AN: Packy, Kristen, and Mel are the absolute best. As usual, I changed stuff after they've worked on it, so any remaining mistakes are all mine.

Musical inspiration:

Chris Isaac - Wicked Game

Ready for a Glow Party?

CHAPTER 10. Anything Glows

~o~

NOW

~o~

The Capitol Hill Apartment. Seattle, Washington. Saturday, June 8th, 2013

"So I'm thinking black lights, glow sticks, glow paint…" Jazz enumerates the party items with his fingers as Bella and Edward eat their cereal in front of him.

"So anything glows?" Bella smiles broadly at him. Edward shakes his head next to her.

"Bless your heart." Jazz smirks at her. "Lots of booze, obviously, but only the sophisticated type."

"Are we even allowed in this party?" Bella elbows Edward playfully.

"Well, it's illegal for me to change the locks," Jazz explains. "So… I guess?"

"Are you bringing a date?" Bella asks, suddenly turning to Edward.

Edward looks at her, surprised. "No, I'm not bringing a date."

"Maybe you should bring a date," she says, gazing down at her bowl of cereal.

"Why? Are you bringing a date?"

"You two better not ruin my party!" Jazz points at both of them, getting a hold of his keys and wallet. "Can we manage a weekend with no on-again, off-again, on-again, best-friend love drama?" he says as he reaches the door, a finger up in warning, before he leaves.

"You want me to bring a date?" Edward turns to Bella, still confused, looking at her.

"Mm-hmm…" She busies herself with the dishes, avoiding his eyes.

~o~

When Edward comes back home from work, Bella and Jazz have already set up for the party. They sit at the kitchen island, each holding a glow paint tube in hand, doing each other's faces.

Bella adds a final spot on Jazz's nose and turns to Edward, patting the stool next to her. "Your turn," she says to Edward.

"Yeah...nah."

"Excuse me?" Jazz asks in shock.

"I draw the line at glow sticks, okay? I'm not painting my fucking face."

"Okay, Grouchy McGrumpy, what about your clothing?"

"What about it?" Edward looks down at his short-sleeve, black button up and jeans.

"I distinctly remember saying you needed to wear white." Jazz gestures between him and Bella, both in all white ensembles. Jazz in disturbingly tight white jeans and a white top, and Bella in a white short skirt and white crop top.

"Fiiine..." Edward rolls his eyes and starts unbuttoning his shirt. Underneath, he's wearing a white t-shirt. "Better?"

"Hmmm… Much." Jazz approaches Edward, extricating a piece of neon fabric from his back pocket. "C'mere…" Jazz signals with a finger and Edward lowers his head so that Jazz could wrap the rolled up neon bandana across Edward's forehead and tie at the back of his head.

"Not to objectify you or anything, but…" Jazz circles around Edward and reaches for the hem of his sleeves. Looking at Bella, he rolls the sleeves up until they're tight on his biceps. "There. Perfection."

Bella agrees, unconsciously biting her fingernails.

~o~

Jazz passes Jell-O shots around, the party in full swing. When he reaches Bella, she takes two. One follows the other and she washes them down with her beer.

"O-kay then…" Jazz turns to follow the focus of Bella's attention: her date—Mike—dancing with a glow stick wrapped around his forehead. Jazz scans him up and down. "Shopping in the petite department, are we, Bella?"

"I don't know what I was thinking!" She groans, turning her back to the living room.

"It's okay, sweetie. They all come in different sizes. Height doesn't necessarily match the size of-"

"Jazz!"

"Sorry… sorry…" He downs a Jell-O shot himself. "Hey, handsome!" Jazz's attention focuses behind Bella. She knows who it is before she turns to see for herself.

"Hey..." Edward stands to her side. Next to him, Jessica Stanley. Edward's occasional choice of a date. Bella's stomach turns. His hair is in a delicious disarray, sticking out and over the neon bandana, and there's now a glow stick around his bicep. "Bella, you remember Jess, from the studio?"

"Of course. Hey Jess!" Bella plasters a smile on her face, before quickly getting off from the stool, tripping on her way, and accidentally needing to steady herself with a hand on Edward's torso. "Excuse me." She pushes through them, without looking back, until she's outside on the balcony.

She takes a few calming breaths, looking out from railing, when she hears the sliding doors open and close behind her.

When she turns around, she can't hide her disappointment when it is Mike who is in front of her. "Bella, smashing party. Whoo!" he says, fist pumping. He starts rambling then, while her eyes search behind him.

Edward is still by the kitchen island; Jess is now sitting where Bella was just seconds ago. Jazz is saying something to them, which has them explode in laughter.

With a sigh, she turns her attention back to Mike, who has been yammering all this time.

"So, do you want to dance? With me?"

Bella peeks at Edward one more time, right as he brings a beer bottle to his lips, and suddenly his eyes are on hers too.

"Sure," Bella says to Mike, avoiding Edward's eyes.

~o~

After some dancing, Bella and Mike end up on the couch. He's talking Star Wars now, she thinks, when she excuses herself to go to the restroom.

She chooses the bathroom by her bedroom, which is the farthest away from everyone, down the hallway. When she comes out, she finds Edward in the hallway, his back against the wall.

"Hey," she says, wondering whether he was waiting for her.

"You okay?" Edward asks calmly.

"Yeah…" She looks up at him, arranging her hair behind her ears. "You?"

"I'm okay…" He smiles warmly at her. "Just wanted to remind you that this was your idea."

"I know…"

"Do you regret it yet?" He laughs.

"I don't." She crosses her arms, stubbornly.

"You don't?" He crosses his arms as well, his biceps bulging against the glow stick wrapped around it. "I guess we should get back to our dates then…"

"Yeah, we should." She walks out in front of him. She heads directly to Jazz, who is still by Jessica.

"Oooh, Benjamin is here," Jazz cranes his neck as Bella reaches for a beer next to him. "Hi, Benjamin!" Jazz says loudly, waving from the kitchen. "Hmmm, he's so tall, I'd climb him like a tree." Jazz winks at the two girls and Jessica giggles in front of him.

"Tall is over-rated," Bella mumbles, as Edward makes it to the table.

"You only say that cause your date is fun-sized, Bella." Jazz waves her off.

"Mike is taller than me," Bella adds defensively.

"So, like 5'4''?" Edward asks jokingly, receiving a laugh from Jazz.

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes at Edward. "Do you know what isn't sexy? Neck pains," she says and receives blank stares from both Edward and Jazz. "You know? From looking up…all the time?" she explains, her hands gesturing to her neck.

"I'd be looking up anyways, if you know what I mean…" Jazz adds with a devious smirk.

"Soooooo, Jess…are you enjoying the party?" Bella changes the conversation abruptly, turning to Jessica and taking a gulp of her beer.

"Sure…" Jess says in surprise. "It's been great." She shyly smiles up at Edward, who returns the smile, a hint of worry on his face.

"Well, Edward, why don't you show your date a good time. I'm sure she would like to dance," Bella adds dryly.

"What are you doing?" Jazz whispers behind Bella.

"I'd love to!" Jess says excitedly.

"Jess, you know I don't dance," Edward says matter-of-factly.

"Oh, he just says that, Jess. He just doesn't want to put the other guys to shame," Bella insists, tipping her beer to Edward. "Right?"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Edward mouths to Bella, turning to her with a glare.

"I'd love to dance with you, Edward!" Jess says next to him.

Bella holds her stare at Edward, challenging him.

Edward looks at Jazz then, who shrugs. "Go put the other guys to shame, babe!"

Edward groans, taking Jess's hand in his. Jess squeals in anticipation as they move into the living room.

Bella's eyes never leave Edward while her teeth attack her lip. He turns around in the middle of the living room, people dancing around him, facing Bella, with Jess in front of him.

He smiles shyly down at Jessica before his eyes look up and lock with Bella's across the room. His eyes never leave hers, even as Jessica wraps her arms around his neck.

"I see we've reached the eye-fucking stage of the night," Jazz says next to Bella who downs another beer.

~o~

Hours later, the party has cleared out and Edward drops on the couch next to Bella, exhausted after helping Jazz clean up.

"What happened to Lil' Mike?" Mike was honestly the last thing Edward wanted to talk about, but he figured he needed to start a conversation somewhere that would hopefully lead to her explaining what this little experiment had been.

"I honestly don't know. Good riddance!" Bella smiles broadly at Edward, with flushed cheeks and squinty eyes. Her buzz was probably wearing off, he thinks, having noticed she had switched to water a long while ago. "He talks so much!" Bella adds and bursts out laughing.

Edward feels his insides tightening as he gazes down at Bella. "I actually think he left with Jess," he explains, unable to keep the smile from his face. Maybe he was a little buzzed too. "Something about going in the same direction or whatever... I guess I didn't impress her with my dance moves." A chuckle escapes his lips and his shoulders shake with laughter.

"You're such a dork." Her hand reaches for his arm, a finger flicking the glow stick still wrapped around his bicep. "This looks really hot."

He breathes out, his arm tingling under her touch. "I don't know if I should take that as a compliment if today is any indication of your taste in men." Edward feigns seriousness, bringing a hand to his chest.

"Hey, Mike was cute!" The words don't match the light in her eyes.

"Yeah, cute as a button!"

Their laughter fills the living room and Bella's head drops on Edward's shoulder. He caresses her hair, as their chuckles die down.

"Why can't we have both?" Bella whispers, pulling her legs under her so she's kneeling next to him.

"What do you mean?" When he turns to look at her, her eyes aren't in slits anymore; they're wide and deep and fucking beautiful.

"You know, be best friends who occasionally let things…" she inches closer to him, her fingers reaching for his arm again "…happen."

He drops his head back on the couch with a rough exhale. "Bella, it's taken everything I've got not to kiss you tonight. Please, don't make this any harder." His palms run over his thighs while he takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. "Pun fucking intended."

"I mean it though," she says next to him.

He runs a hand down his face, groaning into his palms. When he looks at her again, he decides not to hold anything back. "Was this your plan all along? Drive me absolutely nuts all night? Making me witness you with another guy? That's just plain cruel, Bella. If he had put his hands on you, I would have squished him like a bug. I wanted to. I still want to." His hands fist over his thighs. It would have felt so good to inflict some damage on Mike's perky little face.

"There was no plan." Bella's voice is small as she stares at her hands. "I just wanted to feel like we could be friends like we used to. Do you think it was easy for me to see you with Jessica?"

Maybe that was it. If this is what being friends was going to be like, then maybe they couldn't be friends anymore.

He looks at her, sobering up with the realization, and remembering the conversation with Jazz. If he couldn't be Bella's friend, that only left him with one option. "I can't be casual, Bella, not with you."

"Ugh." She is the one that groans then. "Why are you being such a girl about this?"

Edward's eyes widen, and he gets up from the couch, outraged. "Why aren't you? I can't fucking believe you want us to be fuck buddies!"

"It's not that… Why can't we just be friends who have sex when they want each other?" she asks from the couch, her eyes wide and expectant.

"That's like the exact definition." Anger laces every word that comes out of Edward's mouth. He can't believe she's doing it again. But what he hates the most is how his body is responding to it. It is taking everything he has not to attack her lips with his right then and there.

"Edward…" She gets up from the couch, moving in front of him. "It could work."

"No, it wouldn't." He closes his eyes, pinching his nose, trying to come up with some amount of resolve that lets him walk away from this.

"Why not?"

"Because I'd fucking want you all the time…" he adds through gritted teeth, opening his eyes.

"Do you want me right now?" She looks up at him, under her eyelashes, inching closer to him.

He laughs through his nose, even though he finds this situation anything but funny. He grabs her hand and places it right between his legs, where he is already so hard for her. "What do you think?"

She breathes out harshly, without breaking eye contact. "So, let's go," she whispers, pulling on his jeans.

"Bella, you're killing me." He sighs in defeat. He knows it. She knows it. He won't be able to resist her. "Do you know how impossibly difficult it is for me to say no to you?"

"Then don't." She grabs his hand and pulls him in the direction of her bedroom. With his eyes closed, Edward trails behind her.

Bella was like a drug to him, one he was incapable of quitting.

The click of her bedroom door behind him sends a shiver down his spine, and when her hands reach for the hem of his t-shirt, he lets her undress him.

Her fingers dance patterns from his neck and down his chest, moving farther down onto his abdomen, erasing with them whatever resolve he has left. He pushes every thought out of his mind, letting his body and hers take over.

~o~

AN: welp... if you didn't hate Bella already... I assure you, I only write ExB HEA, we will get there (eventually). PLS let me know how you're feeling... I appreciate your reviews so much! Thanks for trusting me, R.