The Learning Curve: Chapter 5
Forks High School cafeteria
Edward Cullen was gorgeous. No one disputed that fact, and I had indulged in secret admiration of him since his family moved here two years ago.
"You're drooling, Bella."
"What?" I started in alarm, wiping the sides of my mouth.
"Not literally." Alice rolled her eyes. "But God, Bella, could you be any more obvious, staring at Edward Cullen like that? I know he's hot, but you have a boyfriend."
I blushed guiltily. "I wasn't staring at Edward."
Alice didn't dignify my denial with a response.
And, okay, I was staring at Edward, but this was more appraisal than ogling. He was tall, which was something Mike was not, and he looked pretty healthy, although I guess most STDs didn't appear on people's faces. Speaking of, Edward's was beautiful. It wasn't infatuation talking – Edward was just objectively, undeniably beautiful. He had a jawline like a movie star. Oh, and hair and eyes and lips like a movie star, too. He ought to be the centerfold in Tiger Beat.
Edward did have a bit of a reputation – not as a womanizer, because he never seemed to solicit attention – but I'd heard no less than ten different girls lay claim to having slept with him in the locker room. They seemed to consider it a badge of honor, having sex with Edward. I could see why.
The worst part of it was that Edward didn't act like a guy who slept around. He was confident, but not conceited, and nice to everyone, though not flirty. He made good grades, and while he went to parties on the weekend, he never got wasted or did anything stupid.
He had to be the one, I decided. I just had to figure out how to ask him.
"What are you plotting?" Alice asked suspiciously.
That was the thing with Alice. Sometimes she just knew something was fishy, or just had a hunch how something would turn out, and she was almost always right. It was part of the reason people thought she was weird.
"Nothing," I lied. It was worth a try, anyway.
"Bullshit. You're not going to practice on Edward before you do it with Mike, are you? Because that's totally messed up."
"I don't know. I don't know if I ever want to do it with Mike," I admitted.
"At least you've started to catch on. But why Edward, then?"
I tried to think of the best way to explain it. "You know how when you take a CPR class, they have you practice on those weird dummies so you don't mess it up with an actual human?"
Alice blinked at me and brushed her choppy bangs out of her eyes. "You want to use Edward as a practice dummy?"
"Well...yeah, pretty much."
Alice just sighed. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself in for."