CROSSING THE LINE

"Umf!"

Bella tried to catch herself before she trip her own right foot with her left. This is the day wherein she wished she's more agile and fit but those two words are the least you would expect of her.

Standing 5"4', with a slender bone structure, Bella is anything but 'smoking hot', although a lot of Edward's friends tend to disagree. With her expressive almost almond-shaped brown eyes that pierced through you as if she knows your soul; perfect feminine nose and proportioned lips, not to mention her God-send flawless skin, Bella can turn a guy's head whenever she passed even in grub clothing.

To Edward's delight, Bella seemed to be oblivious to all of these and always thought about her self as plain and boyish, not the girly sexy type that guys like Edward would go for. If only she knew that Edward lost most of his friends because he tried to threaten or even fight them whenever they would make a malicious remark about her and for those who have stayed, they learned not to cross the line with Bella if they want to be friends with him.

"Almost there…" Bella murmured as she put her phone back to her back pocket. She's been calling Edward for the past hour and a half since she left her building, with no success.

"If I was Alice, I would have been here an hour earlier!" she inwardly complained as she managed a couple more steps toward Edward's building thinking about an earlier incident.

When Bella got out of her building, she was relieved to see that there was a taxi parking on the curb. As soon as she got on the side of the back door, the cab moved forward from where she's standing. When she turned her head towards her right to see what's going on, Bella saw a girl smiling as she raised her hand to hail the cab, Bella's cab!

"Hey wait, I saw you first", she shouted as she ran following the moving cab.

The girl was already opening the door when she looked up and smirked at her, She was wearing a short skirt with a matching halter top and knee-high black stiletto boots.

"Sorry miss, but he moved towards me", the girl replied eyeing her up and down with a fake smile and indifference.

She was about to argue that she really need to get this cab, that it's an emergency, when the driver himself said that he didn't saw her and that he's stopping for the lady and not her. Although she's quite sure that he saw her first approaching his cab, Bella dropped the argument and turned around towards the direction of the subway, hoping that a miracle will happen and she'll actually get a cab before reaching there.

Lucky, she's not. Bella thought as she entered Edward's building.

"Oh, good afternoon Miss Bella, nice to see you again, it's been awhile", Sam, the concierge, greeted Bella staring at her ass from behind as she passed him.

What Bella lacked on the rack, surely compensated from behind. An asset that she's surely aware but profusely refused to acknowledge although she unconsciously accentuates the asset by sticking to skinny jeans all the time, especially when she reached New York and everyone seems so nonchalant of expressing their admiration towards it, may it be male or female. Alice encouraged her more by pointing out that being a girl, it is just normal to have a weak link when it comes to the opposite sex. That it's just normal to succumb to male chauvinistic tendencies, to make her feel feminine from time to time. She would just shrugged it off but silently praise Alice for reading her so well. Shallow, yes, but it keeps her from being too damned depressed. If Edward can't notice her, at least she knows others notice her ass.

Bella knew Sam was ogling her from behind but ignored him and went straight to the elevators, up to Edwards floor.

" Edward?" she called as she unlocked the door.

Edward gave Bella her own key to the apartment, the first day she moved to New York. Something that Victoria was not happy about which also cost Edward a necklace and a lie that the key was for his sister Alice, and of course since Bella is 'family', she get to use it as well. Although not totally convinced, Victoria dropped her insistence of getting her own key the moment Edward showed him the necklace from Tiffany's

If you want to make Victoria happy, give her expensive stuff, she'll get over it as quickly as lightning, something that Edward knew and used it to his advantage when he wants her to shut up.

Bella once teased Edward why he's holding off Victoria for they basically live together since he's always at her place. She knew that Victoria already tried to get Edward to move in with her.

Edward would smile and tell her that he liked his neighborhood for it's close to both Victoria and her and Alice, plus, he doesn't like all the fuss that comes with moving.

Although those reasons are plausible, Bella knew that it's not the real reason. She knew Edward long enough that she knows that this is Edward's way of telling Victoria that he's still not ready, that he still value his independence and being single, that not even Victoria can tell him to cut it.

This is also the reason why he always go home after 'spending the night' at Victoria's place, or he always make sure that they don't spend the night at his place. After more than a year of being together, one would think that Victoria would notice, but nah, either she ignores it or is just too blinded with all the expensive stuff that Edward gives her.

Besides, the only reason that Victoria doesn't impose on moving in with Edward is because her condo is actually on a better part of New York than Edwards and of course, she doesn't want to loose her connections with the high society.

Edward's apartment, although not in the slums of New York, is hardly where the rich New Yorkers live. A fact that Edward holds on to, that's why he refused to move even if he can afford a place twice the size of Victoria's. With an estate left by his grandfather on his and Alice's name after he passed away during Edward's senior year in Highschool, both he and Alice can live comfortably without worrying about money.

"Mmm here……."

Bella heard the slurred murmur from Edward's bedroom. She carefully navigated herself towards the room, avoiding books, and broken glasses on the floor. Edward surely had his throwing marathon earlier. Who wouldn't though? James was his best friend.

Although, she really doesn't know him for Edward met him in University, she heard enough stories from Edward that she knew that Edward truthfully value this guy's friendship even though she found him a little bit too touchy when they were first introduced. She just, however, attributed it to her not being used to touchy feely guys except Edward. Come to think of it, she's basically just exposed to two Y-chromosomes outside her family – Edward and Jacob, and Jacob was too conscious and star struck to even try to hold her hand when they were younger.

"What the….." she eyed the room in disbelief as she opened the door to assess the damage. There were clothes everywhere. All the books, CD and DVD shelves are empty, its contents lying all over the floor. There were beer cans and bottles of scotch, rum and a lot more she don't even recognized or tend to read. There's also this foul smell somewhere in the room.

When her eyes reached Edward's, he was smiling like a goofball on the floor with his back leaning on the side of the bed.

" Hi brown eyes, hick! I think I have a hiccup, hick! And I think I'm going to…….. puke!........."

He said with dreamy eyes but before Bella can move from where she is, those dreamy eyes bulged and out came a foul smelling puke from Edward.

"……..again!" he said laughing.

"Edward, what did you do to yourself"

"Sorry"

"Get up! You need to get into the shower. I feel bad about this but right now, I just want to hack you from behind the head! You idiot…..doing all this for a girl."

" If you want to kill your self from alcohol poisoning, try not to leave a message for me next time. I don't want to call your family and let them know what their idiot son did! Gosh, you're doing this for a girl? Haven't I hit you enough in the head all this years?" Bella rampaged as she tried to drag him up and push him towards the bathroom door while avoiding the puke to get to her own clothing.

Edward stood up clumsily. At 6"1', he easily towers Bella but even with his cloud induced alcohol brain, he can clearly see the rage in Bella's eyes……

those beautiful eyes.........

Edward slowly ran his fingers through his dark bronze hair, a habit that he does whenever he's thinking, uneasy, uncomfortable, or just about anything. It is also a habit that Bella caught after years of constant togetherness prior Victoria.

"Sorry" he apologized again.

" I don't need your apology. What I need from you right now is to get your butt into the shower and try to sober your self up. While you're in there, also try to get the puke smell off you", Bella said maintaining an angry demeanor although Edward noticed a slight smirk.

Edward gave her a mock salute

"Yes ma'am!"

And off he swaggered into the bathroom.

Bella can't help but laugh as the bathroom door closed. Even drank, Edward can still make lethal drinking and puking look sexy.

Bella was done cleaning the puke-infested area by the time Edward emerged from the shower.

" Where's your air sanitizer. I think you need something stronger than just air freshener to get this smell……….off" Bella's word faded as she saw Edward walking towards the bed with just his black boxers.

" It's on the left cabinet where you got the mop" he mumbled while he was busy toweling his wet hair.

Edward missed that funny moment wherein Bella's mouth hanged open as she watched him approach the bed as if in slow motion. Yes, she have seen guys in boxers before, not in person though and definitely not Edward. She slowly lowered her sight towards that area and she started screaming at her self to stop staring but she just can't keep her eyes off the bulginess. Suddenly, her mind started having green lights and Bella started imagining things that she herself is not even capable of initiating towards the opposite sex.

"……..you don't have to do all this" those were the only words that she caught of what Edward was saying who is now sitting on the side of his bed, opening a new can of beer from his nightstand

"Edwaaard!" she exaggerated.

"Bella" he looked at her, now with an empty defeated voice.

After a silent staring battle, Bella sighed and went to the bed and sat on the same side closer to the foot of the bed. She raised her hand towards Edward as he gave her a can of beer he just opened and he opened another one for himself.

" Now shoot." Bella said, urging Edward to talk.

Now it was Edward's turn to sigh.

"There' really nothing to tell. I saw them in the act of having sex. I went to Victoria's to get some stuff I left. I thought she would still be at work because she said she'd be home pretty late because of a gala she needs to attend with her boss, so I used my key. I guess I was pretty quiet because none of them heard me. And when I saw them, it was just like an out of body experience. I cannot move or talk; I just stood there. I didn't even think I was breathing because I felt so dizzy after James saw me and started screaming fuck!"

"And….." Bella prodded.

"And then I just went to the closet, got the stuff I came in for and left"

"And Victoria?"

"I don't know, I barely even noticed what's going on after that initial shock"

Suddenly, the room was quiet.

"Well at least now you believe me that you have a ninja like stealth footsteps that even ants cannot hear" Bella said seriously.

Edward looked at her blankly and after deciphering her comment, burst out laughing.

Bella giggled. She was still giggling when she noticed that hers is the only sound she can hear.

She slowly raised her head and saw Edward staring at her intently. She got caught on those deep green eyes and stared back. As she lowered her sight towards his lips, Edwards open his mouth just a little to let his tongue out and nip his upper lip. Bella unconsciously follow the action and returned her sight towards Edward's eyes. This time his gaze is not just intense but also laced with want. She felt naked by his blazing gaze that made her look down lower,

Wrong.

Bella was inwardly drooling as she followed the muscular ripple of Edwards lean torso from neck down. She slowly made her hands into a fist, trying to stop herself from touching his chest to know how it feels to touch those soft hairs forming there as well as those sticking out from his boxers that seems to form a V.

Bella's attention was brought back to reality a she heard a groan. At first she thought that she made the sound and she can feel her cheeks getting crimson red as Edward reached her chin with his index finger and slowly raised her head to look at him.

"When you do that……" he said

Bella just looked at him and nip her lips with her tongue. Edward groaned hard and before she can even react attacked her lips with his as he launched forward and held the back of her head with his left hand while trying to press her body to his with his right hand while kissing her deeply.

Bella was too shocked to react that at first she just sat there frozen while Edward was trying to coax her mouth to allow him entry. The moment Edward groaned the third time as he pushed his tongue against Bella's lips Bella relaxed and opened her mouth. They both groaned in unison at the first taste of tongue to tongue.