I know...this would get written a lot quicker if people would just stop writing such great fics....I've been a little distracted by some rather good stories lately. Nothing annoys me more than when a story doesn't get updated very often.....so my humblest apologies for taking so long to update this!

This starts the day after the infamous drinking game.....

CHAPTER 9: Progress Indeed!

EPOV

Today could be hell. Other than the fact that I was feeling decidedly seedy, I was pretty sure I was going to have to face Jasper at some point. I wasn't worried that I'd done it, it was that I'd withheld the information from Jasper of all people. He and I had a much stronger bond than Emmett and I had. Hell, I'd even saved his life last year the last time we played Truth or Dare. Emmett had stupidly dared him to get up on the roof and strip down naked. I wasn't happy about that shit because that roof was damn slippery. I wasn't as drunk as the rest of them so I went out after him. And he's damn lucky that I did because he slipped and damn near pulled both of us off the roof. Hence the reason we don't really play that drinking game anymore. Jasper's been pretty grateful ever since then.

Alice and I drove home form Emmett's in separate cars, she had to drop a very quiet Bella home, but as soon as she got in the door she pounced on me.

"Well, that game of I Never Ever wasn't half awkward Edward. I didn't know you'd told Jasper about Bella."

"I didn't."

"Then how does he know. Because the question last night sure as shit made it sound like he knew. Unless Bella told him."

Fuck, I hadn't thought of that. But why would Bella tell him? "Do you think it was her?"

"How else would he know? I know he's pretty cluey but that was pretty damn specific you've got to admit."

"Unless he had a couple bits of info and the rest was just a fishing expedition. But he and Bella were talking pretty intensely last night, and when I got up this morning they were at it again, talking about James." It was making me jealous as all hell. Why couldn't I have those conversations with her. Well, not the James one's, but the others.

"Ooooh, what were they saying?"

"Jasper was trying to rev her up a bit about how strong her feelings for him are. She mentioned that he's coming to visit Valentine's weekend so he can see for himself then."

"Yeah, she mentioned that he might be coming up that weekend. I'm dying to meet him, I haven't even seen a photo yet, but I'm not getting a very strong vibe about him. She doesn't say a lot about him, and when she does talk about him it's never with any real emotion you know."

"Maybe she's just not a very emotional kind of person."

"Well, I guess you'd know brother mine."

"Fuck off Alice." But she had a point. She didn't seem to be a really emotional type of person. If she was maybe she wouldn't have been able to walk away from that night we spent together so easily.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The sun was shining Monday at school. Pretty unusual for this part of the world, so at lunch time I was going to take advantage of it. As I walked through the quad I spotted Jasper sitting casually by himself up on one of the tables eating a bag a crisps soaking up the sun. I walked slowly in his direction dumping my bag and sitting down on the table next to him. There were loads of people milling around outside eating their lunch.

"Hey man," I greeted him.

"What's up?"

"Nothing. You?"

"Nothing."

"Didn't see much of you on Saturday night. You didn't hang around long and from the look on Lauren's face today when I saw her talking to Jess I'd say she had something to do with it?" Jasper just smiled and nodded knowingly at me. "So, you going back there?"

He looked at me and considered my question for a minute.

"You, know, it was a little weird actually."

"What was?"

"Lauren."

"So the third nipple rumour is true then?" I joked. But he didn't seem to bite.

"Apparently she's been drooling over me for ages and then when I finally get into her pants she just didn't seem into it. It was weird, it's never been like that with any girl before. Even the really inexperienced ones."

"Maybe you're not as good as you seem to think you are."

"Hmmm, maybe" he was still deep in thought about it, I was surprised he didn't react to my last disparaging comment.

As we looked out into the quad we both noticed Jess in her short skirt walking towards Lauren. Neither one of them noticed us watching them. God Jess had a great set of legs but she must be freezing her ass off. The two of them stood there talking about whatever Lauren was looking at in a magazine. Jess opened her bag and pulled out something putting it onto her lips – lipstick I guess. It was sure to end up on my t-shirt at some point. I was pretty sure she did that shit on purpose.

"So, what are you going to do there?" Jasper asked nodding his head in Jess' direction.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at me and rolled his eyes. "Come on man we both know you're just using her for sex." Now it was my turn to contemplate my answer. "Not that there's anything wrong with that," he smirked.

Just then Bella and Alice walked across the quad, laughing about something. Bella mesmerized me, and I found whenever she was near and she couldn't see me watching her I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was just so cute, and lovely. The way her head tilted to the side and she bit her bottom lip when she was contemplating something. I'd never found myself unable to tear me eyes away from someone before like this, for no apparent reason.

".....unless of course....?" Jasper was eyeing Bella.

"There's nothing going on."

"Yeah, but there was. Now spill." Ah, I was wondering how long I could evade this conversation with Jasper. I knew he was pretty hammered on Friday night, but I didn't think he'd actually forget what he'd said.

"How in the hell did you know, did she say something to you?"

"No, she didn't say anything. Observation mostly, and then a lucky guess."

"Fuck you're good. What did you see?"

"A hot chick at your party in Summer who I'd never laid eyes on before, who I kept track of for a while until she disappeared," should have known Jasper would have noticed her, "at about the same time you disappeared for most of the night. Then both of you reappeared at around the same time, only she left with Angela shortly after, and you seemed on a pretty big high for the rest of the night. When I heard she was moving to town I just figured I'd watch and wait. Those comments you made to me in the cafeteria that day.....I just figured. The whole being your first time thing was just a fucking lucky guess. Sorry about Friday night, I was pretty hammered I hadn't intended to out you that way."

"Are you telling me you knew who she was, and who she came to the party with?"

Jasper looked at me a little strangely, "yeah, I asked Angela about her a couple days later at school. I wanted to find out who she was so she told me all about her."

"Fucking hell Jasper. Have you got any idea how long I looked for her?"

"What do you mean?"

"She didn't tell me her last name or who she came with. I just knew her name was Bella. I spent all the next day looking for her so I could see her before she went home to Phoenix. I can't believe you didn't tell me you knew any of this."

"Well, I can't believe you didn't tell me you shagged some hot chick that night."

He had a point. But it didn't stop me from being frustrated as all hell. Things could have been so different.

"So, what are you going to do then?" Jasper asked.

"Why would I do anything?"

Jasper just looked at me with his eyebrow raised.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me don't you? The girl is fucking perfect for you and you know it. And I've never seen you so taken with a girl the way you were that night. I can see you're trying to push Bella away because you think you can't have her. You're such an asshole to her sometimes."

"She's got a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I don't reckon it's going to last too long."

"What makes you say that?"

"I had a good chat with Bella on Saturday morning."

"Yeah, I think I caught the tail end of it."

"How much did you hear?"

"Just that he's coming to visit Valentine's weekend." I had heard a little more than that, but wasn't in the mood to talk about Bella and her fucking boyfriend.

"Yeah, well you should have heard the rest of it. She's not in love with that guy. It sounds like she's with him out of some sort of obligation or something. It sounds pretty fucked up if you ask me."

"This coming from Mr Commitment himself."

"Yeah, but the difference between you and me is there's nothing really holding you back from having what you want. We both know the screwing around you've been doing lately isn't your thing and I never really got why you and Jess ended up together. Don't get me wrong,.....the girl is hot, but fuck me she's hard work....and a massive bitch."

"Watch it." But it was said without any conviction whatsoever, more out of obligation to protect my 'girlfriend', but I absolutely knew he was right.

"It's only a matter of time man. ........have you said the L word yet?"

"Fuck no." Jasper just looked at me. "I know, I know, fuck, I don't know how to get myself out of this." I shook my head and dropped it into my hands not wanting to see the mess I'd got myself into.

"Just have some balls man. Tell her you want out, it's not that hard."

"Fucking yes it is, I don't want to hurt her."

"The sooner you do it the better if you ask me, there's not much time left at school, do you really want to waste your last few months with her, when you could be with Bella."

"It's her birthday the week after next. I can't do it to her before then, she's got all these big plans."

"Yeah, well, you're going to want to do it pretty soon afterwards. The longer you wait the harder it is to get out of."

I contemplated what he said for a few moments.

"What the fuck did you mean when you said the difference is there's nothing holding you back? What the fuck was that about?"

"I just meant that all you have to do is dump Jess' ass..."

"No, that's not what I meant. You said it like there's something holding you back from having what you want. You get all the ass you want whenever you want it."

"True, but it doesn't mean I'm getting the one I really want."

"Are you telling me there's someone who is able to resist your slutty advances?"

"Something like that."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing....later man, I've got to go."

"Jasper, what the fuck?"

But he was gone. What the fuck did that mean? I knew Jasper had enough respect for me to back down if I wanted something, he'd done it before. But was it Bella that he wanted? Did we both want the same girl? And if we did, what the fuck would come of it. Did I have some sort of prior claim just because I'd been with her before?

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

APOV

"Alice, wait up." I heard Bella call out to me as I headed out the door towards the sunshine. God what I'd give to get more days like this. The constant lack of sun in Forks drove me absolutely around the twist.

"What's up Bella? How did you recover after Friday night?"

"Christ on a stick Alice, I don't think I've ever been that hung over. I had to bung it on for the rest of the weekend so Charlie wouldn't get suspicious. He even cancelled a fishing trip to stay at home and look after me, god love him. I felt so guilty."

"So you missed the party Saturday night as well? Now I don't feel like such a loser." I was really sad about not going to the party Saturday night. But in the end I was glad if it meant I didn't have to be subjected to seeing Jasper and Lauren together in any way.

"You didn't go?"

"Nah, sometimes it's just easier not to watch the train wreck you know?" We were walking through the quad together to sit down and soak up some rays.

"Oh Alice, I'm so sorry. I heard."

I simply shrugged my shoulders in defeat. "Well, at least now I don't have to watch them flirt openly anymore. He usually just moves on once he gets it out of his system. You must wonder why in the fuck I have any interest in him whatsoever." I know I did, he broke my heart at every turn. But I couldn't help it. It just was. My feelings for Jasper just seemed to get stronger and stronger with every passing year. I was pretty sure I would just explode one day from it all.

Bella paused for a moment and looked at me considering her answer.

"No.....no I don't wonder Alice. I see it. I'll admit I don't think I did at first when I heard what he was like. I mean I can see he's gorgeous and a nice guy and all. But at Emmett's I really started to get to know him you know? There's a lot more going on with him than you think. So, I get it. Question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"There's nothing to do about it." She just didn't seem to get it. She was always pushing me towards Jasper, she just didn't realise that I don't think I could take the heart break when he did away with me as he inevitably would. It just hurt less this way.

"Hmmmm, we'll see. I have a sneaking suspicion your Jasper is just biding his time waiting for something to come along and turn his world on its head."

"But I'm already part of his world Bella."

"Yeah, but not in the way you could be. Do you show him the real you?"

I had to think about that for a few moments. I didn't know the answer to that question. I guess if he didn't really know how I felt then he didn't know the real me then did he? We continued to sit in silence for a while, watching people walk past us. I spotted Jasper and Edward sitting on the other side of the quad from us, deep in conversation.

"You didn't seem surprised on Friday night when Edward skulled that shot," Bella stated matter of factly, but she was looking off into the distance not looking me in the eye.

Hmm, finally we get to talk about her and Edward, this had been killing me since I sat with her that first day at lunch. This would hopefully put me in an infinitely better mood. I looked across at Bella and smirked at her knowingly.

"I'm a bit confused about what happened. Do Rose and Emmett know?" She asked.

"No. We didn't even know that Jasper knew. Did you tell him?" Bella's brow furrowed as she shook her head from side to side in confusion. She was playing with the bottle top she had in her hands, flipping it around in her fingers as if she was nervous. I suppose she probably was.

"As far as I'm aware I'm the only one Edward ever told about that night."

Bella's brow furrowed again and she looked down at her hands playing with the bottle top. She sighed as if in defeat. "Well, I guess it doesn't really matter anyway."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter Bella?"

"It was just one night Alice. I mean, we barely knew each other." She shrugged and looked across at Jasper and Edward, Jasper had just got up and walked away. Edward looked at him with a puzzled look on his face and then looked directly at Bella as if he'd known precisely where she was among the hundred odd people who were milling around in the area we were sitting. He looked away quickly and moved as if to get up. I thought he was going to walk in the direction of where Jess was seated off to the left of us but he didn't, he put his hands in his pockets and walked in the opposite direction.

"Bella, did you think about Edward when you went back to Phoenix?" I had to get to the bottom of this. Despite Jessica, I knew how Edward had felt about that night, how he still felt. I needed to know where Bella's head was at after that night.

"Of course I did Alice. I'm not so cold that I could just walk away from something like that and not think about it again." She was getting fired up now. Good. I was going to give her something to think about. Edward would probably kill me if he ever found out but I didn't care.

"Are you sure about that? Because from what Edward told me the next morning when he was desperately searching for you all over town was that you walked away not even giving him your last name or anyway to contact you."

Bella looked up at me very sheepishly. "He looked for me the next morning?"

"Oh my god Bella, I've never seen him like that. He came into my room all broken hearted asking me where you were. I had no idea who the fuck he was talking about so he told me what happened and then made we drive all over town going to all of my girlfriend's places....clearly we didn't get to Angela's....tying to find you so he could see you again before you left." Bella was looking a little shocked at this revelation.

"But Edward hates me. Well he did until we seemed to have a civil conversation on Friday night."

"He doesn't hate you Bella. I think he just hates the situation. He was probably a little shocked when you came back into town. And the fact that you're back with James doesn't sit very well with him." Why could she not see this!

"Well, he didn't have any problems moving on. It wasn't until Friday night when he took that shot that I actually believed that he was telling me the truth when he'd said he was a virgin. But it sure sounds like he's been making up for lost time Alice." Bella actually sounded a little pissed off....this was good. This was very, very good.

"Bella, Edward's not like that." She looked at me sceptically. "My theory is that he was just trying to find that feeling again. I've seriously never seen him as upset as he was after that night...well....with the exception of....." but I wasn't sure how much she knew about his mother, and truthfully I wasn't sure if I should bring it up after the last time she snapped at me about bringing up her own mother.

"It's OK Alice, you can mention his mother. Jasper told me."

"Oh, well, anyway, I'm pretty sure the only reason he and Jess ever got together was because she reminds him of you."

"What?"

"Don't look so surprised Bella. If you take away the bitchy attitude and all the make up she actually looks quite similar to you....only you're way prettier than she'll ever be. Not to mention you actually have a personality and deserve someone like Edward."

"That's such bullshit Alice. Edward would never be interested in me that way." Hmmmm, definitely making progress here. I just need to make sure I keep chipping away at this making her realise that Edward desperately wants her! And that Jessica isn't worthy. At least one of us will get what we really want, even if she doesn't know she wants it.

Although, I find it incredibly interesting that at no stage during that conversation did she mention James. Progress indeed!

A/N: Please click on the little button below and review!!