Apart from giving me directions, Edward remained very quiet. I glanced over at him every now and then, but he kept his eyes on the road ahead and appeared to be deep in thought. I didn't know what to say to him, so I kept my mouth shut and concentrated on driving. After a few minutes of travelling along the main road, I noticed that we were now starting to reach the outskirts of Forks. How far away did he live? I thought to myself. Did he even live in Forks? In the distance, I saw that the road branched off to the left.

"Do I continue going straight, or do I turn left?" I asked. My voice sounded a little husky because I hadn't spoken for a while. I quietly cleared my throat and waited patiently for an answer, but he remained silent. My head turned to take a fleeting look at his face, and to my surprise he wasn't even looking at the road ahead. He was staring down at his own hands. "Edward?"

"Huh?" He snapped back to reality and glanced up and out the front window to get a hold of his bearings.

"Do I go straight, or left?" I repeated the words quickly as I was nearing the intersection.

"Straight… Oh no wait, make a left!" He blurted out quickly, pointing to the side street.

But it was too late. I'd already passed the turn off and continued driving straight. I groaned in annoyance and turned to narrow my eyes at him.

"Sorry about that…" He said, noticing that I was quite agitated as I checked to make sure there wasn't any oncoming traffic before proceeding to do a u-turn.

"It's alright. No harm done" I assured him while I drove back and made the turn into the side street.

"We're not too far away now" He murmured softly.

Eventually his directions led us to a small apartment building and I parked the car over near the curb. I pulled the keys out from the ignition and handed them to Edward. His once radiant green eyes were now dull and lifeless as he gazed down at my scraped knees.

"Are you alright?" He whispered, choking a little on his words.

I lowered my eyes to check the damage for myself. The blood had already dried into dark scabs. "I'm fine" I sighed before looking back in his direction. "It's you that I'm more concerned about"

He groaned and went to unbuckle his seat belt. "Well, don't be. I can take care of myself"

I stared at him dubiously and scoffed at the sight before me. "Hardly" Before he got the chance to say anything, I added. "So is anyone home that can take care of you?"

His eyes shot up to meet mine, and the look he gave me was unreadable. A few seconds of silence passed by before he spoke rather harshly. "No"

"Oh" I breathed, suddenly feeling worried for him. "Well I don't mind waiting around until someone comes home…"

Edward's strong glare suddenly pieced straight through me, and anger seemed to wash over his face. I immediately sensed that I'd said something I shouldn't have. I froze on the spot and dug my nails into the soft leather seat, waiting for whatever words he would spit out at me.

"You don't understand do you, Bella? No-one is coming home! My parents are gone! I'm all alone in this world now. I have nothing…" He stopped and hesitated for a moment when he saw my mouth drop open in complete and utter shock. "… But most importantly, I don't want or need you sympathy"

My mouth felt extremely dry and I struggled to swallow as his words registered in my mind. I couldn't imagine what he must be going through… I couldn't imagine what it would be like if I lost Charlie and Renée…

Suddenly Edward was reaching for something inside the pocket of his pants. He swiftly pulled out his silver phone and pressed a few numbers before holding it up to his ear. What is he doing? Who is he calling? I sat there staring at his blank facial expression. Even though it wasn't showing, I could tell that he was hiding so much pain caused by the loss of his parents. I was almost lost in my thoughts until his voice spoke to someone on the other end of the phone.

"Hello, I'm calling for a cab -"

"No!" My arm shot out and reached for his phone to end the conversation. I successfully grabbed it and quickly closed it shut.

Edward was shocked and eyed me as if I were a lunatic. "Why did you do that?"

I helplessly stared straight into his eyes and slowly held my hand out for him to retrieve his phone. Without taking his eyes off mine, he gently took it before I closed my hand around his in a comforting way.

"You're wrong, Edward" I whispered to him. "You're not alone… I'm here"

He exhaled deeply and averted his gaze down to our entwined hands. His eyebrows knitted together and he scrunched his nose as if he was repulsed by something. "I don't want to drag you into my broken world -"

"It's too late" I interrupted and gently squeezed his hand. "I'm already in it… and I want to help"

"You're crazy" He stated, rolling his eyes.

"I know!" I beamed in delight at the fact that he was giving in to me. "Now stay right there and I'll come around to help you out"

I heard Edward groan in defeat as I hopped out of the car and rushed around to his side. He was silent the whole way over to the apartment building. I could tell that he was tyring not to lean too much of his weight on me while I held onto his waist and he awkwardly hobbled along the pavement. Even though it was only a small building and had just four levels, I looked up and wondered which floor he lived on. Surprisingly, he read my mind and answered the question for me.

"Sorry, I'm on the fourth floor"

I couldn't help but to laugh at our unfortunate luck. "It's ok. I'll get you up there in one piece"

It took us quite a lot of effort and a few curse words on my behalf, but eventually we made it to the top level, gasping for air. Edward pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. He reached out to flick on the light switch and began to sway. I quickly rushed over to help him again as he grabbed onto the door frame for support. We made out way into the room and he slightly winced as I lowered him down onto a two seater couch. I let out a large breath of air and stood back to take in my surroundings. The place was quite small, but it was cosy. From where I was standing I could see that there were two bedrooms to my right, a bathroom which was in between them, and a small kitchen behind the couch that Edward was lounging in. A large TV was positioned against the white wall behind me. I also noticed that he had large double glass doors which opened up to a smallish balcony.

"It's not much…" I heard Edward mumble, and I jumped a little at the sound of his voice breaking the silence.

"No, it's lovely!" I smiled over at him, but he didn't return the smile. It was under the bright light that I noticed the angry purple bruise more clearly on his cheek. I bit my lower lip and carefully looked away, thinking what I could do to help him. "Um, you don't happen to have some ice do you?"

"There should be some ice cubes in the freezer"

I nodded and made my way around the couch and into the small kitchen. Sure enough, there was a tray of ice cubes sitting in the freezer. I quickly grabbed the tray and popped the cubes of ice onto the counter and wrapped them up in a dish cloth.

"Press this to your cheek. It will help ease the swelling" I said as I handed him the bundle of ice and took a seat next to him on the edge of the couch.

"Thanks" He shivered as the cold ice touched his face.

"Now, what should we do about your foot?" I asked, letting my eyes roam down his long legs until I focussed on his foot.

"I don't know. Just leave it alone and it will heal on its own" He spoke with no concern what so ever.

I frowned at his attitude and folded my arms across my chest. "I think that I should at least take your shoe off and have a look. It might be swelling up"

He shrugged his shoulders in response, and for a moment I thought about leaving him alone if that's what he wanted so badly. But then I couldn't bring myself to do that, and I sighed in frustration as I got down on the carpet and sat crossed legged beside his feet. A loud ripping sound filled the air and I looked down in shock to find that one side of my dress had split right up the side along my thigh. Oh my gosh!

"What was that?" Edward asked, leaning forward on the couch.

"Nothing!" I replied hastily as I shot both of my hands down to pull the material together so that it partially covered my leg.

He suddenly started laughing hysterically while he weakly managed to hold the ice to his cheek. My face heated up from embarrassment and I lowered my head so that my long hair could hide the evidence on my cheeks. "Shut up" I moaned.

He stopped laughing that instant and sincerely apologized for his behaviour. "What a day this had been, hey?"

I could feel the humour in his voice, and I peered up to find that he had now leant back on the couch and had closed his eyes. "Yeah, it's been a bundle of laughs" I rolled my eyes and let go of the material, not giving a stuff about the dress anymore.

My fingers started to untie the laces on his shoe and I tried to remove it without causing him too much pain. The sock was next. I carefully peeled it off and chucked it to the side so that I could examine his foot. Not that I knew what I was doing when it came to a possible broken foot…

"Um, does this hurt?" I asked when I gently pressed my fingers around his ankle.

"No" He replied softly.

I ran my hands down to his heel and pressed against his skin. "What about now?"

"Nope"

I pressed my fingers on random spots around his foot, waiting for some sort of response but he never said anything, so I pressed more firmly. A short snicker suddenly escaped his lips, and I turned my head to find him holding back a fit of laughter.

"You find this funny?" I asked, raising one of my eyebrows.

He let out a few chuckles and cleared his throat. "Yeah, it kind of tickles"

"Oh" I rolled my eyes and stood up carefully as I held my dress together at the ripped side. "Well clearly your foot can't be broken if you think it's amusing!"

He sighed and shifted the ice pack into his other hand so that he could pat the space beside him. I reluctantly took his offer and sat down next to him. Edward then took me by surprise and gently wrapped his free arm around my shoulders and brought me close up against his warm body. We sat there in silence for a moment until he started to snicker again. I turned my face so that I could see his, and I noticed his gorgeous lopsided grin was in place.

"What's so funny now?" I asked.

"Bella, sweetheart" He turned his face and removed the bundle of ice away from his face. My eyes watched as his lips were now merely a fraction away from my own. "You were examining the wrong foot" He whispered.

My heart plummeted and I felt my head flop lifelessly against his chest. "You could have said something instead of making me look like a complete idiot" I mumbled into his shirt before I brought my hand around and lightly punched him in the gut.

Edward chuckled softly, causing my body to go up and down with his laughter. "Sorry, but you were just too focussed… and you look cute when you're focussed" He paused for a moment before adding in a more serious tone. "You're not mad at me are you?"

I slowly removed myself off his chest and leant back against the couch. His arm remained around my shoulders as he looked at my face.

"No"

"Good" He smiled that heart warming smile of his and I forced my eyes to look away and focus on his other foot.

"So would you like me to check the real sore foot? Or has it miraculously healed?"

"It's a bit sore" He admitted before scanning his eyes across my dress. "I think you should take that off" He said randomly.

My heart stopped beating for a moment and I held onto my breath as I turned to look at his serious facial expression. I slowly exhaled so I could speak and said in a high pitched voice. "Excuse me?"

He caught onto my wave length and raised both of his eyebrows in shock. "Bella, I didn't mean it like that… I meant, go and get changed into something else"

"I don't have anything else!"

"I know. Go and find something of mine to put on. It's the room on the left" He pointed with his finger.

"Edward. Are you being serious?" I asked, looking from his bedroom back into his shining eyes.

"Yes. Deadly serious" He held my gaze for a moment until a cheeky grin appeared on his face.

I looked down at my body to find that my right leg that was pressed up against his was totally exposed. The dark purple material of my dress had now split to the point where you could almost see my underwear. I whined and manoeuvred myself on the couch so that I was curled up on my side, facing Edward. It made me even closer to him, but at least my exposed skin was hidden.

"That's not really helping..." He moaned softly as he examined my new position.

I shrugged my shoulders and felt my heart rate increase as he dropped the bundle of ice and wrapped his arm around my waist. The bruise on his face had already begun to lose some of its angry colouring, and I was glad to see the swelling had gone down to normal. Edward was indescribably gorgeous! If there were such thing as the perfect man... I was certainly staring at him right now.

His soft, velvety voice suddenly broke me out of my daydream. "Bella, you truly are so beautiful"

I giggled quietly as I looked down from his face. "I was just thinking the same thing about you!" I admitted out loud. Whoops. That was supposed to be kept silent…

But before I had the chance to say anything to cover my tracks, Edward reached out his hand and placed his fingers underneath my chin. He gently moved my head upward so that we were staring into one another's eyes. My lips were aching to taste his, but I was too frozen to make the first move. Please, oh please Edward! Kiss me! I wanted to scream.

"May I?" He whispered in a gentlemanly fashion.

I nodded furiously and within a split second he granted my wish and placed his soft, warm lips upon mine. My stomach filled with butterflies as I moved my hand to caress the side of his head, weaving my fingers through his thick bronze hair. He tasted so sweet, it was pure bliss. My lips moved in sync with his as we slowly melted into one another. I've never felt so desired in all my life…

"Bella" He breathed my name against my lips as we slowly came to a stop.

Even though it seemed way too short, it was perfect for our first kiss. I smiled against his lips and kissed him one last time before moving back to regain my steady breathing.

Edward kept his eyes closed and breathed in my scent. "You are far to intoxicating"

I couldn't help but giggle and moved in to kiss him on the nose. "And you're far to irresistible"

"Hmm… I think you should change out of that dress before I get too carried away" He spoke in a deep husky voice.

I understood where he was going and I nodded timidly. We entangled ourselves from each other's arms and I got up, grasping at the side of my dress.

"I'll be back!" I sang out in a cheerful voice as I made my way into his bedroom.

So this is what it feels like to be totally in love with the man of your dreams... I thought happily to myself.