Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight

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A rainy day had us all tucked away inside Jake's tiny living room. It wasn't so bad when it was just Jake and me with Billy, who usually retreated to his bedroom. However, sitting between Jake and Embry had me feeling like I was burrowed into Jake's side. Leah and Quil had chairs to themselves. The furniture barely fit in the room, so we might as well have all been piled onto the same couch. The room wasn't really much smaller than the living room at home, but there was certainly less air in Jake's house with a room full of people and Jake's arm resting over my shoulders. I was still adjusting to not only how touchy Jake was as a boyfriend, but how much he liked to show off our relationship in front of his friends.

"Everything okay?" he asked, whispering close to my ear.

I nodded. "Yeah, but I think I'm getting a headache."

He pulled me closer and pressed his lips to my temple. "You can lay down in my room if you want."

I would have rather gone outside, but the rain kept coming down harder and harder. "Okay, wake me up if this rain ever stops."

I kissed his wrist before I moved his arm off me. He liked it when I did things like that, and I seemed to enjoy that I could affect him that way. I'm sure he wanted to learn things that were nice for me too, but there didn't seem to be much that I actually liked.

I left his door ajar and laid down on his full-sized bed and closed my eyes. Minutes later, the bed dipped beside me.

"Hey," Leah said. "What's wrong?"

I rolled over to face her as she laid down beside me. The truth was, in that moment, I was weirded out by her random closeness, but I said, "I just feel tense, like I'm about to get a headache."

"Do you want me to rub your neck or something?"

"No thanks," I said, finding her offer as strange as her lying beside me. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"Apparently not." Her whole face twisted into a grimace.

"Why not?" I closed my eyes. I may have wanted to get away from the living room, but I wasn't lying about feeling a headache coming on.

"There's just some stuff I really miss. Somedays more than others."

I sighed as I rolled my head from side to side to try to ease the building pressure that I knew would soon be followed by pain. "What stuff?"

She groaned. "Guys, for one. I'm so deprived that I'm in Jake's bed thinking he actually smells good."

I chuckled at that. "Does he?"

"Well, he doesn't stink."

I laughed harder. "That's because he showers at least three times a day. I swear. I think he may have a problem."

She scoffed. "See, that's something a girlfriend would know. I miss stuff like that too."

I hummed in response, but it wasn't really because I was his girlfriend. Jake had been my friend for what felt like forever, so I was bound to know things about him. "Are you interested in anyone?"

"I wish. I feel like I'm in limbo waiting for some guy to appear that I can actually stand, and I guess, one that can actually stand me, but where is he? Obviously not around here."

I wanted to argue with what she was saying, but she wasn't easy to be around, not easy at all. "What about your rebound guy?"

"Add him to the list of people that can't stand me." She hissed out a breath through her teeth. "He acts like I used him, but I thought we were in the same situation. We both got screwed over, but Emily must have just hurt his pride. Sam broke me. So, I'm sorry that I was a mess and not ready to move on at that particular moment."

"You could talk to him," I offered.

"Yeah, right. He won't even acknowledge me. It's fine. He's way too emotional for me anyway. You're lucky. You and Jake are like really chill."

"Yeah, really chill," I repeated, even though I didn't have the slightest idea what that was supposed to mean.

She shifted to her side, so we were face to face. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah," I said even though I didn't know why she was asking after all the things she'd already told me, but with as serious as her expression looked, I didn't tease her about it. I just waited for her to speak even when it began to feel like the silence was droning on and on.

"Sometimes… I think losing Emily was worse than losing Sam." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before looking at me again. "Eventually, I'll find someone else to date, but I've always sucked at having girlfriends."

I wasn't sure what to say, but she cracked a smile and added, "See, I'm literally laying in Jake's bed trying to figure out how to be friends with you."

I laughed. "You were right. There's definitely something wrong with you."

She flicked my arm.

"Ow, why would you do that?"

"Because I didn't know you were so rude." She attempted to glare at me but couldn't stop laughing long enough to hold the look she was going for.

We talked for a while, and it was actually nicer than I ever thought it would be. Eventually the storm settled and she left, along with Quil and Embry. Jake came into his room to check on me.

"Feeling any better?" he asked as he stood beside his bed.

"No, it's definitely a headache now."

"Can I get you anything?" he asked.

I stole Leah's idea and said, "Could you maybe try rubbing my neck?"

"I can do that." His weight dipped the bed much more than Leah's had, causing my body to roll toward him. His hand was on my neck in an instant, kneading my muscles as he asked, "Like this?"

"Mmm hmm." He was so eager that I felt like the worst girlfriend in the universe. I didn't know how to fulfill all his touchy-feely needs. Leah was right though. We were lucky, him and me. I knew eventually that I'd get better at being in a relationship. I just had to keep trying.

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"What the hell, Bella?" Rosalie asks when she opens her front door to let me in.

"What'd I do?" I ask, as I walk inside and look between Alice and her as a waft of something strongly floral fills my nose.

"Where have you been?"

I clear my throat to keep from coughing. I'm not sure how they're both breathing in this room. "I was talking to Edward, but this is not about me. This is about you. Why did Emmett have to pick you up? What the heck did Alec do?"

She breathes out a sigh. She points to the empty seat on the couch beside Alice. "You should sit."

I do as she suggests and wait for her to continue. "I shouldn't have gone." She ties her hair back with an elastic. "He just kept apologizing and promising to make things up to me. I just wanted to figure out where everything went wrong. Nothing he said was helpful. Why would I want to get back together with him?" She throws her hands up in the air and starts pacing in front of the coffee table. It seems she is no longer talking to us and now just rambling to herself. "I wouldn't. He's not even that attractive. What did I ever see in him? He's not a nice person. What are his redeeming qualities? Does he even have any? He was older. He had a car. He wanted me of all people, but so what? I'm not desperate." She stops, looks at us, and goes back to including us in the conversation. "Pretty much, the only thing I learned was that if you meet up with your ex, you should drive yourself in case he doesn't get what he wants and ditches you outside in the middle of the night."

With the angry scowl set on Alice's face, Alec will be lucky if she doesn't go after him. My jaw clenches. "Where did he leave you?"

As she describes the park they stopped to talk at, it's the same one Edward's car broke down at the other night. I shouldn't be surprised because there really aren't many places to go around here but thinking about how dark that park was after the sun went down, I can't imagine being left out there by myself.

"Are you okay? Is that why you had Emmett come get you?"

"I'm fine now, but I was freaked out and really pissed off," she says. "Alice wasn't answering her phone, and neither were you. I thought you guys weren't talking to me, so I had to figure out a way to reach Jasper to see if he could get through to either of you. Don't get me started on how awkward that was. I wasn't even following the guy, yet I was messaging him, asking for favors. He was with Emmett though, so Emmett just drove out and got me." A wistful hint of a smile starts tugging on her lips.

Alice sits up straighter. "I haven't heard this part yet. We were waiting for you."

I lean forward, and my leg bumps the table. There's a bit of a clatter, and I notice a lid for a jar of potpourri has now fallen off. I put it back on as tightly as I can, hoping it lessens the strength of the smell in the room as Rose tells us what happened.

"When Emmett came to pick me up, I was a mess, but he helped me calm down before he offered to beat Alec up."

"Yes," Alice says. "This is good. I'll help. Let's go now."

"No." Rosalie shakes her head. "It is not good. I told him not to."

When Alice starts to protest, Rosalie says, "I have more to tell you. Can we move on please?"

Alice is set on getting revenge on Alec, so I tell Rosalie, "Go ahead."

"Thanks, Bella." She narrows her eyes at Alice before smiling. "Emmett wanted to know what he could do to help me. I ended up telling him the gist of the relationship, so he could give me a guy's perspective."

Alice smacks her forehead. "I've never had a boyfriend, and even I know that's not good. Why would you do that?"

Rosalie holds a finger to her lips. "Shh. It's mostly good."

"How good?" I ask, hopeful that despite this Alec fiasco, somehow, she's back on track with Emmett.

"Well, he said that it sounded like there was a hell of a lot more wrong from Alec's side than mine, but I told him he was only hearing things from my view." She bites her lip as she smiles. "So anyway, he's taking me out soon, so he can have a better idea."

Alice claps and squeals, causing Purdy to squawk from the other room. "How is this only mostly good news?"

Rosalie gasps. "It's a date, sure, but one where he gets to criticize everything that he finds wrong with me."

Alice grabs a throw pillow and flings it her way. "He will not."

As she picks up the pillow, Rosalie sticks her tongue out at her.

"He won't," I say without a doubt because there's no way that Emmett is going to tell her she's anything short of amazing. "Did he criticize you when he drove you to school?" I ask, concluding that her being with Emmett was a likely reason we didn't see her this morning.

I'm quickly proven right when Rosalie's glare moves from Alice to me. "You. Stop it. I have to feed my bird."

Alice and I both laugh as she leaves the room, and we laugh even harder when she yells out, "You two can't see me, but I'm making all sorts of mean hand gestures at you!"

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In the impeccably white room, I make silly faces at Edward as he insists that we'll be eating pizza on the couch without plates because whatever happens, happens. He's lucky I even sat down. No room on this earth has ever made me more nervous. There's no way I'm eating pizza or anything else on this couch.

He cracks a smile when I go from a pouty lip to sucking my cheeks in to look like a fish. "Stop it. I'm not playing."

"Okay," I say, trying to get serious. "I just don't think we should be mad about your mom not making me spaghetti. It's nice that she makes us anything at all." His jaw sets, so I add, "We went out, remember? I had spaghetti, so that's done. I don't even think it's my favorite anymore. I haven't tried enough things to really know what my favorite is. There's a whole world out there."

"What?" His brow furrows. "Bella?"

"Bella?" I ask back, trying to mimic his frustrated confusion. He just stares at me, so I cover my face to conceal my laughter from his view. It's been a good day. It really has. Everything with Rose feels settled and back to normal. Maybe for a minute, or several, I was bothered by some whispered infatuations about the guy sitting beside me, but it doesn't matter now. They don't know him. They'd never know he throws the kind of fits like the one he's having now. "I can't believe you just called me that."

"Babe, I'm sorry," he says. "She doesn't have to make us anything, but she also already knew what I was going to say when she asked me what I wanted. She didn't have to roll her eyes and tell me to just order pizza. She could have said that in the first place."

I feel like I've caused this, and the problem is clearly not going to just go away no matter how much I'd like to just let it go. "Has she said why it's such an issue? My dad makes it, and he only makes a few things. All the other stuff she's made seems fancier and more time consuming."

"It's a process apparently." He rubs his lips together. "I told her I'd just make it, but she doesn't think I can follow more than two-step instructions."

As silly as this all seemed at first, my heart aches at his mom not thinking him capable. "I'm sure you could make it. Did she really say that?"

"No, she said that would be like handing me a bottle of wine and telling me to have at it. It's not like I knew there was wine in it." He pulls his shirt off. "I'm not following her rules anymore."

As much as I want this issue with his mom to be resolved, I'm absolutely not complaining if he wants to wear less clothes than what she allows around the house. "Are you guys fighting then?"

"No," he says and sets the shirt on the couch between us. "Not really. Lately, it hasn't been so bad, but sometimes she goes off about something out of nowhere, and I don't know what to do with that. She is beside herself with you coming over this week, though. It's bizarre."

I smile at that. "Aside from Emmett, you don't let people over here, so it probably feels important." At least, it feels that way to me, so I imagine it also might be to her.

The way he looks at me leaves no doubt how significant this is. His hand fists the front of my shirt as he pulls me his way. "Would you just come here?"

A few emotion-filled kisses in, and my hand is meeting his bare chest, causing a moan-like sound to come from my mouth followed by a whimper when he pulls back a little to help push my hair back. "I'd break the clothing rules too, if we weren't expecting a delivery."

He laughs under his breath and looks away before looking back to me. "Is that right?"

I think about our past attempts at naked reading and naked counting before I say, "Yeah, if we can do naked studying, it'd make sense for there to be naked eating too."

He opens his mouth, and then closes it and nods. He looks at me with curiosity, as if trying to see if I'm saying what he thinks I am. At least, I hope he's realizing that I'm ready to stop with the step back from the sexual aspects of our relationship. When he doesn't say anything, or even move, I start to wonder if he's even breathing anymore because he's not blinking. I think about saying something else because I could be clearer. When he snaps out of it, his eyes move to my lips and then keep moving down. Climbing on top of him seems to be the best option I can come up with. The doorbell starts chiming its tune before I commit to putting my plan into action.

Leaving his shirt on the couch, we both head to the door. I have to hold in my laughter when I see that it's the same delivery driver who came to Rose's house when we were decked out in green beauty masks. He says hello to me as he hands Edward the pizza, but it's evident that he doesn't have the slightest clue of who I am. I take the pizza, so Edward can fill out the receipt.

He doesn't take the pizza from me when he's done paying. He shuts the door, and his arms go around my waist. I walk us with slow steps as my back is pressed against his front. I head toward the dining room table because his eating on the couch idea is still a big no.

"I don't think the pizza guy recognized me without my mask on."

"Babe," Edward says into my neck as he laughs. "What are you talking about?"

He doesn't let go of my waist when we get to the table. He pulls me to sit on his lap instead. I open the pizza box and hand him a slice, as I attempt to explain the story of answering the door with Alice wearing our beauty face masks. It's clearly one of those stories where you had to be there, but he's amused anyway.

"Maybe you'll show me some time," he says and takes another bite of pizza.

I'm about to take the first bite of mine, but I pause and ask, "You want to see my mask?"

He laughs again as he says, "Yes."

After we eat, I stand behind him as he slides the leftover pizza into the fridge. "What do you want to do now?" he asks.

I'm running my fingertips back and forth to every freckle on his back, when I think to ask, "Do you have a map in your room?"

He looks over his shoulder at me. "A map?"

"To study geography." My teeth sink into my lower lip, as I try to hold back my smile and hope the naked part of this studying is already implied.

"Yeah. If you want to study geography," he says. "I'm sure I can come up with a map."

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Author's note: Hey! Well, that mask bit was supposed to be silly and the most random thing ever for Bella to say, but not so much now. It was when I first planned all this out. Hopefully what I'd been going for still came across despite masks not being random anymore. I hope everyone is staying well!

Thanks so much to dazzled eyes22 for all her help and beta work, sometimes it takes a few rounds, and Thanks to YourVixen who pre-reads (and who I'd love to see get back to writing something!)

Thanks so much for reading!