DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, especially not Twilight!!
I pulled the blanket over my head as I heard Edward emerge from the bathroom dressed for bed. "Bells why are you hiding from me?" he asked.
"I'm not hiding from you," I said without moving.
"Really, then why do you have the blanket pulled over your head?" he asked as I felt him sit down next to me. I sighed and pulled it down enough to reveal my eyes. "Come on now, all the way," he said. I sighed again and pulled it all the way down. "That's much better, now what's the matter?" he asked sliding underneath the covers.
"Nothing."
"Funny, I don't believe you," he said rolling onto his side and propping his head up with his arm.
"Yea well, no one said that you had too," I said perhaps a little bit more harshly than I intended too.
"Bells, I wish you would open up to me, and tell me how you are really feeling."
Yea right, let me just spill my guts to you about how I've fallen in love with you over the past three and a half months, cause that's going to go over really well, I thought. I stayed quiet for a moment longer and decided that a half truth would at the very least get him off my back about opening up to him, and maybe even open a door. "I'm just so confused," I said. "I don't know what to do about James, I don't know what in the world was going on tonight, and most of all I'm afraid of getting hurt again."
"Well, tonight that guy was a complete asshole, I mean seriously I don't know who he thought he was, but if Jasper hadn't been there to pull him off of you, I probably would have kicked his ass. I thought I was seriously going to loose it when Alice came running over and told me what was going on."
"Thank you, I appreciate what you and Jasper did for me, I hope you know that."
Edward didn't respond, simply smiled and continued on. "As far as James is concerned I think you should just get rid of him, he shouldn't have pushed you like that, it was completely inappropriate, and ungentlemanly like," said Edward. He stopped and sighed, "And as far as getting hurt, I knew your boyfriend in high school, and though you are aware of my general distaste for him, I know your break up was mutual, which means that the only person that you could be referring to is me. I can't apologize enough for the things that I did to you Bella. I know that there's nothing that I can do to make it up to you, but that doesn't mean that I'm not willing to try," he said.
"I'm just so afraid of getting close to you again," I said quietly.
"I know that, which is why I am willing to take whatever I can get," said Edward. "I've missed you so much over the past five years, every time something happened all I could think is, 'oh I have to tell Bells,' it took me a good year and a half to realize that I couldn't just run and tell Bells anymore," said Edward. "I never meant to hurt you, and I want you to know that I was always there, waiting in the wings, just incase you needed me. But thankfully you never did, until now. I don't think I can ever show enough appreciation to my parents or yours for putting us in the situation we are in now, forcing us to live together. It brought you back into my life, which is something that I never thought I was going to see again. My life will never be complete without you Bella, you are my best friend, you always have been, and I can't live without you."
Well that wasn't exactly the talk I was hoping for; he still hadn't answered the question that I had wanted to know the answer to for five years, why? Why did he let her say those horrible things to me? Why didn't he stand up for me? Why had he pretended like it wasn't going to hurt me? Questions that I wanted answers too, questions that I was afraid to ask. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind and instead I smiled before saying, "I don't want to ever see another day where you aren't part of my life." And it was the truth, best friend or boyfriend, at this point the only thing that mattered was that it was Edward. He smiled and leaned in and kissed my forehead.
"Alright Bells, I think its time to get some sleep, we have quite a day a head of us tomorrow."
"Night Edward," I said fluffing my pillow before reaching over and turning off the light.
"Goodnight Bells."
I lay in bed for about forty minutes before deciding that sleep was useless. There was no way that I could sleep when I was so close to the man that I loved. Our conversation had been far from what I wanted, but I decided that baby steps were better for Edward and me. We needed to get used to being Edward and Bella, best friends before we could even get close to Edward and Bella the couple, though I was sure that there was a very fine line between the two, one that we were dancing over both consciously and subconsciously on a daily basis. Like right now for instance, I was so close to him that I could hear him breathing evenly as he slept, it was like music to my ears. He was so close that one 'wrong' or 'accidental' move in my sleep and I would find myself waking up in his arms. Finally after about an hour and a half of staring at the ceiling and trying to calm my nerves I was able to fall into a peaceful sleep, dreaming only of Edward.
..:::..
The morning sun was bright on my face when I woke up the next morning. I groaned and pulled the blanket up around me as I shied away from the cool November morning. I couldn't help but smile as I felt Edwards arms tighten around me as he readjusted the blanket so it covered us both completely.
"Good morning," he whispered. I smiled as I cuddled into his chest. This was something that I could get used to waking up to every morning.
"Good morning," I said in return.
"How did you sleep?"
"Better than I expected actually."
"Really," he asked. "I thought you fell asleep pretty quickly."
"Oh, well I'm glad that I had you fooled, I laid here for a good hour and a half before I was able to fall asleep, I think the last time I looked at the clock it was 2:30."
"Wow, it was closer to three before I fell asleep," said Edward.
"Ha, I thought you were asleep too," I said laughing.
"Looks like we have a lot to relearn about each other, year's ago that never would have happened," said Edward with a smirk. I was almost thankful that Edward didn't know I was still awake last night. I was afraid of where our conversation might have gone if we had allowed it to continue.
"We should probably get up, before Alice comes out here and jumps on us." I only nodded in response and moved to sit up, attempting to remove myself from his arms. "Okay I lied, five more minutes," he said pulling me up against him again.
"Five more minutes, that's it," I argued both with him and myself.
"I promise."
But it was not to be, less than a minute later Alice and all of her endless energy came bouncing out of her room, still in her pajamas announcing that it was time to get ready.
"No, hide me," I whined pulling the blanket over my head and hiding my face in Edward's chest.
"Come on Bells, it will be fun," said Alice.
"That's what you said about last night, and I nearly got molested," I said.
"What if I promise to let you bring your body guard?"
"Can I keep him for always?" I asked her.
But it wasn't Alice that answered it was Edward, "For Always," he said me pulling closer.