A/N: PLEASE READ: Surprise readers! I'm alive! I'd like to formally apologize for the almost two year long delay in these chapters, real life can be quite a lot sometimes. In the time I"ve been gone I've done many things. Joined the U.S Navy, passed Bootcamp, went to school to become a Hospital Corpsman, passed Corps school, got chosen to go to a speciality school (The Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola), graduated from there as an Aerospace Med Tech, and finally, settled into my first duty station where I work at the Naval Health Clinic here. Lots of stuff went on.

Finally I have found the time to sit down again and finished what 19 year old me had started. And the only reason I have the motivation to do this is all you readers and reviewers you have continued to message me despite my long hiatus. Thank you for not giving up on this story and thank you for loving this piece arguably more than I did. I hope not to disappoint.(I'd like to think I've become a better writer in the past two years.) Now onto what you've all been waiting for!

P.S - PLEASE I BEG OF YOU GUYS! Listen to the soundtrack while you read. It makes the experience worthwhile! Also if you're returning to this fic, I changed up the songs in the last chapters too so check those out!

Chapter Soundtrack - MorMor: 'Heavens Only Wishful", Rone: 'Wave'(Ft. Noga Erez), and Leon Bridges 'River.'

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

- Walt Disney

Chapter 4: Curiosity

It took three days after 'the encounter' for Bella to put the broken pieces of her sanity back together, five days for her curiosity to get the best of her and for her "investigation" of the Cullen family to begin ( and promptly conclude as she realized how horrendously stalkerish she was acting half way through the B's of the third Alaskan high school yearbook she pulled up online), and a week for her to return back to school - to her utter horror.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Bells? Maybe another day at home won't hurt."

Oh, but it would, she thought but was careful to hold her tongue. Charlie suffered almost as much as she did these last seven days considering how Bella's vegetable like state for the first two days brought up childhood memories of Grandma Swan locking herself in her room for days on end to put her own shattered pieces back together - and a young Charlie helpless to help.

The image stung and Bella's resolved strengthened. Another day would hurt. It would hurt him. Poor Charlie should've never had to have seen Bella like that; all broken and disoriented, relying on nothing but time and the warm aura of Grandma Swan for solace until she could build herself back up.

She felt fine, really. She could go back. If anything, she had to. The longer Bella waited the harder it would be for her to return.

"No, dad. I'm going to go to school, I feel fine. Plus, I don't want you missing anymore work." Charlie still looked unconvinced. "I'm okay, promise. "

Charlie grumbled, lingering by the door, his thick brows furrowed and belt hanging loosely at his sides. A picture of uncertainty. "You know that's not an issue, Bella. I've gathered up more vacation time than I'm ever going to use. I could afford another day."

"Maybe, but you don't have to Ch-dad. I'm fine now. Healthy as a horse." That sounded like something someone not fine would say. "I want to go back. I actually made some friends."

Bella cringed. That sounded even worse, the inflection and tone were all wrong. She almsot forgot what a terrible liar she was.

Charlie, blessedly, didn't seem to notice.

"You're sure…?"

"Positive. It's over now. We gotta get back to our lives," and because she was touched by his worry, glad he was there to see her through something she hadn't experienced in years (never to that extent) and grateful for his steadfastness so completely different from Renee's unpredictability, she whispered, "You've been… You were…Everything you did it - ah - it helped. Thank you."

"Yeah, well" Charlie gruffed, pulling at his collar and edging toward the door, "your welcome."

Then, true to his character, he hurried out.

Typical.

Bella got up from her place at the kitchen table threw her dirty dish into the sink and snatched her parka from the table, careful not to let her eyes linger on the mountain of untouched "Get Well Soon!" and "Feel Better!" pies and cakes scattered throughout the counter as she did so. If she focused on them too long, let herself dwell on the fact that her "sickness" is the small towns biggest news since her actual arrival, there was a good chance she'd find herself crawling back into bed and staying there until she fossilized into the mattress; a remnant of a life cut short by bad luck, cruel fate, teenage dramatics, and raging insecurities.

An almost poetic end that would've probably been of more interest to Bella if it wasn't for the pressing matter of the Cullens to see to.

She could not just forget how haunted they were, or the agony of the spirits attached to them. A pain that Bella felt she still carried the effects of almost a week later. She woke up some nights in cold sweat, echoes of that horrendous, prolonged type of suffering - the type that settled and throbbed like a heart of its own - hollowing out her insides. She couldn't just let that go. And, on the other side of the spectrum, she could never forget the mystery of Alice Cullen, the girl who had no loved ones that clung to her, as if she didn't have any loved ones to cling to her.

A soul untouched, a girl unloved. It made Bella's head spin.

Then there was the boy who plagued Bella's dreams with his silk croon and soft touch- an angel if Bella didn't know any better.

Something happened that day in front of the biology classroom. Something beyond the usual weird happenings in her head. A man had wrapped his arms around Bella, told her it was time to go and kissed her neck. The ghost of his mother had cried for help, begged for her son to be forgiven, for him to forgive himself. My lonely boy, she had called him. A boy who was alone… alone and obviously tormented. He needed to know how much his mother loved him, needs to know she was with him, needs to understand he was not alone - never alone. It's paramount to Bella, probably the most important thing she'd ever have to do.

Plus, he kissed her and had some serious explaining to do as to why he grabbed her - a stranger - without consent in the middle of a hallway.

Bella needed to find him like yesterday. She was borderline desperate.

Which is why when the wretched clock finally hit seven thirty - an acceptable time to leave - Bella chugged her milk, wrenched open the front door and practically sprinted head first into the early morning fog.

Bella clutched onto that zeal with all she had during the bleak, dreary drive to Forks High, perfferring to focus on that rather than the growing aphrension and bubble of fear welling up in her chest. With all her fevor to see the Cullens she was only just realizing what that entailed .. and what she'd have to face because of it.

Bella's second first day at Forks High School was both better and worse than the first.

It was better because she found a group of friends in Angela, Jessica, Mike and Chess- Club Eric. They walked to classes with her and provided a distraction for Bella whenever she got too overwhelmed in the current of students flowing through the halls or in classes. Better because after the derailing of her sanity the last time Bella sat in the lunchroom, she avoided the cafeteria like the plague and ended up spending that hour sequestered in the library; which was infinitely more enjoyable and beneficial to her wellbeing. And, it was better because she knew what to expect in her classes. Her teachers were familiar, her peers were familiar, and their accompanying spirits became familiar too in their simple existence. Aside from a muted aura that lingered behind Selena Warren from Bella's fourth period that barely came through to her but smelled like diesel and steel ( a mechanic or some type of engineer Bella believed) Bella was able to shield herself from the majority of the energy around her. Especially as the day went on and her shield slowly gained strength; as she relearned how to put up her defenses. By the time the lunch Bella felt like she was treading through water instead of drowning in it.

It was worse because she was tired - all the mental stimulation that came with building up her tolerance to the spirits around her, reinforcing her blockade against them and all the extra effort it took to keep her mind her own exhausted Bella in a way that she hadn't experienced in years. It was worse because Mr. Varner called on Bella in Trig when her hand wasn't raised, and she had the wrong answer. It was worse because everyone still stared and whispered about her absence the past week. It was worse because she had to play volleyball, and the one time she didn't cringe out of the way of the ball, she hit her teammate in the head with it. And it was definitely worse because she got no closer to solving the mystery of the Cullens or the boy.

Which was a different matter entirely.

"Everyone is still staring at me," Bella gritted, "It's so rude. Honestly, who raised you people?"

Bella was horrified with her own attitude - really she was - but, couldn't find it in herself to just chill out. She felt feverish; her skin too tight and waxy on her body, her senses overwhelmed with all types of foreign tastes and phantom smells, the hallway charged and cackling with latent energy that a week ago wouldn't have bothered Bella in the slightest, and a strong rush of emotions that were not her own flooded her system. One spirit captured Bella's attention more than the rest.

Abraham - a mousy, quiet boy from her Computer Science class who had hair the color of moss and haunted eyes - was somewhere in the hallway Bella walked through. She couldn't see him but, the same bone-deep tiredness, all-consuming hopelessness and absolute certainty that nothing mattered she felt while sitting next to him in class not even forty minutes ago returned. Right along with the invisible cuts that littered her wrists, stinging and fatal and deep enough to leave the illusion of wet red tracks across her skin; a mosaic of misery right there on her arm.

Bella had spent the first fifteen minutes of her Computer Science class pushing Abraham's brothers anguish out of her consciousness. Which wasn't too difficult considering he was a latent spirit (Bella hadn't even noticed him last week when her shield was at it's best) not frenzied or desperate like some of the unrested spirit's Bella had encountered, but his emotions were strong ones. As she walked through the crowded hallway, tripping over the tile and overwhelmed with all the extra stimuli, she found it practically impossible to block him out.

Left, right, left, right. One foot in front of the other almost there…

"No one is looking at you, Bella, honest. And if they are I'm sure they're just glad you're back."

"You're a dirty liar, everyone is staring at me."

Bella could practically feel Angela's answering wince. Almost as strongly as she felt the eyes of anyone within a ten-foot radius trailing after her as she weaved their way through the crowded hall; chin tucked into her chest and temples throbbing in tune with the pulse of the dead around her. Just pounding and pounding and pounding and poundin -

"Staring is a strong word, satisfying mild curiosity is more like it."

"How long do you think the mild curiosity will last? I'm asking for a friend."

The grin in Angela's voice was unmistakable, if not pitying. "How long do you think it'll take for Forks to get a new student?"

Bella groaned. Angela giggled.

They reached the end of the hallway. A push of doors. The slap of chilled air on her cheeks. Bella's furrowed eyebrows eased. The tension built up in her skull lessened. Her despair (that wasn't actually her despair) disappeared in an instant. Relief.

The sight of a grey carpeted midday sky had never looked so beautiful before.

"So, I'm assuming you don't want to have lunch in the cafeteria?" Angela asked, smiling sweetly and completely oblivious to the storm that had just passed. She was most likely referring to how Bella had risked being late to class twice taking alternate routes to class to not have to walk past the wretched building. And, also, how she parked as far away as possible from it. Also, how she stopped now, the looming building in sight. "I don't mind sitting in the benches."

Bella felt a rush of affection for her new friend and together they made their way across the lot. They found a quiet little bench by the cafeteria, and slide into it. They were near the forest that seems to surround the entirety of Forks, and a lark in a rose bush nearby sang a high, lilting tune. Bella pulled out an apple from her bag, she fiddled with it and debated whether to ask the questions she'd been waiting to ask all day.

Give it another few minutes. Don't seem too eager.

Angela set her bento box onto the table and uncapped her water bottle. Did she have any classes with the Cullens? Did she know them well? Bella hadn't felt them anywhere all day, not in the hallways or in the parking lot. No psychic breadcrumbs. No echoes of distant, hollowed cries coming from halfway across school.

"So, do you need any help with the make-up work for Spanish?"

Would Angela perhaps know where they are, or more preferably, where they will be within the next hour? Bella was still a little over-sensitive - raw and fragile, like an exposed nerve, jolting at the slightest touch – but, she'd always been a bit of a masochist. A little to eager to dabble in risks and discomfort. Maybe their nearby? Maybe the two girls could 'Charlie's Angels' it and sneak to wherever they are and just kind of look at them, just a little? Just so Bella could feel the spirits once again, maybe marinate in the intensity of existing within the same physical plane as them for a while? Would the reaction be the same?

"I did most of it already. My friend Ben tutor's me. You haven't met him yet, he's basically fluent in Spanish. His mom's Puerto Rican and-"

Would Bella still drown in fire and seas of blood? Will the screams sound the same as the ones she'd been hearing in her dreams for the past week? Was Bella overreacting when her skull split open last week and electricity shot through her, so desecrating in its magnitude it blazed straight down to the basic foundations of her body? Or, would it happen again and just the presence of the Cullen family will sear every molecule in her body like it did last time? Scorch her every atom, char her every cell?

" – honestly, it's really not a lot in comparison to some of the work the Spanish For Beginners teacher, Mrs. Finely, gave us last year."

Can they even 'Charlie's Angels' with only two women in the group? Is the third woman a fundamental aspect of the Angel's mission success rate?

"Maybe we can meet up after scho-"

"What do you know about the Cullen's?"

Smooth, Bella

"Oh," Angela blinked. She looked lost for a moment, then infinitely smug. Somewhere in the spans of green behind them, the lark finished her song. "I was wondering when you'd start to ask."

"Yeah well," Bella cringed, "I'm asking now."

Angela huffed around her grin and picked at her roll. "I told you already they're adopted and, well, you know, together. There's not much to tell after that really. There's Rosalie and Jasper Hale -they're siblings – and Edward, Alice and Emmett Cullen. They moved here from Alaska a few years ago with Dr. Cullen and his wife, which you know. Edward actually missed a few days while you were gone too. Only like three"

Bella felt herself deflate; the wind knocked from her sails. The information was not new to her thanks to a newspaper article she found online from two years ago, welcoming Dr. Cullen and his family to the sleepy town of Forks. Bella had thought that they had strange and unpopular names. The type of names Grandparents had.

"They're a quiet bunch, mostly keep to themselves. I don't blame them," Angela's words turned disapproving, "the gossip reel around here isn't very nice to them." She nodded at a cafeteria window behind Bella. Bella turned in her seat, through the frost of the window she could see the far away silhouette of Alice Cullen, small and spiky haired; probably still as beautiful as the day they met. Next to her -holding her hand maybe? Bella was too far to see clearly – was a boy, lean and honey blonde. Next to the two, sitting closest to the window, hunched over as opposed to sitting up straight like the others, was another boy. From what Bella saw he looked younger than the other one; the curve of his shoulder less muscular, his hair disheveled and bronze. He looked lanky compared from his brother. But there is where the differences ended.

Even from where she was Bella could tell they were all ghostly pale. Gold eyed. No lips moved, they faced away from each other. Together yet distant, even with Alice and the older boy holding hands. They younger one sat even farther away from the two, turned inward. He looked a bit strained- frustrated maybe?

There was a shutter in Bella's mind, a pulse of energy that came from the direction she faced. Something silky grazed against her shield and Bella shivered.

The question was out before Bella even noticed her lips moved, "Which one's that one? By the window."

Angela scoffed again, glanced up from her lunch; black eyes twinkled behind prescription glass. She seemed to know who Bella was talking about instantly.

"That is Edward Cullen. He's the youngest, keeps to himself like the rest of them. I think he gets it the worst out of all the other Cullen's in his own way.

"How?" His adopted siblings were dating each other, Bella couldn't see what he could do to earn more attention than that.

Angela raised a brow. "He's single."

Before Bella could even so much as flush at Angela's words, Edward Cullen's head snapped in their direction. As if he was called.

Topaz eyes met chocolate depths and stilled; Bella gasped, a tremulous breath. The pressure in the back of her eyes increased, borderline uncomfortable, and something shuttered in her mind and chest. One electricity more familiar then the other. Their gazes locked for an infinite moment, stretched and taut in the space between them. Bella heard a phantom hymn start, carried by the wind and whispered by the breeze, lower than the lark's song. Infinitely more beautiful.

Deep in the meadow, under the willow

"Oh," Bella sighed, an epiphany. It's him.

Edward chose that moment to snap out of it as well; he looked away hastily, and pushed his chair back. He slipped out of sight, no longer by the window, faster than Bella could blink.

The warmth that Bella hadn't realized settled somewhere in her sternum and in the crevices of her mind disappeared - a startling sensation that rushed through her- leaving her bereft. Reeling.

Angela let out a girlish, throaty sound of amusement behind her and the moment shattered. Bella whipped back around, hunching her shoulders as she did so. Mortification crawled up her throat and she dipped her chin, hiding the deep blush she felt on her cheeks and neck with a curtain of her own hair. Then the thought came, he missed school after that day too.

Why?

Bella sat at the table with Angela longer than she would have if she hadn't had Biology II with her the next hour. Once Angela finished her bento box, they walked to class together in comfortable silence. Bella's favorite kind.

This time, when the familiar begging began - woven together with the dulcet tune of a lovely melody, accompanied by a rush of deep melancholy and the feeling of a mother's desperate love - Bella was ready.

The sensations overwhelmed her for just a moment. An avalanche of feeling not quite her own caused a simple stutter in her step, a sting on an already tender subconscious, before Bella was able to push it back. Defenses fortified by exposure and expectance.

Bella's temples throbbed. She ignored it and walked on.

As Bella got closer to the source, she truly realized once again how different this spirit felt then all the rest. Maybe not as submerging as Bella believed two weeks but, ancient. A curious energy that waned and shuttered, like the flickering flame of a candle. A soul unrested that had lingered too long.

Bella wondered again how it was even possible for a spirit - meant to live a lifetime attached to those they loved - too linger too long? Especially a spirit attached to someone in who's only lived as far as high school. Not even twenty years.

When they entered the classroom, Angela went to sit at a black-topped lab table exactly like the ones she was used to. She already had a neighbor. In fact, all the tables were filled but one. Next to the center aisle, Bella recognized Edward Cullen by his unusual hair, sitting next to that single open seat.

As Bella walked down the aisle to introduce myself to the teacher and get her slip signed – Biology was one of the classes she didn't make it to her last first day - she watched him surreptitiously. Just as she passed, he suddenly went rigid in his seat. A controlled response. He carefully turned and stared at Bella, caution in the lines of his face and the lag in his movements, meeting her eyes with the strangest expression on his face — it was a curious expression, unsatisfied in some way.

Edward Cullen looked at Bella as if she held a secret, and because she did, her heart pounded.

Granted it was also in that moment, looking into the depths of imploring gold, that Bella remembered the croon of a velvet voice and the brush of satin lips on that spot that between her neck and shoulder - her already racing heart beat double timed.

Bella looked away quickly, shocked, going red again. In a daze she handed the teacher, Mr. Banner, her slip. He said words. Bella might've made a noise of agreement. The teacher pointed a stubby finger at Edward Cullen's desk and said more words, but Bella was already moving. A frog march to her inevitable doom. She stumbled over a book in the walkway and had to catch herself on the edge of a table. The girl sitting there giggled, but it didn't faze Bella as It usually would; the cool metal digging into her palm grounded her - just a bit.

It was hot in this room. Was it hot? Bella felt hot.

Somehow Bella ended up in her seat, an amazing feat considering the piercing eyes that followed her every move. His stare burned holes into the side of her face as she emptied her backpack of supplies.

Did this boy have no shame? No manners? Seriously, it is rude too stare. It's rude to touch people and to kiss their necks and to smell like a fresh summer air and -

"Hello," said a quiet, musical voice.

Oh. Bella's breathe stuttered and she looked up, stunned he was speaking to her. The voice was the same as it was last week yet different. Not low and alluring, but light and airy. He was sitting as far away from her as the desk allowed, but his chair was angled toward her. His dazzling face was no longer curious but friendly, open even, a slight smile on his flawless lips. Only his eyes remained careful.

"My name is Edward Cullen," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

Bella's mind was spinning with confusion. Had she made up the whole thing? He was perfectly polite now. No sign of grabby hand or any type of existential angst like Bella would've expected. She blurted the first thing to come to mind.

"How do you know my name?"

He laughed a soft, enchanting laugh.

"Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive. Again."

Bella grimaced. She knew it was something like that.

"No," she persisted stupidly, stubbornly. "I meant, why did you call me Bella?"

He seemed confused. "Do you prefer Isabella?"

"No, I like Bella," Bella said. "But I think Charlie — I mean my dad — must call me Isabella behind my back — that's what everyone here seems to know me as. I've been correcting people all day. Which is why I'm asking how you knew."

The explanation was lame and awkward and slightly combative, but she felt strangely breathless and her temples still pounded with the pressure on her shield from sitting this close to him. It was the best he was going to get from her.

"Oh." Edward let it drop and Bella looked away, rubbing her arms as she did. There was a current on her skin, buzzing and tingling under the surface.

Thankfully, Mr. Banner started class at that moment. Bella tried to concentrate as he explained the lab they would be doing today. The slides in the box were out of order. Working as lab partners, they had to separate the slides of onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis they represented and label them accordingly. The lab was not open booked. In twenty minutes, he would be coming around to see who had it right.

"Get started," he commanded.

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. Bella glanced over to see him smiling a crooked smile so beautiful her breathe caught. She was in the Twilight Zone, she had to be.

What is happening? What is happening right no-

"Or," His brows pulled together, smile fading. It was a genuine loss for every living being on Earth, "Or I could start, if you wish." He was obviously wondering if Bella was mentally competent.

"No," she wheezed, then flushed and tried again. Stronger the second time. "I'll go ahead."

Bella snapped the first slide into place under the microscope and adjusted it quickly to the 40X objective, she studied the slide briefly then rallied. Enough. Bella was a girl on a mission. She needed answers and she was going to get them.

"Prophase," she said, absentminded.

But how? They weren't friends certainly not close or anything. Did he assume she just didn't realize it was him the other day? He was certainly acting like nothing happened. How could he think she wouldn't recognize that voice?

"Do you mind if I look?" Edward asked as she began to remove the slide. His hand caught hers as he asked. His fingers were ice-cold, like he'd been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn't why she jerked her hand away so quickly. When they touched, those phantom feelings she'd been pushing down crashed into her like wave - for just a second - and her vision went white.

Forgive him, lord. Let him forgive himself.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand back immediately. However, he continued to reach for the microscope. Bella watched him, still staggered, as he examined the slide for an even shorter time than she had.

"Prophase," he agreed, writing it neatly in the first space on our worksheet. He swiftly switched out the first slide for the second, and then glanced at it cursorily.

"Anaphase," he murmured, writing it down as he spoke.

Bella kept her voice indifferent. Go along with it. Act normal. "May I?"

He smirked and pushed the microscope in front of her.

She looked through the eyepiece eagerly, only to be disappointed. He was right.

"Slide three?" Bella held out her hand without looking at him. She stupidly hoped for another brush of his skin against hers. Masochist.

He handed it to her; careful not to touch her skin again. Bella took the most fleeting look she could manage. Ask him why he missed school after that day too.

"Interphase." Bella passed him the microscope before he could ask for it. Just do it. Ask. Bella opened her mouth then closed it. No, she couldn't he would ask how she knew that. He would know she'd asked around about him. She would be the one having to explaining herself.

Edward took a swift peek, and then wrote it down. His clear, elegant script was intimidating Bella for no reason. Ask what you missed while you were gone. Would he bring up why he was gone too?

They were finished before anyone else was close. As she built up the courage to ask her question, Bella could see Mike and his partner comparing two slides again and again. Another group had their book open under the table.

"Are you well now?"

Bella jumped, "What?"

"Your first day you left school early." He explained, "Do you feel better?"

Don't blush. "Oh, yes I do." Bella felt herself blush, damn.

Edward Cullen's smile was warm and blinding – a sun in its own right – and his eyes delve deeply into Bella's. When he spoke, his voice was soft and laced with intention, some sort of double meaning. "I'm very happy to hear that, Bella."

What does he know? What does he kno-

"May I be so forward to ask what was wrong."

The accusation in her tone came out unbidden, "Food poisoning," Bella replied slowly. She didn't even try to hide the lie, nor did she downplay the wariness that she felt twist her features.

There was a flash of intuition in Edward's eyes, but his face remained carefully blank. Unnaturally polite. A mask.

Edward knows something. Edward, this absolute stranger, knows something about Bella and he knows that Bella knows something about him too and they're both sitting in this stupid class they've both obviously already taken, lying – no not lying, omitting - to each other. Talking in circles, stuck in an impasse.

It was frustrating. It was exhilarating.

That crooked smile was back. "I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad you are well now." The curve of his perfect lips turned sly, playful. Bella's heart stuttered. "The whole student population was worried about you. You were missed in your absence. You've become quite popular in a short amount of time."

Bella groaned, rolling her eyes so hard they almost fell out. When she cringed, her entire chair moved as well. "Don't remind me." She didn't even have the mind to be embarrassed of her spasming, she was so horrified by him confirming what she already knew. "I don't want to talk about it."

Bella didn't see it, but Edward watched her visceral reaction, aghast. "I'm - ", he blinked "I'm sorry did I offend you?"

"No", Bella murmured, "your stupid town did."

He tilted his head, trying to peer at Bella through her hair. "Do you not like the attention, or do you just not like Forks?

Bella sighed; any thoughts of her own interrogation gone. "A little bit of both." Bella sighed and then corrected herself. "I'm not a fan of the attention. I'm not comfortable with it. But, Forks itself is alright.

Did that sound like a lie? Bella wasn't sure.

"Ah." When he spoke, Edward spoke with confidence, "You don't like Forks."

"Yes, I do." Bella defended. "Well enough." That sounded like a lie.

"No, you don't." He looked smug, self-assured, as if he proved something to himself by catching her little fib that wasn't even necessarily a fib.

"I'm fine with, Forks. I chose to come here. I'm just - ", Bella hesitated, "not a fan of the cold."

A perfect eyebrow arched, "You don't like the cold?"

"Or the wet."

"Forks must be a difficult place for you to live," he mused.

Bella thought of her first day at Forks High, the week that followed, the wondering and confusion. She thought of how the invisible force pressed against her battered brain tried to demand her attention, even now. "You have no idea," she muttered darkly.

He looked fascinated by what Bella said, the glimmer of someone who (somehow) knew too much obvious in the lines of cheeks and the set of his pursed lips. Gosh, his face was such a distraction to Bella – as a girl and someone who keeps their secrets close to chest - that she tried not to look at it any more than courtesy absolutely demanded.

"Why did you come here, then?"

No one had asked Bella that — not straight out like he did, demanding.

"It's... complicated."

"I think I can keep up," he pressed. Digging.

I was supposed to be the one getting answers.

Bella paused for a long moment, wondering what she could say, what she should say, and then made the mistake of meeting his gaze. His dark gold eyes confused her. They looked like the eyes of someone who cared.

Bella answered without thinking.

"My mother got remarried."

"That doesn't sound so complex," he disagreed, but he was suddenly sympathetic along with something else. Disappointed? "When did that happen?"

"Last September." Bella's voice sounded sad, even to her. She missed the time before Phil when it was just her and Renee. A time where, even though her mother didn't know of her gift, there was no pressure to hide it either. She had felt free.

"And you don't like him," Edward surmised, his tone still kind.

"No, Phil is fine. Too young, maybe, but nice enough."

"Why didn't you stay with them?"

Bella couldn't fathom his interest, but he continued to stare at me with penetrating eyes, as if her dull life's story was somehow vitally important.

(She thought dull only because Edward Cullen would not be getting the truth from her. Not today.)

"Phil travels a lot. He plays ball for a living." Bella half-smiled. This was the truth, she really did like Phil. She might not have missed living with him, but she did miss him.

"Have I heard of him?" Edward asked, smiling in response.

"Probably not. He doesn't play well. Strictly minor league. He moves around a lot."

"And your mother sent you here so that she could travel with him." He said it as an assumption again, not a question.

Bella's chin raised a fraction. "No, she did not send me here. I sent myself."

His eyebrows knit together. "I don't understand," he admitted, and he seemed unnecessarily frustrated by that fact, while Bella only felt smug.

The feeling was fleeting though, and Bella sighed. Why was she explaining this to him? Maybe it was the loneliness she felt clawing at her heart. She never got to do things like this. Simply speak and be honest and have someone listen with obvious curiosity like Edward Cullen did.

Bella tried to ignore the fact that she wasn't being honest. But it was the closest she'd gotten to speaking the truth in a conversation that wasn't her parents. It was almost nice.

"She stayed with me at first, but she missed him. It made her unhappy... so I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Charlie." Her voice was glum by the time she finished, and it had nothing to do with her words.

"But now you're unhappy," he pointed out.

"And?" Bella challenged. Had she ever been happy really?

"That doesn't seem fair." Edward shrugged, trying to be flippant even though his eyes were still intense.

Bella laughed without humor. "Hasn't anyone ever told you? Life isn't fair."

"I believe I have heard that somewhere before," he agreed dryly.

"So that's all," Bella insisted. Done with the conversation, and her planned interrogation. Another day.

Edwards gaze became appraising. "You put on a good show," he said slowly. "But I'd be willing to bet that you're suffering more than you let anyone see."

Bella grimaced at him, resisting the impulse to stick out her tongue like a five-year-old, and looked away. She said nothing.

"Am I wrong?"

Bella tried to ignore him.

"I didn't think so," he murmured, pleased.

"Why does it matter to you?" Bella asked, irritated. She kept my eyes away, watching the teacher make his rounds.

"That's a very good question," he muttered, so quietly that she wondered if he was talking to himself. However, after a few seconds of silence, she decided that was the only answer she was going to get.

Bella huffed, scowling at the blackboard. She'd just answered every question he slung at her, and he wouldn't even have the curtesy to answer one of hers? Rude.

"Am I annoying you?" he asked. He sounded amused.

Yes, she wanted to , then glanced at him without thinking... and told the truth again. "Not exactly. I'm more annoyed at myself. At…" What I am. "The situation. Just everything."

His voice lowered and Edward leaned toward Bella. He was tensed, his movements careful. He almost looked like he wasn't breathing. "I'm sorry that you're struggling, Bella. I -" He frowned. Breathing, Bella thought, dazed, he's not breathing. "I understand that more than you know."

Gosh, he sounded like he meant it. He sounded like he understood.

Bella wanted to say thank you. She wanted to ask him how it is he knew what it was like. She wanted to tell him to please breath and relax. To tell her everything. To let her tell him everything.

What she said instead was, "Why did you leave early that day?"

Edward flinched back, as if struck. His expression shuttered, no longer did he look open or polite, he looked stormy. Guarded. Bleak.

It shouldn't have, but it hurt.

"Bella," he rasped, his words were slow and sounded like they grated uncomfortably in his throat, "I don't know what you're talking about."

That tasted of like a lie, acrid and repellent. It tasted like a warning.

They stared at each other in weighted silence, unspoken words and hidden truths stretched taught in the small space between them. Bella was lightheaded. He looked predatory, he looked angelic, he looked like something Bella should equally run away from and run straight to.

He looked haunted.

Mr. Banner called the class to order then, and it was Bella's turn to flinch. She pivoted in her seat, facing the board once more, looking away from the seat beside her in relief. She was in disbelief at the encounter that just occurred with this bizarre, beautiful boy who may or may not despise her. He'd seemed engrossed in the conversation, at least when the attention was on Bella, but now she could see from the corner of her eye, that he was leaning away from her again; porcelain hands gripping the edge of the table with unmistakable tension.

When the Bella finally rang, Edward rushed swiftly and gracefully – a lion on the prowl – to the door, contorting his body carefully so he never touched anyone he passed. The strain of the spirits he carried dwindled, the thumping in her temple stopping and the load on her shield lessening, until any supernatural trace of his presence was completely gone - a burden lifted.

Bella did not feel relief

A/N: What do you guys think?! I hope it didn't disappoint, nothing really happens in this chapter but dialouge but I thought their first real conversation merited a chapter of it's own. Hopefully we'll get some romance and answered question too! But, alas, I feel like there's a bit more cat and mouse are lovely protagonists need to play before they get to that point.

Please R&R and let me know what you think!

ALSO: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, I would love it if you guys dropped off some song recommendations that remind you of this story or of Edward and Bella in general in the reviews! I'm trying to make a soundtrack for this fic, and I think I spend as much time searching for the right songs for each chapter on youtube as I do writing the actual chapter lol. Let me know which of the songs in the soundtrack are your favorites! And, if you don't want to do that let me know what you would prefer, Bella's POV or Edwards POV next? Can't wait to hear from you all!

If you want check out my new story "Le Crepuscule"

Happy New Years! Much love to all!

- Pretty Little Heads