' in front of Edward. I knew that the second I was off the phone, he'd ask me what that meant.

I didn't think I'd be able to tell him that he wasn't the purpose of my search. Even though it was true, it was kind of harsh. I couldn't think of a single way to explain it to him without hurting him in some way or another. And if I lied, if I told Edward that he was the one I was looking for…well, he'd be able to tell that I was lying.

"Yes." I said into the phone a couple of minutes later. There was no denying the guilty undertone in my voice, and, adding onto the fact that it'd taken me five minutes to respond, anyone would have been able to see that I was lying. I sighed. "Mostly." I amended quietly, scowling.

I thought I saw Edward's mouth twitch as he turned his eyes back to the window-wall, but I might have imagined it.

I sighed again.

"What does that mean, 'mostly'?" Kyle questioned, his voice thick with suspicion. I pursed my lips, imagining him sitting in his car, his fingers twitching on the key, ready to pop it into the ignition and speed off to save me. I wondered briefly if he would go as far as tracking down the cell phone to figure out where I was, but I quickly shrugged it off. The last thing I needed was to start freaking out about that possibility.

"It means what it means, Kyle." I spit, starting to get a little aggravated with him. Edward glanced over at me again, eyeing me just as suspiciously as Kyle had sounded. I growled a little growl, irritated with both of them now. My lips pressed together into a thin line as I tried to contain my pent up frustration. Edward raised an eyebrow.

"Can I know where you are, then, at least?"

"No, Kyle, you can't know where I am. Why don't you just mind your own stinking business?" I gasped, realizing what I'd just said, my cheeks burning red. I groaned, throwing my face into my hands. "No, no. I'm sorry, Kyle. That was horrible of me."

"Yup." He agreed. I made a face, ignoring him so I could finish the apology before I wound up screaming at him instead. I heard Edward chuckle quietly in his corner, but not even his shoulders moved when he did so. He must have been trying very hard to hide his amusement at this point. Damn them both.

I shook my head, determined to finish what I was saying. "You've done a lot for me…and it's wrong of me to go off on you that way. I mean, this is your cell phone. You can call it whenever you want." Of course, that didn't mean that I had to answer it, per say, but I didn't mention that to him.

"But you don't want me to." Kyle murmured matter-of-factly. I knew the look that would be on his face as he said this. I tried not to picture it, biting my lip.

"I'm sorry, Kyle." I apologized again.

"S'fine…Bella, Anna, Riley." He chuckled, completely oblivious to the fact that I was panicking on the other end of the phone. Edward turned to look at me, his expression confused, chary. I froze, staring at him, unable to look away. He didn't avert his eyes, either, as the sweat dewed on my forehead, my fingers trembling. I could see the questions brewing as he stared.

He was definitely going to ask me those questions now. The first one would be why the strange man on the phone called me by three different names.

I swallowed hard.

"I gotta go, Kyle." I whispered, my eyes still nervously zeroed in on Edward's face.

"Bella-Anna-Riley," Kyle started, ignoring me. "What's your last name?"

"I don't want to tell you that, Kyle." I muttered elusively in response.

"Well, you know that I think that's stupid. But…just in case you were wondering, which I'm sure you weren't, my name is Kyle Brandon." His voice was almost desperate as he told me this, drawing back memories of the drive to Forks. I missed him, my only friend. My mouth twitched, watching Edward watch me, knowing that he was waiting for my reaction. I had to admit, the way that Kyle spoke to me wasn't really like that of a friend. It was like I was back in my old life, talking to Jacob. At the time, Jacob had merely been a friend, but he'd always wanted more than friendship. It seemed that it was going to be the same way with Kyle, now. I didn't know how I felt about that.

"Goodbye, then, Kyle Brandon." I said slowly. Edward's eyes narrowed at the terror in my voice. I did not want to hang up with Kyle anymore. The sooner that the phone clicked silent, Edward would be in my face, and I would have to face the horrifying scenario I'd seen in my head—the one with Edward growling like a mountain lion while I whispered, backed into a corner with my face in my hands, about my hitchhiking experience. Maybe I could just put off answering him for a little while…

"Goodbye, my little hitchhiker friend." Kyle snickered.

And then he hung up.

No! No, no, no, no, no! Why did Kyle have to call me that? Why did he have to call me that?! Part of me thought that maybe Kyle knew exactly the kind of trouble he was getting me in by snickering the words. Part of me thought that he was pleased, sitting there in his car with a grin on his face, watching from an implanted camera in his cell phone as Edward tore me apart with his enraged eyes.

The picture forming in my head came quickly alive.

Edward's eyes bugged out of his head, and, before I could even blink, he was at my side, his face less than an inch from mine. Even murderously angry, his face still appeared to be gentle, the face of an angel, of God himself. I gulped.

"Hitchhiker?!" He hissed.

Dammit Kyle!

I chuckled nervously, backing away like a scared little mouse in the stalking eyes of a predator. He followed right along behind me, his glare more and more intense by the second. I tried to smile innocently, tugging on my shirt sleeve, a nervous habit.

"It is...well, kind of a long story." I murmured, voice shaky with stress. He smiled wickedly, mockingly.

"I've got an eternity ahead of me, Bella. Shoot." He spit angrily, his voice almost teasing, but far too wrapped up with fury to make anyone in their right mind want to laugh. I swallowed hard.

Just as I was about to make a futile run for the door to escape him, an alarming sound blasted my eardrums from outside of the house, ringing with finality. I stopped dead in the middle of my step, my eyes widening in horror. Edward looked at me quickly, glancing at the door with a look of stunned concentration.

"Bella?" Edward whispered incredulously.

I was sure he wasn't talking to me, sure that he was listening to the thoughts out on the freeway, but even if I wasn't certain of this fact, I wouldn't have been able to respond to him. I was lost in the echo of the terrorizing noise as it blared closer still. I couldn't run. I couldn't hide. I had no idea what to do now.

My heartbeat was almost twice as loud as the sirens.

They were coming to get me.