Well, hot damn, that was one crazy mix of reviews. I didn't know I was creating such a scandal with Bella and Emmett, lol. Just trying something different! Well, hopefully this chapter will answer your questions and whatnot, hope you like it! And shout out to Jen, who rushed me into updating, hahaha :P

Chapter Eight: The Morning After

Bella

I was woken up the next day by Charlie, who was saying there was someone at the door to see me.

"OK," I said hoarsely, trying to grab a hold of my surroundings, wondering how I ended up back here. The last thing I could remember was getting ready for Alice's party with her and Rosalie.

I sat up and waited for the world to stop spinning. I felt wretched, and I could only imagine what I looked like. Before I had a chance to get out of bed and try to control the damage before my visitor arrived, the door was opening, and Alice was walking in.

"Hey, girl," she said. "Just came to see how you are?"

I smiled and winced at the same time, as everything came rushing back. Edward. The drinking. Emmett. The kissing. Being driven home early by Alice, who just told my dad I was feeling a bit sick and helped me get to bed before he could realise that I had been drinking.

Gah.

"I'm fine," I lied. "Sorry for dragging you away from your party last night."

"Don't worry about it," she said, sitting down on the chair next to my desk, waving her hand dismissively. "It was still there when I got back."

"Was the house in much of a mess this morning?" I asked, grinning as Alice rolled her eyes.

"Jessica Stanley puked in my bath, but other than that, no major dramas," she said.

There was a pause. I could tell she was bursting to say something, and I couldn't hold my own news in for much longer.

"Alice. I did a bad thing."

"What?" she asked slowly, her eyes wide.

"I kissed Emmett Cullen," I admitted. "Last night."

"Oh," she said, looking surprised only for a moment. "But guess what else happened?"

"Al, I don't think you heard me," I began, confused by her lack of reaction.

"Bella, not one of my female friends who have ever come into contact with Emmett Cullen has not made out with him at one point. The man is irresistible. It's like he's got magnets in his lips."

I stared. "Did you…?"

She threw me a look. "Of course I did. It was ages ago, and I was drunk, and the next day it was just something we laughed about. Believe me, Bella, I would have been more shocked if we got to the end of this month and he hadn't at least tried to kiss you."

"Oh," I huffed, "well." I collapsed on my bed again, thinking it all through. "But what about Rosalie?" I asked eventually, nervously. "She likes him…"

Alice sighed. "Yeah, she does. But last night… she tried to make him jealous. I told her it wasn't a good idea, but she didn't listen to me…" Alice rolled her eyes. "You see, last night, Emmett and Rosalie would have probably got it together. They've been flirting for ages now and he hasn't tried anything, and with Emmett, that means he really likes her. But she decided to make him jealous by hanging around with her ex all night, and Emmett doesn't play games like that, so he just told her if she wanted to flirt with other guys she could work away, because he wouldn't be interested."

I gasped. "Oh no."

"Yeah," Alice sighed. "So she kind of brought that on herself, I did tell her that Emmett would react like that…"

"Should I tell her about… what happened?" I asked. "I don't want to lie to her, or for her to find out from Emmett."

"Emmett won't mention it again unless you bring it up to him, so don't worry, she won't hear it from him. And if it didn't mean anything, and if it's not going to happen again… why tell Rosalie and only hurt her?"

"It would hurt her even more if she were to find out later," I said.

Alice nodded. "Tell her if you want, but make sure you're telling her because she has a right to know, and not because you're trying to alleviate your guilty conscience."

I paused, thinking about that. She was right. The only reason I would be telling Rosalie would be to make me feel better. All it would really achieve would be hurting her feelings and making her angry with me, and I didn't want to do that.

I was broken out of my troubled thoughts by Alice clearing her throat.

"Anyway, I've been trying to say this all morning," she began, grinning. "Guess what?"

My eyes widened. "Jasper!" I exclaimed, suddenly remembering that conversation.

Alice beamed. "You're not the only one who was getting kissed by a really hot guy last night!" she giggled.

"Oh my God!" I squealed, sitting up again. "That's brilliant, Alice, I'm so happy for the two of you! What happened?"

"Well, we were like Siamese twins all night, I mean, seriously, I couldn't get rid of him even if I had wanted to, and at one point we ended up alone in the kitchen and Jasper gave me a hug and said that was my birthday present, and then I pouted and said 'well I thought I was getting a better present than that' -"

I grinned.

"- so then he said 'I have something else in mind but I'm not sure how much you're interested' and then I said 'what if I've been interested for longer than you think' and he said 'really' and I said 'yes' and then he just looked at me started grinning and then…" Alice trailed off, beaming again, her eyes shining. "He's such a good kisser. So we were there, like, making out and it was totally awesome and then Rosalie walks in to see where we were."

My mouth fell open. "What?!" I couldn't believe I had missed out on all this drama.

"Yep," Alice said. "I nearly had a stroke. I was so afraid she was going to be angry at us but she just rolled her eyes and said 'I'm psychic, I knew this would happen. You two took your time', and then she left us alone and Jasper laughed and just started making out with me again and then he asked me out and he wants to take me on a picnic later which is so romantic…"

I let her gush on about Jasper, delighted at how happy and excited she was. I was glad she finally got her prince in the end, and wasn't one of those victims of unrequited love.

My thoughts wandered back onto what I was going to do about the whole Emmett situation. I decided I was just going to have to talk to him in school, and see what he had to say for himself.


Edward

I was woken up, as usual, by Emmett thundering loudly into my room.

"Get your lazy ass up!" he said.

"Make me. It's Sunday, so go and annoy someone else," I mumbled into my pillow, wincing as Emmett threw the curtains open.

"Can't. Your name came out of the hat this morning."

"Oh, lucky me," I grumbled, stretching.

"What did you think of Shortie's party last night then?" Emmett asked, sitting himself down at my keyboard and hammering out a poor version of Mary Had A Little Lamb.

"It was as dull and boring as every other lame high school party," I answered, rolling my eyes and wincing at the sounds forced out of my poor keyboard.

"You know what your problem is, Edward?"

"Enlighten me."

"You're spoilt! You've been to so many of Garrett's legendary parties, that us folk in Forks just aren't enough for you any more."

I snorted. He was right, though.

"I thought it was a… illuminating party, myself," Emmett said, and there was something brewing behind his tone. This was my cue to ask, you see, so I rolled my eyes again.

"What do you mean?" I sighed.

"I preformed a little experiment of my own, and I must say, the results were quite hot."

"What are you talking about?"

"Bella," he said simply. I eyed him suspiciously, wondering where this was going.

"What about her?"

"Did you make any progress last night with her?"

"No… she went home early," I said slowly, not even bothering to point out how goody-goody and pathetic I thought that was.

"I see…" Emmett said, running his fingers along the keys, his face alight with mischief. I knew my brother well enough to know that he had done something he shouldn't have, and was now going to make me guess what it was. It was one of those annoying things he liked to do. I wasn't in the mood.

"I'll just talk to her in school," I said dismissively, turning around in bed so I was facing away from him.

"If you'll go to school at all."

"Emmett. I already had this from Mom and Dad, I don't need it from you as well."

"Fair enough." He let it go. I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn't about to get another lecture, and I started to relax, letting my eyes close.

"So, I made out with Bella last night, anyway."

My eyes flew back open, and I froze. "What?!"

"Yup. I don't know who she's been practising on, but that girl knows what she's doing with that mouth of hers," Emmett laughed.

I couldn't move. I was literally shocked into silence. I sure as hell didn't see this coming.

I was pissed. And I wasn't sure why. So I looked for a reason to give out to Emmett.

"That wasn't part of the bet," I snapped.

"I know. I told you, it was my own little experiment, to check your progress. You can't be affecting her that much, if she's unable to resist me. I told you, change your tactics. Get your romance on - well, in your case, bad romance."

I rolled my eyes, still fuming. I couldn't quite place what I was feeling… was it betrayal? No, it couldn't be - that was stupid. Bella Swan wasn't mine. I didn't even want her to be. I told myself I was just angry at Emmett, for potentially wrecking my chances of winning this bet.

So he wanted to be sneaky… well, two could play at that game. I was not about to lose three hundred bucks to him.

And especially not because of Bella Swan.


Bella

I had butterflies when I parked outside the school on Monday morning. I didn't know why; probably because I had no idea what to expect from today.

I put my bag over my head to shield myself from the worst of the lashing rain, and dashed towards the shelter of the buildings. The first person I happened to bump into was Mike Newton, and we both blushed and practically ran away from each other. That was just so awkward now, and neither of us even wanted to go there. Avoidance was just easiest.

"Hey, Bluebell," said a voice behind me. I turned around.

"Oh, hey, Emmett." I smiled uncertainly up at him, not sure where I stood with him anymore. After he kissed me in the bathroom, he had proceeded to act like nothing had happened for the rest of Alice's party.

"So…" Emmett said, after a pause. "How are you?"

"Look, Emmett," I began, hating the awkwardness, yet not having quite prepared what I wanted to say.

"Relax, Bells," he cut across me, "I know what you're going to say. I think you're a cracking girl, totally a ten, but I would only break your heart if you were to give it to me. I just want to be friends."

I smiled, relieved. "You just took the words out of my mouth. So we're definitely cool now as friends, and this won't be awkward…"

"Nah, Bluebell," Emmett grinned. "Don't worry your pretty little head. We're as cool as ice."

"Good," I beamed, and gave him a hug. His huge arms crushed me against his granite chest for a minute, and then he let me go.

"Oh, and Emmett?" I asked, suddenly struck by an idea.

"Yes, darlin'?"

"Rosalie," I said. "She likes you. If you like her, then it wouldn't hurt to give her another chance, would it?"

I left him with that thought, heading to my first class, hoping he'd listen to me. As I was about to head into the classroom, I saw Edward Cullen strutting up the corridor, his hair wet and plastered to his head. He caught my gaze, but he looked away from me again, almost like he awkward with me, too.

I wanted to roll my eyes. I headed into my class, muttering "boys" under my breath.

I didn't know whether to dread or look forward to Biology that day, so I felt a weird mixture of both. Edward really got on my nerves, yet there was some kind of magnetic pull about him, that just made me want to go back to him for more. I knew it was stupid… and I knew I was just setting myself up for a fall. I knew all that.

He was so late for class I had started to think he had ditched, and he shuffled into the room, muttering a half-hearted apology to a huffy Mr Banner. He sat next to me without looking at me, and spent the whole class slumped in his chair, drumming his fingers on the table in a vaguely irritating sort of way.

When the bell rang, he didn't move, and I stood up slowly, gathering my things together. I didn't think he was going to speak to me at all, and I felt a weird sense of anticlimax. I was so used to him needling me and refusing to shut up.

When I was just about to leave, I finally heard his voice.

"So were you going to tell me about you and Emmett, or do you think I can read minds?" he wondered aloud, staring moodily at the table. I froze.

"Oh. Eh. I don't know. Emmett told you, anyway, so… no big deal," I shrugged, with an attempt at nonchalance.

"You're right," he said, finally glancing up at me. "It isn't."

A painfully awkward, heavy silence descended on us then, and I was torn between running away and staying to find out why he cared about what happened with Emmett. I was hurriedly trying to make up my mind, when he stood up suddenly. I jumped a little.

"I'm going to Port Angeles," he said. "Do you want to come?"

"Oh!" I said, taken off guard. "Right now?"

"Yeah."

"What about school?"

"What about it?" he said, arching an eyebrow, as though daring me to make a fuss about missing a few classes. I wasn't about to give him another reason to call me a goody-two-shoes, so I didn't answer. "Are you going to come with me or not?"

I hesitated. "Why are you asking me to go?" I wanted to know.

He just looked at me. "Because I want you to."

"You can't always get what you want, Edward."

"I can try. You don't have to come with me, Bella, you can stay here in school and put up with the mind-numbing boredom, if you want to. I'm not stopping you."

He started to walk away, and I don't know what made me call him back. Maybe it was the fact that there was no trace of a patronising smirk, no glib remarks, no arrogance.

I found myself sitting on the back of Edward's motorbike ten minutes later, as we cruised our way to Port Angeles.