BEGINNING

EPOV

The weekend after Bella's first day at school, Alice decided to come up with a "brilliant" (her words, not mine) plan to get Bella and me together and alone. She was going to take Bella to lunch.

Now, one might ask what this has to do with me, especially since I am not actually going to go with them to this lunch. This is where Alice's plan comes in. Really, it's quite simple. I come in partway through the meal, and Alice leaves when Rose shows up to go shopping. I'm sure that Bella will catch on to what Alice is doing to her. It seems pretty obvious to me. And Bella is pretty observant. I didn't want to go along with this in the beginning, but there is no fighting with Alice. She's ruthless when it comes to her plans. It's easier to pick and choose my battles.

So that was how I found myself driving to Port Angeles Saturday afternoon. I was still worried about Bella's response to this whole idea, but I was excited too. I knew I had done something to bother her, and I wanted to figure out what it was. If this is what it took to find out, then I was going to do it.

Not to mention that I had no problem being alone with her. No problem at all.

I just hoped she wouldn't hate my scheming sister after this. Or me, for going along with it.

When I pulled up to the restaurant, I took a minute to calm myself down. I was way too eager to spend time with Bella.

After calming myself down a little so that I didn't look too eager and excited, I went in. When I gave my name to the waiter, I was escorted to where Bella and Alice were sitting.

"Mind if I sit with you?" I asked when I was close enough to the table for them to easily hear me.

"Hi, Edward! Sure. Sit here by me!" Alice was a little too excited. Meaning she was about to let Bella know what she had done in terms of setting us up.

"Hi, Bella. Hope you're enjoying your meal." I really wanted to make Bella feel comfortable around me, and I figured the best way to do that was to have a casual conversation. Bella simply nodded, too surprised to actually speak at the moment. "Alice, don't you have a shopping trip with Rose to go on?" I asked to get rid of her as fast as possible.

"Oh, yeah! I can't believe I forgot about that! Bella, do you mind if Edward takes you home? I'm going to be a while, and I think he's going straight home after this."

"Sure, that's fine I guess." Bella didn't sound too sure of what she was saying, but she didn't seem to mind. Just slightly annoyed with Alice for springing this on her. I couldn't blame her for that.

Alice jumped up and skipped off merrily. I don't know if she was more excited about setting Bella and I up on a "date," or about going shopping. Probably was pretty even.

A couple of minutes after Alice was out of sight, I attempted to start up a conversation, if only to get rid of the awkward air. "So, what-"

"Alice did this, didn't she?" Bella said just as I started to talk.

"Yeah." I felt really bad about this plan again. Stupid Alice.

"Why would she do that? I'm sure she knows you don't like me."

"You really think I don't like you?" She had to be absolutely crazy to think that. "That's the exact opposite of the truth."

33333

BPOV:

That came as a surprise. He likes me. He doesn't like me like me, but still. That's something. Especially since he has been ignoring me since I arrived at his house. Which reminds me...

"Then why have you been ignoring me all this time?"

"I didn't like you." Okay. That's a little surprising. He just said that he liked me – or something like that – and now he's saying he didn't like me. This isn't confusing at all. "You came into my world, an unwelcome intrusion. I didn't really like that someone new was going to be in my life, simply because every new person that came in tried to take over my life and family. I've been getting sick of all the foster kids coming in."

I was starting to get a little nervous of what he was actually thinking of me. Was he just being nice saying he liked me? I wouldn't be surprised. That is what people normally do. Be nice to me until they can get rid of me.

This line of thinking seemed to show on my face, because Edward immediately got worried and started talking faster.

"Listen. When I saw you, I wanted to keep this point of view about people coming into my life. I tried so hard. But you made it so difficult that I eventually gave up and started to want you here. And it was so frustrating because you didn't seem to want to take any more from my family than absolutely necessary.

"But I wish you would. You are becoming more and more a part of the family every day. We all are starting to love you Bella. Please believe me. You have changed all of our lives for the better."

I was amazed that anyone could feel like I was worthwhile, so it took me a couple of seconds to realize what he said. Love? There was no way anyone could love me. No way anyone could find me loveable. I was damaged, and it was easy to see.

"Bella, you may not believe me right now, but you are worthwhile." How did he do that? He seemed to know what I was thinking. Must be obvious. People always could read my face easily.

I was starting to get uncomfortable with this entire thing. Not that I knew what to make of any of it. From Alice deciding she was going to take me out to lunch to being left alone with Edward and having this conversation, this had been a really weird day. I knew it would take some time to sort through all the information that had been thrown at me today by Edward, but I knew that the best way to even start was to get home to some quiet so that I could think.

"Do you mind if we go home now?"

Edward looked a little worried why I would want to leave so soon, but he nevertheless agreed.

I was still sorting out everything that had happened when Alice came bursting into my room with yet another idea.

"Bella, everyone wants to go out to eat! Are you going to come?"

"I don't really -"

"Bella, we aren't eating in Forks, so you are definitely coming. You don't have a choice."

"Alice, I don't want to intrude on anything in your family."

"Nonsense. Bella, you are a part of our family. And, even if you weren't, you wouldn't be intruding. So, therefore, you are coming. End of story." She paused for a second, then decided to say something more. "Oh, and Edward wants you to come."

She then promptly skipped out of the room as I sat on my bed mentally cursing her out.

I didn't want to go, but Alice had apparently left me no choice.

Little did I know this meal out would change my life dramatically again, but this time for the better.

A/N: So, I really do feel bad about not updating. Really, I do. Just a lot has decided to come up lately. College has decided to rear its ugly head. And I'm in the middle of working out a 504 plan*. Not really fun.

And as much as this is a crappy reason to not update, I just couldn't figure out how to say what I wanted to say, even though I now know exactly where the story is going. Not to mention I left my notes at home when I came back to college. So, yeah. Once I decided to sit down and actually work on this, it got a bit easier, and finally just started to flow.

Promise to start updating more often, especially if you all promise to start reviewing more frequently. :)

*For those of you who don't know and are even slightly curious what a 504 is, it's an academic accommodations plan to help students with learning disabilities. Mine isn't major, I just have ADHD which affects my reading comprehension. So I am getting help with tests and understanding what my profs mean with the questions. Nothing wrong with me, just can't concentrate as much as most people.