~~Lips Like Morphine~~{Edward Cullen}chapter 5

“What happened to her?”, I guess he could tell that I was very interested in the story because he quickly responded. “She…died.”, his voice was full of sadness as he looked down at his food. I suddenly became light headed, but I needed to know more. “Mike,”, he looked up at me, “How did she die?”

He sniffled a little, fighting back tears still looking down at his tray.I’m not one to comfort people, I’ve never had to, but he was hurting and I could feel it. I reached over the table and held his hand in mine, he looked up at me. “What happened?”, I tried my best to sound comforting. He took a deep breath and continued the story. “A few months after graduation, she went off somewhere with Edward, a camping trip I think. We didn’t think much of it, the Cullens always went camping, and they still do. While they were on their camping trip, Bella got hurt…bad. Apparently a cougar attacked her.”

“You say that like you don’t believe it.”, I had a hard time believing it myself. “Well…cougar attacks a rare but not impossible. After the attack, Dr. Cullen rushed her to the hospital. Um…Edward’s dad is a doctor, in case you didn’t know.”, I nodded and he continued, “By the time Dr. Cullen got her to the hospital…it was too late. She had lost too much blood, and she died five minutes later. When they told Edward, he looked more angry than sad. He punched the wall and was mumbling things, I don’t know what he was saying, but his sister, Alice, seemed to understand. She had to calm him down. After Bella’s funeral, Edward and his brothers, Jasper and Emmett, ran off somewhere.”

I cut him off because something didn’t fit. “Mike, if Edward graduated, why is he here?”, he smiled at me. “Oh Edward didn’t graduate, Emmett and Rosalie did.”, he nodded his head in their direction, I reluctantly looked over. Of course Edward was staring at me, he had been doing that a lot lately. “Wait, wait, wait. If Rosalie and Emmett graduated, why are they still here?”, this wasn’t making sense to me. “They come and visit at lunch occasionally, they’ve been coming here a lot lately. They might be trying to get in as much time with their brothers and sister before they go off to college. Anyways, when they got back, Edward rarely came to school this year, he’d show up but leave in the middle of the day. Then maybe about two months before you came here, he was staying here all day again. He would leave occasionally, but since you came here and after that little spat you had with Lauren, he comes everyday for the entire day…”

He trailed off and stared up at me then took his hand back. “What?”, he was starting to scare me a little. “Are you…with Cullen?”, he was staring harder at me now. “What? No! Pshh. Edward and me? No. That would never…could never…just…no. I’m not.”, I was stumbling over my words, I always did this when under pressure and boy…Mike was putting a lot on me. He looked at me and smiled one of the biggest smiles I had ever seen. “You…ARE!”, he was laughing a little now and people were staring, oh I hate the staring. I looked over my shoulder at Edward, he was glaring at Mike, a sign that had heard where the conversation had gone. Then his eyes shot over to me, the stare softened a bit, I guess he could tell I wanted him to save me from Mike. “Come on Ellie! I see how you’re lookin’ at him! You are head over heels!”, he was basically announcing it now. I quickly turned around and shot him a death glare. “Mike! Shut up! No, I am not! And probably never will be so back off!”, I had yelled it so loud that I surprised myself. Mike’s face told me something I didn’t want to know, Edward was right behind me. I turned around and could see that his face was full of hurt. “Come on Ellie, we need to talk.”, I sighed and stood up shooting Mike another death glare as I exited the cafeteria.

We went to the same exact bench that he had taken me to the day I had almost knocked Lauren off of her feet. When we sat down he sighed a little. “Edward.”, he looked up at me. “Yes?” “I’m sorry about what Mike was saying, and I’m sorry about what I said…”, I trailed, thinking about what I had said. Did I really mean that? Of course, Edward and I are just friends and that’s all we will ever be. Edward is gorgeous and every girl wants him and I’m just, Ellie, the girl no one seems to really care for. Mike was the only other person talking to me, and I’m sure it was just because he wanted information my relationship with Edward or what I thought of him as far as attractiveness or something like that. Edward was very attractive…but I can’t like him that way, because I know he doesn’t like me that way. Edward stared at me as I rambled on in my head. “It’s fine, Ellie. You shouldn’t feel upset about any of it. Mike Newton is a nosey and annoying creature. There’s just something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”, I sat closer to him now, I always did that when I was interested in something. He looked down and then up at me again. “We can’t be friends anymore.”, his voice sounded melancholy as he stared into my hurt filled eyes. This can’t happening. Why was I so hurt? I barely knew him, he should mean nothing to me. My stomach twisted into knots. I was fighting back tears while choking on my sadness. I opened my mouth but nothing came out, so I just nodded my head and stood up. He stood up as well, I looked up at him and whispered, “Nice knowing you.”

He just stood there as I walked to my next class. Of course Mike was in it so along with the shock of what Edward had just told me, I had to endure the torture of Mike Newton talking to me non-stop about something that would never happen. Mike didn’t talk to me, I guess I scared him when I exploded at lunch. I couldn’t concentrate on the lesson, I was too busy thinking about Edward. His beautiful eyes, his gorgeous smile, his graceful walk, just about him and how perfect he was. I had never felt this way, usually when I loose a friend, I don’t really care, but Edward…he really hurt me. Why? I didn’t do anything wrong! I was nice to him and never once exploded on him when he ticked me off. Ugh. He had no right. There had to be a very, very good reason behind it. But what? I couldn’t think of anything. Then the thought of the blonde girl death glaring at me came back to mind. Her. She must have had something to do with it. But why would she? She doesn’t even know me. Gosh darn it! It sucked, I wracked my brain for any reason for his decision, but I couldn’t find any. He was the only reason that I stayed in Forks, now he wants nothing to do with me. Well, if he isn’t my friend anymore, I have no reason to stay here. Just as these thoughts entered my head, I felt someone poking me. Oh I hate pokers.

I quickly looked up and, of course, it was Mike. “What Mike?”, I sounded irritated because he interrupted my inner ranting. “What are you doing this tomorrow?”, I looked back down to my books and then looked back up at him. “Nothing. Why?” “Well…we, my friends and I, have this thing. We go down to the La Push reservation and have a bon fire at the beach. I wanted to know if you want to go.”, he sounded a little nervous. I knew why, his friends aren’t very fond of me. “Mike.”, he looked at me, “Is Lauren going to be there?” “Yes, but you don’t have to be near her. It’s a big beach and she usually goes off hiking with some of the La Push kids.”, he was staring at me now, it made me uncomfortable. “Mike…I don’t really like water…actually I’m sort of scared of it.” “Oh you don’t have to swim or anything. Please come Ellie.”, I sighed and thought about it. *It could take my mind off of Edward…* I looked at him and smiled a little. “Okay.”

School was finally over and for once I was happy to get home. I would much rather be stuck in the house with Cammy than in school with Edward. When I got to the parking lot, I looked over to see Edward, yet again, staring at me. I rolled my eyes and unlocked my car. By the time I looked up, he was walking toward me. I ignored him, it wasn’t easy, but I did it. Just as I was about to shut the door, Edward caught it. I glared up at him. “What?”, I said it quick and very annoyed. “Don’t go to La Push.”, he was staring hard at me. “Why?” “Just don’t.” “Yeah, well, Edward, you can’t tell me what to do. So guess what, I’m going. You’re gonna have to deal.”, I glared at him as he sighed, nodded, and closed my door for me. My stomach twisted as I drove home, I was, once again, choking on my own sadness, but this time…it wouldn’t go back down. It was stuck in my throat, the tears burning my eyes as I failed to hold them back. Why did it hurt so much? I have heard of this feeling before, but I didn’t want to believe that it could be happening to me. My tears were making my vision blurry, I couldn’t see the road well and the house was still a ways off, so I pulled over.

The rain pounded on the car as I cried uncontrollably. I had never cried so much in my life. This was ridiculous. Edward Cullen was NOT worth any of this at all. He was just another boy, another stupid boy who led me around and then cut himself off from me. I knew I should have just kept to myself and graduated and then get out of the stupid town. After three minutes of feeling sorry for myself, I looked in my mirror to see a car coming, when it got closer my whole body went numb. It pulled over and Edward got out of it. Right when he closed the door, I drove away. Rude? Yes. Unnecessary? Heck no! I didn’t want to talk to him. Not at all. When I got to the house, I got out of the car and looked toward the road as I walked to the front door. Of course he was watching me from his car at the end of the drive. I rolled my eyes and went inside.

The night wasn’t as long as I thought it would be. I woke up and it was surprisingly sunny out side, I smiled a little and went to my dresser. I was going to the beach on La Push that day, so I thought it appropriate to wear a swim suit. I wasn’t going to swim, water had always terrified me, but I knew it would probably be warm. My swimsuit was a two piece, bikini cut, and black. Over it, I wore a Sweeny Todd tank top and black denim shorts. I looked at myself in the mirror, sighed, and grabbed my car keys. There was no doubt in my mind that Lauren would have a field day blabbing about how dumb I look. Then I stopped at the top of the stairs…ugh Cammy’s going to have fun with it too. With that in mind, I ran down the stairs. Cammy tried to talk to me but I slammed the door and ran to my car. I was opening the door to the car when I stopped. Edward was in his car blocking my way out. I growled a little and stomped over to him. He rolled down the window, his face was serious. “Move Edward.” “No.” “Um, that wasn’t a request.”, he stared hard at me. “Don’t go.” “Why do you care so much? We’re not friends, so I’m not your problem anymore. So you can leave now.”

His jaw tightened and he nodded his head. He backed out of the drive and sped down the road. I got in my car and did the same, Mike had told me to meet him at a sporting store or something like that. It wasn’t too hard to find, I could tell where it was because of the many cars that were parked out in front. Mike saw me and a smile flickered across his face. After I saw Mike, I looked behind him and there was Lauren…glaring. Oh joy. I got out the car and smiled a little when Mike came up to me.

“Hey Ellie, glad you came! You can ride with me if you want.” , he smiling…too much. “That’s fine Mike, but I’ll just follow in my car.” “Is it because Lauren is riding with me? I’ll just ride with you in your car then. Lauren would be telling me to take wrong turns and stuff. If I ride with you, you won’t get lost.”, I just nodded and he ran back to his group to tell them what was going on, Lauren glared at me again and I just got in my car. When Mike got in, I drove down the road at his direction. It didn’t take us long to get to La Push. We got out of the car and I looked around. The beach was nice, it wasn’t like other beaches that I had been to. It was calm and had a little overcast on it. The water was dark, another think that made me fear it but love it at the same time. Beaches are beautiful when its cloudy or at dusk or dawn. I just hate the water. I was just staring at the water when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Mike. “Hey, the rez kids are on their way, you wanna help start the bonfire?”, he was pointing toward a circle of logs that were placed there to be benches, but the thing that I noticed the most was Lauren’s never ending glare. “Sure…I’ll just…go find some wood.”

He nodded and ran back to the circle. I sighed and turned toward the nearby forest. Even though I did have the intension of gathering wood, the sight of the beach captivated me. I had completely forgotten why I was walking that way. I had looked down for about two seconds and then I ran into something. When I looked up, I saw that it was not something but someone. A very, very cute someone. “Oh I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”, I said it very quietly, curse my shyness. He just smiled the cutest smile I had ever seen and laughed a little. “It’s okay, I wasn’t watching either. I’m Jacob Black.”