CHAPTER EIGHT
ʜᴇsɪᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

The next day, the snow had died down long enough to let the thick piled on the edges of the road dissolve into nothing more than a thin layer of slush. It was bad news for my car, which by the time I'd made it to school, was coughing and spluttering, even when parked.

I sighed, climbing out from the front seat, glancing across the car park from where I was at the back, thanks to my lateness. With the greyness of the sky and the matching monotone colours of the cold floor, everything blended in, but I spotted Bella's truck easily at the very front, a bright, dented orange coating, stark contrast from the greys and black metals it was parked next to. I could see her too, standing against it where I'd said I'd meet her, headphones in and a book in her hand. Wuthering heights again, no doubt. I smiled when I saw the cover.

But then my view of her was blocked: Tyler's van skipped forward. No one looked twice, but I could see him loosing control, the flash of fear and panic on his face as his hands gripped the wheel. I froze from where I was walking, still at the opposite end of the car park. The Cullens where across from me. And there was the van, heavy and uncontrolled, spinning toward Bella.

I'd hesitated. What if someone saw me? But the van was edging forward, Bella's head still stuck between the pages of her book- a simple mercy before she would be hit.

Without think any longer, I raced forward, leaving my bag by my spluttering car, hands ready to catch her and pull my friend from the line of the van. But as I kneeled by the wheel, seconds before it was due to hit, she'd already moved. Covered by the thick, black material of a vintage coat, Bella peaked out from behind Edward Cullen's arm, her eyes wide and dazed. And Edward himself looked up at me, head unfurling from where it was leaning against her neck.

He'd gotten there first.

While I was thankful that she was fine, almost untouched, and grateful to the fact that it wouldn't be me revealing my secret, I couldn't quite hide the fact that I was shocked at myself. Shocked at the fact that I had hesitated.

Bella heaved out a cough as I staggered back, crouching by the back of her truck. Shouts had begun to ring out, and I watched as Tyler lifted his head, a trickle of red streaming from his head. Blood. Red blood that I'd smelt before it'd even been spilt.

I'd hesitated to save Bella and I'd been too late. If Edward hadn't been there... I dreaded to think it. But even still, Edward had stared at me, his eyes narrowed and jaw set. He'd seen me; there was no other explanation for the luck that he'd given me.

"Don't move!" Someone shouted. "Someone get Tyler out of the van!"

I forced myself up, hurrying toward the space in which Bella and Edward was still tucked. I could hear them, whispering violently between them, Bella's hands gripped to his wrinkled shirt.

"You were over there. You were by your car."

"No I wasn't."

"I saw you," Bella argued, restraining herself from pushing his shoulder in annoyance.

"Bella, I was standing with you, I pulled you out of the way," Edward hissed. I stopped myself. He said it as if trying to hypnotise. Perhaps that was his gift.

"No." Bella's response probably gave me relief than it should have.

"Please Bella."

"Why?" She demanded, her voice almost growling.

"Trust me."

"Fine."

I chose that moment to walk forward, though Edward would have known of my presence the whole time. He stared up again, as I stood in what little gap there was, crouching by the dent that's been made in the side of the van.

"They've called an ambulance," I said, reaching over to brush the strand of hair away from the scrape in her forehead. I didn't think it possible, but Edward flinched. "Are you hurt?"

She smiled briefly, shaking her head. "Not too bad, I don't think."

Edward's jaw stuck out as he turned away from where he looked at her so intently. He raised a brow.

"She hit her head."

Voice had begun to near as the sound of the van door being slammed shut rang out between us. Bella and Edward glanced to each other. I glanced toward the rough dent, not nearly as large as it should have been: instead the size of a hand, large and spread out. Strong.

"Good thing you got to her. It could have been worse," I said, as he slid out from the truck, still bent from the outside view.

He glanced back to Bella who sat with her hand held to her head.

"Yeah, good thing I got here quicker."

Mr Varner and the Coach had to move the van away from Bella before she could be pulled out. They forced me back, ensuring she would be fine, but the complaining on her behalf arose more from the fact that she had to be placed onto a stray her and not from the fact that she'd almost been shattered by a van before nine o'clock.

Somehow, I managed to follow the ambulance in my car.

"I thought you could use some company from someone who won't talk your ear off."

I imagined Jessica, sitting in the waiting room, fresh tears in her face, acting melodramatic.

"Thanks," she said.

But I got the feeling that my company wasn't wholly wanted. Bella smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. I sat beside her, listening to the commotion only a bed over. Silently, she was staring forward, eyes glazed over and eyebrows creased in deep thought. She was preoccupied with something, worried maybe, and the thought of what it could possibly be made my teeth automatically clench, my hands with it.

I sat on the edge of the bed, playing with the ends of my hair. Behind the bars and the monitors was a tiny picture, framed and filtered in black and white like the ones adjacent and lining the backs of the rest of the patients. It was rather dull, but even still, the picture was pretty: a

"You alright?"

She chuckled. "You ask me that a lot."

"Sorry. Habit."

"No, It's fine. I just... never know how to answer," Bella said, shaking her head.

"You're lucky. It could have been way worse if Edward wasn't there."

Her head snapped toward mine. "You saw that?"

"Yes."

"He tried to tell me that I hit my head," she said, reaching toward the back of her head, only to wince.

"No I saw him Bella."

"I'm surprised they're not checking up on him too," she said, shaking her head again in annoyance. "He put me in the ambulance, said I'd hit my head and let them take me as if he hadn't been there."

Her head snapped toward the doorway, glancing as if expecting him to be there. But I knew he wasn't, not even to hide. I could smell him from from the waiting room. The kind of smell one couldn't miss.

"I need to talk to him," she breathed.

I laughed. "So he talks to you now?"

"He apologised."

I frowned. "Be careful, Bella. Please."

"Yeah," she said, but I could tell she wasn't sure.

"At least wait the doctor sees you to talk to him, okay. Promise me that. If not for my sake then your dad's."

"Charlie's here?"

The fact that her dad's presence in the hospital was the only thing she took for my begging irked me. I sighed, looking away toward the doors. I could hear the man's breathing, already walking up the corridor to see her

"He'll be here within the minute I'm sure."

Bella groaned, tipping her head back. "Great."

Charlie pushed lightly through the doors, greying mop of curls flicking over his wide eyes as he moved himself forward. Bella groaned again, alerting him to her position, letting him come forward to check over her face.

"I'm completely fine, Char- Dad," she said, pulling her chin from his hands. "There's nothing wrong with me."

Charlie looked glum as he stalked off, shoulders slumped, toward the small nurse by the corner desk.

"Bella, I'm so sorry!"

She shook her head. "I'm fine, Tyler — you look awful, are you all right?"

We turned, glancing to Tyler as he begged for forgiveness, ignoring anything she said. He winced, flicking sharply from the bloody bandages that were unwrapped from his wounds. I cringed, there was a large cut from his eyebrow to the middle of his head- shallow, but obviously sore.

"I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast, and I hit the ice wrong..." he said.

"Don't worry about it; you missed me."

"How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there, and then you were gone..." he trailed off, wincing again as a fresh bandage was bound around his lower arm.

"Umm... Edward pulled me out of the way."

His eyebrows furrowed and eyes squinted. "Who?"

"Edward Cullen — he was standing next to me," she added.

Bella flushed, her cheeks burning as she glanced away hoping for him to turn away too. She was a bad liar, I knew that, but how Tyler could ignore it, I couldn't understand.

"Cullen? I didn't see him... wow, it was all so fast, I guess. Is he okay?" He asked, before turning to me with wide eyes. "And you, Elide. You were there so fast. I'm sure you were at the other end. I passed you in the way in."

I shrugged. "She's my friend," I said pathetically.

Bella smiled before remembering Edward. "I think so. He's here somewhere, but they didn't make him use a stretcher."

Tyler's attention was thankfully removed from us again as a nurse hurried over to run over a Clío board. I moved toward Bella again, smiling as she frowned.

"Want me to stay?"

"You don't have to," she said bashfully.

"If you won't let me be here as your probable best friends At least let me use you as an excuse to skip," I said with a laugh.

"I suppose I could agree to that."

"Anything is better than biology," I said, as I settled against the back bar of her bed.

For a while, Bella watched the door of the emergency room behind me. I could sense them- the Cullen family- standing with their mesmerisingly ominous presence just outside. She caught glimpses each time a doctor entered or left, I could see her perk up a bit as we talked or waited, desperate to see them as they whispered between them.

I could hear every word, of course.

I turned, sitting side by side to Bella so we could both sit and watch out of the doorway. It was all four of them, standing in a ring, Edward directly in the middle, able to see us if he would only let his eyes flicked up.

"Do you understand what you've done? This could have been us done, finished!" The blonde one- Rosalie- said, her jaw clenched and eyes raging.

"She won't say anything, Rose," Edward said, shaking his head.

I felt his eyes move over, sliding toward where she sat beside me, eyes closed and head drifting gradually toward my right shoulder. I looked away quickly.

"How can you know?"

"Trust me. I'm going to speak to her, before Carlisle comes in."

Edward slipped away from the group, leaving his siblings to frown and wait until they stalked off together, like the natural born predators we all were. He stopped at the end of the bed, neither looking at me or sending a greeting as he gazed at her, eyebrows furrowed.

"Is she sleeping?" He asked, his voice gentle.

"Not really," I said, feeling the changing in her breath as she stirred at the sound of his voice. "Do you really think it's best you be here?"

"I'd like to speak with Bella, if that's okay."

"I'm awake."

Bella perked up yet again, shifting in her bed so she was fully seated, eyes intently on Edward.

"So, what's the verdict?" He asked, ignoring me completely.

"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go," she said, laughing as she rubbed the back of her head. "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"

"It's all about who you know," he said, earning a smile. "My father will be here in a moment."

On cue, Dr Carlisle Cullen pushed through the doorway, his death-like pale skin looking in no way sickly but instead graceful and flawless. His hair was pushed back, layers in perfect, blonde strands across his head. The doctor smiled widely as he stopped by the bed, clipboard in hand.

As I said: the perfect predator. A beautiful man, with the mask of someone you could trust, but with the underlying face of a vampire. But his eyes were yellow. The tension only partially seeped from my body.

"So, Miss Swan," he asked carefully, smiling down. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine,"

Carlisle held out a folder, lifting a single X-ray sheet toward the window's sun streaks of light.

"Your X-rays look good," he said. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it hard."

"It's fine," Bella said.

Carlisle nodded, but spared no energy to make himself look in belief. He smiled again, showing off bright teeth.

"Well, your father is in the waiting room — you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel
dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all."

"Can't I go back to school?" Bella asked.

"Maybe you should take it easy today."

She nudged her head harshly toward Edward, who still stood at the bottom of the bed. "Does he get to go to school?"

"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," Edward said with a smirk.

"I'm sure I could do that, well enough," I said, before remembering I'd stay with Bella. Though it seemed she was happy enough to have the time alone. Carlisle spared a glance toward me, his perfect brows raising.

"Actually," Dr. Cullen corrected, "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."

Bella groaned, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Do you want to stay?"

She shook her head. "No, no!"

Bella looked toward me one last time as she pulled herself from the bed, plopping her feet to the floor, only got trip up again, a strong arm reaching to steady her. Carlisle chuckled as he stood her upright, examining her one last time.

"Take some Tylenol for the pain," he suggested, removing his hand from her elbow.

"It doesn't hurt that bad," she insisted.

"It sounds like you were extremely lucky," Dr. Cullen said.

Bella raised a chin defiantly. "Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me."

I wanted to laugh. Edward remained stoic, hands leaning lazily against the bedpost, but I knew he would be foaming inside, having told his siblings that she wouldn't do that very thing.

"Oh, well, yes," Carlisle said, not removing his eyes from the papers in his head before turning to another patient across the room.

There was silence for a moment, then I sighed. Nothing would be said between them until I left. I could feel Edward's eyes on me, as if he was listening to every thought that ran through my head, his face twisted painfully. His grace dropped. I slid from the bed.

"I'll leave," I said bluntly, removing my stare from Edward to smile to Bella. "I'll come see you tomorrow?"

She nodded and I twisted, lunging out of the room.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I heard Bella say.

And despite all the fear I'd harboured for the Cullens the past week, I for some reason hoped that Bella's confrontation with him wouldn't be as painful as I had a feeling it would be.

It was I that hesitated, after all.

☾