Chapter Nine

"We?" My eyebrows almost left my face, they jumped so high. "There's no we."

Goddamn smirk shone like diamonds on his face. "Not yet but there will be."

My lips turned into a small smile. "You're mighty confident about yourself, aren't you?"

"You see, that is the nicest way that anyone has ever called me a cocky prick before. That means you like me."

I scoffed mockingly, "That doesn't mean shit."

"Doesn't it?" He winked as he leaned back in his chair.

I tried to keep my resolve but a smile unconsciously grew from my pursed lips.

He's an ass, but Lord help me, I like him.

I blinked awake.

Normally when I have these flashback dreams about Jasper I wake up with my heart pounding and my breathing ragged. But I was feeling eerily calm.

Unclutching the pillow that I was spooning, I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, I raised my arms and rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hands.

That was a few days after we met. We were in the library, working on some homework in study hall. Well I was. He was watching me do homework as he doodled an elaborate scene of Godzilla fighting aliens. He even drew stick figures of us in the midst of the action. I was riding on the back of Godzilla like I was his jockey. Jasper's stick figure was the alien king. I'm chuckling even now thinking about our math teacher's stick figure being set on fire by Godzilla's fire breath and our science teacher being squashed by one of the space ships.

That drawing is still sitting in my desk drawer, along with about a hundred others. I thought about getting rid of them. Hell, I wanted to burn them with some of the other stuff. Still something stopped me when I came across all of the doodles he gave me. In the end I'm actually glad I didn't let Rosalie burn them during that first round of relationship memento purging. They're memories of some of the best parts of our relationship. So maybe eventually when I look back at us, I'll remember the good parts first.

Vibrations pulled me away from my thoughts. Blindly I reached under my pillow for my phone and swiped to answer the call. "Hello?" My voice whispered, still groggy from sleep.

A shy "Hey," echoed through the phone.

I cleared my throat before answering, "Hi," back.

There was some hesitation before I got a responding, "What are you doing?"

A sarcastic laugh escaped my mouth. "Oh, well it's 4:30 in the morning so I was just finishing up my 5K and now I'm about to start making fresh bread from the wheat I harvested whilst on my run."

"Good to see you're still yourself after everything this afternoon."

"Well you know what they say. You can take the truth out of the girl but...um...never mind. I lied. I didn't think that through. Just ignore everything I just said."

Chuckling erupted from the other side of the phone. "Yeah, still yourself."

"Was I ever...not...myself?" I thought out loud.

"No. That's one thing you definitely always are. Yourself."

I didn't know how to respond to that. So I kept silent.

After a long pause I heard a sigh that almost sounded like one of defeat, "You want to meet up for . . . food or something?"

I took a few moments to think it over before answering. "Um . . . yeah. Sure. Like now?"

"Yeah. I mean we're both up now."

I nodded, "Yeah. Okay."

"Okay. I'll meet you at the dinner in 20."

"I'll see you there." I said in goodbye before hanging up the phone.

The bell dinged as I came through the front door to The Fork's Dinner, the only 24-hour establishment in town. A few customers were scattered along the counter, but otherwise it looked empty in the still dark early morning light. The men looked mainly like loggers and construction men grabbing a bite to eat before hitting the daily grind.

Mary, the daughter of the owner who works the night shift during the summer when she's home from college, gave me a friendly wave and told me to sit anywhere before returning to filling the coffee mugs of a pair of bearded loggers.

I glanced around the restaurant and saw the bronzed back of the Edward's head in the only booth that was occupied in the entire restaurant.

The part of me that was a girl was suddenly cursing myself for not putting on a better outfit. I just came here in the clothes I went to bed in, one of my many Forks Police Department t-shirts and a pair of Emmett's old black basketball shorts that I stole from Rosalie. I didn't even bother with my hair, just leaving it in the, now messy, side braid that I did for bed.

With a deep breath, I just shook off those thoughts. I mean he's seen me, so why am I so worried about right now? I rolled my eyes at myself for caring at what he thought and made my way over to the booth.

As I approached I gave, what I hoped sounded like, a nonchalant, "Hey," before sitting down across from him.

"Hi," he answered back as he stirred his coffee. We fell into a silence. His eyes were staring at me and I was staring back without meeting his gaze. His hair was unruly like he just rolled out of bed too. It was getting a bit shaggy; he'll probably get it cut soon. He never liked it too shaggy. There was a tinge of purple underneath his eyes saying that he didn't sleep well tonight. A bit of scruff was showing up along his cheeks and chin.

Mary broke our silence by approaching the booth, "Hey, Bella. What can I get for you?"

I cleared my throat and turned my head to Mary. "Um, coffee and some of that magical french toast. Horace knows how I like it."

"Extra butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Syrup on the side with two orders of bacon." Mary recited from heart (one of the few perks of living in a small town) as she smiled, writing down my order on her notepad before walking away.

"You're an angel!" I yelled out to her retreating figure.

I turned back to find Edward shaking his head, "You're going to die from a heart attack at the age of 27, I swear."

I scoffed, "Oh, come on. Give me some credit. Charlie hasn't had a heart attack and he eats twice the amount that I do."

"That's actually pretty incredible considering he should be 600 pounds then." he admitted.

Mary came back to fill up our coffee mugs and tell us that our food will be up in a few minuets. As she walked away, the air seemed to shift as Edward and I were left alone again.

"How are you doing?" I asked him, knowing that he would know that I was referring to his morning with Liz.

He shrugged as he picked up his mug, "Better. I had a hell of a distracting afternoon. That got my mind off of my mother."

As I reached for my usual 3 packets of sugar, I finally asked the question that's been buried in the back of my mind all night, "So, um, what exactly happened when I left?"

Edward put down his own mug before answering, "Yelling, mostly. A lot of yelling."

"I was kind of hoping to maybe fast forward to the ending results of the yelling," I explained before stirring in all of the sugar and taking my first sip of heavenly coffee.

"Well, let's just say that you're no longer the world's favorite person over at the house at the moment."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, I already got that I'm public enemy number one right now."

"After you left, Jasper and Alice got into this huge fight about what he said to you."

I involuntarily perked up at that, "Alice defended me?"

Edward shook his head, "Not exactly. It was more about what he said. Not that he was saying it to you."

A sigh escaped my lips as I slumped back down in my side of the booth. "Do you think she'll ever forgive me?"

"There's a better chance with her than with Jasper at this point." Edward opened his mouth to say more but then Mary came back carrying our plates of food, placing them on the table before leaving us with a cheerful, "Enjoy now!"

"But that's like saying there's a 1% chance compared to a 0.1% chance." He continued before diving into his omelet.

I gave a simple nod of my head, "That's what I figured. But that's still ten times more than I deserve considering Alice got the brunt of my mistake. She deserves to be angry, more than Jasper. Even though he has a right to be angry too."

He didn't try to tell me that I was wrong, that none of this is my fault. He never has. And I was okay with that, even thankful. Especially after I spent all night with Emmett and Rosalie both telling me that none of this was my fault and that she would have gotten pregnant without me. Even if that was true, there's no way of knowing now. So it was nice having somebody not try to make me feel false optimism about my situation. Somebody who is just letting it be.

After a few minuets of silence eating our individual meals I asked, "How'd the fight end? What happened between them?"

Edward wiped his mouth off with a napkin before responding. "Alice basically asked him if he really wanted to do this with her, because if he didn't then he should just leave now. She already had one man leave her because of the baby so what's another one. Now Jasper was still pretty heated up from . . . well you, so he told her that now wasn't the time to ask him that question because he wasn't entirely sure what his answer would be." He continued with a sigh, "Alice then told him that he needed to leave and that they would talk once he calmed back down."

I snorted into my coffee, "Now I know that he didn't like that."

"He didn't." Edward's mouth turned into a smirk as he went on, "But then Aunt Seem jumped in. He seemed to change his mind on the leaving part pretty quickly after that."

"And what exactly are Esme's feelings toward me at this moment?"

"Just like you said before. You're public enemy number one at the Cullen residence right now, sweetheart." he answered simply before taking another mouthful of coffee.

I gaped, "Are you saying that I surpassed Carlisle on Esme's shit list?"

He nodded, "I wouldn't take it personally though. I just think she's happy that she can blame somebody other than her daughter and her own bad parenting skills."

I thought about his words while I chewed on a strip of my bacon. "So if I'm public enemy number one then what are you doing calling me in the middle of the night and demanding food with me? Doesn't that like make you a traitor to your family?" I questioned after I swallowed.

"Something like that I guess," he joked, ignoring the first part of my question. "And I wasn't demanding," he protested as he reached across the table and grabbed a few pieces of my bacon. I went to slap his hand but the fucker was too quick for me to stop him and all I hit was table.

I leaned back into the booth and mustered up the dirtiest look I could manage. "Really? My bacon. Really?"

Edward rolled his eyes as he chewed, "Oh give me a break. You literally have two orders. Plus I'm risking the wrath of my family by being here."

"Which was your idea," I pointed out.

"So the least you can do is let me have a measly two strips of damn bacon," he continued as if I never said anything.

My eyebrow rose as I asked him once again, "Why are you here then?"

His green eyes bore straight into mine. With a sigh of defeat he answered, "Why do you think?"

"Because you're a fucking idiot who, for some unknown reason, still likes me. I mean were you not there today?"

Edward broke the eye contact by throwing his head back in laughter. "No reason? I have plenty of reason, especially after today. That was incredibly brave what you did today. I mean, I would have liked it to have happened a little sooner. But beggars can't be choosers, right?"

A smile broke though my lips without meaning to. I quickly tried to hide it by sucking in my lips, but he saw it.

"Plus the way you looked in that dress that you were wearing earlier is another excellent reason."

The tense atmosphere seemed to vanish as a lighter mood settled around us. I decided to go along with the new mood and freed my lips to give him a smirk, "You liked that dress, huh?"

"Very much so," he nodded and I saw his tongue flick out of his mouth and lick his lips. "That was a good . . .um . . . color on you."

"Then I hate to break it to you. But that's your aunt's dress." Confusion crossed his face. "So whatever you imagined me doing in that dress, just think about your aunt doing it."

Horror grew across his face as he shut his eyes and began to rub them. "Jesus. Why would you do that to me?"

Through my laughter I admitted, "I'm sorry. I just couldn't help myself."

"Christ, you're a fine fucking piece of work." He muttered.

I grinned, "A fine fucking piece of work that you like."

Edward rolled his eyes at me as Mary approached us with more coffee. "And how was everything today Bella and, um, Bella's friend. I'm sorry I don't know your name."

He gave her his classic side smile. "I'm Edward. Bella's boyfriend."

I did a double take at his words. I thought my eyes were goanna pop out of my head at the shock. But Mary continued, not noticing the looks I was sending towards Edward, "Oh that great. You know I never liked her and Jasper. They didn't seem to, like, click fully. Like there were a few pieces left out of the puzzle or something. Then I heard about the way he broke up with her and-"

"Hey, Mare. Would you mind grabbing us the check?" I interrupted her.

She smiled, "Oh sure. No problem," before walking off again.

My attention then turned back to my companion. "What the fuck? So you're my boyfriend now?"

He shrugged before nonchalantly drinking some more coffee, "Just thought I'd try it out."

"You know, a normal person would have just asked me."

A giant smile grew on his face, "Do you want me to ask you?"

I shrugged playing indifferent, "I'm just saying that it would be nice to be asked, like a person."

Mary came back then with the check. Before I could even move an inch Edward gave her a twenty from his pocket. "Thanks for the great service Mary. Nice meeting you." She gave him a smile and wished us a great day before heading off to the needs of the other customers.

Edward rose from the booth like air, while I stumble, hitting the underneath of the table with my knees in the process. His body shook with muffled laughter as I finally stood up straight. Pursing my lips, I shot him the bird as I walked pass him towards the door. I didn't get far before I felt him fall into step next to me, silently lacing my right hand with his left.

Outside the pre-dawn darkness had grown to the pale lightness that came before sunrise. I lead us to my truck at the end of the small parking lot before turning around to look at him. "So I guess you should be getting back before your aunt or Alice wakes up, huh?" I asked him as I leaned my back against the door of my truck.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" he questioned back as he smirked at me.

"No," I responded as my eyes darted to our still intertwined fingers. "I just don't want you getting into any trouble." I lifted my head back up to see his face. "It'd be harder to sneak out to see me if they caught you."

He smiled down at me as he slowly moved his body closer to mine, "Is that the Bella way of saying that you want to see me?"

I rolled my eyes, "Well you're the one throwing around the term 'boyfriend'."

Edward's body was flushed against my own now, fully pressing me against the cool metal. His tongue darted out to lick his pale pink lips before challenging me, "So what if I am? Are you going to stop me?"

"Are you going to ask me?" I questioned back.

His eyelids lowered as his free hand went to the back of my neck. "Maybe later," he whispered before his hand pulled my head to his, colliding our lips.

Unlike our first kiss, this one didn't cause me to panic and run away. Actually it was kind of the opposite. I was relaxing into him, I was doing anything but running away this time.

My hand that wasn't laced in his moved from his waist, up his back, and into his long soft hair. "You need a haircut," I whispered between kisses.

I felt his lips turn into a smile. A quick, "I'll get right on that," was spoken sarcastically before his mouth was back to mine.

Eventually we slowed, and then finally parted once air was absolutely nessecary. Our breathing was in sync and labored as we stared at each other. The looks in our eyes matched. We were scared. But it was a good scared.

I broke our silence, "So are you going to ask me or what?"

Edward shook his head and detached himself away from me fully, now standing straight in front of me. "You want to go for a run in a few hours?"

A/N:

How's it going everybody?

I love the reviews and I'm so glad to have some faithful readers that take the time to review. It helps me with my writing if I know how you guys are responding to it.

But anyway I wanted to do a lighter chapter since the last few have been kind of emotionally draining on Bella.

There's only another chapter and then maybe an epilogue. I'm not sure yet. But the small story that came to me while watching a bad teen movie is a few years ago is coming to an end.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for reading!