Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer

This was my entry to the A Picture Says It All contest.

It's Friday night and my room is clean and in perfect order. This is the third Friday in a row that it's been like this. It feels foreign. Fridays nights are supposed to be about movies, sugary snacks and forts made out of blankets and sheets. And Edward.

Edward and I have been best friends since kindergarten. We would always spend the afternoons doing homework and coloring at his house until my mother got out of work and came to take me home. When we were in third grade and our mothers agreed that we were both old enough for overnight visits, our Friday tradition began.

We alternated houses every other Friday but it was always the same routine. We spent the afternoon building an epic fort out of sheets and blankets, tucking the edges into bureau drawers and draping the sides over chairs, the bed and desk, holding it in place with heavy books or toys. When the fort was complete we would fill it with our sleeping bags and every pillow we could find before racing downstairs to gather more food than we could possibly eat.

Our Friday sleepovers had been a constant, it had always been a night for just the two of us. No matter what chaos was going on in our families or at school, Friday was our night to just be.

Except for the past three weeks. Edward left for Stanford and I decided to stay home for a year to help my mother with the baby. I remember when I found out that she and Phil had decided to try to have a baby. It was Edward who was there to share my joy when I was so happy at the prospect of having a younger sibling.

Edward was always there for me, just as I was always there for him. He was there when my father, the Forks Chief of Police, was killed while responding to a convenience store hold up when we were nine. He was there three years later when my mother told me that she had met someone and really liked him; when I was so angry that she was interested in someone other than my father that I refused to speak to anyone but Edward. And he was there when I finally accepted that Phil was a good man and made my mother smile more than she had in years.

Now that he was gone I felt so alone every Friday night. Sure, he isn't gone forever, but sixteen hours is a much longer drive than the five minutes it would take me to walk to his house. He'll be back for a few days in November and we'll spend a night building forts again. But three months is a long wait.

So as I sit in my room alone for the third week in a row, the blankets and sheets neatly folded and on their shelf in the closet, I think back on all the firsts that happened on this night.

When Edward and I were eight, we both came down with the flu. Though we were throwing up every hour like clockwork, we refused to give up our Friday night. We spent that night lying on his living room floor, each with a bucket in case we couldn't make it to the bathroom in time. That was also the first - and only - night we didn't build a fort.

The first time either of us saw a scary movie was on one of our Fridays spent in Edward's room. We were both ten and his older brother Emmett had convinced us to watch what he claimed was the best horror movie ever made, the classic Psycho. Now I can watch the movie without being too scared but at the age of ten, both of us were too scared to go to sleep that night and our parents had to bribe us into showering for the next three weeks.

Then there was the night a couple years later when we went into Emmett's room looking for a video game to play and instead found some rather interesting magazines under his bed and curiosity got the best of us as we ran back across the hall with them. We spent that night on opposite ends of our fort awkwardly flipping through pages filled with people doing things both of us claimed to be thoroughly grossed out by.

When we were fourteen, after hearing other kids at school tease us about being in "love" for as long as either of us could remember, we decided to see if there was anything there. So we kissed. He looked at me and said, "Nope. Nothing. Not even a little bit of that spark they always talk about in those mushy chick-flicks Alice always watches. You? " I shook my head, kind of wishing that there had been a spark.

That night had been the turning point. After that -for some reason I never could explain- I started to look at Edward differently. I knew it was silly, we were best friends, there was no spark, and it was obvious he didn't like me as anything more than a friend, but I couldn't help it.

Eventually there came a time when we actually addressed the unspoken agreement that Friday's were ours. A girl in our class -Jessica Stanley- had come over to our lab table asked Edward to go see a movie with her, on Friday night. When the teacher walked in the room, Edward smiled and told her he'd call her that night about it and Jessica went to her own table and sat down.

Stubbornly, I avoided Edward for three days. Friday afternoon came and I curled up into a ball on the old couch in the family room, fully prepared to spend my Friday alone for the first time since I was eight. I was halfway through one of those badly acted Lifetime movies and almost to the bottom of the Chunky Monkey ice cream carton, when Edward walked into the room with his old, lumpy plaid sleeping bag under one arm and gave me a questioning look.

"I thought you were going to see a movie with Jessica tonight," I said, frowning.

He plopped down on the couch next to me. "Well, if you'd listened to me any time I tried to talk to you this week instead of stomping away and ignoring me, you'd know that I called her that night and told her that I would rather go on Saturday, because Fridays are our nights."

"Oh," I said dumbly. Edward laughed and reached across me to grab the remote off the arm of the couch. He turned off the TV and looked at me judgingly.

"I thought you said that those shitty TV movies were only for lonely chicks with nothing better to do on a Friday night, and yet here you sit watching one… Ha! Did you really think I'd stand you up? This is our tradition, no girl will ever get in the way of that. And if any idiot boy ever tries to keep you away from me on a Friday I will chase him down and make him-" Edward paused, obviously not having thought this far ahead, "- do something horrible."

"Yeah, okay. Adorably sweet Edward is totally going to intimidate someone. I'll believe it when I see it."

"Shut up, Bella. Newton is afraid of me."

"Uh, Newton is afraid of kittens, Edward," I laughed.

"Whatever. I'd figure out some way to scare the guy." He looked at me like he was trying to convince me that it was totally believable for him to scare anybody.

"Anyway, moving on from you trying to convince me you're scary. …Are you excited for your date with the amazingly gorgeous Jessica Stanley tomorrow night?" The sarcasm was obvious, but I did my best to give Edward my most serious face.

"What's there to be excited about? It's just a movie. Even though when I called to tell her I was spending tonight at your house, she did seem kind of upset." He looked genuinely confused.

"Hm, you really don't get it? She's a girl who for some unknown reason likes to enough that she asked you out. Then you call her and tell her that you can't go out with her that night because you are sleeping over at another girl's house and that you'd rather go out the next night. Can you see any reason why that might upset her? At all?"

"Yeah, I guess it is kind of weird." H paused before changing the subject. "Anyway, I brought a movie and some of your favorite ice cream - but it looks like you've already had enough for the night" He scrunched his nose, making a face at me.

"Well, that ice cream was eaten in mourning over losing our Friday night to that girl. But the ice cream you brought will be eaten in joy of you actually not blowing me off." I grabbed for the plastic bag he's set behind him.

"Nice, now she's just that girl to you? I think I may have to eat the ice cream just because you had to be rude."

Our teasing continued for a while before we finally made our way upstairs to build the fort and watch the movie he brought over. Despite the afternoon's not so great start, the night turned out to be great, especially after clarifying that Fridays were ours, and no dates would ever get in the way of that.

The next night Edward went on his date with Jessica. He called me afterward, telling me he was pretty sure she was certifiably crazy.

As Edward continued to go out with different girls, he mocked my lack of dates. It was one Friday morning when Mike Newton approached me between classes and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner with him that Saturday night. He was quite pitiful, bright red cheeks, wringing his hands, half mumbling through everything he said; I had to fight not to laugh. I could hear Edward behind me, saying to Emmett, "Damn, I keep telling her she needs to finally go out with someone but she says she's waiting for the right guy. Guess she was right, here comes prince charming to sweep her off her feet." he snickered, knowing I could hear him.

So I did the only thing I could think of to get at him - though I now admit it probably wasn't the smartest decision - I said yes to dinner with Mike.

When I got to Edward's house that evening, Alice was the one who opened the door. I smiled and gave her a quick hug, "Hey, Alice. What's up?"

She looked at me seriously, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows furrowing the slightest bit. "Edward told me what happened. I'm so sorry for you. If there's anything that I can do to help - anything at all- just let me know. I'm here for you. Always."

Alice looked so genuinely concerned that it confused me. She was never not smiling and inexplicably bubbly. "Alice? What are you talking about? You're talking to me like someone just died. What don't I know?"

Alice burst out laughing, trying several times to say something before bursting out again with laughter. I looked at her sternly. "Seriously, Alice. What the hell?"

She finally stopped laughing long enough to get out, "You agreed to go out with Newton. Your dignity is what died, Bella. Seriously. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that you and your brothers have ragged on me enough for never going out with anyone. Newton is nice enough. It's not like I agreed to marry him."

I moved to sit down at the table in the kitchen and Alice brought us a bowl of grapes for us to snack on before sitting down in the chair across from me. "Oh, but you might has well have. You know as well as everyone else that he's had a creepy, almost stalker-like crush on you since fourth grade. Now you've given him hope, and he'll never go away. Like a stray cat after you feed it once. Which is funny because he's afraid of kittens," Alice said.

"I never did know why he was afraid of kittens. I mean, really? Kittens?" my eyebrows raised incredulously.

"You don't remember? First grade? When the lady from the animal shelter came in to talk to us about the importance of adopting animals from the shelter," Alice imitated the way the lady had talked to us children like we were babies and I giggled. "Well, Mike went up to the kitty carrier she brought with her and opened it to take the kitten out. Poor little thing was scared and launched itself claws-first at Mike's face. He's been terrified of the cute fuzzy things ever sine then."

"Oh, I remember now. I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. The lady explained to the whole class that it only jumped at him because it was scared of the new place and the unfamiliar people." I shrugged.

"Eh, but Mike never has been the most rational person."

I laughed, "This is true."

After spending half the night listening to Edward rag on me for agreeing to go on a date with Mike, and the other half listening to him laugh about it, I finally was able to get him to be quiet long enough for me to fall asleep. My dream was of Mike walking down the street, attracting every cat in the neighborhood like a magnet, and when he reached the end of the street all the cats leaped at him simultaneously, claws out. I woke up rolling with laughter.

The date with Mike turned out to be the first of more than a few horrible dates, most of them with guys Alice set me up with claiming that they were "perfect" for me. She was eventually fired from the position of matchmaker.

Months later, a Friday came where Edward came over to my house early and told me he had something important to say. "I met girl. Well, one I really like. We've gone out a few times and I really, really like her."

"Wait. Are you talking about Tanya?" I asked and he nodded. "Well, that's great! She's really nice!" I may have put a little to much false enthusiasm into that statement judging by the look I received from Edward. "No, I mean it, she's great. I'm glad you finally found someone who could put up with you for more than three dates. Are you gonna ask her to be your girlfriend?" I asked in a sing-song voice.

"What? You make it sound like we're in fifth grade and not seniors. But, yeah, something along those lines. In a way that won't make me sound like an idiot."

And that - Edward officially confirming his relationship status with Tanya - was the end of any chance I had of even thinking about being with him the way I had wanted since our kiss four years before.

They applied for Stanford together and both of them were accepted. Edward was so excited that I couldn't even find it in me to feel anything but happiness for them. He couldn't wait to get there, they had rented an apartment together and he was looking forward to being able to spend all of his time with her.

It's finally November and I'm anxious to see Edward this evening. He hasn't called me in almost three weeks, and I know there has to be a good reason for that.

When he walks in the front door, letting in a chilling wind, Edward's face is as cold as the temperature outside. His face is a mix of emotions: anger, surrender, stress, and pure misery.

He yanks his coat off, throwing it on the floor, before running to me and pulling me into his arms. As I rest my forehead on his chest, I feel the tension that held his entire body rigid leave him in a heavy sigh. He relaxes against me and I wrap my arms around him, hugging him back.

We stand in the front hall in each others' arms forever before I finally pull away and look up at his face. His eyes are bloodshot, his forehead is creased and there are dark circles under his eyes. I lead him into the family room and we sit down on the old couch. "Alright. What's wrong? Last time I saw you, you were ecstatic. You haven't called me in three weeks and now you show up looking like death."

"Tanya," he almost whispers the word.

"Is she okay?" She couldn't be sick or dead, surely I would have heard something from someone; it's a small town, everyone knows each other's business.

"Hah. She's fine. About two months ago I started hinting to her about wanting to propose. Once she got what I was hinting at, she started acting all weird. I thought it was just… I don't know, fear of commitment or something. Three weeks ago I walked in on the reason why she was all freaked out." Edward looks down at his hands clasped in his lap.

"Well?" I ask impatiently, already guessing at what he walked in on but hoping for his sake it wasn't true.

"She was in our bed. With her professor. They were- He was- Damnit, you know what I mean." his hands clench in to fists.

"That whore!" Edward's head snaps up and a small smile creeps onto his face.

"I only wondered if she was doing it for extra credit or if deep down, she had a thing for old, smelly guys."

"Doesn't matter, Edward. She's a bitch for doing that to you. I never did like her."

"Really? You were always so nice to her and you were always telling me how happy you were that we were together."

"Lies." I look down, my cheeks turning bright red at this almost-confession of how I really feel about him.

"Huh. Guess I should have believed Alice after all." He grins at me.

I look up, confused about what Alice has to do with any of this.

"She was always telling me how you never liked Tanya, because you'd had a gigantic crush on me forever." He looks at me, his eyes asking what his voice didn't: Is it true?

I can't find my voice, so I just nod my head and my cheeks burn again with the embarrassment at finally admitting this to him.

"Since when?" Edward asks, his voice low.

"When we kissed." I say in a small voice.

"Oh, really? So you lied about not feeling any sparks?" he raises his eyebrows.

"No, not really. There wasn't a spark. I just really wished - wish - there had been." My eyes drop to hide my embarrassment.

"I kind of did - do - too. Especially now. I was thinking about it on my way up here. Who's been there for me through everything? Good and bad? Who's my best friend? Who was my first real friend? Not Tanya, not anyone else I've ever dated. You. All you. And I wonder - if after almost five years - maybe there is a spark. Maybe I had more things to go through before I realized that I belonged with you - as more than just a friend. Maybe I needed to go through other relationships, meet other people, so I would be able to know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that it's you. It's always been you and always will be you."

I finally raise my eyes to look at his, and I realize that I'm crying. I smile at him.

"You have no idea how many times I practiced that little speech on my trip up here. I just wanted it to be perfect. Because, Bella, I love you. And I fell like an idiot for taking this long to realize it."

"I love you, too, Edward."

He leans over and presses his lips to mine. As I feel the warmth of his mouth on mine, the heat spreading to every part of my body, the fireworks finally going off, everything feels right, perfect, meant to be.

Of all our Fridays over the years, this will be the one that I'll remember above all the others.