The trees around me were becoming less dense and I was suddenly outside Bella's house. I advanced to her door, something I had never done before. I had constantly been scaling the walls and climbing in and out through the window when entering this house. It was relatively quiet. It was divulged of any thoughts. I heard buoyant footsteps coming down the stairs. I nimbly knocked on her front door, immediately tense. I listened to her fumble around with the dead bolt, but a second later she flung the door wide open, sending a wave of her heady scent towards me. I wasn't expecting it so suddenly. I had to move the dry ache of my thirst to the back of my mind, today is about Bella, I reminded myself. I finally gazed at her and noticed that she was wearing a white shirt with a tan sweater and blue jeans. I started laughing because I was wearing something similar.
"Good morning," I chuckled.
"What's wrong?" she glanced down at her clothes with panic in her voice.
"We match." I laughed again.
I saw her eyes travel from my collar down to my jeans and she joined in with my laughter. She marched out of the house then, and shut the door behind her, locking it. I turned to walk to her truck, remembering I conceded in our dispute of who would drive today. A cool breeze blew her aroma in my direction and I was instantly grateful that the majority of the day would be spent in the great outdoors, where her scent was not nearly as potent. I turned and looked at her as she walked towards the truck. She had a smug look on her face.
"We made a deal," she reminded me haughtily as she wrenched herself up into the driver's side seat.
I grimaced.
"Where to?" she asked.
"Put your seat belt on - I'm nervous already." I commanded, even though I was mostly teasing. There is no accident I couldn't protect her from.
She gave me a menacing look and reached over her shoulder and pulled the seat belt across her lap and buckled herself in.
She sighed, "Where to?" she repeated.
"Take the one-oh-one north." I instructed.
The heat coming from the vents in the truck sent her rich scent flooding into my lungs. The constant dull pain that her scent caused me was suddenly fierce. I stared at her face while she drove, a reminder that the most exquisite soul was next to me and that I needed to immediately cage the monster. I began planning the day in my head. If I knew what was to be expected, I would be less likely to make a mistake. That's right, no mistakes today! The problem with my planning was that I wasn't sure if we were going to make it to the meadow before the day ended because of how slow her truck was.
"Were you planning to make it out of Forks before night fall?" I teased, hoping it would encourage a faster pace.
"This truck is old enough to be your car's grandfather - have some respect." She retorted.
I continued to look fixedly at her. The anticipation of being all alone with Bella in the most peaceful meadow was causing a different type of monster to rear its head up now; infatuation maybe? It was electricity that was flowing through me now, preparing to be freed at a moment's touch. We were about to approach our next turn, "Turn right on the one-ten," I instructed.
She complied silently.
"Now we drive until the pavement ends." I smiled, thinking about how close we were to being by ourselves.
Some would consider our time now to mean 'alone', but my mind was abundantly full of the never ending humming and buzzing of thoughts. The meadow, my little slice of heaven, was one of the few places where I was able to give my mind some peace.
Bella's face turned curious, "and what's there, at the pavements end?" she asked.
"A trail."
"We're hiking?" she asked with panic in her tone.
"Is that a problem?"
"No," she lied.
"Don't worry, it is only five miles or so, and we're in no hurry." Hoping my words would calm her.
I could understand her panic though; she couldn't walk across a room without tripping, falling, or running into something. The woods must seem like a mine field to her. She had nothing to worry about though, if she were to trip, I would gladly save her from hitting the ground. It would be so easy to place my hand lightly, gently, under her elbow as I helped her through the slippery forest floor. My new desire was pulsing through my skin, sending more electricity through my finger tips. This new - desire - was now adding to the constant pressure in my chest.
I fixed my eyes on her face, trying to comprehend the apparent terror in her eyes. Her expression altered numerous times, and instead of internally imploring my mind to finally perceive her thoughts, I decided I would simply make a request.
"What are you thinking?" I beseeched.
"Just wondering where we're going." She replied smoothly; she was hiding her fright.
I wanted to ease her mind a bit, so I provided a hint, "It's a place I like to go when the weather is nice."
I glanced out the window and she followed my gaze. The sky was still cloudy enough that my skin wasn't emitting rainbows.
"Charlie said it would be warm today," she mused.
Ah, Charlie. I remembered that she refused to tell him about our outing. Had she changed her mind about that?
"And did you tell Charlie what you were up to?" I asked.
"Nope," she said complacently.
Of course not. But, she did tell Jessica about us, and the trip - hadn't she?
"But Jessica thinks we're going to Seattle together?" I asked. If she told Jessica, then I would have to bring her back, for her family and mine.
"No, I told her you canceled on me - which is true," she reminded me.
I was suddenly angry. Didn't she want me to bring her back? She would be willing to follow a killer into the woods, alone, and not tell a single soul. I growled internally. Who would know it was me who didn't bring her back home? I didn't want to bring her back and she was eager to tempt me to do just that. The monster began clawing at my chest bones again and I was dangerously irate that she put me in this situation. Hadn't I suffered enough? I pulled myself together, for the most part, before I responded.