With my hands stuffed deeply into my pockets and my bag thumping carelessly against my thigh with every step, I never glanced over my shoulder to verify that Bella was there. It was as if I could sense her presence, as if I could hear the erratic beat of her heart deep within her chest. A smile was etched upon my face as I walked out of the school through the front double doors. Veering off towards the right, I immediately stopped in between the gap of the two closest buildings. I spun on my heel and leaned back slowly against the wall, meeting Bella's bewildered eyes. She halted a few steps away from me and just stared, as if waiting for an explanation. I rolled my eyes and instantly reached out, grabbing her hand in mine and tugging her body closer to me. She stumbled slightly but I wrapped my arms securely around her waist, preventing her fall. "Edward, what are we doing here? Why are…" She trailed off mindlessly.

Bella's breath tickled my lips, "well, we've already covered the fact that I can't sit with you at lunch, but we're not sitting now are we?"

"But won't your friends be upset with you?" She asked, furrowing her brow.

"They're not my friends, Bella," I corrected, "and why would they be upset if I'm not in the cafeteria?"

Bella raised an eyebrow and had a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Diabolical now aren't we?"

"Nope," I said, shaking my head teasingly, "just real witty."

Before Bella could respond, I closed the distance between us and pressed my lips against hers softly. She breathed heavily and reached up to weave her hands through my hair and soon after rested them at the nape of my neck. My hands gave her waist a gentle squeeze and a low groan escaped her throat. I chuckled and released her lips from mine to look at her. She was beet red and kept her eyes glued to the wall behind my head. I waited until she met my gaze, but seemed too embarrassed to do so. I reached up with one hand and tugged on her chin softly to meet my eyes. "Bella…" That did the trick.

Her eyes flickered to mine and they where clearly mortified. "Sorry about that."

"What the hell are you sorry for?" I asked, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

"For…for uh making that n-noise..." she mumbled.

I laughed out loud at her innocence, "You're apologizing for moaning?"

Her eyes widened and to save her from further embarrassment, I bit my lip and let out my own soft groan. Bella's cheeks where pooling with blood beneath her translucent skin. Her eyes instantly met mine once again but this time they where filled with lust.

Now that's what I'm talking about.

I grinned and left a trail of kisses down her neck. "Tell me, what's so bad about that?"

"Well nothing now," she scoffed though the corners of her lips where twitching.

A familiar voice spoke from afar, cutting off my subsequent words to Bella. "Eddie? Bells? Come out, come out wherever you are!" Jason said in a singsong voice.

I shook my head in incredulity and motioned for Bella to step away so that we could reveal ourselves. We stepped out from behind the building and saw Jason there, peering over a bush. "Uh Jay, we're over here."

His head snapped towards us and a smirk was playing across his face. "Oh, there you are. Um Belly, may I speak to your for a second?"

I glanced at Bella with questioning eyes, but she seemed as lost as me. We both stepped forward to confront Jason but his next word made me stop. "Alone."

I reluctantly released Bella's waist as she walked up to Jason cautiously. He grabbed her wrist and practically dragged her across the parking lot out of my hearing range. When his lips began to move quickly, I could se the surprise on her face becoming more and more evident by the second. I heard her shriek a "what!" until Jason's hand flew over her mouth to make her speak lower.

I ran a hand through my hair in annoyance, but calmed down knowing that Bella would tell me what their conversation was about later. I shuffled my feet as I saw them both quickly whipping out their cell phones and punching in digits.

Sighing, I began to pace the concrete mindlessly.

It was nearly ten minutes later when they both stalked up to me with identical smirks plastered onto their faces. "What was that about?" I whispered to Bella as Jason passed us and entered the school.

"Nothing really," Bella replied, waving off my question with her hands.

I cupped her face in my palms and breathed against her parted lips, "it had to be something if he couldn't say it in my presence. Won't you tell me?"

By now, her breathing had hitched and I could feel the strong beat of her heart pressed against my chest. "Trust me, Edward, it was nothing. Just…forget about it."

I gritted my teeth in irritation but let the subject drop nonetheless and backed away from Bella, settling on intertwining my fingers with hers. "Fine then. Come on, the bell's probably going to ring soon, let's start heading towards the locker rooms."

Bella groaned and her head fell down to her chest, "fucking gym."

"Don't curse, Bella." I stated seriously, I'm already a bad enough influence on her. I don't need my foul language to stick with her as well.

She raised her eyebrows and stared at me almost accusingly. "Why not?"

I shrugged, "those aren't the types of words a girl like you should be saying. You're too good for any of that."

She placed her hands on her hips and clicked her tongue, eyeing me like a piece of meat. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

The sudden urge to sweep her up in my arms and smash my lips against hers was outrageous. The way she slowly let the word roll off of her tongue was the sexiest thing I have ever heard. It was, needless to say, a turn on. I rammed my eyes shut and raked my hands roughly through my hair. "Bella, stop." I nearly growled.

I heard her wind chime laugh escalating before she responded. "Chill, I don't understand what's so wrong with it. But if it makes you happy, I'll willingly stop using those foul words."

"That's all I ask," I said, opening my eyes and swiftly draping my arm over her shoulders. She leaned into my side and wrapped an arm around my back, curling her fingers around my toned waist. If I remember correctly, this is the first time in years that I've walked into school with a smile on my face.

***

Fortunately, gym passed by quickly. Someone threw the basketball at the back of my head when I wasn't paying attention and it knocked my lights out for a few really long seconds. I now I have a splitting headache. I rubbed my temples as I leaned against the Integra's passenger side door. Wondering where my best friend was, my eyes scanned the parking lot. They stopped when Bella's figure strolled out of the school. She looked concentrated when she flipped her phone open, gazed down at it for a while, and twirled it shut as she headed towards her car. My eyes followed her as they willed her to glance at me. I chuckled to myself as I thought if I stared long enough she might feel it. Suddenly, her brow furrowed and her head snapped up towards me as she unlocked her car door. Holy shit, did it work? I stared at Bella with wide eyes and a slacked jaw. She shot me a weird but amusing glance before climbing into her car and driving away. I shook my head and literally slapped myself. I probably looked like an idiot standing there staring after her car.

The sudden click of the Integra's doors unlocking behind me broke me out of my mental impasse. I opened the door at the same time as Jason and we both clambered in. "You alright, Eddie?" He asked, shoving the key into the ignition and at the same time turning the locks.

We where already racing out of the lot, swerving in between and passed other vehicles. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little headache from when that ball hit me."

"I can imagine," Jason mumbled, as he momentarily drove with his knees to plug his I-pod into the plug-in. "You should take some pain killers and take a nap when we get home…might rid the ache."

I nodded and pursed my lips as Automatic by Tokio Hotel blasted through the speakers around the car. I motioned for Jason to lower the volume on the music slightly but he just put it on pause and looked away from the windshield to glance at me. "What?"

"Do you mind lowering the volume a little bit? Headache, remember?"

He unplugged his I-pod and rested it on his lap, "sorry, Ed."

"It's all right," I shrugged, "by the way, what are you and Bella not telling me? She won't budge."

"What are you talking about? We're not not telling you anything."

Knowing that he wouldn't budge as well, I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest like an overdramatic toddler. We remained in a comfortable silence the entire ride to Jason's.

Upon entering his house, I had walked into his kitchen and downed two Aspirin with half a cup of water. When I had emptied the glass fully, I set it down by the sink and headed towards the guest room. By now, my headache was a full blown migraine and the slightest of noises would be like metal slamming together in my ear drum. As soon as I reached the room, I shut the door quietly behind me and flung my jacket and bag off of my body. I slid myself over the covers robotically and buried my aching head in the crook of my arm over the pillow.

***

I could hear my name being called out in the distance, Edward…Ed…"Edward!" I shot up out of bed like a spring, my arms rising defensively in front of my body. "Relax relax, it's just me. Get your ass out of bed, it's almost seven and we're going out."

I rubbed my eyes before situating them on Jason standing in front of my face, "What? Seven at night?"

"No, in the morning." He replied with a hint of sarcasm on his tongue. "Yes its seven at night! Now get your ass up, go wash your face and let's go!"

"Where the hell are we going in such a rush?" I asked groggily, throwing my legs over the side of the bed.

Jason strolled out of the room and replied over his shoulder, "out."

I groaned and rolled my eyes, at least my headache was gone. The day I can actually get some sleep though, he makes me wake up. I swear, if I end up with insomnia, I'm blaming him. I made my way to the bathroom and quickly washed my face and teeth. As soon as I was finished and had grabbed my jacket, Jason and Kathy where practically dragging me out of the house. "She's coming with us?" I asked as we all climbed into car.

"Yeah, why you don't want me to go?" Kathy asked sadly, leaning forward to place her head beside the passenger side headrest.

I twisted my neck to look at her, "of course that's not it, Kathy. I was just wondering because the places Jay and I go to aren't usually…places for fourteen year olds to go to. And you usually go out with your friends or stay home with your parents."

"Well, mom and dad went out to dinner and I didn't want to stay home alone in this…vicinity."

"I see."

"Kathers, lean back and put on your seat belt." Jason demanded as he flung his arm up near me. He paused for a second and dropped his arm, which I realized he was just putting behind the back of my seat so he could see out of the rear window to back out of the driveway. "Katherine."

"What, Jason? You nag me so damn much; gosh you're worse than mom." Katherine complained from the backseat.

Jason scoffed, "I don't care, put on your seatbelt."

"But you're not even wearing yours!"

"Don't worry about me, worry about yourself and put on your damn seatbelt."

I could hear Katherine in the back seat tugging on the strap of the belt. Once the click was made, Jason stomped on the accelerator and we lurched forward down the street. We drove in a tense silence until I couldn't stand it any longer. "Okay, really where are we going?"

Jason shrugged, "You'll see in about three seconds."

Before I could reply, we entered Bella's neighborhood. "We're going to Bella's?"

Jason just grinned mischievously and came to a screechy halt in front of the beautiful white mansion. We climbed out of the car and I shut the passenger side door after Kathy got out. I leaned down to her height and whispered in her ear, "Do you know what we're doing here?"

She just flashed me an identical grin to Jason's and followed her brother. When we reached the porch, Jason pounded on the door vigorously with his knuckles. The door swung open and I had to squint my eyes to see that it was Carlisle standing there in the dark front room. He stepped aside and allowed us to walk in.

The lights instantly flickered on all around us and what came next made me leap out of my skin. "Surprise! Happy birthday, Edward!"

I stood there in utter shock; I could feel all the blood draining from my face as I gawked at the sight before me. The long couch and the love seat where pushed back against the farthest wall and standing there, beneath a banner and decorations, where people that looked rather strange standing side by side. Bella's family, Jason's parents and even the Hale's where there, who I didn't really know. My jaw shut with an audible snap as my head spun to gape at Jason. "It's not my birthday!" I hissed quietly.

I could hear Emmett's booming laugh in the background as Jason responded. "You didn't really think I was going to forget your birthday now, right?"

"But its not!" I fished my phone out of my pocket with trembling fingers and looked at the date on the bright screen. June 20th. Shit, I forgot my own birthday.

I glanced up slowly from my phone and let out a nervous chuckle. They all laughed in unison and walked up to me, "Congratulations, sweetie," Mrs. Cooper said softly, stuffing an envelope into my jacket pocket.

"Happy birthday, big brother!" Katherine screeched, handing me a small gift bag and flinging her arms around my waist tightly. As soon as she released me I was bombarded with one armed hugs and shoulder pats from everyone. I thanked them all and Jason turned towards me.

"Happy birthday, bro," He said sincerely, squeezing my shoulder firmly and thumping his forehead against mine. I nodded at him and grinned.

I sighed and noticed Bella standing at my right from my peripheral vision. I turned towards her and leaned forward to place my lips against her forehead. But her hand shot up between us causing me to stop in the middle of my movement. There, dangling from her index finger, where a pair of keys. I eyed them warily and shot her a curious glance. "Keys?"

She shrugged nonchalantly but I could practically feel the excitement radiating off of her. "Go outside."

"Um, okay," I did as I was told and followed her out of the house. Once we stepped outside she turned on the lights and stalked up to the covered vehicle closest to us. She tugged off the cover and dropped the keys in my hand. Parked there in all its glory was a silver Volvo C30.

"Happy birthday, Edward," she whispered huskily into my ear before placing a soft peck on my cheek.

My eyebrows pulled together in concentration as I stuttered out a reply. "I-I can't accept this."

"Yes you can, and you will." She said matter-of-factly.

I turned to her and shot her an exasperated look. "You bought me a car, Bella. I'm not accepting this."

She raised her eyebrows at me and tapped my nose with her finger, "actually, we spent no money on it whatsoever. Uncle Carlisle was dying for a new Mercedes so he bought one yesterday afternoon. He didn't know what to do with the Volvo until Jason told me this morning that you've wanted one for god knows how long. So, I had a little idea. I called my uncle and asked him if we could give it to you as a gift, and he was completely fine with it. More than fine actually, he said that he couldn't think of a better person to give it to."

I let out a gust of air that I didn't realize I had been holding. "Well, it does have really nice rims."

Bella shrieked in delight and threw her arms around my neck. I wrapped my arms around her waist and spun her around in a circle. "Thank you, Bella. For this, for everything." I whispered into her hair lovingly.

"So I guess he took that rather well?" I heard Carlisle's voice behind us near the front door.

I placed Bella back on her feet before turning around to face Carlisle. "He was a little skeptical at first, but I convinced him." she beamed.

I grinned widely and walked up to Carlisle, sticking my arm out to shake his hand. Instead, he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around my shoulders in a fatherly gesture. I tensed immediately, but gulped and tried to relax. We leaned away from each other and I stared at him straight in the eye. "This means so much, Carlisle. Thank you."

He nodded, "there's no need to thank me, happy birthday."

The three of us walked into the house and mingled with the guests. Jason and Alice sought out a good CD to blare out of the speakers so that whoever wanted to dance could. Considering the fact that most of the guests where adults, it was just the people under the age of thirty swaying to the music in the center of the living room. I poured myself a cup of water and sat at the end of the long couch with Bella. "Enjoying yourself?"

"Very much, thank you," I replied, kissing her temple softly.

"No problem, but most of the credit goes to Jason, he was the mastermind behind all of this."

I laughed, "Figures."

A comfortable silence wafted around Bella and me until she snuggled into my side and her sweet voice encompassed the space between us. "There's one thing I have to ask though, I told Jason to invite your father. Why didn't he show up?"

My jaw clenched at the mention of him. Bella wanted Stephen here? Or maybe she wanted my real father here? She probably thinks Stephen's my actual father since I never told her that my real one left when I was only a child.

I let out a shaky breath, "Bella, there's something that I need to tell you."

O: CLIFFY! What's Edward going to tell Bella about his father?

The truth about his real father leaving him?

Is he going to lie and tell her that Stephen's his biological one?

Or is he going to spill the beans about the abuse?

Leave me your responses and tell me if you think any of those will happen...even if you think none of them will. So, stay tuned until next time with, Barely Beating! Ahaha I thought of the Powerpuff girls XD Kay, sorry, a little hyper over here.

Anyways, he got his Volvo, Carlisle's so nice. And Jason's so fucking adorable. I love him ^.^ I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for reading so far.

REVIEW if you want more! Let's pass nine…again? :D

Thank you

Lori