The Gauntlet is Thrown
BPOV

I woke up on Saturday morning with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.

The day before had been… weird.

It had started out well, and then been amazing when Jasper took me to that little hole in the wall record store (which I would definitely be going back to, I'm pretty sure my monthly 'allowance' would be funnelled into that place as soon as I got it).

But then we'd come back to my room. And that fucking hum had started up between us, and I was having thoughts of kissing him, and that's all. I never wanted to just kiss someone. I mean, of course I would want to do more, but I found myself being okay with not going all the way.

I wanted more with him.

And that scared the shit out of me.

I'd never had feelings for anyone before; I didn't know what the fuck to do with them.

So I ignored them, I pushed them away until I could pretend they weren't there anymore.

It was sort of my thing, avoidance. I was a master at it, it had worked for me countless times before, and it would certainly work in this situation.

So, with my plan of just ignoring the problem until it went away firmly in place, I got up to get ready to go for my birthday breakfast with Emmett.

Seeing as we weren't together on our actual birthday, we were taking this day as a sort of do-over, sibling bonding time or some shit like that.

Whatever, it was his idea, and I was probably drunk at the time and had agreed. Why not?

I washed away the grime of the night before and got dressed, feeling the need to put on some confidence boosters - a pair of skin tight jeans with rips all down the front, a tight white tee with a v-neck with a paint splatter design on the front. Coupled with a pair of kick-ass boots and my skull ring, I was feeling good. I was feeling better than good, I felt like I could take on the motherfucking world.

And that was before I even had any alcohol in my system.

I took one last look in the mirror and then high-tailed it out of there when I saw the time. It was close to 11 and I was supposed to meet Emmett at ten past.

Emmett always wanted to meet at the weirdest times. He was awfully precise as well - ten past, twelve to, other weird times like that.

Fucking weird, but he was my brother.

I walked out into the living room and found Alice in the midst of chaos.

"Jesus Christ! Alice! I told you not to go overboard," I said, staring at the mess in the room. Alice had somehow gotten a hold of a proper poker table, and it was set up in the middle of our living room, our couches that were usually there pushed to the side of the room to make way for it.

Alice was seated on the floor surrounded by what I guess was decorations she had yet to put up, though I didn't know where the hell they were going seeing as it looked like the birthday elves had already thrown up on every available surface.

She looked up at me sheepishly, "I tried?"

"Try harder," I said as I grabbed my shit and made my way out the door. "When I come back I want a more understated look. Please," I gave her my most pleading look with the hope that it would have some effect. She looked dejected, but nodded.

"Fine," she grumbled.

"Thank you, Ali." I kissed her on the cheek. "Okay, I'm going to get food with Emmett. I'll see you later. Thank you, by the way, for all of this," I said, waving my hand around.

"Sure, sure, now get out!" She kicked at me, pushing me towards the door. "I don't want to see you back here again for a few hours. Go hang out with your brother," she said laughing as I closed the door behind me.

I walked into this greasy little diner twenty minutes later, only five minutes after I was supposed to meet him. When I got there he was seated at a booth already scoffing down a mountain food.

"Five minutes, Em," I said, sliding in to the seat opposite him. "You couldn't wait?"

He looked up at me, mouth full of food, "What? I was hungry."

I shook my head and hailed a waitress, "Yeah, I'll have a short stack, crispy bacon on the side and two eggs, sunny side up. Oh, and a cup of that bottomless coffee. Keep the refills coming."

"No problem," she said, smiling at me, her grin incredibly sunny.

"Thanks." As soon as she was gone, I turned to Emmett, "So, Prozac or Zoloft?"

Emmett laughed, "Probably a combination of the two. But you know Bella, people are allowed to me happy."

I groaned, "Not this early in the morning they're not."

"Bella, it's twenty past eleven. It's almost the afternoon."

"Semantics. I shouldn't be awake. We really couldn't have met for a late lunch? I value my sleep."

Emmett laughed his big booming laugh, "Yes, I know you do. But I am an early riser. And since it seems you are getting a birthday party while I am not, I get to dictate this little rendezvous here."

"Whatever, so," I said as my plate of food was set down in front of me. "What exactly are we doing here?"

Emmett shrugged. "I don't know. I figured, we go to the same school know, we should probably hang out sometime."

I laughed, through my bite of delicious fucking pancake. "Emmett," I said after I swallowed, "we hang out all the time."

"I know, I just meant alone. We're twins. We're meant to be closer than this."

"Emmett, we have a pretty fucking dysfunctional family. We were separated, basically at birth, and we haven't really seen each other for the past five years or so, I think we're doing pretty damn well in terms of closeness."

He laughed again, which made me smile. I had missed my big buffoon of a brother those five years, even if I hadn't known it at the time.

"Whatever, just tell me about your feelings or your life or something so I don't feel like a fail of a big brother."

"Younger brother. Four minutes. Don't forget it. And I'm not going to start spilling to you about my feelings, shit Em, this isn't the 'View' or 'Springer'." I laughed at him, but his face remained serious. "Jesus, you're serious," this was new, "Fine. You go first."

Emmett grinned at me. "Can I tell you about Rosie?"

I groaned. We were really going to do this. "Yes, you can tell me about Rosalie."

Emmett grinned, his dimples coming out in full force, and I was reminded of when we were younger. When he smiled like that he looked like a little boy.

"I think she may be the one."

Water came out of my nose.

"What?" I spluttered, cleaning myself up while he laughed his ass of at me. "Are you serious?"

"Well, yeah. She's just… perfect. Amazing, and my perfect match, really." I smiled at him.

"Yeah, she does seem like the one person who can keep you in line. I bet you haven't pulled a prank in months."

Emmett scowled, "I could have if I wanted to. Rose doesn't control me."

I smirked. "Really? I think that shit I pulled last weekend was probably the most action you've seen in a while."

"Oh yeah, did I say kudos for that by the way? That shit was legendary. I have taught you well, young padawan."

"Psh. You taught me nothing, this is pure god-given talent, baby." I smirked at him while he rolled his eyes at my slightly arrogant statement.

Well hey, I wasn't going to give him the credit for my awesomeness last weekend. That shit was legendary.

"Whatever, you still couldn't out-prank me. I'm the master."

"Is that a challenge?" I asked, my eyebrow raised. This was going to be fun.

Emmett eyed me before grinning. "Hell yes."

"Ground rules?"

"Only that we shouldn't do anything harmful or too damaging. Save the malicious stuff for the Bitch Triplets."

I pouted. "No fun."

He laughed at me, "And we start tomorrow, I wouldn't want Alice to hunt me down for ruining this birthday bonanza she has planned." At the mention of the birthday I dropped my head into my hands and groaned.

"God, you should have seen the dorm this morning. She's gone crazy overboard."

Emmett shrugged, "That's Alice for you."

I laughed lightly, "And God love her for it. But if it gets too out of hand, I may need to strangle her for it."

The next few hours were spent with Emmett regaling me with tales about the trouble he had gotten into the last few years. Some of the shit was pretty funny, and with the endless streams of coffee, it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

"Okay, time to head out. I think Alice wants to do gift giving before the pre-drinking which is before the party." I shook my head at the ridiculousness of that sentence, while Emmett just laughed.

"Alright, let's go." He threw down some money on the table and then stood up, tucking me under his arm. "Let's get our party on!"

I really wanted to tell the big lug to get off me, but truthfully it felt kind of nice, so I let him keep his arm there. "How did you get here?" I asked.

"Edward dropped me off, said he had to go into town anyway to run an errand."

I grinned. "Want a ride?" Emmett looked between me and the Ducati.

"Hell yeah!"

Half an hour later, the 'gang' was reconvened at our apartment, with Alice bouncing in her usual seat on the couch anxiously awaiting the present giving. Most of the gifts would be for me, but seeing as I hadn't gotten Emmett anything on the actual day, I had a few for him so that he wouldn't feel too left out.

"Bella come on! Open mine first," she said. I looked at the table and saw a pile of presents heaped on it.

"Alice. Tell me those aren't all from you."

She shook her head, "There's one each from Edward, Rose and Emmett, too."

"Alice! There's like seven presents there. You got me four gifts?"

She shrugged.

"Fine, but expect payback when it's your birthday." Alice squealed.

"Yay, okay, this one first," she said, handing me a bright pink bag with tissue paper lining it. I took it with trepidation, sizing her up to see if I could guess what was in it. She just smiled at me with too much innocence written on her face.

I looked into the package and immediately started laughing, "Jesus Christ Ali, I thought you were joking!"

"I never joke about that," she said in all seriousness, only holding it for a moment until she, too, started laughing.

"Um, excuse me. For those of us not in the know, care telling us what it is?" Emmett sounded pissed, and the rest of them quickly agreed with him.

"Yeah, you're probably better off not knowing about this particular present," I said, knowing for sure that Emmett would not like to know about what was in the bag.

"Oh come on," Emmett whined. "Tell us!"

I looked conspiratorially at Alice. "Should we tell them?"

The four other people in the room chorused 'Yes!" so I winked at Alice.

I tossed the bag to Emmett, "Take a look."

He grinned at me and opened up the bag, his eyes widening as he recognised the present for what it was.

He tossed the bag away from him, his face twisting into a grimace of epic proportions, handing it off to Rosalie who caught it and looked inside herself. She started laughing and handed the bag off to Edward and Jasper, both of whom still had no idea what was inside.

When Edward saw it he flushed the deepest red I'd ever seen on a boy, the tips of his ears even flaming bright pink. I stifled a laugh, as Jasper was handed the bag, the only reaction he visibly showed being a light cough as he noticed what it was.

"Isabella Marie Swan, this is no laughing matter!" I gaped at my brother, who had spoken.

"Woah. Okay, first of all, you're busting out the full name on me? Harsh, Em. Secondly, you're not my father, there's no need to reprimand me. And lastly, what the hell crawled up your butt? I didn't know you were such a prude, Em," the last part I made sure to say teasingly, so he wouldn't take it the wrong way.

Emmett huffed and crossed his arms. Petulant child.

Alice laughed, "You sure put him in his place."

"Yeah, well. You could have given me that particular gift in private, you know."

Alice grinned at me impishly. "Where's the fun in that?"

"True that. Alright, who's next?"

Rose smiled, and handed me a large rectangular box, wrapped in shiny paper.

"From Emmett and I," she said, smiling at me.

"Let me guess, you wrapped it." Rose laughed while Emmett pouted.

"You know him well."

I shrugged. He's my brother.

Instead of saying anything, I tore the wrapping off of the package and found a shoebox inside. I opened it up and gasped at the amazing boots inside.

"These are incredible!" I said, pulling the over-the-knee leather boots out of their box. "Thank you so much," I said, getting up to give Rose a hug.

"You're very welcome. You'll be wearing those next time we go out, yes?"

"Definitely. I dub these 'Kick Ass Boots'." Alice giggled and clapped her hands together.

Next, I gave Emmett his gifts, a couple of t-shirts I knew he would love. One with Alan (from The Hangover) and the words 'One Man Wolf-Pack' which caused him to start quoting Alan's entire speech (and he was surprisingly good at imitating Alan's slow speech, which I wouldn't let him forget for a while), one with 'What the Frak' written on it, referring to his deeply hidden secret love of Battlestar Galactica, and another with instructions for how to complete the 'Dick in a Box' gift from SNL. The last gift in the box was probably the one he was most excited about; the world's largest shot glass - with a capacity of 16 shot's worth of liquor.

"Yes, yes, yes, fuel his alcoholism, Bella. Good job. Now, another one of mine," Alice said as she grabbed the rest of her packages and brought them over. Emmett groaned in trepidation.

"Don't worry, Em. The rest are G-rated, I swear."

She handed me the rest of my gifts, and I nearly jumped on her several times in pure joy over the gifts she got me. Alice was simply genius: a hot red dress that would go perfectly with the boots I'd gotten from Rose and Emmett, an awesome Ed Hardy swimsuit that would look amazing on me if only we could get some freakin' sun in this place, and the last package contained a few pieces of various jewellery, including these awesome 'Hell' brass knuckles and this beautifully ugly Swarovski ring.

I planted a big one on her, kissing her right on the lips in appreciation. There was a low whistle from across the room and I pulled back rolling my eyes.

"Grow up, Edward."

Edward grinned at me stupidly, "What? A man can dream."

You are no man, I thought. With his face lit up he looked just like Em had earlier - a child in a candy store. Only, he was an adolescent boy, and it was like he was in a sex shop.

I chuckled to myself and smiled. "So, are we done?"

"Oh no," said Alice, "Emmett and Edward each have one more for you."

"Alright let's go. I want to get my drink on. I'm going to need to be slightly smashed for this party tonight."

"Why, Bella, I wouldn't think that you would needed any dutch courage to get half naked," Rose said, laughing.

"Please, it's not that part I'm worried about. It's the poker. I do better when I'm drunk, and I fully intend on wiping all of you out tonight," I smirked even as Emmett started to protest.

Alice stepped in before our sibling jabbing at each other could get too far. "Just open his gift!"

We all looked at her in awe.

"Woah," said Jasper.

"Okay, Alice." I took the outstretched gift and opened up the box, grinning like a fool when I saw what was inside.

"Emmet, you fucking bastard. I knew you had this shirt, where were you hiding it?"

Emmett grinned, "I just took it last time I saw you."

"What is it?" Rose asked, her interest clearly peaked.

"Our mother had exactly one piece of cool clothing left over from her teenage years - which I happened to find, and then stole," I looked at Emmett, "then thought I lost when in fact this asshole had it the whole time." I stuck my tongue out at him in a very juvenile way, then pulled the shirt out of it's box.

Rose just looked confused, "But who is it?"

"It's fucking Iggy Pop. I love him." I grinned at Jasper, who had spoken.

"Yeah, me too." We met eyes and I forgot all my reasons to not have feelings for him, as his smouldering eyes bore into mine. Fucking hell, he was so sexy today. His hair was mussed up to perfection, he had his 'I don't give a shit' look down to an art and I wanted to lick his exposed Adam's apple.

Motherfucker. How was he doing this to me?

I prayed I could hold it together tonight at the party - when he would be half naked. And I would be half naked.

That was what the alcohol was for, truthfully. Make sure I don't throw myself at him.

Though there may be a flaw in my plan, seeing as alcohol lowered people's inhibitions…

No matter. I'd been silent too long, and staring at Jasper way too obviously. I shook my head and turned back to Rosalie.

"Anyway, I thought I'd lost it. It's my favourite shirt," I glared at Emmett. "Why did you take it?"

He shrugged, not answering me. "Whatever, this is amazing." I grinned again at the shirt, even though it was full of holes and was pretty fucking dirty, I stood up, ripped off my shirt and threw on the other on, grinning and giving a twirl for the room.

"How do I look?" Blank faces stared back at me. Jasper was smirking at me, I think Edward might have been drooling.

Oh yeah. I still got it.

Edward held out a bag to me, his eyes avoiding mine. "Here," he coughed, "my birthday gift."

"Thanks, Edward," I said, my eyebrow raised at his vacant expression.

I took it and pulled out an item of clothing, soft, supple brown leather with studs all over it. Oh no, he didn't, I thought as I pulled the leather jacket out completely and held it up to take a proper look at it.

Oh. Yes. He. Did.

Rat bastard. I knew he hadn't liked the fact that the leather jacket I wore now came from James - I just fucking knew it. And now he was trying to replace it with one that came from him, as if he were trying to mark me?

Oh hell no.

Instead of flipping out though, I just smiled beatifically at him. "Thanks, Edward. This is great," and truthfully, the jacket was fucking stunning. It was Ed Hardy, and was fucking beautiful.

I still preferred mine.

He shrugged, clearly happy with himself. I almost groaned and rolled my eyes.

"All right! Crack open the booze!" Emmett said, getting up to grab some bottles.

"Doesn't Jasper have anything for her?"

We all looked to Edward. I casually went up to grab the bottle of tequila and poured myself a couple of shots. I downed one and then looked at Edward, "Oh, Jasper took my out yesterday to this awesome record shop, and bought me a buttload." I grinned at him.

I handed one of the shots to Jasper and toasted him, "No offense to all of you, but that was my best birthday gift this year." He winked at me and I think my knees went a little weak. I tossed back the shot and set it down hard on the counter.

"So, shall we get on with the drinking?" I asked. Alice grinned at me and hopped up, handing out shot glasses to everyone and then filling them with tequila.

"To Bella, Happy Belated Birthday. May the rest of her days be as fun-filled as these past weeks have been, and may she wake up tomorrow with an awful hangover that is proof of the awesome night she will have tonight." Everyone laughed at her absurd toast, and raised their shot glasses, including Emmett with his ridiculously large shot glass. "To Bella," they chorused.

I grinned, tossing back the shot. "Thank you, Alice, for that wonderful toast. Let's get drunk!"

We proceeded to drink ourselves into quite the state until a few hours later when it was time for us to split up and get ready for the party. The plan was I would get ready with the girls, go pick up my date (Jason had finally called on Monday morning and we had arranged this little get together, after I had come clean with him about my age. Surprisingly, he wasn't too upset about it.) and Alice's date, Emma, before coming back for the party.

I was getting a little excited about it. I'd dropped off Emma's outfit on Wednesday night, and informed Jason about what it was he was supposed to wear, he said he couldn't wait to see me in lingerie.

I had to admit, the man had a way with words.

I think I'd be able to enjoy it a little more if I didn't feel as though I was cheating on Jasper.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and brought myself back to my surroundings. Angela had just arrived and Rosalie and Alice had immediately pounced on her, shoving the poor girl into the bathroom and giving her the outfit I'd picked out for her. She'd made these eyes at me, begging me to intervene, but I told her it was just better to go with the flow. Alice and Rose had ways of torturing you if you tried to go against them.

I kind of loved them for it.

When Angela finally emerged, I tried to suppress my grin, but couldn't quite manage it. "Angela, you look hot. Ben is going to cream when he sees you." She blushed, and I was reminded of how I used to be, years ago.

"Thanks," she muttered. "But can you tell me, why, exactly, none of you are ready yet?"

Alice laughed and bounced over to her. "Don't be silly, we need to do your make up and stuff before we get dressed."

She looked at me, pleading with her eyes. "Sorry, Ang. But seriously, if Ben doesn't throw himself at you, there is something wrong with that boy."

"That reminds me, he wanted to thank you for inviting him to this shindig. I do too."

I smirked at her. "You do realise that the only reason I invited him to this thing was to finally get you two together."

Rose started laughing. Angela rolled her eyes, "Well thanks anyway. It should be fun."

"Yes, it fucking will be," I said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put on my little outfit here and go pick up our," I said, looking at Alice, "dates." I grinned at my new-found friends and got up to go to the bathroom.

Slipping on my chosen outfit I looked myself up and down in the full length mirror and approved of what I saw. I had on the fly-away babydoll with lacy boy-cut underwear and a set of garters. Along with the same tie-up shoes I'd worn for the Homecoming Dance and my hair in bouncing curls over my shoulder, I looked pretty fucking hot.

I made sure to make my eyes look dark and smoky, enlarging them until they looked borderline ridiculous in how large they were. I glossed my lips and gave myself one last primp before I was done.

I walked out into my room to whistles and catcalls.

"Whoever this Jason is, he's going to hate that you're making him stay at this thing for any length of time before taking him to bed." I laughed at Rose's assessment, then gave them a twirl.

"You think?"

Alice, Rose and Ang all looked at each other, before turning back to me. "We know," they all said in unison.

I laughed, and then grabbed my long coat, throwing it on and grabbing my purse and keys.

"You ever heard that song 'Short Skirt, Long Jacket'?" Rose asked me. I nodded, smiling. "You are about to make that boy's wildest fantasy come true." I grinned, winking at them.

"See you later, girlies. Don't have too much fun until I come back."

Laughter echoed throughout the room as I left, and I stepped out into the living room. Once again, I groaned as I saw the sheer over-the-top layout of the room, and then chose to ignore it as I went out to collect Alice and my dates. I grabbed Rose's keys, it wasn't like the three of us could fit on my bike, and headed out the door to meet Jason and Emma at the bar.

Jason and I had been texting back and forth all week and I actually liked the guy for something other than his sexual prowess (though I definitely liked him for that as well - we had met up one night the previous week for a little get-together and things had… progressed) which explained why I was meeting him for an actual date instead of just a booty call.

Though, I didn't usually sleep with the same guy twice, so this was already a big step. I would need to delete my number from his phone when I was done tonight, to keep him from calling me. I could always call him if I needed to scratch an itch.

I arrived at the bar early enough that I had enough time for a quick drink with Emma before Jason arrived and we were due to head to the party. When I got there I waved 'hello' to Joey, the old man behind the bar who had become my enabler when I didn't want to drink at school. "Hey Joey," I said, as I walked through the now familiar saloon doors. "Emma here?"

"She'll be out in a sec, she just came off a shift and is getting changed into that lovely little outfit you got her." I grinned.

"So," I said, peeling off the jacket and twirling in a slow circle, "what do you think?"

"Fuck, girl. If only you were a lesbian. I would be all over that shit," Emma said to me as she walked out of the back room. My smile intensified.

"I know. Now, give us a twirl, love," I said, putting on a fake cockney accent.

She laughed and showed off her outfit, it hugging her every curve. I gave a whistle of appreciation and laughed as she blushed. "Come on, I'll buy you a drink before we go."

"Gee. Thanks. But me a drink at the bar that I worked at all day. Where we will probably get the drinks on the house. Very generous of you." I laughed at her sarcastic tone as we took our seats at the bar.

"Your date meeting us here?" I laughed at her tone: Emma had already made it clear to me that she didn't approve of my 'love 'em and leave 'em' approach. She was the perennial idealist, believing in true love and soulmates and god knows what else.

She was like the opposite of me.

And yet we seemed to get along very well.

"Yes, he is. And hold the tone. So I'm not an optimist, so I'm not 'glass half full of puppies and rainbows'. It's okay to live like I do," I said, laughing so she knew I wasn't annoyed.

"Fair enough. Now, how bout that drink Joe?" He handed us our drinks and grinned his cheesy old man smile. "Emma mentioned something about a party?"

"Yes. You're welcome to come," I said. I winked, "I'm sure everyone would love to have an old geezer like yourself in his undergarments, busting a move on the dance floor."

He laughed raucously before being called from further down the bar. "I'll think about it," he said before going to tend to another patron.

Emma looked at me incredulously. "Really?"

"What? That would be hot." I laughed at the image of a half-naked Joey moonwalking in my living room as it flashed through my head, and then shook it to get rid of said image.

Nasty.

We were halfway finished with our drinks

"You two having a good time?" I turned at the sound of Jason's voice as he entered the bar and walked up to us. He leaned down and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Hey," he said.

"Hello there," I said, smiling.

He gave a quick courtesy glance to Emma and nodded, to which she smiled sardonically before raising her eyebrows at me. I ignored her.

"Sorry I'm a little late. You ready to go?" I downed my drink as Emma did the same and nodded.

"Definitely. Let's go."