A/N

I know a few of you guys were wondering how often I would be updating. I have the first few chapters written already so for about a month or so I'll be updating every week. After that, though, I'll probably be updating every 1-3 weeks depending on how busy I am and when inspiration strikes.

P.S.

Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer & Twilight, but the storyline, dialogue, etc all belong to ME. NO STEALING PLEASE.

P.P.S.

Comments are GREATLY APPRECIATED. You guys are the only feedback I get so I'd like to hear what you guys think of the story.

P.P.P.S.

If you guys like my story, I would appreciate it if you would follow me on Wattpad as well. It's under the same username (RedRoseMafia73) and this story is there but with original character names.

Now that we got all that out of the way, ONWARD AND FORWARD WITH THE STORY :)

Chapter 2

The rest of the night I could feel him staring at me.

Even the couple times I looked in his direction, where most people would have diverted their gaze, his gaze was unrelenting. I shifted my body so my hair would curtain my face, but I couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling.

A few hours later, when everyone decided it was probably time to go to bed, I retreated to the bathroom to change into clothes more suitable for sleeping in.

After I was finished changing, I opened the door quickly. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. As I opened the door and took a step out the doorway, I ran straight into Edward. Surprised, I fell backwards but he wrapped his arms around me just in time to catch me. my hands were braced against his chest and it was at that moment that I realized he was shirtless, only wearing a pair of shorts.

I drew in a breath at our close proximity, and looked up into his eyes. His gaze drifted down my from my eyes to my lips and mine did the same to his.

I bit my lip as I remembered exactly what those lips were capable of.

I finally came to my senses when he slowly leaned his face closer to mine. I immediately pushed him backwards to free myself from his embrace. I couldn't help but stare his body, though, intrigued by the black lines contrasting boldly with his skin.

Yes, he had a tattoo. It was a series of lines that ran all up one arm and curled around his chest.

One day a few months ago he disappeared. Skipped school, didn't tell his parents, the whole bit. When he got home at three in the morning, his chest and one of his arms were covered with white bandages.

Apparently, (I wasn't there but this is all according to Alice) their parents had gone hysterical; their father, Carlisle, was a doctor at the local hospital and they were freaking out about how badly injured he was and why the hospital didn't call them.

But no, he wasn't injured.

He had been driving around with his idiot friends and had decided that it would be a good idea to get a tattoo, even though it was illegal at our age without a parent's consent.

His parents, needless to say, were pissed.

Here, now, with him shirtless, this was the first time I had gotten close enough to examine them. Oddly, I felt the urge to trace them with my hand. Involuntarily my arm started to raise up, before I came to my senses and snapped myself out of it, dragging my gaze from his body to his eyes.

My eyes got captured in his. They were such a pure and piercing green that I was stunned by their intensity. For once I actually saw what all the other girls saw. He was hot. God, did I just think that? What the hell was wrong with me?

"Did you even hear what I said?"

"What?" I blinked. "Yeah, of course. Sure, whatever." My mouth kept spitting out random words before I finally shut myself up.

"I said, take a picture. It'll last longer," he said, his eyes glowing with amusement.

"Why would I want a picture? Sorry to break it to you, but you are not that hot," I lied, unconvincingly even to my own ears. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't believe me either.

My eyes drifted back down to his chest one last time before I turned away and continue down the hallway to Alice's room.

"Last chance for a picture!" he called after me, laughing. Okay, that pissed me off. All the girly feelings that were inside me disappeared and I flicked him off over my shoulder as I kept walking.

"What was that about?" Alice asked, curious when I entered her room. Crap. I had been hoping she hadn't heard that.

"Nothing." I said as I sat down on the bed. She gave me a look that told me she didn't believe me. I knew she was going to want to keep talking about it so I said something that would make her want to drop the subject, too.

"What was your thing about? You know, earlier during Truth or Dare. Because you were acting really strange when you were asked who you last kissed." I looked at her pointedly.

"Nothing." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Really? Are you sure you don't want to talk about it for hours and hours? Because even if you don't want to talk about it because there is nothing to talk about, that is exactly what we will do."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Okay, point taken. We can drop the subject."

"Thank you," I said sweetly, letting my body fall back on the bed.

"G'night, Bella," Alice said, turning off the light.

"G'night, Alice."

Pretty soon I could hear her light snoring but I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about that almost-kiss with Edward in the hallway. Did he want to kiss me? Did I want him to want to kiss me? I was so confused my head hurt just thinking about it.

Thinking through it wasn't doing anything to clear my mind so I closed my eyes…

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When I woke up the next morning it was to a god-awful sound. I groaned, flipping my pillow out from under me and pulling it over my head to deafen the sound of the annoying music. I'd forgotten about Alice's stupid alarm.

A couple years back she had brilliant (note the sarcasm) idea to change her alarm clock from the ordinary beeping to a specific song and to place it on the other side of the room so that when it went off in the morning the annoying sound would make her get up, if nothing else but to turn it off. It had been a while since she had used it since it had been summer break, and I had totally forgotten about it. Until now. After a few minutes of listening to the incessant high pitched wailing of Justin Bieber, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Alice..." I mumbled into my pillow.

No answer.

"Alice, turn the damned thing off."

"Turn it off yourself! You'll have to get up eventually, Bella!" I heard from the hallway.

I reluctantly lifted my head from my pillow and glared at the doorway.

I dropped my head back to my pillow and groaned. Blindly, I felt around the nightstand, grabbed the nearest item I could find (which happened to be a hairbrush) and chucked it with impressive accuracy at the alarm clock. The hairbrush hit the alarm clock and it immediately shut up.

I breathed a sigh of a relief as I rested my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes.

"AND I WAS LIKE, BABY, BABY, BABY, OHHHH!"

I was going to kill Alice.

Eventually, I couldn't take the abuse to my ears and got up and turned it off.

Ugh. The first day of school. The awkwardest and most dreaded day of the year, at least for me. Who in their right mind looked forward to the beginning of a new school year? The idea of waking up at the butt crack of dawn every morning and going to a school with boring teachers who hate their jobs, dumb jocks who you wanted to high five in the face with a brick, and prissy popular girls who wore clothes five sizes too small was not appealing. It was probably worse than prison, so sue me if I didn't feel like going. Regardless of my own personal feelings, within an hour, I was ready to go.

I looked out the bedroom window, squinting at the usually-absent Washington sun. Edward had his and Alice's car waiting on the side of the road. I saw Alice walk out of the house and I immediately noticed that she'd curled her short black hair into perfect ringlets and she had gone all out; dress, heels, the works. I looked in the mirror at my own flat, brown hair, Supermario t-shirt, leggings, and converse. I sure as hell wasn't going to dress up today.

"C'mon, Princess, we don't have all day!" Edward yelled up at me.

"Stop calling me that!" I yelled back before backing away from the window and making my way down the stairs and through the front door. When they saw me, they entered the car and Edward started the engine.

"It took her that long to dress like that?" The way Edward said it made me think he was talking loud just so I could hear him through the windows. "No wonder she gets as much action as a white crayon."

I gasped. "Jackass!" His laughter echoed out the open windows.

I reached my hand towards the car door. My hand was millimeters away from the handle when the car jolted forward.

I gasped and jumped back in surprised and heard Edward's loud laugh coming from the open car window. I could see his face through the side mirror, throwing his head back and laughing his ass off. Yeah, let's all have a laugh at Bella's expense.

"Dammit, Edward!" I shouted.

I took a few steps forward to where the car was was now stopped. I cautiously raised my hand towards the door handle, wondering if he was going to drive forward again. When my hand was firmly around the handle, I finally relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to pull it open, the car lurched forward again, pulling me with it. I landed in a heap on the pavement.

"Bella!" Alice yelled. I could faintly hear the sound of a slap and a groan. "Edward, you're an ass," I heard her say. She unbuckled her seatbelt to get out to help me, but I had already gotten up. Brushing off the loose gravel from my clothes, I looked down at my palms which were red with a few scrapes.

Growling under my breath, I angrily started walking on the sidewalk in the direction of the high school. Who cares if it would take me five hours to get there? It was better than driving with Edward.

Instead of speeding off without me like I expected him to, Edward was inching the car along the road at my pace.

"Princess, get in the car."

I didn't even bother responding, I just kept walking.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? Just get in the damn car, we're going to be late"

That made me stop. Edward, apologizing? I turned my head to look at him. To my surprise, he actually had a sincere look on his face.

I was still skeptical and highly suspicious as I reached for the door handle. This time, the car stayed still long enough for me to get in.

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"I'm just waiting for the moment when you both realize you're perfect for each other. I mean, he's exactly your type and that kiss! Epic," Alice sighed dreamily as we walked through the parking lot. Edward was trailing behind us from a distance so he didn't hear what she was saying. I looked over my shoulder to make sure he was out of earshot before responding.

"Uh, no, it wasn't. And even if it was, he was a total ass this morning, negating all past epicness," I denied, running my fingers over my palms. "And what do you mean he's exactly my type?!"

She raised her eyebrows at me. "Really, Bella? Really? You can try to fool me, but you can't fool yourself. If you both just got over yourselves you would realize that-"

"La la la la!" I put my earbuds in my ears so she'd take a hint and not talk about it anymore. I was looking down at my phone when I rammed straight into a guy. At least, I assumed he was a guy, given his height and hardness of his chest. My head collided with his chest and, given that I was such a lightweight, I literally bounced off him, landing on my ass on the pavement.

I could literally feel the bruise forming on my tailbone. I really needed to stop running into people. A hand reached down and helped me up and I gratefully took it.

When I was back on my feet, I looked up at the guy's face and was pleasantly surprised at how hot he was. Dark brown hair that fell into his eyes, a defined nose and jawline and deep-set brown eyes. "I-I-I'm sorry, I-I wasn't looking where I was going-" I stuttered.

"No worries," he smiled, and his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"I'm Jake." he gave me a smile. He still hadn't let go of my hand.

"Bella," I smiled back.

"Well, see you around, Bella," he flashed me a smile as he walked away.

"He's hot," Alice whispered following him with her eyes as he walked away. "And definitely new. I'd remember seeing him before."

I stared after him with her. I would have remembered him too.

"Girls," Edward scoffed and pushed past me forcefully.

"Who put the stick up his ass?" I said to Alice under my breath.

She stifled a laugh as we walked into the school.