Crescent Night

Chapter 2

As the class filled up, I took my seat near the back, a while after the teacher had arrived, a sudden uptake in murmurs filled the space. I looked up and found the source, Isabella Swan herself. Or I guessed it was her, since I'd never seen her before, which would be hard given the limited number of students in my class.
She exchanged a few words with the teacher, then silently made her way to the back of the class to take the only available spot. Next to Edward Cullen, and retroactively next to me.
I sighed lightly in annoyance, he would often join my group for projects since he was alone, and was half the reason I wasn't failing this class. I suppose that's over now.
Isabella had long straight brown hair and a very light dusting of freckles under her dark brown eyes that helplessly avoided making any sort of eye contact. Something I could understand, making eye contact could often doom you to long insensitive conversations with people whose names you wouldn't remember.

The moment she took her seat my sight was drawn to Edward. He was uncomfortably still, clenching his fist on the table with his back slightly curved forward. His brow was furrowed and his eyes, dark and angry, were all too focused on the table. What was wrong with him? I'd never seen his act this way, granted I wasn't on any sort of terms with him, but still. Edward usually carried himself easily, with a sort of effortless confidence, and when he did talk to people he was always polite. It never felt sincere, but he always made sure to be courteous and polite, even making well intended sarcastic jokes. So this was odd, for him to be having such a blatant negative reaction to someone.

I took a quick look around, trying to see if anyone else was seeing what I was, or if I could see if there was something other than the new girl that was causing such a reaction. But everything seemed completely ordinary, same as it had been yesterday. No one seemed to be paying attention to Edward either, everyone was either too focused on Isabella or on whatever the teacher was saying.

I glanced back at their table, Edward was still in the same position, but his other hand had come up and covered the lower part of his face. And Isabella seemed to be doing a pretty good job at pretending she didn't notice.

Maybe she was wearing a very strong perfume, but I couldn't smell it from here. And even the most egregious perfume wouldn't warrant a reaction like that, especially not before the person has even sat down. The entire thing seemed so bizzare, and I could barely look away. The sound of the teacher faded into the background until all I heard was the increasingly heavy rain outside the window.

Suddenly the room changed, and everything was out of order. The teacher laid lifeless on the ground, and the walls held crimson spatters i didn't want to examine. Next to me I heard the faint sound of chewing, as I turned my head I prepared myself to not react. This isn't real, I reminded myself, no need to make a scene.

Next to me, I saw Edwards face buried in Isabella's neck. Red pooling beneath their feet. Edwards lifted his head, as if he'd just noticed me, his crimson eyes wide open, mirroring my fear. I looked back to where the teacher lay.

I closed my eyes tightly, digging my nails I to my palm to ground myself. I took one, two, three deep breaths. I opened my eyes, and the teacher was writing on the backboard. The walls were the same faded color. Everything was fine, it wasn't real.

I looked back at the pair next to me. Isabella still continued to stare ahead uncomfortably, combing her fingers through the ends of her hair. But Edward was no longer looking out the window.

He was looking right at me.

His dark eyes were blown wide, the same expression he wore in the vision. His posture, and frigid stance remained, but he held my gaze so intently that I was almost sure he wasn't breathing.

I swallowed hard, my heart rate picking up. I looked back at the teacher, alive, well, signaling a diagram. I looked back at Edward, panicked, dark eyes.

It was probably nothing, it's not like he knew what I was thinking. They're just vivid intrusive thoughts, that's what the therapist told me. And as long as I stayed calm, they always passed quickly.

Almost like he'd heard what I was thinking, his eyes relaxed, and he turned his head back to the window, posture unchanging.

The rest of the class passed slowly, I kept wondering what Edward's problem was. But maybe he just noticed my staring, and that was his way of telling me to mind my business. Which I supposed was fair enough, whoever he likes or dislikes, and how he handled it, is not my problem.

The bell rang, and the sound of Edward pushing out of his seat had me jumping. I stared at his back, along with the rest of the class, as he all but ran out the door without so much as a dismissal from the teacher. Isabella visibly let out a breath, and finally looked relaxed to see him gone.

The class erupted into conversation as soon as the teacher officially ended class. A multitude of students surrounded the new girl almost immediately. I left the small crowd behind as I walked out of the room.

I contemplated calling either my mom or my therapist to tell them about the episode, to see if it could get me out of P.E. But ultimately decided against it, I didn't want to make a scene, and I decided that this particular excuse should be reserved for whenever I was really not in the mood for the class, or earlier in the day and not my last class.

So I continued my reluctant march toward the locker rooms.