I was walking aimlessly through the park in our neighborhood. I had no idea where exactly I was going. I was just walking. I strode past trees with various color leaves and picnic tables filled with people. They looked so happy. There were balloons floating up into space that said, "Happy Birthday". I was out of place with all these smiling faces. All their smiles disapeared when I walked past their parties. I stared blankly at profiles of their faces, then looked away when they glanced a look at me. They started laughing quietly when I was out of sight. I was about to start crying when I heard their laughter. I wasn't really sure what they were laughing at. Probably at how I was walking alone in a park, looking sad. But they didn't know the whole story.

"Marissa, what's wrong?" Edward asked as if he really cared. I'm not sure if he did care or not. I never even seen him walk up to my side.

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Yes, there is. Now tell me." His face hardened and he looked serious.

I groaned. "Fine."

He waited for a second. "Well? What's wrong?"

I groaned again, only louder. "What do you think is wrong?" I asked harshly.

"I don't know. Why do you think I'm asking you?" he announced.

"Fine," I repeated. I didn't really want to tell him what was wrong. He might make fun of me or something like that.

"I won't make fun of you, spit it out." Dang, I forgot about that. He could read my mind.

"I--uh. I," I started.

"You what? Come on, tell me."

"I don't really fit in well with all of your family. Look at how good Bella did. I could never be that comfortable around them, and they could probably not be around me. It's been bugging me," I just blurted out, even though I didn't want to. I guess he had to take that all in, because he didn't talk for the next two or three minutes. He sat down carefully on an empty picnic table sitting nearby.

"You really think so?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah. That's why I said it..." I was kind of confused that he didn't believe me.

"Why?" His voice was really hoarse. I wondered if he was losing it.

"First of all, they just stare at me. All the time. It freaks me out. Then, they won't even talk. I'm not sure if I'm even being told the whole story about you Cullens," I admitted.

"Well..." Edward looked away into the orange and red covered trees.

"Edward." I stated. "Is there something I need to know?"

"Kinda." His cheeks turned a pale shade of pink.

"Edward?" I asked. I felt furious that he was keeping something from me. Something that he probably told Bella when they were dating.That just made me even more mad.

"I--uh. I." he said the exact same thing I said. "I'm a vampire. But a good one, I swear." He put his hands up like in surrender. I started laughing hysterically like he had just told a very funny joke.

"Are you serious?" I asked through laughs.

"Yes, I'm serious." He glared at me.

"Oh," I said quickly. "You are serious. A vampire." I paused. "But, I thought they were a legend, a myth. Not real."

"Not true," he said with a smile. "I'm actually a hundred and nine." He blushed again.

My head dropped and my mouth opened in surprise. "One hundred and nine," I repeated. "And I'm seventeen. That doesn't work out."

"Breaking up?" Edward said sadly.

"No, silly. I'm just saying that you're that old and you still look like you do. Is that a..." I had to choke out the word, "vampire thing?"

"Yes. I look seventeen, because that's how old I was when I was changed." Changed? I thought. "Yes, changed. Carlisle bit me, so that turned me into one." Dang mind reader. I forgot again.

"Wow. All you're family are vampires, too?" I asked. He nodded three times. "This is...strange." Strange was the only word I could think of to discribe what I'd just found out.

"I think 'strange' is a pretty appropriate word," Edward told me while nodding again. He started mumbling to himself and I looked at him weirdly. I was trying to figure out what he was mumbling, but it was too jumbled together. He looked up at me, then I looked away, whistling like I was innocent. "Nice cover." He rolled his eyes at me. They were a golden color again. I'd noticed his eyes ever since I met him.

He saw what I was staring at. "Your eyes. Why do they change colors?"

"Well, for a vampire, light, golden color eyes means you're not thirsty. Black means you're very thirsty. And for a newborn, they're eyes are red all the time, for thirst, because they don't get the concept of being a vampire yet, so they're thirsty all the time," he explained.

I cocked my head to the side while he was talking. I was confused. I really tried not to let it show. Obviously, Edward could see.

"Okay. Light equals 'I'm good, no blood for me'. Black equals 'I want blood'. Mine are usually never that color. But I don't drink human blood anyways. Red equals newborn that wants blood. Easy enough for you?" I smiled and nodded. "Good."

Edward and I got up from the picnic table and stretched. It was really dark. I got my phone out of my pocket. It read ten o' clock. Wow. I didn't realize we were here that long. He took me by the waist and lead me out of the park.

We got to his house and I called my mom.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hi, mom. It's Marissa. I have a question." I waited for her to say 'What?' or something, but she said nothing. "Can I spend the night at the Cullens'?"

She was silent for a little while more. I waited again. "You're sleeping where?" she asked skeptically.

I looked over at Alice. "Uhh, Alice's room," I said.

"You sure?"

"Yes, mom. Alice said I could sleep there. Thanks." I answered my question by myself. Before she could say anything else, I shut my phone quickly.

"What was that?" Edward asked.

"Uhh." I giggled.

"Okay, that answered my question." He rolled his eyes. Alice danced up the stairs to go set my bed up, I assumed. Edward and I sat and talked until Alice came back downstairs. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me back up. We walked right past Alice's room. I tried to choke out some words, but I couldn't. She pulled me right into Edward's doorway. I cocked my head to one side.

"What are we doing in here?" I looked around, then my eyes stopped on the giant size bed pushed into the corner of the room. "What is that?" I asked and put my hand on my hip and tapped my foot. Alice coppied me. I glared at her.

She giggled. "A bed," she said in a sing-songy voice.

"Why isn't that bed in your room?" I asked.

"'Cause."

"Because why? I told my mom I was sleeping in your room!" I almost screamed.

"You know you truly wanna sleep in here." She looked at me and half-smiled, not as good as Edward's, though.

I groaned. "Fine." I went to jump on the bed. Edward was lying on it, but I had no idea he was even in the room. I almost landed on him. If I did, he wouldn't feel a thing. I snuggled up around him and tightened my arms around his waist. He grinned. I laughed.

"Are we gonna stay like this all night?" he asked, smiling again.

"I sure hope so. I can't move, anyways." I tried to pull my arm out from under him. I wasn't so sure I wanted to let go.

"Fine with me."

And we did. I fell asleep with my arms hooked around him, lying on the gigantic bed. I woke up in the morning almost halfway off. Blankets and pillows were on either side of the bed. I wondered if I really moved that much in the night. I wouldn't doubt it. Edward was watching me. He said I mumbled some things he couldn't understand in my sleep. Then, he said he heard "Edward" many times. I wouldn't doubt that either. My mom said that I'd talked, moaned and mumbled more in my sleep than ever before since I met the Cullens.

I rolled off the bed on purpose to the floor. I layed there for a couple minutes.Then, I got up and started downstairs, leaving Edward lying on the bed. I ran back up after I got about five steps down the hall. "Sorry." He rolled his eyes. He and I walked out of the bedroom and down to the first floor. We said hi to Esme and Carlisle and the rest of the Cullens'.

"What do you wanna do today?" Edward wondered.

"Well, I don't know. You can pick." I nudged his arm with my elbow.

He looked up and thought. "Hmmm," he said. "Wanna go to the...beach?"

"Sure. Fine with me," I answered.

"Okay. Walking or driving?"

"You're driving?" I asked cautiously.

"Walking it is, then." He grinned. We walked out the front door and started on our way to the beach. We talked ever so often, but were mostly silent the whole way there. It was awkward for some odd reason. "So."

"So...what?"

"So...I don't know. I was just trying to start conversation. Your turn," he said.

"Okay." I paused. "How are you?" I winced.

"That's the best you could think of?" His eyes widened in surprise.

"Fine. I'll just be quiet now." I zipped my lips and was about to put away the key when Edward grabbed my wrist, pulled the invisible key out of my clenched hand, and unzipped my lips. I groaned and rolled my eyes. He rolled his, too.

When we got to the beach, we sat on the sand and watched the waves roll in. It was really soothing. The awkward silence ended when you could hear the waves from far away. I started singing a song in my head, at least, I thought it was in my head until Edward took me by the shoulders to get out of my trance.

"What's that you're singing?" he asked.

I stopped singing abruptly. "What?" I said, zoned out.

"That song, I know it." Edward said.

"Oh. Uhh. Love Song by Sara Barellies. It's one of my favorites," I told him.

"I thought I knew it. It's pretty cool."

"Yeah..." I trailed off and looked into the teal-colored water. I was thinking about things that were teal. Then switched to green things, then blue, and so on until I got all the way to red. Edward heard my thoughts and looked at me funny. "What?" I demanded.

"Colors? I thought we were talking about music," he corrected.

"Yeah. But, then I looked at the water. Teal? You see? Green's close to teal. Green and blue are next to each other in the rainbow. I just went through all the colors of the rainbow. Haven't you ever seen one?" I asked.

"Well, yeah. I just wasn't really sure what you were doing. You got way off topic," he told me.

"I know. I do that a lot." I giggled.

"Oh. I might as well get used to it, then." He sighed. We sat there again in silence and watched the waves. I saw boats pass my gaze out into the water. They sped by, some with tubes hooked to the back with people rididng on them. I thought it looked really fun. "Don't you even think about it," he warned.

"Aww, why not?" I whined.

"I've been through this once before, I don't want to do it again. I wouldn't risk you getting hurt. You could get hurt if you fell off the tube," he explained. The thought of me getting hurt scared me. My mom would be emotionally hurt, and Edward would think it's his fault for letting me. That thought didn't cross my mind again.

"Fine. What else do you wanna do? Besides sit here and stare into water for hours. Kinda boring, huh?" I said.

"Yeah, kinda. But it's really calm. That's good," he agreed.

"You're right." I inhaled deeply. I held it for a little bit before exhaling. "So, where we going? I mean, we could always go to my house...," I suggested.

"True. We can go there. Is your mom home?" he asked.

"Nah, she's out gambling with her friends. It's Friday, remember?" I reminded him. He'd always come over on Friday nights to hang out, do really whatever we wanted while my mom was out with friends. It was really cool since we were actually alone. I didn't have to deal with Jacob Black like Bella did. For the short time that I'd known him, I thought he was so annoying. Edward told me he would always come around just when Bella and him would get alone. Haha to her, I thought to myself.

"Right. Cool. Alone at last. Or, alone since last Friday." He grinned.

"Exactly," I agreed. He took my hand and we walked to my house. I got the spare key out of the light on the front porch. I unlocked the door and set the key back in the hiding place. Edward followed me in. We went straight to the couch, as always. Right when we sat on the bed and got comfortable, Edward pushed away and gave me a weird face.

"What was that?" he asked quickly.

"Nothing..." I trailed off, too comfortable to get up, or even care.

"Are you sure? I swear I heard something?" He almost got up off the bed, when I pulled him down and kissed him on the cheek. "Okay..."

We sat and cuddled for a couple minutes before someone barged into the front door. I faked like I was just sitting on the couch, doing nothing. I quickly grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, flipping through random channels. Edward sat stiffly beside me, just the back of his hand touching mine.

"What are you two doing?" my mother demanded. Great, she's here. I thought it was someone important, I thought. Edward stiffled a laugh.

"Nothing, mom," I said dryly, without any emotion.

"What are you two doing?" she repeated.

"Gah! Nothing! Oh, my gosh, mom. We are watching TV. That's it. Calm down. And, by the way, I thought you were gambling tonight...?" I asked.

"I was, until I thought of you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well. You spent the night at his house last night. I didn't think you were staying again, but I wouldn't doubt it. Then, you hung up on me last night when you asked. That freaked me out enough," she explained.

"Yeah. I thought you were gonna say no...," I tried to explain.

"So you just thought if you hung up I wouldn't mind?" she interrupted. She looked furious and her face was beat red.

"No...I just really wanted to stay over. Alice even made up a bed for me. Their parents didn't care. They like me," I kind of lied. I wasn't sure if their parents liked me or not. It seemed like they did, but maybe they were just being nice.

"You didn't sleep in Edward's room," she guessed.

"No," I lied. I guess it was pretty convincing because she believed me.

"All right, then. I'm back to gambling," she said as she danced right out the door. I ran to the window and watched until her little blue convertible left the driveway.

"Good, we're alone." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Gosh, she actually believed me. I thought I was going to get caught."

"Yeah. You were thinking about that. She kept glancing over at me to make sure you were telling the truth. I just nodded my head when she looked to convince her. Good thinking, huh?" He grinned. I got up and turned on some cool music. It was some slow, oldies music that my mom likes. I thought it was pretty good. Apparently Edward liked it, because he was bobbing his head to the beat. I laughed.

After a little bit of cuddling again, I turned on the TV.

"What are you doing?" he laughed.

"American Idol's on! Eight o' clock! I love that show!" I yelled. He looked at me and shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't tape it. We have no empty ones left."

"That's okay," he said. "I like it, too. It's okay. Alice watches it all the time. She's already seen all the reruns."

"Hah, I have too." I blushed. He laughed at my honesty.

"Oh, wow. Turning into Alice already. Great..." He hit my arm playfully.

"Yeah. Thanks." I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"I'd better go. I'll see you tomarrow morning. We're gonna go to the beach early and hang all day, right?"

"Sure. That's what I said. See you later. Love you," I said and grinned.

"Love you, too." He returned my grin by giving me a devistating smile.

I went to bed that night thinking about the day that I'd just had with my favorite person in the world. I fell asleep and had no nightmares.