I had to find him… I had to find Edward Cullen.
Not that I want to see him again or anything, but you see, after he left the room I noticed that he had left his music folder behind. So at the end of the day, I rushed down to the car park and stood in front his silver Volvo. Everyone stared at me and some even gave me dirty looks as they walked passed by. They were probably thinking that I was waiting to try and hook up with him or something. Yeah right! Not after the way he spoke to me earlier on. A few rain drops suddenly landed on my head and I looked up to see dark grey storm clouds were forming above. I quickly stuffed the music folder into my bag to keep it dry and pulled out my umbrella. In Forks, you shouldn't go anywhere without one!
As the minutes rolled by, there was still no sign of Edward and I was beginning to think that maybe I should just hand it into the main office and they could return it to him instead. Apart from my truck, his vehicle was now the only car left in the car park. But suddenly my thoughts were quickly interrupted as I heard someone's footsteps approaching.
"What didn't you understand about the leaving me alone part?" I heard Edward mumble as he walked right past me, clearly annoyed.
I scoffed and looked over at him from underneath my umbrella. "Look, I really don't see why you have to be so rude…"
Edward was about to get in the car when he turned around and interrupted me "Can you get out of the way? I'd like to go home" And then he got into the car and shut the door behind him.
I stood there in utter shock with my mouth open as the rain began to fall even harder against my umbrella.
"Fine!" I shouted through the sound of the heavy rain. "I'll just leave your stupid music folder right here in this puddle behind your tyre shall I? You can damn well run over it for all I care!" As I rummaged through my bag, I heard him bolt out of the car and rush over to me.
"Wait, wait, wait! No, please don't!" His voice sounded full of panic. He outstretched his arms, pleading for me to give it to him.
I rolled my eyes and shoved the folder into his chest. "Don't know why I even bothered"
Without wasting another second, I turned around and started to walk off. I didn't get very far until a loud clap of thunder filled the air, followed by a down pour of large hail stones. I screamed and tried to make a run for it, but I looked forward and saw that my truck was right down the very end of the car park. My umbrella was now pretty much useless as I could feel the cold water seeping through my clothes. Before I knew it, Edward suddenly swerved his car in front of me and opened the passenger door.
"Get in!" He yelled.
Without thinking, I immediately ran over and jumped inside, pulling my umbrella down and onto my lap. He quickly drove over to the bottom of the main entrance stairs where there was a partial undercover area.
"Wow, I've never seen it hail so heavy like this before" I breathed, staring out at a blur of whiteness.
"I have…" Edward said, turning on the car's heater in attempt to dry our soaking wet clothes. "Over in Alaska, they can get as big as baseballs"
"Are you serious?" I asked, watching as he pushed some of his wet hair off his forehead.
He simply turned his head and nodded before quickly running his eyes over me. I bit my lower lip as I suddenly felt a little self conscious of the situation.
"I've got a spare coat back there" He said, pointing to the back seat.
I blinked a few times and raised an eyebrow in question. "I beg your pardon?"
"Your jacket is drenched" He simply stated.
My heart began to pound against my chest as he turned in his seat and reached back to get me the spare coat. I couldn't help but noticed how close his chest was as he arched his body between the two front seats.
"Here, put it on"
I stared blankly down at the black coat before glancing over in his direction. The grey coat that he was currently wearing was completely soaked through.
"I can't… You have it; you need it more than I do"
Edward declined and pushed the coat back into my hands insisting that I have it. As he switched the radio on low and flicked through the stations, I took my wet jacket off and placed it along with my bag and umbrella on the floor by my feet. Settling back in the seat, I gratefully wrapped his warm coat around my body. Edward finally decided on a radio station and we both sat there listening to the music as we stared out at the falling hail stones.
"Listen, um… Thanks for returning my folder. And, um not throwing it into the puddle" He spoke slowly and quietly.
"Yeah, well you're lucky I didn't… I was pretty mad at you" I replied as I kept my gaze focussed on the front window.
He turned his attention on to me then. I could feel his eyes staring at me, but I fought the urge to look at him.
"I'm sorry… Bella"
I shifted in my seat and turn to face him, ready to give him an earful about what I really thought… But then I noticed the expression on his face, the hurt in his eyes. He seemed genuinely sad… I couldn't help but stare into his eyes, and for a moment I think I got lost in them. It took a large amount of strength to tear away from his penetrating gaze, but I managed to break free and tried to focus on something else.
"It's alright. Just forget about it" I quickly muttered.
"I don't blame you for hating me…" He continued before saying the next line in an almost inaudible whisper. "… I hate myself"
My eyes flickered back over to him and watched as he leant forward against the steering wheel in frustration.
"Edward… I don't hate you" I whispered. "Are you alright?"
He immediately sat back in his seat and cleared his throat as he looked out his side window, avoiding my gaze. "Life can be so cruel sometimes, can't it?"
I sat there in silence, waiting to see if he would continue. Eventually he sighed, picked up his folder and slowly ran his fingers over it.
"I thought I lost this. Music… My songs… They're my life. I have nothing else"
Without thinking, I reached out from underneath the coat and placed my hand on his upper arm.
"The one I heard you playing before was so beautiful…"
His gaze was once again focussed on me as he searched my face. He then looked down at the hand I had resting on his arm. I quickly took my hand away as if his arm was on fire and couldn't help but feel my cheeks blush. To make matters worse, I was embarrassed even more as my phone's ringtone rang out loud… 'Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me…'
"Hello?" I answered quickly before having time to check who was calling.
"Oh dad, hey… Yeah, don't worry I'm fine… No I'm not driving at the moment. I'm under shelter, waiting for it to calm down… Yep, in the school car park… Um, no I'm not alone. I'm with someone else… I'll be fine… Ok I'll see you when I get home… Bye"
I hung up and put the phone back in my bag. "That was Charlie, my dad. He's always so concerned about me. He's the chief of police you know…"
Edward remained silent as he rested his elbow against the window and rubbed his fingers across his forehead down to his temple.
After another 10 minutes or so, the hail had finally stopped and the rain eased into a light drizzle. Edward was nice enough to drive me over to my truck so I didn't have to walk.
"Um, thanks for everything… You know, letting me hide out in your car and all" I gave Edward a smile as I handed back his coat.
"No problem" He attempted to give me a small lopsided smile in return. "I'll see you tomorrow"
I was suddenly confused and gave him a strange look. "Tomorrow?"
"At school…" He elaborated slowly.
"Oh, right! School, yeah…" I felt my cheeks heating up again and Edward raised one of his eyebrows in what seemed like amusement on my behalf.
"Unless you had other ideas…" The smirk on his face seemed to grow wider.
I closed my eyes for a moment and mentally shook my head. "For some reason I thought it was Saturday tomorrow, that's all. But nope, got one more day to go…" I quickly gathered my things and stepped out of the car.
We said good bye and I hurried over into my truck, watching him speed out of the school grounds.
Later that night I couldn't help but think about our conversation as I lie awake in bed. Maybe Edward wasn't as rude as I first thought. He seems to be keeping something to himself, and it's clearly causing him pain and unhappiness. For some reason I feel like I should try to get closer to him, and find out what it is that's troubling him. I'm certain there's a loving and caring Edward in there somewhere, I just need to bring it out…
So what do you all think so far? I've got plenty of ideas, so i'll try to update as best I can. Thanks for reading!