Again, I want to say thank you so much to everyone for the support and your kind words! I'm happy you guys are enjoying everything so far and hope you continue to enjoy it as we move further along in the story!
Also, some people still seem a bit confused, so let me try to clear it up – I wrote this trilogy a very long time ago, but it wasn't written very well. What I'm doing now is keeping the same plot of the original story, but rewriting the dialogue and adding in a ton more detail. So it's essentially the same story at its core, but it's a much, much better version of it now. Hope that explains it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Twilight, only the OC's.
Chapter Four
Bella was dead.
That was the only thought that raced through Danielle's mind as she sprinted through the cars in the school parking lot, running as fast as she could toward the site of the crash. Other students were running that way, too, but Danielle barely noticed. Bella was dead. She had to be. No one would have survived a collision like that. Bella was dead.
She ran until she was about twenty feet away from the wreck, then was forced to a halt when she found herself blocked by the large cluster of students crowding around the van and truck. Danielle tried to push her way through so she could get closer, tried to find an opening within the mob of frightened teenagers, but everyone else was just as desperate to see what had happened to Bella as she was. Nobody moved, and Danielle's attempts to get closer were being ignored.
Growling with frustration and feeling beside herself with concern for her friend, Danielle took a step back and looked around, trying to find another way around the crowd.
But then she saw something that made her do a double take, and for just one second, Danielle forgot about trying to find her way to Bella. There was a guy with bronze colored hair walking away from the site of the crash. He raked a hand through his hair as he looked back at the van that had just hit Bella's truck, then quickly walked away, breathing hard and looking more than a little on edge.
Edward.
Danielle frowned deeply with confusion, watching as he hurried away, keeping his head down as if purposefully trying not to draw attention to himself. Edward had been on the other side of the parking lot. She knew this with complete certainty because she had seen him standing next to the Cullen's car with her own two eyes. But now he was there, walking away from the crash.
How had he gotten there so fast? How, when Danielle had been closer and running as fast as she could, had he been able to beat her to the crash site? And how had she not seen him running past her?
Danielle looked back to where she had last seen the Cullen's. Emmett, Alice, and Rosalie were not looking at the crashed van – they were watching Edward walk away, their expressions varying from disbelief to anger. Why were they looking at him like that? Then Danielle turned her gaze to Jasper, whom she had forgotten about in her desperate race to get to Bella. He stood rooted to the spot in the exact place she had left him. He didn't seem calm or relaxed anymore. He was looking at her in a way that was impossible to read, his expression completely guarded.
"She's alive!" someone suddenly shouted, drawing Danielle's attention back to the crash. "Bella's alive!"
A cheer of relief rose from the crowd at the announcement. Danielle forgot about the Cullen's and pressed a hand to her heart, which was still pounding away in her chest, and closed her eyes as she sucked in a steadying breath. Bella was alive. She had survived the crash. Danielle was hit with such an overwhelming sense of relief that she felt her throat tighten with emotion and her eyes prickle with tears.
Danielle finally pulled herself together, then, without even attempting to be polite about it now, she began to push and elbow her way to the front of the crowd, earning herself a few cries of indignation in the process. When she finally reached the center of the commotion she braced herself, not sure what she was going to see but fully expecting find Bella hurt and bleeding. As soon as she caught sight of her friend, however, she released a gasp of astonishment. Bella was sitting on the ground between the van and her truck, surrounded by a group of students. And though she looked shaky and confused and like she wasn't quite with it, there wasn't even a scratch on her.
Danielle managed to wedge herself between the crowd until she was between the two crashed vehicles. She saw that Mike, Angela, Jessica, and Eric were surrounding Bella, while Tyler, to her surprise, was apologizing to her over and over again through the window of the van that had nearly just killed her, which was obviously his van. He had a gash on his head, but didn't seem to notice.
Danielle began forcing her way through the group that was surrounding Bella. "Bella!" she cried to try to get her attention.
The sound of her voice caught Bella's attention. She looked up, her eyes searching around wildly, until their gazes finally met. "Danielle!" she called back.
Danielle finally reached Bella, and the first thing she did was drop down and wrap her friend up in a hard hug, unable to believe that she was hugging her when she had been convinced that she had been dead mere moments ago. Bella hugged her back just as tightly.
"Are you okay?" Danielle asked, pulling back and holding Bella's shoulders tightly, eyes searching her for any signs of wounds or bleeding. Danielle didn't see anything amiss, but she was still worried. "Go get help!" she shouted at the nearest person, who just so happened to be Mike.
Mike nodded, then, with Eric in tow, they disappeared into the crowd surrounding the vehicles. Angela and Jessica hung back, looking like they didn't know what to do.
"I'm fine, Danielle," Bella insisted. "The truck didn't hit me."
"I don't care. We're not taking any chances," Danielle countered firmly. When Bella made a move to get up, Danielle immediately stopped her. "Stay still until help gets here," she commanded.
Bella heaved, but nodded.
Once she was satisfied that Bella wasn't going anywhere, Danielle finally looked at the two vehicles they were between. It had looked like the van was going to make full contact with the truck when it had been sliding through the parking lot, but it hadn't. Danielle was shocked to see that it didn't even look like the van had touched Bella's truck, save for the back end of it, which had slammed into the bed of the truck and put a significant dent above the rear tire. She also noticed a dent in the side of the van that was directly in front of where Bella sat, though she had no idea whether it had been there before the crash or not.
"Danielle," Bella said quietly, making Danielle look at her again. "Something happened. Something impossible," she told her. She glanced back at Jessica and Angela for a quick second, then leaned in even closer. "Edward…he…he saved me. He stopped the van," she hissed.
Danielle frowned with confusion. She had seen Edward by the truck, but she thought he had just been trying to see what was going on. How could he have saved her? And how in the hell would he have been able to stop a moving van? That simply wasn't possible.
"What do you mean he stopped the van?" Danielle asked skeptically.
"He stuck out his hand and he stopped it, so it wouldn't hit me," Bella said simply, her eyes turning to the dent in the side of the van.
Danielle didn't know what to say. She looked at the dent, then turned a very concerned look on Bella. Maybe she had hurt herself. Maybe she had bumped her head, or maybe the shock of what had happened was making it hard for her to think straight. "Bella, are you sure you're okay?" she asked with concern. "Did you hit your head or something?"
"No," Bella said fiercely. "I didn't hit my head!"
"But what you're saying isn't possible," Danielle hissed. "There's no way he could have done that."
Bella just set her lips into a determined frown. "I know what I saw," she said stubbornly.
They didn't get a chance to talk about it any further, because in the next moment a few teachers emerged from the crowd and immediately rushed to Bella's side. They soon instructed Danielle, as well as the rest of the students, to back up and move away from the crash. Danielle did as she was told, then went to stand off to the side with the lunch group while the teachers stayed with Bella and Tyler and began checking to make sure they were alright.
It was a blur of activity after that. Paramedics arrived quickly and immediately rushed toward the crash, ready to jump into action if anyone was hurt. Not very long after, a few cop cars arrived on the scene, and within a matter of minutes the cops had set up a perimeter to keep onlooking students out of the way. By now, most of the school had heard what was going on and was crowded in the parking lot as they watched the drama unfold. Danielle continued to stand with the lunch group, watching everything from a distance.
Eventually the paramedics decided that both Bella and Tyler needed further evaluation at the hospital, just to make absolutely sure everything was okay. Tyler agreed without fuss, but Bella insisted that she was fine and that going to the hospital wasn't necessary. Finally, after receiving a long talk from both the principal and the paramedics, she begrudgingly agreed to go and allowed herself to be loaded into an ambulance. Danielle watched the ambulance pull out of the parking lot and head off down the road, sighing heavily to herself.
"Hey," Mike said, touching her arm to grab her attention. "A few of us are gonna head to the hospital to see what the doctors say about Bella and Tyler," he told her. "You wanna come?"
Danielle immediately nodded. "Yeah. I'm in," she readily agreed.
She glanced one last time in the direction the ambulance had gone, then followed Mike, Angela, Jessica, and Eric to Mike's car. When they reached the car, Mike and Eric took the front two seats, while Angela and Jessica slid into the backseat. Danielle started to join the other girls in the back, but paused when her eyes landed on the Cullen's, who were still standing on the far side of the lot. Jasper had rejoined his siblings by their car, and the four of them looked to be having a very heated discussion.
Jasper suddenly looked over at her, and for a moment they just stared at one another.
"C'mon, Danielle!" Mike said urgently. "Let's go!"
Danielle finally pulled her gaze from Jasper's and climbed into the back seat of Mike's car. Then they headed for the hospital.
Danielle sat in the waiting room of the E.R., her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her foot tapping impatiently against the tile floor. Angela sat on her left, while Mike sat on her right – Eric and Jessica sat in the chairs adjacent to theirs. They had been there for nearly twenty minutes now, and though they had been trying to get at least some information out of any nurse they laid eyes on, they still didn't know what exactly was going on with Bella and Tyler.
Danielle heaved and shifted in her chair, glancing first at the television, which was playing a daytime show she'd never heard of, then letting her eyes wander around the room. Only a few other people were there, obviously waiting for friends or loved ones being tended to beyond the door that the nurses continued to stream in and out of. All of them looked exactly how she felt in that moment – stressed, worried, and ready to get the hell out of the waiting room.
But Danielle was feeling something else, as well. Confusion. Because she kept thinking about what Bella had said, and the more she thought about it, the less sense it made.
Edward stopped the van, Bella's voice echoed in her head. He stuck out his hand and stopped it.
No matter which angle she looked at it from, the bottom line was that it just wasn't possible. Nobody, not the strongest man in the world and certainly not Edward Cullen, would be able to stop a moving van with their bare hands. The only person she could think of who would be able to pull off something like that was Superman, and though she didn't know Edward well, she'd be willing to bet a very large sum of money that he was not a super-alien from planet Krypton. Maybe he had protected Bella. Maybe he had pulled her out of the way enough to where she wouldn't get crushed. But stop an out of control vehicle with just his hands?
There was no freaking way.
Yet, she supposed that brought up a whole new question, didn't it? If Edward had saved Bella, if he had been there to protect her from the van, then how in the hell had he gotten to her so fast? No more than a few seconds could have passed between when she had spotted him with his siblings and when the van had lost control, and the two had been on completely different sides of the parking lot from each other. How had he left his spot with his siblings, run all the way to Bella's truck, and saved her from certain death, all within a few moment's time and all without Danielle ever seeing him?
Danielle heaved, then reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. She had no idea what to make of all this. It didn't make a lick of sense.
"It's alright," Mike said, patting her arm reassuringly, obviously mistaking her confusion for concern. "I'm sure they're fine."
Danielle just forced on a smile and nodded.
The sound of the automatic doors at the entrance of the waiting room sliding open a moment later caught her attention. She glanced over just as a tall man in a police uniform came storming in, looking borderline frantic. Danielle immediately recognized him.
"Chief Swan!" she said, jumping to her feet and hurrying in his direction.
Charlie whipped around to face her, his eyes wild with concern. When he saw her coming toward him, he gulped. "I heard what happened. I got here as fast as I could," he said in a rush. "Bella...is she – ?"
"They're looking at her now," Danielle told him. "But I was with her after it happened. She seemed alright. She didn't look hurt and she was alert," she quickly reassured him. "We've been waiting to hear more, but nobody's told us anything yet," Danielle concluded with a shrug.
Charlie seemed relieved to hear it. He let out a massive breath, nodded, then turned to the nearest nurse. "Where's my daughter?" he asked, using his most authoritative cop voice.
A nearby nurse jumped and looked at Charlie with wide eyes, then quickly motioned toward the door that lead further into the E.R. "She's right through there, sir."
Charlie gave Danielle a pat on the shoulder, then went straight through the doors without waiting to be invited. Once he was gone, Danielle sighed and turned back to her friends, who had been watching the scene with interest. Before she had a chance to rejoin them, the cell phone in her pocket began to ring. Danielle reached for it and saw that it was her mother calling.
"I'll be right back, guys," she said to her friends.
After they nodded, she walked out of the main waiting room and stepped into a hall that branched off to another part of the hospital. There were no other people there, and once she was alone, she answered her phone.
"Hey, Mom," she greeted, leaning back against the white wall of the hallway.
"Why did I just get a call from the school saying that you didn't show up for your first class?" Lynne demanded to know, not even bothering to greet her properly. "Are you skipping class?"
Danielle winced. "Technically? Yes," she admitted. Lynne immediately made a sound of indignation. "But before you get mad, just know I wouldn't be doing it unless I had a good reason," Danielle quickly interjected before her mother could go off on a tirade.
"Oh yeah? And what reason is that, Danielle Katherine Clark?" Lynne shot back, her words dripping with disapproval.
Danielle winced. If her mother was using her full name, that definitely meant she was in trouble. "I'm at the hospital," she told her.
Lynne, who clearly had not been expecting that answer, sputtered on her end of the line. "Wait, what?" she asked, sounding scared now. "What happened? Are you alright? Are you hurt?" she asked in a rush.
"I'm fine, Mom," Danielle quickly assured her, which made Lynne breathe easier. "There was an accident at school. Bella had a really close call when a van lost control and almost hit her. The paramedics brought her and the other kid involved here to make sure they're okay, so a few of us skipped class and have been waiting to hear what the final diagnosis is," she quickly explained.
"Oh dear, I hope they're both okay!" Lynne said with worry.
"Me too," Danielle agreed with a sigh.
Lynne said something else after that, but Danielle didn't hear her. Because at that exact moment, a door a little further down the hallway, which seemed to be another side entrance to the hospital, opened and someone stepped into sight. It was Edward, and as soon as he saw her standing there, he froze. Danielle frowned. What was he doing there? Had he come to check on Bella too?
"Did you hear me, Dani?" Lynne suddenly demanded in her ear.
"Sorry. What?" Danielle asked, distracted, her eyes locked on Edward. She had thought he would go to the waiting room to try to figure out what was going on with Bella, but he hadn't taken so much as a step in that direction. In fact, he was looking back and forth between her and the door with uncertainty, as if he was trying to decide if he should stay or not.
"How long are you going to be there for?" Lynne repeated.
"I dunno," Danielle answered. "It just depends on how long it takes for them to finish evaluating Bella and Tyler."
"Okay. I'll call the school and let them know what's going on," Lynne told her. "You are going back to school, right?"
"Yeah, just as soon as we're done here," Danielle promised.
"Good."
"Hey, Mom? I should probably go," she said, still watching Edward from a distance. "I wanna be there when they finally release Bella."
"Okay, sweetie," Lynne said understandingly. "I'll talk to you later."
"Bye."
Danielle ended the call and shoved the phone back into her pocket. She pushed away from the wall and gave Edward a long look, suddenly feeling the urge to go and try to get some sort of explanation for what had happened at the school. But was it something she should bring up? Would he even be willing to talk to her about it? After all, they didn't even know each other.
Edward suddenly frowned, then turned on his heel to leave. Danielle made up her mind in a flash and darted after him, determined to speak with him while she had the chance.
"Hey, Cullen!" she called.
Edward stopped with his hand on the door, but he didn't make any move to open it. Danielle jogged to catch up to him, and when she was only a few feet away, he slowly turned back around to face. Danielle stopped once they were face to face, noticing that even though he was giving her a polite smile, it seemed forced.
"Hello," he greeted. "I don't believe we've met. I'm – "
Danielle quirked a brow. "I know who you are," she interrupted. "And you know who I am."
Edward's eyebrows shot up. "Okay," he said slowly, seemingly caught off guard. "Is there something I can help you with then?"
She pressed her lips together, unsure where to start. "Is it true?" she asked. "Did you save Bella's life?"
Edward didn't answer at first, but then he shrugged modestly. "I suppose I did," he answered. The confirmation made Danielle's eyes narrow as she stared at him with scrutiny. Edward lifted a brow at her again, his expression puzzled. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked. "Aren't you glad that I saved your friend?"
"Of course I am," Danielle retorted sharply. "But there's a few things about this scenario that don't add up, and I'm having a very hard time wrapping my head around it all," she added.
"Like what?" he asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants.
"Well, for starters, you were nowhere near Bella when Tyler's van went out of control," Danielle stated matter-of-factly. "I saw you when Jasper and I were walking across the parking lot. You were on the complete opposite side from where Bella was."
Edward shrugged. "So?"
Danielle felt a surge of impatience at his aloofness. "So," she said more forcefully than she had really meant to, "just how the hell did you get from one end of the lot to the other in only a few seconds?" she questioned.
"I'm a fast runner," Edward said simply.
Danielle snorted. "I am too. But even though I was closer and running as fast as I could, you still beat me there by landslide," she pointed out. "So, I ask again – how?"
Edward sighed and shifted on his feet, his expression beginning to show some impatience. "Look, maybe you did see me on the other side of the lot. But what you didn't see was that I had already started making my way across the parking lot before the van lost control," he explained with a nod. "I was going to talk to Bella when I saw the van skidding all over the place. I was afraid Bella would be in danger, so I ran to try to help her. Even I'm shocked that I was able to get to her so fast," he insisted.
Edward didn't sound like he was lying, but Danielle still wasn't sure she believed him. Granted, she had been paying a lot more attention to Jasper at the time, but she felt like she would have noticed if Edward had decided to go and speak to Bella. And even if what he was saying was true, that didn't change the fact that he had still been pretty far away from her. She just couldn't see how he could have gotten close enough in just a few moment's time to actually make his story possible.
"So then what about what Bella told me you did to save her?" Danielle asked, her arms crossing over her chest defiantly.
Edward's expression turned to one that she couldn't quite decipher. "What did she tell you I did?" he asked calmly.
"She told me you stopped the van," she stated. "With your hand," she added pointedly.
Edward went quiet for a moment, then he laughed loudly and shook his head. "Come on, Danielle," he said with exasperation. "Stopped a van with my hand? Do you even hear yourself right now? How could that possibly be true?"
Danielle did sort of feel a bit silly now that she had said it out loud, but she jutted her chin up regardless, determined to get to the bottom of things. "You tell me."
Edward shook his head again, a smirk of amusement still on his lips. "Danielle. I did not stop a van with my hand," he said firmly.
"Then why did Bella tell me you did?" she asked.
"She must have been confused," Edward reasoned with a shrug. "When I reached her, I pulled her out of the way as best as I could and threw a hand up out of reflex. It all happened really fast and it was all very confusing – maybe she just mistook my actions for something they weren't," he explained.
It made sense, she supposed, but it still didn't answer the one glaring question left. "So then how did the van not crush her?" she asked. "I saw the way it was moving. It was sliding sideways and looked like it was going to completely connect with the truck," she told him. "But when I saw the van afterward, only part of it had hit the truck. It looked like something – or someone – had stopped it right in its tracks."
Edward sighed now, as if he was getting tired of explaining himself. "I thought it was going to be a full on hit, too, but it changed directions at the last second," he told her. "Only the back end hit it, which is why neither of us got crushed. Had we been a few feet over, well…this whole thing would have ended quite differently," he said with a frown.
Danielle gave him a long look as she considered everything he had told her. He'd had answers for every single one of her questions, and though there were maybe a few details that still didn't quite make sense, she supposed there was no choice but to accept that Edward was telling her the truth. Maybe Edward had been on his way to talk to Bella, only she'd been so distracted by Jasper that she hadn't seen him. Maybe he was a ridiculously fast runner. Maybe when Bella saw Edward throw his hand up out if reflex it had made her believe she was seeing something that she wasn't. And maybe Bella was wrong – Edward hadn't stopped the van, the van had merely hit the truck in just the right way that it stopped before it could hurt Bella, just as Edward had told her.
It was a whole lot of maybes. But it made a hell of a lot more sense than the other option, the other option being that Edward was a super human who possessed the powers of both super speed and super strength.
Danielle finally sighed and gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry for the twenty questions," she finally said, her tone much calmer now. "I didn't mean to come off as rude or anything. I was just…"
Danielle trailed off and shrugged, but Edward still seemed to understand what she was trying to say. He nodded and flashed a small smile. "You're worried about your friend and want to know what happened. I get it," he said understandingly.
Danielle smiled, feeling relieved that he wasn't put off by her behavior. "Let's try this again," she suggested, before extending her hand toward him. "I'm Danielle Clark."
Edward shook her hand. It was ice cold, just like Jasper's and just like Emmett's. She momentarily thought it odd that they all had such cold hands, but then she remembered that Forks was freezing cold and quickly chalked their chilly hands up to the local temperature. "Edward Cullen," he introduced himself. "I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you in person."
Danielle's eyebrows shot up. Who had been talking about her with Edward? "You've heard about me? From who?" she had to ask.
Edward had a little smirk playing at the corner of his mouth as he shrugged. "People around school…and from my brother," he told her, that smirk never budging an inch.
Danielle tried to ignore the way her stomach flipped at the word 'brother'. Was it Emmett he was referring to, or was it Jasper? The thought that Jasper would be talking about her with his brother made her heart beat just a tick faster. It also made her desperately want to know what he had said, and whether or not it had been good.
Edward's smirk grew as those thoughts flew through her head, though she wasn't sure why. She perked up as he opened his mouth to say something else, hoping very much that he was going to elaborate on what he had just said. Before he could get another word out, however, the door that Edward had entered through opened again to reveal another Cullen. Danielle stiffened at once. It was Rosalie, and the beautiful blonde gave her a glare of dislike before turning a look on Edward.
"What's going on here?" she asked. Her voice might have sounded pretty, if not for the anger and suspicion in her tone.
"Nothing," Edward answered smoothly. "We were just talking."
Danielle eyed the two, feeling more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. Finally she decided it was probably time to return to her friends in the waiting room.
"I think I'm, uh…gonna go now," she said, eyeing Rosalie with obvious wariness. "I'll see you around."
She didn't wait for Edward to say anything back before quickly turning on her heel and heading back for the waiting room. She could feel eyes on her back the entire way, and when she chanced a look over her shoulder, she was not at all surprised that both Edward and Rosalie were watching her walk away. Just before she reentered the waiting room, she saw Rosalie turn on Edward with a scowl that would have made anyone quiver in their shoes. Danielle gulped and shook her head, before quickening her pace.
Rosalie was one scary chick, she decided. And though she felt bad for Edward for having to endure whatever wrath she looked like she was about to unleash on him, Danielle was glad as all hell that she wasn't the one in his shoes right then.
Danielle and her friends loitered around in the waiting room for nearly another half hour while they continued to wait for news on Bella and Tyler. Despite the fact that he was there in the hospital, Edward never actually came into the waiting room. Whether that was because he didn't want to draw attention to himself or because Rosalie was still giving him an earful, Danielle didn't know – either way, she chose not to mention the fact that he was there to any of her friends.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Bella and her father emerged from the patient area. The moment Bella was in sight the group jumped up and rushed over to find out what the doctor had said. They were quickly informed that though Bella was still shaken up and Tyler had sustained a few bumps and cuts, the doctor had not found anything significantly wrong with either of them. They were both fine to leave the hospital and go on with their day. It was a relief, to say the least, and they all took turns hugging Bella as they celebrated the fact that nobody hadn't been seriously injured in the accident.
Bella's father eventually broke up the celebration, telling them politely, yet firmly, that he needed to get Bella home and that they all needed to get back to school. Apparently even though Bella was uninjured, her near-death experience had earned her a day of rest at home. Danielle and the group nodded their understanding, said their goodbye's, then finally left the hospital so that they could go back to school.
They were back at Forks High just as second period was ending. Danielle hurried to her locker, grabbed her books for her next two classes, then continued on to her third period history class. Emmett sat straighter when she walked in, watching her with expectant eyes as she made her way to her seat. As soon as she sat down, he leaned closer to speak to her.
"How's Bella?" he asked. She noticed that he wasn't the only one who seemed curious to know, either – several students sitting nearby turned to look as well, eager for any news about the accident.
"She's fine," Danielle answered with a nod. "Tyler, too. They both went home for the day, though."
Emmett nodded in understanding, while the other students listening in turned forward again, obviously no longer interested in what she had to say now that they'd heard that Bella and Tyler were fine. "That's good. That wreck, man…it was crazy," he commented with a shake of his head and a low whistle.
"I know," Danielle agreed. "Lucky your brother was able to help," she added with a nod.
Emmett gave her a long look after she said that. "You saw Edward save Bella?" he asked in a neutral tone.
Danielle shrugged. "Well, I mean…I didn't see it for myself because I was too far away. But I talked to Edward at the hospital and got the story of what happened," she told him with a nod.
Emmett's brows raised a hair. "You talked to Edward?" he asked next, sounding a bit surprised.
Danielle frowned a bit. Why was Emmett acting so odd? "Yeah. Is that…a bad thing?" she asked unsurely.
"No," Emmett quickly said, his expression easing. "What did Edward say about the wreck?"
Danielle could have told him about the weird things Bella had said, and she could have told him about all the crazy questions she'd peppered Edward with. But, in the end, she decided not to. She'd already made herself look weird in front of one Cullen today, and she didn't particularly want to do it again.
"He said he was already going to talk to Bella when Tyler's van lost control. He ran over as fast as he could to help her and tried to pull her away once he was close enough. With the way the van hit the truck, it only barely missed her. If Edward hadn't pulled her out of the way, she probably would've been in serious trouble," she relayed, shaking her head as she thought about the way too close call. "So like I said. It's a good thing your brother was able to get to her."
Emmett nodded, then smirked, looking a bit more like his usual self now. "Edward always was a really fast runner," he said with a nod. "We always told him he should've trained for the Olympics." Emmett's smirk soon turned into a small smile of relief. "I'm glad your friends aren't hurt," he told her seriously. "And I'm really glad that you were with Jasper when the van hit, and not with Bella," he admitted.
Danielle smiled, then sighed a bit as she thought about Jasper. She hadn't meant to just run off without saying anything to him, but it had been a chaotic moment and she hadn't really been thinking straight. "I hope he isn't upset with me for ditching him," she said, even though she'd had a very good reason for doing so.
Emmett immediately shook his head. "He's not, trust me," he said reassuringly.
Danielle just nodded and gave him a grateful smile.
History passed quickly, and once the class was over, she said goodbye to Emmett and continued on to Spanish. When she reached the classroom and slid into her usual seat, her eyes immediately turned to the empty desk next to her. It was weird, being there now while Bella was at home trying to get over the shock of her near death experience. Danielle frowned and sighed heavily, then opened her textbook when the bell rang and the teacher started the lesson for the day. She decided right then and there that she was going to go and speak to Bella after school, just to check in with her and make sure she was doing alright.
Before she knew it, it was lunchtime. When she walked into the cafeteria, she habitually looked toward the table that the Cullen's always sat at. Neither Edward, nor Rosalie, was there, but Jasper, Emmett, and Alice were. Almost as if he could sense that she had arrived, Jasper immediately looked in her direction.
Danielle smiled at him and waved, then turned to start toward the lunch line, just as she usually did. But then Jasper, who normally stayed seated at his usual table with his siblings, started getting up, making her freeze on the spot. He grabbed his things, said a few words to Emmett and Alice, then started walking toward her. Danielle blinked in surprise, then quickly tucked her hair behind her ear as butterflies began to flap around in her belly.
Jasper gave her a half-smile as he approached. "Hello," he said once he was standing in front of her.
"Hey," she said back.
"How are you?" Jasper asked, his eyes searching her face. "Are you alright?"
Danielle smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she told him. "It was a stressful morning, but…it's all good now."
"Good," Jasper said, nodding. "I heard Bella and Tyler are both okay," he said. "I was glad to hear it."
"Yeah, me too," Danielle agreed. She paused, then frowned with apology. "I'm sorry I ditched you this morning," she apologized, and she really, truly meant it. "Everything just happened so fast, and the Bella thing scared me half to death," she quickly explained.
Jasper held up a hand to silence her. "It's fine, Danielle," he said. The sound of her name on his lips made her nerves zing with awareness. "You were worried about your friends. I completely understand," he said with a small smile.
Even though Emmett had told her that he didn't think Jasper would upset, to hear Jasper confirm it himself made her breathe much easier. "Thank you for understanding."
Jasper nodded. "Of course." He looked at her for a moment, then glanced toward the lunch line. "Were you going to get food?" he asked.
Danielle remembered what she had originally been doing, then nodded. "Yeah, I was." She looked at him, noticed his lack of lunch, then tilted her head curiously. "It doesn't look like you've eaten either," she commented. "Do you wanna go grab a bite?"
Jasper thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Sure."
Danielle smiled, then, together, they headed for the lunch line. When they got in line, Danielle noticed that they were standing behind two girls who looked like they might have been freshmen. Both of them glanced at her, glanced at Jasper, then did a double take and gave Jasper a much longer look. Though Jasper didn't seem to notice – or maybe he did notice, but just didn't care – Danielle couldn't help but quirk a brow at both of the girls. They were eyeing him like he was a piece of meat, and she didn't really like that.
"So," Jasper said, drawing her attention back to him. "Since you missed first and second period, I went ahead and took some notes for you," he said, shuffling through his things for a second until he could pull out a few papers from one of his folders.
Danielle forgot all about the girls who had been eyeing Jasper and raised her brows at him as he handed the papers to her. "You took notes for me?" she asked, dumbfounded. Jasper nodded in confirmation. "Wow. Thank you, Jasper," she said, smiling brightly. When he just waved her off, as if to say it was nothing, she shook her head. "No, seriously. Thank you. That's a huge help," she insisted.
Jasper finally smiled. She thought he looked a bit pleased with himself. "You're welcome."
Danielle glanced over the notes, noting how neat and tidy his handwriting was, then shoved them into one of her folders. "Did I miss anything important?" she asked.
"Not really," he said with a shrug. "We do have a test in Calculus on Friday, though."
Danielle couldn't help but groan with dread, which earned her a questioning look from Jasper. "I hate math," she told him. "It's always been my worst subject. It doesn't help that I'm behind in the school work, either, since I've only been here a few days," she added. "If I want any hope of passing this test, I'm gonna have to study my rear end off," she said with a defeated sigh.
Jasper made a thoughtful sound at that, his brows furrowing pensively. They moved forward in line, silence falling between them for a few seconds. Finally, Jasper seemed to come to a decision about something. "Well, as it so happens, I'm very good at Calculus," he told her. "If you need someone to tutor you or help you study for the test, I could do it," he offered.
Danielle was caught completely off guard by Jasper's offer to tutor her. She liked the idea of spending extra time with him, though, and couldn't help but smile at the thought. "You would do that for me?" she asked.
Jasper nodded and gave her another half-smile. "Yes, I would."
"Okay," Danielle immediately agreed. "When should we study then?"
"Why not start right now, while we're at lunch?" he suggested. "We could go over what you missed in class. I could start catching you up on what we were working on before you came to Forks, too." But then he paused and frowned, his eyes glancing toward the table she usually sat at. "Unless you'd rather eat with your friends. It can wait, if you want," he said, giving her the option to say no if she wasn't feeling up for it.
The thought of having lunch with Jasper – just Jasper – was too appealing to refuse. "I'm fine with studying right now," she told him with a nod. "I don't have my book, though."
"That's okay. I still have mine," he reassured her, motioning to the textbooks he held with his right arm.
Danielle smiled and nodded, then turned forward again as they continued further up the line. She couldn't help but think that this day was beginning to take a turn for the better.
She and Jasper made their way through the lunch line, grabbing two trays once they were at the front and then picking out food to have for lunch. When they passed the fruit section, Danielle started to reach for an apple that caught her eye. Jasper seemed to have the same idea, because he reached for it at the exact same time. Their fingers brushed together, catching them both by surprise. Danielle looked at Jasper and blushed, while he just pressed his lips together, his eyes locked on her. He then pulled his hand back, before motioning for her take the apple. Still blushing, Danielle put the apple on her tray and continued on.
After they paid for their food, they took a moment to look for an empty table. They finally found one in the corner and quickly went to claim it. As they set their books and their trays on the table and sat down next to each other, Danielle noticed that just about every single person in the cafeteria was staring at them in shock. Even Emmett and Alice were looking at their brother in surprise, before sharing a meaningful look with each other.
It was easy to ignore the staring once Jasper opened up his text book and started going over what had been covered in class that day. It was not easy, however, to completely focus on what Jasper was telling her. She found herself focusing more just on Jasper himself. She liked the smooth, soothing tenor of his voice. She liked how the green button-down shirt he was wearing made his amber colored eyes pop even more than usual. And she really liked the serious, studious expression on his face as he went over the day's lesson. Danielle didn't know how he managed it, but somehow he got more and more handsome every time she looked at him.
Jasper eventually looked at her and raised his brows, as if he could tell she wasn't paying as much attention as she should've been. Danielle managed to pull herself together after that and forced herself to focus on what Jasper was actually trying to teach her – she needed to learn what would be on the test, and she couldn't learn if she was too busy thinking about how good Jasper looked, could she? She followed along with him, working on problems from the book and asking questions here or there. Thankfully, Jasper was very patient and explained anything she didn't understand, and he didn't make her feel like an idiot if she didn't get things on the first try.
She was so focused on what they were doing that she didn't realize how much time had passed. When the bell rang overhead, she looked around in surprise before sighing and giving Jasper a smile.
"Guess that concludes the lesson for the day," she said.
Jasper nodded. "Guess so."
They both collected their things, then stood up to throw their trash away. When Danielle saw Jasper's tray, she frowned at realizing it was still full of food. "You barely touched your food," she said, suddenly feeling guilty – he'd been so busy tutoring her, he hadn't had time to eat.
"Don't worry about it," Jasper said, and for some reason her guilt quickly melted away. "I had a huge breakfast, so I wasn't that hungry anyway."
Danielle pursed her lips, then shrugged. "Alright, if you say so."
They carried their trays to the trashcans and dumped them, though Jasper kept his apple when Danielle insisted he keep it for a snack in case he got hungry later on. After that they left the cafeteria, and though she had thought he might say goodbye and head off to his own class, he walked with her all the way to her locker. Danielle found that she didn't mind it one bit.
"What do you have next?" he asked curiously as she rifled around in her locker.
"Physics," she answered. "You?"
"History," he answered.
Danielle nodded.
Jasper looked at her for a moment, then tilted his head curiously. "I was wondering…how do you plan to get home?" he asked.
Danielle frowned at the question. It hadn't really clicked until that moment that she didn't have a ride home anymore. Bella had gone home with her father, and since Bella's truck hadn't been in the parking lot when she had come back from the hospital, Danielle could only assume that it had been towed back to the Swan house.
"Actually…I don't know," she admitted. "It's too far and too cold to walk home, but I'd hate to burden someone else by asking for a ride," she mused aloud. She thought about it for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "You know what? I'll probably just walk to my mom's bookshop," Danielle told him with a nod. "It's not that far from here. I can just hang out there until the shop closes and go home with her."
Jasper nodded, then reached up to rub the back of his neck. He looked nervous all of a sudden. "Maybe I can walk with you," he offered. "If you don't mind the company, that is," he added quickly.
Danielle blinked at him, finding herself thrown for a loop once again. First Jasper had approached her before school, then he'd taken notes for her and tutored her during lunch, and now he wanted to walk her to her mother's bookshop? She wasn't entirely sure why he was going out of his way to spend so much time with her today, but she certainly wasn't going to complain about it. As hard as she had been trying to keep her rapidly shifting feelings for him in check, she couldn't deny that the more time she spent around Jasper, the more she liked being around him.
"Are you sure? I mean…you don't have to," she said before she could stop herself. Idiot!, she scolded herself internally. Why didn't you just say yes?
"I know I don't have to," Jasper said. "I want to," he told her seriously, his gaze holding hers intently.
The way he was looking at her made her breath catch in her throat. It took a second, but she finally managed to get her voice to work again. "Yeah, okay. That would be nice."
Jasper smiled and nodded, looking pleased that she had said yes. "I'll meet you in the parking lot after school then."
Danielle nodded. "Yeah, see you then."
Jasper gave her one last little smile, then finally left. Danielle watched him go before releasing the breath she had been holding and smiling to herself.
Because she was looking forward to seeing Jasper again after school, her last two classes seemed to drag by extra slow. She began to feel so anxious and so frustrated that she had a hard time focusing on much of anything. When the last bell of the day finally rang, she all but sang with relief and then quickly hurried to meet with Jasper.
He was waiting for her in the parking lot, just as he had said he would. He had been leaning against a tree next to the lot, but quickly straightened to his full height when he caught sight of her.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yep," Danielle confirmed.
With that they left the school behind, walking side by side as they started toward her mother's bookshop. It was a silent walk at first – Danielle simply didn't know what to say to him, and Jasper didn't seem to be in a rush to be the one to break the ice. Finally, when she couldn't stand the silence anymore, she smiled up at him.
"Thank you again for helping me out with calculus," she said. "It was really nice of you."
Jasper inclined his head to her. "You're welcome," he said. "Just so you know, that wasn't just a one-time offer," he told her. "Anytime you need help, all you need to do is ask."
Danielle nodded in understanding. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
Silence fell between them again. They ambled along, Danielle glancing at him every so often and having to resist the urge to smile whenever she caught him doing the same. When they had to pause at an intersection to let some cars pass by, a particularly strong wind whipped past them, making Danielle instantly shiver. It wasn't as freezing as it had been that morning, but it was still pretty damn cold. There was still snow visible in the trees and on the ground, and certain parts of the roads and walkways had spots that looked to still be covered in ice.
Jasper saw her shiver and frowned. "Cold?" he asked.
Danielle shrugged sheepishly. "A bit."
He nodded, then, without saying a word, he took off his schoolbag so that he could remove the winter jacket he wore. To Danielle's immense surprise, he stepped right up to her and placed the jacket on her shoulders, so that it hung around her like a cape. It wasn't as warm as she had thought it might be considering he had just been wearing it, but the extra layer protected her from the wind and instantly made her feel warmer. It smelled just like him, too, which was a huge bonus.
"You won't get cold?" she asked, selfishly hoping he would say no so that she wouldn't have to give him his jacket back just yet.
Jasper waved off her question nonchalantly and shook his head. "No," he said as he fixed the strap of his schoolbag on his shoulder again. "Don't worry about me. I'm so used to the cold now that it doesn't bother me."
Danielle smiled and nodded her understanding. "Well…thank you."
"You're welcome."
They crossed the road once the cars finished going by. Danielle held Jasper's jacket around herself, liking how big it was on her and thoroughly enjoying that wonderful piney scent surrounding her. "It seems you've still got the 'southern gentleman' gene in you," she commented with a smile.
Jasper smirked and shrugged. "You know what they say. You can take the man out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the man."
Danielle laughed. "Spoken like a true Texan," she joked, which made Jasper smile with amusement. Danielle looked up at him and tilted her head curiously. "Do you miss it?" she asked.
"Texas?" Jasper asked. Danielle nodded. He thought about it, then shrugged. "Sometimes I do," he admitted. "But to be honest, when I was in Texas I wasn't in the greatest…situation," he told her, his lips pulling into a tiny frown. He seemed to reflect on something for a moment, then shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts. "The day my parents, Carlisle and Esme, took me in, my life took a drastic change for the better," he told her with a nod. "I might miss certain aspects about the south every now and again, but…I'm happier here. I'm where I'm meant to be now," he concluded.
"Your parents must be very special people," she said with a gentle smile.
Jasper nodded, a fond look entering his eye. "They are," he confirmed.
Danielle started to ask him more about his adoptive parents, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, her foot unexpectedly slipped on a patch of ice that she hadn't noticed. She made a sound of surprise as she lost her balance and started to fall to the ground. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, however, Jasper quickly turned and grabbed both of her arms, holding her steady so that she wouldn't fall to the icy pavement below.
Danielle felt her breath catch in her throat again. They stood face to face, separated only a matter of inches. His hands were holding her securely by the arms, but unlike that first encounter, his grip was not tight enough to hurt or bruise. Danielle gazed up into his amber colored eyes, electricity shooting through her arms at his touch even despite the fact that she had on multiple layers of clothing. She couldn't tell what the expression on his face meant, but as his eyes searched her face, her heart began to thump a bit harder underneath her ribs.
It had been frightening, the last time they had been close to one another like this. But right now, Danielle was far from frightened.
Jasper finally blinked, then gave her a small smile and released her. "You're alright?" he asked, his voice perfectly neutral.
Danielle nodded jerkily and cleared her throat. "Yeah, I'm good. Thanks."
Jasper nodded, and with that they started walking again. The silence that hung around them felt a bit awkward now, and for a few moments, Danielle struggled to come up with something to say to break the ice again. Finally, she readjusted Jasper's jacket and pulled it tightly around herself again, her eyes turning down to her sneakers with dismay.
"I'm so not equipped to deal with weather like this," she commented, shaking her head. "We don't get snow and ice like this down in Houston. This is all new territory for me." She sighed, then laughed a bit. "I have to admit…so far, I'm not really a fan of it."
"You'll get used to it," Jasper reassured her. "Besides, this isn't really even all that bad," he started with a smirk. "This sort of weather is pretty mild compared to where I used to live."
Danielle looked at him curiously. "And where was that?" she asked.
"Alaska," he answered, which made her brows shoot upward.
"Wow," Danielle said with amazement. "I've always wanted to go to Alaska," she admitted. "I always thought it would be so cool up there."
"If by cool you mean absolutely freezing, then yes, it is," Jasper joked, which made Danielle smile in amusement. "It is a beautiful place, though," he told her with a nod.
"Were you sad when you had to leave Alaska and come here?" she asked him next.
Jasper shrugged a shoulder. "Not really," he said. "I didn't really feel attached to Alaska, and I didn't really have any friends, either. So when we left, I didn't feel like I was losing anything important," he explained.
Danielle frowned at hearing that. She knew from word of mouth that Jasper – and all of the Cullen's for that matter – didn't have any friends here in Forks, but it seemed even stranger that he hadn't had any in Alaska, either. Why was he incapable of making friends? Was there something to it, or did Jasper simply not have any interest in making friends?
"Can I ask you something personal?" she asked before she lost her nerve. Jasper quirked a brow at her, but nodded. "Why don't you have any friends here in Forks?"
Jasper seemed like he didn't know how to answer for a moment. Finally, he sighed. "I think part of the reason is because people around here tend to keep their distance from us Cullen's. Everyone seems to think the worst of my family. They say we're weird and stuck up and that we think we're too good to be friends with anyone" he said, giving her a knowing look. "I'm sure you've heard at least one person say something like that since you came here," he stated pointedly.
Danielle cringed, but nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, I have," she told him. "Sorry," she said quickly, feeling the need to apologize for the things people said about him and his family.
Jasper just smiled wryly. "It's fine. I'm used to it." Jasper went quiet as they continued along, then looked down at her again. "My lack of friends isn't all just because of that, though," he continued. "If I'm being perfectly honest, I've always been hesitant to get too close to anyone," he admitted. "Maybe it's because of the way I grew up or maybe it's just a self-preservation thing. Either way, it always just seemed like a better idea not to get too friendly with anyone."
Danielle frowned with slight confusion now. "So then why have you been hanging out with me?" she asked before she could stop herself.
Jasper looked at her in surprise, clearly not expecting her blunt question. Danielle flushed at once, cursing herself internally for not keeping her big mouth shut. "The truth?" Jasper asked after a moment of hesitation. "You're the first person I've met who actually treats me like I'm…normal," he admitted. "I enjoy being around you, Danielle," he told her.
Butterflies erupted in her stomach. "You do?" she asked dumbly.
Jasper nodded. "You're genuine, you're nice, and you actually talk to me," he said. "You even defended me when other people said things behind my back, too, which is practically unheard of," he added with a knowing look.
Danielle blushed fiercely, knowing exactly what he was referring to. "You heard about what happened between me and Jessica?"
Jasper smirked and nodded. "It's a small school," he reminded her. "Gossip makes the rounds pretty quick."
Danielle couldn't decide if she should feel embarrassed or not. "She shouldn't have talked about you like that," she finally said with a shrug. "She was judging you without even knowing you. I wasn't just gonna sit there and let her keep saying mean things about you."
Jasper smiled at her, and she could see the appreciation in his eyes. "No one's ever stuck up for me like that, Danielle. I'm grateful to you for defending me." Then Jasper suddenly frowned, his eyes turning elsewhere. "Though if you ask me, I don't deserve it. Not after the way I treated you when we first met," he said, his tone tinged with self-loathing.
Danielle gave him a sharp look. "Hey," she said to make him look back at her. "We already talked about that, remember? I forgave you," she reminded. "So stop beating yourself up about it. It's in the past now."
Jasper smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Alright," he said, though the way he said it hinted that he would never let himself forget what had happened that day.
Their conversation lulled after that, but the silence that surrounded them was not awkward anymore. It was comfortable and relaxed, and as Danielle caught his eye and they shared a quick smile, she felt something shift between them. It felt like they'd come to some sort of understanding about each other, like they understood where this road they had embarked on together was headed. In that moment, she was completely certain that they had officially become friends.
She couldn't help the strong feelings of disappointment that flooded her when they turned a corner and her mother's bookshop came into view. Danielle sighed heavily, already dreading the moment that she would have to say goodbye to Jasper. When she chanced a look up at him, he didn't look too thrilled to see the shop, either.
"Well, this is my stop," she said as they reached the store and came to a halt just outside the front door. "Thank you for walking with me. It was really nice."
Jasper nodded. "Yes, it was."
They stared at each other for a moment, until Danielle finally shrugged off Jasper's coat and handed it back to him. He accepted it with a nod, but didn't move to put it back on right away. "How will you get home?" Danielle asked curiously, unsure if she really wanted to know or if she was just asking so he would hang around a few seconds longer.
Jasper shrugged. "I'll walk," he told her. "It's not that far of a trip to my house from here. I'll manage just fine."
"Are you sure?" Danielle asked uncertainly. "I could borrow my mom's car and drive you home," she then offered. "It wouldn't be any trouble for me, and it'd be a lot faster than walking."
Jasper considered the offer for a second, but then finally shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll be fine," he insisted.
"Okay," Danielle said, trying very hard to keep the disappointment out of her tone. "I'll see you tomorrow, then," she finally told him.
Jasper nodded. "You will," he confirmed. "Have a good night, Danielle."
"You, too," she said.
Jasper gave her one last smile, then, with a smidge of reluctance, he turned and began to walk away. Danielle wrapped her arms around herself and watched him go, sighing quietly to herself. Then, finally, she went into her mother's bookshop.
Danielle was in a ridiculously good mood after that. She stayed at her mother's bookshop until close, working on her homework at first, then helping out around the store once she was finished. Lynne, who could read Danielle like an open book, had noticed the extra bounce in her step and kept asking just what exactly had put her in such a great mood. Danielle, who wasn't quite ready to tell her mother that Jasper was the reason for her surge of happiness, just came up with whatever excuse sounded best to get her mother to stop asking.
By seven thirty that night, the sun had gone down and they were pulling into the driveway. Danielle stepped out of the car and automatically looked at the Swan house, noticing first that Bella's truck had indeed been towed back and was parked in its usual spot, then noticing next that both Charlie and Bella appeared to be home, since all of the windows in the house were lit up. She thought about her earlier decision to check on Bella and turned to her mother, who was already making her way up to the house.
"Hey, Mom?" she called to make Lynne look back at her. "I'm gonna go check in on Bella for a second. I've been really worried about her."
"Okay, sweetie," Lynne said with a nod of understanding. "But don't stay too long. We'll be eating dinner soon."
Danielle nodded, then started across the street, shivering against the cold wind as it beat against her face and swirled around her - she wished she still had Jasper's jacket with her so that she'd be nice and warm again. Picking up the pace, she hurried up to the front door of Bella's house and knocked twice, before taking a step back and waiting patiently for someone to answer the door. After waiting for just a few seconds, the front door opened to reveal Charlie.
"Oh, hello, Danielle," he greeted with a small smile, not looking too surprised to see her standing on his front door step.
"Hi, Chief Swan," she said with a respectful nod. "I'm sorry to drop by unexpectedly, but I wanted to come and see how Bella was doing," she explained.
"She's doing alright," Charlie told her. "Still a bit shaken up over everything, I think, but doing well enough." He paused, then raised his brows. "Would you like to come in and talk to her?"
Danielle nodded at once. "That'd be great."
Charlie stepped aside and motioned for her to come in. Danielle stepped into the warmth of the Swan house, relieved to get out of the cold, then glanced around curiously as she searched for Bella. "She's upstairs in her room," Charlie told her. "Go ahead and go up."
"Alright. Thanks," she told him with a smile.
While Charlie went back into the living room, Danielle went upstairs to the second floor. Once she was upstairs, it wasn't hard to figure out which room was Bella's. There was a door at the end of the hall that was shut, but she could hear music on the other side, the same music that she and Bella frequently listened to whenever they drove to school. Danielle went to the door and knocked to catch Bella's attention.
She heard footsteps approaching the door from the other side. When Bella yanked the door open, she looked frustrated. "Dad, I've told you. I'm fine," she said immediately. But then she made a face of surprise as she realized that it was Danielle who had come to talk to her, not her father. "Oh, hey," Bella said, smiling sheepishly now. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I thought you were my dad," she apologized.
"It's fine," Danielle reassured her with a smile.
Bella nodded, then motioned her into the room. Danielle stepped in and took a look around, eyeing the posters on the walls and the possessions scattered about the room. She turned back to Bella after her friend shut the bedroom door, watching as she went to the stereo and turned down the music.
"How are you?" Danielle asked once the music was down. "I've been worried about you all day."
Bella sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm…okay," she said with a nod. "It's been a really weird day, though. After everything that happened with the crash and with Edward, I've just…" Bella sighed and shrugged. "I've had a lot on my mind."
Danielle pursed her lips with uncertainty. She thought back to what Bella had said that morning, how she was convinced that she had seen Edward do something that simply couldn't have been possible. Did Bella still believe that was what had happened? "Did something else happen with Edward?" she asked carefully.
Bella nodded. "He was at the hospital," she told her. "I saw him after you guys left and I went to talk to him. I had to know how he had been able to stop the van the way that he did," she insisted. But then she scowled and shook her head. "He wouldn't tell me. In fact, he made me feel like I was crazy for even thinking it was possible!" Bella said indignantly. "I mean, I know it's a little farfetched, but…I was right there, Danielle. I saw him do it with my own eyes!" she insisted.
Danielle frowned, unsure what to say in response. Bella seemed to adamantly believe that Edward had stopped the van with his bare hands, but Danielle, who had talked to Edward about what had happened and gotten his side of the story, didn't feel the same.
"Bella," she started slowly. "Do you think that maybe you were just…confused?" she asked gently. "I mean, it all happened pretty fast and I'm sure you were scared half to death. Maybe you weren't thinking straight. Maybe what you think you saw…didn't happen," she told her.
Bella's jaw dropped in shocked, before she frowned deeply. "You don't believe me?" she asked bluntly.
Danielle pressed her lips together tightly. "I don't wanna say that I don't believe you," she told her carefully. "But, I mean…stopping a van with his bare hands? That's more than just a little farfetched."
"So you think I'm crazy, too, is that it?" Bella countered with pure frustration.
"No!" Danielle said at once. "I don't think you're crazy. I just think that maybe, in all the chaos, you saw something that didn't actually happen." Bella scoffed, but said nothing in response. "Look," Danielle continued. "I know Edward was at the hospital, because I talked to him while the doctor was looking you over. After what you told me, I wanted to know what had happened too," she admitted. "We talked about what happened and he had a good explanation for everything. When it was all said and done…his side of the story made sense. Or, at least, it made more sense than the alternative," she added with a sigh.
Bella shook her head. "First Edward, now you," she said, sounding disappointed, maybe even a little defeated. "I can't believe this."
Danielle stepped closer, her expression a little guilty. "I'm not trying to hurt your feelings here, Bella," she insisted. "I don't think you're crazy or anything like that. I just think that you were in a stressful situation and things got a little…skewed."
Bella wouldn't meet her gaze. "I know what I saw," she repeated. "I don't care what Edward told you, and I don't care if you don't believe me. I was there. And I know what I saw."
Danielle sighed and nodded. "Okay," she finally said. Bella had clearly made up her mind, so there was no use arguing with her about it. The last thing she wanted to do was upset Bella any further, not after the day she had already had. "I should probably go," Danielle said, thinking maybe it would be best if she left. "My mom said not to stay long. We're gonna be eating dinner soon."
Bella looked at her, seemed to understand how uncomfortable Danielle was with the situation, then sighed heavily, her previous anger and determination quickly fading away. "I'm sorry," she apologized, looking regretful now. "You came over here to check on me and I'm acting like a huge jerk."
Danielle smiled gently. "Don't apologize. I understand. It's been a hard day," she said understandingly. "I'm just glad you're okay," she told her sincerely. "That's the only thing that really matters."
Bella nodded, then flashed her a smile. "Thank you for coming to check on me. You're…you're a good friend."
Danielle smiled, then, after a brief moment of hesitation, she moved forward and hugged Bella. Bella immediately hugged her back, sighing a bit as she accepted the comforting embrace. Finally, they pulled away from each other.
"Get some rest," Danielle said, patting her shoulder before taking a step back. "Try to not stress, okay? And if you need anything, anything at all, you know where to find me."
Bella nodded. "Okay."
Danielle nodded to her, then finally went to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, opening the bedroom door.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Bella said in return.
Danielle finally left the room after that and headed back downstairs. She said goodbye to Charlie, who was parked on the couch and watching a fishing show on TV, before stepping out of the Swan house. Then, she went home.
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