(no subject)
Debussy fell note by note from the speakers, but Edward was staring distracted through the pattering raindrops on the windshield to that grey and murky sky unseeing. He was listening to the melody of a piano fragment that had stolen into his thoughts. He reached out and shut off the stereo, his fingers shifting through the air as though there was a piano beneath them. The fuller harmony would have stretched there and then--
Newton distracted him by a diatribe of panic as he was setting Bella's prone figure down on the concrete and Edward nearly took off the door to his car. Her name had left his mouth loudly before he could even consider the fact he'd been about to say it. He'd begun to imagine the beautiful relief that would course through him with Mike's head snapped as the boy finally managed to relay that she'd passed out during Blood Typing.
Before she could even get done herself. That was the first small favor he'd been granted of her.
He didn't have to try and resist her free flowing blood as well as her scent.
Mike's thoughts and presence were that of an annoying fruit gnat compared to his focus on Bella's ashen, prostrate figure. His relief when she spoke came with a laugh. There was nothing else in the world to focus on but managing to walk still and straight as he carried Bella in his arms, held out so only her clothes could manage to brush against him-- as much distance as possible between them.
She tried to order him to put her down but the weak tone of her voice did nothing to help convince him she could make the nurses office on her own. He took her in and explained things calmly to Ms. Cope, carrying on the smallest momentary discussions with Bella. It really was ironic, and hilarious, that she fainted at the sight of blood. Could they be anymore mismatched?
It wasn't a pleasant sensation, watching Mike's return and listening to their discussion about their plans for the coming week. But what right did he have to anger or jealousy he felt? She was allowed to have life. It was better for her if she did have a life that didn't involve him. Besides Alice had said it would be sunny all weekend, and he had previous plans with Emmett, and it was on La Push Reservation's First Beach, and it was going to be covered with the children from the school. Not to mention the Quileute.
Impossible detail after impossible detail only continued to surmount between himself and Bella.
Patiently frustrated, he was only too glad to give Bella an out from gym class when she grumbled about it.
Convincing Ms. Cope that he could manage without one hour of Spanish and offering to see Bella home had been all too easy.
The office let them get away with whatever they asked for usually. It was hard to argue with the bunch of Cullen kids. They never got into trouble with other students or teachers. Their grades remained remarkable in every class, regardless of the fact they were pulled out so frequently by their parents for travel. They had the right answers when they were called on and they didn't mind displaying it. This made the fact they might be distractible or strangely anti-social acceptable to most of the adults at the school.
It surprised him, when walking through the rain to the parking lot, she'd asked if he was coming to the beach with them.
Even with the inability to accept, he felt dazed by the hopeful sound of her voice when she'd asked.
It had been pleasant up until she'd started walking off in the direction of her truck.
Then he'd, perhaps, over reacted to the shock of her assumptions.
"Didn't you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition?"
"What condition? And what about my truck?"
"I'll have Alice drop it off after school."
"Let go!"
"I'll just drag you back."
"This is completely unnecessary."
"Clair de Lune?"
"You know Debussy?"
"Not well. My mother plays a lot of classical music around the house--I only know my favorites."
"It's one of my favorites, too."
Having her in the car, meant there was less and less and less space in which to breathe, yet he forced himself to.
Her rain-sweetened scent filled up his car, wildly strong in its distraction from both her voice and the music coming from the stereo again. He couldn't help focusing on how she sat there entirely naive in not knowing the will it took for him just to sit this close to her, without rolling down the windows or flinching away or grinding his steering wheel into dust.
Bella talked easily on about her parents, and he was required to reciprocate in some information about his own family. At least some information on the running falsehood that made up their story in Forks for the last few years.
The drive took next to no time, even though he'd made a conscious effort to remain under the speed limit by five miles. Still her house appeared and he'd slowed, looking it over this time in the gloomy grey of the day. Her haven and home. The place he had so recently invaded, even though neither of the Swans knew absolutely nothing of his trespass.
There was something to the further realization that he'd trespassed not into Bella Swans house but that of Fork's Chief of Police.
Their conversation dwindled as the rain his the windshield after he parked. He'd had to relate that he was leaving a day early with Emmett and she'd been disappointed. Then, trying to be serious, but not too apparent in his overarching concern about her fragility, he'd asked her to take care of herself and she'd been instantly offended. She glared and snapped at him and slammed the door behind her and left him watching her walk away for the second time that day.
It was foolhardy to let her out of his sight, where anything could happen to her.
Yet, the worst that could happen to her would result from her being near him.