Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Stephenie Meyer and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome back again! Again, not much to say about this chapter, except for the usual:

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~full moon~

~chapter 10: interrogations~

It was very hard in the morning to argue with the part of me that was convinced last night was nothing more than a dream. Logic wasn't on my side, or common sense. I clung to the parts that I couldn't have imagined – how much Edythe knew about the Quileute people that she couldn't have known otherwise, her smell. I was sure that I never could have dreamed up those things on my own, especially when the nature of what she knew was too fantastical for even my imagination.

It was sunny outside my window, just like Edythe had said it would be, much to my irritation. It meant that, also as she had said, she wouldn't be in school today. I dressed in my lighter clothes for up here – and that scared me, the fact that I was already considering them "lighter" when they were much heavier still than the clothes I'd worn back in Phoenix – but I put on Edythe's jacket again after a moment of debate. I wouldn't wear it into school, but it was comforting to put on. Further proof that my memory was real.

After I ate breakfast and said goodbye to Nonna, who had already gotten up for the day, I went out the door and headed off for school.

School, unfortunately, dragged on that day. It was hard for me to focus even when Edythe wasn't around, my mind too occupied with the excitement of seeing her again tomorrow. It didn't help that none of my classes were covering anything particularly interesting.

Nor did it help that Jessica wanted to, absolutely had to, know everything that had happened last night.

She was waiting for me when I got to school at one of the picnic tables, sitting on top of the table rather than its bench, her arms bare because she wasn't wearing a jacket. My jacket, thankfully, was resting in her lap.

"Hey, Jessica," I said when I was a few feet away. "Thanks for remembering."

"You're welcome," she said, handing me my jacket. Then, like a lioness, she metaphorically pounced. "So, how was your night with Edythe Cullen last night?" She said it with an innocuous smile, but I couldn't help but think the way she had talked about Dr. and Mrs. Cullen before, the smile was anything but that.

Still, even though I longed for Edythe to be here, if only to tell me what she was thinking and to make sure that I didn't say anything she could extrapolate the worst from, I humored her. We walked to my first class of the day together, and I answered every single one of her questions to the best of my abilities.

"It was fine. She bought me dinner, and then she drove me home."

Jessica glared at me, her expression stiff with skepticism. "How did you get home so fast?"

"She drives like a maniac. It was terrifying."

"So, are you two like, friends now? Did you tell her to meet us there?"

"No, I was very surprised to see her there."

"But you two are friends now?"

"I suppose," I answered. I didn't know of how to answer her question without revealing everything that I didn't want to. "She offered to drive me to Seattle Saturday because she thinks the truck isn't up to it. Is that a good indicator that we are?"

She nodded exuberantly...but there was a gleam in her eyes. A gleam that I didn't like.

I was saved by the fact that the bell to start the day was supposed to ring in just a few minutes. "Listen, I'll talk more about this with you later," I promised. I knew as soon as I said it that it wasn't a promise I should have made.

But, Jessica was agreeing to it before I even would have had a chance to rescind it, if I'd wanted to. "Trig, then."

And she kept to her word. In Trig, the walk from Trig to Spanish, most of Spanish, and then on through a good portion of lunch, she kept asking me questions, basically wanting a minute-by-minute play of the night. We incurred the wrath of both Mr. Varner and Mr. Goff because of it, although they didn't do anything more than ask us both a couple of questions. I was thankful that it didn't lead either of us to getting a detention.

Mike and Angela proved to be my saviors during lunch. After about ten minutes of Jessica still asking me questions, Mike was able to sway her from the conversation by asking if she had found a dress that she'd liked last night, and as she was soon caught up in describing to him how the dress looked, Angela pulled me into a gentle conversation about what we had both written for the English paper due tomorrow. I made sure to give them both grateful smiles, and outright thank Mike for it later. He simply smiled back at me when I did and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's not a problem."

That night, unlike the night before, it was harder for me to fall asleep, because I was too filled with excited energy about the next day. Edythe would be in school tomorrow. Even though we only shared lunch and Biology tomorrow, there were so many things we could talk about then...and perhaps, I thought, that made me sound a bit too much like Jessica and how she had acted today. But I didn't care.

True to Edythe's words, Wednesday morning's weather, in comparison to Tuesday's, was perfect. It was foggy and dark outside my window, which I suspected had also led to Nonna sleeping in longer, because she hadn't woken up still when I got downstairs later than usual. My breakfast consisted of a granola bar I swallowed down in three bites and milk that I chased down with it straight from the carton. I hurried out the door, Edythe's jacket over my arm while I was now wearing my own.

I realized then that it wasn't just foggy, it was unusually so. The mist was ice cold where it clung to the exposed skin on my face and neck. I couldn't wait to get the heat going in my truck. It was such a thick fog that I was a few feet down the driveway before I realized that there was another car in it: a silver car. A shiny Volvo. My heart thudded, stuttered, and then picked up again in double time.

I didn't see where she came from, but suddenly Edythe was there, pulling the door open for me.

"Do you want to ride with me today?" she asked, amused by my expression as she caught me by surprise yet again. There was uncertainty in her voice. She was really giving me a choice – I was free to refuse, and I knew that a part of her hoped for that. It was a vain hope.

"Yes, thank you," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. I started to step into the vehicle, but then I paused. "Wait, if I'm going with you, I should probably write a note for my – "

Before I could finish my sentence, I saw that she was holding a notebook in her hands with a piece of paper, presumably ripped out perfectly from the dotted line, on top of it, along with a pen. She smiled at me crookedly.

I was taken aback more than I cared to admit by her blatant use of her abilities for technically everyone to see, but I knew that if she was doing so, then nobody around had actually been paying attention. I awkwardly exchanged her jacket for the items she was holding, wrote down a note for Nonna explaining that the reason why my truck was in the driveway still was because a friend had offered to make to school today, handed Edythe back her notebook and pen, and then went back inside the house to stick the note to the fridge with a magnet to make sure that Nonna would see it.

When I came back outside and went into the car properly this time, Edythe still holding the door open with that smile on her face, I saw that she had laid her jacket over the passenger's seat instead of her own. She wasn't wearing a jacket today, but rather a light grey sweatshirt with long sleeves.

The door closed behind me, and once again sooner than should have been possible, Edythe was sitting next to me, starting the car. "You can wear the jacket again today, if you wish. I don't want you to get sick or something," she murmured.

"I'm not quite that delicate," I said, but I nevertheless switched out the jacket that I was wearing for it, pulling my arms through the too-long sleeves. Her scent on it wasn't as strong as it had been on Monday, but it was still comforting.

"Aren't you?" she contradicted in a voice so low I wasn't sure if she had meant for me to hear it.

We drove through the fog-shrouded streets, always too fast, feeling awkward. I was, at least. Monday night all of the walls had been down...almost all. I didn't know if we were still being candid today, two days later. It left me tongue-tied. I waited for her to speak.

She turned to smirk at me. "What, no twenty questions today?"

"Do my questions bother you?" I asked, relieved.

"Not as much as your reactions do." She looked like she was joking, but I couldn't be sure.

I frowned. "Do I react badly?"

"No, that's the problem. You take everything so coolly – it's unnatural. It makes me wonder what you're really thinking."

"I always tell you what I'm really thinking."

"You edit," Edythe accused.

"Not much."

"Enough to drive me insane."

"You don't want to hear it," I mumbled, almost whispered. As soon as the words were out, I regretted them. The pain in my voice was very faint; I could only hope that she hadn't noticed it.

She didn't respond, and I wondered if I had ruined the mood. Her face was unreadable as we drove into the school parking lot. Something occurred to me belatedly.

"Where's the rest of your family?" I asked – more than glad for this chance to be alone with her, but remembering that her car was usually full.

"They took Rosalie's car." She shrugged as she parked next to a glossy red convertible with the top up. "Ostentatious, isn't it?"

I tried very hard not to gape too much. "Oh, wow," I breathed. "If she has that, why does she ride with you?"

"Like I said, it's ostentatious. We try to blend in."

"You don't succeed." I laughed and shook my head as we got out of the car. I wasn't late anymore; her lunatic driving had gotten me to school in plenty of time. "So why did Rosalie drive today if it's more conspicuous?"

"Hadn't you noticed. I'm breaking all the rules now." She met me at the front of the car, staying very close to my side as we walked onto campus. I wanted to close that little distance, to reach out and touch her, but I was afraid she wouldn't like me to.

"Why do you have cars like that at all?" I wondered aloud. "If you're looking for privacy?"

"An indulgence," she admitted with an impish smile. "We all like to drive fast."

"Figures," I muttered under my breath.

Thankfully, while we did earn some ogling from the other students, none of the ones that saw us were Jessica. She must've already gone off to her first class of the day. But I had no doubt that she would hear from the gossip mill soon that I had come to school with Edythe Cullen. I wondered if that meant there would be more questions from her in my future. As much as I valued her friendship, I wasn't looking forward to it.

Edythe chuckled as she looked down at me. "What are you thinking?"

The hypocrite that I was, I felt myself blush underneath her gaze. But I endeavored to be truthful: "I'm worried that Jessica's going to ask me a bunch of questions again today. She wanted to know everything that happened Monday night yesterday...and I mean everything."

A curious glint came to Edythe's eyes. "What did you tell her?"

"None of the important bits, don't worry."

"I wasn't worried about that," she responded. And we weren't in as much of a rush for time as I would've been before, but still, once again class was start to again soon. This time, I didn't want it to. But she promised me, "I'll see you at lunch."

...And that made our mutual departure just a little bit better.

Unlike yesterday, today my classes passed by in a blur. In English, I turned in my paper along with everyone else to Mr. Mason, but that was perhaps the only interesting thing of note until lunch. If Jessica had been told of my arriving at school with Edythe, and I was sure that she had, she gave me a bit of a reprieve in not asking me any questions about it at all. In fact, if anything, she seemed subdued. I was worried about what that meant, fearing that Mike had done something to hurt her feelings, even if doing so to some extent would be inevitable because of how she just wasn't and never would be the kind of person that he was attracted to.

But, no. When I was walking down the path from the Spanish building to the cafeteria, Mike appeared right next to me, an easy-going grin on his face. "Hey, Bella," he said.

"Hi, Mike," I said.

We chatted about this and that on our short walk to the cafeteria. But when we got to the building, something in Mike's expression changed. "You're not sitting with us today, are you?" he guessed.

I looked up to see what – or rather, who he was looking at. There Edythe was, leaning against the brick wall of the cafeteria, waiting for me, looking more like a Greek goddess once again than she had any right to.

"...No, I don't think so," I said faintly.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it," he replied good-naturedly, before adding teasingly, "See you in Gym!"

I was too baffled to dignify him with what I'm certain would have been an embarrassing response. A part of my brain wondered what had made him change his mind on Edythe so suddenly like that when he hadn't seemed to like her that much before, or if he was just being happy for my sake, because he thought we were –

"Hello," Edythe spoke quietly as she walked up to me, her voice as musical and lilting as always.

"Hi."

I couldn't think of anything else to say as we entered the building and the line already forming. Walking with Edythe through the crowded lunchtime rush was a lot like my first day here; everyone stared.

But Edythe was not bothered at all by this, although she didn't speak either and her eyes returned to my face every few seconds, her expression now speculative. I fidgeted nervously with the zipper on my jacket.

She stepped up to the counter and filled a tray with food.

"What are you doing?" I objected. "You're not getting all of that for me?"

She shook her head, stepping forward to buy the food.

"Half is for me, of course."

I raised an eyebrow.

She led the way to the same place where we'd sat that one time before. From the other end of the long table, a group of seniors gazed at us in amazement as we sat across from each other. Edythe seemed oblivious.

"Take whatever you want," she said, pushing the tray towards me.

"I'm curious," I said as I picked up an apple, turning it around in my hands, "what would you do if someone dared you to eat food?"

"You're always curious." She grimaced, shaking her head. She glared at me, holding my eyes as she lifted a slice of pizza off the tray, before she deliberately bit off a mouthful, chewed quickly, and then swallowed. I watched, eyes wide.

"If someone dared you to eat dirt, you could, couldn't you?" she asked with an amusement that had an edge to it.

I wrinkled my nose. "I did once...on a dare," I admitted. "It wasn't so bad."

She laughed. "I suppose that I'm not surprised." Something over my shoulder seemed to catch her attention.

"Jessica's analyzing everything that we do – so is Mike," she informed me as she pushed the rest of the pizza towards me. The mention of my two friends brought a hint of irritation to her features. That wasn't comforting.

I put down the apple to take a bite of the pizza, carefully looking away before I did and asking shyly, "What are they thinking?"

"Mike thinks that we're dating," she said bluntly – which surprised me, because even though I knew that she had to be approving of lesbian and gay relationships because of her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Cullen, she didn't seem...she didn't seem bothered by Mike's apparent assumption in the slightest. The thought gave me more hope than it should've. "He's happy for you, but he does think that you could do better than me."

I resisted the urge to scoff and give away more than I wanted to – again, I was a hypocrite. Thankfully, it wasn't hard for me to do because of the next question that I wanted to ask: "And Jessica?"

"She's...wondering about the same thing," Edythe revealed reluctantly. Damn. It wasn't like me to curse, not even in my head, but I couldn't stop myself from doing it. "Don't worry, though," Edythe added, echoing my earlier words, "she's not going to tell anyone. You've given her a lot to think about."

I took another bite of pizza, but this one tasted like ash in my mouth. It took everything in my willpower to chew and swallow it.

I didn't want to lose Jessica as a friend, in spite of what her opinions on people like me were. I'd known coming here to Forks that many people were going to think that way, and I'd been fine with it then, because like Mike, I'd thought that I'd be able to keep myself in the closet.

But I was beginning to think now that had been a hopeless battle from the very start...

"I have some questions to ask you, about your conversation with her yesterday," Edythe pressed on, once again disturbing my train of thought, "if you don't mind."

I had a feeling, based off of her expression, that I in fact would. But I decided to let her. "Go ahead."

She started off simple, smirking. "So the waiter was cute, was he?"

Sure enough, I nearly groaned. "That's what Jessica thought," I said. "He wasn't exactly my...type. You really didn't notice?"

"No. I wasn't paying attention. I had a lot on my mind."

"Poor guy." I could afford to be a little generous now.

"Something else you seemed to imply to Jessica that she picked up on...it bothers me." She refused to be distracted. Her voice was low, and she glanced up at me from under her lashes with troubled eyes.

"I'm not surprised you heard something you didn't like. You know what they say about eavesdroppers, even ones who do it after the fact."

"That's true," she said. "But I'm not exactly sure how you came to the conclusion that you did."

"I warned you that you might not want to know everything that I'm thinking."

"You did," she agreed again, but her voice was still rough. "But that's not quite true. I do want to know what you're thinking – everything. I just wish that you...wouldn't be thinking some things."

I scowled. "That's quite a distinction."

"But that's not really the point at the moment."

"Then what is?" We were inclined towards each other across the table now. She had her large white hands folded underneath her chin; I learned forwards, my hand cupped around the back of my neck. I had to remind myself that we were in a crowded lunchroom, with probably many curious eyes on us. It was too easy to get wrapped up in our own private, tense little bubble.

"Jessica thinks that you seem to think that you care more for me than I do for you," she murmured, leaning closer to me as she spoke, her darker-hued golden eyes piercing as she spoke. "Is that true?"

I tried to remember how to exhale. I had to look away before it came back to me.

"You're doing it again," I muttered.

Her eyes opened wide with surprise. "Doing what?"

"Dazzling me," I admitted, trying to concentrate as I looked back at her.

"Oh." Edythe frowned.

"It's not your fault," I sighed. "You can't help it."

"Are you going to answer the question?"

I looked down. "Yes."

"Yes, you are going to answer, or yes, you really think that?" She was irritated again.

"Yes, I really think that." I kept eyes down on the table, my eyes tracing the pattern of the faux wood grains printed on the laminate. The silence dragged on. I stubbornly refused to be the first to break it this time, fighting hard against the temptation to peek at her expression.

"Well, I'm not going to say that you're wrong outright," she said, and my heart plunged into my stomach. But she was continuing on before I could dwell on that, "But I do disagree with you."

I glanced up to see that her eyes were gentle.

"I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, then," I said in a whisper.

Her lips lifted in a smile. "Could you at least tell me your reasoning, for why you think this way?" she requested. Her liquid topaz eyes were penetrating – trying futilely, I assumed, to lift the answer straight from my mind.

I stared back, struggling to think clearly because of being put on the spot like this, to find the words to explain. As I searched for them, I could see her getting impatient; frustrated by my silence, she started to scowl. I lifted my hand from my neck and held up my index finger.

"Let me think," I insisted. Her expression cleared, now that she was satisfied that I was planning to answer. I dropped my hand to the table, moving my left hand so that my palms were pressed together. I stared at my hands, twisting and untwisting my fingers, as I finally spoke.

"Well, aside from the obvious, sometimes..." I hesitated. "I can't be sure – I don't know how to read minds – but sometimes it feels like you're trying to say goodbye when you're saying something else." That was the best I could sum up the sensation of anguish that her words triggered in me sometimes.

"Perceptive," Edythe murmured. And there was that anguish again, surfacing as she confirmed my fear. "That's exactly why I disagree with you, though," she began to explain, but then her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'the obvious?'"

"Well, look at me," I said redundantly, since she already was. "I'm – I'm not exactly ordinary, but...I'm not exactly interesting outside of all of the near-death experiences and being so clumsy that it sometimes feels like I'm almost disabled. And look at you." I waved my hand towards her and all of her bewildering perfection.

Her brow creased angrily for a moment, then smoothed out as her eyes took on a knowing look. "You don't see yourself very clearly, you know. I'll admit you're dead-on about the bad things," she chuckled wryly, "but you didn't hear what almost every human male in this school was thinking on your first day. A good portion of it was offensive even for that line of thinking, but still."

I blinked, astonished. "I don't believe it..." I mumbled to myself.

"Trust me, just this once – you are interesting in a multitude of ways, outside of your looks and the bad things."

My embarrassment was much stronger than my pleasure at her compliments and the look that came into her eyes when she said this, the look that gave me so much hope the sensation was almost blinding. I quickly reminded her of my original argument.

"But I'm not saying goodbye," I pointed out.

"Don't you see, though? I think that I care more, because if I can do it – " Edythe shook her head, seeming to struggle with the thought " – if leaving is the right thing to do, then I will do it to keep myself from hurting you, to keep you safe, even if it hurts me."

I glared. "And you don't think that I would do the same?"

"You'd never have to make the choice."

Abruptly, her unpredictable mood shifted again; a mischievous, devastating smile rearranged her features. "Of course, keeping you safe is beginning to feel like a full-time occupation that requires my constant presence."

"No one has tried to do away with me today," I reminded her, grateful for the lighter subject. I didn't want her to talk about goodbyes anymore.

"Yet," she added.

"Yet," I agreed.

"I have another question for you." Her face was still casual.

"Shoot."

"Do you really need to go to Seattle Saturday, or was that just an excuse to get out of saying no to all of your admirers?"

I made a face at the memory. "You know, I still haven't forgiven you for the whole Tyler thing yet," I warned her. "It's your fault he's deluded himself into thinking I'm going to prom with him."

"Oh, he would have found a chance to ask you without me – I just really wanted to watch your face," she revealed, chuckling, and I would have been angrier if her laughter wasn't so fascinating. "If I'd asked you, would you have turned me down?" she asked, still laughing to herself.

My heart fluttered in my chest. I knew that I could possibly wind up regretting this later, but the opportunity to confirm outright what she had said Mike and Jessica were thinking about earlier as potentially possible and not something unattainable was too good to pass up. "Do you mean as a friend, or...?"

She was still smiling. "Either."

The simple answer stole my breath away. I had to rearrange the inner workings of my brain in order to respond, which took a few seconds. I pushed my overall feelings about that aside; I'd muse on them again later, when I wasn't in front of her with the distinct likelihood of making a fool of myself. "Probably not," I admitted at last. "But I would have canceled later – faked an illness or a sprained ankle."

Edythe was puzzled. "Why would you do that?"

I shook my head sadly. "You've never seen me in Gym class, I guess, but I would have thought that you would understand."

"Are you referring to the fact that you can't walk across a flat, stable surface without finding something to trip over?"

"Obviously."

"That wouldn't be a problem." She sounded very confident. "It's all in the leading." She could see that I was about to protest, and she cut me off. "But you never told me – are you resolved on going to Seattle, or do you mind if we do something different?"

As long as the "we" part remained, I didn't care about anything else.

"I'm open to alternatives," I allowed. "But I do have a favor to ask."

She looked wary, as she always did when I asked an open-ended question. "What?"

"Can I drive?"

She frowned. "Why?"

"Well, mostly because when I told my grandmother that I was going to Seattle, I told her that I was going alone – and at the time, I was. I wouldn't mind telling her the truth if she asked about it again, but I don't want her worrying too much about me, either. She knows that I can handle the city on my own. And also, because your driving frightens me."

Edythe rolled her eyes. "Of all the things about me that could frighten you, you worry about my driving." She shook her head in disgust, but then her eyes were serious again. "Won't you want to tell your grandmother that you're spending the day with me?" There was an undercurrent to her question that I didn't understand.

I thought about telling her my suspicions concerning Nonna, but I decided not to. "Like I said, I don't want to worry her," I insisted. Wanting to make sure we left it at that, I tacked on, "Where are we going, anyways?"

"The weather will be nice, so I'll be staying out of the public eye...and you can stay with me, if you would like." Again, she was leaving the choice up to me.

"And you'll show me what you meant, about the sun?" I asked. The prospect of unraveling another of the unknowns was exciting.

"Yes." She smiled, then paused. "But if you don't want to be...alone with me, I'd still rather you didn't go to Seattle by yourself. I know what your grandmother thinks, but I shudder to think of the trouble you could find in a city of that size."

I was miffed. "Phoenix is three times bigger than Seattle, just in population. In physical size – "

"Yes, but apparently your number wasn't up in Phoenix," she interrupted me smoothly. "So I'd rather you stayed near me." Her eyes did that unfair smoldering thing again.

I couldn't argue, either with the eyes or the motivation, and it would have been a moot point anyway. "As it happens, I don't mind being alone with you."

"I know," she sighed, brooding. "You should tell your grandmother, though."

"Why in the world would I do that?"

Edythe's eyes were suddenly fierce. "To give me some small incentive to bring you back."

I gulped. But, after a moment of thought, I was sure. "I think I'll take my chances."

She exhaled angrily, looking away.

"Let's talk about something else," I suggested.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked. She was still annoyed.

I glanced around us, making sure that we were well out of anyone's hearing. As I casted my eyes around the room, I caught the eyes of Edythe's sister, Alice, staring at me. The others were looking at Edythe. I looked away from them swiftly, back to her, and I asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Why did you go to that Goat Rocks place last weekend...to hunt? My grandmother said it wasn't a good place to hike, because of the bears."

She stared at me as if I was missing something very obvious.

"Bears?" I gasped, and she smirked. "You know, bears are not in season," I added sternly, to hide my shock.

"If you read carefully, the laws only cover hunting with weapons," she informed me.

She watched my face with enjoyment as that slowly sank in.

"Bears?" I repeated with difficulty.

"Grizzly is Emmett's favorite." Her voice was still offhand, but her eyes were scrutinizing my reaction. I tried to pull myself together.

"Hmmmm," I said, taking another bite of pizza as an excuse to look down. I chewed slowly, and then took a long drink of Coke without looking up.

"So," I said after a moment, finally meeting Edythe's now-anxious gaze. "What's your favorite?"

She raised an eyebrow and the corners of her mouth turned down in disapproval. "Mountain lion."

"Ah," I said in a politely disinterested tone, looking at my soda again.

"Of course," she said, and her tone mirrored mine, "we have to be careful not to impact the environment with injudicious hunting. We try to focus on areas with an overpopulation of predators – ranging as far away as we need. There's always plenty of deer and elk here, and they'll do, but where's the fun in that?" She smiled teasingly.

"Where indeed?" I murmured around another bite of pizza.

"Early spring is Emmett's favorite bear season – they're just coming out of hibernation, so they're more irritable." She smiled as she remembered some joke.

"Nothing more fun than an irritated grizzly bear," I agreed, nodding.

She snickered, shaking her head. "Tell me what you're really thinking, please."

"I'm trying to picture it – but I can't," I admitted. "How do you hunt a bear without weapons?"

"Oh, we have weapons." Edythe flashed her bright teeth in a brief, threatening smile. I fought back a shiver before it could expose me. "Just not the kind that they consider when writing hunting laws. If you've ever seen a bear attack on television, you should be able to visualize Emmett hunting."

I couldn't stop the next shiver that flashed down my spine. I peeked across the cafeteria towards Emmett, grateful that he wasn't looking my way. The thick bands of muscle that wrapped his arms and torso were somehow even more menacing now.

Edythe followed my gaze and chuckled. I stared at her, unnerved.

"Are you like a bear, too?" I asked in a low voice.

"More like a lion, or so they tell me," she said lightly. "Perhaps our preferences are indicative."

I tried to smile. "Perhaps," I repeated. But my mind was filled with opposing images that I couldn't merge together. "Is that something I might get to see?"

"Absolutely not!" Her face somehow managed to turn even paler than usual, and her eyes were suddenly ferocious. I leaned back, stunned and – though I'd never admit it to her – almost frightened by her reaction. She leaned back as well, folding her arms across her chest.

"Too scary for me?" I asked when I could control my voice again.

"If that were it, I would take you out tonight," she retorted, her voice cutting. "You need a healthy dose of fear. Nothing could be more beneficial to you."

"Then why?" I pressed on, trying to ignore her angry reaction.

She glared at me for a long minute.

"Later," she finally said. She was on her feet in one lithe movement. "We're going to be late."

I glanced around, startled to see that she was right and the cafeteria was nearly vacant. When I was with her, the time and the place were such a muddled blur that I completely lost track of both. I jumped up, grabbing my bag from the back of my chair.

"Later, then," I agreed. I wouldn't forget.

Word Count: 5,816

Next Chapter Title: complications