Disclaimer: All the recognizable characters in this story are the property of the Twilight saga's creator and author, Stephanie Meyer. I only own this crazy plot of this story and are borrowing her characters because I'm a big fan. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N: Hey, sorry readers I'm so way behind in getting this chapter out to you all. I've gotten sick and being sick doesn't equate with being able to update exactly. But, I wanted to get this out, plus my beta gave back a whole slew of edited work, so I'm going to do updates today, despite my body protesting.

As a make-up, this chapter is extra long, but there was lots to cover in this one. There's a lot of dialogue too, though, so hopefully you guys don't find it too tedious. I'll try to have another one ready sometime tonight, but can't make any promises.

I got to be up and about today anyways because it's Father's Day and there are plans for the husband, so whether I like it or not, gotta push through. Anyways, Happy Dad's day!

ADMITTEDLY, BEHIND ON REVIEWS

BUT I'M GETTING THROUGH THEM, HONEST

SEND ME SOME MORE ANYWAYS

Chapter 9: A Brand New Day

"Brand New Day"

by Albert Hammond

There's a brand new kinda meaning
To the words that people say
And for each and everyone of us
It's a brand new day

It's a brand new day
It's a brand new day
For each and everyone of us
It's a brand new day

Edward awoke to the early afternoon sunlight streaming from his window. Someone had opened his drapes and allowed the light to shine on through much to his chagrin. His head was pounding, as if someone had let loose a jackhammer in his skull, and he was not all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning, or rather afternoon. He looked over at his bedside table and found Alice's miracle hangover cure sitting there waiting for him and he sent up a silent prayer of thanks for Alice to the heavens.

He quickly downed the concoction, still not even knowing what Alice puts in it, just knowing that it works wonders. He didn't really care what the ingredients were, he'd drink anti-freeze if he knew it would stop the pounding in his head. He took the two little white pills with water afterward, then stayed motionless in his bed, waiting for his hangover to dissipate. In a matter of minutes, he felt human again, and he leapt out of bed, showered, and got dressed.

As he exited his bathroom, he noticed that his room wasn't like what he remembered it to be when he went to bed. Granted he was pretty intoxicated, but he knew it was much more on the messy side and that he clearly had pulled off his clothes and left them on the floor. Edward figured that it must've been Alice that tidied up and again he sent up another prayer of gratitude.

Where would he and his brothers be without their little sis, Alice? Edward thought for a moment-probably at the ER all night with their mother and father berating them for having yet another scuffle. As drunk as he was last night, and as hot-tempered as Riley and Emmett were, if Alice hadn't been there to step in, the ER was the most likely place they'd end up. That, or jail for a domestic dispute.

Edward knew that he'd have to thank Alice profusely today. Emmett and Riley would be doing that also and owing her a lot more. Alice always made sure payback was a bitch, and there was nothing more that she hated than her brothers fighting and getting into brawls, no matter the reason for it, so Edward figured that Alice was certainly going to get payback from Em and Ry as a form of apology, besides them having to actually apologize.

Edward thought back to last night and what caused the fight to ensue between Emmett and Riley in the first place. Lauren Mallory-she was the bitch that had to ruin their good time.

He, Emmett, and Riley had thought to prowl one of their favorite clubs last night. They had all found themselves without a current girlfriend, and they needed to remedy that situation quickly. The club wasn't necessarily their favorite place to pick up chicks, but they were bordering on desperate at the time. It was the first time in a long while that their schedules allowed for some down time and brotherly bonding; or more like brothers playing wingmen, so that they each could get a girl.

All of them had been fairly busy of late, leaving little time for them to concentrate on their personal lives, and leaving them hurting for female companionship. None of them were used to being without a woman in their bed for this long. They were, undoubtedly, three highly sexually-frustrated individuals. On top of that, they all seemed to be off their games somehow, since they were each striking out miserably. The Cullen Boys were not accustomed to such disappointment.

Emmett, who could usually be with one girl in the morning then have a new girl by that night, couldn't find a girl to capture his attention. He either already had them all, they couldn't hold his interest whatsoever, or they weren't giving him the time of day.

Riley had said he would be having better luck if he was gay, his usual bevy of admiring barflies not biting of late-maybe word got around that Riley was a strictly one fuck kind of guy. His other problem was many of the girls he was meeting were out of the question.

Edward hadn't been fairing much better. He was also too immersed in his work to be able to troll for a new girl. You couldn't really meet anyone if you were holed up in your editor's office all day. For some reason, even Edward's regular FWB's, whom he kept around just for times like these, were unavailable to him. Maggie, he found out, was thoroughly pissed at him at the moment; he had no idea why and she wasn't in the mood to be talking to him currently. Senna was traipsing all around the world presently with her modeling gigs, and Edward wasn't about to fly halfway around the world just for a booty call; however, he was starting to seriously consider it.

Then there was their brotherly code-the pact they made that there would be no sloppy seconds for any one of them. It meant that any girl that had already passed through any one of their beds was completely off limits. They could certainly date a girl that another one of them has also dated, just as long as she hadn't ended up in the sack with them. Well, the girls on that list were few and far between, and so there was a lot more women out there that were on the prohibited list.

The boys all knew that they weren't handling their current lack of female companionship well. Having had no sex for this long had made them all distant, distracted, moody, and above all temperamental. None of them were very good to live with right now. Edward was aware that there wasn't much more Alice could take. She was going to bolt and they were going to be in big trouble. It was why they thought to have a guys night out. They needed to fix things. Their messed up situation had been going on for far too long already.

Alice had warned them it was a bad idea, but she didn't exactly stop them or give them a good reason not to go. They all knew she felt something off about that night, but they knew how her gift worked, and she had nothing concrete. They all decided to make the best decisions they could that night to avoid it becoming a disaster.

When they arrived at the club, it was teeming with women. Too bad, more than half of the women were one of their exes, considered to be a psycho-bitch and not worth their time and emotional stress, or was with someone else, and they certainly weren't about to hassle with another guy over their girl. It put a damper on the evening, but they still decided to try and have a good time. After all, the night was young and they could see that there was no shortage of girls that they might be interested in. If anything was a sure bet, all the Cullen boys out together attracted a lot of attention.

Riley's idea of keeping mostly to themselves that night and looking generally disinterested in the scene paid off in dividends. Instead of them going out and have to find and schmooze with the ladies, the ladies were coming to them in droves. All manner of spirits, phone numbers, and naughty notes were being sent their way. They had indulged a few of the finer ladies with some drinks, light conversation, and even a dance or two. They were confident that their lucks had changed and they were going to end their droughts that night.

That was until Lauren Mallory strolled her tight, little ass, housed in the shortest skirt known to man, over to their table and rubbed said ass all over Riley's crotch. Like the sex-hungry fiend he was, Riley didn't resist her advances.

Lauren was an ex of Emmett's, and while Emmett admittedly said that she was a good fuck, he also has the attention span of a five year old when it came to women, so she didn't hold his interest for long. Even when Emmett was with her, he'd heard that she tended to get around, but it hadn't bothered him in the least when he was screwing around with her. But now that she had her sights set on Riley and was trying to sink her claws into him, Emmett wasn't thrilled.

Lauren was apparently a vain bitch and wasn't too happy about being so easily tossed aside by Emmett. She was used to men pining over her, but Emmett wasn't the pining type. She tried hard, at first, to gain back Emmett's attention, but Emmett rarely notices an ex again. He's more like a big kid in a candy store with his women- too many other flavors to try to go back to one he's already tasted, and being the glutton that he is, he wants to try them all.

Lauren wasn't to be deterred, though, and strove to make Emmett jealous. What better way than to use one of his own brothers? If she couldn't have Emmett Cullen, she was going to have another Cullen boy. Edward was not a possibility that night, he didn't even look at her twice when she strode over and was too engrossed in a couple of brunettes that definitely wanted in his pants. Riley fit the bill and was all too willing.

Between the drinks that Riley drank and the sexual foreplay known as dirty dancing with Lauren, his brain wasn't equipped to give him the best judgment at the time. In fact, Emmett and Edward knew that Riley's head down below had taken over and started making all the decisions. The deeper Riley got with Lauren, the more pissed off Emmett had become.

It wasn't even the fact that Riley was suddenly forgetting about their brotherly code, it had more to do with the fact it was Lauren he was fooling around with. Lauren was a skank and a very devious bitch, and the guys knew that she wasn't really into Riley and was just using him. Who knew what she really had up her sleeve?

While Emmett steamed over Riley and Lauren getting way too cozy for his liking, Edward, on the other hand, was willing to give Riley the benefit of the doubt. That was until he caught Riley and Lauren sneaking out of the club via a side exit. Naturally, he alerted Emmett and together they followed them out into the alleyway. They needed to stop Riley from making a big mistake.

Fortunately, Lauren and Riley hadn't gone far, just a couple of ways down from the exit door. Riley had Lauren pressed up against the wall, her skirt was hiked up above her waist and her tube top was pulled down so Riley could have access to her breasts. Riley and Lauren were engaged in a serious make-out session and Emmett and Edward were undoubtedly horrified by what they saw. The make-out session was abruptly ended when Emmett saw Lauren reaching for Riley's zipper.

Emmett roughly pulled Riley away from Lauren and proceeded to lecture him right there in the alleyway, while Edward sent Lauren packing. Edward had made Lauren vow to stay away from them, or else she would be sorry. Lauren knew better than not to heed the threat. The Cullens were a powerful family in their city. After that, all other plans for the rest of the night were dropped, and they decided it would better to just head home. Edward called a cab from his phone and wasn't too happy about having to blow off the two, pretty brunettes that had his attention most of the night, and they were the ones he had yet to get numbers from.

Riley and Emmett bickered throughout the cab ride home and Edward had to pay the poor cab driver extra just for his troubles. Although Edward had sense enough to separate them in the cab, putting Emmett up front with the driver, it still didn't stop Riley from constantly trying to wonk Emmett on the head from his place in the back seat. The cab driver had wanted to pull over several times, but Edward placated him with promises of a huge tip if he just got them home as fast as he could.

Of course, the fight continued as soon as they arrived home, only to be stopped by Alice. Alice just had this way of handling her brothers, and they let her.

Speaking of Alice, Edward went in search of her, but realized she wasn't home. He figured she had gone to church, like she always did on Sundays. He headed down to the kitchen finally where delicious aromas were emanating from and was surprised to find Emmett and Riley already gathered around the island.

Emmett was stuffing his face full of food from the buffet servers. Edward figured that Alice must have cooked, and by the looks of how much she had prepared, she had used her cooking again to curb her emotional stress from last night. It was what Alice did.

Edward eyed Emmett and Riley warily, wondering if they were still upset with one another. It didn't seem like their fight from last night had carried over into today. For the most part, Edward saw them as largely ignoring one another. Emmett was keen on eating and Riley was quite occupied with whomever he was texting.

"Hey, are you two good?" Edward asked to neither one in particular.

Emmett answered with a mouthful of food, "Um, yeah, I think so. We didn't apologize or anything, just dropped it. But, I think we came to an understanding," he then looked pointedly at Riley, who just nodded back.

Riley spoke up, but never looked away from his phone, "Yeah, won't be happening again. I know better now."

"Well, that's something. Glad to hear it. We should just let it go. From the looks of this spread," Edward began, as he started to make himself a plate. "You guys put Alice through the emotional ringer again last night. You know how she ends up cooking to feed a whole village when she gets all emotional or stressed. We got to stop doing that to her. It isn't good for her. Plus, we've already talked about this."

Emmett and Riley just both nodded in agreement. Edward looked with amusement at Emmett who was piling more food on his plate. Emmett did always have a healthy appetite, but waking to a hangover in the morning usually made him have a more voracious appetite, and it was no different today. There was a lot of food, but Edward had a feeling that Emmett could easily finish off everything.

"What?" Emmett asked, indignant. "You know Alice's cooking is the best and after last night, I'm hungry okay."

Edward just shrugged. "Speaking of Alice, did either one of you see her before she left?" He inquired.

"Nah, we just got up not too long ourselves. You haven't checked your phone, though, have you?" Emmett questioned back.

"No. Why? Should I? A message from Alice?" Edward became rather curious now. He took out his phone from his jeans pocket and took a look. Sure enough a missed message from Alice.

Betcha found your hangover savior by now. Brunch in the kitchen, instructions for reheating also. Ur welcome. Went to church like usual. But don't expect me back. Be library 4 rest of day, then crashing at Emmett's nearby apt. Closer to campus, y'know, gotta be there bright n early tom. Laters xo Al

"What the hell? You guys got the same text, I gather?" Edward assumed. Riley and Emmett nodded. "That's kind of weird of her to do. Don't you guys think so?"

"Yeah, we thought so too. I mean she always goes to church and does whatever shit on Sundays, but today seems different. She usually always wakes us to ask if we wanted to go to church with her, no matter how hung over our asses are, but she just left us alone today. I actually might've wanted to go with her today," Emmett responded.

"Fuck me, that's right," Edward acknowledged.

"So, who do you think Riley's been texting with these past few minutes?" Emmett mumbled while chewing. "He's been trying to get some straight answers from our little sis. She knows we're not buying her story."

"Shit! You guys must've pissed her off real bad if she's purposely staying away. I told you guys this was going to happen. I mean, how could she be at the library that long that she'd have to crash at your place, Em? I know she has to get to campus early on Mondays, but she should be able to wrap up whatever she's doing and then come home," Edward voiced.

"She says she's got some major research to do and it's going to drain her, so instead of driving all the way back here, she's going to crash at the apartment. At least, that's the story she's sticking to right now," Riley piped up.

"Research?" Edward was incredulous. "Wouldn't her kind of research require a kitchen or something? I bet she's just fronting. You guys definitely made her madder than she's trying to lead you to believe. There can't be no other explanation. Did you two fucking apologize at all and say you'll make it up to her?"

"Why do you think I've been fucking texting her here for what seems like forever?" Riley said rather exasperatedly. "Getting nowhere, though, she keeps spouting the same thing over and over."

"Yeah, bro, Riley's been trying to apologize for the both of us at the same time. He's also been trying to coax what the real deal is out of her. Looks like he's not having much luck, though. We don't buy this whole research crap," Emmett added, chewing the last bit of food in his mouth. He was finally done eating. "It was never our attention to drive her away, especially when you know is just around the corner," Emmett continued.

"Oh, something is definitely not right," Riley stopped texting and put his phone down in frustration. "I'm not getting anywhere. She just highly suggested I stop texting her now, cause I'm interfering with her work."

"Instead of texting with her, why don't you just call her? You'll be able to really tell what's up from the sound of her voice. None of us has spoken to her since last night, right?" Edward said, trying to be helpful.

Riley came and slapped him upside his head. "What?" Edward exclaimed, rubbing the spot.

"She's at a fucking library, you idiot. You can't be exactly talking on your phone inside the library. If I remember, there's even a 'please turn off your cell phones' sign. Don't you think I've already thought of that?" Riley explained. He showed Edward his phone screen. "See, I've tried to ask her to go outside and talk for just a few minutes, but she's not being cooperative. She says she's really at the library, there's no conspiracy to be had, she's busy now, and we'd all just talk later on tomorrow. That's all we've been exchanging for the past few minutes. You know, for my twin, she's rather exasperating."

Both Emmett and Edward snorted at Riley's remark. They found he could be just as exasperating as Alice. It really must be the twin thing.

"Okay, I get the feeling that there's something more. Something I'm missing that you guys aren't telling me. What is it?" Edward inferred.

"We think she's trying to see Jasper again, or at least talk to him," Riley responded.

"No. Why would you guys think that?" Edward questioned. "That guy has been out of her life for a while. There's been no contact. She knows how we feel about him. She wouldn't do that, would she?"

"The thing is, he's tried to get a hold of her lately," Emmett responded.

"What?" Edward exclaimed, surprised. "This is the first I've heard of this. How do you guys know?"

"He hasn't gotten in touch with her personally, yet. At least, not that we know of, but I caught a message from him on the machine, which I erased of course," Emmett explained.

"But, we aren't exactly sure she hadn't heard it before Emmett got to it," Riley interjected. He continued, "And the other day, a guy tried to deliver flowers and a message to her from him. Thankfully, she wasn't home, and I got rid of the thing, but apart from those two times we've intercepted, there's no way of us really knowing if they're talking again or whatever. She knows how we feel, but it doesn't mean she feels the same way now. She's still in love with the guy. We all know that. Would it be far-fetched to think that Alice would be hiding from us any contact she's had with him? Especially knowing that we don't approve."

Edward ran a hand through his floppy mane. This really was the first he'd heard of their ex-friend, Jasper, trying to contact Alice again. "Shit," he uttered. "Where the hell have I been?"

"At your editor's," Emmett pointed out. Edward just rolled his eyes at him.

"What?" Emmett wanted to know what the deal was.

"Never mind. So, you guys think she's using this library thing and then off to Em's apartment as a roost?" Edward questioned.

"Yeah, don't you think so? Now that you know what's up. I just wish I could actually get to talk to her. There's certain stuff you just can't communicate right through text and I'd be able to tell from her voice if she's lying," Riley stated, his frustration evident.

"Pfft... you just don't know how to ask her to call you just right," Edward stated.

"Fine. I'd like to see you try," Riley retorted back in annoyance.

Edward fired a quick text to Alice and within minutes Riley's phone was ringing. It was Alice. Riley was impressed, but he couldn't dwell on that now. He had some things to hash out with Alice.

Unfortunately, with the talk of Jasper still fresh on his mind, he already started things off on the wrong foot. "You better fucking make me believe that you're not with that asshole, Jasper. So help me, Mary Alice Cullen, I will race over there and drag your ass away from him. I'm sure Emmett and Edward will back me up," Riley exclaimed heatedly over the phone.

Emmett and Edward gaped at him, then both gave Riley a slap upside his head. As soon as the words were out of Riley's mouth, he immediately regretted it. He knew it wasn't the right way to have started the conversation.

"What the fuck?" Alice shrieked on the other end. "That's what we're needing to talk about? Fuck you, Ry. How could you even think?" Alice suddenly paused and gasped.

"Uh, Al, I'm so sorry...that came out wrong," Riley tried to proclaim, but then all he heard was Alice hanging up on him. "Fuck, she hung up on me."

"Great job, Einstein," Edward retorted. "You just made things worse."

END A/N: I know some of you have been looking forward to Jasper. Well, I promise he'll make an appearance in the next one. I've already left that clue in this chapter—ahh, spoiler alert.

And since I'm sorry for the wait of an update, here's a teaser too:

Suddenly, there he was in all his surfer boy looking glory. Apart from his honey blonde locks being a bit longer than she remembered, he didn't seem to have changed at all in the year since she saw him last. He still had his tall, lean, and muscled figure, that devious looking smile as if he always held a secret, and the brown eyes that could always completely hold her gaze. In utter surprise from seeing him again after all this time, she dropped the book in her hand.

He bent down first to retrieve it for her. "Here you go ma'am. God, it's good to see you again finally, Alice."