Spring 2005

The vampire stood as far as he could from pulsating hearts and incessant thoughts, leaning against a wall under the awning. Sheets of rain fell inches away from his long, lean body. Even from this distance, Bella could recall the sensation of his clean-cut jaw, strong nose, and a mess of bronze hair upon her fingertips.

He wore no coat, for he did not need one. His long-sleeved shirt accentuated his chest and muscles perfectly. The sleeves were pushed up to reveal his forearms. He turned the page of his tattered paperback in a slow exaggerated movement. Bella did the same in her matching copy.

You.

The word was the sole annotation on the page, with a little heart drawn next to it. It pointed to a quote from Miss Catherine Moreland: "I should like to spend my whole life in reading it. I assure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for all the world."

Ridiculous boy.

She flipped through the pages, smiling broadly as she found similar annotations sprinkled throughout, when the sound of giggles pulled her from her thoughts. Edward must have sought her reaction to his annotation. Any time he turned his attention anywhere near them, Lauren and Jessica tittered.

Bella peeked behind her. True enough, the girls sat at the next table, exchanging excited whispers. The chattering stopped when they noticed Bella. Lauren fluttered her fingers; Jessica blew her a kiss. A mocking reminder of reality. Like placing a bookmark in a world where true love reigned over all to return to a cluttered apartment in Phoenix and a scatterbrained mother. The girls cackled at Bella's obvious indignation. Cheeks hot, Bella dug her nose back into the book.

Bella was not troubled by her new relationship status. Far from it. If Jessica "stole" Mike from Bella by kissing him in front of the entire town, so be it. One less headache for Bella to deal with. Though, despite her pettiness, Jessica didn't deserve a relationship with Mike, either. Bella pitied her. Especially since the boy Jessica truly fancied was too busy filling the margins of Bella's books with declarations of love to notice her.

"Ugh, where is he going?" she heard Lauren ask Jessica.

Bella glanced up, just as concerned. He shouldn't be going anywhere for the next five minutes. She nearly groaned at what she saw. A rare break in the rain gave way to weak beams of sunlight. Not bright enough to cheer her heart or warm her enough to remove her third layer. But enough to send a vampire into hiding.

Just her luck.

Biology was the one time of day when she could actually speak with Edward, for talking to her lab partner wouldn't draw any unwanted attention. There were still too many whispers around her name. Too many prying eyes and discreet points in her direction. Her only wish was to lay low. And showing up to school as the sweetheart of the reclusive bad boy was the opposite of that.

Bella considered ditching. However, she feared the rumors that would spread if she and Edward were to ditch the same class at the same time, even if there was truth in them. Avoiding the varied gazes of her classmates, Bella begrudgingly went to class.

Her sense of duty paid off.

She found him sitting at their shared lab table. Clearly as reluctant to be apart from her as she was to be apart from him. He wore a baseball cap and pulled up the hood from his hoodie, shrouding his face in shadows. She wished she could have run to him, thrown herself in his arms, and let herself be peppered with chilly kisses. But she knew better than that. Instead, she took her time closing the short distance between them. Built the anticipation. So, when she arrived at her seat, the low greeting from her partner was nearly a growl of desire.

Her heart beat so loudly, she could feel it in her throat. She curled her fingers against the surface of the table. She couldn't resist him. His mere proximity sent her body into a frenzy.

"Mr. Cullen, remove your hat and hood."

Bella straightened at the sound of Mr. Banner's voice. Lost in everything Edward, she didn't notice class had started. Edward did nothing. There was nothing he could do. Removing his hood at hat would show his true colors, quite literally.

"Mr. Cullen, I am asking you nicely."

Awkwardness warmed the classroom to an uncomfortable temperature. Bella was not the only student fidgeting in their seat. Still, Edward did nothing.

"Have it your way." Mr. Banner wrote a note and held it out for Edward. Edward snatched it out of his hand and stalked out the door. Bella—and all the other girls in the class, she noticed—watched Edward's departure with disappointment. He wouldn't go to the office, Bella knew. He would leave school entirely, causing more trouble down the road.

She sighed.

Unfortunately, it was for the best. By the time school let out, the sun was bright in the sky, coating Forks in an unfamiliar buttery yellow. Without Edward's silver Volvo to lead her, she nearly missed the turn to the driveway. Edward would hear the truck's wheeze in protest all the way from the house. He would probably laugh. She smiled, just thinking about it.

The canopy of trees was thick over the Cullen household, but the sunlight broke through the branches. The sound of her name was a whisper on the leaves. Then, he was there. A burst of shimmering glory she literally had to shield her eyes from. Pads of cool fingertips pressed along her cheek, as gentle as his kisses.

"Hello, my love."

She lowered her hand, blinking hard against the dazzling lights until her eyes adjusted. Once they did, Bella still could not believe what they saw. The beautiful face of a vampire, shining with adoration for her. He captured her lips in hers, cool and unyielding. He lifted her from the truck, effortlessly holding her aloft with supernatural strength.

"Sorry I got you in trouble today," she, tightened her arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

"You've caused me trouble the moment you stepped into my shop in Alaska," he said with a kiss. "I've gotten used to it."

Hand-in-hand, they walked through his house. Bella did her best not to ogle, though it was quite difficult. The house was all glass and gardens, looking more like a greenhouse than a vampire nest. Likewise, the vampires themselves acted the sculptures in a garden, crafted in an unknown stone that sparkled in the sun. They passed Edward's mother on their way in, reading a book. Carlisle and one of Edward's brothers sat along the rear of the house, a chessboard between them.

They smiled and waved in Bella's direction but said nothing.

She worried his family's distance meant something. Edward assured her it was not the case.

"Trust me, they're champing at the bit to meet you," he had said late one night as he held her in his embrace, three quilts between them, "They're going slow. They don't want you to be overwhelmed."

Despite that effort, Bella was quite overwhelmed. In the kitchen, behind cabinets draped with the long vines of plants, Edward revealed a near-endless supply of snacks. The fridge was similarly stocked. Bella's stomach rumbled at the sight of it all. Amusement touched Edward's features. It astonished her that her human frailties charmed him.

The selection process was a difficult one, for all her favorites were available. Specifically purchased with her in mind. She had never known something as simple as a stocked kitchen. Growing up, the fridge held takeout or Renee's meal replacement shakes, depending on what mood she was in that week. When she grew older, Bella bought ingredients to her liking. But it wasn't the same as knowing someone went to the store, thought about what she liked, and wanted her to have it enough to buy it.

She spoke none of this to Edward. He found her as a drop of misery in an ocean of wretchedness. Cruelly forced into submission by her father and boyfriend. Before that, abandoned by her mother. It was all pathetic enough. He didn't need to know the emotional impact chips and a pudding cup had on her.

They sat in the kitchen nook, where Bella ate her snacks and most meals. She was not kidding when she decided to starve Charlie out. He would be fine. He fended for himself for years. But never would he know the joys of Bella's cooking. He could choke on under-seasoned steak and dry eggs for all she cared.

Edward asked after her sudden dour expression when the two blonde vampires appeared at the back door. Bella jumped, nearly choking on her bite. Edward rubbed her back and gestured for them to come inside. Rosalie and Jasper moved in graceful synchronization, as if their entrance had been rehearsed. Judging by the perfect décor and picture-perfect placement of the Cullens, it might have been.

They maintained a far distance from the table, Jasper's arm cautiously looped through Rosalie's.

Rosalie's smile was smug and painfully beautiful. If she hadn't met Edward first, Bella would have thought Rosalie to be the most exquisite creature on Earth. "Heard you were sent to the office again."

Jasper's tense expression softened into something close to a grin.

"What was it this time?" she mused. "Vandalism? Smoking? Or did you get caught just pretending to do those things again?

"You're very funny, Rose."

"Oh, I remember when you were a good little schoolboy," Rosalie drew close enough to pinch Edward's cheek. Her arm remained linked through Jasper's. "Attended all your classes and signed up for all your little clubs, dressed in plaid."

Edward batted her hand away. "Yeah, yeah."

"Now you look at you." She ran her hand through his hair. "Getting into trouble. Wearing the Devil's Demin."

"Careful, Rose," Jasper said in a low Southern drawl, "he might pretend to retaliate."

They laughed. Bella joined them, pressing her mouth to Edward's shoulder to muffle the sound.

"Laugh at him, Bella." Bella sat up, startled by the sound of her own name in Rosalie's sonorous voice. "Never mind his feelings. Aggravating Edward is not only acceptable in his house, it's encouraged!"

"Oh, don't you worry," Edward wound his arm around her shoulders. "Bella learned exactly which buttons to push straight away. She was a natural."

"Glad to hear it."

"Do us proud."

Bella nodded, face warm.

"See you around, Bella."

As if a magician spoke the magic word, they were gone. Bella blinked.

Edward gestured in the general direction of the house, "Jasper and Rosalie, as you might have deduced. The relatively normal members of the family. They only get stranger from here."

"Where do you fit on that ranking?"

"Middling."

Edward and Bella spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying their new routine. They kissed in Edward's room, making up for lost time after months of separation. Bella cooked herself a simple meal in the Cullen's elaborate kitchen, teaching Edward everything she knew. As she ate, they did their homework at the dining room table. Cullens popped in and out briefly, but mostly she and Edward were blissfully alone.

The night ended in her bed back at home, Edward's cool arms wrapped around her.

"I love you…" she heard as she slipped into a dreamless sleep. Dreamless, because even her unconscious mind could not conceive of something as fantastical as time spent with Edward.

oOo

Bella decided that she used up all her allotted good luck securing Edward's affection. Now that his heart was in her hands, she was left with the worst luck imaginable.

The day before, the sun sent him away. That morning, the threads to her sweater caught in a loose screw of the chair. It unraveled when she got up with the bell, sending her back into her seat with colored cheeks. The sweet Spanish teacher, Mrs. Geoff, was courteous to wait until the rest of the class had filed out before she smiled at poor Bella and pulled out a pair of scissors. She tried her best to free Bella from the chair with the sweater intact, but the damage was done. Bella had a large tear down the side of her sweater that would only get worse.

Mrs. Geoff asked Bella if she would be okay and Bella said that she would. She just had to find Edward. He would run to her house to fetch her something new to wear. Until then, she would wear her rain jacket over the tight, white tank top. She covered herself with her arms the best that she could even though she was late and the halls were nearly empty. With a note from Mrs. Geoff to her next teacher, Bella had enough time to get the jacket in her locker.

"What a welcome sight." The voice brought her to a skidding stop. "You look beautiful."

Bella's fingers curled into fists. "What do you want, Mike?"

Mike sauntered down the center of the hall wearing his spring uniform, baseball equipment bag in his hand for the new season. The look in his eyes as he appraised her was steadfast desire, too greedy to be mistaken as love.

"I'm tired of fighting, Baby. I want to make up."

"I don't. I don't ever want to see you again."

"Don't be dramatic, Bella." He slipped his hand into the back pocket of her jeans. Bella pulled away. "You needed to learn a lesson. I taught you one. Now, you'll never ride off with some loser guy again without my permission."

"I broke up with you before that. Remember?"

He frowned, genuinely unable to recall the event. "Why are you being such a brat? I'm forgiving you for cheating on me. I convinced Charlie to give you back your truck. I didn't hear a thank you from you for either."

It was true. Her truck keys were hanging on their hook Monday morning, like they'd been there all along. Mike hardly deserved a medal for returning something he had no right to take away in the first place.

"We're broken up."

"Alright, Bella. If you say so," he said, his tone mocking and cruel.

Bella could not catch a break.

She turned on her heels, with the intent of storming off. Instead, when her traitorous foot caught on to the other. She tripped and fell, horrified to find her hand landed in a puddle of some mysterious substance. Bella wanted to claw the self-satisfied smirk off Mike's face as he bent down beside her.

"I don't know why I'm giving you another chance after you've been so nasty to me." He got a tissue from her bag, where he knew she kept them, and helped her clean off her hand. The gesture would have been sweet from any other person. "I guess I love you that much."

Momentarily stunned, Bella didn't realize he bent in for a kiss until his wet lips were on hers. Mike pressed the filthy tissue into her clean hand and squeezed her fingers around it. "I'll see you tonight at dinner. Your place."

He left her on the ground. For the first time since discovering his ability, Bella wished Edward could read her mind. She wished she could scream his name in her head and he would find her. But even blessings found ways to be curses in Bella's life. She remained alone, her gallant hero in his Calc 3 course, blissfully unaware of her plight. She picked herself off the floor, cleaned herself up in the bathroom, and arrived at class fifteen minutes late instead of five.

Bella skipped lunch. She sat in the corner of the library, huddled in her jacket, looking at nothing. There was a bagel sitting at her desk in Biology. That was all Edward said on the matter until he met her at the truck in his driveway.

"You cannot do that to me," he warned. "Where were you? I was so worried."

His questions would be overbearing if they had not come from a place of such tender compassion. Edward worried about everything. From her hydration level to the bruises that appeared on her arms to made-up scenarios in his head. He fretted over all of it until his head spun.

"I'm sorry… I didn't know how to tell you. I spent lunch in the library."

"We can figure out something for that. I should have also thought to check there. I checked the nurse and the ER…" He paused, tilting her chin to get a better look at her face. "Is everything alright?"

She shook her head. "I can't stand the thought of being looked at."

He, of course, was excluded from that sensation. He knew that.

"Oh, Sweetheart," he leaned in to provide a comforting kiss. A mere breath away, he drew back abruptly with a sharp hiss. Fury simmered into concern in the single thud of a heartbeat. He pressed a hand to her cheek, "Did he touch you?"

"Edward!" She fell into his arms as she rehashed the embarrassing incident.

"What can I do?" he asked at its conclusion.

"Nothing," Bella said, mournfully. "I don't want you wrapped up in any of this. They all hate you enough as it is."

"I couldn't care less about what people think of me."

"Well, what about the things people will say about me when I show up to school with an extremely loyal and loving boyfriend before Mike accepted our breakup?"

"That," he tucked her head under his chin, "I do care about."

"I'm tired of people talking about me. I'm tired of all of it." She nuzzled her nose into his neck. "I'll just let him live in his delusion. What can he do? Especially if I spend all my free time with you."

"I really don't want to do that, Bella."

"Well, I don't see another way."

Edward let the subject drop when she shivered. He peeked under her jacket and frowned at her bare shoulder. "I would have gotten you a new sweater."

"Again, I didn't know how to ask."

He chewed the inside of his cheek, considering. Bella wondered if their façade already weighed on him as it weighed on her. However, this was a boy who continuously lived his life in the shadows, under stacked layers of isolation. He could handle anything.

"One problem at a time," he sighed.

Bella found herself wrapped in two of his sweaters faster than she could ever imagine. Her head swam with the scent of butterscotch from the thick knit and chai from the mug warming her hands. She had taken her first sip when Edward abruptly stopped playing the piano.

"I'll kill him," he said, slamming his fingers on the keys. "He can't touch you if he's dead."

"The conversation is over, Edward."

He appeared beside her on his couch in an instant, pulling another blanket around her shoulders. "Then it will destroy me from the inside out."

"I think you'll be fine." She poked his steely bicep. "You're resilient."

Edward gave her a disparaging look.

Bella huffed. "Right now, Mike is at the house with Charlie expecting a dinner that will never happen. What can they do? I'm here. With you. You return me to the house late enough that Charlie is already asleep and I go to school late enough that I dodge them both."

"You can't dodge them forever. This afternoon is proof of that, love."

"Not with that attitude."

He took the tea from her hands and placed it on the side table. She opened her mouth to object when he pulled her against his chest and laid back. Bella snuggled closer, more pleased with this arrangement than she could be with any cup of tea.

"Do you know what first drew me to you?"

Bella had no idea what drew Edward to her. She understood that their relationship ran deep and true, after they spent almost all their time together for eight weeks. What made someone like Edward pay attention to someone like her in the first place was still a mystery.

She knew the reason Mike, Eric, and Tyler were drawn to her. She guessed it, in a glum voice.

"That is very true," he said, twirling her ponytail around his finger, "But do you think a beautiful face would be enough to capture my attention? I've seen beautiful women. I've spent years along vampires crafted to ensnare the male gaze."

Bella narrowed her eyes. "If you start naming these women, we're going to have a problem."

He chuckled. "Don't worry. None of them hold a candle to you. Your stubbornness caught my attention, of all things. You put me in my place and pushed and shoved until I stayed there."

"That's what you liked? Are you a masochist?"

"Apparently," he said, taking in a deep inhalation. Bella blushed deeply, recalling Edward's explanation of what the mere scent of her blood did to him. She couldn't believe he scorched his insides just to sit in her presence. Then again, she did plenty of reckless things for his fleeting attention.

"It was the subject of your belief that drew me in. You believed the best in everything and would accept nothing else. You believed the best in everyone and refused to alter that belief. After a century of being subjected to the worst of mankind," he pointed to his head, "I wanted to see the whole world through your rose-tinted glasses. You are a refreshing reminder that people are inherently good. And when I inevitably descend back to that melancholy place, I can trust you'll bully me back to a better frame of mind. Even after I tell you it would have made much more sense for Helen Graham to reject Gilbert Markham than fall for him…"

Bella pushed up to return his disparaging look, "You don't really think that."

"…or when I point out that Henry Crawford actually was a smart match for Fanny Price…"

"Now you're being stupid on purpose."

Edward chuckled affectionately and pulled her back into his embrace.

"I know how stubborn you can be. I love it. Perhaps, just this one time, you can consider bending. Then, we will go back to doing everything your way all the time."

"I don't know, Edward."

"For me?" he pressed a coercive kiss behind her ear.

"I'll think about it."

"I love you," he reminded her, "Very, very much."

"You'll have to come up with a better line than that," she teased, "if you want to beat out Darcy."

"Ah, but can Darcy do this?"

In a dizzying whirl, she was on her back. Every line of Edward's marble body pressed against her, but he held himself so she felt none of his weight. She felt his soft chuckle against her skin as cool lips pressed to her throat.

Sorry for the wait! I wrote the entire epilogue, decided I hated it, and redid the whole thing. It ended up being so long, I broke it into 3 parts, just for my own sanity. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow!