Disclaimers to Stephenie Meyer.

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[Flashback]

I shuffled down the row of seats and sat in the only seat available in the whole classroom. My heart fluttered as I had to sit next to Edward Cullen. Since 5th grade I've always had a little crush on him. He was my best friends' friend. It was almost like Edward was my best friends' best friend. That kind of hurt. I didn't know Edward well, but I wanted a chance like every other girl to get to know him. I had only confided in Jasper (his best friend) that I liked him. Jasper, I felt was the single person I could confide in at the time. Alice would have tried to set me up with Edward and Rosalie was too immersed with her relationship with Emmett. I couldn't tell Edward, I mean, how do you tell someone you like them without it being awkward after it?

I sat meekly next to Edward. He always intimidated me. He was just god-like, and I was just below normal. My popularity was just average, too average to co-mingle with popular mortals like him. The teacher started his lecture, as usual. Edward and I didn't speak, as usual. It was 20 minutes before he said.

"Hey, I didn't catch what he said, can I copy off you?" Edward said suddenly. I gasped. I blushed. I shuffled my pad towards him, as the teacher started drawing a diagram on the board. I looked at his pad. His writing was unique for a boy, so neat. Mine was just a scrawl. I wondered if he could read it.

"Yes, I can read it."

Whoa. Mind reader much?

"How did you?" I asked in a stunned voice.

"You're just easy to read."

I blushed.

"My mom says that too," I replied.

"Oh." He said sadly.

"I'm sorry," I said, realising that he was adopted.

Edward had been adopted since his mom died from a disease. His father had no idea of his existence and he was named after his father. He was technically Edward Masen Jr., but when he was adopted he didn't want anything to do with his father and his last name changed from Masen to Cullen.

"Its okay, Esme is like a mom to me," he replied. I felt guilty. Esme was his adoptive mother. Carlisle was his adoptive father and they were decent people. Esme owned a big home renovation company whilst Carlisle was a doctor that the town of Forks were lucky to have. He was also a specialist for the big cities.

"It must be hard, losing someone that was close to you," I told him.

"Yeah, but I never knew my first mom much, because she died when I was 5, so Esme is the only mom I know."

"I know how you feel," I told him. My breath caught.

"Do you?" he asked sceptically. The secret was out now. I was kind of mad that he thought that no one else could ever understand what it's like to lose part of your family.

"Yes," I said fiercely.

He just looked at me expectantly. I didn't realise that I had a thing for someone who was so narrow-minded.

"My father died 17 years ago. I lost two people, my dad and my twin brother," I said, my eyes prickling.

"Wow, that's just, wow."

I blushed. He put a hand on mine.

"I'm sorry, but I can't imagine losing a parent, never mind a twin," he said in an awestruck voice. We were reprimanded by the teacher for talking. We stopped talking and then copied the diagram that he was depicting on the board. It was a familiar diagram from the textbook we were given at the beginning of the year.

"It's okay, because I still have my mom."

"That's good."

For the first time, he didn't look like the intimidating god-like creature I had always had a thing for. He looked like the 17 year old that had just been told that his mother had just died. The emotion in his green eyes was overpowering.

"I'm sorry," I said. I knew I had upset him again.

"I've never met anyone who apologises like you do," he chuckled. He was intimidating again.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was slowing growing redder.

"Well, first of all. People don't apologise all the time to me. Then they apologise without meaning it."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence.

"So, what are your parents like?" I asked him in a conversational tone.

"It's...complicated," he replied. I let it drop.

"What's your mom like?" he asked.

"That's just, complicated."

"That's hardly any fair," he complained. I glared at him.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"I don't like double standards, you can't expect me to talk about my family if you aren't willing to talk about yours," I replied. He chuckled.

"But, you like... me," he said slowly. I blushed from scarlet to mauve.

"No, I don't," I replied quickly, a little too quickly. He noticed it too.

"Jasper told me."

I made a mental note to positively murder Jasper.

"Um, well," I stuttered incoherently.

The bell rang and the teacher groaned in a frustrated tone. I scribbled the diagram down without any labels. I started mentally preparing myself for Gym. I had never spoken to Edward like the way I had before. I gathered all my things and threw them in my bag. Edward walked past me.

"Oh, Bella. I have a crush on you, too."

Then he walked away.

My heart pounded.

[Flashback over]

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"I'm so sorry, Bella," Alice was the first to say. My heart was pounding. My face was bright red. I knew it, at the back of my head that Edward was too good for me. Alice deserved him. Alice had won him. I could do nothing.

I stared at Alice and Edward. My throat wouldn't let me speak. I just kept staring. Edward, the one I had loved since 5th grade, who I had thought was my personal Prince Charming, had been cruelly taken away from me. He was no longer the figure of what I saw was perfect. I could feel their shame and Jasper's anger on the table. I could empathise with Jasper. I was mad, I was mad that Alice had done this. We were best friends. There was a little nagging at the back of my head. Alice was never my best friend; Jasper was always my best friend.

We never went together. We never suited each other. I was a book-worm and he was a jock. He was fashionable and I was trying to get last season's fashion in my wardrobe. He drove a Volvo and I drove a truck that was from the last century. We were from two different worlds. We could never go far.

He found his love. I lost mine.

My shoulders sagged as I accepted the fact. I looked apologetically at Jasper. I couldn't help in his rampage to cripple Alice and Edward's affair.

I couldn't, no matter how much they hurt me, hurt them.

"I'm sorry Jasper, I can't do anything. They made their choice," I said. Jasper gritted his teeth.

"See, she doesn't even want to hurt you two," he said loudly. The cafeteria went silent. Jasper stood up and marched out of the cafeteria. He gave Alice and Edward one last scathing look before marching off. The cafeteria started talking again. It was a mark of our friendship that I walked out after Jasper.

"Oh, and if I didn't make it obvious, we're done," I said. I had little anger left, and I used that up by getting my soda and pouring it over his immaculate hair. I didn't care if some of it ended up on Alice. In a sadist kind of way, she kind of deserved it; despite she was crying so much.

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Review, please? Pretty please with a cherry on the top?