It was Friday night in Spring. The weather was finally starting to warm up. We couldn't believe how long the rainy season had lasted here in the Bay Area. The day seemed to drag on and on and I wasn't looking forward to this evening. One of my best friend's, Alice, is insisting that we go out since her family has moved her from WashingtonState. I've only meet Alice's parents and that was back when we were in college. Alice had two older brothers who relocated here to be closer to her. Alice's family was very close and they couldn't stand the fact that she moved away from home. The thing about Alice, is that you can't tell her no! She just simply doesn't take no for an answer. So without much fuss from me, there was no way I was getting out of tonight.

I wasn't the only one that was going out tonight with Alice and her husband Jasper. Jasper's twin sister, Rosalie, who is also one of my best friend's is going as well. Rosalie had meet Alice's entire family a few times and had a thing for her oldest brother Emmett. All week long she kept telling me that she was going to make him hers. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation, it was quite amusing.

"Rosalie, what if I like Emmett? Would you step aside for me?" I teased her earlier that week.

"Bella, come on now. I know you better than you do sometimes," her sparkling blue eyes light up as she looked at me. Rosalie was beautiful in every aspect of the word. She should have been a model but said she knew she didn't have to commit to know she was. Rosalie was about 5'7, long and natural blonde hair, fair complexion. Any woman who looked at Rosalie would instantly hate her because of her beauty, but Alice and I never looked just on the outside. Rosalie is a very kind and caring person once you get around the tuff exterior she portrays. Rosalie knew that I would never be interested in Emmett, so she is right, she does know me better than myself sometimes.

I hadn't dated in well over a year and a half and I particularly didn't care. Life was simpler that way for the most part. I had my best friends who were always there for me. What more could a girl want.

As the work day came to a close, I dreaded going home. I wanted to get out of tonight but knew it wasn't going to happen. We were meeting at Alice's apartment at 9:00 pm, however, we all lived in the same building, but Alice didn't trust me to dress myself so I had to be there at 8:00 pm, just in case she didn't approve of how I looked. Yes, that's right, I was Alice's Bella Barbie doll. Like I said, there is no arguing with Alice.

I finally got home at around 5 pm and decided to put some laundry in the washer. The laundry room was downstairs on the lower level, so that is one of the few times I actually took the elevator. I put my laundry in the machine and walked back to the elevator. As the door was closing, I heard some yell, "can you hold the elevator for me?" I sighed and pushed the open button. As the man opened the door to get in, he smiled down at me and said thank you. I couldn't speak so I just smiled up at him and then dropped my head and looked at the floor.

This man was the most gorgeous creature I had ever seen. He must have been about six feet tall and he had bronze messy hair, and the most amazing green eyes I have ever seen. His smile took my breath away.

"What floor?" he asked, reaching over to push the elevator button.

"Two," I replied, still too embarrassed to look up.

He pushed the button and spoke again, "I'm on that floor too," he stated matter of factly. Again, all I could do was smile.

"Any plans for this weekend?"

"Um, well, I'm going out with my best friends tonight," I answered. "But right now I'm just doing laundry."

"Ahhh," was all he said.

Then the elevator reached our floor and he pushed the door open and gestured for me to go first. I looked up into the depths of his green eyes and smiled. "Thank you." As I walked out the door, then I dropped my head down again and began walking to my apartment. I wanted to look back to see which apartment he lived in but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

"Well have fun tonight," he said. Again, I just turned and smiled as he stood there. I hurried back to my apartment and shut the door quickly behind me.

About 40 minutes later I had to move my clothes from the washer to the dryer. As I walked into the laundry room, guess who was there. Mr. Green eyes himself! I casually walked over to the washer and opened up the nearest dryer. I began praying to myself, please don't let me drop my unmentionables over and over again.

Then I heard him speak in his velvety voice. "So we meet again." He gave me the most amazing smile.

But all I could muster was, "well, I had mentioned I was doing laundry." Why did I say that, I wanted to kick myself. As the words came out of my mouth his face got hard and his teeth clinched tight.

I began pulling out my clothes from the washer and shaking them out to loosen them from further wrinkles. As I did this, I looked down and noticed, yup, I dropped some unmentionables. I felt my cheeks heat up as I bent down to pick them up. I could hear him begin to chuckle. Why did he think that was funny, I wondered. And it made me angry. My head snapped up and I suppose the look on my face was not so nice because he got serious again. I finished moving my clothes over to the dryer and walked to the elevator. He was standing there waiting as well. I kept my head down the whole time. I felt like such a bad person, he was only being friendly and I was the one who snapped.

The elevator ride up was uncomfortable at the very least. I could hear him breathing, so I would glance up at him thru my long hair and noticed that he was glancing down at me from the corner of his eye as well. I got nervous and turned my head away quickly. Finally we reached our floor, but this time, he opened the door and walked right by me. I was trailing behind him and now I noticed what apartment he was in. He lived in one of the few two bedroom apartments in our building. As he walked in he turned around to shut the door, our eyes met and I froze, but then I heard my cell phone ringing, so I broke off from his gaze and grabbed my phone. And he shut the door, just about slamming shut.

Caller ID revealed who it was. "Hi Alice."

"Bella, are you getting ready? You know I don't have much time tonight."

"Alice, I've already showered and blow dried my hair straight," I replied as I opened my apartment door.

"Oh, Ok, be at my apartment at 7:30 pm instead Bella, I want to do your makeup tonight."

"Do I really have to go," I asked.

"Isabella Marie Swan," she yelled, "you are not getting out of going tonight. You need to get out a lot more than you do and we haven't pushed you at all about it. Please, Bella, I promise it will be fun. Plus I want you to meet my brothers. But I'll warn you now, Rosalie has already staked claim in Emmett," she chuckled.

"Fine," I spat out at her. "I'll see you at 7:30 then. Bye."

"Bye Bella, I promise it will be fun," and Alice hung up.

As I was waiting for my laundry to finish drying, I stood in my closet trying to figure out what I was going to wear. Alice, the little fashionista, that she was, always allowed me to 'attempt' to pick out my own clothes, but I knew her better than that. She would look me over from head to toe and shake her head as if saying 'tsk, tsk, tsk' and then just laugh. Even though Alice was only 5'1, that girl was not to be messed with. She was feisty and everyone was powerless when it came to what she wanted. I swear you would think she looked like a little pixie with her short black spikey hair and her gray eyes that dazzled you, very pale complexion and a fantastic fashion sense.

Alice was the closest thing I had to family. If it weren't for her, I don't know where I'd be today. She was my rock. She had been with me thru all my lowest points in my life and I knew that I could always count on her. Maybe that is why I could never deny her anything. She was a great friend, my best friend.

I ran down the stairs instead of taking the elevator to go get my laundry. I was hoping to avoid Mr. Green Eyes if at all possible. When I walked in, he wasn't there, and I let out a sigh of relief. I grabbed my laundry basket and began putting my clothes in it. My back was to the door so I hadn't noticed anyone walking in behind me. As usual, I wasn't paying attention either. I heard the voice chuckle and I quickly spun around. I glared at him, yes, Mr. Green Eyes. He looked at me and then looked down. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes for I knew what he was referring to. Of course, my unmentionables were on the floor, yet AGAIN! I let a deep sigh and I leaned down to pick them up and threw them in my basket. I went back to putting my clothes in there but this time making sure not to drop anything else. I walked out with my basket in my hand and my head down low from embarrassment.

I decided that I wasn't going to take the elevator up but carry the basket up the stairs instead. As I was exiting the stairwell and opening the door to the hall, he was right there. He started laughing again, he knew that I took the stairs to avoid him. I got angry from embarrassment yet again and I stormed off back to my apartment. I swear he laughed at me the whole way. Before I walked into my apartment, I glanced over toward his direction and he was just standing there laughing uncontrollably. I walked in and slammed my door. My cheeks were on fire. I thought to myself, that was real smooth Bella.

It was now about 7:00 pm and I was scrambling to figure out what I was going to pretend to wear tonight. There was no way Alice would allow me to wear anything I choose, so I gave up.

"Alice, I'm not going to stress over clothes that I know you are not going to let me wear. Will you just please come down here and pick out what I'm going to where."

"Bella, what is wrong? I've never seen you this frustrated before," Alice asked.

"Come down and I'll tell you," was all I could get out.

"I'm on my way," was her reply.

Alice walked into my apartment and found me sitting on the floor in my walk in closet with my knees up to my chest and my head resting on them.

"Bella, what is wrong? It can't be that wrong sweetie."

"Alice, I don't think I can go tonight."

"Why," she just about yelled at me.

"I'm not ready. It still hurts so much," was all I could reply.

"Aww, sweetie. You are going out with the girls, there is no pressure, I promise. My brothers will even protect you. They have already said that you are like a sister to them just from hearing all of our stories and adventures together."

"Alice, do they know?" I looked at her with tears welling up in my eyes.

"No Bella, I wouldn't do that to you," Alice whispered as she hugged me. "But can I ask you a favor?"

I nodded my head yes.

"Will you please, please, please consider taking the ring off? Even if it is just for tonight. You have that pretty heart shaped pink sapphire that you bought yourself and that would be ok to wear, but I don't think it's good for you to still be wearing your engagement ring, Bella. It's not healthy. It's been over a year and a half now."

The tears streamed down my face as she asked me to take off my ring. I knew she was right, there was a point in time that I should have taken it off already, but I just couldn't bring myself to doing it. I cried harder now.

"Just for tonight, Bella. We will do this one day at a time," as she hugged me tighter.

"I can try, but I can't promise it won't come back on at all tonight. I will take it with me though," as I cried.

Alice leaned back and looked at me. She shook her head and I knew what she was thinking, my make up was ruined. Not that I had much make up, but Alice would quickly change that anyways. She lifted me up and turned me into her Bella Barbie.

After about an hour and a half, she said, "You can look now."

As I turned around to face the mirror, I didn't recognize the person standing before me. She was gorgeous. I'm not saying I'm bad looking, but compared to Rosalie and Alice I was a wall flower, plain, with my medium length brown wavy hair and my dark brown eyes. There was nothing special about me. Alice had made my eyes smokey gray and curled my hair with tighter waves. Unfortunately the girl wanted to kill me because she put me in a black mid thigh skirt with a tight black and white stripped off the shoulder shirt. She was in my closet looking at my shoes and I swear I could hear her snickering. In the back of my closest she found my black knee high boots with abou inch heal.

"Really," I asked her.

She stood there shaking her head yes. Just then her phone rang, it was Jasper. She told him to bring everyone down here to meet us because she wasn't quite down with me yet. She put the finishing touches on me and I heard my door open and Rosalie saying, hello. I heard some male voices as well. I recognized Jasper's voice and then I heard another deeper voice.

Rosalie walked back to my room leaving the men in the leaving room. Jasper sat down and turned on the TV. I could hear someone asking who lived here and Jasper telling them that it was just me. The voice was surprised, as he stated that I had a lot of cool things for a chic.

"Wow, Bella, you look amazing," Rosalie commented. "Did you ask her Alice?"

"She said she'd try, but couldn't promise us anything," replied Alice.

Rosalie grabbed my hand and took me to the living room. I noticed there were only two men there, one of them being Jasper.

The guys stood up as we came out of the room.

"Bella, this is Emmett," Alice introduced us, "Emmett this is our Bella."

"Nice to meet you," as I extended my hand to shake his. Emmett wasn't having any of that. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into him giving me a giant bear hug. The room erupted into laughter.

"Bella, I feel like I already know you and love you like a sister," he stated.

Just then there was a knock on my door. I walked over to answer it, still laughing at Emmett's forwardness. As I pulled the door open, there was Mr. Green Eyes. My mouth dropped open. What was he doing here? Is he stalking me, or does he just need another good laugh? Whatever the case maybe, I was about to shut the door, when I heard Alice say, oh, there's my brother Edward.

As I heard her say his name, my head dropped down and I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. I didn't say anything but opened the door all the way and stepped aside pointing for him to come in. Alice noticed my sudden demeanor but ignored it.

"Edward, this is Bella," Alice began.

"We sort of already met," I said in a low voice. Everyone just looked at me with puzzled looks on their faces. Of course Edward didn't, he leaned his head back and began chuckling at me once again.

"Oh, we have been running into each other in the laundry room and elevator all afternoon," Edward explained as he kept laughing. "Alice from the way you speak about her, I would have never thought she was rude and cold. Your stories don't do her justice."

My head snapped up and my jaw clenched shut.

"Edward, that is not nice," Alice yelled.

"She's the one not friendly. I tried making small talk with her earlier but she wasn't having it."

"Excuse me," I said. "You were laughing at me each time I saw you."

"Well, you kept trying to show me your underwear," he stated a matter of factly. As he said that, everyone else started laughing.

I ran into my bedroom and jumped on the bed. Alice and Rosalie came after me.

"Alice, Rosalie, please go without me. I don't want to go," I said.

"Bella, my brother really isn't that mean. I don't know what happened earlier, but please, we've been planning this for forever now. I promise it will be fun. When is the last time we have gone dancing anyways?"

"I know, but I feel like an idiot," I choked out. Finally I agreed to go.

"Bella, the ring," Rosalie stood there with her hand holding my pretty heart shaped pink sapphire ring. I slid my engagement ring off and slid the sapphire on in place of it. I watched as Rosalie slipped it into her little clutch.

We walked out of the room back to the living room. I walked out last biting my lip and trying not to look at Edward at all. I could feel him staring at me now.

Emmett walked over to me and thru his muscular arm around my neck and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, "Don't worry about Eddie, I'll take care of him later." Then he looked at me and winked. I couldn't help but laugh at him as did everyone else.

Someone finally said that we should be heading out and we all agreed.