Flameo my good hotmen!

Here is the next instalment of my story. Sorry this chapter is a bit heavy, but i needed to keep the story moving. Promise some light-hearted stuff is coming up soon. little preview...FUN IN A BLACKOUT!

Read on, my brave hearted warriors!

Bella's POV

'Well then Bella, what was THAT?'

Alice grinned at me and I scowled back at her. 'Alice, that was NOTHING. He was just trying to get all those feathers out of my hair…'

She cut me off, 'Yeah right Bella, I know what I saw, and it definitely wasn't nothing.'

I groaned and flopped down on the sofa, burying my head in the seat as she continued twittering. 'Bella, you and Edward should so totally get together! You would be perfect for each other! And after seeing that…'

My mind switched back to what had happened in Edward's bedroom. What had that been? When he had touched me it'd felt like my brain had just switched off, my nerves and heart had gone crazy, and my body had just acted of its own accord. I'd hardly been aware of what I was doing, focused entirely on the feel of his hands on my hair and his perfect face, less than an inch from my own. I was usually loathe to let anyone I'd just met get so close to me, but with Edward it had just felt…right. We'd only known each other for 30 minutes, and already it felt as if I'd known him for much longer.

My brain wandered off toward more pleasant things, as I sat up and stared at the wall. Edward's eyes, deep emerald green and sparkling, his smile; perfectly crooked, the emotions evident in his eyes as he stared at me...I was snapped out of my daze by Alice's gasp.

'Bella? Bella! You look totally out of it, what ARE you thinking about?' My cheeks flushed before I could summon up the will to stop them, and she gasped again. 'Oh my god, you weren't thinking about my brother were you?' Damn. She knew me too well. Maybe it was time to find a new best friend.

'Haha!' She laughed triumphantly, 'You were, weren't you! You like Edward!'

'No…I don't!' I said, but my voice sounded as uncertain as I felt.

'Don't deny it! You like Edward! This is so awesome! My best friend and my brother… dating!' She danced around the room; grabbing my hands and making me dance too.

'Alice!' I choked out as she swung me round and round. 'Stop it! I've only just met him! How can you be thinking things like that already? And no…I don't -' She stopped abruptly and raised her eyebrows at me, daring me to contradict what we both knew I felt.

'Come on Bella. I've known you for 7 years. You can't expect me to believe you when you BLUSH whenever I say his name!'

I cursed, dropping our clasped hands as she giggled. There was no way I could hide this from Alice, she was too perceptive and too experienced in relationships. 'Ok, maybe I do like him a teeny-weeny itsy bit. But it's nothing for you to get excited about, I mean, it's not like anything's going to happen.' I tried to ignore the bitter disappointment in the pit of my stomach as I said that.

Alice looked incredulous. 'What do you mean? You have ME! Of course you and Edward are going to get together! Plus, I saw the way he looked at you. The whole time we were talking he didn't take his eyes off you once.' She steepled her fingers together and cackled, grinning evilly, 'Now all you need is a little push in the right direction…'

Edward's POV

'Eddie! You are officially a naughty boy! Getting it on with the new girl…niiiiice!' Emmett bounced up and down on the sofa, while I leant on the wall and rolled my eyes. Emmett jumped onto the floor and began to dance, singing: 'Go Edward, Go Edward, Go Edward, you're not gay, Go Edward…'

Wait…what? 'Emmett? Excuse me? "I'm not gay??"' I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him.

Emmett looked sheepish 'Well, since you've hardly looked at a girl in 3 years, I thought that maybe you were just hiding in the closet…waiting to come out. I hoped to god that it wasn't me you liked…' He backed away from me, hands up, still grinning. I glared at him. If looks could kill, he would be dead by now. 'I don't think that now though, not after walking in on you like that. You were practically on top of Bella!' He sniggered as I grimaced.

I started to contradict him, just like I had with Alice, but he stopped me when his become abruptly sombre. 'Edward, dude, seriously. I'm not that stupid. I don't believe your 'it was all innocent' crap. I've never seen you look like that before, or so close to a girl before. You should've seen yourselves from where I was standing…you both looked so…so…intense.' He looked at me thoughtfully. 'You really like her, don't you?'

I thought about the way I had felt when I held her, the look in her eyes as our foreheads rested together. The way the emotion in them had made me feel like I was melting inside. 'Yes.' I whispered, 'you have NO idea.'

His face brightened. 'Hey, don't despair dear Eddie. I'm sure it'll all turn out great. You'll see.' He clapped me on the shoulder, as I sighed. 'Cheer up!' he smiled. 'Hey, do you want to know where I put your umbrella and coat?'

He led me over to the window, and pointed out into the rain. There, suspended from a tall tree, hung my coat, umbrella, and….I squinted to try and make out what the other objects were. I gasped as the rain lightened for a second. Oh. My. God. Emmett had hung all my underwear in the topmost branches of the tree, right out in the middle of the sidewalk.

I turned around, ready to kill him. Emmett was laughing hysterically, trying hard not to fall over.

'Haha! Wait till Bella see's that!'

I paled. 'Emmett. You. Are. So. DEAD!'

Bella's POV

Alice and I were sitting on the sofa, Alice trying to convince me to come shopping with her; apparently I needed a whole new set of 'New York' clothes.

'Please Bella! Please?!' Alice begged, 'You need this shopping trip! You can't wander round New York in what you have now!'

'Why not?'

'Because…you just CAN'T!' she exploded. I began to laugh, and she scowled at me. 'Don't even try it, Bella Swan, you're coming out shopping with me whether you like it or not! In fact, we should go right now!'

She grabbed my hand, and pulled me off the sofa, dragging me towards the door. I scrambled, desperately looking for something to hold on to. For such a tiny person, Alice was very strong. 'Nooooo! No, Alice stop! Help! Help!' I screamed, hoping someone would hear me. Alice laughed and kept pulling.

As we crossed the living room, me shrieking all the way, the door crashed open and Emmett ran through, laughing his head off. Edward ran after him, his expression livid. Uh-oh. Someone was going to die today.

Alice laughed as Edward tackled Emmett to the ground, then screamed 'REMATCH!' grabbed a cushion from our sofa and jumped into the fray. I leapt onto the couch to avoid being hit and just sat there and laughed as Edward and Emmett fought and Alice hit them both with her cushion.

Emmett managed to wriggle himself out from underneath Edward and he grabbed me, yanking me off the sofa and into his arms. I shrieked and thumped his chest with my fists. He ignored me, and yelled in his best evil voice: 'Alright! Both of you stop, or the girl gets it!' He chucked me up into the air to prove his point. I squealed as Emmett continued to throw me up and down.

Edward and Alice both stood up, Alice holding up her pillow. Emmett wiggled his eyebrows at Edward. 'Careful there Edward…wouldn't want anything to happen to dear Bella now would we?' I mouthed Help! at him, and he grinned. Alice shot forward, waving her pillow, and Emmett hooted and ran out of the door, still carrying me. He ran down the corridor, yelling 'Bwhahahahah! You'll never catch me! Bwahahahah!' Other curious students poked their heads around their doors to see what was going on, and, seeing Emmett running, chased by Alice and Edward, most of them came running out too, some wielding pillows.

Our little game had turned into a fully fledged pillow fight, and Emmett continued running up and down the corridor, still carrying me. Edward and Alice had been lost in the multitude of fighting students. I had given up shrieking and was just enjoying the ride when someone tripped Emmett up with a pillow to the face, and he fell, taking me with him. I scrambled up as soon as I hit the floor, racing away from him, grabbing a pillow as I went.

I attempted to fight my way back to my apartment, and I had got to about 625 when someone picked me up from behind and carried me back the other way. I twisted around in the stranger's arms to see a spiky blonde-haired boy grinning back at me. I scowled at him, trying to loosen his hands. He gripped my waist tighter and lifted me up higher so I couldn't reach the ground. 'Hey, I'm Mike!' he said, and I clenched my teeth, still trying to get away, as I replied

'Bella. Now let go of me!'

This didn't deter him, and he still didn't let go. I turned around again to look at him, trying to convey my words into my face. If he didn't let go of me, I would get Emmett to come and kill him. He couldn't be far away. I searched for his head in the crowd, and I saw him a few doors down, with Alice on his back, roaring and knocking people over. Mike spoke again. 'Hey Bella, now that we've met, and we're obviously so close,' I shuddered as he pulled me into him, 'do you wanna go out sometime?'

'No! Let me down!' I twisted harder, and suddenly I was pulled forcefully out of Mike's grip. I heard him sigh audibly. Then I realised a very familiar pair of hands were wrapped around my waist now, and I glanced up to see Edward glaring at Mike. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Mike. I began to speak, but Edward interrupted me.

'Sorry Newton, but would you please keep your hands off my girlfriend? I would appreciate it if you could control yourself.' He was perfectly polite but he managed to make the words seem menacing. My heart jumped around erratically at how mutely angry he sounded, and Mike seemed to hear it too. I looked at him and pushed myself closer into Edward, trying to make his words seem more believable. Edward seemed to accept this gladly, and wrapped his arms all the way around my waist. I tried to match his expression as we stared Mike down.

Mike quickly spat out a 'Sorry Cullen' and then dashed off down the hall, probably looking for another girl to assault. I watched him leave, then relaxed.

'Are you ok Bella?' Edward said softly from behind me. I noticed he still hadn't let go of my waist, but I didn't say anything; I liked them there.

'Yeah, I'm fine. Mike just surprised me is all. I would've been able to get away if I'd seen him coming.'

He chucked. 'Yeah, sure you would.' He suddenly ducked, pulling me down with him as a lamp flew over our heads, hitting the wall and smashing all over the place. Oh great. Everyone had run out of pillows to throw so now they were throwing lamps. No doubt Emmett started this. Sure enough, I glanced across the hall and saw Emmett in the middle of the throng, still clutching Alice, picking up random objects and throwing them at people. He spotted us and laughed loudly.

'Edward, Bella! Heads up!' He chucked a plastic cup at Edward's head, who avoided neatly by stepping to the side, again taking me with him. Alice cackled from his back.

I rolled my eyes at Edward. 'Should we attempt to get back to our apartments?'

Edward smiled. 'Doesn't look like there's much chance of that…why don't we just go down the fire escape and then find some café to sit in?'

'That sounds good, but we have one little problem. It's raining!'

This didn't deter him. 'I don't care. I don't mind getting wet, and you've already been soaked today anyway.'

He was right, I had to admit. I shrugged 'Meh. I don't really care about the rain either, and it can't get much worse here.' We ducked as another object flew over our heads.

He laughed and, keeping his arm around my waist, slowly waded through all the people to the back window, which he opened. He gestured for me to go first. I smiled and gingerly lowered myself onto the fire escape, Edward holding my hand to make sure I didn't slip. He climbed through the window after me, and led me down the stairs, gripping my hand tightly. I stumbled once or twice, but Edward caught me every time before I hit my head on something.

We reached the ground, already soaking wet, and I giggled as Edward and I walked down the sidewalk, hand in hand. I looked at him and again wondered at how beautiful he was. The sun shone off his face as he looked ahead, highlighting his deep green eyes and his straight jaw line. For the first time I noticed how delicately muscled he was too. The urge to wrap my arms around him returned with a vengeance. I made sure I had complete control of my arms and contented myself by just looking at him.

He caught be staring and flashed me a wide smile. My mind went blank again as he caught me with his eyes. I quickly dragged my eyes out of his to look above his head, before I did something I'd regret. A piece of material fluttering in a tree above his head caught my eye.

I moved around him to get a proper look at what the fabric was. I squinted at it and realised it was someone's underwear. A lot of someone's underwear. There seemed to be an umbrella and raincoat in there too. I stared at the tree, wide eyed, and Edward turned around to see what I was looking at. I heard him groan, and I turned around to see him blushing furiously.

'Erm…Edward? Does that underwear, perchance, belong to you?' I tried to hold back my giggles as he grimaced.

'It was Emmett.' Was all he said, and I tried to be nice to him and not laugh, considering he saved me from Mike. I pressed my lips together and said 'Oh.', and then carried on walking.

'Wait,' he said, 'aren't you going to laugh?' He stood still, looking at me uneasily.

'No,' I replied, 'you saved me from Mike, so I don't think it'd be fair.'

He smiled at me gratefully. 'Thanks Bella, you're the best.' He slipped his arm around my waist and squeezed me gently. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling a little too much, before I realised it had stopped raining. I opened my eyes and smiled.

'So, café? Do you have one in mind?'

He chuckled. 'Yes, actually. Come on, it's not far.'

He started to walk, pulling me along beside him. After about 2 blocks he stopped outside a lovely little coffee shop called La Bella Vita. I smiled at the name. He nudged me.

'Did you know that in Italian, Bella means beautiful?' I blushed and he smiled serenely, leaned closer to me and whispered, 'A very appropriate sentiment, I think.' He gazed at me for a second longer, and I stopped breathing. He abruptly let go my waist and walked into the coffee shop. I think I nearly fainted, I was so dizzy. I decided there and then that I would be totally crazy not to fall in love with him.

I pushed open the door slowly, trying to regain my balance. Edward was standing by the counter, leaning back on it as he waited for me to appear. When I had finally managed to make it all the way across the room to him, he turned around to speak to the waitress. She was a pretty blonde, quite skinny and she was wearing a tag which said Hello, My Name is Sophie. She looked up at us and gaped, probably more at Edward than me. Edward didn't seem to notice, and looked at me. I decided quickly. 'I'll have a Vanilla Latte please.' She turned to me and gave me a small, weak smile, before looking back at Edward. He ordered the same as me, and she moved away with a stuttered: 'I'll get right on those for you'

I followed Edward to a pair of comfy chairs set right by the window. I sat down and looked out, watching the people walking by, most of them looking as if they had somewhere they needed to be. A few people were holding hands and just ambling along at a slow pace…they looked quite a lot like Edward and I had when we were walking here. As I mused a different waiter brought our drinks to the table. He was a short Italian man with a badly shaven moustache. He grinned goofily at me as he put our drinks down, not even looking at Edward. Edward glared at the back of his head, looking a little angry. This man, called Michele according to his nametag, continued to smile scarily at me and said 'For you, Bellisima.' I blushed and looked away, hoping he'd leave. He stayed for a few more seconds, then left, winding his way through the tables. I could swear he wiggled his bum a bit while he walked, then turned back and winked at me. I looked away, disgusted.

Edward looked at me, and he now looked VERY angry. I was confused. 'What is it?'

He picked up my cup, turned it around, then showed it to me. On it was written a phone number, then the words Sei Bellisima vorrei. Telefono di me. I looked over at Michele again. He was still watching me and he put his fingers into a telephone sign, then put it up to his ear and pointed at me.

'Ugh. How annoying. I can't stand creepy Italian guys.'

Edward looked a little pacified. I picked up my cup, covering the words with my fingers, and sipped at it. He watched me drink for a moment, then sat forward in his chair and asked, 'So, what are you studying?'

'English. Basically the only subject I'm good at. You?'

'Music.'

'Oh' I swirled my cup around. 'You play…?'

'Piano. Since I was 5 actually.'

'Wow, so you must be very good at it then.'

'He chuckled. 'Yeah, you could say I was'

'I hope I can hear you play sometime.'

'Yeah, I hope you will too.' He smiled at me then carried on.

We talked for the best part of 2 hours, and I found out a lot about him. He'd had a pet gerbil when he was 5, but had accidentally sucked it up with the vacuum. He'd had braces for 2 years, and had his first girlfriend when he was 16. He didn't like to talk about her, so I moved on quickly. He spoke Italian fluently, but had never been there. He didn't like olives, or badly mashed potatoes. He could also do a mean English accent; I nearly choked on my latte when he imitated a tea-drinking Englishman.

He found out more about my clumsiness, mainly that it was natural, and about the whole range of injuries I had sustained by tripping up. He laughed at my childhood antics, and he grimaced as I told him of Katie and my stepsisters, Lauren and Jessica.

When I told him about Charlie he held my hand and squeezed it sympathetically, whilst I tried hard not to let myself cry. I was going to have to get used to talking about him, and it was easier to tell Edward the story than it had been to tell other people. Partly because I could feel him gripping my hand the whole time, which made me feel a whole lot better.

When we left I ignored Michele's attempts to talk to me, and smiled at Sophie as she gave me the thumbs up, and then left to hit Michele on the arm. Edward put his arm around me again as we walked back, and I cautiously leaned into his shoulder, hoping he wouldn't immediately move away. He didn't, but rather he pulled me closer, holding me tight against his side. I sighed happily and we walked the rest of the way in silence. As we approached our building I saw 2 little faces peeking out of the fire escape window, who I recognised as Emmett and Alice. The fighting seemed to have stopped, and they were both grinning at each other and giggling as they pulled their heads back in.

Edward noticed them too.

'Ah, there they are, the little monsters. I bet you $5 that they'll ambush us as soon as we walk in the door.'

'You're on!' It made me happy he could talk about our awkward situation so easily. We looked like such a couple, yet he didn't seem to care.

We walked in and looked around cautiously. When no Emmett or Alice appeared, we smiled at each other and began to climb the stairs. When we reached our floor, I thought of something that had been niggling at the back of my mind all the time I'd been with him.

'Edward? What happened with your girlfriend?'

He grimaced, so I said quickly, 'You don't have to answer, I was just curious. If it makes you unhappy I don't want to know.' This was a lie, but I didn't want him upset.

He sighed, 'No, it's fine, you told me about Charlie, so I guess I should tell you about Tanya. Long story short, I loved her, I thought she loved me, but she broke my heart. I wrapped myself up in schoolwork for 3 years and hardly talked to anyone, apart from my closest friends and family. That's why you never met me in all the time you've known Alice; I hardly ever left my room. Moving to New York was a new start for me, helped me get over her. But I swore to myself then I would never have another relationship with anyone. I don't want it to happen again.'

I was speechless. 'I'm sorry Edward. That must have been really bad.'

He smiled grimly. 'It was. But now I've met you. My world is brighter than it ever was before.' This seemed to slip out before he could stop it, and he stopped abruptly. He looked at me, and I let out a nervous laugh. He chuckled quietly with me, then brushed my hair away from my face with the back of his hand.

'Well, today was fun Bella. I say was because I'm guessing Alice and Emmett will charge around that corner any second now…' We both turned and looked, and sure enough, Alice danced into view, laughing and she ran up to me.

'Hey Bella! Where did you go? We lost you in the fight. All cos of stupid Emmett here' Emmett had appeared by now, and she thwacked him on the arm.

'Owww. Aliiiice!'

'Anyway, where did you guys run off to?'

Edward answered. 'Just to a coffee shop a few blocks down. Bella was attacked by Mike, so we decided to leave.'

'Oh dear, Bella are you ok? Mike's very annoying isn't he? Stupid spiky haired doofus.' She laughed, her voice tinkling. 'Anyway, I'm bored. Friend's Scene It anyone?'

'Yeaah!' cried Emmett, and Alice grabbed my hand, pulling me into our apartment. I grabbed Edward's, pulling him along with me until Emmett picked him up and carried him fireman-style after us.

Whew. that was a lot of Bella i know. tomorrow or the day after, my friend is giving me a rest and writing a special guest author chapter! yayyy! Be excited everyone!

And the usual, read and review, tell me what you think! i'll probably update sometime on saturday, i need a break from writing. my homework pile is mounting up, and it's only a matter of time before it falls on me.

love you all xxxx

p.s little update. I keep realising little mistakes and checking back to change them. Alice has known bella for 7 years, not 3. I forgot about middle school.

oh and the italian is courtesy of my lovely guest writer, who also speaks italian. figures don't it? x