Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight I'd go on much longer shopping sprees, obviously be able to finish writing a novel and I'm not so sure I'd share Edward with anyone else. : )

Title: Running To You
Rating: M
Chapter: ?/?
Warnings: Strong Language.
Characters/Pairings: Edward/Bella, Canon pairings.

Genre: Romance/AU-AH
Fandom: Twilight
Summary: On her wedding day Bella Swan herself climbing out a window of the church, running to her best friends' childhood home, jumping in her old Chevy and driving as fast as humanly possible into the arms of her best friend Edward Cullen, who couldn't bring himself to go to the wedding of his best friend, who also happens to be the love of his life. As Bella "hides out" (because who can really do anything in secret in a town like Forks?) in Edwards house will all their secrets from the past come out into the open? And will the close quarters make repressing their love for one another impossible or will it drive them apart for good?

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters or plots are property of Stephanie Meyer.

Chapter One-

I stared down at the piece of paper in my hands; the dark cursive lettering scrawling across the thick cardstock. I'd read it enough times that I knew the words on it by heart and yet still I felt my eyes scanning across the words that were now stamped into my brain.

Please join us this

25th day of July

At ten fifteen in the morning

For the wedding of

Miss Isabella Swan

And

Mr. Jacob Black

There was another page giving details with the address of the church, and the reception, but still all I did was stare. My eyes were drawn to her name, "Miss Bella Swan" it seemed wrong paired up with his; as though they just didn't belong together. My throat closed and a wave of nausea rolled over me. It was already ten o'clock and I was supposed to be at that church getting ready to stand up there with the wedding party and watch my best friend, a girl I'd grown up with and eventually fallen in love with. My entire family was there, I knew they were.

My little sister Alice had practically planned the entire wedding (or so I'd heard) and my older brother Emmett would never miss the wedding of the little girl who he'd thought of as his own little sister for the better part of his life. Rosalie, Emmet's girlfriend who had moved here with her twin brother and Alice's serious boyfriend Jasper when we were all in middle school, and Jasper where there too; both in the bridal party. From what I'd heard from Alice, which was more than I'd wanted because that little pixie doesn't seem to know when to keep her mouth shut, my father was going to be taking the place in walking her down the aisle since her father died six years ago and my mother would be sitting front row center, probably crying her eyes out. She thought of Bella as her own; having basically taken over the role of her mother after Renee ran off when she was four because she saw that Charlie was completely over his head trying to raise a little girl all on his own.

Yet still as the clock got closer and closer to ten fifteen all I could do was picture her face. Her beautiful face. I hated the fact that my skipping out on her wedding had probably disappointed her, and I knew I'd get an earful from Alice later, but I couldn't stand there and watch as she vowed to give her life to another man while my heart was breaking just thinking about it. It wasn't fair to her. She didn't even know how I felt; how I've always felt.

We only had one night, and I hated myself even for that because as much as I loved it, and god did I love it, I practically used her weakness after her father's death as a way of getting in her pants. It was only one night. It was a precious night, the first time for both of us, but it meant something so different to her than it did to me. To her she was scared and lost and grasping at straws to try and find somebody to comfort her because her father had just died and her mother had abandoned her and she felt alone and she didn't know who else to come to but to me…to me it was everything. It was the moon and the stars and the memory of it, not even the actual sex but just the memory of holding her all night as she slept was enough to give me a reason to live. It gave me hope. Ridiculous hope, especially now, today as she gets ready to marry another man, but it gave me the hope that maybe one day we would be together.

Sure I'd dated other girls, but even then it was always just to try to find someone to occupy my mind while I waited for the day when hopefully we would be together. It was always a ridiculous fantasy, but that never kept me from imagining. I would go on dates and without even trying or thinking about it I'd automatically compare the girl to Bella. One girl wouldn't be good enough because she didn't know enough about books, or another because she had absolutely no clue who Debussy was. There was a period when I tried to convince myself that the feelings I had for her weren't real, mostly when I was in college. But when I'd finally truly come to accept them she had started dating an asshole named James. I still hate myself for what I did back then. That was probably one of the times when she needed me the most but instead of being there for her I pulled away. I started going to parties and bars and getting drunk, going home with girls who meant nothing to me and having meaningless hook-ups and late night booty calls.

It went on like this for too long; a little more than a year and a half which was the entire duration of their relationship. We were hardly speaking at the time, mostly because I'd pulled away because being around her when she was with him or hearing her voice or even thinking about her hurt. I spent my time doing school work or drinking at parties, hooking up with girls or moping alone. Those where my four modes. There was nothing else to my; nothing else to my life until one night it was after one in the morning and I'd just stumbled in from some frat party with a pretty brunette and I was just drunk enough that if I closed my eyes I could almost imagine it was Bella but at the same time I wasn't too drunk that I had to worry about any slip ups in the name department or anything like that. We were kissing rather excitedly on the couch and things were going rather well when I heard my phone going off. Normally I would ignore my phone when I was with a girl, which is exactly what this girl urged me to do as she pushed me back into the couch again kissing me harder, obviously trying to probe she was the better choice than the phone. But it was the song that was coming from my pants pocket, "'Round Here" by Counting Crows that really caught my attention. That song only played when one person was calling and if she was calling than I would pick her over some random girl from a party any day. I pushed the girl off me and cursed under my breath as I heard the last couple lines starting to play. I finally pulled it out in my drunken stupor before flipping it open, "Hello?"

I would've thought I'd missed the call if it wasn't for the sound of sniffling on the other end of the line, "Edward?" Her voice broke as she said my name and I could tell she'd been crying and my heart wrenched for her. Why was my beautiful Bell crying? What on earth had done this to her?

"Bella? Sweetie what's wrong?" I cursed inwardly as the term of endearment that slipped out. We had barely spoken in months and here she was calling distressed and I was trying to pick up right where we left off. She either didn't notice me calling her 'sweetie' or she didn't care because if she dwelled on it, it wasn't outwardly.

"Edward I'm so sorry. I didn't know…who else to call." She was obviously trying to calm herself down in between her breaths but I just sat there waiting for her to keeping talking.

When she didn't say anything else and when I couldn't stand the silence and worse yet, the sound of her sobbing, I finally broke down and asked her, "Bella what happened?"

"James. He…he hi-hit me. I burnt dinner b-by accident and he fr-freaked out and lost it and sla-slapped me across the face. I didn't know wh-what to do so once he calmed down I ju-just fixed dinner and we ate. I was gon-gonna leave once he fell asleep but then he…oh god Edward." She started sobbing harder again and I felt like he could cry too.

"Bella are you okay?" That was the only thing that was important to me. The love of my life had to be okay and if she was okay than we would figure the rest out.

"Yeah," she sobbed quietly and I thought that was all I was going to get out of her but then she started speaking again, "He tried to fo-orce himself on me Edward. Told me I was a tease and a wh-whore and that he was going to take what he'd earned and put me in my place once and for all."

I felt shock and anger roll over me. I didn't know where the self control that was holding me to the couch and stopping me from going to kill James was coming from, "But…but you said you were okay right?"

"Yeah…I kneed him in the crotch and I ran like hell out of the apartment."

"Where are you now?"

"Sitting in the diner." I didn't need to ask which diner, there weren't very many in the area and I knew exactly which one she would go to, especially if she was calling me for help.

Without thinking I stood and grabbed my coat, "I'll be there in ten minutes, don't move and order us a basket of fries and a milkshake to split."

I'd always been a fast driver but I don't think I've ever gotten to that diner so quickly and what I found there would haunt me for a long time afterwards. There sitting in the back booth that we always occupied shaking as tears continued to fall down her face was Bella, tear streaked and with an obvious red mark in the shape of a hand on her cheek. Without thinking I slid into the booth next to her and scooped her into my arms, telling her that everything would be okay and trying to comfort her. I knew it would take a lot more than a few reassuring words and a hug to make everything better but I also knew that this was what it would take to put her on the road to getting there. We called the police from the diner and Bella filed a report of "Domestic Abuse" and by the time the police were pulling away Bella was crying again.

I can still remember the look on her face like it was yesterday as she'd turned to me, shocked and scared, "I can't go home. I don't want to go home. I need a new place to live." She was pulling out her cell phone mumbling something about Alice and I swear I even heard my mom's name pop up when I finally put my hand up to stop her, "Bella calm down."

"What do you mean 'Calm down'?" She looked at me like I was insane, "I can't just calm down. I have nowhere to live. I can't go home and honestly even if I could I don't think I'd want to go back there with the memories plus the fact that the cops don't have him yet so who knows if he could turn up again…"

She trailed off as if lost in thought and it wasn't until I was completely sure she was finished speaking that I finally looked her in the eye and started talking, "What I mean by 'calm down'," I mocked her by mimicking her air quotes, "Is that you don't need to freak out about trying to find somewhere to stay. You already have somewhere to stay you silly girl. I have a spare bedroom for a reason. There's plenty of space in my apartment and honestly Bells…I've missed you."

By the time I was finishing my speech she was blushing lightly but she looked up at me with a small smile on her face so I figured that it was good rather than bad, "You have?" I couldn't believe she even had to question it. Hadn't she missed me?

"Of course…"

I was suddenly pulled out of my thoughts by a loud pounding on the door to my house. At first I ignored it. My phone had been ringing for the past hour and a half. It started with my sister, most likely once she realized that I really wasn't going to show up at the wedding, and then little by little the phone calls started increasing; not only from Alice but Rosalie and Emmett, Jasper and even my mother calling my cell phone and my house phone, sending texts and even e-mails from their phones, basically anything they could do to try and contact me. My father was the only one who had left me in peace.

The pounding on my door started again and I couldn't help but assume that it was Emmett and Jasper sent on some mission by their significant others to drag me to the wedding whether it was kicking and screaming or not. It wasn't until I heard a soft voice calling me through the door that I realized just how wrong I was.

"Edward?" I thought I was imagining things, but I got up and started making my way to the door because even if I was; even if I was completely insane, I had to find out, because if there was a chance that Bella…my Bella was standing behind that door, and not marrying another man than I had to know.

I didn't think twice before throwing open the door to find the most beautiful girl in the world, a veil attached to her chestnut curls, her make-up obviously done by my sister, "Bella…" Her name fell off my lips without my thinking as I took in the sight of her beautiful face.

Tears streaked down her cheeks and she rushed towards me, wrapping her arms around my waist as she started speaking a mile a minute, "I need somewhere to stay. I couldn't marry him Edward. I just couldn't, and I really need my best friend…"

A/N- Okay so I'm starting my second story but don't worry I'm still working on My Knight Drives a Volvo. I actually have two or three more ideas that I'm gonna start writing too. The more popular one are the ones I'm going to try and focus on but I'm sure I'll probably play favorites. This is going to switch around POV's because I figured since I'm writing MKDAV in 3rd Person I could get some practice at 1st Person with this story. Let me know what you think PLEASE! : )