I do not support hitch hiking. Don't do it. You'll be chopped up or someone will steal your kidney and leave you in a bathtub. This is fiction.

Location: Interstate 90, Southwest of Buffalo, New York

Prompt: Movie Theatre

The sun rose into the sky as Edward looked at his dashboard and noticed that it was already eleven in the morning. Since Bella had gotten in his car in Rochester they had barely said ten words to each other. The silence was deafening and a bit worrisome since it had been almost three hours since he picked her up wandering alongside the road. They were less than an hour away from Erie, Pennsylvania and Edward couldn't help but wonder how the day would progress.

Though Bella was quiet, her eyes were definitely expressive and Edward was drawn to them. He could see sadness and loneliness plain as day, but there was also something else there, defiance perhaps, that made her strong enough to hitchhike across the country. Edward still thought that was a stupid move on her part – being a beautiful twenty-year-old woman, she was bound to be a magnet for trouble. How she had survived so far was very fascinating to Edward.

For her part, Bella was also wondering how things would go between her and Edward for the duration of their trip. He seemed nice enough; he didn't smell funny, have a yappy dog or look at her oddly, so she considered her latest ride a small victory. When he did look at her though, even if it was just a glance from the corner of his eye, Bella felt like someone was actually paying attention to her, which was a rare occurrence indeed.

"So, I was thinking of driving straight through to Chicago," Edward said, desperate to break the silence between them.

"Okay," Bella replied quietly. She had enjoyed her time in Chicago, spending time with Kate, one of her friends from high school who was attending the University of Chicago. Bella constantly felt like a third wheel while she was with Kate and her college friends, so it was never in Bella's long term plans to stay there. She wanted Kate to have a great summer, which meant that Bella had to move on and find her own way.

Going back to Chicago was somewhat bittersweet since it had only been two weeks since she had left and Bella had hoped she would have seen much more of the world and actually have interesting stories and photos of her adventures when she eventually saw Kate again.

"I have a friend who lives downtown who offered me a place to crash, but since I have a new… traveling buddy," Edward said tentatively, unsure of what to call Bella, "I thought maybe we should just do a motel or something on the outside of the city."

"There's no need to change your plans for me, Edward. I could stay with a friend as well, I'd just rather not. She's already put me up recently." Bella said softly as she began to formulate a new plan in her mind. Edward could stay with his friend and Bella could find another 'traveling buddy' and make her way on to Forks. "Chicago is more than far enough for me to go with you. You've been more than generous."

Edward was surprised by her response as he glanced at Bella out of the corner of his eye. She looked so disaffected by everything; it immediately made him curious about her. Well, even more curious, because he had been interested in how her mind worked since the moment he picked her up. How she could be so careless and free in this day and age baffled Edward. For the time being, he was going to let the situation slide though. "Let's decide as we get closer, alright?"

"That's fine with me," Bella replied hastily before she looked out the window again, trying to take her mind off of everything that was going on in her life.

The scenery through New York hadn't exactly been spectacular; a lot of pine trees and yellowed grass lined the highway between Rochester and Erie. However, she also realized she was in a particularly sour mood since her trip had been cut short. There would be no George Eastman House in Rochester or Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She wouldn't get to see the house where Lizzie Borden apparently killed her parents or the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Then again, maybe there would be another chance to see everything once she had figured out her life.

"Why don't we get to know each other a little bit?" Edward suggested, catching Bella off guard. She turned in her seat as he lowered the volume on the horrible pop station that had been playing and looked at him in disbelief. "Well, we are going to be together for a little while, so why not ask a few questions?"

"What sort of questions?"

"I don't know... anything."

"Nothing too personal, alright?"

"Okay, I can handle that," Edward replied, though he was hoping he could learn more about Bella, just not the superficial shit the game would afford him. "We could talk about college or high school, maybe about our favorite kinds of music, or our favorite character from Harry Potter. Did you read Harry Potter?"

"Do I look like I live under a rock?" Bella asked defensively.

"Well, no," Edward replied anxiously, worried he had offended her somehow. As he looked at Bella again, his hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. He certainly found Bella attractive the more that he paid attention to her, but he also didn't want to make this trip difficult. For a brief moment, Edward wondered whether or not he should have picked her up to begin with, but then she spoke.

"I have a certain fondness for Neville." Edward snorted rather loudly and began to picture Neville in his mind. He was always the goofy sidekick, with baby fat and crooked teeth, but he was an interesting character nonetheless.

"Neville huh?"

"Yeah, he grew up good. You probably haven't seen him lately, but let me just say, the things I would do to that man would be considered illegal in several countries." Bella smirked happily beside Edward and he found himself adjusting how he sat in his seat. Bella was quiet one moment and eccentric the next; he didn't know what to expect with her. He liked it. "What about you?"

"I always liked Hermione, I guess."

"You guess? You don't sound too sure there, Edward."

"Well, I always liked the smart girls. The ones who could speak their mind and didn't worry about what other people thought of them. Hermione is like that, you know?" Bella nodded her head in silent understanding beside him as Edward thought of another question. "Which Harry Potter character are you most like?"

"I'm more of a Luna, don't you think?"

"I don't know you well enough to guess that," Edward replied tensely as he watched Bella adjust her legs so that one was tucked under the other. Surely that couldn't have been comfortable in his car, right?

"I'm a bit of a free-spirit, my dad is my best friend, I don't really have a lot of friends and I don't really fit into any particular mold, but I'm also smart and fairly resourceful, so I'm sticking with Luna," Bella answered as she looked at Edward intently and he realized that her gaze was both disconcerting and arousing. He didn't quite know how to respond to her answer. "So, who are you from Harry Potter? Let me guess... are you Hedwig, cause you like to get your feathers ruffled?"

Edward laughed heartily and for the first time in three hours, he thought this trip might not be as much of a lost cause as he had assumed. "Nah, I think I'm more like Ron Weasley. You know, with the hair and the awkwardness. I'm much more suited for the job of sidekick than the hero."

"Ron was a hero in his own right," Bella answered and Edward wasn't sure if she was defending him or Ron. Regardless, he would take it as a compliment. "Plus, in the long run he ended up with the smart girl. He had to have been doing something right. You don't have a massive fear of spiders, do you?"

"Not that I know of, but I haven't come across one big enough to scare me," Edward replied with a lopsided grin.

For the next thirty minutes, Edward and Bella shared a comfortable banter back and forth about all aspects of Harry Potter. They discussed their favorite films versions; he was partial to the Deathly Hallows Part Two, whereas she enjoyed the Half Blood Prince. His favorite book of the series was the Goblet of Fire and felt like the movie was lacking, whereas Bella loved The Order of the Phoenix.

Bella even told Edward about the time she dragged her father to the movies to see the Half Blood Prince with her. Charlie was never one for movies, in fact the last movie he saw in the theatres had been Thelma & Louise in 1991, but Bella had been desperate to go so Charlie finally relented after weeks of Bella badgering him. Of course, the entire evening was a comedy of errors as they waited in a long lineup, dealt with snotty kids and the chief eventually spilled soda all over himself as he attempted to find his seat. Once the evening was over, he made Bella promise never to invite him to the movies again.

Though Bella & Edward were drastically different in personality and choices, they could at least agree that they had loved the world that J.K. Rowling had created, and he agreed that she shouldn't force her father to go to the movies again.

"I was hoping to make it down to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando this summer, but my plans have sort of been derailed," Bella admitted regretfully as she looked back out the window and the sign they passed let her know they were almost in Erie. She didn't want Edward to begin talking to her about her summer plans go awry, so she changed the topic quickly. "Did you want to stop for lunch?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. My 7-11 muffins left much to be desired this morning."