Hidden

After my run-in with the Cullens on Monday, none of them showed up to school for the rest of the week. Just like Jacob, I had never gotten any way to contact Edward and found myself beginning to doubt that he would show on Saturday night. Maybe his dad brought a bug back with him from the hospital and it infected the entire family. Too weak to come to school, they all died without ever telling me he’d cancelled. It sounded like something that would happen to me.

Charlie was overjoyed that I was going out, regardless of who it was with. Having been in Aberdeen for only three weeks, I wasn’t exactly on anyone’s best friends list besides Jacob’s. And since he refused to set foot inside of my ballet studio, I was spending my weekends doing pirouettes alone. So, I was happy to leave the house in good company once again when Jacob rang my doorbell right on time.

My dad answered the door while I stumbled down the stairs, trying to get my other shoe on. I had dressed up to the best of my ability, what with the weather being slushy and dreadful. I wanted to wear my old green beanie since this wasn't the opera, but I thought I should look my best in case Edward decided to come. If he was like any other guy, I wouldn’t have a tough time getting answers out of him with me looking this way.

When I walked around to the front door, I was surprised to see Dr. Cullen standing in the doorway instead of Jacob. He spoke in a soft voice, gloved hands clutching a stack of papers. His eyes flicked away from Charlie when he saw me, and he smiled as warmly as he did the first time we met.

“Hello, Isabella. Edward is waiting outside in the car,” he told me.

I frowned, “Jacob said he would pick me up, did you-?”

The handsome doctor shook his head, “Don’t worry, Edward and I worked everything out. My son will be taking you to the play as a token of gratitude for the invitation.”

“I - I uh, oka-”

My dad slapped a hand on my back, “Doctor Cullen here had to stop by so we could finish up some work together. Thought it was real kind of him to give Jacob a break with the driving.” The blond man nodded and my father continued, “So go have fun! He’s waiting for ya!”

Before I was ushered out the door, I asked Charlie, “And you’re okay with that?” I whispered, “I barely know him.”

“Bells, I would trust any one of the Cullens with my life. You’re safe and sound with them.” I felt him slip some money into my hand, “Don’t be late!”

Pulling my coat tight around my body, I stepped onto the porch and heard the door close behind me. The street was dark and damp, but I recognized Edward’s awful Volvo gleaming in the moonlight. I was careful as I walked to his car, not wanting to slip on any of the ice, but I still managed to trip myself up a little and my face burned a bright red. Yep, heels were a bad idea. Now I had to endure their torture for the entire night.

Edward unlocked his car for me when I approached, and I plopped down in the passenger’s seat. I shoved my hands in my coat pockets to get them warm again and before I even had a chance to get my seatbelt on, we were speeding down the road.

“So… Hey,” I said, buckling up. “Glad you could make it. Where have you been?”

“Family trip to Seattle. My, uh… My grandmother’s birthday,” he replied. There went my hospital-bug-doomsday scenario. He took his eyes away from the road to look at me as he drove. It was hard to trust someone who wouldn’t concentrate on what was in front of him, and I hoped my dad was right about the Cullens.

“Sounds like fun.” I turned to look out my window. “I thought you might not show up.”

“Right, I apologize. It must have seemed that way. I was on a tight schedule and forgot to mention it.” He watched the road again.

"Too busy making out with your girlfriend?" I laughed, remembering how I found them in the theater.

"Who?" He said, dubious.

Oh god. God damn. God damn assumptions. How could that not be his girlfriend? They seemed so close and comfortable with each other, I hadn’t seen him even acting that nice to Rosalie. He must have thought this was a date. I stuttered, keeping myself turned away from him, “I thought that girl you were with, you know on Monday, I guess I thought you guys were together. Sorry sorry, I got the same thing all the time with this one guy in Arizona, but uh, but he was gay, so, it uh-”

“I’m not gay, Bella.” I didn’t look at him, but I knew he was rolling his eyes. “That’s my sister, Alice. She’s married.”

Fuck me, blundering idiot, I was making an embarrassment of myself left and right. How was I to know? They looked nothing alike, and I had little on which to base my assumptions. Furthermore, Jacob hadn’t mentioned anything of a girl named Alice when we spoke last week. Maybe he’d never met her. And she was married! She couldn’t have been more than a year older than us, so petite and beautiful, full of energy. She was miles ahead of me in her life; I felt a bit jealous. But then a wave of shame hit me as I realized what I had just said to the poor guy.

“Yeah! Yeah I know, of course! Sorry! I didn’t mean it like that!” I let out a breath and kicked my feet in my seat. This was going about as badly as it ever could have, and we were only halfway to the theater. I needed to change the topic so we wouldn’t have to sit in such tense silence, and Edward was not helping at all with the conversation. That reminded me - I was trying to wrestle some answers out of him. Time to kick it up a notch. Ready, go. Fantastic segway. Come on. I rested my elbow on the armrest that separated us and perched my chin on my palm. “You like music.” Worst segway of my life.

“That’s a bold statement.”

“You were at the piano bench on Monday morning. You play, but you wouldn’t play for me. You’re either actually terrible and you didn’t want to look stupid, or you’re a genius.” I glanced at him to see his expression, but it was as blank and unemotional as ever. No telling what he was thinking, but I was starting to gain some of my confidence back from my previous gaffe. ”But since you were so cocky about it, I thought you must be telling the truth.”

“Do you have any reason not to believe me?”

“Not yet…” I put my arm back down and rapped my fingers on the hard plastic.

“Bella, what incentive do I have to be trustworthy towards you when all you’ve done for me today is called me incestuous, gay, and a terrible pianist, and I haven’t heard a word of thanks for driving you to this damned play.” Edward’s voice hardened at the end of the sentence and he swerved to miss a pedestrian.

"Geeze! Watch the fuck out!" I said, thrown to the side. How did he get a driver's license? I could have sworn I heard him chuckle just then. "Ugh. Thanks for the ride, then. But look at that, everyone trusts you and your family. Even my dad let you take me, and I’ve only seen you a few times at school. I don't get it. I don’t get what’s so good about you."

"My father's the head of the ER, everyone has us to thank for something. That's how it goes."

"That doesn't have anything to do with you, though. Or Rosalie, and all the others. You aren't even related to him."

"I've known Colin my entire life," Edward snarled, turning to me abruptly. His eyes bored holes through mine. "He's a good man, and we are family. All of us are, it doesn't matter when - er," he blinked, swiftly looking ahead. His knuckles turned bright white as he strangled the steering wheel. "It doesn't matter where we're from," he said in a quieter voice, "we are family."

All of that, and I now had more questions than answers. I folded my hands in my lap.

“Trust me, I can play the fucking piano,” he said out of the blue. “You name it, I can play it.”

The first thing that popped into my head was, “Clair de Lune.”

He laughed.

“Moonlight sonata.”

“A pleasure.”

“Golliwog’s Cakewalk.”

“Reminds me of my childhood.”

“Uh…” I took my time to think of one he might not know. “Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie?”

Edward sighed, “Unfortunately this game is too easy for me. You said you dance, yes?” he asked me, one hand on the wheel.

“Ballet, yeah.”

“I play for my sister sometimes when she dances. Although I dislike it, she can be very persuasive. Take your pick of anything you’ve ever danced to, and I’ll play it for you. To prove that I know how.”

“You mean, you want to come to my studio and play? For me? So you can show off?" I shifted in my seat, lips pursed. I was pleasantly surprised by how much more enjoyable the conversation had become since we began to talk about music. I myself was not very knowledgable about anything I hadn’t danced to or heard on the radio, so I couldn’t imagine why he wanted to go out of his way to impress me.

“Think of it as something more like a trade. I play for you, you dance for me. Then we will both know the extent of each other’s artistic capabilities.”

Now I couldn’t tell if he was making fun of me or being serious. “Pfft, okay yeah, do whatever you want. You’ll know my studio, it’s the only one around for miles.”

Edward nodded, then made to say something but stopped himself.

“What?”

“I guess I’m looking for an invitation,” he said tentatively.

“Then you have your invitation. Come artistically fight me at my ballet studio.” A smile tugged at the corners of his lips but he didn’t say anything more. His politeness shone through at the strangest times, I thought. Leaning back into my seat, I shivered and reached to turn on the heater. “Do you mind?”

“No, that’s fine.”

The warmth spread throughout my body and I was able to relax. “Where did you move here from? Alaska? Must be why you don’t notice the cold.”

“Yes, you get used to it. Who told you where I was from?”

“Oh, I just searched for you in my dad’s secret police database like I do everyone else,” I joked. Edward shot me a terrified look and I said, “You know I’m kidding. Jacob told me. He said you two used to be friends.”

“Last year we were close,” he nodded, calm once more. “I met him through one of my father’s patients. It should be nice to see him again.”

“Yeah. Why didn’t he pick me up, though?”

We pulled into the theatre parking lot. “My father has been finding some strange things in the forest near our house and he needed to talk to the chief,” he said, getting out of the car. He opened my door for me even though I was perfectly capable of doing it myself, and continued, “We thought it would be easier this way.”

I stood up and Edward closed and locked the door behind me. “What do you mean, strange things?” I asked as we headed towards the theater, where a few people stood around waiting to see if there were any extra seats.

“Well, we live on the edge of town in the forest. During the hunting season, people will come close by trying to catch game. My brother found a huge stag dead near our house recently, so we think there may be… People hunting out of season.”

Nodding, I watched as Edward slid his hands into his pockets to get his ticket. He was wearing pristine full-length white gloves instead of usual ratty motorcycle ones, which I was surprised to see. I couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t worn the black ones. I noticed he had dressed up more than just his gloves, wearing a long black trenchcoat over a grey vest and a clean pressed white button up. What a very stark contrast to the t-shirts and cuffed jeans he wore to school when he came.

We stood in line in silence, and I blew into my hands to stay warm. Edward seemed fine, and I envied his comfort. Just before we reached the ticketbox, I felt hands on my shoulders and I spun around.

“Hey, you made it!” said Jacob, flanked by his sister. She had the same clear, olive skin as he did, and even their long black hair was similar. There was an obvious difference in their styles, however, as Jacob had shown up in what must have been his nicest pair of black jeans and a blue button up, while his sister wore a beautiful red dress and heels. She was also a bit shorter than me, which made Edward the tallest one in the group by far.

“This is Rachel!” he continued, motioning to his sister. “She’s here for a few weeks to help with our dad. Rachel, this is Bella, and that’s Edward.”

“Hello,” she said, smiling and shaking my hand. She reached for Edward’s and he did the same, then put his hands in his pockets again.

"Great to see you, man!" Jacob said to Edward, grinning. "It's been a while, huh?"

"Just a few months," Edward shrugged. He tried to keep his composure, but ended up breaking into a smile.

"I wish we still had the same lunch, it sucks that they change the periods like that."

"I agree. It's been lonely."

"Isn't Bella keeping you company?" Jacob turned to me, and I tensed up, smiling sheepishly. I hadn't sat with him at lunch even once.

"Uh, well we only have a couple classes together, so..." I trailed off.

Jake ruffled my hair, and I rushed to fix it, "My friends are your friends!"

Edward shook his head, "No worries, Jacob. I'm used to it."

Now I felt crestfallen. He was just pitiful. I should have made an effort to get to know him more instead of going around him and asking other people. From our car ride I deemed he wasn’t too bad. Unpredictable, but not bad. “Maybe we can go off campus sometime,” I offered with a smile.

Jacob perked up, “There you go! You guys are gonna get along great, then we can be real three musketeers.”

I covered my face with my hands, “Jake, please.”

“Hey kiddos,” I heard Rachel say. “Let’s go.”

Putting my hands down, I nodded and we entered the line that snaked into the building. Rachel hadn’t said much, and I wondered if she wanted to be here in the first place. Come to think of it, Jacob didn’t seem like a Sweeney Todd person either. Edward was eager enough to watch, but he seemed to like anything artistic anyway. Regardless, I didn’t mind much myself.

“Oh, and Bella,” Jacob said as it was our turn to go into the theater. I handed the usher my ticket and he continued, “I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you I wasn’t picking you up. It was kinda sudden, but I guess it worked out. Edward got you here in once piece!”

“Yeah, barely,” I muttered, elbowing Edward in the ribs.

Handing us back our tickets, the usher said, “Welcome.” Then, Edward scoffed and walked ahead of us into the theater.

I smiled to him, disregarding the short haired man. I still was confused about how the Cullens and Jacob were in contact, since I remembered him saying that they’d never exchanged numbers, but I pushed it out of my mind as we found our seats. Rachel and Jacob filed in first, and I moved to let Edward in next so he could sit by Jacob. He hesitated, holding out his hand for me to sit down first. I raised an eyebrow at him, but all he said was:

"After you."

With a subtle smile, he laid a gentle hand on my shoulder and guided me into my seat. Edward took off his long coat as I sat down and he draped it across his lap, placing his hands upon it. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, but Jacob caught my attention not a moment later and began talking again.

“How’s everything going, Edward?” he said, leaning forward to see him across from me. That was why I wanted him to sit where I was! Frustration boiled inside of me, and I leaned back to listen.

“Ah, well, things have been going just fine for me. Nothing out of the ordinary,” he answered while adjusting his sleeve cuffs. “How’s your father doing?”

“Yeah? That’s good, that’s good. My dad’s fine, Doc treats him real well. We’re thankful for that.” He fiddled with his hands for a second before continuing, “I uh, I heard you guys, you had some trouble getting your brother to come to school this year?”

My gaze flicked over to Rachel, who met my eyes. I frowned, motioning with my head to Jacob, and she shrugged. It was unlike him to be so… Nervous.

“That’s strange,” Edward said, looking up and moving forward. “You must mean my brother Ruben?”

“Yeah, yeah him. I just, I heard he just started this semester.”

“My mother and father home schooled him for a while to get him acclimated to the country first,” said Edward in a casual manner. “He’s from Russia. He’s been no trouble at all; it’s very reasonable for him to have a bit of a grace period to get settled, yes?”

“Yeah, course. Your father’s really generous,” Jacob said slowly, retreating back into his seat. Edward followed his lead and relaxed too, a smug expression on his face.

I turned to him, quizzical. “You have a brother at our school?”

“I do. My father was contacted last year about a boy who’d lost both of his parents in an accident, so we welcomed him into our family.”

I remembered seeing a boy with Edward when we first met, but until now I never had any idea they’d known each other. “Does he get calls like that a lot? He must be pretty well known or something for someone across the world to call him up specifically.”

“Uh, well,” Edward frowned. “He worked at a hospital in Russia a while back. He’s originally from London, you know, and he’s traveled quite a lot, so from time to time he’ll hear from someone about something tragic that has happened… And we… We decide as a family whether or not the kid will have a chance without us.”

I raised my eyebrows, “You dad’s English? He doesn’t have an accent.”

“He… Does. It’s slight. Like I said, he moved around a lot.” He put his hand to his mouth, pressing his thumb to his lips in a nervous manner. His upper lip lifted up from the motion of his breathing and I noticed his canines were humongous. I hadn’t seen them when he spoke, and I might never have if I hadn’t been staring at him right then. Maybe Dr. Cullen had found him living with the wolves. I could imagine him tearing apart deer with teeth like that, god that’d be disgusting, how could anyone ever -

He flicked his eyes down to look at me and I ripped my gaze away from him, pulling off my coat and shoving it into the space next to me. “How many other siblings do you have, then?” I changed the subject as fast as I could to avoid confrontation. Anyway, from Rosalie to Alice and now Ruben, I felt like Dr. Cullen’s adoptions were almost a hobby.

“It’s us two boys and my two sisters, that is all. It’s a rather large family for the area, but Alice lives on her own most of the time. She just happened to be in town earlier and we enjoy each other’s company.”

That was more reasonable than I had expected. “Oh,” I said, nodding, glad that he hadn’t questioned why I was looking at him. “That makes sense.”

“It sure does. Now hush, the play is starting,” whispered Edward, who sat up straight in his seat and stared at the stage eagerly. I wanted to ask him more questions but I refrained, as I too was excited to watch the story unfold.