A/n: oh my god, people stop telling me that my characters are out of character. I know!!! They're supposed to be!! Jesus Christ. Have any of you given any thought as to why they would be? Bella grew up in a completely different atmosphere than in Twilight. She has a completely different personality because of it. Edward is different because 1, I suck at writing him and 2, he just spent two years away from his family with little to no contact with them. He's bound to have some kind of differences in his personality. GET OFF MY BACK ALREADY!

Oh, and by the way, THIS FIC IS RATED T FOR A REASON. I have the firm right to say fuck in my authors notes. Okay? Okay, as long as we have that established, let me enlighten you as to the guidelines of a T rating: Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes. Thank you and goodnight!

By the way, the next few chapters are going to suck. But they're important to story line and I can't figure out how to re-write them to better suit my tastes. But whatever, bare with me and once we get passed the whole "I love you" – gasp, faint, holy shit – phase, then we'll be good.

Okay, I think that's it. –sigh– took a while. Sorry, people. oh, reviews are love.

Disclaimer: i'm way too tired to be creative tonight. i don't own anything.

"Close your eyes," Edward instructed. I fervently obeyed, once again burying my face in his shoulder and squeezing my eyes shut as tight as they would go.

I didn't even notice we were moving this time. Before I knew it, Edward was telling me open my eyes and we were in front of the house. I slid off his back, except I lost my footing and Edward ended up having to catch me.

He started laughing at me.

"Not funny," I grumbled and started walking to the front door.

"Actually it is," he countered. I stopped in my tracks and turned to glare at him. "Okay, okay," he put his hands up, as if to surrender. "Not funny."

I rolled my eyes and began on my way to the house again. I just kept walking, because I really didn't expect what happened next. Edward came up beside me and slipped his hand into mine. I felt myself blushing and turned my head away from him. Oh god, I really am a teenage girl.

Edward opened the door for me and we walked into the house. He wouldn't let go of my hand – not that I minded – so I just walked upstairs with him in tow.

Emmett was lying on my couch when we walked into my room. He sat up when he us, but I don't think he expected to see Edward. He looked a little surprised.

"Hey, Emmett," I smiled.

"Uh, I have to go do something," Edward mumbled.

"I'll see you in the morning then?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. He gave me a quick hug, gave Emmett a half-hearted wave, and then left the room.

I turned to Emmett, who was glaring at me. "What?" I started toward the bathroom to take a shower. Emmett followed.

"You've been blushing," he accused shutting the bathroom door behind us.

"Yeah, so?" I turned on the shower and waited for the water to heat up.

"So," Emmett emphasized, "you never blush."

"I do too. Turn around," I ordered. Emmett turned around and I got undressed and stepped into the shower.

"No you don't Bella," he said. "The only time I've ever seen you blush was the time Alice tried buying you thongs at Victoria's Secret."

"Oh, god!" I shrieked. "Don't remind of that!"

"Has he tried anything?"

"What?" I stopped spreading shampoo in my hair and peered out the shower curtain.

"Has he touched you?" Emmett's eyes were getting darker with every passing second. Jesus, this had to be worse than the sex talk he tried giving me when I turned sixteen.

"You're ridiculous, Emmett," I started rinsing my hair. "And even if he wanted to do anything, he couldn't."

"Huh?" Emmett got a little confused sometimes. He always remembered the most trivial things, but the more important details always slipped his mind. He was a very big exception to the 'vampires are like elephants…they remember everything' fact.

"Two words, honey: severe bloodlust." Did I have to spell it out for him? I hoped not.

"But he was holding your hand."

"Yeah," I agreed, sighing dreamily at the memory. I recovered quickly. "But that's about the only thing we can do." I shut off the water and reached out for a towel which magically appeared in my hand. "Thanks."

"So he hasn't kissed you or anything?"

"Nope," I wrapped the towel around my body and stepped out. "And I don't think he will anytime soon."

"And you're okay with that?" Emmett sounded surprised.

"Yeah," I squeezed the excess water out of my hair. "Why wouldn't I be?"

I walked out of the bathroom and into my closet. Emmett sat on the couch and waited for me to come out. I was surprised he actually stayed quiet while I changed.

I slipped into my pajamas, grabbed my towel and brush and walked back into my room. I sat on my bed and started drying my hair with the towel.

"I don't get it," Emmett said suddenly.

"Get what?" I asked, pulling my brush through my hair.

"You and Edward, it's…weird."

I frowned. "Weird how?"

Emmett sighed. "In all the time that I've known him, he's never dated or even looked at women the way he looks at you."

"How does he look at me?" Like I'm something to eat, maybe?

"He looks at you like he loves you."

"That's absurd," I shook my head. Emmett was crazy, two fries short of a Happy Meal, a few screws loose, wacko.

"I'm serious, Bella," he warned. I slipped under the covers and then Emmett was sitting on the other side of my bed, staring down at me. This was the reason I got a queen, because Emmett would never fit with me on a twin.

"Just know what you're getting yourself into," he looked at me with such worry and concern that I couldn't help but get a little teary eyed. I knew Emmett didn't want me getting hurt. And I knew he didn't want his brother to get hurt, either. This was a very convoluted situation. "How do you feel about him, honestly?"

"I…" I choked up. How did I feel about Edward? I knew that I liked him…a lot. But did I love him? No, I couldn't. That would be moving way too fast. That would be stupid. I couldn't love him. Could I?

And suddenly I was crying. I hadn't cried since I was nine and my mom decided to tell me what really happened to Stewart, my hamster. He got sucked up in the vacuum cleaner, by the way.

"I really am pathetic!" I sobbed, slamming my head into my pillow, gasping for air and crying harder.

"Geez Emmett, what'd you do to her?" A new voice asked. I lifted my head and turned to my door and, through bleary eyes, saw Alice standing there.

"I didn't do anything!" Emmett defended himself. "One minute I'm asking her something and the next she's sobbing."

Alice looked at me curiously. "Are you PMSing?"

"No!" I cried and hit the pillow again. "I can't…no, it can't happen…its too fast…" I said, but everything was muffled in the cotton. I looked up at Alice. "Do I love him?"

She bit her lip and nodded slightly, "You will." Another round of tears came. This was surreal. Absolutely, undeniably ridiculous. I couldn't possibly love him. Things like that don't happen to me.

Did people really fall in love after knowing each other for four days?

Romeo and Juliet fell in love within a matter of hours. But they were fictional characters. And that was love at first sight. Could Edward and I qualify as that? And who's to say he even loves me back. He couldn't love me. I'm just a human, anyway. I'm just something to pass the time till I get changed and he'll move on.

"Bella, you're freaking out," Alice came over and sat down beside me. She sat me up and started rubbing circles on my back, trying to sooth me. It was working, to an extent. At least my crying was stopping.

"I'm pathetic," I whispered.

"Bella, you're not pathetic," Emmett said. He put a finger under my chin and made me look at him. "Do you know how long it took me to fall in love with Rosalie?" I bit my lip and shook my head. "The moment I saw her."

"And I loved Jasper before I even met him," Alice added in. "So, your relationship is a little unorthodox, every relationship has its quirks."

"I don't even know if we're in a relationship," I confessed. I buried my face in my hands and tried not to start crying again. "Crap. I'm turning into a girl!"

"Bella, you've always been a girl," Emmett pointed out. "You're just acting like one, now." Yeah, an insanely overdramatic girl.

"I don't like it," I whined.

"Sweetie," Alice giggled. "You should start getting used to it."

"But I don't wanna," I mumbled. If acting like a girl entailed crying over guys and being completely overemotional, then I wanted out. I was better off being cynical and pessimistic. I better off by showing as little emotion as possible.

"I'm sticking with my being pathetic," I said after a while. "Can you guys leave, I'm kinda tired."

"Are you sure, Bella?" Emmett asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I need to get some sleep. Gotta go to hell tomorrow."

I felt Alice get off the bed. "Good night, Bella," she said. "Oh, and don't worry about Edward. You two are perfect together."

I blushed slightly and turned back to Emmett. "I don't like this whole blushing thing."

Emmett laughed. "Only a year and a couple months, Bella. Just remember that."

"Emmett, are you okay with me and Edward?"

"I guess I have to be," he shrugged. "But just so you know, I'll gladly kill him if he hurts you."

"For some reason, I have a feeling that he won't be hurting me."

"I think you're right about that. But just in case, I'll be here."

"I love you, Emmett," I leaned forward and hugged him.

"I love you too, Bella," he hugged me back. "Now get some sleep. I want you as coherent as possible with me in the car tomorrow morning."

I slapped his arm. "I'm a good driver!"

"Whatever you say," he rolled his eyes and stepped off the bed. "Night, Bella."

"Good night, Emmett."

now, i really don't care if you think Bella's reaction was melodramatic. Rachel and I had a conference and we believe that it was a fairly realistic and believeable reaction.