DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.

BPOV

I awoke the next morning feeling oddly refreshed. Like a new era was beginning. Yesterday, had been hell, but I'd made it through it, barely, but I did. I was proud of myself. I was even proud that I had stood up for myself to the ass hole. Never mind the fact that he still did get me to cry, but I said my peace before that happened.

I stretched my hand over my head and went to turn when I felt something beside me. I briefly wondered if it had all been a dream. He really had kidnapped me and it was him beside me. I slowly peaked over my shoulder and was even more surprised when I saw Edward sound asleep next to me. It hit me then, that he came in and sat with me in the shower. I cringed, he'd seen me at my absolute worse, again. Maybe that's why I was okay with him seeing me this way. He can't think any lower of me, when he's seen the worst of me.

I tried to get up with out disturbing him, but with my clumsiness I failed miserably. He started to stir. I looked at him as he woke and felt a small smile spread across my face. He was quite adorable when he was sleeping. Finally he opened his eyes.

" Morning" I said, really hoping he would just let what happened yesterday go.

" Hey. Morning to you too." He smiled and it was the most gorgeous crooked smile I'd ever seen. What the hell was going on with me.

" Look, I don't want to talk about it, but I want to just say, thank you. And leave it at that."

" No prob, anytime. Though next time could you leave some hot water for me?"I had to laugh. Leave it to Edward to make a joke. I have to admit though it felt good to laugh. " There we go, there's the Bella everyone has been looking for. I'm starving. You wanna go get some food?"

" Yeah, let me get dressed" I was a little confused. Since when were we friends. I mean I know we'd kind of gotten past the whole, hating each other like crazy, but I didn't know we'd gotten to this point.

Then it hit me, he was my babysitter for the day. Figures, Alice hadn't wanted me to go for my walk by myself, and now after what happened yesterday, I would never be left alone again. This was just great, I would never have a moment alone again.

I got dressed in a hurry. I wanted to get this cleared up on the walk over to the cafeteria. I did not need a babysitter. I was an adult, I should be treated like one.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, Edward was standing by the door waiting, smiling. Suddenly, that crooked smile made me want to puke. It wasn't so gorgeous anymore when I knew there was a reason behind it.

" Ready" I blew past him without saying a word and headed down the hall.

Too bad I was too clumsy to make my " pissed off walk" have an effect on Edward. Most of the time I could just hear him laughing as he rushed to catched up with me.

" Hey Bella, slow down. You're going to hurt yourself, they can always make more Fettuccini." His laughing got to be annoyingly unbearable.

" So who's day is it tomorrow?" I spat out as I spun around to face him.

"What? I don't understand what you mean?" His laughing had stopped and now he looked serious.

" I see what you guys are doing. I know you think I'm stupid but I don't need to be chauffeured around. So who's day is it tomorrow so I know who to avoid?"

" Bella, whatever you think is going on, it's not. Why would we baby sit you? I don't have the time to watch you like a child." Now he looked mad. Why was he mad, because he got caught.

" Well I think it's pretty obvious don't you. You can't stand me, yet here you are. you stayed with me last night and now you just ask me to go get something to eat with you. You expect me to believe it's out of the kindness of you heart."

" Believe what you want Bella." He turned around and started to walk away. I wasn't going to let him. I had it with people taking advantage of me.

" No, I want you to treat me like you use to. Insult me, make fun of me!" I was yelling now. I felt like he wasn't hearing me. Like I was invisible.

" I can't do that Bella" He looked torn, I couldn't figure out why.

" Why?! Because of what happened? Forget that, I just want things to go back to normal. Hate me!"

" I can't!" He'd pushed me too far.

" Why not!" I want to reach out and push him, but he grabbed my hands.

" Because I think I love you"

EPOV

Fuck!

This is not how I wanted this conversation to go. I was going to wait until we had this whole rape thing behind us and then slowly bring her around to the idea of even liking me. Not a screaming fight in the middle of campus.

" I think I love you" I let go of her hands.

" Are you shitting me?" I had to laugh when she cussed. It sounded so unnatural. " I knew you were joking, you're laughing. At least you're treating me like you use to now. Get my hopes all up and then crush them like a bug." She rubbed her foot on the ground like she was squishing a spider, and laughed.

"What?" Had she just said I got her hopes up? Did she feel the same way I did.

" Oh come on. You expect me to believe that you have any kind of feeling other than disgust for me. You are gorgeous, insanely smart, and have money falling our of your ass, what could I offer you. Someone lie Rosalie is more in your range. Come on let's go get that food. I feel better now that I know you're not going to be falsely nice to me anymore."

" Bella I'm serious. You're kinda crushing a guys heart here. I wish you could see you the way I see you. You are beautiful, smarter than I gave you credit for when we first met, and stronger than anyone I know." I looked up slightly embarrassed that , that all had just come spewing out of my mouth.

" Edward, seriously, stop joking. I feel pretty bad that I just let out all my frustration on you. But you didn't need to go this far to make me feel better."

I didn't know how else to prove it to her. I grabbed her and brought her face toward mine. Our lips finally met and I felt goose bumps cover my arm. I brought my hands up to cup her face and tried to make this as sensual, not sexual, as possible. I didn't want my damn guy hormones ruining this for us. Her lips were as soft as I had imagined and I honestly had never had a better kiss than this one. I hated to pull away, but I had to know what she was just looked at me. I was on pins and needles, and I couldn't gauge her reaction.

" Uh, Bella, you're killing me here. Give a guy a break and tell me what you're thinking."

" Are you sure about this? I mean, I care for you too, but I can't handle this right now if your not serious. You know I'm not exactly one hundred percent?"

" I'm sure. I knew the moment I saw you walk up those stairs with another guy. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I know I was jealous. That was the only reason I went looking for you. Turns out, jealously is good for something."

" Come here" She motioned me with her finger. " I want to do this right, this time I want to be ready."

I leaned in again and took her mouth into mine. I couldn't believe it, but I got goose bumps again. I put my hands back up to her face and into her hair. He hands followed suit and reached up into my hair. It felt so good I lost concentration and let a moan slip out. I felt her mouth smile, as she fisted my hair into her hands. It was as if we had done this million times over. We slipped into a rhythm and didn't let up.

"AHHHHHH!"

Alice.

" I knew you couldn't hold out forever."

" Seriously Alice, you are a buzz kill" I looked down at Bella and saw she was a cute shade of red.

" Oh, you needed to breath anyway. See Bella I told you he wasn't such a bad guy." She looked at me and winked. Damn pixie.

" Yeah, you did. Pretty good kisser too."

" Bella, come on. I am his sister."

" Yeah, well you ruined a good moment" Bella smirked up at me. She was getting braver everyday.

" Ohhh, we can double date now. Jasper and I are going to go out Friday, come."

"Alice, let's slow down a bit. This was kind of a recent development. Let us soak it in for awhile." I told her. I could see it in her eyes, she was already planning our wedding.

" Sorry, the rest of us have been waiting for quite awhile for you two to stop tiptoeing around the issue."

" The rest of you?" Bella looked scared.

" Well, yeah, just because you guys didn't see it doesn't mean the rest of us didn't" Alice just shrugged like it was no big deal.

" Bella would you like to go off campus for lunch today?" I asked. We needed to get away. Somewhere we could talk with out being interrupted.

" Yes please."

I took her hand and we headed off to the parking lot. When we got further away from Alice, Bella gripped my hand tighter. My heart swelled. Bella was mine now, and no one was going to hurt her again.

A/N Hey all. Hope I still have your interest. Your reviews are awesome and really make it worth while to keep writing so keep em coming.

FYI, I have to go back to work in a week and so I might not be able to update as frequently. I hope I can, but don't be surprised if it takes a few days. I'll try not to make it too long though, there's nothing worse than waiting for an update. Like I've said before, the more reviews the more motivated I get!