Twilight - Fire & Ice

Eyes on me

That night I lay in bed trying to sleep without success. The whole lesbian thing stuck to my mind and I kept wondering if it was indeed true or if I just wanted to get dad off my back about the whole boy situation. The only reason I wasn't one hundred percent confident was because he was continuously on my mind.

Something about Ben held my attention. We didn't talk or interact as much as Alice and I did but he was different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though. It bothered me more than anything since we didn't really know each other. How could someone you didn't know draw you in like he did me.

I was too restless now to sleep, I needed to walk. I needed to breath.

Getting out of bed I went into my closet and changed into my blue track suit and my tan uggs before I grabbed my ipod and earphones and went outside. Something was luring me into the forest or maybe it was just a curiosity.

I knew Benedicts home was a few miles to the east of our house and we basically shared backyards. I wanted to see him, maybe talk to him. I needed to understand why I felt the way I did when I thought about him.

Standing at the edge of the forest I stared inside, remembering the incident that almost took my life. Did I dare risk everything to go inside?

"You are stupid Sophia, so stupid. You almost died in there yet you want to go back in." I said to myself.

"I agree."

Turning around I gasped as Jackson towered above me.

"Oh my gosh," I gasped, my heart racing and breath coming out in short pants. "You scared me, what are you doing here?"

He glanced over my head and I turned instinctively to see what grabbed his attention. There was nothing there, nothing but trees. Looking back at Jackson my face fell as he was still looking into the forest.

What was he looking at. From what I could see there was nothing there... at least from what I could see.

Suddenly the hairs on my arms rose, something wasn't right.

I turned my entire body towards the woods just intime to see Benedict walking towards us.

"What are you doing here?" Jackson snapped. "You are tresspassing."

The corner of Bens mouth quirked upwards. "Did she know you were here too?" he asked.

"Actually, no I didn't." I admitted.

"Exactly, so you are tresspassing too, Darkness." Ben replied, bitterly.

"Forget the tresspassing bullshit, what the hell are you guys doing in my backyard so late?" I snapped.

Maybe this was the reason I was so curious about Ben. He was a weirdo, a freak that crept into peoples backyards late at night.

"Well, we do share the same forest as a backyard."

"Yeah I kinda figured that once I wound up at your house the other day. But you shouldn't walk by yourself in the dark you could get mauled by an animal."

Benedict smirked as he glanced over his shoulder at the darkness of the forest. "I don't think the animals will bother me, if they want to live that is. Anyways I am sorry for bothering you, see you at school." He winked at me before turning and walking back into the dark forest.

Jackson scoffed. "What a total freak."

I placed my hands on my hips, still staring into the forest. "Everyone is a freak."

"Yeah but there is normal freak and Cullen freak." he said before throwing his arm over my shoulder. "You and I are normal freaks."

I shrugged away from his shoulder, rolling my eyes. "You, normal?" My eyesbrows rose up at him. "No, there is no way you are normal."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I watched you grow up and go through awkward buck tooth, chubby bunny phases. Remember Jack-Jack." I teased.

"Take that back." He growled.

"Or what?" I challenged.

Without a word he lifted me and slung me over his shoulder before he marched off towards the house. With every step up the stairs to my balcony I bounced on his tight muscled shoulder uncomfortably.

"Ouch!" I hissed quietly. "Put me down you fool!" I smacked his back but he didn't even seem to be phased by it.

I heard the balcony door open and then we were in my room. I continued smacking his shoulder but the only thing he did was laugh.

"Don't wear yourself out princess." He teased before dropping me onto my bed.

I bounced one and then pushed myself into a sitting position. Crossing my legs indian style I looked at him, my eyes wide from curiosity.

"Why don't your family like the Cullens?" I asked, finally bringing up the unfinished conversation from the night of the bon fire.

Jackson took a seat beside me and stared at his hand before a few seconds. Taking a deep breath he began to speak. "Our families are like the Capulets and Montagues." He began.

"Wow." I rolled my eyes at him. "Did you really just analogize Romeo and Juliet."

"Fine... Our families are like the Hatfields and Mccoys. Better?" he grinned.

I nodded my head. "So basically your families are old time rivals and you are bickering for something that doesn't concern you just so you can have something to bicker about?"

"Come on now, it isn't like that. I just don't know how to explain it any other way."

"Either way you put it, still sounds stupid to me." I mocked.

"Yeah, I agree." he paused for a minute before his somber expression grew amused. "So guess who Jacob likes."

"Me?" My forehead scrunched up in disgust at the idea.

"Bella, Jake likes your sister."

I put my hand over my mouth to muffle a laugh. "No way. Jake likes Bella?"

"Exactly, I heard him talking to himself in the mirror this evening. He was practicing on asking your sister out. Then I walked in on him kissing his hand."

"Omg, I can't believe this. I mean he grew up with us so he has seen all of Bella's embarrassing moments. They even made mud pies and played doctor with each other. I just don't get it. I mean kissing her." I stuck my tongue out.

It took me a few seconds before I realized Jackson was staring at me. Not just staring casually but like maybe he wanted something but was too shy to say anything.

"What?"

"I don't know. Maybe Jake is onto something."

"Wait... so you are saying you want to kiss me?" I rose one eyebrow at him.

"Truthfully, yes I've wanted to kiss you for a while now. I just don't want to ruin our friendship, I mean we have a good thing going here."

I stared at him, a mixture of feelings roaming through me all at once. Curiosity, concern, preregret, embarassment, surprise, uncertainty.

"I don't think it will change anything because I've never been attracted to a guy like that before."

"You mean you've never kissed anyone before?" He asked in complete disbelief.

"You seem shocked."

"Of course I am, I mean you are beautiful and you have a great personality." he replied.

I took a deep breath and looked away as I began to blush. It was weird having him compliment me, it made me feel as awkward as I did when my father or mother did it.

"I think your compliments to me are null because you grew up with me. It's sort of like a mother's love, its unconditional."

"Fine then, big mouth." He snapped before he grabbed me and pressed his lips to mine.

I stared at his eyelids as his lips moved against mine. For a few seconds I felt nothing but shock but then my stomach began doing flip flops. I closed my eyes and began kissing him back. His lips were thick, moist and soft. They were enjoyable.

Several things ran through my mind, the forest, bon fires, snowfall. Basically my ideal of happiness. Then a blurred face flicked through, staying for only a second before it disappeared. More snow, trees, bon fires. Then another face only I saw it clearly this time. It was Benedict.

I drew in a deep breath and pulled away, rising from the bed in a jolt. Without delay I began pacing back and forth before I stopped and looked at him. Biting my lip I turned and looked over my shoulder at the door to my balcony.

"I think you should leave." I whispered. Walking over to the balcony door I opened it and stood back.

"Sophia I am sorry I didn't mean to offend you." Jackson apologized as he walked towards me.

He reached out to hug me but I took a step back.

"Soph?"

I looked at my feet. "I'm sorry I am just trying to figure things out, but until then you and I should forget that kiss ever happened." Lifting my eyes I made contact with him. His expression was wounded. "For now." I added.

Jackson left without another word and then I closed the door and locked it behind him. I didn't take my time getting back into my bed but unfortunately it took over half an hour to get to sleep.

Halfway during the night I woke up. Within seconds, something felt completely wrong to me. I didn't know what it was but some part of me shouted at me to get up.

Slipping from my bed I grabbed my house coat and put it on. Then I walked quickly to the balcony door and peered out the glass panes. The yard was dark and empty from what I could see but I felt like someone was out there watching me.

I had seen one scary movie in my life but even those 90 minutes taught me that if you felt like you were being watched you probably were. Also you should never investigate a weird noise outside.

Though there wasn't any weird sounds I still felt like I was breaking one of those 'horror movie survival' rules as I opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony. Inhaling deeply I looked to the left and then to the right before I peered out into the yard as far as I could see.

A breeze blew causing goosebumps to rise on my arms.

Gasping I turned to look over my shoulder as I thought I felt someone behind me only no one was there. I felt a presence, like someone was standing right there with me. Maybe I was going crazy or I was letting my imagination get the best of me. Either way I felt scared.

Going back inside I closed the door and locked it again. As I looked around my dark bedroom I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get back to sleep after this tonight.

When I was a little girl and Bella and I stayed at dads and I had nightmares I would go and climb in his bed. As I got older I just woke up Bella and talked to her until I fell back asleep. Now that we have own rooms I couldn't just turn over and feel safe. I needed to walk up another flight of stairs and go into her bedroom.

Grabbing my duvet I wrapped it around myself and went into the hall before I climbed the stairs to the third floor. Every step I climbed seemed to creaked loudy, causing the hairs on my arms to rise. I was a quarter way there when I felt like something was about behind me and took off running up the remainder of the steps.

The hallway seemed longer than it did when there was light but I didn't stop running until I was at Bella's door. Taking several deep breaths I reached out for the door knob and turned it allowing the door to open.

That's when I saw it. A tall silhouette stood at the food of Bella's bed. I knew it wasn't her because of the height and the masculin build. That's when my heart dropped, I could hear the blood pounding in my ears.

"DADDY!" I screamed as loud as I could.

In that half second that I had closed my eyes to scream the silhouette disappeared. I screamed again when I realized I didn't know where he went and woke up Bella who jumped to her feet. Several loud footsteps were heard from my fathers room before the door opened and he came into the hall holding his gun aloft.

"Sophia?" He panted.

Bella came into the hall and turned on the light. I dropped to my knees, shaking from fear, tears streaming down my face.

"Sophia?" Bella whispered to me as she got down on my level.

I looked up at my father, pointing towards the end of Bella's bed. "Th-th-there wa-was a ma-man standing there. I saw it. I-I.... I saw it."

My father pushed past my sister and I, entering her bedroom and turned on the lights. I watched from my sisters arms as he did a clean sweep, checking the closet, under the bed, behind the dress and a few other rediculous places before he loosened the grip on his gun.

"There is no one there." He confided in me.

"She was probably just having a nightmare dad." Bella said as she helped me to my feet.

I shook my head. "No I wasn't. I swear, there was someone there."

"Are you sure you weren't having another nightmare Sophia?" My father asked me.

I sighed, slghtly annoyed that they were questioning me. "I woke up, not from a nightmare, and felt like something was wrong. I looked outside and felt like someone was watching me and then I went to go back to bed only I was feeling uncomfortable so I went upstairs to lay down with Bella but when I opened her door there was a tall silhouette standing at the end of her bed. When I screamed he disappeared."

"Do you hear what you are saying? Your mind conjured that image because of fear. There is no way a tall man could just disappear in seconds without making alot of noise. It was just a figment of your imagination, thats all." My dad reassured me.

"Good night dad." Bella said to dad before she turned to me. "Come on Sophia, lets go to bed." Bella said as she pulled me into her bedroom and closed the door behind us. "Lights on or off?" She asked me.

"I don't care." I snapped bitterly as I walked over to the bed and climbed into it.

I turned over onto my side and stared at the wall. I was frustrated that they didn't believe me. I felt like a fool, like they still saw me as the weak girl that I was growing up. I know what I saw. Even though it didn't make sense, even to me, I know I saw it. Only how....