a/n: not stephenie meyer (i wish tho)

thanks again to all of you lovely reviewers. it's gotten to the point where i crave them. i'm addicted to your reviews. and seriously, if you have comments, questions, ideas, i take em all seriously.

So this chapter is a lot of dialogue for the first part. but it provides some nice back story for those of you who were interested in where the purple lingerie came from. hmmm with that, i leave you to read!

Stupid freakin college with its stupid freakin work, making me freakin study on a freakin Friday night." I couldn't help but laugh at Alice. Though she had thankfully refrained from swearing, her rant was loud enough for everyone around to hear.

"Alice, could you try and keep it down? People are staring and I'm pretty sure you're disrupting their concentration." I mock glared at her.

"Bella! About damn time!"

"Shh." I felt awkward as the people at the surrounding tables all turned to stare at the two of us.

"Oh right. Sorry but you've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Ok, ok. But can we go somewhere not so quiet and public?" She just grabbed my hand and dragged me outside to a bench where we could be by ourselves.

"So?" She just stared at me expectantly.

"So what?" I knew what she wanted, but I was stalling.

"Quit stalling." Damn. "Tell me what happened."

I quickly went through the part of the story where I bought everything for Edward. Alice stopped me when I got to the part when he opened the door and saw me.

"What did he do?"

"At first he just stood there, eyes and mouth wide open. He looked kinda like a frog hoping some bug would fly in his awaiting mouth." Alice giggled hysterically at the mental picture. "Then he stuttered out a 'what are you doing here'."

"Oh that's good. You clearly have a big effect on our dear Eddie boy. So what happened next?"

"Well, I gave him the stuff along with the notebook, which I called amazing and beautiful. You should've seen the look on his face. But I played it off as if I didn't know about the note inside. He tried to turn down the Dayquil an d soup, but when I insisted he needed it, he finally admitted he wasn't sick. So I told him the truth, that I did read the note, but not until today." That reminded me of something. "Why didn't you tell me Edward had stayed with me the whole night after the club?"

"Honestly? I didn't know how you'd take it. It was so obvious how attracted you were to my brother, but I also could tell how determined you were to not like him. And I could tell it was the same for Edward, though he caved way before you. When you started waking up he all but ran out the door. For some reason, he didn't want you to see him there, probably because then he'd have to admit to his growing attraction to you." So Edward was the other voice I had heard that morning. It all started to make more sense.

I finished the story off by telling her how we got to know each other better by playing an impromptu game of 20 questions. When I got to the part about me telling Edward I was glad we could be friends, Alice tisked at me.

"What?"

"Bella, what were you thinking? Don't you want to be more than friends?"

I couldn't help but blush. Of course I wanted to be more! Who wouldn't? To be able to touch him and kiss him whenever I pleased…But I didn't feel like admitting all that to Alice.

"Yeah, sure I guess so." I'm pretty sure Alice knew what I really meant.

"Well that friends comment might've thrown Edward off. He might be a little bit more apprehensive to do anything now."

"Oh please Alice, as if he wants anything more."

"For someone so smart, you sure are stupid, ya know that?" I just let that comment slide. I couldn't let myself hope too much that me and Edward could one day be an "us."

"Besides Alice, I'm pretty busy with school. It sounds like Edward is too. And I'm not exactly looking for a boyfriend. I've had enough bad experiences to last me awhile."

Speaking of boyfriends…" Oh crap, why did I bring that up? Alice was right. Stupid, stupid Bella! "Well I believe now qualifies as later. You promised me you'd tell me about one of your boyfriends, the one that gave you that sexy lingerie."

"The only one." I corrected. She didn't understand so I went on. "I've only ever dated one guy. His name was Laurent. And I was completely head over heels for him. A senior when I was a freshman, he was also French so he had a sexy accent to go along with his upper classman status."

"Oooh, this is getting good!" I wish.

"He had been dating this girl, Victoria, for most of high school which I hardly even knew about seeing as how I wasn't there yet. But they broke up senior year and somehow, for some reason, he asked me out. Of course I said yes. Who wouldn't? I was the envy of my entire class, not to mention most of the rest of my high school. Laurent was amazingly handsome." Though still no Edward, I thought to myself.

Unfortunately, he was graduating and I was so down thinking that we would obviously break up so he could go to school. But he got accepted to ASU and told me he wanted to keep dating. I was ecstatic. He was choosing me over college girls.

So we got together on weekends and breaks. He always drove down to spend time with me. I wanted to visit him at school but he told me it wasn't safe. He didn't want guys checking me out and trying to steal me away from him.

It was finally my senior year and I had every intention of going to ASU to spend his last year there together. I would've quit school if he needed to move. I would've followed him anywhere." I couldn't help the wavering in my voice. I was finally getting over him, but thinking about our relationship was still difficult.

"We had yet to actually have sex. We had messed around plenty but he told me he wanted our first time to be special, not something rushed between visits. That just made me fall for him even harder. I took it as a sign that we were meant to be together. I asked him to be my prom date. Some people made fun of him for coming to a high school prom, but it made me feel special. I know it's cliché, but I knew prom night was the perfect night. The big night arrived and I was so nervous. It wasn't like I expected. It hurt and he rushed through things, just pleasing himself.

In the weeks that followed, it was like I had opened a flood gate. I guess because we had finally had sex he felt he could come over and get it any time he wanted. He bought me that purple set one time, pleading for me to wear it for him. But I couldn't. I know he had seen me naked, but it felt uncomfortable to be dressed up in that for him. So I never wore it. I guess the fact that I felt that way should've clued me in that we weren't as close as I thought.

Our time spent together became less frequent. It was to the point where he'd only call me when he was horny. I seriously felt like some cheap booty call. So early in the summer I decided to surprise him at his place in downtown Phoenix. I knocked on the door but Laurent didn't answer. It was Victoria, the girl he had dated all through high school, and she looked like she was about 8 months pregnant."

Alice gasped as her tiny hands flew to her face in horror, then muttered a soft "Oh my God."

"I know, but it gets worse. She clearly didn't recognize me, because she asked if I was selling something. She thought I was some summer sales person. When I asked for Laurent she said, 'Oh I'm sorry, but my husband's at work right now. If you want to leave your card with me I'll have him contact you.'

It took every ounce of my being to not cry and run from the spot. But I knew I had to say something. So I told her, 'Yes, if you could just leave this message for him: Tell him Miss Swan discovered his dirty laundry and it's taken care of. There's no need for him to come by because I won't be offering my services anymore.' She just looked politely confused and said she'd tell him. As soon as she shut the door I broke down.

I couldn't even go home. I was too embarrassed. How could I have not known he was cheating on me? How long had he been married? Had he been with Victoria the entire time? I felt like a fool. Of course he didn't really love me, how could he? He was just using me to get off. It was so hard to take in. I had loved him and I honestly thought he felt the same."

"That sick bastard! What happened when he found out you knew?" Alice was red in the face with rage.

"Nothing. He never called me again, so I assumed he got what I was saying. I was glad he didn't call. I wouldn't have been able to take it.

But then there was the problem of college. I couldn't go to ASU now, not with the chance of having to see him, however slim it was. Luckily I had applied to Northwestern, on a whim really, because I was interested in their creative writing program. Amazingly enough, they had accepted me.

My mom was so confused. I could not, of course, tell her about what really happened. She would have killed him, then called Charlie and he would have come down and then killed him again. I just told her that Laurent and I had drifted apart and I wanted a fresh start."

"Bella, that's awful. I'm so sorry you had to go through such a bad experience. Your first love should not be that way. Come here."

She reached out her arms and wrapped them around me. She hugged me fiercely, as if to let me know she understood and that she knew it would get better. I hadn't realized I was crying until I felt the moistness on Alice's shirt.

"Oh god, Alice. I'm sorry. I hope I didn't ruin your shirt."

"Please, this ol' thing? C'mon, let's blow off school work tonight and eat Ben and Jerry's while watching some sappy movies." She knew me too well.

So we just vegged out watching Two Weeks Notice and 13 Going on 30. We decided to watch Pretty Woman last. When the scene with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts on the piano came on the screen, I couldn't help voice my fantasy.

"Man, wouldn't it be incredibly hot to have sex on a piano?" Alice gave me a wicked grin.

"You know Bella, I happen to be very close to someone who plays the piano. I could arrange that." Oh God. How could I forget that Edward played the piano!

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" She started laughing and soon I was joining in. We both crashed out shortly after that. I woke to the feel of my phone vibrating against me.

Hey friend

Hope the library was fun

If you're not back at home yet

Then you need to hang out

With some more

Exciting friends

Sweet dreams,

Edward

I couldn't keep myself from smiling at that. I hoped he was trying to imply he'd like to spend time with me. I knew it was late but I had to respond.

No, I'm not actually

You woke me up from

My beauty sleep.

Thanks a lot friend!

Bella

Within a minute of sending the text to Edward, I felt my phone buzz again with his response.

Hey, what are friends for?

It's not like you need beauty sleep anyway.

Sleep tight.

Edward

The fact that he said I didn't need beauty sleep put me on a huge high. I drifted back to sleep thinking about different things we could do together.

--

One minute I was dreaming blissfully about a certain green eyed angel, the next I'm waking with an abrupt start. I looked around me, instinctively looking for Alice, who had formed the habit of jarring me from sleep rather rudely. But Alice was gone. I glanced at my alarm clock and it read 11:27 am. Holy shit, how had I been asleep for so long? And what made me wake up so suddenly? My only guess was that Alice was feeling generous today after my little break down. But my body had been so accustomed to her wake up calls that I just anticipated something. As I got up, I noticed a note from Alice resting on my desk.

Bella, aka sleepy head,

It's about time you woke up! We're all over at the boys' place. So hurry that pretty little ass of yours and get over here.

I was actually amazed she hadn't waited til I woke up so she could help me get ready.

And don't worry; I already picked out an outfit for you! Now hurry and get a move on!

Alice

I was practically shaking with the excitement of seeing Edward as I walked to his apartment. I just couldn't get over the knowledge that we were on speaking terms, and the texts last night were a little surreal. I stood outside his door and was about to knock when I heard Alice yell.

"come on in Bella, it's open!" how the hell did she know I was outside?

"Finally!" Emmett started laughing at me when I frowned at him. "How much sleep does one person need? I mean, you're pretty runty, how much energy do you really need to restore?"

Rosalie, as usual, just hit Emmett which made us ll laugh. I scanned around the living room and noticed it was void of a certain bronze haired god.

"Where's Edward?" Why did I ask that?! Everyone exchanged knowing looks. I blushed terribly and was just recovering when he walked out, hair slightly damp and looking sinfully good in low slung jeans and a pale blue polo. He stretched his arms up and I caught the tiniest bit of his lower abs. I could just barely make out the V they made, peeking out from where his boxers sat, also low on his hips. The red rushed back to my face with a vengeance.

"What's up?" Edward looked around the room, finally resting his eyes on me. He gave me a little nod and one corner of his lips tweaked up in a smile.

"It seems Edward is just barely getting up and ready for the day too. That is so weird Edward, you never sleep in. It's just such a waste of your precious time, right?" Alice jeered at him.

"Oh shut up short stuff. I couldn't sleep last night."

"Something on your mind, brother dearest?" That wicked smile was back on Alice's face. Edward shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. Rosalie smirked at me. And Emmett, well, Emmett just looked lost. Poor guy, he was out of it.

"Well, if you guys are done being all secretive and stuff, can we get going? I'm bored!" Emmett sounded whiney, clearly wanting to be a part of things.

"What are we doing?" I asked Alice as we all left the apartment.

"We decided on a movie and dinner afterwards." So we all walked out to the parking lot. Edward must've been walking towards his car because Emmett cut him off.

"Uh uh little bro. we're taking my car again. You're car is just too little. It'll never get the job done. We definitely need my big car to get this party started."

"My car is not little. And it does just fine, thank you very much. Besides, I've never had any complaints." It didn't sound like they were talking about cars anymore.

"Children," Alice shouted out, "why don't you just whip em out and measure already?" Edward gave her an uneasy smile while Emmett roared with laughter.

I heard Edward mumble "not little" as we walked to Emmett's hummer.

"Shot gun!" I heard Rosalie yell as we got in sight of the car. That left me, Alice, Jasper, and Edward in the back seat. Just great. And of course Alice maneuvered it so Edward and I sat next to each other. Admittedly, it was nice being so close to him.

"Did you get to enjoy the rest of your beauty sleep?" He said it so quietly only I could hear.

"I did, thanks for asking. I'm sorry you had a hard time sleeping though. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just had a lot on my mind is all." He turned his entire body towards me and unleashed that dazzling crooked smile again. I lost all sense of my surroundings as I tried unsuccessfully to not stare at him. I thought looking at his smile was dangerous, so I moved up to his eyes. But when I saw those emeralds sparkle and smolder at the same time, I knew I was a goner. I didn't even realize we had reached the movie theater already until I felt Alice poke the back of my head.

"Hello? Earth to Bella? Were you planning on joining us anytime soon or would you rather us just fill you in on the movie plot later?" Damn my body's reactions. My face flushed again, and it was so bad I didn't think it would ever die down. Edward laughed softly and got out of the car. When I turned to Alice she just rolled her eyes, as if saying "I knew it" and got out too.

We all decided on The Dark Night which I had been looking forward to watching. Again, Edward and I were sitting next to each other on the end of the aisle. We were all just messing around, throwing popcorn at each other and talking about school, when the lights dimmed and the previews started. The light and carefree air about us changed, or at least for me it did. I was suddenly hyper aware of Edward sitting just inches from me. I was sitting ramrod straight in my chair, trying very hard to not accidentally brush up against him. I risked a peek out of the corner of my eye and noticed Edward looked just as uncomfortable.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the movie started. I knew this batman would be darker but I was not expecting to be so thoroughly creeped out. Quite frankly, I was scared out of my mind. And unfortunately for me, when I watch scary things, I have the tendency to grab on to the closest person to me. Alice, on my right, was practically sitting in Jasper's lap she was so scared. That left Edward. And I wasn't about to break down and grab onto him. I just couldn't. I felt it would be crossing our newly found friendship boundaries. So instead, I just clutched onto the armrests with so much force that when the movie ended I had a hard time moving my fingers.

"What was that all about?" Edward asked when the lights came back on.

"Oh.." I forced out a shaky laugh. "You noticed that, did you? Well Heath Ledger's Joker really scared me. I mean, clowns in general are just really freaky, so that didn't help the situation out at all." I can't believe I just told him about my phobia of clowns. It was just too easy to blurt out things to Edward.

"Scared of clowns huh? If you were that scared, you could've held on to me. At least I could tell you to ease up if you were hurting me. Those poor armrests though, they were just defenseless." I probably should've been offended or something, but all I could think was he told me to hold on to him! He told me to hold on to him! I stored that bit away for future reference.

I was starting to worry about my decreasing funds, what with buying Edward unnecessary items, movie tickets and now dinner, I was running low. I needed to really stick to my college budget or I'd have to start working earlier than I had planned. I knew I'd need a job, I just wanted to wait until after the semester was over.

"Hey guys, where are we going to eat?" I was nervous. Please let it be McDonalds or some other inexpensive fast food place.

"Mmm. It's called Flat Top Grill. It's so good Bella. It's a build your own stirfry place and you can do all you can eat. My kind of place!" Emmett was practically drooling at the thought of the food he was about to eat. I laughed, but I was worried again. It sounded a little pricey.

Edward must've noticed my expression because he spoke softly to me again.

"Don't worry friend, I got you covered." I was about to object but he went on. "I really do feel bad about you spending your money on me, especially when I didn't need any of it. Plus I did kinda eat most of your soup. So I owe you." After he put it that way…

"Ok, but just this once. I don't like people spending money on me. But you did hog my Panera, so after this we'll call it even, ok?"

"Sounds good to me."

Dinner was good. In fact, it was down right amazing. I had never been to a restaurant quite like it before. I loved that I could basically create my own dish. And every time I wanted to get up for more I could try something different.

Emmett was an eating machine. I don't know how he packed away all that food. And I was reminded of the one Simpsons' episode where Homer gets kicked out of an all you can eat seafood buffet. I was waiting for management to do the same thing to Emmett. They probably lost money on how much he consumed.

Before I knew it, the night was over. Despite the fact that I had slept in so late, or maybe it was because of that, I was dead tired. The Cullens and Hales really wiped me out. Alice and I said goodbye to everyone and made our way back to the dorms.

I kept my phone by my side in case Edward decided to text me again tonight. Before I could fall into a deep sleep, I was rewarded.

Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty,

Edward

And in case any of you were wondering, flat top is a real place, as is everything i mention. it is so yummy. unfortunately for me, i don't live in chicago anymore, so part of the fun of writing this story is reminiscing about all the places i miss!

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