The long-awaited part 2 to the last chapter. Sorry about the wait! It's holidays and swim teaching had taken off but I'm home now and ready to dig into some uni and writing. The wait may be quite long in between chapters and I hope you all understand. University comes first then my social life then this story. Please let me know your thoughts about this chapter. I've been sitting on it for almost a week and hopefully, it meets the standards.
Love you all to bits. xxx.
Chapter 9: RevelationsHe turned to me once we hopped in the car, an expectant and nervous expression on his face. He shoved the key into the ignition, the engine roaring to life.
"Just one more question," I said, looking over at him. He turned his head over to me. "How did you know that I didn't go into the bookshop?"
He pressed his lips together tightly, deliberating whether or not to speak. "I followed your scent" he admitted while turning out onto the side of the road.
"You never really answered my first question either" I knew I was just stalling to buy us more time, but I didn't care. I was mildly curious now. "The mind reading thing?"
"It's just me" he started to answer me. "And I can't hear anyone anywhere. I have to be fairly close, but the more familiar someone's thoughts are the more clear they are to me meaning I can hear them from further away" he paused in thought. "It's like being in a room full of voices, buzzing in the background. When I focus on one person their thoughts become more clear. Most of the time I tune it out. Makes it easier to seem normal when I'm not answering someone's thoughts rather than their words."
"Why do you think you can't hear me?" I asked, curious.
He shrugged, looking back over to me. "Maybe your mind works on a different frequency than the rest" He grinned at me, amused by this fact.
"So my brain doesn't work right? I'm weird?"
"I hear voices in my head and your head doesn't work right and you're concerned that you're weird" he shook his head in disbelief. "So… Moving on… what are your latest theories?"
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I didn't know where to start. I looked over at the speedometer and saw the needle reaching a hundred miles an hour. "Holy cow! Slow down!" I yelled at him, he frantically looked at me and then his speedometer and sighed, annoyed.
"It's fine," He said, reassuring me.
"Are you trying to kill us? I mean if you got into an accident you could probably walk away from it in one piece."
"Probably" he agreed, adding a short hard laugh at the end. "Better?" he asked. We were going eighty miles an hour now. I nodded, slightly satisfied but not fully. "I hate driving slow" he muttered under his breath.
"This is slow?"
"Enough commentary on my driving" he snapped, impatient. "I'm still waiting on your latest theory"
I looked out the car window, somewhat dreading this conversation. "Why don't you start with how you got this theory? I'm guessing you didn't come up with it on your own?"
"We have some family friends down at the reservation" I peeked a look at him and saw his expression blank. I continued. "And they grew up with some legends, and since we are almost family to them, we grew up with them too. We were at the reservation with our family, and since Katherine had previously dated their youngest kid, Jacob Black, I did her a favour and went on a walk with him to give her some fresh air. He was upset because his dad would not let anyone go to the hospital for anything now since your family arrived. I found it strange and then he dove into how he thinks that his dad believes all the legends" I paused, and looked at him.
"Go on" he encouraged me, but I could tell he was connecting the dots.
"The legends were about vampires," I whispered. My eyes turned away from his face, and I saw his knuckles tighten against the steering wheel.
He sighed loudly, a frustrated and slightly angry one. "And you immediately thought of me?"
"No actually" I started again. "He went into things that made you different from us, he was mainly talking about his tribe's part in these legends… the shapeshifters… werewolves? He detailed the strength, and the speed and more along with the legends of extra supernatural abilities" I was surprised at my own voice, which wasn't panicked but strong and calm.
"Oh" He sighed, his knuckles never relaxed, his glare stared straight ahead.
"He never believed any of it. He said that apparently your family were the same ones. And I believed it. All the dots started to connect yesterday, and I knew that the legends had to be true" I finished explaining. His expression was blank and cold as he stared ahead.
"Are you mad at me?"
"No" He finally said "I'd rather know what you're thinking, even if it's insane…" he trailed off looking straight ahead. His expression relaxed a little bit. "What did you do when you figured it out?"
"I'm right?" I barely gasped. He flickered his look to me for a second, and then back to the road. I collected myself to answer his question. "I figured that it didn't really matter what you were. I already knew there were some weird, stirring feelings that connected to it, but still…"
"It doesn't matter," he repeated through his teeth. "You don't care if I'm not human?"
"No… I don't" I sighed. "It's too late to put my feelings aside. I care too much about you for my own good"
He looked at me and sighed. His expression had shifted softly. "Question," I started again. "How do you come out in the daytime?"
He laughed. "Myth."
"Burned by the sun?"
"Myth."
"Sleeping in coffins?"
"Myth… We don't sleep"
I gaped at him. "Like ever? You never sleep?" he nodded his head gently, a smile on his face. "The legends also said that you're not meant to be dangerous, but they still didn't want you on their land. Because you claimed to hunt animals instead of animals."
"The Quileutes have a long memory" he whispered, more to himself than to me. "Although they are still quite within their reasons to keep us off their land. We are still dangerous. Sometimes we make mistakes, even when we are very good at what we do. For example, me being alone with you is a big mistake."
"Why?"
He sighed, he seemed annoyed by this fact. "Because you smell better to me than the others. We hunt animals because we don't want to be monsters. But they cannot always be enough. It's like a human only living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke. It doesn't completely satisfy the thirst, but it keeps us strong enough to resist most of the time." he threw a glance in my direction for a moment.
"So you were hunting bears this weekend with Emmett?" I asked, jumping to my own conclusions. I was surprised how much he's telling me. I guessed that he had given up, I knew too much.
"Yes."
"And you're not thirsty now?"
"Why do you think that?"
"Because your eyes are lighter… I noticed that you were normally in a better mood when your eyes were light" I commented.
"I didn't want to leave to hunt. But I knew I needed to if I was going to be around you more often. Leaving though… I was strangely anxious not being around you… and to top off I feel strangely protective about you" he stopped, and looked over at me before returning his eyes to the road.
I decided to change the topic. "What about the sun? You said that it doesn't burn you? Why does your family disappear when the sun comes out?"
"It doesn't hurt us… I'll show you sometime" he trailed off into thought. I would hold him to this promise. His expression was slightly pained as he turned to me. "This is wrong. You were meant to live a normal human life. It's okay for me to care about you but for you to care about me is a whole other thing. It's wrong. I'm dangerous." he looked at me, a pained expression on his face.
I stared at him back. "It's not your choice though. That's mine." My voice was slowly rising. "You said that you want me to live a normal life. Well then I will. But It's my choice and my feelings are at risk here. I'm willing to risk that to be with you" he looked at me, shocked at my outburst. The silence following was piercing. I could tell that we were entering Forks at this point.
"I'm sorry," he said. "As I said, I feel strangely protective around you. I'm essentially a selfish creature, and I want you to care back so badly, that two different parts of me are always fighting." he looked at me, staring into my chocolate brown eyes. "One part I want to be with you, and the other wants me to leave and protect you."
He pulled in front of my house now, switching the car to park. I looked at the window and groaned. I saw sure Katherine would be up and I would have to explain this somehow to her. "What am I going to tell Katherine? I can't tell her any of this" I groaned, my face hitting my hand.
"Well… I guess the only reasonable solution may be to tell her we're dating" Edward suggested from beside me. My head flew up out of my hands to look at his face. "If that's okay with you?" he added on at the end seeing my expression.
"I want to," I said, locking my eyes with him. "Do you?" I asked, by insecurities creeping up on me. He smiled his crooked smile at me.
"I was the one who suggested it" he said, reaching out to grab a loose strand of hair and tuck it behind my ear. His palm touched my cheek, it ignited like a fire where he touched it. I nodded slightly, still looking at him.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked him quietly as his hand disappeared from the side of my face.
"Sure… and keep the jacket… it looks very lovely on you" he said, smiling at me slightly. "Good night" he said quietly as I exited the car and trudged my way to the house. The door opened and I turned back to see the silver Volvo was gone already. A few steps into the house, and my sister was already there waiting for me, a small smile on her lips.
She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards her room, passing Matthew on the way. He threw a weird glance my way, but I didn't get a chance to look at it too much longer before the door was shut and I was shoved onto the bed.
"So?" Katherine started, looking at me. "Is that his jacket?" she asked, surprised looking at my arm. I nodded.
"I left my jacket in Jess' car" I noted aloud. "Look I don't know what to tell you Kath. We bumped into each other and we were talking and then he asked me out to dinner. I agreed and then we talked, and he asked me to be his girlfriend" I shrugged as if it didn't matter.
"That's kind of a big deal Bella" Katherine spoke, her legs crossed on her bed and her elbows resting on her knees. "Your first boyfriend" she mused to herself, obviously picturing us together. "Did he kiss you tonight?" she asked me suddenly.
I flinched. "It's not like that" I mumbled.
"Did Bella kiss who?" Matthew asked, opening the door. He looked at the scene in front of him. Katherine stood up and quickly shut the door behind him.
"Edward Cullen," Katherine spoke, excited. "Don't stress. She didn't but they're dating."
"Can we like… not detail this to Mom and Dad?" I asked, hoping that this would stay between us three. Although, knowing Forks, Edward and I being together would be spread by the end of the week.
"Sure… But they'll hear about this soon enough" she shrugged, not bothered by it.
We looked at Matt, who was looking at my jacket and then at me, his eyes narrowing. "Please?" I begged Matt. "I never told them about you sneaking out, or bringing home different girls"
"I don't like him" He muttered, displeased with how I was going about this.
"You don't have to. I do and that's what matters" I said defensively, crossing my arms against my chest. He pulled me into a hug.
"It's just scary you know… our little sister having her first boyfriend…" he mused, his chin on my head. I playfully swatted him and laughed.
"I'm older than you, jerk" I laughed, trying to break out of his hug. Katherine and Matt laughed at me.
"You've always been a little sister to us. Even with all the big sister things you do, I'll always see you as my little sister"
"You already have a little sister by three minutes" I noted, throwing a look at Katherine.
"Hey! Don't bring who was born first into this!" Katherine giggled, sliding herself to the edge of the bed.
"I guess I'll just have to deal with it" Matthew muttered with a heavy sigh. "You're happy?" His eyes poured into mine, reading my face.
"Very." I smiled and blushed at him.
He saw something that satisfied him and smiled. "I guess that's what matters then" he sighed, pulling me into another tight hug. I smiled against his chest, knowing that it would somehow work out.