AN:/ What do you know… Emmett isn't done prodding yet…..

Chapter 35.

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-=[ Isabella Swan, the past]=-

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Edward's pov

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"How did Bella get into your bedroom anyway?" Emmett asked as he flipped the light off and followed Edward out of the door. "She has her own key? That's a pretty big relationship milestone, right there, if you ask me. Usually you guard your room like it's the Gates of Heaven itself. "

"Come on, she does NOT have her own key. I would never do that," Edward said, rolling his eyes like it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

Truth be told, there had been a time, not that long ago, when he used to hide a key on his balcony for Bella to use. No point in bringing that up now though… those days were long gone.

"I don't know how she got in. There is a big chunk of last night that is still a blur to me," he added with a shrug.

"Okay, I've got a theory though. Bella knows her way around this house, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, it's entirely possible she knows where mom keeps all the emergency key tags."

"She'd still have to deactivate the alarm after entering. Not even mom knows the correct combination..."

"You're telling me Swan's never watched you enter those numbers into the keypad? Not even once?"

"Okay, you got me there… " He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "I should change it ASAP. I mean, I usually do, like religiously, every three months… Can't believe I forgot about it…"

"I guess this explains how Bella got her hands on your clothes, eh?"

"Nah, actually she didn't get those from my room. It was the same clothes I had worn when I went jogging earlier in the day. I'd left them hanging outside on the balcony railing, to air them out, you know. Technically, anyone could have nicked those. Wait-…I just remembered something else about last night."

"What's thay?"

"Uhm…." Edward let himself slide down to sit on the stairs, dragging his brother down with him.

"That bad, huh?"Emmett commented.

"Not bad, but…. I think there's a possibility Bella's been telling the truth about feeling genuinely sick-sick and that it's more than just a regular hangover."

"Why do you think that? Because you remember seeing her puking or something? I saw Rosie puke this morning and let me tell you… she did not have food poisoning."

"No… It's just that Bella herself actually tried to tell me she wasn't feeling well. I didn't take anything coming from her all that serious though. I thought she was just… I don't know drunk, or high, or something… But come to think of it, it was pretty early in the evening, " Edward tugged at his hair in exasperation. "She was pale and her face looked kind of… shiny, like she was sweating a lot… she definitely didn't look well."

"Okay, but was this before, or after she saw you with Jess and Tanya? Did you spring that on her without warning, because that's not a sight for the weak of heart or stomach," Emmett tried to joke, but it fell flat when Edward merely shook his head in response.

"She told me she wasn't feeling well and I responded with something like 'do I look like I care?'. I 'm pretty sure I told her she wasn't my responsibility and that she should go find Alice instead."

"Okay, then what?"

"Bella went on informing me she already knew where Alice was, because she'd just walked in on her..ehm..with her hands down Jasper's pants."

"Flippin eck, pass the brain bleach. Now, why did you have to go and tell me that for?!" Emmett groaned. "That's one image, I didn't need in my head, but please do continue. What did you do next?"

"I told Bella to go away and stop bothering me. She told me I was the one bothering her and not the other way around …" Edward paused to try and collect his thoughts. "She told me she'd been minding her own business until I came along. I reminded her I had just found her passed out on the floor outside mom's study-… "

"WHAT? You found her passed out on the floor and you were giving her a hard time? What the fuck Edward!"

"She wasn't passed out, not really… but yeah, I obviously wasn't thinking clearly. Not my finest moment, alright," he stated quietly, as scattered fragments of the conversation continued to wash over him. "She told me she had gone upstairs to lay down for a bit, but couldn't find a room that was unlocked and not already occupied. I may have responded with something like 'not my problem', before telling her I didn't care what she did or where she went, as long as she got out of my sight."

"Right... Eddie, you're so eloquent when drunk."

"I-..uhm… I may also have told her to go fuck herself, and to take that fucking imbecile boyfriend of hers with her…. I guess this was after the rez kids showed up uninvited."

"Ah, so you were overcome with jealousy," his brother teased him.

"That's not why I said it, but whatever… She just stared at me for like a full minute and then said she said she wished things could have been different… and uhm…that that she wished she could have been different. She said she hated the person she'd become, she hated being an empty soul in an even emptier shell…and more weird stuff like that. She went on about how she'd come to think that she would never get over her issues with closeness, intimacy and trust, but then she'd met someone that had made her want to change and be a better person… Obviously, that was my cue to leave. I didn't want to hear her gush about her precious Jake and how perfect she thought he was for her."

"Eddie, Eddie, are you listening to yourself? I thought you said the two of you never talked about emotions," Emmett was shaking his head. "That definitely sounds like she was unburdening her heart to you and what did you do? You turned around and walked away… And for the record, are you sure she was talking about Black? Because it almost sounds like-… "

"Nothing ," Edward cut in. "It sounds like nothing. You're reading too much into this. Her incoherent rant didn't make sense. Trust me, she was clearly strung out on something..."

"I dunno, man. You'll hear the truth from children and drunks. ...isn't that the saying? But moving on, what happened next? I assume the next time you saw her, was when you walked in and found her in your room?"

"Uhm…yeah. I don't know how much time passed… but err…it was maybe an hour or so later. I came up the stairs with J and T and as we stumbled into the room, I spotted Swan there, on the bed, with her eyes closed. She wasn't sleeping though, because next thing I knew, she'd rolled off the bed and bolted into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her-…"

"Oooh, she didn't want to join in on the action then, I take it?"

"I've already told you, there wasn't much action going on in the first place, but whatever… I was kind of busy concentrating on stuff like breathing, stopping the room from spinning and simply staying awake."

"So, Swan locked herself into your bathroom…presumably to throw up. Though, you have no way of knowing for sure what she really did while she was in there, or how long she stayed. She could have stayed long enough to pop some pills and smoke a fat one, for all we know."

"I don't think she stayed THAT long. I was still semi awake, when she left… I definitely remember seeing her leave. I just don't know if she said anything on her way out, or what state she was in. If she'd been throwing up recently, then maybe she felt like she was in need of a fresh change of clothes and that's why she nicked my stuff off the railing on her way down... I mean, I could be wrong, but that's my theory anyway."

"Speaking of theories… I still think she went to your room to wait for you, hoping to get a chance to finish that convo you fled from," Emmett said, and then muttered something else under his breath.

"What was that?" Edward asked sharply.

"Nothing… just-.. No, never mind." He shook his head. "You know what Edward, no wonder Swan spent so much time talking her bff Jake up to us. She must have figured out early on that you really, REALLY detested the guy. It all makes sense now… she was trying to make you jealous, trying to get you to admit you were feeling something. Anything!"

"You can't make someone jealous if they don't give a fuck."

"Yeah, but you do give fuck. You're obviously still in denial, but whatever… If you can't figure it out yourself, nothing I say will make sense. " Emmett patted his brother's knee."Come on, get up. Dinner's waiting. I, for one, prefer my pizza warm."

Edward was rolling his eyes so hard he could practically see the back of his skull. "I mean it. I don't care who she's with. Obviously, I think she can do better than some fifteen year old loser that doesn't know first thing about how to treat a girl. However, if that's who she sees herself with, then that's her problem."

"Like I said, denial," Emmett repeated teasingly.

"She's not for me. I've made my choice and she's made hers."

"Sure, Eddie. Whatever you say."

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