Chapter 36 - "I Like To See Bella Happy..."

"Oh, sorry!" Ethan said, turning around.

"It's okay, Ethan!" Alice replied, seriously.

"Oh, Alice! Hi! You didn't even talk to me on the bus today!". Ethan said, with a gentle smile.

"Yes...". Alice said, ungraciously.

"Is everything okay?". Ethan asked, a little worried about Alice.

"Yes, it is!". She answered. "I need to see what the teacher is talking about. Excuse me, Ethan!" Alice turned her body away from Ethan and walked forward, going to the other side of the study, near her brothers, who were staring at her with bad expressions on their faces.

Ethan stared at her for a few seconds, dismayed and confused by her reaction.

- Why is she doing this now? I didn't do anything! - Ethan thought, confused.

He began to walk through the greenhouse with the other students, a little away from his friends. Ethan didn't feel like he was in the mood for fun anymore. The two girls he liked didn't want to talk to him, and one of them, he didn't even know why.

Ethan started running his fingers through the plants, trying to distract himself a little, ignoring that the teacher had asked them not to do that. He could feel the different textures of each plant. Some were very soft and some were very rough, each a different shade of color.

Until suddenly Ethan felt a small thorn enters his finger.

"There!" Ethan said loudly. He quickly took his hand off the leaf and held his finger with his other hand, trying to make the pain stop, but that only caused a few drops of blood to run down his finger, dripping onto the ground.

At the same moment that the drop came off his finger, Alice, Edward, and Jasper looked in Ethan's direction, staring at the bright red blood dripping from his finger.

The brothers looked at each other in confusion. Ethan looked at Jasper, who looked like he was going to jump on Ethan's neck at any moment. Then Alice pulled Jasper out of the greenhouse, pulling him away from Ethan.

"I told you not to touch the plants!". Mr. Molina approached Ethan with a bandage. "I just won't take a grade from you because you helped me in the compost bin, Ethan!". The teacher said, pulling Ethan's finger close to him and putting alcohol on it to clean it.

Ethan felt the burning on his finger, but it was nothing unbearable. He looked at Edward, who kept staring at him with a cold stare. It was as if Ethan was a monster, which was kind of hypocritical of Edward, since he had such a problem with people thinking that about him.

"Sorry, Mr. Molina! It's just that I thought the plant was cute!". Ethan said, smiling at the teacher, trying to lighten the mood.

"You can go to the bus, Ethan!". Mister Molina said, with a laugh, as he listened to what Ethan spoke.

Ethan came out of the greenhouse and saw Alice standing next to Jasper, talking. They seemed to be arguing about some important matter, but when they saw Ethan leaving the greenhouse, they were quiet immediately, just following him with their gaze until Ethan got on the bus.

As soon as Ethan sat down, he saw Alice and Jasper returning to the greenhouse.

A while later, the students were getting back on the bus, getting ready to leave. Ethan saw Edward approach Bella, who was standing near Ethan's seat window.

"Bella, we can't be friends!". Edward said, approaching Bella.

"I should have said that a little earlier.". Bella said, irritated. "Why didn't you let the van blow me away to save yourself so much regret? Ethan is not that way with me!". Bella completed, irritated.

- Don't get me into this, Bella! - Ethan's eyes widened, hearing that, and he lowered himself into the seat, trying to keep Edward from seeing him and getting even angrier with Ethan.

"Ethan's not sorry? Will you stop talking about this guy?" Edward said, irritated.

"He's not looking at me weird or ignoring me!". Bella said, raising her voice.

"Do you think I regret doing that?". Edward said, moving closer to her, trying to get her to keep her voice down.

"I can see that you do, I just... I don't know why." Bella said, looking deep into his eyes, frustrated.

"You don't know anything!" Edward replied, seriously.

"Get on the buses, we have to leave!". Mister Molina started yelling for the students to go right away.

Edward turned and walked towards the bus opposite Ethan's, leaving Bella standing alone.

- So he's pulling away from Bella too... Maybe the problem isn't me, they just don't want to talk about being vampires! - Ethan thought, making everything clearer in his head.

Bella gets on the bus and Ethan sees her approaching him, kind of sad.

"Can I sit here?" Bella asked, while Ethan still continued with his body lying on the seat, so that Edward doesn't see him.

"Oh yeah, sure! Yes you can!". Ethan settled himself on the seat, letting Bella sit down next to him.

"How's your arm?" She asked, pointing to Ethan's bandaged arm.

"Oh, my finger hurts worse than my arm right now! Ethan said laughing.

"You're too clumsy!" Bella said, pulling her headphones out of her blouse pocket.

"Ethan, can I ask you something?". Bella said, looking at Ethan.

"Hm... You may! What is it?". Ethan asked, also taking his headphones out of his pocket.

"Do you think I'm going crazy?". She asked him, seriously.

"Why would I think that, Bella?". Ethan asked.

"Well, you and Edward are making me confused. I saw you two holding that car. Why don't you tell me what's going on? She said, inquiring.

"I think I had an adrenaline rush! Ethan answered, without much expression.

"See, Edward said the exact same thing!" Bella said, discredited.

"But that could have happened to him too, right? Like, I really hurt myself with that, it's not like we have superpowers or anything.". Ethan laughed.

"But you guys would crumple up just the same. Do you think I'm dumb?". Bella asked, a little annoyed.

"Hey, I didn't say that!". Ethan said, widening his eyes, trying to calm Bella down. "I'm just saying that I don't know what happens either... And that I sure as hell don't have any powers!". He completed, as he watched Jessica get on the bus, noticing that Bella was sitting next to him and ducking her head.

Bella turned forward, reflecting on what Ethan had said, but with a sad expression on her face. She put on her headphones and remained quiet.

"What are you listening to?" Ethan asked, nudging Bella, wanting to cheer her up.

"Oh, it's no big deal. Want to hear?" She said, handing him the headset.

"Are you listening to classical music?" He asked, wondering about that.

"Yeah, why?" Bella said, laughing softly.

"Look, I know you like oldies, but I don't think this music will cheer you up! Ethan said, putting a song on his cell phone.

"No, I'm fine! I'll just be quiet and it'll pass. Bella said, going to put on the other phone.

"Go Bella, trust me! Listen a little bit!". Ethan said, handing one side of his earpiece to her.

Bella put the headset in her ear and then, the song 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' started playing.

Ethan began to sing the words of the song, while looking at Bella. He began to move his arms around, trying to give her a seated performance. Bella turned red with embarrassment and started to laugh.

Ethan began to hold an imaginary microphone as he sang and point the microphone at Bella, causing her to sing along with him as they both laughed.

Ethan was happy to see Bella laughing, a little more excited than usual. He knew she had a good heart, he just didn't have anyone who understood her enough.

Looking out the window as Bella sang the song, Ethan saw Edward staring out the window. He seemed a little annoyed with Ethan, but soon stopped staring. Ethan just shrugged and continued to sing with Bella.

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