Author's Note: It's been like, a million years. I cut the chapter short to post it, and hopefully will get back into writing soon. Meh. If anyone's still interested…and maybe even if you're not. xD

All characters and whatnot belong to SM.

"Drinks on me, who wants?" I was beginning to notice that Emmett did everything loudly. He was perched on a stool that he had dragged over from the bar and set at the end of our table. Rosalie had slid in next to Alice, and I was squished against the wall on the inside of the booth. There was a tangle of legs underneath the table. I felt one of Alice's four-inch heels nick my shin and realized she had crossed her legs. I saw Edward wince and stifled a smirk.

"Sorry, sorry," Alice smiled apologetically at Jasper, who cocked his head in confusion.

"That was me," Edward piped in with a grimace. There was an awkward silence, and for a moment I thought he was angry, but then he laughed, and Jasper and Alice joined in.

"The fuck? You kids all playing footsies down there?" Emmett's booming voice reminded me of his confrontation with Rosalie, and I shot her a questioning look. Her arms were crossed over her chest stubbornly, her eyes were narrowed, and her chin was high. She was turned away from Emmett in a showy attempt to avoid looking at him, while he sat back on his stool looking rather smug.

"I was just wondering," Jasper spoke up, voicing my thoughts, "How the hell did my charming cousin get you to come back here with him?"

Rosalie shot a scornful glare at Emmett, who snickered and slapped his knee, clearly enjoying himself. She turned back to Jasper and smiled sweetly. "Actually," she purred, "I didn't come back here with…King Kong." She gave an exaggerated eye roll. "But I couldn't very well hang out by myself all night, and my friends are all over here." Her smile turned into a glower as she narrowed her eyes at Alice and I. Alice tittered and shrugged. I grimaced and mouthed to Rosalie, Not my idea.

"Yo. People. Pay attention. Who's thirsty? I'm buying." We all raised our hands in unison. Everyone except Rosalie, that is, who was pretending not to have heard him.

"Nothing for you, Goldilocks?" Rosalie scowled and Emmett shrugged. He looked around for a minute, then waved his arm at a passing waitress. "Hey Jess, when you get a chance." Rosalie snorted. Emmett stared at her blankly. "Something you wanna say, Goldilocks?"

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "It's Rosalie," she spat out. "And no, there wasn't really anything I wanted to say." She paused, but I knew she wasn't finished. We all continued to look at her expectantly. "First name basis with two of the ladies who work here, huh?" she said nonchalantly. "First the bartender, now the cocktail waitress. And the place just opened." She smirked. "Got the place all staked out already?"

It was Emmett's turn to scowl. "Watch it, Goldilocks," he sneered. Just then, the waitress approached the table.

"What'll it be for everyone?" She smiled broadly at us, pen poised above her notepad, ready to take down our order.

"We'll take another round of drinks, Jess. That'll be an MGD for me, pint of Guinness for Jazz, Captain and Coke for my brother...Sorry, Sweetheart, I didn't get your name?" I realized he was looking at me.

"It's Bella," I smiled. "And this is Alice. I'll have another Bud light." Jess took this down and looked to Alice.

"Same for me."

"And for you, miss?" Rosalie wasn't paying attention. She and Emmett were having some kind of stare-off. She looked incensed, while he wore a lazy smile. The waitress continued to look at her expectantly, until Alice finally gave her a nudge with her elbow.

"Wh—Oh." Rosalie seemed disoriented, as if her mind had been somewhere else. She cleared her throat. "I'm good," she smiled, taking a sip of her Appletini. Rosalie had never been much of a drinker. The waitress read back the order, then flounced off. I noticed another waitress waving to Emmett. He smiled and jerked his chin up arrogantly. He did seem to know a lot of the girls here. I decided not to voice that observation to Rosalie.

"So…let me get this straight," Alice said suddenly. She motioned back and forth between Emmett and Edward. "You two are brothers?"

"Correct," said Emmett.

"And he's your cousin," I jumped in, speaking to Jasper and pointing at Edward.

"Conveniently enough he's Em's cousin, too," Edward said with a mocking smile. His voice was smooth and rich, almost musical. I almost forgot to notice that he was making fun of me again. Almost.

"Naturally," I said glibly. "So what's the family dynamic?" There. I had successfully evaded his immature little shot.

"Well," Edward leaned forward and spoke very slowly, enunciating his words as though he were talking to someone who was hard of hearing or slow to understand. "Emmett and I? We're brothers." One side of his mouth curled. I suddenly noticed that I was studying his mouth a bit too closely. But I could not quite bring myself to look into his eyes. I shifted uncomfortably as he continued. "And Jasper…is…" he paused, and when he spoke again his voice was a dramatic whisper. "Our cousin." He grinned then, a bright, winning smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. He sat back against the booth and tossed his head back. I scowled. He was making fun of me. I should have been angry with him because of this. Instead, I was angry with myself because instead of being mad at him for making fun of me, I was marveling at the way his smile changed his whole face, made him look younger, more carefree.

God, he was beautiful.

I studied the table top intensely, hoping someone else would steer the focus of attention away from me. I knew my face had to be furiously scarlet. I felt my jaw jutting out like it did when I was angry or upset, and I felt Alice's elbow nudge me gently. But it was Rosalie who spoke.

"Brilliant explanation, smartass," she said loudly. I inhaled sharply, relieved to be saved once again from my own awkwardness. "What she meant was, whose mom is whose sister or whatever."

I stole a glance upward and saw that Edward was still laughing soundlessly. I silently marveled at how quickly his mood had seemed to change. A few minutes ago he was brooding and somber, and now he was cracking jokes. At my expense. I felt my eyes narrow. Apparently making me look like an ass was just the trick to cheering him up.

The annoyance I was feeling must have shown on my face, because he suddenly stopped laughing and raised his eyebrow at me. The laughter did not leave his eyes, though, which were still trained on my face. They were a muted green, and I noticed flecks of gold in them. I tore my gaze away and focused instead on Jasper, who had begun to explain.

"My parents died when I was really young. I was raised by our grandmother." He said this easily, smiling as though he were talking about the most mundane thing. For a moment no one said anything, then everyone spoke at once.

"I'm so sorry," Alice and I said at the same time.

"How'd they die?" Rosalie asked with polite interest.

"But really, you practically lived with us," Emmett said too loudly.

"It's not, like, a big deal," Jasper shrugged.

Only Edward remained silent. We all stopped talking and looked at each other expectantly, waiting for someone else to continue. Then we all laughed. Jasper was the first to talk this time.

"Like I said, I was really young. My parents were crazy rich. Had their own plane, their own pilot. They were jet-setting to some island in the middle of July, and their plane flew right into a tropical storm." He moved his hand across his chest and downward, mimicking a nosedive, and made a whistling noise. "I was three. Barely remember 'em. Em's right, though. I lived with Gran, but I played at Uncle Carlisle and Aunt Esme's house every day after school, and I stayed with them for most of the summer. These boys are like my brothers." He grinned and threw an arm around Edward's neck, pulling his head in and tousling his hair. Edward pushed off of him, but smiled good-naturedly. Emmett punched Jasper softly in the shoulder. The exchange was typically masculine, but had an underlying sentiment of brotherhood. I realized that these men were more than friends. "Esme was my mom's sister. She and Carlisle treated me like they did their own boys."

"Not true," Edward and Emmett said in unison.

"You never got chewed out like we did!" Emmett bellowed.

Edward nodded his agreement, and his eyes danced. His drastic change in temperament was almost startling. "You were always mom's favorite. She'd sentence us to two weeks of laundry and scrubbing all the toilets in the house, and all you got was, 'Now, Jasper. Try not to get caught up in whatever trouble my boys manage to get themselves into.' Sickening," he added, laughing. As he mimicked his mother, his voice went up in a high falsetto. Emmett slumped on his stool, shaking with laughter.

"Ferreal, man!" he choked out. "Everyone always thought she was this supermom because she never hired a housekeeper and the place was always spotless!"

"No one knew it was you and me doing all the dirty work like Cinder-fucking-rella!" They were all laughing now, and Alice and I laughed with them. I watched Rosalie and saw her mouth twitch and her face soften.

Jasper stifled his laughter and sat up. "Now, to be fair, I was just an innocent bystander in all the harebrained schemes you two came up with."

Emmett snorted. "Bitch, please. You were the brains behind every operation!"

"False." Jasper jerked a thumb at Edward. "This guy right here is the one responsible for every prank we ever pulled."

Edward ducked his head sheepishly, and I stopped laughing. I wanted to run my fingers through that hair that kept falling in his face. Instead, he reached up himself and pushed it back futilely. He shook his head and opened his mouth, but Emmett put up a hand to stop him from speaking. "Don't deny it, brother. Our cousin has a point. He may have effectively worked out the kinks and done all the plotting, but you were the quiet genius responsible for the birth of every idea."

Just then, the waitress arrived with our drinks. "Ah, thanks, Jess. You're a doll." Emmett flashed her a million-watt grin, and I noticed Rosalie's jaw tighten almost imperceptibly. As I turned my face away to hide my smile I felt Alice kick me under the table.

I turned to steal a glance at Rosalie, but my gaze caught instead on someone else. My heart stopped. There, across the crowded nightclub. Leaning his back against the bar, hunched over slightly to hear whatever the pint-sized bitch next to him was murmuring in his ear. Dark blond hair, dancing blue eyes, wide white smile.

Mike.

End Note: Oooh, intrigue. Whatever will happen next?!!