The Learning Curve: Chapter 6

Forks High School, English classroom

Bella Swan kept staring at me.

Having girls stare at me wasn't unusual – I did have something of a reputation, not entirely deserved – but I'd never caught Swan looking. I had a lot of respect for Isabella. She wasn't easily impressed. Hell, Newton had worked on her for months to get her to agree to one date. Granted, it didn't say much for her taste level that she was now Newton's girlfriend, but we all made mistakes. Lord knows there were a few girls I wished I'd never given the time of day.

Now I needed to figure out why Swan was staring at me. I somehow doubted she was suddenly interested in me, considering she was still attached to Newton. It was especially weird that she was staring at me in English class. She tended to pay attention. Maybe she was mad that I was currently finishing my trig homework instead of giving Romeo and Juliet their due.

The bell rang some twenty minutes later, and I began to get curious again when Bella followed close behind me out of the room. A very large part of me hoped she was going to approach me for what girls usually wanted when they approached me. Another part of me hoped she wouldn't. She was beautiful, smart, altogether fascinating, and I knew I wouldn't have the strength to say no – Bella needed me to say no. A lot of girls thought sleeping with me would get them somewhere, and maybe it did, but it would ruin Bella.

I left the building, heading for the cafeteria like everyone else, and that's when I heard her voice.

"Edward! Wait up."

I turned and found myself taken, as always, with her lovely dark eyes.

"What can I do for you, Bella?"

"I wanted to talk to you," she said, glancing nervously at the students rushing past us. "In private."

"Okay," I agreed. She'd spiked my curiosity, and my mind was racing at the suggestion of being alone with her. "We could go to my car."

"All right."

I nodded. "Good. Give me a head start and meet me there."

Her cute little forehead crinkled. "Why?"

I laughed a little at her naivety. "If anyone sees you going off alone with me, they're going to think the worst. You wouldn't want your boyfriend getting the wrong idea."

"Fine," she agreed. I walked away from her toward the parking lot. It started to rain as I went, which just figured. I sat down in the driver's seat and stuck the key into the ignition, turning just far enough to get the stereo going.

Less than a minute later, Bella slid into the passenger seat.

"He's not my boyfriend," she said, apropos of nothing.

"Sorry, who isn't?" I asked bemusedly.

"Mike," she said. "I broke up with him yesterday."

"Oh." I was a little giddy at the news, I admit. Newton was such a douche. "Why?"

Bella bit her lip, which was such a tantalizing, distracting thing to do. "He wanted to have sex."

I choked on my own spit. "And you didn't, I take it?" I replied in a strained voice.

She took a deep breath. "Not with Mike." I guessed I was supposed to find some significance in this statement, but I was so befuddled with thoughts of Bella and sex that I couldn't make the connection.

"Um..."

"I know what guys expect girls to do. I'm not an idiot. So I was thinking I should just get it over with so I'll be able to do it when I meet someone I really want to be with. Someone who isn't Mike."

She hadn't looked at me for the entirety of the conversation, and I was getting a bad feeling.

"I'm not trying to be rude, but just out of genuine curiosity...what does this have to do with me?"

She picked at an invisible piece of lint on her jeans. "I just thought...I mean, I've heard a lot of girls talk about you and I thought you probably know what you're doing."

I licked my dry lips. "Bella, are you asking me to have sex with you?"

I glanced at her blushing face. She twined her fingers together and didn't look away from them. "I guess I am, yeah."

I let out the breath I'd been holding. Maybe I'd held it too long because I felt light-headed.

"Bella..."

"I know it's weird," she interrupted. "And if you don't want to, you can just say so. I get it. I'm nothing special. I just thought you must know a lot about this stuff and maybe you could teach me."

"Are you sure you want your first time to be with me?" I could hardly comprehend what she was asking.

She had cheeks the color of fire engines now. "Well, you hear all these horror stories about girls having really bad first times. Given your reputation as some kind of sex god, it seemed like you could make it somewhat less unpleasant."

"Somewhat less unpleasant," I repeated with a semi-hysterical laugh. "You...you'd better give me some time to think about this, Swan."

"Right. Of course." She gathered up her backpack and raincoat and reached for the door handle. "I'll – uh – see you in biology, then."

When she left, I thumped my head back against the headrest a few times as if to clear it, but it was all in vain.

I could think of nothing other than sex with Bella Swan.