A.N. This one is my second favorite one, almost my first. I truly do lerv it.

For the sake of this death, Edward can't read minds. And this one is longer than usual, but I feel it's purty good.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Well, I do own that time of day when the sun hits just below the horizon, but Twilight? Naw, I don't own that.

Death Nine: Love and Strawberries

Everything was going perfect for our heroine. No, I don't mean that heroine (but ask me about later...) I mean our girl hero, Bella.

She had the best dead boyfriend anyone could hope for. Good grades, great friends, perfect father. What could possibly go wrong?

Xandra. That poured a whole gallon of black paint on Bella's perfect picture.

Bella was eating lunch with the Cullen's. Alice was telling her about the killer Kohl's sale. She was barely listening. I mean, Edward was right next to her. How was she supposed to concentrate on anything besides swooning and breathing?

Now, Edward's love for Bella had to do with her blood, and...that's about it. I mean, her personality? You mean her lack there of. Her taste in things? Boring much? Her ability to take care of herself? It amazed him how she could even take a shower.

Now, Edward didn't used to think that. Not until he met Xandra. Bella, staring at Edward as per usual, didn't notice the strange girl walking in. Edward did, and he tilted his head to the side.

"What? What is it?" What grabbed his attention and how could she get it back?

"Who's that? She has a cool shirt," Edward said. He didn't look too interested. He was just curious.

Bella squinted at the girl with the cool shirt that said 'That's how I roll!' with a picture of a roller skate on it. "That's Xandra. She's okay. I mean, she's funny, but she's too loud for my taste."

"What, does she yell in your ear?" Emmett asked.

Bella laughed, merrily as ever. "No, silly! She's just always hyper." The conversation was dropped after that. Yet the girl still held Edward's attention. She was really pretty, mid-back black hair with white streaks everywhere. She had thick make-up around her eyes, and she was wearing skin tight black jeans.

Did her blood smell as delicious as Bella's? No. And yet, her aura held Edward's attention more than Bella's bodily fluids could. He frowned. What was happening? He shook his head and put his full attention on Bella, not Xandra. And it worked for the rest of the day, and all through the night.

Until he saw her at school again the next morning. And get this! He saw her in the halls, and he tried to read her shirt again. She caught him staring and she smiled at him. Didn't blush! Didn't smell her hair to see if it smelt bad! Didn't even notice the color of his eyes! She just smiled and kept walking. Edward tried to keep his pace steady. Was that smile supposed to mean something? What? What? What?

He pushed it from his mind once he saw Bella. Bella is the one you love! Bella!

-0-0-0-0-

Weeks passed. Edward kept telling himself he loved Bella every time Xandra was in the room. He tried to ignore that urge to stare at her (even though he failed every time). Tried to control himself from going over there and just talking to her.

He didn't want to eat her. Nor did he want to smell her or stalk her. He just wanted to talk to her. For her to know that he existed.

What the hell is going on with him?

Bella seemed to notice his strange behavior because she started to hate Xandra for no apparent reason. She would glare whenever she entered the room, mutter under her breath at everything Xandra said, and dissed her shoes all the time.

Edward was getting annoyed at Bella and himself. What was this Xandra doing to them?

And since when was Xandra more attractive than Bella?

Oh God.

-0-0-0-0-

One day, he couldn't take it any longer. Xandra was with her friends talking and Edward just happened to hear what they were talking about.

"Why do guys in books always say that the girl smelt like strawberries?" Her posse laughed, and she smirked, proud of her workings of the crowd. "I mean, we do buy other perfume. And other kinds of shampoo and conditioner. Is it just like, a guy code thing? 'All girls smell like strawberries!' Come to think of it, do they even make strawberry perfume?" The group of girls looked around at each other, then they giggled.

Edward, thinking about how he thought Bella smelt like strawberries, couldn't help himself. He put himself in with that group of girls and, looking straight at Xandra, he said, "I think you smell like apples. Green apples." All the girls stared wide eyed in shock, and Xandra just started laughing. Edward, proud of his work, grinned back his special grin, and left the group in search of Bella.

Too bad he didn't know that Bella had seen the whole encounter through vastly narrowed eyes. She even growled once. That grin was for her and her only. How could he?

Oh, he's going to pay.

Going.

To.

Pay.

-0-0-0-0-

Edward went through Bella's window, but was much surprised when he found her bed empty.

He smelled the air and...turned around. There she was holding a...

A...

Ball and chain?

"Edward, what the hell? I thought we were supposed to be together forever. Forever." She started to leave the corner, making him back up. He hit the desk. He tripped over his own feet. He stepped back and back and back, Bella still talking. "And then I see you with this other girl, giving her that crooked smile. What am I supposed to do, Edward? What?"

He hit a wall. She starting to swing her ball and chain, the spikes deadly in the moonlight.

"I-I don't kn-know Bella. I – "

"No! You have to lines in this play. You only have one part, and it's the part where this ball hits you in the head."

Edward's eyes shot out of their sockets, except not really. She swung it in a huge arc, and before Edward could realize that she was being serious, he was hit. And the whole world went black for the last time.

Bella stared at the blood drifting down the floor, through the cracks of the wood floor. She smirked.

"I smell like strawberries, bitch. Now, where does Xandra live?"