"I have a suggestion." He said. "Why don't you start at the beginning... you said you didn't come up with this on your own."
I sighed. "No."
"What got you started—a book? A movie?" He probed.
I looked at him with a glint of irritation in my eyes. "No—it was Saturday, at the beach. It was sunny that day... that was a really nice day." Realizing I was getting caught up in reminiscing about something that wasn't even that good, I glanced up at his face. He looked puzzled.
"What were you doing at the beach?" He asked, as though he couldn't possibly fathom why I would go the beach.
"I told Mike I would go on his little trip, and so I kept my promise and went."
"Oh." He sounded hurt.
"I tried to invite you." I reminded him.
"Oh, yeah." He perked up a bit.
"Anyway, I ran into an old family friend—Squaw Black," I continued. "His dad and Charlie have been friends since I was a baby."
He still looked confused, like he didn't know what a baby was.202
"His dad is one of the Quaalude elders." I watched him carefully. His confused expression froze in place. "We went for a walk together down the beach. It really was a nice day. I totally used Squaw to make Mike feel jealous. It worked so well, oh man." One look at his face told me to leave my flirting conquests out of this story. "And he was telling me some old legends—trying to scare me, I think. Probably so that he could hold me. He told me one... " I hesitated.
"Go on," commanded Fredward with a crooked, confused smile.
"About vampires," I realized I was whispering. I couldn't look at his face now. But I saw his knuckles tighten convulsively on the wheel.
"And you immediately thought of me?" Still calm.
"No. He... mentioned your family. Your beautiful sisters, and bison brothers. Your extremely handsome young father. He mentioned them, Fredward."
He silently stared at the road in front of him, presumably wondering where it would lead.
"He just thought it was a silly Indian superstition," I said quickly. "He didn't expect me to think anything of it, much less go blabbing it to the very person—the very vampire—that the stories were about." It didn't seem like enough; I had to confess. "It was my fault. I told him I would show him my boobs if he told me."
Fredward took his eyes off the road for a quick second to look at my chest. "Bella," he began in a whisper. "This is hard to say, but you don't really have any boobs."
I was offended. "Well, he wanted to see my nipples." I shot back. I was hurt. What did Fredward know about boobs?
"Bella, the real question is why did you bribe him to tell you about me? What made you think that I might be a vampire? How did you... know?" He stared once more into the road ahead of him. What would our future hold?
"Lauren said something about you—she was trying to provoke me. That lesbian is just mad that her boyfriend wants to put his penis inside me. Anyway, an older boy from the tribe said your
202. It has been a very long time since Fredward was a baby.