Disclaimer: Not Mine. You know this. I know this. Enjoy it though.

Ummhmm. I know it's short. Please forgive. I have a LOT on my FF plate. Please have a look at the other things I've posted. I think you'll enjoy them.

EDWARD MASEN

The next day of the game was hell, mainly because I spent the morning session worried about the state of Bella's welfare, not doubting that she had probably thrown herself off a cliff by accident, or something as ridiculous as that.

"Oi, Stone?" Ben Cheney looked pissed at me, and the way today was going, I was pretty sure he had every right to be, as I had been tired, moody and generally going through every withdrawal symptom imaginable, headaches, cravings and more.

Except the only thing my body was missing? Bella. Which made absolutely no sense, and made me feel more than a little confused. I wrapped my arms around myself on the pitch and started to stretch out before my next spell.

"Stone!" Cheney's voice was more insistent now, and I looked up to see practically everyone staring at me, drinks at their feet in bottles that looked more than inviting. "You want to drink, or are you just being antisocial now?" He quirked an eyebrow and I thought about sticking two fingers up at him, but bit my bottom lip and shook my head, changing my mind at the last second.

"I'm coming!" I heard Emmett muttering something, and the guffaws that followed it, and decided then and there that I didn't really want to know, but was going to ask anyway. "What?"

"Oh nothing!" He sing-songed innocently, and I shook my head, biting my lip and really, really wanting to ask, but deciding that I wasn't going to rise to it. It wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it.

"Oh, no, Cullen, come on, I'm listening now..." Apparently, brain-of-mine thought it was worth it. And that I was going to get kicked off the field for the rest of the session for being aggressive to my own teammate because I hadn't had a fix of Bella-Bloody-Swan since she had left me with a raging hard-on in the back of the taxi last night.

Fuck my life. I'm at the anger stage of withdrawal. Fuck.

"I just..." Emmett had the good grace to look sheepish, "I just... 'That's what she said'd'..." He muttered quietly, and I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you implying something? Seriously, Cullen?" I was up in his face now, and I had no idea where it had come from. I was simply pissed that he could be talking about my relationship with Bella, even though in my logical, non-Jekyll-and-Hyde brain, I was sure he was only joking.

"Masen!" I wheeled around at the sound of my name being yelled across the pitch, "Inside, now!" I ducked my head and left the field, my head flicking back and forth in an amalgamation of shame, embarrassment and fury as I met Adam London on the stairs down to the pitch and apologised to him.

"Nah, man, no need to apologise to me – I get to go out and play." He grinned at me and jogged down the stairs, and, as twelfth man, wandered onto the pitch to replace me.

Right then, I hated myself. I also hated Emmett, but I think that may have been beside the point, considering I had just been pulled from the session because I was bitching at him.

"Masen." Ross Stubbings was staring at me, his eyes narrowed and his face set in a scowl as he watched me come in through the door and let me know I was a dick before I could even begin to plead my pathetic case. "Do you want to explain, or do I get to tear you a new one first?"

"Can I get it over with?" I winced and he smirked. It wasn't a nice smirk.

"Well, where do I start? The Fair Play initiative? No aggression out of play on the pitch? The basic fundamentals of this game?" I almost pointed out that he was using a tautology, but kept my mouth shut. There were cricket bats in the changing room, I wasn't risking injuring myself, or letting him injure me. "Well, Edward? Seriously, there really are more reasons than I can count that give me license to scream at you right now, because I seriously think that what you did was selfish and ridiculous and..." He stopped and stared at me, irritation quite clear on his face. "Edward Masen, right now, I could kill you. Explain yourself, or I'm going to actually break your face with a cricket bat."

"I..." He raised his eyebrows at me as I stumbled over the words and I wanted to shrink into a hole of embarrassment that I could not have imagined would exist two days ago. "I met someone."

"That's nice. I meet a lot of people. Doesn't make me go ape-shit on Emmett Cullen's man-mountain butt though, does it?"

"Er... no, sir." A pause, "Please, Ross... She... I don't even know, okay? She's doing insane things to me, and I don't understand it at all-"

"Masen, she's a woman. She's hard to understand, she's confusing, and she clearly has you under her thumb. How long have you known her?"

"Three days at most."

"Jesus, Masen, you've known her three days?" I hesitated to say that is was, in reality, far less than that. "You're freaking insane." Another pause, "This has to be stress. This has to be... jet lag, or something. I don't even know, but it has to be something." He stared at me for longer than a minute, as though he was considering something far bigger than he or I. "Call her, Masen."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I want to know this girl's intentions."

"Are you my father, or something?"

"For all intents and purposes, yes, I fucking am." I couldn't believe he was swearing – he wasn't the kind of person to do that, for the simple fact that he was... well... nice.

I shut my eyes, tired and furious, and threw him my phone. He held it as though it was an atom bomb, ready to explode within seconds, and I sighed, letting him pick up the phone and dial her number.

"It's under Bella. Bella Swan." I grumbled.

"Hello?" A small pause, "Hi! Can I speak to Bella, please? Oh! Hi Bella, this is Ross Stubbings, Ed Masen's boss."

I didn't hear her reply, but at that moment, I decided I didn't want to. I put my face in my hands and sighed as I listened to Ross's side of the conversation, and sighed.

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Yes! This is short! But I really, REALLY wanted to put the phone convo in Bella's POV, and yeah, update on Friday... =)

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