A/N: I'm so sorry. I really, really am. I've been meaning to get round to this, but more coursework kept being set and then I've had English mock and other tests. But I've finally got round to writing it, which I decided to do instead of my triple science coursework; I just felt obliged to give you something, as I know how much I hate having to wait really long for the next update.

Anyway, I hope you like the new chapter =)

I haven't been getting many reviews so I've decided to set a target, if I don't get more than 15 then I will not be posting the next chapter for a very long time. Evil, I know, but it normally works. If I get more, then I will update sooner than usual.

Anyway, on with the chapter

Chapter Four

EPOV

Eventually Bella had had enough of Emmett's non-stop demands. "Emmett," she started. But Emmett continued nonetheless. "Emmett," Bella said slightly louder, trying to get him to stop talking. "Emmett!" she practically yelled at him. That seemed to shut him up, as he quickly snapped his mouth shut, looking at her expectantly, waiting for her answer.

"Bye." Bella then turned on her heels and hurried towards the school for the third time; trying to avoid us for the third time. I felt a sharp pang in my chest at the thought that Bella really didn't want to talk to us.

Alice, Rosalie and Jasper came walking over to us. "What was that about?" Alice asked, looking miserable. Bella was her best friend, and Alice must have felt almost as upset as I did about this whole situation.

"We don't know. But I'm gonna find out."

After the whole incident with Bella I really didn't feel in the mood for learning, but, as usual, I went anyway. Esme and Carlisle would kill me if I skipped school for no reason. My only argument would be that it wasn't for nothing, but, honestly, that is the most pathetic excuse that has ever been used.

So I stomped to my first class, and then the second. Still, by the third, I could not concentrate on anything but trying to figure out the reason for Bella's bizarre, dismissive mood. Still no luck. I ended up staring at the clock, willing the hands to move faster so that I could go to lunch and have a, hopefully, reasonable and productive conversation with Bella, and then everything can just go back to normal.

I almost scoffed out loud over my thoughts. Yeah right. When has life ever been that straightforward? If it were everything would be easy and there would be no poverty, and everyone would have everything they had ever wanted in life.

At last, the bell rang, by which time I was practically jigging up and down on my chair like a three year old waiting for a present on Christmas morning. I literally leaped out of my chair, almost falling over in the process, which was very unusual for me. Bella was always the one who was falling over. Just thinking of all the good memories that me and Bella shared together hurt a little; thinking that I could have done something stupid to throw that all away, and prevent us from having more fun together. The whole of our family considered Bella to be one of us. To us, she was a Cullen. We weren't actually related to each other anyway, so she was just like another adopted sibling. My little sister.

I decided to distract myself from the topic of Bella for a few minutes, because I knew that was what would be on my mind for the rest of lunch. But it was no use, until this mess was set straight, I didn't seem capable of thinking about anything else.

I sped up my pace as I saw Alice and Jasper just entering the canteen a few metres in front of me.

"Hey!" I called. They both turned around to look at me as I jogged towards them. Jasper gave me a smile, relaxed, as usual. Nothing seemed to faze him. Alice, on the other hand, looked rather worried and upset. Her smile was more forced and looked as though she was just about ready to burst into tears any second.

"Hey, hey, hey," I cooed soothingly. I put my arm around her shoulders to give her an awkward one-armed hug, as Jasper was still had a firm grip around her waist.

"I just - I don't know what's going on. What did I... What did we do? Why won't she talk to us, Edward? She's my best friend. What could have happened that was so bad that she would no longer to me? To all of us? What - " Alice stuttered, beginning to sound slightly hysterical. I could tell she was struggling not to cry, and I knew that if she continued talking and over-thinkng everything she would, indeed, begin to cry. And let me tell you something, Edward Cullen does not deal well with crying girls, especially those he is particularly fond of. Yes, Alice may be slightly annoying, and really hyperactive, but she was a sister to me, even if she wasn't related to me biologically, and if she was upset, that just pushed me even further into the dark clouds of depression.

"Shhh, Alice. We're going to find Bella, talk to her and straighten this whole thing out. I'll do whatever I can to get her to talk to us again. I'm sure Bella wouldn't be doing this if she felt that it was not necessary, she's not a spiteful person. She wouldn't mean to cause you any pain. Well, she wouldn't want to cause pain to anyone. Shh, please don't cry." Jasper's gaze was fixed on the back of Alice's head as she began crying quietly into my chest. I decided that he was probably the best person to cheer her up so I silently mouthed to him that he should take over. He responded quickly, and wrapped his other arm around Alice to pull her towards his body and into a full embrace.

I strolled into the canteen, feeling slightly nervous at the prospect of seeing Bella. At the prospect of Bella ignoring me again. But she wasn't there. Good, it would give me time to prepare. I really had no clue what I was going to say to her. I hadn't been in this kind of situation before.

I grabbed some food, not really paying any attention to the food that I was buying, before going to sit at a table Emmett and Rosalie were already sitting at. Emmett was already examining the room every few seconds and both of them kept looking up anytime someone entered through the door.

"Hi, guys," I greeted quietly. They both nodded their heads in my direction, acknowledging my presence, but they didn't look at me, as they both continued to look around for Bella's arrival. "Will you guys just look at me? We can't all pounce on her as soon as she enters the room, that's not fair, plus that would just cause a scene, and that's the last thing we need. We don't need any more gossip being spread about the Cullens and I'm sure Bella wouldn't appreciate it either. Hey! Look at me!" They both finally responded to me and moved their heads minutely so they could see me. "Relax. We will talk to her when the opportunity arises, not as soon as she comes in. Got it?"

Rosalie rolled her eyes at my need to take control, and Emmett just huffed like a child that hadn't gotten its way. Well, to be honest, he did act like a child most of the time, so this really wasn't that out of character. He really was just a child that had been put in his place.

Alice and Jasper joined us after a couple of minutes and relayed to them what I had told Rosalie and Emmett. Jasper and Alice however agreed with me, which caused Emmett to scowl at them as though they had betrayed his trust.

I sat picking at my food, as I waited for Bella. I tried to keep myself composed, but all I wanted to do was run out the door in search for Bella. Multiple times I had to consciously stop myself from running my hands through my hair or pinching the bridge of my nose, as the rest of my family would know that these were the signs that I was frustrated, upset, or struggling with something. This time, unfortunately, I was all of them, but I couldn't show them just how anxious I was, because they'd try to persuade me to find Bella now, and I know it would not take much persuasion to make me change my mind as I was already very close to abandoning any rational thoughts and going with my heart instead of my head.

After what seemed like forever, Emmett poked me rather urgently, and whispered loudly to the rest of us: "Look! It's Bella!"

We all looked up at this, and Jasper had to physically restrain Alice from running over to her straight away. I paid close attention to her to see when we had the opportunity to confront her.

Fortunately, our window of opportunity arose fairly quickly.

When she entered the room, she lingered around the doorway scanning the tables. She looked briefly over at us and then turned her attention to another table containing Mike Newton, Jessica Stanley, and the rest of their group. Mike waved her over, to which she returned his gesture and smiled. She was going to eat lunch with Newton? She hated him! And she frequently complained about how he acted like a 'golden retriever', drooling over and following forever by her side. I was ready to jump up from my seat then and demand what the hell she was doing. But I knew I had to wait. Patience is a virtue. Well, at least that's what people say. But it's easier said than done.

She walked off to get some lunch. She picked up the tray and then turned to look in our direction. When she did she looked quickly at the others and then her eyes locked with mine. She looked so lost, so.... apologetic? And most of all she looked caring. This was the Bella we loved. Not the dismissive, moody Bella that made an appearance this morning. She froze on the spot, and a few people skipped the queue to get past her, but she didn't seem to notice.

I realised that this was the opportunity that my family and I had been waiting for and I was wasting it by staring at her. Well, that wasn't going to solve much now, was it? So I tore my eyes away from her and turned back to my family, who had also been gazing at Bella.

"We need to go now, before she goes and sits with Newton and his friends, otherwise it will be the gossip of the town," I whispered to the rest of my family, who nodded and followed my lead when I pushed my chair back to get up.

Bella flinched at the sound of the scraping of our chairs, so I guessed that she was dreading talking to us. She quickly looked behind her to find the source of the noise. When she saw us, she seemed to tense up. She again turned around, back to her empty tray, and pulled her iPod out of her bag, unravelling the earphones and fiddling with the buttons before putting it into her pocket. I knew that tactic; it's what you did when you didn't want to talk to someone, so you pretend you can't hear because of the music, when really you just don't want to listen. Well, that wasn't going to work on me. I was going to make her listen. Whether she wanted to or not. I wanted our Bella back.

I gestured to the rest of my family to walk towards Bella, which they quickly complied to do, all wearing similarly determined expressions.

We approached Bella as a group, making it harder for her to make an escape.

When we reached her, I hesitantly reached out to grip her wrist which made her flinch and spin around. She looked down at our the contact and looked almost... angry? That I was touching her? That definitely wasn't normal.

"Bella," I whispered. But she didn't look up. She didn't even acknowledge the fact that I had spoke. Oh yeah, the music. I was going to have to do something about that. With my other hand, I quickly removed the earphone from one of her ears, which finally jolted her into movement and she prevented my hand from removing the other.

"Bella, just talk to us. Please," I begged. She looked like she wanted to. But then her expression hardened and pulled her wrist back from my hand, which I reluctantly released. "Please, Bella. Don't be like this. Just tell us what we did so we can make it right. How can you expect anything to get better if you won't talk to us? How can you expect anything to get better if you won't tell us what we did wrong so we can fix this and move on? Whatever it was, we're sorry. Please, talk to us."

"I don't want to talk. I want to eat. So, if you'll excuse me, I want to go join my friends and enjoy the rest of my lunchtime," she said politely, but still she kept that mask of indifference on her face that was not Bella at all. None of us even moved a step to let her pass. "Okay, that translates less politely as: move the hell out of my way, get out of my face, and leave me alone so that I can go have fun without you lot."

Alice started sniffling at this last comment and Bella did look vaguely guilty about this. I knew the real Bella was still in there, and the real Bella hates seeing people upset, no matter who they are, and especially if she cares about them.

"I'm sorry, Alice. I just really don't want to talk about this. Especially now. I don't want to upset you. So, I'm gonna go, but I promise, I will talk to you at some point soon. I just can't at the moment, it's just too much for me. I'm sorry," was all Bella said before she passed us and walked to Mike's table.

We all just stood in silence. Shocked at Bella's attitude, but glad that we made some sort of progress. At least she agreed to talk to us.

We went back to sit at our original table, at which we spent the rest of lunch in almost complete silence, apart from the odd attempt at breaking the silence, which never actually worked, as none of us were very responsive and we didn't really want to talk to each other at that moment.

I heard the scraping of numerous chairs and looked up and noticed that Bella and her new group were leaving. At that moment, I didn't think about much apart from the fact that she was leaving and we still hadn't figured out why she was being so off.

I quickly jumped up, jogging across the room to reach the door. I peered down the corridor, spotting Bella on the left and running after her. This time I wasn't going to take no for an answer. I wasn't going to be so patient and gentle this time.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled on it so that she twirled around to face me. She wasn't expecting it, so when she span around she also fell forwards and so I found myself facing her, our faces merely inches away from each other. She looked up into my eyes, and I stared back at her. Confused by the feeling that I was experiencing. I was.... dazed. I didn't know what was happening. I wasn't aware of anyone around us. At this moment, a bomb could have hit the school and I wouldn't have been any the wiser.

She looked just as out of it as I was, until she managed to regain some control and realised whose eyes she was staring into and hastily looked down, releasing my from her gaze. Well, that was... weird. To say the least. I'd never experienced anything like that before.

Bella tried to back away from me, but I just tightened my grip on her wrist, keeping her in place. I was determined to get an answer this time. I couldn't wait until she was ready, I need to know now, so that I could sort this out and everything could go back to normal.

"You're not going anywhere this time. You're going to tell me what we did, and you're going to tell me now."

"What if I don't want to?" she challenged, the hardness returning to her eyes. Damn, I thought I was making some progress, but I'd just taken a huge step back by being too demanding.

"Bella. I need to know. You need to tell me what's going on."

"I don't need to do anything Edward. Especially something I don't want to do."

"Please, Bella," I decided to try begging. It normally worked on her. She was a sucker for the puppy-dog eyes. "Pleaseee," I whined. I probably sounded pathetic, but if it finally got an answer from her then I really couldn't care less.

"Don't you dare use that expression to try and crack me! It won't work this time, and that's a promise!"

Her stubbornness was really starting to get on my nerves. She was going to tell me.

"Well, what do you expect me to do then, huh?! What the hell am I supposed to do when you're acting like a complete cow and you won't even tell me what I've meant to have done?!" I almost shouted at her in my frustration.

"Maybe, you should leave me alone. If I'm such a cow, why would you want to be my friend anyway?!"

"Because I care, Bella! Because I care!"

"If you cared so much you would realise this is what I need. This is all for the best; for everyone," she said, quietly, suddenly looking deflated and upset.

"What do you mean?" She was silent and continued to gaze everywhere but at me. "Goddammit, Bella! Tell me!" Again she stayed silent. "Tell me!"

"You really don't want to know."

"Yes, I really do. Now, say it! Now! Please, Bella. Would you just stop -"

"Okay, you want to know, huh? You want to know why I won't talk to you? It's because I don't want to screw up my life. I don't want to get in too deep and find that I can't get out."

"What do you mean, Bella? I don't get it! Argh, this is so frustrating! Just tell me straight! Why aren't you talking you talking to us?! Wh -"

"Because I love you!"

A/N: Hoped you liked it!

I promsie the next chapter won't take as long (if you review =P )

So, go on, press that button, and I'll update as soon as I can. Remember the target is 15 for a faster update!