"You need to tell her, Jasper." Alice said as she sat on her bed, watching Jasper pacing her bedroom, running his hand through his hair roughly.
"Tell her? About us? Do you really think that's a good idea? No way."
"She's not expecting you to stay single forever. You don't have to tell her about anything before you broke up."
"I'm sorry? Have we suddenly decided we're official?"
Alice blushed deeply and Jasper looked at her quizzically. "I just thought..."
"You just thought?"
"You don't like me like that?" Alice asked, clearly hurt.
Jasper moved and sat on the bed next to Alice. "I do, I just didn't think we were serious." He smiled loving at her before capturing her lips with his own. "We should tell her..."
Alice moved until she was straddling Jasper's lap and wrapped her arms around Jasper's neck, pulling her body close to his and grinding on him slightly.
"You've not had enough of me already?" Jasper asked in a hushed yet desperate tone.
"Not nearly!" Alice giggled and pushed him back onto the bed.
"So I hate to bring this up again," Edward asked as he and Bella lay in the meadow, looking up into the sky next to each other. "What are you going to do if Jazz and Alice are together?"
"What can I do, Edward?" Bella replied softly, picking up a piece of grass and fiddling with it nervously. "I finished with him, I don't have any say in how he lives his life."
"But with your best friend?"
"Do I need to mention that you're his brother?"
"At times like this I wish I wasn't. If I wasn't then we could just..."
"I know." Bella sighed heavily before turning onto her side and resting her head on her hands. "But he is your brother. And it's not right that anything happens between us, we can be friends but that's all."
"Tell me that's what you actually want." Edward said simply, turning onto his side as well.
"I still don't trust you."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"Edw-"
Bella's phone chirped from her bag and made her jump suddenly. She sat up and pulled her phone out, looking at a text from Jasper.
I do need to talk to you. It's important. J
"Who is it?" Edward asked, sitting up next to her.
"Um... Jasper. He says he needs to talk to me." She turned to look at Edward and noticed that his face had turned cold. "What?"
"Can you not just ignore him? You've broken up with him; it's not supposed to be amicable."
"It's not amicable. You saw us today, you know what it's like. But I have to hear him out."
"Bella..." Edward whispered, his eyes closing tightly in desperation. "I can't watch you go back to him."
"I'm not going back to him, I just need to talk to him."
The next day at school, Jasper and Bella were sat in Bella's truck at lunch, sat in an uncomfortable silence.
"What did you want to talk about Jasper?"
"What happened in Port Angeles. I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
"It's not fine though is it? You thought that I was pushing you in to it."
"Yeah, but you didn't. It's fine. I can move on, I think you should too."
Jasper looked down at his hands; nervously wringing them together.
"Alice seems happier recently..." Bella hinted, and Jasper's head snapped up too quickly in response for it to seem nonchalant.
"She's been helping me out with a few things," Jasper shrugged.
"She's been helping you out for a while now, huh?"
"What? No! Nothing happened before w-"
"Something's happened?" Bella gasped, shocked that the conversation was taking this turn.
"No. No. Nothing happened."
"You're not dating her?"
Jasper's mouth opened and closed a number of times before he gave up and frowned looking down at his hands again.
"You're dating her," Bella said more to herself than to Jasper. "Are you... have you... slept with her?" She stuttered nervously, not sure if she was wanting to hear the answer. Jasper remained silent and still, so Bella continued. "If we'd not ended things... This would have happened anyway, right? You've always liked her." Bella shook her head incredulously, "Why did you want to sleep with me if she was in your head the entire time?"
"She wasn't in my head. Things are just... I wasn't thinking. I wanted you so much, Bella. She's just... She gets me."
"I hope you're happy together," Bella whispered.
Bella turned her head and saw Edward walking with Tanya across the school grounds, he looked sullen, whereas she looked like the happiest girl in the world.
"What is it about Edward and you?" Jasper asked, "I don't get it."
"What do you mean?"
"You're not friends."
"No. We're not." Bella blinked away tears as she watched Edward and Tanya sit underneath a tree, Tanya wearing a carefree smile and leaning against Edward's chest happily. "He was different for a while. That's all."
While Bella sat and watched Edward and Tanya, she didn't realise that Jasper had left her alone in her truck and the windows had started to steam up.
"What do you want me to do, Edward?"
"I want you to forget about him."
"I've said I'm not going back to him, but I at least owe him the chance to talk to me."
"So talk to him."
"Why are you being like this? What we did was... It was awful. He deserves to be heard out."
"If it was so awful for you, why are you here with me?"
Bella rolled her eyes, picking at the grass next to her again.
"I want you to trust me, Bella."
"Well, I don't.
"I can understand that, but in the future... I want... You know what I want."
"I can't keep having this conversation with you, Edward."
"Then just tell me that it can happen!"
"I'm not going to do that!" Bella and Edward sat looking at each other, both with sad determination in their eyes. "I don't think we should do this anymore," She whispered.
"You're right. Let's get going, it's getting late." Edward agreed, standing up and holding his hand out to Bella.
"Not this, Edward. I mean you and me, being friends. It's obvious it's not going to work."
"So you're just going to stop talking to me or something?" Edward asked with an incredulous smile.
"If that's what it takes," Bella shrugged sadly. "I need to make this as easy as possible."
"That's where your problem lies. It's not easy, if it was, we would never be in this situation."
"I can't give you what you want, Edward."
"Dude! Back with Tanya? Can't say I blame you, that thing she does with her t-"
"Emmett. Don't remind me that you've fucked her, okay?"
"Ok, ok!" He held his hands up in surrendering gesture and a big smile was on his face, "You've just gotta stop her screaming out my name, right?"
"Ugh!" Edward groaned and pushed Emmett's shoulder harshly.
They were walking to their cars at the end of the day, Edward hadn't seen Bella all day but knew that today was the day of her talk with Jasper. He'd purposely avoided looking for her... As much as possible.
In the distance, he saw Tanya sitting on the hood of his car, smiling coquettishly. He smiled in response, although it made him feel sick to do so and walked a little quicker to get to her.
"Hey, baby!" She crooned and leant back on the car, displaying herself for him. She reached her legs out and hooked her feet around Edward, pulling him towards her. "How was your day?"
"Tan, you only saw me a few hours ago," Edward laughed humourlessly.
"Well... have you missed me in the last few hours?" Tanya giggled, sitting up and attaching herself to Edward tightly. When Edward didn't answer immediately she reached up, placing her mouth next to his ear and whispered seductively. "Why don't I show you how much I've missed you? Would you like that, Edward?"
"Tan," Edward said huskily.
"Take me to that meadow of yours."
"No, Tan. Not the meadow."
"Anywhere, Edward... I'll have you anywhere."
Edward coughed awkwardly and looked around the parking lot, quickly spotting Bella stood by her truck, talking to Angela. He kept his eyes on Bella while he leant forward and caught Tanya's lips harshly. He kissed her roughly, his hands holding her waist tightly as she writhed against him wantonly. He watched as Bella spotted them and then their eyes met and were suddenly glued to each other. Bella's face dropped, but that seemed to spur Edward on... Not the Edward that had been friends and a lot more with Bella... The old Edward. He pushed forward further into Tanya and almost had her lying across the car with his force.
"Edward, come on, please, let's just go somewhere..." Tanya said in hushed tones.
This snapped Edward out of whatever it was that he was going through and he stepped back quickly from Tanya who was left panting on top of his car.
"Mr Cullen... Felt like giving a free show this afternoon did you?" Edward turned and saw the Principle walking towards them both.
"Er, no, sir. Tanya was... er... Choking. Right, Tan?"
"That's right, Principle Banner. I would have died if it wasn't for Edward. He saved my life."
The Principle gave them both a dubious look but walked away and towards his car. Edward cast a glance in Bella's direction but she had already left the parking lot.
"Come on, Baby. Let's go and finish what we started..." Tanya said softly and pulled Edward's hand towards the car.
After Edward had dropped Tanya off at her house after an afternoon walk in the woods he walked into the house, quickly bumping into Esme who was walking out of the kitchen.
"Hey, Mom," Edward said softly with a smile.
"Edward, hello Dear. Have you had a nice afternoon?" She asked, wiping her hands on a dish cloth.
Edward thought back to his afternoon with Tanya, "Yeah, it was good."
"Do you know where Jasper is? With Bella I imagine?"
"He's not home yet?" Esme shook her head in response, "Well he's unlikely to be with Bella. She broke up with him."
"They broke up? What on earth happened?" Esme looked shocked and worried.
"It just didn't work out, Mom. Don't worry about it, Jasper will be just fine."
"Well where is he?"
"I don't know, I'll give him a ring, give me a second."
Edward walked upstairs while pulling his phone from his pocket and hitting Jasper's name.
"What do you want?" Jasper answered shortly.
"Mom wants to know where you are."
"Busy."
"Busy? What kind of answer is that?" Edward asked, getting annoyed with the way Jasper was talking to him, he heard a girl giggle in the background. "Are you with Alice?"
The line went silent for a second too long.
"And if I was?"
"Whatever, bro. Just get home." Edward shook his head and pressed end on his phone, throwing it onto his bed when he knew the call had been disconnected.
He followed the path his phone had taken and lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Did Bella know about Jasper and Alice? If she did then would that mean that she would change her mind about him? Was she jealous of Tanya? He had all of these questions running through his head and no clear answers. Bella had said that she didn't want to be friends anymore and that if it needed to be done then she would stop talking to him, so did that mean she wouldn't answer a text message?
Edward hit his head down on the soft bed in frustration. He'd never been in this situation with a girl before, he had absolutely no experience in it and no clue what to do.
He rolled off the bed and down the stairs, walking into the kitchen. "He's at Alice's, no worries." Edward knew that Esme wouldn't suspect anything was going on between Jasper and Alice because they'd been friends for such a long time and it was normal for them to hang out after school, however Edward was starting to suspect something about them both and would keep an eye out for any sign of proof.
Bella felt like her world was falling apart as she walked in through the door to her house. She shut in and immediately her knees buckled, forcing her to the floor in the hallway. All the emotions she'd been holding in all day hit her like a wrecking ball and left her a broken person, curled up on the floor and sobbing her heart out.
What Jasper had told her today was upsetting, but she knew that she wasn't interested in him anymore so when he'd revealed he was now dating Alice she thought she could get over it in time. However, seeing Edward with Tanya wrapped around him, under him on his car in the parking lot hurt her more than anything she'd ever experienced before. Just the day after he'd said he wanted her, he was all over another girl and staring right at her as he did it, almost goading her. It made her sick with jealousy but knew there was nothing she could do to take away the ache. There was no way that she could date Edward after everything that happened between her and Jasper. The fact that Rosalie, and now she imagined Emmett knew about Edward's sick little mission meant that it could some out at any time, especially with someone as volatile as Rosalie seemed to be.
She didn't know how long she stayed on the floor by the door but at some point, Charlie walked through the door. She knew that he was talking to her, panic obvious in his raised voice, but she couldn't understand what he was saying or see him clearly. She felt herself being lifted and the shift in her body as Charlie obviously climbed the stairs with her in his arms.
Sometime later she heard another voice in the room that she'd been put in, but once again, she couldn't focus on the face or understand what was being said. She turned her head to the side and squinted, trying to force the fog to clear so that she could see who was in the room with her. After some hard concentration her vision cleared enough to see Charlie staring at her, worry written clearly over his features, and Carlisle talking to Charlie, obviously trying to calm him down.
"Carlisle?" Bella whispered in confusion. "Why are you here?"
"Bells!" Charlie rushed to Bella's side, grabbing her hand and kissing it softly. "Jesus, you scared me so much. Are you ok? What happened?"
"Uh... Carlisle?" Bella's eyes flicked to the doctor who was still stood by the door.
"I think you might have had a panic attack caused by a short term trigger. Did something happen today, Bella?"
"I'd rather not... Go into it."
"There's no need if you don't want to, Bells." Charlie nodded, his grip on her hand still strong but shaking ever so slightly.
"That's true, however if it happens again th-"
"It won't happen again," Bella shook her head. "I just let things get on top of me."
"I've left a message with Jasper. Hopefully he'll get it and make his way over," Carlisle said reassuringly.
Bella's eyes widened and she sat up suddenly. "No! Jasper can't come here! I don't want him here, please don't let him in, Dad!"
"Ok, ok! What the hell has happened, Bells?"
"Nothing... We're just not... We broke up, ok? Just please, don't get Jasper involved." She looked up at Carlisle, "Did you tell him what happened?"
"No, just that you might need him. I can't tell him anything as your doctor."
"Can you please keep it that way? And Edward as well. I don't want either of them knowing."
Eventually both men left the room, and Bella was told to take the rest of the week off school, something that she wasn't going to complain about considering what she would have to face if she went in.
Bella looked to her side and saw her phone on the bedside table, Charlie must have put it there for her. She picked it up and saw that she had a message, from Edward.
I know you don't want to talk to me. I just want to make sure you're ok? I've heard Jazz and Alice are together. E x
Bella's heart clenched at the thought of Jasper and Alice being together and the fact that Edward could act like he cared after what he'd done in the parking lot earlier in the day.
I can't do this Edward. Please leave me alone.
She put her phone on charge and turned over, tears rolling down her cheeks as she fell asleep. A sleep plagued with dreams of a man she could never be with, and it was all her fault.