Renaissance (boyxboy)

Chapter 5

My staring must have been noticeable because Mike spoke up, bending his head in an attempt at hushed privacy, “Noticed the Cullens huh?”

I blinked up at him, looked back at them, back to him and nodded, “The…Cullens?”

He nodded and drank down some of his bottled water, “It’s all right, they’re kinda hard not to, especially if you’re not used to it.”

The tone in which he said that was confusing, almost like he wanted to be angry but couldn’t get himself to that level yet.  Still, he had a point: I definitely wasn’t used to them.  I’d visited Dad a lot growing up, stayed here for summers until I turned thirteen, and I had no memory of this group of people with their faraway glances and portrait perfect looks.  Aside from that though, there was something else about them, something that made me feel like I’d just been doused in ice water.

“They’ve always been here?” I asked.

Jessica was the one that answered, finding a way into our quasi private conversation, but I didn’t mind since I was genuinely curious, “No, they moved here about three years ago.  Ok, see the tall blonde girl with the muscly guy?” She lowered down too and I looked over at them again, nodding and keeping my eyes on the pair,

“Yeah?”

“Well that’s Rosalie and Emmett.  So, like, they’re with each other.”

Whoah, wait, what?  Didn’t they all just get called the Cullens?

I quickly looked back at her, the horror all over my expression and Jessica giggled softly, “No it’s not like that.  See, Rosalie and the other blond boy are twins.  He’s Jasper, but they were adopted by Dr. Cullen after something to do with foster care or…something like that.  Jasper and Rosalie Hale.”

All right that was a little better at least.  Foster care…?  What had happened to them?  That usually wasn’t an ideal situation to be in and my eyes slowly found their way back over to that table again.  Foster care…I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for them, for whatever had happened.  At least they found eachother though.

“The small one with short hair with Jasper?  That’s Alice, Dr. Cullen’s bio daughter.  She’s nice enough, more sociable than the rest of them at least.” There was a little bit too much contempt in how she’d said that, but I ignored it.  So she and Emmett were brother and sister, Jasper and Rosalie were twins from foster care…if I was getting all of this right at least, it was kind of confusing.

“Well what about that guy?” There was one of them, the only one that wasn’t coupled off.  “The guy that’s almost a red head.”

Mike laughed but I didn’t realize I’d said something funny.  It was true, his hair was almost orange, but not really, more like melted copper.  There was no way it was naturally like that.  Now it was Mike that spoke,

“That’s Edward Cullen.  Dr. Cullen’s other kid, I wouldn’t worry about him too much.”

My eyebrows furrowed and I managed to tear my eyes away from all of them to look back at him, “Why?”

“I don’t know, there’s just…something about that guy.”

Jessica piped in, “He’s gorgeous but can be really snubby.”

I arched an eyebrow, smiling just a little, “Snubby?”

Suddenly her salad seemed way more interesting and she kept her eyes down on it, moving a few cherry tomatoes around with her fork.  Ben and Angela hadn’t said anything, they almost looked guilty, well, Angela did.  Ben looked more interested in other things.

“What do you think?” I looked directly at Angela as I said it and her eyes widened. 

“What?”

“That family as mysterious as these two are making them sound?”

Her eyes moved to Jessica, almost like she was looking for help, then to Mike, then back at me, “O-Oh…well, I mean, I’ve never really interacted with them too much.  They don’t seem so bad, just more to themselves.”

She smiled and my eyes softened.  I liked Angela.

“I’m with Mike.” It was Ben that spoke now and I looked over at him,

“There’s something a little…off about them.  But all in all, they haven’t really done anything.  They’re just always off on their own.”

Three years, and they were still off on their own…?  And here I was feeling bombarded by people on my first day.  At least people wanted to come around me, I couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to go through school with no one else.  Family’s awesome, but you always need a friend to just goof off with, slack off with, be yourself around. 

Maybe it was the way they looked that made them so intimidating.  There was no denying they were easy to look at, but still, it wasn’t their fault they looked the way they did.  Maybe it was because they moved in a group and it gave off the impression that there wasn’t any room for a new person?  Whatever it was, it was sad that in three years there was no one else over at that table with them.

I looked back over at them, the topic of the Cullens dying down into their old conversations.  Hell when you really looked at them, they didn’t even seem like they were conversing with each other.  Alice stood up and with the grace of a dancer moved over to the trashcan, dumping her full tray into it and intertwining her fingers with Jasper’s.

That guy, he looked like he was constantly in pain.  Then I remembered the foster care and instantly felt guilty.  You know when someone’s staring at you?  When you feel that tickle at the side of your head, like a warning telling you to turn and see a pair of eyes?  I got that and turned my head, seeing Edward as the culprit.

Dude what?  And then it turned into one of those other times: where you do catch eyes with someone and neither one of you knows who should look away first.  The usually dormant alpha male instinct in me didn’t want to be the first to look down, but I didn’t like how he was staring.  It wasn’t so much that he seemed…angry.  He just seemed like there was something wrong with me.  You’d think there was something all over my face.

Seriously, what?  What did he want?  And then, surprisingly, he was the first to look away.  My head felt light and I gathered up everything else that was left on my tray.  That was too unsettling and I was ready to move,

“I gotta go, I gotta learn the map some more.”

Jessica’s eyes widened and she closed her salad box, “That’s all right, I can show you around.”

I wasn’t in the mood to be more sociable right now, but really I just wanted to get out of this lunchroom, not wanting to risk another stare off with Mr. Cullen.

“No, seriously Jessica, it’s fine, I’ll just…I don’t know, see you guys later.”

And then I got up quickly and left the table with my tray, dumping it in the same bin that Alice had.  If any of them said anything to me then I didn’t hear it; my tunnel vision for the exit blocking out everything.

Just as I got to the door, I felt that tingle at the back of my head.