Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or any related characters.

Chapter One:
Bella's POV
The bell for 4th period had just sounded. This was my lunch period. I usually ju
st spent the hour in the library far away from the cafeteria and the "popular" k
ids as possible. Today was my unlucky day as the library was closed and it was p
ouring rain outside. I thought about eating in my truck but I'd forgotten my lun
ch at home and realized one day in the cafeteria couldn't be that bad. It was a
new year after all and I was finally a Senior. I had been lucky the last year an
d a half if you could really call it that, nothing more than invisible, even the
rumors had died down now, and everyone just thought of me as a nerdy loner inst
ead of that girl. That's the way I like it, I could focus on my grades and getti
ng into a good college. Today on the other hand, I didn't get by so easily. A co
uple of boys were passing the football back and forth to each other in the hallw
ay, and of course since I am a magnet for things like balls in the face I tried
to duck out of the way. Of course that only landed me face first into someone's
locker door. Of course it was Lauren Mallory's.
"Watch it you ugly bitch" Jessica sneered as she stood next to Lauren. I haven't
had a run in with them in since the middle of Sophomore year, right after it ha
ppened. I still can't believe that my best friend would take his side, that was
the darkest night of my life.
Mr. Greene stopped me as a was heading out to my truck after school. "Miss Swan,
would you be interested in peer tutoring after school? We are are in need of a
couple of tutors this year. No one has really signed up yet, and with your grade
s I thought you could help us out?" He sounded hopefull but could tell that I wa
sn't that excited about it. "It would really look good on college applications."
Of course he had to throw that one in. I knew he was right and I needed all the
help I could get, not in the grade department but having outside activities. I
wasn't into sports and needed something. I was hoping for a scholarship somewher
e so I could afford to actually go to college.
"I suppose so" I said. Mr. Greene looked pleased as he handed me some informatio
n. I drove home and was upstairs looking over what Mr. Greene had given me when
I heard the front door open.
"You home Bells?" I heard Charlie calling from downstairs.
"Yeah Dad, be down in a minute." I hadn't realized it was so late. "Sorry about
dinner, I lost track of time."
"No problem honey, listen we can just order pizza or something."
"Are you sure dad, I really don't mind fixing dinner." And I didn't, I really en
joyed cooking it was sort of any escape for me.
"I don't mind honey you deserve a night off. Why don't you go out tonight, you k
now hang out with some of your friends?"
"Um, you know dad I have a really big paper to do and I am kind of tired, I thin
k I will just go to bed early tonight." I said hoping that Charlie would just le
t it go. No such luck.
"Come on Bells, its Friday night go out, have some fun" Charlie tried to sound e
nthusiastic.
"Really Dad, I'm fine." I tried to sound as normal as possible but my voice crac
ked a little.
"You're always alone these days, I used to have to beg you to stay home and now
you never go out at all. Why don't you call Jessica? You two used to be joined a
t the hip and now I never see you with anyone"
"I know dad" I sighed
"Are you ever going to tell me what happened?"
"I already told you dad, it's nothing. Sometimes people just change." Just then
the doorbell rang; I looked out the window to see Harry Clearwater. "I am going
to go do my homework, good night dad."
"Goodnight Bells" he sighed.
EPOV
"No getting out of it Emmett!, a bet is a bet and you lost" I couldn't believe E
mmett fell for it again. "I told you I never make a bet unless I am sure I will
win, now pay up"
"Fine" Emmett handed me the money. We sat at our usual table, my two best friend
s Emmett who is also by brother, and Jasper and their girlfriends Rosalie and Al
ice. Alice was also in the family, our dads are brothers. That was one of the re
asons our family came to Forks last year.
"Hi Edward" Jessica Stanley said as she walked over to me with her lunch. "Hi Je
ssica" I said with a disinterested tone, that made her keep walking.
"Edward what's wrong with you man, she's hot!" Emmett said she he got a slap on
the head from Rosalie.
"Yeah but I already went out with her last year, why would I want a repeat perfo
rmance when I could have anyone I want?"
"Oh please Edward could you be anymore of a pig?" Alice said while glaring at me
.
"Alice I am not a pig, I just call em like I see em."
"You are so full of yourself! While most of the girls around here seem to be und
er your spell, there is no way you could have anyone you want. There has to be s
omeone out there smart enough to stay away from you." Rosalie sneered.
"Oh please, you just wish you could have some of this!" I said motioning to myse
lf. With that both Rosalie and Alice got up and left.
"You know she is right." Jasper finally spoke up. Before I knew what I was sayin
g I opened my mouth. "I bet you I could have anyone here begging for me." Right
then I looked up to see a sparkle in Emmett's eye.
"You're on, $500.00 says you can't."
I couldn't believe I had actually opened my big mouth. Hadn't I just said to Emm
ett that I didn't bet unless I was sure I could win? Ugh! Now what was I going t
o do? I knew I couldn't back down now, but at the same time I really was a littl
e unsure of myself, I mean sure most girls liked me, and I did date a lot, but n
ot for the reasons Emmett and Jasper think. Really I just never found anyone I w
as interested in having a relationship with even though that was something I rea
lly did want. Though I would never tell them that. They seem to admire my "playe
r" status much more than I did. But, I knew I had to do it because I really coul
dn't afford to pay the $500.00 I seemed to just bet on, not to mention I would n
ever hear the end of it.
"What are the rules?" I asked not really wanting to do this at all.
"Okay, we get to pick the girl and you have until the end of the semester to get
her in bed." Ugh! what did I just get myself into.
"Who then?"
"Um... I know, Bella Swan." Emmett just grinned and Jasper shook his head.
Chapter 2
EPOV
After I had made that stupid bet with Emmett and Jasper I had to try and figure
out what it is I was going to do. I couldn't really go through with this could I
? But I didn't have that kind of money either and there was no way Emmett would
let me out of this one after I made him pay each and every time.
Well what would be the harm in getting to know her? That wouldn't be too bad rig
ht? I mean she was really very pretty and seemed very nice even though I don't t
hink I have ever seen her talk to anyone. I didn't have any classes with her thi
s year. I needed to come up with a plan. Maybe we could become friends and this
would be something that she would want. Yeah right, but that was all I could com
e up with on such short notice.
When I got home from school I knew I had to find out more about Bella Swan. This
would be rather difficult since I didn't really see her outside of lunch. I kne
w asking Emmett or Jasper was out of the question so I decided to call Alice.
"Hey Edward" Alice had picked up on the 2nd ring. "Alice I need your help." I as
ked a little wary.
"Sure Edward, what do you need?" she asked. "Do you know anything about Bella Sw
an?" I asked her quietly not knowing what she would think.
"Well I don't know all that much other than she is in my biology class first per
iod, she is a little shy, doesn't really talk to anyone but she seems nice enoug
h. Why do you ask?"
"Thanks Alice" I said not answering her question and with that I hung up. Monday
I would get to school early and wait for Bella.
BPOV
"Bye Dad" I said as I was leaving for school not looking forward to what would b
e another boring Monday. When I had arrived I was early as usual so I sat down o
n one of the picnic benches waiting for the bell to ring. "Hello" I heard the mo
st beautiful voice say. I looked up to see Edward Cullen standing right in front
of me.
"Um.. Hi?" I said a little stunned, not only by the fact that he was clearly the
most gorgeous person I have ever seen but he was also talking to me. He chuckle
d a little. "I'm Edward Cullen"
"I know who you are" I said. Great Bella can you be anymore of an idiot. "Can I
walk you to class?" Edward said. He couldn't be serious; no one at this school e
ven bothers to talk to me anymore why would the most popular guy here waste his
time.
"Why?" I looked at him completely confused. "Well for one I happened to see the
most beautiful girl sitting all alone on a picnic bench and I couldn't believe m
y good fortune that I was the first one here to see you today." Well that didn't
make any sense what is he getting at I wondered to myself.
"Oh" was all I could manage. "So what do you say, can I walk you to class?" Edwa
rd had said without missing a beat. "I don't even know you" I muttered. "Well th
en I guess we will just have to fix that won't we?" I agreed and we started to h
ead inside as soon as the bell rang.
"You have Mr. Banner for Biology this period don't you?" Edward had asked. "How
did you know that?" I said completely dumbfounded.
"Well my Cousin Alice is in your class and she mentioned you were in the same on
e." Hmmm Edward Cullen was talking about me with his cousin. This has to be eith
er a dream or some sort of joke.
"You asked your cousin about me?" I finally spit out after staring at him blankl
y. "Well yes Isabella, I have seen you around school and since we don't have any
classes together I had to find someway to find out about you." Edward said with
the most beautiful crooked smile I have ever seen. I was at a loss for words an
d we were standing outside my class room now.
"Well thanks" I said. "My pleasure, hopefully I will be seeing you soon." With t
hat Edward Cullen winked at me and swiftly turned around and walked off to his o
wn class. What the heck was that I said to myself? This is starting off to be an
interesting day to say the least. I took my seat in the back of the classroom a
nd waited for Mr. Banner to start class. My next few classes went by in a blur a
nd it was finally lunch time. Luckily the library was open today and I started t
o head in that direction.
"Hey, wait up!" I heard the familiar voice call to me. I turned around and sure
enough Edward Cullen was on his way over to me. "Can I walk you to lunch today?"
he asked. "I was actually on my way to the library." I told him. The look on hi
s face told me he hadn't expected that answer. He quickly recovered. "Well would
you mind if I joined you then?"
BPOV
"Yes, I mean no, ah whatever you want to do is fine." I stuttered. Way to go, I
thought to myself. No wonder people don't want to talk to me. But then again Edw
ard Cullen seemed to be willing to for whatever reason.
"Of course I want to, lead the way." He said. As we made the short walk to the l
ibrary I had to ask. "Aren't you hungry? and won't your friends wonder where you
are?" He had surprised me with his answer.
"I would much rather spend my time with you, and my friends will survive, not to
mention more importantly that I would very much like to consider you my friend
too."
With that I became immediately suspicious. What is he up to anyway? There has to
be some sort of ulterior motive, I mean why else would he be here. As we walked
back to my usual area Edward asked me what I did in the library and why I ate i
n here and not in the cafeteria. I guess that is a valid question, it could be t
hat he really was just curious.
"It's quiet here" I felt rude eating in front of him so I offered him part of my
lunch. It was just a sandwich and some grapes. He started asking me some questi
ons about myself. I was feeling a little self conscious so I didn't give very de
tailed answers.
"So Bella, what do you do for fun?" Edward had asked. Hmmm I didn't really have
fun anymore or at least not the way most people would think, no sports, no shopp
ing, no hanging out with other people, unless you considered my dad, and on occa
sion my dad's best friends son Jacob but that was more out of obligation than an
ything. Jacob was a nice guy and all but he was a few years younger and we didn'
t have that much in common. Usually when I was made to join in the 'family' BBQ
he would have other friends there or his girlfriend with him and that was fine w
ith me, it took some of the pressure off.
"Not a lot." I looked up to see him throwing a grape in the air and trying to ca
tch it in his mouth. It hit him in the eye, bounced off and rolled underneath a
table. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Are you laughing at me?" he asked as he crawled under the table to retrieve the
lost grape.
"Just a little" I said between chuckles. "Well can you do any better?" he challe
nged me in a joking manner with a huge crooked smile on his face.
"I will give it a try." I grabbed a grape and threw it in the air with my mouth
open. I threw it a little too high and it landed on top of one of the bookshelve
s. Edward started laughing. I joined in too. "Well maybe I would have better luc
k if I tried for your mouth" I surprised myself by saying. Where did that come f
rom I thought.
"Okay" he said while opening his mouth. I should have known better than to try t
his, but I did it anyway. I lined up my shot and threw it at him, instead of lan
ding anywhere near him I hit the librarian in the face as she walked by.
"Oh crap" I said quietly. Edward turned around to see Mrs. Goff standing there w
ith her hands on her hips staring at us.
"Miss Swan?" she said looking expectantly. "I am so sorry" I started to say but
Edward interrupted. "It was my fault Mrs. Goff, I am very sorry." All right you
too but clean this up and there will be no more lunch in the library.
"I am so sorry Bella" Edward had said as we were walking out. "It's not your fau
lt Edward; I am the one that threw the grape."
"Yes but you wouldn't have been banned from the library at lunch time if I hadn'
t been there. I feel really bad about this." He said.
"Don't worry about it Edward, it really is okay." In truth I was a little worrie
d now I would have to sit in the cafeteria alone while people stared. At least i
n the library I could eat alone without everyone watching. But at the same time
that was the most fun I have had in over a year. Edward seemed really nice but I
just with I knew what he was up to.
"At least let me make it up to you. Will you sit with me at lunch tomorrow?" Edw
ard asked. He must have noticed the nervous look on my face because after a mome
nt of silence he continued. "Please Bella, I really would like to spend some mor
e time with you, and get to know you better."
"Um" was all I could say. "At least think about it" he said. Just then the bell
rang signaling the end of the lunch period. "I better get going to class." I sai
d. "Okay, see you later Bella." Edward had said giving me another wink and a bre
athtaking smile.
After school was over I headed out to my truck. I saw Edward, Emmett and Jasper
standing next to a silver Volvo parked a few spots down from mine. I was hoping
they wouldn't notice me so I tried to be sneaky but of course fate had another p
lan in mind. I had just opened my purse to get my keys out when I tripped and fe
ll which sent by purse and all it's contents directly in the path of Edward and
his friends.
As I was getting up I heard his voice again. "Bella, are you okay?" Edward was t
rying to help me and then started to gather the spilled items and give them back
to me. My face was beyond red. "Yes, I'm fine ah thank you." I said looking down
. I just really wanted to get out of there before something else embarrassing ha
ppened. I said thanks to the other guys and told Edward I would see him later. O
ut of the corner of my eye I noticed one remaining item left on the ground right
by Emmett's feet.
Oh no please please please let it not be what I think it is. But of course it wa
s and there was no way I was going to claim it now. I turned to get into my truc
k and get out of there when I heard Emmett's loud voice. "Wait Bella, you forgot
something." I turned around to see him bent over to pick up the offending item.
As soon as he had it in his hand he froze as did the other boys. The three of t
hem turning just as red as I am sure I had been. I looked down as Emmett handed
me my tampon.
"Thanks" was all I was able to respond and I jumped in my truck and quickly drov
e away.
EPOV
I noticed that Bella seemed a little flustered when I asked her if I could join
her in the library. She stuttered a little and blushed. I hoped that I wasn't in
truding but she did say it was okay so I took advantage of that. She had offered
me part of her lunch which was really very sweet. I did take a handful of grape
s and started to toss them into the air trying to catch them in my mouth. Of cou
rse Bella looked up just in time to see one practically poke my eye out and then
roll under a near by table.
"Are you laughing at me?" I had asked her, clearly she was and it was the most b
eautiful laugh I have ever heard. "Just a little" she said still laughing. "Well
can you do any better?" I asked her playfully hoping she would continue to enjo
y being here with me.
"I will give it a try." And with that her grape landed on top of a bookshelf. I
was surprised when she said she wanted to try to land one in my mouth but I was
all for it. I opened my mouth waiting and she missed the shot by a mile. I turne
d to around to see Mrs. Goff standing there.
"Miss Swan?" Oh no, Bella had started to apologize but I didn't want her to get
into trouble so I cut her off and tried to explain that it was my fault. After w
e were told we were banned from the library at lunch time I immediately felt hor
rible. What was Bella going to think of me now?
I tried to apologize to her, but she said it wasn't my fault, and she didn't see
m to upset by it but I still felt responsible. I had invited her to sit with me
at lunch tomorrow, it was the least I could do. Right? But if I was being truthf
ul with myself I just really wanted to spend some more time with her. I really d
id have fun with her in the library. I noticed she seemed a little cautious or n
ervous maybe. I thought I would go with the truth and just tell her that I reall
y did want to spend more time with her. At least I would try to be as honest as
I could with her while trying to hide that fact that this all started because of
the bet. She left for class and I already was trying to make a back up plan to
see her again in case she turned me down for lunch tomorrow after all.
Emmett had snapped me out of my thoughts when I heard him yelling my name from d
own the hall. "Edward!" he bellowed again. I stopped walking so he could catch u
p.
"Where were you?" he asked. I wasn't sure if I should tell him about me spending
lunch with Bella or not but decided I might as well, just in case she did want
to sit with me tomorrow. "I was in the library with Bella." I answered. He start
ed to frown. "Wow, you do work pretty fast." Emmett taunted. "Shut up and get to
class." I said as I walked away.
School was finally out and I was at my car talking with Jasper and Emmett. I not
iced Bella out of the corner of my eye walking this way. Was she coming over to
talk to me? I had secretly hoped. But the more I watched her it looked like she
was trying to stay out of my sight and snuck over to a red truck a few spaces do
wn. I thought about going over to talk with her but decided against it since she
clearly was trying to avoid me. Maybe she was upset by what happened in the lib
rary today.
Just them I saw Bella fall, her purse spilled open and all of her things went fl
ying. "Bella, are you okay?" I asked. I started to gather her things and give th
em back to her and she blushed a beautiful red. She quickly thanked us for our h
elp and said she would see me later. Hmm maybe I would be spending lunch with he
r tomorrow after all. My stomach did a little flip at the thought. As she was ju
st about to get into her truck I heard Emmett.
"Wait Bella, you forgot something." I looked over to him and noticed what he had
picked up. I could feel my cheeks heating up a little as I looked down. He hand
ed her back her tampon and I noticed she was even redder than before. With that
she drove away as I just watched her path as she left.
Chapter 4
As soon as I got home I flopped down on the couch. Charlie wasn't home yet for w
hich I was grateful. I just needed some time to think over everything that happe
ned today. As I thought about Edward I just found myself getting more and more..
. I'm not even sure what I was feeling. Antsy? Nauseous? Thrilled? Excited? Nerv
ous? Really, all of those things put together. I finally realized that I felt Ali
ve. Something that I haven't felt in almost 2 years. It took me almost 2 years t
o learn to shut everyone and everything out and within, what? A few hours, Edwar
d Cullen managed to change all of that without me even knowing what was happenin
g.
I was completely torn. On the one hand I had forgotten how good it feels to have
those types of feelings. Not to mention someone other that Charlie to talk to.
I guess I really haven't been 'living' for so long that I really had forgotten w
hat it is to feel alive, and to be honest I really liked it.
That's when I realized what that actually meant. I could get hurt again. Do I re
ally want to go through that? Again? Could I survive it? Ugh! I couldn't sit sti
ll. I found myself pacing around the house. Tapping my foot nervously or strummi
ng my fingers on the table top.
It was all becoming overwhelming. I just kept going back and forth in my mind ov
er and over again. This wasn't getting me anywhere. I needed a distraction. I ne
eded a break from the over analyzing. Maybe I was making too big a deal out of t
his. One lunch period didn't really mean anything. I mean who knows if Edward wo
uld even try and talk to me again. Especially after the whole Emmett - tampon fi
asco. Maybe this was just a one time thing. He probably didn't even like me. I w
as reading waaay to much into this. One lunch, right? No big deal. It didn't mea
n anything. Chances are that he wouldn't even remember he invited me to sit with
him tomorrow. I mean I was getting all worked up over nothing. Right? Right!
I decided to start dinner. Cooking always distracted me. All right! Focus. What
to make. Hmmm. Maybe a taco salad? No way would Charlie go for that. Ummmm Steak
and potatoes it is then. As I was making dinner I was able to stay pretty focus
ed. My mind only wandered to Edward a few times. I was making the dinner salad l
ooking for the green onions. I know we had some. I was digging through the refri
gerator. Green onions, green onions .. green eyes, Edwards's eyes. Ugh! Focus.
As I put the steaks on to broil, I had nothing else to do but wait. I sat down i
n front of the TV. There wasn't much on so my mind started to wander. I found my
self thinking about why this is a bad idea when I remembered the couple of weeks
leading up to one of the worst nights of my life.
FLASHBACK
"Oh my gosh, Bella! Look, there they are" Jessica squealed. I looked over to whe
re she was indicating to see 3 of the hottest guys at the school. They were seni
ors and all on the basketball team. This year Forks was good enough to make it t
o the championships. All because of the captain, Mike Newton. Tyler Crowley and
Austin Marx were standing with him.
"Come on" Jessica whispered. "Just act casual and walk by them." We started down
the hall over to where they were standing. Just as we were almost there, Mike l
ooked up. "Hey ladies" he said with a wink. Tyler gave the head nod and Austin g
rinned. "Hey guys" Jessica said in a seductive voice. As soon as we were around
the corner and out of sight we just about fainted.
"Bella! Did you see that? They were totally checking us out!" Jessica was almost
as giddy as I was. "We are so going to get ourselves senior boyfriends this yea
r! I told you this year was going to change our lives."
After school was out Jessica met me in the parking lot at her car. She had just
gotten her license 2 days before and her parents got her a new convertible for h
er 16th birthday. "Come on Bella, we have to get home so we can plan out what we
are going to wear for tomorrow. Operation: get the guy... is in full swing." Je
ssica announced with a smirk on her face as she saw the 3 guys walking to the gy
m for basketball practice.
We spent most days and weekends at Jessica's house. Her parents were pretty well
off so she had all the nicest clothes and things so we usually just ended up th
ere. "Hey Jess, I have to get home and get dinner started for Charlie." I told h
er after 90 of digging through her closet. "Okay but come over early tomorrow be
fore school, I will have our outfits picked out and we can do our hair and makeu
p together."
I got to Jessica's house early the next day. We got ready; she ended up doing my
makeup. I at least go to do my own hair. "Time to get dressed, your outfit is o
n the bed. The blue one." Jessica pointed. I changed into it, a little uncomfort
able. It was a tight and short white mini skirt and a blue tight, low-cut v-neck
sweater. I usually didn't wear clothes like this but Jessica seemed pretty conf
ident about it.
"I don't know about this Jess. I mean I don't know if I can pull this look off."
 She just glared at me with a disapproving look. "Bella, they are seniors! We ha
ve to look and act older. All the senior girls wear these types of things. You w
ouldn't want them to look past us and move onto someone else would you?"
"No, of course not!" I told her. "Just trust me on this. This is the kind of out
fit that will attract them, just mark my words. They won't know what hit em. The
y will be drooling over us by the end of the day." Jessica re-assured me.
Jessica was right. At lunch time we walked by them and their eyes looked like th
ey were going to pop out of their heads. "Ladies" Mike said. Tyler whistled, and
Austin's mouth was hanging open. Would you like to come to basketball practice
after school and watch us in action?" Mike said looking right at me. I couldn't
say anything so Jessica spoke right up. "We wouldn't miss it." She said twirling
a piece of her hair.
****end of flashback***
Charlie walking in the front door pulled me out of my memories. " Bells, is some
thing burning?" I looked over to the kitchen then and could tell he was right. "
Oh crap!" I jumped up and ran over to the oven. I opened the door to find dinner
all but ruined. "Great" I said sarcastically.
"Are you okay Bells? I have never known you to burn anything." Charlie said. "I
guess I am just distracted today." I explained. "Is there anything you want to t
alk about?" Charlie asked raising an eyebrow. "Well." I thought about it. Is thi
s something I really wanted to discuss with Charlie? No, not really but I really
did want to talk with someone. But who else could I talk to? I had no one else.
I think that right there is what made up my mind. I mean I couldn't very well av
oid everyone for the rest of my life could I? Be forever alone? No I didn't want
that nor was it realistic. I guess I figured I would wait until I got out of Fo
rks and went to college before I really let anyone in again. But now there was E
dward. Could I let him in? Would he really even want to be friends?
I guess I could look at this as some sort of practice right? I mean this is my l
ast year here and soon enough I would be leaving Forks. And I did like Edward; I
mean so far he seemed really nice. I guess I could just wait and see what happe
ns. Who knows maybe nothing will come of it or maybe we could actually become fr
iends. But I knew then that I was willing to at least try.
"No thanks dad, I'm fine really."
Chapter 5
I pulled into the student parking lot and was early as usual. I noticed only 1 o
ther car parked there. It was a silver Volvo. My heart skipped a beat. I made my
way over to my favorite picnic table only to find Edward waiting for me. I coul
dn't help the smile on my face when I saw him looking at me with a huge crooked
grin on his.
"Good morning beautiful" Edward said. "Hey" I paused. "What are you doing here s
o early?" I asked. "Waiting for you of course. I wanted to make sure that I was
the first to ask you to lunch today." "I thought you already asked me that yeste
rday." I smirked. "Well I didn't want to give you a chance to change your mind."
He looked at me kind of nervously.
"Well, I didn't." I just stared at him, he was beyond gorgeous. "I am glad to he
ar that! I was a little worried actually."
"Why would you be worried? I asked in disbelief. He had sounded sincere.
"Well to be honest I just really want you to like me and I am not really sure th
at you do." He said.
"Oh" I wasn't sure what to say to next but he seemed to be so open and honest wi
th me that I thought I would give him the same courtesy. It was a little hard fo
r me though not as hard as I would have thought. I felt incredibly comfortable w
ith him already and I'm not sure why but I already felt like I could trust him.
"Well since you are being honest I will be too. I do like you Edward and you hav
en't given me any reason not to." I smiled and his face fell.
EPOV
Shit! Normally I would have been ecstatic to hear that but I just couldn't be, n
ot with the bet. I felt sick, literally. I was going to have to find a way out o
f this, but how?
I would figure that part out later; right now I just wanted to spend more time w
ith Bella.
"I'm really glad to hear that" I said as I walked Bella to her first class. "See
you at lunch Bella." She said goodbye and sat in her seat. I turned around and
crashed right into Alice.
"Edward, what are you doing here? You could have just called me." Alice said. "I
wasn't here to talk to you Alice." I said as I glanced over to where Bella was
sitting. Alice followed my gaze to see Bella blushing and looking down.
"Oh, I see." Alice said smiling widely at me. "Well, see you later Edward." She
said with a tone that told me she expected me to tell her everything later on. I
would have to make sure I avoided her for as long as I could.
As I made my way to class I couldn't get my mind off of Bella. I didn't even rea
lly know her very well yet but there is something about her I just fell drawn to
. Just then Emmett came into my view and my good mood immediately vanished.
On my way to meet Bella for lunch I started getting nervous. I wasn't sure if I
would be able to eat anything for not so I opted for not chancing it. I met Bell
a at her locker.
"Hi" I smiled at her. "Hey" was all she said not having looked at me yet. "Are y
ou ready?" I asked. "Yep" she said while blushing again.
I lead the way through the lunch line and Bella only got a bottle of lemonade. I
paid for it even though she protested. "Aren't you hungry?" I asked her. "Not r
eally, you?" "Not really" I repeated her answer.
Bella followed me to an empty table as my friends watched us closely. I really j
ust wanted to be alone with Bella as well as stay clear of the looks my friends
were giving me.
Since neither one of us ate, we had more time to talk.
Before I knew it lunch was over and we spent the entire time taking turns asking
each other questions. It turns out Bella and I have a lot in common. From music
to books to places we have been and places we wanted to go as well as where we
were hoping to go to college.
I have never been more fascinated or drawn to anyone like I am with Bella. As I
left her at the door to her next class I ran into Jasper. "Hey Edward" he said w
ith a look of curiosity and maybe even a little disappointment. "Don't ask." I s
aid knowing exactly what he was thinking. I managed to avoid everyone else for t
he rest of the day.
I waited at Bella's truck for her to arrive. "Edward" she said. "Bella" I was sm
iling again. I haven't smiled this much in what seems like forever. "Can I sit w
ith you again at lunch tomorrow?" "She simply nodded and then got into her truck
.
I arrived at school even earlier than the day before hoping for just a few extra
minutes with her. I was excited to find that she too was a school a little earl
ier than normal. The rest of the week was much the same. We both got to school e
arlier and earlier in the mornings and spent all lunch period at our private tab
le.
After school I spent my time avoiding Alice and Rosalie's questioning eyes, Jasp
er and Emmett's smirk, and thinking about Bella. I have never met anyone so cari
ng, selfless, intelligent, and breathtakingly beautiful and truly more amazing t
han I could have ever dreamt about. The more I got to know her the more I was co
nvinced she was made for me. She was perfect. Everything was perfect, expect for
... UGH!
Friday came all too soon. I wasn't looking forward to not seeing her on the week
end. So I was going to ask her for her phone number so I could at least talk to
her. I started heading over to our picnic table only to be stopped dead in my tr
acks. Bella wasn't alone.

.Chapter 6
BPOV
I was a little confused by the look on Edwards face when I told him that I did l
ike him. He almost looked disappointed for a second but he quickly recovered and
seemed to be happy that I did and that I had also agreed to lunch with him. I w
as also pretty happy that he had showed up even earlier today than he had yester
day. Of course so had I, hoping to see a little more of him.
Edward had walked me into my biology class and I couldn't help over-hear the con
versation that he had with Alice. I didn't want him to see me blush so I tried t
o keep my head down but couldn't stop myself from watching when Edward left the
classroom. Luckily he hadn't noticed my staring but Alice had.
She was watching me as I watched him, when we made eye contact she smiled and wa
ved. I gave a shy wave back and a small smile as I looked down quickly feeling m
y checks heat up again. At lunch neither Edward nor I had gotten anything to eat
. I noticed how his friends were watching us, but I didn't want to draw attentio
n to that so I tried not to look in their direction. But I couldn't help noticin
g both Alice and Rosalie smiling at us. I could only see that back of Jaspers he
ad but Emmett had a frown on his face.
Hmmm. Maybe he didn't like that fact that his brother was sitting with me at lun
ch again, or maybe it was something else entirely but I was starting to feel a l
ittle uncomfortable as he kept glancing over. That feeling didn't last long beca
use I had gotten too caught up in Edward to pay much attention to anyone or anyt
hing else.
I quickly found out that Edward and I had a lot in common. I was pretty impresse
d with that but what had really got me excited was that even when we didn't agre
e on something he actually listened to my opinion and what I had to say on the m
atter. He was respectful and I even managed to sway his opinion on a couple of t
hings.
When I had gotten home I was still reeling in that fact that Edward really wante
d to get to know me. He seemingly wanted to know me for me. Not what he could ge
t from me. This was a new concept in the way guys or anyone normally treated me.
Granted it has been a while that I talked with anyone but looking back on the c
ouple of boyfriends I did have I could see the difference.
Eric pretty much used me to get ahead socially. When we dated my freshman year I
was pretty popular at the time at least within my own class, and he was new to
the area so when he asked me out I thought he actually like me. Turns out that a
fter going out with me for a month or so he had found that his own popularity su
rpassed mine and he dumped me stating that I just wasn't good enough to be seen
with him but he would be happy to keep it a secret if I wanted to get together o
utside of school.
Even though Jessica was my best friend even she didn't completely respect me. Of
course she never did anything hurtful on purpose. And I don't think that she ev
er meant to disrespect me but there where times when I didn't want to do what sh
e wanted to or didn't act in a way that she would have and she would always give
me a guilt trip and wouldn't let up until I did what she wanted. I finally gave
up and just chalked it up to the fact that that was just the way she was and th
e dynamic worked for us.
And then of course there was Mike. I didn't even see that one coming. Though I d
efinitely should have.
***FLASHBACK***
"Oh my" Jessica kept saying over and over again. And I could see her point. Watc
hing basketball practice was more than entertaining. Especially when Mike, Tyler
, Austin were on the "skins" team. Neither one of us paid attention to anything
else but that.
"I know, can you believe they asked us her to watch!" I was still kind of shocke
d that Jessica's plan had worked. Though I am not sure why I should be, things a
lways seemed to work out the way Jessica wanted them to.
"Here they come, act natural" Jessica whispered as the 3 boys came over to us. "
So, what did you think? Pretty great huh?" Mike asked. "Yeah" I said. "You guys
looked pretty hot out there" Jessica said. "Hey Bella, can I have some of your w
ater?" Mike winked at me. "Here, I brought some extras with me, you know, in cas
e you guys were thirsty" Jessica said while batting her eyelashes.
"Thanks" the guys all said at the same time while taking the water bottles. "Wel
l, we have to hit the showers, so we'll see you ladies later." Mike smirked. As
they left he rubbed his hand across my butt.
***END OF FLASHBACK***
The next couple of days were the same way. I would spend the mornings before sch
ool and all of lunch time talking with Edward. The more I got to know him the mo
re I liked him. He was so different from anyone else I knew. He really was an am
azing person and I found myself really getting caught up in him. Probably more t
han I should.
Friday morning I was about to leave the house when Charlie stopped me. "Where ar
e you going so early?" he looked at me surprised. I looked at my watch and reali
zed that school didn't even start for another hour. Edward and I had gotten into
a pattern of meeting early before school but this was early even for that.
"Oh, well I wanted to grab some coffee before school since we are out at home" C
harlie just eyed me suspiciously but didn't comment any further.
When I arrived at school I was pretty early and no other cars where there yet ev
en though I did stop off for the coffee. I had bought an extra one for Edward ju
st in case. I sat at our usual spot reading a book and sipping on my coffee when
I heard someone walking toward me. I looked up expecting to see Edward but it w
asn't him.
"Hey Bella, What are you doing here so early?" "Oh, um hi Emmett" I stuttered.
EPOV
What the hell? I just stood there for a minute watching as Bella sat talking to
Emmett. She looked a little uncomfortable but they were carrying on a conversati
on that I couldn't quite hear. Oh shit, what is he saying to her? He wouldn't te
ll her anything would he? He wouldn't be that underhanded. Right?
I didn't want to chance it so I walked quickly over to where they were. "Hey lit
tle brother, what are you doing here so early?" Emmett laughed loudly. "We're tw
ins Emmett I am not your little brother." I said probably a little too harshly f
or the situation. "Sure you are, I am 2 minutes older, which makes you my little
brother. You agree with me don't you Bella?"
"Um..." Bella said as she took a drink clearly uncomfortable. "Oh come on, I kno
w you have the hotts for Edward but you have to admit I'm right." She choked a l
ittle on her drink. "Emmett!" I yelled. "Oh sorry to embarrass you Bella, but th
at's kind of what I do, you'll find that out the more time we spend together."
Bella just looked kind of stunned and glanced over at me. "Why would she be spen
ding any time with you Emmett?" "Well duh Edward, you can't keep her all to your
self forever." He said with a wink. What is he trying to do, scare her off? Prob
ably, or maybe just keep me from spending any more time alone with her so he has
a better chance at winning. Stupid bet, stupid Emmett. Though winning is not wh
at was on my mind anymore, keeping that information away from Bella is what I ne
ed to be worrying about, and since it seems Emmett has insinuated himself into o
ur relationship this could be a real problem.
"What exactly are you doing here so early Emmett?" I growled at him. "Well Edwar
d, since you asked so nicely I will tell you. I came in early to get my homework
assignments for the last half of the day. Me and Jasper are leaving at lunch fo
r the camping trip with Felix and Demetri. Remember?"
Just then Jasper walked up. Oh great. "Hey guys, hi Bella." "Hey Jazz" Emmett sa
id. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us this weekend Edward?" Jasper as
ked. "No thanks, you know I don't really get along with Felix, I would much rath
er stay home."
I didn't have a chance to talk with Bella or Emmett alone to find out what could
have been said because as we were talking Mr. Greene pulled up and asked if he
could speak to me. Great, Perfect timing. "I guess I will see you at lunch Bella
?" "Um sure Edward, see you then."
"So Mr. Cullen, I was wondering if I could convince you to sign up for our tutor
ing program again this year." Mr. Greene asked. "Thank you for thinking of me Mr
. Greene but I just don't think I will have the time this year." He looked a lit
tle disappointed. "Well, let me know if you change your mind." "I will sir" I sa
id as the bell rang for first period. I tried to catch Bella but I didn't make i
t in time.
I guess I will have to wait for lunch before I can figure anything out. I couldn
't keep my eyes off the clock; time seemed to stop as I waited for lunch to star
t. I really wanted to be alone with Bella.
Finally the bell rang to signal the start of lunch. Bella wasn't at her locker.
I was starting to get worried. Maybe Emmett did say something after all. I was s
tarting to feel sick again when I couldn't find Bella. I went to the cafeteria t
o see if maybe she was waiting in there for me. I looked over at our table and i
t was empty. I was about to turn around when I heard my name being called.
"Edward, over here." I looked around to find Alice, Rosalie and Bella sitting to
gether at our usual table. You've got to be kidding me.
Chapter 7
BPOV
I was very surprised to see Emmett and I wasn't really sure what to say to him e
specially after the strange looks he had been giving me at lunch the last few da
ys.
"So any particular reason you're here at this time in the morning" Emmett paused
"and with an extra coffee? Hmmmm maybe your waiting for Oh I don't know . Say Edwar
d?" he had a huge smirk on his face.
"Um, yeah I guess I am" I could feel my blush. Great
"I see, so Bella what are your intentions with my brother?" He chuckled. I could
tell that he was just trying to be playful and tease me but I didn't feel compl
etely comfortable mostly just because of the subject we were discussing.
"Well, um we're friends?" and we were I couldn't deny that after the last week w
e have spent together. Did I want it to be more than friends? Well, my heart sai
d yes but the rest of me was a lot more hesitant.
"Oh just friends?" I nodded and blushed again. "Do you look at all your friends
the way you look at Edward then?" he said as he grabbed the extra coffee and too
k a drink from it. Just then I looked up to see Edward walking over to us. Of co
urse I couldn't keep the smile off my face which only led Emmett to give me anot
her smirk.
Unfortunately we didn't get any time to be alone because Jasper and Mr. Greene a
lso showed up and Mr. Greene needed to talk with Edward about something and they
went to his office. Soon after they left Emmett and Jasper did too.
In Biology Alice said hi to me and she looked like she wanted to keep talking bu
t the bell had just rang and she didn't have time to say anything else as Mr. Ba
nner started class.
I was looking forward to seeing Edward at lunch and I walked quickly to my locke
r. For the second time today I heard someone walking over to me, expecting it to
be Edward only to find it was someone else.
"Hi Bella! Would you like to have lunch with me and Rosalie today?" Alice asked
excitedly. I was not expecting that one but she seemed like she genuinely wanted
me to sit with her.
"Oh thank you so much for asking me but I already told Edward that I would have
lunch with him." I was really shocked that she had asked but it was really nice
at the same time.
"I thought that would be the case, so how about if the four of us eat together?"
Alice asked without missing a beat. I didn't get a chance to answer before Rosa
lie came around the corner smiling at us.
"So has Alice convinced you to have lunch with us yet?" She asked brightly. Agai
n I didn't get a chance to answer as Alice spoke up.
"You will, won't you Bella?" How could I say no to that especially if Edward wou
ld be there. And they were probably missing their time with him and I didn't fee
l right keeping him away from his friends.
"Yes, I will but I should probably wait for Edward and let him know, I can meet
you there?" "Don't worry about Edward, he will find us" Rosalie said while grabb
ing my hand and pulling me towards the cafeteria.
"Okay" what else could I say really. I would have rather waited but she was righ
t I am sure he would be able to find us.
"So Bella I hope you don't mind us barging in on your lunch but we really just w
anted a chance to get to know you and Edward would have just kept hogging you if
we didn't step in." Alice said and gave me a smile.
"No, not at all, I think that it's nice that you wanted to get to know me, not a
lot of people do, and I'm sure you've missed having Edward around."
"Trust me Bella, this has nothing to do with Edward, I am really hoping that we
can become friends." Alice said very sincerely.
"I really want to become friends too Bella." Rosalie added on. "Thank you, I wou
ld really like that." I said and I meant it. They seemed so nice and while it is
great, well more than great that I have Edward having some girlfriends to talk
to would be nice and I didn't realize that I missed that as much as I did.
But then there was the other side of me that told me to be careful and remember
what happened last time I trusted someone. I tried to block the memories of Jess
ica out so I could enjoy this time. After all I made up my mind to let Edward in
and there's no turning back now and it is clear that both Alice and Rosalie are
important to him.
"Tell us about yourself' Rosalie said. "There's not much to tell." And there was
n't. I didn't have much of a life the last couple years and I didn't want to tal
k about anything before that.
Just then Alice called "Edward", I looked over to where he was standing and star
ing at us with a look of confusion and maybe even slightly anxious? But as soon
as I smiled at him he gave me one of those heartbreaking crooked smiles.
Heartbreaking smiles I thought. Ah oh I'm in trouble. He then walked over to the
table and sat down next to me. "Hi" he said as he reached out, grabbed my hand
and squeezed it. He held on for a few more moments. Oh yeah definitely in troubl
e I thought as my heart almost leapt out of my chest.
The hour went by pretty quickly. Alice did most of the talking, and kept asking
me questions. Edward was pretty quite, he just seemed to watch and listen to the
girls. Right before the bell rang Mr. Greene found me and asked to have a word
with me. I said goodbye to the table and left.
"Miss Swan, can you come by my office today after school? I have someone for you
to meet for the tutoring program. It shouldn't take too long, I just wanted to
go over the rules and have you meet the person you are assigned to work with."
"Sure, I'll be there." I said luckily I didn't have any other plans. "Thank you
Miss Swan, see you then."
I didn't see Edward for the rest of the day and I was a little disappointed I di
dn't get any time alone with him before the weekend, but at the same time I was
glad that Alice and Rosalie had wanted to meet me. The final bell rang and I hea
ded for Mr. Greene's office.
EPOV
I just stood there and stared but when Bella gave me a big smile I instantly fel
t better. I'm not sure why I did it but I took her hand when I sat down next to
her. It felt like it belonged there and I didn't want to let go but I did becaus
e I thought my heart was going to leap out from my chest.
I mostly just listened as Alice, Rosalie and Bella as they talked. Near the end
of lunch Mr. Greene came over for the second time today to interrupt us and aske
d to speak to
Bella. And I lost my chance to walk her to her next class, but at least I could
get Alice alone and find out what was going on.
As the bell rang Rose got up and I grabbed Alice's arm to keep her from leaving.
"Alice, do you mind telling me what that was all about?"
"Well Edward, maybe if you would have returned my calls or stopped avoiding me a
ll week I could have just asked you about Bella, but you didn't. So I decided to
find out about her for myself." I frowned
Alice continued on "it's not that big of a deal. I mean I'm sure we would have m
et her at some point anyway. I just took matters into my own hands." She said wi
th a sly smile.
"And by the way, I really do like her." She turned and walked off to class.
"So do I" I said to myself. I couldn't wait for the end of school. I walked stra
ight to Bella's truck and waited. Minutes went by and the parking lot was almost
empty. She still hadn't come out yet. It had been 35 minutes since school ended
and I really had to go to the bathroom. Maybe I should go in and look for her,
but I knew the minute I did she would come out and I would miss her. Another 10
minutes went by and I couldn't wait any more. I quickly ran to the front door of
the school, went in the nearest restroom and ran back to the parking lot. It co
uldn't have taken more than 2 minutes at the most but sure enough I got there ju
st in time to see her truck pulling out onto the street.
Okay today officially sucks!
BPOV
As I walked into the office, Mrs. Cope told me to have a seat that Mr. Greene wa
s running a few minutes late. As I waited I noticed there were 2 other tutors wa
iting also. One of them was Angela Weber. She was pretty shy too so of course we
didn't say anything. The other one was Ben Cheney and I noticed that he kept st
aring at Angela out of the corner of his eye.
Mr. Greene arrived at that point and gave us the introductory speech and then le
d us to the classroom that we would be using. He assigned us partners and told u
s to get to know each other.
"Hi, I'm Jason." "Hi Jason, I'm Bella. So which class are you having the most tr
ouble in?" I asked.
"Mostly in Algebra and some in English lit." "So you're a sophomore then?" I ask
ed remembering I took those classes when I was in that grade.
"Yes I am" he said. "Okay why don't we start by meeting on Tuesdays and Thursday
s after school?" I suggested.
"Yeah that sounds good for now, but when basketball season starts I might need t
o re-arrange a few things depending on practice times."
"Oh you play basketball?" I asked. Duh Bella he just said he did. "Yeah, I am ho
ping that I am good enough to make varsity this year." He said
"You must be pretty good then if you think you can make varsity when you're only
a sophomore."
"I am, my brother used to play and he gave me a lot of pointers." Just then Mr.
Greene came back in to the room. "Okay if you have set up your schedules you can
go now."
"Well it was nice meeting you" I said to Jason. "Nice meeting you, and thanks fo
r your help, I really appreciate it." "No problem, see you Tuesday" as I was wal
king out the door I heard Mr. Greene say "Mr. Newton, I hope this works out for
you, because there will be no basketball unless those grades come up." I froze.
Chapter 8
BPOV
Jason Newton Fantastic of course I would have to get paired up with him. Not that
he didn't seem nice enough, and he didn't seem to recognize me, though why woul
d he after all he didn't even go this school at the time. Two years ago he was i
n 8th grade and I doubt that Mike would have even mentioned me to him. I knew th
at I was over reacting but it didn't stop the memories from coming back.
*****FLASHBACK*****
"Bella, you're going to Tyler's party with me tonight." Mike instructed. "I am?"
I asked surprised. "Yes you are, be ready at 7 and wear something sexy for me."
he said with a smirk and a wink. "Ah okay, I'll be ready." I said as he walked
away. Just then Jessica came running up to me.
"Bella, you are never going to believe this but Tyler just asked me to be his da
te for the party he is having tonight, can you believe it?" she screeched. "No w
ay! Mike just asked me the same thing." Jessica grabbed my hand "Come on, we hav
e to get ready, I have the prefect outfits picked out."
I went home took a shower, told my dad where I was going, or at least that I was
going to Jessica's for the night, and headed back over to her house. Jessica ha
d picked out a tight fitting mini skirt and a strapless top for me and a similar
outfit for herself. I was about to argue but I knew it wouldn't do any good and
she had been right so far and we did have dates for the night with the hottest
guys at our school so I went along with it.
I texted Mike and told him that I would be at Jessica's house and he told me he
would pick us up there. Jessica had just finished my makeup when the door bell r
ang. "Good evening ladies, you both look are looking hot tonight." Mike said. Je
ssica's parents weren't home so there was no awkward meet the parents' moment.
I rode in the front seat and Mike had his hand on my thigh the whole ride. When
we got to the party, people were already arriving. It didn't take long to fill u
p the house there must have been 100 people there. The music was loud and people
were everywhere. I was sitting on the couch with Mike when he put his hand back
on my thigh. It started hiking up to my skirt.
"Mike" I said as I grabbed his hand and moved it back down my leg. "What's the m
atter with you Bella, I thought you liked me." "I do like you Mike but that's mo
ving a little fast for me and there are people everywhere." I tried to explain.
"Listen Bella, I could have anyone I want and I chose you" he said in a hard voi
ce. "I already said that I like you Mike but come on we haven't even been seeing
each other for more than a week." I told him. "Sorry, you're right. Tell you wh
at I will go get us some drinks, maybe that will help relax you a bit." He said
as he got off the couch.
He came back a few minutes later with a drink for both of us. It was pretty hot
in there so I drank the whole thing pretty quickly. Mike went back for more and
I spotted Jessica dancing with Tyler in the living room. "Bella this is so great
, I am having the best time."
"Me too" I heard Mike say behind me handing me another drink.
After a few minutes I started feeling a little dizzy. "Are you feeling okay Bell
a, you look a little flushed." Mike asked. "Yeah, I'm just a little dizzy is all
." I said closing my eyes.
"Maybe some fresh air will help" he said as he helped me up. Only we didn't go o
utside. I was starting to get really disoriented and I could vaguely tell we wer
e going up the stairs.
"Why don't you lie down Bella" and I couldn't argue because I could barely stand
. I didn't know what was happening. I kept drifting in and out of consciousness.
As I started to wake up, my vision was pretty blurred. I felt Mike on top of me
, he was kissing me and he was taking off my shirt. I tried to tell him to stop
but I couldn't even understand my words.
I must have blacked out for a minute because the next thing I remembered was he
was standing next to the bed naked and he was taking my skirt off. I heard two v
oices this time. "Hurry up man, I get her next." I was able to recognize the oth
er voice as Tyler.
I tried to scream but no sound was coming out. Only a second later I heard a kno
ck at the door. "Tyler?" Jessica called out. Oh please, please Jessica help me.
I screamed in my head. Just then the door opened up. "What the hell?" she yelled
.
"Jessica it's not what it looks like" I heard Tyler say. "Oh really so you two a
re not naked and Bella isn't lying on the bed with nothing but her underwear on"
Oh thank goodness, nothing happened, they didn't rape me. I was so relieved tha
t I was barely able to pay attention to what was said next.
"It's not like that at all Jessie. We had a little too much to drink and Bella h
ere promised us a good time if we took her upstairs. I love you Jessica, I had n
o idea this is what she was planning on. We just got caught up in the moment. Pl
ease forgive me." Tyler pleaded with her.
"And you expect me to believe that?" she asked "Bella is my best friend she woul
dn't do that to me." then Mike stepped in. "Really Jessica I swear Tyler is tell
ing you the truth!" What happened next shocked me. "I can't believe you would do
this to me Bella! you're nothing but a whore" Jessica screamed at me.
That's all it took. One night and I lost my best friend as well any other friend
I had. The word around school was that I got both of them drunk, had sex with t
hem and tried to steal my best friends' boyfriend all at the same time. It was m
y word against the basketball stars and since even my best friend sided with the
m no one would even listen to my side of the story and those that did thought I
made it all up to try and make myself look better.
****END FLASHBACK****
I was in tears by the time I got home. After I cried for another hour I started
to get mad. I will not let them have this kind of power over me anymore. They st
ole enough from me as it was, and I was done. I vowed to myself to keep this in
the past and never revisit it again. I found that I had a renewed strength. I wa
s going to move on with my life and not let anything stop me from living it agai
n.
After we finished eating dinner, I was sitting on the couch when the phone rang.
Charlie got up to answer it. "Hello" I heard him say. "Yes she is, just a momen
t please" I looked over to him shocked. Who was calling for me? "Bells, phone" h
e said as he handed it to me.
"Hello?" I said warily "Hi Bella, this is Alice Cullen." "Hi Alice, how are you?
How did you get my number?" I asked completely surprised. "I'm good, and it was
n't hard, everyone knows who your dad is and we had a phone book." It seemed lik
e such a simple explanation.
"What's going on?" I asked her. "Well I had a question for you, see my birthday
is this weekend and part of my present from my parents was that my mom got a day
at the spa for her, me and Rosalie. And well my mom just found out that she is
required to be in Seattle for work and so she won't be able to go with us. Anywa
y I have this extra pass and I thought that maybe you would like to join us?"
Wow. "Me?" I didn't know what to say. "Yes you, please Bella it will be a lot of
fun. We are going to go to the spa, and then we have gift cards to the mall for
a new outfit and then dinner with the gang. Emmett and Jasper will be back from
camping by then.
"That is so nice of you to ask me Alice but I couldn't afford that." "No Bella,
you wouldn't have to pay for anything, it is already taken care of as part of my
present. The whole thing, and with my mom not going it would just go to waste."
"Are you sure that you want me to come? I mean there isn't anyone else you would
want to ask?" "You are the first person I thought of, I really want you to come
with us, and I really want us to be friends. Please say you'll come."
"That sounds really great Alice, thank you so much for thinking of me." I was st
ill a little stunned. "Great I will pick you up Sunday morning at about 7:30am."
I could almost hear her smiling. "Okay I will see you then." I looked up to see
Charlie staring at me with one eyebrow raised. "Bye Alice".
"Who was that?" Charlie asked. "Um that was Alice Cullen; she invited me to hang
out with her this Sunday. It's her birthday this weekend and she ended up with
an extra pass to a spa, shopping and dinner. I guess it was supposed to be for h
er mom but she ended up having to work or something so she asked me if I wanted
to go."
"Are you going?" he asked though I knew he had heard the whole conversation. "Ye
s dad I am, if that's okay." I smiled at him. "Of course it's okay" He looked li
ke he wanted to do a victory dance. "I think I will drive into Port Angeles tomo
rrow and pick up a birthday present for her."
"I'm heading that way myself, do you want to ride together?" "Sure dad, I'm goin
g to bed, see you in the morning."
My alarm went off at 6:30 Sunday morning. I took a shower and ate breakfast. Cha
rlie was on his way to meet Harry for fishing. "Bye Bells, have fun today." He s
aid still smiling as much as he had been since the phone call Friday night. A fe
w minutes later the door bell rang.
"Hey Alice, thanks again for inviting me." I said as I was locking the front doo
r. "Thanks for going with us; I am really excited this is going to be so much fu
n." Rosalie was waiting in the car. "Hi Bella, I am so glad you could make it."
"Me too." And I was.
No one was on the road at this time so it didn't take long to get into Port Ange
les. We talked the entire car ride. When we got to the spa they were ready for u
s. We each got massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, Alice even managed to ta
lk me into waxing. That was one of the most painful experiences of my life. "It'
s not that bad once you get used to it." Rosalie said. "You mean you do this on
a regular basis?" I asked in disbelief. "It's easier than shaving and trust me,
the guys like it better that way." She said raising her eyebrows up and down.
"Ew" I muttered. "Oh come on Bella, didn't any of your old boyfriends mention th
at to you before?" I was proud of myself, that statement didn't even upset me. I
think I truly am getting past what happened with Mike. "Um no, honestly I haven
't had a boyfriend long enough for that to have even been mentioned." I told the
m.
"Oh well, if things keep going the way they are with Edward, I'm sure you will b
e making appointments with us." Alice said. I blushed. "Don't be embarrassed, I
can tell you like Edward and I know he likes you, I'm just saying that sometime
in the future I will be willing to bet that you will be asking to go with us." I
still hadn't stopped blushing.
"So you think Edward likes me?" I asked timidly. "I know he does." Alice respond
ed right away. I got lost in that thought as we sat in the mud bath. We arrived
at the mall several hours later. "Okay girls, which store should we start at?" R
osalie asked.
"How about Victoria's Secret first, then onto the clothing stores." Alice sugges
ted. We each got a new matching bra and underwear set. We hit about 10 different
stores and tried on at least 30 different dresses before we each found what we
wanted. Shoes were next. I couldn't believe that I found ones that I liked and c
ould walk in at the first store. Both Alice and Rosalie like what I picked out a
nd they each got the same but in different colors.
It was almost four o'clock when we got our accessories, (jewelry and nylons) and
headed to get our hair and makeup done. This had been one of the best days I ha
ve ever had. I truly liked both Alice and Rosalie and I now know that they reall
y are my friends.
When we were done, we changed into our new outfits and headed over to the restau
rant. Alice had called Jasper and told him we were on our way and he told her th
at they would be waiting out front. As we pulled up I noticed that there were th
ree of them standing at the front door. My heart stopped.
I don't know why it didn't occur to me before but I really hadn't expected to se
e Edward. Of course I should have known he would be there, he was Alice's cousin
after all. As soon as we got out of the car we walked to the door. Edward wasn'
t facing us, when he finally turned around it was easy to see the surprise on hi
s face. Obviously he hadn't expected to see me there either.
"Bella?" he asked, his eyes practically popping out of his head. "Hi Edward." I
said as I blushed. "Wow, you look stunning." He said, he hadn't taken his eyes o
ff me. "Thank you." I heard Emmett say we should head inside.
Edward sat next to me at dinner. I wasn't sure what to order, everything looked
so good. Me and Edward ended up sharing our meals with each other. We all had a
really great time. I felt like I actually fit in. I was included in the conversa
tion and I wasn't uncomfortable at all. This truly was the best time I have had
in years.
After dinner was over, we all headed out to the parking lot. It turned out that
Edward had driven the guys there in his car. "Bella, would you like to ride with
me?" Edward had asked. I wasn't sure what to say. Of course I wanted to but I d
id come with Alice and Rosalie and I didn't want to ditch them.
Jasper spoke before I could answer. "Would that be okay Bella, I haven't seen Al
ice all weekend and I really would like some more time with her. Emmett can ride
with us too."
Just then Alice walked over to me, "Thank you so much for coming with us Bella,
I had the best time. Thank you for making my birthday so special."
I was almost in tears; they had been so nice to me. "Thank you Alice for invitin
g me, I really had a great time. I am so glad we are friends." I hugged her back
. Rosalie came over and gave me a hug too. "I'll grab your stuff from the car."
I gave Alice her present and said goodbye to everyone before I got into Edwards
car.
"Thank you for riding home with me. I hope that was okay, we didn't really give
you any choice." "It's fine Edward, I wanted to anyway." I just watched him as h
e drove. I tried to look somewhere else but I was having a hard time with that.
"I didn't realize you were going to be coming tonight." "Well Alice called me Fr
iday night and invited me to come with her when she found out her mom couldn't m
ake it."
"I was hoping to get your phone number Friday at school but luck was not with me
that day." Edward chuckled and then continued on. "Today on the other hand, wor
ked out a lot better than I could have imagined."
"For me too, the whole day has been so great, Alice and Rosalie are so sweet and
on top of it all I got to see you." We had pulled up to my house by this point.
"I am glad to hear you say that. So do you think I could have your phone number
?" "Sure, give me your phone and I will put it in."
"I guess I should go in" I said not really wanting to. Edward got out of the car
and walked around to open my door for me. "Thank you" I said as we walked up to
the front door. "I guess I will see you tomorrow." He said moving closer and cl
oser to me. "Yeah, I guess I will see you tomorrow." I replied.
He hesitated for a moment and then moved in closer kissing me on my cheek. "Good
night Bella." "Goodnight Edward" I said as I walked inside. Charlie of course wa
s waiting for me. "Did you have a nice time?" he asked before I had a chance to
close the door. "Yes dad, I had an amazing day, Alice and Rosalie are great and
then we met Alice's boyfriend and her cousins for dinner. Everyone had a great t
ime, especially me."
"Glad to hear it Bells." "Goodnight dad." I said as I walked upstairs and change
d my clothes. I had just climbed into bed when I heard my cell phone buzz. I rea
ched over to my nightstand. I had a new text message.
Bella, I had a great time tonight I hope we can do it again soon - Edward.
I wrote back immediately. Edward-me too Bella. As soon as I hit send, my phone b
uzzed again.
Goodnight beautiful - Edward
Goodnight Edward, see you tomorrow - Bella
I set me phone down, turned off the light and fell asleep thinking about Edward.
I found myself lying in bed not being able to sleep so I got up to take a relaxi
ng bath. I'm not sure where he came from or how he got in but as I was about to
turn the water on I heard him. I turned around to see Edward standing there in m
y bathroom. "Were you going to take a bath?" He asked me. He reached up to cup m
y face with his hand. He kissed the inside of my wrist, and I wondered if he cou
ld feel my pulse racing beneath his lips. "Why don't you let me do that for you?
" giving me a huge smile. I raised my eyebrow at him and bit my lip. He laughed.
"Sounds like heaven." I said quietly and I blushed.
He turned the water on for me as I stood there watching him. He gave me a soft k
iss on my neck. His breath made my skin tingle. He stared at me for a moment and
then he took off his jacket leaving only his blue shirt between my fingers and
the smooth muscles of his chest. He put his hands on my shoulders and ran them d
own the length of my arms.
I reached up to touch his face "I want you. Forever" I whispered. I reached up t
o put my hand at the back of his head, drawing his head down to kiss him, but hi
s lips hovered over mine. His hand came up and he brushed his knuckles against t
he side of my face
"Forever." He repeated. His other hand slipped behind my waist, and he began kis
sing my neck. It felt so incredible that it made me shudder. I closed my eyes an
d ran my hand down his chest. He started to take my clothes off, and I wasn't go
ing to stop him.
"You are so beautiful" He kissed my shoulder and the curve of my neck. His mouth
was hot on my skin. It felt so sensual. He made my insides melt. "Bella, I love
you."
I was breathless as I placed little kisses on his jaw, moved back up to claim hi
s mouth and started to unbutton his shirt. His breathing was heavy as he pulled
his mouth from mine.
"Get in the bath and I'll wash your back." He held both of my hands in one of hi
s, as the knuckles of the other hand grazed the outside of my breast. I stood on
tiptoe to curl my hand around the back of his neck and pull him in for a kiss.
My mouth parted and I ran my tongue along his lips. He groaned as I slid my tong
ue between his lips and into his mouth, his arms pulling me tight against him. H
is tongue came to meet mine. He finally trailed his lips down my neck and over t
he top of my shoulder.
I lifted his hand to my breast, "I want you to touch me." I breathed. He tentati
vely reached out toward me; his hand was warm as he cupped my breast, his thumb
grazing over the erect nipple and the other hand on my back. I moaned. "Get in y
our bath while I'm still able to let you" He stepped back to let me get in the t
ub. He sat on the floor next to the tub and put his arm over the edge grabbing t
he sponge and starting to run it over my body. He continued to move the sponge w
hen I reached over and removed it from his hand. Then he used his hands to run o
ver my body under the water.
The suds making them slip easily over my skin. He touched my arms, legs, shoulde
rs, and then slid his hand over my breasts and down my stomach. I could see his
body tense and found I wanted to touch him too. "Edward, take me to bed." I begg
ed." He groaned as his arms went around me in the water and he kissed me deeply
on the mouth.
He reached for my hand to help me out of the tub. When he brought the towel arou
nd behind my back, he used it to pull me closer. I could feel how excited he was
as his erection pressed against my stomach and his breathing sped up.
He rubbed the towel gently over my body, softly kissing the parts he'd just drie
d. When he got to my breasts, he took a nipple into his mouth and sucked on it g
ently .He bent to lift me in his arms and carry me to the bed, never breaking ou
r kiss. I dragged my mouth to his neck and sucked gently. He moaned.
His knees came down on the sides of my legs as he bent to slowly kiss my neck, s
houlders and breasts. He sucked the nipple into his mouth as he lowered his hand
in between my legs. I felt him spread my legs and I held my breath I felt him b
reathe on my inner thigh as he ran his tongue from my knee higher up my leg. He
placed kisses up and down both of my legs, my hips and on my stomach just below
my navel. He then inserted two fingers inside of while his thumb rubbed my clit.
He began pumping in and out. He then removed his fingers and he brought his mou
th down on me where I wanted it most. "He groaned as he sucked lightly. I was wo
und so tight that I was going to cum any minute. "Edward" I gasped, my back arch
ing, my head falling back and both hands clutching at the sheets "Just let it go
, baby. I love you, Bella. I want to feel you cum in my mouth.
The loud sound of my alarm alerted me to the fact that this had all been a dream
. Ugh! I got out of bed and went straight into the shower.
EPOV
I couldn't believe it when I saw Bella walk up to the restaurant. She looked so
beautiful I couldn't look away. Dinner was great; it was so nice to see how well
Bella fit into my circle of friends. It was like she was meant to be there all
along. I could tell she was much more comfortable with everyone as she laughed a
nd joked throughout the night.
I was glad that I had been the one to drive tonight so it was pretty easy to con
vince everyone to let Bella ride home with me. We talked the whole way back When
we pulled up to her house I asked for her phone number. I could tell that she d
idn't want to go inside any more than I wanted her to. But I walked her to the d
oor. I stood there staring at her and I wanted to kiss her so badly but I didn't
think it would go over well this soon.
I couldn't seem to stop myself as I moved in closer and closer to her. I managed
to kiss her on the check and said goodnight. I watched her walk in before I got
into my car. As soon as I got in I pulled out my cell phone. I knew I had a bet
ter shot at this if I got Jasper on my side first. "Hey Edward" I heard him say.
 "Listen Jasper, we need to talk. I want out." I knew he knew what I was talking
about. "Now is not the best time Edward, I'm over at Alice's. We'll talk later,
okay?" "Okay, see you tomorrow Jazz" and I hung up. I was a little worried at h
ow this conversation was going to go, but it was my only option at this point. H
opefully nothing goes wrong.
Chapter 9
BPOV
As I got to school and sat down at the picnic table I couldn't keep the smile of
f my face or my mind off of Edward. My thoughts kept drifting back to the dream
I had last night only this time I let my imagination pick up where my dream had
left off.
"You're blushing, what are you thinking about?" I jumped; I hadn't even noticed
that Edward had gotten here. "Edward, you scared me." my hand went over my heart
.
"Sorry" he picked up my hand and kissed each knuckle.
"It's okay" I said smiling at him hoping he would let it go.
"So, are you going to tell me what you were thinking about?" He asked again.
"No" trying hard not to blush again but I knew I was failing as I could feel the
heat on my face.
"No?"
"No."
"It can't be that bad." he smirked
"No, but it could be that embarrassing" I shouldn't have said that out loud beca
use he got a new determined look in his eye.
"Oh well, I have to know now." There was no way I was going to tell him that I w
as having sexual fantasies about him.
"Sorry Edward but there is no way I am going to tell you about my dream" My hand
flew over my mouth; apparently I had no filter today. That heartbreaking grin a
ppeared.
"You um, had a dream about me?"
"No" I lied and blushed some more.
"Don't be embarrassed Bella, last night I had a dream about you too" he said and
this time Edward blushed.
We just stared at each other for a moment and Edward started shifting from foot
to foot nervously. "Bella" he paused then he looked down at the ground "I was wo
ndering if you would like to go out with me this Friday?"
I cheered internally. "Yeah, I would like that." I couldn't help the smile on my
face, yet again. "Great" he looked relieved. We talked for a few more minutes b
efore he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the bench. He intertwined our fingers
as he walked me to my first class.
Once we got there he kissed my hand again before saying goodbye. I sat down at m
y desk and looked up to see Alice walking in.
"Hey Bella" she said as she took the seat next to me that was usually vacant. "H
i Alice." "Soooooo, what happened on the ride home with Edward?" she asked.
"Nothing much, um we just talked .." I trailed off. "And?" she coaxed. "And he kis
sed me on the cheek after he walked me to the door."
"Oooooh, now we're getting somewhere, has he asked you out yet?" she beamed. "Um
yeah he did ask this morning." I just gave up on the trying not to blush thing,
there was just no hope. "And you said yes right?" she practically begged.
"Yes Alice, I did" Mr. Banner started class then. Edward met me at my locker bef
ore lunch and held my hand on the way to the cafeteria. He led us to our private
table again. That didn't matter though because almost as soon as we sat down Al
ice, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper came over and sat with us. I thought I heard Ed
ward groan.
Lunch was much the same as the dinner we had last night, conversation was effort
less, and it feels like I have known them all for years. I felt like I belonged.
They only strange things were the looks I kept getting from Emmett and even som
etimes Jasper. It wasn't bad or anything, they were both really nice and I felt
like they liked me, it was just odd like they were trying to figure something ou
t. Maybe they were just trying to get to know me better. I will have to make sur
e that I ask Edward about it later. It was hard to believe that only a week ago
Edward Cullen came into my life it feels like it has been this way for forever.
After school was out, I saw Edward waiting for me at my truck. "Hey" he said whe
n I got closer. "Hey" I replied back. "Um, I have plans with Jasper today but I
was wondering if you wanted to do something after school tomorrow?" He looked ho
peful.
"I would like that Edward but I am tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays." His face
fell slightly. "Oh, Okay" I responded probably too quickly "Why don't you call
me when you get home?" He smiled "I definitely will." He gave me a hug goodbye a
nd a quick kiss on the check.
It was about 6:00pm when the phone rang. I was about to reach for it but Charlie
beat me to it. "Hello?" I heard him say. I looked up to see a confused look on
his face. "May I ask who is calling?" Oh no. Both eyebrows shot up "Just a minut
e Edward, I will see if she is available." I reached my hand out for the phone a
nd quickly went upstairs. I was shocked to see that we had talked for almost 3 h
ours. I told him I had to go and get my homework done but would see him tomorrow
.
The next day was much the same, walking to class with Edward holding my hand, ea
ting lunch with everyone, though this time, no strange looks from Jasper and ver
y few from Emmett.
After school Edward met me at my locker. We were saying goodbye when Jason walke
d over to us. "Hi Bella" he smiled and stood close beside me. "Hi Jason" I was a
bout to introduce them when I looked over to see the glare Edward was giving him
. If looks could kill.
Jason extended his hand, "Jason Newton" he said to Edward who had not stopped gl
aring. "Edward Cullen" he replied as he shook his hand. They were both white knu
ckled and weren't even really shaking hands; it was more like they just had a de
ath grip on each other.
"I'm going to grab my stuff; do you want to meet me at my locker?" Jason asked.
"Um sure I will meet you there." I said. He turned around and walked away. I loo
ked back to Edward to see his glare was replaced by sadness?"
"Wh-who was that? He stuttered. So adorable. "Oh, that was Jason he is the sopho
more I am tutoring". Relief was clear in Edwards eyes but he quickly furrowed hi
s brows again. He was quiet for a minute before he spoke again. "Right, Jason Ne
wton, he is supposed to bring Forks basketball to the championships again or som
ething."
"Yeah he mentioned something about that he hopes to make varsity this year." I r
etold what I had heard from Jason. "Well if he is as good as his older brother s
upposedly was he probably will." he said.
At the mention of Mike I cringed. Edward noticed because he asked me if I was ok
ay. "Yeah, I'm fine." I didn't want to go into that story. I wasn't sure if he k
new since he hadn't started Forks high yet at the time everything happened. Thou
gh he could have very well heard about it from other people. Either way I wasn't
about to get into it with him.
"I'd better go." I said as I reached up for a hug. "Okay, I'll call you later."
I looked over his shoulder to see Jessica glaring at me when she was walking by.
She rolled her eyes when he kissed me on the forehead. Great.
I was heading to Jason's locker which was right next to the classroom we were to
use. His back was to me but he was talking to someone I couldn't see. When I wa
s close enough for him to hear me, he turned around. "There you are Bella, are y
ou ready?"
I was about to answer when I saw who he was talking to. Seriously? Jessica was s
tanding there with her hand on his arm. "I'll wait for you in the classroom" I m
umbled. I had to pass Jessica to get inside and I could hear her quietly sneer "
Slut"
EPOV
My alarm woke me up to another Monday morning. It was hard to believe that it ha
s only been a week since I first met Bella. It feels like it has been many lifet
imes. She has been constantly on my mind since the first time we ate lunch in th
e library. Now, as of last night she is starring in my dreams. Luckily for me I
had my own bathroom so it will be easier to take care of the raging hard-on I wo
ke up to without any interruptions.
I turned on the water and got undressed. I stepped into the shower and closed my
eyes. I gripped my cock firmly in my palm. I slid my hand down the shaft slowly
stroking back up, tightening a little as I neared the head. I pictured Bella an
d imagined she was with me. Bella Stroke. Yes Edward? Stroke. I want you. Stroke
. I pictured her kneeling in front of me licking her lips. Stroke. I want you in
my mouth. Stroke. I started moving my hand faster and faster, harder and harder
. I want to taste you. Stroke. I grabbed my balls with the other hand and massag
ed them. Bellllaaaaaa I groaned as I came on the shower wall.
When I got to school Bella was sitting at our usual morning spot with a smile on
her lips and a blush on her checks. I love her blush.
"You're blushing, what are you thinking about?" that made her even more red. She
was reluctant to tell me but then let it slip that she had a dream about me. I
was wondering if it was anything like the one I had last night about her. Yeah R
ight!
She seemed embarrassed by that and I didn't want her to feel bad so I told her t
hat I had also dreamt about her.
That seemed to make her feel better and while we stared at each other in silence
I got up the nerve to ask her out. Before I had a chance to get too nervous wai
ting for her reply she agreed. At lunch everyone sat with us. Though Bella seeme
d to enjoy that, I really wanted to spend more time with just her. I met Bella a
t her truck after school thinking about how I could do just that.
I told her about my plans with Jasper for today but asked if we could hang out t
omorrow. Unfortunately she has tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays but she told m
e to call her when I got home tonight.
I saw Jasper at his car so I walked over. "Hey Jazz, can I still come over today
?"
"Huh? oh, yeah, sure Edward that's probably a good idea. I'll meet you there." W
e got to his house about the same time. We walked in the front door. "Hi kids" h
is mom said. "Good afternoon Mrs. Whitlock." She smiled. "We'll be up in my room
mom." Jasper told her.
We barely made it to his room when the doorbell rang. Whoever it was came in; I
could hear the faint voices coming from downstairs. Not even a minute later ther
e was a knock on Jasper's bedroom door. The door opened and Felix was standing t
here with what he said was some of Jasper's camping gear he forgot in Felix's tr
uck.
I was getting impatient for him to leave when he sat down on Jasper's bed. Mrs.
Whitlock appeared in the doorway asking us if we wanted to stay for dinner. I in
ternally groaned when Felix accepted.
"Uh Jazz, I'm gonna head out." He gave me and apologetic look. "Okay man, look,
we'll talk about this soon, I promise. I want to deal with this too. Tomorrow an
d Wednesday are out but how about Thursday after school. Alice is coming over fo
r dinner but we can talk before she gets here."
"Thanks Jasper"
I got home and Rosalie was there as usual. She spends most days here and usually
stayed for dinner. Apparently her mom works swing shift and her dad doesn't liv
e with them so of course Esme insisted that she stay with us. We all hung out to
gether and after dinner I called Bella.
We ended up talking for 3 hours and not once running out of things to say. She i
s so intriguing. I love talking to her.
The next day I took every opportunity to walk her to class, hold her hand, or to
kiss her beautiful face. She didn't seem to have any problem with me doing thes
e things so I did them every chance I got.
School was over and I met her at her locker. I knew she was tutoring someone tod
ay and I didn't want to make her late. I was just about to say goodbye when some
jackass walked over to where we were standing. He said hi to Bella and stood wa
y to close to her. I felt my heart sink. Who is this guy and what does he mean t
o Bella.
She would have told me if she was seeing someone right? I mean she holds my hand
and lets me kiss her so this guy couldn't be a boyfriend or anything. Who the h
ell is he? I was just staring at him. I heard Bella say something to him but I c
ouldn't focus on that as I saw him put an arm around her back.
"Jason Newton" he stuck his hand out. "Edward Cullen" I shook his hand. He said
something about meeting Bella at his locker. I felt like I was going to throw up
. He walked away and Bella turned back to me.
"Who was that?" I asked needing to know this information as soon as possible. "O
h, that was Jason he is the sophomore I am tutoring". I felt better immediately.
Of course I knew she was tutoring today. Oh yeah, Jason Newton, he is suppose t
o be some basketball prodigy or something, just like his older brother was a few
years ago.
."Right, Jason Newton, he is supposed to bring Forks basketball to the champions
hips again or something."
"Yeah he mentioned something about that he hopes to make varsity this year." Bel
la told me. Hmmm he is trying to make a move. This guy was trouble, he obviously
finds her attractive. I mean who wouldn't. I needed to make sure this guy knew
that she was with me. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for him.
"Well if he is as good as his older brother supposedly was he probably will." I
mumbled. I noticed that she cringed when I said that. I asked her if she was oka
y, she said she was but she didn't seem fine to me. I will have to ask Alice abo
ut that later and see if she knows anything.
"I'd better go." She said as she reached up for a hug. "Okay, I'll call you late
r." I told her as I kissed her on her forehead. I turned around and walked out t
o my car.
That night I talked to her on the phone almost as long as I had the night before
I wanted to ask her more about what happened earlier but I didn't want to push
it. I asked her about her life before I came to Forks. She didn't say much other
than she pretty much kept to herself and didn't have many friends.
I told her I found it hard to believe because she was the most amazing person I
had ever met. She laughed at that but said she thought I was the only one that f
elt that way. I quickly told her that that wasn't the case and that Alice and Ro
salie really liked her too, as well as Jasper and Emmett.
It was true too, Alice and Rosalie both told me how much they like her and I cou
ld tell that Jasper and Emmett do too just by the way they acted around her. Whi
ch is why I really wanted to get this "situation" cleared up as soon as possible
. Finally it was Thursday and I was going to talk to Jasper after school today.
We got to his room and shut the door. Okay, here it goes. I took a deep breath.
"Jasper, I want out, I really really like Bella a lot. I never really even wante
d to take the bet in the first place. I never planned on following through with
it." I paused. "I'm not the type of person that could do that to another person.
I know that I come across that way sometimes because I had dated a lot of girls
, but it was just that I never found anyone I really wanted to be with. I have a
lways been envious that you and Emmett found girls that are so perfect for you w
ithout even really trying. I wanted that for myself too. I tried to find it but
didn't."
Jasper interrupted me then. "Then why did you even approach her in the first pla
ce Edward?" I took another deep breath.
"I don't know, I mean at first I thought there wouldn't be any harm in getting t
o know her. I had never had any classes with her before so I asked Alice if she
knew anything about her. She said that Bella was a little shy and kept to hersel
f but seemed nice enough. And then I thought about it, here is this beautiful gi
rl who was nice and didn't throw herself at guys like so many of the other girls
here do. She really was different than the other girls at the school. I just di
dn't notice her before not because she wasn't worth noticing but because our pat
hs never crossed. And now that she was brought to my attention, even though it w
as due to this stupid bet why not take a chance and find out. Had I just learned
of her in a different way I would have eventually approached her anyway." I let
out a deep breath. "I made a mistake; I should have said no immediately especia
lly when I decided to take the chance to get to know her."
"You're right, you did make a mistake. Bella is a nice girl and I do actually li
ke her. And more importantly I can tell that you really do to. I made a mistake
too when I agreed and got in on this whole bet thing. We were all wrong and I th
ink that it would be best if we just forgot about the whole thing. We need to ta
lk to Emmett as soon as possible, but I don't think that it will be too hard to
convince him. I think he likes her too and is also feeling a little guilty."
I let out a deep breath. "Thank you so much for understanding Jazz, I just don't
think I would survive it if I lost Bella now."
"No problem Edward, I think that you guys are good for each other. And I know I
have never seen you so happy."
I got up then and headed for the door. I paused before I put my hand on the door
knob.
"I am, I can't believe that we were so stupid as to even make a bet about a pers
on, especially about someone as great as Bella." I turned the knob and opened th
e door only to smack right into someone.
Fuuuuuuuck, Alice
Chapter 10
EPOV
I just stood there and stared. I didn't know what to do. How long was she standi
ng there for? Did she hear our conversation? It didn't take long for me to get m
y answer. Suddenly I found myself lying on my back with blood pouring out of my
nose. I blinked a few times to try and register what just happened. I focused my
eyes and met Alice's furious glare as she was being pulled off of me by Jasper.
If the situation wasn't so completely messed up I would have laughed when I saw
Alice throw her elbow back and hit Jasper square in the jaw. I sat up trying not
to get blood on the Jasper's carpet.
Alice looked between the both of us not saying a word; she turned around and wal
ked right out the bedroom door. Shit. I tried to run after her to stop her but I
quickly turned and ran for the bathroom. Blood was still running down my face a
s I threw up into the toilet.
A few minutes later she came back in throwing a towel at me. "Thanks" I said qui
etly as we walked back into Jasper's bedroom. She closed the door behind us and
took a seat on his bed. She didn't say anything as she again looked back and for
th between Jasper and me while shaking her head.
None of us spoke. I didn't know what to say. It was silent for what seemed like
hours though it actually could have been that long for all I knew. Finally a tea
r rolled down her cheek.
"Alice"
"Don't" she said closing her eyes.
"Alice" I tried again after a few minutes.
"Nothing you say could make this right Edward."
"Please Alice, just listen to me." I pleaded.
"Why should I?" she shot back.
"Because I don't think you understand." That set her off.
"I don't understand?" she looked at me in disbelief. "No you don't understand Ed
ward, Bella is my friend." Luckily Jasper interrupted then. "Alice, how much did
you hear? He asked. At least that took the focus off of me for a minute.
"How could you Jasper?" She was almost crying now, oh this is not good. Duh Edwa
rd what gave you that idea I thought to myself.
"Alice, please just hear us out" he paused and she didn't say anything. "For me
Alice, please."
She sighed but was still didn't speak. I started again, a little more carefully
with my words this time.
"Alice I don't think that you heard the entire conversation."
"What more do I need to hear Edward?"
"The truth."
"Yeah, well I think that I got the gist of that already."
"Did you hear the part about how much I care for Bella, and how it was a mistake
, and how I came here to get out of the bet?" Again she just sighed and closed h
er eyes. She sat like that for several minutes. When she opened her eyes and loo
ked at me again, she looked resigned to listen.
"Okay, let's hear it."
I started from the beginning and went through everything up to being punched in
the face.
"What the hell were you thinking? Both of you? Especially after everything she h
as already been through?" What was she talking about?
"What do you mean 'what she has already been through'?"
"That's not my story to tell, and I don't even know the whole truth myself" now
she isn't making any sense.
"What are you talking about Alice?"
"All I can say is that before you moved to Forks Bella didn't always keep to her
self, she had friends, most everyone liked her, and was a lot more outgoing." Sh
e paused.
"But?" I tried to get her to continue.
"But something happened our sophomore year, like I said it isn't my story to tel
l. But what I can say is that there was a party about half way through the schoo
l year that the basketball team was having, I didn't go so I wasn't there to see
for myself. All I know is the following Monday the rumors had started about her
and they weren't very nice. After that she closed herself off to everyone, not
that they gave her a lot of choice. I hadn't been that close to Bella back then,
we just ran in different circles and had different friends. There was never a p
roblem between us or anything, like I said most everyone liked her but we just d
idn't hang out.
She was dumped by pretty much everyone including her best friend for something t
hat probably didn't even happen so she understandably has some trust issues.
Son of a bitch. I just sat and processed what Alice had told me. I didn't notice
that she had left the room until a few minutes later she handed me some ice for
my face.
"Here, your nose is still bleeding." I wasn't concerned about that at all; I was
just trying to come up with a way to make this all just go away. Alice pulled m
e from my thoughts.
"Do you know what you are going to say to Bella?" she asked. What!
"What?"
"What are you going to say to Bella?" she asked again.
"Nothing Alice!"
"Nothing? Edward you have to tell her!" she was getting louder
"No I don't"
"Yes you do!" she was standing up now.
"How can I Alice? Especially after everything you just told me? She'll hate me"
"You don't have a choice" she insisted
"Yes I do Alice, this would crush her." I was trying desperately to make her und
erstand.
"What if she finds out Edward? What then huh? It would be far worse."
"She won't find out Alice"
"Edward, think this through, I found out and I am guessing that I wasn't suppose
to either."
"Look, there are only four of us that know I am going to talk to Emmett about th
is when I get home, and she doesn't have to find out about this EVER!
She sighed again, shaking her head back and forth.
"I can't keep this from her" Alice mumbled
"Please, Alice, I am begging you please!"
"No Edward"
"Alice, think of Bella"
"I am"
"No, you are thinking of yourself and how to clear your conscious. No good can c
ome of this. It would only hurt her, you know that, please"
"I don't know" she was starting to waver
"Please, look you know how much she means to me" I was scrambling. "The bet was
the only way I got to meet her, like fate or something otherwise we probably wou
ldn't have even met" I was reaching now and I knew it but I had to try anything
to get Alice to see my side and agree to keep this quiet.
She was shaking her head again. Luckily Jasper stepped in. "He might be right Al
ice, you know none of us would ever tell, she really doesn't have to know"
"But I would" she said softly.
"Yes, we all would but isn't it worth keeping the secret to save Bella unnecessa
ry pain?" I pleaded again. I could feel the tears running down my face now.
Alice looked up at me then. "I don't like this Edward."
"I know but will you do it Ali?"
"You better not make me regret this."
"Is that a yes?"
"Fine, but I swear that if you ever do anything like this again it will be a lot
worse then a punch in your face."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I could finally breathe again.
I was just pulling out of Jasper's drive way when I got a text from Bella.
"Edward, I'm home now, call me when you can-Bella.
"Bella- I'm on my way home I'll call you in a little while. I miss you! Edward
E- Miss you too-Bella
As soon as Rosalie left for the night I went in to talk with Emmett. It was much
the same as it was with Jasper and much to my amazement Emmett felt the same wa
y. He was all for just forgetting the whole thing, he too really likes Bella and
was unbelievably understanding.
My only concern was that when I explained how Alice had found out Emmett asked i
f we were going to tell Rosalie.
"I'm sorry Emmett but I can't chance having anyone else know about this."
"I understand I just really hate keeping anything from her." He said.
"You didn't have any trouble keeping the original bet from her." I reminded him
"Yeah I know but that was different, Alice is in on this now so it just feels li
ke I'm betraying her or something."
"Emmett, I need to know if you can keep this a secret or not. This is really imp
ortant to me. Can you do it?"
"Of course I can, it's just I don't like it."
"Me either"
He just told me that I would owe him for some future event and had to promise no
t to take any of his money again. I told him that would be no problem since I wa
s never going to make another bet again.
I went to my room and laid down on my bed realizing how very lucky I was. I woul
d not mess this up and would do everything I could to try and be good enough for
Bella. Tomorrow on our date I am going to ask her to be my girlfriend.
As I wrapped the gift I had bought for Bella I was thinking of things we could d
o for tomorrow. I decided to call her and see if there was something special she
wanted to do or if I should just surprise her. Either way would be fine I was j
ust really looking forward to giving her the gift; I don't think I can go wrong
with it. At least I hope not anyway.
I dialed her number hoping that Charlie didn't answer again.
"Hey Beautiful, how was your afternoon? Did Jason behave himself?" I asked in a
teasing tone but was also really wanted to know. I hope she didn't pick up on my
irritation.
BPOV
"Hey Beautiful, how was your afternoon? Did Jason behave himself?"
Hmmm If I didn't know any better I would say Edward was a little jealous. The ir
ritation was clear in his voice as he mentioned Jason.
"Of course Edward, I am just his tutor." I said laughing
"Well I know that, but does he?" he said sounding even more annoyed. I had to ca
ll him on it.
"Are you jealous Edward?" I teased.
"Yes" wow that was not what I was expecting to hear him say.
"There is no need for you to be jealous" I told him.
"So, are you saying I have nothing to worry about?" again with the adorable
"Nothing at all" I tried to assure him, but still trying to figure out if he was
completely serious.
"Good, so is there anything special you would like to do tomorrow night or shoul
d I just surprise you?"
"Well how about you surprise me but give me a heads up on what to wear so I am n
ot too out of place."
"Deal, I will let you know tomorrow, I really can't wait."
"Me neither Edward, I better go but I will see you in the morning."
"Okay, see you in the morning, goodnight sweetheart"
"Goodnight Edward."

Chapter 11
BPOV
I had just gotten off the phone with Edward when I realized that I hadn't even t
old Charlie about my date for tomorrow night. I know he has been dying to ask me
more about my new friends but I could tell he didn't want to push me.
I went downstairs to find him watching ESPN again. "Hey Dad, um can I talk to yo
u for a minute?"
"Sure Bells, what's up?" he grabbed the flipper and hit mute. "Well I just wante
d to let you know that I have a date tomorrow night." I kept my eyes on the floo
r. "Oh?" I could hear the smile in his voice. I thought I would chance a look at
him then. He had a huge smile on his face. Hmmm maybe this would be easier than
I thought.
Then as if he realized what that actually meant his face fell slightly and he sh
ifted nervously. "With who?" he tried to ask casually but was failing miserably.
"Edward Cullen" I smiled at him. "Oh, is that the guy that called here the other
day?" he pretended that he didn't know. I knew better.
"Yeah" I tried to be just as casual. "So where are you going?" Crap. "I actually
don't know he's going to surprise me I think." "Hmmmm, but he will be picking y
ou up?"
"I think so" I looked at him suspiciously knowing exactly what he meant. "Perfec
t, I will just talk to him about it when he gets here then." He smirked. Great
"Dad, you're not going to embarrass me are you?" of course he will I mumbled to
myself.
"Of course I won't Bells." "Just promise me that you will be nice. He's importan
t."
"So that Alice girl that you went to the spa with that was Alice Cullen?" "Yes d
ad, they are cousins" better he get this out of his system now.
"Is that how you met Edward then, through Alice?" he turned his attention back t
o the TV even though the sound was still off. "No, actually I met Edward first."
"Oh" I could tell he wanted to ask for more information but thankfully he let it
drop. "Well, I'm going to bed dad, see you tomorrow." "Goodnight Bells and I am
glad to see you are making friends again, I think it's good for you."
"Me too." I went up stairs and went to bed.
EPOV
"Mom, Dad, can I talk to you for a minute" I asked as I walked into the kitchen.
"Sure Edward what's up?" my dad asked. "Well I have a favor to ask."
"What is it sweetie?" my mom smiled. "Well, I have a date tomorrow night and I w
anted to cook her dinner, so do you think that you guys could go out or somethin
g, it would be easier if no one else was here."
"Ah, I was wondering when you were gonna ask her out." I heard Emmett come aroun
d the corner. "But are you really going to cook for her, I mean that's kind of g
irly, don't you think?" he laughed.
"Emmett, that is actually very sweet. You might want to take a page from your br
other's book. I bet Rosalie would love for you to doing something that." My mom
spoke right up
"Who are you going out with Edward?" my dad asked. "Bella Swan" "Oh Charlie's da
ughter?" He asked. "Yeah, so could you guys just find something else to do from
about 5:30 until about 8:00? Then I'm going to take her somewhere after that.
"Oooohhh Eddie how romantic" Emmett mocked me. "Shut up" I glared at my brother.
"Well, I am going out with Rose, so you don't have to worry about me."
"Thanks Em. So mom, dad will you do it?" "Well Esme, how about I take you out on
a date tomorrow too? I can't let me sons show me up"
"I would love to" my mom said as she reached over to kiss my dad. "Ew, can you g
uys
Please not do that in front of me" My dad chuckled as he walked out of the room.
"Mom? Do you think you could help me, you know get stuff ready?"
"Of course dear, we'll get started right after school." "Thanks mom, goodnight."
BPOV
I couldn't wait for school to get out I was so excited about tonight. Edward tol
d to dress warm and that he would pick me up at 530. Alice was going to come ove
r after school to help me get ready.
"Do you know what you're going to wear tonight Bella?" she asked.
"Well, Edward said to dress warm so I was planning on jeans and a sweater. Do yo
u think that is okay" I asked as we pulled up to my house.
"I think that's perfect, though it would be a lot better if you knew exactly wha
t he was planning." We walked up to the door. "That's, my fault really, I told E
dward to surprise me." As soon as we got inside Charlie was waiting. I knew he w
as planning on getting home early but he was practically waiting by the door whe
n I got home from school.
"Hey Bells" he turned to Alice then. "Oh hi I'm Bella's dad." He was lit up like
a Christmas tree. "Nice to meet you Mr. Swan, I'm Alice Cullen."
"Nice to meet you too Alice, but please call me Charlie." "Dad, were going to my
room." I said as we headed upstairs. "Alice, I'm going to take a shower, do you
want to look through my closet, I have a few different things in mind but I'm n
ot sure which one I want to wear."
"Sure, I brought a few things over too in case you want to try some things on, a
nd Rosalie will be here soon, she just wanted to run home and get some stuff fro
m her house also."
"I don't know how to thank you guys." I took a quick shower and when I got out b
oth girls were looking through piles of clothes. I had already put on my new bra
and underwear set I got from shopping last weekend at Alice's party.
"Okay Bella, we have made piles of different outfits, why don't you start trying
things on and we'll see which one looks best." After going threw about 20 diffe
rent combinations we found one that we all agreed on. Both Alice and Rosalie hel
ped me with my hair and makeup and it was just about 5:00 when they left.
I was starting to get a little nervous mostly about my dad and what he was going
to say when he met Edward. I didn't think it would be too bad, but still. I got
my shoes and coat and waited on the couch downstairs.
The doorbell rang a few minutes before 5:30, I tried to get to the door first bu
t Charlie beat me to it.
EPOV
I got home from school and Esme was waiting for me. "Do you know what you want t
o make yet?" she asked. "Yeah, I thought we could make your famous mushroom ravi
oli." I was so glad my mom was going to help me with the dinner. I was really st
arting to get nervous.
"Okay dear, let's run to the store and get the stuff we need and we'll get start
ed when we get back." We headed out to the car. "Thanks for doing this mom, I re
ally appreciate it."
"I'm glad you asked Edward, this really is a nice idea, you know this is what yo
ur dad did for me on our first date." She told the story so often there was no w
ay I could forget.
"I know mom, that's what gave me the idea." We got back from the store and went
straight to the kitchen. "Edward honey, why don't you set the table and I will g
et started on the salad." That should be easy enough. "Thanks mom"
I got out the good ones the ones we only use at Christmas and set the table. I p
ut candles out; got some of my CD's from my room and brought them downstairs nex
t to the stereo. My dad came home then. "Hey Edward, you know when I had my mom
help me with my first date with your mom, she had me put candles around the room
along with some flower pedals." He handed me a bag. "Don't put these out until
Emmett leaves or you wont here the end of it." He winked at me. "Thanks dad"
"Edward, everything is ready to go, you just need to put the breadsticks in the
oven for 10 minutes, the sauce is in the pan, all you have to do is heat it up,
and the let the ravioli cook for about 15 minutes."
"Thanks again mom, I am going to go pick up Bella now, you guys will be gone whe
n I get back right?" my mom looked like she wanted to stay but luckily dad inter
jected. "Yes Edward, I will make sure we are gone by then. Have fun tonight"
"I will". I pulled up to Bella's house and rang the doorbell. Chief Swan answere
d the door. "Hello Edward, come on in." I walked through the door "Thank you Chi
ef Swan."
"Call me Charlie" he smiled. I wasn't sure exactly what I had expected but he se
emed so friendly. "Thank you Charlie." I looked over at Bella then she looked am
azing. "Bella, you look beautiful" I couldn't stop staring.
"Thanks Edward, are you ready to go?" she asked it couldn't be that easy could i
t? "Bells, why don't you get us something to drink" "Dad" she gave him a strange
look.
"Bells" he looked right back at her. She turned and walked into the kitchen. "Ed
ward, where do you plan on taking Bella tonight?" "Well sir, I was planning on m
aking dinner at my house and then I was going to take her ice skating" he smirke
d at me, and chuckled a little. "Skating huh? Well, good luck with that" He chuc
kled again.
"Her curfew is at 12:30" Bella walked in then with drinks for us. "We'll be back
by then sir." "Have a good time kids, nice meeting you Edward." We left without
drinking anything. It was kind of weird but I was glad to get going.
"You too sir." We walked out the door. "So where are we going?" Bella asked.
"First we are having dinner." She looked so beautiful it was hard to concentrate
on driving. "I hope I'm dressed okay." She frowned slightly.
"You're perfect" we pulled up to the house then. Bella just looked confused.
"I'm making you dinner here." I said as I helped her out of the car.
BPOV
Wow, that was unexpected. We walked into his house. There were rose pedals scatt
ered everywhere. He took me hand and led me to the living room lighting candles
along the way.
"Have a seat here and I will get dinner ready." He turned on the stereo on his w
ay.
"Is there anything I can do to help Edward?" I got up and walked into the kitche
n. "You just relax, I have everything under control. Dinner should be ready in a
bout a half hour."
I leaned up against the counter and watched him work. He really was amazing. Not
too
much longer the timer went off. "Come with me" He grabbed my hand again and took
me to the dinning room table, again lighting the candles that were there. He br
ought the food out then, and took a seat next to me.
Dinner was fantastic I was really impressed not only that he went to so much tro
uble but it was really good. I had no idea that he could cook.
"Edward, dinner was incredible! Where did you learn to cook like this?" he start
ed to clear the table. "Well actually I had some help" he blushed a little. I go
t up to help him.
"Thank you" he said as he piled the dishes in the sink.
"Do you want a tour of the house?" he asked "Sure" he took my hand again and we
headed upstairs. "This is Esme and Carlisle's room." He pointed to the room next
to us. "Emmett's room, Carlisle's study, and this is my room" We walked in. "Th
is is really nice Edward." He just stared at me.
"I have something for you." He walked over to his closet and took it out. Whatev
er it was it was wrapped. "Edward, you really didn't have to do this." I looked
at him again to see him staring straight into my eyes with a very intense look.
I could feel my stomach and my pulse react.
"I wanted to Bella, I hope you like it." I sat down on his bed and opened the pa
ckage. It was a new copy of my favorite book, Wuthering Heights. "I noticed your
copy is worn out and pretty much falling apart." He was looking at me intensely
again.
"Thank you Edward, this is so sweet." I opened the front cover to find that he h
ad written an inscription.
Dearest Bella,
I wanted to let you know how very much you mean to me. I thought that you were t
he most beautiful women I had ever laid eyes on the first time I saw you. The fi
rst time I heard your voice, it reminded me of angels singing. The first convers
ation we had you made me laugh. As I got to know you better I soon found out tha
t you are so selfless, caring, thoughtful, intelligent and the most amazing pers
on I have ever known. I realize that we have only been in each others lives for
a relatively short period of time but I have felt drawn to you from the beginnin
g. I hope that you feel the same way because I want you to be mine. I want to be
able to let everyone know that you are only with me.
Bella, will you be my girlfriend?
Edward
I looked up at Edward then and he was looking at me and I could tell he was star
ting to get nervous. He took my hand again and pulled me up to him. His hands ca
me up to cup by face. We just stared at each other for what seemed like eternity
.
"Will you Bella? Will you be my girlfriend?" he looked so hopeful. "Yes Edward,
I would love to be your girlfriend." The heartbreaking smile appeared on his fac
e again.
He pulled my face closer to his, our mouths were only an inch apart. "May I?" I
nodded.
He moved slowly towards me until his lips softly touched mine. I responded immed
iately and pressed in further and opened my mouth slightly. Edward then pulled m
y body flush with his and one arm wrapped tightly around my waist. I stifled a m
oan as his tongue brushed my bottom lip. I couldn't stop myself as I slide my to
ngue in his mouth.
We continued kissing for another minute. We finally broke apart and Edward pulle
d me into a tight hug. "Maybe we should head downstairs." He said. "Yeah, that m
ight be a good idea." We walked back down to the kitchen. Edward stopped and loo
ked at me again. "Thank you Bella, I can't tell you how happy you have made me."
He kissed me for the second time.
"You have made me happy too Edward, thank you for a wonderful time." "The night
isn't over yet. I have something else planned for us." I reached for his hand th
is time and after we blew out all the candles and grabbed our coats we walked ou
t to the car.
"Where are we going now?" I questioned. "You'll see." We drove for only a few mi
nutes before pulling up to an ice skating rink. Edward smirked. "Are you ready?"
I was feeling pretty brave and was in such a good mood I got out of the car and
was ready for anything.
As we were lacing up our skates I almost fell down before we even got on the ice
I looked up to Edward. "You do realize that I will be holding onto you the enti
re time, right?" He just grinned. "That was the plan after all" I just rolled my
eyes.
As soon as we stepped out onto the ice, I immediately lost my balance. Luckily E
dward held me up. We skated if you can call it that around the rink. Edward wasn
't much better than I was and we fell often. Most of the time I ended up pulling
him on top of me. He never let go of my hand.
I was having a really good time. We laughed most of the night, but after a while
our feet were getting sore and Edwards pants were pretty wet. "Why aren't your
pants as wet as mine" he whined.
"Probably because when I land on you, you don't let me up right away and you jus
t stay lying on the ice." I shook my head at him. "Well it's worth it then." It
was getting pretty late and I knew we were going to have to be heading home. We
pulled up to my house but neither of us made a move to get out.
"Thank you Edward, I had the best time tonight. Everything was perfect." "It was
perfect, but only because I was with you." He leaned in to kiss me again. This
time he kissed my jaw and trailed kisses from just under my ear to my mouth and
back again.
He kissed my lips again when the porch light flickered on and off. Way to be sub
tle Charlie. "I guess I better get you inside." Edward frowned. "You don't have
to ya know."
"If I want Charlie to let you go out with me again I think I better." With that
he got out of the car and opened my door for me.
We walked up to the front door. I hugged Edward and leaned in for one more kiss.
"Goodnight Edward" "Goodnight Sweetheart, will you call me tomorrow?"
"Of course" he kissed my hand, turned and walked back to his car. He waved as he
got in and I watched him drive away. Charlie opened the door then.
"So did you have a nice time?" he asked expectantly. "Yes dad I really did" We b
oth headed upstairs and went to bed.
Disclaimer: I do not own twilight.
Chapter 12
BPOV
The next two months went by in a blur. Time seemed to be speeding up. The six of
us had gotten extremely close. Well I'm sure the others were already close but
now it was like they were my family too. I was just as close to Jasper and Emmet
t as I was to Alice and Rosalie. At any given point during the day I was spendin
g time with some or all of them.
Tutoring was going pretty well too, Jason was really improving and basketball se
ason was starting in a couple of weeks and I knew he had to have his grades up b
y then if he wanted to play so he was trying really hard. Edward still didn't li
ke Jason but I'm sure that it wasn't personal rather that he was a guy that I wa
s spending time with. Even though it was only because of school.
I knew Edward was jealous even though he tried not to show it too often. I tried
to make it easier on him by letting Jason know about me and Edward as much as p
ossible. So it kind of surprised me that he showed up at my house.
It was a Saturday afternoon, Emmett was over, we had the same History class and
so we were partners for the semester project. I opened the door and Jason immedi
ately pulled me into a hug. I was pretty surprised and so I pulled back right aw
ay.
"Jason, what are you doing here?" I stepped back from the door and walked over t
o where Emmett was on the couch. He gave me a confused look while looking back a
nd forth between me and Emmett.
"Oh, I didn't think you had company." He said. That was kind of a strange thing
to say was he expecting me to be alone?
"Yeah Jason this is Emmett Cullen, Emmett this is Jason Newton he is the guy tha
t I have been tutoring. I felt kind of bad for introducing Jason that way, I was
n't sure if he wanted everyone to know that he was being tutored but I felt it w
as necessary to explain since he showed up to my house uninvited.
Emmett got up and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you Jason, I hear you are goi
ng to take the basketball team all the way this year."
"Yeah, that is the plan" Jason said while shaking Emmett's hand. I still wasn't
sure why he had come over.
"So Jason I didn't know that you even knew where I lived." I tried to get him to
explain what he was doing.
"Oh yeah, well I had some good news and I couldn't wait to tell you about it." H
e looked kind of nervous, or maybe like he was trying to come up with any other
reason than the truth as to why he was really here.
"What is it?" I was still trying to figure out his real motivation. Sure we got
along pretty well but I wouldn't have considered him the type of friend to just
drop by since we didn't talk much outside of tutoring.
"Um" he dug into his pocket and pulled out a test with an A on it. "I just wante
d to tell you I got the best grade in the class." He looked down and was sort of
blushing.
"That's great Jason! I knew you could do it." Well maybe it was just about the p
aper after all, he seemed pretty proud of it. Either way I was going to give him
the benefit of the doubt.
"Well I guess I better get going" he mumbled and headed for the door.
"Okay I guess I'll see you Tuesday then, and congratulations." I closed the door
behind him and turned to Emmett. "That was kind of weird." I said as I sat down
again.
"Not really Bella, I think that he has a crush on you." Emmett smirked. Oh no. "
I hope not, Edward will be even more uncomfortable then, not to mention how unco
mfortable I would be." I said thinking about how Edward already acted around Jas
on.
"Nah, he already thinks the guy likes you why do you think he has such a problem
with him now?"
"Well at least we are almost done; obviously he doesn't need me anymore if he is
getting A's." We got back to work. Well at least tried to work, most of the tim
e we spent talking or playing on the wii. After a couple hours my phone rang.
"I miss you" I said into the phone. "Not as much as I miss you" Edward answered
back. Emmett made gagging noises in the background and so I gave him the evil ey
e. "What time do you want to have dinner?" I asked.
Emmett answered first. "I'm hungry now." Edward must have heard him because he s
tarted laughing. "Me and Alice are leaving the library now so we'll pick up Rosa
lie and Jasper and come on over." He said.
"Okay, see you when you get here." It was a normal Saturday night for us. Friday
nights were always date nights and Saturday's alternated between group night ou
t and girls' only night. This one was a group night, it worked out well since I
was already with Emmett and Edward was with Alice working on their history proje
ct.
As soon as I answered the door Edward pulled me in for a kiss. "How was your day
?" he mumbled against my lips.
"Not bad, I kicked Emmett's butt in Mario kart." Emmett frowned "I thought we ag
reed not to mention that to anyone" he said after he stuck his tongue out at me.
I just laughed. "Though something kind of strange did happen." I told Edward. He
was kissing my neck at this point.
"What was that?" he asked in-between kisses.
"Jason stopped by." He froze, and then pulled back far enough to look at my face
. He looked concerned.
"Why?"
"I'm not really sure; he said it was because he wanted to show me that he got an
A on his paper and that he did the best in his class."
"You don't think that that was the reason?" he asked. "Well I think it was, he d
id have the paper with him but he seemed kind of nervous but that could have bee
n because Emmett scares most people."
"Hey, I was perfectly nice" Emmett said from across the room.
"It just seems weird that he came over to tell me instead of just waiting until
Monday and even weirder that I never gave him my address."
"What time did he stop by?" Edward asked. "I think it was around 2:30." I told h
im.
"Huh, that is weird because while Alice and I were at the library we saw him wit
h Jessica Stanley and they were giving us strange looks. I think it was around 2
or so." Jessica . I don't like the sound of that. It's probably nothing but somet
hing about it gave me a funny feeling. I think it's about time that I told Edwar
d what happened 2 years ago.
"Huh." Was all I could say at the time.
"Bella, I think that he has a crush on you." Edward said looking more serious. "
That's what Emmett thinks too. But don't worry I only have a 2 more weeks of tut
oring and we wont have to worry about him anymore." I tried to reassure him.
We didn't talk about it the rest of the night. The next day Edward came over wit
h stack of college brochures and some applications. We had briefly talked about
college and where we wanted to go but it was time to make some choices and get o
ur applications in.
Charlie was out fishing for the day. He had been spending a lot more time with h
is friends lately. I think that was in direct result of me having friends of my
own. I hadn't really thought about it before but it was clear now. I am really g
lad it worked out this way now I would feel a lot less guilty for going away to
college.
"Okay, where do you want to start?" Edward asked as he spread papers all across
the dinning room table. "I'm not sure." I said looking at the many different sta
cks of paper.
We spent hours going over all the different options. By the end of the day we ha
d each applied to quite a few places but the ones that I was really hoping to ge
t into were either Portland State or Washington State University. Edward said hi
s preferences were the same big surprise there. But I knew that he really was ho
ping for Reed College. Reed is a private school but is also located in Portland.
Which I hope works out. I really want him to go where he wants and it doesn't h
urt that it is only 10 minutes from downtown Portland where the Portland State C
ampus is located.
After we got things cleaned up we went to sit on the couch. Charlie wasn't back
yet and so we were just relaxing for a minute. Edward had put my feet in his lap
and he started to rub them. It felt great but what I would much rather have is
a back rub.
"If you're offering massages I wouldn't mind one for my back." I hinted. He smil
ed at me. "In that case turn over and lie down." I immediately did what he asked
. I was face down on the couch as Edward straddled me. He was pretty good and I
couldn't help the noises I was making as he worked out some of the knots in my b
ack.
"If you want me to keep this up you're going to have to stop with the moaning."
"Sorry" I mumbled into the cushion.
I didn't realize I had started again until I heard Edward whine. "Belllllaaaaaa"
he leaned over me brushing the hair away from my neck and started kissing it. "
Mmmm, I like this even better." I told him as I managed to turn over onto my bac
k. He was still straddling me.
He leaned over again this time kissing my lips. He was practically laying on top
of me now and so I scooted over a little so we were more side by side. "I like
this a lot better too." He said as he made a trail of kisses down my neck gettin
g closer and closer to my chest.
I moved my hands to his back and rubbed them up and down under his shirt. His bo
dy was incredible. I took one hand and moved it around to his chest. I rubbed by
finger back and forth over his nipples. "Ahhhh Bella"
He moved one of his hands to my hip as the other on slipped under the hem of my
shirt and started up my stomach. When he hit the edge of my bra he took his hand
and started massaging my left breast. "Mmmmmm" was all I could respond. I reach
ed down and started to pull his shirt off.
He sat up a little and pulled it the rest of the way off. I could barely keep my
eyes off his chest. Then he reached down and pulled my shirt off and dropped it
on the floor along side of his. He laid back down and pushed up against me. I c
ould feel his erection hard against my thigh.
He moved his hand back to my breasts and continued massaging them through the fa
bric of my bra. I reached around my back and unhooked the clasps and pulled it o
ff of me adding to the pile of clothes next to us.
"You're so beautiful Bella." Edward said as he leaned down again kissing me. Thi
s time he didn't stop as he kissed his way down to my chest. He propped himself
up on one arm so he could roll one nipple back and forth between his fingers and
take the other one in his mouth. I arched my back and my eyes rolled back sligh
tly.
I reached down and stroked the length of his cock as he moaned. Just then the he
adlights of a car shinned through the window and we heard an engine shut off. Oh
no Charlie's home. We both sat up quickly and pulled our shirts back on has qui
ck as possible. I didn't have time to get my bra on and so I just stuffed it und
er the couch.
Edward moved away from me immediately and pulled by feet back into his lap and s
tarted rubbing them again keeping a safe distance from my body. Charlie walked i
n just then. "Hey kids" I couldn't look at him yet as my face was hot from by bl
ush. "Hi Charlie" Edward called back.
After Edward left for the night and I was lying in bed my mind drifted back to o
ur afternoon on the couch. It wasn't the first time we had done that but we also
had not gone any farther than that either.
It was getting ridiculous of how often Edward was starring in my dreams. It was
almost a nightly occurrence now and I am sure tonight would be no different espe
cially after this afternoon.
When I woke up in the morning I found that that was the case. I found myself rec
alling the dream I had last night as I made my way into the shower.
I woke up in the middle of the night only to find that I wasn't alone. I looked
over and saw that Edward was lying next to me. I was vaguely aware that neither
of us had any clothes on.
His hand was on my hip as he took my bare breast into his mouth. After several m
inutes he pulled back to look at me, he was staring at me with a new intensity.
I kissed his stomach a few times, letting my tongue leave a wet trail behind and
moved my hand to rub his thigh. I could see the rise start under the sheet and
I realized again, how much he wanted me. "Mmmmm." I moaned softly as I reached o
ut to touch his hard length.
"Move to the top of the bed and sit near the headboard." I kissed his jaw and mo
ved down to suck the skin below his ear.
He did as I asked and watched me crawl toward him. I threw one leg over the top
of him so that I was straddling him. He bent so he could again take my breast hi
s mouth. I grabbed his erection, and my hand started moving. He groaned against
me.
"Uh Bella, you're gonna kill me. I've never wanted anyone so much in my life."
"Shhhh .." I said as my fingers on my free hand raked through his hair, bringing h
is mouth to mine. I moved my hips bringing my core over his hardness still held
in my hand, as I started rubbing the head back and forth on my most sensitive pl
ace. "Mmmmm ." I whispered.
"Bella, you're so beautiful." He said against my neck as he sucked on it.
His hand touched between my legs and started rubbing in small circles. "Mmmm, Ed
ward. Do you feel how much I want you?" I asked him.
"You're dripping wet."
He lifted me and slid into me, filling me easily. "You're so tight, and you feel
so amazing." His head fell onto my shoulder as he started to move within me. My
hips rose and fell to meet his slowly.
It was like we were made for each other. My legs curled under me, on the outside
of his hips, and his hands held me as he guided my movements, forwards and back
as our bodies rocked together.
"Oh yeah, Edward .mmm, it feels so good." Each thrust was long and strong, and thi
s position felt so incredible. I wanted to make it last as long as I possibly co
uld.
My arms wrapped around him and I sucked on his lips, and our tongues came togeth
er. I continued to move my hips back and forth against him and he moaned deep in
his throat.
"Oh Bella" He whispered with each thrust his thumbs rubbing my breasts as his ha
nds held me around my ribs. My head fell back as I felt my body begin to tighten
, ready for the inevitable.
"Uhhh Edward, you're making me cum. Uh, uh mmmmm"
I was losing it as I felt the surge of pleasure begin to overtake me. He flipped
me onto my back, our bodies never leaving each other, as he thrust into me hard
er, deeper. I felt him tense. "Ahhhh .." He moaned as he exploded within me.
"Bella, I love you."
It really was getting ridiculous, I was pretty sure I wanted to go a little fart
her with Edward but I was still a little unsure if I wanted to go all the way ye
t. I knew he would never push me in fact he let me take the lead as it was. I wa
s glad that Saturday was girls only night and I was going to talk with Alice and
Rosalie.
Chapter 13
It was Monday and I was having a bad day. It seemed like every time I turned aro
und I'd see Jason around the corner. He was never looking directly at me, but he
was just there. The question is did I just not notice this before or is this a
new behavior?
As I was contemplating that I ran right into Mr. Greene. "Oh Mr. Greene I'm sorr
y I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." I gave him an apologetic smil
e. "Quite all right Miss Swan, I needed to speak with you anyway. "It appears th
at Mr. Newton has done quite well since you began tutoring him and he has manage
d to bring his grades up so your tutoring assignment is over."
I had to say I was glad; I was starting to get a little concerned about his beha
vior. "I am glad that I was able to help." I smiled again "Good afternoon Miss S
wan." I smiled as I continued onto my locker.
I was reaching for my bag when I felt Edward wrap his arms around my waist as he
kissed my neck. "Hi beautiful." I smiled and turned around in his arms. "Hi you
rself." I murmured against his lips. He began kissing my neck and jaw. "Slut" my
eyes flew open to see Jessica walking by.
"Alright, that's it." I walked away from Edward and started for Jessica. This wa
s going to stop. "Oh no you don't." Edward had grabbed me by the waist again and
 held on to me so I couldn't walk any further. "Edward let me go, I'm tired of t
his I let it go on much too long and I'm going to put a stop to it."
"What's been going on too long? You mean Jessica?" I realized then that he might
not know what exactly my problem was. "I know she has been coming on a little s
trong but honestly she hasn't really approached me since we got together." Wait
What?
"What are you talking about Edward?" The look on his face must have been similar
to mine. "What are you talking about?" I realized that this was not the time or
place so I asked him to go to explain first.
"Okay, last year we went out on a couple of dates." I wondered what my face look
ed like because he looked nervous all of the sudden and began again quickly. "No
thing happened, I mean we never even kissed or anything, I only went out with he
r because I was new here and she asked me out. After the second time I realized
that I had no desire to do it again."
That made me feel a little better but still UGH! "So anyway she had been trying
to flirt with me and get me to go out with her again but I of course told her I
wasn't interested. She was pretty persistent until I just started to ignore her.
The last time she even bothered to try was before we started dating so it never
occurred to me to mention it to you."
"So she hasn't tried talking to you since then?" I had to ask even though I was
feeling pretty uncomfortable. "No she hasn't, though I have noticed her around a
lot more lately. It seems like every time I turn around there she is."
"I know the feeling" I said quietly to myself. Luckily Emmett walked up to us at
that point and he didn't press me for any information.
Tuesday went by pretty quickly as well and I was glad to be free of tutoring. I
was on my way to meet Edward when I heard my name being called. "Bella" I turned
around to see Jason standing there. "Where are you going?" Maybe he didn't know
our sessions were over.
"Didn't Mr. Greene tell you? You've improved so much that you don't need me anym
ore." He didn't seem to like that as his face fell into an immediate frown. I he
ard him mumble "Yes I do" but I don't think I was meant to hear that.
I was getting tired of all the strange things going on between him and seemingly
Jessica so I called him on it, just to get it out in the open.
"What did you say?" I asked with an irritated tone. "Nothing" he said back looki
ng past me. "Jason why did you really stop by my house the other day? I get the
feeling there was more to it."
He signed and looked to the ground. "You're right Bella there was another reason
." He paused "then I saw that Emmett Cullen was there and to be honest that guy
scares me and I chickened out."
Hmmmm I just looked at him for a minute. "Well he's not here now, what did you w
ant?"
"Um, well we're having our first basketball game soon and I was really hoping yo
u could go, ya know." Was that was this was about. Still a little suspicious tha
t he felt the need to come over instead of wait for school.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ticket. "I got this for you" he trie
d to hand it to me. "You didn't have to do that" I told him. "Well, I just reall
y wanted you to go." He looked embarrassed. I kind of started to feel sorry for
him.
"Oh, well okay but I can buy my own ticket." There was no way I was going to tak
e one from him. "No really everyone on the team gets one free one and I want you
to have mine." He tried handing it to me again.
"I don't think that Edward would like that very much and besides I would feel be
tter if we just got our own but thanks anyway."
He just stared at me. "We?" I sighed. "Yes Jason we, as in me and Edward. I've t
old you before that he is my boyfriend it shouldn't come as a surprise that I wo
uld be going with him." The look on his face was clear that he wasn't happy.
"That won't be a problem will it?" I smirked. "No, no not at all." He said with
a fake smile. With that I turned around and went to find Edward. As soon as I fo
und him I told him everything that was said.
"We don't have to go you know." He said as he grabbed my hand as we walked to th
e parking lot. "I know but I kind of feel bad. I mean maybe he really is just tr
ying to be friends." Edward just shook his head. "Okay sweetheart, if you want t
o go we can, even though I really don't think 'just friends' is what is on his m
ind. Maybe we can get everyone else to go too."
The rest of the week flew by and the weekend was finally here and it was girls n
ight. I had been looking forward to it because I knew Alice and Rosalie would be
able to help me.
We decided on a night in at my house with pedicures, facials, movies and homemad
e guacamole. Of course the conversation always seems to drift back to the guys.
"Sooooo, Bellaaaaaa how are things with Edward?"
"What do you mean?" I faked innocence even though I knew based on the previous t
opic of Rosalie and Emmett's sex life what they were getting at.
"You know what I mean" Alice said. "How far have you guys gone?" This is what I
wanted to talk about but that didn't keep the blush off my cheeks.
"Well, we do stuff but we haven't ya know, had sex or anything." I said looking
at the bag of chips. "hmmmm" Rosalie looked at me while tilting her head. "Do yo
u want to?" she asked.
"Ummm I don't know . I mean I know that I want to go farther but i'm not sure if I
'm ready to go all the way. We've only been together for a couple of months." Ne
ither of them said anything as they were waiting for me to continue.
"Isn't there some sort of 9 month rule or something?"
"What?" Rosalie started laughing as Alice said "What 9 month rule?"
"You know, aren't you suppose to wait to make sure that the guy really likes you
instead of just trying to hook up with you?"
Alice spoke up mostly because Rosalie was still laughing.
"Okay first of all you really don't believe that Edward is just with you for sex
, do you?
And second there isn't a standard rule for this sort of thing."
Rosalie went next. "The real questions that you should be asking are:
1. Do you love him? 2. If you do, do you want to go to the next step because you
want to or because you think that he wants to? 3. Have you discussed it with hi
m?"
"Well since I've never been in love before I have no idea if I am now or not. An
d yes I want to go to the next step but I keep hearing the message my mother dri
lled into my head about waiting until I am an adult. And as far as discussing it
, kind of. Edward told me that he'll go at any pace I want and to let him know w
hen I'm ready for more and we haven't talked abut it since."
"Okay" Alice said
"As far as the discussion goes you have only had half of it. I will say I admire
him for what he told you; clearly I didn't give him enough credit. But you also
need to have the 'responsible' talk."
I didnt say anything so they kept going. "You know the whole 'past sexual relati
onship going to get tested first talk?' As well as birth control."
"As far as your mom's 'talk' you are an adult Bella, you 18 and you will be in c
ollege in less than a year." Rosalie said.
"And as for being in love, I can only tell you what I see." It was back to Alice
's turn now.
"I can tell you that Edward loves you, but you need to figure out how you feel a
bout him for yourself."
"How do I do that? I mean how does anyone know for sure?"
"Let's make this easy, tell us how Edward makes you feel and what are your favor
ite things about him."
"He makes me feel: happy, special, cared for, loved. I think about him all the t
ime. When I'm not with him my heart actually aches. I have a hard time concentra
ting on anything else. He is the most selfless person I have ever met. He always
puts me first. He is respectful, considerate, and absolutely gorgeous."
"I love the little things he does too like when he kisses my forehead. He lets m
e fall asleep on his chest when we watch movies. He calls me all the time, He sh
ows me off to everyone even when I'm in sweat pants. Alice cringed at the one.
He calls me beautiful. He sings romantic songs to me. He is very protective of m
e."
I let that sink in and then it hit me, I'm in love with Edward.
I looked up at the girls. "Wow" was all that either one of them could say. "I kn
ow, I'm in love with Edward." They both gave me a knowing smile.
"Do you really think that Edward loves me?" "Yes" they both said at the same tim
e.
I was a little dazed. But I managed to hear Alice ask "when are you going to tel
l him?"
Wow that is a whole new issue, I mean what if he doesn't feel the same and Alice
 and Rosalie are wrong?
"Um I would rather have him say it first." They both laughed. "Yeah that does ma
ke it a lot easier. How about the sex talk?"
"How do I go about even bringing that up?"
"I'm sure the opportunity will present itself. But you do have to bring it up!"
We started eating again and then put in our movie. I had no idea what was happen
ing since my mind was too busy elsewhere. My phone buzzed, I grabbed it and saw
a text from Edward. Goodnight sweetheart, I miss you, call me tomorrow"
I didn't waste any time replying. "I miss you too, more than you know."
Ever since the sleep over with the girls I had been in the best mood. I was exci
ted with my new knowledge but also a little nervous. I wanted to tell Edward how
I felt but I knew I wouldn't be able to say it first, at least not yet.
The opportunity for the sex talk hadn't come up either, it seemed like we weren'
t getting that much alone time lately. But I knew that the two topics went hand
in hand so I was putting that off too. But I knew it was only a matter of time.
Even though I never have had sex before I knew that the Dr. Appointment I had to
make needed to be done with Edward. It was only fair that we both got tested to
gether. But I also had contemplated making an appointment for myself for the bir
th control aspect of it.
I knew I could do that part alone but it was also a little scary. Edwards dad is
a Dr. after all and how embarrassing would it be if he found out. But I also kn
ew that if I was to start on the pill it takes a little while to kick in so afte
r school I made an appointment.
I hadn't seen Jason or Jessica around in the last week which I enjoyed but even
they wouldn't have been able to take away my good mood anyway. But tomorrow nigh
t was the game and so I knew I would hear from Jason today or tomorrow. As if on
queue he called my name.
"Bella, hey um so are you coming to the game tomorrow?" he looked so hopeful. "Y
es Jason we will be there."
"Great see you tomorrow." And he turned around and left. All too soon it was tim
e for the game. The six of us went out to dinner first and then headed over to t
he gym. I had to admit that Jason was pretty good. We were crushing the other te
am by half time.
I had to go to the bathroom and I put it off long enough. I didn't want to wait
until the end of the game because the lines would be long and I knew I wasn't go
ing to miss anything since we were so far ahead with only a few minutes to go. E
dward gave me the usual kiss with a hurry back. I finished up in the restroom bu
t of course the paper towels were out so I was wiping my hands on my jeans and n
ot looking where I was going. I crashed right into someone.
I was about to apologize when I saw who it was. "Hello, Bella long time no see."
He smirked. "Mike" was all I could say.
Chapter 14
BPOV
I kept walking but he reached out and grabbed my arm. "Where are you going?" he
asked. "Where does it look like I'm going?" I said as I pulled my arm away. "Com
e on Bella, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute."
"No thanks" I said as I heard the final buzzer signaling the end of the game. "W
hy not?" he almost sounded upset. "Seriously? You really need to ask?" I was get
ting angry. Why would he think I would want to talk to him of all people?
"No I guess not, I was just hoping to " and he trailed off. "What do you mean 'you
were hoping to' did you plan on seeing me here?" he looked down for a minute. "U
m, well yeah."
"How did you know I would even be here?" he took a deep breath. "I was planning
on coming to Jason's first game anyway. I came home for the weekend. I got here
Thursday night and well Jason had someone over. Um well uh, it was Jessica.
I tried to walk away but he stopped me again. "I just wanted to apologize." What
?
People were leaving the gym now. "What? Do you think that I even care enough to
listen to you? I have finally moved on and I am happy for the first time in year
s. Did you do this on purpose just to try and ruin it for me?"
"No of course not, I feel really bad about the whole thing." Why am I even liste
ning to this? "You feel really bad?" I asked in disbelief. "I don't get it Mike
why would you even attempt to apologize now? It's been almost 2 years."
"Well like I said Jessica was at my house and she told me that you wanted to see
me again." "Jessica? I haven't talked to her since that night". He sounded sinc
ere, though I didn't trust him anymore than I did her.
"Really? Cause she told me that you really wanted to talk about this, you know g
et some closure or whatever. At first I didn't know what to think so after she l
eft I talked to Jason about it." I interrupted him "You talked to Jason about th
is?" I should have known.
"I told him about our misunderstanding." He couldn't be serious. "Our misunderst
anding?" I was furious now and was vaguely aware of people standing near by. "Yo
u think we had a misunderstanding? You almost raped me!"
The next thing I saw was Edward's fist connect with Mike's jaw. They fell to the
ground as Edward continued to beat the shit out of Mike. A crowd started to for
m and I could hear Coach Clapp and Principle Greene coming this way trying to fi
gure out what was happening.
I was too stunned to do anything at the moment. Coach got through first and was
trying to stop the fight but it was Emmett that had to pull Edward off of Mike.
EPOV
Bella had just left for the bathroom and the game was almost over. Alice was sit
ting next to me and I noticed that she all of the sudden tensed up. Her eyes wer
e fixed on someone who was just leaving the gym through the doors to the hallway
.
"What's up Alice?" she was still staring at the now closing doors. "It's probabl
y nothing but maybe we should go check on Bella." "Alice, what's going on?" "Com
e on" she said as she grabbed my hand. We were sitting near the top of the bleac
hers and people were starting to head out.
It took us a couple minutes to make it down to the gym floor. The final buzzer w
ent off and the crowds started to form. We made our way out the door along with
100 other people. Alice pulled me towards the direction of the bathrooms.
I heard Bella then, it sounded like she was yelling at someone. As we approached
her I saw that she was talking to the guy that Alice had her eye one a few minu
tes ago. She cautioned me to stop and hang back for a minute. Bella's back was t
o me and whoever she was talking to didn't seem to notice me or Alice.
"You talked to Jason about this?" I heard her say. Whatever was going on it coul
dn't be good. "I told him about our misunderstanding." What was going on? "Our m
isunderstanding?" I could tell she was furious now. "You think we had a misunder
standing? You almost raped me!"
Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. Before I consciously was aware of what
I was doing I lunged myself at this guy. I was barely coherent until Emmett pull
ed me off him.
I heard Jason shouting apologies at Bella, I had no idea how long he was standin
g there.
Both Coach Clapp and Principle Greene were there now trying to calm everything d
own. They got the crowds cleared out there were only a few of us left that were
involved.
"Miss Swan, Mr. Cullen, Mr. Newton follow me." We were following Mr. Greene to h
is office no one said anything.
BPOV
The walk to Mr. Greene's office was a silent one. We walked in and he motioned f
or us all to have a seat. "What was all of this about?" he demanded. No one said
anything and I was beyond humiliated. How many people heard what was going on?
Were there just going to be more lies spread about me all over again? What would
Edward think?
Tears started to fall down my cheeks and Edward wiped them away and held onto my
hand. "Someone better start explaining." He paused. "Mr. Cullen?" Edward just l
ooked at me but kept silent.
"You're looking at a suspension here Mr. Cullen." Not wanting Edward to get into
any more trouble I took a deep breath and started to explain.
"I went to use the restroom a few minutes before the game ended. I ran into Mike
Newton." Mr. Greene looked perplexed for a moment. "You know Mike Newton?" he a
sked probably not realizing he had only graduated 2 years ago.
"Yes, he wanted to talk with me about something but when I tried to leave he gra
bbed a hold of me and wouldn't let me go. Edward had to step in and help me out.
" I of course didn't want to go into details and so I altered the truth just sli
ghtly.
"Is that what happened Mr. Cullen?" he asked. Edward's eyes stayed on me but he
answered yes. "Mr. Newton?" he questioned. I looked over at Jason though he was
just staring straight ahead. "Yes."
I hadn't expected that. "Well okay then, but I do not want to hear of anything l
ike this happening again. You're free to go but I will be having to notify your
parents of the incident Mr. Cullen, there is no excuse for fighting even if this
time it seemed to be justified."
"Thank you Mr. Greene." All three of us left his office. "Bella?" Jason started.
"Please let me explain." Edward walked in-between us and grabbed a hold of me t
ighter.
"Let you explain how you set me up with your brother the rapist? I paused when h
e didn't say anything. "I didn't think so." I said as me and Edward kept walking
.
"Please, I didn't know I swear! Jessica ." He trailed off. I turned to face him ra
ising my eyebrows at him expectantly. Edward tried to get me to keep walking but
I wanted to hear why her name kept coming up.
"Okay, here it goes. I like you Bella, a lot. I have since I met you. One day af
ter we were finished with our tutoring session I stopped at my locker to put my
things away. I noticed Jessica staring at me. She mentioned that she knew my bro
ther and asked how he was doing.
I didn't think anything of it at first until the next week when she stopped to t
alk to me before we were going to meet. Remember that day when you saw us togeth
er?" he asked hopefully maybe so I knew he was telling the truth. Of course I re
membered that day.
I didn't say anything as I waited for him to continue. "So anyway she said she c
ould tell that I had a crush on you and I asked her how she could know that and
she said something about the way she has seen me look at you or something." Edwa
rd was getting tense now.
"She said we could help each other out. I asked her what she meant and she told
me that you and Edward had a really rocky relationship and she thought you two w
ere going to break up anytime. She wanted to get back together with Edward and s
he knew I wanted to get together with you." I thought Edward was going to start
another fight but I held him back the best I could.
"The Saturday I stopped by I had ran into Jessica at the library when we saw Edw
ard there. She said now would be a good time to make a move on you and try to ge
t you to spend some time with me while Edward was occupied. I came up with the i
dea of giving you the basketball game tickets.
"She had come over to my house last Thursday night so we could, well, make plans
but then my brother showed up. I knew that they knew each other because she had
asked about him before. She told me that the 3 of you used to be friends along
with some Tyler guy but you had tried to steal him away from her and that's why
your friendship ended.
She also told me that you and my brother were really close and that when you int
erfered with Jessica's relationship with his friend that he also stopped talking
to you. I believed her because I kind of remembered some story from a few years
ago concerning my brother and some girl at school but I was still in middle sch
ool and didn't really pay all that much attention to it at the time. I had no id
ea it was you at first.
Then Jessica had an idea and went to talk to Mike about something but didn't rea
lly get into it with me. Later on after Jessica left, he asked me about you bein
g at the game and I told him you would be. But I thought he just wanted to maybe
become friends again. I had no idea of what really happened until I overheard y
ou guys talking in the hall. I'm so sorry Bella, about everything."
I wasn't sure what to say at this point so I just thank him for explaining and I
walked away pulling Edward behind me. We got out to the car and he gave me a hu
g and kissed my forehead.
I started crying into his shirt and he just held me. After a few minutes he pull
ed back. "If you want to talk about it I'll listen but if you don't want to I un
derstand."
He helped me into the car. I knew I should have told him before this but I might
as well do it now. He took me back to his house and we went straight to his roo
m. "Edward, I would like to tell you what happened. I'm really sorry I didn't do
it before. I was just afraid of how you would react at first. But I had made th
e decision to tell you a couple weeks ago I just kept putting it off I guess. Ed
ward I'm sorry."
He held me tight again. "Sweetheart you don't have anything to be sorry about. I
'm glad you are ready to talk to me now though." As I told him everything he jus
t sat there and listened without interrupting me. I got through the story and he
kept telling me how sorry he was that that happened to me.
"I should have told you before that way there wouldn't have been any secrets bet
ween us." He looked at me for a minute his eyebrows furrowed together and it loo
ked like he was about to say something but I stopped him with I kiss.
I knew after tonight that I was also ready to tell Edward how I felt about him.
After I pulled back from the kiss I took his hands in mine. "Edward, I love you.
"
EPOV
Bella had just finished telling me about that night. I was irate that anyone cou
ld do something so horrible but I didn't want to get upset in front of her so I
tried to stay calm. The next thing she said reined my temper in.
"I should have told you before that way there wouldn't have been any secrets bet
ween us." Oh shit. What do I do? Should I tell her now? The answer to that is ye
s. I took a deep breath preparing to tell her my own secret when she leaned over
and gave me a kiss.
"Edward, I love you." She said. Stunned. I was completely stunned. My previous t
rain of thought was completely wiped out. She loves me. A huge smile came across
my face. I had dreamt about this moment.
"Bella, I love you too."

Chapter 15
BPOV
New rumors were flying around school again. Of course all of them exaggerated. H
alf the of them were how I had been raped 2 years ago and people were feeling so
rry for me and the other half were close to what they had been back then.
People that had been my friends my freshman year were coming up to me to apologi
ze while others treated me much the same. The difference this time around was th
at I truly did not care. I didn't care about the people saying mean things and I
didn't care about the people apologizing.
The only thing that did matter were my true friends now and my true love Edward.
After telling him I loved him, he said that he loved me. That was my focus and
I couldn't have been happier. Everything and everyone else was on the periphery.
I was happy, truly happy.
Weeks passed and things were just getting better and better. Alice had been the
first one to receive a reply about college. "Bella, I got my first reply today."
Alice had called me when she got home from school.
"That's great! From where and what did it say?" silence. "Alice?" I heard her ta
ke a deep breath. "It's from Oregon State. Bella, I'm too chicken to open it, I
need you and Rose with me."
"Okay, I'm coming over." I said standing up only to be pulled back into Edward's
lap.
"No, wait, have you gotten any yet?" "No, I just checked the mail but I'm sure t
hat it will be soon."
"I don't want to be the only one, can we wait until Saturday or something by the
n we should all have something to open right?" she sounded so nervous. "Ok, fine
with me but no matter what you have to open it Saturday regardless."
"Fine" she said in a sullen tone. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful oth
er than the rest of us did get back some replies. Before I knew it Saturday was
here and we all met at Edward and Emmett's with our envelopes in hand.
We all sat in a big circle all waiting for someone else to go first. We decided
on alphabetical order. Though Alice didn't like that too much. She took a deep b
reath and opened her first letter.
"I got in!" she screeched. We all knew she was talking about Oregon State Univer
sity. She had wanted to go there for forever. She almost didn't bother applying
anywhere else.
As it turned out I got into Portland State University with a scholarship. Edward
got into Reed College. Emmett was going to University of Washington as well as
Rosalie and Jasper was going to Washington State University at the Vancouver cam
pus.
"That's great Jazz; you'll be just as close to me as Edward." I pointed out. Van
couver was just across the river from Portland.
"I can't believe we all got into where we wanted to go." Rosalie said. "I just w
ish we were all going to be at the same place."
"Seattle isn't that far away, only a few hours. We'll still being seeing each ot
her all the time." Emmett pointed out. "And Alice is only an hour outside of Por
tland so that really isn't very far either."
"And you know darlin' my campus doesn't have dorm rooms so I will need to be get
ting an apartment. And since Oregon State is only an hour away we could always g
et a place together half way in between." Jasper said.
Alice just about fell over. She hadn't said anything she was still kind of stunn
ed. Jasper looked a little worried then. "And just think you will be that much c
loser to Portland with Bella, and Edward." He added on quickly.
Finally she snapped out of it and jumped into his lap throwing her arms around h
im and giving him a kiss.
"That's not a bad idea you know." Edward said pulling into his lap. "What's not
a bad idea?" I questioned. "You and me, getting a place together." He said kissi
ng my neck.
"Edward, our campuses are literally 10 minutes apart. I don't think it's quite t
he same situation. And besides both of our colleges do have dorms and we don't h
ave the money for an apartment." I reminded him.
He sighed heavily but still remained with his lips on my neck. He mumbled someth
ing but I had no idea what it was.
It seemed like time was really speeding up. The end of the year was almost here.
Prom was only a few weeks away as well as graduation. We all planned a road tri
p as soon as school ended.
We were going to go through Seattle and see where Emmett and Rosalie would be. D
rive down through Vancouver and Portland, and then over to Corvallis to see wher
e Alice would be. Then we would drive over to the coast and stay in Lincoln City
for a few days.
"So we really need to get shopping to find our prom dresses." Alice pointed out.
"You're right; I can't believe time snuck up on me so fast. Rosalie added. "How
about tomorrow we head into Port Angeles."
The next day we got an early start. We drove into town and quickly found the sto
re we wanted. We each must have picked out 20 different dresses to try. "So what
do you think of this one?" I asked.
"That's the one Bella, it's perfect on you." Rosalie and Alice said at the exact
same time causing all of us to laugh uncontrollably. Rosalie and Alice soon fou
nd what they were looking for and we were off to look for shoes.
We decided to get our shoes dyed to match our dresses. They wouldn't be ready fo
r a few days so we were going to have to come back to pick them up. "That's okay
; we were coming back here anyway the day before prom." Alice had said.
"Why?" I asked. "Bella, it's spa day, I've already made our appointments." I rem
embered last time we had spa day and what that entailed. I cringed at the memory
.
"I thought you liked it?" Alice looked suspiciously at me. "I did, but the waxin
g I could live without." That just caused Rosalie to laugh.
"Come on Bella, we need to be prepared." She smirked. "Prepared for what?" thoug
h I knew the reason why they did it.
"After prom we're going to stay at the hotel for the night." Alice said. "Oh?" w
as all I could say. I hadn't heard anything about this.
"Didn't Edward mention it to you?" Rosalie questioned. "Um, no he hasn't said an
ything. Are you sure about this?" I couldn't imagine Edward not saying anything.
Especially something like spending the night in a hotel room.
"Hold on" Rosalie said pulling out her phone. "Hey Em, did Edward say anything t
o you about getting a hotel room after prom?" she paused for a minute. "Hmmm, we
ll call me when you find out . Love you too."
"What did he say?" Alice asked before I could. "He said he didn't know he just a
ssumed so and he had made reservations for three rooms and will call me back."
I was a little lost in thought. This would be a perfect opportunity, and I had p
lanned on being with Edward like that sometime anyway. We went through the whole
getting tested process and I was on birth control now so what was there to stop
us. We both knew we loved each other.
"Soooooo, Bella do you want to, you know, get a room?" Alice asked. I took a dee
p breath. "Yes, I do" I smiled at the thought. Rosalie and Alice both got huge s
mug smiles on their faces. "I knew it." Rosalie said.
"So you're in for spa day then?" she asked expectantly. I nodded as her phone ra
ng. "Hey Em." She paused for a minute. "Well, she is .yes I'm sure ..love you too."
And she hung up.
"You should talk to Edward about this. Apparently it never occurred to him. He j
ust thought that Emmett and Jasper were getting rooms for us."
EPOV
"Edward" I heard Emmett call. "What?" I looked up at him as he came into my room
. "You were planning to get a hotel room with us after prom right?" I was a litt
le confused.
"I thought that you guys were getting your own rooms so you could spend the nigh
t with the girls." I said.
"We are but I thought that you were going to get one for you and Bella." he look
ed at me like I was an idiot.
"Why would I do that?" "Why do you think?" he asked right back. "Come on Em, Bel
la isn't going to want to do that." He rolled his eyes. "Hang on a minute." He p
ulled out his phone.
"Hey Rosie, Apparently the thought never occurred to Edward and he doesn't think
that Bella would be up for that." He waited. "Are you sure?...tell her she need
s to talk to Edward about it. I love you."
"Well apparently Bella is up for the idea." He smirked. "What?" he laughed. "You
need to talk to Bella about this but um I did reserve three rooms so you alread
y have one." He shook his head and walked out of my room.
I couldn't believe it. Bella wanted to spend the night with me. But does that me
an she wants to have sex? The possibility of it had my mind spinning. Wow I need
to get some condoms. No, wait I don't. We've both been tested and I know she is
on birth control.
Bella and I are going to have sex. I was getting hard just thinking about it. Ug
h I got up and went to take a shower.
It was girls night tonight and I wasn't about to talk about this over the phone
so I wouldn't get a chance to talk with Bella until tomorrow. I quickly texted h
er and told her to come over when she woke up Sunday morning.
There was a knock on my door. I opened it to see Bella smiling at me. I immediat
ely gave her a kiss. "I've missed you." I mumbled kissing her lips. "I've missed
you too." She mumbled back.
There wasn't much talking for a while as we continued kissing. She finally pulle
d back and rested her head on my shoulder. "Rosalie and Alice were telling me th
at they are getting hotel rooms after prom." Here it goes ..
"Emmett said the same thing to me. He actually thought that we were going to get
 a room too so he reserved one for us." I said cautiously. I looked down to see
Bella blush. "I heard about that too." She said.
"Is that something that you would want to do? If not that is perfectly fine with
me, in fact I didn't think you would want to but then Emmett said he talked to ."
I was rambling but Bella stopped me. She put her finger up to my lips.
"I was thinking that is something I would like to do." She was blushing again. "
Really?" I wanted to make sure.
"Yes Edward really. I love you, we've already talked about being together someda
y, and I'm on birth control. I want this Edward, I want you."
She kissed me with more passion than I have ever felt before.
Prom was finally here. I was going to be with Bella. I have never been so happy.
But in the back of my mind I kept having this nagging feeling about telling her
about the bet. I had had the perfect opportunity to and I blew it. The night sh
e told me she loved me. I should have done it then but I was so caught up in eve
rything I let the opportunity pass me by. I am such an idiot.
I wasn't sure if I could go through with having sex with Bella while having had
a secret. I need to talk to the guys. The limo pulled up just then and I didn't
get my chance. The three of us got in and headed over to the girls houses. We pi
cked them up one by one so that all the parents would have an opportunity for pi
ctures.
Bella was absolutely breathtaking. We arrived at the hotel and went into the bal
lroom where the dance was. The night started off so great. We danced and had our
pictures taken yet again.
When the girls went to the bathroom (yes all together) I had my opportunity to t
alk with the guys quickly. "Hey Em, I need to talk to you." He looked up. "What'
s up?"
"I need some advice, I don't know if I can keep the secret from Bella anymore. I
think I need to tell her about the fact this all started because of a bet. You
know before tonight. It's been eating at me and I want to do the right thing her
e." He didn't have a chance to answer. He looked over my shoulder then and his e
yes widened. I turned around to see what I really hoped I would not see.
As I looked into Bella's horrified eyes, Rosalie's fist hit me in nose. I went d
own and blood started gushing out. This seems familiar. I could tell Rosalie was
screaming at me but I couldn't hear what she was saying. I was only focusing on
Bella at that moment. She was just shaking her head back and forth.
Finally Emmett carried Rosalie away as she started in on him. Tears were rolling
down Bella's cheeks. "Edward?" I couldn't respond.
"Edward?" she asked again. I saw Alice out of the corner of my eye also crying.
"Bella please let me explain." I took a step towards her as she took a step back
.
"Did you make a bet about me?" she asked. "Please Bella, I can explain." I said
stepping forward again. "Yes or No Edward." I could barely hear her.
"Please Bella." I was crying now too. "Answer the question." She got a little lo
uder.
"Bella" she shook her head again. "Yes or No"
I sighed. "Yes" I whispered. She didn't say anything. She just stared at me with
more silent tears and then turned around and walked away. I went after her. "Le
ave me alone Edward." She said as she kept walking.
"No Bella you don't understand. Please." I was begging now. "I think I do unders
tand. And if you care about me at all you will leave me alone."
"Care about you? I love you Bella" she stopped to look at me again. She didn't s
ay anything and then she turned back and started running. I tried to follow her
again but Rosalie came back and blocked my path.
"Stay away from her, I mean it Edward." She yelled as she ran after Bella. Alice
came over to me and whispered. "She needs time Edward, I'll keep an eye on her
and I'll call you later."
I just stood there watching my life walk away from me.
Chapter 16
BPOV
Rosalie was the first to catch up to me. She put her arm around me but didn't sa
y anything. She led me around to the back of the hotel and up the stairs to her
room.
Soon after, Alice came in.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I heard one of them ask but honestly I didn't kn
ow which one. I shook me head and just let go, I could barely catch my breath I
was sobbing so much. I couldn't get my head wrapped around what just happened.
I wasn't even sure what it was. All I know is that Edward had been keeping a sec
ret about some bet about me. What did it even mean? I wasn't sure but I knew I c
ouldn't face him right now.
Somebody's phone rang and I could barely make out what was said as the muffled v
oice walked into the bathroom. "We're in Rosalie and Emmett's room." I finally u
nderstood the whisper. "Of course she is not okay" she snapped. "Do not come up
here .I'll call you later."
I felt someone rubbing my back. It felt like I had been crying for hours. I must
have fallen asleep because I woke up to the sound of a knock on the door. "I to
ld you not to come up here." Alice answered. "He just wants to explain. I think
it would be a good idea, don't you?"
I hadn't said a word since I got to the room and I knew that Rosalie and Alice w
ere waiting until I was ready. I realized that I didn't know the whole story yet
and that is something that I needed to hear. I needed to understand.
I lifted my head up. Rosalie looked over at me. "Okay" is all I said. "Bella?" I
nodded. "I need to hear the whole story; I need to talk to Edward."
"Bella you don't have to." She said sitting down next to me. "Yes she does" I he
ard from the doorway." Rosalie opened her mouth to say something but I stopped h
er. "It's okay, he's right, I need to know."
She sighed deeply but didn't say anything. A few minutes later Edward appeared a
t the door. He walked in slowly and sat down on the other bed.
"Can you leave us alone please?" Edward was looking down. "Absolutely not" Rosal
ie yelled. "They need time to work this out Rose." Emmett said as he tried to le
ad her from the room. I looked up at her and just nodded again. "Just call if yo
u need us." I whispered a thank you as they left.
Edward was still staring at the ground and I was just staring at him. I didn't s
ay anything and he didn't either. Finally he took a deep breath and started in o
n his explanation. I listened as he told me what the bet was about and how it go
t started. I was quiet when he told me that it was the reason he approached me i
n the first place.
I cried silent tears as he told me that he called off the bet soon afterwards be
cause he started to fall for me, and how he had come so close to telling me many
times but was too afraid to lose me.
I sobbed as he told me that he loves me and he will do anything for me to forgiv
e him.
I needed to time to process this information. I had no idea what to do with it.
"I think you need to go now." I whispered. He started to shake his head. "No Bel
la, please don't make me go, I need to know you forgive me and that we'll be oka
y." He was sobbing now too.
"I can't tell you that Edward, I have no idea if we'll be okay or not." His face
paled as he ran into the bathroom and became violently ill. I wanted to go to h
im, I stood up from the bed but I couldn't bring myself to going in after him.
When he came out I repeated that he needed to go. He knelt down next to me wrapp
ing his arms around my waist and sobbed into my stomach
.
"Can I call you tomorrow?" he finally asked.
Home and Charlie was where my mind immediately went to. I couldn't let Charlie k
now about this. I never had told him what happened two years ago and one of the
reasons was I didn't want it to affect him. I didn't want him to feel bad for me
and feel the need to protect me.
I had no idea at the time that even though he never knew the reason why, when I
withdrew from the world it still affected him. He stopped hanging out with his f
riends to keep an eye on me. He gave up part of his lift to spend every availabl
e minute with me to make sure I was okay.
I didn't even know it until I started living my life again. When I did, so did h
e. He has been truly happy lately as I had been. I had to make sure I kept this
from him so he wouldn't worry about me especially since I was leaving soon. I wo
uld pretend for Charlie.
"Edward, I don't want you calling the house or coming over." He started to look
sick again. "Please, I can't let Charlie know about this." I explained my reason
ing to him and told him I couldn't let Charlie become suspicious. I needed time
away from Edward and well everyone for a while and if I didn't answer anyone's c
alls or let anyone in to see me if they stopped by then he would know and become
worried and unhappy again.
He reluctantly agreed and promised to tell everyone the same thing. "Can I still
call you on your cell phone?" I took a deep breath. "Edward, I need time to fig
ure things out, I would prefer it if you didn't. I will call you when I'm ready.
" I couldn't look at him anymore.
"You need to go now." I said for the final time. He stood up, told me he loved m
e and kissed my forehead before leaving. As soon as the door closed I was crying
again. I called Rosalie and asked her to come alone. Apparently she was the onl
y one that had no idea of what happened and so for the moment she was the only o
ne I felt I could trust. She walked over to me and just hugged me while I cried.
The next day when I woke up, I thanked her for staying with me. She got me clean
ed up and she drove me home. At some point during the night someone must have pi
cked up her car and left it at the hotel.
Monday started the last week of school. We had finals all this week and next wee
k was graduation. Luckily due to that fact our classes were staggered to accommo
date the tests. We didn't have lunch period so that made my day a lot easier. I
came to class, took my test and left.
I was able to keep Charlie fooled but I knew I couldn't keep this up all summer.
I did some checking at Portland State and realized there was any opportunity to
work in the student store and that would enable me to get my dorm assignment ea
rly.
I felt a sense of relief when I realized I could just escape. Maybe I was runnin
g away but I needed it. While Rosalie was extremely supportive it was also hard
to be around anyone. I guess this is my M.O. pull away when the going gets tough
.
I knew it wasn't fair but I needed to go. I got the job and was suppose to be in
Portland 2 days after graduation, in time to get ready for the summer classes t
o start. I wasn't looking forward to telling Charlie but it was for the best.
"Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?" I tried to act excited. "Sure Bells." "I
have a really great opportunity. I have a chance to work in the school store thi
s summer before classes start in the fall." I smiled. "What?" he looked confused
.
"My guidance counselor suggested it." That was a lie but I had to come up with s
omething. "They have summer classes at the college too dad and they needed someo
ne to work in the bookstore. I can earn some extra money and I didn't want to pa
ss the opportunity up. It won't interfere with my classes and I get to keep the
job as long as I want. If I wait until fall, someone else will probably get it a
nd I really could use the extra money."
"Wow bells, when do you leave?" "It will be right after graduation."
"Oh I was kind of looking forward to the next couple of months with you" he coul
d see the frown on my face and quickly added "but you're right, this is a great
opportunity. Just promise me that you'll come home to visit?"
"Of course dad and I actually planned on spending as much time with you I can ov
er the next week before I go." Nice cover story. I love you!" he smiled. "I love
you too kid" he gave me a hug. "What does Edward say about all of this?" Ouch.
I was glad we were still hugging so he couldn't see my face. "Actually I told yo
u first, I really just found out but I'm sure he'll understand."
"Yeah, I'm sure you're right, he will be heading down soon anyway right?" he smi
led. "Yep" was all I could say.
Right after I received my diploma I faked sick so we could leave right away. I h
adn't talked to anyone in a few days. They were giving me my space like I asked
them too. I packed up my stuff and was ready to head off to Portland in the morn
ing.
After a tearful goodbye to my dad, I hit the road. I enjoyed the drive, it was l
ong but I pulled into town about 3 in the afternoon. I got over to the campus, c
hecked in and made it up to my dorm. Luckily for me because I came early I was a
ble to get a single for the summer.
Once I got settled I called Rosalie and let her know about my move. She wasn't t
oo happy I left without saying goodbye but told me that she would be down soon t
o see me. I felt comforted a little bit. I was glad that she was still my friend
. But I was really missing Alice and the guys too. All of them.
EPOV
"I think you need to go now." I heard her whisper. I started to shake my head. "
No Bella, please don't make me go, I need to know you forgive me and that we'll
be okay." I couldn't control my sobbing. We had to be okay.
"I can't tell you that Edward, I have no idea if we'll be okay or not." I felt l
ike I had been kicked in the stomach, I was nauseous. I ran into the bathroom an
d became violently ill.
After I'd emptied everything in my stomach I began to dry heave over and over.
This couldn't be happening. I was numb to everything now. I tried to get Bella t
o let me talk to her but she didn't want me to and asked me to leave. I barely m
ade it down the hall to the room we were staying.
Rosalie passed me as I made my way to the room, she didn't even look at me. I kn
ocked on the door expecting Alice to punch me out again knowing I had put her in
this situation. She opened the door and at first glared at me but then she quic
kly changed her expression to one of sorrow and wrapped her arm around me.
I didn't want to talk about it so I just sat in the corner of the room staring o
ut the window. I'm not sure how long I sat like that but the sun was rising and
I could vaguely hear the others talking. I was looking out over the parking lot
when I saw Rose help Bella into her car and drive away.
Alice must have been near by because she saw them too. "Try not to worry Edward;
I'm going to go see how Bella is doing later on." Alice said. I told her about
what Bella had asked of me and I saw a tear on Alice's face.
Emmett drove me home and I went up to my room and lay on my bed hoping that I co
uld fall asleep.
"Edward" I heard her call to me. I turned around to see Bella running to me. She
threw herself into my arms and kissed me everywhere she could. "Bella, I though
t I'd lost you forever." I said kissing her back.
"I can't be without you Edward, you are my soul mate." I looked around at where
we were and found it was a meadow. It was so beautiful and I wondered how we got
here.
"Edward" she called my name again. "Edward" she kept repeating "Edward" it was g
etting louder but her voice had changed. It sounded like my mom. What's she doin
g here?
I was startled awake and was immediately sick to my stomach to find it was my mo
m calling me and that was only a dream.
"Edward, it's time for school. You have finals today." She kissed my head and le
ft the room. Emmett must have told her what happened. And how did it become Mond
ay morning. I didn't even realize the rest of the weekend passed.
The rest of the week went by painfully slow, I'd lost all track of time and mean
ing as I made my way through the days like a zombie. I kept wondering how Bella
was. Because it was finals week I never did get to see her. Not that she would h
ave wanted to see me anyway.
Graduation was here and I knew it was my chance to see Bella. I had to fix this,
I wasn't sure how but I had to try. I had a new determination I had to act, do
something, anything.
"Isabella Swan" I heard the principle call her name as she walked up on stage to
receive her diploma. She was so beautiful. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Emm
ett put a hand on my shoulder. "It will be okay Edward" I gave him a small force
d smile. Would it?
I tried to keep my eyes on Bella but she disappeared into the crowd of yellow ro
bes. I didn't see her again that night.
After I woke up the next day I called Rosalie knowing she would have the best ch
ance to talk to Bella. I left a message on her phone and waited for a reply. She
never called me back. It was dark now and someone knocked on my door.
It was Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper. They all took a seat. I thought Rosali
e would still be angry with me but she sat down next to me and took my hand. "I'
m still mad at you." She sighed. "But Alice explained everything and while you m
ade a HUGE mistake you're still my friend and I love you."
I was so emotional from everything that I tears spilled over my cheeks. She gave
me a hug. She pulled back from me and looked above my shoulder. "Edward, Bella
left town." She blurted out. I felt my heart break even more as she explained th
e phone call she got this morning.
I had no concept of time again. Mostly I sat in my room not wanting to see anyon
e. It wasn't until I notice Emmett with a suitcase that I got suspicious. He was
packing my clothes. He didn't say anything until he was finished and I hadn't b
othered to ask what he was doing.
"Come on Edward. Time to go." I just looked up at him not knowing what he was ta
lking about. "You have 10 minutes to get into the car or I'm going to carry you
out myself."
I didn't bother trying to figure out what he was talking about but after a few m
inutes I heard him coming back upstairs. Alice came in the room with him. She gr
abbed my hand and pulled me off the bed and led me outside to the car.
My mom was there and she gave me a kiss and told us to drive carefully. It wasn'
t until we were almost to Seattle that I realized what was going on. The road tr
ip that we had all planned before. I felt sick again knowing Bella wasn't here w
ith me.
After checking out the U-Dub campus we headed south. Traffic was pretty light an
d it only took a couple of hours before we were pulling into Vancouver. "Told yo
u it wasn't that far." I heard Emmett say. After checking out Jaspers school we
got back onto I-5. After literally two minutes I was looking at the Columbia Riv
er knowing Bella was just on the other side.
Half way across the bridge was the 'Welcome to Oregon' sign. .I felt better righ
t away, knowing that Bella was here. My heart stopped aching just a little bit.
We took the city center exit and Alice had mentioned something about shopping so
we dropped of the girls at Pioneer Square.
The rest of us checked into a hotel near by. I was in Portland and so was Bella.
I wanted to get out for a little while so I told the guys I was going for a wal
k. They told me that they were coming with me. I didn't have it in me to argue s
o the three of us walked around the downtown area.
BPOV
I had gotten my work schedule and I started the next day. I was glad for the dis
traction. I still wasn't ready to really think things through yet. The pain was
too much at the moment. And not only the pain that Edward had lied to me but sur
prisingly the pain of how much I missed him.
It had been a few weeks and things were starting to slow down. The store wasn't
as busy and I had already done a lot of exploring the city. I especially liked w
alking along the river. The Willamette River divided the city and there was a ni
ce area to walk along the water.
I had discovered it when the Rose Festival was going on. There were parades and
they added an amusement park to for a week, and the Navy ships docked on the r r
iver right in the downtown area. It was full of people for a couple of weeks and
then as the festival ended so did the crowds. It became a nice place of solitud
e for me to sit and think.
I came here almost everyday and stared out at the river thinking. There wasn't a
day that I didn't think of Edward. How could he do this to me? I thought he lov
ed me. He was supposed to love me. The pain in my heart just proved that I still
loved him. I wasn't sure what to do.
I hadn't heard from him .. But I asked him not to call me.
He should have told me the truth in the beginning .. .but would I have given him a c
hance then.
I kept something from him too but it didn't involve him directly
I told him my secret but only after having been caught fighting with Mike.
I was afraid to lose him .but he was afraid of the same thing.
I love him he loves me too. I think.
I was planning on telling him before being found out he was discussing telling me
about it that night, the night I found out..
He had the chance to tell me the night I told him my secret he started to but I di
stracted him.
He could have brought it up again later .back to afraid of losing me.
But I never asked my friends to keep a secret and lie for me about him .
And there was nothing to refute that one. And that was the real issue.
I went round and round with myself never really coming up with a solution. At le
ast a solution I was happy with. It seems no matter what happens now I would be
unhappy.
I got back to my room only to find Rosalie leaning up against my door.
"Bella" she called and launched herself at me. "Rose" I cried hugging her. We we
nt into my room. "How are you?" she asked tentatively.
"Not good. I really miss you." She signed. "I miss you too, and so does everyone
else." Ouch we talked for a while about school and work. Things that normally w
ould have kept my interest but I was really only interested in one thing now.
"Does he know you're here?" she looked down at her hands. "No, but he is here in
town."
"What?" I heart crashed in my chest. "Yeah, remember our road trip we planned?"
I'm going to be sick. "Yeah" I said looking down holding myself tightly. "We had
to drag Edward. He has been a mess." I wasn't sure if I could handle hearing ab
out him anymore. I had to change the subject.
"What about Alice?" I said still looking down. "Well actually she is at the Star
bucks around the corner." I felt the tears pour down my cheeks again.
"Do you want me to call her?" she asked. Did I? She kept this from me too. But I
missed her so much and she wasn't the one that had asked to keep the lie a secr
et. And according to Edward she begged him to tell me.
"Yes" I whispered. She broke out into a huge smile as she pulled out her phone.
A few minutes later Alice knocked on the door.
I opened it and she was already crying. "I'm so so so so so sorry Bella." We bot
h cried for a while. She told me pretty much the same story Edward had but she m
ade mention of how hard it was on him and how he was so upset about it even befo
re I found out. I told her that I forgave her and that even though it still hurt
we would be okay one day.
She asked me if I could also be forgiving of the guys. She lumped them together
as a whole I noticed. I thought about it for a while and yes they too were asked
by their friend to hide this from me but the difference was they were in on the
bet from the beginning.
Alice again explained that they all willingly dropped the whole thing without th
inking twice about it after they met me.
I was still a little unsure but I told them I would think about it. They stayed
for a few more hours and as they were getting ready to leave they promised they
would both be back soon and Alice said her and Jasper were looking at apartments
tomorrow and they might be moving down here next month.
I smiled at that glad they were going to be nearby especially now that things we
re almost good again with Alice. I told both of them to call me anytime. I was g
lad to have my 2 best friends back.

Chapter 17
EPOV
The next day we headed down to Oregon State. We didn't spend a lot of time becau
se apparently Alice and Jasper were looking at some apartments around the half w
ay point.
We looked at a few of them but I wasn't really paying much attention. Apparently
they found one that they both loved and made plans to move in sometime in July.
When it was time to head back to Forks the ache in my chest got worse. More so t
han before we had started this trip. I felt the distance from Bella to be crushi
ng. I knew even if I was there she wouldn't see me but just knowing she was clos
e by helped.
When we got home I went back to sitting in my room, sometimes I would drive by B
ella's and just stare at her house.
It was mid July and I knew that Alice and Jasper were getting ready to move. I t
urned on the radio for the first time in what seems like forever. One of my favo
rite songs was on.
Magnet by The Superficials
It's the same thing everyday
Never changing even slightly
Pre-determined from the time I awake
In a room off in the corner, I am staring out a window
But I don't know how much more I can take.
No I don't know how much more I can take.
Cause in my dreams I can fly far above the earth beneath me
I can see my shadow dancing on the clouds
But I don't want to wake to the gravity that pulls me
To the center of the magnet underground .underground
Now I'm running through the maze always acting so politely
Recognizing that I've got to escape
So can you do a little favor if you see me in the hedge flow?
Please remind me that my life is at stake
Do remind me that my life is at stake
Cause in my dreams I can fly far above the earth beneath me
I can see my shadow dancing on the
I heard the song turn off in the middle. I turned around to see what was going o
n and Jasper was standing with his hand on the power button.
"I think that song hits a little to close to home for you Edward, which is why w
e've decided that you're coming with us." Jasper informed me.
"Coming with you where?" Alice walked in the room. "Coming with us to Portland.
You can't keep going on like this Edward. You're going to stay with us until sch
ool starts and I don't want any arguments." She said with her hands on her hips.
I really liked the sound of that. I could be closer to Bella. I smile started to
form on my lips. Alice smiled brightly then. "It's already been worked out with
Esme and Carlisle."
"When do we leave?" I asked. "Friday." Jasper answered. 4 days. 4 more days and
I could be near Bella. As soon as they left I started packing.
BPOV
I had talked with Rose and Alice nearly everyday since they left. I felt so much
better but at the same time it didn't do anything to take the pain away from mi
ssing Edward. Will this ever get any better?
If anything it's getting worse. I can't stand it. I needed to see Rosalie and Al
ice again.
I was glad to hear that Alice and Jasper would be here in a few days. As good as
it was talking to them on the phone seeing them would be that much better. The
plan was that Rose and Alice were driving down here in 2 days while the boys dro
ve the stuff to their new place a couple days after that. I bit my tongue from a
sking if Edward was coming too.
Unlike the phone conversations this time neither one of them let me off the hook
so to speak. They decided that enough time had passed and they were determined
to talk about Edward.
"We all know he screwed up, but don't you think it's time to talk to him about i
t? Rosalie started. I was a little surprised, she was the one that seemed most u
pset with him but it seems she has come around.
"We've already talked about it, there's nothing more to say." I told her. "Of co
urse there is." She insisted.
"Not really Rose, what's done is done, kept a secret from me, lied about it and
then had everyone else lie about it."
"He didn't technically lie" Alice interjected.
"Wouldn't you say omission is a form of lying?"
"Well then you lied too, about Mike."
"Fine, but I didn't purposely go out with the intention to hurt someone"
"He didn't either" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"You know Edward, he never would have gone through with it, not to mention that
he didn't go through with it, he put a stop to it right after he met you"
"I thought I knew Edward, but the Edward I know wouldn't have accepted it in the
first place."
"Edward is not perfect; you have him up on this pedestal he was bound to fall of
f one way or another." I was silent for a minute. Did I really do that? Was Edwa
rd on a pedestal? I guess in a way he was. He never did anything wrong, ever. Co
uld I have set him up to fail even without the bet?
They both noticed my silence. "See, Bella you did. He made a mistake no one is d
enying that but you know he didn't do it out of malice. He would never intention
ally hurt you. You need to stop focusing on the one bad thing he did and remembe
r everything else."
Another point well made. Would I condemn him for one mistake? What if I made a m
istake would I want him to do that to me? I thought back to the night of the gam
e and how he hugged me at the car and told me that if I didn't want to talk to h
im about it then I didn't have to and that he understood.
"What exactly is the real issue here Bella?" Rosalie asked. I thought back to my
mental list I made at the waterfront.
"He was dishonest and he asked our friends to hide something from me."
"Yes, but he was going to resolve that by telling you the truth, that same night
, had you not overheard him he was going to tell you in the hotel room later on.
" Again she made a good point.
Alice continued "he was terrified of losing you Bella, he acted out of fear that
is why he asked us to keep it a secret, not to hurt you in anyway, he wanted to
protect you. I know how that sounds but believe me if you could have seen him t
he night I found out, you would know it's true."
"He was scared. It's no excuse but it's the truth. He knows he was wrong we all
do but you know he wouldn't do it again. He has definitely learned his lesson he
re."
They gave me a lot to think about. They stayed for a few more hours but after di
nner I was working the late shift.
I couldn't focus on anything else other than our conversation. Maybe they were r
ight after all, but it still hurts. I sighed deeply as I replayed everything in
my mind for the 100th time.
A few days after Alice and Jasper moved in they both stopped by. This was the fi
rst time I had seen Jasper since prom night. He had apologized profusely. Over a
nd over again. It was much the same conversation I had with Alice and Rosalie an
d after all was said and done I forgave Jasper.
"It hurts more to not have you in my life Jasper. Your absence was more painful
than the pain of the bet." I said as they were leaving. Alice raised her eyebrow
at me but didn't say anything else.
EPOV
It was so great to be here. I was so close to Bella now. I found myself just han
ging out downtown near the college. The park blocks that were near the campus we
re a nice place to sit and think. I would stare up at the buildings and imagine
her in one of them.
It was then that I saw her. I actually saw her. She walked right out almost in f
ront of me. She didn't see me though. She was walking down towards the river and
I followed her. Not saying anything or getting too close but I just had to see
her.
She ended up at the waterfront. She sat down and looked out at the river. I sat
nearby next to a huge fountain and I was blocked from her sight. I just watched.
And as she was leaving I couldn't take it anymore I just broke down. I started
sobbing, It started pouring ran then. But I didn't care. I didn't care that it w
as getting colder I couldn't bring myself to move.
A few minutes later my phone rang. It was Alice. I answered it but she knew I wa
s upset. She asked me where I was but I didn't want her to come and find me. But
I did tell her that I had seen Bella a few minutes before and that I sat and wa
tched her.
What am I going to do? It's been weeks. Almost 2 months. I can't go on like this
. The pain was becoming too much and I was having trouble breathing. Alice notic
ed and tried to get me to tell her where I was but I told her I had to go and qu
ickly hung up.
BPOV
I had just gotten home from my walk down to the waterfront. It had started pouri
ng rain while I was there so I quickly hoped the bus and made it home in a few m
inutes. I had just walked in the door when someone started pounding on it.
"Alice?" she looked pissed. "Enough is enough! This needs to end now." I took a
step back. "Bella, you are a mess. You are clearly distraught after all of this
but Edward is even more distraught. You said that you forgave Jasper because it
hurt more to not have him in your life. That his absence was worse than the pain
the bet caused you. Is that true?"
"Yes." I whispered. "Then don't you see, the same rule should apply to Edward bu
t even more so. You too are miserable without each other. Neither of you have mo
ved on. And I really don't think that either of you wants to. Do you love him?"
"Yes, of course I do." I answered. "Then make a decision, is that stupid bet wor
th losing Edward over? Because that's what is going to happen if you keep this u
p."
When she put it like that I knew the answer. Nothing was worth losing Edward ove
r. Especially something like that.
"No" she smiled. "I need to see him Alice; we need to get to Forks right away. C
an you go with me?"
"Bella, he's not in Forks." I felt sick. "Where is he?" she picked up her phone
I'm assuming to call him. "Damn it, voice mail. He's here Bella, in town but I d
on't know where."
I was shocked, when did he get here. Alice explained that he has been living her
e with her and Jasper until school starts.
"I was downtown shopping when I talked to him a little bit a go he said that he
had seen you." Tears started forming again. Will they ever stop? "He followed yo
u somewhere but when I was talking to him he started to hyperventilate and then
he hung up."
"I know where he is" I said running out the door. He must have followed me to th
e river. I can't believe he was that close. I hoped on the bus that went right b
y there. It let me off only a couple blocks away.
I ran as fast as I could. It was still pouring and I was soaked. My heart was ra
cing as I looked for him. I could see the fountain from across the street. That'
s when I saw Edward. He was sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. Hi
s white t-shirt was practically see-through.
I ran over to him calling his name. "Edward"
EPOV
As I sat there I heard someone faintly calling my name. At first I thought it wa
s Alice but I knew it wasn't. I stood up and turned towards the sound. "Edward"
I heard her call again. It was Bella. I thought I was hallucinating at first but
she was running towards me. She almost knocked me over.
She hugged me tightly and I was not going to let her go. Neither of us said anyt
hing. We just held each other sobbing in the rain.
Chapter 18
BPOV
I don't know how long we stood there, holding each other but it must have been a
while because it was starting to get dark. I pulled back from Edward but he jus
t tightened his hold on me.
"Edward?" I pulled back again and this time he let me. We were still holding eac
h other but at least I could see his face now. His eyes had black circles under
them and his lips were purple.
It was then that I noticed how cold I was and how much colder he must be. I ran
my hand up and down his arm. He was freezing. He had been out here longer than I
had and he wasn't wearing anything but a t-shirt and jeans.
He still hadn't said anything so I tried again. "Edward, you're freezing I need
to get you home." He shook his head no. "Yes Edward, I need to get you out of th
e cold before you get sick. Come on."
I pulled on his arm, "Please." He finally nodded but didn't let go of me as I dr
agged him across the street. Unfortunately we just missed the bus and so I decid
ed we should start walking. It wasn't far but Edward wasn't moving very fast.
Twenty minutes later we arrived at my room. Alice was still there. I opened the
door and her eyes went wide when she saw us. "Edward" she ran to him and gave hi
m a hug. "Bella, he's freezing."
"I know I'm going to start a bath for him. I ran into the bathroom and got the w
ater started. "I dug in my purse and pulled out some quarters. "Alice, the laund
ry room is at the end of the hall, will you put Edward's clothes in the dryer?"
"Of course." I still had Edwards hand so it was easy to pull him into the bathro
om. I pulled his shirt off and actually had to wring it out in the sink. "I'm go
ing to go and change Edward, I'll be right back."
I closed the bathroom door on my way out. "He doesn't look very good." Alice sai
d. "I know, hopefully the bath will warm him up." I knew she wasn't just talking
about that but I didn't say anything else.
I changed quickly and went back in the bathroom. Edward had gotten his shoes and
socks off but he was struggling with the button to his jeans. His fingers were
so red and cold he didn't make much progress.
I moved his hands out of the way and undid them for him. I had yet to see Edward
completely naked and this was not the most ideal way but that didn't matter at
the moment.
His jeans were so wet they clung to his body tightly and I had a hard time pulli
ng them down. Once I got them off I looked at the bath water and it was almost o
ver flowing. I shut the water off and squirted some bubble bath in and swirled t
he water around.
"Bubbles?" I turned my head quickly at the sound of Edwards voice. It was hoarse
and monotone but it was the first time I had heard it in almost two months. "I'
m sorry." I said apologizing for everything but the bubbles. "I thought you woul
d want a little privacy in the water." I tried to smile but I couldn't.
I took the two steps needed to hug him tightly and he really was cold. He still
had his boxers on. "Edward, you need to get in the bath." I turned around and he
ld my hand out for his underwear.
When he handed them to me I gathered up the rest of his clothes and handed them
to Alice. "I'm going to put these in the dryer and then I'm going to head home.
Please call me and let me know what's going on. Okay?" I nodded and she gave me
a hug.
I went back into the bathroom and he was in and leaning his head back against th
e wall.
His eyes were closed but they opened quickly when he heard me sit down on the fl
oor next to the tub.
I wanted to say something but I just didn't know where to start so I stared into
his eyes and he stared back also not saying anything. I wanted to touch him, I
had no idea just how much I was missing him until I was holding him again.
I tentatively reached my hand out and he took it in his. He gave me a half smile
but neither of us spoke. After about 30 minutes his eyelids were starting to dr
oop. The water had cooled off and I knew he needed to get into bed.
"Edward, I'm going to get your clothes from the dryer." I squeezed his hand and
stood up. I ran to the laundry room and retrieved his clothes. When I got back i
nto the room he was standing in the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
He must not have dried himself off because he was still wet. I took another towe
l and started drying off his arms and chest. After I finished with his back I pu
lled his shirt back over his head.
He was starting to sway and so I hurriedly dried off his legs and helped him ste
p into his boxers. I pulled him over to my bed and laid him down. I pulled the c
overs over him and laid down on top of them next to him.
He turned on his side to face me but he couldn't keep his eyes open. He quickly
fell asleep. Even though I was tired too I couldn't fall asleep. I just kept goi
ng over everything that happened again and again.
I finally had to face everything I had been avoiding for the last two months. Af
ter Alice's 'talk' with me I realized I needed him in my life. The question was
in what capacity.
I knew I was going to forgive him. I think I already have but can I trust him ag
ain?
I guess that is the question. I knew that he wouldn't intentionally hurt me agai
n but could I handle it if something where to happen and he betrayed me again? I
had never been so hurt in all my life. The one person who was never supposed to
hurt me did.
He broke my heart. Could I trust him not to do it again? I laid there staring at
the ceiling willing the answer to come to me. I must have fallen asleep because
I was vaguely aware that it was completely dark and I found myself under the co
vers. I felt arms wrapped around me and someone was kissing my head.
My eyes flew open as I remembered the last few hours. I sat up quickly and looke
d over at Edward. It was hard to see him in the dark but as my eyes adjusted I c
ould see his face grow concerned as I stared at him.
"Hey." I said as I reached out to touch his arm. "Hey." He said back and started
to sit up himself. I took a deep breath I knew what needed to happen now. "Edwa
rd, I'm sorry."
His face showed how shocked he was. "Bella, you have nothing to be sorry for, I'
m the one that is sorry."
"No Edward, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have run away and I shouldn't have hidden
from you for two months. I told you that I would call you and instead I ran." H
e started to shake his head back and forth.
"It's my fault Bella, I hurt you. You didn't do anything wrong." He tried to exp
lain.
"Yes, you did hurt me but I didn't handle the situation well." His face twisted
in pain. "I needed time away to figure things out but instead of dealing with ev
erything I blocked it all out."
"It's okay Bella." he fidgeted with his shirt. "Edward, I messed up too. I hurt
you too and I'm sorry." I leaned over and hugged him. He held on tightly like he
was never going to let go.
"I realized that what happened was not worth losing you over, I need you in my l
ife Edward." He looked at me and searched my face for answers. He took a deep br
eath. "In what way do you want me in your life Bella?"
"I don't know." I answered him as honestly as I could. The pain in his face was
back and he looked like he was going to be sick again.
"I love you Edward, but I'm scared." I wanted to explain quickly, that last thin
g I wanted to do was cause him anymore pain.
"I love you too." He whispered tears starting to well up in his eyes. I reached
up and cupped my hand to his face. "I want to be with you Edward but you broke m
y heart and I don't think I could handle it if that happened again." My thumb wi
ped away the tears that spilled over onto his cheek.
"I don't know what to do." I whispered. "I want to be with you Bella. You mean e
verything thing to me, everything." He said as he held my face in his hands. I d
idn't know what to say to that.
He meant everything to me too but I couldn't just pick up where we left off. Thi
ngs weren't the same. Things would never be the same again. We both stayed silen
t for a long time.
"Just tell me one thing Bella." he finally spoke again. "Of course Edward." I an
swered wondering what he was going to ask of me. He closed his eyes as he starte
d to speak.
"Do I have a chance?"
"Yes Edward, you have a chance." I replied without even thinking about my answer
.
He gave me the first real smile I've seen in months. He pulled me to him again a
nd laid us both back down. I thought that perhaps I shouldn't let this happen ri
ght now but I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to.
He pulled me to his chest and just ran his hand up and down my back.
"Thank you." He whispered. "You're welcome." I said into his chest. "I promise B
ella, we can take things as slow as you need to. I am willing to do anything, ev
erything to earn your trust back."
My only response was to squeeze him tightly. He sighed in contentment as we both
drifted back to sleep.
I awoke to my phone ringing and I looked up at the clock. It was 11:42am. "Shit.
" I said jumping up. That woke Edward right up. He sat up quickly. "What's wrong
?" he asked.
"I was supposed to be at work 12 minutes ago." I told him while I ran into the b
athroom.
"I'm sorry, I have to go. You can stay if you want to or if not I guess I can ju
st talk to you later." I told him as I ran to the door.
"I'll stay if that's okay." He said. I had my back to him and smiled to myself.
"Okay, I'll be back around 5:00 or so. Bye Edward."
"Bye Bella." I heard him say as I left.
EPOV
I couldn't help the smile on my face. Here I was lying in Bella's bed. She is le
tting me back in her life again. How the hell did I get so lucky?
Hold on Cullen you're not there yet. I had to remind myself. I re-played the eve
nts of last night in my mind. Sleeping next to Bella last night probably wasn't
the smartest move I could have made especially since she needs to take things sl
ow. But I just couldn't help myself.
It had been too long and I needed her too much not to. I will make sure I do bet
ter today. The last thing I want to do is rush her or make her feel pressured in
anyway. If we need to start over as friends in order to make this right again I
will do it.
The sound of my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked around not sure whe
re it was and found it on Bella's nightstand. I looked at the caller id and it w
as Alice.
"Good morning Alice." I could hear her gasp into the phone. I knew it had been a
while since I had felt even remotely happy but I didn't think she would pick up
on it that easily.
"I knew it! I take it things went well last night?" I could almost hear her smil
e.
"For the most part." I told her everything that happened between Bella and I. "I
'm so happy for you Edward."
"Hold on Alice, things are completely fixed yet but at least we are on the right
track." I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget my place. The last thing I w
anted to do was take anything for granted.
"I know but it's only a matter of time. I already called Emmett and Rosalie and
they're heading down. Emmett really wants to make things right with Bella too."
"Are you coming home?" she asked me. I am home I thought to myself. "No Alice, B
ella said I could stay if I wanted to and I'm not leaving."
"I didn't think you would. Call me later and let me know a good time for all of
us to come over. I don't want to overwhelm Bella but I don't think I can keep Em
mett away for long."
"Yeah, I know he feels really bad about the whole thing." I couldn't really be m
ad at him though. This was all my doing and if it weren't for him I never would
have met Bella.
"He really does, almost worse than when Rose kneed him in the balls for his part
in this whole fiasco." I cringed at the memory.
I ordered take out and had it delivered a few minutes before Bella was suppose t
o be back. I set the table and thought about lighting candles but quickly decide
d against the idea. This was going to be hard keeping this in the friendship zon
e for a while. I sighed and then heard Bella's keys in the door.
She walked in and looked at me sitting at the table with dinner ready. "You got
dinner?" she asked eyeing the take out containers. "I thought you would be hungr
y. I hope this is okay."
"That's very sweet Edward, thank you." She said sitting down at the table with m
e. I couldn't keep my eyes off her and I didn't miss the fact that she looked ov
er to me frequently.
"Alice called earlier, she wanted to come over later with everyone. But if your
not up to it I will just tell her to wait for another time." I wasn't sure what
she would think about it.
"I talked to her too; they will be here around seven."
"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel overwhelmed or anything."
"I'm fine Edward, you don't have to worry, I want to get things back to normal a
s soon as possible." I smiled at the thought. I hoped that included our relation
ship too.
"Okay sweetheart." As soon as I said it, I regretted it, only because I didn't w
ant to upset Bella.
She must have notice the look on my face because she reached out and touched my
arm.
"It's okay Edward; I love it when you call me that. I know this is new for both
of us. Just try and be patient with me."
BPOV
When I got home and Edward had dinner ready I couldn't help but smile. He was al
ready stepping back into the caretaker role which he does so well. This was goin
g to be a real challenge, my heart didn't want to take things slow but I knew in
my mind that it was the only way to re-build our relationship.
Then he called me 'sweetheart' and I absolutely melted. Ugh. Luckily everyone wa
s going to be coming over shortly and that should help distract me. Soon enough
there was a knock on my door.
Emmett was the last to walk in. He kept his eyes on the ground and he looked so
sad. I immediately went over and took his hand and pulled him back out into the
hall. He looked up at me. "Bella, I'm so"
I cut him off with a hug. "I know Em." He hugged me tightly. "I'm so so so sorry
." He continued. We both sighed. "I just want everything to go back to normal bu
t it's going to take me a little while. I hope you can understand and allow me t
hat."
"Of course Bella, anything. I love you and the last thing I wanted to do was hur
t you." He was still looking at the ground. "I know, and I love you too." I told
him sincerely.
"Is everything going to be okay with you and Edward?" he asked. "I hope so." He
didn't look happy with that.
"It has to be, I know how much he loves you. Please give him another chance." He
went to bat for his brother.
"I am, we're trying but I need to take things slowly and he understands that." H
e smiled, that seemed to appease him.
We walked back inside and everyone looked up at us. I smiled and that seemed to
make everyone else do the same.
We all played cards and talked for the next few hours before it was time for the
m to go.
"I'll call you tomorrow." Alice said before she got her coat and walked to the d
oor.
"Okay, I'm off tomorrow maybe we could all do something?"
"Anything you want." Emmett was the first to answer. After I hugged everyone goo
dbye Rose, Alice, Jazz and Em went out into the hall leaving me and Edward at th
e door.
It was kind of awkward, neither one of us sure of what to do. Edward pulled me i
n for a hug. "Thank you Bella, I .." he trailed off.
"Thank you Edward, I'm glad you stayed today." He smiled. "Me too, can I call yo
u later?" he asked timidly.
"Yes, I would like that." His face lit up. "I'll talk to you later then. Bye Bel
la."
"Bye Edward."
I closed the door and flopped on my bed. I closed my eyes reflecting on the day.
It seemed only like a few minutes before I got a text from Edward.
I know it's late but I wanted to say goodnight. If you're up you can call me if
you want to. If not sweet dreams and I'll see you tomorrow. Edward
I sighed as I hit the reply button.
Chapter 19
BPOV
After I finished texting Edward goodnight I changed and climbed into bed. I foun
d myself on the side of the bed that Edward slept on. Not that the bed was all t
hat big, usually I just slept in the middle but I used the pillow he had been us
ing. It still smelled like him.
I didn't realize how tired I was but before I knew it I woke up hugging the pill
ow and the clock read 10:00am. I got up and took a shower before I heard my phon
e ringing.
"Hi Alice what's up?" I answered. "Good morning Bella, I was just checking to se
e if you still wanted to do something today?" I could hear Edward in the backgro
und telling Emmett to be quiet.
"Yeah, what do you guys want to do?" I looked out the window and it wasn't raini
ng and I could see blue sky.
"Emmett is insisting it's your day to pick." She said and I recalled Emmett's wo
rds last night. "I'm up for anything." I told her.
"How about we head on over and we'll figure it out from there."
"Sounds good, see you soon." I hung up the phone and checked the paper to see if
there was anything going on.
They showed up about 45 minutes later. "What are we doing today?" Emmett asked.
"Well, I was thinking we could go up to the Rose garden and then maybe the zoo.
And later on tonight they have 'movie in the park' night.
"What movie is playing?" Rosalie asked. "27 Dresses" I told them, I had been wan
ting to see that movie for a while. "I've been wanting to see that one." Rosalie
and Alice both said. I could see the forced smile Emmett and Jasper gave at tha
t information but they didn't say anything.
I looked over at Edward and he was giving me a genuine smile and he said that he
thought the whole day sounded perfect. I had the feeling no matter what I sugge
sted that he would think it was perfect. He wasn't making the whole 'stay friend
s for awhile' thing very easy on me. He wasn't pressuring me at all but did he h
ave to be so hard to resist?
But the more I thought about it maybe I didn't want him to. Maybe I did want him
to try and sweep me off my feet again. That's one of the things that made me fa
ll in love with him in the first place. This is so confusing.
"We'll have to take two cars, so how about we follow you and Edward since I'm no
t sure where we are going?" Jasper suggested with a smirk. Ugh I knew what they
were doing. They were going to put us alone together at every opportunity.
Of course I knew that they would try but I thought they would try to hide it bet
ter. Maybe they thought any plans which had a hidden agenda would be a bad idea
so why not have everything out in the open.
The first half of the day went by quickly but we all had a lot of fun. Edward st
uck close to me and I saw him reach for my hand a few times before pulling back.
His struggle was clear but I could tell he was really trying to respect my wish
es.
We went out to dinner and waited for it to get dark enough for the movie to star
t. I packed a few blankets and the cooler and headed for the park about 8:30 tha
t night.
We got everything set up and all took our places on the blanket. Both Alice and
Rosalie were leaning against their boyfriend's chest while Edward and I sat next
to each other. I felt a twinge of jealously looking at them but I quickly remin
ded myself why the need for this was necessary. That helped to keep me in place.
Emmett and Rosalie stayed a few more days before heading back home. The end of t
he summer was here and school was going to be starting soon. Edward would call o
r text me about every other day.
I think he was trying to find the balance between keeping in contact with me and
not trying to be too pushy. It was a fine line to walk. For the first couple of
weeks he made all the initial calls.
I would always reply to him but I never contacted him first. I felt kind of bad
about that especially because he was the only one I was like that with. Everyone
else had pretty much gotten back to normal.
Edward and I couldn't get back to our normal because our normal was being a coup
le and we couldn't be that right now. So that made things a little awkward betwe
en us. At least I felt that way and I'm sure Edward did too but he tried not to
let it show.
Everyone else called one another without hesitation daily. I knew Edward noticed
the difference but he never said anything about it and never made me feel bad i
n any way, in fact he just seemed so grateful for whatever I gave him.
I had completely conflicting emotions regarding the whole thing. I still had no
idea what was going on with us and I knew that was entirely my fault. Or my deci
sion at least. Edward was willing to do whatever I needed him to do and I also k
new what he wanted to happen. So right now this was all on me.
He was really trying though; I had to give him that. He would take cues from me
as to how to act but the problem I was having was that I wanted more and yet at
the same time I didn't.
I was confused as to what to do which in turn made him confused about what I wan
ted from him. I knew I was sending him mixed signals but I wasn't sure what to d
o about that. I thought that maybe I should back off and put some distance betwe
en us until I could get things figured out in order to be more fair to him.
It didn't take any time at all for me to realize that that wasn't going to happe
n. I put my plan into motion on Monday and by Tuesday morning I found myself cal
ling him.
"Bella?" he sounded just as shocked that I had called him first as I felt. "Oh h
ey Edward, I hope I'm not bothering you." I looked at the clock for the first ti
me and realized it was 7:30 in the morning.
"Of course not, you could never bother me, is everything okay?"
"I'm sorry I didn't even check to see what time it was before I called, I can ju
st call you back later." I was feeling kind of stupid; it was like my body acted
 before my mind caught up.
"NO!" he practically shouted. "I mean, it's not too early what's going on?"
"Nothing, I just felt like talking to you." .. silence .. "Um since I woke you up s
o early how about I take you to breakfast to make up for it?" What am I doing?
"I would love that Bella, do you want me to come over?" I heard rustling in the
background and I could tell he was already getting up.
"No, we can just meet somewhere in-between. How about the IHOP off of I-5 in Tig
ard?"
"What time do you want to meet?" he asked. "In about an hour? I'm going to take
a shower first if that's okay?"
"Of course, I will see you then." I could hear him turning on his own shower. "B
ye Edward." Just perfect, now I'm going to have images of him in the shower.
On the drive there I was starting to get a little nervous when I realized that t
his was going to be the first time it would be just the two of us since that fir
st day.
I pulled into the parking lot and found that he was already there. As I was gett
ing out of my truck he was already walking over to me. He had my favorite crooke
d smile on.
"Bella!" I could tell he wanted to give me a hug but he kept his distance.
We ordered breakfast and started talking about school. "I'm moving into my dorm
this week." He told me. "That's great Edward, you'll be so much closer now." I s
miled at him and his face just lit up.
I internally was cussing myself out again, more of the mixed signals. But I was
finding myself caring a little less about these 'rules' I tried to make for our
relationship and just went with my gut.
"What is your class schedule like?" He asked while stealing one my strawberries
from the waffles I was eating. I raised one of my eyebrows at him questioningly
so he quickly exchanged it for some of his blueberries.
"I have classes all day Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I work in the student st
ore on Tuesday evenings and have a Thursday night class."
"Wow, you're going to be busy." I didn't want to tell him that when I had set up
my schedule weeks ago that the reason why was to help distract me from everythi
ng that was going on between us.
"Yeah, but I figured I would try and get ahead. If it's too much I can take a le
sser load next for winter semester. How about you? What is your schedule looking
like?"
"It's similar to yours actually. I have all day Monday, Wednesday and Friday cla
sses and my night class is on Tuesday's."
"Let me know when you're all moved in, I would still like to see your campus."
"I would love to show you around. How about next Tuesday we meet for breakfast a
gain and then we can go over and I'll give you the tour?" he asked timidly not l
ooking me in the eyes.
"That sounds good Edward." This made him smile immediately. I love that smile.
Emmett and Rosalie had come down again so we could all have one more group get t
ogether before we all got caught up with school.
It was scary how much things were changing. It kind of hit me all at once. We we
re all going to different schools, well except for Rose and Emmett but they live
d a couple hours up the road. We were all going to be so busy at least for a whi
le until we got used to how things were going to be now.
I was glad that Tuesday morning breakfast with Edward had turned into a routine.
Every Tuesday without fail we would have breakfast together. He insisted on pay
ing every time, and then he would thank me for letting him pay. Most of the time
it was at a restaurant but once Edward surprised me by showing up on my doorste
p with breakfast in hand.
I had a cold .not that big of a deal I hadn't planned on missing breakfast but when
he showed up he said he just wanted to take care of me and make sure I got enou
gh rest.
It was clear to me that things were progressing with the two of us but I still w
asn't quite ready to give in completely. We were able to call each other at any
time and even hang out without feeling weird about it. But we hadn't officially
entered into dating or anything physical at all.
Two minutes before my alarm went off I got a text from Edward. "Good luck today,
I know you'll do great. I can't wait to hear about all your classes. Call me la
ter? Edward"
"Thank you, you too, yes I will call you tonight. Bella"
It was a long day, well more tiring than anything. Most of my classes were let o
ut early since it was the first day but the stress of it all was wearing on me a
little. From what I had seen so far I really liked my classes.
When I got home the first thing I did was call Edward. "Bella how was your first
day?" Edward sounded like he was in a really good mood. "It was really good act
ually, how about yours?"
"I love it Bella all of my classes are great I just wish .." he trailed off. "Is e
verything okay?" I asked.
"Yes, everything's fine, just feeling a little nostalgic for a moment." I wasn't
sure what to say to that so changed the subject quickly and we ended up talking
for another hour before I told him I had to go. I still had everyone else to ca
ll too. And it didn't escape my notice that he was the first one I wanted to tal
k to. "See you in the morning Edward."
After breakfast I told him about my assignment that was due tomorrow so I had to
get back and get to work on it before my shift at the student store. Once I got
started I found that the assignment wasn't all that hard so I finished pretty q
uickly.
My Thursday night class was going to be the death of me. Not only was it very ha
rd to sit through three hours at a time but it made it even worse since I didn't
understand the material very well.
Class was getting ready to let out when I noticed the guy next to me was looking
my way. "What do you think of the class?" He asked.
"Well, it's my toughest one yet but I'm sure I'll make it through."
"I'm Felix by the way."
"Bella."
"So Bella, maybe we could study together sometime or something." Oh no
"Um, I'm up for any study groups but as far as a one on one thing I don't think
that is such a good idea." I didn't want to offend him but I certainly didn't wa
nt to spend anytime alone with him studying or not. I didn't want to give him or
anyone else the impression that I was interested.
"I take it you have a boyfriend then?"
"It's complicated." Shit, why didn't I just say yes? I hope this guy takes the h
int anyway and just drops it.
"Let me guess, high school boyfriend who is going to another college and you're
trying a long distance relationship?"
"My relationships are really none of your business." I was getting pissed off no
w.
He moved closer to me and whispered in my ear. "You're right, I'm not interested
in your relationships; I'm just interested in a little fun. Give me a call if y
ou ever get lonely." he kissed me just below my ear, and winked as he dropped hi
s number on my desk before walking out.
I was disgusted and a pretty creeped out. My mind flashed back to Mike Newton an
d I suddenly wished I hadn't walked here alone. It's only a few blocks back to m
y dorm but still its dark now.
I peeked around the corner and I didn't see him so I started walking. I managed
to freak myself out so I found my cell phone and called Edward. I really just wa
nted someone to talk to until I got home. I didn't even consider Edward's reacti
on but I should have.
"Hey Bella, your back from class already?" he asked. "Almost I'm walking home ri
ght now." I kept looking around just to make sure Felix wasn't near by. I knew I
was over-reacting but that didn't seem to calm me down.
"Are you okay? You seem a little distracted." He asked. "Sorry, I'm just a littl
e creeped out. This guy in my last class said something to me and it reminded me
of Mike Newton and I'm being a little paranoid right now is all, but I'm fine."
It was so quiet I thought maybe the call got disconnected. "Where are you?" his
voice changed to a mix of fury and anguish. Ooops. Why didn't I think this throu
gh?
"Edward I'm fine I'm about two blocks away, I didn't mean to upset you I just fe
lt better having someone on the phone with me. I'm sure I am over-reacting." I t
ried to calm him down but I knew it wouldn't do me any good.
"I'm coming to get you." I heard his car start. "Edward there really isn't a nee
d to, I can see the dorms from here." I tried to reason with him.
"I'll be there in 5 minutes." I didn't argue because I knew nothing would change
his mind even though I was walking up to the door now. Right as I reached for t
he handle someone opened it from the other side and it startled me and I gasped
loudly.
"Bella!" Shit. "I'm fine, someone was walking out the door and I was startled. I
'm inside now and I'll be in my room in two minutes.
He stayed on the phone with me even after I made it inside and he was knocking o
nly a few minutes later. I opened the door and he walked in immediately hugging
me. He held me tightly and his breathing was heavy but neither one of us said an
ything.
What seemed like an hour later was really only five minutes and his breathing re
turned to normal. He pulled back to look at me. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I told you I just over re-acted, I'm sorry I worried you." I put my h
and on his cheek to try and calm him. Not only did it work for him but it calmed
me down too.
We just stared at each other for a few minutes until he rested his forehead to m
ine. "Thank you for calling me. What exactly did this guy say?"
I told me about what happened leaving out the part where he kissed me. I knew Ed
ward wouldn't let that slide and I didn't need him getting into any fights. And
he was upset enough as it is.
"Why don't you go get changed and I'll tuck you in." So adorable. I went into th
e bathroom and changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed. Edward tucked me in
and sat on the edge of my bed.
"Thank you for everything." I told him and he smiled at me. "No need to thank me
." he said as he kissed my forehead and walked over to the closet pulling out my
extra blankets.
I watched him curiously as he walked back over to the bed. He started to spread
the blankets out on the floor and he took the extra pillow off my bed before tur
ning out the light.
I sat up. "Edward, what are you doing?" I asked even though it was pretty clear.
"Get some sleep Bella, we both have to be up early tomorrow." And that was all t
he answer he gave me.
"You don't need to stay here tonight, I'm fine really." I heard him sigh heavily
. "Please Bella, don't ask me to leave. I know you are fine but I'm not. I need
to be here tonight. Please."
And there we he goes melting my heart again.
"Edward, you can't sleep on the floor" he cut me off before I could finish. "Ple
ase."
I scooted over. "Get in the bed." I continued.
"Bella, I didn't mean ..I just meant that I need to stay tonight, I don't mind the
floor."
"I know, and I asking you to sleep in the bed with me." he stayed quiet and didn
't move.
I lifted the covers for him to join me. "Please." He got up slowly and climbed i
n timidly next to me trying not to get too close. He was lying on this back and
he seemed pretty rigid.
I scooted over closer to him and I propped myself up on my elbow so I could see
him better. "Goodnight Edward." And then I did it, I leaned down and kissed him
on the lips before snuggling up to him and resting my head on his chest.
Chapter 20
EPOV
What just happened? My heart was crashing through my chest. She just kissed me.
The first kiss in four months and I didn't even kiss her back. I was too shocked
.
All I wanted was to stay the night. I knew I was pushing my luck but I just coul
dn't leave her alone. Granted nothing happened but just the thought of it, espec
ially with what happened with Newton. There would be no way I could leave her to
night.
Then out of no where she invites me to sleep next to her and then she kisses me.
Trying not to get too far ahead of myself I took a deep breath and thought abou
t what this could mean.
Option 1: I can't even allow myself to think it; I can't get my hopes up. It's w
hat I've been waiting for forever. But no I can't go there right now, there must
be another explanation.
Option 2: She was just thanking me for tonight, just a kiss between friends righ
t?
Option 3: Maybe she just got caught up in the moment; maybe she'll regret it in
the morning.
I didn't want to think about that. My head was spinning and my heart just wouldn
't slow down. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep tonight.
"Edward?"
"Hmmm?" I didn't trust my voice so I didn't speak.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." And yes my voice cracked.
"Are you sure? Am I making you uncomfortable?"
"No, why would you think that?"
"I can feel your heart; it hasn't slowed down in the last five minutes."
"Uh "
"I'm sorry." Oh please don't be talking about the kiss .. of course she was, what
else would she have to be sorry about.
"Please don't be sorry . I'm not sorry."
"No Edward, I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was I'm sorry for just kiss
ing you and not explaining myself. Sometimes I forget how hard this is for you.
I should have considered your feelings."
I didn't know what to say and she continued.
"I'm not sorry for kissing you. I did it because I wanted to. I feel like we're
getting closer and I I want things to continue like this. I'm not ready to define
our relationship but maybe we could just go with it? I know that's a lot to ask
and I hope that's okay. But if it's not just tell me, I'll understand."
"Of course its okay Bella, it's more than okay. I was just worried that maybe yo
u would regret it later or something." I explained.
"I know I haven't been fair to you. I know I've been sending you mixed signals.
But I promise I'm not trying to. Honestly it's just that I have been having so m
any mixed emotions and I'm going to try to stop being so selfish."
"You've been more than fair to me Bella; I'm the one that brought all of this on
. I knew it would take some time for you to sort out your feelings. I just kept
hoping it would go this way."
"You really are an amazing man Edward. I don't think I know of anyone else that
would put up with all of this. Thank you for being so patient and understanding.
"
I was about to answer her when she started to lean in towards me again and this
time I was ready. She kissed me again and I kissed her back. It was timid and sw
eet but also the most amazing kiss I have ever had.
"Goodnight Edward."
"Goodnight Bella." she placed her head back on my chest and put her hand over my
heart. That had to be the best feeling in the world. I took a chance and wrappe
d my arms around her and we drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up in the morning it was before the alarm went off. We were laying f
ace to face on the pillow our noses just barely touching. Our arms and legs enta
ngled with each others. I was just enjoying it and watching her sleep when the a
larm went off and startled us both.
"Good Morning." She said reaching over to hit the snooze alarm. "Good morning."
I said and then she snuggled closer to me and closed her eyes again.
I felt relieved at that. At least she wasn't pulling back and she didn't seem re
gretful of last night.
The alarm went off again and I groaned knowing I had to get up now in order to m
ake it to my class on time.
Bella walked me to the door and gave me a hug. "Thanks for coming over last nigh
t."
"Anything for you." I told her and she pulled back and gave me a kiss on the che
ck. I was hoping for another one on the lips but I wasn't about to complain. I g
ot way more than I expected to when I came over last night.
"Call me later?" Bella asked. "Of course I will, have a good day."
Time dragged on and I wanted to get home and call Bella. I wondered if we were g
oing to do anything tonight. This was the first time in a while I felt nervous a
round her and I knew it was because we were slowly taking the next step and that
meant uncertainty again.
I wouldn't trade it of course but Bella and I had gotten into a comfortable rout
ine of hanging out together whenever we wanted and now I was back to being unsur
e of how to act. I didn't want to overstep but after she kissed me last night twic
e ..it was clear our relationship was in a new place and that meant new rules.
So my plan would be the same as it has been, let her take the lead and just go w
ith it. That seemed to work to my benefit so far so I decided to stick with it.
I called Bella when I got home.
"Hi Edward, how was your day?"
"Pretty great how about yours?
"Long, I'm glad it's Friday Do you want to do something tonight?"
"Absolutely, what ever you want to do is fine with me."
"I'm kind of tired so would it be okay if we just hung out here, we could have d
inner and maybe watch a movie?"
"Perfect, do you want me to pick up dinner on my way over?"
"Thanks, yeah anything's fine; just pick whatever you're in the mood for."
"I'll be there in about and hour."
"See you then." I took a shower and picked up a pizza. When I got there we ate a
nd got ready for the movie. We put it in and sat next to each other on the bed.
She surprised me by holding my hand.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see she was looking over at me frequently. I
did the same to her and when we did it at the same time we just smiled, blushed
and once I even giggled yes giggled.
I had no idea what was going on with the movie, I was too busy fighting off the
urge to just kiss her. I was glad to see that she was having the same struggle.
She would look at me and lick her lips or stare at mine.
It wasn't too much longer that she finally gave in. Without warning she turned o
n her side to face me completely forgetting what we were watching and propped he
rself up on her elbow. I looked down at her and she put her hand on my chest.
I wasn't about to pass up this opportunity so I mirrored her position except I k
ept my hand on the bed between us. I reached up to brush the hair out of her eye
s and let my hand linger on her face. As we watched each other I was willing her
to make a move.
I didn't know if it was okay for me to do it or not. I wish there was a rule boo
k or something. I wanted to kiss her and it seemed like she was willing to let t
hat happen but how do I know if it's okay for me to initiate it. As if she knew
what I was thinking she let me off the hook.
"Edward, I know in the past I have asked you to respect me when I said that I ne
eded space, and I know you promised you wouldn't push me into doing something th
at I wasn't ready for." She paused and put her hand over mine holding it to her
face.
"Thank you for doing that, but like I told you last night I'm ready to move forw
ard and just go with it. I don't want you to think that you have to walk on eggs
hells. I'm sorry I made you feel scared to make any move at all in fear that it
might be wrong.
I'm sorry for making this so complicated but you don't need to wait for me. If s
omething makes me uncomfortable I will let you know, and I want you to do the sa
me." She smiled at me rubbing her thumb over my fingers.
"Are you sure? I just don't want you to ." She cut me off by putting her finger to
my lips. I smiled and then kissed her fingertip before leaning in and kissing h
er. I wished that this could go on forever, I never wanted it to stop but unfort
unately I could see that Bella was getting tired.
Her eyes kept closing before she would struggle to open them again. It didn't ta
ke long for her to fall asleep. I was pretty tired too I've been on an emotional
high for the last 24 hours.
I was amazed at this turn of events and my mind kept drifting off to thoughts of
the future. I didn't want to jinks anything so I tried to keep my focus on the
here and now. And that was Bella sleeping in my arms for the second night in a r
ow.
The morning came much too soon and Bella told me that she was getting together w
ith a few students from her night class. The class was pretty tough and she wasn
't the only one having a hard time and since it only met once a week she didn't
want to risk getting too far behind. The group spent most of Saturday day and ni
ght working.
That reminded me that I needed to let her know that I would be walking her to an
d from class every Thursday night. I was hoping she was going to tell me who the
guy was that freaked her out so badly but I knew she wouldn't knowing that I wo
uld want to deal with him.
I took the opportunity to get caught up on all my homework too. I didn't get to
see her again until Sunday when we went over to Alice and Jasper's for a few hou
rs.
Bella and I rode together which we always did when we went over there. We briefl
y discussed how we were planning on handling our 'next level' status in front of
our friends.
We weren't going to hide anything but we weren't going to flaunt it either as le
ast right now mostly because like Bella had pointed out she wasn't ready to defi
ne our relationship yet. It would be hard to explain something to them that we d
idn't even fully have an answer for so we kept it to a minimum.
Either we slipped up or Alice was keeping a closer eye on us than I realized bec
ause I noticed the suspicious looks she and Jasper kept giving us. As we were le
aving I saw here pull Bella aside for minute whispering something to her.
I didn't ask her what Alice had said because I figured she would tell me if she
wanted to. Bella had some reading she needed to get done for tomorrow's class so
I didn't stay. We had our normal breakfast Tuesday morning and I showed up Thur
sday for dinner before I walked Bella to class.
"You know this is completely unnecessary right?" she asked.
"Of course it's necessary." I smiled and she rolled her eyes.
"I can take care of myself you know." I think she was a little miffed.
"I know, that isn't the issue."
"Then what is?"
"My sanity."
"Fine." She huffed right before she kissed me.
The walk was short and we were a few minutes early. We were standing outside her
classroom when I saw a familiar face. I looked the other way so he didn't notic
e me.
"Edward, is something wrong?"
"No, I just know someone in your class and I really didn't want to get stuck tal
king to him."
"Who is it?"
"This guy Felix, he went to high school in Port Angeles and he used to go campin
g with Jasper and Emmett sometimes. We never got along and I just don't want to
talk to him."
"Oh" but she didn't say anymore.
After she went into class I went home until it was time to pick her up again. I
waited in the same place as a dropped her off hoping Felix wouldn't see me. He w
as one of the first ones out of class and even though I kept my head down he rec
ognized me.
"Cullen, I didn't know you went here."
"I don't, I'm meeting someone."
"How are Emmett and" he didn't get a chance to finish because Bella walked out o
f class. She stopped about 5 feet away and looked over to us. "Uh." And she poin
ted to the bathroom before walking away.
I watched Felix as he kept his eyes on her as she left. "That is a fine piece of
ass, I'm gonna get me some of that." He nodded to Bella and licked his lips.
BPOV
When I came out of class I saw Felix talking to Edward. I thought about going ov
er there but instead I made my escape to the bathroom. It might have been smarte
r to show Felix that I was with Edward but I didn't want to chance Edward findin
g out that Felix was the guy. He knows me so well that I'm sure he would b able
to pick up on the fact that I was uncomfortable.
I waited for a few minutes before walking back out into the hall. Edward was alo
ne thank goodness. "Ready?" he smiled at me.
"Yep" he grabbed my hand and we started walking. I was glad to see that he was f
eeling more comfortable. We walked back to my dorm and he was getting ready to l
eave when I noticed his other hand.
"Edward what happened to your hand?" he looked down at it. "Oh, um" he didn't fi
nish because my phone started ringing.
"Hang on." I answered it and it was Alice. "Hey Alice." I looked back over to Ed
ward and he smiled and mouthed that he was going to go. I have him a hug goodbye
and told him I would talk to him tomorrow.
"Sorry Alice, what's up?"
"I just talked to Rosalie and we thought it might be fun if we left tomorrow nig
ht instead of Saturday. We could just get a hotel room in Seattle for the night
before driving to Forks."
"That's a good idea, I can't wait it's been too long since we've had a girls nig
ht."
"I'm really looking forward to it too, and I filled Rosalie in on the situation.
"
"I knew you would." I laughed. Last weekend when we were at Alice's she pulled m
e aside to inform me that we needed a girl's night to discuss the obvious change
in mine and Edwards relationship. Hence we planned this weekend.
"Oh yeah, Jasper thought that the 4 of us could have dinner together before we l
eave and then him and Edward cam do something."
"I'm up for it and I'll ask Edward tonight."
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye Alice." I didn't want to wake Edward up in case he already went to bed so I
texted him to let him know about our change of plans for tomorrow.
There's been a change in plans, me and Alice are leaving tomorrow night instead
of Saturday, so do you want to meet us and Jasper for dinner? Bella
*Sigh* yes dinner sounds great. - Edward
Good, see you tomorrow. - Bella
Sweet dreams - Edward
Chapter 21
BPOV
Alice met me at my dorm right after my last class. We got the car packed up so w
e could leave right after dinner. I knew Edward was a little disappointed that w
e were leaving Friday night instead of Saturday. We hadn't made definite plans b
ut I knew that is what he was thinking.
I was a little disappointed too but I couldn't help but be excited that me, Alic
e and Rosalie were getting the chance to hang out together and Emmett decided to
drive down and hang out with the guys for the weekend.
After dinner was over and the guys walked us to the car I didn't hold back when
I kissed Edward goodbye. It was obvious that Alice already knew something was up
and in a matter of a couple of hours she would know it all anyway so there was
no point in hiding it.
"Call me when you get there please so I know you made it safely." Edward said ve
ry seriously.
"You don't have to worry, we'll be fine." I told him but he narrowed his eyes at
me for a minute.
"Humor me."
"Okay, I promise to call you when we get there." I said in a bored voice.
"Thank you." He said while kissing me again. "And drive carefully." He directed
to Alice.
We pulled on the I-5 and headed north. It only took Alice a couple of minutes be
fore she started her questioning. I was surprised she lasted that long especiall
y with the look she gave me as I kissed Edward before we left.
"Alice, you know Rosalie made me promise not to discuss anything with you until
she was with us so I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait." I knew she was
dying to know and I noticed that she sped up a little.
Traffic was surprisingly light for a Friday night. We made it to Seattle in 2 ho
urs.
We drove straight to the motel and Rosalie was waiting for us already. I made su
re that I called Edward when we got there so he wouldn't worry. He thanked me an
d told me that Emmett had already gotten there and they were spending the night
at Jaspers.
"Ok Bella, spill it." Alice was on the edge of her seat, literally.
"Ok ok, well let's see I guess it started a week ago Thursday." I told them all
about Felix and everything that happened with me and Edward after that up until
this point.
"So why are you waiting to 'define' your relationship?" Rosalie asked. "I'm not
sure what the point of that is."
"Well, I don't know I guess I just didn't want to rush into anything." I tried t
o think of the reason why. They both looked at me incredulously.
"I think you've lost me. I don't think you have rushed into anything. It took yo
u nearly two months for you to even talk to him again and then another two to ge
t to this point."
"I know, it's just that .." I trailed off trying to think of what I really wanted
to say.
"It's just what?" Alice asked.
"I guess I'm still nervous?"
"Nervous about what exactly? You're not making any sense." Rosalie looked a litt
le impatient. I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure what to say.
"Okay, have you forgiven him?" Rosalie started.
"Yes."
"Do you think he'll do it again?"
"No."
"Do you trust him?"
"Yes." I was surprised a little when I didn't have to even think about the answe
r.
"Do you love him?"
"You know I do."
"Have either one of you dated anyone else while you were apart?"
"No."
"So you're already exclusive then?"
"Uh yeah, I guess so."
"Has he done everything you have asked of him?"
"Yes."
"Is there a valid reason why you're holding back?"
"No."
"So when are you going to officially be back together?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I mean, I don't know I guess . now?" the thought sent my heart racing.
"It's about time." Rosalie said at the same time Alice said "Finally."
"How come you always can make everything seem so clear and simple?"
"That's what best friends are supposed to do." Rose said.
"So when are you going to tell him?" Alice asked.
"Um, when I get back I guess."
"So, how are you going to do it?"
"I haven't really thought about it but I would like to do something nice for him
."
"What did you have in mind?" Alice asked grabbing a hand full of chips.
"Hmmm" I tried to come up with something.
"Why don't you do something like he did for you?" Rose suggested.
"That's a really good idea, you should Bella. Didn't he take you to dinner and t
hen give you that book?"
"He made me dinner, gave me my present, and then we went ice skating." I was rem
embering back to the copy of my favorite book and how he had inscribed it then a
sking me to be his girlfriend."
"Why not something like that?" Alice asked.
"I know .. You should give him a book on karma sutra and inscribe that." Rosalie l
aughed.
"I am not giving him a book on different sexual positions Rose ..Though that does
give me an idea."
"Okay so what's the plan?"
"I'll need your help." We discussed a few different options but got the plan wor
ked out. I felt really good about everything and also really excited. We stayed
up for several more hours just catching up on everything.
Rose was telling us how much closer she and Emmett are getting and how she think
s he wants to move in together after the school year is over, and Alice couldn't
be happier living with Jasper.
In the morning we checked out but decided to hang out in the city for a while be
fore driving to Forks. We got there pretty late so we each went to our own homes
to sleep for the night. In the morning I spent time with Charlie. I was really
missing him.
All of us wanted to see Esme and Carlisle while we were here so we made a stop a
t their house. "Girls, I'm so glad you're here!" Esme said hugging all of us. Ca
rlisle was at work so it was just the four of us.
"I've missed you." I told her and it was true. Esme was like a mother to me espe
cially with Renee not being around. We spent about an hour talking and then she
pulled me aside.
"Bella, I hate to pry but how are things with you and Edward?" I know she knew a
bout everything and was truly worried about both of us.
"Actually Esme we have been getting really close lately." She smiled immediately
.
"I'm so glad to hear that, I've been so worried about you two."
"Things are finally falling back into place. And I was hoping you could help me
out with something?" I'd almost forgotten.
"Anything." She answered. I told her my plan, well at least part of it and she o
f course couldn't wait to help. It was nearing dinner time when Carlisle got bac
k. We hadn't gotten a chance to see him yet and so Esme offered to let us stay f
or dinner. She also thought it would be nice to invite Charlie and Alice and Ros
e's parents over so it was a pretty big group.
After dinner was over we helped clean up and said our goodbyes. It was getting l
ate and we had a long drive back home. We dropped Rosalie off and Emmett was alr
eady back. We stayed to visit with him for a while and then we made the last par
t of the drive.
I got home at 10:30pm and I knew Edward would want to know when I got back so I
sent him a text.
Edward- we made it back, I hope you had a fun weekend too, I missed you Bella
Bella- I missed you too, I'm glad you had fun, can't wait to hear about it. Can
I see you tomorrow? - Edward
Edward- of course, just come over after class. Why are you still up? Shouldn't y
ou be asleep by now?-Bella
Bella-I know you know the answer to that. I wouldn't have been able to sleep any
way.
-Edward
Edward- Goodnight see you tomorrow Bella
Bella- Sweet dreams -Edward
When I got home Monday after school Edward was already waiting for me.
"Hey handsome, what are you doing here already?"
"My last class got out early." He said while leaning in for a kiss.
"How was your weekend?" I asked while opening the door.
"Fun, I'm glad Emmett came down, how was yours?"
"We had a good time; we ended up staying in Seattle most of Saturday before driv
ing to Forks. Sunday we all had dinner at your parents house." He looked surpris
ed.
"You did?"
"I miss your parents too. They invited Charlie and Rose and Alice's parents too.
It was a lot of fun."
"I'm glad your back."
"Me too, though I am exhausted." We were sitting on the bed and Edward began to
rub my feet.
"If you keep that up I might fall asleep." I leaned back closing my eyes.
"That's okay, get some sleep obviously you need it." I did fall asleep and I sle
pt straight through till the morning. I woke up about 5:00 and Edward was asleep
next to me. I was glad it was Tuesday. I was starving from missing dinner last
night.
I let Edward sleep for a few more hours while I did some homework. Finally he wo
ke up and we went out for breakfast.
"Edward do you have any plans this weekend?" I wanted to get my plan underway. I
didn't think I would be able to wait much longer but I needed the whole weekend
for it to work.
"Nope, do you have something in mind?" Yes I do.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me."
"That's what I was hoping for, is there something special you want to do?"
"Just be ready after class on Friday and dress warm." I was wondering if he woul
d catch on to that at all. He gave me a suspicious look but didn't say anything.
The week crawled by, I knew it was because I was so looking forward to the weeke
nd.
Alice only had one class on Thursday morning so I met her at her place after tha
t. We of course couldn't afford spa day but we went in to get our nails done and
for waxing.
Edward met me for dinner Thursday and he insisted on walking me to my class agai
n. Only this time he waited outside the building instead of coming in. I quickly
caught onto the reason why when I saw Felix had a fading bruise on his face.
How did he figure that one out? I noticed that Felix sat on the other side of th
e room from me now. If I didn't want tomorrow to be perfect I would have called
Edward out on it but decided to let it go .for now.
Finally it was Friday and I was on my way home. I took a shower and packed a few
necessary things and went to pick up Edward.
He was ready and waiting for me and I was getting really nervous. "Where are we
going?" he asked as I got onto the freeway.
"You'll see."
We pulled into the parking lot to Jasper and Alice's apartment. Edward looked pe
rplexed when I let us in with a key and no one else was there.
"Where are Alice and Jasper?"
"They went out."
"Then why are we here? Are they going to meet us here later?"
"No, I was in need of a kitchen and didn't want to use the one campus."
"You're cooking?" he smiled.
"Yes, now go sit down or something. Dinner should be ready soon."
"Can I help?"
"Nope, I've got it." I called Edward to the table when dinner was ready.
"Mushroom Ravioli?" he looked like he wanted to say more but he didn't. He could
n't have missed the fact that it was the same thing he cooked for me the first t
ime.
"I hope you like it." I knew he did, I got the recipe from his mother. He kept h
is eye on me and I could tell he was trying to figure out if this was a coincide
nce or not.
After we cleaned up I told him it was time to go. He asked where we were going a
nd I gave him the same answer that I did before. When we pulled up to the skatin
g rink his eyes got huge and he sucked in a deep breath.
"We're going skating?" he asked in a shaky voice. Now I knew he knew what was go
ing on. He got out of the truck first and I placed the card I had for him on his
seat so he would find it right away when we got back in.
"If that's okay with you, we can do something else if you would rather."
"No, there's nothing I would rather do." He kept his eyes on me. It went much th
e same as last time. We held hands the entire night and fell often.
When we got back to the truck I unlocked the door for him and as he started to c
limb inside he took the card off the seat and looked at me.
"What's this?"
"Just something I thought you would like." I kept my eyes on him as he just star
ed at it.
"Should I open it now?"
"Yes." He opened the card and stared at it for several minutes. I was pretty sur
e he had tears in his eyes. It had taken me a while to come up with something to
write. I ended up with just telling him how I felt and that I loved him. And ju
st like he wrote in my book that night, I asked him to be my boyfriend.
He finally looked over at me but didn't say anything. I recalled his words from
that night.
"Will you Edward? Will you be my boyfriend again?" we both had tears in our eyes
then and he leaned over to kiss me with more passion than I have ever felt.
"Yes Bella, I would love to be your boyfriend ..again." it took him a few minutes
to realize there was something else in the card. Finally he held it up and looke
d curiously at it.
"What's this?" he asked holding up the key card.
"That is the key to our next stop." I smiled at him. "Our next stop?" he questio
ned.
"You'll just have to wait and see." I knew he was going to ask me about it. Fina
lly we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel.
"Bella?"
"Come on." And I took his hand and led him up to our room. He was quiet on the w
ay up. I think he was shocked.
I opened up the door and we walked in. The room was beautiful and Alice had gott
en here earlier to spread the rose petals and candles around the room. I lit the
m all and pulled Edward over to the bed.
"Is this okay? If it's not Edward please tell me and I promise I will understand
." And I meant that. Now that I was up here I started to feel like maybe I shoul
dn't have just presumed he would want this or at least so soon.
"Bella, this is perfect, but I want to know if you're sure." He was looking at m
e very intensely.
"I'm sure Edward, I love you." He rested his forehead on mine and whispered "I l
ove you Bella, more than anything."
I was nervous but more about not knowing what to do. I had never done this befor
e but luckily Alice and Rosalie gave me some pointers. That was an embarrassing
conversation but now I'm glad we had it.
I really wanted this to be a night he wouldn't forget so I pushed my inhibitions
away and went for it.
Chapter 22
EPOV
"Edward what happened to your hand?" Bella asked. Damm I was hoping she wouldn't
notice. I looked down at it. "Oh, um" I didn't really want to tell her but I wa
s not going to lie about it either. Lucky for me her phone started ringing.
"Hang on." She said as she held up one finger. "Hey Alice." Bella said, I took m
y opportunity to go before she could question me further.
When I got back to the dorm I was pretty tired so I climbed into bed but not bef
ore getting some ice for my hand. It was throbbing a little but it couldn't poss
ible hurt as badly as Felix's face must feel now.
I couldn't believe he had the nerve to tell me he was going to 'get some of that
'. I wasn't sure how he couldn't put it together that I was waiting there for Be
lla. It seemed pretty obvious to me, but maybe he did notice but just didn't car
e.
That was one of the reasons we didn't get along in the first place. We were new
in town and we had met Jasper at school of course and he introduced us to Felix
and Demetri. The lived in Port Angeles and so we didn't see them often but we wo
uld get together for camping when we went with Jasper.
I was out on a date and we ran into Felix and Demetri while I was in line to buy
tickets for a movie. Felix had the nerve to tell my date that she could do much
better than me and to call him when she wanted a real man.
So maybe this was just another attempt at pissing me off, but then when he said
something about already expecting her to be calling soon since he gave her his n
umber last week I lost it. So the asshole was Felix.
I hit him square in the nose causing it to bleed profusely. I think I may have e
ven broken it when I heard something pop. He flew back and hit his head on the w
all behind him. He didn't even try to fight back and luck was with me since ever
yone else had already left and he quickly ran out before Bella came back from th
e bathroom.
When I got the text from Bella saying they were leaving tomorrow instead of Satu
rday I was disappointed. I really wanted to spend Friday night with her especial
ly now that we had moved on to this next level.
The new plan was that the four of us were going to have dinner before the girls
left. I was glad Emmett decided to come down for the weekend. I was glad to have
a guy's weekend again, but I was really going to miss Bella.
After dinner I followed Jasper to his apartment. "So Edward, care to tell me abo
ut you and Bella?" he gave an all knowing smirk.
"Was it that obvious?" it must have been for him to notice.
"Pretty much, you two couldn't keep your eyes off each other or keep the smiles
off your faces not to mention I was there after dinner when you two kissed." He
said in a 'duh' sort of way.
"Oh."
"So?"
"Well we've decided to ." A knock on the door interrupted our conversation. Jasper
answered the door and Emmett walked in.
"Hey guys." Emmett said.
"How was the drive down?" I asked.
"Not bad, I skipped my last class. I just wanted to get on the road." Jasper wal
ked over to the fridge and got each of us a Pepsi.
"Edward was just telling me about his week." Emmett looked over and smiled.
"I was going to ask you about that. I overheard Rosalie on the phone with Alice
talking about the 'big news'.
"Word travels fast."
"Well she wouldn't tell me what the big news was, so let's have it."
"Bella and I are doing well .really well."
"Does that mean your back together?"
"Not quite, or at least not officially or anything. We're just kinda going with
it."
"What does that mean?" Emmett asked.
"We're on the right track though nothing official." I explained.
"What brought this on?" I told them about everything that happened.
"Good for you Edward, it must be nice not to be on the receiving end of a punch
to the face for once." They chuckled remembering how both their girlfriends did
the same to me.
"Seriously though, congratulations. I'm glad to see you two are working things o
ut. It won't be long now until you are officially back together."
I only hoped they were right and for the first time I was actually beginning to
think it might happen. The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. It had felt lik
e forever since the guys just hung out.
It had been for me, I hadn't really been there at least mentally since prom anyw
ay.
Bella texted me late Sunday when she got back letting me know she made it safely
.
Monday my class got out early and I went straight over to Bella's to wait for he
r. She was pretty tired and fell asleep early. I thought about going home but de
cided against it and just climbed into bed with her.
I woke up to Bella doing homework at the table. I was a little disappointed that
she wasn't still in bed with me but I understood why she had woken up early. We
went to breakfast as usual expect Bella was acting a little off.
"Edward do you have any plans this weekend?" she asked her voice was slightly sh
aking.
"Nope, do you have something in mind?" I was wondering what she was up to.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me." Okay, not complet
ely unusual but she seemed much more formal about it.
"That's what I was hoping for, is there something special you want to do?"
"Just be ready after class on Friday and dress warm." She said. Dress warm? She
most definitely had a plan. The week crawled by, I knew it was because I was so
looking forward to the weekend. Finally it was Friday and I had taken a shower a
nd got ready for Bella to pick me up.
"Where are we going?" I had to ask not really expecting an answer but I was just
so excited that she put in so much effort to do this.
"You'll see." She said. We pulled into the parking lot to Jasper and Alice's apa
rtment. I was a little confused; this didn't seem like anything out of the ordin
ary so I didn't understand the secrecy. I soon watched as she opened the door wi
th a key instead of knocking and the apartment seemed to be empty.
"Where are Alice and Jasper?"
"They went out."
"Then why are we here? Are they going to meet us here later?"
"No, I was in need of a kitchen and didn't want to use the one campus."
"You're cooking?" I smiled.
"Yes, now go sit down or something. Dinner should be ready soon."
"Can I help?"
"Nope, I've got it." Hmmmm
As soon as she served dinner my heart was caught in my throat. "Mushroom Ravioli
?" Was this just a coincidence or was there more to it?
"I hope you like it." Bella said but I knew she knew better. This is what I made
for her that first night.
We cleaned up before Bella announced it was time for the next part to our advent
ure. When we pulled up to the skating rink a few minutes later. I didn't know if
my face gave away the shock I was feeling.
"We're going skating?" I asked. She was recreating our first date. My mind was s
pinning.
"If that's okay with you, we can do something else if you would rather." No way
did I want to do anything else.
"No, there's nothing I would rather do." We had a great time it was very much li
ke the first time. Afterwards when I started to climb back inside the truck I no
ticed something in my seat.
"What's this?"
"Just something I thought you would like." I heard her say, but I didn't look aw
ay from the envelope.
"Should I open it now?"
"Yes." I opened the card and stared at it for several minutes. I couldn't believ
e what I was reading; Bella was actually asking me to be her boyfriend! She want
ed to get back together. I couldn't help the tears as they escaped my eyes.
"Will you Edward? Will you be my boyfriend again?" I couldn't speak yet so I lea
ned over to kiss her. I realized I hadn't answered her but I'm sure she knew wha
t my answer was.
"Yes Bella, I would love to be your boyfriend ..again." I was going to put the car
d back in the envelope wanting to keep it safe when I noticed something else.
"What's this?" I asked holding up the key card.
"That is the key to our next stop." she smiled. "Our next stop?"
"Bella?" I didn't know what was going on as we pulled into the parking lot of a
hotel. She held my hand and we rode the elevator to our floor. We walked into th
e room to find it decorated with candles and flower petals.
"Is this okay? If it's not Edward please tell me and I promise I will understand
." Bella asked after she led me to the bed. Is this really happening?
"Bella, this is perfect, but I want to know if you're sure." Could she really wa
nt this?
"I'm sure Edward, I love you."
"I love you Bella, more than anything." She grabbed my hand kissing it never loo
king away from my eyes. She told me to lay down on the bed and I did what she as
ked. I was already hard.
I tried to pull her down with me but she said she had other plans for me first.
My heart rate picked up as did the throbbing in my pants.
Bella sat on the edge of the bed as her hands started skimming my body. She pull
ed my shirt up over my head and leaned over me and started kissing my neck. It f
elt amazing and I started reach for her shirt.
"Not yet Edward." She said pushing my hands to the side. She continued kissing m
e and she made her way down my chest licking my nipples.
"Bellllllaaaaa" she looked up at me but her mouth never left my skin. She contin
ued her way down until she got to the edge of my pants. She reached her hand dow
n and rubbed me through the fabric before unbuttoning them.
She pulled them down along with my boxers until I was laying on the bed complete
ly naked. I could see the love in her eyes as she made her way back up to me. I
had to kiss her. I reached out again and pulled her toward me and this time she
let me. We kissed passionately and I was able to pull her shirt off revealing a
dark blue satin bra.
Slowly she made her way back down until her head was level with my dick and she
ran her tongue up and down the shaft. "Bella." I panted and I just about came ri
ght there.
"I love you." She started to stroke me moving her hands up and down, over and ar
ound the head until the throbbing intensified and the sensations threatened to o
vercome me. I felt the pre cum dripping from the head.
Her hand fisted around me perfectly, and she was stroking me slow at first, but
then faster and faster.
I looked down and saw the desire in her eyes, she bent down and started sucking
and licking her way down and back up again. It was one of the sexiest things I h
ad ever seen.
I struggled to control myself, not wanting this to end. I closed my eyes and let
my head fell back when her mouth surrounded me. Her hand was moving at the base
, she sucked and licked until I thought I would explode.
I was getting close and I opened my eyes and tried to move her away not wanting
to cum in her mouth but she looked up at me and kept going. Seconds later I scre
amed her name as I came. She didn't release me from her mouth until I was finish
ed.
She smiled and finally came up and layed down next to me kissing me gently. I co
uldn't wait to return the gesture. I let my hands trail down until the reached h
er breasts. I massaged them gently for a moment before reaching around to unhook
her bra.
I kissed down her neck and kept going lower until I reached her breasts with my
mouth. I licked her nipples for a moment before taking one in and sucking. She s
tarted breathing harder and I let my hands reach lower until I started taking of
f her pants.
As I released her from my mouth I crawled down to the bottom of the bed kissing
her as I went. I pulled her pants and matching underwear off until she was as na
ked as I was. I was surprised to see that she was completely bare and the sight
of that made me hard again.
"It's my turn now." I told her but she stopped me.
"Edward that can wait for another time."
"Bella, I want to, please let me do this for you."
"We have all the time in the world for that later, but right now I need to feel
you inside me." she whispered as she blushed a little. I couldn't deny her but I
made plans to take this up again later on.
She pulled me up to her and we began kissing again. I don't think I will ever ge
t enough of her. I couldn't stop myself from pressing me erection against her. M
y knee parted her thighs, spreading her legs wide with my own. Settling down int
o the cradle of her body, I kissed her deeply, sucking her tongue into my mouth.
"Are you ready sweetheart?" I stared into her eyes. "Yes Edward, I love you."
"I love you too."
I pushed into her slowly, she was so tight and wet I knew I wasn't going to last
long.
"You feel so incredible." I breathed as I kissed her again.
I started to move slowly within her, as I looked down upon her face. Her head tu
rned to one side, her mouth open she moaned my name again.
"I, Uh Edward." I kissed her again dragging my lips up and down her jaw. My hand c
ame up to her breast where I teased and tweaked her hard nipple. Her hands were
roaming lightly up my back making my skin tingle until her hands wound in my hai
r.
"I love you Bella." I put more pressure with my thrusts but didn't increase the
speed. I wanted to be deeper, deeper inside. I felt the orgasm starting to tight
en my muscles as it was building.
She brought her knees up and wrapped her legs around my hips and I sank deeper i
nto her body. She pulled my mouth to hers and she sucked my lower lip between he
r lips.
Her hips were moving and she looked up at me then her eyes closed and her back sta
rted to arch as she met my thrusts, her teeth biting her lower lip. My hand went
between our bodies and touched her clit, my fingers moving in small circles aga
in and again.
Her eyes opened and then her arms were going around my neck, into my hair again,
and she pulled my mouth to hers as I felt her body clench and convulse around m
ine.
I felt my body tense, and then I exploded deep within her. Spasm after spasm rac
ked my frame and I took her mouth in kiss after kiss.
My body still moved within her slowly. I could still feel her contractions as he
r orgasm subsided.
"Sweetheart, that was amazing." I said pulling out and pulling her over to me so
that her head was resting on my chest.
"Yes, it was." She said and we held each other falling asleep quickly.
Chapter 23
EPOV
I woke to the sun shining through the window. Bella's head was resting on my che
st and her arms were wrapped around my body. The happiness I felt was undeniable
. I had just spent the most amazing night of my life with the most amazing woman
I've ever known.
I ran my hands up and down her arms and breathed in her scent. I didn't want to
move ever again. I could stay like this forever. Finally after months of waiting
I was somehow blessed that Bella came back to me.
I vowed never to hurt her again no matter what. I imagined what our lives will b
e like in 50 years from now. I had no doubt in my mind that we were going to be
together forever.
I let my mind wander envisioning what our wedding would be like. How many kids w
e were going to have. The stories we would tell our grandchildren about how we m
et. Then without realizing it, my mind went back to the horrible mistake I made.
How could I have been so stupid? I thought again and again of the feeling of wha
t it was like when I lost her. My heart sunk I could feel the moisture in my eye
s. I had to make sure that I never felt that again. I had to make sure that I ne
ver experienced pain like that no matter what and more importantly never caused
Bella pain like that again.
And then without warning the thought of her leaving me crept in. Not leaving me
because of something I did but because maybe she would change her mind about me.
What if she stopped loving me or even met someone else? Someone who had never h
urt her.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my face. I looked over to see Bella resting on her elb
ow stroking my cheek with her hand while the look on her face was terrified.
BPOV
I woke up listening to the sound of Edward's heartbeat. My favorite sound in the
world next to his voice. I had never experienced happiness like this before. Ma
king love with Edward has to be the best thing in the world.
I started drawing patterns on his chest with my fingers remembering the events o
f last night. I could feel the wetness in-between my legs again. I kissed Edward
s chest and looked up to see his face.
His eyes weren't looking at me, they were staring off into space and he had a lo
ok of pure torture on his face. I wondered what could have caused him to look li
ke this after the most wonder night of our lives. Well maybe just my life.
I called his name but he remained a million miles away. I was starting to get ne
rvous, what if he didn't feel the same, and what if last night wasn't what he th
ought it would be. I propped myself up on my elbow and stroked his face gently.
"Edward what's wrong?" I asked feeling like I could cry any second. He snapped o
ut of it then and his eyes focused on mine. He didn't say anything but just star
ed into my eyes for an immeasurable amount of time.
"Edward, are you okay." I said as my tears spilled over. He sat us up quickly an
d pulled me into his arms.
"I'm fine sweetheart, I'm more than fine." He kissed my head before pulling back
to look in my eyes again. "Are you okay?" he asked his voice full of concern.
"I was until I woke up and saw the look on your face. What were you thinking abo
ut?" I asked before looking down. "Do you regret what happened last night?" Feel
ing nauseous at the prospect of this.
"What? NO!" he all but yelled as he pulled my face towards his and kissed my alm
ost ferociously. I pulled back to see him more clearly.
"Then tell me what thoughts had you looking like you were in pain when I woke up
?" I needed to know right away. I wasn't about to let anything come between us a
gain.
He sighed deeply and he took both of my hands in his and he looked directly into
my eyes.
"I'm sorry sweetheart. When I woke up I have never felt so happy in all my life.
I was watching you sleep, I was imagining our future together and then I rememb
ered what I did to you. I remembered how I lost you and well ."
"What is it?" I asked
"What if I lost you again? I couldn't bare the thought." He said suddenly lookin
g down.
"Why would you think you would lose me again?" I needed to understand what he wa
s thinking if I was going to make him feel better.
"Because Bella, what if .what if you change your mind about me. What if you find som
eone else that never hurt you before? I couldn't take it if you left me again."
He said silently crying.
"Bella, I. Need. You." He stated emphasizing each word. "I need you, to breathe.
You are who I live for everyday. I'm scared so scared that you'll figure out yo
u can do so much better than me." He looked back up at me.
"Edward, I need you too. I can't imagine my life without you. I'll never want an
yone else."
"How do you know for sure?" he asked. If he wasn't in so much pain I might actua
lly be angry he was questioning me.
"How do you know for sure?" I shot back at him. And then I felt a little bad for
my irritated tone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that, but Edward you have to t
rust me when I tell you that I love you and I'm not going anywhere. You're it fo
r me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
That caused a little smile to form on his lips. "You do?" I never had thought of
Edward as insecure before. Outside of when we were apart he was always so confi
dent and sure of himself. I guess our time apart really did change us both perma
nently.
"Of course I do. We've both made mistakes but they are in our past now. Can we p
lease just leave them there and move forward?" I asked him.
He smiled before brushing my hair back away from my face. "Yes Bella, I will do
anything for you. I'm sorry. I love you sweetheart." He kissed me passionately a
nd his mood changed abruptly and he was back to himself.
We continued to kiss and it wasn't long before we made love for the second time.
I looked over at the clock and we had a couple of hours before it was time to c
heck out.
"Would you like to take a bath with me?"
"I'd love to." I answered him. The bathtub was a Jacuzzi bath and I had never be
en in one before. Edward got out of bed and made into the bathroom and started t
he water.
"I packed us some toothbrushes and stuff." I yelled to him. He came back out and
found the bag and took it into the bathroom stopping to kiss me on the way.
I stretched before getting out of bed and followed Edward into the bathroom. I b
rushed my teeth as soon as he was finished. I looked into the mirror meeting Edw
ards gaze as his eyes roamed over my body.
I gave him a questioning look and he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my ne
ck. "You're so beautiful." I turned around in his arms and kissed his lips. We c
limbed into the tub and I relaxed against his chest.
After a while Edward washed my body and I did the same for him. The only thing t
hat accomplished was arousing both of us. I couldn't stop touching him. But as s
oon as he lifted me from the tub there was a knock at the door.
He set me down and quickly and threw on some clothes. He opened the door slightl
y to find that room service had been ordered. After the guy was gone I crept out
of the bathroom and got dressed.
"Did you order this?"
"No, it must have been Alice." I told him. We ate and by the time we were finish
ed it was time to leave.
"Thank you sweetheart. Last night truly was the best night of my life." He kisse
d me.
"The first of many."
We drove back to my room mostly because Edward had a roommate and I didn't so we
spent most of the day in bed together. Had I known it was going to be like this
I would have done it a lot sooner. Though I'm glad we waited, it made our reuni
on that much more special.
Edward spent the night again but Sunday we both had homework to do so reluctantl
y he went home. Both Alice and Rosalie had called and so as soon as Edward left
I called them and let them know all that had happened. I finally felt whole agai
n. This is how things are suppose to be.
It seemed like time was passing by at an extremely fast pace. Classes were getti
ng busier and busier. My spare time was spent with Edward and when we could also
Alice and Jasper. And in no time at all finals were here as well as winter brea
k.
We all decided to go home for the holidays of course. Our families wouldn't have
it any other way. I tried to get as much shopping done here as possible so I co
uld avoid the sales tax that was in Washington.
We all agreed on spending most of the vacation in Forks that way we could all be
together. I was really missing Rosalie and Emmett. Christmas was spent at the C
ullens. Charlie of course was invited as well as Rosalie's mom. Alice's parents
were related to Carlisle and Esme so that was a given.
It was the first Christmas that Edward and I spent together and it couldn't have
been more perfect. We got back only to begin a grueling second semester at scho
ol. This one was even more so than the last one.
I hadn't planned on taking so many classes but one of the classes I needed was o
nly be offered during winter term so obviously I signed up for it in addition to
the ones I had already planned on and unfortunately this one had a lab with it.
Edward had a similar schedule. He decided that if I was going to be that busy h
e might as well be too.
If I thought time was flying before it was nothing like now. Without really even
realizing it our first year of college was coming to an end. We only had 2 week
s left and I was cramming for finals.
I was really stressed out. Not one but two of my classes I wasn't sure if I was
going to pass. So needless to say I was more than a little on edge. I snapped at
Edward more than he deserved which in all honesty he didn't deserve it at all.
I was absolutely exhausted. I was more than over-emotional and to top it all off
I was sick. Edward was taking it like a trooper but I could tell he was worried
 about me.
"Bella, sweetheart are you okay?" he asked as he walked into my room and found m
e crying into my text book.
"No, Edward I'm gonna fail this. There is no way I can get any better than a C i
n this class and that is considering I ace this test." He sat down beside me and
wiped away my tears.
"I'll help you study." He said pulling the text book from my lap and flipping th
rough the pages.
"But don't you have your own studying to do?" I said through my tears.
"No honey, my last final was today." I immediately felt bad for not realizing th
is or congratulating him and only focusing on myself.
"I'm sorry Edward, I should have" but he interrupted me by putting his lips to m
ine.
"Don't be sorry sweetheart; I know you're under a lot of pressure."
"I'll get back to normal soon, I promise." He chuckled a little and we got to wo
rk. We stayed up all night and thanks to Edward I actually felt a lot better and
was a lot more optimistic. It was 4:00am before we finally got the rest of the
chapters covered.
Edward fell asleep before I even had time to turn the lights off. I was out shor
tly after him. The sound of my phone ringing woke me up. I wasn't going to answe
r it at all but whoever it was wasn't going to give up.
When it starting ringing for the third time I looked at the caller id and saw th
at it was Rosalie. Not wanted to wake Edward I got out of bed and went into the
bathroom so I could answer it.
"Hey Rose, what's up?" I could hear her sniffling, it sounded like she was cryin
g.
"Bella, I-I I'm late." Clearly my exhaustion was working against me because I di
dn't understand what she meant.
"Late? Late for what?"
"Late getting my period." She was crying again.
"I thought you were on the pill Rose."
"I am but you know how I got that sinus infection a few weeks ago? Well I had to
take antibiotics and apparently sometimes that can interfere with the pill."
"Have you taken a pregnancy test?"
"No, I ..don't want to do it alone. I haven't told Emmett anything yet so please d
on't say anything to Edward."
"I promise I won't."
"My last final is tomorrow so I'm going to drive down after that."
"I'll buy a few pregnancy tests and we can meet at Alice's and take the test the
re?"
"Yeah that sounds good. I'm so scared Bella, what if I'm pregnant? How could I h
ave been so stupid?"
"You aren't stupid! I had no idea that antibiotics could affect the pill. We don
't even know for sure if you're pregnant so let's try and not worry about it yet
. But even if you are we will all be there for you and Emmett and the baby."
"I know but I should have .."
"No matter what happens we'll get through this together."
"Thank you Bella."
"Anything for you. I love you, you know that right?"
"Yes, I love you too. I'll call you when I'm almost there."
"Okay, drive carefully."
"I will. Bye."
"Bye."
I hung up with Rosalie and climbed back into bed with Edward. Luckily he didn't
wake up. I fell asleep thinking about the possibility that Rose was pregnant and
I woke up to Edward kissing me.
"Good morning beautiful."
"Good morning sexy." I felt well rested even after dreaming of nothing but green
eyed babies. Even though I'm in no way ready for any children now the thought o
f having babies with Edward was .I'm not even sure of the right word but I couldn'
t help but smile.
"Sexy huh?"
"Yep" I replied at the sound of my alarm. I groaned while rolling over to turn i
t off.
"This is it baby, your last final of the year." He said pulling me to him.
"Thank you Edward, for everything." He held me tighter.
"For you sweetheart, anything."
My test went better than I expected. I was so relieved to be done with everythin
g but I couldn't completely relax with the news of Rose's possible pregnancy. I
didn't think I could wait until tomorrow.
EPOV
After Bella's test was over I could tell she was relieved but I could also tell
something was bothering her. After she told me she was fine I left it alone know
ing she would let me know when she was ready.
I was with Bella when I saw I had a call from Emmett.
"Hey Em."
"Bro, where are you?"
"I'm with Bella at her dorm."
"Good, Rosie and I are almost there. See you in a few minutes." He said then hun
g up.
"I guess Emmett and Rosalie will be here in a few minutes." I told Bella. She lo
oked curious but not surprised.
After another few minutes there was a knock at her door. I opened it to find Ali
ce and Jasper followed by Rosalie and Emmett.
"Hey guys come on in." I noticed Rosalie seemed a little off too but I didn't ge
t the chance to ask because Alice practically kicked me, Jasper and Emmett out l
etting us know that they would meet us at their apartment in a few hours.
We rode together in Emmett's car leaving Alice with Jasper's. "Is everything oka
y with Rosalie?" I asked Emmett as we stopped off at Taco Bell for something to
eat.
"I'm not sure; she's been acting a little strange for the last couple of days. W
hen I asked her about it she says she's fine."
"Don't worry too much Bella has been really stressed because of finals, maybe th
at's what's bugging Rose."
"Yeah probably."
After hanging out at Jasper's for a few hours the girls finally showed up. We al
l hung out like old times. We talked about our plans for the summer. Alice and J
asper were going to just keep the apartment but were also going to spend some ti
me in Forks.
The rest of us were going back to Forks since we weren't going to be taking any
summer classes. I was looking forward to some time with Emmett. I knew he was th
inking about getting a place with Rose this year or next and I knew this would b
e our last summer spent together at home.
After dinner and some board games we decided on a movie. It didn't take long for
the Bella to fall asleep so I carried her to the car and drove us back to the d
orms. We only had until the rest of the week to be out so I wanted to enjoy spen
ding the nights with her while I could.
I doubt Charlie would like it too much if spent the night with her. This was goi
ng to be a long summer. After getting Bella into bed I tucked her in and was get
ting ready for bed myself. I was about to brush my teeth when I dropped the toot
hpaste cap onto the floor.
I bent down to get it only to see something sticking out slightly from behind th
e toilet. I reached down and picked it up only to discover that it was a pregnan
cy test.
Chapter 24
BPOV
"Negative."
"Are you sure?" Rose asked as her eyes shot open. Alice's face showing relief.
"Yes I'm sure." I said handing the test over to her.
"Oh thank goodness." Alice said sitting down on the edge of the bathtub.
"Maybe we should take another one just to be safe." Rosalie said, her voice stil
l shaking slightly. I reached into the Fred Meyer bag and pulled out some more t
ests.
"How many did you get?" Alice asked.
"I got four ..I just wanted to be sure one way or the other." I told them. Rosalie
smiled weakly at me.
"Thank you both for being here with me."
"We will always be here for you no matter what." Alice agreed and Rosalie hugged
us both. Several glasses of water and three more tests later we had the same re
sults.
"They're all negative Rose." We all relaxed for the first time since they arrive
d.
"Are you going to tell Emmett what happened?" I asked.
"When we get home I will. I just want to relax, have some fun and not think abou
t it for a few days."
"I'm going to go throw these out." I collected the boxes and dumped the contents
of the garbage can into a plastic bag and took it out to the dumpster.
We took advantage of our time alone and spent a couple hours catching up just sp
ending time together. After a while we decided we better get over to the apartme
nt before the guys got suspicious.
EPOV
Holy shit
My heart was crashing in my chest. I looked over the test carefully trying to de
cipher what it meant.
There was a small window with a pink line. What does that mean? I searched the b
athroom for some sort of instruction or a box of some sort only to come up empty
.
How did this happen? Bella is on the pill.
I sat on the toilet seat stunned. I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know i
f she was pregnant or not.
"Edward?" shit
"I'm just brushing my teeth. I'll be right out." I hoped she didn't hear the pan
ic in my voice. I carefully wrapped the test in toilet paper and hid it with my
stuff for the time being.
I climbed into bed next to Bella and she wrapped her arms around me and I did th
e same to her. I couldn't sleep. If she was pregnant she would have told me righ
t? She wouldn't keep something like this from me. Maybe she wasn't and so there
was no need to mention it?
I didn't like that answer. She would tell me if she thought she was pregnant ..wo
uldn't she? Maybe she only took the test today and hasn't had the chance to yet.
Maybe that's why Alice was so quick to get rid of us when she and Rosalie arriv
ed. Oh! Maybe it wasn't Bella's test after all. I need to talk to Emmett and Jas
per right away.
I laid in bed for the next several hours contemplating everything. We are too yo
ung to be having a baby right? We're only 19. Fuuuuck. I wanted to shout. I was
getting a headache. I can't handle this .I wonder how Bella is handling this.
I'm sure she would be scared, having the same fears I'm having. The same fears t
hat any 19 year old would be having. At least we will have each other. We'll get
through this together. After another two hours of my internal melt down I tried
to think of the 'up side'.
I planned on having children in the future with Bella, so if she was pregnant th
en we would just be starting our family early. It would be hard while still bein
g in school but we could make it work.
Our family. We might be having a baby. Suddenly I pictured a little girl looking
exactly like Bella. Were we ready for this? The answer would be no but the more
I pictured her the more I started liking the idea.
Eventually I fell asleep and I woke up to see Bella getting out of bed.
"Hey get back here." I reached for her and pulled her close to me again. She tur
ned and wrapped her arms around me and started kissing my chest.
"Good morning."
"Good morning to you." I said pulling her up to me so I could kiss her neck.
"Are you feeling okay?" I asked and she looked at me like I was crazy.
"Um yeah, are you feeling okay?"
"Of course, I was just wondering if you were hungry or something."
"Yeah, I'm hungry. Do you want to go get some breakfast?"
"No! I mean why don't you stay in bed and I'll go out for some donuts or somethi
ng." I said climbing out of bed and pulling my shirt over my head.
"Are you sure you're okay? ... I don't mind going with you."
"I'm fine, um I just wanted to give you breakfast in bed." I said kissing her on
the forehead. "I'll be right back." As soon as I left the dorm rooms I called E
mmett's cell.
"Emmett I need to talk to you."
"So talk."
"No I mean, I need to talk to you and Jasper alone, but I don't want the girls t
o know."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just make up some sort of excuse for the three of us to do something this morni
ng okay? And call me back in 30 minutes." I hung up and got our breakfast.
When I got back to Bella's she was sitting up in bed with her legs crossed readi
ng a book. She looked up at me with her eyebrows furrowed but didn't say anythin
g. I kicked my shoes off and climbed back in bed with here with the large box of
donuts.
"You must be starving." She said seeing that I had gotten a dozen.
"I didn't know what you would feel like so I got a variety." I smiled at her.
"Thanks." She said taking a maple bar. A few minutes later my phone rang. I took
it from my pocket knowing it was Emmett.
"Hey Emmett."
"Me and Jasper are going to go to the gym this morning and Alice suggested the g
irls go shopping for a while."
"Perfect. I'll meet you at Jasper's in an hour." I closed my phone and told Bell
a about the plan for this morning. I took a shower and drove over to the apartme
nt. Rosalie and Alice were going to meet Bella at the dorms.
I knocked on the door and Emmett opened it and looked at me expectantly. Jasper
was sitting on the couch leaning forward resting his elbows on his knees.
"So what's going on Edward?"
"I found this behind Bella's toilet last night." I showed them the pregnancy tes
t. Jasper stood up quickly and Emmett's eyes bugged out of his head.
"Bella's pregnant?"
"I don't know, I don't know how to read these things."
"You didn't ask her about it?" Jasper said reaching for the test.
"No, I guess I should have but I just panicked for a minute."
"You need to talk to her about this Edward." Emmett said.
"I know I do but I thought that maybe I should wait for her to bring it up first
?"
"She might not if she isn't pregnant." Jasper said turning the test over.
"I thought about that, but maybe she just hasn't had time to yet. I was wonderin
g if maybe she just took it yesterday based on the way the girls showed up unexp
ectedly and Alice kicked us out as soon as we got they got there."
"Oh ..OH! Shit what if it isn't Bella's? It could be any of them." Emmett said loo
king past me.
"It's not Alice's." Jasper said "She's on her period this week." He continued. T
rying to ignore that visual I noticed the scared look on Emmett's face.
"Did you find the box or anything else?"
"No the garbage can was empty." I told them.
"So either Bella or Rosalie is pregnant or not." Emmett chuckled humorlessly.
"I guess so."
"Maybe that would explain why Rosie has been acting so strange the last couple o
f days."
"Maybe but Bella hasn't been much better. But that could easily be from the stre
ss of finals week."
"They both seemed fine yesterday when they got here though." Jasper pointed out.
"I guess we just wait and see if they say anything?" I asked.
"Okay, give them a day or two but if they haven't said anything by then, you'll
need to ask them."
"Yeah, you're right." Jasper and I continued to talk for a while but Emmett just
sat staring out the window.
"Em, are you alright?"
"I'm not ready to be a father."
"I know, the timing really sucks but if Rosalie is pregnant we will all help out
, just like I know that if it is Bella you would do the same for us."
"How are you so calm about this Edward?"
"I'm not, but I've had all night to freak out. I guess I just decided that at th
e end of the day I love Bella, I plan on marrying her someday and we would have
done this at some point anyway. So while I really would have rather waited a few
more years if it turns out she is pregnant then I would be happy."
"Yeah." Emmett whispered nodding his head slightly. I could see him seriously th
inking over what I just said.
We ended up going to the gym anyway. I needed to relieve some stress. We spent a
better part of the morning there and when we got back the girls were waiting th
ere for us.
"Hi sweetheart." I said kissing Bella.
"Did you guys have a good workout?" she asked.
"Yep. How was shopping? Did you get anything?"
"I found some sandals." She held out her foot to me.
"I like them." I said kissing her again. We didn't do much for the rest of the a
fternoon which I was fine with. I was pretty tired from being up all night. I fe
ll asleep on the couch with Bella cuddled up against my side but when I woke up
she wasn't next to me.
I heard everyone talking but I hadn't opened my eyes yet. Emmett and Jasper were
heading out to pickup some take out for dinner, and I heard the girls talking i
n the kitchen. "Rose are you okay?" I heard Alice ask.
"I'm fine, just tired I guess. It's been a long few days." She answered.
"Are you sure there isn't more to it, you seem a little distracted."
"I'm just a little worried about Emmett. He's acting a little weird today."
"Edward was acting a little strange too." So she noticed. I guess I need to work
on my acting ability.
"Yeah but Emmett is acting more distant. Edward may be acting strange but he is
still touching you like normal."
"Maybe the stress of the week is finally catching up with him. If you're worried
about it maybe you should just talk to him. If there is one thing that I learne
d from last summer it is to make sure you communicate that way there are no misu
nderstandings." Bella said.
They kept talking but I wasn't listening anymore. Bella was right; I made my dec
ision to talk to her tonight.
I got up and made my way into the kitchen with the girls, wrapping my arms aroun
d Bella keeping my hands on her stomach. After the guys got back we ate and I le
t both Emmett and Jasper know that I was going to talk to Bella tonight. Jasper
was pleased and Emmett was nervous.
BPOV
Getting back to my room I plopped down on the bed. Edward laid down next to me a
nd I turned to look at him.
"You can't really be tired can you? You were asleep most of the afternoon." I ch
uckled.
"No I'm not but I was up most of the night." Huh.
"Are you okay Edward, you're looking a little sick." I sat up and put my hand on
his face.
"Actually I wanted to talk to you about something." He said keeping his eyes dow
n.
"What is it?" I asked and he sat up but still didn't look me in the eyes.
"Um last night when we got back I was um going to brush me teeth and well I foun
d something on the floor." I waited for him to continue.
"It was a uh pregnancy test." Shit he found it? My eyes widened in surprise and
I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn't mine but he stopped me.
"I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier but it's just that I was a little shock
ed and then I thought if it turned out that you were pregnant I figured that you
would be telling me anyway so I was going to wait for you to say something." I
tried to tell him again but he kept talking.
"I love you Bella, and I just want you to know that we will do this together. I
mean I know that we're young and not really ready for a baby now but well I figu
red since we will be having one one day that well ..we'll just .you know start earli
er than I had planned on."
He really is amazing wait a minute what plan? "Earlier than you planned on?" I had
to ask.
"Well yeah, I mean I didn't think we would have kids until after we graduated at
the earliest and well I'd really like to be married for a couple years first so
you know having one right now wasn't how I planned it but that doesn't mean that
we can't do it this way."
"And when were you going to let me in on this plan of yours?"
"I don't know I .wait ..you do want to get married don't you?" He paled and looked a
little sick again.
"One day."
"But don't you think we should get married before the baby is due?" What?
"Edward, I'm not pregnant." Relief crossed his face but also something else.
"You're not?" He whispered.
"No I'm not.
"Oh." I studied his face for a while shocked that he almost seemed disappointed?
"That's good news right?" I asked.
"Yeah it is .. but don't you wonder what it would be like to have a little girl wi
th brown eyes and brown hair?" he smiled at me raising his hand to my face.
"I was hoping she would have green eyes." His breathtaking smile turned into a c
huckle, and then his face turned serious.
"Bella why didn't you tell me that you thought you were pregnant? I would have w
anted to be here for you when you took the test."
"It wasn't me that took the test." I told him.
"Oh! So is Rose pregnant then?"
"No, she's not, but what makes you think it couldn't have been Alice?"
"Oh well I um talked with Emmett and Jasper this morning and well apparently its
Alice's time of the month according to Jasper."
"Well that would explain Emmett's mood today."
"I told him I was going to talk to you tonight so I'm sure he is talking to Rose
too."
"Well I'm glad they will at least get everything out in the open."
"Me too. So are you ready for bed?"
"I thought you said you weren't tired."
"Who said anything about sleeping." he said while kissing my neck. I rolled him
onto his back and started unbuttoning his pants.
"I love you Bella."
"I love you too Edward."
Final Chapter 25
Five and 1/2 Years Later
BPOV
The feeling of deja vu hit me suddenly when I looked up to see two of my best fr
iends standing in my bathroom staring intently at the pregnancy tests I was hold
ing.
"Does it feel like we've been here before?" I asked. Both Alice and Rosalie look
ed up and smiled at me.
"Yes but this time it's under slightly different circumstances." I closed my eye
s remembering the last time we were in this same position. She was right, this t
ime we were hoping for it to be positive. A minute later the timer went off and
I opened my eyes to see two pink lines come into focus. Screams of joy erupted f
rom the room.
We weren't necessarily trying to get pregnant, well okay maybe that isn't comple
tely true but I was too nervous that I would jinx it or something if I said the
words out loud. But nearly 5 weeks ago was our 1 year anniversary. Edward had ma
de reservations for dinner.
The restaurant was very fancy and so I changed my purse to one that would match
my dress. Of course he also made reservations at the same hotel we went to the n
ight we had gotten back together our first year in college. We always seemed to
end up there after special occasions. Edward always requested the same room.
We spent the night making love. We do most every night but something about tonig
ht seemed different more special somehow. Edward had fallen asleep first and I r
ested my head on his chest like I did nearly every night. I was having a wonderf
ul dream when something woke me up.
"Shit!" I said loudly waking Edward up.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Edward, my purse I left it at home." He looked at me confused trying to figure
out what was going on.
"It's right here on the nightstand." He reached over and handed it to me.
"No I mean my normal purse."
"You've lost me."
"My pills are in that purse Edward." He stayed quiet and just stared at me.
"I always take them at dinner time every night. I keep them in my purse in case
I'm out somewhere. But I forgot them when I changed purses for tonight. I didn't
take my pill today."
Edward got a thoughtful look on his face. He took both of my hands in his and sm
iled gently.
"So maybe you should stop taking them."
"Stop taking them?" I asked quietly.
"Uh-huh." He looked slightly worried waiting for my reaction as I was silent for
a few minutes.
"Um, okay." I said looking at our hands letting everything sink in. Suddenly I w
as overwhelmed with happiness. I looked up into Edward's eyes. "I'll stop taking
them."
He nearly attacked me then, kissing almost every inch of me. "Are you sure? I do
n't want you to do anything your not ready for."
"I'm sure Edward, are you?"
"I've been sure since the day I met you." We made love two more times that night
.
The pattern repeated almost every day since. Not that it was that out of the ord
inary. We had an extremely active sex life.
Now here I am 5 weeks later with the realization that I am pregnant. Holy shit w
e are going to have a baby!
"Bella, I'm sooooo happy for you!" Alice squealed with tears in her eyes. Rosali
e hugged me tightly. "I'm going to be an aunt." Her eyes were unfocused for a mi
nute before she smiled.
"When are you going to tell Edward?" Alice asked.
"I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor first, and then I will probably
wait until after the wedding if I can even get an appointment before then." Ros
alie and Emmett's wedding was in a week and a half.
"Are you sure you'll be able to keep it quiet until then?"
"No." It was going to be hard to do. I didn't want to keep this from Edward but
no way did I want to get his hopes up before having a doctor confirm it.
"I wish I could stay but my mom will be at my house soon." Rosalie said giving m
e a hug goodbye. Her mom insisted on coming down to help with the wedding plans.
Today was one of the final dress fittings.
After graduation Edward had been able to get a job locally which I was extremely
happy about. I loved the area and was hoping to stay. I was lucky enough to be
able to work from home writing and would be able to go wherever Edward needed bu
t I was so grateful he found work here.
Jasper had been immediately hired by the company he had interned for the previou
s six months and Alice practically had her own business so they would be here to
o.
About a year later Rose and Emmett moved to Portland. Emmett got offered a great
job and with the rest of us here it was an easy decision to make. We were all s
o happy to have our family living in the same town again.
Even better was the fact that they moved in a few blocks down the street from us
. Well actually Jasper and Alice had moved into the neighborhood first. It was a
t the end of our senior year when they decided to buy a house together.
The minute they had signed the papers and got the keys they invited us over. Ros
e and Emmett had driven down, and we spent the weekend moving them in. Again the
ir house was the place that we all seemed to hang out at the most.
It had a guest room so Em and Rose could stay when they wanted. Edward and I had
moved into an apartment together earlier that same year but it was pretty small
and definitely not as fun as being at Jasper and Alice's.
We were over there quite a bit. It was about nine months after they moved in and
we were spending the day there. Alice and I found some garage sales in the neig
hborhood and walked over just to check them out. It turned out one of them was a
n estate sale and the house was just put on the market.
We decided to walk through just for fun. I fell in love with the house immediate
ly. It was absolutely perfect. The backyard was big; the upstairs had three bedr
ooms and two baths. The basement was finished and had a rec room of sorts and a
couple of smaller rooms that could be used as an office or something. The kitche
n was huge and completely redone.
After going through it I had to drag Edward over to show him. He loved the house
too but we had another 6 months on our lease and we really weren't even thinkin
g of buying a house right now, but I told Edward that that was the type of house
I wanted one day.
Three weeks later I was at home taking a break from work and started cleaning th
e kitchen. I had the radio on and so I didn't hear Edward when he came home.
"Hi beautiful." Edward said making me jump when he wrapped his arms around me fr
om behind. I turned around in his arms giving him a kiss.
"What are you doing home so early?" I asked when he had moved his lips to my nec
k.
"I thought I'd surprise you and take you out to dinner."
"That sounds great." I mumbled incoherently. It was hard to concentrate when his
lips were on me. "Where are we going?" I asked.
"It's a surprise."
"Well should I change?"
"No need, you look beautiful the way you are." I rolled my eyes.
"Let me grab my purse then." After dinner was over I noticed Edward hadn't turne
d down the street that would take us to the apartment.
"You missed our street."
"I know." That's all he said.
"Where are we going?"
"This is the surprise part." Huh I guess I'd forgotten he said that earlier.
"Oh." I looked out the window noticing the familiar road leading to Alice and Ja
spers. Except we didn't go to their house. We stopped a few blocks away in front
of my dream house.
"Edward?" he just smiled at me, got out of the car and came around to meet me on
the passenger side. I got out and looked at him suspiciously.
"What's going on?" I asked as he reached for my hand.
"You'll see, come on." And he pulled me up to the door. He knocked and a woman a
nswered.
"Come in Mr. Cullen." She said, and then she turned to look at me. "You must be
Miss Swan?" she asked extending her hand to me. I took it and smiled. "Yes."
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Leah."
"Nice to meet you too." I told her eyeing Edward.
"I'll just be over here if you have any questions." She said and walked into the
kitchen. I turned back and looked at Edward without saying a word. He took my h
and and led me up the stairs to the familiar master bedroom.
"What would you say if I told you that I think we should buy this house?" I look
ed at him with wide eyes and was completely speechless.
"I've already checked into the financing and we can do it." He continued on as I
remained silent. He didn't say anything further as he waited for me to say some
thing. I looked around the room. This could be our home. I almost started to hyp
erventilate.
"Well?" Edward finally asked after I still hadn't said anything.
"We can buy this house?" I screeched at him finally finding my voice. His face r
elaxed and he smiled holding his arms out to me.
"Yes, all we need to do is sign the paperwork." I jumped into his arms knocking
him over in the process. We fell to the ground with a loud thump.
"Is everything okay up there?" I heard Leah call.
"Yes, we're fine." Edward answered back.
"So, you want to do this?" He asked with a serious face.
"Yes! Edward, thank you so much!"
Within the month the house had closed and we were all moved in. It was perfect b
eing so close to Alice and Jasper and then it was even better when Emmett and Ro
salie came down just a couple months later.
It didn't take them long to find a place nearby. Things were going so well. My f
irst book had been published. Edward loved his job and had already got promoted,
and Jasper and Alice decided to get married.
"Congratulations!" I yelled wrapping my arms around Alice and Jasper. They had t
old us the news after we all had dinner at their house.
"Have you set a date?" Rosalie asked.
"September 1st." That didn't give us a lot of time to plan but it could be done.
"And as you both are my best friends I can't choose between you two to be my mai
d of honor so I've decided to flip a coin." Honestly that seemed like the easies
t and most fair way. That way no one got their feelings hurt.
As it turned out I won and got to be Alice's maid of honor. We worked it out fro
m there that Rosalie would be my maid of honor and Alice would be Rosalie's. Tha
t way we all got a chance at it.
The guys just went along with whatever we decided knowing it's better than tryin
g to fight us. Time flew by and before we knew it their wedding day was here. It
was absolutely beautiful. They decided to have it in Forks. It was small but pe
rfect for them.
We spent a few extra days there visiting our families before heading back home.
My 24th birthday was only a couple weeks away. Alice and Jasper had just gotten
back from their honeymoon and we had a quiet dinner with just the six of us, jus
t like I wanted it.
We spent Christmas in town this year. Charlie stayed with us, while Carlisle and
Esme spent half the time at our house and the other half at Emmett and Rosalie'
s. Alice and Jasper's parents came too as well as Rosalie's mom. It had snowed t
his year and it made it all the more perfect.
June was fast approaching and it was going to be Edward and Emmett's 24th Birthd
ay. This year it fell on a Sunday and they decided they wanted to spend the week
end at the beach. So we all planned on taking off early on Friday.
We were all having a great time together but we planned to spend most of Sunday
alone as couples. We all met for breakfast and they boys opened their presents.
I asked Edward what he wanted to do for the rest of the day when we split up fro
m the others.
"It doesn't really matter as long as I'm with you." He answered pulling me to th
e bed with him. We spent most of the day in bed and managed to forget about lunc
h. We decided to go for an early dinner then sit out on the beach and watch the
sunset. I felt like this was more my day than Edwards.
He sat in the sand and I leaned my back against his chest. His arms were wrapped
around me and he rested his chin on my shoulder while the sun disappeared into
the sea.
"Did you have a nice birthday?" I turned my head so I could see him. He was smil
ing and he started to get up. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up with him.
"It was wonderful Bella, thank you for making it so special."
"I feel like this day was more about me. Are you sure there isn't something that
you want to do that is more for you?"
"Well there's only one thing that could make my birthday absolutely perfect." He
said as he rested his forehead against mine.
"And what would that be?" I asked and he smiled at me holding one hand but he to
ok a step back. I was waiting for him to tell me what he wanted when he all of t
he sudden he got down on one knee.
"Bella, I love you and I promise to love you forever, every single day of foreve
r. Will you marry me?" He asked while pulling a ring out from his pocket.
I was stunned. Edward actually asked me to marry him on his birthday. Though I d
on't know why I was surprised. This is exactly the kind of thing Edward does.
"Yes Edward, I'll marry you." I watched as tears escaped his eyes as he slid the
ring on my finger.
"Thank you." I barely heard him as he whispered into my hair when he stood back
up. We went back to our room and didn't come out again until the morning.
Edward didn't want a long engagement, and to be honest I didn't either. We decid
ed our wedding date would be August 13th. That only gave us a little under two m
onths to plan. We decided on an outdoor wedding. The weather should be nice.
We picked the Rose Gardens as the location and had the reception out 'our' hotel
. It was a small wedding much like Alice and Jasper's. Mostly family with some f
riends that we had made at school and some from work.
Alice speaking snapped me out of my memories. "You better call the doctor before
Edward gets home." I was nervous and excited as I dialed my doctor's number.
"Dr. Black's office."
"This is Bella Cullen and I need to make an appointment."
"Our next opening is next Monday at 10:30am."
"That will be fine."
"And what is the nature of the appointment?"
"I need to take a pregnancy test." I couldn't help smiling.
"Okay, we'll see you Monday then." I hung up the phone only minutes before Edwar
d came home.
"I better get going." Alice said as she hugged me goodbye whispering a congratul
ations in my ear again.
"Thanks, bye Alice."
The next few days were almost unbearable. I couldn't stand the waiting even thou
gh I was all but sure I was pregnant. Finally Monday was here and Edward kissed
me goodbye on his way to work.
I arrived at the office and butterflies were assaulting my stomach. I made my wa
y to the receptionist.
"I'm Bella Cullen to see Dr. Rachael Black."
"Fill this out and the Doctor will be with you shortly." After what felt like et
ernity I was called by the nurse.
"How are you today Mrs. Cullen?"
"I'm doing well thank you." She drew some blood and I patiently or not so patien
tly waited for the test to be completed. I took a seat back out in the reception
area and waited for another 45 minutes.
Finally I was called back into the room and was joined by Doctor Black.
"Congratulations Mrs. Cullen. You are pregnant I've figured your due date to be
June 15th, here is the name of an OB. You should make an appointment right away.
"
I left the office in a daze. I wanted to call Rose and Alice and tell them right
 away but I wanted Edward to be the first one to hear it officially.
I stopped off at the store on the way home and picked up a few things. I made Ed
ward's favorite dinner and had it ready for him by the time he got home.
"It that my favorite?" I heard Edward ask as he walked into the kitchen.
"Yep." I mumbled against his lips. I was almost too nervous to eat but I managed
to eat about half of it. Edward didn't seem to notice my nervousness; he was to
o busy eyeing my partially eaten steak.
"Are you done with that?" he asked as his fork was half way to my plate.
"Yes, go ahead." After dinner was over Edward helped me with the dishes. We walk
ed out into the living room and sat down on the couch as Edward was about to pic
k up the remote.
"What's this?" he asked spotting the small box I wrapped.
"It's just something I thought you might like." I kept my eyes on the table.
"Oh, thank you sweetheart." He said picking it up and putting it in his lap. "Ca
n I open it now?" he grinned at me.
"If you want to." I watched his face change from excitement to confusion to elat
ion as he held up the baby socks I had bought.
"Bella?" he looked at me. His eyes were huge along with his smile and his face h
eld a hint of caution as he waited for me to confirm what he had hoped.
"Yes?" I smiled at him.
"I-Is this a-are you ..does this m-mean ."
"I'm pregnant." His arms were around me instantly. He was talking so fast I coul
dn't understand him. He pulled back and kissed me over and over again.
"Are you sure?" he practically yelled in his excitement.
"Yes, I had a doctor's appointment today." There were no words to describe how h
appy Edward was. I've never seen anything like it. That is until Alice found out
she was pregnant 4 months later and Rosalie 2 months after that though she was
having twins.
From the moment Edward found out I was pregnant he wouldn't let me lift a finger
. He spent all his free time talking to the baby through my stomach or rubbing m
y feet and offering to go out and get me whatever it was that I was craving.
If it wasn't so sweet it might have drove me a little crazy. It seemed to intens
ify when he fed off of Emmett and Jasper. The three of them together was almost
too much to handle.
June 13th I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to find that my water had broke.
"Edward." He was still snoring.
"Edward." I called a little louder and shook his shoulder until he woke up.
"My water just broke." He shot out of bed and started running around like a mad
man. I just waited patiently for him to return. He called the doctor and told he
r we were on our way. He called Charlie, Esme and Carlisle as well as Alice, Jas
per, Emmett, and Rosalie.
He helped me to the car and we arrived at the hospital 20 minutes later. Alice,
Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie arrived not much later followed by our parents a few
hours after that. People were in and out all day long. Somehow I even managed to
sleep for an hour or two.
I had no idea things would take this long. But finally at 6:35pm Ella Carlie Cul
len was born. "We did it sweetheart." Edward whispered as he laid down next to m
e in the hospital bed while holding our sleeping daughter between us.