Eden || Edward Cullen

[9] Suspicions

Eden watched Bella groggily wake. When the mind-reader had gotten home, Bella unlocked the door to let her in before continuing to slam her pillow onto her head and drown out any other noise in the room. Eden figured that she would update her in the morning. From the other side of the room, she had been able to hear the bass-boosted track connected to Bella's CD player and old, pink headphones.

There was an odd uncertainness to her, a tense feeling that her cousin so obviously didn't want to think about. Regardless of whether or not Eden could read her mind, she knew when something was wrong with her. Eden herself had been woken a few minutes before to the girl's whimpering and shifting in her sleep; so much so that when Bella had woken, the CD player clattered to the ground as her headphone chord was pulled out of the device.

"You alright, Bella?" Eden called softly when her cousin's breathing had calmed down enough for her to kick off her boots and untie her braid.

"Nightmare. You wouldn't even believe the things that Jacob told me, E," Bella mumbled, tugging off her obviously uncomfortable jeans and refusing to sit up vertically. She untied her braid, ripping the hair tie out and combing through the plait with her slim fingers. "'Scary stories' he told me. Scary stories, my ass. He gave me more questions than answers."

Eden frowned slightly, for once wishing that she were more caught up with Bella's life in forks. "Whose Jacob?"

"Black. His dad gave me the truck, we used to make mud pies together or something when we were younger," Bella explained, frowning slightly as she glanced at the pillow from her laying position. "We went for a walk on the beach at La Push, he lives at the reservation and goes to school there and stuff. But anyway, he told me all about these legends with the tribes down there."

"Huh. Is he cute?"

Her cousin gawked at her for a moment, before glancing down with an almost guilty expression. "I guess so. But I think he has a crush on me, I barely had to smile before he agreed to tell me them."

"You flirted with him?" Eden snorted a giggle, teasing her. "I didn't think you had it in you. What do the legends say anyway?"

"You won't believe it, but Jacob seemed to. Apparently, they're all descended from wolves. And the Cullens- well, they were mentioned too, I guess." Bella's voice was taken down to a small mutter, and Eden felt a twinge of concern. It was obvious that it wasn't the full story, and she was nervous for a moment that Bella would go too far in. If the legends the boy had mentioned were right about the Cullens, what was stopping the legends about the wolves or the vampires themselves from being exposed?

Before Eden could respond, her cousin stood quickly, swaying shortly as the blood rushed downwards. She grabbed her bathroom bag from the desk, muttered a short goodbye and told Eden that she was going to shower.

The mind-reader frowned, tugging a blanket over her shoulders and sitting up, folding her legs. She ran her fingers through her thick, dark brown hair and glanced at the clock sitting in the middle of their desk. 5:34am, Sunday. She groaned and fell back into her bed.

The ride back from Goat Rocks, on both Edward's back and the silver Volvo, had been pleasant. She had napped for around half an hour once in the safety of the heated car after hours spent wandering around the forest and watching Edward hunt. The sun had been a welcome warmth, and Eden never got over the luminosity that came from his skin. Her mind flickered back to the near kiss they had as the shower turned on, and she blushed. They weren't dating, but nearly every part of her wished they were. The vampire had yet to tell her why his family had accepted her so quickly, even with the disgust plain written on Rosalie's face whenever she passed any other human and Jasper's newly turned senses. He had reminded her on the trip back when Eden had asked: she would be told when she was ready, and it seemed that Edward would be the judge of that time.