Twilight - Fire & Ice

Dates

"Will you go out with me, Sophia?" Benedict asked me.

I stared, waiting for him to say something along the lines of just kidding, or psyche! But he looked as serious as my dad on game day.

I frowned. "You... you are serious?"

Benedict narrowed his eyes, his lips thinning as he nodded his head, slowly. "Why would you think I wasn't?" His tone was hard.

I held his gaze, my brow furrowing, slightly. "Are you serious? Ben, I just woke up from a coma and am barely on my feet, yet you are asking me out on a date." I smirked. "How can you not think I would assume you were joking."

"Hmmm. It may have slipped my mind."

"Ha!" I threw my head back as I laughed manically. "How on earth can you forget something like that. I mean, look at me!" I guestured at myself with my hands. "I look like s**t, Ben. I'm so pasty, I could almost pass as my sister."

He inched towards me, very slowly he tucked my hair behind my ear, causing me to blush.

"Uh..." I could feel the warmth in my cheeks from my blush. I imagined my cheeks a fire engine red shade.

Then my eyes lifted to his face. His eyes were a beautiful golden honey color. It was warm to me. As I stared into his eyes I saw his pupils slowly begin to dilate. My mouth popped open in a 'o' shape. I knew, from all my Cosmopolitan magazines, that when a mans eyes dilated while he was looking at a woman, it was because he was deeply attracted to her. Ben was attracted to me.

"Why me?" I blurted out loud. I had meant to think it to myself but it slipped out before I could stop it.

"Because, you are different. You are real, you speak your mind and you throw a pretty awesome right hook." He chuckled at that last.

I remembered the fight in the parking lot with the girl who had crossed me.

"You were there?" I grinned.

Ben shrugged his shoulders, nonchalantly. "Maybe, maybe not. Thing is, since the first day I met you-"

I frowned at the thought of showing up at their back door.

Ben must have caught on to my thought cause he quickly added, "Officially, at school." This lightened me slightly. "You've driven me mad. I've never been attracted to a girl, in my life, like I am to you."

I took a leaf out of my sisters book, and bit my lip.

"Go out with me, Sophia." He said to me.

He seemed genuine. He had good taste in clothes and a sense of fashion. He had potential as a future husband - not like I was thinking on those terms - but wasn't that what dating was? In the old days it was called courting. A man would ask to court a women with the intentions of giving her his last name.

I wasn't into that. I was interested in clothes, fashion, doing my hair and ....

"Sophia?"

I hadn't realized I had spaced out.

"Yes?"

"So you will?"

"Will what?"

"Go out with me?"

I felt my heart drop to my butt. "Jesus Christ, no." I paused, taking a breath to relax. "I mean, no. Not now." I pulled myself to my feet, using the rail for the stairs as a support. The foot of space that seperated us suddenly felt too small. "You, um. There are lots of girls, pretty girls, at Forks. Pick one of them." I added as I slowly made my way down the steps.

When I got to the bottom I was winded. My heart was beating fast and I was so exhausted. My legs felt so weak. I felt weak.

I closed my eyes and took another deep breath.

Come on, Sophia! How are you going to go back to school if you can barely make it down four damn steps. It's all in your mind. You are just... you are just acting stupid. You got this. Now move! Prove to yourself that you aren't pathetic. MOVE!

I opened my eyes and pushed myself into a straighter stance. Once I felt like I had my balance I let go of the railing. I wobbled slightly, for a few seconds.

This is it. You are almost there. Now move. Take a step. Lift your feet and take a damn step.

I lifted my leg and moved it forward to take a step. I had thought I lifted my leg high enough to clear the ground when I moved forward but I didn't. My foot caught and I tripped, falling the ground racing forward to meet my face.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact but it never came. When I opened my eyes again I realized I was in Ben's arms. He had caught me.

"You shouldn't push yourself. You are just going to wear yourself out." He said as he eased me back onto the steps.

"I need to walk. I need to get back on my feet so I can return to school. I've missed three months of classes. I probably have an F. How am I supposed to get into a decent college with an F!" I was fuming at the thought of me not being able to graduate because of flunking all my classes.

"You don't need to worry about that. My father told the school that you were under his private care and unable to attend school so they have been sending your work home."

"I've been in a coma for three months. How the heck was I supposed to do that work while I was all but dead." I replied in a dull tone.

"I know. And I've been doing your work for you. It was a bit of a challenge, mimicking your hand writing but I managed and right now your grades are all A's."

I rose my head to look at him. He grinned, nervously.

"Really? You've been doing it all for me?" He nodded his head. "Thank you."

Now I felt like I owed him. As I looked around at their yard and then glanced over my shoulder at their house, I couldn't think of anything I could give him that he couldn't just buy himself if he already didn't have it.

Except... me. He wanted to date me.

"If you manage to convince your dad to let me out for the night, do you want to maybe go out to eat or see a movie? My treat." I offered, shyly.

He tilted his head to the side, eyeing me. "Is it a date?" he asked. I could hear the hope in his voice.

I pursed my lips. Then I shook my head.

"Then what is it?" He pressed.

I allowed myself to look into his beautiful eyes. "It's just two friends, hanging out and enjoying each others company. Maybe getting to know one another with the prospect of one friend possibly learning something about the other that could lead to a connection in which a date would be more appropriate." I forced a small smile.

"So, basically, you are dating me to see if you want to date me?" He seemed to confuse himself at his own question.

"Not exactly. Dating is for two people who are fond of one another. The fondness eventually grows to love. But what is love without friendship? If I am going to allow myself to love someone, I'd want it to be with someone who I can enjoy as a friend first. I want my first love to be my only love and I want it to last longer than my parents did."

"Why did they divorce?" He asked me.

"It doesn't matter, does it?" I replied.

After my response I sat in silence and stared at the shrubs in the front yard. I had a lot to think on, with eventually returning to school, seeing my friends and worrying about whether I would be able to cover up my scars so I could wear my clothes.

Around half an hour more had passed by before they came to get me so I could eat. I felt embarassed as Emmett lifted me into his arms and carried me inside and into the living room.

When he sat me on the couch, Esme sat a tray on my lap that had a bowl of soup, crackers, a small bowl of mixed fruit and a large glass of juice.

I thanked her and ate in silence. I had just finished my soup when Carlisle joined me, sitting in a chair opposite me.

"Hi." I greeted.

"Let's cut to the chase, shall we?"

I looked at him, confused to what he was getting at.

"You want to know when you can return to school, am I right?" He asked.

I gave a quick nod. "Please!"

"I would like to put you on some monitors after you finish eating so I can make sure your levels stay steady. If everything looks good in the morning then I will allow it. Under one condition."

"I really don't care about the conditions. Whatever it is, I will do it as long as I can go back to school."

I knew what the condition was before he spoke. A wheelchair. And when he went into detail on the condition that only confirmed it.

I wasn't a big fan of the thought of being at ass-level to everyone but it was that or nothing. I just needed social interaction. I hadn't text anyone, seen my friends, been on f*******: or blogged anything for the past three months.

After Carlisle had finished talking to me about the tests and therapy he was going to have me doing in the near future, he left me to eat.

"So about tonight-" Ben began.

It had almost slipped my mind that I offered to go out with Ben tonight. I turned to look at the clock on the wall. It was just about 3pm meaning my sister would be just about to get out of school. Speaking of school.

"Hey, why aren't you and your siblings in school today?" I asked. They didn't strike me as the type that ditched. Let alone their parents didn't seem like the type that would allow it.

Ben didn't hesitate on his response. "My brother Emmett caught a bug and passed it to the rest of us. It is out of our systems but still considered contagious for the next couple days."

"Oh, well, it is a good thing you have a father for a doctor."

He nodded his head. "Yeah, a really good thing. I mean, he saved you."

"More than once." I said as I began nibbling on a cracker.

Ben chuckled. "We really need to stop meeting like this."

I was lifting a grape to my mouth when I froze. Hesitating. "Yeah, I didn't exactly plan on this. I guess I just have a nack of-"

"Almost dying, falling over stuff, getting yourself in grave peril." He smirked.

"No." I said sharply. "I was going to say, I have a knack of finding myself in trouble or getting hurt whenever my sister is around. I'm fine when I am alone. But the second something comes up that involved the two of us, it's like disaster strikes."

"Are you sure it isn't just a coincidence, that these things happen?" He asked me.

I looked him dead in the eye. "Ever since we were little kids. It is like she is a magnet for bad luck and I'm a paper clip that gets caught in the middle."

"Really? How did the forest thing happen?" He asked, curiously.

I sat deeper into the couch. "She told me to go and find wood to burn. I went looking and-" I paused, not wanting to think of memories.

"And the broken leg? How did she cause that?"

"I had waken up in the middle of the night and went to climb in bed with her because I didn't want to sleep alone. Because she wakes up an hour after I do, I was running late and rushed down stairs. I landed on my ankle the wrong way, doing so."

"And the injury that put you in the coma?"

"She was trying to help me up the stairs."

I watched as Ben grabbed at the back of his neck. "Sounds like you may be right."

Of course I was right. Those were only the most recent events of her bad luck. I had seveal, the earliest when we were just 2. I loved my sister but life took a turn of the worst everytime she was around.