A/N: First I'd like to thank Emerald-Forever for the good advice and thisisntmyapartment for correcting a mistake in the first chapter that I've since taken care of. Thanks guys. I'd also like to thank everyone who read and commented on the last chapter. I love you guys.

Anyway, this chapter is short, but I promise to make it up with the next chapter which is almost finished!

Bella looked at the clock and began to pace. Mike, her date, was late. She sighed and thought about calling him to see if everything was all right. But she didn't want to seem desperate. She definitely wasn't desperate. Well, not really.

But ever since she'd gotten the call from Alice about a month ago asking for permission to date Jasper, Bella had been anxious to start moving on.

"Hi Bella!" Alice cheerful voice chirped through the phone.

"Alice! How is everything?"

The two of them talked for about 20 minutes about school and Bella's new apartment. And then suddenly Alice hit her with it.

"Is it too soon for me to ask if I can date Jasper?"
"What!" Bella choked. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Jasper," Alice said quietly. "I wanted your permission, but if it's too soon, I understand."

"No, Alice."

"Okay."

Bella heard the disappointment in her voice and realized that Alice had misunderstood. Well, she hadn't exactly been clear.

"I'm sorry," Bella said. "I meant, no it's not too soon. I just… I thought you guys were already dating."

"Silly Bella," Alice said, her voice cheery once again. "We both care about you too much to do that to you. And whether you choose to believe it or not, Jasper needed time to get over you too."

Bella didn't believe that, but it was nice to hear anyway. And two months was a good amount of time. She smiled. "Of course you have my permission, Alice. You and Jasper are made for each other."

"Oh, thank you, Bella!" Alice squealed. "And I think you should start dating again. I can feel someone special is waiting for you to find them."

"Thanks Alice."

And that was what had led Bella to this point. In the past month she had been on dates with Peter, who had consistently called her Belly Bells even after she asked him not to; Paul, who had accused to waiter of hitting on her and then proceeded to hit him; Seth who was sweet, but was much too young; Eric who was greasy and talked too much about comic books and Tyler who told her he knew of a nice little Mexican restaurant that turned out to be Taco Bell and then he texted incessantly through the entire date.

Bella was beginning to think that maybe she wasn't cut out for dating.

"Bella, stop pacing," Emmett told her.

"I'm sorry. This is ridiculous! He's almost a half hour late. Why do I attract such losers?"

"Calm down, Bells. Maybe his car broke down or something. And yes you are a loser magnet but it's only because you're too nice to tell them to get lost."

"Thank you very much, Emmett. You've made me feel sooo much better," she said sarcastically as she leaned on the arm of the sofa.

"I'm heavily broken and I don't know what to do. Can't you see that I'm choking and I can't even move? When there's nothing left to say what can you do?"

Bella dug her cell phone from her purse.

"You really need to change that ring tone," Emmett told her. "It's so depressing."

Bella threw him a dirty look before looking at the caller ID and grumbling "Finally," before answering.

"Hello."

"Bella? It's Mike."

"Hi, Mike," she said trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.

"I'm sorry I'm late. Listen, there's been a change of plans?"

"A change of plans" she repeated not even bothering to hide her incredulous tone. Why had she even agreed to go out with him?

"Yeah. Would you mind coming to my place?"

Bella sighed. She had to at least give him a chance. She wasn't going to move on from Jasper if she didn't. Maybe he did have a good reason for the change. Maybe he was having car trouble like Emmett suggested.

"Sure, Mike. Just give me the directions."

Mike gave her the directions and Bella realized he lived more than an hour away from campus. That didn't really help with her attitude. But then she felt bad because it wasn't really his fault he lived so far away. Well, it was, but she couldn't fault him for it. She hung up with Mike, said goodbye to Emmett and headed out to her truck.

**********

"Jasper, I have to talk to you about something," Alice said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and lightly pecked his lips.

"Yes, dear?" Jasper asked as he nuzzled Alice's neck.

"It's about Bella."

Jasper pulled back and looked at her.

"She is my friend, Jasper and you promised to stay friends with her too, so don't look at me that way."

"It's just random, Ally. That's all. I wasn't expecting you to talk to me about Bella."

"Yes, well, that's what I want to talk to you about."

"Okay. I guess, let's talk about Bella."

"And Edward," Alice said.

"Bella and Edward? No. I don't like the direction this conversation is going."

"You don't know where it's going."

"You want to play matchmaker with my ex-girlfriend and my little brother?" Jasper guessed.

"Okay, so maybe you do know where it's going," Alice conceded. "But you can't tell me you didn't notice the chemistry between them."

"So what if I did? That would just be weird."

"Jazzy, they deserve to be happy too. Don't you want that for them?" She raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to tell her he didn't want them to be happy.

"Of course I do. You know that," Jasper said exasperated. In the short time he'd been with Alice, they hadn't argued much, but he never won. And he knew he probably wouldn't win this one either. But he figured it was worth a shot to continue. "I just don't know if it's a good idea for the two of them to be together. I know my brother. He's never had a serious relationship. He's basically a whore."

"That's harsh, Jazz. But you saw the way he looked at her."

"I also saw the way he had absolutely no problem with fucking Tanya with the whole family home and then practically rubbing it in everyone's faces!" Jasper was close to shouting. He didn't want to fight with Alice about this. But he was still protective over Bella whether he wanted to admit that or not. And he didn't trust his brother not to completely destroy her.

Alice reached up and began rubbing Jasper's shoulders. "It's alright Jasper," she said. "I understand you want to protect Bella, but I really think you should trust me."

"Even if I was okay with it, Bella wouldn't go out with Edward because we told her to."

"That's why she won't know we had anything to do with it."

"And how does that work?" Jasper knew he'd lost the battle. There was no point in fighting. Now he just wondered how Alice's plan would work.

"Well, I thought that maybe you could ask Edward to call her to check on her. Tell him you're not ready to talk to her or whatever and then let them take it from there."

"What if he doesn't want to call her?"

"He will. I guarantee it."

*********

"So, let me get this straight," Edward said into the phone, "You're worried about Bella and you want me to call and check on her?"

"Yeah," Jasper confirmed. "I don't think she's ready to talk to me or Alice. We're going to give her a little time. But we want to make sure she's okay."

"Why me? Why not have Mom or Dad call her?"

"You know they'd end up making me do it. Please just giver her a call," Jasper begged.

Edward ran his hand through his hair and then pinched the bridge of his nose. It was weird that Jasper wanted him to call Bella. Was this a test or something? He enjoyed the idea of calling, hearing her voice again, but he didn't want to make Jasper angry with him.

"I'm not going to call her," Edward said hoping his voice sounded convincing.

"Why not?" Jasper's voice sounded relieved and frustrated at the same time, further confusing Edward.

"Because first of all, that would be weird. And second, I don't want to."

Jasper was a bit relieved. He had been afraid that Edward would be too eager to get a hold of Bella. But then he supposed that was silly. Being the kind of guy Edward was required convenience. And since Bella was all the way across the country there was none. He was sure if Bella lived in the same city, hell maybe even the same state, Edward would have no problem calling her.

"Alright, Edward, don't call her," he said. Alice glared at him from across the room. "I already gave you her phone number if you change your mind," he added hoping to appease Alice.

"I won't change my mind," Edward stated.

"Alright, I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and turned to Alice.

"He didn't want to call her?" She looked confused.

"That's what he said. He said it was weird and he didn't want to."

"Hmph." Alice wasn't used to being wrong and she didn't like it. She'd been so sure Edward would jump at the chance to call Bella. She'd felt it. They were perfect for each other.

"It's alright, Alice," Jasper said pulling her close and kissing her cheek.

"I guess I just wanted Bella to feel at least a tenth of the happiness that I feel," she said.

Jasper smiled at her. "Yeah. That's a lot of happiness."

**********

"I'm heavily broken and I don't know what to do. Can't you see that I'm choking and I can't even move? When there's nothing left to say what can you do?"

Bella sighed as she heard her cell phone. She reached over to the passenger side to dig it out of her purse. Emmett was right, she did need to change her ring tone. She loved the song, but it was depressing. She'd never be able to move on if she was reminded of her pain every time her phone rang.

She found her cell and flipped it open without looking at the caller ID. It was probably Mike and if he had another change of plans she'd kill him. She was more than half way to his house now.

"Hello," she answered angrily.

"B…Bella?" a voice that certainly wasn't Mike's stuttered.

A/N: Bella's ringtone is "Heavily Broken" by The Veronicas. Its a great song!

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