Disclaimer: Somewhere on my page.

A/N: I am so, SO very sorry to have taken so long in putting this out! Will you guys ever forgive me? And put that forgiveness in the form of a rain check because there's going to be another bit of a wait for the next chapter? You guys know I love you. I expressed that on my profile, I think. Anywho, without further ado...read!

Seven: Diving

It was Saturday—d-day, mostly because of the choices I usually had at hand with my friends. Doomsday, if with Alice; "Decaf-day", if with Rosalie. And "Darts-day", if with Emmett, since he liked going to the local bar to hang out with his buddies...along with the possibility of setting me up with someone. Darts, for the game, and to represent "Cupid's arrow", should it ever happen in the bar. I doubted it (I was right), even if he did find Rose in one.

I sighed as I glanced at myself in the mirror. I thought I looked decent. But Alice fussily picked at me, muttering under her breath. She straightened my shirt, criticized it, changed her mind, criticized it again, tragically moaned, and then bustled through all the other outfits until I thought I'd go mad.

"Alice!"

She stopped babbling and smiled sheepishly, looking like a child caught out in misbehaving. Her eyes watered as she clutched the skirt in her hands. "Oh, Bella. I'm just so proud of you—your first date in college!"

I cringed. "Alice, please."

"Right, I'll cut the drama." She approached again, scrutinizing me, getting ready to spill over again. I began to cut her off when she beamed at me so hugely I couldn't continue. "Aren't you excited about your date? I must say, Edward is really quite ingenious, pulling all those strings from an iron-fisted—"

Three loud knocks rapped on the door.

We glanced at each other, equally excited, before I was ushered to it.

"Bella, one thing," Alice whispered as she reached for the doorknob.

"What?" I asked, fully expecting her to say something on dating or "good luck".

A small frown line appeared between her brows. "You're as pale as Casper!"

An indignant retort poised itself on my tongue before it was knocked back by Alice gleefully throwing open the door. The retort faded away into nothingness.

Edward smiled warmly from the other side, resplendent even in his simple attire of a gray sweater and shirt, jeans finishing out the look. In his hands was yet another bouquet of flowers, daisies this time. I smiled back, pained. This was the tenth bouquet in two days straight!

"More?" I glanced bleakly into our dorm-turned-florist.

He smirked. "Not this time. Jasper told me to deliver these to—"

"Gerbera daisies!" Alice rushed forward and grabbed the flowers, twirling back into our room and burying her face in them. "Love it. Thanks, Edward! Give a kiss to Jasper, would you?" I grabbed my purse and headed out, hastily starting to close the door.

Edward's mouth twisted as he suppressed a grin, calling, "What about I pass the thanks but not the kiss?"

All we heard was Alice's laughter before the door clicked shut and we were left in the empty hallway. There was an awkward beat of silence while I fixedly stared at the carpeting like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Um, Bella?"

"Yes?" I looked up expectantly, uncertainly, wondering foolishly what was supposed to happen next. Edward stared back, something flickering behind his eyes—amusement? Irritation? I couldn't tell. He smiled slowly, almost chagrined. I watched the movement, wishing that I could just for a second shake off my inhibitions and reach out…

"When was your last date?"

I raised an eyebrow, nonplussed, and then threw him a reproachful glance. "So it's that obvious," I stated, and paused. "It's been a while, if you want to know."

He nodded as though none of it came as a surprise, and I hopped to defend myself against his male ego. Hey, I wasn't new to this, and he had to get that straight. "But that doesn't mean that I'm not up for—"

"Breaking and entering?" A mischievous light sparked in his face, and for the first time, I actually began to wonder what his plans were. I warily registered his words. He and Alice really were perfect as the brother-sister duo. If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought they'd grown up together from birth.

I tilted my head away slowly, narrowing my eyes at him and crossing my arms. "Edward Masen," I began, articulating every word. "What do you mean by 'breaking and entering'?"

He leaned towards me with mock caution. "Remember that day when you planned to ditch class for the library?"

"Yes…?" I looked back into the deep green of his eyes, which were suddenly, disconcertingly close. He was close enough for me to turn my head and make contact, but he pulled back, grinning nonchalantly.

"Well, I thought it a terrible shame that you weren't able to get your wish." Winking conspiratorially, he turned and began to briskly walk down the hallway while I stood, shocked and frozen in front of my dorm. Oh, my god. He did not just—yes, he did. He's planning to, to…

Really, this was not what I expected. No, it wasn't. And I was sure it wasn't what I wanted either.

Breaking and entering! Was he crazy?

Hissing under my breath, I turned on my heel and hurried after him, mentally cursing Alice's slingbacks when they caused me to trip over my feet on the stairs. I clumsily steadied myself on the banister, took a breath, slipped off the shoes, and raced after Edward—only to collide conveniently into him at the rear exit.

"You—!"

"Nice of you to finally make it." Even in the dim lighting, I could see the corners of his mouth twitch upon seeing the shoes dangling from my hand. "And would it kill you to be quiet? It is the middle of the night."

"Breaking and entering? Breaking and entering?"

He sighed heavily and steered me outside into the mild, night air. "Please, Bella. Be good."

Oh, the irony.

"Are you sure you and Alice aren't blood related?" I mumbled, putting on the slingbacks while he waited.

Upon finishing, he held onto my arm and began to stride quickly towards the English department's main buildings next door. I practically had to jog after him, glancing up into the velvety darkness of the sky. Several stars boldly winked out, despite what the lampposts did to drown them out. It seemed too beautiful a night to spend cooped up in a library—much less break into one for a date.

I was slightly out of breath by the time we hastily scrambled up the stairs from the first floor.We then turned the corners it took to reach the reassuringly locked double doors of the library.

"This is ridiculous," I declared, glaring at him when he began to search the pockets of his jeans. "No—don't tell me. You pick locks, too, don't you, Eddie?"

He shot me an annoyed look. "No, I don't pick locks. And don't call me Eddie. If this relationship is going to work, I think you should call me by my real name, okay, Isabella?"

I stuck my tongue out at him and turned away to hide my smile, attempting to sober up. "So that's how it's going to be, is it Edward? You're going to – to break up what we have just because I c – call you Eddie?"

I heard him stop fiddling with the doorknob behind me, and it was all I could do to stop snickering. I stifled a squeak and held back when he tentatively reached out to touch my arm. "Bella? You're not serious…?"

Clamping my right hand over my face, I turned and buried my face into his shoulder, shaking with suppressed laughter. It must have sounded like I was sobbing because his voice became instantly concerned. "I'm sorry if I implied that," he said, and then added earnestly, with a cringe, "You can call me Eddie, I won't mind…much. Bella?"

I couldn't stand it any longer. I pushed away from him and rubbed at my watering eyes.

"Edward!" I gasped out, choking back near-hysterical laughter. "I was kidding!"

He stared at me for a long moment and then chuckled.

"What?" He shook his head, refusing to reply.

I edged closer to where he used a credit card and a key to tease the door into opening. He straightened up smugly at hearing the triumphant click from the lock—it was obvious that he hadn't done this only once. He took my elbow and shone a miniature pen light around. A cold prickle ran down my spine when he closed the door lightly behind us, sealing the deed and causing a thrill of excitement to warm me up again.

"Come on, Bella. We aren't staying for the books." He laughed under his breath and pressed softly on my arm to guide me in the right direction. My heart jumped at the contact, and I was grateful for the near-darkness that hid my burning face.

We carefully navigated ourselves through the library, but despite all Edward could do to help, I bumped into bookshelves, carrels, and tables anyway. I winced when I stubbed my toe on the foot of a chair, but waved off Edward when he stopped to help. Like me stubbing my toe was his main worry—what if we got caught? Weren't there monitors around here? I took a look at his confident profile, and a wry smile passed over my lips. Of course he knew. From what I could tell, he could have convinced them that the noises they heard at this end of the corridor was all in their heads. I certainly would have been convinced.

"But not everybody is you, Bella," I could almost hear Rosalie sighing, rolling her eyes.

I looked mournfully down at my unfortunate toe, which had dulled to a low throbbing. Everybody had to be glad they weren't me.

"Where is it?" Edward was muttering to himself now, searching behind the rear "Help" desk and flourishing a key ring. He grinned at me and pulled me towards a door marked "Roof – Staff Only". My stomach flipped and I blanched, edging away from him.

A roof, an open roof, meant heights. I was never very good with heights.

"Edward?" He turned to me patiently and I reached up to nervously twirl a lock of hair. "Since we're going to be getting to know each other tonight, I think it necessary for you to know that I'm terrified of roller coasters."

He looked surprised for a moment and glanced at the door's plaque as if seeing it for the first time. He turned back to me, understanding in his eyes. "I see."

I looked down miserably at the floor. "I've ruined the night, haven't I?"

"No. No, you haven't. It's my fault for not being the gentleman." I lifted my head just in time to see him flash a smile as he looked at me sideways, offering his arm. "If you'll do me the honor, Miss Swan?"

For a brief moment, I was a six year-old girl again, still believing in castles and fairytales and a prince that would spirit me away to where we would live happily ever after together. I could still remember my mother and me sitting contentedly on an old couch watching The Princess Bride; her, reminiscing, me dreamily settling into the storyline. And then here was Edward, proffering his arm in a way that vividly put me in the mind of Mr. Darcy or some other man of the sort. A person who could change everything, or at least a little part of that everything. Someone not entirely hopeless.

I couldn't speak. So I nodded and took it. He watched me carefully for a moment as if waiting for me to burst into an emotional wreckage before steering me towards the stairs behind the door.

"I'll be good, Bella," he said quietly when we finally reached the exit of the building. "I won't ask anything from you except this night and," he smiled slightly, "to please, please enjoy yourself. Or is that too much?"

I shook my head, laughing a little. "Hey, we've broken into a university library in the dead of night. What could I do that's more than that?"

Our eyes met and again I was grateful for the darkness. I was suddenly acutely aware of how comfortably I'd settled into being with him, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as easy as breathing. Not the breaking and entering of course, but the 'being with him' part. Just being with him. Did he feel the same? Was this how things were supposed to be? This was too easy. I had to be dreaming.

Chuckling, he reached forward to open the door and I felt a moment of anticipation. He glanced back at me and I cautiously came forward, looking around the door…and catching my breath at the sight.

He held my hand gently now, and I lost all feeling of the air on my cheeks.

"Bella, don't look at that—look at the sky. That's the reason why I chose the spot, after all."

But I couldn't look at the sky, not just right now. I couldn't look at him either; I didn't know if I could take in his expression and see what I was too afraid to imagine. So I gazed out at the enclosed rooftop and what was there: pale, white lights were strung around the walled area and the overhang, winking and glinting like stars from the sky itself. A blanket spread out before them with (I suppressed a choked laugh) a bouquet of white and blue irises at the corner, spilling out from the delicate tissue paper. Their hearts were flecked with a yellow echoing that of Alice's daisies. Beside the flowers was a basket of what I guessed to be food.

Unconsciously, I drifted over to the edge of the roof, gazing out and over the campus and then, finally, at the sky. I was still speechless. How did he manage to do all of this? Alice's bubbly words replayed in my head from the conversation earlier. I turned back to give Edward a tremulous smile, leaning against the side railing.

"How many strings did you pull?" I managed to ask.

A glimmer of a smile was on his face as he came to stand beside me, running a hand through his hair in a sheepish gesture. "Quite a lot. After many minutes of negotiating with the main librarian here, I persuaded her to let me—us—use the roof after hours on this day…"

That I could imagine clearly. "But how did you get her to fold?"

He shrugged. "Observation. I saw her reading piles of romance novels from a bag under the desk and thought that she'd give in to a young couple tired of doing the dinner-and-a-movie act." I gaped at him while he frowned away in thought. "Originally, the plan was to leave me the spare for the door, but I guess she just forgot. Anyway, breaking in was pretty fun, wasn't it?"

"Um…" I started vaguely, but let the sentence die when he began to laugh. I renewed myself and looked around at my surroundings. "I wouldn't have minded the dinner-and-a-movie thing."

He stared at me perplexedly. "And that's what's so bothersome about you—"

"You're not going to get anywhere with me by saying I'm bothersome," I pointed out, whereas he snorted and continued as if he didn't believe me. It'd be a good thing if he didn't, since I was most likely wrong anyway.

"You're not like anyone I've ever known. Not even like Alice, and she's strange enough as is," he continued, his voice unconsciously lowering into a soft, musical tone in my ears. "Any other girl would have exploded into a fit of emotional happiness at having a guy do this for them—"

"Conceited much?" I muttered, and he playfully nudged me in return.

"Let me finish, won't you?" When I stayed silent, he went on. "Like I said, a fit of emotional happiness in exaggeration. But you on the other hand…you act like you don't even deserve this, even though it's clear that you do—you really do. And," he stopped my intention to interrupt with a smile, "I'm willing enough to annoy you if only to make sure you get the point."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He gave a short chuckle and reached out to draw a finger across my jaw, stopping at my chin and lightly drawing it upwards. My cheeks were warm now and I was afraid that all my blushing would cause me to melt, or worse, spontaneously combust. "Bella, don't you get it?"

My head was clouded over, beyond the abilities of comprehension. I blinked at him and forced myself to breathe out, "I think…that you should let me go first?"

He grinned and stepped back courteously. "Did that help?"

I stared back and sighed, idiotically frustrated at the distance. "No, not really." I peered up at him ruefully. "You'd be better off just telling me instead of making me guess."

"Really. Why?"

I cast my eyes back downward and fidgeted with the hem of my blouse. Struggling to get the words straight in my mind, I passively wondered why I felt that I could tell him the reason, even though I hardly knew the answer myself. Or, perhaps I did know the reason, deep down. Wasn't I the one who said earlier that there wasn't much else I couldn't do, after… this? It was all a matter of diving for it, and holding on. I hoped that it was as easy as it sounded.

"Edward," I began tentatively, and stopped, going over the words in my mind. I shook my head in irritation; no, those weren't the right words. I began again. "It's been a while since things started to look up," I said haltingly, finding words and replacing them. "And for me, it's like the universe just flipped itself and capsized the boat. And that makes things a little hard to grasp right now at the moment—you know how it is right? When you're stuck underwater and want to surface but can't, because…" My already uncertain voice faded away upon realizing that our gazes had met for the entire minute that it took me to talk.

"Because?" he prompted.

"Because you're not sure that what you're going to find on the surface is what….I'm sorry," I mumbled. I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I wished I didn't have the reflex of holding back. "My thoughts escape me."

We stood together in silence by the railing, watching as the night gradually deepened around us. The stars that still bravely remained twinkled out at us amid the airplanes that crossed the sky. In spite of all of that, I was only too aware of Edward's closeness and how our arms touched against the railing. Too aware of how my blush had returned. I cast about in my head for something to break the quiet, only to be beaten by Edward.

"Bella, we're allowed to stay silent. We have plenty of time to talk, and I don't think that the...words you're attempting to convey are meant to be said yet." My stomach unknotted itself in my relief as I turned back to him. I really didn't think I deserved him now—he was too good. Without another word, he took my right hand in his and led me back under the overhang, much to my confusion. He offered me a half-smile. "In case you didn't remember, Bella, this is still a date. And talking and eating isn't all there is to it."

"No?"

He raised our hands and deftly shifted mine into a position I recognized from Renee's wedding. My insides plummeted and I paled with horror. He went on cheerfully, "We also dance."

"I – I can't dance. Are you crazy? Do you have a death wish?" I hissed at him. He hummed under his breath and ignored me, correcting our positions so that my left hand was at his shoulder and his hand was gently resting on my waist. "I'm practically disabled on the dance floor!"

"Bella."

I made the fatal mistake of meeting his gaze directly so that I found it difficult to refuse. The wistful hope and something else lit up the green irresistibly, and I sullenly wondered if there was any possibility to turn him down. It is just one dance, my inner voice reasoned. And do you really think there's any danger he'll let you fall over? I bit my bottom lip and sighed. Now that was a rhetorical question.

"There isn't any music," I protested feebly.

He shook his head, chuckling. "Music in dancing is for the unimaginative. And as an aspiring doctor," we started to waltz, "there's a lot to listen to through silence."

"Such as?"

"Your breathing, the beating of your heart…"

I rolled my eyes, fighting a smile. "How Edgar Allen Poe."

"Insanity is another form of genius," he murmured, his breath warm against my skin. "And does this feel insane to you?"

I contemplated telling him that it ought to be, considering that we were slow dancing on the rooftop of a university building. But there was a difference. If I closed my eyes and just absorbed the moment, I realized that there wasn't any need for music because it was all here already. And if love songs were written through the quiet of one day, one moment, then we had all that we wanted.

Being with him was enough. If that was insane, then so be it. I truly wanted to be able to give it a shot.

I breathed out a contented sigh, much to my surprise, and then said, "No." A shiver of warmth went down my spine when I felt his lips against my cheek in the very ghost of a kiss.

O) - O) - O)

Later on when I returned to the dorm room, flushed from being outside and faraway as I recounted the night, I found Alice sitting on her bed, wide awake. Composedly, I took off the shoes and the necklace around my neck, wandering to her bed and counting to ten.

"So…?" she asked excitedly just as I reached nine.

I forced her to fidget in silence as I slowly sat on my bed and drew my knees up to my chin. I pretended to think. She sighed.

"Bella!"

I grinned at her. "It was interesting."

She squinted at me and stared. "That's it? Did he kiss you goodbye?"

"Of course he did."

"Anything else…?"

My mind processed what her tone suggested, and I blushed hotly, burying my face in my hands. Ugh! "NO!"

"Huh." I could feel her eyes scrutinizing me for a full two minutes. When my blush began to fade away, I looked up and she gave a short nod as though confirming something. My natural instincts around Alice kicked in and I started to panic.

"What?"

She gave me an odd smile and said slowly, backed by a veil of renewed excitement, "You're falling for him, aren't you?"

I gave her a long, even stare. Then I returned the smile, and leaned over to turn out the light in answer. She gasped, and I heard her fall back against her pillows, giggling. Shaking my head in amusement, I picked up a change of clothes and went to the bathroom.

A/N: I just thought to inform you that I'm kind of nervous in the way of reactions, lol. But I really love to hear what you all have to say, and was surprised and totally floored by what the previous chapter got. I never thought I'd get so many for one chapter, to be honest :). So...just a final thanks, so you all know I appreciate you guys.

-- Mari