Chapter 1- The Wedding

I was crying! I was crying, at a wedding! God, how tacky…

Although, I had been waiting for this day for a very long time. All the months of planning and shopping were finally playing off. As I stood up there, I felt overwhelmingly proud that arguably one of the most important days of my life was finally here. I wiped the tears from my eyes as my best friend, Rosalie Hale, hissed from behind me, "Bella, dear god, stop crying."

"You may now kiss the bride," the minister announced happily. Screams erupted as my friend Jessica was kissed passionately by her new husband, Mike. Cheering filled the hall.

Alice Brandon-my other best friend-was the first to claim the happy couple. Then, we all rushed over and started gently embracing them. As Jess' maid of honor, I had done virtually EVERYTHING for her. Helped pick out a dress, go food tasting, help pick out lingerie for her honeymoon…

I shuddered, that had not been my favorite thing to do.

Jessica had tears streaming down her face by now, and her cheeks were beet red. She looked so happy and blissful. I felt a tiny stab of pain; why couldn't that be me? I was 24 with no hope of getting married anytime soon. All I'd dated was losers over the past few years. The last real relationship I had, Jacob Black, had gone on for 2 years. I really thought that he was the one…until I walked in on him having sex with Leah Clearwater.

"Bells? BELLA!" Alice was waving her hand in front of me, breaking my trance.

"Come on, let's go sit down for dinner," Rose suggested. She must have known that this would be hard for me. I had only broken up with Jacob 2 weeks ago.

I followed them to table number 2. There were 6 place settings written in elegant script: Isabella Swan, Rosalie Hale, Alice Brandon, and then 3 other names I didn't recognize: Emmett McCarty, Jasper Whitlock and Edward Masen.

"Ooooh!" Alice squealed when she saw Emmett's place setting, "I know him!"

"Really?" Rose asked skeptically, "how? Who is he?"

"Oh, he used to go to high school with me!" Alice trilled excitedly.

"What does he look like?" Rose asked inquisitively.

I hadn't known Alice back in High School. I'd known Rose for nearly my entire life. We'd always been best friends. Our mothers had known each other for years before we were even born. I'd met Alice freshman year of college. We'd been friends ever since. Now, all 3 of us shared an apartment in Seattle.

"Oh, he's absolutely HUGE! At least that's how he was last time I saw him, I sort of lost touch with everyone after high school," she admitted, "but he's got big muscles, dark, curly hair. And he's REALLY hot!"

"Little Alice Brandon, is that you?" somebody asked from behind us. We all whipped our heads around to see 3 incredibly beautiful men standing there, smirking at us.

"Wow, it's been AGES! You haven't grown a bit have you?" the tallest one asked playfully. From Alice's description, this had to be Emmett. She bounded forward and hugged him. It was extremely hilarious to see a 6'5 guy try to hug a 4'10 girl. Rose and I stifled a giggle.

She shot us a look."Oh, guys, this is Rosalie Hale," she gestured appropriately, "and Isabella Swan," she pointed to me.

Emmett raised his hand and waved, first at Rose (giving her a big, fat smile) and then at me.

"Nice to meet you both, very nice," he looked over at Rose and gave her a small wink. She giggled back and blushed. "And this is Jasper Whitlock and Edward Masen," he said, gesturing to the boys beside him.

Jasper was tall and leonine, with honey-blonde hair. He was muscular too, not nearly as big as Emmett, but very strong. The second one, Edward, sort of took my breath away.

He looked like a male model-well, all of them did-and he was the most handsome person I'd ever seen. His bronze hair was arranged into casual disarray, and his emerald eyes pierced right through me. The pale color of his skin was extremely striking against his dark black tuxedo. He walked forward to grasp my hand.

"Very nice to meet you all," he said with a smile on his face. His voice was so irresistible! Like velvet. We stared at each other a moment longer than necessary, then Emmett cleared his throat.

"Well," Jasper said, "looks like we'll be sitting with you tonight," he seemed very formal. Of course, he was looking at Alice the whole time. Emmett was in a deep conversation with Rosalie. So, I was just left staring at Edward. His gaze momentarily screwed my thoughts up, and I was left ogling at him like an idiot.

Whoa. Just, whoa. I thought to myself.

Stop right there Bella.

"Shall we?" I hadn't realized that Edward was holding out a chair for me, and everybody else was already sitting down. I flushed pink and took my seat next to Alice and Edward.

Ben Cheney had just made his way onstage to give the Best-man toast.

"I remember," he hiccupped; looked like he was already drunk. I gazed at Angela across the hall. She was hiding her face in her hands of embarrassment. "I remember when Jessica and Mike met. Mike had a crush on Jess, Jess on him; it seemed like a match made in heaven. Until Isabella Swan came along," he pointed to me and froze. Everybody looked at me with curious eyes.

"Yup, you can't hide Bells," Ben hiccupped, "she comes along, all from Arizona and whatever, and Mike is like, completely smitten with her!" That's when I noticed that Jessica was glaring at him with a deadly look. His eyes widened in alarm.

"Yeah, here's to the happy couple, blah-blah-blah, have fun," and with that he raised his glass and staggered off the stage.

I looked around my table at the awe-struck faces of 4 people. Rose was the only one who was sitting there casually, checking out her nails; this wasn't new to her.

"Yeah, he had a tiny thing for me in high school, but I don't like him so…" I trailed off. Rosalie scoffed. She knew that Mike's "thing" for me had been anything but tiny. He'd sent me Roses every day the week leading up to Prom. And it was quite obvious by the way he looked at me sometimes that he was mentally undressing me. I shuddered, remembering the day when Mike had "accidentally" grabbed my ass.

I didn't even notice that Edward was up on stage. "Thank-you very much Ben for that 'toast', now, I'd like to say a few words, short and simple. To the newly-wed couple, may you have a long and happy life together. I only hope, that the rest of us can find love like you two," Edward said cheerfully. Was it my imagination, or did his eyes flash to me when he said that?

No, that's just what you want to think…

"Cheers," he announced and everybody applauded after he sauntered off stage. I even saw a few girls follow him all the way back to the table. For some reason, this annoyed me immensely.