Just to Bother You || Edward Cullen

9 - money cant buy me love

They'd spent the better half of the night talking deeply about love.

"Have you even been in love, Pandora?"

"I don't think so. I mean I've had a couple boyfriends, boys that I thought I loved at the time. But looking back on it, I never really knew what love was. Still don't, I suppose. You?"

"With Bella, yes."

"What happened?"

"She loved the idea of me."

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt."

"What?"

"Something loving what you are instead of who you are."

"It did."

And they found themselves talking all about the past. Edward described how caught up her was in Bella. He loved feel wanted, no, needed. He felt as though he could talk about anything with Pandora, and he hadn't even know her a week.

"Do you believe in fate?" She asked him suddenly.

"No," he answered.

"Why is that?"

"Well you know Alice. She can predict the future, but even that changes with what someone chooses."

"Right, but do you think that whatever someone chooses is inevitable? Like no matter what, the person would make the same choice again and again?"

Edward thought about it. "I guess I don't know, I'd have to get back to you on that." And he admired that about her. That she was able to make him question things he hadn't even thought to question. That she was intellectually inclined, like himself. He loved the way her brain worked, and he hadn't even been able to see inside of it.

This morning, he offered to give her a ride, and Alice saw her saying yes. "It's more environmentally efficient, Pandora," Edward had said. And when she finally got into the backseat with Alice, he felt happy. Content that his newest friend fit in well with the other people he held dear.

"I didn't know you lived in a house smaller than the size of an atom," Alice teased once Pandora closed the car door.

Pandora lowered her voice mysteriously and said, "only those worthy may see the great Parker safe house."

Then they all laughed together as they pulled out of the driveway. "Speaking of safe house, you never told us why you needed to stay there. Is everything okay?" Alice asked.

"Well it's not exactly something I can explain in Edwards 30 second speed drive to school."

"Tonight then. I'm sure Carlisle and the others are curious as well."

"Tonight," Pandora agreed.

~~~~~

"You may now present your argument. Pandora, you first," the teacher prompted.

"Everything in the world revolves around love, or the lack of it. Take a moment to think about it. What are you thinking of, right now, as you've begun dozing off from rounds of speeches?" Pandora received a few laughs, and the teacher smiled, knowing she'd hooked her audience.

"Maybe some of you are thinking about lunch. Why? Do you love food? Or maybe the type of food they make on days like Taco Tuesday? Or does the idea of seeing your peers excite you more? Because you love talking to them, or more accurately, love them? Ladies and gentlemen gathered here today in the lovely class of 2nd period English, love is the fuel of our universe. Edward, go ahead."

"Ladies and gentlemen who care to listen, love is not the driving force of our universe. There is not one possible thing that can sum up everyone's own motivations. The universe is driven by many things, some maybe, even more powerful than love. Hate, greed, lust, just to name a few. The world does not revolve around love, or the lack of it. The world revolves around each own man's selfish desires, and those alone."