Disclaimer: Invisible people can't own Twilight.
Chapter Ten
"Where have you been?" Edward asks without interest when Riley sits beside him halfway through English.
Riley grimaces. "Had shit to do. Don't want to talk about it."
Edward finds this odd – Riley always wants to talk.
Why wouldn't he now?
Unless….unless he knew about Bella.
His eyes dart to the front of the room, where Bella is busy observing the teacher up close. If he wasn't in such an unexplainably foul mood, he might have laughed.
Mr. Mason, the English teacher, was portly, almost like a pig, who spoke in gentle tones, often adopting accents to make his assignments more entertaining. Right now, Bella was watching him with wide eyes, her head tilted in such a way that her mocha colored hair fell across her face.
Has she always been that pretty?
Edward fights off the urge to smile – he almost understood why Bella was in the front of the room. For as long as he'd gone to this school, almost two years, any class he'd ever shared with Riley's little sister had featured her slumped in the back corner, often a hood on her head, her nose buried in some crossword magazine.
She'd never been in the front before and now that nobody – except Edward, apparently – could see her, she was taking advantage of it. She'd done the exact thing during his first two classes.
Edward remembers a book he read in middle school, where the main character was a ghost who visited his old haunts and played tricks on people – he half expected Bella to do the same thing.
But what was it that she said?
"I can only interact with objects that directly involve me in my real life. So, no, I can't open your car door. And I don't want to. What if I smudged your baby?"
He hadn't quite understood, then, what she had been talking about, but he did now.
He decides that she must feel very helpless now.
And I'm not making it any better by acting like a grade A asshole. Good job, man. Spectacular.
Edward sighs deeply, settling his chin into the palm of his hand; his eyes cut to the side, observing Riley who seems completely out of it.
Why didn't his best friend want to talk about why he was skipping school?
Did it have something to do with Bella?
Edward sighs again, this time drawing Bella's curious gaze – before he can stop himself, he scowls at her and she looks away.
Too bad Edward can't slap himself without drawing the attention of his class, because he really feels like doing that.
The rest of the day passes much the same way, with Bella getting up close and personal with several other people, scrutinizing them in such a way that made Edward nervous about how she thought of him, and with Riley being oddly unresponsive. Even Bree, who was normally overly cheerful, seemed somber.
And it didn't escape his notice that the only people Bella avoided were her siblings.
Fucking weird.
Not that she interacted with them much, but it seemed like Bella made a point to ignore her brother and sister. Or maybe it hurt too much to see them, knowing that they can't hear her.
Both possibilities made Edward's stomach turn. He skipped lunch in favor of dozing under the bleachers.
Bella tried to talk him out of it and he scoffed, ignoring her cautious protests.
He probably should have listened to her.
With a groan, Edward finds himself, disoriented, in the middle of the small town police station.
He's staring down the barrel of a gun.
His heart almost leaps out of his chest, until the gun suddenly turns away and then he can see that a police officer is turning the gun to point at his own head.
Edward's eyes close.
The gun goes off.
A thud falls to the ground.
And then, a sigh beside him. "Not again. God, Lenny."
Edward's eyes blink open, automatically falling on Bella's petite form leaning against the door of the interrogation room.
His eyes remain locked onto hers as the scene blurs into a rapid rewind until Lenny, the suicidal cop, can be seen moaning over a letter on his desk.
Edward winces at the sound of male sobbing – it's too odd.
"Third time this month," Bella tells him, stepping away towards Lenny.
"What is?"
Bella gestures tiredly too the sobbing form of Lenny. "He's going through a nasty divorce. Poor fool is suicidal. I guess he really loves his wife," he tells him. "He does this about once a week, when he gets a letter from the mediator."
Edward's stomach churns. Oh, he knew all about divorces. His own parent's was something –
No. Not the time to think about it.
"Right," he says after a long pause. "So, what do you do?"
"Usually? I hide the gun," Bella stops, frowning. "I'm not sure if I should. I've never had a recurring suicidal person before. Preventing it once does the trick but Lenny…he seems like he really wants to go."
Edward crosses his arms, nodding his head. "I get it. You feel like you're playing God."
"Aren't I, in a way? I'm preventing deaths and I'm…not sure if I should."
For a second, Edward sees the superimposed image again – the beaten, broken Bella that made his heart clench.
Instead of commenting, he fists his hands and tenses his jaw. "We're saving this guy."
Bella's eyes are sharp on his, almost glaring. "Of course we are."
Edward takes a step back. "You sounded like you didn't want to-"
"I don't want to play God," she interrupts quickly. "But that doesn't matter. What I want and don't want doesn't matter. Lenny's life does."
Edward is silent, unable to properly respond to that, though his mind did process that she felt almost nothing for herself – like she didn't matter.
That made him angry.
Before he gets a chance to open his mouth to give her a piece of his mind, Bella waves her hands and the dream dissipates.
"Wake up," Bella orders in the real world, leaning over his face. She snaps. "Lenny usually tries at one. We have fifteen minutes."
Edward squints. "You have him timed?"
Bella blinks at him. "Not like it's hard."
"Wait, fifteen minutes? That cuts into my next class. Bella, I can't-"
"You're going to just let this man kill himself?" she demands. "You just said you wanted to save him!"
Edward frowns, nodding his head. "Right. You're right. It's not like I've never skipped before."
"Good. Let's go."
"Right," Edward nods. "Just, we have to sneak back in so I don't get caught coming back."
Bella tilts her head at him as he stands, one hand fishing for his keys. "Would it be a problem if you got caught?"
"Coach would ban me. I'm on probation from last time."
She rolls her eyes at him. "I'll make sure you're in the clear, then. Let's go."
Bella easily leads him through the most deserted parts of the school, bringing him to his car in under a minute – he doesn't ask how she does it, figuring it had something to do with her kind-of-ghost-body and whatever senses came with it.
By the time Edward pulls into the police station, Bella's impatience it at a high, her fingers twitching as she passes through his car and into the building. Edward rolls his eyes as he has to use the door.
Oddly enough, the police station is deserted; granted, it was a small town and they only had about six officers plus the Chief. Just like in the nightmare – day dream, actually – Lenny is sobbing, slouched over his desk. Edward holds his body still against a side wall, watching as Bella circles Lenny's sobbing form.
How, exactly, was she planning on handling this?
It didn't seem like Lenny was moving any time soon.
Bella hurries over to Edward, a frown sharp on her delicate features. "You'll have to make a distraction," she tells him. "I should be able to nudge the gun into his lock drawer."
Bella materializes behind Lenny before Edward can protest.
How the fuck did she get over there so fast?
He shakes his head. Not the time to think about it, not while Bella is waving her hands at him, indicating that he was supposed to do something.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do?" he says out loud, much louder than he meant to. His voice carries easily through to the next room and Lenny's head pops up.
"Hello?" Lenny calls, his voice rasping as he rapidly wipes under his eyes. Lenny stands from his chair, leaving his desk and conveniently forgetting his police-issue gun. "Who's there?"
Bella hurries, using all of her willpower to push his gun off his desk and into Lenny's open top drawer, one that has a lock with a key that seems to be permanently missing. The gun clanks loudly into the drawer, causing Lenny to spin around – only to see nothing as his drawer slams shut.
Lenny looks like he's about to throw up, apparently believing that a ghost was in the police station.
Edward, on the other hand, has gone pale for a different reason.
The superimposed image of broken, beaten Bella held for much longer than a few seconds and every one of her injuries registered in his mind.
She was much worse off than he originally thought and it made him absolutely sick.
A/N: Mid-terms kicked my ass, so I'm quadruple updating this week!
Shout out to the first ten reviews from the last chapter –
Sassy Mami – Glad you enjoyed it!
Guest – Right? Well, she'll know better soon!
Twilight Rocker 12 – LOL so glad that you know what kind of serial killer you would be! That's not creepy at all!
LunaDiSangue85 – Bella totally could use a hug!
boo1414 – Ah, what's not Edward's problem?
Krystalwinds1990 – Ah, you're so intuitive!
solidae26 – It might have changed the tone, you're right lol
brittany86 – I promise that I update as quickly and as possible as I can!
Savannavansmutsmut – Hmm, it could be because she thought of her father – interesting, very interesting!
Sarah Amin – Ah, Edward's a broody asshole, that's why we love him!
Super special shout out to the first review of the last chapter – blnl0085 – you could never be a geek for wanting to see some Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (shiver-inducing!) in some Star Trek! lol
As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.
~cupcakeriot