Ice Angel

Chapter 5-Perhaps I'm Changing

After our first biology lesson together, I pulled a few sick days. Honestly, there was something about Edward Cullen that bothered me, and I couldn't put my finger on it. But it bothered me more than anything else. I felt awkward around him, as though he was testing me all the time. I didn't like it one bit.

Charlie had become tired of having me at home, and had shoved me back to school on the Friday. All through my journey to school, I'd been hoping that Edward wasn't in school. Needless to say, my hopes were pointless. Almost the second I pulled into the parking lot, I spotted his shiny silver Volvo.

My girls had been lost without me, it seemed, which was more than a little bit depressing. My lessons passed slowly, almost painfully, but I managed to avoid any real kind of drama. Victoria seemed to have ceased her shit, which relieved me no end. Tanya too seemed far more comfortable.

When the lunch bell rang, I headed to biology with some reluctance, Jessica and Victoria in tow. They were discussing some pointless-sounding movie that was coming out that weekend. I was invited along. I didn't want to waste three hours of my life watching some terrible movie, but I agreed anyway. It wouldn't do for me to spend my weekend locked in my room with a few books. What kind of image would that portray?

Yeah.

I sat down at my desk quietly, bidding Jessica and Victoria goodbye. It was just a minutely two later that Edward walked into the classroom. His eyes rested on me, and something like panic flashed across his face. He began to walk towards me, when he tripped over somebody's bag. Not even thinking about what I was doing, I stood up slightly and grabbed his arm, preventing him smashing his face into my desk.

He looked up at me, mortified, and mumbled a 'thank you'. There was a moment of silence, before I spoke.

"Edward? Are you ok?"

"Yeah," he muttered, "Thanks."

"Ignore them," I said, referring to our jeering classmates, "They have yet to grow their second brain cell. It must be hard."

I smiled at him, and he blushed again.

"Look, I- I'm sorry about Monday. I was in a bitchy mood, but I had no right to take it out on you. I apologise."

"It's ok," he murmured, blushing a deeper shade of scarlet. The guy was far too shy. It was almost funny. I still felt horrible about Monday, and I didn't really think that I deserved his apology.

"No, it's not," I sighed, "You're going through a hard enough time as it is. You didn't need me being horrible too."

Mr. Banner started the lesson a few moments later, after Edward and I had exchanged a few more words. As the chatter broke out amongst the classroom, we too began to talk quietly. I wasn't entirely sure why, but we ended up talking about my mistakes, and my tendency to be a shitty person. I told Edward, feeling rather embarrassed as I spoke, that I was quite a good listener. Edward went on to say that he didn't believe I was a bad person, which threw me entirely off-guard.

In what way was I not a bad person? I'd hurt my old friends when I pushed them away, I hadn't bothered to try and fix my mistakes, I'd gotten myself more detentions than anyone else in the school during my freshman year, save for Jacob. Hell, I'd been a complete bitch to Edward. I had no idea what had planted the idea in his head that I wasn't a bad person.

"Right," I said, laughing humourlessly.

"I mean it."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" I asked with a little snort.

"Believe it or not, Jasper talks more about the old you than the new you, so to speak. And apparently you get along well enough in history. You defended Angela in the parking lot on Monday," he said, his voice very quiet.