Disclaimer: The characters of Twilight are owned by Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. The original content, ideas, and intellectual property of this story are owned by QueenBeee78.

©2010 QueenBeee78 . All rights reserved worldwide.

Rated M for language and eventual lemons.


A/N: Welcome to my baby, True Love Waits. This story starts out slow, so bare with me. You won't find out what the big LIE was until chapter 10 or 11, so I'm warning you now to be patient. :) The first chapter is kind of short, but sweet. And for the record, I believe in HEA. Hope that helps to ease any anxiety about this story. ;) See you at the bottom.


"I'm not living

I'm just killing time

Your tiny hands

And crazy kitten smile

Just don't leave….don't leave

And true love waits

In haunted attics

And true love lives

On lollipops and crisps

Just don't leave….don't leave

Don't leave…don't leave"

~ True Love Waits, Radiohead

Prologue

God, how could I have been so fucking stupid? All the time I wasted. And now look at what's happened. Edward Cullen, you are fucking idiot. King of the goddam idiots.

I stood there in the women's dressing room of the chapel hidden somewhere deep inside the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, watching Bella check her makeup in the huge mirror one last time.

She wore a long white sleeveless strappy dress that hugged her every curve. I think Alice said it was a Mermaid style gown or something like that. Her long mahogany hair was curled and flowing down the backless dress, but pulled to one side with a purple flower securing it there at the side of her head.

Of course it would be purple. That's Bella's favorite color.

"Edward? Can you stop staring at me? You're making me even more nervous," Bella said, as she looked in the mirror again and touched her finger tip to her bottom lip to wipe off some lipstick that Alice had forced her to wear.

Nope. Sorry. Can't do that. I don't ever want to stop looking at you. Ever.

And in that moment I realized that I had to finally make a choice.

In about two minutes, Bella would be walking out that door and down the isle to get married. Which, I should be happy about. Bella deserved to be happy, even if I knew- deep down in my soul- she wouldn't be. Maybe not right away, but eventually she would find out the truth about him, and it would crush her.

Like I said, I should be happy for her, but there's no way in hell I could ever be. She was about to marry a man….who wasn't me.

It should be me up there and not him. Maybe I don't deserve her either after how I broke her heart all those years ago, but I'm not the same person I was then. I would never treat her that way again. I would worship her and keep her safe and do everything in my power to make sure she was happy.

And that piece of shit out there in the Chapel SURE-AS-HELL didn't deserve her. This much I knew after what I saw last night and even in the last couple weeks. Actually, I knew he was a bastard from the day she introduced me to him.

So now I had a choice to make.

Do I tell her the truth about the man she's about to marry, and risk breaking her heart into tiny little pieces all over again? Or do I swallow it down, let her have her happy wedding day, and hope that somehow she will be happy with him?

There's only one thing I knew for sure. Well, two things actually.

One – I was still unconditionally and irrevocably in love with Isabella Marie Swan and would always be madly in love with her, forever.

Two – Either choice I made, I was completely fucking screwed.

"Okay, I'm ready to go get married!" Bella exclaimed, turning around to look at me. As she walked closer to me, our eyes met and I stared deep in the chocolate brown pools. The look I saw in her eyes sealed my fate. I wanted her to be happy. I needed her to be happy.

I had made my choice.


Chapter 1

Eighth Grade (Junior High)

"Yes Mr. Cullen, this is room 209, have a seat," Mrs. Cope answered me as I entered the classroom with my schedule in hand. I never understood why they numbered the classrooms in the two hundreds, when there were only about fifty different rooms. This school was so tiny compared to the one I came from back in Alaska.

I had just moved here over the summer because my father took a job at the only hospital here in Forks, Washington. And what kind of a name for a town is "Forks" anyway? I'd never even heard of this place on any map until a few months ago. I guess my dad heard about it from one of his collegues at work and once my mom saw pictures of the area she just had to move here for some reason. I think the real reason was because he got caught messing around with another nurse at the hospital in Alaska…again.

Yes, I know my dad is a cheater because my parents argue all the time, and I hear every word they say even though they think I'm asleep. My dad thinks that just because he's a doctor, he can do whatever he wants. It makes me sick. I honestly don't know why my mom puts up with it.

I'd been sitting there staring at my folder on my desk, when the teacher, Mrs. Cope, started the class. She passed out our Geography books and introduced herself. She was a big lady in her sixties with a big puff of white hair piled up on top of her head, and big seventies style thick lens glasses on her make-up-caked-on face. She had bright purple and blue eye shadow on around her light blue eyes. She almost looked clownish and I had to stifle a laugh when she brought me my book. Just as she was placing a book on my desk, the door to the classroom flung open and a girl came running in, almost sliding on the linoleum floor as she entered.

My eyes glued to the sight of her for some reason. Her long brown damp hair clung to her flushed face as she gripped her light brown backpack on one shoulder and tried to keep herself from falling on her ass. She was pretty plain looking to say the least, but still pretty in her own sort of way I guess. She was wearing jeans and a long yellowish brown coat. She moved the hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ears as she looked toward Mrs. Cope with obvious embarrassment.

Mrs. Cope set my book on my desk and walked away, toward the girl at the front of the class. As Mrs. Cope was taking a piece of paper from the girl, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see that a blonde-haired girl was sitting behind me smiling at me.

"Hi, I'm Lauren," she said as she looked me up and down and twirled a pencil in her hand. She was pretty cute and so I smiled back.

"I'm Edward."

She smiled and started to ramble on to me about cheerleading or something, but I wasn't really listening because I heard Mrs. Cope scolding the brown haired-girl at the front of the class, about being punctual. I looked back up front to the girl who looked embarrassed and angry as the teacher told her to have a seat. The girl looked around the class room and started coming down my isle. The only seat left in the class was right next to me, and even though I had no idea who this girl was, I was glad she would be sitting next to me.

She threw her back pack down next to her chair and shrugged off her coat, throwing it on the floor on top of her back pack. Then she plunked herself down into her seat, letting out a big huff of air and twisting her damp hair into a bun on top of her head. I caught myself staring at her, sitting there in her black "Smashing Pumpkins" t-shirt.

"You ok?" I whispered to her.

She looked over to me and smiled as her pink cheeks slowly turned red. "Yeah, just trying to figure out what's up Crusty-the-Clown's ass up there," she nodded toward Mrs. Cope.

I started cracking up and she joined in laughing as well. The girl was funny.

"You're new here aren't you?" she asked me, as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Yup, I just moved here from Alaska."

"So you're an Eskimo?" she smirked.

"What? No!"

A throat cleared behind us and we both turned to see Lisa or Lauren or whatever glaring at the both of us. Suddenly, Lisa or Lauren turned her focus to the brown haired girl next to me whose name I still didn't know.

"Bella, you are so lame. Just because he's from Alaska, doesn't make him an Eskimo you idiot."

Bella…so that's her name.

Bella narrowed her eyes at the girl behind me. "Hey Lauren, why don't you put on some of your harlot pink lipstick, and kiss my ass!"

Lauren's eyes got wide as she gasped. "You are such a bitch!" she spat to Bella.

Bella rolled her eyes and smirked at her, "Yeah well, so is your mother." Then she turned away from Lauren and sat forward in her seat smiling at herself.

"So your name's Bella?" I leaned over toward her.

She turned to the side to face me again, replying, "Oh yeah sorry, I guess that was rude of me. Yeah, I'm Bella." She held her hand out for me to shake it.

"Edward," I replied as I took her hand to shake it. As soon as our hands made contact, there was something like an electric charge that buzzed through our hands and we both pulled away suddenly. Our eyes were wide until she spoke again.

"Must be static in the air," she mumbled as she blushed.

"Yeah, must be," I smiled.

"Mr. Cullen, Miss Swan," the teacher bellowed from the front of the class, causing my head to snap up to look at the clown lady. "If you two are done jibber jabbering, I'd like to continue the class…"

Bella and I looked at each other and tried to not smile before we looked down at our books. Mrs. Cope started her lecture again and I heard Bella snickering next to me. I looked over to her and saw that she was shaking with silent laughter, her head turned down.

"What!" I whispered to her.

"Jibber jabbering?" she whispered back. We both snickered and listened to Mrs. Cope as she started explaining about the continents and how we would have to name the capitols of each of the States in the U.S. by the end of next week. Then she was saying something about how she wanted us to write the capitols on the print out of the map and not to write them "Catty-wompus" on the paper and Bella started cracking up before hiding her face behind her hands.

Mrs. Cope glared in our direction but luckily she didn't know that it was Bella who had made the disruption. I could see Bella shaking with laughter that she was trying so desperately to stop as Mrs. Cope continued her lecture adding a "do-dad" and a "flibberty flab" into her speech here and there. Each time she uttered one of her 'sayings', I could hear Bella snicker next to me as she hid behind her Geography book and it was all I could do not to crack up, myself.

The class finally ended when the bell rang and Bella let out an exasperated sigh as she rose from her chair.

"You gonna be alright there buddy?" I asked her.

"What the hell is a 'flibberty flab' anyway?" she asked with a huge smile plastered across her face.

I laughed. "I have no idea but you better be careful or Crusty-the-clown is gonna kick you out of class," I warned her.

"Psh…I'm not scared of that old bitty. Besides, my dad's the chief of police here in town, so she won't mess with me unless she wants her car towed or something worse."

"You think it's a clown car?"

Bella cracked up. "Probably. So what class you got next Eskimo Ed?" she asked.

I raised an annoyed eyebrow at her nickname for me and she laughed again before I replied, "Well, Miss Swanny River, I have Math and then PE and then lunch. You?"

"Swanny River? That's the best you could come up with?" she giggled. "Well Eddie Munster, I have Math next too. Who's your teacher?"

I looked down at my schedule paper. "Um…Higgins."

"Ugh. He's a total dick. Good luck with that, buddy," she consoled, reaching up and patting my shoulder.

Great. Really looking forward that class now.

"Who do you have?" I inquired.

"Mrs. Frisk. She's cool," she shrugged.

"Let me see your schedule, Bella."

I held out my hand and she handed it to me. I compared our schedules. We didn't have any other classes together for the rest of the day. I was disappointed because Bella was really easy to talk to and I didn't know anyone else yet at the school besides her and Lauren.

"Well, maybe I'll see you at lunch," I told her as I handed her schedule back to her.

"Yeah, maybe," she smiled, as she slung her back pack over her shoulder. We walked out of the class room and out into the hallway. "Well, I guess I'll see ya, Edward," she added with another shy smile.

"Yeah, see ya later, Bella," I smiled back. Neither of us moved yet until she giggled and shook her head. Then she punched me lightly in the arm and walked passed me and down the hall. I stood there and watched her walk away before some skinny kid with black hair came up and threw her into a head lock. I started to make my way toward her when I noticed the kid hunch over and grunt. She had punched him in the nuts. He slowly sank to the ground clutching his balls.

Bella shouted down to him, "Don't ever touch my boobs again, Yorkie!" then she reached down and smacked him hard on top of the head and stalked away and around the corner. I walked over toward the kid on the ground and stood over him. He looked up at me as he groaned.

"Man that girl is hot!...ungh," He screeched in a high pitched voice as he clutched his balls and rolled on the ground. "She wants me…ow my nuts…I know she does…ow."

"DON'T touch her again!" I warned him in my deepest voice. He groaned again and closed his eyes. I had no idea what came over me at that point but I wanted to reach down and strangle him. Instead, I shook my head and walked back in the other direction, toward my next class.

I didn't see her at lunch that day and wondered what happened to her. I wanted to tell her that she was right about Mr. Higgins being a complete dick. I wanted to ask her if she was ok after what that kid Yorkie did to her. I just wanted to talk to her again but I had no idea where she was. For some reason, I couldn't wait to go to my Geography class the next day.


Bella's Diary

Dear Diary,

Holy crap, diary! You should see the new guy at school! Edward Cullen. He is sooooooooooooo cute! He's tall with messy, reddish brown hair and he's got the prettiest green eyes! And when he smiles at me, I swear I think my legs are going to snap in half and make me fall on my ass! We only have one class together but it's ok because we sit right next to each other. Too bad Lauren Mallory's stupid face sits behind him. Man I can't wait for school tomorrow. I might even get up early just to try and talk to him before class. And diary, you know I hate getting up early, so that says something!

Oh and I got in trouble at school today for punching Yorkie in the balls. He deserved it, stupid ass-faced jerk! Why does he always have to grab my non-existent boobs like that? He's so stupid! I don't know why my brother is even friends with him.. Speaking of brothers….

Emmett Swan, I KNOW you're reading my diary you dick! Don't think I haven't figured it out! If you ever utter one word to anyone about what you read in here, I will spread a rumor that you like to watch gay porn and that you have a tiny 2 inch dick! Trust me, I will! And why the hell do you want to read this anyway? GET A LIFE!

Later, Diary.

~ Bella


A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read this. It will start out light and funny, but as we get further into the story, you will start to see changes in Edward. He's pretty much a clueless boy in the beginning. Give him time though, and you'll see where things are heading. Bella will change and mature pretty quickly as well. Also, I'm sorry to say that Carlisle is a jerk in this story...very OOC. As are some of the other characters (Renee, Emmett, ect...). Don't hate Emmett too much though, he's just being a big brother.