Chapter 10
“Hi, Bella”.
“Hi, Alice.” Bella waved at her, hoping that she didn’t make it awkward. She looked back down on her phone. There had been another body in Seattle, found just this morning. Bella scrolled through the article, published five minutes ago, skimming for information. She was seeking reassurance that there was no reason to freak out, but to be completely honest, she wasn’t sure if the article helped that in any way.
Alice stopped next to her and leaned against the little wall next to the school’s entrance.
“What are you looking at?” She asked, trying to get a peek of Bellas screen.
“Just this new body found in Seattle. It’s…” Bella shrugged. She didn’t really want to admit to Alice how she felt about it. She felt silly. People were murdered everyday, there were reports everyday, why did she suddenly care so much about it?
Alice nodded but didn’t say anything. Her face was free from any emotion. Bella wondered for a second if maybe Mike was right, but then she shook her head. That was such a stupid thought, she wanted to hit herself for even considering it a second.
“I am kind of addicted to these articles. It’s silly. I should stop reading them.” Bella shook her head again and put her phone in her bag. “How are you doing this beautiful morning?” (It was raining crazy, but at this point after having lived in Forks for almost a month now, Bella didn’t care about staying dry anymore.)
“I’m fine, thank you.” Alice smiled coldly. Bella immediately jumped to questioning her behaviour at Alice’s sudden change of tone. Did she offend Alice in any way? She could find anything in their conversation that seemed offensive but Bella felt the need to check.
“How about you, Bella?” Alice’s smiley tone was back. “Are you feeling better?”
“Oh yeah, well. Definitely better.” Bella nodded. She felt very stupid. “Uhm, I think I have got to go to class.” - Bio. She sighed. She didn’t want to sit next to Edward again. And right now she also felt like running away from Alice. It was ironic, running from one of the Cullen’s to the next? Maybe Bella should run back to Phoenix. Running away from any minor problem, but then she would have to run somewhere else. (Phoenix was full of problems, which was a reason for coming to Forks which seemed to collect problems like game tokens now) And the next problem was that Bella hated running, so no running away from problems. Only from one Cullen to the other.
“Okay, I’ll see you around.” Alice smiled and started to skip up the stairs. Maybe Bella had misinterpreted her tone. Alice seemed as always now. She took her backpack and followed Alice, her mind still buzzing with confusion about basically everything, or to be more specific: Alice and the new murder. Bella really had to force herself to not check her phone again for updates; to not search for images of the body. She had already seen too many videos of the mass murder but it was like she couldn’t get enough. The more she dug into the topic, into the articles and new reports, the more she got pulled into the loop of researching and thinking.
The weirdest thing about it all, which possibly was the reason Bella was so fascinated, was that there were no clues at all who might be the person or group behind all the deaths. There was nothing to be found in autopsies, there was no evidence on the bodies or the surroundings. It almost seemed like all the people died from nothing - if it wasn’t for all the blood.
It really felt like her phone was about to catch fire in her backpack if Bella didn’t check it, but she was able to ignore it now. There weren’t going to be any new hints or details until afternoon, or maybe never. If it was like the other deaths. The bodies were too destroyed by all the people that it was impossible to examine anything, that was what they announced yesterday. Bella tried really hard to get her thoughts on a different lane, a new topic would be perfectly welcome. It didn’t work.
She slid onto her seat in biology at the last minute before the lesson started. Edward was already there, all his utensils lined up in strict order (so it seemed) on his side of the desk. He did this everyday, clearly separating his sphere from Bella’s. Bella thought it was extremely dumb and had thought of a million things to say that would potentially provoke Edward. She hated being ignored, she didn’t want to sit in silence for all classes this year; it was so crazy uncomfortable. In one class while they were supposed to work as lab partners and Edward only spoke when asked the most direct question Bella considered screaming out loud to get out of this misery. But she decided that this might have been too dramatic, so she stayed quiet. But today, things were different.
Edward leaned over - into Bella’s sphere.
“Why did you talk to my sister?” His voice was deep and quiet. And creepy. Just as creepy as the simple fact that he was asking this.
“Why are you asking me that?” Bella squinted her eyes. She hated men that felt the need to interrogate everything in a woman’s life only because they were close to her.
“Because you’re here, right now? I don’t see my sister around.” He demonstratively glanced around the room.
“Well, it isn’t of any importance. Especially not for you. Not your business.”
“Are you sure?”
Bella would have started laughing, right into his face, if it wasn’t for his dark eyes, that stared at her and judged her trying so hard to intimidate it. Unfortunately, Edward in his creepy behaviour really was intimidating and Bella leaned away.
“Promise.” She rolled her eyes and took out her notepad. This was totally crazy. Edward was totally crazy. How did all the girls at school have a crush on him? Maybe they believed they could fix him, Bella thought and shook her head. Edward was still staring at her. His breathing was suddenly really noticeable to Bella. It was so loud, how had she been able to not be annoyed by it for the past weeks? Or was he breathing extra loud to provoke her?
“We literally have drama together. Stop being such a controlling jerk, Edward. You got nothing to worry about.” Bella snapped.
“Good to know.” Edward's voice was calm now. Bella gave him a last confused glance then decided to ignore Edward for the rest of the lesson. Or maybe forever.
When class was over Bella felt like she had never felt such relief before. About 24 hours without sitting this close to Edward Crazy Cullen sounded like a vacation. And felt like it too.
In the cafeteria she looked out for Erica, Jess and Mike and found them still standing in line for their food. They waved her over and she squeezed through the other students. As she finally stood next to her friends, she started rambling about how much she hated Edward.
“Like, literally, bio used to be one of my favorite classes but he makes it an absolute horror to live through.” She gestured with her hands and Mike laughed.
“That all just makes him even more bad boy, I guess.” Erica shrugged.
“He talked to me today, for I think the first time.”
“Wow, that's good!” Erica's jaw dropped for a second, when she realized it she closed her mouth again, blushing. “He never talks to anyone.”
“You're special, Bella!” Jess laughed and gave Erica a warning glance.
“I would have given everything to not talk to him. He already is creepy when he's silent. But he asked me, and I am still not over it, why I was talking to his sister.” Bella looked at her friends. She shook her head.
“Maybe he cares for her. I think that's sweet.” Erica shrugged and smiled.
“You're crazy, Erica.” Bella laughed. She wasn't sure why she was laughing but it just happened.
“You're way into him. This should be studied. Do you want him sneaking around every corner too because that's sweet?” Mike said, looking at Erica, examining every inch of her face for a reaction.
“I am beginning to worry about you.” Jess said, touching Erica's back.
“I’m fine, you all. Don't think about it too hard. I know I don't have any chance with him anyway!” She laughed.
“And that's good.” Bella crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Really, good.”
“I agree.” Mike nodded.
Erica sighed and turned her back to them to study today's meal plan. “I also am not mad at you, if you're thinking that. I am just reliving 9th grade me’s pain for a second.”
“She's not fine.” Jess whispered into Bella's ear and giggled.
“I heard that.” Erica tried to make her voice sound cold but then she bursted into laughter.
“Can you please calm down, I don’t get any of this anymore.” Mike declared. He held onto his backpack straps as if they were his lifeline. Just as Bella disliked Edward Cullen, Mike disliked Edward Cullen talk. It really didn’t make sense to him at all how someone who was like Edward, behaved like Edward and carried himself like Edward, how someone this arrogant and cold was still the whole school’s number one guy. How was Edward Cullen everyone’s crush? When they could have (well, we don’t want to make Mike a selfish brat, but…) him, Mike? He thought of himself as a caring and kind guy, which would first make him a good boyfriend to begin with but secondly and maybe more importantly were two traits Edward Cullen did not possess. But no one seemed to notice him. Not in that way anyway.
While they were having lunch Bella tried to bring up the topic of the murder but neither Jess, Erica or Mike seemed to care. They made jokes about big cities and how they would never move there now because who wants to get murdered? Jokes how Forks was the most boring place on earth, but maybe that wasn’t a bad thing (Mike’s opinion). Bella tried to laugh with them, to loosen up about the topic. But after Charlie’s warnings and his stress this morning after he got the first call, it was hard for her to shake off the feeling that something big was happening, and that it was very dangerous.