AN: All right, so I lied. I tried to do homework. For like, five whole minutes. I swear I tried! Here's the next chapter of a story I can't keep away from. It's a bit of a nice, light change, since I thought that realistically people can't survive being so depressed all the time. And Bella and Edward can't fall in love properly with all this sadness around, right?

I love Monopoly :)

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. Whoever created Monopoly owns that. I own this plot, and Edward Cullen owns me :)

Chapter Eleven: Monopoly

BPOV

When I opened my eyes, I was alert at once. I knew immediately where I was, what I was doing there. I clearly remembered everything that had happened yesterday, from going shopping with Edward to Rebecca's letter, from my disastrous alone time to my conversation with Edward last night.

What did he think of me now? He hadn't reacted badly last night, but that didn't mean anything. He must be good at hiding how he felt, since he hadn't acted repulsed by me, and how could he not be? I was broken, useless. I was a mother. Did he see me as old, now, because of that?

Despite my worries over what he thought of me now, I couldn't regret telling him everything last night. I'd told him he was easy to talk to, but I don't think he understood just how easy it was to lay myself bear and wait for him to tread all over me. Was it wrong that I revealed all my secrets to someone I barely knew, while I couldn't trust my boyfriend enough to tell him?

And as for the issue of trust… I'd never let anyone hold me like I'd let Edward hold me last night. And it had felt so good. With his arms holding me so tightly, pressed so firmly against his chest, I felt safer than I had in a long while. It was okay to cry about my love for my daughter, and it was okay to remember the things I'd been through. It was impossible that it had been so easy to tell him everything, but I'd been able to forget the boundaries that kept me from knowing him. I wasn't a broken, beaten mother. He wasn't a threat. I was a girl who had a story, and he was a man who would listen, and not judge. It didn't matter that I was vulnerable, and he was strong enough to overpower me ten times over. It didn't matter that he was shirtless, and I knew he probably wore next to nothing underneath the blanket. He was warm, he was comfort, and he was a friend.

The absence of a warm body beside me alerted me to the fact that Alice was already up. Without looking at the time, or bothering to check my appearance – I knew I'd look horrible anyway, after such a horrible day and last night's crying – I went into the lounge room.

I was prepared for their stares and for their sympathy, but somehow it took a bit of extra effort to make myself ready for Edward's rejection. They were all up, and they all looked over to me as I walked into the room, but it was Edward's eyes I sought first. He looked up from his conversation with Carlisle and smiled at me. Breathing a small sigh of relief, I smiled faintly. 'Morning.'

The room seemed to relax with me. 'Morning,' they mumbled together. As their returned to their previous conversations I walked into the kitchen and put two slices of bread into the toaster. When I turned around to get some margarine out of the fridge Alice was standing behind me. 'How're you doing today, Bella?' she asked quietly.

I smiled reassuringly. 'I'm fine. Just a little exhausted still, I think.' The smile slipped away. 'Alice, I'm just want this not to be a big deal, all right? I don't do it to kill myself. I do it because it lessens the pain. I wish you didn't have to know –'

'Is the pain so great?' she whispered, interrupting me. 'Is there no other way to relieve it?'

There was nothing I could say to her. I hugged her close for a moment before pulling away.

'I think you should stay home from work again tonight,' she said. 'We'll do something today to help distract everyone, and go out for dinner tonight or something. If you want to see Jacob we can get him to come around once he's finished work.'

'I don't want to see Jacob,' I told her. 'And I don't want him to know about this at all.'

Alice's eyes were sympathetic – just what I didn't need. 'Bella, Jacob knows something's up. He worries about you more than you think, and what do you think he thought when I told him you weren't up to going to work, or going home last night. He spoke to you on the phone yesterday, and he knew you were fine then.'

'Today is happy,' I explained. 'Today is distraction. I don't want to have to worry about what I'm going to tell him.'

'So tell him now and get it out of the way.'

'No. I'll go home later tonight when he'll be in bed. Now, what are we going to do today?'

'We'll talk about that in a minute,' she said as my toast popped and I started to butter it. 'I want to talk about Edward,' she told me, dropping her voice slightly more. I looked up to see if Edward noticed, but he remained in his conversation with Carlisle. I kept my eyes on him as Alice kept talking. 'I know you left last night, and you didn't come back for a while. Did you talk to him?'

I nodded slowly, still slightly amazed at myself. 'Yeah, I did. I told him about everything.'

I could feel Alice staring at me despite the fact that I wasn't looking at her. 'And?'

'And he listened.' As I spoke Edward looked up at us. When he saw me watching him he smiled crookedly. I smiled back. 'And it was okay. He's a really good guy, Alice.'

Alice didn't move or speak as I put the margarine back in the fridge and the knife in the sink. 'Bella, you know he has to go home at some point.'

My smile drooped. Why did that make me feel so miserable all of a sudden? 'I know. But for while he's here, I think he'll be a good friend.'

Because none of us were creative enough to think of anything interesting to do, we got out our old Monopoly board. It was one of the most unoriginal things we could have done, but who didn't have fun playing Monopoly? So what if I sucked at it, it was fun anyway. After nearly two hours of playing I had three dollars left with no houses on any of my properties, and Esme and Edward were miles in front. I was holding my money under the table so no one knew how in trouble I was, and I was praying with all I had that I'd land on Go before I had to cough up any money.

It was my turn to roll. Four tiny dots faced upwards on the dice, and that led me to… Community Chest. Right. Come on, first prize in a beauty contest!

Go to the nearest railroad and pay the owner double the amount

Shit.

There was no way that they'd let me get away with faking what the card said. They'd make me show them if I said it told me to take money from the bank: Alice had played with me enough to know how I worked. And none of them would buy my properties off of me. This was it. Bankrupt.

Something brushed against my thigh, making me jump slightly. Edward's hand, holding three fifties. I looked up at him, startled. He smiled from beside me.

'Come on, Bella, what does it say? Are you bankrupt yet?'

I poked my tongue out at Alice. 'No,' I said, but I meant the words for Edward.

He bumped his hand against my leg again.

I shook my head slightly.

He took my hand with the one holding the money and then twisted his fingers out, leaving the fifties in my hand.

Cheater, I thought. Suppressing a sigh, I moved my tiny shoe to the closest railroad – which happened to be owned by Edward. He beamed down at me, and I could only roll my eyes. 'Have your stupid money,' I snapped jokingly, handing him two of the fifties.

'Bella's a sore loser,' Alice whispered theatrically to Carlisle, who was sitting beside her. 'She'll be bankrupt soon. I don't know how she's lasted this long.'

I stuck my tongue out at her again and waited while Esme took her turn.

Somehow, I managed to pass around the board a couple of times without landing on anything too hazardous. When I had enough money stashed to know that I wouldn't miss the excess, I took two hundred pounds and bumped Edward's leg softly, offering a little extra for the loan. He didn't acknowledge me, but continued the joking conversation he was having with his sister. I bumped him harder.

'No, you know who's the worst Monopoly player ever?' he said, laughing. 'Your friend Siobhan back in Chicago. She buys all she can when she first starts, and runs out of money way too quickly.'

I kicked him, but he didn't look at me.

'Yeah, I guess you're right. But you know who it sucks the most to play with?' Esme said.

'Who?' Carlisle asked.

'Emmett.'

We all groaned. I took cover in the noise and kicked Edward harder, pinching his leg at the same time. He winced slightly, then smirked. He still didn't look down at me.

'I've never met someone who plays more annoyingly,' Esme continued. 'You haven't played with him yet, Carlisle, and you don't want to.'

'He makes it his mission each game to buy one property from each colour so that no one can build any houses at all.'

Edward's hand folded around mine carefully, closing it with the paper notes held inside. He moved our hands over to my lap and held them there. I scowled up at him. 'It's your turn, Bella,' he said lightly, putting the dice in front of me with his other hand.

Without really paying attention I rolled the two dice. I didn't realise until the last minute where my roll put me.

Mayfair.

Which had a hotel.

Oh, perfect.

Snatching my hand out of Edward's grasp, I unfolded the notes to count how much I'd be short by.

I frowned, figuring I must have counted wrong. I didn't have that number before. But after I'd counted another two times it was still the same.

And then I remembered Edward's hand folding mine closed… with more notes in it?

That bastard.

I turned to berate Edward – discovery be damned – but he wasn't looking at me. Or the game. He was frowning as he looked down at a small mobile phone in his hand. After a moment he pressed a few buttons and put the phone away, but when he returned his attention to the game I felt too awful to upset him any further. I put the right money on the table for Esme.

I was the first to go bankrupt, despite Edward's help. He cheered up by the end of the game, which might have had something to do with the fact that Esme landed repeatedly on a few of his properties – all with hotels – and had to fork out lots of cash, which put him in a long lead and an eventual win.

'You suck,' Esme said childishly as she began helping Alice pack the game away.

Edward leaned back in his seat and grinned at her. 'You're just jealous. You know you love me.'

Esme muttered something that sounded like, 'Yeah, and you're lucky I do.'

'Give it a rest,' Alice laughed. 'Right, now if anyone's not hungry after playing Monopoly for like three hours, they're crazy. And I really don't feel like cooking anything, so I'm going to call Rosalie and we're going to meet her for lunch.'

After Alice called Rosalie quickly and told her where to meet us, we crammed into Alice's car and drove to a nearby restaurant. I deliberately chose to sit in the backseat, although I did make sure I wasn't sitting in the middle between the men. Edward was sitting beside me again, and I poked him in the side. 'You didn't have to do that before,' I told him. 'Either time.'

He smiled at me again, and my breath caught. It wasn't fair for one man to look so beautiful. 'I know,' he said simply.

The rest of the car ride passed in relative silence, giving me plenty of time to think. And despite my happy mood, my thoughts turned quickly to yesterday's events.

I let the others hold a conversation until we were seated and had our meals in front of us. Rosalie was really good – she didn't mention yesterday at all, or act differently in any way. A brief silence had fallen upon them as they dug into their meals, and I chose this moment to share my thoughts.

'I'm going to Phoenix for the weekend.'

All of them froze either with their forks halfway to their mouths or in some stage of chewing. They all looked wary, except for Carlisle, who looked confused by everyone else's reactions. 'I know it'll be late notice for Rebecca and Peter, but I'll call them when we get home and let them know I'm coming,' I continued. 'I want to meet her.'

'Are you sure that's a good idea?' Rosalie asked carefully.

'It's something I need to do,' I told her, and the rest of them. 'Will you come with me?' I asked her and Alice.

Alice groaned softly. 'I can't. I have to meet with the people organising my grant for most of the weekend. I'm sorry, Bella.'

'And I have a waiting list a mile long,' Rosalie said. She worked at a mechanics. 'And Ben's away, so I'm all on my own as it is.'

I couldn't take Jacob, and Esme and Carlisle were moving into their new house on Saturday. So much for my spur-of-the-moment plan. I picked at my food thoughtlessly. 'Oh. Well. Um…' I couldn't think of what to say.

I'd spent the last ten minutes psyching myself up for this, and it was shut down just like that. I needed to meet her, and I knew it was something that couldn't wait. But I couldn't go by myself, so what choice did I have?

'I'll go with you.'

My eyes jerked up. Alice sighed. 'Edward, don't –'

'I mean it,' he said, keeping his eyes level with mine. I stared at him, searching him. 'I know what she means to you, Bella, and I know how much you need to meet her. If you think you'll be okay with it, I'll go with you to Phoenix. If you want me, that is.'

'Bella, you don't –' Esme began.

'God, guys, will you let Bella figure this out for herself?' Rosalie interrupted. I smiled at her gratefully.

'You don't have to do this,' I said to Edward.

He smiled sincerely back at me. 'I know. But you need this, and I told you that I'm here for you when you need me.'

How was it possibly that I knew such a generous man? 'I'd really appreciate that,' I said softly, returning the smile uncertainly.

To his credit, Carlisle didn't question any of us about it now; as comfortable as I was with us skirting around the subject, I didn't know how good I'd be at handling it in broad daylight in the middle of a restaurant. At the end of Rosalie's lunch hour we made plans to meet up again for dinner and parted ways. Back at Alice's apartment, Edward approached me just as I was about to dial the number Rebecca had included in the letter.

'I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable with this,' he said awkwardly. 'I didn't want you to feel like I was your only option.'

'It's all right,' I assured him. 'I told you that I'm not afraid of you.'

A strange look crossed his face, but then he nodded, smiled and went to join the others in front of the television, giving me privacy to make the call.

Someone picked up after the fourth ring. 'Hello?'

'Hello, is this Rebecca?'

'Yes it is.'

'Hi. This is Bella.'

There was a pause on the other end. 'Bella! I'm sorry, I admit I didn't expect you to call, but it's so good to hear from you. How are you doing?'

I smiled genuinely, although I knew she couldn't see me. 'I'm doing okay.' Despite yesterday, I truly did feel great. 'I was wondering if you and Peter had plans for this weekend?'

'We don't, actually.' Rebecca hesitated. 'Were you thinking of paying a visit?'

'Um, yes, actually. If that's okay. If you're not busy.'

'No, no, that'd be perfect!' she gushed. 'Would you like to come over for lunch on Sunday? Peter will be so excited! I did write our address in the letter, didn't I?'

'Yes, you did,' I told her. Biting my lip, I watched my friends – my family – sitting only a few metres away. Did they realise I knew they were eavesdropping? I thought with a smile. 'Is it okay if a bring a friend?'

Edward looked up at me upon hearing himself mentioned, and smiled warmly at me when he saw I was watching them. I returned the smile and felt my chest tighten. When I heard Rebecca replying I had to blink a few times to bring myself back to the present. Why did he have to have such beautiful eyes?

'Of course!' As she said it I cursed myself silently. What if Edward didn't want to meet Amy? No doubt he'd come anyway now, being the gentleman he was. I'd have to talk to him about it later.

Rebecca and I talked for a few more minutes about nothing much. When we hung up I hesitated by the phone. 'Um, Alice, is it okay if I use your phone again?' I asked. 'I really should call Jacob.'

Alice glanced up at me cautiously and nodded her assent. I dialled Jacob's office number and waited only a few seconds for him to pick up.

'Good afternoon, Largosa's sale's department, this is Paul.'

'Hello, Paul, its Bella.'

'Bella, hi. I'll put Jake on, hang on a sec.'

He sounded busy so I didn't press him for a conversation. Before long another voice was talking into the phone. 'Bells?'

I turned my back on the others, wishing the phone were cordless so that I could escape if the conversation took a bad turn. 'Hi, Jake. I'm sorry I didn't come home last night. I wasn't feeling too great.'

There was a distinctive sigh on the other end. 'Yeah, Alice explained it to me. Well, she sort of did. I hope you're okay.'

'I'm okay. I'm going out with her and her family again tonight, so I won't be back till late.'

'What about work?' He sounded a bit indignant.

'I don't want to talk about it, Jake,' I said quietly. 'I'm not feeling too great, and I need to spend time with Alice, Rose and Esme. I'll see you later on tonight.'

I managed to put the subject off for a few minutes, but eventually I couldn't deny the reason for my call any longer. 'Jacob, I got call a little earlier from an old friend of mine from school,' I lied. 'She lives in Phoenix. She's just been in an accident and she's feeling lonely since none of her other friends can visit. I promised her I'd go and spend the weekend with her.'

'I didn't know you had a friend in Phoenix.' His tone wasn't accusatory, just faintly surprised.

'Yeah, well. I do.'

'Well that's okay. I'll come with you.'

Exactly what I had been dreading. 'I'm sorry, Jacob. She's already sent me a plane ticket, and there's only enough room at her place for me.' Please, please, please believe me. I didn't want to deceive him, but I couldn't tell him about Amy. And even if I took him to Phoenix with me, there's no way I'd be able to slip away for lunch with Amy's family.

Eventually he seemed to accept the fact that I was going away for the weekend without him, although by the end of the conversation he was sulking. I hung up the phone and made my way over to the others. 'So what's the plan?' I asked them, perching on the arm of the couch beside Carlisle.

AN: Okay, so we'll try again the "won't update for a while because I have homework" thing, and hopefully I'll do better this time, lol. Knowing me, though, I'll probably end up writing some more tonight, and you'll have another chapter in a few days.

PS. OME TWILIGHT TRAILER AWESOME, AMAZING, MAGNIFICENT. I love how much of the book they've put into it (the trailer, at least) and I love even the bits that aren't in it (imagine standing in a tree that high! With Edward Cullen! Or Rob!)

The way he says "What if I'm not the hero? What if I'm… the bad guy"

And where he's daring her to say vampire

And when she's like "this isn't real! This kind of stuff just doesn't exist!" and he's like "it does in my world"

And at the end, how he says "you are my life now"

And the KISS!!

And, and, and

Okay, I'm stopping before I list everything in the trailer. And yes, I'm rolling my eyes at myself. Lol