There are no secrets that time does not reveal.
- Jean Racine
-
Edward headed back into the party several minutes later, knowing how Esme would want at least one dance before the end of the night. Though, to his dismay, the Denali's had other plans.
He was lost in the mob of humans and immortals as everyone crowded the dance floor, his confusion subsiding as the clamorous thoughts from everyone around him explained what was going on.
Dancing with strangers? This'll be interesting.
Maybe I'll be paired up with someone attractive for once.
I'm pretty sure I overheard someone explaining that we just get paired up with someone random for each song? I wonder how that works...
Oh, I hope I get paired with Edward!
His head snapped and around towards the love struck voice of Tanya's familiar mind, meeting her amber eyes as she seductively batted her eyelashes his way.
He gave her a polite smile, then turning back around again, not wanting to give her any false hope.
He groaned internally, silently cursing himself for not staying out on the balcony. If he had known that they'd be doing a stupid strangers paired up with strangers dance, he would've stayed as far away from that nonsense as possible. Now, he'd have to dance for God knows how long with some random person, having to make awkward small talk about things he couldn't care less about.
Everyone got situated on the crowded floor, finding unfamiliar faces of people to dance with, though Edward still had yet to find a partner.
'Maybe it is my lucky day after all' he thought to himself smugly, thinking about how he might be able to escape unnoticed since no one had taken it upon themself to ask him to dance.
He started to back up slowly and discreetly, when his back was met with a firm surface.
He spun around quickly to apologize to the person he had accidentally bumped into, but his mouth fell silent as he realized who it was.
Aris too had not found a partner, and she had also had the same mindset as Edward, thinking that maybe she'd be able to secretly get away from this stupid dance.
They glared at each other for a minute, before several things happened at once.
The music started to play
The crowded floor started to move in every which way as everyone started to waltz.
Since the floor was so crowded, left with little room for people to be cautious, Aris was knocked forward by someone running into her from behind.
She flew forward into Edward's arms, him effortlessly catching her before she could fall.
"Thanks." She muttered, starting to pull her arms away from his grasp.
To her surprise however, in one swift motion, Edward had laced one of his hands with hers, his other one finding her waist and pulling her close.
She looked at him shocked, her eyes filled with burning questions.
Aris didn't know whether to object to this, or to question him, but before she could do either, Edward spoke.
"Last I checked, this is a partnered dance, and neither of us have one of those."
Her eyes remained suspicious, though her body relaxed slightly under his touch, them starting to dance slowly with the music.
"I was gonna go home Edward, and it looked like you were too. Why all of a sudden do you want to dance?" She asked curiously.
Edward's eyebrows furrowed as he took this in. It was true, he was in fact about to head home, or at least sit this dance out. However, for some reason now, having Aris in his arms for the first time, he wanted to do anything but that.
The electric current that shocked between the two of them the second their skin touched was undeniable, though of course the both of them did in fact do their best to deny it.
"Take it as a bonding exercise," he smiled, "Ms.Holmes would be proud."
Aris chuckled, following his lead as they continued to waltz to the mellow music.
Edward's hand met the side of Aris's face softly, and she leaned into it subconsciously, enjoying the way his icy temperature clashed with her fiery one.
"You look very beautiful tonight." Edward complimented softly, causing Aris to look at him inquisitively, confused as to why he was suddenly complimenting her when usually he would use every opportunity he could to throw an insult her way.
"You don't look horrible I guess," she teased, causing Edward to roll his eyes, "but seriously, you're never nice to me, let alone complimenting me. What are you up to, Cullen?"
Edward noted the heavy suspicion in her tone, immediately feeling slightly bad that he had never sent one compliment her way before, especially something as simple as saying she looked nice.
"I don't want anything," he said sternly, offended at the accusation, "is it really that hard for you to just accept a compliment?"
"Well, maybe it would be easier and less suspicious if you would be nicer to me more often." She retorted, shoving Edward's hand off the side of her face.
"Well, maybe I would be nicer to you if you wouldn't be so stuck up and stubborn all the time." He snapped.
"You're the one who started this feud between us in the first place, so don't try to pin it all on me Edward Cullen," she sneered, "you being rude to me the first time we met just started this hatred between us. It would've been easy enough to fix if you would've just told me why you were so rude that night on the balcony, but no, you have to keep all your stupid little secrets."
"Because, like I've said for the hundredth time, it's none of your damn business." He hissed, his tone ending the conversation.
Aris's blood boiled, though she kept her mouth shut because she knew that if she opened it, she'd say something she'd regret.
After several more minutes of dancing, the both of them saying nothing, Edward broke the silence, asking her a question he had been dying to ask her ever since they met.
"What are you thinking right now?"
Aris looked at him appalled and completely confused as to how he could act so innocent, like they didn't just have a full blown argument two minutes ago.
"It's none of your damn business." She mocked in a voice that was supposed to be like his.
Edward glowered at her, wondering why she had to make everything so damn difficult.
Deep down, he knew it wasn't going to work, but out of sheer stubbornness, he attempted to look into her mind again.
Like usual, he got absolutely nothing, and Aris immediately pinched between her eyes, cursing under her breath at the sudden wave of searing pain that overtook her senses.
Edward stopped after a minute, Aris glowering up at him, connecting the dots.
She knew that iridescent's were immune to vampire gifts, as she had been immune to Kate's electric shock the one time she asked Kate to try it out on her.
Edward having just asked her what she was thinking, and not even a minute later getting the same searing headache that she only got when he was near, it didn't take a genius to figure out his gift was mind reading.
"Are you okay?" Edward asked innocently, meeting Aris's eyes that were seething with rage.
The song that seemed to drag on forever slowly came to an end. Aris removed Edward's hands from her waist, slowly backing up from him, glaring daggers at him that nearly caused him to be frightened.
"Stay the ever loving fuck out of my head." Venom laced every single letter, her words ringing in Edward's ears as he processed them.
'She knows.' He thought, watching her disappear into the crowd with a near line of fire and rage trailing behind her.
-
Edward spent the night contemplating the best approach to confronting Aris.
On the one hand, he didn't wanna come on full force and 'scare her' into telling him, as if she was scared of anything.
On the other hand, he knew that if he approached it in a nice way, knowing her, she would use that to her advantage to change the subject and lie her way out of it.
'She's too manipulative for her own good.' He thought with a huff.
He decided that he would try a mix of both, and if it didn't work, he had one more plan tucked up his sleeve as a last resort, if needed.
He waited patiently the next day at their desk for her to enter the classroom, which she did only a few minutes after he took his seat.
She entered the room laughing at a joke Oliver had told, but her smile quickly faded like usual when she saw Edward.
She already knew that he was going to bombard her with questions, so like him, she had spent the night thinking of tactics.
Like he had predicted, she planned just to lie her way out of it, or change the subject as many times as needed to until he gave up.
"Aris, how did you know I was trying to read your mind-"
"Ugh, I am not looking forward to this class today. I mean, I'm never looking forward to trig, but today more than usual for some reason. I heard from my friends that Ms.Holmes isn't in the best mood today, which is just making me dread it even more. Isn't that weird though, she's like the sweetest teacher I have. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never seen her in a bad mood before-"
"Aris!" He cut off her rambling, meeting the amused expression on her face, "how did you know I was trying to read your mind last night?" His voice was just low enough so only she could hear.
Her face turned innocent, yet slightly patronizing. Aris hated having to lie, which was ironic because she'd been doing it her whole life to protect her secret, but she felt even gultier than usual now that she was having to lie to him.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She smiled innocently, causing Edward's eyes to narrow.
'This is going to be more difficult than I thought.' He frowned.
"Then what did you mean last night when you said stay the everloving fuck out of my head?" He asked.
"I don't know what drugs you've been taking Cullen, but I said no such thing," she scoffed, "did you hit your head this morning? You might wanna go and get that checked out."
Edward wasn't used to being the one getting gaslighted, as he was usually on the other end of that stick when having to lie to people.
"Aris, I know you know what I'm talking about. Now how about we do this the easy way, okay? Just tell me the truth-"
Aris flicked her pencil to Edward's side of the desk, it landing directly in the line of sunlight peering through the window. Edward was of course sat far enough back so he was in the shade, but it was just barely enough coverage. If he leaned even an inch forward, he would be in the direct line of sunlight.
'Damn Aris and her stupid gift to block out Alice's visions. I would've just skipped this class if I knew it was gonna be sunny during it today.' He frowned, watching Aris's pencil skid across the desk and stop directly in front of him.
"Oh, I am so sorry about that. Do you mind handing it to me?" She asked innocently.
Edward looked at her appalled. On the one hand, it seemed exactly like Aris knew what she was doing, flicking it into the line of sunlight like that. On the other hand, Aris had never shown any sign that she knew of Edward or his family's secret before, so it could have just been a coincidence.
"You can get it yourself." He shot back, Aris feigning an insulted expression.
"Tsk tsk, not very gentlemanly." She said with a pout, leaning across the desk and grabbing it.
"Aris, I'm done playing these games with you," he snapped, "tell me how you knew about my gift-"
"You know what, I'm kinda bored. I think I'm gonna skip the second half of class today," she fake yawned, looking down at her watch, "oh, but it was a pleasure talking to you like usual Cullen. I think this class went pretty well, seeing as we didn't argue for once." She smiled, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder and standing up.
She left him there speechless as she headed to the front of the room, getting a slip to the nurses office from Ms.Holmes.
Edward couldn't believe it. She had just single handedly gaslighted and manipulated him into not confronting her about his own secret.
'She's good, I'll give her that.' He scoffed, standing up and heading towards the front, getting a bathroom pass from Ms.Holmes.
He headed out the door quickly, spotting Aris a little ways away, heading towards the exit at the end of the hall.
He looked around, noticing how the hallway was completely deserted except for the two of them. Since there was no one watching, he sped over to her at a pace that would've been too fast for the human eye to possibly track.
"Ugh, you just can't get enough of me, can you?" Aris chastised, completely unsurprised when Edward appeared beside her.
He rolled his eyes, grabbing her hand and pulling her into an empty classroom. He shut the door behind them, meeting her eyes which seemed utterly bored as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"We're not leaving this room until you tell me how you knew I was trying to read your mind." He stated plainly, taking a stance across from her, directly in front of the door so that he was blocking it.
She feigned a yawn, pulling out a chair from behind a desk and taking a seat in it.
"I have all day." She shrugged, pulling out her phone and scrolling through it casually.
Edward's plan in trig had not worked, so now he was left with his last resort, which he had really not wanted to use.
Make Aris angry enough to the point where she would spit it out.
"Are you always this self absorbed?" He asked casually, causing her head to snap up.
"Excuse me?" She was absolutely taken aback by this, considering no one had ever used that insult on her before.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Edward chuckled, "would pretentious be more accurate for you? Shallow perhaps?"
Aris's mouth fell agape at the audacity he possessed. Shooting all these insults her way, when in reality, she would say these words described him more accurately than they did her.
"Are you fucking serious?" She seethed, "because I'd say your doing a fairly accurate job of describing yourself right now-"
"Oh, here we go again, the same old reverse card you never seem to get tired of," he crooned, "please, pull something new out of your sleeve for once, because quite frankly, your insults are quite boring."
A high pitched cackle with absolutely no humor behind it escaped her lips as she stood up from her chair, stalking closer to him.
"Oh yeah? I bore you Edward Cullen? Well let me do you one better then," she sneered, stepping closer to him with each word, "at least I'm not a filthy bloodsucker like you."