Chapter 4 : Friendship
So that was it, was it? Everything would be taken care of, right? Wesley would be safe. He could live here in Forks.
"Bella?"
I snapped out of my daydreams and looks over at Edward who was standing up from the desk, beside me. It wasn't him who had said my name, though. I glanced over at Jess, noticing that everyone else was also getting up. Had I been so out of it that I hadn't heard that annoying nasal bell ring?
"Hey, snap out of it." She waved a hand in front of my face, frowning.
"Jess, stop it. It's not like it's a problem if we're a whole minute or two late for lunch."
Even still, she sighed. That whole two minutes might keep her from getting any of the latest gossip that our friends would be so anxious to tell as soon as they say down. That was my guess, at least.
It was between that minute and walking to lunch that I remembered I was supposed to call Renee, my mother, last night. I'd completely forgotten. A frown crossed my face as I remembered it. Edward must have seen this because he looked at me with a bit of concern.
"I was supposed to call my mother last night," I explained, quietly.
"And you forgot?"
I nodded at that. There had been a lot going on, so I knew he could understand how it could have slipped my mind. "At least she didn't call Charlie in hysterics about it."
"Will she be mad about it?" Jess asked. She was walking on the other side of me. Even though she'd learned how to accept Edward being around us so much, she couldn't bring herself to walk next to him.
"I don't know." It was an honest answer.
"Well," she began. "There's that one lab. I think there are a couple computers in there that students are allowed to use when ever they want, for study halls and stuff."
"Oh! Perfect." If I sent her an email then maybe I wouldn't have to talk to her in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother, dearly, but when she starts on a phone it takes her hours to let the other person get a word in.
"Would you like me to come will you?"
I smiled at Edward as he questioned my need for company. "No, I think I can face the dangers of the computer lab, myself. Go on and find Alice."
He flashed a grin at me, even if leaving me alone was a bit of a reluctant move on his part, then leaned down and kissed my cheek. I thought I saw jess roll her eyes as she started to walk off toward the cafeteria.
Edward seemed to have no shame in letting the school know we were an item. It was no big public display of affection, of course, but just enough, I think, for him to make every other male in the school know that I was off limits.
I wasn't that hungry today, so missing lunch wasn't a big deal. How long did it take to write an email anyhow?
As I crossed the school grounds, I searched for a specific mod. I recognized it from my first day, when I'd memorized the map, even if I'd never even been to it yet. When I stepped into the little building, a man behind a small desk gave me a nod. I wasn't sure if he was the one always in charge of the lab or not. There was a door at the end of the module. It let into another larger one, the library. Through there was Mrs. Stempin, the librarian.
I took a moment to think back to the differences between Forks High School and my old school in Phoenix. Here no one minded if you just sauntered into the computer lab or the library. In fact, they greeted you. At my old school, you had to have signed passes from where you were coming from, and sometimes even an answer of why. I'd actually learned to avoid going there, entirely, just for those reasons. Here was different. Everything here was different.
Vampires on computers were different. Or was it werewolves?
I blinked in surprise, looking over at the student in the cowboy hat how was lazily lounged in front of one of the monitors, typing.
His head turned my way, picking up on my scent, I guessed. A gentle smile broke over his face as I walked over, taking a seat beside him.
"Yo."
"Hello, Wesley."
He looked back at the screen, thoughtfully, while conversing.
"Not hungry?"
"Nope. You?"
He chuckled.
"Not especially. Ask me again in another day or two and I might have a different answer for ya'."
I
began wondering just how old Wesley was. He seemed to practice
restraint very well, but so many things about him still came of as the
epitome of young. Maybe it was simply his personality.
Not wanting
to make our supervisor suspicious, I opened the browser on the computer
in front of me, typing in the URL of my email server. "What are you
doing?"
I saw him shrug out of the corner of my eye. "Trying to link of a name for my little site thing."
Confused, I turned to him.
"Site thing?"
"Yeah. I've been in here since my last class, study hall." His voice was whispering. Well, in a human tone, which I appreciated. "I saw some kid checking this site, so I went to see what it was all about. Turns out a lotta' people got one."
I leaned over to see what he was talking about, then laughed quietly.
"Myspace? You're making a Myspace profile?"
"Yeah." He grinned. "Somethin' wrong with that?"
No, there wasn't anything at all wrong about it. It just seemed so...normal. There were thousands upon thousands of people on Myspace. Heck, I'll admit that even I had one once. With the slow connection at Charlie's house it was pointless to keep up with things like online profile and blogs, though.
In the end, we finally found a name that could be proudly sported at the end of his URL, that wasn't already taken-- thedoublehelix. It was probably wrong for me to be as amused about it as I was.
I wrote out the email to Renee, apologizing profusely for my absent-mindedness and giving her description of how things were going, leaving out some things, obviously. If I was lucky, she wouldn't send me a message back, asking me to call once I was home.
Clicking the small Xs to close down pages, I moved to get up. To my surprise, Wesley did, as well. "Heading out?" I asked.
He
nodded and we exited the computer lab together. I couldn't fight off
the curiosity any more. Once we were out of earshot, I spoke up.
"There's more to you, isn't there?"
"What do ya' mean?" He looked at me, puzzled.
"Well, how old are you, for one?"
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans and grinned, looking at the ground while he walked.
"I'll be sixty-one in a couple months. Not that it really matters."
"Is the accent real?"
He nodded.
"You're really from Texas, then?"
"Born and raised." His proud smile nearly radiated.
"Have you lived there all your life?"
His face explained that he was thinking. I wondered how that could be a complicated question.
"Sort of," he finally said. "I was overseas for a while?"
"Oh? Where at?"
"Veitnam. The draft."
"Oh"
Ouch. I winced a little and hoped I hadn't brought up a touchy subject. Perhaps I could derail.
"What about the rest of your family?"
He hesitated a little and that only made me more suspicious. "What do ya' wanna' know about 'em?"
At
least he'd given me the option. We stood under the canopy along the
edge of the building now. I tried to think of a way to put the
questions in my mind into words.
"You live with your mother and brother?"
He
looked away from me, but nodded again. The muscles in his jaw looked
hard, just the way Edward's did when I asked him something he didn't
want to answer. There was more to this story.
"You don't have to keep secrets with me, you know." I whispered in hopeful encouragement.
His red eyes looked my way, then he gave a touch of a smile that seemed forced. "I know."
It was clear to me that I wasn't going to be getting anymore family-related questions answered. Defeated, I led us into the cafeteria. I hadn't noticed Wesley ever in there before, so I had no idea where he was planning on sitting. I started to blush as I reached the table, realizing he was still following me.
Edward looked at me funny, probably from the blush. His eyes darted to Wesley. I wondered if he was reading Welsey's thoughts, just to see if he'd done or said something that would actually cause the blush.
Jessica and all the others were quiet, watching Wesley as he sat down on the other side of me. It wasn't a threatening or territorial sort of silence, but more in awe. It was like the first day that Edward and Alice joined us at our table, all over again.
Edward sat a soda in front of me and smiled. He must have been satisfied by what whatever he saw in Wesley's thoughts.
"Did you email your mother?"
"Yep. And I ran into Wesley in the lab, actually."
"I see."
Him and Wesley looked at each other for a long moment. Sitting in between them, of course I noticed this. Were they having a stare-down or something? Wesley was grinning, as usual. Wait, no, smirking. Every few seconds Edward would raise a brow or the corner of his mouth would quirk. Then, Wesley mumbled something too quick and too quiet for me to here before turning his attention to the rest of the cafeteria. Edward responded in the same manner before looking down at the unopened bottle of water in his hands, idly.
"Um?" I hated being left out.
"Bella? Would you like to go shopping with me after school?"
I
blinked at Alice's voice. She had a knowing expression on her face. I
was still grounded, but it was possible this was some sort of
distraction from the conversing males.
"Sure. I'll have to ask Charlie, though."
"I'll come with you, when you do."
That took me off guard, but I didn't disagree with it. Charlie might be more prone to saying yes if Alice was there. He adored Alice.
The rest of my classes went by uneventfully. Mike was still absent, so Wesley again took his seat in the one class I had with him. We didn't exchange any words, though, only a smile. I was finding myself beginning to enjoy Wesley's company. As far as I could tell, he wasn't admiring. He wouldn't turn into a puppy in the same way Mike and Eric had. I never could bring myself to put Jacob in the 'puppy' category, which, now that I think about it, is rather ironic.
At the end of the day Edward dropped both Alice and I off at Charlie's. He'd asked if, in the case that Charlie said yes, we wanted him to come along. Alice had told him know before I could even think of an answer. "This is a girls' night," she said with a bounce in her voice. I had a funny feeling that even if we were confined to my house I was going to end up with rollers in my hair and new make-up products applied to me.
"Charlie!" Alice's sing-song voice flitted from the kitchen as soon as we heard the cruiser pull in and the front door open.
"Alice?"
They greeted one another with friendly hugs, as they'd become prone to doing.
"Do you mind if I kidnap her daughter and take her shopping with me?"
Charlie's face twisted in debate.
"I don't know, Alice. She's still grounded."
"Even if I promise to return her in just a few hours? There's a few things I've wanted to pick up, but I really do hate driving by myself."
Driving
safety was something Charlie never argued with. If Alice was more
comfortable with someone else in the car, he wasn't going to tell her
no.
"Well, alright. But not too late."
Our moment of triumph consisted of some cheering that made Charlie duck into the room in his usual smiling embarrassment.
I took a few moments to put together a roast with some vegetable in a pan, sticking in the oven on low. I gave Charlie instructions to take it out in about an hour, then Alice and I were out the door. I stopped in surprise.
The black Mercedes that I knew belonged to Carlisle was parked in front of my house. For a moment I wondered why Carlisle would be here, but quickly remembered that Alice often drove the vehicle, herself.
I nearly took my shoes off before I climbed into the car. It still had that 'new car' smell to it. I suppose since vampires can't exactly sweat, and as far as I knew none of them smoked or had pets (excluding that time Laurent had referred to me as a pet), there would have been nothing to wear down that smell.
"So, where are we going?" I asked as we pulled away from the house.
"I'm not sure, exactly."
I looked over at Alice, not sure of what to make of the sudden change in her voice. Her smile was gone now. "Alice?"
She shook her head. "I wanted to pull you away for a few minutes, just us."
"Why?"
"Bella, sometimes I see things that I try hard not to even let Edward know about. It could be irrelivent to any of us, but still..."
I was starting to get worried. It seemed like she was beating around the bush. "Alice, what did you see?"
"All I want to say is...be careful around Wesley, alright?"
"Wesley? Why?" I shifted to face her more. She looked concerned.
"Keep someone nearby when you're with him, please, Bella?"
"Alice, just tell me!"
She sighed headed down the road that led out of Forks. Maybe we still were going shopping after all.
"There
are a lot of things I miss about him. It could be because he's part
werewolf, still. So, sometimes when things hit me they take me by
surprise."
That made sense. I knew Alice couldn't have visions about werewolves, but Wesley was a vampire, as well. She'd said she was rather better with visions of her own kind. "What's going to happen?"
"A fight, Bella. He's going to kill something."
I froze for a moment.
"Something? Or someone?"
She frowned a little.
"Someone."