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𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋. 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐍𝐎 longer, it was now purely hell. Torment and fire...yes, Edward had both. He was doing everything correctly now. Every " i " dotted, every " t " crossed.
No one could complain that the vampire was shirking his responsibilities. To please Esme and protect the others, Edward stayed in Forks. And returned to his old schedule.
He hunted no more than the rest of them. Every day, the vampire attended high school and played human. Every day, Edward listened carefully for anything new about the Cullens-there was never anything new. The girl did not speak one word of her suspicions.
She just repeated the same story-he'd been standing with her and then pulled her out of the way-till her eager listeners got bored and stopped looking for more details.
There was no danger. Edward's hasty action had hurt no one.
No one but himself.
He was determined to change the future. Not the easiest task to set for oneself, but there was no other choice that he could live with. Alice said that Edward would not be strong enough to stay away from the girl.
So he would prove her wrong.
He'd thought the first day would be the hardest. By the end of it, Edward had been sure that was the case. He'd been wrong, though. It had rankled, knowing that he would hurt the girl. The vampire comforted himself with the fact that her pain would be nothing more than a pinprick-just a tiny sting of rejection compared to his.
Athena was human, and she knew that Edward was something else, something wrong, something frightening. She would probably be more relieved than wounded when he turned his face away from her and pretended that she didn't exist.
"Hello, Edward," she'd greeted him, that first day back in Biology. Her voice had been pleasant, and friendly. The sound of his name on her lips did strange things to his body. If he'd had a heartbeat, it would have quickened.
But...
Had she forgotten? Decided she had imagined the whole episode?
The questions had burned like the thirst that attacked him every time Edward breathed. Just one moment to look into her eyes. Just to see if he could read the answers there...
No.
Edward could not allow himself even that. Not if he was going to change the future.
He'd moved his chin an inch in her direction without looking away from the front of the room. Nodded once, and then turned his face straight forward.
She did not speak to him again.
That afternoon, as soon as school was finished, Edward's role was played, he ran to Seattle as he had the day before.
