Previously…

Edward nodded his head slightly. Just before the window rolled back up, I saw his lips move slightly to mouth 'sorry'.

I quickly blushed and looked away, not wanting to feel any emotion for this man in front of Jake. Hell, not wanting to feel any emotion for him ever.

"A bit star struck?" Jacob guessed wrong, when he saw the expression on my face as the car drove away.

"Er… yeah," I lied.

Jake just laughed. "Come on Bells, not far now!"

I let him squeeze past me and then I took one last glance over my shoulder. But the car had already gone and I felt my heart sink as I turned to trail after Jake. Not for the first time since I had run from Alice's, I found myself wondering if I had been a little harsh on Edward earlier.

After all, I had let him go once before.

I guessed that I just wasn't smart enough to learn from my mistakes.

~PTP~

You took me in and shook me up inside.
You got the stuff, the stuff that drives me wild.
You wanted headlines; you wanted bright lights;
I was just your cheap and easy ride.

Now I'm losing, I'm losing, my mind yeah I'm losing.
My mind is missing, presumed lost.
Now I'm losing, I'm losing, my mind yeah I'm losing.
Don't want you back no matter what.

-Goodtime Girl, Scouting for Girls

Playing the Part

Chapter 10 – Mindless Drinking

Edward POV

Megan watched in disbelief as I downed my third shot of some tequila-based fruity drink. We had been here for about an hour now, but twenty minutes of that hour had been spent doing PR with the media outside the venue and then a further twenty talking to the main promoter of the movie, Rosalie Hale, who reminded us that it would premier in just a few weeks; the editing had been done practically alongside the movie so the crew were not far behind us in terms of getting the movie ready.

"Jeez, Edward, take it easy!" Megan exclaimed.

I shrugged, slamming my shot glass on the table. I was going to get smashed tonight and I didn't give a damn what anyone thought. For once I wasn't going to let myself be controlled by etiquette and pre-conceived notions of my perfection. My mother would probably be disappointed but, at the moment, I was too depressed to care.

Megan raised one perfectly plucked brow. "And you did know that I ordered the bottle of tequila for myself and some girlfriends, right?"

I shrugged again. I could drink a girls' drink if that's what I wanted to do. Plus, if I was too depressed to care about what my mother thought of my mindless drinking then why would I care about what I was using to do said mindless drinking?

My co-worker finally gave up on trying to get her drink back and ordered a new bottle and a few more shot glasses before giving me a mock salute and walking off, leaving me with just a "don't get too drunk Edward; if you stumble out of here drunk there are some people that are not going to be impressed. Plus, we have that barrage of interviews tomorrow night so don't go making a spectacle of yourself."

I mulled over her words, wondering why I had that feeling you get when you subconsciously know that you've double-booked but you can't for the life of you remember what the other thing was. I had a feeling that it was to do with Alice, but I couldn't remember what and I didn't want to because the second I started thinking about Alice, I inevitably thought about Bella. And when I thought about Bella, I thought about him.

I presumed that he was Jacob. He had everything that I didn't. He had darker, tan skin compared to my bone-white, he looked like he had a six-pack made of iron, and he had huge dark eyes compared to my dull green ones. The biggest difference, though, was that he had the girl, and I had a bottle of some fruity kind of tequila-tasting crap.

If I had to choose one of the two, I knew which one I'd prefer to have right now. A clue? Well, it wouldn't have been the bloody drink. It tasted like soap, and fruit, and some kind of girly perfumy shit. But, that didn't stop me from sighing and pouring myself another shot.

Someone with the crappiest timing in the world came up and slapped me on the back just as I went to down the shot, and I started choking on the liquid that was flooding my breathing tube. Once I had recovered from my choking fit, I turned to have at the person that had caused it, and nearly passed out in surprise when I saw who it was.

"Emmett?" I stared at my muscled jackass of a friend. "What are you doing here?"

He smirked. "Surprising your ass- which is looking mighty fine if I do say so myself."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, man. We all know you don't roll that way."

He quirked a brow. "Oh really?"

"Emmett. I am talking to the guy who has been caught doing the dirty with three different girls by his parents- and not even on three different occasions!"

"Hey, man, that was back in senior year of high school! You can't bring that shit up now." Luckily, he was grinning so my comment had obviously not offended him in the least. Not that I was surprised. It was pretty hard to offend Emmett.

He reached over for the bottle of tequila and I braced myself for the rant I knew I would get for drinking a 'girly drink'. I wasn't wrong.

"Tequila?" Emmett's dark eyebrows shot up and were almost lost in his hairline. "Edward, you wanna tell me when you turned into a girl?"

I rolled my eyes. "It was there; I drunk it." Now that the novelty of Emmett being there had worn off, I felt my depression start to weave its way back in. "I'm getting smashed tonight."

"Fair enough if you want to get pissed, but if you're going to do it, why not do it in style?" Then he turned to the bartender and said, "Single malt whiskey, please, and keep it strong." After a very small pause, he added, "Actually, make that two."

The bartender nodded and gave us the drinks and then Emmett grinned at me. "Now this is getting smashed like a man, Eddie-boy."

I groaned. "Any masculinity I just gained with this whisky just went right out of the window with you calling me that."

He laughed and clinked his glass against mine before bringing his to his lips. But just before the liquid slipped past his bottom lip, he froze, staring at something on the opposite side of the room. "Eddie… who… on earth is that?"

I looked over in the direction that he was as the whisky burnt my throat slightly, and realised who he was talking about. She was tall and blonde and absolutely gorgeous in a floor-length, ice-blue dress that, I knew, matched her eyes. "Oh. That's Rosalie Hale. She's in charge of all promotion-y stuff. I thought I told you that before?"

His eyes practically bugged out of his head. "That's Rosalie?"

Being my agent, Emmett had heard all of the stories from the set, so of course I had told him about Rosalie; who had had a pretty strong presence on set… hell, wherever Rose went you knew it. She was pretty good friends with Rachel, the director, so she was around quite a lot. Emmett had seemed relatively interested in her personality, asking what stories there were about 'that Rosie girl', but I hadn't thought that he was actually serious. But now, watching him pant at her, it was clear that he was a hell of a lot more serious than I had thought. I grinned. "I could introduce you."

"Uh huh," was all Emmett responded.

I rolled my eyes and tugged on the bottom of his jacket. "C'mon then big boy." I pulled him over to Rosalie's side and then tapped her shoulder.

She turned round and smiled at me, her blue eyes sparkling. "Oh, hey Edward."

"Great party," I complimented, since she was responsible for most of it; small talk would also hopefully rub her up the right way. Rosalie was also renowned for being very brutal in her honesty; she said what she thought and she was not afraid to be herself. I was almost afraid that she would eat me alive sometimes.

"It's not going too badly, no," she replied with a smile, and that was a compliment to herself in Rosalie speak.

I felt Emmett nudge my elbow and I rolled my eyes before saying, "This is my best friend, and agent, Emmett."

Her gaze drifted from me to Emmett and she looked him up and down. "Hi," she said, keeping a professional attitude, "I'm Rosalie Hale."

"I know. It's nice to bang you… I mean… I want to meet you… I mean… shit!"

I watched Emmett's fumbling with an amused expression; an eyebrow cocked, one side of my mouth pulled up. I had never seen him like this before.

Luckily, Rosalie also raised an eyebrow and said, "Right." She glanced at me and smiled. "Later, Edward… Emmett." Then she waved a little, though we were standing right next to her, and drifted off to mingle with someone who wasn't as socially incompetent as Emmett.

Em smacked himself in the forehead. "Dammit."

"Don't worry," I told him.

"But I practically told her that I wanna bang her!" Em wailed.

"She didn't make a snarky comment or say anything nasty, and Rosalie only keeps her trap shut when she likes someone." I didn't mention the sparkle I had seen in her eye; it would do Emmett good to work for something he wanted for once in his whole goddamn life.

He sighed and looked after her wistfully. "Ya think?"

"Oh, I think, Em." I tossed my shot back into my mouth finally, revelling in the burn that the whisky left.

Emmett watched me with suspicious eyes. "You know… you never did tell me why you want to get wasted."

I didn't fail to notice his not-so-subtle subject-change. I took the bait though. "Swan," I muttered, and then I turned back to the bar and asked for a whole bottle of the damn whisky. I was gonna need more than a shot of that shit to get me pissed.

"What?" Emmett asked, watching as I took the uncapped bottle from the bartender and poured myself another shot.

I sighed. "You know Alice?"

Emmett thought for a second and then nodded. "The little fashionista right?"

"Right."

He quirked an eyebrow. "You like her? I wouldn't have thought that she was your type, man…"

"No!" I deflected that immediately. "No. But… her best friend is…" I dropped my gaze as I said, "Bella Swan."

Emmett was silent for a moment, and then he said, "Well shit."

"Yeah."

"That's the chick you ditched, right?"

I nearly growled at him. "It wasn't through choice! Jesus, Em." I threw back the shot.

"So is she married or something?" he asked.

I froze. Was Bella married to that dick? But then I remembered her saying something about dating and I almost passed out with the relief. "No. But she's got a fucking boyfriend." I glared at nothing in particular as I poured another shot.

Emmett raised both his eyebrows worriedly and opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off, "Don't even go there. Please."

He hesitated, but I poured a fresh shot and pushed it at him and he looked at it for a split second before giving in with a sigh, and downing it in one.

A few hours later, when it was gone midnight, I was as wasted as I'd hoped to be. Emmett had disappeared to God-knows-where and left me by myself nursing a fresh bottle of whisky. Getting wasted, though, didn't seem to be making the depression fade, so I sighed and sank back into the chair I was sat in, and shoved my hands in my pockets childishly.

It was then that my hand brushed a piece of paper in the pocket. I pulled it out and read the writing on it- which I vaguely recognised as Alice's. All it said was the word 'Bella' and then an address. My brow furrowed, confused for a second, but then my brain caught up and I beamed. God bless Alice.

I stuck the paper back in my pocket and headed outside to grab a cab. When the driver asked where to, I thrust the paper at him and slurred, "Thish plash."

He nodded doubtfully, but started the engine all the same. I thought I heard him say something about not throwing up in his cab, but I wasn't paying any attention. I was going to see Bella and beg her to take me back. Maybe she could even help me take care of the pink elephant that appeared to be following me around now.

Bella POV

I stared out of the shop window, mindlessly looking at the sky. The sky was pretty tonight, it was pitch black but filled with a million sparkling orbs; all twinkling brightly. They say that there are more stars in the sky than there are sand grains on the earth. I smiled at the thought; maybe somewhere in a different universe someone also got their beautiful night skies too. If only reality was as easy as the night sky.

I was shaking, I had been since… well since the 'car' incident. Someone up there really must hate me. I mean, for years and years I had tried looking for that man, even attended a stupid premiere and then, when I had seen him, I had slapped him! And then, I just wanted to get away! But no- I had to see him twice in one night! Didn't that just describe my luck?

"Bella, please- take my jacket! You've been shivering for ages!" Jacob pushed, as we sat on the uncomfortable stools in the fish and chip shop, waiting for our food.

"No, really I'm fine," I told Jake again. The truth was, I wasn't one bit cold – I was in a hot fish and chips shop after all – I was still just shaken and in surprise of today's events.

"Order 101!" shouted a person from behind the counter.

"Come on, Bells that's us." Jacob smiled at me, and helped me stand up before collecting our food.

Suddenly I didn't feel hungry at all, I felt sick. I saw Jake pay for the food and I knew that he would never let me pay him back, so decided that sometime later on I would have to slip the money into one of his pockets or something. He was a very sweet guy, but maybe too sweet for me.

We walked out of the shop, I was glad to get away from the smell, and out into the night. The air was still warm for this time of night, with a nice low breeze, which helped to make me feel a bit better.

"Here you go." Jake smiled, while he tossed me a bag of chips.

I looked down at them and suddenly felt my tummy rumble, in a very bad way. Everything for a second went very dizzy, my vision was blurred and I could feel my face turn to a shade of green.

I threw the bag of chips down and ran to the nearest bush across the road; where it felt like I puked my guts up. I heard a loud thump of footsteps behind me, then two big hands stroking my back and trying to pull my hair out of my face.

Five minutes later, I started to feel a bit better and could stand up properly. Though my face had now gone from green to bright pink in embarrassment. Great way to end a first date, Bella!

But, for some reason, I didn't honestly mind Jake seeing my puke my guts up; he felt like more of a reassuring friend than a date. I only felt embarrassed for being sick in public, not the fact that Jake watched me.

It brought back a memory of the only other time that I had been properly sick with someone there. A time with Edward, when I had felt embarrassed for being sick in front of him. But then I also remembered how the dazzling, crooked smile he gave me afterwards, had nearly made me feel a 100% better again. Jake also smiled, to make me feel better I guess, but I felt nothing.

"Bella, I'll take you back home now- you can come in my car, I'll drive your truck to yours later," Jacob suggested, as he wrapped an arm round me to make sure I stayed up straight, well it probably meant more to him, but I had learnt that Jake wasn't ever going to be more than a good friend. He was sweet and kind, but… well… he was no Edward…

"No, it's fine- I can drive myself." To show him this, I moved away from his body and stood up straight. It gave my head a sharp headache, but I managed to not let it show.

Jacob looked me over double-checking that I was okay; before finally looking at my expression and guessing that I wasn't going to change my mind. He sighed. "Okay Bella. As long as your sure your okay? I think it was those chips to be honest, the smell of them were awful!"

I just nodded in agreement, knowing that it hadn't been just the chips at all. It was today; it had been so long and hectic, though to a normal outsider barely much had happened to me. Seeing Edward, twice, had really surprised me. It felt like it had all happened so quick that my mind had barely any time to take it all in, so instead made me sick. Finally re-meeting the man that I'd adored, that I'd had constant, endless dreams about, the man who never ever left my head or memories and the man who had left me all alone. My brain just couldn't handle it, I needed to sleep.

I pretended to yawn. "Jake I better get going now; the car park is down this road yeah?" I checked, as I pointed back to the narrow road we'd walked down.

"Yeah, I'll walk back with you- I want to make sure you get back safely," Jake replied, as we started to walk down the road.

We were both quiet on the way back, with Jake leading the way. I just stared at the pretty sky again, trying to preoccupy my mind for a bit.

"Well, tonight was good… kind of. Okay, that's a lie, it was a complete disaster and I'm sorry Bel-" Jake apologised.

"No, Jake it was good," I cut him off. "I just really need to go home now. I'll see you on Monday I guess." I got into my red truck and closed the door behind me.

I looked back, to see Jake looking a bit upset by my goodbye. "Can we meet again, soon?"

I just pretended that I hadn't heard him through the car door, smiled, waved and drove off down the road. I knew that it was rude, but all I wanted to do was get home and collapse on my bed, before I felt ill again.

I parked my car up and opened my old cranky door, into my house. As soon as I stepped inside, I got dizzy again, so I ran to my room to lie on my bed. I took deep breaths, and soon calmed myself down so I felt a little better again.

I knew it was only half nine, but sleep felt like the right thing to do right now. Not even writing or speaking to that mysterious person seemed to interest me at the moment. My body begged for sleep.

I got changed into my tatty vest and holey sweats, then brushed my teeth to help make my mouth taste better, it felt good. I stretched in my bedroom doorway, loosening all my muscles, and then letting them drop and relax. My body felt kind of empty and disappointed. I had my one chance, which I had dreamed about for years! I had finally seen Edward again and I had just punched him. What if that was it? What if I never saw him again? Could I cope with knowing that I had had a chance and just ruined it?

I decided that stressing out about that again wasn't going to help me. I headed straight to my comfy bed, but a doorbell noise stopped me. I groaned. It had to be Alice, wanting to know every little detail of my date, and then she'd probably have a go at me for punching Edward and want to know why I had done it in the first place. Had Edward told her about us? Maybe Alice had guessed?

I lazily dragged my body to the door, before letting out a sigh and preparing myself for the onslaught that was Alice. Maybe she'd see how tired I was and let me sleep?

I opened up the door and mumbled a, "Hello Alice."

The response was not what I was expecting. "B-Bellaaaaa!" spoke, a weird velvet voice, followed by a man collapsing on top of me; throwing both of us onto the floor beneath us.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Is that… could it possibly be…? Of course it is! C'mon guys, who else has a velvety voice? ;) LOL

So… long time, no see? I just want to say that, while we don't update frequently, there is no way in hell that we will leave the story on hiatus. So don't panic about being left hanging ;)

Now… as those of you who read VTN and EF will know, I'm doing previews now! And this story is no exception for the preview thing :) So we have a preview for you, following on directly from the end of this chapter. As with my other fics, it's preview for review so… yes :)

The update shouldn't be too long because we do have 3 pages of the next chapter already written so we'll try not to take so long this time.

Please review?

Thanks guys!

-Steph (and Laura :))

UPDATE: To those of you wondering what I thought about Eclipse who don't read VTN... it was AWESOME! The best one yet. I mean, I saw it twice within 24 hours soooo it must be pretty good ;)