A/N: Good Evening dear readers. How have you all been? I hope you are well. I'm so sorry it took so long, but I did it a bit longer for you.

So I'll just get to what matters now and on the bottom Author Note I'll explain everything.

Thanks for reading/reviewing/favorite-ing/alert-ing this story, it means a lot. You are all truly amazing.

And a huge thanks to ms. ambrosia & kaydee1005 for beta-ing this chapter! And dealing with my huge punctuation problems! Thanks ladies! And I'm working on it!

Now Enjoy.


Chapter 12: Friends... or not.

Bella's POV

He hesitated at first, and I looked down, starting to take my hand back, disappointed and feeling like an idiot; then he took it and shook it. "Friends," he said, but I barely heard him. The electricity humming through my body left me unmoving and speechless.

He wasn't moving or speaking either;maybe he felt the same current of electricity I did, maybe not, but he just stayed there staring at me, unblinkingly. After a few moments, the silence bubble created around us disappeared and the silence became extremely awkward.

"Um... I-I have to go, I have Calculus now..." I said, breaking our stare first. "The teacher doesn't like us to be late..."

"Of course," he replied, letting go of my hand. I immediately missed the contact, but composed myself before he noticed it and grabbed my bag.

"I guess I'll see you in P.E. then?" I asked, leaving the room, not really giving him the chance to reply, though I thought I heard a faint "Sure" in the background.

Calculus was just another blur in the day, with Alice talking non-stop, as always. This time though, I didn't hear a word she said. My mind was wandering back to what happened in Biology, back to Edward and the feeling of his hand holding mine.

I didn't want to be one more girl swooning over Edward at school, but the mere thought of him made my heartbeat quicken. The electricity current I felt when I touched him was real, and for a moment I thought he felt it too.

Once Calculus was over Alice had to shake me out of my thoughts, quite literally.

"Bella?" she asked, shaking my shoulder lightly. Once my eyes met hers, she continued. "Bella, wait by my car in the parking lot when your class is over. I'll meet you there and take you to the hospital to see my Dad." As I rolled my eyes at her in response, she tried again, more forcefully this time. "Wait there, Bella." There was almost a warning note in her tone.

"Yes, Mom," I answered playfully, not really thinking about what I had said, but when it dawned on me, my face fell.

Memories passed in front of my eyes, like a playing movie: my mom and I playing in the kitchen, trying to bake a cake; Mom hugging me on my first school day; how she cried all night the day before I left for Forks, though she never found out I heard her or that I cried myself to sleep as well. I remembered her kissing me good night every night since I was a child. Then I recalled flashes from the accident; how happy she had been that I was going with her for her birthday, her strangled scream in the moment of the crash, the shattering of glass and finally, a gravestone with her name, indicating that I would never see her again, never hug her again, never kiss her again or reproach her for being too silly, never see her kind eyes ever again.

It wasn't until Alice hugged me tightly, breaking the reverie, that I felt the moisture on my cheeks; I was crying, breaking down at school again.

I didn't hug her back. "Gotta go, Alice. I'll see you later," I said, my voice shaking as I rushed out of the room and away from her and her sympathetic and understanding eyes. I was sure she wouldn't pry. She wouldn't make me say something I didn't want to, or something I didn't feel comfortable talking about, but her eyes had a soft hint of curiosity, a curiosity I couldn't fulfill. So I left her there standing puzzled and ran away into the drizzling afternoon of Forks, feeling broken, like it had just happened all over again.

While walking to P.E. I took a few deep, calming breaths and wiped my face with my sweater sleeve.

P.E was the last place I wanted to be in that moment, not for the fact that I hated it with passion, which I did, but because my mom's memories were tearing me apart. My eyes were red from crying and Edward would be there.

I considered ditching P.E. for the first time in my life, but decided against it because of Charlie; even though I wasn't doing anything important in that class, skipping would not make him happy,", so I reluctantly walked through the gym's doors.

Just as I thought things wouldn't get worse, couldn't get worse, I had to sit next to Edward in a painful proximity, after a very awkward "Hi" from both of us.

Halfway through the period the coach dismissed us, as we weren't doing anything. I thought I was lucky, but that was until I realized I would have to wait for Alice for half a period—with Edward. As we walked towards the parking lot, the silence was becoming, ridiculously awkward, so I tried speaking up. "So, um..." I started as I thought of some way to start a conversation with him. "When are you taking the cast off?"

It wasn't until I saw Edward's pained expression that I realized I must have made a mistake asking him about it. "A few more days," he said in whisper. I just nodded to let him know that I heard him, but didn't ask anything else.

After a few more moments, the silence was becoming slightly less awkward.

"Let's go sit over there," I said, pointing to some picnic tables. "I'm tired."

As I looked up and our eyes met, I saw surprise there and realized that he might not want to go sit with me, so I re-phrased. "You don't have to come, I'll... um... I'll just go..." I whispered. When he didn't answer I started walking away, my eyes cast down.

"No, wait," he called behind me, making me look back. "I'll go with you," he said as he walked towards me. "You always jump to conclusions, don't you?" he asked, chuckling lightly.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Why would you think I didn't want to come sit here with you?" he asked.

I blushed. "Um... I don't... your face," I finally concluded.

"You should read it better, Bella," he said, chuckling again. I didn't pay attention to the fact that he was sort of offending me as I was distracted by his chuckle; I'd never seen him so light before and I liked that it was thanks to me, because of me, but maybe it was at me, but I didn't care.

"Is Alice always this bossy?" I asked him after a few moments, spotting Alice waving at us from the front door. "She's making me go even when I told her it wasn't necessary."

"She's right and you know it," he said seriously, which confused me. "You should go to the hospital, at least to check if your leg is okay," he explained. I nodded. "And yes, she's always bossy. Wait till you go shopping with her," he finished in a whisper, as if he was talking with himself. Smiling and shaking his head.

"Bella!" Alice called loudly once she was sure I would hear her. She did it a bit too loudly though, making the people around look at us. I lowered my eyes to the ground, my face heating up and reddening.

"Bella, come on!" she called again. I just shook my head and got up to follow her. Edward did the same and I could have sworn I heard him trying to stifle laughter, but I let it go.

On the ride to the hospital Alice told me everything about the weekend shopping trip we were having. As Edward and the rest were leaving with Emmett -by Alice's commands- I had no one to rescue me from the shopping trip she had planned. I will have to make an excuse by Friday, I thought to myself.

-:-

"Everything is okay, Bella," Dr. Cullen assured me after he had checked my leg twice and made a couple of x-rays.

"Thanks Dr. Cullen," I said politely. Then I looked at Alice with an I-told-you-so kind of expression; she just grinned widely at me.

"That's awesome, Bella!" she squealed excitedly. "Now we can go without anything to worry about!"

"Sure, Alice," I said, trying my best to sound excited for her sake, but there was not a thing that would make her less excited about a shopping trip, no matter how my mood was.

"Rosalie will come with us. We're gonna have so much fun!" she squealed again, bouncing up and down. I covered my ears, faking pain, making her laugh loudly.

Her laugh was actually contagious and suddenly I found myself laughing along with her, successfully forgetting all my problems. Despite the fact that I hated shopping, and always would, I was sure I would have fun with Alice. There was a very good chance though that I wouldn't make it back alive the next day; shopping was tiring.

"Do you want me to pick you up again tomorrow?" she asked as she pulled over at my driveway.

"No, I'm okay. I can drive," I told her, shaking my head. "Alice, thanks for everything," I said truthfully.

"Don't worry about it, Bella," she said, hugging my tightly. "I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"Sure," I said, hugging her back before getting out of the car.

I waved at her until the car was no longer in sight and then went inside.

Once I was inside, the first thing Charlie asked me was if I had seen Dr. Cullen. I nodded and explained to him how he told me everything was okay and that there was nothing to worry about.

After dinner Charlie went to the living room and seated himself on the couch to watch a baseball game on T.V, as I washed the dishes.

-:-

"Shit!" I cursed loudly as I tried to start the engine of my truck for the hundredth time. With one more try, and one more fail, I gave up all together and hopped out of it. I guess I'll just have to go walking, I thought.

As I started towards the road I heard a horn behind me. I looked back to find Alice's car driving my way. "Get in, Bella," she said, rolling her window down and pointing with her finger to the backseat.

I just went for it, thankful that she hadn't listened to me and that I wouldn't have to walk to school and arrive incredibly late. It wasn't until I was safely in the backseat that I noticed Jasper on the passenger's side and Edward looking quite annoyed next to me.

"Hi, Bella," said Jasper, smiling. I responded with a timid hi and he turned around, grabbing Alice's hand while she drove.

"Hi." I greeted Edward next, but he just nodded in acquaintance, saying nothing.

Again that day passes as a blur to me, and so did the days after that. They were still agonizingly slow, though.

When I got to Biology that day, Edward was already sitting in his designed place, looking straight ahead -again. This time, though, he had a distant look on his face, instead of a cold expression, as if he wasn't even there, as if he was traveling in his mind. Sitting down I gave him a tentative 'Hi' which he never answered to. I didn't know if it was because he wasn't listening or if he simply didn't want to talk.

In P.E. I did the same thing; I told him "Hi" just out of politeness really and he nodded at me, but didn't make an attempt to speak -and neither did I- as we sat there in silence and waited for the period to be over.

By the end of the week I had stopped greeting him all together, tired of his nods. In all honesty, it pissed me off. Would it kill him to say hi? It was just two letters, but he wouldn't say them, so I stubbornly stopped saying them too.

Every time I saw him in Biology or P.E I would just look at him briefly, but say nothing. He, on the other hand, wouldn't even look at me, which for a moment left me wondering if I had done something wrong. That thought was quickly left to the side as I, after all, had tried to talk with him and he was the one that wouldn't say a word.

You are obviously not friends anymore, said the annoying little voice in my head, well known as my subconscious. Nor should I have asked him in the first place, I though bitterly.

Adding to the fact that 'the Edward situation' was becoming more and more awkward with each passing day, I had had a horrible nightmare the night before about the accident and my mother, making me stay awake the whole night just to avoid having it again. So, yes I had had less than what was counted as a minimum amount of sleep, and yes, I was quite a bit grumpy.

At lunch on Friday Jessica made my mood ten times worse by asking what I was sure she had been dying to ask the whole week.

"Hey, Bella," Jessica greeted me happily once I got to my place at our lunch table.

"Hey, Jess. What's up?" I said, smiling somehow warily back at her.

"You know, Bella?" she started. "There's something I wanted to ask you about all week, but didn't have the chance to."

I sighed heavily before replying reluctantly. "What is it?"

"Well…" she started, a smile on her face. "What's going on between you and Edward?" She asked directly then. Honestly I thought she would be more subtle, but I guess I was wrong.

"What do you mean?" I asked cautiously. Knowing Jess for a few years now meant I knew her quite well; if I told her just what she wanted to know, in a heartbeat the whole town would know about it.

"You know… are you like… um… dating?"

Though I had expected something like that coming, date was not a word I thought she would use. My eyes widened with panic as realization dawned on my face. Was that what the whole school was thinking? We didn't even talk to each other anymore, for god's sake!

"Why would you think that?" I asked, the alarm evident in my voice despite my efforts to hide it.

"Oh… I-I just saw the two of you together the other day, by the picnic tables…" she trailed off as if making her point clear.

"Oh," was my incredibly smart response. I was surprised she had seen us as there wasn't anyone out while we had been there, most of the time.

"So, are you together?" she asked again.

"No, no," I answered quickly. "No, of course not." I tried hiding the frustration in my voice, more successfully this time than the last.

"Great!" she squealed suddenly, earning a glare from me. "I… um… okay. So you guys are like friends?"

"No?" I said, but it came out as a question. I didn't know if we were still friends, not after such a long time without speaking despite the fact that we saw each other all the time. Hell, of course we weren't friends anymore! We have never been friends.

"So could you ask him if he would like to go out with me sometime?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Well, you did talk to him after all and he talked to you so… could you like ask him?"

"Why would I do that?" I asked, feeling annoyed now.

"Because you're my friend." She said it so certain of herself that I felt guilty for being annoyed at her; she always was like this and I knew it. She was in fact, after all, my friend.

Sighing, defeated, I agreed. "Okay," I said, nodding, but felt compelled to warn her. "But don't get mad at me later if he says no, okay?"

"Of course, Bella. Thank you!" she squealed again, hugging me. I let go of her quickly and excused myself out of the cafeteria.

I was dreading what I had to do in Biology, but I was going to do it, I had promised Jess I would.

When I arrived at the classroom I was really nervous, my face reddening by the minute, and my heart beating furiously. It had been a few days since I had talked to him the last time and it was making me anxious and nervous.

Once I was successfully inside the room and in my seat I turned to him. Not even waiting for him to turn, I blurted it all out.

"Jessica asked me to ask you if you wanted to go out sometime. Watch a movie or something?" I said, rushing through the words.

When I finished, I looked up from my fidgeting hands. He was staring at me, confusion clear on his face, but as I stared deep into his eyes, I swore I could see hope there.

Maybe he likes her, I thought to myself.

"Okay… sure," he answered after a moment. Hearing his agreement made me feel something I couldn't quite identify at the moment.

"Okay, here," I said, handing him a piece of paper. "She wrote her address for you to pick her up at her house, tomorrow at 5pm," I finished, looking down at my lap again and pulling at my sweater's sleeves.

"She?" he asked, clearly confused.

"Yes, Jessica."

"Jessica?" he asked again.

I just stared at him for a moment, thinking he was joking and wanted to annoy me further, but he seemed genuinely confused, so I explained. "Edward, Jessica asked me, to ask you, if you wanted to go out with her sometime," I repeated.

As realization dawned on him, his expression turned into the one of pure horror, his eyes widening. "Oh," was all he managed to choke out for a while.

"I'll tell her you said yes," I told him, as he didn't speak up again. Then I turned to face the board, avoiding his eyes and ending the conversation.

Though it seemed he had other ideas as, just moments later, I felt a cold hand gripping my own and then a yell. "No!" he said, loud enough for the whole class to hear.

I could feel the blush rising up my neck as I looked up at him.

"No," he repeated, though softer this time. "I don't want to go. Tell her I said no," he finished, giving my hand a little squeeze.

"But you said yes before," I said, confused as why he had changed his mind.

"I changed my mind," he said, letting go of my hand and looking away.

"Who did you think I was talking about, Edward?" I pressed further. "You asked me who I was talking about, who did you think it was?"

"No one," he answered curtly.

"Then why-"

He cut me off abruptly, not letting me finish. "I don't know, Bella. Okay?" His voiced showed his annoyance, but his eyes were pleading with me to let it go and so I did.

Nodding once, I turned around to the teacher and started taking notes.

In Calculus Alice told me everything about our shopping trip that would happen on the weekend. Again. Only with more details this time.

We were going Saturday morning, basically shopping through the morning. Then we would have lunch at some restaurant in Port Angeles, followed by more shopping and finally heading home. It was, as she called it herself, a girls day.

Great, I said sarcastically to myself.

When I was heading to P.E and wishing the day would be over already, Mike appeared in front of me, looking nervous. He walked with me to the gym. I sighed. This isn't good, I thought.

I heard him take a few deep breaths before finally speaking. "So, Bella. Do you… um… want to go to the dance with me?"

My eyes widened as I looked around for someone, something to take me out of this. There was no one around.

"You're going, right?" he asked as I didn't answer fast enough.

Without thinking about it, I said "Yes," only to then want to kick myself for it. It would have been easier to avoid Mike if I had said no, but in all honesty I wanted to go… and Alice had mentioned something about it. She was not going to let me get away.

"Do you have a date yet?" he asked hopefully.

"Um…" I hesitated, trying to find the best way to reject him. Misunderstanding my hesitation, Mike's smile widened.

Think, Bella, think! I told myself. I finally concluded that if I said no, he would insist and make me uncomfortable, so I said "Yes" again.

His face fell. "Who?" he asked angrily.

Again I cursed myself inwardly. I could always ask Jake. He would save me later, or I could just make something up when the time came, but before I could get anything out someone spoke up behind me.

"Me," he said.


A/N: Thoughts???

Thank you for reading.

-

So guys here's my thing: I started college a few weeks ago and as you might imagine, it's tough, but still amazing. There's a lot to do and study and my free time it's been reduced to almost nothing. So, sadly, I will have to tell you that I will stop writing.... *shock face*... nahh just kidding. :D I won't, though be able to give you guys a weekly update. I will try to write in every single bit of free time I have, but I can't promise anything as I have no computer here and won't for, at least, two more months. I am now using my brother's laptop, but it is usually unavailable. In the worst of the scenarios I'll update once every three, or so, weeks until I get my computer, once I have it I will update on the weekends, most likely.

Having that said, I will now ask you to stay with me through this. I will understand though if you decide the waiting is too long and I appreciate you being here so far. So if, on the other hand, you decide to stick around with me, well... I will never be able to tell you how thankful I am. :)

So, thank you everyone... and I'll be seeing you, hopefully, soon.

Please review.

P.S: If you would like to know how crazy a day that college can be check my LiveJournal... And if you want to reach me the easiest was is through Twitter, or reviewing/PM-ing me. I will be also posting teasers in my WordPress page and on Fictionators on their 'Teaser Monday's post, so stay tuned! :D

Until the next time. :)