A/N: I own nothing!

BPOV

I knew that by now Edward and I were on good terms. I didn't know just how good, though. Because he had actually told me he wanted to go out with me and the La Push guys, and that was a pretty big deal. For me and Edward, anyway. Tentatively, I tried to picture myself in the middle of Tanya's friends with Edward and I had to force myself not to make a face. I wouldn't do it, not even if Edward asked. As soon as I saw Tanya's shining blonde hair all I would be able to see is Edward having sex with her, and I could just picture the accusing glares I would receive for getting him into a fight because of me. No, thank you very much.

During the evening it had crossed my mind that Edward only wanted to go with us to cause trouble. To get into a whole new fight, or to control me a little bit. But how could I say no to him, when he might have been only doing something for my own good, to make our friendship stronger? I couldn't. I wouldn't.

The coward side of me was brimming with happiness, too. Because my next encounter with Jacob would be weird, to say the least. It had been painfully awkward to have to tell him that while I did love him, I wasn't in love with him. And still all he said at the end of it was that I was wrong, and I'd come to understand my feelings for him were love. My inexperience didn't allow me to deny it. Because how would I know? My love life had always been as exciting as watching paint dry, and I had never experienced love, at least not romantic love. I had never experienced butterflies in my stomach or an unbearable desire to be with someone forever. But what if that never happened to me? What if I was too cynical to experience that love?

I had a vision of myself with 70 years, living with three cats which I'd call Romeo, Samson and Mr. Darcy. And those would be the true loves of my life.

By the time we arrived at the movies, I was feeling a lot more relaxed about Edward's presence. I mean, what really could go wrong? An occasional nasty remark from either side was, as far as I could tell, the worst case scenario. That was until I stepped out of Edward's Volvo and saw Jacob's face. He looked at Edward with so much hatred, I considered for a moment stepping in front of Edward. But Jacob's face wasn't serious – he was smirking. It was very easy to see the 'bring it on' message in his eyes when he looked at Edward.

We were still a few feet away when I heard Sam's voice from behind Jacob. "What the hell is he doing here?"

I looked at Leah for support, but she just clung to Sam's chest. No help there for Bella. "I invited him. I told Jacob." Technically, Edward had invited himself. But they didn't need to know that.

"She did," Jacob acknowledged, with a short nod, heading in my direction.

When I saw Jake meet me and Edward mid-way and hold out his hand for Edward to shake, I felt a gasp get caught in my throat. My head started imagining them starting to fight in the middle of a parking lot in front of a movie theatre, with tons of people walking past us, and I clearly saw myself having to bail out two of my friends from jail tonight.

To my surprise, Edward truly was on his best behavior. He took Jacob's hand and shook it, holding their hands in place, locked together aggressively.

Once they got closer Jacob's smirk intensified. "What happened? Did you invite yourself for another date?"

Edward was still next to me, on my left side, so I had to look at him to see what Jacob meant. And I wanted to slap myself for forgetting he had been in a fight recently, and his bruises, although they were healing, they were still very noticeable.

Jacob and Edward still had their hands locked and their eyes were fixed in each other, obviously just waiting for a provocation form the other part to attack. In an attempt to lighten the mood, I spoke for Edward. "Some lady friends probably got jealous. Right Edward?"

They finally broke their defiant stare when Edward narrowed his eyes at me. I didn't know what the hell I had done to deserve that, so I just shrugged innocently and grasped his arm tightly, hopefully conveying the message I desperately wanted to scream at him. Stop this!

We must have been more in synch than I thought, because he got what I was saying immediately. His questioning glare turned into a small forced smile when he looked at Jacob again and he nodded. "That's right."

Jake took a step back and their hands finally disconnected, settling his eyes on me. I smiled tentatively and whispered "Hi, Jake," hoping he would leave the introductions at that.

Without warning Jacob walked up to me and encircled me in his arms, holding me for a second longer than comfortable. While he held me I noticed Sam and Leah were still looking at Edward like he was the devil's spawn and I had to bite my tongue not to speak up in his defense. Edward wasn't that bad. I patted Jacob's back, gawkily willing him to let me go, but when I felt his grip on me ease, he kissed my cheek and whispered in my right ear "You owe me for this, Bella" in such a sweet way I knew he would never charge me.

Jacob patted Edward's back and brought him to Sam and Leah, using his boyish charms to introduce them pretending they were long time friends. As if Edward had never seen Sam and Leah before, or as if they all didn't hate each other already. I didn't care. No one would be fooled, but at least it would set the tone for the evening.

I had stayed back, silently thanking Jacob for making this so much easier on me, when Edward looked back at me with so many questions in his eyes I had no idea what to say to him. I shivered in reaction and saw Jacob smirking at me. "You're cold, Bella"

Before I could say it wasn't the cold, it was the tension, Jacob had placed his hands around my waist, holding me firmly to his body possessively. In my head the different ways this could play out were becoming worse by the second.

I squirmed a little, trying to give Jacob the hint that I didn't want him to have his arm around my waist, but he just gave me a little graze in return. Edward's eyes were now fixed on me, and I prayed to God I wasn't blushing for once in my life. Once I thought about it I felt my cheeks heating up even more and I looked at Leah, pleading for some help.

She looked around, probably wondering what you could possibly say in a situation like this. "So, what are we going to watch?"

I nearly sighed. I had to get her a good Christmas present this year. Like a really good one. She handled me the pamphlet with the time schedule for the movies, and I stole a glance at my clock before even seeing which movies were playing. Because the movie I wanted to see was the one which started first.

***

It would be just my luck to watch a romantic comedy in a day like this. The seats had been a problem, but because I didn't want to risk any problems during the movie, Sam and Leah had been at the far right, followed by Edward, then me, then Jacob.

The tension around us was palpable. We were halfway through the movie and I had no clue what it was about. I was focusing on the sounds of Sam and Leah's tongues, which seemed to be in the middle of a fierce battle for nearly an hour, and I had evaded from two attempts from Jacob to hold my hand. It wasn't going to happen. And I knew what he was doing, too. He wanted to provoke Edward into starting a fight. It was the male ego thing again. I sighed deeply and heard my stomach grunt.

I covered my tummy quickly, dying from embarrassment, when I heard Edward's laugh and I threw him an annoyed glance. It wasn't the time for him to make fun of me. He mouthed an 'I'm sorry', and I rolled my eyes, pretending to focus on the movie. There seemed to be a woman. And a man. They were in love but someone else didn't approve. I rolled my eyes, apologizing to my brain for the brain cells I was about to kill just for watching this.

I felt Edward shifting in his seat, leaning slightly into me. "Do you want me to get you some popcorn?"

Looking around, he had to go through either Jacob or Sam to get up now. I shook my head slowly, trying to be as silent as possible. "Dinner. Later."

I saw him nod from the corner of my eye and got comfortable again, until I felt Jacob, on my left side, leaning into me too.

"What got into you, Bells?"

I wondered if Edward was hearing the conversation. I tried to say "Stop provoking him", but I could find the right volume to make sure Edward wouldn't listen to my words, so I gestured discretely for him to wait. I absentmindedly thought my life at the moment would be a better comedy than the piece of crappy cinema we were watching.

When I saw the credits rolling, I let out such a long breath I was sure everyone in the movies knew how relieved I was that it was over. I got up immediately, receiving a few grunts from people behind me who apparently liked to see a black screen with white words, I ducked and half-walked half-ran outside to the cold night air.

I felt someone behind me and before I could turn around I felt the warmth of a jacket on my back. I didn't need to turn around to see who it was. I would recognize Edward's smell anywhere.

"Here," he whispered as he helped me tuck my hands clumsily into the sleeves of his jacket.

I tried to object and pretend I wasn't cold, but my chattering teeth would probably give me away. "Aren't you cold?"

He shook his head with a smile and was starting to button me up when I saw Jacob Leah and Sam walking up to us. They were smiling, probably talking about the movie, but I impulsively took a step back from Edward when I saw Jacob's face when he noticed us.

"You got out of there fast," Jacob said, placing himself so he was standing between me and Edward. I narrowed my eyes at him. It was time to cut it off, they weren't two kids in kindergarten.

"It got a bit claustrophobic in there," I answered honestly. I probably could have said it was getting claustrophobic outside as well, but I figured they already knew that too.

"Do you want to grab something to eat before we go home?" Leah asked, quite clearly no longer bothered by Edward's presence. A good make out session tended to have that effect on people.

Not wanting to go through another hour of sideway glances and whisperings in my ear, I shook my head quickly at her question. "I'm not hungry. We…uh," I hesitated, looking at Edward, "we had a big lunch."

I saw Edward's grin and I felt myself blushing. I sucked at lying. Really, really sucked at lying. Especially when I was aware someone else knew I was lying. And Edward had heard my stomach signal hunger nearly an hour ago. Maybe the others had, too.

To my surprise, I saw Edward nodding. "Yeah, I'm still pretty full from lunch, too."

I gave Edward such a wide smile I wondered if my face was about to be split in two. When Leah agreed with me and Edward, the dinner was off the table. Sam and Leah said something about going to search for a gift for someone, and my worst nightmares became reality. They were about to leave me alone with Edward and Jacob. Trying to see things with optimism, I tried to remember relaxation techniques that might make them get along better, or at least make me not have a heart attack.

My thoughts were interrupted when I felt someone grab my hand and Jacob pulled me a bit aside. "Can I talk to you for a while?"

I think I might have gulped. There were a number of subjects I wasn't prepared to go into with Jacob, not right now. And definitely not with Edward around. I hesitantly looked at Edward, whose face I couldn't read if my life had depended on it.

Before I answered, Edward interrupted me. "It's okay. I have something to do, as well. I'll see you in 15 minutes by the car?"

I bit my lip and nodded slowly, watching Edward walk away at a quick pace and standing alone with a very smug Jacob. I guessed in the male ego battles, getting alone time was a big deal.

"Now that we're alone…" Jacob started, with a hand carefully placed in my hips guiding me to a set of pillars we both used as a bench. I wrapped Edward's jacket around myself tightly and waited for him to continued. "Are you going to tell me what got into you?"

Wondering if I should go for the truth or play dumb and avoid a fight, I looked around cautiously before answering. "I don't see what the big deal is, Jacob. He's a friend-"

"A friend," he said, not letting me finish. It wasn't even a question. More like a you're kidding me. I nodded hurriedly in response, although I could see the disbelief in his eyes. "Two weeks ago you said you were hoping you got an infectious disease so you didn't have to be alone with him for a week, and now you're friends. Friends."

"We've changed. He's changed. He's nice, Jacob."

"I'm sorry, Bella. I'm having a hard time believing that. And guys like him don't change."

"That sounds very condescending, Jake," I said, meeting his gaze.

Patiently, sweetly, Jacob grabbed my hands in his, trying to warm me up. I felt like telling him the jacket was warm enough, but I figured that would interfere with the male ego thing. "What happened to your ankle?"

I hesitated. What did that have to do with anything? I didn't want to tell him I got it in a fight with Edward, and I didn't want to lie. So I stood quiet. "It just…bended when I was cleaning."

He stared at me intently, thinking about our words. "Are you in love with him?"

My body hardened in its place, shocked at his words. Unsure of whether to be offended or to laugh, I gasped audibly. "Because the only reason to defend someone is because you're in love with them?"

"No." He paused, standing up. "He's back."

Turning around I followed Jacob's eyes to find a very cold Edward by his Volvo. I got up and started walking, with Jacob by my side, in Edward's direction. I wondered how long he'd been back because I didn't see anything he could have gotten in his hands. I tried to smile at Edward to gauge his reaction, but his face was unreadable again.

As I approached him, his eyes hopped between me and Jacob, and I decided to speak first. "Ready to go?"

When he only nodded in reaction, I heard my stomach grunt again. Damn it, I was hungry. I thought I saw Edward smirk when he opened the door for me and gestured for me to get inside, but I ignored it. I was clearly going crazy. I gave Jacob a one-sided hug and waved at Leah and Sam, who had just arrived with two bags in Leah's arms and were standing by Sam's car.

Edward waited until I got in the car to close the door for me, and I waited until he got in the driver's seat to evaluate how mad he was or why he was mad. When he started the car and pulled off without saying a word, I looked out the window and made a mental note never to take Edward out with Jacob again.