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After Edward calms down, I tell him that I was supposed to meet my friends at the Waterfall restaurant. He offers to drop me off there, and I allow him too.

Once he parks his car, I hop out and jog towards the front of the restaurant. As soon as I'm about to head inside, Bella, Angela, and Jessica come walking out.

I'm too late. They've already eaten without me.

Angela is the first to notice my presence. "Where were you? We left you messages," she asks, concerned.

"Yeah, we waited," Jessica begins, rubbing the back of her neck, "but we were, like, starving, so we . . . "

I open my mouth to explain when I feel a presence come up from behind me. It's Edward.

"Um, I'm sorry I kept Rebecca from dinner," he apologizes. "We just sort of ran into each other and got talking." He smiles at my friends politely.

Grins form on Angela and Jessica's faces. I know exactly what they're thinking. Bella also grins at me, but she looks me right in the eyes, sending me a message through her chocolate brown irises, look at you, girl.

Jessica and Angela start to laugh awkwardly like two school girls covering for a friend.

"Yeah. No," Jessica stammers. "No, we totally understand. I mean, that happens, right? Yeah . . . "

"We were . . . " Angela trails off.

"We were . . . " Jessica speaks up. "Yeah, we were just leaving." Jessica, Angela, and Bella walk out onto the sidewalk. "So . . . Rebecca, if you wanna . . . "

Edward turns to my now extremely flustered friends. "I think I should make sure Rebecca gets something to eat . . . if you'd like," he adds.

My heart feels like it wants to explode. I can't believe that Edward is asking me if I want to eat dinner with him. Of course, I do. I'm honored that he even feels the need to take care of me like this. The thing is, I'm so confused by his actions. One second he's nice to me, and the next he acts like he never wants to talk to me again.

Nonetheless, I follow my heart and give Edward my final answer. "I'd love that. Thank you," I say.

"I'll drive you home myself," Edward states.

Warmth fills inside my stomach. This is completely unlike Edward. He's being so sweet to me. A part of me wonders if I'm dreaming or not.

Angela nudges me with her side, indicating that I'm not, in fact, dreaming. "That's so thoughtful," Angela gushes.

Jessica nods in agreement. "It's really thoughtful, yeah," she says with a hint of awkwardness filling her tone.

I know what they're thinking. How did I manage to snag Edward's attention while lots of other girls have tried before and failed. Truth be told, I have no idea. Seriously, I'm still convinced this is just a really good dream.

Before things get any more awkward, Jessica, Angela, and Bella start to walk away.

"Okay, so we'll see you tomorrow," Jessica states.

"Bye," I say with a small wave.

They start to walk further away. "Bye," Bella says in return.

"See ya," Angela says.

Once they're out of earshot, Edward and I simultaneously turn to face the restaurant. In silence, we walk inside. Before I know it, we're seated at a table, and my order has already arrived.

"Alright, one Italian sausage lasagna," our waiter announces, placing down in front of me a plate of lasagna.

I look up at our waiter. "Thank you," I say with a polite smile.

"Yeah, no problem," she says. Before she walks away, she turns to Edward. "So are you sure there isn't anything I can get for you?" she prods.

"No. No, thank you," Edward insists.

She begins to walk away. "Let me know," she adds kindly.

I pick up my fork but before I stick it in the lasagna, I decide to address the fact that Edward isn't going to eat anything despite being at a pretty high-rated restaurant. I hesitantly look at him. "Have you already eaten?" I question.

"No, I'm on a special diet," he explains simply.

I immediately get the feeling that he's lying to me . . . again. Since I'm really getting tired of it, I decide to just break the ice between us.

I sigh heavily. "Look. I know you're lying, and you don't have to tell me anything, but I just need to know, why me? I have a feeling that if I were any other girl, I probably would have been crushed by that truck or-or abused by those guys."

"Mm-hmm," Edward muses. "Yes, no. To get to the other side, uh, 1.77245 . . . "

I arch my eyebrows at Edward in utter confusion. Why the heck is he talking about math? How is that even relevant to this conversation? My mouth hangs open in agape. "What are you talking about?"  I inquire, shaking my head.

"I'm answering your question," Edward says simply.

I arch an eyebrow. "No, you're not." Realization hits me. "You're never going to answer any of my questions." With frustration, I grab my shoulder bag and stand to my feet, preparing to leave.

"Don't leave," Edward begs. "I . . . "

His words strike me in the heart. It's like even though I'm so frustrated with Edward, I can't leave him, not yet. He wants to give me answers. I can tell. There's just something holding him back. Something that I can't figure out. Despite every fiber of my being screaming at me to leave, I stay.

I sit back down and cross my arms on the table. Let's try this again. I start with an easier question.

"How did you know where I was?"

"I . . . " Edward hesitates, as if carefully choosing the right words to say. "I feel very protective of you."

His words make me feel warm inside, but I quickly brush it off. He's slowly giving me answers. I have to keep this going.

"Did you follow me?" I prompt. 

Edward looks me in the eyes. His eyes are full of earnesty, making me melt on the inside. "I was trying to keep a distance," he explains, "unless you needed my help, and then I heard what those low-lifes were thinking."

I avert my gaze to the side in thought. "Wait, let me get this straight. You read their minds, from a distance. You can do that?"

Edward lets out a breath. "I can read every mind in this room," he says slowly, "apart from yours." A slight grin forms on his lips.

I blink my eyes in amazement. I'm happy that I got Edward to open up a little bit, but I had no idea that he was hiding such an amazing ability. It makes my imagination run. Is anything really impossible anymore?

Edward gestures with his eyes to look behind me. I turn my head back, and my eyes land on a group of three people.

Edward lists off what each of them are currently thinking about. "There's money . . . sex . . . uh, money. . . " He pauses and gestures to a guy at the drink bar. "Uh, sex." He motions to another guy in the far corner of the restaurant. "Cat." He grins.

I smile at Edward's reaction to the man thinking about his cat. "That's amazing," I gush.

Edward continues, "And then you, nothing. It's very frustrating."

"Have you ever met anyone else who you couldn't read their mind?" I question curiously.

"No." Edward smiles. "You're the first."

An idea suddenly comes to me. "Is that why you're so interested in me?" I question skeptically. A part of me hopes that Edward will say "no." If the only reason he wants to be around me is because he can't read my mind, then that would mean that he doesn't actually like me. He's just trying to figure me out like a difficult new puzzle. I don't want to be a mystery to him. I want him to be able to trust me.

"No," Edward quickly shakes his head. "That's not the only reason." He turns his head to the side in thought. After smiling to himself, he turns his head back and looks me in the eyes. "You're so innocent and beautiful," he says slowly. He pauses, letting out a disgruntled sigh.

"What?" I ask, my heart thumping in desperation.

Edward brings his eyes back to mine, but this time, I find myself lost in them. It's as if they hold a story of their own, a story that I suddenly want to know every part of.

He leans in closer as if preparing to tell me a secret. "I don't have, um, the strength to . . . stay away from you . . . anymore," he whispers.

"Then don't fight it," I whisper back. The words come out of my mouth before I even realize what I had said. I cringe to myself. Why did I say such a wishy-washy thing like that?

My eyes meet Edward's again, seeking to know what his reaction would be. He has his topaz irises focused intently on my own hazel ones. His lips quiver like he's about to say something, but he doesn't. He just quickly breaks our eye contact and blinks to himself for reasons I don't know.

There's a strong connection between us. I can feel it. It's tangible. It's there, but what is it exactly? That's hard to tell.

*Time Skip*

As Edward drives me home, a million thoughts start running through my mind. Did Edward confess his feelings for me? I'm pretty sure he did. I don't know what else "I can't stay away from you anymore" means.

I find myself blushing at this realization. I send a quick glance towards Edward, replaying the moment in my mind when he said those words to me. He has his eyes focused on the road, but I can't help but think about how he must be thinking about me right now, like I am him.

It's funny how things between us went from weird, to confusing, to even more confusing, to this. How am I even supposed to react to this? An extremely handsome, super strong and fast mind reader has fallen in love with me. The fact that he is obviously hiding even more secrets makes things even worse, not to mention, the secrets that his whole family are hiding. Everything is just really confusing right now, and here I am, smack in the middle of it all, trying to sort it all out on my own.

The silence between me and Edward isn't awkward. If anything, it's kind of boring, so my hands start to play with my shoulder bag subconsciously. I squeeze it, feeling something hard inside. That's when I remember the book that I bought. I still have it.

I take another quick glance at Edward. I bought the book to find out more about the Cullens. If there is anything in the book about them or resembling them, some of my questions can finally get answered. The problem is . . . I don't really want to do that anymore. Edward just confessed that he has feelings for me. The last thing I want to do is find out some dark secret about the Cullens that may or may not be true. I don't want to view the Cullens anymore strangely than I already do. I can't even look at them without getting weird and mysterious vibes.

I suddenly realize that my legs are sweating. I'm wearing jeans, so my legs are getting no air on them to cool them down. Plus, the temperature in Edward's car is pretty high. I decide to do something about it.

"I'm hot. Can I turn down the temperature?" I ask. I don't even wait for Edward to answer me. My hand is already moving towards the thermostat knob.

Edward reaches his hand out to turn the temperature down as well. I wasn't expecting him to do that. The side of our fingers brush against each other. A shiver runs down my spine at the contact, but not for the usual reason. His hand, it's ice cold.

I whip my head to the side and look at him, concerned. "Your hand is freezing. Are you okay?"

And like usual, Edward doesn't answer me. I suppose this is yet another thing that he would rather not explain. I decide not to pressure him about. I want to believe that he'll tell me when the time is right. He answered a few of my questions back at the restaurant, like when he revealed to me that he could read minds. That was some progress, and for now, that's all I can ask for.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice some red and blue flashing lights. They catch my attention as we're about to drive by the Forks police station. I scan the police station with interest when I catch sight of Bella's familiar orange truck. What is she doing here this late?

"Hey, can you turn in here?" I ask. " I see Bella's truck."

Edward turns the car into the police station parking lot. He parks the car right in the front. "That's my father's car on the end," Edward realizes. "What is he doing here?" He arches his eyebrows in concern.

The two of us get out of the car. Edward's father, Dr. Cullen, comes walking out of the police station front door. He has a medical bag in hand.

"Carlisle, what's going on?" Edward asks.

Dr. Cullen sighs heavily. He walks down the front steps and approaches us. "Waylon Forge was found in a boat out near his place," he explains. "I just examined the body."

"Oh my God," I exhale. I have no idea who this Waylon Forge guy was, but the thought of someone being killed so close by terrifies me. "What happened to him?"

"Animal attack," Dr. Cullen answers. Dr. Cullen makes a subtle glance at Edward. I notice, but don't know what to make of it. A single, quick thought passes my mind. What if the Cullens' secret has something to do with this?

Dr. Cullen takes a step closer to me. "Rebecca, you should go inside. Your friend Bella is here. Her father was friends with Waylon. She's doing her best to comfort him, but she might need some help."

"I'll go do that," I say. I turn to Edward. "Bye, thank you for dinner," I say politely before turning and heading up the police station steps. I head inside. I find Bella laying back tiredly in a chair in the front lobby. "Hey," I greet quietly. I go and sit beside her in another chair. "How's your father doing?"

"He's doing better," Bella answers simply.

"Are you okay?" I change the subject.

"I'm fine." Bella shrugs. "I'm just kind of concerned. The creature is moving closer to town."

"Wait," I pause, "this isn't the first time that animal attacked someone?"

She shakes her head. "No, it killed a security guard down in Mason too."

"That's crazy," I gasp. My nerves are starting to flare. "Does your dad have any idea what it is?"

"Not yet, some people think it's a bear while a few others think it might be a big wolverine." She shrugs.

I'm getting a little too freaked out about all these mysterious attacks, so I try to change the subject again. "So I'm guessing you came here after you guys left the restaurant?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to check in on my dad. I didn't expect this," she pauses, then speaks again, "Edward brought you here, right?"

"He did."

"He left, right? Do you need a ride home?"

I smile at Bella. "Yeah, thanks. That would be great."

The two of us stand to our feet. I grab my bag and sling it over my shoulder. Despite its peaceful and dreary aesthetic, I'm slowly discovering that there's more to Forks than meets the eye.

Author's Note: Don't be a silent reader! Remember to vote, comment, share, and give me your theories and thoughts! Constructive criticism and any criticism for that matter is always welcome! Know any other Twihards? Let them know about this story!