Edward caught up to me as I walked to my first class. He grabbed my arm in a tight grip and said, in a low growl, "Bella can we just talk please?"

I don't know why but I just shrugged him off. I went into the crowded classroom and I took a different seat than normal.

I was so confused. I knew my anger was misdirected but I just couldn't shake it. I wanted it all to be alright so badly... but my pride...my fears... they were taking me over.

Edward sat where we normally did and I could feel him staring me down. I looked across, his eyes were black and full of rage.

I felt a touch of fear creeping through me - was I going too far? Was that my last shot to put it behind us and get back to where we had been?

I started to sweat, suddenly fearful of what Edward might be thinking. What if he had decided to ask me one last time to talk and then move on.

I looked at him again. He was still staring at me and when he caught my attention he mouthed, "Talk?"

I pushed my chair back, scraping it off the tiles and the teacher jumped.

"Miss Swan?" She raised her eyebrows, "everything okay?" Her face pursed into a teacherly expression.

"Uh... I have to go - I think I left my truck lights on" I practically shouted, hopping up and heading for the door.

"Oh well, okay..." I heard her trail as the door swung closed behind me.

I headed for the meadow. It was misting with rain but I didn't care. I just wanted Edward to follow me, and grab me close and say he wasn't going to Tanyas prom.

I heard his voice as I was halfway into the forest.

"Bella WAIT!"

I dropped my bag by a tree and walked into a small clearing, not looking around but feeling Edward follow until he was standing behind me, near enough that I could feel his breath on my hair.

"You can't expect me to be happy about it Edward" I said

"I don't" He replied.

"Don't what?" I stood so still, my back to him. I couldn't turn around. I wanted to be angry, it was the only thing I had control of. I couldn't control Edward, I couldn't control whether he loved me.

The only thing in my control was this situation, letting it go meant I returned to being vulnerable.

"Don't expect you to be happy about it"

I was so relieved to just be here with him, but I was stuck in this tantrum. I wished I was a little more flexible within the constrains of my own personality.

I hated this. Feeling so bad without him but unable to just let it go.

I wanted him to grab me and kiss me and just force me to let this go.

"What am I supposed to do here Bella? Not go?"

Shit.

He was putting the outcome of this into my hands. Much as I wanted Edward to not go, I couldn't be the controlling girlfriend.

I turned to face him, his face was so pale, ghostly white, in the blue forest light. His eyes glittered and his hair fell foreward onto his face. He shoved it back, "Bella... come on"

"I know you have to go Edward" I told him, "I just... I just hate it"

He bit his cheek on the inside, showing me a flash of his teeth, "Yeh but Bella, we haven't even... I mean..." He stalled

"What?"

"I mean I know its pretty much a given that we... are exclusive" He pointed out.

I felt incredulous, "What the hell? What has that got to do with it Cullen?" I went to thump his arm but he skirted out of the way.

"Nothing, forget it" He shook his head, "I don't know what it has to do with..."

"So hang on let me get this straight-" I shook my finger at him, "-are you thinking you are going to screw someone else? Tanya?"

"What? What the f-?" Edward held his hands up in surrender, "No! Bella I never even said that... I meant that I can't not go. If we were like going-going with each other, I still would have to go. I was just trying to say that we haven't even talked about that."

I believed him but for some stupid reason I still wanted to fight him. I started walking off, but Edward grabbed me by the arm and swung me around to face him, lifting me off my feet in an embrace and pressing his forehead to mine.

"Its you" He practically snarled, "Jesus Bella don't you know that? Its fucking YOU - and if I get what I want out of life then its always going to be you" He smashed his mouth to mine, and I couldn't resist. The taste of him, the texture of him.

I was pretty sure that somewhere in that statement Edward had told me he loved me. I was terrified and ecstatic all at once.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him back. He placed me back on my feet and stood slightly back, still holding my hands in his.

He dipped his head to my level, looking me in the eye.

"I have to go Bella, if it was some stranger I'd call it off but Tanyas family and my family have been friends forever. I'd never hear the end of it"

I nodded, knowing he was being truthful, "I suppose" I stuck my bottom lip out, like a baby.

He leaned in and grabbed it between his teeth gently. He sucked it once and then opened my mouth beneath his, in a deep kiss. I yielded, falling to his arms, and he dipped me back in a movie kiss that blew my mind.

I loved Edwards strength. He held me there as we kissed for what felt like ages. Then as suddenly as we'd begun he stood me back on my feet and, with an eyebrow quirked, said "Let's do it baby" in the worst english accent I'd ever heard.

I burst out laughing, "You dork" but I held his hand and we practically ran back to his car. We sped away from the school to his house.

"My mom is gone for the day" He said, as we went into the house and shut the door behind us.

I nodded, enjoying the freedom of not having to whisper or sneak through the beautiful rooms.

We moved across the hall and hit the stairs, Edward dropping his keys with a clank into a large glass bowl. We started the stairs, pausing to kiss loudly up against the wall.

"Ed?!"

Shit. We both dropped out of each others arms and spun around to face Rosalie, who was standing drying her blonde hair with a towel. She eyeballed me, a snooty expression on her face. Then she looked straight at Edward.

"What the hell are you doing? and more to the point who is-" She gestured from my head to my feet, "-this?"

"Hi Rose" Edward sighed, "This is Bella, say hi to Rose, Bella"

"Hi Rose" I gave a crooked smile.

"Ugh" She said, slinging the towel over her shoulder and winding her wet hair into a bun on the top of her head.

"Be nice Rose" Edward said, "What are you doing here anyway?"

"None of your beeswax" Rosalie snapped, "You're not bringing a girl upstairs Edward, so you can just turn right around"

"Sorry?" Edward spat, "Who the fuck are you to tell me what I can do? My mother?"

Rosalies eyes tightened. She wagged her finger at her brother, "This is just perfect! Typical Edward, breaking the rules so we all suffer. What do you think will happen if Mom and Dad find her here? We'll all suffer the consequences. Just get out of here Ed!"

Edward said nothing, he just grabbed my hand and pulled me after him up the stairs. Rose shouted after us as we went into his room and slammed the door behind us but he didn't say another word.

I sat on his bed. His room looked different in the daylight, one huge window wall with a view of the forest, the other covered from ceiling to floor with shelves.

"You have so much music" I said, running my finger along a line of cds.

He considered that. Then he moved closer to me, a smile playing on his lips.

I pressed play on the cd player, curious to see what music Edward would have playing during his alone time. Strains of classical filled the room.

"You complete nerd" I stated dryly, but inside feeling thankful. The guy had depth.

He moved closer, that smile broadening into a grin as he took my hand and led me to the bed.

I fell back onto the soft comforter and Edward crawled on top of me. It was my favorite place to be. His shoulders tensed, his hair falling foreward, he looked so fucking sexy.

"You look so sexy" I told him lifting my head to meet his in a passionate kiss.

A loud knock on the door interrupted us and Edward sprang off me like an acrobat, leaning back against the far wall like he'd been there all along, "Yeah?"

Rosalie shoved the door open, glaring at me as I sat on the bed pretending to flick through a random magazine.

She launched a missile at Edward, a phone.

"Tanya for you" She said and then gave me a smug smile.

She flounced away.

"Hello?" Edward spoke into the phone, giving a little cough, "Oh hi Tanya"

My stomach went into knots, I waited for Edward to do that 'I need to take this call' gesture and leave the room but instead, surprisingly, he came over and sat right next to me on the bed.

"Uh yeah Tanya, no I've just been busy... Okay yeah thats fine, I can bring my car - makes sense... I was going to anyway... no just to make sure you get home okay... Yeah, I'll wear a tuxedo" He listened to her for a good while then, and then he stood up.

I felt my skin blanche as he suddenly walked into his bathroom and shut the door behind him.

I could here his low voice arguing then, and getting louder and then finally he shouted, "There is no need to be such a fucking bitch about it"

He walked back into the room, throwing the phone onto his bed.

"Fucking Rose" He said and stormed about for a minute with his hands on his hips.

"Screw this" He said, "I'm not going to that mother fucking prom"

My heart soared.

Then he continued, "Ugh, I have to though!" He placed his hands behind his head and stretched his back out, cracking his neck. I shuddered at the sound.

"Just go and give her a good night" I heard myself say, "Its her prom"

"Rose told her I had 'some girl' back in my room" Edward said, crossing the room to throw himself across the bed, laying his head on my lap.

"So?"

"Now Tanya is all 'you better not be going home early' and 'this is my special night'"

"Oh"

He smacked himself in the forehead.

"Dammit" He kicked the bedpost lightly a couple of times with his foot, "I hate this"

I frowned, "Hate what? I don't get it"

"This whole fricking world of my sisters and their fricking friends. They treat me like I'm a puppet. The cheek of that bitch to start in on me about what I will or won't do. I feel like ringing her back and telling her to find someone else to go with her."

"Then do." I tried to look breezy, "I mean Edward if you don't want to go..."

"I don't want to" He exhaled sharply, "but if I don't...? My life will be hell and right now one night of hell with that asshole is looking better that weeks of Rose and Alice on my case. They think they are my parents, its always Edward? what are you doing? Ed? where are you going? I wish they would just piss off, what I do is none of their fucking business but somewhere along the line they got the idea that it was..."

"You're their little brother, thats all" I stood up and linked my hands around his waist. He relaxed into my embrace, kissing the top of my head.

Then he defiantly marched over to his door and turned the lock.

"Now for you..." He said with a huge grin, moving close and backing me up to the bed. My legs hit the mattress and I fell back. He slid his body up mine.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck and looked deep into his eyes, my grin so wide it hurt.

"Do me Baby" My british accent was way worse than his. He laughed into my mouth, then quieted and gave me such an intense look I wondered if I'd died and gone to heaven.

"No problem"