I want to thank everyone who has been following this story. All the old readers, all the new. Thank you for the support, reviews, PM's, tweets, rec's- EVERYTHING!

This chapter hasn't been beta'd-please excuse the mistakes.

Chapter 10

BPOV

I thought of the best way to break the news to Alice. She wouldn't be pleased either way I tell her, but there had to be a way to lessen her remarks, her opinions, and accusations. I couldn't tell her while in the dorm. It had to be somewhere public. There had to be people around so she wouldn't overreact. That's what I was going for.

A week later it came to me.

She was sitting on the couch, flipping through one of her many magazines.

Then an idea popped into my mind- the mall, shopping.

"Alice?" I called.

"Yeah?" she responded, without removing her eyes from the glossy pages in front of her.

"Erm. Do you, maybe, want to head to the mall?"

She stopped mid-flip.

"What?" she questioned, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"The mall?"

"With who?"

"Me?" my response came out more as a question.

She stayed quiet. I started fidgeting.

"Ok-ay," she said slowly.

"Now?"

"Don't you work later?"

"No."

"So we can be there until it closes?" she questioned.

Crap. I hadn't thought through this enough.

She let out a loud squeal, when she heard no objection.

She had me out the door minutes later.

I could say I enjoyed the extrusion, but my nerves were running high. I didn't know how to start the conversation. I thought of telling her when she was in a fitting room, with the door being a welcomed barrier. I would have if she had taken a minute to let me talk. She didn't though. She was blabbering about one thing or another.

My nerves weren't letting me focus through this.

I finally convinced her to take a break in order for us to eat. It wasn't easy; I had to compromise with her.

At the end she was the one who led the conversation where I couldn't.

"You know Bella…" she started.

"Yeah?"

"You suggested coming here. You brought up shopping, yet you haven't purchased a single item. Better yet, I have yet to see you touch anything, let alone try anything on." She quirked an eyebrow in my direction.

Alice, always observant.

She continued on "And you've been biting your lip off."

I released my bottom lip. Nervous habit and she knew.

"You're fidgeting under my gaze Isabella."

I stopped moving.

"Spill."

I had yet to think of a way to start. I didn't know what to say to lower the weight of my words. Her gaze made my anxiety raise again. I couldn't control my words. "I'm not going to Forks." I said, bluntly, quickly.

"Oh?" the tone of her voice made it clear-she wanted me to elaborate.

"I can't Alice."

"You can't or you won't?" she challenged.

"Both." It was the truth.

"So that's it, no?"

"Yeah." I mumbled.

She stayed silent, her eyes moving from my face to the people sitting next to us. No words were exchange for a few minutes.

Finally she spoke, "have you told Em?"

I shook my head. "I'm going to tell him next."

She looked at me and she smiled a real smile. A smirk? Her eyes brighten.

"Okay." She simply said.

"Okay?" I said cautiously.

"Yep," she said nonchalantly.

"Alright."

"So I'm guessing you didn't really want to come to the mall."

I gave her a sheepish smile.

"Let's go home then."

I couldn't help but to be grateful. That had gone easier than I had imagined. Too easy, a voice in my head said.

I ignored it.

-X-

She was quiet on our way home. I was waiting for an outburst to come out of her, but it never came. I was driving though, I mused. She probably didn't want to distract my already mediocre driving. I looked at her every once in a while. The same smirk from earlier remained on her face. I couldn't decipher it.

Once home I went straight into my room. I didn't want to give Alice the advantage of attacking me. After all we were in public when I told her my decision. She now didn't have a reason to act civil. She could easily make a scene she was capable of making.

I took temptation out of her way by removing myself.

-X-

"You know when you do something because someone else wanted you to, not because you want to?"

"Peer-pressure?"

"No, not that."

I took a minute, in order to properly explain myself. "You want to please them, you over-rule your discomfort or better yet, you ignore your thoughts and agree with theirs."

"Okay?"

"So you do whatever they wanted you to do, or go with whatever they are saying. You thought you would be happy afterwards because you pleased them, but then you're more upset with yourself because you realize just why you didn't want to agree with them in the first place. Get it?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well I've realized that I'm tired of pleasing others. It feels good to say what you want to say. I mean putting your foot down and not moving it."

"Alright."

"I feel good, which leads me to believe that I made the right choice…or well said the right things."

"Right choice?"

"Let's just say that my friends want me to go somewhere. I don't want to go. They seem to be conspiring against me, but yesterday I finally let one know that I'm not going. It felt good. Really good, and it didn't go as bad as I thought it was going to. She was calm, almost understanding."

"Is that rare?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Very." I smiled.

All of a sudden the teasing in his voice disappeared. "Umm, this choice? It isn't anything bad is it?"

"Not something that would lead to punishment. No."

"Oh, okay-good."

I could literally hear the calm in his voice. I laughed quietly.

"You said friends, are you going to let the rest know then?"

"Yes. Maybe I'll tell my brother next." I mused out loud.

"B-Bro-? You have a brother?" he asked in a soft voice.

At first I didn't understand why he sounded so shocked. I mean there was nothing shocking about having a brother, but then as I was about to question his behavior-it hit me. We had never discussed anything personal. That is about our personal lives. I mean besides his age what did I really know about him. That maybe his name started with an E? That he believed the chicken came first?

All of a sudden a feeling of discomfort washed over me, not because I had let it slip that I had a brother, no. Rather because I talked to this person almost everyday and I hardly knew anything about him. I didn't even know his name!

"B?" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Yeah. Um, I have a brother."

"Is he, is he older?" he asked tentatively.

It was clear in his voice. I didn't have to answer him if I didn't want to. If I was uncomfortable he would understand my silence.

"Erm. He's two years older."

"I, um, sorta have a sister?"

"Sorta?" I asked, confused.

He didn't respond to my question.

"Are you guys mad at each other or something?"

"Um, no."

Knowing I wasn't going to get anymore out of him I let it go, but my curiosity wasn't as easily clenched.

-X-

I walked into my dorm to find Emmett, Jasper, Rose, and Alice in the living room, watching something on the T.V. I would have walked right past them, but the T.V. turned off as soon as they spotted me.

This was an ambush, my mind screamed.

"What's up B?" Emmett asked casually.

My lip twitched. That would always remind me of E.

"Nothing," I mumbled looking towards my room.

"Are you just getting out of work?"

"Erm Yeah?" internally rolling my eyes for making that sound like a question.

"You know you've been working there for months and I have yet to know where. Isn't that something I'm supposed to know? I mean I'm your bother!"

He paused then added, "It's something fishy isn't it?" He scooted to the edge of the couch and looked pointedly at me.

I panicked, my eyes growing wide and seeking Rosalie's. Help, I mentally screamed at her.

Then he let out a loud laugh, and relaxed back into the couch. "Damn B, you should have seen your face!"

I felt the heat rush to my face, and let out a forced laugh.

He kept chuckling. "What you work for the mob or something?"

Rosalie trying to take the attention off of me said, "Baby, you'd embarrass her if she told you where she works."

Em, immediately straighten up. "Fuck! It's a buffet, isn't it!" His eyes seemed to shine, yet accuse me at the same time.

I chuckled and relaxed, taking a step to get out of there, but of course someone stopped me.

"Bella?"

"Alice?" I questioned.

She bit her lip, hesitated, but something she mumbled under her breath made up her decision.

"I called everyone over, so you could tell them."

Everyone was now openly staring at me. My nerves were back, and with that my fidgeting.

"Tell them what?" I asked confused.

"Yeah tell us what?" Emmett questioned, looking down at my stomach.

My face burned of embarrassment from what he was assuming.

Alice ignored him though.

"Your decision, I'm more than sure Em wants to know that you won't be joining us in Forks."

I gaped at her. My mouth opened and closed several times. The fuckin' nerve of her!

"My decision? You want me to say it?"

She nodded.

"Didn't you just fuckin' do that for me?" I was rarely ever harshly verbal; she knew this, so it was her turn to look like a gaping fish.

"I'll repeat it if you'd like though. I'm not going to Forks. I hope you guys respect my decision. Have fun."

I looked at them. Emmett appeared upset. Rosalie's lips were in a tight line. She was probably fighting what she wanted to say. Alice was still gawking at me and Jasper seemed to be the only one who remained calm.

I turned to leave the room, but stopped short.

"And Emmett? I don't need a fuckin' babysitter."

I didn't turn around to look at him again, at any of them.

Thoughts, opinions, questions? Let me hear them. (:

Reviews get a teaser of the next chapter, which is already in process. (: