Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I am just using the names that she created for her wonderful story.

X-NessieCullen-X has preread and beta'd for me but life is kind of nuts for both of us. All mistakes are entirely my own. If you find any, I do apologize. xx

Chapter 10

Oscar the Grouch

"I have cheesecake, wine, strawberries, chocolate sauce, angel food cake, and Sprite to make spritzers...pizza's on its way," Alice gushed as soon as she opened the door and saw Rosalie on the other side. Bella had already been there for almost fifteen minutes and already indulged in way more chocolate dip than she should have.

"Wow, Bells, you look like a bundle of fun, tonight," Rosalie proclaimed sarcastically which caused Bella to frown even more.

"I really don't feel like celebrating right now. I don't know how to manage this situation and with Jacob trying to talk to me and Edward refusing to talk to me, I'm very much not into dressing up in a cute little outfit and dancing around like some cliche slumber party..."

"Wow. Anger," Rosalie mused.

Shaking her head, Bella rubbed her face and then tucked the wisps of hair escaping from her messy bun behind her ears. All she really wanted was to go back home and immerse herself in literature. Her ebook of Wuthering Heights was literally screaming at her from the bag at her feet. "I'm sorry, Alice. Honestly. I want to be excited but this is...is it ridiculous of me to be so fucking confused about this situation?"

"No. It's not," Alice said softly. "He's being stubborn. Has he still not talked to you?"

"I don't think he will. You saw how he stormed off last night, Ally. He wouldn't even let me go inside to say a quick goodbye to Lanie."

"He told Emmett..." Rosalie began but then let her voice trail off as if realizing it was probably something that was told to her in private.

"What? Rose, come on. We agreed to no more secrets," Bella reminded her.

"He told Emmett that he's upset with himself over what happened. He's not mad at you. This isn't about you..."

"This has everything to do with me!"

"You really are totally in love with this guy, aren't you?" Rosalie asked, shock clear on her face.

"It might just be lust but...I'm like really upset about what happened. I just wish he would freaking call me. Is that so hard?"

"Give him time," Alice reasoned.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore. Please tell me you have the girliest chick flick ever. Preferably one with hot men..."Bella pleaded.

"Oh, yes," Alice exclaimed, hopping over to the television. As the girls settled in and began munching on the food, Bella began to feel herself relax a little. There was still a chance Edward wanted to be with her, still a chance he'd call and they could work things out. She tried to stay positive but she also had Jacob hanging over her. He seemed so nice and she knew she was eventually going to have to face the music and talk to him. Edward, though, may never come around and where would that leave her? Her best friend was seeing someone who Bella could honestly see her being with for a long, long time. Alice was getting married in less than a year. Here Bella was, alone and mopey, when she had a perfectly well-paid handsome lawyer calling on her. Trying to focus on the movie, she forced thoughts of Edward out of her head-or at least tried. Her life could definitely be worse.

The fateful party had happened two weeks ago yet Bella still held out hope that Edward would call or at least contact her in some way. She couldn't contain her frustration with the situation. The overwhelming feeling to talk to him really hit her hard on this particular day because she had walked into her house to find a vase of flowers sitting on her kitchen counter. When her mom came downstairs, all smiles, Renee bounced on her feet and asked Bella who they were from. There were two options and Bella had a fifty-fifty chance of being completely crushed when she opened the card. Crushed it was.

"They're from a friend." Bella faked a smile, not really lying about the person. Jacob's note was short and sweet, asking her to meet him for drinks that weekend. After her mom seemed pleased enough with that, she stomped upstairs with the card in her hand and pulled out her phone.

"Hello?" her best friend asked breathlessly.

"He fucking sent me flowers!" Bella whispered in frustration so her mom couldn't hear.

"Edward?"

"No! Jacob!"

"Oh. Em, hold on..."

A thought struck Bella and she began to blush. "Rose, are you seriously, like, fucking Emmett right now? Why would you answer your phone?"

"I saw it was you. Don't get mad because you're not getting any..."

"Shut up. What am I supposed to do?"

"Find a guy or you could take care of matters yourself..."

"About the flowers! Focus!"

"I need details. What type of flowers?"

"Red roses."

"Tacky and bad news."

"Ya think?" Bella said sarcastically.

"Are you not interested in him at all? Jake, I mean. Do you see him as a potential boyfriend?"

"I don't know."

"Alright." There was some shuffling around on the other end and then Rosalie's voice was back, "you need to call Edward."

"No. I don't. It's obvious he doesn't want to see or talk to me."

"You know I love you, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then quit being a hard-headed idiot and call the man. I can easily do it for you."

"I think you've done enough setting me up on dates."

"You're still hung up on him, aren't you? Like you really, really want to see him again?" Rosalie asked as if she were accusing Bella of something.

"Rose, I have to go..." Bella hung up and plopped down on her bed. Throwing her head into her hands, she began to cry. It had been like this for awhile now. She'd go into work hoping to hear something from Lanie about him or maybe even see him after school, but it never happened. Instead, she'd come home, lay down, and have a good cry before dinner. Yes. She was feeling as pathetic as she obviously actually was.

What worried her was that Lanie was becoming a little withdrawn at school. Her school work was still okay but she didn't seem happy. Maybe the little girl was picking up on Bella's mood. Either way, if it continued after the holidays, Bella was going to break down and call Edward. Lanie had to come first. That was a promise she'd made to Edward before all this shit began and she wasn't going to go back on it now.

Bella had turned down Jacob's offer for drinks and spent the weekend trying to pretend she was happy being single. Her mom wanted to paint the living room and Bella dove into the project, excited for something to do. On Sunday night, after scraping the paint off of her arms, she noticed Luca scratching at the door, desperate to go out. Grabbing his leash, she threw on some sensible shoes and let him lead the way. After he peed for what felt like hours, she let him head for the sidewalk to go for a walk. That's when she remembered what Lanie had said. The girl wanted a pet, which was normal for most kids, but it was obvious Edward didn't want one at the apartment.

With a smile, she had called Rosalie and that night they'd loaded Luca into the Jeep. The three of them were headed to Petco. After he picked out a toy for himself, the girls and the large dog headed to the small animal section. "What about a goldfish?" Rosalie asked her, obviously trying to dissuade her from the plan.

"The kids can't play with a goldfish. Plus, we'd be coming here every night to buy a new one after the other one dies. They don't survive too well."

While Lanie had specifically mentioned a hamster, Bella had another idea. Hamsters were smaller, so they were easily lost. They were also prone to bite. For this reason, she stopped in front of the guinea pig enclosures and bent down. Luca looked at her in confusion and Rosalie groaned. "I'm not picking that thing up."

"You don't have to. I just need you to help me pick out a cute one...and it's nice seeing you once in awhile."

"Fine," she muttered, bending down beside Bella. "I like that one."

"The white one? It looks...not very friendly. What about that one?" Bella pointed out a brown one with a black ring around it's eye and white spots on it's head. "He's cute."

"For a guinea pig, I guess."

After purchasing a cage, bedding, food, treats, and a water bottle, Bella showed the worker which one she wanted and they boxed the little guy up for her. Due to Rosalie's disgust and Luca's eagerness to eat the poor thing, Bella drove home with the white cardboard box on her lap and received a look of amusement from her mother as they hauled everything upstairs. The cage was easy to put together and once the critter was content in a pile of what looked like saw dust, Bella smiled to herself and thanked Rosalie for her help.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Yes. The kids are going to love him. I'll let them pick out a good name for him."

"Don't ask me to babysit him during the summer. He's all yours."

The kids came in the next morning looking like they were zombies. Lanie, which was unusual, looked just as wiped out as everyone else. Bella remembered Edward saying that she was into school more this year than last year. Maybe the novelty of school and her new clothes had worn off. Bella decided then and there to give Edward a call whether he liked it or not. This couldn't keep up or else she worried Lanie would start skipping. Her attendance record was a little better the past couple years but when the girl was in second grade, she might as well have not even been enrolled.

She wanted to see how long it would take the kids to figure out there was an addition to the classroom and they almost made it to the Pledge of Allegiance before a boy in the back of the room heard the critter shuffling around in its cage and he turned to see what made the noise. He looked shocked as he turned to Bella questioningly. By then, a lot of the kids were noticing the new pet and Bella cleared her throat. "Boys and girls, this weekend, Miss Rose and I found a new friend for you. He'll be kept here and during recess, as long as I'm around, I'll let you hold him. I had him out for a bit last night and this morning and he's very calm. He doesn't bite but he is an animal so you have to be gentle with him or he might."

The lecture went on as Bella used that as a segue into how to treat animals. These kids weren't little anymore and they had probably heard the warning a million times but she wanted to make sure it was ingrained. She had always had a soft spot for animals. Lanie was one of the first ones to play with him and Bella asked her what she wanted him to be called. Lanie thought for a long time before giving a small, sad smile and whispering the name Oscar."

"Oscar?"

"Yeah, like Oscar the Grouch. I told my brother that's how he's been acting lately..."

Bella's head shot up as she forced down the urge to pump the girl for information. Instead, she bit her lip and thought for a minute before asking. "Lanie, is everything okay at home? You haven't been very happy lately."

She just shook her head and handed the guinea pig back to Bella. As she walked away, one of the other girls asked to hold Oscar and Bella handed him over. She decided to write all the names for the new class pet on the board that had been suggested. Some were silly, some were girly, and some were pretty out there. In the end, the class had spoken and Oscar won by a landslide.

"I don't want to!" Lanie yelled loudly. "You were supposed to pick me up today but it was Ally again! I don't want to work on the stupid project anymore!"

Edward jumped as Lanie's bedroom door slammed and he grabbed onto the kitchen counter to keep from screaming. He'd been in a shitty mood for weeks and his sister was obviously starting to pick up on it. The last couple weeks had involved her getting mad at him, her demanding to know why he was unhappy, and when he wouldn't tell her, she'd started to get even angrier. It was hard because she wasn't quite old enough to understand what was going on completely but she wasn't some little kid who he could pretend around all the time.

To make matters worse, Bella had called to talk to him about his sister earlier that day. He hadn't returned the call yet but he knew he had to. Lanie had been fighting him about going to school again and he had a feeling he knew what her teacher wanted. He didn't know what to say to her, though. He'd had that same discussion with all of Lanie's teachers since his parents passed and was tired of it. He had eight more years of these fights and had no clue what to do or say to fix it. The two of them, their little family, wasn't doing so great at the moment. The troubling part was, the person calling him out on it was the reason for some of the stress.

He'd been meaning to talk to her but Lanie had started to give him attitude right after the party, and he suspected he'd given her some right back, but he couldn't figure out how to bring Bella into the conversation. Lanie didn't need that right now. The problem was, he had no idea of what she actually needed. Deciding to bite the bullet, he climbed out of his bedroom window and called Bella. The sound of Lanie's little radio came through his wall and it was obvious she was blasting some boy band. When Bella's voice came over the phone, he found he couldn't speak.

"Hello? Edward?"

"Yeah," he said after a while. "I'm just returning your call."

"Yeah. Okay. Right. Um, I was calling about Lanie."

"I already know she's not liking school."

"Oh. Well, I just thought I should let you know that she doesn't seem happy like she used to be."

"I'm working on it."

After a long pause and him wondering if she hung up, he heard her voice come across in a defeated, sad tone. "Were you ever going to try to even contact me...about what happened?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly after another long pause.

"Jake sent me flowers," Bella blurted.

Edward felt nothing but annoyance. "Good for him."

"I turned down his offer for a date. I don't know why I'm telling you all this..."

"Jake's a..."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Don't be like that. You don't know him. Dammit, Edward, I thought you were willing to try this relationship thing. I'm sorry I called. I didn't realize you already knew what was up with your little sister. I have to go."

"Bella, wait. I...I was going to say that he seems like a nice guy..."

A snort told him she'd believe that when hell froze over. "Let's just go back to pretending to have never met, okay? I wouldn't want to bother you."

"Stop, okay? I was going to call you." It was Edward's turn to be annoyed by sharing more than he wanted to.

"But?"

"I didn't know what to say."

"Do you pull this with all your girls? Am I just more of a pest? Do I keep coming back even though you are obviously ashamed to be with me? Listen, Edward, I get that I don't look like Rosalie or have the excitable, personable, personality that Alice exudes, but I try my best to be a good person and I don't fucking deserve this. You felt like you had to say that shit to me to get me to stay; just one more fuck. Then it is what it is and I'm an idiot. You've hurt me. I really care...cared about you and now I see what this was."

"I don't want to do this over the phone..."

"Fine. I'm hanging up. Just know that I will never treat Lanie the way you might think I would. I wouldn't take it out on her. I'm too nice to make anymore of a situation out of this but someday you're going to fuck with the wrong girl."

The click of the other line going dead told him it was over. After weeks of not knowing what to do, she'd just made that decision for him. He climbed back inside and went over to knock on Lanie's door. Just about to ask her if he could come in, he got another phone call and looked down to see a text from Emmett. What the hell is wrong with you? Strangely, he took comfort in that. At least Bella had a friend to lean on-even if that meant his friends would always know both sides.

Deciding to let Lanie stew for a little while longer, Edward walked over to the couch and sat down in defeat. Running his hands through his hair, he tried to think of a good, smartass remark to make back. A better man and friend would come up with something more dignified, something funny. Instead, he could only think of a one word answer. Everything.

I hope you all are still enjoying this story and it would mean the world to me if you leave me some love! I wrote a Christmas-y one-shot called Baby It's Cold Outside and it's on my page. Check it out! For updates about stories and fun things like that, follow me on Twitter! Letzigprincess Happy almost New Years, everyone! Letzy xx