A/N Thank you so much to luver of all fall out boy, Bloody Ale, and OhSoRadical. for reviewing to last chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it, so it makes me very happy that you liked reading it...:D

Okay, I'm not usually one to create playlists for people to listen to, but I have to say that this chapter definately has one. The songs I've chosen are all fun to dance to and are very eclectic, but they also have hidden meaning. The songs that I would listen to are:

"Toxic Valentine" by All Time Low

"Earthquake" by Family Force 5

"Crazy In Love" by Beyonce

"I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) [More English]" by Pitbull

"New Perspective" by Panic! at the Disco

"Take Me on the Floor" by The Veronicas

"Sweet Dreams" by Beyonce

"Love Sex Magic" by Ciara (featuring Justin Timberlake)

"LoveGame" by Lady GaGa

So, I'm thinking about doing next chapter as EPOV...do you guys think that is a good idea? Review and let me know! :D

Disclaimer: So, although I wish that I was cool enough to have created the Twilight series, I really didn't create it. Darn it!

BPOV

The week passed by fairly uneventfully, which was not surprising given the natural monotony of school. I continued ignoring "The Fakes" as I had come to call Jessica and Lauren. Alice was quickly becoming my best friend, Jasper was becoming my go-to guy for music and advice, Emmett was becoming like a protective older brother, and Rosalie was like the hot older sister. (A/N I had to put that line in there; in the movie Thirteen starring Nikki Reed - who also playes Rosalie in the Twilight series - that line was said and I couldn't help myself. If you haven't seen the movie, you definately should; she and Catherine Hardwick - director of Twilight - wrote it together and it's a wonderful, powerful movie.)

I was doing a fairly good job about not thinking about Edward during the day, but my subconscious seemed to have other ideas; it seemed like he was always a central part of my dreams. They were all very different from each other; one was me at the cookout - what I had imagined that it would be like - and Edward just stared at me from afar. One was Edward and I cuddling on a couch watching a movie on his bed. One was a very erotic dream that made me very happy that we had mostly soundproof rooms; Charlie would have a heart attack if he had heard me.

I called Jacob on Thursday to invite him to the cookout and he happily agreed. He told me that he was really excited to meet the rest of the Cullens that I wouldn't shut up about. I told him that I couldn't help that they were my best friends and they made me happy. I couldn't help but feel guilty talking to him because I felt that I was mentally cheating on him, even though I knew that I would never actually cheat on him; I was a monogamous person and I planned on keeping it that way.

I called Renee after I called Jacob to tell her about the cookout. She told me that she was happy that I had made such great friends and that I should have fun but not too much fun. I still hadn't told her about Jacob and my relationship with him. Part of me felt bad about keeping things from her, but I knew that she would freak out if she had found out and I didn't want that.

I woke up around nine o'clock on Saturday, the day we all agreed on as the day for the cookout because the weather was supposed to cooperate, and I found that I was both equally excited and nervous; excited to spend time with my friends and, if I was being truthful to myself, I would get to see Edward and I was nervous because I was worried about Jacob meeting my friends. I had already known that he did not like Edward because of what happened at the hospital, but I was hoping that Jacob would see that Edward really was not a bad guy.

I finally got out of bed after stretching hugely and almost falling off of my bed. I mentally cursed myself for my clumsiness and grabbed my bag of toilitres to take a shower. The hot water helped loosen the muscles in my back, leaving me incredibly relaxed and my worries were temporarily forgotten. I made sure to shave meticulously, even though I knew that I wasn't going to get physical with anybody - I just felt cleaner after shaving. I got out of the shower when the water began running cold and wrapped a towel around my head and other around my waist and walked to my bedroom to choose an outfit. I knew that the Cullens had already seen me in my normal clothes, but I felt the need to put some effort in my appearance. I grabbed a black v-neck tee shirt and dark blue jeans and my black Converse shoes. I got dressed and decided to re-paint my nails because they were looking horrible.

When I was finished doing my nails and getting dressed, I decided to flat iron my hair since it had dried in the towel. I plugged in my straightener and wished that I had some kind of music player to listen to music with. My birthday was coming up and I realized that, for the first time in my sixteen years of life, I wanted something for my birthday: an iPod. Jasper had an iPod touch and it was one of the coolest things that I had ever seen. I was thinking about asking Charlie for one for my birthday, but I knew how expensive they were and Charlie wasn't exactly rich.

The straightener finally got hot enough and I started straightening my hair. Unfortunately, being the wonderfully graceful person that I was, I burned the side of my neck with the straightener. I let out a quiet stream of profanities under my breath as the pain seared through my neck. I believe my exact words were, "God damn mother fucking son of a bitch that hurts like a fucking bitch!" Eventually the pain cooled down and I was able to continue straighten my hair. When I finished, I place my hair over my burn because it was starting to look more like a hickey than a burn and I didn't want any awkward questions.

After I brushed my teeth, I left the bathroom and headed downstairs to start making my sidedish for the cookout. We all decided that it should be a potluck and we should bring our favorite meals. Knowing the people that were coming, I felt that I would be best off making Grandma Marie's macaroni and cheese. I had gone to the store earlier in the week to get the ingredients that I needed. I started preparing the water for the noodles as I grabbed the ingredients for the recipe that I knew by heart. Grandma Marie was by far my favorite relative; I could talk to her about anything and she would always be there for me. Unfortunately she passed away last year when I was fifteen-years-old, but I always felt that she was with me - especially when I was cooking; I got my love of cooking from her.

About twenty minutes before the food was done, Charlie came down the stairs groggily while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Charlie was never much of a morning person and it was very apparent, especially when he talked.

"Mornin' Bells," he grumbled, his voice thick with sleep. "You makin' mac and cheese?"

"Yeah," I told him. "We should be leaving to pick up Jacob and Billy in about a half an hour because it takes about thirty minutes to get to La Push and back. I wanted to have everything ready before we left." I had been the one to prepare everything because I hated throwing things together last minute.

Charlie just grunted and walked to the living room. I didn't take offense to it though because I had learned that he was not a man of many words and that he liked to retreat to his sanctuary - also known as the living room - in the morning.

When the macaroni and cheese was done, I pulled it out of the oven and set it on top of the stove so that it could cool down. When I decided that it was not too uncomfortably hot, I put aluminum foil over it so that it would be easy to transport.

"Dad, are you ready to leave?" I called out to the living room.

"Yeah," was his response.

I grabbed the food and walked with Charlie to his cruiser. We decided that it would be a better idea for the four of us to ride in Charlie's police cruiser because it was the safest; a cop would never allow teenagers to sit in the back of a truck because it was illegal. We drove out to La Push and saw Jacob and Billy standing outside of their small house looking happy to see us. Billy had some of Harry Clearwater's fish fry and some beer in his lap.

"Neither of us can cook," Jacob said simply to me as he saw me eyeing the food.

The bear hug that he gave me when I stepped out of the cruiser almost broke my ribs. My arms unconsciously wrapped around Jacob's neck and held on for dear life as he spun me around in circles. He stopped spinning me and leaned down to kiss me. My legs unconsciously wrapped around his waist because it was more comfortable for me. We stopped when we heard our fathers clear their throats, even though we knew that they had no problem with the two of us being together like that; they encouraged it, if anything, like they thought that we were meant to be together or something.

We all chat in the car on the way to the Cullen's. Jacob sat in the back with me while Billy sat up front with Charlie. Jacob wrapped his arm around my body so that I was leaning into his body. It would have been a comfortable position in any other situation, but the seatbelt was constricting around me in the most uncomfortable way. I didn't want to say anything to Jacob, though, because I was still feeling guilty about my obsessive thinking about Edward.

When we arrived at the Cullen's house, everybody seemed to be there; Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, Alice, Rosalie, Jasper, Edward, and what looked to be Jasper and Rosalie's parents. I felt really excited that Edward decided to make it to our cookout; I lied and told myself that I was just interested to see how he interacted with other people. I grabbed my mac and cheese and Jacob carried the fish fry and we walked to their backyard.

"Bella! So glad you could make it!" Esme said enthusiastically when she saw me. "Oh, and you must be Jacob!" she added when she saw him walking awkwardly next to me.

"Nice to meet you," Jacob said, and it sounded forced to me, but I was probably imagining things.

She led us to a table that she had set out to put our food. I was surprised at how much food there was on the table; there was hashbrown casserole, steak, chicken, corn on the cob, salad, chips, a veggie plate, and potato salad. Then there were three coolers filled with water, Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and beer for the adults. The adults had a table on the patio and the rest of us sat at picnic tables in the yard.

"Hey guys, this is Jacob," I told the group as I walked towards them. I tried my hardest not to look at Edward and I succeeded for a little while until I felt his gaze. I looked up and saw him looking intently at me and I got trapped in his gaze. The connection was broken when he turned his wonderful eyes to Jacob, who had just started speaking.

"It's Jake, actually," he told everyone. He gave me a pointed look that I couldn't quite understand, but I shrugged it off.

Conversation flowed around after the pleasantries were said and I found myself caught up in it. I didn't feel awkward, which made me happy because I was afraid that things would be awkward with Jacob with us. He left to go get a plate of food and I seized my opportunity to talk to Edward, who had been rather quiet during the conversation.

"So Edward," I started, "what made you decide to come to our little get-together?"

All eyes turned to him, gauging his reaction when he spoke. "I thought it would be a good idea to spend time with the people that I love," he said, looking intensely into my eyes. I felt myself blush when he didn't look away. Our connection was broken when I heard Emmett clear his throat loudly.

I jumped back into the conversation more enthusiastically than I would have normally to hide my embarassment. I saw Edward and Alice exchange a meaningful glance once during the conversation, but they looked away when they noticed that I was looking. Jacob returned with his food and moved his chair so that it was touching mine and sat down. He grabbed my hand and rested it on my thigh and began rubbing circles on my hand with his thumb. I gave him a questioning look and he just shrugged it off.

"Do you guys want to dance?" Alice asked randomly. "I can go get some speakers and I can hook my iPod up."

Everybody agreed except for me until Alice used her heartbreakingly sad face and I caved. Edward said that he would go with her and, although I couldn't understand why she would need help carrying and iPod and iPod speakers, I let it go; I had learned that the Cullens didn't make sense a lot of the time - something that I found that I loved about them. They returned a few minutes later with the iPod and speakers. Edward looked exasperated, or that's what he looked like to me, and Alice looked smug and excited. She set her iPod on the table and "Earthquake" by Family Force 5 started playing. I loved Family Force 5 - something that Alice knew and probably used to get me in the dancing mood - so I got up and started dancing. Me, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie all started dancing and Jacob and Edward watched us.

"Edward, come dance with us!" Alice said with a pout after the third song started.

"I'm okay, Alice," Edward said. "I'm going to go get a plate of food."

"I am, too," I blurted out without thinking. When everyone looked at me I said, "I'm hungry." Edward and I walked to the table of food.

"I'm sorry they tried making you dance," I said to him, hoping to start a conversation.

Edward sighed and said, "It's okay. Alice will be Alice."

I laughed and said, "I know what you mean. Her and that pout; it should be illegal!"

He looked at me said, "She has an uncanny ability to make people do things her way."

"Do you not like to dance?" I asked him when we reached the table.

He seemed to think about it for a second. "It's not that I don't like to dance," he told me while he fixed himself a plate of food. "I've just never been comfortable enough around people to do it."

"That's the way I usually am," I confided while I started piling food on my plate. "But you Cullens just seem to make me feel good, so I feel comfortable enough to let loose."

I bit my lip as I realized the double entendre in my words and looked up at him, my eyes widened in shock and embarassment. He gazed into my eyes and I saw something change in his eyes. I couldn't understand the change, so I decided to let it go. However, I couldn't look away from his gaze if my life depended on it.

"Well, I am glad we make you feel good," Edward said, his voice sounding deeper than it did before.

I took in a shaky breath as my brain realized what had just happened; I had just inadvertently turned on Edward Cullen. I blushed furiously as I realized what I had done and I was surprised to find that I was starting to react too; my lips suddenly went dry, so I ran my tongue across my lips to put moisture back into them. I watched as Edward's gaze went to my lips. Deciding to get a little bold, I decided to slowly lick my lips and was extremely satisfied when I heard him groan softly.

"We should probably get back," I said, feeling sad that we had to end our little private moment.

"Yeah," he said finally. "I have the sudden urge to dance, now, anyway."

I smiled widely at him, truely happy that I had convinced him to dance with us. We walked back in companionable silence on the way back to the group, who was now dancing to "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" by Pitbull. I smiled a little at the irony of the song and walked to my seat next to Jacob. He unexpectedly pulled me into his lap, making me almost drop my food on the ground. He wrapped his arms around me protectively and kissed my neck.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I just want to spend time with my girlfriend," he said, a little louder than necessary. "Is that such a crime?"

I ignored him and started eating my food. I glanced over at Edward and saw that his face was back to neutral, emotionless. He just stared at his family and friends dancing. I decided that I was going to dance with him when he finished eating because I wanted to see him go back to how he was being with me earlier. When he finished his food, I set my plate down on the table.

"I'm going to dance," I said to Jacob.

He loosened his arms and I got off of his lap. I walked over to Edward and asked him to dance with us and he shook his head.

"Come on, Edward," I said. "Please come dance with me?"

Something in his eyes seem to change as I changed the wording of my question. Without saying anything, he got off of his chair and walked with me to where everyone was dancing. I started swaying my hips to the beat of the song - "Take Me on the Floor" by The Veronicas - while Edward just stood there awkwardly.

"Don't think," I told him. "Just feel."

He started swaying awkwardly and I wanted to help him. I grabbed his hands and entwined our fingers and started moving our hands back and forth to the beat of the music. I gasped at the heat that coursed through my body when our hands touched. He started letting loose a little more and I smiled in encouragement.

"See, you're doing it," I told him encouragingly.

"You're helping," he told me.

He pulled me closer as the song said, "Take me on the floor, I can't take it anymore, You kill me, kill me, kill me with your touch." I could feel the muscles through the black t-shirt he was wearing. We continued dancing like this until I felt someone's hand grab my shoulder.

"I'd like to dance with my girlfriend, if you don't mind," Jacob growled at Edward.

I watched as Edward shut down again and let go of my hands. I immediately felt saddened by the loss of contact. Edward walked back to his seat as Jacob grabbed my waist, pulling me so my back was to his chest. I started swaying my hips to the music as he started moving. We danced like that for a few songs and then I told him that I was done dancing. We walked to the table together and sat down. After a few more songs, the other two couples decided that they were done dancing and sat down with us. Alice turned off her iPod and sat down on Jasper's lap. We all started talking again and Edward and Jacob listened in.

After about a half an hour, Charlie came over and told us that we were leaving. I said goodbye to everybody and that I would see them later. Jacob just awkwardly waved goodbye; he didn't seem to fit in with my friends like I thought that he would. Charlie wheeled Billy to the cruiser and Jacob and I followed. I asked Charlie if he had a good time and he told me that he did. He said he really liked the Cullen's and the Hale's and that he was glad that I had invited him. Billy agreed that he had a good time, too.

We dropped off Billy and Jacob and drove home in silence. I knew Charlie was probably exhausted from the long day and would probably fall asleep as soon as we got home. Sure enough, not fifteen minutes after we got home, Charlie was asleep.

I walked up to my room and decided to e-mail Renee and tell her what happened at the cookout because I knew she would be waiting for my e-mail.

Hey Mom,

We just got back from the cookout and I had so much fun. It was a potluck, so we all made our favorite dishes. I made Grandma Marie's macaroni and cheese and everybody loved it. There was so much food, you would have gained ten pounds just looking at the food. It was delicious, though, and definately worth it.

Alice decided that it would be a great idea to have a mini dance party. Surprisingly, though, I didn't fall or knock anything over. I know, I'm just as shocked as you are. It was actually a lot of fun and I'm glad she did it.

I'm really tired, actually, so I'm going to go to bed. I know, I'm lame for getting exhausted after being in social situations for a long time. I love you.

~Bella

Satisfied with my e-mail, I sent it to Renee before powering down the computer. I changed into my ratty old pajamas and threw my hair into a ponytail. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and walked back to my room. I stared at the ceiling and thought about my day.

I was so happy that Edward was slowly breaking out of his shell. I knew that there was a beautiful creature inside of him that was hidden by an unemotional jerk and I wanted that to come out. I knew that Edward was an amazing person and I wished that he would show that to people. I vowed that I would try to open him up - no matter what I had to do.

I realized in that moment, that it was now impossible for me to stop thinking about Edward. It seemed to me like everything in my life seemed to revolve around him, somehow. I couldn't understand the feeling or why it was happening, but I realized that I didn't dislike the feeling. I really liked the feeling, actually.

I then started thinking about Jacob. How did I feel about him, now? It seemed like my feelings had all of the sudden felt platonic. I wasn't interested in him romantically anymore because it was overshadowed by something that felt more powerful to me. I didn't feel the heat course through my body when I touched Jacob like it did when I touched Edward. Although my body reacted when I kissed Jacob, I knew that it would be nothing in comparassion to how it would react with Edward if we kissed. I realized then that I really wanted to kiss Edward, but I knew that I couldn't because I was in a relationship with Jacob and I don't cheat when I'm in a relationship.

It seemed like the time was coming where I would have to choose between Jacob and Edward. Something that I was definately not looking forward to dealing with.