Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or the characters...SM does.

Bubble Bursting

BPOV

Alice asked me if she could stay with me that night when I was driving her home. I agreed quickly, Charlie was down at the Reservation with Billy and had tried to get me to go down to spend time with his son. I had been trying to figure out a way to let them all down gently and Alice suddenly offered me the perfect excuse.

Alice lived with her parents close to the edge of town. Most mornings I would drive out to get her and retrace my route back into Forks. I didn't mind, in fact I loved our routine, but sometimes I wondered if she should start getting use of the car her parents had bought her for her last birthday. It sat in the drive, bright as the sun and faster than the speed of sound most likely if she floored it.

"Alice, how many miles are on the clock of your car?"

"Um...a little over a hundred I think. Why?"

"Don't you think you should use it a little more? I mean, the engine will probably seize up if you don't"

"Don't be silly Bells." She laughed at me but didn't take the conversation any further so I dropped it. The car was a sensitive subject, only ever broached when Alice was in tears on my bed after a particularly cold phone call from her absent parents.

She ran up to her room and started shoving clothes into her bag. More clothes than an overnight stay would necessitate. Then she swept most of the make up from the top of her dresser into another bag and glanced up at me guiltily.

"I was thinking that we could, you know, dress up."

"Why?"

"Because I need cheered up and you know how much making you wear a dress and eyeliner cheers me up." She looked up at me in a pleading way and I knew I couldn't say no.

"Fine! But if I talk in my sleep again you can't tell Jasper." I bargained with her. She thought it over for a second before a grin signalled her agreement.

EPOV

Jasper knocked on my front door and I opened it in surprise. His evenings usually consisted of seeing Alice, kissing Alice, talking to Alice, touching Alice in a way I didn't want to know about, and ended by kissing Alice for longer than was considered polite. His blue eyes were a little bloodshot and he smiled weakly at me. I backed away from the door and he slouched in, looking tired.

"Are you alright?" I asked him and he shook his head slightly.

"It's Alice." Of course it is, I thought, not unkindly.

"Come on." I walked up to my room and threw myself on the bed as he arranged himself of the sofa against the wall.

We sat for a while as I skipped back and forth through the music on my computer, waiting until he started the conversation. I had never been a guy to pry, and I wasn't going to start now.

"So, yeah, Alice." He started.

"Hmm?"

"She called her parents last night, after the accident and everything." I knew little about Alice's situation with her parents, but I did know that they seemed like complete morons undeserving of someone as likeable as Alice as their daughter.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "They are complete assholes, Edward, I mean seriously, and if I say anything about it to her she goes crazy at me. I'm torn between wanting to call them all the names under the sun and knowing that Alice loves them and I can't say anything. It's frustrating. We got into a huge argument last night and she left, just walked out of the house and walked to her place."

"Did you go after her?" I asked, thinking about the distance between the two houses.

"Well, yeah, but she wouldn't get in the car. I basically kerb crawled beside her all the way to her place."

"But you were fine at school today, I mean, she was alright at lunch."

"She was, you're right, but that's just because she has this new project in her head about Bella's dreams." My interest was suddenly very piqued.

"Bella's dreams?" I asked, trying desperately to maintain an air of detached interest, but knowing I had failed because Jasper smirked at me.

"Yeah, every night she dreams...."

BPOV

Alice finally finished torturing me at around 8 o'clock. Looking in the mirror I could barely see me anymore. My eyes were wider than they had been and there was an unnatural blush to my cheeks. I could have accomplished that just thinking about the dreams I have. Sighing I smiled at Alice with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, but it wasn't convincing because she just frowned at me with that look on her face that told me she was disappointed in me.

"Jasper and I had a fight last night." Jasper and Alice never had a fight unless it was about her parents. It was the one topic of conversation that would burst that beautiful bubble they usually lived in.

"Your parents?" She nodded, grimacing at the memory. "You know what I think, Alice, and I'm not going to get into an argument about it with you." I told her, firmly on the side of Jasper when it comes down to this well worn argument.

"I know, and you're both right. I know the faults of my parents more than anyone else, but when it's someone that you love being attacked you can't help but react. Like when Newton corners you, we all react. Hell, you should have seen Emmett throw his ass down yesterday." She laughed. "And Edward looked like he was ready to launch himself at him like a lion." She glanced slyly out of the corner of her eye and awaited my reaction. Thankful there was already blush on my cheeks I wasn't too concerned until she noticed that even the tips of my ears had gone pink.

"I knew it! You like him!"

"I don't! He is an arrogant pain in my ass who obviously despises me!" I told her hotly.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Bella."

"Can we just...not....talk about that...arrogant..." I couldn't finish my sentence.

"Fine. Fine." She held her hands up in front of her, laughing. "Truce."

EPOV

Bella dreams. She dreams like I dream. Does she dream of me? No, don't talk crazy Cullen, control yourself. What if she does? What if night after night she dreams of me like I dream of her? What if she imagines my mouth on hers? My fingers tracing the lines of her heart shaped face, followed closely by my lips?

Jesus. I'm going to have to work harder than ever to keep her away from me. Why did I have to ask Jasper about them? He only said she dreamed every night and I had to push it. I just had to needle him for all the information he had on it. She talks in her sleep, he said, Alice said she moans as well, gasping in pleasure. I groaned, shifting on my bed uncomfortably. I will not get an erection because the girl has sex dreams. I will not. But she isn't a girl, she is 17, pretty much a woman, with curves and soft skin and a light touch and a smell of bloody strawberries and moisturiser that I hadn't figured out just yet. Not that I was thinking about it.

Emmett had stolen Jasper to play video games in the entertainment room, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Never a good thing. I practically threw myself down the stairs in the hope of distraction, offering to help Esme with dinner on the way past. Previous experience had wised her up to the fact that accepting that offer led to fire engines so politely declined. Leaving me the option of going for a drive or playing video games. No reason I couldn't do both.

I could go for a drive and then be back in plenty of time for male bonding. By that time Jasper would have bored of Emmett's questions about Rosalie. I could take a quick spin out in the Volvo, and if I happened to drive past Bella's house a few times then what harm is there in that? And if I happened to maybe park down the street and walk through the trees to the back of her house then there would certainly be no harm in that either. No. I would not bow down to the pressure in my pants to get a look at her again, no matter how fleeting. I forced myself down into the entertainment room.

"Give me that controller. I need to kill something." I growled.

A/N: So, yeah, read and enjoy people.

Thank you so much for your lovely reviews and I will be updating as soon as I can, but I have a busy week ahead so please be patient.