AN: So this is the last chapter that had been posted on fanfiction prior to having a Beta. Now it is being re-posted with readtoomuch's creativity and Beta skills. You might want to go back and re-read what has been posted up to this point if you have not already. Much has changed. If you are coming along for the ride then thank you for your time, but don't say I didn't warn you beforehand. I also would like to point out that I only wish to borrow names and a bunch of other shit from Twilight with respect of course to Stephanie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.

I am the waiting one it seems
I am the waiting one it seems
Days grow somber quickly
Now how the quiet is release
And I feel so lonely

How did you think I would feel?
Throw me aside again
How did you think I would feel?
Won't let you hurt me again, now

I'm nothing to you, I can see
Just walk away from me
I'm torn up, but I can't believe
You sat and watched me bleed

She knows the waiting one in me
That I needed to hold you
Still I can smell her, hear her breathe
Feel her body beside me

How long I've waited, waited for you
To come back to hold me
What should I, what should I, what should I do
When I feel so lonely?

How could you do this to me?
Betrayed by my closest friend
How could you do this to me?
Won't let you hurt me again now

I am the waiting one it seems
The Waiting One by All That Remains

Chapter 5

EPOV

I pulled into the small parking lot in the back of my shop, turn my car off, and just sit in the silence of my car. I feel as though I've been kicked in the gut several times over. Although I was angry with Bella, a part of me wanted to forget all this shit and go back to her.

I hop out of my ride and walk over to the back door of the shop. After unlocking the door and turning on the lights, I blink hard a few times and focus my eyes as I head over to my station to get set up. The stencil I had created for Emmett's back piece has been ready for a few days. The theme of the tattoo may have been Emmett's idea, but the actual creative design was my own.

Shit looks fucking hot! Fuck, I'm good.

Emmett and I met at Dartmouth when we realized we had more stuff in common than with the smoking hot Asian co-ed we had been competing over. Both of us being naturally creative with similar interests and majoring in Architecture Design quickly paved the road towards us becoming friends. We've been best friends ever since. After we graduated, he came to Forks at my invitation to stay and work with me.

Emmett has grown up in the foster care system since he was six years old. Those years had not been kind. He went through a lot of different foster families, and most of the families he had been placed with didn't give a shit about anything but the monthly check from the government. Crafty fucker that he is, Emmett knew he was smart and he knew that his only option to get out his shit life was to do well in school and hope for a scholarship to go to college. He played football all throughout high school, kept his GPA at 4.0, rocked his SATs and SAT IIs, and got into Dartmouth on a full fucking ride. He did all this while keeping a sense of humor and a positive outlook on life. There's not a man I respect more. I heard the back door open but didn't look up, knowing who it was.

"What the fuck, E, you look like shit!"

I gave him my 'back the fuck off look.' Even though we're close in height, Emmett's bulkier with thick solid muscles compared to my leaner frame. With his dark hair and light blue eyes, the women found him almost as irresistible as they found me. Almost. I don't know how many times I've walked in on his sweaty ass as he's pumping his dick into some chick bent over the back of the couch in the apartment we had shared in college.

"Fuck off, Em, I didn't call your sorry ass here so that you could get all up in my shit!"

He holds his hands up in mock surrender and then pulls his shirt over the top of his head. "Calm down bro, I know shit's been messed up with Bella drama and Charlie's funeral and all, but you need to chill out." Now shirtless, Emmett looks around for a moment and when he sees the stencil I had designed, his face lights up like a fucking kid waking up Christmas morning to a floor full of presents.

"Fuck! E, that shit is tight!"

I knew it was tight. I was that good. Em had explained the basics of what he wanted for his back piece and told me he wanted me to use my creative style to come up with the final design. Ultimately, I had designed the image of a naked woman posed on her knees with her feet tucked under her ass. Her arms extending wrist to wrist over her head in a submissive pose. The tattoo showed mostly the woman's slender back and backside with just the side profile of her face as she appeared to be looking over her shoulder. I made sure to draw it so that it didn't look like one particular woman. This way, if Em ever married one day he could have the facial portion of the tattoo completed with the likeness of his wife.

Emmett cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck and back to avoid cramping. He then lay face down on the padded massage table we used for back work. He dropped his arms loosely, one falling off each side of the table to keep the skin as tight as possible.

I sprayed his back with water from a bottle and he quickly jerked up and barked, "What the fuck, bitch! You could have warmed that shit up first!"

Smirking, I pushed him back down and finished spraying his back. "Quit being such a pussy, bitch! If you like, I can always dry shave your ass instead!"

Smiling broadly, Emmett shook his ass. "It's not just my ass you'll be shaving, punk!"

I shake my head in amusement and decide to ignore the silly motherfucker. After snapping on a pair of black latex gloves I smoothly smear shaving lotion on his back. I reach over and grab the razor from the water basin and begin to shave all the fine peach fuzz from his back. He moans and I quickly slap to the back of his head with my free hand. Hard.

"Hey! I'm just fuckin' with you, man. Damn, you need to lighten up already! And you better not fucking cut me with that razor!"

I finish prepping his back and once it's rinsed, I slowly apply the stencil carefully making sure that the design is centered and even. He knows better than to give me shit while I'm doing this. Yeah, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my work, but if he moves even a little while I'm placing the stencil then it'll just get fucked up and take that much longer. Once it's on to my satisfaction, I begin to press into the design with a folded cloth so that the ink from the stencil transfers on to the skin creating the outline. I carefully pull the stencil off and check for any ink bleeds or areas where the ink didn't transfer well. All is good.

"Alright, bitch, get your big ass up and take a look at the design in the full length." I hand him a standard sized hand held mirror so he can check his reflection with the mirror on the wall and give the OK.

Emmett raises himself up and off the table and walks over to the full length mirror, turns around, and using the hand held mirror he is able to see the image that has been transposed onto his back. It appears he is more than satisfied with the result if the big ass dimple bearing smile he has plastered on his face is any indication.

"Well, Em, what do you think now that you have a general idea of what the final result will look like on your back?"

Emmett sets the hand held down on the nearest station and walks towards me with his closed fist raised to punch mine. "It's fucking amazing, E. With the designs I specialize in I never would have gotten that shit right. You are THE shit when it comes to sketching the human body."

I raise one brow sharply. "You know I'm the shit when it comes to more than just sketching the human body."

Emmett starts belly laughing having full knowledge my history and just nods his head and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah whatever, Casanova!"

Both Emmett and I are excellent artists and we've been honing our craft doing tattoos for paying clients for a few years now. We continued on our own during the last year of college when the shop we had been working in went under and referrals kept calling from us from previous happy clients. Being an architect had been my dream since I was a kid playing with legos, but when I started drawing designs for tattoos, and then went on to actually tattooing, I found my true calling.

The tattoo shop Emmett and I own together now was an opportunity that fell into our laps unexpectedly. A client who had used Charlie and Carlisle's legal services had previously owned the shop and was looking to sell. When Carlisle mentioned it to me, I immediately spoke to Emmett about purchasing the shop as a joint venture. He quickly agreed and the rest is history; Flesh for Fantasy was born and rocking pretty steady. It didn't take long to establish a rep and build clientele since we had kept the loyalty of the customer base from the previous owner, Aro. We now have four full time artists, a handful of apprentices, and a crazy chick that does piercings.

After I had finished adjusting my tattoo gun and setting up the ink wells I would need, I pulled on another fresh pair of gloves. "Quit staring at yourself in the mirror and lay back down, bitch! It's time to mix some blood and ink!"

Em walked over to the table and lay down properly once again. I start up my gun. "You ready, Em?" I ask before I lower the tip of the gun to my starting point.
"I'm always ready, E." He responds cockily. I can't see him, but I know he's wagging his eyebrows like a creepy motherfucker.

I start to run the gun over the lines left on his back from the stencil.

"So are you finally going to tell me what made you want to start this piece today when the shop was closed?"

I let out a deep breath. I knew this would eventually come up, but damn I just wanted to sweep that shit under the rug right now.

"Come on, bro, you're my best friend. I can tell when you're keeping shit in so spill it."

Emmett settles down when he realizes I'm ignoring him. Listening to the low buzz of the tattoo gun provides my ears the white noise I need to calm down and relax to get into my zone. I wipe the area that I just outlined - wiping away the blood from the needle taps and any excess ink from the skin. It is looking good and at the rate that I've been going so far we should be done with the outline in a couple of hours.

"I went and saw Bella after the funeral last night."

Emmett lifts his head and shakes it side to side ."It's about fucking time you got your shit together," he replies.

"What the fuck is that supposed to even mean, Em? She left without a fucking word and stayed gone for four fucking years. And don't fucking move!" I wipe another area. Okay, so I wiped it just a little harder than I probably should have, but fuck.

Shit, why didn't I keep my mouth shut.

"Well, did you get the answers you've been waiting all these years for or what?" He hissed through his teeth - obviously, feeling the pain of my wiping the area with a little more force than necessary. I may have felt bad for a second, but that was short lived.

I continued my assault on his back and told him about all the shit that went down last night with Bella. When I got to the part about Carlisle coming over to Bella's house with letters from the dead this morning, he couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer.

"Hold the fuck up, E! What the fuck did Charlie say, and what does that shit have to do with Bella jumping ship faster than a virgin on a boat full of ugly ass pirates?"

I leaned back in my chair to stretch my back and roll my neck as I thought about my response. "In the letter, Charlie pretty much explained everything - why Bella left, why she didn't want anyone to know where she was and get this, his part in all of it. It's un-fucking-believable, man."

Emmett's head rises up from the table and he glances back at me with a shocked expression on his face. "You've gotta be shitin' me."

I just shook my head in disbelief. Honestly, I was still in shock myself over what Charlie revealed in the letter. I wasn't sure of what he had written in his letter to Bella, but I figure it's much like the one I got.

"So it seems that Bella's aunt Kate had offered her an internship at her studio in Georgia, an internship that she never told me about. Charlie said Bella had been undecided about the offer, but after an overnight trip to Seattle, she was suddenly eager to go to Savannah and spend some time with her aunt before starting the internship. Evidently, she was unhappy here in Forks and while she wouldn't admit the real reason why she suddenly wanted to go he ultimately agreed to it in the end so she could experience life outside of Washington."

I paused to wipe the residual ink and blood from my current canvas, silently noting the areas that I would have to lightly pass over again. "He also wrote that he had assumed the real reason Bella wanted to leave was because of her crush on me."

When the fuck did that happen? Had I been that blind? No, you just loved her too much to fuck it up by crossing that line.

Bella had been my best friend, and sure we had been physically attracted to each other. Hell, we'd both been teenagers and the hormones were ramping up into full gear and shit, I was a guy. Guys can't help but look at hot bodies whether it's on a friend's or not. But I had dated... a lot, all throughout high school and college. I guess I never really noticed when Bella didn't. I just figured she was waiting for that romantic idealized shit all girls want - her prince charming. Ha, well her prince charming would have had to meet me and my brothers before getting fifty feet from Bella's cute little body.

And then there's Charlie. Charlie didn't think anyone was good enough for his Bella. I agreed with him on that front. I was a punk-ass, trouble making teenager with raging hormones and Bella was the sweet, innocent girl next door. So fucking cliché, except we didn't fuck it up with sex. I know he loved me like a son, but I also knew he didn't want me anywhere near Bella in THAT way. Again, I agreed with him, so any thoughts of Bella other than a friend was thrown into the oubliette of never will be. We had been as close as best friends could be and sometimes the both of us had gotten a little touchy with each other while watching a movie or something, but that's it. Anything beyond that was fantasy shit I created for my own personal Bella spank bank. Shit, she would have freaked the fuck out if she had known the hot fantasies she had starred in unknowingly in the deep recesses of my boned out horny mind. My mind - and my cock - shamelessly leading me one of my favorites...

Bella bent over in front of me moaning desperately with her luscious tight ass in the air and my tongue buried deep in her tight wet pussy. My large hands gripping her hips tight to thrust her back into my face as I fucked her with my mouth. My hands tightening on her hips when her body starts to shake and her moans get louder as she starts to...

Punching my thigh, I try to get a grip on myself. Thank God I had paused while I was working on Emmett's back, otherwise I might have ruined the outline. Breathing out silently, I try to control myself before Emmett turns his head and sees my fucking boner.

"It gets worse from there," I grimaced. "Apparently Bella had come home early from Seattle, because she hadn't been feeling well and unknowingly came upon the single tail whipping session by none other than yours truly. And I was practicing on her mom's naked friend."

Emmett just turned his head and stared at me silently with big eyes before he started shaking in mirth. "Wait, wait, take a break for a second. I don't want this tat fucked up while I lose my shit!"

"Are you seriously finding this amusing, you fucking dick head!" I shouted incredulously at the same as I pulled the tattoo gun away from his skin. As soon as I had backed off, Emmett jumped up off of the table and doubled over laughing uncontrollably.

What the fuck? Is this hardheaded rhino really laughing at my situation? This is why Dr. Phil and vodka are so fucking popular - your fucking so called friends laugh when you're in the pits of fucking despair instead of quietly listening and helping you get passed the pain.

"What the fuck is so fucking funny, asshole!" Now, I was getting pretty fucking pissed off. Yeah, I was fully aware of Emmett's bulk compared to mine, but at this point I was so fucking pissed off that I had no doubt I could take him down.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry, E, but that shit is a fucking classic!" The bitch was laughing so hard he was wiping tears from his eyes. "Dude, you have to admit if the roles were reversed and it was me that was going through this shit, you would be laughing your ass off at my expense."

I gave him a dirty look. Clearly, I must be the better friend.

"I'm glad you find this so fucking hilarious!" I picked up the basin of water and chucked it at him. Yeah, it was a bitch move on my part but whatever. Maybe I should bite him and pull his fucking earring off too.

Keep laughing, motherfucker.

"Well, I'm sure you'll find it equally entertaining to hear that the person I was practicing on was fucking Tanya Denali!"

Emmett just continued to wail like a fucking banshee and holding his stomach, he starts looking around wildy. "E, you gotta fucking stop, man. You're killing me over here! There's no way. There's gotta be a camera in here. Where is he? Where's the dude who jumps out and yells 'you're punked'?"

"What? You think I'm fucking joking? Are you fucking serious, Em?" I turned around to look for something, anything that I could punch without having to call the insurance company, because if I didn't, I was seriously going to kick Emmett's ass in about three point two seconds.

"Ok, ok, bro, I'm sorry! Seriously man, that shit was unexpected. I thought you were fuckin' with me for a minute, but now I can see that you're really upset so I feel ya', alright? I'll shut my big mouth now." Emmett grins and he tries to stop the giggles that he can't keep in, while trying to make a serious face.

Now the fucker's giggling like some silly teeny bopper seeing Justin Bieber for the first time.

"Oh yeah, I can see how you would think I'm making this shit up, Em, but Christ! - give me a break already!" I growl through gritted teeth and hands fisted on either side of me. Shit, I need to calm the hell down.

Shaking my head to clear the cloud of disbelief and outrage, I start walking away from Emmett and calmly say with my back turned, "I'm going out for a smoke. Alone." I push open the back door and slam it shut for good measure. "Fucker!"

After retrieving my smokes from my car, I light up and lean my back against the cool bricks on the outside of the building next to the back door of my shop. Fucking Emmett's right about one thing, I feel like I've just been punked by that pansy-ass looking fucker, Kutcher. The last 4 years worrying about Bella had been bad enough, but the last twenty four hours have been a nightmare from hell and I don't see this getting better anytime soon.

I still can't believe Bella saw that shit that day and I had had no clue all this time. How the hell could I have known though? She should have said something to me.

C'mon man, how the fuck would she even know how to start that conversation? "uhm Edward, can I ask why you were whipping my mom's naked friend in my backyard?" I doubt she's ever even heard of BDSM or terms like dominant and submissive in a sexual capacity.

I know that her parents came clean about their BDSM lifestyle before Charlie died, but I highly doubt Bella is aware that I play as well. Obviously she saw me using the whip on Tanya that day and until her father told her about BDSM, she probably never thought anything but the worst of what she had seen. I doubt even now she realizes or understands that it's become my life too.

I am a Dom and have been for years. I'm not sure what Bella will make of it - if she will accept me the way I am or hightail her ass for the hills... again. This is why I never mentioned or hinted at it all those years ago when I started participating. I knew she was too innocent to understand and I had been afraid she would pull away from me.

I walk over to put my smoke out in the ashtray I leave out on the ledge of the back window by the back door, just as a car pulls into the lot and parks in the open spot next to my car.

"Fucking hell, not now," I mumble to myself when I recognize the driver, wishing the ground would open up beneath me and swallow me whole.

She sits in her car staring straight ahead for a few seconds, before she turns the engine off and gets out. She walks towards me slowly, hesitation in every step and distress lining her brows and expressed when she starts biting her lower lip anxiously.

"Bella, what are you doing here?"

She looks at me with her tear stained cheeks and watery bloodshot eyes.

"Edward, I'm really sorry to just show up like this," she says quietly, "but Carlisle told me where you would probably be and I think there's been enough running away. Can we talk?"

Knowing this conversation was obviously not going to postpone itself I had no choice but to do this now.

"Alright, Bella, let's talk."