Humanity - Edward Cullen

Five

Maria carries herself around school like a zombie the next day. She has deep purple circles under her eyes, a permanent frown etched on her face, and she is nothing like her usual, bubbly self. After the flashback the night before, Maria had hardly managed to get any sleep. She spent most of the night staring up at the ceiling and trying to distract her mind from spiralling, and when she did sleep, it was plagued with nightmares. Her father had been the first to notice her change in behaviour, followed by Bella and her friends, but as it has only been one day and she looks frightfully tired, they all accepted her excuse of exhaustion. Bella also seems a little tired and extremely fed up with the immense amount of attention she receives in school from absolutely everybody, bar the Cullen family, so the twins mope around together, sulking in silence.

Maria doesn't really talk to anybody until Biology, where she sits beside Edward with the sleeves of her hoodie pulled over her hands, hiding them. He smiles at her, and she barely even twitches her lips upward in response as she stares down at the desk and sighs. He frowns at this, noticing her slacking stature, pale complexion and dark eyes. His eyebrows knit together in concern.

"Are you okay, Maria?" he asks her, worried. Marissa sighs, he's not the first person to ask her, and he most certainly won't be the last to ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answers shortly, and Edward is a little taken aback. In the short time, he has known her and interacted with her, he has never heard her be short with anyone, and the harsh tone certainly doesn't seem natural coming from her.

"No, you're not," Edward states firmly. She looks up at him, slightly surprised by the forwardness of his response.

"How would you know?" Maria presses, frustrated with him, and he raises an eyebrow.

"Well, aside from your obvious exhaustion and your body language," Edward replies, pointing out how obvious it is that she is not in a good mood, "I'm quite good at reading people."

"Are you?" Maria sighs, resting her chin on her hand and staring at the whiteboard at the front of the class.

"Yeah, I am," Edward says.

"That's nice," Maria responds blankly, disinterested in what he is saying. He doesn't reply to her, pursing his lips and staring down at their desk with clenched fists. Maria looks over when he doesn't answer, looking at him quizzically, and then it dawns on her how rude she has been to him for the duration of their conversation. "Oh, Edward... I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me today... just tired, I guess."

"It's fine," Edward says curtly, and she sighs, her frown deepening.

"Really, I didn't mean to offend you or be rude... I just didn't get any sleep last night."

Edwards's eyebrows raise when she says this, and he looks over at her with a concerned frown, "Why not?"

"Um... I just couldn't sleep... I was worried about Bella," Maria tells him quietly, and he nods, but he knows there is more. Something she isn't telling him. "Thank you, again... for saving her. It really means the world to me. I wish there was some way I could repay you."

"You don't owe me anything, Maria," Edward shakes his head. "Nor does Bella. I only pushed her out of the way. I'm sure anybody would have done the same had they been in my position."

Edward glances over at her for a moment, fighting a battle in his head before he finally gives in and asks, "Did Bella tell you anything about what happened?"

"She just said that you were with her and you pushed her out the way," Maria tells him. "We didn't talk about it when we got home."

"Oh, right," Edward says, hiding his relief that Bella hadn't said anything to her.