Edward
"The rest of us are going to ride Emmett's Jeep. I'm going to need you to go somewhere after school." Alice had thought this morning.
When I tried to find the reason why she'd want me to go somewhere when she could do it herself, I found her hiding her thoughts to me through singing the alphabet song in different languages.
It all made sense to me now.
The moment we came back to class, the sound of the bell rang in the whole school. Once Aiyanna and I were back in our biology classroom, I gave the note to Mr Banner while he checked on Aiyanna. As I walked back to my table to pack my stuff, I heard Mike's worried voice apologize to Aiyanna again. He had packed her stuff as well and insisted on carrying her bag as he felt bad, but she declined.
Mike wasn't completely oblivious to Aiyanna's feelings towards him. But he hoped she'd change her mind with time. While listening to Aiyanna's conversation at lunch with her friends Jessica and Angela, I felt a sudden sense of relief when I understood that she didn't have any interest in Mike Newton.
What caught my attention was when Aiyanna rejected the idea of dating me, if I had been one of the few who were interested in her. The fact that even the thought of dating me didn't cross her mind was quite unexpected. It was quite embarassing to think that about myself, but this idea had crossed the minds of numerous young women, teachers and even the nurse in this high school, and yet, she was indifferent. It was the first time that I questioned my influence.
Her indifference made me want to know more about how different she was from others. The desire to know more about her grew stronger in me. I wanted to test her. Know more about how she thought, what she liked and what she disliked. I wanted to see the world through her eyes as she was so easy to read and yet, seemed unpredictable.
Those dark brown eyes that looked at mine, grateful, when I put my hand on hers in the nurse's office. My skin was colder to human ones, which was why I avoided touching others. But I couldn't bear the sight of Aiyanna being in pain. Knowing that I could give her some sense of comfort was enough for me to grab her hand without overthinking, perfectly conscious of the risk I was putting myself and our family into.
As I waited for Aiyanna outside of her last class, the corners of my lips lightly lifted themselves up when she came out. She was with Jessica Stanley, who shared most of her classes.
"Shall we ?" I said.
Ah yeah, the drug store. - she reminded herself.
"Yeah, sure." she answered before she turned towards Jessica. " I'll see you tomorrow, Jess. Don't think too much, okay ?" Aiyanna warned her as she held her finger in front of Jessica's face who looked at her with only surprise in her eyes.
"I can't promise you that." we heard Jessica from behind us, while we walked away.
"Your hand ?" I asked her.
"Better. The pain's gone now." Aiyanna answered as she made me see it.
It was actually our first day talking to each other, and yet it didn't feel like it. She was at ease when she talked to me, as if she was talking to any other human, which made me wonder if her survival instincts were unexistent or if I became less scary with time.
"Don't you hate being the center of attention ? How are you handling this right now ?"
I've heard her think about it numerous times, although I didn't remember her saying it out loud.
She shrugged. "I know I can't help being the subject of people's conversation when I'm with you. So, I just ignore them. I don't have much of a choice." she answered, while giving me a small smile.
We arrived at my car, but Aiyanna's attention stayed on Emmett's Jeep parked beside mine. My siblings weren't here yet, which I found odd as we were always the first ones to get out of each class. Was this also part of Alice's plan ?
"You guys are insane. You each have cars like these ?" she asked me, still contemplating the Jeep.
She looked like a kid in front of her new favorite toy. She was so absorbed into looking at every details of it, that she didn't notice my siblings coming closer. While Alice's joy was visible even from Alaska, Jasper was tensed as he had to handle another day of sitting in closed rooms with humans. Rosalie was frowning, as she wasn't expecting to see Aiyanna here. She didn't like unexpected situations. Emmett, on the contrary, seemed happy that someone was interested in one of his prized possessions.
"Like what you see ?" Emmett asked her, raising one of his eyebrow at her and smirking. His hand delicately touched the hood while looking at her.
Aiyanna's smile dropped and a frown threatened to appear on her forehead.
"Not anymore." she simply answered.
Emmett's fail attempt to seduce her made Alice snort.
"You like cars ?" Rosalie asked her, for once curious to know her answer, as she was herself, interested in cars.
"Not necessarily. But, I know how to appreciate good ones. You guys have the coolest cars out of the whole parking lot."
A brief image of Jasper pushing his teeth through Aiyanna's neck suddenly appeared in his thoughts which made me clench my jaws.
"Aiyanna get in the car. We gotta go." I told her in a harsh voice that was actually targeted to Jasper.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry for kidnapping Edward." Aiyanna told my siblings. "See you guys tomorrow."
I'm sorry, Edward. - Jasper once again, apologized.
This wasn't the first nor would it be the last time that I'd have to be confronted to such thoughts, and yet, this time these images made me feel a lot more uncomfortable than I was when it happened before.
Alice pushed Jasper towards the Jeep and he was followed by the three of them while Aiyanna and I sat in my car. She waved back at Alice who waved goodbye at her as they drove away.
They seem nice. Why would people be scared ? - Aiyanna thought to herself.
It was still hard for me to process, but except for Jasper who was still struggling to stay around Aiyanna, they all liked her. Even Rose who didn't think of her as a waste of time.
What were we doing ?
But does this mean I had to accept to get in the car of a guy I barely know ? Come on, what could happen ? - I heard Aiyanna's sudden thought which made me laugh.
"You're..." she started before she heard my laugh. She frowned her eyebrows, confused as to why I was laughing without context.
Her train of thoughts was quite unexpected. She tend to overthink a lot.T o tease her, I locked the doors and looked at her with a smirk on my face. I wanted to test her.
"What do you think you're doing ?" She asked, annoyed.
"You never should've accepted getting in that car with me." I kept teasing her.
Her eyes stayed on the side of my face as I kept looking on the road. I feared I'd lose my control if I met her eyes, and laugh.
"People saw us leaving together. If you're not stupid enough, you won't do anything." She started to think logically.
"I find it funny that you think I care about people's opinions about my actions."
For the first time, I felt like my powers was working on her. My harsh voice, my fast and controlled driving that probably seemed too dangerous for her along with my cold gaze were making a sense of fear rise in her.
I never felt so grateful for my fast reflexes, when in the corner of my eyes, I saw her fist suddenly trying to hit my face. I dodged her before she could touch me, which made her punch the headrest. Had she punched me that hard and her hand would've broken at the hard contact of my body with her fragile one.
"Aiyanna, stop ! I was teasing you !" I told her.
"What makes you think I want to believe you ? Let me down."
"We're here. The drug store."
I made a head sign towards the little building I parked in front of. I unlocked the doors, and she jumped out of the car with her stuff, as soon as I did so. I walked out of the car, and held my hands up in front of me.
"I see you can't take jokes." I deducted.
"Joke ? You call that a joke ? What kind of psycopath are you ? No wonder people are afraid of you. If you did that with every person who tried to befriend you, you must be crazy." Aiyanna said, staring at me with anger.
I studied her face expressions, her posture, her words, her gaze. The fear I could sense in her seconds ago quickly turned into a rush of adrenaline that changed everything to anger. The little ounce of trust she had in me had vanished into thin air.
As expected, she was unpredictable. Her actions, her thoughts...
I wanted to see how far it'd take her to be scared, and how she'd act if she was controlled by these emotions, and was surprised to see that it didn't take much for her to be ruled by her emotions and act on them.
When I saw how angry Aiyanna was at me, I did start to regret testing her. The sound of her heart beating faster than normal, was echoing into my ears.
"I was just teasing you, Aiyanna. I'm sorry" I apologized.
" I'm not the kind of person you'd joke around with like that Edward. You don't realize the danger I was willing to put ourselves into."
"I'm sorry for scaring you." was the only thing I could tell her.
I'd never hurt her.
These words never felt so true. I kept repeating them in my head, as Aiyanna searched for the truth in my eyes. These eyes, that looked at me with distrust, anger and fear...I couldn't bear this sight. The fact that she saw me as a threat, hurt me in a way I never thought it'd hurt.
As unbearable as this situation was, I wondered what would happen if she ever found out about my true nature. If I tried predicting her actions, she'd want to run away as any other human would. Would I be able to bear this sight of her, walking away from me, with that same expression on her face ?
It was at this moment that I decided to be selfish with her.
She couldn't know about our kind. I wouldn't let her.