A/N: I'm so sorry that it's been forever! School is almost over, meaning more tests and cramming of lectures. So in two weeks, I'll be done being a junior! But anyways, thanks to all those who added me to your favs list or alerts. And for last chapter, I think I got about 36 reviews! I so happy. But even more for other chapters people reviewed me for. So thanks for all your support. Hopefully you'll like this chapter. Tell me what you think...good, bad, could have been better? Thanks again :D

Oh, and special thanks to my betas, Eileen, my lil sis, and Lauren, who has totally helped me with previous chapters. Apologies for not having mentioned them before (::[ ]::)

Disclaimer: Don't own twilight...just the plotline ^_^


Promise

"Bella I…I don't really know how to put this into words," he slightly frowned at the thought. She looked at him with confused eyes but gave him an encouraging smile none the less for him to continue. "Wait…do you feel this way about someone?" he attempted to get something out of her first.

She blushed slightly and looked down, quickly shaking her head. "Umm…no. But don't try and switch the tables on me. Tell me what you really wanted to say," she scolded him lightly without taking a glance in his direction. Though she wouldn't admit it aloud, she did start to have some feelings for one individual. Despite her continuous efforts to suppress the butterflies that would emerge in her stomach when he would simply smile at her, or the blush that would arise in her cheeks when he was doing something genuinely nice that he didn't do to others, she couldn't get him off her mind.

"Woa…you're hiding something from me," Edward reached out and raised her chin to stare at her straight in the eyes. "Tell me who it is."

"No. You go first."

"How about I tell you one thing about her and you tell me something about him? We'll switch off like that and try to guess who the people are."

"Fine…" she replied hesitantly after reading his face to see if he was trying to play a trick or something. "You go first then."

"Alright then," he smiled, looking out the window to come up with his first description. "Well, the person I'm talking about is a girl."

"Are you kidding me?" Bella smacked him on the shoulder smiling.

"What?" he shrugged and played innocent.

"That was pathetic."

"No, that was a description. Your turn."

"You suck. My person is a boy."

"My girl has two arms with hands on each one that has five fingers, making a total of ten."

"Well my guy has two legs with two feet that have five toes on each one, making a total of ten too."

"My girl has eyes th- Ow!" he cried as Bella smacked him on the chest again. "What was that for?"

"Come on! Be serious, Edward," she pouted.

"You didn't even let me finish," he retaliated.

"Oh please! Like you weren't going to say she has eyes that have eyelashes on them that tend to blink when they're dry?"

"No," he crossed his arms. "Though that is true," he smirked, "I was originally planning on saying something different." As he said this, he turned to her with a shift in his demeanor that was serious as he gazed upon her face. "What I wanted to say was that she has beautiful eyes that tend to captivate me every time I stare into them," he first told her as she felt shivers when his eyes appeared to pierce through hers. "Her eyes are the key to reading her, but only to those who truly know her can take notice of it. She's extremely kind and caring for those around her and tries to act brave and tough despite the rough times she's been through. What's also great about her is her innocence; the way she acts so sincere towards everyone, or the blush that appears on her cheeks that makes me want to smile." Bella felt heat rise up to her face and she turned to keep her face hidden from Edward. If he noticed, he decided to ignore it since he continued on with his description. "But what I love most about her, is her willingness to accept me," he said, grabbing her hands and making her head turn back to him. "The way she doesn't seem to care about my past…with its somewhat bad reputation. But she's there to listen, there because she wants to be and not just for my comfort, there to just be…there."

After a few minutes of silence passed between them, Bella took the chance to finally look directly at him. "Wow…um, that was more than one description," she nearly whispered.

Somehow when he had said this, his face had moved closer, nearly an inch or two away from hers. Bella's breath was shallow and Edward watched her carefully to gauge her reaction. He wondered if she knew that he was talking about her, but he figured she did since she kept glancing between his eyes and his lips. Slowly, so as to not scare her away, he began to lean in and tilt his head closer to hers, forgetting about where he actually was. Bella's heart was pounding fast and she wondered if Edward could hear it. She found it relieving that he had actually been talking about her when he began to move closer to her. She wanted so badly to kiss him right now, but she knew she couldn't forget about their surroundings. They were in the middle of a school cafeteria for crying out loud, with tons of students in plain view and Jasper sitting to the side waiting for Edward to make a wrong move. But just staring at Edward's anticipating face with his eyes closed made her completely forget everything at that moment and just do something daring for once in this new school. So she began to move forward and her eyes started to flutter shut, waiting for the contact that was imminent to happen and…

"Hey, Bella!" someone screamed her name from behind.

Bella's eyes immediately popped open as they widened at the call. She jumped up from her seat, quickly slipping her hands out of Edward's grasp as she turned around. To say that Edward was pissed was an understatement. He was so close to getting what he wanted. He clenched his jaw angrily as he watched Bella turn her attention away from him to whoever it was that called her. He wanted to find a valid excuse after this to beat the living daylights out of whomever it was that disrupted them. But when he leaned to the side, he figured that this guy didn't need a reason because just seeing him, and knowing him alone, labeled him as a jerk and in good need of a beating. Jacob.

When he approached them, he shot Edward a quick onceover and a slight glare in his direction, indicating that he purposely interrupted him having seen what was about to happen. Rosalie was next to him, but she seemed oblivious to what was going on since she was staring at Emmett.

"Hey Rosalie," Emmett greeted her with a mouthful as some lettuce from his sandwich came spewing from his mouth. Bella shot him a disgusted look while he tried to clean himself up and Rosalie just laughed in amusement. Bella knew right then that they were meant for each other.

"Hey, Em," she beamed.

"What are you guys doing here?" Bella glanced between them. "Rose, I didn't think you'd come here on Fridays."

"Why not?" she frowned. "The other people can live without me. Jacob just wanted to come along and say hi to you."

"Oh…um hey Jacob," she gave a tiny smile without looking at him, afraid he had seen the almost kiss.

"Hey. I just haven't talked to you and I figured you needed the company."

"Well she already had some before you came along," Edward spoke up from behind Bella as he made his way next to her. "Hey Rosalie," he acknowledged her without breaking eye contact in the contest between him and Jacob.

"Um…hey Edward?" she hesitantly answered as she glanced at Bella, wondering what was going on.

Bella just shook her head in response and turned to the side, not wanting to get involved with the boys. Before anything could escalate, the bell rung and students began to file out through the doors to their next classroom.

"Anyways…it was nice talking to you again, Bella," Jacob spoke up first, finally losing interest in the contest. "Maybe we can hang some time?"

"Of course. That would be fun," Bella smiled in return as she waved her hand to the two of them.

When Bella turned around to walk with Edward, per usual, as their normal routine when he would take her to her next class, all she saw was a swift movement of his jacket and his retreating form as he made his way through the crowd and out the door with nothing short of a goodbye.

~*~*~*~

Three weeks. Three agonizing weeks that had gone by with everything changed. Three cruel and tantalizing weeks that left Bella in a state of confusion, anger, and hurt, all because of the dreadful conversation in the cafeteria. Maybe at that time in seemed like a good idea to get some information, but now…now it seemed like the dumbest decision of her life. If she were to state her biggest regret right now, even surpassing that of her relationship with James, it would be bringing up that conversation. Things going bad with James had brought her here in Forks to meet Edward, but that conversation they had drew her apart from him.

Over the past few weeks, he had been purposely ignoring her, to the point where everyone else knew that something was wrong. If he were to talk to her, his answers would be clipped with no room for casual talk. The rest of the group would give her concerned looks, but she pretended to not notice it and tried to act normal. But it was pointless when everyone else at school was treating her differently. Jacob had become even more…friendly? She didn't know how to put it, but he seemed to try harder in hopes that she would be interested in him. And surprisingly Jessica and Lauren were less on her back because she figured they thought whatever connection she had with Edward was now gone. To some extent it was true, but she didn't want that to happen permanently.

Things got so bad though, that even when Thanksgiving came along and she invited everyone to her family dinner, Edward said he was too busy to come over her house and declined. But the worst part about that was when she secretly found out after prodding Alice for hours that just before they left for dinner to her house, she had been with Jasper the entire day with Edward tagging alongside them. She thought this whole thing was ridiculous and it was getting way out of hand. But she was going to stop playing nice and resort back to her old ways of becoming a closed book, masking all emotions except for the glare she sent towards Edward's direction as she saw him approaching the desk next to her in their biology class.

"Hey," he greeted her briefly while he slid into his seat and slapped his binder on the desk.

Bella just gave him a quick glance and moved her seat a few inches away from him without saying anything. If he wanted to get away from her, maybe she should test it out to see how it would work. Usually everyday it would be her trying to strike up a conversation, but from here on out, she decided to rightfully ignore him because of his rude behavior for the past weeks.

"I said hey," Edward repeated himself as Bella saw him from her peripheral vision without taking her eyes off the front board. Again she ignored his comment and she faintly heard Edward sigh as he turned back down to his work to begin taking notes.

As the minutes ticked on in class with a concept she could recite and explain in her sleep, she began to drum her fingers noisily on the desk while humming a random melody. She then noticed Edward acting antsy and his continuous shifting of positions on his chair. But still she continued to ignore him though she was wondering in her head what was going on with him. If she didn't know that the usually crease in his eyebrows meant he was deep in an important thought process, she would've thought that he really needed to go to the bathroom badly.

"Can you stop?" she heard Edward murmur, turning towards her with an agitated look.

"I'm sorry, what?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I know you heard me," he frowned. "It's getting quite old with you," he said, looking down at her still continuous fingers tapping against the desk.

"Well you're attitude is getting old too," she scoffed, rolling her eyes and ignoring him as she continued her previous actions.

"I said stop."

"And I said no."

"Stop," he nearly hissed, grabbing her hand. She glared at him and quickly slipped her hands away.

"Don't touch me."

"Well stop acting this way."

"Stop acting like what, huh?" she almost yelled but caught herself when she saw students beginning to perk an ear into their conversation. She hated those nosy people and decided to lean in closer to him so that she could whisper.

"Like…like this!" Edward stated exasperatedly as if it were obvious.

"Do you have a problem with my attitude?" she challenged him. "Because it's a sure reflection of yours. And why is it okay when you do it and not me, huh? I'm done trying to make an effort in being 'friends'," she air quoted. "Everyone is supposed to bow down to you and if it takes one person to make a friendship work, then it's not worth it since the feelings aren't reciprocated. So just leave it be and leave me alone. I'm surprised that it took my attitude of indifference towards you to finally make you speak more than one sentence to me in once class period, let alone a day."

As if time was on her side, the bell rang at the exact moment she said her last words and before he could retaliate, she jumped from her seat and glided towards the door, ignoring the call of her name behind in the classroom as she turned her back on him.

Edward had been extremely frustrated because of her lack of interest in him. His ego was hurt especially when she turned him down on the kiss. He just knew that she knew that he was talking about her, but yet watching her accept Jacob's proposal to hang out was just a slap to the face. And the fact that she continued to act the next day as if nothing happened? He wasn't that type of guy to just forget.

"Mr. Cullen, I've got to lock the door now," the teacher stood by the doorway as he motioned Edward out after the bell rang.

"Um…yea. Sorry," he mumbled, as he exited the room to join the throng of students in the hallway having noticed that he was the only one left sitting at their desk.

He walked aimlessly to his locker and shoved all books inside. He didn't take out any homework since he could basically finish them right before he entered the classrooms. So he just turned around and headed outside towards the parking lot. He figured that today he would just hang out by himself rather than submit himself to another one of the awkward get-togethers after school.

"Hey, Ed!" Edward recognized Jasper's voice call after him after he unlocked his car door. "Can you do me a favor?" he grabbed his shoulder to turn him around.

"What?" Edward sighed, giving him an exasperated look.

"I know things haven't been great between you and-"

"I don't want to hear thi-"

"Bella," he continued ignoring him, "but I'm heading somewhere with Alice right now because her mom called in for an emergency and I need to drive her there."

"What about Emmett?"

"He already left with Rosalie."

"Ugh!" Edward growled, giving Jasper a death glare. "I swear that-"

"Bye!" Jasper cut him off as he began to run the other direction.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Edward yelled after him.

"Language," he heard a soft voice chastise him from behind. He swirled his body around to see Bella leaning casually against his car while reading a book.

"What?" he looked at her disbelievingly.

She didn't even glance up at him as she slipped her headphones on from her ipod and continued listening to music. He glared at her deciding what to do, and then finally rounded the car to open the driver's side. Bella simultaneously opened her door and slid into the seat, placing the seat belt on securely around her. Edward came to the conclusion to ignore her and turned on the engine, shifting the gear to reverse.

"Ahem," Bella cleared her throat, eyeing him threateningly.

"What's your problem now?" he glared back. Bella just moved her eyesight to his seatbelt and he rolled his eyes, pressing his foot on gas to exit the parking lot.

"Edward, put on your seat belt," she commanded him.

"No." He pulled out of the lot and began to speed up.

"Edward, I'm being serious," she said, gripping the seat when she saw him pass eighty. "And please slow down the car."

He considered speeding up some more in spite of her, but after seeing her face become pale, he decided not to. But not speeding up did not mean slowing down, so he remained at ninety miles per hour.

"Happy?" he grunted, trying to hide the smirk from the scared look on her face.

"Stop the car and let me out!" she shouted.

"Stop being a baby," he rolled his eyes at her antics. "We're like two minutes from her house already."

"So I'll walk it!"

"Yea, sure," he stated sarcastically.

"I don't know why I got into the car with you."

"I don't know why I let you in the car in the first place."

"Why don't you stop being such an asshole," she spoke indignantly as he pulled into a stop. She nearly pushed the car door open with a loud bang and slammed the door, making her way towards her house.

"Language!" he shouted, having called out to her from his own open door as he stood out of his car. "You're such a hypocrite!"

"Hypocrite?!" she turned, raising her eyebrow at him. "At least I'm not some dim witted jerk who needs to go to some psychologist for being bipolar!"

"I'm not bipolar!" he retaliated, slamming his own car door and walking around so that he was now a foot away from her. "You're the one who is stuck up and likes to lead people on!"

"You want to talk about leading on?" she stared at him wide eyed. "Who's the one who tried to kiss me, huh?"

"Well I thought we had some sort of silent understanding!" he fumed. "Who's the one who basically gave me a slap on the face when they rejected me after I put myself out there?"

"Who said anything about rejecting?"

"Oh Jacob," he mimicked her in a false high pitched voice. "Of course! I'd love to hang out with you anytime. And don't mind what I was about to do with Edward. I wouldn't have kissed him anyways."

"What?!" Bella screamed, taking a step closer to him with anger. "You are such a dumbass! It's something called being polite! And have you ever thought of…oh, I don't know…something called class? I'm not the type of girl to share a first kiss with a guy in a cafeteria with a bunch of teenagers in plain site!"

"Then why the hell did you act as if nothing happened between us?"

"Because I was shy!" she yelled out, giving him an 'are you seriously asking me that' look. "Has it ever occurred to you that a girl doesn't know how to react when a guy who is her best friend almost kissed her? Because I can tell you that I've never been under that sort of situation."

"Well we should have talked it out!"

"Well we could have if you had decided not to shun me from your life!" she cried out. "How cruel was it to find out behind my back that you hung out with everyone all the time, but when it came to activities that involved me hanging around, you just had to find an excuse out of it, huh? Do you how much it hurt?"

"Bella I-"

"No!" she stopped him from talking. "I talk and you listen. I thought that things were going good between us and that we were getting somewhere. I thought that somehow there was more to you than what everyone else says because I'm not the type of person to judge someone without getting to know them in person first. I thought that maybe, just maybe, the attraction I felt towards you was noticed and that you could take the next step first since I was afraid to do it after my oh so obvious horrid relationships before."

"Wait!" Edward stopped her. "Are you just saying all this stuff to say it, or do you really mean it?"

"Oh my god!" Bella sighed, her shoulders drooping. "What do you think? If I didn't care much, then do you think I would be here babbling everything out to you nonstop? It's entirely nerve racking to say all this while in my head I'm wondering what in the world is going through in your mind right now and mphh-"

She was silenced as Edward strode forward and captured her lips in his, holding the back of her head as he intertwined his fingers into her brown hair and wrapped his left arm around her waist to bring her closer. To say that Bella did not see that coming was an understatement and while Edward waited patiently for her to respond without disengaging himself, he finally felt her move her lips with his after she came over the shock. His lips, though catching her suddenly, had not been rough at all, but were rather soft and gentle, allowing her to release a sigh of content. He caressed her close to his body and finally released her after what seemed like hours, but had only been a mere few minutes. He pulled his head back, keeping both hands gripping securely around her waist as he stared into her eyes. They were glazed over with an adoring look of a deer caught in headlights as her brown eyes encased him in a feeling of euphoria.

"Well," he began, finally breaking the silence, "now do you know what I had been thinking?"

Her eyes were wide, but she smiled and gave a soft laugh. She took a step forward, wrapping her arms around him while he held her head against his chest. "I think I have some sort of idea," she told him. He could feel her give a tiny smile.

"Well then officially stating," he moved back a little so that he could see her face, "would you like to go on a date with me?"

"Hmm…" she pretended to contemplate over it as he gave a puppy dog frown. "Okay, okay," she giggled, gently slapping him against his chest. "I guess I can try and fit you somewhere in my schedule. Let's just hope that you'll still be alive to see me before Jasper and Emmett get there hands on you."

"Oh, I think I'll manage," he smirked at her.

"But can you do me a favor," she asked him, she looked at him seriously.

"Anything," he replied.

"Just promise me that...that you won't be like…James," she whispered, looking down at the floor with nervousness as her cheeks became the color of pink roses. He gently placed his hand under her chin and lifted it up slowly to the blush he loved creep into her cheeks. Bella was then able to gaze straight into his own green eyes.

"I promise," he whispered, leaning down once again to seal the promise with a kiss.


A/N: I know this'll suck, but I won't have an update until school's over because I'll be really, really busy. I'm sorry. But please review...smiley faces are always appreciated! :D Please help me reach 200 before next update and to those who review, I definitely have a written sneak peek of the next chapter! Thanks again for your support :D