A/N: Thank you to all of those who reviewed/favorited/followed! Over 1,000 hits! Thank ya'll so much! All questions about Bella and her past will be revealed in later chapters. All mistakes are mine. Hope you enjoy this chapter! This is a very important one!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

"She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her. And you don't know why, but you're dying to try, you wanna kiss the girl." – The Little Mermaid

Chapter 6

EPOV

September 2008

The only thing I can focus on is the fact that Bella is going to be at my game tonight. I am completely distracted all through pre – game and the whole team can tell. All I can do is think about the fact that the girl who has become such a lifesaver to me, is actually coming to watch me play the game I love tonight.

"Bro, what is going on with you man? You've been stuck inside a day dream for the past two hours! Get it together before coach sees you off in la – la land." I look to Emmett, ready to defend myself when Jacob beats me to it.

"Cut him some slack, Em. He's got a girl coming to see him play tonight."

Emmett smirks. "What girl are we talking about here? Someone I know?"

"Bella Swan." I answer before Jacob gets the chance to.

"Bella Swan? The little girl that people call the Freak?"

"Yeah, Bella is coming to see me play and if you have a problem with it, you can go fuck yourself." I say, suddenly feeling protective over her. Why do people call her Freak? They don't even know her because if they did, they would know how awesome and cool she really is.

"Chill, dude. I don't have anything against Bella. I don't know her. I am actually glad that someone is being nice to her. She gets too much shit for shit she can't control. It's about damn time someone does something for her and not against her. She doesn't deserve it either. Let me know if people start giving her shit again. I'm tired of just sitting by and watching that poor girl get bullied no reason."

I look at Emmett unbelievingly. Did he really basically say he likes my friendship with Bella? That he would help me if shit goes down? "Thanks, Em. I appreciate it. Bella is really the only reason my ass isn't on the bench for the season." He looks at me in confusion. "She's tutoring me." I clarified.

"Oh, okay. I got you man. You gotta keep the grades to keep the spot on the team."

"Yeah, that's it all right."

We head on out to the field to warm up. It is almost time for the game to begin. The bleachers are starting to fill up quickly. I keep glancing around to see if Bella is here yet, but I never see her. Emmett, our wide receiver James, and I go to the middle of the field for the captains meeting. Still no sign of Bella. We do the coin toss and head back to our benches. The game is about to begin. Once it does, I can't keep searching for Bella unless I am off the field.

Maybe she is not coming. Maybe she couldn't make it. Maybe I just can't see her. I let my thoughts drift away as I take my spot on the field. Thirty seconds until kick – off. I glance around the bleachers one last time to search for her. The ref grabs his whistle right as my eyes catch the chocolatey brown eyes I have been searching for all night. She's here. I feel the sudden need to impress her – to show I am good at something. I smile at her and she waves timidly. The ref blows his whistle and my attention is immediately brought back to the game in front of me.

Every chance I get, I look at Bella sitting on the bleachers, away from everyone else. I am so happy that she is here, but I also feel bad because she is sitting through an almost three hour game by herself. My worries disappear every time I see her smile at me.

When the game is finished, I don't rush to meet my parents to celebrate our win like I do after all my other games. I rush to find Bella. She is in the crowd somewhere trying to get out of the bleachers. I sort through the crowd ignoring all the parents that yell, "Great game Edward!" When I spot Bella, she is barely underneath the bleachers away from the rest of the crowd. She is scanning the giant crowd near her, probably searching for me. My eyes meet hers and a giant grin spreads across her face.

When I get to her I pull her in for a hug. "Bella! I am so happy you came!" I feel her smile against my chest. I pull back to look at her, like really look at her. This moment is the moment that I realize how beautiful she really is. She has the most stunning brown eyes I have ever seen. Her face has tiny little freckles, hardly noticeable if you're not looking for them, all over it. She has long brown hair that cascades down her shoulders to the middle of her back. She has glowing pale skin a contradiction to her hair that makes her all the more attractive. She's beautiful.

I cup her cheek and to my sheer joy, she doesn't flinch. She doesn't lean into my hand, but at least she's not flinching at my touch anymore. I brush my thumb across her cheekbone. Before I realize what I am doing, I lean in and softly brush my lips against hers. I feel a slight shock when my lips finally reach hers and I know Bella felt it too because she elicited a tiny gasp at that moment. Bella stands completely still. I don't deepen the kiss in fear of how she might react, but I keep my lips firmly planted on hers.

After a few moments, I pull away and look directly in her eyes. A blush spreads across her face and she breaks away from my gaze, clearly embarrassed. She bites her lip hard.

"Hey, don't do that. You're going to bust it." I pull her bottom lip from the death grip her teeth have on it with my thumb.

A few moments pass and we stay frozen. One of my arms is still around her and the other is cupping her cheek. Her gaze still cast towards the ground. Why won't she look at me?

"Bella, hey are you okay?" Still not even a glance in my direction. Is she mad that I kissed her?

"Are you mad at me? You know, for kissing you?" That gets her attention. She looks up at me, her blush still very prominent. She shakes her head and looks away.

"Well, why won't you look at me?" She doesn't move. "Bella, please. Don't make me apologize for kissing you. I don't regret it and I don't want to apologize for it, but I will if it gets you to look at me again." I meant it too. Kissing her, however brief it was, was the smartest thing I have done since I met her.

Minutes pass and nothing happens. We just stand there, ignoring the people passing the bleachers like we are in our own little world. I continue to stare at her, hoping she feels my gaze and will look up. She never does though. I really feel like I screwed up by kissing her. Maybe she just wanted to be friends with me? Maybe she doesn't even like me like that? Hell, I didn't even know I liked her like that until I kissed her. Maybe I should apologize? I already told her I wouldn't mean it though…

Slightly annoyed that she is hardly acknowledging my presence, I move my arm that was around her waist, up to cup her other cheek. I pull her face up and finally, her eyes meet mine. There is confusion written everywhere. "Bella, please. What is going on in that beautiful head of yours?"

For a moment, I am scared that she might start crying. Just as I was about to let her go, she did what I thought she would never do.

"I just don't know what you want from me, Edward." Her voice was raspy from going so long without ever talking.

I stare at her, unbelievingly. For one, she just talked. From everything I knew about her, no one has ever heard her talk, even as a child. She also basically just said that she doesn't trust me.

"Bella." I gasped. "I just want to be your friend, maybe more if you wanted it. Why is that so hard for you to believe?"

"People like you don't belong with people like me." Her voice was barely audible.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm not good enough for you?" She shakes her head vigorously and I immediately understand what she meant.

"You don't think you're good enough for me… Bella you can't honestly think that!"

"But, it's true." She tries to get out of the grip I have on her cheeks. I keep my grip on her firm, but not to the point that it would hurt her.

"You know it's true." She is barely even whispering now.

"No, it's not true. Do you want to know why?" Our gazes lock. "Because you see me for me. You are the only person in this school that doesn't see me as the 'football hero' or the 'hot guy' or the 'popular boy'. You are the only person from this school who seems to like me for me. You are the only person who doesn't treat me differently. Bella, don't you see? You are the only one who treats me like me." With that, I slammed my lips against her once more, not bothering to care if she wanted this or not. I needed to kiss her again. I need to prove to her that she is good enough for me. Hell, she's better than me, better than I deserve.

I pull away from her. Instead of staring at the ground, hiding herself from me, she looks right at me. Her face is covered in that blush.

"Believe me, Bella."

"I can't. I'm sorry."

I let go of my grasp on her cheek when I hear Emmett's voice approaching us.

"Yo, Ed! There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you, man!" He turns a corner and sees Bella. "Woah, man. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." He smirks. "Hey, Bella! You want to go with us to the after party at the diner?" She blushes at Emmett's words and shakes her head. "Too bad, Bella. It is going to be awesome. You coming, Edward?"

I look to Bella then back to Emmett. "Not this time, man. I think I'm going to take Bella home then I am going to go home." I glance at her, daring her to disagree.

"Too bad, man. Well, I guess I'll see you Monday. Bye Edward." His gaze shifts to Bella and he smiles. "Bye Bella."

I turn my attention back to Bella and find her staring at me intently. "Come on. I'll take you home." I grab her hand to lead her to my car. I open up the passenger side door for her and help her in. I make my way back to the driver side and see her scribbling something on a napkin that I had in the floor.

You don't have to take me home you know. I can get home the same way I got to the game.

"Which is how exactly?" I gave her a knowing look.

I walked here and I am perfectly capable of doing it again.

She started to climb out of my Volvo before I could answer her. Great, I pissed her off even more.

"Bella wait." I gently grabbed her elbow. "I know you are perfectly capable of walking, but please humor me. It's dark outside. It's probably about to rain. It's late and you don't know what kind of people come out at night." She still didn't look convinced. "Please Bella, for me." I gave her my best puppy – dog look.

She sighed and stopped walking away from my car. She turned around to face me. I grabbed her hand once more and led her to my Volvo.

Once I got in, she started writing again.

Can you drop me off a few houses down from my house?

"What? Why?" I looked at her incredulously. Why is she so hell – bent on walking? Something in her expression changed suddenly. She looked nervous. A million scenarios raced through my mind. Was she scared of me? Why did she need to be dropped off away from her house? Did she want to get away from me that badly?

I looked back at her and then it dawned on me. She snuck out. I couldn't believe it. She snuck out just to watch me play football?

"Your parents don't know you went to the game tonight, did they?" I asked carefully.

She shook her head.

"Just for me? You snuck out to see the game just for me?" She nodded, that blush spreading across her face once more.

"Well, thank you. Bella, I can't tell you how much this means to me." She smiles and if physically possible, her face gets redder.

I start to drive to her house. I stop about four houses down from her house and turn my lights off. She turns to get out of the car when I grab her elbow.

"What made you do it, Bella? What made you talk to me? Why then? Why right after I kissed you? Why did you stop talking again? Why can't you trust me?" I needed answers.

She got the napkin and pen once more.

You are the first person to treat me like I'm important. I can never repay you for that. You don't understand what these past few weeks have meant to me, Edward. I don't want to lose you or our friendship. I want to trust you, Edward I do. But, how do I know you're not screwing with me? How do I know your friendship is real? When you kissed me, it was the greatest feeling ever. I've never felt anything like it and because I don't know if I can trust you, I didn't know how to react to it. I talked to you because the small shred of hope I have in you was screaming at me to trust you, to let you in. So, I did, even though it's not much. Please don't, make me regret this.

By the time I got through reading her note, she was already out of my car and out of site.

A/N: Little bit of a cliffe. So? What did you think? Edward finally kissed her! Was it good? Was it bad? Did you expect it? It's so exciting! Next BPOV. Do you think she's going to get caught? Let me know what ya'll think in a review!