To everyone around them, Bella and Edward were best friends. To Bella and Edward, they were something more. Trying to keep a relationship during high school is hard, but keeping it a secret is harder.

I pulled up at the Cullen household in my faithful yet rusty truck and slung my bag over my shoulder. It was nine, and I'd only just finished work so the party was already in full swing. I hated coming to parties late. It meant everybody was already drunk and I had to catch up.

I skipped up the familiar path and up the porch steps, entering without knocking. I knew nobody would hear the door over the music that I could hear from my truck, but this house had been like my second home ever since my mom had moved away when I was thirteen. I didn't need to knock anymore. Carlisle was my second dad and Esme was my mom. There were no arguments about that.

Quickly pushing my way through all the tightly packed bodies in the foyer, I rushed upstairs to change and dump my bag in Edward's room. Luckily there was nobody in there, so I quickly locked the door behind me and changed out of my waitressing uniform and into my dark blue summer dress. It was far too warm outside to be wearing anything tight and slutty, never mind in a cramped house full of sweaty teenagers. I had contemplated showering since my horrible shift at The Diner in this heat made me particularly clammy, but I settled for a quick spray of deodorant and a spritz of perfume.

I quickly sat on Edward's bed with my compact and did my makeup as best I could in a hurry. Trying my best not to focus on what had happened on this very bed the night before was proving difficult; my mind kept slipping to the way he worshipped my entire body before making my back arch so high I thought it might never come back down.

Hoping that my blush would be passed off as a natural reaction to the heat, I quickly tidied my mess and went downstairs to find the gang. I knew Emmett would be in the kitchen with the snacks so I thought it would be a good bet to find Rose in there as well. They weren't together yet, but we all knew they would be soon.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, I was met by a joyous shout of my name from all of five of my closest friends.

Emmett was stood hovering over the chips and dip, Rose was stood a bit closer to him than what would normally be considered acceptable but clearly nobody had said anything. Alice and Angela were stood close, with Alice shooting dreamy looks at the new guy across the room.

My eyes finally fell on Edward, stood there looking entirely too sexy in his jeans and white button down with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. His hair looked just like it did when I left him in bed this morning all sated and I wished that we were back in there. I wished I could go over and kiss him but we'd been keeping us a secret for a reason. We knew as soon as everyone knew it would be telling the parents and teasing and group dates. Right now, we wanted nothing but each other. Also, sleeping at Edward's meant I was allowed to sleep in his bed. As soon as his parents knew that we were together and most likely having sex, I'd probably be made to sleep in the guest room.

Edward and I had been together now for about six months. He was my second serious relationship, the first being that of myself and Tommy. We'd been together for about a year before he'd sadly passed away in a car accident when we were 16. We'd been each other's first everything and I was distraught when he passed. I'd been practically catatonic until my Edward had had to come over and snap me out of it by request of my dad.

"Get me your strongest drink, I've had a horrible day at work," I complained as I reached for a chip. Emmett growled at me so I flipped him off and took a handful. Edward pushed a shot glass in my hand and walked behind me, trailing his hand along my lower back, briefly squeezing my ass and then walking off as if nothing had happened. My breath hitched and I quickly downed the shot so as not to bring any attention to myself. I heard the kitchen door close behind him as he went back into the living room where the main partying was taking place, and I walked over to the table with all the booze on it and got myself a bottle of beer. Swigging the first one quickly, I grabbed another one to drink slowly.

Rosalie and Emmett were engaged in some sort of deep conversation, so I wandered over to Angela and Alice.

"Hey Bella," Alice smiled before her eyes wandered back over to the new guy from school who was stood at the other side of the kitchen chatting to some guys I didn't recognise. I shared a look with Angela.

"You okay, Al?"

"Hm?" She answered, distracted.

"I said are you okay?"

She sighed dreamily. "Yeah. Isn't he so amazing?"

Angela frowned, "Who?"

Alice turned around to us, with a shocked look on her face. As if everybody should know of the wonders of her dream man. "Jasper!" She hissed under her breath, discreetly pointing towards the man with the shaggy blonde hair.

Angela and I shared another look. "Yeah Ali, he's great!"

Angela giggled. "Why don't you go and talk to him?"

Alice contemplated that for a moment, before she nodded and walked towards him without another word.

I stared after her in shock. That had been one of the strangest conversations we'd had with her for a long time. "She must really like this guy; normally she'd go straight up to with him without even hesitating."

Angela nodded, "That's true. Do you remember when we were at that party and we lost her?"

I smiled in recognition, "Oh yeah! We looked everywhere and eventually found her in a corner making out with that guy."

"Who's making out with who?" A voice spoke from my left and I suppressed my shiver as Edward threw an arm over my shoulder in a friendly gesture. I looked up at him and found a weird look in his eyes. I'd seen that look before, when some random guy hit on me or he thought someone had stared at me for a second too long. I sniggered as I realised he thought we'd been talking about me.

"Alice," I told him quickly, relieved to see his eyes calm. I pointed in her direction. "She's over there with some guy that none of us know."

He glanced over, "Oh yeah, that's Jasper. He's in my history class. He's cool."

I rolled my eyes at his 'guy lingo'. Angela laughed and gave me a knowing glance. "Want to dance?" She asked me.

I nodded and swallowed the rest of my beer, leaving the empty bottle on the island. She took my hand and dragged me out of the kitchen and I nearly whimpered when I felt the loss of Edward's touch. I turned quickly to see him watching me with a look of lust in his eyes. It took everything I had not to run back to him and kiss him.

Instead, I let Angela pull me into the middle of the dance floor/living room. There were so many bodies packed in close and everybody was grinding on everybody. I made sure to keep hold of Angela, dancing close to her so as not to give any guy the impression that I was interested. I could feel eyes on me, and I turned to see some guy I didn't know giving me a weird look that made me kind of uncomfortable, but I ignored it and turned back to Angela.

I could see Edward watching me over her shoulder, leaning against the wall with his legs crossed and arms folded, a beer dangling from one hand. I winked at him and tried to put on my 'sexy'; grinding on Angela and more than likely doing nothing but making a fool of myself. All of a sudden, I felt hips against mine and arms around my waist. Edward's eyes suddenly turned venomous and he stalked towards me. Not wanting him to make a scene, I simply grabbed Angela and moved us left a little so he was no longer touching me. When I felt him on me again, I turned to face him. Who did this guy think we was?

When I turned around, I saw a tall guy with dark hair. He had the build and skin tone of the people who lived down on the rez, so I figured he was local.

"Hi, can I help you?" I asked him in my most sarcastic voice.

"Yeah, you can let me into your pants." He sent me a disgusting wink. My jaw fell open.

"Are you being serious?"

"Totally."

"You slimy little fuck," I shouted at him.

His face suddenly turned angry, "You stupid little bitch, girls would kill for a piece of me."

I laughed, "Well this girl wouldn't." I turned around and started dancing with Angela again, to find Edward stood in front of me.

"Are you okay, love?" He asked me with worried eyes.

"I'm perfect," I smiled up at him. "I can take care of myself."

He winked at me, "Oh I know you can."

Changing the subject quickly, I asked "Where's Angela?"

He used his head to point towards Angela who had been accosted by Ben Cheney. She'd had a crush on him for years. I sent her a wink to let her know I was okay and so she placed all her attention on Ben.

Suddenly, Edward grabbed me around the waist. "Hey, everyone's busy. Think we can sneak upstairs?"

I took a quick look around to see he was right. Ben and Angela were looking dreamily into each other's eyes, Alice and Jasper were nowhere in sight, and Rosalie and Emmett were in the corner making out. Classy. Looks like they weren't hiding anymore.

I smiled and nodded at Edward, and his face lit up like a kid at Christmas as he quickly dragged me up the stairs and into his room before anyone saw us, locking the door behind him.

We stared at each other for all of five seconds before he flew at me, pressing me against the door with his rock hard body and kissing me forcefully. I threaded my fingers through his hair like I'd been longing to all night, and I moaned as he started to run his hands all over my body, the sound of the music downstairs drowning the noise.

Eventually he became frustrated with the lack of access he had to my body and he ripped the dress over my head and then picked me up, throwing me across the bed and quickly removing his own clothing until we were both left in only our underwear. As he lay on top of me again, we both groaned at the feeling of our hot skin against each other. Our kisses slowed slightly, until we were kissing almost lazily. I pulled away and whispered, "I love you."

Edward grinned at me, and tucked some of my hair behind my ear and whispered "I love you too, baby," against my forehead before kissing it. He kissed his way down my temple, to my cheek and down across my jaw to my neck. He found that spot behind my neck that made me moan and my back arch, and I could feel him sucking on my skin. I knew he'd leave a mark but at this point I was too turned on to care and my hair would cover it anyway.

I put my hands back into his hair and dragged his lips to mine as my feet got to work on attempting to take his boxers off. With some difficulty I finally got them all the way down and Edward kicked them off his feet before he reached behind my back to unclasp my bra. His touch gave me goosebumps and I shivered lightly. Once my bra was out of the way he kissed his way across my collarbones and down my chest. He turned his attention to my right nipple, licking it a few times before sucking it gently into his mouth. By now, he knew that I didn't like it too rough around my boobs as my nipples were really sensitive, although I loved it rough anywhere else. Giving the same attention to my left nipple, I was a moaning mess by the time he kissed his way down my stomach, over both hip bones and to the edge of my panties.

He slowly pulled them down and threw them off the side of the bed, before opening my legs wide for him. Knowing what was coming next, I groaned in anticipation. Edward loved it when I was loud, and with the music blaring downstairs he had no problem with achieving it. His lips were magical, and when he started flicking my clit with his tongue and pushing his fingers into me until they were rubbing that spot that made me tingle I was gone. My back arched as I came, my fingers in his hair and calling his name like he was religious.

He kissed his way back up my body and I grinned when he reached my lips, flipping us quickly before giving him a repeat of what he'd given me. I kissed my way all the way down his body and nipped his thighs with my teeth, making them shake. He whimpered as I licked the underside of his shaft gently with the tip of my tongue, and he moaned when I took him as deep as the back of my throat and my hands played with his balls. Before long, he was pulling me off him.

"Bella, baby stop, I want to come inside of you."

Slowly bringing him out of my mouth, I sat up and straddled him.

"Condom?" I asked him, holding my hand out expectantly.

He reached into his drawer by his bed and pulled one out, handing it to me quickly. I rolled it on him and slowly lowered myself onto him, moaning as I went. This had to be the best feeling in the entire world, the feeling of Edward filling me and stretching me, and when I started to move it was like my entire insides were setting on fire in the most delicious way. I rode him as hard as I could, and as fast as I could, leaning back to rest my hands on his thighs.

He suddenly sat up and I groaned as he shifted deeper inside me. Grabbing my hips, he helped me bounce up and down on him until we were both panting and sweating and crying out each other's names. A couple more thrusts from his side and I was seeing fireworks behind my eyes, and as Edward's hands tightened on my hips I knew he was as well.

He collapsed back onto the bed and brought me with him, both of us panting as I leaned on his chest.

"I love you," I whispered into his chest.

He started to stroke my hair. "I love you too, honey. I hate that I can't kiss you and hold you around people."

I sighed, "I know, I hate it too."

"Just a little longer?" He compromised.

"Just a little longer."

Eventually Edward and I returned down to the party. We staged it so we went down at different times, I waited around in the bathroom for about five minutes and when I finally made my way downstairs, he was nowhere in sight.

A few weeks later, Charlie, my dad, had to go away for a few days for a conference and I was sat watching movies on the sofa, wasting my weekends that should have been spent studying. I was halfway into Titanic, drooling over the sight of a young Leonardo DiCaprio when I heard a quick knock on the door and then it opening. I knew it was Alice because I recognised the light and musical knock. All of my closest friends just walked in to my house. Charlie was never here anyway.

Alice rounded the corner with a plastic carrier bag full of chips and dip.

"Hey Bella!" She grinned. She had a look in her eye that meant she was up to no good so I braced myself for what she was about to say.

"You're having a get together tonight," she informed me. I shot up and turned towards her.

"What?! No I'm not!" I argued. Edward was coming over tonight because I had the house to myself; we rarely had opportunities like this!

Alice dove onto the couch next to me with a pleading look in her eyes. "Please Bella, please! I need an excuse to see Jasper again, I'm going mad!"

I rolled my eyes. "Why didn't you just get his number when you saw him at Edward's party?" I whined petulantly. I was acting like a baby but with good reason! I was going to miss my Edward loving!

"Because I really really like him, Bells," she gave me 'the look'; the one that was the equivalent to that of a puppy asking you to play with him. Alice was never like this over guys. "It's the perfect time, your dad's out of town and everything!"

I sighed heavily, thinking it over. Edward and I had last night, would still have tomorrow night, and this really was out of the ordinary for Alice. I wanted her to have what Edward and I have.

"Fine!" I exclaimed. "But you can set everything up because I need to take a shower."

I started up the stairs before an errant thought entered my head. "And you can clean up the mess in the morning!"

Alice waved her hand noncommittally, already pulling goods out of her bag. "There's not going to be many people here; just us six, Ben, Jasper, a couple of people from school, maybe a few of Jazzy's friends so he doesn't feel too awkward."

I rolled my eyes once again and turned to head upstairs before she called me to ask me yet another question. Like this wasn't favour enough.

"Hey, pass me the key to the shed in the backyard." She called over.

I spun around quickly, almost falling down the stairs as I did so.

"What? Why do you need the key?!"

She looked at me like a teacher looks at a child who has wet themself in kindergarten. "So I can get the barbeque out, honestly Bella have you ever thrown a party before? You need food, and its three billion degrees outside."

Taking a deep breath, I turned around to take a shower.

"It's on my keyring on the peg by the door."

After a quick shower, I dried my hair and lathered myself in Edward's favourite body lotion, before heading to my room to pick out something to wear. I chose some lacy white underwear, low rise blue denim shorts, and a white button down shirt. I tied the shirt into a knot just above my belly button so it showed of my toned midriff, and shoved the sleeves up to my elbows. I decided on some white ankle Chucks, and put some sunglasses on so they worked as a headband, keeping my wavy hair out of my face. I decided against make-up, it was far too hot outside to even think about wearing any without it sweating off.

I heard Alice put on some music from the speakers that I just realised were gone from my room. She must have come and got them while I was in the shower. Sneaky little pixie.

I pulled the key for my bedroom door from the little box on my nightstand where I kept things that weren't very important. It was rare that I locked my door from the outside, but I wasn't risking having anyone bumping uglies on my bed other than me.

Slipping the key into my short's pocket, I could hear voices as I ran downstairs; one in particular that made my panties slightly wet as I recalled the night before. I slowed down a bit so I didn't seem too eager and when I rounded the corner into the kitchen I saw Alice and Edward stocking all sorts of different beers and liqueurs into the fridge to keep them cool. Through the kitchen window, I could see that the many deck chairs my dad had collected over the years from the shed had been scattered into a rough circle in the garden, the barbeque off to one side with Emmett hovering over it, spatula in hand.

Turning back to the two in my kitchen, Alice had her head stuck in the fridge, and Edward was staring at me over the top of her head. His eyes were trained on my legs and stomach, and I grinned. Exactly the response I'd been hoping for. He noticed my grin once his eyes left my body and glared at me in a way that made me want to ravage him.

"Alice," her head popped out of the fridge. "Was it really smart to leave Emmett alone with the food?" I pointed out of the window to emphasise my point. He had a bag of chips in one hand and was demolishing them at an increasingly fast pace.

"Shit!" She squeaked, before she ran outside and all we could hear was Emmett cursing and the slapping sound of Alice stealing the spatula and whacking him with it.

I smirked, and all but leaped on Edward. He caught me and I wrapped my legs around his waist, kissing me like he hadn't seen my in years. His tongue stroked mine as my hips started to grind against his and his hands tickled the bare skin of my lower back. My hands gripped his hair tightly and he whimpered into my mouth, slowing the kisses down before we got carried away. He gave me a few short pecks before he dropped me to the floor, choosing to wrap his arms around my waist instead.

"Last night was…" He started wistfully; "Incredible."

I smiled softly up at him, "It was. It really was."

He stroked my cheek gently. "I love you, Beautiful."

"I love you too, Edward. So much I can't believe it's real."

He was about to say something else when we heard the argument between Emmett and Alice grow louder and we quickly broke apart, putting bottle after bottle in the fridge.

"Alice, who bought all this?" I asked. We were minors, so she couldn't have bought it herself.

She grinned at me. "Charlie did."

I spun around to look at her in shock.

"What?!" My dad, the chief of police, bought us minors all this alcohol?

"Well I called him the other day and said that we'd missed you since you'd been doing so much studying for our exams. I said that I thought you needed a break, and the five of us were planning on coming around to cheer you up."

I was stood there surely looking like a fish with my mouth bobbing up and down.

"Obviously he doesn't know about everyone else that's here, but he said that he was young once and he knew that you couldn't have a get together without alcohol. He told me I couldn't tell you because it was a surprise for you."

I smiled in spite of my shock. My father did not show his emotions on his sleeve, but it was things like this that showed his adoration for me. As long as I was happy, he was happy.

"He trusts you to be sensible, and we all know that he loves me, so it wasn't hard to convince him to buy a little more than he was originally going to." Alice smiled as she finished her story, clearly proud of herself.

"Alice there's 'more than he was originally going to' and then there's this!" I said, gesturing to the fridge. "Did he buy out the entire shop?"

She rolled her eyes, impatient. She'd clearly had enough of this conversation. "No, we've all brought something as well. Jeez Bella it's like you literally never use your brain!"

I was slightly miffed at her touchy mood this evening. She had snapped at me a few times and she hadn't even been here more than an hour.

I turned to Emmett. "What's up with her?"

He snickered, "Jasper's not here yet, so she's certain he's not going to show up."

"God she's so dramatic."

"I heard that Bella!"

About two hours later there was the five of us, Ben, Jasper and two of his friends, and five others from school. Emmett's barbeque had gone down a treat, and everyone was sat in the circle enjoying a few drinks with the music playing softly in the background. I was having a good time, but Alice had barely said two words to Jasper. I could have been ravaging my boyfriend right about now, but instead I was watching her avoid the reason she'd set this thing up for in the first place!

Edward was conveniently sat straight across from me, but it was still too far. I couldn't touch him but I could ogle him as he laughed with Emmett. God, he was beautiful. This made me even angrier with Alice.

"Why have you made me arrange this stupid thing if you're not even gonna talk to him?!" I asked as I turned to her.

She glared at me. "You wouldn't understand Bella, it's not like you've had a steady boyfriend ever in your entire life," she said spitefully.

My mouth dropped open in shock and in my peripheral I could see Edward's head whip towards me. Rosalie gasped, and I felt tears gather in my eyes.

"I can't believe you just said that," Rosalie whispered and Alice's eyes widened as she registered exactly what she'd said.

"Oh Bella, I'm so sorry, I didn't-," she started but I stopped her.

"Yeah you didn't mean it, I get it. It's fine." I muttered without looking at her. I knew she didn't mean it deep down and I didn't want her to feel bad.

"Bella…"

I turned to look at her, "It's fine Alice, honestly." I said with a tight smile. She nodded and turned her attention back to Jasper. That was Alice. She was ridiculously self-absorbed, but if you needed her she'd be the first to help you.

My phone, which had been resting on the arm of the deck chair, vibrated with a message.

Are you okay, baby? Heard what A

I smiled, my heat fluttering at his thoughtfulness.

Just hit a sore spot. I'll get over it. Bxx

There should be nothing to get over. She shouldn't have said that to you. Exx

I'll be fine, honest. Bxx

Don't hide from me Exx

I'm not hiding. It hurt but I'm over it. No point on dwelling on the past. Bxx

If you're sure Exx

You know if you need me I'm here Exx

I smiled and quickly caught his eye, nodding, before turning my attention back to Rosalie and Alice. Rosalie mouthed the words 'are you okay', and I smiled and nodded back. Suddenly she brightened up with an idea.

"I know a way you can get to know him!"

Alice quickly turned toward her. "How?" She asked sceptically.

Rosalie stood up quickly, "Okay, hey everyone! Just to liven this party up a bit, we're gonna play Truth or Truth!"

I laughed, "Oh sorry Rosalie, I forgot we were all 13."

She stopped momentarily to glare at me which only made me laugh harder. She decided to studiously ignore me.

"Okay, let's start with you Isabella Marie Swan."

I gulped. Rosalie was scary when she wanted to be.

"When was the last time you had sex?" She asked me and I instantly blushed bright red. I heard Mike and Tyler whisper "Oh yeah," and high five each other. Edward's head whipped round and he glared at them venomously. Thankfully, everyone was staring at me and didn't notice.

I coughed nervously, "Um… last night."

"LAST NIGHT?!" Alice thundered.

I sunk into my chair and nodded meekly.

"What?"

"Who with?"

"Where?"

Questions were fired at me rapidly by Emmett, Angela, Rosalie and Alice until I stopped them.

"You can only ask one question at a time! It's someone else's go," I argued.

A few more questions were asked; Alice finally got some balls and asked Jasper if he was single, to which he replied yes he was. Mike asked me when I lost my virginity, to which I replied when I was 15 and nobody brought it up after that. Tommy was popular around here. Everybody knew we were together when he died.

Then, Tyler asked Edward who the last girl he fucked was, and Emmett sat up straight and gasped. I could see the wheels turning in his head, and I knew the minute he had figured it out.

"It all makes sense," he whispered.

Edward and I exchanged worried glances and then Emmett grinned; like really really grinned a massive smile.

"YES! I fucking knew it!" He exclaimed.

"Can somebody please explain what the hell is going on?" Angela asked, frustrated with their lack of answers.

Before Emmett could blab for us, Edward stood up.

"Um, Bella and I are kind of… well we're sort of a couple."

Rosalie, Alice and Angela looked at each other, mouths wide open. I got up and walked up to Edward, smiling up at his face as he wrapped his arms around me.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you too," he replied before kissing me gently, ignoring the swoons and catcalls from the idiots behind us.

"How long has this been going on?" Alice asked once we had broken apart and settled, still clinging onto each other with me in Edward's lap.

"About six months," I answered with a huge grin on my face. It was as if a massive weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

"You sneaky little shits, I can't believe you have been hiding this for so long." Rosalie chuckled, surprised.

I kissed Edward's neck and smiled. While hiding had been fun for a while, and I'd loved keeping him all to myself, this was better. To be able to kiss him when I wanted.

Life was good now.