A/N: I'm probably rushing this too much, huh? I only got two reviews last chapter but I understand why. I promised someone that I would come out with this one quickly but, you know, I want a lot of reviews for this story just so my later endeavors will have a lot of support. But I also want to get this story out before I'm buried with homework. AP classes may be very well and good, prestigious and all that crap, but they sure are time consuming! Anyways, enjoy this chapter as much as you can. My first attempt at drama, sort of, at least on fanfic. Though, in my Bella's case, I made it a tad more quirky.

Disclaimer: "Dislaimer, Disclaimer! Wherefore art thou, Disclaimer! Deny thy Stephanie Meyer and refuse thy name."

"That's OK. I'm good!"

Wouldn't that be sad if Romeo had replied like that? Puts a whole other spin on tragedy, huh?

"We can't be friends anymore."

I blinked once, my brow furrowed. "What?" I asked stupidly, though I'd heard him well enough.

"We can't be-"

"Why?" I interrupted incredulously.

"It's…" Edward sighed looked away. "Complicated."

My eyes narrowed and I crossed my arms as though they could protect me from the pain his words might bring. "What the hell does that mean, Edward?"

He winced, either at my tone or the fact that I'd used his full name, which I rarely did. Eddie had been my signature thing. Only I called him that. But right now, I could care less. "I just…." His gaze locked with mine suddenly and his emerald eyes no longer sparkled. They were filled with an inexplicable pain I longed to comfort, but knew I could not. Because it was he who had decided this. "Look, can't you just get mad at me and leave?"

"I'm not mad," I snapped defensively and he raised an eyebrow, skeptical, which kind of made sense. I stepped forward. "I'm furious and confused and hurt." It was uttered in a whisper and his gaze returned to the floor. "Fine, Edward. Don't tell me. But you should know that…" I stopped, blinked, took in a deep breath. My voice came out shaky. "You will always be the best friend I've ever had." And before the tears could fall in his presence, I ran back to my house.

That had been a week ago, a long painful week. It always made me laugh bitterly to myself how pathetic that whole meeting had been. The morning after James had arrived, I'd been greeted with a text from my favorite boy. He wanted to meet in the woods behind my house. Not exactly unusual, for he often dragged me out there to experience my 'natural spirit from with in.' I normally protested, but after the whole fiasco with the Jimster (Hah! He hated that nickname), I welcomed the quality time.

That is, until I met my best friend with that brooding expression upon his face that was fast becoming common and familiar. You know, it's unusual to suffer from a broken heart. Sound like an angsty, depressing thing? Well, Secondhand Serenade is one of my favorite bands. Anyway, I'd never believed it when somebody could be hurt in that way, so deep and painful, you can't even scream to release it. And there's no way to mend it either. No stitches, no band-aid. As horrible as it had been to keep my love from him a secret, it was even worse not to see him. And still love him. Even more depressing? I wouldn't allow myself to cry or wallow. That was too pathetic. I'd admitted my heart was broken, something I wouldn't have believed could even happen. I wouldn't give in to anything else.

Luckily, I still had my friends. They were, in one word, supportive. Jasper, Alice, and Rose would come over and we (including Emmett and James, of course) would all watch movies or just talk. But it never felt complete and though I hated it, I always felt guilty, because I knew that if they were here with me, Edward was alone. Not to mention the fact that no one seemed to like James much, and, honestly, I couldn't blame them. My friend had changed. And not in a good way. He was rude and conceited and always always always being uncomfortably touchy-feely with me. Stroking my arm, hugging me closely, kissing me randomly on my cheek, my head, my hand, once on my neck. Shudders. And flirting incessantly. Why? I don't know. And part of me didn't want to know. But I did know that he would be leaving soon, so I took it all with good grace.

Though James had always been a fairly intuitive person, I was surprised he never picked up on my mood. Or anyone else's for that matter. He was completely carefree, even more so than Emmett and that's saying something.

How did Emmett, the protective big brother feel? Surprisingly Swiss. That is to say, he was one of two who took no side, or rather, he took both sides. Alice was completely adamant about being on mine, despite my protests that there were none to choose from in the first place.

"Girls got to stick together," she'd said. Something Rosalie seemed pretty fierce about as well. And Jasper was, as always, stuck in a turmoil of emotions and stayed neutral. I suspected the guys knew why Edward had so abruptly put an end to our friendship. Which made me think that if he got my own brother to be supportive of him, my still best friend and love of my life had a pretty good reason to quit speaking to me. One I promised myself I would find out. No matter what. Too bad I was as scared to ask him, as I was to tell him my feelings….

"Bella, Bells, wake up!" a soft voice whispered, and I detected a suppressed excitement in my brother's tone that made me open my eyes. The rain was beating incessantly against the window, rain drops running down the glass like tear marks and I had to look away. That looked too close to how I was feeling right now.

"What's wrong Emmy?" I asked quickly, wiping away the sleep from my eyes.

He grinned and I knew there was no immediate danger. "James is leaving today."

I grinned despite myself. As mean as it was, Emmett and I had been longing for this day. No more Jimmy. I sprang out of bed, and my brother, left chuckling at my sudden joy. Racing to my dresser and almost crumpling in a heap when I tripped on something (happiness always made me clumsier), I racked through the clothes to find the band shirt James had given me long ago. It was smaller now, but not embarrassingly so. The band, however, was a different story….

"Oh my God!" James snorted when I took off my jacket in the airport. He burst into laughter and I grinned. It was the least I could do.

Emmett turned and chuckled. "Spice Girls Bella, really?"

"Hey," I laughed. "It was all Jimmy. He bought it for me. He was the one who partook in the rocking out."

He rolled his eyes. "That's only because I thought they were hot."

"Really?!" I asked as though I were surprised. "Not because they had such inspirational song lyrics as I recall you saying?"

He had the decency to look embarrassed, but smiled. "What was that one we used to always sing?"

I thought about it a moment, then grinned. "'If you Wanna be My Lover!' But you demanded we learn the dance moves to 'Stop.'

We turned on the radio and were laughing hysterically when one of their songs came on. Just kidding. The fates aren't that specific, and somehow I don't think my destiny possesses much spice in it, if you dig what I'm laying down. But it was nice to leave things on such a good note.

The one thought that I could think was, ew. Nothing else could penetrate my mind, hideously disgusted as I was. His mouth initially didn't taste bad. It appeared he'd been chewing gum or breath mints the entire ride here without my knowledge. I'll never like mint much again. Thanks a lot buddy! But really, here? He had to confess here? In public? My eyes were open and I could slightly see a little boy staring wide-eyed at us. 'I'm sorry for the mental images and eternal scarring, dude!'

James' grip was strong but with all my will power, I threw the face-sucker off. Not impressively, but it got the desired affect. He pulled back and waited for a reaction.

"What…the hell…was that?" I gasped, as wide-eyed as the now forever changed little boy.

James smiled widely. "That would be a kiss, dear Bella."

I pouted. "Well, no shit, Sherlock. I kind of guessed. Why were you doing it?"

"Bella! Man, I swear, you must be blind!" I stared at him and he took a deep breath still smiling, happy as ever. "You really never knew, huh? Remember that day when you, Jake, Laurent, Victoria, and I were playing Truth or Dare?"

"Yes…." I answered slowly, not seeing where he was going with this. "Victoria really liked you so she insisted on it." I'd disliked her and her rather witch with a b ways, but they had made a good couple. "She wanted me to dare you to kiss her."

"Did she?" he asked momentarily distracted, then shook his head. "That's funny, because that's what Laurent did. You know, dare me to kiss you."

"And you did!"

"Yeah," he sighed, seemingly far away. "And it felt so wonderful. Like hot chocolate on a cold day."

"No way," I breathed, stunned.

James stared at me now, finally picking up on my mortification and disgust, though I tried to hide them. His brow furrowed. "Aren't…aren't I the guy you said you had feelings for?"

I snapped my eyes shut and grabbed his hand. Unfortunately, he took that as a sign of encouragement and tightened his grip. "James," I told him quietly. "You weren't the guy."

He released his hand sharply and backed away. "O-oh!" he exclaimed in disbelief. Then his eyes flashed to coldness. Leave it to James to feel no embarrassment at being rejected. Just stone cold fury. "Who is it then?"

I looked down, blushing. "Edward," I mumbled, wondering if he could even hear me.

"Should've known," he muttered darkly. Apparently he could. I bet he has super bat-like hearing. It went with his 'fangs.' Maybe James was a vampire! Wouldn't be too surprised.

"I'm sorry Jimmy," I told him sincerely. "I'm not the girl for you."

He frowned and released a breath. "You could have been." After a moment he added, "I'm sorry the idea repulses you."

"It doesn't!" I said too quickly. He raised an eyebrow. "OK," I smiled sheepishly. "So I wanted to puke. Lots of people dig that in a relationship."

He rolled his eyes but laughed. "Well you can't say I didn't try." He shrugged then glanced at me wistfully. "Just promise to be happy." And without letting me say good-bye, he walked to his gate. So much for leaving things on a good note. I wondered if I'd ever see him again. I wondered if I really cared.

In a daze, I made my way back to Emmett who we'd left standing by a T.V. watching a football game.

"What'd he want?" he demanded at once, noticing my stunned expression.

"Me!" I breathed.

"Hah!" Ah, how sensitive my brother could be. Like another Jasper, don't you agree? He should become a therapist. I shudder to think what a schizophrenic would be like in his hands. "I knew it all along. You sure are oblivious."

I stared at him. "So I've been told," I muttered dryly.

"Ah, what are we going to do with you Bells?"

God, what was with that phrase! Everywhere I go, somebody had to ask that wretched question. The horse is dead people! It rots in a field, it's spirit is in heaven, let it rest in peace! "Take me to the dentist."

"What?" Emmett looked at me like I was crazy which I probably was.

"I need my mouth cleaned out as thoroughly as possible."

A/N: Aw, poor Jimmy! Anybody feel bad for him? No one? Oh, well, must be me. I started tearing up there, dude. Just kidding! Anyway, sorry if any of you are die hard Spice Girls or horse fans. I used to like that band too when I was younger and horses are wonderful and beautiful and about any other positive adjective you can think of....Except sexy. I don't think horses are particularly sexy, but hey some people probably are weird like that and do dig animals. And did anyone catch my little rhyme in there? Hmm...what else...what else...Oh yes! Review of course! Your feed-back, though not numerous, always make me laugh and smile. So please send me an email of this happiness and I will be eternally grateful.