Edward POV

"Hey, Ed!"

"I'm sorry. No one by that name lives here." I smile, knowing that it's Emmett on the line.

"Edward!" he whines. "I've been calling you Ed for years, I don't like change."

"And I've told you for years that I hate that nickname. What do you want anyway, Em?" I have too much on my plate with Bella and work to add Emmett into that mix.

"Is that anyway to talk to your favorite brother-in-law?" Emmett says happily, completely unaffected by my attitude.

"You're my only brother-in-law," I respond, entertained despite my bad mood.

"And that's why I'm the favorite."

"Why exactly did you call me again?"

"Oh, yeah. I called because I have the skinny on what went down with Rosalie and Bella. If you ask me really nicely, I might tell you what happened."

Damn it. I really want to know what happened but I don't want to beg Emmett for the information. He'll never let me live it down, so I'm just going to play it cool.

"That's really interesting, Em, but I have things to do so I'll call you back later." Come on Em, take the bait. You know you want to.

"Wait!" he bellows in my ear. "Fine. I'm dying to tell you, so I'll forgo your begging." I settle onto the chair and get comfortable. Emmett loves to gossip like an old woman, and for once, I'm happy to hear what he has to say.

"Bella told Rose that she didn't have you beat up by Jacob, and Rose basically told her to shove it because she knew that already. Oh, and Bella's daughter called Rose a bitch and Bella brought the house."

I laugh because I don't think Emmett took a single breath while telling me his version of what happened and because I don't think Emmett has his facts straight.

"I don't think so, Em. Are you sure you heard Rose right? Izzy cursing at anyone is just unbelievable. She's way too sweet for that."

"I'm telling you, man, Izzy cursed at Rose!"

"But why?"

Emmett pauses before speaking, and I can tell that whatever Rose did to Bella was enough to make Izzy angry enough to curse.

"Rose insulted Bella- something about remembering her roots. I don't actually remember that part." I can practically hear Emmett shrugging over the phone.

"What else did Rose say?"

"Well," he thinks for a moment. "Rose did call Bella a good mom."

"Seriously?" I start to laugh because that's not like Rose at all. She holds grudges forever and it's like pulling teeth to get any kind of compliment from her.

I know." He laughs with me. "I was surprised to hear that she said that."

"Do you think that they could go back to being friends?" I ask him thoughtfully.

"Izzy might just be the key to that. Rose really likes the kid. I can't wait to meet the brave little girl that called my Rosie a bitch and got away with it. She must really be something."

"She is," I confirm, thinking about the little girl that seems to be capturing the hearts of everyone in town.

"What about you? Are you and Bella friends now?" The amount of sarcasm dripping from the word 'friends' makes me laugh.

"I think so. Or at least I hope so. We've pretty much cleared the air, so…" I shrug, forgetting that he can't see me. "I'm thinking that maybe I'll invite her to a drink at your bar. So we can do something that doesn't involve rehashing the past."

"Mmmhmmm. When are you going to tell her that you love her?"Emmett would probably get a kick out of the fact that my face is probably red as a tomato and I'm pretty sure my mouth hangs open for at least five seconds out of surprise.

"Where is this coming from?" I ask him, when I finally snap my mouth shut.

"Come on, Eddie. You can lie to yourself but you can't lie to me. You've been in love with Bella ever since high school. Any idiot with two eyes can see that; I did and so did Rose. Hell, I'm pretty sure Jacob did too. You have to tell her." He presses on even though I am clearly not going to answer him. "Fine, ignore me, but you're going to kick yourself later on when you realize that your feelings aren't one-sided. Why else would Bella go through the trouble of apologizing and explaining her craziness to you? She cares, man. Think about it."

"Goodbye, Emmett." I hang up, despite Emmett's voice calling my name over the phone, because I don't want to hear his theories. Of course I loved Bella in high school; we were best friends for years. I don't know what he thinks he saw but I'm not in love with Bella.

Then why do you care so much about her now? My inner voice questions me and to that, I have no answer.

/HF/

I was never popular in school but always sat on the fringe thanks to Isa, but now, it feels like I'm a social outcast. My fellow nerds will barely even talk to me. That doesn't hurt as much as Isa ignoring me for the past month for no reason that I can tell. One minute I'm sharing my news about Dartmouth and she's celebrating with me and the next she's avoiding me and spending all of her time with Jacob; I think they might actually be a couple. I don't understand what she sees in him- he can be pretty cruel to anyone who isn't popular. I'm sure he doesn't show her that side because the Isa I know would never be with someone like that.

"Edward, no. Leave the bitch alone. She doesn't want to talk to us." Rosalie grabs my shoulder to stop me from walking over to the tree where Isa is reading alone. "Let's just go."

"This is my chance, Rose! She's finally alone. I just want to know what happened. It won't take long. Besides you know I have a tutoring session in fifteen minutes. I'll meet you behind the gym at 5:30." I don't give my sister a chance to answer, instead just pulling out of her grip and walking away.

"Isa?" I tap her on the shoulder when she doesn't look up from her book.

"Edward," she says coldly.

"What's going on? Why won't you talk to me and Rose?" She stands up quickly, completely ignoring the fact that I just spoke.

"I can't talk right now," she says and turns to walk away.

"I thought you were my friend...my best friend." She stops and turns around to face me. Her eyes aren't cold anymore and I can tell she's about to cry.

"Edward, I-" Whatever Isa is about to say is interrupted by Jacob.

"Hey, babe. We're late. Let's go." He gives me a hard glare and tugs her hand.

"Isa, please," I beg. For a moment, it looks like she's going to stay and talk to me, but then she shakes her head, turns around and allows Jacob to pull her away.

I'm glued to where I stand, trying to figure out what just happened when I remember that I have a tutoring session.

After I finish tutoring Tyler Crowley, I leave the school building and walk to the parking lot behind the gym to wait for Rose to pick me up. Looking at my watch, I realize that I am early, and decide to wait for her inside the school library.

"Cullen!" I turn around at the sound of my name and someone punches me in the face. I stumble, more out of shock than pain and look up to see Jacob and a group of five or maybe six football players. I don't have time to register anything else because suddenly there are fists hitting me everywhere. A hard punch to my gut makes me crumple and fall to the ground. The punching never stops but now I'm being kicked too. Blood is dripping from a cut above my eyeand blurring my vision but when I finally don't feel any more kicks or punches, I think they're through. I wipe the blood from my eyes and look up just in time to see Jacob's foot come down hard on my leg. I scream out as searing pain shoots through my limb and just before I black out, I hear:

"That's from Bella. Don't fucking talk to her again."

I wake up drenched in sweat and fumble to turn on the lamp on my nightstand. When I finally turn it on, I feel for my leg because it feels almost as if it was actually broken memories of that day and the weeks after won't leave me alone.

Rosalie was the one who found me in the parking lot that afternoon. She called an ambulance and I ended up with a few bruised ribs, stitches for the cut above my eyes and a cast on my leg. My parents made an arrangement with the principal so that I didn't have to go to school and at the end of the year, I received my diploma and left for Dartmouth.

I told everyone that I never saw my attackers; only Rose knew the truth, and I swore her to absolute secrecy. She was the one who convinced me to take the early admissions. If I hadn't gone, she'd threatened to turn in Jacob, his cronies… and Bella too. Rose wasn't convinced that they wouldn't come after me again, especially since I refused to tell anyone what really happened.

I had never even really considered taking the early admissions, but when I did, everything seemed to fall into place. There was nothing left in Forks High School for me anymore; Bella had betrayed me and Rosalie was leaving for UDub in the fall as well. I agreed to Rose's terms in exchange for her silence.

As the sun begins to rise on a new day and a new school year, I shake of the fog that surrounds me after my dream. I have work to do and it's time to leave the past in the past and focus on the here and now.

To anyone who read the spoiler on The Fictionators website: I'm sorry, you guys got the spoiler for next chapter. Thanks to Astro2009 for betaing this chapter and helping me get back on track when I get lost. Also Thanks to LaPumuckl for being the 100th reviewer for this story!