Conjunction |Book One| Edward Cullen

five | pricks

I made my way to English with staggering steps and dazed thoughts. It even took me a few moments to realize once I walked in, from the filled desks and open books, that class had already begun.

"Thank you for joining us, Miss Sullivan," Mr. Mason called like a stern parent as I rushed to the back of the classroom, towards my corner seat.

I would have come up with a comment, but under the circumstances of my cloudy thoughts, I just flushed a radiant red and stumbled into my wooden desk.

It wasn't until the shrill ring of the bell signalling the end of class, that I realized Mike wasn't sitting next to me. I felt a wave of guilt, but he and Eric still met me at the door like puppies awaiting their owner to come home from work, so I figured they weren't too mad.

Mike seemed to become more and more enthusiastic with each step as he talked about this weekend's weather report. The weatherman had said that the rain was supposed to take a minor break, giving Mike hopes that his beach trip would still be possible.

Out of guilt from my rejections yesterday, I tried to sound eager about his beach trip. Given, I was somewhat excited to go to the beach, and supposed the lack of rain this weekend would be nice. However, it was still going to be in the high forties at most, and that was if we were lucky.

The rest of the morning passed in a blur of tumbling thoughts resembling the well-known fable of Jack and Jill rolling down the steep hill.

I kept thinking back to the way Edward had spoken and looked at me. Part of me was trying to convince myself that it was just a figment of my imagination. Perhaps it was actually just a very convincing dream that I so badly wanted to be reality.

Those chances seemed more probable than the chances of me actually appealing to him on any level.

All of these conflicting thoughts made me anxious and frightened as Jessica and I walked into the cafeteria. I knew one look at his face would either confirm or contradict my worries, and my day would either plummet or skyrocket from it.

He could have gone back to that cold, indifferent person he had shown off for several weeks, or perhaps this morning had not been a dream after all. Perhaps he had merely had a change of heart, and things could be better.

Jessica continued her babbling from last night about her dance plans—Lauren and Angela had asked the boys and they were going together as one large group—completely oblivious to my knowledge of everything because of her habit of repeating information like the annoying birds from Finding Nemo.

I scanned the tables, my eyes immediately going over to the corner and window-less table. Disappointment flooded through me as I saw the other four of them there, Edward nowhere to be seen. Had he gone home? Maybe he hadn't even been here at all, and my dream theory was what had really happened.

I followed Jessica, as she continued babbling, to the long lunch line feeling crushed. I had suddenly lost my appetite, only purchasing a bottle of Coke before waiting for Jessica to buy her food. I just wanted to sit down and sulk in peace.

"Edward Cullen is staring at you again," Jessica said. Her mere mention of his name struck through me like a lightning bolt, blocking off every other word that came from her mouth. "I wonder why he's sitting alone today."