.

"I can't get no satisfaction," I sang along to the radio as I scrubbed the hubcap. It had been a while since I last washed my truck, but it wasn't that dirty. I was just nervous. The anxiety from thinking about the dance had combined with worrying about Edward yesterday, and it was killing me. I woke up late last night and hated myself for not calling Edward back.

I didn't know the whole cell phone etiquette for Sundays. Generally you don't call someone until late afternoon or wait til Monday. But I didn't know with cell phones. Was texting allowed in the morning? Probably.

I was hoping that all of this scrubbing would distract me.

It didn't though. If anything, it was worse. All I could do was think. I tried my best to clear my mind, and I ended up singing along to the radio.

"I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no girl with action, I can't get no - aah!" I squealed like an idiot at the figure in the corner of my eye. I died when I looked up to see Edward.

"Edward hi!" I stood up and leaned into the truck window to turn down the music. "How long were you standing there?"

"Uh, a while," he grinned.

"Oh god," my face burned I was so beyond embarrassed. I was severely tone deaf and could not sing to save my life.

"You're really cute when you blush," Edward stepped closer.

"Right, thanks," I nodded, noticing his cheeks were a little pink as well.

"Uh sorry for just showing up, I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out."

"Oh, you could have called," I reminded him. Like I didn't.

"Right..." he shifted his feet. "Well I figured you would feel like you had to say yes if I just showed up."

"I would have said yes anyways," I palmed my cheek, hoping my cool, wet hand would disperse the heat.

"Do you want some help?" he leaned down and pulled a sponge out of the bucket of soap.

I turned the radio back up and we finished washing my truck mostly in silence. I could hear his hums and mumbles, making sure my lips stayed shut. Now I knew for sure, my Edward-Eddie Masen theory was absurd. There was no way Eddie Masen or any other vocalist/musician/person-who-liked-music would have stuck around after hearing me sing.

"I was going to call you back yesterday, but… I fell asleep," I finally spoke as I hosed off the truck. "I mean I wanted to call you when I was alone, so I waited but…"

"Oh…" Edward looked as if a light bulb went off. "I thought you didn't want to talk because you didn't text me back…"

"I suck at this," the words spilled from my mouth, impulsively. It was true though.

"At what?" he blinked confused.

"Talking…?" I decided to be completely honest. "At school, I'm fine. I don't have too much trouble communicating, but I don't know. Now I'm just nervous…"

Okay, not completely honest. I did know why – knowing that he actually liked me made me all flustered.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, resting against my truck.

"Yes," I frowned. Did he just completely ignore my confession?

"Would you like to go to dinner with me?"

"Okay."

And that was how I ended up in Edward's car. In his backseat, there was a dog-eared copy of Twilight, which he quickly and silently hid under the seat. It was probably Alice's. I couldn't see Rosalie reading a teen romance novel.

He drove us to the main street diner, but he didn't turn off the ignition right away. I could see a bunch of kids from school, including Jessica and Lauren, sitting around in most of the visible booths.

"If we go in there, will they bother us?" he asked.

"Most likely," I bit my lip, a little giddy that he wanted to be alone with me – also terrifyingly nervous.

"Great," he swiftly put his car in reverse and drove down the street to the gas station. "I promise I will take you out on a proper dinner date one day, but would you mind if we just got some snacks?" He looked pained as he spoke, but all I could really focus on was the word date.

"Yeah, no problem…"

I bought a small bag of baked potato chips and an orange soda, and I pushed away irrelevant thoughts as I watched Edward buy a large bag of Cheetos and a water. He drove around before deciding on parking in the school lot.

"I didn't used to be so… selfish," he said, turning up the heat as the light rain brought a slight chill. "But all I want right now is to just be with you without any distractions. And eat my cheetos," he grinned, opening the bag.

"I wouldn't call you selfish exactly."

"Trust me, I've spent most of my life doing things for other people. Lately, I've just been putting myself first."

"Hmm," I sipped my soda. I didn't really know what to make of that.

"Sooo, I read the book," he admitted, nodding to the backseat. "I got curious."

"Did you like it?"

"It wasn't terrible," he made a face.

"You liked it," I laughed

"I'm a romantic," he shrugged. "It could have been worse."

"I read them…" I quit my giggling. "I really liked them too. I thought it was kinda cool that we had the same name and that we were really similar… It gave me hope that someone like her – like me – could find that impossible true love."

I cleared my throat, realizing that I'd just gotten way too deep.

"Well I hope he's not a vampire," Edward gave me a small smile.

"That makes two of us. I don't think I would be able to go through with it all – the changing and stuff – leaving everything – especially my mom… but I don't know. I've never been deeply in love so…" I looked down at my lap.

"I could do it. Well I've done it, but I'm not sure if I could do it again… No, not now," he watched me as he spoke. "Before I was adopted, I lived with my mom… I thought she was happy. I only wanted to make her happy - I thought it was my job. But she changed or maybe she was always hiding it. She didn't really want me. I was eleven when she was deemed unfit, and they were going to put me into foster care. But I never even made it near a home. Carlisle found me, he was good friends with one of the lawyers and he and Esme had just become eligible foster parents."

My throat tightened and my eyes started watering.

"I remember him asking if I liked the Cubs or White Sox," he grinned. "He seemed really relieved that I said White Sox because Esme loved the Cubs and he needed someone on his side. I left the court house with them, and I saw my mom only once after that. It didn't go well."

"Rose was next to join us. I was almost twelve, and she was almost thirteen. Her mom just died from cancer. Carlisle was worried I was going to take advantage of the living situation when we got older," he scoffed. "Like I could put up with her. She's such a snot."

"Oh..." I thought over my time spent with Rosalie. She didn't seem awful, but she was definitely intimidating. And I knew she liked to annoy Edward…

"Then Emmett was next. He was already in foster care. His parents had passed away in a car accident. Now he was the one they should have been worried about, but Carlisle and Esme don't really get on their case because he somehow makes Rosalie pleasant. I don't know.

"And Alice and Jasper came together. They were fourteen and they had been living in subway tunnels for a couple of months. They met in an orphanage and ran away together. When they got caught, they lied and said they were cousins so they could stay together. Someone contacted Esme because they knew we could take in two more teenagers…

"Shit, I probably shouldn't have told you any of that."

"I won't tell."

"I know you won't. I trust you. I don't know why, but I just do," he sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

"I know what you mean." Despite my nerves, once I started talking, I couldn't really stop.

"Are those baked chips any good?" he changed the subject.

"Yeah," I'd already eaten half the bag. "Want one?" I hold a chip out for him.

"Sure," he leaned over with his mouth open, and I carefully dropped it into his mouth. "Hmm, needs more salt. Want a cheeto?" he offered, licking his fingers.

"No, I'm good." By this point, it felt like my whole body was blushing.

Thankfully my phone chirped, giving me a distraction.

"Sorry, it's my dad," I explained as I texted him back, letting him know where I was.

"S'no problem," he crunched another cheeto.

"Oh!" I bounced in my seat. "I just remembered. I chose a ring tone!"

"Alright, let's hear it. Which one did you pick?"

"It's called Ringer 3," I babbled on about why I picked it. "What?" I stopped when I noticed he was looking at me oddly.

"You definitely don't suck at talking… just so you know."

"Well, I'm no Alice."

"No," he snorted. "You're not, thankfully."

…

After Edward dropped me off at home, I sat on my bed scrolling through my contacts. Every so often I would delete a completely strange and unknown number, trying to decide if I should really call for help.

It was embarrassing.

But she would know what to do. I bounced my leg as the phone rang… and rang… and rang… and then a recorded message telling me that a voicemail hasn't been set up.

I tried the home number, hoping they were home.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mom…"

"Bella! Thank god you called because I just lost my phone and of course I hadn't written your number down or your father's. You know I was going to write a letter because I just wasn't sure how to get in touch with you."

I didn't even attempt to remind her there was email which she would go through sporadic periods of sending fourteen a day and then none for three weeks.

"I'll make sure to text Phil so he'll have it."

"Oh good good, so how are you? How's Forks?"

"Um…" I hesitated, not exactly how I should tell her about Edward – or what even. "Good. It's really good here."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I like it here."

"Really?"

"Yeah Mom," I laughed. "Really."

"Bella… is there a boy?"

"Uh yeah…"

"…"

"Mom? You there?"

"What's he like? Is he cute? Send me a picture! Is he in a band? Is he a jock? Is he-"

And then I had to sit there for an hour to answer all of her questions. I explained that he was new and was my lab partner. She laughed when I told her his name was Edward.

"So I don't know what to wear to the dance – that's why I was calling…"

"I have the most perfect idea!"

Her most perfect idea was online shopping… together – which wasn't "most perfect" due slow internet connections and our different tastes in fashion. She wanted me to wear this red dress that was way more fancy than that purple dress that I saw with Alice and Rosalie, and I didn't like anything.

It took another hour for us to settle on the same thing. Dark skinny jeans and a royal blue blouse. I almost hung up on her when she tried to look for silver heels, but I told her I had shoes. I thanked her a million times before we said our goodbyes.

I walked downstairs to find something to eat when I found Dad eating pizza in the living room. He must have heard me talking to Mom on the phone and ordered pizza.

"So… you're going to the dance with Edward Cullen, huh?"

He most definitely heard.

AN: So I attempted writing on my new phone…. And I failed. And I was late. My bad. Hopefully I'll finish this story next week.

Thanks for Reading!