Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not convinced? Go grab your nearest copy of Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse.

A/N: Since some people seem to show an interest in it, I'll continue :) Presenting...Chapter two!! As always, happy reading...

Two: Impressions

"So, how's it like being the famous Mary Alice's stepbrother? A dream? A pain?" I asked Edward many teacups and drinks later.

Alice pinched my arm, but I chose to ignore her. Her arms and the upper half of her body were wrapped in blue streamers. Confetti was sprinkled over her hair. To me, and everybody else for that matter, she resembled a mummy mummified in the year 2008. She was also what was left of the partying—which was a success, by the way. A "successful mess" as Rosalie declared once the guests had left the café grounds.

Indeed. Now we were left to cleaning up spilled food, drinks, and other miscellaneous objects.

It wasn't so bad. It was actually pretty fun. Alice had caught Anderson furtively pocketing someone's wallet and cell phone (two of the many dropped objects), and delivered a beautiful, sound thwack to the back of his head with her broom. Ben Cheney, the other new recruit, had made progress with Angela. They were now on the other side of the café, gazing into each other's eyes and conversing in low voices. Noticing them, Jasper had sworn this place was infested with aphrodisiac-inducing mold.

No one bothered to refute it.

"A little bit of both." Edward chuckled as his sister scowled. "At least I never walk out of the house badly dressed." He was right; walking out with clothes straight out of a JCrew catalogue was certainly not badly dressed.

Alice scoffed, squinting into her coke. "You never were badly dressed in the first place, thank god."

"No, I suppose not."

"It's funny. How come I don't remember you at all from grade school?" I sat back, ignoring the way my heart skipped a beat when his green eyes met mine.

"Do you remember people in the grades ahead of you?"

I smiled sheepishly. "No." My mind cleared. "I never did associate with the older grades."

"Ha, Bella never associated with people period!" Alice waved her hands dramatically and proceeded to regale him with tales of misdeeds I'd forgotten. Or wished to forget. Meanwhile, I ran a finger around my glass, thinking about how Edward and Alice's parents came together.

It was surprisingly ordinary—no fireworks, no bells, no big, blaring neon sign indicating who you should be with. Also, it was, unbelievably, a coincidence. They just happened to have met on a local street deli and from there, as they say, it was history.

And I was happy for Mrs. Brandon; back when her parents were undergoing their rocky divorce, Alice would call me in the middle of the night to talk, joke around a little, discuss and debate. Sometimes she sobbed about how she'd find her mother sitting in the kitchen with a lost look on her face whenever the front door slammed shut, signaling Mr. Brandon's exit. "She loved him, Bella," she'd whisper, her voice muffled in the phone. "She really did love my father." More often than not, I'd worried for Alice's ability to move on from that, if she'd be as open-hearted as she used to be.

I watched as Edward and Alice shared a laugh, feeling a smile lightly touch my lips.

My worrying was all for naught. My best friend was practically filled with sunshine.

"Anyone want any more drinks?" Alice asked, touching my arm as she hopped down from her barstool. Edward shook his head no. "Bella?"

I nodded as she ambled off. Jasper met her halfway, encircling her waist with his arms.

"So." Edward caught my eyes with his and leaned forward on the table. "Alone at last."

O) - O) - O)

Edward POV

I don't believe I've ever met anyone with eyes like Bella Swan.

Sure, there's the generic brown-eyed girl—common enough in this world. But Bella, for certain, wasn't generic. Call me insane and send for the cops, but in my gut, I knew it was true, even if my mind wasn't quite ready to accept something entirely irrational. Hell, rational was for work and medicine. This…well, I wasn't sure what this meeting was, but it certainly didn't deal with getting my degree. At least, I didn't think so.

No, don't, I begged silently when Bella broke her gaze and instead looked down into her glass.

"Um, my cousin never told me you knew each other," she commented, glancing briefly up at me.

Didn't he? "Well, he probably didn't consider it very important. After all, how much help could I possibly be?" I turned my palms upward in supplication, earning myself a laugh.

"No help whatsoever."

"That hurts." I grinned anyway.

"You really want to know what should hurt?"

All I knew was that I didn't want her hurt. "What?"

"Alice in baseball." She looked up with a smile, and I noticed that she was far more relaxed now than before. "And you when you take her shopping."

"No, not me," I countered. "That's Jasper you're talking about."

"No, that girl has a hit list." She smirked.

"Wish me luck, then?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass."

I laughed, leaning back against my seat and shaking my head. I could see why Alice chose Bella for her best friend. "What are you majoring in?" I asked, changing subject.

"English Lit. What about you?"

"Medicine, but I'm still thinking about what to specialize in."

"A doctor then?" She smiled. "When you get your license, give me your card—my family doctor is getting tired of me showing up so often."

I snorted back a laugh as she rolled her eyes. "I see."

"Do you really?" she asked dryly.

"Believe me, Bella"—beautiful name—"a girl like you would be a given danger magnet."

Her brow pleated slightly as she crossed her arms. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," I said nonchalantly.

"Uh-huh. And I'm not sitting here talking to a guy I barely know," she sniffed sarcastically. "Who, furthermore, claims to be Alice's brother."

"Okay then, I won't claim to be anything." I smiled at her.

She stared for a second. "So…what are you?"

That was unexpected. I frowned slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"What. Are. You. Are you a ghost, a fish, a fairy—what are you?"

I sighed, pressing my fingers to my temples. "I'm annoyed," I muttered. "And have absolutely no clue what convoluted logic you're using." Nevertheless…it was mildly intriguing.

"Oh, you don't need to know."

"I'm not a fairy," I told her after a beat. She laughed, drawing my attention to the sound.

"No," she conceded, still chortling. "No, you aren't. A ghost?"

I rolled my eyes at her, suppressing a smile. "Please, Bella. Can't you come up with something original?"

"A vampire?" I could sense a theme going. Next, she'd suggest that I was an alien.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Her eyes widened as her hands came up to clutch her throat. I gave it up, a smile making its way slowly across my face. "I'll take that as a yes."

Bella dropped the act and gave me a cool stare. "And if I came at you with a gun and silver bullets—you'd take that as a yes, too, wouldn't you?"

I pretended to consider it, leaning back against my chair and looking up at the ceiling. "Well...yeah."

"Don't ever call me crazy."

She was mistaken; that title belonged to me. However, she could easily win the name of "Irrational".

"I won't." I paused, and offered a slight grin. "Are you sure you don't recall even the most trivial of events from junior high?"

Her face became abruptly concentrated. "I remember getting hit on the back of the head with a football."

I couldn't stop myself from bursting out laughing at that memory. And the funniest part of it was that it actually was amazingly trivial. Catching the wary look on her face, I eventually managed to control myself. Bella sighed. "Ever think that I might have thrown that football?" I asked her.

"You're impossible," she muttered. I chuckled, impulsively reaching forward for her hand. She caught the motion and looked away, avoiding my eye. Too late, I pulled back, staring at the empty soda can and regretting the action. What was wrong with me?

Is getting to know my sister's best friend wrong? I argued with myself. I conceded that there was nothing wrong with it.

So why did I feel as though she thought it was a bad idea? Maybe Alice had…no, she wouldn't do such a thing as that.

O) - O) - O) -

Bella POV

Idiot, I berated myself. Idiot for thinking…no, don't even think about what you think you're thinking about!

And as if things couldn't get any worse, I felt the early symptoms of a blush. I ducked my head away, scanning for Alice and the drinks. She was just coming out of the back room, angling towards the food table. Nearby, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie were seated, laughing at something Emmett had said, by the looks of it.

"Excuse me," I murmured politely, rising from my seat.

He nodded, standing as well and stuffing his hands in his pockets. "No, it's fine. I'm leaving anyway."

"Al—" I stopped myself from saying "already?" which sounded pathetic in itself. For heaven's sake, it was eleven o'clock at night. The guy probably needed to study or something. I knew I was making excuses (some for myself, even though I didn't want to admit it), but still…

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Alice first?" I asked instead.

He flashed me a smile. "I'm sure you could tell her."

"Yeah." I sat back down again facing the opposite chair, listening to Edward call a final joke to Emmett and bid farewell. The light, twinkling of the bell at the door sounded as it closed.

Oddly, I felt bereft. But then again, I never needed to say goodbye to a guy before—they usually beat me to the punch. I decided to credit the empty space in my stomach to hunger, and rose to join Alice.

But there was no need, as she hurried to our table with a plateful of baby carrots, two cans of coke balanced perfectly on it.

It then hit me that she probably had purposefully left me alone with her stepbrother.

"Bella? Hey, he never said goodbye…well, I have our drinks and—"

"Alice?" I whispered, staring straight ahead. She rushed over to me, pushing the plate over and opening my can of coke. Her face was anxious.

"I am so, so, so sorry for leaving you here all alone with him. It's all my fault, will you ever forgive me? I swear never to do it again—I'll buy handcuffs so that whenever I get up to leave, you have to come with me. Jasper'll accept the arrangement once I place it…"

"Alice," I moaned, burying my face in my hands.

She paused in the action of sitting down. "What's wrong?"

"I'm an idiot!"

"Oh. That makes two of us then." I felt her hand tugging at my wrist, and her voice abruptly became motherly, the ultimate height of concerned. "Bella, what's wrong? Did Edward, no, did that insolent pig of a male do something to you…?"

"No!" I nearly wailed. "He didn't do anything."

She ignored me, muttering mercilessly. "I knew I was making a mistake when I left you alone with that guy. Christ, he's like one of those alien, bug-eating plants with honey—its trap n' go, that's how that boy rolls."

Stilled, I listened to her scold herself for her supposed mistake, slowly beginning to piece together what she was saying. Concentrated, I grabbed a hold of her arm. She stopped, looking up at me with disaster and confusion in her eyes

"Are you trying to imply that your stepbrother is one of those worthless dirt bags in league with Mike Newton?" I asked. As soon as I said it, I rushed for ways to disprove it.

Alice's mouth fell slightly open, and she blinked several times. Fixing a bright smile on her features, she picked up a baby carrot and raised it to my mouth. "Carrot?"

I pushed her hand away. "You are, aren't you? And he is, isn't he?"

"Oh, just ramblings. I'm getting old, and so are you." She popped the carrot into my mouth, still with the bright, scary smile.

"He is, isn't he?" I repeated after chewing and swallowing. She fiddled with her hands, nervous.

Then she sighed. I felt the early twinges of a headache.

"Um, no…he's a great brother…" she trailed off when she met my stare.

I nodded, sitting back in my seat. I should have known that flirting was just flirting and nothing more. "Don't worry, I'm not interested."

Great, I lied. Now I had to try and convince myself that it was true as well.

To my surprise, Alice's face cleared, and she nodded back as she patted my head. "I know; you're better than that, Bella."

I hesitated at her words and blurted out what my heart wanted to know, deep in its core. As much as I trusted Alice on her judgment, I still had to know.

"Yeah. Um. One question, did you actually witness him in the act of kiss n' ditch?" Her face was in earnest as she made to respond, probably desperate to redeem herself for spilling something Edward expressly forbade her from.

But before she could speak, Rosalie came up from behind her, holding our coats. "Time to go."

"It's still messy," I pointed out. She shrugged.

"Wake up early tomorrow so we can clear it before class." She thrust the bundle into my arms and went to go to Emmett.

Alice pulled on her jacket and skipped to Jasper, where they went out into the cold. I followed after them, and Rosalie shut and locked the door behind my back. Emmett looked up at me, beaming.

"Thanks for throwing the party, instead of letting me lie in bed like a cripple."

"Anytime." He squeezed my hand as we began walking to Rosalie's car. Jasper and Alice, I knew, would want to be alone.

--:::--:::--:::--:::--

Later at the dorm, lying in bed and staring sleeplessly at the ceiling, I listened to Alice's steady breathing from the other bunk. I also wondered about—dare I say it?—Edward. If we would ever see him again on campus, just on chance. After all, in the end, he was Alice's brother.

Probably not, I admitted to myself. If I was going to be honest, it was unlikely that someone like him would ever consider…I let the thought trail off, rolling over. Was I stupid? Didn't I just hear Alice confess about him? I was lucky if I didn't inspire any feelings, as far as anyone was concerned.

Besides, I didn't think I was ready for another relationship at the moment. The other one was a disaster enough, and the one before that didn't work out. It was like the case with Alice's mother. It just wasn't working. And there was the tiny, but very vocal fear that the same issue would happen.

A/N: ...And so the curtain closes on Scene Two. Rosalie's so much fun to write, by the way xD I'm planning to write a story in her point of view. Anyway... '-shakes a tin can with a huge smile-' thoughts??