Author's Note: Okay so obviously nothing in this story ever happened. The only thing I kept was the names of the characters and the setting. But I hope you guys like it. Oh by the way anything in italics are Bella's thoughts. ***Special thanks to UnreliableVampire. She definitely helped when it came to getting out what I was trying to say…or not trying to say in some cases.

It was my 2nd summer in Forks and Edward Cullen and I were becoming real friends. We were friends last year, but now it was turning into more, so much more. We talked every day, all day. It was mostly by texting but that was okay with me, I was always better with speaking through the written word anyway.

I think people saw us becoming more than "just friends" be fore we did. Well, at least before I did. We were constantly together no matter what we were doing. Everyone was okay with it. That is, everyone except two people, Tanya and Jacobf. Tanya wasn't part of our group of friends but she was Edward's ex girlfriend and she seemed to think that I was invading her space by being friends with him. She seemed to forget that she was the one that had dumped him over a year ago and that she had broken his heart, not the other way around. Then there was Jacob. No one really knew what his issue was, no one except me. Anytime he saw us getting close, he tried to separate us. He didn't like the fact that we were becoming such amazing friends. It was almost as if he was jealous. Personally, I think he was the first to see what was forming between Edward and me and he didn't like it one bit.

Despite all of these obstacles, we continued to grow closer. I began to understand him in ways others couldn't and he started to understand me better than I understood myself. By the beginning of the 2nd month, I found that I had fallen in love with Edward Cullen. But I knew that he could never fall in love with me, Tanya had made that perfectly clear. I was positive that he wasn't over her yet; I didn't think he ever would be. He had been in love with her just like I was in love with him. That's what everyone kept telling me at least. I tried to hide the way I felt because I didn't want to confuse him. I was scared that if I showed him how I really felt, he would back away and walk out of my life, just like every other important person in my life had.

But then things changed. Things started to get more physical between us. I don't mean sexually but if we were to play a game or something with our friends, he would find some way to bump into me. I have to admit, I occasionally did the same thing.

I noticed the change at a pool party that we went to. Our friend Mike Newton was having a pool party for our group of friends. Our group was a very small one so there weren't that many people. Jacob, Alice, Rosalie, Mike, Jasper, Tyler, Eric, Jessica, Edward, and I were there. To say the least, our time in the pool got pretty…interesting.

The guys started playing a game with one of beach balls. The object of the game was to basically keep possession of the ball. I decided to join in because I was getting extremely bored just sitting on one of the steps. As soon as I got possession of the ball, Edward tackled me. He tried everything he could to pry the ball out of my hands but nothing worked. He was basically on top of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Jacob had picked up on this. He quickly came over to fix this "problem". He picked me up, with the ball still secured in my grasp, and threw me across the pool. He followed his throw.

"Was that honestly necessary?" I asked. I was pissed.

"Yes actually it was," he responded.

"Why?"

"Because you guys where getting to close. You shouldn't be that close to Edward."

"Oh really? Why not?" I asked, somewhat glad that me and Edward had made him jealous.

"Because," he growled under his breath, "you should be getting close to me."

"Ummm I don't think so. Get over yourself because I told you that it was over. You changed into an arrogant son of a bitch. There's no going back now," I said. By this point, the others were coming over to steal the ball from me and I willingly gave it up. Instead of playing, I sat on one of the steps in the pool. Edward soon joined me. Him and I were pretty close. Actually, scratch that. We were basically squished together even though there was enough room on the step for both of us and another person to fit comfortably. I was surprisingly okay with this. I'm the kind of person that gets very uncomfortable when pushed up against someone, whether I know the person well or not. Within a few minutes, however, Jacob felt the need to join us. He forced himself as close to me as possible and decided that it would be okay if he put his hand on my thigh. It was one of the most awkward and annoying things I have ever experienced. He kept trying to joke around but instead of finding him funny, I found him insanely obnoxious. At one point, I got so sick of him and his "jokes" that I got up and left. Edward didn't like that very much so he pushed Emmett off and called me back over. Edward and I were inseparable the rest of the night.

That summer was the happiest summer of my life. As a matter of fact, it was the happiest time of my life in general. I didn't have to pretend to be happy anymore and I didn't have to be someone I wasn't because I knew that everyone, especially Edward, accepted me. However, there were some confusing emotions. By the end of the last month of summer vacation, I felt like there was something more between Edward and me. I was extremely confused. Why would he flirt with me, at least I thought he was flirting with me, but not ask me out? I already knew the answer. I realized it one night in August.

It was a Saturday night and Forks was having it's annual End of the Summer Block Party. It wasn't really a block party because everyone in town went. It was held on the town common. Edward and I were with our group of friends when the queen bee came by. Yes, I'm talking about Tanya. She looked like a model and she watched everything Edward did. At one point she started to go up to him and I just walked away. I should have known things weren't over between them. There was no way that any guy would choose me over a girl that looked like that. She was drop dead gorgeous. She may have hated me and called me a slut when I was really a saint compared to her but I still envied her. I envied that she had everything I wanted in her grasp and I hated that she didn't appreciate it. She took everything for granted…including Edward. She really did have everything. She had the looks, the body, she had every guy after her, and most importantly, she had Edward. I know she had her fair share of problems, too, but I would have taken all of her problems times ten if I fcould have the one person that mattered.

I decided to walk away when she came over. I didn't want to cause any more problems between her and Edward than I already had. If she made him happy, then I could and would be okay with that, I wasn't going to get in the way.

After I saw her walk away I went back over and stood by Edward's side.

"Why did you go away?" he asked.

"I figured it would be smarter if I stayed away. I didn't want to cause any more problems between you guys."

"You don't have to go away when she's near me. Whatever she needs to say she can say it in front of you and everyone else, too."

My friends and I went over to Rosalie's house and sat on her front porch, out of the sudden rainstorm that we were in the midst of. Edward and I sat next to each other and eventually, because of the swarm of people, we were squished into each other. He didn't seem to mind. He actually tried to get closer to me even though it wasn't possible.

At about 9 o'clock, Edward and I left (he was driving me home that night). I had to be home by ten and because it was raining so hard we thought it would be good if we allotted ourselves extra time. At one point during or drive, he held onto my hand. It was as if someone had sent a shock through my body. I had tingles down my spine. Unfortunately, though, he let go of my hand after about a minute. The rest of the drive was pretty boring compared to that one moment.

As we got closer to my house I realized that I was hungry so we stopped at the Wendy's down the street. While we were there we joked around. It was nice. I liked it being just the two of us. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and then he dropped me off at home.

That night we had our first fight via text message…well, kind of. I asked the inevitable question: Are you over Tanya? He couldn't give me a straight answer. So then I asked the next question: Do you like me? At first he tried avoiding the question, then he finally said yes.

"Up until now I thought you were going to be the one I ended up with but now I'm not sure. Earlier you said that you thought she was just trying to make me jealous and maybe you were right. But now I don't know, maybe I'm not over her," he said. He sounded pained by this realization.

"That's okay. Go after her. I want you to be happy. If things don't work out I'll still be here. I always said that I would never be second best but if it means I get you then being second best is okay with me," I said.

"But that's not fair to you."

"Why not?"

"Because, I don't want you to have to wait around for me. I want you to be happy and if you find someone then I want you to be able to move on. It took me over a year to finally move on with my life. I don't want that to happen to you."

"Even if I wanted to let you go, I'm pretty sure I couldn't," I admitted.

Our conversation didn't last much after that. I was scared shitless. I had just gone out on a limb and jumped. I couldn't believe that I had basically just admitted to liking him. For the first time in years, I was vulnerable.